Self-Sufficient Living » Blog Archive » How to Construct A Plains Indian Tipi (Part 1)

Self-Sufficient Living » Blog Archive » How to Construct A Plains Indian Tipi (Part 1)

There were 50 tents made of tanned hides, very bright red and white in color and bell-shaped, with flaps and openings, and built as skillfully as those of Italy, and so large that in the most ordinary ones four different mattresses and beds were easily accommodated. The Indians . . . are as well sheltered in their tents as they could be in any house. ”
From Don Juan de Oñate’s account of a 1599 Great Plains expedition
“Tazhebute came to join us with a good Indian tent . . . Those tents have no equal for camping purposes. They shed the rain well, and in cold weather one can build afire right in the center of them, with the smoke rising cleanly up out of the top, where the flaps are set to suit the way of the wind.
“Thomas Henry Tibbles, describing an 1881 trip among the Ponca Indians in his book, BUCKSKIN AND BLANKET DAYS
“Ye kin live in it forty below zero and fifty ‘bove suffocation an’ still be happy. It’s the changeablest kind of a layout for livin’ in. ”Caleb Clark, The Old Trapper, in Ernest Thompson Seton’s TWO LITTLESAVAGES, 1903

100 Years of Illustration : Ernest Thompson Seton's The American Bison or Buffalo

Main
Ernest Thompson Seton's The American Bison or Buffalo

Ernest Thompson Seton was a force to be reckoned with as author and illustrator of scores of books about nature and Indian lore. He was a Scot born Ernest Evan Thompson in England on 14 August 1860, who with his parents emigrated to Canada at the age of six. To avoid an abusive father he took to the woods as an escape, where he became fascinated by nature and drawing animal life. His work was good enough for him to win a scholarship at the Royal Academy in London.

Later, he changed his last name to Seton and began a career as an artist, writer and naturalist, eventually moving to New York City where he became successful enough to build a home in Cos Cob, Connecticut, a suburb of Greenwich.

He was also famous as a mover and shaper in the U.S.A. of the Boy Scout movement, founded by Lord Baden-Powell, who took Scouting world wide.

You can read more about this as well as biographical information at the following links:

Wikipedia,

here,

and here.

These are scans from his lead article in the October 1906 issue of Scribner's Magazine, The American Bison or Buffalo.

Click on images to enlarge them.

Ets_buffalo_1

A Buffalo Herd in Early Fall.


Ets_buffalo_1x

Detail of the illustration above.


Ets_bulls_eye

One of the studies Seton made while drawing buffalos.


Ets_bison_3

A large bull buffalo.

Ets_bison_4

A Catalo, or hybrid cow.


Ets_bison_5

A Catalo yearling.


Ets_bison_6

A very high-humped old bull buffalo.


Ets_bison_7

Seton titled this, The old bull's last fight.

Posted by PAUL GIAMBARBA on February 01, 2008 at 12:59 PM in Ernest Thompson Seton 1860-1946 | Permalink

Powered by ScribeFire.