44 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 77 
them to seek a more plentiful supply, or by reason of causes distinct 
from either of these can never be definitely known. 
But some remained in the east; all did not join in the migration, 
and the native tribes encountered by the colonists living in the pied- 
mont region of Virginia and extending southward into Carolina 
belonged to this linguistic family. Their villages have been men- 
tioned in a former publication. (Bushnell, (1), pp. 92-94.) 
It is more than probable that while living east of the Mississippi 
all reared and occupied structures similar to those of the Algonquian 
tribes of later generations, mat and bark covered lodges, such as 
continued in use by the Osage, Quapaw, and others even after they 
had reached their new homes, but some through necessity were com- 
pelled to adopt other forms of dwellings. Thus many were found 
occupying the conical skin tipi, while some had learned the art of 
building the large earth-covered lodges, an art which had evidently 
been derived from the Caddoan tribes coming from the Southwest. 
DAKOTA-ASSINIBOIN GROUP. 
The Dakota constitute the largest division of the great Siouan 
linguistic family. To quote from the Handbook, this group includes 
the following tribes, a classification which is recognized by the people 
themselves: “ 1. Mdewakanton ; 2. Wahpeton; 3. Wahpekute; 4. Sisse- 
ton; 5. Yankton; 6. Yanktonai; 7. Teton, each of which is again sub- 
divided into bands and subbands.” 'These seven principal divisions 
are often referred to as the Seven Council Fires of the Dakota. The 
first four groups as given in this classification formed the eastern 
_ division, and their home, when first encountered by Europeans, was 
in the densely forested region about the headwaters of the Mississippi. 
The others lived westward, reaching far into the plains. The Assini- 
boin, in historic times a separate tribe, was originally a part of the 
Yanktonai, from whom they separated and became closely allied 
with the Algonquian Cree. Thus some of the Dakota as first known 
to history were a timber people, others lived where the forest and 
prairie joined, with a mingling of the fauna and flora of the two 
regions, and in later years the Oglala, the principal division of the 
Teton, extended their wanderings to and beyond the Black Hills, 
crossing the great buffalo range. 
As will be shown in the sketches of the dwellings and other struc- 
tures of the Dakota tribes, those who lived in the timbered region, 
occupying much of the present State of Minnesota, erected the type 
of habitation characteristic of the region, but in the villages along 
the Minnesota both bark and skin covered lodges were in use, and the 
more western villages were formed exclusively of the latter type, the 
