Il8 SMITHSOXIAX MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. /O 



mediate use, was stored in dry. cool shelters. Birch bark was used in 

 making many forms of containers, and sheets of the bark were sewed 

 together as coverings for dwellings. Xext in importance to birch 

 bark may be considered the deer hide, which furnished the early Chip- 

 pewa with material for their clothing, bedding, etc. The tanning of 

 hides was studied, and the process of " smoking " a hide was photo- 

 graphed at Red Lake (fig. 124). The hide was suspended above a 

 shallow hole in the ground, in which a slow fire was kept burning. 

 The smoke from this fire imparted a golden yellow color to the hide. 

 The woman shown in the illustration is expert in the work, and when 

 tanning this hide was wearing her hair loose on her shoulders, ac- 

 cording to the custom of one in recent mourning. The writer 

 continued the collecting of medicinal herbs, which was begun in 1917, 

 and recorded much data concerning the early customs of the Chip- 

 pewa. 



The last locality visited was in the vicinity of Lake W'innebigoshish 

 where some old graves had been " washed out.'" More than 250 

 fragments of pottery were collected, no of which were pieces of the 

 rims and necks of jars. The decorations of these were not unusual 

 in character, showing various imprints of roulette, twisted cord, 

 woven fabric, sharp stick, or thumb-nail, but these were combined 

 in such variety that only three or four duplicates were found in the 

 entire collection. Thirty-four fragments of jars were large enough 

 to show the curve of the sides and the size, which varied from a few 

 inches to about a foot in diameter. The color of the pottery frag- 

 ments also showed a wide variety, including black, orange, and very 

 pale gray, as well as the familiar browns and reddish shades. Among 

 numerous human bones collected was a skull obtained from an 

 Indian who found it in that immediate locality. The skeletal material 

 was submitted to Dr. Hrdlicka, of the National Museum, who reports 

 that " the bones are those of a male skeleton, in all probability In- 

 dian. Thev are possibly not over a few decades old." The large 

 bones were pierced near one end, the puncture l)reaking into the 

 marrow cavitv. These artifacts show the use of a conical instrument. 



STUDIES OF THE KIOWA. TEW'A. AND CALIFORNIA INDIANS 

 In June ^Ir. John P. Harrington, of the Bureau of American Eth- 

 nology, went to Anadarko, Oklahoma, where, with the assistance of 

 very intelligent informants, he was able to revise and greatly increase 

 his Kiowa material, which includes very complete grammatical notes 

 and some texts. At the end of June Mr. Harrington proceeded to 



