Villages of the Algonquian, Siouan, and Caddoan Tribes West of the MississippiBushnell, David I. (David Ives)
History
Villages of the Algonquian, Siouan, and Caddoan Tribes West of the Mississippi
Bushnell, David I. (David Ives)
Algonquian Indians; Caddoan Indians; Indians of North America -- Dwellings; Siouan Indians
small hole is left for the smoke to escape; across the rafters small
pieces of timber are laid; over these, sticks and a covering of sods,
and lastly earth. The fire is made in the middle of the central space,
round the edges of which they sit, and the beds are fixed between the
outer posts. The door is placed at the immediate entrance into the
lodge; it is made of a buffalo skin, stretched in a frame of wood, and
is suspended from the top. On entering, it swings forward, and when let
go, it falls to its former position." (Bradbury, (1), pp. 56-57.)
It is to be regretted that Bradbury did not give a more detailed account
of the general appearance of the village; that he did not tell of the
placing of the lodges, and of the other structures, if any stood within
the village. But this large group of earth-covered lodges undoubtedly
resembled the village of the Republican Pawnee, as shown in the
photograph made by Jackson more than half a century later.
In the narrative of the Long expedition, during the spring of 1820, more
than a century ago, is a brief note on the Oto. It reads: "The Oto
nation of Indians is distinguished by the name of _Wah-toh-ta-na_. The
permanent village of this nation is composed of large dirt lodges,
similar to those of the Konzas and Omawhaws, and is situate on the left
bank of the river Platte, or Nebreska, about forty miles above it
confluence with the Missouri." (James, (1), I, p. 338.) On the map which
accompanies the narrative the village is indicated on the south or right
bank of the Platte, in the eastern part of the present Saunders County,
Nebraska. Continuing, the journal states (p. 342): "The hunting grounds
of the Oto nation, extend from the Little Platte up to the Boyer creek,
on the north side of the Missouri, and from Independence creek to about
forty miles above the Platte, on the south side of that river. They hunt
the bison, between the Platte and the sources of the Konzas rivers."
Thus their hunting grounds included one of the richest and most fertile
sections of the valley of the Missouri, now occupied by many towns and
villages.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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