18 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL 77 
even now they are so mingled with the latter people as with difficulty 
to be considered a distinct tribe, further than a slight difference 
in language and their local position.” (Hayden, (1), p. 235.) For- 
merly they occupied the forest region to the eastward of the country 
which they later claimed. There they were probably accustomed to 
the mat or bark covered structures, similar to those of the neighbor- 
ing Ojibway, but in more recent times, after having been attracted to 
the prairies by the buffalo, they followed the customs of the prairie 
tribes and for the most part made and used the typical conical skin- 
covered lodge. 
After reaching the open country, and becoming more accustomed 
to the life of roving hunters, they were necessarily less sedentary in 
their habits than formerly, and their camps probably seldom re- 
mained long in any one place. They became scattered over a wide 
region, and in 1856 it was said: “They number about ten or eleven 
hundred persons. Like most of the tribes in the Northwest Terri- 
tory, they are separated into clans or bands, and live in different dis- 
tricts for greater advantages in hunting.” Here is given a list of the 
several bands, with the number of skin lodges claimed by each group, 
but the “ Pis-ka-kau-a-kis, or ‘ Magpies,’ are abcut thirty lodges; are 
stationed at Tinder Mountain; live in dirt lodges and log-cabins; 
cultivate the soil to some extent, and raise considerable quantities of 
corn and potatoes; hunt buffalo during the winter, and trade also with 
the Hudson’s Bay Company.” (Hayden, (1), p. 237.) The same 
writer continues (p. 238): “ Besides the foregoing there are about 
two hundred lodges more who are not formed-into bands, but scat- 
tered along Lac de L’Isle Croix, and live by hunting reindeer, moose, 
fish, and wild fowl. They live in skin tents in the summer, but some- 
times build log and bark huts in winter, and seldom more than one 
cabin is found in the same place. These are the poorest of the Crees.” 
Thus it will be understood how scattered bands of the same tribe 
often reared and occupied several forms of habitations, influenced 
by their natural surroundings and requirements. And here are ref- 
erences to the use of the bark-covered lodge, the skin-covered lodge 
of probably a different shape, the structure covered with earth or sod, 
and, lastly, the log cabin, by widely dispersed bands of the Cree. 
A simple form of temporary shelter was constructed by the Cree 
and Ojibway to serve during certain ceremonies. This was described 
about a century ago when recounting the customs of the “ Sauteaux 
and the Crees.” It was told that in public feasts “Several chiefs 
unite in preparing a suitable place, and in collecting sufficient provi- 
sions, for the accommodation of a numerous assemblage. To provide 
a place, poles are fixed obliquely into the ground, enclosing a suffi- 
cient space to hold several hundred, and at times, nearly a thousand 
