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diff --git a/35915.txt b/35915.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..40bab51 --- /dev/null +++ b/35915.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7467 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of American Indians by Frederick Starr + + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no +restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under +the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or +online at http://www.gutenberg.org/license + + + +Title: American Indians + +Author: Frederick Starr + +Release Date: April 18, 2011 [Ebook #35915] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: US-ASCII + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AMERICAN INDIANS*** + + + + + + American Indians + + By + + Frederick Starr + + D. C. Heath & Co., Publishers + + Boston, New York, Chicago + + 1898 + + + + + +CONTENTS + + +Preface. +I. Some General Facts About Indians. +II. Houses. +III. Dress. +IV. The Baby And Child. +V. Stories Of Indians. +VI. War. +VII. Hunting And Fishing. +VIII. The Camp-Fire. +IX. Sign Language On The Plains. +X. Picture Writing. +XI. Money. +XII. Medicine Men And Secret Societies. +XIII. Dances And Ceremonials. +XIV. Burial And Graves. +XV. Mounds And Their Builders. +XVI. The Algonkins. +XVII. The Six Nations. +XVIII. Story Of Mary Jemison. +XIX. The Creeks. +XX. The Pani. +XXI. The Cherokees. +XXII. George Catlin And His Work. +XXIII. The Sun Dance. +XXIV. The Pueblos. +XXV. The Snake Dance. +XXVI. Cliff Dwellings And Ruins Of The Southwest. +XXVII. Tribes Of The Northwest Coast. +XXVIII. Some Raven Stories. +XXIX. Totem Posts. +XXX. Indians Of California. +XXXI. The Aztecs. +XXXII. The Mayas And The Ruined Cities Of Yucatan And Central America. +XXXIII. Conclusion. +Glossary Of Indian And Other Foreign Words Which May Not Readily Be Found +In The English Dictionary. +Index. +Footnotes + + + + + + + [Illustration.] + + Map Showing Former Location of Important Indian Groups of North America, + North of Mexico: North. + + + [Illustration.] + + Map Showing Former Location of Important Indian Groups of North America, + North of Mexico: South. + + + + + +This Little Book About +American Indians +Is Dedicated To +Bedros Tatarian + + + + + +PREFACE. + + +This book about American Indians is intended as a reading book for boys +and girls in school. The native inhabitants of America are rapidly dying +off or changing. Certainly some knowledge of them, their old location, and +their old life ought to be interesting to American children. + +Naturally the author has taken material from many sources. He has himself +known some thirty different Indian tribes; still he could not possibly +secure all the matter herein presented by personal observation. In a +reading book for children it is impossible to give reference +acknowledgment to those from whom he has drawn. By a series of brief notes +attention is called to those to whom he is most indebted: no one is +intentionally omitted. + +While many of the pictures are new, being drawn from objects or original +photographs, some have already appeared elsewhere. In each case, their +source is indicated. Special thanks for assistance in illustration are due +to the Bureau of American Ethnology and to the Peabody Museum of Ethnology +at Cambridge, Mass. + +While intended for young people and written with them only in mind, the +author will be pleased if the book shall interest some older readers. +Should it do so, may it enlarge their sympathy with our native Americans. + + [Illustration.] + + Mandan Chief in Full Dress. (After Catlin.) + + + + + +I. SOME GENERAL FACTS ABOUT INDIANS. + + +We all know how the native Americans found here by the whites at their +first arrival, came to be called _Indians_. Columbus did not realize the +greatness of his discovery. He was seeking a route to Asia and supposed +that he had found it. Believing that he had really reached the Indies, for +which he was looking, it was natural that the people here should be called +Indians. + +The American Indians are often classed as a single type. They are +described as being of a coppery or reddish-brown color. They have +abundant, long, straight, black hair, and each hair is found to be almost +circular when cut across. They have high cheek-bones, unusually prominent, +and wide faces. This description will perhaps fit most Indians pretty +well, but it would be a great mistake to think that there are no +differences between tribes: there are many. There are tribes of tall +Indians and tribes of short ones; some that are almost white, and others +that are nearly black. There are found among them all shades of brown, +some of which are reddish, others yellowish. There are tribes where the +eyes appear as oblique or slanting as in the Chinese, and others where +they are as straight as among ourselves. Some tribes have heads that are +long and narrow; the heads of others are relatively short and wide. A +little before the World's Columbian Exposition thousands of Indians of +many different tribes were carefully measured. Dr. Boas, on studying the +figures, decided that there were at least four different types in the +United States. + +There are now living many different tribes of Indians. Formerly the number +of tribes was still greater. Each tribe has its own language, and several +hundred different Indian languages were spoken. These languages sometimes +so much resemble each other that they seem to have been derived from one +single parent language. Thus, when what is now New York State was first +settled, it was largely occupied by five tribes--the Mohawks, Oneidas, +Onondagas, Cayugas, Senecas--called "the Five Nations." While they were +distinct and each had its own language, these were so much alike that all +are believed to have grown from one. When languages are so similar that +they may be believed to have come from one parent language, they are said +to belong to the same _language family_ or _stock_. + +The Indians of New England, the lower Hudson region, Pennsylvania, New +Jersey, and Virginia, formed many different tribes, but they all spoke +languages of one family. These tribes are called Algonkins. Indians +speaking languages belonging to one stock are generally related in blood. +Besides the area already named, Algonkin tribes occupied New Brunswick, +Nova Scotia, a part of Canada, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and +other districts farther west. The Blackfeet, who were Algonkins, lived +close to the Rocky Mountains. So you see that one linguistic family may +occupy a great area. On the other hand, sometimes a single tribe, small in +numbers and occupying only a little space, may have a language entirely +peculiar. Such a tribe would stand quite alone and would be considered as +unrelated to any other. Its language would have to be considered as a +distinct family or stock. + +A few years ago Major Powell published a map of America north of Mexico, +to show the distribution of the Indian language families at the time of +the white settlement of this country. In it he represented the areas of +fifty-eight different families or stocks. Some of these families, like the +Algonquian and Athapascan, occupied great districts and contained many +languages; others, like the Zunian, took up only a few square miles of +space and contained a single tribe. At the front of this book is a little +map partly copied from that of Major Powell. The large areas are nearly as +he gave them; many smaller areas of his map are omitted, as we shall not +speak of them. The Indians of the Pueblos speak languages of at least four +stocks, which Major Powell indicates. We have covered the whole Pueblo +district with one color patch. We have grouped the many Californian tribes +into one: so, too, with the tribes of the Northwest Coast. There are many +widely differing languages spoken in each of these two regions. This map +will show you where the Indians of whom we shall speak lived. + +Many persons seem to think that the Indian was a perpetual rover,--always +hunting, fishing, and making war,--with no settled villages. This is a +great mistake: most tribes knew and practiced some agriculture. Most of +them had settled villages, wherein they spent much of their time. Sad +indeed would it have been for the early settlers of New England, if their +Indian neighbors had not had supplies of food stored away--the result of +their industry in the fields. + +The condition of the woman among Indians is usually described as a sad +one. It is true that she was a worker--but so was the man. Each had his or +her own work to do, and neither would have thought of doing that of the +other; with us, men rarely care to do women's work. The man built the +house, fortified the village, hunted, fished, fought, and conducted the +religious ceremonials upon which the success and happiness of all +depended. The woman worked in the field, gathered wood, tended the fire, +cooked, dressed skins, and cared for the children. When they traveled, the +woman carried the burdens, of course: the man had to be ready for the +attack of enemies or for the killing of game in case any should be seen. +Among us hunting, fishing, and dancing are sport. They were not so with +the Indians. When a man had to provide food for a family by his hunting +and fishing, it ceased to be amusement and was hard work. When Indian men +danced, it was usually as part of a religious ceremony which was to +benefit the whole tribe; it was often wearisome and difficult--not fun. +Woman was much of the time doing what we consider work; man was often +doing what _we_ consider play; there was not, however, really much to +choose between them. + +The woman was in most tribes the head of the house. She exerted great +influence in public matters of the tribe. She frequently decided the +question of peace and war. To her the children belonged. If she were +dissatisfied with her husband, she would drive him from the house and bid +him return to his mother. If a man were lazy or failed to bring in plenty +of game and fish, he was quite sure to be cast off. + +While he lived his own life, the Indian was always hospitable. The +stranger who applied for shelter or food was never refused; nor was he +expected to pay. Only after long contact with the white man, who always +wanted pay for everything, did this hospitality disappear. In fact, among +some tribes it has not yet entirely gone. One time, as we neared the +pueblo of Santo Domingo, New Mexico, the old governor of the pueblo rode +out to meet us and learn who we were and what we wanted. On explaining +that we were strangers, who only wished to see the town, we were taken +directly to his house, on the town square. His old wife hastened to put +before us cakes and coffee. After we had eaten we were given full +permission to look around. + +We shall consider many things together. Some chapters will be general +discussions of Indian life; others will discuss special tribes; others +will treat of single incidents in customs or belief. Some of the things +mentioned in connection with one particular tribe would be equally true of +many others. Thus, the modes of hunting buffalo and conducting war, +practiced by one Plains tribe, were much the same among Plains tribes +generally. Some of the things in these lessons will seem foolish; others +are terrible. But remember that foreigners who study _us_ find that _we_ +have many customs which they think strange and even terrible. The life of +the Indians was not, on the whole, either foolish or bad; in many ways it +was wise and beautiful and good. But it will soon be gone. In this book we +shall try to give a picture of it. + + + FRANZ BOAS.--Anthropologist. German, living in America. Has made + investigations among Eskimo and Indians. Is now connected with the + American Museum of Natural History, New York. + + JOHN WESLEY POWELL.--Teacher, soldier, explorer, scientist. + Conducted the first exploration of the Colorado River Canon; + Director of the U. S. Geological Survey and of the Bureau of + American Ethnology. Has written many papers: among them _Indian + Linguistic Families of America North of Mexico_. + + + + + +II. HOUSES. + + +The houses of Indians vary greatly. In some tribes they are large and +intended for several families; in others they are small, and occupied by +few persons. Some are admirably constructed, like the great Pueblo houses +of the southwest, made of stone and adobe mud; others are frail structures +of brush and thatch. The material naturally varies with the district. + + [Illustration.] + + Iroquois Long House. (After Morgan.) + + +An interesting house was the "long house" of the Iroquois. From fifty to +one hundred or more feet in length and perhaps not more than fifteen in +width, it was of a long rectangular form. It consisted of a light +framework of poles tied together, which was covered with long strips of +bark tied or pegged on. There was no window, but there was a doorway at +each end. Blankets or skins hung at these served as doors. Through the +house from doorway to doorway ran a central passage: the space on either +side of this was divided by partitions of skins into a series of stalls, +each of which was occupied by a family. In the central passage was a +series of fireplaces or hearths, each one of which served for four +families. A large house of this kind might have five or even more hearths, +and would be occupied by twenty or more families. Indian houses contained +but little furniture. Some blankets or skins served as a bed; there were +no tables or chairs; there were no stoves, as all cooking was done over +the open fire or the fireplace. + + [Illustration.] + + Algonkin Village of Pomeiock, on Albemarle Sound, in 1585. (After John + Wyth: Copied in Morgan.) + + +The eastern Algonkins built houses like those of the Iroquois, but usually +much smaller. They, too, were made of a light framework of poles over +which were hung sheets of rush matting which could be easily removed and +rolled up, for future use in case of removal. There are pictures in old +books of some Algonkin villages. + +These villages were often inclosed by a line of palisades to keep off +enemies. Sometimes the gardens and cornfields were inside this palisading, +sometimes outside. The houses in these pictures usually have straight, +vertical sides and queer rounded roofs. Sometimes they were arranged along +streets, but at others they were placed in a ring around a central open +space, where games and celebrations took place. + +Many tribes have two kinds of houses, one for summer, the other for +winter. The Sacs and Foxes of Iowa, in summer, live in large, rectangular, +barn-like structures. These measure perhaps twenty feet by thirty. They +are bark-covered and have two doorways and a central passage, somewhat +like the Iroquois house. But they are not divided by partitions into +sections. On each side, a platform about three feet high and six feet wide +runs the full length of the house. Upon this the people sleep, simply +spreading out their blankets when they wish to lie down. Each person has +his proper place upon the platform, and no one thinks of trespassing upon +another. At the back of the platform, against the wall, are boxes, +baskets, and bundles containing the property of the different members of +the household. As these platforms are rather high, there are little +ladders fastened into the earth floor, the tops of which rest against the +edge of the platform. These ladders are simply logs of wood, with notches +cut into them for footholds. + + [Illustration.] + + Winter House of Sacs and Foxes, Iowa. (From Photograph.) + + +The winter house is very different. In the summer house there is plenty of +room and air; in the winter house space is precious. The framework of the +winter lodge is made of light poles tied together with narrow strips of +bark. It is an oblong, dome-shaped affair about twenty feet long and ten +wide. Some are nearly circular and about fifteen feet across. They are +hardly six feet high. Over this framework are fastened sheets of matting +made of cat-tail rushes. This matting is very light and thin, but a layer +or two of it keeps out a great deal of cold. There is but one doorway, +usually at the middle of the side. There are no platforms, but beds are +made, close to the ground, out of poles and branches. At the center is a +fireplace, over which hangs the pot in which food is boiled. + +The Mandans used to build good houses almost circular in form. The floor +was sunk a foot or more below the surface of the ground. The framework was +made of large and strong timbers. The outside walls sloped inward and +upward from the ground to a height of about five feet. They were composed +of boards. The roof sloped from the top of the wall up to a central point; +it was made of poles, covered with willow matting and then with grass. The +whole house, wall and roof, was then covered over with a layer of earth a +foot and a half thick. When such a house contained a fire sending out +smoke, it must have looked like a smooth, regularly sloping little +volcano. + +In California, where there are so many different sorts of climate and +surroundings, the Indian tribes differed much in their house building. +Where the climate was raw and foggy, down near the coast, they dug a pit +and erected a shelter of redwood poles about it. In the snow belt, the +house was conical in form and built of great slabs of bark. In warm low +valleys, large round or oblong houses were made of willow poles covered +with hay. At Clear Lake there were box-shaped houses; the walls were built +of vertical posts, with poles lashed horizontally across them; these were +not always placed close together, but so as to leave many little square +holes in the walls; the flat roof was made of poles covered with thatch. +In the great treeless plains of the Sacramento and San Joaquin they made +dome-shaped, earth-covered houses, the doorway in which was sometimes on +top, sometimes near the ground on the side. In the Kern and Tulare +valleys, where the weather is hot and almost rainless, the huts are made +of marsh rushes. + + [Illustration.] + + Skin Tents. (From Photograph.) + + +Many persons seem to think that the Indian never changes; that he cannot +invent or devise new things. This is a mistake. Long ago the Dakotas lived +in houses much like those of the Sacs and Foxes. At that time they lived +in Minnesota, near the headwaters of the Mississippi River. From the white +man they received horses, and by him they were gradually crowded out of +their old home. After getting horses they had a much better chance to hunt +buffalo, and began to move about much more than before. They then invented +the beautiful tent now so widely used among Plains Indians. The framework +consists of thirteen poles from fifteen to eighteen feet long. The smaller +ends are tied together and then raised and spread out so as to cover a +circle on the ground about ten feet across. Over this framework of poles +are spread buffalo skins which have been sewed together so as to fit it. +The lower end of this skin covering is then pegged down and the sides are +laced together with cords, so that everything is neat and tight. There is +a doorway below to creep through, over which hangs a flap of skin as a +door. The smoke-hole at the top has a sort of collar-like flap, which can +be adjusted when the wind changes so as to insure a good draught of air at +all times. + +This sort of tent is easily put up and taken down. It is also easily +transported. The poles are divided into two bunches, and these are +fastened by one end to the horse, near his neck--one bunch on either side. +The other ends are left to drag upon the ground. The skin covering is tied +up into a bundle which may be fastened to the dragging poles. Sometimes +dogs, instead of horses, were used to drag the tent poles. + +Among many tribes who used these tents, the camp was made in a circle. If +the space was too small for one great circle, the tents might be pitched +in two or three smaller circles, one within another. These camp circles +were not chance arrangements. Each group of persons who were related had +its own proper place in the circle. Even the proper place for each tent +was fixed. Every woman knew, as soon as the place for a camp was chosen, +just where she must erect her tent. She would never think of putting it +elsewhere. After the camp circle was complete, the horses would be placed +within it for the night to prevent their being lost or stolen. + + + LEWIS H. MORGAN.--Lawyer. One of America's earliest eminent + ethnologists. A special student of society and institutions. + Author of important books, among them, _Houses and House-life of + the American Aborigines_, and _The League of the Iroquois_. + + STEPHEN POWERS.--Author of _The Indians of California_. + + + + + +III. DRESS. + + +In the eastern states and on the Plains the dress of the Indians was +largely composed of tanned and dressed skins such as those of the buffalo +and the deer. Most of the Indians were skilled in dressing skins. The hide +when fresh from the animal was laid on the ground, stretched as tightly as +possible and pegged down all around the edges. As it dried it became still +more taut. A scraper was used to remove the fat and to thin the skin. In +old days this scraper was made of a piece of bone cut to proper form, or +of a stone chipped to a sharp edge; in later times it was a bone handle, +with a blade of iron or steel attached to it. Brains, livers, and fat of +animals were used to soften and dress the skin. These materials were mixed +together and spread over the stretched skin, which was then rolled up and +laid aside. After several days, when the materials had soaked in and +somewhat softened the skin, it was opened and washed: it was then rubbed, +twisted, and worked over until soft and fully dressed. + +The men wore three or four different articles of dress. First was the +breech-clout, which consisted of a strip of skin or cloth perhaps a foot +wide and several feet long; sometimes its ends were decorated with +beadwork or other ornamentation. This cloth was passed between the legs +and brought up in front and behind. It was held in place by a band or belt +passing around the waist, and the broad decorated ends hung down from this +something like aprons. Almost all male Indians on the continent wore the +breech-clout. + +The men also wore buckskin leggings. These were made in pairs, but were +not sewed together. They fitted tightly over the whole length of the leg, +and sometimes were held up by a cord at the outer upper corner, which was +tied to the waist-string. Leggings were usually fringed with strips of +buckskin sewed along the outer side. Sometimes bands of beadwork were tied +around the leggings below the knees. + + [Illustration.] + + Skin Jacket. (From Original in Peabody Museum.) + + +A jacket or shirt made of buckskin and reaching to the knees was generally +worn. It was variously decorated. Buckskin strip fringes bordered it; +pictures in black or red or other colors were painted upon it; handsome +patterns were worked into it with beads or porcupine quills, brightly +dyed; tufts of hair or true scalps might be attached to it. + +Over all these came the blanket or robe. Nowadays these are got from the +whites, and are simple flannel blankets; but in the old times they were +made of animal hides. In putting on a blanket, the male Indian usually +takes it by two corners, one in each hand, and folds it around him with +the upper edge horizontal. Holding it thus a moment with one hand, he +catches the sides, a little way down, with the fingers of the other hand, +and thus holds it. + +Even where the men have given up the old style of dress the women often +retain it. The garments are usually made, however, of cloth instead of +buckskin. Thus among the Sacs and Foxes the leggings of the women, which +used to be made of buckskin, are now of black broad-cloth. They are made +very broad or wide, and reach only from the ankles to a little above the +knees. They are usually heavily beaded. The woman's skirt, fastened at the +waist, falls a little below the knees; it is made of some bright cloth and +is generally banded near the bottom with tape or narrow ribbon of a +different color from the skirt itself. Her jacket is of some bright cloth +and hangs to the waist. Often it is decorated with brooches or fibulae made +of German silver. I once saw a little girl ten years old who was dancing, +in a jacket adorned with nearly three hundred of these ornaments placed +close together. + +All Indians, both men and women, are fond of necklaces made of beads or +other material. Men love to wear such ornaments composed of trophies, +showing that they have been successful in war or in hunting. They use elk +teeth, badger claws, or bear claws for this purpose. One very dreadful +necklace in Washington is made chiefly of the dried fingers of human +victims. Among the Sacs and Foxes, the older men use a neck-ring that +looks like a rope of solid beads. It consists of a central rope made of +rags; beads are strung on a thread and this is wrapped around and around +the rag ring, until when finished only beads can be seen. + +Before the white man came, the Indians used beads made of shell, stone, or +bone. Nowadays they are fond of the cheap glass beads which they get from +white traders. There are two kinds of beadwork now made. The first is the +simpler. It is sewed work. Patterns of different colored beads are worked +upon a foundation of cloth. Moccasins, leggings, and jackets are so +decorated; sometimes the whole article may be covered with the bright +beads. Almost every one has seen tobacco-pouches or baby-frames covered +with such work. The other work is far more difficult. It is used in making +bands of beads for the arms, legs, and waist. It is true woven work of the +same sort as the famous wampum belts, of which we shall speak later. Such +bands look like solid beads and present the same patterns on both sides. + +The porcupine is an animal that is covered with spines or "quills." These +quills were formerly much used in decorating clothing. They were often +dyed in bright colors. After being colored they were flattened by pressure +and were worked into pretty geometrical designs, color-bands, rosettes, +etc., upon blankets, buckskin shirts, leggings, and moccasins. Very little +of this work has been done of late years: beadwork has almost crowded it +out of use. + + [Illustration.] + + Blackfoot Moccasin. (From Original in Peabody Museum.) + + + [Illustration.] + + Sioux Moccasin. (From Original in Peabody Museum.) + + + [Illustration.] + + Sioux Moccasin. (From Original in Peabody Museum.) + + +The moccasin is a real Indian invention, and it bears an Indian name. It +is the most comfortable foot-wear that could be devised for the Indian +mode of life. It is made of buckskin and closely fits the foot. Moccasins +usually reach only to the ankle, and are tied close with little thongs of +buckskin. They have no heels, and no part is stiff or unpleasant to the +foot. The exact shape of the moccasin and its decoration varies with the +tribe. + +In some tribes there is much difference between the moccasins of men and +those of women. Among the Sacs and Foxes the woman's moccasin has two side +flaps which turn down and nearly reach the ground; these, as well as the +part over the foot, are covered with a mass of beading; the man's moccasin +has smaller side flaps, and the only beading upon it is a narrow band +running lengthwise along the middle part above the foot. + +The women of the Pueblos are not content with simple moccasins, but wrap +the leg with strips of buckskin. This wrapping covers the leg from the +ankles to the knees and is heavy and thick, as the strips are wound time +after time around the leg. At first, this wrapping looks awkward and ugly +to a stranger, but he soon becomes accustomed to it. + + [Illustration.] + + Omaha Moccasin. (From Original in Peabody Museum.) + + + [Illustration.] + + Iroquois Moccasin. (From Original in Peabody Museum.) + + + [Illustration.] + + Kutchin Moccasin. (From Original in Peabody Museum.) + + +Not many of the tribes were real weavers. Handsome cotton blankets and +kilts were woven by the Moki and other Pueblo Indians. Such are still made +by these tribes for their religious ceremonies and dances. Nowadays these +tribes have flocks of sheep and know how to weave good woollen blankets. +Some of the Pueblos also weave long, handsome belts, in pretty patterns of +bright colors. Their rude loom consists of just a few sticks, but it +serves its purpose well, and the blankets and belts are firm and close. + + [Illustration.] + + A Pueblo Woman. (From Morgan.) + + +The Navajo, who are neighbors of the Pueblos, learned how to weave from +them, but are to-day much better weavers than their teachers. Every one +knows the Navajo blankets, with their bright colors, pretty designs, and +texture so close as to shed water. + +Some tribes of British Columbia weave soft capes or cloaks of cedar bark, +and in Alaska the Chilcat Indians weave beautiful blankets of +mountain-sheep wool and mountain-goat hair. These are a mass of odd, +strikingly colored, and crowdedly arranged symbolic devices. + +Among some California Indians the women wore dresses made of grass. They +were short skirts or kilts, consisting of a waist-band from which hung a +fringe of grass cords. They had nuts and other objects ornamentally +inserted into the cords. They reached about to the knees. + + + + + +IV. THE BABY AND CHILD. + + +Indian babies are often pretty. Their big black eyes, brown, soft skin, +and their stiff, strong, black hair form a pleasing combination. Among +many tribes their foreheads are covered with a fine, downy growth of black +hair, and their eyes appear to slant, like those of the Chinese. The +little fellows hardly ever cry, and an Indian parent rarely strikes a +child, even when it is naughty, which is not often. + +Most Indian babies are kept strapped or laid on a papoose-board or +cradle-board. While these are widely used, they differ notably among the +tribes. Among the Sacs and Foxes the cradle consists of a board two feet +or two and a half feet long and about ten inches wide. Near the lower end +is fastened, by means of thongs, a thin board set edgewise and bent so as +to form a foot-rest and sides. Over the upper end is a thin strip of board +bent to form an arch. This rises some eight inches above the cradle-board. +Upon the board, below this arch, is a little cushion or pillow. The baby, +wrapped in cloths or small blankets, his arms often being bound down to +his sides, is laid down upon the cradle-board, with his head lying on the +pillow and his feet reaching almost to the foot-board. He is then fastened +securely in place by bandages of cloth decorated with beadwork or by laces +or thongs. There he lies "as snug as a bug in a rug," ready to be carried +on his mother's back, or to be set up against a wall, or to be hung up in +a tree. + + [Illustration.] + + Cradle of Oregon Indians. (After Mason.) + + + [Illustration.] + + Birch-Bark Cradle from Yukon River, Alaska. (After Mason.) + + +When his mother is busy at work, the little one is unwrapped so as to set +his arms and hands free, and is then laid upon the blankets and cloths, +and left to squirm and amuse himself as best he can. + +The mother hangs all sorts of beads and bright and jingling things to the +arch over the baby's head. When he lies strapped down, the mother sets all +these things to jingling, and the baby lies and blinks at them in great +wonder. When his little hands are free to move, the baby himself tries to +strike and handle the bright and noisy things. + + [Illustration.] + + Blackfeet Cradle, Made of Lattice-work and Leather. (After Mason.) + + + [Illustration.] + + Noki Cradle: Frame of Fine Wicker. (After Mason.) + + +In the far north the baby-board is made of birch bark and has a protecting +hood over the head; among some tribes of British Columbia, it is dug out +of a single piece of wood in the form of a trough or canoe; among the +Chinooks it has a head-flattening board hinged on, by which the baby's +head is changed in form; one baby-board from Oregon was shaped like a +great arrowhead, covered with buckskin, with a sort of pocket in front in +which the little fellow was laced up; among some tribes in California, the +cradle is made of basket work and is shaped like a great moccasin; some +tribes of the southwest make the cradle of canes or slender sticks set +side by side and spliced together; among some Sioux the cradle is covered +completely at the sides with pretty beadwork, and two slats fixed at the +edges project far beyond the upper end of the cradle. + + [Illustration.] + + Apache Cradle. (After Mason.) + + + [Illustration.] + + Hupa Wicker Cradle. (After Mason.) + + +But the baby is not always kept down on the cradle-board. Sometimes among +the Sacs and Foxes he is slung in a little hammock, which is quickly and +easily made. Two cords are stretched side by side from tree to tree. A +blanket is then folded until its width is little more than the length of +the baby; its ends are then folded around the cords and made to overlap +midway between them. After the cords are up, a half a minute is more than +time enough to make a hammock out of a blanket. And a more comfortable +little pouch for a baby could not be found. + + [Illustration.] + + Cree Squaw and Papoose. (From Photograph.) + + +Among the Pueblos they have a swinging cradle. It consists of a circular +or oval ring made of a flexible stick bent and tied together at the ends. +Leather thongs are laced back and forth across it so as to make an open +netting. The cradle is then hung from the rafters by cords. In it the baby +swings. + +The baby who is too large for his baby-board is carried around on his +mother's or sister's, or even his brother's, back. The little wriggler is +laid upon the back, and then the blanket is bound around him to hold him +firmly, often leaving only his head in sight, peering out above the +blanket. With her baby fastened upon her back in this way the mother works +in the fields or walks to town. + +Among some tribes, particularly in the southern states and in Mexico, the +baby strides the mother's back, and a little leg and foot hang out on +either side from the blanket that holds him in place. Among some tribes in +California the women use great round baskets tapering to a point below; +these are carried by the help of a carrying strap passing around the +forehead. During the season of the salmon fishing these baskets are used +in carrying fish; at such times baby and fish are thrown into the basket +together and carried along. + +The Indian boys play many games. When I used to meet Sac and Fox boys in +the spring-time, each one used to have with him little sticks made of +freshly cut branches of trees. These had the bark peeled off so they would +slip better. They were cut square at one end, and bluntly pointed at the +other. Each boy had several of these, so marked that he would know his +own. When two boys agreed to play, one held one of his sticks, which was +perhaps three feet long and less than half an inch thick, between his +thumb and second finger, with the forefinger against the squared end and +the pointed end forward. He then sent it sliding along on the grass as far +as it would go. Then the other boy took his turn, trying of course to send +his farther. + +The young men have a somewhat similar game, but their sticks are carefully +made of hickory and have a blunt-pointed head and a long slender tail or +shaft. These will skim a long way over snow when it has a crust upon it. + +One gambling game is much played by big boys and young men among the Sacs +and Foxes. It is called moccasin. It is a very stupid game, but the +Indians are fond of it. Some moccasins are turned upside down, and one +player conceals under one of them a small ball or other object. Another +tries then to guess where the ball lies. + + [Illustration.] + + Group of Ball Sticks. + + +Many of the Indian tribes had some form of ball game. Sometimes all the +young men of a town would take part. The game consisted in driving the +ball over a goal. The players on both sides were much in earnest, and the +games were very exciting. In the play a racket was used consisting of a +stick frame and a netting of thongs. The shape of this racket or ball +stick differed among different tribes. Sometimes one racket was used by +one player, sometimes two. Among the Iroquois the game is called by the +French name of lacrosse. The young men of one village often played against +those of another. They used a curious long racket consisting of a curved +stick with netting across the bend. The Choctaws, Cherokees, and other +tribes near them have two rackets for each player. + +Catlin tells us that in their games there would sometimes be six to eight +hundred or a thousand young men engaged. He says: "I have made it an +uniform rule, whilst in the Indian country, to attend every ball-play I +could hear of, if I could do it by riding a distance of twenty or thirty +miles; and my usual custom has been on such occasions to straddle the back +of my horse and look on to the best advantage. In this way I have sat, and +oftentimes reclined and almost dropped from my horse's back, with +irresistible laughter at the succession of droll tricks and kicks and +scuffles which ensue, in the almost superhuman struggles for the ball. +Their plays generally commence at about nine o'clock, or near it, in the +morning; and I have more than once balanced myself on my pony from that +time till nearly sundown, without more than one minute of intermission at +a time, before the game has been decided." + +But these great games of ball with hundreds of players are quite past, and +the sport, where still kept up, grows less and less each year. + + + OTIS T. MASON.--Ethnologist. In charge of the department of + Ethnology in the U. S. National Museum, Washington. Has written + some books and many articles. Among the last is _Cradles of the + American Aborigines_. + + GEORGE CATLIN.--Artist and traveler. See XXII. + + + + + +V. STORIES OF INDIANS. + + +The Indians everywhere are fond of stories. Some of their stories are +about themselves and their own deeds; others recount the past deeds of the +tribe; many are about some wise and good man, who lived long ago, and who +taught them how they should live and what dances and ceremonies they +should perform; some are attempts to explain why things are as they are; +others tell of the creation of the world. + +Of these many stories some may be told at any time and anywhere, while +others are sacred and must only be told to certain persons on particular +occasions. Among some tribes the "old stories" must not be told in the +summer when the trees are full of green leaves, for the spirits of the +leaves can listen; but when winter comes, and snow lies on the ground, and +the leaves have fallen, and the trees appear to be dead, then they may +tell their stories about the camp-fire in safety. We can give only a few +of these stories from three different tribes. + + + + +An Iroquois Story Of The Pleiades. + + +You all know the stars that are called the Pleiades. Sometimes, but +wrongly, they are called the Little Dipper. They are a group of seven +little stars that look as if they were quite close together. + +The Iroquois tell this story about them: There were once seven little +Indian boys who were great friends. Every evening they used to come to a +little mound to dance and feast. They would first eat their corn and +beans, and then one of their number would sit upon the mound and sing, +while the others danced around the mound. One time they thought they would +have a much grander feast than usual, and each agreed upon what he would +bring for it. But their parents would not give them what they wanted, and +the little lads met at the mound without their feast. The singer took his +place and began his song, while his companions started to dance. As they +danced they forgot their sorrows and "their heads and hearts grew +lighter," until at last they flew up into the air. Their parents saw them +as they rose, and cried out to them to return; but up and up they went +until they were changed into the seven stars. Now, one of the Pleiades is +dimmer than the rest, and they say that it is the little singer, who is +homesick and pale because he wants to return but cannot. + + + + +A Story Of Glooskap. + + +The Algonkin tribes of Nova Scotia, Canada, and New England had a great +many stories about a great hero named Glooskap. They believed he was a +great magician and could do wonders. In stories about him it is common to +have him strive with other magicians to see which one can do the greatest +wonders and overpower the other. Glooskap always comes out ahead in these +strange contests. + +Usually Glooskap is good to men, but only when they are true and honest. +He used to give people who visited him their wish. But if they were bad, +their wish would do them far more harm than good. + +One of the Glooskap stories tells of how he fought with some giant +sorcerers at Saco. There was an old man who had three sons and a daughter. +They were all giants and great magicians. They did many wicked things, and +killed and ate every one they could get at. It happened that when he was +young, Glooskap had lived in this family, but then they were not bad. When +he heard of their dreadful ways he made up his mind to go and see if it +was all true, and if it were so, to punish them. So he went to the house. +The old man had only one eye, and the hair on one half of his head was +gray. The first thing Glooskap did was to change himself so that he looked +exactly like the old man; no one could tell which was which. And they sat +talking together. The sons, hearing them, drew near to kill the stranger, +but could not tell which was their father, so they said, "He must be a +great magician, but we will get the better of him." So the sister giant +took a whale's tail, and cooking it, offered it to the stranger. Glooskap +took it. Then the eldest brother came in, and seizing the food, said, +"This is too good for a beggar like you." + +Glooskap said, "What is given to me is mine: I will take it." And he +simply _wished_ and it returned. + +The brothers said, "Indeed he is a great magician, but we will get the +better of him." + +So when he was through eating, the eldest brother took up the mighty +jawbone of a whale, and to show that he was strong bent it a little. But +Glooskap took it and snapped it in two between his thumb and finger. And +the giant brothers said again, "Indeed he is a great magician, but we will +get the better of him." + +Then they tested him with strong tobacco which no one but great magicians +could possibly smoke. Each took a puff and inhaled it and blew the smoke +out through his nose to show his strength. But Glooskap took the great +pipe and filled it full, and at a single puff burnt all the tobacco to +ashes and inhaled all the smoke and puffed it out through his nostrils. + +When they were beaten at smoking, the giants proposed a game of ball and +went out into the sandy plain by the riverside. And the ball they used was +thrown upon the ground. It was really a dreadful skull, that rolled and +snapped at Glooskap's heels, and if he had been a common man or a weak +magician it would have bitten his foot off. But Glooskap laughed and broke +off a tip of a tree branch for _his_ ball and set it to rolling. And it +turned into a skull ten times more dreadful than the other, and it chased +the wicked giants as a lynx chases a rabbit. As they fled Glooskap stamped +upon the sand with his foot, and sang a magic song. And the river rose +like a mighty flood, and the bad magicians, changed into fishes, floated +away in it and caused men no more trouble. + + + + +Scar-Face: A Blackfoot Story. + + +There was a man who had a beautiful daughter. Each of the brave and +handsome and rich young men had asked her to marry him, but she had always +said No, that she did not want a husband. When at last her father and +mother asked her why she would not marry some one, she told them the sun +had told her he loved her and that she should marry no one without his +consent. + +Now there was a poor young man in the village, whose name was Scar-face. +He was a good-looking young man except for a dreadful scar across his +face. He had always been poor, and had no relatives and no friends. One +day when all the rich young men had been refused by the beautiful girl, +they began to tease poor Scar-face. They said to him:-- + +"Why don't you ask that girl to marry you? You are so rich and handsome." + +Scar-face did not laugh at their unkind joke, but said, "I will go." + +He asked the girl, and she liked him because he was good; and she was +willing to have him for her husband. So she said: "I belong to the sun. Go +to him. If he says so, I will marry you." + +Then Scar-face was very sad, for who could know the way to the sun? At +last he went to an old woman who was kind of heart. He asked her to make +him some moccasins, as he was going on a long journey. So she made him +seven pairs and gave him a sack of food, and he started. + +Many days he traveled, keeping his food as long as he could by eating +berries and roots or some animal that he killed. At last he came to the +house of a wolf. + +"Where are you going?" asked the wolf. + +"I seek the place where the sun lives," said Scar-face. + +"I know all the prairies, the valleys, and the mountains, but I don't know +the sun's home," said the wolf; "but ask the bear; he may know." + +The next night the young man reached the bear's house. "I know not where +he stops. I know much country, but I have never seen the lodge. Ask the +badger; he is smart," said the bear. + +The badger was in his hole and was rather cross at being disturbed. He did +not know the sun's house, but said perhaps the wolverine would know. +Though Scar-face searched the woods, he could not find the wolverine. + +In despair he sat down to rest. He cried to the wolverine to pity him, +that his moccasins were worn out and his food gone. + +The wolverine appeared. "Ah, I know where he lives; to-morrow you shall +see: it is beyond the great water." + +The next morning the wolverine put the young man on the trail, and at last +he came to a great water. Here his courage failed; he was in despair. +There was no way to cross. Just then two swans appeared and asked him +about himself. + +When he told his story, they took him safely over. "Now," said they, as he +stepped ashore, "you are close to the sun's house. Follow that trail." + +Scar-face soon saw some beautiful things in the path,--a war-shirt, shield, +bow, and arrow. But he did not touch them. + +Soon he came upon a handsome young man whose name was Morning Star. He was +the child of the sun and the moon. They became great friends. + +Together they went to the house of the sun, and there Morning Star's +mother was kind to Scar-face because her son told her that Scar-face had +not stolen his pretty things. When the sun came home at night, the moon +hid Scar-face under some skins, but the sun knew at once that some one was +there. So they brought him forth and told him he should always be with +Morning Star as his comrade. And one day he saved his friend's life from +an attack of long-beaked birds down by the great water. + +Then the sun and moon were happy over what he had done and asked what they +could do for him. And Scar-face told them his story, and the sun told him +he should marry his sweetheart. And he took the scar from his face as a +sign to the girl. They gave him many beautiful presents, and the sun +taught him many things, and how the medicine lodge should be built and how +the dance should be danced, and at last Scar-face parted from them, and +went home over the Milky Way, which is a bridge connecting heaven and +earth. + +And he sat, as is the custom of strangers coming to a town, on the hill +outside the village. At last the chief sent young men to invite him to the +village, and they did so. When he threw aside his blanket, all were +surprised, for they knew him. But he wore rich clothing, he had a +beautiful bow and arrow, and his face no longer bore the scar. And when he +came into the village, he found the girl, and she knew that he had been to +the sun, and she loved him, and they were married. + + + ERMINNIE A. SMITH.--A highly accomplished woman. Shortly before her + death she made a study for the Bureau of American Ethnology upon + _Myths of the Iroquois_. + + CHARLES GODFREY LELAND.--Poet, prose writer, and traveler. His + poems appear under the _nom de plume_ of "Hans Breitmann." His + _Algonquin Legends of New England_ is important. + + GEORGE BIRD GRINNELL.--Writer. His _Pawnee Hero Stories and + Folk-Tales_ and _Blackfoot Lodge Tales_ are charming works. We + have drawn upon him for much material, especially here and in XVI. + and XX. + + + + + +VI. WAR. + + +All Indians were more or less warlike; a few tribes, however, were eminent +for their passion for war. Such, among eastern tribes, were the Iroquois; +among southwestern tribes, the Apaches; and in Mexico, the Aztecs. + +The purpose in Indian warfare was, everywhere, to inflict as much harm +upon the enemy, and to receive as little as possible. + +The causes of war were numerous--trespassing on tribal territory, stealing +ponies, quarrels between individuals. + +In their warfare stealthiness and craft were most important. Sometimes a +single warrior crept silently to an unsuspecting camp that he might kill +defenseless women, or little children, or sleeping warriors, and then as +quietly he withdrew with his trophies. + + [Illustration.] + + Indian Spears, Shield, and Quiver of Arrows. + + +In such approaches, it was necessary to use every help in concealing +oneself. Of the Apaches it is said: "He can conceal his swart body amidst +the green grass, behind brown shrubs or gray rocks, with so much address +and judgment that any one but the experienced would pass him by without +detection at the distance of three or four yards. Sometimes they will +envelop themselves in a gray blanket, and by an artistic sprinkling of +earth will so resemble a granite bowlder as to be passed within near range +without suspicion. At others, they will cover their person with freshly +gathered grass, and lying prostrate, appear as a natural portion of the +field. Again, they will plant themselves among the yuccas, and so closely +imitate their appearance as to pass for one of them." + +At another time the Indian warrior would depend upon a sudden dash into +the midst of the enemy, whereby he might work destruction and be away +before his presence was fairly realized. + +Clark tells of an unexpected assault made upon a camp by some white +soldiers and Indian scouts. One of these scouts, named Three Bears, rode a +horse that became unmanageable, and dashed with his rider into the very +midst of the now angry and aroused enemy. Shots flew around him, and his +life was in great peril. At that moment his friend, Feather-on-the-head, +saw his danger. He dashed in after Three Bears. As he rode, he dodged back +and forth, from side to side, in his saddle, to avoid shots. At the very +center of the village, Three Bears' horse fell dead. Instantly, +Feather-on-the-head, sweeping past, caught up his friend behind him on his +own horse, and they were gone like a flash. + +A favorite device in war was to draw the enemy into ambush. An attack +would be made with a small part of the force. This would seem to make a +brave assault, but would then fall back as if beaten. The enemy would +press on in pursuit until some bit of woods, some little hollow, or some +narrow place beneath a height was reached. Then suddenly the main body of +attack, which had been carefully concealed, would rise to view on every +side, and a massacre would ensue. + +After the white man brought horses, the war expeditions were usually trips +for stealing ponies. These, of course, were never common among eastern +tribes; they were frequent among Plains Indians. Some man dreamed that he +knew a village of hostile Indians where he could steal horses. If he were +a brave and popular man, companions would promptly join him, on his +announcing that he was going on an expedition. When the party was formed, +the women prepared food, moccasins, and clothing. When ready, the party +gathered in the medicine lodge, where they gashed themselves, took a +sweat, and had prayers and charms repeated by the medicine man. Then they +started. If they were to go far, at first they might travel night and day. +As they neared their point of attack, they became more cautious, traveling +only at night, and remaining concealed during the daylight. When they +found a village or camp with horses, their care was redoubled. Waiting for +night, they then approached rapidly but silently. + +Each man worked by himself. Horses were quickly loosed and quietly driven +away. When at a little distance from the village they gathered together, +mounted the stolen animals, and fled. Once started, they pressed on as +rapidly as possible. + +It was the ambition of every Plains Indian to count _coup_. _Coup_ is a +French word, meaning a stroke or blow. It was considered an act of great +bravery to go so near to a live enemy as to touch him with the hand, or to +strike him with a short stick, or a little whip. As soon as an enemy had +been shot and had fallen, three or four often would rush upon him, anxious +to be the first one to touch him, and thus count _coup_. + +There was really great danger in this, for a fallen enemy need not be +badly injured, and may kill one who closely approaches him. More than +this, when seriously injured and dying, a man in his last struggles is +particularly dangerous. It was the ambition of every Indian youth to make +_coup_ for the first time, for thereafter he was considered brave, and +greatly respected. Old men never tired of telling of the times they had +made _coup_, and one who had thus touched dreaded enemies many times was +looked upon as a mighty warrior. + +Among certain tribes it was the custom to show the number of enemies +killed by the wearing of war feathers. These were usually feathers of the +eagle, and were cut or marked to show how many enemies had been slain. +Among the Dakotas a war feather with a round spot of red upon it indicated +one enemy slain; a notch in the edge showed that the throat of an enemy +was cut; other peculiarities in the cut, trim, or coloration told other +stories. Of course, such feathers were highly prized. + +Every one has seen pictures of war bonnets made of eagle feathers. These +consisted of a crown or band, fitting the head, from which rose a circle +of upright feathers; down the back hung a long streamer, a band of cloth +sometimes reaching the ground, to which other feathers were attached so as +to make a great crest. As many as sixty or seventy feathers might be used +in such a bonnet, and, as one eagle only supplies a dozen, the bonnet +represented the killing of five or six birds. These bonnets were often +really worn in war, and were believed to protect the wearer from the +missiles of the enemy. + +The trophy prized above all others by American Indians was the scalp. +Those made in later days by the Sioux consist of a small disk of skin from +the head, with the attached hair. It was cut and torn from the head of +wounded or dead enemies. It was carefully cleaned and stretched on a hoop; +this was mounted on a stick for carrying. The skin was painted red on the +inside, and the hair arranged naturally. If the dead man was a brave +wearing war feathers, these were mounted on the hoop with the scalp. + +It is said that the Sioux anciently took a much larger piece from the +head, as the Pueblos always did. Among the latter, the whole haired skin, +including the ears, was torn from the head. At Cochiti might be seen, +until lately, ancient scalps with the ears, and in these there still +remained the green turquoise ornaments. + + [Illustration.] + + Apache and Sioux Scalps. + + +While enemies were generally slain outright, such was not always the case. +When prisoners, one of three other fates might await them: they might be +adopted by some member of the tribe, in place of a dead brother or son; +they might be made to run the gauntlet as a last and desperate chance of +life. This was a severe test of agility, strength, and endurance. A man, +given this chance, was obliged to run between two lines of Indians, all +more or less armed, who struck at him as he passed. Usually the poor +wretch fell, covered with wounds, long before he reached the end of the +lines; if he passed through, however, his life was spared. Lastly, +prisoners might be tortured to death, and dreadful accounts exist of such +tortures among Iroquois, Algonkin and others. One of the least terrible +was as follows: the unfortunate prisoner was bound to the stake, and the +men and women picked open the flesh all over the body with knives; +splinters of pine were then driven into the wounds and set on fire. The +prisoner died in dreadful agony. + + + + + +VII. HUNTING AND FISHING. + + +To the Indian hunting and fishing were serious business. Upon the man's +success depended the comfort and even the life of the household. Game was +needed as food. The Indians had to learn the habits of the different +animals so as to be able to capture or kill them. Boys tried early to +learn how to hunt. + +Clark tells of an Indian, more than eighty years old, who recalled with +great delight the pleasure caused by his first exploit in hunting. "When I +was eight years of age," he said, "I killed a goose with a bow and arrow +and took it to my father's lodge, leaving the arrow in it. My father asked +me if I had killed it, and I said, 'Yes; my arrow is in it.' My father +examined the bird, fired off his gun, turned to an old man who was in the +lodge, presented the gun to him and said, 'Go and harangue the camp; +inform them all what my boy has done.' When I killed my first buffalo I +was ten years old. My father was right close, came to me and asked if I +killed it. I said I had. He called some old men who were by to come over +and look at the buffalo his son had killed, gave one of them a pony, and +told him to inform the camp." Such boyish successes were always the +occasion of family rejoicing. + +To the Indians of the Plains the important game was buffalo; and for +buffalo two great hunts were made each year,--a summer and a winter hunt. +Sometimes whole villages together went to these hunts. Few cared to stay +behind, for fear of attack by hostile Indians. Provisions and valuables +which were not needed on the journey were carefully buried, to be dug up +again on the return. At times the people of a village went hundreds of +miles on these expeditions. Baggage was carried on ponies in charge of the +women. At night it took but a few minutes to make camp, and no more was +necessary in the morning for breaking camp and getting on the way. + +In journeying they went in single file. Scouts constantly kept a lookout +for herds. When a herd was sighted, it was approached with the greatest +care: everything was done according to fixed rules and under appointed +leaders. When ready for the attack, the hunters drawn up in a single row +approached as near as possible to the herd and waited for the signal to +attack. When it was given, the whole company charged into the herd, and +each did his best to kill all he could. All were on horseback, and armed +with bows and arrows. They tried to get abreast of the animal and to +discharge the weapon to a vital spot. One arrow was enough to kill +sometimes, but usually more were necessary. A single successful hunter +might kill four or five in a half hour. + +After the killing a lively time ensued. The dead animals were skinned, cut +up, and carried on ponies into camp. There the skins were pegged out to +dry, the meat was cut up into strips or sheets for drying, or made up into +pemmican. Every one was busy and happy in the prospect of plenty of food. + +Sometimes, however, no herds could be found. Day after day passed without +success. The camp was well-nigh discouraged. Then a buffalo dance was +held. In this the hunters dressed themselves in the skins and horns of +buffalo, and danced to the accompaniment of special music and songs. + +In dancing, they imitated the movements of the buffalo, believing that +thus they could compel the animals to appear. Hour after hour, even day +after day, passed in such dancing until some scout hurrying in reported a +herd in sight. Then the dance would abruptly cease, its object being +gained. + +Of course many ingenious devices were employed in hunting. Antelope were +stalked; fur-bearing animals were trapped or snared. Sometimes all the +animals in a considerable area were driven into a central space where they +were killed, or from which they were driven between lines of stones or +brush, to some point where they would fall over a cliff and be killed in +the fall. Such drives used to be common in the Pueblo district. To-day +deer are rarer there; so are the mountain lion and the bear. Hunts there +are more likely nowadays to be for rabbits than for larger game. These are +caught in nets, but are more frequently killed by rabbit sticks, which may +be knot-ended clubs or flat, curved throwing sticks, a little like the +boomerangs of Australia. + + [Illustration.] + + Group of Weapons. (From Originals in Peabody Museum, Cambridge.) + + +The great weapon for hunting was the bow and arrow. Indian bows ranged +from frail, weak things, hardly suitable for a child, to the "strong bow" +of the Sioux and Crows, which would send an arrow completely through a +buffalo; the most powerful Colt's revolver--so Clark says--will not send a +ball through the same animal. The Crows sometimes made beautiful bows of +elk horn; such cost much labor and were highly valued. Three months' time +was spent in making a single one. Arrows required much care in their +making. In some tribes each man made all his arrows of precisely one +length, different from all others. This was an aid in recognizing them. +Many carried with them a measure, the exact length of their arrows so as +to settle disputes. This was necessary to determine who had killed a given +animal: the carcass belonged to the man whose arrow was found in it. + +Among some eastern tribes, and particularly in the south, where fine canes +grow near streams, the blow-gun is used. This consists of a piece of cane +perhaps eight or ten feet long, which is carefully pierced from end to end +and then smoothed inside. Arrows are made from slender shafts of rather +heavy and hard wood. They are perhaps a foot and a half long and hardly +more than a quarter or an eighth of an inch thick. They are cut square at +one end and pointed at the other; around the shaft, toward the blunt end, +a wrapping of thistle-down is firmly secured with thread. This surrounds +perhaps three or four inches of the arrow's length, and has a diameter +such as to neatly fit the bore of the blow-gun. The arrow is inserted in +the tube, and a sudden puff of breath sends it speeding on its way. An +animal the size of a rabbit or woodchuck may be killed with this weapon at +an astonishing distance. + +Among inland tribes, fishing was usually a matter of secondary importance. +Fish pieced out the food supply rather than formed its bulk. But along +some seacoasts fish is a very important food. The tribes of the Northwest +Coast live almost entirely upon fish. The salmon is particularly important +among them. These tribes have devised many kinds of lines, hooks, nets, +fish-baskets, traps, and wiers. Everywhere the commonest mode of securing +fish is and was by spearing. + + [Illustration.] + + Birch-Bark Canoe. + + +Once I went out at night with some Indian boys of Gay Head, Martha's +Vineyard, "neeskotting." These boys have a good deal of Indian blood, but +they dress, talk, and act in most ways just like white boys. I think +_neeskotting_, however, is truly Indian. "We rode down to the shore in an +ox-cart, carrying lanterns with us. Each boy had a pole, at the end of +which was firmly tied a cod-hook. The tide was falling, and the wind was +blowing in toward shore. Walking along the beach, with lantern held in one +hand so as to see the shallow water's bottom, and with the pole in the +other hand ready for use, the boys watched for fish. Hake, a foot or more +long, frost fish, lighter colored and more slender, and eels, are the +usual prey. The hake and eels rarely come into water less than six inches +deep. Frost fish, on the contrary, come close into shore, and on cold +nights crowd out on the very beach. When a fish has been seen, a sudden +stroke of the pole and a quick inpull are given to impale the prey, and +drag it in to shore. It was an exciting scene. Hither and thither the boys +darted, with strokes and landings, with cries of joy at success or despair +at failure. Finally, with perhaps fifty hake, twenty frost fish, and one +shining eel, the bottom of our cart was covered, and we turned homeward." + + [Illustration.] + + "Bull-Boat" or Coracle. + + +In fishing, hunting, and journeying, the woodland Indians needed some sort +of water craft. They had a number of different kinds of canoes. The +"dug-out," cut from a single tree trunk, is still used in many of our +Southern streams; the Cherokees in their lovely North Carolina home have +them. Along the Northwest Coast, magnificent war-canoes, capable of +carrying fifty or sixty persons, were made from single giant logs; these +canoes often had decorative bow and stern pieces carved from separate +blocks. The birch-bark canoes were made over light wooden frames with +pieces of birch bark neatly fitted, sewed, and gummed, to keep out the +water. Almost all the Algonkin tribes and the Iroquois used them upon +their lakes and rivers; they were light enough to be carried easily across +the portages. A few tribes, the Mandans among others, had the light but +awkward "bull-boat," or coracle, nearly circular, consisting of a light +framework covered with skin: such were chiefly used in ferrying across +rivers. + + + + + +VIII. THE CAMP-FIRE. + + +One of the first things after reaching camp was to build the camp-fire. +Among Indians the camp-fire not only served for heat and cooking, but for +light, and to scare away animal foes and bad spirits. You and I would +probably have a hard time making a fire without matches. The Indian had no +matches until he got them from the whites. There are two ways in which the +Indians made fire. One was by striking two hard pieces of stone--such as +chert or pyrites--together, which gave a spark, which was caught on tinder +and blown to a flame. Of course white men used to make fire in much the +same way--only they had a flint and steel. When whites first came into +contact with Indians, they used the flint and steel, and it was not long +before the Indians had secured them from the white traders. Many Indians +still use the old-fashioned flint and steel. Some old Sac and Fox men +always carry them in their tobacco pouch, and use them for lighting their +pipes. + +Another Indian method of making fire was by rubbing two pieces of wood +together. It is said that this is not difficult, but one needs to know +just how, in order to succeed. In the cliff ruins of the southwest two +little sticks are often found together. One may be a foot or two long, and +the lower end is bluntly pointed, worn smooth, and blackened as if it had +been slightly burned. The other stick is of the same thickness, but may be +only a few inches long; in it are several conical hollows, which are +charred, smooth, and usually broken away at the edge. These two sticks +were used by the "cliff-dwellers" for making fire. The second one was laid +down flat on the ground; the pointed end of the other was placed in one of +the holes in the lower piece, and the stick was whirled between the hands +by rubbing these back and forth. While the upright stick was being +whirled, it was also pressed down with some little force. By the whirling +and pressure fine wood dust was ground out which gathered at the broken +edge of the conical cavity. Soon, in the midst of this fine wood dust, +there appeared a spark. Some dry, light stuff was at once applied to it, +and it was blown into a flame. + +Certainly this mode of making fire was hard on the hands--it must soon have +raised blisters. Some tribes had learned how to grind out a spark without +this disadvantage. The lower stick was as before. A little bow was taken, +and its cord was wrapped about the upright stick and tightened. The two +sticks were then put into position, the top of the upright being steadied +with a small block held in the left hand; the bow being moved back and +forth with the right hand, the upright was caused to whirl easily and +rapidly. This was used among many of our tribes. + +Although making it themselves, many Indians think the fire made with the +bow-drill is sacred, and that it comes from heaven. Among the Aztecs of +Mexico there was a curious belief and ceremony. The Aztecs counted their +years in groups of fifty-two, just as we count ours by hundreds or +centuries. They thought the world would come to an end at the close of one +of these fifty-two year periods. Therefore, they were much disturbed when +such a time approached. When the end of the cycle really came, all the +fires and lights in the houses had been put out; not a spark remained +anywhere. When it was night, the people went out along the great causeway +to Itztapalapa, at the foot of the Hill of the Star. On the summit of this +hill was a small temple. At the proper hour, determined by observing the +stars, the priests cast a victim on the altar, tore out his heart as +usual, and placed the lower stick of the fire-sticks upon the wound. The +upright stick was adjusted and whirled. For a moment all were in great +anxiety. The will of the gods was to be made known. If no spark appeared, +the world would at once be destroyed; if there came a spark, the gods had +decreed at least one cycle more of existence to the world. And when the +spark appeared, how great was the joy of the people! All had carried +unlighted torches in their hands, and now these were lighted with the new +fire, and with songs of rejoicing the crowd hurried back to the city. + +Boys know pretty well how Indians cooked their food. Most of us have +roasted potatoes in the hot ashes, and broiled meat or frogs' legs over +the open fire. The Indians did much the same. Pieces of meat would be +spitted on sharp sticks, and set so as to hang over the fire. Clams, +mussels, and other things, were baked among the hot coals or ashes. One +time "Old Elsie," a Lipan woman, took a land turtle, which I brought her +alive, and thrust it head first into the fire. This not only killed the +turtle, but cooked it, and split open the hard shell box so that she could +get at the meat inside. + +Over the fireplace the Indians usually have a pot or kettle suspended in +which various articles may be boiling together. The Indians invented +succotash, which is a stew of corn and beans; we have borrowed the thing +and the name. At the first meal I ate among the Sacs and Foxes, we all +squatted on the ground, outside the house and near the fire, and took a +tin of boiled fish off the coals. We picked up bits of the fish with our +fingers, and passed the pan around for every one to have a drink of the +soup. + +All this is easy cooking; but how would you go to work to boil buffalo +meat if you had no kettle, pot, nor pan of any kind? A great many Indian +tribes knew how. When a buffalo was killed, the hide was carefully +removed. A bowl-like hole was scraped out in the ground and lined with the +buffalo skin, the clean side up. This made a nice basin. Water was put +into this and the pieces of meat laid in. A hot fire was kindled near by, +and stones were heated in it, and then dropped into the basin of water and +meat. So the food was boiled. A number of tribes cooked meat in this way, +but one was called by a name that means "stone-boilers"--Assinaboines. + +Meat was often dried. In some districts where the air is clear and dry and +the sun hot, the meat is cut into strips or sheets, and dried by hanging +it on lines near the house. At other places it was dried and smoked over a +fire. Where there was buffalo meat, the Indian women made pemmican, which +was _good_. The buffalo meat was first dried as usual. The dried meat was +heated through over a low fire, and then beaten with sticks or mauls to +shreds. Buffalo tallow was melted and the shredded meat stirred up in it. +All was then put into a bag made of buffalo skin and packed as tightly as +possible; the bag was then fastened up and sewed tight. Sometimes the +marrow-fat was also put into this pemmican, and dried berries or +choke-cherries. Pemmican kept well a long time, and was such condensed +food that a little of it lasted a long time. It was eaten dry or stewed up +in water into a sort of soup. + + [Illustration.] + + Smoke Signaling. (After Mallery.) + + +A curious use for fire among some Indians was in giving signals. A place +visible from a great distance was selected. Upon it a little fire was +built with fuel which gave a dense smoke. Sometimes the signal depended +upon the number of fires kindled side by side. Thus when Pima Indians +returned from a war-party against Apaches, they gave smoke signals if they +had been successful. A single fire was built first; its one smoke column +meant success. Then a number of little fires, kindled in a line side by +side, indicated the number of scalps taken. Sometimes messages were given +by puffs of smoke. When the fire had been kindled, a blanket was so held +as to prevent the smoke rising. When a lot of smoke had been imprisoned +beneath it, the blanket was suddenly raised so as to let it escape. It was +then lowered, held, and raised so as to cause a new puff. These puffs of +smoke rose regularly in long, egg-shaped masses, and according to their +number the message to be sent varied. Such signaling by smoke puffs was +common among Plains tribes. + + + + + +IX. SIGN LANGUAGE ON THE PLAINS. + + +Every one talking with another person who speaks a different language +will, in his effort to make himself understood, quite surely make some use +of signs. Often the signs so used will seem naturally to express the +desired idea. Once, a Tonkaway Indian in trying to tell me that all white +men were untruthful, put the first two fingers of his right hand, slightly +separated, near his mouth and then moved the hand downward and outward, at +the same time slightly spreading the fingers. By this he meant to say that +white men had two tongues, or were liars. They say one thing and mean +another. + +While it is natural for all people to use signs to convey meaning, the use +of signs will be most frequent where it is a common thing for several +people speaking different languages to come into contact. While all +American Indians use some gestures, the Plains Indians, who were +constantly meeting other tribes, necessarily made much use of them. In +fact, a remarkable sign language had grown up among them, whereby Sioux, +Crows, Assinaboines, Pani, Arapahoes, Cheyennes, Kiowas, could readily +converse upon any subject. + +It is not probable that the sign language was invented by any one tribe. +Many writers have claimed that it was made by the Kiowas. Rather, it grew +up of itself among the tribes because gesturing is natural to peoples +everywhere. + +Deaf-mutes left to themselves always use signs. These signs are of two +kinds. They either picture or copy some idea, thing, or action, or they +point out something. It is interesting to find that the gestures made by +deaf-mutes and Indians are often the same. So true is this, that +deaf-mutes and Indians quite readily understand each other's signs. +Parties of Indians in Washington for business are sometimes taken to the +Deaf-Mute College to see if the two--Indians and deaf-mutes--can understand +each other. While they cannot understand every sign, they easily get at +each other's meaning. One time a professor from a deaf-mute school, who +knew little of Indians and nothing at all of Indian languages, had no +difficulty while traveling through Indian country in understanding and in +making himself understood by means of signs. + + [Illustration.] + + Sign Language on the Plains. (After Mallery.) + + +We will look at a few examples of Indian signs. Try and make them from the +description, and see whether you think they are natural or not. The signs +for animal names usually describe or picture some peculiarity of the +animal. + + + _Badger_.--The right hand is held with the back up, fingers + extended, touching and pointing to the front, in front and to the + right of the body. This shows the height of the animal. Then the + first and second fingers are slightly separated (the rest of the + hand being closed) and drawn from the nose upward over the top of + the head. This shows the striped face. The two hands are then held + in front of the body, with fingers curved, the backs up, and drawn + as if pawing or scratching. This has reference to the digging of + the animal. The complete sign thus gives the size, the most + striking mark, and the habit of the animal. + + _Beaver_.--Hold out the left hand, with the back up, pointing to + the right and front, in front of the body, with the lower part of + the arm horizontal; cross the right hand under it so that the back + of the _right hand_ is _against_ the _left palm_. Then leaving the + right wrist _all the time against_ the _left palm_, briskly move + the right hand up and down so it shall _slap_ against the left + palm. The beaver has a broad, flat tail, with which he strikes mud + or water. The sign imitates this action. + + _Buffalo_.--Close the hands except the forefingers; curve these; + place the hands then against the sides of the head, near the top + and fairly forward. These curved forefingers resemble the horns of + the buffalo and so suggest that animal. + + _Dog_.--Place the right hand, with the back up, in front of and a + little lower than the left breast: the first and second fingers + are extended, separated, and point to the left. The hand is then + drawn several inches to the right, horizontally. I am sure you + never would guess how this came to mean dog. You remember how the + tent poles are dragged by ponies when camp is moved? Well, before + the Indians had horses as now, the dogs used to have to drag the + poles. This sign represents the dragging of the poles. + + _Skunk_.--The skunk is a little animal, but it has rather a + complicated sign. (_a_) The height is indicated as in the case of + the badger. (_b_) Raise the right hand, with the back backward, a + little to the right of the right shoulder; all the fingers are + closed except the forefinger, which is curved; the hand is then + moved forward several inches by gentle jerks. This represents the + curious way in which the broad, bushy tail is carried and the + movement of the animal in walking. (_c_) Raise right hand toward + the face, with the two first fingers somewhat separated, to about + the chin. Then move it upward until the nose passes between the + separated finger tips. This means smell. (_d_) Hold both hands, + closed with backs up, in front of the body, the two being at the + same height. Move them down and outward, at the same time opening + them. This is done rather briskly and vigorously. It means bad. + Thus in the sign for skunk we give size, character of tail and + movement, and bad smell. + + +There are of course signs for the various Indian tribes, and some of these +are interesting because they usually present some striking characteristic +of the tribe named. + + + _Crow_.--Make with the arms the motion of flapping wings. + + _Arapaho_.--The fingers of one hand touch the breast in different + parts to indicate the tattooing of that part in points. + + _Arikara_.--often called "corn-eaters," are represented by + imitating the shelling of corn, by holding the left hand still, + the shelling being done with the right. + + _Blackfeet_.--Pass the flat hand over the outer edge of the right + foot from the heel to beyond the toe, as if brushing off dust. + + _Comanche_ and _Shoshone_.--Imitate with the hand or forefinger the + crawling motion of the snake. + + _Flathead_.--The hand is raised and placed against the forehead. + + +We will only give one more example. The sign for crazy is as follows:-- + + + Slightly contract the fingers of the right hand without closing + it; bring it up to and close in front of the forehead; turn the + hand so that the finger tips describe a little circle. + + +Bad boys sometimes speak of people having wheels in their head. This +Indian sign certainly seems to show that the Indian idea of craziness is +about the same as the boys'. + +Captain Clark wrote a book on the Indian sign language, in which he +described great numbers of these curious signs. Lieutenant Mallery, too, +made a great collection of signs and wrote a long paper about them. A +third gentleman has tried to make type which shall print the sign +language. He made more than eight hundred characters. With these he plans +to teach the old Indians to read papers and books printed in the signs. He +thinks that the Indian can take such a paper, and making the signs which +he sees there pictured, he will understand the meaning of the article. + + + W. P. CLARK.--Soldier. Author of _Indian Sign Language_, which not + only is a convenient dictionary of signs, but contains much + general information regarding Indians. + + GARRICK MALLERY.--Soldier, ethnologist. Connected with Bureau of + Ethnology from its establishment until his death. His most + extended papers are: _Sign Language among North American Indians, + Pictographs of the North American Indians, Picture Writing of the + American Indians_. + + LEWIS HADLEY.--Inventor of Indian Sign Language type. + + + + + +X. PICTURE WRITING. + + +The Indians did not know how to write words by means of letters. There +were, however, many things which they wished to remember, and they had +found out several ways in which to record these. + +Thus among the Sacs and Foxes there is a long legend with songs telling +about their great teacher, the good, wise, and kind Wisuka. It is +difficult to remember exactly such long narratives, but with objects to +remind the reciter of each part, it is not so hard. So the persons who are +to repeat the legend have a _micaem_. This is a wooden box, usually kept +carefully wrapped up in a piece of buckskin and tied with a leathern +thong; in it are a variety of curious objects, each one of which reminds +the singer or reciter of one part of the narrative. Thus he is sure not to +leave out any part. In the same way mystery men among other Algonkin +tribes have pieces of birch bark upon which they scratch rude pictures, +each of which reminds them of the first words of the different verses in +their songs. Such reminders are great helps to the memory. Among the +Iroquois and some eastern Algonkins, they used, as we shall see, wampum +belts to help remember the details of treaties or of important events. + +Among many tribes pictures were used for recording matters of importance. +Many Sioux chiefs have written the story of their life in pictures. They +took several large sheets of paper and gummed the edges together so as to +make one long strip. Upon this they made pictures representing the +important incidents in their lives. Thus in one picture was shown where, +as a boy, the artist shot his first deer; in another was represented his +first hunting party; in another, how he went on the war-path to gain the +name of brave; in another, where he danced the sun dance; again, how he +went to Washington to see the white men's officers, on business. + +The most important record made by the Sioux is the _Dakota Calendar_. More +than a century ago a Sioux Indian determined to keep a count of the years +and of their happenings. So he began a record which was called a "winter +count," where the events of the different years were shown by pictures. +His idea became popular, and a number of these winter counts were begun by +other Indians. The most important of these is one which has been called +the Dakota Calendar. It belonged for a long time to an Indian named Lone +Dog. The one he had was a copy on cloth from a still older one, which had +been made upon a buffalo skin. This count appears to have begun about the +year 1800. + + [Illustration.] + + The Dakota Calendar. (After Mallery.) + + +Each year its maker selected some important event, by which the year was +to be remembered, and made a picture for it. The first five or six +pictures run in a nearly straight line to the left; the line of pictures +then coils around and around this, the last picture always being added to +the end of the coiled line. The pictures are in black and red, and while +rudely drawn, most of them can be easily recognized. In 1801 the Sioux had +a terrible attack of smallpox, and many of them died; the picture for the +year is a man covered with red spots. Whooping-cough is a disease of which +white people have little fear, but it is sometimes very destructive to +Indians; in 1813 it was among the Sioux, and the picture for that year was +a man coughing, as shown by lines diverging from in front of his mouth. In +1840 the Sioux made a treaty of peace with the Cheyennes; the picture +shows two hands extended for a friendly grasp. In 1869 there was a total +eclipse of the sun, which is represented by a blackened sun and two stars +in red: "The stars were seen in the daytime." In 1833 was the famous +display of meteors or falling stars, which was witnessed in all parts of +the United States, causing great excitement; many white people believed +that it portended the destruction of the world. This star shower was +noticed by the Sioux keeper of the winter count, and is represented by a +black moon and a lot of red stars represented as falling. You can pick out +these different figures in the picture, which represents Lone Dog's winter +count, or the Dakota Calendar as it would look on a buffalo hide. + + [Illustration.] + + Indian Letter on Birch Bark. (From Schoolcraft.) + + +Probably you have all seen pictures of a birch-bark letter written many +years ago by an Ojibwa Indian. It was written by one of Schoolcraft's +guides. Mr. Schoolcraft, with a party of assistants and soldiers, was on a +journey of exploration in the Northwest. One morning as they were leaving +camp, Schoolcraft saw an Indian putting a bit of birch bark, upon which he +had drawn some pictures in black, into a cleft at the end of a pole. This +pole was then stuck slantingly into the ground and three notches were cut +in it. When Mr. Schoolcraft asked his guide for an explanation, he said +this letter would inform any Ojibwa Indians who might pass, about their +party. The eagle in the upper corner showed that they were from +Washington--government people. The other pictures showed that there were +eight common soldiers each with a gun; that there were six officers, the +duty of each being indicated by something carried in the hand,--the captain +by his sword, the secretary by his book, the geologist by his hammer, +etc.; that soldiers and officers were white men, as shown by their wearing +hats; that there were two guides, Indians, as shown by their having no +hats and carrying spears; that the night before there were three fires in +the camp, soldiers, officers, and guides, camping separately; that during +the day there had been secured a prairie hen and a turtle, both of which +had been taken by the officers for supper. But other facts were shown +besides those told in the pictures. The pole stuck into the ground pointed +the direction in which the party would journey; the three notches on the +pole told that they would journey in that direction three days. + +Of all American Indians those who went farthest in the direction of +developing writing were some of those living in Mexico and Central +America. The Aztecs had an extensive system of picture writing. By means +of pictures they recorded their traditional history and gave full +directions regarding the worship of the gods. They had real books written +with these pictures. These books were written sometimes on skin, sometimes +on paper. The Aztecs made two kinds of paper, one of the soft inner bark +of a tree, the other from the maguey plant. The latter sort was beaten out +of the mass of leaf fibres after they had been soaked in water. The maguey +plant is much like the century plant which you have seen in parks and +greenhouses. The paper or dressed skin was made into long narrow strips +many feet in length. These strips were folded back and forth like a +screen, and the ends were fastened to two thin boards which served as +covers for the book. Sometimes bits of polished green stone were inlaid +into these covers to make them pretty. Some of these old books are still +in existence, though most of them have long been destroyed. We cannot read +any of them very well because pictures are uncertain means of conveying +information. Still we can tell something about their meaning. + + [Illustration.] + + Page of Aztec Book. (From Photograph.) + + +Charles V, to know about them, and ordered three skilled painters of the +Aztecs to prepare a book to be sent to the Emperor. Each artist took a +different subject, so the book consists of three parts. The first gives a +picture-written story of the Aztecs from the time when they began their +wanderings; the second gives a list of the towns that paid tribute to the +city of Mexico and a statement of the kind and amount of tribute each +paid; the third shows how children were trained, how they were punished +when they were naughty, and what kind of work they were taught. Of course +the Emperor would not understand the meaning of all these queer pictures, +far different from anything he had ever seen; so Mendoza had an +explanation or translation written with all the pictures. This is as +fortunate for us as it was for the Emperor: in this way we can learn +something about the use and meaning of these characters. + + + + + +XI. MONEY. + + +Indians have always been fond of beads and of shells. Wampum is shell +beads of an especial shape--cylindrical, with square cut ends, and with a +length one and a half times their thickness or more. This wampum was made +from a thick and heavy sea-shell. A piece was split off, and then ground +down until it was like a wheat straw in shape and size. It was then cut +into lengths and drilled. The drilling was slow and tedious work. A point +of stone, or, after the whites came, of metal, was struck into a cane or +reed. The bit of shell to be drilled was held in the left hand; the drill +was rolled on the thigh with the right hand. There were two kinds of +wampum--white and purple. The purple was most valued. Thomas Morton +quaintly wrote in 1630--that is, it sounds quaint to us now,--"White with +them is as silver with us, the other as our gould." + +Originally wampum was simply ornamental. But it is always easy for things +that are prized as ornament to be used in trade. So wampum was used as a +medium of exchange; it was really the money of the eastern Indians. +Strings of it passed from hand to hand as coin does with us. Sometimes the +ornamental string worn a moment before would be removed to buy some object +seen and desired. The famous New England chief, King Philip, is said to +have had a coat "made all of _wampampeog_, which when in need of money, he +cuts to pieces and distributes it plentifully." + +Among the Algonkin and Iroquois tribes broad belts or bands of wampum were +neatly woven. The work consisted, like all weaving, of two sets of +threads. The long warp threads were crossed by threads laden with beads. +These belts were neat and handsome and often contained thousands of beads. +The differently colored beads were so combined as to make striking designs +and figures. + + [Illustration.] + + Wampum Belt. (After Holmes.) + + +These fine belts were often given as pledges of faith and agreement at the +making of treaties. Some which were kept in the tribe were made to help in +remembering the terms of the treaty. Thus, when an orator was speaking, he +would hold up a wampum belt, and in making a point of special importance +would call attention to some figure in the belt, which would serve ever +after to remind every one present of what he had said. Among the Onondagas +(Iroquois) there was an officer known as the "keeper of the belts," whose +business it was to know all these figures and the different ideas +connected with them, and to make them known to the people from time to +time. + +There is a common little sea-shell found in the Pacific Ocean called the +dentalium. It is pretty, clear white, very smooth, and shaped much like a +wee elephant's tusk. The natives of the coast are fond of it as ornament, +and among them strings of dentalium shells serve for money just as wampum +did in the east. They were secured usually by a peculiar mode of fishing. +Thus we are told at Forward Inlet a number of split sticks or twigs were +tied together into a bunch; this was tied to the end of several poles +lashed together so as to reach the bottom in deep water. It was driven +down into the mud, and then brought up with the shells caught or tangled +in it. The value of the shells depended on their length. Little ones were +good enough to be worn as ornaments, but the larger they were, the more +value they had as money. Powers, speaking of the Hupa (California) +Indians, says: "The standard of measurement is a string of five shells. +Nearly every man has ten lines tattooed across the inside of his left arm +about half way between the wrist and the elbow; and in measuring +shell-money he takes the string in his right hand, draws one end over his +left thumb-nail, and if the other end reaches to the uppermost of the +tattoo lines, the five shells are worth $25 in gold, or $5 a shell. Of +course it is only one in ten thousand that is long enough to reach this +high value. The longest ones usually seen are worth about $2, that is $10 +to the string. Single shells are also measured on the creases on the +inside of the left middle finger, a $5 shell being one which will reach +between the two extreme creases. No shell is treated as money at all +unless it is long enough to rate at 25 cents. Below that it degenerates +into _squaw money_, and goes to form part of a woman's necklace." + +Shell beads are much prized among the Pueblo Indians, and are sometimes in +size and shape very like true wampum. At other times they are thin, flat, +rather broad pierced disks. These Indians also delight in ornaments made +out of haliotis or "abalone" shell. This shell is a large single valve, +shaped a little like the ear of some large animal, and hence sometimes +called "ear-shell." The outside is rough and unattractive, but the +interior is pearly and of rich colors,--purple, green, blue, red, crimson, +often many of these bright colors showing in a small space. Where the +rough outside of the shell is ground away the whole material is found to +be pearly and rich in color. This shell is cut into elliptical, oblong, or +fancifully formed plates which are pierced and hung by a cord. Men used to +make long journeys to the Pacific Coast to secure shells. Even from the +eastern pueblos on the Rio Grande such journeys were customary, and many +of the men at Cochiti delight to tell of their journey, perhaps the most +important event of their lives. They loaded their burros with things to +trade and with supplies, and then struck across a country, desert and +hostile, in the hope of bringing back a great load of the precious shell +material. + +For another precious material they had not far to go. Turquoise was highly +prized. This is a hard, fine-grained blue, bluish green, or green stone, +that is found at several localities in New Mexico. It has been mined for a +long time near Los Cerillos, and the old diggings and the old stone tools +with which they were worked may still be seen. Modern Indians still work +the same precious veins, and bits of the rough stone may pass from hand to +hand in trade. In drilling the shell and turquoise beads to-day a little +drill is used which is called a pump-drill. An upright stick bears a point +of hard stone or iron at the bottom. This passes through a hole in a +little flat board an inch or so wide and six or eight inches long; strings +or thongs pass from the ends of this board to the top of the upright +stick. On the upright stick, not far from the lower end, is fastened a +thin, wide disk of wood, three inches across. This serves as a fly-wheel +to regulate the whirling of the stick. When this little machine is +properly adjusted, it is made to whirl by pressing down on the crossbow, +and then releasing the pressure, pressing down again, etc. It works very +well, and drills the hard turquoise and the softer shell neatly. These +beads and ornaments of shell or turquoise are so highly prized that they +easily serve the purposes of trade. So much do the Navajo desire the +turquoise that they readily exchange for it their beautiful blankets, neat +silver-work, or finest ponies. + +Blankets have always been greatly prized by all Indians, whether they be +made out of skins, bark, or wool. The white man has taken advantage of +this fact, and to-day his blankets are to be found everywhere. In some +places they have become the real money and have regular set values. In +British Columbia, most of the tribes reckon all values in Hudson Bay +blankets. These blankets are traded out by the Hudson Bay company and are +of various sizes. These sizes are always indicated by some black lines +worked into the blanket along the edge. The largest size is called a "four +point," the smallest a "one point" blanket. One size is considered the +standard; it is the "two-and-a-half point" size. When any one speaks of "a +blanket," a two-and-a-half point blanket is meant. Skins of different +animals are said to be worth so many "blankets." + +The Tlingit and Haida Indians of Alaska and Queen Charlotte Islands used +to feel very proud if they were owners of "coppers." They did not smelt +copper, but they used to beat it into various forms. The form most prized, +called "a copper," was of no use, but indicated wealth. "Coppers" were +flat sheets of equal thickness throughout except at the edges, which were +thicker than the body; there was also upon them a raised pattern something +like a T; sometimes also a face was scratched upon their upper part. Such +coppers were formerly worth ten slaves each. Lately, however, the whites +have taken to making them for trade, and they have become so common that +they are much less prized. Still, until quite lately, they were worth from +forty to eighty blankets, or from sixty to one hundred and twenty dollars. + + + WILLIAM HENRY HOLMES.--Geologist, archaeologist, artist. At present + he is at the head of the anthropological work of the United States + National Museum. Has written important works: among them, _Art in + Shell of the Ancient Americans_ and _Archaeological Studies among + the Ancient Cities of Mexico_. + + + + + +XII. MEDICINE MEN AND SECRET SOCIETIES. + + +All Indians believe in spirits. Some are good and help men who please +them; others are bad and always anxious to do harm. The spirits are all +about us. They are in plants, and trees, and rustling leaves; they are in +the wind and cloud and rain; they are in the mountain and in the brook. It +is spirits that cause trouble, suffering, and death. When a man is ill, +some bad spirit has taken away his soul or has entered into him. + +It is not strange, then, that the Indians should wish to gain power over +these spirits. If a man knows some words, the saying of which will protect +him against them, he is fortunate; fortunate is he, too, if he knows some +object which, carried, will disarm them, or if he can perform some trick +which will put them to flight. Such knowledge is what the Indians mean by +"medicine" or "mystery." Men who spend their lives in trying to gain such +knowledge are called medicine men, mystery men, or Shamans. + + [Illustration.] + + Rattles and Masks: Alaska. (From Originals in Peabody Museum.) + + +The Shaman among the tribes of the Northwest Coast is an important person. +He decided, when a boy, that he would become a Shaman. He selected some +old Shaman for his teacher and learned from him his secrets. By +experiments, by dreaming, and by trading with other Shamans he got other +secrets. To help him in his dealings with spirits the Shaman makes use of +many devices. He sleeps upon a wooden pillow, which is carved with otter +heads; these are believed to whisper wisdom to him while he sleeps. Upon +his dancing-dress little carved figures, in ivory, are hung, which give +him spirit influence, partly by the forms into which they are cut, and +partly by the jingling noise they make when he dances. He wears a mask, +the animal carvings on which control spirits. He uses a rattle and a +tambourine to summon spirits. He has a spirit pole or wand quaintly +carved, with which he fences, fighting and warding off spirits which he +alone can see. The people sitting by see his brave fighting and hear his +shrieks and cries; in this way only they can judge how many and how +powerful are the spirits against whom he is fighting, for their good. + +Sometimes when dancing the Shaman becomes so excited that he falls in a +fit--quivering, gasping, struggling. It is believed, at such times, either +that some mighty spirit has taken possession of him, or that his own soul +has gone to the land of spirits. Sometimes when he comes to himself he +tells of his wonderful journeys and battles. + +Among the Haida of the Queen Charlotte Islands, when a sick man is to be +cured, three or four Shamans come together at his side. All sing and +rattle until they find out where the soul of the sick man is. It may be in +the possession of the salmon or the oolachen fish, or it may be held a +prisoner by some dead Shaman. They go to the place where it is supposed to +be, and by singing and charms succeed in getting it into a carved hollow +bone used only for this purpose. Various precious things are then burned +and the soul bone held in the smoke. The bone is then laid by the side of +the patient's head that his soul may return. + +Many astonishing stories are told of the powers of medicine men. A +missionary among the Crees, Edgerton R. Young, told me of a white man who +was once out hunting. He came upon an old medicine man, who begged him for +game, as he was hungry. The white man made sport of him, saying, "You are +a great medicine man; why not get game for yourself?" The old man was +enraged. He cried out, "White man, see yonder goose," and pointed his +finger into the air. The goose fell fluttering at their feet, and the old +man picked it up and walked away. The white man really thought this thing +happened. Perhaps the old medicine man had hypnotized him; if so, the only +goose anywhere around was probably the white man. + +The eastern Algonkins were fond of medicine or mystery. Two great medicine +men would have a contest to see which was more powerful. Many of their +stories tell of such contests. Two powers, which they did seem to have, +attracted much attention and caused much terror. These were screaming and +sinking into the ground. Leland quotes an Indian regarding these: "Two or +three weeks after, I was in another place, we spoke of _m'teoulin_ +[mystery men]. The white folks ridiculed them. I said there was one in +Fredericton, and I said I would bet ten dollars that he would get the +better of them. And they bet that no Indian could do more than they could. +So the _m'teoulin_ came, and first he screamed so that no one could move. +It was dreadful. Then he took seven steps through the ground up to his +ankles, just as if it had been light snow. When I asked for the ten +dollars, the white men paid." + +Ojibwa medicine men have often been tested by white men who doubted their +powers. Thus one old medicine man had two little houses built at some +distance apart. He was shut up in one, and the whites built a ring of fire +around it. Then, no one could tell how, he appeared unharmed walking out +of the _other_ house. These things are no doubt tricks or delusions, but +the medicine man's apparent ability to do them greatly increased his +influence among the people. + +Much use is made of words as charms and of sacred numbers. Four and seven +are sacred numbers among the Cherokees. Once, wishing to see his method of +curing disease, I asked the old medicine man to treat my lame arm. He sent +out for four kinds of leaves, which were to be fresh and young, and one +other sort which was to be dry and dead. The latter had little thorns +along its edges. The old man pounded up the four kinds in warm water. He +then scratched the arm with the other, nearly drawing blood. The arm was +rubbed with the bruised leaves. The medicine man then blew upon my arm +seven times. He went through this operation of rubbing and blowing four +times, thus combining the numbers four and seven. He repeated charms all +the time as he rubbed. + +The Shaman does business as an individual. He expects pay from those who +employ him. His knowledge and power over spirits is individual and for +individuals. Among some tribes we find not single medicine men, but great +secret societies which have learned spirit wisdom to use for the benefit +of the society, or for the good of the whole tribe. Such secret societies +are notable in the Southwest--and elsewhere. They may work to cure disease +in individuals; they also work for the whole tribe. Among the Moki +Pueblos, the societies of the Snake and of the Antelope carry on the snake +dance, that the whole people may have rain for their fields. + + + + + +XIII. DANCES AND CEREMONIALS. + + +The dances of Indians are sometimes, like our own, simply social and for +pleasure. They are more frequently religious or for some important +purpose. + +They are always accompanied by music. Indian music is in perfect swing or +time. Most Indian musical instruments are simply time beaters. The +commonest is the rattle. This varies with place and tribe. Among Northwest +Coast tribes it is of wood, elaborately carved, both in form and +decoration. A common rattle in that district is cut into the form of a +bird--the raven. Some of the old rattles, made and used by Shamans a +hundred years ago, are still in existence: they were probably carved with +knives and chisels of stone, but they are better done than most of the +modern ones, which have been cut out with metal tools. Some of the Plains +tribes had leather rattles,--balls of dried skin fastened over the end of a +little wooden handle. Many tribes used gourds for rattles. Some of these +are round, about the size of an apple; such were pierced and a wooden +handle thrust through. Others are flask or bottle shaped; such need no +handle beyond the one supplied by nature. + +Drums and tambourines of various kinds are used in time beating. The +beaters usually take no other part in the dance, but sit by themselves at +one side. Frequently each dancer has a rattle. Sometimes a stick notched +across with deep notches is used. Across these notches a thin bone, +usually a shoulder-blade, is rubbed with a good deal of force. Such rubbed +sticks are very good time beaters. They are used by Apaches, Pueblos, and +Tonkaways. Among the old Aztecs, they had a similar instrument, but made +of a long bone instead of from a stick. + +Indians prepare for dances with much care. The hair is combed and +arranged. The face and body are painted. A special dance dress is +frequently worn. This dress is often of ancient form and decoration. +Sometimes all this preparation is just to make the dancers look pretty; +more frequently, however, the dress and decoration have some meaning, and +often they mimic some creature or copy the dress worn by some great person +of their legends. Thus in the buffalo and the bear dances, skins of +buffalo, with the head, skin, and horns attached, or the skins of bears, +were put on, to make the dancers look like these animals. + +The meaning and uses of dances differ greatly. The war dance, in which the +men are painted as if for war and have about them everything that can make +them think of war, is intended to influence them for battle. The music, +songs, movements, prayers, and offerings all relate to the coming +conflict. The scalp dance is in celebration of victory. The buffalo dance +is magical and is to compel the coming of herds of that animal. At some +dances the story told by the tribe in regard to the creation of the world +and how man learned things is all acted out; the dancers are dressed to +represent the spirits, or beings who made, helped, or taught the tribe, +and the dance is a real drama. Among the Pueblos and some other +southwestern tribes, many dances are prayers for rain; the songs sung and +the movements made all have reference to the rain so much desired. + +In one of these dances the drummers make curious, beckoning gestures to +bring up the rain clouds. In some the dancers carry sticks curiously +jointed together so as to open and shut in zigzag movements, which are +meant to look like lightning and are believed to bring it; other dancers +imitate the thunder. Sometimes the dancers and others are drenched with +water thrown upon them, in order that the town and its fields may be +drenched with rain. + +Many dances are only a part of some great religious ceremonial. Thus the +sun dance follows several days of fasting and prayer, and the snake dance +is but a small part of a nine days' ceremonial. Indian religion abounds in +such long ceremonials with a vast number of minute details. The songs, +prayers, and significant actions used in some of them must number many +hundreds. + +In order that the desired result of ceremonials should be secured, it was +necessary that the persons performing it should be pure. There were many +ways to purify or cleanse oneself. Sometimes a sweat bath was taken, after +which the body was rubbed with sweet-smelling plants. The person might sit +in smoke that came from burning some sacred herb or wood. He might fast +for several days. He might refuse to touch or come into contact with his +friends, or with the objects he was in the habit of using. Many times it +was thought necessary that the objects which he was to use in the ceremony +must be new, or must be purified by being held in sacred smoke. + +In ceremonies, much attention is paid to sacred numbers. The number most +often sacred is four. Four men are often concerned in one act; four drums +may be used; the men may fast four days; an action may be repeated four +times. If a thing is done sixteen times, four times four, it might be +still better. In the snake-dance ceremonial there are sixteen sacred +songs, which are sung at one sitting. + +Seven is a sacred number among the Cherokees; it is less important than +four, but the two may be combined, and twenty-eight often occurs. Thus the +scratcher used upon the ball-players has seven teeth and is drawn four +times, making twenty-eight scratches. + +Connected with the sacred number four, the Indians give much importance to +the cardinal points--north, west, south, and east. They always pay +attention to these when they dance and pray. Some tribes recognize more +than four world's points, adding the up and the down, or the above and the +below, making six in all. A few think of the place where they themselves +are, and speak of seven points; so the Zuni have the north, west, south, +east, above, below, and the center. When they prepared their medicine +lodge for the sun dance, the Mandans put one of their curious, +turtle-shaped, skin water-drums at each of the four world quarters. +Usually in ceremonials, Indians pray to each of these quarters, and make +an offering toward it. + +One of the commonest offerings made in ceremonials is the smoke of +tobacco. Gods and spirits are believed to be fond of it. In smoking to +their honor, a puff is blown in turn to each of the four points, and then +perhaps up, and possibly down. In the Pueblos, every religious act is +accompanied by the scattering of sacred meal. This sacred meal is a +mixture of corn meal and pounded sea-shells. It is sprinkled everywhere to +secure kindly spirit influence. A pinch of it is thrown to the north, +west, south, east, up and down. Frank Cushing once took a party of Zuni +Indians to the Atlantic Ocean to get sea-water for certain ceremonials. On +the way, the Indians saw many novel and strange things which they did not +understand. When they saw such, they sprinkled sacred meal to render them +harmless and kindly. + +Prayer sticks are much used among the Pueblos. They are bits of stick to +which feathers are attached. They are set up wherever it is desired to +have the good will of spirit powers. For several days before the Moki +snake dance, messengers are sent out with prayer sticks to be set up near +springs and sacred places. Such prayer sticks are put up near fields where +corn is planted, or buried in the earth in corrals where ponies or +_burros_ are kept. Other offerings are made at especially sacred spots. In +mountain caves there are often masses of prayer sticks, miniature bows and +arrows, and other tiny things meant as gifts to the gods. + +Each of the cardinal points may have a color that is proper to it. The use +of sacred colors for the cardinal points is found among the Pueblos, +Navajo, many Siouan tribes, the Pani, and others. It was the custom also +among the old Aztecs in Mexico. A curious example of the use of these +colors is found in the sand altars of the Pueblos and Navajo. They are +made in many ceremonials. They are made of different colored sands +produced by pounding up rocks. The sand altars are rectangular in form, +and are made on the floor. A layer of one color of sand may be spread out +for a foundation; upon it may be put a sheet of sand of a different color +and of smaller size, so that the margin of the first serves as a border of +the second; additional layers may be added, each bordering the one that +follows it. Finally, upon the topmost layer, curious and interesting +designs may be made. One sand altar in the Moki snake dance had an outer +broad border of brownish yellow sand; then followed broad borders of white +and black; upon this black border were four snakes in red, green, yellow, +and blue, one on each side of the square; then came narrower borders of +white, red, green, yellow, one within the other; within these was a +central square of green, upon which was a yellow mountain lion. + +You see that Indian ceremonials are often very complex, with many dances, +decorations, purifyings, prayers, gifts, and altars. + + + + + +XIV. BURIAL AND GRAVES. + + +Almost all savage and barbarous peoples look upon death as due to bad +spirits, to witchcraft, or to violence. They cannot realize that men +should die of old age. Disease is generally thought to be due to bad +spirits or to the influence of some medicine man. + +After a man dies there are many ways of treating the body. Usually the +face is painted almost as if the person were preparing for a feast or a +dance. The Otoes and many other tribes dress out the body in its choicest +clothing and finest ornaments. + +Probably burial in the ground is the commonest way of disposing of the +dead body. The exact method varies. The grave may be deep, or it may be so +shallow as hardly to be a grave at all. The body may be laid in extended +to its full length, or it may be bent and folded together into the +smallest possible space, and tied securely in this way. Great attention is +frequently given to the direction toward which the face or the body is +turned. Among some tribes it makes no difference whether the earth touches +the body; in others the greatest care is taken to prevent this. + +The Sacs and Foxes in Iowa have their graveyards on the side of a hill, +high above the surrounding country. The graves are shallow; the body, +wrapped in blankets, is laid out at full length; little, if any, earth is +thrown directly upon the body, but a little arched covering made of poles +laid side by side, lengthwise of the body, is built over it, and a little +earth may be thrown upon it. A pole is set at the head of the grave to the +top of which is hung a bit of rag or a little cloth, the flapping of +which, perhaps, keeps off bad spirits. Various objects are laid upon the +grave: for men, bottles, and perhaps knives; for women, buckets and pans, +such as are used in their daily work; for little children, the baby-boards +on which they used to lie, and the little toys of which they were fond. + +Sometimes grave-boxes were made of slabs of stone. Such are known in +various parts of the United States, but are most common in Tennessee, +where ancient cemeteries, with hundreds of such graves, are known. (See +XV. Mounds and their Builders.) Sometimes the bodies of those lately dead +were buried in these, but sometimes there were placed in them the dry +bones of people long dead, who had been buried elsewhere, or whose bodies +had been exposed for a time on scaffolds or in dead-houses. Among several +northeastern tribes it was the custom to place the bodies for some time in +dead-houses, or temporary graves, and at certain times to collect together +all the bones, and bury them at once in some great trench or hole. + +Most tribes buried objects with the dead. With a man were buried his bow +and arrows, war-club, and choicest treasures. The woman was accompanied by +her ornaments, tools, and utensils. Even the child had with it its little +toys and cradle, as we have seen in connection with the Sacs and Foxes. +The Indians believed that people have souls which live somewhere after the +men die. These souls hereafter delight to do the same things the men did +here. There they hunt, and fish, and war, work and play, eat and drink. So +weapons and tools, food and drink, were placed with the body in the grave. + +They knew perfectly well that the _things_ do not go away; they believed, +however, that things have souls, as men do, and that it is the soul of the +things that goes with the soul of the man into the land of spirits. Among +tribes that are great horsemen, like the Comanches, a man's ponies are +killed at his death. His favorite horse, decked out in all his trappings, +is killed at the grave, so that the master may go properly mounted. When a +little child among the Sacs and Foxes dies, a little dog is killed at the +grave to accompany the child soul, and help the poor little one to find +its way to the spirit world. Such destruction or burial of property may be +very nice for the dead man's soul, but it is not nice for the man's +survivors, who are sometimes quite beggared by it. + +Sometimes the objects put into or upon a grave are broken, pierced, or +bent. The purpose in thus making the objects "dead" has sometimes been +said to be to set free the soul of the object; far more frequently, it is +likely that it is to prevent bad persons robbing the grave for its +treasures. + +Cremation or burning the dead body was found among a number of Indian +tribes, particularly upon the Pacific Coast. The Senel in California and +some Oregon tribes are among these. So are the Tlingit of Alaska and their +near neighbors and kin, the Haida of Queen Charlotte Islands. Among the +last two tribes all but the Shamans were usually burned. The Shamans were +buried in boxes raised on tall posts. After a Tlingit or Haida body was +burned the ashes were usually gathered and placed in a little box-like +cavity excavated in an upright post near its base; at the top of this post +was a cross-board on which was carved or painted the _totem_ or crest of +the dead man. + +Where there were great caves (as in Kentucky), and where the people dwelt +in caverns (as at one time in the Southwest), the dead were often laid +away in some corner of the cave. In almost all such cases the body was +folded into the smallest space, with the knees drawn up against the chin; +it was then wrapped up in blankets and robes and corded. Such bodies were +generally not buried, but simply stowed away. These dried bodies are +sometimes called "mummies," but that name should only be used when +something has been done to the body with the definite purpose of +preserving it. + + [Illustration.] + + Scaffold Burial. (After Yarrow.) + + +Mention has already been made of box burial in connection with the Tlingit +and Haida Shamans. Many Eskimos bury their dead in boxes supported on +posts. The weapons, tools, and utensils of the dead are usually stuck upon +the posts or hung over the boxes. The Ponkas also bury in raised boxes, +and at their present reservation in Oklahoma there are two extensive +cemeteries of this kind. + +Among some tribes in the extreme northwestern part of the United States +canoes are used instead of boxes. They are supported above ground by +posts. Usually two canoes are used; the body is placed in the lower, +larger one; the smaller one is turned upside down over the corpse and fits +within the larger. In the Mississippi and Missouri valley region many +Siouan tribes placed their dead upon scaffolds, supported by poles at a +height of six or eight feet in the air. Extensive cemeteries of this kind +used to occupy high points overlooking the rivers; they could be +seen--dreary sights--a long way across the country. Some tribes in wooded +districts placed the dead in trees. Often scaffold and tree burial were +only temporary, the body being later taken elsewhere for permanent burial. +One time, visiting a winter camp of the Sacs and Foxes, far from their +permanent village, we saw a strange bundle in a tree. It was the blanketed +corpse of an old woman who had died a few days before; the party took it +with them when they returned home in the spring. + +We should find some of the mourning customs interesting. The friends of +the dead wail and scream fearfully; they cut off their hair; they gash +their bodies; they sometimes even chop off their finger tips or whole +joints. They watch by the grave--this is particularly true of women. Food +and drink are often carried to the grave for some time after the burial. +Fires are kindled to supply light or heat to the soul on its long journey. + + [Illustration.] + + Ojibwa Gravepost. (From Schoolcraft.) + + +Not many tribes have special posts or marks at the grave. A few do. The +Ojibwa made such with much care. Usually they bore pictures or marks +telling about the dead man. His totem animal was often represented, +usually upside down to indicate that the bearer of the emblem was dead. + + + H. C. YARROW.--Army physician, ethnologist. Wrote, among other + papers, _A Further Contribution to the Study of the Mortuary + Customs of the North American Indians_. + + + + + +XV. MOUNDS AND THEIR BUILDERS. + + +In many parts of the United States, from western New York to the Rocky +Mountains and even beyond, there are great numbers of artificial heaps and +extensive embankments of earth. These show skill in construction, and from +them have been dug many relics of artistic merit and good workmanship. At +one time these earthworks and relics were generally believed to be the +work of a single, highly civilized people, who preceded the Indians, who +were not related to them, and who are now extinct. To this people the name +"mound-builders" was given. + +There are three ways in which we can learn about these so-called +"mound-builders." We may learn something from the mounds themselves, from +the relics found in the mounds, and from the bones of persons who were +buried in them. + +Studying the mounds themselves, we find that they differ in different +areas. We will look at three areas: + +(1) In Ohio there are thousands of mounds and earthworks. Near every +important modern town there are groups of them. Cincinnati, Chillicothe, +Dayton, Xenia, are all near important mounds. + +The regular enclosures are numerous in this area: these are great +embankments of earth inclosing a regular space. Some are in the form of +circles; others are four-sided; in a few cases they are eight-sided. +Sometimes a square and a circle are united. There is one such combination +at Hopeton; one of the embankments is a nearly true circle containing +twenty acres; joined to it is a square of almost the same area. + +At Newark there was a wonderful group of enclosures. The group covered +about two miles square and consisted of three divisions, which were +connected with one another by long parallel embankment walls. One circle +in this group contained more than thirty acres: the walls were twelve feet +high and fifty feet wide; a ditch seven feet deep and thirty-five feet +wide bordered it on the inner side; a gap of eighty feet in the circle +served as an entrance. In the center of the area enclosed by this great +circle was a curious earth heap somewhat like a bird in form. Northwest +from this great circle, nearly a mile distant, were two connected +enclosures, one octagonal, the other circular: the former contained more +than fifty acres, the latter twenty. East from these and northeast from +the great circle was a fine twenty-acre enclosure, nearly a square in +form. Besides these great walls, there were long parallel lines of +connecting embankment walls, small circular enclosures, and little mounds +in considerable variety. This great mass of works represented an enormous +amount of time and labor. + +What was the purpose of these regular enclosures? Some writers claim that +they were forts for protection; others consider them protections for the +corn-fields; others think they were places for games or religious +ceremonials; one eminent man insists that they were foundations upon which +were built long and narrow houses. + +"Altar mounds" occur in Ohio. Professor Putnam and his assistants opened a +number of these. They are small, rounded heaps of earth. At their center +is a basin-shaped mass of hard clay showing the effect of fire. These +basins are a yard or four feet across and contain ashes and charcoal. Upon +these are found many curious objects. On one altar were two bushels of +ornaments made of stone, copper, mica, shells, bears' teeth, and sixty +thousand pearls. Most of these objects were pierced with a small hole and +were apparently strung as ornaments. These objects had all been thrown +into a fire blazing on the altar and had been spoiled by the heat. After +the kindling of the fire, and the destruction of these precious things, +earth had been heaped up over the altars, completing the mound. + +The most famous mound in Ohio is _the great serpent_ in Adams County. It +lies upon a narrow ridge between three streams, which unite. It is a +gigantic serpent form made in earth; across the widely opened jaws it +measures seventy-five feet; the body, just behind the head, measures +thirty feet across and five feet high; following the curves the length is +thirteen hundred forty-eight feet. The tail is thrown into a triple coil. +In front of the serpent is an elliptical enclosure with a heap of stones +at its center. Beyond this is a form, somewhat indistinct, thought by some +to be a frog. Probably this wonderful earthwork was connected with some +old religion. While there are many other earthworks of other forms in +Ohio, the _sacred enclosures_, the _altar mounds_, and the _great serpent_ +are the most characteristic. + + [Illustration.] + + Great Serpent Mound: Ohio. (From The Century Magazine.) + + +(2) In Wisconsin the most interesting mounds are the _effigy mounds_. +There are great numbers of them in parts of this and a few adjoining +states. They are earthen forms of mammals, birds, and reptiles. They are +usually in groups; they are generally well shaped and of gigantic size. +Among the quadrupeds represented are the buffalo, moose, elk, deer, fox, +wolf, panther, and lynx. Mr. Peet, who has carefully studied them, shows +that quadruped mammals are always represented in profile so that only two +legs are shown; the birds have their wings spread; reptiles sprawl, +showing all four legs; fish are mere bodies without limbs. We have said +these earth pictures are gigantic: some panthers have tails three hundred +and fifty feet long, and some eagles measure one thousand feet from tip to +tip of the outspread wings. Not only are these great animal and bird +pictures found in Wisconsin in relief; occasionally they are found cut or +sunken in the soil. With these curious effigy mounds there occur hundreds +of simple burial mounds. + +The purpose of the effigy mounds is somewhat uncertain. Some authors think +they represent the totem animals after which the families of their +builders were named, and that they served as objects of worship or as +guardians over the villages. + + [Illustration.] + + Ground Plan of Earthworks at Newark, Ohio. (After Squier and Davis.) + + +(3) Farther south, in western Tennessee, another class of mounds is +common. These contain graves made of slabs of stone set on edge. The +simplest of these stone graves consist of six stones: two sides, two ends, +one top, and one bottom. There may be a single one of these graves in a +mound, or there may be many. In one mound, about twelve miles from +Nashville, which was forty-five feet across and twelve feet high, were +found about one hundred skeletons, mostly in stone graves, which were in +ranges, one above another. The upper graves contained the bones of bodies, +which had been buried stretched at full length; the bones were found in +their natural positions. The lower graves were short and square, and the +bones in them had been cleaned and piled up in little heaps. This mound +was very carefully made. The lids of the upper graves were so arranged as +to make a perfectly smooth, rounded surface. Sometimes these stone graves +of Tennessee are not placed in mounds, but in true graveyards in the level +fields. In these stone graves are found beautiful objects of stone, shell, +and pottery. The stone-grave men were true artists in working these +materials. + +In the same district are found many dirt rings called "house-circles." +These occur in groups and appear to mark the sites of ancient villages, +each being the ruin of a house. These rings are nearly circular and from +ten to fifty feet across, and from a few inches to two or three feet high. +Excavation within them shows old floors made of hard clay, with the +fireplace or hearth. The stone-grave people lived in these houses. They +often buried little children who died, under the floor. Their stone +coffins measured only from one to four feet long. They contain the little +skeletons and all the childish treasures--pretty cups and bowls of pottery, +shell beads, pearls, and even the leg bones of birds, on which the babies +used to cut their teeth as our babies do on rubber rings. + +These are but three of the areas where mounds are found; there are several +others. If the "mound-builders" were a single people, with one set of +customs, one language, and one government, it is strange that there should +be such great differences in the mounds they built. If we had space to +speak about the relics from the mounds, they would tell a story. + + [Illustration.] + + Shell Gorgets: Tennessee. (After Holmes.) + + +They would show that the builders of the mounds, while they made many +beautiful things of stone, shell, bone, beaten metals, could not smelt +ores. They were Stone Age men, not civilized men. The objects from +different areas differ so much in kind, pattern, and material as to +suggest that their makers were not one people. Study of skulls from mounds +in one district--as Ohio or Iowa--show that different types of men built the +mounds even of one area. + +So neither the mounds, the relics, nor the remains prove that there was +one people, the "mound-builders," but rather that the mounds were built by +many different tribes. These tribes were not of civilized, but of +barbarous, Stone Age men. It is likely that some of the tribes that built +the mounds still live in the United States. Thus the Shawnees may be the +descendants of the stone-grave people, the Winnebagoes may have come from +the effigy-builders of Wisconsin, and the Cherokees may be the old Ohio +"mound-builders." + + + E. G. SQUIER and E. H. DAVIS.--Authors of _Ancient Monuments of the + Mississippi Valley_, published in 1847. It was the _first_ great + work on American Archaeology. + + INCREASE ALLEN LAPHAM.--Civil engineer, scientist. His _Antiquities + of Wisconsin_ was published in 1855. + + STEPHEN D. PEET.--Minister, antiquarian, editor. Established _The + American Antiquarian_, which he still conducts. Wrote _Emblematic + Mounds_. + + CYRUS THOMAS.--Minister, entomologist, archaeologist. In charge of + the mound exploration of the Bureau of Ethnology. Wrote _Burial + Mounds of the Northern Sections of the United States_ and _Report + of the Mound Explorations of the Bureau of Ethnology_. + + FREDERIC WARD PUTNAM.--Ichthyologist, archaeologist, teacher. For + many years Curator of the Peabody Museum of Ethnology, at + Cambridge, Mass. Has organized much field work upon mounds of Ohio + and Tennessee. Also Curator in Anthropology at the American Museum + of Natural History in New York. + + + + + +XVI. THE ALGONKINS. + + +Algonkin tribes occupied the Atlantic seacoast from Nova Scotia and New +Brunswick south to Virginia, and stretched west as far, at places, as the +Rocky Mountains. They also occupied a large area in the interior of +British America north of the Great Lakes. Brinton names more than thirty +tribes of this great group. Among the best known of these were the Lenape +(Delawares), Blackfeet, Ojibwas, and Crees. + +It was chiefly Algonkin tribes with whom the first white settlers met. The +Indians who supplied the Pilgrims with corn in that first dreadful winter +were Algonkins; so were Powhatan and Pocahontas, King Philip and +Massasoit. Of course whites came into contact with the Iroquois in New +York, and with the Cherokees, the Creeks, and their kin in the south, but +much the larger part of their early Indian acquaintance was Algonkin. + +There are a number of borrowed Indian words in our English language of +to-day. _Wigwam_, _wampum_, _squaw_, _papoose_, _moccasin_, are examples. +These have been taken from the Indian languages into our own, and most of +them--all of those mentioned--are Algonkin. They soon became common to +English speakers, and were carried by them everywhere they went. All the +western tribes had their own names for all these objects, but we have +forced these upon them, and to-day we may hear Utes speak of _wigwams_ and +Navajo talk about _squaws_ or _moccasins_. + +We shall speak of two Algonkin tribes. One--the Lenape--is eastern; the +other--the Blackfeet--is western. The former are woodland, the latter Plains +Indians. The Lenape lived in settled villages, and had a good deal of +agriculture; they were also hunters, fishermen, and warriors. Their houses +were like those of their Iroquois neighbors, but each family had its own. +They were huts of poles and interwoven branches with a thatching of corn +leaves, the stalk of sweet-flag, or the bark of trees. Sometimes at the +center of the village, surrounded by the houses, was a sort of hillock or +mound from which the country around might be overlooked. The women made +good garments of deerskin with skillful beadwork. In cooking they used +soapstone vessels. For pounding corn they had mortars of wood, dug out of +a section of a tree trunk, and long stone pestles. + +In districts where the wild rice or _zizania_ grew abundantly great +quantities of it were gathered. The women in canoes paddled out among the +plants, bent the heads over the edge of the canoe and beat out the grain. +This was a food supply of no importance to the Lenape, but the Ojibwas and +their neighbors used much of it. + + [Illustration.] + + Ojibwa Women Gathering Wild Rice. (After Schoolcraft.) + + +In war, the men used the bow and arrows, spear and tomahawk. They +protected themselves with round shields. They speared fish in the streams +and lakes or caught them in brush nets or with hooks of bone or +bird-claws. + +There were three totems of the Lenape. Every man was either a wolf, +turkey, or turtle. He had one of these three animals for his emblem, and +was as fond of drawing or carving it as a boy among us is of writing his +name. This emblem was signed to treaties, it was painted on the houses, it +was carved on stones. But only those who were turtles drew their totem +entire; usually the wolf or the turkey were represented only by one foot. +Between a person and his totem there was a curious friendship, and it was +believed that the animal was a sort of protector and friend of those who +bore his name. All who had the same totem were blood-relations. + +All Algonkins were accustomed to draw pictures to record events. The +blankets of chiefs were decorated with such pictures. The Ojibwas were +fond of writing birch-bark letters. One of the most interesting Indian +records known is the _Walam olum_; this means the red score or red record. +Probably it at first consisted of a lot of little sticks or boards with +some quaint red pictures upon them. These were probably kept tied together +into a little bundle. The original sticks have long been lost, but the one +hundred and eighty-four pictures were copied and are still preserved. They +were intended to assist in remembering a long poetical legend in which the +Algonkin ideas regarding the creation of the world and their tribal +history were told. + +At first everything was good. Animals and men lived in peace. Then a +wicked serpent tried to drown the world. Only a few persons escaped to the +back of a great turtle. Their great hero Nanabush helped them. The waters +subsided. As the land where they now found themselves was cold, the people +determined to move southward. The story of their quarrels and divisions on +the journey is told, and also the way in which they seized their new home, +destroying or driving out the original owners. + +The song in which this story is told is long and full of old words +difficult to understand. The Indians themselves must have had difficulty +in remembering it. It was a great help to have these little sticks with +the red pictures to remind them of its different parts. + +Far to the west, close against the base of the Rocky Mountains, lived a +famous Algonkin tribe--the Blackfeet. They were great buffalo hunters and +warriors. We often think of Indians as being stern and morose, never +smiling, never amused. Yet most tribes had sunny tempers like children. +Mr. Grinnell, to show this side of Indian nature, describes a day in camp +in the olden, happy time. Two parts of his description describe feasts and +gambling. Feasts were in constant progress: sometimes one man would give +three in a day; men who were favorites might go from feast to feast all +day long. If a man wished to give a feast, he ordered the best food he had +to be cooked. Then, going outside, he called out the list of invited +guests: the name of each one was cried three times. At the close of his +invitation he announced how many pipes would be smoked: usually three. +When the guests came, each was given a dish, with his share of the food; +no one might have a second help, but it was quite polite to carry away +what was not eaten. + +While the guests were feasting, the man of the house prepared a pipe and +tobacco. After the eating was over, the pipe was lighted and passed from +hand to hand, each person giving it to the one on his left. Meantime +stories of hunting and war were narrated and jokes cracked. Only one man +spoke at one time, the rest listening until he was through. Thus they +whiled away the time until the last pipe was smoked out, when the host, +knocking the ashes from the pipe, told them they might go. + +All Indians are gamblers, and they have many gambling games. The Blackfeet +played one which was something like the famous game of Chunkey, played +among the Creeks. (See XIX.) A wheel about four inches in diameter with +five spokes on which were beads of different colors, made of horn or bone, +was used. It was rolled along upon a smooth piece of ground at the ends of +which logs were laid to stop it. One player stood at each end of the +course. After a player set the wheel to rolling, he hurled a dart after +it. This was done just before the wheel reached the end of its journey. +Points were counted according to the way in which the wheel and dart fell +with reference to each other. Ten counts made the game. This game always +attracted great crowds of spectators, who became greatly excited and bet +heavily on the result. + + [Illustration.] + + Blackfoot Squaw Traveling. + + +At night about their camp-fires the Blackfeet delighted to tell their +sacred stories, which they did not dare repeat in daylight. In telling a +story of personal adventure, Indians, like white people, were often +tempted to make it larger than it really was. + +The Blackfeet and some other Indians had the following mode of getting at +the truth. When a man told an improbable story some one handed a pipe to +the medicine man, who painted the stem red and prayed over it, asking that +the man's life might be long if his story were true, but cut short if the +story were false. The pipe was then filled and lighted and given to the +man. The medicine man said, as he handed it to him: "Accept this pipe, but +remember that if you smoke, your story must be as sure as that there is a +hole through this pipe and as straight as the hole through this stem. So +your life shall be long and you shall survive; but if you have spoken +falsely, your days are counted." If he refused to smoke, as he surely +would if he had not spoken true things, every one knew that he was a +braggart and a liar. + + + DANIEL GARRISON BRINTON.--Physician, anthropologist. Has written + many books, mostly about American Indians. _The Lenape and their + Legends_, in which the _Walam olum_ is given in full, is a volume + in his _Library of Aboriginal American Literature_. + + + + + +XVII. THE SIX NATIONS. + + +When white men began to settle what is now the state of New York, that +part of it extending from about the Hudson River west along the Mohawk and +on beyond it to the Niagara, was occupied by the Iroquois or Five Nations. +The separate tribes, naming them from the east, were the Mohawks, Oneidas, +Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas. These were flourishing tribes; they had +important villages and towns and large cornfields; they were, however, +also hunting tribes and powerful in war. In fact, they were the terror of +their milder Algonkin neighbors. Personally, Iroquois Indians were finely +built, strong, energetic, and active. + +They spoke languages much alike and probably derived from one ancient +language. This was believed by them to prove that the five tribes were +related. Still they were at one time frequently at war with each other. +This was before the white men came. Finally, a man named Hayenwatha was a +chief among the Onondagas. He was wise, kind, and peaceable. There was at +this same time another Onondaga chief named Atotarho, who was in character +the opposite of Hayenwatha. He was a bold warrior and the dreaded foe of +the Cayugas and Senecas, against whom he led war-parties; he was feared +and disliked by his own people. When these two men were chiefs among the +Onondagas, the Mohawks and the Oneidas were much harassed by their +Algonkin neighbors, the Mohicans. Hayenwatha thought much over the sad +condition of the Iroquois tribes. Constantly warring with their kindred in +the west and troubled by outside foes in the east, their future looked +dark. He thought of a plan of union which he believed would bring peace +and prosperity. + +Most Indian tribes consisted of a few great groups of persons, the members +of which were related to each other and lived together. Such groups of +related persons are called _gentes_; the singular of the word is _gens_. +There were three gentes among the Mohawks, three among the Oneidas, and +eight in each of the other three tribes. These gentes usually bore the +name of some animal; thus the Oneida gentes were the wolf, bear, and +turtle. The people belonging to a gens were called by the gens name. Thus +an Oneida was either a wolf, bear, or turtle. Every wolf was related to +every other wolf in his tribe; every turtle to every other turtle; every +bear to every other bear. + +Each tribe was ruled by a council which contained members elected from +each gens. Each gens had one or more councillors, according to its size +and importance. Each member of the council watched with care to see that +his gens got all its rights and was not imposed upon by others. Every +tribe was independent of every other tribe. + +Hayenwatha's idea was to unite the tribes into a strong confederacy. +Separately the tribes were weak, and a foe could do them much harm; united +they would be so strong that no one could trouble them. He did not wish to +destroy the tribes; he wished each to remain independent in managing its +own affairs; but he desired that together they should be one great power +which would help all. Three times he called a council of his people, the +Onondagas, to lay his plan before them; three times he failed because the +dreaded Atotarho, who did not desire peace, opposed his scheme. + +When he found he could not move his own people, Hayenwatha went to the +Mohawks, where he found help; they agreed that such a union was needed. +Next the Oneidas were interested. Two great chiefs, one Mohawk and one +Oneida, then went to the Onondagas to urge these to join with them; again +the plan failed because Atotarho opposed it. The two chiefs went further +westward and had a council with the Cayugas, who were pleased with their +plan. With a Cayuga chief to help them, they returned to the Onondagas. +Another council was held, and finally the Onondagas were gained over by +promising the chieftaincy of the confederacy to Atotarho. There was then +no trouble in getting the consent of the Senecas. Two chiefs were +appointed by them to talk over the plan with the others. Hayenwatha met +the six chiefs at Onondaga Lake, where the whole plan was discussed and +the new union was made. + +It was at first "The Five Nations." At that time the Tuscaroras lived in +the south. Later on, perhaps more than two hundred years later, they moved +northward, and joined the confederacy, making it "The Six Nations." The +Five Nations formed one government under a great council. This council +consisted of fifty members--nine Mohawks, nine Oneidas, fourteen Onondagas, +ten Cayugas, eight Senecas. The names of the first councillors were kept +alive by their successors always assuming them when they entered the +council. The government did not interfere with the rights of the different +tribes. It was always ready to receive new tribes into itself. Its purpose +was said to be to abolish war and bring general peace. It did this by +destroying tribes that did not wish to unite with it. At times the +Iroquois Confederacy really did receive other tribes, such, for example, +as the Tuteloes, Saponies, Tuscaroras, and fragments of the Eries and +Hurons. They themselves always called the confederacy by a name meaning +the "long house" or the extended or drawn-out house. The confederacy was +thus likened "to a dwelling, which was extended by additions made to the +end, in the manner in which their bark-built houses were lengthened. When +the number of families inhabiting these long dwellings was increased by +marriage or adoption, and a new hearth was required, the end wall was +removed, an addition of the required size was made to the edifice, and the +closing wall was restored." + +The confederacy became a great power, and is often mentioned in history. +When the French or English went to war, it was important for either side +to get the help of the Iroquois. In the council meetings of the tribes, +and in the meetings of the great council of the confederacy, there were +often important discussions. We have spoken of the warlike spirit of the +Iroquois. A man who was a great warrior had great influence. So, however, +had the man who was a great speaker. Oratory was much cultivated, and the +man who, at a council, could move and sway his fellows, influencing them +to war or peace, was an important person. + +There were a number of the Iroquois orators whose names are remembered, +but none is more famous than Red Jacket. We will give a passage from one +of his speeches as an example of Indian oratory. The speech was made in +1805, at a council held at Buffalo. A missionary, named Cram, had come to +preach to them, and invited a number of chiefs and important men to +attend, that he might explain his business to them. After he had spoken, +the old Seneca orator rose, and in his speech said the following words: + +"Brother, listen to what we say. There was a time when our forefathers +owned this great island. Their seats extended from the rising to the +setting sun. The Great Spirit had made it for the use of Indians. He had +created the buffalo, the deer, and other animals, for food. He made the +bear and the beaver, and their skins served us for clothing. He had +scattered them over the country, and taught us how to take them. He had +caused the earth to produce corn for bread. All this he had done for his +red children because he loved them. If we had any disputes about hunting +grounds, they were generally settled without the shedding of much blood, +but an evil day came upon us; your forefathers crossed the great water, +and landed on this island. Their numbers were small; they found friends +and not enemies; they told us they had fled from their country for fear of +wicked men, and came here to enjoy their religion. They asked for a small +seat; we took pity on them, granted their request, and they sat down among +us; we gave them corn and meal; they gave us poison [whisky] in return. +The white people had now found our country; tidings were carried back, and +more came amongst us, yet we did not fear them; we took them to be +friends; they called us brothers; we believed them, and gave them a larger +seat. At length their numbers had greatly increased; they wanted more +land; they wanted our country. Our eyes were opened, and our minds became +uneasy. Wars took place; Indians were hired to fight against Indians, and +many of our people were destroyed. They also brought strong liquors among +us; it was strong and powerful, and has slain thousands. + +"_Brother_, our seats were once large, and yours were very small; you have +now become a great people, and we have scarcely a place left to spread our +blankets; you have got our country, but are not satisfied; you want to +force your religion upon us." + + + HORATIO HALE.--Explorer, linguist, ethnologist. One of the earliest + prominent American ethnologists. Among his important works is _The + Iroquois Book of Rites_. + + + + + +XVIII. STORY OF MARY JEMISON. + + +Years ago, when I was a small boy, some one pointed out to me the "old +white woman's spring," and told me a part of the story of Mary Jemison. + +In the year 1742 or 1743 an Irishman named Thomas Jemison, with his wife +and three children, left his own country for America, on a ship called the +_William and Mary_. On the voyage a little girl was born into the family, +to whom they gave the name of Mary. She had a light, clear skin, blue +eyes, and yellow or golden hair. After landing at Philadelphia, the family +soon moved to Marsh Creek (Pennsylvania), which was then in the far West +and quite in the Indian country. There Thomas Jemison had a farm, built a +comfortable house, and by industry prospered. In the new home two younger +children were born, both boys. + +In 1754 they moved to a new farm, where they lived in a log house. Here +they spent the winter. Spring came, and every one was busy in the fields. +It was the time of the French and Indian wars against the English. A +number of attacks had been made upon settlers. One day Mary was sent to a +neighbor's for a horse; she was to spend the night, returning in the +morning. At that time some strangers were living at Mary's house--a man, +his sister-in-law, and her three little children. Mary had secured the +horse for which she had been sent, and had ridden home in the early +morning. As she reached the house, the man took the horse and rode off to +get some grain, taking with him his gun, in case he should see some game. +Every one about the house was busy. Mary, years afterward, told the story +of what then took place: + +"Father was shaving an ax-helve at the side of the house; mother was +making preparations for breakfast; my two oldest brothers were at work +near the barn; and the little ones, with myself and the woman and her +three children, were in the house. Breakfast was not yet ready, when we +were alarmed by the discharge of a number of guns that seemed to be near. +Mother and the woman before mentioned almost fainted at the report, and +every one trembled with fear. On opening the door, the man and horse lay +dead near the house, having just been shot by the Indians. I was afterward +informed that the Indians discovered him at his own house with his gun, +and pursued him to father's, where they shot him as I have related. They +first secured my father, and then rushed into the house and without the +least resistance made prisoners of my mother, brothers, and sister, the +woman, her three children, and myself.... My two brothers Thomas and John, +being at the barn, escaped." + +The party which had seized them was composed of six Shawnee Indians and +four Frenchmen. The first day was terrible. They were kept rapidly +marching until night; they had no food or water during the whole day. One +Indian went behind the party with a whip, with which he lashed the little +ones to make them keep up with the party. At night there was no fire and +they had no covering. They were afoot again before daylight, but as the +sun rose, stopped and ate breakfast. The second night they camped near a +dark and dreary swamp, and here they were given supper, but were too tired +and sad to care much for food. After supper, an Indian stripped off Mary's +shoes and stockings and began putting moccasins upon her. The same thing +was done to the woman's little boy. Noticing this, Mary's mother believed +the Indians intended to spare the two children. She said to the girl: + +"My dear little Mary, I fear the time has arrived when we must be parted +forever. Your life, I think, will be spared; but we shall probably be +tomahawked here in this lonesome place, by the Indians. Alas! my dear, my +heart bleeds at the thought of what awaits you; but if you leave us, +remember your name, and the names of your father and mother. Be careful +and not forget your English tongue. If you shall have an opportunity to +get away from the Indians, don't try to escape; for if you do, they will +find and destroy you. Don't forget, my little daughter, the prayers that I +have learned you; say them often; be a good child, and God will bless you. +May God bless you, my child, and make you comfortable and happy." + +Just then an Indian took Mary and the little boy by the hand and led them +away. As they parted, the mother called out to the child, who was crying +bitterly, "Don't cry, Mary! Don't cry, my child! God will bless you! +Farewell, farewell!" + +The Indian took the children into the woods, where they lay down to sleep. +The little boy begged Mary to try to escape, but she remembered her +mother's warning. The next morning the other Indians and the Frenchmen +rejoined them, but their white captives were not with them. During the +night, in that dark and dismal swamp, Mary's father and mother, Robert, +Matthew, and Betsey, the woman, and two of her children had been killed, +scalped, and fearfully mangled. When they camped again, Mary saw with +horror the Indians at work upon the scalps of her parents. + +A fourth and fifth day the party journeyed on, and then, driven by bad +weather, camped for three nights in one place. Finally the party came near +Fort Du Quesne, where Pittsburg now stands. They had been joined by other +Indians who had a young white man prisoner. When they reached this place, +the Indians carefully combed the hair of the three prisoners, and painted +their faces and hair with red as Indians do. + +The next morning after they reached the fort, the little boy and young man +were given to the French. Mary was given to two young Seneca women. By +them she was taken to their town some distance down the Ohio River. Here +they washed her and dressed her nicely in Indian clothing. They publicly +adopted her in place of a brother who had just been killed. These women +and their brothers were kind to Mary, treating her as their real sister, +and she came to love them dearly. She was with them for three winters and +two summers on the Ohio River, when, at their wish, she married a Delaware +Indian named Shenanjie. He was a good husband, but died when they had been +married but two or three years. + +We will tell but one more incident in Mary's life. Not long after marrying +Shenanjie, she moved with her sisters and their brothers to the Genesee +Valley in New York. The wars were now over. Mary was a young widow with a +little son. The King of England offered a bounty to any one who would find +white prisoners among the Indians and bring them in to the forts to be +redeemed. A Dutchman named Van Sice, who knew that Mary was a captive, +determined to take her to the fort and get his bounty. Mary learned of his +plan, but had no wish to leave the Indians. She was afraid of the man. One +day, when she was working in the field alone, she saw him coming to seize +her. He chased her, but she escaped and hid herself for three days and +nights. The Indian council then decided that she could not be taken back +against her wish, and her fear of Van Sice ceased. + +But she had a more dangerous enemy. An old chief of the tribe determined +himself to return her and get the bounty. He told one of Mary's Indian +brothers of his intention to take her to Niagara to be redeemed. A quarrel +took place between the two men, and her brother declared that he would +kill her with his own hand before he would allow the old man to carry her +off against her will. This threat he made known to his own sister. She at +once told Mary to flee with her babe and hide in some weeds near the +house. She also told Mary that at night their brother would return, +informed of the old chief's plans, and that if the sachem persisted in +carrying her off, he would surely kill her. The woman told her, after it +was dark to creep up to the house, and if she found nothing near the door, +to come in, as all would be safe. Should she, however, find a cake there, +she must flee. Poor Mary hid in the weeds with her baby boy; at night, +when all was still, she crept up to the house; the little cake was there! +Taking it, she fled to the spring now called, for that reason, "the white +woman's spring." Her sister had suggested the place. That night the old +chief came to the house to get Mary, and her brother sought her to kill +her, but neither could find her. The old sachem gave up the hunt and set +out for Niagara with his other prisoners. After he was gone, and the +excitement was past, Mary's sister told her brother where Mary was hidden. +He went there, and at finding her, greeted her kindly and brought her +home. + + + JAMES E. SEAVER has written the story of Mary Jemison as she told + it to him in her old age. The name of the book is _The Life of + Mary Jemison: the White Woman of the Genesee_. + + + + + +XIX. THE CREEKS. + + +The Creeks or Muskoki were one of the strongest tribes of the southern +states. To them were related in language a number of important tribes--the +Apalachi, Alibamu, Choctaw, Chicasaw, and others. Several of these tribes +were united with the Creeks into a so-called confederacy. This union was +not to be compared with that of the Iroquois or the Aztecs, but was a +loose combination against foes. + +The Creeks and their kindred tribes present a number of points of rather +peculiar interest. In the olden time there were two kinds of Creek +towns--white towns and red towns. The red towns were war towns, governed by +warriors. The white or peace towns were governed by civil chiefs. It is +said by some of the early writers that the white towns were "cities of +refuge" to which those who were being pursued for some crime or +unfortunate accident could flee. The red towns could be known as such as +soon as a stranger entered the public square, as the posts of the "great +house" were painted red. + +Warriors were the most honored of men among the Creeks. Until a young man +was successful in battle he was treated hardly different from a servant. +The Creek boys had a pretty hard time. They were made to swim in the +coldest weather; they were scratched with broken glass or fish teeth, from +head to foot till the blood ran; these things were intended to toughen +them to the endurance of pain. When the boy was fifteen to seventeen years +old he was put through a test, after which he was no longer a boy, but a +man. At the proper time he gathered an intoxicating plant. He ate the +bitter root of it for a whole day, and drank a tea made of its leaves. +When night came he ate a little pounded corn. He kept this up for four +days. For four months he ate only pounded maize, which could only be +cooked for him by a little girl. After that his food might be cooked by +any one. For twelve months from the time of his first fast he ate no +venison from young bucks, no turkeys nor hens, no peas nor salt; nor was +he permitted to pick his ears or scratch his head with his fingers, but +used a splinter of wood for the purpose. At the time of new moon he fasted +four days, excepting that he ate a little pounded maize at night. When the +last month of his twelve months' test came, he kept four days' fast, then +burned some corncobs and rubbed his body with the ashes. At the end of +that month, he took a heavy sweat and then plunged into cold water. + +Men who wished to become great warriors selected some old conjurer to give +them instruction. Four months were spent with him alone. The person +desiring to learn fasted, ate bitter herbs, and suffered many hardships. +After he had learned all the old conjurer could teach him, it was believed +that he could disarm the enemy even at a distance, and if they were far +away, could bring them near, so that he might capture them. + +In the center of every large Creek town there was a public square. In this +square there were three interesting things,--the great house, the council +house, and the playground. The great house consisted of four one-story +buildings, each about thirty feet long; they were arranged about a square +upon which all faced. The side of these which opened on the central square +was entirely open. Each of the four houses was divided into three rooms or +compartments by low partitions of clay. At the back of each compartment +were three platforms or seats, the lowest two feet high, the second +several feet higher, the third as much higher than the second. These were +covered with cane matting, as if for carpeting. New mats were put in each +year, but the old ones were not removed. Each of these four buildings was +a gathering-place for a different class of persons. The one facing east +was for the _miko_ and people of high rank; the northern building was for +warriors; the southern was for "the beloved men"; and the eastern for the +young people. In the great house were kept the weapons, scalps, and other +trophies. Upon the supporting posts and timbers were painted horned +warriors, horned alligators, horned rattlesnakes, etc. The central court +of the great house was dedicated ground, and no woman might set foot in +it. In the center of it burned a perpetual fire of four logs. + +The council house was at the northeast corner of the great house. It stood +upon a circular mound. It consisted of a great conical roof supported on +an octagonal frame about twelve feet high. It was from twenty-five to +thirty feet in diameter. Its walls were made of posts set upright and +daubed with clay. A broad seat ran around the house inside and was covered +with cane mats. A little hillock at the center formed a fireplace. The +fire kept burning upon this was fed with dry cane or finely split pine +wood which was curiously arranged in a spiral line. + +The council house was used as a gathering or meeting place, much as the +great house, but it was chiefly for bad weather, especially for winter. +Here, too, private meetings of importance were held at all times. Here +young men prepared for war-parties, spending four days in drinking +war-drink, and counseling with the conjurers. This council house was also +the place for sweat baths. Stones were heated very hot; water was thrown +upon them to give steam. Those desiring the bath danced around this fire +and then plunged into cold water. + +The playground was in the northwest corner of the public square; it was +marked off by low embankments. In the center, on a low, circular mound, +stood a four-sided pole, sometimes as much as forty feet high. A mark at +the top served as a target for practice with the bow and arrow. The floor +of this yard was beaten hard and level. The chief game played here was +called Chunkey. It was played with neatly polished stone disks. These were +set rolling along on the ground, and the players hurled darts or shafts at +them to make the disk fall. (Compare with the wheel game of the +Blackfeet.) Ball games and sometimes dances were also held upon this +playground. + +The great celebration of the Creeks was the annual _busk_. They called it +_puskita_, or fast. The ceremony was chiefly held at the great house. The +time was determined by the condition of the new corn and of a plant named +cassine. The ceremony lasted eight days and included many details. Among +them we can mention a few. On the first day a spark of new fire was made +by rubbing two pieces of wood together. With this a four days' fire was +kindled; four logs of wood were brought in and arranged so that one end of +each met one end of the others at the middle, and the four formed a cross, +the arms of which pointed to the cardinal points; these were fired with +the spark of new fire. Bits of new fire, at some time during the four +days, were set outside where the women could take them to kindle fresh +fires on their home hearths. + +At noon of the second day, the men took ashes from the new fire and rubbed +them over their chin, neck, and body; they then ran and plunged themselves +into cold water. On their return, they took the new corn of the year and +rubbed it between their hands and over their bodies. They then feasted +upon the new corn. On the last, eighth day, of the busk, a medicinal +liquid was made from fourteen (or fifteen) different plants, each of which +had medicinal power; they were steeped in water in two pots and were +vigorously stirred and beaten. The conjurers blew into the liquid through +a reed. The men all drank some of this liquid and rubbed it over their +joints. + +They did other curious things during this day. When night came, all went +to the river. "Old man's tobacco" was thrown into the stream by each +person, and then all the men plunged into the river and picked up four +stones from the bottom. With these they crossed themselves over the breast +four times, each time throwing back one stone into the river. + +Mr. Gatschet thinks that much good resulted from the busk. After it all +quarrels were forgotten; crimes, except murder, were forgiven; old +utensils were broken and new ones procured. Every one seemed to leave the +past behind and begin anew. + + + ALBERT S. GATSCHET.--A Swiss, living in America: linguist, + ethnologist. Connected with Bureau of American Ethnology. Edited + _A Migration Legend of the Creeks_. + + + + + +XX. THE PANI. + + +All the Plains Indians were rovers, buffalo hunters, and warriors; none of +them were bolder or braver than the Pani. This tribal name is more +frequently spelled Pawnee. The tribe belonged to the Caddoan family, which +includes also the Caddoes and Wichitas and perhaps the Lipans and +Tonkaways. The Pani were formerly numerous and occupied a large district +in Nebraska. To-day they are few, and rapidly diminishing. In 1885 they +numbered one thousand forty-five; in 1886, nine hundred ninety-eight; in +1888, nine hundred eighteen; in 1889, eight hundred sixty-nine. To-day +they live upon a reservation in Oklahoma. + +It is believed that the Pani came from the south, perhaps from some part +of Mexico. They appear first to have gone to some portion of what is now +Louisiana; later they migrated northward to the district where the whites +first knew them. The name Pani means wolves, and the sign language name +for the Pani consists of a representation of the ears of a wolf. Several +reasons have been given for their bearing this name. Perhaps it was +because they were as tireless and enduring as wolves; or it may be because +they were skillful scouts, trailers, and hunters. They were in the habit +of imitating wolves in order to get near camp for stealing horses. They +threw wolfskins over themselves and crept cautiously near. Wolves were too +common to attract much attention. + +In the olden time the Pani hunted the buffalo on foot. Choosing a quiet +day, so that the wind might not bear their scent to the herd, the hunters +in a long line began to surround a little group of grazing buffalo. Some +of the men were dressed in wolfskins, and crept along on all fours. When a +circle had been formed around the animals, the hunters began to close in. +Presently one man shouted and shook his blanket to scare the buffalo +nearest him. The others did the same, and in a short time the excited herd +was running blindly, turning now here and now there, but always terrified +by one or another of the men in the now ever smaller circle. Finally the +animals were tired out with their running and were shot and killed. + +The way in which the Pani used to make pottery vessels was simple and +crude. The end of a tree stump was smoothed for a mold. Clay was mixed +with burnt and pounded stone, to give it a good texture, and was then +molded over this. The bowl when dry was lifted off and baked in the fire. +Sometimes, instead of thus shaping bowls, they made a framework of twigs +which was lined with clay, and then burnt off, leaving the lining as a +baked vessel. + +As long as they have been known to the Whites, the Pani have been an +agricultural people. They raised corn, beans, pumpkins, and squashes, +which they said Tirawa himself, whom they most worshiped, gave them. Corn +was sacred, and they had ceremonials connected with it, and called it +"mother." In cultivating their fields they used hoes made of bone: these +were made by firmly fastening the shoulder-blade of a buffalo to the end +of a stick. + +Two practices in which the Pani differed from most Plains Indians remind +us of some Mexican tribes: they kept a sort of servants and sacrificed +human beings. Young men or boys who were growing up often attached +themselves to men of importance. They lived in their houses and received +support from them: in return, they drove in and saddled the horses, made +the fire, ran errands, and made themselves useful in all possible ways. + +The sacrifice of a human being to Tirawa--and formerly to the morning +star--was made by one band of the Pani. When captives of war were taken, +all but one were adopted into the tribe. That one was set apart for +sacrifice. He was selected for his beauty and strength. He was kept by +himself, fed on the best of everything, and treated most kindly. + +Before the day fixed for the sacrifice, the people danced four nights and +feasted four days. Each woman, as she rose from eating, said to the +captive: "I have finished eating, and I hope I may be blessed from Tirawa; +that he may take pity on me; that when I put my seeds in the ground they +may grow, and that I may have plenty of everything." You must remember +that this sacrifice was not a merely cruel act, but was done as a gift to +Tirawa, that he might give good crops to the people. On the last night, +bows and arrows were prepared for every man and boy in the village, even +for the very little boys; every woman had ready a lance or stick. By +daybreak the whole village was assembled at the western end of the town, +where two stout posts with four cross-poles had been set up. To this +framework the captive was tied. A fire was built below, and then the +warrior who had captured the victim shot him through with an arrow. The +body was then shot full of arrows by all the rest. These arrows were then +removed, and the dead man's breast was opened and blood removed. All +present touched the body, after which it was consumed by the fire, while +the people prayed to Tirawa, and put their hands in the smoke of the fire, +and hoped for success in war, and health, and good crops. + +Almost all these facts about the Pani are from Mr. Grinnell's book. I +shall quote from him now the story of Crooked Hand. He was a famous +warrior. On one occasion the village had gone on a buffalo hunt, and no +one was left behind except some sick, the old men, and a few boys, women, +and children. Crooked Hand was among the sick. The Sioux planned to attack +the town and destroy all who had been left behind. Six hundred of their +warriors in all their display rode down openly to secure their expected +easy victory. The town was in a panic. But when the news was brought to +Crooked Hand lying sick in his lodge, he forgot his illness and, rising, +gave forth his orders. + +They were promptly obeyed. "The village must fight. Tottering old men, +whose sinews were now too feeble to bend the bow, seized their +long-disused arms and clambered on their horses. Boys too young to hunt +grasped the weapons that they had as yet used only on rabbits and ground +squirrels, flung themselves on their ponies, and rode with the old men. +Even squaws, taking what weapons they could,--axes, hoes, mauls, +pestles,--mounted horses and marshaled themselves for battle. The force for +the defense numbered two hundred superannuated old men, boys, and women. +Among them all were not, perhaps, ten active warriors, and these had just +risen from sick-beds to take their place in the line of battle. + +"As the Pawnees passed out of the village into the plain, the Sioux saw +for the first time the force they had to meet. They laughed in derision, +calling out bitter jibes, and telling what they would do when they had +made the charge; and, as Crooked Hand heard their laughter, he smiled too, +but not mirthfully. + +"The battle began. It seemed like an unequal fight. Surely one charge +would be enough to overthrow this motley Pawnee throng, who had ventured +out to try to oppose the triumphal march of the Sioux. But it was not +ended so quickly. The fight began about the middle of the morning; and, to +the amazement of the Sioux, these old men with shrunken shanks and piping +voices, these children with their small, white teeth and soft, round +limbs, these women clad in skirts and armed with hoes, held the invaders +where they were: they could make no advance. A little later it became +evident that the Pawnees were driving the Sioux back. Presently this +backward movement became a retreat, the retreat a rout, the rout a wild +panic. Then indeed the Pawnees made a great killing of their enemies. +Crooked Hand, with his own hand, killed six of the Sioux, and had three +horses shot under him. His wounds were many, but he laughed at them. He +was content; he had saved the village." + +From 1864 until 1876 the famous Pani scouts served our government +faithfully. Those years were terrible on the Plains. White settlers were +pressing westward. The Indians were desperate over the encroachments of +the newcomers. Troubles constantly occurred between the pioneers and the +Indians. During that sad and unsettled time, Lieutenant North and his Pani +scouts served as a police to keep order and to punish violence. + + + + + +XXI. THE CHEROKEES. + + +The old home of the Cherokees was in the beautiful mountain region of the +South--in Georgia, North Carolina, and Tennessee, but especially in +Georgia. They were Indians of great strength of character, and ready for +improvement and progress. When Oglethorpe settled Georgia, the Cherokees +were his friends and allies. But after our government was established, the +tribe, which had been so friendly to the whites, began to suffer from our +encroachments. Treaties were made with them only to be broken. Little by +little, the Indians were crowded back: sacred promises made by our +government were not fulfilled. + +Finally they refused to cede any more of their land to the greedy white +settlers, and demanded that the United States protect them in their +rights. The quarrel was now one between the United States and Georgia, and +the central government found itself unable to keep its pledges. So orders +were given that the Cherokees should be removed, even against their wish, +to a new home. + +At this time the Cherokees were most happy and prosperous. Their country +was one of the most lovely portions of our land. A writer says: "The +climate is delicious and healthy; the winters are mild; the spring clothes +the ground with the richest scenery; flowers of exquisite beauty and +variegated hues meet and fascinate the eye in every direction. In the +plains and valleys the soil is generally rich, producing Indian corn, +wheat, oats, indigo, and sweet and Irish potatoes. The natives carry on +considerable trade with the adjoining states; some of them export cotton +in boats down the Tennessee to the Mississippi, and down that river to New +Orleans. Apple and peach orchards are quite common, and gardens are +cultivated, and much attention paid to them. Butter and cheese are seen on +Cherokee tables. There are many public roads in the nation, and houses of +entertainment kept by natives. Numerous and flourishing villages are seen +in every section of the country. Cotton and woolen cloths are +manufactured; blankets of various dimensions, manufactured by Cherokee +hands, are very common. Almost every family in the nation grows cotton for +its own consumption. Industry and commercial enterprise are extending +themselves in every part. Nearly all the merchants in the nation are +native Cherokees. Agricultural pursuits engage the chief attention of the +people. Different branches of mechanics are pursued. The population is +rapidly increasing." + +This was written in 1825. Only about ten years later, this happy, +industrious, and prosperous people were removed by force from their so +greatly loved home. Two years were allowed in which they must vacate lands +that belonged to them, and which the United States had pledged should be +always theirs. Few of them were gone when the two years had ended. In May, +1838, General Winfield Scott was sent with an army to remove them. He +issued a proclamation which began as follows:-- + +"CHEROKEES,--The President of the United States has sent me with a powerful +army to cause you, in accordance with the treaty of 1835, to join that +part of your people who are already established on the other side of the +Mississippi. Unhappily, the two years which were allowed for the purpose +you have allowed to pass away without following, and without making any +preparations to follow; and now, or by the time that this solemn address +reaches your distant settlements, the emigration must be commenced in +haste, but I hope without disorder. I have no power, by granting a further +delay, to correct the error you have committed. The full moon of May is +already on the wane, and before another shall have passed away, every +Cherokee man, woman, and child in these states(1) must be in motion to +join their brethren in the West." + +And so this harmless, helpless people left for their long journey. Their +only offense was that they owned land which the whites wanted. There are +still old Indians who remember the "great removal." Most of them were +little children then, but the sad leaving their beloved mountains and the +sorrow and hardship of the long journey is remembered after sixty years. + +A few years since, we visited the Eastern Cherokees. Perhaps two thousand +of them now live in the mountains of North Carolina and Tennessee. Some of +these are persons who never went to the Indian Territory, but hid +themselves in rocks and caves until the soldiers were gone; some ran away +from the great company as it moved westward, trudging back a long and +toilsome journey; some are the children and grandchildren of such +refugees; some are persons who drifted back in later years to the hills +and forests, the springs and brooks, which their fathers had known and +loved. They are mostly poor,--unlike their relatives in the West,--but they +are industrious and happy. Their log houses are scattered over the +mountain slopes or perched upon the tops of ridges or clustered together +in little villages in the pretty valleys. Their fields are fenced and well +cultivated. They work them in companies of ten or twelve persons; such +companies are formed to work the fields of each member in order. They +dress like white people, and most of the old Indian life is gone. + +Still there are some bits of it left. The women are basket-makers, and +make baskets of wide splints of cane, plain or dyed black or red, which +are interwoven to make striking patterns. Some old women weave +artistically shaped baskets from slender splints of oak. Old Catolsta, +more than ninety years old, still shapes pottery vessels and marks them +with ornamental patterns which are cut upon a little paddle of wood, and +stamped on the soft clay by beating it with the paddle. They still +sometimes use the bow and arrow, though more in sport than in earnest, as +most of them have white men's guns. The arrow race is still sometimes run. +Several young men start out together, each with his bow and arrows. The +arrows are shot out over the course; they run as fast as possible to where +these fall and picking them up shoot them on at once. And so they go on +over the whole course, each trying to get through first. Ball is largely a +thing of the past, and great games are not common. Still there are rackets +at many houses. One day we got a "scratcher" from old Hoyoneta, once a +great medicine man for ball-players. This scratcher consisted of seven +splinters of bone, sharpened at one end and inserted into a quill frame +which held them firmly, separated from one another by about a quarter of +an inch or less. When a young man was about to play his first great game +of ball, he went to Hoyoneta, or some other medicine man, to be scratched. + + [Illustration.] + + Indian Ball-Player. (After Catlin.) + + +He had already fasted and otherwise prepared himself for the ordeal. The +old man, after muttering charms and incantations, drew the scratcher four +times the length of the young man's body, burying the points each time +deeply in the flesh. Each time the instrument made seven scratches. One +set of these ran from the base of the left thumb, up the arm, diagonally +across the chest, down the right leg to the right great toe; another, from +the base of the right thumb to the left great toe; another, from the base +of the left little finger, up the back of the arm, across the back, down +the right leg to the base of the little toe; the other, from the base of +the right little finger, to the left little toe. The young man then +plunged, with all these bleeding gashes, into a cold running brook. He was +then ready for the morrow's ball play, for, had he not been scratched +twenty-eight times with the bones of swift running creatures, and been +prayed over by a great medicine man? + +Every one should know of Sequoyah or George Guess or Guest, as he was +called in English. He was a Cherokee who loved to work at machinery and +invent handy devices. He determined to invent a system of writing his +language. He saw that the writing of the white men consisted in the use of +characters to represent sounds. At first he thought of using one character +for each word; this was not convenient because there are so many words. He +finally concluded that there were eighty-six syllables in Cherokee, and he +formed a series of eighty-six characters to represent them. Some of these +characters were borrowed from the white man's alphabet; the rest were +specially invented. It took some little time for the Cherokees to accept +Sequoyah's great invention, but by 1827 it was in use throughout the +nation. Types were made, and soon books and papers were printed in the +Cherokee language in Sequoyah's characters. These are still in use, and +to-day in the Indian Territory, a newspaper is regularly printed by the +Cherokee Nation, part of which is in English, part in the Cherokee +character. This newspaper is, by the way, supplied free to each family by +the Cherokee government. + + [Illustration.] + + Examples of Sequoyah's Characters. + + + HELEN HUNT JACKSON.--Writer. Her _nom de plume_ was "H. H." Wrote + two books about Indians, _A Century of Dishonor_ and _Ramona_. + Every American boy should read the former. + + + + + +XXII. GEORGE CATLIN AND HIS WORK. + + +A famous man in America fifty years ago was George Catlin. He was born at +Wyoming, Pennsylvania, in 1796, and lived to a good old age, dying in +1872. His father wished him to be a lawyer, and he studied for that +profession and began its practice in Philadelphia. He was, however, fond +of excitement and adventure, and found it hard to stick to his business. +He was fond of painting, though he considered it only an amusement. While +he was living in Philadelphia a party of Indians from the "Far West" spent +some days in that city on their way to Washington. Catlin saw them, and +was delighted with their fine forms and noble bearing. He determined to +give up law practice and to devote his life to painting Indians, resolving +to form a collection of portraits which should show, after they were gone, +how they looked and how they lived. + +He made his first journey to the Indian country for this purpose in 1832. +For the next eight years he devoted himself to the work. He traveled many +thousands of miles by canoe and horse, among tribes some of which were +still quite wild. His life was full of excitement, difficulty, and danger. +He made paintings everywhere: paintings of the scenery, of herds of +buffalo, of hunting life, Indian games, celebrations of ceremonies, +portraits--everything that would illustrate the life and the country of the +Indian. + + [Illustration.] + + Portrait of George Catlin. + + +Among the tribes he visited were the Mandans, who lived along the Missouri +River. Some of his best pictures were painted among them. He there +witnessed the whole of their sun-dance ceremony, and painted four +remarkable pictures of it. These represent the young men fasting in the +dance lodge, the buffalo dance outside, the torture in the lodge, the +almost equally horrible treatment of the dancers outside after the +torture. Although a terrible picture, we have copied the painting showing +the torture in the lodge (see next chapter) as an example of his work. +Other pictures by him are the ball-player (see XXI.) and the chief in war +dress (see I.). + +Sometimes the Indians did not wish to be painted. They thought it would +bring bad luck or shorten life. At one Sioux village the head chief was +painted before any one knew it. When the picture was done, some of the +headmen were invited to look at it. Then all the village wanted to see it, +and it was hung outside the tent. This caused much excitement. Catlin says +the medicine men "took a decided and noisy stand against the operations of +my brush; haranguing the populace and predicting bad luck and premature +death to all who submitted to so strange and unaccountable an operation! +My business for some days was entirely at a stand for want of sitters; for +the doctors were opposing me with all their force; and the women and +children were crying with their hands over their mouths, making most +pitiful and doleful laments." + +At another town up the Missouri River, near the Yellowstone, there was a +still greater excitement over one of Catlin's pictures. About six hundred +Sioux families were gathered at a trading post from the several different +sub-tribes of that great people. There had been some trouble over his +painting, and the medicine men threatened that those who were painted +would die or have great misfortune. An Uncpapa Sioux chief named Little +Bear offered to be painted. He was a noble, fine-looking fellow, with a +strong face which Catlin painted in profile. The picture was almost +finished when a chief of a different band, a surly, bad-tempered man whom +no one liked, came in. His name was Shonko, "The Dog." After looking at +the picture some time, he at last said in an insolent way, "Little Bear is +but half a man." The two men had some words, when finally The Dog said, +"Ask the painter, he can tell you; he knows you are but half a man--he has +painted but one half your face, and knows the other half is good for +nothing." Again they bandied words back and forth, Little Bear plainly +coming out ahead in the quarrel. The Dog hurried from the room in a great +rage. Little Bear knew he was in danger; he hurried home, and loaded his +gun to be prepared. He then threw himself on his face, praying to Wakanda +for help and protection. His wife, fearing that he was bent on mischief, +secretly removed the ball from his gun. At that moment the insolent voice +of The Dog was heard. "If Little Bear is a whole man, let him come out and +prove it; it is The Dog that speaks." Little Bear seized his gun and +started to the door. His wife screamed as she realized what she had done. +It was too late; the two men had fired, and Little Bear fell mortally +wounded in that side of his face which had not been painted in the +portrait. The Dog fled. + +The death of Little Bear called for vengeance. Such an excitement arose +that Catlin soon left, going further up the river. The warriors of the two +bands organized war-parties, the one to protect, the other to destroy, The +Dog. The Dog's brother was killed. He was an excellent man, and his death +was greatly mourned. The Dog kept out of reach. Councils were held. When +the matter was discussed, some things were said which show the Indian +ideas regarding portraits. One man said: + +"He [Catlin] was the death of Little Bear! He made only one side of his +face; he would not make the other; the side he made was alive, the other +was dead, and Shonko shot it off." Another said: "Father, this medicine +man [Catlin] has done us much harm. You told our chiefs and warriors they +must be painted--you said he was a good man and we believed you! you +thought so, my father, but you see what he has done! he looks at our +chiefs and our women and then makes them alive! In this way he has taken +our chief away, and he can trouble their spirits when they are dead! they +will be unhappy." On his return voyage Catlin had to be cautious, and +avoided the Uncpapa encampment. Some months later The Dog was overtaken +and killed. + +Catlin's pictures varied much in quality. Some were fine; others were +poor. Often he made the outlines and striking features wonderfully well. + +Catlin was among the Mandans in 1832. Thirty-three years later Washington +Matthews was in the Upper Missouri country. He had with him a copy of +Catlin's book with line pictures of more than three hundred of his +paintings. The Indians had completely forgotten Catlin and his visit, but +were much interested in his pictures. + +The news soon spread that the white man had a book containing the "faces +of their fathers." Many went up to Fort Stevenson to see them. They +recognized many of the portraits and expressed great emotion. That is, the +women did, weeping readily on seeing them. The men seemed little moved. +One day there came from the Mandan town, sixteen miles away, the chief, +Rushing Eagle, son of Four Bears, who had been a favorite of Catlin's. +Catlin painted him several times (see opposite page 1). When the son saw +his father's picture, though he gazed at it long and steadily, he showed +no emotion. Dr. Matthews was called away on some errand, and told the +chief that he would be away some time and left him alone with the book. He +was obliged, however, to return for something, and was surprised to find +Rushing Eagle weeping and earnestly addressing his father's portrait. + +Catlin not only painted hundreds of pictures among many tribes; he also +secured many fine Indian objects--dress, weapons, scalps, objects used in +games, painted blankets, etc. With his pictures and curiosities, which had +cost him so much time, labor, and danger, he traveled through the United +States. + +He exhibited in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Washington, and many less +important cities, and everywhere attracted crowds. He went to Europe and +exhibited in France, Belgium, and England. Every one spoke of him. He was +the guest of kings and prominent men everywhere. Louis Philippe, King of +France, was so much interested in his work that he proposed to buy the +pictures and curiosities for the French nation. But just then came the +Revolution which dethroned him, and the sale fell through. Many of +Catlin's pictures and some of his curiosities are still in existence, and +the greater part of these are in the United States National Museum at +Washington. + + + WASHINGTON MATTHEWS.--Physician, ethnologist. Author of important + works regarding the Hidatsa and Navajo Indians. Wrote _The Catlin + Collection of Indian Paintings_. + + + + + +XXIII. THE SUN DANCE. + + +The Sioux or Dakota Indians are one of the largest tribes left. They live +at present chiefly in the states of North and South Dakota. There are a +number of divisions or sub-tribes of them--the Santee, Sisseton, Wahpeton, +Yankton, Yanktonnais, and Teton Sioux. The Tetons in turn are divided into +several bands each with its own name. These are all Sioux proper, but +there are many other tribes that speak languages that are related to the +Sioux. Among these Siouan--but not Sioux--tribes are the Winnebagoes, +Mandans, Ponkas, Assinaboines, Omahas, and Otoes. + +The Sioux are tall, finely built Indians, with large features and heavy, +massive faces. They are a good type of the Plains Indians who until lately +lived by hunting buffalo. There are now nearly thirty thousand true Sioux +and about ten thousand Siouans of related tribes. + +Among all peoples of the Siouan family it is probable that the terrible +sun dance was practiced. It differed somewhat from tribe to tribe. It was +seen and described by a number of whites, but to-day it has been forbidden +by the United States government, and it is some years since it last took +place. + +The sun dance was made to please Wakantanka, the sun. If there were a +famine or disease, or if one wished success in war, or to have a good +crop, a young man would say, "I will pray to Wakantanka early in the +summer." The man at once began to prepare for the event. He took sweat +baths, drank herb teas, and gave feasts to his friends, where herb teas +were used. He had to be careful of what things he touched; used a new +knife, which no one else might use; must not touch any unclean thing. He +could not go in swimming. He and his friends gathered together all the +property they could, that he might give many gifts at the time of the +dance. + +At his house every one had to treat him kindly and not vex him. An _umane_ +was made near the back of the tent. This was a space dug down to the lower +soil. Red paint was strewn over it, and no one might set foot upon it. Any +of those who were to take part in the dance, after he had smoked would +carefully empty the ashes from his pipe upon this spot. The spot +represented life as belonging to the earth. + +Invitations to neighboring tribes were sent early, and long before the +dance parties began to arrive. Some of these would spend several weeks +about the village. At first they pitched their camps wherever it best +suited them. A little before the dance orders were given, and all the +visitors camped in one large camp circle, each tribe occupying a special +place. The space within this circle was carefully leveled and prepared. A +special building was erected in the center of this circle in which the +young men made their preparations. In it were buffalo skulls,--one for each +dancer,--a new knife and ax, and couches of sage for the dancers to lie +upon. + +A sacred tree was next secured and set up. This was an important matter. +Men of consequence were first sent out to select it. When they had found +one they announced it in the village, and a great crowd rode out on +horseback to the spot. Many strange things were done in getting it, but at +last it was cut down. A bundle of wood, a blanket, a buffalo robe, and two +pieces of buffalo skin--one cut to the shape of a man, the other to that of +a buffalo--were fastened in the tree. It was then carried in triumph back +to the camp and set up. + +A dance house was built around this tree. It was like a great ring in +shape, and the space between it and the tree was not roofed. The dance +house was built of poles and leaves. In it all the more important parts of +the ceremony were performed. After the tree was set up and the dance house +built, all the town was in excitement; men, dressed in all their finery, +went dashing on horseback around the camp circle, shooting their pistols +and making a great noise. The old men shot at the objects hung in the +sacred tree. At evening the young men and women rode around, singing. + +During all this time the young men had been preparing for the dance. They +were especially dressed, they had sung, drummed, and smoked. When the +evening came that has been described, the dance really began. The young +men danced from the lodge, where they had been making preparation, to the +dance lodge. + +The leader carried a buffalo skull painted red. All cried as they went. On +entering the dancing house they saluted the four cardinal points and +seated themselves at the back of the lodge, singing. A spot, shaped like a +crescent, was then cut in the ground, and the dancers placed in it the +buffalo skulls they carried. Shortly afterward began the tortures, which +have made this dance so famous. They were intended to test the bravery of +the young men and to please the sun. Sometimes a man stood between four +posts arranged in the form of a square. His flesh was cut in two places in +the back, and thongs were passed through and tied to the post in front. +Another had a buffalo skull hung to the thong passed through his back, and +danced until the weight of the skull tore out the thong. From a pole hung +eight thongs; one man took two of these and passed them through his cuts +and fastened them; he then hung back and looked upward at the sun. Other +men, who did not take part in the dance itself, sat near the sun pole, and +with new knives cut bits of flesh from their shoulders and held them up to +the sun pole. Sometimes a man took his horse with him into the dancing +lodge. His chest was pierced in two places and thongs from the pole were +inserted; he was then tied to his horse, and the animal was whipped up. +The thongs were thus suddenly jerked and the flesh torn. + + [Illustration.] + + Tortures of the Mandan Sun Dance. (After Catlin.) + + +These are only a few of the dreadful things that have been told of +sun-dance tortures. They are taken from a description given by an Indian +named George Bushotter. He not only described the dance, but drew a +curious lot of rude pictures showing it. + +Years before, George Catlin saw the sun dance of the Mandans, and left +four terrible pictures of it. The celebration at that time among the +Mandans exceeded in the horror of its tortures that which we have +described. + +While these tortures were going on in the dancing lodge, all sorts of +things were being done outside. The old women danced. Songs were sung in +honor of the young men. Children were gathered together and their ears +were pierced. Presents were given away. A double fence of poles connected +the house of preparation and the dance house, and upon it objects of all +kinds were hung. These were free gifts to any one who chose to take them. + +From the time the sacred tree was set up until the dance was over, the +young men taking part fasted and took no drink. While they suffered, and +as they gazed at the sun or lifted up their hands toward it, they +continually prayed, saying, "Please pity me; bring to pass the things I +desire." When all was over, the young men were taken home, and each was +given four sips of water and a bit of food. A little later they might eat +all they liked. Then they went into the sweat lodge. They were now +through, and ever after might boast of having danced to Wakantanka. + + + J. OWEN DORSEY.--Missionary, ethnologist. Was connected with the + Bureau of Ethnology. Wrote many papers, one of which is _Siouan + Cults_. + + + + + +XXIV. THE PUEBLOS. + + +The most interesting Indians of the Southwest are the Pueblos, so called +from their habit of living in towns. The word Pueblo is Spanish, and means +a village or town. More than three hundred years ago the Spaniards, +exploring northward from Mexico, found these clusters of industrious +Indians living in their quaint towns. They conquered them and brought them +missionaries. They taught them their beautiful language, and even to-day +Spanish is spoken in all the pueblos in addition to the native Indian +tongue. When the Spaniards entered New Mexico there were more than one +hundred pueblos; to-day there are about twenty. Most of these are in New +Mexico, but seven, the Moki towns, are in Arizona. + +The home of the Pueblos is a wonderful land. It is a country of desert, of +flat-topped _mesas_, of sharp-pinnacled crests, of broad valleys, and deep +and narrow canons. It is a land where the sky is almost always blue, and +where the air is clear. There are but few streams, and every spring is +precious. The people always built near water, and selected some spot in a +valley where there was room for the corn-fields. + +The largest of the present pueblos is Zuni, in New Mexico. Some years ago +a white man, Frank Cushing, went to Zuni and lived for a long time there +to learn about the life and customs of the Pueblo Indians. They were kind +to him, at first taking him into their own houses, and later allowing him +a little house by himself. Since Mr. Cushing went to live at Zuni, a +number of other persons have lived at other pueblos, so that we know a +good deal about them now. + + [Illustration.] + + View of Pueblo: Taos, N. M. (From Photograph.) + + +In former times a pueblo consisted of one great house, or, at most, of a +few great houses, each the home of a large number of people. Taos, in +northern New Mexico, is, perhaps, as old-fashioned as any of the pueblos +now occupied. Even to-day it consists almost entirely of two large houses, +one on each side of the little Taos River. The houses are so built that +the flat roofs of the different stories form a set of steps as one looks +at them from in front. In a three-story building the lower floor would +have three sets of rooms, one in front of another. The roof of the front +line of rooms would form a flat platform in front of the front rooms of +the second story, which consisted only of two lines of rooms. The roof of +the front line of these, in turn, was a platform in front of the single +line of third-story rooms. Formerly there were no doors in the lower +rooms, but ladders were placed against the wall, and persons climbed up on +the roof; then through a hole in the roof, by means of another ladder they +climbed down into the room. By ladders from the roof of the first floor +they climbed to the top of the second story; there were doors in the rooms +of the second and third stories. Nowadays there are usually doors into the +lower rooms, but they still use ladders for getting into the upper +stories. + +The people are fond of sitting on the house-tops as they work. There they +spin, shell corn, cut and dry squashes, shape pottery vessels, etc. There +they gather in crowds when there are dances in the pueblo, and when there +are foot races or pony races. + +The walls of these houses are built of stone covered over with adobe mud, +or of sun-dried adobe bricks. They did not formerly have what we would +call windows, but there were small openings in the walls for air, or for +peepholes. In the pueblos of to-day we find true sashes with glass in a +few of the houses. There are also some rather old rooms that have windows +made of "isinglass" or gypsum, a mineral found in the mountains, which can +be split into thin sheets, which are transparent. The chimneys in these +houses are made of broken water-jars laid up, one on another, and the +joints plastered with mud. + + [Illustration.] + + Pueblo Pottery. (From Originals in Peabody Museum.) + + +The Pueblo Indians are industrious. The men have to attend to their +fields, their orchards of peaches and apricots, and their flocks and +herds. The women tend the gardens, make pottery and baskets, and prepare +the food. Men are also weavers of blankets and belts. The produce of the +fields is chiefly corn, but some wheat is also raised. Considerable crops +are made of watermelons, muskmelons, squashes, and gourds. The most +important domestic animals are ponies, the little donkeys called _burros_, +and goats. Near the pueblos are always several enclosures built of poles +set in the ground, called _corrals_. These are for the animals, and one +kind only is usually kept in one corral. The Indian boys have great fun at +evening when the burros are brought home from pasture and put into the +corral. They go in among them and play until dark with the patient little +beasts. They climb up on to them and ride, push, pull, and tease them. +Early the next morning the whole herd is taken out to pasture by two or +three boys, whose work it is to stay with them all day. + + [Illustration.] + + Estufa at Cochiti, N. M. (From Photograph.) + + +A visitor to a pueblo would be sure to notice the _estufas_. These differ +with the pueblo, but the characteristic Rio Grande pueblo type is a large, +round, single-roomed, flat-topped building. They are smoothly coated +outside with adobe clay. A flight of steps leads to the roof, and a long +ladder projecting through a hole in the roof leads down to the inside. The +floor of the estufa is considerably lower than the ground outside. Years +ago, before the Spanish priests taught the Indians our ideas of family +life, all the men and large boys slept in the estufa at night, while the +women and little children slept in the big houses. Nowadays the estufas +are somewhat mysterious places where the dancers practice for the great +dances, and where, on the day of celebration, they dress and ornament for +the event. + +At the pueblos are many little round-topped buildings of clay and stone. +They have a small opening or door at the bottom. They are the ovens for +baking bread. The women build a fine fire of dry brush inside the oven +until it is heated thoroughly. The ashes and coals are then raked out, and +the loaves of bread, shaped like large rolls, are put inside on the floor, +and a sheepskin is hung at the door. In about an hour the bread is +removed, well baked and piping hot. Some years ago a lady visiting Taos +wrote a description of that pueblo. She mentioned these clay ovens, and +said, "When not in use for baking bread, they make nice dog kennels." We +have never seen any except such as had the doorway carefully filled up +with stones when they were not in use for baking. + +The bread baked in these ovens is made of wheat flour. Another kind, +called paper-bread, is made of corn. The chief work of the Pueblo woman is +grinding corn meal. The grinding is done upon a stone set slantingly on +the ground. This stone is called a _metate_. The woman kneels in front of +it and holds a rubbing stone in her hands. Throwing a handful of grains of +corn upon the metate, she rubs it to meal with the rubbing stone. It is +hard work, and the woman's body moves up and down, up and down, as she +grinds. Usually she sings in time to her movements. Sometimes three or +four grindstones are set side by side, separated from each other by +boards. Several women grind together, each at one of the stones. The first +grinds the corn to a coarse meal; she then passes it to the next, who +grinds it finer, and then passes it along to be made still finer. + +In making paper-bread fine corn meal is mixed with water into a dough or +batter. A fire is then built under a flat stone with a smooth top. When +this is hot, the woman spreads a thin sheet of dough upon it with her +hand; in a moment this is turned, and then the sheet, which is almost as +thin as paper, is folded or rolled up and is ready to eat. The color of +paper-bread varies, but commonly it is a dull bluish-green and tastes +sweet and good. + +For threshing wheat the Pueblos prepare a clean, round spot of ground, +perhaps twenty feet across. It is smooth, with a hard, well-trodden floor +of clay. It is surrounded with a circle of poles stuck in the ground, to +which ropes are fastened in order to make an enclosure. + +The grain, cut in the fields, is brought in and heaped up on the clay +floor. Ponies are driven into the enclosure, and a boy with a whip keeps +them running around. They tread the grain loose from the chaff or husk. In +the afternoon, when the wind has risen, men with wooden shovels and +pitchforks throw the grain and chaff into the air. The wheat, being heavy, +falls, while the chaff is blown away. When the grain has thus been nearly +cleaned, the women come with great bowl-shaped baskets. Spreading a +blanket or skin robe on the ground, a woman takes a basketful of the +grain, holds it up above her head, and gently shakes it from side to side, +pouring out a little stream of the grain all the time. As this falls, the +wind blows out the last of the chaff and dirt, and the grain is left +clean, ready for use. + + + + + +XXV. THE SNAKE DANCE. + + +In northeastern Arizona, in a region of unusual wildness, even for the +Southwest, lies the Moki Reservation. There are seven Moki pueblos built +on the crests of the mesas. All are built of stone. The two largest are +Walpi and Oraibe. Six of these towns speak a language related to that of +the Shoshones; the seventh, Hano, is a settlement of strangers from the +east, who speak the language of Taos on the Rio Grande. The Moki pueblos +are, in some ways, particularly old-fashioned. Here the women do their +hair up curiously: it is parted in the middle, and neatly smoothed out at +the sides; behind it is done up in two queer, rounded masses, like horns. +Formerly, perhaps, the women at some other pueblos wore their hair in this +same way. In these Moki towns they weave the dark blue or black woolen +_mantas_, or dresses, which are worn by women in all the other pueblos. + +In most respects the life of the Moki is like that of other Pueblo +Indians. There is, however, among them a great religious ceremony, which +is famous, and is perhaps the wildest and weirdest of all Indian rituals. +This is the _Snake Dance_. It is held at any one town only once in two +years, but it occurs at some town or other every year. Thus it is held at +Walpi in the odd years--1899, 1901; it is held at Oraibe, the even +years--1900, 1902, etc. It is celebrated about the middle of August, and +always attracts a crowd of Indian and white visitors. + +The whole ceremony, of which the snake dance is a part, requires nine days +or more, for its celebration. Most of the things are done in the _kiva_, +or _estufa_, secretly. Dr. Fewkes has given a full account of these, some +of which are very curious. During the earlier days runners are sent out to +place prayer sticks at the springs and sacred places. The first days they +are sent out the messengers go to the more distant shrines, but each day +take in places nearer and nearer home. During the fifth, sixth, seventh, +and eighth days snake hunts take place; the hunter priests go out to +capture living snakes. The first day they go to the north, the second to +the west, the third to the south, the fourth to the east. All kinds of +snakes are taken, though perhaps the rattlesnakes are most prized. Few +white men have ever seen the snake hunt. One who has seen it writes: + +"In a short time a low call came from a man who was thrusting his stick +into a dense clump of greasewood, and as the hunters gathered, there was +found to be a large rattlesnake, lying in the heart of the thicket. +Without hesitation they at once proceeded to cut away the bushes with +their hoes, and strangely enough, although the snake lay in coil and +watching them, it made no rattling or other display of anger. One of the +twigs fell upon it, and the man nearest stooped down and deliberately +lifted the branch away. Each one then sprinkled a pinch of meal upon the +snake, and the man who had found it bent over and tapped it lightly with +the feathers of his snake whip, and then it straightened out to make off, +but just as it relaxed from coil, the hunter, using his right hand, in +which he held his snake whip, instantly seized it a few inches back of the +head. Holding it out, he gave it a quick shake, and then proceeded to fold +it up and put it in one of the small bags carried for this purpose, +showing no more concern in its handling than if it had been a ribbon." All +these snakes are cared for, being put into jars or vessels in the kiva. + +We can speak of few things in the kiva. The altars of colored sands, the +dances, the songs, the sacred vessels, and other objects used, the +dramatic representation of passages from their legends, are all curious. +We have not time to speak of them. On the eighth day, the priests of the +antelope society dance, sing the sixteen songs, and perform a drama, all +in the kiva. At last the ninth day arrives. + +The plaza, or square, in the middle of the town has been prepared. In it +is the _kisi_, built of green boughs, intended as a shelter for the +snakes. In front of it is a board in which is a hole, called the _sipapu_. +This hole is supposed to lead down into the lower world, where people used +to live. Early in the morning there was a race between boys and girls. +They went first to the fields, and then raced in, each bringing a load of +melon vines, corn plants, or other vegetable life. These they placed in +the plaza. + +At noon the snakes are washed in the kiva. A great bowl is brought in and +carefully set down. Into it liquid is poured from the north, west, south, +and east. The snakes, which have been kept in jars at the corners of the +room, are taken and handed to certain priests near the washbowl. All those +in the kiva begin to shake their rattles and to sing in a low, humming +voice. The priests holding the snakes begin to beat time with them up and +down above the liquid. The song increases, becoming "louder and wilder, +until it bursts forth into a fierce, blood-curdling yell, or war-cry. At +this moment the heads of the snakes were thrust several times into the +liquid, so that even parts of their bodies were submerged, and were then +drawn out, not having left the hands of the priests, and forcibly thrown +across the room upon the sand mosaic.... As they fell on the sand picture, +three snake priests stood in readiness, and while the reptiles squirmed +about, or coiled for defense, these men, with their snake whips, brushed +them back and forth in the sand of the altar.... The low, weird song +continued while other rattlesnakes were taken in the hands of the priests, +and as the song rose again to the wild war-cry, these snakes were also +plunged into the liquid and thrown upon the writhing mass, which now +occupied the place of the altar.... Every snake in the collection was thus +washed." + +Late in the afternoon, near sunset, the antelope priests in all their +finery and paint appear in a procession and circle four times around the +plaza, dancing as they go and thumping heavily upon the board in front of +the kisi as they pass over it. Then they draw up in line before the kisi. +Then the snake priests come out of their kiva, with bodies painted red and +their chins black, with white lines. They wear dark red kilts and +moccasins. They dance four times around the plaza, but with more energy +and wildness than the antelope priests had done. They then draw up in a +line opposite the antelope priests and go through with strange singing and +movements. + + [Illustration.] + + Moki Snake Dance. (After Fewkes.) + + +Suddenly the party of snake priests divides into bands of three persons. +These little bands approach the kisi, where the snakes have been placed. +One of the men kneels, and when he rises holds a snake in his hand. This +he places squirming in his mouth, holding it at about the middle of its +body. One of his companions throws an arm about the neck of the snake +carrier; in his other hand he holds a feather wand or brush, with which he +brushes at the snake as if to attract his attention. The third man of the +band follows the other two. In this way they go with the wriggling snake. +Four times these bands of three go around the plaza, when the snakes are +dropped. The followers catch them up at once. When all the snakes have +been danced with and are gathered into the arms of the followers, an old +priest advances into the center of the plaza and makes a ring of sacred +meal. Those holding the snakes run up and throw them into one squirming, +writhing mass within this ring. All the priests then rush in, seize what +snakes they can, and dart with them, down the trail, out into the open +country, where they release the snakes to go where they please. Meantime, +the antelope priests close the public ceremony by marching gravely four +times round the plaza. + +This ceremony is a prayer for rain. It also celebrates in a dramatic form +the story of how the great snake and antelope societies began. The snakes +gathered in the fields hear the prayers of the people, and when they are +loosed carry them to the gods. + + + JESSE WALTER FEWKES.--Naturalist, ethnologist. Now with the Bureau + of Ethnology, Washington, D.C. Has written a number of papers + about the snake dance. + + JOHN G. BOURKE.--Soldier, ethnologist. Was the first American + ethnologist to describe the _Snake Dance of the Moki_. + + + + + +XXVI. CLIFF DWELLINGS AND RUINS OF THE SOUTHWEST. + + +Through a large area in Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah, also in +parts of northern Mexico, there are found several kinds of ancient ruins. +At some places they are pretty well preserved, and walls still stand to a +considerable height. At others they are mere heaps of stone blocks or +crumbling adobe bricks. The three best defined types of buildings found in +these ruins are old pueblos, cliff ruins, and cave houses. + +Zuni is the largest inhabited pueblo. Not far from it lies Old Zuni; and +under the ruins of Old Zuni lie the ruins of a yet older pueblo. Such +ruins of old pueblos number hundreds in the Southwest. Sometimes the old +walls were built of stone, carefully laid, and with the cracks neatly +chinked with splinters of stone; sometimes the stones of the walls were +laid in adobe cement; sometimes the walls were constructed of great adobe +bricks. These old pueblos were in style and character like those now +inhabited. They were often three or four stories high and terraced from in +front back. Sometimes they were elliptical or rounded in general form, but +more commonly they were built around the three sides of a central court, +upon which the buildings faced. Some of these old pueblos were larger than +any now occupied, and many of them were better built. + +The cliff dwellings were built on ledges of rock along the sides of +cliffs. Many of the streams of the Southwest flow through deep and narrow +gorges cut in the solid rock. Such gorges are there called canons. Among +the famous cliff-dwellings are those in the canon of the Chelley River, +and those in Mancos Canon. Here are houses perched up on ledges or stowed +away in natural caverns. Some of them are hundreds of feet above the +stream, and have a perpendicular rock wall for one hundred feet below +them. These houses are carefully built with stone laid in cement. Besides +houses of many rooms, and of two or more stories, there are circular +towers. Plainly, the people who built these houses did it to secure +themselves from attack. Their gardens and fields must have been far below +in the valley. + + [Illustration.] + + Cliff Ruins at Mancos Canyon. (After Photograph.) + + +The cave houses were usually dug out in the rocks by human beings. They +were cut in the soft rock with picks or axes of stone. Some of these +dwellings were cut out as simple open caves. In such, there were walls +erected at the front. The cave might be so cut that the rock face remained +for the front wall of the house; a hole was first cut for a doorway, and +then the room or rooms would be dug out from it behind the cliff wall. + +Some persons believe these three kinds of houses were built by three +distinct peoples or tribes. This is not likely, for sometimes two or all +three kinds are found together, so related as to show that all were +occupied at one time by the people of one village. + +About twenty or twenty-five miles up the Rio Grande from the pueblo of +Cochiti, New Mexico, is a brook called _El Rito de los Frijoles_, which +means "the brook of the beans." It runs in a fine gorge with rock banks; +large pine trees grow in the valley and cap the summits of the chasm. In +one of the side cliffs are hundreds of holes, the remains of old dug cave +rooms and houses. In most of them the rock cliff face itself forms the +front wall of the house. We entered one single-roomed house that looked +almost as if it had been used yesterday. + +We crept in through a little doorway about a dozen feet up in the cliff +and found ourselves in a small room about fifteen feet square. We could +see the marks on the roof and the upper part of the walls, where stone +picks had been used in cutting out the house. The floor was neatly +smoothed, and covered with hard clay. The lower part of the wall was +finished smooth with clay, washed over with a thin coat of fine +cream-colored clay. The roof was black with the smoke of ancient fires; a +little smoke-hole pierced the forward wall, near and above, but at one +side of, the door. There were niches cut out in the wall, where little +treasures used to be kept. Ends of poles set in the rock seemed to be pegs +upon which objects were hung; their unevenly cut ends showed the marks of +stone axes. In the floor we found a line of loops to which the bottom pole +of the old blanket-weaving loom must have been fastened. + +But these cave houses are not the only ruins at El Rito. Along certain +parts of the cliff are remains of ancient buildings of the true pueblo +type, which had been built against the base of the cliff. They are often +placed in such a way with reference to cave rooms in the cliff as to show +that both were parts of one great building. Thus, on the ground floor +there might be two pueblo rooms in front of a cave room, on the second +floor there might be one pueblo room in front of one cave room, and on the +third floor there might be only cave rooms. Following up the canon a +little way from this mass of ruins, passing other cave houses, and +heaped-up rubbish of old pueblo walls, on the way, we see, perhaps a +hundred feet up the cliff, a great natural cavern. Climbing to it, we find +as genuine cliff houses constructed therein as those of Mancos Canon +itself. It is certain that at El Rito the people built at one time the +three kinds of houses,--the pueblo, the cliff house, the cave house. + +At El Rito we find what is common near these ruins in many places,--great +numbers of pictures cut in the rock wall. These pictures are sometimes +painted as well as cut in, and often represent sent the sun, the moon, +human beings, and animals. + +Many relics are found at these ruins. The old _metates_ and rubbing stones +for grinding meal are common. Axes, adzes, and picks of stone are not +rare, and once in a while a specimen is found with the old handle still +attached. These stone tools have a groove around the blade. A flexible +branch was bent around this and tied, thus forming the handle. Many round +pebbles are found which are much battered; these were hammers. Pieces of +sandstone are found with straight grooves worn across them; they were used +to straighten and smooth arrows on. Arrow heads and spear heads made of +chert, jasper, chalcedony, and obsidian, are common. Sometimes yarns of +different colors, bits of cloth, and objects made of hair are found. +Sandals neatly woven of yucca fiber are common. + +In many of these old caves dried bodies have been found. They are usually +called "mummies," but wrongly so. Sometimes sandals are found still upon +their feet, and not rarely the blankets made of feather cloth, in which +they were wrapped, are preserved. This was made by fastening feathers into +a rather open-work cloth of cords. + +The art of all arts, however, among the people who built these ancient +houses is the one in which modern Pueblos excel,--pottery. Thousands of +whole vessels have been taken from these ruins. There are many +forms,--great water-jars, flasks, cups, bowls, ladles,--and, in ware and +decoration, they are much better than those made by modern Pueblos. The +ware is generally thinner, better baked, firmer, and gives a better ring +when struck. The decorations are usually good geometrical designs. + +The ancient builders were, in culture, mode of life, and architecture, +much like the modern Pueblos. It is probable that some of them were the +ancestors of the Pueblo Indians. The Mokis claim that some of the ruins of +the McElmo Canon were the old homes of their people; and the inhabitants +of Cochiti assert that it was their forefathers who lived at _El Rito de +los Frijoles_. We cannot say of every ruined building who built it, but +certainly the builders were Indians very like the Pueblos. + + + ADOLF F. BANDELIER.--Historian, archaeologist; made an extended + study of the ruins of New Mexico, Arizona, and northern Mexico. + + + + + +XXVII. TRIBES OF THE NORTHWEST COAST. + + +A long and narrow strip of land stretches from Vancouver Island northward +to Alaska. It is bounded on the east by the great mountains, on the west +by the Pacific Ocean. Its coast line is irregular; narrow fiords run far +into the land. The climate is generally temperate, but there is much rain. +Dense forests of pine, cedar, hemlock, and maple cover the mountain +slopes. Many kinds of berries grow there abundantly, supplying food for +man. In the mountain forests are deer, elk, caribou; both black and +grizzly bears are found; wolves are not uncommon. In the remoter mountains +are mountain sheep and mountain goats. Beaver and otter swim in the fresh +waters, while the seal, fur seal, sea-lion, and whale are found in the +sea. In the waters are also many fish, such as halibut, cod, salmon, +herring, and oolachen; shell-fish are abundant. + +In this interesting land are many different tribes of Indians, speaking +languages which in some cases are very unlike. Among the more important +tribes or group of tribes, are the Tlingit, Haida, Tshimpshian, and +Kwakiutl. While all these tribes are plainly Indians, there are many +persons among them who are light-skinned and brown-haired. The hair is +also at times quite wavy. The forms are good and the faces pleasing. + +But these Indians are not always satisfied with the forms and faces nature +gives them. They have various fashions which change their appearance. +Among these is changing the shape of the head. Formerly the Chinooks, +living near the Columbia River, changed the shape of all the baby boys' +heads. The bones of the head in a little baby are soft and can be pressed +out of shape. As the child grows older, the bones become harder and cannot +be easily altered. The Chinooks made the little head wedge-shaped in a +side view. This was done by a board, which was hinged to the cradle-board, +and brought down upon the little boy's forehead. It forced the head to +broaden in front and the forehead to slant sharply. After the pressure had +been kept on for some months, the shape of the head was fixed for life. +From the strange shape of their heads thus produced, the Chinooks were +often called "Flat-heads." On Vancouver Island the head of the Koskimo +baby girl was forced by circular bandages wrapped around it to grow long +and cylindrical. + + [Illustration.] + + Chinook Baby in Cradle. (From Mason.) + + +Another fashion among the women of some tribes was the piercing of the +lower lip for the wearing of a plug as an ornament. Thus, when a little +girl among the Haida was twelve or thirteen years old, her aunt or +grandmother took her to some quiet place along the seashore; there she +pierced a little hole in the lower lip of the child, using a bit of sharp +shell or stone. To keep the hole from closing when it healed, a bit of +grass stalk was put into it. For a few days the place was sore, but it +soon got well. The bit of stalk was then removed, and a little peg of wood +put in. Later a larger peg or plug was inserted. When the girl had grown +to be an old woman, she wore a large plug in her lower lip, which would +hold it out flat almost like a shelf. + + [Illustration.] + + Tattooing on a Haida Man. (From Mallery.) + + +Many of the Northwest Coast tribes tattooed; generally the men were more +marked with this than women. The patterns were usually animal figures, +showing the man's family. The Haida were fond of having these queer +pictures pricked into them. Upon their breasts they had the totem animal; +on their arms other suitable patterns. + + [Illustration.] + + Gold Chief's House. Queen Charlotte's Island. (From Photograph.) + + +The villages of these tribes are almost always on the seashore. The houses +were generally in one long line, and all faced the sea. The houses of the +different tribes differed somewhat. The house of the Haida was almost +square, measuring perhaps forty or fifty feet on a side. In olden times +they were sunk several feet into the ground. On entering the house the +visitor found himself upon a platform several feet wide running around the +four sides; from it he stepped down upon a second platform, and from it +upon a central square of dirt which contained the fireplace. The eating +place was around this hearth; the place for lounging, visiting, and +sleeping was on the upper platform. There each person of the household had +his or her own place. At its rear edge, near the wall, were boxes +containing the person's treasures and the household's food. There was but +one doorway and no windows in a Haida house. Outside the house, at the +middle of the front, stood a curious, great, carved post of wood. These +were covered with queer animal and bird patterns, each with some meaning +(see XXIX.). In Haida houses the doorway was cut in the lower part of this +great post or pole. + +The beach in front of the village used to be covered with canoes dragged +up on the sand. These canoes were "dugouts" of single tree trunks. The +logs were cut in summer time, the best wood being yellow cedar. The chief +tool used was the adze, made of stone or shell. Fire was used to char the +wood to be cut away. After it had been partly cut out inside it was +stretched or shaped by steaming with water and hot stones, and then +putting in stretchers. Sometimes single-log canoes were large enough to +carry from thirty to sixty people. They were often carved and painted at +the ends. The paddles used in driving these canoes were rather slender and +long-bladed, often painted with designs. + +The present dress of these Indians is largely the same as our own. In the +days of the first voyagers, they wore beautiful garments of native +manufacture. They had quantities of fine furs of seals and sea-otters. +These were worn as blankets; when not in use they were carefully folded +and laid away in boxes. They wore close and fine blankets of the wool of +the mountain sheep and the hair of the mountain goat. These were closely +woven and had a fine long fringe along the lower border. They were covered +with patterns representing the totem animals. The blanket itself was a +dirty white in color, but the designs were worked in black, yellow, or +brown. Further south, among the Tshimpshian Indians of British Columbia, +fine blankets were woven of the soft and flexible inner bark of the cedar; +these were bordered with strips of fur. + + [Illustration.] + + Blanket: Chilcat Indians, Alaska. (From Niblack.) + + +These Indians still wear the ancient hat. Among the southern tribes it is +made of cedar bark, and is soft and flimsy. In the north it is made of +spruce or other roots, and is firm and unyielding. The shape of the lower +part of the hat is a truncated cone. Among the Tlingit and Haida this is +surmounted by a curious, tall cylinder, which is divided into several +joints, or segments, called _skil_. The number of these shows the +importance of the wearer. + + [Illustration.] + + Halibut Hooks of Wood. (From Originals in Peabody Museum.) + + +The food of these tribes came largely from the sea. Fish were speared, +trapped, and caught with hook and line. For halibut, queer, large, wooden +hooks were used. When the fish had been drawn to the surface, they were +killed with wooden clubs. Both hooks and clubs were curiously carved. +Flesh of larger fishes, like halibut and salmon, was dried in the sun or +over fire, and packed away. Clams were dried and strung on sticks. Seaweed +was dried and pressed into great, square flat cakes; so were berries and +scraped cedar bark. The people were fond of oil, and got it from many +different fish. The most prized was that of the oolachen or candle-fish. +This fish is so greasy that when put into a frying-pan, there is soon +nothing left but some bones and scales floating about in the grease! To +get this oil, the little fish were thrown into a canoe full of water. This +was heated with stones made very hot in a fire, and then dropped into it. +The heat drove out the oil, which floated on the top and was skimmed off +and put into natural bottles--tubes of hollow seaweed stalk. At all meals a +dish of oil stood in the midst of the party, and bits of dried fish, +seaweed cake, or dried bark were dipped into it before being eaten. + + + + + +XXVIII. SOME RAVEN STORIES. + + +All the Northwest Coast tribes had many stories. Some of these stories had +been borrowed from tribe to tribe, and were told at many different places. +Usually, however, the single tribes had stories that were favorites with +them and really belonged to them. The favorite stories among the Tlingit +and Haida were about the raven, whom they called _yetl_. There were many +stories told of him and his doings. It is difficult sometimes to tell just +what yetl was--whether bird or man. He could take on many forms, and was +usually the friend of the Indians. In the olden time they did not have +fire, daylight, fresh water, or the oolachen fish. It was yetl, the raven, +called also _Nekilstlas_, who got them these good things. + +All of these precious things belonged to a great chief who had a lovely +daughter. The raven made love to this maiden. Once when at their house he +pretended to be thirsty and begged her for a drink of water. The girl +brought it to him in a bucket. He drank a little and laid the rest aside. +By and by every one in the house was fast asleep except the raven; he was +watching. He then got up quietly, put on his feather coat, took up the +bucket in his bill and flew away with it. He was in such a hurry that he +spilled the water here and there, and where it fell there have since been +rivers and lakes. Never since that time have the Indians been without +water. + +But it was much harder to get the fire. Nekilstlas no longer dared to go +to the chief's house or to make love to the maiden. He, however, changed +himself into a spruce needle and floated on the water. He was thus got +into the house without any one's knowing it, and there he changed into a +little boy baby, whom the girl treated like her own son. He stayed there a +long time, waiting his chance. At last, one day, he seized a burning brand +from the fire and flew out of the smoke-hole in the roof with it. He was +so careless that he set fire to many things. At the north end of Vancouver +Island many of the trees are black, almost as if they were burned, and +they say that was done by Nekilstlas when he flew away with the fire. +However that may be, since then the Indians have had fire. + +The old chief had the sun and the moon, but he kept them away from the +people, and was very proud to think that he alone had light. Nekilstlas +had to think a long time before he could make a plan to secure these for +the Indians. At last he made himself an imitation sun and put on it +something which made it shine. He then taunted the chief by telling him +that he too had a light. For a time the chief did not believe him. At last +Nekilstlas drew back his feather coat and let a piece of his bogus sun be +seen. The chief believed it, and was so angry that he placed his real sun +and moon in the sky, where they have been lights to the Indians ever +since. + +The last of the four possessions which the raven wanted to get from the +old chief for his human friends was the oolachen fish, which yields the +oil of which the Indians are so fond. The shag is a dirty seaside bird +that has the unpleasant habit of vomiting up its food when it is excited. +He was, however, a special friend of the chief, and one of the few whom he +used to invite to eat oolachen with him. One time the shag had been eating +pretty heartily at the chief's house, and afterward the raven set him and +the sea-gull to fighting. In his excitement the shag threw up the fish he +had eaten. The raven took the scales and smeared himself and his canoe all +over with them. Going then to the chief's house, he asked if he might come +in and rest, that he was tired out from catching oolachen. The chief +thought at first that he was telling a lie, but when he saw the scales, he +thought there must be other oolachen besides his, and in his rage he +opened the boxes in which he kept them and let them all loose. Since then +the Indians have had abundance of the oolachen to give them the oil they +need. + +Besides these stories of the things the raven got for them, there are +others. The raven is not always the friend of men, and sometimes he does +them harm and not good. There is a story of the raven and the fisherman. +This fisherman had much trouble from some one stealing the bait and fish +from his fish-hook. The thief was no one else than the raven. The +fisherman finally put a magic hook on his line and let it down. When the +raven tried to steal from this he was caught. When he had been pulled up +to the surface of the water, he struggled fearfully, by pressing against +the canoe with his feet and his wings. The fisherman, however, was too +strong for him. He pulled so hard that he tore the raven's beak off, and +then, seizing him, dragged him in shore. When he pulled off the raven's +beak, the bird turned into a man, but he kept his face so covered up with +his feather garment that only his eyes could be seen. The fisherman could +not make him uncover his face; but one young man who stood by picked up a +handful of dirt and rubbed it into the raven's eyes. Smarting with pain +and taken by surprise, the raven threw off his mantle, and the men saw who +he was. The raven was so angry, that ever since then ravens and their +friends, the crows, have constantly troubled fishermen. + +The Tshimpshian, who live south of the Tlingit, on the mainland, have a +story of the raven. They say that two boys lived in a village. One of them +was the son of a chief. One day the chief's son said to the other, when +they were playing, "Let us take skins of birds and fly up to heaven." They +did so, and found things up there quite like this world. They found a +house there, near a pond of water; and in this house lived a chief, who +was a sort of deity. The daughters of this deity caught the two boys and +were finally married to them, although the deity did not like them, and +tried in every way to do them harm. They always escaped, however. They +lived together there for a long time, and at last the wife of the chief's +son had a little boy baby. One day, when she was playing with the baby, +the little one slipped out of her hands, and fell down, down, from the sky +into the sea. It happened that it was found and saved by the chief, who +was really the baby's grandfather, though no one knew it at the time. When +the little one had been taken to the village, it would not, for some time, +eat anything. They offered it salmon and berry cake and hemlock bark, but +he would not touch any of them. At last his grandfather said, "Feed him +some fish stomachs." Then the little fellow began to eat very greedily, +and before he got through he had eaten up all the food that the village +had stored away for use. Then he surprised every one by saying, "Don't you +know who I am? I am the raven." + + [Illustration.] + + Indian Carrier: Alaska. (From Krause.) + + +But the stories of the raven, if they were all written out, would make a +large book. The naughty, greedy, dirty bird was the great hero of these +peoples. They were anxious to explain everything, and most of their +stories are to tell how things came to be. + + + Many persons have made collections of the stories of the Northwest + Coast tribes. Boas, Chamberlain, Niblack, and Deans are among + them. + + + + + +XXIX. TOTEM POSTS. + + +On approaching villages of many tribes on the Northwest Coast, the +traveler sees great numbers of carved wooden posts. The largest, most +striking, and most curious are no doubt those of the Tlingit of Alaska, +and the Haida of Queen Charlotte Islands. Some of these posts stand in +front of the houses, or very near them; others are set near the beach, +beyond the village. When old they are weather-beaten and gray. They are +sometimes compared to a forest of tree trunks left after a fire has swept +through a wooded district. + + [Illustration.] + + Chief's House: Queen Charlotte's Inlet. (From Photograph.) + + +There are three kinds of these carved posts,--totem posts, commemorative +posts, and death posts. The death posts are the simplest of the three. +Among the Tlingit and Haida the dead were usually burned. If the man had +been important, a display was made of his body. He was dressed in his +finest clothing, and all his treasures were placed around him. People came +for some days to see his riches. At last the day for the burning of his +body arrived. Many persons were present. The faces of the mourners were +blackened, their hair cut short, and their heads were sprinkled with +eagle-down. After the body had been burned, the ashes were gathered and +put into a box, which was placed in a cavity hollowed out in the lower +part of the death post. This was the old custom; nowadays the ashes may be +put somewhere else. At the top of the death post was a cross-board on +which was carved or painted the totem of the dead man. + +The second kind of carved post is the commemorative post, put up to +celebrate some important event. An old chief named Skowl once erected a +great post near his house. He had erected it to commemorate the failure of +the Russian missionaries to convert his village to Christianity. When the +last missionary had gone, he put it up to recall their failure and to +ridicule their religion. It was curiously carved. At the top was an eagle; +below it a man with his right hand lifted, pointing to the sky; below it +an angel; then a priest with his hands crossed upon his breast; then an +eagle; lastly a trader. + +The totem posts are, however, the most interesting. They are taller, more +carefully made, and more elaborately carved than the others. They stand in +front of the houses; among Tlingit at one side, among Haida at the very +middle and close to the house. In fact, among the Haida the doorway of the +house was a hole cut through the lower end of the totem post. The carvings +on these posts refer to the people living in the house. Thus, in one Haida +totem post there was a brown bear at the top--the totem of the man of the +house; next came four _skil_ or divisions of a hat; then came the great +raven; then the bear and the hunter; then a bear--the last being the totem +of the woman of the house. + +Among the Tlingit and Haida every one bears the name of some animal or +bird. Thus, among the Tlingit there are eighteen great families, with the +name of wolf, bear, eagle, whale, shark, porpoise, puffin, orca, +orca-bear; raven, frog, goose, beaver, owl, sea-lion, salmon, dogfish, +crow. The first nine of these are considered related to one another; so +are the last nine related. A man may not marry a woman of his own animal +name or totem; nor can he marry one of the related families. Thus a wolf +man could not marry a woman who was a wolf, or an eagle, or a shark, but +he might marry a raven or a frog. + +With us a child takes its father's name, but with these people it takes +its mother's name. If a bear man married a raven woman, all the children +would be ravens. The animal whose name a man bears is his _totem_. There +is always some story told by people as to how they came to have their +totem. Every one believes that the animal that is his totem can help him, +and he pays much respect to it. + +One story of how the bear became a totem is as follows: Long, long ago an +Indian went into the mountains to hunt mountain goats. When far from home +he met a black bear who took him home with him, and taught him to build +boats and catch salmon. The man stayed two years with the bear, and then +went home to his village. Every one feared him, for they thought him a +bear; he looked just like one. One man, however, caught him and took him +home to his house. He could not speak, and could not eat cooked food. A +great medicine man advised that he should be rubbed with magic herbs. When +this was done, he became a man again. After that, whenever he wanted +anything, he went out into the woods and found his bear friend, who always +helped him. What the bear taught him was of great use to him, and he +caught plenty of salmon in the winter time when the river was covered with +ice. The man built a fine new house, and painted the picture of a bear +upon it. His sister made him a new dancing blanket, and into it she wove a +picture of a bear. Ever since then the descendants of that man's sister +have the bear for their totem. + +Now you see something of the meaning of the totem posts. Upon them are +carved the totems of the people living in the house. They are a great +doorplate, giving the names of the family. This is important, because +among Indians all the persons who have the same totem must help one +another. If a man were in trouble, it was the duty of his totem-fellows to +aid him. If he were a stranger, it was their duty to receive him. When a +Tlingit or Haida found himself in a strange village, his first care would +be to examine the totem posts to find one that bore his own totem. At the +house marked by it he would surely be welcome. + + [Illustration.] + + Hat of Northwest Coast, Top and Side View. (From Original in Peabody + Museum.) + + +But it was a rare thing for a totem post to have only the figures of the +totems of the man and his wife. Other designs were carved in between +these. These other designs might tell of the man's wealth or his +importance, or they might represent some family story. The people of every +totem had many stories which belonged only to them. In the totem post, +already described, probably the great raven, and the bear, and the hunter, +represented such stories. The four _skil_ probably indicated that the man +was important, for a man's importance is shown by the number of _skil_ in +his hat. The carving at the bottom, however, was most significant, for it +gave the name of the woman and all her children. + + + ALBERT P. NIBLACK, of the United States navy, has written _The + Coast Indians of Southern Alaska and Northern British Columbia._ + + + + + +XXX. INDIANS OF CALIFORNIA. + + +Nowhere among American Indians are more languages found in a smaller space +than in California. Those spoken near the Coast, within the area of the +Missions, appear to belong to at least nine language families or stocks. +In Powell's map the state looks like a piece of patchwork, so many are the +bits of color, which represent different languages. These Coast Indians of +California were ugly to see. They were of medium stature, awkwardly +shaped, with scrawny limbs; they had dull faces, with fat and round noses, +and looked much like negroes, only their hair was straight. In disposition +they were said to be sluggish, indolent, cowardly, and unenterprising. +Some tribes in the interior were better, but none of the California +Indians seem to have presented a high physical type or much comfort in +life. + +We shall say little about the life and customs of the California Indians, +and what we do say will be chiefly about the Coahuilla tribe. These +Indians live in the beautiful high Coahuilla Valley in Southern +California. Formerly at least part of the tribe were "Mission Indians." +Some of them were connected with the San Gabriel Mission near the present +city of Los Angeles. They appear to present a better type than many of the +Mission Indians, being larger, better built, and stronger. Ramona, who was +the heroine of Helen Hunt Jackson's story, is a Coahuilla Indian, still +living. If she ever was beautiful, it must have been long ago, although +she is not an old woman. These Indians live in little houses, largely +built of brush, scattered over the valley. They have some ponies and +cattle, and cultivate some ground. Near every house, perched upon big +boulders, are quaint little structures made of woven willows and like big +beehives in form; they are granaries for stowing away acorns or grain. + + [Illustration.] + + Granary at Coahuilla. (From Photograph.) + + +Acorns are much used by California Indians. They are bitter and need to be +sweetened. They are first pounded to a meal or flour. A wide basket is +filled with sand, which is carefully scooped away so as to leave a +basin-shaped surface; the acorn meal is spread upon this, and water is +poured upon it. The bitterness is soaked out, and the meal left sweet and +good. + + [Illustration.] + + Coiled Baskets: California. (From Photograph.) + + +A fine art among most Californian tribes is the making of baskets. Those +made at Coahuilla are mostly what is known as "coiled work." A bunch of +fine, slender grass is taken and treated as if it were a rope. It is +coiled around and around in a close coil. Long strips of reed grass are +then taken and wrapped like a thread around the coiled rope, sewing the +coil at each wrapping to the next coil. In this way the foundation coiled +rope of grass is entirely covered and concealed by the wrapping of reed +grass, and at the same time firmly united. By using differently colored +strips of the reed grass, patterns are worked in. Horses, men, geometrical +patterns, and letters are common. Among some Californian tribes such +baskets were covered with brilliant feathers, which were woven in during +the making. + +Among the delicacies of some south Californian tribes was roasted mescal. +Mescal is a plant of the desert, with great, pointed, fleshy leaves. At +the proper time it throws up a huge flower-stalk, which bears great +numbers of flowers. Mr. Lummis describes the roasting of its leaves and +stalks: "A pit was dug, and a fire of the greasewood's crackling roots +kept up therein until the surroundings were well heated. Upon the hot +stones of the pit was laid a layer of the pulpiest sections of the mescal; +upon this a layer of wet grass; then another layer of mescal, and another +of grass, and so on. Finally the whole pile was banked over with earth. +The roasting--or, rather, steaming--takes from two to four days.... When he +banks the pile with earth, he arranges a few long bayonets of the mescal +so that their tips shall project. When it seems to him that the roast +should be done, he withdraws one of these plugs. If the lower end is well +done, he uncovers the heap and proceeds to feast; if still too rare, he +possesses his soul in patience until a later experiment proves the +baking." This method of roasting mescal is about the same pursued farther +north with camas root. + +A gambling game common among Californian tribes is called by the Spanish +name _peon_. It is very similar to a game played in many other parts of +the United States by many Indian tribes. It consists simply of guessing in +which of two hands the marked one of two sticks or objects is held. The +game is played by two parties, one of which has the sticks, while the +other guesses. Each success is marked by a stick or counter for the +winner, and ten counts make a game. Among the Coahuillas there are four +persons on a side. Songs are sung, which become loud and wild; at times +the players break into fierce barking. Then the guess is made. Great +excitement arises, which grows wilder and wilder toward the end of a close +game. Violent movements and gestures are made to deceive the carefully +watching guessers. Sometimes men will bet on this game the last things +they own, even down to the clothes they wear. + +Mr. Barrows, who has described the game of _peon_ tells of the bird dances +of the Coahuillas. These Indians highly regard certain birds. Of all, the +eagle is chief. In the eagle dance the dancer wears a breech-clout; his +face, body, and limbs are painted in red, black, and white; his dance +skirt and dance bonnet are made of eagle feathers. In his dancing and +whirling he imitates the circling and movements of the eagle. At times he +whirls about the great circle of spectators so rapidly that his feather +skirt stands up straight below his arms. The music of this dance is so old +that the words are not understood even by the singers. + + [Illustration.] + + Mission of Santa Barbara, California. (From Photograph.) + + +They took possession in 1697 and built a Mission at San Dionisio, in Lower +California. By 1745, they had fourteen Missions established, all in what +is now Lower California. The Jesuits gave way to the Franciscan monks, and +these began in 1769 their first Mission in California proper, at San +Diego. One after another was added, until, in 1823, there were twenty-one +Franciscan Missions, stretching from San Diego to San Francisco. Each +mission had a piece of ground fifteen miles square. The center of the +Mission was the church, with cloisters where the monks lived. The houses +of the Indian converts--which were little huts--were grouped together about +the church, arranged in rows. Unmarried men were housed in a separate +building or buildings, as were young women also. During the sixty-five +years of these Missions about seventy-nine thousand converts were made. +Every one at these Missions was busy. The men kept the flocks and herds, +sheared the sheep, and cared for the fields and vines. Women cared for the +houses and the church. There was spinning, weaving, leather work, and +plenty else to be done. Still the Indians were not hard worked, and they +ought to have been happy. Their time was regularly planned out for them. +At sunrise all rose and went to mass; soon after mass breakfast was ready +and sent to the houses in baskets; then every one worked. At noon dinner +was sent around again from house to house; then came the afternoon work. +After evening mass, there was a supper of sweet gruel. There was a good +deal of time left after the services and work were through. The monks +allowed the Indians to keep up their native dances and amusements so far +as they believed them harmless. + +Some persons seem to think that the monks made slaves of the Indians. +Rather they considered them children, who needed oversight, direction, and +sometimes punishment. However, the Indians were probably better dressed +and housed and fed than ever before, and, perhaps, happier. But the +Missions are now past. Their twenty-one old churches still stand,--our most +interesting historical relics,--but the Indian converts have scattered, and +in time they will forget, if they have not already forgotten, that they or +their people were ever Mission Indians. + + + + + +XXXI. THE AZTECS. + + +When the Spaniards reached Mexico, that country was filled with Indians +belonging to many different tribes. These differed in language and in +customs. Perhaps the most powerful and warlike tribe was that of the +Aztecs, who lived in the central high table-land, with a chief city named +Tenochtitlan. This city, occupying the same site as the present city of +Mexico, was situated upon the shores of, and partly within, the lake of +Texcoco. The lake lay in a beautiful valley which was occupied not only by +the Aztecs, but also by a number of other tribes related to them in +speech. Among these tribes were the Acolhuas, with their chief city of +Texcoco, and the Tecpanecans, whose chief city was Tlacopan. + +These three tribes spoke about the same language, and, after a great deal +of quarreling among themselves, they united in a league or confederacy +something like that of the Iroquois. Together, they were so strong that +they carried on successful war against their neighbors. When they +conquered a tribe, they did not take its land away nor interfere with its +government, but compelled the people to pay an annual tribute to the +confederacy. At the head of the confederacy was a great war-chief, who was +called by the title of the Chief of Men. When Cortez conquered Mexico, the +name of this "Chief of Men" was Montezuma. + +The Aztecs raised crops of corn, beans, squashes, and chili peppers. Still +they got a considerable amount of food from hunting, and they knew how to +make snares and traps for capturing animals. Their lake used to be covered +with ducks, and to capture these they employed a clever trick. Calabashes +are large gourds. The Aztec hunters left calabashes floating at places +where ducks were plenty so that the birds should be used to seeing them, +and pay no attention to them. When a man wished to catch ducks, he placed +a big calabash over his head, and waded cautiously out into the water +until it was just deep enough for it to look as if his calabash were +floating. Little by little, he moved over toward the swimming ducks, and, +when among them, he seized one by the legs and dragged it under water; +then another, and another, and so on. Ducks were not the only food taken +from the lake. The scum or dirt floating on the water was skimmed off, and +pressed into cakes; the eggs of a fly, which were laid in bunches on the +rushes, near, or in the water, were gathered and eaten. These eggs are +still a favorite food with modern Mexicans. + +The Aztecs knew how to spin and weave. They had cotton, and they also had +a fine, stout fiber from the maguey plant. From these they made good +cloths which they sometimes dyed in bright colors. The dress of the men +consisted of a sort of blanket or cloak--worn knotted over one shoulder--and +the breech-clout. The women wore a skirt, which was only a long strip of +cloth wrapped around the body, and held firmly in place by a belt; they +also wore a pretty sleeveless waist. Men wore sandals on the feet, but +usually went bareheaded. Great officials, however, were finely dressed, +and one might tell from the clothing what official he met. Men often wore +lip-stones. These were in idea like the lip-plugs of the Haida women, but +were different in shape and material. Most of them were made of +obsidian,--a fine-grained, glassy, black mineral. Their shape was that of a +little stovepipe hat. The brim was inside the lip and prevented the stone +from slipping out; the crown projected from the hole in the lower lip. + +The common people lived in huts made of mud or other destructible +material; but the buildings intended for the government and for religion +were sometimes grand affairs, built of stone and covered with plaster. +This plastering was sometimes white, sometimes red, and upon it were at +times pictures painted in brilliant colors. These pictures generally +represented warriors ready for battle, or priests before the altar. +Temples were usually built upon flat-topped pyramids. These were often +large, and were terraced on one or more sides. Sometimes they were coated +with plaster. Flights of steps, or sloping paths, led to the summit. There +would be found the temple and the gods. The gods of the Aztecs were like +the Aztecs themselves, bloodthirsty and cruel. + +In war the Aztecs used clubs, wooden swords, bows and arrows, spears or +darts, slings and stones. They had wooden swords with broad, flat blades, +grooved along the sides; into these grooves were cemented sharp pieces of +obsidian. These were fearful weapons until dulled or broken by use. Spears +and darts were often thrown with a wooden stick or hurler called an +_atlatl_. Important warriors carried round or rectangular shields upon +their left arms to ward off attack. These shields often bore patterns +worked in bright feathers. Sometimes the whole dress of warriors was +covered with feathers, and famous braves wore helmets of wood on their +heads, from which rose great masses of fine feathers. Often warriors wore +a sort of jacket covering the upper part of the body and reaching the +knees. This was padded thickly with cotton, and arrows shot with great +force could hardly penetrate it. + + [Illustration.] + + Calendar Stone. (From Photograph.) + + +In battle the Aztecs did not desire to kill the enemy, but preferred to +capture prisoners to sacrifice to the gods. When a man was captured he was +very well treated until the day for his sacrifice came. He was taken up to +the temple on the pyramid and thrown on his back upon a sacrificial stone. +He was held by several priests, while the high priest, with a knife of +stone, cut open his breast. The heart was torn out, and offered to the +gods; some other parts were cut off for them or for the priests. The rest +of the body was then thrown down to the soldier who had captured the +victim, and who waited below. He and his friends bore it away and ate it, +or parts of it, as a religious duty. All the time the sacrifices were +being made, the great drum was beaten. It made a mournful noise that could +be heard to a great distance. In the National Museum in the city of Mexico +is a great carved stone which is believed by many persons to be one of +these old sacrificial stones upon which victims were sacrificed. + + [Illustration.] + + Stone Idol: Mexico. (From Photograph.) + + +In the same museum is a great stone idol. It was dug up about a hundred +years ago in the central square of the city of Mexico. It probably stood +in the great temple of the old Aztecs, which was totally destroyed by +Cortez and his soldiers when they finally captured the city of +Tenochtitlan. What an ugly thing it is! It is more than eight feet high +and more than five feet across, but is cut from a single block of stone. +It has a head in front, and another one behind; they look something like +serpent heads. While the general form of this great idol is human, it has +neither the feet nor hands of a man. The skirt it wears is made of an +intertwined mass of rattlesnakes. A human skull is at the front of the +belt. Four human hands apparently severed from their bodies are displayed +upon the chest. This is only one of many curious and dreadful Aztec gods. + +It would take a book larger than this to describe the Aztecs properly. It +would take another to describe the conquest of Mexico by the Spaniards. +Cortez had only a handful of men to fight against many thousands. But he +had guns, powder, and horses, all of which were unknown before to the +Aztecs and which they greatly feared. Sometime you must read Bernal Diaz +del Castillo's story of the Conquest. He was one of Cortez's soldiers. He +tells us that he was present in one hundred and nineteen battles and +engagements. He also says: "Of the five hundred and fifty soldiers, who +left the island of Cuba with Cortez, at the moment I am writing this +history in the year one thousand five hundred and sixty-eight, no more +than five are living, the rest having been killed in the wars, sacrificed +to idols, or died naturally." + + + + + +XXXII. THE MAYAS AND THE RUINED CITIES OF YUCATAN AND CENTRAL AMERICA. + + +Of all North American tribes the Mayas were perhaps the most advanced in +culture, the nearest to civilization. They lived in the peninsula of +Yucatan and in the adjacent states of Tabasco and Chiapas in Mexico, and +in Honduras and Guatemala in Central America. While true Mayas did _not_ +occupy the whole of this district, it was practically occupied by them and +peoples speaking languages closely related to theirs. + +There are many Mayas now alive. It is a common but serious mistake to +imagine that Aztecs, Mayas, and other tribes of Mexico and Central America +at the time of the Conquest are extinct. Many tribes have died out; but +the famous Aztecs and Mayas are still numerous. The Mayas to-day are +short, well-built, broad-shouldered peoples with unusually dark skin. They +have much energy and are notable for their independent spirit. Within the +last few years they have given the Mexican government much trouble. They +have not given up their own language, but have learned to write it, and a +considerable number of books and papers have been printed in it. They +retain their ancient dress to some degree. Almost every one who sees the +modern Mayas speaks well of them,--as clean, neat, straightforward, and +reliable. + +It is not the Mayan peoples of to-day, but those of the past, of whom we +desire to speak. They were the best builders in North America, and the +ruins of their cities testify to their skill. More than fifty years ago, +John L. Stephens, with an artist named Catherwood, traveled in Honduras, +Guatamala, Chiapas, and Yucatan. Mr. Stephens described their travels and +the ruins they explored, and Mr. Catherwood drew pictures of them. +Americans were astonished at these researches. These travelers visited +forty ruins of ancient cities in Yucatan alone. Since that time many other +travelers have been there, and much is known of Mayan architecture. + +Most of the ruins appear to be those of buildings intended for +governmental or religious purposes. Few, if any, were houses for +individuals. Probably these fine, large buildings were at the center of +towns, the dwelling houses of which were frail huts of poles, branches, +canes, etc. These have disappeared, leaving no sign of their former +existence. All through Mexico, to-day, in Indian towns, the only permanent +constructions which would leave ruins are the church and the town house. +Everything else is frail hut. + +Nearly every one of these old towns presents some peculiarity of interest. +We can, however, only briefly describe three. _Palenque_ appears to be one +of the oldest. It is in the most southern state of Mexico, Chiapas. The +more important ruins are those of the "palace" and five temples near it. +The buildings were all raised upon terrace platforms; they were long and +narrow; the walls were thick, and built of stones and mud, with cement. +The walls were faced with slabs of stone, often carved with figures of +gods, hieroglyphic characters, etc. Usually two long corridors ran +lengthwise, side by side, through the building. These open upon the +supporting platform by a line of rectangular doorways of uniform size. +There were no true arches, but the corridors had pyramidal arched +vaultings. The roof went up from all four sides, at a low and then at a +sharper angle. A curious crest or roof-comb surmounted the roof. Much +plastering was used in these buildings; the walls were sometimes thickly +and smoothly covered. Stucco figures were worked upon some of the walls. +One temple, called the "Temple of the Beau Relief," had a great tablet of +stucco work, with the figure of a man seated upon a sort of rounded stone +seat; he wore a coiled cap, with great waving plumes. His hands were +making some sort of signs; he wore a necklace of beads, with a pendant +carved with a human face. The stone upon which he sits is supported on a +bench, the arms at the ends of which are lion heads, and the supports of +which are four heavily carved, but well-made, lion feet. In other temples +there were tablets of carved stone. Two of these are famous. One +represents the sun, as a human face, placed upon two crossed shafts; on +either side of this central object stands a profile figure, one of which +appears to represent a priest, the other a worshiper. Both stand on +curiously bent human figures. In the second tablet, two similar figures +are shown, but they stand at the two sides of a cross, upon which perches +a bird. On these tablets of the sun and cross are many curious hieroglyphs +forming an inscription. + +_Copan_ in Honduras is another famous location of ruins left by some Mayan +people. The most interesting objects there are great stone statues or +figures with stone altars before them. These statues are taller than a man +and are cut from single blocks of stone. They differ so much in face and +dress that they have been believed by some writers to be portraits. The +persons ate usually beautifully dressed and ornamented. They wear beads, +pendants, tassels, belts, ear ornaments, and headdresses. The headdresses +are usually composed of great feathers. The sides and sometimes the back +of these figures are covered with hieroglyphics of the same kind as those +at Palenque. The "altars" in front of these stone figures, differ in form +and size, but are cut from single blocks of stone. One which is nearly +square has at the sides a series of figures of human beings sitting +cross-legged; there are four of these on each side, or sixteen in all. + + [Illustration.] + + Ruined Building at Chicken Itza. (After Stephens.) + + +At _Chichen Itza_, the buildings are remarkable for the mass of carved +stone work with which they are decorated, outside and inside. Great horrid +masks, geometrical patterns, intertwined snakes, occur. At some corners of +buildings are curious hook-like projections, which some persons have +thought were meant to represent elephant trunks. Mr. Holmes describes +carefully carved pillars resting upon gigantic snake-head carvings. One +room in the "Temple of the Tigers" has the inside wall composed of blocks +of stone, each of which is sculptured. The carvings represent persons +richly dressed. When the building was first made, these figures were +brightly painted and traces of the colors still remain. + +We can tell a good deal about the lives of the builders of these old +buildings from a study of the figures and carvings. These show their dress +and modes of worship. The ruins themselves show how they built. Figures on +tablets at Palenque show that they changed their head forms by bandaging +like some tribes of whom we know. + +At Lorillard City, ruins explored by Mr. Charnay, are some curious +figures. Among them one represents a person kneeling, with his tongue out, +and a cord passed through a-hole in it. The old Mayas really used to +torture themselves this way to please their gods. They pierced their +tongues and passed a rough cord through the hole, and drew it back and +forward. + + [Illustration.] + + Map Showing Indian Reservations of the United States in 1897. (West) + + + [Illustration.] + + Map Showing Indian Reservations of the United States in 1897. (East) + + +No one can read the characters on the tablets of Palenque and the stone +figures at Copan. Similar characters occur at other ruins. At Tikal some +were cut upon beautiful wooden panels. They were carved on greenstone +ornaments, scratched upon shells, and painted upon pottery, There were +plenty of books among the Mayas, Some of these still exist, and four have +been quite carefully studied. They contain many quaint pictures of +priests, gods, worshipers, etc. They also contain many numbers and day +names. There are also in them many of the same strange hieroglyphs, +already mentioned. These are called "calculiform" or "pebble-shaped" +characters, because they present a generally roundish outline, as of a +pebble cut through. It is plain that they were at first simply pictures. +Some of them, no doubt, are still simple pictures of ideas; others convey +ideas different from those at first pictured; many can no longer be seen +to be pictures at all; some, perhaps, represent sounds, and are not now +pictures for ideas. It is possible, in a general way, to make out +something of the sense of parts of Mayan books and inscriptions, but it is +quite likely that they will never be exactly read as we read our own +written books. + + + + + +XXXIII. CONCLUSION. + + +An old Pani, in speaking of what was perhaps the first official visit by +whites to his tribe, said: + +"I heard that long ago there was a time when there were no people in this +country except Indians. After that the people began to hear of men with +white skins; they had been seen far to the east. Before I was born they +came to our country and visited us. The man who came was from the +Government. He wanted to make a treaty with us, and to give us +presents--blankets and guns and flint and steel and knives. + +"The head chief told him that we needed none of those things. He said, 'We +have our buffalo and our corn. These things the Ruler gave us, and they +are all that we need. See this robe. This keeps me warm in winter. I need +no blanket.' + +"The white men had with them some cattle, and the chief said, 'Lead out a +heifer here on the prairie.' They led her out, and the chief, stepping up +to her, shot her through behind the shoulder with his arrow, and she fell +down and died. Then the chief said, 'Will not my arrow kill? I do not need +your guns.' Then he took his stone knife and skinned the heifer, and cut +off a piece of fat meat. When he had done this, he said, 'Why should I +take your knives? The Ruler has given me something to cut with.' + +"Then, taking the firesticks, he kindled a fire to roast the meat; and +while it was cooking, he spoke and said, 'You see, my brother, that the +Ruler has given us all that we need: the buffalo for food and clothing; +the corn to eat with our dried meat; bows, arrows, knives, and hoes--all +the implements that we need for killing meat or for cultivating the +ground. Now go back to the country from whence you came. We do not want +your presents, and we do not want you to come into our country.' " + +And the old chief was right. The Indians were supplied with all they +needed; what the white man offered them was unnecessary, often it was +harmful. They were happy and contented. They were doing very well in their +own way. + +But the old times are gone. To-day the Indians are few in number, and they +are growing fewer. There are many ingenious arguments to prove the +contrary. Three facts, however, are perfectly plain. First, there were +whole tribes that have disappeared. The Beothuks and the Natchez are but +two tribes which are gone; such tribes may be numbered by scores. Their +names are on record; their old locations are known; sometimes we have some +knowledge of their customs and ways, but _they_ are dead. Secondly, many +tribes are rapidly dwindling. The Pani, between 1885 and 1889, a period of +five years, fell from one thousand and forty-five to eight hundred and +sixty-nine. When I knew the Tonkaways in the Indian Territory, they +numbered but thirty-five persons, and had been disappearing at the rate of +one-third of the population in eight years. The Haidas of Queen Charlotte +Islands are becoming fewer. Dawson says: "One intelligent man told me that +he could remember the time--which by his age could not have been more than +thirty years ago--when there was not room to launch all the canoes of the +village in a single row, the whole length of the beach, when the people +set out on one of their periodical trading expeditions to Port Simpson. +The beach is about half a mile long, and there must have been from five to +eight persons in each canoe." There are to-day less than five hundred +people in that village, Skidgate. Thirdly, there are some tribes, like the +Cherokees and Sioux, which are large, prosperous, and wealthy. It is a +money advantage to belong to such tribes, and a great many men who should +be considered white men are counted with such tribes and help to make them +look as if they were not dwindling. It is quite certain that true Indians +of pure blood are rapidly diminishing. + +The whites have brought them whisky, which has killed thousands. They have +brought vices and diseases which have swept off thousands more. They have +put an end to the old free, open-air life. They have taught them +unwholesome means of cookery that cause scrofula and other diseases. They +have taught them to build close, stuffy houses, which cause consumption, +which is fearfully destructive to the Indians. It seems to make little +difference whether it is an open foe with the whisky bottle, or an +apparent friend with money for a "civilized home" ("a nice, comfortable, +little house") who comes; the white man's touch destroys the Indians. + +Whether the Indians really die out or not, their old life will surely +disappear. One after another many of the things we have here read of +together have, disappeared. Others will soon die out. The houses, dress, +weapons, games, dances, ceremonials, will go. It is only a matter of time. +But they ought always to be interesting to us as Americans. + +The condition of the Indians to-day is a sad and pathetic one. They may +all echo the words of Red Jacket. They have been crowded upon by the white +man's hunger for land until now they have little left. Not long ago they +held the continent; to-day they are almost prisoners upon a few patches of +land called reservations. They are secure of these only until the white +man wants them. Time after time Indians have given up their lands and +removed to distant places because their old homes were wanted by white +men. Every time they have been promised that in their new homes they +should be undisturbed. Yet whenever, in their onward march, white men came +to be neighbors, the old troubles came again. Encroachment, aggression, +then perhaps open warfare, and then, another removal. Helen Hunt Jackson's +_Century of Dishonor_ tells only a part of the story. Every boy and girl +in the United States should read it. + +Here on a map you see the present location of most of the Indians. The +reservations vary in size and in quality. Some of them have little that +can attract the whites. In these the Indians may be left in peace. The +present idea of what to do with the Indians is shown by the Dawes Bill. +This is apparently a benevolent scheme for happily settling the Indians on +individual farms. Imagine a reservation belonging to some tribe. A part of +the reservation is cultivated by the more progressive Indians. The rest is +not used except perhaps for hunting or fishing, or wandering over. The +whole belongs to the tribe absolutely, and we have promised that it shall +never be taken away from them. But now the Dawes Bill is passed. It is +said, a little farm apiece is all that is necessary for these Indians. It +would be much better to give each of them just what he needs and then to +buy the balance of the land (cheap of course), and give it to white +people. Whenever the Indians agree to it, we will divide up the land, +allot each his land in severalty, and the Indian problem is solved. All +this sounds very well, but it is enough to make one's heart bleed to see +the way in which it is carried out. Many times the Indians do not wish to +take their land in severalty. Certainly they ought not to be forced to do +so against their will. Yet commission after commission, special agent +after special agent, is sent to tribes to persuade, beg, and harass them +into accepting allotment. Many times half threats are made; hints are +vaguely thrown out as to what may happen if they don't take their little +farms and sell the balance of their reservation. Surveyors are hired to go +and survey within the reservation so as to make the Indians think their +land will be taken away anyway. At last the poor harassed tribe yields. +The men take their farms; they give up the balance of their land for a +small price. Those who were industrious before take care of their land as +they did before, no better, no worse. But the unprogressive Indian is not +made industrious. He rents his land to some white man and spends his money +in strong drink. As long as they were on the reservation there were laws +to protect them from bad neighbors and whisky. But on his little farm the +Indian may be next door to bad white men who sell him liquor whenever it +is to their advantage. + +There are many persons who think that missions and schools will make the +Indians good and happy. So far as schools are concerned there are many. +Some of them are simple day schools at the agency. Others are boarding +schools still at the agency. Still others are great industrial schools at +a town more or less distant. Of all these schools we think that those at +the agency are the best kind. Such schools, well managed by thoroughly +good teachers, ought to do the most good. They ought not to try to teach +high branches, but to speak, read, and write English, a little arithmetic +and a little knowledge of the great world. They ought to be industrial +schools to the extent of teaching handiness in all the little things that +need to be done about the house or the farm. They ought to aim to reach +the parents and to interest them in their work. Progress in such schools +is slow, but it is better for all to make a little progress, than for a +few to get a great mass of information that they cannot use. + + + + + +GLOSSARY OF INDIAN AND OTHER FOREIGN WORDS WHICH MAY NOT READILY BE FOUND +IN THE ENGLISH DICTIONARY. + + +The spellings of Indian words vary much with different authors: in the +following list the word as spelled in this book is first given, then the +pronunciation, then the number of a page on which the meaning of the word +will be found. + +Single and combined consonants have their usual English sounds except _c_, +which is equal to _sh_; _s_ is always as in _s_o; final _s_ as in gem_s_ +is represented by _z_; soft _g_ is represented by _j_. + +Vowels are as follows:-- + +a as in fat +a " mane +ae " father +a " talk +e " met +e as in meat +i " pin +i " pine +o " not +o as in note +u " tub +u " oo in spoon +oi " boil + +Abalone [a-ba-lon], 77. + +Acolhua [a-kol'-wa], 209. + +Adobe [a-do'-ba], 163. + +Algonkin [al-gon-kin], 108. + +Alibamu [al-i-ba-mu], 128. + +Apache [a-pa-cha], 39. + +Apalache [a-pa-la-cha], 128. + +Arapaho [ae-ra-pae-ho], 60. + +Arickara [a-ri-kae-rae], 64. + +Assinaboin, [a-si-nae-boin], 57. + +Athapaskan [ath'-ae-pas-kan], 3. + +Atlatl [at-la-tl], 211. + +Atotarho [at-o-tae'r-ho], 116. + +Aztec [az-tek], 208. + +Beothuk [be-o'-thuk], 223. + +Burro [bu'r-o], 91. + +Busk [busk], 133. + +Caddo [ka-do], 134. + +Canon [kan-yun], 176. + +Cassine [kas-sen], 133. + +Catolsta [ka-to'l-stae], 144. + +Cayuga [ka-yu-gae], 116. + +Chelley [ca], 176. + +Cherokee [che-ro-ke], 140. + +Cheyenne [ci'-en], 60. + +Chiapas [che-a-pas], 215. + +Chicasaw [chi-kae-sa], 128. + +Chichen Itza [che'-chen e'-tsu], 218. + +Chilkat [chil-kat], 21. + +Chinook [chi-nu'k], 182. + +Choctaw [chok-ta], 128. + +Chunkey [chun-ka], 132. + +Coahuilla [ko-we'-yae], 201. + +Cochiti [ko'-che-te'], 178. + +Comanche [ko-man-che], 94. + +Copan [ko-pan'], 218. + +Corral [ko-ral], 165. + +Coup [ku], 42. + +Cree [kre], 108. + +Creek [krek], 128. + +Estufa [es-tu-fae], 165. + +Frijoles [fre-ho-laz], 178 (means beans). + +Glooskap [glos-kap], 32. + +Haida [hi-dae], 182. + +Haliotis [ha-le-o-tis], 77. + +Hano [hae-no], 169. + +Hayenwatha [hi-en-wae-thae], 116. + +Hayoneta [hoi-ae-na-tae], 145. + +Hupa [hu'-pae], 76. + +Itztapalapa [et's-tae-pae-lae'-pae], 55. + +Kiowa [ki'-o-wae], 60. + +Kisi [ke'-se], 170. + +Kwakiutl [kwae'-ke-u'tl], 182. + +Lenape [le-nae'-pa], 109. + +Lipan [le-pan'], 56. + +Maguey [ma-ga'], 71. + +Mandan [man'-dan], 159. + +Maya [mi'-yae], 215. + +Mendoza [men-do'-zae], 73. + +Mesa [ma'-sae], 161. + +Mescal [mes-cal'], 204. + +Metate [ma-tae'-ta], 180. + +Micam [me'-cam], 66. + +Miko [me'-ko], 131. + +Moki [mo'-ke], 168. + +M'teoulin [m'ta-u'-lin], 84. + +Muskoki [mus-ko'-ke], 128. + +Nanabush [na'-nae-buc], 112. + +Navajo [na'vae-ho], 21. + +Neeskotting [ne'-sko-ting], 51. + +Nekilstlas [ne-kils'-tlaes], 189. + +Ojibwa [o-jib'-wae], 108. + +Oneida [o-ni'-dae], 116. + +Onondaga [on'-on-dae'-gae], 116. + +Oolachen [u'-la-chen], 191. + +Oraibe [o-rai'-ba], 169. + +Otoe [o'-to], 92. + +Pani [pa-ne'], 60. + +Pemmican [pe'-mi-kan], 57. + +Pima [pe'-mae], 59. + +Plaza [pla'-zae], 171. + +Ponka [pon'-kae], 96. + +Pueblo [pweb'-lo], 161. + +Puskita [pus'-ke-tae], 133. + +Rito [re'-to], 178 (means brook) + +Sac [saec], 54. + +Santee [San-te'], 155. + +Saponie [sa'-po-na], 119. + +Seneca [se'-ne-kae], 116. + +Senel [sa'-nel], 95. + +Sequoyah [se-kwoi'-yae], 146. + +Shawnee [ca-ne'], 107. + +Shenanjie [ce-nan'-ja], 126. + +Shonko [con'-ko], 151. + +Shoshone [co'-co-na'], 169. + +Sioux [su], 155. + +Sipapu [se-pae'-pu], 171. + +Sisseton [si'-se-ton], 155. + +Skil [skel], 187. + +Skowl [skol], 197. + +Succotash [su'-ko-tac], 56. + +Tabasco [ta-bas'-ko], 215. + +Taos [tows], 162. + +Tecpanecan [tek'-pan-e'-kan], 209. + +Tenochtitlan [te-noch'-te-tlan'], 208. + +Teton [te'-ton], 155. + +Texcoco [tec-ko'-ko], 208. + +Tikal [te'-kal], 220. + +Tirawa [te-rae'-wae], 136. + +Tlacopan [tla-ko'-pan], 209. + +Tlingit [tlin'-git], 189. + +Tonkaway [ton'-kae-wa], 134. + +Totem [to'-tem], 98. + +Tshimpshian [tcim'-ce-an], 182. + +Tuscarora [tus'-ka-ro'-rae], 118. + +Tutelo [tu'-tu-lo], 119. + +Umane [u-mae'-na], 156. + +Uncpapa [unk-pae'-pae], 151. + +Ute [yut], 109. + +Wahpeton [wae'-pe'-ton], 155. + +Wakantanka [wae'-kaen-taen'-kae], 156. + +Walam Olum [wae'-laem ol'-um], 111. + +Walpi [wael'-pe], 169. + +Wampampeog [waem'-paem-pe-og], 74. + +Wichita [wi'-chi-tae], 134. + +Winnebago [wi'-ne-ba'-go], 155. + +Yanktonnais [yank'-ton-a], 155. + +Yetl [yatl], 189. + +Zizania [ze-za-ne-ae], 109. + +Zuni [zun'-ye], 89. + + + + + +INDEX. + + +[Indian words are in italics; tribal names in small capitals.] + +Abalone, 77. + +ACOLHUA, 209. + +Acorns, 202, 203. + +Adams Co., Ohio, 101. + +Adobe, 163. + +Adoption, 126. + +Agriculture, 4, 136, 164, 209. + +Alaska, 21, 95, 181, 195. + +_Algonkin_, 3, 53, 66, 74, 83, 108 _et seq._, 116; + houses, 8 _et seq._; + story, 32; + torture, 45; + villages, 9. + +Algonkin words, 108. + +Algonquian, 3. + +ALIBAMU, 128. + +Altar Mounds, 100. + +Altars, 218. + +Ambuscade, 41. + +Animal names, 198. + +Antelope society, 171, 172, 175. + +APACHE, 39, 59, 87. + +APALACHE, 128. + +ARAPAHO, 60; sign for, 64. + +Architecture, 216; of Pueblos, 162. + +ARICKARA, 64. + +Arizona, 161, 168, 175. + +Armor, quilted, 212. + +Arrow racing, 144. + +Arrows, 46, 49. + +ASSINABOIN, 57, 60, 155. + +Athapaskan, 3. + +Atlantic Ocean, 90, 108. + +_Atlatl_--or spear-thrower, 211. + +_Atotarho_, 116 _et seq._ + +AZTEC, 39, 55, 87, 129, 208 _et seq._, 215; + books, 71; + picture writing, 71. + +Baby, 22 _et seq._, 182. + +Badger, sign for, 61. + +Ball, 145 _et seq._; + game, 29, 34; + sticks, 29. + +Bandelier, A. F., 181. + +Barrows, D. P., 205. + +Basket making, 144. + +Baskets, 27, 203. + +Beads, 18; + shell, 76; + turquoise, 78. + +Bead-work, 16, 17, 18, 25. + +Bear--Story of Hunter and, 198. + +Beaver, sign for, 62. + +Beloved men, 131. + +Belts, 20, 164. + +BEOTHUK, 223. + +Bernal Diaz del Castillo, 214. + +Berries, 188. + +Biography, picture, 66. + +Birch-bark, 24, 53; + letter, 59; + records, 66. + +Bird Dances, 205. + +Black drink, 133. + +BLACK-FOOT, 108, 109, 112 _et seq._, 132; + sign for, 64; + story, 35 _et seq._ + +Blankets, 16, 20, 21, 78, 186, 210. + +Blowgun, 50. + +Boas, F., 2, 6, 195. + +Bones, buried, 93, 105. + +Books, 71, 220. + +Bonnets--feather, 44. + +Bottles of seaweed stalk, 189. + +Bow drill, 55. + +Bows, 49. + +Box burial, 96. + +Boys--training of, 129. + +Bread, 166, 167. + +Breech-clout, 15, 210. + +Bricks, 163. + +Brinton, D. G., 108, 115. + +British America, 108. + +British Columbia, 21, 24, 79, 187. + +Brooch, 17. + +Brook of the Beans, 178 _et seq._ + +Buffalo, N. Y., 120. + +Buffalo, sign for, 63. + +Buffalo dance, 48, 87. + +Buffalo hunt, 46, 47, 135 _et seq._ + +Bull-boat, 53. + +Burial, 92 _et seq._; + in caves, 95. + +Burros, 91, 165. + +Bushotter, G., 159. + +_Busk_, 133 _et seq._ + +CADDO, 134. + +Caddoan, 134. + +Calabashes, 209. + +Calculiform characters, 221. + +Calendar, Dakota, 67. + +California, 4, 76, 95, 201 _et seq._; + baskets, 27; + cradle, 25; + dress, 21; + houses, 11. + +Camp circle, 14, 156. + +Canada, 32. + +Cannibalism, 213. + +Canoe burial, 97. + +Canoes, 186; + birch-bark, 52; + dugout, 52. + +Canons, 176. + +Captives, 45. + +Cardinal points, 89, 90. + +Carrying babies, 27. + +Carrying strap, 27. + +Carving, 185, 195, 217, 219, 220. + +Cassine, 133. + +Catherwood, F., 216. + +Catlin, G., 30, 147 _et seq._ + +Catolsta, old, 144. + +Cave burial, 95. + +Cave houses, 176, 177. + +CAYUGA, 2, 116, 118, 119. + +Cedar bark, 21, 187, 188. + +Central America, 71, 215. + +Century of Dishonor, 225. + +Chamberlain, A. F., 195. + +Charles V., 72. + +Charms, 84. + +Charnay, 220. + +Chelley River, 176. + +CHEROKEES, 30, 52, 84, 89, 107, 108, 140 _et seq._, 224. + +CHEYENNE, 60, 69. + +Chiapas, 215, 216, 217. + +CHICASAW, 128. + +Chichen Itza, 218. + +Chief of Men, 209. + +CHILKAT, 21. + +Chillicothe, Ohio, 99. + +CHINOOK, 182 _et seq._ + +CHOCTAW, 30, 128. + +_Chunkey_, 113, 132. + +Cincinnati, Ohio, 99. + +Clams, 188. + +Clark, W. P., 41, 49, 64, 65. + +Cliff-dwellers, 54. + +Cliff-dwellings, 175 _et seq._ + +Cliff-ruins, 176. + +Cloths, 180, 210. + +Clubs, 188. + +COAHUILLA, 201 _et seq._ + +Coahuilla Valley, 201. + +_Cochiti_, 44, 77, 178, 181. + +Coffins, 93. + +Coiled baskets, 203. + +Colorado, 175. + +Columbia River, 182. + +COMANCHE, 94; + sign for, 64. + +Commemorative posts, 195 _et seq._, 197. + +Companions for the dead, 94. + +Condition of Indians, 223 _et seq._ + +Confederacy, 117 _et seq._, 128, 209. + +Conjuring, 130, 145. + +Conquest of Mexico, 214. + +Cooking, 56. + +Copan, 218, 220. + +Copper, 79. + +Coppers, 79. + +Coracle (see Bull-boat). + +Corpse: + displayed, 196; + treatment of, 92. + +Corral, 91, 165. + +Cortez, 209, 213, 214. + +Cotton, 210. + +Council: + tribal, 117; + confederacy, 119. + +Council house, 130, 131. + +Coup, 42. + +Cradle, 22, 183. + +Cram, Rev. Mr., 120. + +Crazy, sign for, 64. + +Creation legend, 112. + +CREE, 83, 108. + +CREEK, 108, 113, 128 _et seq._ + +Cremation, 95, 196. + +Crooked Hand, 138. + +Crow, 192. + +CROW, 49, 60; + sign for, 64. + +Cushing, F. H., 90, 162. + +Cycle festival, 55. + +DAKOTA: (see also SIOUX) 155; + tent, 12; + war feathers, 43. + +Dakota Calendar, 67. + +Dances: 85 _et seq._, 172; + bird, 205; + buffalo, 87; + rain, 88; + scalp, 87; + snake, 85, 88, 168 _et seq._; + sun, 155 _et seq._ + +Dancing, 32, 48. + +Davis, E. H., 107. + +Dawes Bill, 225 _et seq._ + +Dawson, G. M., 223. + +Daylight, 189, 190. + +Dayton, Ohio, 99. + +Deaf-mutes, 61. + +Deans, J., 195. + +Death, 92; + posts, 195; + watch, 98. + +Decreasing population, 135, 223. + +Deformation of the head, 183. + +DELAWARE (see also LENAPE) 108, 126. + +Dentalium, 75. + +Descent in female line, 198. + +Destroying objects for the dead, 95. + +Disease, 80, 82, 84, 224. + +Display: + of corpse, 196; + of property, 196. + +Dog, sign for, 63. + +Dog, The, 151 _et seq._ + +Dorsey, J. O., 160. + +Dress, 14 _et seq._, 169, 186, 210, 211; + dancing, 87. + +Drum, 86, 90, 213. + +Drying meat, 57. + +Duck hunting, 209. + +Dug-outs, 52, 186. + +Eagle dance, 205. + +Eastern Cherokees, 143. + +Effigy mounds, 102. + +Elephant-trunk decoration, 219. + +El Rito de los Frijoles, 178 _et seq._, 181. + +Elsie, old, 56. + +Enclosures, 99. + +ERIE, 119. + +ESKIMO, 96. + +Estufa (see also _Kiva_), 165, 170. + +Eyes, 22. + +Families, 198. + +Families of Language, 2. + +Fast, 130, 133, 160. + +Feasts, 113. + +Feather-cloth, 180. + +Feather-on-the-head, 41. + +Feathers, 43, 211. + +Female descent, 198. + +Fewkes, J. W., 170, 175. + +Fibulae, 17. + +Figures--stone, 218. + +Fire: + secured, 189, 190; + used, 186; + drill, 55; + making, 53; + perpetual, 131; + signals, 59; + sticks, 54; + for dead, 98. + +Fisherman and Raven, story of, 192. + +Fish hooks, 188. + +Fishing, 50 _et seq._, 188; + devices, 51. + +Five Nations, 188. + +FLATHEAD, 183; + sign for, 64. + +Flint and steel, 53. + +Fly's eggs, 210. + +Food for dead, 98. + +Foot race, 171. + +Ft. Du Quesne, 126. + +Ft. Stevenson, 153. + +Forward Inlet, 76. + +Four Bears, 153. + +Franciscans, 206. + +French and Indian Wars, 123. + +Fresh water secured, 189. + +Friendship, 41. + +Furs, 186. + +Gambling, 28, 113, 132, 204. + +Game drives, 48. + +Games, 28 _et seq._, 34, 113, 132, 144 _et seq._, 205. + +Gatschet, A. S., 134. + +Gauntlet running, 45. + +Gay Head, 51. + +Genesee River, 126. + +Gens, 198. + +Georgia, 140, 141. + +Gestures, calling rain, 88. + +_Glooskap_, 32 _et seq._ + +Gods, 211. + +Granaries, 202. + +Grass, dresses of, 21. + +Grave posts, 95, 98, 195 _et seq._ + +Graves, 92 _et seq._ + +Great house, 130. + +Great Lakes, 108. + +Great removal, 142 _et seq._ + +Grinding meal, 167. + +Grinnell, G. B., 39, 112, 138. + +Guatemala, 215, 216. + +Guessing games, 28. + +Guess, or Guest, George, 146. + +Hadley, L., 65. + +Haida, 79, 82, 95, 96, 182 _et seq._, 223. + +Hair, 182; forehead, 22. + +Hair fabrics, 180. + +Hale, H., 122. + +Halibut, 182, 188. + +Haliotis, 77. + +Hammock, 25. + +_Hano_, 169. + +Hat, 187. + +_Hayenwatha_, 116 _et seq._ + +Head deformation, 182, 220. + +Head-dress, 211. + +Helmet, 211. + +Hieroglyphics, 218, 220. + +Hoes, 136. + +Holmes, W. H., 80, 219. + +Honduras, 215, 218. + +Hopeton, 99. + +Horn bows, 49. + +Horses--stealing, 42. + +Hospitality, 5. + +Houses, 7 _et seq._, 184, 202, 211, 216; + Pueblo, 162. + +House circles, 105. + +Housetops, life on, 163. + +_Hoyoneta_, 145. + +Hudson Bay Co., 79. + +Hudson River, 115. + +Hunting, 46 _et seq._, 135 _et seq._, 209; + ducks, 209; + snakes, 170. + +HUPA, 76. + +HURON, 119. + +Hut rings, 105. + +Hypnotism, 83. + +Idol, 213. + +Indian, 1. + +Indian Territory, 143, 223. + +Initiation, 129. + +Iowa, 93, 106. + +IROQUOIS, 39, 53, 66, 74, 108, 115 _et seq._, 129, 209; + ball play, 29; + houses, 7; + story, 32; + torture, 45. + +_Itztapalapa_, 55. + +Jacket, 16, 17. + +Jackson, H. H., 147, 202, 225. + +Jemison, Mary, 122 _et seq._ + +Jemison, T., 122. + +Jesuits, 206. + +Journeys of George Catlin, 148. + +Keeper of the belts, 75. + +Kentucky, 95. + +Kilts, 20, 21. + +King Philip, 74, 108. + +KIOWA, 60, 61. + +_Kisi_, 170 _et seq._ + +KOSKIMO, 183. + +KWAKIUTL, 182. + +Lacrosse, 29. + +Ladders, 163. + +Land in severalty, 225 _et seq._ + +Languages, 2. + +Lapham, I. A., 107. + +Leggings, 15, 17. + +Leland, C. G., 38, 83. + +LENAPE, 108, 109 _et seq._ + +Life: + of cliff-dwellers, etc., 181; + Mayan peoples, 220. + +LIPAN, 56, 134. + +Lip piercing, 183. + +Lip plug, 183, 210. + +Little Bear, 151 _et seq._ + +Lone Dog, 67, 69. + +Long House, 7, 119. + +Lorillard City, 220. + +Los Angeles, Cal., 207. + +Los Cerillos, N. M., 77. + +Louisiana, 135. + +Lower California, 206. + +Lummis, C. F., 204. + +Magicians (see medicine men). + +Maguey, 71, 210. + +Mallery, G., 65. + +Mancos Canon, 176, 179. + +MANDAN, 90, 148, 153, 155, 159; + house, 11; + bull-boat, 53. + +Manta, 169. + +Map, 3, 201, 225. + +Martha's Vineyard, Mass., 51. + +Mason, O. T., 30. + +Massacre, 125. + +_Massasoit_, 108. + +Matthews, W., 153, 154. + +Matting, 10. + +MAYA, 215 _et seq._ + +McElmo Canon, 181. + +Meal: + acorn, 203; + sacred, 90. + +Measure, arrow, 50. + +Medicinal liquid, 133. + +Medicine, 80. + +Medicine man, 33, 80 _et seq._; + performances, 83; + tested, 84. + +Memory helps, 66, 75. + +Mendoza, 73. + +Mesa, 161. + +Mescal, 204. + +_Metate_, 167, 180. + +Mexico, 27, 39, 55, 71, 135, 136, 175, 206, 208 _et seq._, 215. + +_Micam_, 66. + +_Miko_, 131. + +Milky Way, 38. + +Mission Indians, 201, 206 _et seq._ + +Mission work, 227. + +Missionaries, 197. + +Mississippi Valley, 97. + +Missouri River, 148, 150, 153. + +Missouri Valley, 97. + +Moccasin game, 28. + +_Moccasins_, 19, 108. + +MOHAWK, 2, 116, 118, 119. + +Mohawk River, 116. + +MOHICAN, 116. + +MOKI, 20, 85, 90, 91, 161, 168 _et seq._, 181. + +Money, 73 _et seq._ + +Monoliths, 218. + +_Montezuma_, 209. + +Morgan, L. H., 14. + +Morning Star, 37, 137. + +Morton, T., 74. + +Mound builders, 99 _et seq._ + +Mounds, 98 _et seq._ + +Mourning, 97, 196. + +_M'teoulin_, 84. + +Mummies, 96, 180. + +Museum, National--Mexico, 213. + +Museum, National--United States, 154. + +Music, 86. + +Musical instruments, 86, 213. + +MUSKOKI (see CREEK). + +Mutilation--self, 97. + +Mystery, 80. + +Mystery men, 66, 80, 84. + +_Nanabush_, 112. + +Nashville, 103. + +NATCHEZ, 223. + +NAVAJO, 21, 78, 91, 109. + +Neckrings, 17. + +_Neeskotting_, 51. + +_Nekilstlas_, 189, 190, 191. + +Nets, for rabbits, 49. + +Newark, Ohio, 100. + +New Brunswick, 108. + +New England, 2, 4, 32, 74. + +New Fire, 133. + +New Mexico, 77, 161, 162, 175, 178. + +New Spain, 206. + +New York, 2, 108, 115. + +Niagara, 127, 128. + +Niagara River, 116. + +Niblack, A. P., 195, 201. + +North, Lieut., 140. + +North Carolina, 52, 140, 143. + +Northwest Coast, 4, 21, 50, 52, 80, 86, 181 _et seq._, 189 _et seq._, 195 + _et seq._ + +Notched rattles, 86. + +Nova Scotia, 32, 108. + +Objects buried with dead, 93, 94, 105. + +Obsidian, 210. + +Offerings to gods, 91. + +Oglethorpe, 141. + +Ohio, 99, 101, 106, 107. + +Ohio River, 126. + +Oil, 188. + +OJIBWA, 69, 84, 108, 109, 111. + +Oklahoma, 97, 135. + +Old Pueblos, 176. + +Old Zuni, 176. + +OMAHA, 155. + +ONEIDA, 116, 117, 118, 119. + +ONONDAGA, 2, 75, 116, 118, 119. + +Onondaga Lake, N. Y., 118. + +_Oolachen_, 82, 182, 188, 189; + secured, 191. + +_Oraibe_, 169. + +Orators, 120. + +Oregon, 95; cradle, 24. + +Ornaments, 17. + +OTOE, 92, 155. + +Ovens, 166. + +Pacific Ocean, 75, 77, 95, 181. + +Paddles, 186. + +Paintings--Catlin's, 148 _et seq._, 159, 160. + +Paintings on rocks, 179. + +Palace at Palenque, 217. + +Palenque, 216 _et seq._, 220. + +PANI = PAWNEE, 60, 91, 134, 223. + +Paper, 71. + +Paper bread, 167. + +_Papoose_, 108. + +Papoose board, 22. + +Pebble-shaped characters, 221. + +Peet, S. D., 102, 107. + +_Pemmican_, 57. + +Pennsylvania, 122. + +Peon, 205. + +Physical type, 182, 201, 215. + +Picture records, 111. + +Picture writing, 65 _et seq._ + +Piercing lips, 183. + +Pilgrims, 108. + +Pillars, 219. + +PIMA, 59. + +Pittsburg, Pa., 126. + +Plains Indians, 13, 42, 47, 59, 60, 109, 134, 136, 155. + +Plaster, 211, 217. + +Playground, 130, 132. + +Plaza, 171, 172, 173, 175. + +Pleiades, story of, 31. + +Pocahontas, 108. + +Points, in blankets, 79. + +Points of compass, 89, 90. + +PONKA, 96, 155. + +Port Simpson, 223. + +Posts, carved, 185, 195 _et seq._; + kinds of, 195. + +Pottery, 136, 144, 180. + +Powell, J. W., 3, 7, 210. + +Powell's Linguistic Map, 3. + +Powers, S., 14, 76. + +Powhatan, 108. + +Prayer, 160, 175. + +Prayer sticks, 90, 170. + +Printed sign-language, 65. + +Prisoners of war, 45, 212. + +Proclamation of Gen. Scott, 142. + +Public Square, 130. + +PUEBLOS, 6, 21, 76, 87, 88, 90, 91, 161 _et seq._, 168, 169, 176, 180, + 181; + dress, 20; + cradle, 27; + game drives, 48; + scalps, 44. + +Pump drill, 78. + +Purification, 88, 156. + +_Puskita_, 133. + +Putnam, F. W., 101, 107. + +Pyramids, 211. + +Queen Charlotte Islands, 79, 82, 95, 195, 223. + +Quills--porcupine, 18. + +Rabbit sticks, 49. + +Rackets (see Ball-sticks). + +Rain dances, 88. + +_Ramona_, 202. + +Rattles, 86. + +Rattlesnakes, 170 _et seq._ + +Raven stories, 189 _et seq._ + +Red Jacket, 120, 225. + +Red Score, 111. + +Relics, 180. + +Reservations, 225. + +Rio Grande, 77, 165, 169, 178. + +Rock Paintings, 179. + +Rocky Mountains, 108, 112. + +Roof comb, 217. + +Ruins, 175 _et seq._, 216 _et seq._; + types, 176. + +Running the gauntlet, 45. + +Rushing Eagle, 153. + +Russians, 197. + +Sacred colors, 91. + +Sacred meal, 90. + +Sacred numbers, 84, 89. + +Sacred tree, 157. + +Sacrifice, 137, 213. + +Sacrificial stone, 213. + +SAC AND FOX, 54, 56, 66; + cradle, 22; + dress, 17; + games, 28; + graves, 93, 94, 97; + hammock, 25; + house, 9; + moccasins, 19. + +Salmon, 51, 182, 188. + +Sand altar, 91. + +Sandals, 180, 210. + +San Diego, Cal., 207. + +San Dionisio, Mex., 206. + +San Francisco, Cal., 207. + +San Gabriel, Cal., 202. + +SANTEE (SIOUX), 155. + +Santo Domingo, N. M., 6. + +SAPONIE, 119. + +Scaffold burial, 97. + +Scalp, 16, 44. + +Scalp dance, 87. + +Scalping, 44. + +Scar-face, story of, 35. + +Schoolcraft, H. R., 69. + +Schools, 227. + +Scott, Gen. W., 142. + +Scouts, Pani, 140. + +Scraper for dressing skins, 15. + +Scratcher, 89, 145. + +Screaming of medicine man, 83. + +Scum-cakes, 210. + +Seaver, J. E., 128. + +Seaweed, 188. + +Secret Societies, 85. + +SENECA, 2, 116, 118, 119. + +SENEL, 95. + +_Sequoyah_, 146. + +Serpent mound, 101. + +Servants, 137. + +Shag, 191. + +Shaman, 80, 95, 96. + +SHAWNEE, 107, 124. + +Shell money, 75. + +_Shenanjie_, 126. + +Shields, 211. + +_Shonko_, 151. + +SHOSHONE, 169; + sign for, 64. + +Signals, fire, 59. + +Sign language, 60 _et seq._ + +Signs, examples of, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64. + +Sinking into ground, 83. + +Siouan, 91, 97, 155. + +SIOUX, 25, 44, 49, 60, 66, 67, 69, 138 _et seq._, 150, 151, 155 _et seq._, + 224. + +_Sipapu_, 171. + +SISSETON (SIOUX), 155. + +Six Nations, 119. + +Skidgate, 223. + +_Skil_, 187, 197, 200. + +Skimming sticks, 28. + +Skins, dressing, 14, 48. + +Skirt, 17, 21. + +_Skowl_, 197. + +Skunk, sign for, 63. + +Smith, E. A., 38. + +Smoke, 90, 98. + +Smoking, 34, 113. + +Smoke signals, 59. + +Snake, 170. + +Snake Dance, 85, 88, 90, 91, 168 _et seq._ + +Snake hunt, 170. + +Snake society, 173. + +Snake washing, 171. + +Societies, secret: + antelope, 85, 171, 172, 175; + snake, 85, 173. + +Soul bone, 83. + +Southern States, 27, 30, 50, 52. + +Spain, 206. + +Spear-thrower, 211. + +Speech: + of Pani, 221; + of Red Jacket, 120; + of Sioux, 152. + +Spinning, 210. + +Spirits, 80. + +_Squaw_, 108. + +Squaw money, 76. + +Squier, E. G., 107. + +Stalking animals, 48. + +Star, Hill of the, 55. + +Stephens, J. L., 216. + +Stocks, linguistic, 2. + +Stone Age Culture, 106. + +Stone boiling, 57, 186, 188. + +Stone graves, 93, 103. + +Stone tools, 86, 177, 180, 186. + +Stories, 189 _et seq._; + Algonkin, 32; + Blackfoot, 35; + Hunter and bears, 198; + Iroquois, 31. + +Story-telling, 113, 114. + +Stucco, 217. + +_Succotash_, 56. + +Sun, 38. + +Sun dance, 88, 150, 155 _et seq._ + +Superstition regarding portraits, 150 _et seq._ + +Sweat baths, 132. + +Syllabary, Cherokee, 146 _et seq._ + +Sympathetic magic, 88. + +Tabasco, 215. + +Tablet of the Cross, 218. + +Tablet of the sun, 218. + +Tablets--of stone, 217, 220. + +Tambourines, 86. + +Taos, 162, 166, 169. + +Taos River, 162. + +Tattooing, 184. + +TECPANECAN, 209. + +Temples, 211, 217, 219. + +Temple of _beau relief_, 217. + +Temple of Tigers, 219. + +Tennessee, 93, 103, 140, 143. + +_Tenochtitlan_, 208, 213. + +Tent, 12. + +Terrace platforms, 217. + +Test: + for bravery, 158; + for liar, 115; + for manhood, 129. + +TETON (SIOUX), 155. + +_Texcoco_, 208, 209. + +Thomas, C., 107. + +Three Bears, 41. + +Threshing, 167. + +_Tikal_, 220. + +_Tirawa_, 136, 137. + +_Tlacopan_, 209. + +TLINGIT, 79, 95, 96, 182, 187, 189, 192, 195, 197, 198, 199. + +Tobacco, 90. + +TONKAWAY, 60, 87, 134, 223. + +Torture: + of prisoners, 45; + of self, 159, 160, 220. + +_Totem_, 95, 98, 111, 184, 186, 197, 198; + rights and privileges, 199. + +Totem posts, 195 _et seq._ + +Towns--white and red, 129; + peace and war, 129. + +Town square, 171. + +Transformation, 34. + +Trapping, 48. + +Tree burial, 97. + +Tribes of Indians, 2. + +Tribute, 209. + +TSHIMPSHIAN, 182, 187, 192. + +Turquoise, 77. + +TUSCARORA, 118, 119. + +TUTELO, 119. + +Types of Indians, 1. + +_Umane_, 156. + +UNCPAPA (SIOUX), 151. + +Utah, 175. + +UTE, 109. + +Vancouver Island, 181, 183, 190. + +Van Syce, 127. + +Vices, introduced, 224. + +Villages, 9, 184. + +Virginia, 108. + +WAHPETON (SIOUX), 155. + +Waist, 210. + +Waiting outside a village, 38. + +_Wakantanka_, 156. + +_Walum Olum_, 111. + +Wall decoration, 211. + +_Walpi_, 169. + +_Wampampeog_, 74. + +_Wampum_, 73, 108. + +Wampum belts, 66, 74. + +War, 39 _et seq._, 138 _et seq._, 211. + +War drink, 132. + +War feathers, 43. + +Warriors, 211; + dress, 211. + +Washing snakes, 171. + +Water craft, 52. + +Weapons, 211. + +Weaving, 20, 169, 179, 186, 210. + +WICHITA, 134. + +_Wigwam_, 108. + +Wild rice, 109. + +William and Mary, The, 122. + +Windows, 163, 164. + +WINNEBAGO, 107, 155. + +Winnowing, 168. + +Wisconsin, 102, 103, 107. + +Woman among Indians, 4. + +Women, dress, 17. + +Wyoming, Pa., 147. + +Xenia, Ohio, 99. + +YANKTON (SIOUX), 155. + +YANKTONNAIS (SIOUX), 155. + +Yarn, 180. + +Yarrow, H. C., 98. + +Yellowstone River, 150. + +_Yetl_, 189 _et seq._ + +Young, E. R., 83. + +Yucatan, 215 _et seq._, 216. + +Zizania, 109. + +_Zuni_, 89, 90, 161, 162, 176. + +Zunian, 3. + + + + + + +FOOTNOTES + + + 1 North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama. + + + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AMERICAN INDIANS*** + + + +CREDITS + + +April 18, 2011 + + Project Gutenberg TEI edition 1 + Produced by the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at + <http://www.pgdp.net/>. 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