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Show i9oo] GREAT PLAINS INDIANS may have been a factor, there can be little doubt that the custom arose here, as in bther regions, in the desire to provide for the deceased in the next world. The government of the Siouan tribes, such as it was, consisted in a leadership of chiefs, who attained their position by personal prowess, and who, as is the rule among primitive peoples, were pre- eminent mainly in times of particular emergency. XjTiis chieftainship does not appear to have been hereditary except in so far as the requisite qualities might tend to appear in the same families. \ Elder men of recognized sagacity and experience also exercised great influence in times of peace, but were hardly on the same plane with the military leaders. The main families of the great plains, other than the Siouan, were the Caddoan or Pawnee and the Kiowan. \ The former was scattered in groups from the Gulf of Mexico to what is now the state of North Dakota. N The Pawnee tribes were probably of southern origin and migrated northward, coming into contact and struggle with the Siouan peoples as they advanced. v Physically and culturally they are not very sharply differentiated from the Sioux except in a few phases. Like the Sioux, the Pawnees were of strong physique but with a somewhat finer cast of features. The lips were thinner and the lower part of the face more delicately chiselled. 1 NThey were divided into kinship groups, distinguished 1 Brinton, American Race, 95. |