Villages of the Algonquian, Siouan, and Caddoan tribes west of the Mississippi / by David I. Bushnell, jr.
- David I. Bushnell
- Date:
- 1922
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Villages of the Algonquian, Siouan, and Caddoan tribes west of the Mississippi / by David I. Bushnell, jr. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![people. On these poles, skins are laid, at the height of twelve or fifteen feet, thus forming a spacious court, or tent. The provisions consist both of dried and of fresh meat, as it would not be practicable to iDrepare a sufficient quantity of fresh meat, for such a multitude, which, however, consists only of men. At these feasts, the guests converse only on elevated topics, such as the public interests of the tribe, and the noble exploits of their progenitors, that they may infuse a publick and an heroic spirit, into their young men. Dancing always forms the concluding ceremony, at these festivals; and the women, who are not permitted to enter the place where they are cele¬ brated, dance and sing around them, often keeping time with the music within.” (Harmon, (1), p. 362*.) It is to be regretted that these early accounts are often so lacking in detail, and that so much is left to imagination. In this instance the form of the large struc¬ ture was not mentioned, but it was probably extended, resembling to some degree the Mide lodge of the Ojibway. Among the latter the large ceremonial lodge was covered with mats, sheets of bark, or sometimes wdth skins or boughs of pine or spruce. Like customs may have prevailed among the Cree. Proving the wandering, roving dispositon of the Cree, and the con¬ sequent lack of permanent villages, Maximilian wrote from Fort Union, at the mouth of the Yellowstone, during the latter part of June, 1833: “ The Crees live in the same territory as the Assiniboins, that is, between the Saskatschawan, the Assiniboin, and the Mis¬ souri. They ramble about in small bands with the others, are poor, have many dogs, which carry their baggage, but only a few horses. They live, like the Assiniboins, in leather tents, follow the herds of buffaloes, of which they sometimes kill great numbers in their parks. The Crees are reckoned at 600 or 800 tents.” (Maximilian, (1), pp. 199-200.) The dog travois, such as was used by the Cree and mentioned in the preceding account, was of very ancient origin, having been seen and described by the first Spanish explorers to traverse the prairie lands of the Southwest. In Relacion Postrera de Pivola^ prepared in the year 1541, appears this interesting note: “These people have dogs like those in this country, except that they are somewhat larger, and they load these dogs like beasts of burden, and make saddles for them like our pack saddles, and they fasten them with their leather thongs, and these make their backs sore on the withers like pack animals. When they go hunting, they load these with their necessities, and when they move—for these In¬ dians are not settled in one place, since they travel wherever the cows fbiiffalo] move, to support themselves—these dogs carry their houses, and they have the sticks of their houses dragging along tied on to](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b29828685_0049.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
