Brule Dakota man, High Bear cooking meat in a pouch

OPPS NEG.3179 I

Copyright 1911 by John A. Anderson (PF 4/3/1987)

Extract of a letter from Eddie Herman, Hot Spings, South Dakota, dated January 11, 1950, to Dr Frank H. H. Roberts, Jr. "In the summer of 1920 I saw an Indian Medicine man perform this feat the cooking of meat in the pouch or stomach of cow. This drum was hung on four sticks then filled with water. "Grey whitish rocks the same used to heat the e-ne-ga-ga or sweat bath were heated white hot in a camp fire. These were dropped into the drum full of water then meat was placed in the boiling water where it soon cooked. "After the meat was cooked the medicine man thrust his arm into the boiling water - (past his elbow) dug out the chunks of buffalo meat. He handed one piece to my mother. It was so hot she had to drop it.

This amused the medicine man and the Indians who were watching the performance. Later he told my mother that he used a preparation made from the resien weed to protect his arm. He said other medicine men used different weeds which they had first seen in their dreams. The Burnt Thigh Sioux also use the resien weed as a medicine or cure for dysentery. "This medicine man told my mother that the Sioux had no pottery because they were constantly on the move. So used this method of cooking after they had left the woodlands. Le Raye in his journal said they used this method 1801."

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