118 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Buun. 185 
The impression gained from study of these records is of a steadily 
declining native culture, a decline which accelerated in speed through 
the years until, after the Arikara lost most of their material culture, 
their social and political system also broke down in the closing decades 
of the 19th century. With this impression the scanty archeological 
evidence from Star Village fully agrees. Although the bow was still 
in use in 1862, iron had replaced stone for arrowpoints, and a gun 
flint and a lead ball against an iron arrowpoint give a 2 to 1 ratio in 
favor of guns at the site. Iron knives had replaced the stone and 
bone blades. Steel files had taken the place of most of the sandstone 
and scoria abraders found at earlier sites. Iron augers were being 
used, and although not found, evidence on wooden and bone objects 
allows us to add axes and saws to the inventory of iron tools in use at 
the site. Pottery vessels, although recorded for the site, were much 
less in evidence, archeologically, than iron cups, buckets, glazed 
earthenware, and glass containers of Caucasian origin. Glass beads 
were not uncommon, and buttons were found. Although a shell 
pendant from the site is probably of native manufacture, the material 
owed its presence to trade. The number and distribution of iron 
nails at the site suggests that lashing with leather or sinew was less 
common than in former times or, alternatively, that wooden boxes 
were being used for storage, replacing to some extent the rawhide 
parfleche and bags presumably used by this group at an earlier period. 
It is regrettable that lack of funds forced the abandonment of plans to 
excavate the site of the winter village occupied by the Arikara during 
the preceding winter, which gave promise of a higher yield of 
artifacts. 
To what extent acculturation had affected the more perishable 
items we have little or no direct archeological evidence. From mu- 
seum collections we know that basketry was made until a much later 
period. We may suppose that cloth was used to a greater extent in 
common wear than formerly, and the finding of both glass and metal 
buttons at the site suggests that some garments of non-native pattern 
were in use there. Glass embroidery beads were relatively common 
and may well mark a decline in the use of poreupine-quill embroidery. 
Although the woven blanket had probably replaced the leather robe, it 
is not improbable that such trade items as beads, ribbon, shells, and 
mirrors and the use of metal tools allowed the making of more colorful 
ceremonial and war costumes than formerly. 
It may be noted here that while objects of Caucasian origin are com- 
monly referred to as trade material, not all of them were obtained by 
the native groups from traders. Presents made by the United States 
Government through the Indian agents formed a source of this ma- 
terial from an early period, and the flow of goods supplied by the In- 
dian Department increased in volume after the beginning of the 
