BUSHNELL] VILLAGES WEST OF THE MISSISSIPPI 63 
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and we were told that this was a medicine, or charm, contrived by 
the Indians in order to entice the herds of buffaloes. Everywhere 
in the plain we saw circles of clods of earth, with a small circular 
ditch, where the tents of many Indians had stood.” (Op. cit., p. 
157.) These were evidently the remains of the encampment seen 
by Catlin the preceding year. 
A sketch of Fort Pierre as it appeared July 4, 1851, is given in 
plate 23, 6. This was the work of the young Swiss artist, Friedrich 
Kurz, and is now reproduced for the first time. The small groups 
of Indians, the tipis standing near the fort, and the rolling prairie 
in the distance are all graphically shown. 
The several divisions of the Teton performed the sun dance, at 
which time a large ceremonial lodge would be erected, which stood 
alone in the camp circle, formed of the numerous skin tipis. The 
lodge as reared at different times and by the various tribes varied 
in form and method of construction, but it seems to have been the 
custom of all the tribes to abandon the structure at the termination 
of the ceremonies. It was regarded as a sacred place and one not 
to be destroyed by man. Large structures of this sort were often 
encountered by parties traversing the plains and adjacent regions, 
and one, probably erected by a tribe of the Teton, was discovered 
by the Raynolds party, July 16, 1859, in the extreme eastern part 
of the present Crook County, Wyoming. In the journal of the 
expedition it was written on that day, “We have not yet met any 
Indians, nor any indications of their recent presence. The site of 
our camp is, however, marked by the remains of an immense Indian 
lodge, the frame of which consists of large poles, over thirty feet 
in length. Close by is also a high post, around which a perfect 
circle of buffalo skulls has been arranged.” (Raynolds, (1), p. 31.) 
This may have been used during the preceding year, at which time the 
skin tipis of the people enacting the sacred ceremonies were pitched 
in the form of a circle with the great lodge standing in the center. 
But with the completion of the annual dance the participants re- 
moved, with their skin tipis, to other localities, allowing the sacred 
structure to be destroyed by the elements. 
OGLALA. 
Of the early history of this, the principal division of the Teton, 
nothing is known. During the first years of the last century they 
were discovered by Lewis and Clark on the banks of the upper Mis- 
souri, south of the Cheyenne River, in the present Stanley County, 
South Dakota. They hunted and roamed over a wide region, and by 
the middle of the century occupied the country between the Forks of 
the Platte and beyond to the Black Hills. While living on the banks 
