Boiling Bones

The big leg bones have lots of fat in them. This fat is a very important part of our mookimaani (pemmican — dry meat, berries, and fat mixed together) and gives us lots of energy in the cold months.

To get this fat, we boiled the bones. We did this by digging holes about two feet deep and three feet across. We lined these pits with buffalo stomachs and filled them with water. The stomachs kept the water from draining away. We put rocks in a fire and when they were hot we carried them to the pits and placed them in the water. The heat from the rocks made the water boil and the grease warmed up and flowed out of the bones. We skimmed the fat from the surface of the water in the pit.