The pole supporting an Indian tent.
1834. Inasmuch as these Cumanches [sic] are wandering Indians, and as it is seldom that they find themselves in a place where they can obtain lodge poles, they are obliged to carry them wherever they go. Thus you may know their trail by the marks which the poles make as they are dragged along, suspended on each side of their horses.—Albert Pike, ‘Sketches,’ &c., p. 50 (Boston).
1855.
| To the lodge came wild and wailing, | |
| Heaped the snow in drifts about it, | |
| Shouted down into the smoke-flue, | |
| Shook the lodge-poles in his fury, | |
Longfellow, ‘Hiawatha,’ ch. ii. (N.E.D.) |
