PREFACE. 



THIS little book is not merely a guide to museum 

 collections from the Plains Indians, but a sum- 

 mary of the facts and interpretations making up 

 the anthropology of those Indians. The specimens in 

 this Museum were r for the most part, systematically col- 

 lected by members of the scientific staff while sojourning 

 among the several tribes. They were selected to 

 illustrate various points in tribal life and customs, or 

 culture. The exhibits in the Plains Hall contain, as 

 far as s£>ace permits, most of the typical objects for 

 each tribe; yet, it has been physically impossible to 

 show everything the Museum possesses. So the most 

 characteristic objects for each tribe have been selected 

 and care taken to have the other objects common to 

 many tribes appear at least once in some part of the 

 hall. The ideal way would be to get every variety of 

 every object used by each subdivision of a tribe and 

 exhibit all of them in their entirety ; but few collections 

 can be made so complete, and even if they could, space 

 in the building could not be found for them. The 

 exhibits, then, should be taken as material indices, or 

 marks, of tribal cultures and not as complete exposi- 

 tions of them. This handbook, on the other hand, 

 deals with the main points in the anthropology of the 

 Plains Indians many of which (as marriage, social and 

 political organization, language, etc.) cannot be de- 

 monstrated by collections. The statements in the 

 text are made upon the authority of the many special 



