Briefly, certain somatic features of the Siouan Indians, past and present,
may be traced to their causes in custom and exercise of function; yet by
far the greater number of the features are common to the American people
or to all mankind, and are of ill-understood significance. The few
features of known cause indicate that special somatic characteristics are
determined largely or wholly by industrial and other arts, which are
primarily shaped by environment.
HABITAT
Excepting the Asiniboin, who are chiefly in Canada, nearly all of the
Siouan Indians are now gathered on the reservations indicated on earlier
pages, most of these reservations lying within the aboriginal territory of
the stock.
At the advent of white men, the Siouan territory was vaguely defined, and
its limits were found to vary somewhat from exploration to exploration.
This vagueness and variability of habitat grew out of the characteristics
of the tribesmen. Of all the great stocks south of the Arctic, the Siouan
was perhaps least given to agriculture, most influenced by hunting, and
most addicted to warfare; thus most of the tribes were but feebly attached
to the soil, and freely followed the movements of the feral fauna as it
shifted with climatic vicissitudes or was driven from place to place by
excessive hunting or by fires set to destroy the undergrowth in the
interests of the chase; at the same time, the borderward tribes were
alternately driven and led back and forth through strife against the
tribes of neighboring stocks.
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