438 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



One of the most conspicuous marks of Plains culture is the relation 

 of the Indian to the buffalo. Though the buffalo, or bison, was at one 

 time widely distributed in the Mississippi Valley, it seems to have been 

 chiefly at home in the treeless areas of the west. After 1800, at least, 

 the large herds were found in the great open stretches of country, east 

 of the Eocky Mountains, or the long narrow white area in our forestry 

 map. While this was the region in which the herds were thickest and 

 typical, there was also a fringe on all sides, but especially to the east, of 

 small random groups of buffalo. We thus see a faunistic distribution 

 making it possible for Indians in the heart of the area to live entirely 

 on the buffalo, while their neighbors could to varying degrees derive 

 partial support from the same source. This is about what observation 

 shows to have been the case. 



From the time of exploration to 1860, or later, all the tribes of In- 

 dians living within the great treeless area east of the mountains made 

 the hunting of the buffalo their chief occupation. They cultivated noth- 

 ing and used only a few wild fruits and roots to supplement their almost 

 exclusive meat diet. Eeference to the forestry map will show how the 

 wooded area fringes out into the Plains. Now, the Indians living in this 

 fringed area also hunted buffalo, but not exclusively, for they raised 

 maize, beans and squashes. Again, on the west in the open country be- 

 tween the mountain ranges, the tribes occasionally hunted buffalo; but, 

 though they did not practise agriculture, they gathered great quantities 

 of wild grass seeds which when ground and baked formed a considerable 

 part of their diet. 



Thus we see that by taking the use of the buffalo as an index of cul- 

 ture we may roughly group the Indians of the Plains under three heads : 

 the typical or primary tribes, the eastern or semi-agricultural tribes 

 and the western or plateau tribes. If we seek further to characterize the 

 culture of the typical group we find the following conspicuous traits : 

 the use of the tipi all the year round ; in historic times, the use of the 

 horse ; in earlier times the use of the dog for transportation by travois ; 

 an organized camp circle and police system for the regulation of the 

 buffalo hunt ; a religious ceremony known as the sun dance, and a highly 

 individualized decorative art. Waiving several minor traits, we may 

 take these as determining characters in the typical Plains Indian 

 culture. 



On the tribal map we have used an asterisk (*) to distinguish those 

 clearly manifesting these traits. As previously stated, we must not ex- 

 pect every tribe in this group to manifest every typical trait, for here as 

 elsewhere the gradation of culture is in evidence. Further, the tribes 

 differ as to the degree to which they assimilate cultural elements. For 

 example, the Comanche had no sun dance and a rather weakly organ- 

 ized camp, but otherwise had the typical traits. The Teton-Dakota, on 



