•78 Some Considerations on the Mound Builders. 



stockade and ditch. These little tribes resided in their 

 secure villages, raising corn, and selling it to Western 

 tribes for pelfries, which they sold in turn to the East, 

 and venturing out only short distances to kill buffalo; 

 while the whole region else was occupied by roving 

 tribes, without any fixed habitation, and living wholly 

 by the chase. 



Of these three tribes — Rickarees, Mandans, and Min- 

 netarees — the Rickarees are a fragment of the Pawnee 

 nation ; the Minnetarees belong to the Dakota family; 

 while the Mandans have no affiliation with anv other 

 known family. Morton, indeed, says they belong to 

 the Dakota race, while De Smet says, on the other hand, 

 they belong to the wholly different race, the great Chip- 

 peway family of tribes. Catlin, however, who lived 

 some time among them, says their language has no af- 

 finity with any other he was acquainted with ; that, 

 being a mere handful of a tribe, they learned to speak 

 the language of other tribes, while none learned theirs. 



The Mandans ever since they were first known, have 

 enjoyed a reputation, as compared with their neighbors, 

 somewhat like that of the Natchez in the South. They 

 have been called " the polite and friendly Mandans," 

 " the white Indians." Their huts, fifty feet in diameter, 

 are described by Catlin as scrupulously neat ; the sepa- 

 rate bedsteads were screened off by curtains of dressed 

 skins ; a solid stockade and ditch defended their village, 

 which was built on a precipitous bluff projecting into 

 the river. They made a great variety of excellent pot- 

 tery, which they baked in kilns; and manufactured a 

 sort of iridescent beads, which were highly prized for 

 ornament. They played the game called " chungke" as 



