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

The preceding references to the women of the villages going early in the morning to their fields of corn recall a note in Fremont's journal a few years later. He wrote when returning from the mountains, on September 22, 1842, "We arrived at the village of the Grand Pawnees, on the right bank of the river [the Platte] about thirty miles above the mouth of the Loup fork. They were gathering in their corn, and we obtained from them a very welcome supply of vegetables." (Fremont, (1), p. 78.)

The villages described in the accounts already quoted were the permanent settlements of the tribe, groups of earth-covered lodges quite similar to those erected by other tribes in the Upper Missouri Valley. Fortunately several remarkable photographs of the villages and of the separate structures are in existence, having been made by W. H. Jackson in 1871. The most valuable of the early pictures is reproduced as plate 49. And here it may be remarked that this is a different photograph from the one which was presented as plate 12 in Bulletin 69 of this bureau's publications, and although both were made at the same time, nevertheless they differ in minor details. It is therefore of interest to know two negatives were made at that time. This was the village of the Republican Pawnee. In plate 50 are two of the large earth-covered lodges, showing the tunnel-like entrances, and with many persons sitting on the tops of the structures. The entrance is more clearly shown in plate 51, where a brush mat protects the side. This may be part of a small inclosure.

Villages of the Algonquian, Siouan, and Caddoan Tribes West of the Mississippi — Part 155