In addition to the semicircular skin-covered lodge mentioned by Murray, the Pawnee evidently made use of the conical tipi. This was described by Dunbar when he wrote: "Their movable dwellings consist of from 12 to 20 poles (the number varying with the size) about 16 feet long, and a covering. Three of these poles are tied together near the top and set up. The string, with which these poles are tied together, is so long that one end of it reaches to the ground, when the poles are set up. The other poles are now successively set up save one, the top of each leaning against the three, first set up, and forming with them a circle. The string is then wound round them all at the top several times and fastened. The cover is tied to the top of the remaining pole by which it is raised up, then is spread round them all and tied together on the opposite side, where is the entrance formed by leaving the cover untied about three feet from the ground. Over the entrance the skin of a bear or some other animal is suspended. The tents are always set up with their entrances toward the east. At the top the smoke passes out among the poles, a place being left for that purpose. The fire place, crane and hearth are similar to those in their fixed habitations. The furniture is placed back next the cover. Rush mats are then spread down forming a sort of floor. On these they sit, eat and sleep. The large tents are about 18 feet in diameter at the base. The tent covers are made of buffalo skins, scraped so thin as to transmit light, and sewed together. These when new are quite white, and a village of them presents a beautiful appearance. Some of them are painted according to Pawnee fancy. They carry their tent poles with them during their whole journey. From three to six of them, as the case may be, are tied together at the larger end, and made fast to the saddle, an equal number on each side, the other end drags on the ground." (Dunbar, (2), pp. 602-603.)
From these various records it will be understood the Pawnee made use of several forms of temporary and comparatively easily transported and erected structures when away from their permanent villages of earth-covered lodges. And what is true of the Pawnee would probably apply to other tribes of the upper Missouri Valley.
The Pawnee, as did other tribes of the region, made long journeys away from their villages in quest of the buffalo, and an interesting account of their annual hunts, as conducted about the year 1835, has been preserved. Then it was told how "The Pawnees make two hunts each year, the summer and winter hunt. To perform the winter hunt they leave their villages usually in the last week of October, and do not return to them again till about the first of April. They now prepare their cornfields for the ensuing season. The ground is dug up with the hoe, the corn is planted and well tended. When it has attained to a certain height they leave it, and go out to their summer hunt. This is done near the last of June. About the first of September they return to their villages. Formerly the buffalo came down to and far below their villages. Now they are obliged to travel out from ten to twenty days to reach them. The buffalo are rapidly diminishing and will in time become extinct.
"When they leave their villages to hunt the buffalo, they take every man and beast with them, and the place of their habitations is as desolate and solitary during their absence as any other spot on the prairie. When the time of departure arrives all the furniture and provisions they wish to carry with them are packed on the horses. The residue of their scant furniture and provisions are concealed in the earth till their return. As each family gets ready they fall into the train, which frequently extends some miles." (Dunbar, (1), pp. 329-330.) The narrative continues and relates many of the mannerisms of the people, and tells of their peculiar traits. And it is difficult to realize the great distance traveled during the hunting trips away from the permanent earth-lodge villages. Dunbar accompanied them on several of their hunts and wrote (Op. cit., p. 331): "The first hunting tour I performed with them they traveled, from the time they left their village till they returned to it again in the spring, about 400 miles. During the first summer hunt I was with them they traveled 700 miles before returning to their village. During my second winter hunt they traveled 900 miles, second summer hunt 800 miles."
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.)
Although the preceding notes may not be very accurate, nevertheless they are of interest on account of the period they cover, just before the transfer of Louisiana to the United States, and two years before the most important expedition ascended the Missouri.
To trace the sites of early Arikara villages as mentioned by Lewis and Clark, and as seen by them when the expedition under their command passed up the Missouri during the early autumn of 1804, is most interesting. On September 29 of that year they reached the mouth of a small creek which entered the Missouri from the south, "which we called Notimber creek from its bare appearance. Above the mouth of this stream, a Ricara band of Pawnees had a village five years ago: but there are no remains of it except the mound which encircled the town." This would have been in the present Stanley County, South Dakota. Two days later, on October 1, they "passed a large island in the middle of the river, opposite the lower end of which the Ricaras once had a village on the south side of the river: there are, however, no remnants of it now, except a circular wall three or four feet in height, which encompassed the town." Two miles beyond was the mouth of the Cheyenne River.