pip nT 23]' McNARY RESEARCH — SHINER 253 



The explorers also mentioned a Nez Perce sweat lodge, racks for dry- 

 ing fisli, deep pit houses near The Dalles, Oreg., and a large burial 

 vault on the Columbia River. 



There is no early record of winter houses for the northern Plateau 

 but summer mat lodges were described. In 1811, at the mouth of the 

 Sanpoil River and near the present site of Grand Coulee Dam, David 

 Thompson observed : 



Their huts are of slight poles tied together, covered with mats of slight rushes. 

 [Sperlin, 1913, p. 8.] 



Farther downstream he mentioned a Wenatchee hut which was 209 

 yards long. 



MATERIAL CULTURE 



Actual descriptions of articles of material culture are rare in the 

 early reports. Some of the closest observations were made of clothing 

 which, being perishable, was not recovered in the archeological exca- 

 vations. Lewis and Clark, in 1805, noted that the Indians near the 

 mouth of the Snake River wore buffalo or elk-skin robes, beads and 

 feathers, leggings, and moccasins. Also : 



The dress of the women is more simple, consisting of a long skirt of argalia 

 or ibex skin, reaching down to the ankles without a girdle : to which are tied 

 small pieces of brass and shells and other small articles. [Biddle, 1904, vol. 2, 

 p. 174.] 



Stone mallets were apparently observed by Clark just above the 

 mouth of the Snake River in 1805. He wrote: 



He began by bringing in a piece of pine wood that had drifted down the river, 

 which he split into small pieces with a wedge made of the elk's horn, by means 

 of a mallet of stone curiously carved. [Ibid., p. 192.] 



About the same time, Lewis mentioned a group of articles : 



The rooms are ornamented with their nets, gigs and other fishing tackle as well 

 as the bow for each individual, and a large quiver of arrows, which are headed 

 with flint stones. [Ibid., p. 189.] 



Bows and arrows were described by Henry, as of the year 1811. His 

 remarks apply to the Plateau Indians in general : 



The bows used by the natives W. of the mountains are neatly made, and of 

 three kinds — the horn, the red cedar, and the plain wooden bow. The horn 

 bow is made of a slip of ram's horn. . . . overlaid with several successive lay- 

 ers of sinew. . . . The red cedar bow is made of a slip of that wood overlaid 

 with sinew and glue. . . . The plain wooden bow is of cedar, willow, or ash . . . 

 it is well smoothed but not so much esteemed by the natives, . . . [Henry and 

 Thompson, 1897, p. 713.] 



The arrows are much longer than those of our Indians E. of the Mountains, 

 being nearly three feet, very neatly made, slim pointed, and well feathered ; 

 they are usually tipped with flint, but of late iron has been secured for that 

 purpose. [Ibid., p. 714.] 



