Page:American Anthropologist NS vol. 1.djvu/162

 mooney] INDIAN CONGRESS A T OMAHA 1 37

Omaha and Ponka, who are practically one people, they were all roving buffalo hunters, fighting and hunting on horseback, dwell- ing in skin tipis, practicing no agriculture, using the same weapons, and having similar military organizations and tribal ceremonies. Most of them seem to have been unacquainted with the clan sys- tem. The Omaha and Ponka had corn and earth-covered lodges, both of which they probably obtained originally from their allies, the Pawnee. All wore the prairie moccasin, breechcloth, and buck- skin dress, differing only in length of fringe or color of dec- oration. They wore no head covering except for ceremonial purposes. The men wore the scalp-lock, usually having the rest of the hair braided and hanging down in front on each side of the head. With the Crows, and sometimes the Blackfeet, it was pushed up or roached over the forehead. Excepting in the sub- stitution of cloth for buckskin, the majority of these Indians are but little changed in appearance from the time when they were first put on reservations. They are all of fine physical type, as might be expected in a race of warriors and horsemen. The build is sinewy and the features thin and clear-cut, excepting the semi-agricultural Omaha and Ponka, who show the effect of a partial grain diet in rounder faces and portlier figures. The Blackfeet and Crows are especially tall, with the Cheyenne and Arapaho not far behind. The Dakota are notable for their aqui- line noses and light complexion, the Cheyenne also being much lighter in color than their neighbors.

The Sioux, who call themselves Dakota or Lakota, " allies," number about 25,000 souls, being the largest tribe or confederacy in the United States. They formerly owned the greater portion of both Dakotas, with about one-half of Minnesota, and are now gathered on reservations within their ancient territory. Although well known linguistically and in the pioneer history of the west, they have yet to be studied from the ethnologic point of view. Their language was reduced to writing some sixty years ago and has now a considerable literature. Nearly all the men of the

�� �