Frank T. Hopkins I clearly remember chief Gall of the Sioux tribe who took great pride in having a fine skin. He put a clay pack on his face, neck and breast regularly. The clay was also used by white plainsmen scouts, buffalo hunters and dispatch riders. You could usually find a piece the size of a man's fist in their saddlebags.
		21. "Greasy Clay" By Frank T. Hopkins I read an advertisement in the Sunday newspaper recommending mudpacks and clay packs as an aid to facial beauty and it made me smile. The beauticians' think they're up to the minute but they're way behind. I can well recall my boyhood days when the Indians on the western plains - both men and women - mudded up their faces and they used the same clay that is used in the face packs today. In the Southwest, the clay was the familiar adobe but the Sioux, Cheyennes, Crows, Blackfeet, called it the "greasy clay." The Indians of the Plains had many uses for it. It went into the making of their fine pottery, they also used it as a filler in skins after they were tanned. They pounded it into a fine powder and worked it into the deerskin, elk, antelope and buffalo hides to make them pliable and smooth - especially the hides they tanned for their bed clothing. It was a common thing to see Indians setting by the river in the summertime preparing the clay by pounding it into a powder, wetting it with water then packing each others heads with it and working it into the hair where it was allowed to dry. Then it was washed off. The purpose was to exterminate vermin. Veteran plainsmen, red and white, made use of the greasy clay which I believe is known by the scientific name of "bentonite." I clearly remember chief Gall of the Sioux tribe who took great pride in having a fine skin. He put a clay pack on his face, neck and breast regularly. The clay was also used by white plainsmen scouts, buffalo hunters and dispatch riders. You could usually find a piece the size of a man's fist in their saddlebags. I myself used it during the 9 years I was dispatch rider. I used it instead of soap when I washed in creeks and water holes. I made a film with it, let the film stay on a while, then rinsed it off. It was healing and soothing to the face after exposure to the harsh winds and sun. The clay was also used in cases of sprained legs and knees, perhaps resulting from a fall from a horse. It was also used in making dwellings and shelters by mixing it with fine sand and dead buffalo grass, molding it into pieces about the size of a bag of cement. These blocks were laid in the same manner as brick and plastered between the cracks was the same material. These shelters were made by both Indians and whites. The clay occurred naturally in different shades. Some of it was a light gray, some yellowish and some as dark as slate. Across the Canadian line north of the Dakotas, where the Sioux often retreated when they were pressed hard by the white soldiers, near a creek known as "white clay creek" because the "bentonite" or clay was very nearly white. That white clay was highly prized by the women of the Sioux tribe. When they returned to the Dakotas, they usually brought a generous supply with them. A similar clay, found in the Yellowstone River of Montana in the vicinity of old Fort Kehoe, is a dark slate color, and somewhat harder than that in Nebraska or Dakota or Wyoming. All of it as a rule is quite hard and very slippery. It was dangerous to ride after a rain, even with the surest footed horse, where greasy clay showed on the surface. Your horse was likely to go down and you or he might get a bad sprain or a broken leg. It was more treacherous to ride on clay than on glare ice. In the Southwest of course, the Pueblo people make their dwellings from this type of clay.
		21. "Greasy Clay" Hopkins, Frank T. (Robert O. Easton Collection, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming)

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