32 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 93 



Plains province, takes in only the extreme northwestern and north- 

 eastern corners of Nebraska. This is a rather rough, unglaciated area, 

 consisting of old plateaus, tablelands, local bad lands, and isolated 

 mountains. It is an area of profound degradation which in some places 

 has been at least several thousand feet. Such are the major physio- 

 graphic divisions occurring within the State. 



Considering Nebraska by itself and taking in other factors, rather 

 than limiting the consideration to local structure in relation to larger 

 physiographic units, it appears that three, and possibly four, main 

 geographic areas are to be distinguished. These are the Loess Region, 

 which may or may not be separated from the glaciated area just west 

 of the Missouri River; the High Plains, which include only the 

 western portion of the region thus designated in the Fenneman clas- 

 sification and may here be considered as taking in the localized Bad 

 Lands ; and the central Sand Hill area. For present purposes we will 

 consider these as four areas, extending from west to east as follows, 

 the High Plains (including the Bad Lands), the Sand Hills, the 

 Loess Plains, and the Glacial Area (map, fig. 2). These in turn 

 correspond rather closely with the five biotic regions distinguished by 

 Wolcott, which, in the same order, are the (short grass) plains region 

 (plus the isolated coniferous woodland regions) ; the sand-hill region ; 

 the prairie region (tall grass prairie) ; and the Missouri River bluff 

 region. Although these last may not completely overlap with the four 

 biotic regions listed above, the correspondence is close enough for 

 general consideration. It is difficult for one whose impressions of Ne- 

 braska may have been gained solely by passing through the cultivated 

 loess plains on the train, to realize that the monotonous " rolling foot- 

 hills of Nebraska " represent only a limited portion of that great State's 

 surprisingly varied topography. A preconceived idea of the plains 

 region generally as constituting a uniformly monotonous environment 

 will be rudely jarred by traversing the rough and picturesque mesa 

 and bad-land areas of western Nebraska or the mountainous and pine- 

 clad regions in the northern part of the State. All these variations in 

 topography, flora, and fauna must have had an effect on the aboriginal 

 populations subjected to them. We will briefly sum up the salient char- 

 acteristics of each, later checking up to see whether the distribution of 

 the historic Nebraska tribes shows any definite alignment with such 

 natural areas. 



The High Plains comprise an area of over 16,000 square miles of 

 gravel, sand, and clay deposits, with a rather low annual rainfall of 15 

 to 20 inches. Originally formed by wash from the mountains to the 

 west, they have been eroded, owing to their high altitude, by numerous 



