MCQEE] FORMER HABITAT 187 



stretcliiiig; from tlic Eocky mountains to the Mississipjii and from the 

 Arkuusas-Ked river divide nearly to the Saskatchewan, with an arm 

 crossing the Mississippi and extending to Lake ^[ichigan. lu addition 

 there were a few outlying bodies, the largest and easternmost bordering 

 the Atlantic fn)m Santee river nearly to Capes Lookout and ITatteras, 

 and skiiting the Appalachian range northward to the Potomac; the 

 nest considerable area lay on the Gulf coast about Pascagoula river 

 and bay, stretching nearly from the Pearl to the Mobile; and there were 

 one or two uuiuijwrtant areas on Ohio river, which were temporarily 

 occupied by small groups of Siouan Indians during recent times. 



There is little probability that the Siouan habitat, as thus outlined, 

 ran far into the prehistoric age. As already noted, the Siouau Indians 

 of the plains were undoubtedly descended from the Siouan tribes of the 

 east (indeed the Mandan had a tradition to that effect) ; and reason has 

 been given for supposing that the ancestors of the prairie hunters fol- 

 lowed the straggling buffalo through the cis-Mississippi forests into 

 his normal trans-Mississippi habitat and spread over his domain save 

 as they were held in check by alien huntsmen, chiefly of the warlike 

 Caddoan and Kiowan tribes; and the buftalo itself was a geologically 

 recent — indeed essentially post glacial — animal. Little if any definite 

 trace of Siouan occupancy has been found in the more ancient prehis- 

 toric works of the Mississipi)i valley. On the whole it appears probable 

 that the prehistoric development of the Siouau stock and habitat was 

 exceptionally rai>id, that the Siouau Indians were a vigorous and virile 

 peoiile that arose quickly under the stimulus of strong vitality (the 

 acquisition of which need not here be considered), coupled with excep- 

 tionally favorable opportunity, to a power aud glory culminating about 

 the time of discovery. 



ORGANIZATION 



The demotic organization of the Siouan peoples, so far as known, is 

 set forth iu considerable detail in Mr Dorsey's treatises' aud in the 

 foregoing enumeration of tribes, confederacies, and other linguistic 

 groups. 



Like the other aborigines north of Mexico, the Siouan Indians were 

 organized on the basis of kinship, and were thus in the stage of tribal 

 society. All of Ihe best-knowu tribes had reached that plane iu organ- 

 ization characterized by descent iu the male line, though many vestiges 

 and some relatively unimportant examples of descent in the female line 

 have been discovered. Thus the clan system was obsolescent and the 

 gentile system fairly developed; i. e., the people were practically out 

 of the stage of savagery and well advanced iu the stage of barbarism. 



■Chiefly "Omaha Sociology," Third Ann. Rep. Bnr. Eth.. for 1881-82 (1384), pp. 205-370; "Astudyof 

 Siouan cults," Eleventh Aun. Rep. l!ur. Eth., for 1889-90 (1894), pp. 351-344, aud that printed on the 

 following pages. 



