The Myths of the North American IndiansSpence, Lewis
History
The Myths of the North American Indians
Spence, Lewis
Indian mythology -- North America; Indians of North America -- Folklore
"By Act of Congress, Ma-con-a-qua, the Indian title of Frances Slocum,
was granted one mile square of the reservation which was appointed to
the Indians of Indiana, west of the Mississippi--to be held by herself
during her life, and to revert to her heirs forever. She died March
9th, 1847, and was given Christian burial {45} in a beautiful spot
where the romantic waters of the Missisinewa and Wabash rivers join
their ripples on the way to the sea.
"The story of the captive girl of Wyoming has been breathed around the
hearths of the entire Christian world as one of the most fruitful in
romance and song."
Dwellings
The habitations of the Indians of North America may be classed as
community houses (using the term 'community' in the sense of comprising
more than one family) and single or family dwellings. "The house
architecture of the northern tribes is of little importance, in itself
considered; but as an outcome of their social condition, and for
comparison with that of the southern village Indians, is highly
important. The typical community houses, as those of the Iroquois
tribes, were 50 to 100 feet long by 16 to 18 wide, with frame of poles,
and with sides and triangular roof covered with bark, usually of the
elm. The interior was divided into compartments, and a smoke-hole was
left in the roof. A Mohican house, similar in form, 14 by 60 feet, had
the sides and roof made of rushes and chestnut bark, with an opening
along the top of the roof from end to end. The Mandan circular
community house was usually about 14 feet in diameter. It was
supported by two series of posts and cross-beams, and the wide roof and
sloping sides were covered with willow or brush matting and earth. The
fireplace was in the centre. Morgan thinks that the oblong, round-roof
houses of the Virginia and North Carolina tribes, seen and described by
Captain John Smith and drawn by John White, were of the community
order. That some of them housed a number of families is distinctly
{46} stated. Morgan includes also in the community class the circular,
dome-shaped earth lodges of Sacramento Valley and the L-form,
tent-shaped, thatched lodges of the higher areas of California; but the
leading examples of community houses are the large, sometimes massive,
many-celled clusters of stone or adobe in New Mexico and Arizona known
as _pueblos_. These dwellings vary in form, some of those built in
prehistoric times being semicircular, others oblong, around or
enclosing a court or _plaza_. These buildings were constructed usually
in terrace form, the lower having a one-story tier of apartments, the
next two stories, and so on to the uppermost tier, which sometimes
constituted a seventh story. The masonry consisted usually of small
flat stones laid in adobe mortar and chinked with spalls; but sometimes
large balls of adobe were used as building stones, or a double row of
wattling was erected and filled in with grout, solidly tamped. By the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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