THE GEOKGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 273 



diameter, answering as a chimney and a sky-light at the same time. The roof of the 

 lodge being thus formed, is supported by beams passing around the inner part of the 

 lodge about the middle of these poles or timbers, and themselves upheld by four or 

 five large posts passing down to the floor of the lodge. On the top of and over the 

 poles forming the roof is placed a complete mat of willow boughs, of half a foot or 

 more in thickness, which protects the timbers from the dampness of the earth, with 

 which the lodge is covered from bottom to top to the depth of two or three feet ; 

 and then with a hard or tough clay, which is impervious to water, and which with 

 long use becomes quite hard, and a lounging place for the whole family in pleasant 

 weather ; for sage, for wooing lovers, for dogs and all ; an airing place^ a look-out, 

 a place for gossip and mirth, a seat for the solitary gaze and meditations of the 

 stern warrior, who sits and contemplates the peaceful mirth and happiness that is 

 breathed beneath him, fruits of his hard-fought battles on fields of desperate com- 

 bat with bristling red men. — G. C. 



381. View on Upper Missouri ; Belle Vue ; Indian agency of Major Dougherty, 



eight hundred and seventy miles above Saint Louis. Painted in 1832. 

 (Plate No. 122, page 12, vol. 2, Catlin's Eight Years.) 



Belle Vue (No. 381) is a lovely scene on the west bank of the river, about nine miles 

 above the mouth of the Platte, and is the agency of Major Dougherty, one of the 

 oldest and most effective agents on our frontiers. This spot is, as I said, lovely in it- 

 self, but doubly so to the eye of the weather-beaten voyageur from the sources of the 

 Missouri, who steers his canoe in to the shore, as I did, and soon finds himself a wel- 

 come guest at the comfortable board of the major, with a table again to eat from, 

 and that (not groaning, but) standing under the comfortable weight of meat and veg- 

 etable luxuries, products of the labor of cultivating man. It was a pleasure to see 

 again, in this great wilderness, a civilized habitation, and still more pleasant to find 

 it surrounded with corn-fields, and potatoes, with numerous fruit trees bending 

 under the weight of their fruit ; with pigs and poultry and kine ; and, what was 

 best of all, to see the kind and benevolent face that never looked anything but 

 welcome to the half-starved guests who throw themselves upon him from the North, 

 from the South, the East, or the West. 



At this place I was in the country of the Pawnees, a numerous tribe, whose villages 

 are on the Platte River, and of whom I shall say more anon. Major Dougherty has 

 been for many years the agent for this hostile tribe ; and by his familiar knowledge 

 of the Indian character, and his strict honesty and integrity, he has been able to ef- 

 fect a friendly intercourse with them, and also to attract the applause and highest con- 

 fidence of the world, as well as of the authorities who sent him there. 



382. View on Upper Missouri ; beautiful clay bluffs, nineteen hundred miles above 



Saint Louis. Painted in 1832. 



383. View on Upper Missouri ; Minataree village, earth-covered lodges, on Knife 



River, eighteen hundred and ten miles above Saint Louis. Batiste, Bo- 

 gard, and myself ferried across the river by an Indian woman in a skin 

 canoe, and Indians bathing in the stream. Painted in July, lB3i. 

 (Plate No. 70, page 186, vol. 1, Catlin's Eight Years.) 



I am now writing in the vUlage of the Minatarees, which is also located on the 

 west bank of the Missouri River (now near Mandan, Dak.), and only eight miles 

 above the Mandans. 



This is a view of the principal village. The Minatarees resided in these villages 

 (in 1832) of earth-covered lodges, on Knife River. 



The principal village of the Minatarees, which is built upon the bank of the Knife 

 River (Plate 70, No. 383), contains forty or fifty earth-covered wigwams, from forty 

 to fifty feet in diameter, and, being elevated, overlooks the other two which are on 

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