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Show ipoo] GREAT PLAINS INDIANS neighbors made little use of canoes; but a form of coracle constructed of skins by the Dakota women was noticed at an early date by white visitors, and together with certain vague linguistic suggestions gave rise to the absurd theory that the Sioux were of Welsh extraction, 1 an idea on a par with another popular vagary that the Indians are the descendants of the lost tribes of Israel.* The art of the Sioux was exhibited at its best in the calendars and records which the men were given to drawing and painting upon prepared buffalo skins, and also in the carving of the soft red catlinite which was obtained in the Sioux territory and widely used for pipes and especially for the ceremonial calumets. In these pipes symbolism was developed to a high degree, but the significance was greatest in the decoration of the stem, which was often many feet in length, and descended from father to son or was transferred to a successor with much elaborate ceremonial. The smoking of these pipes was an indispensable part of any formal function and particularly in any intertribal transaction. Great care was also given by other plains tribes to the decoration of the raw- hide " parfleches," or packing- cases, and the study of the designs in use for their embellishment has recently thrown much light on certain problems connected with the develop- 1 Catlin, Letters and Notes, II., App. A. 1 Adair, History of the American Indians. |