Buffalo Hide Trunk

The right to make rawhide trunks of buffalo skin was vested in certain women, for some reason this has been forgotten, or at least, could not be learned; but probably because they had dreamed the right. If a trunk was needed, a fresh hide was taken to one of these persons, who marked on it the pattern of the box, and colored in the design with pigments brought to her by her client. She did not complete the work, but only indicating the ornament, which was later carefully applied by the client, the latter paying the former a raw buffalo hide for her permission.

It is said that these women, like those who knew mat designs, kept sets of trunk designs which belonged to their clans, and that these trunks, or woven sacks or mats could be placed, as to clan, at a glance. Bears, men, horses, and birds were formerly made in conventionalized figures, it is related, but these, and the old clan designs have fallen out of use.

Source: The Mascoutens or Prairie Potawatomi Indians; Bulletin of the Public Museum of the City of Milwaukee