48 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY (BULL, 77 
the United States’ flag was hoisted over his cabin, and a deputation 
of some of his warriors waited at our encampment to invite us to. 
his lodge. We were received in due ceremony; the chief and his 
son, Tatunkamane, (the walking buffalo,) were seated next to the 
entrance. We took our stations near them, on the same bed-frame, 
while his warriors seated themselves on the frame opposite to us.” 
This was followed by handshaking, and the smoking of the pipe of 
peace. (Op. cit., pp. 251-252.) The two parties again separated 
and those passing overland arrived at the fort the following evening. 
The boat party, ascending the Mississippi, arrived at “ Wapasha’s 
village” on June 29, soon after the departure of the others who 
were going overland. They left Redwing early in the afternoon of 
July 1, and on the following day passed the St. Croix. Continuing, 
they “passed an Indian village consisting of ten or twelve huts, 
situated at a handsome turn on the river, about ten miles below the 
mouth of the St. Peter; the village is generally known by the name 
of the Petit Corbeau, or Little Raven, which was the appellation of 
the father and grandfather of the present chief. . . As the village 
was abandoned for the season, we proceeded without stopping. The 
houses which we saw here were differently constructed from those 
which we had previously observed. They are formed by upright 
flattened posts, implanted in the ground, without any interval except 
here and there some small idepholes fon defence; these posts sup- 
port the roof, which presents a surface of bark. Bator: and behind 
each hut, there is a scaffold used for the purpose of drying maize, 
pumpkins, &c.” Late in the same day they arrived at the fort. 
(Keating, (1), I, pp. 288-289.) Whether the method of constructing 
lodges by forming the walls of upright posts or logs was of native 
conception or was derived from the French is now difficult to deter- 
mine. In referring to the customs prevailing in the Mississippi 
Valley, particularly the French portions, about the year 1810, Brack- 
enridge said: “In building their houses, the logs, instead of being 
laid horizontally, as ours, are placed in a perpendicular position, 
the interstices closed with earth or stone, as with us.” (Bracken- 
ridge, (1), p. 119.) The old courthouse at St. Louis was built after 
this method. Again, among some tribes along the eastern slopes of 
the Rocky Mountains, as will be told on another page, were to have 
been found small, well-protected lodges formed of upright poles, and 
in this instance there is no reason to suspect European influence. 
Therefore it is not possible to say definitely whether the structures 
standing on the banks of the Mississippi during the summer of 
1823 were of a primitive, native form, or if they represented the 
influence of the early French who had penetrated the region many 
years before. 
