Clark to the winter village to attend "a great medicine feast among the
Manitaries." They passed the two Mandan towns and during the journey saw
a large stone, "undoubtedly one of those isolated blocks of granite
which are scattered over the whole prairie, and which the Indians, from
some superstitious notion, paint with vermilion, and surround with
little sticks, or rods, to which were attached some feathers." The
little party had seen much of interest on the way, and it was late in
the day when they arrived at the village, "the large huts of which were
built so close to each other that it was sometimes difficult to pass
between them." Herds of buffalo having been reported in the vicinity of
the village, a party of Indians had decided to start after them the
following day, and planned "to implore the blessings of heaven upon
their undertaking by a great medicine feast." This appears to have been
a ceremony arranged by the women of the village. The structure in which
the dance took place was not one of the earth-covered lodges of the
town, but a rather temporary shelter of unusual shape. As described by
Maximilian: "Between the huts, in the centre of the village, an
elliptical space, forty paces or more in length, was enclosed in a
fence, ten or twelve feet high, consisting of reeds and willow twigs
inclining inwards. (See the woodcut.) [Fig. 11.] An entrance was left at
_a_; _b_ represents the fence; _d_ are the four fires, burning in the
medicine lodge, which were kept up the whole time. At _e_ the elder and
principal men had taken their seats; to the right sat the old chief,
Lachpitzi-Sihrisch (the yellow bear); some parts of his face were
painted red, and a bandage of yellow skin encircled his head. Places
were assigned to us on the right hand of the yellow bear. At _f_, close
to the fence, the spectators, especially the women, were seated: the men
walked about, some of them handsomely dressed, others quite simply;
children were seated round the fires, which they kept alive by throwing
twigs of willow trees into them." Here follows a description of the
ceremony, and it is related how six elderly men who had been chosen by
the younger ones to represent buffalo bulls, entered the inclosure. They
came from the hut opposite and when they were within, and after certain
formalities, were seated at _c_. The ceremony was attended by smoking,
the pipes were "brought first to the old men and the visitors; they
presented the mouth-piece of the pipe to us in succession, going from
right to left: we each took a few whiffs, uttered, as before, a wish or
prayer, and passed the pipe to our next neighbours.... The six buffalo
bulls, meantime, sitting behind the fire, sang, and rattled the medicine
sticks, while one of them constantly beat the badger skin. After a while
they all stood up, bent forward, and danced; that is, they leaped as
high as they could with both their feet together, continuing to sing and
rattle their sticks, one of them beating time on the badger. Their song
was invariably the same, consisting of loud, broken notes and
exclamations. When they had danced for some time, they resumed their
seats.
[Illustration: FIG. 11.--Plan of a ceremonial lodge.]
"The whole was extremely interesting. The great number of red men, in a
variety of costumes, the singing, dancing, beating the drum, &c., while
the lofty trees of the forest, illumed by the fires, spread their
branches against the dark sky, formed a _tout ensemble_ so striking and
original, that I regretted the impracticability of taking a sketch of it
on the spot."
[Illustration: FIG. 12.--Plan of the large Hidatsa village.]
Two days after the dance, on November 28, 1833, Maximilian visited the
chief Yellow Bear in his lodge. The interior presents an interesting
appearance: "The beds, consisting of square leathern cases, were placed
along the sides of the spacious hut, and the inmates sat round the fire
variously occupied. The Yellow Bear, wearing only his breech-cloth, sat
upon a bench made of willow boughs, covered with skins, and was painting
a new buffalo robe with figures in vermillion and black, having his
colours standing by him, ready mixed, in old potsherds. In lieu of a
pencil he was using the more inartificial substitute of a sharp-pointed
piece of wood. The robe was ornamented with the symbols of valuable
presents which he had made, and which had gained the Yellow Bear much
reputation, and made him a man of distinction." (Maximilian, (1), pp.
419-423.)
Among the historic village sites which have been studied and surveyed by
the State Historical Society of North Dakota, as mentioned in the
preceding sketch of the Mandan, was that "of the largest Hidatsa
village on Knife river." The map made for the society is here reproduced
in figure 12. This, to quote Libby, "shows the present appearance of the
... largest Hidatsa village site, located just north of the mouth of
Knife river. From the position and direction of the doorways, it is seen
that these villages show no such large grouping as is characteristic of
the Mandan village...." It was observed that the circles marking the
positions of the earth lodges were much deeper in the Hidatsa villages
than in the two Mandan sites. In the former the extreme depth below the
"highest part of the rim was often three feet and very commonly over two
feet," but on the Mandan sites the depressions were quite shallow. And
"in many cases it was observed that in and near the Hidatsa villages
were mounds of debris of varying heights, while nothing of the kind was
seen on or near Mandan sites." (Libby, (1), p. 500.) Noting these
characteristic features of the two groups of villages, or rather of the
villages of the two tribes, should reduce the difficulty of identifying
other ancient sites in the upper Missouri Valley.
The several quotations already made refer to the earth-covered lodges of
the Hidatsa, but the same people also made use of the typical skin tipi,
although less often mentioned by the early writers. They probably
resembled the structures used by the Crow. On November 8, 1833, when
Maximilian was returning to Fort Clark from the mouth of the
Yellowstone, he wrote: "At twelve o'clock we were opposite the first
Manitari summer village, and saw, on the other side, many Indians....
The invitations to land became more vociferous and numerous." Going
ashore "we were immediately conducted, by a distinguished man,
Ita-Widahki-Hisha (the red shield), to his tent, which stood apart on
the prairie, on the summit of the bank. The white leather tent was new,
spacious, and handsomely ornamented with tufts of hair of various
colours, and at each side of the entrance, finished with a stripe and
rosettes of dyed porcupine quills, very neatly executed. It had been
well warmed by a good fire, a most refreshing sight to us. We took our
seats around it, with the numerous family, the brother and uncle of the
chief, young men, women, and children. The chief had rather a long
beard, like the Punca chief, Shudegacheh, and his right breast was
tattooed with black stripes.... A large dish of boiled maize and beans
was immediately set before us; it was very tender and well dressed, and
three of us eat out of the dish with spoons made of the horn of buffalo,
or bighorn; after which the red Dacota pipe went round." (Maximilian;
(1), p. 316.) This must have been a beautiful example of the
buffalo-skin tipi, new and white, decorated with quillwork and tufts of
hair.
Continuing down the Missouri to Fort Clark they passed women in their
"round leather boats," and saw others, "proceeding towards the river,
with their boats hanging on their heads and down their backs."
An example of a "bull-boat" and paddle is shown in plate 35, _b_. It was
collected among the Hidatsa and is now preserved in the collection of
the National Museum. It is a specimen of great interest and rarity,
though once so extensively used by the tribes of the Missouri Valley.
Several boats of this sort are shown by Bodmer in his picture of the
Mandan village (pl. 39), and Kurz likewise left many drawings of these
peculiar craft (pl. 45, _c_).
In addition to the several forms of structures already mentioned, the
Hidatsa evidently erected a very secure temporary lodge when away from
their villages on hunting trips. On November 7, 1833, when descending
the Missouri, and just before arriving at Fort Clark, Maximilian wrote:
"Our breakfast was prepared at nine o'clock, when we lay to on the north
bank, in a narrow strip of forest, where we found some old Indian
hunting lodges, built, in a conical form, of dry timber. They had,
doubtless, been left by the Manitaries, who had come thus far on their
hunting excursions. The lower part of the huts, or lodges, was covered
with the bark of trees; the entrance was square, and bones were
scattered in all directions. We proceeded with a bleak, high wind, saw
the singular clay tops of the hills, and, in the forest, the stages made
of poles, where the Indian hunters dry the flesh of the animals they
have taken in the chase. About twelve o'clock we came to the spot where
some stakes indicated the former site of a Mandan village.... We are now
in the centre of the territory of the Manitaries." (Maximilian, (1), pp.
314-315.) Probably the danger of attack by their enemies made necessary
the erection of these comparatively secure shelters.
About the year 1845 many Hidatsa removed from the vicinity of Knife
River and reared a new village not far from Fort Berthold, some 60 miles
up the Missouri from old Fort Clark. They were joined from time to time
by other members of their tribe, and also by many of the remaining
Mandan. In 1862 the Arikara became the third tribe to settle near Fort
Berthold. But in 1850 the Arikara continued to occupy the old Mandan
town just below Fort Clark, the large village of earth lodges so often
visited and mentioned by the explorers and traders during the early
years of the last century. It is quite evident the new settlement of the
Hidatsa did not differ in appearance from the old Mandan town, the later
home of the Arikara, and on June 13, 1850, Culbertson wrote from Fort
Berthold: "The village, with its mud lodges, differs nothing in looks
from the Ree village described yesterday, except in one particular, that
is, the inhabitants are now engaged in surrounding it with pickets. The
logs are well prepared and are all up except on the west side; a bastion
with loop holes is placed in the middle of each side. This picket is of
course to protect the inmates against enemies by whom they are
frequently attacked." (Culbertson, (1), pp. 118-119.) This is a most
interesting reference. Could this palisade have been the one to which
Matthews alluded as having stood until 1865? The manner of constructing
the palisade, with "a bastion ... in the middle of each side," will
tend to recall the similar arrangement as indicated on the drawing of
the ancient Mahican village about two centuries before. (Bushnell, (1),
p. 26.)
In the autumn of 1853, just 20 years after Maximilian was among the
Hidatsa, an officer passed down the Missouri from Fort Benton to St.
Louis, thence to continue to Washington, where he arrived November 21.
In his journal are several brief references to the Hidatsa, or, as he
designated the tribe, the Gros Ventres. To quote from the journal:
"October 8 ... a fine region, full of game, and occasionally speaking a
hunting party of Gros Ventres out after buffalo." The next day the small
party arrived at Fort Berthold, late in the afternoon. Then, so the
journal continues: "We received many visits from the Gros Ventres, and
gave them a few presents. The Gros Ventres have a large village of mud
houses--very unsightly outside, but within warm and comfortable." The
following morning, October 10, 1853, "I visited some of the lodges of
the Gros Ventres, and found them exceedingly comfortable and capable of
accommodating comfortably a hundred persons. One part of the lodge is
appropriated to the horses, dogs, cattle, and chickens, and another to
their own sleeping apartments. They all seemed to live sociably and
comfortable together during the long cold winters of this cold
latitude.... We left Fort Berthold early; but, before we had advanced
far, were driven ashore by a strong wind, which continued throughout the
day. The smoke from the burning prairies is so dense as to almost hide
the sun. The fires, burning in every direction, present at night a
beautiful and magnificent, though terrible appearance." (Saxton, (1),
pp. 264-265.) What a vivid, though brief, description of conditions in
the Upper Missouri Valley when all was in a primitive state.
During the years following the visits of Catlin and Maximilian many
changes took place in the native villages standing on the banks of the
upper Missouri and its tributaries. Writing of a period about 40 years
after Maximilian's stay among the Mandan and Hidatsa, the winter of
1833-34, Dr. Matthews said: "The Hidatsa, Minnetaree, or Grosventre
Indians, are one of the three tribes which at present inhabit the
permanent village at Fort Berthold, Dakota Territory, and hunt on the
waters of the Upper Missouri and Yellowstone Rivers, in Northwestern
Dakota and Eastern Montana." Describing the village, he continued: "The
village consists of a number of houses built very closely together,
without any attempt at regularity of position. The doors face in every
possible direction; and there is great uniformity in the appearance of
the lodges; so it is a very difficult matter to find one's way among
them." In a footnote to this paragraph is given the number of structures
standing there in the year 1872. The note reads: In the fall of 1872,
Dr. C. E. McChesney, then physician at the Berthold agency, counted,
with great care, the buildings in the village and, in a letter, gave me
the following results:
Old-style (round) lodges of Rees 43
Log-cabins of Rees 28
---
Total number of houses of Rees 71
Old-style lodges of Grosventres and Mandans 35
Log-cabins of Grosventres and Mandans 69
---
Total number of houses of Grosventres and Mandans 104
Total of houses in village 175
The note states that "owing to the stupidity of the interpreter" it was
not possible to separate the Grosventres from the Mandans, which was to
be regretted.
The "old-style lodges" were the earth-covered lodges, and Matthews
follows with an excellent description of how they were constructed. He
tells of the building of the frame, "covered with willows, hay, and
earth," and over the opening in the center of the top "of many of the
lodges are placed frames of wicker-work, on which skins are spread to
the windward in stormy weather to keep the lodges from getting smoky.
Sometimes bull-boats are used for this purpose." (Matthews, (1), pp.
3-6.) A comment on the work of the early artists is worthy of being
mentioned at this time: "Prince Maximilian's artist [Karl Bodmer]
usually sketches the lodge very correctly; but Mr. Catlin invariably
gives an incorrect representation of its exterior. Whenever he depicts a
Mandan, Arickaree, or Minnetaree lodge, he makes it appear as an almost
exact hemisphere, and always omits the entry." (Op. cit., p. 6.)
Game, especially the buffalo, was becoming less plentiful in the
vicinity of the villages, and Matthews told how, "Every winter, until
1866, the Indians left their permanent village, and, moving some
distance up the Missouri Valley, built temporary quarters, usually in
the center of heavy forests and in the neighborhood of buffalo.... The
houses of the winter-villages resembled much the log-cabins of our own
western pioneers. They were neatly built, very warm, had regular
fire-places and chimneys built of sticks and mud, and square holes in
the roofs for the admission of light." About that time some cabins of
this sort were erected "in the permanent village at Fort Berthold; every
year since, they are becoming gradually more numerous and threaten to
eventually supplant the original earth-covered lodges." And in 1877
"game has recently become very scarce in their country, they are obliged
to travel immense distances, and almost constantly, when they go out on
their winter-hunts. Requiring, therefore, movable habitations, they take
with them, on their journeys, the ordinary skin-lodges, or 'tepees,'
such as are used by the Dakotas, Assiniboines, and other nomadic tribes
of the region." (Op. cit., pp. 6-7.)
Matthews's description of the caches prepared by the tribes with whom he
was so closely associated is most interesting, and it tends to explain
the origin and use of the numerous pits often discovered in the vicinity
of ancient village sites east of the Mississippi. He wrote: "The
numerous _caches_, or pits, for storing grain, are noteworthy objects in
the village. In summer, when they are not in use, they are often left
open, or are carelessly covered, and may entrap the unwary stroller.
When these Indians have harvested their crops, and before they start on
their winter-hunt, they dig their _caches_, or clear out those dug in
previous years. A _cache_ is a cellar, usually round, with a small
opening above, barely large enough to allow a person to descend; when
finished, it looks much like an ordinary round cistern. Reserving a
small portion of corn, dried squash, etc., for winter use, they deposit
the remainder in these subterranean store-houses, along with
household-utensils, and other articles of value which they wish to leave
behind. They then fill up the orifices with earth, which they trample
down and rake over; thus obliterating every trace of the excavation.
Some _caches_ are made under the floors of the houses, others outside,
in various parts of the village-grounds; in each case, the distance and
direction from some door, post, bedstead, fire-place, or other object is
noted, so that the stores may be found on the return of the owners in
the spring. Should an enemy enter the village while it is temporarily
deserted, the goods are safe from fire and theft. This method of
secreting property has been in use among many tribes, has been adopted
by whites living on the plains, and is referred to in the works of many
travelers." (Op. cit., pp. 8-9.)
Such were the characteristic features of the Hidatsa villages.
CROWS.
Before the separation of the Crows from the Hidatsa they may have
occupied permanent villages of earth-covered lodges, such as the latter
continued to erect and use until very recent years. But after the
separation the Crows moved into the mountains, the region drained by the
upper tributaries of the Missouri, and there no longer built permanent
structures but adopted the skin tipi, so easily erected and transported
from place to place. Many of their tipis were very large, beautifully
made and decorated, and were evidently not surpassed in any manner by
the similar structures constructed by other tribes of the Upper Missouri
Valley.
During the summer of 1805 Francois Antoine Larocque, a clerk attached to
the Upper Red River Department of the Compagnie du Nord-Ouest, visited
the Crows and in his journal recorded much of interest respecting the
manners of the people. Larocque had, during the winter of 1804-05,
remained near the Mandan and Hidatsa villages, and thus met Captains
Lewis and Clark in their winter encampment. A large party of the Crows,
the Rocky Mountain Indians of the journal, came to the Hidatsa villages
on Knife River. There they were met by Larocque, with whom they departed
for their distant country, on Saturday, June 29, 1805. His narrative
contains a brief reference to the people. He wrote: "This nation known
among the Sioux by the name of Crow Indians inhabit the eastern part of
the Rocky Mountains at the head of the River aux Roches Jaunes (which is
Known by the Kinistinaux and Assiniboines by the name of River a la
Biche, from the great number of elks with which all the Country along it
abounds) and its Branches and Close to the head of the Missouri.
"There are three principal tribes of them whose names in their own
language are _Apsarechas_, _Keetheresas_ and _Ashcabcaber_, and these
tribes are again divided into many other small ones which at present
consist but of a few people each, as they are the remainder of a
numerous people who were reduced to their present number by the ravage
of the Small Pox, which raged among them for many years successively and
as late as three years ago. They told me they counted 2000 Lodges or
tents in their Camp when all together before the Small Pox had infected
them. At present their whole number consist of about 2400 persons
dwelling in 300 tents and are able to raise 600 Wariors like the Sioux
and Assiniboines. They wander about in Leather tents and remain where
there are Buffaloes and Elks. After having remained a few days in one
place so that game is not more so plentiful as it was they flit to
another place where there are Buffaloes or deers and so on all the year
around. Since the great decrease of their numbers they generally dwell
all together and flit at the same time and as long as it is possible for
them to live when together they seldom part." (Larocque, (1), pp.
55-56.) The narrative continues: "They live upon Buffaloes & Deer, a
very few of them eat Bears or Beaver flesh, but when compelled by
hunger; they eat no fish." The Crows were at that time in their
primitive condition. "They have never had any traders with them, they
get their battle Guns, ammunitions etc. from the Mandans & Big Bellys in
exchange for horses, Robes, Leggings & shirts, they likewise purchase
corn, Pumpkins & tobacco from the Big Bellys as they do not cultivate
the ground."
Unfortunately, Larocque did not describe the appearance of the tipis,
but such information was supplied by later writers.
Catlin visited the Crows during the summer of 1832 and saw many who
frequented Fort Union, at the mouth of the Yellowstone, during his stay
at that post. He wrote at that time: "The Crows who live on the head
waters of Yellow Stone, and extend from this neighborhood also to the
base of the Rocky Mountains, are similar ... to the Blackfeet: roaming
about a great part of the year." And describing their habitations, he
said: "The Crows, of all the tribes in this region, or on the Continent,
make the most beautiful lodge ... they construct them as the Sioux do,
and make them of the same material; yet they oftentimes dress the skins
of which they are composed almost as white as linen, and beautifully
garnish them with porcupine quills, and paint and ornament them in such
a variety of ways, as renders them exceedingly picturesque and agreeable
to the eye. I have procured a very beautiful one of this description,
highly ornamented, and fringed with scalp-locks and sufficiently large
for forty men to dine under. The poles which support it are about thirty
in number, of pine, and all cut in the Rocky Mountains.... This tent,
when erected, is about twenty-five feet high." (Catlin, (1), I, pp.
43-44.) Catlin's original painting of this most interesting tipi is in
the National Museum, Washington, and is here reproduced in plate 46,
_a_. The same was drawn and given by Catlin as plate 20 in his work.
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 77 PLATE 46
[Illustration: _a._ "Crow lodge." George Catlin]
[Illustration: _b._ Crow camp at the old agency on the Yellowstone, near
Shields River. Photograph by W. H. Jackson, 1871
CROW TIPIS]
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 77 PLATE 47
[Illustration: A CAMP IN A COTTONWOOD GROVE
Photograph not identified, but probably made by J. D. Hutton]
As told elsewhere in this work, Maximilian, on June 18, 1833, arrived at
Fort Clark. At that time representatives of several tribes were gathered
in the vicinity of the fort. These included Crows, "of which tribe there
were now seventy tents about the fort." Referring to these in
particular, he remarked: "The tents of the Crows are exactly like those
of the Sioux, and are set up without any regular order. On the poles,
instead of scalps, there were small pieces of coloured cloth, chiefly
red, floating like streamers in the wind." (Maximilian, (1), p. 172.)
Later in the day Maximilian accompanied the Indian agent to the tipi
occupied by the Crow chief Eripuass. This he found to be of much
interest. "The interior of the tent itself had a striking effect. A
small fire in the centre gave sufficient light; the chief sat opposite
the entrance, and round him many fine tall men, placed according to
their rank, all with no other covering than a breech-cloth. Places were
assigned to us on buffalo hides near the chief, who then lighted his
Sioux pipe, which had a long flat tube, ornamented with bright yellow
nails, made each of us take a few puffs, holding the pipe in his hand,
and then passed it round to the left hand." And speaking of the tribe as
a whole he wrote: "The territory in which they move about is bounded, to
the north or north-west, by the Yellow Stone River, and extends round
Bighorn River, towards the sources of Chayenne River and the Rocky
Mountains. These Indians are a wandering tribe of hunters, who neither
dwell in fixed villages, like the Mandans, Manitaries, and Arikkaras,
nor make any plantations except of tobacco, which, however, are very
small.... They roam about with their leather tents, hunt the buffalo,
and other wild animals, and have many horses and dogs, which, however,
they never use for food.... The Crow women are very skilful in various
kinds of work, and their shirts and dresses of bighorn leather,
embroidered and ornamented with dyed porcupine quills, are particularly
handsome, as well as their buffalo robes, which are painted and
embroidered in the same manner." (Op. cit., pp. 174-175.)