48 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 69 
This refers to a rectangular inclosure, formed partly of long sheds, 
the outer walls of which served as the outside of the ‘‘station.” 
These would be connected by strong palisades, with one or two gates. 
Old Chillicothe was of this form, a long shed, extending the length of 
one side of the inclosure, evidently being the council house. The 
council house may have been a separate structure within the inclosure, 
but this appears doubtful. Itis to be regretted that more is not known 
of the appearance of the native villages which stood in the valley of 
the Ohio long after the close of the Revolution. 
As already shown, Algonquian tribes occupied the right, or west, 
bank of the Hudson. Beyond this narrow strip of territory lay the 
country of the Iroquois, the home of the Five Nations, extending across 
the present State of New York. Continuing westward along the 
south shore of Lake Erie there had formerly lived other tribes belong- 
ing to the same linguistic family. This had evidently been the home 
of the Iroquoian peoples for many generations. Here they had built 
many villages, traces of which have been discovered throughout the 
country, with innumerable objects of native origin scattered over the 
surface. The sites of many villages occupied within the historic 
period have been identified by name, and on them, mingled with im- 
plements of stone, are often found objects of European origin, these 
being more numerous on the later sites. The long communal dwell- 
ings of the people of the Five Nations differed in many details from 
the habitations of the neighboring tribes. They were often 100 feet 
or more in length, closely grouped and protected by an encircling 
palisade of one, two, or three rows of timbers. A general description 
of their habitations and villages was prepared soon after the year 
1642, before intercourse with the Europeans had wrought any changes 
in their primitive customs. At that time it was said (Van der Donck, 
(1), pp. 196-198): 
‘Their houses are usually constructed in the same manner, without 
any particular costliness or curiosity in or to the same. Sometimes 
they build their houses above a hundred feet long; but never more 
than twenty feet wide. When they build a house they place long 
slender hickory saplings in the ground, having the bark stripped off, 
in a straight line of two rows, as far asunder as they imtend the 
breadth of the house to be, and continuing the rows as far as it is 
intended the length shall be. Those sapling poles are bent over 
towards each other in the form of an arch, and secured together, 
having the appearance of a garden arbour. The sapling poles are 
then crossed with split poles in the form of lathing, which are well 
fastened to the upright work. The lathings are heaviest near the 
ground. A space of about a foot wide is left open in the crown of the 
arch. For covering they use the bark of ash, chestnut, and other 
trees, which they peel off in pieces of about six feet long, and as broad 
