BUSHNELL] VILLAGES WEST OF THE MISSISSIPPI 3 
the Great Osage, on the waters of the Little Osage, Saint Francis, 
and other streams, are a number of scattered bands of Indians, and 
two or three considerable villages. These bands were principally 
Indians, who were formerly outcasts from the tribes east of the Mis- 
sissippi. Numbers have since joined from the Delawares, Shawa- 
noes, Wayondott, and other tribes towards the lakes. Their warriors 
are said to be five or six hundred. They have sometimes made excur- 
sions and done mischief on the Ohio river, but the settlements on 
the Mississippi have suffered the most severely by their depredations.” 
(Cutler, (1), p. 120.) 
No attempt will be made in the present work to describe the habi- 
tations or settlements occupied by the scattered bands just mentioned. 
It is quite evident that during the past two or three centuries great 
changes have taken place in the locations of the tribes which were 
discovered occupying the region west of the Mississippi by the first 
Europeans to penetrate the vast wilderness. Thus the general move- 
ment of many Siouan tribes has been westward, that of some Algon- 
quian groups southward from their earlier habitats, and the Caddoan 
appear to have gradually gone northward. It resulted in the converg- 
ing of the tribes in the direction of the great prairies occupied by 
the vast herds of buffalo which served to attract the Indian. Until 
the beginning of this tribal movement it would seem that a great 
region eastward from the base of the Rocky Mountains, the rolling 
prairie lands, was not the home of any tribes but was solely the range 
of the buffalo and other wild beasts, which existed in numbers now 
difficult to conceive. . 
THE BUFFALO. 
(Bison americanus.) 
With the practical extermination of the buffalo in recent years, 
and the rapid changes which have taken place in the general appear- 
ance of the country, it is difficult to picture it as it was two or more 
centuries ago. While the country continued to be the home of the 
native tribes game was abundant, and the buffalo, in prodigious 
numbers, roamed over the wide region from the Rocky Mountains to 
near the Atlantic. It is quite evident, and easily conceivable, that 
wherever the buffalo was to be found it was hunted by the people of 
the neighboring villages, principally to serve as food. But the differ- 
ent parts of the animal were made use of for many purposes, and, 
as related in an early Spanish narrative, one prepared nearly four 
centuries ago, when referring to “the oxen of Quivira ... Their 
masters have no other riches nor substance: of them they eat, they 
drink, they apparel, they shooe themselves: and of their hides they 
make many things, as houses, shooes, apparell and ropes: of their 
