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Show i9< x> l GREAT PLAINS INDIANS offered to the morning star on the occasion of the annual corn- planting, the victim being usually a captive girl from some hostile tribe. The custom persisted until very recently and was broken up with great difficulty. The Kiowa roamed farther to the west and were always nomadic. VThey were close neighbors of the Shoshonean tribes, ( and they may prove to be linguistically affiliated with that stock, though the evidence is regarded as favoring their independence. ^ The main physical distinction is a rather light skin color. vThey were always noted marauders, and seem to have lived mainly by hunting and by depredations on neighboring tribes. In their intercourse with the whites they were consistently hostile and unruly. . The Kiowa lodges were light tipis of skin which could be quickly struck and moved by means of horses, which they owned in great numbers. Their religion is very similar to that of the plains Indians already described, the sun- dance extending its sway over them as well as the others. \ The clan organization is not found among the Kiowa, but the tribe is divided into six bands, all well recognized and defined. Among the plains people are several Algonquian and^ Shoshonean tribes who have adapted themselves to the region. In northern Montana and on the Canadian side of the boundary in the foot- hills of the Rockies live the Blackfoot, an Algonquian |