BUSHNELL] VILLAGES WEST OF THE MISSISSIPPI 81 
which could resist a fairly heavy wind.” There was probably very 
little variation in the ways and customs of the different members of 
the tribe, and the tents of an entire village would have been raised 
after the same, long-established manner. But the structures in an 
Omaha village did not surround an open space, “ nor were they set so 
the people could live in the order of their gentes, an order observed 
when they were on the hunt and during their tribal ceremonies. Yet 
each family knew to what gens it belonged, observed its rites, and 
obeyed strictly the rule of exogamy. To the outward appearance a 
village presented a motley group of tribesmen. The dwellings and 
their different corrals were huddled together; the passageways be- 
tween the lodges were narrow and tortuous. There was little of the 
picturesque. The grass and weeds that grew over the earth lodges 
while the people were off on their summer buffalo hunt were all cut 
away when the tribe returned. So, except for the decorations on the 
skin tents, there was nothing to relieve the dun-colored aspect.” 
(Op. cit., p. 99.) Such was the appearance of an Omaha village in 
the valley of the Missouri. 
In 1847 the Omaha erected a village on the banks of Papillion 
Creek, near the line between Sarpy and Douglas Counties, Nebraska. 
Four years later it was visited by Kurz during his journey up the 
Missouri. Kurz was camped near Council Bluffs, on the left bank 
of the Missouri. Opposite was Bellevue, the trading post of Peter 
A. Sarpy, and while at the latter place, May 16, 1851, Kurz entered 
in his journal: “In Bellevue I have drawn an Indian winter house 
made of earth, and also a Pawnee girl.” And on May 20 he wrote: 
“Again crossed the river to Bellevue in order-to visit the Omaha vil- 
lage some six miles distant; went over the bluffs, as being the short- 
est way, then crossed the high prairie... to the Papillon creek 
which partly surrounds the village of the Omahas. The village itself 
is built on a hill... The camp or village is composed of leather 
tents and earth-covered lodges. Between the tents and lodges are 
scaffolds for drying meat and also an enclosure for the horses . . . 
I walked into the village and watched a group of young men en- 
deavoring to throw lances through rolling rings, the others being 
gathered on top the earth lodges, [pl. 26, b] as spectators.” (Bush- 
nell, (3), p. 11.) Sketches made by Kurz at that time are repro- 
duced in plate 28. The interior of an earth lodge, drawn at Belle- 
vue May 16, 1851, is shown in }; the couches extending along the 
wall are clearly indicated, also the fireplace in the center of the lodge, 
over which is hanging a hook for the suspension of a kettle. The vil- 
lage, which stood on the banks of Papillion Creek, is shown in the 
lower part of a, of the same plate. Both forms of dwellings are rep- 
resented in the sketch; also the scaffolds for drying meat and other 
purposes, and several inclosures in which their horses were confined. 
