On pages 95 and 96 of the work just cited appears a very interesting description of the making and raising of a skin tipi. "Formerly the cover was made of 9 to 12 buffalo skins tanned on both sides. To cut and sew this cover so that it would fit well and be shapely when stretched over the circular framework of poles required skilful workmanship, the result of training and of accurate measurements.... The tent poles were 14 to 16 feet long. Straight young cedar poles were preferred. The bark was removed and the poles were rubbed smooth. The setting up of a tent was always a woman's task. She first took four poles, laid them together on the ground, and then tied them firmly with a thong about 3 feet from one end. She then raised the poles and spread their free ends apart and thrust them firmly into the ground. These four tied poles formed the true framework of the tent. Other poles—10 to 20 in number, according to the size of the tent—were arranged in a circle, one end pressed well into the ground, the other end laid in the forks made by the tied ends of the four poles. There was a definite order in setting up the poles so that they would lock one another, and when they were all in place they constituted an elastic but firm frame, which could resist a fairly heavy wind." There was probably very little variation in the ways and customs of the different members of the tribe, and the tents of an entire village would have been raised after the same, long-established manner. But the structures in an Omaha village did not surround an open space, "nor were they set so the people could live in the order of their gentes, an order observed when they were on the hunt and during their tribal ceremonies. Yet each family knew to what gens it belonged, observed its rites, and obeyed strictly the rule of exogamy. To the outward appearance a village presented a motley group of tribesmen. The dwellings and their different corrals were huddled together; the passageways between the lodges were narrow and tortuous. There was little of the picturesque. The grass and weeds that grew over the earth lodges while the people were off on their summer buffalo hunt were all cut away when the tribe returned. So, except for the decorations on the skin tents, there was nothing to relieve the dun-colored aspect." (Op. cit., p. 99.) Such was the appearance of an Omaha village in the valley of the Missouri.
In 1847 the Omaha erected a village on the banks of Papillon Creek, near the line between Sarpy and Douglas Counties, Nebraska. Four years later it was visited by Kurz during his journey up the Missouri. Kurz was camped near Council Bluffs, on the left bank of the Missouri. Opposite was Bellevue, the trading post of Peter A. Sarpy, and while at the latter place, May 16, 1851, Kurz entered in his journal: "In Bellevue I have drawn an Indian winter house made of earth, and also a Pawnee girl." And on May 20 he wrote: "Again crossed the river to Bellevue in order to visit the Omaha village some six miles distant; went over the bluffs, as being the shortest way, then crossed the high prairie ... to the Papillon creek which partly surrounds the village of the Omahas. The village itself is built on a hill.... The camp or village is composed of leather tents and earth-covered lodges. Between the tents and lodges are scaffolds for drying meat and also an enclosure for the horses.... I walked into the village and watched a group of young men endeavoring to throw lances through rolling rings, the others being gathered on top the earth lodges, [pl. [26] b] as spectators." (Bushnell, (3), p. 11.) Sketches made by Kurz at that time are reproduced in plate [28]. The interior of an earth lodge, drawn at Bellevue May 16, 1851, is shown in b; the couches extending along the wall are clearly indicated, also the fireplace in the center of the lodge, over which is hanging a hook for the suspension of a kettle. The village, which stood on the banks of Papillion Creek, is shown in the lower part of a, of the same plate. Both forms of dwellings are represented in the sketch; also the scaffolds for drying meat and other purposes, and several inclosures in which their horses were confined.
On June 12 Kurz attended a sacred dance performed for the benefit of a wounded man. He referred to it in his journal as being given by the Buffalo Society, where all wore buffalo masks. It was held in a large earth lodge, and he was accompanied by the chief, Joseph La Flesche.
The site of the small village mentioned by Kurz was identified a few years ago by Gilder, and some of the ruins were examined. It stood in the forks of the Papillion, about 4 miles in a direct line west of the Missouri. To quote from the brief narrative: "It was here the Omaha lived last before going on a reservation, and where they were visited by the Swiss artist, Kurz.... It was found that the ruins were quite shallow and had left but slight depressions, while others left small circular mounds above the surrounding level. The Rock Island Railroad has cut through the village, and at least one cache was exposed from top to bottom—about fifteen feet. In all instances the caches were outside the lodge sites.
"The surface yielded fractured iron pots, delft or figured china of white man's manufacture, and rusty iron objects, besides flint scrapers and chips, potsherds, and the usual accumulations of a village prior to contact with white people. The writer cannot attribute the flint implements to the Omaha, but considers the favorable site on a plateau at the junction of two streams to have been used by another people long before the Omaha erected their lodges there." (Gilder, (1), p. 75.)
Innumerable ruins of earth lodges were to have been found in the vicinity of the present city of Omaha, the great majority of which stood in early days before the arrival of Europeans in the valley of the Missouri, and it is not possible to say by which tribe the villages were erected. Many large ruins were discovered on Childs Point, in the extreme northeastern corner of Sarpy County, just south of Omaha, and some 4 miles northeast of the small village visited by Kurz. Some of the ruins were carefully examined by Gilder. One, which appears to have been considered as possessing the typical characteristics of the group, was described by Gilder, who wrote: "In all house ruins similar to the one here described, the main fireplace, four or five feet in diameter, is situated near the exact center. From this fireplace the floor extends, nearly flat, to within ten feet of the extreme outer edge or periphery of the ruin. Here a platform, or step, twelve to fourteen inches high and almost vertical, rose from the floor and sloped rather sharply to the outer rim.... Around the line of the inner circumference of the platform, at distances of approximately five feet, the remains of posts six or seven inches in diameter were discovered. These were either in the form of charcoal or of wood dust. Sometimes bowlders lay about the remains of the posts, as if designed to aid in holding them in position. The grain of the charcoal posts indicated the wood to have been oak. About the posts, under the floor, and also under the platform, objects were more numerous than at other points in the ruin. The charred remains of four posts about eight feet apart surrounded the central fireplace. There were two features of house construction that stand out conspicuously: (1) the floor was approximately six to eight feet lower than the level of the surrounding ridge; (2) the angle at which the slabs, logs, or paling probably leaned inward from the periphery seems to indicate the highest part of the roof at about the same distance above the surrounding level as the floor was below, making the highest part of the roof about fifteen feet above the fireplace in the center of the dwelling.... Little besides broken flint instruments, flint chips, shells, potsherds, and fractured drift bowlders were found upon the floor itself; the major number of objects was beneath the floor surface, very often covered with bowlders, as if the latter had been placed to mark the spot. Small fireplaces were of frequent occurrence on all parts of the floor.
"Three caches were found in the first ruin.... In one, fifteen feet west of the center of the dwelling were found flint blades, a score of Unio shells, a mano or muller made from a rounded drift bowlder ... and a pottery pipe in form of a soaring bird.... The bottom of this cache was six feet from the surface. The second cache lay at the southeastern side of the ruin. Its bottom was eight feet from the surface of the ground. It contained thirty shells, several large flint blades, other large flint implements of unknown use ... animal bones, projectile points, and a small piece of galena. The third cache, in the northeastern part of the ruin, was the largest and deepest of the three, its bottom being nine feet and a half from the surface. On a small shelf, or niche, at its eastern side, two feet from the bottom, lay, a small image of a human face carved from pink soapstone, a number of animal bones and skulls, fish bones and scales, and Unio shells.
"So many and varied were the objects found in the ruin, so abundant the charred sticks and grasses, that the impression is conveyed that the dwelling had been abandoned in haste and that it had burned to the ground." (Gilder, (1), pp. 58-61.) The objects discovered in this ancient ruin were truly varied, as the discoverer remarked, and likewise of the greatest interest, including specimens of stone, bone, and pottery, with bones of animals which had probably served as food. But how interesting it would be to know the date of the construction of this large lodge, and the tribe to which its occupants belonged—questions which may never be determined. However, it unquestionably belonged to people of a tribe who reared and occupied similar structures in the valley of the Missouri as late as the latter half of the nineteenth century.
Other quite similar ruins a short distance north of the city of Omaha were examined by Gilder. Many objects of bone, stone, and pottery were discovered. Caches were encountered, and to quote from his account of the work: "The caches within the house sites are smaller in diameter near the top than at the bottom, the latter part flaring out somewhat in the manner of a large earthen pot. The bottom of the caches are rounded, and the walls are almost as hard as fired clay. In the very bottom of each cache was a quantity of dust, or earth as fine as dust (not compact as at other points), in which were found small arrowpoints, flint blades, shell beads, and flint flakes. In each case where the cache was found within the house circle it occurred close under the western wall, back of the fireplace and exactly opposite the entrance to the lodge, the latter in every instance facing the east." (Gilder, (2), p. 716.)
Before closing this brief sketch of the Omaha villages and forms of structures, it will be of interest to quote from the writings of one who was intimately acquainted with the people of whom he wrote. Referring to their various types of habitations, he says: