Villages of the Algonquian, Siouan, and Caddoan Tribes West of the Mississippi

by David I. Bushnell

From the preceding account of the movement of a village of the Oglala it is quite apparent they did not advance in the orderly manner followed by the Pawnee, as described by Murray in 1835, but the dreaded illness from which many were then suffering may have caused the rather demoralized condition of the band. The travois as used at that time was similar to the example shown in plate [14], although the latter was in use by the Cheyenne a generation later. But the frame was not always utilized, and often the tipi, folded and rolled, with other possessions of the family, rested upon the poles or upon the back of the horse.

Horses thus laden, and with trailing poles on either side, left a very distinctive trail as they crossed the prairie, and as described: "The trail of the Plain Indians consists usually of three paths, close together, yet at fixed distances apart. They are produced as follows: The framework of their lodges or tents are made of long poles which, on a journey, are tied to each side of a pony, and allowed to trail upon the ground. The result is that a long string of ponies, thus laden and following each other, will wear a triple path—the central one being caused by the tread of the ponies, the two outer by the trailing of the lodge-poles." (Bell, (1), pp. 25-26.) An illustration of a horse so loaded is given on page 26 and is here reproduced as figure [3]. It bears the legend "Sioux Indian Lodges or Tents; one packed for a journey, the other standing," and, although crude, conveys a clear conception of the subject.

Fig. 3.—Horse travois.

To continue the narrative of the Stansbury expedition. The party advanced up the river and pursued their journey to the Great Salt Lake and there wintered. The following year they returned to the east and on September 21, 1850, reached the left bank of the North Fork of the Platte, at a point near the center of the present Carbon County, Wyoming. Describing the site of their encampment that night, near the bank of the Platte: "The place we now occupy has long been a favorite camp-ground for the numerous war-parties which annually meet in this region to hunt buffalo and one another. Remains of old Indian stockades are met with scattered about among the thickets; and the guide informed us, that four years since there were at one and the same time, upon this one bottom, fifteen or twenty of these forts, constructed by different tribes. Most of them have since been destroyed by fire. As this was the season of the year when we might expect to find them upon their expeditions, we were on the qui vive, lest we should be surprised." They remained in camp the following day, Sunday, and that evening entered in the journal: "Several herds of buffalo were seen during the day."

The morning of the 23d was warm and cloudy, and the party soon after leaving their camp forded the river "on a ripple, with a depth of eighteen inches." The water was clear, with a pebbly bottom. That this location was frequented by Indians was again indicated by the discovery of another great group of "forts," as told in the narrative: "Immediately above where we crossed, were about twenty Indian forts, or lodges constructed of logs set up endwise, somewhat in the form of an ordinary skin lodge, which had been erected among the timber by different war-parties: they appeared to be very strong, and were ball-proof." (Stansbury, (1), pp. 243-246.) These strongly constructed lodges will at once recall the rather similar structures which stood at some of the Siouan villages, on the Mississippi below the mouth of the Minnesota, during the early years of the last century.

On September 27, when about midway across the present Albany County, Wyoming, the expedition encountered a large number of Indians belonging to a village a short distance beyond. These proved to be the Oglala, and during the following day the village was visited by Stansbury, who wrote in the journal: "This village was the largest and by far the best-looking of any I had ever seen. It consisted of nearly one hundred lodges, most of which were entirely new, pitched upon the level prairie which borders on the verdant banks of the Laramie. No regular order seemed to be observed in their position, but each builder appeared to have selected the site for his habitation according to his own fancy.

"We rode at once to the lodge of the chief, which was painted in broad horizontal stripes of alternate black and white, and, on the side opposite to the entrance, was ornamented with large black crosses on a white ground. We found the old fellow sitting on the floor of his lodge, and his squaw busily engaged over a few coals, endeavouring to fry, or rather boil, in a pan nearly filled with grease, some very suspicious-looking lumps of dough, made doubtless from the flour they had received from us yesterday.... After some further conversation, another chief, named the 'Iron Heart,' rose up and invited us to a feast at his lodge: we accordingly accompanied him, and found him occupying the largest and most complete structure in the village, although I was assured that the Sioux frequently make them much larger. It was intended to be used whenever required, for the accommodation of any casual trader that might come among them for the purpose of traffic, and was accordingly called 'The Trader's Lodge.' It was made of twenty-six buffalo-hides, perfectly new, and white as snow, which, being sewed together without a wrinkle, were stretched over twenty-four new poles, and formed a conical tent of thirty feet diameter upon the ground, and thirty-five feet in height." This must have been a magnificent example of the tipi of the plains tribes, and is one of the largest of which any record has been preserved.

Moving in a southeastwardly direction from the great village, they passed many mounted Indians killing buffalo, and later in the day passed another Oglala village of some 50 lodges, moving southward. The surface of the prairie for many miles was strewn with the remains of buffalo, which had been killed by the Indians and from which only choice pieces had been removed. (Op. cit., pp. 254-257.) They were now ascending the western slopes of the Black Hills, and approaching the region dominated by the Cheyenne, and two days later, September 29, 1850, were a short distance south of a village of the latter tribe.