626 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1920. 



horse facilitated longer journeys and a wider spread of the people 

 over the plains. 



On account of their wild, free, roving life, their splendid physical 

 development, their skill as hunters of big game, and as warriors, the 

 Sioux may be regarded as a type of the hunter tribes. The uncivil- 

 ized branches of this tribe which took part in the Custer massacre 

 in 1876 were reduced to subjection in the campaigns which followed 

 that event. 



The Plains tribes overran an enormous territory, including por- 

 tions of Manitoba, the Dakotas, Nebraska, Kansas, Texas, and neigh- 

 boring regions. The principal groups are as follows: Sioux, Nez 

 Perce, Sac and Fox, Cheyenne, Arapaho, Kiowa, and Comanche, all 

 of whom have assumed, or are on the point of assuming, the habits of 

 civilization. 



A lodge group, in miniature, of the Plains tribes may be seen in 

 a case near at hand. (See pi. 22.) 



SIOUX WOMEN DRESSING HIDES. 



Among the Plains Indians the buffalo hide was prepared for robes, 

 with the hair on, by stretching on a frame and chipping away the 

 flesh side by means of " beaming tools," which originally had stone 

 blades. In this way the hide was reduced to about half its original 

 thickness and rendered pliable by working. For making tents, shields, 

 and packing cases the hair was removed by the sweating process 

 and by chopping with the beaming adz, and the hide was rendered 

 pliable, if necessary, by pounding with a stone hammer. In the group 

 here shown one woman is removing hair, while the other is manipu- 

 lating a hide in order to render it pliable. (See pi. 23.) 



SIOUX INDIAN WARRIORS. 



Dressed in native costume, somewhat modified, including a war 

 shirt trimmed with beadwork, cut fringe, and scalp trophies ; plume 

 of eagle feather; necklace of bear's claws; cincture of flannel; trous- 

 ers of deerskin dyed green; and moccasins ornamented with porcu- 

 pine quills. In his right hand he carries the old stone-head war club 

 of the Sioux. The face is that of Kicking Bear, a Sioux medicine 

 man who was prominent with Sitting Bull in the ghost-dance craze 

 among the Sioux in 1890. A cast of his face was made when he visited 

 the Museum in 1902, at which time the costume was also secured from 

 him. The decoration painted in kaolin on his hair is a cross within 

 a circle and is a heraldic device signifying an act of prowess in which 

 he saved a friend under the fire of the enemy. (See pi. 24.) Another 

 warrior wearing the typical eagle feather headdress and necklace of 

 bear claws, clothed in beaded buckskin and carrying a pipe and pipe 

 bag, is shown in plate 25. 



