What type of drawings and symbols are on tepees?

Answer 1

That is a subject that can not be answered in the limited space available here - it would take many books to give a complete answer.

Every tribe was different; among most Plains tribes decorated tipis were the exception rather than the rule and around 90% of tipis had no designs of any kind. They were simply the natural cream colour of the hides used to make the cover, with the upper section blackened by smoke from the internal fire.

Among the Crows it was a tribal tradition not to paint designs on their tipis except in very special circumstances - the tipis were left as white as possible in most cases.

Some Plains people used traditional tribal designs (such as the Blackfoot); some designs indicated a medicine lodge or a great warrior with outstanding war achievements; other designs simply recorded particular events, hunts and battles of the past.

Not all tipi decorations were painted; sometimes buffalo tails were sewn all over the outside of the cover in a repeat pattern.

A calumet (a medicine pipe hung with feathers) painted on a tipi might mean that the tipi was the home of a war party leader or a medicine man; stylised horse tracks indicated a warrior who had taken part in raids to steal enemy horses; rows of guns might mean that the warrior had counted coup by taking the guns from enemy warriors in battle.

Among the Blackfoot tribes, white disks represented puffball mushrooms which had celestial connections and were considered sacred. Some tipi designs indicated membership of a warrior society, or membership of a particular clan.

There was no universal interpretation of symbols - each tribe had its own different system for recording war achievements.

See links below for images: