Replacing a tipi required buffalo hides, which required buffalo, which required horses to hunt.

In September 1874, when the commercial hunters had already severely reduced the Southern Plains bison population, “just getting more buffalo hides” was not a simple matter.

The supply of dried meat and processed food that the camps had been accumulating since early summer was not just a convenience.

It was the winter survival plan.

Southern Plains peoples prepared for winter through intensive summer and fall hunting and food processing — drying meat, rendering fat, preparing pemmican — because the winter months brought cold, reduced game, difficult travel, and limited opportunities for fresh hunting.

The food stores in the Palo Duro camps represented months of preparation, the stored energy of the entire community’s summer labor.