NO. 6 MISSOURI VALLEY DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM WEDEL 3 



Wyoming, were the Crow. Between Heart Rivef in North Dakota 

 and the upper Platte were the Teton Dakota. The Cheyenne, agricul- 

 turists in North Dakota as late as 1750, by 1800 were sharing with 

 the Arapaho the region between the upper Platte and the Arkansas. 

 In the sagebrush plains of central Wyoming were the Wind River 

 Shoshone, whose relationships were strongest with tribes in the Great 

 Basin to the west. Often considered the "typical" peoples of the 

 plains, these groups for the most part dwelt in portable skin tipis, 

 practiced no agriculture or pottery-making, made extensive use of 

 the dog (later the horse) and travois, and depended for their suste- 

 nance primarily on the bison. 



In the eastern part of the Basin, along the Missouri River and on 

 its larger tributaries, dwelt a series of semisedentary, corn-growing, 

 pottery-making tribes. Perhaps best known among these, by reason 

 of the stream of explorers, traders, artists, and adventurers who 

 visited their great stockaded settlements in the 1800's, were the 

 Hidatsa and Mandan of North Dakota and the Arikara in South 

 Dakota. Downriver, in eastern Nebraska, were the Ponca, Omaha, 

 Oto, and Missouri, the last-named tribe a late migrant from central 

 Missouri ; and, in the lower Platte-Loup district, the Pawnee. In 

 northeastern Kansas were the Kansa, and to the east in Missouri, 

 were the kindred Osage. These were the village tribes to whom the 

 early fur-traders resorted, bringing both goods and epidemic diseases ; 

 and against whom the mounted warlike nomads from the western 

 plains carried on a more or less constant series of raids. Here again, 

 as with the nomadic tribes, there is evidence that not all the groups 

 have been equally long in their historic locale ; and also, that their re- 

 spective histories will trace back through widely divergent develop- 

 mental backgrounds. 



To supplement the ethnic background for the research program 

 reported in this paper, it may be helpful to sketch briefly what we 

 know today of prehistory in the region — of man's activities here be- 

 fore the tribes named above were first met by white men. 



On present evidence, it appears that the earliest inhabitants of the 

 Missouri River Basin were hunting and gathering peoples, who grew 

 no domestic crops and made no pottery. Their origin and physical 

 appearance beyond the assumption that they were Indians, can only 

 be guessed at. From the nature of their known campsites (pi. i, 

 fig. I ) , it may be surmised that they lived in small bands which roamed 

 from place to place as seasonal conditions or the needs of the moment 

 dictated. It may be supposed also that their hunting methods, skin- 



