614 AKNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1917. 



eluding Ahgishkemiinsit, were sitting near the fires smoking their 

 black stone pipes. 



Looking at this small camp as we approached it in canoes, it 

 was easy to visualize the village at Sandy Lake as it stood some 

 years before. 



A collection of wigwams, some conical and some oval in shape like gypsies' 

 tents, were grouped confusedly upon the sandy beach, between which were 

 suspended either fishing nets, or lines from which hung rows of fish being 

 cured. * * * a few canoes were fishing off the village; a number moi'e 

 lay upturned upon the edge of the lake, where a knot of persons were col- 

 lected, evidently watching with some interest so unusual an arrival as a large 

 canoe from the eastern shore with eight paddles/ 



The habitations just mentioned differed greatly from those found 

 in other parts of the O jib way country. They were necessarily re- 

 stricted to the region of large birch trees, where wide strips of bark 

 could be easily obtained. Southward the dome-shaped wigwam, the 

 waglno' gan^ was used, this being the type of habitation which for- 

 merly stood throughout the Algonquian territory eastward to the 

 Atlantic. An example of the latter form is given in figure 6, this 

 having been one of the group of 10 or 12 similar structures which 

 constituted the village of Na' ha' shing, on the south shore of Mille 

 Lac during the month of May, 1900. These wigvs^ams extended in a 

 single line — plate 3, figure 1 — parallel with the lake shore and distant 

 about 200 feet from the water. Some two years before the virgin pine 

 on the south shore of the lake had been cut away and in 1900 few 

 large trees remained, although the majority of the maples had been 

 spared. Until the destruction of the timber the native villages had 

 stood protected in the midst of the great forests. 



The wigwam shown in plate 3, figure 2, was roughly rectangular in 

 form, about 14 feet square and 6 feet high in the center. The frame- 

 work was formed of saplings, seldom more than 2 inches in diameter, 

 one end set firmly in the ground and the other bent over and attached 

 to similar j)ieces coming from the opposite side. Other small 

 branches and saplings had been securely attached to these in a 

 horizontal position about 2 feet apart, making a rigid structure. 

 Thus a dome-shaped framework was erected over which were spread 

 rush mats and strips of bark. Instances are known where the entire 

 frame was covered with elm or cedar bark. The covering was held 

 in place by cords which passed over the top and were attached to 

 stones which hung suspended on either side, or some were tied to 

 poles which hung horizontally near the ground, as shown in plate 3, 

 figure 2. The fire was made inside on the ground near the center of 

 the floor space, although in good weather the cooking was done out- 

 side the wigwam. The interior was dark and depressing, the walls 



1 Oliphant, L. Minnesota and the Far West. Edinburgh and London, 1855, pp, 

 193-194. 



