on that date in the narrative appears an interesting account of the then
recent migrations of the tribe: "They were originally colonies of
Pawnees, who established themselves on the Missouri, below Chayenne,
where the traders still remember that twenty years ago they occupied a
number of villages. From that situation a part of the Ricaras emigrated
to the neighborhood of the Mandans, with whom they were then in
alliance. The rest of the nation continued near the Chayenne till the
year 1797, in the course of which, distressed by their wars with the
Sioux, they joined their countrymen near the Mandans. Soon after a new
war arose between the Ricaras and the Mandans, in consequence of which
the former came down the river to their present position. In this
migration those who had first gone to the Mandans kept together, and now
live in the two lower villages, which may be considered as the Ricaras
proper. The third village was composed of such remnants of the villages
as had survived the wars, and as these were nine in number a difference
of pronunciation and some difference of language may be observed between
them and the Ricaras proper, who do not understand all the words of
these wanderers. The villages are within the distance of four miles of
each other, the two lower ones consist of between one hundred and fifty
and two hundred men each, the third of three hundred." (Lewis and Clark,
(1), I, pp. 92-104.) Following this, on page 106, is a brief description
of the earth-covered lodges of the Arikara, which were of "a circular or
octagonal form, and generally about thirty or forty feet in diameter,"
but a rather better description was prepared by one of the members of
the expedition, Patrick Gass, who wrote on October 10: "This day I went
with some of the men to the lodges, about 60 in number. The following is
a description of the form of these lodges and the manner of building
them.
"In a circle of a size suited to the dimensions of the intended lodge
they set up 16 forked posts five or six feet high, and lay poles from
one fork to another. Against these poles they lean other poles, slanting
from the ground, and extending about four inches above the cross poles;
these are to receive the ends of the upper poles that support the roof.
They next set up four large forks, fifteen feet high, and about ten feet
apart, in the middle of the area; and poles or beams between these. The
roof poles are then laid on extending from the lower poles across the
beams which rest on the middle forks, of such a length as to leave a
hole at the top for a chimney. The whole is then covered with willow
branches, except the chimney and a hole below to pass through. On the
willow branches they lay grass and lastly clay. At the hole below they
build a pen about four feet wide and projecting ten feet from the hut;
and hang a buffalo skin at the entrance of the hut for a door. This
labour like every other kind is chiefly performed by the squaws. They
raise corn, beans and tobacco." (Gass, (1), p. 52.) And five days later
Gass entered in his journal: "At 7 we saw a hunting party of the
Rickarees, on their way down to the villages. They had 12 buffalo-skin
canoes or boats laden with meat and skins; beside some horses that were
going down the bank by land. They gave us a part of their meat. The
party consisted of men, women, and children." (Op. cit., p. 54.)
Two years later, on the return of the expedition, they again passed the
villages of the Arikara, arriving opposite the upper village August 21,
1806, at which time there was an exchange of salutes of four guns each.
In 1812 Cutler wrote regarding the Arikara: "They live in fortified
villages, claim no land, except that on which their villages stand, and
the fields they improve." (Cutler, (1), p. 125.)
It is quite evident, from the preceding references as well as from the
observations of later travelers, that the Arikara villages were usually,
if not always, surrounded by palisades. But to have surrounded the area
occupied by the lodges by stout posts placed close together would have
required some time and, with the primitive implements and methods of
collecting the necessary number of timbers, would have been a laborious
undertaking. However, they appear to have had another way of protecting
their towns. This was told by a French trader who was at the Arikara
village in 1795. During the early part of June of that year several
Indians arrived among the Arikara and told that three Sioux villages
"had assembled and formed an army of five hundred warriors, intending to
attack the village of the Ricaras." Fearing this attack, the narrative
continues: "The Ricaras have fortified their village by placing
palisades five feet high which they have reinforced with earth. The fort
is constructed in the following manner: All around their village they
drive into the ground heavy forked stakes, standing from four to five
feet high and from fifteen to twenty feet apart. Upon these are placed
cross-pieces as thick as one's thigh; next they place poles of willow or
cottonwood, as thick as one's leg, resting on the cross-pieces and very
close together. Against these poles which are five feet high they pile
fascines of brush which they cover with an embankment of earth two feet
thick; in this way, the height of the poles would prevent the scaling of
the fort by the enemy, while the well-packed earth protects those within
from their balls and arrows." (Trudeau, (1), pp. 454-455.) Undoubtedly
many embankments found east of the Mississippi owe their origin to this
method of protecting the villages which they once surrounded.
The most interesting and comprehensible accounts of the Arikara villages
were prepared during the month of June, 1811. Two travelers that spring
ascended the Missouri with rival parties of traders, but they were
acquainted and again met on the upper Missouri on June 3. Brackenridge
arrived at the village on June 12, and wrote:
"The village appeared to occupy about three quarters of a mile along the
river bank, on a level plain, the country behind it rising into hills of
considerable height. There are little or no woods anywhere to be seen.
The lodges are of a conical shape, and look like heaps of earth. A great
number of horses are seen feeding in the plains around, and on the sides
of the hills. I espied a number of squaws, in canoes, descending the
river and landing at the village. The interpreter informed me, that they
were returning home with wood. These canoes are made of a single buffalo
hide, stretched over osiers, and are of a circular form. There was but
one woman in each canoe, who kneeled down, and instead of paddling
sideways, placed the paddle before; the load is fastened to the
canoe.... About two o'clock fourteen of us crossed over, and accompanied
the chief to his lodge. Mats were laid around for us to sit on, while he
placed himself on a kind of stool or bench. The pipe was handed around,
and smoked; after which, the herald, (every chief or great man, has one
of them) ascended the top of the lodge and seated himself near an open
place, and began to bawl out like one of our town criers; the chief
every now and then addressing something to him through the aperture
before mentioned. We soon discovered the object of this, by the arrival
of the other chiefs, who seemed to drop in, one after the other, as
their names were called.
"When all were seated, the pipe was handed to the chief, who began as is
usual on solemn occasions, by blowing a whiff upwards as it were to the
sky, then to the earth, and after to the east and west, after which the
pipe was sent round. A mark of respect in handing the pipe to another,
is to hold it until the person has taken several whiffs." (Brackenridge,
(1), pp. 245-246.)
Bradbury, who was also present at the gathering on June 12, entered in
his journal:
"I quitted the feast, in order to examine the town, which I found to be
fortified all round with a ditch, and with pickets or pallisadoes, of
about nine feet high. The lodges are placed without any regard to
regularity, which renders it difficult to count them, but there appears
to be from 150 to 160, and they are constructed in the same manner as
those of the Ottoes, with the additional convenience of a railing on the
eaves: behind this railing they sit at their ease and smoke. There is
scarcely any declivity in the scite of the town, and as little regard is
paid to cleanliness, it is very dirty in wet weather." (Bradbury, (1),
pp. 114-115.) Later he wrote (pp. 165-166): "I am not acquainted with
any customs peculiar to this nation, save that of having a sacred lodge
in the centre of the largest village. This is called the _Medicine
lodge_, and in one particular, corresponds with the sanctuary of the
Jews, as no blood is on any account whatsoever to be spilled within it,
not even that of an enemy; nor is any one, having taken refuge there,
to be forced from it. This lodge is also the general place of deposit
for such things as they devote to the _Father of Life_."
On the following day, June 13, 1811, Brackenridge "rambled through the
village," which he found "excessively filthy," with innumerable dogs
running about. Then he proceeded to describe the habitations: "The
lodges are constructed in the following manner: Four large forks of
about fifteen feet in height, are placed in the ground, usually about
twenty feet from each other, with hewn logs, or beams across; from these
beams, other pieces of wood are placed slanting; smaller pieces are
placed above, leaving an aperture at the top, to admit the light, and to
give vent to the smoke. These upright pieces are interwoven with osiers,
after which, the whole is covered with earth, though not sodded. An
opening is left at one side, for a door, which is secured by a kind of
projection of ten or twelve feet, enclosed on all sides, and forming a
narrow entrance, which might be easily defended. A buffalo robe
suspended at the entrance, answers as a door. The fire is made in a hole
in the ground, directly under the aperture at the top. Their beds
elevated a few feet, are placed around the lodge, and enclosed with
curtains of dressed elk skins. At the upper end of the lodge, there is a
kind of trophy erected; two buffalo heads, fantastically painted, are
placed on a little elevation; over them are placed, a variety of
consecrated things, such as shields, skins of a rare or valuable kind,
and quivers of arrows. The lodges seem placed at random, without any
regularity or design, and are so much alike, that it was for some time
before I could learn to return to the same one. The village is
surrounded by a palisade of cedar poles, but in a very bad state. Around
the village, there are little plats enclosed by stakes, intwined with
osiers, in which they cultivate maize, tobacco, and beans; but their
principal field is at the distance of a mile from the village, to which,
such of the females whose duty it is to attend to their culture, go and
return morning and evening. Around the village they have buffalo robes
stuck up on high poles. I saw one so arranged as to bear a resemblance
to the human figure, the hip bone of the buffaloe represented the head,
the sockets of the thigh bones looked like eyes." (Op. cit., pp.
247-248.)
On June 14 they walked together to the upper of the two villages, which
were separated by a narrow stream. They entered several lodges and were
always pleasantly received by the occupants and offered food, which
included fresh buffalo meat served in wooden dishes or bowls, and
"homony made of corn dried in the milk, mixed with beans, which was
prepared with buffalo marrow." This latter, according to Bradbury, was
"warmed on the fire in an earthen vessel of their own manufacture."
Later, when he returned to the same village, he wrote (p. 158): "I
noticed over their fires much larger vessels of earthenware than any I
had before seen, and was permitted to examine them. They were
sufficiently hardened by the fire to cause them to emit a sonorous tone
on being struck, and in all I observed impressions on the outside
seemingly made by wicker work. This led me to enquire of them by signs
how they were made? when a squaw brought a basket, and taking some clay,
she began to spread it very evenly within it, shewing me at the same
time that they were made in that way. From the shape of these vessels,
they must be under the necessity of burning the basket to disengage
them, as they are wider at the bottom than at the top. I must here
remark, that at the Great Salt Lick, or Saline, about twenty miles from
the mouth of the Wabash, vast quantities of Indian earthenware are
found, on which I have observed impressions exactly similar to those
here mentioned. From the situation of these heaps of fragments, and
their proximity to the salt works, I am decidedly of opinion that the
Indians practised the art of evaporating the brine, to make salt, before
the discovery of America."
It was the custom of the people of the village to gather in the evenings
on the tops of their lodges, there to sit and converse, and "every now
and then the attention of all was attracted by some old men who rose up
and declaimed aloud, so as to be heard over the whole village." Within
the village women were often seen busily engaged in dressing buffalo
robes, stretched on frames near the lodges. Men, playing at various
games, or sitting in groups smoking and talking; children and dogs
innumerable. Such was the appearance of an Arikara village a little more
than a century ago.
On the 18th of June Bradbury visited the bluffs southwest of the village
and on one discovered 14 buffalo skulls placed in a row, and in
describing them said: "The cavities of the eyes and the nostrils were
filled with a species of _artemisia_ common on the prairies, which
appears to be a non-descript. On my return I caused our interpreter to
enquire into the reason for this, and found that it was an honour
conferred on the buffaloes which they had killed, in order to appease
their spirits, and prevent them from apprising the living buffaloes of
the danger they run in approaching the neighbourhood." (Op. cit., p.
125.)
An interesting observation was made at this time by Brackenridge
concerning a temporary encampment of a small party of Arikara when away
from their permanent, well-protected villages. He said (Op. cit., pp.
254-255): "To avoid surprise, they always encamp at the edge of a wood;
and when the party is small, they construct a kind of fortress, with
wonderful expedition, of billets of wood, apparently piled up in a
careless manner, but so arranged as to be very strong, and are able to
withstand an assault from a much superior force." Many such inclosures
were discovered and mentioned by the early explorers of the Upper
Missouri Valley, and several instances have been cited on the preceding
pages when treating of the Siouan tribes.
In 1832 Catlin went up the Missouri, and when he arrived at the Arikara
village he made a sketch of the town as it appeared from the deck of the
steamboat. The original painting is now in the National Museum,
Washington, and is reproduced in plate 53. This was engraved and
presented as plate 80 in his narrative. Writing of this sketch he
remarked: "Plate 80, gives a view of the Riccaree village, which is
beautifully situated on the west bank of the river, 200 miles below the
Mandans; and built very much in the same manner; being constituted of
150 earth-covered lodges, which are in part surrounded by an imperfect
and open barrier of piquets set firmly in the ground, and of ten or
twelve feet in height. This village is built upon an open prairie, and
the gracefully undulating hills that rise in distance behind it are
everywhere covered with a verdant green turf, without a tree or a bush
anywhere to be seen. This view was taken from the deck of the steamer
when I was on my way up the river." (Catlin, (1), I, p. 204.) At this
time the Arikara were very hostile to all the traders who passed and
repassed along the Missouri. They had attacked many canoes and caused
the death of their occupants. Fearing the outcome of their actions they
soon left the banks of the Missouri and moved westward. One year after
Catlin passed the villages Maximilian arrived there while on his way to
the far upper waters of the Missouri. On June 12, 1833, Maximilian
wrote: "Moreau's River ... is called the southern boundary of the
territory of the Arikkaras, though they often make excursions far beyond
it.... On the morning of the 12th our cannon, muskets and rifles were
loaded with ball, because we were approaching the village of the hostile
Arikkaras. We came to Grand River, called in Lewis and Clarke's map
Wetarko River. As we here touched the bottom, we crossed to the east
bank, and in half an hour reached Rampart River, which issues from a
narrow chain of hills, called Les Remparts; and soon afterwards an
island covered with willows, which, on the large special map of Lewis
and Clarke, has an Arikkara village, of which there are now no traces.
From the hills we had a fine prospect over the bend of the river, on
which the villages of the Arikkaras are situated, and which we reached
after a short run of only two miles. The two villages of this tribe are
on the west bank, very near each other, but separated by a small stream.
They consist of a great number of clay huts, round at the top, with a
square entrance in front, and the whole surrounded with a fence of
stakes, which were much decayed, and in many places thrown down. It was
not quite a year since these villages had been wholly abandoned, because
their inhabitants, who were extremely hostile to the Whites, killed so
many Americans, that they themselves foresaw that they would be severely
chastised by the United States, and therefore preferred to emigrate. To
this cause was added, a dry, unproductive season, when the crops
entirely failed; as well as the absence of the herds of buffaloes, which
hastened their removal.... The principal chief of the Arikkaras, when
they retired from the Missouri, was called Starapat (the little hawk,
with bloody claws)." (Maximilian, (1), pp. 166-167.) The Arikara at this
time appear to have left the banks of the Missouri and removed to the
vicinity of the Pawnee.
Fort Clark, on the upper Missouri, at the villages of the Mandan and
Hidatsa, was erected by the American Fur Company during the year 1829.
In 1837 the Mandans suffered from the dreaded smallpox, losing more than
90 per cent of their number, and the few who survived abandoned their
large village below Fort Clark and settled a short distance above. And,
so wrote Hayden in 1855, "About the time that the Mandans left the lower
village, the Arikaras came and took possession, the former readily
consenting to this arrangement, because it placed a large body of
strangers between them and the Dakotas, with whom, in their now feeble
state, they were unable to contend." (Hayden, (1), p. 434.)
A brief description of the Arikara village as it appeared early in June,
1850, is to be found in Culbertson's journal. On the 12th of that month
the steamboat, ascending the Missouri, reached Fort Clark, "a small
fort, about one hundred feet in length on each side." Just above the
fort was the village of the Arikara. "The village is composed of two
hundred lodges, as near as I could learn from the interpreter, and is
built upon the top of a bluff bank rising about seventy-five feet
perpendicular from the water. The huts are placed very irregularly,
sometimes with very narrow, and sometimes with quite broad spaces
between them. A number of platforms of poles, as high as the lodges
themselves, are interspersed among them for the convenience of drying
meat and dressing robes. I noticed a number of squaws busily employed in
dressing robes." (Culbertson, (1), p. 117.) The typical earth lodge is
described, one similar to those mentioned on other pages of this sketch,
but his account of the interior of a habitation is most interesting. He,
with others, stopped at a large lodge, when, so he wrote: "We were
conducted to the place of honor, opposite to and facing the door. To our
right, along the wall, were arranged several bedsteads, rudely made,
while to the left, a part was cut off by a couple of poles, for the
accommodation of the horses; the chickens had a coop in one corner, but
roam at large on most occasions, and the centre is used for a fireplace.
The lodge was clean, airy, light and comfortable, and there was plenty
of room for more than those, who I suppose, inhabit it. Behind us were
hung bows with spears on the ends, and two rude instruments of music,
made of a number of pumpkins.... Near the fireplace a small wooden
mortar was sunk in the ground, for pounding corn. The large and high
room appeared rather scarce of furniture." Many burials were encountered
when passing between the village and Fort Clark, and there "were little
patches of corn and pumpkins, generally enclosed by a slight bush
fence," these probably being the gardens belonging to the people of the
near-by town. The mortar, "sunk in the ground," as mentioned by
Culbertson, was evidently similar to the example shown in plate 52, _b_,
a form which was indicated by Bodmer in his sketch of the interior of a
Mandan lodge, plate 40.
It will be recalled that the village mentioned in the preceding notes
was the home of the Mandan during the memorable winter of 1804-05, when
the expedition of Lewis and Clark encamped a few miles below, and there
the Mandan continued to dwell until after the epidemic of 1837.
In later years the three tribes, Arikara, Hidatsa, and Mandan, were
closely associated, living in the vicinity of Fort Berthold, on the left
bank of the Missouri and about 60 miles above Fort Clark, the Arikara
having arrived at Fort Berthold, during the month of August, 1862.
Evidently their ways of life and customs were quite similar, and
Matthews, in his work on the Hidatsa in particular, but in which he
treats of the three tribes in general, said: "For cleaning the
village-grounds, they had rakes made of a few osiers tied together, the
ends curved and spreading. Their most important agricultural implement
was the hoe. Before they obtained iron utensils of the white traders,
their only hoes were made of the shoulder-blades of elk or buffalo,
attached to wooden handles of suitable length ... as late as 1867, I saw
a great number in use at Fort Berthold, and purchased two or three, one
of which was sent to Washington, and, I presume, is now on exhibition in
the museum of the Smithsonian Institution." (Matthews, (1), p. 19.)
Several rakes of this description are in the collection of the National
Museum, Washington. One, bearing the legend "Arickaree," which was
obtained at Fort Berthold, is shown in plate 54, _a_ (U.S.N.M. 6353). It
measures 4 feet 10 inches in length and is formed of six pieces bound
together. It is also of great interest to know that the hoe which was
sent by Dr. Matthews to the museum is perfectly preserved. It is here
reproduced in plate 54, _b_ (U.S.N.M. 6326). Written on it is this
legend: "Ree Indians. Ft Berthold Dacotah Ter. Drs Gray and Matthews."
The length of the scapula, that of a buffalo, is about 14 inches. Both
handle and blade are worn smooth from use. The specimen is one of much
importance.
It will be recalled that Bradbury in 1811 referred to the "medicine
lodge," then standing in the center of the large Arikara village.
Matthews, more than 60 years later, mentioned a similar structure then
standing at the village near Fort Berthold, and said concerning it: "The
medicine-lodge of the Arickarees is larger than that of the Mandans, and
is used for a greater variety of ceremonies. Some of these performances,
consisting of ingenious tricks of jugglery and dances, representative of
various hunts, we might be inclined to call theatrical rather than
religious. Probably these Indians consider them both worshipful and
entertaining. It is often hard to tell how much of a religious ceremony
is intended to propitiate the unknown powers, and how much to please the
spectators." (Matthews, (1), p. 10.)
From the various quotations given on the preceding pages it is possible
to form a good idea of the appearance of an ancient Arikara village. A
large number of earth-covered lodges, of varying sizes, were placed
without order but rather close together, often with a "medicine lodge"
in the center of the group. All were surrounded by a palisade, often
reared in connection with a ditch and embankment. The village at Fort
Berthold was thus protected until the winter of 1865, at which time the
stockade was cut down and used as fuel, and it was never replaced.
As late as 1872 there were 43 earth-covered lodges standing at the
Arikara village near Fort Berthold, together with 28 log cabins.
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 77 PLATE 54
[Illustration: _a._ Rake marked "Arickaree." Collected at Fort Berthold.
Length 4 feet 10 inches. (U.S.N.M. 6353)]
[Illustration: _b._ Agricultural implement formed of a scapula of a
buffalo attached to a wooden handle. Marked "Ree Indians. Ft. Berthold,
Dacotah Ter. Drs. Gray and Matthews." Length of scapula about 14 inches.
(U.S.N.M. 6326)]
[Illustration: _c._ Parfleche box. "Crows, Montana Ter. J. I. Allen."
Length 28 inches, width 13-1/2 inches. (U.S.N.M. 130574)]
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 77 PLATE 55