114 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 77 
when in the region then occupied by the lowa, wrote: “The canal 
between Nadaway Island and the cantonment is called Nadaway 
Slew, at the end of which we saw the remains of some Indian huts. 
In a dark glen in the forest, we observed a long Indian hut, which 
occupied almost its whole breadth, and must have served for a great 
number of persons.” (Maximilian, (1), p. 124.) It is to be 
regretted that a full description of this “long Indian hut” was not 
preserved. It may have been a ceremonial lodge rather than a large 
dwelling. 
An interesting though brief account of the Iowa as they were at 
this time is preserved. It was related by a missionary, Samuel M. 
Irvin, who arrived among the Iowa April 10, 1837. They were liv- 
ing in the northwestern part of Missouri, the “ Platte purchase,” but 
were soon to be removed to lands west of the Missouri. At that time, 
the spring of 1837, so the narrative continues: “They numbered in 
all 830. They were a wild, warlike, roving people, and in a most 
wretched condition, depending mainly on the chase for a subsistence. 
Their habitations were of the most frail and temporary kind. They 
were shelters in the form of huts or houses made of the bark of trees 
stretched over slender poles and tied together with bark strings, or 
they were tents or lodges made of the skins of the buffalo or elk, and 
sewed together with the sinews of these animals. These bark houses 
were mainly for summer shelter, and would in a few years yield to 
the wear of time, when they would be abandoned and a new location 
sought. The skin tents were carried with them, and made their 
habitations wherever they chanced to stop. They were strictly a 
migratory and unsettled people.” (Plank, (1), p. 312.) And “ do- 
mestic animals, excepting ponies and dogs, were not among them. 
Indeed, to some of them, such things as cattle, hogs, sheep and 
poultry were almost unknown, and did such animals happen their 
way they would pounce upon them for present food as quickly as 
upon a buffalo or wild turkey.” 
An excellent picture of an Iowa habitation accompanied the article 
from which the preceding quotations have been made and is now 
reproduced in plate 32, 0. 
OTo. 
When Lewis and Clark ascended the Missouri during the summer of 
1804 they reached the mouth of the Platte July 21. At that time, so 
they entered in their journal, the Oto were living on the south side of 
the Platte 10 leagues above its junction with the Missouri, and 5 
leagues beyond, on the same bank, were the Pawnee. Living with 
the Oto were the remnants of the Missouri who had, a few years 
before, joined them. On August 3, 1804, the expedition having 
ascended the Missouri to about the location of the present city of 
