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
pipe, with a bowl cut out of some red stone, went round briskly, and the
time that was employed in distributing the meat intended for the meal I
spent in taking a good view of the Indian dwelling. Sixteen long poles,
made of slender pine trees, were so placed as to form a circle of
sixteen or eighteen feet in diameter, their tops being bent over and
fastened together. Around this framework was thrown, like a mantle, the
tent leather, consisting of a great number of buffalo-hides, tanned
white, and neatly sewed together for the purpose with sinews. The
leather did not reach quite to the top, but left an opening, by which
the smoke could escape; but there were two prolongations of the tent
leather, something like flags, which were supported by particular poles,
so as, in stormy weather or contrary winds, to form a very tolerable
chimney. The tent was fixed so firmly to the ground with pegs that the
tightly stretched sides would admit neither the rain nor the snow, when
it melted from the heat of the fire; and the inhabitants had not only a
secure refuge, but a tolerably comfortable dwelling. The various
possessions of the Indians were hung round on the tent poles, where they
only took up room that could easily be dispensed with, and kept out the
cold that could have most readily found an entrance at those places. On
the space round the fire, buffalo-hides were spread for beds at night,
and when rolled up in the day made convenient seats; the fire, in a kind
of pit half a foot deep, and two and a half in diameter, was a mass of
glowing embers, with a number of logs blazing on the top, and diffused a
most pleasant warmth over the small space. Near the fire a branch of a
tree was stuck into the ground, and another placed horizontally across
it, and running the whole breadth of the tent, from which hung the most
indispensable of household utensils in the form of a great kettle,
whilst the rest of the pole was covered with wet and torn mocassins and
gaiters, in a manner that was certainly more convenient than
ornamental.... Besides the wild half-naked forms of the Indians, a
number of dogs, young and old, made part of the company assembled in
Wa-ki-ta-mo-nee's tent. The attention of the mistress of the family, a
very dirty old squaw, was exclusively devoted to the vast kettle and its
bubbling contents; a row of roughly-cut wooden platters stood before
her, and by means of a pointed stick she fished up from the cauldron
large joints of bear and half turkeys, and loaded each of the platters
with a huge portion of the savoury smelling food." (Möllhausen, (1), I,
pp. 171-175.) The second tent, so he wrote, "was more spacious" than the
one which he had entered, and described. This is an interesting
description of a small winter camp of the Oto as it stood in the midst
of the snow-covered prairie, near a stream "whose waters were hidden
beneath a thick covering of ice." The scene could undoubtedly have been
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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