INDIAN COSTUMES KRIEGER 651 



tice of the sedentary arts, and the Plains Indian.s, therefore, had no 

 agriculture, made no pottery, and wove no cloth. 



The numerically strongest linguistic stock among the Plains tribes 

 was the Sioux; other stocks were the Shoshoni, Kiowa, Caddo, and 

 Algonquian. Some of the more typical northern Plains tribes are the 

 Assiniboin, Blackfoot, Crow, Gros Ventre, and Teton-Sioux, while 

 (he southern tribes included the Arapaho, Cheyenne, Comanche, and 

 Kiowa. After the introduction of the horse among the Plains tribes, 

 they became more mobile and nomadic than formerly, when the dog 

 was their only burden carrier. Irruptions of one group upon the 

 liunting lands of another became more frequent, and hostile en- 

 counters became almost continuous. The more aggressive hunters 

 as the Blackfoot, Kiowa, and Comanche were generally feared by the 

 less aggressive tribes, and even by the sedentary agricultural Pueblo 

 Tribes who were often raided by the Kiowa and the Comanche. 



Along the eastern fringe of the Plains lived the Wichita, Pawnee, 

 Omaha, Osage, Iowa, Arikara, Oto, Mandan, and Hidatsa. These 

 tribes resembled the typical Plains tribes in their mode of dress, but 

 differed from them in that they lived in houses of earth, mat, or grass 

 construction, made pottery, cultivated maize, and wove baskets. 



Another group of tribes resembling the tribes of the Plains lived 

 west of the Rocky Mountains and occupied the plateau region now 

 forming the States of Idaho, western Montana, Utah, and portions 

 of adjoining States. These tribes, the northern Shoshoni, Nez 

 Perce, Bannock, and Ute, resembled the Plains tribes in their mode 

 of dress, but differed from them in their social organization and other 

 culture traits. 



In Plains costumes all dresses have the same generalized outline 

 of open pendent sleeves and a scored bottom showing four scallops or 

 crests. As the dress is made of two deerskins, the varying outline 

 or tribal pattern is derived from the sewing of the garment. Trim- 

 ming of the edges varies from tribe to tribe. The free edges were 

 generally fringed, and quill embroidery, beadwork, painting, scalp 

 locks, tails of animals, feathers, claws, hoofs, shells, and other objects 

 were applied as ornaments. 



In a general way skin clothing was used by all of the Plains tribes 

 instead of basketry or woven cloth, although some fashioned woven 

 robes of rabbit skins. A good example of true Aveaving on the part 

 of Plains Indians may be seen in the sacred bundles of the Osage, 

 where buffalo hair is employed. The Omaha are supposed to have 

 formerly woven belts, and the Nez Perce still plait bags of bark 

 with imbricated overlay of grass in geometric patterns. These tribes 

 are marginal and may have acquired their weaving knowledge along 

 with other borrowed traits from their non-Plains neighbors. 



