M \ I ERIAL CULTURE. 



even long before that, the Mandans had instructed them in the secret 

 of manufacturing very good ami serviceable earthen pots; which to- 

 gether have entirely done away with the custom, excepting at public 

 festivals) where they seem, like all other things of the human family, 

 to take pleasure in cherishing and perpetuating their ancient customs.' 1 

 (p. 54.) 



These methods were known to the Arapaho, Crow, 

 Dakota, Gros Ventre, Blackfoot, and Assiniboine. 

 Doubtless they were generally practised elsewhere in 

 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 



Fig. 27. Buffalo Horn Spoon. 



hand, the eastern United States appears as a 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 traders 

 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. 



Buffalo horn spoons were used by all and whenever 

 available ladles and dishes were fashioned from moun- 

 tain sheep horn. Those of buffalo horn were used in 



