BUSHNELL] VILLAGES WEST OF THE MISSISSIPPI 169 
On the third day after passing the mouth of the Cheyenne they 
reached “Teal creek,” and “A little above this is an island on the 
north side of the current, about one and a half mile in length and 
three quarters of a mile in breadth. In the centre of this island is 
an old village of the Ricaras, called Lahoocat; it was surrounded 
by a circular wall, containing seventeen lodges. The Ricaras are 
known to have lived there in 1797, and the village seems to have 
been deserted about five years since: it does not contain much timber.” 
On October 6, two days’ travel beyond Teal Creek, and at a dis- 
tance of about 32 miles above it, “ We halted for dinner at a village 
which we suppose to have belonged to the Ricaras: it is situated 
in a low plain on-the river, and consists of about eighty lodges, 
of an octagonal form, neatly covered with earth, and placed as 
close to each other as possible, and picketed round. The skin canoes, 
mats, buckets, and articles of furniture found in the lodges, induce 
us to suppose that it had been left in the spring. We found three 
different sorts of squashes growing in the village; we also killed 
an elk near it, and saw two wolves.” On the following day, after 
advancing about 4 or 5 miles, they encountered “ another village or 
wintering camp of the Ricaras, composed of about sixty lodges, built 
in the same form as those passed yesterday, with willow and straw 
mats, baskets, buffalo-skin canoes, remaining entire in the camp.” 
The baskets may have included many similar to two rare ex- 
amples now in the National Museum, Washington, one of which is 
shown in plate 52, @ (U.S.N.M. 8430). 
On October 9, 1804, after passing the mouth of the river ‘called 
by them the Wetawhoo or Wetarko, soon to be known as Grand 
River, which flows into the Missouri from the west in the present 
Corson County, South Dakota, the expedition stopped and held a 
council with the Indians. There they remained until October 11, 
when “At one o’clock we left our camp with the grand chief and 
his nephew on board, and at about two miles anchored below a 
creek on the south, separating the second and third village of the 
Ricaras, which are about half a mile distant from each other. 
These two villages are placed near each other in a high smooth, 
- prairie; a fine situation, except that having no wood the inhabi- 
tants are obliged to go for it across the river to a timbered low- 
land opposite to them.” 
The expedition left the Arikara during the aie oon of October 
12, and on that date in the narrative appears an interesting account 
ae the then recent migrations of the tribe: “They were originally 
colonies of Pawnees, who established themselves on the Missouri, be- 
low Chayenne, where the traders still remember that tw enty years 
ago they occupied a number of villages. From that situation a part 
