The Sioux snow shoe was the first type we tackled. Two strips of hickory 4
feet long and 3/4 inch square in section, were bent over a pair of
spreaders and securely fastened together at each end. The spreaders were
about 12 inches long and located about 15 inches apart. They were notched
at the ends, as shown in Fig. 26, to receive the side strips, which were
not fastened together until after they had been nailed to the spreaders.
We found that the most satisfactory way of fastening together the ends of
the hickory strips was to bolt them together. When the frame was
completed, we began the tedious process of weaving in the filling or web
of the snow shoe. First we cut notches in the edges of the spreaders,
spacing these notches an inch apart. Then we procured several balls of
heavy twine at the corner store. Tying one end of the cord to the right
side stick about three inches below the forward spreader, we stretched a
strand down to the notch at the left end of the lower spreader. The strand
was drawn taut, and after making several twists around it the cord was
tied to the left side stick three inches above the spreader. From this
point the cord was stretched to the notch at the right end of the upper
spreader, twisted several times and brought back to the starting point.
The cord was now wrapped around the side stick for a space of about an
inch, and then carried down to the second notch on the lower spreader,
whence it was woven through the other two strands and tied about the left
side stick about four inches from the spreader. Thus the weaving
continued, passing the cord alternately over and under any cross strands
encountered. In order to make the left side correspond with the right, a
separate cord was wound around it, filling up the space between the
strands of the web. The filling above and below the spreaders could not be
so methodically done, but we managed to weave the strands quite neatly
with about the same mesh as used at the center. To facilitate the weaving
we improvised a rough needle of a piece of wire. The latter was bent