Except in rare cases, women were not chiefs, warriors, or hunters. But women’s work was very important to their tribes.
When their men killed buffalo, women took over the task of skinning the huge animals. They were responsible, too, for the hard work of cooking and preserving the meat and preparing and sewing the hides so they could be used as tipi covers and clothing.
In addition, they had to rear the tribe’s children, set up and take down tipis as their families moved from place to place, and add to the food supply by gathering wild berries and roots.
