BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 77 PLATE 52

a. Arikara carrying basket. (U.S.N.M. 8430)

b. Wooden mortar. "Witchata Inds. Dr. E. Palmer." Height of body 13½ inches. (U.S.N.M. 6899)

BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 77 PLATE 53

"RICCAREE VILLAGE" George Catlin

On the third day after passing the mouth of the Cheyenne they reached "Teal creek," and "A little above this is an island on the north side of the current, about one and a half mile in length and three quarters of a mile in breadth. In the centre of this island is an old village of the Ricaras, called Lahoocat; it was surrounded by a circular wall, containing seventeen lodges. The Ricaras are known to have lived there in 1797, and the village seems to have been deserted about five years since: it does not contain much timber."

On October 6, two days' travel beyond Teal Creek, and at a distance of about 32 miles above it, "We halted for dinner at a village which we suppose to have belonged to the Ricaras: it is situated in a low plain on the river, and consists of about eighty lodges, of an octagonal form, neatly covered with earth, and placed as close to each other as possible, and picketed round. The skin canoes, mats, buckets, and articles of furniture found in the lodges, induce us to suppose that it had been left in the spring. We found three different sorts of squashes growing in the village; we also killed an elk near it, and saw two wolves." On the following day, after advancing about 4 or 5 miles, they encountered "another village or wintering camp of the Ricaras, composed of about sixty lodges, built in the same form as those passed yesterday, with willow and straw mats, baskets, buffalo-skin canoes, remaining entire in the camp."