Page:The American Indian.djvu/61

Rh Ojibway and Iroquois, though it may have been used along the upper Missouri.

In the spring and summer dogs were made to bear packs and drag tent poles. This method was more widely distributed than the use of sledges and toboggans, covering the entire caribou and bison areas and extending somewhat into the inland portion of the salmon area. In the bison area, particularly in the northern part, we find an original contrivance known to us as a travois. Though of two or three varieties, the essential structure is the same throughout—a V-shaped frame with an intervening section of net or wood upon which the load is placed. The structure suggests that this travois is merely a development of the pack and trailing tent poles, the more widely distributed method.

It may be worth noting that dog packing in particular is a concomitant of those hunting tribes following a regular migratory circle. The excursions of the Eskimo to the caribou ranges, the corresponding shifts of the Canadian Indians, and the bison-hunting expeditions of the Plains were in pre-Columbian days facilitated by pack trains of dogs. The intrusion of this method into the inland salmon area is consistent with the journeys then made to gather food, as we have stated. On the contrary, topographical conditions in California made large movements unnecessary, which may be one reason why dog packing was not adopted. The maize areas were more independent and had little use for this trait. So far as we know, dog transportation was not in vogue in the area of intensive maize culture. Mexico and the Pueblo area had no way of land transport except by human carriers, and it is not until Peru is reached that the use of the llama comes to notice. This small, camel-like animal has little more carrying power than a large dog, but is particularly well adapted to mountain travel. For the remainder of South America our information is vague, but so far there is no reason to believe that the dog or any other animal was used for transport.

All this suggests that dog traction was intrusive to the New World. When we recall that in Europe and Asia the dog and reindeer are used to draw sledges and that the trait is