the Crow country which had probably been erected by members of that
tribe. They may have resembled the cabins mentioned by Matthews as
standing at the Fort Berthold Reservation nine years later. On May 2,
1863, a member of the Yellowstone expedition entered in his journal: "In
the timber along the river, we saw many houses built of dry logs and
bark; some are built like lodges, but the most of them are either square
or oblong, and among them were many large and strong corrals of dry
logs. The Crows evidently winter along here, and, from the sign, they
are very numerous." The following day, "We camped three miles below
Pompey's Pillar, on which we found the names of Captain Clark and two of
his men cut in the rock, with the date July 25, 1806.... Buffalo to be
seen in every direction, and very tame.... No wonder the Crows like
their country; it is a perfect paradise for a hunter.... About sundown a
large band of buffalo came in to drink at a water-hole about two hundred
yards in front of our camp." (Stuart, (1), pp. 176-178.) This may have
represented a winter camp ground, with permanent huts to which the Crows
returned from year to year. It was in the northeastern part of the
present Yellowstone County, Montana.
A very interesting description of a Crow camp is to be found in Lord
Dunraven's narrative of his hunting trip to the Yellowstone region
performed during the year 1874. The particular camp stood not far from
the present Livingston, Montana. In describing the camp he wrote: "The
lodges are tall, circular dwellings, composed of long fir-poles planted
on a circle in the ground. These slope inwards and form a cone, meeting
and leaning against each other at the apex; and upon them is stretched a
covering of buffalo hides. They make very comfortable, clean and airy
houses, and are far preferable to any tent, being much warmer in winter
and cooler in summer. A tepee will hold from twelve to fifteen or even
twenty individuals; several families, therefore, generally occupy one in
common. The earth is beaten down hard, forming a smooth floor, and in
the middle burns the fire, the smoke finding an exit through an aperture
at the top. The portions of the tepee assigned to each family or couple
are divided by a kind of wicker-work screen at the head and foot,
separating a segment of a circle of about eight or ten feet in length
and five or six in breadth, closed by the screen at either end, and at
the outer side by the wall of the lodge, but being open towards the
interior. The fire is common property, and has a certain amount of
reverence paid to it. It is considered very bad manners, for instance,
to step between the fire and the place where the head man sits. All
round, on the lodge poles and on the screens, are suspended the arms,
clothing, finery, and equipment of the men and their horses. Each lodge
forms a little community in itself.
"The tepees are pitched with all the regularity of an organized camp, in
a large circle, inside which the stock is driven at night or on an alarm
or occasion of danger. Outside the door is struck a spear or pole, on
which is suspended the shield of the chief and a mysterious something
tied up in a bundle, which is great medicine." (Dunraven, (1), pp.
94-95.)
A white shield supported outside a tipi is visible in the photograph
reproduced as plate 47. This remarkable picture has not, unfortunately,
been identified, but it was undoubtedly made in the Upper Missouri
Valley, and from the nature of the tipis, many appearing to be quite
small, it may be assumed that it was a party of Indians who had come on
a trading trip, rather than that it represented a regular village.
Several accounts are preserved of large structures discovered in the
region frequented by the Crows which, although not positively
identified, were possibly erected by members of that tribe. Thus Lewis
and Clark on July 24, 1806, arrived at an island in the Yellowstone
River between 5 and 6 miles below the mouth of Clark's Fork, and wrote:
"It is a beautiful spot with a rich soil, covered with wild rye, and a
species of grass like the blue-grass, and some of another kind, which
the Indians wear in plaits round the neck, on account of a strong scent
resembling that of vanilla. There is also a thin growth of cottonwood
scattered over the island. In the centre is a large Indian lodge which
seems to have been built during the last summer. It is in the form of a
cone, sixty feet in diameter at the base, composed of twenty poles, each
forty-five feet long, and two and a half in circumference, and the whole
structure covered with bushes. The interior was curiously ornamented. On
the tops of the poles were feathers of eagles, and circular pieces of
wood, with sticks across them in the form of a girdle: from the centre
was suspended a stuffed buffaloe skin; on the side fronting the door was
hung a cedar bush: on one side of the lodge a buffaloe's head; on the
other several pieces of wood stuck in the ground. From its whole
appearance, it was more like a lodge for holding councils, than an
ordinary dwelling house." (Lewis and Clark, (1), II, p. 386.) This was
undoubtedly a ceremonial lodge, and it was probably quite similar to
another observed a few years later. To quote the description of the
second example: "In the country of the Crow Indians, (Up-sa-ro-ka,) Mr.
Dougherty saw a singular arrangement of the magi. The upper portion of a
cotton-wood tree was implanted, with its base in the earth, and around
it was a sweat house, the upper part of the top of the tree arising
through the roof. A gray bison skin, extended with oziers on the inside
so as to exhibit a natural appearance, was suspended above the house,
and on the branches were attached several pairs of children's mockasins
and leggings, and from one of the limbs of the tree, a very large fan
made of war eagle's feathers was dependent." (James, (1), I, p. 272.)
CADDOAN TRIBES.
The ancient habitat of the many small tribes which evidently later
became confederated, thus forming the principal groups of this
linguistic stock, was in the southwest, whence the Pawnee and Arikara,
and those gathered under the name of the Wichita, moved northward.
The Caddo proper, the name of a tribe later applied to the confederated
group of which they formed the principal member, formerly occupied the
valley of the Red River of Louisiana, the many villages of the several
tribes being scattered along the banks of that stream and of its
tributaries in northern Louisiana, southwestern Arkansas, and eastern
Texas. Although usually included in the same linguistic group with the
Pawnee, Arikara, Wichita, and others, several notable authorities are
inclined to regard the Caddo as constituting a separate and distinct
linguistic group. This may be established and recognized in the future.
PAWNEE.
Soon after the transfer of Louisiana to the United States Government
several expeditions were sent out to explore the newly acquired domains
and to discover the native tribes who claimed and occupied parts of the
vast territory. Of these parties, that led by Capts. Lewis and Clark was
the most important, but of great interest was the second expedition
under command of Lieut. Z. M. Pike, which traversed the country
extending from the Mississippi to the Rocky Mountains, and reached the
Pawnee villages near the North Platte during the month of September,
1806. How long the Pawnee had occupied that region may never be
determined, but they had evidently migrated from the southwest, probably
moving slowly, making long stops on the way. As a tribe they were known
to the Spaniards as early as the first half of the sixteenth century,
and appear to have been among the first of the plains tribes to be
visited by French and Spanish traders.
Unfortunately Pike did not prepare a very extensive account of the
Pawnee as they appeared during the autumn of 1806, but wrote in part:
"Their houses are a perfect circle, (except where the door enters) from
whence there is a projection of about 15 feet; the whole being
constructed after the following manner, Viz: 1st. there is an excavation
of a circular form, made in the ground, of about 4 feet deep and 60
diameter, where there is a row of posts about 5 feet high, with crotches
at the top, set firmly in all round, and horizontal poles from one to
the other. There is then a row of posts, forming a circle of about 10
feet width in the diameter of the others, and 10 feet in height; the
crotches of those are so directed, that horizontal poles are also laid
from one to the other; long poles are then laid slanting,
perpendicularly from the lower poles over the upper, and meeting nearly
at the top, leaving only a small aperture for the smoke of the fire to
pass out, which is made on the ground in the middle of the lodge. There
is then a number of small poles put up round the circle, so as to form
the wall, and wicker work run through the whole. The roof is then
thatched with grass, and earth thrown up against the wall until a bank
is made to the eves of the thatch; and that is also covered with earth
one or two feet thick, and rendered so tight, as entirely to exclude any
storm whatsoever, and make them extremely warm. The entrance is about 6
feet wide, with walls on each side, and roofed like our houses in shape,
but of the same materials as the main building. Inside there are
numerous little apartments constructed of wicker work against the wall
with small doors; they have a great appearance of neatness and in them
the members of the family sleep and have their little deposits. Their
towns are by no means so much crowded as the Osage, giving much more
space, but they have the same mode of introducing all their horses into
the village at night, which makes it extremely crowded. They keep guards
with the horses during the day. They are extremely addicted to gaming,
and have for that purpose a smooth piece of ground cleared out on each
side of the village for about 150 yards in length." (Pike, (1),
Appendix, p. 15.)
Although Pike's account of this interesting tribe is very brief and
unsatisfactory, it was soon to be followed by a more complete and
comprehensive description. This refers to the notes prepared by members
of the Long expedition, 14 years later.
The expedition under command of Maj. Stephen H. Long arrived at Council
Bluff, "so called by Lewis and Clark, from a council with the Otoes and
Missouries held there, on the 3rd of August, 1804," during the early
autumn of 1819. Winter quarters were established at a point about 5
miles lower down the Missouri and at a short distance north of the
present city of Omaha, Nebr. This was called Engineer Cantonment, and
during the ensuing months many Indians visited the encampment to treat
with Maj. O'Fallon, the commissioner.
Leaving the majority of the party in quarters at the cantonment, Maj.
Long and others of the expedition, on October 11, "began to descend the
Missouri in a canoe, on their way towards Washington and Philadelphia."
Returning from the east they reached Engineer Cantonment May 28, 1820,
having arrived at St. Louis April 24, "from Philadelphia to Council
Bluff, to rejoin the party."
During the absence of the commanding officers some members of the
expedition made a short trip to the Pawnee villages, and the following
brief account appears in the narrative on May 1, 1820:
"At each of the villages, we observed small sticks of the length of
eighteen inches or two feet, painted red, stuck in the earth in various
situations, but chiefly on the roofs of the houses, each bearing the
fragment of a human scalp, the hair of which streamed in the wind.
Before the entrance to some of the lodges were small frames, like
painter's easels, supporting each a shield, and generally a large
painted cylindrical case of skin, prepared like parchment, in which a
war dress is deposited. The shield is circular, made of bison skin, and
thick enough to ward off an arrow, but not to arrest the flight of a
rifle ball at close quarters.... The lodges, or houses, of these three
villages, are similar in structure, but differ in size. The description
of those of the Konzas will apply to them, excepting that the beds are
all concealed by a mat partition, which extends parallel to the walls of
the lodge, and from the floor to the roof. Small apertures, or doors, at
intervals in this partition, are left for the different families, that
inhabit a lodge, to enter their respective bed chambers." (James, (1),
pp. 367-368.)
After the return of Maj. Long the reunited party left Engineer
Cantonment, June 6, 1820, and soon reached the Pawnee villages, situated
about 100 miles westward, on the Loup River, a branch of the Platte. The
narrative of this part of the journey is most interesting: "The path
leading to the Pawnee villages runs in a direction a little south of
west from the cantonment, and lies across a tract of high and barren
prairie for the first ten miles. At this distance it crosses the
Papillon, or Butterfly creek, a small stream discharging into the
Missouri, three miles above the confluence of the Platte."
After advancing for several days over the prairie, on June 10, "At
sunset we arrived at a small creek, eleven miles distant from the
village of the Grand Pawnees, where we encamped. On the following
morning, having arranged the party according to rank, and given the
necessary instructions for the preservation of order, we proceeded
forward and in a short time came in sight of the first of the Pawnee
villages. The trace on which we had travelled since we left the
Missouri, had the appearance of being more and more frequented as we
approached the Pawnee towns; and here, instead of a single footway, it
consisted of more than twenty parallel paths, of similar size and
appearance.... After a ride of about three hours, we arrived before the
village, and despatched a messenger to inform the chief of our approach.
Answer was returned that he was engaged with his chiefs and warriors at
a medicine feast, and could not, therefore, come out to meet us.... The
party which accompanied Major Long, after groping about some time, and
traversing a considerable part of the village, arrived at the lodge of
the principal chief. Here we were again informed that _Tarrarecawaho_,
with all the principal men of the village, were engaged at a medicine
feast.
"Notwithstanding his absence, some mats were spread for us upon the
ground, in the back part of the lodge. Upon these we sat down, and after
waiting some time, were presented with a large wooden dish of hominy, or
boiled maize. In this was a single spoon of the horn of a bison, large
enough to hold half a pint, which, being used alternately by each of the
party, soon emptied the dish of its contents."
An excellent example of an old spoon similar to the one mentioned in the
preceding paragraph is shown in plate 42, _a_ (U.S.N.M. 12259). It is
about 10 inches in length and much worn from long use. Unfortunately it
is not known when or where it was collected, but without doubt it came
from the Upper Missouri Valley.
Continuing the narrative: "The interior of this capacious dwelling was
dimly lighted from a hole at the top, through which the sun's rays, in a
defined column, fell upon the earthen floor. Immediately under this
hole, which is both window and chimney, is a small depression in the
centre of the floor, where the fire is made; but the upper parts of the
lodge are constantly filled with smoke; adding much to the air of
gloominess and obscurity, which prevail within. The furniture of
Long-hair's lodge consisted of mats, ingeniously woven of grass or
rushes, bison robes, wooden dishes, and one or two small brass kettles.
In the part of the lodge immediately opposite the entrance, we observed
a rude niche in the wall, which was occupied by a bison skull. It
appeared to have been exposed to the weather, until the flesh and
periosteum had decayed, and the bones had become white....
"Our visit to this village seemed to excite no great degree of
attention. Among the crowd, who surrounded us before we entered the
village, we observed several young squaws rather gaily dressed, being
wrapped in clean and new blankets, and having their heads ornamented
with wreaths of gnaphalium and the silvery leaves of the prosalea
canescens. On the tops of the lodges we also saw some display of finery,
which we supposed to have been made on account of our visit. Flags were
hoisted, shields, and bows, and quivers, were suspended in conspicuous
places, scalps were hung out; in short, the people appeared to have
exposed whatever they possessed, in the exhibition of which, they could
find any gratification of the vanity. Aside from this, we received no
distinguished marks of attention from the Grand Pawnees." (James, (1),
I, pp. 427-437.)
The camp of the expedition was a little more than a mile from the
village of the Grand Pawnee, and the intervening prairie must have
presented an animated sight, being "covered with great numbers of
horses, intermixed with men, women, and children." Nearer the village
were groups of squaws "busily engaged in dressing the skins of the bison
for robes." During the afternoon many Indians arrived at the camp, men
wishing to trade horses, the women endeavoring to trade various
articles. And on the following morning, June 11, 1820, many groups of
women were seen leaving the village, accompanied by their dogs, bound
for their fields of corn situated a few miles away.
The expedition next arrived at the village of the Republican Pawnee, 4
miles from that of the Grand Pawnee. Both villages stood on the
immediate bank of the stream. Remaining there but a short time, they
continued on to the Loup village. Here they encamped during the night of
June 12, leaving early on the following morning. On the morning of the
13th many squaws were again observed making their way to the cornfields,
with their small children. Some stopped to admire the "novel appearance"
of the members of the expedition, many brought various vegetables,
jerked buffalo meat and tallow to exchange for whatever they could
obtain.
"The three Pawnee villages, with their pasture grounds, and
insignificant enclosures, occupy about ten miles in length of the
fertile valley of the Wolf river. The surface is wholly naked of timber,
rising gradually to the river hills, which are broad and low, and from a
mile to a mile and a half distant." (James, (1), I, p. 447.)
During the latter part of the summer of 1833 the small party under the
leadership of Commissioner Henry L. Ellsworth reached the Pawnee towns,
and in the narrative of the expedition are to be found many references
to the customs of the people whose habitations were the primitive
earth-covered lodges. The second morning after arriving at the village
of the Grand Pawnee several members of the party walked about among the
lodges, and at that time, so wrote Irving: "The warriors were collected
in small knots of five or six, and by their vehement gestures, were
apparently engaged in earnest conversation. The children were rolling
and tumbling in the dirt; the squaws were busily engaged. Some were
bringing from their lodges large leather sacks of shelled corn; others
were spreading it out to dry, upon the leather of their buffalo-skin
tents, which had been stretched out upon the ground. Others were
cleansing from it the decayed kernels and packing it up in small sacks
of whitish undressed leather, resembling parchment. These were then
deposited in cache-holes for a winter's store.
"At a distance from the village, a band of females were slowly wending
along the top of the low prairie ridges, to their daily labour in the
small plantations of corn. These are scattered in every direction round
the village, wherever a spot of rich, black soil, gives promise of a
bountiful harvest. Some of them are as much as eight miles distant from
the town." (Irving, J. T., (1), II, pp. 44-45.)
Later the same day a council was held at the lodge of the chief,
attended by the principal men of the village, and it is interesting to
read the description of the gathering of those who were to participate:
"The lodge had been swept clean; a large cheery fire was crackling in
the centre. The rabble crowd of loungers and hangers-on had been routed;
and besides the family of the chief, we were the only occupants of the
spacious building.
"At mid-day the chiefs and braves began to assemble. They were full
dressed; many of the young warriors had spent the whole morning in
preparation, and now presented themselves, fully ornamented for the
meeting.
"As the hour for the opening of the council grew nearer, the tall,
muffled warriors poured in, in one continuous stream. They moved quietly
to the places allotted them, and seating themselves in silence round the
chief, according to their rank.... The crowd continued flowing in until
the lodge was filled almost to suffocation. As they came in, they seated
themselves, until five or six circles were formed, one beyond the other,
the last ranging against the wall of the building. In the ring nearest
the chiefs, sat the principal braves, or those warriors whose deeds of
blood entitled them to a high rank in the councils of the nation. The
more distant circles were filled by such young men of the village as
were admitted to its councils. The passage leading to the open air, was
completely blocked up with a tight wedged mass of women and children,
who dared venture no nearer to the deliberations of the tribe." (Op.
cit., pp. 48-50.) When all had gathered the chief filled a large stone
pipe, took a few puffs, then handed it to the members of the
commissioner's party, who in turn passed it to the other Indians. The
addresses were then made and the council deliberated on the several
questions presented.
The expedition moved on from the Grand Pawnee to the village of the
Republican Pawnee, which stood on the bank of the Loup Fork of the
Platte, some 20 miles distant from the former, with the rolling prairie
between. Approaching the river they could see, on the far side, "a high
bluff, on which was situated the dingy lodges of the Republican
village." They were welcomed by the people of the village, and soon
reached the lodge of the principal chief, Blue Coat, which they entered.
Then "it was not long before the lodge became crowded. The old warriors
moved with a hushed step across the building, and listened to our
conversation." Soon an invitation was received to attend a feast at the
lodge of the second chief. Entering that lodge, he was seen seated upon
"a small leather mat.... Around him were lounging about a dozen Indians.
Some, reclining with their backs against the pillars supporting the
roof, with their eyes half closed, were smoking their stone pipes. Some
were lying half asleep upon the clay floor, with their feet within a few
inches of the fire; and others were keeping up a sleepy song.
"At a short distance from the fire, half a dozen squaws were pounding
corn, in large mortars, and chattering vociferously at the same time. In
the farther part of the building, about a dozen naked children, with
faces almost hid by their bushy, tangled hair, were rolling and
wrestling upon the floor, occasionally causing the lodge to echo to
their childish glee. In the back ground, we could perceive some half
dozen shaggy, thievish-looking wolf dogs, skulking among the hides and
bundles, in search of food, and gliding about with the air of dogs, who
knew that they had no business there." (Op. cit., pp. 96-99.) Such was a
domestic scene within a Pawnee lodge.