114 HOUSES AND HWOUSE-LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. 
of computation, five hundred persons, and an average of twelve persons 
to a house. 
When first discovered the Dakotas lived in houses constructed with a 
frame of poles and covered with bark, each of which was large enough for 
; several families. They dwelt princi- 
pally in villages in their original area 
on the head-waters of the Mississippi, 
in the present State of Minnesota. 
Forced upon the plains by an advane- 
ing white population, but after they 
had become possessed of horses, they 
invented a skin tent eminently adapted 
to their present nomadic condition. 
Fic. 8.—Dakota wii-ka-yo, or Skin Tent. 
It is superior to any other in use 
among the American aborigines from its roominess, its portable character, 
and the facility with which it can be erected and struck. The frame con- 
sists of thirteen poles from fifteen to eighteen feet in length, which, after 
being tied together at the small ends, are raised upright with a twist so as 
to cross the poles above the fastening. They are then drawn apart at the 
large ends and adjusted upon the ground in the rim of a circle usually 
ten feet in diameter. A number of untanned and tanned buffalo skins, 
stitched together in a form adjustable to the frame, are drawn around it and 
lashed together, as shown in the figure. The lower edges are secured 
to the ground with tent-pins. At the top there is an extra skin adjusted 
as a collar, so as to be open on the windward side to facilitate the exit of the 
smoke. A low opening is left for a doorway, which is covered with an extra 
skin used as a drop. The fire-pit and arrangements for beds are the same 
as in the Ojibwa lodge, grass being used in the place of spruce or hemlock 
twigs. When the tent is struck, the poles are attached to a horse, half on 
each side, like thills, secured to the horse’s neck at one end, and the other 
dragging on the ground. The skin-covering and other camp-equipage are 
packed upon other horses and even upon their dogs, and are thus trans- 
ported from place to place on the plains. This tent is so well adapted to 
their mode of life that it has spread far and wide among the Indian tribes 
