Native Life

WELCOME!

Thanks for visiting Notes from the Frontier! This blog is for history lovers fascinated by the American West
and pioneer and Indian life on the frontier. I started this new blog in 2019 and it grew very quickly
to more than 100,000 readers! Today it has nearly 400 posts.
I spent many years of researching my just-released debut historical novel, Blood to Rubies
about Chief Joseph and his heroic struggle to save his people in 1877. (It's already bestselling and award-winning! Press the blue button below for more info.) During my research, I discovered that so much of what we'd been taught in history books and by Hollywood was just plain wrong. So I decided to start a history blog. And it's been a pure joy and a life's passion project for me.
We'll cover many topics: from "soiled doves" to slavery, firearms to freak show, home brew to homosexuality, tough men and tougher women, cowboys and Indians, childbirth and death, dreams and desperation, myths and the truth. And, as they say, truth is stranger than fiction!
It's sure to be a wild ride! So hang on to your hat and let's GIDDYUP!

SPECIAL NOTE: Go to the Directory to view more specific categories .

Here's me, author-to-be, Deborah Hufford, at 16 and the Dayton Rodeo Queen in Iowa (which was the U.S. National Rodeo of the Year that year! My childhood horse was named Sundance, and was a celebrity among all the children in my small farming town. He even carried the Iowa governor in our rodeo parade one year.

When Sundance died at the ripe old age of 30, our town newspaper ran his obituary. I was so lucky to have the best horse in the world 💙

Take a wild ride into America’s past.

Moccasins – Walk a Mile in Native Shoes

Moccasins were the traditional footwear of indigenous peoples of North America and were adopted as the footwear of early fur traders.

4 min read

Native American Warshirts

War shirts are not only beautifully crafted garments. They are spectacular works of art and symbolized the very essence of a warrior.

7 min read

Magnificent Animal Headdresses of Native Americans

They wore animal heads as ceremonial headdresses, and used the sources of their might—teeth, fangs, claws, rattles, testicles and beaks.

5 min read

In Honor of a Magnificent Warhorse

In the history of human warfare, horses have paid nearly as great a price as men on the battlefield.

6 min read

Native American Moons

Nature spoke constantly to Native Americans and they lived by its pulse and power, its cadence and dominion.

7 min read

Hunting Arrowheads

For those who have found an arrowhead before, there are few thrills like it.

7 min read

Native Warrior Women

We all know the immortal names of Pocahontas and Sacagawea, native women who played important roles in the formation of our early nation.

7 min read

The Sacred Sun Dance

The Sun Dance is the most sacred ritual of Plains Indians, a ceremony of renewal and cleansing for the tribe and the earth.

6 min read

"Every Dead Buffalo is an Indian Gone"

Once upon a time, before European whites ever set foot on the North American continent, 75-100 million buffalo roamed the land.

7 min read

The Origin of Appaloosas

The origin of Appaloosas is....well....spotty. In fact, the history—and the DNA—of Appaloosas goes back millennia and across oceans.

7 min read

Native Body Painting: A Sacred Art

In Native American cultures, paint was power—spiritual power, physical power.

4 min read

Dances with Wolves - Part 2

Dances with Wolves was not only revolutionary for the western genre, it was a watershed for Native American actors and actresses.

6 min read

Native Hair Traditions

Native American cultures across the continent have universally regarded hair as a life force and a spiritual source of identity.

4 min read

Indian Dogs

Before whites came to North America and native tribes integrated horses into their culture, dogs were common across the entire continent.

3 min read

Buffalo & Indians

The buffalo was considered sacred to Plains Indians as a main source of their spirit life and sustenance.

3 min read