At the farther side of the building, exactly opposite the porch, is a projection of sod left about a foot from the outside of the circle which is said to have been the seat of the chief, and over which hung his medicine bag and other implements.
The crotches are arranged so that there is a free passage to the center of the hall from the porch one standing on each side at the entrance about six feet apart and the others appear to be arranged from them. The smaller houses have not so many pillars as this one. Some have eight in the center and sixteen outside the circle. Others have four in the center and ten outside. The entrances are also smaller in proportion, but all are constructed on the same principle. It looks a little singular to note that nearly all the entrances to these lodges front to the southeast, except in one or two instances where they front in other directions for lack of room. It is probable that this is done to avoid the effects of the severe cold northwest winds so prevalent in winter.
Adjacent to each lodge is a stable or pen, which has been designed for keeping horses in. These are mostly left unharmed. They are constructed by placing poles upright in the ground from two to three inches in diameter as close together as possible and about ten feet high. About five or six feet above the ground cross poles are laid horizontally, and each of the upright poles are firmly lashed to the cross poles by strips of bark, so as to make them firm and secure them from being moved out of their place. The stables are mostly built square, with a door left on one side sufficiently large to admit a horse. There are some circular stables but not so many as the square ones. The horses appear to have been penned in by placing loose poles across the doorway, for there is no other sign of a door visible.
Around each lodge there are also several cachets where corn and other necessities are deposited. The cachets are large holes dug in the ground, or rather under the ground, the entrance being only just large enough to admit a common sized man. They are made pretty much after the shape of a large demijon. The cachets are generally about six feet high inside and about fifteen feet in diameter; there is a gradual slope from the mouth to the extreme corner and a little bowing, which forms the roof. The surface of the earth above, at the mouth, is about two and a half or three feet deep. Some of these are said to be capable of holding a hundred bushels of corn, and when filled there is a thick coat of grass laid on the top and the mouth then filled up nicely with earth, and when finished a stranger would not have the least suspicion that there was a storehouse full of corn under his feet.