Omaha Dwellings, Furniture and Implements

Omaha Dwellings, Furniture and Implements, by

James Owen Dorsey, This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
Title: Omaha Dwellings, Furniture and Implements Thirteenth Annual Report of the Beaurau of American Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution 1891-1892, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1896 pages 263-288
Author: James Owen Dorsey,
Release Date: November 24, 2006 [EBook #19913]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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OMAHA DWELLINGS, FURNITURE, AND IMPLEMENTS
BY
JAMES OWEN DORSEY

CONTENTS
Page Introductory note 269 Dwellings 269 Earth lodges 269 Lodges of bark or mats 271 Skin lodges or tents 271 Furniture and implements 275 Fireplaces 275 Beds and bedding 275 Cradles 275 Children's swings 276 Brooms 276 Pottery 276 Mortars and pestles 276 Spoons, ladles, and drinking vessels 277 Water vessels 277 Other vessels 278 Hoes and axes 278 Knives 278 Implements connected with fire 279 Smoking paraphernalia 279 Equipage for horses 280 Traveling gear 281 Boats 281 Musical instruments 281 Weapons 283 Clubs 283 Tomahawks 284 Spears 284 Bows 285 Arrows 286 Quivers 287 Shields and armor 287 Firearms 288

ILLUSTRATIONS
Page Fig. 306. Yellow Smoke's earth lodge 270 307. Ground plan of Osage lodge 271 308. Omaha tent 272 309. Exterior parts of an Omaha tent 273 310. [P]ejequde's tent 274 311. Omaha cradle--plan 276 312. Omaha cradle--side view 276 313. Omaha mortar 277 314. Omaha pestle 277 315. Omaha calumet 279 316. Omaha pipe used on ordinary occasions 280 317. Skin drum 282 318. Box drum 282 319. Omaha large flute 283 320. Omaha club (ja^{n}-[p]a[c]na) 283 321. Omaha club (ja^{n}-[p]a[c]na) 284 322. Omaha club (weaq[|c]ade) 284 323. Omaha bow (za^{n}zi-mand[)e]) 285 324. Omaha bow ([t]a[k]a^{n}-mand[)e]) 285 325. Omaha hunting arrow 286 326. Omaha war arrow 286 327. Omaha style of hid��-[t]��ce 286

OMAHA DWELLINGS, FURNITURE, AND IMPLEMENTS
BY JAMES OWEN DORSEY

INTRODUCTORY NOTE.
The accompanying paper is one of the results of personal investigations among the Omaha of Nebraska and cognate tribes of Indians, beginning in 1878 and continued from time to time during late years.
While the paper treats of the Omaha tribe, much that is said is applicable to the Ponka, as the two tribes have long had similar environments and a common dialect, for, until 1877, their habitats were almost contiguous, and since 1880 about one-third of the Ponka tribe has been dwelling on its former reservation near the town of Niobrara, Nebraska.
Acknowledgments are due Dr. O. T. Mason for many valuable suggestions early in the progress of the work.

DWELLINGS.
The primitive domiciles of the Omaha were chiefly (1) lodges of earth or, more rarely, of bark or mats, and (2) skin lodges or tents. It may be observed that there were no sacred rites connected with the earth lodge-building or tent-making among the Omaha and Ponka.
Earth Lodges.
When earth lodges were built, the people did not make them in a tribal circle, each man erecting his lodge where he wished; yet kindred commonly built near one another.
The earth lodges were made by the women, and were intended principally for summer use, when the people were not migrating or going on the hunt. Those built by the Omaha and Ponka were constructed in the following manner: The roof was supported by two series of vertical posts, forked at the top for the reception of the transverse connecting pieces of each series. The number in each series varied according to the size of the lodge; for a small lodge only four posts were erected in the inner series, for an ordinary lodge eight were required, and ten generally constituted the maximum. When Mr. Say[1] visited the Kansa Indians, he occupied a lodge in which twelve of these posts placed in a circle formed the outer series, and eight longer ones constituted the inner series, also describing a circle. The wall was formed by setting upright slabs of wood back of the outer posts all around the circumference of the lodge. These slabs were not over 6 feet in height, and their tops met the cross timbers on which the willow posts rested. Stocks of hard willow about 2 inches in diameter rested with their butts on the tops of the upright