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208 work (parfleche, cylindrical bag, etc.); use of a circular shield; weak development of work in wood, stone, and bone. Their art is strongly geometric, but as a whole, not symbolic; social organization tends to the simple band; a camp circle organization; a series of societies for men; sun dance ceremony; sweat house observances, scalp dances, etc.

In historic times, these tribes ranged from north to south in the heart of the area. (Fig. 68). On the eastern border were some fourteen tribes having most of the positive traits enumerated above and, in addition, some of the negative ones, such as a limited use of pottery and basketry; some spinning and weaving of bags; rather extensive agriculture; alternating the tipi with larger and more permanent houses covered with grass, bark, or earth; some attempts at water transportation; tending not to observe the sun dance, but to substitute maize festivals, shamanistic performances, and the midéwin of the Great Lakes tribes. These tribes are: the Arikara, Hidatsa, Iowa, Kansa, Mandan, Missouri, Omaha, Osage, Oto, Pawnee, Ponca, Santee-Dakota, Yankton-Dakota, and the Wichita.

On the western border were other tribes (the Wind River Shoshoni, Uintah and Uncompahgre Ute) lacking pottery, but producing a rather high type of basketry; depending far less on the buffalo, but more on deer and small game; making large use of wild grass seeds, or grain; alternating tipis with brush and mat-covered shelters; and not as a whole inclined to the sun dance and the other ceremonial practices of their eastern neighbors.

Also, on the northeastern border are the Plains-Ojibway and Plains-Cree who have many traits of the forest-hunting tribes as well as most of those found in the Plains. Possibly a few of the little-known bands of Canadian Assiniboin should be included in this group in distinction from the Assiniboin proper.

These variations from the type are, as we shall see, typical traits of the adjoining areas, the possible exception being the earth-lodges of the Mandan, Pawnee, etc. On the other hand, the tribes of the area as a whole have in common