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UNIVERSITY OF N C- AT CHAPEL HILL
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This book must not
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Form No. 471
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BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY
BULLETIN 69. PLATE 1
SECTION OF LA HARPE MANUSCRIPT MAP, CIRCA 1720
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY
BULLETIN 69
N/^TIVE VILLAGES AND VILLAGE SITES
EAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI
BY
DAVID I. BUSHNELL, Jr.
WASHINGTON
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
1919
LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL
Smithsonian Institution,
BuEEAu OF American Ethnology,
Wasliington, D. C, Novemher 1, 1918.
Sir: I have the honor to transmit the accompanying manuscript,
entitled ''Native Villages and Village Sites East of the Mississippi,"
by David I. BushneU, jr., and to recommend its publication, subject
to your approval, as BuUetm 69 of this Bureau.
Very respectfully,
J. Walter Fewkes,
Chief.
Dr. Charles D. Walcott.
Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution.
PREFACE
Considering the present condition of Eastern United States, with
its great population and wealth, its many cities and industrial
centers, wide fields 'and orchards, all connected by a network of
many thousands of miles of railways, it is difficult to visualize the
same region as it wafe a short time ago — a vast wilderness covered
by virgin forests, with scattered camps and villages of native tribes
standing near the water courses, crossed by narrow trails which
often led for long distances over mountain, plain, and valley. Such
was the nature of the country traversed by the Spaniards during the
years 1539 and 1540, colonized by tlie English in 1607 and 1620,
and explored by the French in 1673. But now all is changed. Many
tribes have become extinct and few remain; their towns have dis-
appeared, though often it is possible to identify the sites where once
they stood. Fortunately the early explorers and others left records
of their journeys, and described the villages reached in their travels
through the wilderness. Now many such references to the widely
scattered towns have been brought together, and the attempt has been
made to present them in such a manner as will reveal the country as
it was before the encroachment of European settlements.
5
CONTENTS
Page
I. The country and the people 9
II. Villages and village sites 17
Conclusion 99
Bibliography 103
Index '..... .--. 107
7
ILLUSTRATIONS
1. Section of the La Harpe map, circa 1720.
2. Ojib way habitations, a, Birch-bark covered -vrigwam. 6, Mat-covered wigwam.
3. a, The Housatonic, covered with ice.' 6, The valley of the Housatonic.
4. a, Mahican village, circa 1651. 6, Minisink ^'illage, circa 1651.
5. Secotan, 1585.
6. a, Ceremony at Pomeioc, 1585. h, Pomeioc, 1585.
7. "The Cabins of the Powite Indians," 1663.
8. a, Hochelaga, 1609. h, An Onondaga town, 1615.
9. a, "The Indian Fort Sasquesahanok," 1720. 6, Great Island in West Branch
of the Susquehanna.
10. Characteristic -views in the South, a. In the Cherokee Mountains. 6, For-
ests of longleaf pine, c, The bayous near the Gulf coast.
11. Choctaw settlement at Bonfouca, from painting by Bernard, 1846.
12. Earth lodges. A Pawnee village, circa 1867.
13. Creek house, 1790.
14. fl, Temporary dwelling of the Seminole, h, Permanent dwelling of the
Seminole.
15. a, Large shell heap and village site on the seacoast near St. Augustine, h, The
Tomoco lUver, near Ormond.
16. a, A "public granary' ' in Florida. 1564. h, A fortified town in Florida, 1564.
17. Winnebago camp, from painting by Captain Eastman.
TEXT FIGURES
Page
1. Plan of Ganundesaga Castle 27
2. Bark house. Method of construction of the Iroquois long house 52
3. Plan of Onondaga long house, 1743 . . 53
4. Example of wattlework 64
5. Choctaw house of palmetto thatch 65
6. Principal structures of a Creek town in 1789 74
7. Older method of jjlacing the principal structiires in a Creek town 75
8. Home of the Chief at Apalachicola 79
9. "Indian warehouse' ' at Santa Cruz, 1699 84
10. "Warehouse" at St. Marys, 1699 85
11. Plan of an ancient structure in Beaufort County, South Carolina 87
12. Head of deer carved in wood, from Key Marco, Florida 101
NATIVE VILLAGES AND VILLAGE SITES EAST OF
THE MISSISSIPPI
By David I. Bushnell, Jr.
I. THE COUNTRY AND THE PEOPLE
Eastern United States, that part of the country extendmg east-
ward from the Mississippi to the Atlantic, when first traversed by
Europeans was the home of many tribes, speaking different languages,
having various maimers and customs unlike one another, and often
the avowed enemies of then* neighbors. The combined population
of the many tribes formerly living withm this wide area has been
estimated by ^Ir. James Mooney to have been about 280,000, scat-
tered, although having many distinct centers more thickly peopled
than others. But before referring to the distribution of the tribes,
or rather groups of tribes, speaking the same language, we should
consider the physiographical features of this part of America, as
later it will be shown how great an influence the natural environments
exerted on the development of certain customs of the people in
different sections of the country, and how often rivers and moimtains
served as boundaries between the lands claimed by various tribes.
Considering eastern United States as a whole, five distinct geo-
graphic divisions are suggested :
First, eastward from the Hudson, including entire New England,
having a rough and rocky surface, with many streams flowing into
the Atlantic, and in the northern part, the present State of Maine,
innumerable lakes, some of which are of great size. Forests of pine,
spruce, and hemlock covered a large part of this region. The climate
was severe, with long winters, heavy snows, and much frost.
Second, the coastal plain and piedmont area bordering on the
Atlantic and extending to the foothills of the Alleghenies, having in
the southern portion wide expanses of low swamp lands, and crossed
by many streams taking their rise in the mountains to the westward.
Third, the Alleghenies, attaining their greatest elevation in North
Carolina, with many rich and fertile valleys between the long ridges
which extend, hi a general course, toward the northeast. The range
forms the divide between the waters flowing mto the Atlantic and
those reaching the Mississippi.
Fourth, the rich prairie lands and hiUy country lying west of the
momitams and contmuing to the Mississippi, divided transversely
10 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHTTOLOGY [bull. 69
by the valley of the Ohio, with numerous lesser streams, and many
lakes in the northern parts. The river bottoms were well wooded,
springs of salt water were often encomitered, and the many natural
products made use of by the Indians were plentifully and widely
distributed.
Fifth, the lowlands of the South, extending eastward from the
Mississippi to the Atlantic, bordering on the Gulf of Mexico, and
including the peninsula of Florida. Forests of pme covered much of
the surface and the dense, semitropical vegetation of central and
southern Florida was never touched by frost. Many rivers, some of
considerable size, are encoimtered within this region, with swamps
and bayous near the coast.
Such was the nature of the country. With game and wild fowl
in abmidance, the lakes and streams teeming with fish, while oysters
and other mollusks were easily gathered in vast quantities along the
seacoast and many varieties of wild fruits grew on moimtain and
plain, food was usually plentiful and easily secured by the native
tribes. Added to the natural supply were the products of the gar-
dens of the sedentary people, by whom great quantities of corn and
lesser amounts of vegetables were raised, and often preserved for
future use.
The numerous tribes encountered by the early explorers and
colonists in eastern United States belonged to several linguistic
groups, and with few exceptions the tribes continued to occupy their
respective domams from the earliest times until forced westward or
until they fell before the encroachment of European, and later of
American, settlements.
New England was the home of many tribes, some small, others
larger, all of which belonged to the great Algonquian family, speaking
a language understood by all but with certain dialectic variations.
Of these some were on the coast occupying small villages near the
mouths of the many rivers; others were in the ulterior. But it is
quite evident many coast sites were occupied only during certain
seasons of the year; at other times the protection of the forests would
be sought. Among the New England tribes were many whose
names were often mentioned in the history of the colonies, and have
since been perpetuated by applymg them to the streams near which
they once lived. Far north was the Abnaki group, including the
Micmac, Passamaquoddy, and Penobscot, of Maine, and adjoinmg
them on the south the Massachuset, Wampanoag, Narraganset,
Mohegan, and Pequot. The last two were origmally one people,
but later became divided. In 1637 the Pequot were attacked by
the English and their strength as a tribe was broken, and from that
time until the close of Khig Philip's War the Narraganset remained
the most powerful tribe of southern New England, but on December
BtJSHNELL] NATIVE VILLAGES AND VILLAGE SITES 11
19, 1675, they suffered a disastrous defeat and lost more than 1,000
in killed and missmg. Those who escaped sought refuge among
other tribes. Many small kindred tribes lived south of the St. Law-
rence River, while extendmg southward from near the lower extrem-
ity of Lake Champlam, on both banks of the Hudson, were the Ma-
hican. On the east bank of the stream they jomed the Wappmger
near the present Poughkeepsie, and on the opposite side merged
with the Mmisee m the vicmity of Catskill Creek. Eastward they
occupied the upper portion of the valley of the Housatonic in western
Massachusetts. The Manhattan, a tribe belonging to the Wappmger
confederacy, gave the name to the island where once they had several
small settlements. Manhattan signifies the Island of Hills. The
Mmisee, already mentioned, was one of the tlu-ee prmcipal tribes
of the Delaware or Lenape, with whom Penn concluded the fu-st
treaty in 1682 at their village of Shackamaxon, on the site of Ger-
manto%vn, a suburb of Philadelphia.
Southward other Algonquian tribes dommated the coast to the
vicinity of the Neuse, in the present State of North Carohna, about
the southernmost members of this great Imguistic family being the
people of Roanoak, on the island of Wococon, discovered in the
summer of 1584 by the first expedition sent out by Sir Walter
Raleigh.
The western Algonquian group claimed and occupied the greater
parts of the present States of Indiana, lUinois, Wisconsin, and
Michigan, and later, parts of Ohio. The more important of these were
the Menominee of northeastern Wisconsin; the Sauk and Fox, who
were probably first encomitered on the lower Michigan peninsula
and later removed to the westward of Lake Michigan; the Peoria,
Kaskaskia, Michigamea, Cahokia, and Tamaroa, five tribes constitut-
ing the loosely formed Illinois confederacy; the Miami grouj3; and
the widely scattered Shawnee.
While the eastern Algonquian appear to have been sedentary, and
to have remamed for many generations in a given section, the tribes
of the west seemed to have developed a great movement about the
time of the discovery of their country by the French which resulted
in many removing their villages to distant localities. The Peoria
were discovered by Marquette early m the smnmer of 1673 occupying
a large village on the right bank of the Mississippi near the mouth
of the Des Moines River. Two months later they were found livmg
on the banks of the Illmois. The Kaskaskia occupied the great town
of Pontdalamia which stood on the bank of the Illinois m the present
comity of La Salle, and was visited by the French late m 1679. The
village was probably occupied until 1703, when the Kaskaskia moved
southward and settled near the mouth of the stream which now bears
their name, m Randolph Comity, Ilhnois, a few miles below the future
12 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 3{)
site of Fort Chartres, planned and erected by the French in 1720 and
in 1756 rebuilt and greatly strengthened, later to be destroyed by the
encroachment of the waters of the Mississippi. Early in February,
1682, La Salle reached "the Village of the Tamaoas, where we met
with no body at all, thfe Savages being retired into the Woods to
Winter." (Tonti, (1), p. 77.) This was on the left or east bank of
the Mississippi, 10 leagues below the mouth of the Illinois and
opposite the present city of St. Louis. In. the autuimi of 1721
another French explorer, Pere Charlevoix, while passmg down the
Mississippi, reached the same locality and there remained over night
at the "village of the Caoquias and the Tamarouas, two Illinois
tribes which have been united." (Charlevoix, (1),II, p. 218.) The
village was on the small creek which now bears the name of the
first of the tribes, and which is likewise perpetuated by having been
applied to the great momid a few miles distant from the site of the
ancient settlement.
The Illinois tribes were closely connected linguistically with the
Ojibway, while quite distmct were the Shawnee and the allied Sauk
and Fox, who spoke dialects with slight variations, so similar as to
indicate their having been closely associated or virtually having
lived together for some generations. When first known to the
French, the Fox were evidently livmg on the lower Michigan penin-
sula, east of Lake Michigan. The majority of the Shawnee were then
south of the Ohio, their principal settlement bemg in the vicinity of
the present city of Nashville, Tenn. Tlie time or cause of their
removal southward can not be determined, although it may have been
forced by the aggressiveness of the Neutrals, who, during the first
part of the seventeenth century and probably earlier, were engaged
in attackhig the Algonquian tribes to the westward of their territory.
But in 1651 the Neutrals in turn suffered a crushing defeat by the
Iroquois. From their new home in the valley of the Cumberland one
or more bands of the Shawnee appear to have moved eastward,
probably passing south of the Cherokee, and thus reaching the valley
of the Savannah, where they established themselves in several small
villages But within a generation some had again turned westward
and settled for a few years on the Chattahoochee, near the Uchee
town. Here, however, their stay was of short duration and they
soon removed to the Tallapoosa, probably to be near the French
post at Fort Toulouse. Others who had not jomed in this movement
from the Savannah soon began moving northward along the foot of
the mountains. This movement was evidently hastened by the
trou})le which culminated in the "Yamasee War," in 1715. Passing
tlii'ough the Carolinas, they reached the valley of Virginia, where they
established several small villages, with other settlements north of the
Potomac. Soon becoming associated with remnants of the Delaware
BUSHNELL] NATIVE VILLAGES AND VILLAGE SITES 13
and others, thoy crossed the mountains and the Ohio and settled
within the future State of Ohio. Here they were joined by the
Sha\mee from the Cumberland, who had been compelled, by reason
of the acts of the Chickasaw and Cherokee, to abandon their villages
and hunting grounds in central Tennessee and to seek a home beyond
the Ohio. The movement from the south began about the year 1714
and was hastened by the pressure exerted by the neighboring tribes.
And thus the tribe was again united.
The valley of the Neuse, in central North Carohna, was the early
home of Iroquoian tribes, of which the Tuscarora was the most im-
portant. The Coree on the coast may have been of tliis hnguistic
group. The Tuscarora was the most powerful tribe between the sea
and the mountains, and in the year 1708 had 15 towns and 1,200
warriors. But soon the encroaclunent of European settlements caused
them and their allies to revolt and attack the colonists. This resulted
in the ''Tuscarora War," which began in 1711, and ultimately caused
many of the tribe to leave the colony and go north among their kin-
dred of the Five Nations, which after the consohdation became the
Six Nations — the League of the Iroquois. These closel}^ confeder-
ated Iroquoian tribes, whose home since earliest historic tinies has
been in the central and western parts of the present State of New
York, although at times dominating a much wider region, spoke a
language quite distinct from that of their Algonquian neighbors, by
whom they were practically surrounded. The five nations were the
Mohawk, Cayuga, Oneida, Onondaga, and Seneca, and in 1722 the
Tuscarora became the sixth nation. The league was probably formed
during the latter part of the sixteenth century when they were forced
to unite for mutual protection against the neighboring tribes. Soon
the Dutch arrived on the Hudson*, and with firearms obtained from
the traders the power of the Iroquois was greatly increased, and
they became feared by all as far west as the distant Mississippi.
The Cherokee, the most important of the detached Iroquoian
tribes, claimed and occupied the rough region of the southern AUe-
ghenies. The mountains of western North and South Carolina, of
southwestern Virginia, eastern Kentucky and Tennessee, and northern
Georgia, were occupied by them from the earliest historic times.
Other tribes of this linguistic family were the Nottoway and Meherrin
of southeastern Virginia; the Susquehanna or Conestoga, first en-
countered by a party of the JamestoA\Ti colonists under Capt. John
Smith during the summer of 1608, near the head of Chesapeake Bay,
their villages being located on the banks of the stream which now
bears their tribal name; the Erie or Cat nation, who lived south of
Lake Erie, but who early vanished from history; the Huron, later
known as the Wyandot, and others.
14 BUREAU OF AMEEICAN ETHNOLOGY [bcll.69
The South, including the greater part of Mississippi and Alabama
and sections of South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, and Florida, was
occupied or dominated by various tribes belonging to the Muskho-
gean linguistic group. The most important of these were the Choc-
taw, Chickasaw, and" the many small tribes which served to form the
Creek confederacy.
The Choctaw, which probably included many small related tribes,
when encountered by the Spaniards in 1540, evidently occupied
central and southern Mississippi, reaching to the shore of Lake Pont-
chartrain on the south and ,to and beyond the Tombigbee River on
the east. The Chickasaw were discovered the same year in the region
about the headwaters of the Yazoo and Tombigbee Rivers, probably
in the present Union and Pontotoc Counties, Mississippi, where they
continued to dwell for several centuries. They may at this time have
reached to the Tennessee or beyond. The two tribes just mentioned,
the Choctaw and the Chickasaw, were closely related, they spoke the
same language and had similar customs, but were ever enemies.
Their natural environment had much to do with their mode of living,
for, while the former, occupying the low, rather level country, were
agriculturists, the latter, living in a broken, hilly region, were more
expert hunters, and the wild game so plentiful and so easily obtained
furnished much of their food.
The Creek confederacy was made up of many small tribes forming
two quite distinct groups of towns. The first group, later known as
the Upper Creeks, included many villages in the valleys of the Coosa
and Tallapoosa. The principal settlements were in the vicinity of
the old French post, near the junction of the two streams. The
second group, occupying both banks of the middle and lower reaches
of the Chattahoochee, were later -designated the Lower Creeks. The
league appears to have had its beginning in prehistoric times, before
the coming of De Soto in 1540, although it was greatly augmented
and strengthened in later times, when Shawnee, Yuchi, and Natchez
were admitted.
The Yamasi, whose early home was in central Georgia away from
the coast, but who in 1687 revolted against Spanish rule and fled
northward across the Savannah, also belonged to this linguistic
family; likewise the Natchez, whose connection, however, was less
clearly defined. Tlie latter, one of the most interesting and remark-
able tribes of the Mississippi Valley, occupied a large town a few miles
distant from the present city of Natchez, Mississippi, with several
small villages in the vicinity. During the early years of the eighteenth
century they were at war with the French, which terminated in a
great defeat of the Natchez, who were forced to abandon their ancient
territory, and in 1 730 the remnants of the tribe had scattered, some
crossing the Mississippi and others moving as far eastward as South
BUSHNELL] NATIVE VILLAGES AND VILLAGE SITES 15
Carolina. It now appears the Guale, undoubtedly a Muskhogean
tribe, were, about the beginning of the sixteenth century, the occu-
pants of the islands lying off the coast of Georgia, and consequently
were the people fu-st met by the early Spanish explorers.
Northern Florida was the early home of a group of tribes now desig-
nated the Timucuan, of which, unfortunately, very little is kno^v^l.
They were fii'st encountered by Ponce de Leon in 1513 near the site
of the present city of St. Augustine, and were later mentioned by
other Spanish leaders. They were probably the builders of the ma-
jority of the ancient mounds standing in northern and central
Florida, some of which were reared after the coming of the Europeans.
The name of the group is derived from that of one of the principal
tribes who occupied the eastern-central part of the territory, in the
vicinity of St. Augustine and extending along the middle portion of
the St. John River. Other tribes of this linguistic family lived on the
Gulf coast of the peninsula from Tampa Bay northward to the Ocilla
st River, there reaching the southern Muskhogean tribes, the Apa-
>^lachee. The latter when first met by the Spaniards in 1528 was an
important and numerous people and so continued until the close of
the following century. In the year 1703 their country was invaded
by the expedition led by Governor Moore, of Carolina, their lands and
villages were laid waste, many were killed, and still more were led
into slavery, while those who escaped scattered among the neighbor-
ing peoples. Soon after this war many from the lower Creek towns
on the Flint and Chattahoochee moved into Florida, and became the
Seminole, the "Runaway," of later days, their numbers being aug-
mented from time to time by others from the Creek towns.
Another important stock remains to be mentioned, and there is
reason to believe it was once far more numerous and powerful in the
region east of the Mississippi than when it first appeared in history.
Wlien Europeans entered the southern part of the present State of
Ohio they found it destitute of a fixed population. Tliis rich and
fertile section of the valley of the Ohio, on both sides of the river, had
been abandoned by its former occupants and now served as a hunting
ground for the neighboring tribes. It was crossed by several im-
portant trails over which war parties from the surrounding tribes
passed and repassed in their journeys to and beyond the Ohio. But
it is evident the region had only recently been the home of a com-
paratively numerous people, as shown by the many village sites and
cemeteries, mounds, and other earthworks, encountered in all parts
of the valley. There is a well-established legend among certain
Siouan tribes living at the present time far west of the Mississippi, of
then- migration down the valley of the Ohio from the east. Wlien
the mouth of that river was reached some went down the Mississippi
and settled on the west bank within the present State of Arkansas.
16 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 69
These were the Quapaw, whose name signifies downstream feoiitle.
Others went up tlie Mississippi, among them the Omaha, which may be
translated those going against the wind or current. Evidently the
Siouan tribes formerly lived in that part of the Ohio Valley found
vacant when first entered by the whites, and they were probably the
builders of the great earthworks in the form of circles, squares, and
many of complicated designs, which are the most remarkable of the
many ancient works existing east of the Mississippi.
Although the great body of the Siouan people had left the eastern
country before the coming of Europeans, yet some small groups o^
this linguistic family remained. These were the Catawba, Chera
Saponi, and Tutelo, of southern Virginia and central North and SoutL
Carolina. The Waccamaw, on the coast north of Charleston, south
of the Cape Fear Indians of North . Carolina, were Siouan, and the
Congaree and Santee, on streams bearing their tribal names, were
the southernmost members of this stock. The chief of the latter is
said to have had absolute power over his people, an unusual state
among the Indians of North America. The Monacan confederacy of
piedmont Virginia undoubtedly belonged to this stock, their chief
town being Rasawek, at the junction of the James and Rivaima, in
Fluvanna County, Virginia. Adjoining them on the north were
other tribes, evidently Siouan, grouped under the name Manahoac as
first applied by Capt. John Smith tliree centuries and more ago. The
Siouan tribes of piedmont Vu'ginia were the avowed enemies of the
Algonquians, or Powhatan confederacy of the tidewater region, and
tribal boundaries were seldom more clearly defined than that between
these two groups. It extended almost due north from the falls of
the Appomattox, now the site of Petersburg, crossing the James just
above the falls, now Richmond, and continuing northward.
Far distant from the preceding were the Biloxi on the GuK coast
and the Ofo on the lower Yazoo River, both in the present State of
Mississippi. These were detached Siouan tribes, speaking a dialect
quite similar to that of the Tutelo and Saponi of Virginia, but differ-
ing from that of the Catawba, although a certain old tradition would
seem to connect them with the latter. (Schoolcraft, (1), III, p. 293.) !
The Winnebago, first encountered by Nicollet in 1634 at their villages
on the shore of Green Bay, Wisconsin, were likewise Siouan, at that
time neighbors of Algonquian tribes, with whom they had certain cus-
toms in common, although speaking a distinct language.
The Uchean family may formerly have been quite numerous and
powerful, although since its discovery it has evidently been repre-
sented by a single tribe. They appear to have been the Cliisca of the
De Soto narratives and to have lived beyond the mountains, proba-
bly north of the Cherokee. Later they moved southeast to the valley
of the Savannah, and early in the eighteenth century some went to
BusiiNELL] NATIVE VILLAGES AND VILLAGE SITES 17
the Chattahoochee, where they became a part of the Creek confed-
eracy. Their town, near the mouth of Uchee Creek, in the present
Russell County, Alabama, became one of the most important of the
league. Others later settled with the ShawTiee among the Upper
Creek.
One linguistic family remains to be mentioned, the Tunican, who
when first known to history lived near the Mississippi on the lower
reaches of the Yazoo, in the present State of Mssissippi. They were
allied with other small tribes farther south and there is reason to
suppose they were formerly more numerous and powerful. Later
they crossed the Mississippi and at different times occupied several
sites in Louisiana.
From this brief sketch it will be understood the native tribes who
occupied the vast country extending eastward from the Mississippi to
the Atlantic are recognized as having belonged to seven distinct lin-
guistic families, to which number others may be added when more is
known concerning the aborigines of southern Florida. Necessarily
many of the lesser tribes have not been mentioned, but the attempt
has been made to locate the principal groups and to indicate their
positions as they were first encountered by Europeans. Of the
seven groups the Algonc|uian was the most numerous, followed by
the Muskhogean, Iroquoian, Siouan, Timucuan, Uchean, and Tunican,
and although the last two may not have numbered more than 1,000
each the others were far more numerous, forming, as already stated,
a combined population east of the Mississippi approximating 280,000.
Other Algonquian, Siouan, and Tunican tribes lived west of the
Mississippi and are, consequently, not here considered.
The languages of the seven groups differed to such a degree that
one would not have been intelligible to the other, and often within
the same linguistic family the various tribes spoke radically different
dialects. Thus with such a diversity of languages, a great range of
climatic conditions, with mountains and prairies, swamps and lakes
occurring in widely separated parts of the region, the native tribes
of this part of North America developed distinct customs influenced
by their natural conditions and environments. And seldom were
these variations more pronounced than in the forms of dwellings and
other structures erected by the different tribes, as wiU be shown in
the following pages.
II. VILLAGES iVND VILLAGE SITES
The term "village site," as used in the present work, applies to
aU places, large or small, where traces of aboriginal habitations have
been discovered. Many have been identified by name, but the great
majority will over remain unknown, and in this connection it wiU be
108851°— 19 2
18 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 69
of interest to trace the existence of native settlements in different
parts of the country, and to show how seldom the amount of material
encountered on a site is indicative of the extent or importance of the
ancient village.
Early maps show the positions of native villages, and often it
is possible to locate the ancient sites, usually by following the water
courses near which they stood. A manuscript map of the greatest
interest is contained in the La Harpe manuscript, now m the Library
of Congress at Washington. This shows in part the central and
southern portions of the Mississippi Valley as known to the French
about the year 1720, with the scattered towns of the native tribes.
A section of the map is now for the first time reproduced in plate 1.
It is a well-established fact that before the coming of Europeans
the aborigines, in many parts of the country, occupied, and had occu-
pied for many generations, their ancient sites. This alone would
have made possible the erection of the earthworks of Ohio and the
great mounds of the South and West, as no migratory people could
have been the builders of the works wliich undoubtedly required
much time to complete. Many village sites are traceable over a
wide area and would, at first glance, seem to indicate the presence
of a rather large population, but in reality the site may have been
occupied by a small number of habitations during a comparatively
long period. Evidences of occupancy are often found extending for
several miles along the banks of streams, while probably not more than
a few hundred yards of the area was occupied at a given time.
The chosen spots were always near a supply of fresh water; either
springs of sufficient size, near streams, or on the shores of lakes.
Along the water courses the larger settlements appear to have been
at the junction of two streams, thus making them more accessible
with canoes, and also adding to the sources of the necessary supply
of food. It is quite probable that settlements, large or small, were
at some time located at or near the mouths of a great majority of the
numerous streams. Evidences of such villages are, in many mstances,
yet discernible, but other sites have been washed away, or covered-
by deposits of alluvium.
When Champlain explored the coast of New England, during the
first years of the seventeenth century, he visited many small villages
on the shores of bays and inlets scattered along the rugged coast.
During July, 1605, the expedition reached the mouth of the Saco,
in the present York County, Maine, and there discovered a small
settlement, of which they wrote:
"The savages dwell permanently in this place, and have a large
cabin surrounded by palisades made of rather large trees placed by
the side of each other, in which they take refuge when their enemies
BDSHNELL] NATIVE VILLAGES AND VILLAGE SITES 19
make war upon them. They cover their cabins with oak bark."
(Champlain, (2), II, pp. 63-67.)
This was evidently a typical coast settlement and outside the pali-
sade were some scattered wigwams, and the small gardens where
corn, beans, and other vegetables were raised. A manuscript dating
from the early part of the seventeenth century, now in the British
Museum, gives the native names of the principal streams of New
England flowing into the Atlantic, and also the names of the chiefs
then occupying their banks. The Saco was known as the Sawaqua-
tock, " and there did Dwell Agemohock" (Bushnell, (1), p. 236), proba-
bly at the village mentioned by Champlain. This may have been a
typical coast settlement and as it was protected by palisades was
probably a permanent settlement, as mentioned in the narrative.
In recent years many objects of Indian origin have been found on
the summit of a rocky cliff on the western side^bf the mouth of the
Saco, evidently marking the site of the cluster of wigwams seen by
the French in the summer of 1605. But it is not usually possible to
picture so vividly the structures which at one time occupied the
numerous sites, where implements of stone, fragments of pottery,
broken shells and bones, and usually ashes and charcoal, indicate
the position of some ancient village.
Nearly a century before Champlain's fii'st visit to the coast of New
England, then an unexplored wilderness, Verrazzano, in 1524, passed
northward along the Atlantic coast. The expedition stopped at
many places and visited widely separated villages, one of which
appears to have been at some pomt near the eastern end of Long
Island. This was a settlement of an iVlgonc^uian tribe and may have
been a village of the Shinnecock near Montauk Point. It was
described thus:
"We saw their houses made in circular or round forme 10 or 12
paces in compass, made with halfe circles of timber, separate one
from another without any order of building, covered with mattes of
straw wrought cunningly together, which save them from wind and
raine. . . . The father and the whole family dwell together in one
house in great number: in some of them we saw 25 or 30 persons."
(Verrazzano, (1), p. 299.)
The "halfe circles of timber," mentioned here, probably refer to the
circular, dome-shaped wigwams, formed by bending and fastening
branches or small saplings, and covering the frame thus made with
mats or pieces of bark, characteristic of the Algonquian tribes. Al-
though many early writers in New England mentioned and de-
scribed the habitations of the native tribes, the most interesting and
comprehensive account may be gathered from that c|uaint work pre-
pared by the settler of Providence and first printed in the year 1643,
20 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 69
He treats principally of the Narraganset, in whose country "a man
shall come to many townes, some bigger, some lesser, it may be a
dozen in 20 miles travell." Their habitations (p. 47) were formed
of "long poles which the men get and fix, and then the women cover
the house with mats, and line them with embroidered mats which
the women make, and call them Mannotaulana, or Hangings." The
houses were 14 to 16 feet in diameter and were occupied by two
families. Larger structures were occupied by a greater number of
persons, and (p. 51) —
"Most commonly there houses were open, their doore is a hanging
Mat which being lift up, falls do\\Tie of itselfe; yet many of them get
English boards and naUs, and make artificiall doores and bolts them-
selves, and others make slighter doores of Burch or CJiesnut barke,
which they make fast with a cord in the night time, or when they go
out of town, and then the last (that makes fast) goes out at the
Chimney, which is a large opening in the middle of their house, called:
Wunnauchicomock. "
Evidently the Narraganset did not occupy permanent villages,
although it may have been their custom to return and occupy certam
sites during the same season of succeeding years, and it is interesting
to trace their movements- through the year (pp. 56-57) —
"From thick warme vallids, where they winter, they remove a
little neerer to their Summer fields; when 'tis warme Spring, then
they remove to their fields, where they plant Corne. In middle of
Summer, because of the abundance of Fleas, which the dust of the
house breeds, they will fhe and remove on a sudden from one part of
their field to a fresh place. And sometimes having fields a mile or
two, or many miles asunder, when the worke of one field is over,
they remove house to the other: If death fall in amongst them, they
presently remove to a fresh place: If an enemie approach they
remove to a Thicket, or Swampe, unless they have some fort to re-
move imto. Sometimes they remove to a hunting house in the end
of the yeare, and forsake it not until Snow be thick and then wiU
traveU, Men women and children, thorow the snow, thirtie, yea,
fiftie or sixtie miles; but their great remove is from their Summer
fields to warme and thicke woodie bottomes where they winter:
They are quicke ; in haKe a day, yea, sometimes at few houres warning
to be gone and the house is up elsewhere, especially, if they have
stakes readie pitcht for their Mats . . . The men make the poles or
stakes, but the women make and set up, take downe, order and carry
the Mats and householdstuffe."
They hunted much and (p. 141) —
"They hunt by Traps of severaU sorts, to which purpose after they
have observed, in spring time and Summer, the haunt of the Deere,
BDSHNELL] NATIVE VILLAGES AND VILLAGE SITES 21
then about Harvest, they goe ten or twentie together, and sometimes
more, and withall (if it be not too farre) wives and children also,
where they build up little hunting houses of Barks and Kushes (not
comparable to their dwelling houses) and so each man takes his
bounds of two, three, or foure miles, where he sets thirty, forty or
fifty Traps."
And Williams mentions two other structures of a more temporary
nature than the dwellings (p. 146) :
"Puttuckquapuonck. This Arbour or Play house is made of
long poles set m the Earth, four square, sixteen or twenty foot high,
on which the}^ hang great store of their stringed money, have great
staking towTie agamst to^\^Ie, and two chosen out of the rest by
course to play the Game at this kmd of Dice hi the midst of all their
abettors."
After referring to several ceremonies he continued:
"But their chief est IdoU of all for sport and game, is (if their land be
at peace) toward Harvest, when they set up a long house called
Qmmekamuck, which signifies Long house, sometimes an hundred
sometimes two hundred foot long, upon a plaine neere the Court
(which they call Kitteickauick) where many thousands, men and
Women meet, where he that goes in danceth in the sight of aU the
rest. . . ." (WiUiams (1)).
The latter structure, a long and evidently open arbor, closely re-
sembled the Mide lodge of the Ojibway, which was solely a place for
holding the rites connected with the Mide, and consequently should
not be confused with the long communal dwelling houses of the
Iroquois. As both the Ojibway and Narraganset were Algonquian
tribes it is possible their long ceremonial structures had a common
and quite ancient origm.
The movement about from place to place by a comparatively
small number of persons, as mentioneci by Williams, easily accomits
for the many small camp or village sites discovered in all parts of the
land, and their return from time to time to the same site or its vicinity
would, in after years, cause it to appear as having once been occupied
by a large group of wigwams — an extensive village. Thus an area
which from surface indications appears to have been rather thickly
peopled, may, in reality, have been the home of a small number of
famihes who were ever moving from one place to another, as the
requirements of the seasons made necessary.
Evidently all the native dwellings of southern New England were
quite similar, although they may have differed in covering. Early
in September, 1606, the French reached Port Fortmie, the present
Chatham harbor, the eastern point of Barnstable County, Massa-
chusetts. Here they found "some five to six hundred savages," and
22 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 69
on Champlain's map wigwams and gardens are indicated at many
different places about the shore of the bay. And it was said:
"Tlieu* dwellings are separate from each other, according to the
land which each occupies. They are large, of a circular shape, and
covered with thatch made of grasses or the husks of Indian corn "
(Champlam, (2), II, pp. 120-130.)
Some 10 years after the preceding, the Jesuit, Pere Biard, was
among the native tribes of New France and prepared notes on the
customs of the people. He wrote principally of the Micmac and
Malecite, of the eastern part of the present State of Maine and the
adjacent provinces, and when describing their habitations said:
"AiTived at a certain place, the first thing they do is to build a
fire and arrange their camp, which they have finished in an hour or
two; often in half an hour. The women go to the woods and bring
back some poles which are stuck into the ground in a circle around
the fire, and at the top are interlaced, in the form of a pyramid, so
that they come together directly over the fire, for there is the
chimjiey. Upon the poles they throw some skins, matting or bark.
At the foot of the poles, under the skins, they put their baggage.
All the space around the fire is strewn with leaves of the fir tree,
so they will not feel the dampness of the ground; over these leaves
are often thrown some mats, or sealskins as soft as velvet; upon
this they stretch themselves around the fire with their heads resting
upon their baggage; And, what no one would believe, they are very
warm in there around that little fire, even in the greatest rigors
of the Winter. They do not camp except near some good water,
and in an attractive location. In Summer the shape of their houses
is changed; for then they are broad and long, that they may have
more air; then they nearly always cover them with bark, or mats
made of tender reeds, finer and more delicate than om-s made of
straw, and so skillfully woven, that when they are hung up the
water runs along their surface "without penetrating them." (Biard,
(l),p. 77.)
And here follows an mteresting account of their ways and means
of gathering food, with different fish and game during the changing
seasons of the year.
The dwellings encoimtered by the Pilgrims on Cape Cod, when they
reached that shore early in November, 1620, "were made with long
young Sapling Trees, bended and both ends stuck into the ground:
they were made round, like unto an Arbour . . . The houses were
double matted, for as they were matted without, so were they within,
with new & fairer matts. In the houses we found wooden Boules,
Trayes & Dishes, Earthen Pots, Handbaskets made of Crab shells
wrought together . . ." (Mourt, (1), p. 18.)
iMsiiNKLL] NATIVE VILLAGES AND VILLAGE SITES 23
Mats served to cover the small entrance, and others were used to
close the opening left in the top for the smoke to pass out, the fire
being kindled on the ground within the lodge. Many pits (caches)
filled with corn and other supplies were discovered in the vicinity of
the dwellings, and a large quantity of the corn was taken by the
English— a food new to them.
This appeai-s to have been the most usual form of habitation of
the Indians of New England, although in the extreme northern part,
among the lakes of Maine, where the birch attained a large size and
grew in great plenty, the lodge covered with strips of birch bark was
known and used. About the close of the year 1689 Pere Sebastien
Rasles went from Quebec and settled among the Abnaki, in a village
not far distant, which he thus described:
"This village was inhabitated by two hundred Savages, nearly all
of whom were Christians. Their cabins were ranged almost like
houses in cities; an enclosure of high and closely-set stakes formed a
sort of wall, which protected them from incursions of their enemies.
Their cabins are very cj^uickly set up; they plant their poles, which
are jomed at the top, and cover them with large sheets of bark.
The fire is made in the middle of the cabin; they spread all around it
mats of rushes, upon which they sit during the day and take their
rest during the night." (Rasles, (1), p. 135.)
This clearly refers to a palisaded village, the dwellings of conical
form covered with bark which, although not so mentioned, was
undoubtedly taken from the birch. Thus in New England, among
the eastern Algonquian tribes, as among the related tribes of the
upper IMississippi Valley, the kind of material available for the con-
struction of a habitation usually detennined the type of structure
erected, and while the conical birch bark covered wigwam was used
in the northern part of their country, only the dome-shaped mat-
covered dwelling was encountered farther south. (PL 2.)
Pere Rasles (op. cit., p. 217) later referred to trhe manner in wliich
the Abnaki would sleep when on a journey away from their villages.
He wrote-:
"The Savages sleep uncovered in the open fields, if it do not rain;
if it rain or snow, they cover themselves with sheets of bark, which
they carry with them, and which are rolled up like cloth."
Quite similar to this, as will be shown on a subsequent page, was
Bartram's description of the shelter provided for him by his Indian
guides during the journey to Onondaga in the summer of 1743.
The Abnaki moved from place to place during the year, as did
others, often seeking food on the coast between the plantiag and
the harvesting of their corn; their villages and gardens being inland
away from the sea.
24 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 69
The preceding quotations describe the native dwelling encountered
by the colonists who reached New England during the fii'st half of
the seventeenth century. They were the small dome-shaped mat
or bark covered structure, usually constructed to accommodate one
family, seldom more, but in later years a larger type of dwelling
appears to have been built. Nevertheless it is often quite difficult
to understand the exact meaning of the early narratives, and some
who wrote during the first years of the century may have seen long,
extended dwellings standing in the various native villages along the
coast. Daniel Gookm, writing from " Camhridge, in N. E. Dec. 7th,
1674," gave a general account of the dwellings of the New England
Indians as they were at that time. He said:
''Their houses, or wigwams, are built with small poles fixed in the
ground, bent and fastened together with barks of trees oval or
arbour-wise on the top. The best sort of their houses are covered
very neatly, tight, and warm, with barks of trees, slipped from their
bodies, at such seasons when the sap is up; and made into great
flakes with pressures of weighty timbers, when they are green; and
so becoming dry, they will retain a form suitable for the use they
prepare them for. The meaner sort or wigwams are covered with
mats, they make of a kind of bulrush, which are also indifferent
tight and warm, but not so good as the former. These houses they
make of several sizes, according to their activity and ability; some
twenty, some forty feet long, and broad. Some I have seen of
sixty or a hundred feet long, and thirty feet broad. In the smaller
sort they make a fire in the centre of the house; and have a lower
hole on the top of the house, to let out the smoke. They keep the
door into the wigwams always shut, by a mat falling thereon, as
people go in and out. This they do to prevent air coming in, which
will cause much smoke in every windy weather. If the smoke beat
down at the lower hole, they hang a little mat in the way of a skreen,
on the top of the house, which they can with a cord turn to the wind-
ward side, wliich prevents the smoke. In the greater houses they
make two, three, or four fires, at a distance one from another, for
the better accommodation of the people belongmg to it. I have
often lodged in their wigwams; and have found them as warm as
the best English houses. In their wigwams they make a kind of
couch or mattresses, firm and strong, raised about a foot high from
the earth ; fii-st covered with boards that they split out of trees ; and
upon the boards they spread mats generally, and some times bear
skins and deer skins. They are large enough for three or four
persons to lodge upon: and one may either draw nearer or keep at
a more distance from the heat of the fire, as they please, for their
mattresses are six or eight feet broad." (Gookin, (1), pp. 149-150.)
BtTsiiNELi.l NATlvK VILLAGES AND VILLAGE SITES 25
In many respects this general account confirms statements of the
earlier ^vriters, as well as giving details, and recording information
not to be- found in the older works. It is interesting to learn the
manner in which largo pieces of bark were prepared to serve over
the lodge frame, and evidently bark was considered a much better
covering than mats made of rushes. The narrative is of unusual
interest, as it was prepared at a time when great changes were about
to occur in the manners and conditions of the New England Indians.
Soon was to begin the war with the southern tribes, King Philip's
War, so famed in history.
Western ^lassachusetts was the home of the Housatonic or River
Indians, later known as the Stockbridges. In the year 1736 several
groups were settled on a tract of land set apart for their use by the
Colonial government, the lands extending down the valley of the
Housatonic, reaching to the present Great Barrington and neighbor-
ing villages. A general view of the valley, in the southern part of
the tract, is given in plate 3, h. The Housatonic, taken from an ancient
village site on the right bank about 4 miles below Great Barrington,
is sho^^^l in plate 3, a. These Indians belonged to the Mahican con-
federacy, tribes wliich, as already mentioned, occupied the upper
Hudson valley and the adj acent country eastward. The region, rough
and mountainous, remained thinly peopled long after other parts of
N(»w England were rather thickly populated. In the- spring of 1743
David Brainerd, "A missionary among the Indians," went to them.
He arrived on the first day of April "at a Place called by them
Kaunaumeek in the County of Albany, near about twenty Miles dis-
tant from the City Eastward. The Place . . . was twenty Miles
distant from any English Inhabitants . . . and also being too far
distant from the Indians I therefor resolv'd to remove, and live
with or near the Indians . . . Accordingly I removed soon after;
and, for a Time, liv'd with them in one of their Wigwams." (Pem-
berton, (1), pp. 25-26.)
In describing the habitations of these Indians a few years later it
was said:
"A Wigwam is an Indian House, in building of which they take
small flixible Poles and stick them into the Ground, round such a
space as they intend for the Bigness of their House, whether greater
or less: those Poles they bend from each Side, and fasten them
together, making an Arch over Head : Then they fasten small Sticks
to them, cutting the Poles at right Angles, which serve for Ribs,
After which they cover the whole with Bark of Trees, leaving a Hole
in the Top for the Smoak to go out, and at one or both Ends to go
in and out." (Hopkins, (1), p. 11.)
The same Avriter, on page 23, mentions a structure 50 or 60 feet
in length, having fires burning within, and with 40 or more Indians
26 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 69
"seated on each Side of the Fires, from End to End of the Wigwam,
except a space at one end of the Wigwam, for the Priests, or Paw-
waws." The latter was probably in the present village of Great
Barrington, Berkshire County, Massachusetts. It was undoubtedly
a council house, where the tribal affairs were discussed and arranged,
and in some respects this suggests the structures of the Iroquois.
Although the works just quoted do not mention the existence of
palisades among the Mahican, it is evident their villages in earlier
times were so protected. The custom had probably been abandoned
before the middle of the eighteenth century, by which time the tribes
had become reduced in numbers and scattered; no longer maintain-
ing compact settlements, but living apart in smaller groups. For-
tunately there is preserved a picture of an ancient Mahican village,
made before it had lost its primitive aspect. It appears on the very
rare map of Novi Belgii, which was evidently engraved between the
years 1651 and 1656 and bears a view of New Amsterdam, considered
to be the second one made of the future city of New York. Above
the picture of the village is the legend : Modus muniendi apud Malii-
Jcanenses, together with the Dutch translation. This is reproduced
as plate 4, a. The wigwams are undoubtedly shown in too regular
order, but in other respects the drawing is probably quite true and is
suggestive of a statement made by Lahontan a few years later.
When writing of the northern tribes in general he said : ,
"Their Villages are Fortified with double Palissadoes of very hard
Wood, which are as thick as one's Thigh, and fifteen Foot high, with
little Squares about the middle of the Courtines. Commonly their
Huts or Cottages are Eighty Foot long, Twenty five or Thirty Foot
deep, and Twenty Foot high. They are cover' d with the Bark of
young Elms." (Lahontan, (1), II, p. 6.)
Describing the interior of the houses he referred to a raised plat-
form extending along either wall which served as places for beds.
Fires were kindled on the ground between platforms and there were
"vents made in the Roof for the Smoke." This undoubtedly was a
description of some Iroquoian settlement, but the reference to "little
Squares about the middle of the Courtines" would certainly apply to
the drawing of the Mahican village. However, there was probably a
great similarity between the villages of the western Algonquian tribes
of New England and those of the Irocjuoian tribes beyond the Hudson.
Here, as elsewhere in the country east of the Mississippi, it is evident
that when two tribes or groups of tribes whose towns possess dis-
tinctive characteristics are near to one another their border settle-
ments will show the pecufiar features of both. The sketch of the
Mahican village and the preceding note from Lahontan are likewise
suggestive of a rectangular inclosm'e, an ancient Seneca site, near
Geneva, Ontario County, New York. A plan of the latter is given in
BCSIINELL]
NATIVE VILLAGES AND VILLA(ii: SITES
27
figure 1, taken from Plate XIII of Squier's work (Squier, (1),
pp. 61-62), and it is of the greatest interest to know the Seneca village
was occupied long after the engraving of the Mahican town was made.
Remarkable intlced is the history of this ancient Seneca site, which
was destroyed by Sullivan in 1779, at which time the palisades were
burned and the surrounding fields and orchards laid waste. This was
Of nif .•:FNfrAS . ^TAH ;:.i.,\r\'i,
ON TAR 10 Co . N. Y.
iy).ft,lollK- Inch
Fig. 1. -Plan of Ganundesaga Castle.
the Ganundesaga Castle, which had been built, or rebuilt, by order
of Sir William Johnson in 1756, and in writing of it Squier said:
"The traces of this palisaded work are very distinct, and its out-
line may be followed with the greatest ease. Its preservation is
entirely due to the circumstance that at the time of the cession of
their lands at this point, the Senecas made it a special condition
that this spot should never be brought imder cultivation. 'Here,'
28 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 69
said they, 'sleep our fathers, and they can not rest well if they hear
the plough of the white man above them.' The stipulations made
by the purchasers have been religiously observed ... In form the
work was nearly rectangular, havmg small bastions at the north-
western and southeastern angles. At a and h are small heaps of
stone, bearing traces of exposure to fire, which are probably the
remains of forges or fireplaces. The holes formed by the decay of
the pickets are now about a foot deep ... A few paces to the
northward of the old fort is a low mound with a broad base, and
undoubtedly of artificial origm. It is now about six feet high, and
is covered with depressions marking the graves of the dead . . .
it is certain that it was extensively used by the Senecas for purposes
of burial."
Probably similar traces of the Mahican villages could be discovered
if their exact positions were known, although if the sites have been
cultivated little would remain to indicate the locations of the ancient
settlements. Tlie habitations of the Seneca and other tribes of the
Five Nations are of the greatest interest and will be mentioned later.
Long Island was occupied by several tribes, aU rather small.
The eastern end of the island has been mentioned in comiection
with the expedition of Verrazzano in 1524. An equally valuable
and interesting description of the habitations on the extreme western
end of the island a century and a half later is preserved in the journal
of two Hollanders who visited the comitry during the years 1679
and 1680. (Bankers and Sluyter, (1), pp. 124-125.) While going
through the woods they met a woman engaged in pounding corn.
She belonged to the near-by village of Najack, on the site of the
present Fort Hamilton, at the Narrows, to which place they accom-
panied her. Leaving the place where she was beating the corn,
"We went ... to her habitation, where we found the whole
troop together, consisting of seven or eight families, and twenty or
twenty-two persons, I should think. Their house was low and
long, about sixty feet long and fourteen or fifteen feet wide. The
bottom was earth, the sides and roof were made of reed and the bark
of chestnut trees; the posts, or columns, were limbs of trees stuck in
the ground, and aU fastened together. The top, or ridge of the roof
was open about hah" a foot wide, from one end to the other, in order
to let the smoke escape, in place of a chimney. On the sides, or
walls, of the house, the roof was so low that you could hardly stand
under it. The entrance, or doors, which were at both ends, were so
small and low that they had to stoop and squeeze themselves to
get through them. The doors were made of reed or flat bark . . .
They build their fires m the middle of the floor, according to the
number of families which live ui it."
BUSHNELL] NATIVE VILLAGES AND VILLAGE SITES 29
The utensils belongmg to each family were scattered on the
ground near their particular fii-e; mats were on the gromid and
served as sleeping places. Evidently there were other similar
houses in the commmiity, as the authors contmue by saying, "All
who live in one house are generally of one stock or descent, as father
and mother with their offspring." This and other statements led
Morgan to remark:
"There is nothing m these statements forbidding the supposition
that the household described practiced commmiism in living. The
composition of the household shows that it was formed on the
principle of gentile kin, wliile the several families cooked at the
different fires, which was the usual practice m the different tribes."
(Morgan, (1), p. 119.)
This suggests the house of the Mahican Indians near the Housa-
tonic, already mentioned, and Gookm's description of certain struc-
tures of the tribes of eastern New England. As told m the preceding
section, Algonquian tribes domuiated both banks of the Hudson,
therefore it must have been people of this stock who were encountered
by the discoverers of the stream when, during the autumn of 1609,
the Half-Moon sailed up as far as the vicinity of the present towTi of
Hudson. In his journal Hudson wrote:
"I sailed to the shore in one of their canoes with an old man,
who was the chief of a tribe consisting of forty men and seventeen
women; these I saw there in a house weU constructed of oak-bark,
and circular in shape, so that it had the appearance of being built
with an arched roof. It contained a great quantity of maize or
Indian corn and beans of last year's growth, and there lay near the
house for the purpose of drymg enough to load tlu"ee ships, besides
what was growmg in the fields. On our coming into the house,
two mats were spread out to sit upon, and immediately some food
was served in well made red wooden bowls; two men were also des-
patched at once with bows and arrows in quest of game, who soon
after brought in a pair of pigeons which they had shot. They like-
wise killed a fat dog, and skimied it in great haste with shells wliich
they had got out of the water." (Laet, (1), p. 300.)
Large circular houses, occupied by a number of persons, were
quite unusual, but Roger Williams had evidently seen them among
the Narraganset, and they may have been found elsewhere in New
England.
The right, or west, bank of the Hudson southward from the mouth
of Catskill Creek was occupied by the Munsee, one of the three
principal divisions of the Delaware. The Munsee were further
divided, the Minisink constituting the most important group. A
drawing of a Minisink village is given beneath the Mahican town on
the map of Novi Belgii and bears the legend: Alter Modus apud
30 BUREAU OF AMEEICA:Nr ETHNOLOGY [bdll.69
Minnessincos. This is reproduced in plate 4, h. It appears as a typi-
cal eastern Algonquian settlement; a few wigwams surrounded by a
single line of palisade, with one gateway. The details of the drawing,
as the exactness with which the houses are placed, the height of the
palisades, and the size of the figures in the foreground, are far from
being accurate, but historically the engraving is of great interest
and must necessarily convey some idea of the appearance of the
ancient Munsee villages, which probably did not differ to any great
degree from those farther south, among the Algonquian tribes who
occupied the coastal plain as far as the mouth of the Neuse, in the
present North Carolina.
There is reason to suppose the Eastern Shore of Maryland was at
one time occupied by a comparatively large native population, with
many villages scattered along the shore where fish and wild fowl were
always to be secured as food. Some villages were protected by an
encircling palisade; others were open. On the maps of Capt. John
Smith the ToclcwogTi jiu. corresponds with the position of the present
Sassafras River, flowing between Cecil County on the north and Kent
County on the south, the first forming the extreme northeast corner
of Maryland, at the head of Chesapeake Bay. The stream was en-
tered by the few Jamestown colonists who, during the latter part of
July, 1608, embarked on their "second voyage to discover the
Bay." Describing their experiences:
"Entring the River of Toclcwogh, the Salvages all armed in a
fleete of Boates round invironed us. It chanced one of them could
speake the language of Powhatan, who perswaded the rest to a
friendly parly. . . they conducted us to their pallizadoed towne,
mantellecl with the barkes of trees, with Scaffolda like mounts,
brested about with Barks very formally. Their men, women, and
children, with dances, songs, fruits, fish, furres, and what they had
kindly entertained us, spreading mats for us to sit on, and stretching
their best abilities to express their loves. Many hatchets, knives,
and peeces of yron and brasse, we saw; which they reported to have
from the Sasquesalianockes, a mighty people, and mortall enimies
with the Massawomeclces." (Smith, (2), pp. 117-118.)
This settlement appears to have been rich and prosperous. Could
it have been the one mentioned in the instructions issued to Sir
Thomas Gates when he went to the colony in 1609? In that inter-
estmg and cj[uaintly worded document it w^as told that "North at
the head of the Bay is a lardge towne where is store of Copp and if urs
called Cataanron that trade and discovery will be to great purpose if
it may be settled yearely."
Shell heaps along the shore of Chesapeake Bay, and on the banks
of the many streams which flow into it, indicate the positions of
ancient villages many of which were occupied long after the year
BUSHNELLJ
NATIVE VILLAGES AND VILLAGE SITES 31
1607, and among these various sites one of the most interesting is on
the left bank of the Choptank, a short distance below Cambridge,
Dorchester County, Maryland. This was the position of a Nanticoke
town which was occupied by them until the year 1722 (Mercer,
(1), p. 98), and was indicated on the Herrman map of 1673 by the
legend "Indian Towns." The Nanticoke were related linguistically
with the Delaware and by some are thought to have been the early
Tocwogh. However, both names were mentioned by Smith. The
site below Cambridge will at once recall the present condition of the
ancient settlement at Corn Hill, just north of Pamet Kiver, on Cape
Cod. The site on the bank of the Choptank has been covered by
ch'ifting sand in places to a depth of more than 20 feet. Now the
surface upon which the village stood is indicated "by a dark lino on
the face of the cliff bordering the river. This line is seldom more than
a foot m thickness, and while the sand beneath it is often discolored
through infiltration of matter from the old surface, the superstratum
is quite pure. As the bank falls away into the encroaching waters
camp refuse is revealed, objects of stone and fractured pebbles are
found, and bits of earthenware are numerous. Traces of an ancient
hearth were once exposed on the face of the cliff but the stones soon
fell away. A rather large ossuary was exposed beneath the black
stratum. The bones were not in any order and no objects of any
kind were associated with them. How interesting would be a de-
tailed description of this ancient village which stood less than two
centuries ago. But it may be assumed the habitations were the
dome-shaped wigwam, covered with mats or sheets of bark, as
described in a journal of a voyage to Maryland in 1705. From the
original manuscript preserved in the British Museum the following
quotation is made:
"They take Care to build there Cabbins which they always doe on'
a swamp or Branch neare to a Little run of water, they Cutt downe
halfe a dozen forked Poles and sett 'm up on end, then they cutt
Downe some small Poles for Rafters and so Covering it with Barke,
they make there fire in the Middle of the Cabbm and so lye Round
itt upon Matts or Bears skuis." (Bushnell, (2), pp. 535-536.)
Unfortunately the manuscript does not bear the name of its author,
nor the place where the observations were made, but the description
would probably apply to the entire region, on the shore of the bay
as well as inland.
Quite similar to these were the structures of the people of tidewater
Virginia, the tribes of the Powhatan confederacy, with whom the
colonists came in contact during the spring of 1607. Fortunatel}'
an excellent description of their villages has been preserved and is
quoted at length (Strachey, (1), pp. 70-76):
''Theire habitations or townes are for the most part by the rivers,
or not far distant from fresh springs, comonly upon a rice of a hill
32 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 69
that they may overlooke the river, and take every small thing into
view which sturrs upon the same. Their howses are not many in one
towne, and those that are stand dissite [dispersed] and scattered
without forme of a street, farr and wyde asunder. As for their
howses, who knoweth one of them knoweth them all, even the chief
kyng's house yt selfe, for they be all alike builded one to the other.
They are like garden arbours, at best like our sheppards' cotages,
made yet handsomely enough, though without strength or gaynes, of
such yong plants as they can pluck up, bow, and make the greene
toppes meete together, in fashion of a round roofe, which they thatch
with matts throwne over. The walles are made of barkes of trees,
but then those be principall howses, for so many barkes which goe
to the making up of a howse are long tyme of purchasing. In the
midst of the howse there is a louer [i. e. chimney or vent], out of which
the smoake issueth, the fier being kept right under. Every house
comonly hath twoo dores, one before and a posterne. The doores be
hinig with matts, never locked nor bolted, but only those matts be to
turne upp, or lett fall at pleasure; and their howses are so comonly
placed under covert of trees, that the violence of fowle weather,
snOwe, or raine, cannot assalt them, nor the sun in summer annoye
them ; and the roofe being covered, as I say, the wynd is easily kept
out, insomuch as they are as warm as stoves, albeit very smoakey
Wyndowes they have none, but the light comes in at the doore and
at the louer. . , . By theire howses they have sometymes a scaena,
or high stage, raised like a scaffold, of small spelts, reedes, or dried
osiers, covered with matts, which both gives a shadowe and is
a shelter, and serves for such a covered place where men used in
old tyme to sitt and talke for recreation or pleasure, which they
called praestega, and where, on a loft of hurdells, they laye forth
their corne and fish to dry. They eate, sleepe, and dresse theire
meate all under one roofe, and in one chamber, as it were.
"Rownd about the house on both sides are theire bedstedes, which
are thick short posts stalkt into the ground, a foot high and some-
what more, and for the sydes small poles layed along, with a hurdle
of reeds cast over, wherein they rowle downe a fyne white matte or
twoo (as for a bedd) when they goe to sleepe, and the which the
rowle up againe in the morning when the rise, as we doe our palletts.
. . . About their howses they have commonly square plotts of cleered
grownd, which serve them for gardens, some one hundred, some two
hundred foote square, wherein they sowe their tobacco, pumpons, and
a fruit like unto a musk millino, ... In March and Aprill they live
much upon their weeres, and feed on fish, turkies, and squirrells, and
then, as also sometymes in May, they plant their fields and sett their
corne. . . . ^In the tyme of their huntings, they leave their habita-
tions, and gather themselves into companyes, as doe the Tartars,
BisHNELL] NATIVE VILLAGP:S AND VILLAGE SITES 33
and goe to the most desart places with their families, where they passe
the tyme with hunting and fowling up towards the mountaines, by
the heads of their rivers, wher in deed there is plentye of game, . . .
Theire huntinge howses are not soe laboured, substancyall, nor
artyficyall as their other, but are like our soldiers' cabms, the frame
sett up in too or three howers, cast over head with matts, which the
women beare after them as they carry likewise corne, acornes,
morters, and all bag and baggage to use, when they come to the
place where they purpose for the tyme to hunt."
It is interestmg to compare the preceding account of the life and
customs of the southern Algonquian tribes with Roger Williams's
description of the manners of the Narraganset, especially when it
is realized that both were written during the same generation. In
the North, forced by the severity of the long winters, it is evident
many sought the protection of "'thick warme vallies," which was not
necessary in the South. But when the hunting season came the
different families would remove to a distance, where game was plenti-
ful and more easily obtained, and there establish their rather tempo-
rary hunting camps by erecting shelters of bark, easily and c[uickly
raised. To secure food was not the only reason for undertaking
these distant journeys, as many skins had to be obtained, later to
be tanned and made into moccasins and various garments, and to
serve various purposes in the wig^vams.
Many ancient sites have been discovered along the streams of
tidewater Virginia, marking the positions of the villages indicated
by Capt. John Smith. Many of these had undoubtedly been visited
by Strachey and were kno\^^l to him before he prepared his general
description. In some localities banks of oyster shells, mtermingled
with bits of pottery, implements of stone and bone, and fragments of
bones of animals wliich had served as food, alone mark the position
of some ancient settlement wliich may have been frequented by the
first colonists. Of other sites fewer traces remain, and in some
instances all evidence has disappeared. Kecoughtan, which stood
on the left bank of the James, near its mouth, and was probably
the second of the native villages seen by the Jamesto^\Ti colonists
in 1607, has left very little to mark its position, and the same is true
of other sites wliich figured in the early history of the colonies.
Adjoining the Virginia tribes on the south, and differing in no
manner from them, were the villages discovered by the English
expeditions sent out by Sir Walter Raleigh. When the first ships
arrived off the coast in July, 1584, they reached "an Island, which
they call Raonoak, distant fiom the harbour by which we entred,
seven leagues: and at the North end thereof was a village of nine
houses, built of Cedar, and fortified roimd about with sharp trees,
108851°— 19 3
34 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 69
to keep out their enemies and tlie entrance into it made like a
tm-ne pike very artificially." (Hakluyt, (1), III, p. 248.)
The second expedition, which sailed from Plymouth April 9, 1585,
reached the island of Wococon late in June. On July 3 they sent
word of their arrival 'Ho Wingina at Roanoak." On July 12 they
reached ''the Towne of Pomeioke," and three days later, July 15,
"came to Secotan, and were well entertained there of the Savages,"
on the 18th returning to Wococon.
Among the members of tliis expedition was 'Maister Jhon White
an Englisch paynter who was sent into the contrye by the queenes
Maiestye, onlye to draw the description of the place, lyuely to de-
scribe the shapes of the Inhabitants their appareU, manners of
Livinge, and fashions, att the speciall Charges of the worthy knighte.
Sir Walter Ralegh." The original water color drawings made at
that time by White are now preserved in the British Museum, and
such as are used in the present work are reproduced from photographs
made by the writer. Fortunately, among the drawings made by
White were general views of the towns of Secotan and Pomeioc.
These, with others of the collection, were first engraved by De Bry
and published in 1591 to accompany Harlot's Narrative, appearing
as the first part of De Bry's great collection of voyages.
The original drawing of Secotan, which is here reproduced as plate 5,
differs in many details from the engraving which appeared as plate 20
in De Bry. The text accompanying the illustration described the
large building in the lower left corner as one "wherein are the tombes
of their kings and princes, as will appere by the 22." The habitations
are shown with the mat or bark coverings removed so as to reveal
the interior, with raised platforms wliich served as sleeping places.
Ceremonies are portrayed and food is shown in large vessels resting
upon mats spread on the ground. In the upper right corner, in the
midst of a field of "Their rype corne" is "a scaffolde wher on they
sett a cottage like a rownde chaire . . . wherin they place one to
watche, for there are suche nomber of fowles, and beasts, that unless
they keepe the better watche, they would soone devoure aU their
corne. For which cause the watcheman maketh continual cryes
and noyse." Similar watch houses were erected in the fields by the
Indians of New England, and may at times have been mistaken for
small habitations.
White's drawmg of Pomeioc was engraved and presented as
plate 19 by De Bry. The original drawing, a photograph of which
is shown in plate 6, Z), bears this legend: "The towne of Pomeiock
and true forme of their howses covered and enclosed some w*^**
matts and some w*'^ barcks of trees. All compassed abowt w*^
smale poles stock thick together in stedd of a wall." The descrip-
tion of the illustration in De Bry refers to the large closed structure
BUSHNELL] NATIVE VILLAGES AND yiLLAGE SITES 35
with the pomted roof as "their temple separated from the other
howses . . . yt is builded rownde, and covered with skynne matts,
and as yt wear compassed abowt with cortynes without windowes,
and hath noo hghte but by the doore. On the other side is the kings
lodgmge," Continuing, the account says: "They keepe their feasts
and make good cheer together in the midds of the towne as yt is
described in the 17 Figure." This refers to the seventeenth plate in
De Bry, the origmal of which is here reproduced as plate 6, a. In the
engravmg the drawmg has been reversed and a fanciful background
added. It there bears the title "Their manner of prainge with Rat-
tels abowt the iyerJ' The description of the drawing as given by
De Bry was probably told him by White, as follows:
''When they have escaped any great danger by sea or lande, or be
retm'ned from the warr in token of Joye they make a great f yer abowt
which the men, and woemen sitt together, holdinge a certaine fruite
in their hands like unto a rownde pompion or a gourde, which after
they have taken out the fruits, and the seedes, then fill with small
stons or certayne bigg kemells to make the more noise, and fasten
that uppon a sticke, and singinge after their manner, they make
merrie: as my selfe observed and noted downe at my beinge amonge
them. For it is a strange custome, and worth the observation."
Secotan and Pomeioc, as viewed by White, were probably typical
of all Algonquian settlements of tidewater Maryland, Virginia, and
Carolina. Kecoughtan, as already mentioned, stood on the north
side of the James near its mouth, and may at one time have occupied
the lowland near the mouth of a small stream which now forms the
boundary between Warwick and Elizabeth City Counties. This site
was visited during the summer of 1915 and several stone implements,
many bits of pottery, chips of flint and quartz, and broken shells lay
scattered over the surface. Traces of former occupancy are to be
found at many places along the shore both above and below the
stream. All may have been left by the people of Kecoughtan at
different periods. In the year 1607, soon after the arrival of the
colonists at Jamestown, Smith wrote :
" I was sent to the mouth of the river, to Kegquouhtan an Indian
Towne, to trade for Corne, and try the river for Fish, but our fishing
we could not effect by reason of the stormy weather . . . The Towne
conteineth eighteene houses, pleasantly seated upon three acres of
ground, uppon a plaine, half invironed with a gi*eat Bay of the great
River, the other parte with a Baye of the other River falling into the
great Ba^^e, with a little He fit for a Castle in the mouth thereof, the
Towne adjoyning to the maine by a necke of Land sixtie yardes."
At this time the settlement probably stood east of the boundary
stream, in or near Hampton. Werowacomoco, the favorite village
of Powhatan, where Capt. John Smith arrived about the beginning
36 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [buluGO
of the year 1608, was located on tlie left bank of the York, evidently
at "Rosewell," near White Marsh, Gloucester County. Here the
lawn is washed by the tide, revealing implements of stone, broken
pottery, masses of oyster shells, charcoal, and other traces of Indian
occupancy. Smith has left an interesting description of the appear-
ance of the great chief and his surroundings at that time (Smith,
(1), pp. 18-19):
"Arriving at Weramocomoco their Emperour proudly lying uppon a
Bedstead a foote high, upon tenne or twelve Mattes, richly hung with
manie Chaynes of great Pearles about his necke, and covered with a
great Covering of Rahaughcums. At [his] heade sat a woman, at
his feete another; on each side sitting uppon a Matte uppon the
ground, were ranged his chiefe men on each side the fire, tenne
in a ranke, and behinde them as many yong women, each [with] a
great Chaine of white Beads over their shoulders, their heades
painted in redde: and [Powhatan] with such a grave and Majesticall
countenance, as drave me into admiration to see such state in a naked
Salvage."
Such was the barbaric splendor surrounding the ruling chief of the
confederacy at the time of the settlement of Virginia. At that time,
according to the map prepared by Capt. Smith, there were some 200
native villages mtliin the region, more than three-quarters of which
were linown by name. Many were designated ''Kings howses,"
others as "Ordinary howses," the former referring to the larger towns
where there was probably a recognized chief or headman, tlie latter
being less important or mere temporary camps.
A manuscript in the British Museum throws light on the dis-
tribution of the native villages along the principal water courses, and
describes the position of the country occupied by the colony. This
quaintly worded document is signed "Tho. Martin" and bears the
date " IStli of Dec. 1622," that being the year of the great massacre.
Part of the account reads CMs. vol. 12496, fol. 456) :
"That parte of Virginia w*^ in w* we are seated and fitt to bee
settled on for many hundred yards [?]. It is within y® Territories of
Opiehakano, it lyeth on the west side of Chesapiocke baye, wliich
comandeth from the southermost parte of y® fourth river called
Potomeck W^ lyeth north next hand to y River some 50 leagues in
Latitude. In longitude it extendeth to the MonaMns countrie next
hand west and west and by North of equall length with the latitude,
his owne principal! state is in y^ seacond River called Pamunlcey in
the heart of his own inhabited territories. This revolted Indian
King with Ms squaw comaundeth 32 Kingdomes under him. Everye
Kingdome contayneinge y^ quantitie of one of y® shires here in
England. Eavery such Kingdome hath one speciall Towne seated
t.
BUSHNELL] NATIVE VILLAGES AND VILLAGE SITES S7
upon one of j^ tliree gi'cate Rivers with, sufficience of cleared gi'ound
for y^ plowe & bravely accomadated for fishing."
The "speeiall" towns were evidently the "kings howses" of
Smith, standing on the banks of the rivers which furnished easy com-
munication between the many villages. Such, was the condition of
tidewater Virginia three centuries ago.
At the time of the discovery and settlement of Virginia, and for
many yea,rs after, the Powhatan tribe occupied the comitry about the
Falls of the James, the site now covered by the city of Richmond.
Wlien first visited by the colonists, in 1607, Wahunsonacock was the
chief of the tribe, but soon he became known to the settlers by the
tribal name, Powhatan, meaning "at the falls," and which was
variously spelled Powatah, Powite, etc. A map of the greatest
interest, showing this site as it was in the beginning of the year 1663,
is reproduced in plate 7. This is copied from the manuscript volume
bearing title "B3Td Title Book," now preserved by the Virginia
Historical Society. The small village of the 'Towite Indians,"
shown on the map at the mouth of Shaccoe Creek, corresponds with
the position of the foot of Sixteenth Street, Richmond, now covered
with tracks and warehouses. This small village had evidently sur-
vived the uprisings of 1622 and 1644, and the troubles attending the
expulsion of the Indians who, about the year 1654, "lately sett
downe near the falls of James river, to the number of six or seaven
hundreds" (Hening, (1), I, p. 402.) Contrary to the belief and
statements of many writers, it would appear, by reason of these
newcomers having been located "neer the falls of James river" for
some months, that they came not as enemies seeking to attack the
colonists, but for the purpose of finding a new home. Their identity
has not been fully established, although it has been suggested, and
with good reason, that they may have been a band of Yuchi, then
recently expelled from their ancient seats among the mountains to
the west of the headwaters of the James. Others believe them to
have been Cherokee, but there is no reason to explam the desire of
the latter to seek a new home, far away from their long occupied sites.
Probably the most convincing argument regarding the identity
of these people is presented in the following statement by Mr. James
Mooney :
In an earlier Bureau publication the present writer assumed
that the Rechahecrian or Rickohockan were identical with the
Cherokee, based chiefly upon the staternents of the Virginia records
and of the traveler Lederer (1670) that they came from, or resided
in, the mountain region at the back of Vhginia and Carolina. Later
consideration, however, indicates a possibility that they may have
been the Erie — ^variously knowai as Eriga, Rique, Riquehronnon
and Rike-haka — a powerful tribe of Iroquoian stock residing, when
38 BUREAU OF AMERICAIsr ETHNOLOGY [bull. 69
first known, along the southeastern shores of Lake Erie and the
upper waters of the Allegheny River, but who, as the result of a
desperate three years' war with the confederated Iroquois, 1653-
1655, were utterly defeated and destroyed as a people, a part of
the survivors being incorporated with the conquerors, while the
rest fled to the southward, as did the kindred Susquehanna for the
same cause and from the same enemy 20 years later."
The manners and customs of the western Algonquians do not
appear to have diflered greatly from those of the eastern tribes, and
their villages were quite similar in appearance, but they were not
known to Europeans until some years after the settlement of James-
town in the year 1607. Now, with the country so thickly settled,
it is of the greatest interest to trace the journeys of the early French
missionaries and explorers through the unexplored wilderness between
the Great Lakes and the Mississippi. Of the many who entered
this western country the names of Marquette and La Salle will ever
remain the most promment in history.
The region of lakes and forests south of Lake Superior must have
been occupied by many camps and villages, for when writing '' of the
peoples connected with the Mission of Saint Esprit, at the point
called Chagaouamigong," it was said:
"More than fifty Villages can be counted, which comprise divers
peoples, either nomadic or stationary, who depend in some sort on
this Mission" (p. 165). They resorted to this spot for trade, even
the distant Illinois being among the number to gather here. And
in mentioning the latter in detail the narrative continued: "The
Ilinois, tribes extending toward the South, have five large Villages,
of which one has a stretch of three leagues, the cabins being placed
lengthwise. They number nearly two thousand souls, and repair to
this place from time to time in great numbers, as Merchants, to
carry away hatchets and kettles, guns, and other articles that they
need. Dm-ing the sojourn that they make here, we take the oppor-
tunity to sow in their hearts the first seeds of the Gospel. Fuller
mention wiU be hereafter made of these peoples, and of the desire
which they manifest to have one of our Fathers among them to
instruct them; and also of the plan formed by Father Marquette to
go thither next Autumn." (Dablon, (1), p. 167.)
This related to events during the years 1669 and 1670. The mission
stood on the south shore of Lake Superior. The number of villages
mentioned, if correct, must necessarily have included many of only a
few wigwams, but nevertheless the Mission of St. Esprit must have
been an important gathering place, some coming from their homes
on distant lakes and rivers in light bark canoes to barter their beaver
skins for weapons and utensils brought by traders from; MontreaL
And an animated scene it must have been, Jesuits and traders, with
BCSHNELL] NATIVE VILLAGES AND VILLAGE SITES 39
the gathering of Indians, many of whom had never before seen a
Em-opean.
On May 17, 1673, Marquette and Johet, with five men, embarked
in two oanoes and started from the Mission of St. Ignace at MichiH-
mackinao to penetrate the unknown region. They passed through
Green Bay and entered Fox River, having stopped at the Menominee
village, and on June 7 reached the great town of the Mascoutens near
the portage leading from the Fox to the Wisconsin. Here were
found, in addition to the Mascoutens, some Miami and Kickapoo
forming one settlement.
"This Village Consists of three Nations who have gathered there, —
Miamis, Maskoutens, and Kikabous. The former are the most civil,
the most liberal, and the most shapely. They wear two long looks
over their ears, which give them a pleasing appearance. They are
regarded as warriors, and rarely undertake expeditions without
being successful . . . The Maskoutens and Kikabous are ruder,
and seem peasants in Comparison with the others. As Bark for
making Cabins is scarce in this country. They use Rushes; these
serve Them for making walls and Roofs, but do not afi"ord them much
protection against the winds, and still less against rains when they
fall abundantly. The Advantage of Cabins of this kind is, that
they make packages of Them, and easily transport them wherever
they wish, while they are hunting." (Marquette, (1), p. 102.)
Three days later, having secured two Miami men to accompany
them as guides, they made the portage to the Wisconsin River
and "thus we left the Waters flowing to Quebeq, 4 or 500 Leagues
from here, to float on Those that would thenceforward Take us
through strange . . . lands and, at 42 and a half degrees Of latitude.
We safely entered Missisipi on the 17th of June, with a Joy that I
cannot Express." Floating down the Mississippi, they soon arrived
at the village of the Peoria, an Illinois tribe, then living on the right
bank of the Mississippi probably not far from the mouth of Des
Moines. The town consisted of about 300 large wigwams, "roofed
and floored with mats of Rushes," and there is reason to suppose
there was one structure larger than the others where ceremonies
were held, as Marquette, in referring to the dance of the Calumet
(p. 133), wrote:
"In Winter, the ceremony takes place in a Cabin; in Summer,
in the open fields. When the spot is selected, it is completely sur-
rounded by trees, so that all may sit in the shade afforded by their
leaves, in order to be protected from the heat of the Sun."
Such a gathering could not have taken place in an ordinary,
small dwelling, and there w^as undoubtedly at this great settlement
a "temple" similar to that discovered among the same people some
years later.
40 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 69
The coming of the French was hailed with joy by the Ilhnois,
and as they entered the village and approached a cabin, they saw
an old man standing at the door ,who greeted them in these words :
"How beautiful the sun is, O Frenchman, when thou comest to
visit us! All our village awaits thee, and thou shalt enter all our
Cabins in peace."
After the visit of the French the Peoria did not remain long on
the western bank of the Mississippi. They removed to the Illinois
River, where they were again met, some two months later, by Mar-
quette on his journey northward. Here they were visited by a
French officer, in the year 1756, who left an interesting account of
his experiences, together with a brief description of the settlement:
"The village of the Peorias is situated on the banks of a little river,
and fortified after the American manner, that is surrounded with
great pales and posts. When we were arrived there I enquired for the
hut of the grand chief; they brought me to a great hut, where the
whole nation was assembled, on account of a party of their warriors,
who had been beaten by the Foxes, their mortal enemies." (Bossu,
(1), I, pp. 188-191.)
The following day Bossu encountered a great gathering on the
plain, "making a dance in favour of their new Manitou," and later
he entered "at the door of the temple of this false deity." Quite
similar to this must have been the ceremony mentioned by Mar-
quette among the same people 8.3 years before.
Thus it would seem that a "temple" and a large wigwam occupied
by the chief were the principal structures in the village of the Peoria,
standing on or near the banks of the Illinois River, about the middle
of the eighteenth century. The town was protected by palisades,
but the older village, visited by Marquette, may not have been so"
guarded. And this brief description is suggestive of the appearance
of ancient Pomeioc with its palisade, surrounding a group of houses,
including a " temple " and the larger wigwam occupied by the chief.
The great town of the Illinois, visited by the French under La
Salle about the last days of the year 1679, may have been typical
of the open settlements of the western Algonquian. It stood on the
right bank of the Illinois River, in the present La Salle County,
above the mouth of the Big Vermilion, the Aramoni of the French
explorers, wliich enters the Illinois from the south. Just above,
but on the opposite side of the Illinois, rises the steep cliff. Starved
Rock, La RocJier of the early French. The village, wliich was soon
to be destroyed by the Iroquois, later to rise again, was thus described :
"We fell down the said River, by easie Journeys, the better to
observe that countrey, and supply our selves with Provisions. The
Banks of that River are very charming to the Eye, as useful for Life.
The Meadows, Fruit-Trees, and Forests, affording every thing that
BCSHNELL] ITATIVE VILLAGES AND \aLLAGE SITES 41
is necessary for Man and Beasts, so that being amused by that
agreeable variety, we spent six days from the Portage (that is the
place where we Embarked) to the first village of the Ulinois, called
Pontdalamia, consisting of above 500 Cabins, where we found no
Inhabitants. We went ashore, and viewed their Cabbins or Cottages,
which are made with great pieces of Timber, interlac'd with Branches,
and cover'd with Bark. The inside is more neat, the Walls or sides,
as well as the Floor, being finely matted. Every Cottage has two
Appartments, wherein several Families might lodge, and under
every one of them there is a Cave or Vault, wherein they preserve
their Indian-coTn, of wliich we took a sufficient quantity, because
we wanted Provisions.'' (Tonti, (1), pp. 28-29.)
This was the village of the Kaskaskia, although from the large
number of wigwams encoimtered by the French it would be reason-
able to suppose that some other tribes had gathered here. It was
evidently a gathering place for the Illinois, one of the most important
centers in the entire valley of the Mississippi. The reference to a
"Cave or Vault" within every mgwam, where corn, and undoubtedly
other possessions as well, were preserved, is of special interest as it
tends to prove the permanent nature of the village of Pontdalamia;
it likewise recalls the act of the Pilgrims, some sixty years earlier,
when they discovered corn in pits or caches near the scattered native
dwellings on Cape Cod.
Tlie great village of the Illinois was occupied until about the year
1703, when the Kaskaskia, moving southward, stopped and reared a
new town near the banks of the Mississippi, a short distance above
the stream which perpetuates their tribal name, in the present
Randolph County, Illinois. But between the time of the arrival of
La Salle, during the winter of 1679, and the removal some years later,
the settlement was often visited by missionaries and traders. But
even earlier, in 1673, it was a resting place for Marquette during his
journey up the Blinois Eiver, just after having met the Peoria for
the second time, and on his map the village was given the name
Kachkaskia. At that time it consisted of 74 houses. Allouez gave
the number of wigwams standing there at the time of his visit, in
1677, as 351, and Hennepin tiiree years later increased the number
to 460. All were probably correct, as it is well known that the Indians
were accustomed to move from place to place, and seldom would
all have been gathered in the village at the same time.
In the spring of the year 1692 Pere Sebastien Rasles having left
his winter encampment at MissilimakinaJc , started for the "country
of the Illinois," and WTote:
"After forty days of travel I entered the river of the Illinois, and,
after voyaging fifty leagues, I came to their first Village, which had
three hundred cabins, all of them mth four or five fires. One fire
42 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bdll.69
is always for two families. They have eleven Villages belonging to
their Tribe. On the day after my arrival, I was invited by the
principal Chief to a grand repast, which he was giving to the most
important men of the Tribe. . . . When all the guests had ar-
rived they took their places all about the cabin, seating themselves
either on the bare ground or on the mats. Then the Chief arose
and began his address. . . . When the speech was finished, two
Savages, who performed the duty of stewards, distributed dishes to
the whole company, and each dish served for two guests; while eat-
ing, they conversed together on different matters; and when they
had finished their repast they withdrew, carrying away according to
their custom, what remained on their dishes." (Rasles, (1), pp.
163-165.)
From these various accounts it would appear that both the bark
and mat covered dwellings stood at the great village of the Illinois,
but the latter type was undoubtedly the more numerous.
Much of interest regarding the daily life and customs of the people
who lived on the banks of the Illinois, during the closing years of
the seventeenth centmy, is related in the narrative of Pere Rasles.
They raised large quantities of corn, but game was plentiful and
"among all the Tribes of Canada, there is not one that lives in so
great abundance of everything as do the Illinois. Their rivers are
covered with swans, bustards, ducks, and teal." Turkeys were
met "in troops, sometimes to the number of 200," while deer, bears,
and buffalo were encountered in vast numbers. And mentioning
their weapons he said:
* 'Arrows are the principal weapons that they use in war and in
hunting. These arrows are barbed at the tip with a stone, sharp-
ened and cut in the shape of a serpent's tongue; if knives are
lacking, they use arrows also for flaying the animals which they kill.
They are so adroit in bending the bow that they scarcely ever miss
their aim ; and they do this with such quickness that they will have
discharged a hundred arrows sooner than another person can reload
his gun. They take little trouble to make net suitable for catching
fish in the rivers, because the abundance of all kinds of animals
which they find for their subsistence renders them somewhat in-
different to fish. However, when they take a fancy to have some,
they enter a canoe with their bows and arrows; they stand up that
they may better discover the fish, and as soon as they see one they
pierce it with an arrow. . . . The war-club is made of a deer's
horn or of wood, shaped like a cutlass with a large ball at the end."
With these primitive weapons they would wage war on their
enemies, and kill the game of the forests and plauis.
The other tribes of the so-called Illinois confederacy were the
Michigamea, Cahokia, and Tamaroa, with possibly one or more
smaller tribes of which practically nothing is known.
BUSHNELL] Is^ATIVE ^^[LLAGES AND VILLAGE SITES 43
The Michigamea, ''great water/' were encoiuitered by Marquette in
1673 on the right bank of the Mississippi, in the northeastena part
of the present State of Arkansas, but there is reason to suppose they
had not been long in this southern home, and a few years before may
have left the valley of the Illuiois. On the d'Anville map of 1755
the present Sangamon River, a tributary of the Illinois flowing from
the south, bears the name Emicouen R., and on the left bank, about
35 miles from its mouth, is indicated the Ancien village des Metchi-
gamias. This would undoubtedly place the site of the town within
the bounds of the present Sangamon County, where several large
groups of rather small burial mounds on the hills overlooking the
valley of the Emicouen bear evidence of the location of some early
settlement, probably that of the Ancien village des MetcJiigamias.
But on the same map, on the left or east bank of the Mississippi
about midway between the Caliokias et Tamaroas on the north and
the Mission des CasJcaMas on the south, appears the name Metclii-
gamias, evidently indicating the position of their village wiience
they had removed after having been met by Marquette farther
south. However, they were accustomed to go north and winter
with their kindred Tamaroa, whose principal village was near the
mouth of a small stream which entered the Mississippi just below the
first bridge built across the river at St. Louis. This was undoubtedly
the position of the Tamaroa village in the autumn of the year 1700
when it was visited by Pere Gravier. He arrived October 9 and the
town was evidently deserted, as he said:
"At two leagues from the village, I found the Tamarouha, who
have taken up their winter quarters in a beautiful bay, where they
await the Metchigamia, who are to come over sixty leagues to winter,
and form only one village with them. One of our missionaries is to
v-isit them every second day all the winter long, and do as much for
the Kaoukia, who have taken their wmter quarters four leagues
above the village." (Gravier, (1), p. 118.)
The Cahokia and Tamaroa occupied the rich lowlands on the left
bank of the Mississippi, opposite the city of St. Louis, in the present
St. Clair and Madison Counties, Illinois. The village of the tribes
stood near the mouth of the small stream, already mentioned, which
later became known as Cahokia Creek, a name which it now bears.
This was reached by La Salle on February 3, 1682, but the Cahokia
were not mentioned as Tonti wrote:
"We came to the Village of the Tamaoas, where we met with no
body at all, the Savages bemg retired into the Woods to Winter;
we made there however some Marks to let 'em know that we had
pass'dby." (Tonti, (1), p. 77.)
Evidently it was the custom of the Illinois tribes to leave their
villages about the beginning of winter and to seek the protection and
44 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 69
seclusion of the vust forests, where they would hunt during the cold
season, but game was so plentiful that food was always easily and
quickly secured. With the coming of spring they would return to
their v^illages and plant large fields of com, which grew luxuriantly
in the rich black soil.
On the night of October 10, 1721, Charleroix remained at the
''village of the Caoquias and the Tamarouas, two Illinois tribes
which have been united, and together compose no very numerous
canton. This village is situated on a small river which runs from
the east, and has no water but in the spring season so that we were
obliged to walk above half a league, before we could get to our
cabbins. I was astonished they had pitched upon so inconvenient
a situation, especially as they had so many belter in their choice;
but I was told that the Mississippi washed the foot of that village
when it was built, that in three years it has lost half a league of its
breadth, and that they were thinking of seeking out for another
habitation, which is no great affair amongst the Indians." (Char-
levoix, (1), II, pp. 218-219.)
The "Illinois country" remained a favorite region for the Indian
long after the coming of white settlers. As already mentioned, the
various tribes who occupied the central part of the Mississippi
Valley were ever moving from place to place, seldom remaining for
a long period at any one location. Thus a century after Charlevoix
passed down the Illinois and en1>ered the Mississippi extensive
villages of the Sauk and Fox stood on the banks of Kock River, near
its mouth, and consequently on or near the left bank of the Missis-
sippi, in the present Rock Island County, Illinois.
Fort Armstrong stood at the lower end of Rock Island, and on
Friday, August 1, 1817, Major Long ^v^ote:
"Immediately opposite to the fort on the south side of the river
is a village of the Fox Indians, containing about thirty cabins, with
two fires each. The number of souls at this village is probably
about five hundred. On Rock River, two mUes above its mouth,
and three across the point from Fort Armstrong, is a Sack village,
consisting of about one hundred cabins, of two, three, and, in some
instances, four fires each. It is by far the largest Indian village
situated in the neighborhood of the Mississippi between St. Louis
and the Falls of St. Anthony. The whole number of Indians at this
village amounts probably to between two and three thousand.
They can furnish eight or nine hundred warriors, aU of them armed
with rifles or fusees. The Indians of these two villages cultivate
vast fields of corn, which are situated partly in the low ground and
extend up the slopes of the bluffs. They have at present several
hundred acres under improvement in this way," (Long, (1), pp.
68-69.)
BisHNKLL] NATIVE VILLAGES AND VILLAGE SITES 45
These villages on the banks of Kock River dated from the early
part of the eighteenth century, and probably presented all the
characteristic features of the western Algoncjuian settlements.
Their habitations undoubtedly resembled those of the southern
Ojibway, an oval, dome-shaped frame covered with sheets of bark
or rush mats. A typical example of the latter, as it stood on the
south shore of Mille Lac, Minnesota, during the spring of 1900, is
sho-wn in plate 2, l. The description of the large fields of corn is
interesting, and this would probably have applied to the settlements
of the Cahokia and Tamaroa a centmy earlier. These two Illinois
tribes, as already mentioned, occupied the wide lowland on the
left bank of the Mississippi opposite the present city of St. Louis.
The crests of the bluffs bordering this area on the east reveal many
traces of the period of Indian occupancy, ^^^th innumerable graves
on the higher points. And dm'ing past centuries the sunny slopes
of the bluffs may have been covered by the gardens and cornfields
of the native tribes who then claimed this fertile region.
The Sauk village near the mouth of Rock River was the birth-
place, in the year 1767, of the great leader Black Hawk, who, some
65 years later, during the early part of 1832, led his people against
the frontier settlements of Illinois. His village had been destroyed
by the militia June 15, 1831, after the escape of its inhabitants, but
at the present time large groups of small burial mounds mark the
positions of these late native settlements.
From the preceding quotations it will be underetood how a region
once occupied by a few thousand families in after years would pre-
sent the appearance of formerly having been the home of a gi'eat
multitude. Moving from place to place, they would leave traces
of their villages and more temporary camps, ashes and refuse would
accumulate, bits of pottery and objects of stone would remain lost
and scattered over the smface, to be found at the present day.
Often a cemetery or a few graves may be discovered near the site
of the wigwams. Evidently the central village, often surrounded
by or in the vicinity of the extensive cornfields, would be occupied
during the spring, summer, and early autumn, and later in the
year, after the harvest, it would be temporarily abandoned, the fami-
lies removing to the forests, there to hunt dming the ensuing sea-
son. Thus one group of families, a few hundred persons, within a
single generation, would have occupied several widely separated
and distinct sites. Such was the condition in the "country of
the Illinois" and elsewhere from the Mississippi to the Atlantic.
Among the eastern Algonquian tribes, as related by Pere Sebastien
Rasles when describing the customs of the Abnaki; by Roger
Williams, who wrote of the movements of the Narraganset; and by
Strachey when he recorded the habits of the confederated tribes of
46 BUREAU or AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 69
tidewater Virginia as they were during the earhest years of the
colony, the inhabitants of a village would leave their permanent
settlements during certain seasons to hunt in the forests, or to seek
and gather oysters and clams on the coast. In the north the first
move from the winter encampment would usually be to the "sugar
camp," where large quantities of sugar would be made from the
sap of the maple. The move was anticipated with genuine pleasure
by the northern people, as it marked the end of the long winter,
when the sun was gaining warmth, but the nights remained cold
and frosty.
The Shawnee, so closely allied Imguistically with the Sauk and
Fox, before the removal of a large part of the tribe southward to
and beyond the Ohio, may have lived near the Illinois tribes. Dur-
ing their movement southward they evidently stopped near the
mouth of the Wabash, where they may have resided for some time.
Although they do not appear to have been encountered in that
locality by Europeans, the tradition of their having lived there was
undoubtedly heard by the early French explorers, and on certain
maps dating from the first part of the eighteenth century, as for
example on the Moll map of 1720, the site of their village is indicated
by the legend: "Savanah old Settlement." This corresponds with
the position of the "Bone bank," so-called locally, an ancient village
site on tlie left bank of the Wabash, in Posey County, Indiana. By
the course of the river it is some 10 miles above its junction with
the Oliio, but in an air line not more than 2h miles from the latter
stream. The site occupied the summit of a high bluff and extended
for 1,500 or more feet along the river. Its width could not be deter-
mined, as it had been constantly worn away by the action of the
waters of the Wabash. Innumerable human remains and vast num-
bers of implements and ornaments of IncUan origin have been recovered
from the site, wliich, however, may have been occupied successively
by different tribes, or by the same people at intervals. Neverthe-
less it must, at some time, have been the site of a Shawnee village.
Passing southward beyond the Ohio the Shawnee evidently estab-
lished a great town on the banks of the Cumberland, the site now
covered by the city of Nashville, Tennessee, thousands of stone-
lined graves marking the position of the ancient settlement. A
description of tliis once extensive village would be of the greatest
interest, but none has been preserved. It may, however, have
resembled Pontdalamia on the Illinois.
From the banks of the Cumberland one or more bands of the
Shawnee moved as far east as the Savannah. Later some turned
westward and after stopping for a short time on the Chattahoochee
settled on the left bank of the Tallapoosa, near Fort Toulouse, in
BDSHNELL] NATIVE VILLAGES AND VILLAGE SITES 47
the present Montgomery County, Alabama. Here tliey were seated
when visited by Hawkins on December 19, 1796, when he wrote:
" From this bank arise several springs, pai'ticularly one, a large one,
half a mile farther, the Uchee village, a remnant of those settled on
the Chattahoochee, half a mile farther pass a Sliawne village, they
speak the language and retain the manners of their countrymen to
the N. W. Tliis to\^^l house cUffers from the Creek, it is an oblong
square building, 8 feet pitch roofed on the common mode of cabin
building, the sides and roof covered with bark of pine." (Hawkins,
B., (2), p. 41.)
An interesting question now arises in connection with the "town
house'' existing in this Shawnee village. Among the Algonquian
tribes of the north, including, of course, the Shawnee, no record is
preserved of any structure resembling the rotunda, or town house,
similar to those which stood in the villages of the Cherokee or other
southern tribes. Ceremonial lodges were erected by the Algonquians,
and structures of several forms were built to serve as council houses,
some being temporary shelters, others of a more permanent nature,
but the ''town house '' like that known among the southern tribes w^as
not used. The ShawTiee, who, in 1796, were living on the banks of
the Tallapoosa, had been among the Muskliogean tribes for several
generations and must necessarily have adopted some of their cus-
toms, one being the erection of a "town house" in their village.
However, it differed in form and material from those of the neighbor-
mg towns, being quadrilateral instead of round, and evidently cov-
ered and roofed with bark without the usual wattlework protected
by clay. Tliis appears to have been an instance where a new cus-
tom was adopted by the Algonquian from the Muskliogean, but the
form of the structure remained essentially Algonquian.
At this time, the closing years of the eighteenth century, the
greater part of the Shawnee were livmg in southern Ohio. But it
is quite evident their villages were already assummg the appearance
of the near-by settlements of the whites across the Ohio in Kentucky.
A brief, though mteresting, description of Old Chillicothe has been
preserved, although the site of this town has not been determmed, as
several widely separated settlements bore the name. It may have
stood on Paint Creek, m the present Ross County, the town of that
name destroyed by the Kentuckians m 1787. The account was pre-
pared before 1785:
"Old Chelicothe is built in form of a Kentucky station, that is, a
parallelogram, or long square; and some of their houses are shmgled.
A long Council-house extends the whole length of the town, where
the kmg and chiefs of the nation frequently meet, and consult of all
matters of importance, w^hether of a civil or mihtary nature." (Fil-
son, (1), p. 98.)
48 BURKAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 69
This refers to a rectangular inclosure, formed partly of long sheds,
the outer walls of which served as the outside of the "station."
These would be connected by strong palisades, with one or two gates.
Old Chdlicothe was of this form, a long shed, extending the length of
one side of the inclosure, evidently bemg the council house. The
coimcil house may have been a separate structure withm the inclosure,
but this appears doubtful. It is to be regretted that more is not known
of the appearance of the native villages which stood in the valley of
the Ohio long after the close of the Revolution.
As already showai, Algonquian tribes occupied the right, or west,
bank of the Hudson. Beyond this narrow strip of territory lay the
country of the Iroquois, the home of the Five Nations, extending across
the present State of New York. Continuing westward along the
south shore of Lake Erie there had formerly lived other tribes belong-
ing to the same linguistic family. This had evidently been the home
of the Iroquoian peoples for many generations. Here they had built
many villages^ traces of which have been discovered tlu"oughout the
country, with innumerable objects of native origin scattered over the
surface. The sites of many villages occupied within the historic
period have been identified by name, and on them, mingled with im-
plements of stone, are often found objects of European origin, these
being more numerous on the later sites. The long communal dwell-
ings of the people of the Five Nations differed in many details from
the habitations of the neighboring tribes. They were often 100 feet
or more in length, closely grouped and protected by an encircling
palisade of one, two, or three rows of timbers. A general description
of their habitations and villages was prepared soon after the year
1642, before intercourse with the Europeans had wrought any changes
in their primitive customs. At that time it was said (Van der Donck,
(1), pp. 196-198):
' 'Their houses are usually constructed in the same maimer, without
any particular costliness or curiosity in or to the same. Sometimes
they build their hocuses above a hundred feet long; but never more
than twenty feet wide. When they build a house they place long
slender hickory saplings in the ground, havmg the bark stripped off,
in a straight line of two rows, as far asunder as they intend the
breadth of the house to be, and continuing the rows as far as it is
intended the length shall be. Those saplhig poles are bent over
towards each other in the form of an arch, and secured together,
having the appearance of a garden arbour. The sapling poles are
then crossed with split poles in the form of lathing, which are well
fastened to the upright work. The lathmgs are heaviest near the
ground. A space of about a foot wide is left open m the crown of the
arch. For covering they use the bark of ash, chestnut, and other
trees, which they peel off ui pieces of about six feet long, and as broad
BusiiNELL] NATIVE VILLAGES AND VILLAGE SITES 49
as they can. Tlicy cover their houses, layuig the smooth side in-
wards, leaving an o^en space of about a foot wide in the crown, to
let out the smoke. They lap the side edges and ends over each other,
havmg regard to the slu-mkmg of the hark, securing the covermg with
withes to the latlinigs. A crack or rent they shut up, and m this
mamier they make their houses proof agamst wmd and rain. They
have one door in the center of the house. When the bark of the ash
and chestnut trees is not loose, they have recourse to the timber trees,
wliich grow along the brooks, the bark of which can be taken off during
the whole summer season. Durability is a primary object in their
houses. In short, their houses are tight and tolerably warm, but
they know nothing of chambers, haUs, and closetmgs. They kmdle
and keep their fires in the middle of their houses, from one end to the
other, and the opening in the crown of the roof lets out the smoke.
From sixteen to eighteen famihcs frequently dwell m one house,
according to its size. The fire being kept in the middle, the people
lay on either side thereof, and each family has its ovm. place. . . .
In then* villages and their castles they always build strong, firm works,
adapted to the places. For the erection of these castles, or strong
holds, they usually select a situation on the side of a steep high hill,
near a stream or river, which is difficult of access, except from the
water, and inaccessible on every other side, with a level plam on the
crown of the hiU, which they enclose with a strong stockade work in
a smgular manner. First they lay along on the ground large logs of
wood, and frequently smaller logs upon the lower logs, which serve
for the foimdation of the work. Then they place strong oak pafi-
sades in the ground on both sides of the foundation, the upper ends
of which cross each other and are joined together. In the upper cross
of the palisades they then place the bodies of trees, which makes tlie
work strong and fii-m. ... In their castles, they frequently have
twenty or thirty houses. . , . Besides their strong holds, they have
villages and towns which are enclosed. Those usually have wood-
land on the one side, and com lands on the other sides. They also
frequently have villages near the water sides, at fisliing places, where
they plant some vegetables; but they leave these places every year on
the approach of winter, and retire to their strong places, or mto the
thick woods, where they are protected from the wmds, and where fuel is
plenty, and where there is game and venison. Thus they subsist by
hunting and fishmg throughout the year. Then- castles and large
towns they seldom leave altogether. From other situations they re-
move frequently, and they seldom remain long at other places. In
the summer, and ui the fishuig seasons, many come to the water sides
and rivers. In the fall and w^inter, when venison is best, they rethe
to the woods and himting grounds. Sometimes towards the sprmg of
the year, they come in multitudes to the sea shores and bays, to take
108851°— 19 4
50 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 69
oysters, clams, and every kind of shell-fish, which they know how to
dry, and preserve good a long time."
The same writer remarks (p. 151):
"Chestnuts would be plentier if it were not for the Indians, who
destroy the trees by stripping off the bark for covering for their
houses."
This would tend to prove the chestnut to have been a favorite
one with the Indians, the bark evidently being used extensively as a
covering for their habitations.
The preceding description should probably be accepted as appli-
cable to the villages of all the tribes forming the league, and these in
turn may have resembled the more ancient settlements which once
stood on the palisaded liilltops south of Lake Erie. The use of the
long, extended habitations so characteristic of these tribes developed
tlu-ough their clan system and custom. Each house was occupied
by the members of one family, the descendants of a woman through
the female line. Descent among the Iroquoian tribes passed tlu-ough
the woman, the cliildren belonging to the clan or gens of the mother.
As requirements made necessary the house was extended. Thus in
time many were occupied by a large number of persons, all, however,
belonging to the same clan, descendants through the female line
from acknowledged head of the particular group. (Hewitt, (1).)
After forming the league the people of the several tribes caUed
themselves the Ho de' no sau nee, that is " the people of the long house."
The confederacy was thought to resemble their ancient form of
habitation, a long house, with different groups, each with its own
fire. The five tribes, whose rich territories extended from east of
Lake Erie to near the Hudson, were likened to one great family,
occupying one long house, with five fires ever burning. Later the
Tuscarora became the sixth member of the league, though not
regarded as holding a position equal to that of the others. The
Seneca was the most numerous of the nations of the league. Their
council fire when first known to Europeans was at Tsonontowan, near
the present town of Naples, Ontario County. They were the "door-
keepers" of the Long House, living to the westward. Theirs was
the first fire ; that of the Mohawk who lived on the extreme east was
the fifth.
The villages of the several tribes were very numerous. Many
were strongly fortified, with extensive fields of corn surrounding and
near by. Others were scattered, more open settlements, and as
already mentioned, a small group of persons would often have several
sites which they would occupy during different seasons of the year,
returning to the protected stronghold for the winter months. The
habitations were of various lengths, from the unit of the structure,
with a single fire and occupied by a few persons, to the extended
long house of 100 feet or more in length.
BUSHNELL] NATIVE VILLAGES AND VILLAGE SITES 51
Late in the month of December, 1634, Arent Van Curler, from the
manor of Rensselaerwyck, reached the ^lohawk TiUage of Teaton-
taloga, on the north side of the Mohawk and near the mouth of
Schoharie Creek, in the present Montgomery County. Later tliis was
the site of the Lower Mohawk Castle, so often mentioned in history
during the eighteenth century. Describing the village as it stood
in the winter of 1634 he WTote (Van Curler, (1), p. 90):
"The name is Te notoge. There are 55 houses, some 100 and other
ones more or less paces long . . . This castle has been surrounded
by three rows of palisades, but I did not see anytliing peculiar about
them, but that six or seven pieces were so thick that it was quite a
wonder that savages should be able to do that."
Another account of the same settlement, though at that time it
may not have occupied the identical location, appeared about a
century later. This later description contains some rather interesting
information respecting the manners and customs of the Mohawk at
that time, but it was evidently prepared by one who was not in
sympathy with Indian habits (Humphreys, (1), pp. 297-298):
''The Castle or chief Town of these MohocJcs is neighbouring to the
Queen's Fort, consisting of about 50 Wigwams or Houses. These
Wigwams are Hutts made of Matts and Bark of Trees put together,
with Poles about tliree or four Yards high. The Mohocks Cloathing
is a short Coat like a Mantle, made of a Blanket or Bear's Skin, their
Bed is a Matt or Skin laid on the Ground. They paint and grease
themselves very much with Bear's Fat clarified; they cut the Hair
ofT from one Side of their Heads, and tye up some of that on the other
Side, in Kmotts, on the Crown, with Feathers."
This reference to mat and bark covered wigwams is rather more
suggestive of an Algonquian village, and it is evident the Mohawk
had, at this time, adopted some of the customs of the neighboring
Algonquian tribes. The Maliican were living a few miles eastward
and on the south were the Munsee. Both tribes erected wigwams
covered with bark and mats.
The writer continued by saying:
"For four or five Months in the Year, there is scarce any stirring
abroad, by Reason of the extream Coldness of the Weather, and the
deep Snows that fall. "
The road to Albany, 44 miles distant, was a "rough Indian Path
thro' vast woods." This less than two centuries ago.
Leaving Te noto^6,Van Curler reached the Oneida village standing
just east of the present town of Munnsville, Madison County, and on
December 30, 1634, entered the palisade through the gate —
"Which was 3 J feet wide, and at the top were standing three big
wooden images, of cut wood, like men, and with them I saw tlu'ee
scalps fluttering in the wind, that they had taken from their foes as a
62
DUEEAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY
[bull. 69
token of the truth of their victory. This castle has two gates, one on
the east side and one on the west side. On the east side a lock of
hair was also hanging; but tliis gate was 1 J feet smaller than the other
one. ... This castle is situated on a very high hill, and was sur-
rounded with two rows of palisades. It was 767 paces in circum-
ference. There are 66 houses, but much better, higher, and more
finished than all the others we saw. A good many houses had wooden
fronts that are painted with all sorts of beasts. There they sleep
mostly on elevated boards, more than any other savages."
Seldom were the outsides of dwelhngs of tribes east of the Mississippi
decorated in any manner, consequently this reference is of special
interest. However, the lack of decoration should probably be
attributed to the nature of the structures rather than to any other
cause, as the mat-covered habitations of the Algonquian tribes did
not present a good surface for painting. But among the southern
people houses were sometimes deco-
rated. This will be described later.
Westward beyond the Oneida lay
the Onondaga, at whose chief town,
Onondaga, burned the Great Council
Fire of the League of the Iroquois.
This most important village was
removed from place to place, but
always remained within a rather
small radius, and many of the
which have been discovered in the southeastern
part of the present Onondaga County may at some time have been
occupied by this town, which should be termed the capital of the
league.
On July 21, 1743, when Bartram and his party arrived at Onondaga
they stopped before the council house where they were received by
the chiefs who had gathered to greet them. They were conducted to
the apartments at both ends of the long house (fig. 2). These they
were to occupy during their stay. Their Indian attendants were
given adjoining apartments. Fortunately an mteresting description
of the structure, together with a plan (fig. 3), was preserved in the
narrative of the journey (Bartram, J., (1), pp. 40-41):
''This cabm is about 80 feet long, and 17 broad, the common
passage 6 feet wide; and the apartments on each side 5 feet, raised a
foot above the passage by a long saplmg hewed square, and fitted
with joists thatgo fromit to the back of the house; on these joists they
lay large pieces of bark, and on extraordinary occasions spread matts
made of rushes, this favour we had ; on these floors they set or lye down
every one as he wiU, the apartments are divided from each other by
boards or bark, 6 or 7 feet long, from the lower floor to the upper, on
Fig. 2.— Bark house. Method of construction
of the Iroquois long house. (From Handbook
of A merican Indians . )
various sites
BUSHNELL]
NATIVE VILLAGES AND VILLAGE SITES
53
which they put their lomber, when they have eaten their homony,
as they set m each apartment l)cfore the fire, they can put the bowl
over head, having not above 5 foot to
reach; they set on the floor sometimes at
each end, but mostly at one: they have a
shed to put their wood into in the winter,
or ill the summer to set to converse or
play, that has a door to the south; all the
side and roof of tli§ cabin is made of bark,
bound fast to poles set in the ground, and
bent round on the top, or set aflatt, for the
roof as we set our rafters; over each fire
place they leave a hole to let out the
smoak, which in ramy weather they cover
with a piece of bark."
Wliile the preceding was probably a
typical long habitation of the Iroquois,
and was accurately described, nevertheless
it is quite evident other similar structures
differed in certain details, and that all were
not exactly alike in interior arrangement.
Some appear to have had small closet-like
compartments for storage purposes placed
between the larger divisions which served
for sleeping and living apartments. Such
variations probably occurred at different
tim:es and among the several tribes.
It is c^uite remarkable that a people pos-
sessing such a complex form of government
did not, until after the middle of the
eighteenth century, erect a structure which
was retained solely as a council house, or
gathering place, as was the custom among
the southern tribes. Before that time the
house of the Fire Keeper of tlie nation was
in reality the capitol, where tribal ques-
tions were discussed and where ambassa-
dors from other tribes were received.
The people of the Five Nations had
extensive fields and gardens, surround-
ing or near their villages, and raised vast
quantities of corn and vegetables. Much
corn would be deposited in pits, excavated and lined with bark for
the purpose, and these after being filled with grain would be covered
with other sheets of bark with a mass of earth above. Such caches,
Fig. 3.— rian of Onondaga longhouse,
1743. (FromBartram.)
54 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 69
often filled with carbonized grain, have been found on many long-
deserted village sites. Other similar pits served as places for the
storage of various possessions of the people, such as skins, cured meats,
and different vegetables. It will be recalled that ' ' a Cave or Vault,"
filled with corn, was discovered by the French in 1679 beneath the
floor of every wigwam at the great village of the Illinois, but among the
Iroquois it was the custom to prepare the caches outside the dwellings.
When away from their villages the Iroquois erected a small tem-
porary shelter of rather unusual form: "It was triangular at the
base, the frame consisting of three poles on a side, gathered at the
top, but with space sufficient between them for a chimney opening."
This frame was covered with sheets of bark after the fashion of
the larger structures. (Morgan, (2), I, p. 310.) But even a
simpler form of shelter was known to the people of the region, as
described by one who enjoyed its protection. On the night of July
11, 1743, while on his journey to Onondaga, Bartram and his party
encamped in the vicinity of the Indian settlement of Shamokin, near
the forks of the Susquehanna, when "about break of day it began to
rain and the Indians made us a covering of bark got after this
manner: They cut the tree romid through the bark near the root,
and make the like incision above 7 feet above it, there horizontal
ones are joined by a perpendicular cut, on each side of which they
after loosen the bark from the wood, and hewing a pole at the small
end gradually tapering like a wedge about 2 feet, they force it in. till
they have compleated the separation all romid, and the bark parts
whole from the tree, one of which, a foot diameter, yields a piece 7 feet
long and above 3 wide : And having now prepared four forked sticks,
they are set into the ground the longer in front; on these they lay
the cross-poles, and on them the bark. This makes a good tight
shelter in warm weather." (Bartram, J., (1), pp. 20-21.)
Temporary shelters of some simple form must necessarily have been
made by all tribes, but seldom were they seen or described by those
who have left accounts of their journeys through the Indian comitry
of a century and more ago. The shelter mentioned by Bartram may
have been of the form used tliroughout the eastern area.
The site of the palisaded Onondaga town which was attacked by
the French led by Champlain in the year 1615 was identified some
years ago. It stood in the town of Fenner, 3 miles east of Perryville
in the present Madison County, at the outlet of Nichols pond.
As described by Champlain it was surrounded by a quadruple
palisade, very strongly built, as shown in the accompanying drawing.
(Champlain, (1), p. 444.) Tliis, one of the earliest illustrations of
an Iroquoian settlement, is reproduced in plate 8, h. This location
was within the lands of the Oneida, east of the Onondaga, although
it was evidently a settlement of the latter tribe, one of their prmcipal
bushnell] native villages AND VILLAGE SITES 55
villages. But a much earlier description of an Iroquoian town has
been preserved, and although not within the limits of the United
States it should now be mentioned. Hochelaga, the Huron settle-
ment which stood on the site of Montreal, was visited by Jacques
Cartier during his second expedition in the year 1535. A very crude
and inaccurate drawing of the palisaded village was given on pages
446-447 of the third volume of Ramusio, printed in Venice in 1556.
The description was translated and used by Hakluyt (Cartier, (1),
p. 220), but the illustration was omitted. After referring to the fields
of corn the account continues:
*'In the midst of those fields is the citie of Hochelaga, placed neere,
and as it were joyned to a great mountaine that is tilled round about,
very fertill, on the top of which you may see very farre, we named it
Mount Roiall. The citie of Hochelaga is round, compassed about with
timber, with three course of Rampaires, one within another framed
hke a sharpe Spire, but laide acrosse above. The middlemost of them
is made and built as a direct line, but perpendicular. The Rampiers
are framed and fashioned with peeces of timber, layd along the
gromid, very well and cmmmgly joyned togither after their fashion.
This enclosure is m height al^out two rods. It hath but one gate or
entrie thereat, which is but with piles, stakes, and barres. Over it,
and also in many places m the wall, there be places to runne along,
and ladders to get up, all full of stones, for the defence of it. There
are in the towne about fiftie houses, about fiftie paces long, and
twelve or fifteens broad, built all of wood, covered over with the
barke of the wood as broad as any boord, very finely and cmminly
joyned togither. Within the said houses, there are many roomes,
lodgmgs and chambers. In the middest of every one there is a great
Court, in the middle whereof they make their fire. They live in
common togither: then do the husbands, wives and children each
one retire themselves to their chambers."
Such was an Iroquoian village nearly four centuries ago, when first
visited by Europeans, and the description is quite similar to that of
the Mohawk Castle just one century later. It is quite evident that
little or no change had taken place in the manners of the people
during the century. They lived as they had for generations, and so
continued until about the time of the Revolution. Another view of
Hochelaga appears on the Lescarbot map of 1609, and is now repro-
duced as plate 8, a. Five houses are shown surrounded by a palisade,
with one gate facing the south.
As already mentioned, innumerable village sites have been dis-
covered tliroughout the comitry of the Five Nations, many of which
have been identified as having been occupied during the early days
of the colony. In many instances traces of the palisades, or remains
of the embankments by which the settlements were surrounded and
56 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 69
protected, have been encountered. Similar sites have been en-
countered in the territory westward from that of the Five Nations,
south of Lake Erie. These were probably the towns of the ancient
Eries, the Cat Nation of the French, who disappeared from history
about the middle of the seventeenth century. There may have been
little or no difference in the appearance of the towns of the Huron,
the Erie, and the Five Nations. Some were strongly palisaded;
others were open, with the habitations more scattered.
Extending southward from the land of the Five Nations, following
the valley of tbe Susquehanna tc the shores of Chesapeake Bay, lived
other Iroquoian tribes, the best known being those whose name is
now applied to the river along which their villages once stood. Here
they were met by Capt. John Smith and his party of Virginia colo-
nists during the summer of 1608. The English were awed when they
encountered these people. ' 'Such great and well proportioned men,
are seldome seene, for they seemed like Giants to the English, yea
and to the neighbours : yet seemed of an honest and smiple dispo-
sition, [and they were] with much adoe restrained from adoring the
discoverers as Gods." Their principal towns were some miles above
the mouth of the river, were gix^in number, and some, if not all, were
protected by palisades. The houses were covered with mats or
bark, and probably very often both mats and bark served to cover one
structure. An engraving, entitled ' 'The IndianFort Sasquesahanok,"
appeared on the Moll map of 1720. This, however, was obviously
copied from the dra^ving of Pomeioc made by Wliite in 1585. In
printing the plate the view was reversed, but the relative arrange-
ment remained the same. The curious landscape was evidently
prepared to add to the deception; nevertheless the general appearance
of the village may not have differed greatly from the picture, which
was probably typical of the whole region. This is reproduced in
plate 9, a. On the Herrman map of 1673 a cluster of eight houses,
surrounded by a palisade, bears the legend "The present Sassqua-
hanna Indian fort," and is placed on the right bank of the stream
just above the Conewago Falls, in the present York Comity, Penn-
sylvania. The latter was probably one of the ancient sites earlier
indicated on Smith's map as being the position of a "King's howse."
On the same map Smith shows the town of Utchoivig on what appears
to have been the West Branch of the Susquehamia. This, according
to the belief of Hewitt, was probably near the present city of Lock-
haven, Clinton County. Just below Lockhaven, in the West
Branch, is Great Island, known to have been the site of ancient
Indian settlements, and which may have been, and probably was, at
one time occupied by the Susquehamia village of Vtchomig. The
Susquehanna were driven southward by the Iroquois, or Five
Nations, about the year 1675, and later the valley of the stream was
BisHXELi,] NATIVE VILLAGES AND VILLAGE SITES 57
occupied by the Delaware and other Algonqiiian remnants who were
forced westward by the encroachment of European settlements on
the Atlantic coast. In the year 1768 Great Island was partly occu-
pied by the important Delaware village where Newoleeka, or Newah-
leeka, was chief. It was often mentioned in the history of the period.
(Colonial Records of Pa., (1), p. 428 et seq.) Many implements and
objects of native origin have been discovered in the region which, in
the days before the coming of the colonists, was probably a favorite
locality of the Indian, one where game and fish were plentiful and
easily obtained. A view of the upper end of Great Island, taken from
the high cliff bordering the river, is shown in plate 9, h. Tliis was the
site of the ancient village.
In southern Virginia the Nottoway and Meherrin were connected,
linguistically, with the tribes just mentioned, being Iroquoian, as
were the neighboring Tuscarora and possibly the Coree, likewise the
powerful Cherokee, whose many villages were scattered through tlie
valleys of the southern mountains. A very interesting description
of the protected town of the Nottoway which stood in Southampton
County, Virginia, is preserved, and it is evident the place had main-
tained its primitive appearance, unchanged, since the settlement of
the colony. The Nottoway continued their tribal organization as
late as 1825, though greatly reduced in numbers. The town was
visited by Col. William Byrd on April 7, 1728, and was described
thus:
''This fort was a square piece of ground, inclosed with substantial
puncheons, or strong palisades, about ten feet high, and leaning a
little outwards, to make scalade more difficult. Each side of the
square might be about a hundred yards long, with loop-holes at
proper distances, through which they may fire upon the enemy.
Within this inclosure we found bark cabins sufficient to lodge all
their people, in case they should be obliged to retire thither. These
cabins are no other but close arbours made of saplings, arched at the
top, and covered so well with bark as to be proof against all weather.
The fire is made in the middle, according to the Hibernian fashion,
the smoke whereof finds no other vent but at the door. . . The
Indians have no standing furniture in their cabins but hurdles to
repose their persons upon, which they co\er \vii\\ mats and deer-
skins." (Byrd, (1), pp. 34-35.)
This conformed with the custom of the northern Iroquois tribes
where the strongly palisaded central village served as a place of
refuge for the people of the outlying districts in times of danger.
Not far distant from the town of the Nottoway stood, a few years
before, the village of Paski, where during the month of October, 1711,
De Graff enried halted when on his way to Virginia:
58 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY tBDLu6d
, "That village was fortified with palisades and the houses or
cabins were neatly made out of tree bark, they stood in a circle,
and in midst of them was a beautiful round place, in its center a
big fire, and around it the Council setting on the ground, that is the
leaders of the Tuscoruros' nation." (De Graffenried, (1), p. 937.)
This reference, though brief, is of gi'eat interest, as it proves that
within a short distance of one another stood both round and quad-
rangular inclosures, built by people of the same stock, though not
of the same tribe. And it is remarkable how closely the description
of the village of Paski conforms with the picture of Pomeioc; a
circular palisade surrounding a number of bark-covered houses
placed in a circle, a great fire iii the middle of the open space, with
a group of Indians gathered around.
During the war with the colonists the Tuscarora and their allies
erected palisaded strongholds. In January, 1712, such a fort was
built on the bank of the K"euse some 20 miles west of Newbern.
This was taken by the whites on the 28th of the same month. The
site is well known, and numerous arrow points and other objects of
stone found there are thought by some to have been used and lost
at the time of the encounter, although the Indians unquestionably
had an ample supply of firearms.
The mat and bark covered habitations of the eastern tribes, in
addition to the characteristic structures of the Iroquois, or Five
Nations, were of two general tyj^es, the circular, dome-shaped wig-
wam, and the more quadrangular form with the arched roof. The
latter was used tliroughout tidewater Virginia, and was clearly
described by the early writers. It was likewise shown in White's
drawings made of the villages standing in the northeastern corner of
North Carolina in the summer of 1585. These were not far from the
country of the Tuscarora, who, however, appear to have erected
both ty])es of dwellings. Soon after the beginning of the year 1701,
Lawson "met with 500 Tuskereros in one Hunting Quarter. They
had made themselves streets of houses built with Pine Bark, not with
round tops as they commonly use, but Ridge Fashion, after the
manner of most other Indians." (Lawson, (1), p. 32.) "Ridge
Fasliion," in this Cjuotation, undoubtedly refers to the Virginia
form of structure, the long arched roof described by the historians
as resembling arbors in the English gardens. The dome-shaped
habitations of the Carolina Indians — and the account refers more
particuliarly to the Tuscarora and Coree — ^were described by Lawson
(p. 105). They were usually covered with cypress bark, but when
this was not to be had cedar or pine was used, the latter being con-
sidered the poorest. Many long saplings were cut, "at the tliickest
end of which they generally strip off the bark, and warm them well
in the fire, which makes them tough and fit to bend; afterw^ards
BUSHNELL] NATIVE VILLAGES AND VILLAGE SITES 59
they stick the thickest ends of them in the gi-ound, above two yards
asunder, in a circuhir form, the distance they design the Cabin to be
(which is not always round but sometimes oval) ; then they bend the
tops and bring them together and bind their ends with bark of trees,
that is proper for that use, as Elm is, or sometimes the Moss that
grow on the Trees . . . They have other sorts of Cabins without
Windows, wliich are for the Granaries, Skins, and Merchandizes;
and others that are covered overhead and the rest left open for air.
These have reed Hurdles like Tables, to lie and sit on in summer,
and serve for pleasant Banc^ueting Houses in the Hot Season of the
Year. The Cabins they dwell in have Benches aU around, except
where the door stands. On these they lay Beasts-Skins and Mats
made of Rushes, whereon they sleej) and loll. In one of these several
Families commonly live, though all related to one another."
Considering the size and importance of the Cherokee it is surpris-
ing how little is known regarding the appearance of their dwellings
and other structm-es. But their villages were not compactly built,
as among other tribes. The houses were widely scattered and were
often far removed from the center of the community, or village,
which was indicated by the town house. Unlike the Creeks, so
Bartram WTote in 1789 —
"They have neither the Square nor the ChunJcy-Yard. Their
Simimer Council House is a spacious open loft or pavilion, on the
top of a very large oblong building; and the Rotunda, or great Hot
or Town House, is the Council House in Cold seasons. Their private
houses or habitations consist of one large oblong-square log build-
ing, divided transversely into several apartmants; and a round hot-
house stands a little distance off, for a winter lodging-house."
(Bartram, W., (1), pp. 56-57.)
A few years earlier it was said: "They build theu- houses with
wood and ciel them with clay mixed with straw, so as to render them
tight and comfortable. They have many small towns dispersed
among the mountains." (Rogers, (1), p. 202.) The Cherokee
and Creeks not only differed in the arrangement of the buildings
but in the manner of their construction. The rectangular habitation
of the Cherokee was one story in height, formed of logs "stripped of
their bark, notched at their ends, fixed one upon another, and after-
wards plaistered well, both inside and out, with clay well tempered
with dry grass, and the whole covered or roofed with the bark of the
chestnut tree or long broad shingles." (Bartram, W., (2), p. 365.)
This was partitioned transversely and formed into thi-ee apartments,
connected by doors. A few yards away from the house, opposite
the main entrance, stood a small, conical, earth-covered lodge,
known as the winter hothouse.
60 BUREAU OF AMERICAN- ETHNOLOGY [bull. 69
The Cherokee town of Cowe (Kawi'yi, Mooney) stood on the banks
of the Little Tennessee, about the mouth of Cowee Creek, in the
present Macon County, North Carolma, among the beautiful hills
and valleys of the southern Alleghenies (pi. 10, a). When visited
by Bartram in the spring of 1776, the town consisted of about
100 dwellings, and here was a town house large enough to allow
several hundred persons to gather within. This occupied the summit
of an artificial mound some 20 feet in height. The building rose
30 feet higher, making the peak of the roof 50 feet above the sur-
rounding area. Bartram's description of this structure is of much
interest (op. cit., pp. 366-367) :
"They firsL fix in the ground a circular range of posts or trunks of
trees, about six feet high, at equal distances, which are notched at
top, to receive into them from one to another, a range of beams or
wall plates; within this is another circular order of very large and
strong pillars, above twelve feet high, notched m like manner at
top, to receive another range of wall plates; and within this is yet
another or third range of stronger and higher pUlars, but few in
number, standing at a greater distance from each other; and lastly,
iu the centre stands a very strong pillar, which forms the pirmacle
of the building, and to which the rafters are strengthened and bound
together by cross beams and laths, which sustain the roof or covering,
which is a layer of bark neatly placed, and tight enough to exclude
the rain, and sometimes they cast a thin superficies of earth over all.
There is but one large door, which serves at the same time to admit
light from without and the smoke to escape when a fire is kindled;
but as there is but a small fire kept, sufficient to give light at night,
and that fed with dry small sound wood divested of its bark, there
is but little smoke. All aromid the inside of the buildmg, betwixt
the second range of pillars and the wall, is a range of cabms or sophas,
consisting of two or tliree steps, one above or behind the other, in
theatrical order, where the assembly sit or lean do%\Ti ; these sophas
are covered with mats or carpets, very cuj'iously made of thin splints
of Ash or Oak, woven or platted together; near the great pillar in
the centre the fire is kmdled for light, near which the musicians seat
themselves, and round about this the performers exhibit their dances
and other shows at public festivals, which happen almost every night
tln-oughout the year."
The night of Bartram's visit the people had gathered in the town
house at Cowe to "rehearse the ball-play dance." The town was to
play against another on the next day.
The tovnx house at Tellico, a Cherokee village m the present Mon-
roe County, Tenn., stood on the summit of a mound 12 feet in height,
which Was in the midst of the old fields, near a bend of the Little
Tennessee, not far from Cowe. The houses were falling apart, and
BUSHNELL] NATIVE VILLAGES AND VILLAGE SITES 61
the whole had the appearamce of desolation. (Hawkins, B., (2), p.
112.) The structure at Tellico was probably similar to that at Cowe
and Chote. All town houses of the Cherokee were probably much
alike, difTering only in size and minor details.
During the latter part of the year 1761 Lieut. Timberlake, of the
British forces, while on a mission to the Cherokee, reached the im-
portant to^\ni of Chote, in the present county of Monroe, Tennessee,
opposite the ruins of Fort Loudon. Here in the tovm. house of
Chote, "the metropolis of the country," gathered the headmen of
the neighbormg to^^^ls "to hear the articles of peace read." This
mrst have been one of the most important and largest buildings
ever erected by the Cherokee, but in form it did not differ from that
at Cowe, as the description will prove:
"The town-house, in which are transacted all public business and
diversions, is raised with wood, and covered over with earth, and
has all the appearance of a small mountain at a little distance. It
is built in the form of a sugar loaf, and large enough to contain 500
persons, but extremely dark, having, besides the door, which is so
narrow that but one at a time can pass, and that after much wuiding
and turning, but one small aperture to let the smoke out, which is
so ill contrived, that most of it settles m the roof of the house.
Within it has the appearance of an ancient amphitheatre, the seats
bemg raised one above another, leaving an area in the middle, in
the center of which stands the fire; the seats of the head warriors
are nearest it." (Timberlake, (1), p. 32.)
And Chote continued to be the "metropolis" of the nation for
many years. Here the chief men would gather and deliberate, and
here the representatives of the colonies, and later of the States,
would come to meet the Cherokee in council. Letters now preserved
in the Department of Archives, Virginia State Library, Richmond,
shed much light on tl^e Cherokee during the latter part of the eight-
eenth century. One of these letters, being of great historical
interest, reads:
Chotee 19tli Sepr 1785-
SlR
Agreeable to your Excellencys Instructions I have been Very Attentive to the
Indians Since July Last at •which time I returned from Charlestown, at my arrival one
of the principal [men] moved off and Several Families out of the different To\vns. I
neA'er see them in such Confusion before. I have had Several Meetings ^vith them
in wliich time my old friend Oconstota who never forsook my Council died, their
Confusion arose from the delay of the Treaty and the rapid Encroachments on their
Lands. Several houses are Built within a Mile of their To^vns. Together with the
Talks from the differt Tribes of Indians some of wliich are now among them and
More Expected Shortly. Their Council broke up yesterday which has been Sitting
Six days, the old Tassel imforms [me] that the Wyandots Chief who is with them tells
him that the Six Nations of Indians are at peace with Yirg" but all the other Tril^es
are at War, that the Shanees have been tlirough the Different Tribes for their assist-
ance who have promised to give it this fall and march a Large army against Kentuckey,
62 BUREAU OF AMEEICAN ETHNOLOGY [bdll.69
also the different parts of the frontiers of Virg« that the Shanees are to Lie Still till the
Western Indians arrive at which time the[y] are to send Runners to the Cherokee 3
Chocta-ws, Chickisaws & Creeks, -with the war Hatchett, but he says he will not accept
of it. they appear much Better Reconciled then they were some time past. —
I Divided What public goods was on hand among them & the Chickisaws who I sent
for to these Towns & which had a wonderful Effect, tho after all my Exertions I fear
the Chickamoggas will accept the war Hatchett. — I expect to set out for that quarter
tomorrow and I beg leave to assure your Excellancy that nothing shall be Lacking on
my part to keep them in good humour till the General Treaty which comes on with the
Creeks the 24th of Next Month & with the Cherokees, Chickisaws & Chocktaws the
15th Nov^ after Every thing is Settled with them I shall Hurry down to Richmond
in order to Settle all my public accts. ' '
The letter continues and refers to certain persons living among
the Indians, and then closes. It was written by Joseph Martin
and was addressed to "His Excellency Patrick Henry Esq*" Governor
of the State of Virginia."
Forwarded with the precedmg letter was a document, part of which
is now quoted:
Chotee 19th Septr 1785
Brother —
I am now going to Speak to you I hope you will hear me. I am an old man
and almost thrown away by my Elder Brother — the ground I Stand on is very Slip-
pery— tho I Still hope my Elder Brother will hear me and take pity on me. As we
were all made by the Same great Being above we are the Children of the same
parent — I therefore hope my Brother will hear me.
It then describes the encroachments of the whites on lands always
acknowledged as belonging to the Cherokee, claimed and- occupied
by them, and refers to the coming treaty, then continues:
I once more Beg that our Elder Brother will Take pity on us and not take our
ground from us because he is Stronger than we — the great Being above that made us
all placed us on this Land and gave it to us and it is ours — our Elder Brother in all
the Treaties we ever had gave it to us also and we hope he will not think of taking
it from us now.
I have Sent with this Talk a String of ^\^lite Beads which I hope my Elder
Brother will take hold of and think of his younger Brother who is now in. Trouble
and Looking to him for Justice.
Given out by the Old Tassell for himself & whole Nation in presence of the
headmen of the Upper & Lower Cherokees & Interpreted by me.
James McCormack
For the Governor of Virginia & North Carolina.
It is interesting to laiow that the string of white wampum which
accompanied this is still preserved with the paper, now turned yellow
with age. There are 29 beads on the string, all polished and worn,
and these were evidently quite old even when sent from Chote, when
the old men of the Cherokee were seekmg justice for their people.
These and other papers of a similar nature have recently been dis-
covered by the State archivist, Morgan P. Robinson, and it is gratify-
ing to know they will now be carefully preserved together with other
BUSHNELL] NATIVE VILLAGES AND VILLAGE SITES 63
documents belonging to the days when Virginia had to treat with the
Indians on its frontiers.
Such were the town houses, the council houses of the Cherokee,
among the most interesting buildings reared by the native tribes.
In general appearance they must have closely resembled the ha])ita-
tions of the Omaha, the Mandan, and other tribes of the upper
Missouri Valley, although often much larger than the majority of
the latter and of more elaborate ulterior construction.
Wliile many of the toA\ais stood on one side of the river, others are
known to have occupied both banks of the stream. The settlement
of Sinica {I'su^niglji, Mooney) formerly stood on Keowee River, about
the mouth of Conn cross Creek, in the present Oconee County, South
Carolina. It was visited by Bartram in May, 1776, at which time he
wrote that it was "situated on the East bank of the Keowe river,
though the greatest number of Indian habitations are on the oppo-
site shore, where likewise stands the comicil-house, m a level plam
betwixt the river and the range of beautiful lofty hills, which rise
magnificently, and seem to bend over the green i^lams and the river:
but the chief's house with those of the traders, and some Indian
dwellmgs, are seated on the ascent of the heights on the opposite
shore." (Bartram, W., (2), pp. 327-328.) This was a new town
only recently built
The town house was the prmcipal structure m the Cherokee vil-
lages, but among the neighboruig Muskhogean tribes, as will be
shown on the following pages, the town house, or ''rotunda," was
but one of a group of important buildmgs in each town.
As previously stated, the southern section of eastern United States,
that is, the greater parts of Mississippi and Alabama, and wide regions
of Florida, Georgia, South Carolma, and Temiessee, was claimed or
actually occupied by Muskhogean tribes. The best Ioioami of these
were the Choctaw, Chickasaw, and the numerous lesser tribes which
were united as the Creek Confederacy. The Natchez, although dis-
tantly related, should probably be considered as belonging to this
linguistic family. Occupymg such a vast region, extending from the
Mississippi to the Atlantic, and from, the high mountainous country
of the north to the swampy lowlands bordering the Gulf of Mexico
(pi. 10, I, c), the different tribes developed distinct manners and cus-
toms, many being shown in the form and appearance of villages.
Although the Choctaw have been well known to Em^opeans for
several generations, and their to\\'ns were visited by many who left
accounts of colonial Louisiana, yet no clear description of a primitive
Choctaw village is knowTi to have been preserved. However, their
settlements do not appear to have been compactly built, but were
probably scattered over a wide area, in the midst of a virgin forest,
each habitation with a small garden. Recently a brief though very
64 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 69
interesting description of their habitations has been cUscovered in an
unpublished manuscript which evidently dates from, the early part
of the eighteenth century:
"Their house is nothing else than a cabui made of pieces of wood
of the size of the leg, buried in the earth and fastened together with
lianas, wliich are very flexible bands. These cabins are surrounded
with mud walls without whidows; the door is only from tliree to four
feet in height. They are covered with bark of the cypress or the
pme. A hole is left at the top of each gable-end to let the smoke out,
for they make their fires in the middle of the cabins, which are a
gunshot distance from each other. The inside is surrounded with
cane beds raised from tliree to four feet from the ground."
Heavy skins, such as those of the bear, buffalo, or deer, served as
coverings; others were spread upon the "cane beds." Their food
was prepared in vessels of earthenware. Tliis description, although
quite ambiguous in detail, evidently refers to structures of wattle-
work (fig. 4), covered with clay in a plastic state, to wliich grass or
Spanish moss had probably been added. While the preceding ac-
count was presented as a general
description of Choctaw dwellings,
it should be accepted as referring
more particularly to those members
of the tribe who lived away from
riG.4.-Exampieoiwauieuoik. (From the lowlauds bordcrmg the coast,
Handbook of American Indians.) ,. ^ , i t /■ , V < /-n
acting on the beliei that Choctaw
lived along the shore of Lake Pontchartrain and eastward. Accord-
ing to the statements of several old Choctaw now occupying a few
acres of land near Bayou Lacomb, which enters Lake Pontchartrain
some 10 miles east of Mandeville, the primitive habitations of the
"old people" who lived near the shore of the lake were of two forms,
circular and rectangular. The frames were formed of small saplings,
the tops and sides covered with palmetto thatch. Many of the circu-
lar structures were quite large and served as shelter for many per-
sons. The single door usually faced the south. The fire was kindled
on the ground within near the center, the smoke passing out tlu'ough
an opening made for the purpose in the center of the top or roof.
Some examples of the rectangular thatched dwelling have been built
and occupied witlfin the past few years, one being shown in figure 5.
This particular structure stood near Mandeville, St. Tammany Par-
ish, on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain, m 1879 (Busluiell, (3),
p. 7). Some 20 miles east of Mandeville was the Choctaw settlement
of Bonfouca, where Pere Rouquette erected his first chapel during
the year 1845. A part of this settlement as it was the next year is
shown in plate 11, this bemg a reproduction of a painting made by
Bernard, bearing the date 1846. This represents a group of women
BUSHNELL] NATIVE VILLAGES AND VILLAGE SITES 65
in the foreground, near a firo in the open. Others are gathered be-
neath the shelter on the left, wliile to the right of the door of the far
cabin a woman is busily engaged with mortar and pestle, probably
prepai'ing Tcomho asJiish. The use of the large carrying basket, the
IcisJie of the Choctaw, is clearly indicated, and the group in the fore-
ground may be engaged in preparing dyes and the materials for bas-
ket making, with strips of cane scattered on the ground. The open
shelter was probably in use throughout the South and the one which
stood at Bonfouca in 1846 was imdoubtedly t3rpical of all. It closely
Fig. 5.— Choctaw house of palmetto thatch.
resembled the houses of the Seminole as described on another page.
This may have been the ''summer house," so often mentioned.
Within the past few years traces of a settlement, or camp site,
have been encountered on a slight ridge, a hundred yards or more
from the shore of Lake Pontchartrain, about 12 miles northeast of
New Orleans. Many bits of pottery are found mingled with the
shells and sand, and human remains have been discovered. This
may have been a landing place on the shore of the lake, where parties
coming from the opposite side would encamp, or those returning
would await favorable weather before attempting to cross.
In the year 1771 it was said the buildings of the Choctaw were
"exactly similar to those of the Chicasaws." (Romans, (1), p. 83.)
108851°— 19 5
66 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bulu69
This would indicate that each family had three separate structures —
a summer house, a corn house, and a winter house. This again may
refer to the northern part of the tribe, living in the neighborhood
of the Chickasaw. The same writer left a very interesting statement
regarding the small temporary shelters erected by the southern tribes
when away from their villages. He wrote of the Muskhogean people
(p. 65):
"A Choctaw makes his camp in travelling in form of a sugar loaf;
a Chicasaw makes it in form of our arbours; a Creek like to our sheds,
or piazzas, to a timber house; in this manner every nation has some
distinguishing way. ' '
Similar customs as they existed among the Narraganset, the
Algonquian tribes of Virginia, the northern Iroquois, and others,
have already been cited.
In the vicinity of Lake Pontchartrain lived several Muskhogean
tribes whose connection with the Choctaw proper has not been clearly
determined. All appear to have been closely allied, possibly forming
a confederation of tribes similar to that of the Creek confederacy in
early times. Among these were the Acolapissa, Tangipahoa, and
others. A village of the former tribe then standing on the left bank
of the Mississippi a short distance above New Orleans was visited
by Charlevoix January 4, 1722, at which time he wrote:
"This is the finest in all Louisiana, though there are not above two
hundred warriors in it, who, however, have the reputation of being
very brave. Their cabbins are in the form of a pavilion . . . They
have a double covering, that within being a tissue of the leaves of
Lataniers trees, and that without consists of Matts. The chief's
cabbin is thirty-six feet in diameter: I have not hitherto seen any of
a larger size, that of the chief of the Natchez being no more than
thirty." (Charlevoix, (1), II, p. 285.)
Much has been written regarding the Natchez, one of the most
interesting of the native American tribes, and the greater part of
the available material has been gathered and presented in a single
volume (Swan ton, (1)). The Natchez settlements, at one time
nine in number, lay scattered along the course of St. Catherines
Creek, a few miles from the left bank of the Mississippi, on the eastern
edge of the present city of Natchez. The dwellings were evidently
widely dispersed and did not form a compact group. One village,
the home of the great Sun, probably served as the center of the nation.
This was the stopping place of Charlevoix on December 25, 1721, when
he prepared a brief description of the town (op. cit., II, p. 256) :
''The cabbins of the great village of the Natchez, the only one I
have seen, are in the form of square pavilions, very low, and without
windows. Their roofs are rounded pretty much in the same manner
as an oven. Most of them are covered with tiie leaves and straw of
BUSHNELL] NATIVE VILLAGES AND VILLAGE SITES 67
maiz. Some of them are built of a sort of mud, which seemed toler-
ably good, and is covered outside and inside with very thin mats.
That of the great chief is rough cast very handsomely in the inside:
it is likewise larger and higher than the rest, being placed in a more
elevated situation, and has no cabbins adjoining to it. It fronts a
large square, which is none of the most regular, and looks to the north.
All the moveables I found in it were a bed of j^lanks very narrow, and
raised about two or three feet from the ground; probably when the
chief lies down he spreads over it a matt, or the skin of some animal.
, . . These cabbins have no vent for the smoke, notwithstanding those
into which I entered were tolerably white. The temple stands at
the side of the chief's cabbin, facing the east, and at the extremity
of the square. It is built of the same material, with the cabbins,
but of a different shape, bemg an oblong square, forty feet in length,
and twenty in breadth, with a very simple roof, in the same form as
ours. At each extremity there is something like a weather-cock of
wood, which has a very coarse resemblance of an eagle. The gate is
in the middle of the length of the building, which has no other open-
ing: on each side there are seats of stone. Wliat is ^dthiii is quite
correspondent to this rustic outside. Three pieces of wood, joined
at the extremity, and placed in a triangle, or rather at an equal
distance from one another, take up almost the whole middle space
of the temple, and burn slowly away. An Indian, whom they call
keeper of the temple, is obliged to tend them, and to prevent their
going out. If the weather is cold he may have a fire for hmiself, for
he is not allowed to warm himself at this, which burns in honour of the
sun . . . Ornaments I saw none, nor anything indeed which could
inform me that this was a temple. I saw only three or four boxes
lying in disorder, with a few dry bones in them, and some wooden
heads on the ground, of somewhat better workmanship than the eagles
on the roof. In short, if it had not been for the fire, I should have
believed this temple had been deserted for some time, or that it had
been lately plundered."
The structure designated the temple was themost important building
in the village. As should be expected, the various early descriptions of
the Natchez village did not always agree in detail, but it is possible to
form a rather clear conception of their appearance. According to
Du Pratz, who gave a vivid account of the method of constructing the
houses, all the cabins were perfectly square, none less thaii 15 feet each
way, and some 30 or more feet on a side. Hickory saplings about 4
inches in diameter were placed firmly in the ground at the four
corners. Others, probably smaller, were arranged about 15 inches
apart in lines between the corner posts, forming the walls of the struc-
ture. Poles were then fastened on the inside of these in a horizontal
position, bound and held by split canes. The four corner poles, which
68 BUREAU OF AMERICA2^ ETHNOLOGY [bdll. 69
were as much as 20 feet in length, were bent inward, thus meeting in
the center of the frame, and were fastened. The poles along the
sides were likewise bent in and so secured to the four principal sup-
ports. The frame was then covered with a "mortar of mud mixed
with Spanish beard, with which they fill up all the chinks, leaving no
opening but the door, and the mud they cover both outside and inside
with mats made of the splits of cane. The roof is thatched with turf
and straw intermixed, and over all is laid a mat of canes, which is
fastened to the tops of the walls by the creeping plant. These huts
will last 20 years without any repairs." (Du Pratz, (1), II, pp. 224-
225.)
Within the habitations raised platforms, a foot or more above the
ground, served as sleeping places. These were covered with heavy
skins during the cold season, and often with mats during the summer.
Bags fiUed with Spanish moss were used on the beds. Low stools were
seen by Du Pratz but were seldom used. Surrounding the houses
were fields of corn, their principal food. The corn was pounded and
crushed in wooden mortars, formed by hollowing sections of trees.
Pottery vessels of many forms were made, some of sufficient size to
hold 15 quarts. Little now remains to mark the sites of the settle-
ments of these interesting people who, at the time of the first coming
of the French, ranked as one of the most important tribes of the lower
Mississippi Valley.
Near the northeastern corner of the present State of Mississippi,
in the vicinity of the headwaters of the Yazoo and Tombigbee Rivers,
about the region now included in Union and Pontotoc Counties, lived
the Chickasaw, ever enemies of the neighboring Choctaw, although
speaking the same language and having many customs in common.
Writing of the Chickasaw in 1771, Romans said:
"They live nearly in the center of a very large and somewhat
uneven savannah, of a diameter of above three miles. . . They have
in this field what might be called one town or rather an assemblage of
butts, and very narrow and irregular; this however they divide into
seven, by the names of Melattaw (i. e.) hat and feather, CJiatelaw (i. e.)
copper town, Cliukafalaya (i. e.) long town, Hikiliaw (i. e.) stand still,
Chucalissa (i. e.) great town, Tuckahaw (i. e.) a certain weed, and
AsTiuck Jiooma (i.e.) red grass ; this w^as formerly inclosed in palisadoes,
and thus well fortified against the attacks of smaU arms, but now it
lays open." (Romans, (1), pp. 62-63.)
Among the Chickasaw each family had a group of three buildings,
instead of the single structure usually claimed by an Indian family.
This was likewise the practice among the Creek, who, however, often
added a fourth, a storehouse. Romans described the houses of the
Chickasaw as they were in 1771 (op. cit., p. 67) :
"Their habitations at home consist of three buildings, a summer
house, a corn house, and a winter house, called a hot house; the two
BUSHNELL] NATIVE VILLAGES AND VILLAGE SITES 69
first are oblong squares, the latter is circular, they have no chimnies
but let the smoke find its way out through a hole at the top in their
dwelling houses, but in the hot houses, where it can, in these they
make large wood fires, on the middle of the floor, which being by even-
ing all coals, they enter it, and sleep on benches made round the inside
of the building."
As Romans remarked, the buildings of the Choctaw were ' ' exactly
similar to those of the Chickasaw," this description should therefore
apply to the houses of both tribes, especially to the northern Choctaw
living near the Chickasaw.
James Adair, who spent many years as a trader among the southern
Indians, and whose work treats principally of the Chickasaw among
whom he lived the greater part of the time, has left a detailed account
of the manner in which they constructed their different houses.
(Adair, (1), pp. 417-421.) The whole village aided in the work, "and
frequently the nearest of their tribe in neighboring towns, assist
one another. . . In one day, they build, daub with their tough
mortar mixed with dry grass, and thoroughly finish, a good commo-
dious house. They first trace the dimensions of the intended fabric,
and every one has his task prescribed him after the exactest manner.
. . . For their summer houses, they generally fix strong posts of
pitch-pine deep in the ground, which will last for several ages."
The posts being of equal height were notched to hold the waU
plates. A larger post was then placed in the middle of each gable
end, and another in the center of the house to mark the position of
the partition. The frame was completed by using many small split
saplings and some larger logs, all of which were secured by tying.
The outside was made of "pine, or cypress clap-boards, which they
can split readily; and crown the work with the bark of the same trees,
all of a proper length and breadth, which they had before provided."
The covering was held in place by split saplings, tied to the frame
at the ends.
" They provide themselves for the winter with hot-houses ... To
raise these, they fix .deep in the ground, a sufficient number of strong
forked posts, at a proportional distance, in a circular form, all of an
equal height, about five or six feet above the surface of the ground:
above these, they tie very securely large pieces of the heart of white
oak, which are of a tough flexible nature, interweaving this orbit, from
top to bottom, with pieces of the same, or the like timber. Then in
the middle of the fabric they fix very deep in the ground, four large
pine posts, in a quadrangular form, notched a-top, on which they lay
a number of heavy logs, let into each other, and rounding gi-adu-
ally to the top. Above this huge pile, to the very top, they lay a num-
ber of long dry poles, all properly notched, to keep strong hold of the
under posts and wall-plate. Then they weave them thick with their
70 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 69
split sapplings, and daub them all over about six or seven inches thick
with tough clay, well mixt w^th withered gi'ass: when this cement
is half dried, they thatch the house with the longest sort of dry grass
that their land produces. They first lay on one round tier, placing a
split sappling a-top, well tied to different parts of the under pieces
of timber, about fifteen inches below the eave: and, in this manner,
they proceed circularly to the very spire, where commonly a pole is
fixed, that displays on the top the figure of a large carved eagle. At
a small distance below which, four heavy logs are strongly tied together
across, in a quadrangular form, in order to secure the roof . . . The
door of tliis winter palace, is commonly about four feet high, and so
narrow as not to admit two to enter it abreast, with a winding passage
for the space of six or seven feet, to secure themselves both from the
power of the bleak winds, and of an invading enemy. As they usually
build on rising ground, the floor is often a yard lower than the earth,
which serves them as a breast work against an enemy: and a small
peeping window is level with the surface of the outside ground . . .
in the fall of the year, as soon as the sun begins to lose his warming
power, some of the women make a large fire [within the house] . . .
When the fire is a little more than half burned down, they cover it
over with ashes."
During the night the occupants of the beds or couches would reach
with long canes and ''strike off some of the top embers," thus keeping
a glo%ving surface exposed. The fire would usually die out about
the break of- day. The same author (p. 421) refers to the council
house, one in every town, "the only difference between it, and the
winter house or stove, is in its dimensions, and application. It is
usually built on the top of a hill; and, in that separate and imperial
state house, the old beloved men and head warriors meet on material
business, or to divert themselves, and feast and dance with the rest
of the people."
It is remarkable how similar is Catlin's description of the earth-
covered structures of the Mandan, as seen by him during the early
part of the last century, and the preceding account by Adair of the
appearance and construction of the winter house of the Chickasaw.
It is difficult to believe they did not have a conmion origin, and al-
though the Mandan were then living far beyond the limits of the
region treated in the present paper, nevertheless Catlin's description
should be quoted as it will tend to make more clear the origin of cer-
tain sites to be mentioned on another page.
The gi-eat village of the Mandan stood on a high point on the west
bank of the Missouri. The point was at a bend of the river which
thus protected it on three sides, and Catlin wrote:
"They have therefore but one side to protect, which is effectually
done by a strong piquet, and a ditch inside of it, of three or four feet
BDSHNELL] NATIVE VILLAGES AND VILLAGE SITES 71
in depth. The piquet is composed of timbers of a foot or more in
diameter, and eighteen feet high, set firmly in the ground at sufficient
distance from each other to admit of guns and other missils to be fired
between them.''
The structures witliin the protected area were very close together —
"They all have a circular form, and are from forty to sixty feet in
diameter. Their foundations are prepared by digging some two feet
in the gi-ound, and forming the floor of earth, by leveling the requisite
size for the lodge. The floors or foundation are all perfectly circu-
lar . . . The superstructure is then produced, by arranging, inside
of tliis circular excavation, firmly fixed in the ground and resting
against the bank, a barrier or wall of timbers, some eight or nine
inches in diameter, of equal height (about six feet) placed on end, and
resting against each other, supported by a formidable embankment
of earth raised against them outside; then, resting upon the tops of
these timbers or piles, are others of equal size and equal in numbers,
of twenty-five feet in length, resting firmly against each other and
sending their upper or smaller ends towards the center and top of the
lodge ; rising at an angle of forty-five degi^ees to the apex or sky-light,
which is about tlu*ee or four feet in diameter, answering as a chimney
and a sky-light at the same time. The roof of the lodge being thus
formed, is supported by beams passing around the inner part of the
lodge about the middle of the poles or timbers, and themselves up-
held by four or five large posts passing down to thejloor of the lodge.
On the top of, and over the poles forming the roof, is placed a complete
mat of willow boughs, of half a foot or more in thickness, wliich pro-
tects the timbers from the dampness of the earth, with which the
lodge is covered from bottom to top, to the depth of two or three feet;
and then with a hard or tough clay wliich is impervious to water, and
which with long use becomes quite hard." (Catlin, (1), I, pp. 81-82.)
A circular excavation some 4 or 5 feet in diameter, a foot or more
in depth and curbed with stones, made in the center of the floor of
the structure^ served as the fireplace. Beds were formed by stretch-
ing buffalo skins over frames of poles lashed securely together.
These extended around the inside wall and each was curtained by
skins, some of which were elaborately painted, others being decorated
with quillwork. These beds are quite suggestive of the "cabins"
seen by Dickenson in the great round houses which stood in the vil-
lages on the coast north of St. Augustine during the autumn of 1699,
and which are described on another page.
The earth lodge was erected by many of the plains tribes, including
the Pawnee, and in plate 12 is reproduced a very remarkable photo-
graph of a Pawnee village made about 50 years ago. The great town
houses of the southern tribes undoubtedly resembled these struc-
tures, althouo-h some seem to have had a thatch of grass outside the
72 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 69
earth covering. Some of the more ancient villages in the lower
Mississippi Valley may have resembled the Pawnee village of half a
century ago.
It is quite evident the town houses of the southern tribes in early
times stood on the smnmit of artificial mounds wliich had been
erected for the purpose. This was certainly true among the Cherokee
and Creeks, and probably among the Chickasaw. Seldom were the
villages of the southern tribes compactly built. The separate dwellings
or groups of structures which constituted the unit were often widely
scattered, surrounded by their own fields and gardens. In such
instances the town house became the center of the community, the
gathering place for the people, just as the courthouse serves as the
rallying place in rural districts. The custom of erecting the towTi
house on the summit of an artificial mound may have been inaugu-
rated through a desire to elevate the structure above the level of the
water in time of flood, as many of the towns stood on the lowlands
along water courses. In tliis connection it is more than probable
the occurrence of one or more mounds at widely separated places
along the southern rivers indicate the site of a former village, and
while slight traces now remain of the toAMis, which are undoubtedly
quite extensive, many including a hundred or more houses, it is
easily conceived that such a condition would have resulted from the
freshets which have swept away practically all signs of the former
settlement.
A century or more ago the towns of the Creek confederacy were
munerous tliroughout the country they then occupied. The con-
federacy, formed of many small tribes and remnants and parts of
others, as a whole, was the largest division of the Muskhogean linguis-
tic family. The towns of the Upper Creeks were in the valleys of
the Coosa and Tallapoosa, streams which unite a short distance above
the city of Montgomery, Alabama. The Lower Creeks were farther
southeast on the Chattahoochee and Flint Kivers. Of the' Lower
Creek towns Cussetah was one of the most important, and possibly
one of the most ancient, as its name has been identified in the narra-
tive of De Soto's expedition in 1540. It stood on the left bank of the
Chattahoochee, a few miles below the present city of Columbus,
Georgia. A description of the town as it was in 1820 proves it to
have been an important center:
"It appears to consist of about 100 houses, many of them elevated
on poles from two to six feet high, and built of unhewn logs, with
roofs of bark, and little patches of Indian corn before the doors.
The women were hard at work, digging the ground, pounding Indian
corn, or carrying heavy loads of water from the river: the men were
either setting out to the woods with their guns, or lying idle before
the doors ; and the cliildrcn were amusing themselves in little groups
BUSHNELL] NATIVE VILLAGES AND VILLAGE SITES 73
... In the center of the to^^'n, we passe^.. a large building, with a
conical roof, supported by a circular wall about tliree feet high: close
to it was a quadi-angular space, enclosed by four open buildings,
with rows of benches rising above one another: the whole appro-
priated, we were informed, to the Great Council of the town, who
meet, under shelter, or in the open air, according to the weather.
Near the spot was a liigh pole, like our May-poles, with a bird at the
top, round which the Indians celebrate theu' Green-Corn Dance.
The town or to^\^lsllip of Cosito is said to be able to muster 700 war-
riors." (Hodgson, (1), p. 265.)
At this time the village had lost much of its i:)rimitivc aspect, but
the rotunda, "a large building with a conical roof," had evidently
retained its ancient form. Here stood two rather large artificial
mounds, one circular, the other rectangular, relics of earlier days
when the former was probably surmounted by the great round struc-
ture, the winter council house. The site of this once large settlement
has been cultivated for many years; the two ancient mounds have been
worn down by the plow and soon will have disappeared. No traces
remain of the many houses, the public square, and the larger building
which served to bound it. A few objects of stone and small frag-
ments of pottery are found scattered over the surf ace^ — all that marks
the position of the once important town of Cussetah, and what is
true concerning this ancient site is equally true of many others
throughout the country between the Mississippi and the Atlantic.
In the preceding account of Cussetah as it was a century ago is a
reference to ' 'a quadrangular space, enclosed by four open buildings."
This was the Public Scpare, so characteristic of the Creek towns. As
described by Bartram in 1789:
' 'The Public Square of the Creeks consists of four buildings of equal
size, placed one upon each side of a quadrangular court. The prin-
cipal or Council House is divided transversely into three equal apart-
ments, separated from each other by a low clay waU. This building
is also divided longitudinally into two nearly equal parts; the fore-
most or front is an open piazza, where are seats for the council. The
middle apartment is for the king (mico) , the great war chief, second
head man, and other venerable and worthy chiefs and warriors. The
two others are for the warriors and citizens generally. The back
apartment of this house is quite close and dark, and without en-
trances, except tliree very low arched holes or doors for admitting the
priests. Here are deposited all the most valuable public thmgs, as
the eagle's tail or national standard, the sacred calumet, the drums,
and all apparatus of the priests. Fronting this is another building
called the 'Banqueting House;' and the edifices upon either hand are
haUs to accommodate the people on public occasions, as feasts, fes-
tivals, etc. The three buildings last mentioned are very much alike
74
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY
[BULL. 69
and differ from the Council House only in not having the close back
apartment." (Bartram, W., (1), pp. 53-54.)
The relative positions of the three principal features of the Creek
towns, the "Chunky- Yard, Public Square, and Rotunda," as ar-
ranged in the "modern Creek towns, " was shown by the accompany-
ing plan made by Bartram in 1789 (fig. 6). In this A represents the
public square, with the four buildings. B "the Rotunda; a, the door
opening toward the sc[uare; the three circular lines show the two rows
of seats, sofas, or cabins; the punctures show the pillars or columns
which support the building; c, the great central pillar, or columns
surrounded by the spiral fire, which gives light to the house." C
represents a part of the chunky yard. Now, while this was the plan
as followed in later times, the earlier arrangement was different,
having the chunky yard between the other units of the group.
§ <^MittlHI!lMI'll
5 -^////(iiiiiHlJUl
^/(llimillllllll!
Fig. 6.— Principal structures of a Creek town in 1789.
Bartram's sketch of the older method is reproduced in figure 7. It
was described thus (p. 52) :
' 'A, the great area, surrounded by terraces or banks, B, a circular
eminence, at one end of the yard, commonly nine or ten feet higher
than the groimd round about. Upon this mound stands the great
Rotunda, Hot House, or Winter Council House, of the present Creeks.
It was probably designed and used by the ancients who constructed
it, for the same purpose. C, a square terrace or eminence, about the
same height with the circular one just described, occupying a position
at the other end of the yard. Upon this stands the PuUic Square.
The banks inclosing the yard are indicated by the letters h, h, h, h]
c indicates the 'Chunk-Pole,' and d, d, the 'Slave-Posts.' Sometimes
the square, instead of being open at the ends ... is closed upon
all sides by the banks. In the lately built [1789], or new Creek towns,
they do not raise a mound for the foundation of their Rotundas or
bushnell]
NATIVE VILLAGES AND VILLAGE SITES
75
Public Squares. The yard, however, is retained, and the pubhc
buildings occupy nearly the same position in respect to it. They also
retain the central obelisk and the slave-posts."
Following this description of the more ancient towns, it appears
quite evident that the large circular mound on the site of Cussetah
was occupied by the rotunda, while the four buildings inclosing the
public square stood on the summit of the large rectangular work,
and the space between the artificial mounds was covered by the
chunky yard. Cussetah should probably be accepted as having been
a typical Creek town, presenting features characteristic of many
villages in the valleys of the Flint
and Chattahoochee, Coosa, and
Tallapoosa; the villages of the
Chickasaw may have been quite
similar. A concise description
of the manner of constructing a
great circular house has been pre-
served. (Hawkins, B., (1), pp.
71-72.) It was called by the
Creeks Chodc-ofau tlduc-co, and
by the traders was known as the
"hot-house."
''Eight posts are fixed in the
gTound, forming an octagon of
thirty feet diameter. They are
twelve feet high, and large
enough to support the I'oof . On
these, five or six logs are placed,
of a side, drawn in as they rise.
On these, long poles or rafters, to
suit the height of the building,
are laid, the upper ends forming
a point, and the lower ends pro-
jecting out six feet from the oc-
tagon, and resting on posts five feet high, placed in a circle round
the octagon, with plates on them, to which the rafters are tied with
splits. The rafters are near together, and fastened with splits. These
are covered with cla}', and that with i)ine bark ; the wall, six feet from
the octagon, is clayed up; they have a small door into a small por-
tico, curved round for five or six feet, then into the house. The space
between the octagon and the wall, is one entire sopha, where the
visiters lie or sit at pleasure. It is covered with reed, mat or splits.
In the center of the room, on a small rise, the fire is made, of dry
cane or dry old pine slabs, split fine, and laid in a spiral circle. This
is the assembly room for all people, old and young; they assemble
every night, and amuse themselves with dancmg, singing, or conver-
<,-v»>^
Fig. 7.— Older method of placing the principal
structures in a Creek town.
76 BUREAtJ OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 69
sation. And here, sometimes, in very cold weather, the old and
naked sleep. In all transactions which require secrecy, the rulers meet
here, make their fire, deliberate and decide."
The peculiarity of a fire of split canes, ''laid in a spiral circle," as
mentioned in the preceding description, attracted the attention of
Bartram. As witnessed by him, many pieces of split cane, about 2
feet in length, were prepared, "then placed obliquely crossways
upon one another on the floor, forming a spiral circle round about
the great centre pillar, rising to a foot or eighteen inches in height
from the ground; and this circle spreading as it proceeds round and
round, often repeated from right to left, every revolution encreases
its diameter, and at length extends to the distance of ten or twelve
feet from the centre, more or less, according to the length of time
the assembly or meeting is to continue. By the time these prepara-
tions are accomplished, it is night, and the assembly have taken
their seats in order. The exterior extremity or outer end of the
spiral circle takes fire and immediately rises into a bright flame (but
how this is effected I did not plainly apprehend; I saw no person
set fire to it; there might have been fire left on the hearth, however
I neither saw nor smelt fire or smoke until the blaze instantly as-
cended upwards), which gradually and slowly creeps round the
centre pillar, with the course of the sun, feeding on the dry canes,
and affords a cheerful, gentle and sufficient light until the circle is
consumed, when the council breaks up." (Bartram, W., (2), pp.
449-450.)
This was certainly a singular manner of adding warmth and light
to the interior of the council house, and the same writer remarked
in another work ((1), p. 27.) :
"The Spiral Fire, on the hearth or floor of the Rotunda, is very
curious; it seems to light up in a flame of itself at the appointed
time, but how this is done I kno\v not."
The four structures bounding a typical Cceek town "square"
were clearly described by Hawkins, who wrote about the year 1800.
All were of equal size, covering a space of about 40 by 16 feet, 8
feet pitch, of one story, " the entrance at each corner. Each building
is a wooden frame, supported on posts set in the ground, covered
with slabs, open in front like a piazza, divided into three rooms, the
back and ends clayed, up to the plates. Each division is divided
lengthwise, into two seats ; the front, two feet liigh, extending back
half way, covered with reed mats or slabs; then a rise of one foot,
and it extends back, covered in like manner, to the side of the build-
ing. On these seats they lie or sit at pleasure."
The structure facing the east was the " Mic-co's cahin," the center
apartment always being occupied by the village chief, or Mico, and
here would be received the chiefs of other towns, the Indian agent.
BUSHNELL] NATIVE VILLAGES AND VILLAGE SITES 77
and others of note. The division on the right was occupied by the
principal counsellors, the " Mic-ug-gee, " and that on the left by the
''E-ne-hau Ul-gee," 'people second in command. Facing the south
was the warrior's cabin.
"The head warrior sits at the west end of his cabin, and in his
division the great warriors sit beside each other. The next in rank
sit in the centre division, and the young warriors in the tliird."
On the south side of the square, facing north, stood the "cabin
of the beloved men." These are great men who, by reason of notable
deeds, have become advisers or counsellors of the chief and sit in the
south division of his cabin. "The family of the Mic-co, and great
men who have thus distinguished themselves, occupy this cabin of
the beloved men." The fom-th building facing the square, that on
the east, was the ''cahin of the young people and their associates."
(Hawkins, B., (1), pp. 68-71.)
As previously mentioned, Cussetah stood on the left bank of the
Chattahoochee a short distance below the present city of Columbus,
Georgia. On the opposite side of the stream, about 3 miles below
the falls facing Columbus, was the ancient village of Coweta. A
fishing station on the left bank of the river at the foot of the falls
belonged to the people of Coweta, but the lands from there south-
ward to Cussetah were claimed by the latter. Coweta was visited
by Governor Oglethorpe in 1740 and a brief account of the town
was recorded in a journal kept by a member of the expedition, the
original manuscript being in the British Museum. From it the
following extracts were made :
"Their Houses or Hutts are built with Stakes and Plaistered w***
clay Mixed with Moss which makes them very warm and Tite. They
dress their Meat in Large pans made of Earth and not much unlike
our Beehives in England."
The night of the arrival of the English at Coweta they were enter-
tained by the chief men, by whom they were conducted to "the
Square to see the Indians dance. They dance round a large Fire by
the beating of a small Drum and six men singing, their dress is very
wild & frightful, their faces painted with several sorts of colours,
their hair cut short except three locks one of w'^'' hangs over their
Forehead like a horses fore top. Tliey paint the short Hair and stick
it full of Feathers. They have Bells and rattles about their Waist
and several tilings in their hands. Their dancing is of divers Ges-
tures and Turnings of the Bodies in a great many frightful Postures.
The women are mostly naked to the waist wearing only one short
Peticoat W^*^ readies to the Calves of their Legs." (Buslmell, (4),
p. 573.)
The towns of the Creek confederacy were either "war towns" or
"peace towns," and while Coweta belonged to the former class the
78 BUREAU OF AMERICAlSr ETHNOLOGY [bull. 69
Hitcliiti town of Apalachicola, on the left bank of the river some
miles southward, belonged to the latter. Visited by Bartram, it was
described as being ' ' the mother town or Capital of the Creek or Mus-
cogulge confederacy: sacred to peace; no captives are put to death
or human blood spilt here. And when a general peace is proposed,
deputies from all the towns in the confederacy assemble at this
capital. . . And on the contrary the great Coweta town ... is
called the bloody town, where the Micos, chiefs, and warriors assemble
when a general war is proposed; and here captives and state male-
factors are put to death." (Bartram, W., (2), p. 387.)
At this time the town had already become less important than in
earlier days, and Bartram ' ' viewed the mounds or terraces, on wliich
formerly stood their town house or rotunda and square or areo-
pagus," while near by was an ''extensive oblong square yard or
artificial level plain," evidently the ancient chunky yard. Bartram
places this town 12 miles below Coweta but Hawkins ((1), p. 64)
shows it to have been at least 22 miles below the falls.
A log house, as constructed by the Creeks toward the close of the
eighteenth century, is showai in plate 13. Tliis is after Schoolcraft,
who referred to it as ''Tlie Creek house in its best state of native
improvement in 1790." The origmal drawing was made by J. C.
Tidball, V. S. A. (Schoolcraft (1), V, p. 394.)
Homes among the Creeks did not always consist of a single house but
usually of a group of four structures, and this was clearly described
by Bartram when speaking of the chief of "the town of the Apala-
chians, " that is, the Hitchiti town of Apalachicola, previously men-
tioned. Bartram wrote:
"His villa was beautifully situated and well constructed. It was
composed of tlu-ee oblong uniform frame buildings, and a fourth,
four-square, fronting the principal house or common hall, after this
manner, encompassing one area. The hall was his lodging house,
large and commodious; the two wings were, one a cook-house, the
other a skin or ware-house; and the large square one was a vast
open pavilion, supporting a canopy of cedar roof by two rows of
columns or pillars, one within the other. Between each range of
pillars was a platform, or what the traders call cabins, a sort of sofa
raised about two feet above the common ground, and ascended by
two steps; this was covered with checkered mats of curious manu-
facture, woven of splints of canes dyed of different colors; the middle
was a four-square stage or platform, raised nine inches or a foot
higher than the cabins or sofas, and also covered with mats. In
this delightful airy place we were received." (Bartram, W., (l),pp.
37-38.)
The plan accompanying this account is reproduced in figure 8.
This "villa" was probably far more elaborate than the majority of
NATI^^ VILLAGES AND VILLAGE SITES
79
Creek homes, but in general arrangement it was evidently quite
similar to many others. Whether the custom was very ancient may
never be kno^^^l, and to what extent it prevailed among the Lower
Creek to\vns has not been ascertained, but it was the regular custom
at Kulumi, a town of the Upper Creeks which formerly stood on the
right bank of the Tallapoosa, in Montgomery County, Alabama, and
undoubtedly the structures in the many neighboring villages were
similarly placed. Kulumi, the Coolome of Bartram's narrative,
stood on the bank of the Tallapoosa. The "new town," the build-
ing of which had very lately been completed, stood on the west side
of the stream, wliile on the opposite side were the old fields and a few
Indian habitations marking pM^^a^a*
e
the position of "old Coolome
town. ' ' Regarding the build-
ings of the "new to^vn," it
was said:
' ' Their houses are neat com-
modious buildings, a wooden
frame with plaistered walls,
and roofed with Cypress bark
or shingles; every habitation
consists of four oblong square
Fig. 8.— Home of the chief at Apalachicola.
houses, of one story, of the same form and dimensions, and so situated
as to form an exact square, encompassing an area or court yard of
about a quarter of an acre of ground, leaving an entrance into it at
each corner. Here is a beautiful new square or areopagus, in the
centre of the new town." (Bartram, W., (2), p. 395.)
Leaving Kulumi, he continued up the river to Atasi, wliich stood on
the left bank of the stream m the present Macon County, Alabama.
The evening of his arrival, together with many traders, he went
to the "great rotunda" and here were assembled "the greatest
number of ancient venerable cliiefs and warriors" he had ever seen
together. There they remained the greater part of the night,
drmking cassine and smoking tobacco. The rotunda was "a Vast
conical building or circular dome, capable of accommodating many
hmidred people." It was constructed and furnished within as were
similar structures among the Cherokee, but much larger than any he
had seen among the latter tribe. There were "people appomted to
take care of it, to have it daily swept clean, and to provide canes for
fuel, or to give light." (Bartram, W., (2), p. 449.)
On the right bank of the Tallapoosa, a short distance above
Kulumi, was the ancient town of Tukabatclii, occupying a level valley
about 2\ miles below the falls. Hawkuis stopped here on December
16, 1796, and entered in his journal: "I this day paid a visit to the
80 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 69
old men at the town house and partook with them of the black drmk.
I then visited the falls and lands adjoining to the town. The falls
are at 2^ miles above the town house." (Hawkins, B., (2), p. 37.)
It was at Tukabatchi that Tecumseh, in 1811, met the chiefs of the
Upper Creeks and endeavored to persuade them to join in the pro-
posed war against the Americans. When he realized that he had not
succeeded in his designs he is said to have remarked: "I leave
Tuckhabatchee directly, and shall go straight to Detroit; when I
arrive there, I will stamp on the ground with my foot, and shake down
every house in Tuckhabatchee." (Drake, (1), p. 144.) Tliis caused
fear and consternation among the people of the nation, and it
is remarkable that later in the year occurred the great earthquake
m the central portion of the Mississippi Valley, and it is evident the
shocks were felt as far as Tukabatclii, where the houses were shaken
dowTi. To the Indian mind there was a direct connection between the
threat made by Tecumseh and the natural phenomenon.
The custom of whitewashing the various structures was evidently
quite general among the southern Indians, and several materials were
used, including decayed shells, white clay, and in later days lime
was prepared by burning oyster and clam shells. To what extent the
houses were otherwise decorated is not knowTi, although it was done
among the Creeks and probably followed to some degree by the other
tribes of the region. Bartram, when replying to a question respecting
this phase of art among the Indians, wrote:
"The paintings which I observed among the Creeks were com-
monly on the clay-plastered walls of their houses, particularly on
the walls of the houses comprising the Public Square . . . The walls
are plastered very smooth with red clay, then the figures or symbols
are drawn with white clay, paste, or chalk; and if the walls are
plastered with clay of a wliitish or stone color, then the figures are
drawai with red, bro\vn, or bluish chalk or paste." (Bartram, W.,
(1), p. 18.) The drawings represented many forms of animal and
plant life.
During the eighteenth century many families removed from the
Lower Creek towns, on the Flint and Chattahoochee Rivers, to
Florida, and so became known as the Seminole, a name derived from
the. Creek word meaning "separatist" or "runaway." Later they
were joined by others from the Upper Creeks, and soon established
many settlements, first in the northern and central parts of the
peninsula, gradually moving southward seeking refuge among the
vast swamps in the region about Lake Okeechobee.
The town of Cuscowilla, which, in the year 1774, stood near the
shore of the lake of that name, in the present Alachua County,
Florida, was an important and probably typical Seminole village.
BUSH NELL] NATIVE VILLAGES AND VILLAGE SITES 81
Described as it was at that time it was said that it "contains about
tliirty habitations, each of wliich consists of two houses nearly the
same size, about thirty feet in length, twelve feet wide, and about
the same in height. The door is placed midway on one side or in the
front. This house is divided equally, across, into two apartments,
one of which is the cook room and common hall, and the other the
lodging room. The other house is nearly of the same dimensions,
standing about twenty yards from the dwelling house, its end fronting
the door. Tliis building is two stories high, and constructed in a
different manner. It is divided transversely, as the other, but the
end next the dwelling house is open on three sides, supported by posts
or pillars. It has an open loft or platform, the ascent to which is by
a portable stair or ladder; tliis is a pleasant, cool, airy situation, and
here the master or chief of the family retires to repose in the hot
seasons, and receives his guests or visitors. The other half of this
building is closed on all sides by notched logs; the lowest or ground
part is a potatoe house, and the upper story over it a granary for
corn and other provisions. Their houses are constructed of a kind
of frame. In the first place, strong corner pillars are fixed in the
ground, with others somewhat less, ranging on a line between;
these are strengthened by cross pieces of timber, and the whole with
the roof is covered close with the bark of the Cypress tree. The
dwelling stands near the middle of a scjuare yard, encompassed by a
low bank, formed with the earth taken out of the yard, which is
always carefully swept." (Bartram, W., (2), pp. 189-191.)
Cuscowilla became the principal town of the group of settlements
whose inhabitants were considered as forming the Alachua tribe, and
who were very active in the Seminole war during the years from
1835 to 1842. The town visited by Bartram in 1774 was then known
as the new town, and the name CuscoAvilla had been applied to it.
"The ancient Alachua on the borders of the savanna" had been
abandoned by reason of the unhealthf ulness of the locality. The new
to^^^l had a "public square or council-house," where the chief men
gathered to conduct important business. In many respects the
to-^vn resembled the later villages of the Creeks, but the buildings
were fewer in number, and some had been combined and arranged to
serve various purposes.
The recent Seminole dwellings, as they have stood among the
Everglades of southern Florida within the present generation, but
which undoubtedly perpetuate an ancient form of native structure,
differ from any known to have been built by the Creeks, and they may
have been derived by the newcomers from some remnants of the
native tribes, gf whom so little is knoAvn.
108851°— 19 6
82 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bulu 69
A typical house standing in the Everglades in the year 1880 (pi. 14,
h), measuring about 16 feet in length and 9 feet in width, was thus
described :
* 'It is actually but a platform elevated about three feet from the
ground and covered with a palmetto thatched roof, the roof being
not more than 12 feet above the ground at the ridge pole or 7 at the
eaves. Eight upright palmetto logs, unsplit and undressed, support
the roof. Many rafters sustain the palmetto thatching. The plat-
form is composed of split palmetto logs lying transversely, flat sides
up, upon beams which extend the length of the building and are
lashed to the uprights by palmetto ropes, thongs, or trader's ropes.
This platform is peculiar, in that it fills the interior of the building
like a floor and serves to furnish the family ^vith a dry sitting or lying
down place when, as often happens, the whole region is under water.
The thatching of the roof is quite a work of art: inside, the regularity
and compactness of the laying of the leaves display much skill and
taste on the part of the builder; outside^with the outer layers
there seems to have been less care taken than with those within —
the mass of leaves of which the roof is composed is held in place and
made firm by heavy logs, which, bound together in pairs, are laid
upon it astride the ridge." (MacCauley, (1), p. 500.)
The structure just described, open on all sides and without a
partition, was one of three similar buildings, which stood "at three
corners of an oblong clearing," about 40 by 30 feet in extent. In one
of the three houses the platform was only half the size of the others,
the ground thus left uncovered being used as a hearth, although in
dry weather, when it was not necessary to remain under shelter,
the fire was usually made in the open space between, or rather
surrounded by the three buildings.
Like the great majority of the native tribes of eastern United
States, these, living at the farthest point southward, had a custom
of erecting a temporary lodge or shelter when away from their perma-
nent settlements. These evidently differed in form. Some resem-
bled "wall tents and others like single-roofed sheds," but all appear to
have been formed of a framework covered with palmetto. A sketch of
a shelter encountered by MacCauley at Horse Creek is reproduced in
plate 14, a. A raised platform near the lodge served as a place for
depositing food, utensils, and other possessions of the people.
In the preceding reference to the placing of three separate buildings
"at three corners of an oblong clearing," it is interesting to trace
the custom of the Seminole back tlirough several generations to their
old homes on the Chattahoochee. Three or four separate structures
were there grouped about a small open space, each group being the
home of a family, but the houses were of a more substantial nature
and furnished far more protection to the occupants, nevertheless the
BUSHNELL] NATIVE VILLAGES AND VILLAGE SITES • 83
simple covered platforms found among the Everglades were well
suited to the climate and natural environment of the southern
country.
Muskhogean tribes extended eastward to the coast and unquestion-
ably the Quale, of Spanish narratives, were of this stock. Their
home was among the low islands and the adjacent mainland — the
coast of the present State of Georgia. Here they were probably
living in the early years of the sixteenth century, when visited by the
Spanish explorers, who left a rather vague description of certain large
structures seen by them.
"There are some principal houses along that coast each one of
which must have been intended among that people for a village,
because they are very large and are made of very tall and very grace-
ful pines; and above they leave their limbs and leaves, and after they
leave a row or rank of pines as a wall and another at the other end
(i. e. side), leaving between a \vidth of fifteen or thirty feet from one
row to the other, and a length of perhaps three hundred or more feet.
The limbs join above, and so there is no need of roof or covering,
and yet they cover the whole upper part with mats very well placed,
interwoven in the openings or prospects between the said pines,
and within there are other pines crosswise to the surface of the first,
which double the thickness of the wall. So the mud wall remains
thick and strong, because the timbers are near together: and in each
of these said houses there may well be or be contained two hundred
men, and live in them." Other structures were mentioned having
"walls of lime and stone (which lime they make of shells of sea
oysters) and these are one and one-half times as high as a person, and
the rest of that height one and one-half times that of a person is of
pine timbers, of which there are many." (Oviedo, (1), III, pp. 630-631.)
These were evidently long, narrow structures, erected among the
pines, which served as natural supports. The dimensions given may
not be correct, nevertheless such extensive houses could have been
reared by the native tribes and would not have differed greatly in
size from the longest of the communal dwellings seen in early days
among the Five Xations. The walls were constructed of wattle
covered with clay which was applied in a plastic state and allowed to
dry and harden. The branches of the bordering pines served as a
nf.tural roof or covering, but this was evidently augmented by
"mats," probably a thatch laid over a light framework. TMiether
this was in reality a great communal dwelling, as among the Iroquois,
or served the purpose of the large, circular town house of later genera-
tions, may never be known, but in later years the latter form was
encountered among the Guale, in their village along the coast north-
ward from St. Aug-ustine.
84
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY
[bull. 69
On September 29, 1699, Jonathan Dickenson, a member of a party
whose vessel had been cast ashore far down the coast o-f Florida
several months before, left St. Augustine and soon reached the
Indian village of Santa Cruz. Here, so he wrote, "we were directed
to the Indian warehouse [fig. 9.1. It was built round, having 16
squares and on each square a cabin built and painted, which woiJd
hold two people, the house being about 50 feet diameter; and in the
middle of the top was a square opening about 15 feet. This house
was very clean; and fires being ready made near our cabin, the
Spanish captain made choice of cabins for him and his soldiers and
appointed us our cabins. In this town they have a Friar and a large
Fig. 9. — Plan of the interior of the " Indian warehouse" at Santa Cruz,
drawn from Dickenson's description. The square represents the opening
in the roof.
house to worship in, with three beUs; and the Indians go as con-
stantly to their devotions at all times and seasons, as any of the
Spaniards. Kight being come and the time of their devotion over,
the Friar came in, and many of the Indians, both men and women,
and they had a dance according to their way and custom. We had
plenty of Casseena drink, and such victuals as the Indians had pro-
vided for us, some bringing corn boiled, others pease; some one thing,
some another; of all which we made a good supper, and slept till
morning."
Continuing northward, the town of St. Marys, on the extreme
southeastern point of Georgia, was reached October 2, 1699. And
bdsiinell]
NATIVE VILLAGES AND VILLAGE SITES
85
here "we were conducted to the ware house [fig. 10], as the custom is,
every town having one: we understood these houses were either for
their times of mirth and dancing, or to lodge and entertain strangers.
The house was ahout 31 feet diameter, built round, with 32 squares;
in each square a cabin about 8 feet long, of a good height, painted
and well matted. The center of the building is a quadrangle of
twenty feet, being open at the top, against which the house is built.
In this quadrangle is the place they dance, having a great fire in the
middle. In one of the squares is the gate way or passage . . . Tliis
was the largest town of all, and about a mile from it was another called
St. Pliilip's." (Dickenson, (1), pp. 90-93.)
Fig. 10.— Plan of the " warehouse " at St. Marys, October 2, 1699, as suggested by
Dickenson's description. The square shows opening in the roof.
The narrative continues: "We understood that the Carolina
Indians, called the Yammasees, which are related to these Indians,
were here about a month before, trading for skins." The Yamasi
were at that time living (p. 105) "about two or tliree days' rowing
from Charleston," southward.
These large circular structures at once suggest the "rotimdas" of
the Creeks, and the town houses that existed among the Chickasaw and
Cherokee. However, they were probably of lighter construction and
had a much larger opening in the center of the roof or covering. The
house at Santa Cruz was described as being 50 feet in diameter and
having the circular wall divided into 16 sections, or "squares," each
of which was occupied by a "cabin," the latter meaning berth or
86 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [boll. 69
sleeping place. The "cabins" were probably separated from one
another by mat partitions, with other mats covering the ground.
Assuming the diameter to have been correctly given, each of the 16
divisions would have been 9 or 10 feet in length against the wall.
The similar structure at St. Marys was evidently much larger, the
wall space being divided into 32 sections, one of which served as the
entrance while each of the others, 31 in number, contained a 'Vabin"
or berth about 8 feet in length. The diameter of this house was
given as 31 feet, but this was evidently an error and should have read
81. A house of this size and form could readily have been built by
the native tribes, as a structure 80 feet or more in diameter, with an
open space some 20 feet square in the center of the covering, would
have reduced the maximum expanse of the roof to about 30 feet. A
roof of these dimensions and having several supports could easily
have been constructed in a locality where long, slender pines were
plentiful.
About 20 years ago the remains of an ancient structure were dis-
covered in a shell mound standing on Little Island, on the left, or
north, side of Broad River, about 20 miles from the ocean, in Beaufort
County, South Carolina. This would have been within the limits of
the country occupied by the Yamasi at the time of Dickenson's nar-
rative. The mound was elliptical in outline and measured about 150
feet from north to south and 100 feet from east to west. Its height
was 14 feet. The remains of the structure were encountered in the
north half of the mound. They were of a building having four walls
with rounded corners, the entrance being at the southeast corner.
A plan of the house is reproduced in figure 11. It averaged about 41
feet from east to west and 36 feet from north to south, being rather
irregular. The walls were about 4 feet 3 inches in height, and had
a maximum thickness near the top of 5 inches. Tlie walls had been
made of wattlework covered with clay, and although the wood had
long ago rotted away the impressions of the posts and connecting
pieces remained.
"The uprights varied in diameter from 3| to 6 in. and projected
6 to 8 in. above the top of the wall. Some left molds in the clayey
sand above the shell, indicating considerable enlargement around the
top. . . The uprights, which were from 14 to 19 in. apart, w^ere
held together by twelve parallel chcular cross-pieces, probably vines,
each about 3/10 of an inch in diameter, surmounted by a circular
stringer about 1 in. in diameter, over which the clay had been turned
and rounded. At places marks in the clay plainly showed where the
cross-pieces and the stringer had been attached to the uprights, prob-
ably by vines, ... At irregular distances, usually but not always
between consecutive uprights, on the top of the wall, were semi-
circular depressions from 2 to 4 in. in diameter, which had undoubt-
NATIVE VILLAGES AND VILLAGE SITES
87
edly held ends of poles serving as rafters. . . . There were present
in the floor of the structure numerous circular holes representing
ends of former supports, some of which probably upheld the roof."
Near the center of the floor was a large firebed, six feet in diameter;
east of it was a mass of clay "like a seat, circular with rounded top,
9 in. in height and 1 ft. 4 in. in diameter." The skeleton of a child
was found fourteen inches below the floor, a short distance southeast
of the central fireplace. Evidently the shell and clay mound had
'i,riFit PLACE
BUHIAL
o
e^ TRANCE
J
Fig. 11.— Plan of4 n ancient structure in Beaufort County, South Carolina.
been intentionally raised over the ancient house. (Moore, (1), pp.
152-162.)
Few objects were discovered in the mound, or associated with the
ruin, and nothing of European origin was encountered, therefore there
is no way to approximate the age of the ancient structure, which may,
however, belong to the period of the long house of Oviedo, and they
may not have been many miles apart. Ruins of other structures
may be covered by some of the many shell mounds scattered along
the coast, to be revealed at some future time.
The tribe or tribes of southern Florida, whose identification and
connection linguistically with other tribes has not been determined,
OO BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 69
but who may have been Muskhogean, occupied the coast in the year
1699, and their villages were encountered by Dickenson and his ill-
fated party as they moved northward to St. Augustine, during the
late summer and autumn of that year. (Dickenson, (1).) Tlie
references to the native habitations which are found in the narrative
of the shipwreck are all too brief, but they are of the greatest interest.
On July 25, 1699, the party reached a native village which evidently
stood on the north side of Jupiter Inlet, and this was described (p.
17) as being composed of —
''little wigwams made of small poles stuck in the ground, which they
bent one to another, making an arch, and covering them with thatch
of small Palmetto leaves. . . . We were directed to a wigwam, which
afterwards we understood to be the Cassekey's (cacique) ; it was about
a man's height to the top, and herein was the Cassekey's wife and
some old women, sitting on a cabin made with sticks, about a foot
high, covered with a mat; and they made signs for us to sit down on
the ground which we did." As previously mentioned the term
''cabin," as used in this narrative, referred to a small space within the
house which was probably partitioned off by mats. In this instance
it was occupied by a raised platform and covered with a mat, serving
as a sleeping place at night. Five days later, July 30, 1699, Dicken-
son had advanced as far as the north side of Indian River Inlet, where
they discovered an Indian settlement. The house of the chief was
about forty feet in length and twenty-five feet in width, formed of a
framework and covered on sides and top with palmetto leaves.
"There was a range of cabins on one side and two ends; at the
entering on one side of the house, a passage was made of benches on
each side leading to the cabins ; on these benches sat the chief Indians,
and at the upper end of the cabin was the Cassekey seated. . . . The
Indians were seated as aforesaid, the Cassekey at the upper end of
them, and the range of cabins was filled with men, women and
children, beholding us. . . . In one part of this house, where a fire
was kept, was an Indian man, having a pot on the fire wherein he was
making a drink of a shrub, which we understood afterwards by the
Spanish is called Casseena. . . . The drink when made cool to sup,
was in a shell first carried to the Cassekey" (p. 33).
They next arrived at the village of Jece, some 10 or more miles
north of the inlet and about one-haK mile from the shore, surrounded
by a swamp (pp. 45-46). Here, durmg the night of August 4, 1699,
occurred a violent storm. The wind blew from the northeast and
rain feU in torrents. "The king's house was knee deep with water
and like to continue rising; I removed with my wife, child, Robert
Barrow, and Benjamin Allen to an Indian house that stood on a hill
of oyster shells, and in this house we remained the whole day."
The wind blew steadily from the northeast and the waters flooded
BUSHNELL] NATIVE VILLAGES AND VILLAGE SITES 89
the lowlands and that night continued to rise until it reached the
house, which soon "was afloat." The storm raged the following
day and ''the houses were almost blown to pieces and the Indians
were often tying and mending them," Interesting indeed is this
reference to "a hill of oyster shells," which may have indicated the
position of an even more ancient settlement, but it was not sur-
mounted by the house of the chief of the village or by any structure
resembling a "town house," or a "temple," as would have been the
custom among the majority of southern tribes. Here the chief's
dwelling stood on low ground, easily reached by the flood.
Surviving this midsummer storm, the party resumed their journey
northward and a few days later they reached a locality which appears
to have been a short distance beyond Mosquito Inlet, probably on the
mainland not far from the present village of Ormond, Volusia County.
Going ashore (pp. 70-71), they found the "place was an old Indian
field on a high bleak hill, where had been a large Indian house, but it
was tumbled down." This had probably been the site of a Timucuan
town, and villages said to have been standing not far away may have
been occupied by remnants of this people. (PI. 15, a, h.)
Wlien the Timucuan tribes became known to Europeans, through
the discoveries of Ponce de Leon, who landed near the site of the
present city of St. Augustine in the year 1513, they occupied many
villages scattered across the northern part of the peninsula from the
Atlantic to the Gulf. On the Atlantic coast they extended northward
to Cumberland Island, on the present Georgia coast, and conse-
quently claimed both banks of the St. Marys. Much information
respecting the manners and customs of these people has been derived
from the notes and drawings prepared by Le Moyne. (Le Moyne,
(1).) Two of the latter are reproduced in plate 16, being copied from
the engravings as presented in part 2 of De Bry's great collection of
voyages in 1591. Plate 16, a, appeared as plate 22 in Le Moyne's
narrative and there bore the legend: "There are in that region a
great many islands, producing abundance of various kinds of fruits,
which they gather twice a year and carry home in canoes and store
up in roomy low granaries built of stone and earth and roofed tliickly
with palm branches and a kind of soft earth fit for the purpose."
Evidently the illustration shows one of the "granaries," but how true
either the drawing or legend may be remains a question not easily
determined. The materials of which this structure was said to have
been formed at once recall the rather vague reference in Oviedo to
houses having "walls of lime and stone," encountered within this
region a generation earlier. The walls in both instances may have
been formed of fragmentary pieces of coquina, easily secured at cer-
tain places along the coast, and which might readily have been con-
sidered by the early writers to have been artificially prepared. The
90 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 69
roof was undoubtedly thatched with palmetto, which was exten-
sively used for this purpose wherever it was obtainable.
A palisaded town is shown in plate 16, I, a reproduction of Le
Moyne's plate 30. A part of the descriptive text accompanying
the illustration reads :
"The chief's dwelling stands in the middle of the town and is
partly imderground in consequence of the sun's heat. Aroimd this
are the houses of the principal men, all lightly roofed with palm
branches, as they are occupied only nine months in the year, the
other tlu-ee . . . being spent in the woods. When they come back,
they occupy their houses again; and if they find the enemy has burnt
them down, they build others of similar materials."
It is difficult to reconcile the preceding statements with a con-
temporary description of the dwellings of the same people, but it
is possible that " the cliief's dwelling" of Le Moyne's account and
the large structure in the following narrative of Hawkins's voyage
referred to great houses similar to the "warehouses" mentioned by
Dickenson as standmg in the country of the Guale on the same
coast in the year 1699. Early in the year 1565 the Enghsh reached
the coast of Florida and soon arrived at the mouth of the River of
May, the present St. Johns, and near by discovered a native village,
thus briefly described in the narrative:
"Their houses are not many together, for in one house an hundred
of them do lodge; they being made much like a great barne, and in
strength not inferiour to ours, for they have stanchions and rafters
of whole trees, and are covered with palmito-leaves, having no place
divided, but one small roome for their king and queene. In the
middest of this house is a hearth, where they make great fires all
night, and they sleepe upon certaine pieces of wood hewen in for the
bowing of their backs, and another place made high for their heads,
which they put one by another aU along the waUes on both sides."
(Hawkins, J., (1), pp. 516-517.)
Unfortunately the form of the structure was' not mentioned, but
it was probably round, with one entrance and a large opening in the
center of the roof. The small space partitioned off for the use of the
chief was probably as described, although difi^erent from any custom
prevailing among the Muskhogean tribes. Likewise the wooden
head rests, and larger rests for the back, were not found among the
tribes to the northward but suggest a southern culture.
On the Gulf coast of Florida, extending northward from the
vicinity of Tampa Bay to the Ocilla River, were other Timucuan
tribes. One of their villages, Ucita by name, stood on the shores
of the bay, and near it, on Friday, May 30, 1539, landed the Spanish
forces under the command of Don Ferdinando de Soto. The town
BUSHNELL] NATIVE VILLAGES AND VILLAGE SITES 91
was briefly described, the following account being quoted from the
narrative of the expedition "written by a Gentleman of Elvas:"
''Tliey came to the towne of Ucita, where the Governour was, on
Simday the fii"st of June, being Trinitie Sunday. The towne was of
seven or eight houses. The lordes house stoode neere the shore,
upon a very hie mount, made by hand for strength. At another end
of the townie stood the church, and on the top of it stood a fowle
made of wood, with gilded eies. Here were found some pearles of
small valew, spoiled with the fire, which the Indians do pierce and
string them like beades, and weare them about their neckes and
handwrists, and they esteeme them very much. The houses were
made of timber, and covered with palme leaves." (Elvas, (1), pp.
25-26.)
In this translation the word "temple" should be substituted for
"church." Two structures different from the ordinary habitations
stood in this ancient village: one the temple, the other described
as "the lordes house," the chief's dwelling, or it may have resembled
the tovm. house, or rotunda, of the more northerly tribes. In addi-
tion to these were five or six simple dweUings. This may have been a
typical village of the time and region, and the most interesting refer-
ence to the erection of the chief's dweUmg on the summit of an arti-
ficial mound, erected for the purpose, suggests the probable origin
and use of other mounds standing along the coast.
Southward from Tampa Bay lived the Calusa, of whom very little
is known. The tribe, or tribes, mentioned under this name in the
early Spanish and French records probably occupied or dominated
the lower half of the peninsula, reaching from the southern keys to
the boundary of the territory of the Timucuan tribes. As nothing
is now kno\\Ti of the language of the Calusa it is not possible to trace
their connection, if any existed, with the neighboring villages. They
are described by the old writers as a brave and warlike people, and
as they are said to have had nearly fifty settlements about the year
1567 they must have been comparatively numerous. Many of their
towns were probably near the coast, where, among the marshes and
shallow inlets, on the mainland though often on the low keys, were
great mounds of sand and shells which served as elevated sites for
their habitations and other structures. These were often connected
by extensive artificial canals or lagoons, and were surrounded by the
luxuriant semitropical vegetation of the region, by which they are
now covered and hidden from view. WhUe many of these elevations
may be considered accidental shell heaps, either cast up by the sea
or resulting from the gathering of moUusks for food, others were
intentionally raised as elevated sites, as was the mound at Ucita.
Some of the mounds, artificial or natural, served as places of burial,
but do not appear to have been erected for that purpose.
92 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bdll. 69
About the beginning of the seventeenth century the Calusa are
knowTi to have maintained regular intercourse with Cuba, passing to
and fro in their canoes. Such intercommunication may have been
even more extensive in earlier times.
Three stocks remain to be considered — Siouan, Uchean, and
Tunican — widely separated and not extensive.
It is quite evident that some generations before the French entered
the valleys of the Mississippi and Ohio, and discovered the rich lands
lying westward from the AUeghenies, Siouan tribes had occupied the
region about the headwaters of the latter stream, whence they had
removed westward, reached the Mississippi, and there scattered.
But all the tribes of this stock then living in the east did not join in
the movement, and at the time of the settlement of Virginia, and for
manj^ years later, tribes belonging to this linguistic family occupied
the piedmont country, between the Algonquian territory on the east
and the AUeghenies on the west, and may even have continued into
the mountain valleys. In Virginia were the several tribes which
formed the Monacan confederacy, and the better known Saponi
and Tutelo, whose villages about the year 1675 were near the southern
boundary of Virginia, in the valley of the Roanoke. Other related
tribes occupied the country southward probably to and beyond the
Santee, in central South Carolina. For many years after the coming
of the English colonists there must necessarily have been some inter-
course between them and the various tribes in question, but unfortu-
nately few accounts have been preserved of the manners and customs
of the native people, and little is known of the appearance of their
many towns and camps. Practically all of the available information
relating to the habits of the ''Siouan tribes of the East" has been
collected and presented in a single, small volume. (Mooney (1).)
The "town house" of the southern tribes found its counterpart
among the eastern Siouan, although they may have been of somewhat
lighter construction. But whether such structures w^ere erected by
the neighbors of the Monacan northward is not known. However,
if a statement by Lawson is to be accepted literally they were not
found north of the Saponi.
On December 28, 1700, John Lawson, surveyor general of Carolina,
started from Charleston on a journey through the Indian country.
The account of his experiences was later printed in his History of
Carolina, a volume filled with information pertaining to the customs
of the native tribes of the region through which he passed. Early in
the year 1701 his party, consisting of several Englishmen and Indian
guides, arrived at the village of the Waxsaw, probably on the bank
of Waxsaw Creek, a tributary of the Catawba, in the country now
embraced within the present Lancaster County, South Carolina, and
Union and Mecklenburg Counties, North Carolina. Here the English
BUSHNELL] NATIVE VILLAGES AND VILLAGE SITES 93
witnessed a native ceremony ''held in commemoration of the Plenti-
ful Harvest of Corn they had reaped the Summer before. . . . These
revels were carried on in a flouse made for that purpose, it being
done round, with white benches of fine Canes joining along the wall;
and a place for the door being left, which is so low, that a man must
stoop very much to enter therein. This Edifice resembles a large
Hay Kick; its top being pyramidal, and much bigger than their
other Dwellings, and at the building whereof every one assists until
it is finished. All their Dwelling houses are covered witli Bark, but
this differs very much; for it is very artificially thatched with Sedge
and Rushes. As soon as it is finished they place some one of their
Chiefest men to dwell therein, charging him with the diligent preser-
vation thereof. ... In these state Houses is transacted all public
and Private Busmess . . . the most aged and wisest meet, deter-
mining what to Act, and what may be most convenient to omit . . .
The House is as Dark as a Dungeon and as hot as one of tlie Dutch
Stoves in Holland. Tliey had made a circular Firfe of split canes in
the middle of the House; it was one Man's employment to add more
split Reeds to this at one end as it consumed at the other, there
being a small Vacancy left to supply it with Fuel." (Lawson,
(1), pp. 18-19.)
The house must have been very large, as the account continues
with a description of a dance in which "a parcel of women and girls,
to the number of Thirty odd" participated. The drum used on this
occasion "being made of dress'd deer's Skin, tied hot upon an eartliern
Porridge Pot." The entire narrative is of the greatest interest.
The day after the ceremony the party left the Waxsaw village, and
later during their journey (p. 20) ' ' met with several Towns of Indians,
each Town having its capitol, theatre or State House, such Houses
bemg found all along the road, until you come to Sapona, and then
no more of those buildings, it being about 170 Miles." A few days
later, when arriving at one of the Catawba villages, Lawson and his
attendants occupied "one of the Cliief Men's Houses, which was one
of the Theaters I spoke of before. "
Every village was undoubtedly provided with sweat houses, some
of which were arranged temporarily while others were of a more
permanent nature. Lawson wrote (p. 21):
''The Indians of these parts use sweating very much. If any
Pain seize their Limbs or Body, immediately they take Reeds or
smaU Wands, and bend them umbrella fashion, covering them with
skins and match coats. They have a large Fire not far off wherein
they heat stones or (where they are wanting) Bark; putting it into
this" Stove, which casts an extraordinary heat. There is a pot of
water in the Bagnio, in which they put a bunch of an herb bearing a
silver Tassel, not much unfike Aurea Virga. With this vegetable
94 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 69
they rub the head, temple and other parts, which is reckon'd a pre-
server of the sight, and strengthener of the Brain."
Contmuing their journey through the wilderness they soon reached
the town of the Saponi, on the banks of the Yadkin, in the vicinity
of the present Salisbury, near the center of the State of North Caro-
lina, The village was protected by palisades, but the houses were
not described, although it was said that near the town (p. 25)
"within their cleared land are several Bagnios, or Sweating Houses,
made of stone in shape like a large oven. " These were quite different
from the hght, quickly made structures encountered among the
Waxsaw. The night the party rested at Saponi the entire palisade
was blown down by a violent wind from the northwest. They next
arrived at "the Keyauwee's Town," which was protected by pal-
isades similar to those surrounding the Saponi village. Tlie Ke}-
auwee town was, as suggested by Mooney, about 30 miles northeast
of the Yadkin, in the neighborhood of the present High Point,
Guilford County, North Carolina.
From these meager references to certain settlements it is possible
to visualize the general appearance of towns among the eastern
Siouan tribes. Many of the villages were protected by encircling
palisades, and within the most prominent structure was the round
town house, or "theater," of Lawson. Surrounding this were the
dwellings of the people, and these probably resembled the "arbour-
like" structures of the neighboring Algonquian tribes.
The Siouan tribes of the far south — ^that is, the Biloxi and the
neighbormg Pascagoula and Moctobi of the Gulf coast region, and
the Ofo, or Ofogoula, whose home was in the valley of the Yazoo,
in the present State of Mssissippi — appear to have followed the
general custom of the people of the southern country and erected
houses of wattle, covered with clay in a plastic state. The principal
villages were protected by "palings" or palisades, and if the descrip-
tion of the Biloxi village visited by Iberville in 1700 is to be accepted
as accurate, and if it was a typical village of the time and region,
then the method of surroimding and protecting a group of dwellings
was far more secure and complicated in the south than among the
northern tribes.
During the spring of the year 1700 Iberville discovered the ruins
of the Biloxi town on the bank of the Pascagoula, about 20 miles
above its mouth, and wrote of it (Margry, (1), IV, pp. 425-426):
"The village is abandoned, the nation having been destroyed two
years ago by sickness. Two leagues below this village one begins
to find many deserted spots quite near each other on both banks of
the river. The savages report that this nation was formerly quite
numerous. It did not appear to me that there had been in this
village more than from thirty to forty cabins, built long, and the
BDSHNELL] NATIVE VILLAGES AND VILLAGE SITES 95
roofs, as we make ours, covered with the bark of trees. They were
all of one story of about eight feet in height, made of mud. Only
three remained; the others are burned. The village was sm-rounded
by paUngs eight feet in height, of about eighteen mches in diameter.
There still remain tln-ee square watch-towers (guerites) measuring
en feet on each face; they are raised to a height of eight feet on
posts; the sides made of mud mixed with grass, of a thickness of
eight inches, well covered. There were many loopholes through
which to shoot their arrows. It appeared to me that there had been
a watch-tower at each angle, and one midway of the curtains (au
milieu des courtines) ; it was sufficiently strong to defend them
against enemies that have only arrows." (Quoted from Dorsey-
Swanton, (1), p. 6.)
Wliether these comparatively small tribes had 'Hown houses"
within their villages, as did others, is not known; but it is evident
their dwellmgs were rather long and narrow, probably quite similar
to the "oblong-square" structures of the Chickasaw and Choctaw,
and although speaking a different language and differing to a certain
degree in mamiers and customs the villages of these small tribes
may have resembled those of their more powerful neighbors.
The Winnebago, the detached Siouan tribe whose home was in the
central part of the State of Wisconsia, had many customs in com-
mon \^'ith then- Algonquian neighbors. Theii" villages were similar
in appearance. A painting of a settlement of the Winnebago, made
by Capt. Eastman and reproduced in Schoolcraft ((1), II, pi. 23),
is here shown as plate 17.
Next to be mentioned are the Yuchi, of whose early history very
little is known. But there is reason to suppose that they were at
one time a nmnerous people, whose home, at the time of the coming
of the Spaniards, was among the mountains, possibly neighbors of
the Cherokee. They moved from place to place, evidently appearing
in early records under various names, and finally settled in the valley
of the Savannah, where they were later met by Europeans.
In 1729 a chief of the Lower Creek town of Cussetah, on the Chat-
tahoochee, married three Yuchi women, and a few years later, having
gathered about him many families from the latter tribe, settled a
new town some miles below at the mouth of Uchee Creek, in the
present Russell County, Alabama. This village was visited by Bar-
tram early in July, 1776, at a time when such memorable events
were transpiring m his home city, Philadelphia, and he said of it:
''The Uche town is situated in a vast plain, on the gradual ascent
as we rise from a narrow strip of low ground inmiediately bordering
on the river: it is the largest, most compact and best situated Indian
towTi I ever saw; the habitations are large and neatly built; the
walls of the houses are constructed of a wooden frame, then lathed
96 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 69
and plaistered inside and out with a reddish well tempered clay or
mortar, which gives them the appearance of red brick walls; and
these houses are neatly covered or roofed with Cypress bark or
shingles of that tree. . . . Their own national language is alto-
gether or radically different from the Creek or Muscogulge tongue.
. They are in confederacy with the Creeks, but do not mix
with them; and, on account of their numbers and strength, are of
importance enough to excite and draw upon them the jealousy of
the whole Muscogulge confederacy, and are usually at variance, yet
are wise enough to unite against a common enemy, to support the
interest and glory of the general Creek confederacy." (Bartram,
W., (2), pp. 386-387.)
The "town house," and probably the greater part of the settlement,
stood on the right bank of the river, and in 1799 Hawkins wrote:
"Opposite the town house, on the left bank of the river, there is
a narrow strip of flat land from fifty to one hundred yards wide, then
high pine barren hills ; these people speak a tongue different from the
Creeks; they were formerly settled in small villages at Ponpon,
Sal tke tellers, (Sol-ke-chuh,) Silver Bluff, andO-ge-chee,(How-ge-chu,)
and were continually at war with the Cherokees, Ea-tau-bau and
Creeks." (Hawkins, B., (1), pp. 61-62.)
How interesting would be a lengthy description of these ancient
villages, with an account of the manners and customs of the people;
but none is known to exist.
The Tunican is the last of the seven linguistic groups to be men-
tioned. Although one of the smaller stocks during historic times
they may, in earlier days, have been far more numerous and powerful.
When encountered by the early French explorers, the Tunica claimed
land on both banks of the Mississippi, their principal village being at
one time on the banks of the Yazoo, sometime known as ' ' the river
of the Tounika," a short distance from its confluence with the Missis-
sippi, in the present Warren County, Mississippi.
Wlien the Jesuit, Pere Gravier, descended the Mississippi late in
the autumn of 1700, he rested at the mission which had been estab-
lished near the group of villages a short distance above the mouth of
the Yazoo. He described the habitations of the Tunica as being
"round and vaulted," and they evidently resembled the houses of the
Natchez, being "lathed with canes and plastered with mud from
bottom to top, within and without, with a good covering of straw."
The door was the only opening, and a small "lighted torch of dried
canes" furnished sufficient heat to cause the interior to be "as hot as
a vapor bath." Within all was neat and clean, their beds being
arranged on posts 3 feet above the floor, and covered with mats
formed of split canes. Near the dwellings were granaries ' ' made like
dovecotes, built on four large posts, 15 or 16 feet high, well put
BUSHXELi.] NATIVE VILLAGES Al^D VILLAGE SITES 97
together and well polished, so that the mice can not chmb up, and
in this way they protect their corn and squashes." (Gravier, (1),
p. 135.)
Charlevoix, during his journey down the Mississippi, arrived at
the Tunica village December 28, 1721. This, however, was not on
the site of the village visited by Gravier some 20 years before. The
to\\ai was built about a square "about a hundred paces in diameter."
The dwellings were of two forms, round and square, the former as ' ' at
the Natchez." The house of the chief was square and was decorated
with ''figures in relief, not so badly executed as one would expect."
(CharlevoLx, (1), II, pp. 279-280.) Evidently there was a gi-eat
similarity in the appearance of the villages of the different tribes
who, at the time of the coming of Europeans, occupied the lower
Mississippi VaUey. The method of construction was evidently the
same throughout the region, the principal variation being in tlie form
and size of the various structures.
In some parts of the Mississippi VaUey the sites of ancient villages
arc indicated by groups of earth circles — seldom squares — each evi-
dently marking the position of a separate structure. The dimensions
would correspond favorably with the sizes of dwellings and "town
houses" as recorded by the early writers and quoted on the preceding
pages. Two suggestions may be offered in regard to the origin or
cause of these traces of former habitations. First, they may represent
the mass of earth which served as the covermg for the framework,
the wall, and in some instances the roof, of the structure. After the
building had fallen to rum, and the timbers rotted away, the earth
covering would have remained, probably a circular embankment.
The second theory has been suggested by known customs among the
Siouan tribes of the upper Missouri Valley. Wlien fearing an attack
or seeking additional protection for the occupants of the tipis, a slight
excavation was made within the tipi and the earth thus removed was
placed around the inside of the structure. This explains the origin
of large clusters of small circles in the comitry once occupied .by the
Siouan tribes through the vallej^ of the Missouri, This custom is
knowTi to have been followed as late as September, 1862, during the
Sioux uprising in southwestern Minnesota. When the site was aban-
doned, and the tipi removed, the excavation would gradually become
filled with particles of earth and sand carried by the winds and b}^
the growth and decay of vegetation. As the result of this filling in,
the surface which served as the floor when the tipi stood over the
excavation has become covered, consequently traces of former
occupancy, such as the fire beds and bits of broken pottery, are found
below the present surface. This may explain the origin of certain
of the smaller circles encoimtered east of the Mississippi. One of the
108851°— 19 7
98 BUREAU OF AMERICAX ETHNOLOGY [bill. 60
most interesting gi-oups stands on McKee Island, in the Tennessee
River, a short distance above Guntersville, Marshall County, Ala-
bama. A ridge extends the length of the island, and —
"Along the middle part of the ridge are various sites on^e occupied
by wigwams, all circular so far as we could determine, except one
which was square. The sites were marked by depressions and had
been surrounded by small embankments, but as the gromid had been
under cultivation m the past, exact measurements were not obtaui-
able. . . One of our circular depressions, 32 feet in diameter, was 11
inches beloW the suiTOunding level, which perhaps included part of
the original embankment. Diggmg in this site disclosed a fireplace,
about centrally situated, made up of three layers of burnt clay, show-
ing that the level of the fireplace had been raised from time to
time. . . . The largest site, 52 feet square, was 1 foot 8 inches below
the level around it." (Moore, (2), p. 282.)
As the area occupied by this ancient village site had been under
cultivation the small embankments must necessarily have become
somewhat spread, therefore the measurements given must be greater
than the size of the circles and square at the time they were made.
A group of small circles m Wilson Coimty, Tennessee, was exam-
ined and the interesting discovery was made that within some were
stone-lined graves. This corresponds with the known custom of
some Muskhogean tribes of depositing the remains of the dead in
graves beneath the floor of their dwelling, which they continued to
occupy. Such was the habit among the Chickasaw, withm whose
territory the present county of Wilson may have been included, and
this group may mark the site of an early village of tliis tribe.
Quite similar to the site on McKee Island was another discovered
on the sunmiit of a bluff some 60 feet in height, overlooking Barren
River, in Barren County, Kentucky. Here 16 lodge sites could be
traced, ''partly raised on the outer rim and depressed in the center.
In the center of each, a foot beneath the surface, were found coales,
the gram of the wood being easily distinguished as oak and poplar.
The diameters of these rings average about 18 feet in diameter."
(Evans, (1), p. 609.)
These had evidently not been touched by the plow, and therefore
remained nearly in then* original condition, although the cavity
withm the circle had been partly filled through natural causes. This
group bears a very strong resemblance to those existmg in the upper
Missom'i Valley.
Other groups of circles have been discovered north of the Ohio,
one being on the bank of Clear Creek, Union County, Illinois. Here
the village site, as indicated by the cncles, is surrounded by an
embankment.
wsHNBLL] XATf\'E VILLAGES AND VILLAGE SITES 99
"Tlie 'hut rings' or small circular depressions surrounded l)y
slight earthen rings . . . are scattered irregularly over the wooded
portion of the inclosure, the number exceeding 100. They vary in
diameter from 20 to 50 feet, and in depth from 1 to 3 feet and are
often but a few feet apart." (Thomas, (1), pp. 155-159.)
Another site described by the same. winter stands in Brown County,
Illinois, about 3 miles west of Perry Springs Station. Here (p. 119)
" the dwelling sites vary considerably m size, some being as much as
70 feet in diameter, and some of them 3 feet deep in the center after
fifty years of cultivation." These may have become greatly spread
and otherwise modified as a result of the long-continued plowing of
the surface.
Undoubtedly some of the groups of circles just mentioned are the
remams of clusters of structures which resembled those of the Man-
dan, Pawnee, and other Upper Missouri Valley tribes. But it is also
known that similar dwellings were erected in the Mississippi Valley,
and in 1682 Tonti mentioned the Taensa village, in the present Tensas
Parish, Louisiana, where the houses were '^plac'd in divers rows . . .
being all made of Earth," which evidently referred to structm^es of
wattlework, a mass of earth over a frame of poles. These were nec-
essarily smaller, although they must have resembled the winter
houses and town houses of the Chickasaw and Cherokee.
Wliile the great majority of village and camp sites are now indi-
cated by the occurrence of bits of broken pottery and objects of dif-
ferent materials scattered over the surface, which has remamed at
practically the same level as before it was occupied, nevertheless in
some parts of the South, usually near water courses, are elevations
which have resulted from long-continued occupancy of a restricted
area. Such sites may cover an acre or less, and are formed by the
accmnulation of shells, charcoal, and general camp refuse which
gradually increased to a height of several feet. Such elevations are
usually classed as mounds, but it will be readily understood that
they were accidental and not the intentional work of man.
CONCLUSION
In reviewing the many references presented on the preceding
pages, it is interestmg to observe the characteristic features of the
habitations and other structures erected by the native tribes who
formerly occupied Eastern United States. It is quite remarkable
that in the North, where the long winters were most severe, the
dwellings were covered with barks or rush mats, which often fur-
nished many openings through which the winds could enter. Very
different were the winter houses of the Muskliogean tribes of the South,
as well as those of the Cherokee. These great earth-covered struc-
tures, the largest buildings erected bv anv of the eastern tribes, were
100 BUREAU OF AMERTCAX ETHNOtTOGY [bulu. 69
termed "hot-houses" b3^-the traders, by reason of the temperature of
the interiors. And among many of the southern tribes the dwellings
were similarly strong and secure, but in the far South, near the Gulf
coast and scattered over the peninsula of Florida, were shelters
covered with a thatch of palmetto.
Among many Algonquian tribes each family usually occupied a
single wigwam, covered with mats or sheets of bark, either dome-
shaped or in the form of an arbor with rounded roof and flat ends.
The long communal dwellings were typical of the villages of the
Iroquois, while in the South the home of each family often consisted
of a group of two, three, or four separate buildings, each of which
served a special purpose.
The villages differed in appearance as well as did the separate
structures. Some, more particularly among the numerous widely
scattered Algonquian tribes, were groups of small wigwams, close to
one another and often surrounded by palisades. In other localities
where there was less danger of being attacked by their enemies, the
habitations were more separated, often with gardens and fields
between, and unprotected by palisades. Among the Iroc[Uois or
Five Nations a strongly fortified central village, usually protected by
a double or triple line of palisades, served in times of danger as the
gathering place for the peojjle of the surrounding region, similar in
many respects to the various "stations" in Kentucky and other
parts of the western country a centuiy and more ago. In the South,
among the Creeks, the Cherokee, and others, a to^^^l would often
extend for several miles along the bank of some stream, or over the
lowlands on both sides of the vallc}^, but the center of the settlement
would be the town house, usually placed on the summit of an artifi-
cial mound, in and around which the people would gather to hold
their dances and to enact their difi'erent ceremonies.
Sweat houses were probably to have been found in all the villages
of the North, but less often in the South, and the quotation from
Lawson would probably apply to the people over a wide area, although
referring particularly to the eastern Siouan.
A custom which was evidently c[uite fixed in the South was that
of placing a carved wooden figure of a bird above the council house,
the temple, or the most important building of the town. This was
first witnessed by the Spaniards at Ucita, in the year 1539, when
they saw "a fowle made of wood, with gilded eies" above the roof of
the temple. Charlevoix in 1721 described the Natchez temple as
having at each end "something like a weather-cock of wood, which
has a very coarse resemblance of an eagle," while a few years later
Adair wrote of the large winter houses of the Chickasaw "where
commonly a pole is fixed, that displays on the top the figure of a large
carved eagle." And a century ago when Hodgson visited the Lower
Creek town of Cussetah he saw "a high pole . . . with a bird at the
BUSHNKLI,
NATIVK VILLAGES AXD VILLAGE SITES
101
top, round whicli tho Indians celebrate their Green-Corn Dance."
This he likened to the May poles in England. While this custom
was not restri(^ted to the tribes occupjang the southern part of the
country, nevertlu'less these scattered references tend to recall the dis-
(^overy, some years ago, of mail}" remarkable carved wooden figures
at Key Marco, on the lower west or Gulf coast of Florida. One of
these interesting objects, representing the head of a deer, is shown in
figure 12.
Evidently some of the larger structures among the southern vil-
lages were constructed with the floor lower than the surrounding
surface. Such a custom was unknown in the North, and to what
extent it was practiced in the f^:--?-^^
South is not yet determined. Thc^
first reference is found in Le
Mojme's description of a village on
the east coast of Florida in 1564, \n
which he said, "The chief's dwell-
ing stands in the middle of the town
and is partly underground, in con-
sequence of the sun'sheat. ' ' Adair
mentioned the floor of the Chicka-
saw town or winter house being be-
low the surrounding afea. It was,
so he WTote, ' ' often a 3'ard lower
than the earth, which serves them
as a breast work against an enemy:
and a small peeping window is level
with the surface of the outside
^.
^-
^^^'
Fig. 12.— Head of deer carved in wood, discovered at
Key Marco, west coast of Florida.
ground.'' Nearly two centuries
elapsed between the writings of Le Moyne and Adair, and the wide ter-
ritory between the coast of Florida and the home of the Chickasaw
was occupied by many tribes.
In addition to the more permanent structures within the towns
every tribe seems to have had a particular form of temporary shelter,
or lodge, easily and quickly raised, to serve as their hunting camps
or when on distant journeys. According to several early writers it
was possible to identify the tribe to which a party belonged by the
form of their shelters.
Such were the peculiar features of the village and the various
structures reared by the many tribes found occupying the wide
region between the Mississippi and the Atlantic when that great
wilderness was first entered by the missionary and explorer, trader
and colonist, when narrow trails traversing the vast primeval forests
served to coimect the widely scattered settlements. Now many of
the ancient sites are covered by the principal cities of the Nation,
and the courses of the forest trails are followed bjnts great highways.
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Rogers. R.
(1) A Concise Account of North America. London, 1765.
Romans, Bernard.
(1) A Concise Natural Histoiy of East and West Florida. New York, 1775.
Schoolcraft, Henry R.
(1) Information Respecting the History, Condition, and Prospects of the Indian
Tribes of the Ignited States. Philadelphia, 1851-1857. 6 vols.
106 BUREAU OF AMERICAX ETHXOLOGY [bull. 69
Smith, Captain Johx.
(1) A True Relation . . . London, 1608. Reprint, Birmingham, 18j^4.
(2) A Map of Virginia, With a Description of the Conntrey . . . Oxford, l(jl2.
Reprint, Birmingham. 1884.
SyuiER, E. G.
(1) Aboriginal Monuments of the State of New York. In Smithsonian Contri-
butions to Knowledge, Vol. IT. Washington, 1851.
Strachey, William.
(1) The Historic of Travaile into A'irginia Britannia. Hakluyt Society.
London, 1S49.
SWANTON, J. R.
(1) Indian Tribes of the Lower Mississippi ^'alley Bulletin 48, Bureau of
American Ethnology. Washington, 1911.
' Thomas, Cyrus.
(1) Mound Explorations. In Twelfth Annual Report Bureau of Ethnology.
Washington, 1894.
TiMBERLAKE, HeXRY.
(1) The Memoirs of . . . London, 1765.
ToxTi, Henri De.
(1) An Account of Monsieur de la Salle's Last Expedition and Discoveries in
North America. London, 169.S.
Vax Curler, Arent.
(1) Journal of . . . 1634-1635. In Annual Report American Historical Associ-
ation for the year 1895. Washington, 1896.
^'AX DER DONCK, A.
(1) A Description of the New Netherlands. Reprint in Collectious New York
Historical Society, second series. Vol. I. New York, 1841.
Verrazzano, John de.
(1) The Relation of . . . WritteninDiepetheeight of July, 1524. 7?)Hakluyt,
Vol. III. London, 1600.
"Williams, Roger.
(1) A Key into the Language of America. London, 1643. Reprint in Col.
lections Rhode-Island Historical Society, Vol. I. Providence, 1827.
INDEX
Abxaki— ' rage
.lwelluii;s ... 23
s^roiip, location of 10
manner of sleeping 23
\COLAPISSA VILLAGE ON THE MISSISSIPPI 66
A PAIR, James, description by, of Chiclcasiw
houses 69
.\lachua tribk. settlement of SI
ALr,ONQLX».N—
and Iroquoian villages, similarity of. . . . . 26
dwellings described by Roger Williams. . 20
family, tribes of 10
Apalachee Ixdiaxs. invasion of country of . 15
Apalachicola—
a peace town 78
home of the chief at 7S,79
Atasi, fotnnda nt 79
Bark—
preparation of, for coverire dwellings r4
See Birch bark.
Bark-covered dwellings—
in the North 23, 24,99
types of 58
Bark strELTERS 54
Bartram, John—
on Onondaga cotuicil house 52
on temporary shelters M
Bartram, Wm.—
on A palachicola dwellings 7?
on Cherokee town house 60
on public square of the Creeks 73
on spiral fire 76
on town of Cuscowlla 81
on war and peace towns 77
on Yuchi town 95
Beaufort CotTNTV, S. C, ancient structure
in 86
Biard, Pierre, on customs of New England
Indians 22
BiLOXi Indians—
dialect of 16
territory occupied by 16
villages of 94
Birch bark, used to cover dwellings 23
Bird, carved .figure of, above council house . . 100
Black n.» wk's village 45
BoNi'OUCA , Choctaw settlement of 64
Bossu, N., explorations of 40
burla.l customs of muskhogean tribes. . . 98
Burial place of the Senecas 28
BUSHNELL, P. T., Jr.— .
on the Saco ;..- 19
quoting Oglethorpe on r'oweta 77
Byrd, Col. Wm., description by, of Nottoway
town 67
Caches of corn 41, .>3
Caiioklii TRIBE— Page
belonging to Illinois confedoraey 42
country occupied by 11.43
village of ■ 12
Calusa Indians. toA-ns of '.U
Caoquias, ^^llage of the 12
Cape Cod dwellfngs 22
Carolina Indians, habilations of 58
Carved fioxjee above council }iouse lOO
Carved head of dekr 101
Catawba Indians, reference to if.
Catlin, George, description by, of Mandan
village 70
Cayuga, one of the Six Nations 13
Champlain, expedition of 18
Charlevoix—
description of \illage by 66
explorations of 12
\-isit of, to Illinois village 41
Cheraw Indl\N5, reference to 16
Cherokee tribe-
country occupied by 13
dwellings 59
encroachment by whites on lands of. ... . 62
Chesapeake Bay, settlements on 30
CHICKAS.VW TRIBE—
buildings of 6*^
country occvipied by T 14
Choctaw tribe—
habitations of '>4
country occupiel by 14
Chote, the "metropolis'' of the Cherokee... . 61
Chu-nky yard of Creek toavns 74
Communal dwellings-
of Long Island tribes 28
of the Five rations 48
of the Iroquois . 100
of the ifahican .. 26
of the Timucua 90
Conestoga. See Susquehakna.
Congaree Indians, reference to 16
CoreeInduns—
habitations of -'.S
reference to 13
Corn, caches of ti . 53
COUNQL fire of .SPIRAL FORM 76
CCtTNCIL HOUSE—
carved figure above 100
of the Creeks 74
of the Housatonic Indians 25
CowE, location of 60
Coweta, description of 77
Creek confeder.\cy—
formation of 14
location of villages 14
t OAAUS of 72
107
108
INDEX
("REEK TOWNS, principal structures of . 74, 75. 7G
ruMBERLiVND RivFE, village on 46
CuscowiLLA, description of Si
('USSETAH —
arrangement of buildings in 75
description of 72
Dabi.on, PfeRE C, quoted on Illinois Indians. 3S
Dankers and SLiTiTER, quoted on Long
Island dwellings 28
Decoration of houses 52
De Graffenried, quoted on villageof Paski. 5S
Delaware Indians, territory occupied by. . 11
Dickenson, Jonathan—
on Florida habitations.. SS
on Indian " warehouse " S4
Dome-shaped habitations of Carolina In-
DL\NS ■ .-,.s
Du Pratz, Natchez houses described by. . . . tu
Davelling, type of, determined by material
available 23
Earth circles, explanation of 97
Earth lodge of the Cherokee 59
Earthquake in ;MississirPi Valley SO
Earthworks of Ohio, probable builders of. 16
Erie tribe—
possible settlers on James River 37
territory occupied by 13
war of, \rith confederated Iroquois 3S
Everglades of Florida, tjrpical house in. . 82
Fenner, K. Y., site of Onondaga town 54
Filson, John, Old Chillicothe described by . 47
Five Nations-
country occupied by ; 48
tribes composing 13
Floors, level of 101
I'lorida—
southern, villages of SS
tribes inhabiting 15
typical house in Everglades 82
Food supply —
of eastern Indians 10
of Illinois Indians 42
Fox Indl\ns—
territory occupied by 11, 12
village of, on Rock River i-1
Ganundesaga Castle 27
Geogr.\^phio omsiONS of ea.stern Unitfh
States 9
Germ.^ntown, Pa., former village on site oi. U
Gookin, Daniel, quoted on New England
dwellings 24
Granaries of Timucuan Int)ians 89
Graves, sfone-lined, in Wilson County, Tenn. 9S
G RAVIER, PfeRE J., Tamaroa ^^llage \isited by 43
Great Island, Pa., occupied by Delaware. . 57
GUALE tribe—
houses of 83
islands occupied by 15
Hawkins, Benj.—
on construction of " hot-house " 75
on Creek stmctures 76
Sha^^Tiee settlement visited by 47
Hawkins, J., Florida habitation described
by 90
Hewitt, J. N. B., quoted on descent among
the Iroquois 50
I 'age
Hochelaga, description of .55
Hodgson, Adam, description by, of Cussetah 72
Hopkins, Samuel, on construction of wig- b
warn 25
"Hot-houses"—
construction of, among Creeks 75
of the South lOO
Housatonic Indi vns, dwellings of, describeri 25
Housatonic Valley, tribes of 11
Hudson River—
dwellings on 28
tribes on 11
Humphreys, David, quoted on Mohawk cus-
toms 51
Hunting practices of Narraganset In-
dians 21
Huron Indlans, reference to 13
Illinois confederacy, tribes composing 11, 42
iLUNOis Indians—
great \illage of, described by Rasles 41
great village of, visited by La Salle 40
\nllages of .38
Ilunois, State of—
Indians of 11
dwelling sites m Brown County 99
dwelling sites in Union Coimty 98
Indlvna, Indians of 11
Iroquoian family, territory' occupied by . . . 13, 14
Iroquois, League of the, formation of 13, 50
Iroquois tribes—
houses and villages 48
shelters 54
-^'illage sites 48
\-illages similar to Algonqman 26
Jece, village of 88
Joliet, journey of .39
Kaskasku. tribe—
territory occupied by 11
\-illage of 41
visited by the French 11
Kaunaumeek, a Housatonic village 25
Kecoughtan, site of 33, 35
Kentucky, Barren Coimty, lodge sites Ln. . . 98
Keowee River, settlement on 63
KuLUMi, description of houses in 79
Laet, J. de, on Hudson River dwellings 29
Lahontan, Armand, on fortified \-illages 26
Lake Pontchartrain—
Indian structure on 64
settlement on 65
tribes in vicinity of 66
Languages, diversity of 17
La S.vlle, explorations of 12, 38
Lawson, John—
on Carolina habitations 58
on \'illage of Waxsaw 92
Le.\gue of the Iroquois, formation of 13, 50
Len.ipe Indians, territory occupied by 11
Letters concerning the Cherokee 61
Log house of the Creeks 78
Long house—
at Onondaga 52
of the Narraganset 21
Long Island, habitations of 19, 28
Long, Stephen H., on Fox village 44
INDEX
109
I'agf
LomsiANA, wattlework and earth structures
in 09
Lower Mohawk Castle, site of i>l
MacCaulet, Clay, description by, of house
in Everglades X2
McKee Island, Ala., earth circles on 9S
Mahican tribe—
territory occupied by U
villages of 2fi
Maine settlement, described by Cham-
plain !■'
Maine, tribes of. iti
Malecite habitations 22
Manahoac group, named by Capt. John
Smith.. 1<>
Mandan Indlvns—
structures of 71
village on Missoiu-i River 70
Manhattan, signification of name 11
Manhattan tribe, territory occupied by 11
Maps, showing position of Indian villages 18
Marquette, journey of SS, 39
Martin, Joseph, letter written by 61
Maryland, villages of Eastern Shore of 30
Mascoutens, great ^-illage of 39
Mass.vchuset tribe, territorj' occupied by. . 10
Mat-covered habitations, types of 58
Meheerin tribe, territory occupied by 13
Menominee Indians, territory occupied by . 11
MuMi Indians—
territory occupied by 11
settlement of 39
MlCBIGAMEA tribe—
of the Illinois confederacy 42
territory occupied by 11
village of 43
Michigan, Indians of 11
MicMAC tribe—
habitations of 22
territory of 10
MiNISINK VILLAGE 29
Mohawk tribe—
one of Six Nations 13
\allage of, described 51
Mohegan tribe, territory occupied by. ... . 10
Monacan confederacy, chief town of Ki
Montreal, site of Hochelaga 55
Mooney, James—
on the Riekohockan 37
population estimated by 9
Moore, Clarence B.—
on Alabama village sites 98
on South CaroUna stracture 86
Morgan, L. H., quoted on communism
among Indians 29
Mounds—
accidental 99
circular, indicating dwelling sites 97
indicating village sites 72
Mourt, George, quoted on dwellings on
Cape Cod 22
Munnsville, N. Y., village near 51
Munsee Indians, territory occupied by 11
Muskhogean tribes, country occupied by. . 14, 63
Nanticoke village, near Cambridge, Md ... 31
Page
Naples, N. Y., village near 50
Narraganset tribe—
customs of 20
defeat of 11
hunting practices of 21
temporary nature of villages 20
territory occupied by 10
NAsiivaLE, Tenn., site of former Shawnee
village 12, 46
Natchez Indlans—
location of settlements 66
dwellings of, described 66
territory occupied by 14
war of, with French 14
Neutrals, at war with Algonquian tribes. . . 12
New England tribes lo
dwellings of 21, 24
North Carolina, tribes cf 16
Nottoway tribe —
reference to 13
town of, described 57
Ofo Induns—
dialect of 16
territory of 16, 94
Ohio, Indians of 11
Ohio Valley, former occupants of 15
Ojibway, linguistic relations of 12
Old Chillicothe, description of 47
Omaha, signification of name 16
Oneida, one of the Si.x Nations 13
Oneida village, described 51
Onondaga town, site of 54
Onondaga tribe, one of the Six Nations 13
Onondaga, village of 52
OviEDo Y Valdez, quoted on Quale struc-
tures 83
Painting on walls 52, 80
Pausaded villages 23,
26, 27, 30, 40, 54, 57, 90, 94, 100
Palmetto-thatched house 65
Palmetto-thatched shelters lOO
Paski, village of, described 58
Passamaquoddy Induns, temtory occupied
by 10
Pawnee earth lodges 71
Peace towns of the Creek confederacy. 77
Pemberton, E . , on work of David Bramer:! . 25
Penn, Wm., treaty concluded by, in 16S2 11
Penobscot tribe, territory occupied by 10
Peoru tribe—
discovered by Marquette 11
territory of 11
village of, on Illinois 40
village of, on Mississippi 39
Pequot tribe , territory occupied by 10
Play house of the Narraganset 21
Pomeioc, description of 34
Pontdalamia , a village of the Kaskaslda. . . . 11
Population—
estimated by James Mooney 9
estimation of, by number of sites mis-
leading 45
Powhatan, chief, described by Capt. John
Smith 36
Powhatan cont'ederacy, boundary line of. 16
110
Powhatan tkibi;^ I'age
country occupio' I by 37
oustoms of 32
meaning of name 37
villages of 31
Public Square of the Creeks 73,74
Quadrangular dwelling? 5S
QuAPAW, signification of name l«i
Raleigh, Sir Walter—
expeditions of 11,31
\dllages discovered by expeditions of 33
Rasawek, location of Ki
Rast.es, Sebastien—
on Abnaki village 23
on Illinois Indians -. 41
Richmond, Va., village on present site of 37
Roanoke Indians, discovered by Raleigh'*
expedition 11
Rock River, villages on 44
Romans, Bernard, description by, of Chick-
asaw village , 68
Rotunda of Creek towns 73, 74
Rushes, used in construction of dwellings.. 3S,99
SACO RR'ER—
Indian name for 19
village at mouth of 19
Saint Esprit, Mission of 3S
St. Lawrence RrvER , tribes near 11
St. Louis, Mo., •^'illage near 12
St. Marys, Ga., Indian warehouse at 85
Santa Cruz, Fla., village of 84
Santee Indians, reference to Ifi
Saponi Indians—
reference to 16
location of villages 92
Sauk and Fox-
linguistic relations of 12
villages on Rock River 44
Sauk Indians, territory occupied by 11
Schoolcraft, II. R., on Siouan tribes 16
Secotan, drawing of, by John White 34
Seminole, origin of the name 80
Seminole Home, group of structures com-
prising 82
Seminole town, described 81
Seminole tribe, origin of 15
Seneca tribe—
one of the Six Nations 13
village site of 27
Shackamaxon. village of 11
Shawnee tribe—
country occupied by 11, 12, 46
linguisitc relations of 12
migrations of 12
Shell heaps, indicating villages on Chesa-
peake Bay 30
Shell mounds—
atJece, Fla 88
on Little Island, South Carolina 86
Shelters, temporary—
of the Narraganset 20. 21
of the Seminoles 82
SiNiCA, location of 63
Siouan tribes—
migration of 15
territory of 92
Six Nations, tribes composing the 13
Smith. Capt John— Page
description of Powhatan by 36
meeting of, with the Susquehanna 56
villages indicated by 33
South CAROLfNA, tribes of is
Spiral fire of council house 76
Squier, K. G., on Ganiuidesaga Cast:-e 27
Stockbridges. Sec Hou.sa tonic Indian.s.
Strachey, William, on Powhatan %iilages. . 31
Susquehanna Indl\ns—
meeting of, \dth Capt. John Smith 56
territorj- occupied by 13
■ viilaces of _ 56
Sweat houses 93, 100
TaENSA VttLAGE in liOUISIANA 99
Tallapoosa River, settlement on 46
Tamaroa tribe—
country occupied by 11, 43
member of Illinois confederacy 42
villages of 12, 43
Teatontaloga, description of 51
Tecumseh, meeting of, with Upper Creek
chiefs 80
Tellico, town house at 60
Tennessee, Wh-son County, earth circles in 98
Timberlake, Henry, on Cherokee town-
house 61
Timucuan Indlvns—
country inhabited by 15
villages of 89
Tonti, Henri DE, on village of Pontdalamia. 41
Townhouse—
at Tellico 60
at Waxsaw 93
ofCowee ■ 60
of eastern Siouan tribes , 92
of the Sha^\-nee 47
on mounds 72
TO'W'n square, structures surrounding, de-
scribed 76
Tsonontowan, Seneca village of 50
TuKABATCHi, location of 79
TUNICAN FAMILY'—
country occupied by 17, 96
houses of 96
TUSCARORA InDL\NS—
country inhabited by 13
dwellings of... 58
fort of, on Neuse River 58
one of the Six Nations 13
village of 58
war of 13, 58
TuTELo Indians—
reference to 16
villages of 92
UCHEAN family, territory occupied by 16
UciTA, Timucuan town of 91
Utchowig, probable site of 56
Van Curler, Arent, explorations of 51
Van der Donck, quoted on Iroquois houses. 48
Verrazzano, John de, expedition of 19
Village site.s—
meaning o. term 15
number of, misleading 45
size of, misleading 18, 21
spots chosen for 18
Villages, appearance of 100
INDEX
111
■ rago
ViRGINU.—
native villages of 31, 3(5
linguistic comieclion of tribes of 57
Siouan tribes in 16
\ IRGINIA COLONY, coiintry occupied by 3(5
Wabash River, village on Itj
Waccamaw Indians, territory occupied by . . 15
Wampanoag tribe, territory occupied by. . . 10
Wampum, string of, accompanying Cherokee
document ; . . . (i2
Wappinger Indians, territory occupied by . . 11
War towns of the Creek confederacy ... 77
Warehouse, Indian—
at Santa Cruz, Fla. S4
at St. Marys, Ga .! So
Watch houses in fields 34
Watch-towers of Biloxi \t:llage 95
Waitlework, dwellings of—
in Choctaw settlements (i4
in Siouan tribes 94
in Taensa village , 09
I'age
Waxsa w, village of 92
Werowacomoco, site of 35
Wiute, John, drawings of 34
Whitewashing of Indian structures 80
Wigwam—
method of construction 25
of Algonquian tribes li), ino
Williams, Roger, on New England habita-
tions 19
Winnebago tribe, on Green Bay, Wis 16
Winnebago villages 95
Wisconsin, Indians of n
Yamasee War, reference to 12
Yamasi Indians—
ancient structure of :... gti
. territory inhabited by n
Yuriii Indians—
band of, possible settlers on James River. 37
country inliabited by 95
to«Ti of. 9.5
o
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY
BULLETIN 69 PLATE 2
a. BIRCH-BARK COVERED WIGWAM. NORTHERN MINNESOTA, 1899
b. WIGWAM COVERED WITH RUSH MATS AND PIECES OF BARK. MILLE LAC.
MINN., 1900
OJIBWAY hMBITATIONS— TYPICAL ALGONQUIAN STRUCTURES
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY
BULLETIN 69 PLATE 3
THE HOUSATONIC, COVERED WITH ICE
b. LOOKING UP THE VALLEY OF THE HOUSATONIC
iUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY
iULLETIN 69 PLATE 4
3Lodus muruendi apud MaLilcajienfes
.HMuere van 7i*L>^^n£/a^tft'n c0£ J^L'rr-^n Jer .ifuJiuu/ij
ende anJre ,VuXu-n ^^u^r ael'uren
a. MAHiCAN VILLAGE. FROM MAP OF NOVI BELGII, ABOUT 1651
Alter Modu^ apiid J
3f Inline Min cc^s
^f^is^m^- ---^
b. MINISINK VILLAGE. FROM MAP OF NOVI BELGII, ABOUT 1651
!UREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY
BULLETIN 69 PLATE 5
|r^
:'M"
W3
l
-rlu
'%!;'
&
t I in I!
.tf<'vir vests rj'-f'C^ i^Ktlif i^pps
SECOTAN. BY JOHN WHITE, 1585
iUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY
BULLETIN 69 PLATE 7
\
■ J '.vv,.,/^.v,..^g,,^.
^-'^'^'■-^^
'THE CABINS OF THE POWITE INDIANS," ON THE SITE OF RICHMOND. VA-
IN 1653
3UREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY
BULLETIN 69 PLATE
HOCHELAGA. FROM LESCARBOT. 1609
illtttt
i^2
A/.
w
{^m
%m.
m
.><^.
it'r^
b. ONONDAGA. FROM CHAMPLAIN, 1615
BULLETIN 69 PLATE 9
a. "THE INDIAN FORT SASQUESAHANOK," 1720. FROM THE MOLL MAP OF 1720
b. UPPER END OF GREAT ISLAND IN WEST BRANCH OF THE SUSQUEHANNA.
SITE OF DELAWARE VILLAGE IN 1768
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY
BULLETIN 69 PLATE 10
b. THE FORESTS OF LONGLEAF PINE
c. THE BAYOUS NEAR THE GULF COAST
CHARACTERISTIC VIEWS IN THE SOUTH
J^J^^^W
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY
BULLETIN 69 PLATE 14
P^'Wt^
.^~-=. ---
— ^?:-^^ '-.
TEMPORARY DWELLING OF THE SEMINOLE
b. PERMANENT DWELLING OF THE SEMINOLE
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY
5ULLETIN 69 PLATE 15
^■-^Z'"'^^
;^:'^•■SL^i;:"^'•^
LARGE SHELL HEAP AND DWELLING SITE ON SEACOAST NEAR
ST. AUGUSTINE, FLA.
b. ON THE TOMOCO RIVER, NEAR ORMOND, VOLUSIA COUNTY, FLA.
ULLETIN 69 PLATE 16
a. A "PUBLIC GRANARY" IN FLORIDA. FROM LE MOYNE, 1564
b. A FORTIFIED TOWN IN FLORIDA. FROM LE MOYNE, 1554
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