Native people embellished most objects with porcupine or bird quills dyed with plant material. The red color comes from a mite that lives in a web on prickly pear cactus and the yellow from the root of the curly dock. White is the natural color of a quill.

Food was stored in a dried and powdered form as to take up little space and also store indefinitely. Buffalo meat (jerky), chokecherries and grease were combined as pemmican, called "wasna". When the camp moved or on war expeditions, the wasna was transported in a decorated horn with a rawhide cap.

Because the dried ingredients were so concentrated, just a pinch of food was all that was needed for a meal. It is said that there was enough food for two weeks contained within the buffalo horn.

The buffalo bull horn is naturally hollow so no carving is needed. The shell of the female bison was not used because it is smaller and has little space inside.