mooxky] INDIAN CONGRESS AT OMAHA 1 39
Montana, the rest being in the adjacent Canadian province. As- sociated with them are two smaller tribes, the Arapaho Grosven- tres and the Sarsi. In physique the Blackfeet are among the finest men of the plains, tall and well built, with erect pose and steady countenance. Those in attendance at the congress be- longed to the Pieg&n division, and brought with them an old- style ornamented skin tipi.
The Omaha, Ponka, and Oto, closely related Siouan tribes, numbering, respectively, 1170, 820, and 350, originally had their settlements along Missouri river in eastern Nebraska, under the protection of the powerful Pawnee, who claimed the whole Platte region. Occupying thus a subordinate position, they have never been prominent in tribal history, although in ethnology they are among the best known tribes of the west, owing to the extended researches of Dorsey, La Flesche, and Miss Fletcher. The Oman'kan y or Omaha, have given their name to the exposition city. The word signifies " up stream," as distinguished from cog- nate tribes formerly living farther down the river. They are also the originators of the picturesque Omaha dance, now com- mon to most of the plains tribes. They reside on a reservation about sixty miles northward from Omaha and within the limits of their original country. Most of them now live in frame houses, but others still prefer their oldtime earth-lodge. Some of the Ponka also are on a reservation in northeastern Nebraska, but the majority, with the Oto, have been removed to Oklahoma.
The allied Cheyenne and Arapaho, who call themselves, re- spectively, Dzitsi'stds and In&'na-ina, both names being about equivalent to " our people," were represented by a large delega- tion from Oklahoma. Typical buffalo hunters of the plains, they yet have traditions of a time when they lived in the east and planted corn. The Cheyenne number in all nearly 3500, of whom 2000 (Southern) are on a reservation — now thrown open to settlement — in western Oklahoma, the remainder (Northern) being on a reservation in Montana, excepting a few living with
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