THE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 79 



MR. CATLINGS NOTES ON THE ARICKAREE INDIANS. 



When Lewis and Clarke first visited these people, thirty years since, it will be 

 found by reference to their history that the Riccarees received and treated them with 

 great kindness and hospitality ; but owing to the system of trade, and the manner 

 in which it has been conducted in this country, they have been inflicted with real or 

 imaginary abuses, of which they are themselves, and the fur traders, the best judges ; 

 and for which they are now harboring the most inveterate feelings towards the whole 

 civilized race. 



The Riccarees are unquestionably a part of the tribe of Pawnees, living on the 

 Platte River, some hundreds of miles below this, inasmuch as their language is 

 nearly or quite the same ; and their personal appearance and customs as similar as 

 could be reasonably expected amongst a people so long since separated from their 

 parent tribe, and continually subjected to innovations from the neighboring tribes 

 around them; amongst whom, in their erratic wanderings in search of a location, 

 they have been jostled about in the character, alternately, of friends and of foes.— 

 Page 204, vol. 2, Catlin's Eight Years. 



PAWNEES— ARICKAREES. 



The Arickarees, Ricarees, or Rees, as variously written, call themselves Sa-nish, or 

 Tanish, meaning "the people," a common form of expression among Indians to in- 

 dicate their superiority. They were originally the same people as the Pawnees of 

 the Platte River, their language being nearly the same. That they migrated up- 

 wards along the Missouri from their friends below is established by the remains of 

 their dirt villages, which are yet seen along that river, though at this time mostly 

 overgrown with grass. At w r hat time they separated from the parent stock is not 

 correctly known, though some of their locations appear to have been of very ancient 

 date, at least previous to the commencement of the fur trade on the Upper Missouri. 

 At the time when the old French and Spanish traders began their dealings with the 

 Indians of the Upper Missouri, the Anckaree village was situated a little above the 

 mouth of Grand River, since which time they have made several removals, and are 

 now located at Fort Clark, in a former village of the Mandans. 



The cabins or huts of the Arickarees and other stationary tribes are built by plant- 

 ing four posts in the ground in the form of a square, the posts being forked at the 

 top to receive transverse beams. Against the beams other timbers are inclined, the 

 lower extremities of which describe a circle, or nearly so, the interstices being filled 

 with small twigs, the w T hole thickly overlaid with willows, rushes, and grass, and 

 plastered over with mud laid on very thick. A hole is left on the top for smoke to 

 pass out, and another at the side for a door. The door opens a few sterns distant 

 from the main building on the surface of the ground, from which, by a gradual 

 descent through a covered passage, the interior of the hut is reached. The door is, 

 of wood, and the aperture large enough to admit a favorite horse to the family circle, 

 which is often done. These buildings are located within fifteen or twenty feet of 

 each other wdthout any regard to regularity. 



They cultivate considerable land, each family separating its little farm from their 

 neighbors' by rush fences. Corn is their principal dependence, of which they raise 

 considerable quantities. The work is done entirely by the women, the primitive hoe 

 being their only implement. They generally have quite a surplus, which they trade 

 to the Dakotas and to the fur companies. 



The Arickarees are quite expert in manufacturing a very serviceable kind of pot- 

 tery, neatly shaped, and well adapted for cooking purposes. They are of clay, hand- 

 wrought, but not glazed. 



At the present time they number 900, and are associated with 600 Gros Ventres and 

 420 Mandans at the Fort Berthold Agency, on the Upper Missouri, where 13,000 



