Part 21

"They first unpack and unsaddle the horses, which are given to a boy to drive off to their grass and water; they then arrange all their bales, saddles, &c. in a semi-circular form, and pile them from two to three feet high. Around the exterior of these they drive into the ground eight or ten curved willow rods, from two to three feet distant from each other, but all firmly bound by leather thongs to four large upright poles, that form the front of the lodge, and along which run transverse willow rods, to which the extremities of the curved ones are fastened. When the frame, or skeleton, is thus finished, they stretch the cover (made of buffalo hides, sewed together) tight over the whole, leaving an aperture for entrance and egress in the centre of the front; and in fine weather, the whole front open.

"This is an accurate description of a Pawnee summer-lodge; but, of course, the dimensions vary according to the number and wealth of the families residing therein; in some tents I have observed the front consisting of six or eight upright poles, to which were fixed more skins, for additional shelter or shade. On the grass, in the interior, are spread mats, made by the squaws from reeds, and skins of buffalo or bear.

"From the foregoing it will be easily understood that the bales of cloth, maize, skins, and whatever other property they possess, form the back of the tent. Each occupant, from the chief to the lowest in rank, has his assigned place; sleeps upon his own blanket, or buffalo robe; has his bow and quiver suspended over his head; his saddle, bridle, and laryettes, &c. behind his back: and thus little confusion prevails, although each individual has only just room to sit or lie at full length.

"Before the tent a kind of shield is raised, upon three poles pyramidically placed, on which is the device of the chief, by which his tent is to be recognised.... In the interior of the tent, and generally about the centre of its concave, is suspended the 'medicine,' which is most carefully and religiously preserved.... Under the head of 'medicine,' the Indians comprise not only its own healing department, but everything connected with religion of superstition; all omens, all relics, and everything extraordinary or supernatural." (Murray (1), I, pp. 282-286.)

Late in the year 1835 Murray left the Pawnee encampment to return to Fort Leavenworth, but, meeting with an accident, was not able to proceed on his way. The Pawnee were likewise moving, and in moving over the prairie made a well-defined trail. Retracing his way, and seeking the Pawnee, he wrote: "About ten o'clock on the following day we found the great Pawnee trail, and, following it, came at mid-day to the place where they had camped the night before, and a most hideous spectacle did it present; the grass was all trodden into mud--hundreds of circular heaps of charred wood attested the number of fires that had been used; and the whole plain was strewed with split heads, bare skeletons, and scattered entrails of buffalo; while some hundreds of the half-starved Pawnee dogs who had lingered behind the village were endeavoring to dispute some morsels of the carcasses with the gaunt snarling wolves, who were stripping the scanty relics of skin and sinew which are left by Indian butchery attached to the bone." (Op. cit., p. 438.) This vivid description of the appearance of an abandoned camp site quite agrees with a reference made by Dr. Grinnell a few years ago. Writing of events during the year 1853, and alluding to an abandoned camp of the Pawnee that year discovered by the Cheyenne, he said: "It was a big camp; and there were many fires. It seemed as if the Pawnees had been camped there killing buffalo for a long time. There were still many dogs in the camp. On one side was a well-beaten trail which led to another camp two hundred yards off where a number of people had been camped, not in lodges but in shelters made of willows bent over, after the fashion of a sweat-house." (Grinnell, (2), p. 86.)

These temporary and easily erected structures of the Pawnee were probably quite similar in form and appearance to that of the Cheyenne, part of which is shown in plate 14. But in the latter instance the cover is not formed of the primitive buffalo skin, but of canvas, or some other material obtained from the trader.

The Pawnee had a strange method of dealing with their sick or wounded during the movement of a village from place to place, and, so wrote Father De Smet, "if, in the long journeys which they undertake in search of game, any should be impeded, either by age or sickness, their children or relations make a small hut of dried grass to shelter them from the heat of the sun or from the weather, leaving as much provision as they are able to spare, and thus abandon them to their destiny.... If, some days after, they are successful in the chase, they return as quickly as possible to render assistance and consolation. These practices are common to all the nomadic tribes of the mountains." (De Smet, (2), pp. 356-357.) It is more than probable that similar grass shelters were constructed and used by small parties when away from the villages, but such structures would necessarily have been of only temporary use.

In addition to the semicircular skin-covered lodge mentioned by Murray, the Pawnee evidently made use of the conical tipi. This was described by Dunbar when he wrote: "Their movable dwellings consist of from 12 to 20 poles (the number varying with the size) about 16 feet long, and a covering. Three of these poles are tied together near the top and set up. The string, with which these poles are tied together, is so long that one end of it reaches to the ground, when the poles are set up. The other poles are now successively set up save one, the top of each leaning against the three, first set up, and forming with them a circle. The string is then wound round them all at the top several times and fastened. The cover is tied to the top of the remaining pole by which it is raised up, then is spread round them all and tied together on the opposite side, where is the entrance formed by leaving the cover untied about three feet from the ground. Over the entrance the skin of a bear or some other animal is suspended. The tents are always set up with their entrances toward the east. At the top the smoke passes out among the poles, a place being left for that purpose. The fire place, crane and hearth are similar to those in their fixed habitations. The furniture is placed back next the cover. Rush mats are then spread down forming a sort of floor. On these they sit, eat and sleep. The large tents are about 18 feet in diameter at the base. The tent covers are made of buffalo skins, scraped so thin as to transmit light, and sewed together. These when new are quite white, and a village of them presents a beautiful appearance. Some of them are painted according to Pawnee fancy. They carry their tent poles with them during their whole journey. From three to six of them, as the case may be, are tied together at the larger end, and made fast to the saddle, an equal number on each side, the other end drags on the ground." (Dunbar, (2), pp. 602-603.)

From these various records it will be understood the Pawnee made use of several forms of temporary and comparatively easily transported and erected structures when away from their permanent villages of earth-covered lodges. And what is true of the Pawnee would probably apply to other tribes of the upper Missouri Valley.

The Pawnee, as did other tribes of the region, made long journeys away from their villages in quest of the buffalo, and an interesting account of their annual hunts, as conducted about the year 1835, has been preserved. Then it was told how "The Pawnees make two hunts each year, the summer and winter hunt. To perform the winter hunt they leave their villages usually in the last week of October, and do not return to them again till about the first of April. They now prepare their cornfields for the ensuing season. The ground is dug up with the hoe, the corn is planted and well tended. When it has attained to a certain height they leave it, and go out to their summer hunt. This is done near the last of June. About the first of September they return to their villages. Formerly the buffalo came down to and far below their villages. Now they are obliged to travel out from ten to twenty days to reach them. The buffalo are rapidly diminishing and will in time become extinct.

"When they leave their villages to hunt the buffalo, they take every man and beast with them, and the place of their habitations is as desolate and solitary during their absence as any other spot on the prairie. When the time of departure arrives all the furniture and provisions they wish to carry with them are packed on the horses. The residue of their scant furniture and provisions are concealed in the earth till their return. As each family gets ready they fall into the train, which frequently extends some miles." (Dunbar, (1), pp. 329-330.) The narrative continues and relates many of the mannerisms of the people, and tells of their peculiar traits. And it is difficult to realize the great distance traveled during the hunting trips away from the permanent earth-lodge villages. Dunbar accompanied them on several of their hunts and wrote (Op. cit., p. 331): "The first hunting tour I performed with them they traveled, from the time they left their village till they returned to it again in the spring, about 400 miles. During the first summer hunt I was with them they traveled 700 miles before returning to their village. During my second winter hunt they traveled 900 miles, second summer hunt 800 miles."

The moving about over the vast rolling prairies of the people of an entire village, while on their distant hunts, covering many hundreds of miles, and carrying with them practically all of their belongings, with innumerable dogs and horses, stopping now to kill the buffalo and again pushing on in quest of more, constituted one of the most interesting and characteristic phases of primitive life on the prairies. But within a few decades all has changed, and now many towns and villages occupy the region once traversed by the roving bands.

ARIKARA.

When or where the Arikara separated from their kindred tribe, the Pawnee, may never be determined, but during the years which followed the separation they continued moving northward, leaving ruined villages to mark the line of their migration. Sixty years ago it was said: "That they migrated upward, along the Missouri, from their friends below is established by the remains of their dirt villages, which are yet seen along that river, though at this time mostly overgrown with grass. At what time they separated from the parent stock is not now correctly known, though some of their locations appear to have been of very ancient date, at least previous to the commencement of the fur trade on the Upper Missouri. At the time when the old French and Spanish traders began their dealings with the Indians of the Upper Missouri, the Arikara village was situated a little above the mouth of Grand River, since which time they have made several removals and are now located at Fort Clark, the former village of the Mandans." (Hayden, (1), pp. 351-352.)

The beginning of the last century found the Arikara living in three villages, all on the right bank of the Missouri. In the journal of the French trader Le Raye are brief references to the villages, together with some notes on the manners and customs of the inhabitants. April 22, 1802, he wrote: "The _Ricaras_ or _Rus_ have three villages, situated on the south bank of the Missouri, in the great bend of the river. The lower village is on a large bottom covered with cotton wood, and contains about fifty huts." He then describes the manner in which the earth-covered lodges were built and refers to the structures being "placed with great regularity," a statement which does not seem to have been borne out by later writers. Continuing, he said: "The town is picketed with pickets twelve feet high and set very close, to prevent firing between them. There is one gate way, which is shut at night." On May 27, 1802, he left the lower village, "crossed Missouri, and arrived the same evening at the upper village. This village is situated on an Island in the Missouri, and is fortified in the same manner as the lower village, containing about sixty huts.... The next morning we proceeded, and soon left the Missouri, travelling a northwest course, in a well beaten path." (Le Raye, (1), pp. 171-180.)

Although the preceding notes may not be very accurate, nevertheless they are of interest on account of the period they cover, just before the transfer of Louisiana to the United States, and two years before the most important expedition ascended the Missouri.

To trace the sites of early Arikara villages as mentioned by Lewis and Clark, and as seen by them when the expedition under their command passed up the Missouri during the early autumn of 1804, is most interesting. On September 29 of that year they reached the mouth of a small creek which entered the Missouri from the south, "which we called Notimber creek from its bare appearance. Above the mouth of this stream, a Ricara band of Pawnees had a village five years ago: but there are no remains of it except the mound which encircled the town." This would have been in the present Stanley County, South Dakota. Two days later, on October 1, they "passed a large island in the middle of the river, opposite the lower end of which the Ricaras once had a village on the south side of the river: there are, however, no remnants of it now, except a circular wall three or four feet in height, which encompassed the town." Two miles beyond was the mouth of the Cheyenne River.

BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 77 PLATE 52

BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 77 PLATE 53

On the third day after passing the mouth of the Cheyenne they reached "Teal creek," and "A little above this is an island on the north side of the current, about one and a half mile in length and three quarters of a mile in breadth. In the centre of this island is an old village of the Ricaras, called Lahoocat; it was surrounded by a circular wall, containing seventeen lodges. The Ricaras are known to have lived there in 1797, and the village seems to have been deserted about five years since: it does not contain much timber."

On October 6, two days' travel beyond Teal Creek, and at a distance of about 32 miles above it, "We halted for dinner at a village which we suppose to have belonged to the Ricaras: it is situated in a low plain on the river, and consists of about eighty lodges, of an octagonal form, neatly covered with earth, and placed as close to each other as possible, and picketed round. The skin canoes, mats, buckets, and articles of furniture found in the lodges, induce us to suppose that it had been left in the spring. We found three different sorts of squashes growing in the village; we also killed an elk near it, and saw two wolves." On the following day, after advancing about 4 or 5 miles, they encountered "another village or wintering camp of the Ricaras, composed of about sixty lodges, built in the same form as those passed yesterday, with willow and straw mats, baskets, buffalo-skin canoes, remaining entire in the camp."

The baskets may have included many similar to two rare examples now in the National Museum, Washington, one of which is shown in plate 52, _a_ (U.S.N.M. 8430).

On October 9, 1804, after passing the mouth of the river called by them the Wetawhoo or Wetarko, soon to be known as Grand River, which flows into the Missouri from the west in the present Corson County, South Dakota, the expedition stopped and held a council with the Indians. There they remained until October 11, when "At one o'clock we left our camp with the grand chief and his nephew on board, and at about two miles anchored below a creek on the south, separating the second and third village of the Ricaras, which are about half a mile distant from each other.... These two villages are placed near each other in a high smooth prairie; a fine situation, except that having no wood the inhabitants are obliged to go for it across the river to a timbered lowland opposite to them."

The expedition left the Arikara during the afternoon of October 12, and on that date in the narrative appears an interesting account of the then recent migrations of the tribe: "They were originally colonies of Pawnees, who established themselves on the Missouri, below Chayenne, where the traders still remember that twenty years ago they occupied a number of villages. From that situation a part of the Ricaras emigrated to the neighborhood of the Mandans, with whom they were then in alliance. The rest of the nation continued near the Chayenne till the year 1797, in the course of which, distressed by their wars with the Sioux, they joined their countrymen near the Mandans. Soon after a new war arose between the Ricaras and the Mandans, in consequence of which the former came down the river to their present position. In this migration those who had first gone to the Mandans kept together, and now live in the two lower villages, which may be considered as the Ricaras proper. The third village was composed of such remnants of the villages as had survived the wars, and as these were nine in number a difference of pronunciation and some difference of language may be observed between them and the Ricaras proper, who do not understand all the words of these wanderers. The villages are within the distance of four miles of each other, the two lower ones consist of between one hundred and fifty and two hundred men each, the third of three hundred." (Lewis and Clark, (1), I, pp. 92-104.) Following this, on page 106, is a brief description of the earth-covered lodges of the Arikara, which were of "a circular or octagonal form, and generally about thirty or forty feet in diameter," but a rather better description was prepared by one of the members of the expedition, Patrick Gass, who wrote on October 10: "This day I went with some of the men to the lodges, about 60 in number. The following is a description of the form of these lodges and the manner of building them.

"In a circle of a size suited to the dimensions of the intended lodge they set up 16 forked posts five or six feet high, and lay poles from one fork to another. Against these poles they lean other poles, slanting from the ground, and extending about four inches above the cross poles; these are to receive the ends of the upper poles that support the roof. They next set up four large forks, fifteen feet high, and about ten feet apart, in the middle of the area; and poles or beams between these. The roof poles are then laid on extending from the lower poles across the beams which rest on the middle forks, of such a length as to leave a hole at the top for a chimney. The whole is then covered with willow branches, except the chimney and a hole below to pass through. On the willow branches they lay grass and lastly clay. At the hole below they build a pen about four feet wide and projecting ten feet from the hut; and hang a buffalo skin at the entrance of the hut for a door. This labour like every other kind is chiefly performed by the squaws. They raise corn, beans and tobacco." (Gass, (1), p. 52.) And five days later Gass entered in his journal: "At 7 we saw a hunting party of the Rickarees, on their way down to the villages. They had 12 buffalo-skin canoes or boats laden with meat and skins; beside some horses that were going down the bank by land. They gave us a part of their meat. The party consisted of men, women, and children." (Op. cit., p. 54.)

Two years later, on the return of the expedition, they again passed the villages of the Arikara, arriving opposite the upper village August 21, 1806, at which time there was an exchange of salutes of four guns each.

In 1812 Cutler wrote regarding the Arikara: "They live in fortified villages, claim no land, except that on which their villages stand, and the fields they improve." (Cutler, (1), p. 125.)

It is quite evident, from the preceding references as well as from the observations of later travelers, that the Arikara villages were usually, if not always, surrounded by palisades. But to have surrounded the area occupied by the lodges by stout posts placed close together would have required some time and, with the primitive implements and methods of collecting the necessary number of timbers, would have been a laborious undertaking. However, they appear to have had another way of protecting their towns. This was told by a French trader who was at the Arikara village in 1795. During the early part of June of that year several Indians arrived among the Arikara and told that three Sioux villages "had assembled and formed an army of five hundred warriors, intending to attack the village of the Ricaras." Fearing this attack, the narrative continues: "The Ricaras have fortified their village by placing palisades five feet high which they have reinforced with earth. The fort is constructed in the following manner: All around their village they drive into the ground heavy forked stakes, standing from four to five feet high and from fifteen to twenty feet apart. Upon these are placed cross-pieces as thick as one's thigh; next they place poles of willow or cottonwood, as thick as one's leg, resting on the cross-pieces and very close together. Against these poles which are five feet high they pile fascines of brush which they cover with an embankment of earth two feet thick; in this way, the height of the poles would prevent the scaling of the fort by the enemy, while the well-packed earth protects those within from their balls and arrows." (Trudeau, (1), pp. 454-455.) Undoubtedly many embankments found east of the Mississippi owe their origin to this method of protecting the villages which they once surrounded.

The most interesting and comprehensible accounts of the Arikara villages were prepared during the month of June, 1811. Two travelers that spring ascended the Missouri with rival parties of traders, but they were acquainted and again met on the upper Missouri on June 3. Brackenridge arrived at the village on June 12, and wrote: