NO. lO NEBRASKA ARCHEOLOGY STRONG 29 



portions of the Nebraska region considerably i)rior to 1800. Lewis 

 and Clark had trouble with various Teton bands and describe them 

 in very uncomplimentary terms. Their map locates a Yankton Dakota 

 village near the mouth of the James River and several bands of 

 Tetons along the Missouri above the mouth of the White River in 

 what is now South Dakota. Major Long's map, in 18 19, shows a 

 Yankton camp at the mouth of Floyd River and also shows Teton Da- 

 kota villages on the Missouri north of the White River. In 1842 Fre- 

 mont locates the " Sioux " between the north and south forks of the 

 Platte close to the Laramie plains (1845, iiiap), and throughout the 

 nineteenth century various bands of Dakota seem to have dominated all 

 of northern and northwestern Nebraska. Although they seem never to 

 have been permanent residents of Nebraska in the sense that the 

 Pawnee were, they must certainly be listed as a Nebraskan tribe at 

 least subsequent to 1800, during which period they raided and hunted 

 through the region, harassing the Pawnee and the more settled Siouan 

 peoples along the Missouri. 



With the Dakota we conclude the list of known tribes that occupied 

 or claimed any large portions of Nebraska within the realm of 

 recorded history. LTndoubtedly other tribes had camps in or passed 

 through our region, as did the Kiowa about 1815,^ but it is beyond 

 the bounds and the needs of the present work to list the comings and 

 goings of all the Plains tribes in that period of flux just prior to and 

 during the Indian wars. Our brief survey has clearly indicated that 

 of all its known inhabitants only the Pawnee were surely in Nebraska 

 when the first white men came, that the Ponca, Omaha, and Oto 

 have the next best claim to long residence, and that the Comanche, 

 Arapaho, Cheyenne, and Dakota were either relatively late or were 

 transitory occupants. Whether the Ponca, Omaha, and Oto or other 

 Siouan tribes ever occupied eastern Nebraska prior to the dawn of 

 recorded history is a problem for the future. From the fragmentary 

 historical evidence at our disposal it can be demonstrated that the 

 last two tribes, at least, crossed the Missouri within the historic 

 period, but the nature of their distribution and of their traditions 

 makes it possible that this was a reoccupation rather than the first 

 appearance of Siouan peoples upon the Nebraska scene. Here is 

 a problem for the archeologist, assisted by the ethnologist and the 

 historian. 



^ Mooney, 1898, p. 168, records a Kiowa camp at the junction of Horse and 

 Kiowa Creeks in extreme western Nebraska at this time. Also see his map, 

 pl- 73- 

 3 



