INDIAN NOTES
E
St
N^lSL. JANUARY 1515
('^•ffl. '1
VOLUME TWO NUMBER ONE
PUBLISHED OCCASIONALLY IN THE INTEREST OF THE
MUSEUM OF THE AMERICAN INDIAN, HEYE FOUNDATION
BROADWAY AT I55Tn STREET, NEW YORK
CONTENTS
Page
Northern Elements in Iroquois and New Eng- land Art. Frank G. Speck i
The Museum Central American Expedition, 1914. S. K. Lothrop 12.
Fine-line Decoration of Ancient Southwestern Pottery. W. C. Orchard 2.4
Arikara Household Shrine to Mother Corn. Melvin R. Gilmore 31
Monolithic Axe from Nicaragua. Marshall H. Saville 34
Remarkable Oto Necklace. Alanson Skin- ner 36
Recently Acquired Mohegan Articles. Alan- son Skinner 38
Rama, Mosquito, and Sumu, of Nicaragua. David E. Harrower 44
Minute Gold Beads from La Tolita, Ecuador. W. C. Orchard 48
Prehistoric Algonkian Burial Site in Cayuga County, New York. D. A. Cadzow . . 56
Arikara Units of Measure. Melvin R. Gil- more 64
Tree-dweller Bundle of the Wahpeton Dakota. Alanson Skinner 66
Pueblo Site near St. Thomas, Nevada. M. R. Harrington 74
Recent Accessions by Gift 77
Notes 81
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Published Occasionally in the Interest of the Museum of the
American Indian, Heye Foundation, Broadway at 155th Street,
New York
Vol. II JANUARY, 1915 No. i
NORTHERN ELEMENTS IN IROQUOIS AND NEW ENGLAND ART
Study of ceramic remains has been regarded for some time as one of the surest ways of establishing the culture identity of an unknown people. Its reliability has been worked out in a number of cases, in American as well as in classical archeo- logy. But before this method of determination can be employed, of course, it is required that the early native culture in question have actually possessed the ceramic art and industry. Accordingly, for the areas of North America where agriculture was car- ried on as an important thing — and this would be over the whole southwestern area, the south- eastern, the Mississippi valley, and the Atlantic coast to New England and south of the Great Lakes — the ceramic inquiry is indeed a most impor-
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tant one in the investigation of economics and arts. Yet the remaining northern and the North Pacific portions of the continent, where ceramics and agri- culture were wanting, could not be brought under a general comparative survey by the same means, because of the entire or partial absence of this most durable documentary material.
Nevertheless, in respect to artistic ornamentation alone, and apart from its material field of represen- tation, it must be apparent that in the northern and southern migrations which are known to have taken place, there would have been a carrying-over of the pattern forms and certain symbolic peculiari- ties in some graded forms, even when, under changed conditions, an old industry had to be abandoned or a new one adopted. So we may, for example, imagine the transfer of design and symbol- ism among the Navaho from basketry to blanket weaving, as the latter industry developed. And a similar case is shown in the transition from porcu- pine quillwork to glass beadwork, after European contact, over much of the continent, accompanied by the substitution of cloth material for leather. Likewise in the Northeast, where the writer's interests are largely centered, a striking example among the Algonkians presents itself. Here the execution of curve and floral designs in painting upon tanned-leather garments and personal articles
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passed over almost without modification in pattern to white beadwork upon red and black cloth. The steps in the transition of technic exist all at the one time between the Naskapi of r orthern Labra- dor, who still largely wear painted caribou-skin garb, the Montagnais, a little nearer the trading posts, whose technics are part leather, part cloth, and lastly the Micmac and the other Wabanaki tribes, south of the St. Lawrence, who are exclu- sively beadworkers on cloth.
Having accordingly to rely often upon the most perishable materials, those of leather, cloth, and embroidery, for the preservation of evidences that may indicate relationship and diffusion, the design motives themselves become, then, a heavy factor element. It can hardly be held that historical acci- dent will account satisfactorily for the recurrence of similar design ornaments among different tribes, no matter what their other culture affinities may be. Such occurrences are reasonably attributed to diffusion. Some clear-cut indications of relationship in the design content, for instance, of the Iroquois and their Algonkian-speaking neighbors, show that, despite certain other non-resemblances be- tween these two eastern groups, there has been an art influence of one upon the other. Now recently, as an outcome of general consideration and com- parison of art motives among the Algonkians of
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New England, and those of the more remote North- east, I have decided to place on record a few- thoughts, which seem to lead toward a conclusion I had already hinted at in a former paper, in respect to the supposed derivation of Iroquois design pat- terns from the Algonkians whose habitat in the north they invaded during one of America's his- toric native migrations. The study of decorative art in the Northeast, which is evoking more and more interest among ethnologists who are strug- gling with the problems of the area, now assumes a role of considerable historical importance, bear- ing on the whole Iroquois-Algonkian question.
The recent recovery of several interesting speci- mens of art-work from the Mohegan of Connecti- cut makes an occasion for reviewing the situation in a clearer light than before. In comparison with these are art specimens from the most remote Naskapi and Montagnais of the Labrador penin- sula, lately obtained and investigated for the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation. The latter furnish us with art material unquestion- ably native in origin. I believe it hardly necessary here to go into the proof of this, beyond emphasiz- ing the fact that the designs of the uncivilized Naskapi, painted on caribou-skin with pigments composed of bird's eggs, fish blood, and milt and ocher, are beyond question an aboriginal Algonkian
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property. In consequence, they become extremely valuable as standards of technic and designing in art for comparison with the products of the other tribes of the same lineage in the East and North- east. The Mohegan designs, for their part, afford us much-needed material, little though it is, from that ethnically almost unknown border territory lying between the Algonkian and Iroquoian areas. If we begin with a casual survey of the two ex- tremes of the range under consideration, we will find that corrparison of Iroquois and Naskapi deco- rative patterns shows considerable resemblance in the recurrence of the curve as a design unit, which is fundamental to both and also includes the Mohegan material. This is precisely the point of emphasis. The double curve, which is the element pattern in Naskapi and Montagnais art, is in most cases an incurve. In the general field of older Iroquois art in bead- and quill-work we encounter the curves turned both inward and outward. The interesting fact is that Mohegan design and technic, as will soon be shown through specimen examples, is typically old Algonkian, and it be- longs in an economic setting characteristic of the northern regions. This tends to establish evidence of a wide distribution, in former times, of the whole Algonkian double-curve decorative system as far south as southern New England. The infer-
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ence hence follows that Iroquois motives ivere borrowed, or, more correctly perhaps, stolen, in view of the forcible extension of the League in the Northern states, from Algonkian predecessors. And further, that the bands of southern New England — the Mohegan for one — have preserved some evidence of being closely related to the early population supposed by Skinner and Parker to have been Algonkian, which was invaded by the Iroquois in New York state. It seems therefore most natural and to be expected that the base content of Mo- hegan decoration and technic test out to be thor- oughly Algonkian, at the same time constituting a link in the series of gradations between Iroquoi- an and more distant Algonkian curve patterns. The grounds for my theoretical position will need to be reviewed before the argument can be- come clear. The technical processes of the Naskapi, for example, whose life we take to be character- istic of the least modified culture of the family, comprise decoration, on the one hand, by painting (and farther west by porcupine-quill embroidery) on leather used in raiment and for receptacles, and secondly by etching on the natural surface of birch- bark, which has a dark coating through being taken from the tree in the winter, and which is used for the making of the so-called baskets very common among the tribes north of the United
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States. These industrial arts are specialties in the material culture of the northern Algonkian, most pronounced among those not affected by culture influences from the more central portions of the continent where native civilization advanced to higher levels, nor from the w^hites. The Iroquois took over the art industry of porcupine quillwork upon leather, as the investigations of Parker and Orchard testify. This is distinctly of northern origin. But the birch-bark decorative technic never seems to have engaged their serious attention. It w^ould hardly seem necessary to refer to the absurdity of the suggestion, proposed by Gushing in 1883, and accepted by Holmes, by Parker, and even promulgated in anthropological literature by Deniker, of the birch-bark prototype of Iroquoian pottery and pipe forms. Certainly no actual speci- mens corresponding to such prototypic reconstruc- tions are in existence to support the idea- — indeed birch-bark could hardly be shaped into such forms! For these particular types of ornamentation, paint- ing and etching, we have reliable evidence among the southern New England tribes, in former times. Evidence of leather painting is handed down through the words of Roger Williams:^ ^Wussuck- hosu. Painted. They also commonly paint these
1 Key into the Language of America, 1643, Collections Rhode Island Historical Society^ Providence, 182.7, pp. 107-08.
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Moose and Deere skins for their summer wearing, with varieties of formes and colours/' The Naskapi still refer to their painted coats by using the cog- nate term ucigi', and the Mohegan correspondent is tvuskusu, "it is painted, or written.'* A further resemblance worth noting between the decorative habits of the Mohegan and their far-northern rela- tives is a restriction in the use of colors to red, dark yellow, blue, and black. These four colors alone are found on the ornamented, painted skin coats of the Naskapi and on the painted splint baskets of the southern New England tribes. And next, for the other, the birch-bark ornamentation, there exist, fortunately in more tangible form than words, the actual objects in the collections of the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation. These were obtained by Miss Tantaquidgeon, of the Mohegan tribe, and myself over a period of some years. Another was obtained by Harrington from Mohegan a number of years ago. The speci- mens are fragments of birch-bark receptacles, small boxes for trinkets, decorated with sewed-on bead- work (figs. 1,2.).
The articles are unique in American native art, so far as it is represented in collections, for while the Micmac and the Ojibwa employ the technic of porcupine quillwork on birch-bark in ornamenting their well-known bark wares, no other instance of
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beading on the same material has been reported or exhibited. The specimens referred to are five in number, and are very old, coming from a period in the history of the Mohegan before the handful of survivors had abandoned their native arts and cus- toms. In retrospect, I think it is quite reasonable to derive the technic of beadw^ork on birch-bark from a predecessor in which the glass beads of the white man played no part, namely, the porcupine- quill or else the bark-etching process.
To summarize briefly, the painted-leather orna- mentation of Williams' narrative, the surviving painted designs on Mohegan splint basketry, which I dealt with in a paper some years ago,^ and the beadwork on birch-bark, all compose a triangle of evidence of the former northern affinities of these Indians. This would seem to have weight as a step onward in the progress of solving the problem of Algonkian migration and shift, and the absorption of Algonkian art ideas by groups coming in contact with them in the north. Without laying too much stress on the unsolved question of their racial affin- ity with the Iroquois and the Wabanaki of northern New England and the Maritime Provinces (that is, in being moderately long-headed), it seems sugges- tive now that the Connecticut tribes had, in addi-
2 Decorative Art of the Indians of Connecticut, Geological Sur- vey of Canada, 191 5-
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tion, certain art affinities with both the Algonkian of the north and the Iroquois. For only in the north is the surface of birch-bark utilized as a field of decoration. Thus we may imagine how the Mohe- gan, through a tradition of birch-bark decoration, linking them anciently with a region farther north than that which they have held in recent times, retained the practice in a later period of their his- tory, even under the handicap of paucity of the material. The canoe birch (B. alba papyrifera^ is Eot by any means an abundant or a large tree in central Connecticut, while the gray birch (B. popu- lifolia), of a much inferior quality of bark for the purpose in mind, is common. It is, indeed, the bark of the latter that was used in the making of the bead-decorated bark objects on whose historical interpretation this paper is based.
Frank G. Speck
THE MUSEUM CENTRAL AMERICAN EXPEDITION, 1914
The primary purpose of the writer's journey to Central America last spring and summer was to strengthen the Museum's collection from El Salva- dor and also to obtain all possible data regarding this archeologically little-known country. To that end several months were passed in visiting many
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Fig. 3. — Figurine types of eastern Salvador, a, b, ''Archaic" dj Transitional; e, /, h, Lenca-Ulva; g, Chorotegan.
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ancient settlements, as well as modern villages where aboriginal arts and industries still survive.
The sites visited include Quelepa, Tacuzcalco, Sonsonate, Cacaopera, El Rodeo, Santiago de Mar'a, Tecapan, California, Berlin, Hacienda Santa Anita, Mercedes Umaf.a, El Caragual, Estan- zuelas, Los Bonetes, Gualococte, Conchaguita, Chalchuapa, Tazumal, San Jacinto, Los Tablones (i. Guija), Yucuaiquin, La Bermuda, Hacienda la Asuncion, Hacienda de Chacahuaca, Cuscatlan, and others. Specimens are now in the Museum from most of these, as well as from others which the writer did not have time to visit.
In the archeological collection are stone axes, spear-points, knives, scrapers, bark-beaters, me- tates, etc. A stone yoke and a death's head obtained near Suchitoto will be mentioned in another paper. In addition many ceramic specimens were procured.
Although no detailed study has yet been made, several interesting points are brought out by the distribution of the various classes of pottery. In the first place, pottery figurines of sub-Mayan types (fig. 3), associated with several distinct classes of ceramic vessels, were found to come al- most entirely from east and northeast of the Lempa river. This region was occupied in the sixteenth century largely by the Lenca, whose handiwork these objects must be.
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West and south of the Lempa river at the time of the Conquest dwelt the Pipil, a Nahua-speaking group. From their territory comes more than ninety per cent of the elaborate polychrome pottery of Mayan type, found in some quantity in El Salvador. It is probable that the Pipil represent part of the great dispersal from Mexico after the fall of the legendary Toltec empire. In fact, the tv^o largest Pipil cities, Cuscatlan and Tehuacan, doubtless take their names from two towns near Cholula in Mexico. It is also probable that the Pipil did not exterminate the Mayan people which they encount- ered, but rather enslaved them and borrowed a part of their superior artistic inheritance. A rem- nant of the former Mayan settlements existed after the Conquest, speaking two dialects: Pokomam and Chorti.
A study of distribution also shows that more than ninety per cent of the so-called "Archaic" pottery comes from Lenca territory. In El Salvador this culture has diverged from the Mexican types, and examples occur which blend into the types above classed as Lenca. El Salvador is apparently the southern limit of the "Archaic" culture.
A further point brought out by the study of dis- tribution is that practically all the Tlaloc vases and other objects of purely Aztec type have come from the places where Mexican allies of the Spanish con-
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querors settled. Are these then to be considered pre- European trade pieces or the handiwork of post- Conquest Mexican settlers? The material at the command of the writer is not large enough to justify a conclusion.
The Pipil-Maya and Lenca-" Archaic" division of the country brought out by a study of the pot- tery distribution is further emphasized by the nature of the archeological sites. In the first region there are mounds of considerable size and regularity of outline placed in formal groups around rectan- gular plazas. In the second area mounds are smaller, and, as is also the case in the present Indian villages, there is usually no regular plan.
Modern Indian villages visited by the writer belong to three linguistic groups: Pipil, Lenca, and Ulva. Superficially the culture of all three is very similar, but the Pipil towns have Guatemalan fea- tures, introduced as the result of trade intercourse. Although it was not the season for Indian dances, the writer was fortunate enough to witness a special performance of the Dance of the Macaws at the Ulva town of Cacaopera (fig. 4), and to obtain the masks, feather headdresses, rattles, etc., used by the performers. In addition, masks and dance paraphernalia from other towns were pro- cured, including two interesting specimens, black- ened by age, from Conchagua (the town, not the
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Fig. 6. — Daces masks, a, b, Yucuaiquin; c, Cacaopera; d^ Conchagua.
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island). One of this pair (fig. 5, ^) clearly repre- sents the Mexican god Xipe, wearing the flayed skin of the sacrificed. To the natives today this mask is known as vieja loca (the old mad woman) and the companion Qa) is vie jo loco (the old mad man). The sex of the two has been changed in the course of centuries. While the one clearly repre- sents Xipe, the other may personate Tla^olteotl, the Earth Goddess and Mistress of Filth, who was associated with Xipe in the Aztec pantheon.
It will be recalled that the Xipe cult existed among the Maribio, just across Fonseca bay from Conchagua, and that this tribe killed their aged, and, clad in the flayed skins, gave battle to the invading Spaniards. In memory of this event for some time after the Conquest the district was called the province of the Desollados, or Flayed Ones.
Of the dance masks shown in fig. 6, a and b are worn for the Dance of the Halberds at Yucuaiquin, the chief feature of which is a juggling display with two of these sixteenth-century weapons; c is used in the Dance of the Black Ones at Cacaopera, in which the men wear high boots and spurs; d is from Con- chagua, and is worn in a dramatic representation of the wars of the Jews and Philistines.
The processes of making rope, hammocks, bags, nets, baskets, gourd and pottery vessels, etc., were
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p^G^ 8.— Pottery, baskets, and gourds, a, b, Guatajiagua; c-e^ Nahuizalco;/, Yucuaiquin; g, h, Izalco. (Diameters, 7 to ii inches.)
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studied and photographed at several villages. Fig. 7 shows the making of rope by hand in the village of Cacaopera (^), and also the first step in an un- usual process of pottery-making in the town of Guatajiagua (^).
Completed vessels from the latter town are shown in fig. 8, a, b. This ware is prized among the natives today on account of its lightness and strength. In the same illustration (c-/) are shown baskets of various weaves. It will be noted that c and e are of a shape which appears on Mayan bas- reliefs of the Old Empire. This form, therefore, has persisted among Middle American peoples for at least 1500 years. That the shape is functional is not apparent at first glance, but as a matter of fact the curious out-curved rim supports the basket when carried against the hip. Shown in g and h are gourd receptacles from the Pipil town of Izalco, decorated by the lost-color process of wax painting and by carving.
At the present time a more detailed statement would be injudicious, but it is the writer's inten- tion to prepare for publication the material ob- tained as rapidly as possible. In conclusion he wishes to thank all those who have aided him in his travels, and those who have presented speci- mens to the Museum.
S. K. LOTHROP
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FINE-LINE DECORATION OF ANCIENT SOUTHWESTERN POTTERY
The recent acquisition of a large number of pre- historic pottery vessels from the region around St. Johns, Arizona, has brought to notice some exam- ples that are especially noteworthy by reason of the remarkable regularity and systematic treatment of the designs. Vast quantities of this well-known type of pottery have been recovered by the explora- tion of ruins in the Southwest, and while much has been written on the symbolism of the decoration, little has been published on the art of applying it. We have definite knowledge of the materials and implements used by present-day Pueblo potters, and as specimens practically identical with their product have been unearthed during archeological excavations, there is every reason to suppose that there has been no material variation in the process of manufacture from early times to the present. But the decoration of pottery vessels of today suf- fers from comparison with that of the ancients.
As the process of making the pottery has been described, it will not be necessary to mention now more than the fact that the series of motion pic- tures made at Zuiii in 1913 by the James B. Ford Expedition of the Museum includes the process of pottery manufacture from start to finish.
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The class of pottery under discussion is the an- cient black-and-white variety, that is to say, the vessels, after being shaped and allowed to dry, were coated with a white clay slip, doubtless applied with a piece of rabbit-fur as it is today, which when dry was smoothed with a polishing
Fig. 9. — Brushes made from yucca-leaf. That in the right hand is a narrow strip that has been used for fine-line work. The left hand is holding a new brush the full width of a leaf.
pebble and the design laid on with black paint, made by rubbing a soft mineral substance on a flat stone, making it fluid by mixing with water, and, by modern artists, at least, with the juice boiled from the bee-plant (Teritoma sernilattim), and prob- ably with other plant juices according to individual
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custom. The slab on which the paint is ground serves also as a palette.
The most interesting of all the implements is the brush, made from the fibrous narrow-leafed Spanish
Pjg io —Pitcher from Cedro mesa, Arizona. (Height, 7i in.)
bayonet (Yucca glauca). Sections of the leaf, about six or eight inches long, are used (fig. 9). While green, the fleshy matter is chewed from the fiber,
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exposing an inch or two which is the "hair" of the brush, the unchewed portion forming the handle. For very broad lines a strip about half an inch wide is selected; for finer lines the leaf strip is split lengthwise into sections according to the desired
Fig. II. — Jar fromZuni, New Mexico, showing the position of the artist's hand supported by the jar, and the way of holding the brush while applying the decoration. From a motion-picture made by the James B. Ford Expedition, 192.3.
width of line to be painted. Crude as this brush may appear to be, it is nevertheless well suited to the requirements of the work. The fiber is stiff and more or less unwieldy when dry, but when moistened with the paint it becomes sufficiently pliable to
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carry and lay the color where the artist wishes to apply it. A well-made striping brush such as used by carriage painters could hardly have done bet- ter work than that produced by the prehistoric artists with their simple brushes of yucca-leaf.
The pitcher shown in fig. lo bears the decoration on its convex exterior, where the painting was com- paratively easy, for there was no obstruction to free movement, while the vessel itself afforded a convenient and comfortable support for the hand.
Fig. II illustrates a vessel in the process of being decorated by a present-day Zuni potter, the hand and fingers being supported by the jar. The decora- tion in this case, however, is not an example of fine line-work such as is seen on so many ancient recep- tacles. Incidentally this illustration shows how readily any part of a motion-picture may be adapted to the purpose of reproduction.
The bowl illustrated in fig. ii is decorated on the concave inner surface, which presented an entirely different condition. The incurved wall of the bowl obstructed a free movement, for it had a tendency to tip the hand and to so flatten and broaden the brush as to produce an irregular line of varying width. The vessel illustrated shows how this tendency has been overcome by patience and untiring practice. A misplaced or badly drawn line would have spoiled the work, as it could not have
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been removed without destroying the white slip with which this class of pottery was coated before the black-line decoration was applied. The design represents a conventionalized bird, the chief feature
Fig. II. — Bowl from Mimbres valley. New Mexico. (Diameter, 113/2 in.; depth, 3^ in.)
of which is the manner in which the fine lines were applied to the body at three different angles, stepped toward the center.
Fig. 13 illustrates another specimen of painting on the inner surface of a bowl. The feature in this
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case is the band of parallel lines near the rim — one broad line and eight narrow ones. The bowl is slightly irregular in shape, which perhaps accounts for the slight blemish shown near the top of the
13. — Bowl from Mimbres valley, New Mexico. (Diameter, 12. in.; depth, 5^2 in.).
illustration at the left. The fine crossed lines in the circles on the bodies of the animal figures are also worthy of notice, and, considering the concavity of the decorated surface, the circles themselves are painted with a remarkable degree of symmetry.
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The designs painted by modern Indians are laid on in freehand syle, no systematic rule by measure- ment being followed as to design or spacing, the proposed pattern being noted only in the mind of the potter. Thus far nothing has been presented to suggest that the prehistoric artists employed a different method.
W. C. Orchard
ARIKARA HOUSEHOLD SHRINE TO MOTHER CORN
In July, 192.3, there was purchased from Mrs. Maud Gillette, widow of Marlowe Gillette, an Arikara of Fort Berthold reservation, North Dakota, an old shrine, or sacred bundle, pertaining to Mother Corn, which had long been an heirloom in the family of her husband. The covering (fig. 14, a) is a buffalo-skin bag, dark brown from the countless incensings it has had in the long period of its use. This object was not one which was used in public religious ceremonies, but was for private household veneration. The only objects contained in the bag are a perfect ear of red flour corn (^) and a braid (c) of sweetgrass (^S avast ana odor at a). Most commonly the representative of Mother Corn in the sacred bundles is an ear of white flour corn; sometimes, as in this case, an ear of dark-red flour
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Fig. 14. — Mother Corn shrine of the Ankara. (Length of bag, 17 in.)
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corn, and sometimes an ear of yellow flour corn. In all cases which have come under the observation of the writer, flour corn was the type, whether the color was white, yellow, or red. And the ear must be perfect, no grains wanting, and entirely filled out over the tip.
The function of paying veneration to Mother Corn by means of this shrine had no set time or season, but at any time the household felt like offering reverence to it, the shrine was taken down, a sacred fire was kindled, the shrine was opened, some of the braided sweetgrass was broken fine and offered to the powers and then sprinkled upon the fire. Prayers were offered, the ear of Mother Corn was brought out to view, and both the ear and the bag which enveloped the sacred relic were incensed by being passed through the smoke of the sweet- grass. Members of the household also incensed themselves with the sweetgrass smoke, and blessed themselves from the sacred relic, drawing their hands toward themselves over it and placing their hands from the relic to their heads and down over their bodies. Thus by prayers and honest intentions, and by participation in the purifying smoke to- gether, they sought to put themselves in accord with Mother Corn and to have her approval and blessing.
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Mother Corn is connected with all events in the life of the individual of the Arikara tribe from birth throughout the course of life, and at death. Mother Corn v^as at all times invoked; her aid, counsel, and support were sought at all times.
Melvin R. Gilmore
MONOLITHIC AXE FROM NICARAGUA
Some years ago the Museum published a paper by the writer on Monolithic Axes and their Distribu- tion in Ancient America.^ In this study eight axes of the monolithic type from the region of Mos- quitia, on the Atlantic coast of Honduras and Nicaragua, were described and illustrated. Two monolithic axes from Bluefields, Nicaragua, then re- cently acquired respectively by the United States National Museum and the Peabody Museum of Harvard University, are of special interest. The specimen in the Peabody Museum (fig. 15, ^), ii>2 inches in length, is characterized by longi- tudinal grooves on the handle, which is highly recurved at the point where the blade projects. The blade itself is of a form foreign to Central America, resembling certain axes from the Lesser Antilles and northern South America. The blade of
1 Contributions from the Museum of the American Indian, Hejie Foundation, vol. 11, no. 6, 1916.
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Fig. 15. — Monolithic axes from Nicaragua, a, Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation; length, iij^ inches.
b, Peabody Museum, Harvard University; length, 12. V^ inches.
c, U. S. National Museum.
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the axe in the National Museum (r) is of the same form, while the handle is plain and rounded.
When the publication above mentioned appeared, the monolithic axes in the Peabodv Museum and the National Museum were believed to be unique, as they were the only ones of this type then known to the writer. The Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation, however, has been fortunate enough to acquire an example of the same type of axe from near Bluefields lagoon (fig. 15, ^), by gift of Mr. D. E. narrower, who was in Mosquitia on an ethnological expedition for the Museum last summer. The locality in which it is said to have been found is on the mainland, near the Bluefields lagoon, in the vicinity of the town. It is of the same length as the Peabody Museum specimen, but its blade is somewhat longer, the specimen gener- ally is more highly finished, and an attempt at more elaborate decoration of the handle by series
of grooves was made.
Marshall H. Saville
REMARKABLE OTO NECKLACE
One of the strangest and most interesting speci- mens of its kind in the Museum, illustrating the bygone life of the Indians of the eastern border of the Plains, is a charm or "medicine" necklace from the Oto tribe of the Siouan stock.
[36]
INDIAN NOTES
This necklace (fig. i6) has as its foundation a military fourragere, or shoulder ornament, over part of which, near the metal pendants at the ends, its Indian owner had wrapped an ornament of porcupine-quills, dyed yellow and red, the rest of the fourragere being covered with a wrapping of coarse "pony trader" beads in alter- nate bands of white and blue, so that the foundation was completely covered until some of the quillwork was worn away. The most interesting feature of the necklace, how- ever, is the aggregation of charms attached to it, no doubu to impart supernatural power in order that its wearer might be protected from injury, and to give him courage, especially in battle.
Near one end is attached a grizzly-bear claw, once doubly perforated to form part of a p^^ ^^ — OldC necklace of otter-fur and bear- necklace (length, 17 i
[37]
/j
I
INDIAN NOTES
claws. A few inches above the bear-claw is fas- tened the dried hand of an Indian child, with thumb and fingers outspread. Near the other end is another grizzly-bear claw, bound at the base with otter-fur, and a small deer-skin packet containing two coral beans (Erythrina flabelliformis^, and a thimble containing a packet of scarlet powder, a medicine or charm of some kind. A few inches above these articles, and balancing the hand on the other side, is a portion of a human scalp.
Information as to the exact use of this necklace is lacking, but from its appearance it seems to be a war-charm taken from one of the manka shut%e, or "red medicine," war bundles of the Oto, as it closely resembles other examples, less adorned with charms, however, collected by Mr. M. R. Harrington and the writer among this tribe in Oklahoma.
Alanson Skinner
RECENTLY ACQUIRED MOHEGAN ARTICLES
Not long since there came into possession of the Museum a small but very unusual series of speci- mens from the historic Mohegan tribe of Connecti- cut, which had been preserved by an interesting chain of circumstances. The story goes that an old
[38]
INDIAN NOTES
Indian woman, living in ■ the vicinity of Mohegan, was taken ill, and a white neighbor, touched by her destitution, nursed and cared for her until she had recovered. Eager to show her gratitude, the old Indian woman told her benefactress that while she had no money with which to pay her for her attention, she had in her trunk some things that the old-time Indians val- ued, and that she might take any of them she fan- cied. To please the old woman the neighbor se- lected the four articles here figured, each of which in all probability is unique.
Among these objects perhaps the most interest- ing is the shoulder-pouch shown in fig. 17, which is not only made of Indian
[39]
^^Hf^^ftfir "it" '^"
?Y4
:^
I ^
.^.
m m-ti »• |MK » » «^ip«ri»
%P ^,J ■''.,-?. n%*'
Fig. 17. — Shoulder-pouch with quill decoration.
INDIAN NOTES
tanned deerskin, but is ornamented with figures in dyed porcupine-quills. The design is a simple vari- ant of the eastern double-curve motive, and resem- bles figures on Iroquois pouches of the same type. The colors are black, yellov^, red, and blue, some of v^hich may be of native origin. A narrow^ border of w^hite glass beads is found along the scalloped edges.
In fig. 1 8 is show^n a modern variety of the shoulder-pouch. This example is made of cloth, beautifully ornamented w^ith fine, old-style glass beads. Metallic jinglers, filled w^ith tufts of red yarn, line the upper and lov^er edges, and the ser- rated ends of the shoulder-strap are covered w^ith silk ribbon applique v^ork. The small linked diamond-shape design on the pouch is well made, and the three low^er tiers of figures bear little metallic sequins in their centers. The figures on the shoulder-strap are reminiscent of some Montagnais beadw^ork in the Museum. The form of the entire pouch is quite characteristic of the Eastern Indians, and resembles some Delaw^are and even Abnaki examples.
One of a pair of w^oman's leggings of red cloth is shown in fig. 19, opened and spread to show the design in bead and ribbon applique with which it is adorned. It is quite an elaborate article of dress, and resembles both the Iroquois and the north-
[40]
INDIAN NOTES
Fig. i8. — Shoulder-pouch ornamented with beads, metallic jinglers, and yarn.
[41]
INDIAN NOTES
eastern Algonkian style of decoration, with its greater tendency toward the latter. The cut of the legging, however, is more like that of the Algon-
FiG. 19. — Woman's legging with ribbon applique.
kians of the East than the Iroquois, who often trimmed the women's leggings so that they were narrower at the ankle, but expanded into flaps over the instep.
[4^]
INDIAN NOTES
Of a pair of men's woven beaded garters, on a yarn foun- dation, one is shown in fig. xo. The design is simple, and some- what heavy, in the latter respect being reminiscent of some an- tique examples seen by the writer from the Narragansett and several Central Algonkian tribes.
It may be observed that such examples of ornamented cloth- ing and the like as have sur- vived among the Mahican Indians of the Hudson river region of New York, now living in Wisconsin, who are rather closely related to the Mohegan of Connecticut, do not closely resemble these specimens. For example, of several pairs of men's garters, all are woven of yarn upon which are strung a few white beads in open dia- mond patterns. Women's leg- gings are of Iroquois cut, with the narrow ankle and flaps, and with Iroquois bead designs,
[43]
Fig. 10. — Woman's beaded garter.
INDIAN NOTES
while the moccasins are of the type with a long vamp over the toe, puckered all around, whereas the Mohegan moccasins in the Museum are of the style having a long seam over the instep to the toe.
Alanson Skinner
RAMA, MOSQUITO, AND SUMU, OF NICARAGUA
Two months of collecting ethnological specimens in eastern Nicaragua recently resulted in the accu- mulation of about five hundred objects. During this period three groups of Indians were visited: (i) the Rama of Bluefields lagoon; (x) the Mos- quito of the coast and larger rivers; (3) the Sumu far up in the interior. All of these have been in more or less close touch with civilization for more than a century, consequently they have lost much of their primitive character. Not only has the ease with which may be obtained the manufactured implements and products of the whites resulted in a marked diminution of native handicraft, but also 1 the conversion of the Indians to Christianity has been followed by an abandonment of the old relig- ious ceremonies and the colorful paraphernalia which accompanied them. Miner, rubber man,, mahogany man: each contributed his bit, and I finally came the Moravian missionaries, who pene-- trated to the uttermost palm-thatched villages.
[44]
INDIAN NOTES
Ten miles from Bluefields, the principal Atlantic port of Nicaragua, across the shallow waters of Bluefields lagoon, lies Rama key. On this small island lives a remnant of the Rama Indians, whose ancestors inhabited the mainland from the valley of the Escondido southward. These natives appear to be almost of pure blood, but the presence of two or three negroes on the island is indicative of what the future of the tribe will be. A trip to Rama key from Bluefields yielded the usual assort- ment of articles characteristic of a primitive tropical people subsisting chiefly by fishing. Spears, harpoons, bows, arrows, nets, and so on, are very much like those of the San Bias farther south. One large wooden turtle decoy was procured, but it was the only one observed. A curious little oblong basket, which could be filled with big tropical fireflies and thus utilized as a lantern, was one of the unique specimens collected. A few small four- legged wooden benches were still in use.
Along the coast the Mosquito Indians are so blended with the negroes that their original charac- ter has been greatly modified. The more remote villages up the main rivers, however, are not so unfavorable for collecting, since here may be found Indians living under conditions less dominated by white and negro influences. A trip was made up the Segovia, or Wanks, river to the neighborhood of
[45]
INDIAN NOTES
Waspuk, which was used as a base for excursions farther up the stream and its tributaries. One day by pitpan against the heavy current of the flood season brings one to Sang-Sang, and another day the traveler may camp at Asang. These two vil- lages, perched high up on the steep bank overhang- ing the river, served as the collecting ground for Mosquito specimens, and although these Indians had for years been in contact with white traders, many interesting objects were obtained.
A great number of spoons and wabul sticks, of varying designs and diverse woods, were collected. These were usually of mahogany, but often such woods as cedro, rosewood, and sapadillo were utilized. Wooden vessels were uncommon, but a few were discovered: one with four legs, after the manner of their benches. Heavy bows of black-palm and arrows with reed shaft and black-palm head, were common. Basketry seemed well developed, much more than among the Sumu and Rama. Bark, or so-called toonoo, blankets occurred generally, and these were often marked with designs done in paint or by means of vegetal juices. Specimens of native cloth were difficult to procure, but some were collected, among them being two belts, each about six inches wide and seventy inches long.
Peculiarly, native musical instruments did not appear to be in general use. There were plenty of'
[46]
INDIAN NOTES
harmonicas imported from Germany. Even rattles were difficult to find, and not a single drum was observed. Several flutes were procured, and a great number of long-koos. These latter are formed of a small bow of split bamboo with a thin string; the bow is held in the teeth and the string twanged by means of a pick of wood. One of these instruments of much greater size was collected, with a gourd for a sounding box and a string made of a heavy liana.
Although the original native ceremonies have disappeared, some of the people recall them, and are consequently able to make the peculiar head- dresses formerly worn on these occasions. By this means it was possible to secure several of these striking objects, as well as other things, such as toonoo masks and caps. The head-dresses served as masks also and are constructed of bark, wood, and dry grass which simulates hair. They were used by the principal mourners at funerals.
There are still a few recalcitrant old fellows who hold to the ancient beliefs and refuse to embrace Christianity. One of these, an aged sukia, was dying at Asang, but to the end adhered to the faith of his fathers. A stikia bundle was secured — cane, whistle, necklace, iron, magic stones — all black in color. It was said to be more than seventy years old.
Two Sumu villages were visited: Tuberus, far up
[47]
INDIAN NOTES
at the headwaters of the Wawa in Nicaragua; and Wanpoo, on the great Patuca river of Honduras, about one hundred and fifty miles inland. These Sumu, who differ radically in appearance from the Mosquito, show little difference in their general culture. They seem to be terribly degenerated, and disease is playing havoc with them. They are a listless people, and differ markedly from the rather aggressive Mosquito. In all their handicraft they are cruder and less skilful than their coastal rela- tives; only in the manufacture of clay vessels, pipes, and a few other things, do they show superiority.
David E. Harrower
MINUTE GOLD BEADS FROM LA TOLITA, ECUADOR
Included in the large collection of prehistoric aboriginal goldwork in the Museum are some beads from La Tolita, on the Island of Tola, near the mouth of the Rio Santiago, north of the Province of Esmeraldas, Ecuador. These beads are of special interest by reason of their highly artistic character and particularly on account of the minuteness of the particles of the precious metal used in fashioning them. Associated with the beads, when found, were quantities of prepared and shaped gold, to- gether with a few objects of the metal that suggest
[48]
INDIAN NOTES
use as tools which the ancient smiths may have em- ployed in the delicate task of bringing together the component parts. To the modern mind these ob- jects would seem to be altogether too crude for such delicate work, but as nothing else has been found to suggest such use, it is assumed that the ancient bead-makers, like the more recent Indians, were able to produce miniature works of art with what would seem impossible appliances.
The beads referred to are of a class made of tiny pellets, which were used either alone or were com- bined with a wire or a series of wires, all of gold. The pellets range in size from a sixty-fourth to an eighth of an inch in diameter. It is quite possible they may have been made in the manner that bird- shot was formerly manufactured, i. e., by pouring the molten metal through a screen and allowing it to fall from a greater or lesser height into water. Other forms of the prepared material are wires of varying gauges and strips or ribbons that appear to have been beaten rather than drawn to shape.
Fig. XI illustrates a bead formed entirely of pel- lets or globules, comiposed of six circular tiers of six globules each. Through the middle of the group there is an opening for the passage of a string. The illustration exhibits a photograph of the bead in its actual size, which is three-sixteenths of an inch, and an enlargement of a little more than nine
[49J
INDIAN NOTES
diameters. There are many beads made in the same fashion, and of smaller globules, as well as smaller in the aggregate, but a larger specimen was selected
Fig.
I
Fig. 2.1
Fig.
for convenience in illustrating. In this form of bead globules of uniform size were placed together in tiers, as shown, probably around a central core of non-fusible clay to hold them in place while being
[50]
INDIAN NOTES
brought into an inseparable group, which appar- ently was done by fusing. Many beads have been examined for the purpose of determining the method of uniting their parts, but in no instance ' has a trace of the use of ^^j^m^^. solder been found. On the
^j^H^HBSL other hand, a number of
flH^^^^B^^r J specimens show where the jBBpi^M parts have run together
until the globules have ^ almost lost their identity,
Fig. 14
owing quite prob- ably to the effect of too great heat. The spaces be- tween the com- ponent globules shown in fig. ii distinctly indicate where the gold has melted just enough to form a bridge between them, some of the joints showing greater fusion than others. It is evident that some kind of flux was employed to effect the desired union of the globules, but, like the tools used, this is still an unsolved problem. After fusion
[51]
Fig. z\
INDIAN NOTES
has been effected, the core, if of clay, could readily have been removed, leaving a perforation such as is found in all the beads thus made.
Fig. 2.x illustrates a cir- clet composed of tv^^elve globules fused to a hoop ,,,.,,,..,,..,,..^
of w^ire. This particular ^^^^H f
Fig. 2-6
Fig. 17
form may have been made for some purpose other than a bead. It is of interest, however, on account of the size and regularity with which the globules are placed around the ring.
[5^]
INDIAN NOTES
Figs. 2.3 and 14 were no doubt made for use as beads. As the illustrations show, the globules arc mounted between two rings of wire fused together. The latter figure shows an imperfect ring on the upper side; the ends are not cut square and are not brought together, but few cases of this kind occur.
Fig. X5 presents an intricate twisting of the wire around the globules between the rings above and below. Considering the actual size of this bead, it is difficult even to conjecture how its parts were held together, let alone being shaped, before fusing.
Fig. 2.6 illustrates a more complicated piece of work. There are twelve globules in this specimen, with a square wire interwoven. In the illustration only two of the rows of globules are shown, but the bead presents the same appearance on the other side. The passage for a string is lengthwise of the bead, and the square wire is looped at each end, making circular openings. As in all the specimens illustrated, the actual size of the bead is shown by the side of the enlargement.
Fig. 2.7 exhibits a tubular bead and is of special interest by reason of the fact that it is not made of the usual globules and wire, but is formed from a piece of sheet gold, with a pattern produced, evi- dently by hammering or pressure, representing a series of wires turning spirally around the tube and
[53]
INDIAN NOTES
encircling the openings at each end, while between the wires a number of pellets are represented. An overlapping joint runs lengthwise of the bead, where the pattern matches perfectly, showing remarkable skill in workmanship. This joint has the appearance of being fused rather than soldered.
^
mm^^
Fig. z8
Fig. x8 shows two beads in their actual size and a seven-fold enlargement. These beads are two of the largest in the strirg forming the necklace illus- trated in fig. xg. The larger of the two is composed of twelve globules enclosed between two rings of twisted square wire, and then two other rings of
[54]
INDIAN NOTES
round wire. The smaller bead, made in the same manner, is composed of only ten globules. The enlarged photograph shows the component parts of the beads in detail, as well as the way in which the globules have been fused. The necklace consists of one hundred and seventy-seven such beads, but many of them are much smaller than the two shown in fig. x8, and the greater number are made with only two enclosing rings. The ensemble makes a truly artistic necklace and illustrates the great amount of practically microscopi- cal work expended to satisfy the esthetic taste of the maker. It should be said that the
Fig. 19. — Gold necklace (slightly reduced).
[55]
INDIAN NOTES
beads forming the necklace are not on the original string, but have been assembled to illustrate how they may have been used.
Several other forms of gold beads found v^ith those herein described and illustrated, and also from other regions, w^ill receive attention in a forth- coming publication devoted to beads and bead- work.
W. C. Orchard
Fig. 30. — Frontenac island, Cayuga lake, New York.
PREHISTORIC ALGONKIAN BURIAL SITE IN CAYUGA COUNTY, NEW YORK
For many years Cayuga county, New York, has been a happy hunting-ground for commercial pot- hunters and local diggers. Indian village and burial sites throughout this section have been searched
[56]
INDIAN NOTES
and looted to such an extent that only in a few places that have been protected from vandalism can
^#
■ W
Fig. 31. — Plummet-shape stones. (Length of the longest, 53/^ inches.)
one any longer record accurate data on Indian remains.
[57]
INDIAN NOTES
Last summer, while on an archeological recon- noissance in central New York, in behalf of the Museum, an undisturbed Indian burial site on
Fig. 31. — Winged bannerstones. (Length of a, ^y^ inches, of b, 53/8 inches.)
Frontenac island in Cayuga lake, central New York, was reported to the writer, a site that has been protected for many years by public-spirited citizens living nearby.
[58]
INDIAN NOTES
Through the courtesy of Mr. E. Murray, a trustee of the village of Union Springs, to whom the island belongs, permission was granted to excavate the site, and work was commenced late in July. It was not possible to do more than to initiate excavation within the time available, yet even in the brief period devoted to exploration a sufficient number of unique objects were discovered to suggest the importance of the site from an archeological point of view.
Assisted by Mr. Edward Rich- ardson, of Auburn, who freely gave his kind services for several days, a preliminary examination was made of the island, which lies about half a mile from Union Springs and a quarter of a mile off-shore (fig. 30); it is about
2.00 feet square, and its south ^^^- 33— Deer's head
.J . ^ J .- ^ J. carved of bone. CM)
Side IS covered with an Indian
deposit averaging two feet to five feet in depth.
Test holes and one trench dug partly through this
deposit brought to light pottery, bone, and stone
objects, which, according to established criteria,^
are purely Algonkian in type.
1 See Skinner, The Pre-lroquoian Algonkian Indians of Central and Western New York, Indian Notes and Monographs, vol. 11, no. I, 1919.
[59]
INDIAN NOTES
Two undisturbed burials were found, of which the second was unusual and interesting. In this
Fig. 34. — Flaker of antler.
CO
li.Hl
mm
Fig. 35. — Bone arrov points. 00
grave, resting on bedrock 2.y inches beneath the surface, were the remains of an adult male Indian extended on the back with arms at sides and headed
[60]
INDIAN NOTES
southward. The skeleton was in very poor condi- tion, and the badly crushed skull lay eight inches to the right of the first cervical vertebra, owing probably to disturbance by tree roots or by the burrowing of rodents.
Under the crushed inferior maxillary, which remained approximately in position, were four plummet-shape stones, ranging from two and a half to five and an eighth inches in length (fig. 31); a large perforated winged bannerstone made of white limestone (fig. 31, b'); a small carved bone object seemingly designed to represent a deer's head (fig. 33); three large beaver incisors; a small notched flint arrowpoint; three antler flakers, all similar to the one shown in fig. 34; two bone arrow- points (fig. 35), and the left humerus of a swan, the lower end of which had been severed evidently with a stone knife (fig. 36). This bone is more or less polished and one projecting process is perfor- ated, perhaps for suspension. In the right hand of the skeleton, resting on the phalanges, was a small bone spoon (fig. 37), three inches from which, lying on the bedrock, were three small beaver teeth, an imperfect barbed bone harpoon-point (fig. 38), and an antler flaker. Under the left hand was a small perforated winged bannerstone (fig. 3^, a). Touching the right fibula lay the crushed skull of another adult person, face downward, but
[61]
INDIAN NOTES
U\
Fig. 36. — Humerus Fig. 37. — Bone Fig. 38. — Bone har- of a swan. spoon. (^) poon point. GO
[6^1
INDIAN NOTES
no other bones belonging to this individual were traceable.
The most interesting accompaniments of this burial are the problematical objects — the plummet- shape stones and banners tones. As all four of the former lay side by side with their grooved ends together, it seems possible that, although it is not know^n that the Indians of New^ York practised the custom of hunting birds with bolas, these objects may possibly have been used for such purpose, in much the same manner as the western Eskimo still use perforated stones of similar form. The banner- stones, so far as our knowledge extends, are the first to be found in place with a burial at any site in the Middle Atlantic states or in southern On- tario.
In New York state, according to Mr. Arthur C. Parker,^ there seem to have been four stages of Algonkian occupancy, ranging from the archaic to the historic period. A comparative study of the objects recovered from the second grave on Fronte- nac island assigns this burial to the borderline of the second and third stages of occupancy. Explora- tion to be conducted later by the Museum will, it is hoped, shed further light on this interesting Algonkian site.
D. A. Cadzow
2 Archeological History of New York, Bull. 25/, 2^6, New York State Museum, pt. i, Albany, 192.0, p. 48.
[63]
INDIAN NOTES ARIKARA UNITS OF MEASURE
While conducting ethnologic studies among the Ankara in 1913, inquiry was made of some of the most intelligent older women in regard to their standards of measure of various kinds. The infor- mation was brought out that for such commodities as shelled corn, beans, sunflower seed, split and dried tipsin roots QPsoralea esculenta), dried choke- cherries, dried Juneberries, etc., the unit was the content of the standard size common work-basket or carrying-basket, called sdttva. The measure of content of the standard sativa was called Hunansddu, In reckoning quantities of such comm.odities as those named above they were measured in Hunan- sddu and fractions of the Jiunansddu; larger quanti- ties in multiples of the hunansddu.
Of dried meat the unit of measure was the pack. A meat pack was the content of a parfleche packing case of the standard size of tw^o cubits in length, one cubit in width, and one cubit deep. Five packs of dried meat made one horse-load. The length of the standard packing case was determined by the distance from shoulder to hip on a horse. In loading a horse two packs were hung at each side and one more was placed on the back, making five to the load.
Of measures of length it seems there were the span, the finger- joint, the handbreadth, the cubit,
[64]
INDIAN NOTES
the leg, the arm-reach, the double arm-reach, the ear-corn string, and the pace. The span was the measure from the tip of the extended thumb to the tip of the middle finger. The finger-joint was the measure of the first finger-joint bent over in addi- tion to the span, as in measuring for a moccasin; or for some other purposes there might be required an addition of two finger-joints, or of all three, added to the span. Thus the span was first measured off, and in addition successively, the first, second, and third joints of the middle finger bent over to the knuckle. The handbreadth was the measure from the knuckle of the index finger to the knuckle of the little finger. The leg was the measure from the heel to the bend of the knee along the outer side of the kg. The arm-reach was measured from the middle of the chest, the middle of the sternum bone along the extended arm to the tip of the middle finger. The double arm-reach was the distance from the tip of one middle finger to the tip of the other middle finger along the extended arms and across the chest. The double arm-reach was the standard length of a string of dried squash.
The ear-corn string was the distance from the waist down to the foot and under the sole and back to the waist. This was the standard of measure of ear-corn braided in strings. The measure was
[65]
INDIAN NOTES
determined at the time of husking by the husker as she sat at the corn-pile. She turned back the husks from the corn, but did not detach them from the ear. The ears were braided together in a string by the attached husks. When the husker supposed she had made a string of about the proper length, she took the two ends of the corn-string in her hands, and, sitting at her work, she put her foot against the back of the braided string at the middle and stretched out the string of ears. When it was found to be just the length to stretch under the sole of the foot and back again to the waist, it was finished. This also served to test and make the braid firm. And it was found by experience that this measure was the most convenient length of string and weight of corn which a woman could handle in hanging the strings upon the drying rack or in carrying to or from final storage.
Melvin R. Gilmore
TREE-DWELLER BUNDLE OF THE WAHPETON DAKOTA
A NUMBER of years ago it was the good fortune of the writer to procure for the Museum, through his long-time friend and associate. Rev. Amos Oneroad, a small sacred bundle which had been the property of Mr. Oneroad's grandmother, the
[66]
INDIAN NOTES
late Hannah Grayshawl, a Wahpeton woman born about a century ago near Lac qui Parle, Minnesota, who died recently near Sisseton, South Dakota.
The sacred bundle (fig. 39), which was made in 182.0, represents a mysterious elf called Can Hoti- dan, or **Tree-dweller," and his abode in a hollow stump. With it were included some striped quill- feather shafts used as invitation sticks for feasts given in its honor, and a small packet of medicines.
Early in November of this year the writer ob- tained for the Museum through Mr. Oneroad a number of Wahpeton specimens, including medi- cine-bags of loon, otter, mink, and fisher skin, some of them beautifully adorned with dyed porcupine-quills, and another excellent example of the Tree-dweller bundle. These sacred articles formerly belonged to Huhazizi, or Yellow Legs, a prominent member of the Medicine Dance Society among the Wahpeton, who was born on Minnesota river about i8i6 and died at Sisseton, South Dakota, in 1906. They were last used on the west- ern shore of Lake Traverse, South Dakota, in July, 1894, in a memorial ceremony in honor of the deceased son of Yellow Legs.
A third but incomplete Wahpeton Tree-dweller bundle, obtained from the well-known trader. Palm, is also in the Museum, and a fourth, the only other of which the writer has any knowledge out-
[67]
INDIAN NOTES
Fig. 39.— The "Tree-dweller" (height, 6^ inches) and his hollow-tree abode (height, 11 inches).
[68]
INDIAN NOTES
side of those which may still be in possession of the Indians, is in the Field Museum of Chicago. If the writer's memory is not at fault, the last bundle came from the Wahpeton remnant at Devils lake. North Dakota; at any rate, the type is a well- defined one.
The specimen obtained from Mrs. Hannah Gray- shav/1 is interesting in that the box-like "hollow tree" (fig. 39, ^), in which the image of the elf (^) is contained, bears on its surface several symbolic carvings and paintings. Above, in red, is a conven- tional figure of the thunderbird, inverted, which recent information says symbolizes the Medicine Lodge Society; beneath is shown the incised and painted head of a buffalo bull, symbolic of courage; and under that, a coiled serpent, incised and colored with yellow ocher. These undoubtedly have reference to various supernatural powers granted the owner by his dream guardians. The "hollow tree" was made from a cottonwood trunk, felled by two young men who had never yet spoken to a woman.
The design on the second "stump" belonging to Yellow Legs (fig. 40) shows again the inverted thunderbird figure, while beneath is incised the patron of the Medicine Dance Society, the Unktehi, or horned underworld panther, a mythical monster, colored in red and blue. It was undoubtedly an
[69]
INDIAN NOTES
enormous painted figure of this supposititious; creature that adorned the rocky bluffs of the Mis- • sissippi at the present Alton, Illinois, in colonial days, and was the subject of various comments by early explorers, who knew it by a corruption of its Algonkian name (Cree, piyesiit'), calling it the "Piasa".
These Tree-dweller bundles are the visible credentials of power given to their owners in visions by an elf who dwells in a hollow stump, open at the top, and who maintains himself by his
40
-The inverted thunderbird and the horned under- world panther.
magic arts. For example, his power extends up- ward into the sky for an indefinite distance, in the form of an enchanted cylindrical shaft, the size of the opening in which he dwells. When wild-fowl fly over, if they cross this charmed shaft, they are stricken dead, and fall down into the Tree- dweller's den, a prey to the goblin. Even thun- derbirds fear and avoid the Tree-dweller's home. At times the being suddenly confronts some lonely hunter in the forest and fires at him a volley
[70]
INDIAN NOTES
of questions in a confusing way. If the hunter for- gets himself for an instant, and answers any ques- tion in the affirmative, the first person of his immediate family whom he meets on the way back to his lodge must shortly die, because, no matter how innocent the question of the Tree-dweller sounded, it is a distorted request for the life of the first relative met in the manner mentioned.
The Tree-dweller, however, is able to grant mysterious power to mortals, and he is, or rather was, the patron of a certain group of members of the Medicine Dance Society, all of whom used his image and a model of his forest home, instead of, or perhaps in addition to, the animal-skin medicine- bags of other members. "'^ The owners of these images are able to make them dance magically dur- ing the rites of the society, and are renowned as hunters, for the Tree-dweller is a notable dispenser of luck to followers of the chase. Owners of these bundles were able also to prophesy, and, as the owner of the first example described it, once fore- told a successful foray against the Chippewa, say- ing that the warrior who bore this bundle should count the first coup. An eagle-feather was awarded the image contained in the bundle.
1 See Skinner, Medicine Ceremony of the Menomini, Iowa, and Wahpeton Dakota, Indian Notes and Monographs, vol. iv, p. 2.96, note 48, pi. XXV.
[71]
INDIAN NOTES
The nearest parallel to the Tree-dweller bundle of the Wahpeton is found among the Mascoutens, or Potawatomi of the Prairie, in the "Man-of-the- woods," "Wild-man," or "Woods-elf" bundle, which seems to be held principally by members of the Man and Warrior clans or gentes. This bundle lacks the wooden box made in imitation of the tree-stump, but it contains a human figure, or some- times several figures. It is a most potent hunting and good-luck charm, but does not seem to be con- nected directly with the Medicine Ceremony. Similar images are found among the Sauk and the Kickapoo, but information respecting their use and history is lacking. Excellent examples were ob- tained by Mr. M. R. Harrington among both the Sauk and the Fox,^ and the Museum possesses a fine specimen found by the writer among the Meno- mini. The latter tribe, in common with the Sauk, call these wooden images "Solid" or "Rigid" men, in allusion to the material of which they are made. I do not happen to know the Sauk myth of origin, and found the Menomini lacking one, unlike the Potawatomi of the Prairie. On the other hand, the Menomini often speak in a guarded man- ner of several forest sprites similar to the Prairie
2 M. R. Harrington, Sacred Bundles of the Sac and Fox, Anthro- pological Publications of the University of Pennsylvania^ vol. iv, no. 1, pp. 2.2.7-39, Phila., 192.4.
INDIAN NOTES
Potawatomi Wild-man, Man-of-the-woods, or Woods-elf. These are the Sacred-bundle-carrier, the Night-man, or Walker-by-night, and the Wild- man. Some or all of these may be the patrons of the users of these bundles. Solid-men images are like- wise found among some bands of the Ojibwa, at least, and I have seen unexplained images of this type from the Winnebago. They are found in the shape of female "Health Guardian" dolls among the Delawares and the Shawnee. They may bear some relationship to the Misingkiv, or Solid Face Being, the Lenape guardian of game, impersonated by a man wearing a wooden mask at certain cere- monies.^ This would again link them with the stone heads, masks, and maskettes found as far east as the coast of New York and Connecticut. Bone and antler dolls, said to have been used in witchcraft, also formerly occurred among the Seneca Iroquois.
The Tree-dweller image of the Wahpeton Da- kota seems, therefore, to form the westernmost extension of a type of magic images that occurs from tidewater New York westward, and which are found most usually among Algonkian tribes, among some one of which it possibly had its origin.
Alanson Skinner
3 M. R. Harrington, Religion and Ceremonies of the Lenape, Indian Notes and Monographs, Misc. no. 19, pp. 32.-43.
[73]
INDIAN NOTES
PUEBLO SITE NEAR ST. THOMAS, NEVADA
On the east side of Muddy river, between St. Thomas and Overton, both in Clark county, Nevada, may be seen the ruins of scattered Pueblo habitations, stretching along for a distance of five or six miles. Many of the ruins lie in the valley, more or less buried in sand-dunes and mesquite thickets, but there are also a considerable number on the eroded ridges to the eastw^ard, rising be- tween the lowlands and Mormon mesa.
Walls were made mostly of adobe bricks, or rather lumps, about the shape and size of ordinary loaves of bread, sometimes showing imprints of grass and tules; these were laid up with adobe mortar, and sometimes interspersed with slabs of stone. They were plastered with adobe. Floors were usually of adobe, but sometimes were paved with flat sandstone fragments. Slabs were sometimes set on edge around the wall inside the room.
Owing to the use of adobe which is disintegrated by exposure, the walls are in bad condition, and are preserved only to a height of more than a few inches when protected by fallen masonry or by wind-blown sand. Still, the rooms can be often plainly traced, for the floors are usually well pre- served. On the ridges it is plain that a great deal of erosion has taken place since the site was occu-
[74]
INDIAN NOTES
pied, for large parts of buildings have been under- mined and have fallen into the canons.
The houses are rectangular, as a rule, and con- sist of one, two, three, and sometimes more rooms. One small circular kiva, eight feet in diameter, has been excavated on one of the ridges, provided w^ith a small, circular, bow^l-shape fireplace, situated just to the w^est of the center. Its floor is of adobe, and its walls of stone and adobe. The floor was about two and one-half feet below the present sur- face. During the excavation more than a bushel of pottery fragments were found, and it is probable that there are restorable vessels in the lot. On the floor lay a number of charred fragments of poles and sticks, possibly the remains of the roof. Among these were carbonized bits of fiber cordage.
About loo feet to the west, on the same ridge, are the remains of a long building containing a number of rooms, of which, at the present writing, two have been completely and two partially un- covered. One yielded a nearly complete pottery vessel and a number of fragments, possibly restor- able; the vessel contained pieces of copper ore, probably gathered to use as green paint, and by its side lay a spoon, or scoop, made from a piece of a broken painted vessel. Another room yielded broken pottery, an arrowhead, and a small oval bone object decorated with zigzag incised lines.
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INDIAN NOTES
Taking the pottery of the settlement as a whole, we find plain dark ware predominating; next in abundance comes the corrugated, in several differ- ent styles; then black-on-white painted ware, mostly bowls; then black-on-red bowls and vases. A few black-on-yellow sherds of bowls have been found. The patterns on the painted ware are often quite complex, and show considerable taste and skill.
It is noticeable that the corrugated ware is more abundant about the lowland houses, especially near the northern end of the site; it appears but rarely about the upland houses, where painted ware is relatively more abundant. A broken pottery dipper was found near one of the upland ruins.
There is one lowland house-site, however, which has yielded all the pueblo types of pottery above mentioned except the black-on-yellow, and, in addition, the coarse black ware of the Southern Paiute, plus European crockery. All these, how- ever, were picked up on the surface, and merely indicate that the same ground was lived upon by successive peoples up to modern times.
A few arrowpoints of different forms and materi- als, some manos and metates more or less broken, and a few hammerstones, complete the list of arti- facts thus far obtained.
M. R. Harrington
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INDIAN NOTES
RECENT ACCESSIONS BY GIFT
FroP2 Mrs. The a Heye:
Two small beaded bags; hair wrapper, beaded decoration.
Oglala Sioux. Child's legging, beaded decoration. Southern Cheyenne. Woman's legging, beaded decoration. Santee Sioux. Woven bead collar. Pima, Arizona.
Gold figure representing a man with a throwing-stick and spears in his hand; small gold staff with bird on end. Sogamoso, Colombia. Flat w^hite stone pendant, incised designs on both sides.
Zufii, New^ Mexico. Large jar, red ware, incised decoration. Presented by Dr. Luis M. Torres of the La Plata Museum, La Plata, Argen- tine, to Mrs. Heye, who presented it to this Museum. From M.rs. George H. Pepper:
Silver ring with turquois setting. Navaho, New Mexico. This ring was collected in 1896 and worn by George H. Pepper until his death in May, 1914. From M/'jj- Foulke:
Mountain-goat horn spoon. Haida.
Small birch-bark box decorated with moose-hair. Huron. Small basket and cover. Makah, Washington. Frojn Mr. A. Scott Boxall:
Two photographs. Fro7n Mrs. H. W. Crocket:
"Nenquen", by Felix San Martin. Fro7n Alberto Perpettw:
Puzzle game. Copy of Halembeck, Pedro F., Os "Inhays", e OS seus thesouros, Rio de Janeiro. From Mr. Arthur Nowakoti'ski:
Photograph and pamphlet. From Mr. L. Kodolfo C. de Alhiiquerq^ue:
Map: Alto Purus, by Aug. Hilliges. Fro7n Mr. Kaymundo Lopes (the author^: A Civilisacao Lacustre do Brasil. Fro7n Dr. Antonio Carlos Si7noens da Silva: Stone axe. Bahia, Brazil. Nine pamphlets.
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INDIAN NOTES
From Mr. Jesse Knight:
The Captivity of Hans Stade of Hesse. Fro??2 M.r. heolinda de Figueiredo Daltro (the author^:
"Da Catechese dos Indios no Brasil." Fro7n Mr. Feliciano Brandao:
Stone pendant. State of Para, Brazil. From Mr. John H. Taylor:
Fifty-five photographs. Fro?n Mr. H. B. Olson:
Eighteen photographs. From Mr. W. H. Richardson:
Descriptive poem, "Cateechee of Keeowee." Frof}2 Mr. R. L. Beausire:
Revista de Arqueologia, Lima, Peru. vol. i, parts i and i; vol. II, part I.
Four colored postcards of designs of Peruvian specimens. From Dr. Isaiah Boiapzan:
Article by Carl Skottsberg. From Miss Helen Raley:
Pan American Magazine for July. Fro??2 Dr. Samuel K. Frost:
Potsherd; alligator jaw; eight human bones. Captiva island, Florida. From Mr. Luis Landini:
Bow; two arrows; mortar jar; bead ring; bead headband. Pilaga Indians, Argentine.
Fifteen photographs of Pilaga Indians.
Fourteen photographs of Toba Indians.
Four copies of "Los Excitos del Cine." From Mrs. Harry Bennett:
Twelve arrowpoints. Western Pennsylvania. From Mr. Thomas McGovern and Mr. Jose-ph Dunn:
Three potsherds. Leland avenue, Clasons point. New York City. Fro7?2 Mrs. F. A. Wester velt:
Two strawberry baskets. Delaware.
Basket. Delaware.
Letter on Texas Indians, 1853. Fro??2 Lieut. Ja?nes H. Moffitt:
Thirty-nine arrowpoints from various places in Rhode Island, and two arrowpoints from Nantucket island, Massachusetts.
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INDIAN NOTES
From M-iss Wa-wa-chaiv:
Dress for woman; pair of leggings. Tulare, Tule River reser- vation, California. Pair of moccasins; scalp ornament; belt; drum; two eagle- feathers. Sioux. Ironi l>Ar. Joseph Keppler:
Burden frame with burden strap attached. Brought from Buffalo Creek reservation to Cattaraugus reservation, New York. Seneca. From Mr. Carl Schondorf:
Seven arrowpoints. Passaic valley. New Jersey. From Mr. John Perkins:
Jar with two loop handles and punctate decoration. Ohio River valley, Ohio. From Mrs. Richard Good heart.'
Globular jar with two necks. Chiriqui, Panama. From Mr. Robert Mid ford:
Two pottery water jars; silver idol or pendant. Peru. Quirt; needle case; two pipes, bought in Texas; set of metal
ornaments; stone war-club with long handle. Sioux. Broken pestle, stone; two axes; celt; sinker; pitted hammer- stone; smoother; six arrowpoints. Budd's Lake, New Jersey. Small straw hat; two small burden carriers; toy basket; nut rattle; toy paddle; gourd bowl; gourd drinking cup; bone flute; spindle and w^horl; two small cassava presses; large cassava press; toy tray for making cassava; two trays for making cassava; net burden carrier; two storage baskets; drum; neck chain of seeds; neck chain of shells; neck chain of cut peccary-teeth and beetle-wings; wooden club; rubber whip; six bows; two blowguns; twenty-seven long arrows; seven short arrows; toy paddle, single blade; toy paddle, double blade; two paddles, double blades; four paddles, single blades. British Guiana. Whip of lace-wood; trunk. Argentine. From Miss Grace Nicholson:
Very long elkhorn spoon. Karok, California. From Mr. Fdward Terhtme:
Basket. Delaware, Ulster county, N. Y. Frotn Mr. E. E. Pease:
Chipped stone knife-blade. Mapleton, Cayuga county, N. Y.
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INDIAN NOTES
From Mrs. Paddingtoti, in mefnory of Leddra Wood Watkins:
Trade clay pipe; two clay pipestem fragments; five pottery pipestem fragments; bone comb; bone awl; ten fragments of red stone showing cutting; two fragments of perforated stone ornam.ent; two square red stone beads; five triangular red stone pendants; three triangular red stone beads with incurving sides; annular red stone ornament; triangular red stone bead; triangular slate pendant; five gun-flints; arrowpoint; bead made from concretion; small flat notched stone, probably fishline sinker; stone ball; three lead bul- lets; metal button; copper fish-hook; metal buckle; medal; brass ring; silver button; three copper danglers; two cylindrical copper beads; three copper arrowpoints; two fragments of cut sheet-copper; many varieties of glass trade beads; triangular shell beads; Olivella shell bead; circular shell bead; w^ampum beads. Scipioville, Cayuga county, New York.
Fro7?2 Mr. John Messenger:
149 chipped stone specimens found in one cache. Peconic, Long Island, New York. (See page 87.)
From Mr. James Nicholson:
Ten arrowpoints. Huppaugh, Long Island, New York.
From Mr. J. E. Standley:
Dentalium shell beads; thin shell disc beads; thick shell disc beads; cylindrical white glass beads; triangular haliotis shell pendant. Nez Perce reservation, Lapwai, Idaho.
From Dr. William L. Pjle:
Point of barbed spear-head. Grenadier island, Thousand islands, Jeff"erson county, N. Y.
From Mrs. James Perry Duce:
Jar, red ware, cream, black and red painted decoration; jar with two loop handles representing human figures, cream ware, red painted decoration; two pottery vessels. Boquita, Panama.
From Mr. D. E. Har rower:
Monolithic axe. Mainland near Bluefields lagoon, Nicara- gua. (See page 34.)
From Mr. P. J. Decker:
Large mortar; small mortar; two pestles; stone ball; stone ice pick; collection of arrowpoints. From Lovelock, Nevada.
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INDIAN NOTES
From Mr. Owen Cattdl:
Two pieces of fabric; toy balsa; toy paddle; toy bow; toy arrow; twelve pottery vessels; wooden spoon; wooden box; w^ooden top; fragment of comb; two tapering sticks; four corn-cobs. Arica, Chile. Comb. La Paz, Bolivia. From Mr. John T. Reid:
Six photographs. From Mr. G. B. Hilly er:
Fiddle; head-dress; doll; basket; two beaded awl cases; pair of child's beaded moccasins; hair watch chain; hair reata; two beaded pouches; saddle-bag. Chiricahua x\pache, Fort Apache, Arizona. Nine photographs of Arizona views. From Mrs. Fmma Dow:
Seven examples in arithmetic made in pictographs by Louis Firetail and other Sioux boys at the Hope School, Spring- field, South Dakota, in 1890. (See page 84.) From Mr. Howard P. Bullis:
Twenty hammerstones; twenty-three arrowpoints; three chipped implement blanks; fifteen potsherds; three net- sinkers; fragment of celt; limonite paint-cup; hematite rubbing stone; grooved hammer. Canarsie, Kings county, N. Y. From Miss Helen B. Bennett:
Potsherd; fragment of decorated reed; piece of basketry. Salts Bluff rockshelter, Benton county, Arkansas.
[81]
INDIAN NOTES NOTES
Mr. M. R. Harrington spent the summer in conducting excavations in dry caves near Lovelock, Nevada, which revealed many interesting prehis- toric objects. It was expected that a deposit of ordinary depth would be found in the caves, but instead it was found to be fourteen feet in depth, built up in layers by successive generations of occu- pancy. For about six feet deep the caves had been excavated for bat guano, but under this the Indians had deposited, for a depth of eight feet, evidences which were successively covered with grass and tules, so that the guano digging ceased. The arti- cles recovered indicate that the caves were occupied by primitive Indians who were attracted thereto by reason of the proximity of Humboldt lake.
Their chief subsistence was gained from wild plants, rabbits and other small mammals, fish, and ducks, and as digging-sticks were recovered, it may be assumed that agriculture was practised. Basketry, textiles, feather head-dresses, implements of wood, bone, and stone, well made cordage, fish-hooks, fish-nets, entire desiccated fish, rabbit-snares, and decoy ducks made on a tule foundation, are among the objects received by the Museum as a result of Mr. Harrington's excavations. The dead were swathed and wrapped with deerskin, with blankets
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INDIAN NOTES
woven of muskrat-skins, and with fish-nets, and were covered with bowl-shape baskets made of coiled willows and elaborately decorated. An adult mummy and the mummy of a child were recovered. Later Mr. Harrington was a member of a party organized by Governor Scrugham to examine the desert country of southern Nevada, where, in a valley in the Moapa district, the surprising dis- covery of the remains of a series of pueblos extend- ing in a practically unbroken line for five or six miles in length was made — the westernmost group of pueblo ruins known. These remains were largely covered with sand. Here and there a corner of a stone dwelling jutted out of the drift, or a rectan- gular house could be seen, while everywhere there were numberless fragments of pottery, some of which bear the characteristic painted decoration in black on gray or in black on red. In the Valley of Fire, in a nearby part of the district, Mr. Har- rington observed pictographs and corrugated pot- tery, but no painted ware. A brief report on the progress of his excavations at this interesting site, dated December i, is published in this issue.
Through the generosity of Mr. Harmon W. Hendricks the Director has been enabled to procure an archeological collection from Belen valley in the Catamarca province of northwestern Argen- tine, consisting of pottery with incised and painted
[83]
INDIAN NOTES
decoration, and objects of stone, among the latter being a carved ceremonial celt. By the same means a large collection of pottery and wooden utensils from the Province of Jujuy, in the extreme northern part of the same republic, bordering on Bolivia, w^as obtained. Among the latter, the v^ooden paint- mixers used for ceremonial purposes are especially notev^orthy. Mr. Hendricks has presented to the Museum also a collection of ancient textiles from Bolivia and Peru, and about 1500 feet of motion- picture film taken last April by Mr. Louis Landini, of Buenos Aires, to illustrate the life and customs of the Toba, and especially of the Pilaga, Indians of northern Argentine. Furthermore, Mr. Hen- dricks has given to the Museum a valuable collec- tion of about six hundred ethnological objects from the Misiones Indians of the department w^hich bears their name in northeastern Argentine, adjoining the Brazilian border. By means of these welcome gifts the South American collections of the Museum have been augmented to a marked degree.
Mrs. Emma Dow has added to the Museum col- lections several interesting Indian picture-writings in the form of examples in arithmetic, made by two Sioux boys, Louis Firetail and Thomas Firecloud, while pupils at Hope School, Springfield, South Dakota, in 1890. Evidently finding it difficult to set down their examples by means of numbers
[84]
INDIAN NOTES
alone, the boys visualized the objects to be added or subtracted by making pictures of them. Thus, in an example in addition, one of the boys drew five pigs in a pen and five more in the act of escap- ing, w^hich made it easy for him to give the total, represented in figures beneath. In an example in subtraction w^e find a drav^ing of seven carts to represent the minuend, and beneath them three others on end for the subtrahend, w^hen the differ- ence w^as as readily determined as in the case of the example in addition.
The most recent publications of the Museum are:
Medical Observations on the Zufii Indians, by Dr. Henry Craig Fleming, w^hich forms Vol. VII, no. 2., of Contributions from the NLusetim, and one of the papers of the Hendricks-Hodge Expedition to Haw^ikuh.
Declination of the Pars Basilaris in Normal and in Artificially Deformed Skulls, by Dr. Bruno Oetteking, w^hich has appeared as Indian Notes and Monographs , Miscellaneous no. xy.
Guide to the Museum — Third Floor, being no. 38 oi Indian Notes and Monographs. This publication, which completes the three floor guides of the Museum, describes the collections pertaining to Middle America, the West Indies, and South America.
The Gold Treasure of Sigsig, Ecuador, by Mar- shall H. Saville, issued as no. 3 of the Leaflets.
[85]
INDIAN NOTES
In the last issue of Indian Notes it was announced that Mr. William Wildschut had finished collect- ing ethnological material among the Crows and had proceeded to the Blackfeet on a similar quest. Most notable among the numerous utilitarian and ceremonial objects obtained from the Northern Blackfeet of Alberta are a Bear Knife bundle, one of the last in the tribe, a description of which, with an account of its ceremonial use, has been published hj Dr. Wissler in his Ceremonial Bundles of the Black- foot Indians (^Anthropological Papers of the American Museum of Natural History, vol. vii, pt. x, 191Z).
Plans have been perfected for the publication of Dr. S. K. Lothrop's monograph on The Ceramics of Costa Rica and Nicaragua in the series of Con- tributions from the Museum, but owing to its extent and to the unusually large number of illustrations (many of which will be in color), as well as to the author's absence in South America, it is not likely that the work will be ready for distribution until next summer.
At a meeting of the Section of Anthropology and Psychology of the New York Academy of Sciences in conjunction with the American Ethno- logical Society at the American Museum of Natural History on October 2.7, Prof. Marshall H. Saville presented a report jointly with Prof. Franz Boas on the International Congress of Americanists held at The Hague and at Goteborg last August.
[86]
INDIAN NOTES
A REMARKABLE cachc of Icaf-shapc blades has been given to the Museum by Mr. John Messenger, who found it on his farm at Peconic, Long Island. The deposit consists of 107 blades, all finely chipped, and ranging from an inch and a quarter to seven and a quarter inches in length, besides 41 chips of the rav^ material and a perfect notched arrow^point.
A COMPREHENSIVE collcction of objccts illustrat- ing the ethnology of the Paviotso Indians of Nevada, collected by Mr. M. R. Harrington on the conclusion of his excavation of the dry caves to which reference is made elsewhere in this issue, has been received by the Museum.
Mrs. Thea Heye has generously made provision for an archeological expedition to the Argentine in conjunction with the Museo de la Plata. Ancient mounds in the vicinity of the Rio Parana, in the State of Entre Rios, will be excavated, with Dr. S. K. Lothrop in charge.
An exceptional elkhorn spoon, fifteen inches in length, from the Karok Indians of Klamath river, northwestern California, has been received by the Museum as a gift from Miss Grace Nicholson, of Pasadena, California.
Dr. Frank G. Speck has gathered for the Museum among the Nascapi of Labrador a large
[87]
INDIAN NOTES
collection, consisting in the main of decorated caribou-skin clothing, embroidered bags, and bone implements.
An unusually fine, large, oval Pomo basket, received by the Museum as a gift from Mr. Hen- dricks, vs^ill be the subject of an illustrated note to appear in the next issue of Indian Notes.
A LARGE w^ooden mortar w^ith a handle, and the accompanying w^ooden pestle of L-shape, from the Quinnipiac Indians formerly of Connecticut, have been added to the Museum collections.
An excellent large basket of the Quichua of Peru has been presented to the Museum by Mr. Archer M. Huntington.
Prof. Ing. Arthur Posnansky, F. R. A. I., of La Paz, president of the Geographical Society of Bolivia and director of the Bolivian National Mu- seum, w^as a visitor to the Museum in November.
Prof. Marshall H. Saville sailed for South America on December 4, to attend the sessions of the Pan American Scientific Congress in Lima as one of the delegates appointed to represent the Govern- ment of the United States.
[88]
The Museum of the American Indian, He ye Foundation, has issued several series of publica- tions, a price-list of which will be sent on application.
INDIAN NOTES
VOLUME TWO NUMBER TWO
APRIL
19x5
PUBLISHED QUARTERLY BY THE
MUSEUM OF THE AMERICAN INDIAN, HEYE FOUNDATION
BROADWAY AT I55TH STREET, NEW YORK
CONTENTS
Page Ankara Basketry. Melvin R. Gilmore . . 85 The Arawana, or Fish Dance, of the Caraja Indians of Matto Grosso, Brazil. Francis
Gow-Smith 96
Eccentric Chipped Objects from British Hon- duras. George G. Heye 99
An Unusual Porno Basket. W. C. Orchard . lox Archeological Specimens from St. Croix,
Virgin Islands. Alanson Skinner .... 109 Andrew Jackson's Indian Pipes. George G.
Heye 116
The Crow Skull Medicine Bundle. William
Wildschut 119
Objects from St. Lawrence Island. Donald A.
Cadzow 112.
Archeological Researches in Nevada . . . 115 Some Seneca Tobacco Customs. Alanson
Skinner 12.7
Recent Accessions by Gift 130
Notes 134
INDIAN NOTES
Published Quarterly by the Museum of the x\merican Indian,
Heye Foundation, Broadway at 155th Street, New York.
Subscription price. One Dollar a Year. Application for entry
as second-class matter is pending.
Vol. II
APRIL, 19Z5
No. X
ARIKARA BASKETRY
ASKETs obtained from the Arikara tribe in 192.3 were made especially for the Museum by an old woman commonly known as "Snow," a nickname which came to her from the whites when she was a young woman employed at the Congregational Mission. Her proper tribal name is Stesta-kata, which means ' 'yellow-corn. ' ' It may be said that many Arikara personal names are derived from corn, as this agri- cultural product has been for ages so vitally con- cerned in all the economic life of the tribe. ^
The first step in the process of basket-making is to get a supply of bark of the large species of wil- low, the black willow QSalix nigra Marsh). The inner bark is the part which is used, after being
^ In the Arikara terms appearing in this paper, h (Roman in Italic .words) is guttural; Jf = sh; c = ch.
[89J
INDIAN NOTES
freed from the rough outer bark. The bast of this willow turns a dull reddish-brown after exposure to the air for a short time. It is the willow bark thus untreated which is used in making the com- mon work-baskets. In making baskets for beauty,
Fig. 41. — Arikara burden-basket. (Width at opening, 16^ inches)
as well as utility, decorative designs were produced by the use of colored strips of black willow bark and of uncolored boxelder (^Acer negtindo) bark. Two colors in the willow bark may be obtained: a dull reddish-brown which the fresh-peeled bark
[90]
INDIAN NOTES
takes by exposure to the air, and black which is induced by burying the strips of bark in black mud for forty-eight hours. By the use of willow bark alone and untreated they have brown baskets; by the use of untreated willow bark and boxelder bark, designs in white and brown are obtained; by
Fig. 42. — Arikara burden-basket. (Width at opening, 18 inches)
the use of boxelder bark and mud-treated willow bark they obtain designs in white and black. Stesta-kata uses the black mud of an alkali spring near her house, flowing out from a bed of lignite; but she said that the ordinary black mud of river- bottoms serves as well.
[91]
INDIAN NOTES
Before burying the bark in the mud the basket- maker cuts it into narrow strips ready for plaiting. These strips resemble rawhide thongs. The strips of bark must be kept damp and pliable until they are plaited into baskets.
The common work-baskets of the older women were made of willow bark in the plain, dull, red- dish-brown color which it took simply by exposure to the air, but small fancy baskets for containing trinkets and small articles of the household were made in ornamental patterns of the white bark of boxelder and the black-dyed willow bark, as also were the baskets used by girls and young women, which is a natural human trait.
For the purpose of dyeing the willow bark, Stesta-kata first cut it into strips of uniform width. She then wound these strips into loose skeins which she took down to the spring and with her hands dug out a bed for them in the soft, black mud, thoroughly mixing the mud and the skeins, and then leaving them imbedded in the mud for forty- eight hours.
In beginning the making of the common work- basket, Stesta-kata chose a willow sapling of the proper size for the rim. This, before peeling, she gently and gradually bent by holding in her hands and pushing against it with her moccasined foot until it was made pliable throughout its length.
[91]
INDIAN NOTES
Then she peeled it and hacked off part of the thick- ness at the butt to equalize the thickness of the entire length. Next she measured the length it was to be by grasping the sapling near each end while she caused it to curve within her extended arms and against her breast. Holding it thus she made it of this length and two handbreadths over. That is the standard diameter of a work-basket at its brim. She marked the length thus found on the sapling and cut it off. The measure of two handbreadths over was to make allowance for the joining of the ends of the sapling for the basket rim. The two ends were laid overlapping and then wound with wet sinew. The sinew shrinks in drying and makes a firm joint. Having so joined the ends together, she tossed the rim hoop into the sun to dry.
Then she chose saplings for the "corner posts" of the basket. Four saplings were required for this purpose. Two were bent in a curve, thus \ / ,
and two bent in angles, thus ^ / . The open tops of these bent saplings were attached to the rim before-mentioned, making a frame on which the strips of bark were plaited. The angled sap- lings were placed within and at right-angles to the direction of the curved saplings. The bark plait- ing at the bottom of the basket is protected from
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touching the ground by the downward curve of two of the saplings, which is entirely outside the plaiting, while the horizontal middle part between the angles made in the other two saplings forms the base of the framework on which the plaiting is done.
The basket-maker measured the "corner posts" by placing her two moccasined feet close together on the sticks which are to be bent at an angle. The ends of the stick were now bent upward along the legs until they touched the knees. Where they touched the knees determined the place where the sticks were to be cut off, and this height measured the depth of the standard size of the w^ork-basket. In the way herein described the top and bottom diameters and the depth of the standard basket were determined. The measure of the cubic con- tent of such a basket was a hunansddu and was a standard measure of quantity for certain commodi- ties in commerce.^
The Arikara generic term for basket is sddu; the name of the large basket is sdtwa, while the small, fancy basket is called sacirihas\
The sdtwa is usually made from black-willow bark alone, without dyeing; therefore it is of a dull reddish-brown color. The saciribas' is made from white strips of boxelder bark plaited with strips
1 See Indian Notes, vol. ii, no. i, p. 64.
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of black-willow bark which have been dyed black in the mud treatment.
Stesta-kata says there are seven patterns of plait- ing produced by combining colored and uncolored bark. These, together with the plain black dyed willow bark, and the plain reddish-brown undyed willow, make nine styles of basket. Perhaps we might add to these a style of plain white boxelder bark also.
The Arikara generic term for willow is citabatc. Black willow is citab-nanuh, 'many-branched wil- low' (citabatc, 'willow'; nanuh, 'many-branched'). Chab-nanuh is the species used for basket-making. Diamond willow (JSalix cordata) is called citab-kusu^ 'big willow' (^citabatc, willow; kusti, big); though why it is so called, when the black willow is much larger, is not clear. The sand-bar willow, ritually prescribed for use in making the fish-trap, is called citabpahatu (Jitabatc, willow; pahat7i, red). They call it "red willow" because of the reddish bark, which, during winter, when the leaves are shed, gives a decided red aspect to the areas of sandbars and banks thickly covered by the growth of this species. The Arikara name of the boxelder is uhdku.
Melvin R. Gilmore
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THE ARAWANA, OR FISH DANCE, OF THE
CARAJA INDIANS OF MATTO
GROSSO, BRAZIL
Of ALL the dances of the Caraja, the Arawana is the most important. It takes its name from a fish found in the tributaries of the Amazon, particu- larly the River Araguaya. This fish, the arawana or iraco, is thought by the natives to be semi-human and is much venerated.
The dance, a cross between a turkey-step and a foxtrot, accompanied by w^eird songs, is performed by two Indian men representing the male and the female fish. Both are dressed alike, except that there is hidden in the headgear of the male repre- sentative a cluster of threaded nuts from the palm tree, which rattle as the dancers move.
The dress consists of long slender palm-leaves hanging from the waist to the knees like a skirt. A similar kilt arrangement of leaves covers the body from neck to waist. The head-dress is made from palm-leaves closely braided together in the form of a hood, with coarse grass hanging loose at the bottom, obscuring the face. The upper part tapers almost to a point about two feet above the liead and is overlaid with beautiful feather mosaics patterned to suggest the arawana. Two * 'horns'* made of grass top the headdress. (Fig. 43.)
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These costumes are made and kept guard- ed in a wigwam at some distance from the village, and at the conclusion of the festivities are destroy- ed. Covering the entire body as it does, the masquerade com- pletely conceals the identity of the dancer, who must not under any circumstances re- veal his identity to the women onlookers .
Women and chil- dren are merely spec- tators and are never permitted to view the dress except when it encases the form of the dancer. The wo- men of the tribe apparently cherish a profound respect for
Fig. 43. — A persona tor in the Fish Dance.
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this ritual and never seek to penetrate its mysteries. At any rate they seemed to keep at a distance from the sacred wigwam where the men ate and drank in tribute to the sacred fish.
Should a woman, however, so far forget her posi- tion as to enter this mysterious hut or should avail herself of an opportunity to look at this mystery dress, she may be punished by death. Executive clemency is granted by the chief, at the request of the women of the tribe, providing she will promise silence and expiate her crime by some appointed work. If she should refuse, she will be ordered to appear at a designated spot in the woods, at a cer- tain height of the sun, where she will find assem- bled a group of warriors. Failing to comply with their desires, she may be killed and the body thrown into the river. Should she flee to the sacred wigwam, however, this being sanctuary, she goes free at the termination of the festivities to resume her place in society.
Wishing to preserve the costumes as a memento of my visit among them, I asked the chief if I might take them with me. Reluctantly he con- sented, and ordered his men under cover of darkness to take them in a canoe down the river and await my coming. It was by this means that the cos- tumes ultimately came in possession of the Mu- seum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation.
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In answer to the query of why the Arawana dance was veiled in such secrecy, the chief replied that women are not allowed to know everything, as they talk too much. These Indians believe that the authority and superiority of man must be main- tained, and that these festivals impress the woman with her inferiority.
Francis Gow-Smith
ECCENTRIC CHIPPED OBJECTS FROM BRITISH HONDURAS
The archeological collections in the Museum from British Honduras have been enriched by a gift from Mr. Harmon W. Hendricks of two of the eccentrically chipped flints that are found in the Maya area of that colony. There were already in the Museum collections several flints of this kind, but they are much smaller and they do not exhibit such fine workmanship as the newly-acquired ones. One of these objects (fig. 44), seven and one-half inches in extreme diameter, is of horse-shoe shape with projections chipped around its outer edge, and closely resembles one found in the neighborhood of San Antonio on the Rio Hondo, at the boundary of Mexico and British Honduras, described and illus- trated by Dr. Gann,^ who reviews the subject of
^ T. W. F. Gann, The Maya Indians of Southern Yucatan and Northern British Honduras, Bull. 64, Bur. Amer. EthnoL, p. 103, fig. 64.
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these eccentric chipped objects from British Hon- duras, and concludes as follows:
"In reviewing the evidence it would appear that these eccentrically shaped objects were not em-
FiG. 44. — Chipped flint from British Honduras. (Maximum diameter,
7^ inches)
ployed either as implements or as weapons, most of them being utterly unsuited in both size and shape for such purposes; moreover, none of them
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show any signs of wear or use. Neither were they used as ornaments, as many of them are too large and heavy, while the more roughly chipped specimens would be quite unadapted for such a purpose. Judging by the fact that five at least of the eleven separate finds were associated with human burials, it seems probable that these were purely cere- monial in use; that they were most frequently, if not in- variably, buried with the dead, either on top of the sepulchral mound, in close association with the corpse, or by the side of a memorial stela; and that they were manufactured and used solely for this purpose."
The other specimen illus- trated (fig. 45) is serpentine in form and is an excellent
Fig. 45. — Chipped flint of serpentine form. (Length, 14| inches)
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example of fine chipping. Its length is fourteen and three-eighths inches. Both of the specimens are of cream-colored flint and were originally in the Rosehill collection of the late Earl of Northesk, which was dispersed by auction in London in July, 1914. Unfortunately the exact locality whence the objects came was not recorded.
George G. Heye
AN UNUSUAL POMO BASKET
Owing doubtless to the sedentary character of the Indians of California and to the fact that in many parts of the state suitable materials are readily and abundantly available, the art of basket- making reached a remarkably high state of perfec- tion among a number of the tribes, especially the Pomo, who occupy the greater part of Sonoma, Mendocino, and Lake counties. Baskets were a most important item in the lives of the Indians, who employed them for gathering, preparing, and serving food — not alone dry food, but liquid foods as well, for when thus required the weave was so close as to make the basket impervious. Baskets were used also for a variety of storage purposes, as containers of every description, for hats and other clothing, and indeed for every possible purpose or occasion to which such receptacles could be put.
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Basket cradles are well known, and especially well made and highly decorated baskets were an im- portant adjunct to mortuary customs; therefore it may truthfully be said that baskets were turned to some use or other from the cradle to the grave.
A wide variety of basket weaves was perfected, especially among the Pomo, whose most elaborate baskets are of the coiled weave, consisting of a coil- ing or wrapping of one or more slender willow stems, known as the foundation, with some kind of split root, the most common being that of the sedge (Carex barhara). As the willows are thus wrapped they are bent to fit the curve of the basket under construction. The weaving is built up spirally, the wrapping on the upper spiral looping through coils of wrapping immediately beneath, thus locking the whole together in a tight weave, as described in Prof. O. T. Mason's book on Abor- iginal American Basketry.
The materials above mentioned are white, or nearly so. Designs are introduced by the use of a dark, or perhaps black, material, and further orna- mentation is accomplished by the addition of beads, feathers, and sometimes pendants of haliotis shell. The beads in common use were discoidal in form and made of shell, but glass beads also were em- ployed. Sometimes the beads were threaded on the coiling as the manufacture of the basket pro-
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gressed, and occasionally were fastened to the sur- face by a thread after completion. This addition to the decoration usually emphasized the design which had been wrought, as is shown in our illus- tration (fig. 46), although in this case some of the beads are missing. It will be seen that the beads are fastened to the design in black, and that only the upper part of the basket is so treated.
Colored feathers from a wide variety of birds are also used in the ornamentation of basketry, the most prominent of which are the plumes of the California quail, perhaps because they are so woven into the basket that they stand erect. This par- ticular form of decoration, however, is not very practical when a basket is made for continual use, as the standing plumes are easily broken or bent out of position.
Feathers from the bodies of the bluebird, duck, lark, oriole, redwing blackbird, flicker, and the red crest of the woodpecker, are so interwoven that they lay flat as in nature, and sometimes so thickly that they entirely conceal the weave of the basket. This form of decoration, however, is employed only when the basket is to be used at some important function, as a gift, for the storage : of ceremonial objects, or in connection with mortu- ■ ary rites.
A very remarkable example of Pomo coiled bas- •
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ketry, by reason of its size, its elaborate decoration, and fine weave, has recently been added to the Mu- seum's collection by the gift of Mr. Harmon \V. Hendricks. This basket was made for the storage of sacred objects used on ceremonial occasions, such as costume and ornaments; it is elliptical in shape, measures three feet seven inches long by nearly two feet wide and about eleven inches deep, and being of such great size, it represents a vast amount of labor on the part of its maker. The patterns woven in this receptacle, as shown in the illustra- tions, are embellished with feathers and discoidal shell beads. That the basket has been subjected to long use is evidenced by the worn and broken feathers.
In his monograph on their basketry Dr. Barrett^ describes the designs used by the Pomo. Accord- ing to some informants the triangular patterns represent "sharp points" or "arrowpoints," while others interpret them as "butterflies" or "spotted," according to the spacing. When superimposed, as most of them are on the basket under discussion, the triangles are said by some to represent "turtle- back" or "turtle-neck;" others have called them the "pine tree" design. The rectangles joined at their diagonally opposite corners are usually called
^ S. A. Barrett, Pomo Indian Basketry, University of California Pub. Amer. ArclMol. and EtJmol. vol. 7, no. 3, 1908.
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"deer-back," although some informants have named them * 'potato-forehead." To quote Dr. Barrett:
"Exactly what is meant by potato-forehead is not certain, for the Indians themselves differ in their explanations of the term. Some say it refers to a protuberance on the upper surface of a corm and of some bulbs also, v^^hile others maintain that it refers to a protuberance on the bottom, instead of on the top. By potato is meant v^hat is called Indian potatoes, the bulbs, tubers, and corms of the many species of bulbous and tuberous rooted plants w^hich grow in the Pomo country."
The U-shape lines at the two ends of the basket (fig. 47) are curved because they necessarily fol- lowed the coiling weave of the basket. The intent was to represent straight lines, which are symbols of the "striped water snake."
The two groups of six V-shape figures are said to be a modified representation of the "sunfish rib," which in this form occurs neither frequently nor prominently. A more realistic form of this design has occurred where the V's are placed one within
the other ^^^^^^^^^^o^ii^o^ - I^ will be observed
that the "sunfish rib" is on the bottom of the bas- ket, in a decidedly inconspicuous place when the basket was in use. Just visible at each end of the
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basket is a kind of hollow rectangular figure which, if projected on a flat surface, would be a diamond- shape design sometimes spoken of as "acorn head" or "acorn cup."
W. C. Orchard
ARCHEOLOGICAL SPECIMENS FROM ST. CROIX, VIRGIN ISLANDS
From Mrs. H. C. Hark, an enthusiastic amateur archeologist long resident on the island of St. Croix, Virgin Islands, the Museum has recently procured a small but unusually interesting collec- tion of specimens, obtained for the greater part from kitchenmiddens on her estate or in its vicin- ity. It is a matter of good fortune that this collec- tion is rich in ceremonial articles of shell and stone which were not hitherto well represented in the Museum. For example, there are seven three- pointed objects, or zemis, whereas only one exam- ple of this class from St. Croix was already on exhibition.
These zemis, all of which are small, the largest not exceeding three and three-eighths inches in length, are figured in fig. 48. Three examples C^a-c') are carved of shell, while one (g) is ground out of coral.
Although all the zemis in the collection are of
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i
c
MT
<
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the typical mammiform class, and undoubtedly per- tain to the Taino-Arawak culture, as defined by Mr. M. R. Harrington in his monograph, "Cuba Before Columbus," published by the Museum, not all the stone implements found on St. Croix can be safely classified as belonging to this group. Of the stone celts, however, nearly all are the usual Taino highly polished petaloid variety. They are pro- portionately very numerous in the Hark collection, and it is interesting to note that fully fifty percent of them are badly broken. Others have been degraded for use as hammerstones. One notched axe, different from all the rest, resembles the cruder examples from St. Vincent in our collections, and may v^^ell be of Carib origin. As for the shell celts and gouges, some of which are represented, it is possible that they may be attributable to the Ciboney.
Clearly Tainoan are the stone and shell objects illustrated in fig. 49. In a is shown a greenstone artifact which seems to be the hook from a throw- ing-stick, or atlatl, used to propel darts or javelins, the butt or proximal end of the weapon being arrested and held by the notch of the object, which is set in the end of the atlatl in such manner as to project and catch the dart.
The circular spool-shape ornament (^) is prob- ably an ear-plug, or button for insertion in the lobe.
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It is made of a translucent substance resembling alabaster. The other objects are a disc-shape shell bead with incised decoration and a central perfora- tion (^), a long narrow bit of shell which may be a piece of inlay, with short transverse lines scratched upon it (0, and a small incised shell pendant (0- In the collection there are numerous shell beads of
O
Fig. 49. — Stone and shell objects from St. Croix. (Diameter of ^, Hinch; length of c, 3 inches)
the disc variety, some bearing incised ornament, like that shown in the figure; some are made of olive shells, some perforated through the long axes, and others with notches for suspension rubbed into the broader end of the shell.
The collection includes several hundred frag- ments of pottery and a few restorable vessels, with
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one entire jar of simple form. Most of the vessels are plain, the shape of the utensils themselves pro- ducing the esthetic effect. Some examples are of a fine yellowish w^are w^ith very thin sides, but most of them are made of coarse red clay, not infre- quently covered w^ith a bright crimson slip. A few of these colored vessels are further adorned with
Fig. 50. — Potsherd from St. Croix, showing painted decoration. 5f inches)
(Length,
geometric designs in white or yellowish paint, as shown in the sherd displayed in fig. 50. Still others bear incised decoration, but these are rare.
In fig. 51 is shown a coarse platter of red ware, the conventionalized head of a tortoise projecting from one end and the tail from the other. It meas- ures eight and one-half inches in length.
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A somewhat larger and much better made tray- like bowl with raised ends and covered with a crimson slip is shown in fig. 51. One handle repre- sents a frog's head in crude bas-relief. This vessel is ten and three-quarters inches in length.
Fig. 51. — Platter ornamented with a tortoise head (restored). (Length, 8^ inches)
Fig. 52. — Tray-shape pottery vessel. (Length, ICf inches)
Another interesting and seemingly unique speci- men is the small stand of earthenware shown in fig. 53. The stand appears to have originally been furnished with three legs, one of which is now
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missing. In its present condition it measures five inches across its longest remaining diameter.
Potsherds and vessels of the types here figured and described seem to belong to the w^are made by the Carib; but the Taino, of Araw^ak stock, are also
Fig. 53. — Earthenware stand. (Maximum diameter, 5 inches.)
represented in the Hark collection by a number of vessel handles in the form of grotesque heads and faces of the familiar types found in Cuba, Porto Rico, Santo Domingo, and Haiti.
Alanson Skinner
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ANDREW JACKSON'S INDIAN PIPES
The Museum has purchased, from Mr. W. C. Wyman, four interesting pipes, the history of which, as furnished by Mr. Wyman, is as follows:
Early in 1911 there was an exhibition of the per- sonal effects of President Andrew Jackson in the Southwest Museum at Los Angeles, California, which were lent by Andrew Jackson, 4th, then liv- ing in that city. The objects, described as having come from "The Hermitage," the home of Presi- dent Jackson near Nashville, included plate, china, furniture, documents, etc., as well as the four pipes herein illustrated, and it is said that many of the effects had been in use in the White House at Wash- ington during Jackson's presidency, 182.9-1837. Mr. Wyman purchased the pipes from the Mr. Jackson above mentioned, grandson of the adopted son of the President. President Jackson had earlier been a judge at Jonesboro, Tennessee, adjacent to which are many prehistoric village-sites that have yielded some remarkable specimens, hence it is quite possible that some of his neighbors, as a mark of their esteem, presented the pipes to him.
Fig. 54 shows a pipe of black slate with the bowl carved in a characteristic way to represent a human head. On the stem facing the bowl is a seated human figure with arms clasped across its knees, but unfortunately the head of the figure is missing.
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The length of this pipe is eight and one-quarter inches.
Fig. 54.— Pipe of black slate from Tennessee. (Length, 8^ inches)
Fig. 55. — Pipe of dark-green steatite from Tennessee. (Length, 8^ inches^
The finest pipe of the four (fig. 55), of highly polished, dark-green steatite, eight and one-half
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inches long, represents a bird, probably an owl, the head carved on the upturned end. The eyes are large circles in which originally there may possibly have been inlays. The ears are typically owl-like, as is also the beak.
Fig. 56. — (Length, 3 inches) Fig. 57. — (Length, 4^ inches)
Pipes of greenish-blaclv steatite from Tennessee.
The other two pipes (figs. 56, 57), of greenish- black steatite, are of the L-shape type. The first of these, three inches in length, is finely polished and rounded; the other, four and one-eighth inches long, is more massive, and is also well finished, although not so highly polished as the other.
George G. Heye
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INDIAN NOTES THE CROW SKULL MEDICINE BUNDLE
One of the most sacred objects obtained during my recent studies among the Crow Indians is the skull medicine bundle (fig. 58). From time immem- orial the Crows, like most Plains Indians, deposi- ted their dead in the branches of trees, on scaffolds, or in rockshelters. A relative would visit the dead in such a place and pray to the spirit of the de- parted. Time and the elements gradually disinte- grated the wrappings with which the body was enshrouded, thus exposing the bones. When this happened a near relative would sometimes take the skull home, wrap it carefully, and preserve it, thereby partially fulfilling the vow of the departed.
It also happened that the possessor of such a skull would receive in his or her dream a vision as to the time the skull would appear and resume the living form of the deceased. In this dream the spirit informed the possessor of a certain ceremony attending the opening of the bundle. In this case the skull became a medicine bundle, and could be used to inform the owner of many things. The use of a bundle depended on the instructions received in the dream.
A relative might also take possession of a skull, hoping that it would give him or her a desired vision and thus become this individual's medicine.
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c
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This was done especially if, while living, the de- parted had ghosts or spirits as his medicine. With the same purpose in view, the skull of a great medicine-man might be preserved.
One of the best-known skull medicine bundles was that containing the skull of Braided-Tail, one of the most famous medicine-men in the history of the Crow tribe. As this skull was handed down for five or six generations, Braided-Tail's death must have occurred at least one hundred and fifty years ago. This worthy's skull was used in the tribe for various purposes, and it became a true oracle to its successive possessors. In time of war, after due consultation attended by the necessary ceremony consisting of songs and the burning of incense, the skull would "inform" the possessor of the proximity of an enemy; it would tell which part of the country would be safe from unexpected attack; when a battle was unavoidable the bundle would give information as to the number of men destined to be killed, and the exact situation of the battleground; in time of famine it would inform the possessor of the whereabouts of game; a sick person could consult the skull and be told by it whether he or she was going to die or whether the patient should make the necessary expenditure for the consultation of a doctor; and it was consulted also for the recovery of lost or stolen property.
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Indeed the information given through consultation with the skull was never known to fail; thus in time it came to be known as one of the most sacred and most potent bundles among the Crows.
William Wildschut
OBJECTS FROM ST. LAWRENCE ISLAND
On the north shore of St. Lawrence island, in Bering sea, are the sites of two abandoned Eskimo villages called bv the natives Kokuluk (Kukuliak) and Sevonga. According to tradition the inhabi- tants were destroyed by pestilence, for which rea- son the sites of the settlements have been tabu to the Eskimo.
Mr. A. E. Thompson, who lived two years on St. Lawrence island, has explored these village- sites and two others, one at Southeast cape and one on Ponuk island, and the collection which he gathered has been acquired by the Museum. Also collected by Mr. Thompson are a few fine ethnolo- gical pieces from the Eskimo who still live at the town of Gambell, on the northwest coast of St. Lawrence island, which supplement the Liebes and Bernard gatherings previously mentioned in Indian Notes, and give the Museum an unusually good representation of the material culture of the Eiwhuelit division of Yuit Eskimo.
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Among the objects especially worthy of mention are two wooden bows and several wooden bowls, in a perfect state of preservation, from Kokuluk; and of almost equal interest is a wooden box, taken from the frozen ground at the deserted village, con- taining toys made of walrus ivory, representing a kayak, a sledge, various birds, mammals, and
Fig. 59 Fig. 60 Fig. 61
Ivory carvings from St. Lawrence Island, (f)
human figures. The Yuit, to whom Mr. Thomp- son showed the box and its contents, all said that it probably belonged to a small child who had died and whose parents had buried them as a sacrifice.
The ivory carvings from Kokuluk are examples of the highest art of this kind in the western Arctic. In fig. 59 is represented a mother holding a crying
INDIAN NOTES
babe, and in fig. 60 is shown a fisherman bringing home his catch. Fig. 61 illustrates a carving not so finely executed as the others, but it is perhaps the most interesting, as it represents a Yuit with seal- skin armor folded about his body. In their battles in an- cient times the Yuit warriors would open that part of the armor which fitted over the head and shoulders, discharge their arrows at the enemy, and rewrap themselves in the skin. The images of two wrestlers carved in ivory (fig. 6x) are explained as follows in Mr. Thompson's notes:
Fig. 62. — Ivory carving representing wrestlers, (f)
"Many years ago the Si- berians came to St. Lawrence island and made war on the natives, taking the women captives and plundering their houses. In order to keep up their strength so as to meet the foe, the men wrestled, raced, and carried heavy rocks. Today the Siberians still come to St. Law- rence, not to make war on the natives, however, but to meet them in friendly field sports. Prepara- tions are made for these events, early in the spring, when the sun begins to get warm. The men
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wrestle, and run to find out which ones have the greatest skill and endurance to meet the best men of their one-time enemy."
D. A. Cadzow
ARCHEOLOGICAL RESEARCHES IN NEVADA
In addition to the pre-Pueblo ruins near St. Thomas, Nevada, concerning which a brief report appeared in the last issue oi Indian Notes, Mr. M. R. Harrington has discovered various other sites of early aboriginal occupancy on both sides of Muddy river, one of which, three miles north of Overton, seems to be even more ancient than that of Pueblo Grande de Nevada, to which Mr. Harrington has devoted chief attention from the beginning. Both the pottery and the buildings at this older site are more archaic in appearance, many of the dwellings being mere dugouts in the hillside, floored and plastered with adobe. By reason of the numerous burials here, Mr. Harrington has designated this "Burial Hill." Another site north of Overton is especially notable by reason of a practically solid block of buildings, traced by the foundations, covering an area approximating loo by 300 feet. Mr. Harrington has received reports also of small pueblo ruins scattered along the Virgin river from Mesquite to its junction with the Colorado.
Of great interest is Salt Cave and Salt Mine on
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the Virgin, seven or eight miles south of Pueblo Grande, where is found an enormous deposit of rocksalt in which are sundry caves as well as traces of ancient salt-mining operations, including the old pits and numerous stone hammers. One of the caves, in the face of a bluff of solid salt, contains a considerable deposit of ancient dry camp refuse, and there is also a cavern with a large chamber, reached by a tortuous tunnel, that contains a heavy deposit of salty dust mixed with bat guano. This deposit has yielded to test-holes various fiber cords, pieces of torches, fragments of wooden ham- mer handles, and the like, thus giving promise of important results. Numerous circles and ovals pecked in the solid salt embellish the walls of the cavern.
Tests in a dry cavern known as Gypsum Cave, about twenty miles from Las Vegas and fifty miles from Pueblo Grande, have revealed firesticks, spear- shafts, and strings, of early prehistoric origin, all well preserved. It seems quite possible that this cave was one of the sources of supply of gypsum in the form of selenite so generally used by the Pueblos of New Mexico for windows before the introduc- tion of glass, as well as for fashioning into various ornaments.
A dry cave has been reported near Moapa, about thirty-five miles from Pueblo Grande, and there are
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a number of small dry caves near Indian Springs, about forty miles west of Las Vegas. Tests here show that many of these caves contain well-pre- served remains of ancient basketry and other arti- facts. Other dry caves and rockshelters are said to be found in this region.
Again, in the Forty-mile Canyon district, thirty to forty miles east of Beatty, some prospectors sent out by Governor Scrugham report ruined buildings, rockshelters showing ancient occupancy, and abun- dant corrugated pottery in the vicinity of extinct springs about thirty miles from living water. This region is an uninhabited desert, accessible only by means of a pack-train. If these remains prove to be Pueblo, or pre-Pueblo, the westerly limit of the Pueblo culture will extend across Nevada nearly to the California border.
SOME SENECA TOBACCO CUSTOMS
While among the Seneca Iroquois of the Al- legany reservation. New York, during and di- rectly after the annual midwinter festival early in February, the writer endeavored to obtain seeds of aboriginal products, such as corn, beans, squashes, gourds, and sunflowers, and also of the native tobacco, Nkotiana rustic a ^ for the proposed garden of aboriginal vegetal products to be es-
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tablished on the Museum property near Pelham Bay Park. Although last year was a bad one for Indian crops, he was quite successful in bringing back sample seeds, and as he was favored with considerable information, especially about to- bacco, which he believes has not before been published, some of the data are presented here.
It could not be learned from any of the Seneca who were questioned that this tribe ever culti- vated tobacco, as do the Algonkian tribes of the Middle West; instead it was claimed that the seeds were merely cast out in the dooryard to survive or perish, as the case might be.
The plant was allowed to grow, if it so happened, until the leaves were twice as large as the space enclosed between the outstretched and joined thumbs and forefingers, and then, in order to insure its virtue, it was plucked only when a thunderstorm was approaching; otherwise the tobacco was thought to be of inferior quality and not nearly so acceptable to the Powers. Im- properly gathered tobacco, when cast on the fire, burns immediately, and the smoke incense rises straight to the sky, whereas, when picked at the approach of a thunderstorm the tobacco writhes and wriggles when cast upon the coals, as though it were alive, and the smoke swirls upward with its message. [ix8]
INDIAN NOTES
Once cut, the leaves are hung in the shade to dry. The tobacco is considered an indispensable adjunct to all rites and ceremonies, and is valued much more highly than the commercial product, a teaspoonful being prized as highly as a "store" plug. It v^as much used for bets in gambling during the ceremonial games w^ith bowl and dice in the Long House, and in the homes of the "pagans" during the midwinter ceremonies. A few pinches or a teaspoonful carefully wrapped in oblong paper packets and tied with string are each considered equivalent in value to ten-cent wagers by the officers employed in 'matching up" the bets.
Tobacco is commonly sacrificed by casting it upon the fire and praying as the incense ascends; it is also smoked in pipes passed to the members of the Little Waters Medicine Society, or Niga Nigaa, as an act of prayer, and in tiny packages it is attached to falsefaces to pacify them and obtain their goodwill.
Tobacco is used also in practising sorcery. A member of the Falseface Society, by burning tobacco and pronouncing the proper incantation, is believed to be able to cause a person's mouth to draw up like the mouths of some of the more distorted types of Seneca masks. Some people are said to cause lightning to strike when and [119]
INDIAN NOTES
where they will by throwing tobacco on the flames and requesting Heno, the Thunder Being, to dart his bolts where they desire. A story is told of a Seneca who, having no faith in such power, mockingly threw tobacco in his stove, calling on the Thunder to strike his own house, with the result that it promptly did so, and his home was destroyed.
If a man's wife runs away with another man, or deserts him, he may fill his pipe with native tobacco, puff the smoke in the direction in which he thinks she may have gone, and she will be impelled to return to him before his pipe is smoked out, or very shortly after.
Alanson Skinner
RECENT ACCESSIONS BY GIFT
From Mr. William Warfield:
Six photographs From Dr. William Thornmt Parker:
Copy of "Presidents of the United States Who Were Indian War Veterans, United States Army," by William Thorn- ton Parker, M. D. FrQ7?2 Mr. W. Langmann:
Three pottery jars. Acoma.
Pottery mug. Southwestern Colorado.
Tobacco pouch; beaded pouch; two pairs of doll moccasins.
Ojibwa. Doll; necklace; knife sheath; beaded pouch; pair of mocca- sins. Sioux.
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Miniature cradle. White Mountain Apache.
Beaded pouch; three pairs of moccasins; pair of leggings;
bead necklace. Shoshone. Leather bag. Algerian. Two horsehair whips. Mexican. Two sea-shells. From Rev. E. Ashley:
The following publications:
Okadakiciye Wakan Kin. Wiwicawangapi. A Catechism
in Dakota and English. English and Dakota Service Book, from the Book of Com- mon Prayer. Dakota Wowapi Wakan, the Holy Bible in the Language
of the Dakotas. The Niobrara Course, first year: Niobrara Woonspe Ookuwa Kin. From Mrs. The a Heye:
Skin dresser. Zuiii, New Mexico.
Small ivory carving representing a man in sled being pulled by a reindeer. Eskimo, Point Barrow, Alaska. From Mr. David T. Abercrombie:
Twenty-three pottery specimens from Colombia and Peru. From Mrs. F reel and Pulver:
Leg from pottery vessel, representing an animal's head. Nicaragua. From Mr. William B. McKinlay:
Six arrows, red and blue painted decoration. Yuma, Arizona. From Mr. F. S. Delletibaugh:
Forty-nine photographs of views in Arizona and New Mexico, taken about 1890 by the Wetherell Brothers. From Dr. Alfred G. Langmann:
Stone pipe bowl. Hopi, Arizona. Buffalo robe. Grooved axe.
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From Mr. Ernest Ingersoll:
Book of newspaper clippings pertaining to the Indians. From Mrs. Harriet P. Eaton:
Four cross-stitch copies of sand paintings. Notes and manuscript of Mrs. Harriet P. Eaton regarding North American Indians. From the Hispanic Society of At?7erica:
Copy of Prince, "Stone Idols of New Mexico," Santa Fe, 1896 From Dr. Joseph K. Dixon:
Photograph: "The Last Outpost." From Dr. W. R. Blackie:
Two baskets. Cherokee. From Mr. Roderick D. Macalpine: Pestle. Connecticut.
Pestle; axe; forty-one arrow, spear, and knife blades. Kent county, Delaware. Frotn Mr. Charles W. Mead:
Copy of "Old Civilizations of Inca Land," by Charles W. Mead. From Dr. E. Fox:
Three X-ray negatives of beads and a basket. From Lieut. G. T. Einmons:
Copy of the National Geographic Magazine, vol. iii. May, 1891, An Expedition to Mount St. Elias, Alaska, by Israel C. Russell. Copy of the Report on Production of Domestic Reindeer in Alaska, by Sheldon Jackson. 1904. From Mr. Edward Kurtz,:
Axe; four arrowpoints. Worcester county, Maryland. From Mr. B. T. B. Hyde: Two negatives.
INDIAN NOTES
From Dr. A. V. Kidder:
Bannerstone, collected in 1903 by H. I. Robinson of Boston. Nacoochee valley, White county, Georgia. From M^r. Clarence B. Moore:
Small galena plummet; small gold inlay; long shell pendant made from columella. Mound key, Lee county, Florida. From the Museum of the University of Michigan:
Jar, brown ware, incised decoration. Cass county, Michigan. From Mrs. Walter M. James:
Pipe; tomahawk; warclub; baby-carrier; quilled bag; rattle; beaded awl case; Sun-dance whistle; two horn spoons; horn spoon and fork; moccasin for child; bead ornament; deer-bone game; pair of beaded ornaments; dentalium shell necklace; two pairs of dentalium shell ear-ornaments. North Dakota. Scoria metate; grinding stone. Nicaragua. Belt. Rosebud reservation. South Dakota. Fifty potsherds; broken stone point; glass bead. State of Grenada, Nicaragua. From Miss Genevieve Brandt:
Basket. Yakutat, Alaska. From Mrs. C. C. King:
Pipe; string of beads; small leather bag; celt; eight pot- sherds; small black pitcher; two hundred thirty-one arrowpoints. Plummet-shape stone. California.
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NOTES
Dr. Melvin R. Gilmore returned to the Museum on January 3, after spending the summer and fall in ethnological work among the Arikara of North Dakota, the Omaha, the Winnebago, and the San- tee Dakota in Nebraska, and the Pawnee in Okla- homa. From each of these tribes he obtained some rare objects and information concerning their origin and use. Dr. Gilmore's principal work with the Arikara was the recording of some of the ancient ritualistic ceremonies of that tribe, used in the sea- sonal celebration of their agricultural festivals, for they have been cultivators of the soil since distant prehistoric time. The ancestors of the Arikara and of the Pawnee, both of the same racial stock, were probably the first agriculturists who ever tilled the ground in all the Missouri river drainage basin. In the recording of these ceremonies Dr. Gilmore was aided by Mr. E. F. CofHn of the Museum staff, who was unsparing in care and labor with the motion- picture camera in preserving pictorial records of the action in these ceremonies, to make the expedition a success. Dr. Hartley Burr Alexander, of the Uni- versity of Nebraska, and Mr. George F. Will, of Bismarck, North Dakota, also gave most useful aid in recording information and observations on the ceremonies. A full complement of seed stock of
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the different varieties of corn, beans, squashes, and pumpkins and gourds which remain of all the varie- ties cultivated in old times by the Pawnee, was obtained from that tribe, from whom also was pro- cured, together with other rare relics, a sacred bundle. This particular bundle is distinguished in being one of only two of its class now in existence. In this field campaign Dr. Gilmore emphasized the quest of material and information to augment the ethnobotanical collections of the Museum.
Prof. Marshall H. Saville spent the months of December, January, and part of February in Peru and Mexico, having been appointed one of the offi- cial delegates of the United States Government to the Third Pan American Scientific Congress, which convened at Lima from December zo to January 6. As representative of the section of history and anthropology he presented a resolution, which was passed by the Congress at its final session, having for its object the founding of an International School of American Archeology at Cuzco, the ancient seat of the so-called Inca Empire. Profes- sor Saville was made an Honorary Doctor in the Faculty of Sciences of the University of San Marcos of Lima, the first university founded in the New World. He was also elected an honorary member of the Instituto Historico del Peru and the Sociedad Geografica de Lima.
[x35]
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An exchange was effected in behalf of the Mu- seum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation, with the Museum of the University of San Marcos, through which the former is to receive an impor- tant archeological collection from the region of Chavin, explored by Dr. Julio Tello. As this region is one of the most important and little- known areas of Peru, the material will be of great value in connection with the Museum's extensive collections from Ecuador.
In Mexico Professor Saville visited the various sites in the Valley of Mexico recently explored under the direction of Dr. Manuel Gamio. He also obtained much information in regard to woodcarv- ing by the ancient Mexicans, for use in a study of the subject the results of which are soon to be pub- lished.
Mr. Alanson Skinner, of the Museum staff, has just returned from a brief sojourn among the Seneca Indians of the Allegany reservation in southwestern New York, where he attended the **New Year" celebration and obtained a number of unusual old specimens for the Museum's collection. Com- mencing January Z9, and continuing through nine consecutive days, the ceremonies included the annual rites of Thanksgiving, which once were con- nected with the now obsolete sacrifice of the white
[136J
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dog, ceremonial gambling with the wooden bowl and peach-stone dice, and many ceremonial and social dances. Among the latter Mr. Skinner observed or participated in the Gadashofe, or Social Dance, and the Pigeon, Bear, Fish, Raccoon, Woman's, Duck, and Feather dances. Of these the most unusual was said to be the Duck dance, now rarely given. The participants dance in couples, women and men separately, holding hands. The women dance backward, facing the men. At a given part in the song the men raise their clasped hands, and the women stoop and run under them very much as in the old English folk-dance called "London Bridge is Falling Down." At a change in the words of the song the men lower their hands, and the women halt where they are caught, dancing there until the next number. The performance of the men is said to be mimetic of the actions of a drake in herding his flock. The resemblance of all the social dances to those of the Southeastern tribes, rather than to those of the Middle West, is most striking.
Of the ceremonial dances, the Adomoah, or Thanksgiving dance, and the rites of the Husk and Falseface societies, were also seen, and some notes on the latter two will be given later. On invita- tion of several of the devotees, Mr. Skinner also attended an all-night session of the Little Waters
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Medicine Society, or Niga Nigaa. It is wonderful, and a tribute to the force of character of the Seneca that, in spite of more than three centuries of con- tinuous contact with white people and with perse- cution, so much of the old religion has survived, and in so pure a form.
As interpreter Mr. Skinner was fortunate in secur- ing the services of Mr. John Kettle, brother of the late well-known Seneca chief Delos Big Kettle, of the Cattaraugus reservation. Much credit is due Mr. Kettle for his cheerful acceptance of all diffi- culties, and his ultimate success in assisting Mr. Skinner to secure many interesting and ancient specimens.
Preserving Indian History. — For the purpose of further recording the fact that all missionary organizations are not opposed to the performance of native ceremonies by the Indians, and that the importance of motion pictures such as those made for the Museum last summer among the Arikara by Mr. Coffin under Dr. Gilmore's supervision is appreciated, the following brief notice, which appeared in The Catholic Register, is reprinted from The Indian Leader, published by Haskell Institute at Lawrence, Kansas:
"A real service is being done for history by Dr. Melvin R. Gil- more of the Museum of the American Indian. He has persuaded
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members of the Ankara tribe to perform some of their dances and religious and tribal ceremonies before the camera. He estab- lished a typical village of old Indian days in which he gathered those things which were peculiar to their tribal life. The dances and ceremonies will be recorded in motion pictures and will pre- serve for future generations interesting history of the vanishing Indian.
"The doctor has spent many years in study of the Indian tribes of the Northwest and he has been able to bring to his work of reconstruction a thorough knowledge of conditions in the days when the Indian followed more fully his tribal customs. It is of interest to know that the Indians co-operate in every way with Dr. Gilmore. He tells us that 'they wanted their old customs preserved.' The average Indian is fearful of the white man. The willingness of the Arikara, the last custodians of old tradi- tions and legends, may be attributed to the knowledge that they would not be exploited to the financial advantage of the white promoter. This work of Dr. Gilmore done under such an insti- tution as the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation, shows one of the many good purposes to which the 'movies' may be used. Too frequently they have been prostituted in the cause of false propaganda and the spread of crime and immorality. They have been grossly abused, but Dr. Gilmore has shown that they do not deserve general condemnation but may serve a very good purpose.
"We shall see in the pictures made by Dr. Gilmore an Indian with which we are not familiar. The ordinary stage Indian is nothing more than a savage. No attention is paid to the truth regarding the Indian practices and ceremonies. Although this work of Dr. Gilmore may not have much popular interest, it will be a part of the record for all time of the customs and ways of the oldest inhabitants of our continent."
[139]
INDIAN NOTES
Dr. Melvin R. Gilmore has been engaged recently in the critical reading of the typed manuscript of a journal written by Gen. Philippe Regis de Trobriand, U. S. A., commanding the Military District of the Upper Missouri in Dakota Territory in 1867-69. General de Trobriand was a native of Tours, France, and he wrote his jour- nal in the French language. It is in process of translation with the purpose of publication in the English language in the near future. He has found this journal to contain very much of ethnological interest concerning the Teton and Yanktonais Dakota, Arikara, Mandan, and Hi- datsa, with which tribes Dr. Gilmore is familiar by personal acquaintance in his own ethnological work in recent years. Because of his knowledge of these tribes Dr. Gilmore's critical reading of the journal was desired by the prospective publisher in order to guard against error, to verify personal names of tribesmen and native geo- graphic place-names, and to make necessary com- mentation on the text.
The Public Museum of the City of Milwaukee has recently published in its Btdlethi series a memoir on The Mascoutens or Prairie Potawatomi Indians — Part i, Social Life and Ceremonies, by Alanson Skinner, now of the Museum of the
[140]
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American Indian, Heye Foundation. This article forms the first part of a monograph the material for which was gathered bv Mr. Skinner in the field while Curator of Anthropology in the Milwaukee Museum. In the same series has appeared another short paper, Notes on Mahikan Ethnology, by the same author, which is of particular local interest inasmuch as it deals with the customs of a well-known Algonkian tribe, now nearly extinct, whose former home was on the Hudson. The specimens and the subjective data utilized by Mr. Skinner were gathered by him, while at Milwaukee, from the remnant of the Mahikan now resident on the east shore of Lake Winnebago, Wisconsin.
Through the generosity of the Vice President of its Board of Trustees, Mr. Harmon W. Hend- ricks, the Museum has received a number of excellent additions to its collections, procured at the recent auction sale of the Indian objects belonging to Major Abbott. Among the most noteworthy specimens are: a very large, old, circular Pomo basket measuring 2.7 inches in diameter and 15 inches in height; a particularly fine example of old Chippewa bow, notched at the edges; a bird-form rattle from the Haida, on the back of which is a finely carved mountain-
ri4i]
INDIAN NOTES
sheep head instead of the conventional frog figure; and a large chipped quartz knife-blade from King William county, Virginia. Among Mr. Hendricks' other recent gifts to the Museum are a Comanche war shield and cover, both painted, and a very old Haida slate carving rep- resenting a raven's head, the neck of v/hich is perforated for use as a flute.
During last fall and winter Mr. Alanson Skin- ner delivered a series of six lectures on The Eth- nography of North America at Hunter College, New York City, under the direction of Professor Burgess. Mr. Skinner also spoke at the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences on February 2.8, his subject being Adventures Among the Indians of the Forest Region, and in addition he has presented addresses on various ethnological and archeological subjects before the Explorers Club of New York, the Staten Island Institute of Arts and Sciences, the Morgan Chapter of the New York Archeological Society of Rochester, the Woman's Club of Staten Island, and the W^oman's Auxiliary to the National Council, Diocese of New York.
Dr. Manuel Gamio, who, while a student at Columbia University accompanied Professor Saville as an assistant on the Marie Antoinette Heye Expe-
[i4^]
INDIAN NOTES
dition to Ecuador in 1910, has been appointed Sub- secretary of Public Education in the cabinet of President Calles of Mexico. Dr. Gamio has been Director of Anthropology and Inspector of Ancient Monuments in Mexico for some time. The Depart- ment of Anthropology has been given control of the National Museum, a consolidation that will be the means of advancing research in American arche- ology to a considerable degree. Plans are in prog- ress for conducting extensive field work in eth^ nology and archeology in Oaxaca, similar to that prosecuted under Dr. Gamio's direction in the Valley of Mexico at Teotihuacan.
Dr. Melvin R. Gilmore of the Museum has recently presented the following addresses by invitation: On February 7, before a club in Rutherford, New Jersey, on the subject of Aborig- inal Ethnic Groups and Culture Areas of North America; on February xy, before the Trinity Men's Club in Morrisania on Aboriginal Occupancy and Industries in North America; on March 17, before the Science Club of Hunter College of the City of New York, on the Mythology and Religious Ceremonies of the Arikara Indians with Relation to their Aboriginal Agricultural Life.
The following radio talks have recently been broadcast in behalf of the Museum from station
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WJZ, New York: January i6, Mr. Cadzow, Eskimo and Indians of the North. January 2.9, Dr. Gil- more, Economic Life of Aboriginal America. Feb- ruary 10, Dr. Gilmore, Prehistoric Farmers of the Ozarks. February 14, Mr. Cadzow, Ancient Zuni Indians of the Southwest. March 19, Professor Saville, The Indians of Mexico and their Future.
A PLUMMET-SHAPE stouc objcct from Lee county, and an implement fashioned from a clam-shell from Key Marco, Florida, have been presented by Mr. Clarence B. Moore. The latter specimen is unique in the collections of the Museum, as it is oval, with a single semicircular notch, possibly designed for the attachment of a wooden handle, in which event it would well have served as a hoe.
Mr. Charles O. Turbyfill proceeded to Nevada in February to assist Mr. Harrington in the exploration of the early Pueblo remains in the southeastern part of that state.
The number of visitors to the Museum from November 15, 1913, to November 14, 1914 — the second year since it was opened to the public — was 46,157-
Mr. F. W. Hodge has been elected an honorary fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland.
[144]
The Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation, has issued several series of publica- tions, a price-list of which will be sent on application.
INDIAN NOTES
S.
VOLUME TWO NUMBER THREE
JULY
19^5
PUBLISHED qUARTERLY BY THE
MUSEUM OF THE AMERICAN INDIAN, HEYE FOUNDATION
BROADWAY AT I55TH STREET, NEW YORK
CONTENTS
Page Ancient Mosaic Ear-plugs from Peru. Mar- shall H. Saville 145
Central Eskimo and Indian Dot Ornamenta- tion. Frank G. Speck 151
Habitat of Loucheux Bands. Donald A.
Cadzow 172.
The Ground Bean and Its Uses. Melvin R.
Gilmore 178
Porcupine Quillwork from Lovelock Cave,
Nevada. William C. Orchard 187
Some Seneca Masks and their Uses. Alanson
Skinner 191
Indian Wells on Long Island. Foster H.
Saville 107
Crow Love Medicine. William Wildschut . 2.1 1 Jivaro Dance Regalia. William C. Orchard . 114 Caraja and Cayapo Artifacts from Brazil.
Francis Gow-Smith 119
Ancient Salt Mine near St. Thomas, Nevada.
M. R. Harrington 12.7
A Seneca Antique Tobacco Pipe. Alanson
Skinner 131
Mr. Verriirs Sabanero-Guaymi Trip . . . X3X
Recent Accessions by Gift 139
Notes 2.41
INDIAN NOTES, VOL. I!
PAIR OF MOSAIC EAR-B,
>M THE COAST OF PERU
INDIAN NOTES
Published Quarterly by the Museum of the American Indian,
Heye Foundation, Broadway at 155th Street, New York.
Subscription price. One Dollar a Year. Application for entry
as second-class matter is pending.
Vol. II
JULY, 1915
No. 3
ANCIENT MOSAIC EAR-PLUGS FROM PERU
o FAR as we now know, the art of mosaic work was practised by only a few tribes of ancient America. The exis- tence of this art in the Pueblo region of our Southwest is well known, but it its highest development in Mexico.
in the sixteenth century, Grijalva and
reachec.
Early
Cortes brought to the attention of Europeans the
great treasures of the so-called Aztec empire,
having obtained, among other things, examples
of turquois mosaic objects from the coast region
of the Gulf of Mexico, which were sent at once to
Spain.
Only in recent time have we been aware of the existence of mosaic art in ancient Peru, through specimens that have been discovered in pre-Inca tombs along the coast, and from a single example
[145]
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found in upper Peru, in the vicinity of Lake Titicaca. More recently many objects embel- lished with mosaic have been found in graves uncovered in the desert region of Atacama, in the Antofagasta district, near the coast of northern Chile. The mosaic art of South America indi- cates a technique somewhat similar to that of Mexico, but generally it exhibits less skill.
This Museum has recently added to its Peruvian collection, by gift of Mrs. Thea Heye, the pair of beautiful mosaic ear-plugs illustrated in their actual size in pi. i. The technique is typically Peruvian, the human figure appearing as the central motive of each of the ornaments being similar in character to the wooden and earthen- w^are effigies from the Peruvian coast. Only the front part of the ornament remains, the spool- like plug of wood, either solid or hollow, which entered the pierced lobe of the ear, being missing. The mosaic has been laid on a composition, probably a mixture of gum and wax. The slightly hollowed under-surface reveals where the matrix of the mosaic was fastened over the end of the plug, which measured about an inch and a quar- ter in diameter. The pattern on the face of the ornament is fashioned with pieces of cut mother- of-pearl, reddish and purplish shell, and green stone and turquois. The face of the figure in one
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of the ear-plugs has tiny mother-of-pearl beads inlaid for eyes, but the eyes of the figure in the other have fallen out. The treatment of the body of the personage represented in the slightly smaller disc is peculiar in that a single piece of mother-of-pearl forms the body, giving it the aspect of a w^ing projecting from the back. The various features of these striking pieces are well brought out in the colored illustrations, so that no detailed description is necessary.
It seems opportune to compare this pair of ear- ornaments with several kindred examples in other museums, for objects of this class are by no means common. Drawings of six such ornaments are reproduced in fig. 63.
Some time ago Joyce published an account of the southern limit of incrusted work in ancient America, in which he considered especially two specimens of this character in the British Museum.^ One of the pieces described is a flat wooden knob, which was found in the vicinity of Pacasmayo on the coast. Joyce states that only the central part of the mosaic, placed over a thick resinous layer, remains. The design represents a conven- tional double-bird form consisting of a single piece of pearl shell, with a background of red and purple shell, and with eyes of turquois. The
*T. A. Joyc2, South American Archaeology, p. 130.
[147]
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Fig. 63. — Various Peruvian ear-ornaments
[148]
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under-surface being hollowed out, the object is identified as an ear-plug, although the spool-like member that entered the lobe is missing. This specimen, which is an inch and fifteen-sixteenths in diameter, is illustrated in fig. 63, a.
In b of the same illustration is shown an ear- plug with a spool-like projection for insertion in the ear. This specimen, which has a conven- tional mosaic design in mother-of-pearl, is illus- trated by Wiener," who states that it was found at the necropolis of Ancon. The face of the ornament is one and nine-sixteenths of an inch in diameter.
Baessler^ has illustrated another beautiful ob- ject of this class, shown in fig. 63, c. This piece did not come from the coast, but was discovered at Copacabana in upper Peru, on the shore of Lake Titicaca, near the Bolivian border. The chief feature of this specimen, which closely resembles one of those shown in our colored plate, is the central human figure, which is sur- rounded by a circle made up of a dozen pieces of inlay and, at the edge of the disc, a series of tiny globular settings. Extending around the rim of the reverse side there is also a mosaic incrusta- tion, and in the middle is attached a wooden tube,
- Charles Wiener, Perou et Bolivie, pp. 66S-6yo.
^ Arthur Baessler, Ancient Peruvian Art, pi. 152., fig. 415.
[149]
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slightly curved, about seven-eighths of an inch long, for placing in the lobe. This ornament is of unusual size, the diameter of its face being three and three-eighths inches.
A pair of similar ornaments (0 are in the Gaffron collection in Schlachtensee, near Berlin, and have recently been illustrated by Lehmann.^ These specimens, from the famous ruins of Pacha- camac, are tw^o and five-eighth inches in diameter, and still retain the plugs for insertion in the ear. The mosaic consists of mother-of-pearl, red shell, and other inlays of purple, green, and black materials.
In the Peruvian collection in the American Museum of Natural History, gathered by Bande- lier, are several ear-plugs of this character, two of which are shown in d and / of our figure, the former, like the Baessler specimen (0, being similar in design to one of the specimens repre- sented in our plate. Of the two examples in the American Museum of Natural History, d is three and one-quarter inches in diameter, and / only a little more than two inches in diameter by five- eighths of an inch in thickness. The reverse side of the latter is convex, and its cylindrical plug is two inches long by five-eighths of an inch in diameter. The mosaic of the various speci-
^ Walter Lehmann, The Art of Old Peru, pi. ix.
[150]
INDIAN NOTES
mens in the American Museum of Natural History is of the same materials as the others.
Although the mosaics of Peru, as a class, are not so refined in treatment as those of ancient Mexico, they are fashioned with boldness, and the general effect is artistic and pleasing.
Marshall H. Saville
CENTRAL ESKIMO AND INDIAN DOT ORNAMENTATION
The characteristic dot ornaments appearing on decorated carvings of the Central Eskimo have aroused some interest among students of Arctic culture. The suggestion of an Indian source for these blackened dot decorations in ivory carving has already been made by Dr. Boas, v^ho referred to the importance of the dot design occurring on combs, on hair ornaments, fringe buttons, and ivory eyelets, all of w^hich he illustrated in his Second Report on the Eskimo of Baffin Land and Hudson Bay.^ Boas thought that this design among the Eskimo had more recently been de- veloped into the circle-and-dot-design, and at the same time expressed the opinion that the design may have been due to Indian influence. Apropos
^ Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., vol. xv, pt. ii, 1907, p. 460, figs. 115, 117, 2.18, 2.16, 2.6l.
[151]
INDIAN NOTES
of possible Indian influence on other phases of Eskimo industry, Boas also thought that the stone pipes of the Hudson Bay Eskimo showed strong Indian influence.- On this point Wissler^ also added his testimony, mentioning that eight pipes similar to those described by Boas were forthcoming from Ponds bay, while the writer described three more, similar in all respects to those just referred to, obtained from Vigneau who procured them from the Ponds Inlet Eskimo.^ Again in 1914 Vigneau brought out two more of these pipes from the same Eskimo group. All bear a resemblance to the stone pipes made by the Cree and Montagnais-Naskapi of the sub- jacent regions. The specimens referred to are all in the collections of the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation.
Accordingly I propose to raise the inquiry again, since some material has been recently en- countered among the Labrador Indians to con- firm the view of the situation taken by Boas. Specimens from the Eskimo inhabiting the terri- tory between Hudson bay and North Greenland show the distribution of the dot motive to be
^ Ibid., vol. XV, pt. I, 1901, p. no, fig. 160.
^ Notes on New Collections, Anthr. Papers Amer. Mus. Nat. Hisf., vol. II, pt. Ill, 1909, p. 317.
^Eskimo Collection from Baffin Land and Ellesmere Land, Indian Notes, vol. i, no. 3, 192.4, figs. 32., 33.
[15^]
INDIAN NOTES
widespread in the central area. This particular type of ornamentation seems not restricted to any
Fig. 64. — Types of dot decoration among the Central Es- kimo. Hair ornaments from Southampton island. (After Boas, 1907)
one class of utensils. From the Baffin Land Eskimo, Boas shows ivory combs and needle-
[153]
INDIAN NOTES
cases, and from the Hudson Bay bands he has combs, eyelets, fasteners, and pendants, prac- tically all of ivory, showing the same form of decoration (figs. 64-68). Other collections, some of them illustrated in publications, show its com- parative frequency in the same region; for instance, Wissler^ figures a needle-case of the much-discussed
* 'rectangular' ' type,^ carrying a decoration produced by dots, as coming also from an old site on Southamp- ton island. An ivory dog-whip handle in possession of Mr. Vig- neau of Quebec, which he obtained at Ponds inlet, Baffin Land, shows a profusion of the blackened dots around the butt-end as a form of decoration. And several specimens of ivory animal carvings with blackened dot ornaments in the collections of the McCord Museum of McGill University, Montreal, from the Labrador Eskimo, add evidence to that already presented.
Fig. 65. — Ivory Aivilik; b, Netchi Boas, 1907.)
combs, a, lik. (After
Dp. cit
:f. Boa
as, 1907, p. 459.
[154]
INDIAN NOTES
Southward across Hudson straits, on the north Labrador coast, specimens of Eskimo ivory carving also shov/ the frequency of the simple
Fig. 66. — Eyes for needle-cases.
a. Ponds bay; b, Southampton
island. (After Boas)
Fig. 67. — Ivory bead hair ornament, South- ampton island. (After Boas)
Fig. 68. — Button for sledge liie, Iglulik. (After Boas, 1907)
dot motive in this region. A carved w^alrus tusk which I obtained from a Naskapi at the Seven Islands post shows two figures, those of a bird
[155]
INDIAN NOTES
and a seal decorated with the same device (fig. 70).
He had traded it from an Ungava Eskimo on one
of his journeys to the north.
Among the southern and eastern Labrador
Eskimo, whose material culture might be expected to show connection with the Hudson Bay groups, it does not come out with noticeable prominence, judging from published material, although Hawkes^ shows two ivory carvings carrying a few blackened dots, and a set of dominoes^ from the coast of Hudson bay. This author, ^ in refer- ring to Labrador Eskimo art, re- marks, "Dots are also used, but to imitate some feature of the model, not as a design."
While a survey of existing pub- lished material indicates the center of frequency for this form of art among the Eskimo to be chiefly in the central and north-central regions
and those presumably affected by influence from
the same area, it seems not entirely absent outside
of this sphere. The collections of the Museum,
Fig. 69. — Ivory fastener with dot orna- mentation. Ponds inlet, Baffin Land. (Actual size)
" The Labrador Eskimo, Geological Survey of Canada^ 1916, pi. xxvi, b, c.
^ Ibid., pi. xxxii, b. 9 Ibid., p. 100.
[156]
INDIAN NOTES
which I examined at length through the kindness
of Mr. Orchard and Mr. Cadzow,
contain objects of ivory decorated with
the dot design from several localities
among the Eskimo west of Hudson bay
(in Alaska, from Bristol bay, two
animal carvings and five toggles; Una-
lakleet, a seal carving; Point Barrow,
a walrus-tooth toggle representing an
animal; St. Lawrence island, two ivory
carvings of birds and three animals,
and one carving from the Siberian
Eskimo), showing that the idea is not
entirely lacking away from the central
groups. The motive, however, does
not appear with a frequency by any
means equaling that among the art
productions of the Baffin Land and
Hudson Bay Eskimo. Again, it is
shown sparingly in articles from the
Smith Sound area (fig. 71); but here its _
presence is regarded by Wissler as recent, Eskimo ivory
having arrived with other peculiarities carving from
from the central regions. This case is
interesting enough to review.
In attempting to consider the possible source of introduction of these designs among the Polar Eskimo, it is necessary
Ungava,
Labrador,
with dot
ornaments
on bird and
seal figures.
(Length, 9^
in.)
[157]
INDIAN NOTES
to give some attention to the findings of Wissler in his study of the archeological material returned from Comer's Midden, a deposit of refuse near North Star bay on the south shore of Cape Wol- stenholme, North Greenland. From the lower level of this deposit, which is relatively old, and comparable in its yieldings with the older artifacts of the Baffin Land area, it would seem that decorated objects are conspicuously absent. Yet.
the upper surface yields a few deco- rated ivory carv- ings, and it is among these that several dot-orna- mented pieces ap- pear. A safe in- ference from these sources is, as Wissler points out, the later intrusion eastward of the motive of decoration from the central area. To use his own words: "We may note that decorated objects are absent from all parts of Comer's Midden and apparently from all older sites examined by the expedition. This is also true of the Alaskan sites explored by the Stefansson-Anderson expedition. It is fair, therefore, to raise the question as to the place of such art in Eskimo chronology. "^'^ He
^0 Wissler, Archaeology of the Polar Eskimo, Anthr. Papers Afner. Mus. Nat. Hist., vol. xxii, pt. iii, 191 8, p. 158.
[158]
Fig. 71. — Decorated ivory carving from
Etah, North Greenland. (After
Wissler, 1918)
INDIAN NOTES
further states his opinion in respect to the relative culture position of the Northwest Greenland Eskimo by saying, "In culture, they are nearer the Central Eskimo than West or South Greenland; in fact, they are so near the former in contrast to the latter, that we must suspect their recent arrival from the Arctic Archipelago."^^
The problem is considerably deepened by the occurrence of a similar form of decoration on ivory objects from the Ammasalik Eskimo of East Greenland. Thalbitzer^-- illustrates its fre- quency there. The articles correspond quite closely with those from the central tribes showing the same dot decorations. The author himself thinks that the East Greenlanders correspond more closely in art with the Eskimo westward^^ than with the West Greenlanders, whose art he also estimates as inferior to theirs.
To furnish a wider perspective it may be worth noting that the dot ornaments seem absent from a few decorated objects obtained from the North- east Greenlanders above Scoresby sound by the Amdrup expeditionaries.^^
11 Ibid., p. i6l.
^^W. Thalbitzer, The Ammasalik Eskimo, pt. i, Copen- hagen, 1914, figs. 42., 43, 2.04, 2.2.3, 2-30, 2.36, 139, 140, 142., 2.46, 2-71, 33i» 335> 336. 374. passim.
1^ Ibid., p. 12.4.
^^ Thalbitzer in Meddelelser om Grdnland, no. 7, Copenhagen, 1909.
[159]
INDIAN NOTES
Although no final inference of a North Green- land route of passage for the Ammasalik may be made, speaking from a conservative standpoint, it may not come amiss to add to testimony along this lead already offered by Thalbitzer, by point- ing out that three harpoon-heads from Ellesmere Land, showing a peculiarity in the attachment
Fig. 71. — Ivory harpoon-heads, Ellesmere Land, (f ) perforations, seem to have no other correspondents in their distinguishing characteristics outside of East Greenland. These harpoon-heads I obtained also from Vigneau, and figured with a brief men- tion in a former paper of this series.^'' They were found, Vigneau stated, in several feet of moss, about an old site near a station known to the crew of the Arctic during the winter of 1 92.1-13
^^ Indian Notes, vol. i, no. 3, July, 1914, fig. 37, p. 148.
[160]
INDIAN NOTES
Fig. 73. — Eskimo women of Ponds Inlet wearing coats with dot ornamentation. (C. Vigneau, photo., August, 1914)
[161]
INDIAN NOTES
as Craig Harbor, and show signs of age and decay. These figures are reproduced here (fig. 72.) for comparison with similar ones from near Nualik, East Greenland. ^^
With the preceding objects in the mind's eye a series of specimens from various bands of Naskapi in the Labrador peninsula may be compared. In scope and character the resemblance is pronounced. A series of bag-fasteners and pipe-cleaners, made of caribou-bone, from the Naskapi of the Natasquan band (figs. 74, 75), shows the ordinary treatment of the dot as a decorative device. The holes in these cases are not deliberately filled with black, but acquire the same condition through the accumu- lation of grease and dirt adhering to the fingers that handle them. At Seven Islands a number of specimens of the same category testify to the extension of the dot ornaments. At the same trading station, objects brought out by the Indians coming from the distant interior about LakeMichikamau, those of the Michikamau band, also show the same (fig. 76). Informants in each of the groups mentioned term these dots pineo meshkenu, "bird tracks." In designs, moreover, on the painted caribou-skin coats of the Ungava band of Naskapi, we find the dots frequent as adjuncts
^^ Thalbitzer, The Ammasalik Eskimo, p. 416, fig. 131.
[161]
INDIAN NOTES
•I
# •
"^ -o
o
Oh rt •-'
^ '^ "^
"5 5 c
00 ^ OJ
g c
^^-''^
^^ ^ -^^ ^
<^ o
[163]
INDIAN NOTES
to the curved figures which characterize the art of the whole northeastern Algonkian area (fig. 77).
, •#%■
Fig.
-Naskapi and Montagnais bone pipe-tamps and
bag-fasteners showing dot designs. 3y\ in.; b, colored with red stain, 3^ in.; f, Escoumains band, length length 3,'V, in.
[164]
Seven Islands, length Natasquan band, length 5 J in.; d, Seven Islands,
INDIAN NOTES
But here in the painted figures we have the desig- nation oi minan, "berries" or "fruit." The Mis- tassini affect a similar device in art on bone. And
1«.«LA
I
Fig. 76. — Naskapi bone implements decorated with dot designs, a, b, Bear-bone skinning tools, Michikamau band, length 3! and 5! in.; c, bear-bone skinning tool, Mistassini band, length 6f in.; d, bone skinning tool, Ungava band, length 4! in.; e, caribou-antler awl with iron point, Michi- kamau band, length 5 j^^ in.
in the decoration of certain birch-bark utensils they paint them w^ith groups of five red dots
[165]
INDIAN NOTES
arranged like a cross, explaining the act as one which satisfies the "soul spirit" of the individual which seems to possess some esthetic apprecia- tion. By employing the dot group as a decorative symbol the hunter, they believe, indicates his respect for the spirits of slain animals.
Fig. 77. — Naskapi painted caribou-skin coat design, showing frequency of dot motive. Ungava band, Labrador
A similar use of dots, painted red in groups, is mentioned by Skinner for the Cree about James bay.^^ They were painted on leather coats, but no name symbolism is given them by him.
^"^ Notes on the Eastern Cree and Northern Saulteaux, Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., 191 1, p. 53, ftg. 35-
[166]
INDIAN NOTES
The dot decoration is found constantly appear- ing in painted articles among different bands of the Labrador Indians. From the Naskapi of the Michikamau and Natasquan bands there are in the Museum, snow-shovels, collected by Dr. Hallowell and myself, having red dots in rows painted along the outer edge. The Mistassini stone pipes have inlaid dots in lead on their bases, and from the Lake St. John Montagnais I have brought out several leather knife-cases decorated with dots and three-pointed figures in silk embroidery which, as might be expected, were explained as "partridge tracks." In short, the dot motive is generally present in Montagnais- Naskapi art in whatever form, embroidery, carv- ing, or painting, it may be expressed.
South of the St. Lawrence the Wabanaki tribes produce a similar motive in art, though not appearing strictly analogous in its method of treatment. Dotting does not suffice here as a sole motive of decoration. It occurs only spar- ingly in conjunction with other pattern forms in wood decoration, and on bone gaming dice among the Wabanaki (fig. 78). Farther south, however, the dot ornament strangely appears with great prominence. In southern New Eng- land, for example, designs on the Mohegan painted baskets may be regarded either as having
[167]
INDIAN NOTES
acquired the dot figure or, more plausibly per- haps, to have retained the motive through time and separation from a center of distribution v^here it may have been a property common to the northern cultures. The dotted patterns of south- ern New England resemble in some pecu- liarities those of the Labrador area, in that the dots surround the curves, forming an edging (fig. 79). While the pattern types of the various areas, where dotting is strongly noticeable, are not so close in their external resem- blances to suggest affinity at first sight, it is their fundamental resemblance that
Fig. 78. — Bone dice for dice- and-bowl game, having the dot motive. Wabanaki group. a,c, d, /, Micmac; i?, e, Penobscot. (Diameter of/, i| in.)
would suggest the probability of a Hudson Bay setting for this particular form of ornamentation, and its diffusion over contiguous areas northward and outward among the Eskimo, and even to the Iroquois through their early contact with the Algonkian.
[168]
INDIAN NOTES
It would be interesting to trace the dot orna- mentation through the art work of the Athapas- can peoples of the Northwest; but this, it would seem, can hardly be done with the existing col- lections. The specimens from this area in the
Museum of the
T 1 • ■ ' ■ ^- "Mid-
American Indian,
Heye Foundation, show clearly its absence, which, according to Mr. Cadzow, is a true indication of cir- cumstances that came under his observation in the field. One speci- men, at least, from one of these tribes
is a bone crooked ^^^^ ^^~^% ^'"K FT'fr """
Mohegan (Conn J bark basket
knife-handle hav- ing two series of dots running lengthwise and parallel, figured by Caspar Whitney. ^^ If the dot design were of greater frequency in the Northwest we might get a clearer idea of the reason for its occurrence upon occasional specimens returned
^^ On Snow-shoes to the Barren Grounds, N. Y., 1896, p. 179.
[169]
INDIAN NOTES
from the Alaskan Eskimo. The weakening or entire absence of this system of decoration in contiguous regions west and east of the Central Eskimo and Labrador areas adds strength to the impression that its origin lies in one or the other of the populations there. We find it, for in- stance, entirely absent from the decorated bone ornaments obtained in such quantities in nor- thern Newfoundland and figured by Howley,^^ who illustrates about one hundred and fifty specimens profusely decorated with the incised zigzag and triangle figures so characteristic of the ornamentation of the Wabanaki tribes, but none show dotted patterns.
It seems indeed reasonably clear that the center of frequency of the dot motive is, as respects Eskimo art, among the tribes of the Hudson Bay region and the marginal areas affected by their influence, carried to the north, and on the other hand, as respects Indian art, similar in its geo- graphical and distributional occurrence. The outcome of such a conclusion would seem to be that the motive arose somewhere in these general precincts, that is, in the Hudson Bay region among one or the other peoples or from an art source common to both. Its wider and deeper
19 The Beothucks or Red Indians of Newfoundland, Cam- bridge, 1915, pis. xxv-xxix.
[170]
INDIAN NOTES
position, with symbolism, in northern Indian, in this instance Algonkian, art might seem indeed to point to this as a base. Yet in view of the lack of art material, in etching on bone and painting on leather, from so many localities where it may be looked for, the origin explanation rests more as a suggestion first conceived, of course, by Boas, than a conclusion: one opening up a problem to be borne in mind in the future examination of northern culture properties.
The simple dot design, which might appear to be connected with the dot and circle ornament of the Eskimo art, is to my mind a question to be considered by itself. The dot alone is very wide- spread. It appears in regions of North America where its connection with northern culture, and, more narrowly considered, with Algonkian, is not too obvious unless we trace its diffusion from a base very remote in antiquity. By doing this, it would seem, we might even extend it back to an Aurignacean milieu from its occurrence there in specimens of ivory carving. The circle-dot design, however, is much more restricted in its occur- rence, and, being essentially confined to the Eskimo, would appear, from the findings of Boas, as a development associated in origin with the intensive use of the drill and compasses in work- ing on bone and ivory. This motive is not
[171]
INDIAN NOTES
prominent beyond the horizon of Eskimo tecli- nology. The simple dot ornament, on the other hand, could arise from a technical process in which the simple awl or point-perforator is the common instrument. In such a case it is a motive with a very wide as well as deep distribution in the north where the extensive employment of skin, bark, and wood material, all of which in- volve constant use of the awl, is an outstanding characteristic of industrial life. This setting eminently accords with what we strike among the northern, and, at the same time, typical Algonkian populations.
Frank G. Speck
HABITAT OF LOUCHEUX BANDS
The Loucheux Indians of Alaska and north- western Canada dwell farther north than any of the aborigines of North America, the Eskimo excepted. The larger bands live above the Arctic circle, and all of them above latitude 6yN. Their habitat extends along Yukon river between Stewart river in Yukon Territory, Canada, and a point a few miles below Chandelar river, Alaska, thence eastward from the Yukon to the Macken- zie, and northward to the Endicott mountains and the Mackenzie delta.
[171]
INDIAN NOTES
The writer spent the seasons between the spring of 1912. and the fall of 1916 on the Yukon, Porcu- pine, Crow, and Peel rivers in Alaska and Canada, during which period, and in 1917 and 1919 in connection with two trips for the Museum to the Canadian Arctic and Alaska, he gathered the following data from the natives.
The Loucheux are a branch of the great Atha- pascan linguistic family. Their language resem- bles Chipewyan more closely than it does the intervening dialects of the Nahane, Hare, and Slave Indians of the Mackenzie watershed. They are more intelligent, and are of better physical development than the other northern Athapascan tribes known to the writer. The tribe is divided into nine bands (pi. 11), a band being known as kutchin, "people." The name of each band is distinguished by a prefix having reference to the locality in which it lives, to some peculiarity of dress, or other characteristic. These divisions are:
Along the Yukon, ranging between Porcupine river and the mouth of the Tahkandit, on the Yukon flatlands, are the Ktitcha-hitcb'm, "Ragged People," who, before the advent of w^hite men, were compelled to wear their caribou-skin clothing until it became very ragged and dirty; for the barren-grounds caribou range only in moun- tainous country, and the migrating herds never
[173]
INDIAN NOTES
visit the Yukon flatlands, hence the Kutcha- kutchin were dependent on neighboring bands for caribou-skin to make their clothing. Dall^ refers to them as somewhat nomadic, living principally by hunting and trapping the fox, martin, wolf, deer, lynx, rabbit, marmot, and moose. They are traders, making little for themselves, but buying from the tribes who use Fort Yukon as a common trading post.
East and southeast of the Kutcha-kutchin, along the valleys of the Yukon and Tahkandit, and as far south as the mouth of Stewart river, range the Hun-kutchin, or "Hurry People," so named because of the swift current of the Yukon, which flows between great ramparts or cliffs in this district. This band was the Gens des Bois, the "People of the Woods," of the early Hudson's Bay Company's voyageurs. They were called Kolshina by Russian traders, who indeed applied the term to any Indians they did not know. Hardisty- claims that the first material change in language occurred among the Hun-kutchin, and that "they made use of many words in common with the Mauvais Monde, "Bad World People," of Francis lake, who are closely allied with and
1 W. H. Dall, Alaska and its Resources, Boston, 1870.
" Smithsonian Report for 1866, p. 311, Washington, 1867.
[174]
INDIAN NOTES, VOL. 11
INDIAN NOTES. VOL. II
|
E N D J C 0 TJ ITku SCALE OF M 40 ?0 0 40 80 |
3» ■■■■ 13- -ip 0 ^^rJ^J___Jr4. |
\ _GV |
||
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Her^J 'A V |
hel 1. rM?*^hai^J^^ |
||
|
1 /kui |
|J^ |
|||
|
CHIN- |
ft^ |
|||
|
120 lEO 2pOM |
1 |
38» ^M. |
||
|
•/^G- |
'1^^' 1 |
DISTRIBUTION OF LOUCHEUX BANDS
INDIAN NOTES
speak the same language as the Nahaunies from the headwaters of Liard river."
Northeast of the Hun-kutchin, living in the mountain district at the headw^aters of Peel river and along its banks, are the Tetlet-kutchin, a band now called Peel River Kutchin, the word Tetlet, of indeterminate meaning, being the name applied to Peel river before the coming of the whites.
Dwelling inland from Mackenzie river, in the high mountains east of the Tetlet-kutchin, are found the Atai-kutchtn, ''Mountain People," who, before white traders ventured into the north, seldom came down to the rivers. They subsisted principally on white mountain sheep and caribou, which were plentiful within their range. In- formants claim that the Atai-kutchin men were always very large, and in ancient times were greatly feared by those of other bands when they came down to the lowlands of the Yukon in search of wives. They were called Ditche-ta-ut- tinne, ''Strong Bows People," by the early Hud- son's Bay Company's voyageurs.
Northeast of the Tetlet-kutchin territory, along the Mackenzie, from the mouth of Peel river to several miles above the Arctic Red river, are found the Nekwkhoujik-kutchin, or "Big River People," so called because they lived along the banks of the Mackenzie, which is very wide at
[175]
INDIAN NOTES
this point. This band does not seem to have been noted by early writers, who perhaps considered them one with the Tetlet-kutchin, with whom they are closely associated.
Along the headwaters of Porcupine river and on Belle and Miner rivers, as well as in the moun- tains as far as latitude 68°N., are found the Tukudh-kutchin, or "Mother People." It is from this band that, according to native legends, all the Loucheux are believed to have sprung. They are noted moose-hunters and bow-men, and are supposed to have been greatly feared by the Eskimo, who never entered their territory when making forays against other Indians. At present only about twenty people occupy this district; these claim to belong to the Tukudh-kutchin band.
West of the Tukudh-kutchin, along the Por- cupine, ranging northward to the Endicott foot- hills and southward to Hun-kutchin territory, are found the Vunttt-kutchin, or "Rat People," the largest of the Loucheux bands, who received their name from a legend in which the great chief of the muskrats chose their country for his home. Most of the great Loucheux chiefs are said to have belonged to this band.
Southward, along the headwaters of Black river, are found the Tranjik-kutchin, the "Cache River People," who take their name from the
[176]
INDIAN NOTES
number of caches or stages built along the stream on which they live. It was on the headwaters of this river that representatives of the bands met in council every few years in ancient times, and while there built the caches upon which they stored their food and belongings. The Tranjik-kutchin are famed as snarers of moose, building pounds similar to those used by the Vuntit-kutchin for capturing caribou on the barren grounds.
West of the Tranjik-kutchin, along Chandelar river and ranging well into the Endicott foot- hills, are found the Natche-kutchin, or "Strong People,'* who received their name because of their fine physique, and for this reason they were called les Grande s Gens by early voyageurs. They were noted for their expertness in dressing hides, and for the fine babiche and sinew which they brought to the forts for trade. DalP says of them: **Like all the Tinneh tribes, they are migratory. Their name means 'Strong People.' The first syllable of their name is sometimes spelled Natsit. They trade with the Eskimo of the northern coast, though barter is often interrupted by hos- tilities. They are few in number and live by deer hunting."
Donald A. Cadzow
^ Dall, op. cit.
[177]
INDIAN NOTES THE GROUND BEAN AND ITS USES
Among the additional specimens recently in- stalled in the Museum's display of Indian foods is that of the ground bean, a plant most interest- ing in itself from its peculiar natural history, and especially because of its relation to the eco- nomic life of the Indians inhabiting the phyto- geographic range of the species, which is very extensive. From the important place w^hich the ground bean held in the food supply of the tribes, and the interesting and unique manner in vsrhich it was obtained, it figures largely in the folklore of the region in which it thrives. Strangely enough, white people have never investigated its usefulness nor its possibilities of improvement under cultivation and selective breeding.
Many early travelers and explorers mention the use of the ground bean by Indians, but almost all of them are vague and uncertain of the nature and identity of the plant, and of the animal which harvests it. In 1804 it is mentioned in the Orig- inal Journals of Lewis and Clark (Thwaites edi- tion, vol. I, p. 187) that "Those people gave us to eate bread made of Corn & Beens, also Corn & Beans boil'^ a large Been (of) which they rob the mice of the Prarie Qtvho collect & discover it) which is rich &: verry nurrishing. . ."
[178]
INDIAN NOTES
The scientific name of the ground bean (fig. 80) is Falcata comosa; it is popularly called ground bean from its habit of producing one form of its fruits in the ground in manner similar to the peanut. The plant forms two kinds of branches, bearing two forms of flowers, producing two forms of fruits. Leafy branches climb up over shrubs, or, in the absence of support, form a tangled mass of vines. Upon these leafy branches are borne showy purplish flowers exactly resembling garden- bean blossoms in miniature. From these petalif- erous flowers are produced small bean-pods about half an inch to an inch in length, which contain each from three to five small mottled beans about an eighth of an inch long.
From the base of the main stem of the plant the branches of the second form grow out in all directions, creeping prostrate on the ground under the shade of the overgrowth and forming a perfect network of colorless, leafless branches. The tiny, inconspicuous blossoms borne on these prostrate branches are self-pollinated, and push into the leaf-mold and soft soil, where each pro- duces a single large bean closely invested in a filmy pod or husk. These beans are about the size of lima beans, or even larger, and are the ones which are so good for food and so greatly desired. When cooked they are of excellent
[179]
INDIAN NOTES
Fig. 8o.— The Ground Bean (Falcata comosa (L.) Kuntze)
This illustration, reproduced bv courtesy of the U. S. Bureau of Plant Industry-, shows one leaf of the plant, nine underground beans at the left, and eleven shelled beans from aerial pods at lower right, with sixteen aerial pods above. Length of the lower- most underground bean, seven-eighths of an inch.)
[i8o]
INDIAN NOTES
flavor. But these desirable beans would be diffi- cult to obtain were it not for the help of a certain species of small mammal (Microtus pennsylvanicus^, commonly called meadow mouse, or bean mouse (fig. 8i). These mice gather great stores of food for winter, certain roots and seeds, and most especially the ground beans. It is from this activity that the animal is called bean mouse.
Fig. 8i. — The Missouri River Bean Mouse (Microtus -penn- sylvanicus wahema)
This animal was taken in her food store near Cannonball river, N. Dak., October 30, 1919, by Mr. Vernon Bailey, Chief Field Naturalist, \J . S. Biological Survey, by whose courtesy the photograph is reproduced. (Extreme length of the mouse, 5^ inches.)
The mice hollow out storage places in the ground, where they put away their winter supplies.
These stores of ground beans were eagerly sought by Indians of all tribes throughout the range of the plant, and they were grateful to the bean mouse for harvesting and storing the ground beans. But the Indians said they must not take away all the beans from the stores of the bean mice, for
[181]
INDIAN NOTES
it would be wicked to loot their stores and leave them destitute. Thev believed that if one were so hardhearted and unjust as to do so, such action would surely bring due punishment.
And the Indians said that when they went to seek the stores of beans laid up by the bean mice they must first prepare themselves in heart and mind. One must go on such a quest in all humil- ity and charity, not only toward all humankind, but with a feeling of acknowledgment of the rights of all living things, plants and animals as well as human beings, and with a becoming sense of the interdependence of all living things. One must have a consciousness of one's debt to all Nature and to all the Mysterious Powers. One going on this quest must, as they said, * 'think only good thoughts and have a good heart; one must put away any grudge or hard feelings. And especially we should think," they said, "of our debt to the bean mouse for the favor about to be asked of it." Thus they approached the stores of the bean mouse, not as robbers of the weak and helpless, but humbly asking of the little animal a portion of its stores for their own need.
^ Among all tribes is found a strong popular feeling of affection and respect for the bean mouse. The Omaha have a saying that "the
[i8i]
INDIAN NOTES
bean mice are very industrious people; they even help human beings."
All persons of the Dakota (or Sioux) nation w^ho have talked v^ith me about the bean mice have always said that they never took away any beans from them without making some payment in kind, for it would be wicked and unjust to steal the beans from the mouse people without making any return. They therefore put back some corn, some suet, or some other food, in exchange for the beans they took. They said that thus both they and the bean-mouse people had the mutual advantage of a variety in their food supply. The Dakota have a popular story which exemplifies their attitude toward the bean mouse :
"A certain woman plundered the storehouse of some Hintunka people [bean mice]. She robbed them of their entire food supply without giving them anything in return. The next night this woman heard a woman down in the woods cry- ing and saying, 'Oh, what will my poor children do now?' It was the voice of the Hintunka woman crying over her hungry children.
"The same night the unjust woman who had done the wrong had a dream. In her dream Hunka, the spirit of kinship of all life, appeared to her and said: 'You should not have taken the
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food from the Hintunka people. Take back the food to them, or some other in its place, or else your own children shall cry from hunger.*
*'Next morning the woman told her husband of this vision, and he said, 'You would better do as Hunka tells you to do.' But the woman was hardhearted and perverse, and would not make restitution for the wrong she had done.
"A short time afterward a great prairie-fire came, driven by a strong wind, and swept over the place where the unjust woman and her family were camping. The fire consumed her tipi and everything it contained, and the people barely escaped with their lives. They had no food nor shelter; they wandered destitute on the prairie, and the children cried from hunger."
One of the old folk-stories of the Omaha having for their purpose the inculcation of discipline and self-control in children, is connected with the ground bean and the bean mouse. It is a story which has points of likeness to the Roman story of Romulus and Remus. But in the Omaha story it was not a she-wolf, but a gentle, compassionate bean-mouse mother which was the foster-mother. It is a long story, and concerns the adventures of twin brothers. In their helpless infancy their father, a famous hunter, returned to his house one day to find that in his absence a monster had
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killed his wife and that one of the twins was gone. The monster, after killing the mother, had carried away one of the babies and cast it in the woods, but the other he had left in the house, where the father found and cared for it when he returned. The one of the twins which was ex- posed in the woods was found and cared for by a kind old bean-mouse mother, who fed it on the best she had, which was ground beans from her food stores. So the twin brothers were reared separately until they were large enough to run about and play. The father, each day when he left the house, provided food for the boy during his own absence, and cautioned him against dangers and gave him directions as to his actions. After his father was gone, he heard a voice singing:
"Younger brother, thou hast a father, And so drink soup. But I have no father, And so I eat ground beans."
Then he went to the door and looked out and saw a little boy like himself. He called to the other little boy to come and play with him, but it was long before he could overcome the shyness and timidity of his visitor. These visits contin- ued day after day until finally the wild brother was captured and recognized by the father
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as his lost son. Thereafter the twins were re- united and reared under the care and instruction of the father, and the two brothers had many strange adventures together, overcoming all their difficulties and dangers by courage, pluck, and determination. The purpose of the story is to teach boys to be strong-hearted, and to train their own powers of observation and of endurance, and also to teach the interrelation and inter- dependence of human beings and all the more lowly forms of life, both animals and plants, and to imbue a proper regard and respect therefor.
The bean mouse and its works are regarded with admiration and reverence by the people of the various Indian tribes which benefit by its labor. In the fall, after the bean mice have harvested their beans and laid them up in their storehouses for the winter, the people often go out alone and sit upon the lap of Mother Earth near some such storehouse in some quiet place under the open sky, reverently and thankfully meditating upon the mysteries of Nature and the bounties of Providence in Nature.
An old man of the Teton Dakota, living upon the Standing Rock reservation on the upper Missouri river, went out to the vicinity of a bean- mouse's storehouse to meditate and pray. Think- ing himself to be alone in the presence of the
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powers of Nature, the old man gave expression to his religious feeling in a prayer which \yas over- heard and recorded by another man who was within hearing, but unobserved by the old man who was praying. The words of his prayer, when translated, may be rendered as follows:
"Thou who art holy, pity me and help me, I pray. Thou art small, but thou art sufficiently large, for thy place in the world. And, though weak, thou art sufficiently strong for thy work, for Holy Wakantanka constantly strengthens thee. Thou art also wise, for the wisdom of holiness is with thee constantly.
"May I be wise in my heart continually, for if an attitude of holy wisdom leads me on, then this shadow-troubled life shall come into constant light."
Melvin R. Gilmore
PORCUPINE QUILLWORK FROM LO\TLOCK CAVE, NEVADA
A TECHNIQUE in porcupine quillwork, hitherto unknown, was found during the exploration recently carried on by Mr. M. R. Harrington, of the Museum, in Lovelock cave, Nevada. This technique, known in basketry as wrapped twined weaving, consists of two warp stems crossing one another at right angles, bound together at the crossings usually with a water-softened element, wrapping a crossing, and passing to the next in a continuous twining. In basketry the warp
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stems are usually of willow or of some such material. The stems standing upright are on the outside of the basket, while the crossing ele- ments are inside. On the outside the turns of the
Fig. 8z. — Fragments of porcupine quillwork shown from the front. (Slightly reduced)
wrapping are oblique, on the inside vertical. The specimens found in Lovelock cave are fragmentary (figs. 81, 83), and it is not possible to say what the objects were when complete. The material is a very soft cord of twisted fiber, suggesting bags
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or pouches rather than baskets. The upright or outside strands are each composed of two fiber cords slightly twisted and seem to be wrapped together with a very fine thread (this is not
Fig. 83. — The reverse side of the quilled fragments. (Actual
size)
absolutely certain, owing to the fact that the fibers are somewhat worn and frayed), making a flattened element about an eighth of an inch wide. The crossing or back elements are of single
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threads of twisted fiber of varying sizes, the largest being about the diameter of No. 8 cotton thread. The vertical and horizontal elements are wrapped and bound together with flattened por- cupine-quills (fig. 84). On the outside the quills are straight across, rather than oblique as are the wrappings in basketry. The drawing shows the
work spread apart; in the finished product the elements are close together, the quills cover- ing the cords when seen from the front. In making the turn over the horizon- tal thread, the quills were twisted and contracted so that the threads are not concealed on the reverse of the work. The surface of this weave presents a strik- ing resemblance to the imbricated form of decora- tion used by the basket-makers of the Northwest. So far as the use of porcupine-quills is concerned, this technique has not been brought to our notice before.
William C. Orchard
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Fig. 84. — Detail of the technique of wrapped twined weaving with porcupine-quills as a wrapping element
INDIAN NOTES
SOME SENECA MASKS AND THEIR USES
While attending the annual midwinter festival of the Seneca Indians of the Allegany reservation in w^estern New^ York during the first tw^o weeks of February, it was the privilege of the writer to witness several performances of the Falseface Society, and later to obtain for the Museum an interesting series of antique masks and maskettes. Inasmuch as the Falseface Society and its para- phernalia have never been adequately described, although known to whites for two centuries, at least, the brief notes given here will be of interest as adding a little to our knowledge of the ancient rites of the Iroquois, many of which are still actively performed.
On the afternoon of February third, while visiting at the home of Mrs. Alice White, of the Wolf clan, close to the Long House at Cold Spring, there was a sudden bustle of excitement. Looking out of one of the windows, two men clad in nondescript garb, wearing wooden masks and with their heads completely covered with cloth throws, were seen approaching from the general direction of the Long House. They bore in their hands rattles made from the shells of the snapping-turtle, the extended skin of the neck and the skull of the animal being stretched over a piece of wood for a handle.
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It was immediately whispered that the "False- faces" were coming to doctor a young girl in the family, who had long been ailing, and prepara- tions were at once made to receive them. A room was cleared and a bench placed in the middle. A man named John Jimerson straddled the bench, and, keeping time thereon with a billet of wood, struck up a song. The masked figures approached the door and made several feints to enter, scraping the doorposts and lintels with their rattles, which they also shook con- tinuously, while they occasionally