38 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 93 



the region. The Dakota had heen constantly harassing the Pawnee 

 for many years before but the final blow came in 1876, when a war 

 party of Teton and Oglala Dakota fell upon a Pawnee hunting party 

 in southwestern Nebraska and drove them from the field with consider- 

 able loss. This was the last buffalo hunt of the Pawnee and very 

 shortly after the broken and dispirited tribe removed to the Indian 

 Territory in what is now Oklahoma. In any event the presence of 

 large herds of buffalo in the grassland regions of Nebraska can be 

 taken as an important factor in considering the natural resources 

 available to the aboriginal inhabitants. Whether the presence of the 

 buffalo was as important in Plains economy before the advent of the 

 white man and his horse as it became afterward is a question to be 

 answered by the archeological findings. 



Before leaving the subject of geographic factors in relation to 

 human occupation in Nebraska certain other general features must be 

 considered. First of all, Nebraska has a typical inland climate with 

 hot summers and mild dry winters but is subject to sudden and severe 

 changes due to the cyclonic nature of the weather. The mean annual 

 temperature varies from above 50° F. in the southeastern part of the 

 State to less than 45° F. in the northwest. Nights in summer are 

 generally cool, especially in the higher western portions. Rainfall 

 occurs mainly in connection with thunder storms moving across the 

 country with the cyclones, the mean annual rainfall decreasing from 

 over 33 inches in the southeast to less than 15 inches in the west. 

 Seven-tenths of the rainfall comes in the growing season from April 

 to August and during the middle of this period the climate of the 

 southeastern portion can almost be called humid. There is, however, 

 great variability of rainfall, especially in the western counties. Wind 

 velocity, as elsewhere in the plains region, is high and for the State as 

 a whole averages about 10 miles per hour, being greater in the west 

 than in the east. The snowfall is about one-twelfth of the total rainfall, 

 coming in January and February for the most part, and as a rule lying 

 on the ground only a short while. The snowfall is greatest in the north- 

 eastern counties. When these factors are considered in relation to the 

 topographic areas already discussed a reasonably complete picture of 

 the territory comprising the State of Nebraska can be formed. 



On the map (fig. 2) the approximate territories held by Nebraska 

 tribes in the early part of the nineteenth century have been indicated." 



^ It is impossible to delimit accurately tribal territories in Nebraska, owing 

 primarily to their variations from time to time and also to the fact that there 

 were always disputed border areas. The map, figure 2, is a compromise based on 

 the following sources: The Omaha, Fletcher and La Flesche, 1911, pi. 21; 



