Once the crops were harvested and stored in pits in the ground for the winter, the Indians left the summer villages for the winter hunting season.  Some years they traveled up to 200 miles away searching for buffalo, elk and deer.  For those three or four months, they built small, domed wickiups in the forest.
     These round dwellings were only 12 to 18 feet in diameter and about 6 feet tall. They were covered by layers of bark or woven mats of cattail rushes.  A hole in the top allowed smoke from the fire to escape. 
      Each wickiup housed a single family, instead of several like the summer longhouses. Time was spent hunting and preparing the meat, skins, and bones of the animals for use. During the coldest days of the winter, families would stay inside the wickiup around the fire sharing stories and traditions.
Student model of Winter wickiups 
Winter Hunting

     Training to be a good hunter was the primary job of young boys in the tribe. They learned to use spears and nets, as well as the bow and arrow.  In this area, the Indians hunted deer, elk, buffalo, muskrat, beaver, squirrel, rabbits, and raccoon. An old buffalo wallow, a place where the animals drank and lay in the mud, is reported to be located on a farm east of Tampico. 

 
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