compelled the Pawnees to abandon their villages on the Loup River and on the middle course of the Platte and to settle on the farthest eastern verge of their territory close to the Omahas and the Otos. The sites of these settlements are at the present town of Leshara and just across the Platte opposite Fremont. The circumstances of physical environment surrounding the tribes of the plains of western America were less favorable to advancement than the conditions which surrounded the tribes of western Europe where our civilization developed. Still, these tribes had come an immense distance on the road from savagery to civilization. They contained in embryo all the powers and capabilities for achieving a form of civilization of their own, which would, of course, differ from that achieved by our own race in other environments, but still a manner of social and industrial life containing all the essentials of that organized complex of activities which we call civilization. Before the advent of the European there was no beast of burden in North America except the dog. This limitation was an important factor in the control of certain forms of activity. However, in the arts of life there had been some attainment in agriculture, architecture, weaving, dyeing, basketry, pottery, and pictography. The tribes had developed systems of government, rituals of religion, and the beginnings of medical and surgical practice. They had also incipient forms of literature and the art of music. They had their historians, their geographers and explorers. The character of the floral life of a country is a strong factor in determining the faunal life, and both are highly influential in shaping the material culture of the human inhabitants. The physical environment and material culture are reflected in the intellectual, religious, and philosophical expressions of a people's life. Their myths, legends, rituals, stories and songs are to be fairly interpreted only in the light of knowledge of the material basis. The character of the arts and industries and religious observances of the various American tribes were largely conditioned by the distribution of the native wild plants which supplied their alimentary, medical, and protective needs. Certain of their uses, when known to us, may be suggestive of possibly useful acquisitions to our list of plants of economic value to our agriculture and horticulSince these plants have already naturally established themselves here they must be fairly well adjusted to the physical conditions here prevailing. It is reasonable to suppose that if promising species were subjected to cultivation and selective breeding they would show as much improvement and more hardiness than representatives of the same orders which we have brought with us from the old world, for the wild ancestors of our common cultivated plants were probably no more promising in their original wild condition than the native plants are here. ture. Besides the wild fruits, nuts, tubers, and seeds which were regularly harvested from the wild growths by the tribes of Nebraska, they had also certain crops which they regularly cultivated. They planted fields of corn, beans, squashes and pumpkins, gourds, watermelons, and tobacco. They had all the types of corn and many varieties of each type, especially of flour corn. They planted the different varieties in separate fields to avoid hybridization. Their beans, squashes, and pumpkins were of many varieties. All the tribes in the Missouri River basin lived in permanent villages of which the major controls determining their location were the presence of wood, unfailing water, and sufficient ground suitable for tillage where they could plant their fields. Then the abundance of game and wild fruits and other useful vegetal products had their influence as contributory factors; thus the proximity of the Missouri River and of the Elkhorn, Platte, Republican, Blue and Nemaha Rivers were favorite places of abode. The villages were not laid out in blocks but consisted of an irregular cluster of houses without streets. The mode of structure of these houses shows the influence of physical environment upon the type of architecture. While the tribes in the heavily forested eastern part of the continent used logs for building, or a covering of bark over a frame of posts and poles, here, because of the scantier supply of timber a different house was evolved. A building site was chosen and a circular space of twenty, thirty, forty, or fifty feet in diameter was excavated to the depth of a foot and one half or two feet, a bench of earth of suitable width to serve as a seat by day and a bed by night was left at the circumference of the circle. Near the center four heavy forked posts fifteen to twenty feet high were set. Then a circle of posts was set where the wall was to be. These posts were shorter than those in the center in order to give slope to the roof. In the forks of all these posts, timbers were laid which supported the rafters. Poles were then laid on the rafters, interwoven with willow withes and thatched with prairie grass. Over all this a firm covering of earth was laid. Light and ventilation were had by a circular opening in the dome of the roof. The fireplace was in the center of the floor. In order to control the draft of this opening so that the wind would not drive the smoke back, a frame was erected around it so that a mat or skin could be laid up on the windward side. A vestibule about ten or fifteen feet long and seven or eight feet wide and eight feet high was placed at the east side of the lodge. This was the only entrance. In the yard near by was a scaffold for drying meat, pumpkins, and wild fruits for winter stores of food. Another adjunct of the dwelling was the bathlodge. This was a small domeshaped frame of willow poles over which could be thrown mats or skins; in the center was a number of boulders. These boulders being heated, water was poured on them to cause steam for a vapor bath. In travel, the shelter was the conical tent with a hide cover which could easily be folded and carried on the march. The camp was arranged in a circle, each band of the tribe having its own place in the segment. So a man coming into camp at any time of day or night and at any place wherever it might be, would know at once where to find his own family. In erecting the tent three of the poles were first tied together with a long rope. The three poles were then set up with their bases spread the distance of the diameter of the tent. The other poles, in all about a dozen, were laid in the fashion of soldiers forming "stack arms", and the long rope before mentioned carried round the circle of poles and tied to one of them to make the tent frame firm. Next the cover was drawn up and secured by fastening it together at the front. Then the smoke flap poles were inserted in their sockets so the smoke flaps could be manipulated, opening towards the lee side of the tent to give good draught and ventilation. The hunt was organized and officered under strict discipline, for it was a socialized industry and any mishap might subject the whole tribe to great hardship and suffering or even famine. So plans for the apprehension of the herds and the killing, skinning, and cutting up of the meat had a definite duty in what was a community undertaking for the common welfare. Certain minerals were of economic use to the Indians. Salt was obtained near where the city of Lincoln now is. Salt was also sometimes imported from regions in Kansas and Oklahoma. Certain clays were used for making paints, others for dyes. Bentonite was used for cleaning feathers and furs. A medicinal clay was obtained in Colorado somewhere in the vicinity of Denver. It was applied for the reduction of inflammation. Selenite crystals were reduced to powder by heat and the powder was used in cleaning off the excess glue after attaching an arrowhead to the shaft. Catlinite, or red pipestone, was prized by all tribes for pipe-making. It was obtained in southwest Minnesota. Previous to the appearance of the white man upon their horizon, the tribes had rules and methods of procedure, but by European incursion there was thrust upon them a train of problems without precedent and they had to make the best of a desperate situation. Not the least bewildering of the new ideas thrust upon them was that of individual holding of land regardless of use. This idea and that of alienation of lands was contrary to their customs, to their conceptions of justice and reason, and to their religious ideas. Within the bounds of the tribal domain the land was held as common property of the tribe in its corporate capacity; none was held in fee by any individuals or group of individuals. But in suitable situation, convenient to the village, each family chose such ground as it needed and could cultivate. Such a piece of ground was held in undisturbed possession so long as the family kept it in actual cultivation and use, but, if cultivation of it lapsed, it was subject to reapportionment for use; for the idea of monopoly and speculation in land or of alienation of the same was just as foreign to the Indian mind as the same process in regard to the air or water or any other natural resource needful to the sustenance of human life and equal human opportunity. Along with the idea of the common right of all men to a dwelling place on earth, the American tribes held to the idea of the common right of all men to the natural products of the earth so far as they needed and could use them; the natural and common right to plants for any use, for food, timber, fiber, and so forth; the right to natural mineral products, as salt, catlinite, bentonite and other clays; the natural and common right to fish and game. No individual or group of individuals was allowed to monopolize any natural resource. No person or corporation could hold the location of deposits of salt, clays, or any other natural product to the exclusion of others. Everyone had equal opportunity of access to natural products; but individuals who put forth effort and possessed themselves of any natural substance thereby made it their own property and had the right to give it away, or trade or dispose of it as they saw fit. What a man's efforts produced were his own, but the bounties of nature were common wealth. Indian geographic names ought to be ascertained and preserved for the purpose of history and scientific study, if for no other consideration. But these are not the only grounds for their preservation. They give distinctive character to local nomenclature, and perpetually recall events and circumstances of romance, and stimulate the imagination. All of our rivers and creeks, lakes, notable hills, and other natural features have different names applied by each tribe acquainted with them. Thus the great river along our eastern border is called Mini-shosè by the Dakota, Ni-shudé by the Omaha, and Kits' Paruksti by the Pawnee. These are descriptive names and show something of Indian psychology. The Dakota noting the turbidity of the stream, called it Muddy Water, mini, water, and shose, muddy. Another feature impressed the Omaha mind. Bars of very fine white sand are frequent in this river. As an instance to show the poetic interpretation of natural phenomena by the Indian mind, I may relate an incident. One time, driving towards the Missouri River in company with an Omaha Indian, he drew my attention to the appearance of the sky close to the horizon just above the river. The summer sun was bright and the seasonal south wind was blowing strongly. Just above the river drifted white, trailing clouds of the fine sand from the bars. He pointed and said: "Now you see why we call this river Ni-shudé." Shude is the Omaha word for smoke, and ni is the word for water. The awe and wonder pertaining to this stream impressed the mind of the Pawnee and they called it the River of Mystery, Kits' Paruksti. In the Pawnee language, paruksti means wonderful, mysterious or sacred, and kitsu means water. The name of our state is itself a variation of the Omaha name of the largest river within the state, Ni-bthaska, Flat Water. The French explorers in mapping the region rendered the name into their language, so we have it Platte River. The Omaha name is strikingly descriptive of the river, bthaska imeans flat, and ni, water. The Pawnee also call it the Flat River. In their language it is Kits' Katush, from kitsu, water; and katush, flat. The Dakota call it Pankeska Wakpa, Shell River, from pankeska, shell, and wakpa, river. This name commemorates the fact that formerly the Dakota were accustomed to obtain shell ornaments by barter from another tribe which they met at this river. The name of Niobrara River is a variation of its Omaha name, Ni-ubthatha, Spreading Water, from ni, water, and bthatha, spreading. The Dakota name of this river, which is Mini Tanka Wakpa, carried the same idea, from mini, water, tanka, large, and wakpa, river. The Pawnee name is also descriptive, but seizes upon another characteristic. Their name for it is Kits' Kakis, Running Water, or Swift Water, from kitsu, water, and kakis, swift. The Sand Hills, a distinct topographic area of Nebraska, is called Chasmuta by the Dakota, from chasmu, sand. The Omaha call this region Pahe Pisa, from pahe, hill, and pisa, sand. These are a few of the geographic names current among the tribes of Nebraska, and will serve to show their manner of applying place names. Some of their names are descriptive of physical aspects or of supposed occult properties, other are commemorative of events or of men. NOTES ON THE HUMAN GEOGRAPHY OF AN OIL FIELD T INTRODUCTION HE following discussion, which relates particularly to petroleum, but in many of its aspects applies as well to natural gas, is an attempt to present from the standpoint of one phase of modern geography certain characteristic features associated with the development of an oil field. The particular human "responses" commonly associated with oil are described, analyzed, and their causal relation to the basic facts concerning the nature and occurrence of the resource demonstrated. The discussion is based on the idea that these human responses include any distribution of population, either permanent or temporary; any grouping or arrangement of cultural features such as buildings, roads, etc., or any peculiarities, either physical or psychological, of man himself which are characteristically and causally associated with, and controlled by, a natural resource or such other basal geographic elements as topography, soils, climate or location. These responses demand description and their causal relations call for demonstration and analysis. Each of the natural resources utilized by man necessarily exerts an influence whose character and strength depends, in the main, on the nature of the resource-its distribution; its physical properties, and the means by which it is procured. All these determine in large measure the part which it plays in the life of man and in the geography of the region where it occurs. SIGNIFICANCE OF NATURE AND MODE OF OCCURRENCE OF OIL Two peculiarities of the mode of occurrence of oil are among the prime factors upon which its geographic significance depends: These are (1) its occurrence deep down within the earth entirely out of sight, often with no surface indications of its presence, and (2) its localized distribution within |