This oil painting, my second riverscape, is of the Sabinal River not far from the little country town of Utopia in the hill county of Texas. Nearly all of the hill country streams start from springs up on the higher elevations of the hill country in the central part of Texas. They all drain more or less southeastward toward the Gulf of Mexico. They were natural highways for the Comanche Indians to follow on their raids into southern Texas. As I was doing this painting I was wondering how many Indians had also looked at this very same scene as they rode along the banks of this little stream.

I am reading a fascinating book, The Comanches’, Lords of the South Plains, written by Ernest Wallace and E. Adamson Hoebel. Their description of the typical tipi, the home of a Comanche family, was of special interest to me since I was an architect. If you think you and your family, living in a modern home with several bedrooms with closets, hallways, bathroons, utility room, kitchen, dining room, living room, family room and maybe a game room, and still think that you are crowded and need some more space, you might think about the tipi.

A band of Comanche Indians living together might have a herd of 5,000 to 10,000 or more horses, which they kept close to their camping ground. The horses would soon over graze the area. So every few weeks, the band would have to move to a new area with sufficient grass for their horses.

So the first criteria for the design of the tipi was that it had to be able to either be put up or taken down and packed up in less than an hour. Everything that was not essential to their needs was discarded. Since the women did all the work, the design had to be such that they could lift any of the parts of the system.

The reason the women did all the work was because they lived where they could be attacked at any time by other Indians or by the whites. If the men were dispersed doing the work, they would be ineffective in their defense. So, while the women did all the work, the men were together on their horses and armed.

The diameter of the floor of the tipi was twelve to fifteen feet across. This is about the size of a small to medium size bedroom, not including the closet, in a modern home.

The exterior wall coverings consisted of about twenty tanned hides of cow buffalos. The seams were sewed together with leather strings. The structure that held up the wall coverings was about twenty two lodge poles that were from fourteen to twenty feet long. The lodge poles were tied together at the top and they were spread out at the bottom to form a cone shaped structure. The shorter poles were at the back and the longer poles were on the side where the entrance would be. The entrance, about 24 inches wide and 48 inches high, was always on the side that would face the rising sun.

If they were camping in an area subject to high winds, which on the high plains was everywhere, the lodge poles had to be secured to the ground by burying the ends or by stakes. One of the long poles was used to attach to a flap at the top of the tipi so that it could open or close the smoke vent.

In cold weather, the covering was staked to the ground and in warm weather it was left open for better ventilation. A trench was dug around the tipi to drain away rainwater.

Inside the tipi, on the entrance side, a round fire pit, about 15 inches in diameter, was dug. During cold weather the small fire was used for cooking and would keep the tipi warm. The best fuel was dried buffalo dung. In fair weather the cooking was done outside. On the opposite side of the tipi entrance was the bed for the owner. The bed frame was made of wood and was about six inches off of the ground. Rawhide strips served as slats. The bed was two buffalo robes with the hair on between the robes. The man and his wife slept with their heads facing west and their feet toward the center of the tipi. On each side of their bed a leather curtain was hung for some sort of privacy. Other occupants, such as children, had similar beds as could be fitted in the available space.

Pillows were made from the hides of smaller animals such as raccoons and were stuffed with grass.

Dogs, with their fleas and ticks, also loved to sleep on the beds when they could. In the buffalo robe beds there was a whole ecology system of lice of all kinds, bedbugs, fleas and ticks. How they could sleep with all those little creatures feeding on them is a mystery to me.

Around the inside of the tipi walls was an inter-liner of tanned hides about four feet high which were tucked into and under the beds next to the outer walls. This inter-liner served as an insulation barrier against the cold winds in the winter and the hot sun in the summer.

Water was kept in a container made from a buffalo stomach which would hang from a ridge pole. Cooking utensils were just a brass pot or two. Turtle shells were used as cups. Plates were made from tree bark. They ate with their fingers. Extra clothing and food was kept in leather pouches stored near the entrance.

There really wasn’t any privacy for anybody in the camp. Visitors could enter any tipi at any time without invitation or knocking.

There were no medical doctors, dentist, hospitals, drug stores, grocery stores, clothing stores, department stores, refrigerators, electricity, indoor plumbing, ice machines, police, firemen, lawyers, accountants, engineers, architects, automobiles, trucks, airplanes, paved highways, schools, universities, telephones, television, and all the other things that we take for granted in our lives today.

But the rivers, such as the Sabinal River in this painting, that sustained them, are still here for us to enjoy today. By-the-way, Sabinal is the Spanish word for cypress tree.  

                                                   Click Here for More Details About the Painting