the Arkansas, not far above its junction with the Mississippi. Here they
remained three days, departing on July 27. On that day "We imbark'd on a
Canoe belonging to one of the Chiefs, being at least twenty Persons, as
well Women as Men, and arriv'd safe, without any Trouble, at a Village
call'd _Toriman_, for we were going down the River." The river was the
Arkansas. Later in the day they reached the "fatal River, so much sought
after by us, called _Colbert_, when first discover'd, and _Missisipi_,
or _Mechassipi_ by the Natives that were near us." The party lingered at
Toriman during the twenty-eighth, and on the following day arrived at
"the next Village call'd _Tonningua_, seated on the Bank of that River
[the Mississippi], where we were receiv'd in the Chief's Cottage, as we
had been in the others." On July 30, "We set out for Cappa, the last
Village of the _Accancea's_, eight Leagues distant from the Place we had
left." (Joutel, (1), pp. 155-161.) Passing up the Mississippi from the
Quapaw towns, they encamped during the night of August 2 on an island,
"for our greater Safety, for we were then come into an Enemy's Nation,
call'd _Machigamea_, which put our Indians into great Frights."
Pere Anastasius Douay, also a member of the party, had very little to
say about their stop among the Quapaw, only that "We visited three of
these villages, the Torimans, the Doginga, and the Kappa; everywhere we
had feasts, harangues, calumet-dances, with every mark of joy." (Shea,
(2), p. 220.) Evidently his notes were faulty, as no mention was made of
the fourth town.
When La Harpe made his journey into the region bordering the Mississippi
some distance above New Orleans he encountered the Quapaw, and in his
journal referred to them as the Alkansa, and said: "La nation Alkansa,
ainsi nommee parce qu'elle sort des Canzes [Kansa] etablis sur le
Missouri, est situe sur le bord du Mississipi dans un terrein isole par
les ruisseaux qui l'environnent; elle se divise en trois villages,
Ougapa, Torisna et Tonginga, eloignes d'une lieue les uns les autres, et
renfermant ensemble quatre cents habitans; leur principal chef est celui
des Ougapas; les Sotoueis le reconnaissent aussi pour le leur; ils
Sotoueis le reconnaissent aussi pour le leur; ils sont tous sortis de la
meme nation et parlent le meme langue." (La Harpe, (1), p. 317.)
Elsewhere he referred to reaching the "riviere Blanche, qui court dans
le nord-ouest du cote des Osages," which entered the "riviere des
Sotoueis," or Arkansas, 4 leagues from the Mississippi. Here stood a
village of the Sotoueis, consisting of 40 habitations and having a
population of 330.
Nearly a century elapsed between the time of La Harpe's visit to the
country occupied by the Quapaw and the journey performed by Nuttall. On
February 27, 1819, when the latter was ascending the Arkansas River, he
wrote: "In the course of the day we passed the outlet of the bayou, or
rather river, Meta, which diagonally traverses the Great Prairie, also
two Indian villages on the south bank [of the Arkansas].... The first
was the periodical residence of a handful of Choctaws, the other was
occupied by the Quapaws." (Nuttall, (1), p. 91.) This was near the line
between Lincoln and Desha Counties, Arkansas. Some distance beyond,
apparently at some point in the present Jefferson County, on March 11,
1819, he saw other native villages, but whether occupied by Quapaw or
some other tribe was not told. However, they were probably Quapaw
settlements. On that day: "Passed Mr. Embree's, and arrived at Mr.
Lewismore's. Six miles above, we also saw two Indian villages, opposite
each of those settlements.... The Indians, unfortunately, are here, as
usual, both poor and indolent, and alive to wants which they have not
the power of gratifying. The younger ones are extremely foppish in
their dress; covered with feathers, blazing calicoes, scarlet blankets,
and silver pendants. Their houses, sufficiently convenient with their
habits, are oblong square, and without any other furniture than baskets
and benches, spread with skins for the purpose of rest and repose. The
fire, as usual, is in the middle of the hut, which is constructed of
strips of bark and cane, with doors also of the latter split and plaited
together." (Op. cit., pp. 97-98.)
When returning down the Arkansas, on January 18, 1820, Nuttall evidently
reached the Quapaw village which he had passed when ascending the stream
during the preceding February. He wrote: "About noon we landed at one of
the Quapaw or Osark villages, but found only three houses constructed of
bark, and those unoccupied. In the largest of them, apparently
appropriated to amusement and superstition, we found two gigantic
painted wooden masks of Indians, and a considerable number of conic pelt
caps, also painted. These, as we learnt from an Indian who came up to us
from some houses below, were employed at festivals, and worn by the
dancers.... At the entrance of the cabin, and suspended from the wall,
there was a female figure, with a rudely carved head of wood painted
with vermillion. Being hollow, and made of leather, we supposed it to be
employed as a mask for one of the musicians, having in one hand a
pendent ferule, as if for the purpose of beating a drum. In the spring
and autumn the Quapaws have a custom of making a contribution dance, in
which they visit also the whites, who live in the vicinity, and the
chief alms which they crave is salt or articles of diet." The following
day the party reached Arkansas Post. (Nuttall, (1), p. 223.)
This account of the ceremonial lodge, for such it undoubtedly was, of
the Quapaw of a century ago, is most interesting, as it proves how the
rapidly diminishing tribe held to their old customs. The tribe gradually
disappeared from the lower Arkansas. The remnants of this once large
body moved westward, and on August 11, 1853, some were encountered by
the Whipple expedition in the extreme north west corner of the Choctaw
Nation, on the right bank of the Canadian, where the Shawnee Hills reach
to the river bank. There, on the "high bank of the Canadian, stand still
some wigwams or rather log-houses of Quappa Indians, who may boast of
not having yet quitted the land of their forefathers. But they have
shrunk to a small band that cannot furnish above twenty-five warriors,
and it would scarcely be supposed that they are all who are left of the
once powerful tribe of the Arkansas, whose hunting grounds extended from
the Canadian to the Mississippi." (Moellhausen, (1), I, p. 74.)
Probably no section of the country has revealed more traces of the
period of aboriginal occupancy than has that part of the Mississippi
Valley which extends southward from the Ohio to the Arkansas. This was
the region traversed by the Quapaw during the latter part of their
migration from their earlier habitat east of the Mississippi, and may
have been occupied by them since the fifteenth century, or before. Many
of the mound groups, village sites, and burial places occurring within
this area may undoubtedly be justly attributed to the Quapaw. Vast
quantities of earthenware vessels, of great variety of forms and sizes,
have been recovered from the sites north of the Arkansas, and these
often present marked characteristics differing from the ware found
farther south. The Quapaw are known to have been skilled pottery makers.
As already mentioned, Marquette, in 1673, referred to their "plates of
baked earth," and also to the large earthen cooking vessels "of their
own make." And in 1687 Joutel wrote of their earthen vessels "with which
they drive a Trade." Therefore it is more than probable that much of the
ancient pottery encountered in this part of the Mississippi Valley was
made by this southern Siouan tribe. Many of the village sites discovered
near the Mississippi, north of the Arkansas, were probably once occupied
by the Quapaw who, by the latter part of the seventeenth century, had
moved as far south as the mouth of the Arkansas River, in the present
Desha County. The earlier references to the tribe, those contained in
the narratives of the De Soto expedition, 1541, mention the towns being
protected by encircling embankments and ditches. The former were
probably surmounted by palisades. The village or villages of this period
probably stood on the bank of the Mississippi, and one may have occupied
the interesting site at Avenue, in Phillips County, where some
remarkable pottery vessels have been discovered. Other ancient sites in
Lee and Crittenden Counties, north of Phillips, were possibly occupied
by the same people at different times.
The position of the village of the Algonquian Michigamea, who lived
north of the Quapaw, has not been determined.
CHIWERE GROUP.
This group, so designated by the late Dr. J. O. Dorsey, includes three
tribes, the Iowa, Oto, and Missouri, who spoke slightly different
dialects of the same language. According to tribal traditions, they
were, generations ago, allied and associated with the Winnebago, from
whom they separated and scattered while living in the vicinity of the
Great Lakes east of the Mississippi, where the Winnebago continued to
dwell. It is not the purpose of the present sketch to trace the
movements of the three tribes from their ancient habitat to the banks of
the Mississippi, thence westward to the Missouri and beyond, but the
routes followed in their migrations can be fairly accurately determined
by comparing their own statements and traditions with early historical
records, and it is quite probable that many village sites now discovered
within this region were once occupied by some members of these tribes.
While living east of the Mississippi in a region of lakes and streams
surrounded by vast forests, their habitations were undoubtedly the bark
or mat covered structures, but when some moved far west and came in
contact with tribes beyond the Missouri they evidently learned the art
of constructing the earth-covered lodge which they soon began to occupy.
Likewise when and where the skin tipi first became known to them is not
possible to determine, but probably not until they had reached the
valley of the Missouri and were nearing the banks of that stream north
of the Kansas.
IOWA.
On September 15, 1819, the expedition under command of Maj. Stephen H.
Long arrived at the mouth of Papillion Creek, on the right bank of the
Missouri a few miles above the Platte, a site now covered by the city of
Omaha, Nebraska. In the narrative of the expedition it is said that at
the mouth of the Papillion "we found two boats belonging to the Indian
traders at St Louis. They had passed us some days before, and were to
remain for the winter at the mouth of the Papillion, to trade with the
Otoes, Missouries, and other Indians.
"The banks of the Missouri above the Platte, have long been frequented
by the Indians, either as places of permanent or occasional residence.
Deserted encampments are often seen. On the northeast side, near the
mouth of Mosquito river, are the remains of an old Ioway village. Four
miles above, on the opposite side, was formerly a village of the Otoes."
(James, (1), I, pp. 144-145.)
As mentioned elsewhere, the Iowa and their kindred tribes had migrated
from their ancient habitat in the vicinity of the Great Lakes to the
Missouri Valley, and in 1848 a map was prepared by an Iowa Indian
showing the route of the tribe from the mouth of Rock River, Illinois,
to the banks of the Missouri, across the State which perpetuates the
tribal name. The map was reproduced by Schoolcraft. (Schoolcraft, (3),
III, pp. 256-257.)
Unfortunately very little is to be found in the early writings regarding
the appearance of the Iowa villages, but they probably did not differ
from those of the tribes with whom they were so closely associated, and
the primitive village, composed of a group of mat or bark covered
structures, must have resembled the towns of the Osage. But in addition
to the usual habitation the Iowa evidently erected a larger, longer
structure. Maximilian on April 25, 1833, when in the region then
occupied by the Iowa, wrote: "The canal between Nadaway Island and the
cantonment is called Nadaway Slew, at the end of which we saw the
remains of some Indian huts. In a dark glen in the forest, we observed a
long Indian hut, which occupied almost its whole breadth, and must have
served for a great number of persons." (Maximilian, (1), p. 124.) It is
to be regretted that a full description of this "long Indian hut" was
not preserved. It may have been a ceremonial lodge rather than a large
dwelling.
An interesting though brief account of the Iowa as they were at this
time is preserved. It was related by a missionary, Samuel M. Irvin, who
arrived among the Iowa April 10, 1837. They were living in the
northwestern part of Missouri, the "Platte purchase," but were soon to
be removed to lands west of the Missouri. At that time, the spring of
1837, so the narrative continues: "They numbered in all 830. They were a
wild, warlike, roving people, and in a most wretched condition,
depending mainly on the chase for a subsistence. Their habitations were
of the most frail and temporary kind. They were shelters in the form of
huts or houses made of the bark of trees stretched over slender poles
and tied together with bark strings, or they were tents or lodges made
of the skins of the buffalo or elk, and sewed together with the sinews
of these animals. These bark houses were mainly for summer shelter, and
would in a few years yield to the wear of time, when they would be
abandoned and a new location sought. The skin tents were carried with
them, and made their habitations wherever they chanced to stop. They
were strictly a migratory and unsettled people." (Plank, (1), p. 312.)
And "domestic animals, excepting ponies and dogs, were not among them.
Indeed, to some of them, such things as cattle, hogs, sheep and poultry
were almost unknown, and did such animals happen their way they would
pounce upon them for present food as quickly as upon a buffalo or wild
turkey."
An excellent picture of an Iowa habitation accompanied the article from
which the preceding quotations have been made and is now reproduced in
plate 32, _b_.
OTO.
When Lewis and Clark ascended the Missouri during the summer of 1804
they reached the mouth of the Platte July 21. At that time, so they
entered in their journal, the Oto were living on the south side of the
Platte 10 leagues above its junction with the Missouri, and 5 leagues
beyond, on the same bank, were the Pawnee. Living with the Oto were the
remnants of the Missouri who had, a few years before, joined them. On
August 3, 1804, the expedition having ascended the Missouri to about the
location of the present city of Council Bluffs, Iowa, held a council
with representatives of the two tribes, Oto and Missouri, an event which
has been perpetuated in the name of the city. A majority of the two
tribes were then absent from their village on their summer buffalo hunt,
consequently few were present at the council.
On May 3, 1811, Bradbury arrived at the Oto village, but it was
deserted. All were probably some miles away hunting the buffalo.
However, a very interesting description of the habitations in the
deserted village is preserved. First referring to the Platte: "The
southern bank is wholly divested of timber, and as the village is
situated on a declivity near the river, we could see the lodges very
distinctly, but there was no appearance of Indians." (p. 54.) On the
following day, May 4, 1811, he visited the village and found it "to
consist of about fifty-four lodges, of a circular form, and about forty
feet in diameter, with a projecting part at the entrance, of ten or
twelve feet in length, in the form of a porch. At almost every lodge,
the door or entrance was closed after the manner which is customary with
Indians when they go on hunting parties and take their squaws and
children with them. It consists in putting a few sticks across, in a
particular manner, which they so exactly note and remember, as to be
able to discover the least change in their position. Although anxious to
examine the internal structure of the lodges, I did not violate the
injunction conveyed by this slight obstruction, and after searching some
time found a few that were left entirely open. On entering one, I found
the length of the porch to be an inclined plane to the level of the
floor, about two and a half or three feet below the surface of the
ground; round the area of the lodge are placed from fifteen to eighteen
posts, forked at the top, and about seven feet high from the floor. In
the centre, a circular space of about eight feet in diameter is dug, to
the depth of two feet; four strong posts are placed in the form of a
square, about twelve feet asunder, and at equal distances from this
space these posts are about twenty feet high, and cross pieces are laid
on the tops. The rafters are laid from the forked tops of the outside
posts over these cross pieces, and reach nearly to the centre, where a
small hole is left for the smoke to escape; across the rafters small
pieces of timber are laid; over these, sticks and a covering of sods,
and lastly earth. The fire is made in the middle of the central space,
round the edges of which they sit, and the beds are fixed between the
outer posts. The door is placed at the immediate entrance into the
lodge; it is made of a buffalo skin, stretched in a frame of wood, and
is suspended from the top. On entering, it swings forward, and when let
go, it falls to its former position." (Bradbury, (1), pp. 56-57.)
It is to be regretted that Bradbury did not give a more detailed account
of the general appearance of the village; that he did not tell of the
placing of the lodges, and of the other structures, if any stood within
the village. But this large group of earth-covered lodges undoubtedly
resembled the village of the Republican Pawnee, as shown in the
photograph made by Jackson more than half a century later.
In the narrative of the Long expedition, during the spring of 1820, more
than a century ago, is a brief note on the Oto. It reads: "The Oto
nation of Indians is distinguished by the name of _Wah-toh-ta-na_. The
permanent village of this nation is composed of large dirt lodges,
similar to those of the Konzas and Omawhaws, and is situate on the left
bank of the river Platte, or Nebreska, about forty miles above it
confluence with the Missouri." (James, (1), I, p. 338.) On the map which
accompanies the narrative the village is indicated on the south or right
bank of the Platte, in the eastern part of the present Saunders County,
Nebraska. Continuing, the journal states (p. 342): "The hunting grounds
of the Oto nation, extend from the Little Platte up to the Boyer creek,
on the north side of the Missouri, and from Independence creek to about
forty miles above the Platte, on the south side of that river. They hunt
the bison, between the Platte and the sources of the Konzas rivers."
Thus their hunting grounds included one of the richest and most fertile
sections of the valley of the Missouri, now occupied by many towns and
villages.
Much of interest respecting the manners and ways of life of the Oto when
they occupied their village near the mouth of the Platte is to be found
in Irving's narrative of the expedition of which he was a member. During
the summer of 1833 the small party under the leadership of Commissioner
H. L. Ellsworth left St. Louis and, with several teams, proceeded up the
Valley of the Missouri. They traversed the vast rolling prairie: "Hour
after hour passed on; the prospect was still the same. At last a loud
cry from our guide announced that we had come in sight of the
cantonment. There was a snowy speck resting upon the distant green;
behind it rose a forest of lofty timber which shadowed the Missouri.
This was Leavenworth.... It was mid day when we first caught sight of
Leavenworth, but it was near sunset before we arrived there. About a
dozen white-washed cottage-looking houses, composed the barracks and the
abodes of the officers. They are so arranged as to form the three sides
of a hollow square; the fourth is open, and looks out into a wide but
broken prairie. It is a rural looking spot--a speck of civilization
dropped in the heart of a wilderness." (Irving, J. T., (1), I, pp.
46-47.) From Fort Leavenworth they continued up the valley, soon
reaching the village of the Oto, near the banks of the Platte. After
describing the reception accorded the party by the people of the town
Irving wrote: "The village of the Otoe Indians is situated upon a ridge
of swelling hills overlooking the darkly wooded banks of the Platte
river, about a quarter of a mile distant. There is but little beauty or
neatness about an Indian town. The lodges are built in the shape of a
half egg. They frequently are twenty feet in height, and sometimes sixty
in diameter. The roofs are formed of long poles, which diverge like the
radii of a circle, from one common centre. The ring of the circle is
formed of upright posts, driven closely together in the ground, and
projecting upward about five feet. These are interwoven with brushwood
and the smaller branches of trees, and form the support of the outer end
of the poles composing the roof, the interstices of which are also
interwoven with twigs and brushwood. The whole is then covered with
earth, and when finished resembles a large hillock. The town contained
about seventy of these lodges, standing singly or in groups, without any
attention to order or regularity. Within, they are capacious, but dark,
being lighted merely by a small aperture at the top, which serves both
as window and chimney. The fire is built in a cavity in the centre,
directly under the hole in the roof, by which the smoke escapes after
floating in easy wreaths about the interior.
"As the lodges are very spacious, a little back from the fire there is a
circular range of tree trunks standing like columns, and connected by
timber laid in their forks, forming a support for the roof, which
otherwise, from the great length of the poles that form it, and the
heavy mass of superincumbent earth, might fall in, and bury the
inhabitants. Around the wall of the building, are ranged cribs or berths
for sleeping, screened from view by heavy mats of grass and rushes. Over
the fire is inclined a forked stake, in the hook of which hangs a large
kettle, generally filled with buffalo flesh and corn. This, to judge
from its looks, is never removed from the fire, even for the purpose of
cleaning it." (Op. cit., pp. 158-160.)
A week or more passed after the arrival of the party at the Oto village
before a council was held with the chief men of the tribe, "for the
purpose of forming a treaty, with respect to the lands lying in the
neighbourhood of the Nemahaw river." The time for holding the council
having arrived, the commissioner and his party proceeded from their camp
to the earth-covered lodge in which the ceremony was to be enacted. They
entered and "found nearly the whole tribe assembled, and seated in
circles, in the large lodge of the Iotan chief. At the far end of the
building was the Iotan; and by his side were stationed those two
worthies, the Big Kaw and the Thief. Next them were the stern forms of
the older warriors and braves.... The lodge was excessively crowded. One
ring was formed beyond another; one dark head rose behind another; until
the dim, dusk outlines of the more distant were lost in shadow, and
their glistening eyes alone could be seen. The passage which led to the
air was completely crowded with women and children; and half a dozen
curious faces were peering down through the round hole in the roof.