OKLAHOMA ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 113 



robes. The wide, bayou-like mouth of Deer Creek afforded a safe 

 and convenient mooring place for bateaux and canoes and could 

 even be used for the launching of a small raft. 



Historically, much remains to be worked out in regard to this 

 village and trading post site and it is not impossible that documents 

 in the French National Library might throw considerable light upon 

 the subject from that angle. From a scientific viewpoint, aside from 

 the amount and variety of the implements, tools and weapons to be 

 found scattered over the village site, its chief interest lies in the 

 fact that it serves as a link to connect the earth-house culture of 

 eastern Oklahoma and adjacent states with the Caddoan culture of 

 more recent times. It is also of interest as presenting an instructive 

 instance of the primary contact between European culture and that 

 of a primitive people on the edge of the Great Plains. 



LIV. SOME NOTES ON THE BOIS FORT CHIPPEWA 



OF MINNESOTA 



Albert B. Reagan 



Kayenta, Ariz, 



Abstracted by Margaret M. Nice 

 The Bois Fort Chippewas live in northern Minnesota around 

 Lake Nett in a region partly swamp and partly timbered. The coun- 

 try is practically in the virgin state and is "a paradise for wild 

 fowl and fur-bearing animals." The Indians do much hunting and 

 trapping ; they gather wild rice and make maple sugar "when the 

 first crow appears." 



They live in wigwams covered with birch bark or mats of cat- 

 tail flag, or in bark camps, birch bark houses, or, sometimes in 

 summer, in "wickeups" which are posts covered with flat roofs of 

 brush. They make mats from rushes, cedar bark and cat-tail 

 flags, and thread, twine and rope from basswood fiber. Many 

 utensils are made of birch bark — rice baskets, sap baskets, trays 

 and winnovv^ing dishes ; in some cases these are made water-tight by 

 sealing the seams with pitch. Bead work is used on moccassins, 

 other clothing and "fire bags." The Ojibwa canoe "is undoubtedly 

 the most beautiful and light model of all water crafts ever invented. 

 The frame work is made of white cedar or some other light, durable 

 wood," while the birch bark is "put on it so ingeniously and to 

 well sewed together and the seams so well closed with pitch chaz the 

 finished canoe is water tight and rides on the water like a cork." 



The writer describes in great detail nine different games of 

 these Indians comparing some of them with similar games of the 



