Robert, When I was stationed at Minot AFB there was a case where a local high school girl was out in the barn helping her parents with the milking and left to go the short distance to the house to do her school work. Next morning she didn't come down for breakfast and when her mom went to wake the oversleeper her bed wasn't slept in. For some reason she had become disoriented and missed the house and froze to death in the back yard. There were strong winds and blowing snow and temps well below zero F. Another risky behavior is not dressing for the conditions because you are only going to be outside for just a minute... Then you slip and fall or something and you are in the grip of hypothermia in moments.
Her death was totally preventable BUT they didn't have a rope to follow as they should have. Familiarity breeds contempt.
How the "Indians" made it? The ones not predisposed to being able to "handle" the conditions were eliminated from the gene pool early in the tribe's occupation of the area. The Indians in that area included the Mandans and the Flatheads who constructed large permanent winter lodges of logs and earth. Still not a picnic by any means but not all that difficult compared to say the Lapp, Inuit or Aleut.
Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]