The moving about over the vast rolling prairies of the people of an entire village, while on their distant hunts, covering many hundreds of miles, and carrying with them practically all of their belongings, with innumerable dogs and horses, stopping now to kill the buffalo and again pushing on in quest of more, constituted one of the most interesting and characteristic phases of primitive life on the prairies. But within a few decades all has changed, and now many towns and villages occupy the region once traversed by the roving bands. ARIKARA. When or where the Arikara separated from their kindred tribe, the Pawnee, may never be determined, but during the years which followed the separation they continued moving northward, leaving ruined villages to mark the line of their migration. Sixty years ago it was said: "That they migrated upward, along the Missouri, from their friends below is established by the remains of their dirt villages, which are yet seen along that river, though at this time mostly overgrown with grass. At what time they separated from the parent stock is not now correctly known, though some of their locations appear to have been of very ancient date, at least previous to the commencement of the fur trade on the Upper Missouri. At the time when the old French and Spanish traders began their dealings with the Indians of the Upper Missouri, the Arikara village was situated a little above the mouth of Grand River, since which time they have made several removals and are now located at Fort Clark, the former village of the Mandans." (Hayden, (1), pp. 351-352.) The beginning of the last century found the Arikara living in three villages, all on the right bank of the Missouri. In the journal of the French trader Le Raye are brief references to the villages, together with some notes on the manners and customs of the inhabitants. April 22, 1802, he wrote: "The _Ricaras_ or _Rus_ have three villages, situated on the south bank of the Missouri, in the great bend of the river. The lower village is on a large bottom covered with cotton wood, and contains about fifty huts." He then describes the manner in which the earth-covered lodges were built and refers to the structures being "placed with great regularity," a statement which does not seem to have been borne out by later writers. Continuing, he said: "The town is picketed with pickets twelve feet high and set very close, to prevent firing between them. There is one gate way, which is shut at night." On May 27, 1802, he left the lower village, "crossed Missouri, and arrived the same evening at the upper village. This village is situated on an Island in the Missouri, and is fortified in the same manner as the lower village, containing about sixty huts.... The next morning we proceeded, and soon left the Missouri, travelling a northwest course, in a well beaten path." (Le Raye, (1), pp. 171-180.)