North American Indians of the plains / by Clark Wissler.

  • Clark Wissler
Date:
1912
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: North American Indians of the plains / by Clark Wissler. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    that its positive absence among the extreme western and northern tribes is due to unfavorable soil and climate rather than to any mental or social differences in the tribes concerned. This is consistent with the wide distribution of tobacco raising. The Blackfoot, Crow, Hidatsa, Mandan, Arikara, Pawnee, and Santee- Dakota are known to have cultivated it for ceremonial purposes. So far as known this plant was Nicotiana multivalvis, said to be a native of Oregon and to have been cultivated by tribes in the Columbia River valley. The fact that the Blackfoot and Crow did not attempt any other agriculture except the raising of this tobacco rather strengthens the previous opinion that maize was not produced because of the unfavorable conditions. Among the tribes of the Plateau area, wild seeds and grains were gathered and so took the place of maize in the east. On the other hand, the northern and southern groups depended mostly upon dried berries and edible roots which however, were a relatively small part of their diet, buffalo flesh being the impor¬ tant food. This was particularly true of the nine typical tribes. With these tribes, the buffalo was not only food: but his by-products, such as skin, bones, hair, horns, and sinew, were the chief materials for costume, tents, and utensils of all kinds. Transportation. Before the introduction of the horse, the Plains Indians traveled on foot. ' The tribes living along the
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