October 21, 1910] 



SCIENCE 



r,63 



however, the northern Shoshone, like many of 

 their southern rehitives, bear a general re- 

 semblance to the plains type, but in the former 

 use of the woven rabbit-skin robe and the ex- 

 ceptional use of the buffalo robe we have again 

 plateau traits. The manufacture of coiled 

 and twined basketry further diiferentiates 

 them from the northern plains Indians, as do 

 the absence of the elaborate medicine bundle, 

 the sun dance and the men's societies. Deco- 

 rative art seems, however, to have been 

 strongly influenced by the northern plains; 

 but while this influence is also evident in 

 mythology, the predominating characteristics 

 are those of the plateaus and California. 

 Thus, on the whole, it appears that the older 

 theory that the northern Shoshone formerly 

 lived on the Missouri has no support, other 

 than the traditions of battles among the 

 Blackfoot, Crow, etc., all of which are prob- 

 ably based upon chance encounters with Sho- 

 shone hunting parties. 



The Assiniboine. — Dr. Lowie also made a 

 special study of the mythology and culture of 

 two divisions of the Assiniboine, those at 

 Morley, Alberta (1907), and those at Fort 

 Belknap, Montana (1908). One of the im- 

 portant problems, here, arises from the as- 

 sumed late separation of the Assiniboine from 

 the Dakota and their subsequent association 

 with the Cree between whom an important ex- 

 change of cultural traits must have occurred. 

 Enough linguistic data were secured to show 

 a distinct dialectic difference between these 

 two divisions of the Assiniboine, suggesting 

 that their separation from the Dakota must 

 have been earlier than is really assumed. 

 However, further investigation of the speech 

 current among the various bands of Assini- 

 boine now living in Saskatchewan will be nec- 

 essary to a satisfactory conclusion. In my- 

 thology we again find evidence for the 

 remoteness of the separation from the Dakota 

 in so far that the Assiniboine show far less 

 of the elementary Siouan characteristics than 

 of the Algonkin. Among the close neighbors 

 of the Assiniboine, toward whose mythologies 

 are shown almost equally marked relation- 

 ships, are the Ojibway, Cree, Blackfoot and 



Gros Ventre, all highly individualized Algon- 

 kin tribes. Ceremonial organization is 

 another aspect of culture, receiving special 

 attention in this paper, one of the most strik- 

 ing points being that the Assiniboine 

 have a number of ceremonial societies in 

 which there is no conception of anything like 

 a series or age gradation, but in which, never- 

 theless are shown certain other analogies in 

 procedure and regalia to these widely distrib- 

 uted plains features. This result led the au- 

 thor to a special examination of the various 

 tribal associations so far reported to deter- 

 mine in how far the age classification series 

 holds for the area at large. His conclusion is 

 that neither the age relationship nor any 

 other conception can be taken as the control- 

 ling principle, but that each tribe has in a 

 way constructed its societies by " the novel 

 synthesis of singly wide-spread elements " and 

 not by the complete adoption of any one or- 

 ganization. This is, of course, largely theo- 

 retical and in opposition to the sociological 

 theories of Shurtz and Webster, but in line 

 with the synthetic structure of the sun dance, 

 pipe ceremonies, beaver ceremonies, etc., of 

 the same area noted by American anthropol- 

 ogists. In addition to these major considera- 

 tions the paper contains data on material 

 culture, art, social organization and religion. 

 The Blacl-fooi.—ln 1906 Dr. Wissler vis- 

 ited the Blackfoot Indians in Montana, giving 

 special attention to their material culture, the 

 subject of the latest publication in this series. 

 In this paper fairly complete data are pre- 

 sented under the heads of food and its prepa- 

 ration, manufactures, transportation, shelter, 

 dress and weapons. Taking these aspects of 

 culture alone, the Blackfoot manifest no im- 

 portant traits not shared in almost equal 

 measure by some of their immediate neigh- 

 bors, so that it is impossible to credit them 

 with tribal individuality or to determine 

 their relative weight as a factor in the de- 

 velopment of plains material culture. A 

 critical examination of available historical 

 data shows that there is no firm foundation 

 for the current theory that the Blackfoot mi- 

 grated to the plains from the forests of the 



