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
"Our visit to this village seemed to excite no great degree of
attention. Among the crowd, who surrounded us before we entered the
village, we observed several young squaws rather gaily dressed, being
wrapped in clean and new blankets, and having their heads ornamented
with wreaths of gnaphalium and the silvery leaves of the prosalea
canescens. On the tops of the lodges we also saw some display of finery,
which we supposed to have been made on account of our visit. Flags were
hoisted, shields, and bows, and quivers, were suspended in conspicuous
places, scalps were hung out; in short, the people appeared to have
exposed whatever they possessed, in the exhibition of which, they could
find any gratification of the vanity. Aside from this, we received no
distinguished marks of attention from the Grand Pawnees." (James, (1),
I, pp. 427-437.)
The camp of the expedition was a little more than a mile from the
village of the Grand Pawnee, and the intervening prairie must have
presented an animated sight, being "covered with great numbers of
horses, intermixed with men, women, and children." Nearer the village
were groups of squaws "busily engaged in dressing the skins of the bison
for robes." During the afternoon many Indians arrived at the camp, men
wishing to trade horses, the women endeavoring to trade various
articles. And on the following morning, June 11, 1820, many groups of
women were seen leaving the village, accompanied by their dogs, bound
for their fields of corn situated a few miles away.
The expedition next arrived at the village of the Republican Pawnee, 4
miles from that of the Grand Pawnee. Both villages stood on the
immediate bank of the stream. Remaining there but a short time, they
continued on to the Loup village. Here they encamped during the night of
June 12, leaving early on the following morning. On the morning of the
13th many squaws were again observed making their way to the cornfields,
with their small children. Some stopped to admire the "novel appearance"
of the members of the expedition, many brought various vegetables,
jerked buffalo meat and tallow to exchange for whatever they could
obtain.
"The three Pawnee villages, with their pasture grounds, and
insignificant enclosures, occupy about ten miles in length of the
fertile valley of the Wolf river. The surface is wholly naked of timber,
rising gradually to the river hills, which are broad and low, and from a
mile to a mile and a half distant." (James, (1), I, p. 447.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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