466 ANNUAL REPOKT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1924 



Indians migratory and the consequent effect of enormously increas- 

 ing the usefulness of the tipi. In more ancient times the Plains 

 Indians undoubtedly ate buffalo meat, when they could get it, and 

 undoubtedly had tipis. But the migratory way of living exclusively 

 in tipis had not developed. We can glean some knowledge of the 

 houses of that ancient period by excavation of old sites and through 

 the fact that some tribes retained the older form of structure until 

 recently. The characteristic habitation prior to the tipi seems to 

 have been a lodge, excavated in the ground, roofed with poles, and 

 heaped over with earth, forming a sort of mound with the dwelling 

 partly subterranean. This type of dwelling seems to have been dis- 

 tributed over a large part or all of western North America. It is, 

 therefore, the next type of habitation to be examined. 



THE UNDERGROUND HOUSE OF WESTERN NORTH AMERICA 



West of the 100th meridian, which marks the line between moist 

 and arid regions, the habitations seem to be designed to give shelter 

 from winds rather than from rain. There is along the Pacific coast, 

 to be s'ure, from northern California to southern Alaska, a narrow 

 strip with a reputation for heavy precipitation. Although in parts 

 of the strip, for example in southern Alaska, the precipitation is 

 actually enormous, in a great part of it the rainfall is not really 

 excessive. Portland, Oreg., for example, has about the same annual 

 rainfall as Washington, D. C. The strip offers a violent contrast, 

 however, with the exceedingly arid lands to the eastward. Over 

 the whole western side of the continent, wet and dry, we find habi- 

 tations which may be classed under the general term " pit dwellings," 

 for they all contain a central excavation. In the three geographic 

 regions into which this western area may be divided. Plains, Plateau, 

 and Pacific Slope, the size, shape, and materials of the house are 

 greatly modified by local conditions. 



The original type has been best preserved apparently on the 

 Plateau. The tribes here are very conservative, and their culture 

 is backward in other matters than houses. We may begin, therefore, 

 by looking at the underground house of the Plateau with the pre- 

 sumption that it represents an archaic type. It has spread from the 

 Plateau proper down into certain areas in the central part of Cali- 

 fornia, along with other elements of Plateau culture. 



The earliest description of such houses was penned by Sir Francis 

 Drake, who landed on the coast of California north of where San 

 Francisco now stands, in 1579. This place, now called Drake's Bay, 

 he named New Albion. He describes the houses of the natives at 

 this point as follows : " Their houses are digged around about with 

 earth, and have from the uttermost brimmes of the circle clifts of 



