M kTERIAL CULTURE. 69 



It will be Doted that in stylo and range of bags and 

 pouches, the village group of these Indians tends to 

 stand apart from the other groups much more distinctly 

 than the intermediate Plateau tribes of the west, for 

 between the latter and the typical Plains tribes, there 

 are few marked differences. 



Household Utensils. In a preceding section, refer- 

 ence w r as made to baskets, which in parts of the Pla- 

 teaus, often served as pots for boiling food. They were 

 not, of course, set upon the fire, the water within being 

 heated by hot stones. Pottery was made by the Hida- 

 tsa, Mandan, and Arikara, and probably by all the 

 other tribes of the village group. There is some 

 historical evidence that it was once made by the Black- 

 foot and there are traditions of its use among the Gros 

 Ventre, Cheyenne, and Assiniboine; but with the 

 possible exception of the Blackfoot, it has not been 

 definitely credited to any of the nine typical tribes. 



We have no definite information as to how foods were 

 boiled among these tribes before traders introduced 

 kettles. Many tribes, however, knew how to hang a 

 fresh paunch upon sticks and boil in it with stones 

 (Fig. 26). Some used a fresh skin in a hole. Thus 

 Catlin says: — 



"There is a very curious custom amongst the Assinneboins, from 

 which they have taken their name; a name given them by their neigh- 

 bors, from a singular mode they have of boiling their meat, which is 

 done in the following manner: — when they kill meat, a hole is dug in 

 the ground about the size of a common pot, and a piece of the raw hide 

 of the animal, as taken from the back, is put over the hole, and then 

 pressed down with the hands close around the sides, and filled w T ith 



