Part 19

In the autumn of 1853, just 20 years after Maximilian was among the Hidatsa, an officer passed down the Missouri from Fort Benton to St. Louis, thence to continue to Washington, where he arrived November 21. In his journal are several brief references to the Hidatsa, or, as he designated the tribe, the Gros Ventres. To quote from the journal: "October 8 ... a fine region, full of game, and occasionally speaking a hunting party of Gros Ventres out after buffalo." The next day the small party arrived at Fort Berthold, late in the afternoon. Then, so the journal continues: "We received many visits from the Gros Ventres, and gave them a few presents. The Gros Ventres have a large village of mud houses--very unsightly outside, but within warm and comfortable." The following morning, October 10, 1853, "I visited some of the lodges of the Gros Ventres, and found them exceedingly comfortable and capable of accommodating comfortably a hundred persons. One part of the lodge is appropriated to the horses, dogs, cattle, and chickens, and another to their own sleeping apartments. They all seemed to live sociably and comfortable together during the long cold winters of this cold latitude.... We left Fort Berthold early; but, before we had advanced far, were driven ashore by a strong wind, which continued throughout the day. The smoke from the burning prairies is so dense as to almost hide the sun. The fires, burning in every direction, present at night a beautiful and magnificent, though terrible appearance." (Saxton, (1), pp. 264-265.) What a vivid, though brief, description of conditions in the Upper Missouri Valley when all was in a primitive state.

During the years following the visits of Catlin and Maximilian many changes took place in the native villages standing on the banks of the upper Missouri and its tributaries. Writing of a period about 40 years after Maximilian's stay among the Mandan and Hidatsa, the winter of 1833-34, Dr. Matthews said: "The Hidatsa, Minnetaree, or Grosventre Indians, are one of the three tribes which at present inhabit the permanent village at Fort Berthold, Dakota Territory, and hunt on the waters of the Upper Missouri and Yellowstone Rivers, in Northwestern Dakota and Eastern Montana." Describing the village, he continued: "The village consists of a number of houses built very closely together, without any attempt at regularity of position. The doors face in every possible direction; and there is great uniformity in the appearance of the lodges; so it is a very difficult matter to find one's way among them." In a footnote to this paragraph is given the number of structures standing there in the year 1872. The note reads: In the fall of 1872, Dr. C. E. McChesney, then physician at the Berthold agency, counted, with great care, the buildings in the village and, in a letter, gave me the following results:

Old-style (round) lodges of Rees 43 Log-cabins of Rees 28 --- Total number of houses of Rees 71

Old-style lodges of Grosventres and Mandans 35 Log-cabins of Grosventres and Mandans 69 --- Total number of houses of Grosventres and Mandans 104

Total of houses in village 175

The note states that "owing to the stupidity of the interpreter" it was not possible to separate the Grosventres from the Mandans, which was to be regretted.

The "old-style lodges" were the earth-covered lodges, and Matthews follows with an excellent description of how they were constructed. He tells of the building of the frame, "covered with willows, hay, and earth," and over the opening in the center of the top "of many of the lodges are placed frames of wicker-work, on which skins are spread to the windward in stormy weather to keep the lodges from getting smoky. Sometimes bull-boats are used for this purpose." (Matthews, (1), pp. 3-6.) A comment on the work of the early artists is worthy of being mentioned at this time: "Prince Maximilian's artist [Karl Bodmer] usually sketches the lodge very correctly; but Mr. Catlin invariably gives an incorrect representation of its exterior. Whenever he depicts a Mandan, Arickaree, or Minnetaree lodge, he makes it appear as an almost exact hemisphere, and always omits the entry." (Op. cit., p. 6.)

Game, especially the buffalo, was becoming less plentiful in the vicinity of the villages, and Matthews told how, "Every winter, until 1866, the Indians left their permanent village, and, moving some distance up the Missouri Valley, built temporary quarters, usually in the center of heavy forests and in the neighborhood of buffalo.... The houses of the winter-villages resembled much the log-cabins of our own western pioneers. They were neatly built, very warm, had regular fire-places and chimneys built of sticks and mud, and square holes in the roofs for the admission of light." About that time some cabins of this sort were erected "in the permanent village at Fort Berthold; every year since, they are becoming gradually more numerous and threaten to eventually supplant the original earth-covered lodges." And in 1877 "game has recently become very scarce in their country, they are obliged to travel immense distances, and almost constantly, when they go out on their winter-hunts. Requiring, therefore, movable habitations, they take with them, on their journeys, the ordinary skin-lodges, or 'tepees,' such as are used by the Dakotas, Assiniboines, and other nomadic tribes of the region." (Op. cit., pp. 6-7.)

Matthews's description of the caches prepared by the tribes with whom he was so closely associated is most interesting, and it tends to explain the origin and use of the numerous pits often discovered in the vicinity of ancient village sites east of the Mississippi. He wrote: "The numerous _caches_, or pits, for storing grain, are noteworthy objects in the village. In summer, when they are not in use, they are often left open, or are carelessly covered, and may entrap the unwary stroller. When these Indians have harvested their crops, and before they start on their winter-hunt, they dig their _caches_, or clear out those dug in previous years. A _cache_ is a cellar, usually round, with a small opening above, barely large enough to allow a person to descend; when finished, it looks much like an ordinary round cistern. Reserving a small portion of corn, dried squash, etc., for winter use, they deposit the remainder in these subterranean store-houses, along with household-utensils, and other articles of value which they wish to leave behind. They then fill up the orifices with earth, which they trample down and rake over; thus obliterating every trace of the excavation. Some _caches_ are made under the floors of the houses, others outside, in various parts of the village-grounds; in each case, the distance and direction from some door, post, bedstead, fire-place, or other object is noted, so that the stores may be found on the return of the owners in the spring. Should an enemy enter the village while it is temporarily deserted, the goods are safe from fire and theft. This method of secreting property has been in use among many tribes, has been adopted by whites living on the plains, and is referred to in the works of many travelers." (Op. cit., pp. 8-9.)

Such were the characteristic features of the Hidatsa villages.

CROWS.

Before the separation of the Crows from the Hidatsa they may have occupied permanent villages of earth-covered lodges, such as the latter continued to erect and use until very recent years. But after the separation the Crows moved into the mountains, the region drained by the upper tributaries of the Missouri, and there no longer built permanent structures but adopted the skin tipi, so easily erected and transported from place to place. Many of their tipis were very large, beautifully made and decorated, and were evidently not surpassed in any manner by the similar structures constructed by other tribes of the Upper Missouri Valley.

During the summer of 1805 François Antoine Larocque, a clerk attached to the Upper Red River Department of the Compagnie du Nord-Ouest, visited the Crows and in his journal recorded much of interest respecting the manners of the people. Larocque had, during the winter of 1804-05, remained near the Mandan and Hidatsa villages, and thus met Captains Lewis and Clark in their winter encampment. A large party of the Crows, the Rocky Mountain Indians of the journal, came to the Hidatsa villages on Knife River. There they were met by Larocque, with whom they departed for their distant country, on Saturday, June 29, 1805. His narrative contains a brief reference to the people. He wrote: "This nation known among the Sioux by the name of Crow Indians inhabit the eastern part of the Rocky Mountains at the head of the River aux Roches Jaunes (which is Known by the Kinistinaux and Assiniboines by the name of River a la Biche, from the great number of elks with which all the Country along it abounds) and its Branches and Close to the head of the Missouri.

"There are three principal tribes of them whose names in their own language are _Apsarechas_, _Keetheresas_ and _Ashcabcaber_, and these tribes are again divided into many other small ones which at present consist but of a few people each, as they are the remainder of a numerous people who were reduced to their present number by the ravage of the Small Pox, which raged among them for many years successively and as late as three years ago. They told me they counted 2000 Lodges or tents in their Camp when all together before the Small Pox had infected them. At present their whole number consist of about 2400 persons dwelling in 300 tents and are able to raise 600 Wariors like the Sioux and Assiniboines. They wander about in Leather tents and remain where there are Buffaloes and Elks. After having remained a few days in one place so that game is not more so plentiful as it was they flit to another place where there are Buffaloes or deers and so on all the year around. Since the great decrease of their numbers they generally dwell all together and flit at the same time and as long as it is possible for them to live when together they seldom part." (Larocque, (1), pp. 55-56.) The narrative continues: "They live upon Buffaloes & Deer, a very few of them eat Bears or Beaver flesh, but when compelled by hunger; they eat no fish." The Crows were at that time in their primitive condition. "They have never had any traders with them, they get their battle Guns, ammunitions etc. from the Mandans & Big Bellys in exchange for horses, Robes, Leggings & shirts, they likewise purchase corn, Pumpkins & tobacco from the Big Bellys as they do not cultivate the ground."

Unfortunately, Larocque did not describe the appearance of the tipis, but such information was supplied by later writers.

Catlin visited the Crows during the summer of 1832 and saw many who frequented Fort Union, at the mouth of the Yellowstone, during his stay at that post. He wrote at that time: "The Crows who live on the head waters of Yellow Stone, and extend from this neighborhood also to the base of the Rocky Mountains, are similar ... to the Blackfeet: roaming about a great part of the year." And describing their habitations, he said: "The Crows, of all the tribes in this region, or on the Continent, make the most beautiful lodge ... they construct them as the Sioux do, and make them of the same material; yet they oftentimes dress the skins of which they are composed almost as white as linen, and beautifully garnish them with porcupine quills, and paint and ornament them in such a variety of ways, as renders them exceedingly picturesque and agreeable to the eye. I have procured a very beautiful one of this description, highly ornamented, and fringed with scalp-locks and sufficiently large for forty men to dine under. The poles which support it are about thirty in number, of pine, and all cut in the Rocky Mountains.... This tent, when erected, is about twenty-five feet high." (Catlin, (1), I, pp. 43-44.) Catlin's original painting of this most interesting tipi is in the National Museum, Washington, and is here reproduced in plate 46, _a_. The same was drawn and given by Catlin as plate 20 in his work.

BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 77 PLATE 46

BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 77 PLATE 47

As told elsewhere in this work, Maximilian, on June 18, 1833, arrived at Fort Clark. At that time representatives of several tribes were gathered in the vicinity of the fort. These included Crows, "of which tribe there were now seventy tents about the fort." Referring to these in particular, he remarked: "The tents of the Crows are exactly like those of the Sioux, and are set up without any regular order. On the poles, instead of scalps, there were small pieces of coloured cloth, chiefly red, floating like streamers in the wind." (Maximilian, (1), p. 172.) Later in the day Maximilian accompanied the Indian agent to the tipi occupied by the Crow chief Eripuass. This he found to be of much interest. "The interior of the tent itself had a striking effect. A small fire in the centre gave sufficient light; the chief sat opposite the entrance, and round him many fine tall men, placed according to their rank, all with no other covering than a breech-cloth. Places were assigned to us on buffalo hides near the chief, who then lighted his Sioux pipe, which had a long flat tube, ornamented with bright yellow nails, made each of us take a few puffs, holding the pipe in his hand, and then passed it round to the left hand." And speaking of the tribe as a whole he wrote: "The territory in which they move about is bounded, to the north or north-west, by the Yellow Stone River, and extends round Bighorn River, towards the sources of Chayenne River and the Rocky Mountains. These Indians are a wandering tribe of hunters, who neither dwell in fixed villages, like the Mandans, Manitaries, and Arikkaras, nor make any plantations except of tobacco, which, however, are very small.... They roam about with their leather tents, hunt the buffalo, and other wild animals, and have many horses and dogs, which, however, they never use for food.... The Crow women are very skilful in various kinds of work, and their shirts and dresses of bighorn leather, embroidered and ornamented with dyed porcupine quills, are particularly handsome, as well as their buffalo robes, which are painted and embroidered in the same manner." (Op. cit., pp. 174-175.)

During the spring of 1863 a peculiar type of log house was discovered in the Crow country which had probably been erected by members of that tribe. They may have resembled the cabins mentioned by Matthews as standing at the Fort Berthold Reservation nine years later. On May 2, 1863, a member of the Yellowstone expedition entered in his journal: "In the timber along the river, we saw many houses built of dry logs and bark; some are built like lodges, but the most of them are either square or oblong, and among them were many large and strong corrals of dry logs. The Crows evidently winter along here, and, from the sign, they are very numerous." The following day, "We camped three miles below Pompey's Pillar, on which we found the names of Captain Clark and two of his men cut in the rock, with the date July 25, 1806.... Buffalo to be seen in every direction, and very tame.... No wonder the Crows like their country; it is a perfect paradise for a hunter.... About sundown a large band of buffalo came in to drink at a water-hole about two hundred yards in front of our camp." (Stuart, (1), pp. 176-178.) This may have represented a winter camp ground, with permanent huts to which the Crows returned from year to year. It was in the northeastern part of the present Yellowstone County, Montana.

A very interesting description of a Crow camp is to be found in Lord Dunraven's narrative of his hunting trip to the Yellowstone region performed during the year 1874. The particular camp stood not far from the present Livingston, Montana. In describing the camp he wrote: "The lodges are tall, circular dwellings, composed of long fir-poles planted on a circle in the ground. These slope inwards and form a cone, meeting and leaning against each other at the apex; and upon them is stretched a covering of buffalo hides. They make very comfortable, clean and airy houses, and are far preferable to any tent, being much warmer in winter and cooler in summer. A tepee will hold from twelve to fifteen or even twenty individuals; several families, therefore, generally occupy one in common. The earth is beaten down hard, forming a smooth floor, and in the middle burns the fire, the smoke finding an exit through an aperture at the top. The portions of the tepee assigned to each family or couple are divided by a kind of wicker-work screen at the head and foot, separating a segment of a circle of about eight or ten feet in length and five or six in breadth, closed by the screen at either end, and at the outer side by the wall of the lodge, but being open towards the interior. The fire is common property, and has a certain amount of reverence paid to it. It is considered very bad manners, for instance, to step between the fire and the place where the head man sits. All round, on the lodge poles and on the screens, are suspended the arms, clothing, finery, and equipment of the men and their horses. Each lodge forms a little community in itself.

"The tepees are pitched with all the regularity of an organized camp, in a large circle, inside which the stock is driven at night or on an alarm or occasion of danger. Outside the door is struck a spear or pole, on which is suspended the shield of the chief and a mysterious something tied up in a bundle, which is great medicine." (Dunraven, (1), pp. 94-95.)

A white shield supported outside a tipi is visible in the photograph reproduced as plate 47. This remarkable picture has not, unfortunately, been identified, but it was undoubtedly made in the Upper Missouri Valley, and from the nature of the tipis, many appearing to be quite small, it may be assumed that it was a party of Indians who had come on a trading trip, rather than that it represented a regular village.

Several accounts are preserved of large structures discovered in the region frequented by the Crows which, although not positively identified, were possibly erected by members of that tribe. Thus Lewis and Clark on July 24, 1806, arrived at an island in the Yellowstone River between 5 and 6 miles below the mouth of Clark's Fork, and wrote: "It is a beautiful spot with a rich soil, covered with wild rye, and a species of grass like the blue-grass, and some of another kind, which the Indians wear in plaits round the neck, on account of a strong scent resembling that of vanilla. There is also a thin growth of cottonwood scattered over the island. In the centre is a large Indian lodge which seems to have been built during the last summer. It is in the form of a cone, sixty feet in diameter at the base, composed of twenty poles, each forty-five feet long, and two and a half in circumference, and the whole structure covered with bushes. The interior was curiously ornamented. On the tops of the poles were feathers of eagles, and circular pieces of wood, with sticks across them in the form of a girdle: from the centre was suspended a stuffed buffaloe skin; on the side fronting the door was hung a cedar bush: on one side of the lodge a buffaloe's head; on the other several pieces of wood stuck in the ground. From its whole appearance, it was more like a lodge for holding councils, than an ordinary dwelling house." (Lewis and Clark, (1), II, p. 386.) This was undoubtedly a ceremonial lodge, and it was probably quite similar to another observed a few years later. To quote the description of the second example: "In the country of the Crow Indians, (Up-sa-ro-ka,) Mr. Dougherty saw a singular arrangement of the magi. The upper portion of a cotton-wood tree was implanted, with its base in the earth, and around it was a sweat house, the upper part of the top of the tree arising through the roof. A gray bison skin, extended with oziers on the inside so as to exhibit a natural appearance, was suspended above the house, and on the branches were attached several pairs of children's mockasins and leggings, and from one of the limbs of the tree, a very large fan made of war eagle's feathers was dependent." (James, (1), I, p. 272.)

CADDOAN TRIBES.

The ancient habitat of the many small tribes which evidently later became confederated, thus forming the principal groups of this linguistic stock, was in the southwest, whence the Pawnee and Arikara, and those gathered under the name of the Wichita, moved northward.

The Caddo proper, the name of a tribe later applied to the confederated group of which they formed the principal member, formerly occupied the valley of the Red River of Louisiana, the many villages of the several tribes being scattered along the banks of that stream and of its tributaries in northern Louisiana, southwestern Arkansas, and eastern Texas. Although usually included in the same linguistic group with the Pawnee, Arikara, Wichita, and others, several notable authorities are inclined to regard the Caddo as constituting a separate and distinct linguistic group. This may be established and recognized in the future.

PAWNEE.

Soon after the transfer of Louisiana to the United States Government several expeditions were sent out to explore the newly acquired domains and to discover the native tribes who claimed and occupied parts of the vast territory. Of these parties, that led by Capts. Lewis and Clark was the most important, but of great interest was the second expedition under command of Lieut. Z. M. Pike, which traversed the country extending from the Mississippi to the Rocky Mountains, and reached the Pawnee villages near the North Platte during the month of September, 1806. How long the Pawnee had occupied that region may never be determined, but they had evidently migrated from the southwest, probably moving slowly, making long stops on the way. As a tribe they were known to the Spaniards as early as the first half of the sixteenth century, and appear to have been among the first of the plains tribes to be visited by French and Spanish traders.