OMAHA 1)WELLIN(IS, FUUNITURE, AND IMPLEMENTS 



By James Owen Dorsey 



INTRODUCTORY NOTE. 



The accompanying paper is one of the results of personal investiga- 

 tions among the Omaha of Nebraska and cognate tribes of Indians, 

 beginning in 1878 and continued from time to time during late years. 



While the paper treats of the Omaha tribe, much that is said is 

 applicable to the Ponka, as the two tribes have long had similar envi- 

 ronments and a common dialect, for, until 1877, their habitats were 

 almost contiguous, and since 18S0 about one-third of the Ponka tribe 

 has been dwelling on its former reservation near the town of Niobrara, 

 Nebraska. 



Acknowledgments are due Dr. O. T. Mason for mtoy valuable sug- 

 gestions early in the progress of the work. 



DWELLINGS. 



The primitive domiciles of the Omaha were chiefly (I) lodges of earth 

 or, more rarely, of bark or mats, and (2) skin lodges or tents. It may be 

 observed that there were no sacred rites connected with the earth 

 lodge-building or tent-making among the Omaha and Ponka. 



Earth Lodges. 



When earth lodges were built, the people did not make them in a 

 tribal circle, each man erecting his lodge where he wished ; yet kin- 

 dred commonly built near one another. 



The earth lodges were made by the women, and were intended prin- 

 cipally for summer use, when the peojjle were not migrating or going 

 on the hunt. Those built by the Omaha and Ponka were constructed 

 in the following manner: The roof was supported by two series of ver- 

 tical jiosts, forked at the top for the reception of the transverse con- 

 necting pieces of each series. The number in each series varied accord- 

 ing to the size of the lodge; for a small lodge only four posts were 

 erected in the inner series, for an ordinary lodge eight were required, 

 and ten generally constituted tlie maximum. When Mr. Say' visited 



' James' account of Long's Expedition to the Kocky Motmtains in lS19-'20. 



269 



