BUSHNELL] VILLAGES WEST OF THE MISSISSIPPI 185 
sippi and far beyond, the mat and bark covered wigwams were de- 
veloped and employed practically to the exclusion of all other forms 
of habitations. But on the plains, and in the regions bordering the 
great buffalo ranges, the skin-covered conical tipis predominated, 
although other forms were sometimes constructed by the same people. 
The earth lodges as erected by certain tribes of the Missouri Valley 
were the most interesting native structures east of the Rocky Moun- 
tains, and these at once suggest the Rotundas, or great council houses 
once built by the Cherokees and Creeks east of the Mississippi. 
In treating of the habitations and villages of the several tribes 
references have been made, incidentally, to the manners and ways 
of life of the people who once claimed and occupied so great a part 
of the present United States. 
