76 



INDIANS OF THE PLAIN ^ 



the Plains. Since California and the whole Pacific 

 coast northward as well as the interior plateaus had 

 stone-boiling as a general cultural trait, this distribu- 

 tion in the Plains is easily accounted for. On the other 

 hand, the eastern United State- appears as :i great 

 pottery area whose influence reached the Village tribes. 

 So excepting the pottery-making Village tribes, the 

 methods of cooking in the Plains area before trader- 

 introduced kettles seem to have comprised broiling 

 over the fire, baking in holes in the ground, and boiling 

 in vessels of skin, basketry, or bark. For the first, 



Fig. 31. Buffalo Horn Spoon. 



pieces of meat were impaled on a stick and either held 

 over the fire or the butt of the stick thrust in the ground. 

 Cooking in a hole was universal in the basin of the 

 Columbia River, especially for edible roots. A pit was 

 dug and a fire built in and over it. When a great ma— - >f 

 embers and ashes had accumulated they were scraped 

 away, the hole lined with leaves or bark, the roots put 

 in and covered, after which the ashes and embers were 

 scraped over all. After the proper interval the pit was 

 opened and the food served. The tribes on the western 

 border of the Plains, the Blackfoot, Shoshoni. etc., also 



