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an buffaloe canoes. The river is nearly half a 

 mile wide, and as the Indians informed me, flows 

 through a plain, level country, for several hun- 

 dreds of miles, mostly destitute of timber. On 

 the head waters riside several tribes of Indians, 

 with which the Sioux are at war. The most 

 powerful of these tribes are the Chein, or Dog 

 Indians. There are also the Ge?is-di-rach, or 

 Kananazuesh, the Kites and Dotame, besides 

 ' bands of the Mahas, Pimcars, and Kataka. We 

 met with a Camp of the Rus Indians, who were 

 hunting, and continued here until the 18th, when 

 they joined us, and we proceeded to the villages 

 about sixty miles, travelling through a country 

 destitute of timber, and interspersed with large 

 hills. On the 22d, arrived at the lower village 

 and joined several camps of Sioux and Dog In- 

 dians. The Ricaras or Rus, have three villages, 

 situated on the south bank of the Missouri, in the 

 great bend of the river. The lower village is on 

 a large bottom, covered with cotton wood, and 

 contains about fifty huts. These huts were built 

 in a different manner, and were more comfortable 

 habitations, than any Indian huts I had before 

 seen. To build their huts, they cut four forked 

 posts, which are set up fifteen feet high. Two 

 of these posts stand eighteen inches apart, and 

 two stand at the distance of ten feet -from the 

 other two posts, and ten feet from each other, 

 on which two ridge poles are placed. Around 

 these posts they erect sixteen forked posts more, 



