were examined by Gilder. Many objects of bone, stone, and pottery were
discovered. Caches were encountered, and to quote from his account of
the work: "The caches within the house sites are smaller in diameter
near the top than at the bottom, the latter part flaring out somewhat in
the manner of a large earthen pot. The bottom of the caches are rounded,
and the walls are almost as hard as fired clay. In the very bottom of
each cache was a quantity of dust, or earth as fine as dust (not compact
as at other points), in which were found small arrowpoints, flint
blades, shell beads, and flint flakes. In each case where the cache was
found within the house circle it occurred close under the western wall,
back of the fireplace and exactly opposite the entrance to the lodge,
the latter in every instance facing the east." (Gilder, (2), p. 716.)
Before closing this brief sketch of the Omaha villages and forms of
structures, it will be of interest to quote from the writings of one who
was intimately acquainted with the people of whom he wrote. Referring to
their various types of habitations, he says:
"The primitive domiciles of the Omaha were chiefly (1) lodges of earth
or, more rarely, of bark or mats, and (2) skin lodges or tents. It may
be observed that there were no sacred rites connected with the earth
lodge-building or tent-making among the Omaha and Ponka. When earth
lodges were built, the people did not make them in a tribal circle, each
man erecting his lodge where he wished; yet kindred commonly built near
one another. The earth lodges were made by the women, and were intended
principally for summer use, when the people were not migrating or going
on the hunt.... Earth lodges were generally used for large gatherings,
such as feasts, councils, or dances.... On a bluff near the Omaha agency
I found the remains of several ancient earth lodges, with entrances on
the southern sides. Two of these were 75 feet and one was 100 feet in
diameter. In the center of the largest there was a hollow about 3 feet
deep and nearly 4 feet below the surface outside the lodge.
"The Omaha sometimes make bark lodges for summer occupancy, as did the
Iowa and Sak." (Dorsey, (1), pp. 269-271.)
Referring to the more temporary structure, the skin tipi: "The tent was
used when the people were migrating, and also when they were traveling
in search of the buffalo. It was also the favorite abode of a household
during the winter season, as the earth lodge was generally erected in an
exposed situation, selected on account of comfort in the summer. The
tent could be pitched in the timber or brush, or down in wooded ravines,
where the cold winds never had full sweep. Hence, many Indians abandoned
their houses in winter and went into their tents, even when they were of
canvas.
"The tent was commonly made of ten or a dozen dressed or tanned buffalo
skins. It was in the shape of a sugar loaf, and was from 10 to 12 feet
high, 10 or 15 feet in diameter at the bottom, and about a foot and a
half in diameter at the top, which served as a smoke-hole.... No totem
posts were in use among the Omaha. The tent of the principal man of each
gens was decorated on the outside with his gentile badge, which was
painted on each side of the entrance as well as on the back of the
tent." (Op. cit., pp. 271-274.)
In an earlier work, "A Study of Siouan Cults," Dr. Dorsey showed the
varied designs on ceremonial tipis of the different Siouan tribes. Among
other interesting illustrations are pictures of lodges erected at the
time of the Sun dance, with the great camp circle as formed at that
time. (Dorsey, (2).)
A clear insight into the ways of life of the primitive Omaha of a
century ago, before their native manners and customs had been changed
through influence with the whites, may be obtained from the narrative of
the Long expedition. A great part of the recorded information was
imparted by John Dougherty, at that time deputy Indian agent for the
tribes of the Missouri.
In 1819 and 1820, the period of the narrative, the permanent village of
the tribe stood on the banks of Omaha Creek, about 2-1/2 miles from the
right bank of the Missouri, in the present Dakota County, Nebraska. As
told on preceding pages, this was the large, permanent village of the
tribe, but nevertheless it was occupied for less than half the year, and
as related by Dougherty: "The inhabitants occupy their village not
longer than five months in the year. In April they arrive from their
hunting excursions, and in the month of May they attend to their
horticultural interests, and plant maize, beans, pumpkins, and
watermelons, besides which they cultivate no other vegetable. They also,
at this season, dress the bison skins, which have been procured during
the winter hunt, for the traders, who generally appear for the purpose
of obtaining them. The young men, in the mean time, are employed in
hunting within the distance of seventy or eighty miles around, for
beaver, otter, deer, muskrat, elk, &c.
"When the trading and planting occupations of the people are terminated,
and provisions begin to fail them, which occurs generally in June, the
chiefs assemble a council for the purpose of deliberating upon the
further arrangements necessary to be made...." A feast is prepared, and
all gather to determine where and when the next hunt shall take place.
These important questions being settled, all are in readiness, and "The
day assigned for their departure having arrived, the squaws load their
horses and dogs, and take as great a weight upon their own backs, as
they can conveniently transport, and, after having closed the entrances
to their several habitations, by placing a considerable quantity of
brushwood before them, the whole nation departs from the village." And
thus they continue to move until word is brought that herds of buffalo
are near, then they encamp at the nearest watercourse. The skin lodges,
having been conveyed by means of the travois, are soon set up, to be
occupied during the period of the hunt. These "are often fancifully
ornamented on the exterior, with figures, in blue and red paint, rudely
executed, though sometimes depicted with no small degree of taste." The
buffalo skins obtained during the summer hunt were known as _summer
skins_, and were used especially for the covering of their lodges and
also for their garments. After a successful hunt all parts of the
buffalo were carried to the camp and the vertebrae were crushed "by
means of stone axes, similar to those which are not unfrequently
ploughed up out of the earth in the Atlantic states."
After the summer hunt "The nation return towards their village in the
month of August, having visited for a short time the Pawnee villages for
the purpose of trading their guns for horses. They are sometimes so
successful, in their expedition, in the accumulation of meat, as to be
obliged to make double trips, returning about mid-day for half the whole
quantity, which was left in the morning. When within two or three days
journey of their own village, runners are dispatched to it, charged with
the duty of ascertaining the safety of it, and the state of the maize.
"On the return of the nation, which is generally early in September, a
different kind of employment awaits the ever industrious squaws. The
property buried in the earth is to be taken up and arranged in the
lodges, which are cleaned out, and put in order. The weeds which during
their absence had grown up, in every direction through the village, are
cut down and removed. A sufficient quantity of _sweet corn_ is next to
be prepared, for present and future use."
Being now plentifully supplied with food, unless for some unforeseen
cause having an ample quantity of buffalo meat and corn, together with
the other products of the gardens, they would "content themselves in
their village until the latter part of October, when, without the
formality of a council, or other ceremony, they again depart from the
village, and move in separate parties to various situations on both
sides of the Missouri, and its tributaries, as far down as the Platte.
Their primary object at this time, is to obtain, on credit from the
traders, various articles, indispensably necessary to their fall,
winter, and spring hunts; such as guns, particularly those of
_Mackinaw_, powder, ball, and flints, beaver traps, brass, tin, and
camp-kettles, knives, hoes, squaw-axes and tomahawks.
"Having obtained these implements, they go in pursuit of deer, or apply
themselves to trapping for beaver and otter. Elk was some time since an
object of pursuit, but these animals are now rather rare, in the Omawhaw
territories.
"This hunt continues until towards the close of December, and during the
rigours of the season they experience an alternation of abundance and
scarcity of food."
The skins secured during the late autumn hunt would be carried to the
traders and left as payment for the goods previously obtained on credit,
and also given in exchange for blankets, wampum, and various other
articles. Thence they would return to their permanent village "in order
to procure a supply of maize from their places of concealment, after
which they continue their journey, in pursuit of bisons.... This
expedition continues until the month of April, when they return to their
village as before stated, loaded with provisions. It is during this
expedition that they procure all the skins, of which the bison robes of
commerce are made; the animals at this season having their perfect
winter dress, the hair and wool of which are long and dense." (James,
(1), I, pp. 200-221.)
Such was the life of the Omaha a hundred years ago, and it may have been
quite the same for many generations, omitting, of course, the visits
made to the traders. But their systematic hunts had probably been
performed ever since the Omaha reached the valley of the Missouri, and
possibly long before.
PONCA.
That the Ponca and Omaha were formerly a single tribe is accepted
without question, and that the separation took place long after they
crossed the Mississippi from their ancient habitat is established by the
traditions of the two tribes. Probably the two tribes in later years,
after the separation, continued to resemble one another to such a degree
that the villages of one could not have been distinguished from those of
the other.
A deserted village of the Ponca was discovered by members of the Lewis
and Clark expedition in 1804, and according to the narrative of the
expedition on September 5 they arrived at the "river Poncara," which
entered the Missouri from the south, and at its mouth was 30 yards in
width. "Two men whom we despatched to the village of the same name,
returned with information that they had found it on the lower side of
the creek; but as this is the hunting season, the town was so completely
deserted that they had killed a buffaloe in the village itself." (Lewis
and Clark, (1), I, pp. 66-67.) The "river Poncara," later to be known as
Ponca Creek, enters the right bank of the Missouri in the western part
of the present Knox County, Nebraska. Here they continued to live for
some years, and during the spring of 1833 Maximilian said they "dwell on
both sides of Running-water River, and on Ponca Creek, which Lewis and
Clark call Poncara." Running-water River was the earlier name of the
Niobrara. "The band of them, which we met with here, has set up eight or
nine leather tents, at the mouth of Basil Creek, on a fine forest." On
May 12, 1833, appears this note in the narrative: Arrived "opposite the
huts of the Punca Indians. They lay in the shade of a forest, like white
cones, and, in front of them, a sand bank extended into the river, which
was separated from the land by a narrow channel. The whole troop was
assembled on the edge of the bank, and it was amusing to see how the
motley group crowded together, wrapped in brown buffalo skins, white and
red blankets--some naked, of a deep brown colour." (Maximilian, (1), pp.
137-139.) A sketch made at that time by Bodmer and reproduced by
Maximilian is here shown in plate 29. It bears the legend "Punka Indians
Encamped on the Banks of the Missouri."
Although at that time living in the typical skin tipi, Maximilian stated
(p. 137), "They formerly lived, like the Omahas, in clay huts at the
mouth of the river, but their powerful enemies, the Sioux and the
Pawnees, destroyed their villages, and they have since adopted the mode
of life of the former, living more generally in tents made of skins, and
changing their place from time to time." The village visited by members
of the Lewis and Clark expedition, September 5, 1804, when they "killed
a buffaloe in the village itself," was probably composed of
earth-covered lodges.
When discovering a trail, or rather tracks made by a number of Indians
crossing the prairie, it was often possible to determine the nature of
the party. The Ponca, who often moved from place to place, setting up
their tipis in various localities during the course of the year, could
have been held in mind by Gregg when he wrote: "These lodges are always
pitched or set up by the squaws, and with such expedition, that, upon
the stopping of an itinerant band, a town springs up in a desert valley
in a few minutes, as if by enchantment. The lodge-poles are often neatly
prepared, and carried along from camp to camp. In conveying them one end
frequently drags on the ground, whereby the trail is known to be that of
a band with families, as war parties never carry lodge-poles." (Gregg,
(1), II, pp. 286-288.) The rapidity and skill with which the squaws set
up and arranged the tipis, when the site of the camp had been selected,
was commented on by many writers, and what an interesting and animated
scene it must have been.
KANSA.
To quote from the Handbook: "Their linguistic relations are closest with
the Osage, and are close with the Quapaw. In the traditional migration
of the group, after the Quapaw had first separated therefrom, the main
body divided at the mouth of Osage River, the Osage moving up that
stream and the Omaha and Ponca crossing Missouri River and proceeding
northward, while the Kansa ascended the Missouri on the south side to
the mouth of Kansa River. Here a brief halt was made, after which they
ascended the Missouri on the south side until they reached the present
north boundary of Kansas, where they were attacked by the Cheyenne and
compelled to retrace their steps. They settled again at the mouth of
Kansas River, where the Big Knives, as they called the whites, came with
gifts and induced them to go farther west. The native narrators of this
tradition give an account of about 20 villages occupied successively
along Kansas River before the settlement at Council Grove, Kansas,
whence they were finally removed to their reservation in Indian Ter.
Marquette's autograph map, drawn probably as early as 1674, places the
Kansas a considerable distance directly west of the Osage and some
distance south of the Omaha, indicating that they were then on Kansas
River.... It is known that the Kansa moved up Kansas River in historic
times as far as Big Blue River, and thence went to Council Grove in
1847. The move to the Big Blue must have taken place after 1723."
Thus it would appear that for many generations the villages of the Kansa
had stood near the eastern boundary of the great plains, a region where
buffalo were plentiful, one suited to the wants and requirements of the
native tribes.
On June 26, 1804, the Lewis and Clark expedition reached the mouth of
the Kansas and encamped on the north side, where they remained two days.
In the journal of those days they referred to the Kansa, and said: "On
the banks of the Kanzas reside the Indians of the same name, consisting
of two villages, one at about twenty, the other forty leagues from its
mouth, and amounting to about three hundred men. They once lived
twenty-four leagues higher than the Kanzas [river], on the south bank of
the Missouri.... This nation is now hunting in the plains for the
buffaloe which our hunters have seen for the first time." (Lewis and
Clark, (1), I, pp. 18-19.) A few days later, July 2, after advancing a
short distance up the Missouri, above the mouth of the Kansas, they
arrived at the site of an ancient village of the tribe. In the journal
(p. 20) is this account: "Opposite our camp is a valley, in which was
situated an old village of the Kansas, between two high points of land,
and on the bank of the river. About a mile in the rear of the village
was a small fort, built by the French on an elevation. There are now no
traces of the village, but the situation of the fort may be recognized
by some remains of chimnies, and the general outline of the
fortification, as well as by the fine spring which supplied it with
water." Three days later, July 5, 1804, while on the right bank of the
Missouri, they "came along the bank of an extensive and beautiful
prairie, interspersed with copses of timber, and watered by Independence
creek. On this bank formerly stood the second village of the Kanzas;
from the remains it must have been once a large town." (Op. cit., pp.
21-22.)
The village mentioned by Lewis and Clark as standing on the banks of the
Kansas River some 40 league above its confluence with the Missouri may
have been the one visited and described by Maj. George C. Sibley during
the summer of 1811. Sibley wrote in his journal: "The Konsee town is
seated immediately on the north bank of the Konsee River, about one
hundred miles by its course above its junction with the Missouri; in a
beautiful prairie of moderate extent, which is nearly encircled by the
River; one of its Northern branches (commonly called the Republican
fork, which falls in a few hundred paces above the village) and a small
creek that flows into the north branch. On the north and southwest it is
overhung by a chain of high prairie hills which give a very pleasing
effect to the whole scene.
"The town contains one hundred and twenty-eight houses or lodges which
are generally about 60 feet long and 25 feet wide, constructed of stout
poles and saplings arranged in form of an arbour and covered with skins,
bark and mats; they are commodious and quite comfortable. The place for
fire is simply a hole in the earth, under the ridge pole of the roof,
where an opening is left for the smoke to pass off. All the larger
lodges have two, sometimes three, fire places; one for each family
dwelling in it. The town is built without much regard to order; there
are no regular streets or avenues. The lodges are erected pretty
compactly together in crooked rows, allowing barely space sufficient to
admit a man to pass between them. The avenues between these crooked rows
are kept in tolerable decent order and the village is on the whole
rather neat and cleanly than otherwise. Their little fields or patches
of corn, beans and pumpkins, which they had just finished planting, and
which constitute their whole variety, are seen in various directions, at
convenient distances around the village. The prairie was covered with
their horses and mules (they have no other domestic animals except
dogs)."
The manuscript journal from which the preceding quotation is made is now
in the possession of Lindenwood College, St. Charles, Mo., the copy
having been made by Mrs. N. H. Beauregard.
The preceding is a clear though all too brief account of a native
village, prepared at a time when it continued in a primitive condition.
The site, on the left bank of Kansas River just below the mouth of the
Republican, would have been about the present Fort Riley, near the
northern line of Geary County. In some respects this is the most
interesting description of a Kansa village given in the present work.
The habitations--long mat-covered lodges--were of the type erected by
the Osage and Quapaw, kindred tribes of the Kansa, and it is highly
probable they represented the form of dwellings reared by the same
tribes many generations before in their ancient villages which then
stood in the valley of the Ohio, far east of the Mississippi.
Just 15 years elapsed between the time of the Lewis and Clark expedition
and the arrival of the Long party in the country of the Kansa. In
August, 1819, to those aboard the steamboat _Western Engineer_, "The
site of an old village of the Konzas, and the remains of a fortification
erected by the French, were pointed out a few miles below Isle au Vache.
This island, which lies about one hundred miles above Fort Osage, was
the wintering post of Capt. Martin's detachment, destined to proceed in
advance of the troops ordered to the Missouri." And nothing shows more
clearly the changed conditions in that region during the past century
than the continuation of this narrative: "Captain Martin, with three
companies of the rifle regiment, left Bellefontain in September 1818,
and arrived at Isle au Vache in October, with the expectation of
resuming his march, as early in the following spring as the weather
would permit. But not having received the necessary supplies of
provisions as anticipated, they had been compelled to remain till the
time of our arrival, subsisting themselves principally by hunting....
Between two and three thousand deer, besides great numbers of bears,
turkies, &c. had been taken." On August 23, 1819, a large number of
Kansa Indians, from their villages on the river bearing their tribal
name, gathered at Isle au Vache to meet members of the Long party in
council. "There were present at this council, one hundred and sixty-one
Konzas, including chiefs and warriors, and thirteen Osages." (James,
(1), I, pp. 110-112.)
While at Fort Osage members of the Long expedition left for an overland
journey to the Kansa towns. The party was led by Say, and left the fort
August 6, arriving at the villages just two weeks later. The Kansa town
then stood in the extreme southwestern corner of the present
Pottawatomie County, Kansas, at the mouth of the Big Blue. And "as they
approached the village, they perceived the tops of the lodges red with
the crowds of natives; the chiefs and warriors came rushing out on
horseback, painted and decorated, and followed by great numbers on foot
... the village was in confusion, the hunters having lately returned;
and being then engaged in preparations for the journey to Isle au
Vache." The journey was that mentioned above, when the Indians arrived
at Isle au Vache to hold council with Long. Continuing the narrative:
"The approach to the village is over a fine level prairie of
considerable extent; passing which, you ascend an abrupt bank of the
height of ten feet, to a second level, on which the village is situate
in the distance, within about 1/4 of a mile of the river. It consists of
about 120 lodges, placed as closely together as convenient, and
destitute of any regularity of arrangement. The ground area of each
lodge is circular, and is excavated to the depth of from one to three
feet, and the general form of the exterior may be denominated
hemispheric.