Omaha Dwellings, Furniture and Implements

Omaha Dwellings, Furniture and
Implements, by

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Title: Omaha Dwellings, Furniture and Implements Thirteenth Annual
Report of the Beaurau of American Ethnology to the Secretary of the
Smithsonian Institution 1891-1892, Government Printing Office,
Washington, 1896 pages 263-288
Author: James Owen Dorsey,
Release Date: November 24, 2006 [EBook #19913]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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OMAHA DWELLINGS, FURNITURE, AND IMPLEMENTS
BY
JAMES OWEN DORSEY

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

ILLUSTRATIONS
Page Fig. 306. Yellow Smoke's earth lodge 270 307. Ground plan of
Osage lodge 271 308. Omaha tent 272 309. Exterior parts of an Omaha
tent 273 310. [P]ejequde's tent 274 311. Omaha cradle--plan 276 312.
Omaha cradle--side view 276 313. Omaha mortar 277 314. Omaha
pestle 277 315. Omaha calumet 279 316. Omaha pipe used on ordinary
occasions 280 317. Skin drum 282 318. Box drum 282 319. Omaha
large flute 283 320. Omaha club (ja^{n}-[p]a[c]na) 283 321. Omaha

club (ja^{n}-[p]a[c]na) 284 322. Omaha club (weaq[|c]ade) 284 323.
Omaha bow (za^{n}zi-mand[)e]) 285 324. Omaha bow
([t]a[k]a^{n}-mand[)e]) 285 325. Omaha hunting arrow 286 326.
Omaha war arrow 286 327. Omaha style of hidé-[t]áce 286

OMAHA DWELLINGS, FURNITURE, AND IMPLEMENTS
BY JAMES OWEN DORSEY

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

DWELLINGS.
The primitive domiciles of the Omaha were chiefly (1) lodges of earth
or, more rarely, of bark or mats, and (2) skin lodges or tents. It may be
observed that there were no sacred rites connected with the earth
lodge-building or tent-making among the Omaha and Ponka.
Earth Lodges.

When earth lodges were built, the people did not make them in a tribal
circle, each man erecting his lodge where he wished; yet kindred
commonly built near one another.
The earth lodges were made by the women, and were intended
principally for summer use, when the people were not migrating or
going on the hunt. Those built by the Omaha and Ponka were
constructed in the following manner: The roof was supported by two
series of vertical posts, forked at the top for the reception of the
transverse connecting pieces of each series. The number in each series
varied according to the size of the lodge; for a small lodge only four
posts were erected in the inner series, for an ordinary lodge eight were
required, and ten generally constituted the maximum. When Mr. Say[1]
visited the Kansa Indians, he occupied a lodge in which twelve of these
posts placed in a circle formed the outer series, and eight longer ones
constituted the inner series, also describing a circle. The wall was
formed by setting upright slabs of wood back of the outer posts all
around the circumference of the lodge. These slabs were not over 6 feet
in height,