BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 77 PLATE 10
[Illustration: _a._ Ojibway birch bark canoe. Northern Minnesota, 1899]
[Illustration: _b._ Ojibway Indians with birch bark canoes. North of Ely, Minn., 1899]
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 77 PLATE 11
[Illustration: _a._ Trader's store at the village of the Pillagers, Cass Lake in the distance on the right. November 26, 1899]
[Illustration: _b._ Outside an elm-bark structure. At the Ojibway village of Sagawamick, on south shore of Mille Lac, Minnesota. May 21, 1900]
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 77 PLATE 12
[Illustration: _a._ Hammer, bag, and two skin-dressing tools]
[Illustration: _b._ Section of a rush mat, as used to form covering for a wigwam
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 77 PLATE 13
[Illustration: _a._ Ojibway mortar and pestle]
[Illustration: _b._ Delaware mortar and pestle]
[Illustration: _c._ Ojibway birch bark dish]
The various structures in an Ojibway village do not appear to have been erected or placed with any degree of order. Certainly this is true of conditions in recent times, and whether any accepted or recognized plan was followed in the past is not known. The small wigwams formed an irregular group on the shore of a lake or the bank of a stream surrounded by the primeval forest.
In the month of May, 1900, a council house which had been erected by the Ojibway some years before stood on a high point of land in the midst of dense woods, about 1 mile north of the outlet of Mille Lac--the beginning of Rum River--and about 200 yards from the lake shore. It was oriented with its sides facing the cardinal points, about 20 feet square, with walls 6 feet in height and the peak of the roof twice that distance above the ground. The heavy frame was covered with large sheets of elm bark, which had evidently been renewed from time to time during the preceding years. No traces of seats remained and grass was again growing on the ground which had served as the floor. This was the scene of the treaty of October 5, 1889, between the Ojibway of Mille Lac and the United States Government. Within a short time this very interesting primitive structure had disappeared and two years later no trace of it remained. Whether this represented an ancient type of building could not be ascertained.