806 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY I Boll. 137 



Turning to the economic cycle, we seem to find that the winter 

 hunt was common to all of the tribes except possibly some of those 

 of south Florida and Louisiana, but the coast Indians spent much 

 of their summer by their fishweirs or in fishing operations gener- 

 ally, while the inland tribes depended more on food gathering and 

 minor hunting operations. They spent part of this time alike enjoy- 

 ing the produce of their fields, and the Natchez spring fast seems 

 to have been broken very early by the maturing of the "little corn." 

 Month names among the Algonquian tribes, Siouan tribes, and those 

 along the Mississippi seem to have been taken mainly from food 

 plants, while the names used by the interior tribes, Creeks, Yuchi, 

 and Choctaw^ refer more often to the weather. 



In the matter of alimentation the Southeast was practically a unit 

 except perhaps for southern Florida and, of course, the wandering 

 tribes of the west, which are practically beyond it. Elsewhere the 

 seacoast also brought about certain differences, in a measure among 

 the Chitimacha but more particularly among the Algonquian tribes 

 of the northeast. It is in the latter region that we begin to hear of 

 caches in the ground, granaries elsewhere being elevated on posts. 



There were two principal types of houses which overlapped 

 throughout the center of the region, while one extended farther west 

 and the other farther east. The first of these was represented typi- 

 cally by the the winter house of the Chickasaw, Choctaw, and Cher- 

 okee and included the winter ceremonial house of the Creeks and 

 some of the Siouan tribes. This was circular and consisted of a 

 framework of poles built around two or three series of posts, the 

 framework being covered with wattle and plastered with mud, over 

 which was grass or mats. The Natchez and some of their neighbors 

 made a similar house but perfectly square. Westward among most 

 of the Caddo and farther into the Plains, the wattle gave place en- 

 tirely to grass. In Florida most of the private houses and some 

 of the town houses were circular but without the clay covering and 

 were thatched with palmetto. Northeast this type even reached the 

 Algonquian country and is represented by the temple of the town 

 of Pomeioc. The rectangular or summer house was found among 

 the Chickasaw and Choctaw, and was the common house pattern of 

 the Creeks. Some of the town houses of the Timucua Indians and 

 the Guale people were built upon this plan, and it is related to the 

 open arbor of the modern Seminole. A similar open arbor is said 

 to have been employed in summer by the Siouans. It was the com- 

 mon summer house of the Cherokee and was probably related to the 

 long type found in the Algonquian country, though here it seems to 

 have merged into the oval and circular dwelling which we usually 

 call wigwam. The Quapaw appear to have had oval structures after 



