LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL

Sir: I have the honor to transmit the accompanying manuscript, entitled "Villages of the Algonquian, Siouan, and Caddoan Tribes West of the Mississippi," by David I. Bushnell, jr., and to recommend its publication, subject to your approval, as a bulletin of this Bureau.

        Very respectfully,

Dr. Charles D. Walcott,
       Secretary of the Smithsonian institution.

PREFACE

When Louisiana became a part of the United States the great wilderness to the westward of the Mississippi was the home of many native tribes, or groups of tribes, retaining their primitive manners and customs, little influenced by contact with Europeans. Their villages were scattered along the water courses or skirted the prairies, over which roamed vast herds of buffalo, these serving to attract the Indians and to supply many of their wants—food, raiment, and covering for their shelters. But so great are the changes wrought within a century that now few buffalo remain, the Indian in his primitive state has all but vanished, and even the prairies have been altered in appearance. The early accounts of the region contain references to the native camps and villages, their forms and extent, tell of the manner in which the habitations were constructed, and relate how some were often removed from place to place. Extracts from the various narratives are now brought together, thus to describe the homes and ways of life of the people who once claimed and occupied a large section of the present United States.

CONTENTS

ILLUSTRATIONS

TEXT FIGURES

VILLAGES OF THE ALGONQUIAN, SIOUAN, AND CADDOAN
TRIBES WEST OF THE MISSISSIPPI.

By David I. Bushnell, Jr.

THE TRIBES AND THEIR HABITAT.

The country occupied by the tribes belonging to the three linguistic groups whose villages are now to be described extended from south of the Arkansas northward to and beyond the Canadian boundary, and from the Mississippi across the Great Plains to the Rocky Mountains. It thus embraced the western section of the valley of the Mississippi, including the entire course of the Missouri, the hilly regions bordering the rivers, and the vast rolling prairies. The climatic conditions were as varied as were the physiographical features, for, although the winters in the south were comparatively mild, in the north they were long and severe.

The three linguistic families to be considered are the Algonquian, Siouan, and Caddoan. Many Algonquian and Siouan tribes formerly lived east of the Mississippi, and their villages have already been described (Bushnell, (1)),[1] but within historic times all Caddoan tribes appear to have occupied country to the westward of the river, although it is not improbable that during earlier days they may have had villages beyond the eastern bank of the stream, the remains of which exist.

The Algonquians included in this account comprise principally the three groups which may be termed the western division of the great linguistic family. These are: (1) The Blackfoot confederacy, composed of three confederated tribes, the Siksika or Blackfeet proper, the Piegan, and the Kainah or Bloods; (2) the Arapaho, including several distinct divisions, of which the Atsina, or Gros Ventres of the Prairie, who were closely allied with the Blackfeet, were often mentioned; (3) the Cheyenne, likewise forming various groups or divisions. Belonging to the same great family were the Cree or Kristinaux, whose habitat was farther north, few living south of the Canadian boundary; also the Ojibway, whose villages were scattered northward from the upper waters of the Mississippi. Some Sauk later lived west of the Mississippi, as did bands of the Foxes and some of the Illinois tribes.

The Siouan tribes were among the most numerous and powerful on the continent, and those to be mentioned on the following pages belonged to several clearly defined groups. As classified in the Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico,[2] these include:

I. Dakota-Assiniboin group: 1, Mdewakanton; 2, Wahpekute (forming, with the Mdewakanton, the Santee); 3, Sisseton; 4, Wahpeton; 5, Yankton; 6, Yanktonai; 7, Teton—(a) Sichangu or Brulés, (b) Itazipcho or Sans Arcs, (c) Sihasapa or Blackfeet, (d) Miniconjou, (e) Oohenonpa or Two Kettles, (f) Oglala, (g) Hunkpapa; 8, Assiniboin.

II. Dhegiha group: 1, Omaha; 2, Ponca; 3, Quapaw; 4, Osage—(a) Pahatsi, (b) Utschta, (c) Santsukhdhi; 5, Kansa.

III. Chiwere group: 1, Iowa; 2, Oto; 3, Missouri.

IV. Winnebago.

V. Mandan.

VI. Hidatsa group: 1, Hidatsa; 2, Crows.

The Caddoan family is less clearly defined than either of the preceding, but evidently consisted of many small tribes grouped, and forming confederacies. Those to be mentioned later include: (1) The Arikara; (2) the Pawnee confederacy, composed of four tribes—(a) Chaui or Grand Pawnee, (b) Kitkehahki or Republican Pawnee, (c) Pitahauerat or Tapage Pawnee, (d) Skidi or Wolf Pawnee; (3) the Wichita confederacy, including the Waco and various small tribes; (4) the Caddo proper.

Although the latter are included in the same linguistic group with the Arikara, Pawnee, and others as mentioned above, they are regarded by some as constituting a distinct linguistic stock.

During the years following the close of the Revolution, the latter part of the eighteenth century, many tribes, or rather the remnants of tribes, then living east of the Mississippi, sought a refuge in the West beyond the river. Many settled on the streams in the southern part of the present State of Missouri and northern Arkansas, and, as stated by Stoddard when writing about the year 1810: "A considerable number of Delawares, Shawanese, and Cherokees, have built some villages on the waters of the St. Francis and White Rivers. Their removal into these quarters was authorized by the Spanish government, and they have generally conducted themselves to the satisfaction of the whites. Some stragglers from the Creeks, Chocktaws, and Chickasaws, who are considered as outlaws by their respective nations, have also established themselves on the same waters; and their disorders and depredations among the white settlers are not unfrequent." (Stoddard, (1), pp. 210-211.) And at about the same time another writer, referring to the same region, said: "Below the Great Osage, on the waters of the Little Osage, Saint Francis, and other streams, are a number of scattered bands of Indians, and two or three considerable villages. These bands were principally Indians, who were formerly outcasts from the tribes east of the Mississippi. Numbers have since joined from the Delawares, Shawanoes, Wayondott, and other tribes towards the lakes. Their warriors are said to be five or six hundred. They have sometimes made excursions and done mischief on the Ohio river, but the settlements on the Mississippi have suffered the most severely by their depredations." (Cutler, (1), p. 120.)

No attempt will be made in the present work to describe the habitations or settlements occupied by the scattered bands just mentioned.

It is quite evident that during the past two or three centuries great changes have taken place in the locations of the tribes which were discovered occupying the region west of the Mississippi by the first Europeans to penetrate the vast wilderness. Thus the general movement of many Siouan tribes has been westward, that of some Algonquian groups southward from their earlier habitats, and the Caddoan appear to have gradually gone northward. It resulted in the converging of the tribes in the direction of the great prairies occupied by the vast herds of buffalo which served to attract the Indian. Until the beginning of this tribal movement it would seem that a great region eastward from the base of the Rocky Mountains, the rolling prairie lands, was not the home of any tribes but was solely the range of the buffalo and other wild beasts, which existed in numbers now difficult to conceive.

THE BUFFALO.

(Bison americanus.)

With the practical extermination of the buffalo in recent years, and the rapid changes which have taken place in the general appearance of the country, it is difficult to picture it as it was two or more centuries ago. While the country continued to be the home of the native tribes game was abundant, and the buffalo, in prodigious numbers, roamed over the wide region from the Rocky Mountains to near the Atlantic. It is quite evident, and easily conceivable, that wherever the buffalo was to be found it was hunted by the people of the neighboring villages, principally to serve as food. But the different parts of the animal were made use of for many purposes, and, as related in an early Spanish narrative, one prepared nearly four centuries ago, when referring to "the oxen of Quivira ... Their masters have no other riches nor substance: of them they eat, they drink, they apparel, they shooe themselves: and of their hides they make many things, as houses, shooes, apparell and ropes: of their bones they make bodkins: of their sinews and haire, threed: of their hornes, maws, and bladders, vessels: of their dung, fire: and of their calves-skinnes, budgets, wherein they drawe and keepe water. To bee short, they make so many things of them as they neede of, or as many as suffice them in the use of this life." (Gomara, (1), p. 382.) A crude engraving of a buffalo made at that time is reproduced in figure 1.

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In the early days the tribes who occupied a region frequented by or in the vicinity of the range of the buffalo could and undoubtedly did kill sufficient numbers to satisfy their various wants and requirements, but hunting was made more easy in later times when horses were possessed by the Indian. Then it became possible for the bands of hunters, or even the entire village, to follow the vast herds, to surround and kill as many as they desired, and to carry away great quantities of meat to be "jerked," or dried, for future use. So intimately connected were the buffalo with the life of the tribes of the plains and the circumjacent country that frequent allusions will be made to the former when describing the camps and villages of the latter.

The various ways of hunting the buffalo and other wild beasts of the plains and mountainous country, as practiced by the different tribes, have been described by many writers. The several methods of hunting the buffalo were often forced through natural conditions, but nothing could have exceeded the excitement produced during the chase by well-mounted Indian hunters. This was the usual custom of the tribes of the plains after horses had become plentiful and the buffalo continued numerous. The paintings reproduced in plates 2 and 3 vividly portray this phase of the hunt. In the north the hunters were compelled during the long winters to attack the herds on the frozen, snow-covered prairies, and plate 4 shows a party of hunters, wearing snowshoes, mingled with the buffalo. This sketch, made about the year 1825, bears the legend: "Indian Hunters pursuing the Buffalo early in the spring when the snow is sufficiently frozen to bear the men but the Animal breaks through and cannot run." This graphic sketch may represent a party of Cree or Assiniboin hunters, probably the latter, and it will be noticed that they are using bows and arrows, not firearms, although other drawings by the same artist representing a summer hunt shows them having guns.

Another custom in the North was that of constructing inclosures of logs and branches of trees, leaving one opening through which the buffalo were driven, and when thus secured were killed. Such an inclosure, or pound, is shown in plate 5, a. This is a reproduction of the original painting made by Paul Kane, September, 1845. In describing it he wrote: "These pounds can only be made in the vicinity of forests, as they are composed of logs piled up roughly, five feet high, and enclose about two acres. At one side an entrance is left, about ten feet wide, and from each side of this, to the distance of half a mile, a row of posts or short stumps, called dead men, are planted, at the distance of twenty feet each, gradually widening out into the plain from the entrance. When we arrived at the pound we found a party there anxiously awaiting the arrival of the buffaloes, which their companions were driving in. This is accomplished as follows:—A man, mounted on a fleet horse, usually rides forward till he sees a band of buffaloes. This may be sixteen or eighteen miles distant from the ground, but of course the nearer to it the better. The hunter immediately strikes a light with a flint and steel, and places the lighted spunk in a handful of dried grass, the smoke arising from which the buffaloes soon smell and start away from it at the top of their speed. The man now rides up alongside of the herd, which, from some unaccountable propensity, invariably endeavour to cross in front of his horse. I have had them follow me for miles in order to do so. The hunter thus possesses an unfailing means, wherever the pound may be situated, of conducting them to it by the dexterous management of his horse. Indians are stationed at intervals behind the posts, or dead men, provided with buffalo robes, who, when the herd are once in the avenue, rise up and shake the robes, yelling and urging them on until they get into the enclosure, the spot usually selected for which is one with a tree in the centre. On this they hang offerings to propitiate the Great Spirit to direct the herd towards it. A man is also placed in the tree with a medicine pipestem in his hand, which he waves continually, chaunting a sort of prayer to the Great Spirit, the burden of which is that the buffaloes may be numerous and fat." (Kane, (1), pp. 117-119.) Quite similar to this is the description of a pound constructed by the Cree a few years later. This was some 120 feet across, "constructed of the trunks of trees, laced with withes together, and braced by outside supports," and within "lay tossed in every conceivable position over two hundred dead buffalo." Another pound erected at this time had the "dead men" extending for a distance of 4 miles from the entrance. (Hind, (1), I, pp. 356-359.) Maximilian, Lewis and Clark, and other explorers of the upper Missouri Valley refer to enclosures into which the Indians drove antelope. And that the custom was followed by the tribes far east of the Mississippi is proved by the writings of early explorers. Champlain in 1615 gave an account, accompanied by an interesting drawing, of such a hunt, and Lahontan nearly a century later presented an illustration bearing the legend: "Stags block'd up in a park, after being pursued by y^e Savages." Many other references could be quoted, as the ways of hunting followed by the Indians have always been of interest to the many writers who have described the manners and customs of the people.

What was probably a characteristic view in a Sioux village of half a century ago, after a successful hunt, is shown in the old photograph reproduced in plate 5, b. Here, in front of the group of skin tipis, are quantities of meat suspended and being "jerked" or dried in the air. Buffalo skins are stretched on the ground, and in the immediate foreground are two women scraping a skin. This is a picture of the greatest interest and rarity.

The sight of the great herds roaming unmolested over the far-reaching prairies proved of interest to all who saw them, and many accounts are left by the early travelers. One brief description of such a scene may be quoted. It refers to a place in the upper Missouri Valley, not far from a Mandan village, and was written June 22, 1811:

"We arrived on the summit of a ridge more elevated than any we had yet passed. From thence we saw before us a beautiful plain, as we judged, about four miles across, in the direction of our course, and of similar dimensions from east to west. It was bounded on all sides by long ridges, similar to that which we had ascended. The scene exhibited in this valley was sufficiently interesting to excite even in our Canadians a wish to stop a few minutes and contemplate it. The whole of the plain was perfectly level, and, like the rest of the country, without a single shrub. It was covered with the finest verdure, and in every part herds of buffaloes were feeding. I counted seventeen herds, but the aggregate number of the animals it was difficult even to guess at: some thought upwards of 10,000." (Bradbury, (1), pp. 134-135.) And this was but one of innumerable similar scenes to have been witnessed throughout the wide range of the vast herds.

"The Indians say ... that in travelling over a country with which they are unacquainted they always follow the buffalo trail, for this animal always selects the most practicable route for his road." (Warren, (1), p. 74.) This is a well-known fact, and many roads both east and west of the Mississippi which have now developed into important highways owe their origin to this cause.

The story of the buffalo will ever be one of interest, becoming more and more so as the years pass; and so it is gratifying to know that nearly all the available information bearing on the customs of the animal, the migration of the herds, their ancient habitat, and their rapid reduction in numbers was some years ago brought together and preserved in a single volume. (Allen, (1).) This was done while the buffalo were still quite numerous, and many facts recorded were derived from hunters or others acquainted with the customs of the times.

VILLAGES AND FORMS OF STRUCTURES.

The villages as well as the separate structures reared by the many tribes who formerly occupied the region treated in the present work presented marked characteristics, causing them to be easily identified by the early travelers through the wilderness of a century ago. The mat and bark covered wigwam predominated among the Algonquian tribes of the north, although certain members of this great linguistic family also used the skin tipi so typical of the Siouan tribes of the plains, while some of the latter stock constructed the earth lodge similar to that erected by the Caddoan tribes. Thus, it will be understood no one group occupied habitations of a single form to the exclusion of all others, and again practically all the tribes had two or more types of dwellings which were reared and used under different conditions, some forming their permanent villages, others, being easily removed and transported, serving as their shelters during long journeys in search of the buffalo. The villages of the several groups will now be mentioned in detail.

Algonquian Tribes.

The numerous tribes and the many confederated groups belonging to the great Algonquian linguistic family extended over the continent from the Rocky Mountains to the Atlantic coast, and from Labrador on the north southward to Carolina. They surrounded the Iroquoian tribes of the north, and, at various places came in contact with members of other stocks. The combined population of the widely scattered Algonquian tribes was greater than that of any other linguistic family in North America.

The native tribes of tidewater Virginia and those who were encountered by the New England colonists, tribes so intimately associated with the early history of the Colonies, belonged to this stock, as did the later occupants of the Ohio Valley and of the "country of Illinois." In the present work the villages of other members of the linguistic group will be considered, including those of the Ojibway and the related Cree, and of the Blackfoot confederacy, Arapaho, and Cheyenne, usually termed the western division of the stock. Several tribes whose villages stood east of the Mississippi in early historic times will also be mentioned.

ojibway.

The Ojibway (the Sauteux of many writers) formed the connecting link between the tribes living east of the Mississippi and those whose homes were across the "Great River." A century ago their lands extended from the shores of Lake Superior westward, beyond the headwaters of the Mississippi to the vicinity of the Turtle Mountains, in the present State of North Dakota. Thus they claimed the magnificent lakes of northern and central Minnesota—Mille Lac, Leech Lake, Cass Lake, and Red Lake—on the shores of which stood many of their camps and villages, serving as barriers against invasions and attacks by their inveterate enemies, the Sioux. The Ojibway are essentially a timber people, whose manners and customs were formed and governed by the environment of lakes and streams, and who were ever surrounded by the vast virgin forests of pine. While game, fish, and wild fowl were abundant and easily obtained, yet during the long winters when the lakes were frozen and the land was covered by several feet of snow there were periods of want when food was scarce.

The habitations and other structures of the Ojibway, which have already been described and figured (Bushnell, (2)), were of various forms, constructed of several materials, and varying in different localities, according to the nature of the available supply of barks or rushes.

In the north, on the shores of Lake Superior and westward along the lakes and streams, as in the valley of Red River and the adjacent region, the majority of structures were covered with sheets of birch bark, secured to frames of small saplings.

About the year 1804 Peter Grant, a member of the old North-West Company, and for a long period at the head of the Red River Department of the company, prepared an account of the Sauteux Indians, and when describing the habitations of the people, wrote: "Their tents are constructed with slender long poles, erected in the form of a cone and covered with the rind of the birch tree. The general diameter of the base is about fifteen feet, the fire place exactly in the middle, and the remainder of the area, with the exception of a small place for the hearth, is carefully covered with the branches of the pine or cedar tree, over which some bear skins and old blankets are spread, for sitting and sleeping. A small aperture is left in which a bear skin is hung in lieu of a door, and a space is left open at the top, which answers the purpose of window and chimney. In stormy weather the smoke would be intolerable, but this inconvenience is easily removed by contracting or shifting the aperture at top according to the point from which the wind blows. It is impossible to walk, or even to stand upright, in their miserable habitations, except directly around the fire place. The men sit generally with their legs stretched before them, but the women have theirs folded backwards, inclined a little to the left side, and can comfortably remain the whole day in those attitudes, when the weather is too bad for remaining out of doors. In fine weather they are very fond of basking in the sun.

"When the family is very large, or when several families live together, the dimensions of their tents are, of course, in proportion and of different forms. Some of these spacious habitations resemble the roof of a barn, with small openings at each end for doors, and the whole length of the ridge is left uncovered at top for the smoke and light." (Grant, (1), pp. 329-330.) And referring briefly to the ways of life of the people: "In the spring, when the hunting season is over, they generally assemble in small villages, either at the trader's establishment, or in places where fish or wild fowl abound; sturgeon and white fish are most common, though they have abundance of pike, trout, suckers, and pickerel. They sometimes have the precaution to preserve some for the summer consumption, this is done by opening and cleaning the fish, and then carefully drying it in the smoke or sun, after which it is tied up very tight in large parcels, wrapped up in bark and kept for use; their meat, in summer, is cured in the same manner.... Their meat is either boiled in a kettle, or roasted by means of a sharp stick, fixed in the ground at a convenient distance from the fire, and on which the meat is fixed and turned occasionally towards the fire, until the whole is thoroughly done; their fish is dressed in the same manner." (Op. cit., pp. 330-331.)

The method of cooking food, as mentioned in the preceding paragraph, is graphically illustrated in the old sketch made a century ago, now reproduced in plate 6, a. This shows a family gathered about a small fire where food is being prepared, and beyond is a bark-covered wigwam. The sketch bears the legend, "A family from the tribe of the wild Sautaux Indians on the Red River. Drawn from nature." It indicates the primitive dress and appearance of the people, and it is of interest to compare this with the photograph which is reproduced in plate 6, b, showing another small group of the people three-quarters of a century later. Such were the changes within that period.

Similar to the preceding were the habitations shown by Kane in a sketch made during the early summer of 1845, the original painting being reproduced as plate 7, a. This was described as "an Indian encampment amongst the islands of Lake Huron; the wigwams are made of birch-bark, stripped from the trees in large pieces and sewed together with long fibrous roots; when the birch tree cannot be conveniently had, they weave rushes into mats ... for covering, which are stretched round in the same manner as the bark, upon eight or ten poles tied together at the top, and stuck in the ground at the required circle of the tent, a hole being left at the top to permit the smoke to go out. The fire is made in the centre of the lodge, and the inmates sleep all round with their feet towards it." (Kane, (1), pp. 6-7.) The interesting painting could well have been made among the Ojibway camps or settlements of northern Minnesota instead of representing a group of wigwams located many miles eastward, but this tends to prove the similarity of the small villages in the region where large sheets of birch bark were to be obtained.

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