620 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1920. 



material culture. Their houses are made of bent poles covered with 

 birch bark and mats of rushes. The houses contain sometimes sev- 

 eral families, each having its own fireplace, the smoke issuing 

 through an opening in the roof. Canoes are made of birch bark, and 

 both men and women are expert in managing them. They subsist on 

 wild rice, game, and fish. They tan excellent buckskin, which for- 

 merly was used by them for clothing. They make also much maple 

 sugar. (See p. 11.) 



CHIPPEWA WARRIOR AND FAMILY. 



This is the original plaster model of a bronze group by John J. 

 Boyle, which was presented to the city of Chicago by Martin Ryer- 

 son, Esq., and erected in Lincoln Park. It was given to the National 

 Museum by the sculptor in 1883. (See pi. 12.) 



CHIPPEWA MEDICINE MAN. 

 Minnesota. 



A shaman in his medicine lodge composing a mnemonic record and 

 incising it upon a piece of birch bark. The outlines of the charac- 

 ters recall to the Indian the specific significance of each idea re- 

 corded, and frequently these interpretations are chanted to make 

 them more impressive. Many of the Indian tribes of North America 

 conveyed information and kept the record of events by picture writ- 

 ing. This is to written language what gesture speech is to spoken 

 language and constitutes the first step toward syllabic writing and 

 alphabetic characters. 



The Chippewa preserve by the above means the order of songs and 

 the traditions of the Indian cosmogony and genesis of mankind. 

 Charts of birch bark relating to the ceremonies of initiation into the 

 " Grand Medicine Society " are exceedingly rare and highly prized 

 by the shaman; one in the collection of the National Museum meas- 

 ures about 9 feet in length and 20 inches in width, composed of 

 various pieces neatly stitched together with strands of basswood 

 bark. (See pi. 13.) 



DWELLING GROUP OF THE IROQUOIS INDIANS. 



Northern New York. 



This model represents a stockaded village of the Iroquois Con- 

 federacy during the aboriginal period. Two "long houses," com- 

 munal structures in which several families lived, are located near a 

 spring on the shore of a lake, and the people are engaged at their 

 customary occupations, such as housebuilding, mealing, pottery mak- 

 ing, and the like. The pits covered with bark slabs near the houses 

 are storage receptacles for food, which were in charge of the women. 



