fittings of an earth lodge, one standing in the village of the Grand
Pawnee during the autumn of 1835, has been preserved in Dunbar's
journal. On October 22, after referring to the construction of the lodge
itself, he wrote: "Within these buildings the earth is beat down hard,
and forms the floor. In the center a circular place is dug about 8
inches deep, and 3 feet in diameter. This is the fireplace. The earth
that is taken from this place is spatted down around it, and forms the
hearth. Near the fireplace a stake is firmly fixed in the earth in an
inclined position, and serves all the purposes of a crane. Mats made of
rushes are spread down round the fire on which they sit. Back next the
walls are the sleeping apartments. A frame work is raised about two feet
from the floor, on this are placed small rods, interwoven with slips of
elm bark. On these rods a rush mat is spread. At proper distances
partitions are set up, composed of small willow rods interwoven with
slips of bark. In front of these apartments, either a partition of
willow rods is erected, or rush mats are hung up as curtains. But this
is not always the case. In some lodges the simple platform alone is to
be seen, without either partitions, or curtains. In others there is not
even the platform, and the inmates sleep on the ground.
"In these lodges several families frequently live together. I believe
there are as many as three different families in the lodge where I stop.
Each family has its particular portion of the dwelling, and the
furniture of each is kept separate." (Dunbar, (2), p. 600.) Comparing
the two preceding accounts it is easy to visualize the interior of
Pawnee earth lodges as they were nearly a century ago.
The preceding references to the women of the villages going early in the
morning to their fields of corn recall a note in Fremont's journal a few
years later. He wrote when returning from the mountains, on September
22, 1842, "We arrived at the village of the Grand Pawnees, on the right
bank of the river [the Platte] about thirty miles above the mouth of the
Loup fork. They were gathering in their corn, and we obtained from them
a very welcome supply of vegetables." (Fremont, (1), p. 78.)
The villages described in the accounts already quoted were the permanent
settlements of the tribe, groups of earth-covered lodges quite similar
to those erected by other tribes in the Upper Missouri Valley.
Fortunately several remarkable photographs of the villages and of the
separate structures are in existence, having been made by W. H. Jackson
in 1871. The most valuable of the early pictures is reproduced as plate
49. And here it may be remarked that this is a different photograph from
the one which was presented as plate 12 in Bulletin 69 of this bureau's
publications, and although both were made at the same time, nevertheless
they differ in minor details. It is therefore of interest to know two
negatives were made at that time. This was the village of the Republican
Pawnee. In plate 50 are two of the large earth-covered lodges, showing
the tunnel-like entrances, and with many persons sitting on the tops of
the structures. The entrance is more clearly shown in plate 51, where a
brush mat protects the side. This may be part of a small inclosure.
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 77 PLATE 48
[Illustration: TRADER CROSSING THE PRAIRIES
Page of Kurz's Sketchbook, August 28, 1851]
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 77 PLATE 49
[Illustration: PAWNEE-VILLAGE WHICH STOOD ON THE LOUPE FORK OF THE
PLATTE RIVER
Photograph by W. H. Jackson, 1871]
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 77 PLATE 50
[Illustration: LODGES IN THE PAWNEE VILLAGE WHICH STOOD ON THE LOUPE
FORK OF THE PLATTE RIVER
Photograph by W. H. Jackson, 1871]
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 77 PLATE 51
[Illustration: _a._ Children at lodge entrance]
[Illustration: _b._ Showing screen near same entrance
IN A PAWNEE VILLAGE
Photographs by W. H. Jackson, 1871]
In addition to the permanent earth-covered lodges the Pawnee made
extensive use of temporary skin-covered shelters, unlike the conical
lodge of the plains tribes. These served as their habitations during the
hunting season, when away from their villages. A most valuable and
interesting description of the ways and customs of the Pawnee while
occupying their movable villages was prepared by one who, during the
summer and autumn of 1835, lived among the people, sharing their
primitive ways of life and thereby learning many of their peculiar
traits. The English traveler, Charles A. Murray, whose narrative is
quoted in part on the following pages, left Fort Leavenworth July 7,
1835, and two weeks later reached the summer camp of the Pawnee: "and a
more interesting or picturesque scene I never beheld. Upon an extensive
prairie gently sloping down to a creek, the winding course of which
marked a broken line of wood here and there interspersed with a fine
clump of trees, were about five thousand savages, inclusive of women and
children; some were sitting under their buffalo-skin lodges lazily
smoking their pipes; while the women were stooping over their fires
busily employed in preparing meat and maize for these indolent lords of
the creation. Far as the eye could reach, were scattered herds of
horses, watched (or as we should say in Scotland, 'tented') by urchins,
whose whole dress and equipment was the slight bow and arrow, with which
they exercised their infant archery upon the heads of the taller
flowers, or upon the luckless blackbird perched near them. Here and
there might be seen some gay young warrior ambling along the heights,
his painted form partially exposed to view as his bright scarlet blanket
waved in the breeze." (Murray, (1), I, pp. 277-278.) Later he described
the manner of moving and pitching their large temporary camps: "On
reaching the camping-place, which is selected by the grand chief (or, in
his absence, by the next in rank), the senior squaw chooses the spot
most agreeable to her fancy, and orders the younger women and children,
who lead the pack-horses and mules (generally from five to ten in
number, according to the size or wealth of the family), to halt; but in
making this choice of ground, she is restricted within certain limits,
and those of no great extent, as the Pawnees observe great regularity
both in their line of march and encampment. I could not ascertain
whether these regulations were invariable, or made at the pleasure of
the chief; but I believe the latter; and that on leaving their winter,
or stationary, villages, he issues the general orders on this subject,
which are observed during the season or the expedition; at any rate,
they never varied during my stay among them.
"They move in three parallel bodies; the left wing consisting of part of
the Grand Pawnees and the Tapages; the centre of the remaining Grand
Pawnees; and the right of the Republicans.... All these bodies move in
'Indian file,' though of course in the mingled mass of men, women,
children, and pack-horses, it was not very regularly observed;
nevertheless, on arriving at the halting-place, the party to which I
belonged invariably camped at the eastern extremity of the village, the
great chief in the centre, and the _Republiques_ on the western side;
and this arrangement was kept so well, that, after I had been a few
days with them, I could generally find our lodge in a new encampment
with very little trouble, although the village consisted of about six
hundred of them, all nearly similar in appearance.
"They first unpack and unsaddle the horses, which are given to a boy to
drive off to their grass and water; they then arrange all their bales,
saddles, &c. in a semi-circular form, and pile them from two to three
feet high. Around the exterior of these they drive into the ground eight
or ten curved willow rods, from two to three feet distant from each
other, but all firmly bound by leather thongs to four large upright
poles, that form the front of the lodge, and along which run transverse
willow rods, to which the extremities of the curved ones are fastened.
When the frame, or skeleton, is thus finished, they stretch the cover
(made of buffalo hides, sewed together) tight over the whole, leaving an
aperture for entrance and egress in the centre of the front; and in fine
weather, the whole front open.
"This is an accurate description of a Pawnee summer-lodge; but, of
course, the dimensions vary according to the number and wealth of the
families residing therein; in some tents I have observed the front
consisting of six or eight upright poles, to which were fixed more
skins, for additional shelter or shade. On the grass, in the interior,
are spread mats, made by the squaws from reeds, and skins of buffalo or
bear.
"From the foregoing it will be easily understood that the bales of
cloth, maize, skins, and whatever other property they possess, form the
back of the tent. Each occupant, from the chief to the lowest in rank,
has his assigned place; sleeps upon his own blanket, or buffalo robe;
has his bow and quiver suspended over his head; his saddle, bridle, and
laryettes, &c. behind his back: and thus little confusion prevails,
although each individual has only just room to sit or lie at full
length.
"Before the tent a kind of shield is raised, upon three poles
pyramidically placed, on which is the device of the chief, by which his
tent is to be recognised.... In the interior of the tent, and generally
about the centre of its concave, is suspended the 'medicine,' which is
most carefully and religiously preserved.... Under the head of
'medicine,' the Indians comprise not only its own healing department,
but everything connected with religion of superstition; all omens, all
relics, and everything extraordinary or supernatural." (Murray (1), I,
pp. 282-286.)
Late in the year 1835 Murray left the Pawnee encampment to return to
Fort Leavenworth, but, meeting with an accident, was not able to proceed
on his way. The Pawnee were likewise moving, and in moving over the
prairie made a well-defined trail. Retracing his way, and seeking the
Pawnee, he wrote: "About ten o'clock on the following day we found the
great Pawnee trail, and, following it, came at mid-day to the place
where they had camped the night before, and a most hideous spectacle did
it present; the grass was all trodden into mud--hundreds of circular
heaps of charred wood attested the number of fires that had been used;
and the whole plain was strewed with split heads, bare skeletons, and
scattered entrails of buffalo; while some hundreds of the half-starved
Pawnee dogs who had lingered behind the village were endeavoring to
dispute some morsels of the carcasses with the gaunt snarling wolves,
who were stripping the scanty relics of skin and sinew which are left by
Indian butchery attached to the bone." (Op. cit., p. 438.) This vivid
description of the appearance of an abandoned camp site quite agrees
with a reference made by Dr. Grinnell a few years ago. Writing of events
during the year 1853, and alluding to an abandoned camp of the Pawnee
that year discovered by the Cheyenne, he said: "It was a big camp; and
there were many fires. It seemed as if the Pawnees had been camped there
killing buffalo for a long time. There were still many dogs in the camp.
On one side was a well-beaten trail which led to another camp two
hundred yards off where a number of people had been camped, not in
lodges but in shelters made of willows bent over, after the fashion of a
sweat-house." (Grinnell, (2), p. 86.)
These temporary and easily erected structures of the Pawnee were
probably quite similar in form and appearance to that of the Cheyenne,
part of which is shown in plate 14. But in the latter instance the cover
is not formed of the primitive buffalo skin, but of canvas, or some
other material obtained from the trader.
The Pawnee had a strange method of dealing with their sick or wounded
during the movement of a village from place to place, and, so wrote
Father De Smet, "if, in the long journeys which they undertake in search
of game, any should be impeded, either by age or sickness, their
children or relations make a small hut of dried grass to shelter them
from the heat of the sun or from the weather, leaving as much provision
as they are able to spare, and thus abandon them to their destiny....
If, some days after, they are successful in the chase, they return as
quickly as possible to render assistance and consolation. These
practices are common to all the nomadic tribes of the mountains." (De
Smet, (2), pp. 356-357.) It is more than probable that similar grass
shelters were constructed and used by small parties when away from the
villages, but such structures would necessarily have been of only
temporary use.
In addition to the semicircular skin-covered lodge mentioned by Murray,
the Pawnee evidently made use of the conical tipi. This was described by
Dunbar when he wrote: "Their movable dwellings consist of from 12 to 20
poles (the number varying with the size) about 16 feet long, and a
covering. Three of these poles are tied together near the top and set
up. The string, with which these poles are tied together, is so long
that one end of it reaches to the ground, when the poles are set up. The
other poles are now successively set up save one, the top of each
leaning against the three, first set up, and forming with them a circle.
The string is then wound round them all at the top several times and
fastened. The cover is tied to the top of the remaining pole by which it
is raised up, then is spread round them all and tied together on the
opposite side, where is the entrance formed by leaving the cover untied
about three feet from the ground. Over the entrance the skin of a bear
or some other animal is suspended. The tents are always set up with
their entrances toward the east. At the top the smoke passes out among
the poles, a place being left for that purpose. The fire place, crane and
hearth are similar to those in their fixed habitations. The furniture is
placed back next the cover. Rush mats are then spread down forming a
sort of floor. On these they sit, eat and sleep. The large tents are
about 18 feet in diameter at the base. The tent covers are made of
buffalo skins, scraped so thin as to transmit light, and sewed together.
These when new are quite white, and a village of them presents a
beautiful appearance. Some of them are painted according to Pawnee
fancy. They carry their tent poles with them during their whole journey.
From three to six of them, as the case may be, are tied together at the
larger end, and made fast to the saddle, an equal number on each side,
the other end drags on the ground." (Dunbar, (2), pp. 602-603.)
From these various records it will be understood the Pawnee made use of
several forms of temporary and comparatively easily transported and
erected structures when away from their permanent villages of
earth-covered lodges. And what is true of the Pawnee would probably
apply to other tribes of the upper Missouri Valley.
The Pawnee, as did other tribes of the region, made long journeys away
from their villages in quest of the buffalo, and an interesting account
of their annual hunts, as conducted about the year 1835, has been
preserved. Then it was told how "The Pawnees make two hunts each year,
the summer and winter hunt. To perform the winter hunt they leave their
villages usually in the last week of October, and do not return to them
again till about the first of April. They now prepare their cornfields
for the ensuing season. The ground is dug up with the hoe, the corn is
planted and well tended. When it has attained to a certain height they
leave it, and go out to their summer hunt. This is done near the last of
June. About the first of September they return to their villages.
Formerly the buffalo came down to and far below their villages. Now
they are obliged to travel out from ten to twenty days to reach them.
The buffalo are rapidly diminishing and will in time become extinct.
"When they leave their villages to hunt the buffalo, they take every man
and beast with them, and the place of their habitations is as desolate
and solitary during their absence as any other spot on the prairie. When
the time of departure arrives all the furniture and provisions they wish
to carry with them are packed on the horses. The residue of their scant
furniture and provisions are concealed in the earth till their return.
As each family gets ready they fall into the train, which frequently
extends some miles." (Dunbar, (1), pp. 329-330.) The narrative continues
and relates many of the mannerisms of the people, and tells of their
peculiar traits. And it is difficult to realize the great distance
traveled during the hunting trips away from the permanent earth-lodge
villages. Dunbar accompanied them on several of their hunts and wrote
(Op. cit., p. 331): "The first hunting tour I performed with them they
traveled, from the time they left their village till they returned to it
again in the spring, about 400 miles. During the first summer hunt I was
with them they traveled 700 miles before returning to their village.
During my second winter hunt they traveled 900 miles, second summer hunt
800 miles."
The moving about over the vast rolling prairies of the people of an
entire village, while on their distant hunts, covering many hundreds of
miles, and carrying with them practically all of their belongings, with
innumerable dogs and horses, stopping now to kill the buffalo and again
pushing on in quest of more, constituted one of the most interesting and
characteristic phases of primitive life on the prairies. But within a
few decades all has changed, and now many towns and villages occupy the
region once traversed by the roving bands.
ARIKARA.
When or where the Arikara separated from their kindred tribe, the
Pawnee, may never be determined, but during the years which followed the
separation they continued moving northward, leaving ruined villages to
mark the line of their migration. Sixty years ago it was said: "That
they migrated upward, along the Missouri, from their friends below is
established by the remains of their dirt villages, which are yet seen
along that river, though at this time mostly overgrown with grass. At
what time they separated from the parent stock is not now correctly
known, though some of their locations appear to have been of very
ancient date, at least previous to the commencement of the fur trade on
the Upper Missouri. At the time when the old French and Spanish traders
began their dealings with the Indians of the Upper Missouri, the
Arikara village was situated a little above the mouth of Grand River,
since which time they have made several removals and are now located at
Fort Clark, the former village of the Mandans." (Hayden, (1), pp.
351-352.)
The beginning of the last century found the Arikara living in three
villages, all on the right bank of the Missouri. In the journal of the
French trader Le Raye are brief references to the villages, together
with some notes on the manners and customs of the inhabitants. April 22,
1802, he wrote: "The _Ricaras_ or _Rus_ have three villages, situated on
the south bank of the Missouri, in the great bend of the river. The
lower village is on a large bottom covered with cotton wood, and
contains about fifty huts." He then describes the manner in which the
earth-covered lodges were built and refers to the structures being
"placed with great regularity," a statement which does not seem to have
been borne out by later writers. Continuing, he said: "The town is
picketed with pickets twelve feet high and set very close, to prevent
firing between them. There is one gate way, which is shut at night." On
May 27, 1802, he left the lower village, "crossed Missouri, and arrived
the same evening at the upper village. This village is situated on an
Island in the Missouri, and is fortified in the same manner as the lower
village, containing about sixty huts.... The next morning we proceeded,
and soon left the Missouri, travelling a northwest course, in a well
beaten path." (Le Raye, (1), pp. 171-180.)
Although the preceding notes may not be very accurate, nevertheless they
are of interest on account of the period they cover, just before the
transfer of Louisiana to the United States, and two years before the
most important expedition ascended the Missouri.
To trace the sites of early Arikara villages as mentioned by Lewis and
Clark, and as seen by them when the expedition under their command
passed up the Missouri during the early autumn of 1804, is most
interesting. On September 29 of that year they reached the mouth of a
small creek which entered the Missouri from the south, "which we called
Notimber creek from its bare appearance. Above the mouth of this stream,
a Ricara band of Pawnees had a village five years ago: but there are no
remains of it except the mound which encircled the town." This would
have been in the present Stanley County, South Dakota. Two days later,
on October 1, they "passed a large island in the middle of the river,
opposite the lower end of which the Ricaras once had a village on the
south side of the river: there are, however, no remnants of it now,
except a circular wall three or four feet in height, which encompassed
the town." Two miles beyond was the mouth of the Cheyenne River.
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 77 PLATE 52
[Illustration: _a._ Arikara carrying basket. (U.S.N.M. 8430)]
[Illustration: _b._ Wooden mortar. "Witchata Inds. Dr. E. Palmer."
Height of body 13-1/2 inches. (U.S.N.M. 6899)]
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 77 PLATE 53
[Illustration: "RICCAREE VILLAGE"
George Catlin]
On the third day after passing the mouth of the Cheyenne they reached
"Teal creek," and "A little above this is an island on the north side of
the current, about one and a half mile in length and three quarters of a
mile in breadth. In the centre of this island is an old village of the
Ricaras, called Lahoocat; it was surrounded by a circular wall,
containing seventeen lodges. The Ricaras are known to have lived there
in 1797, and the village seems to have been deserted about five years
since: it does not contain much timber."
On October 6, two days' travel beyond Teal Creek, and at a distance of
about 32 miles above it, "We halted for dinner at a village which we
suppose to have belonged to the Ricaras: it is situated in a low plain
on the river, and consists of about eighty lodges, of an octagonal form,
neatly covered with earth, and placed as close to each other as
possible, and picketed round. The skin canoes, mats, buckets, and
articles of furniture found in the lodges, induce us to suppose that it
had been left in the spring. We found three different sorts of squashes
growing in the village; we also killed an elk near it, and saw two
wolves." On the following day, after advancing about 4 or 5 miles, they
encountered "another village or wintering camp of the Ricaras, composed
of about sixty lodges, built in the same form as those passed yesterday,
with willow and straw mats, baskets, buffalo-skin canoes, remaining
entire in the camp."
The baskets may have included many similar to two rare examples now in
the National Museum, Washington, one of which is shown in plate 52, _a_
(U.S.N.M. 8430).
On October 9, 1804, after passing the mouth of the river called by them
the Wetawhoo or Wetarko, soon to be known as Grand River, which flows
into the Missouri from the west in the present Corson County, South
Dakota, the expedition stopped and held a council with the Indians.
There they remained until October 11, when "At one o'clock we left our
camp with the grand chief and his nephew on board, and at about two
miles anchored below a creek on the south, separating the second and
third village of the Ricaras, which are about half a mile distant from
each other.... These two villages are placed near each other in a high
smooth prairie; a fine situation, except that having no wood the
inhabitants are obliged to go for it across the river to a timbered
lowland opposite to them."