442 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



quickly spreading to several tribes of Plains Indians. In this case, 

 there can not be the least doubt as the events are a matter of history. 

 Again, at the present day the mescal ceremonies are working their way 

 up from the south among the Plains tribes ; this is also a matter of his- 

 tory. In addition to these absolute examples of cultural borrowing, we 

 have cases like the grass dance ceremony, now found in all parts of the 

 area. We have the testimony of several tribes to the effect that this cere- 

 mony first originated with the Pawnee. The Teton-Dakota claim to 

 have obtained it directly from the Pawnee about 1870; the Arapaho and 

 Gros Ventre claim to have borrowed it from the Dakota ; the Gros 

 Ventre claim to have taught it to the Blackfoot about 1883. While 

 these statements of the Indians need not be taken as absolutely correct, 

 their significance can not be ignored. There are still other traits like 

 the sun dance which are found in the same essential forms among many 

 tribes of the area, but concerning which the Indians have no definite his- 

 torical knowledge. In this class also must be placed the more objective 

 traits, like tipis and decorative designs. Now, since we have direct his- 

 toric evidence of borrowing in some cases, the testimony of Indians in 

 others, and still others in which we see all the secondary signs of bor- 

 rowing, it must be admitted that a strong case has been made for the 

 spread of culture by inter-tribal borrowing. 



While borrowing will thus account for the distribution of traits, it 

 can not answer the question as to their origin. For each trait we have 

 a separate problem, since to be borrowed it must have been invented 

 somewhere first. To solve this problem actual historical data are 

 needed, something that is in most cases unattainable, but on the other 

 hand, certain conclusions seem justifiable. 



We note that many of the more material traits are peculiarly 

 adapted to the bison-hunting life and to the habits of a semi-nomadic 

 people. This seems reasonable, because many of them are rarely found 

 outside of the Plains area. If this is granted, it seems proper to con- 

 clude that they must have been invented by some of the Plains group. 



Another related problem is that of migration or origin. For the 

 Cheyenne we have some historical data, the import of which seems to be 

 that they migrated from the Woodlands to the Plains about two centuries 

 ago, where they must have changed in culture very rapidly to become one 

 of the typical tribes, as they were found to be in later years. It is also 

 quite clear that the Sarsi, Plains-Cree and Plains-Ojibway came out of 

 the northern and eastern forests into the Plains something more than 

 two hundred years ago. As to other tribes, we have no data. There is 

 ground for an assumption, however, in linguistic relationships. Some 

 people say it will not do, for example, to say that the Algonkin tribes 

 in the Plains migrated thither on the ground that the greater part of the 

 stock lived in the Woodlands, for it is conceivable that the reverse may 



