426 ON THE ETHNOGRAPHY AND PHILOLOGY OF THE 
without, a-ta-shi/-ku-a. woman, mi’-a. yellow, tsi’-ri. 
wood, bat-se-ta’-she, petrified wood. yes, ko-ush’-ik. 
woodpecker, tosh’-ka. year, a-ma’-e-Ca. yesterday, hu-ri-shi’-ru. 
@Ial AY 12 MB IDR, CL 
XII. MAnpDANS. 
ETHNOGRAPHICAL HISTORY. 
ALTHOUGH one would suppose that all the tribes of the Upper Missouri, being the same 
barbarous people, accustomed to like occupations, and possessing the same advantages, 
would exhibit no great national difference, yet each tribe or nation has marked distinc- 
tions of character, as much and even more, perhaps, than the several divisions of the Kuro- 
pean race. This must depend, to a great extent, upon their physical organization, for the 
pursuits of all Indians inhabiting the plains are or should be radically the same. Hunt- 
ing and war, amusements and devotion, idleness and activity, divide their time, and would 
without some peculiarity of constitution lead to a general resemblance of character. The 
small amount of agricultural labor bestowed upon the soil by the stationary tribes, cannot 
be reckoned as an item in their national education, or as influencing the conduct of the 
men, for this is done altogether by the women. ‘The presence of the men is not required 
in the corn-fields, and if found there, it is from far different purposes than aiding in the 
work, The question then arises, how it happens that the Arikaras present such grovelling, 
debased, and mean general features, with scarcely any redeeming qualities, whilst the 
Mandans, residing but a few miles distant, possess an almost opposite character ? 
The Mandans, or Mi-ali'ta-nés, “ people on the bank” (of the river), as they call them- 
selves, must have resided on the banks of the Missouri at a very remote period, perhaps 
not near their present residence, but in several places along the river. It is also probable 
that if they migrated at all, they came from a southern direction, as the sites of different 
villages of very ancient date are seen along the Missouri, as low down as the present 
boundary between the United States and the Dakota country. Some of these antique 
ruins are said to have been Arikara villages, which is doubtless the case. The fact sought 
to be established is, that all these stationary tribes migrated in the same direction, from 
southeast to northwest along this river, which may be inferred from the circumstance, 
that no remains of their villages are to be seen along any other stream than the Missouri, 
nor are they found in any place on the plains. 
Prior to the visit of Lewis and Clarke in the autumn of 1804, very little information of 
