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Title: The North-Americans of yesterday
Author: Frederick Samuel Dellenbaugh
Release date: October 4, 2025 [eBook #76978]
Language: English
Original publication: New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1900
Credits: deaurider, Robert Tonsing, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive)
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE NORTH-AMERICANS OF YESTERDAY ***
[Illustration: TEOCALLI OF THE SUN, PALENQUE, YUCATAN
Discovered about 1750; 28 × 38 feet on the ground, about 25 feet
high without the “roof-comb,” a feature of the Palenque buildings
here particularly well preserved. Like all the structures of the
group, this crowns a mound of considerable height. The construction
is stone; ornamentation, stucco. Charnay calls attention to the
resemblance to a Japanese temple. On pages 210, 235, and 237
constructive features are shown, on page 185 is a reproduction of
a tablet from it, and on page 238, second figure, is the ground
plan. Page 404 gives another of the group, and page 436 shows
geographical location.
From a photograph by Maudsley
]
The North-Americans
of Yesterday
A Comparative Study of North-American Indian Life
Customs, and Products, on the Theory of
the Ethnic Unity of the Race
By
Frederick S. Dellenbaugh
“But their name is on your waters,
Ye may not wash it out.”—_Mrs. Sigourney._
[Illustration]
With over 350 Illustrations. And an Appendix giving list of stocks,
sub-stocks and tribes
G. P. Putnam’s Sons
New York and London
The Knickerbocker Press
+Copyright+, 1900
BY
FREDERICK S. DELLENBAUGH
Fourth Printing
The Knickerbocker Press, New York
To
MAJOR POWELL
WHOSE COURAGE SOLVED THE PROBLEM
OF THE
COLORADO RIVER
AND WHOSE FORESIGHT ESTABLISHED
THE BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY
THIS BOOK
IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED
IN MEMORY OF DAYS
AFLOAT AND AFIELD
NOTE
The author suggests the reading in conjunction with this volume of the
first four chapters of his _Breaking the Wilderness_: Also the article
in the _Atlantic Monthly_ for March 1906, by Charles M. Harvey: _The
Red Man’s Last Roll Call_.
[Illustration: MOKI DRAWINGS OF STARS]
PREFACE
The basis of this volume is eight lectures given before the Lowell
Institute in Boston in 1894. They have been expanded by the addition of
further matter relating to the various subjects, but even with these
additions there is but a brief _résumé_ of the vast store of material
extant.
The “Indian” has never seemed to me an abnormal factor, but rather a
natural part of our society, for it is now nearly thirty years since
I first associated with him in the Far West, and before that the
Iroquois were familiar to me as a small boy. When I first went among
the Western tribes, it was with the second Colorado River expedition
of that gallant explorer and foremost student of Amerindian affairs,
John Wesley Powell. His own works and the reports of the United
States Bureau of Ethnology, of which he has so long been the head,
and where he has gathered together so many eminent ethnologists and
archæologists, have furnished me with much material. These reports
form a fine library on Amerindian matters, and reflect great honour
on Professor Powell who conceived the idea, and on Congress which
has ungrudgingly supported it. A great and timely work has become
established, which to private enterprise would have been next to
impossible. Add to these the invaluable reports of the Smithsonian
Institution and the memoirs and reports of the Peabody Museum and
American Museum, and the student has before him a large fund of
material without seeking farther. Then there are the brilliant works
of Parkman, Brinton, Winsor, Bandelier, Putnam, Morgan, Schoolcraft,
Prescott, Maudsley, Goodman, Wilson, Keane, and many others, with the
huge production of H. H. Bancroft filling an important place. To all of
these and to others I owe much, and I have intended in every case to
give credit and references. Where these, in some cases, may not have
been properly awarded, it is due to oversight and not to intention. My
especial thanks are due to the Bureau of Ethnology for copies of all
the reports, and for permission to utilise the illustrations contained
in them, and to the American Museum, Archæological Institute, Field
Columbian Museum, Peabody Museum, and Smithsonian Institution for
similar generosity. I take pleasure also in acknowledging favours
from Professor Putnam, Professor Powell, Professor Mason, Dr. McGee,
Mr. Saville, Professor Seymour, Professor Langley, Mr. Bancroft,
Professor Holmes, Dr. Baum, and others, and from Mr. E. H. Harriman the
opportunity of visiting Alaska under the most favourable circumstances.
The title, _The North Americans of Yesterday_, seems to me appropriate,
because while there are still some Amerinds extant, and a few are even
yet apparently leading the old-time life, nevertheless they are merely
remnants of a people whose sun has set, and who therefore properly
belong to yesterday. For this reason I have mainly treated them as a
bygone race. Between the so-called “Red Indian” of the United States
and northern regions and the so-called “Civilised Tribes” of Mexico
and southern regions I have made no race differentiation, because the
differences, whatever they may be, are discovered to be not of kind,
but of degree. Confusion was formerly caused by misconceptions and by
romantic ideas which have been dispelled by the more scientific methods
of later days. Some confusion has been caused also by the persistent
efforts to classify the progress of mankind as a whole into distinct
world-epochs or time periods. It seems to me that no such universal
epochs of even progress could have existed in past time any more than
in present time. Tribes of men are differentiated now, always will be,
and, I believe, always have been. Common world-planes of culture in
time periods are an impossibility. Such schedules as Morgan’s may apply
to tribes and stocks as indicating their special, individual advance,
but not to the whole world, except in a very general way. That is,
they may be _culture_ but never _time_ classifications. The closer we
approach the beginnings of man’s existence, the less marked, perhaps,
the differences in tribes, but differences certainly began at the
moment when one group of men left another group of men to live apart.
The environment and necessities of each group would cause differences
and varying rates of progress. One group would gain the bow a thousand
years before another.
Long before the beginning of the glacial period, therefore, some groups
must have been far ahead of others, and in the manufacture of stone
implements some tribes excelled others; some making ruder ones than
others, and some perhaps making well-finished, polished tools. There
are a good many arrow- and spear-head shapes, and it is possible that
each form originated at a different time or in a different locality.
And in our present state of knowledge of these matters, no time
position can be assigned to many American stone tools, polished or
not. They may have been used over and over again by various tribes
for centuries, or for a thousand years, or they may have been made
by tribes of our own day. Some of these tribes made no smoothed or
polished implements, though otherwise of advanced type, and polished
implements have been found that may be many thousand years old. This
is no indication that tribes do not change, but that development
began and continues unevenly, and that tribes existed ten thousand or
more years ago that were in advance of some that are extant to-day.
Nobody can say whether the stone implements, rough or smooth, that
have been found in Chiriqui belong to comparatively modern or to very
ancient times. The whole subject of stone implements appears to be
in a chaotic state, mummified and petrified by a slavish respect and
devotion to European patterns. It is a case of cart before the horse.
It will be apparent that I do not consider the finish of stone tools,
in the present state of our understanding of them, any guide for a
world-classification of peoples in a time-scale, especially in North
America. This has been admitted by others back to a certain point, but
beyond that point they have continued to play follow-the-leader with
their world-classifications of “Paleolithic” and “Neolithic,” two of
the most confusing, misleading, and useless terms ever invented. Below
the limit of the ice action there is nothing to fix the age of stone
tools when found on the surface or near it. “Paleoliths” and “neoliths”
might therefore be picked up side by side, and the paleolith might
not be as old as the neolith, or both might be of the same age. And
if a well-made tool, or one resembling some of to-day, is found in an
ancient gravel, it does not necessarily mean an intrusion, but that
men lived in that far past who were more skilful than some of their
neighbours, and more skilful than we have heretofore been willing to
admit. That very ancient men made very rude tools is doubtless true,
but that _all_ ancient men made rough tools of the same style down to
a certain fixed time, and then all began on an improved or a smoothed
type, is undoubtedly wrong.
How the Amerinds came here I explain by a theory that there was before,
or perhaps during the early part of the glacial period, a wider
distribution of land surfaces on latitudinal lines, which invited
latitudinal migrations.[1] These land surfaces may have been no more
than groups of larger or smaller islands which have been since wholly
submerged or have left only their highest parts above the sea. Before
the beginning of the glacial cold, a mild climate extended to the North
Pole, facilitating migrations also in that region. Changes in the
ocean’s bottom were probably greater in pre-glacial time than now, but
they have not altogether ceased. It is little more than fifteen years
since a new island appeared off the Aleutian chain, and I think it is
doubtful if any of that group existed above water six or eight hundred
years ago. I am also of the opinion that no human life was in Alaska or
in Northeast Siberia five hundred years back.
Races not being all of an even grade of culture before the beginning
of the cold period any more than now, the tribes that found themselves
isolated on this continent by changes in the land levels and by the
southward extension of the glaciation, were unevenly developed, some
being in advance of others in various ways, though none, of course,
had passed beyond the use of stone tools, a condition in which they
practically continued down to the Discovery. In this respect the term,
“Stone Age,” as indicating a condition, is applicable, but it would
not be possible to differentiate it into “Paleolithic” and “Neolithic”
periods. The cold pushed them all southward, whether they came by
northlands or by latitudinal lands, or both, towards the narrow
funnel-like part of the continent, and also to the lower levels,
as there was no chance for latitudinal expansion as in the Eastern
Hemisphere, the most advanced tribes being the most southerly, if not
from original position, because they were able to choose. Eventually
communication with Asia and Europe by the north was by the glaciation
severed completely, as it had previously been latitudinally by the
disappearance of favourable land surfaces, and communication by the
north remained closed till within three or four hundred years. The most
crowded tribes developed most rapidly, because such development was
imperative for self-preservation, and their culture filtered through
in diminishing ratio, according to distance, to the less crowded
regions—that is, to the climatically less favourable regions; but all
who were closely crowded into the “funnel” progressed along similar
lines and in much the same degree, _without regard to relationships_,
so that we find in the narrow part of the continent, where the
largest number found refuge from the cold, many different stocks in
almost parallel stages of culture. There were no isolated “areas of
characterisation” as in the latitudinally broader lands of the Eastern
Hemisphere, though in some cases there were slight barriers tending to
produce or maintain slight variations. The long longitudinal chain of
the Sierra Nevada abounding in glaciers to a late date, and to a less
extent that of the Rocky Mountains, brought about a partial isolation
of the stocks in the great north-and-south migrations, maintaining
previous differences and originating others, so that now we distinguish
differences between what is called the Atlantic and what is called the
Pacific group, while they are yet practically the same.[2] The tribes
farthest advanced at the beginning of the isolation on this continent
would not necessarily continue at the front of progress, for a change
of conditions that might cripple such tribes might at the same time
be beneficial to others previously inferior. For instance, as the
heat gradually returned, the highly developed lowland tribes began to
find themselves at a disadvantage, which grew with the intensity of
the heat, while others, inured to harsher conditions, found warmth
stimulating, and they began to develop germs received from the superior
but now declining stocks. “The American Indians,” says Brinton, “cannot
bear the heat of the tropics even as well as the European.” The heat,
which at first seems to have been intense in the daytime, then caused
a decline of the highest stocks, and a corresponding progression of
lower stocks existing on, or migrating to, higher levels. The Yucatec
tribes declined, while the Nahuatls, at higher altitudes, began to
develop. The finest monuments of North American antiquity, for these
reasons, are generally found on comparatively low levels and below a
certain latitude, where conditions during the greatest cold were most
favourable; conditions that may have continued fairly favourable down
to within, say, a thousand years.
Long before the dawn of the Columbian era, therefore, the Amerind
peoples had become, through the influences indicated, a world-race by
themselves, existing in various stages of the same general culture,
and with a rising and a declining of tribes and stocks directed by
environment and circumstances. The great stocks surviving at the
beginning of the Columbian era may be approximately traced by their
languages, in layers, from Panama northward, about as they expanded
mainly eastward of the Sierra Nevada in response to the gradual relief
from the pressure of the cold. The Yucatec tribes had held the region
south of the Tehuantepec isthmus, and owing to this slight barrier,
and perhaps to another barrier of a strait through the land about
on the line of the proposed Nicaragua canal, had developed somewhat
differently from tribes to the north, and may also have preserved
more of their original character. Thence stretching north far into
the United States was the great composite Shoshone, or Uto-Aztecan
family, in all its variations, with what appears to be an “island” of
Athapascans or Boreal men preserved in its midst by glacial conditions
lingering in the high regions near the Mexico-United States line;
then follows the Siouan; then the widespread Algonquian stock; next
the Athapascan; and finally the Eskimauan, which had always been held
against the edge of the glaciers by the back pressure of the southern
stocks, and being most remote was less affected by filtration from
the development centre, and thus remains to-day a more differentiated
stock than any other.[3] The western arm of these stocks was generally
farther north than the eastern because the climate was and is milder
in the west, the trend of the ice front being now, and apparently
always having been, N.W. to S.E. Distribution of skill in pottery
follows about the same lines, “petering” out with stocks farthest
from the Yucatec centre. The Algonquins crowded the Athapascans off
to the N.W., and together they crowded the Eskimo to the limits of
human subsistence. In California many stocks found refuge in a climate
kept comparatively mild by the ocean currents, where they secured
subsistence on fish, and went no farther south. Along the Gulf coast
were other tribes resting somewhat aside from the great continental ebb
and flow, while in Florida and in the islands of the Caribbean region
there was sufficient separation to produce a slight differentiation
from the surging continental stocks. Remnants of other stocks were
scattered here and there through the regions below the glaciated
area. Mingled with all these developments there were probably certain
traits and “tinges” derived from earlier ancestry, and these, with the
similarity of development of all races under like conditions prevailing
wherever human beings can live, fully account for resemblances to
other-world tribes and peoples that have caused so much speculation.
There has been an error, I believe, in considering the glacial
period as of the remote past. It does not seem to have yet closed.
It influences our climate now, and probably a thousand years ago
its meteorological effects were marked as far south as Yucatan. The
glaciers of the Northern Hemisphere everywhere appear to be slowly
disappearing, and not so slowly either, if the Muir can be taken as a
gauge, for it has been for twenty years receding at the rate of 500
feet per annum, and probably at the same rate before that. However
this may be, it is probably less than 5000 years since the ice front
was at Lake Erie. Eminent geologists have estimated it at less than
7000, based on the erosion at Niagara; but as the erosion immediately
following the disappearance of the ice is extremely rapid, it seems
safe to cut down the estimate. The subtleties of meteorology are far
from being understood also, and the theories as to the causes of the
cold seem mere guesses. Considerable heat there must have been during
the glacial period, or there would have been no glaciers.
On the theory of the ethnic unity of the Amerind people, I have
briefly brought together in chapters notes on their chief habits,
products, languages, etc., so that the reader may be able to compare.
In collecting material that is now obtainable, but which will shortly
be gone forever, much remains to be done, and to be done quickly. If
this book helps to arouse a deeper public interest in the gathering of
this material, and in the general study of the subject, I shall feel it
needs no apology.
+F. S. Dellenbaugh+
+New York+, January 31, 1900.
[Illustration: MOKI DRAWINGS OF THE SUN]
[Illustration: TERRA-COTTA FUNERAL URNS FROM A MOUND, VALLEY OF
OAXACA, MEXICO.
Average height, 15 inches. This is a complete series preserved
in the order in which they were found. The usual number of these
urns in a series was five. Nothing was put in them and they were
not placed inside the burial chambers but in front of the door, on
the roof, fastened into the façade, or in niches over the door.
See _Funeral Urns from Oaxaca_, Marshall H. Saville, _American
Museum Journal_, vol. iv. pp. 49–60, and _Explorations in Zapotecan
Tombs_; same author, _American Anthropologist_, N. S., vol. i.
April, 1899.
]
[Illustration: MOKI DRAWINGS OF SQUASH-BLOSSOMS]
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
+Preface+ iii
I—+Introductory+ 1
II—+Languages and Dialects+ 17
III—+Picture Writing, Sign-Language, Wampum, Cupped-Stones+ 39
IV—+The Mexican and Central-American Writing, Inscriptions,
and Books+ 68
V—+Basketry and Pottery+ 88
VI—+Weaving and Costume+ 123
VII—+Carving, Modelling, and Sculpture+ 161
VIII—+Shelters, Dwellings, and Architecture+ 194
IX—+Weapons, Armour, Implements, and Transportation+ 248
X—+Mining, Metallurgy, and Science+ 285
XI—+Musical Instruments, Music, Amusements, and Games+ 308
XII—+Works and Agriculture+ 332
XIII—+Customs and Ceremonies+ 352
XIV—+Myths, Traditions, and Legends+ 390
XV—+Organisation and Government+ 410
XVI—+Origin, Migrations, and History+ 428
+Appendix—Containing a List of North-American Stocks,
Sub-Stocks, and Tribes+ 461
NOTE
Particular attention is called to the appendix by means of which
the linguistic stock to which a tribe belongs may be readily
found. First refer to the _list of tribes_ where the abbreviation
following the tribal name, will indicate the family or stock to
which that tribe belongs in the _list of stocks_. Example: “Navajo.
_Ath._” refers to “_Ath._ +Athapascan+,” in the stock list,
Athapascan being the linguistic family to which the Navajo belong.
The geographical range of the stock follows.
[Illustration: MOKI DRAWINGS OF RAIN CLOUDS AND LIGHTNING]
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
+Teocalli of the Sun, Palenque, Yucatan+ Frontispiece
+Moki Drawings of Stars+ iii
+Moki Drawings of the Sun+ ix
† +Gargoyle—Serpent Head+ 1
[From débris of temple, Copan]
* +South Portion of the Tewa Pueblo of Taos, New Mexico.
Adobé Construction+ 3
† +Seated Figure Carved in Trachyte+ 5
[From débris of hieroglyphic steps, Copan. Slightly larger
than life size]
* +Kicking Bear, Sioux+ 7
+A Corner of a Mitla Ruin, Mexico+ 9
[From Bandelier’s _Archæological Tour_, published by the
Archæological Institute of America]
† +Sculpture from Terrace East of the Great Plaza, Copan+ 11
* +A Kieskabi, or Covered Passage, at Walpi, Arizona+ 13
* +Moki Mask of Pawikkatcina+ 15
† +Specimen of Sculpture on Hieroglyphic Stairway, Copan+ 16
* +Eskimo Jade Adze+ 17
[Drawn by Mary Wright Gill]
† +“Singing-Girl” Sculptured in Trachyte+ 19
[From débris of Temple 22, Copan. Slightly larger than life]
* +Terra-Cotta Stool, Chiriqui+ 20
+Altar Q, Copan, Honduras+ 21
[From photograph by M. H. Saville. American Museum]
+South-West Corner of the Temple of Xochicalco, State of Morelos,
Mexico+ 23
[Photographed by M. H. Saville for the American Museum of.
Natural History]
* +Polished Black Ware, Santa Clara, New Mexico+ 27
+Eastern Façade of the Temple of Xochicalco, State of
Morelos, Mexico+ 31
[Photographed by M. H. Saville for the American Museum of
Natural History]
+Amerind Linguistic Map of North America+ 33
[After the one prepared by the U. S. Bureau of Ethnology]
* +Fac-Simile of a Cherokee Manuscript+ 35
[Written in Sequoyah’s Syllabary]
* +Petroglyphs near Wrangell, Alaska, probably Tlinkit+ 37
* +Human Forms, Moki+ 38
* +Omaha War Club+ 39
* +Painted Petroglyphs, Santa Barbara County, California+ 40
* +Petroglyphs in Brown’s Cave, Wisconsin+ 41
* +Painted Petroglyphs, Southern Utah+ 42
* +Petroglyph at Millsboro, Pennsylvania+ 43
* +Petroglyphs in Georgia+ 44
+Runic Inscription on Stone Found at Igalikko, Greenland+ 45
* +Dighton Rock, Massachusetts+ 45
+Illustration of the “Walam Olum” of the Lenapé+ 46
[From Brinton]
+Katcinas in the Somaikoli Ceremony, Cichumovi, Arizona,
November, 1884+ 47
[Photograph by the Author]
* +Killed Two Arikarees+ 48
* +Petroglyphs on Paint Rock, North Carolina+ 49
+Landa’s Maya Alphabet, after Brasseur+ 50
[From Bancroft’s _Native Races_]
* +Fac-Simile of the Lord’s Prayer in Micmac Hieroglyphs+ 51
[From Le Clercq]
* +Sequoyah’s Cherokee Syllabary+ 52
* +Lean Wolf’s Map, Hidatsa+ 54
* +The “Penn” Wampum Belt+; * +Strings of Wampum+ 55
* +Orca or Killer-Whale Decoration, Haida+ 56
* +Haida Tattooing+ 57
* +Eskimo Drawing—“The Man in the Moon Comes Down”+ 58
* +Eskimo Picture-Writing+ 59
* +Specimens of the Dakota Winter Counts+ 60
* +Killing a Bison+ 61
* +Shell Disc, Tennessee+ 62
* +Shell Gorget, Tennessee+ 64
[Actual size]
+Cup Markings+ 65
* +Cup from Chiriqui+ 67
* +Terra-Cotta from Chiriqui+ 68
+Page from an Aztec Book+ 70
[From a copy in the possession of M. H. Saville]
+Mexican Writing of Name of Montezuma+ 71
[From Brinton]
* +Part of Plate 65, Dresden Codex+ 72
[Maya]
† +Vase from Labna, Yucatan, with Peculiar Markings+ 74
* +Convex Discoidal Stone, North Carolina+ 75
† +Female Head in Trachyte+ 79
+Usual Type of Sculptured “Yokes,” Central America+ 81
[Field Columbian Museum]
+A Suggestion of the possible Scheme of Maya Numerals. Wholly
Tentative+ 86
[From drawing by the Author]
* +Omaha Calumet+ 87
* +Omaha War Club+ 88
* +North-West Coast Feather Ornamentation on Baskets+ 89
* +Eskimo Bag-Basket+ 89
* +Moki Wicker Water-Jug+ 89
* +Havasupai Clay-Lined Roasting Tray+ 90
* +Iroquois Birchbark Vessel+; * +North-West Coast Basket+ 91
* +McCloud River Basket, California+ 92
* +Moki Food Basket+; * +Klamath Basket+ 93
* +Moki Food Tray+; * +Moki Floor Mat+ 95
* +Eskimo Whalebone Dish+; * +Clallam Basket, Washington+ 96
* +Amerind Wicker-Work—Apache Basket; Pai Ute Water-Jug;
Moki Food Tray; Klamath Basket+ 97
* +Modelling an Olla at Hano+ 100
[Photograph by the Author]
* +Clay Nucleus+ 100
* +Method of Building up Coil+ 100
* +Ware from Moki Region, Arizona+ 102
* +Cup from Arizona+ 103
* +Vase from Arkansas, Showing Lines Made with a Sharp
Point before Firing+ 103
* +Bottle-Shaped Vase, Arkansas+ 105
* +Earthenware Burial Casket, Tennessee+ 106
* +Death-Mask Vase, Tennessee+ 107
* +Fluted Vase, Arkansas+ 109
* +Impression of Parts of Basket Mould on Pottery+ 109
* +Vase from Chiriqui. Decorated in Black, Red, and Purple+ 111
+An Ancient Figure of Terra Cotta from the Valley of Mexico+ 113
[From photograph by American Museum of Natural History]
* +Coil Indented for Decoration+ 114
+Zapotecan Terra-Cotta Funeral Urns Found on Cement Floor in
Front of Tomb 1, Mound 7, Xoxo, Oaxaca, Mexico+ 115
[Photographed by M. H. Saville for the American Museum of
Natural History]
* +Pot Showing Diagonal Grooves across the Lines of the Coil
Made by the Hand in Smoothing up. Mancos Canyon, Colorado+ 116
+Zapotecan Terra-Cotta Tubing Found Leading down into a Field
from the Centre of Mound 7, Xoxo, Oaxaca, Mexico+ 117
[Photographed by M. H. Saville for the American Museum of
Natural History]
* +Pueblo Pot. Pattern Produced by Obliterating Pinch Marks+ 118
* +Pinch-Marked Coil+ 119
* +Engraved Ware, Arkansas+ 120
* +Engraved Ware, Arkansas+ 121
+Black Cup, Chiriqui+ 122
* +Woven Moccasin from Kentucky Cave+ 123
* +Menominee Beaded Garters+ 125
* +Navajo Woman at the Loom+ 127
+Part of the Somaikoli Ceremony at Cichumovi, November, 1884,
Showing a Sacred Blanket on Figure in Foreground+ 129
[From photograph by the Author]
* +Details of Navajo Loom Construction+ 131
* +A Puebloan of San Juan, New Mexico+ 135
* +Method of Making Feather-Work+ 137
* +Chilkat Ceremonial Shirt+ 139
* +Chilkat Ceremonial Blanket+ 142
* +Moki Wall Decoration. Pink on a White Ground. Mishongnuvi,
Arizona+ 144
* +Bellacoolas+ 145
* +Top View of Conical North-West Coast Hat+ 146
+Wonsivu, a Pai Ute Girl+ 147
[Posed by Thomas Moran]
+A Navajo Leader in Native Costume+ 148
[Figure from photograph by the U. S. Bureau of Ethnology]
* +Interior of a Moki House, Arizona+ 149
* +Pueblo Head Mat+ 151
* +Navajos+ 152
* +Seminole Man’s and Woman’s Costume+ 154
* +Ear-Perforating and Hair-Dressing of Seminoles+ 155
* +The Ghost-Shirt, Simple Form+ 157
* +Eskimo Boots+ 158
[Drawn by Mary Wright Gill]
* +Rain Hat, Haida+ 160
* +Toucan of Squier and Davis, Really a Crow+ 161
+Deserted Village near Cape Fox, Alaska+ 162
[Photographed by the Harriman Alaska Expedition, 1899]
+Interior House-Column+ 162
[Sketch by Author from post at Cape Fox Village, Alaska]
+Major Part of Interior House-Post from Cape Fox Village, S. E.
Alaska+ 163
+Totem Pole with Bear on the Top, Wrangell+ 164
[Sketch by the Author]
* +Terra-Cotta Statuette, Chiriqui+ 165
* +The Bear-Mother, Haida, N. W. Coast+ 165
* +Wooden Masks, N. W. Coast+ 166
* +Kwakiutl Carving, N. W. Coast+ 167
* +Eskimo Carved Ivory Drum-Handles+ 168
* +Specimen of Moundbuilder Sculptural Skill with Human Figure+ 170
* +Stone Pipe from North Carolina Mound+ 171
* +So-Called Elephant Pipe, Iowa+ 172
* +Toucan of Squier and Davis, possibly Meant for a Young
Eagle+ 172
* +Tripod Vase, Chiriqui. Legs Modelled to Imitate Fish+ 173
* +Shell Gorget, Missouri+ 175
* +Bird-Shaped Earthen Bowl, Arkansas+ 176
* +Shell Mask, Virginia+ 177
+Moki Sculptural Skill with the Human Figure+ 178
+The Alosaka (Moki)+ 179
[After drawing by A. M. Stephen]
* +Sculptural Art of Chiriqui+ 179
* +Shell Gorget, Tennessee+ 180
+The Aztec “Calendar” Stone+ 182
[From Bandelier’s _Archæological Tour_]
+Aztec Sculpture, the Indio Triste+ 183
[From Bandelier’s _Archæological Tour_]
+Sanctuary Tablet Temple (Teocalli) of the Sun, Palenque+ 185
[Field Columbian Museum]
† +“Altar” in Front of Stela D, Copan+ 186
† +Stela No. 6, Copan; Back of Stela No. 6+ 187
* +Puma-Shaped Stool of Grey Andesite, Chiriqui+ 188
† +Head Sculptured in Stone. Chultunes of Labna, Yucatan+ 189
+Large Built-up Head at Izamal+ 191
[From Stephens]
* +Stool of Grey Basalt, Chiriqui+ 192
* +Copper Bell from Tennessee+ 193
* +Pueblo Mealing Stones+ 194
+Pai Ute Wikiups, Northern Arizona+ 195
[From photograph by Colorado River Expedition, 1872]
* +Moki Kisi Construction+ 196
* +Primitive Amerind Ladders+ 197
* +A Navajo House+ 198
* +A Sweat House+ 199
* +An Omaha Tipi+ 201
* +A Seminole Dwelling+ 203
* +Mississippi Valley Method of Using Jacal Construction,
according to Thomas+ 206
* +Cliff Outlook, Canyon del Muerto, Arizona+ 207
+Hall of Columns, Mitla+ 209
[Field Columbian Museum]
+Transverse Section (somewhat Generalised) Showing Construction
of Palenque Buildings, Yucatan+ 210
[Field Columbian Museum]
* +Some Details of Pueblo House Architecture—A Triangular
Sipapu or Sacred Kiva Orifice; Moki Doorway with Transom;.
Pueblo Roof Construction; Some Moki Roof Drains+ 211
* +Moki Notched Doorway, so Made that Large Bundles could be
Taken in+ 213
+A Zuñi Chimney, Moki the Same+ 215
+One Form of Moki Chimney Hood+ 215
* +Ground Plan of Eskimo Snow Iglu+ 217
* +Section of Snow Iglu+ 218
* +An Alaska Eskimo Winter House, Point Barrow+ 219
* +Interior Ground Plan of a Moki House+ 220
* +An Alaska Eskimo Winter House of Wood and Earth, Point
Barrow+ 221
* +Interior of Wood and Earth Iglu+ 221
* +Stone Steps at Oraibi+ 222
* +Cliff-Dwelling, Eastern Cove of Mummy Cave, Canyon de
Chelly, Arizona+ 223
+Houses in Walpi, One of the Moki Towns, Arizona+ 224
[Photograph by U. S. Geological Survey]
* +General View of a Group of Cavate Lodges, Arizona+ 225
* +Plan and Sections of a Cavate Lodge+ 227
* +Diagram Showing Pocket at Back of some Cavate Lodges+ 228
‡ +Theoretic Roof Construction of Mitla+ 230
* +Ground Plan of a Kiva and Ceiling Plan of Another+ 231
+Chaco Ruins Masonry; Chaco Ruins, Ground Plans+ 232
[From _Report_ of Hayden Expedition]
* +Ruin Called Casa Grande, Arizona+ 233
‡ +Transverse Section of an Ordinary Yucatec Building+ 235
‡ +Forms of the Maya Corbel Vault+ 237
‡ +Ground Plans of Yucatec Buildings+ 238
¶ +Kwakiutl House Front+ 239
¶ +North-West Coast Houses and Totem Poles+ 241
‡ +Ruin of East Façade and Iglesia, “Palace,” Chichen-Itza,
Yucatan+ 243
¶ +Elevation of Kwakiutl House+ 244
* +View in the Moki Town of Mishongnavi, Arizona+ 245
* +Eskimo Horn Dipper+ 247
[Drawn by Mary Wright Gill]
* +Horn Arrow Straightener+ 248
* +Modern Iron Arrow-Heads of the Omahas+ 248
* +Forms of the Bow+ 249
+Pai Ute Palm-Drill+ 250
[Drawn by the Author]
¶ +The Palm-Drill (Fire-Making); The Pump-Drill (Fire-Making)+ 251
* +Eskimo String-Drill (For Fire-Making with Mouthpiece)+ 251
* +Pueblo Pump-Drill (For Boring)+ 251
* +Drill-Point of Chipped Flint+ 251
¶ +Set of Fire-Making Tools, Bristol Bay Eskimo, Alaska+ 253
* +Eskimo Bow-Drill+ 254
¶ +Modern Rod Armour of the Klamaths, Oregon+ 255
¶ +Hupa Rod Armour, California+ 255
¶ +Eskimo Plate Armour, Diomede Island, Bering Strait+ 257
¶ +Tlinkit Skin Armour, Alaska+ 258
¶ +Prehistoric Aleutian Rod Armour+ 259
* +Chipped Flint; Chipped Flint Blunt Arrow-Head, Georgia;
Chipped Flint Implement, Tennessee; Specimen “Cores,” or
Blocks of Flint; Specimen of Chipped Flint Discs, called
“Turtleback,” Mississippi Valley; Grooved Stone Axe,
Tennessee (Ground)+ 261
[Drawn by Mary Wright Gill]
* +Diagram Explaining Terms to be Used in Describing Stone
Weapons+ 263
¶ +Tlinkit Slat-and-Rod Armour, Alaska, Front View+ 265
* +Apache War-Bonnet+ 266
[Drawn by Mary Wright Gill]
* +Eskimo Throwing-Boards for Darts+ 268
* +Eskimo Bird Bolas+ 268
* +Amerindian Knives+ 269
* +Moki Throwing-Stick, or Putchkohu; Pueblo Planting Stick;
Zuñi Wooden Spade+ 270
+A Moki Throwing the Putchkohu+ 271
[From a drawing by the Author]
* +Shell Spoon, Mississippi Valley+ 273
* +Pueblo Mountain Sheep-Horn Spoon+ 274
* +Menominee Wooden Mortar and Pestle+ 274
* +Stone House-Lamp, Point Barrow, Alaska+ 275
* +Eskimo Sledges+ 277
* +Central Eskimo Dog Harness+ 278
¶ +Enclosed Canadian Toboggan or Travelling Sled+ 279
* +Eskimo Snow-Shoe, Point Barrow, Alaska+ 280
¶ +Canoes of the North-West Coast+ 281
* +Umiak of the Central Eskimo+ 282
* +Eskimo Kayaks+ 283
* +Method of Attaching Oars to Umiak+ 284
* +Method of Tying Frame of Kayak+ 284
* +Thin Plate of Copper Wrought by Repoussé Method, Illinois
Mound+ 285
* +Amerindian Method of Mining Steatite for Utensils+ 287
* +Chipped Spade+ 289
[Drawn by Mary Wright Gill]
* +Eskimo Stone Maul+ 290
[Drawn by Mary Wright Gill]
* +Small Figure of Frog in Base Metal, Plated with Gold,
Chiriqui+ 292
+Coppers from the North-West Coast; Painted Design in Black
Representing a Sea Monster with Bear’s Head; Painted Design
Representing a Hawk+ 293
[U. S. National Museum]
* +Hollow Silver Beads of Navajo Make, Arizona+ 294
* +Navajo Silver Work, Arizona; Engraved Button; Bracelet+ 295
¶ +Kwakiutl Chief Holding his Copper, North-West Coast+ 297
* +Triple Bell or Rattle of Gold from near Panama+ 302
* +Bronze Mexican Bell+ 302
* +Bronze Bells, Plated or Washed with Gold, Chiriqui+ 304
* +Small Metal Figure, Chiriqui+ 306
* +Silver Plate with Spanish Coat of Arms+ 307
* +Moki Rattle of Animal Hoofs+ 308
* +Amerindian Rattles; Gourd, ; Earthenware Rattlee from
Chiriqui; Tin, Ojibwa+ 309
* +Omaha Large Flute+ 310
* +Drum of Terra-Cotta, Chiriqui+ 312
* +Menominee Tambourine Drum+ 313
* +Omaha Box Drum+ 314
¶ +Set of Playing Sticks+ 315
* +Pueblo Rattles—Turtle Shell with Hoofs of Goats or Sheep,
Fastened to the Rear of the Right Leg near the Knee in
Dancing; Painted Gourd with Wood Handle+ 317
* +Zuñi Dance Ornament+; * +Moki Notched Stick+; ¶ +Kwakiutl
Double Whistle, with Four Voices+ 319
¶ +The Awl Game+ 320
¶ +Amerind Gambling Tools—Set of Bone Dice, Arapaho; Set of
Counting Sticks, Blackfeet; Set of Plum Stones, Arikaree+ 322
* +Terra-Cotta Rattle from Chiriqui+ 325
* +Cat-Shaped Whistle of Terra-Cotta, Chiriqui+ 327
¶ +Mandan Game of Tchungkee+ 328
* +Double Whistle in Terra-Cotta from Chiriqui+ 330
¶ +Set of Staves for Game+ 331
* +“Banner-Stone,” Tennessee+ 332
* +So-Called Elephant Mound, Wisconsin+ 334
* +Ancient Fabric Design, from Impression on Pottery, Utah+ 335
* +Ancient Fabric, Preserved by Copper Celt, Iowa+ 336
* +Large Mound of the Etowah Group, Georgia+ 337
+A Votive Adz of Jadite from Mexico, Showing Front and Side+ 339
[American Museum, Kunz Collection]
+Back of Votive Adz+ 341
[American Museum]
* +Patterns of Ancient Fabrics from Pottery; from New York;
from Illinois; from Tennessee+ 344
* +Eskimo Mechanical Toy+ 345
¶ +Máhtotóhpa (The Four Bears), a Mandan Chief+ 347
+An Onyx Jar from Mexico in Process of Manufacture+ 349
[American Museum]
¶ +Wooden Food Bowl, Haida+ 351
* +Dancing Mask of the Makahs, Washington+ 352
¶ +Moki Wicker Cradle with Awning; Carrying Basket of the
Arikarees+ 353
¶ +Tlinkit Man and Woman Thirty Years Ago, or about 1870+ 355
+A Pawnee in Battle Array+ 357
[Photographed by J. K. Hillers, U. S. Geological Survey]
¶ +The Kwakiutl Wolf Dance, called Wālasaxa, North-West Coast+ 359
¶ +Ute Woman Carrying Child+ 361
¶ +Keokuk, a Sauk Chief+ 362
¶ +Shrine of the War-Gods, Twin Mountain, Pueblo of Zuñi, New
Mexico+ 365
¶ +A Costume of a Hāmatsa in the Kwakiutl Cannibalistic
Ceremony, where Slaves and Corpses were Formerly Devoured+ 367
¶ +Mexican Operating the Palm Drill for Fire+ 368
¶ +Zuñi Woman Carrying Water+ 369
¶ +Ute Cradle, Frame of Rods Covered with Buckskin+ 372
¶ +Eskimo Woman of Point Barrow Carrying Child+; * +Apache
Woman Carrying Child+ 374
* +Moki “Snake dance” at Walpi+ 376
* +Amerindian Picture-Writing+ 377
* +Beginning of the Moki “Snake Dance” at Walpi+ 378
¶ +Horned Rattlesnake, Crotalus Cerastes+ 380
¶ +The Okeepa Ceremony of the Mandans, Lasting Four Days+ 382
* +The Sacred Pole of the Omaha+ 383
+Cruciform Stone Tomb, Oaxaca+ 384
[American Museum]
+Ground Plan of Cruciform Tomb, Oaxaca+ 385
* +Amerindian Art+ 387
+Moki Earthen Canteen, Arizona+ 388
¶ +Modern Laced Sandal of Leather from Colima, Mexico+ 389
* +Eskimo Pipe with Stone Bowl+ 390
+Teocalli (Temple) of Tepoztlan, State of Morelos, Mexico+ 391
[Monumental Records]
¶ +Kwakiutl Wood-Carving of the Sīsul North-West Coast+ 392
¶ +Rushing Eagle, 1872+ 394
* +Fine Cloth Preserved by Copper Beads+ 395
* +Ancient Fabric-Marked Potsherds, with Clay Casts by Holmes+ 398
¶ +Ehtohkpahshepeeshah, the Black Moccasin, Chief of the
Minatarees, over One Hundred Years Old+ 400
+Lacandon (Mayan) Amerind from Chocolhao, Yucatan+ 402
[Photographed by M. H. Saville]
+One of the Buildings of the Palenque Group+ 404
[Photographed by M. H. Saville]
¶ +Costume Worn in the Kwakiutl Festivals, called Laōlaxa,
North-West Coast+ 406
+God-Houses of the Huichols at Teakáta, near Santa Catarina,
State of Jalisco, Mexico+ 409
[American Museum]
* +Eskimo Mask of Wood, Prince William Sound, Alaska+ 410
+Plenty-Horses, a Cheyenne+ 413
[U. S. Geological Survey]
¶ +North-West Coast Basketry Hats+ 415
¶ +North-West Coast Mortuary and Commemorative Columns+ 417
¶ +Ancient Puebloan Moccasins of Fibre, Arizona+ 422
¶ +Chimmesyan Head-dress Representing the White Owl+ 426
¶ +Wooden “Seal” Dish, Haida+ 428
+Tlinkit Summer Camp+ 429
[Photographed by the Harriman Alaska Expedition, 1899]
+Eskimo Summer Camp, Port Clarence+ 431
[Photographed by the Harriman Alaska Expedition, 1899]
* +Wooden Snow Goggles of the Central Eskimo+ 433
+Principal Known Ruins of Central America+ 436
[American Museum]
* +Necklace of Dried Human Fingers Obtained on Battlefield of
Wounded Knee by Captain Bourke+ 437
+Principal Known Ruins of Mexico+ 438
[American Museum]
+Probable Aspect of Alaska Summer Landscape some Six Hundred
Years Ago+ 440
[Harriman Alaska Expedition, 1899]
* +A Puebloan Warrior of Nambé, New Mexico, in Battle Array+ 442
¶ +Apache Woman Carrying Water in a Wicker Bottle+ 444
+Group of Eskimo, Port Clarence, Alaska+ 446
[Photographed by the Harriman Expedition, 1899]
* +Shell Spider Gorgets+ 447
¶ +Black Hawk+ 448
+Portion of the So-Called “Palace” of Labna, Yucatan+ 450
[American Museum]
+Musical Bow of the Southern Tepehuanes and the Aztecs,
Mexico+ 451
[American Museum]
¶ +General Type of Chimmesyan, Haida, and Tlinkit Chief’s
Costume, North-West Coast+ 452
* +Perforated Discoidal Stone, Illinois+ 453
+Hobobo, the Fire Katcina, in the Somaikoli Ceremony, Cichumovi,
1884+ 454
[From a drawing by the author]
+Circle of Dancers in the Intervals between the Appearances of
the Various Katcinas in the Moki Somaikoli Ceremony,
Cichumovi, Arizona, 1884+ 455
[Photographed by the author]
+Front of the House of Columns, Mitla, Oaxaca+ 457
[American Museum]
+A Costumed Human Figure from Tampico, Washington+ 459
+Entrance of a Tomb at Culapa, Mexico+ 460
* +Stick Used in the Awl Game+ 461
¶ +Wooden Seal-Dish, Haida, North-West Coast+ 478
¶ +The Swastika+ 488
* U. S. Bureau of Ethnology.
† Peabody Museum.
‡ Field Columbian Museum.
¶ U. S. National Museum.
NOTE
The cover, designed and drawn by the author, has for its central
feature a sketch of a stone animal head removed from one of the
buildings at Copan and brought to the Peabody Museum by Saville. The
sacred butterfly of the Mokis fills the four corners of the space
around this, and above and below an arrangement of Puebloan scrollwork
completes the composition. On the back is a figure representing the
terra-cotta statue shown more exactly on page 113, with a further
arrangement of scrollwork and some minor Moki symbols.
THE NORTH-AMERICANS OF
YESTERDAY
[Illustration: TERRA-COTTA FUNERAL URN FOUND IN FRONT OF A TOMB AT
CUILAPA, MEXICO
Height: 2 feet 3¾ inches. Shows traces of four colours: white,
yellow, red, and blue
Marshall H. Saville
]
[Illustration:GARGOYLE—SERPENT HEAD
From débris of temple, Copan]
THE
NORTH-AMERICANS OF YESTERDAY
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTORY
When those rapacious enthusiasts, the Spaniards of the sixteenth
century, had unfolded some of the mysteries of the great half-world
that the resolution and daring of Columbus had opened to them, they
found it everywhere already peopled, though often sparsely, by a race
strange to the other half, with totally different ideas and customs,
existing in various degrees of sylvan felicity, or in the budding
promise of a civilisation. They also found imposing ruins that told of
the long previous departure of some of the occupants of this land into
the vaster unknown, and indeed evidences of still earlier hosts that
had travelled the dim pathway through the outer darkness. These new
lands were believed to be some part of India, and because of this first
error the inappropriate title of “Indians” was bestowed on the natives,
and this name continued to cling after the mistake was discovered,
growing more and more confusing as intercourse increased with the real
Indians, till now in our day it is exceedingly troublesome, and we
are compelled to differentiate, when accuracy is desirable, by saying
“East Indian,” “Red Indian,” or “American Indian,” etc. To add further
to this confusion, many persons persist in considering the Algonquin
and Iroquois as the type specimens of “Indians,” and exclude all who
do not accord with this limited and erroneous standard. The natives of
the Western Hemisphere appear all to have been of one race, for there
are only minor differences, which will be shown in following pages, and
there is therefore a necessity for a broad designation for all these
people. When these words were first written I had determined to adopt
the term “Redskin” for use in this book, but learning that Amerind,
compounded of the first syllables of American and Indian, had been
suggested by the Anthropological Society of Washington, I gave it the
preference over Redskin, and on full examination was convinced that it
is a satisfactory and useful substitute for “Indian,” and, in order to
avoid the latter, have used it exclusively in these pages, except where
another writer is quoted.
This Amerind people were indeed more remarkable than has been popularly
appreciated.[4] They possessed, as a rule, strong personality, great
physical vigour, quick intelligence, and dauntless courage. Their
brain power was of a high order and the cerebral quality extremely
fine; capable through the processes of time of a development second to
none. They had their trials, their wars, their sicknesses, and their
various tribulations before the Europeans fell down upon them; but had
the cargo of misery, disease, and death for them which freighted the
bold caravels of Columbus possessed tangible weight in proportion to
its magnitude, those vessels would have plunged to the depths of the
unknown sea. But Destiny had traced another course for events, and
thus the gay banners, glowing on one side with Hope for one race and
black on the reverse with Despair for another, flaunted at length their
ominous folds in the sunshine of the Amerind continent. Great good
fortune it was for the Europeans, especially for the Spaniards, but the
latter failed to read their star aright. Upon the conquered tribes, an
easy prey before the superior weapons of the invaders, they lavished a
cruelty which eclipsed that of savages, and settled like a blight over
the country, to finally stifle by just retribution the haughty power of
Spain herself, and wrench forever from her the last foot of the domain
which the unfaltering courage of the Adelantados had bequeathed to her.
To attempt to gloss over the oppression of the Spanish rule of the
Amerind people would be fruitless. There is no excuse for it. Fresh
from the methods of the Inquisition, the Spaniards themselves perhaps
were not wholly aware of the horror of their acts. Unfortunately, they
do not stand alone as sinners in this respect, and the contemplation of
the early intercourse of Europeans and Amerinds is not likely to give
a candid person an agreeable sensation, as it is frequently difficult,
if not impossible, to decide which race is the one to whom rightfully
belongs the description, “treacherous, bloodthirsty, and savage.”
Certain it is that the Amerinds from the very beginning had numerous
vivid lessons from the whites in murder, treachery, and kindred
crimes.[5] They were frequently slain without cause or mercy; they
were enslaved when possible; their records were destroyed; and, most
terrible of all, they were burned alive at the stake. But this latter
diversion had been practised in Europe, where St. Ferdinand with his
own hands heaped the fagots on the blazing pile. The Conquistadores of
the sixteenth century were versed in as much cruelty as the Amerinds
had ever dreamed of; yet in the midst of it all there were men like Las
Casas and Viceroy Mendoza, who had no sympathy with the barbarities
practised, and whose characters bring relief in the broad and hideous
blackness. Ship-loads of slaves were carried off each year, and the
system of _repartimientos_ placed every Amerind in bondage.
[Illustration: SOUTH PORTION OF THE TEWA PUEBLO OF TAOS, NEW MEXICO
Adobé construction
]
Opposition was punished in the most terrible ways possible to devise.
In one instance the offenders, seventeen or eighteen caciques, were
strangled and mangled by dogs kept for the purpose, the execution
taking place in the public square, so that the struggles of the
unfortunates might make a spectacle. Again the Spaniards invited some
chiefs to a conference, as told by Brinton, in a large wooden building,
which was then burned up with the chiefs in it. But it is not necessary
to go back so far for examples of the treacherous brutality with which
the whites have treated the Amerinds. Were it so, the cruelty and
injustice might perhaps be regarded as merely circumstances of the
period, but Beckwourth, in his _Narrative_,[6] relates an incident,
also referred to by Washington Irving, quite as horrible as any that
occurred in the sixteenth century. Beckwourth came upon some white
trappers who had captured two Amerinds from a party of Arikarees who
had stolen their horses. The Arikarees offered to return some, but not
all, of the horses in exchange for the prisoners, but the trappers
declared they would burn their captives alive if all the horses were
not returned. The threat was disregarded. Thereupon the logs on the top
of a huge fire were separated, the two helpless, chain-bound prisoners
were dropped into the red furnace, and the flaming logs replaced.
“There was a terrible struggle for a moment,” says Beckwourth, “then
all was still.” And thus was another lesson of the mercy and justice of
the White rendered unto the Red.
[Illustration: SEATED FIGURE CARVED IN TRACHYTE
From débris of hieroglyphic steps, Copan. Slightly larger than life
size
]
Nearer to us than this we have an incident even more diabolical,
because without the provocation the trappers had. Horse stealing down
to recent times in the West has always been liable to punishment by
death, so the trappers might be somewhat excused on that ground in
the minds of some, but in the year 1898, in the Indian Territory,
two Amerinds were burned alive at the stake by a mob of whites. The
accusation, too, was a mere suspicion, and it was later established
that the Amerinds were perfectly innocent. After such deeds we may well
pause when our inclination is to vaunt the superiority of the white men
over the red.
Notwithstanding the popular idea that the Amerinds were devils
incarnate, many tribes when first encountered were kindly, and trusted
the newcomers till the moment came, as it soon did, when they were
basely deceived. That all tribes were trusting is not claimed, but it
is well known that many explorers found the Amerinds ready to receive
them fairly and honestly. Neither Cartier nor Roberval met with
hostility from natives, and the success of the straightforwardness
of Penn in his dealings with them is unquestioned.[7] It has been
stated that the European is no more than a whitewashed savage, and
his intercourse with the Amerind people bears out this description.
There was often provocation on both sides, augmented by the complete
ignorance of each other’s ways and customs. Actions which were correct
according to the manners of the Amerinds were offensive to the whites,
and _vice versa_, and, to add to the ever-increasing hostility, the
whites resented upon all Amerinds the crime or indiscretion of one
or a few members of a particular tribe. If an Amerind committed a
crime, the next one met with suffered for it. When Walker, in 1833,
treacherously abandoned the line of work Bonneville had laid out for
him and struck down the Humboldt for California, one of the men had his
traps carried off by some of the Shoshokoes. He swore to kill the first
one he should meet, and so their trail was one of blood. At one place
they murdered no less than twenty-five unsuspecting red people without
provocation. This was the manner in which these pioneers exhibited
their superiority. There have always, too, been certain whites, more
or less outlawed, like one Rose, who have struck up a friendship with
the worst tribes for the purpose of inciting them against the whites to
advance their own profit.
[Illustration: KICKING BEAR, SIOUX]
Previous to the European invasion the Amerind was not always at war,
though many seem to think that he was. His territorial lines were
generally well defined, and, as a rule, he stayed within them. Their
villages, for the Amerind was always a village dweller, were far apart
north of Mexico, and as long as there was no contention over property
or water rights, things went smoothly, and even during hostilities
intercourse was not always entirely broken off. So that there was
frequently a large measure of security and periods of uninterrupted
peace. He _worked_ at hunting, fishing, and, in all the tribes east
of the Mississippi, in Mexico, and many tribes west, at agriculture.
The arrival and the westward movement of the Europeans crowded back
the tribes across boundaries and upon lands they had no right to, and
frequent wars were the inevitable result. Finally the acquisition of
the horse gave facility of movement never before possessed, and made
quick journeys and night attacks feasible, while the desire to secure
as many of the valuable animals as possible added a new and great
incentive to theft and consequent warfare. The Amerind began to change,
in fact, the moment he acquired the horse and the gun, adapting both
to his needs and using them with consummate skill. The whites did not
try to understand him, nor were they superior to him in the matter of
patience or forgiveness. One thing was well understood by the whites,
however, and continues to this day, and that was that an Amerind has
no rights that a white man is bound to respect, or even to consider.
The natives north of the Aztec country were regarded as vagabonds
and vagrants who had no right to anything, while those of Mexico,
whom the Spaniards had meanwhile reduced everywhere to abject slaves,
were believed to be a different race, with former qualities that were
greatly exaggerated by the Europeans. And then, later, in the effort
to counteract the extravagant notions entertained of the Aztecs, their
remarkable growth, and that of the Mayas, was by some writers reduced
to the level of that of the Pueblo tribes of New Mexico and Arizona,
which is undoubtedly a serious error in the other direction. Montezuma
was probably not a king nor an emperor as those terms are understood
by us, but it is difficult to accept him as little more than a Moki
war-chief, especially as one can readily see that a few steps farther,
even in the line of Moki development, might have produced a form of
government partaking of the monarchical, but different from anything
that we know about.[8] Ever since I saw one of our Arizona Pai Ute
guides, a chief of his band, command a follower to take off his shoes
as he reclined by the fire, I have suspected the existence among the
Amerinds of a latent germ of aristocracy.
[Illustration: A CORNER OF A MITLA RUIN, MEXICO
From Bandelier’s _Archæological Tour_, published by the
Archæological Institute of America
]
In the first flush of the discovery of America, Europe was wild
with the romance of it, and mystery was the order of the day. More
wonderful things still were expected. Fables that had done good service
for centuries were transported to the new lands, and there blazed up
with the mysterious uncertainty of the _ignis fatuus_, luring and
deceiving, till the gold-thirsting Europeans struggled in the pursuit
of such phantoms as the “Seven Cities.” The most extraordinary tales
appeared tame in that atmosphere of dazzling imagination. Exaggeration
of one kind or another has ever since been the inheritance of the
Amerind people, and it is only within a comparatively few years that
these “Americans of Yesterday” have been scientifically studied and
their real character and attainments given proper places. The whole
matter of American ethnology and archæology is new; so new that it is
impossible to speak with decision on a great many points. In the United
States we have usually regarded the Amerind as the incarnation of evil;
a treacherous demon with a bloody knife in one hand and a scalp-lock in
the other, and we have generally refused to consider the finer traits
of his character. So callous have we become to his good points that
Cooper is ridiculed for his delineation of Amerinds that have instincts
or principles above the brute, and yet Cooper’s chief models were the
Iroquois who established a remarkable political organisation.
It is not necessary to be what has been scornfully called “an Indian
lover” to be interested in this extraordinarily homogeneous race that
was scattered from Alaska to Patagonia. Such interest should be a
matter apart from sentiment. We are interested in the primitive man of
Europe; few would have been pleased to live with him. So the question
whether we “like” the Amerind people and would enjoy social intercourse
with them is not to the point. It is a matter of education; a matter,
in fact, of the study of ourselves as others saw us some thousands
of years ago, for the Amerind people were passing through phases of
human existence which, in all probability, our remote ancestors also
passed through; so that by examining this kind of life we are holding
up the mirror to ourselves. Till recently the apathy shown on this
subject was surprising. People generally were not aware that there
were differences in “Indians,” or that they spoke different languages.
The idea that there was any profit in studying them was popularly
considered ridiculous. He was a “good-for-nothing,” and that was all
that there was about it. But we can no more find fault with the Amerind
for not being a European than we can with a stage-coach for not being
a locomotive. We must accept him as he was, and as he is, and wherever
possible study him and write him down so minutely that generations
of ethnologists to come will shower blessings on our heads. We must
constantly remember that the Amerind point of view is different from
ours, and that we too are only in a transitional stage.
[Illustration: SCULPTURES FROM TERRACE EAST OF THE GREAT PLAZA, COPAN]
The Amerind people, like ourselves, represent merely a stage of human
progress. Our stage is in advance of theirs, but it is by no means
perfection. We do not scalp, but the revolver is quite as active as
their scalping-knife, and we require a great number of policemen to
keep us civilised. As for war, the European race has certainly not
been backward in that respect. In Europe to-day vast bodies of men
are withdrawn from every other service and trained for war with a
completeness that the Amerind never dreamed of; and in the United
States we have probably already killed more men in wars than ever
at one time peopled it in aboriginal days. For in those days the
various groups of Amerinds were separated by tracts of unoccupied
territory; unoccupied except as the hunters roamed over it in search
of their food, and the population outside of the Aztec country and
Central America was generally sparse. Nor was the distribution of this
population always the same as it was revealed to us by the Discovery.
Tribes developed, rose to power, declined and passed away, leaving
little, where their art development was slight, to indicate their
former presence, no matter what may have been the degrees of their
political attainments. Had not our own history come in to rescue the
confederacy of the Iroquois, their remains, assuming them to have
declined without further art development, would have conveyed no
suspicion of their political organisation.
Back and forth the Amerind race moved, up and down, across the face
of the American continent through the forgotten ages in ever shifting
waves impelled, in the main, by climatic conditions and food quest,
some leaving behind no record, others bequeathing to the future
monuments and edifices that astonished the world and gave birth to
elaborate and far-fetched theories to account for a development that
seems to have required no more than time and the circumstances which
existed. All the remains on this continent appear to be palpably
American; the work of the Amerinds in their various degrees of
progress. Whether they came from one source or several, they have been
long enough here to become homogeneous from one end of the hemisphere
to the other, and this, it is evident, would require a great stretch
of time.[9] They clearly separated from the other inhabitants of the
world, in any case, at a period before those inhabitants had developed
present characteristics. From the time the human race was born, whether
as an ape or as it now stands, there was differentiation of habits,
customs, and knowledge which has never ceased and which never will
cease. But as light, air, and natural conditions are similar or the
same the world round, and as cerebral matter seems to be practically
the same in all peoples, humanity has passed everywhere through about
the same stages of development, and each stock or tribe in time has
arrived at about the same place on the road of progress because they
could not help it. Conditions might force one people ahead while
other conditions might be retarding another, but whatever progression
there has ever been was made on practically the same lines. The same
race, however, does not throughout always develop evenly. Sir John
Lubbock has said that “different races in similar stages of development
often present more features of resemblance to one another than the same
race does to itself in different stages of its history,” and to-day in
Arizona there exist near to each other two branches of the widespread
Shoshonean[10] stock, the Pai Utes and the Mokis, who exhibit the most
marked differences of customs, the latter living in substantial houses
of stone while the former occupy the rudest kind of brush wikiups.
[Illustration: A KIESKABI, OR COVERED PASSAGE, AT WALPI, ARIZONA]
The Amerind people were living in various stages of progress at the
time of the Discovery. The Mexicans, according to Lewis Morgan, were
“one stage higher than the Mohawks and one stage lower than the
warriors of the _Iliad_.” Accepting this as correct, we would be able
to trace human development back of the Greeks through the Amerinds of
North America. Morgan suggested the classification of mankind in three
broad ethnic stages: Savagery, Barbarism, and Civilisation,[11] the
first ending with the acquisition of the bow and arrow, represented
here by the Pai Utes; the second ending with the smelting of iron
ore, represented by the early Greeks; and the third beginning with a
phonetic alphabet, and represented by ourselves. In this scheme the
Mexicans would fall in the middle period of Barbarism. This is a fairly
good working basis, but, like all generalisations, it is only general.
It must not be rigidly adhered to. The conditions on this continent
were quite different from those in Europe, and consequently the line
of development could not be precisely the same. There seems to be no
good argument yet advanced and no archæological data yet exhibited
that compel us to seek an outside derivation for the Amerind race; and
this being so, it is about as reasonable to search this continent for
the original home of the yellow race as to go to Asia for that of the
red. That they may have come from there is possible, and so also it is
possible that they came from Europe. Nor should we at present exclude
even the lost Atlantis,[12] for the geography of the world was not
always as it is now, and the elevation and subsidence of lands are
still in progress. This, of course, is admitted, as also that there was
a land connection across the Atlantic before man appeared in the world;
but man may have appeared earlier than we suspect, and this lost land
may have been in sunshine later than we believe.[13]
[Illustration: MOKI MASK OF PAWIKKATCINA]
The Amerinds of North America were practically a people of stone
culture, because while some had developed an ability to employ copper
to a limited extent, they used stone tools for most of their work;
their highest government appears to have been the confederacy, with in
some cases perhaps a monarchical tendency; they were without domestic
animals; without beasts of burden; without fireplaces or chimneys;
without inside stairs; and without wheeled vehicles. There was no
mystery about them. They ranged the continent, as has been noted,
impelled by food quest and climate. They lived bravely and they died
without fear. The following chapters will tell some of the things they
did, with the hope that readers may arrive at a better understanding of
the people that so long had a half-world to themselves.
[Illustration: SPECIMEN OF SCULPTURE ON HIEROGLYPHIC STAIRWAY, COPAN]
[Illustration: ESKIMO JADE ADZE]
CHAPTER II
LANGUAGES AND DIALECTS
There were many tribes and many tribe-groups, or, as the latter are
usually designated, “stocks,” among the Amerinds. These various stocks
differed considerably from each other in manners, customs, possibly in
origin, and in languages, the last often being widely different.[14]
Yet there was a homogeneity binding them all together as one distinct
race while at the same time separating them completely from other races
of the world as now constituted. The subdivisions of the Amerind stocks
were not always contiguously distributed on the continent, but, as
in the case of the Navajo-Apache branch of the Athapascan, sometimes
separated from their kindred by wide stretches of territory peopled
by other stocks, and also, as in the case of the Navajos, somewhat
altered by absorption of people of another stock. Various methods of
arranging the distribution and classification of these stocks have
been attempted, but the basis of language appears to offer the most
advantages and the greatest accuracy. There are some who dispute the
correctness of the present analysis of the Amerind languages, and
deprecate the classifications obtained by this means,[15] but foremost
students, like Brinton, Gatschet, Powell, Steinthal, and others, have
pronounced unequivocally in favour of its value when applied with
judgment.
“Nothing is so indelible as speech,” wrote George Bancroft; “sounds
that in ages of unknown antiquity were spoken among the nations of
Hindostan still live in their significancy in the language which we
daily utter.” And this fact has been the corner-stone of the modern
science of linguistics, which maintains accordingly that the possession
of similar _language roots_ and grammatical construction by two
otherwise distinct tribes proves a relationship or a common descent.
In this way, as is well understood, the Indo-Germanic—that is, our
European stock—has been traced back toward its origin. The accuracy
of this has been questioned, but it doubtless affords the best method
attainable.[16] The same principle is applicable to the American
languages, which afford an immense field for linguistic study in their
great diversity. This diversity is not popularly understood, the
majority of our people believing that if a person can speak “Indian” he
could converse with every tribe on the continent. Yet within a limited
area in Arizona he would find useless in four different tribes the
language he had learned, say, in California; and in California itself
some twenty or thirty tribes would listen to his words, as well as to
those of each other, without a gleam of understanding. And not one of
the languages of any of these tribes would serve him in the Mississippi
or in the Atlantic region any better than English, for the Iroquois
and the Algonquin and other Eastern tongues are as widely different
from those of California as they are from each other, while every
one contains numerous dialects, or what may be called sub-languages,
also exhibiting great variations. The early missionaries were slow to
discover these facts, and it was a source of discouragement for them to
learn that, after long study to acquire a language, it was spoken by
only a single group of the natives, while adjacent to them dwelt others
who spoke a totally different one.[17]
[Illustration: “SINGING-GIRL” SCULPTURED IN TRACHYTE
From débris of Temple 22, Copan. Slightly larger than life
]
Even where a group of Amerinds speak related languages, or dialects,
there are, and were, such wide variations that the one is not
understood by those speaking the other. Therefore we have in North
America not only a large number of distinct languages, but within these
separate languages an immense number of dialects or sub-languages,
sometimes as many as twenty in one stock varying from each other as
much as, say, English and German. At least sixty-five of the separate
stock languages are distinguished in North America which appear so
radically separated from each other that it is believed impossible
that they ever should have sprung from the same parent, unless it may
have been at a time so remote as to be beyond the scope of present
investigation. In the classification according to these languages it
has been necessary to have a general designation for each stock, and in
selecting the names to be thus used, Powell and others have observed
the law of priority of mention, as far as possible, and have derived
the stock name from the author first mentioning it in print since 1836,
the date of Gallatin’s great work, which is taken as the foundation.
The termination “an,” or “ian,” is added to distinguish the family or
stock name from a tribal name, for often a tribe bears the name given
to the whole stock. As examples, Algonquian may be mentioned as a stock
name taken from the tribal name of Algonquin, and Mayan from the tribal
name, Maya. This is not always strictly adhered to outside of the
Bureau of Ethnology because of its frequent inconvenience, and in the
case of Mayan the term Maya is preferably used by some investigators
and writers as being simpler, and Brinton gives it as the stock
name.[18] Following the distribution of tribes as closely as possible
at the time of the first contact with white men, Powell and his able
associates of the U. S. Bureau of Ethnology in Washington have produced
a map, based on Gallatin’s.[19] The separate stocks north of Mexico
are each represented by a different colour, every colour standing for
a variation in language as great as that between Hebrew and English,
not related as English and Spanish. Fifty-eight are thus shown, but
south of the Mexican border are perhaps a dozen more. Continuous study
may succeed in bringing some of the stocks into relationship or in
dividing them still further. In their beginning, languages probably
changed rapidly; memory was deficient, intercourse slight, and
comparatively short separations of tribes speaking originally the same
tongue were sufficient to establish entire new sets of words. These
separations were apt to occur frequently when methods of subsistence
were crude and difficult, migrations frequent, and population sparse.
As races developed memory grew to better proportions, and after the
introduction among the Amerinds of mnemonic records and other memory
devices their languages became more crystallised, till within the later
centuries changes have come about slowly. That many more languages
once existed on the American continents than we have any trace of is,
therefore, probable. By intercourse, by intermingling, by the crossing
and absorbing of stocks was finally produced what we find to-day, or
did find yesterday, a reduced number of different stocks, but still
so many that the archæologist views the field with amazement, and the
layman looks upon it with incredulity.
[Illustration: TERRA COTTA STOOL, CHIRIQUI]
[Illustration: ALTAR Q, COPAN, HONDURAS
From photograph by M. H. Saville, Museum of Natural History
]
And these Amerind languages are as remarkable for their separation in
a body from the Old World languages as they are in their separation
from each other. This in itself seems to bestow upon the Amerind people
a vast antiquity in their isolation from other peoples, and adding
to it the testimony of their art works, their implements, and their
pictographs and hieroglyphs, there seems to be no escape from granting
them to be a division of mankind by themselves.
Not only does the differentiation of the stock languages indicate
antiquity, but that of the dialects adds strong testimony. Brinton
cites Dr. Stohl’s opinion that “the difference which is presented
between the Cakchiquel and the Maya dialects could not have arisen in
less than 2000 years.”[20]
It may be urged that the Amerind languages are loose and shifting
and that a few centuries would be sufficient to bring about on this
continent a complete and total difference in a language from its mother
tongue in, we will say, Siberia; but the more closely the matter is
studied the more apparent is the tenacity with which each stock retains
its special form. Of this tenacity a modern example exists in the
village of Tewa (or Hano) now forming one of the seven villages of the
Moki, and situated on what is known as the “First or East Mesa.” The
people of this village are not Hopi (Moki) stock, Hopi being the Moki
name for themselves,[21] but belong to a Rio Grande stock, the Tañoan
of Powell, and the Tehua of Brinton, having come from the Rio Grande
country to their present location somewhere about 1680. The Moki, who
are believed to belong to the Shoshonean stock (though they are
probably composite), permitted them to repair and occupy old houses
which stood on the site of the present village and there they have
lived amicably ever since, to all appearances completely amalgamated
with the Moki. The ordinary observer sees little to distinguish them
from the other Amerinds of the locality, and they speak the Moki
language like Mokis, but within their own village and by their own
firesides they largely use the speech of their forefathers, and to all
appearances will go on speaking it till the end. Here, then, is this
little community separated for a long period and by many miles from
their immediate kindred, mingling daily with people of another stock
and another language, yet preserving their own language intact.[22]
And if this has happened once within historical times it may have
happened before any number of times, and goes to prove that these
various languages have in them elements of stability greater than
has heretofore been admitted. Powell says that in his long study of
savage tongues he has everywhere been “impressed with the fact that
they are singularly persistent, and that a language which is dependent
for its existence upon oral tradition is not easily modified.” On the
other hand John Fiske expresses the opinion that “barbaric languages
are neither widespread nor durable. In the course of two or three
generations a dialect gets so strangely altered as virtually to lose
its identity.” The Algonquian languages were spread over an immense
area, and the Shoshonean had an even greater range.
[Illustration: SOUTH-WEST CORNER OF THE TEMPLE OF XOCHICALCO, STATE OF
MORELOS, MEXICO
Photographed by M. H. Saville for the American Museum of Natural
History
]
Brinton contradicts the assertion of Waldeck “that the language (of
the Mayas) has undergone such extensive changes that what was written
a century ago is unintelligible to a native of to-day. So far is this
from the truth that, except for a few obsolete words, the narrative of
the Conquest, written more than three hundred years ago by the chief,
Pech, could be read without difficulty by any educated native.” Thus
it seems probable that the Amerind languages extant have been spoken
nearly as we know them to-day for a great many centuries, and that
modifications crept in slowly; so slowly that the language roots and
grammatical construction of the various stocks are so distinct that
they form the safest guide now available in the classification of the
various branches of the Amerind race; and furthermore that, judged by
these tests, these languages have no relationship to any other group.
Powell places more reliance, as a test, in the lexical elements,—that
is, in the _language roots_,—than in the grammatical structure, as the
latter is constantly changing. “The roots of a language,” he maintains,
“are its most permanent characteristics, and while the words which
are formed from them may change so as to obscure their elements or
in some cases even to lose them, it seems that they are never lost
from all, but can be recovered in large part.” If there should be
advanced the criticism that these Amerind languages had little or no
literature, and therefore are not equal to languages so recorded, as a
test of affinity, it may be noted that the largest number of languages
throughout the world have produced no literature. Max Müller says:
“It is a mere accident that languages should ever have been reduced
to writing.” However this may be, such an accident appears to be in
the line of regular human development, and when a people arrive at the
right point in their mental evolution they invent a means of recording
their thought. It seems, therefore, to be rather a state of mind than
an accident. The Mayas of this continent had reached the point for
speech recording and, following the natural order, they invented a
system and made books of record.
Because of certain similarities of physique, of words, or of myths,
or of customs, however slight, the Amerinds have been identified with
almost every people under the sun.[23] These similarities are only such
as might occur where similar organisms are continuously subjected to
similar conditions, and the really remarkable fact is that there are
not more and even closer resemblances. Some of the arguments advanced
to uphold the so-called identifications are extraordinary. In language
the Amerinds have been found to speak—or at least have been claimed
to speak—Irish, Welsh, Norse, Chinese, and many other independent
or interrelated tongues, yet with the exception of the Basque, the
structure of all the Old World languages has little in common with the
Amerind. Brinton has shown[24] that a number of Maya words resemble
our English words of the same meanings, as, bateel and battle, hol and
hole, hun and one, lum and loam, pol and poll (head), potum and pot,
pul and pull, and so on, but nobody has yet ventured to deduce from
this that the Mayas are first cousins of the English.[25] The Maya
language certainly does differ from almost all others on the continent
in its construction. Before Gallatin’s time, the wildest statements
flourished because the few linguists who had paid attention to Amerind
languages had worked in rather a desultory manner and had made no
determined effort to systematise them and group them under their stock
names. Gallatin was the first to bring order out of what appeared
to be an almost hopeless tangle, and Powell, Brinton, and others,
supplementing and developing these labours of Gallatin, have been able
to present the subject in definite shape with a promise of greater
accuracy in the near future. Many languages which are known to have
existed at the beginning of European acquaintance with America have
disappeared with the tribes which used them. Some of these were spoken
by mere handfuls of people, while others were wider spread.
With so many distinct languages on the continent, and with many
tribes totally ignorant of the speech of their neighbours, there
became necessary a means for the interchange of ideas which should
not entirely rely on spoken words, and this means was found in a
“sign-language” assisted by a few words of each spoken language which
were simple and commonly known, or by words which belonged to no spoken
language but which through accident were attributed by each side to the
other. This sign-language was of extensive development and existed not
only among the Amerinds but all over the world, and bore a resemblance
to the sign-language now used in some of our deaf-mute schools. This
peculiar sign-language possessed varieties like spoken language
corresponding to dialects. For a time its existence was disputed, but
the work of Mallery and others has established it beyond question.
Besides the gesture language, tribes not understanding each other’s
speech had recourse to a medley of corrupted words from each language,
from other languages, and from no language at all but springing into
being through misunderstandings and necessities. When white men came
upon the scene they often thought they were talking “Indian,” while
the Amerinds thought it was the white man’s tongue, and neither
was talking the language of the other at all or of any other people
in existence. It was a jargon. If the whites had previously learned
something of another Amerind tongue, for example Algonquin, and they
were trying to talk to Dakotas, they would use Algonquin terms,
supposing them to be intelligible to the Dakotas, and the latter would
suppose them to be English words. These would gradually accumulate
through usage, together with nondescript terms, until a working jargon
was formed. In this may perhaps be discovered one of the causes
that led to the former belief that Amerind languages were loose and
changeable.
[Illustration: POLISHED BLACK WARE, SANTA CLARA, NEW MEXICO]
One of the most important and most interesting of the jargon languages
is that known as the Chinook,[26] in the north-western United States,
along the Columbia River, which grew into such proportions that it
formed at length the principal language in a wide district. It is made
up of words from Chinook, Chehali, Selish, Nootka, English, French, and
other languages, with a large number of words that belong nowhere else.
This same process in earlier times going on between several different
tribes doubtless gave birth to permanent languages, which in their turn
were again modified. Even in our own every-day English we use hundreds
of borrowed words and also some that, like “skedaddle,” “mugwump,”
etc., were coined for special occasions. We hardly give a thought to
the origin of these words which are seen side by side with others that
have come to us through a thousand years and still others that were
only yesterday the gift of the Amerind. How few realise when they
say chocolate, squash, mush, hominy, pone, succotash, or other terms
equally familiar from Amerind sources, that they are talking “Indian”!
Tobacco, of course, all understand came from the native language, but
it is generally supposed to have been the name of the plant, when in
reality it was the name of the roll of leaves from the plant, which was
called “a tobacco,” as we now call it a cigar.
Sometimes words appear similar when they have no shadow of
relationship, the resemblance being purely accidental. Powell cites
the word “tia,” meaning deer in some of the Shoshonean languages. This
was at first supposed to be an attempt on the part of the Shoshones to
pronounce our own word “deer,” but further investigation has shown it
to be the original Shoshone name for deer, and that in some dialects it
was called “tiats” and in others “tiav.” Brinton, as already mentioned,
calls attention to similar resemblances between Maya and English words.
A tribe would often possess two languages, one known only to the
priesthood and the other the language of the people, the priest
language being the older, just as to-day we find the priests of the
Roman Catholic Church using a dead language in their sacred functions
while the parishioners use the ordinary one. Bourke believed that
the Zuñis and the Mokis each have a language of this kind,[27] and it
is thought that the Central-American tribes also had. Such hieratic
languages would necessarily be far older than the languages in common
use, therefore if the latter tend to indicate a great antiquity for the
Amerind race, we should be carried still farther back by the hieratic
languages. Occasionally tribes have spoken two languages, both familiar
to the common people, as in the case of the Tewas speaking Moki as well
as their own language, already referred to. The Tubares of Mexico,
nearly extinct, are said to have spoken two different languages among
themselves, one a dialect of the Nahuatl.[28]
Gatschet, the eminent student of Amerind languages, declares that “the
majority suppose that an Indian language is simply a gibberish not
worth bothering about, but languages that can preserve identity for
centuries are certainly something more than gibberish.” He further
points out that while “the Indian neglects to express with accuracy
some relations which seem of permanent importance to us, as tense and
sex, his language is largely superior to ours in the variety of its
personal pronouns, in many forms expressing the mode of action, or
the idea of property and possession, and the relations of the persons
addressed to the subject of the sentence.”
Again it is said by some persons, “Why study languages which have no
literature, and dialects that are known only to savages?” but Max
Müller insists that “dialects which never produced any literature at
all, the jargons of savage tribes, the clicks of Hottentots, and the
vocal modulations of the Indo-Chinese, are as important, nay, for the
solution of some of our problems, more important, than the poetry of
Homer or the prose of Cicero. We do not want to know languages; we want
to know language, what language is, how it can form a vehicle or organ
of thought; we want to know its origin, its nature, its laws.”
Here in North America exists a splendid field for this study, but until
recently it has been sadly neglected. This neglect has been largely
due to the attitude of the people at large, an attitude of apathy and
contempt for anything “Indian.” Opportunities that can never come
again have been allowed to pass heedlessly away. We have not half
realised the importance of collecting the linguistic treasures that
are scattered across the length and breadth of the country, partly
because of the foolish and narrow estimate of the Amerind which for so
long a time dominated the public mind. We have despised his languages
because we thought he did not bathe with sufficient frequency! “To
draw conclusions from the exterior appearance of a people on their
language,” exclaims Gatschet, “and to suppose that a man not worth
looking at cannot speak a language worth studying, would be the acme of
superficiality.” Remnants of tribes have died out and their language
unrecorded has died with them even within a comparatively few years.[29]
As an example of the necessity for prompt investigation, an incident
mentioned by Putnam may be cited. In a conversation with a gentleman
whom he had recently met, he learned of Mrs. Oliver’s acquaintance with
the Karankawas of Texas, and her knowledge of their language. Now it
happened that Gatschet had made a fruitless search in Texas for some
trustworthy information regarding the language of this extinct tribe,
and when Putnam sent him Mrs. Oliver’s vocabulary he was delighted and
immediately paid a visit to the old lady, obtaining much additional
information about these Amerinds, among whom Mrs. Oliver had spent her
early life. Within three months afterward she died.
That the Amerind has no literature is true if by literature we mean
only written books, for outside of Yucatan and Mexico there were no
native books, and the Spaniards burned all they could find of these,
but if we accept the enormous number of legends, myths, songs, and
ceremonial lore mnemonically recorded, as literature, and they surely
become literature when we write them down, then the Amerind is not so
poor in this respect as has been generally considered.
[Illustration: EASTERN FAÇADE OF THE TEMPLE OF XOCHICALCO, STATE OF
MORELOS, MEXICO
Photographed by M. H. Saville for the American Museum of Natural
History
]
In North America, as in other parts of the world, the various language
stocks occupy areas differing enormously in proportions. Some are
confined to small tracts, while others, as mentioned above, are spread
over wide territory. The Algonquian stock, for instance, occupied
an immense area while the Zuñian is a mere spot in the expanse of New
Mexico. More than thirty of the stocks lie within the Pacific region,
six on the banks of the Klamath River alone.
The Amerind languages, with the exception of the Maya and possibly
one or two others, are polysynthetic, and no other languages of the
world have exactly this construction, though, as has previously been
stated, that of the Basques has a construction somewhat similar. By
polysynthetic is meant a language that permits the incorporation
of a great many words in one sentence, till all are fused into one
“bunch-word” of from ten to fifteen or more syllables. Examples are
often quoted from Eskimo[30] which in our eyes appear ridiculous in
their cumbersome length, but they are as intelligible and valuable
to the Eskimo as our words are to us. While the Basque more nearly
resembles the Amerind languages than does any other Old World tongue,
it stops short of the incorporating power of that of the Amerinds. In
Basque this is restricted to the verb and some pronominal elements,
but in the Amerind it embraces all parts of speech. It is specially
interesting to note also that Basque in the Old World is an isolated
language, the only one there of its kind. The Amerinds who look
alike are not always the ones who speak the same language. Quite
different-looking Amerinds will sometimes speak the same tongue, while
others who look the same will speak different ones. The Pueblos of
New Mexico and Arizona, while apparently of one race, speak several
different stock languages, while some of the natives of Labrador, who
are of apparently different stocks, speak dialects of one language.
Nor, as has been mentioned, is the area occupied by one stock always
continuous.[31] The Athapascan, next to the Eskimo, is the most
northerly stock, yet three small branches are found south, on the
Pacific coast of the United States, while two large branches, the
Navajos and the Apaches, extend through Arizona and New Mexico, the
latter far into the country of Mexico proper. In the same way the
Siouan[32] lies in the middle region of the United States, but a
small band still lingered, at the beginning of the Columbian era,
on the Gulf coast in Mexico, and another smaller band in eastern
North Carolina, having for a near neighbour still another, which
spread itself over three States. These detached bands indicate great
movements on the part of the various stocks. One Amerind language,
the Eskimo, has been traced across Bering Strait into Asia, but
thus far no language has been traced from Asia into America. When
the Asiatic and North-west Coast investigations instituted by the
American Museum of Natural History, under the auspices of Mr. Jesup,
are completed, something more definite will be known on the subject
of possible affinities. In addition to the great difference in their
formation, some of the Amerind languages do not possess sounds common
to European languages, and on the other hand they sometimes have
sounds rarely heard elsewhere. The Pai Utes have no “f,” and when they
try to pronounce “fire” they can only say “piah.” The Moki cannot
say “s” before “k” or hard “c.” In trying to pronounce “school” they
say “cool.” There is no “r” in Huron, Mexican, Otomi, and some other
languages, and several have no “i.” The Iroquois have no labials, and
do not articulate with their lips. Cherokee has the same peculiarity,
as it is an Iroquoian language. The Karankawa contains sounds rarely
heard in European languages, while other sounds common to the latter
are absent altogether from the Karankawa, so that in this language is
found not only a complete difference from European tongues in grammatic
structure and lexical elements, but a complete difference in phonetics
as well, and in the last respect it differs also from other Amerind
languages. Altogether the Karankawa shows many peculiarities, and it is
unfortunate that the authentic material relating to it is so limited.
In the Navajo there is a common combination of “tl” with a peculiar
explosive click.[33] The tongue is placed with the tip against the roof
of the mouth and pressure as for “t” made against it, the “l” sound
immediately following by an explosion at the side. It is a peculiar
sound, and the Navajo language is filled with it.[34]
[Illustration: AMERIND LINGUISTIC MAP OF NORTH AMERICA, AFTER THE ONE
PREPARED BY THE U. S. BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY]
In recording these Amerind languages and their peculiar sounds, no
definite system was employed till recently. Travellers wrote the
Amerind words down with ordinary letters as they understood them, thus
producing great diversity in method and results. Differences are due
sometimes to a lack of perception on the part of the recorder, and
also sometimes to a difference in pronunciation on the part of the
Amerinds themselves, and again to differences of methods of recording.
To catch the exact sounds of a new language requires a musical ear.
I do not mean a knowledge of music, but an ear that follows a tune
easily. Without such an ear a person is not fit to record language
sounds that are novel no matter how good a linguist he may be.
Investigators ought to have their ears tested for sound-perception as
the eyes of locomotive engineers are tested for colour.
[Illustration: FAC-SIMILE OF A CHEROKEE MANUSCRIPT
Written in Sequoyah’s Syllabary. See cut on page 52.]
Recognising the importance of a system in the recording of the Amerind
languages—the importance of systematising the orthography of these
languages—the U. S. Bureau of Ethnology published an _Introduction to
the Study of Indian Languages_, in which an alphabet was advocated that
was adapted to recording harmoniously the Amerind languages. In this
over sixty separate sounds are given by signs following as closely as
possible our own alphabet. This is complicated and many investigators
use their own systems and translate afterwards into the more general
one. The great difference in the Amerind sounds necessitates many
different characters and inverted letters standing for peculiar sounds.
Of all the Amerind languages of North America, that of the Eskimo is
probably the most homogeneous. Its dialects are alike from one side of
the continent to the other, following similarity in other respects.
Dall states there is a saying “that a man understanding thoroughly
the dialect of either extreme, could pass from village to village,
from Greenland to Labrador, from Labrador to Bering Strait, and thence
southward to the Copper River, staying five days in each halting place,
and that in all that journey he would encounter no greater differences
of speech and customs than he could master in the few days devoted
to each settlement. Probably there is no other race in the world
distributed over an equal territory, which exhibits such solidarity.”
They do not take to new languages. Though the Eskimo of Alaska have
had long intercourse with English-speaking men, their English is very
limited. Like most of the Amerinds, they prefer to invent their own
terms for articles that are new to them. The Aleutian Islanders are of
Eskimo stock, but their language is different from the main body of the
family, and would not be understood by them.
The writings of the Cherokees in the syllabary of Sequoyah are
of sacred formulas. These were written out by the shamans and are
thoroughly Amerind. “They are not disjointed fragments,” says Mooney,
who made a careful study of the subject, “of a system long since
extinct, but are the revelation of a living faith which still has its
priests and devoted adherents.” The language used is full of archaic
forms and figurative expressions, some of which even the shamans
cannot now understand. Some of these are highly poetical, especially
the prayers “used to win the love of a woman or to destroy the life of
an enemy, in which we find such expressions as: ‘Now your soul fades
away—your spirit shall grow less and dwindle away never to reappear.’
‘Let her be completely veiled in loneliness,—O Black Spider, may
you hold her soul in your web, so that it may never get through the
meshes!’ ‘Your soul has come into the very centre of my soul, never to
turn away.’”[35]
[Illustration: PETROGLYPHS NEAR WRANGELL, ALASKA, PROBABLY TLINKIT]
In nearly all the Amerind languages there was a poetical touch. But
what seems to be poetry to us arose partly from the inability of
the Amerind to express himself in a spiritual way. As his religion
was chiefly zoötheistic, and the heavenly bodies and natural forces
were personified as animals, his comparisons and references were not
intended for metaphor, but were merely the ordinary workings of his
mind on the material at his command.
NOTE
As it is sometimes useful to have at hand an orderly geographical
and cultural classification of tribes, this one used by Livingston
Farrand is here given: I, Eskimo; II, North Pacific; III, Mackenzie
Basin and High Plateaus; IV, Columbia River and California; V,
Plains; VI, Eastern Woodlands; VII, The South-west and Mexico.
[Illustration: HUMAN FORMS, MOKI]
[Illustration: OMAHA WAR CLUB]
CHAPTER III
PICTURE-WRITING—SIGN-LANGUAGE—WAMPUM—CUPPED-STONES[36]
Our pre-columbian knowledge of the Amerind people is at present meagre.
The majority of the different stocks had not arrived at the point where
they understood how to record their thoughts and their doings. Outside
of the Maya and Nahuatl stocks, and others in that region, there is
nothing but rude picture-writing to refer to besides an abundance of
traditions, legends, and other oral matter. All the Amerind languages
are capable of being readily written, being possessed of grammars
and of copious vocabularies, but none of the tribes north of Mexico
had made the discovery that marks can represent sounds. We trace our
alphabet back to the Romans, still farther to the Greeks, and yet
farther back to the Phœnicians, and then another stage back to even
ruder characters connecting the chain of its development with the end
links of such writing as that of the Mayas, and exhibiting writing in
all stages, from rock scratching or picture-writing, through all phases
down to the work of the writing and printing machines of to-day.
Mankind are all alike, merely exhibiting different degrees of culture.
As the rills in the mountains born of the rains and the snows are
all the same and reach the ocean by various devious and complicated
courses, so the races of men, emerging from the darkness of the past,
follow, because of the immutability of natural law, practically the
same lines of development through savagery, barbarism, civilisation,
toward a common goal of unification and enlightenment. The progress
of humanity from earliest times to now appears to be divided, in each
race evolution, into several epochs by certain great inventions or
discoveries which seemed to spread themselves over the world either
from one centre or from several. Of these the most important are,
first, fire; second, the bow; third, smelting; fourth, phonetic
writing; and fifth, printing. This progression is not even, but a
people may stand still for a long time and then suddenly become
active in one particular line, or in many lines.[37] Ours is the age
of mechanical development; the Greeks made a stride in art. When
development reaches a certain point and conditions are favourable for
an invention, it springs into being not in one individual alone but
usually in several widely separated ones, as if the seed of it had
been sprinkled over the earth. It may have germinated before when
conditions were not ripe, but it then died before even sprouting.
Environment cultivates the mind, and the mind feeds on environment.
Only a small portion of those to whom an idea occurs endeavour to carry
it out, and often other subsequent inventions are necessary to success.
[Illustration: PAINTED PETROGLYPHS, SANTA BARBARA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA]
[Illustration: PETROGLYPHS IN BROWN’S CAVE, WISCONSIN]
On the Amerind continent before the advent of the European the various
stocks and tribes were rising and falling under the influence of the
moulding conditions, and rising again or giving place to more highly
vitalised stock which might succeed in fertilising in the brain of a
Hiawatha or a Quetzalcohuatl great ideas that should lift them onward.
In the matter of writing, these races were moving toward success, and
had their isolation been maintained they would in time have come to
the full measure. As it was, the Mayas[38] had reached a considerable
degree of efficiency, and the Aztecs were following close. The more
northern stocks, however, had not passed beyond the elementary
stage. In the sense in which artists now use the word “drawing,”
it hardly existed anywhere on this continent; that is, there was
little exactness and delicacy of delineation, but it was mainly an
offhand representation of objects in a barbaric fashion. There was
considerable merit in some of the work executed by the sculptors,
but it was nevertheless as a whole aboriginal and primitive. In the
middle region the drawings and rock peckings[39] have no artistic
merit whatever, and are like the work of little children; nor are the
Eskimo efforts much better. The Eastern States do not afford the same
abundance of characters pecked and scratched, and sometimes painted on
the rocks, that exists in the Rocky Mountain region, and particularly
in the South-west, where they are found everywhere.[40] This may be
due to the more verdant nature of the eastern part of the country,
and also to the fact that the broad, smooth surfaces of sandstone
exposed so universally in the South-west are generally absent in the
East. Another reason may be that the Amerinds of the various Pueblo
stocks and allied tribes were more given to inscribing the rocks in
this manner. Certain it is that wherever evidences exist of the former
occupation of a locality by Amerinds of the Pueblo kind, there rocks
will be found covered with markings and paintings. These people went
everywhere in their region, and they generally left some record on the
rocks, as they do to-day. If one thinks he has found a place where
they did not arrive in that vast land of cliffs and canyons, he is
sure soon to be undeceived. Once I reached a little platform on the
face of a cliff in Arizona by hard scrambling, part of the way through
a narrow crevice, and as I stood viewing the valley a thousand feet
below, I thought, “Now, at last, I am on a spot where the Shinumo[41]
never stood.” As I turned to make my way down again I was confronted
by a lot of pictographs spread across the whole of the smooth wall
behind. Thus it was almost everywhere: in the deep gorges of the
Colorado River, in its side canyons, in the cliffs above and around,
and all along Green River, at least as far north as the lower end of
Split-Mountain canyon, these pictures occur. The climate is dry, and
there is little change from one century’s end to another.[42] Some are
comparatively recent, while others, even some of the painted ones,
are old; how old it is impossible to estimate, but many of them are
found in regions where no Amerinds of the Pueblo type[43] have lived
within historical times, or within the memory of those Amerinds who
now occupy the region. Some of the painted figures in sheltered places
appeared fresh, but they must have been at least a century or two
old. The other Amerinds, while they also executed picture-writings of
various kinds, did not so often decorate rock surfaces with them. They
were more inclined to drawing and painting on buffalo robes and other
skins, on bark, on trees, shell, pottery; even the human form in some
regions not being exempt. The Puebloans, while utilising most of these
methods, also used the rocks a great deal, the country they occupied
abounding in broad, smooth faces attractive for this purpose. In the
settled East the perishable substances have long ago disappeared,
except those fortunately preserved in museums or private collections.
Comparatively few rock inscriptions are found there, and these have
created considerable discussion and the usual number of theories. The
markings, undoubtedly Algonquian, on the now widely known Dighton Rock
in Massachusetts were for a long time ascribed to the Northmen, and
were copied in a great many different ways.[44] The trouble arose from
the same reason that has led to so many mistaken theories regarding
the Amerind race—that is, an underestimate of their intellectual side,
so far as those north of Mexico are concerned, and an overestimate of
those in the latter region. Brinton asserts that the Algonquins had
developed the picture-writing _farther than any other stock north of
the Aztecs_. “It had passed,” he says, “from the representative to the
symbolic stage, and was extensively employed to preserve the national
history and rites of the secret societies. The figures were scratched
or painted on pieces of bark or slabs of wood, and as the colour of the
paint was red, these were sometimes called ‘red sticks.’” Some of these
slabs, or “red sticks,” like the _Walam Olum_ (_walam_ = painted, and
_olum_ = scores or notches on a stick) of the Lenapés,[45] have been
preserved. Many of the figures executed by the Amerinds, not excepting
the Aztecs and the Mayas, were grotesque, and even childish. Their
strangeness is frequently due to our unfamiliarity with the originals,
figures with queer hair-dressing, masks, or complete ceremonial
costume, which, if we could see them to-day, would resemble nothing we
had ever imagined or viewed before. The extraordinary make-up of these
people for their ceremonials is beyond anything our race can imagine.
Those who have witnessed Pueblo ceremonials will understand how unlike
any human being the wearer of the strange costumes can become. The
_katcina_[46] is fearfully and wonderfully made, and, especially
if represented with the half-skill of the Amerind, would baffle
classification by anyone not familiar with the actual object. Among the
early tribes there were undoubtedly many of these ceremonial dresses
and costumes that we can now have no conception of, and where we see
them represented in sculpture or drawing they have a most uncanny and
diabolical appearance. Even to-day were we to see a representation
in their crude way of a simple little Moki girl, with the singular
arrangement of her hair in flat, circular puffs, like huge wheels, one
on each side of the head, and had never seen or heard of this fashion
of hair-dressing, we should be puzzled as to what it meant.
[Illustration: PAINTED PETROGLYPHS, SOUTHERN UTAH]
[Illustration: PETROGLYPH AT MILLSBORO, PENNSYLVANIA]
[Illustration: PETROGLYPHS IN GEORGIA]
[Illustration: RUNIC INSCRIPTION ON STONE FOUND AT IGALIKKO, GREENLAND.
Introduced here to show contrast to the Amerind writings or
pictographs.
Translation: “Vigdis, Mars’ daughter, rests here. May God gladden
her soul.”
]
[Illustration: DIGHTON ROCK, MASSACHUSETTS]
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION OF THE “WALAM OLUM” OF THE LENAPÉ, FROM
BRINTON
1. Sayewitalli wemiguma wokgetaki.—At first, in that place, at all
times, above the earth.
2. Hackung kwelik owanaku wak yutali kitanitowitessop.—On the earth
(was) an extended fog, and there the great Manito was.
3. Sayewis hallemiwis nolemiwi elemamik, kitanitowitessop.—At
first, forever, lost in space, everywhere, the great Manito was.
4. Sohalawak kwelik hakik owak awasagamak.—He made the extended
land and the sky.
5. Sohalawak gishuk nipahum alankwak.—He made the sun, the moon,
and the stars.
6. Wemi-sohalawak yulik yuchaan.—He made them all to move evenly.
7. Wich-owagan kshakan moshakwat kwelik kshipe helep.—Then the wind
blew violently, and it cleared, and the water flowed off far and
strong.
8. Opeleken mani-menak delsin-epit.—And groups of islands grew
newly, and there remained.
10.—Owiniwak angelatawiwak chichankwak wemiwak.—To beings, mortals,
souls and all (spoke the Manito).
There are sixty of these figures painted on the sticks. Each one
recalls to the memory of those who have become acquainted with the
associated idea, that special idea, and as an example nine of the
signs are given here in connection with the associated idea, and
also with the translation into English.
There is seen here at once the resemblance to Genesis, and it is
difficult to believe that this portion of the _Walam Olum_ was not
inspired by the teachings of the missionaries. But Brinton says:
“This similarity is due wholly to the identity of psychological
action, the same ideas and fancies arising from similar impressions
in New as well as Old World tribes.
]
[Illustration: KATCINAS IN THE SOMAIKOLI CEREMONY, CICHUMOVI, ARIZONA,
NOVEMBER, 1884
Photograph by the author
]
[Illustration: KILLED TWO ARIKAREES]
Some of the ordinary rock pictures may have been carved for simple
amusement, but the majority were made with a purpose, and this was
usually the communication or record of an idea. The Amerind records
may be divided into two and perhaps three general classes: first, the
mnemonic; second, the ideographic; and, third, the phonetic. Brinton
suggests for the writings of the Aztecs, which were partly ideographic
and partly phonetic, the term _ikonomatic_,[47] and used it in his own
works. The ideographic class are those which represent an idea, as
a man striking another, like the accompanying illustration from the
autobiography of Running Antelope, who thus records his killing of two
Arikarees. The mnemonic class do not represent an idea, but simply are
memory helps, like a string tied around one’s finger, a good example
being any numeral, say the figure “9.” The phonetic class represent
sounds, like the letters of our alphabet, say the letter “e.” It is
believed that the Maya writings were largely phonetic, but the phonetic
quality is not well established.
[Illustration: PETROGLYPHS ON PAINT ROCK, NORTH CAROLINA]
It is supposed that the mnemonic symbols originated in sign-language.
One of the most striking examples of the universality of the
sign-language is the case, cited by Mallery, of a professor in a
deaf-mute college, who, visiting several wild tribes, was able to
communicate freely with them though he knew nothing of their spoken
languages. It was a natural thing that races should attempt to record
these signs, and some early hieroglyphs in Egyptian can clearly be
traced to them. These same efforts occurred amongst the Amerind
stocks in varying degree. Picture-writing, the world over, as well as
particularly in North America, probably grew out of sign-language,
giving, as the first stage in the development, sign-language, second
pictographs, third alphabet. These merge into each other, as there
was not a series of jumps, but a slow and gradual progression. Many
pictographs are merely representations of natural objects and had
no special significance, others were guide marks to springs, others
recorded visits to certain localities. Mallery states a particularly
interesting fact, that within “each particular system ... every
Indian draws in precisely the same manner.” Therefore, if a perfect
understanding of each tribal system is obtained, the various rock
markings and other pictographs can be classified. Sometimes frauds[48]
have been attempted by white men, one well-known case being where
an Illinois blacksmith copied on six copper plates designs from a
Chinese tea-box, and then claimed that the plates had been found in
a mound. Recently a most ingenious counterfeiter of stone implements
was discovered in Dane County, Wis. He had been selling the spurious
implements for years. They are usually of bizarre patterns.[49]
Bandelier says that “it is certain that some of them [pictographs in
Mexico] were manufactured after the Conquest, not with the intention
of fraud, but with a view to a compromise between the new method
of recording and the old one, which the new teachers were loath to
comprehend and which they refused to adopt.” Powell classifies all
the picture-writings as: (1) Mnemonic—songs, traditions, treaties,
war, and time; (2) Notification—departure, direction, condition,
warning, guidance, geographic features, claim or demand messages, and
communications and record of expeditions; (3) Totemic—tribal, gentile,
clan, and personal designations, insignia, tokens of authority,
personal names, property marks, status of individuals, signs of
particular achievements; (4) Religious—mythic personages, shamanism,
dances, ceremonies, mortuary practices, grave-posts, charms, fetiches;
(5) Customs, habits; (6) Tribal history; (7) Biographic.
[Illustration: LANDA’S MAYA ALPHABET AFTER BRASSEUR
From Bancroft’s _Native Races_
]
On this continent no true alphabet, so far as now known, was produced,
unless we accept that recorded by Bishop Landa, and ascribed to the
Mayas. Landa was the second bishop of Yucatan, and he did his best to
destroy the Maya records and everything else that in his estimation
linked them with the devil. But he did construct an alphabet after
theirs, for the purpose, no doubt, of putting before them the Holy
Gospel, and it is this alphabet that has been preserved. It has been
the basis of many vain attempts to decipher the few ancient Maya
documents that are known, and the failure of these attempts has caused
some investigators to consider the alphabet a pure fabrication, but the
identity of the characters with many of those in the ancient writing
completely disproves this charge. Besides the alphabet, Landa left
some other information concerning the Mayas, and Goodman thus presents
his respects to his memory[50]: “It is a signal instance of the irony
of fate that this bigoted destroyer of the fruits of Maya science and
art—the pietist whose zeal rendered him avid of the obliteration of
every vestige of their impious learning—should have been the only one
to leave a clue by which the mysterious codices and inscriptions will
yet be deciphered. Nevertheless he left such a clue—slight and vague,
it is true; but, when carefully followed up, it broadens and leads into
an open way where everything will presently become self-evident.” The
alphabet was probably modified by a desire to make it conform to the
Spanish, and it is this foreign element possibly that has led to the
unfavourable opinion expressed in some quarters concerning it.
[Illustration: FAC-SIMILE OF THE LORD’S PRAYER IN MICMAC HIEROGLYPHS
From Le Clercq
]
[Illustration: SEQUOYAH’S CHEROKEE SYLLABARY]
North of the Mexican country certain alphabets were invented by the
European priests for the purpose of furthering the introduction
of Christianity among the Amerinds. Of these the Micmac is a good
example.[51] They were not drawn from pictographs, and were used only
for teaching the Bible. In that field they did not serve to preserve
Amerind history, traditions, and legends. After long contact with
Europeans there was invented but one alphabet, and he who accomplished
this was a half-breed. In 1821, George Gist (or Guess), whose native
name was Sequoyah, a Cherokee, who spoke little if any English, but
whose father was a Dutch peddler and whose mother was of mixed blood,
produced an alphabet, or, more correctly speaking, a syllabary, which
was immediately adopted by his tribe, and enabled them to record their
traditions, sacred formulæ, prayers, etc., which to-day form a valuable
portion of the information we possess of these Amerind people. Many of
the symbols were adapted from our alphabet, an old spelling-book having
found its way into Sequoyah’s hands, but it was the forms which were
utilised, the sounds they represented being usually different. By means
of this syllabary the members of the Cherokee tribe were able to learn
in a few hours to write words, and the system is used to this day.
The endeavour to prove the descent of the Amerinds from one of the
numerous foreign sources that have from time to time been advocated
has at least resulted sometimes in the accumulation or reproduction
of some interesting material. Lord Kingsborough became so infatuated
with the idea that the Amerinds were the Lost Tribes of Israel that
he attempted to prove it in a number of splendid volumes, which also
contain admirable fac-similes of some old Amerind manuscripts.[52] He
spent his fortune on this work, and through a business dispute with
the merchants who furnished the paper he was thrown into Dublin Jail,
where, unfortunately, he died.
To explain the methods employed in the ruder attempts at recording,
the map made by Lean Wolf, a Hidatsa, who once made a trip from Fort
Berthold to Fort Buford, Dakota, with the ambition of stealing a horse,
is a good example. In the illustration the returning horse-tracks
indicate that he was successful and rode home. 1 is Lean Wolf himself;
2, the Hidatsa lodges; 3, Lean Wolfs tracks on his outward course; 4,
government buildings at Fort Buford; 5, several Hidatsa lodges whose
occupants intermarried with Dakotas; 6, Dakota tipis; 7, small square,
a white man’s home, with a cross indicating that he had married a
Dakota woman; 8, horse-tracks; 9, the Missouri River and tributaries.
[Illustration: LEAN WOLF’S MAP, HIDATSA]
Frequently the marks on the rocks merely record the visit of someone
to the place, exactly as when we visit the birthplace of Shakespeare
we write our names in a large book kept there for that purpose; or,
perhaps, as some persons carve their names on public buildings and in
other conspicuous places. Gilbert found a number of such records at
Oakley Springs, Arizona, and old Tuba, a Moki, explained them to him.
Tuba said that the Mokis go to a place in the canyon of the Little
Colorado for salt, and they stop on the return trip at this spring,
where each draws his totem mark, or crest, on the record rocks once,
and once only, for each trip. There are many repetitions of the same
sign, showing that the owner of that particular sign, or totem, had
made that many journeys to the salt mine. Tuba gave the name of the
totems, and they were all animals.
One cannot be too careful in taking statements from Amerinds, for,
like some of their white brethren, many of them will lie for the fun of
it, or just to experiment as to the probable result. Sometimes, too,
when they are telling the truth they tell only part of it. This is
particularly the case with regard to springs, sacred rites, and other
matters which are specially cherished. Some objects in the custody of
the heads of the secret orders are never shown in public, or are only
shown on special occasions. Pictographs representing them, therefore,
should any happen to be made, would not be intelligible to any persons
but the initiated.
[Illustration: THE “PENN” WAMPUM BELT]
[Illustration: STRINGS OF WAMPUM]
Another class of symbols was worked out in wampum. The popular idea
of wampum seems to be that it was a kind of Amerind money, but the
money function was only one of its uses. There was another, a mnemonic
use, of more importance—that is, it was a means of recording and
of communicating mnemonically among the tribes of the North-east.
The Iroquois used it chiefly in the form of belts. The beads were
generally white, and were used in strings as well as belts, other
colours being mingled with the white, as purple and white, or black and
white. These strings had important functions in summoning officers,
in representing persons, and in conferring authority. But all wampum
had a meaning only to those who remembered the particular association
of particular forms of it, and the knowledge once entirely forgotten
could never be regained. Consequently the ideas with which the belts,
etc., were associated had to be regularly brought to mind. Once a year,
therefore, they were exhibited in public, and the story connected
with each carefully rehearsed so that it should not be lost through
forgetfulness. This custom is still kept up among the remnants of the
wampum-using tribes. In other tribes, formulæ and drawings were often
preserved by certain orders who rehearsed them in the privacy of the
kiva. The wampum beads were generally ⅛ inch by ¼ inch diameter—that
is, flat discs of shell. They were sometimes also ¼ to ½ inch thick,
with the same diameter. When the white men discovered the valuation the
Amerinds placed on these beads an attempt was made to introduce some
of European manufacture, but it met with only partial success.[53] The
average width of a belt is three inches and the length three feet.
[Illustration: ORCA OR KILLER-WHALE DECORATION, HAIDA]
By some tribes the human body was also used as a surface for the
display of pictographs. Among all primitive people the body has been
often decorated to a greater or less extent by means of pigments or
by tattooing, and even to-day the practice lingers among civilised
races, in their sailors and soldiers especially. The primitive totem or
tattoo marks are frequently highly elaborate, but the work is not all
accomplished at one time. Years sometimes pass before the drawings
are complete. The Haidas of the North-west coast are specially given
to this form of decoration, and their bodies bear carefully prepared
symbols. They are heraldic signs, or the family totem, of the clan to
which the person belongs.
[Illustration: HAIDA TATTOOING]
Pottery was also a medium, and some of the designs contained upon
earthenware unfold a whole legend to the knowing eye of the native. The
designs that are woven into blankets, baskets, and scarfs of Amerind
manufacture are also, to a certain extent, symbolic. The Navajos, who
weave a superior kind of blanket, put into it a variety of designs,
that are carried entirely in their memory. It is asserted that the
majority of these designs are Pueblo. The Navajos no doubt absorbed
many of the Pueblos, who must have been in the country they now occupy
when they arrived. There is some intermarriage of Navajos and Mokis in
these latter days.[54]
Everything the Amerind does pertains to his religious belief, and these
symbols, totems, and pictures play an important part in his life. Some
sign or token occurs on almost every article of his manufacture.
[Illustration: ESKIMO DRAWING—“THE MAN IN THE MOON COMES DOWN”]
Excellent examples of Algonquin mnemonic records are found in the songs
of the Midē society, which have been preserved for many generations
by means of their picture-writing, and some of the records are
exceedingly elaborate. The method is to associate certain devices with
songs or with parts of songs to recall the words to the memory of the
singer when he beholds the pictures, and in this way they have been
handed along through the centuries. There is reason to believe that
almost all important legends are recorded in this mnemonic way among
the tribes of North America. Of course the memory is likely to fail in
some details and so the songs become more or less changed as time goes
on, but it is not probable that the changes are of much importance, for
where the memory is trained in this way it grows remarkably accurate.
There was much practising of the various songs at each particular
season, under the guidance of some veteran singer.
The Eskimo, in their picture-writing, seem now to be rather a class
by themselves. Whether the suggestion of perspective found in some
pictures was a result of contact with the whites I am unable to state,
but it seems probable. In the above illustration the suggestion of
perspective is clear. There is a landscape with houses, with the moon
in the sky, and with a perfectly evident effort to make the foreground
and middle and background take their proper places. Such a thing is not
to be found throughout all the other Amerind stocks.
From Alaska come some good examples of the ideographic, by way of
San Francisco, where one Naumoff, an Alaskan native, made them. They
are written on strips of wood and placed in conspicuous places as
notifications.
[Illustration: The irregular line indicates the contour of the country.
The traveller is seen starting out at the left. He presently leaves
a stick with a bunch of grass to show direction, and stops with a
friend at night—the division of days represented by a line upright.
Next morning, on the second hill, he discovers game, etc.
]
Some tribes have a system of enumerating the members of it and keeping
a kind of clan roll. Chief Big Road, a Dakota, was one day brought
to the agency and required to give an account of his followers. He
submitted a roster, made on common foolscap paper with black and
coloured pencils. The names, represented by pictures, were Big Bear,
Bear-looking-behind, Brings-back-Plenty, White Buffalo, and so on.
This is also an example of the ideographic. Red Cloud had a similar
census of his warriors. It was prepared under his supervision at the
Pine Ridge Agency. Owing to some disagreement, the agent had refused
to recognise Red Cloud’s leadership and named another man as chief.
Thereupon the adherents of Red Cloud prepared this document, and
sent it to Washington to establish his claim. The names pictorially
represented are Shield-Bear, Sees-the-Enemy, Biting-Bear, Cut-through,
Red Owl, etc.
[Illustration: SPECIMENS OF THE DAKOTA WINTER COUNTS
Dates determined by counting back from great events The left:
1788–89. Very severe winter. Crows were frozen to death.
“Many-crows-died-winter” Middle: 1789–90. Two Mandans killed by the
Minneconjous Right: 1790–91. “All-the-Indians-see-the-flag-winter”
]
In this same line are the Dakota winter counts collected by Dr.
Corbusier. The years are counted by winters, as the winter among the
Dakotas makes the deepest impression. These records have been kept for
many years and are used in computing time and to aid the memory in
recalling names and events of different years. The enumeration is begun
at the winter last recorded and carried backward. There are at least
five of these counts kept among the Oglalas and Brules by different
men.[55]
From the manuscript drawing-book of an Amerind prisoner at St.
Augustine we have a “conversation” about the lassooing, shooting, and
final killing of a bison which had wandered into camp. “The dotted
lines indicate footprints. The Indian drawn under the animal having
secured it by the forefeet, so informs his companions, as indicated by
the line drawn from his mouth to the object mentioned. The left-hand
figure, having secured the buffalo by the horns, gives his nearest
comrade an opportunity to strike it with an axe, which he no doubt
announces that he will do, as the line from his mouth to the head of
the animal indicates. The Indian in the upper left-hand corner is told
by a squaw to take an arrow and join his companions, when he turns his
head to inform her that he has one already, which fact he demonstrates
by holding up the weapon.”[56]
[Illustration: KILLING A BISON]
The Navajos have a singular kind of picture-writing which has been
called “dry-painting.” These dry-paintings are made on the ground with
dry sand of various colours.[57] All the designs are made with the
utmost care and precision, being drawn according to an exact system,
except in minor points, where the artist is left to his imagination.
So far as known this system is not recorded in any way, but depends
entirely on the memory of those in charge. Changes must therefore occur
in the course of time. The sand is trailed out of the hand between the
thumb and forefinger, and when a mistake is made it is corrected by
renewing at that point the surface of the sand which forms the general
ground for the work. No less than seventeen ceremonies are illustrated
by drawings of this kind. Sand enters into some of the kiva ceremonies
of the Moki, but in a different way. It is used more to maintain in
position certain objects that belong to the ritual.
[Illustration: SHELL DISC, TENNESSEE
Diameter, 4.4 inches
After Dr. Jones
]
The mounds of the Mississippi valley have yielded antiquities of great
interest, but thus far nothing that is beyond the ability of the
ordinary Amerind to execute. Some shell discs, which Holmes suggests
may have been time symbols, attract special attention. There are
generally thirteen small outer circles on the discs, and thirteen is
a number that occurs frequently in Amerind chronology. On other discs
various objects are drawn, the one first to fix the attention of the
white race being the figure of the cross because of its connection
with the Christian religion. But it had no similar significance with
the Christian cross. Crosses were found among almost all the tribes of
North America, because a cross is an easy and a most natural figure to
construct. Another emblem found throughout the world, and next to the
cross the simplest figure to make, is that called the swastika, merely
a cross 卐 with the arms broken at right angles. The Mormons firmly
believe, along with Kingsborough, that the Amerinds are the Lost Tribes
of Israel, and one of their elders has succeeded in translating some
picture-writing thus: “_I, Mahanti, the 2nd king of the Lamanites in
five valleys in the mountains, make this record in the twelve hundredth
year since we came out of Jerusalem. And I have three sons gone to the
south country to live by hunting antelope and deer._” Like the power to
divine the future, the power to translate picture-writings is rare.
In some of the Moundbuilder work there is a suggestion of a position
for the makers intermediate between, say, the Algonquin and the Nahuatl
or Aztec tribes. Their serpent symbols strongly resemble those of more
southern tribes, and also some of the figures in shell and copper.
The fact that the serpent was a prominent object with them as with
the Nahuatl tribes tends to link the tribes who made these symbols
with the Nahuatl tribes. The serpent symbol, especially the feathered
kind,[58] belongs mainly to the tribes of the Mexican region, where the
rattlesnake exists in its greatest variety. The rattlesnake was highly
venerated, and tribes as far north as the Moki country in the West,
and perhaps as the Ohio in the East, might be correctly called the
Snake people. There is nothing improbable in supposing that some of the
tribes of the Mississippi valley, if they were not of the same stock as
the Aztecs, were in tolerably close communication with them, or with
tribes intermediate between the two.
[Illustration: SHELL GORGET, TENNESSEE]
Sometimes there occur markings on the rocks in the South-west that
would be a puzzle to us did we not know, through the Mokis, who are
still making them, just what they are. There is therefore no room
for the imagination; the long scratchings are only grooves made in
sandstone by the Moki farmer sharpening his planting stick.
[Illustration: CUP MARKINGS]
Another kind of rock markings, the so-called cupped-stones or cup
markings, about which there has been a vast amount of discussion, may
be considered here because they have generally been thought to have
symbolic significance. That some of them may have had such significance
is admitted below, but the bulk of those on this continent it seems
possible to explain without resort to symbolism. An explanation which
I offer, for what it may be worth, I have never seen suggested, though
the idea may not be new. It is well known that the common form of
fire-drill in use from one end of this continent to the other was that
in which the end of a straight stick is made to rotate back and forth
in a rounded cavity in another stick of softer wood called the hearth.
In order that the operation should be speedily successful in producing
fire, it was necessary to have the end of the drill convex, so that
it would immediately bear as nearly as possible on the whole surface
of the hearth cavity. In order to produce this convexity, the Amerind
pecked a small cavity on a slab or rock of sandstone, and when he had
it in the proper condition, he could bring his drill very quickly
to the desired convexity, and also give it a roughness of surface
that would contribute to the friction. As the fire-drill was long in
constant use, many cavities were necessary, for a cavity would grow too
deep, or for some other cause would not be adequate. A new hole would
then be made, and thus in the course of time there would be numbers of
the cavities on a rock or slab, which was convenient or had been found
to possess the right texture for the purpose. My opinion, therefore,
is that these so-called “cup markings” or “cupped” stones were in
America the result of the sharpening of fire-drills, just as the long
grooves seen at the Moki towns to-day are the result of the sharpening
of planting sticks. Gerard Fowke describes the cupped-stones in the
Bureau of Ethnology collection,[59] as follows, and it will be noticed
that thin pieces have cups on both sides, while the large blocks have
them only on one. This was because it was convenient to turn the small
stones over. In some cases where a cup had worn too large, another
was started in the bottom of it, perhaps because the rock at that
particular spot suited the fancy of the individual. Fowke says: “The
cupped-stones in the Bureau are almost invariably of reddish sandstone,
of varying texture, from a few ounces to thirty pounds in weight. The
holes are from one to twenty-five in number, of various sizes, even in
the same stone, and follow the natural contour of the surface even when
that is quite irregular; the stone is never flattened or dressed to
bring the cups on a level; none show any marks of work, but are rough
blocks or slabs in their natural state. Many of the holes are roughly
pecked in, but the larger ones are usually smooth, as if ground out,
and almost complete hemispheres. They range from a pit only started or
going scarcely beyond the surface to one two inches in diameter. The
smaller ones with one cup pass into the pitted stones. Occasionally
at the bottom of a large cup there is a small secondary hole as though
made by a flint drill. Slabs or thin pieces nearly always have cups on
both sides, while blocks or thick slabs have them on one side only.”
In the case of the cup markings of the Eastern Hemisphere, their
frequent peculiar arrangement accompanied by grooves and circles may
have pertained to some ceremony connected with the drill-dressing. It
may have been thought that the fire would come quicker, be better, or
last longer when the drill was dressed in holes of a certain type; or
special stones and holes of peculiar arrangement may have been required
for dressing the drill-end that was to be used by the priest in the
sacred ceremony of producing the “new-fire.” In this manner a primitive
custom might become sacred and be surrounded with symbolism exemplified
in cup markings the world over.
[Illustration: CUP FROM CHIRIQUI]
[Illustration: TERRA COTTA FROM CHIRIQUI]
CHAPTER IV
THE MEXICAN AND CENTRAL-AMERICAN WRITING, INSCRIPTIONS, AND BOOKS
While there are found in the mounds of the central Mississippi
region, and also among the living natives of the North-west coast,
resemblances to the art work of the Aztecs, Mayas, and other tribes of
the Central-American region, there is no evidence that there was any
approach, in these localities or elsewhere, to any kind of record to be
compared with the proficiency of the South. What there may once have
been in the way of writings on bark or wood we can only conjecture. The
Davenport tablet has been pronounced, on good authority, to be within
the powers of the Dakota tribes. Other tablets and inscriptions of the
Eastern region are surrounded with doubt.
The Mexican, that is, the Aztec, writing was more pictorial than
that of the Mayas. It was cruder in every way, and comparing the
two in the pages of Kingsborough and later reproductions, it is
easy to distinguish a superior culture indicated by the writing of
the Maya. We are more fortunate in the number of Aztec manuscripts
preserved. The Spanish priests did what they could to obliterate the
books existing when they came into the country, and Bishop Zumarraga
made a fine bonfire out of a lot of them. But some escaped. Some
priests sent copies or originals back home as curiosities, thinking,
doubtless, that this took them out of the sight of the natives quite
as effectually as the burning, and the natives themselves succeeded
in preserving in secret some of the ancient documents. None of the
oldest, however, have been found, but in time the number known to us
may be considerably increased. One by one they turn up unexpectedly.
That called the Codex Borgia was in use as a plaything of children
of the Gustiniani family, till rescued by Cardinal Borgia, and only
recently another one has been found dating from the year 1545,[60]
wherein there are pictorial combinations never before seen. Thus
gradually our data are increasing, and with the awakening interest in
Amerindian archæology that seems to have come in these latter days of
the nineteenth century, a century that has let slip much valuable data
never to be recovered, further finds may be expected from time to time.
The style of the Aztec documents is different from that of the Maya and
Brinton believes them to be independent developments. It is possible,
however, that both were derived from the same source and developed
independently.[61] The Aztec writing is of a “rebus” character, and
Brinton has applied to it the term _ikonomatic_, which he explains
as follows in his _Essays of an Americanist_[62]: “All methods of
recording ideas have been divided into two classes—Thought Writing and
Sound Writing. The first, simplest and oldest, is Thought Writing.
This in turn is subdivided into two forms—Ikonographic and Symbolic
Writing. The former is also known as Imitative, Representative, or
Picture Writing. The object to be held in memory is represented by its
picture drawn with such skill, or lack of skill, as the writer may
possess. In Symbolic Writing, a single characteristic part or trait
serves to represent the whole object; thus the track of an animal
will stand for the animal itself.... It will be observed that Thought
Writing has no reference to spoken language; neither the picture of
a wolf nor the representation of his footprint conveys the slightest
notion of the sound of the word _wolf_. How was the enormous leap made
from the thought to the sound—in other words, from an ideographic to
a phonetic method of writing? This question has received considerable
attention from scholars with reference to the development of the two
most important alphabets in the world, the Egyptian and the Chinese.
Both these began as simple picture writing, and both progressed to
almost complete phoneticism. In both cases, however, the earliest steps
are lost, and can be retraced only by indications remaining after a
high degree of phonetic power had been reached. On the other hand, in
the Mexican and probably in the Maya hieroglyphics, we find a method
of writing which is intermediate between the two great classes I have
mentioned, and which illustrates in a striking manner the phases
through which both the Egyptian and the Semitic alphabets passed
somewhat before the dawn of history. To this method, which stands
midway between the ikonographic and the alphabetic methods of writing,
I have given the name _ikonomatic_, derived from the Greek εικων-ονος,
an image, a figure; ονομα-ατος, a name.... It is this plan on which
those familiar puzzles are constructed which are called rebuses and
none other than this which served to bridge over the wide gap between
Thought and Sound Writing. It is, however, not correct to say that it
is a writing by _things_, rebus; but it is by the _names_ of things,
and hence I have coined the work ikonomatic to express this clearly.”
The position of the signs often had important significance, just as it
has in some of our puzzles, like the following:
WOOD
JOHN
MASS
which is said to have been the address on a letter that found its
destination in John Underwood, Andover, Massachusetts. It might be
supposed that, having acquired a knowledge of the method of the Aztec
writing, the general principles of which, according to Brinton, were
known many years ago, we would now be able to translate the Mexican
documents with little difficulty. The trouble lies, however, in the
lack of exact knowledge of the Nahuatl language itself, and till
that is acquired small progress will be made. It will be necessary
to understand this language before its modern additions and changes
came in, in order to connect it with the picture-writing, or rather
the ikonomatic writing, of the fifteenth and previous centuries. It
has been doubted whether there is any phonetic element in either the
Aztec or the Maya hieroglyphics, but the evidence seems to indicate
that there is a phonetic element, notwithstanding that there has been a
following in many cases of rather slender threads of evidence.
[Illustration: PAGE FROM AN AZTEC BOOK (from a copy in the possession
of M. H. Saville)
Plate 67 of the Nahuan precolumbian Vatican Codex, No. 3773, Loubat
edition. This is the 19th page of the Tonalamatl, the sacred
astrological calendar of the Aztecs. The seated figure is the
goddess Xochiquetzal, and on the left is the god Tezcatlipoca. The
book is in size about 5 × 6 inches.
]
[Illustration: MEXICAN WRITING OF NAME OF MONTEZUMA
From Brinton
]
Brinton gives the accompanying illustration of the character of the
Aztec writing, this being the name of Montezuma, but really reading
Moquahzoma. As most writers spell this name to suit themselves, judging
from the great variety of spellings, we may as well accept Moquahzoma
too. Indeed, as this seems to be supported by the evidence of the
writing, it is more likely to be correct than the others. The picture
at the right is of a mouse-trap, _montli_ in Nahuatl, “with a phonetic
value of _mo_ or _mon_; the head of the eagle has the value _quauh_,
from _quauhtli_; it is transfixed with a lancet _zo_ and surmounted
with a hand _maitl_, whose phonetic value is _ma_, and these values
combined give _Moquahzoma_.”
[Illustration: PART OF PLATE 65, DRESDEN CODEX
Maya
]
When Mendoza was viceroy of New Spain, he caused a specimen of Aztec
writing and book-making to be prepared and sent to Charles V., with
an explanation in Spanish. Copies of this exist to-day; one in the
Bodleian Library, Oxford, and another, which Prescott thought was the
original, though Bancroft believed it to be a copy, in the Escurial
Library. This Codex Mendoza was in three parts: 1st, historical; 2d,
tribute rolls; 3d, descriptive of the domestic life and manners of the
people. Besides this and the Borgia, there are the Codex Vaticanus,
in the Vatican Library, another in the same place written on skin;
the Codex Telleriano-Remensis, in the Bibliothèque National, Paris;
the Codex Bologna, in the library of the Scientific Institute, and
a number of others in divers places.[63] The remnants of the native
Tezcucan archives were inherited by Ixtlilxochitl, lineal descendant of
the last “king” of Tezcuco, who used them in preparing his historical
writings. The collection afterwards disappeared.
Many of the manuscripts were merely chronological, but there were also
tribute rolls, law codes, court records, historical records, and all
the varied writings that belong to an active and intelligent people.
The priests executed and held in their possession the important books,
and seem to have been the leaders of whatever learning existed. “These
writings,” says Bancroft, “were a sealed book to the masses, and even
to the educated classes who looked with superstitious reverence on the
priestly writers and their magic scrolls.”
The paper used was usually made from the leaves of the maguey. It is
probable that the Aztecs learned to make it from the Mayas or from
some intervening tribe who had learned from the Mayas. Sometimes the
books were long strips of cotton cloth, or even a kind of parchment.
They were either rolled up or folded like a screen, and frequently had
covers of wood. A great deal of ingenuity and skill were bestowed on
the preparation of these books and the writing they contained.
The appropriate name of “calculiform”[64] has been given to the Maya
hieroglyphics because of their resemblance to pebble forms. Besides
the inscriptions carved on stone from the Isthmus of Tehuantepec to
the northern border of Honduras, there are some on wood and in stucco,
but there exist, so far as known, but very few of the numerous records
and books of perishable material which the pious zeal of the Spanish
priests hastened to gather together and purify of heresy and wickedness
in the fires of bigotry. Bishop Landa says: “As they contained nothing
that did not savour of superstition and lies of the devil, we burnt
them all, at which the natives grieved most keenly and were greatly
pained.” The practice of the Mayas, it is said, was to bury the books
with the priest who had written them, in which case large numbers of
the writings must have been disposed of before the Spaniards took a
hand. Doubtless, however, only certain books were thus buried with the
authors, and perhaps copies of these may have been preserved. At any
rate, unless some of the books have been protected in an absolutely
dry place, tomb or what not, or there were also writings on tablets of
clay or stone, we are not likely to have our present scanty knowledge
of the ancient Mayas much increased through this channel. There are
possibilities of discovery in many ways, even amongst the papers in
forgotten archives.
[Illustration: VASE FROM LABNA, YUCATAN, WITH PECULIAR MARKINGS
Diameter at top, 5 inches; diameter at bottom, 4 inches; height, 4½
inches
]
In the Peabody Museum at Cambridge I saw a small vase from Labna
that fixed my attention at once, and I understand there are others
in existence of a similar character. It bears certain marks in the
clay that suggested to my mind an alphabetic system. The marks are in
groups, each group contained in a space that apparently corresponds
to the calculiform inscriptions of the monuments. It seems possible,
therefore, that this may be a development out of the calculiform.
Afterwards I found a reference apparently to this same vase in
Brinton’s _Primer of Mayan Hieroglyphics_. He says: “There is some
reason to suppose, however, that in this part of the Mayan territory
there had been a development of this writing until it had become
conventionalized into a series of lines and small circles enclosed in
the usual square or oval of the katun. I have seen several examples of
this remarkable script, and give one, Fig. 79, part of an inscription
on a vase from Labna, Yucatan, now in the Peabody Museum.” If these
marks should turn out to be alphabetic, then we may expect to find
slabs and tablets similarly inscribed.
[Illustration: CONVEX DISCOIDAL STONE, NORTH CAROLINA]
We are but at the beginning of our investigation of the Amerind field.
Only recently Saville discovered an entirely new form of hieroglyphic
in Oaxaca in a tomb believed to be Zapotecan. Organised and exhaustive
exploration will yield fine results. “Such organised and exhaustive
exploration is the more to be desired,” says Goodman, “for the reason
that all the inscriptions so far brought to light are of a purely
chronological character, destitute of any real historical importance.
They are merely public calendars, as it were, showing that at specified
dates certain periods of their scheme would begin or end, or that a
correspondence would occur between two or more of their different
plans for computing time. Aside from the circumstance that the initial
date in most instances undoubtedly marks the time at which the temple,
stela, or altar to which it belongs was erected, I do not believe there
is the record of a single historical event in all the inscriptions at
present in our possession. That a people as cultured as they should
have had no historical records at all, would be a presumption too
absurd for credence, even without the testimony of the early Spanish
authorities to the contrary. The actual question is whether any of
them will ever be discovered. If they were inscribed upon paper or
parchment and buried with their priestly owners, as we are told, there
is very little hope that any vestige of them remains, unless there may
have been some instance of almost miraculous preservation. Still that
remote chance is worth a vast amount of research. But a better hope
... is that in crypts or tombs or other unexplored receptacles may be
collected historical tablets of durable material—stone, stucco, baked
clay, or even metal—which patient excavation will yet unearth.” Chance
has played the chief part in the preservation of the few documents that
have come down to us. In the Bibliothèque National at Paris the Maya
one now known as the Codex Peresianus had been neglected amongst a lot
of old papers where De Rosny happened to discover it. It has generally
been assumed that because there was found one form of writing on the
monuments and a similar form in the few documents preserved there was
but the one method. This, however, does not necessarily follow. The
monumental records and the chronological books may have been written
by the priests in the archaic style while the ordinary and common
style was something quite different.[65] Pio Perez has been followed
with great faith, but Goodman thrusts him aside in the following
paragraph: “The man who led everybody astray ... was Don Pio Perez....
In the absence of any regularly ordained authority, he was at once
accepted on his own bare assumption as a leader and lawgiver, and then
began that journey through the wilderness which has lasted more than
forty years.... I ran in the ruck for seven seasons.... Then I turned
and went back to Landa—to whom all desirous of reliable information
concerning Maya chronology must go at last.”[66] The trouble with
following Landa has been the inaccuracy of the translation by the Abbé
Brasseur as well as a certain confusion existing within the original
manuscript.[67]
Brinton says: “The Mayas were naturally a literary people. Had they
been offered the slightest chance for the cultivation of their
intellects, they would have become a nation of readers and writers.”
Instead of having this chance they were crushed by the Spaniards and
never rose again. But the decline of the Mayas cannot be altogether
laid at the door of Spain. The remnant of the stock encountered by
the Spaniards was already on the down road and had been for a long
period.[68] That the Mayas had long passed the zenith of their progress
is generally admitted, and we are not entirely sure that the people we
know as Mayas were the original stock or only a mixture of the original
and an inferior, wilder stock which mingled with them in the days of
their decline. When a stock declined or became extinct, other stocks
from contiguous territory or from farther off were likely to come in
and possess themselves of whatever they found that was valuable and
also become permanent residents of the country, just as the Navajos
took up their home in a land that was formerly the residence of a
different, house-building stock of whom the Navajos preserve, so far
as I am aware, barely a reminiscence. Berendt thus describes the
neighbourhood of Cintla: “Not a single tradition, not a single native
name survives to cast any light upon these ruins. The whole of this
coast was depopulated in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries owing
to the slave-hunting incursions of the filibusters and man-hunters.
The Indians who are now found in the neighbourhood have removed there
from the interior since the beginning of the present century, and are
absolutely ignorant of the origin or builders of this city.”
Not until we are in possession of historical data from the Mayas
themselves, if that happy time ever arrives, can we be absolutely
certain as to the present descendants.
“In Yucatan,” says Brinton, “the books of the Mayas consisted of a
kind of paper made by macerating and beating together leaves of maguey
and afterwards sizing the surface with a durable white varnish. The
sheet was folded like a screen, forming pages about nine by five
inches. Both sides were covered with figures and characters painted
in various brilliant colours. On the outer pages boards were fastened
for protection, so the completed volume had the appearance of a bound
book of large octavo size. Parchment was sometimes used instead of
paper. It was made of deerskin cured and smoked. Twenty-seven rolls
of such parchments covered with hieroglyphics were among the articles
burned by Bishop Landa at Mani in 1562.” “None of them, however,”
remarks Goodman of the Maya books that have been found, “can be of
much assistance in solving Maya historical problems, as they are all
merely text-books explaining the meaning of signs, the elementary
principles of their respective calendars and certain phases of lunar,
solar, and in a few places, bissextile and chronological reckoning. I
believe the figures usually supposed to represent deities to be only
personifications of different periods or phases of time, and that most
of the glyphs are merely numerals or symbols used for the occasion in
their numerative sense only.”
It is plain, therefore, that much of the supposed interpretation of
the Maya inscriptions has had little solid foundation, has in fact
been little better than guesswork. There was one sanguine translator
who was discovered to have begun at the _wrong end_ of the book!
The readings of the Maya inscriptions sometimes suggest that other
mysterious operation of certain brilliant scholars of our time, the
discovery and reading of the Shakespeare-Baconian cipher. The lack
of real understanding of the Maya subject is pretty well indicated
by the various estimates of the value of Landa’s legacy. One author,
Holden, states that it was a positive misfortune, while Goodman, after
following other lines for a time, returns to Landa as the only real
foundation for accurate study. There is even yet difference of opinion
as to the proper directions, left to right or up and down, etc., in
which the works are to be read when they are read. Apparently the first
sensible thing to be done is to gather together all that Landa wrote
and reduce it to a shape that will place it before the greatest number
of students, in connection with specimens of every kind of a mark or
picture that by any possibility might have alphabetic significance. A
striking peculiarity of the Maya remains is that there are not found
any preliminary or originating forms of the glyphs. “We are compelled
therefore to admit,” says Thomas, “that the origin of this writing is a
mystery we are unable to fully penetrate.”[69] It may be that the forms
from which it was derived were recorded on skins, on wood, or on bark,
and in that case they probably disappeared before the beginning of the
Maya decline. “A difference, it is true,” says Thomas,[70] “in the
forms and ornamentation, and, to a certain degree, an advance toward
a more perfect type, can be traced, but no examples, so far as the
writer is aware, of the first rude beginnings or the original forms
have been found. Some comparatively rude are found painted on pottery,
scratched on shells or other soft material, but these belong to what
may be termed demotic writing and are not primitive forms. Comparing
the characters of the various inscriptions which have been discovered
and those found in the few remaining pre-Columbian manuscripts, the
result is as follows: _First_, it is apparent that the characters in
the manuscripts have been adapted from those of the inscriptions. In
other words, inscriptions preceded the manuscripts; hence we must look
to the former for the older forms. What appear to the writer to be the
oldest forms of the glyphs yet discovered are seen in those of Palenque
and some of the inscriptions found by Charnay at Menche (Lorillard
City), though others discovered by him at this same place belong to
the later and more ornamental type, discovered in the Peten region,
that is those carved in wood discovered by Bernouilli at Tikal, a type
also found at Copan and Chichen Itza, but in none of the inscriptions
at Palenque.” For my part, I cannot see that Thomas has exactly proved
that the manuscripts were later than the stone-carved inscriptions, but
his knowledge of the subject is so great and his methods so cautious
that I am glad to give his statement in this connection.
[Illustration: FEMALE HEAD IN TRACHYTE
From slope north of Temple 22—Copan.
]
The Maya glyphs probably developed out of something like the Mexican or
Aztec writing; and the step was not a very long one from writing of the
character of the Lenapé _Walam Olum_ to that of the Aztec, and again
it was not a long step from the ordinary picture-writing to the _Walam
Olum_, so that it would seem that in these various writings we have
an interesting series of steps from the crudest attempts at records,
nearly, if not quite, to the highest, for it must be borne in mind that
the step from the Maya glyphs to a true phonetic alphabet would be even
shorter than any of the others. It is not impossible that something
of the kind may yet be discovered. While the Mayas had made little
progress in mechanical inventions, their progress in architecture,
art, writing, and in astronomy is a proof that they were a thinking
people, and, had conditions continued favourable to their progress, the
Spaniards would have found them not easy to vanquish. The prominent
and striking quality of the calculiform style has had a tendency to
obscure the point that there may have been another system in vogue,
more simple, more modern, in short purely phonetic. Perfected phonetic
characters are simple characters and are likely not to attract notice,
especially when attention has been fixed on other forms.
So far as now understood, there is no relationship between any kind
of Amerindian writing and that of other races. Like everything else
pertaining to the Amerind people, the development appears to have been
purely indigenous. Le Plongeon, however, asserts that “abundant proofs
of the intimate communications of the ancient Mayas with the civilised
nations of Asia, Africa, and Europe are to be found among the remains
of their ruined cities.”[71] The grounds accepted for this statement
do not seem to be sufficient to satisfy other investigators. Certainly
if there was any inter-communication, it was before the acquirement of
iron-working in other countries, as so far no prehistoric iron has been
found in the ruins of Yucatan.
[Illustration: USUAL TYPE OF SCULPTURED “YOKES,” CENTRAL AMERICA
15½ inches long; 14½ inches wide; thickness, 3½ × 4½ inches
Substance: Dark, greenish grey, very compact, chlorite; surface well
polished. Carving of a frog or toad
W. H. Holmes
]
After the coming of the Spaniards, some of the Mayas soon learned their
alphabet and the missionaries added, says Brinton, “a sufficient number
of signs to it to express with tolerable accuracy the phonetics of the
Maya tongue. Relying on their memories, and, no doubt, aided by some
manuscripts secretly preserved, many natives set to work to write out
in this new alphabet the contents of their ancient records. Much was
added which had been brought in by the Europeans, and much omitted
which had become unintelligible or obsolete since the Conquest, while
of course the different writers varying in skill and knowledge produced
works of very various merit. Nevertheless each of these books bore the
same name. In whatever village it was written, or by whatever hand, it
always was, and to-day still is, called ‘_The Book of Chilan Balam_.’
To distinguish them apart, the name of the village where a copy was
found or written is added. Probably in the last century almost every
village had one, which was treasured with superstitious veneration.”
Sixteen of these curious books are known to exist, but there has never
been a complete translation of any of them. The following specimen is
from _The Book of Chilan Balam_ of the town of Mani, and is taken from
Brinton’s _Chronicles of the Maya_.[72]
“_Lai u tzolan katun lukci ti cab ti yotoch Nonoual cante anilo
Tutulxiu ti chikin Zuiua u luumil u talelob Tulapan chiconahthan._”
Translation: “This is the arrangement of the katuns since the departure
was made from the land, from the house Nonoual, where were the four
Tutulxiu, from Zuiva at the West: they came from the land Tulapan,
having formed a league.”
The strange title of these books is derived from that of the priests
or shamans, who were believed to have divine powers. They date from
1595. The Maya books at present known are three, one in two parts, with
these titles: 1. _Codex Tro_ or _Troano_, 70 pages, found by the Abbé
Brasseur at Madrid; 2. _Codex Cortesianus_,[73] so named because of a
belief that it was brought to Europe by Cortes, also at Madrid, and
believed to be a part of the Troano; 3. _Dresden Codex_, 74 pages, in
the Royal Library, Dresden; 4. _Codex Peresianus_, 22 pages, the one
discovered in the Paris Bibliothèque National by De Rosny, and given
its title from the name “Perez,” written on the outer wrapper. Besides
these it has been supposed that there are several in private hands. The
Quiches, of Mayan stock, had a sacred book called the _Popol Vuh_,[74]
and the allied Cakchiquels had their _Records of Tecpan Atitlan_.
Other tribes or stocks of the Mexican region undoubtedly had books and
records also, but in the present state of knowledge nothing definite
can be said about them. But there was a general high development of
all, or at least, the majority, of the stocks occupying Mexico and
Central America in the fifteenth century and before, so that it is
entirely reasonable to expect a considerable corresponding development
in the line of picture-writing, hieroglyphs or alphabets. These, in
some cases, will come to our knowledge, just as the new hieroglyph
attributed to the Zapotecs recently rewarded the investigations of
Saville.
The numeral systems of these people were well developed, and they were
able to make exact calculations in astronomical, and in all other
matters. The Aztecs used dots from one to ten, or twenty, and then
symbols. The Mayas used dots only to four, and then dots and lines
to nineteen, beyond which little is known of their method. Like all
the rest of the Maya subject, there is in this line of investigation
considerable confusion and great uncertainty. The table herewith given
is a suggestion of a possible line of study. It seems to me to be the
_method_ that was followed, though my arrangement or even the figures
are not correct. I introduce it here, before bestowing upon it further
study, because it may contain an idea that will start someone else
on a right track. It has been generally accepted that one dot • is
one, two dots •• two, and so on to four ••••, after which five was a
straight line, [symbol]. Here arises a question. Did the dots and lines
mean the same when horizontal as when vertical? They occur both ways
in the inscriptions and in the manuscripts, and Goodman takes them to
be the same. Vertical and horizontal occur together frequently, thus:
[symbol] from Pl. 51, Dresden Codex. A doubt fills my mind, however,
on this point. It is possible that when vertical the dots and lines
had a different meaning. On this assumption, the two, three, etc.,
horizontally placed would mean either one, two, three, etc., or some
higher figures, leaving the vertically placed ones to take their place
as one, two, three, etc. I assume that the vertical ones were the
beginning. The Maya system was a vigesimal one, that is, a counting by
twenties. Every new twenty, therefore, would be represented by a new
symbol. Referring to the table, it will be seen that the dots and lines
vertically placed and combined carry the table easily to nineteen,
that is, a dot beside the five line gives six, two five lines give
ten, three, fifteen, while the addition of the dots carries the count
quite naturally to the nineteen. It is now necessary to adopt a sign
for twenty, and there have been adopted by various authors as many
various signs, with several variants in each lot. Once settle on a
symbol for twenty, and the road is easy to twenty-nine by placing the
dots and lines horizontally. Thomas gives this figure [symbol] for
twenty,[75] but I do not believe it is twenty, and for convenience will
adopt this [symbol]. Then to get twenty-one it would be simple for the
Maya to put a little cross on each side of the dot, that is above and
below, [symbol]. This figure is frequent, and it is varied sometimes
by this [symbol], and by this [symbol], which Brinton assumes all to
be variants of twenty. I take it they are variants of twenty-one and
twenty-two, or of one and two. Running down to twenty-nine by means of
the dots and lines, we arrive at the necessity for a new symbol for
forty, and I take a common symbol in the inscriptions, [symbol]. To
follow precisely the method indicated by progress thus far, we would
put a dot inside of this for forty-one, but the Maya does not seem to
have done this, but made a slight change, perhaps to avoid confusion,
and he put the dot outside and to the left, [symbol]. Four of these
dots make forty-four, and then forty-five is represented by a straight
line vertically within. Dots now outside as before carry to forty-nine,
when a vertical line replacing the dots gives fifty. Adding dots again
as before leads to fifty-four, while doubling the lines with the dots
produces all figures up to fifty-nine, [symbol]. Then once more a new
character is needed to go on, and one is chosen that is very common
in the Dresden Codex, occurring in a number of different forms. It
is this [symbol] in its simple form. Thomas takes it in this form
[symbol] for naught, and Försteman for the same numeral in this form
[symbol]. The difference between these two is immediately apparent,
and it seems that both these able investigators have made a mistake in
this respect. It is as if some future investigator should give as our
naught the figure 6 and the figure 9. The simple form is possibly one
of the chief Maya numerals and the enclosed lines give it the necessary
differentiation. Some change occurs again here, in the system I have
attempted to outline. There are used lines instead of dots, though dots
also were used, and the horizontal line does not appear to have been
doubled; at least I have been unable to find an example of it, though,
as the number of manuscripts is limited, I could hardly expect to find
examples of all the figures in them. The carved inscriptions being, as
is believed, older than the manuscripts, there would be a difference
between the numerals in them and in the books. But we will take the
simple character [symbol] for, say, sixty. It may be mentioned again
that these selections and their order are merely tentative. Only by
long study might the matter be determined. Adding lines transversely
as found in the Dresden Codex, we arrive easily at sixty-four.
Following the previous system, a horizontal line with an upward curve
then gives [symbol] sixty-five, and transverse lines again take us
to sixty-nine. A horizontal line with a down curve produces seventy
[symbol]. Seventy-four would then be [symbol], and as the horizontal
line seems not to have been doubled we are forced to choose another
character for seventy-five [symbol]. A down curved horizontal line
then gives seventy-six [symbol], while for seventy-seven an entirely
new form is used. The reversal of seventy-five and seventy-six carries
to seventy-nine. The cross lines in some cases appear to have been
used up to sixty-seven. There are so many different figures of this
kind that it is possible they were used interchangeably in some cases.
For eighty a new figure is required, and I have selected one that
occurs frequently in the Dresden book, in shape something like a bow,
[symbol]. A series of dots readily carries to eighty-four, and then the
substitution of a line like a bow-string gives eighty-five [symbol].
The next step at ninety would be to double this bow-string, but this
seems not to have been done, as I can find no example of it. But I do
find a differentiation in another way, probably because in this figure
doubling the string would be clumsy. The difference is made by a rider
on the string, and there are two kinds of rider, one a point or
triangle, and the other a double square. Taking one of these riders for
ninety, and then the dots beside it, we find ourselves at ninety-four
[symbol]. Then with the other rider on the string for ninety-five we
arrive by means of the dots at ninety-nine [symbol]. Then comes a
demand for a character for one hundred, and this appears to have been
merely a circle. A dot beside it would give 101, and so on by adding,
out or in, the various symbols 199 is reached. To get to 299 it is only
necessary to add another circle. For 500 some other symbol must be
adopted, and the apparent one is a sort of circle with a kind of scarf
knot at the top, or perhaps it can be described as a knotted scarf,
[symbol]. Taking this as 500 we can easily arrive [symbol] at 599.
An extra circle within will then carry to [symbol] 699, and so on by
adding circles up to 1000. Thomas in one of his admirable discussions
of Maya writing[76] is puzzled by what he terms ornamental loops around
some of the numerals, but if the line I have indicated here has any
sense in it these ornamental loops would be 602, 604, etc., or some
other numbers depending on the proper place for this symbol in the
general scheme. The series of “loops” mentioned by Thomas is this:
[Illustration]
Something might be determined by a comparison of these symbols with the
known names of numbers. The Mayas counted into the millions, so they
must have had a perfected system.
[Illustration: A SUGGESTION OF THE POSSIBLE SCHEME OF MAYA NUMERALS.
WHOLLY TENTATIVE
Founded on figures in the codices and on tablets
From drawing by the author
]
[Illustration OMAHA CALUMET]
[Illustration: OMAHA WAR CLUB]
CHAPTER V
BASKETRY AND POTTERY
Almost every tribe the world round seems to have acquired at a very
early stage in its progress a knowledge of plaiting rushes, strips
of bark, or other simple substances, for use as beds, covering of
shelters, etc., and in this knowledge may be discovered the beginnings
of several arts of the first importance to man: basketry, weaving,
and pottery. Basketry and pottery are mother and daughter. Plaiting
together straws or rushes was a simple operation and must have occurred
to the most primitive tribes spontaneously as the need for some such
thing arose. Having produced a mat and used it for various purposes,
the turning up of the sides, or edges, for the purpose of retaining
things upon it, thereby producing a shallow basket or tray, was an
easy step, and by such stages did basketry grow to perfection.[77] The
Amerinds excelled particularly in this art, and there were few tribes
without ability to make baskets and other wicker-work, the character
and excellence of which depended to a considerable extent on the
material available.
Wicker jugs, rendered water-tight by means of pitch, were invented and
used for cookery, hot stones being introduced through the wide mouth,
to bring the contents to the required temperature, and it was the
effort to protect the basketry used in the various culinary operations
from the effects of the heat that led to coatings of mud or clay,
which being hardened by the fire, disclosed the great secret. There
is still in use among some of the more primitive tribes of America a
“boiling-basket,” that is, a wicker jug rendered waterproof, and in
which food is cooked as indicated. In Zuñi this basket was known as a
“coiled cooking basket,” and the corrugated earthen pot used to this
day is called a “coiled earthenware cooking basket.” And the Navajos
still call earthenware pots, “kle-it-tsa” or mud-basket. In these
terms is seen a clear indication of the origin of pottery among the
Amerinds in basketry. Cushing found these boiling-baskets in use a few
years ago among the Havasupai, who live an isolated life in northern
Arizona, and I saw similar jugs among the Amerinds of Utah twenty years
ago, and some more recently among the Moki, the latter, however, not
using them for boiling purposes, and perhaps not being the makers of
them. They are bottle-shaped, but with wide mouths, and provided near
their rims with a sort of cord or strap for a handle attached to two
loops or eyes. In some of the pots derived from this form these loops
are represented by little knobs of clay, or by an ornament.
[Illustration: NORTH-WEST COAST FEATHER ORNAMENTATION ON BASKETS]
[Illustration: TINNÉ WORK-BASKET]
[Illustration: MOKI WICKER WATER-JUG ]
[Illustration: HAVASUPAI CLAY-LINED ROASTING TRAY]
Cushing describes the Havasupai in Arizona as using a wicker tray lined
with clay for the purpose of roasting or parching seeds, and this
was probably used by all primitive peoples. The seeds were placed on
the clay-lined tray and agitated with live coals. Naturally the clay
is hardened by the heat of the coals, and would be sure to suggest
the making of utensils from it by means of fire. The turning up of
the edges would follow the use of the first trays made of clay, in
imitation of wicker bowls, and so would other forms of basketry be
imitated, as well as forms in horn, wood or shell. Perhaps the wicker
jugs may have been coated with clay on the outside for protection, and
eventually the heat not only baked the clay but destroyed the wicker
framework that had supported it. Thus jugs of clay may have been made
by burning away the framework every time, just as Lamb’s discoverer of
roast pig could find no other way of securing his toothsome morsel than
that of burning down the house. Or the jar may have been modelled on
the inside and then the wicker burned off. When we speak contemptuously
of primitive peoples it is well to remember that they were inventors as
well as ourselves.
[Illustration: IROQUOIS BIRCHBARK VESSEL
NORTH-WEST COAST BASKET
]
When the art of pottery was discovered basketry remained in use, for
pottery could not take its place in many uses then any more than it can
to-day. The environment and habits of a tribe controlled the amount,
the quality, the character, of both basketry and pottery. A tribe
possessing plenty of good clay would make more and better pottery than
one finding clay difficult to acquire, provided both had reached the
same degree of proficiency in this art, but mere abundance of good
clay would not necessarily make skilful potters; that is, the degree
of progress in culture of a tribe and other factors of environment
than the presence or absence of good clay in quantity had much to do
with pottery-making. For example, the Pueblos and the Navajos occupy
the same kind of a region, or rather the same region, with plenty of
clay and a similar abundance of yucca, willows, etc., for basketry,
yet the Pueblos carried pottery-making to a high degree of excellence,
while the Navajos produced only a limited amount of inferior ware. Nor
is this a matter of intelligence, for the Navajos are as intelligent
as any Amerinds living, and besides, as has been mentioned, probably
have a strong infusion of Pueblo blood. While the Navajos have gone
farther in silver- and iron-smithing, they have lagged behind in
pottery and house-building. So it is also with basketry. While the
Pueblos no longer make boiling-baskets or jugs, or at least, if they
do occasionally make them, they do not use them for cooking purposes,
yet they produce some fine trays and bowls.[78] Inclination and fancy,
as well as necessity, have much to do with the development of the
arts. Tribes might attain a wonderful development politically, like
the Iroquois, and yet possess hardly any proficiency in any art, while
others, like the Navajos, with scarcely any political development,
possess high artistic skill in weaving and metal-working, but none in
pottery. Great in war and government the Iroquois certainly were, but
they had not reached the border line of artistic development. Neither
weavers, potters, nor builders were they (though Bandelier maintains
that their long-house was as difficult of construction as any house
the Pueblos build), and, outside of the idea of the league, their
government was not much superior to that of the Pueblos. Their pottery,
limited in quantity, was very inferior to that of many other Amerinds.
It is probable that following the line of race development they would
eventually have produced excellent ware, but the iron pot made its
appearance and progress in pottery was doomed. On the North-west coast
little or no pottery is found. Quality and quantity increase as we
approach Yucatan.
[Illustration: MᶜCLOUD RIVER BASKET, CALIFORNIA]
Tribes with unfavourable environment would find it next to impossible
to acquire skill in pottery. The Eskimo, with a temperature for the
greater part of the year near or below freezing, and a scarcity
of fuel, would find moulding forms out of wet clay about the last
occupation to think of. The Eskimo, therefore, made almost nothing of
clay except occasionally a lamp.[79] The Kutchins of the Yukon country
make pots and cups of clay, but in the main the Far Northern people
rely on basketry, soapstone, and on metallic vessels obtained from the
whites. Nor is the North land entirely favourable to basketry, yet
the Aleut basket-work is exceedingly fine in texture, some of their
productions being almost a cloth. This is specially true of baskets
made on the island of Attu of the Aleutian chain. These are usually
cylindrical, sometimes fitted with a cover of the same material. So
soft and pliable are they that they can barely sustain an upright
position. This fine texture is a characteristic of all the basketry of
the North-west coast, but there is not much variety in form and the
artistic shapes so common with the Amerinds southward of the Columbia
are absent. The decorations are similar to those of other Amerinds and
are woven in with quills, grasses, feathers, bits of silk, or worsteds,
appropriately coloured. In the interior of the Northern lands, the
Kniks and others make a substitute for baskets out of thin boards
steamed and bent around a flat bottom piece which fits into a groove
in the board. It is fastened in place with split roots or skin thongs.
Among the Eskimo sealskin cups and buckets are used, and some made of
whalebone, but they also make a basket out of coiled grasses, which is
artistic and has a variety of interesting forms. East of Point Barrow
baskets are rare. Birchbark vessels of various kinds were used by many
tribes as substitutes for baskets, and doubtless some forms in pottery
were derived from these vessels as well as from baskets. Some tribes
made pottery and then, as circumstances changed, they abandoned its use
and finally forgot how to make it. Dorsey states that “pottery has not
been made by the Omaha for more than fifty years. The art of making it
has been forgotten by the tribe.”[80]
[Illustration: MOKI FOOD BASKET.]
[Illustration: KLAMATH BASKET.]
Various conditions might cause a tribe to cease making pottery, if
it were not a sedentary tribe. One constantly on the move would
either never learn to make pottery, or if, during some sedentary
period, it had acquired this art it would soon drop it, because in
primitive travel basketry and gourds are lighter and more serviceable
than the crude pottery they could produce. Thus if a tribe living a
comparatively quiet life and developing the potter’s art came into
possession of the horse, the pottery might be abandoned because it
could not readily be transported. This would apply only to tribes
making rude pottery, for where a people had attained great proficiency
in this direction they would not give it up, except, as in the case
of Taos, they could purchase nearby a sufficient supply. Proficiency
would only accompany a sedentary life, so that great skill in pottery
would be a rather sure index of the character and progress of a
people in other directions. While a people might achieve progress
without doing much in pottery, if they did excel in pottery it
would be an indication of excellence in other lines. Pottery is
well-nigh imperishable, and therefore it is often the chief record
that a departed people has left behind. Where almost every other
distinguishing vestige has completely disappeared, we may frequently
still discover scattered on the surface fragments of pottery, or buried
in the soil complete specimens, which by their form, texture, or
decorative treatment tell what manner of people these were who lived
their lives and passed away; tell the limits of their distribution,
and also to what other tribes or people they were related. Pottery
therefore, next to actual records and inscriptions, is probably the
most valuable as well as often the only kind of remains, that a race
has left.
[Illustration: MOKI FOOD TRAY.]
[Illustration: MOKI FLOOR MAT.]
[Illustration: ESKIMO WHALEBONE DISH]
[Illustration: CLALLAM BASKET, WASHINGTON.]
[Illustration: AMERIND WICKER-WORK
APACHE BASKET.
PAI UTE WATER-JUG.
MOKI FOOD TRAY.
KLAMATH BASKET.
For an excellent review of this subject, see “Basket-work of the
North American Aborigines,” by Otis T. Mason, _Report of the U.
S. National Museum, Part II of the Report of the Smithsonian
Institution for 1884_.
]
European pottery has long received close attention from archæologists,
but it is only within recent years that it has been thought worth
while to study that of the Western continent. Like the other remains
of the Amerinds, their pottery was not considered of much importance
by archæologists, and while American money and talent were being
bestowed upon the well-worked European field, our Amerind pottery was
abandoned to the curiosity hunter. The artistic qualities of the Old
World pottery fascinated the student, and this, together with a natural
deep interest in peoples closely associated with our own past, served
to obscure the real value of an investigation of the Amerind field for
the information that might be disclosed concerning the character and
distribution of Amerind tribes, for its bearing on the history of the
ceramic art in general, as well as for its story of primitive effort
and invention. Pottery is said to have been invented 2698 years +B.C.+
by the Chinese emperor Hoang-ti, but of course it was made by some
tribes long before this. Like every other art, it existed among some
tribes, while other tribes had no knowledge of it. There was never
a time, and there never will be a time, when all people possess an
equal degree of information or skill, so that when something has been
invented or discovered by one tribe or people it may have been in use
for a long period by another. At the beginning of the Columbian era,
most of the Amerinds knew how to make some kind of earthenware. Various
methods were used in various places to produce the pottery. Some was
modelled in baskets or on basket forms, right side up or up side down
as happened to be necessary, some was modelled in a hole in the ground,
or in the lap, and still other groups were produced by coiling round
and round slender ropes of clay, which were afterwards smoothed off or
not as suited the knowledge or desire of the potter. The progression
in a general way was probably about this: 1. Made on the inside of
a wicker form—confined chiefly to bowls; 2. Made on a netting in a
mould hole; 3. Coil-made; 4. Free-hand modelling; 5. Wheel-made, which
Amerinds appear never to have attained. There was doubtless no sharp
line of separation between these various processes, but they merged
into each other. The coil process was about the highest development of
the Amerind potter’s skill, and it was in use all over the continent.
As Holmes points out in his admirable paper,[81] the Pueblos are the
only people who used the coil as a means of decoration as well as
construction, so far as now known. All the other potters smoothed the
coils off so that no trace eventually was left of them, and this is
the practice of the modern Moki potters. They work by no special rule.
According to my own observation, the making of pottery is a desultory
occupation and is done by the women. Sometimes I saw a woman toiling
alone with her ropes of clay, out-of-doors, and again several women
would form a gay, laughing party in the sunlight. When the work is
dry the painting and decorating are done by means of a little, long,
string-like brush made of yucca fibre. This brush is like a piece of
coarse twine, about three inches long, without a handle, very limber,
and apparently entirely inadequate, yet they easily accomplished all
they desired to do with it. In order to turn the work while in process
of manufacture, and not injure it or destroy its shape, it is generally
built upon a wicker tray. In this way it can be readily swung round and
round, as the potter pays out the clay rope and adjusts it in place.
This is the nearest approach to the potter’s wheel that seems ever to
have been known on the American continent. While many shapes are based
on some form in basketry, or wood, or horn, or shell, or bark, a great
many are pure inventions, the result of fancy or inclination.
In preparing the clay, sand or pulverised potsherds were mixed with it
to temper it and prevent cracking. This was sometimes so coarse and
abundant in the old pottery that in the fragments picked up one can
frequently see large grains of sand.
[Illustration: MODELLING AN OLLA AT HANO
The potter was not aware of being photographed
From photo by the author, 1884
]
[Illustration: CLAY NUCLEUS]
[Illustration: METHOD OF BUILDING UP COIL]
All pottery of primitive races belongs to the class known as _soft_
pottery, as distinguished from what we call stoneware or _hard_
pottery in its different forms. The Amerinds were no exception, and all
their pottery is soft unglazed ware.[82] The reason for this lies in
the fact that the making of hard pottery requires not only an extensive
knowledge of the properties of clay, but, what is more, a temperature
for firing of about 4000° Fahrenheit,—a temperature which can be
obtained only in a furnace or retort, of which Amerinds were apparently
ignorant, their pottery being burned, in historic and prehistoric
times, in the open air. The common modern method among the Pueblos is
to burn with sheep dung, but they are said to have used in ancient
times deadwood, common wood, and coal. The method was usually the same
in all cases; the ware was piled up and then covered with the fuel in
such a manner that there would be as little as possible direct contact.
They also sometimes baked the ware in hot ashes with a fire above, and
sometimes they dug a pit which they lined with the fuel. A rich shiny
black ware was obtained in some localities by allowing the ware to
come in contact with the fuel and, at a certain period in the burning,
smothering the fire. This produced an apparent glaze as well, an effect
obtained also by rubbing and polishing before the firing. But there is
no true glazing in any Amerind ware, at least not north of Mexico. Even
had they known the process they would have been baffled in attempting
to put it in practice, for glazing requires a temperature of at least
1300° Fahrenheit, and they apparently had no means of securing it.[83]
All of their ware can be scratched with a knife, which is a test of
soft ware, and while some of it seems to have lustre, it is the lustre
of polish, not of glaze. Some ware, however, recently found in the
Central-American region appears to have a true glaze. Some tribes make
a variety of kinds of ware, while others confine themselves to some
special kind, and still others, as mentioned in the case of Taos, buy
all they use and make none. The Pueblos to-day are extensive potters,
especially the Zuñis and the Mokis, and produce large quantities of
varied ware, which, while similar in many respects to that of the
ancients of the region, is not so fine nor so well formed. At the
Chaco ruins Pepper found a number of tube-shaped vases, about four
inches diameter and a foot high, with four small perforated handles.
In the course of time enormous quantities must have been made in the
South-west, for the ground is everywhere strewn with fragments of it.
This would indicate either a dense population or a very long occupation
by a comparatively sparse one, and thus far the evidence is in favour
of the latter hypothesis. In such a dry climate as exists in the
South-west, even soft pottery is almost indestructible when not exposed
to river or ice action. In such cases it would soon be destroyed.
Though the Colorado River runs through the length of the ancient Pueblo
country, and receives many branches whose valleys, like its own, reveal
myriads of fragments, I never found a specimen in the river gravels.
If this is the case, how could we expect to find remains of pottery in
glacial drift?
Another kind of pottery has lately been found by Lumholtz at
Teuchitlan, State of Jalisco, Mexico. It is a sort of cloisonné,
apparently made by firing the plain ware and then applying a thick
slip which, when dry, was engraved with a pattern down to the baked
surface. The parts cut away were then smoothly filled in with a white
paste and with paste of other colours, producing some excellent
effects. Another firing then fixed the superimposed paste.
[Illustration: WARE FROM MOKI REGION, ARIZONA.]
[Illustration: WARE FROM MOKI REGION, ARIZONA.]
There are numerous specimens in the American Museum.
[Illustration: CUP FROM ARIZONA.]
[Illustration: VASE FROM ARKANSAS, SHOWING LINES MADE WITH A SHARP
POINT BEFORE FIRING.]
The valley of the Mississippi is as prolific in its yield of pottery
as the South-west, though most of it is found in mounds. It has
therefore been attributed to a departed and mysterious race which has
been called “Moundbuilder.” These mounds, however, were clearly the
work of different tribes and were erected for different purposes, and
there is no evidence to show that the builders were not Amerinds,
similar to tribes that were encountered by our people. True, some of
these tribes or stocks may have become extinct before whites entered
the region, for tribes rose to power, dwindled, and disappeared, but
that does not prove that they were anything but Amerinds, even though
they may have developed qualities and arts not practised by Amerinds
we have known. That there are some marked differences between some
of the so-called Moundbuilder ware and some other Amerind pottery
is freely admitted, but why this should indicate that there was any
mystery about the former is not intelligible, for there are many
differences in the products of existing tribes and stocks.[84] As has
been mentioned, the Pueblos are extremely good potters, while their
neighbours the Navajos practically are no potters at all. Had the
Pueblos become extinct before the appearance of the European, what a
fine chance this would have been to speculate on who these mysterious
and departed people were who built superior houses of stone and made
splendid pottery! Oh no, they could never have been common “Indians,”
they must have been a migration from China, or Japan! Unfortunately for
writers of the romantic school, the Pueblo is still there, and he is an
ordinary Amerind, in some ways hardly as intelligent as his neighbour
who makes no pottery and builds no houses. There is no reason, then,
for assuming that there was anything extraordinary about any of the
former occupants of the Mississippi valley. They were, at least some of
them were, skilful potters, and some had sense enough to dig out copper
and hammer it into shapes; but what is there in this that should lead
us to exalt them above other Amerinds? Progress in the arts may vary
among associated stocks, and also among different branches of the same
stock. In the Mississippi-valley pottery there was a tendency toward
upright bottle-shaped vessels with long necks, while the tendency of
the Pueblo ware is in the direction of the bowl. There are also long
tray-like vessels in the Mississippi valley, which do not occur at all
amongst the Pueblo ware, and there are more animal shapes, birds, etc.
A series of the Mississippi-valley forms suggests a knowledge of the
wheel, but it is not likely that they had it, though it is possible.
Anyone who has watched the progress of a common jug turning on one
of our potter’s wheels, must be struck by the series of fine shapes
the lump of clay passes through before assuming its last form. Such
a progression appears in the Mississippi valley ware, but these jars
were all probably made by the “coil” process, which was still in use in
the Mississippi valley after the advent of our people. Holmes states
positively: “The wheel or lathe has not been used.”[85] The pottery
of Chiriqui, a province near Panama, is remarkable for perfection of
finish and execution and a similar suggestion of mechanical aids. In
this case Holmes says: “Notwithstanding the fact that only primitive
methods were known, The high-necked Moundbuilder bottle is rarely
found in other parts of the United States, but it occurs in Mexico and
in South America. Ladles, common in Pueblo ware, are of rare occurrence
in that of the Moundbuilders, while rectangular box-like vessels are
found, which, though rare, are of wide distribution. One remarkable
object found in Tennessee is an earthenware burial casket formed of two
parts, a body and a lid, and it still bears marks of the baking. It
contains the remains of a small child, reduced to dust, except portions
of the skull and limbs; and two or three dozen small shell beads. It
weighs altogether 12¼ pounds. Another peculiar vessel was shaped like a
shallow trough, with a flat lip or projection at each end. While there
was undoubtedly in all tribes a certain progression of forms based on
those of basketry, etc., as before noted, it must not be forgotten that
there is a parallelism with wheel-made ware that cannot but strike the
student with amazement. So great is the symmetry and so graceful are
the shapes that one is led to suspect the employment of mechanical
devices of a high order.”[86]
[Illustration: BOTTLE-SHAPED VASE, ARKANSAS.]
The high-necked Moundbuilder bottle is rarely found in other parts
of the United States, but it occurs in Mexico and in South America.
Ladles, common in Pueblo ware, are of rare occurrence in that of the
Moundbuilders, while rectangular box-like vessels are found, which,
though rare, are of wide distribution. One remarkable object found
in Tennessee is an earthenware burial casket formed of two parts, a
body and a lid, and it still bears marks of the baking. It contains
the remains of a small child, reduced to dust, except portions of the
skull and limbs; and two or three dozen small shell beads. It weighs
altogether 12¼ pounds. Another peculiar vessel was shaped like a
shallow trough, with a flat lip or projection at each end. While there
was undoubtedly in all tribes a certain progression of forms based on
those of basketry, etc., as before noted, it must not be forgotten that
the Amerind, like all other human beings, did some things from pure
inspiration or invention and with no previous model of any kind.
[Illustration: EARTHEN WARE BURIAL CASKET, TENNESSEE.]
The Mississippi valley, according to Holmes, may be divided into three
districts as far as the pottery is concerned: the upper, the middle,
and the lower districts. This would seem to indicate as many different
tribes or stocks, or even different periods of occupancy by either the
same stock or by different stocks. The most northerly examples are
the rudest and most different from the others. Some of the pottery
that is advanced as showing a skill in sculpture not possessed by
Amerinds of the North can be explained in another way than by assuming
that the makers were different from other Amerinds of the Mississippi
valley as we have known them. As I pointed out elsewhere,[87] these
head-shaped vases are death-masks.[88] It does not require a second
look at the illustration below to see that the features are those of
death reproduced in a manner that no aboriginal potter could possibly
accomplish by free-hand method. “Here we look on a face perfect in its
proportions, accurately modelled, and, above all, depicting death with
a master-hand; yes, more, presenting to the spectator death itself as
it seized this personage in the long-forgotten past. Here is death
present with us as plainly as it is in the well-preserved features of
an Egyptian mummy.... Soft clay was pressed upon the dead features, and
when sufficiently dry it was removed and other soft clay thinly pressed
into the mould obtained. The mask thus made was built upon till the
jar before us was completed.... The interior of the wall follows the
exterior closely except in projecting features. The potter, finding
it difficult as well as unnecessary, to work the clay evenly into the
projections of the mould, filled them up more or less solidly.” This
vase is five inches in height and five inches wide from ear to ear.
It is open at the top, and has a perforated knob over the middle of
the forehead, perhaps for attaching a head-dress, and the ears are
perforated. These holes also would permit cords to be attached, by
which the jar could be hung, probably in a dead-house where the body of
the deceased original was laid. It has been stated that the features
exhibited in this vase are not “Indian,” but there seems to be no
ground for such a statement. The features are apparently those of an
Amerind boy fourteen or sixteen years of age.
[Illustration: DEATH-MASK VASE, TENNESSEE.]
Of the basketry of the Mississippi valley there are, of course, no
ancient specimens. Wicker-work would not last long in that climate;
but there must have been baskets and plaited implements of various
kinds, because people do not make pottery without passing through the
basketry stage. The Amerinds of that region also made good baskets when
first met with, and we know that they did some fairly good weaving both
in ancient and modern times. Some of the ancient fabrics have been
preserved in the mounds by contact with copper, by being charred, and
in other ways, and the ingenuity of Holmes has given us fac-similes of
some of the old netting.[89] He noticed curious markings on certain
fragments of pottery, and took clay casts of them, thus producing
positive from negative, and revealing the fact that the peculiar
markings were the impressions of fabrics. He believes these fabrics
were impressed on the ware for purposes of ornament, and while this may
in some instances have been the reason, in my opinion, the chief object
of the netting that made the impression was to lift the freshly made
jar out of a hole or a wicker form where it had been modelled. Very
early pottery was doubtless built on or in wicker-work—that is, early
in the practice of any particular tribe. This was specially the case
with the Amerinds of the Atlantic coast, as is plainly indicated in the
casts made by Holmes from fragments of pottery from that region. “The
earlier potters probably used baskets that came up to the curved-in
part of the jar, which was continued above the basket by deft handling,
or, if a basket of the same form was followed, the basket was destroyed
in the firing process. This would seem to the modern mind a great
waste of time and material, but it must be remembered that the Indian
potter had not learned modern haste, and besides could turn up a coarse
basket in a very short time. Therefore it does not seem improbable that
he may, in the early stages, have modelled his jar on the _inside_
of a basket frame of similar form and then allowed the basket to be
consumed in the baking process when it could not be separated from the
vessel. Even when he developed to a point beyond and modelled the upper
portions with a free hand, he would find great trouble in separating
his jar from its framework. What, therefore, would be the following
step? It seems to me it would have been the placing between the clay
and the mould of a piece of netting, which would permit him to lift
out his jar easily and intact, and transport it to the drying place.
He would then speedily discover that his basket was not necessary—was
not so serviceable, in fact, as a hole in the ground, for the sides of
the hole could be plastered with a layer of very sandy clay, and thus
would all sticking of the vessel to its mould be avoided. The netting,
or fabric, having been spread as evenly as possible over the inside
surface of the mould hole, the upper edges were allowed to lie out upon
the ground. The soft clay being now pressed evenly upon the fabric to
the required thickness, the sandy surface of the mould hole easily gave
it shape, and gave the potter no anxiety about the outside surface.
Indeed, he had but one surface to watch till he came to the in-curve,
if his vessel was to have a narrow mouth. Then, I surmise, he built
up roughly a clay mould, well sanded, pressing what was left of his
fabric into the inside of this mould as he built his vessel upward.
Frequently, doubtless, the fabric was not sufficient to go to the
top, which explains why sometimes only a part of a jar shows the cord
markings.... The distorting and overlapping of the meshes observed by
Holmes were probably due to the gathering in to fit the interior of the
mould, for it must be borne in mind that the fabric was not shaped in
any way to fit the mould, but was doubtless a fragment of some squarely
woven article. Thus gathering and overlapping were necessary to make it
conform to the inside surface of the mould....”
[Illustration: FLUTED VASE, ARKANSAS.]
[Illustration: IMPRESSION OF PARTS OF BASKET MOULD ON POTTERY]
“When coarse basketry was used for a mould that was intended to
be removed before firing, the interstices of the basket work were
probably rubbed full of a mixture of sand and clay to prevent the
finished vessel from sticking or catching, which explains, I think,
the peculiarity of design in some cases, for only the more prominent
features of the basket work would impress the vessel.... In some kinds
of basketry more filling was necessary than in others, which explains
the frequent greater separation and irregularity of the markings.”[90]
It seems, then, that the pottery of the Atlantic region was very rude
and was modelled chiefly on wicker moulds, and was not abundant[91];
that the lower Mississippi valley and the South-west were the
regions within the United States where pottery attained its highest
development; that as one proceeds northward pottery diminishes in
quantity and in quality till it disappears; and that in a southerly
direction it increases in abundance and in excellence of manufacture
and artistic design. The pottery area is fan-shaped, with Central
America for a handle. This would all appear to indicate that the
pottery wave rolled up from the Far South, and that the Moundbuilders
and the Pueblos acquired their art from that direction, or brought
it north as they came on the retreat of the cold. Attempts have been
made to connect the Pueblos with the Moundbuilders, and both with the
Aztecs, but there is no good evidence now known which substantiates
any such claim. Even if they did come from the South, it does not
make a mystery nor does it necessarily prove any direct relationship
between these branches of the Amerind race. Those nearest the great
culture centre acquired most culture, hence the farther north the less
pottery. The homogeneity of the Amerinds was due to causes operating
on this continent at a very early period, and the same causes may
explain why the Moundbuilder, the Pueblo, and the Southern stocks were
good potters, while the Algonquins, the Dakotas, the Athapascans, and
other Northern stocks were so inferior in this respect, while not being
inferior in others.[92]
[Illustration: VASE FROM CHIRIQUI. DECORATED IN BLACK, RED, AND PURPLE]
The Aztecs, Zapotecs, Mayas, and other people of the Mexican region
were expert potters; and it was in this region that working in clay,
like everything else, was carried to the highest degree of perfection
on this continent, and where evidence is found of seemingly true glaze.
Not only ordinary pottery of beautiful shapes and excellent texture
was made, but large funeral vases of elaborate form, terra-cotta
water-pipes, and terra-cotta figures, some of them of almost or
quite life size. Saville recently found some of these funeral jars
and terra-cotta figures in the Zapotec country, south of the city of
Mexico, in the province of Oaxaca, and there are specimens in the
Museum of Natural History in New York. The principal terra-cotta figure
he found is thus described by Saville[93]: “Another trench was started
at the eastern side of this mound, and after working down to the level
of the surrounding fields near the centre of the mound just back of the
tomb, there were found the scattered fragments of what will be, when
restored, the largest specimen of terra cotta ever found in America,
and I do not know of so large a specimen ever having been found
elsewhere. It represented a warrior, and the different pieces of the
figure were scattered over a space of about fifteen feet. The central
fragment was the head, upper torso, and right arm, lying face upward;
the open mouth revealed the teeth painted white and filed, as in the
case of the funeral urns. The eyes were well modelled and painted white
and red; the head was covered with a turban of feathers, somewhat
resembling the head-dress of Chac Mol, found by Dr. Le Plongeon in
Yucatan. A closely cropped beard covered the lower portion of the face,
the upper part being pitted as though marked by smallpox. The ears had
curious circular ornaments pendent by a string passed through holes
pierced in the lobes. The nose was ornamented with a long cylindrical
bead attached by a string fastened at the top and bottom through
the septum. The breast was painted red and white and additionally
ornamented with curious designs made by circular indentations. The
legs, which lay quite separated from the body, were bare, and the feet
were covered with sandals having beautiful heel-pieces. Around each
ankle was a line of bells. Both the toe- and the finger-nails were
painted white; the right arm, bent at an angle, grasped a pole or staff
of which about a foot remained. These fragments are now in the Museo
Nacional, City of Mexico. The entire length of the figure, according
to measurements made of the detached pieces, was nearly, if not quite,
six feet.”
[Illustration: AN ANCIENT FIGURE OF TERRA COTTA FROM THE VALLEY OF
MEXICO
The height of this figure is 150.9 cm. Breadth of shoulders, 46.0 cm.
From photograph by American Museum of Natural History
]
[Illustration: COIL INDENTED FOR DECORATION]
The specimen now in the New York Museum, page 113, is about five feet
in height, and while, artistically, it is crude, it exhibits great
skill in the potter’s art. The walls are thin and it must have taken
much labour to build the figure and successfully file it. It is in
three parts. There are also in the Museum several of the funeral urns
found in this locality. They are about fifteen or twenty inches high
and skilfully made. These urns were found “in series of five in front
of tombs, on the roof, or fastened into the façade.” They are usually
of grotesque design like most of the Amerind figures, and evidently
represent personages arrayed in the regalia of certain orders or
societies, or possibly the same personage in his various offices, or
attended by representations of other officers of some society to which
he belonged. Saville says of one group: “Resting directly on the cement
floor at the centre of the mound were five large funeral urns, page
115, representing seated figures, placed in a row facing west. The
urn in the centre has a remarkably well-modelled face, undoubtedly a
portrait of some ancient Zapotecan personage. The two on either side
are of the same general size and character, with the exception of the
face, which is covered with a mask in the form of a grotesque face,
possibly the conventionalised serpent, as the bifurcated tongue is
one of the most prominent characteristics.”[94] These are some of the
most important terra-cotta productions ever found on this continent.
Some terra-cotta tubing also found at this place is unique. Saville
says: “No such terra-cotta tubing has ever been discovered elsewhere
in Mexico, and a new problem is therefore presented.” One end of this
tubing was three feet below the surface in a field, while the other
was in the mound excavated. “It was laid in short sections, of varying
length, one end being smaller than the other, the small end of one
tube being fitted into the large end of the next, page 117. Several
of the joints still preserved the cement with which they were made
tight. The exploration did not reveal the use of the pipe.” The fact,
however, that the tubes were so carefully fitted into each other with,
apparently, the joinings all on the down slope, that is, connected
in such a way that water would flow continuously without waste, and
that the joints were made tight with cement, is good evidence that
these pipes were laid for conducting water. It seems probable that
this tubing was a part of some water-supply or irrigating scheme,
which had been abandoned before the mound covering a part of it was
constructed. As the valley where these interesting finds were made, as
well as neighbouring valleys, contain many more mounds, it is probable
that the future exploration of them will produce much more material
of value. If the terra-cotta tubing had a mythological significance
it will be found in other mounds, and if it belonged to an irrigating
scheme, or water-works, it will be explained by other finds. Effigy
jars were not confined to Mexico, for they are found in various parts
of the United States, especially in Tennessee, but they are nowhere
anything like those described from the Zapotec country. The Tennessee
specimens artistically and mechanically are exceedingly crude, as are
all attempts to delineate the human figure by the northerly Amerinds.
Some of the most elaborate and at the same time artistic forms in
Amerind pottery are found in Chiriqui,[95] a province just below
Costa Rica. The old occupants of this region seem to have excelled in
metal-working, stone-carving, and pottery, and probably in other arts
the products of which are of a more destructible nature. As the line of
demarkation between the North- and South-American cultures runs along
the southern side of Nicaragua, practically on the line of the proposed
Nicaragua Canal, the consideration of the Chiriqui products should
belong perhaps with the South-American division, but being above the
isthmus, they may be mentioned here for the sake of comparison. “The
casual observer,” says Holmes, “would at once arrive at the conclusion
that the wheel or moulds had been used, but it is impossible to detect
the use of any such appliances.” And further: “On the exposed surfaces
of certain groups of ware the polish is in many cases so perfect that
casual observers and inexperienced persons take it for a glaze.”[96]
There was extraordinary variety in this ware. There are whistles,
drums, rattles, round vases with necks and without necks; vases of
simple and vases of complex form; vases and jars with elaborate
handles; vases with annular bases or feet; and vases with short or
long legs, three in number generally. This field is so rich that it is
practicable to give here only a suggestion of what it affords, and the
reader is referred to the admirable paper by Holmes.[96]
[Illustration: ZAPOTECAN TERRA-COTTA FUNERAL URNS FOUND ON CEMENT
FLOOR IN FRONT OF TOMB 1, MOUND 7, XOXO, OAXACA, MEXICO
Photographed by M. H. Saville for the American Museum of Natural
History
From the _American Anthropologist_
]
[Illustration: POT SHOWING DIAGONAL GROOVES ACROSS THE LINES OF THE
COIL MADE BY THE HAND IN SMOOTHING UP. MANCOS CANYON, COLORADO]
[Illustration: ZAPOTECAN TERRA-COTTA TUBING FOUND LEADING DOWN INTO A
FIELD FROM THE CENTRE OF MOUND 7, XOXO, OAXACA, MEXICO
Photographed by M. H. Saville for the American Museum of Natural
History
From the _American Anthropologist_
]
[Illustration: PUEBLO POT. PATTERN PRODUCED BY OBLITERATING PINCH
MARKS.]
[Illustration: PINCH-MARKED COIL]
[Illustration: ENGRAVED WARE, ARKANSAS.]
In the matter of decoration there is found a general similarity of
methods in the different regions. Apparently the first decorations
were the unavoidable result of methods of manufacture, whether moulded
or coil-made. In the first instance the meshes of the wicker mould,
or such part of them as could not easily be covered up with a sandy
paste to prevent adhesion, impressed themselves upon the soft clay;
or the fabric that was employed to remove the work from a mould made
impressions upon the ware. If coil-made, the pinching of the clay rope
into position left marks of the finger-tips and the finger-nails with
a regularity that doubtless came to be admired and then modified to
conform to fancy, and finally finger markings and other markings and
indentations grew, especially in our South-west, into a regular system
of decoration. The irregularity due to pinching the rope in place is
less with the expert than it was with the primitive potters, and it
is now smoothed off entirely with a “rib,” the left hand being placed
opposite the pressure applied with the right.[97] In the earlier forms
the fingers of the right hand held stiffly downward seem to have been
used to even up the irregularity of the coils to some extent, as may be
discerned in figure page 116, where there are diagonal grooves across
the lines of the coil, evidently made, the left hand being inside the
jar, by drawing the fingers of the right, or rather the forefinger
braced against the others, diagonally upward upon the outer surface.
The operation would be almost identical with the modern practice except
that the fingers were used instead of a “rib.” Indentations were also
made with a sharp instrument in a pattern, and another method seems
to have been to smooth off all the pinch marks, except in certain
areas that when left would form a pattern. Thus in the latter case the
pattern was produced by a system of obliteration. In figure on page
118, a vase from the Moki country, of the ancient Pueblo manufacture,
shows this method of making a pattern by smoothing down pinch marks.
To do this the pinch marks would intentionally be made with some
regularity.
[Illustration: ENGRAVED WARE, ARKANSAS.]
[Illustration: BLACK CUP, CHIRIQUI.]
Another method of ornamentation was that of scratching or engraving
the ware after it had been fired. This is seen in figures on pages
120 and 121, from Arkansas. Still another method of ornamentation was
produced after the ware was smoothed to its finish, whether coil-made
or not, by drawing on it with a point. An example of this is seen on
page 103, also from Arkansas. The method that was most employed by the
ancient Amerinds, and is used by those of to-day, as well as by most
potters the world round, is colour. A slip or wash of fine clay was
given to the ware, and polished and decorated in colours before firing.
In this way many beautiful results were obtained in all the regions of
North America. Almost every colour was used, but white, black, red,
and yellow are most common. These pigments were laid on in a single
wash, or were applied in more or less elaborate patterns. The Pueblos,
ancient and modern, have produced an astonishing variety of designs,
and the same may be said of the Mexicans, Mayas, Zapotecs, Chiriquis,
and other stocks of the South. A large volume could barely do justice
to this subject, but enough has been given here to show the nature,
distribution, and trend of pottery making by the Amerindian Tribes.[98]
[Illustration: WOVEN MOCCASIN FROM KENTUCKY CAVE]
CHAPTER VI
WEAVING AND COSTUME
The first article of dress of primitive people was not a woven stuff,
but nevertheless weaving, like pottery, begins in plaiting and
basketry, and is an ancient art. The first clothing, a necessity of
climate, was made of skins of animals where they could be obtained, and
where they could not primitive man walked in a state of nature. His
desire for clothing was one purely of comfort; modesty, as we define
it, was unknown. Modesty, so far as it relates to concealment of the
body, is the child of climate and fashion. A Breton peasant girl does
not mind if her legs are seen, but she is shocked if caught with her
hair down or without her cap; one of our own ladies thinks nothing of
exhibiting her bare shoulders and bosom at the opera under gaslight,
but she would not do it in daylight. On the beach it would also be
improper, but there she is not troubled if her lower extremities are
seen. In some of the milder climates to-day clothing is scanty, while
with the Eskimo in the Far North it is composed of warm furs. Cold was
responsible for the first clothing, and is to-day responsible for a
good deal of it. The idea of utilising feathers and broad leaves as
well as skins would soon occur to a people, especially if they found it
difficult to secure the skins, and with these some kind of a string was
necessary to hold them together, and if no sinew or thong was at hand
the want would be supplied by twisted grass or bark, and this twisted
grass or bark then came itself to be combined in the form of mats for
sleeping on or covering sticks to produce a shelter. This was plaiting,
and it is the first step to basketry and weaving. Many of the simpler
arts are native in the brain of man, and the expression of them at the
proper time is as easy and natural as it is for a birdling to fly, a
kitten to catch a mouse, or a baby to walk for the first time. It is,
like sight, or thought, or articulate speech, a direct and unconscious
result of the innate composition of mankind. It is impossible to tell
why a spider builds a web of even proportions instead of one that
is irregular, or when it acquired the skill to perform its feat of
engineering, or why it builds a web at all, and does not, like a cat
and some species of spiders, rely on springing upon its prey. The
spider does this the world round because it is a spider, and because
its prey also has, the world round, its own habits. So with man.
Everywhere he learned to plait mats, make wicker-work and pottery, and
a thousand other things simply because he was everywhere _the same
man_. If you examine articles of primitive manufacture from various
parts of the globe, you will find them all practically alike, because
the men who made them were practically alike and their wants and
surroundings were practically alike. They plaited together strips of
bark or twisted grasses, or rushes, because they had to have them, and
they went on finding out the properties of the materials that compose
the world just as they are doing to-day, till they made cloth and made
it on a machine. Primitive fabrics were everywhere about the same,
and when the loom was invented it was and is, where still used in its
primitive form, very much the same. That in use to-day by the Navajos
is much like that used by the Orientals. The Navajos are probably not
the inventors of it, but borrowed the idea from the Pueblos, or at
least derived it through a mixture of Pueblo blood. Their cousins, the
Apaches, do not weave, and they are probably better representatives of
the original Athapascan stock than the Navajos.
The Mexican loom was similar to that of the Navajos, and it is probable
that some of the tribes of the Mississippi valley were acquainted with
one built on a like pattern. The product of these primitive looms was
also much alike in its character; some of the Oriental rugs that we see
now strongly resemble the blankets of the Mexicans or Navajos.
[Illustration: MENOMINEE BEADED GARTERS]
This is because weaving is a simple art; and until the invention of the
Jacquard principle complex patterns were produced only by great labour,
as all the different colours had to be adjusted by hand, which is still
the case in many fine products like the Turkish rugs or the shawls of
Cashmere.
The primitive products of the loom were square in shape, and when used
as garments they were not cut to a pattern or altered, but were worn
as they came from the loom. To make a dress, it was only necessary to
fasten two of these mats or blankets together, just as the Moki women
do now. This combination was then slipped over the head, with one
corner on the right shoulder and one under the left, and a belt around
the waist. This was the costume complete. There was no fitting the
fabric to the body.
Thread, cord, twine, and rope were made by the Menominees chiefly
out of the “inner bark of the young sprouts of basswood. The bark is
removed in sheets and boiled in water to which a large quantity of lye
from wood ashes has been added. This softens the fibre and permits
the worker to manipulate it without breaking. The shoulder-blade of
a deer or other large animal is then nailed or otherwise fastened
to an upright post, and through it a hole about an inch in diameter
is drilled; through this hole bunches of the boiled bark are pulled
backward and forward, from right to left, to remove from it all
splinters or other hard fragments. After the fibre has become soft and
pliable, bunches of it are hung up in hanks, to be twisted as desired.
The manner of making cord or twine, such as is used in weaving mats and
for almost all household purposes, is by holding in the left hand the
fibre as it is pulled from the hank, and separating it into two parts,
which are laid across the thigh. The palm of the right hand is then
rolled forward over both so as to tightly twist the pair of strands,
when they are permitted to unite and twist into a cord. The twisted
end being pushed a little to the right, the next continuous portions
of the united strands also are twisted to form a single cord. The same
process is followed in all fibre-twisting, even to the finest nettle
thread.”[99] In the matter of thread some fine results were obtained
by various Amerinds. Holmes says: “The finest threads with which I
am acquainted are perhaps not as fine as our number ten ordinary
spool-cotton thread, but we are not justified in assuming that more
refined work was not done.”[100] Sage-brush, yucca, and other plants
were used for making thread and cord.
[Illustration: NAVAJO WOMAN AT THE LOOM]
In order to weave, it is first necessary to reduce your fibre, or
wool, or cotton, to more or less even threads or yarn. The Amerind
way of doing this was the same, practically, wherever spinning and
weaving were attempted, from Central America northward. The spindle is
a round, slender, pointed stick, a foot to about fifteen inches long,
put through a disc, generally of flat, hard wood, four to six inches in
diameter, which acts as a flywheel to keep up the momentum. It is the
simplest form of top. The operator holds the wool or cotton, previously
prepared, in his or her lap, and attaching one end of it to the top
arm of the spindle, above the disc, gives the spindle a twirl, either
by the thumb and forefinger or by a dexterous sweep of the palm of the
hand along the thigh. The fibre, or wool, that was attached to the arm
of it winds round till it reaches the tip, where it clings and takes
on the rotary motion of the stick to which it is fast, being twisted
thereby into yarn. It continues to spin with the spindle for some
seconds, about fifteen or twenty, and when the momentum slackens below
the necessary speed, the yarn thus far made is wound on the spindle
and it is started afresh, with more wool paid out to the twisting. The
operation is repeated over and over till the spindle is full, and it
is surprising to see how rapidly it can be done. I have only seen this
performed amongst the Moki, but the descriptions from other places
show it to be done in about the same way everywhere. In the Mexican
region the spindle-discs were made of pottery. In Nicaragua both wood
and terra cotta were employed, and it is likely that wood was also
used by some part of the people in Mexico and other places where the
terra-cotta discs are now found.
Weaving was not confined to the Pueblo and Mexican country when the
whites first came to the continent, but was in vogue amongst many
different tribes, who used various substances in the manufacture of
rugs and blankets. Cotton amongst Southern and South-western tribes
was a favourite material, and in other places hemp, and the hair of
animals, and birds’ feathers were used. The Kwakiutls of the North-west
coast “made blankets of mountain-goat wool, dog’s hair, feathers, or a
mixture of both.”[101] And the tribes of Puget Sound and the Straits
of Fuca “attained considerable skill in manufacturing a species of
blanket from a mixture of the wool of the mountain sheep and the hair
of a particular kind of dog, though in this art they never equalled
the more northern tribes.”[102] It is extremely probable that some
of the Pueblos, before the introduction of the sheep of Europe, used
the hair or wool of a mountain sheep or goat for weaving, and it is
possible that they had to some extent domesticated that animal or some
similar one; at least they may have kept it imprisoned for its wool in
much the same way that they now keep eagles for their feathers. Fray
Marcos relates that one of the natives he met with in 1540 told him
that the people of Totonteac made cloth, much like the garment he had
on, from the hair of certain small animals. These animals have usually
been supposed to have been dogs, but as the Northern Amerinds used
mountain-goat’s wool, it is possible that the Pueblos, who were in
advance of them in all that pertains to weaving, had not only succeeded
in weaving such hair or wool garments, but had conceived the idea of
holding the animals in captivity. It has been supposed by some that
they had an animal of the vicuna kind. Terra-cotta images have been
found in the Salado ruins of Arizona that are difficult to identify,
and are believed by some zoölogists who have seen them to represent “a
creature allied to the South-American Camellidæ.”[103]
[Illustration: PART OF THE SOMAÍKOLI CEREMONY AT CICHUMOVI, NOVEMBER,
1884, SHOWING A SACRED BLANKET ON FIGURE IN FOREGROUND
From photograph by the author
]
“It has been surmised that such animals continued to be domesticated
by the sedentary Indians of Arizona and New Mexico down to historic
days and became extinct only when the more serviceable European sheep
was introduced by the Spaniards.... Fossil bones of an animal of this
family have been found in the South-west; but its bones were not
identified in the Salado ruins.”[103]
The Pai Utes made a garment of rabbit-skins which was very warm. The
skins were twisted and attached one to another end and end, making a
sort of fur rope, and this rope was tied in parallel lines, forming
a kind of large cloak which was most serviceable in winter. Flax, or
a plant closely allied to it, also grew wild all over Arizona and
New Mexico, and was used for garments. The bark of the sagebrush was
used to make cord and mats. Yucca also furnished a supply of valuable
fibre. Cotton was grown by many of the Pueblos and is still cultivated
by the Mokis, who manufacture a sacred blanket from it that is sought
after at good prices by the Pueblos of other districts. It is a finely
woven white blanket, with a broad red stripe transversely at each end.
It is worn by women in the ceremonials. The Mokis are good weavers,
using a loom similar to that employed by the Navajos. The Moki loom
is generally set up in the kiva[104] where often there are permanent
attachments for it, and there the men, who do all the weaving among
this tribe, patiently execute their plans. Most of the Moki blankets
are of low colours and simple design, dark blue being, with black, the
favourite tint. The usual material is the wool of the European sheep,
which has flourished among the Pueblos ever since it was introduced by
the Spaniards. The sheep are herded on the plains during the day and at
night are driven up the talus of the cliffs to corrals that lie just
below the plateau on which the villages are built. The Navajos living
in the surrounding country have far larger flocks than those of the
Moki, and weave only wool. In fact, there are amongst the Navajos more
than a million and a half head of sheep and goats. Most of the wool
from these they usually sell to dealers at four or five cents a pound
and then purchase for their blanket-work at high prices Germantown
wools of brilliant colours, which colours they cannot obtain with their
own dyes, though the colours they do secure are far more artistic.
Formerly, to get the brilliant red of which they are so fond, they
would buy a Mexican cloth, called _bayeta_, a sort of flannel, and
ravel it, to reweave it in their blankets. The women do most of the
weaving amongst the Navajos. The colours are usually bright, though
the every-day serviceable blanket is of dark blue and white or black
and white, or of the natural grey of the wool. The greater gaudiness
of much of the Navajo work has given it a reputation of superiority
to that of the Pueblo, which, in my opinion, is not wholly correct.
Washington Matthews,[105] who has so carefully studied the subject,
states that there is a constant deterioration in Pueblo weaving, which
may be true in general, but hardly applies to the Moki. I have a sample
of Moki work which, so far as weaving skill is concerned, is as fine
as any Navajo work I have ever seen. The Moki do not turn out as much
as the Navajo, because they are a far smaller tribe; and their product
is dark, as a rule, in colour, as they use their own dyes, but its
texture, and especially the texture of the sacred cotton blankets, is
extremely fine, even finer and better as an example of weaving skill
than many Navajo blankets. “In some Pueblos,” says Matthews, “the skill
of the loom has been almost forgotten.”
[Illustration: DETAILS OF NAVAJO LOOM CONSTRUCTION]
The Navajo loom is set up anywhere and a shelter of boughs built over
it. As the rainfall is light in the Navajo country, it is not necessary
to provide permanent shelters. The loom is worth a careful description,
and as I do not know of any better, or indeed so good as that given by
Matthews, it is here quoted entire: “Two posts, a a, are set firmly
in the ground; to these are lashed two cross pieces or braces, b c,
the whole forming the frame of the loom. Sometimes two slender trees,
growing at a convenient distance from one another, are made to answer
for the posts, d is a horizontal pole, which I call the supplementary
yarn-beam, attached to the upper brace, b, by means of a rope, e e,
spirally applied, f is the upper beam of the loom. As it is analogous
to the yarn-beam of our looms, I will call it by this name, although
once only have I seen the warp wound around it. It lies parallel to
the pole, d, about two or three inches below it, and is attached to
the latter by a number of loops, g g. A spiral cord wound around the
yarn-beam holds the upper border cord, h h, which, in turn, secures
the upper end of the warp, i i. The lower beam of the loom is shown
at k. I will call this the cloth beam, although the finished web is
never wound around it; it is tied firmly to the lower brace, c, of the
frame, and to it is secured the lower border cord of the blanket. The
original distance between the two beams is the length of the blanket.
Lying between the threads of the warp is depicted a broad, thin, oaken
stick, l, which I will call the batten. A set of healds attached to a
heald-rod, m, are shown above the batten. These healds are made of cord
or yarn; they include alternate threads of the warp, and serve when
drawn forward to open the lower shed. The upper shed is kept patent by
a stout rod, n (having no healds attached), which I name the shed-rod.
Their substitute for the reed of our looms is a wooden fork, which will
be designated as the reed-fork.”[106]
All the Navajo and Pueblo weaving is the same on both sides. Most of
it is straight weaving, but there is a good deal of diagonal work.
This is true also of the Moki. The diagonal weaving produces a diamond
figure that is very pretty, but I have never seen it used in any of the
finest Navajo work. As to the designs, Matthews says that “in the finer
blankets of intricate pattern, out of thousands which I have examined,
I do not remember to have ever seen two exactly alike.”[106] Doubtless
while some of these designs, or even many, are drawn from Pueblo
sources as noticed, the weaver introduces original features and often
invents new patterns. The blankets are woven, as a rule, in two ways,
the tight method for protection against rain, and the loose method for
protection against cold. The loose, soft blanket is worn under one of
the harder ones in wet or windy weather.[107] The Navajos also weave
garters and long sashes. The garters are similar to the sashes, only
smaller. They are used to hold leggings in place. Small blankets are
made to put under the saddle, and these are often very fine in texture
as well as in pattern. Similar ones are made for children.
“Previously to the seventeenth century,” says Bandelier, “the
aboriginal dress consisted largely of cotton sheets, or rather simple
wrappers, tied either around the neck or on the shoulder, or converted
into sleeveless jackets.” Of the fibre of the yucca, the Zuñi Indians
made skirts and kilts; of rabbit-skins very heavy blankets were made.
The northern Puebloans, of New Mexico, nearer to a game region, dressed
in buckskin in preference to anything else. But still, even when cotton
was unobtainable for whole garments, they sought to secure cotton
scarfs and girdles woven in bright colours, which were used for belts
as well as for garters, etc. The dress was more simple than that of
to-day. Leggings of buckskin were worn in winter only, and then mostly
by the northern Pueblos. The moccasin, or _tegua_, protected the feet.
It is explicitly stated that while the uppers of this shoe without heel
were of deerskin, the soles were frequently of buffalo hide.”[108] The
moccasin of the South-west is generally soled with rawhide of some
kind, the sole being slightly turned up all round.
Another material for garments was feathers. These were utilised all
over the continent, to a greater or less degree, by various tribes, but
it was the Mexicans who carried the work in this line to perfection.
“Nothing could be more picturesque,” says Prescott, “than the aspect of
these Indian battalions with the naked bodies of the common soldiers
gaudily painted, the fantastic helmets of the chiefs glittering with
gold and precious stones, and the glowing panoplies of feather-work,
which decorated their persons.... The common file wore no covering
except a girdle round the loins. Their bodies were painted with
appropriate colours of the chieftain whose banner they followed. The
feather-mail of the higher class of warriors exhibited also a similar
selection of colours for the like object, in the same manner as the
colour of the tartan indicates the peculiar clan of the Highlander.
The caciques and principal warriors were clothed in a quilted cotton
tunic, two inches thick, which, fitting close to the body, protected
also the thighs and the shoulders. Over this the wealthier Indians
wore cuirasses of thin gold plate or silver. Their legs were defended
by leathern boots or sandals, trimmed with gold. But the most
brilliant part of their costume was a rich mantle of the _plumaje_,
or feather-work, embroidered with curious art, and furnishing some
resemblance to the gorgeous surcoat worn by the European knight over
his armour in the Middle Ages. This graceful and picturesque dress
was surmounted by a fantastic head-piece made of wood or leather,
representing the head of some wild animal, and frequently displaying
a formidable array of teeth. With this covering the warrior’s head
was enveloped, producing a most grotesque and hideous effect. From
the crown floated a splendid _panache_ of the richly variegated
plumage of the tropics, indicating, by its form and colours, the
rank and family of the wearer. To complete their defensive armour,
they carried shields or targets, made sometimes of wood covered with
leather, but more usually of a light frame of reeds quilted with
cotton, which were preferred as tougher and less liable to fracture
than the former. They had other bucklers, in which the cotton was
covered with an elastic substance, enabling them to be shut up in a
more compact form, like a fan or umbrella. These shields were decorated
with showy ornaments, according to the taste or wealth of the wearer,
and fringed with a beautiful pendant of feather-work.... Such was the
costume of the Tlascalan warrior, and, indeed, of that great family of
nations generally who occupied the plateau of Anahuac.[109]... They
were particularly struck with the costume of the higher classes, who
wore fine embroidered mantles, resembling the graceful _albornoz_, or
Moorish cloak, in their texture and fashion.[110]... Here they were
met by several hundred Aztec chiefs, who came out to announce the
approach of Montezuma, and to welcome the Spaniards to his capital.
They were dressed in the fanciful gala costume of the country, with
the _maxtlatl_, or cotton sash, around their loins, and a broad mantle
of the same material, or of the brilliant feather-embroidery, flowing
gracefully down their shoulders. On their necks and arms they displayed
collars and bracelets of turquoise mosaic, with which delicate plumage
was curiously mingled, while their ears, under-lips, and occasionally
their noses, were garnished with pendants formed of precious stones,
or crescents of fine gold[111].... Montezuma wore the girdle and ample
square cloak, _tilmatli_,[112] of his nation. It was made of the
finest cotton, with the embroidered ends gathered in a knot around
his neck. His feet were defended by sandals having soles of gold, and
the leathern thongs which bound them to his ankles were embossed with
the same metal. Both the cloak and sandals were sprinkled with pearls
and precious stones, among which the emerald and the _chalchivitl_—a
green stone of higher estimation than any other among the Aztecs—were
conspicuous. On his head he wore no other ornament than a _panache_ of
plumes of the royal green which floated down his back, the badge of
military, rather than of regal rank.”[113]
[Illustration: A PUEBLOAN OF SAN JUAN, NEW MEXICO]
These quotations from Prescott will give an idea of the costume of the
Mexicans, and of the beautiful feather-work which formed so important
a part of it. Though the language of Prescott may somewhat exaggerate
the quality and beauty of the Mexican garments, we know from what
the Mexicans and Pueblos manufactured afterward that much skill must
have been displayed in these various fabrics. The cloak of cotton was
probably no more a cloak or mantle than the blankets woven by the
Pueblos and Navajos to-day; that is, it was a square of cloth worn
about the shoulders. If one should describe the Pueblo in Prescott’s
delightful language, we should think him and his houses and garments
far finer than they really are. To describe a breech-cloth as a girdle
round the loins; to speak of blankets as mantles and robes; moccasins
as sandals, and otherwise gild description, makes pleasant reading, but
is liable to convey erroneous impressions. Prescott’s lack of general
knowledge of Amerind customs gave him a free rein and his poetical
temperament finished the picture.
[Illustration: METHOD OF MAKING FEATHER-WORK]
Montezuma wore on his head “a _panache_ of plumes, ... the badge
of military, rather than of regal rank.” And this is exactly what
Montezuma was, a war-chief. But Prescott drew his material from the
Spaniards, and where he describes what they saw, he is not, in all
probability, far from the mark, although his language may be sometimes
rather flowery. The feather-work was one of the remarkable products
of the Aztecs. In an ornamental way it is still practised in Mexico,
and the birds and other objects made from feathers exhibit a wonderful
skill. Mantles of fur are mentioned as being used by the Aztecs,
but these were probably constructed in much the same manner as the
rabbit-skin robes of the Moki and the Pai Ute, that is, by twisting
the skins into ropes and then tying them together. The cotton weaving
was done on a loom similar to that now in use by the Navajos and the
Pueblos. The feather-work was probably made in much the same way as
that of Peru, specimens of which have been preserved in the tombs. The
figure on page 137 shows the way the Peruvians attached the feathers
to the cloth underground, but in many cases the feathers were woven
in with the warp and woof, instead of being attached to the surface
in this way. This use of feathers was not confined to any particular
locality, but, like almost all the arts in use on the continent, was
widely distributed. Turkey feathers were used in Virginia for this
work, and in Louisiana the same bird was called upon. “The feather
mantles,” writes Du Pratz in his history of Louisiana, “are made on
a frame similar to that on which the peruke makers work hair; they
spread the feathers in the same manner and fasten them on old fish-nets
or old mantles of mulberry bark. They are placed, spread in this
manner, one over the other and on both sides; for this purpose small
turkey feathers are used; women who have feathers of swans or India
ducks, which are white, make these feather mantles for women of high
rank.”[114] Feather mantles of fine quality were also made by the
Lenapé.
Almost every Amerind tribe could make thread, cord, nets, mats, and
some kind of woven stuff. The Mexicans, Mayas, and other tribes of the
Central region excelled in these things, but the Pueblos, and Navajos,
as we have seen, execute in modern times some admirable fabrics, which
the Pueblos also constructed before the advent of the whites.
“The Mexicans had also,” says Prescott, “the art of spinning a fine
thread of the hair of the rabbit and other animals, which they wove
into a delicate web that took a permanent dye.... The women, as in
other parts of the country, seemed to go about as freely as the men.
They wore several skirts or petticoats of different lengths, with
highly ornamented borders, and sometimes over them loose flowing
robes, which reached to the ankles. These, also, were made of cotton;
for the wealthier classes, of a fine texture, prettily embroidered.
No veils were worn here (Mexico) as in some other parts of Anahuac,
where they were made of the aloe thread, or of the light web of hair
above noticed.”[115] Biart[116] says the women wore “a piece of cloth
_cueitl_, which they wrapped around their bodies, and which descended
a little below the knee; over this skirt they wore a sleeveless chemise
called _huepilli_.”
[Illustration: CHILKAT CEREMONIAL SHIRT]
The Mayas and other Amerinds of the Central region used woven cloths
similar to those of the Aztecs. Of the dress of the modern Amerinds
of Nicaragua, Squier says: “It is exceedingly simple. On ordinary
occasions the women wear only a white or flowered skirt fastened round
the waist, leaving the upper part of the person entirely exposed, or
but partially covered by a handkerchief fastened around the neck.
In Masaya and some other places, a square piece of cloth of native
manufacture, and precisely the same style and pattern with that used
for the same purpose before the Discovery, supplies the place of a
skirt. It is fastened in some incomprehensible way without aid of
strings or pins and falls from the hips a little below the knees....
The men wear a kind of cotton drawers, fastened above the hips, but
frequently reaching no lower than the knees. Sandals supply the place
of shoes, but for the most part both sexes go with bare feet.”[117]
The costume of the women of Louisiana as depicted by Du Pratz in an
illustration in his history, is almost, if not quite identical with the
costume of the women of Nicaragua.
Fine dressing was not confined to the Mexicans. Other Amerinds gave
some attention to their personal appearance as well as the tribes of
Mexico. In the following description by a Miss Powell, who visited an
Iroquois council on Buffalo Creek, in 1785, of Captain David, if the
worthy Captain had been described as a “lord,” and Miss Powell had been
less skeptical about his ablutions, he might easily have ranked with
some of the “lords” of Anahuac who are so conspicuous in the charming
works of Prescott. Miss Powell declared, “that the Prince of Wales
did not bow with more grace than ‘Captain David.’ He spoke English
with propriety. His person was as tall and fine as it was possible to
imagine; his features handsome and regular, with a countenance of much
softness; his complexion not disagreeably dark, and, said Miss Powell,
‘I really believe he washes his face.’... His hair was shaved off,
except a little on top of his head, which, with his ears, was painted
a glowing red. Around his head was a fillet of silver from which two
strips of black velvet, covered with silver beads and brooches, hung
over the left temple. A ‘foxtail feather’ in his scalp-lock and a black
one behind each ear waved and nodded as he walked, while a pair of
immense silver ear-rings hung down to his shoulders. He wore a calico
shirt, the neck and shoulders thickly covered with silver brooches, the
sleeves confined above the elbows with broad silver bracelets engraved
with the arms of England, while four smaller ones adorned his wrists.
Around his waist was a dark scarf lined with scarlet which hung to his
feet, while his costume was completed by neatly fitting blue cloth
leggins, fastened with an ornamental garter below the knee.”[118] This
elegant gentleman belonged to no vanished or mysterious race; he was
a modern Iroquois. Undoubtedly his ancestors had, many of them, with
the means at their command, dressed with equal splendour, and we may
wonder what kind of a description of them we would have had from the
romantic Spaniards if they had happened to meet with them. Even this
well-balanced American lady was considerably overcome, for she says:
“Captain David made the finest appearance I ever saw in my life.” About
this same time, or to be accurate, in 1776, Father Escalante met with
Amerinds in Utah whose dress was very different. “Their dress,” he
says, “manifests great poverty; the most decent which they wear is a
coat or shirt of deerskin, and big moccasins of the same in winter;
they have dresses made of hare and rabbit skin.”[119] In the latter we
recognise the same twisted skin garments that are still used, or were
a few years ago, by the Pai Utes and the Mokis. In central Georgia in
Soto’s time the women wore a kind of shawl, “for covering, wearing one
about the body from the waist downward, and another over the shoulder
with the right arm left free.”[120] Spinning and weaving were long
supposed, by those who had not investigated, to be practised only by
the Mexican and Pueblo tribes, and by the Navajos, but the Pimas and
Maricopas of Arizona were adepts in these arts in 1857. The government
agent reports at that time: “They also spin and weave their cotton, by
hand, into blankets of a beautiful texture, an art not acquired from
the Spaniards, but found among them more than three hundred years ago,
when the Spaniards first penetrated the country.”[121] The Algonquins
of Connecticut dressed in skins “cured so as to be soft and pliable,
and sometimes ornamented with paint and with beads manufactured from
shells. Occasionally they decked themselves in mantles made of feathers
overlapping each other as on the back of the fowl, and presenting an
appearance of fantastic gayety which, no doubt, prodigiously delighted
the wearers. The dress of the women consisted usually of two articles:
a leather skirt, or under garment, ornamented with fringe; and a skirt
of the same material, fastened round the waist with a belt and reaching
nearly to the feet.... Their hair they dressed in a thick heavy
plait which fell down upon the neck; and they sometimes ornamented
their heads with bands of wampum or with a small cap. The men went
bare-headed, with their hair fantastically trimmed, each according to
his fancy. One warrior would have it shaved on one side of the head
and long on the other. Another might be seen with his scalp completely
bare, except a strip two or three inches in width running from the
forehead over to the nape of the neck. This was kept short, and so
thoroughly stiffened with paint and bear’s grease as to stand straight
after the fashion of a cock’s comb, or the crest of a warrior’s
helmet. The legs were covered with leggins of dressed deerskin, and
the lower part of the body was protected by the breech-cloth, usually
called by the early settlers, Indian breeches. Moccasins, that is,
light shoes of soft dressed leather, were common to both sexes;
and like other portions of the attire, were many times tastefully
ornamented with embroidery of wampum. The men often dispensed with
their leggins, especially in summer; while in winter they protected
themselves against the bleak air by adding to their garments a mantle
of skins. The male children ran about in a state of nature until they
were ten or twelve years old; the girls were provided with an apron,
though of very economical dimensions.... The women ... used the paint
as an ornament, while the men seldom applied it, except when they
went to war and wished to appear very terrible in the sight of their
enemies. Sachems and great men had caps and aprons heavily wrought with
different-coloured beads. Belts were also worn of the same material,
some of which contained so great a quantity of wampum as to be valued
by the English colonists at eight and ten pounds sterling.”[122]
[Illustration: CHILKAT CEREMONIAL BLANKET]
Here we discover the same desire for distinction of individuals by
dress that exists in all races, and the same desire to dress richly
on the part of those possessing wealth or station, for it must be
understood that wealth and station have their degrees amongst the
rudest Amerinds as well as amongst the highest and amongst the
Europeans. The dress in the summer always differs considerably from
that of winter. In many tribes little is worn by the men in summer but
the breech-cloth, and sometimes not even that. I recall one morning
when I was living in the Moki village of Tewa, in Arizona, one of
the dignitaries came to call upon me, as was a common custom, and he
had wrapped about him a native blanket. When he temporarily let this
covering drop away from his person, I noticed that there was not even
a breech-cloth beneath. The small children of both sexes played about
in a state of nature, though some wore a shirt, and the women appeared
to have on only the one garment, made of two small black blankets sewed
together on their side edges and caught over the right shoulder and
under the left. The Moki women wear moccasins only in the ceremonials,
or on some state occasion, or when travelling. They rarely travel.
Catlin gave a great deal of attention to the costumes of the Amerinds
he travelled amongst and painted, and a reference to his works opens
up a world of detail that cannot be presented here. Some of his most
interesting work was amongst the Mandans, of Dakota stock, in the year
1832.[123] I will quote from him some general remarks on the Mandan
costume. “The Mandans, in many instances, dress very neatly, and some
of them splendidly. As they are in their native state, their dresses
are all of their own manufacture, and, of course, altogether made
of skins of different animals belonging to those regions. There is,
certainly, a reigning and striking similarity of costume amongst most
of the North-western tribes, and I cannot say that the dress of the
Mandans is decidedly distinct from that of the Crows or the Blackfeet,
the Assiniboins, or the Sioux[124]; yet there are modes of stitching
or embroidering in every tribe which may at once enable the traveller
who is familiar with their modes to detect or distinguish the dress
of any tribe. These differences consist generally in the fashions of
constructing the head-dress, or of garnishing their dresses with the
porcupine quills, which they use in great profusion.... The tunic,
or shirt, of the Mandan men is very similar in shape to that of the
Blackfeet—made of two skins of deer, or mountain-sheep, strung with
scalp-locks, beads, and ermine. The leggings, like those of the other
tribes of which I have spoken, are made of deerskins and shaped to fit
the leg, embroidered with porcupine quills, and fringed with scalps
from their enemies’ heads. Their moccasins are made of buckskin, and
neatly ornamented with porcupine quills. Over their shoulders (or, in
other words, over one shoulder and passing under the other) they very
gracefully wear a robe from a young buffalo’s back, oftentimes cut
down to about half of its original size, to make it handy and easy
for use. Many of these are also fringed on one side with scalp-locks,
and the flesh side of the skin curiously ornamented with pictured
representations of the creditable events and battles of their lives.
Their head-dresses are of various sorts, and many of them exceedingly
picturesque and handsome, generally made of war-eagles’ or ravens’
quills and ermine. These are the most costly part of an Indian’s dress
in all this county, owing to the difficulty of procuring the quills and
the fur; the war-eagle being the _rara avis_, and the ermine the rarest
animal that is found in the country.” Catlin gave two horses for one of
the head-dresses. This specimen came down to the wearer’s feet. These
are now called “war-bonnets,” and are still in use among the Sioux and
other tribes. “There is occasionally,” continues Catlin, “a chief or a
warrior of so extraordinary renown that he is allowed to wear horns on
his head-dress, which give to his aspect a strange and majestic effect.
These are made of about a third part of the horn of a buffalo bull, the
horn having been split from end to end, and a third part of it taken
and shaved thin and light and highly polished. These are attached to
the top of the head-dress on each side in the same place that they rise
and stand on the head of a buffalo, rising out of a mat of ermine skins
and tails, which hang over the top of the head-dress somewhat in the
form that the large and profuse locks of hair hang and fall over the
head of a buffalo bull.” This head-dress with horns “is used only on
certain occasions, and they are very seldom.”[125]
[Illustration: MOKI WALL DECORATION. PINK ON A WHITE GROUND.
MISHONGNUVI, ARIZONA]
[Illustration: BELLACOOLAS]
[Illustration: TOP VIEW OF CONICAL NORTH-WEST COAST HAT
Made of spruce roots, ornamented in red and black paint, with
totemic device of a raven
See figure page 160
]
Among the Omahas, also of Dakota stock, garments, Dorsey says, “were
usually made by the women, while men made their weapons.... There is no
distinction between the attire of dignitaries and that of the common
people.”[126]
[Illustration: WONSIVU, A PAI UTE GIRL
Posed by Thomas Moran
From photograph by the Colorado River Survey, 1874
]
The Makahs of the North-west region (U. S.) manufacture a kind of cloth
out of cedar bark. “The inner bark is selected, boiled, or macerated,
and then pounded and hatcheled out. The bark is made to form the warp,
the woof being made of grass thread. This stuff is pliable, and makes a
convenient outer garment. Very pretty capes, edged with sea-otter skin,
are made of it. This tribe also are the principal manufacturers of the
cedar mats which are used on the Sound. These are entirely of bark,
formed into narrow strips, and woven on the floor. They are thin and
perfectly even in texture.”[127] Among the tribes of the North-west:
“The women universally wore a breech-clout of strands gathered around
the waist and falling usually to the knees.... With the men no idea of
modesty existed.”[128] They sometimes wear a bearskin with the hair
out tied around the throat. “Their hats, when they wear any, are of
the conical form common along the coast.”[129] A conical wicker hat
similar to the Japanese shape is found among the Tlinkits (Koluschan)
and Chimmesyan up on the Alaskan coast. I saw several at Sitka in the
summer of 1899, but not in use. The head covering of various tribes
differs considerably. The skull-cap, woven like a basket, was never
found, so far as I know, in the Mississippi region. The Pai Utes
formerly wore caps, or at least some of them did, the men wearing a
little buckskin affair tied under the chin with strings. The remainder
of their costume often consisted of a string around the waist from
which was suspended front and rear a cloth of buckskin reaching half
way to the ground. Others wore fine buckskin suits; a fringed shirt
and fringed leggings reaching, like those of the Dakota, to the waist.
The southern Utah women wore conical caps of wicker-work, like a bowl
upside down, except that they had a little point at the top.[130] The
women’s garment was of buckskin, attached at the neck and hanging down
before and behind to below the knee, open at the sides, and bound
around the waist by a buckskin sash. There was a plentiful adornment of
buckskin fringe also. The feet were bare except in cold weather, when
moccasins were worn. The younger women wore a narrow band around the
brow composed of two buckskin strings, covered with porcupine quills,
which were interwoven to hold the strings together, and the men
often wore a head-dress of feathers, which stood straight up around
the crown. In both men and women the hair was allowed to hang down,
brushed back from the face without braids of any kind. The Navajo men
wear a sort of turban; a piece of red cloth or a bandana twisted around
the brow, the hair being done up in a kind of Greek knot behind. Their
clothes consist of a shirt or jacket of cotton goods, and trousers
of the same stuff reaching to just below the knee and slashed up on
the outside for about eight inches. They sometimes wear close-fitting
breeches with leggings. This garment is generally held at the waist
by a belt, which is often richly decorated by discs of silver about
two by four inches elaborately engraved in their native style. The
trousers are sometimes bound inside the leggings. Their leggings are
of buckskin, red or black, frequently fastened on the outside by a row
of silver half-globe buttons of their own make and woven garters, some
three feet long, twisted around above the calf. The leggings are also
applied without any buttons when they are held by the garters. The
moccasin is one finely made, red or black, or the natural tan colour,
with a rawhide sole turned up all round, and, like the leggings, often
fastened by several silver buttons. The Navajos are extremely fond
of black. The hair of the women is parted and tied in a knot behind
very much the same as that of the men. Their dress is now very like
that of Moki women, that is, a garment that is attached over the right
shoulder, under the left, and falls about half way between the knees
and the ground, usually caught in at the waist by a sash or belt.
Also like the Moki women they wear a kind of combined moccasin and
legging, on certain occasions. This is a rawhide-soled moccasin with
a long narrow top-piece which is wound round and round the leg after
the moccasin is put on, and gives an almost straight line from the
knee down, almost exactly the same as the Moki custom. In fact, so far
as garments are concerned, it might often be difficult to tell Navajo
and Moki women apart. The Moki women wear their hair differently; the
married ones making two cues of it which hang down on each side of the
face, usually in front of the shoulders, while the unmarried ones have
theirs done up in two extraordinary wheels or discs standing parallel
with the side of the face or head, and attached to it by a sort of axle
wound round with string. This effect is obtained by first dividing the
hair into two equal parts, drawing each part to its side of the head
and winding it with string just above the ear, and a little behind
it. Each division is then again divided, horizontally, into two equal
parts, and these parts are carefully brushed around a curved stick,
like a letter U, held with the opening sidewise, the upper one down
and around and the lower one up and around, till they are completely
wound over the U and spread out as much as possible at the same time.
Then they are tied in the middle with a string, that is, between the
arms of the U, and finally, before withdrawing the U, the two portions
are fully spread, till when the U is taken out, and they are further
arranged, they almost meet and form a perfect wheel or circle. In
ordinary practice they do not meet, but resemble a well tied bow-knot
of broad ribbon; but when a girl has a fine head of hair that has been
well cared for, and her mother takes a pride in dressing her hair for
any ceremony or feast day, the wheel is almost perfect. This peculiar
method of hair-dressing is now found nowhere else in the world, except
among the unmarried women of the Coyotero Apaches, who are said to wear
a coil something like it.
[Illustration: A NAVAJO LEADER IN NATIVE COSTUME
Figure from photograph by the U. S. Bureau of Ethnology
]
[Illustration: INTERIOR OF A MOKI HOUSE, ARIZONA
Unmarried women grinding corn; married women baking _piki_, or
“paper” bread. From a model in the National Museum
]
[Illustration: PUEBLO HEAD MAT]
Some of the Pueblo women tie their hair in a knot behind like the
Navajo women; in fact, both Navajo women and men closely resemble the
Pueblo in their dress, the reason in my opinion being that advanced
before: namely, the incorporation of Pueblo stock. The Moki men also
sometimes wear their hair like Navajos, but full-blood Navajos have
taken up their residence with the Moki, so it may be confined to these
and their children. The regular Moki method of dressing a man’s hair
is to “bang” it across the eyebrows, cut the side locks straight back
on the lower line of the ear, and gather the remainder into a knot
behind.[131] The brush used is composed of a bunch of stiff grass tied
round the middle with a string. Both Navajo and Moki men as well as
those of other tribes now wear white men’s trousers when obtainable.
The costumes worn in the various ceremonials of the Navajos, Pueblos,
Iroquois, and other Amerinds are so numerous and so varied that there
is no space in a chapter like this for a description of them.
[Illustration: NAVAJOS]
In the line of embroidery comes the beadwork, see p. 125, the
ornamentation with quills, and embroidery with yarns. I will only
mention the embroidery of the Mokis, which is done on the ends of broad
cotton sashes, with coloured yarns. This is the only form in which I
have seen it. The pattern is elaborate, and often a foot or more at
each end of a sash will be thus ornamented. The Pueblo women wore a
roll on the head on which a water-jar was balanced. Coronado mentions
this thus: “I also send two rolls, such as the women usually wear on
their heads when they bring water from the spring, the same way that
they do in Spain. One of these Indian women, with one of these rolls
on her head, will carry a jar of water up a ladder without touching it
with her hands.”[132] Some of the Pueblo women still use rings to carry
water-jars on their heads. See figure on page 151.
Jaramillo speaks of the natives of the first village of “Cibola” as
having clothing of “deerskins, very carefully tanned, and they also
prepare some tanned cowhides, with which they cover themselves, which
are like shawls and a great protection. They have square cloaks of
cotton, some larger than others, about a yard and a half long. The
Indians wear them thrown over the shoulder like a gypsy and fastened
with one end over the other, with a girdle, also of cotton.”[133]
Other Pueblos of New Mexico he describes as having “some long robes of
feathers which they braid, joining the feathers with a sort of thread;
and they also make them of a sort of plain weaving with which they
make the cloaks with which they protect themselves.” In the _Relación
Postrera_, the Cibola dress is described also, and I add it here
because these accounts show so conclusively that the art of weaving was
in full practice in this northern country before the Europeans entered
it. “Some of these people wear cloaks of cotton and of the maguey (or
Mexican aloe) and of tanned deerskin, and they wear shoes made of these
skins, reaching up to the knees. They also make cloaks of the skins of
hares and rabbits, with which they cover themselves. The women wear
cloaks of the maguey, reaching down to the feet, with girdles; they
wear their hair gathered about the ears like little wheels.”[134] I
would specially call attention to the similarity to the costume of
the present Moki, even to the hair-dressing. The Seminole men had a
singular way of wearing their hair. It was cut “close to the head,
except a strip about an inch wide, running over the front of the scalp
from temple to temple, and another strip, of about the same width,
perpendicular to the former, crossing the crown of the head to the
nape of the neck. At each temple a heavy tuft was allowed to hang to
the bottom of the lobe of the ear. The long hair of the strip crossing
to the neck is generally gathered and braided into two ornamental
queues.”[135] The mustache is worn among the Seminole, Navajo,
Tlinkit, Eskimo, and other tribes. Some Eskimo shave a round place on
the crown of the head. Some Amerinds also wear a small beard.
[Illustration: SEMINOLE MAN’S AND WOMAN’S COSTUME]
Many Amerinds, especially the men, wore, as before mentioned, nothing
whatever in mild weather, and even in winter the dress of some,
especially in the more southerly regions, was far from elaborate. I
remember one February, in the mountains of Arizona, visiting a camp of
Shevwits to have a talk with the chief. Proceeding toward his wikiup, I
found him near it lying naked, basking in the sun, only partly covered
by a rabbit-skin robe. He seemed to be warm and happy, the spot being
a sheltered one in a canyon, and the rays of the sun being comfortably
warm. In a _Journal of a Voyage to New York in 1679–80_, the authors,
speaking of the natives near Sandy Hook, said: “They wear something in
front, over the thighs, and a piece of duffels, like a blanket, around
the body, and this is all the clothing they have. Their hair hangs down
from their head in strings, well smeared with fat, and sometimes with
quantities of little beads twisted in it out of pride.”[136]
[Illustration: EAR-PERFORATING AND HAIR-DRESSING OF SEMINOLES]
In war the body was generally naked in many tribes.[137] The Navajo
warrior wore absolutely nothing but the breech-cloth, and I am not sure
that he wore even that. In some tribes the warriors wore a head-dress,
either a kind of turban or a feather head-dress. The Dakotas wore their
long trailing war-bonnets of feathers, or not possessing one, certain
feathers in their hair, according to their standing as warriors; and
sometimes their leggings. Of course each carried bow, quiver, shield,
and such weapons of his tribe as were in vogue. On the North-west coast
a protective armour was employed, and such a practice obtained in other
regions, notably among the Aztecs and other Mexicans, who made a thick
quilted cotton armour, as was noted in the quotations from Prescott.
The subject of armour, however, belongs to another chapter. The wearing
of rings in the nose and ears, and the perforation of the ears, while
a part of costume, more properly belongs to customs. In the “ghost”
excitement of a few years ago, special shirts were donned, and in the
battles resulting from this craze, these shirts were worn because they
were thought to be proof against bullets and all other weapons. “During
the dance,” says Mooney, “it was worn as an outside garment, but was
said to be worn at other times under the ordinary dress. Although the
shape, fringing, and feather adornment were practically the same in
every case, considerable variation existed in regard to the painting,
the designs on some being very simple, while the others were fairly
covered with representations of sun, moon, and stars, the sacred
things of their mythology, and the visions of the trance. The feathers
attached to the garment were always those of the eagle, and the thread
used in the sewing was always the old-time sinew.”[138] The approved
material of the “ghost-shirt” was buckskin, but where this could not be
had the shirt was made of cotton cloth.
In the Far North, clothing is imperative all the year round, and about
every minute of the time, out-of-doors. Yet the garments of the Eskimo
often do not quite meet around the waist, so that in bending over the
bare back is exposed to the cold. In their houses, too, they often wear
very little; nothing more than a kind of deerskin drawers. The material
of their clothing is entirely fur-skins; though the Hudson Bay Eskimo
sometimes wear trousers of jean, or denim, obtained in trade. Up to a
certain age the children of both sexes are dressed much alike, and the
smaller ones scrabbling about the bottom of a _umiak_, or skin boat,
can hardly be distinguished at first glance from some kind of a bear
cub. At Plover Bay, Siberia, where the natives resemble the Eskimo, I
saw one small child in arms, that seemed to be completely sewed up in
skins with the hair side in, its arms and legs looking like the stumps
left after a surgical operation. Of the skin of the child nothing was
to be seen except its face, its head, too, being entirely enveloped.
This was in the middle of July, when the far-away Moki children would
be scurrying about without a thread to disguise them. The children
of the Eskimo proper, on our side of Bering Strait, were clothed, as
mentioned, in skins with the fur side out. Reindeer, otter, fox, and
seal seem to furnish the bulk of their furs, but a number of other
skins and furs are used when they can get them. Murdoch, Boas, and
Turner have given such careful detailed accounts of the Eskimo in the
various regions they visited,[139] that I refer the reader to them for
full information, presenting here only sufficient to convey a general
idea of the clothing. “The chief material (at Point Barrow) is the skin
of the reindeer (caribou),” says Murdoch, “which is used in various
stages of pelage. Fine, short-haired summer skins, especially those of
does and fawns, are used for making dress garments and underclothes.
The heavier skins are used for every-day working clothes, while the
heaviest winter skins furnish extra warm jackets for cold weather, warm
winter stockings and mittens.... The man’s dress consists of the usual
loose hooded frock, without opening except at the neck and wrists.
This reaches just over the hips, rarely about to mid-thigh, where it
is cut off square, and is usually confined by a girdle at the waist.
Under this garment is worn a similar one, usually of lighter skin and
sometimes without a hood. The thighs are clad in one or two pairs
of tight-fitting knee-breeches, confined round the hips by a girdle
and usually secured by a drawstring below the knee, which ties over
the tops of the boots. On the legs and feet are worn, first, a pair
of long, deerskin stockings with the hair inside; then slippers of
tanned sealskin, in the bottom of which is spread a layer of whalebone
shavings, and outside a pair of close-fitting boots, held in place
round the ankle, usually reaching above the knee, and ending by a
string with a rough edge, which is covered by the breeches.... The
boots are of reindeer skin, with white sealskin soles for winter and
dry weather, but in summer waterproof boots of black sealskin with
soles of white whaleskin, etc., are worn.”[140]
[Illustration: THE GHOST-SHIRT, SIMPLE FORM]
[Illustration: ESKIMO BOOTS]
The woman’s frock is much like the man’s, in the Point Barrow region,
only it has tails, or aprons, front and rear, rounded at the bottom. In
the Hudson Bay region, this garment is shaped more at the waist, and
the tails are lance-shaped and narrower, while the front one is much
shorter than the back. At Point Barrow there is also worn by the men a
cloak or mantle of deerskin, in extremely cold weather. These cloaks
are put on over the head, and fall down all round, being fastened
at the throat by strings. They are not of one piece. The men’s leg
coverings come only to the knee, but the women’s are long enough to
reach from the feet to the waist, and the moccasin is attached to the
bottom. The edge of the moccasin sole is crimped to make it smaller at
the top, and this is the case with the soles of the boots made. This
crimping is done by the teeth. The wet-weather boots are waterproof
and light, but there is a disagreeable odour about them. This odour is
more pronounced in some of the hastily made stockings which are worn
inside the boots. I bought a pair of the common sealskin stockings
made with hair side in at Port Clarence, but their smell was something
unbearable. For a waterproof garment they take the entrails of the
seal and, splitting them longitudinally, sew together the strips thus
obtained in the desired shape. Coats made in this way are durable and
light, and answer the purpose admirably. Dr. Kane mentions a dress
he saw where a man wore “booted trousers of white bearskin, which
at the end of the foot were made to terminate with the claws of the
animal.”[141]
In the middle and upper Mississippi region, according to Hunter, there
were tribes who made blankets of the wool of the buffalo, notably the
Osages, who were of Siouan stock. Their method of procedure seems to
have been very like that of the Navajos and Mokis, to whom they are
not related, except that they belong to the Amerind race. Hunter says:
“The hair of the buffalo and other animals is sometimes manufactured
into blankets; the hair is first twisted by hand and wound into balls.
The warp is then laid of a length to answer the size of the intended
blanket, crossed by three small smooth rods alternately beneath the
threads, and secured at each end to stronger rods supported on forks,
at a short distance above the ground. Thus prepared the woof is filled
in, thread by thread, and pressed closely together, by means of a long
flattened wooden needle. When the weaving is finished, the ends of
the warp and woof are tied into knots, and the blanket is ready for
use.”[142]
[Illustration: RAIN HAT, HAIDA
See figure page 146
]
[Illustration: TOUCAN OF SQUIER AND DAVIS, REALLY A CROW]
CHAPTER VII
CARVING, MODELLING, SCULPTURE
The shaping of objects in clay, wood, or stone, or other material,
known as carving, modelling, etc., constitutes sculpture. Some form of
these methods was in use in very primitive times for the production
of weapons or tools of wood, bone, or stone. But the greatest schools
of sculpture were basketry and pottery, for in the practice of these
arts a sense of form and proportion could not be dispensed with.
Thus sculpture finds its birth in several arts, but particularly in
basketry, stone-shaping, and pottery. Taken all in all, the Mayas of
Yucatan seem to have been the greatest artists and sculptors, and as
we travel northward from there the skill in art gradually diminishes
till, on passing the old Aztec realm, it drops off rapidly. Far to
the northward the “Moundbuilders” exhibited a moderate skill and in
some objects a similarity to Mexican work, and still farther to the
north-westward the Haidas, Kwakiutls, etc., in their totem poles,
canoes, etc., show not only a singular proficiency in carving in wood,
but also similarities to some of the Mexican work.
Masks, pipes, rattles, and other ceremonial paraphernalia gave the
Amerind sculptor much to do. It must not be supposed, though, that
all members of a tribe possessed the sculptor’s power. There was as
much variation as we now find among ourselves. It is not everyone of
our people who can model a statue, or even carve the rudest shape
imitating man. So it was with the Amerind. He had his arrow-makers,
his skilful potters, his great carvers, who were employed by the less
skilful to do their work. To-day, among the Amerinds of the North-west
coast, there are specialists who carve the totem poles, and obtain high
prices. The totem poles and house-posts are often elaborate, being
covered almost from top to bottom with figures of totemic animals. The
carving is often on a large scale, as the totem poles are frequently
more than fifty feet in height. They are planted several feet in the
ground, then there are several feet plain, and from that on to near the
top they may be covered with carving, while surmounting the whole is a
figure—bird, fish, or bear, or other animal—of large proportions. These
poles stand in front of the house,[143] and are an indication of the
clan or clans to which the person or persons who erected it belong. The
Haidas and the Tlinkits specially excel in totem poles. The execution
of the figures is often extremely good in a barbaric way. Besides the
carved poles there are often the carved columns or posts inside the
houses. These posts serve to support the two great rafters on which
the jack-rafters rest, and are often elaborate. At a deserted village
in south-east Alaska (Cape Fox), I saw two of these columns, each
representing a huge bird, the wings being split out of cedar, quite
thin, and attached to the post with a diagonally forward direction,
the rest of the bird being erect and facing the room, the posts being
within about six feet of the rear of the structure. Its tail was carved
out of the post in a sort of bas-relief the remainder of the post being
squared up both below and above, and on the sides of the figure, except
where the head was. The latter had a huge beak, of the carnivorous
type. On the breast was a singular round face. The whole was brightly
painted in reds, yellows, and blacks. The accompanying figure
represents another of the house-posts of this village which is now at
Michigan University. It was similarly painted. The carving of these
tribes is done almost entirely in wood, so that had they disappeared a
century or so before our coming there would have been found scarcely
a trace of their work. In like manner the work of the tribes of the
Mississippi valley may have disappeared—that is, supposing that they
carved in wood, which is probable. There is a great similarity between
the carving of the Haida and the Tlinkit totem poles, yet these tribes
are of different stocks. An animal resembling a frog seems to be very
common as a totem in both stocks. Human figures are also carved on the
poles, and strange heads are frequent.
[Illustration: DESERTED VILLAGE NEAR CAPE FOX, ALASKA
Showing arrangement of totem poles and houses along the shore
Photograph by the Harriman Alaska Expedition, 1899
]
[Illustration: INTERIOR HOUSE-COLUMN
Sketch by author from post at Cape Fox Village, Alaska
]
[Illustration: MAJOR PART OF INTERIOR HOUSE-POST FROM CAPE FOX VILLAGE,
S. E. ALASKA
Presented to University of Michigan by E. H. Harriman. Height, 11
ft. 2 in.; width, 3 ft.; thickness, 12 to 15 in.; one piece of
spruce. Painted in several colours. Photograph by Professor Cole,
University of Michigan
]
[Illustration: TOTEM POLE WITH BEAR ON THE TOP WRANGELL
Sketch by the author
]
The Haidas have become famous for their gigantic canoes carved from
single logs and elaborately decorated.[144] The other Amerinds of
this region also dig out fine boats from the huge logs they obtain
so easily in the forest, but there are none equal to those of the
Haida, who, indeed, require specially good boats for navigating the
waters around their island, Queen Charlotte’s. They are the best
carvers of all the tribes now living north of Mexico. Their work is
grotesque, corresponding with the singular mythology of the artists and
their inability to render accurately the forms they see about them.
Combinations of human and animal forms are often seen, such as the
panther-man found by Swan in this region—a crouching figure with an
attempt at a panther’s head and forelegs, with the hind legs human. One
of the most remarkable of all the Haida works from an artistic point of
view is the group called the “Bear-mother,”[145] now in the National
Museum at Washington, and made by _Skaowskeav_, one of the tribe. It
apparently shows European influence. The lines are more flowing and
soft than the ordinary Amerind method of execution, and the conception
is more in range with European ideas. This may be accidental, however,
and merely in the line of the sculptor’s development. The material is
slate. The subject is a child at the breast of the “Bear-mother.” The
story of the bear-mother, as told by J. G. Swan, is that “a number of
Indian squaws were in the woods gathering berries when one of them,
the daughter of a chief, spoke in terms of ridicule of the whole bear
species. The bears descended on them and killed all but the chief’s
daughter, whom the king of the bears took to wife. She bore him a
child, half human and half bear. The carving represents the agony of
the mother in suckling this rough and uncouth offspring.” From an
art standpoint, one failure in the execution of this conception is
that the child does not suggest sufficiently its half-bear character.
Nevertheless, it is an extraordinary work for an Amerind.
[Illustration: TERRA-COTTA STATUETTE, CHIRIQUI.]
[Illustration: THE BEAR-MOTHER, HAIDA, N. W. COAST]
All the Amerinds of the North-west coast carve wooden masks, but here
again, the Haidas excel, though the Tlinkits are not far behind. It is
the same with the other work, boxes, rattles, etc. Some of the bowls,
hollowed from a single piece of wood, and carved on the exterior with
their strange figures, and polished, have a decided artistic merit. The
Innuit also make wooden masks, but they are crude when compared with
those of Queen Charlotte Island, or the mainland in that vicinity. One
feature of all these North-west masks, specially noted by Dall,[146]
which resembles Mexican carvings, is the protruding tongue touching an
animal. The protruding tongue is an index of life if firmly held forth,
according to Squier, while if it is loose and dangling at one side it
signifies death or captivity. Dall concludes that the touch of the
tongue symbolises the “transmission of spiritual qualities or powers.”
In the totem poles this protruding tongue touching an animal is common,
while frequently the tongue protrudes without touching any other person
or thing. A totem represents the guardian spirit of the individual or
clan, and therefore the closer the association with it the better;
hence the idea of placing the tongue upon it.
[Illustration: WOODEN MASKS, N. W. COAST]
“A person,” says Boas, “may have the general crest of his clan and,
besides, use as his personal crest such guardian spirits as he
has acquired. This accounts partly for the great multiplicity of
combinations of crests which we observe on the carvings of these
people.... The crest is used for ornamenting objects belonging to a
member of the clan; they are carved on columns intended to perpetuate
the memory of a deceased relative, painted on the house front or carved
on a column which is placed in front of the house, and are also shown
as masks in festivals of the clan.”[147] Some of the grave monuments
of the Kwakiutls, the Chimmesyans, the Tlinkits, and others of the
region are ambitious carvings and represent considerable labour on the
part of the sculptor. One grave I saw at Cape Fox was presided over by
two huge wooden bears, the whole sheltered by a neat roof on posts and
surrounded by a balustrade. The animals must have been at least four
and a half feet high. Boas describes a grave-monument bird carved out
of cedar bark, which is six feet high and about twelve feet from tip
to tip of the extended wings. This bird is upright like the one carved
on the house-post mentioned above, and, like that, has on its stomach
the carved representation of a face. This bird’s wings were originally
painted black to represent feathers, but this decoration has worn off.
It is now in the American Museum. The Kwakiutls also have carved some
statues in wood representing chiefs in a state of nature. These are
extremely crude, but are superior to much of the Moundbuilder work as
shown in the pipes and other carvings that have been preserved, and
not greatly behind the Mexican. Double-headed birds and animals figure
prominently among the carvings and drawings of the North-west coast
tribes, such as the double-headed “thunder-bird,” the double-headed
snake, etc. Boas obtained one of the latter among the Kwakiutls which
he describes as having a head at each end and a human head in the
middle. It is forty-two inches in length and about six inches wide.
It is “worn in front of the stomach and secured with cords passing
around the waist.” The fabulous animal this affair represents has “the
power to assume the shape of a fish. To eat it and even to touch or to
see it is sure death, as all the joints of the unfortunate one become
dislocated, the head being turned backward. But to those who enjoy
supernatural help it may bring power.”[148] These North-west tribes
seem to love to carve, and decorate almost everything that will admit
of it in this manner. In the vicinity of Fort Rupert there are on the
beach a number of rock carvings. These represent faces of sea monsters,
and also some of them human faces.
[Illustration: KWAKIUTL CARVING, N. W. COAST]
[Illustration: ESKIMO CARVED IVORY DRUM-HANDLES.]
Amongst the Eskimos carving is limited, generally, to a sort of
engraving on bone and ivory, except in the matter of masks, which
are rudely shaped out of wood without any of the elaborate finish
that is observed in the work of Amerinds farther south. The wood they
have had to work with is not the kind that promotes carving, and
ivory is a rather difficult material to shape. Nevertheless, they
occasionally, form some attractive little heads from it, to adorn
the end of a harpoon line or something of that sort. They also shape
their drill bows and other implements to some extent and decorate them
with neat engraving. Some of these decorations are very pleasing, and
exhibit the same taste for symmetrical ornamentation that is found
throughout the continent. When they attempt to represent form they are
generally successful in giving it the proper character with less of
the childish grotesqueness that is seen in most Amerind work. How much
the long intercourse with Europeans on whalers has modified the art
efforts of the Eskimo it is not possible to judge. Murdoch[149] gives
illustrations of seals and whales shaped by the Point Barrow Eskimo,
but aside from the _character_ of the animal being generally fairly
well rendered, there is little that is artistically interesting in the
work. What I mean by character is that you can generally tell what is
intended by an Eskimo carving, which is not always the case with the
sculptured efforts of other Amerinds, though the finish may be better.
Boas gives illustrations of the carved work of the Central Eskimo,[150]
which show the same characteristics as the Western.
The Far Northern tribes, as a rule, are inferior to the other
Amerinds, in sculptural work, yet the Eskimo, mechanically, were, in
many respects, apparently in advance of all others. They possessed
the lamp, the only stock on the continent who did, but, after all,
this shows only the adaptability that saved them from destruction. In
a world without fuel and with plenty of seal oil, they would never
have survived if they had not invented a way to secure heat from the
oil. The Amerind of the forested regions had no need for a lamp. The
possession of the lamp, therefore, is no indication of higher mental
powers, but of a more severe environment. Nor, on the other hand, is
the limited amount of their carving an indication on their part of
inferior mental endowment. It is, again, the result of circumstances,
as pointed out above. In a region without suitable material or climate
for extensive carving, they did not carve, that is all. Place them for
a few generations in the region of the Haidas, and they would begin to
develop many different habits and traits.
[Illustration: SPECIMEN OF MOUNDBUILDER SCULPTURAL SKILL WITH HUMAN
FIGURE
_Height of jar, 10½ in.; width of shoulders, 8 in._
]
On the Atlantic coast, few specimens of sculpture have, thus far, been
found, nor has any carving of consequence been disclosed. In New Jersey
some rude heads in stone have come to light, but such finds are rare.
As the bounds of the Mississippi valley are entered, however, the art
remains immediately increase in importance, but not to the exaggerated
extent claimed by many writers. The carvings and sculptures of the
Mississippi valley are, like all Amerind products in this line, crude,
and there is no warrant for the claims that the occupants of the region
were not “Indians,” so far as these remains testify. The most striking
work found up to the present is that of the head-shaped vases from
Pecan Point, Arkansas, but as I have pointed out before,[151] these
vases were not modelled free-hand, but were the result of a process,
are in fact death-masks, built into the vases. While it was a clever
thing to accomplish these in that way, yet it is a mechanical method,
and has little to do with artistic skill. Thomas Wilson says of these
vases that they “divide themselves into two distinct groups. The
specimens forming the first group are death-masks, as becomes more
and more evident the more the objects are studied; the other group,
while of the same general form as the first, the human head being
represented, has the face and features wrought upon it free-hand, as in
sculpturing, without the aid of mould or cast.”[152] It may be added
that the second group is far inferior to the first, and is quite in
line with the rest of the remains of this district.
The tobacco pipes of the region were lauded as perfect examples of
the sculptor’s art, but if one gives them critical examination, it is
at once plain that they are not out of the Amerind line, and, what is
more, that as specimens of sculpture they are pretty bad, because it
is difficult to decide just what they represent. Even the Eskimo give
their work character enough to distinguish it, yet the Moundbuilder did
much of his carving so poorly that there has been frequent diversity
of opinion as to what it was intended to depict. Henshaw took up the
matter, and has shown that the degree of excellence of representation
in the carving of the Moundbuilder pipes, so long extolled, has been
overrated.
[Illustration: STONE PIPE FROM NORTH CAROLINA MOUND]
The tobacco pipe, bearing, as it did, a peculiar relation to the sacred
paraphernalia and ceremonies of the Amerinds, received much attention
from them and was frequently elaborate, from the Amerind standpoint,
in its details. The earliest form of pipe was a straight tube seen in
Mexican carvings and also found in various parts of North America.
In the Eastern United States one is found which is designated as the
“Monitor.” I suppose this name came from a resemblance to the famous
first turret man-of-war, the United States ship _Monitor_. The base of
these pipes was slightly curved downwards, the bowl rising from about
the centre of the platform, on the convex side. Many of these show
marks of steel tools.[153] Squier and Davis, who published their work
in 1848, discerned wonderful artistic skill in the Moundbuilder pipes,
and they discovered an intimate acquaintance between the Moundbuilder
artists and far-off tropical birds and animals, probably because in
those days it was thought that an “Indian” was absolutely incapable
of producing anything. Especially was great stress laid by Squier and
Davis upon certain pipes said to delineate the manatee. Theories of
origin and migration were founded on this supposed knowledge, and other
writers accepting these deductions founded yet other theories upon
them; and they were _all_ wrong. The trouble seems to lie in the fact
that the archæologists of some years ago not only were not naturalists,
but they were not accurate and drew their conclusions from insufficient
data. The attitude of the archæologist of to-day is exceedingly
cautious, and before pronouncing a pipe carving a manatee, or any other
animal, he would surely institute cautious and careful comparisons.
This Messrs. Squier and Davis seem not to have done, nor did any of
their followers or successors, being content, as Henshaw points out,
to accept Squier and Davis’s statement as absolute. Henshaw demolishes
their claims and shows that no manatee is represented and that all the
pipe carvings are of birds and animals that had their range in the
country of the Moundbuilders or not far from its borders. What they
called a toucan he identifies as a crow, or raven, and in this decision
several other ornithologists fully agree. The nasal features are
plainly shown, and the “general contour of the bill is truly corvine.”
See figure page 161. Thus is this supposed tropical acquaintance easily
disposed of and the crow, certainly not a rare bird in that locality,
substituted. A turkey buzzard is shown to be a hawk, and other foreign
types claimed by Squier and Davis are disproved with ease. Out of
forty-five carvings on pipes figured by them only five, by Henshaw’s
tests, are correctly named. Some carvings, which they were unable to
identify, Henshaw places without any effort. As for the so-called
manatees, he believes they were intended for otter. The manatee is an
earless animal with many peculiar features which do not appear in the
Moundbuilder carvings, while ears do appear. This is what I mean by not
giving “character” to carvings. It is a matter, largely, of perception.
The Eskimo appears to have this perception developed to a considerable
degree, and when he delineates an animal he knows he marks strongly its
peculiar features, whatever else he may do. The element of imagination
also comes in, for Amerinds often produce drawings or carvings of
animals they think they have seen, or as they appeared to them in a
sudden and fleeting glimpse, or vision.
[Illustration: SO-CALLED ELEPHANT PIPE, IOWA
Only two of the “elephant” pipes have been found and both by the
same person. There is a doubt as to their genuineness. Even if
genuine they are far from depicting the mastodon
]
[Illustration: TOUCAN OF SQUIER AND DAVIS, POSSIBLY MEANT FOR A YOUNG
EAGLE]
[Illustration: TRIPOD VASE, CHIRIQUI. ⅓. LEGS MODELLED TO IMITATE FISH]
It was a lack of ability to reproduce accurately the lines and
character of _any_ object which caused some of the Moundbuilder pipes
intended to represent the common otter to look like something else.
As a matter of fact, these Moundbuilder pipe carvings, about which so
much that is unwarranted has been written, are not superior to the
carvings of the Haidas, or other stocks, and indeed, if anything, are
not equal to them. They certainly do not compare for a moment with
most of the work of the Mexican tribes. A further important conclusion
of Henshaw’s is that “there is no reason for believing that the masks
and sculptures of human faces are more correct likenesses than are the
animal carvings,”[154] which is exactly in accord with my own opinion,
not only as concerns the work of the Moundbuilders, but of every other
Amerind tribe. They were not sculptors of a kind that could reproduce a
likeness to an individual. Their work was always _general_; they seldom
drew or painted _from the object_, as an artist or sculptor of our race
does, but they accomplished their result by memory, imagination, and
“rule of thumb.” The surprise of the Europeans at finding anything at
all in the art line, coupled with a wide ignorance on art matters, has
awarded all the Amerind carvings and sculptures, as is well illustrated
in the Moundbuilder case, a false degree of excellence. The Amerinds
of the Mississippi valley probably also carved wood, but their work
in this material has, of course, long ago decayed. They worked other
things, like shell, and some of the shell carvings are strikingly
like Aztec drawings. In this shellwork there are a great many discs
and gorgets, engraved with figures of spiders, rattlesnakes, birds,
geometrical designs, and representations of the human figure. There
are also rude shell masks of the human face, but these are primitive
in the extreme. It must be borne in mind that this region was occupied
for long ages, and _by many different tribes_, so that the work found
is probably from different sources, though all Amerind. A class of
singularly shaped stones is found in the Mississippi valley and
northward, mainly north of the Ohio, to which the name “bird-stones”
has been applied because of their resemblance to avian forms. No
satisfactory explanation of their use has been advanced.[155]
[Illustration: SHELL GORGET, MISSOURI.]
A number of stone statues of the human figure have been unearthed from
Georgia to Tennessee, varying in height from three or four inches
to something over twenty. They are all of the crudest description,
and so far as any resemblance to the type of man who made them is
concerned are absolutely valueless. They are undoubtedly human forms,
that is all; not another characteristic, except sex, indicated by
breasts, is presented. They are mostly in a squatting posture and on
one or two there seems to be a suggestion of the hair dressed behind.
Effigy bottles of earthenware from Tennessee are similarly crude and
primitive. There is little, therefore, in the whole Mississippi valley
or on the Atlantic coast, in the line of carving or sculpture, that
could not have been executed by Amerinds that have been known to our
race, many of them living in the same localities where the art remains
have been found. The superlative rank awarded Moundbuilder art is
unwarranted.
[Illustration: BIRD-SHAPED EARTHEN BOWL, ARKANSAS.]
Directing our attention now to still another region, we find in the
South-west a vast deal that is absorbingly interesting. Fortunately
the people were, many of them, still there when the first Spaniards
came into the country in 1540, so that we have data to prevent the
attributing the works found there to some mysterious race. It has been
attempted in the case of the “Cliff-dwellers,” but the investigations
of competent ethnologists have effectually settled that matter, and
checked the romantic tendency except in the case of a few who will not
learn. The ethnographic condition of the South-west since we have known
it probably represents also what prevailed in the Mississippi region,
that is, _a number of different stocks existing in different stages of
culture_, distributed in patches, not uniformly.
[Illustration: SHELL MASK, VIRGINIA.]
All of them pitched their camps or built their houses as expediency
dictated, and when cause arose to render them dissatisfied with their
site, whether cliff-house, village, or camp, they moved to a more
desirable place, leaving behind what they could not easily carry,
as well as their houses. Thus in the course of a long time the area
presented the appearance from the numerous remains of having a
larger population than was really the case; though I may add that
I believe the population was at one time somewhat greater than has
usually been admitted by the best ethnologists. These various stocks
carried on their daily avocations, and when the results were in some
indestructible material, many of them were preserved to us, which,
taken in connection with the productions of the modern tribes, give an
excellent and correct impression of the life and occupations of the
inhabitants extending far back into the past.
[Illustration: MOKI SCULPTURAL SKILL WITH THE HUMAN FIGURE
Terra cotta
Wood
Terra cotta
]
The Shoshonean is one of the stocks still extant in that and more
northerly regions, and spreads far south to the lakes of Mexico. It
exists to-day in several stages, the Mexican or Nahuatl, the Moki or
Hopi, and the numerous bands of Utes.[156] Other stocks probably had
equal variation in culture within their ranks, this variation being
sometimes due to the absorption, as in the case of the Navajos, of
a more cultured tribe. Many of these tribes did no carving whatever,
and the region of our South-west is poor in this sort of remains. The
Pueblos, while possessing other artistic talents of a high order, do
not seem to have done much in the line of carving. They execute the
ordinary fetiches with little or no shape, and they also produce a kind
of small doll for the children and some that are used in ceremonies,
figure page 178, but all these, and all the masks in ceremonies, are
fearful things to look upon, bearing little or no resemblance to
anything human; shapeless, botched up masses of hideousness, usually
not carved or modelled, but built up out of various stuffs. Some of
them model effigies in earthenware, but these attempts do not amount
to much. I have never seen any wood carving, from this region, worth
mentioning. A. M. Stephen made a sketch of two figures in wood with
small knots or horns called the Alosaka, which I copied, but they are
primitive to the last degree. These figures were about four feet high,
and were of cottonwood, apparently very old. Figures above. They were
discovered by accident in a cave near the ruins of Awatuwi and removed.
When the loss was learned by the Moki they requested the return of the
images, which was granted, and they have not been seen since, nor does
anyone outside of the custodians, or at least no white man, know where
they are. Around the Moki towns I saw not a single attempt at rock
carving, nor do I remember in extensive journeys over the South-western
region ever seeing any relief carving whatever. Rock scratchings,
erroneously termed “etchings” by many writers on these subjects, I
have seen in great abundance, but not an attempt at sculpture worth
noticing. There may, however, in some of the villages, be carvings
nevertheless. Governor Prince found at a ruin near Cochiti a number
of rudely formed stone figures of human shape. Nearby there are two
panthers carved life size in the tufa which forms the surface rock of
the locality. They “lie side by side,” says Bandelier, “representing
the animals as crouching with tails extended, and their heads pointing
to the east.”[157] Their length is six feet, one third of this being
tail. The height is two feet and the breadth across the shoulders
fourteen inches, and across the rump seventeen inches. They are about
twenty-two inches apart. Around them is an irregular pentagonal
enclosure, “made of large blocks, flags, and slabs of volcanic rock,
some of which are set in the ground like posts, while the majority
are piled on each other so as to connect the upright pillars.... When
I last saw the monument it looked like a diminutive and dilapidated
Stonehenge.”[158] Another pair of similar panthers occurs at not a
great distance off at a place now called the _Potrero de los Idolos_.
The size is about the same as the others. “One of them is completely
destroyed by treasure hunters, who loosened both from the rock by a
blast of powder, and then heaved the ponderous blocks out by means of
crowbars. After breaking one of the figures to pieces they satisfied
themselves that nothing was buried underneath.... The imperfections of
the sculpture are very apparent; were it not for the statements of the
Indians, who positively assert that the intention of the makers was to
represent a puma, it would be considered to be a gigantic lizard.”[159]
[Illustration: THE ALOSAKA (MOKI)
After drawing by A. M. Stephen
]
[Illustration: SCULPTURAL ART OF CHIRIQUI
Fragmentary figure in grey basaltic rock.
]
[Illustration: SHELL GORGET, TENNESSEE.
Apparently a human figure, with face in profile to the left of the
circle near the top. The nose is cut away by a perforation
]
The metates or mealing stones, abundant in modern and ancient villages,
and which in the Far South are elaborately carved oftentimes, are, in
the South-west, so far as I have observed in the field and in reports
of investigators, never decorated in the faintest degree. Articles,
also, of various kinds that among the Haidas or Tlinkits would be
covered with carving, have here not a vestige of it. Nor is there any
carving about the house timbers or the stones that enter into the
wall construction, places where the Aztecs, and especially the Mayas,
lavished their skill. The Mokis make little clay images which they fire
for the children, but they are without merit. Nor do the Navajo, the
Pima, the Apache, Yuma, or any of the other stocks attempt anything
in the direction of carving, so that it seems safe to say that the
South-west has not produced any carving worthy of note, either in
modern or ancient times. The ruins so far as known are as barren of
carved articles as the modern occupied houses.
Proceeding southward, however, when we approach the vicinity of the
City of Mexico, examples of carving appear, and it is quickly evident
that the Aztecs gave great attention to this form of art. One of the
most remarkable specimens is the so-called Calendar Stone dug up under
the present city, and now in the Mexican National Museum. It has been
called a sacrificial stone, but Bandelier thinks it may have served
rather as the base for another stone, holding the rope of a captive
doomed to the “gladiatorial” sacrifice. For my part I incline to the
opinion that it is an astronomical affair. The date carved on the
top is the 13th Acatl or +A.D.+ 1479 of our time, according to the
accepted calculations. In the centre is a head, supposed to represent
the sun, and around it are twenty figures, standing for the twenty days
of the Mexican month. Then come eight divisions by what appear to be
arrow-heads, four being extended farther toward the centre than the
others and also curled up at the ends or flukes, and one of these four
ending in an elaborate sort of bow-knot ornament which covers a wide
space at what is now the lower edge as it stands. Each of the eight
divisions is again divided by a kind of crown which is smaller than the
smaller arrow-heads, and then there is a still further subdivision
made by a dot, on a line with the base of the crown. This gives
thirty-two points, or exactly the number of points on our mariner’s
compass card, so that this carving can be “boxed” as any compass card
can be. The N., E., and W., are more prominent than any other points
but the S., which has the decoration referred to. Then come the N.E.,
S.E., S.W., and N.W., with each set of intermediate points diminishing
in importance.[160] It looks as if our ancient Aztecs had found a
mariner’s compass washed ashore and perpetuated it by thus carving
it with mythological significance.[161] Stranger things than this
have occurred among Amerinds. But I prefer to believe that the Aztec
astronomer worked out the points of the compass for himself, for these
directions exist of course in every land independent of the compass,
and the moment the Amerind began to work in astronomy he was forced
to recognise the thirty-two natural directions that were open to him.
No doubt the Mayan and Mexican observatories were somewhat similar to
that of the Shah Jahan at Jeypore in India, where circular stones of
different sizes formed a part of the observing apparatus. The Mayan and
Mexican astronomical knowledge was probably equal to any extant in the
fourteenth century.
[Illustration: THE AZTEC “CALENDAR” STONE
From Bandelier’s _Archæological Tour_, published by the
Archæological Institute of America
]
[Illustration: AZTEC SCULPTURE, THE INDIO TRISTE
From Bandelier’s _Archæological Tour_, published by the
Archæological Institute of America
]
Another type of Mexican carving is seen in the statue of Teoyaomiqui,
the god of war and death, of which the two faces are different.
Bandelier believes this to be a statue of the war-god Huitzilopochtli.
Another remarkable statue given mention by Bandelier is the “Indio
Triste.” This is a squatting figure of an Amerind executed with more
simplicity than is usual with Amerind work in this region. Bandelier
considers it a torch-bearer, a supposition borne out by evidence he
advances, and also by the arrangement of the hands and arms, which
are brought out forward of the chest as if clasping something in the
empty space between the fingers. This statue is forty inches high and
two feet wide. A comparatively small number of Aztec sculptures have
been found. Almost all were destroyed or buried by the zeal of the
early priests. Under the City of Mexico and in other places there are
probably many lying intact, and some day they may come to the light.
“The art of sculpture in aboriginal Mexico,” says Bandelier, “while
considerably above that of the Northern Village-Indians, is still not
superior to the remarkable carvings on ivory and wood of the tribes of
the North-west Coast and often bears a marked resemblance to them.”[162]
Proceeding on southward, the next great group of carvings is that
ascribed to the Mayas, and extending, in a general way, from the
Isthmus of Tehuantepec to the borders of Honduras and somewhat beyond.
The people formerly occupying this area were extremely active in the
line of carving, and there are preserved to us tablets, figures in
bass-relief, statues, monoliths, and other stone- and wood-work that,
taken together, easily bring this people in the very front place among
Amerind artists. Their buildings were most elaborately ornamented with
carving in stone, or wood, and with modelling in stucco, and there
were many tablets bearing carved inscriptions. One of the most famous
of these tablets adorned a beautiful building called in modern times
“The Temple of the Cross.”[163] It stands at Palenque. The tablet was
affixed to the rear wall of an inner chamber, termed by Europeans
the “Adoratorio,” and was in three sections, the total dimensions of
which were ten feet eight inches wide, by six feet four inches high.
One section of this tablet remained in place at the time of Charnay’s
last visit, one was in Las Playas, and the other, the third, is in the
Smithsonian Institution. At each extreme end of the whole composition
was a mass of the calculiform writing; next came two figures separated
by a peculiar design in the centre, which somewhat resembles a cross,
and it was this design that gave the name to the tablet. While the
execution is remarkable it is nevertheless primitive, and similar to
other Amerind art in quality and conception. It is a high development
of Amerindian sculptural ideas. Another similar tablet exists in the
so-called “Temple of the Sun.” A cast of this was made by Charnay and a
photograph from this cast is given in figure on page 185.[164]
[Illustration: SANCTUARY TABLET, TEMPLE (TEOCALLI) OF THE SUN,
PALENQUE]
[Illustration: “ALTAR” IN FRONT OF STELA D, COPAN]
At Copan twenty-three stelæ, or monolithic monuments, elaborately
carved with human figures and hieroglyphs, have been found. Each had
in front a sculptured block designated as an altar. Their average
height is twelve feet, and their breadth and their thickness each
about three feet. Stelæ and so called idols have been exhumed around
Lake Nicaragua, but all remains grow less important towards the south
except in Chiriqui, as well as towards the north. Indeed, here in
Yucatan seems to have sprung the living fountain that watered all the
desolation of the Western world.
[Illustration: STELA NO. 6, COPAN]
[Illustration: BACK OF STELA NO. 6]
[Illustration: PUMA-SHAPED STOOL OF GREY ANDESITE, CHIRIQUI.]
The stelæ at Copan are some of the most artistic and altogether
remarkable sculptures found on the continent. They are highly
decorative, and the execution of the intricate designs with the poor
stone tools at their command is extraordinary. But all the productions
of the Mayas pass easily beyond those of any other stock on this
continent. Some of the conventionalised animal heads used as gargoyles
are exceedingly well done and so also are several works called
“singing-girls” (see figures pages 19 and 79). There are no geometric
patterns at Copan, and the designs and execution are of a high order,
yet at the same time thoroughly Amerindian. The rattlesnake enters into
many of the designs and is represented by itself frequently. It was
an animal of great importance to all Amerinds from the thirty-eighth
parallel down. Charnay gives an illustration of what he calls votive
stones, that are apparently the representation of the rattle of the
revered reptile. The segments are clearly indicated and altogether the
design seems to me unmistakable. The region of the South-west and
Mexico is also the richest in species of any part of America, no less
than “eight out of a total of seventeen species occurring at or near
the boundary between the United States and the Mexican Republic.” In
southern Arizona seven different species are found. “Their centre of
distribution appears to be the tableland of Mexico with its extension
northward into the south-western United States.”[165]
[Illustration: HEAD SCULPTURED IN STONE, CHULTUNES OF LABNA, YUCATAN]
One of the “Temples of the Cross” at Palenque is flanked at the
entrance by two well-constructed figures, one on either side, supposed
to represent the Mayan war and rain gods.[166] These figures are in low
relief, covered with the customary Amerind trappings and head-dresses
of this region. On each tablet there are some calculiform characters.
Many of the ruined buildings still exhibit a wealth of ornamentation
either carved in stone, modelled in stucco, or constructed out of
rubble and stucco. Some of the carvings, notably certain heads at
Uxmal, have formed the basis for much discussion. The latter were
supposed by Waldeck to be representations of elephants’ trunks, but
there is no foundation for this supposition. They more likely represent
ceremonial masks with long noses. Something similar, though lacking
the curve, is seen in some of the remarkable funeral urns found in the
Zapotecan tombs.
The statue of Chac-Mool, found at Chichen Itza by Le Plongeon, is
an example of what was accomplished when the figure was attempted
without any of the accessories of masks, draperies, etc.[167] It is
a large reclining figure, crude and primitive. Some of the work at
other places is more symmetrical, as, for instance, the Lacandon idol
described by Charnay. “This idol is very beautiful and unique of its
kind, for nothing like it has been found either in Tabasco or Yucatan.
It represents a figure sitting cross-legged, the hands resting on the
knees ... the face now mutilated is crowned by an enormous head-dress
of a peculiar style, presenting a fantastic head with a diadem and
medallions, topped by huge feathers, like those on the columns at Tula
and Chichen-Itza.”[168] This idol was found at Menché, where there is
a lot of excellent work in the line of carving, some of the wooden
lintels being particularly interesting. It is impossible in a brief
chapter to convey more than a slight impression of all this elaborate
carving. The reader who desires to obtain a full comprehension of the
work should study Maudsley’s text and illustrations in the _Biologia
Centrali Americana_.
Where modelling was accomplished by the building-up process with stones
and mortar the results were sometimes gigantic. Stephens found an
enormous head made in this way at Izamal at the base of the palace of
Hunpictok. He described it as being seven feet eight inches high. “The
features,” he says, “were first rudely formed by small rough stones,
fixed in the side of the mound by means of mortar, and afterwards
perfected with stucco so hard that it has resisted the action of air
and water for centuries.” The stone composing the chin alone measures
one foot and six inches. The face had an extremely large mustache. This
singular specimen of the Yucatan Amerinds’ modelling skill has, since
the visit of Stephens, completely disappeared. At the same place is
another, however, still intact.
[Illustration: LARGE BUILT-UP HEAD AT IZAMAL
From Stephens
]
This one is thirteen feet high and is constructed in the same manner as
the one that is gone.
Everywhere throughout Yucatan and the contiguous region the
architecture is overloaded with ornamentation which many large volumes
would barely be sufficient to describe. In Nicaragua, as well as in
Honduras, there are found many carvings and sculptures, statues, stelæ,
etc., but they are rarely equal to those found in the Maya ruins. It
must be said, however, that the examination of these states has been
even less thorough than that of the Maya region. Tribes of Nahuatl
stock built and laboured in the country below the Maya, and in Costa
Rica there are indications that the remains belong to Amerinds who
differed from both Maya and Nahuatl.
Some of the supposed metates or mealing stones found in Nicaragua are
carved with legs and artistically decorated. One figured by Squier is
a particularly beautiful specimen. It is a thin curved slab, concave
side up, and has four legs. One end projects considerably beyond the
legs, apparently forming the head or end where the operator sat or
kneeled, and is carved in a wide band all the way across. In Chiriqui
there are similar stones. Another class of carved remains found in
Chiriqui is apparently a sort of metate, but it differs from the latter
in being round, and Holmes designates them as stools, for want of a
more exact term.[169] Some wooden stools have recently been obtained in
Central America which are so nearly like the affair described by Squier
as a metate, that it is probable the latter was also a stool. The
figure on page 188 illustrates this class. They have a depressed upper
surface and are carved basalt in one piece. An example of the round is
given above. To carve an object like this from solid basalt must have
been a work of great duration. It is in their metal- and claywork,
however, that the Chiriqui Amerinds specially excelled.
[Illustration: STOOL OF GREY BASALT, CHIRIQUI.]
All works are dominated by the customs and religious ideas of the
Amerind race, which were practically the same everywhere in different
stages of development. Nowhere do we find a touch of idealism, which
is such a marked characteristic of the work of the European race.
The highest of it marks a development in art below the Egyptian. As
in picture-writing we trace the growth of letters, so by the aid of
the Amerind sculpture and carving we have a line of art progress from
infancy to the present time.
[Illustration: COPPER BELL FROM TENNESSEE]
[Illustration: PUEBLO MEALING STONES]
CHAPTER VIII
SHELTERS, DWELLINGS, AND ARCHITECTURE
The Amerind of North America has generally been considered a shiftless
and indolent being, but the preceding pages have shown, I think, that
this estimate is an error, and the following chapters, together with
the present one, will even more conclusively demolish that false
assumption. The Amerind to be sure was not a white man, but it must
not be forgotten that the constant holding of the white man’s nose to
the grindstone is not so commendable as it is often said to be, for it
is not choice with him but necessity born of his ways of living and
his great numbers. Put him in comparatively small numbers on a vast
continent rich and fertile and abounding in game, and it is not likely
that he would shut himself up in a factory or in an office, where he
is only a counting machine. The Amerind was as industrious as his
environment demanded. Doubtless had his development not been interfered
with by the Discovery, he might have arrived in time at the same
condition of pressure that compels us to labour incessantly.
Almost everywhere on this continent are discovered numerous evidences
of Amerind industry and toil. From the brush shelter of the Pai
Ute of Arizona to the vast stone structures, richly ornamented, of
Yucatan, is an immense range, and within these limits are to be
found about every kind of a refuge from the elements that mankind
has been able to devise. Mud, boughs caves, wood, adobe, stone,
ice, snow, wicker-work, wattling, skins, in fact, every material and
every possible hole, existing in nature, have been utilised by the
Amerind, and the materials have been given every variety of shape. In
nothing, perhaps, has his struggle with environment, and the moulding
effects of the environment, been more clearly exhibited than in the
forms and materials of the dwellings he has been compelled to invent.
Other evidences of his perseverance and exertion are discerned in
great aqueducts, in long irrigating canals, in reservoirs, in huge
earthworks, and enormous mounds that sometimes rival in magnitude the
giant constructions of Egypt.
The Amerind dwellings may be divided into three general
classes,—temporary, portable, and fixed. The two classes, temporary and
fixed, only are usually recognised by ethnologists, but it has seemed
to me proper to add the third class, because of the wide use of the
portable tipi, and other forms of tent. The temporary houses, those
abandoned on moving camp and seldom occupied again, may be represented
by the Pai Ute wikiup; the portable, carried from place to place for
years, by the tipi of the Dakotas; the fixed, or those which are
occupied either for an extended period or periodically, by the stone or
adobe house of the Pueblos, or the wood house of the Iroquois, or the
wood and earth house of the Eskimo.[170]
[Illustration: PAI UTE WIKIUPS, NORTHERN ARIZONA
From photograph by the Colorado River Expedition, 1872
]
Outside of a natural cave or rock shelter, the wikiup of the Pai Ute
exhibits about the lowest type of house used by man. It is said the
chimpanzee makes a rude hut of boughs and branches, but even that could
scarcely be less simple than the Arizona wikiup. This is composed
merely of several branches arranged in a semi-circle, or rather more
than a semi-circle, eight or ten feet in height, their tops together,
and covered with boughs of cedar or pine or any other convenient
brush. About one third of the circumference is open to the south, and
opposite this side the fire is built a few feet away. The Pai Ute is
surrounded by remains of excellent stone dwellings constructed long ago
by Amerinds who are believed to be of the same general stock, but he
has never tried to improve his wikiup of his own accord. The Utes, his
kindred on the north, live in good tipis, but the Pai Ute appears never
to have noticed the fact. The Mokis, also allied to him, live not far
to southward in excellent houses, yet he has never attempted to emulate
them.
[Illustration: MOKI KISI CONSTRUCTION]
In the kisi construction of the Mokis we may perhaps see the beginning
of even the wikiup. The kisi is a sort of windbreak and sun-shelter
lightly constructed of boughs and made in two ways, one called kishoni,
being simply poles stuck in the ground in the arc of a circle with
the concave side towards the north, and interlaced with twigs and
branches to form a shade. The other kind is built by planting several
posts with crotches at their tops in the ground in the form of a
parallelogram and laying other posts or poles across from crotch to
crotch and covering these with poles to form a platform or roof.
Against the whole, on the south side, poles and branches are erected
to form a shade. These affairs are put up in the fields to protect the
crop tenders when there is no convenient cliff or ledge whereon to
erect a better structure of stone. Doubtless out of these shelters,
now seen in the field structures, originally grew the firm adobe and
stone house, by one step or improvement after another, and probably all
house construction had some such simple beginning. In a forested area,
however, the easy construction of a comfortable house out of poles and
bark would delay any development of a durable stone or adobe structure;
the adobe, indeed, would not be durable in a humid climate. Protection
and subsistence dictated the region a tribe or a stock should occupy,
and the region usually determined the character of the house or
shelter. House building, in its beginnings, is largely a result of
environment, and was developed or modified accordingly. The tribes that
were compelled to live in a sterile, dry country, where game and wood
were both scarce, were forced to provide themselves with different
food and different shelter from those which occupied a well-wooded
country abounding in game. A few skins and poles, in the latter case,
would quickly produce a house. In the arid region, however, man was
not provided with such convenient material. His shelter from the sun
cost him much labour and he was obliged to transport his necessary wood
long distances. Additions to the shade to make it more comfortable were
therefore obtained by piling up stones or scraping together the mud
after a rain, and these operations being repeated, a development of
skill was the inevitable result; skill which eventually produced a wall
all round the sun-shelter, with the beams of the latter resting upon
them instead of upon posts.
[Illustration: PRIMITIVE AMERIND LADDERS]
[Illustration: A NAVAJO HOUSE]
It seems, therefore, altogether probable that stone and mud house
building originated in arid regions; but in a region treeless, like
our great plains, the inevitable outcome in the line of a shelter was
the portable tipi (teepee), because there bison hides were at hand for
covering, but poles of the proper sort were difficult to secure and
were carried along. In the forest, neither portable tents nor stone
houses were necessary. It would only be when population was dense
enough to destroy the game and timber, or when a people were forced to
an arid region, that the stone house would develop. The Iroquois was
a forest Amerind, and he built a house of wood that was excellent in
construction and answered his purpose admirably. The Navajo occupying
an arid region has been content with a rude shelter of boughs and
branches or with boughs or poles covered with mud. They have never
profited by the example of their Moki neighbours, and built substantial
houses,—one reason, and the chief one, being that their habit of never
occupying again any shelter where death has occurred has precluded it,
for they do not care to bestow great labour on a structure that they
may be called upon any time to abandon. There are then other causes
besides ability, or inability, to build substantially that determine
the character of the Amerind house.
[Illustration: A SWEAT HOUSE]
Bandelier states that the Pimas “dwelt in scattered hamlets, the houses
of which combine to-day the mud roof of a typical New Mexican pueblo
with the temporary framework of frail branches characteristic of the
roaming savage.”[171] The roof is dome-shaped, but it is similar in
material to the Pueblo mud roof, so that there we have a sort of a
cross between the Moki field shelter, already mentioned, and the Navajo
hut or hogan. The stock from which the present Pimas descended are
supposed to have built the remarkable structure in Arizona known as
_Casa Grande_, found in ruins by the first explorers. Tribes alter
their methods of building, either from summer to winter or at different
epochs. The Omahas at one time made lodges of wood, at another of
earth, and at still another time they dwelt in tipis of skin. If a
stone-house-building tribe should migrate to a region where neither
loose flat stones nor adobe clay could be readily obtained, they would
be forced to use timber.[172] The Zuñi languages and traditions point
to the occupancy by the Pueblos in early times of brush houses like
those of the Pai Utes. The Mohaves live in low huts of branches covered
with mud.
The communal principle of living pervaded America and largely
determined the size and character of the dwellings. A number of
families usually lived together, in the same house, or in a group of
rooms or houses. The “long-house” of the Iroquois, called by them
_hodénosote_, and the clustered fortress-houses of the Pueblos, are
good examples of the results of the practice of the communal principles
adhered to by most of the Amerinds. It is also believed by some of the
best authorities, like Bandelier and Morgan, that the Mexican and Mayan
houses were largely due to the same cause.
Among the Omahas the tipis were usually grouped according to
gentes.[173] Tipi and wigwam are frequently used by us as synonymous,
and in some dictionaries a picture of a tipi is made to represent a
wigwam.[174] This is an error due to unfamiliarity with different forms
of Amerind dwellings. The tipi is generally a portable structure while
the wigwam is always fixed, and the latter is also of a different
shape. Tipi is a Dakota term and wigwam is Algonquin. Tipi is really
the plural for “house,” the singular being “ti,” and “pi” a termination
indicating plurality.[175] It is constructed by arranging a number,
sometimes as many as twenty or thirty, long poles, previously tied
together near their tops, in a circle of about ten or fifteen feet
diameter. This conical frame is then covered with bison hides sewed
together in one sheet, or in modern days with canvas, shaped properly
and laced or pinned together along the middle third of the junction of
the covering mantle. The upper third is left loose, and its pointed
ends are extended up and out by means of outside poles stuck into
pockets in their extreme upper corners, according to the direction of
the wind, to let the smoke escape from the fire built in the middle
of the interior. If the wind blows straight at these flaps they are
brought close together. Sometimes an extra skin is adjusted at the top
so that it can be placed on any side to accomplish this object. The
lower third is left open for a doorway, another skin being adjusted
before it with a stick to spread it near its upper end, which end is
attached to the tent. The bottom of the tent cover is held down by
stakes or pins driven into the ground. In case of high winds, stones or
other weights are placed on the bottom edge of the skins to keep them
down. In summer the Omahas, and other tribes of the Dakotas, erected,
when convenient, an elliptical lodge covered with bark, the roof being
rounded and the construction being generally similar to the Algonquin
elliptical wigwam. It was not more than seven feet high, while the
tipi is twelve to twenty or more. These tribes also sometimes built
earth lodges, chiefly for summer use, the roofs of which resembled in
construction those of the Pueblo houses, though they were conical. A
number of posts were set up in the ground to support in their crotches
the transverse beams upon which numerous slender poles, about two
inches in diameter, were laid to reach almost to the top where a hole
for the exit of smoke was left. Against the outer series of posts
all around slabs of wood were set up and the whole was then covered
with earth a foot or two thick after matting and a layer of grass, or
grass alone, was placed on the rafters or roof poles. This lodge was
circular, the roof being conical, and it was entered through a covered
way about ten feet long and five feet wide, the outer opening of which
was protected by hanging bison hides. The supporting poles or posts
were arranged in two concentric circles, in large lodges, the inner set
being higher than the outer. Compartments within opening toward the
fire were formed of willow matting, or skins.
[Illustration: AN OMAHA TIPI]
The regular tipi was decorated in accordance with tribal customs.
Dorsey has published some careful notes on this as on other matters
connected with the tribes of the Dakota stock, and Catlin has also
given descriptions. The decorations were often the result of a vision.
If a man had a vision of the aurora he depicted it on his robes and
tent, the latter having a band of paint around the bottom, above which
was a zigzag border from which, on one side, three stripes were drawn
to the top of the tent, four on the other, and one in the rear. If he
had a vision of the night or of some other “superterrestrial object,
he blackened the upper part of his tent and a small portion on each
side of the entrance.” Sometimes a star was also indicated, and night
was represented by a black band above the middle or at the bottom. A
tent similar to the Dakota tipi is in wide use among the Amerinds.
Morgan states that the Dakotas were living in bark-covered houses when
first discovered, in villages, in the present state of Minnesota,
and that when they were driven “upon the plains by an advancing
white population, but after they had become possessed of horses,
they invented a skin tent eminently adapted to their present nomadic
condition. It is superior to any other in use among the American
aborigines from its roominess, its portable character, and the facility
with which it can be erected and struck.”[176] While this is probably
accurate as concerns the Dakotas, it is likely that other tribes
invented a similar tent for themselves, before the appearance of the
Dakotas on the plains.[177] Three tipis among the Omahas were sacred,
and sheltered three sacred objects, the Sacred Pole, the Sacred White
Buffalo-Cow Skin, and the Sacred Bag. These are all now in the Peabody
Museum at Cambridge. They were built like the common tipi.
[Illustration: A SEMINOLE DWELLING]
The wigwam of the Algonquins was built in two general ways, using bark
or mats for covering. One form is made by planting elastic poles in the
ground and bringing their tops together, and binding the whole with
horizontal poles. It is unlike the tipi, because it is not portable,
because the poles are flexible, and because the sides curve out from
bottom to top instead of being straight lines. It is covered with
birchbark. It is from ten to sixteen feet in diameter on the ground,
and from six to ten feet high. The fire was built, as in the tipi, in
the middle of the floor in a slight depression, and the usual outlet
for smoke was left at the top. “Such a lodge,” says Morgan, “would
accommodate, in the aboriginal plan of living, two and sometimes three
married pairs with their children.”[178] The Menominee-Algonquin form
of wigwam was made by planting in the ground about three feet apart,
approximating the form of an ellipse, strong saplings some two inches
in diameter, leaving at each end an opening for a doorway. The poles
are then bent over toward each other and tied in an arch with strips of
bark. Horizontal poles are tied on to the upright ones for stiffening,
and the frame is then covered with bark or mats overlapping each other
like shingles. The usual smoke outlet is left in the top. A mat curtain
takes the place of a door. There were seldom, or never, regular doors
in any Amerind houses on the continent before the Discovery, the
opening being closed by curtains or mats. Another Menominee shelter,
described by Hoffman, was made by “putting five or six saplings on each
side of a parallelogram; the ends are left open, and the top of each
sapling on a given side is then bound down over its opposite fellow to
form a roof somewhat resembling a wagon-top. Horizontal saplings are
then bound around the framework to make the structure secure, and over
all are laid, longitudinally, a series of long strips of pine bark the
upper pieces overlapping those below, while a large piece is placed
over the highest part of the roof, which thus sheds the rain or melting
snow.... The bedding is spread on the ground and usually covers the
entire floor.”[179]
The eastern portion of the continent below Labrador, being
well-forested, the Amerind houses there appear to have been entirely of
wood, or sometimes of wood and mud combined. For this reason nothing
of any of them, except occasional earth rings, is to be found and,
so far as remains of houses are concerned, our wonderful, surpassing
Moundbuilders appear to have had no houses. Turning to other Amerinds,
however, who occupied the country when the whites arrived, we glean a
fair idea of what the houses of the Mississippi valley may have been
at their best. They varied in design in the same locality, of course,
according to the tribe, in the same way that I have mentioned that in
the South-west we find to-day Amerinds living in the most primitive
form of dwelling not many miles away from others living in high types.
Some of the Mississippi valley houses were doubtless excellent
structures though built of wood, or of wattling plastered with
mud. Many of the mounds, squares, and circles were connected with
buildings, generally forming the foundations for dwellings or other
structures as in other parts of the continent.[180] In other words,
they were often platforms for houses. The reasons for building a house
on a platform raised above the surrounding lands might be many; one
simple one was a desire to keep the floor dry in wet weather. The floor
was earth, and earth on a level during long rains got uncomfortably
damp if not wet. It would be natural in building, after such lessons,
to elevate the floor of the house, which was done by rearing a platform
of earth. This gave good drainage, and besides in a malarial region
would be more healthful, and furthermore added to the defensive
qualities. The habitations being built upon platforms, it would not
do to build sacred structures on low ground. Man seldom looks down
upon his spiritual constructions. Hence the higher the sacred building
could be placed, the more sacred it seemed, and the huge flat-topped
mounds of the Mississippi valley and Mexico were the result. Some of
the Florida Amerinds were still living in dwellings reared on platforms
of this kind, and so were others in the Southern United States, at the
time of the first visits of the whites. The mounds, as a rule, are on
the bottom lands along river courses, though in places where there are
higher terraces these have frequently been chosen. Thomas quotes the
following passage from Garcilasso: “The town and the houses of the
cacique Ossachile are like those of other caciques in Florida.... The
Indians try to place their villages on elevated sites; but inasmuch
as in Florida there are not many sites of this kind where they can
conveniently build, they erect elevations themselves in the following
manner: They select the spot and carry there a quantity of earth, which
they form into a kind of platform two or three pikes in height, the
summit of which is large enough to give room for twelve, fifteen, or
twenty houses, to lodge the cacique and his attendants. At the foot
of this elevation they mark out a square place, according to the size
of the village, around which the leading men have their houses....
To ascend the elevation they have a straight passageway from bottom
to top, fifteen or twenty feet wide. Here steps are made by massive
beams, and others are planted firmly in the ground to serve as walls.
On all other sides of the platform the sides are cut steep.”[181]
Thomas quotes further from Garcilasso: “The chief, whose name was also
Guaxule, came out with five hundred men to meet him and took him in the
village (pueblo) in which were three hundred houses, and lodged him in
his own. This house stood on a high mound (cerro) similar to others we
have already mentioned. Round about was a roadway sufficiently broad
for six men to walk abreast.”[182] Again he quotes Le Page Du Pratz,
who visited the Natchez in 1720: “As I was an intimate friend of the
sovereign of the Natchez he showed me their temple, which is about
thirty feet square, and stands on an artificial mount about eight feet
high, by the side of a small river.”[183] There was also still another
reason for building on mounds or elevated platforms; the reason, or
at least one great reason, why the Mayas and Mexicans built on them,
namely the desire to protect the foundations. In Louisiana the Taensas,
in the time of La Salle, built of “sun-baked mud mixed with straw,
arched over with a dome-shaped roof.”[184] Now a structure of this
kind if reared on ordinary ground would soon be destroyed by the rains
and moisture sapping its foundations, but by placing it on an elevated
platform, where its footing would be comparatively dry, it would endure
a long time. A sacred house would be likely to be so placed, if not
others.
[Illustration: MISSISSIPPI VALLEY METHOD OF USING JACAL CONSTRUCTION,
ACCORDING TO THOMAS]
[Illustration: CLIFF OUTLOOK, CANYON DEL MUERTO, ARIZONA]
Every tribe had some kind of a sacred structure, the Omahas carrying
from place to place the three sacred tents referred to. The sacred
structures, too, were generally of the same style as the house of the
chief. Each village of the Natchez had a house devoted to the dead,
besides others dedicated to different sacred objects. The death-house
was oval, “having a circumference of one hundred feet—a simple hut
without a window, and with a low and narrow opening on the side for
the only door.”[185] Here were “garnered the choicest fetiches of the
tribe, of which some were moulded from clay and baked in the sun.
There, too, were gathered the bones of the dead; there an undying fire
was kept burning by appointed guardians as if to warm and light and
cheer the departed.”[185] “Hard by the temple, on an artificial mound
of earth, stood the hut of the Great Sun; around it were grouped the
cabins of the tribe.”[185]
It seems unnecessary to give any further space to show that the mounds
that have aroused so much discussion and romantic writing were, many of
them, the foundations for various structures reared by Amerinds as we
know them.
Morgan advanced a theory that the hollow square earthworks were the
foundations for long buildings, at one and the same time dwellings
and a part of the defences, the interior area being used for a work
place, children’s playground, etc. Many Algonquin houses were made
of a parallelogram shape, with straight sides about eight feet high
and a rounded roof. These houses were fifty or more feet long, and
the matting with which they were covered could be readily removed
to let in the sun and air. As a rule the villages were surrounded by
palisades. The Iroquois, as well as most other Amerinds, lived in
permanent villages, which were at first stockaded. They used three
kinds of houses; a triangular lodge made of poles with bark for a
covering, used in hunting, and the _ganosote_ or smaller bark house
constructed in the same way as the third kind, the _hodénosote_ or
“long-house,” which was built to accommodate a number of families.
This was sometimes a hundred feet long, and from it came the name
_Hodenosaunee_ by which the great League of the Five (Six) Nations was
known to the world and to themselves. It was made by planting poles in
the ground and binding others across them to make a strong frame of
the shape of a parallelogram, upon which a roof of triangular pattern
was built out of poles covered with bark. Sometimes the roof was round
like that of many Algonquin tribes, and that of the ganosote was very
frequently round. The height of the sides was about ten feet. The
ganosote was about fifteen by twenty feet and fifteen feet high, with
inside a kind of double berth built against the longer walls like the
berths in a ship. It would accommodate eight persons. The entrance
was closed by skins or by bark hung on wooden hinges. The covering
was bark held in place by an outer set of poles tied through to the
inside ones. The long-house was divided into a number of chambers
six or eight feet wide with a passageway through all from end to end
where the doors were. “Between each four apartments, two on a side,
was a fire-pit in the center of the hall, used in common by their
occupants.... Raised bunks were constructed around the walls of each
apartment for beds.”[186] These structures constituted the village
which was surrounded by a palisade, sometimes a double or triple row.
The houses were placed without arrangement; and when the league grew
powerful the palisade was dispensed with. The Lenapé “constructed small
wattled huts with rounded tops thatched with the leaves of the Indian
corn or with sweetflags.... In summer light brush tents took the place
of these.”[187]
[Illustration: HALL OF COLUMNS, MITLA
Holmes’s Archæological Studies in Mexico
Photograph by A. V. Armour
]
[Illustration: TRANSVERSE SECTION (SOMEWHAT GENERALISED) SHOWING
CONSTRUCTION OF PALENQUE BUILDINGS, YUCATAN
_f_, trefoil opening through medial wall; _g_, _h_, two principal
varieties of roof comb
W. H. Holmes
]
[Illustration: SOME DETAILS OF PUEBLO HOUSE ARCHITECTURE
A TRIANGULAR SIPAPU OR SACRED KIVA ORIFICE
PUEBLO ROOF CONSTRUCTION
SOME MOKI ROOF DRAINS
]
On the North-west coast the native houses are usually built of cedar
slabs. These slabs are split out of the wide trees[188] and the walls
are obtained by securing them in an upright position to a frame about
ten feet high. On this rests the roof of split shakes, bark, or boards,
laid on rafters which are supported in the middle by two long, heavy
beams, running the entire length of the house, and themselves borne up
by four huge posts, often carved with totemic emblems. The general
outward appearance of these houses is much like an ordinary low
one-story house or barn of our own, except that in the middle of the
roof there is a large square hole for a smoke outlet, the fire being
made on a patch of sand or earth that forms a square about nine by ten
feet in the middle of the room, the size depending on the dimensions
of the house. They are usually about thirty or forty feet square,[189]
the interior forming one large room, sometimes having a platform on
one or two sides or all the way round about six feet wide and two feet
high. This is divided by thin partitions into small compartments,
which are covered about six feet above the floor with a ceiling of
thin boards. A curtain in front makes a room of it. These houses vary
somewhat in the different localities, but the type is about the same
from the Puget Sound region to Yakutat Bay. Some of the Sound Amerinds
give but one pitch to the roof. Many of the natives now build a house
of sawed materials and roof it with shingles so that their modern
villages, like the one at Sitka, present outwardly few Amerind signs,
as they usually have chimneys, too, instead of smoke holes. Where
they have the latter, boards are stuck up above the ridge to form a
windbreak, or a more perfect arrangement for preventing back draught is
applied in the shape of a large solid shutter so pivoted in the middle
line that it can be tilted from one side of the ridge to the other.
Among some tribes there are several smoke holes with adjustable boards
that can be worked from below with a pole. The entire front gable of
a chief’s house or an assembly house is often ornamented with a huge
totemic design, painted on smooth boards that fill the whole space.
In front of the house stood the tall pole bearing the totems of the
inmates carved, one above another, with a full relief totem adorning
the top. Small houses were built to hold the boxes containing the ashes
of the dead, and the roof was sometimes surmounted with a totem carved
in wood, or the totem was erected on a small pole nearby, or placed
under the roof.
[Illustration: MOKI NOTCHED DOORWAY, SO MADE THAT LARGE BUNDLES COULD
BE TAKEN IN
The transom was probably at first a smoke outlet
]
In all the constructions of the Amerinds of the North-west coast we
perceive the powerful influence of surroundings on a primitive people.
The region abounds in superb cedars with a grain so fine and straight
that the logs can be readily split into slabs a couple of inches thick,
that are admirable material for building purposes. Then there are
plenty of young straight hemlocks, firs, and cedars for rafters and
framework, so that these Amerinds, like those of the cliff region of
the South-west, had their building material almost ready made. Being
largely fishermen, they were not well supplied with skins, so that it
was not easy to make pole lodges covered with them, as was the case
with many Amerinds of the interior, where trees were absent or hard to
split and where skins were plenty.
[Illustration: A ZUÑI CHIMNEY, MOKI THE SAME]
[Illustration: ONE FORM OF MOKI CHIMNEY HOOD]
In California a variety of houses was built, as there are many
different stocks and conditions. The Yokuts made them of tule mats in
the shape of an “A” tent with a door at the front. A half dozen or more
of these were placed in a row and above them a flat sun-shelter of
branches laid on a platform of poles supported by crotched posts set in
the ground. Others build a hut of slabs or bark brought to a point and
open on one side, like a tipi cut in two. Others again live in wikiups
made by covering a square framework with boughs, leaving one side open.
When the side of an Amerind hut is left open in this way, the opening
always faces the south, except in hot weather, when it generally faces
the other way. Another California tribe lives in earth lodges entered
from the top through a hole or hatch with steps on the outside. This
lodge was made by excavating a couple of feet and putting this earth
on the covering framework, for a roof. In the mountains where wood was
plenty they frequently used no earth at all, showing how quickly they
adapted themselves to circumstances. The Modoc “excavates a circular
space from two to four feet deep, then erects over it a rounded
structure of poles and puncheons, strongly braced up with timbers,
sometimes hewn and squared. The whole is warmly covered with earth, and
an aperture left atop, reached by a centre pole. Before the coming of
the whites secured them against the constant assaults and incursions
of their enemies, their dwellings were slighter, consisting generally
of a frame of willow poles, with tule matting overspread.”[190] Another
tribe of the Pacific Slope, the Makhelchel, build cabins “of slender
willow poles set upright in the ground, with others crossing them
horizontally, forming a square lattice-work.”[191] The Yokaya have a
lodge or dwelling composed of a “huge framework of willow poles covered
with thatch, and resembling a large flattish haystack.” The Karok
“excavate a round cellar, four or five feet deep and twelve or fifteen
feet in diameter. Over this they build a square cabin of split poles
or puncheons, planted erect in the ground and covered with a flattish
puncheon roof. They eat and sleep in the cellar ... and store their
supplies on the bank above next to the walls of the cabin.”[192] The
Maidu make a hut of slabs placed together in something the shape of a
tipi, with a low, square projection for an entrance.
Passing northward to the Aleuts, we find “houses built with the floor
somewhat below the level of the outside soil, the walls of whale-ribs,
sticks of wood, or upright stone walls, covered outside with mats,
straw and finally turf.... The roof was formed by arching whale-ribs,
or long sticks of driftwood, matted, thatched, and turfed like the
sides, with a central aperture. A platform, somewhat raised, around the
sides of the house afforded a place for sitting and sleeping. Later
each village had a large house or _kashim_, which served as a common
work-shop, and a lodging for strangers, as well as for a town-hall
for their discussions and festivals.... Still later, in a period not
greatly antedating the historic, the Aleuts began to build large
communistic dwellings with features peculiar to themselves, without
doors, and entered by the hole in the roof, the inmates descending
on a notched log placed upright. These large yourts were divided,
by partitions of wood, stone, or matting, into small rooms like the
state-rooms of a steamer, but without doors; open toward the center of
the yourt, and each accommodating one family.”[193]
It will be noted that we have again changed materials of construction;
and why? Because the Aleutian Islands are devoid of timber, devoid of
good building stone that an Amerind could get at, and he resorted
therefore to what there was—driftwood, whale-ribs, turf, etc.[194] The
house called by the Russians _barabára_ seems to have been originally
made of turf even to the roof, and I saw examples in the summer of 1899
at Unalaska and on St. Paul Island. The turf or sod was cut into slabs
and laid up like stones.
[Illustration: GROUND PLAN OF ESKIMO SNOW IGLU]
Continuing northward we reach the vast treeless arctic regions, where
cold is the great enemy, and the reader wonders what man can do here in
the way of architecture. He has done considerable; amongst other things
he devised the only true arch found on the continent, and constructed
one of the most admirable and unique dwellings in the world. This he
built out of the snow which fell about him and prevented him from
securing other material. The invention of the snow house by the Eskimo,
or Innuit, as they call themselves, was one of the greatest triumphs
over environment man has ever accomplished. I refer, of course, to the
perfected snow house, the dome-shaped _iglugeak_, commonly called by
us _igloo_ or _iglu_. _Iglu_ is the Innuit generic term for “house,”
the distinctive name for snow house being _iglugeak_. This snow house
is begun by selecting a suitable deep drift that is compact enough to
permit homogeneous blocks to be taken from it, with the snow-knife,
which is a bone tool shaped like a short sword. Latterly steel saws are
employed when they have them. In the pit formed by removal of blocks
of snow the builder works at his walls, the bottom of the excavation
finally forming the floor of the house. The first block is bevelled
down to a wedge shape with the point toward the beginning, and the
worker goes on round his circle, and when he comes again to the wedge
his wall rises upon the first portion and continues thus in a spiral
fashion to the top, constantly narrowing till at last one block fills
the opening. It takes two to adjust this, though one may build a
small house successfully to that last point. By building spirally and
therefore continuously, there is always support on two sides for the
last block laid. The edges are slanted at the same time to bring the
tiers gradually toward the centre. Joints and holes are filled with
snow, though a small hole is left at the top for ventilation. As the
heating of this house is done with lamps there is little smoke. For
camping purposes a small snow house is built, seven feet diameter and
five feet high, in about two hours. When made for permanent use the
house is about twelve feet high and fifteen feet diameter. Plenty of
light comes through the snow, but a window of ice or seal intestine
is often placed over the entrance, which is reached by a more or less
extended passage, with vaults for storage, by the way.
[Illustration: SECTION OF SNOW IGLU]
But though this house is so cleverly built, and is warm, and proof
against everything but mild weather, the Innuit, if he can, will build
a permanent winter house of drift wood, stones, earth, and sod and
whale-ribs. These from the outside look like mounds of earth, and as
soon as warm weather comes are nothing but wet cellars, which the
inhabitants quickly abandon for the time, erecting with their walrus
and seal skins a summer tent, called a _tupek_ or _topek_. The Point
Barrow tupek is something like a tipi, without a smoke hole, as the
fire is built outside when they can secure wood to build one. All the
Alaska Innuit now use canvas tents of the “wall” pattern, when they can
procure them.
The Amerind of the interior of the northland, where timber grows,
utilises it and the skins of the animals he kills. The Nenenot about
Hudson Bay occupy, all the year round, a tent almost identical with the
Dakota tipi.
[Illustration: AN ALASKA ESKIMO WINTER HOUSE, POINT BARROW
Interior and sections p. 221
]
No construction on the continent shows more skill than the Innuit
snow iglu. The winter houses, of snow or other material, are usually
occupied by two or more families. Many interiors of snow houses are
lined with the summer tent covering to prevent the drip of the walls
from falling on the occupants.
[Illustration: INTERIOR GROUND PLAN OF A MOKI HOUSE]
As the polar regions developed the snow-house; forest regions, bark
and mat houses; barren plains, portable tents; so arid regions, where
disintegrating cliffs furnished an abundance of flat slabs of stone,
evolved stone houses, and broad dry valleys or plains lacking cliffs,
timber, or large game, but yielding good clay soil, produced houses
of mud or adobe; or, according to conditions, such combinations of
these materials as were easiest and most practicable. It is next in
order to review the houses of the arid regions constructed of stone,
adobe, jacal, cajon, pisé,[195] etc., and the cavate lodges. To do
full justice to the subject of houses would require a separate volume,
but enough may be given here to present a general view. The occupied
villages of the South-western United States are similar to the ruins
found throughout that region, and the cliff-dwellings, which some
writers would clothe with mystery, as has been mentioned, were no more
mysterious than the occupied dwellings of the Moki; or any other Pueblo
village, which, fortunately, remains inhabited by the builders.[196]
The cliff-dwellings were constructed in cliffs simply because it was
expedient to build them there and not because the builders were a race
apart from other Amerinds. The canyons where the cliff-dwellings occur
have bottom lands that are fertile and easily irrigated, both by stream
water, and after the Pueblo fashion, by guiding shower waters with hoes
amongst the corn. This in itself was a sufficient object for building
in the canyons, and the huge, natural conchoidal alcoves that occur
in the faces of the prevailing formation were attractive places to
build in for several reasons, one of which may have been protection
from assault and the weather, and another the frequent presence of
springs at the back of these cavities. These springs have almost
vanished, in many cases have entirely disappeared, owing to slightly
drier conditions now prevailing. But I have frequently noticed at the
back part of many of the cavities that had no ruins, or few ruins, to
cover it up, a moisture that might at times increase to a dripping, or
even flowing, that would furnish enough water for the daily supply of
a considerable Amerind village. The construction is the same as other
Pueblo houses of stone.
[Illustration: INTERIOR OF WOOD AND EARTH IGLU]
[Illustration: AN ALASKA ESKIMO WINTER HOUSE OF WOOD AND EARTH, POINT
BARROW]
[Illustration: STONE STEPS AT ORAIBI]
The inhabited pueblos, like the ruins, usually consist of a number of
rooms built adjoining or on top of each other, like a lot of square
boxes placed in rows or in a pyramidal pile, or like a series of steps,
with the total height at the back often straight down. One or two
single-room houses are first built, and then additions are made from
time to time till the pile grows to a considerable height; three or
four stories.[197] Groups of these groups built near each other form
courts between. The lower tier of rooms, in olden times, was not
entered from the ground, but from the roof through a hatchway, a ladder
leading up on the outside and down on the inside. The upper rooms, or
houses, were entered from the roofs of the lower ones; that is, the
roofs of the lower rooms formed the floors of the upper ones, and also
balconies in front of the rooms. I occupied for a time one of these
upper rooms in Tewa, on the “East Mesa” at the Moki towns, and I found
the roof in front of my door a delightful place, commanding a view of
the whole mesa and a hundred miles beyond. I could also reach the top
of my house easily, by a sort of stairway formed on the edge of the
prolonged wall that separated me from my neighbour, and as this was the
summit of the village my view was superb. Such stairways are common in
all the villages. The ladders by which the various roofs are reached
are now much like our own, but rudely made, and the upper ends are
often very long, extending in many cases far above the house-top. The
walls, about a foot thick, are of stone slabs laid in adobe mortar,
and are generally built up by the women, who take their own time to
the work, adding a few stones whenever they feel like it. Beams of
small tree-trunks, six to eight inches in diameter, form the basis of
the flat roof.[198] They are laid across the top of the walls and the
ends, if too long, usually allowed to project beyond. These are covered
with smaller poles laid about a foot apart, and on these are spread
slender willows or reeds, with a layer of grass or twigs next, on which
a layer of adobe mortar is laid and earth trodden down on top till it
is firm, when a finish is made with another coat of adobe mortar. A
slight pitch is given to the roof. No plumb-line, level, or square was
used by the Amerinds anywhere on the continent so far as is now known.
Sometimes the floors are paved with irregular flat sandstone slabs, but
in most houses the floor is formed by a coat of adobe mortar which is
patched and renewed as needed. Moccasined feet are not hard on such a
surface, but my heavy soled shoes were the despair of the owner of my
habitation. The hand is used as a trowel. The chimney is usually at one
corner, and did not exist in America previous to the sixteenth century.
A hood is built down from the roof to within about three or four feet
of the floor, to catch the smoke, and outside the chimney is built
up about three feet, sometimes with stones, but more frequently with
large earthen pots with the bottoms knocked out. The hood is formed
of sticks plastered with adobe mortar. Doorways were formerly of the
notched variety[199] closed by a curtain, and the hatchways were closed
by a mat of reeds. In later times the doorways have become like our
own, and doors, too, have been made out of sawed boards. My door at
Tewa was hung on hinges and had a latch and string. Glazed windows have
also been adopted in many houses. The Rio Grande pueblos are built
of adobe bricks, and so, largely, is Zuñi, but there is little adobe
in the Moki towns, except in the form of plaster and mortar. The Rio
Grande pueblos were largely constructed of adobe when first visited in
1540. The Pueblo Amerind frequently abandoned his village for one cause
or another and built a new one elsewhere, so while his village may be
called a permanent one it was not much more so than villages of the
Algonquins and Iroquois.
[Illustration: CLIFF-DWELLING, EASTERN COVE OF MUMMY CAVE, CANYON DE
CHELLY, ARIZONA]
[Illustration: HOUSES IN WALPI, ONE OF THE MOKI TOWNS, ARIZONA
In this are well seen the plastered and unplastered walls of stone,
the ladders of ascent, the “end wall” steps, the notched doorway,
with transom, the projecting roof beams, a rabbit-skin robe hanging
on the wall above the right-hand ladder, and also on the left the
entrance to a passageway through to another court
Photograph by U. S. Geological Survey
]
[Illustration: GENERAL VIEW OF A GROUP OF CAVATE LODGES, ARIZONA]
[Illustration: PLAN AND SECTIONS OF A CAVATE LODGE]
[Illustration: DIAGRAM SHOWING POCKET AT BACK OF SOME CAVATE LODGES
It was probably a receptacle for water which dripped slowly from
the rock in wet seasons
]
Besides houses, some of the Amerinds of the South-west dwelt in
shelters excavated wholly or in part in the face of a cliff or
mountain, or hill. There are four localities where these cavate lodges
occur in numbers, the northern Rio Grande valley, the San Juan River
valley, the San Francisco mountain region, and the Rio Verde valley
in Arizona. There are in these places thousands of cavate lodges.
They average in size two or three rooms, sometimes communicating
by a ledge, sometimes, often, in fact, with excavated connections.
Some of the Verde group[200] are cut back a long distance into the
rock—forty or fifty feet. The rooms are both oblong and circular, about
seven feet high and ten by seventeen feet in size, or eight or ten
feet diameter, according to the shape. There were no chimneys, the
fire-pits being near the entrances. Nor were there any windows, the
doorway being the only opening to the outside. Floors were levelled by
filling depressions with adobe clay and low ridges were built up of
the same material, probably to keep the inmates off the bottom, which
must have sometimes been damp. Poles or willows laid across the ridges
with skins on them would have made a flooring. Depressions at the back
walls appear to have been made to hold water, and doubtless at times
there was a “seepage” of considerable amount, as I have suggested
regarding the open conchoidal caves occupied by the Cliff-dwellers.
What appear to be stepping-stones are found in some entrances, as
if water at times flowed out. The Verde group are in a soft grey
sandstone, the Rio Grande in tufa, the San Francisco in cinder hills.
These cavate dwellings are simply another form of Amerind residence
due to necessity or expedience.[201] In other places there are some
that were undoubtedly merely farming outlooks, occupied only during
the crop season, just as there are cliff houses for this purpose, and
also houses erected singly in open valleys. But many cavate lodges were
actual residences for a period of years, owing to circumstances of
one kind or another. The Cliff-dwellers may still be found among the
Tarahumaris of northern Mexico. Schwatka describes some who “had walled
up the outward face of a cave nearly to the top, leaving the latter for
ventilation.” Many small cliff-dwellings in other places were so made
to allow the smoke to escape. That is, the wall along the outer edge
of the cavity was not carried quite up to the rock above, so that the
smoke could drift out. There was, therefore, no roof over the dwelling,
but it was sheltered by the overhanging rock. Many more examples of
this adaptation of the dwelling to circumstances might be added.
There are ruins scattered all over the South-west, many of which were
built by the same set of Amerinds, and do not represent a vanished
population. Still, I believe that the population was at one time much
greater than it was when our acquaintance with it began. Internecine
wars resulting from a diminution of water-supply; diseases introduced
by the whites; and also the attacks and absorption of tribes by the
wilder Amerinds, being some of the causes of the diminution. It would
not be possible to describe even all the prominent ruins here, but
I will mention several. Beginning easterly of the Rio Grande, we
find the Pecos Ruins first of importance. There are also remains of a
large adobe Catholic church and a convent here, not finally and fully
abandoned till about 1840. The ruins consist of two chief buildings
on a low table, surrounded by an artificial wall. The buildings were
in the form of rectangles, with courts within, one 55 by 440 feet,
and the other 170 by 350 feet. In places, they were three or four
stories high, terraced, Pueblo fashion. The construction was slightly
different from the ordinary, as the upper floor and roof beams rested
mainly on heavy upright posts set into the walls, and not directly
on the walls themselves. The whole framework was thus independent of
the enclosing walls, very much as our modern steel frame buildings
are. The walls were of sandstone slabs, and were from one to two feet
thick. Another group of important ruins, and about the finest specimens
of the stone buildings of the ancient Pueblos, is that of the Chaco,
in north-western New Mexico.[202] There are eleven chief ruins, and
many smaller ones. The principal ruins were once houses three, four,
or perhaps five stories high, all built of sandstone slabs and blocks
obtained from the débris of the cliffs. Some of the walls are still
standing to the height of thirty or forty feet. All are not uniform in
the way the stones are laid, the variation being due to building at
different times, and to a variation of the available supply of slabs.
The stones were usually laid so closely, and so carefully chinked with
spalls, that the outside of the walls resembles a smooth mosaic; though
adobe mortar and rubble were freely used in the interior. Lintels,
as was generally the case throughout America, were of wood. The date
of the abandonment of these buildings is not known. They were first
mentioned by Gregg, in 1844.[203]
[Illustration: THEORETIC ROOF CONSTRUCTION OF MITLA
W. H. Holmes
]
[Illustration: CEILING OR ROOF PLAN
GROUND PLAN OF A KIVA AND CEILING PLAN OF ANOTHER
The entrance is by ladder through the hole in the ceiling, which is
also the smoke outlet. The floor is paved with slabs of stone, and
is about 12 inches higher at the right-hand end. There are places
on each side for the looms, blankets being woven in the kivas. The
fireplace is the black square. At the left is the plank containing
the sacred orifice called the sipapu. The foot of the ladder rests
on the edge of the raised portion of the floor
]
[Illustration: CHACO RUINS MASONRY
From _Report_ of Hayden Expedition; 2 and 3 not found in modern
Pueblo architecture
]
[Illustration: From Hayden _Report_]
There were many round towers of stone in the South-west, also the work
of the Pueblos. Some stand alone but most of them are near other ruins.
Often they were built with two or three concentric walls from two to
five feet apart. A double-walled tower on the Mancos had an outer
diameter of forty-three feet. Some of them may have been watch-towers,
but those connected with other buildings were perhaps religious
structures, or were used somewhat as the kiva[204] is to-day. The kiva
is a room now usually square, in part, or wholly, below the general
surface of the locality, used as a kind of club-house, council-house,
lounging place, and meeting place for members of the society to which
it belongs; and also a lodging place for the men; women are generally
excluded. In Zuñi, the kivas are rooms on the ground floor. Many
ancient kivas were round.
[Illustration: RUIN CALLED CASA GRANDE, ARIZONA]
Adobe brick and adobe clay in various forms were largely employed by
the South-western and Mexican Amerinds, and there are evidences that
some tribes in the Mississippi valley also used it. In the Rio Grande
valley the adobe is made into large bricks, sun-dried and laid up with
a mortar of the same material. Otherwise the villages are much the
same as those described. One of the best modern examples of the adobe
construction is the village of Taos in north-eastern New Mexico. (See
illustration page 3.) Another method of employing adobe is seen in the
famous ruin called _Casa Grande_, near Florence, Arizona, which our
government recently repaired so that it will endure for a considerable
time. This was made by the cajon method; that is, the adobe mud was
rammed into large chests or boxes of wicker, without top or bottom, and
when the material was sufficiently dried to hold its shape the frame
was removed and the operation repeated till the wall was finished. The
ruin referred to is only one of a number that were still standing in
an area of about sixty-five acres in 1744, when Father Sedelmair saw
them. He described the present ruin as having four stories, but only
three are now distinguishable at the highest part. Its age is unknown.
Its builders are supposed to have been the ancestors of the present
Pimas, though probably there was considerable difference in the matter
of culture. Father Kino, in 1694, was the first European to see the
place and it was a ruin then. It was doubtless a communal dwelling like
all the other large structures of the Amerinds of this region. Its size
on the ground is forty-three by fifty-nine feet. Partitions three or
four feet thick divide the interior into five rooms, the middle one
having higher walls than the rest. The adobe blocks are two feet high,
three to five long, and three or four across, and are almost as hard
as sandstone while dry. There may have been upper stories of plastered
wattled posts. Another famous ruin similar to this is the _Casas
Grandes_ in Chihuahua, Mexico. It is built in much the same way as
_Casa Grande_, and there are more buildings there standing. Probably
there were at one time a great many structures of this kind in that
region, and there may be others still standing in less explored parts.
In the Salt River valley many of the buildings were of a somewhat
different type again, as concerns their wall construction.[205] The
Hemenway Expedition excavated a great many sites and found that the
walls were often adobe rammed in between two series of posts wattled
with reeds and cross-braced with sticks, the outer part of the wattled
frames being plastered with adobe mortar. The thinner walls were
constructed with only one line of wattled posts plastered on both
sides, after the manner of the Mexican construction known as jacal,
which is a set of poles fixed in the ground and then plastered on one
or both sides with mud. The upper stories of some of the Rio Grande
structures in the early times were made of wood probably plastered
this way, which explains why in the southern part of New Mexico there
are not now found higher standing walls of ruins or evidences of
several stories.[206] Examples also have been seen in South-western
Colorado, where a kind of wicker-work was built on the top of a wall
and plastered on both sides. In the Salt River ruins the existence of
the wood-work was indicated by the cavities left by its decay. There
were also other structures built without the wattled frames. The
cajon and pisé construction are very much alike, one being a Spanish
and the other a French term, except that any pounded or rammed earth
construction might be pisé, while the cajon is distinctly made by
ramming earth into a box.[207] Therefore the _Casa Grande_ would be
a clear example of cajon, while the Salt River construction of adobe
rammed between the wattled frames would be pisé; and the plastered
wicker-work would be jacal. The pisé and cajon method is very old all
over the world. It is still to be found in France and England. In
France the pisé box is about three yards long, one yard high, and about
half a yard wide. The readiness with which the Amerind took advantage
of his resources in the architectural line is again apparent in these
great adobe structures of the Amerinds of northern Mexico and the
South-western United States. It is not sensible, therefore, when some
style of construction is discovered differing from that which we have
been accustomed to see, to ascribe it to some mysterious race.
[Illustration: TRANSVERSE SECTION OF AN ORDINARY YUCATEC BUILDING
_f_, capstones of corbel vault; _l_, roof crest or comb. Such a
building stood on the top of a mound
W. H. Holmes
]
[Illustration: W. H. Holmes
FORMS OF THE MAYA CORBEL VAULT]
In southern Mexico they erected extensive cities or pueblos because
there they were more crowded together than anywhere to the northward,
but these cities were essentially the same as the more simple towns in
the northern country. At Tlascala “the houses were built, for the most
part, of mud or earth; the better sort of stone and lime, or bricks
dried in the sun. They were unprovided with doors or windows, but in
the apertures for the former hung mats fringed with pieces of copper,
or something which by its tinkling sound would give notice of anyone’s
entrance. The streets were narrow and dark.”[208] This extract from
Prescott might picture a New Mexican pueblo instead of one of the towns
encountered by Cortez which have been often so romantically described.
The copper on the mats was probably more for Amerind ornament than
for the purpose stated by Prescott. While in some respects the Aztec
towns may have been more elaborate than the New Mexican towns, there
was probably not much difference in their method of construction. “The
principal buildings and temples of the city were covered with a hard
white stucco which glistened like enamel in the ... morning sun.”[209]
This was perhaps a wash of gypsiferous clay similar to that used by the
Mokis, or it may have been similar to the zahcab of the Mayas, which
was a singular and abundant white earth used by them as a stucco. It
was found in pockets.
[Illustration: GROUND PLANS OF YUCATEC BUILDINGS
W. H. Holmes
]
“The dwellings of the common people were also placed on foundations
of stone which rose to the height of a few feet, and were then
succeeded by courses of unbaked bricks, crossed occasionally by wooden
rafters.”[210] These rafters were the projecting ends of the poles,
as in the Pueblo country. The adobe houses in Mexico are now often
built on stone foundations, for it is the foundation that is sapped
and undermined by the rains. The upper walls of adobe stand well in a
climate of that sort. Prescott says of the houses of the “dignitaries”
and of the “principal nobles” that “They were low, indeed; seldom of
more than one floor, never exceeding two. But they were spread over
a wide extent of ground; were arranged in a quadrangular form, with
a court in the centre,”[211] all of which sounds suspiciously like
a communal dwelling, as Morgan maintains the Aztec houses were. The
Aztecs were crowded around the lake of Mexico, and also built out
over the water on piles. Houses raised above the water or ground were
nothing unusual in America. Some of the North-west coast Amerinds
built dwellings which were “raised and supported near thirty feet from
the ground by perpendicular spars of very large size” with “access
formed by a long tree in an inclined position from the platform to the
ground, with notches cut in it by way of steps about a foot and a half
asunder.”[212]
[Illustration: KWAKIUTL HOUSE FRONT
The thunder-bird lifting a whale. The beak was carved and fastened
on
Construction: wood—split cedar planks, tree trunks, and poles. Site:
edge of the sea
]
So far as the Aztec houses are concerned, “None of the Spanish
descriptions,” asserts Morgan, “enable us to realise the exact form
and structure.... But for the pueblos, occupied or in ruins, in New
Mexico, and the more remarkable pueblos in ruins in Yucatan and Central
America, we would know very little concerning the house architecture of
the Sedentary Village Indians.”[213]
Morgan believes all were joint tenements, but in this he may be
mistaken, for the life of the Aztecs seems to have passed to a point
somewhat higher than that of the New Mexican Amerinds, and a further
development of Aztec life certainly included a further development of
their house-life also.
Within a day’s journey of the City of Mexico, Saville investigated some
interesting ruins of an old “temple” erected, according to a tablet
found there, in 1502, the signs on the tablet representing a rabbit and
ten dots, or ten _tochtli_, corresponding to this date. It was built
of rubble stone covered in many places inside with stone carving that
had been painted.[214] There were also ornaments in stucco. The outer
walls are nearly six feet thick. It is on the top of a high, cliff-like
mountain difficult of access, near the Mexican town of Tepoztlan.
Another splendid ruin near this is the Temple of Xochicalco. See
illustrations, pages 23 and 31.
[Illustration: NORTH-WEST COAST HOUSES AND TOTEM POLES
Haida House
_p o p_ shifting wind break over smoke hole
End left open to show construction.
Dotted lines give section of floor.
_m_, totem pole; _c c_, bench; _b_, fireplace; _k_, smoke hole;
_g g_, house posts
]
The greatest group of architectural remains on this continent is that
of the Maya region, mainly in Yucatan. For a full description of many
of these buildings the reader is referred again to the admirable work
of Maudsley. The Mayas were the greatest architects as well as the
greatest artists and greatest in almost everything of all the Amerinds,
and if Goodman is correct in his rendering of some of their chronology
they occupied the region more than ten thousand years.[215] Mound-like
foundations supported the buildings, which generally rose as from a
terrace, though sometimes the mound was very high and very steep, with
small space around the building crowning it. At Copan,[216] which was
in ruins before the Spaniards arrived, there is a great main terrace
from which mounds rise, the latter bearing the buildings. The casing
of the mound and the walls of buildings are of nicely dressed oblong
stones usually without mortar. The joints were not broken here, nor in
other Maya work. The mound slopes were terraced at five-foot intervals
and the steps were about five feet high. The so-called “triangular
arch” probably existed here as it did at the other Maya ruins. It
was made by advancing the courses, several feet above the base of an
opening, gradually toward each other till they met above, where a large
slab was usually laid across to bind the whole together. The ceilings
or roofs of many rooms in Maya ruins were wholly made this way. It has
also been called a corbel arch, though it is, in fact, not an arch at
all. See illustrations, pages 210, 235, and 237. There was no arch
in Amerindian architecture besides the one the Eskimo constructed in
his snow hut. The rooms are generally long and narrow in all the Maya
structures and no windows existed. The Maya inability to span wide
spaces was the cause of the narrow rooms and buildings. At Uxmal the
two main rooms of the so-called Governor’s Palace are sixty feet long
and only eleven to thirteen feet wide. The walls of all the structures
are very thick, though certain walls, as the rear ones, are usually
thicker than the others and have no openings, the latter, as a rule,
being along one, two, or three sides. This was a probable survival of
earlier defensive constructions similar to the communal fortresses of
the Puebloan type as particularly exemplified in the ruins of the Chaco
in New Mexico, where there were no rear openings. See ground plans,
page 232. At Palenque are some fine examples of the Maya construction.
The largest is called the palace and is 180 feet wide, 228 feet long,
and 25 feet high, with fourteen doorways on the side and eleven at the
ends. It was one story in height, as were all Maya buildings. There is
a vast amount of carving and stucco modelling around them. One of the
most unique constructions is that called the “Temple of the Cross,”
number one, or two, or three, by different explorers, there being two
structures much alike. See note 2, page 184. This is on top of a high
mound, and is fifty feet front, thirty-one feet deep, and about forty
feet high. The roof was something like our gambrel type, being the
same all around without gables, with a level platform about three feet
wide along the ridge, from which arose a peculiar stone and stucco,
latticed, superstructure in two stories, the first about seven and the
second about eight feet high. See illustrations, pages 210 and 235.
There was abundant stucco ornamentation over the exterior, and on each
side of the entrance was one of the figures referred to in the last
chapter.
[Illustration: RUIN OF EAST FAÇADE AND IGLESIA, “PALACE” CHICHEN-ITZA,
YUCATAN
Holmes’s _Archæological Studies in Mexico_
]
[Illustration: ELEVATION OF KWAKIUTL HOUSE]
[Illustration: VIEW IN THE MOKI TOWN OF MISHONGNAVI, ARIZONA
Construction: stone slabs laid in adobe mortar. Site: barren summit
of a mesa. The ladders were pulled up in time of danger
]
The mortar used is said to have been a cement made of one part slaked
lime to two parts of zahcab. This was used by all the ancient Mayas
and is used still in that country. It is, however, doubtful if slaked
lime was known to the ancients. There is no evidence of it. At Mitla
is yet another type of house ascribed to the Zapotecs.[217] It is in
the Mexican State of Oaxaca. The human figures and animal carvings and
forms seen in the Yucatan ruins are absent. The rooms are the same,
long and narrow, with no openings except the doors. One of the most
unusual features is a great hall 12 by 121 feet, with six round stone
columns standing at intervals of about fifteen feet down the middle.
See illustrations, pages 9 and 209. These average about twelve feet
high and nine feet in circumference. The walls are forty-eight inches
thick, of roughly broken stones laid in courses in plenty of adobe
mortar, the outer parts of all the buildings being faced by slabs of
stone containing the ornamentation, which is wholly geometrical. Some
adobe brick walls are forty-six inches thick. The columns are out of
the common because they are single stones, but built up piers are often
used in Pueblo architecture, and the North-west coast Amerinds use the
column in wood very frequently to support their large longitudinal
rafters. One of these which I sketched in an Alaskan house at Cape Fox
is given in the illustration, page 162. The roofs at Mitla were wooden
beams covered with earth and stone slabs. See illustration, page 230.
There are other ruins all through Honduras and Nicaragua and the rest
of Central America. Squier says: “In Honduras, as also in San Salvador,
I heard of remains and monuments equal to those of Copan in extent and
interest.”
At the time the Spaniards came into Yucatan the Amerinds, according to
Herrera, were dwelling in timber huts thatched with grass or something
similar. The dense unexplored forests of the Yucatan region are
filled with ruins which have never been seen by white men, at least
that is the supposition of archæologists like Saville and Charnay.
The Maya house was divided, according to Landa, from side to side by
a wall with doors, the back part being sleeping quarters. The front
portion was whitewashed or painted in designs and was open the whole
length, with low sheltering eaves. In the rear there was a doorway
leading from that part. A lengthwise division into two main parts was
a characteristic of almost all the Maya buildings now found in ruins.
The structures were generally wide and shallow, and subdivided into a
great many rooms. It is more in the ornamentation of the buildings and
the stone roofs than in anything else that they differ from structures
farther north. The interior masonry is frequently a rubble, with
the dressed and carved stones on the outside as a facing. Bandelier
thinks that some of the stone walls in New Mexico are quite as well
constructed as some in Mexico proper. But however this may be, there
is nothing north of the City of Mexico that compares in architectural
excellence with the Yucatan structures, albeit in some respects there
is a strong resemblance between the latter in plan and conception, and
the Pecos and other northern ruins.
The communal principle of living had much to do almost everywhere with
the size and character of the Amerind houses. Situation was determined
by expedience and necessity; material of construction by environment.
Throughout the continent the Amerind was a village dweller, and except
in the Far North and on the northern Californian and North-west
coasts he was generally a tiller of the soil, growing, often in large
quantities, maize, beans, squashes, cotton, and some other products
according to locality. His large communal buildings were in part
fortresses to protect the families against marauding Amerinds of a less
prosperous and cultivated type, and against the occupants of other
towns, for in general it may be said that there was little political
cohesion in the various tribes, though the Aztecs and Iroquois are
examples of exceptions that arose from time to time.
There is nothing in any of the remains, so far developed, that
indicates foreign influence, prior to the Discovery. Every
architectural work on the continent is purely Amerindian or modified by
contact with other races subsequent to 1492.
[Illustration: ESKIMO HORN DIPPER]
[Illustration: HORN ARROW STRAIGHTENER]
CHAPTER IX
WEAPONS, ARMOUR, IMPLEMENTS, AND TRANSPORTATION
[Illustration: MODERN IRON ARROW-HEADS OF THE OMAHAS
War Arrow
War Arrow
Hunting Arrow
]
The Amerinds were practically all in the so-called Stone Age of
culture; that is, they were unacquainted with the _common use_ of
metals. Some tribes worked silver, gold, and copper, to a limited
extent and in an ornamental way, and a high authority asserts that the
Eskimo have known iron for nine hundred years. Those Eskimo who came
in contact with the Northmen on the North-east coasts very likely saw
specimens of manufactured iron, and possessed some, nearly a thousand
years ago, but it was a bare acquaintance, and this and the limited
working of the other metals do not affect the general statement that
the Amerinds were practically a Stone-Age people. Even the Maya, with
all their varied skill and knowledge superior to any other Amerinds,
still used stone tools for carving in stone. They had no way of
sufficiently hardening the metals they could secure and their stone
tools were far more serviceable. So the tools, weapons, and implements
throughout the continent were chiefly wood, bone, and stone, with a
few exceptions in Mexico, Central America, and the Mississippi valley.
In the last region there was some working of copper obtained from the
rich deposits of native metal in northern Michigan,[218] but the main
thing they could do with it was to beat and grind it into shape with
stones. Arrow-heads, spear-heads, chisels, and knife-blades of copper
have been found in the Mississippi and Atlantic regions, but there
is no certainty that all of them were made by the Amerinds.[219] The
Spaniards and other Europeans were speedily engaged in a considerable
traffic with the Amerinds in which copper was an important medium
of exchange. Large quantities were therefore early brought into the
country from Europe, and we do not always know in what form. It is
certain that the traders would try to give it the most attractive
shape, and if arrow-heads were found to be good, it would not take long
to manufacture them. This is not to say that the Amerind could not have
made the implements or copper articles thus far found, but only to
question whether he did make all of them.
[Illustration: FORMS OF THE BOW]
The chief weapon of all Amerinds was the bow and arrow.[220] The bow
was made in a number of ways and of various kinds of wood, and of horn,
reinforced as a rule by a backing of sinew. The arrow-shaft was most
frequently of service-berry wood when it could be had, and also of reed
with a tip of some solid wood. The heads were of chipped stone, or
bone, or latterly of bottle-glass, or often, for small-bird shooting,
without any head whatever. A few heads were of copper, and in modern
times hoop iron is used. Amongst all the Amerind bows that I have ever
seen, one made from the horns of a mountain sheep, with a portion of
the skull as the central part, was the finest and most graceful. It was
exactly the shape of the typical bow wielded by the little god Cupid,
and I have always regretted that I did not purchase it at the time, for
I have never seen one since. I saw it in southern Utah in 1875.[221]
I have sometimes thought that the bow and arrow were a development from
the primitive fire-drill, through the bow-drill and spear. Some day by
accident or design perhaps the drill stick sprung from the tightened
string, the idea of substituting the spear for the drill stick was
suggested, and the greatest invention in its effect on humanity man has
yet seen was born.
[Illustration: PAI UTE PALM-DRILL
Drawn by the author from a specimen obtained by him in Arizona,
1875. Lower part of shaft of greasewood about 5 in. long and ⅜ in.
diameter. Hearth of cedar (Juniper). Upper part of drill shaft is
omitted.
]
There are three or four forms of fire-drill, but the palm-drill—that
is, the kind that was rotated between the palms of the hands—was the
earliest, most widespread, and most compact and portable of all. It
consisted of a shaft of wood, or reed with a piece of some harder
wood attached to it; or, where the hard wood was not long enough, it
was spliced on to another piece of wood. The illustration above shows
a drill and hearth I obtained from the Pai Utes of Arizona in 1875.
These Amerinds were using such drills for fire-making at that lime.
The other portion of the apparatus, the hearth, is made of cedar, or
any soft and suitable wood. It has cavities cut into it to receive the
rounded, blunt end of the shaft, and on the sides of these cavities a
little notch is cut to allow the air to get at the superheated wood
dust and to permit the dust to be quickly thrust into the tinder which
is placed beside and beneath the hearth. This hearth, which is an inch
or so in width and about a quarter of an inch thick, is held securely
down by the foot or knee, and the drill stick rapidly revolved back
and forth in an upright position, with the lower end in one of the
cavities. The revolving motion is secured by the palms of the hands,
which are allowed to slide down the shaft to gain downward pressure,
each time being brought quickly back to the top for a repetition of
the motion, so that it is practically continuous. A pinch of sand is
sometimes added to increase the friction and create dust more speedily.
The superheated dust, or spark, is skilfully flung into the tinder of
moss or rubbed-up bark and a few puffs of breath bring a flame. All
the materials are kept very dry, and an expert will secure a fire in
a few seconds under favourable conditions.[222] This was the common
form of fire-drill throughout the continent. The “_new-fire_” of the
Aztecs,[223] produced at the termination of their fifty-two-year
cycle, when all fires were permitted to die out, was obtained with a
fire-drill similar to the one described. Even when a tribe had better
means of obtaining fire, it would preserve the primitive method in its
religious ceremonies. Before the invention of the fire-drill it was of
the greatest importance to guard and preserve the fire that had perhaps
been procured from a great distance or from some forest conflagration
which had passed away. Hence it assumed a sacred character, and those
who were entrusted with its preservation were high priests. Eternal
fires, or undying fires, were the result at first of the necessity of
preserving fire, and later, when the friction-drill was discovered,
those who possessed the knowledge of it were correspondingly endowed
with power over the remainder.
[Illustration: THE PALM-DRILL (FIRE-MAKING)]
[Illustration: THE PUMP-DRILL (FIRE-MAKING)]
[Illustration: ESKIMO STRING-DRILL.
(FOR FIRE-MAKING WITH MOUTHPIECE)
]
[Illustration: PUEBLO PUMP-DRILL.
(FOR BORING)]
[Illustration: DRILL-POINT OF CHIPPED FLINT]
After the palm-drill comes the string-drill, wherein the drill is
operated by means of a cord twisted about it, the ends being pulled
back and forth, and the top of the stick being held firm by insertion
in a socket, the latter being grasped in one hand or, when there was
only one operator, taken in the mouth. The old Eskimo drill is of this
description, produced probably because the surroundings compelled
swifter and harder revolutions of the stick to obtain the desired
results. A further development is the bow-drill, used by the Eskimo and
others, where instead of pulling the ends of the string a bent piece
of wood, or bow, is attached to them, the movement of which back and
forth rotates the stick. This is used with a mouthpiece for a socket.
Another form, but one seldom used for fire-getting, is the pump-drill,
where the stick connected with the ends of the cord runs across the
drill stock, and sometimes has the stock passing through it, the string
being so adjusted around the stock that an up-and-down motion of the
crossbar imparts a rotary, reciprocating movement to the stock. This
is the form used by the Pueblos for stone drilling, etc.[224] The
fire-drill entered into the religious ceremonies of most tribes, and,
conventionalised in the so-called cross of the Palenque tablet, which
is a development, according to Bandelier, of the fire-drill through
ornamentation, it puzzled the Europeans, causing them for a time to
imagine that Christianity had preceded Columbus to the New World.
[Illustration: SET OF FIRE-MAKING TOOLS, BRISTOL BAY ESKIMO, ALASKA
Showing stepped hearth. Mouthpiece is set with a socket-bearing of
black stone
String
Hearth
Mouthpiece
Drill
]
[Illustration: ESKIMO BOW-DRILL]
To return to the bow again, the length of it varies in different
localities. In a densely wooded country, a long bow would often be
in the way, and this and other reasons would make it shorter. The
average length is about forty inches. The string is made of sinew,
well twisted and, at the ends, braided. Arrows are of different kinds
in the same tribe: some blunt or with wood points sharpened for bird
shooting, or for other small animals; arrows adapted for deer; for
large fowl; and others still for heavy game like bison or bear. The
head of the game arrow was set in the plane of the string—that is, the
notch was quite or nearly in line with the head, and, when adjusted
to the bowstring, stood at a slight angle, the bow always being held
diagonally across the shooter’s body. The head would thus strike
between an animal’s ribs. War arrows, on the other hand, had their
notches so placed that the head of the arrow went from the bow in a
horizontal position, because the ribs of a man lie that way.[225] It
will be seen that the head was not at right angles to the notch, for in
that case it would not have been projected horizontally. The adjustment
of the notch to produce the desired position would always be regulated
by the habit of holding the bow. Since the rifle came into use, little
attention probably has been given to this point. The arrow-shaft is
round, about a quarter inch in diameter, and from twenty to thirty
inches long, though some are longer.[226] Long ones are usually made
of reed with a hardwood tip, upon which the head is mounted; this, as
noted above, now being of hoop iron. Stone heads formerly were the
chief method of tipping the shaft. In 1875 I purchased a number of
these from an old arrow-maker of the Pai Ute tribe. The other end of
the shaft is feathered. This is done by attaching split feathers to
it with the web cut narrow, for the purpose of giving it guidance.
This feathering is a distinguishing feature, and an expert can place
the maker of an arrow by the style of feathering. Feathers of birds
of prey are almost invariably employed. The number is sometimes two,
but generally three. They are attached by strands of moist sinew
wound around the ends and when the sinew is dry it becomes a smooth
firm band. Three zigzag grooves are scratched down the shaft, some
say not, as popularly believed, for the purpose of aiding the flow of
blood, but because this is the lightning symbol, and is intended to
endow the arrow with speed and certainty. But Dorsey says the Omahas
told him their object was to increase flow of blood from the wound.
Poisoned arrows were made by dipping the points into rotting liver or
rattlesnake venom, etc. These were used for war. The arrow-shaft when
first made is by no means always straight, but the Amerind invented a
piece of horn or stone with perforations through which the heated shaft
is drawn till it is straight. See illustration at head of this chapter.
Quivers are all very similar in plan also, usually comprising a case
for the bow, one for the arrows, and in some tribes a pouch containing
arrow-making tools. The Eskimo make their quivers of sealskin, other
tribes use cat, deer, panther, otter, etc. The spear doubtless preceded
the bow and arrow. It is little used by the interior tribes, but in the
form of the harpoon, as well as the regular spear form, is common among
the Eskimo and other coast Amerinds.[227]
[Illustration: MODERN ROD ARMOUR OF THE KLAMATHS, OREGON
Made up of 44 oval rods of pine wood. The cord is of native hemp
and cords made of sisal, the latter probably derived from ropes of
white make. Cords are coloured red and yellow. Bound with buckskin
painted red; shoulder-straps of buckskin; tying straps at the
sides. Width, 38 in.; height, 21 in.
]
[Illustration: HUPA ROD ARMOUR, CALIFORNIA
“Made of 118 peeled rods, woven together with native twine,
bound with buckskin on upper and lower edges and arm-holes.
Shoulder-straps of leather; six horizontal stripes of red cord
cross the front. The red lines denote the number of enemies slain
or captives taken; also the rank of the wearer. This class of
armour was in common use among the Natanos and Kennucks before the
introduction of firearms; but it is now obsolete, nearly.” Width,
41 in.; height, 21 in.
]
[Illustration: ESKIMO PLATE ARMOUR, DIOMEDE ISLAND, BERING STRAIT
“Made of five imbricating rows of plates of walrus ivory of unequal
size in the different rows, pierced with from 6 to 13 holes, lashed
with sealskin thongs.” 164 plates in all. In form, lashing and
adjustment of plates it is identical with certain types of Japanese
armour. Width, extended, 49 in.; height, 24 in.
]
In armour, the Amerind was inventive, as in everything else, and he
devised some excellent means for defence for the body[228]; and
borrowed one form, according to Hough, from Asia. His shields were made
of wood, basketry, cotton, and rawhide, and were usually circular. The
commonest material was rawhide, which was often contracted and hardened
by fire, and then covered with buckskin. It was variously ornamented,
and the decoration was the outcome of many a religious ceremony
conducted according to long-established rules. It was “invariably held
on the left arm, usually by a simple thong of buckskin attached to the
interior.” Many shields have two covers, each held on by a gathering
string. In New Mexico and Mexico some tribes used one that could be
shut up like a fan, and the Navajos had one that was made of cedar rods
tied together with cords.
[Illustration: TLINKIT SKIN ARMOUR, ALASKA
“Made of tanned hide; two thicknesses; sewed along the upper
edge. The ‘swallow-tail’ portion is reinforced with two extra
thicknesses, making four in all. The coat is very heavy. The sewing
is done with sinew. Width, 25 in.; height, 33 in.”
]
[Illustration: PREHISTORIC ALEUTIAN ROD ARMOUR
“The small rods composing it are about ¾ in. diameter, painted
red. Width, 40 in.; height, 25 in. Position as on the body. It was
fastened behind with two loops of sinew, into which wooden buttons
were inserted”
]
The body armour was made of rows of overlapping plates, lashed
together, of slats, of rods, of skins, and of cotton padded. The plate
armour is the one that was borrowed from Asia; a migration apparently
across Bering Strait. The cotton-padded armour was confined to the
Amerinds of Mexico and Central America, but the other varieties were
distributed over the whole area. In the plate armour, “small, flat,
oblong plates of ivory or bone pierced near the edges with from four
to six or more holes,” were lashed in series with rawhide thongs.
The coat, made in this way of a number of rows, was tied at the back
with thongs, or had a toggle fastening. Some of these plates in iron
and in copper have been dug up at Cape Prince of Wales and on St.
Lawrence Island. This armour is very similar to that of the Japanese,
and if it was wholly an imported idea, it was probably a comparatively
recent one. The Tlinkits used the slat armour and also a rod armour,
the former being made of very hard wood fastened with cords of sinew.
A Tlinkit greave has also been found among the collections in the
National Museum, so that it is probable that the North-west coast
Amerinds protected arms and legs as well as body. The Iroquois are also
reported to have used armour of rods both on their limbs and their
vital parts. The rod armour was formed by sewing or lacing together
with native twine a series of straight slender rods sufficient to
pass around the body and tie in front, with places for the arms,
and straps over the shoulders. The skin armour was simply a sort of
heavy, sleeveless shirt made of thick hide, doubled and reinforced
and otherwise rendered as nearly as possible proof against arrow or
spear. In Mexico, where the padded cotton armour was chiefly worn,
a breastplate of the same material was put on under it. The common
Aztec soldiers wore armour of “reeds, grass, and hides, or ’nequen
cloth, coated with India-rubber.”[229] Veytia says the “private
soldiers painted the upper part of the body to represent armour, but
from the waist to the thighs they wore short drawers, and over them
fastened around the waist a kind of kilt that reached to the knee, and
availed them somewhat for defence. Across the body was a sash made of
feathers that passed from the right shoulder to the left side of the
waist.”[230] Many Amerinds also wore in conjunction with the various
kinds of armour, a helmet, ranging from the feathered war-bonnet to
a heavy mask-helmet of wood. The Tarascos of Mexico, according to
Brinton, specially excelled in defensive armour, which “consisted of
helmet, body pieces, and greaves for the legs and arms, all of wood
covered neatly with copper or gold plates, so well done that the
pieces looked as if they were of solid metal.”[231] The Mayas wore
cotton armour similar to that of the Mexicans, and bore a shield also.
Breastplates of copper have been found in the Atlantic region, and many
of the Amerinds there used body armour of wood, skins, and bark.
[Illustration: CHIPPED FLINT]
[Illustration: CHIPPED FLINT BLUNT ARROW-HEAD, GEORGIA]
[Illustration: CHIPPED FLINT IMPLEMENT, TENNESSEE]
[Illustration: SPECIMEN “CORES,” OR BLOCKS OF FLINT
From which flakes were struck off for making arrow-heads, etc.
Usually about 3 in. long in the U. S., but longer elsewhere
]
[Illustration: SPECIMEN OF CHIPPED FLINT DISCS, CALLED “TURTLEBACK,”
MISSISSIPPI VALLEY]
[Illustration: GROOVED STONE AXE, TENNESSEE (GROUND)]
Another kind of defensive armour, though its qualities were purely
imaginary, is the so-called “ghost-shirt” (see illustration, page
157) made of cloth or skin, and resembling the ordinary war-shirt of
the Dakota. This shirt came into notice during the “Ghost Dance”[232]
excitement that began about 1890 and lasted for six or eight years.
It was worn by all men, women, and children who accepted the “Ghost”
doctrine, either as an outside or under garment, and it was implicitly
believed that no bullet or other weapon could penetrate its sacred
material.[233] As already remarked in another chapter, the Amerinds
in modern times, of at least the United States region, usually went
into battle naked. The only defensive armour was, as Mooney records,
“his protecting medicine,” which consisted of “a feather, a tiny bag
of some sacred powder, the claw of an animal, the head of a bird, or
some other small object, which could be readily twisted into his hair
or hidden between the covers of his shield.... Its virtue depended
entirely on the ceremony of the consecration, and not on size or
texture. The war-paint had the same magic power of protection.... The
so-called ‘war-shirt’ was worn chiefly in ceremonial dress parades and
only rarely on the warpath.”[234] Just when the armour which protected
by its intrinsic strength was abandoned for the protection of the
“medicine” is not, so far as I am aware, at present known. At one time,
it seems quite certain, the material protection of armour was almost
universal over the whole of North America, while in our latter day no
one ever saw an Amerind fight with armour on. The idea of going into
battle nude was that the warrior’s movements were unincumbered, while
his “medicine” afforded him ample protection. A Navajo who posed for
me for a picture in Arizona described the Navajo manner of going to
battle, but never mentioned armour, or any kind of protection. He said
they always went naked, with even their hair untied from its customary
knot and falling loose on the shoulders.
Stone arrow- and spear-heads are found in all parts of the continent,
but they are almost always chipped, seldom ground. Maguire, who has
made a special study of this subject, declares chipping to be one of
the most difficult of arts. “On examination,” he says, “it is found
that every rock has been worked in the best and most economical method
which its texture admits.” The usual way of making arrow-heads was to
place the bit of stone previously flaked from a nodule or fragment and
brought near the shape by percussion, on the palm of the left hand,
which is protected by a glove or a piece of buckskin, and hold it there
by the fingers of that hand while the right brings a down pressure to
bear on the edges by the point of a slender piece of horn or bone. The
chips spring off and the operation is continued till the desired shape
is attained. I tried this method once on a flake of chalcedony I had
picked up, and had no difficulty in bringing it to an arrow-head shape.
Maguire has made a great many successfully. Chisels, axes, and mauls
were made the same way or were ground into shape, a groove being made
in the axes across the sides to receive a split stick that was bound
on for a handle. It is almost unnecessary to say, perhaps, that there
never could have been a time when all tribes were equally proficient
in the art of stone working, some being skilful when others could make
nothing.[235]
[Illustration: DIAGRAM EXPLAINING TERMS TO BE USED IN DESCRIBING STONE
WEAPONS
_a_, point; _b_, edge; _c_, face; _d_, bevel; _e_, blade; _f_, tang;
_g_, stem; _h_, base; _i_, notch; _k_, neck; _m_, barb, or shoulder
]
In this country we know so well the origin of the stone implements
found in the fields that we smile when we read of people in Europe
treating them as charms and talismans. “When kept in a house they
protect it from lightning; the water in which a celt has been boiled
is a remedy against rheumatism; and sick cattle are cured by drinking
water in which a celt has been placed.” The Amerinds frequently treat
them as medicine.[236]
Some tools were produced in the rough at various sites, or workshops,
located at the quarries. Those in Ohio described by Moorehead are
probably the most extensive in North America, except the obsidian
mines of Hidalgo, Mexico. “The magnitude of the deposit is such,”
he says, “that it has given to the locality the distinctive name of
Flint Ridge.” It occupies an area about eight miles long by three
wide. Here thousands of cubic yards of earth had been removed to reach
the flint beneath. “Acre after acre has been so thoroughly excavated
that scarcely a single foot of earth and stone retains its original
position. Hundreds of wagon loads of spalls cover the ground.” One
of the pits formed in this extremely hard stone is almost a hundred
feet in diameter and more than eighteen feet deep. The method employed
was to build a fire on the rock and then throw cold water on the spot
till the edge was broken through and they could knock flakes off of
the under side with stone hammers. These were put roughly into shape
at some nearby spot and then perhaps taken far away to be finished.
This flint formed better tools than that found on the surface.[237]
Many of the blades were often piled together for some unknown reason.
In sinking a well in a corner of a mound in Illinois, eighteen large
flint spades were found a few feet below the surface, closely packed
together, and Moorehead found in Ohio the largest “cache” ever brought
to light. This formed a mound in the Hopewell group, six feet high and
sixty feet in diameter at the base, and contained over seven thousand
flint discs about the size of a man’s hand.[238]
Some spear-points found are more than a foot long and three inches
wide, and they vary from this down to what may be termed large
arrow-heads. Some writers claim that only the very small smallest
heads were from arrows, but this would vary according to the tribe
and the game hunted, just as we have various bores to our rifles. The
stone arrow-heads of the Pai Utes twenty-five years ago were small,
but the smallest were often attached to the longest arrows. The method
of securing the head to the shaft was generally similar everywhere. A
notch being cut in the end of the stick, a small quantity of pitch,
asphaltum, fish, or animal glue, or cement, was placed in it,
warmed, and the stone head squeezed into position, where it was held
by wrappings of wet sinew thread which, drying, gave it a firm grip,
and yet when moistened by blood would allow the head to come off in
a wound. The sinew was variously applied, according to the shape of
the head. The triangular head was held on by passing the sinew over
the outer edges, while in that with a tang, which went well down into
the shaft, the sinew was wound round and round the shaft and over the
tang at the same time. All iron heads were made and mounted in the
latter way. In the leaf-shaped head with deep notches, the wrapping
was thoroughly protected by the depth of the notches through which
it passed. The hafting of knives was much like that of arrows and
spears, the ordinary stone knife looking much like a spear-head, and
probably some implements that are classed as spear-heads were knives
instead. Many were double-edged, while others were single. Some of the
diminutive stone implements resembling arrow-heads were drill-heads
or awls, and also heads for the children’s play-arrows.[239] There is
also a great range in the size of the stone axes and hammers, from mere
toys to those so large as to be unwieldy. Grooved stone axes are found
all over the continent, except in the mounds of Ohio. Like other stone
implements, they have often been used successively by various tribes.
Those used to-day by the Mokis and Zuñis are some they have found, and
they use them as pounders and pestles. Many of the axes and hammers
were weapons of war.
[Illustration: TLINKIT SLAT-AND-ROD ARMOUR, ALASKA, FRONT VIEW
“Made of slats and rods of hard wood, 1¼ to 1½ in. wide, ⁵⁄₁₆ in.
thick, woven together by means of fine sinew cord so as to admit
of considerable flexibility. The rods and slats are pared down to
form channels for the reception of the cord weaving. The front and
back portions are woven separately. The neck portions are made up
of short slats, and sewed on by means of a strip of rawhide 1½ in.
wide. The shoulder supports are of very thick elkhide, the one
on the right being fastened by a slash and toggle. Width of rear
portion, 24 in.; height, 20 in.; width of front portion, 18 in.;
height, 19 in.”
]
[Illustration: APACHE WAR-BONNET]
The Amerinds were so skilful in the use of stone tools that it is
related that in the early days of the West they would skin and dress
a deer with a stone almost as quickly as a white man could do it with
a hunting-knife. For this purpose they would pick up a thin stone and
with a few sharp blows from another stone bring it to a cutting edge.
Skins were dressed by scrapers of bone or stone to remove superfluous
flesh. Pins were used for stretching them on the ground.
Among the Eskimo the harpoon reached a high state of perfection, and
many of their weapons are beautifully made. Bone, wood, and ivory were
utilised for the shaft, and a specially unique one was made from the
single horn of the narwhal. Spears or lances were also used for land
animals before they had firearms. They are now pretty well supplied
with the latest Winchester rifles. The harpoon to-day has a blade of
thin iron or steel set into an ivory or bone piece which has a hole
through it that retains in place a sealskin thong to which a line
is attached. The bottom of the ivory piece has a socket in it that
fits on to the lance shaft. When the harpoon strikes an animal’s body
the head of it then hangs there on the end of the line, coming loose
from the shaft. There are various forms of the harpoon for different
animals, and they are also of different sizes according to the weight
and strength of the owner. Formerly the blades were of slate, jade,
or flint. Floats of sealskin inflated are used to mark the place
of a capture, so that carcass and harpoon can be easily recovered.
The Eskimo had a wolf-killer that was ingenious. A stout piece of
whalebone, about a foot long and half an inch broad, was sharpened at
the ends and then frozen in a piece of blubber in a Z shape. The wolf
swallowing it, its own heat released the whalebone, which penetrated
the sides of the stomach and killed the animal. Each tribe had a varied
assortment of implements according to locality and occupation, and it
would not be possible even to mention them all in a single chapter, so
I shall give only the most important. The bird spear of the Eskimo is a
singular weapon. The shaft is laid on a short board fifteen to eighteen
inches long, which has a groove to receive the shaft, a handle, and a
hole for the first finger. A spike in the shaft prevents slipping, and
when the board is hurled forward by a strong wrist motion, the fingers
let go the shaft, which, leaving the board, flies forward to the mark
with considerable force. These spears are also used by the Aleuts.
The Eskimo also use for bird killing six or seven ivory balls, each
attached to a string about thirty inches long, the ends of the strings
being supplied with tufts of feathers. The balls spread apart in flying
through the air and cover a wide space. For war all tribes had clubs
and tomahawks. The Mexicans used some with blades of obsidian set in
both edges.
[Illustration: ESKIMO THROWING-BOARDS FOR DARTS.]
[Illustration: ESKIMO BIRD BOLAS.]
In the line of throwing weapons is the _pūtchkohu_ of the Mokis, a
first cousin to the Australian boomerang. It is effective at thirty
or forty yards, but does not return. It is a flat piece of curved oak,
sawed out of a bend of a limb, about twenty inches long, one quarter to
one half inch thick, and two inches wide, with a small handle at one
end. It is thrown with the concave side forward.
[Illustration: AMERINDIAN KNIVES
Ute stone knife. Handle of wood and blade set in a dark cement
Eskimo slate knives. Handles of wood
]
Nets were used for fishing and for hunting. The Pai Utes made a good
net of cord, from milkweed or sagebrush bark, about as thick as
telegraph wire. It was about fifty feet long and three feet broad, and
was propped up on the ground on a number of slender rods, one net being
joined to another’s end until a large semi-circle was formed into which
rabbits from a large area were frightened by noises. Caught in the
meshes, they were soon despatched by their pursuers. Many Amerinds used
nets for fishing, and the Eskimo make a fine, strong one of sealskin,
with which they catch the seal itself as it rushes after prey in the
waters near some beach where the net is stretched. I obtained one that
is fifty feet long and about six feet wide, with meshes seven inches
square.
[Illustration: MOKI THROWING-STICK, OR PUTCHKOHU.]
[Illustration: PUEBLO PLANTING STICK.]
[Illustration: ZUÑI WOODEN SPADE.
Used for shovelling snow from roofs and for taking bread from ovens
]
For agricultural operations the Amerinds had various tools, which,
though primitive, answered the requirements. Of the plough, or
anything approaching it, they had no knowledge, the hoe being their
chief implement. This was made of flint, the shoulder-blade of a deer
or other animal, a turtle shell or some similar object. Spades were
also made, often of wood, and in the Mississippi region of flint, but
these are seldom found in the Atlantic division. In the Moki country
corn is still planted with a dibble, a stick sharpened at one end and
having on one side a projection to receive the foot, which pressed it
into the soil. Having cultivated a crop of maize, the grain had to be
reduced to meal before it would serve for winter use, and for this
purpose mortars of wood and stone were used, and also the _metates_,
or mealing stones. Other substances besides corn were also ground in
the mortars, as seeds of grass, dried fish, nuts, grasshoppers, paint,
etc. Sometimes natural depressions in rocks were utilised, but oftener
small bowlders were worked into the desired shape and stone pestles
were wrought out to accompany them. The cavity was of various depths.
Those tribes growing little corn made mortars neither large nor deep,
and some, like the Pai Utes, growing no corn at all, ground their grass
seeds on a flat stone, while those relying chiefly on corn for food,
like the Pueblos and the Mexicans, in the early days made large oblong
mortars, of hard basalt cut out to a depth of six or eight inches, with
sides not more than an inch and a half or two inches thick. While these
were really mortars, the grain was not pounded in them, but crushed
and rubbed into meal by means of another stone, flat and oblong, about
four and a half inches wide and some ten inches long and an inch or
two thick. When the Pueblos and Mexicans settled in permanent houses
they departed from the old way of hollowing out these stones, and used
instead a flat slab, set up at an angle of about thirty-five degrees in
a frame of slabs of stone, or of wood, about six or eight inches deep.
Several of these slabs were fixed in a row, usually three, and were
each made to produce different degrees of fineness by the girls behind
till at the last stone, or metate,[240] as they are usually called, the
meal was of the required condition. See page 194. The Eastern Amerinds
usually pounded their corn with stone pestles in wooden mortars. Some
Western tribes used the same method. Diminutive mortars were used for
preparing face paints, while others were children’s toys. The so-called
cupped-stones have sometimes been supposed to be paint mortars, but, as
pointed out in a previous chapter (p. 66), they may have been mostly
used for roughing and shaping the ends of fire-drills.
[Illustration: A MOKI THROWING THE PUTCHKOHU
The “East Mesa” is seen in the right distance whereon are the three
villages of—left to right—Walpi, Cichumovi, Tewa. The dressing of
the hair is Navajo, as well as the turban, the model’s uncle being
Navajo but a Moki citizen
From a drawing by the author Permission of the Century Co.
]
The Navajos carve moulds for their silver casting in sandstone, and it
seems likely that some of the so-called stone tablets, inscribed with
figures that are not clearly defined, may have been nothing more than
moulds, in those regions, at least, where it is known that copper or
other metals were worked.[241]
The spindle and loom, which belong among the implements and tools
enumerated here, have already been described in connection with weaving
and they will now be passed by. The tools used in metal working will be
mentioned in a following chapter.
[Illustration: SHELL SPOON, MISSISSIPPI VALLEY]
Household utensils were made of various materials, of which
earthenware, as noted in the chapter on Pottery, was one of the chief.
There were also trays, boxes, buckets, and cups of wood. Others were of
whalebone, sealskin, soapstone, and ivory. Spoons were made from the
horns of the mountain sheep, from those of goats, and from bison horns.
Some of these spoons, made of horn by the North-west coast Amerinds,
are elaborately carved and polished. Clam, oyster, conch, and turtle
shells also served for ladles and spoons. Drinking cups, dippers,
water-bottles, and other vessels were made of gourds. Metallic cups
or pots have not been found antedating the arrival of the Spaniards.
Soapstone vessels, as well as earthenware, were made and used in the
Atlantic region; soapstone by the Eskimo. Quarries exist where the
material was obtained, especially in the Chesapeake-Potomac tidewater
region. Special pick-like stone tools were made for cutting out these
pots and masses. The Eskimo, who once ranged down as far as the mouth
of the Hudson and possibly farther, may have originally opened up some
of these quarries.
[Illustration: PUEBLO MOUNTAIN SHEEP-HORN SPOON.]
[Illustration: MENOMINEE WOODEN MORTAR AND PESTLE]
In the line of utensils, the Eskimo lamp, is, perhaps, one of the
most important and unique.[242] No other Amerinds had anything of
the kind. It was a necessity with the Eskimo, while tribes living in
wooded regions would have no use for it. They could obtain light from
camp-fires, especially with the addition of pitch pine. But the Eskimo
lamp is primarily a heating apparatus. What need then for Amerinds,
who had wood, to bother with a lamp, for which oil must be prepared?
Besides this consideration was the one of cleanliness, for the lamp is
very dirty, and even Amerinds have standards. “Far more remarkable than
being the unique possessors of the lamp in the Western Hemisphere,”
says Hough, “the Eskimo present the spectacle of a people depending
for their very existence upon this household belonging. Indeed, it is
a startling conclusion that the lamp has determined the occupancy of
an otherwise uninhabitable region by the Eskimo, or, in other words,
the distribution of a race.”[243] When fuel can be obtained, which is
the case often in summer, fires are used instead of the lamp. This
fuel is peat, grass, driftwood, or shrubs. The lamp is generally of
soapstone, though some have been made of clay, earthenware, bone, or
wood. The usual shape is something like a clam shell, though they are
sometimes oval or pear-shaped, or round. They are modified in form
according to the use required of them, the traveller’s lamp being much
smaller necessarily than the ordinary lamp of the iglu. The lamps vary
in length from two or three inches to about two feet, and in width from
one half inch to nine or ten inches, while the height is from less
than an inch to four or five. The smallest specimens are toy lamps of
the children, and the next in size the traveller’s lamp. Small lamps
are often balanced but the large ones are not, but are supported by
a wooden block or by pegs of wood or bone stuck into the snow. The
shallow hollow of the lamp is filled with seal oil, which is obtained
in winter by freezing the blubber, when the oil can easily be extracted
by beating; in summer often by chewing it out. The wick is of moss
and is arranged along the wide side of the lamp. It has to be trimmed
frequently, but when kept in good order gives a bright illumination
which Schwatka declared to be “certainly equal to the light from three
or four kerosene lamps.” The oil is kept in sealskins, which are made
into bottles by sewing, and the comfort and cheerfulness of the iglu
during the long night depend on the stock of oil which the family has
been able to secure. The farther north, the larger the lamp, because
the darkness is longer and the cold greater. _Vice versa_, southward it
finally disappears.
[Illustration: STONE HOUSE-LAMP, POINT BARROW, ALASKA.
3 in. to 2 ft. in length
]
In transportation facilities the Amerinds were extremely deficient, the
Eskimo excelling all others in this direction. This was the result of
environment and does not indicate superiority of the Eskimo over other
stocks. They had vast treeless plains and ice sheets to traverse, and
the sledge was a necessity. Dogs all Amerinds had, and some of them
used them, to a certain extent, for beasts of burden, so that there
was not a great deal of invention required to attach one or several
to the sledge. On the other hand, most Amerinds were not so situated
that they could utilise the dog in this way, and the continent offered
them no substitute for it unless, as has been suspected, some of the
South-western tribes may have had an animal resembling the vicuna,
which they kept for its wool and presumably for transportation purposes
also. But there is as yet no trustworthy evidence of this, and it may
be said that the Amerinds of North America as a race possessed no beast
of burden but the dog. In time, had the bison not been exterminated,
and provided also that the whites had not come, it is possible that
this animal might have been domesticated for milk, for meat, and for
draught purposes. But the bison, after all, was ill adapted to work,
for he is clumsy, so that the Amerind really had only the dog that
was practicable, and this he utilised as far as possible, or at least
as far as necessity directed. The Amerinds encountered on the plains
of Texas in 1540 by Coronado were using the dog,[244] just as they
afterward used the horse, for transporting tents and tent poles. A
great many different forms of sledge are in use among the Eskimo, and
besides the regular sledges, walrus skins, rolls of sealskins, and
even packs of salmon are sometimes used for the purpose. When skins
are used they are soaked with fresh water and sewed in a bag which is
given the desired shape and then allowed to freeze solid, in which
condition it remains till the return of warm weather. The Eskimo is
never troubled with a “January thaw.” Sometimes sledges are made out of
slabs of fresh-water ice frozen together; or blocks of ice are hollowed
out. The runners of the ordinary sledge are usually made of driftwood
and are from five to fifteen feet long and twenty inches to two and a
half feet apart. The runners are connected by crossbars of wood or bone
and are shod with whalebone, ivory, jawbone of whale, and sometimes
with frozen fish. The shoe is either tied or riveted in place, and the
parts are generally tied together, though now iron nails are sometimes
used. When there is a back to the sledge it is made, in the Central
regions, of wood or of deer or caribou antlers. Very small sleds are
used for running boats out of water, and their runners are often single
walrus tusks, the rest being of any wood obtainable. “The dog harness
consists of a broad band or strap of stout rawhide, with three parallel
loops at one end.... The head is passed through the middle loop, and a
foreleg through each of the side loops, bringing the main part of the
thong over the back.”[245] This is the trace, and by means of a toggle
it is fastened to a long line that runs back to the sledge and connects
all the dogs with it. The Central Eskimo make two bights passing under
the forelegs, joined by two straps across the neck and breast. The
dogs are not driven in Alaska,[246] but they are in the Central and
Eastern regions, and Boas asserts that silence must be maintained
during the journey, for the dogs will stop, turn around, sit down, and
listen to any conversation that is carried on. The dogs are wolf-like
in appearance, but are not given to barking. Indeed, they seem to pay
little attention to a stranger. A long whip is used for touching them
up when on the sledge. Steering is done by the legs of the driver. In
the late spring, when there are sharp ice needles, a sort of leather
boot, with holes for the nails, is tied to the dogs’ feet to keep them
from getting sore. In summer-time they have an easy life of it. The
Alaska sledge has no back, but has a rail on each side.
[Illustration: ESKIMO SLEDGES]
[Illustration: CENTRAL ESKIMO DOG HARNESS]
[Illustration: ENCLOSED CANADIAN TOBOGGAN OR TRAVELLING SLED
From Porcupine River, Alaska. Length about 8 ft.; width, 14 in.;
height of body, 18 in.
]
“The sleds of the Chippewayan,” says Mason, “are formed of thin slips
of board, turned up in front, and are highly polished.”[247] This is
the toboggan, or Amerind sled without runners, developed and used in
the region lying between that occupied by the Eskimo and about the
northern limit of the United States. Dogs were attached to the toboggan
by some tribes, as the Tinne, who also used the dogs in summer as pack
animals. The toboggan, however, was usually pulled by men, and its
object was the transportation of a load which would otherwise need to
be carried. It was made of a single thin plank, or of two, fastened
together on the upper surface with battens, and having the forward
end turned up and over like a letter C and fixed in this position
by rawhide cords attached properly to the first cross batten, and
sometimes a rawhide line is also carried back to the last batten to
give additional strength. The toboggan is now in common use among the
whites of America, especially the Canadians.
In pulling the toboggan over the snow the traveller would sink deep
and become tired with only ordinary foot covering, so the Amerind
invented a shoe expressly for snow travel. This is familiar to almost
everybody, but a brief description will be added for the sake of those
who may not have seen it. There are two kinds of snow-shoe; those
represented by the Norwegian ski, made of wood, long and slender, and
not used in America before their introduction from Europe. The only
wooden shoe recorded is an Eskimo one made in the same shape as their
others. The other kind of snow-shoe[248] is the Amerind one made by
bending to an oval shape a slender piece of wood for a frame, and
filling the interval with rawhide netting; and it was in use all over
North America, where snow remained for any length of time. Among some
tribes these shoes were “rights and lefts,” but as a rule they were
interchangeable. They are generally the shape of a long, pointed oval,
but some are almost round. There are two crossbars to hold the frame in
shape, and also to form supports for the toe and heel. Some shoes were
four or five feet long and seven or eight inches wide, and turned up
at the forward end, while others were short and broad and not turned
up, the interval between being filled by a series in great variety. The
foot is held in position by suitable thongs or straps. These shoes are
now in common use by the whites.
[Illustration: ESKIMO SNOW-SHOE, POINT BARROW, ALASKA.]
[Illustration: CANOES OF THE NORTH-WEST COAST
Models of the family or transportation type. Hunting and fishing
canoes are similar. All these boats are hollowed from single cedar
logs, and then somewhat widened by spreading. They often carry a
great number of persons
]
In summer the means of travel, before the horse came with the European,
were, on land, nothing more than a good pair of legs, but, on the
water, it was different. There, many of the Amerinds were at home,
for they had some of the most admirable small boats ever devised.
Chief of these, for lightness and grace, is the birchbark canoe,[249]
though the Eskimo kayak is not far behind it. The birchbark canoe is
made in various sizes and in different tribes has variations, but the
type is the same everywhere. There is a slender, well-made frame of
wood, consisting of ribs, gunwales, and stiffening strips, over which
the bark, which has previously been sewed together, is stretched. The
bow is a trifle broader across the beam than the stern, but both are
pointed. The bark covering is rendered water-tight, where there are
holes or seams, with pine gum. The paddle is similar to the paddle
in use everywhere by the Amerinds, having a sort of T-shaped top to
the handle, and being about five feet long and four to six inches
wide. This kind of canoe was made wherever there was birchbark and
water to float it. Another form of boat which was universal was the
dugout canoe. This varied in size and shape according to locality,
and was always hollowed out of a single tree, by fire and by gouging.
When completed it was spread open wider, so that one of these boats
has the appearance of being from a larger tree than is the case. The
finest dugout canoes are those of the North-west coast, where they are
constructed from cedar trees of huge proportions. One of these canoes,
made by the Haidas, now in the American Museum in New York, is almost
a ship and could be navigated in stormy waters. The Haida canoes are
often elaborately carved. Farther up the coast the Tlinkits are experts
likewise in canoe building and in the management of them. Their canoes
are also hollowed from single logs. Many of them are small, being
barely large enough for two persons. Some have a peculiar projection,
a point sticking out from the lower part in line with the place where
the keel would be if they had one, and also another at the top, rather
square; that is, the wedge-like end is hollowed out in the middle.
Either end is sent forward, but the prong end usually first. It seemed
as if this projection might be intended to ward off ice, for it is in
the regions of Yakutat and Glacier bays that it is the dominant type;
and there ice is always floating from the glaciers. At Prince William
Sound the _baidarka_,[250] or kayak, comes into use. This is certainly
the perfection of a canoe. The frame is admirably made, being tied
together and covered with walrus hide, or sealskin, and the boat rests
on the sea seeming scarcely to sink into it. The umiak is the boat for
travelling and general transportation. In it the whole family, or even
two or three families, with all their trappings, journey about—dogs,
children, packages, and adults all combined. In the sunlight its rich,
translucent yellow colour is beautiful, and when filled with the
good-natured, ruddy-cheeked Eskimo, clad in soft and elegant furs, the
picture formed is one that is remembered ever after. In the Eastern
regions it is termed the woman’s boat. They are usually about thirty
feet long, five or six wide, and thirty inches deep. The ends are both
rather pointed, and the bottom is flat. Sometimes there will be fifteen
or twenty persons in one of the umiaks at the same time. The frame is
on the same general principle as all other boats—that is, a combination
of certain ribs, thwarts, braces, etc. All these pieces are lashed
together, and when the skin covering is on, the umiak is a staunch and
excellent craft, albeit it is entirely open. The cover is laced on,
and in winter it is removed and stored away till the waters are open
once more, when it is soaked in the sea to render it soft and again
stretched in place.
[Illustration: UMIAK OF THE CENTRAL ESKIMO
The Alaska umiak has no oars and is more pointed
]
[Illustration: ESKIMO KAYAKS
The framework is tied together and covered with walrus or other
hide. Sometimes, as in the Aleut kayaks, there are two or three
hatch-holes
]
The umiak[251] has a sail of the square sort, made in these days out of
cotton, though formerly of seal intestine, which is attached to a yard.
The mast is some twelve feet high. The paddles are about five feet long
and six inches wide, though there are smaller ones also. Sometimes oars
are used as well as the paddles in navigating the umiak. The kayak
is made in the same way by stretching skins over a wood frame tied
together most dexterously. The navigator sits in a hatchway, as the
kayak is entirely covered, and a sort of apron tied around his waist
and around the coaming renders the boat water-tight. It is said some
of the Alaskans will turn a somersault in the water, coming up on the
opposite side.
[Illustration: METHOD OF ATTACHING OARS TO UMIAK]
[Illustration: METHOD OF TYING FRAME OF KAYAK]
Besides the boats mentioned there were others on the continent made in
different ways,[252] but these are the chief ones and serve to show
that the Amerind was ready to adapt himself to water when occasion
demanded. Taken all in all, his weapons, armour, implements, and
his transportation methods show, as other things do, that he was a
progressing, thinking being, with a good brain directing his operations.
[Illustration: THIN PLATE OF COPPER WROUGHT BY REPOUSSÉ METHOD,
ILLINOIS MOUND]
CHAPTER X
MINING, METALLURGY, AND SCIENCE
Mining operations were carried on in different parts of the continent,
but in a primitive, limited way. Some of the most extensive was the
mining for flint with which to make stone implements, mentioned before.
The mining was done by means of fire and cold water alternately
applied, and this was the method used in all mining operations on the
continent, so far as is now known, except in the steatite or soapstone
mining. But, even in Europe, until the invention of gunpowder, the fire
method was employed, and in one or two localities where fuel is plenty
it is said to be still considered an economical manner of extracting
ore. In the Far West, where the rocks and ledges were more exposed,
veins were discovered where the calcedony, or jasper, or other stone
desired for stone implements could be easily knocked out. It was then
carried away to some comfortable site and wrought into shapes. Along
Western rivers one occasionally comes upon a spot where the ground is
littered with “chips,” rejects, broken arrow-heads, and also perfect
ones, the latter probably having been dropped and lost; or possibly in
some way not being satisfactory to the arrow-makers.
In working out soapstone vessels of the larger kind, the mining and
rough shaping were frequently, if not always, accomplished at one and
the same time.[253] Holmes describes the methods employed as follows:
“When a sufficient area of the solid stone had been uncovered, the
workmen proceeded with pick and chisel to detach such portions as
were desired. If this surface happened to be uneven, the projections
or convexities were utilized, and the cutting was not difficult; if
the rock was massive and the surface flat, a circular groove was cut,
outlining the mass to be removed, and the cutting was continued until
a depth was reached corresponding to the height of the utensil to be
made; then, by undercutting, the nucleus was detached or so far severed
that it could be broken off by means of sledges or levers. If the
stone happened to be laminated, a circular groove was cut through at
right angles to the bedding, and the discoid mass was removed without
the need of undercutting.... A notable feature of the cutting out of
these masses of stone is the attendant shaping of the mass which was
rudely sculptured as the work went on, the contour of the vessel being
approximately developed. Although I have seen no good examples of this
class, it is confidently stated by others that rude nodes were carved
at opposite ends of the mass as incipient handles, and that excavation
of the bowl was begun, so that when severed from the stem the vessel
was already well under way.”[254] These vessels were usually, in their
largest size, about two feet long, one foot or more in width, and about
seven or eight inches deep. Some are nearly circular. The tools used
were of stone, wood, bone, and horn, but chiefly of stone in the form
of chisels and picks. Some of the trenches formed in cutting out this
material were twenty-five feet wide, sixteen feet deep, and seventy
feet long. One described by Fowke near Culpeper, Va., is one hundred
and fifty feet in diameter and of considerable depth, being filled with
water and débris. Pits of varying depth and size from which steatite,
jasper, rhyolite, and other materials have been extracted by the
Amerinds are found in different parts of the continent. In Yucatan
there are numerous well-like holes in the ground that were “pockets”
of zahcab, and when this valued material was taken out the cavity
was either left or transformed into the strange, well-like affairs,
carefully walled up and covered over, called chultunes, the object of
which is often a mystery.[255]
[Illustration: AMERINDIAN METHOD OF MINING STEATITE FOR UTENSILS]
Native metals, when discovered by the Amerinds, were mined in much the
same way as the flint, the largest workings known being those at the
Lake Superior copper mines, where copper of remarkable purity continues
to furnish this continent and the world with an abundant supply.
Doubtless most of the copper used on the North American continent
prior to the Discovery was derived from these mines and distributed
through the channels of Amerind trade. Bowlders or nuggets of this
pure copper were treasured in the homes of the tribes of the northern
lake region when first encountered by the whites, and the location
of the outcrops, both on the mainland and on the islands, appears to
have been well known to the Amerinds of that time. An Algonquin chief
presented Champlain with a piece of copper a foot long and told him
there were “large quantities” where he had obtained this. He also said
“that they gathered it in lumps, and, having melted it, spread it in
sheets, smoothing it with stones.”[256] The mining operations in the
Michigan-Minnesota copper region were evidently carried on for a very
long period in the laborious Amerind way, and in consequence at the
time they were first noticed had the appearance of extensive operations
by a few miners, leading to the erroneous supposition that they had
been worked by some other race.
[Illustration: CHIPPED SPADE]
It must not be forgotten that before the arrival of white men, and even
to this day in certain localities, copper appeared about as valuable
as gold. If the Lake Superior mines had been gold instead of copper it
would not greatly have enhanced the value of the product in the opinion
of the Amerinds of the locality and their customers. They worked their
way down into the rock which carried native copper and broke off
nodules and fragments as they proceeded. Some of the pits were eighteen
or twenty feet deep, and in one case a huge bowlder of copper was found
lying on oak supports several feet from the bottom. This mass had
been denuded of every projection, and the supposition generally has
been that it was being elevated to the surface by means of the wood
underpinning. This may have been the case, but it is possible that the
underpinning was inserted as the miners went down on the vein, because
the bowlder was too large to cut or handle. They therefore _left it
where found_ and proceeded to mine under and around for the smaller
pieces. The large one was ten feet long, three feet wide, nearly two
feet thick, and weighed over six tons. Other bowlders of greater weight
have been found, moved, as is supposed, a considerable distance from
the original bed, but the same hypothesis might apply to these that is
suggested above. The famous Ontonagon bowlder,[257] which was found
on the river of that name, is a copper mass weighing somewhere near
five tons and has been the cause of much speculation as to how it
came there. The probability is that it was left by glacial action on
the surface, not far from, if not on, the spot where found. It is not
likely that the Amerinds would take the trouble to move so large a mass
far. If they had possessed the power of cutting it up, they would have
done it near its source, and the same remark applies to the bowlders
of copper that it has been supposed they were trying to lift to the
surface. Furthermore, if the Ontonagon bowlder were transported by them
to its position, and if the large bowlders in the mines were destined
for the surface and transportation in bulk, we ought to find somewhere
else records or evidences of the presence of great bowlders, but
nothing of the kind has been found; no such large copper mass has been
discovered in any ruined Amerind town, or on any Amerind village or
town site. It seems that the Ontonagon bowlder was a natural deposit.
These huge masses of copper were troublesome to modern miners with the
most approved machinery.
It must not be supposed that all the Amerinds of that region were
miners, any more than that all the Amerinds of any other region were
equally developed or skilful, or all did the same things. The Navajos
of the South-west are some of them expert silver-workers, yet their
neighbours, for the most part, can do little or nothing in that line.
But that is no reason for supposing the Navajos to be a race distinct
and apart from the rest. No more were the workers of the Lake Superior
copper mines any different from their neighbours in general. They had a
knack of working the native copper out of the ground, and they worked
it just as others mined for flint. When they ceased it was probably
because they had worked out all the easy places they could find, or
that their trade fell off owing to the introduction by the Europeans of
manufactured articles of copper and iron.
[Illustration: ESKIMO STONE MAUL.]
In one of the ancient pits a hemlock with 395 annular rings was
growing, and this has led to the supposition that the mines were worked
before the time of Columbus. The excavations undoubtedly extended over
a long period; from before Columbus to after Champlain. But it was over
three hundred years after Columbus before the first explorations of the
Lake Superior region were made by General Cass, and hence the tree had
time to grow since that date. On the whole, there seems to be no reason
for supposing that anyone but Amerinds worked these mines; Amerinds
lastly of Algonquin stock, though other stocks probably worked them
also.
The method of utilising this copper in the Northern regions, that is,
north of Mexico, was as primitive as the method of extracting it from
the ground. It seems often, perhaps generally, to have been hammered
into shape cold and then finished by grinding. Doubtless they knew how
to melt it out of the rock on a small scale, allowing it to drop or run
into a mould scraped into the surface of a flat stone, somewhat the
shape of the article to be made, which would afterward be finished with
hammering and grinding.
The objects found in the Mississippi valley, formed of copper, which
are probably the unaided work of the Amerinds, are chisels, arrow-
and spear-heads, knives, and perhaps certain thin plates wrought with
designs in the repoussé method. No camp utensils or other objects
have been found demanding a knowledge of the properties of the metal
sufficient to work it into articles requiring a quantity of copper to
be manipulated at once. Cushing maintains[258] that the production of
thin plates was an easy matter and he shows how the Zuñis made them,
but admitting that the Amerinds of the Mississippi valley could make
these plates, it does not prove that they did, for as copper in various
forms was very early an article of trade, it is possible that they used
the imported article. Cushing explains how the Zuñis, by a process of
alternate hammering and annealing and then grinding, produced thin
plates, which being pressed with a sharp tool would receive a design.
This pressed-out portion could be ground down with a flat slab to sever
it from the ragged edges of the sheet, and also to make any desired
perforations. The resulting turned-up edges could be hammered flat and
they then would be as if cut by a shear.
Cushing explains how in the South-west ore was quarried and roasted in
an open fire, and then smelted in a sort of oven, the copper or other
metal appearing finally at the bottom. Primitive furnaces of this kind
he found in the Salt River valley. The singular thing about it is the
almost total absence of metal objects in the ruins of the South-west.
Aside from several small copper “hawk” bells found in the Salado and
other Arizona ruins, I have not heard of any metal object that was not
positively European being found in any mound or ruin of the South-west,
with one exception.[259] In 1875 a man in my employ in southern Utah
told me that several years before that time his uncle either had found
in a mound in southern Nevada or northern Arizona, or had obtained from
some natives who found it, a small gold image, which he had melted
down for the value of the metal it contained. At the time I thought
this tale belonged with that of the “lost mine,” but I am now inclined
to see a fact in it. It is quite within bounds that one of the small
Mexican or Chiriquian figures may have found its way up into this
region.
[Illustration: SMALL FIGURE OF A FROG IN BASE METAL, PLATED WITH GOLD,
CHIRIQUI]
If there had been a wide knowledge of copper and other metal-working in
the South-west in the olden time, there ought to be signs of it in the
ruins other than an oven, and even the latter has been rarely found.
Coronado and his chroniclers, Espejo, and all the list of early writers
on that region, never, so far as I have been able to note, mention
copper or any other metal articles. In fact, from the testimony of
literature, history, and actual excavation among the ruins so far as
carried at present, we should conclude that none of the people of that
region knew about metals or the manner of working them before the year
1540.[260]
New Jersey also furnished the Amerinds some copper and those living in
the Atlantic region had ornaments, arrow-heads, and pipes supposed to
have been made from it or from Lake Superior copper. Brinton attributes
the scarcity of specimens in our collections to “its being bought up
and melted by the whites, rather than to its limited employment.”[261]
A few examples have been found, but if they had been plentiful there
should be discovered many implements antedating the arrival of the
whites. On Brinton’s hypothesis it would be necessary to assume that
there were few made before the coming of the whites or they could not
have been so easily bought up. As a matter of fact, the finds in copper
articles compared with the area occupied are astonishingly few, if
the natives turned off the amount of work some writers would have us
believe.
[Illustration: COPPERS FROM THE NORTH-WEST COAST.
These are made of thin sheets of copper, and grow valuable by sale
or exchange, according to peculiar customs. Some rise as high as
$5000 or $6000
Painted design in black, representing a sea monster with bear’s head
Painted design representing a hawk
]
On the North-west coast an article of great importance and value is
the “copper.” In former days these coppers were made of native metal
obtained from the mines of that region, and they must have been made
by cold hammering in the way that Cushing describes. To-day they are
made of metal obtained from the whites. The coppers are thin plates
of a peculiar shape; the nearest common thing that they resemble is a
gauntleted glove with the fingers cut off and with the gauntlet the
top. Across the wrist runs a ridge from one side to the other, and
from the middle of this another ridge extends downward to the bottom,
thus making with the first the shape of a letter T below the flaring
part. “The top is called the face,” says Boas in his valuable and
interesting account of the Kwakiutls, “the lower part the hind end.
The front of the copper is covered with black lead, in which a face
representing the crest animal (totem) of the owner is graven. These
coppers have the same function which bank notes of high denominations
have with us. The actual value of the piece of copper is small but it
is made to represent a large number of blankets, and can always be sold
for blankets. A white blanket at fifty cents is the unit. The value
is not arbitrarily set but depends upon the amount of property given
away in the festival at which the copper is sold. The oftener a copper
is sold the higher its value.”[262] Every copper has its own special
name, representing its peerless quality, or an animal; as, the killer
whale, the bear face, beaver face, etc. As ability to destroy valuable
property amongst these people distinguishes the great and wealthy,
these valuable coppers are demolished piecemeal till only the portion
with the T upon it remains. Sometimes all the fragments are bought up
by another person, who rivets them together and the copper then has a
greater price than ever. A broken copper is a more important piece of
property than a whole one, because the possession of it shows that its
owner is rich enough to destroy property. These plates are in use from
Yakutat to Comox. Sometimes a copper is cast into the sea.
[Illustration: HOLLOW SILVER BEADS OF NAVAJO MAKE, ARIZONA]
In the South-west it is not the house-building Pueblo who is the
metal-worker _par excellence_ but the semi-pastoral Navajo, who,
besides his flocks and herds, possesses a wealth of silver ornaments
that runs up into the thousands. Silver and copper ornaments are turned
out by the native silversmith not only for his own people but for
whites also, and a considerable trade exists between the Navajos and
other Amerinds in this native jewelry as well as in blankets. If you
desire to have an article made, you give the silver it is to contain,
usually in dollar pieces, and an equal quantity as wages. The objects
manufactured are globular and semi-globular buttons; bracelets like
a letter C in form and shape, buckles, rings, plate for the bridle,
tobacco canisters, flat buttons, beads, and various discs, and other
ornamental objects. These are often engraved quite artistically, and
sometimes elaborately. Copper seems to be a valued metal for ornaments,
and I have seen copper bracelets on a Navajo woman made exactly the
same as silver ones. The Navajo silversmith is up to a trick or two
as well as his white neighbour. At Manuelito there was a white trader
who often sold Navajo bracelets to passengers from the railway trains
that ran within a hundred feet or less of his door, and he was a man
who prided himself on “square” dealing. One day a gentleman who had
purchased several silver bracelets rushed in full of ire, demanding
the return of his money for the worthless bracelets which he threw
upon the counter. They were copper. The trader took down a string
containing a number, from which the returned ones had been originally
taken, and which he had purchased for silver, and found that every one
was copper. They had been thinly washed over by the Navajo smith with
silver.
[Illustration: NAVAJO SILVER WORK, ARIZONA
Engraved button
Bracelet
Usually about 2½ inches long
]
It has sometimes been suggested that the Navajos learned their
metal-working from the Pueblos, but if so it was a lesson obtained
in quite modern times, for the Pueblos themselves, as has been
mentioned, appear to have known nothing about the working of metals
before the arrival of the Spaniards. The art of metal-working both
among the Navajos and the Pueblos is probably a modern acquisition.
Washington Matthews, writing about 1883, says: “Old white residents of
the Navajo country tell me that the art has improved greatly within
their recollection.”[263] It is likely that the Navajos, having a keen
perception of mechanical matters, had wrought copper to a limited
degree and that through their intercourse with, and absorption of,
Pueblo tribes, this tendency was developed by a certain amount of
knowledge in this line which the Pueblos acquired from Mexicans who
followed in the train of the early Spanish explorers; but this skill
was not given a real impetus till after the South-west fell into our
possession, when tools and trade rapidly developed.[264]
When in 1871 I encountered Navajos for the first time, on their way to
trade with the Mormons, I do not remember seeing them have any silver
ornaments. This was so soon after their liberation from government
confinement following their war with us that they were, naturally,
very poor. But if they had before possessed much silver they would
have concealed it, and by the time I saw the ones referred to they
would again have been wearing it and trying to trade it for horses,
which they sadly needed. The Navajo silver-work is distinguished by
an extremely artistic quality. Their tools and appliances are very
rude and simple. As their method of operation is probably similar
to that of Amerinds who have not been observed as closely, I will
condense here some of the important details as given by Washington
Matthews.[265] Only a few have attained a degree of proficiency that
enables them to make large hollow articles, like flasks and the like,
but there are many who can turn out bracelets, buttons, buckles, etc.
Their appliances consist “of a forge, a bellows, an anvil, crucibles,
moulds, tongs, scissors, pliers, files, awls, cold chisels, matrix and
die for moulding buttons, wooden implements used in grinding buttons,
wooden stake, basin, charcoal, tools and materials for soldering
(blow-pipe, braid of cotton rags soaked in grease, wire, and borax),
materials for polishing (sandpaper, emery paper, powdered sandstone,
sand, ashes, and solid stone), and materials for whitening (a native
mineral substance—almogen—salt and water).” The forge is built up with
several old boards, an old box, or, when these cannot be procured, of
sticks. The nozzle of the bellows, being wood, is kept back from the
fire several inches and a continuation built in the mud with which the
fire-bed is constructed. The bellows is a tube of goatskin, a foot long
and ten inches in diameter, distended by two or three wooden hoops. The
back of it is a disc of wood with a valve in it. The nozzle is of four
pieces of wood tied together and having a hole an inch square through
the centre, the outside being dressed off till it is approximately
round. Any old piece of iron, like the king-bolt of a wagon, driven
into a log serves for an anvil, though in the absence of this a hard
stone is sufficient. They make their own crucibles of clay, generally
three-cornered, about two inches in every dimension, and baked hard.
“The moulds in which they cast their ingots, cut in soft sandstone with
a home-made chisel, are so easily formed that the smith leaves them
behind when he moves his residence.” “Metallic hemispheres for beads
and buttons are made in a concave matrix by means of a round-pointed
bolt.” Several matrices are made on a single bar of iron and a bolt
that will fit the smallest is sufficient to work all. They prepare
charcoal by building a large fire, and when it is “reduced to a mass of
glowing coals they smother it well with earth and leave it to cool.”
Blowpipes are made by themselves out of brass wire hammered flat and
then bent into a tube. The engraving and chasing of the objects made
are done with the sharpened end of a file, or any other suitable sharp
piece of steel. It will be seen from the foregoing that the Navajo
silversmith is dependent to a very great extent on materials and tools
obtained from the whites, and without these the practice of his art
would be difficult. Schools for mechanical processes like dyeing,
metal-working, etc., would accomplish much good among these people.
They could readily be taught to use the lathe and other tools, and
would become good metal-workers.
[Illustration: KWAKIUTL CHIEF HOLDING HIS COPPER, NORTH-WEST COAST
The value of a copper is expressed in white single blankets of
American make at 50 cents each. It is rated according to the amount
of property given away at the festival where the copper is sold,
and each sale adds to its value proportionally. He who can break a
copper and cast away the fragment is considered great.
]
Prescott says of the Mexicans: “They were as well acquainted with the
mineral as with the vegetable treasures of their kingdom. Silver, lead,
and tin they drew from the mines of Tasco; copper from the mountains
of Zacotollan. These were taken, not only from the crude masses on
the surface, but from veins wrought in the solid rock, into which
they opened extensive galleries.... Gold, found on the surface, or
gleaned from the beds of rivers, was cast into bars, or, in the form
of dust, made part of the regular tribute of the southern provinces
of the empire.”[266] Their mining was doubtless carried on by the
fire-and-water process used by the Northern people, while gold from
the river beds was possibly obtained in much the same manner as I have
been told the Amerinds of Peru get it. Selecting a river that was known
to be rich in the metal, a series of stone “riffles” would be arranged
in the best place at the very lowest stage of the water. Then when the
freshets came and swept the gravel across these rude affairs the gold
would remain lodged there and on the subsidence of the stream could be
readily taken out. There was undoubtedly a vast quantity of gold in
the possession of the Mexicans and Central Americans, but this fact
does not signify that they conducted mining operations on a large or
continuous scale, for the metal had been accumulating, in the shape of
idols and ornaments, for centuries. There was little lost or worn away,
as they did not use it as a general medium of exchange. Their plumes
in their head-dresses were often set in gold; rings of gold were worn
in their ears and on their arms, and the same metal was wrought into a
great many forms of ornament.
Cortes ordered, says Valentini, eight thousand arrow-heads of
copper and they were “made ready for delivery in a single week.” It
seems, therefore, the Aztecs were accustomed to handling copper in
considerable quantities. It is said they made a mixture of copper and
tin which they used for tools, and certain implements and objects are
found with a percentage of tin in them, but nevertheless their keenest
weapons and their most serviceable tools were made of obsidian, which
was also the case with the Mayas. Their hardened copper was useful
for some purposes, but they were unable to harden it sufficiently to
sustain an edge. For cutting stone in two they used, as the Eskimo
does to-day, a thin blade and sand. In their case the blade was copper
tempered with tin, and in the Eskimo’s case it was formerly probably a
thin blade of bone, while now it is an old steel saw. Silver as well
as gold and copper was known to the tribes of the Central regions of
America, and lead also was one of their metals, though little was done
with it. There is a tendency to exaggerate the mechanical as well as
the art skill displayed in objects that were made on this continent,
before the whites came, or that were not discovered till recently.
The reason for this seems to be that we love mystery and it is too
tame to refer the finds to the ordinary “Indian,” who in the popular
mind has no ability in any direction, so they are ascribed to that
“mysterious” race that we have tried in vain to find some evidence of
besides mystery. Daniel Wilson gives an example of how this mystery
bubble bursts on the slightest accurate investigation. Some tools
were found in the neighbourhood of Brockville, Canada, of which Dr.
Reynolds, who exhibited them, stated: “There is also a curious fact,
which these relics appear to confirm, that the Indians possessed the
art of hardening and tempering copper, so as to give it as good an edge
as iron or steel. This ancient Indian art is now entirely lost.”[267]
When these Brockville relics were submitted to careful examination it
appeared that they were not “different in any material respect from
the native copper of Lake Superior.”[268] This was all very well, but
Wilson was not satisfied with Reynolds’s ascribing these relics to the
“present Indian race” and goes on to say: “The evidences of antique
sepulture, however, are unmistakable; and other proofs suggest a
different origin,” and he proceeds to call in Squier’s aid and ascribes
them forthwith to our fabulous friends, the “Moundbuilders.” One of
his proofs was a terra-cotta mask found with the articles, in which
he saw a skill beyond that of the “Indians,” but which in reality,
judging by the illustration he gives of it, is nothing remarkable. Yet
Wilson continues: “It cannot admit of doubt that in them [the mining
operations] we look on the traces of an imperfectly developed yet
highly interesting native civilisation, pertaining to centuries long
anterior to the discovery of America in the fifteenth century,”[269]
etc. This conclusion he is assisted to by certain quotations from
some of the old natives and from Claude Allouez. These convince him;
but a little later on he quotes Alexander Henry’s mention of his visit
to the Ontonagon, who says: “I found this river chiefly remarkable
for the abundance of virgin copper which is on its banks and in its
neighbourhood. The copper presented itself to the eye in masses of
various weight. The Indians showed me one of twenty pounds. They
were used to manufacture this metal into spoons and bracelets for
themselves.”[270] If they made bracelets and spoons, they probably
made other articles, “melting the lumps and spreading it in sheets” to
smooth it with stones, as the chief described to Champlain.
The Chiriquians seem to have possessed a skill in metallurgical
operations unsurpassed by any other people on the continent. Whether
they used gold dust in quills, and T shapes of tin or copper for
currency as did the Mexicans, does not appear, but they were skilled
in metal-working. They understood smelting, alloying, and plating,
and apparently were extremely skilful at casting. As before noted, no
weapons or implements have been found of metal, all the metal objects
being ornaments, and “almost exclusively,” says Holmes, “pendent
ornaments.” “They were, for the most part, cast in moulds, and in nine
cases out of ten represent animal forms. A few bells are found, all of
which are bronze. Pieces formed of alloyed metal are usually washed
or plated with gold.”[271] Many of these valuable relics of the past
have been disposed of for their money value and duly melted up to be
made into something modern. The gold is usually alloyed with copper
in varying proportions, though pure metals were also used. From the
fact that the alloy is so variable it would seem that the combination
already existed before it came into the Chiriquian hands; that is, it
was perhaps a natural combination.
Holmes believes almost all these metal objects were cast in moulds,
as noted, but he mentions other processes by which they may have
been made. They have the appearance of having been modelled in some
plastic material, and then coated with clay, when by the action of
heat the wax runs away, leaving the hollow clay as a mould to receive
the metal. This is the _cire perdue_ process. Small figures of
resin, in all respects modelled like those found in metal, have been
discovered in the graves. This seems to add to the probability of a
Chiriqui acquaintance with the _cire perdue_ process. Another method
suggested is that the various metallic parts of a figure were enclosed
in a clay matrix and then heated till the parts melted and joined,
but this appears to be too uncertain and difficult to have warranted
its practice. Still another method advanced is the coating of a wax
figure with sheet gold and melting the wax, when a hollow gold figure
would be the result. This is possible but not probable. Yet one more
suggestion is that the gold was reduced to an amalgam with mercury,
and thus modelled, when the mercury being driven off by heat the gold
figure would remain. One difficulty with this theory seems to be that
there is no evidence that the Chiriquians knew mercury. As many of the
objects are washed or plated with pure gold, it would seem that the
pure gold was the most difficult to obtain, and that, as before stated,
the gold-copper alloy was a natural one. There is neither engraving nor
carving on these objects; and the objects themselves are the same crude
productions that are indicative of pure Amerind art everywhere on the
continent. Some are more crude than others, but all Amerind sculpture,
modelling, and carving are essentially rude and primitive. In the form
and artistic execution of the Chiriqui objects of gold and copper we
may be positive that there is no European influence, whatever there
may be in the method of production. It is probable that the objects
are entirely native, and they offer another lesson that the tribes of
North America were everywhere working and inventing, and gradually
conquering the secrets of nature just as our ancestors did and just as
we are still doing to-day; some doing more, others less; some being
quick, and others clumsy, ignorant, and dull. The bells are usually of
bronze, having the shape of our common sleigh-bell, and are frequently
gold-plated. The bells found in Arizona are of this description but not
plated.
[Illustration: TRIPLE BELL OR RATTLE OF GOLD FROM NEAR PANAMA]
[Illustration: BRONZE MEXICAN BELL]
Besides their sciences of mining and metallurgy, the Amerinds
understood some others, like the manufacture of glue and cement, the
production of paints and dyes, and astronomical reckonings. True, some
of these are more properly classed as arts, but requiring knowledge
that may be called scientific, they may be considered under that head.
Paints were usually obtained from clays and ochres. I once traced to
its source the red paint formerly used by the Amerinds of southern Utah
and found it in the second great bend of the Colorado River, about
three thousand feet below the surface and about two thousand feet above
the river, as the canyon is there about five thousand feet deep. The
paint was in a cave the mouth of which opened on a little gulch, and
the entrance was so small and narrow, and in such hard rock, that we
could barely wriggle our way on our bellies, along the eighteen feet
of passage, before we reached the cavern, thirty feet long, fifteen
wide, and high enough for a man to stand erect in. There were several
side passages leading farther, but this seemed to be the main cave, and
all over the walls were the marks of the sharp sticks with which the
Amerinds cut out the ochre. Our guide stated that it was customary to
send in the boys and squaws after the paint. The ochre was of a rich
red, but no match for the red lead and vermilion obtained by trade with
the whites. The remote and difficult position of this cave and its
narrow and repelling entrance show how eager the natives were to secure
paint. At the time of our visit, however, the mouth was considerably
overgrown with small brush, proving that for several years no visit
had been made. In every region there were special places for obtaining
paints, and Brinton states that in New Castle County, Delaware, the
vicinity of streams now known as White Clay and Red Clay creeks
furnished red, white, and blue clays in such abundance that they were
called by the natives _Walamink_, or Place of Paint.[272] Charcoal was
used for black.
Of dyes they had a fair assortment, but they were not able to obtain
the brilliant hues they now secure by means of the “Diamond” and other
aniline dyes. A black dye was made by the Navajos from the twigs and
leaves of the aromatic sumac, a native yellow ochre, and the gum of
the piñon.[273] These same Amerinds have three different processes for
dyeing yellow. The first produces a lemon yellow, the second an old
gold, and the third still a different shade.
[Illustration: BRONZE BELLS, PLATED OR WASHED WITH GOLD, CHIRIQUI
These were cast in moulds. The largest is 1¼ in. high and ¾ in.
diameter
]
Red dyes are also made by the Navajos; and the Mokis possess the
skill to produce several colours, one being a deep, rich blue.
These processes are all too long to admit of description here.[274]
The Lenapé and other Eastern Amerinds used the juice of the wild,
sweet-scented crab apple to fix the dyes, while among the Mokis the
liquid generally used is urine. It must have required long and careful
experiment before these people acquired their knowledge of dyeing, for
some of the preparations are rather intricately compounded, but here
is evidence once more that the Amerind was by no means a vagabond, but
was constantly at work devising and inventing. Glue they made from
fish in some localities, and in others by boiling down the skin from
the head of the bison or elk, or the hoofs of animals. Cement for
attaching arrow-heads and for other purposes was made by combining
pine gum with other substances. In all these mixtures and combinations
the proportions were either guessed at or measured, never weighed, for
there was no scale or balance in use, so far as now known, in North
America, though certain round stones from Mexico in Madrid have been
supposed to be weights.
Remarkable progress had been made in many tribes in the matter of
calculating time, and the Mayas and Mexicans had advanced so far that
they were able to calculate the length of the year with accuracy.
What implements they employed is not known, but they were probably of
wood and stone, the latter of the form of the calendar stone, before
mentioned. Other tribes farther north made their calculations in a less
perfect way, yet they did and do keep time records. The Sun priests
of the Mokis use “what may be called a calendar stick,” says Fewkes.
“These sticks are about a foot and a half long, and are divided into
two parts, one section being round, the other flattened on one side.
The round section is girt by fifteen shallow parallel grooves, and
occupies about a third of the whole length of the stick. The remaining
two-thirds of the stick have a number of parallel grooves or notches
cut upon the flattened surface. Five of the latter grooves, which are
situated at equal distances, are deeper than the remaining, and between
each pair there are four smaller parallel grooves arranged at equal
distances. The space in which these grooves are cut occupies about
one-half of the flat portion of the stick. The remaining half, or that
more distant from the round section, is divided into two parts, which
are separated by a rectangular space, in the centre of which there is
a depression called the _nā-tā-l-tci_. On one side of the depression
there are three notches, on the other seven.”[275] The Eastern Amerinds
computed time in their own several ways, some computing twelve, others
thirteen moons to the year, usually reckoning from one planting time to
another. The Dakotas, Chipeways, and others reckoned by winters.
In the Zuñi country, still existed a few years ago, if it does not
to-day, a primitive astronomical station. It is a rude little structure
containing an erect slab of sandstone adorned with the circular face of
the sun, and it is used, as it was long ago, for determining the Zuñi
chronology.
The Aztec year had eighteen months of twenty days each and that of the
Mayas was the same. The Maya week had thirteen days, and the days were
counted from one to thirteen continuously throughout the year—that
is, each month did not begin with 1 but with whatever number happened
to fall on that day; it might be 2 or 5 or 8 or 13 or in fact any
number up to 13. The eighteen months gave them only 360 days, but
they intercalated at the end of each year the five days necessary to
round it out. At least so the early Spanish writers state, though
Thomas, who has given close attention to this subject, has said that
he felt doubtful on that point.[276] Prescott states without question,
concerning the Aztecs: “Five complementary days, as in Egypt, were
added, to make up the full number of three hundred and sixty-five. They
belonged to no month and were regarded as peculiarly unlucky. A month
was divided into four weeks of five days each.”[277]
[Illustration: SMALL METAL FIGURE, CHIRIQUI
Copper-gold alloy
]
The six hours over the 365 days which we make up in our leap year the
Aztecs allowed to run to the end of their fifty-two year cycle, when
they intercalated it all at one time, the actual period being twelve
and one half days. This brought them “within an almost inappreciable
fraction,” says Prescott, “to the exact length of the tropical year, as
established by the most accurate observations.”[278] The Aztecs had
a second calendar used by the priests for keeping their own records
and making their own calculations, and doubtless the Maya had the same
practice.
The Cakchiquel year consisted of 366 days. That of the Maya was 365.
The former, therefore, says Goodman, “could have no fixed date for its
beginning, relative to solar or terrestrial phenomena, but must revolve
regularly through the seasons.... The year might begin at the summer
or the winter solstice, at the vernal or the autumnal equinox, or any
other period.”[279]
A great Maya event, which Goodman cites, was “the observance of the
280,800th year of their era.... Nearly all the other dates in the
inscriptions of Copan and Quirigua either lead up to or recede from
it. It was the beginning of the last quarter of their grand era,
the completion of which, it is perhaps needless to say, they did
not, as a nation, live to see.”[279] But when we touch this subject
of chronology it at once opens up a vast and complicated field of
investigation. Goodman goes on to say: “How account then for such an
immense period?... The most reasonable answer that suggests itself is
that they had a juster appreciation of the antiquity of the earth than
most nations have had, and that they began their chronology with the
supposed date of its creation.... I look upon the Maya chronological
scheme as ranking among the most marvellous creations of the human
intellect.”[279]
[Illustration: SILVER PLATE WITH SPANISH COAT OF ARMS,
from a mound in Mississippi
]
[Illustration: MOKI RATTLE OF ANIMAL HOOFS.]
CHAPTER XI
MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS, MUSIC, AMUSEMENTS, AND GAMES
The popular conception that there is no fun in red men is erroneous.
All of them, far from being taciturn, silent, morose, and lacking
desire for amusement other than scalping or torturing captives, are
full of humour and are fond of fun. To strangers, however, they are
often silent. In every village there is a great deal of amusement, and
while the race is deficient in musical instruments, and the music they
produce, if it can be designated by that term, is usually apart of some
ceremonial, they do sing and the singing is accompanied by rattles
and drums. These instruments, with a sort of flute or flageolet and
bells and whistles, make the sum-total of their musical apparatus. No
stringed instrument, it was believed, was known on the North American
continent before the Discovery, though recently Lumholtz has found a
primitive musical bow among the Huichols in Mexico that seems to show
no outside influence. Their drums were usually made out of a hollow
log and were of various sizes, though some tribes also used a sort of
tambourine-drum formed by stretching a piece of hide over a hoop. In
the case of the Mokis, the large drum was made by stretching hide over
the ends of a hollow log by means of strings on the outside running
from the edge of one skin to that of the other, zig-zag. These drums
are about twenty inches in diameter by some three feet long, and the
ones I have seen had an appearance of age that seemed to indicate a
remote origin. Rattles are frequently made from deer hoofs, or from
hoofs of similar animals, and also from turtle shells, and garments
are trimmed with hoofs so that the movements of the wearer cause them
to strike together with a musical sound. Sometimes the hoofs are
attached in groups of three or more to the ends of a short stick which
is shaken to produce the desired sound. This is a form specially in
vogue among the Tlinkits, and these rattles are one of the articles of
trade with the tourists in the North-west. Another form is a gourd or
clay globe containing pebbles or something similar. Rattles of this
kind are common in the ceremonials of the Mokis. Bells, as we have
seen in the preceding chapter, were made by tribes of the Central
American region of copper in the so-called “hawk’s-bell” shape, but it
is not absolutely certain that this form of bell was not derived from
European contact.[280] No other form of bell was known to any of the
natives.
[Illustration: AMERINDIAN RATTLES
Gourd, Ojibwa
Earthenware rattle from Chiriqui.
Tin, Ojibwa
]
Whistles were made of pottery and wood and of human and other
bones,[281] and were similar to our common whistles with one or more
holes in the tube for changing the note. The flute was of wood,
generally of cedar, which is considered a sacred wood. It was eighteen
or twenty inches long and was often ornamented with carving and tufts
of feathers, etc. In Mexico, some were made of terra cotta.
[Illustration: OMAHA LARGE FLUTE
Made of red cedar. Flutes were also made of eagle wing bones and of
reed
]
It is certain that the sounds produced on these various instruments
would in no way suggest or resemble what is understood by music among
people of European origin, and it is also probable that our music when
first heard by Amerinds seems to them more like wailing and lamentation
than sounds of pleasure. I remember an evening long ago, in Arizona,
when we had the interesting companionship of several intelligent Navajo
chiefs, who entertained us by singing, accompanying themselves by
drumming on the bottom of one of our camp kettles. At length someone
of our party exclaimed, “Now let’s give them _Home, Sweet Home_,” and
this song was accordingly rendered in a way that should have moved the
savage to tears, but, though the firelight was brilliant, I failed to
detect any; indeed their expression appeared to resemble that which
a professional musician of our own race might have exhibited. They
were perfectly satisfied with a single selection, and they politely
said _Buéno_. The Navajos have a peculiar drum, the basket drum,
described by Washington Matthews.[282] It is a bowl-shaped basket made
according to special rules and rites, and inverted is used as a drum
in certain ceremonials, being beaten by a stick, also manufactured
in a special way, and according to long-established religious rites.
Whenever a ceremony is completed this stick is always pulled apart
during an appropriate song, and its fragments “deposited, with prayer
and ceremony, in the fork of a cedar tree or other secure place.” It is
made from yucca leaves, four being the prescribed number, and every one
of these must be absolutely free from blemish. One from each cardinal
point of the compass is necessary, and the making of the drumstick from
them is a serious matter, even the rejected fragments being disposed of
in some safe place with a benediction:
“Thus will it be beautiful.
Thus walk in beauty, my grandchild.”
“In none of the ancient Navajo rites is a regular drum or tom-tom
employed,” says Matthews. “The inverted basket serves the purpose of
one.”
“The musical instruments,” says Bandelier, “which, while still in use
in Mexico, are known to antedate the Conquest, are but three in number,
one of which is already falling into oblivion. It is the _tozacatl_
(sounding-cane), described to me as a long cane, bent round like an
Alpine horn. I never saw one, but its sound is said to be a sonorous
bellowing. The other is the _chirimia_. It is made of dark brown
wood, called _tepehuaje_, brought to Cholula from Matamoras-Yzucar,
or near Atlixco. Its length is 0.46 metre (about 18 inches) and its
width at the mouth is 0.06 metre (about 3 inches). It has eleven
holes irregularly arranged, and the mouthpiece is a thin plate of
horn on a stem of brass. The noise produced by this instrument is a
fit accompaniment to the shrill Indian voices, being horrible beyond
all description.... The big drum, the _tlapan-huehuetl_, was formerly
made out of the trunk of a tree properly hollowed, over which, at
one end, a deerskin or some other dried hide was stretched. All the
older authors make more or less mention of this instrument, but more
particularly Bernal Diez de Castillo, who says, when describing the
upper platform of the principal mounds of worship of Mexico: ‘And there
they had an exceedingly large drum, which, when beaten, gave a sound as
if from the infernal regions, which was heard at more than two leagues
off, and they said that the skin was that of large snakes.’”[283] The
_teponaztli_ was a wooden instrument with two tongues that were beaten
with a stick. Conch shells were also used as musical instruments. Some
of these were of very great size.
[Illustration: DRUM OF TERRA COTTA, CHIRIQUI]
The Eskimo drum is like a tambourine, a skin stretched over a hoop.
Some of the Chiriqui whistles were shaped like a top, while others
were straight with finger holes. These various types were distributed
over the whole area of the continent, the drum and the rattle always
predominating.
The Amerind singing at first seems extremely monotonous to our ears and
the impression is that all tribes sing alike, but each stock has its
own methods and peculiarities. A foundation principle with all in the
men’s singing seems to be an explosive quality of vocalisation—that
is, violent explosive tones instead of, as with us, tones long drawn
out. The Moki seems generally to sing nothing but “ho, ho, ho, ho, he,
he, he, he, hay, hay, hay,” etc., and he has quite a different rhythm
from the Ute, while the singing of the Navajo, when the singer opens
out all the stops, is more like the voice of a cat in the back yard
than any other sound in civilisation that I can think of. Farther north
the sounds change again: the Tlinkit vocalisation suggests death by
strangulation.
[Illustration: MENOMINEE TAMBOURINE DRUM
A common form with many tribes
]
[Illustration: OMAHA BOX DRUM
A common form with most tribes. Originally made from a hollow log
]
Fillmore states that the Navajo songs were the most primitive of any
he studied. “They form in fact the connecting link between excited
howling and excited singing. The quality of tone is indescribable,
being more like a yelp than anything else; but the intervals yelped
are unmistakably those of the major chord or of the minor chord.
The tone-quality is that of shouting, or even of howling, but the
pitch-relations into which they tend to fall are those of the major
chord.... Some of the Navaho songs are illustrations of melody so
primitive as to bring us very near to the beginning of music-making....
I started my investigations with the impression that there might be
essential differences in structure between the Indian music and our
own. I studied the Indian music for ten years with the utmost care
and thoroughness of which I was capable. I have failed to find one
single interval in Indian music which we do not use. It is true,
I have often heard Indians sing these intervals out of tune; but
this is a phenomenon by no means confined to savage or uncivilised
races. In every such case, when I was singing with Indians and was
able to get at their real intentions, I have found that they meant
to sing exactly the interval we should sing in their place.... I
have also found that increase of power is almost always accompanied
with increased elevation of pitch, and diminution of intensity with
a lowering of pitch, seemingly without the Indian being aware of
it.... The evidence of the essential unity of all music, from the
most primitive to the most advanced, is cumulative. The Navaho howls
his song to the war gods directly along the line of the major chord;
Beethoven makes the first theme of his great ‘Eroica’ symphony out of
precisely the same material. The Tigua makes his ‘Dance of the Wheel’
out of a major chord, and its relative minor; Wagner makes Lohengrin
sing ‘Mein lieber schwan’ to a melody composed of exactly the same
ingredients. In short there is only one kind of music in the world.”
Like everything else pertaining to man, it is a matter of development
modified by circumstances. Fillmore’s excellent investigation[284] in
this line only proves again that man is the same in all climes and ages
since first we get track of him, so far as his fundamental make-up is
concerned. Variations and differences are only those which come from a
development of latent talents or possibilities. He always moves, when
he moves, along certain lines that are prearranged by his constitution
and his environment. He may stop where circumstances direct, but he
will have stopped where others stopped before.
[Illustration: SET OF PLAYING STICKS]
There is always a great deal of repetition in the songs. The Amerind
seems content to go over and over again the same few notes. In some
tribes the poet and singer stands in the interior of a circle formed by
all the members of the tribe—men, women, and children—around a cedar
tree from which all but the top branches have been removed. A time of
moonlight is chosen, and I remember well such a night with some Pai
Utes, of Arizona. The poet recited his refrain, then all took it up
and repeated it in song, circling round and round the cedar with their
peculiar shuffle, repeating and repeating. I joined the circle and the
singing till I became tired, and finally left them still enjoying it.
The poet would give out some such stanza as
“No rabbit kill,
No rabbit eat,”
and it would serve the purpose for a considerable time, when he would
be obliged to announce a new one.
Mooney has translated some of the songs of the Arapahos used in the
Ghost or Resurrection Dance, and I give several as specimens of their
style[285]:
“O, my children! O, my children!
Here is another of your pipes—He eye!
Here is another of your pipes—He eye!
Look! thus I shouted—He eye!
Look! thus I shouted—He eye!
When I moved the earth—He eye!
When I moved the earth—He eye!
————
“The sacred pipe tells me—E yahe eye!
The sacred pipe tells me—E yahe eye!
Our father—Yahe eye!
Our father—Yahe eye!
We shall surely be put again (with our friends) E yahe eye!
We shall surely be put again (with our friends) E yahe eye!
Our father, E yahe eye!
Our father, E yahe eye!
————
“The cedar tree, the cedar tree!
We have it in the centre!
We have it in the centre!
When we dance,
When we dance,
We have it in the centre!
We have it in the centre!
————
“My children, my children!
It is I who wear the morning star on my head!
It is I who wear the morning star on my head!
I show it to my children!
I show it to my children!
Says the father!
Says the father!
————
“With the ba-qati wheel I am gambling!
With the ba-qati wheel I am gambling!
With the black mark I win the game!
With the black mark I win the game!”
“This (last) song is from the northern Arapaho. The author of it in
his visit to the spirit world, found his former friends playing the
old game of the _baqati_ wheel, which was practically obsolete among
the prairie tribes, but which is being revived since the advent of the
Ghost Dance.... The game is played with a wheel (_baqati_, large wheel)
and two pairs of throwing sticks.... It is a man’s game and there are
three players, one rolling the wheel while the other two, each armed
with a pair of throwing sticks, run after it and throw the sticks so as
to cross the wheel in a certain position.”[286]
[Illustration: PUEBLO RATTLES.
Turtle shell, with hoofs of goats or sheep. Fastened to the rear of
the right leg near the knee in dancing Painted gourd with wood handle
]
Among the Mokis, some of the old men are custodians of songs, according
to the societies to which they belong. Such a man is leader of the
singing. It is he who knows the old songs. He meets a lot of the young
men at a specified house, and placing an old tin pan on the floor to
spit in while smoking cigarettes, and beside it a candle for light,
they group themselves in a circle, sitting on the floor, while the
instructor takes his place on a stool at the large double-headed drum
at one end. He runs over a passage, beating time on the drum, and
then all join in with a vigour that well-nigh raises the roof. There
was something fine in the force and power with which these songs were
rendered, and it was the only time in my experience that my artistic
sense was stirred by Amerind singing. Later, on the same evening as the
gathering mentioned, when the same young men were rehearsing further
and also practising the dance with some small girls in a neighbouring
house, the singing lost its fire and was not at all thrilling. Before
the rehearsal with the young men the “choir master” rehearses by
himself. From my house at Tewa, on the “East Mesa,” I could hear just
after dark, every evening, through the stone wall, continuous singing.
It was in the next room or “house,” the entrance to which, though on
my level, was around a corner and not connected in any way with my
balcony. I had a ladder of my own. I was curious to see who it was that
was so devoted to this amusement. I mounted to my house-top by means of
steps on the end of a wall, and then I could look down my neighbour’s
chimney, from which little smoke and much sound were arising. I
could see plainly the singer, an old man, sitting cross-legged
before the fire, its light softly illuminating him, with a small
double-headed drum between his knees, which he was vigorously beating
in accompaniment to a “+HO+, ho, +HO+, ho, +HO+—+HE+, he, +HE+,” etc.
When I went afterward to the house of Anawita, the war-chief, to the
rehearsal described, this old fellow and Anawita were the leaders of
the songs. They were practising at that time for the Somaikoli or
Soyaita ceremony.
The Amerind is fond of singing. He sings in ceremonials, sings in camp,
bursts out in yelps as he rides across country, and the women amongst
the Pueblos sing a shrill chant while they are grinding corn. Men of
some tribes sing at times without knowing what they are singing. I
once had a Uinkarets Ute with me in Arizona, and at night this man
would build a fire a few yards from us, and sitting by it would sing
the words _Lola-my, lola-my, lola-my_ with great vigour and gusto over
and over and over again. When I asked him what the words meant, he
said he did not know, nor could he explain just why he performed thus,
but it was probably a gambling chant. Singing is used at night for
driving away evil spirits that may be near. We had four Pai Utes once
travelling with us for a number of weeks, and almost every night, along
in the middle, one would wake and begin to sing in a low voice, then a
second would join, and a third, and so on till all were engaged, their
voices rising gradually, and finally as gradually diminishing till they
ceased altogether.[287] As this performance woke us up there were
protests against it, but they were of no avail. The red men declared
they did it to drive off the “woonūpits,” or spirit of evil, and we
were forced to partake of their protection. Beginning a song low and
rising slowly is an effect often used. Fewkes mentions something of the
kind. “At the termination of this ceremonial smoke,” he says, “the four
priests nearest the bowl picked up the small gourd rattles and began
a low, rapid rattling. This continued for a few moments, and then the
priests began a song, at first low, rising gradually and increasing in
volume.” Fewkes recorded many songs by means of the phonograph. The
Harriman Expedition recorded a number of Tlinkit songs, and afterwards
some of these were reproduced for the benefit of men of the same stock
farther north, who immediately recognised the melodies and, as their
hilarity testified, enjoyed them hugely, though they had never before
heard a talking machine.
[Illustration: ZUÑI DANCE ORNAMENT
Yellow gourd with band of black and white squares. A stick is
passed through it for a handle. Generally used in social dances
]
[Illustration: MOKI NOTCHED STICK
With shoulder-blade of deer or sheep for scraping it to make noise
]
[Illustration: KWAKIUTL DOUBLE WHISTLE, WITH FOUR VOICES.]
[Illustration: THE AWL GAME]
Most Amerind songs are connected with ceremonials, and some are
imported or adopted. Ceremonials are not always sacred. Many of them
are full of amusing features intended to entertain the onlookers. The
attendance at a camp or village on a ceremonial day is for amusement as
much as anything else.
The different tribes of a locality expect to meet friends then and
enjoy social intercourse. The Amerind is fond of games, races, and all
forms of sport on which a wager can be laid. A game without a stake
would be no game at all for him. He must put up something to lose, and
I once noticed after a distribution of goods among individuals of a
certain tribe that within twenty-four hours a few had all the goods. In
modern times many Amerinds play cards. Their own games are numerous. In
the “awl game,” played chiefly by women, “the players,” according to
Mooney, “sit upon the ground around a blanket marked in charcoal with
lines and dots and quadrants in the corners as shown in illustration
on preceding page. In the centre is a stone upon which the sticks are
thrown. Each dot ... counts a point, making twenty-four points for
dots. Each of the parallel lines, and each end of the curved lines in
the corners, also counts a point, making sixteen points for the lines,
or forty points in all. The players start from the bottom, opposing
players moving in opposite directions, and with each throw of the
sticks the thrower moves her awl forward and sticks it into the blanket
at the dot or line to which her throw carries her. The parallels on
each of the four sides are called ‘rivers,’ and the dots within these
parallels do not count in the game. The rivers at the top and bottom
are ‘dangerous’ and cannot be crossed, and when the player is so
unlucky as to score a throw which brings her upon the edge of the river
(_i. e._, upon the first line of either of these pairs of parallels)
she ‘falls into the river’ and must lose all she has hitherto gained
and begin again at the start. In the same way, when a player moving
around in one direction makes a throw which brings her awl to the
place occupied by the awl of her opponent coming around from the other
side, the said opponent is ‘whipped back’ to the starting-point and
must begin all over again.... The game is played with four sticks,
each from six to ten inches long, flat on one side and round on the
other. One of these is the trump stick and is marked in a distinctive
manner in the centre on both sides, and is also distinguished by having
a green line along the flat side, while the others have each a red
line.... There are also a number of small green sticks, about the size
of lead pencils, for keeping tally. Each player in turn takes up the
four sticks together in her hand and throws them down on end upon the
stone in the centre. The number of points depends upon the number of
flat round sticks which turn up.... Only the flat sides count except
when all the sticks turn round side up. On completing one round of
forty points the player takes one of the small green tally sticks from
the pile and she who first gets the number of tally sticks previously
agreed on wins the game.”[288]
Another game, widely spread and in some respects resembling the
Mexican game of _patolli_, is thus described by Fewkes as he found it
among the Mokis[289]:
[Illustration: AMERIND GAMBLING TOOLS
Set of bone dice, Arapaho. Length, 1¾ to 2¼ in.
Set of counting sticks, Blackfeet. Length, 5½ in.
Set of plum stones, Arikaree. Diameter, ¹¹⁄₁₆ in.
]
“This game, _totolospi_, resembles somewhat the game of checkers, and
can be played by two persons or by two parties. In playing the game, a
rectangular figure divided into a large number of squares is drawn upon
a rock, either by scratching or by using a different-coloured stone as
a crayon. A diagonal line, _tuhkiota_, is drawn across the rectangle
from north-east to south-west, and the players station themselves at
each end of this line. When two parties play, a single person acts as
player, and the other members of the party act as advisers. The first
play is won by tossing up a leaf or corn husk with one side blackened.
The pieces which are used are bean or corn kernels, stones and wood,
or small fragments of any substance of marked colour. The players are
stationed at each end of the diagonal line, _tuhkiota_. They move their
pieces upon this line but never across it. The moves which are made
are intricate and the player may move one or more pieces successively.
Certain positions entitle him to this privilege. He may capture or, as
he terms it, kill one or more of his opponent’s pieces at one play. In
this respect the game is not unlike checkers, and to capture the pieces
of the opponent seems to be the main object of the game.”
Horse-racing is a great sport among all Amerinds and much valuable
property changes hands on these occasions. There are also foot races.
Anything they can bet on constitutes a game, and they are much like
many white men in this respect. Arrows are shot into the air to see
who can shoot out of sight, or they are shot at a mark and dexterous
archers try to split the shaft of the preceding shooter. Or they
throw arrows or bows over the ground or the snow to see who can throw
farthest. In this line the Iroquois had the game known as “snow snake,”
wherein a specially formed stick was caused to glide over the snow or
ice. The Arapahos used for a similar purpose slender willow rods about
four feet long peeled and painted and tipped with a point of buffalo
horn. This is swung from one end like a pendulum and then let fly with
a sweeping motion.
Among the Pai Utes a common gambling game was played by four men
sitting down in two rows opposite each other, that is, two on a side,
and about five feet apart. In front of each side was a row of little
sticks placed diagonally in sand heaped up, the ends sticking out
toward the side to which the lot belonged. Two bits of bone formed the
pieces, one being plain and the other having a buckskin string around
it. These pieces were about two and a half inches long, tapering toward
their ends. The leader of one side tosses both pieces into the air
and, catching them, crosses his arms, pressing the fists against each
shoulder. The point is for the other side to guess in which hand is
the piece that is marked with the string, and the diagonally opposite
player chooses. He does not at once indicate a choice, but sways his
body back and forth, his right hand extended and waving to and fro
across the opponent’s breast, and slapping his own chest, all the while
fiercely uttering a gambling song. Finally he would point directly at
the hand he chose, and if his guess were correct he received a tally
stick, if not, the other side got one. The side that wins all the
tally sticks is victor and carries off the stakes, which are usually
put on the ground at one end of the group. This is something like the
“hunt the button” game of the prairie tribes described by Mooney.[290]
“It is the regular game in the long winter nights after the scattered
families have abandoned their exposed summer positions on the open
prairie and moved down near one another in the shelter of the timber
along the streams.... The players sit in a circle around the tipi fire,
those on one side of the fire playing against those on the other. The
only requisites are the ‘button,’ usually a small bit of wood, around
which is tied a piece of string or otter skin, with a pile of tally
sticks.... Each party has a button, that of one side being painted
black, the other being red. The leader of one party takes up the button
and endeavours to move it from one hand to the other, or pass it on to
a partner, while those of the opposite side keep a sharp lookout and
try to guess in which hand it is.” This game is played by both sexes
but never together.
Still another game which was a great favourite all over the country,
and is yet, especially among the women, is the “plum stone” or dice
game. Five or six dice made of bone or plum stones, a small bowl or
basket, and the usual tally sticks are the implements. Two of the dice
are alike in shape and marking, while the others are different from
these but like each other. The dice are tossed up and the count made
according to the way the marks and blanks fall.
[Illustration: TERRA COTTA RATTLE FROM CHIRIQUI]
The camps and villages are particularly lively in winter, when there
is not much to do in the way of hunting, farming, or fishing. The
sound of the drum, gambling songs, and rattles make the evening merry
where the village is one of skin tipis or other light structures, but
among the Pueblos the walls of the houses are so thick that sounds
do not easily come through. The great drum is penetrating and its
deep “bum-bum-bum” could be heard vibrating on the winter air, but
other sounds were muffled or extinguished altogether by the walls.
One moonlight evening when I arrived before the town of Oraibi, about
eight o’clock, not a single sound was distinguishable, and to judge
by appearances, the place was a deserted ruin, till the dogs got a
sniff of our approach and then pandemonium ruled so far as they were
concerned. Many tribes have an assembly house, where there are various
congregations in the winter evenings, to sing and to dance. Among the
Pueblos these congregations, when there are women or girls involved,
take place in an ordinary dwelling; the kiva, which is council room,
club, and society lodge, seldom being open to women. An orchestra that
performed in a Kabinapek assembly hall described by Stephen Powers is
worth mentioning. “The orchestra, eight in number, all young men, were
squatted together opposite the entrance, four facing four. Between them
was a hollow slab, serving as a kind of drum to be beaten by a drummer
with the naked foot, and each of them held in his right hand a little
stick, split half way down, to be used as a clapper in keeping time.
The dancers were all young women, who stood in a curved row in front
of the orchestra.” This orchestra sang a chorus accompanied by the
clappers they held. “Like everything they sung it has no meaning. They
all sung in a high falsetto voice, the women especially, so that they
were less agreeable to listen to than the men. The sharp monotonous
clacking of the sticks and the dull tunk, tunk of the slab drum were
execrable.” He states that they kept perfect time, however, and also
that “there was one short passage in this chorus which when chanted
by the men alone was one of the most moving I ever heard. These three
rude, barbaric, and wholly unintelligible syllables, hu-di-go, were
trilled and prolonged out with a sweet, soft, and wild melodiousness
that I shall not forget to my dying hour.”[291]
The Eskimo, despite the severity of their surroundings, are a merry
people, and have many diversions. Football, strange to say, is a
favourite pastime, but neither their method nor their ball would pass
muster with a college expert. The ball is a pudgy affair from three to
seven inches in diameter, and is either kicked or whipped along. The
whip is a short stick with several loops of seal thong at the end. The
game, according to Turner, is a favourite with all. Throwing stones at
a mark is also a pastime. Another is a kind of wrestling or struggling
with each other, such as is in vogue with almost all the tribes of the
continent. Turner says: “The opponents remove all their superfluous
garments, seize each other around the waist and lock hands behind each
other’s backs. The feet are spread widely apart and each endeavours to
draw, by the strength of the arms alone, the back of his opponent into
a curve and thus bring him off his feet. Then with a lift he is quickly
thrown flat on his back. The fall must be such that the head touches
the ground.... The feet are never used for tripping.”[292]
Anything like scientific boxing is unknown among the tribes of the
continent. When they try anything of this sort it is a mere clawing
at each other’s heads, and one professional pugilist, if fists alone
were used, could knock out a whole tribe. Among the Hudson Bay Eskimo,
a popular game is played by trying to catch, on the end of an ivory
point, an ivory piece that looks something like a stumpy revolver. A
string is attached to it and to the ivory point, and the game is to
throw up the piece and cause the point to enter one of the holes and
catch it. Cards, such as we have, are known to almost all tribes, and
where they have not learned games from the whites they invent some of
their own.
Ball games of various kinds were played and the Canadian game called
_lacrosse_ is of Amerind origin. Parkman in his _Pontiac_ vividly
describes one of these lacrosse games used in strategy to gain entrance
to an English fort. “The plain in front was covered by the ball
players. The game in which they were engaged, called _baggattaway_ by
the Ojibwas, is still, as it always has been, a favourite with many
Indian tribes. At either extremity of the ground, a tall post was
planted, marking the stations of the rival parties. The object of each
was to defend its own post and drive the ball to that of its adversary.
Hundreds of lithe and agile figures were leaping and bounding upon the
plain. Each was nearly naked, his loose black hair flying in the wind,
and each bore in his hand a bat of a form peculiar to this game. At one
moment the whole were crowded together, a dense throng of combatants
all struggling for the ball; at the next they were scattered again,
and running over the ground like hounds in full cry. Each, in his
excitement, yelled and shouted at the height of his voice. Rushing and
striking, tripping their adversaries, or hurling them to the ground,
they pursued the animated contest amid the laughter and applause of the
spectators.”
[Illustration: CAT-SHAPED WHISTLE OF TERRA COTTA, CHIRIQUI]
In Central America, a form of tennis was in vogue and stone courts
where the game was played have been found and described by some of our
modern archæologists.
[Illustration: MANDAN GAME OF TCHUNGKEE
George Catlin
]
I never saw any ball playing amongst the Uinkarets, Shevwits, or other
Amerinds of the northern Arizona-southern Nevada region. They all
appeared to be deficient in games, at the time I was first among them,
not knowing what our playing-cards were, and having even no games of
exterior origin. There were flat pieces of cedar bark, painted with
red stripes, said by some to have been used like dice, but I never saw
them engaged in playing with them. The children used a flat piece of
bark as a doll, and most Amerind children play with dolls made of wood,
terra cotta, and other materials.[293] The small boys devote themselves
to the bow and arrow for amusement in many tribes, and they will go
out in the woods, or on the plain, and bring down small birds and mice
with considerable skill. The whip-top, made of wood, is a favourite
everywhere, especially among the Moki boys, whose life on the barren
mesas precludes much hunting with bow and arrow. The children also beat
the drum for fun.
Horse-racing is a sport in which many tribes, especially those of
the plains, are past masters. The Pueblos, particularly the Mokis,
owing to their sedentary life, have less opportunity to develop in
this line, but the Navajos, Sioux, Crows, Blackfeet, and Comanches
have little to learn about rough-and-ready racing. It goes without
saying that the Eskimo, Aleuts, Tlinkits, Haidas, and other North-west
tribes, whose range of life is on and by the sea, have no knowledge
of handling horses. They never adopted the horse, because it was as
useless to them as an elephant or a hippopotamus. But to the plains
tribes this animal came like a gift from the gods, and they appreciated
it fully, and horses became their standard of wealth. Some tribes, like
the Kaivavits, Uinkarets, and Shevwits Utes of northern Arizona have
never possessed many horses because of their poverty, but there were
always a goodly number owned, and horse-racing was a great amusement
with them, as well as with those tribes which counted their horses
by the thousand. Dodge describes an amusing race that took place
near Fort Chadbourne, Texas, between a horse of a Comanche chief and
three horses of the officers of the garrison, which illustrates the
Amerind cleverness in the jockeying line.[294] It took several days
of manœuvring to bring the chief to the point, and then a race was
arranged with the third best horse of the white men. The distance was
four hundred yards, and property to the amount of sixty dollars a side
was wagered on the result. “At the appointed time all the Indians and
most of the garrison were assembled at the track. The Indians ‘showed’
a miserable sheep of a pony with legs like churns; a three-inch coat
of rough hair stuck out all over the body, and a general expression
of neglect, helplessness, and patient suffering struck pity into the
hearts of all beholders. The rider was a stalwart buck of one hundred
and seventy pounds, looking big and strong enough to carry the poor
beast on his shoulders. He was armed with a huge club, with which,
after the word was given, he belabored the miserable animal from start
to finish. To the astonishment of all the whites, the Indian won by
a neck. Another race was proposed by the officers and, after much
‘dickering,’ accepted by the Indians, against the next best horse of
the garrison. The bets were doubled, and in less than an hour the
second race was run by the same pony, with the same apparent exertion
and with exactly the same result. The officers, thoroughly disgusted,
proposed a third race, and brought to the ground a magnificent Kentucky
mare, of the true Lexington blood, and known to beat the best of the
others at least forty yards in four hundred. The Indians accepted the
race, and not only doubled the bets as before, but piled up everything
they could raise, seemingly almost crazed with the excitement of their
previous success. The riders mounted; the word was given. Throwing away
his club, the Indian rider gave a whoop, at which the sheep-like pony
pricked up his ears and went away like the wind, almost two feet to the
mare’s one. The last fifty yards of the course were run by the pony
with the rider sitting face to his tail, making hideous grimaces, and
beckoning to the rider of the mare to come on. It afterwards transpired
that the old sheep was a trick and straight pony, celebrated among all
the tribes of the South.” Yet some people think the Amerind has no
sense of humour.
[Illustration: DOUBLE WHISTLE IN TERRA COTTA FROM CHIRIQUI]
Story telling is another amusement, and a good story teller, says
Dodge, is a man of importance. “The bucks, and squaws, and children
crowd to his lodge, or any other where he happens to be, and spend the
long winter evenings listening to his recitals. These stories are as
marvellous as the imagination of the teller can create, jumbling gods
and men, fabulous and living animals, the impossible and the possible
in the most heterogeneous confusion.”[295]
The Navajos, or at least some of them, have considerable dramatic
sense. On one occasion, when some Navajos camped near us, one of them
gave an exhibition of character delineation that would have done credit
to a professional actor. Choosing a large bush nearby as a screen for
his costuming, he came out to the fire successively representing the
various nationalities with which he was familiar. Some of these were
extremely well done. The Pai Ute, for instance, is poor in clothing
and always begging. Our actor took off all his clothing but the
breech-cloth, approached the fire timidly and cringingly, and crouched
down beside it, drawing the back of his hand across his nose with an
accompanying sniffle, and exclaimed in Pai Ute: _Tabac ashanty_ (I want
some tobacco). Another was the American, who stepped nervously to the
fire, and restlessly turned first front, then back, extended his hands,
rubbing them over the heat; held up first one foot, then the other, and
so on. These impersonations were full of the character of the types
indicated. The exhibition finally culminated in a representation of the
characteristics of his own people. Retiring once again behind the bush,
he at last appeared with his full costume on, carefully adjusted. His
head bore a red turban, his shirt was held by a fine belt, his broad
Navajo trousers met at the knee the red buckskin leggings, ornamented
with silver buttons, and his feet were protected by moccasins finely
wrought, held by silver buttons. About his shoulders was a fine blanket
of Navajo make, and across his back a large bow and its arrows in a
panther-skin case and quiver. Approaching the fire with a measured,
haughty tread, head erect and folded arms, he paused majestically
before it, straightened to his full height, and in a deep, dignified
tone spoke the single word, “Navajo.”
[Illustration: SET OF STAVES FOR GAME
The lowest shows obverse of one above. Length, 5½ in.
]
[Illustration: “BANNER-STONE,” TENNESSEE]
CHAPTER XII
WORKS AND AGRICULTURE
For a long time it was believed by the whites that the “Indians” were
incapable of doing anything beyond weaving baskets, and from this
condition of ignorance much of the confusion concerning the Amerinds
has arisen. The line of reasoning was based on some such syllogism as
this: The “Indian” never worked; The Cliff-dweller and the Moundbuilder
worked at building houses and mounds; Conclusion, The Cliff-dweller
and the Moundbuilder were not “Indians.” Short, in his excellent book
on the Amerinds,[296] applies unfortunately this method of reasoning
to the copper-mine workers of the Lake Superior district, saying:
“The labour involved in a journey of a thousand miles from the Ohio
valley to the copper regions, the toil of the summer’s mining, and the
tedious transportation of the metal to their homes upon their backs,
and by means of an imperfect system of navigation, indicates either
industry and resolution such as no savage Indian ever possessed, or
a condition of servitude in which thousands occupied a position of
abject slavery.” This seems a complete misunderstanding of the people
and conditions existing on this continent. Without consuming space in
discussing these errors, I think my preceding pages have demonstrated
that far from lacking industry and resolution, the “savage Indian” was
applying himself in his way to a solution of the life problems which
surrounded him. He knew nothing of the rules of commerce, book-keeping,
and exchange, but there are other things in the world besides figures
and accounts. The Amerind’s game-supply and clothing, and the soil
about him, were not overtaxed, at least not north of Anahuac, till the
whites arrived with their mania for “killing something,” and introduced
on this continent the destructive practice of hunting for the fun
of seeing how many animals could be killed in a certain time; or of
killing for a special part of an animal, as for the tongues, or the
hides and tallow, of the bison. When I first went to the Far West bison
were spread over the plains by thousands. Not a single specimen can
to-day be found alive outside of some private herd or the Yellowstone
Park. Hunting, as before mentioned, was with the Amerind labour, not
amusement, but in conjunction with their hunting most tribes carried on
farming operations. It has often been asserted that the “Indian” did
no work, even leaving the cultivation of the corn and squashes to the
women. That the women in some of the tribes tended the crops, is true,
but in others, like the Pueblos, they seldom or never touched hoe or
spade. The Eastern men were hunting or building boats, or were on the
warpath, hence it was necessary for the women to look after the fields.
In the Eastern regions the crops grew without watering, but in the West
and South-west the soil was arid and irrigation was necessary, hence
there are found to this day remnants of extensive irrigation canals
built to bring rivers out on the dry land. The fact that the resident
Apaches do not irrigate does not prove that these great canals were
built by people who emigrated from China or India, in the absurd line
of argument that has so often been advanced in discussing Amerindian
affairs; it simply proves that the Apaches did not cultivate the soil,
or not extensively enough to require irrigating works, and also,
over again, that tribes and stocks exist in a region, in different
conditions or stages of development, either at the same time or at
different times. These irrigating canals are unquestionably the work
of tribes similar to the Pueblos; that is now well established. They
were constructed because, in an increasing population and a probable
decrease of precipitation, they were found necessary. An increase of
population diminishes the food-supply; in an arid country where game
is not plenty this diminution is rapid. A corresponding development
of a food crop is the inevitable course, unless the tribe were to
migrate to more humid regions. In this case, hostile people already
there might have to be met, and it would be easier to remain at the
old place and invent new methods of obtaining food. In some such way
irrigating and its attendant engineering developed. Irrigating canals,
then, are found not where any lost or mysterious race once dwelt, nor
where any particular Amerind stock were living, but where the climatic
conditions and population made irrigation imperative. These conditions
prevailed on this continent in Mexico and our South-west, and there
consequently are found the most important works of this kind. The
remains of irrigating canals in the south-western United States are
numerous. There are indications of them along the fertile bottoms
of the Colorado River in Glen Canyon. These bottoms are deposits of
alluvial soil, generally occupying the inside of a bend at the base of
the cliffs. They are of various extent, about three to eight feet above
ordinary high-water mark, and are fringed with willows. I remember
examining several indications of these “ditches,” but as I made no
notes at the time, and it was long ago, I cannot give details. There
were ruins of houses here and there, both on the cliffs and below,
and the cliff faces bore pictographs. Amongst these I found, and
copied, one which suggested some kind of a scaffolding and sweep for
lifting water, and it is not improbable that something of this kind
was utilised for raising water from the river. As there would be no
opportunity to construct a canal or ditch sufficiently long to receive
water by natural flow from the river owing to the shortness of the
alluvial stretches, a system of lifting it into the ditches might have
been devised. Water might have been obtained also in another way. The
country on both sides of the river at this point is composed chiefly
of barren surfaces of homogeneous sandstone which collect enormous
quantities of water, like the roof of a house, during rain-storms,
and pour it over the edges of the cliffs and down the alcoves and
lateral canyons. This water may also have been utilised for irrigating
purposes. The Mokis utilise showers by collecting and guiding the
streamlets with low dams hastily thrown up by their hoes, so it is
certain that all these Amerinds understood thoroughly the importance of
utilising shower-water on their crops.[297]
[Illustration: SO-CALLED ELEPHANT MOUND, WISCONSIN
Has been ploughed over. Length, 140 ft.; greatest height, 4 ft.
]
[Illustration: ANCIENT FABRIC DESIGN FROM IMPRESSION ON POTTERY, UTAH]
In the Verde River region of Arizona some very large canals or
“ditches” have been observed. Mindeleff has described a number of
these, and I will mention one which he says is one of the finest he
has seen.[298] This is “about two miles below the mouth of Limestone
Creek on the opposite or eastern side of the river.” The canal extends
across the northern and western part of an extent of fertile bottom
land. In one place it is marked “by a very shallow trough in the
grass-covered bottom, bounded on either side by a low ridge of earth
and pebbles, at another it was cut through a low ridge. It is probable
that the water was taken out of the river about two miles above this
place, but the ditch was run on the sloping side of the mesa which has
recently washed out.” It is supposed that this ancient canal irrigated
nearly the whole of the bottom land mentioned, which was recently
again reclaimed by another “ditch” or canal constructed by Americans.
“The ancient ditch is well marked by two clearly defined lines of
pebbles and small boulders.... Probably these pebbles entered into its
construction, as the modern ditch, washed out at its head ... shows no
trace of a similar marking.”
[Illustration: ANCIENT FABRIC PRESERVED BY COPPER CELT, IOWA
See page 108
]
Farming was carried on very much as the Mokis carry it on to-day,
except that the Mokis do not have to build irrigating ditches, the
showers supplying by their method water enough to mature the crops.
A German has recently settled south-westerly from the Mokis and, I
have been told, grows good crops on his place without irrigation.
Mindeleff further states that “on the southern side of Clear Creek,
about a mile above its mouth, there are extensive horticultural[299]
works covering a large area of the terrace or river bench.... For a
distance of two miles east and west along the creek, and perhaps half
a mile north and south, there are traces of former works pertaining
to horticulture, including irrigating ditches, ‘reservoirs,’ farming
outlooks, etc.” The reservoirs are supposed by some to have been
threshing-floors, being large circular depressions lined with clay.
The produce derived from these farming operations was corn, beans,
squashes, and cotton, corn being the principal. Cotton was grown by
some, but not all, of the south-western tribes. A great many of the
tribes throughout the United States and Mexico were farmers to a
greater or less extent, and many of the earthworks of the Mississippi
valley were in all probability connected with agriculture. It was
necessary there to protect the crops from marauding parties from wilder
tribes, so, in all probability, some of the earthworks, surmounted
by palisades or by watch-houses, served to guard the crops from
depredations. Morgan thinks some of the square ones were foundations
for communal houses,[300] and this is also probable.
[Illustration: LARGE MOUND OF THE ETOWAH GROUP, GEORGIA
Next to the Cahokia, this is probably the most important work of
its kind remaining in the Mississippi valley. It is sixty-one feet
high, and the area of the base is about three acres. With several
smaller ones, it stands in the middle of a tract of about fifty
acres of rich land, bounded on one side by the Etowah River, and on
the other by a semi-circular artificial waterway or moat. The top
approximates a square, with a sort of roadway adjoining and leading
up on the left. The entire contents are about 160,000 cubic yards.
It is composed of earth which was taken from the moat and adjoining
excavations
From a photograph
]
On the upper Gila River in Arizona, Fewkes discovered traces of
reservoirs and irrigating canals. “The large circular or elongated oval
depressions,” he says, “in the immediate neighbourhood of some of the
house-mounds have been identified as the sites of former reservoirs....
The reservoir at Buena Vista is one of the largest that was discovered,
yet no irrigating ditches leading into it were distinctly traced....
There is abundant evidence that the ancient people of the Pueblo Viejo
Valley led the water from the Gila River over the plain by means of
canals for purposes of agriculture, for in many places the depressions
marking the old ditches may be traced for considerable distances.... I
have been informed by some of the older residents that when they came
into the country, before the Montezuma and San José irrigation ditches
had been constructed, the ancient aqueducts were much more conspicuous
than they are to-day, and that sections of the modern ditches follow
the course of the ancient waterways.”[301]
[Illustration: A VOTIVE ADZ OF JADITE FROM MEXICO, SHOWING FRONT AND
SIDE
Height, 10¹³⁄₁₆ in.; width, 6 in.; thickness, 4⅝ in. Highly
polished; color light grayish green with streaks of emerald green
on the back. A complete human figure. See page 341 for back.
From _Monumental Records_
American Museum, Kunz Collection
]
The Aztecs built long aqueducts to supply their towns, and the Mayas
constructed large reservoirs. Charnay says: “According to historians
of the Conquest, El Salto del Agua (a monumental fountain in the City
of Mexico) and the aqueduct which it terminates replaced the ancient
aqueduct of Montezuma constructed by Netzahualcoyotl, King of Tezcuco,
between the years 1427 and 1440. At that time it was brought through
an earthen pipe to the city, along a dyke constructed for the purpose,
and that there might be no failure in so essential an article, a double
course of pipes in stone and mortar was laid. In this way a column of
water the size of a man’s body was conducted into the heart of the
capital.”[302]
George Bancroft makes the statement that “of the labours of the Indians
on the soil of Virginia, there remains nothing so respectable as would
be a common ditch for the draining of lands,”[303] but in this Bancroft
was somewhat mistaken, for Thomas describes[304] some mounds in West
Virginia, which was Virginia when the above sentence was written, that
were undoubtedly the work of some of the Amerinds formerly occupying
that soil. “First the earth (unless the place selected is a bare rock)
is removed to the solid rock foundation and an approximately level
space from ten to thirty feet in diameter formed. Centrally on this was
placed a layer of flat stones, with the edge inward, around a circle
about three feet in diameter. Upon the outer edge of these, others were
placed with their outer edges resting upon the prepared foundation
running entirety round the circle. Then another inner layer with the
best edge inward and the thinner edge resting on the outer layer, the
stones of one layer breaking joints with those below, as far as the
size and form would admit. Outside of the inner row, and with the edges
resting on it, other circles were added until a diameter ranging from
twenty to fifty feet or even more was attained, thus extending upon
the sloping earth not removed in forming the foundation. The last or
outer circle usually consisted of but a single layer, over which earth
was thrown, being sometimes heaped up until it equalled in contents
the rock pile. The height of these piles was found to vary from four
to eight feet, in one or two instances reaching ten feet. But in all
cases the circular space or opening in the centre continued to the top
the same diameter as at the bottom, somewhat resembling the so-called
‘well-holes’ of the early western pioneers.” The stones used in these
constructions were obtained by “rude quarrying in stratified cliffs
one half mile distant. Some of them measure from four to six feet in
length, half as wide, and of a thickness which renders them so heavy
as to require from two to four stout men to handle them.” Skeletons
were found in cavities of these piles “with head or feet (generally
the latter) toward the central well-hole.” Coarse pottery, rude
large celts, lance- and arrow-heads were also discovered, and “all
the cavities of the heap not originally used for burial are filled
with earth or mortar, often well baked by fire.”[305] Many mounds and
other earthworks have been found in the western Virginia region, and
in some of them copper articles have been brought to light.[306] In
New York there are many mounds called “old forts,” of various shapes,
with walls from one and one half to two feet or more high, and thence
westward, throughout the Mississippi valley, mounds and earthworks of
many shapes and sizes are found. They appear to be concentrated in
various centres, with a sprinkling in between suggesting a number of
different groups of Amerinds as their builders, which has been pretty
well established by evidence was the case. Some of the mounds were of
enormous size, the famous one at Cahokia, Illinois, being one of the
highest and largest on the continent. Its altitude is about ninety
feet, and it contains nearly 500,000 cubic yards of earth. Its purpose
is, of course, not known, but it probably supported some religious
structure of wood. Many of the mounds, as pointed out in the chapter on
dwellings, were merely supports for buildings, religious or otherwise.
Others were connected with religious rites in other ways. Doubtless the
figures of birds found in Wisconsin represented the “Thunder-bird,” of
which there are legends and traditions in many tribes. It was to the
Amerind the cause of the thunder and lightning. These great and small
earthworks were constructed in the United States by scooping up earth
from the vicinity and carrying it in baskets to the designated spot.
The United States mounds are, as a rule, made of earth, those of Mexico
and Central America of clay or adobe brick, faced with stone or wholly
of stone. “It is often the case,” says Thomas, speaking of the burial
mounds of the Mississippi valley, “when a mound is carefully excavated
and closely scanned as the work proceeds, especially where the material
is clay or muck, that the individual loads can be readily discerned.
As the earth of which the mounds is composed is usually gathered up
from the surrounding surface, the interior will vary in color and
character only as the soil so gathered up varies.... The places from
whence material was taken to build the small or moderate-sized mounds
are seldom discernible at the present day, but depressions plainly
mark the points about the larger works, as the Cahokia and Etowah
mounds and some of the enclosures of Ohio and elsewhere.[307] In some
cases the one act has been made to serve two purposes, that is to say,
the earth used to construct the mound or other work has been taken
from one or two points so as to leave a basin-shaped excavation for
holding water, or to form a trench to serve as a protective moat, or
for drainage or other purposes.” For a long time it was believed by
a great many persons, scientific and otherwise, that these piles of
earth, often called pyramids quite erroneously, could not have been
made by ordinary Amerinds, but as the study of the native American
proceeded and the data of what he did and does actually do began to be
recorded, it was perfectly plain that it was not at all necessary to
look beyond the “Indian” for the origin of the mounds—that is, beyond
the “Indian” as he was known in the region where the mounds occur. It
was found that he had erected mounds after the arrival of the whites,
and if he built one or several he might have built all. It was not a
very difficult operation to dig up earth and carry it a few hundred
feet and drop it on a pile. The transportation of the stones referred
to above was far more laborious, and modern Amerinds do a great deal
harder work. The Navajos are fairly good labourers, and the Mokis carry
all their wood from forests fifteen miles away. It is work to carry
water up the cliffs where the Mokis live, it is work to hoe the corn,
it is work to tend and herd sheep. On full investigation it seems
strange that it should ever have been thought that the mounds were not
“Indian” because they represented work. Fowke has estimated that a
mound a hundred feet in diameter and twenty feet high could have been
erected by the “Indians” in forty-two days. I have seen Uingkaret Utes
in Arizona carry on their backs with ease for twelve or fifteen miles
loads that would average about thirty or forty pounds. People who can
do this could carry earth in short stretches for forty or fifty days.
It is probable, however, that the mounds were not built by steady and
consecutive labour, but rather by intermittent effort, after the usual
fashion of Amerindian work.
[Illustration: BACK OF VOTIVE ADZ
For front and side see page 339
From _Monumental Records_
]
[Illustration: PATTERNS OF ANCIENT FABRICS FROM POTTERY
From New York
From Illinois
From Tennessee
See page 108
]
Many mounds and earthworks were erected for defensive purposes at
points controlling river passages or trails, where the advance of foes
invading a country could be checked. There were also fortification
works like the so-called “hill-forts” of the eastern portion of the
United States, and the “cérros trinchéras” of northern Mexico. Quoting
again from Thomas,[308] one of the best authorities on mounds and
“Moundbuilders”: “The most extensive example of the ‘hill-forts’ is
that known as Fort Ancient, in Warren County, Ohio. This crowns a spur
of the bluff some two hundred and fifty or three hundred feet high,
which here overhangs the Miami River. The area embraced is only some
seventy-five or eighty acres, but the length of the wall, which follows
all the windings and zigzags of the margin of the bluff and of the
side ravines, is a little over three miles and a half. This is one of
the best-preserved monuments of the Ohio valley, the surrounding wall
being uninjured save at points where the turnpike cuts through it, and
at a few places where ravines have been formed since it was abandoned.
This wall, which is partly of stone, but chiefly of dirt thrown up
from the inner or upper side, varies in height from three or four to
nineteen feet, and from twenty-five to seventy feet in width at the
base. As the earth has all been taken from the inside (except along the
high wall which crosses the level at the rear) and thrown outward on
the crest of the slope, this has left an inside ditch. As a rule, the
wall is strongest and highest at the points of easiest approach; and at
some places the outside slope has been artificially steepened, proving
beyond any reasonable doubt that the work was one of defence.”
[Illustration: ESKIMO MECHANICAL TOY.]
The Amerinds, though not always engaged in war, were always on the
defensive against stronger tribes whose warriors might appear on
the scene. These stronger tribes were not necessarily Amerinds of a
different stock or strangers; often, as in the South-west, defensive
works were erected against relatives as much as against different
tribes, just as we, in our time, have had three wars that were not with
another race. In New Mexico the villages, besides being built on the
communal principle, were often surrounded by a defensive wall. Such
a wall can still be traced around the ruins of Pecos, as well as in
parts at other ruins. The hill-forts of the Ohio kind were undoubtedly
the result of circumstances similar to those that prevailed in the
South-west: a desire to combine as closely as possible defence and the
cultivation of the soil. They were often interdependent. If conditions
changed, or a tribe grew strong enough to dominate the situation, the
defences might be abandoned. These works do not necessarily imply that
their builders were defeated and driven back by wilder tribes. They
indicate only that the builders felt defensive works necessary at the
time of the building; their circumstances then demanded them. They do
not indicate difference in race or remote origin. The constructors were
Amerinds, though not all one stock. There were tribes of different
stocks in the Mississippi valley all the time, just as there were in
other parts of the land, and the attempt that has been made by some
writers to establish the idea that the Mississippi valley was once
occupied by a single mysterious race that was overpowered and driven
out or exterminated by the “Indians” has no good foundation.
One of the most extensive groups of these defensive village sites
is that known as the Newark group, in Ohio.[309] Here are circles,
squares, and straight-line mounds, all connected, covering an area
of two or three square miles. There are two large circles in this
group which approximate true circles, and have been the basis of much
unnecessary speculation as to how “Indians” could have “done it,” with
the conclusion that the “mysterious race” did it. When it is remembered
how easy it is to construct a fairly accurate circle in a great many
ways, it is surprising that anyone should have thought “Indians” could
not do it, when they did _and do_ so many things that require more
skill. One clear-headed and accurate writer reminds the reader that
people who could manufacture cloth could certainly make a rope with
which to lay out a plan. Almost all Amerinds could make rope, the Pai
Ute, Uingkarets, and Shevwits Utes, who cannot make cloth at all,
making excellent rope and cord. But it was not necessary to make a rope
of fibre. Amerinds have always been skilful at tanning deerskins, and
buckskin strings braided make one of the best kind of ropes; indeed, it
does not even require to be tanned, as it can be worked in the rawhide
state. We should have to descend low in the scale of humanity, indeed,
to find a tribe that could not make a cord long enough to lay out any
circle yet discovered on this continent. There is nothing difficult
about it. The largest circle at Newark has a diameter of about a
thousand feet. This would require a rope only five hundred feet long,
which would be nothing for any tribe on the continent to make.
[Illustration: MÁHTOTÓHPA (THE FOUR BEARS), A MANDAN CHIEF
George Catlin, 1832
]
Just why the Newark works have the particular arrangement they have
would be impossible to say without knowing the customs of the tribe
that built them and the circumstances of the time. It is probable,
however, that some enclosures were farm fences. The plan suggests two
communal villages, closely allied and united by a sort of runway,
which, while preventing hostiles from separating the two villages
in time of attack, always afforded a safe passage for the women and
children from one town to the other. The builders were evidently beset
by enemies at the time the works were occupied, but this does not
necessarily imply that when the works were abandoned the occupants
were driven out or annihilated, for their enemies may have been people
of their own stock with whom they eventually became reconciled, or
the enemies may have passed on to other fields, or the occupants of
the works may have grown more powerful and at length have assumed
the offensive. Abandoned works, I repeat, do not necessarily mean
annihilation of the builders. The South-west offers countless examples
of the truth of this statement. Villages and works were abandoned
there for a variety of causes; sometimes it was little more than
caprice. Quoting Thomas again: “Nor is the theory that, while some of
the monuments are due to the Indians, others are to be ascribed to a
different race, justified by the data, or reasonable, as no one is
able to define the characters which distinguish the classes. If the
Indians built mounds of the most advanced type and of large size, as
history shows positively the natives of the Gulf States did, there
is no necessity for attributing the works of the middle and northern
sections to a different race. That the Moundbuilders were divided into
various and often contending tribes, is shown by the works for defence
and protection, as also by the evidences of varying customs. Yet there
is nothing in the antiquities to indicate a higher culture than that
of the southern Indians or a greater difference between the people
of the different sections than existed among the natives when first
encountered by the whites.” Granting this, there is still nothing to
prove that some of these tribes did not come from a long distance off,
for the Amerinds very often have been travellers.
Few mounds or earthworks are found east of the Alleghany Mountains,
north of Tennessee and North Carolina, but to my mind this is not
positive proof that the people who built earthworks in other places
did not live there. The Amerind changes his methods so completely when
circumstances demand, that it would not be safe to say that those who
built mounds west of the Alleghany range did not live east of it. If
the Mokis should have migrated to Ohio in priscan days, they certainly
would not have built stone houses there. They would have erected mounds
and wooden houses, for the reason that the stone would have been
difficult to secure. Many tribes have readily changed from one method
to another in building, as pointed out in a previous chapter. With the
Amerind, it depends so much on circumstances what he will do in a given
locality. For example, the traditions of the Mokis require their kiva
to be under ground. This is easy in their cliff-land, but how would it
be in Louisiana? Even in Zuñi surface kivas are found acceptable.
[Illustration: AN ONYX JAR FROM MEXICO IN PROCESS OF MANUFACTURE
The excavating was being done by a hollow drill, probably of reed,
and sand
Photographed and described by M. H. Saville for the American Museum
_Bulletin_, vol. xiii., article xi., July 9, 1900
]
In Mexico there are numerous large mounds which, as noted before,
sustained buildings, now commonly called “temples.” “At Teotihuacan”
says Charnay, “the pyramid of the Sun is six hundred and eighty
feet at the base by one hundred and eighty feet high.... Like all
great pyramids they [the Sun and Moon pyramids] were divided into
four storeys, three of which are still visible, but the intermediate
gradations are almost effaced. A temple stood on the summit of the
large mound, having a colossal statue of the Sun, made of one single
block of stone.... The interior of the pyramid is composed of clay and
volcanic pebbles, incrusted on the surface with the light porous stone,
tetzontli. Over this was a thick coating of white stucco such as was
used for dwellings. Where the pyramid is much defaced, its incline is
from 31 to 36 degrees, and where the coatings of cement still adhere
47 degrees.”[310] One of the largest mounds in Mexico and one of the
largest in North America is the Great Mound of Cholula. It is about
one thousand feet square at the base, of which the approximate area
is over twenty acres. It now has much the appearance of a natural
hill, surmounted by a church of modern construction. There are “three
distinct projections, surrounding and supporting a conical hill, and
separated from each other by wide depressions. The entire mass consists
of adobe bricks laid in adobe clay, undisturbed except where erosion,
earthquakes, or the hand of man have mutilated it. The bricks break
joints and are of various sizes.”[311] The altitude is about two
hundred feet. Limestone slabs were used for steps. Bandelier does not
ascribe it to the Aztec or Nahuatl stock which occupied the region at
the time of the Conquest, but to some anterior tribe.
It has been called a pyramid, with other mounds in Mexico and Central
America, but this is not a proper term for these Amerindian works.
They have not the character of the Egyptian pyramids, nor were they
constructed with the same object. The pyramids were tombs, while the
large Amerind mounds were _foundations_ for buildings. Almost every
ancient building of any consequence in Mexico and adjoining regions, as
well as far up into the United States, stood on a mound of greater or
less elevation. The so-called “palace” of Palenque, in which Stevens
lived while studying the ruins, “stands on an artificial elevation of
an oblong form, forty feet high, three hundred and ten feet in front
and rear, and two hundred and sixty feet on each side. This elevation
was formerly faced with stone, which has been thrown down by the growth
of trees, and its form is hardly distinguishable.” See illustration of
a part of this palace, page 403.
The chief ruins at Copan are all on a huge mound, and at Mitla the
edifices have mound foundations, or rather platforms. A more or less
elevated site for his dwelling-place or temple, whether natural or
artificial, seems to have been almost universal with the Amerindian
people from the Isthmus of Panama to British Columbia. The amount of
labour expended in constructing the artificial foundation platforms and
mounds was something prodigious.
[Illustration: WOODEN FOOD BOWL, HAIDA]
[Illustration: DANCING MASK OF THE MAKAHS, WASHINGTON]
CHAPTER XIII
CUSTOMS AND CEREMONIES
Few Europeans can look at the world from the Amerind point of view,
because few know what it means to have lands free. Happy the man who
has trod the wilderness primeval, and tasted the world in its original
freshness. He alone can understand what the Amerind has lost forever.
When I first went into the West about thirty years ago, the regions we
traversed were untamed, and often we did not meet even Amerinds for
weeks at a time. Such a condition has its charms, and when we remember
that, except in the southern regions of Mexico, the native American
was born and bred to it, we can see that it must be a difficult matter
for him to suddenly change. But a few generations hence, where once he
scaled the cliffs, or followed the deer, he will be sitting down to
a course dinner in a swallow-tail coat. He has already conquered at
football, and the rest of the downward road will be easy for him!
[Illustration: MOKI WICKER CRADLE WITH AWNING CARRYING BASKET OF THE
ARIKAREES
In the smaller figure the awning is over the bowed end
]
Our general impression of the native American, the Amerind, is that he
is a kind of human demon, or wild animal, never to be trusted, unable
to keep a compact, always thirsting for gore; but it is a mistake. He
is not altogether unreliable. The Iroquois maintained the “covenant
chain” with the British unbroken for a round century. The Amerind
never broke faith with Penn, and it is seldom that he will violate any
compact that he fully understands he has entered into. His daily life
in the earlier days was by no means bloodthirsty. Powell has truly
said that the scalping-knife was no more the emblem of pre-Columbian
society than the bayonet is of ours of the nineteenth century. In the
United States existence of a trifle over a hundred years have been
waged several long and bloody wars, one the most gigantic known to
history, all police records are full of horrible crimes the Amerind
was a stranger to, and within a year or so _white people_ have
burned alive several victims. When anyone defends the Amerind he is
accused of trying to make an angel of him, but this only shows again
how universally unjust toward him we are. We are blind to our own
shortcomings and exaggerate those of the Amerind. It was inevitable
that the weaker race should be forced to the wall, but we can at least
give it credit for any good that was in it without injuring ourselves.
In estimating their traits we do not regard them enough from their own
standpoint, and without so regarding them we cannot understand them.
The Amerind was something of a farmer, of an architect, of an engineer,
of a statesman, of an artist, the amount and quality of his interest
in these things depending, as with us, on circumstances. In most
localities, he achieved for all what all are with us still dreaming to
attain, “liberty and a living,” and his methods of government possessed
admirable qualities. We call him lazy and despise him for it, but many
of our people would not work if they could avoid it. One of Balzac’s
characters is made to say: “I fear God; but I am still more afraid of
the hell of poverty. To be without a penny is the last degree of misery
in our present social state.” The great philosopher here put European
life in a nut-shell. The Amerind was fortunate perhaps in not knowing
what poverty, as we understand it, is. With him the keen eye, the
woodman’s skill, and a generous and abundant soil gave him his daily
bread. The idea of piling up treasure for the satisfaction of holding
it did not occur to him any more than did killing of game for pleasure.
A tribe may have passed through famine, but the individual never knew
hunger in the midst of riches, as the civilised man so often meets
it. Not long ago a whole family wandering about the streets of New
York, homeless and without food, dropped from exhaustion at the corner
of Thirty-fourth Street and Broadway. In Amerind society, such an
occurrence would have been impossible. No friendly stranger ever left
an Amerind village hungry, if that village had a supply of food. And
“the hungry Indian,” says Powell, “had but to ask to receive, and this
no matter how small the supply or how dark the future prospect. It was
not only his privilege to ask, it was his right to demand.”
The Amerind distribution of food was based on long custom, on tribal
laws; food was regarded like air and water, as a necessity that should
in distress be without money and without price. Hospitality was a
law, and was everywhere observed faithfully till intercourse with the
methods of our race demolished it. Among isolated tribes it is still
observed. Among the Mokis a hungry man of any colour is cheerfully fed.
[Illustration: TLINKIT MAN AND WOMAN, 30 YEARS AGO, OR ABOUT 1870
“The labret, a small cylinder of silver with a broad head, is the
modern style of lip ornament, differing materially from the large
ones worn until a few years ago.”—Niblack
Many tribes wore lip, nose, and ear ornaments
]
We cannot seriously condemn the Amerind for not jumping at the
opportunity to tie himself to the plough, or to the ledger, or the
grindstone. He was, as a rule, close to Nature, and like all men who
live thus he imbibed some of her grandeur. He lived in independence;
and when he died, he died as the sun sets at evening, expiring in
glory, without a tear, without lamentations. In the hands of the enemy
at the stake, his passing away was sublime, like the summer cloud that
sails steadily out into the infinite blue and dissolves. The most
painful tortures failed to bring a moan to his lips, or a tear to his
defiant eye, and his proud spirit departed in silence. An offer of
liberty was frequently refused. Charnay tells of a Tlaxcaltec chief, of
great fame as a warrior, who was captured and who, on being recognised,
was offered his freedom. He refused to accept it and desired to be
devoted to the gods, as was the custom. He was tied to the gladiatorial
stone, where he killed eight warriors and wounded twenty others before
being overpowered and offered up to the war-god.
The habit of mind and body of dense commercial populations tends toward
degeneration because it is a concentration in one line. The Western
mountaineer exhibits the effect of removal from trade considerations
in a repose of manner and a tranquillity of nerves which strongly
suggest the Amerind. “There are incommensurable differences,” says
Balzac, “between the man who mingles with others and him who dwells
with Nature. Once captured, Toussaint Louverture died without uttering
a word, while Napoleon on his rock chattered like a magpie.”
Freedom of limb and strength of mind eliminated much disease from the
native races. Deformity amongst Amerinds was rare. There were seldom
cases of diseased spine, blindness, insanity, squinting eyes, deafness,
or any deficiency or excess of the organs.[312] Sitting Bull was a
fine specimen of the Amerind, and he was a man of great ability. Such
men could not be enslaved, and from the first the European efforts to
reduce the red race to slavery were failures. They held their own in
most localities, and often compelled governments to treat with them
as with a sovereign power. Where the treaties were kept by the other
side the Amerind seldom violated them. Penn never had any difficulty
because he treated the Amerinds fairly and honourably. Oñate, in his
long journey across Arizona, had no conflict with the natives, but
found them without exception friendly, and this was the experience of
other explorers who were just. The native was a child. He expected
absolute fidelity and truthfulness from the whites, though he did
not always give this in return; once let him detect prevarication or
deceit, and his confidence vanished. He never forgave a white man for
talking “crooked,” and those who have been invariably truthful and
honourable toward him have commanded trust and respect. I know two men
who had great influence over the Navajos because they had always been
fair and just to them. “We call them cruel,” says George Bancroft, “yet
they never invented the thumb-screw, or the boot, or the rack, or broke
on the wheel, or exiled bands of their nations for opinion’s sake;
and never protected the monopoly of a medicine man by the gallows, or
the block, or by fire. There is not a quality belonging to the white
man which did not also belong to the American savage; there is not
among the aborigines a rule of language, a custom, or an institution
which when considered in its principle has not a counterpart among
their conquerors.”[313] Throughout the continent there was a general
homogeneity of customs and ceremonies which separates the Amerindian
races from the rest of the world, and argues an immense period of
isolation from all other people.
[Illustration: A PAWNEE IN BATTLE ARRAY
Photographed by J. K. Hillers, U. S. Geological Survey
]
Some tribes have become civilised, like the Iroquois, the Cherokees,
and the Choctaws. Some tribes of Arizona and the contiguous regions are
at the other end of the scale, living a rude life, even for Amerinds,
and subsisting on uncultivated products of the soil, like piñon nuts,
fruits of cactus and yucca, “_yant_,” a kind of agave, and seeds of
grasses, as well as on what game the sterile region affords. The grass
seeds are, some of them, large and fat, and make nutritious food.
Many tribes cultivated a grain that has no superior in the world for
its yield, its ease of cultivation, and its nutritious qualities.
This was maize, or Indian corn, which grows in new ground with little
attention, and can be dried and stored indefinitely. No machinery was
required to separate it from the husk, and it was easily reduced to
meal or flour between two stones or in a mortar. Nor did it even need
to be ground, but, roasted in pits, or prepared in other ways, it
offered a palatable and nutritious food, even before the ripening.
Dried, or parched, it was carried on journeys, and dried venison added
to it made a strengthening diet. There were, besides, other foods,
like beans, squashes, native fruits and berries, and nuts. Nor was the
native without beverages, some of them intoxicating; the _pulque_, or
_octli_ of the Mexicans, extracted from the maguey, being a well-known
example. There are many varieties of this drink, though all are made in
the same way. In the spring the central part of the plant is removed,
leaving a cup-like cavity which fills up with juice, that is taken out
from time to time, and put into a kind of vat made of hide stretched
on four poles. After fermentation, bitter herbs are added. _Mezcal_ is
another drink made from a smaller kind of maguey. It is a colourless,
brandy-like liquid, produced by distillation since the Conquest, but
before that made by boiling, just as the Comanches make it to-day.[314]
The Kaivavits and Uinkarets made a kind of wine out of the fruit of
the cactus. The fruit was put into a cloth and the juice squeezed out.
This was then allowed to ferment, and I was told produced intoxication,
though I never observed this result. The cake resulting from the
process was consumed as food, being sliced down like bread, and eaten
without further preparation. The Pimas and Maricopas, after drying
cactus fruit in the sun, macerate it in water, and after fermentation
get drunk on the compound.
[Illustration: THE KWAKIUTL WOLF DANCE CALLED WĀLASAXA, NORTH-WEST
COAST]
_Tortillas_ were made of maize, “shelled and soaked in an alkali to
remove the hull, then repeatedly washed in cold water.”[315] This
product was then ground on a metate, beaten into flat cakes, and baked
on an earthen griddle called _comalli_. _Tiste_ was parched corn ground
with chocolate and sugar and mixed with water. _Atolli_ was a drink
made of cornmeal cooked in water. _Chocolatl_ was prepared “by grinding
equal parts of cacao beans and seeds of _pochotl_ or _sequoia_, which
were then boiled. This liquid was shaken up to make it frothy, mixed
with dough made of maize and then submitted to a new cooking to thicken
it.”[316]
No tribe learned to use the milk of any animal. The bison was about the
only native animal that offered any. In the whisky of the whites they
found their fate, and this has done more than any other single cause
except smallpox to destroy the race. For it they exchanged tobacco, and
the white man smokes as the Amerind drinks.
[Illustration: UTE WOMAN CARRYING CHILD]
Beckwourth, referring to the trading of the mixture of alcohol and
water called whisky on the frontier in his day, to the natives,
remarks: “This trading whisky for Indian property is one of the most
infernal practices ever entered into by man. Let the reader sit down
and figure up the profits on a forty-gallon cask of alcohol, and he
will be thunderstruck, or, rather, whisky-struck. When disposed of,
four gallons of water are added to each gallon of alcohol. In two
hundred gallons there are sixteen hundred pints, for each one of which
the trader gets a buffalo robe worth five dollars! The Indian women
toil many long weeks to dress these sixteen hundred robes. The white
trader gets them all for worse than nothing, for the poor Indian
mother hides herself and children in the forests until the effect of
the poison passes away from the husbands, fathers, and brothers who
love them when they have no whisky, and abuse and kill them when they
have.... In short, the sixty gallons of fire-water realised to the
company over eleven hundred robes and eighteen horses, worth in St.
Louis six thousand dollars.”[317]
[Illustration: KEOKUK, A SAUK CHIEF
George Catlin
]
These were the honourable methods employed by the fur companies. They
secured from the Amerinds thousands on thousands of dollars’ worth of
valuable property for, as Beckwourth says, “worse than nothing,” and
no man knew better than he the fearful effect of the fire-water on the
native. To-day there are a great many white men engaged in the same
traffic, despite the government’s efforts to crush it out. And still we
cannot understand why the “Indian has degenerated”!
A Cheyenne chief said: “White man, I have given you my robes, which my
warriors have spent months in hunting, and which my women have slaved
a whole year in dressing; and what do you give me in return? I have
nothing. You give me fire-water, which makes me and my people mad; and
it is gone, and we have nothing to hunt more buffalo with, and to fight
our enemies.”[318]
I never saw an Amerind smoke as much tobacco in a week as I have seen
Americans or English smoke in a single day. Tobacco and the pipe were
part of the Amerindian religious paraphernalia. The pipe seems not to
have been much used for ordinary smoking among the Nahuatl or Mexican
tribes, nor among the sedentary tribes of our South-west. They used
the cigarette chiefly, leaving the pipe for ceremonials, while the
West Indian tribes rolled the leaf up for smoking. Many Eastern tribes
cultivated tobacco extensively and were able to sell it to traders. It
was generally mixed with other leaves and bark for smoking, and among
the Eskimo with wood. The exact place of the pipe in the ceremonials of
the Eastern tribes is not yet thoroughly understood, but its function
was always an important one.[319] Among the Iroquois, when the horizon
was filled with “thunderheads,” or “sons of thunder,” in a period of
drought, it was a custom to burn tobacco, as an offering to bring rain.
Each family made an offering on its secret altar to Hinuⁿ, God of
Thunder, and then bore a portion to the council-house, where a general
offering was burned in the council fire. “While the tobacco was burning
the agile and athletic danced the rain dance.”[320]
The Eskimo of Alaska, it is asserted, will eat with relish the oily
refuse from the bottom of a pipe, and they are also fond of the
ashes of tobacco. The smoke is deeply inhaled by them, as by all the
tribes. Among the Arikarees a special pipe was kept in a “bird box.”
Any criminal or enemy who could reach this box and smoke the pipe was
free from molestation. This right of asylum is noticed in other ways.
It is said that the first whites who came among the Apaches, tired
and hungry, were not molested by them. Everywhere, if an enemy were
permitted to smoke the pipe or partake of food with the Amerinds he
was absolutely safe for the time being, both because of the pipe and
because the law of hospitality was never violated. If Macbeth had been
an Amerind no blood would have been shed on that fatal night, and
Duncan would have passed unharmed beyond the castle walls. The pipe was
the invariable accompaniment of all councils and treaties among Eastern
tribes, and it was the emblem of peace. Each village had its calumet,
a pipe of peace made of sacred pipe-stone, and whoever travelled with
it, passed, even among the enemy, with impunity. Envoys coming within
a short distance of the town would utter a cry and seat themselves on
the ground. “The great chief,” says George Bancroft, “bearing the peace
pipe of his tribe, with its mouth pointing to the skies, goes forth to
meet them, accompanied by a long procession of his clansmen, chanting
the hymn of peace. The strangers rise to receive them, singing also
a song, to put away all wars and to bury all revenge. As they meet,
each party smokes the pipe of the other, and peace is ratified. The
strangers are then conducted to the village; the herald goes out into
the street that divides the wigwams, and makes repeated proclamation
that the guests are friends; and the glory of the tribe is advanced by
the profusion of bear’s meat, and flesh of dogs, and hominy, which give
magnificence to the banquets in honour of the embassy.”[321] Thus
would a war terminate. In beginning it among Eastern tribes, various
ceremonies preceded the departure of the warriors, especially the
war dance or scalp dance and accompanying songs, expressing contempt
for death and certainty of victory. Beckwourth remarks: “When war is
declared on any tribe, it is done by the council.[322] If any party
goes out without authority of the council, they are all severely
whipped; and their whipping is no light matter, as I can personally
testify. It makes no difference how high the offender ranks, or how
great his popularity with the nation—there is no favour shown; the man
who disobeys orders is bound to be lashed, and if he resists or resents
the punishment, he suffers death.”[323] Faces were variously decorated
for the warpath; and sometimes when a tribe is full of anger and
resentment, but not engaged in actual war, they will paint themselves
strangely. Once I was among the Shevwits of Arizona (1875) when they
were nursing their wrath against the Mormons, and the faces of the men
were painted in a way that perhaps seemed terrible to them, but which
was laughable to me. Some had the face divided into three or four
sections by different colours, for example: forehead white; left side
of face, black; right side, red; with lines of each colour over the
others. Ordinarily the number of wounds received in battle is recorded
by streaks of vermilion.
[Illustration: SHRINE OF THE WAR-GODS, TWIN MOUNTAIN, PUEBLO OF ZUÑI,
NEW MEXICO]
Before the acquisition of firearms and the horse, and the crowding
back of tribe against tribe by the whites, wars were in some parts
rather infrequent. Night attacks were never made. Captives were
often compelled to run the gauntlet, and if they did it bravely they
were adopted into the tribe. Frequently a captive was given his life
without this ordeal if he would join the tribe of the captors and fill
the place of some slain warrior. Cooper utilises this custom where
Deerslayer is offered his liberty if he will take the wife and family
of one he has killed and become a member of the tribe. Such adoption
always rested, however, on the consent of the kindred of the deceased.
The war-gods were propitiated by acts of cruelty, and by human
sacrifices from among the prisoners. It is related by Bancroft[324]
that on one occasion the Iroquois sacrificed an Algonquin woman,
exclaiming, “Areskoni, to thee we burn this victim; feast on her
flesh and grant us new victories.” Her flesh was afterwards eaten as
a religious rite. Cannibalism of this kind prevailed in many tribes;
_always, ostensibly_, a religious ceremony, not a means of satisfying
hunger. The victims were often richly feasted and generously treated
for some time before being executed. Payne holds that the Aztec custom
of consuming captives at religious feasts was in reality a means of
procuring animal food resulting from the limited meat supply, and
that perpetual war was waged mainly to obtain prisoners for this
purpose.[325] Prescott says: “Indeed the great object of war, with the
Aztecs, was quite as much to gather victims for their sacrifices as to
extend their empire.”[326]
[Illustration: A COSTUME OF A HĀMATSA IN THE KWAKIUTL CANNIBALISTIC
CEREMONY, WHERE SLAVES AND CORPSES WERE FORMERLY DEVOURED
The head and neck rings were from his mother’s tribe, the Tongass
(Tlinkit)
]
[Illustration: MEXICAN OPERATING THE PALM-DRILL FOR FIRE
Fac-simile outline of an original Mexican painting presented to the
University of Oxford by Archbishop Sand
]
One of the great ceremonials of the Aztecs was the obtaining of the
“new-fire,” admirably described by Prescott, according to his custom.
“On the evening of the last day, a procession of the priests, assuming
the dress and ornaments of their gods, moved from the capital towards
a lofty mountain, about two leagues distant. They carried with them
a noble victim, the flower of their captives, and an apparatus for
kindling the new-fire, the success of which was an augury of the
renewal of the cycle. On reaching the summit of the mountain, the
procession paused till midnight; when as the constellation of the
Pleiades approached the zenith, the new-fire was kindled by the
friction of the sticks placed on the wounded breast of the victim. The
flame was soon communicated to a funeral pile, on which the body of
the slaughtered captive was thrown. As the light streamed up towards
heaven, shouts of joy and triumph burst forth from the countless
multitudes who covered the hills, the terraces of the temples, and
the house-tops, with eyes bent anxiously on the mount of sacrifice.
Couriers, with torches lighted at the blazing beacon, rapidly bore
them over every part of the country; and the cheering element was
seen brightening on altar and hearth-stone, for the circuit of many
a league, long before the sun, rising on his accustomed track, gave
assurance that a new cycle had commenced its march and that the laws of
nature were not to be reversed for the Aztecs.”[327]
[Illustration: ZUÑI WOMAN CARRYING WATER
Shows also style of moccasin and leg wrapping worn by Puebloan and
Navajo women
]
New-fire was also obtained by friction, with the Aztecs, once each
year, and once each four years, as well as at the fifty-two year
cycle. In Arkansas it was produced every year. On a certain day, “as
the sun began to decline the fires were extinguished in every hut,
and universal silence reigned.”[328] A priest next produced fire by
friction. “It was then brought out of the temple in an earthen dish and
placed upon an altar that had been previously prepared in the square.
Its appearance brought joy to the hearts of the people as it was
supposed to atone for all past crimes except murder. A general amnesty
was proclaimed except for this one crime, and all malefactors might now
return to their villages in safety.”[329] The Mokis still produce the
new-fire each November.[330]
Sacrifices to the gods were made by the Mayas at the sacred _cenoté_
of Chichen Itza, and similar places.[331] This sacred well was one of
the openings to the subterranean waters of Yucatan, and was about one
hundred and fifty feet in diameter and sixty-five feet deep from the
brink to the surface of the water, with perpendicular sides. Pilgrims
came here to make offerings and Landa states that in time of drought
they would cast live men into it as a tribute to the gods, believing
that though they disappeared they would not die. Valuable property
was also thrown in and still lies with the bones at the bottom.
Charnay tried to work some automatic sounding machines there, but he
failed to obtain satisfactory results. Among the Aztecs a person to
be sacrificed was extended full length over a convex stone, and the
priest with a long obsidian knife made a gash in the breast through
which he extracted the living heart and laid it at the feet of the
idol. Parts of the victim were afterward served at a grand ceremonial
banquet. “Forty days previous to the festival of Quetzalcohuatl,”
says Bandelier, “a slave was selected, who must be in perfect health
and of faultless body. He was dressed in the same manner as the idol,
and, after having been carefully bathed, and kept in ‘honourable
confinement,’ as an object of worship for that length of time, he
was sacrificed at midnight. The heart was tendered to the moon, and
afterwards thrown at the idol, and the body cut up, cooked and publicly
devoured.”[332] In times of drought children from six to ten years old
were offered up; they were not eaten, but buried before the idol. The
priests who officiated were medicine-men, or shamans. Every tribe on
the continent had shamans. These individuals held a peculiar power,
and among tribes known to us now they still exercise it. Even among
the Christian Pueblos of New Mexico, the authority of the shaman has
not altogether waned and ancient rites are said to be still enacted
in secret. For some of these it is believed rattlesnakes have been
carefully guarded for years. “Among Indians,” Mooney states,[333]
“the professions of medicine and religion are inseparable. The doctor
is always a priest and the priest is always a doctor. Hence to the
whites in the Indian country the Indian priest-doctor has come to be
known as the ‘medicine-man’ and anything sacred, mysterious, or of
wonderful power or efficacy in Indian life or belief is designated as
‘medicine,’ this term being the nearest equivalent of the aboriginal
expression in various languages. To make ‘medicine’ is to perform some
sacred ceremony, from the curing of a sick child to the consecration
of the Sun-dance lodge.” An Iroquois student states,[334] that, “among
the Indians, the knowledge of the medicine-man and the more expert
sorceress is little above that of the body of the tribe. Their success
depends entirely on their own belief in being supernaturally gifted and
on the faith and fear of their followers. I do not believe that the
Iroquois lives to-day who is not a believer in sorcery, or who would
not in the night time quail at seeing a bright light the nature of
which he did not understand.”
[Illustration: UTE CRADLE, FRAME OF RODS COVERED WITH BUCKSKIN
Carried on the back. In principle the majority of Amerind cradles
are similar
]
The functions and powers of the shamans or medicine-men have never
been completely understood, but over the sick they carried on various
incantations and administered decoctions of native vegetable and animal
substances. Powell defines a shaman as “a person who has the power to
control ghosts through magic.” They mortified their own flesh and the
priests of Mexico would pierce their tongues and draw through the wound
thus formed a long knotted cord, or twigs fastened together, or a cord
set with some animal’s claws or teeth. Speaking of Mexico, Prescott
says:[335]
“In no country, not even in ancient Egypt, were the dreams of the
astrologer more implicitly deferred to. On the birth of a child he was
instantly summoned. The time of the event was accurately ascertained,
and the family hung in trembling suspense as the minister of Heaven
cast the horoscope of the infant and unrolled the dark volume of
destiny. The influence of the priest was confessed by the Mexican in
the first breath which he inhaled.” Other tribes were not behind.
In some the shamans were hereditary, but it would seem that their
selection and appointment were due to various regulations existing
in the secret orders and also to a reputation for the possession of
occult power. Some writers hold that the shamans are self appointed,
but this does not seem to correspond with the intricacies of the
Amerindian social organisation. Powell adopts the Algonquin name
for them, _jossakeeds_, and describes them as the head men of the
fraternities. Whatever he may do to obtain his supposed magical powers,
it would appear reasonable to believe that so prominent a functionary
as this shaman, or jossakeed, would require in the beginning to be
a man of some distinction, or special initiation. In making such
decoctions as he used the shaman boiled various plants together with
a stone arrow-head, or similar article. Out of twenty plants used by
the Cherokees, only seven are noted in the United States Dispensatory.
“Five plants or 25 per cent.,” says Mooney, “are correctly used; 12
or 60 per cent. are presumably either worthless or incorrectly used,
and three plants or 15 per cent. are so used that it is difficult
to say whether they are of any benefit or not. Granting that two of
these three produce good results as used by the Indians, we should
have 35 per cent., or about one third of the whole, as the proportion
actually possessing medical virtues, while the remaining two thirds
are inert, if not positively injurious.” “For a disease caused by the
rabbit the antidote must be a plant called ‘rabbit’s food,’ ‘rabbit’s
ear,’ or ‘rabbit’s tail’; for snake dreams, the plant used is ‘snake’s
tooth,’” and so on, “an empiric development of the fetich idea.”[336]
No sanitary precautions were taken during the treatment except fasting.
When the patient eats, certain kinds of food are forbidden, but on the
ground of some fancied connection between the disease and the food. If
squirrels are supposed to be at the root of the trouble, the patient
is prohibited from eating squirrel meat.[337]
[Illustration: ESKIMO WOMAN OF POINT BARROW CARRYING CHILD
Photograph by Capt. Healy, U. S. R. M.
]
[Illustration: APACHE WOMAN CARRYING CHILD
Shows also moccasins and leg wrappings similar to the Puebloan and
Navajo
]
The sweat bath was, and is, the great cure-all among the Amerinds,
except the Central and Eastern Eskimo. It was also a means of religious
purification. Sometimes the sweat house was a large structure, but
usually it was only large enough to hold one or two persons in a
squatting posture, and was constructed of poles covered with skins,
blankets, or earth. The patient entered and those outside heated stones
and passed them in to him by means of sticks. Water or some decoction
was then poured over the stones and the opening closed. Profuse
perspiration was the result. At the proper time, if a stream were near,
the patient would run out and plunge in; otherwise cold water was
poured over him. This was the chief remedy for smallpox, which has made
such ravages in all tribes, but of course it was ineffective. The sweat
lodge and the sweat bath connected with it must not be confounded, as
is often the case, with the _estufa_, (or _kiva_). The latter has no
connection with the sweat bath, but is an entirely different thing,
the confusion arising from the Spanish term, which means a hothouse,
derived from the fact that the kivas are kept stiflingly close and hot
in winter.
Most Amerinds believe that all living things, even trees, once had
human shape, and “have been transformed, for punishment or otherwise,
into their present condition.” They had no understanding of a single
“Great Spirit” till the Europeans, often unconsciously, informed them
of their own belief.
The Iroquois in many ways were the finest Amerinds of all. Brinton
says, “unsurpassed by any other on the continent [physically], and I
may even say by any other people in the world.”[338] “In legislation,
in eloquence, in fortitude and in military sagacity they had no
equals,” says Morgan.[339] He also maintains that they represented
“the highest development the Indian ever reached in the hunter state.”
“Crimes and offences were so unfrequent under their social system that
the Iroquois can scarcely be said to have had a criminal code.” Theft
was barely known, and “on all occasions, and at whatever price, the
Iroquois spoke the truth without fear and without hesitation.”[340]
The Iroquois, Algonquins, and other stocks carried on a considerable
commerce with far-distant points. “The red pipe-stone was brought to
the Atlantic coast from the Coteau des Prairies, and even the black
slate highly ornamented pipes of the Haidah on Vancouver Island have
been exhumed from graves of Lenapé Indians.”[341] The wide extent of
Amerindian commercial traffic has hardly been appreciated.
[Illustration: MOKI “SNAKE DANCE” AT WALPI
Snake priests in action
Photograph (reversed)
]
The religion of most of the Amerinds was zoötheism—that is, their gods
were deified men and animals. The heavenly bodies, personified as
men and animals, also formed a part of their galaxy. Their worship
of these various deities, who were believed to control each his
division of human affairs and earthly phenomena, was through numerous
ceremonials, many of them embodying their form of dancing, and called
by the whites “dances,” though this term fails properly to describe
them. Often there is very little dancing, and even that has a minor
part. The ceremonials take place at all times and seasons, many being
as absolutely fixed to a certain date as our own holidays or church
celebrations. The Eastern tribes had ceremonials on tapping the maple
trees, and others for the close of the maple-sugar season. There were
also the Corn-Planting Festival, the Strawberry Festival, the Bean
Festival, and the famous Green Corn Dance of the Iroquois, followed
by the Harvest Dance. Some ceremonials occur in their perfection only
at specified intervals, as the Snake Dance of the Mokis, which, while
performed annually at some one of the towns, is seen in its full glory
only once every two years at the village of Walpi. This now famous
ceremonial, in which a hundred or more rattlesnakes are used alive,
covers altogether a period of nine days, including the search for the
snakes, as well as rites performed in the kiva. It is only on the
last two days that there are public ceremonies. Spectators who are
known or have a proper introduction are sometimes allowed to visit a
kiva when it is reserved by the order owning or controlling it; at
other times a visitor is generally freely admitted. During my stay in
the Moki country I never was barred from any place that I desired to
enter; though it may have happened that I never tried to enter at a
time when outsiders were forbidden. The snakes are brought out of the
kiva by one set of priests, or shamans, and dropped on the ground
to be picked up by another set with much ceremony. At the end all
the snakes are carried to the valley and liberated to return through
their holes to the underworld, there to communicate the desires of
the people to the gods. The towns of the Mokis on the East Mesa are
now frequently visited by whites, but Oraibi and the others are not
so often approached. When I went to Oraibi, in 1885, we were followed
about by a band of curious small boys, and the women peered at us from
the roof hatchways, quickly ducking out of sight if one of us happened
to look their way. The men declined to talk except in monosyllables,
and I am free to confess that it was a relief to finally mount and ride
away. Oraibi has never had a reputation for hospitality. From there we
went to Shimopavi, where our reception was exactly the reverse of what
it had been at Oraibi, and I shall always remember with pleasure the
frank, genial, smiling men who received us in one of the chief kivas,
and the alacrity with which a clean repast of watermelon and piki was
brought and placed before us. This only shows what a difference in
manners may exist in the divisions of one tribe, and how easy it would
be to denounce all the Mokis as being surly and ugly, if one saw only
the Oraibi branch.
[Illustration: AMERINDIAN PICTURE-WRITING
Sixth Ann. Rept., Pl. V.
Drawings by the Central Eskimo. See page 59.
Fourth Ann. Rept., Pl. XXXVIII.
Page of the Dakota Winter-Counts, also called by them “Counts
Back.” See page 60.
Fourth Ann. Rept., Pl. LXIII.
Page from Red Cloud’s Census, Dakota. See page 60.
Fourth Ann. Rept., Pl. IV.
Ojibwa Mnemonic Record of a Midē Song. See page 58.
]
[Illustration: BEGINNING OF THE MOKI “SNAKE DANCE” AT WALPI
Antelope priests lined up
This scene precedes the one on page 376
Photograph (reversed)
]
A simple occurrence means to the superstitious mind of the Amerind
a great deal. In illustration of this I may mention that two men I
knew were one day at one of the Moki towns and carelessly entered a
kiva where the preparing and blessing of certain sacred water were in
progress. When they had departed, a frightened rock-wren fluttered in.
This was accepted as an evil omen. The bird was immediately killed and
some of its blood sprinkled over the floor of the kiva. Then it was
taken to the first house the whites had entered when they arrived at
the town, and more blood sprinkled wherever they had stood. After this
the bird’s body was carefully laid outside, near the door.
Thus the struggles of a dazed bird are considered by these people a
portentous circumstance.
The dancing of the Amerinds is everywhere much alike, and it is
generally performed in a circle. It has been described as a heel
dance, and with some tribes is apparently that because they seem to
strike the ground only with the heel, but it is usually a toe-and-heel
step, the toe first touching and then the heel being brought down
with more or less force. When rapidly done the separate touching of
the toe is hardly noticeable. The movement of the circle is commonly
from left to right, and during this progress various contortions are
gone through with, more or less violently according to the intensity
of the occasion. In the remarkable _Okeepa_ ceremony of the Sioux
fearful tortures were submitted to, and sometimes a bison skull was
dragged around by means of ropes attached to skewers thrust through the
bodies and limbs of the performers. They were also pulled aloft in the
dancing-lodge by these skewers, and the pain was often so intense that
the devotee would faint. (See page 382.) When Catlin first described
this ceremonial and its ordeals it was received with doubt, but it has
since been seen by others and fully authenticated. It is, of course,
not possible to more than touch on the customs and ceremonies of the
Amerinds in this short chapter. A large volume would be required to
exhibit even a quarter part of the details.
The ceremonials[342] of the Pueblos are marked by elaborately costumed
katcinas,[343] but perhaps not more so than those of other tribes.
Those of the North-west coast are full of strange costumes also, and
the plains tribes executed their wild scalp dance, bear dance, buffalo
dance, etc., in costumes that were as singular as the dance itself.
In the ceremony of the Mokis called Soyaita or Somaikoli, I counted
sixteen different katcinas with extraordinary costumes weighing them
down, except one who wore nothing but a round bullet-like mask and a
breech-cloth. The others were so loaded that it was nearly impossible
to recognise in them human beings. The preparations for a ceremonial
occupy a week or two beforehand. One evening, some time before the
public performance of the Somaikoli, as I was walking from one village
to the other on the East Mesa, I was about half way when I suddenly
became aware of a hideous yelling ahead of me, and discovered the
flaring of torches in the darkness. There being no rock, tree, or shrub
near, I was fully illumined by the glare as the torches approached.
Then I saw six stalwart fellows, entirely nude, except for the
breech-cloth, though it was a chilly night in November. I paused to
await results, as I perceived they meant to come tip with me. I could
not understand their object. They were marching in single file. When
they saw that I was not a native, but the solitary white visitor to
the mesa who lived at Hano, they grinned and passed on without a word.
What they would have done with one of their people I do not know, but I
heard afterwards that they captured anyone they found out and kept them
in one of the kivas till the day of the public ceremony. At any rate,
I found that everybody took care to be indoors on this night between
certain hours. The mysteries of the different secret orders are not
known to outsiders, not even if members of the tribe.[344]
[Illustration: HORNED RATTLESNAKE, CROTALUS CERASTES
Commonly called “Sidewinder” because of its sidling motion.
Inhabits desert plains and valleys of Southern Arizona, California,
and Nevada, and south-western Utah. One killed by the author in
1875 was about three ft. long. The rattlesnake was identified with
religious ceremonials of most of the tribes from Ohio to Central
America
]
Photographs and paintings were considered “bad-medicine” by most
tribes, and I had no success whatever in persuading the Mokis to pose
for me when I was there. One who finally consented ran away when it
came to the test. I was permitted to use my snap-camera and to sketch
buildings freely, but when it came to painting persons they rebelled.
They believed that the possessor of a likeness held power over the
person represented.
[Illustration: THE OKEEPA CEREMONY OF THE MANDANS, LASTING FOUR DAYS
“A number of the young men are seen (inside the Mystery Lodge)
reclining and fasting ... others are yet seen in the midst of those
horrid cruelties. One is seen smiling whilst the knife and the
splints are passing through his flesh. One is seen hanging by the
splints run through the flesh on his shoulders and drawn up by men
on the top of the lodge. Another is seen hung up by the pectoral
muscles with four buffalo skulls attached to splints through the
flesh on his arms and legs; and each is turned round by another
with a pole till he faints, etc.”—Catlin’s _Eight Years_, vol. i;
also _Smithsonian Report_, 1895, p. 362
From a painting by George Catlin, 1832
]
[Illustration: THE SACRED POLE OF THE OMAHA
Now in the Peabody Museum
]
Murder in most tribes was settled by property atonement, or by the
assumption by the guilty one of the victim’s duties, and when once
settled the matter could never again be reopened. No controversy was
ever permitted, and to terminate it there were three methods: 1. When
controversy arises in relation to ownership, the property is usually
destroyed by the clan or by the tribal authorities. This is one
reason why property is found buried with Amerinds. By thus disposing
of it all controversy is avoided. Or the property may be completely
abandoned by all concerned, as in the case mentioned by Powell, where
a war party of Sioux surprised and killed a squad of sleeping soldiers
at the first volley. “Their arms, blankets, and other property were
untouched because the attacking party being large, it could not be
decided by whose bullets the soldiers were slain.” 2. If two persons
come to blows, it is, unless serious injury be done, considered a final
settlement. Appeal to authority is thereby forever barred in that
matter. 3. Establishment of a day or festival once a month, usually
once a year, beyond which crimes do not pass. Marriage is by what is
called legal appointment. In this way controversy over the women of
a tribe is largely avoided, for little is left to personal choice.
But kinship groups allowed to intermarry do not remain stationary in
numbers, hence, one set of men may have many wives to choose from,
another few, which, says Powell, leads to modification of the principle
and three additional forms of marriage are the result, by elopement,
by capture, and by duel. That is, if a pair elope and can evade their
pursuers till the day limiting controversy has passed, they are safe
from molestation. We once met an interesting example of this class in
the Uinta Valley, Utah, and with our boats put the runaways across
Green River, thus obliterating their trail, though at the time we did
not so well understand the situation. A group of men who have but a
limited class to choose wives from sometimes combine to capture for one
of their number a wife from some other group within their own tribe.
A fight is often the result, but without weapons. A second battle
for the same woman at that time is not permitted.[345] Or one man, if
he feel strong enough, may deprive some other fellow in his own tribe
of his wife. In southern Utah, Tom came to our camp one night weeping
bitterly, and when I could get at his statement it was to the effect
that someone had deprived him of his wife. Our men were indignant and
wished to proceed forthwith to the Amerind camp and compel the thief to
restore the wife to Tom, but they finally decided to abandon him to the
established customs of his people.
[Illustration: CRUCIFORM STONE TOMB, OAXACA
This tomb, recently discovered and excavated by Saville, is one
of the remarkable monuments of Amerindian antiquity. It lies five
miles east of Mitla and one thousand feet above it on the spur of a
mountain.
About a mile north-west are the quarries from which the great
stones were obtained. The tomb was never finished. It fronted west.
The north, east, and south arms of the cross do not vary in
dimensions by the fraction of an inch. The length of each is 11.7
ft. and the width 5.2 ft., while the depth is 7.5 ft. There are
three courses of huge stones, the largest measuring 12 ft. long by
3.3 ft. high and 3 ft. thick.
Photographed by Saville
]
[Illustration: GROUND PLAN OF CRUCIFORM TOMB, OAXACA]
Sometimes a woman is assigned to a man who already has a wife, while
some other man has none, because the group into which he is permitted
to marry is exhausted. He then challenges the man who is entitled to
more than one and endeavours to win the woman by success in battle.
On one occasion in southern Nevada a white man’s sympathies were so
aroused by one of these affairs, in which the girl was being roughly
pulled about, that he threw off his coat and, taking an active part in
the struggles, rescued her. Then he was amazed at the information that
the girl belonged to him and he must keep her. This he declined to do
and turned her over again to their tender mercies. These three forms of
marriage become roundabout methods of personal choice. When the supply
of wives is normal the young man in some tribes goes out into the woods
by a certain trail, and if the girl of his choice follows him, it is
considered a marriage, and is celebrated with prescribed ceremonies.
Polygamy was practised by most tribes. Among the Navajos, who buy their
wives, it is very common, but there a wife can depart at pleasure, and
as the husband acquires no right to her property, she takes it with her.
Totemism is an important custom in vogue among all the stocks of the
continent, and it was probably a custom the world over when tribes
were in a certain stage. The word totem is derived from the Ojibwa,
and is said to have first been introduced into literature by one Long,
an interpreter. Totems are of three kinds: clan totems, sex totems,
and individual totems. The first are the most important.[346] Totemism
is at the same time a religious and a social system. The totem is
usually an animal, as a frog, bear, bat, etc. The Amerind believes that
between these objects and himself there is a particular bond, and he
has for them the most profound respect. From them he believes himself
descended. Therefore he would not harm an animal that was his totem.
The Bear clan would not kill a bear, the Red Maize clan would not eat
red maize, and so on. Totemism existed among the Israelites, and the
objection to eating pork is supposed by some to rest on the pig having
been one of their totems. The Amerind also generally derived his name
from some animal or object, and he represented this as his individual
totem mark. In the totem poles of the North west coast, these various
representations of totems were combined and set up before the door to
indicate the relationships of the persons who lived there.[347]
Cleanliness varies among the tribes, and is sometimes in proportion
to the ease or difficulty with which water can be procured. The Mokis
who live in an arid country and have to carry water long distances
seldom waste it in bathing or washing, though I did once see an old
Moki fill his mouth with water and blow it out in instalments over his
hands. The Omahas, according to Dorsey, generally bathe twice every day
in warm weather. They used to help women and children to alight from
horses, and sometimes carried them over streams on their backs. Old
men and women were never abandoned by them. Some men were not wanting
in gallantry. Dorsey tells of a young woman who wished to halt at a
spring. Her brother was with her. The ground was muddy and she would
have soiled her clothes had she knelt to drink, but another man rode up
at the moment, and, jumping from his horse, he pulled a lot of grass,
placing it on the wet ground so that she could drink without soiling
her dress.
[Illustration: AMERINDIAN ART
Fifth Ann. Rept., Pl. XV.
A Navajo “Dry” Painting made with sand in the Mountain Chant
Ceremony. See page 61.
Fourth Ann. Rept., Pl. LII.
Page of an Oglala Roster—“Big-Road” and band. See page 59.
Third Ann. Report, Pl. IV.
Copy of Plates 65 and 66, Vatican Codex B. Each figure is a tree
with a person clasping the trunk. See page 72.
See Twelfth Ann. Rept., Pl. XVII.
Drawing restored from fragments of a thin copper plate, in repoussé
work, from a mound of the Etowah group, Georgia.
]
[Illustration: MOKI EARTHEN CANTEEN, ARIZONA.]
When he died the Amerind was disposed of in a number of different ways.
There were burials in pits, graves, mounds, cists, caves, and so on;
there was cremation; there was embalming; there was aërial sepulture
in trees or scaffolds; there was burial beneath water, or in canoes
that were turned adrift. The Navajos leave the dead in the place where
they die, or throw them into a cleft in the rocks and pile stones upon
the corpse. In Tennessee graves are found which were made by lining
a rectangular excavation with slabs of stone. These are ancient and
resemble the graves of the reindeer period in France. Yarrow[348]
speaks of them as being almost identical. I found graves of similar
description in southern Utah near the Arizona line, but in the two or
three that I opened there were no bones, only on the bottom a shallow
layer of what appeared to be fine dark earth with thin slabs upon it;
doubtless the slabs once forming the top.[349] Some tribes wrapped
their dead in fine furs or in grasses and matting;[350] others buried
in urns. In the North-west a living slave was buried with the deceased.
If the slave were not dead in three days, he was strangled by another
slave. In Mexico the custom of burying slaves with the dead was common.
[Illustration: MODERN LACED SANDAL OF LEATHER FROM COLIMA, MEXICO]
[Illustration: ESKIMO PIPE WITH STONE BOWL.]
CHAPTER XIV
MYTHS, TRADITIONS, AND LEGENDS
Persons who are obliged to rely on memory find that memory develops
with use and becomes more reliable. The Amerinds, having no written
language, if we except the Nahuatl and Mayan tribes, had no way of
preserving their tales, traditions, and legends except to remember
them, and there can be no doubt that everywhere on the continent memory
was highly developed. To assist in recalling them they had their
picture-writing, already described. The method is well illustrated in
the remarkable _Walam Olum_, or Red Score of the Lenapé, where a most
poetic account of the origin of things is recorded by means of a few
rude pictures made by lines and dots.[351] There has been some doubt
as to the genuineness of this score, first recorded by Rafinesque, but
Brinton, who was a scholar of fine intellect and calm judgment and
thoroughly versed in all the intricacies of the situation, accepted
it as a genuine Amerind production “which was repeated orally to
someone indifferently conversant with the Delaware language, who wrote
it down to the best of his ability. In its present form it can, as a
whole, lay no claim either to antiquity, or to purity of linguistic
form. Yet, as an authentic modern version, slightly coloured by
European teachings, of the ancient tribal traditions, it is well worth
preservation.... The narrator was probably one of the native chiefs or
priests, who had spent his life in the Ohio and Indiana towns of the
Lenapé, and who, though with some knowledge of Christian instruction,
preferred the pagan rites, legends, and myths of his ancestors.
Probably certain lines and passages were repeated in the archaic form
in which they had been handed down for generations.... The cosmogony
describes the formation of the world by the Great Manito, and its
subsequent despoliation by the spirit of the waters, under the form
of a serpent. The happy days are depicted, when men lived without
wars or sickness, and food was at all times abundant. Evil beings of
mysterious power introduced cold and war and sickness and premature
death. Then began strife and long wanderings.”[352] We can readily
understand how a few rude lines could recall to the Amerind mind a
whole story, and especially to the mind of one trained to exercise his
memory in such directions. It is not necessary for me to do more for
the Christian reader than write “_Xmas_,” and he can from it review the
whole wonderful story of Christ in all its details. So it was with the
Amerind. Those entrusted with the preservation of the legends, etc.,
learned them perfectly and year by year repeated them on the proper
occasion to their followers. Changes were probably sometimes made in
the text of some to suit them to changed conditions, but the accuracy
was so great that myths and legends have been found to contain archaic
words which the members of the tribe were unable to explain, and which
yielded only to the expert analysis of a white linguist.
[Illustration: TEOCALLI (TEMPLE) OF TEPOZTLAN, STATE OF MORELOS, MEXICO
This view is from the west or back and shows a stairway and also
the built up mound forming the foundation. The front is entered
by a broad flight of about fourteen steps. The construction is
stone. The site, formerly approached by flights of steps, is on the
summit of a high and dangerously precipitous mountain. The ground
plan, about 30 ft. square, is similar to the first plan on page
238, with a front like the second. The outer walls are 1 meter, 90
centimeters thick. They were covered with a smooth cement, which
was painted in different colors. See page 240.
_Monumental Records._ Photographed by M. H. Saville
]
[Illustration: KWAKIUTL WOOD CARVING OF THE SISUL, NORTH-WEST COAST
Worn in front of the stomach. Length, 42 in. See page 168
]
With the Amerind a group of myths, traditions, and legends developed
along with each particular stock. Each language had its own
accumulation of these tales, etc., relating to animals, to natural
forces personified, and sometimes to real personages. Savage races
worship animal gods and natural objects personified as animals.[353]
In the middle state called barbarism the religion becomes a worship
of the phenomena of nature, pure and simple, frequently personified
as animals or beings, as in the case of the thunder and lightning
generally attributed by the Amerinds to the mysterious “thunder-bird,”
which is also believed by some to be a great being who takes on the
form of a bird. In civilisation the worship of one God takes the place
of all the others, while the myths and legends of earlier days survive
in mythological literature and in unconscious thoughts and acts of
individuals. Looking at the moon over the right shoulder for luck,
objections to a certain number, the belief that one stone is lucky and
another unlucky, are all remnants of the era of zoötheism, physitheism,
and other early beliefs.[354] Races cannot shake off earlier beliefs
entirely, but continue them under changed forms. Thus we celebrate many
pagan rites in our holidays, and pay a tribute to the Druid priests
every time we suspend a branch of mistletoe in our parlours in the
season when the sun turns his course towards the vernal equinox.
To primitive man night was a mysterious phenomenon, and dawn often
became personified to him as a bright and fair deliverer, a beneficent
being who comes out of the east bringing a train of blessings. Many
myths recounting the coming of a hero, prophet, and teacher among the
Amerinds and other races are accounted for as being dawn myths, but
there is danger of overworking this convenient hypothesis.
In our literature many Amerind myths and legends have become firmly
implanted, and they are now as much a part of it as the tale of
Orpheus, or of Theseus, or of Hercules. Some of them have been
beautified by the diction of our poets, and Longfellow’s rendering of
_Hiawatha_ is admired the world over. This is good literature, but it
is not good ethnology, because in it an Iroquois hero-god is placed
in a setting of Algonquin legends, but this was not Longfellow’s
mistake, but Schoolcraft’s, on whose work Longfellow based his poem.
Jeremiah Curtin says: “Schoolcraft, with his amazing propensity to
make mistakes, with his remarkable genius for missing the truth and
confusing everything with which he came in contact, gave the name
Hiawatha to his patchwork.... In the face of all this Schoolcraft
makes Hiawatha, who is peculiarly Iroquois, the leading personage in
his Algonkin conglomerate: Hiawatha being an Iroquois character of
Central New York (he is connected more particularly with the region
about Schenectady), while the actions to which Schoolcraft relates
him pertain to the Algonkin Chippewas near Lake Superior. It is as if
Europeans at some future age were to have placed before them a great
epic narrative of French heroic adventure in which Prince Bismarck
would appear as the chief and central Gallic figure in the glory and
triumph of France.”[355]
[Illustration: RUSHING EAGLE, 1872
Second chief of the Mandans and son of Four Bears, Catlin’s great
friend
]
[Illustration: FINE CLOTH PRESERVED BY COPPER BEADS]
But Hiawatha, nevertheless, is incorporated in our language and our
literature, and altogether the conquered race, as was inevitable, has
left an impress on our character, on our language, on our geography,
and on our literature which can never, even if desired, be effaced. The
mark of our contact with the red man is upon us indelibly and forever.
George Bancroft is not quite right when he says, “The memorials of
their former existence are found only in the names of the rivers and
the mountains.” These memorials have not only permeated our poetry and
literature generally, but they are perpetuated in our daily food, and
every mention of “succotash,” of “mush,” of “chocolate,” is a tribute
to their existence, while the fragrance of the “tobacco” we smoke is
incense to their memory. Mrs. Sigourney touched this subject prettily
in the little poem entitled _Indian Names_:
“Ye say they all have passed away,
That noble race and brave,
That their light canoes have vanished
From off the crested wave;
That mid the forests where they roamed
There rings no hunter’s shout,
But their name is on your waters,
Ye may not wash it out.
“Ye say their cone-like cabins
That clustered o’er the vale
Have fled away like withered leaves
Before the autumn gale.
But their memory liveth on your hills,
Their baptism on your shore;
Your everlasting rivers speak
Their dialect of yore.”
And she might have added that their gods have seated themselves
with those of the Greeks in our libraries; that Michabo, Tlaloc,
Quetzalcohuatl, and others are now companions of Jupiter and Neptune;
in short, that their literature, which relied on oral transmission, has
to a large extent been crystallised in our printed pages.
The Amerind, not fortified by our modern knowledge and philosophy,
regarded the outer world in a far different way from what we do. To him
it was not a place where a gold mine might be found, or good grazing
or tillable soil, but he looked upon the far distance as the home of
magical beings. Did the wind blow? It was the breath of some monster
dwelling in a cave in the far west, or it was the beating of the wings
of giant birds living at the four quarters of the compass. It was not
to the sky alone that he looked for the abode of his gods; they came
to him from every direction, even from the bowels of the earth. We
know what the earth contains and we grope for the unknown. The Amerind
did not know what the earth contains; it was still to him the abode of
monsters and ghosts.
There is in some respects so great a similarity between the myths of
the New World and those of the Old, that it was at first assumed that
there must have been early communication with Europe, but more careful
analysis has shown that this is but another evidence of what may be
called the parallelism of human development. Even where the similarity
is greatest there is nothing to prove that the myths did not originate
independently, and they are merely the results of similar thoughts, in
similar stages of ignorance, about the sun, the sky, and natural forces.
The _Popol Vuh_, the great collection of Quiche myths, presents
Gukumatz as one of the four principal gods who created the world.
Gukumatz means shining or brilliant snake, and hence seems to be
the same character as that known to the Nahuatls, or Aztecs, as
Quetzalcohuatl, whose name also means bright or shining snake. But
among the Aztecs Quetzalcohuatl is represented as a man, while Gukumatz
is purely a god. Quetzalcohuatl was the third of the four Mexican or
Aztec gods, and to him is ascribed all the wisdom which came to the
Aztecs. He appears under two forms, as a god and as an historical
personage. He has been frequently identified with the dawn, but there
seems to be good reason for believing that he was a real character, who
became deified as his good deeds passed down to successive generations.
Such prophets and teachers rise up in all times, in all ages, by the
wayside of tribal or national development, like some rare and favoured
tree of the forest which out-tops all the others. A divine origin may
be claimed for these teachers and prophets, but generally they are only
men endowed with an extremely fine moral sense and with a perception
and knowledge beyond their time. “Among the Tzendals of Chiapas, the
tradition of Votan, who is said to have been the first founder of
that tribe, bears great resemblance to Quetzalcohuatl.”[356] After an
admirable discussion of the subject of the character and origin of
Quetzalcohuatl, Bandelier sifts the matter down to this: that he was “a
prominent gifted Indian leader, who certainly preceded the coming of
those Nahuatl tribes that subsequently formed the valley confederacy,
as well as that of the later tribe of Tlaxcallan. The claim to his
origin accordingly rests between the so-called Toltecs on one side
and the Olmeca and Xicalanca on the other.”[357] Brinton believed
that Quetzalcohuatl was a pure personification of the dawn myth,[358]
but there is too much testimony on the opposite side to permit the
acceptance of this opinion as final. It must not be forgotten that
there were very good, extremely good, almost saintly, men, and women,
too, among the Amerinds. The historical Mexican tribes were preceded
by other tribes, some of which had apparently reached a higher state
of culture than the Aztecs, and Quetzalcohuatl possibly came from one
of them as a teacher to the newer and less cultivated people; newer
in the sense of having come into that region from some distance off.
There is nothing preposterous in supposing that there were teachers
and moralists in the early days of this continent. The character of
a high-thinking teacher is not incompatible with some of the tribes
that have lived and died on North-American soil. As stated previously,
never were all the tribes of the continent in one culture condition;
there were always tribes that could teach something to other tribes,
and undoubtedly philanthropic individuals sometimes attempted the
rôle of missionaries, just as they do in other races to-day. In fact,
the recent “Resurrection Dance” or “Ghost Dance” had its prophet who
preached to the natives that “the earth was to be all good hereafter;
that we must be friends with one another.” Fighting, he declared, was
“bad and all must keep from it.” “There is no doubt that his religious
teachings rest on a well-ordained religious system, and in spite of
the numerous false reports that are spread about him, he does not
claim to be either God or Jesus Christ, the Messiah, or any divine,
superhuman being whatever. ‘I am the annunciator of God’s message from
the spiritual world and a prophet for the Indian people,’ is the way he
defines the scope of his work among men.... Thus he considers himself a
messenger of God appointed in a dream, and has on that account compared
himself to St. John the Baptist.”[359] This man is a full-blood, and
it is evident that such an inspiration might have seized a man of a
similar temperament at any period of Amerind history, and given rise
finally to legends and worship that would incorrectly be ascribed to
the myth of the dawn.
[Illustration: ANCIENT FABRIC-MARKED POTSHERDS, WITH CLAY CASTS BY
HOLMES
See page 108
Potsherd
Clay Cast
Potsherd
Clay Cast
]
Quetzalcohuatl at length departed with a promise to return, and it
was the belief that he would return that caused Montezuma to at first
mistake the bearded Spaniards for his emissaries. Quetzalcohuatl also
wore a beard.
Michabo, the Algonquin counterpart of Quetzalcohuatl, was considered to
be the ancestor of the whole tribe, the founder of their ceremonies,
the inventor of picture-writing, the ruler of the weather, the
creator and preserver of earth and heaven. “From a grain of sand,” says
Brinton, “brought from the bottom of the primeval ocean he fashioned
the habitable land and set it floating on the waters till it grew to
such a size that a strong young wolf, running constantly, died of old
age ere he reached its limits.”
[Illustration: EHTOHKPAHSHEPEESHAH, THE BLACK MOCCASIN, CHIEF OF THE
MINATAREES
OVER 100 YEARS OLD
George Catlin, 1832
]
Among the Iroquois the hero-god was called Ioskeha, and he possessed
many of the qualities of Michabo and Quetzalcohuatl, etc., though in
his case as well as that of Michabo there seems to be no historical
evidence of existence, as there is with Quetzalcohuatl, and therefore
they may be, as claimed by Brinton and others, merely dawn myths. It
is possible that they may be compounds of a dawn myth and one or more
actual personages.
The hero-god of the Mayas was Itzamna, and he was a beneficent
personage like the others. Like Cadmus, he invented letters, and he
also devised their calendar. He is spoken of as an historical personage
and “is intimately associated with the noble edifices of Itzamal,
which he laid out and constructed, and over which he ruled, enacting
wise laws and extending the power and happiness of his people for an
indefinite period.”[360] Brinton identifies him with the dawn myth, but
here again it is not conclusive. It seems quite as probable that he was
a real person, upon whose history certain myths have been engrafted.
In putting the Amerind stories into other languages, embellishments and
variations have often been introduced, or the translators have been
deceived by interpreters or by the Amerinds themselves, while sometimes
both causes have operated to colour or to alter the tales. Schoolcraft
has generally been regarded as a faithful recorder, but in some
instances he has gone considerably astray. In his time the Amerinds
were not so well understood, nor were they, in all their various
stocks, so accessible as now.
Formerly the European was prepared to find in the Amerind rites
evidences of the Lost Tribes of Israel, of the Chinese, or some other
extraordinary or romantic idea. He was not content to take things as
they were. Marquette on arriving at Green Bay was delighted with what
he believed to be an evidence of Christianity, a large cross set up
in the middle of the village, adorned with skins, bows, etc., which
the people were offering to their gods. It was only one of the symbols
of the Midē society, and was in use long before the Discovery. In the
same way Coronado found crosses in New Mexico, and there were also in
Yucatan the tablets of the cross referred to in a previous chapter. The
early Spaniards turned loose their own myths in the New World and then
started in pursuit of them. Columbus himself was the first to float
the Amazon myth to these shores, for in a letter to Rafael Sanchez he
speaks of an island inhabited solely by women, and the Spaniards had a
long and fruitless chase after it.[361] Thus they also pursued the myth
of the _Seven Cities_, _El Dorado_, and similar tales. _El Dorado_, or,
“The Gilded Man,” really existed in a ceremony in New Granada, where a
man was sprinkled with gold dust, but when the Spaniards had taken all
the gold from these people they went on hunting for El Dorado just the
same, though they never found him again.
[Illustration: LACANDON (MAYAN) AMERIND FROM CHOCOLHAO, YUCATAN
Photographed by M. H. Saville
]
Certain resemblances between the myths of the Amerinds and those of
the Israelites increased the belief that the American race is the
Lost Tribes. The Mormons specially hold to this opinion. But there is
positively no ground for the belief. The peculiar interest, however,
which attaches to a comparison of Amerind and Israelite myths lies
in the fact that they resemble each other, not only genetically, but
specifically. They are alike in their details. Mallery has given much
attention to this subject, and he says that “an Ojibway tradition
tells the adventures of eight, ten, and sometimes twelve brothers, the
youngest of whom is the wisest and the most beloved of their father,
and especially favoured by the high powers. He delivers his brothers
from many difficulties which were brought about by their folly and
disobedience. Particularly he supplies them with corn.... The Chahta
have an elaborate story of their migrations, in which they were
guided by a pole leaning in the direction which they should take, and
remaining vertical at each place where they should encamp. A still
closer resemblance to the guidance of the Israelites in the desert by
a pillar of fire is found in the legendary migrations of the Tusayan
(Mokis), when indication was made by the movement and the halting
of a star. The Pai Utes were sustained in a great march through the
desert by water that continually filled the magic cup given to the
Sokus Waiunats in a dream until all were satisfied; and a similarly
miraculous supply of food to the starving multitude is reported by the
same people. In the genesis myth of the Tusayan, the culture hero was
enabled to pass dry-shod through lakes and rivers by throwing a staff
upon the waters, which were at once divided as by walls.... Mr. W. W.
Warren, in his _History of the Ojibway Nation_, tells that he sometimes
translated parts of Bible history to the old Ojibway men, and their
expression invariably was, ‘The book must be true, for our ancestors
have told us similar stories generation after generation since the
earth was new.’” There is also a strong resemblance between many of the
Amerind myths and stories, and those of the negro, as anyone may see
who will compare them with Harris’s delightful _Uncle Remus_.
[Illustration: ONE OF THE BUILDINGS OF THE PALENQUE GROUP
House “C” on Maudsley’s plan
Construction: stone. Site: tropical forest, Chiapas, Yucatan.
Abandoned in prehistoric time. There was but one room with the
five openings as shown. Stucco ornamentation. See page 244 and
Frontispiece
Photographed by M. H. Saville
]
All races have malignant sprites that haunt rocks and watering places,
and the Amerind was no exception. The Uinkarets of Arizona declared
that a certain water-pocket where we camped was a favourite resort of
the Woonupits, a little elf that is full of mischief, and Chuar one
night insisted that he heard one whistling in the forest. He fired a
shot out into the darkness to drive it away. He did this with great
solemnity and deliberation, and there was no question as to his faith
in the belief. The same little elf crops out in the Moki country in
the form of the Kwokwuli, a malignant sprite lurking in out-of-the-way
places. He is about knee-high and conceals himself behind a rock or
bush, like the Breton Korrigans inhabiting the Dolmens, and when a Moki
appears he calls out in a shrill falsetto voice, “_Kwo-kwul-i-ul-i_.”
If the hearer gives no heed to the cry he may pass by in safety, but
should he willingly or unwillingly express any notice he must approach
the elf, who immediately climbs on his back and holds fast round
his neck—Sindbad’s Old-Man-of-the-Sea over again. The elf has only
rudimentary legs and no wings, and this is his method of journeying
from place to place.
The Amerinds of the straits of Fuca have distinct traditions of the
Eskimo as a race of dwarfs, who live in the “always dark country,”
on the ice, dive and catch whales with their hands, and produce the
aurora by boiling out the blubber, the fires reflecting on the sky.
The Iroquois had legends of great giants, as also had other tribes,
which were due probably to the same cause as the dwarf Eskimo myths:
ignorance of the outside world. These were stone giants, and they
inhabited the west. Once upon a time they started to come and destroy
the Senecas, and a war party of the latter proceeded to the encounter.
Before the battle came off a mighty wind came out of the west and
swept all the giants into a vast abyss from which they could not
escape, and because of this friendly act the West Wind became one of
the Seneca gods, and was revered ever after. And the Eskimo, while
themselves furnishing the material for more southerly tribes to build
myths on, have their own tales of a tribe called Ardnainiq, living in
the extreme North-west. The men of this people are small as children,
but entirely covered with hair. They are carried about in the hoods
of their wives like babies, the wives being of normal size. They have
also stories of a race of women. The Iroquois believed that there was
a strange creature consisting simply of a head with large eyes and
long hair, called “Great Head.” When he saw any live thing he growled,
“I see thee, I see thee, thou shalt die.” They also had their race of
dwarfs with wonderful powers, who carved the cliffs and caves and could
destroy monster animals.
[Illustration: COSTUME WORN IN THE KWAKIUTL FESTIVALS CALLED LAŌLAXA,
NORTH-WEST COAST]
The coyote, the bear, the sun, and all the animals are endowed with
speech and great cunning, the coyote especially so among some of the
Western tribes, and are conceived as possessing human attributes, like
the “Brer Rabbit” and other animals whose prowess is related by Uncle
Remus. But the Eskimo, according to A. L. Kroeber, have comparatively
few animal stories. Examples of these animal stories may be found in
the reports of the U. S. Bureau of Ethnology and other publications.
Lack of space prevents me from introducing any here.
The slightest misunderstood noise is sufficient to rouse the Amerind
imagination, of which I had an illustration in Arizona. I arrived
at an out-of-the-way mine one night with two Amerind guides. It was
winter and a stone cabin was placed at my disposal, to which I sent
the natives while my white companions and I visited the men in charge.
The natives presently came in, saying there was something wrong at
the cabin, and they would not stay in it or even near it. When we
investigated we discovered that the whole trouble arose from the
ticking of a small clock, which we forthwith stopped; but nevertheless
they would not remain there alone.
Flood stories are numerous with all tribes, and whether they arose
in local inundations or in some vast and general flood cannot now be
determined. If in the latter, it would be melting ice of the glacial
period. A fabulous being in Eskimo mythology is Kalopaling, who lives
in the sea. His body is like that of a human being and he wears
clothing made out of eider ducks’ skins. His jacket has an enormous
hood, into which he thrusts any boatman that may be drowned. He cannot
speak, but merely cry, “Be! be! be! be!” An Eskimo flood tale relates
how the ocean long ago rose till it covered the whole land, even to the
tops of the mountains, till the ice drifted over them. When the flood
subsided the ice stranded and has ever since formed a cap on their
summits.
The keepers of the mythological tales were the shamans, and they are
the real powers, generally, in a tribe. Had Cortes understood this
point he would have seized, not the war-chief, Montezuma, but one of
the shamans, who would have been more valuable as a hostage. Many of
the shamans are believed to be able to pass through fire unharmed,
and to handle it with impunity; to be able to change themselves into
coyotes, etc., and then return to their normal shape, all at their own
pleasure.
A legend of Montezuma’s coming has been attributed to the Pueblos of
New Mexico, but this is an error, for they knew nothing about Montezuma
till the whites came into the country. There are a great many legends
concerning the occupation of this or that place, and one of these, the
legend of the former occupation of the _Mesa Encantada_, or, “Enchanted
Mesa,” New Mexico, has recently caused a lively discussion between two
distinguished ethnologists, as to whether some Puebloans did or did not
once live on top of the mesa as related. Both succeeded in reaching the
top. One found no evidence of any continued occupation of the mesa top;
the other found what he accepted as sufficient evidence of the truth of
the legend that Pueblos had once lived there and had been cut off from
the world below and destroyed by a fearful storm.
Large portions of the Maya chronicles relate the predictions of the
astrologers, seers, or prophets, and after the habit of the class
they foretold all manner of evil, but strangely enough they seem to
have foretold the arrival of the Spaniards, for they said that white
and bearded strangers would come and control the land and alter the
prevailing religion. What was it that instilled them with this faith
or fear? Was it coincidence, or was it what is now termed telepathy?
Whatever it was, the terrible fulfilment came upon their race like a
cyclone; and when one more century has passed away the Amerind race
will be more truly even than now, the North-Americans of Yesterday.[362]
[Illustration: GOD-HOUSES OF THE HUICHOLS AT TEAKÁTA, NEAR SANTA
CATARINA, STATE OF JALISCO, MEXICO
Photographed by Lumholtz
]
[Illustration: ESKIMO MASK OF WOOD, PRINCE WILLIAM SOUND, ALASKA]
CHAPTER XV
ORGANISATION AND GOVERNMENT
Tribes often had a definite organisation and a regular government,
and each held sway over a territory with fixed boundaries. When the
limits were not placed at a river, lake, or mountain range they were
marked by certain trees or stones, or other natural features along the
trails. When at peace, those who entered another domain were considered
visitors, and they were expected to be friendly with all friends of the
occupants of the region. “Both the Kuchins and the Eskimos are very
jealous,” says H. H. Bancroft, “regarding their boundaries.”[363]
When I was once coming out of the Shevwits country, my Uinkarets guide
exclaimed as we passed a certain bowlder near the trail, “Now we are
out of the Shevwits land.” Beyond that point the Shevwits would not
venture except in a friendly way, so long as they were friendly with
the owners of the land. I rejoiced in this fact at the time because the
Shevwits had not been entirely agreeable, and I was glad to pass the
point where I was certain they would not bother us. We were now in the
country of the Santa Clara tribe.
The Iroquois had the habit of occupying both banks of a river or lake,
hence they did not utilise these as boundaries, but ran straight lines,
marked here and there by some well-known object. “On the boundary
line between the Onondagas and Oneidas,” says Morgan,[364] “the most
prominent point was the Deep Spring (Deosongwa) near Manlius, in the
county of Onondaga. This spring not only marked the limital line
between them, but it was a well-known stopping-place on the great
central trail or highway of the Iroquois.... From Deep Spring the
line ran due south into Pennsylvania, crossing the Susquehanna near
its confluence with the Chenango. North of this spring the line was
deflected to the west, leaving in the Oneida territory the whole
circuit of the lake. Crossing the She-u-ka or Oneida outlet, a few
miles below the lake, the line inclined again to the east, until it
reached the meridian of the Deep Spring. From thence it ran due north,
crossing Black River, at the site of Watertown, and the St. Lawrence to
the eastward of the Thousand Islands.”
This line separated territories belonging to two tribes of the
celebrated league, and was not a boundary between hostile or different
tribes. The Iroquois were exact about their internal boundary lines,
because it served to keep each member of the confederacy distinct and
independent, and enabled the idea of home rule to be properly carried
out. They always knew just whose ground they were on, just as we know
to-day which county or State we are in. It was another mark of the
wisdom with which the confederacy was planned.
When the whites came to these shores and took possession right and
left of the soil, they immediately stirred up the hostility of the
owners, who naturally desired to be considered in the matter. Penn did
consider them, and he had no trouble; and I have no doubt much of the
fighting and enmity which followed our coming might have been avoided
if Europeans had more fully recognised the native rights and had paid a
fair equivalent for what they wanted. But there was nothing to compel
this attention to the moral side, and justice must have force to bind
it; besides, owing to the large influx of whites, the Amerinds were
inevitably driven back. The English in a measure finally recognised
the Iroquois rights and then afterwards turned this to good account
by claiming sovereignty over the territory on the ground that the
Iroquois were British subjects. The Navajos recognise the San Juan
River as their northern limit and the Southern Utes correspondingly
accepted it as their southern limit. “The claims of the Susquehannocks
extended down the Chesapeake Bay on the east shore, as far as the
Choptank River and on the west shore as far as the Patuxent. In 1654
they ceded to the government of Maryland their southern territory to
these boundaries.”[365] Thus it is proved that Maryland recognised
their ownership. These examples are enough to show that the territorial
rights of each tribe were definitely understood, just as nations to-day
have established limits. When the settlements of our people finally
crowded tribes back upon each other’s domain, a great deal of confusion
and dispute arose as to ownership, and when the government began to
pay for lands it was often necessary to pay for the same tract several
times, owing to the conflicting claims.
Scattered over the territory claimed or held by a tribe were the
houses and villages of the tribe or the sub-tribes. Powell states
that “every tribe lived in a village, and every village constituted a
distinct tribe.” But the village was often spread over a wide region.
Speaking of this, Adair says: “A stranger might be in the middle of
one of their populous, extensive towns without seeing half a dozen
houses in the direct course of his path.”[366] But this was only in
the interior of the country of a tribe. Along the frontier the towns
would be more compactly arranged, in order that the people might easily
be called to defend them. The villages were usually permanent, though
they were frequently, some annually, abandoned temporarily at certain
seasons for the pursuit of game or for some other good reason, all
the people coming together again as the cold weather approached. The
Navajos often have a winter home in the lower, sheltered lands of their
territory, while in summer they proceed to the higher levels where
the winter snows are deep and the summer grass is high. Each Amerind
village always had at least one assembly place for which they had
their special names, but the general term that is now often used by
ethnologists is that of _kiva_,[367] borrowed from the Mokis, because
the Moki kiva is a representative of the general assembly hall and
council-chamber, or lodge. The kiva, besides being used for social
purposes, as a lounging-place and a working-place for the men, is
also used for religious functions. Those structures, therefore, which
crowned the mounds of the United States and Mexico, and are usually
designated as “temples,” were possibly more of the nature of kivas,
a temple in our usage being a structure devoted solely to worship,
whereas many Amerind buildings of this class were used for various
purposes. Often there were several, depending on the size of the tribe.
The tribe was organised on the basis of the gens or the clan, and each
gens or clan might have its own kiva. They might also belong to some of
the secret orders, so that we may enumerate three kinds: the tribal,
or chief kiva, the kiva belonging to the gens or clan, and the kiva
belonging to the phratry, or secret society. The gens and the clan were
groups of blood relations, or, as put by Powell, “an organised body
of consanguineal kindred.”[368] The members of a gens often lived in
one house or in a group of houses; for example, among the Iroquois in
the long-house,[369] with its row of camp-fires, while in some other
tribes each family might have its own house or tent, but they would
then generally pitch or build it contiguous to the other habitations
of their gens. It was this principle, in vogue in almost all the
tribes of America, which directed the character of most of the Amerind
structures. Everybody in a tribe belonged to a gens or clan, otherwise
he could not be in the tribe. The complete organisation of the tribe
then was: a group of families forming a gens or clan, two gentes being
represented in each family; the “father must belong to one gens and
the mother and her children to another,” descent being commonly in
the female line, and marriage within a gens being forbidden; a group
of gentes formed the phratry, and a group of phratries formed the
tribe, while a group of tribes formed the confederacy, probably the
highest form of government the Amerinds reached. The phratry as an
organisation was often absent, and the tribe was then composed of the
gentes without any further grouping. Powell seems to use “phratry” in
a different sense from Morgan and some other writers. Morgan described
a phratry as a group of gentes, whereas Powell defines it as simply
a brotherhood or society. Each gens governed itself so far as its
internal affairs were concerned; that is, it had home rule, just as
we have it to-day in our towns, counties, etc. It sent delegates
to the council of the tribe to represent it, and it elected its own
officers. There was sometimes no tribal or head chief. I never could
learn of any among the Navajos, and the Iroquois had none. When, as was
frequent, there was a sachem, or tribal chief, he was chosen or elected
by the chiefs of the various clans or gentes forming the council,
but in some tribes he inherited the office, or at least the right to
hold it. I understood this to be the case among the Kaivavits Utes of
southern Utah. A gens had the right to take into its ranks any alien
it chose to. Such a person was then a member of that gens and partook
of all the benefits or disadvantages, as the case might be. He was a
son or brother or husband, or the corresponding relationships if a
woman, and on all occasions was treated as if he had been born into the
gens or clan instead of adopted into it. He was therefore eligible for
all offices in the tribe, and white men in this way sometimes became
chiefs. Beckwourth,[370] who, however, was really supposed by a Crow
woman to be her long-lost son, became head chief of the Crows, and held
the office with distinction for a number of years. He began by being
fifth councillor. “In the Crow nation there are six councillors, and by
them the nation is ruled. There are also two head chiefs, who sit with
the council whenever it is in session. The office of first councillor
is the highest in the nation next to the head chiefs, whose authority
is equal. If in any of these divisions, when a matter is brought to
the vote, the suffrages are equal, one of the old pipemen is summoned
before the council and the subject under discussion is stated to him,
with the substance of the arguments advanced on both sides; after
hearing this he gives his casting vote, and the question is finally
settled.”[371]
[Illustration: PLENTY-HORSES, A CHEYENNE
Photographed by J. K. Hillers, U. S. Geological Survey
]
[Illustration: NORTH-WEST COAST BASKETRY HATS
Made of grass and spruce roots
A. Parasol-shaped hat with totemic design on top and painted in solid
colour on remainder of outside surface. Tlinkit
B. Has wooden appendages representing the beak of the raven. Tlinkit
C. Cedar bark hat. G shows method of plaiting it
E. Top view of D, showing totemic design of hooyeh, the raven. Haida
H. Is method of weaving the top, F of the bottom part of D
See also figures on pp. 146, 160
]
George Bancroft says, “There have been chiefs who could not tell when,
where, or how they obtained power.... Opinion could crowd a civil
chief into retirement, and could dictate his successor.” Opinion was a
most potent factor in all tribes, and this would be largely directed
by those having popularity and power. Officers, in fact all persons,
become extremely well known in the small community of an Amerind
tribe. Every peculiarity of temperament was understood, and the
individual was respected or despised according to his predominating
characteristics. Those who were bold and fierce and full of strategy
were made war-chiefs, while those who possessed judgment and decision
were made civil chiefs or governors. In many tribes the civil and the
military branches of government are separate and distinct. Certain
chieftains were the peace chiefs. “They could neither go to war
themselves, nor send nor receive the war belt—the ominous string of
dark wampum, which indicated that the tempest of strife was to be let
loose. Their proper badge was the wampum belt, with a diamond-shaped
figure in the centre, worked in white beads, which was the symbol
of the peaceful council fire, and was called by that name. War was
declared by the people at the instigation of the ‘war-captains,’
valorous braves, of any birth or family, who had distinguished
themselves by personal prowess, and especially by good success in
forays against the enemy. Nor did the authority of the chiefs extend
to any infringement on the traditional rights of the gens, as, for
instance, that of blood revenge. The ignorance of this limitation of
the central power led to various misunderstandings at the time, on the
part of the colonial authorities, and since then, by later historians.
Thus in 1728 the Delaware Indians on Brandywine were summoned by the
Governor to answer about a murder. Their chief, Civility, answered that
it was committed by the Minisinks, ‘over whom they had no authority.’
This did not mean but that in some matters authority could be exerted,
but not in a question relating to a feud of blood.”[372] War-chiefs as
well as civil chiefs were elected by the council, and could be deposed
also by the council whenever it was desirable.
[Illustration: NORTH-WEST COAST MORTUARY AND COMMEMORATIVE COLUMNS
A. Kaigani. Contains a box holding ashes of the dead
B. Kaigani. Compartment boarded up contains the remains in a box
C. Kaigani. Supported box contains the dead
D. Different form of C
E. Haida. Commemorative column put in front of the house of deceased,
the body being placed at a distance
F. Haida. Commemorative column same as last but with two posts
]
Brinton says, “The gentile system is by no means universal, ... where
it exists, it is often traced in the male line; both property and
dignities may be inherited directly from the father.... In fact, no one
element of the system was uniformly respected, and it is an error of
theorists to make it appear so. It varied widely in the same stock and
in all its expressions.”[373] This intricate subject cannot be fully
understood till the organisation of many tribes has been studied in
detail. “In some tribes, as the Dakota, the gentes had fallen out;
in others as among the Ojibways, the Omahas and the Mayas of Yucatan
descent had been changed from the female to the male line.”[374] But
Powell and Morgan both hold that the majority of the Amerind tribes
were organised on the basis of descent in the female line. “The gens
came into being,” says Morgan, “upon three principal conceptions,
namely: the bond of kin, a pure lineage through descent in the female
line, and non-intermarriage in the gens.”[375]
Powell in his article on the “North American Indians” in Johnson’s
_Cyclopedia_ seems to use the term “clan” to describe a body of kindred
with descent in the female line, and “gens” where the descent is in the
male line. “In most of the tribes the fundamental unit of organisation
was the clan,” he says, and then again, “a few of the tribes were
organised on the gentile plan and in the gens kinship is reckoned in
the male line.” Such a distinction would be convenient, but Morgan did
not recognise it at the time of his writing, as is evident from the
quotation above from his _Ancient Society_, and general usage seems
not to have defined gens to mean descent in either line specifically.
Nevertheless, there is probably no reason why the distinction should
not be made with regard to the Amerinds, at least, if it should be
agreed upon. Powell also says: “As a clan is a group of people who
reckon kinship through females to some ancestral female, real or
conventional, so a gens is a group of people who reckon kinship through
males to some ancestral male, real or conventional. It seems that
the primordial constitution of the tribe is by clanship and that the
clanship tribe is developed into the gentile tribe. Most of the tribes
of North America have clanship organisation, yet there is a goodly
number with gentile organisation, while perhaps it may be said that
a majority of the clanship tribes have some elements of the gentile
organisation; so that it may be justly affirmed that a great many of
the tribes on this continent are in the stage of transition, and there
is scarcely a gentile tribe which has not some feature of clanship
organisation as a survival.”[376] The privileges and obligations of the
gens (or clan) were, according to Morgan as follows:
“I. The right of electing its sachem or chief.
“II. The right of deposing its sachem or chief.
“III. The obligation not to marry in the gens.
“IV. Mutual rights of inheritance of the property of deceased members.
“V. Reciprocal obligations of help, defence, and redress of injuries.
“VI. The right of bestowing names upon its members.
“VII. The right of adopting strangers into the gens.
“VIII. Common religious rites.
“IX. A common burial-place.
“X. A council of the gens.”[377]
Among the Wyandots there is a council in each gens composed of four
women. “These four women councillors select a chief of the gens from
its male members—that is, from their brothers and sons. This gentile
chief is the head of the gentile council. The council of the tribe is
composed of the aggregated gentile councils. The tribal council then is
composed of one-fifth men and four-fifths women.”[378] This is not the
case with other tribes, however. Among the Tlinkits it is the richest
who “obtain the highest places,” the selection of the chiefs depending
entirely on the amount of property they have; that is, on a property
basis. These Amerinds have a better appreciation of property than any
others I have ever seen. They seldom haggle, but in selling they state
a price and adhere to it. A smaller amount offered is usually treated
with scorn.
The sign of clan or gens membership was the totem, all members of the
same gens having the same totem, and his or her name usually indicating
this totem. For example, if we know an Amerind woman’s name to be
Spotted Fawn, we place her at once in the deer clan. The deer is the
animal that she looks up to as being most intimately connected with
her past and her future, and from which her ancestors were descended.
This is the clan or gens totem. As mentioned in a previous chapter,
there are also two other kinds of totems, those pertaining to sex and
those pertaining to the individual alone. Totems are always chosen from
a class of organic objects, while a fetich may be anything at all.
Thus the totems are deer, frogs, bears, snakes, corn, etc., while a
fetich may be a pebble, a piece of glass wrapped in a bit of buckskin
together with a feather, or some similar object. The fetich was a
talisman, the totem a beneficent attending spirit and a sign of family
and origin.
The Iroquois confederacy was planned by Hiawatha through Däganowédä
as an interpreter of his ideas and wishes. Some, Horatio Hale for
one, think that Hiawatha was a real person, and others that it
was Däganowédä who did the work under the guise of representing
Hiawatha.[379] However this may be, the organisation of the several
tribes into the confederacy was a work of genius, and this was one
of the highest governments that was discovered on this continent. We
cannot say, however, that it was _the_ highest that ever existed, next
to that of the Aztecs or the other Central Amerinds, for we really
do not know what there may have been before, not only in Mexico and
Central America, but in the Mississippi valley or even in the State
of New York. As noted in a previous chapter, if the Iroquois had
disappeared before our arrival, we could have gained no conception
of their remarkable government from any remains that we would have
found. The Mississippi valley and the South-west, as well as Mexico and
Central America, exhibit traces of tribes who may easily have arrived
at a governmental development equal to, if, indeed, not superior to,
that of the Aztecs or the Iroquois. These tribes were undoubtedly
Amerind, but there is nothing to prove that earlier Amerind tribes were
inferior in their political development to later ones.
The misconceptions of the Spaniards due to ignorance of Amerind
organisation gave false colouring to the Aztec confederacy; and the
flowing diction of Prescott, gemmed with terms and titles applicable
to Old-World society, but having no place in that of the New, added to
the confusion. Pages relating to “nobles,” “princes,” “royal allies,”
“sovereigns,” “lords,” etc., do not help in fathoming the intricacies
of Amerind government. Had the Spaniards met with the Iroquois we
should have had something similar in their case; and the fact that they
had no head chief would not have been discovered by the conquistadores,
so eager for other prey. One of the war-chiefs would again have been
taken for a royal personage, and the sachems and councillors would
have been nobles and princes, while the outlying tribes of the Five
Nations would have filled the bill for royal allies. It is likely
that the Aztec government was in advance of that of the Iroquois,
but that there was any royalty about it must be doubted till better
evidence is available. On the other hand, Morgan’s attempt to prove
that the Aztec organisation was not beyond that of the Pueblos or the
Iroquois is to be taken with caution. Brinton says: “The government
of these states did not differ in principle from that of the northern
tribes, though its development had reached a later stage. Descent was
generally reckoned in the male line, and the male children of the
deceased were regarded as the natural heirs both to his property and
his dignities. Where the latter, however, belonged rather to the gens
than the individual, a form of election was held, the children of the
deceased being given the preference. In this sense, which was the usual
limitation in America, many positions were hereditary, including that
of the chieftaincy of the tribe or confederation. The Montezuma who
was the ruler who received Cortez, was the grandson of Axayacatl, who
in turn was the son of the first Montezuma, each of whom exercised the
chief power.”[380] The daughter of the first Montezuma seems to have
occupied the position of head chief for a time, or, as Prescott would
put it, she was queen. It is possible that while Montezuma was a war
chief he may have combined certain civil powers with his war office,
and that the confederacy was actually on the road to an absolute
monarchy[381] or something of the kind, which, if human progress
takes always the same general directions, was the next stage to be
expected on this soil. Bandelier, Morgan, and others see in the various
Mexican tribes and confederacies little that is different from the
organisation of the Amerinds to the northward, and probably when all is
well understood we may find that they are not far from correct; that,
while there are differences, they are yet not sufficient to entitle
the Mexicans to the separation from other Amerinds that has been
claimed for them by romantic writers. Speaking of Tlaxcala, the famous
“province” where Cortes found a resting-place on his inward journey,
Bandelier says: “Owing to a misconception of aboriginal institutions,
it has been palmed off as a kind of Mexican Switzerland, as a free
republic in the midst of despotically ruled communities. Such was not
the case. There was not the slightest fundamental difference between
the social organisation and mode of government of the Tlaxcaltecos
and that of the Mexican tribe; but the exceptional geographical
position of the latter and the natural barrenness of their land led
them to seek means of subsistence from abroad. The confederacy of
tribes grew out of tribal organisation, and the greater ability of the
inhabitants of the Central Valley gave to their confederacy a power
of aggression superior to that of any other aboriginal cluster in the
same country.... The Tlaxcaltecos were organised in four localised
_phratries_, like the Mexicans. Two elective chiefs—that is, elective
in regard to the individual, but with heredity of office in a certain
_gens_—formed the nominal head of the tribe. The true directive power,
however, lay in the council of the tribe. The tribe of Mexico had a
similar organisation. What created an apparent dissimilarity was the
confederacy of the valley tribes, with its chief-captain always taken
from the Mexicans. As, in the single tribe, the war-chief office was
hereditary in the _gens_, so, in the confederacy, the same office
becomes hereditary in the _tribe_.”[382] How different is the wording
of Prescott when speaking of the Aztec organisation! “The government
was an elective monarchy. Four of the principal nobles, who had been
chosen by their own body in the preceding reign, filled the office of
electors, to whom were added, with merely honourary rank, however, the
two royal allies of Tezcuco and Tlacopan. The sovereign was selected
from the brothers of the deceased prince, or, in default of them,
from his nephews. Thus the election was always restricted to the same
family. The candidate preferred must have distinguished himself in
war, though, as in the case of the last Montezuma.”[383] In other
words, the election was restricted to a certain gens. Morgan says:
“Nearly all American Indian tribes had two grades of chiefs, who may
be distinguished as sachems and common chiefs. Of these two primary
grades all other grades were varieties. They were elected in each
gens from among its members. A son could not be chosen to succeed his
father when descent was in the female line, because he belonged to a
different gens, and no gens would have a chief or sachem from any gens
but its own.” (Morgan here evidently forgot the right of adoption. It
would be perfectly regular, should a gens wish to do so, to adopt a
son into the gens in order that he might succeed his father.) “The
office of sachem was hereditary in the gens, in the sense that it was
filled as often as a vacancy occurred; while the office of chief was
non-hereditary, because it was bestowed in reward of personal merit,
and died with the individual. Moreover, the duties of a sachem were
confined to the affairs of peace. He could not go out to war as a
sachem. On the other hand, the chiefs who were raised to office for
personal bravery, for wisdom of affairs, or for eloquence in council,
were usually the superior class in ability, though not in authority
over the gens. The relation of the sachem was primarily to the gens, of
which he was the official head, while that of the chief was primarily
to the tribe, of the council of which he, as well as the sachem, were
members.”[384]
[Illustration: ANCIENT PUEBLOAN MOCCASINS OF FIBRE, ARIZONA
Except lower left hand one worn by the Ainos of Yezo, Japan.
Introduced for comparison. The Ainos were probably the earliest
inhabitants of Japan. In language and character they are different
from Japanese
]
As the Iroquois league was such an important affair, and as it was so
thoroughly studied by Morgan, I will quote him further by giving his
statement of the main points in the organisation.
“I. The Confederacy was a union of Five Tribes (afterwards Six),
composed of common gentes under one government on the basis of
equality, each Tribe remaining independent in all matters pertaining to
local self-government.
“II. It created a General Council of Sachems, who were limited in
number, equal in rank and authority, and invested with supreme powers
over all matters pertaining to the Confederacy.
“III. Fifty Sachemships were created and named in perpetuity in
certain gentes of the several Tribes; with power in these gentes to
fill vacancies as often as they occurred, by election from among their
respective members, and with the further power to depose from office
for cause; but the right to invest these Sachems with office was
reserved to the General Council.
“IV. The Sachems of the Confederacy were also Sachems in their
respective Tribes, and with the Chiefs of these Tribes formed the
Council of each, which was supreme over all matters pertaining to the
Tribe exclusively.
“V. Unanimity in the Council of the Confederacy was made essential to
every public act.
“VI. In the General Council the Sachems voted by Tribes, which gave to
each Tribe a negative upon the others.
“VII. The Council of each Tribe had power to convene the General
Council; but the latter had no power to convene itself.
“VIII. The General Council was open to the orators of the people for
the discussion of public questions; but the Council alone decided.
“IX. The Confederacy had no Chief Executive Magistrate or official head.
“X. Experiencing the necessity for a General Military Commander, they
created the office in a dual form, that one might neutralise the other.
The two principal War-chiefs created were made equal in powers.”[385]
[Illustration: CHIMMESYAN HEAD-DRESS REPRESENTING THE WHITE OWL
It is made of maple; eyes, tongue, eye-ornament on wings, and
ornament at base of the wing-feathers inlaid in Haliotis shell.
Wings and eyebrows of owl, and eyebrows, eyes, and noses of the
surrounding men painted black; margin of beak and body of the owl
except talons and knees, mouths, arms, and legs of the surrounding
men and the broad band surrounding the owl’s body, painted red. 6¼
in. wide, 7½ in. high. In the American Museum
]
Such was the remarkable construction of the government of these Amerind
people of New York. In its conception, in its details, and in its
execution it was one of the most extraordinary primitive governments
ever recorded. From a comparatively weak people it placed the Iroquois,
though they were far inferior in numbers to surrounding tribes, in a
commanding position, and enabled them to extend their sway over a vast
territory. They made no attempt to hold the region that was subject to
their devastation, but probably, had not the European appeared on the
scene, they would have gradually expanded until their villages covered
many times the area which they specifically claimed when our people
first came. An increase of population which would have overtaxed the
game-supply would have pushed the development of their agriculture and
forced the confederacy to move along higher and broader lines. One
great drawback to Amerindian progress, internecine wars, was entirely
obliterated by the masterly organisation of the Iroquois league,
while at the same time they gained by their union a strength for
offence and defence that, together with their fertile and well-watered
domain, rendered their organisation impregnable. This and the Mexican
confederacy prove that the Amerind was capable of great things in
governmental organisation. It only remained for him to discover the
secrets of smelting and forging, and he was apparently on the brink of
these discoveries, to step into a foremost place of development and
progress. In some respects it is a pity the Europeans did not remain in
ignorance of this continent for another five hundred years.
[Illustration: WOODEN “SEAL” DISH, HAIDA]
CHAPTER XVI
ORIGIN, MIGRATIONS, AND HISTORY[386]
The manner in which America was originally peopled has been the cause
of considerable speculation. For a long time it was generally believed,
and there are some who still hold that belief, that this peopling
occurred within comparatively recent times by way of Bering Strait, and
that before that the continent was not inhabited. But peoples do not
willingly migrate into frozen regions, and the Bering Strait and Alaska
down to Dixon Entrance were not many centuries ago buried under a
mantle of ice. I doubt if there were even Eskimo in Alaska five hundred
years back. It is my belief that all the tribes of the North-west
migrated there from the South and South-east, and not within recent
geologic time from the Asiatic direction.
That the continent was entirely peopled by way of Bering Strait
within the last thousand years, by migrations through a zone of ice,
is improbable. To assume that a population came over and passed down
to Mexico and Yucatan and even South America, carrying with them
their arts, but not exercising them on this interminable journey, is
ridiculous. No pottery has yet been found between the Yukon and the
Humboldt, or even farther south, probably because the Eskimo learned
what little they knew about it while in the St. Lawrence valley or the
Atlantic region, and the tribes of the North-west coast never came
into sufficiently close contact with potters to learn the art.[387]
Furthermore, no authentic trace of any Old-World language thus far has
been found on this continent, and the only Asiatic language now known
to be allied to an American is that of a branch of the Eskimo family
which crossed from this side within the last three hundred years. The
Amerind languages change slowly. An immense period must have elapsed
since their separation from the rest of the world. It is said that two
Japanese vessels a year are wrecked on our California coast, and some
have peopled the continent from this source; a more absurd theory than
the other. The number of Japanese vessels that were afloat a thousand
years ago was as nothing compared with those afloat to-day, and if
only two per annum are wrecked on these shores to-day, the wrecks a
thousand years ago did not add materially to the population.[388] It is
possible, however, that a few persons may have reached either seaboard
that way, and like Cabeza de Vaca, they may have wandered for years
among the various tribes as teachers and medicine-men, giving rise to
legends of “white and bearded strangers.” But in the early days vessels
were frail and did not venture far from the coast, so that the chances
of being driven to American shores without foundering were very slight.
The Northmen made the voyage, however, and others may have done it. Yet
the supposed visits of the Irish and Danes are hardly worthy of serious
consideration, although it would be rash to deny the possibility of
their having come. As for the Lost-Tribes-of-Israel theory, on which
Kingsborough was wrecked, no archæologist of to-day would be willing
to give it a second thought. A multitude of stock languages, differing
from each other, yet forming a world-group by themselves, are found
here. The people who speak them, from Panama to the Arctic, are in
their habits, customs, and physical characteristics wonderfully
homogeneous,[389] yet they appear to exhibit several types that have
been moulded into a family resemblance by some strange circumstance.
Toward Panama, some of them attained a considerable degree of progress,
but these were not of one special stock but of diverse stocks. Farther
north there was another group attaining to a less but a similar kind
of progress, and they also were, and are, of diverse stocks. In the
Mississippi valley are evidences of another similar culture group,
probably also of diverse stocks because some of them were allied to,
or were part of, the stocks found there when the whites came. The same
general conditions prevailed farther east, and a centre of development
was rapidly forming in New York when it was destroyed by our coming.
One of the most widespread stocks, the Shoshonean or Uto-Aztecan, is
composite, containing within it tribes of the highest culture and
tribes of the least culture, tribes that were peaceful and tribes that
were warlike. It is evident then that _culture was no evidence of
relationship_ or the reverse among the Amerind people. By some powerful
influence and long association they had, whatever their origin, been
moulded into one race. “Where had they come from?” “How did they come
to be so much alike?” “Why did their highest development take place
down by the Isthmus instead of by the Great Lakes or in the fertile
valley of the Mississippi?” These are pertinent questions. Attempts
have been made to answer them by importing different people from
different parts of the world and their recent culture with them. But
the more the Amerinds are studied, the more homogeneous do we find them
and the more isolated from Old-World influences. Culture, as mentioned,
was not confined to one stock; it permeated through unrelated stocks.
The languages too are totally different from all others. Thus the more
the matter is investigated, the more closely are we confined to the
Western Hemisphere for the origin of the Amerind people, _as we know
them_. Toward Panama, that is below the City of Mexico, a kind of
civilisation was attained, and there we find was the densest population
on the continent. Culture never develops in a game country with a
sparse population, and there is, therefore, an intimate connection
between a crowded population and “culture” or “civilisation.” It
may be broadly asserted, I think, that _civilisation is crowding_;
it is man’s effort at self-preservation. Where the game-supply is
exhausted or insufficient and subsistence must be wholly or largely
wrested from the soil, there will be found the culture centres, the
hothouses of art and science, from which a filtration occurs into all
the contiguous regions and peoples. On this continent the chief centre
of culture was the narrowest part; the population was packed there
as in the narrow end of a funnel, leaving the whole broad top thinly
peopled. The question immediately arises: “Why was this so?” It is
evident at a glance that there was some preponderating, irresistible
influence which compelled the inhabitants to draw into these narrow,
restricted regions, there to act and react one tribe on another,
and this influence was constantly at work moulding them all. If the
continent had been peopled within any comparatively recent time, it is
not reasonable to suppose that the tribes would willingly have huddled
together far down in the most limited area. It is also from this area
apparently that all the arts have spread. The crowding and the culture
development were coincident. What was the cause of it? If we can arrive
at a satisfactory understanding of the cause, it seems to me that we
have the solution of the whole matter. The explanation appears to be
that the continent was peopled before the beginning of the glacial
epoch, and the crowding into the narrow regions, and consequently
the development of culture there, were due to the encroachment from
the north of the great cold. Wright says: “Just before the beginning
of the ice age, a temperate climate corresponding to latitude 35 on
the Atlantic coast extended far up toward the north pole, permitting
Greenland and Spitzbergen to be covered with trees and plants similar
in most respects to those found at the present time in Virginia and
North Carolina. Here indeed in close proximity to the north pole were
then residing, in harmony and contentment, the ancestors of nearly
all the plants and animals which are now found in the north temperate
zone.” It is not unreasonable to suppose, then, that man was also
here, though as yet the scientific evidence is perhaps not sufficient
to prove it. If he circled the globe in the Northern regions at that
time, and was also occupying Central portions, the cold drove all
south and together with changes of land levels cut off the American
division from the other world.[390] Migration legends are useless in
determining the origin of the Amerinds, for they can only relate to
the _comparatively recent changes_ of location before which, for a
long period, the people drifted up and down and across the continent
under the influences I have suggested. However man first originated,
or where, he was doubtless distributed, like the flora and fauna, at
some exceedingly remote period, over the whole world, by causes not now
understood, but one of which was probably a greater continuity of land
surfaces than exists to-day.[391] Some of the earlier-world people were
possibly more advanced than we have been willing to concede, and there
was, from a very early day, a differentiation of tribes. Some were
making respectable weapons and tools of stone while others were using
clubs. Too much stress has been placed upon the European classification
of stone implements. It may exhibit conditions that existed in Europe,
but it has nothing to do with a standard of measurement for the world.
When Moses was leading his enlightened people, the European was a
painted savage. The period of time in which man used stone implements
is enormous; that in which he has used metal tools, comparatively
insignificant. It stands to reason, therefore, that during this long
use of stone, tribes attained to varying degrees of culture, and
varying degrees of perfection in stone tools. There never could have
been a single period of time when all tribes the world round made a
certain quality of implements, then another period when they all made
other quality of implements. Classification of tribes and races in a
time-scale, or even in a culture scale, according to the kind of stone
implements they used, is impossible. The Pai Ute and the Iroquois
made equally good tools in the seventeenth century, while in other
lands still inferior tribes were making implements about as good, and
others were struggling on with poorer ones. At the time of the Aztec
confederacy, their stone tools were not greatly superior to those of
the Pai Ute. Therefore, it would seem that any resemblance between
so-called American “paleolithic” implements and modern stone implements
cannot be used as an argument to disprove the age of the former, nor
that a polished stone implement found in a supposed ancient gravel
is necessarily an indication of intrusion or that the gravel is not
ancient. The implements thus far found in the California auriferous
gravels have been similar to those found on the surface to-day, and
this has been held by some to be a suspicious circumstance. It is not.
Some tribes in California in those remote times were probably making
stone implements quite as good as anything made to-day. Stone-working
is not capable of high development. The range is limited. Some tribes
compassed it early. Because also we do not find stone implements
abundant in the North-American glacial drift proves nothing concerning
man’s condition, presence or absence on the continent at that time. The
population _was almost entirely below the glacial limit_, only a few
inferior tribes skirting its southern fringe. We should, then, expect
to find few northerly pre-glacial evidences,[392] as the main culture
development took place south of the ice line, and tribes above this in
pre-glacial times would be the most primitive.
[Illustration: TLINKIT SUMMER CAMP
From photograph by the Harriman Alaska Expedition, 1899
]
[Illustration: ESKIMO SUMMER CAMP, PORT CLARENCE
From photograph by the Harriman Expedition, 1899
]
[Illustration: WOODEN SNOW GOGGLES OF THE CENTRAL ESKIMO]
The material evidences concerning the antiquity of man in America
are many, but few are entirely satisfactory. The Calaveras skull and
other remains in the auriferous California gravels seem to place him
here as early as the Tertiary, and this, says Holmes,[393] would make
man older on this continent than anywhere else in the world according
to present evidence. A rudely chipped arrow-head has also been found
in another region under some elephant bones. A primitive hearth was
discovered in well digging in an old beach of Lake Ontario which dates
back to the glacial time. Many specimens of stone implements have been
found throughout the land in deposits which appear to be of great age.
There is always the question of modern introduction through burials,
overturned trees, etc., but the number and varying positions seem to
indicate that some of these tools have been found in their original
places. I excavated a mound in southern Utah from the depths of which I
brought out an exceedingly primitive grinding-stone, yet not a single
stone implement of any other kind was found. The grinding-stone was
twenty feet below the top of the mound and ten below the present
general level of the surface. The mound was formed of many layers of
earth interspersed with thin layers of charcoal and ashes. All around
the site there were house ruins on the surface, but in the mound not
a trace of a building stone was seen. I was told that in digging a
well not far from this locality a small earthen jug of antique type
was found about thirty feet below the present level. I did not see it
nor even the man who found it, but the great abundance of such finds
must indicate antiquity, for they could not all be fraudulent, nor all
recent intrusions.
The cause of the glacial period has been much discussed. It seems to
have been largely due to changes in land levels,[394] and to other
causes not now understood. The people inhabiting the world before it
may have been originally much alike in kind and colour with local
variations, and the isolation produced by glacial conditions modified
this colour and increased the variations, those finally left in hot
lands becoming darker, medium temperatures producing brown, still
cooler the reds and yellows, and the forests of Europe evolving a shade
or shadow people, shrinking from the strong sun; the so-called white
race. The glacial epoch is often spoken of as if the whole world were
frozen solid, whereas in North America, from the Ohio and the Columbia
to the Isthmus, the climate was doubtless about relatively the same
as it is now from Davis Strait to the Potomac and from Yakutat Bay to
northern California. The ice extended down about to the Ohio River
in the East and on lowlands not below the Columbia in the West. The
Western mountain tops must have been completely glaciated and all
elevated regions were cold, the conditions prevailing resembling those
now found in Southern Alaska. The Sierra Nevadas, receiving the warm,
moist airs from the Pacific, must have been far more heavily glaciated
than the Rockies, which received less moisture in consequence. The ice
period is estimated to have endured from ten to twenty thousand years,
with an interval of recession in it and subsequent advance. The people
were driven southward, and those most favourably situated developed the
most. The people most favourably situated were all _who were already
in_, or could fight their way to, the temperate lowlands of southern
Mexico and Central America, which were rendered somewhat more extensive
by the recession of the sea, caused by the withdrawal of the immense
quantities of water that were heaped up in ice thousands of feet in
thickness.[395] This has been estimated to have lowered the waters of
the ocean by from 600 to 1000 feet.[396] The lands thus laid bare were
climatically inviting and probably were soon covered with vegetation.
In South America the people were crowded northward, or held there by
the cold coming from the south. It would be in the northern portions,
particularly the lowlands, that we ought to find evidence of the
highest development, especially on the side receiving warm currents,
and there is where we do find it. We apparently have then a northern
and a southern limit to the ancient inhabitants of this hemisphere,
within which climatic conditions during the period of great cold, and
for some time thereafter, were most favourable to human development.
This limit in the Northern continent is latitude 23 and in the Southern
also 23. Within these lines the great precolumbian development took
place, and the heart of this development on the Northern continent
seems to have rested between the Isthmus of Tehuantepec and the present
upper frontier of Honduras, chiefly on the lowlands, and probably also
on lands now beneath the ocean.
[Illustration: PRINCIPAL KNOWN RUINS OF CENTRAL AMERICA
Prepared by M. H. Saville
]
[Illustration: NECKLACE OF DRIED HUMAN FINGERS OBTAINED ON BATTLEFIELD
OF WOUNDED-KNEE BY CAPTAIN BOURKE]
[Illustration: PRINCIPAL KNOWN RUINS OF MEXICO
Prepared by M. H. Saville
]
In North America, south of latitude 23, then, most of the tribes of
the continent were crowded by the great cold, and here they developed
their chief characteristics, so that by the time the ice began its
last recession they had become a homogeneous people, with the greatest
advancement and the greatest similarities in the region where the
population had been densest, with a diminishing scale outward, those
tribes farthest from the culture centre varying most from the highest
culture attained. The tribe on the extreme edge was, and is now,
represented by the Eskimo.[397] The development and the distribution
of the arts were in the same order, and here apparently is the
explanation of the superior excellence of Central-American arts, and
the seeming derivation of all the arts on the continent from this
centre. Finally the recession of the ice caused renewed trouble. The
melting of it and the return thereby of the locked-up waters to the
ocean caused a submergence of lowlands that had been made habitable by
their withdrawal. There were floods and floods. Tribes were overwhelmed
or were driven to higher ground. There was a renewed shifting of
populations over the whole continent. Those which had been held back
toward the highlands and toward the ice, accustomed to the cool airs
and to a particular food, readily followed the retrogression of the
ice, impelled always by pressure of the tribes farther south. They
were inured to cold. The most southerly tribes became inured somewhat
to heat, and clung to their lands, impelled also to do this by the
pressure of wilder tribes recoiling from contact with still other
tribes. But heat being debilitating, and especially so to the Amerind
constitution, the Yucatec peoples, who were those who had attained the
highest development, gradually degenerated under its influence, and
before the voyage of Columbus whole cities were depopulated. Some held
their own for a longer period, but were already on the way to decline
when the Spaniards appeared. In some cases their towns were occupied
by an inferior tribe of perhaps the same stock, or an inferior tribe
dwelt around them and, not knowing the origin of the architectural
works, attempted to account for them by fairy tales like the legend
of the _Dwarf’s House_, which Stephens learned. The people nearest
the ice front are still represented by the Eskimo, and their next
neighbours, as of yore, are the Athapascans, and Algonquins, and so
on down in zones more or less distinct, but considerably deranged
by subsequent migrations, to the builders of the Yucatec ruins. The
Apaches and Navajos are usually said to have _come down_ from their kin
in the North, but it is equally possible that they _remained behind_
in the high mountains while their kin pushed on.[398] The table-lands
of Mexico, being high and temperate, formed a final refuge for many
tribes, some of whom had profited by contact with the centre of
development, and these roamed the plateau, one branch finally settling
around the lake of Mexico, and there planting again the seeds of the
lowland culture. Many tribes were early crowded into the California
coast region, because the lowland climate there remained comparatively
mild, and the supply of fish, seals, etc. was so great that they were
not compelled to till the soil for subsistence (if indeed they were
possessed of sufficient knowledge, or if the land were in condition
to produce), as was the case farther south, where the population
was denser and natural supplies insufficient. But the region was so
inhospitable that only fragments of these tribes survived. They did not
multiply.
[Illustration: PROBABLE ASPECT OF ALASKA SUMMER LANDSCAPE SOME 600
YEARS AGO
Harriman Alaska Expedition, 1899. Photographed by the author
]
The reason the Eastern continents produced many and diverse peoples is
that the glacial period temperate zone, or warm zone, extended through
many degrees of _longitude_, offering extensive areas of settlement to
the races in that hemisphere, where they remained more or less isolated
and independent, to advance in their own way and along their own lines;
that is, on the Eastern continents there was ample _latitudinal_ land
space, while on the Western there was a very limited latitudinal land
space that retained a salubrious climate. This was the cause of North
American race homogeneity.
The period of time that has elapsed since the so-called disappearance
of the ice was formerly believed to be very great, but latterly views
on this point have been much modified. Gilbert has declared, after
a study of the Niagara gorge, that the time since the ice left that
region is not more than seven thousand years, perhaps less. More recent
investigations have tended to confirm his suggestion of fewer years.
Immediately after the recession of glacial ice, as may be seen in
Alaska to-day, erosion is extremely rapid. I have not space to discuss
this point at length, but it is apparent that the rate of erosion is
variable, and I doubt if more than five thousand years have passed
since the ice left the vicinity of the Niagara gorge. As it still
lingers in the North, far down on the Pacific side, it _is probably
not more than a thousand years since its influence was powerful
in affecting the climate of all the region southward_. The North is
undoubtedly growing warmer. Some five hundred years ago Alaska was
still covered with glacial ice. Five hundred years from now there
will scarcely be a glacier to be found there, except in the highest
mountains. “The next generation will find few of them with their fronts
still in the sea,” says Henry Gannett.[399]
[Illustration: A PUEBLOAN WARRIOR OF NAMBÉ, NEW MEXICO, IN BATTLE ARRAY]
The most widely spread stocks are made up of those that were forced
to occupy a middle position during the cold, like the Algonquins
and Athapascans, who were invigorated by it. Other stocks, for
reasons not understood, dwindled to mere handfuls of people, like
the Karankawan, now extinct, the Adaizan, the Natchezan, the Uchean,
the Zuñian, Keresan, and others. The oldest people of the Valley
of Mexico mentioned are the Xicalancas, Olmecas, and the Toltecs.
Brinton believed the latter never existed, but other authors, fully
as distinguished, accept them as a _bona-fide_ tribe. They may have
been kindred to the Nahuatls, coming from the crowded lowlands, as the
waters rose and the heat increased, and occupying the cooler plateau.
Their wilder relatives later became influenced by them and adopting
their learning began the famous development in the Valley of Mexico.
The period of evolution in the crowded region was very long. Tribes
rose to power and declined.[400] Other tribes, profiting by their
experience, took up some of their ways and progressed. Many of these
tribes we have no reminiscence of.
Back of the Conquest of Mexico by Cortes, the thread of authentic
history becomes most uncertain. It begins about the sixth century.
Ixtlilxochitl, the native Mexican, has written a good deal, but it
must be taken, oftentimes, with extreme caution. The history of the
Amerind race is written mainly by their conquerors. It is a one-sided
affair, and even so is not pleasant reading. Balzac says: “Historians
are privileged liars, who lend their pen to popular beliefs.” Certainly
the character of the Amerind and his doings have not often been too
charitably drawn, while, on the other hand, our actions toward him,
even as related by ourselves, are enough to make one sometimes doubt
the benefits of civilisation. Morgan, speaking of the remnant of the
Senecas, says: “To embitter their sense of desolation as a nation, the
pre-emptive right to these last remnants of their ancient possessions
is now held by a company of land speculators, the Ogden Land Company,
who, to wrest away these few acres, have pursued and hunted them
for the last fourteen years with a degree of wickedness hardly to
be paralleled in the history of human avarice. Not only have every
principle of honesty, every dictate of humanity, every Christian
precept been violated by this company in their eager artifices to
despoil the Senecas; but the darkest frauds, the basest bribery, and
the most execrable intrigues which soulless avarice could suggest,
have been practised in open day upon this defenceless and much injured
people.”[401]
[Illustration: APACHE WOMAN CARRYING WATER IN A WICKER BOTTLE]
On one occasion in 1643, out of a spirit of revenge for a murder
committed by an Indian who had been infuriated by whisky, but whose
friends, according to Amerind custom, offered to pay a blood indemnity,
Governor Kieft, heading a band of soldiers and freebooters from Dutch
privateers, fell upon the unsuspecting Algonquins and slaughtered over
a hundred of them. Little children were tossed into the river, and the
parents who plunged to the rescue were prevented from landing by the
soldiers, and child and parent both perished. In this incident began
the Dutch and Indian War, which lasted two years. Can anyone condemn
them for going to war after such treatment?
Acts of white brutality of this character could be quoted to fill a
volume, but these are sufficient to indicate the manner of the European
approach, except in the case of Penn. The more docile the Amerinds
were, the more abuse they got. If they became self-supporting like the
Navajos, the government gave them nothing; if they were murderous and
deadly, like the Apaches, the government took care of them and fed
them. Issuing rations is a proper thing, when we have destroyed the
native means of subsistence, but the tribe that works and helps itself
ought to be aided further toward civilisation in other ways. One of
the most stubborn of the numerous Amerind wars was the Seminole in the
Everglades of Florida. Our whole available force was engaged in this
war, besides some fifty thousand militia and volunteers. Though there
were probably not more than four hundred warriors, the cost of the
war was over $30,000,000, and three thousand lives were sacrificed.
The wars with the Apaches were long and difficult. The Modocs also
carried on a disastrous war, and recently the Sioux took their turn.
These wars could generally have been averted by proper diplomacy. The
battle of Wounded Knee was precipitated by a wild and unauthorised
shot at a critical moment by one of our soldiers. Had he remained
inactive the battle would probably never have occurred. Many tribes
were exterminated at an early period. Most of the Carolina tribes were
destroyed between 1714 and 1740. To-day very few Amerinds exist in the
United States east of the Mississippi. Those who were not destroyed, or
who are not still living on lands reserved for them, are mostly west
of the Mississippi, either on lands belonging to them in the Indian
Territory, or on scattered reservations. Tribes in Indian Territory
have long conducted a sort of civilised government, but some of them
are now on the eve of selling their lands and purchasing broader tracts
with the funds obtained, in Mexico. The Navajos are in possession of
an enormous area lying across the line of Arizona and New Mexico,
and their vast herds of sheep, cattle, and horses require extensive
grazing, so that it will be impossible to reduce the area allotted
to them, especially as the tribe is steadily increasing in numbers.
Schools of mechanic arts should speedily be established among them,
in order that when they eventually are obliged to look to other avenues
of support than stock-raising, they can do work that will command a
price. It makes not the slightest difference whether or not they are
able to read English, if they have wares to sell that white people
need and want, and the Navajo is capable of great development on the
mechanical side. They will learn English when necessity requires it.
The Mokis have a reservation adjoining the Navajos, and it is ample for
them for all time, as they are not increasing, and their herds of sheep
are small.
[Illustration: GROUP OF ESKIMO, PORT CLARENCE, ALASKA
Photographed by the Harriman Expedition, 1899 Permission of E. H.
Harriman
]
[Illustration: SHELL SPIDER GORGETS
From mounds in Missouri, Illinois, and Tennessee
Pl. LXI.—Second Ann.
]
In the West the history of the Amerind is linked mainly with that of
but two other races, the Spanish and the Anglo-Saxon, while in the East
it is intimately bound up with the wars and history of the Dutch and
French as well. All the struggles of these European races for supremacy
affected the Amerind, and in the East he is found sometimes on one
side, sometimes on another.[402] He did not for some time discover
that his doom was in the European regardless of kind. At first, too,
the Amerind extended the law of hospitality to the newcomers, and the
Europeans would have starved to death in some instances had it not
been for the timely aid of the race in possession of the soil, and
whose reward was subsequent destruction. The Amerinds at last tried
to combine, as in the conspiracy of Pontiac, against their increasing
foe, and had they been able to throw aside some of their peculiar
regulations and form a wide-spreading and close confederacy, they
could have compelled the Europeans to halt on the Atlantic slopes of
the Appalachian chain for a long period. “In our ignorance,” says Simon
Pokagon, chief of the Pokagon Pottawatomies, “we did not comprehend
the mighty ocean of humanity that lay back of the advance waves of
pioneer settlement. But being fired by as noble patriotism as ever
burned in the hearts of mortals, we tried to beat back the reckless
white man who dared to settle within our borders—and vast armies were
sent out to punish us. We fought most heroically against overpowering
numbers for home and native land; sometimes victory was ours, as when,
during the last decade of the eighteenth century, after having many
warriors killed, and our villages burned to the ground, our fathers
arose in their might, putting to flight the alien armies of Generals
Harmer and St. Clair, hurling them in disorder from the wilderness
across our borders into their own ill-gotten domain.”[403] But the
whites who had already come to America, however much they might have
desired to leave the Amerinds alone, were powerless to prevent other
whites, in search of better fortunes, from dispossessing them, and
so impelled by the pressure of European population, numbers came and
numbers came again and again, and yet still others behind them. The
result, the final result, was inevitable. The Amerind was doomed when
Columbus first saw the Western land, and nothing that the Amerind
could have done would have greatly changed the final course of events.
Tecumseh made an heroic effort to unite his people in a stubborn stand
against the enemy, but the difficulty was that there were not enough
Tecumsehs. The powerful league of the Iroquois, that once promised to
dominate the whole continent, began its decline with the very first
intercourse with the Europeans, so that in 1750 they were about half
their former number. The league was probably formed about the middle
of the sixteenth century, and in these two hundred years they reached
their highest power and were on the wane. As it must have taken them
some time to reach the point where they could form such a body as the
league, they must have been a powerful and progressive people at least
a hundred years before, so that their main existence as a progressive
people probably covered a period of some three hundred years if not
more. Had they not been wrecked by contact with Europeans, it is safe
to assume that they would have advanced to double their power, at
least, in another century. They destroyed the Siouan tribes of the
East, held the Lenapé in subjection, and terrorised the Algonquins as
far as the banks of the Mississippi.
[Illustration: BLACK HAWK
The great central figure in the Black Hawk War, 1832
George Catlin
]
[Illustration: PORTION OF THE SO-CALLED “PALACE” OF LABNA, YUCATAN
Construction: stone. Site: tropical forest. Abandoned in
prehistoric times
Saville says: “The entire surface of the country is covered with
forests.... Immediately to the south and west no white man has ever
penetrated beyond the first range of hills; and who can tell what
gems of ancient architecture lie buried in the wilderness”
Photographed by M. H. Saville, 1890
]
King Philip, Red Jacket, Pontiac, Black Hawk, and many other Amerinds
distinguished themselves as men of wide capacity, and in our later day
may be mentioned the famous Sitting Bull, whose sagacity, intelligence,
and military skill were of an extremely high order. He gave us much
trouble, to be sure, but if all is fair in war, Sitting Bull deserves
great praise for his ability.
In war the Amerinds were given to killing all they could, but as this
is the business of war, and as white armies use weapons that are also
meant to kill, and seem to try to do killing in battle, we cannot be
too hard on the Amerind warrior if he did not always do his killing
exactly in the way we do it. “Murder as a fine art” was not one of his
studies. He killed and we kill; where is the difference? Wars may be
necessary; I think they sometimes are; so did the Amerind.
[Illustration: MUSICAL BOW OF THE SOUTHERN TEPEHUANES AND THE AZTECS,
MEXICO
The sounding-board is a gourd with a hole in it. The other end
of the brace attached to the bow rests on a stone. The cord of
the bow was struck by a stick to produce the desired noise. Found
by Lumholtz in use. Length of bow, 1 metre 36.5 centimetres. See
page 308; and also article on “Geographical Distribution of the
Musical Bow” by O. T. Mason, _American Anthropologist_, November,
1897; _Natural History of the Musical Bow_, by Henry Balfour; and
“Symbolism of the Huichol Indians,” by Carl Lumholtz, _Memoirs of
the American Museum_, vol. iii, pages 206, 207
]
Long before any permanent settlers pushed to the wilderness,
adventurous traders penetrated to remote regions with the whisky keg,
and as they seldom expected to go to the same place twice, they usually
swindled the native outrageously. Many of these were Frenchmen, and
they were given the name of _Coureurs du Bois_. There were also always
certain outlaws who found safety in putting a great distance between
themselves and the law. These classes were more apt to stir the native
up against the European than to render intercourse easy, and often,
in early times as well as in our day, they incited the Amerinds to
war for the sake of their own gains. But it was the coming of actual
settlers which caused the greatest trouble. They appropriated the
soil, killed the game, and otherwise interfered with rights which the
tribe concerned had for centuries, perhaps, regarded as theirs alone.
In the case of the Hudson Bay Company, it being well understood that
they occupied certain points merely for trade, no trouble was ever
experienced. _For two hundred years this company traded all over the
northern part of the continent without a serious rupture with any
tribe!_ Each tribe held its own lands as before, so far as the company
was concerned, hence there was no clashing; but with settlers taking up
choice places it becomes another matter.
[Illustration: GENERAL TYPE OF CHIMMESYAN, HAIDA, AND TLINKIT CHIEF’S
COSTUME, NORTH-WEST COAST
The Chilkat blanket which this man has over his shoulders “is so
called because the best specimens come from the Chilkat country,”
says Niblack. All the North-west coast tribes use it. The warp is
cedar bark twine and the woof a yarn made of mountain-goat wool.
See pages 128, 142.
]
[Illustration: PERFORATED DISCOIDAL STONE, ILLINOIS]
The stories of Cabeza de Vaca, Soto, Cortes, Coronado, John Smith,
La Salle, Tonti, Joliet, Lewis and Clark, Fremont, and many others
are valuable, not only for the adventures contained in them and the
descriptions of new country, but because of the descriptions of
Amerinds as they existed in the beginning. Our understanding of the
routes of some of these explorers is not always strictly accurate,
and the accuracy of the route has much to do with our properly
placing geographically the Amerinds named therein. There are grave
discrepancies in the tracing of that of Coronado, for example. In
another place I have presented my views on this subject.[404]
[Illustration: HOBOBO, THE FIRE KATCINA IN THE SOMAIKOLI CEREMONY,
CICHUMOVI, 1884
From a drawing by the author, after one of his photographs. The
mask enclosed the whole head, and was of cloth, stained green, with
globular eyes attached
]
[Illustration: CIRCLE OF DANCERS IN THE INTERVALS BETWEEN THE
APPEARANCES OF THE VARIOUS KATCINAS IN THE MOKI SOMAIKOLI CEREMONY,
CICHUMOVI, ARIZONA, 1884
Photographed by the author
]
As there were outlaws among the whites, so too there were outlaws among
the Amerinds. These were men from various tribes who had committed
crimes and escaped the punishment they should have received according
to the law of their people, and coming together they sometimes formed a
band by themselves in some strong and isolated position. A good example
of such a band of renegades was that of one Patnish in south-eastern
Utah near the Navajo mountain. It was composed of outlaws from the
surrounding tribes, chiefly Utes and Navajos, and was the terror of
the country, though in 1872, when I first knew of it, nothing in the
way of serious depredation had been attempted for several years. The
Mormons of southern Utah looked upon Patnish as a dangerous man, yet
he sometimes came to their frontier villages in a peaceful way. He
had three or four stalwart sons who usually accompanied him in his
travels, and they were always ready for emergencies. The band wore the
Navajo dress and, I understood, preferred to be considered Navajos.
Beckwourth mentions a renegade band of this sort in his time, a village
“composed of outlaws from all the surrounding tribes, who were expelled
from their various communities for sundry infractions of their rude
criminal code; they had acquired a hard name for their cruelties and
excesses, and many white traders were known to have been killed by
them.... The village numbered three hundred lodges, and could bring
from twelve to fifteen hundred warriors into the field.... We called it
the City of Refuge.”[405] He speaks of them as Cheyennes, but I suppose
they were Cheyennes in the same way that Patnish’s band were Navajos;
because they preferred to be called so.
These outlaws often caused trouble between the better class of Amerinds
and the whites, because, especially in the earlier days, an “Indian”
was an “Indian” always and everywhere, and a crime of the outlaws or
others was revenged upon the first “Indian” that was met with. There
never was any inquiry to find out if he committed the crime; he was
generally shot on sight. Innocence was a quality never thought of in
dealing with “Indians.” By reason of their birth, they were all guilty
of any crime perpetrated.
But I have already exceeded the limits prescribed for this book. In
concluding, I would say that it seems from all the evidence available
that this continent was peopled at a period so remote that other races
had not yet developed their present characteristics. This was probably
before the glacial epoch began, while the Northern climate was mild,
and while land surfaces were distributed more on latitudinal lines,
separated by narrower waters. Afterwards there was a rearrangement by
the forces of nature, which, together with the extreme cold of the
North, effectually separated the Amerinds from other peoples, and
caused them to mingle and react on each other till even the affinities
which had before developed in different localities and had produced
some differentiation of types were almost rubbed out and remain to-day
only as tinges of the earlier qualities. The other world tribes,
subjected to other influences, have developed other differences and
have diverged from their original stocks. It is also probable that
in the redistribution of land surfaces and rearrangement of land
levels, many stocks, some highly developed, were obliterated. Slight
modifications may have occurred through later accidental intrusions
from the Eastern Hemisphere, but if there had been any considerable
intercourse within a recent period between outside peoples and the
Amerinds we should have found distinct traces of it in the writings
of early days. People as different and extraordinary as the Amerinds
were would have produced a vivid impression on any who might have
seen them and contrariwise a European, for example, would have left
a lasting impression. On the extreme North-west coast there seems to
be a type resemblance to Asiatics, but this is more likely due to an
extremely early colouring which was preserved by special isolation on
this continent, rather than to any considerable infusion of Asiatic
blood in recent time. As before remarked, I am of the opinion that
the Alaska and North-west coast tribes reached those regions from the
South and South-east in comparatively late times.[406] Taking a broad
view of the question, it seems to be an inevitable conclusion that the
Amerind race, or rather _the various races of which it was originally
composed_, were early cut off on this hemisphere from intercourse
with the remainder of the world, and held in isolation by a change
in land distribution and by the continued glaciation of the northern
portions of the continent which in a measure endures to this day.
The climate of North-eastern Siberia was also glacial and prevented
migrations from milder regions. Many eminent archæologists agree
that the Amerind was here before the great cold moved down, although
the evidence of implements and remains as we now understand them is,
perhaps, insufficient. Languages, traits, customs, and arts are also
to be considered, and they seem all to favour, as outlined above,
the theory of an exceedingly remote peopling of this continent from
various directions. But this slight attempt to outline vast movements
must be brought to a close. To sum briefly up, then, it seems that the
Amerindian race, while originally composed of different elements, was,
as a body, separated from the other peoples of the world, at a remote
epoch, and by peculiar climatic and geographic influences, welded into
an ethnic unity, which was unimpressed by outside influences till
modern times.
[Illustration: FRONT OF THE HOUSE OF THE COLUMNS, MITLA, OAXACA
The excavation is shown that was made by Saville in January, 1900.
A cement floor was uncovered and the base of a square that was
probably a shrine. On the left, behind, is seen the top of the
Catholic church that has been built on the site of one of the
ancient structures. Excavations at the sites of old cities will
doubtless yield valuable returns. Recently (October, 1900) a sewer
excavation in the City of Mexico, near the Cathedral, the site of
the great teocalli, furnished several wagon-loads of idols, gold
objects, jade beads, etc. See also pages 209, 246
Photographed by M. H. Saville
]
+Note.+—For an excellent _résumé_ of facts on “The Prehistoric
Archæology of North America,” see the article by Henry W.
Haynes, p. 329, Winsor’s _Narrative and Critical History of
the United States_, vol. i.; also “The Progress of Opinion
Respecting the Origin and Antiquity of Man in America,” by
Justin Winsor, _ibid._, p. 369; also the “Critical Essay
on Sources of Information,” p. 316; and for pre-Columbian
explorations see p. 76; and, _The Fundamental Principles of Old
and New World Civilisations_, by Mrs. Zelia Nuttall, Peabody
Museum.
[Illustration: A COSTUMED HUMAN FIGURE FROM TAMPICO, WASHINGTON
The material is antler. Found in a stone cist somewhat resembling
the stone graves of Kentucky and Ohio, but covered by a heap of
jagged basaltic rocks about 8 feet in diameter. The skeleton
of a child was found in the cist. The antler figure is 247 mm.
long and from 2 to 5 mm. thick. The front is engraved as shown
above. The back is plain. See paper on this subject by Harlan I.
Smith.—_Bulletin American Museum_, vol. xx, pp. 195–203.
Harlan I. Smith
]
[Illustration: ENTRANCE OF A TOMB AT CUILAPA, MEXICO
It was around the entrances of such tombs as this that the
terra-cotta funeral urns were found, shown on pp. xii, xxviii, 115.
They were usually in series of five with nothing in them.
Marshall H. Saville
]
[Illustration: STICK USED IN THE AWL GAME]
APPENDIX[407]
A list of the principal stocks or families, tribes, and many sub-tribes
of the North American Amerinds, based on the linguistic classification
of the U. S. Bureau of Ethnology, as given in the _Seventh Annual
Report_; on Brinton’s classification in his _The American Race_,
on Mason’s “Linguistic Families of Mexico,” in the _American
Anthropologist_, N. S., vol. ii., No. 1; in _Mexico_, Washington, 1900,
Bureau of American Republics; Dall’s Tribes of the Extreme Northwest,
_Contributions to North American Ethnology_, vol. i.; James Mooney’s
_Siouan Tribes of the East_; and on lists in the _Bibliographies_ of
James C. Pilling, with tribal names from other sources.
+List of Stocks and Sub-Stocks+[408]
The abbreviations are the ones used in the alphabetical list of tribes.
By referring back from that list to this, the linguistic affinity and
general geographical location of a tribe may be determined. The author
has added the term “+Hopitan+” as a sub-stock of the +Shoshonean+
to designate the group of Hopi tribes, which, while showing strong
linguistic affinity, are otherwise, like the +Piman+ and +Nahuatlan+,
so markedly separated in habits from the true +Shoshonean+ stock that
an individual classification for them seems desirable. As the +Hopitan+
are ranked as +Shoshonean+ in the general scheme the harmony of the
classification is not interfered with. +Puebloan+ is also given as a
comprehensive descriptive term for all the permanent house-building
tribes, regardless of linguistic affinities, or ancient or modern
existence. This is necessary because it is not possible to assign a
linguistic place to the former occupants of ruins like those of the
Chaco, yet it is settled that they were of a kind with the other
town builders. Thus, also, the Cliff-dwellers may be conveniently
classed under this head. Tusayan and Cibola, as applied respectively
to the +Hopitan+ and the +Zuñian+, should never be used, for the
reason that it is not certain that these are the places that were so
designated by Coronado in 1540. The author believes they were not seen
by Coronado.[409] It is in the interest of accuracy to avoid these
unnecessary designations, which confuse ethnological and geographical
matters.
_Ada._ +Adaizan.+ Western Louisiana.
_Alq._ +Algonquian.+ North-east third of the continent, from
Tennessee and Montana.
_Ath._ +Athapascan.+ North-west part of the continent, and from the
Utah-Colorado line southward into Mexico. There are also some
small groups on the Pacific coast in south-western Oregon and
north-western California.
_Att._ +Attacapan.+ Southern Louisiana.
_Beo._ +Beothukan.+ Northern Newfoundland. Extinct. Formerly all
Newfoundland.
_Cad._ +Caddoan.+ Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, and North Dakota.
_Crb._ +Caribbean.+ Caribbean Islands and British Honduras. Also
probably Florida and S. E. United States at a very early period.
_Cpn._ +Chapanecan.+ Chiapas, Mexico.
_Chi._ +Chimakuan.+ North-west Washington.
_Chrk._ +Chimarikan.+ Northern California.
_Chyn._ +Chimmesyan.+ British Columbia, near Dixon Entrance, and the
neighbouring Annette Island, in Alaska.
_Cit._ +CHINANTECAN.+ Oaxaca, Mexico.
_Chik._ +Chinookan.+ Lower portion of the Columbia River.
_Cht._ +Chitimachan.+ Southern Louisiana.
_Chon._ +Chontal.+ See Zap., My., Tqs., also Tzental.
_Chm._ +Chumashan.+ Southern California coast.
_Coh._ +COAHUILTECAN.+ Lower valley of the Rio Grande del Norte,
adjacent to the Gulf of Mexico.
_Cop._ +Copehan.+ Northern California.
_Cso._ +Cusaboan.+ Coast of South Carolina; possibly mainly related
to the Muskhogean. It is a group title. See Gp.
_Cost._ +Costanoan.+ California, south of the Golden Gate.
_Dak._ +Dakota.+ See Siu.
_E. Siu._ +Siouan of the East.+ Same as Siu.
_Esk._ +Eskimauan.+ From Prince William Sound, Alaska, all along the
northern coasts, islands, and inlets to Hudson Bay, Greenland,
and northern Newfoundland.
_Alk. Esk._ Alaska Eskimo.
_Alu. Esk._ Aleut Eskimo. Aleutian Islands.
_Gr. Esk._ Greenland Eskimo.
_Lab. Esk._ Labrador Eskimo.
_M. Esk._ Middle or Central Eskimo. North of Hudson Bay.
_Gp._ +Group title.+ Several tribes of different stocks classed
erroneously together.
_Gua._ +Guatusoan.+ Nicaragua.
_Ess._ +ESSELENIAN.+ South coast of California.
_Hai._ +Haida.+ See Skit.
_Hua._ +Huavan.+ Isthmus of Tehuantepec.
_Ho._ +Hopitan.+ North-east Arizona. Classed as Shoshonean.
_Ir._ +Iroquoian.+ Around lakes Erie and Ontario, and down the St.
Lawrence as far as Quebec; along the Susquehanna and its
branches as far as the mouth, and also a belt through northern
Georgia, eastern Tennessee, western North Carolina, and
southern Virginia.
_Kal._ +Kalapooian.+ Western Oregon.
_Kar._ +Karankawan.+ Southern Texas. Extinct.
_Kers._ +Keresan.+ Northern New Mexico.
_Kio._ +Kiowan.+ Indian Territory, formerly in the Platte valley.
_Kit._ +Kitunahan.+ British Columbia and Oregon.
_Kols._ +Koluschan.+ Dixon Entrance to Prince William Sound, Alaska.
_Kuln._ +Kulanapan.+ North-western California.
_Kus._ +Kusan.+ Western Oregon.
_Ln._ +Lencan.+ Honduras.
_Lut._ +Lutuamian.+ Southern Oregon and northern California.
_Mar._ +Mariposan.+ Southern California.
_Mgn._ +Matagalpan.+ Nicaragua.
_My._ +Mayan.+ Northern border of Honduras to Isthmus of Tehuantepec.
_Mex._ +Mexicana.+ See Nah.
_Mixt._ +Mixteca.+ See Zap.
_Mo._ +Moquelumnan.+ Central California.
_Mus._ +Muskhogean.+ Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, northern Florida,
and western Tennessee.
_Nah._ +Nahuan.+ See +Nahuatlan+.
_Nah._ +Nahuatlan.+ Southern portion of Mexico and parts of Central
America. Classed as Shoshonean.
_Nah._ +Nahuatlaca.+ See +Nahuatlan+.
_Nat._ +Natchesan.+ Northern Louisiana, western Mississippi. Now in
Indian Territory.
_Ot._ +Otomian.+ Central Mexico.
_Pal._ +Palaihnihan.+ North-eastern California.
_Pa._ +Pani.+ See Cad.
_Pim._ +Piman.+ The Sonoran region of Mexico, and southern Arizona.
Classed as Shoshonean.
_Pbl._ +Puebloan.+ See Ho., Kers., Pim., Tan., Zun., etc. Northern
Mexico and the south-western part of the United States. The
stone and adobe house building tribes.
_Puj._ +Pujunan.+ North-eastern California.
_Qrs._ +Queres.+ See Kers.
_Qor._ +Quoratean.+ Northern California.
_Sli._ +Salinan.+ Southern California coast.
_Salh._ +Salishan.+ North-west Oregon, northern Washington, northern
Idaho, western Montana, south-western British Columbia.
_Sas._ +Sastean.+ Northern California.
_Ser._ +Serian.+ Tiburon Island and adjacent coast of Mexico.
_Shap._ +Shahaptian.+ South-east Washington, north-west Oregon,
western Idaho.
_Sho._ +Shoshonean.+ Southern Texas to northern Montana and north
of the Colorado River, west to the Sierra Nevada. In southern
California through to the Pacific. Under Shoshonean are
classed by some authorities not only the true Shoshonean but
the Nahuatlan, Piman, and Hopitan. Including the Piman and
Nahuatlan the stock range would extend throughout Mexico and to
parts of Central America.
_Siu._ +Siouan.+ Continuously from northern Louisiana to the province
of Saskatchewan, eastward to the Mississippi, and in Wisconsin
as far as Lake Michigan. Westward to the eastern boundaries of
Colorado and Idaho. There were also formerly a number of tribes
of this stock in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia.
See E. Siu.
_Skit._ +Skittagetan.+ Queen Charlotte Island, North-west coast.
_Sub._ +Subtiaban.+ Nicaragua.
_Tak._ +Takilman.+ South-west Oregon.
_Tan._ +Tañoan.+ Valley of the Rio Grande del Norte, New Mexico.
_Tar._ +Tarascan.+ Michoacan, Mexico.
_Tqs._ +Tequistlatecan.+ Oaxaca, Mexico.
_Te._ +Tewan+ or +Tehuan+. See Tan.
_Tim._ +Timuquanan.+ Florida.
_Tl._ +Tlinkit.+ See Kols.
_Tkn._ +Tonikan.+ Eastern Louisiana and western Mississippi.
_Tow._ +Tonkawan.+ Western and southern Texas.
_Tot._ +Totonacan.+ State of Vera Cruz, Mexico.
_Tzl._ +Tzental.+ Tabasco, Mexico. See also Chon.
_Uch._ +Uchean.+ Georgia.
_Ulv._ +Ulvan.+ Honduras.
_Un._ +Unidentified.+ Region, state, or possible affinity following.
_Uto-Az._ +Uto-Aztecan.+ See Ho., Nah., Pim., Sho.
_Wlp._ +Waiilatpuan.+ North-east Oregon.
_Wak._ +Wakashan.+ Coast of British Columbia.
_Wash._ +Washoan.+ Eastern California; western Nevada.
_Wei._ +Weitspekan.+ North-west California; south-west Oregon.
_Wish._ +Wishoskan.+ North-west California.
_Ykn._ +Yakonan.+ Coast of Oregon.
_Yan._ +Yanan.+ Northern California.
_Yuk._ +Yukian.+ Western California.
_Yma._ +Yuman.+ Arizona, southern California, and Lower California.
_Zap._ +Zapotecan.+ Southern Mexico.
_Zo._ +Zoquean.+ Chiapas and Oaxaca, Mexico.
_Zun._ +Zuñian.+ Western New Mexico.
+List of Tribes+
The stocks are also included and are printed in capitals. In order to
facilitate reference several titles of the same tribe are sometimes
given.
Abbāto-tenā. _Ath._
Abnaki. _Alq._
Absáruqe. _Siu._
Acadiau. _Alq._
Acaxees. _Nah._
Acconeechy. _E. Siu._
Acha. _Pbl._
Achē’to-tin’neh. _Ath._
Achis. _My._
Achomâwi. _Pal._
Acolhua. _Nah._
Acoma. _Kers._
Acomita. _Kers._
Acquera. _Tim._
Acxoteca. _Nah._
Adahi. _Ada._
Adáí. _Ada._
+Adaizan.+ _Ada._
Adaize. _Ada._
Adees. _Ada._
Adshusheer. _E. Siu._
Aggomiut. _M. Esk._
Agualulco. _Nah._
Aguateca. _My._
Aguile. _Tim._
Agutit. _M. Esk._
Ahaknanelet. _M. Esk._
Ahántchuyuk. _Kal._
Ahome. _Pim._
Ahowsaht. _Wak._
Aht. _Wak._
Ahtena. _Ath._
Aicale. _My._
Aivillirmiut. _M. Esk._
Aiyan. _Ath._
Ajoye. _My._
Akansea. _Siu._
Akbat. _Gr. Esk._
Akenatzy. _E. Siu._
Akoklako. _Kit._
Akorninak. _Gr. Esk._
Akudliarmiut. _M. Esk._
Akudnirmiut. _M. Esk._
Alaguilac. _Nah._
Alame. _My._
Alasapa. _Coh._
Aleut. _Alu. Esk._
Algonkin. _Alq._
+Algonquian.+ _Alq._
Algonquin. _Alq._
Alibamu. _Mus._
Aliche. _Cad._
Alikwa. _Wei._
Alimacani. _Tim._
Alsea. _Ykn._
Altatin. _Ath._
Aluik. _Gr. Esk._
Amitormiut. _M. Esk._
Amuchgo. _Zap._
Amusgo. _Zap._
Anaddakka. _Cad._
Anani. _E. Siu._
Anarnitsok. _Gr. Esk._
Anasitch. _Kus._
Andaste. _Ir._
Angmagsalik. _Gr. Esk._
Annocchy. _E. Siu._
Anouala. _Tim._
Apache. _Ath._
Apalachi. _Mus._
Appalou. _Tim._
Aquamish. _Wak._
Aquonena. _Tim._
Arapaho. _Alq._
Arctic Highlander. _Gr. Esk._
Ariquipa. _Ath._
Arikara. } _Cad._
Arikaree.}
Aripa. _Yma._
Arispa. _Pim.?_
Arivaipa. _Ath._
Arkansa. _Siu._
Arra-arra. _Qor._
Arvillirmiut. _M. Esk._
Aseguang. _Skit._
Ashochimi. _Yuk._
Asomoches. _Alq._
Assinaboin. _Siu._
Assinai. _Cad._
Assiwikales. _Alq._
Astina. _Tim._
Ătaăkût not Ā]. _Ath._
Atakwa. _E. Siu._
Atai. _Ada._
Ateacari. _Nah._
Atfálati. _Kal._
Athabascan. _Ath._
Athapacca. _Ath._
Athapasca. _Ath._
+Athapascan.+ _Ath._
Atka. _Alu. Esk._
Atnah (1). _Salh._
Atnah (2). _Ath._
Atore. _Tim._
Attacapa. _Att._
+Attacapan.+ _Att._
Atuamih. _Pal._
Auk. _Kols._
Awani. _Mo._
Axion. _Alq._
Ayankēld. _Kal._
Ayapai. _Mar._
Ayhuttisaht. _Wak._
Aztec. _Nah._
Babiocora. _Pim._
Backhooks. _E. Siu._
Baiyu. _Puj._
Balló Kai Pomo. _Kuln._
Baluxa. _E. Siu._
Bannock. _Sho._
Basirora. _Pim._
Basisa. _Tim._
Batemdikáyi. _Kuln._
Batucari. _Pim._
Batuco. _Pim._
Beaver. _Ath._
Belbellah. _Wak._
Bellacoola. _Salh._
Benixono. _Zap._
Beothuk. _Beo._
+Beothukan.+ _Beo._
Bethuck. _Beo._
Biara. _Pim._
Bilkula. _Salh._
Biloxi. _E. Siu._
Binukhsh. _Siu._
Blackfeet. _Siu._ (_See_ Sihasapa.)
Blackfeet. _Alq._ (_See_ Siksika.)
Blood Indians. _Alq._
Boka. _Puj._
Bollanos. _Mo._
Braba. _Pbl._
Brulé. _Siu._
Bulbul. _Ulv._
Búldam Pomo. _Kuln._
Cacalote. _Coh._
Cachopostate. _Coh._
Cacores. _E. Siu._
Cadapouce. _E. Siu._
Caddo. _Cad._
+Caddoan.+ _Cad._
Cadica. _Tim._
Cahita. _Pim._
Cahokia. _Alq._
Cahrok. _Qor._
Cahuillo. _Sho._
Cailloux. _Wlp._
Cajono. _Zap._
Cakchiquel. _My._
Calabaw. _E. Siu._
Calanay. _Tim._
Calapooya. _Kal._
Canai. _Alq._
Caniba. _Alq._
Canaway. _Alq._
Capaha. _Siu._
Cape Fear. _E. Siu._
Carcha. _Ulv._
Carib. _Crb._
+Caribbean.+ _Crb._
Carrizo. _Coh._
Casa Chiquita. _Coh._
Casa Grande. _Pbl._
Casas Grandes. _Pbl._
Cascade. _Chik._
Casti. _Tim._
Catajano. _Coh._
Catawba. _E. Siu._
Cathlamet. _Chik._
Cathlapotle. _Chik._
Cathlascon. _Chik._
Cattoway. _E. Siu._
Caughnawaga. _Ir._
Cayuga. _Ir._
Cayuse. _Wlp._
Cenis. _Cad._
Ceri. _Yma._
Chaco (Ruins). _Pbl._
Chahta. _Mus._
Chainímaini. _Mar._
Chalca. _Nah._
Chalqueño. _Nah._
Chamule. _My._
Chaneabal. _My._
Changuaguane. _Ath._
Chapa. _Cpn._
Chapanec. _Cpn._
+Chapanecan.+ _Cpn._
Charack. _Siu._
Charaeo. _Ot._
Charense. _Ot._
Chasta Costa. _Ath._
Chata. _Mus._
Chatcheeni. _Skit._
Chatino. _Zap._
Chauchila. _Mo._
Chawishek. _Kuln._
Chayopine. _Coh._
Chehalis. _Salh._
Chelamela. _Kal._
Chele. _My._
Chelekee. _Ir._
Chemehuevi. _Sho._
Chenposel. _Cop._
Chepewyan. _Ath._
Cheraw. _E. Siu._
Cherokee. _Ir._
Chetco. _Ath._
Cheyenne. _Alq._
Chia. _Pbl._
Chicasa. _Mus._
Chichen Itza. _My._
Chichilticalli. _Pbl._
Chichimec. _Gp._
Chichominy. _Alq.?_
Chickasaw. _Mus._
Chicklesaht. _Wak._
Chicora. _Cso._
Chiglit. _Alk. Esk._
Chikakokim. _Alq._
Chikaree. _E. Siu._
Chikelaki. _Alq._
Chilicothe. _Alq._
Chilili. _Tim._
Chilkat. _Kols._
Chilluckquittequaw. _Chik._
Chillúla. _Wei._
Chilpain. _Ath._
+Chimakuan.+ _Chi._
Chimakum. _Chi._
Chimalakwe. _Chrk._
Chimalapa. _Zo._
Chimalapas. _Zo._
Chimalpanec. _Nah._
+Chimarikan.+ _Chrk._
Chimariko. _Chrk._
+Chimmesyan.+ _Chyn._
Chimsian.}
Chimsyan.} _Chyn._
+Chinantecan.+ _Cit._
Chinanteco. _Cit._
Chinarra. _Nah._
Chinipa. _Pim._
Chinook. _Chik._
+Chinookan.+ _Chik._
Chinquíme. _Zo._
Chipeway. _Alq._
Chippewa. _Alq._
Chippewyan. _Ath._
Chiricahua. _Ath._
Chiroehaka. _Ir._
Chitimacha. _Cht._
+Chitimachan.+ _Cht._
Choam Chadila Pomo. _Kuln._
Chochona. _Zap._
Choctaw. _Mus._
Chokuyem. _Mo._
Chole. _My._
Cholupaha. _Tim._
Chontal (1). _Gp._
Chontal (2). _My._
Chontal (3). _Tqs._
Chopunnish. _Shap._
Chorotega. _Cpn._
Chorti. _My._
Chowanoc. _Alq._
Choya. _Tim._
Chozetta. _E. Siu._
Christanna. _E. Siu._
Chuchaca. _Kers._
Chuchona. _Zap._
Chugachigmiut. _Alk. Esk._
Chukaímina. _Mar._
Chūkchansi. _Mar._
Chumash. _Chm._
+Chumashan.+ _Chm._
Chumâwa. _Pal._
Chumaya. _Yuk._
Chumidok. _Mo._
Chūmteya. _Mo._
Chumtiwa. _Mo._
Chumuch. _Mo._
Chumwit. _Mo._
Chunut. _Mar._
Chwachamajù. _Kuln._
Cia. _Pbl._
Cicumovi. _Ho._
Cicuye. _Pbl._
Cimopavi. _Ho._
Cipaulovi. _Ho._
Clackama. _Chik._
Clahoquaht. _Wak._
Clallam. _Salh._
Clamets. _Lut._
Clatsop. _Chik._
Clickass. _Skit._
Cliff-Dwellers. _Pbl._
Clowetsus. _Wak._
+Coahuiltecan.+ _Coh._
Coahuilteco. _Coh._
Coaquilenes. _Coh._
Cochimi. _Yma._
Cochiti. _Kers._
Coco. _Ulv._
Cocomaricopa. _Yma._
Cocome. _My._
Coconino. _Yma._
Coconūn. _Mar._
Cocopa. _Yma._
Cœur d’Alêne. _Salh._
Coguinache. _Pim._
Cohonino. _Yma._
Cohuixca. _Nah._
Colotlan. _Nah._
Colouse. _Cop._
Colville. _Salh._
Comanche. _Sho._
Combahee. _Cso._
Comecrudo. _Coh._
Comeya. _Yma._
Comiteco. _My._
Comopari. _Pim._
Comupatrico. _Pim.?_
Comuripa. _Pim._
Comux. _Salh._
Concho (1). _Yma._
Concho (2). _Coh._
Conestoga. _Ir._
Confitachiquí. _Uch._
Congaree. _E. Siu._
Coninos. _Yma._
Conoy. _Alq._
Cook-koo-oose. _Kus._
Cooniac. _Chik._
Coosa. _Un. Mus.? Cso.?_
Cootenai. _Kit._
Copalis. _Salh._
Copan. _My._
Copeh. _Cop._
+Copehan.+ _Cop._
Coquilth. _Wak._
Cora. _Pim._
Coraru. _Nah._
Coree. _Ir.?_
Corsaboy. _Cso._
Coshatta. _Mus._
Cosninos. _Yma._
Costano. _Cost._
+Costanoan.+ _Cost._
Cotober. _E. Siu._
Cotoname. _Coh._
Coutani. _Kit._
Covisca. _Zo._
Covisco. _Zo._
Cowichin. _Salh._
Cowlitz. _Salh._
Coyotero. _Ath._
Cree. _Alq._
Creek. _Mus._
Crow. _Siu._
Cuchan. _Yma._
Cuicateco. _Zap._
Cuitlateco. _Nah._
Culua. _Nah._
Cumshawa. _Skit._
Cûñopavi. _Ho._
Cusabo. _Cso._
+Cusaboan.+ _Cso._
Cushna. _Puj._
Cusso. _Cso._
Cuthead. _Siu._
Cuttawa. _E. Siu._
Dāho′-tenā. _Ath._
Dakota. _Siu._
Dakubetede. _Ath._
Dápishul Pomo. _Kuln._
Daupom. _Cop._
Delamateno. _Ir._
Delaware. _Alq._
Didja-Za. _Zap._
Diegueño. _Yma._
Digger. _Gp._
Digothi. _Ath._
Dirian. _Cpn._
Dog Rib. _Ath._
Dohme. _Pim._
Dowaganha. _Alq._
Dwamish. _Salh._
Eastern People. _Kuln._
Eataubau. _Siu._
Echeloot. _Chik._
Edelano. _Tim._
Edisto. _Cso._
Ehiamana. _Tim._
Ehnek. _Qor._
Ekŏg´mint. _Alk. Esk._
Eloquale. _Tim._
Enecaqua. _Tim._
Eno. _E. Siu._
Erie. _Ir._
Erío. _Kuln._
Eriwoneck.
Erússi. _Kuln._
Esaw. _E. Siu._
+Eskimauan.+ _Esk._
Eskimo. _Esk._
Eskin. _Puj._
Esopus. _Alq._
Esquimaux. _Esk._
Esselen. _Ess._
+Esselenian.+ _Ess._
Estakewach. _Pal._
Etchemin. _Alq._
Etiwaw.}
Eutaw. } _Cso._
Euchre Creek. _Ath._
Eudeve. _Pim._
Éukshikni. _Lut._
Eurok. _Wei._
Faraone. _Ath._
Flachbogen. _Kit._
Flanahaskie. _E. Siu._
Flatbow. _Kit._
Flathead (1). _E. Siu._
Flathead (2). _Salh._
Flathead-Cootenai. _Kit._
Flonk´o. _Ath._
Fox. _Alq._
Gallinomréo. _Kuln._
Ganawese. _Alq._
Gaspesian. _Alq._
Gileño. _Ath._
Gohunes. _Yma._
Gosiute. _Sho._
Grand Pawnee. _Cad._
Gros Ventres. _Siu._
Guaicuru. _Yma._
Guailopo. _Pim._
Guajiquero. _Ln._
Gualála. _Kuln._
Guatuso. _Gua._
+Guatusoan.+ _Gua._
Guaymas. _Pim._
Guazapari. _Nah._
Guetares. _Cpn._
Guilito. _Cop._
Guimen. _Mo._
Gyidesdzo. _Chyn._
Gyitgāata. _Chyn._
Gyitksan. _Chyn._
Gyitqātla. _Chyn._
Gyitsalaser. _Chyn._
Gyitsumrälon. _Chyn._
Haeltzuk. _Wak._
Haida. _Skit._
Hailtzuk. _Wak._
Haishilla. _Wak._
Hammonasset. _Alq._
Hanahaskies. _Siu._
Hanega. _Kols._
Hano. _Tan._
Hanocoroucouay. _Tim._
Hantewa. _Pal._
Hapaluya. _Tim._
Hare. _Ath._
Hasatch. _Kers._
Hasinninga. _E. Siu._
Hatteras. _Alq._
Havasupai. _Yma._
Helto. _Puj._
Hemes. _Tan._
Hettitoya. _Mo._
Heve. _Pim._
Hicaranaou. _Tim._
Hichucios. _Pim._
Hidatsa. _Siu._
Himeri. _Pim._
Hiouacara. _Tim._
Hirrihiqua. _Tim._
Hishquayquaht. _Wak._
Hitchitee. _Mus._
Hizo. _Pim._
Hoak. _Puj._
Hoankut. _Puj._
Hololúpai. _Puj._
Homolua. _Tim._
Hoodsunu. _Kols._
Hoopah. _Ath._
Hopi. _Ho._
+Hopitan.+ _Ho._
Hopitu. _Ho._
Howakan. _Skit._
Howchuklisaht. _Wak._
Hualapai. _Yma._
Huasteca. _My._
+Huavan.+ _Hua._
Huaves. _Hua._
Huaztonteco. _Hua._
Huecos. _Cad._
Huichol. _Nah._
Huite. _Nah._
Huma.}
Hume.} _Nah._
Humâwhi. _Pal._
Hunah. _Kols._
Hupa. _Ath._
Huron. _Ir._
Husky. _Esk._
Husorone. _Pim._
Hutchnom. _Yuk._
Hydah. _Skit._
Igdlolnarsuk. _Gr. Esk._
Iglulingmiut. _M. Esk._
Ikogmiut. _Alk. Esk._
Illinois. _Alq._
Ilmâwi. _Pal._
Imahklimiut. _Alk. Esk._
Inguhklimiut. _Alk. Esk._
Innies. _Cad._
Innuit. _Esk._
Iowa. _Siu._
Ipapapan. _Tot._
+Iroquoian.+ _Ir._
Iroquois. _Ir._
Isantei. _Siu._
Isleta, New Mex. _Tan._
Isleta, Texas. _Tan._
Issa. _E. Siu._
Iswa. _E. Siu._
Itafi. _Tim._
Itara. _Tim._
Itaziptco. _Siu._
Ititcha. _Mar._
Itivimiut. _Lab. Esk._
Itza. _My._
Ivimiut. _Gr. Esk._
Ixil. _My._
Janos. _Ath._
Jaripecha. _Tar._
Jemez. _Tan._
Jicarilla. _Ath._
Jocolabal. _My._
Jonaz. _Ot._
Jope. _Zo._
Joshua. _Ath._
Kabinapek. _Kuln._
Kadapaw. _E. Siu._
Kagutl. _Wak._
Kaialigmiut. _Alk. Esk._
Kaigani. _Skit._
Kaimé. _Kuln._
Kaiowe. _Kio._
Kai Pomo. _Kuln._
Kaivavitz. _Sho._
Kaiyuh-khotānā. _Ath._
Kakamatsis. _Wak._
+Kalapooian.+ _Kal._
Kalapuya. _Kal._
Kăltsuerea tûnnĕ. _Ath._
Kamalel Pomo. _Kuln._
Kangivamiut. _Lab. Esk._
Kangmaligmiut. _Alk. Esk._
Kaugormiut. _M. Esk._
Kani. _Mo._
Kāniăgmiut. _Alk. Esk._
Kansa. _Siu._
Karankawa. _Kar._
+Karankawan.+ _Kar._
Karok. _Qor._
Karsuit. _Gr. Esk._
Kaskaskia. _Alq._
Kassooo. _Mar._
Kassovo. _Mar._
Kastel Pomo. _Kuln._
Kasua. _Sli._
Katchan. _Yma._
Kato Pomo. _Kuln._
Kauía. _Mar._
Kaulits. _Salh._
Kaus. _Kus._
Kauvuyas. _Sho._
Kaviagmiut. _Alk. Esk._
Kaw. _Siu._
Kaweah. _Mar._
Kaweya. _Mo._
Kâwiasuh. _Sho._
Kayowe. _Kio._
Kayung. _Skit._
Kcaltana. _Ath._
Kechemeches. _Alq._
Kechis. _Sho._
Keimanoeitoh. _Wak._
Kek. _Kols._
Kēlta. _Un., Ath.?_
Kemisak. _Gr. Esk._
Kenai. _Ath._
Kenay. _Ath._
Kenesti. _Ath._
Kera. _Kers._
Keres. _Kers._
+Keresan.+ _Kers._
Keswhawhay. _Ker._
Keyauwee. _E. Siu._
Kiawaw. _Cso._
K’iapkwainakwin. _Zun._
Kiawétni. _Mar._
Kichai. _Cad._
Kickapoo. _Alq._
Kiguaqtagmiut. _Lab. Esk._
Kikapoo. _Alq._
Kikkertarsoak. _Gr. Esk._
Killamuk. _Salh._
Kinarbik. _Gr. Esk._
Kingnaitmiut. _M. Esk._
King’s River. _Mar._
Kinnepatu. _M. Esk._
Kiowa. _Kio._
+Kiowan.+ _Kio._
Kioway. _Kio._
Kisani. _Pbl._
Kiscapocoke. _Alq._
Kitsmaht. _Wak._
Kittegareut. _Alk. Esk._
Kittuwa. _Ir._
+Kitunahan.+ _Kit._
Kizh. _Sho._
Klallam. _Salh._
Klamath (1). _Lut._
Klamath (2). _Wei._
Klanoh-Klatklam. _Kit._
Klaokwat. _Wak._
Klenekate. _Kols._
Klikitat. _Shap._
K’naia-khotona. _Ath._
Knik. _Ath._
Knisteneau. _Alq._
Koasáti. _Mus._
Koloma. _Puj._
Kolomum. _Puj._
Kolosch. _Kols._
+Koluschan.+ _Kols._
Komácho. _Kuln._
Kombo. _Un., Yan.?_
Komuk. _Salh._
Konjagen. _Esk.?_
Konkau. _Puj._
Kootenai. _Kit._
Kopagmiut. _Alk. Esk._
Kopé. _Cop._
Korusi. _Cop._
Kouksoarmiut. _Lab. Esk._
Kowagmiut. _Alk. Esk._
Kowelits. _Salh._
Kowilth. _Wish._
Koyukukhotānā. _Ath._
Kramalit. _M. Esk._
Kuagmiut. _Alk. Esk._
Kuchin. _Ath._
Kuitc. _Ykn._
Kulá Kai Pomo. _Kuln._
+Kulanapan.+ _Kuln._
Kulanapo. _Kuln._
Kūlmeh. _Puj._
Kulomum. _Puj._
Kung. _Skit._
Kunxit. _Skit._
Kupule. _My._
Kusa. _Kus._
+Kusan.+ _Kus._
Kuscarawock. _Alq._
Kuskwogmiut. _Alk. Esk._
Kutani. _Kit._
Kŭtchā-Kŭtchin´. _Ath._
Kutchan. _Yma._
Kutchin´. _Ath._
Kutenay. _Kit._
Kwaiantikwoket. _Sho._
Kwakiutl. _Wak._
Kwalhioqua. _Ath._
Kwantlen. _Salh._
Kwapa. _Siu._
Kwashilla. _Wak._
Kwatóa. _Puj._
Kwazami. _Ath._
Kwikhpăgmiut. _Alk. Esk._
Kwokwoos. _Kus._
Kyoquaht. _Wak._
Lacandon. _My._
Laguna. _Kers._
Laimono. _Yma._
Lákmiut. _Kal._
Láma. _Kuln._
Las´sik. _Cop._
Leaf-shooters. _Siu._
Lenapé. _Alq._
Lenca. _Ln._
+Lencan.+ _Ln._
Lenni-Lenapé. _Alq._
Likatuit. _Mo._
Likwiltoh. _Wak._
Lilowat. _Salh._
Lipan. _Ath._
Liwaito. _Cop._
Llanero. _Ath._
Loldla. _Cop._
Lolon´kūk. _Ath._
Lolsel. _Cop._
Long Island. _Alq._
Long Valley. _Sho._
Lopolatimne. _Mo._
Loucheux. _Ath._
Lower Coquille. _Kus._
Lucururu. _Tim._
Lummi. _Salh._
Lutuami. _Lut._
+Lutuamian.+ _Lut._
Macaw. _Wak._
Machapunga. _Alq._
Machaua. _Tim._
Machemni. _Mo._
Machemoodus. _Alq._
Macock. _Alq._
Magemiut. _Alk. Esk._
Mahican. _Alq._
Mablemiut. _Alk. Esk._
Mahoc. _Un., E. Siu.?_
Maidu. _Puj._
Maiera. _Tim._
Makah. _Wak._
Makhelchel. _Cop._
Malaka. _Cop._
Malica. _Tim._
Maliseet. _Alq._
Mam. _My._
Mamaleilakitish. _Wak._
Manahoac. _E. Siu._
Manakin. _E. Siu._
Mandan. _Siu._
Maneetsuk. _Gr. Esk._
Mangoac. _Ir._
Mangue. _Cpn._
Manhattan. _Alq._
Mano de perro. _Coh._
Manosaht. _Wak._
Mantese. _Alq._
Mareschit. _Alq._
Maricopa. _Yma._
Mariposa. _Mar._
+Mariposan.+ _Mar._
Marracou. _Tim._
Mascoutin. _Alq._
Maskegon. _Alq._
Maskoki. _Mus._
Massachuset. _Alq._
Massawomek. _Ir._
Massett. _Skit._
Massinacak. _E. Siu._
Matagalpan. _Un._
Matapane. _Pim._
Matelpa. _Wak._
Mathaica. _Tim._
Matlaltzinco. _Ot._
Matlame. _Ot._
Mattamuskeet. _Alq._
Mattapony. _Alq._
Mattoal. _Ath._
Mauvais-Monde. _Ath._
Maya. _My._
+Mayan.+ _My._
Mayapan. _My._
Maya-Quiche. _My._
Mayarca. _Tim._
Mayáyu. _Mar._
Mayo. _Pim._
Mazahua. _Ot._
Mazapil. _Nah._
Mazateco. _Zap._
Mecos. _Ot._
Meewoc. _Mo._
Mehemencho. _E. Siu._
Meherrin. _Ir._
Meidoo. _Puj._
Meipontsky. _E. Siu._
Melchora. _Ulv._
Meliseet. _Alq._
Melona. _Tim._
Melukitz. _Kus._
Mengwe. _Ir._
Menominee. _Alq._
Mequachake. _Alq._
Mescal. _Coh._
Mescalero. _Ath._
Met’how. _Salh._
Mexicana. _Nah._
Meztitlateca. _Nah._
Miakan. _Coh._
Miami. _Alq._
Michoa. _Tar._
Michōpdo. _Puj._
Micikqwûtme tûnnĕ. _Ath._
Micmac. _Alq._
Mico. _Ulv._
Micoñinovi. _Ho._
Mije. _Zo._
Mikono tûnnĕ. _Ath._
Mimbreño. _Ath._
Mingo. _Ir._
Minisink. _Alq._
Minitaree. _Siu._
Minneconjou. _Siu._
Minsi. _Alq._
Misálamagūn. _Kuln._
Mishongnovi. _Ho._
Misisauga. _Alq._
Missouri. _Siu._
Mita. _Wei._
Mitoám Kai Pomo. _Kuln._
Miwok. _Mo._
Mixe. _Zo._
Mixtec. _Zap._
Mixteca-Zapoteca. _Zap._
Moan´auzi. _Sho._
Moapariats. _Sho._
Mobilian. _Mus._
Mochilagua. _Pim.?_
Mocoso. _Tim._
Mocossou. _Tim._
Moctoby. _E. Siu._
Modoc. _Lut._
Módokni. _Lut._
Mogollon. _Ath._
Mohave. _Yma._
Mohawk. _Ir._
Mohegan. _Alq._
Mohetan. _E. Siu._
Mohican. _Alq.?_
Mokelumni. _Mo._
Moki. _Ho._
Molale. _Wlp._
Molua. _Tim._
Monachi. _Sho._
Monagan. _E. Siu._
Monahasanugh. _E. Siu._
Monasiccapano. _E. Siu._
Mono. _Sho._
Monocan. _E. Siu._
Monqui. _Yma._
Monsey. _Alq._
Monsoni. _Alq._
Montagnais (1). _Ath._
Montagnais (2). _Alq._
Montagnard. _Ath._
Montauk. _Alq._
Moose. _Alq._
Moosonee. _Alq._
Mopan. _My._
+Moquelumnan.+ _Mo._
Moquelumne. _Mo._
Moquis. _Ho._
Moscoso. _Tim._
Mosilian. _Alq._
Moundbuilder. Composite. _Gp._
Mowachat. _Wak._
Mowhemcho. _E. Siu._
Muclaht. _Wak._
Muctobi. _E. Siu._
Mukaluk. _Lut._
Mulluck. _Kus._
Multnoma. _Chik._
Munsee. _Alq._
Musakakūn. _Kuln._
+Muskhogean.+ _Mus._
Muskhogee. _Mus._
Muskoki. _Mus._
Musquito. _Un._
Mūtsūn. _Mo._
Muutzizti. _Pim._
Naas. _Gp., Chyn., Salh.?_
Nachitoches. _Cad._
Nacu. _Kus.?_
Nadowessiwag. _Siu._
Nagailer. _Ath._
Nageuktormiut. _M. Esk._
Nahauni. _Ath._
Nahsuzi. _Pbl._
Na’htchi. _Nat._
Nahua. _Nah._
Nahuatl. _Nah._
+Nahuatlan.+ _Nah._
Nahuatleca. _Nah._
Nahyssan. _E. Siu._
Na-isha. _Ath._
Naktche. _Nat._
Nakum. _Puj._
Nakwahtoh. _Wak._
Naltun netûnnĕ. _Ath._
Nambé. _Tan._
Nanaimo. _Salh._
Nanoos. _Salh._
Nantic. _Alq._
Nanticoke. _Alq._
Naolingo. _Tot._
Napa (1). _Cop._
Napa (2). _Yuk._
Napetuca. _Tim._
Narraganset. _Alq._
Narsuk. _Gr. Esk._
Nascapee. _Alq._
Nasquá. _Chyn._
Nataco. _Cad._
Natches. _Nat._
+Natchesan.+ _Nat._
Natchez. _Nat._
Natchitoches. _Cad._
Natowek. _Ir._
Natowesieux. _Siu._
Nātsit-Kŭtchin´. _Ath._
Naugatuck. _Alq._
Nauset. _Alq._
Navaho.}
Navajo.} _Ath._
Nawiti. _Wak._
Nayerit. _Pim._
Nehalim. _Salh._
Nehantic. _Alq._
Nehaunee. _Ath._
Nehethawa. _Alq._
Nenenot. _Alq._
Nespelum. _Salh._
Netchillirmiut. _M. Esk._
Netela. _Sho._
Netzicho. _Zap._
Neusiok. _Alq.?_
Neuter. _Ir._
Nevome. _Sho._
New Gold Harbour. _Skit._
Newichumni. _Mo._
Nez Percé. _Shap._
Nicaraos. _Nah._
Nicassias. _Mo._
Nicoutamuch. _Salh._
Nihaloth. _Chik._
Nikonha. _E. Siu._
Nimkish. _Wak._
Nipissing. _Alq._
Nipmuc. _Alq._
Nipnet. _Alq._
Niquiran. _Nah._
Nīshinam. _Puj._
Nisqualli. _Salh._
Nitinaht. _Wak._
Niwiti. _Wak._
Noema. _Cop._
Noje. _Yan._
Nomlaki. _Cop._
Nommuk. _Cop._
Nootka. _Wak._
Norelmuk. _Cop._
Normuk. _Cop._
Norridgewock. _Alq._
Notchee. _Nat._
Notoánaiti. _Mar._
Nottoway. _Ir._
Noyùki. _Cop._
Nozi. _Yma._
Nuchalaht. _Wak._
Nugumiut. _M. Esk._
Nuksahk. _Salh._
Numpali. _Mo._
Num´su. _Cop._
Nunatogmiut. _Alk. Esk._
Nuncock. _Siu._
Nunivagmiut. _Alk. Esk._
Nuntaly. _Un., E. Siu.?_
Nuntaneuck. _Un., E. Siu.?_
Nusdalum. _Salh._
Nushagagmiut. _Alk. Esk._
Nusulph. _Salh._
Nūtchu. _Mo._
Nūtha. _Sho._
Nutka. _Wak._
Nuwungmiut. _Alk. Esk._
Oathcaqua. _Tim._
Occaneechi. _E. Siu._
Ochíngita. _Mar._
Ocotlano. _Zap._
Oenock. _E. Siu._
Ogalalla.} _Siu._
Oglála. }
Oglemiut. _Alk. Esk._
Ohiat. _Wak._
Ojadagochroene. _E. Siu._
Ojibwa. _Alq._
Okahoki. _Alq._
Okeeogmiut. _Alk. Esk._
Okinagan. _Salh._
Okkiosorbik. _Gr. Esk._
Okomiut. _M. Esk._
Olamentke. _Mo._
Olelato. _Cop._
Olhone. _Mo._
Olla. _Puj._
Olmeca. _Un., Mex._
Olowidok. _Mo._
Olowit. _Mo._
Olowiya. _Mo._
Olposel. _Cop._
Oluláto. _Cop._
Olumpali. _Mo._
Omaha. _Siu._
Onathcaqua. _Tim._
Onava. _Pim._
Oneida. _Ir._
Onochaquara. _Tim._
Onondaga. _Ir._
Ontponas. _E. Siu._
Oohenopa. _Siu._
Opata. _Pim._
Opatoro. _Ln._
Opechisaht. _Wak._
Openango. _Alq._
Opuhnarke. _Alq._
Oraibe. _Ho._
Orarian. _Alk. Esk._
Orejone. _Coh._
Orista. _Cso._
Orotina. } _Cpn._
Orotinan.}
Osage. _Siu._
Osile. _Tim._
Otaki. _Puj._
Otari. _Ir._
Otayachgo. _Alq._
Oto. } _Siu._
Otoe.}
Otomi. _Ot._
+Otomian.+ _Ot._
Ottawa. _Alq._
Ounángan. _Esk._
Oustaca. _Tim._
Owilapsh. _Ath._
Paanese. _E. Siu._
Paboksa. _Siu._
Pacaos. _Coh._
Pachenaht. _Wak._
Pachera. _Pim._
Pacuâche. _Coh._
Padlimiut. _M. Esk._
Paduca. _Gp._
Paguate. _Kers._
Pah Ute.}
Pai Ute.} _Sho._
Paiuti. }
Pajalate. _Coh._
Pakamalli. _Pal.?_
Pakawá. _Coh._
Palaihnih. _Pal._
+Palaihnihan.+ _Pal._
Palaik. _Pal._
Palenque. _My._
Paléumni. _Sho._
Palligawonap. _Sho._
Paloos. _Shap._
Paluxsi. _E. Siu._
Pamaque. _Coh._
Pamawaioc. _Alq._
Pame. _Ot._
Pamlico. _Alq._
Pampopa. _Coh._
Pamticoke. _Alq._
Pamunkey. _Alq._
Pani. _Cad._
Panpakan. _Puj._
Pantasma. _Ulv._
Panteco. _My._
Papabuco. _Zap._
Papago. _Pim._
Parrastah. _Ulv._
Paskagula. _Siu._
Pasquotank. _Alq._
Passamaquoddi. _Alq._
Pastancoya. _Coh._
Patacale. _Coh._
Patawat. _Wish._
Patáwe. } _Cop._
Patcháwe.}
Patchica. _Tim._
Patshenin. _E. Siu._
Patwin. _Cop._
Paugusset. _Alq._
Paupákan. _Puj._
Pausane. _Coh._
Pavant. _Sho._
Paviotso. _Sho._
Pawnee. _Cad._
Paya. _Un._
Payseya. _Coh._
Pea. _Alq._
Pecos. _Pbl._
Pedee. _E. Siu._
Pehtsik. _Qor._
Pekwan. _Wei._
Pend d’Oreille. _Salh._
Penobscot. _Alq._
Pennacook. _Alq._
Pentlash.} _Salh._
Pentlatc.}
Peoria. _Alq._
Pequot. _Alq._
Pericu. _Yma._
Perquiman. _Alq._
Peten. _My._
Piankishaw. _Alq._
Picuris. _Tan._
Pi Ede. _Sho._
Piegan. _Alq._
Pihique. _Coh._
Pilingmiut. _M. Esk._
Pima. _Pim._
+Piman.+ _Pim._
Pinal Coyotero. _Ath._
Pinome. _Zo._
Pintahae. _E. Siu._
Pipile. _Sho._
Piqua. _Alq._
Pirinda. _Ot._
Piros. _Tan._
Piscataway. _Alq._
Pisquow. _Salh._
Pitkachì. _Mar._
Pitt River. _Pal._
Pi Ute. _Sho._
Poam Pomo. _Kuln._
Pocomtock. _Alq._
Podunk. _Alq._
Poélo. _Sho._
Pohállin Tinleh. _Mar._
Pohonichi. _Mo._
Pojoaque. _Tan._
Pokomam. _My._
Pokonchi. _My._
Poluksalgi. _E. Siu._
Pomo. _Kuln._
Pomouik. _Alq._
Ponca. _Siu._
Ponderay. _Salh._
Popoluca. _Gp., Mex._
Poquonnoc. _Alq._
Potanou. _Tim._
Poteskeet. _Alq._
Potlapigua. _Pirn._
Pottawatomi. _Alq._
Pottawattomi. _Alq._
Powhattan. _Alq._
Pueblito. _Kers._
Pueblo. _Pbl._
+Puebloan.+ _Pbl._
Pujunan. _Puj._
Pujuni. _Puj._
Pulairih. _Pal._
Punyeestye. _Kers._
Punyekia. _Kers._
Pusityitcho. _Kers._
Pusúna. _Puj._
Putum. _My._
Puyallup. _Salh._
Qagutl. _Wak._
Qaumauangmiut. _M. Esk._
Qinguamiut. _M. Esk._
Quaitso. _Salh._
Quapaw. _Siu._
Quatquiutl. _Wak._
Quatsino. _Wak._
Quekchi. _My._
Queniut. _Salh._
Queptlmamish. _Salh._
Querechos. _Un., Sho.?_
Queres. _Kers._
Quiahanless. _Skit._
Quiche. _My._
Quile-Ute. _Chi._
Quinnebaug. _Alq._
Quinnipiac. _Alq._
Quinpi. _Alq._
Quivira. _Un., Siu.?_
Quoddy. _Alq._
+Quoratean.+ _Qor._
Quoratem. _Qor._
Qwinctûnnetûn. _Ath._
Rama. _Un._
Ramapoo. _Alq._
Ramcock. _Alq._
Reho. _Un._, _Cali._
Republican Pawnee. _Cad._
Riccaree. _Cad._
Rickohockan. _Ir._
Rikwa. _Wei._
Rogue River. _Ath._ and _Tak._
Runsien. _Gp._
Rurok. _Wei._
Saagit. _Wei._
Sabaquis. _Pim._
Sabaibo. _Nah._
Sac. _Alq._
Sac and Fox. _Alq._
Sacumehu. _Salh._
Sagdlirmiut. _M. Esk._
Saharipa. _Pim._
Sahewamish. _Salh._
Sahkey. _Alq._
Saiaz. _Ath._
Saidyuka. _Sho._
Saint Regis. _Ir._
Saiwash. _Sas._
Sakaiakumni. _Mo._
+Salinan.+ _Sli._
Salish. _Salh._
+Salishan.+ _Salh._
Saluda. _Alq.?_
Samamish. _Salh._
Samish. _Salh._
San Antonio. _Un._
Sandia. _Tan._
Sanetch. _Salh._
San Felipe. _Kers._
Sanhican. _Alq._
San Ildefonso. _Tan._
Sanipao. _Con._
San Juan. _Tan._
San Juan de Guacara. _Tim._
San Mateo. _Tim._
San Rafael. _Mo._
Sans Arcs. _Siu._
Sans Puell. _Salh._
Santa Ana. _Kers._
Santa Barbara. _Sli._
Santa Clara, New Mexico. _Tan._
Santa Clara, Utah. _Sho._
Santa Cruz, Cali. _Mo._
Santa Elena. _Cso._
Santa Inez. _Sli._
Santa Lucia de Acuera. _Tim._
Santee. _E. Siu_ and _Siu_.
Santiam. _Kal._
Santo Domingo. _Kers._
Saponi. _E. Siu._
Saps. _E. Siu._
Saptin. _Shap._
Sara. _E. Siu._
Sarcees. _Ath._
Saste. _Sas._
+Sastean.+ _Sas._
Satsika. _Alq._
Satsop. _Salh._
Saturiwa. _Tim._
Sauk. _Alq._
Saumingmiut. _M. Esk._
Sauteux. _Alq._
Savanna. _Alq._
Sawákhtu. _Mar._
Sawamish. _Salh._
Saxapahaw. _E. Siu._
Sayúskla. _Ykn._
Scatacook. _Alq._
Sebasa. _Wak._
Secoffie. _Alq._
Secotan. _Alq._
Seemunah. _Kers._
Seguas. _Nah._
Sekamish. _Salh._
Sekumne. _Puj._
Selawigmiut. _Alk. Esk._
Selish. _Salh._
Seminole. _Mus._
Seneca. _Ir._
Senecú. _Tan._
Senel. _Kuln._
Sequas. _Nah._
Seri. _Ser._
+Serian.+ _Ser._
Sermiligak. _Gr. Esk._
Sermilik. _Gr. Esk._
Seroushamne. _Mo._
Serrano. _Ot._
Seshaht. _Wak._
Sewee. _E. Siu._
Shacco. _E. Siu._
Shackaconias. _Siu._
Shahaptaní. _Shap._
+Shahaptian.+ _Shap._
Shakan. _Skit._
Shanktonwan. _Siu._
Shasta. _Sas._
Shastika. _Sas._
Shasty. _Sas._
Shawano. _Alq._
Shawnee. _Alq._
Sheshtapoosh. _Alq._
Shetimasha. _Cht._
Shevwitz. _Sho._
Sheyenne. _Alq._
Shibal´ni Pómo. _Kuln._
Shingwauk. _Alq._
Shinomo.}
Shínumo.} _Pbl._
Shiwapmuk. _Salh._
Shiwokugmiut. _Alk. Esk._
Shoccori. _E. Siu._
Shódo Kaí Pomo. _Kuln._
Shomamish. _Salh._
Shooswap. _Salh._
Shoshokoes. _Sho.?_
+Shoshonean.+ _Sho._
Shoshone.} _Sho._
Shoshoni.}
Shotlemamish. _Salh._
Sia. _Kers._
Síako. _Kuln._
Sicatl. _Salh._
Sicaunie. _Ath._
Sihasapa. _Siu._
Sikonesse. _Alq._
Sikosuilarmiut. _M. Esk._
Siksika. _Alq._
Silets. _Salh._
Silla. _Kers._
Similaton. _Ln._
Sinaloa. _Pim._
Sinimiut. _M. Esk._
Sinnager. _Ir._
+Siouan.+ _Siu._
Sioux. _Siu._
Siquai. _Ulv._
Sisseton. _Siu._
Sissipahaw. _E. Siu._
Sitcaxu. _Siu._
Sitcomovi. _Ho._
Sitka. _Kols._
Siuslaw. _Ykn._
Skagit. _Salh._
Skedan. _Skit._
Skidi. _Cad._
Skihwamish. _Salh._
Skiteiget. _Skit._
Skitsuish. _Salh._
Skittaget. _Skit._
+Skittagetan.+ _Skit._
Skoffi. _Alq._
Skokomish. _Salh._
Skopamish. _Salh._
Skoyelpi. _Salh._
Sktehlmish. _Salh._
Skwaksin. _Salh._
Skwallyamish. _Salh._
Slave. _Ath._
Sluacus tinneh. _Ath._
Smoos. _Ulv._
Smulkamish. _Salh._
Snake. _Sho._
Snohomish. _Salh._
Snoqualmi. _Salh._
Sobaipuri. _Pim._
Sochimiloco. _Nah._
Soke. _Salh._
Sokóa. _Kuln._
Solteco. _Zap._
Songish. _Salh._
Sonomi. _Mo._
Sonora. _Pim._
Sonorense Opata. _Pim._
Sorrocho. _Tim._
Souriquoi. _Alq._
Spirit Lake. _Siu._
Spokan. _Salh._
Squawmisht. _Salh._
Squaxon. _Salh._
Squonamish. _Salh._
Stahkin. _Kols._
Stegara. _E. Siu._
Stehtsasamish. _Salh._
Stenkenocks. _E. Siu._
Stillacum. _Salh._
Stono. _Cso._
St. _Regis. Ir._
Subirona. _Ulv._
Subtiaba. _Sub._
+Subtiaban.+ _Sub._
Sugan. _E. Siu._
Sugaree. _E. Siu._
Sugon. _Wei._
Suinyi. _Zun._
Suisun. _Cop._
Sumass. _Salh._
Supi. _Yma._
Suquamish. _Salh._
Suquinimiut. _Lab. Esk._
Susquehannock. _Ir._
Swali. _Siu._
Swinamish. _Salh._
Tâcame. _Coh._
Tacatacura. _Tim._
Táchi. _Mar._
Taculli. _Ath._
Taderighrone. _E. Siu._
Taensa. _Nat._
Tagish. _Kols._
Tahichapahanna. _Sho._
Tahkaht. _Wak._
Tahkali. _Ath._
Tāh´ko-tin´neh. _Ath._
Tablewah. _Ath._
Tahltan. _Ath._
Tâiakwin. _Zun._
Tait. _Salh._
Taitchida. _Puj._
Takilma. _Tak._
+Takilman.+ _Tak._
Taku. _Kols._
Talamanca. _Un._
Talamo. _Salh._
Talatui. _Mo._
Talirpingmiut. _M. Esk._
Taltûctun tûde. _Ath._
Tamal. _Mo._
Tamaroi. _Alq._
Tamoleka. _Mo._
Tanek. _E. Siu._
Taño. _Tan._
+Tañoan.+ _Tan._
Tantoyoc. _My._
Tanu. _Skit._
Taos. _Tan._
Tapaneco. _Nah._
Tapijulapane. _Zo._
Tappas. _Cad._
Taqagmiut. _Lab. Esk._
Tarahumara. _Pim._
Tarasca. _Tar._
+Tarascan.+ _Tar._
Tarasco. _Tar._
Tarelepa. _My._
Tarratine. _Alq._
Tartanee. _Skit._
Tataten. _Ath._
Tatera. _E. Siu._
Taterat. _Gr. Esk._
Tatimole. _Tot._
Tatsāh-kutchin. _Ath._
Tatu. _Yuk._
Tauxsnitania. _E. Siu._
Tawakomie. _Cad._
Taywaugh. _Tan._
Tcême. } _Ath._
Tchême.}
Tcĕtlĕstcan tûnnĕ. _Ath._
Tchĭkûn. _Ath._
Tchishi. _Ath._
Tchokoyem. _Mo._
Teacualitzistis. _Pim._
Teata. _Pim._
Tebaca. _Nah._
Teco. _Nah._
Tecojine. _Zo._
Tecoripa. _Pim._
Tecualme. _Pim.?_
Tigninatio. _E. Siu._
Teguima. _Pim._
Tehama. _Cop._
Tēhānin-kŭtchin. _Ath._
Tehua. _Tan._
+Tehuan.+ _Tan._
Tehueco. _Pim._
Tejano. _Coh._
Tektikilhatis. _Tot._
Télumni. _Mar._
Tenaino. _Shap._
Tenăn-kŭtchin. _Ath._
Tenez. _Cit._
Tenime. _Zo._
Tennŭth-Kutchin´. _Ath._
Teotenanca. _Un., Mex._
Tepaneco. _Nah._
Tepehuane. _Pim._
Tepozcolul. _Zap._
Tequis. _Pim._
Tequistlateca. _Yma._
Terwar. _Ath._
Tessuisak. _Gr. Esk._
Tesuque. _Tan._
Tetero. _E. Siu._
Teton. _Siu._
Teuteca. _Cit._
Tewa. _Tan._
+Tewan.+ _Tan._
Texano. _Coh._
Texas. _Cad.?_
Texone. _Coh._
Teyas. _Cad.?_
Tezcucan. _Nah._
Tezcuco. _Nah._
Thlinket. _Kols._
T’ho. _My._
Tientien. _Cop._
Tigua. } _Tan._
Tiguex.}
Tillamook. _Salh._
Timoga. _Tim._
Timucua. _Tim._
Timuquana. _Tim._
+Timuquanan.+ _Tim._
Tínlinneh. _Mar._
Tinné. }
Tinneh.} _Ath._
Tinney.}
Tionontate. _Ir._
Tipatolápa. _Sho._
Tisèchu. _Mar._
Tíshum. _Puj._
Titõwā. _Siu._
Tiutei. _E. Siu._
Tlacopán. _Nah._
Tlahuico. _Nah._
Tlamatl. _Lut._
Tlaoquatch. _Wak._
Tlapanec. _Zap._
Tlapaneco. _Zo._
Tlascalan. _Nah._
Tlascaltecan. _Nah._
Tlatluican. _Nah._
Tlatscanai. _Ath._
Tlingit.} _Kols._
Tlinkit.}
Toámtcha. _Puj._
Tobikhar. _Sho._
Tocaste. _Tim._
Tockwhogh. _Alq._
Toderichroone. _E. Siu._
Todetabi. _Cop._
Tokar. _Sho._
Tokoaat. _Wak._
Tolemato. _Tim._
Tolewa.} _Ath._
Tolowa.}
+Toltec.+ _Nah.?_
Tongass. _Kols._
Tonika. _Tkn._
+Tonikan.+ _Tkn._
Tonkawa. _Tow._
+Tonkawan.+ _Tow._
Tonto. _Yma._
Topaidisel. _Cop._
Topoqui. _Tim._
Toquaht. _Wak._
Tosikoyo. _Puj._
Totero. _E. Siu._
Toto. _Puj._
+Totonacan.+ _Tot._
Totonaco. _Tot._
Towiachies. _Cad._
Towakarehu. _Cad._
Triqui. _Zap._
Tsamak. _Puj._
Tsawadinoh. _Wak._
Ts’emsián. _Chyn._
Tshinkitani. _Kols._
Tshokoyem. _Mo._
Tsimshian. _Chyn._
Tsinuk. _Chik._
Tubare. _Nah._
Tucano. _Pbl._
Tucururu. _Tim._
Tŭkkūth-kŭtchin. _Ath._
Tukuarika. _Sho._
Tulare. _Mo._
Tumidok. _Mo._
Tumun. _Mo._
Tunglas. _Mus._
Tununirmiut. _M. Esk._
Tununirusirmiut. _M. Esk._
Tunxi. _Alq._
Tuolomne. _Mo._
Tusayan. _Pbl._
Tuscarora. _Ir._
Tutahaco. _Pbl._
Tŭtchoné-kŭtchin. _Ath._
Tutelo. _E. Siu._
Tututena. _Ath._
Tutu tûnnĕ. _Ath._
Twaka. _Ulv._
Twana. _Salh._
Twichtwicht. _Alq._
Twightwee. _Alq._
Two Kettle. _Siu._
Tyigh. _Shap._
Tzendal.} _Tzl._
Tzental.}
Tzotzil. _My._
Tzutuhil. _My._
Ucalta. _Wak._
Uché. _Uch._
+Uchean.+ _Uch._
Uchita. _Yma._
Ucita. _Tim._
Ugalakmiut. _Alk. Esk._
Ugaqpa. _Siu._
Ugjulirmiut. _M. Esk._
Uinkarets. _Sho._
Ukiah. _Kuln._
Ukivokgmiut. _Alk. Esk._
Ūkumnom. _Ath._
Ukusiksalingmiut. _M. Esk._
Ukwulta. _Wak._
Ulva. _Ulv._
+Ulvan.+ _Ulv._
Umaha. _Siu._
Umanak. _Gr. Esk._
Umatilla. _Shap._
Umerik. _Gr. Esk._
Umkwa. _Ath._
Umpqua. _Ath._
Unakhotānā. _Ath._
Unalachtigo. _Alq._
Unalashka.} _Alu. Esk._
Unalaska. }
Unaligmiut. _Alk. Esk._
Unami. _Alq._
Uncapapa. _Siu._
Unechtgo. _Alq._
Ungavamiut. _Lab. Esk._
Unquachog. _Alq._
Ūnŭnǵŭn. _Alu. Esk._
Urriparacuxi. _Tim._
Usheree. _E. Siu._
Ushiti. _Yma._
Uspanteca. _My._
Ustóma. _Puj._
Uta. }
Utah.} _Sho._
Ute. }
Utchium. _Mo._
Utina. _Tim._
Utlateca. _My._
Uttewa. _Skit._
Uxmal. _My._
Vacissa. _Tim._
Valiente. _Un._
Varogio. _Nah._
Vebetlateca. _My._
Venaambakaiia. _Kuln._
Venado. _Coh._
Viard. _Wish._
Vŭntā-kŭtchin´. _Ath._
Waccamaw. _E. Siu._
Waco. _Cad._
Wagluxe. _Siu._
Wahaikan. _Chik._
Wahkiacum. _Chik._
Wahpeton. _Siu._
Waicurru. _Yma._
Waiilatpu. _Wlp._
+Waiilatpuan.+ _Wlp._
Waikenmuk. _Cop._
Waikosel. _Cop._
Waikur. _Yma._
Wailaki (1). _Cop._
Wailakki (2). _Ath._
Wailaksel. _Cop._
Wailatpu. _Wlp._
Wairika. _Sas._
Wakash. _Wak._
+Wakashan.+ _Wak._
Walakumni. _Mo._
Walapai. _Yma._
Walla Walla. _Shap._
Walli. _Mo._
Walpi. _Ho._
Wampanoag. _Alq._
Wangum. _Alq._
Wangunk. _Alq._
Wapanachki. _Alq._
Wapanoc. _Alq._
Wapoo. _Cso._
Wappinger. _Alq._
Wappo. _Chik._
Wapuchuseamma. _Kers._
Wapúmni. _Puj._
Warren nuncock. _E. Siu._
Wasco. _Chik._
Washaki. _Sho._
Washita. _Cad._
Washo. _Wash._
+Washoan.+ _Wash._
Waskiteng. _E. Siu._
Wateree. _E. Siu._
Watlala. _Chik._
Waxhaw. _E. Siu._
Wazaza. _Siu._
Wea. _Alq._
Weapemeoc. _Alq._
Weenee. _E. Siu._
Weeyot. _Wish._
Weitspek. _Wei._
+Weitspekan.+ _Wei._
Wendat. _Ir._
Wepawaug. _Alq._
Westo. _Cso._
Whīlkut. _Ath._
Whonkenteae. _E. Siu._
Wíchikik. _Mar._
Wichita. _Cad._
Wihinasht. _Sho._
Wikchúmni. _Mar._
Wikenak. _Wak._
Wíksachi. _Mar._
Wilaksel. _Cop._
Willamat. } _Kal._
Willamette.}
Wima. _Puj._
Wimbee. _Cso._
Winangik. _Sho._
Winatsha. _Salh._
Winnebago. _Siu._
Wintoon. _Cop._
Wintu. _Cop._
Wintun. _Cop._
Winyaw. _E. Siu._
Wisack. _E. Siu._
Wishosk. _Wish._
+Wishoskan.+ _Wish._
Witchita. _Cad._
Wiwash. _Alq._
Wíyot. _Wish._
Woccon. _E. Siu._
Wolokki. _Puj._
Woolwa. _Ulv._
Wyandot. _Ir._
Wylackker. _Cop._
+Xicaque.+ _Un._
Xicayan. _Zap._
Xime. _Nah._
Ximena. _Pbl., Pim.?_
+Xinca.+ _Un._
Xicalanca. _Un., My.?_
Xuala. _E. Siu._
Yaketahnoklatakmakanay. _Kit._
Yakon. _Ykn._
+Yakonan.+ _Ykn._
Yakutat. _Kols._
Yakwĭna. _Ykn._
Yamacraw. _Mus._
Yamasi. _Mus._
Yamil. _Kal._
Yamkally. _Kal._
+Yanan.+ _Yan._
Yankton. _Siu._
Yanktonnais. _Siu._
Yaqui. _Pim._
Yatasses. _Cad._
Yavipais. _Yma._
Yellow-knives. _Ath._
Yecpin. _Alq._
Yesang. _E. Siu._
Yodetábi. _Cop._
Yokáya Pomo. _Kuln._
Yokultat. _Wak._
Yokut. _Mar._
Yonkalla. _Kal._
Yope. _Zo._
Yosemité. _Mo._ See Awani.
Yótowi. _Puj._
Youkone. _Ykn._
Yuba. _Puj._
Yucatec. _My._
Yuchi. _Uch._
Yuclulaht. _Wak._
Yuit. _Asiatic Esk._
Yukai. _Kuln._
Yuke.} _Yuk._
Yuki.}
+Yukian.+ _Yuk._
Yúkol. _Mar._
Yukulta. _Wak._
Yuloni. _Mo._
Yuma. _Yma._
+Yuman.+ _Yma._
Yupaha. _Tim._
Yuqueyunque. _Pbl._
Yurok. _Wei._
Yusâl Pomo. _Kuln._
Yuta. _Sho._
Zapotec. _Zap._
+Zapotecan.+ _Zap._
Ziamma. _Kers._
Zoque. _Zo._
+Zoquean.+ _Zo._
Zoque-Mixe. _Zo._
Zuaque. _Pim._
Zuñi. _Zun._
+Zuñian.+ _Zun._
[Illustration: WOODEN SEAL-DISH, HAIDA, NORTH-WEST COAST]
INDEX
See also list of illustrations, page xv.
A
Abandoned works, meaning of, 348
Aboriginal dress, 126, 133
Adobe, 220;
brick, 234;
house, 195
Adoption, 366, 416
Adoratorio, 186
Alaska, peopled from S. and S.-E., 457
Albornoz, 136
Aleut houses, 216
Aleutian islands, when inhabited, 457
Aleuts, range of, 217
Algonquin, dress, 142;
records, 58
Alloy of gold and copper, 301
Alosaka, the, 179
Alphabet, Bureau of Ethnology, 36;
Cherokee, 52;
Sauk, 53
Amazon myth, 403
America, when peopled, 456
Amerind, a village dweller, 247;
definition of, 2;
literature, 30
Amerindian race composed of different elements, 457
Amerinds a stone-age people, 248
Amnesty, 370
Amusements, 308
Ancient fabrics, 108
Antiquity of man in America, evidences of, 434
Antiquity of Mayas, 242
Apaches and Navajos remaining behind, 440
Appendix, 461
Aqueduct, 339
Arch, 217, 242
Ardnainiq, tribe called, 407
Armour, 156, 255, 257
Arrow- and spear-heads, 263
Assembly place, 412
Astrology, reliance of Aztecs on, 373
Astronomical, knowledge, 183;
reckonings, 303;
station at Zuñi, 306;
stone, 182
Atlantis, 15
Atolli, 360
Authentic history, beginning of, 443
Awatuwi, ruins of, 179
Awl game, 320
Aztec, books, 73;
cannibal banquet, 371;
confederacy, 421, 423, 424;
descent, how reckoned, 423;
sculptures, 184;
states, government of, 423;
stone tools, 433;
towns, 238;
writing, 68, 69;
year, 306
B
Bag, sacred, 204
Baggattaway, 327
Baidar, 283
Baidarka, 283
Balance not known, 305
Ball games, 327
Baqati wheel, 317
Barábara, 217
Bark for rope-making, 126
Basket-drum, 92, 311
Basketry hats, 147, 148, 415
Basque, resemblance of language to Amerind, 32
Bathing, 386
Battle, costume, 357;
for a wife, 385;
of Wounded Knee, how begun, 445
Bayeta cloth, how used by Navajos, 131
Beads, wampum, 56
Beadwork, 153
Bear-mother carving, 164
Beckwourth, head chief of the Crows, 416
Bells, 292, 301, 302
Belts, 143
Bird box, 364;
spear, Eskimo, 268
Bird-stones, 175
Bison, disappearance of, 333;
possibility of domestication, 276
Black dye, 304
Blanket and basket designs symbolic, 58
Blanket-loom, 124, 131, 132
Blanket-making, 128, 133
Blanket-pole, 162
Blue dye, 304
Boats, 281;
Omaha, 284
Boiling-basket, 89
Bolas, 268
Bologna codex, 72
Books, of Chilan Balam, 82;
of the Mayas, 77, 82
Borgian codex, 69
Boundary lines, 410, 411
Bow and arrow, 249, 254, 256
Bow-drill, 254
Boxing, 326
Bronze tools, 299
Buffalo wool blankets, 159
Building methods, change of, 200, 350
Bunch-word, 32
Burial, 388
Burning pottery, 100
C
Cactus-fruit wine, 360
Cahokia mound, 342
Cajon, 220, 236
Cakchiquel year, 307
Calaveras skull, 434
Calculiform writing, 73, 186
Calendar, stick, 305;
stone, 181, 305
California houses, 215
Calumet, 364
Cannibal banquet, 371
Cannibalism, 368
Canoe, dugout, 282;
Haida, 164, 282
Captain David, 140
Captives, treatment of, 366
Card-playing, 320, 326
Carved panthers, 180
Carving, 162, 167, 169
Casa Grande, 200, 233, 234
Casas Grandes, 234
Casting metals, 301
Cause of North-American race homogeneity, 441
Cavate lodge, 220, 228;
plan and sections, 227
Cedar mats, 147
Cement, 303, 305
Cenoté, 370
Central-American arts, why superior, 439
Centre of culture, 431
Ceremonials, 320, 376, 381
Cérros trinchéras, 344
Chac-Mool, statue, 190
Chaco ruins, 230, 232
Chalchivitl, 136
Change in building methods, 200, 350
Cherokee, alphabet, 52;
syllabary, 52;
writing, 36
Chiefs, 416, 424;
civil, 418;
grades of, 424;
war, 418
Chief’s office hereditary in the gens, 424
Chilkat blanket, 452
Chimney, Puebloan, 226
Chinook jargon, 28
Chirimia, 311
Chiriqui, pottery, 104;
stools, 192
Chocolatl, 360
Cholula, Great Mound of, 350
Chultune, 288
Cigarette used, 363
_Cire perdue_ process, 301
City of Refuge, 456
Civil and military branches often separate, 418
Civilised tribes, 358
Clan, 414;
crest, 166, 220;
privileges and obligations of, 419
Classification by stone implements impossible, 433
Cleanliness, 386
Cliff-dwellers, 176, 229
Codex, Bologna, 72;
Borgia, 69;
Cortesianus, 82;
Dresden, 82;
Mendoza, 72;
Peresianus, 76, 82;
Telleriano-Remensis, 72;
Troano, 82;
Vaticanus, 72
Coil-process pottery, 99, 104
Comalli, 360
Commerce, 375
Communal, buildings, 247;
living, 200, 247
Complementary days, 306
Confederacy, Aztec, 421, 423, 424;
Iroquois, 421, 425, 449
Conical cap, 148;
hat, 147
Continent peopled before glacial period, 432
Controversy, 383
Cooking-basket, 89
Copan, 242, 351
Copper, bells, 292;
bowlder, 288;
hardening, 299;
implements, 291;
mines, date of working, 290;
plates, 291;
working, 249, 288, 291, 301
Coppers, 162, 293
Corbel, arch, 242;
vault, 235, 237, 242
Cord, 126
Cord-marked pottery, 106
Coronado, error in tracing of route of, 453
Cortesianus codex, 82
Costume, 133 to 144, 367
Cotton, 128, 338
Cotton-padded armour, 259
Cotton weaving, 137
Council, 420;
general, 420;
of women, 420;
tribal, 420
Councillors, 416, 420
Counterfeiting, 49
“Counts back” of the Dakotas, 60, 377
_Coureurs du Bois_, 451
Covenant chain of the Iroquois, 352
Crest, 166
Crops, 333
Cross, the, 254;
in America, 63
Crotalus, 380
Cruciform tomb, 3, 384;
ground plan, 385
Cueitl, 138
Culture not evidence of relationship, 430
Cup-markings, 65
Cupped-stones, 65, 272
Curtains for doors, 205
D
Dagänowédä, 421
Daily life not bloody, 353
Dakota winter counts, 60
Dance, around a cedar tree, 315;
Ghost, 316;
Rain, 364;
Resurrection, 316;
Snake, 376;
Somaikoli, 318, 381, 454
Dancing, 376, 378, 381
Dead, disposal of, 388
Death-house, Natchez, 208
Death-masks in Amerindian pottery, 106, 171
Declaration of war, 366
Decoration of pottery, 99
Defensive, village, 346;
walls, 345
Deformity rare, 366
Degeneration of Yucatecs, 439
Descent, basis of, 419
Destruction of Amerinds by Gov. Kieft, 444
Details of Puebloan house architecture, 211
Dibble, 270
Dighton Rock, 45
Diseases introduced by whites, 229
Distinction between gens and clan, 419
Distribution of, arts, 439;
food, 354
Dog, harness, Eskimo, 278;
whip, 279
Dogs, 276
Dolls, 328
Doors, 205
Doorways, 228
Double-headed snake, 168, 392
Dramatic sense, 331
Dresden codex, 82
Dress, 143
Drill, 251, 252
Drums, 308
Dry-painting, 61, 387
Dugout canoe, 282
Dwarfs, races of, 405
Dwellings, 195
Dyes, 303, 304
E
Early advancement, 432
Earthenware burial casket, 105
Earth, iglu, 219;
lodge, 202
Earthworks, Cahokia mound, 342;
connected with agriculture, 338;
Etowah group, 337, 346;
foundations for houses, 338;
method of construction, 342;
Newark group, 346
East Mesa, 378
Effigy jars, 119
Eldorado myth, 403
Election of Aztec chief, 424
Election of chiefs, 418
Elephant mound, 334;
pipe, 172
Elephant’s trunks, 190
Elopement, 383
Emblem of peace, 364
Embroidery, 153
Enchanted mesa, 408
Eskimo, boots, 158;
cloak, 159;
clothing, 156, 158;
derivation of term, 32;
dog harness, 278;
drum, 313;
fuel, 275;
house, 217, 219, 221;
lamp, 169, 274;
language, 36;
light from lamp, 276;
not in Alaska 500 years back, 428;
southern range of, 273;
wick for lamp, 276
Estufa, not a sweat-house, 375
Etchings, rock-scratchings incorrectly called, 180
Eternal fires, 252
Etowah mound, 337, 346
F
Fabric-marked pottery, 109
Face decoration, 366
Farming, 336
Farm products, 247, 338
Feather, garments, 134, 137, 138;
mail, 134;
mantles, 138
Feather-work, method of making, 137
Feathered, horned serpent, 63
Fetich, of what consisting, 420
Fire-drill, 250, 252;
by friction, 368, 370;
eternal, 252
Firing pottery, 100
Five Nations (or Tribes), 212, 425
Flageolet, 308
Flax, 130
Flint Ridge, 264
Flood stories, 407, 408
Floods, 439
Flute, 308
Fondness for singing, 318
Football, Eskimo, 326
Foot-races, 323
Forbidden food, 373
Foreign influence, no, 247
Fort Ancient, 344
Fortifications, 344
Fraudulent implements, 49
Funeral, jars, 112;
urns, 190
Fur companies, methods of, 363
G
Gallantry, 387
Gallatin’s work, 20–26
Gambling, 323
Games, 320
Garments, primitive, 126
Garters, 133
Gauntlet, running the, 366
Genesis, myth of the Mokis, 403
Gens, 414;
basis of, 419;
definition of, 414;
privileges of, and obligations, 419
Gentes, 414
Gentile system, 414
Georgia costume, 141
Gesture language, 26
Ghost dance, 316, 399
Ghost-shirt, 156, 262
Gilded man, the myth of, 403
Glacial period, cause of, 435
Glaciation, duration of, 435;
extent of, in North America, 435
Glue, 303, 305
God-houses of the Huichols, 409
Gold, alloy, 301;
plating, 302
Government, 414
Governor’s palace, Uxmal, 244
Grass seeds for food, 358
Grave monuments, 166
Graves, 388;
stone box, 388
Grease feast, 162
Great Heads, 407
Great Mound of Cholula, 350
Great Spirit, no knowledge of a single, 375
Gukumatz, 397
H
Haida canoes, 164
Hair dressing, 150
Hall of Columns, 209, 246
Hano, establishment of village of, 22
Hard pottery, 100
Hardened copper, 299, 300
Harpoon, 267
Hawk bells, 292, 309
Head at Izamal, 191
Head chief, 416
Head roll for carrying, 153
Health, 356
Heat, debilitating to Amerinds, 439
Helmet, 260
Hereditary offices, 423–424
Hero-gods, 371, 396, 399, 401
Hiawatha, 393;
in Longfellow and Schoolcraft ranked as an Algonquin, 395
Hieratic languages, 29
Hill forts, 344
Hinuⁿ, God of Thunder, 364
History, linked with other races, 447
Hodenosaunee, 212
Hodenosote, 200, 210
Hollow square earthworks, 208
Homogeneity, 358
Hopewell cache, 264
Horse-racing, 323, 329
Hospitality, a law, 354, 447
House, column, 162;
of the dead, 208;
post, 162
Household utensils, 273
Houses on piles, 240
Hudson Bay Co., peaceful success of, 453
Huepilli, 140
Human flesh eaten, 367, 368
Hunt-the-button game, 324
Hut of the Great Sun, 208
I
Ideographic records, 48, 59
Iglu, 217
Iglugeak, 217
Ikonographic writing, 69
Ikonomatic, 48, 69
Imaginary animals, 174
Indian, corn, 358;
names, 395;
stocks or families, list of, 461;
tribes, list of, 465
Indio Triste, 184
Intercalation of days, 306;
denied, 306
Interkilling, 381
Internecine wars, 229, 427
Irish and Danes in Ancient America, 429
Irrigating, 333;
canals, 195, 333, 336
Iroquois, confederacy, 421, 425, 449;
costume, 140;
house, 198, 200, 210;
unsurpassed, 375
Israelite and Amerindian myths compared, 403
Itzamna, 401
Ixtlilxochitl, 443
Izamal, head at, 191
J
Jacal construction, 220, 236
Jargon, Chinook, 28
Joint tenements, 240
Jossakeed, 373
K
Kabinapek orchestra, 325
Kalopaling, 407
Karankawa, 34
Kashim, 216
Katcina, 47, 378
Kayak, 281, 283
Kishoni, 196
Kisi construction, 196
Kiva, 231, 232, 325, 350, 375, 412, 414
Knives, 269
Kwakiutl, house front, 239;
statues, 167
Kwokwuli, 405
L
Labna, palace of, 450
Labret, 355
Lacandon idol, 190
Lack of carving in the South-west, 181
Lacrosse, 327
Ladders, 197, 226
Lamp, 169, 274;
of Vancouver Island, 275;
wick, 276
Landa’s alphabet, 50;
legacy, 78
Language, classification, 17;
roots, 18, 25
Languages, number of, 20;
polysynthetic, 32
Laōlaxa costume, 406
Law of hospitality, 354, 447
League of the Iroquois, 421, 425, 449
Legends, 393, 403, 405
Leggings, 134, 143, 144, 148, 150
Lenapé houses, 206
Length of year calculated, 305
Limits of ancient inhabitants, 437
Linguistic map, 33
Long-house, 200, 210, 414
Loom, 124, 131, 132
Lost-Tribes-of-Israel theory, 53, 63, 401, 403, 429
Louisiana costume, 140
M
Main points of Iroquois organisation, 425
Maize, 358
Makah house, 213
Malignant sprites, 405
Man always the same, 315
Manatee pipe, 173
Mandan costume, 144
Manner of dying, 356
Mantle of fur, 137
Map, Central-American ruins, 436;
linguistic, 33;
Mexican ruins, 438
Masks, 165
Mats, 147
Maxtlatl, 136
Maya, alphabet, 50;
books, 77, 82;
buildings, ground plans, 238;
chronicles, 408;
chronology, 242, 307;
greatness, 242;
house, 246;
numeral system, 83;
numerals, 86;
paper, 77;
parchment, 77;
war and rain gods, 190;
week, 306;
writing, origin of, 78;
year, 306
Mealing stones, 194
Medicinal remedies, 373
Medicine-men, 371, 372
Mendoza codex, 72
Mesa Encantada, 408
Messiah, the, 399
Metates, 181, 191, 194, 272
Method of attaching arrow-heads, 265
Methods of the fur companies, 363
Metlatl, 272
Mexican, bronze tools, 299;
costume, 134, 136, 138;
hardened copper, 299;
houses, 238;
knowledge of metals, 299;
mining, 299
Mezcal, 360
Michabo, 396, 399, 401
Midē, society, 401;
songs, 58
Migration theory, 428
Milk not used, 360
Mining, 285;
by fire method, 285
Misconceptions of the Spaniards, 421
Mississippi valley, houses, 205;
pottery, 106
Mitla, 209, 246;
roof construction, 230
Mnemonic records, 48, 59
Moccasin, 134, 142, 145, 150, 159, 369
Modoc houses, 215
Moki, hair dressing, 150, 151;
house plan, 220;
loom, 130;
method of watering crops, 335;
putchkohu, 268, 270;
reservation, 447;
sacred blanket, 130;
throwing-stick, 268, 270;
women’s costume, 150
Monitor pipe, 171
Monolithic monuments, 186
Montezuma, legend of, 408;
rank of, 423
Moons computed to the year, 305
Morgan’s classification, 14
Mormon protective garment, 262
Mortar, 246, 272
Most widely spread stocks, 443
Mound foundations, 242
Moundbuilder pipes, 172, 174
Moundbuilders, lack of skill, 174
Mounds, 195, 206, 207, 342, 350;
builders of, 343
Murder, settlement of, 381
Musical, bow, 308, 451;
instruments, 308
Mustache, 154
Myths, 393, 403;
resemblances to those of Israelites, 403
N
Nahuatls, 443. _See_ Mexican _and_ Aztec
Names, derivation of, 386;
indicating totem, 420
Natchez temple, 207
Navajo, costume, 150;
dramatic sense, 331;
dry-painting, 61;
house, 199;
loom construction, 131, 132;
reservation, 445;
silversmiths, 294;
silver-work, 296;
songs the most primitive, 313;
summer and winter homes, 412;
women’s costume, 150
Navajos remained behind, 440
Nenenot tent, 219
Nets, 269
New-fire, 252, 368, 370;
Moki, 370
Newark group of earthworks, 346
Nicaragua costume, 140
Night attacks, 366
North growing warmer, 443
North-west coast, “coppers,” 293;
houses, 212, 241;
totem poles, 241
North-western tribes, costume, 144
Notched doorway, 213, 228
Numerals of the Mayas, 83, 86
O
Object of Aztec war, 368
Observatories, 183
Obsidian, mines, 264;
tools, 299
Octli, 360
Oglala roster, 387
Okeepa ceremony, 362, 378
Oldest people of Valley of Mexico, 443
Olmecas, 443
Omaha boat, 284
Only one kind of music, 314
Ontonagon bowlder, the, 289
Opinion, effect of, on civil chief, 416
Oraibi at night, 325
Organisation and government, 410, 414
Organisation of Iroquois confederacy, 425
Origin, migrations, and history, 428
Origin of Maya writing, 78
Ornamentation of Yucatec architecture, 191
Outlaws, 453, 455
P
Pai Ute Messiah, 399
Pai Utes, 303
Painting faces, 366
Palace of Palenque, 351
Palenque buildings, 244, 351, 404, Frontispiece;
transverse section of, 210
Palm-drill, 252, 368
Paper of the Mayas, 77
Parallelism of human development, 396
Patnish and his band, 455
Patolli, 322
Peace chiefs, 418;
envoys, 364
Penn’s dealings, 358
Peopling of America, 428
Peresianus codex, 76
Period of time since recession of ice, 441
Permanent houses, 195
Phonetic element in Mayan and Mexican writing, 71
Phonographic records of songs, 320
Photographs bad medicine, 381
Phratry, 414
Pictographs, painted, 42
Picture-writing, 39;
classified, 50
Piki (Moki bread), 377
Pima house, 199
Piñon nuts for food, 358
Pipe, 171;
of peace, 364;
stone, 375
Pisé, 220, 236
Platforms, 206
Plumaje, 134
Plum-stone game, 324
Pochotl, 360
Poet, 313
Pokagon, Simon, quoted, 449
Pole, sacred, of the Omahas, 204
Polygamy, 386
Polysynthetic languages, 32
_Popol Vuh_, 82, 397
Population, 177;
before glacial cold, 434
Portable houses, 195
Potlatch, 162
Pottery, area, 110;
burnished, 100;
cloisonné, 101;
coil made, 99;
decoration of, 99, 120, 122;
Eskimo knowledge of, 428;
glaze, 101;
invented, 98;
preparation of clay for, 99
Priest doctor, 371
Primitive, fabrics, 124;
garments, 126;
loom, 121
Pronunciation, 34
Protective, armour, 156;
medicine, 262
Protruding tongue, 166
Pueblo, 207
Puebloan, costume, 133, 151, 153;
ignorance of metals, 292;
use of term, 44
Pulque, 360
Pump-drill, 251, 254
Putchkohu, 268, 270
Pyramid, not a proper term, 343, 351;
of Cholula, 350;
of the Sun, 350
Q
Quarries, 264, 273
Quetzalcohuatl, 371, 396, 397
R
Rabbit-skin robe, 130
Rain dance, 364
Raised houses, 240
Rapidity of erosion after recession of ice, 441
Rations, issue of, 445
Rattles, 309
Rattlesnake, centre of distribution, 190;
designs, 188;
horned, 380;
species, 189;
venerated, 63
Recession of the sea, 437
Records of Tecpan, Atitlan, 82
Red Cloud’s census, 60
Red dye, 304
Red pipe-stone, 375
Red score, authenticity of, 390;
of the Lenapés, 46, 47, 390
Rehearsal, a, 317
Religion, 375
Religious feasts, 368
Remedies, medicinal, 373
Remedy for smallpox, 375
Repoussé method of working copper, 291
Resemblance to Asiatics, 457
Resemblances of Amerinds and Old World people, cause of, 432
Reservoirs, 195, 338
Resurrection dance, 316, 399
Right of asylum, 364
Roasting tray, 90
Rock, carving, 168;
peckings, 42, 168, 180
Roof construction, Mitla, 230;
Moki, 226
Rope-making, 126, 346
Round towers, 232
Ruins in Honduras and Nicaragua, 246
Running the gauntlet, 366
S
Sachems, duties of, 425
Sacred, bag, 204;
buffalo-cow skin, 204;
Moki blanket, 130;
pole, 204, 383;
structures, 208;
tent, 204, 208;
tipi, 204
Sacrifice, method of Aztec, 371;
of children, Aztec, 371
Sacrificial stone, 182
Sail of umiak, 284
Sauk alphabet, 53
Sealskin, bottles, 276;
floats, 267
Secret society, 414
Section of Yucatec building, 235
Seminole, costume, 154;
war, 445
Sequoia, 360
Sequoyah (George Gist) syllabary, 52
Seven cities myth, 403
Shamans, 371, 373, 408;
definition of, 372
Shell carvings, 174
Shields, 258
Shoshokoes, 8
Sign-language, 26
Sign of clan or gens membership, 420
Silversmith’s tools, 298
Silversmiths, Navajo, 294, 296;
Tlinkit, 296
Similarities between Amerind and European words, 25, 28
Singing, 312, 318;
in the night, 319
“Singing-girl,” statue, 188
Sīsul, 168, 392
Sitting Bull, 356, 451
Six Nations, 425
Skin armour, 260
Skull-cap, 147
Slab houses, 212
Sledge, 277
Smallpox remedy, 375
Smelting ore, 291
Smoking, 363
Snake dance, 376
Snow-house, 217;
iglu, 217;
knife, 217;
shoe, 280;
snake, 323
Soapstone quarries, 273, 286;
vessels, 273
Sod house, 217
Soft pottery, 99
Sokus Waiunats and the magic cup, 403
Somaikoli ceremony, 318, 381, 454
Songs of the Ghost dance, 316
Sorceress, 371
Sound writing, 69
Soyaita ceremony, _see_ Somaikoli
Spades, 270
Spear- and arrow-heads, 263
Spindle, 126
Spinning, 128
Statue of the Sun, 350
Stelæ, Copan, 186
Stock names, how derived, 30
Stocks, 17
Stone, cutting, 300;
graves, 388;
implements as charms, 263;
statues in Georgia and Tennessee, 176
Stools of Chiriqui, 192
Story telling, 330
String-drill, 252
Sun priests of the Moki, 305
Superstition, 377
Swastika, 63, 458
Sweat, bath, 374;
house, 374
Syllabary, Cherokee, 52
Symbol of the peaceful council fire, 418
Symbolic writing, 69
T
Tablet of the, Cross, 184;
Sun, 186
Tablets, Maya, 184
Taensa house, 208
Tambourine-drum, 308, 313
Taos, 3, 234
Tattooing, 56
Tchungkee game, 328
Tecumseh, 449
Tegua (moccasin), 134
Telleriano-Remensis Codex, 72
Temple, of the Cross, 184, 190, 244;
of the Natchez, 207;
of the Sun, Frontispiece, 186;
of Tepoztlan, 242, 391;
of Xochicalco, 23, 31, 242
Temples, 350
Temporary house, 195
Tennis, 328
Teocalli, Frontispiece, 391
Tepehuaje, 311
Teponaztli, 312
Tepoztlan, temple of, 242, 391
Terms for describing stone weapons, 263
Terra-cotta, figures, 112, 113, 115;
tubing, 116, 117
Tetzontli, 350
Tewa, village of, when established, 22
Thought writing, 69
Thread, 126, 138
Throwing-stick of Mokis, 267, 268
Thunder-bird, 167, 342, 393
Tilmatli, 136
Time calculations, 305
Tipi, 195, 198, 200, 204;
construction, 200;
decoration, 202;
derivation of, 200;
sacred, of the Omahas, 204
Tiste, 360
Tlaloc, 396
Tlapan-huehuetl, 311
Tlaxcala, not a Mexican Switzerland, 423
Tlaxcalteco organisation, 424
Tlinkit silversmith, 296
Tobacco, 28, 363;
pipe, 171, 363, 364
Toboggan, 279
Toltecs, 443
Tongue in Amerindian carving, 166
Tools, 249
Topek, 219
Tortillas, 360
Totem, and totemism, 386;
poles, 162, 386
Totems, where chosen, 420
Totolospi game, 322
Towers, round, 232
Tozacatl, 311
Traditions, 393
Traits, 354
Translation of picture-writing by Mormons, 63
Transportation, 276
Triangular arch, 242
Tribal, chief, 416;
organisation, 414
Tribes, change building methods, 350;
exterminated, 445
Troano Codex, 82
True arch, 217
Tupek, 219
Turf house, 217
Turtleback flints, 261
U
Umiak, 157, 282, 283;
sail, 284
Unity of all music, 314
Unseen ruins, 246
Utahs, costume of 1776, 141
V
Value of a “copper,” 297
Variation in culture, 178
Vase from Labna, 74
Vatican Codex, 72
Veils, 138
Vicuna in Arizona, 130, 276
Village dweller, 8
Villages, location of, 412;
permanent, 228
Virgin copper, 301
Votan, 397
Votive stones, 188
W
Walamink, or Place of Paint, 304
Wālasaxa dance, 359
Wall, steps on, Moki, 222, 224
Walls, Moki, 226
Walam Olum, 47, 390
Wampum, 55, 143, 418;
belt, 418
War, 8, 366, 445;
belt of Iroquois, 418;
bonnet, 145, 156, 266;
chief’s office hereditary in the tribe, 424;
chiefs, 418, 424;
costume, 156, 357, 442;
declaration of, 418;
infrequent, 366;
object of, with Aztecs, 368;
Seminole, 445;
shirt, 262
Water-pocket, 405
Waterproof, boots, 159;
garment, 159
Weaving, 126, 128, 137, 141, 147
Weighing, 305
Whalebone dish, 96
Whip, of Eskimos, 279;
top, 328
Whisky, 360, 361
Whistles, 308, 310
White, brutality, 445;
buffalo-cow skin, sacred, 204;
men as chiefs, 416
Wicker-work, in house construction, 234, 236;
plastered, 236
Wigwam, 200, 204
Wikiup, 195
Wilson, Jack, the Pai Ute Messiah, 399
Windows, 228, 242
Wine, from cactus fruit, 360
Winter counts, Dakota, 60, 377
Wolf-killer, 267
Wooden, house, 195;
walls in ancient Puebloan construction, 236
Woonupits, 320, 405
Wrecks of Japanese vessels on Pacific coast, 429
X
Xicalancas, 443
Xochicalco, temple of, 23, 31, 242
Y
Yant, 358
Yellow dye, 304
Yokuts houses, 215
Yourt, 216
Yucatec, buildings, ground plans, 238;
stone, 242
Z
Zahcab, 238, 288
Zoötheism, 375
[Illustration: THE SWASTIKA
A primitive and universal sign]
FOOTNOTES:
[1] See the last chapter.
[2] See linguistic map p. 33, and list of tribes and stocks in Appendix.
[3] When the ice front was along the Ohio, the Eskimo naturally were
distributed along the southern fringe.
[4] For many details of the life of the American Indians, or Amerinds,
see _The Indians of To-Day_, by George Bird Grinnell. For the origin of
the word Amerind see the _American Anthropologist_, N. S., vol. i., No.
3, p. 582.
[5] It must be borne in mind that the general estimate of the Amerind
is entirely drawn from white men’s writings. The Amerind side has never
been presented.
[6] _Narrative of James P. Beckwourth_, p. 254; Irving’s _Bonneville_,
p. 225.
[7] “Amidst all the devastating incursions of the Indians in North
America it is a remarkable fact that no Friend who stood faithful to
his principles in the disuse of all weapons of war, the cause of which
was generally well understood by the Indians, ever suffered personal
molestation from them,” vol. v., p. 63, Brinton’s _Library of Am. Ab.
Literature_, from _An Account of the Conduct of the Society of Friends
toward the Indians_, p. 72. London, 1844.
[8] Payne says, “Anahuac was becoming a military despotism.” _History
of the New World called America_, vol. ii., p. 494.
[9] See Preface and the last chapter.
[10] Brinton’s “Uto-Aztecan.” The connection between the Nahuatl, or
Aztec, and Shoshonean is not well established.
[11] Lewis H. Morgan, _Houses and House Life_, Dr. W. J. McGee has
added a fourth stage, “Enlightenment.”
[12] For a full statement of this story, see the fascinating book,
_Atlantis: The Antediluvian World_, by Ignatius Donnelly.
[13] See Chap. XVI. and also the Preface.
[14] The widest differences were in the Maya and the Timuquanan. Each
of these differed greatly from the bulk of the Amerind languages and
from each other, probably because both stocks held more isolated
positions than the others during the glacial period, and preserved more
of their earlier life, whatever it may have been.
[15] See J. N. B. Hewitt, _American Anthropologist_, October, 1893.
[16] “There are well-known examples in the ethnography of other races,
where reliance on language alone would lead the investigator astray;
but all serious students of the native American tribes are united in
the opinion that with them no other clue can compare to it in general
results.”—D. G. Brinton, _The American Race_, Preface.
[17] As to the value of linguistics as a means of classification, Cyrus
Thomas says: “On the one side, it is held by some authors that affinity
of languages implies racial identity or unity of origin; on the
other, it is contended that the theory that the affinity of languages
necessarily implies identity of race is not warranted.”
[18] D. G. Brinton, _The American Race_. He does not approve wholly of
these terminations.
[19] _Seventh Annual Report, U. S. Bureau of Ethnology_, contains
complete list of American race stocks, north of Mexico, as far as
known. See Appendix.
[20] _Essays of an Americanist_, p. 35.
[21] Hopi is the singular; Hopituh the plural. Dr. Fewkes and others
having decided in favour of the singular form, it is so given here.
[22] They have intermarried with the Hopi and Navajo till Fewkes
believes that in “the next generation the percentage of pure
Tañoan blood will be so small that we cannot regard the stock as
Tañoan.”—_American Anthropologist_, April, 1894, p. 167.
[23] See Chap. XVI.
[24] _The American Race_ and _Chronicles of the Maya_.
[25] For further coincidences see Payne, _History of the New World
Called America_, vol. ii., p. 78, _et seq._
[26] See the _American Anthropologist_, July, 1894, vol. vii., “The
Chinook Jargon,” by Myron Eells.
[27] _Snake Dance of the Mokis_, p. 190.
[28] There are analogies between the Nahuatl and some languages of the
North-west and Alaska, especially that of the Koluschan, or Tlinkit,
living along the sea from Dixon Entrance to Prince William Sound.
[29] The Maya, however, has been found a useful language by Europeans.
Dr. Berendt met “whole families of pure white blood” who used this
language and did not know Spanish. This is not the usual fate of the
Amerind tongues.
[30] This word was popularly written Esquimaux, after the French.
Then the Bureau of Ethnology wrote it Eskimo, and this has been the
accepted spelling and pronunciation. But it is from the Abnaki dialect
of Algonquin, according to Brinton (_The American Race_, p. 59), and is
properly Eskimwhan. This is better represented by Eskimä than by Eskimo.
[31] See the list of stocks in the Appendix.
[32] “Their language was reduced to writing some sixty years ago and
has now a considerable literature. Nearly all the men of the tribe are
able to conduct personal correspondence in their own language.”—Mooney,
_American Anthropologist_, N. S., vol. i., No. 1, p. 137, 1899.
[33] The “l” like “cl” in “exclaim.”
[34] See also Payne’s _History of the New World_, vol. ii., p. 96 _et
seq._, for an excellent discussion of Amerind languages.
[35] “Cherokee Formulas,” Mooney, _Seventh Ann. Rept. Bu. Eth._
[36] For a complete presentation of the subject of sign-language, see
paper by Garrick Mallery, _First Ann. Rept. Bu. Eth._, and for that of
picture-writing see _Tenth Ann. Rept._, a paper by same author, and one
in _Fourth Ann. Rept._
[37] Note in Preface and last chapter statement as to irregularity of
culture progress.
[38] The Mayas, however, had passed the zenith of their development.
[39] “Etching” is the word commonly used, but as etching is a totally
different thing it has no place in this connection, and only adds to
the incongruities already existing in writings on the Amerind subject.
[40] _Painted_ characters are found in southern California, west and
south-west of Sierra Nevada; _painted_ and _scratched_, from Colorado
River to Georgia, north to West Virginia and along the Mississippi.
Remaining parts of United States show rock scratchings almost exclusive
of paintings, according to Mallery.
[41] The name applied by the Pai Utes to the old Puebloans.
[42] That is, the rock faces change slowly. Other changes may occur,
as, for instance, the foothold from which the pictures were made. I
remember seeing in Keam’s Canyon, Arizona, some pictographs on a cliff
wall that were far above reach, ten or twelve feet above my head. My
explanation was that the ground had been washed away after they were
made.
[43] I say “type,” because the Pueblo culture was not confined to one
stock. “Puebloan” may be used to designate them.
[44] A rock near Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, is inscribed with characters
supposed to be Runic, which have been translated by Phillips,
“_Harkussenmen varu_” = “Harko’s son addressed the men.” The Dighton
inscription was read as an account of the party of Thorfinn, while
other interpreters have made out Scythian and Phœnician characters. It
is possible that there may have been a few Runic characters mingled
with the Algonquian on the Dighton Rock.
[45] For a full account of the Walam Olum, see Brinton’s “The Lenapé
and their Legends,” in vol. v. of his _Library of American Aboriginal
History_.
[46] The pronunciation of this word always sounded to me
“_kat-chee´-nah_,” but Dr. Fewkes eliminates the “h” sound from this
and other words, and as he has devoted much attention to the subject I
follow his spelling.
[47] See Brinton, _Essays of an Americanist_, p. 213.
[48] At Newark, Ohio, a business was carried on in the manufacture of
inscribed stones, buried and dug up to suit occasion.
[49] See “A Remarkable Counterfeiter” by A. E. Jenks, _American
Anthropologist_, April-June, 1900.
[50] J. T. Goodman, _Biologia Centrali Americana_, part ix., p. 11.
[51] The Sauk, of Algonquian stock, “have a syllabic alphabet,
apparently the work of some early French missionary, by means of which
they keep up a correspondence with friends on their various scattered
reservations.”—Mooney, _American Anthropologist_, January, 1899, p. 143.
[52] For an explanation of the Lost Tribes theory see Payne’s _History
of the New World Called America_, vol. ii., p. 75 _et seq._
[53] Finally, after 1714, the machine-made beads grew in favour,
because the supply of native beads diminished with the diminution of
the number of Amerinds. These machine-made beads were of uniform size,
while the native beads varied considerably. See Horatio Hale, _Pop.
Sci. Monthly_, February, 1897.
[54] “The best blanket-makers, smiths, and other artisans among
the Navajos are the descendants of captives from Zuñi and other
Pueblos.”—J. G. Bourke, _Jour. Am. Folk-Lore_, p. 115.
[55] Garrick Mallery, _Fourth Ann. Rept. Bu. Eth._
[56] Mallery, _Fourth Ann. Rept. Bu. Eth._
[57] See “The Mountain Chant,” by Washington Matthews, _Fifth Ann.
Rept. Bu. Eth._ The dry-paintings also occur in the “Yebitchai”
ceremony, described by James Stevenson, _Eighth Ann. Rept. Bu. Eth._
[58] “Pictographs of the feathered, horned serpent are also found
on the cliff to the south-west of Walpi. These pictographs have the
head, with a representation of a horn and feathers, and the same
conventionalised markings of parallel lines and arrow-points which are
found on the kilts of the Snake priests.”—Fewkes, _Journal of American
Ethnology_, vol. ii., p. 38.
[59] _Thirteenth Ann. Rept. Bu. of Eth._, p. 92.
[60] By Dr. Nicolas Leon. _Science_, Jan. 27, 1899, p. 156. Still
another lately turned up in possession of an English gentleman.
[61] “They may have passed through some of the same stages of growth,
but the general consensus of opinion is that the Mayan is the older
of the two classes, and that these two classes have developed
independently.”—Thomas, _Study of American Archæology_, p. 360.
[62] P. 213 _et seq._
[63] Several have recently been splendidly reproduced and may be found
at large libraries.
[64] Suggested by the Abbé Brasseur.
[65] Egypt had three kinds of writing.
[66] _Biologia Centrali Americana_, part ix., p. 11.
[67] For a fac-simile of part of the Landa MS. and bibliographic notes
on Mayan and Mexican writing see _Winsor’s Nar. and Crit. Hist. of the
U. S._, vol. i., p. 197.
[68] See the Preface, p. vii., and the last chapter.
[69] Cyrus Thomas, Introduction to _Study of American Archæology_, p.
361.
[70] _Ibid._, p. 343.
[71] _Queen Moo_, by A. Le Plongeon, p. xv.
[72] Pp. 95 and 100.
[73] The “Codex Cortesianus is considered to furnish a connecting link
between Maya and Mexican symbols.”—Powell.
[74] Written in 1558. An abridgment of an older book.
[75] Goodman gives these three signs for 20 [symbol symbol symbol] and
remarks, “the last of the three being drawn with a great variety of
detail.”—_Biologia Centrali Americana_, part viii., p. 64.
[76] _Sixth Ann. Rep. Bu. Eth._, p. 337.
[77] See the monumental work on basketry by Otis T. Mason, and other
writings on this subject by the same author.
[78] See the _American Anthropologist_, April, 1894, vol. vii., “The
Basket Drum,” by Washington Matthews, as an illustration of how a
certain specialty in an art may survive after the art itself is
neglected.
[79] Murdoch found fragments of a cooking pot at Point Barrow.—_Ninth
Ann. Rept. Bu. Eth._, p. 91. Rude cups were also sometimes made.
[80] _Thirteenth Ann. Rept. Bu. Eth._, p. 276.
[81] W. H. Holmes, _Fourth Ann. Rept. Bu. Eth._, “Pottery of the
Ancient Pueblos.”
[82] The Amerind paste was generally quite dark, a light surface
colour being obtained by a “slip.” But I have found fragments of a
pinkish-white ware in Arizona the same colour all the way through.
[83] The earthenware of the Greeks and Romans was not glazed, but
covered with wax, bitumen, etc.
[84] With all the differences, however, an examination of pottery from
all over North America will convince any close observer of its general
homogeneity.
[85] W. H. Holmes, “Ancient Pottery of the Mississippi Valley,” _Fourth
Ann. Rept. Bu. Eth._, p. 372.
[86] W. H. Holmes, “Ancient Art of the Province of Chiriqui,” _Sixth
Ann. Rept. Bu. Eth._, p. 56.
[87] F. S. Dellenbaugh, “Death-Masks in Ancient American Pottery,”
_American Anthropologist_, February, 1897.
[88] In this connection it may be mentioned that Swallow found a human
skull enclosed in an earthen jar, the opening of which was too small to
admit of the skull’s extraction.
[89] W. H. Holmes, “Prehistoric Textile Fabrics,” _Third Ann. Rept. Bu.
Eth._; _Ibid._, “Prehistoric Textile Art,” _Thirteenth Ann. Rept. Bu.
Eth._
[90] F. S. Dellenbaugh, “Fabric-Marked Pottery,” _Popular Science
Monthly_, March, 1898.
[91] Brinton states that the art of the potter was extensively
practised by the Lenapé, but if this were accurate fragments of pottery
ought to be commoner than they are in the region formerly their home.
[92] Compare Preface and last chapter.
[93] M. H. Saville, “Exploration of Zapotecan Tombs in Southern
Mexico,” _American Anthropologist_, N. S., April, 1899.
[94] _American Anthropologist_, N. S., 1899, i., p. 355.
[95] W. H. Holmes, “Ancient Art of the Province of Chiriqui,” _Sixth
Ann. Rept. Bu. Eth._
[96] W. H. Holmes, “Ancient Art of the Province of Chiriqui,” _Sixth
Ann. Rept. Bu. Eth._
[97] Rib is the term applied by our potters to the small thin pieces of
wood used for smoothing the ware. The Moki “rib” corresponds closely in
size, shape, and use to that I have seen employed by our potters.
[98] For soapstone or steatite vessels, see Chap. X.
[99] Hoffman, _Fourteenth Ann. Rept. Bu. Eth._, p. 260.
[100] Holmes, _Thirteenth Ann. Rept. Bu. Eth._, p. 22.
[101] Boas, _Report U. S. Nat. Museum_, p. 319.
[102] Gibbs, _U. S. G. S., Contrib. to N. A. Ethnology_, vol. i., part
ii., p. 219.
[103] National Academy of Sciences, _Bones of the Hemenway Expedition_,
Introduction by Washington Matthews, p. 157.
[104] See for description of kiva the chapter in this book on
Architecture, etc., and also Macmillan’s _Dictionary of Architecture_.
[105] Dr. Washington Matthews, “Navajo Weavers.” _Third Ann. Rept. Bu.
Eth._, p. 375.
[106] Washington Matthews, _Third Ann. Rept. Bu. Eth._, p. 377.
[107] Some of the finest Navajo blankets command high prices.
A two faced blanket is described by Matthews in the _American
Anthropologist_, vol. ii., No. 4.
[108] Bandelier, _Final Report_, part i., p. 158.
[109] Prescott’s _Mexico_, vol. i., pp. 439, 442.
[110] _Ibid._, vol. ii., p. 13.
[111] _Ibid._, p. 71.
[112] The _timatli_ or _tilmatli_ for men was a piece of cloth,
according to Biart, “four feet long, which enveloped the body, and two
corners of which were knotted upon the breast or upon the shoulder.”
[113] _Ibid._, p. 73.
[114] Du Pratz, _Hist. de la Louisiane_, vol. ii., pp. 191, 192.
[115] Prescott’s _Mexico_, vol. ii., pp. 133, 134.
[116] Lucien Biart, _The Aztecs_.
[117] Squier, _Nicaragua_, p. 289.
[118] _The History of Erie County, N. Y._, pp. 58, 59, edited by H.
Perry Smith.
[119] Quoted in Captain Simpson’s _Report_, p. 494.
[120] Buckingham Smith’s translation.
[121] Lieutenant Mowry, _Report_, p. 587, Ex. Doc. No. 11, 35th Cong.,
1st Session.
[122] John W. De Forrest, _History of the Indians of Connecticut_, pp.
9–11.
[123] Catlin had wonderful success in persuading Amerinds to pose for
him. When I went amongst the Navajos and Mokis in 1884–85 I found
it next to impossible to get them to sit for me. Only one solitary
specimen in the whole region was willing to run the risk. It was
considered very “bad medicine.”
[124] The Crows, Sioux, Mandans, and Assiniboins are the same stock—the
Dakota or Siouan.
[125] Catlin, _Smithsonian Report_, 1885, pp. 450, 451.
[126] Dorsey, “Omaha Sociology,” _Third Ann. Rept. Bu. Eth._, p. 310.
[127] Geo. Gibbs, “Tribes of Western Washington and North-western
Oregon,” _U. S. G. S. Contrib._, vol. i., part ii., p. 220.
[128] _Ibid._, p. 219.
[129] _Ibid._, p. 176.
[130] The same kind of a wicker cap is worn by many California Amerinds.
[131] Cushing says of the early Zuñis: “They wore but scant clothing
besides their robes and blankets—breech-cloths and kilts, short for
the men, long for the women, and made of shredded bark and rushes or
fibre; sandals also of fibre.... The hair was bobbed to the level
of the eyebrows in front, but left long and hanging at the back,
etc.”—_Thirteenth Ann. Rept. Bu. Eth._, p. 358.
[132] “Coronado Letter,” _Fourteenth Ann. Rept. Bu. Eth._, p. 562.
[133] “Narrative of Jaramillo,” _Ibid._, pp. 586, 587.
[134] “Relación Postrera de Sívola,” _Ibid._, p. 569.
[135] C. MacCauley, “Seminole Indians of Florida,” _Fifth Ann. Rept.
Bu. Eth._, p. 486.
[136] _Memoirs Long Island Hist. Soc._, vol. i., p. 99, “Journal of a
Voyage to New York in 1679–80.”
[137] See chapter on Weapons, and note also the quotation from
Prescott—pp. 134 and 136.
[138] James Mooney, “The Ghost-Dance Religion,” _Fourteenth Ann. Rept.
Bu. Eth._, pp. 789, 790; see also Chap. IX., this work.
[139] Murdoch, “The Point Barrow Eskimo,” _Ninth Ann. Rept. Bu. Eth._;
Boas, “The Central Eskimo,” _Sixth Ann. Rept. Bu. Eth._; Turner,
“Hudson Bay Eskimo,” _Eleventh Ann. Rept. Bu. Eth._
[140] Murdoch.
[141] Dr. Kane, _Arctic Exploration_, vol. i., p. 203.
[142] John D. Hunter, _Memoirs of a Captive among the Indians of North
America_, London, 1823, pp. 289, 290.
[143] Sometimes two high poles are set up, between which, at a potlatch
or “grease feast,” the piles of blankets forming payment for a “copper”
are laid. These are called “blanket-poles.”
[144] There is a fine specimen in the American Museum of Natural
History, New York.
[145] See _Tenth Ann. Rept. Bu. Eth._, p. 478.
[146] W. H. Dall, _Third Ann. Rept. Bu. Eth._, p. 112.
[147] Franz Boas, “The Kwakiutl Indians,” _Rep. Nat. Mus._, 1895, pp.
323, 324.
[148] Franz Boas, “The Kwakiutl Indians,” _Rep. Nat. Mus._, 1895, pp.
370, 371.
[149] _Ninth Ann. Rept. Bu. Eth._
[150] _Sixth Ann. Rept. Bu. Eth._
[151] Chap. V., and _American Anthropologist_, February, 1897.
[152] _Prehistoric Art_, p. 477.
[153] Joseph D. McGuire, “American Aboriginal Pipes,” _Rep. Nat. Mus._,
1897, p. 468.
[154] H. W. Henshaw, “Animal Carvings,” _Second Ann. Rept. Bu. Eth._,
p. 166.
[155] Warren K. Moorehead, _The Bird-Stone Ceremonial_ (pamphlet).
[156] The Pai Utes make rude clay and wood dolls, but nothing larger,
and no pottery.
[157] A. F. Bandelier, _Final Report_, p. 152.
[158] A. F. Bandelier, _Final Report_, p. 153.
[159] _Ibid._, p. 161.
[160] A painted design, similar to that of the “Calendar Stone,” was
found on one of the inside walls at Mitla. See pl. xxv., Fig. 1,
Bandelier’s _Archæological Tour_.
[161] A compass card has five concentric circles, and the Calendar
Stone appears to have the same number. The compass was known in Europe
in the twelfth century, in China earlier.
[162] A. F. Bandelier, _Report of an Archæological Tour in Mexico_, p.
78.
[163] Two structures at Palenque are so called on account of the
tablets in them bearing emblems that resemble a cross. In that
designated by Stephen as No. 2, by Charnay later as No. 1, and by H. H.
Bancroft as No. 4, the cross form is the more pronounced, and it is the
one usually referred to by the above title.
[164] For the exterior of the Temple of the Sun, see Frontispiece.
[165] Leonhard Stejneger, “Poisonous Snakes of North America,” _Rep. U.
S. Museum_, 1893, p. 421.
[166] Edward S. Holden, “Studies in Central American Picture-Writing,”
_First Ann. Rept. Bu. Eth._, p. 229.
[167] Charnay found at Palenque that some of the figures were modelled
first nude and draperies applied afterwards, the latter separating from
the figure itself.
[168] Desiré Charnay, _Ancient Cities of the New World_.
[169] “Ancient Art of the Province of Chiriqui,” _Sixth Ann. Rept. Bu.
Eth._, p. 27.
[170] For definitions of aboriginal architecture, see Macmillan’s
_Dictionary of Architecture_.
[171] Bandelier, _Final Report_, part i., p. 103.
[172] Or, if the climate should change, the character of the house
might change with it.
[173] For full information on Dakota customs, etc., see the papers of
the late Rev. James Owen Dorsey in the third, eleventh, thirteenth, and
fifteenth _Ann. Repts. Bu. Eth._
[174] Wigwam is frequently used in a general sense to designate any
Amerind house of the skin or earth or wood type.
[175] See “ti” and “pi” in _Dakota-English Dictionary_, vol. vii.;
_Cont. U. S. G. S._, pp. 421, 467.
[176] Lewis H. Morgan, “Houses and House Life of the American
Aborigines,” _Contributions to N. A. Ethnology_, vol. iv., p. 114.
[177] Castañeda describes the Querechos and Teyas in 1540 as
travelling, “like the Arabs, with their tents and troops of dogs loaded
with poles, and having Moorish pack-saddles and girths.”—Winship’s
translation, _Fourteenth Ann. Rept. Bu. Eth._, p. 527.
[178] Morgan’s “Houses and House Life,” etc., p. 113.
[179] W. J. Hoffman, “The Menominee Indians,” _Fourteenth Ann. Rept.
Bu. Eth._, pp. 254–55.
[180] The Lenapé houses “were built in groups and surrounded with a
palisade.... In the centre was sometimes erected a mound of earth, both
as a place of observation and as a location to place the children and
women.”—Brinton, _The Lenapé_, p. 51.
[181] Cyrus Thomas, “Mound Explorations,” _Twelfth Ann. Rept. Bu.
Eth._, p. 647.
[182] _Ibid._, p. 649.
[183] Cyrus Thomas, _Twelfth Ann. Rept. Bu. Eth._, p. 653.
[184] Francis Parkman, _Discovery of the West_, p. 277.
[185] George Bancroft, _U. S. History_.
[186] L. H. Morgan, _Houses and House Life_, p. 120; see also _The
Iroquois League_, by Morgan.
[187] Brinton, _The American Race_, p. 77.
[188] Gibbs cites a split plank he saw in Puget Sound region, 24 feet
long and 4½ feet wide.
[189] Gibbs mentions a house of the Makah, north-west Washington, 75
feet long, 40 wide, and 15 high, all one room; and another used for
festivals 520 feet long, 60 feet wide, 15 feet high in front, and 10
feet in the rear.—George Gibbs, “Tribes of Western Washington and
North-western Oregon,” _Contributions U. S. G. S._, vol. i., p. 215.
[190] Stephen Powers, “Tribes of California,” _Contributions_, etc.,
vol. iii., p. 255.
[191] _Ibid._, p. 215.
[192] _Ibid._, p. 45.
[193] W. H. Dall, “Tribes of Alaska,” _Contributions U. S. G. S._, vol.
i., p. 82.
[194] The tree growth ceases at about the line of the village of Kodiak
on Kodiak Island. The Aleuts ranged over the Aleutian Islands and
eastward as far as Stepovak Bay on the peninsula.
[195] For definitions of these terms see Macmillan’s _Dictionary of
Architecture_.
[196] Schwatka found cliff-dwellings occupied by Tarahumaris in
northern Mexico. See _Cave and Cliff-Dwellers_, by Frederick Schwatka,
p. 187.
[197] In early days upper stories in New Mexico were sometimes built of
wood, plastered.
[198] For details of Pueblo architecture, see paper on the subject by
Victor Mindeleff, _Eighth Ann. Rept. Bu. Eth._ And “The Cliff Ruins of
Canyon de Chelly,” by Cosmos Mindeleff, _Sixteenth Ann. Rept. Bu. Eth._
[199] See Macmillan’s _Dictionary of Architecture_.
[200] See paper by Cosmos Mindeleff, “Aboriginal Remains of the Verde
Valley,” _Thirteenth Ann. Rept. Bu. Eth._
[201] See illustrations, pp. 225, 227, 228.
[202] See the writings of Geo. H. Pepper, director of the Hyde
Expedition.
[203] _Commerce of the Prairies._
[204] See Macmillan’s _Dictionary of Architecture_. Kiva is a Moki term
to replace the Spanish estufa, which is misleading. The kiva is not a
sweat house, as the Spanish term seems to imply. A sweat house or lodge
is expressly built and heated for the purpose of a sweat bath.
[205] See _Mem. Nat. Acad. Sciences_, vii., p. 146. Introduction by
Washington Matthews.
[206] “And have five or six stories, three of them with mud walls
and two or three with thin wooden walls.”—“Relacion del Suceso,”
_Fourteenth Ann. Rept. Bu. Eth._, p. 575.
[207] Littré gives _pisé_ as “made with a species of large bricks made
in wooden moulds”; _piser_, “to construct by beating earth between two
planks.”
[208] Prescott, _Mexico_, i., p. 474.
[209] _Ibid._, ii., p. 70.
[210] _Ibid._, ii., p. 110.
[211] Prescott, _Mexico_, ii., p. 109.
[212] _Voyages of Vancouver_, ii., p. 274.
[213] Morgan, _House Life_, p. 231. For the houses and house life of
some modern cave and cliff dwellers see _Unknown Mexico_, by Carl
Lumholtz.
[214] M. H. Saville, “Temple of Tepoztlan,” _Monumental Records_, i.,
No. 1.
[215] Goodman in _Biologia Centrali Americana_. From an inscription on
the back of the “Yucatec Stone” 10,731 years back to the date of an
action represented on the front of the stone from 1895.
[216] Cyrus Thomas (_American Anthropologist_, July, 1899) says: “Here
we see the culmination of Mayan art.” There are several terraces, but
one is so large as to eclipse the others.
[217] Viollet-le-Duc thinks these buildings and the Maya ones
originated in wooden structures. For details of construction, see
Bandelier’s _Archæological Tour in Mexico_.
[218] For mining operations see Chap. X.
[219] The Lenapé had arrow-heads and pipes made of copper. See Abbott’s
_Primitive Industry_.
[220] The Amerind muscles that came into play in bow shooting were so
highly developed that a white man untrained could not half pull a bow
that a generally weaker Amerind could pull with ease.
[221] Hoffman (_Fourteenth Ann. Rept. Bu. Eth._, p. 281) describes
similar bows found in Arizona and Nevada, three feet long, but made of
wood in a composite way.
[222] Hough says he has often made fire in thirty seconds with the
palm-drill and in five seconds with the bow-drill.—_National Museum
Report_, 1888, p. 531.
[223] See chapter on Customs for a quotation from Prescott describing
the festival of the new-fire.
[224] The Iroquois rigged large pump-drills out of saplings.
[225] Hoffman denies this, _Fourteenth Ann. Rept. Bu. Eth._, p. 279.
[226] For modern arrow-making among the Menominee, see _Fourteenth Ann.
Rept. Bu. Eth._, p. 275 _et seq._
[227] It is said that a blow-gun was also used by some North American
tribes. “Many of the Siouan Indians use the lance, javelin, or
spear.”—McGee, _Fifteenth Ann. Rept. Bu. Eth._, p. 171.
[228] “Primitive American Armour,” _Report of National Museum_, 1893.
[229] Bancroft, H. H., _Native Races_, vol. ii., p. 407.
[230] Veytia, _Hist. Ant. Mej._, tom. i., pp. 289, 290; see also page
134, this book.
[231] Brinton, _The American Race_, p. 138.
[232] “The Ghost-Dance Religion,” by James Mooney, _Fourteenth Ann.
Rept. Bu. Eth._; see also Chap. VI., this book.
[233] The Utah Mormons wear an undergarment supposed to have such
resistance. The idea may have come from them.
[234] James Mooney, “The Ghost-Dance Religion,” _Fourteenth Ann. Rept.
Bu. Eth._, p. 790.
[235] See Preface pages iv. and v., and also the last chapter of this
book.
[236] For “Medicine Arrows of the Oregon Indians,” see A. S. Gatschet,
_Journal of American Folk-Lore_, 1893.
[237] The surface flint was in bowlders and nodules.
[238] For a valuable account of stone implements of the
“Potomac-Chesapeake Tidewater Province,” see paper by W. H. Holmes in
_Fifteenth Ann. Rept. Bu. Eth._; also, “The Obsidian Mines of Hidalgo,
Mexico,” by the same author, _American Anthropologist_, vol. ii., No.
3, N. S.
[239] Tylor declares that it is not possible to distinguish stone
weapons from one part of the world from those from any other part.
[240] From the Aztec: _metlatl_.
[241] While the Eastern Amerinds generally seem not to have known how
to melt copper, some few may have experimented in a limited way with it.
[242] Walter Hough, “The Lamp of the Eskimo,” _Rep. Nat. Mus._, 1896,
p. 1028.
[243] The Amerinds of Vancouver Island were said by Captain Chase to
use a lamp made of a clam shell, with oil from the whale or porpoise.
The wick was bark.—Hough, p. 1039.
[244] See Castañeda’s narrative, Winship’s translation, _Fourteenth
Ann. Rept. Bu. Eth._, p. 527; and Ternaux Compans, _Relation de
Castañeda_, p. 190, “ils ont de grands troupeaux de chiens qui portent
leur bagage; ils l’attachent sur le dos de ces animaux au moyen d’une
sangle et d’un petit bât”; also the same narrative, _Fourteenth Ann.
Rept. Bu. Eth._, p. 456.
[245] For excellent descriptions in detail of the Eskimo sledge and
methods of using it, see Boas, _Sixth Ann. Rept. Bu. Eth._, p. 529 _et
seq._; Murdoch, _Ninth Ann. Rept. Bu. Eth._, p. 353 _et seq._; and
Turner, _Eleventh Ann. Rept. Bu. Eth._, p. 241 _et seq._
[246] Murdoch, _Ninth Ann. Rept. Bu. Eth._, p. 358.
[247] O. T. Mason, “Primitive Travel,” _Rep. Nat. Mus._, p. 566; see
also p. 564; and Turner, in the _Eleventh Ann. Rept. Bu. Eth._, p. 307.
[248] See O. T. Mason, “Primitive Travel,” _Rep. Nat. Mus._, pp.
381–410; _Eleventh Ann. Rept. Bu. Eth._, pp. 308–312; _Ninth Ann. Rept.
Bu. Eth._, pp. 344–352.
[249] For details of construction see Turner, _Eleventh Ann. Rept. Bu.
Eth._, p. 305; and Hoffman, _Fourteenth Ann. Rept. Bu. Eth._, p. 292.
[250] Baidarka is the Russian term used at Kodiak and along the Alaska
peninsula. Baidar = umiak; baidarka = kayak.
[251] For details of kayak and umiak construction, see Murdoch, _Ninth
Ann. Rept. Bu. Eth._, p. 328; Boas, _Sixth Ann. Rept. Bu. Eth._, p.
527; Turner, _Eleventh Ann. Rept. Bu. Eth._, p. 235; see, also, for
hunting weapons and methods, “Aboriginal American Zoötechny,” by Otis
Tufton Mason, _American Anthropologist_, N. S., vol. i., No. 1, 1899.
[252] The Omahas made one out of dried bison hides, branches, and
saplings.
[253] Mines of steatite vessels have been found on Santa Catalina
Island, California, as well as on the Eastern United States coast.
Charles F. Holder describes the Santa Catalina mines in the _Scientific
American_ for December 16, 1899.
[254] W. H. Holmes, _Fifteenth Ann. Rept. Bu. Eth._, pp. 108, 109.
[255] For a description of these chultunes, see “The Chultunes of
Labna,” _Memoirs of Peabody Museum_.
[256] Champlain’s _Voyages_, Prince Society edition, vol. ii., p. 236.
[257] Now in the National Museum, Washington. See article on the
subject by Charles Moore, _Report of U. S. Museum_, 1895.
[258] Frank Hamilton Cushing, “Primitive Copper Working, An
Experimental Study,” _American Anthropologist_, O. S., vol. vii., No.
1, 1894.
[259] Fewkes found several of these bells in his excavations around the
headwaters of the Gila.
[260] During my stay with the Mokis and in their vicinity and in all
the long time I have been observing them, I never saw nor heard of a
single object in metal wrought by them.
[261] Brinton, _The Lenapé_, p. 52.
[262] F. Boas, “The Kwakiutl Indians,” _Rept. Nat. Mus._, 1895, p. 344.
[263] Washington Matthews, “Navajo Silversmiths,” _Second Ann. Rept.
Bu. Eth._, p. 171.
[264] The tribes of the North-west made some gold and silver ornaments,
and at Sitka to-day there is a jewelry establishment kept by a native
Tlinkit, who makes most of his own silverware.
[265] Washington Matthews, “Navajo Silversmiths,” _Second Ann. Rept.
Bu. Eth._, p. 172.
[266] Prescott, _Mexico_, vol. i., p. 138.
[267] Daniel Wilson, _Prehistoric Man_, vol. i., pp. 213–215.
[268] _Ibid._, p. 216.
[269] _Ibid._, p. 218.
[270] Daniel Wilson, _Prehistoric Man_, vol. i., p. 222.
[271] W. H. Holmes, “Ancient Art of the Province of Chiriqui,” _Sixth
Ann. Rept. Bu. Eth._, p. 186.
[272] Brinton, _The Lenapé_, p. 53.
[273] Washington Matthews, “Navajo Weavers,” _Third Ann. Rept. Bu.
Eth._, p. 376.
[274] Squier describes a Tyrian purple of various shades secured in
Nicaragua from the murex shellfish by a slow and tedious process; see
his _Nicaragua_, p. 286.
[275] Dr. J. Walter Fewkes, _Journal of American Folk-Lore_, vol. ii.,
p. 151.
[276] Cyrus Thomas, _Sixth Ann. Rept. Bu. Eth._, p. 271.
[277] Prescott, _Mexico_, vol. i., p. 111.
[278] _Ibid._, p. 112. The intercalation of these 12½ or 13 days is
denied by Payne, _History of the New World_, vol. ii., pp. 294–316 _et
seq._, but Mrs. Zelia Nuttall and other eminent scholars are certain
they were intercalated.
[279] Goodman, _Biologia Centrali Americana_, part viii., pp. 5, 8.
[280] This bell is supposed, however, to have developed here from the
rattle.
[281] The Peabody Museum contains an exhibit of forty-five whistles
made of bone, all found together in one basket. They were wrapped with
split reed and were seven to ten inches in length.
[282] Washington Matthews, “The Basket Drum,” _American
Anthropologist_, O. S., vol. vii., No. 2, April, 1894.
[283] A. F. Bandelier, _Archæological Tour_, p. 150.
[284] John Comfort Fillmore, “The Harmonic Structure of Indian Music,”
_American Anthropologist_, N. S., April, 1899. See also Chas. K. Wead,
“The Study of Primitive Music,” _Am. Anthropologist_, N. S., vol. ii.,
No. 1.
[285] James Mooney, “The Ghost-Dance Religion,” _Fourteenth Ann. Rept.
Bu. Eth._, pp. 994, 995.
[286] James Mooney, “The Ghost-Dance Religion,” _Fourteenth Ann. Rept.
Bu. Eth._, pp. 994, 995
[287] Murdoch says the Point Barrow Eskimo wake up in the night to
sing.—_Ninth Ann. Rept. Bu. Eth._, p. 388.
[288] James Mooney, The Ghost-Dance Religion, _Fourteenth Ann. Rept.
Bu. Eth._, pp. 1002, 1003.
[289] J. Walter Fewkes, _Jour. of Am. Eth._, vol. ii., p. 159.
[290] James Mooney, _Fourteenth Ann. Rept. Bu. Eth._, p. 1008.
[291] Stephen Powers, _Tribes of California_, pp. 211, 212.
[292] _Eleventh Ann. Rept. Bu. Eth._, p. 255.
[293] For a description of the “Cat’s Cradle” games of the Amerinds,
see the elaborate work _String Figures_ by Caroline Furness Jayne.
[294] Col. Richard Irving Dodge, _The Plains of the Great West_, pp.
329, 330.
[295] _Plains of the Great West_, p. 324.
[296] John T. Short, _The North Americans of Antiquity_.
[297] From the Moki method of guiding shower-waters amongst the corn to
guiding waters from a brook or river in that way would not be a great
step; indeed, it would be most simple and natural and would easily be
forced by circumstances.
[298] Cosmos Mindeleff, “Aboriginal Remains of Verde Valley,”
_Thirteenth Ann. Rept. Bu. Eth._, p. 238.
[299] The term “horticulture” as employed by some writers means
agriculture on a small scale, the operations not being considered by
them extensive enough to merit the title of agriculture.
[300] Refer to previous chapter on “Architecture and Dwellings.”
[301] J. Walter Fewkes, “Preliminary Account of Archæological Field
Work in Arizona in 1897,” _Smithsonian Report_, 1897, p. 613.
[302] Desiré Charnay, _Ancient Cities_, p. 36.
[303] Bancroft, _History of the United States_, vol. i., p. 209.
[304] Cyrus Thomas, _Twelfth Ann. Rept. Bu. Eth._, p. 408.
[305] Cyrus Thomas, _Twelfth Ann. Rept. Bu. Eth._, p. 408.
[306] In New England there was once a fortification in Sanbornton, N.
H., which had walls six feet thick and breast-high, faced outside with
stone.—Winsor, _Nar. and Crit. Hist._, vol. i., p. 404.
[307] The great Cahokia mound in Illinois is seven hundred feet by five
hundred feet on the ground. For illustration of Etowah mound see page
337.
[308] Cyrus Thomas, _Study of North American Archæology_, p. 125.
[309] Gerard Fowke describes in the _American Anthropologist_, N. S.,
vol. ii, No. 3, “Points of difference between Norse Remains and Indian
works.”
[310] _Ancient Cities._
[311] Ad. Bandelier, _Archæological Tour_, p. 233 _et seq._
[312] Contact with civilisation has, however, changed the average
health in many if not all tribes.
[313] Bancroft, _History of the United States_, vol. i.
[314] For further details of the Mexican drinks, see Charnay’s _Ancient
Cities_.
[315] Squier, _Nicaragua_, p. 272.
[316] Biart, _The Aztecs_, p. 290.
[317] _The Life and Adventures of James P. Beckwourth, Mountaineer,
Scout, and Pioneer, and Chief of the Crow Nation of Indians_, p. 444.
Harper Bros., 1856.
[318] _Ibid._, p. 445.
[319] The council was opened by the sachem puffing smoke from the
pipe over the heads of the assembly, and then each councillor in turn
drawing at the pipe. This accomplished, business was begun.
[320] Mrs. Erminnie A. Smith, “Myths of the Iroquois,” _Second Ann.
Rept. Bu. Eth._, p. 72.
[321] _History of the United States._
[322] Important announcements are made by appointed criers.
[323] _Life and Adventures of James P. Beckwourth_, p. 228.
[324] _History of the United States._
[325] Payne’s _History of the New World_, vol. ii., pp. 495, 499, and
501.
[326] _Conquest of Mexico_, vol. i., p. 81.
[327] _Conquest of Mexico_, vol. i., p. 126; see also pp. 251, 252 of
this book.
[328] Lucien Carr, _Smithsonian Report_, 1891, p. 543; see also Payne’s
_History of the New World_, page 330.
[329] _Ibid._
[330] See Fewkes, “The New-Fire Ceremony at Walpi,” _American
Anthropologist_, N. S., vol. ii., No. 1.
[331] For details of cenoté, etc., see Desiré Charnay’s _Ancient
Cities_.
[332] _Archæological Tour_, p. 204.
[333] James Mooney, “The Ghost-Dance Religion,” _Fourteenth Ann. Rept.
Bu. Eth._, p. 980.
[334] Mrs. Erminnie Smith, “Myths of the Iroquois,” _Second Ann. Rept.
Bu. Eth._, p. 68.
[335] _Conquest of Mexico_, vol. i., p. 121.
[336] James Mooney, “Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees,” _Seventh Ann.
Rept. Bu. Eth._, p. 328.
[337] “Our materia medica owes tobacco, gum copal, liquid amber,
sarsaparilla, resin of tecamaca, jalap, and huaca to the Aztecs.”—L.
Biart, _The Aztecs_, p. 285.
[338] D. G. Brinton, _The American Race_, p. 82.
[339] _League of the Iroquois_, p. 55.
[340] _Ibid._, pp. 330–333.
[341] Brinton, _The American Race_, p. 77.
[342] These ceremonials often introduce historical matters. I was
surprised once to hear the song change to one of our Sunday-school
hymns. This portion of the ceremony was describing the establishment of
a Presbyterian mission at Keam’s Canyon years before.
[343] See J. Walter Fewkes, _Journal of American Ethnology_, for a
description of some of the Moki ceremonials and other papers by the
same author.
[344] In some of the pueblos there is a constant inter-killing going on
for supposed evil practices of witchcraft (Bandelier _Report_, part i.,
p. 35), but whether this has any connection with the secret orders, I
do not know.
[345] For information on these and other social points see the various
writings of J. W. Powell.
[346] The clan totem is probably an expansion of the individual totem
by increase.
[347] See pp. 162, 164, 241, this book, for illustrations of totem
poles.
[348] Dr. H. C. Yarrow, “Mortuary Customs,” _First Ann. Rept. Bu. Eth._
[349] The head-stones of these graves were this shape, [symbol] and
a portion in some cases protruded above the ground when I was there.
The ground was very sandy. The stones were natural slabs, about 1½ in.
thick.
[350] Stansbury, in his _Report_, describes graphically a “death lodge”
he found, but, unfortunately, space is lacking to reprint it here.
It is important in studying burial customs of the Amerinds to remember
that all members of a tribe were not necessarily disposed of in the
same way. Cabeza de Vaca mentions that “sometimes common members of a
tribe were buried while medicine men were burned.”
[351] See p. 46, this book.
[352] D. G. Brinton, _The Lenapé and their Legends_, pp. 158, 164.
[353] “The spirit of any plant, any star, or other personage in
creation may become a man’s attendant. In our popular phraseology this
is called his medicine.”—Jeremiah Curtin, _Creation Myths_, p. 29.
[354] See “The Lessons of Folklore,” J. W. Powell, _American
Anthropologist_, vol. ii., No. 1, N. S., January, 1900.
[355] Jeremiah Curtin, _Creation Myths of Primitive America_, p. 499.
[356] Bandelier, _Archæological Tour_, p. 180.
[357] _Ibid._, p. 193. See p. 170 _et seq._ for his whole discussion of
Quetzalcohuatl. See also the “Book of Quetzalcohuatl.” Payne, _History
of the New World_, II., p. 435 _et seq._
[358] _American Hero Myths_, p. 64 _et seq._
[359] A. S. Gatschet, “An Indian Visit to Jack Wilson, the Payute
Messiah,” _Journal of American Folk-Lore_.
[360] _American Hero Myths_, p. 147.
[361] Payne accepts the Amazon stories as true. _History of the New
World_, vol. ii., p. 11.
[362] For some Amerind legends delightfully related, see _Blackfoot
Lodge Tales_, and other books, by George Bird Grinnell.
[363] _Native Races_, vol. i., p. 129.
[364] _League of the Iroquois_, p. 43.
[365] Brinton, _The Lenapé_, p. 15.
[366] _History of the American Indians_, p. 282.
[367] See Macmillan’s _Dictionary of Architecture_; pronounced
_kee-vah_.
[368] _First Ann. Rept. Bu. Eth._, p. 59.
[369] See Macmillan’s _Dictionary of Architecture_.
[370] Parkman mentions Beckwourth in the _Oregon Trail_, p. 124, as “a
mongrel of French, American, and Indian blood.... He is a ruffian of
the worst stamp, bloody and treacherous, without honour or honesty”;
but other writers seem to give him a better character.
[371] Beckwourth, _Life and Adventures_, first ed., pp. 227, 228.
[372] Brinton, _The Lenapé_, p. 47.
[373] _The American Race_, p. 46.
[374] Morgan, _Houses and House Life_, p. 8. “In the ancient gens
descent was limited to the female line.” _Ibid._, p. 5.
[375] _Ancient Society_, p. 69.
[376] _American Anthropologist_, N. S., vol i., No. 4, October, 1899,
p. 710.
[377] _Ancient Society_, p. 71, and _Houses and House-Life_, p. 7.
[378] Powell, _First Ann. Rept. Bu. Eth._, p. 61.
[379] Originally _Häyowenthä_ in the Mohawk. He and _Däganowédä_ are
usually considered mythical personages.
[380] _The American Race_, p. 130.
[381] Payne, as before noted, says “a military despotism.”
[382] _Archæological Tour_, p. 31, and footnote, p. 31.
[383] _Conquest of Mexico_, vol. i., p. 23.
[384] _Ancient Society_, pp. 71, 72.
[385] _Houses and House-Life_, p. 28.
[386] See the Preface of this book, and also Payne’s _History of the
New World_, vol. ii., which, unfortunately, the author did not have the
benefit of seeing till after this book was written.
[387] In this connection see “Archæology of the Thompson River Region,
British Columbia,” by Harlan I. Smith, _Memoirs of the American
Museum_, vol. ii., May, 1900. The Eskimo probably entered Alaska along
the coast from the east.
[388] It is of course possible that some infusion of blood occurred in
this manner, but it is not likely that it was ever sufficient to tinge
a whole stock.
[389] “This uniformity finds one of its explanations in the
geographical features of the continent, which are such as to favour
migrations in longitude, and thus prevent the diversity which special
conditions of latitude tend to produce.”—Brinton, _American Race_, p.
41.
[390] See also “On the Peopling of America,” by August R. Grote,
_Bulletin Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences_, February 2, 1877.
[391] The tinge of resemblance between certain Amerind stocks and
foreign stocks endures from the pre-glacial period, then, when
intercourse was on different lines, and does not indicate any
latter-day relationship.
[392] These tools might easily be quite as good as many found on the
surface to-day, and it would be difficult to distinguish them from at
least the ruder forms of modern implements.
[393] W. H. Holmes, “Preliminary Revision of the Evidence Relating
to Auriferous Gravel Man in California,” _American Anthropologist_,
October, 1899.
[394] An elevation of the ocean bottom in the Atlantic tropical regions
would probably disturb the existing climate of the North Atlantic
regions by deflecting the warm currents.
[395] See _A Naturalist in Nicaragua_, by Thomas Belt, Chap. XIV.
[396] Payne believes that by this lowering of the waters combined with
land elevation, a Miocene land passage was formed leading from Asia to
the North-west coast and that the American continent was then peopled
by this route.
[397] See also, “Man and the Glacial Period in America,” Payne’s
_History of the New World_, vol. ii., p. 62 _et seq._, and discussion
of the effects of glaciation, _ibid._, p. 348.
[398] “When first met with the Navajos occupied the same range of
country they now inhabit.”—Bandelier, _Report_, part i., p. 175.
[399] _National Geographical Magazine_, December 1, 1899, p. 509.
[400] “That there was a primitive empire ... seems to some minds
confirmed by other evidences than the story of Votan ... and out of
this empire ... have come, as such believers say, after its downfall,
somewhere near the Christian era, and by divergence, the great stocks
of people called Maya, etc.”—Winsor, _Nar. and Crit. Hist._, vol. i.,
p. 134.
[401] _League of the Iroquois._
[402] For information on the Amerindian wars, their efforts to preserve
their territory, etc., see Bancroft’s _History of the United States_;
Winsor’s _Narrative and Critical History of the United States_;
Winsor’s other works; Parkman, John Fiske; and numerous other books to
be found in any good library.
[403] _Harper’s Magazine_, March, 1899, p. 649.
[404] “The True Route of Coronado’s March,” _Bulletin of American
Geographical Society_, December, 1897.
[405] _Life and Adventures_, p. 438.
[406] Bering found no inhabitants on the Aleutian islands and his visit
of discovery was recent—1741.
[407] The thanks of the author are due to Prof. Otis Tufton Mason, of
the United States National Museum, for kindly reviewing this appendix
in proof. Prof. Mason writes, “Your work has my approval and it is well
done.”
[408] See map, page 33 this book, and also the original of it in the
_Seventh Ann. Rept. Bu. Eth._
[409] See “The True Route of Coronado’s March,” by F. S. Dellenbaugh,
in the _Bulletin of the American Geographical Society_, December, 1897.
By F. S. DELLENBAUGH
The North-Americans of Yesterday
A Comparative Study of North-American Indian Life, Customs, and
Products, on the Theory of the Ethnic Unity of the Race. 8ᵒ.
Fully illustrated net, $4.00
The Romance of the Colorado River
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1540 to the Present Time, with Particular Reference to the Two
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8ᵒ. Third Edition Revised. Fully illustrated net, $3.50
Breaking the Wilderness
The Story of the Conquest of the Far West, from the Wanderings of
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G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS
NEW YORK LONDON
Breaking the Wilderness
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Transcriber’s Notes:
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