America's Indian Background

Excerpt from America's Indian Background: An Introduction to the Subject of Indians in the United States Area

Protohistoric - ~tribes differed greatly In many customs, but there were some similarities due to the nature of their situation and mode of life - in the forest, on the plains,12 in the deserts, or beside bodies of water. On the waters of the northeastern lakes wouldf skim canoes made of birchbark; on the streams of the northern treeless plains bull-boats of buffalo-hide were used to cross the few rivers; along the wooded streams of the East and South would glide slender dugout log canoes; on the Northwest Coast and in the swamps of the deep South grew g'reat trees that were hollowed out into big war-canoes; along the California coast boats built of planks or balses of rushes were commonly employed. Among the Plains tribes a very important feature of travel was a kind of sledge, or litter; called by the French tun/01's, which was drawn by large dogs prior to the arrival of the modern horses of the whites.

There were two general types of houses - the round and the rectangular.13 In the north the round house was covered with birch or other bark, or with mats; in the South with pal metto or grass; on the prairies with sod, earth, or grass; on the buffalo plains with buffalo-hides; and in California with bulrushes. Houses of the rectangular type were usually con structed of poles and bark in the wooded area, of stone or adobe in the arid Southwest, and of planks in northern Cali fornia and along the Northwest Coast.

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