Seventh Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology
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Title: Seventh Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology
Editor: John Wesley Powell
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Language: English
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SEVENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY ***
Produced by Carlo Traverso, William Flis, C. J. Lippert,
Julia Miller, Frank van Drogen, Louise Hope, and the Online
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[Transcriber’s Note:
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ā, ē ... (vowel with macron or “long” mark)
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In Linguistic Families article only (all infrequent):
χ (chi)
ʇ ʞ (inverted letters)
e̥ (e with ring under),
ż (z with over-dot)
In Sacred Formulas article only:
ⁿ ⁱ ᵘ ᵁ ʷ (small raised n, i, u, U, w)
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The three “Accompanying Papers” that make up the bulk of this book are
also available as individual texts from Project Gutenberg:
J. W. Powell, _Indian Linguistic Families of America North
of Mexico_ (pages 1-140): e-text 17286
W. J. Hoffman, _The Midē´wiwin or Grand Medicine Society of the
Ojibwa_ (pages 141-300): e-text 19368
J. Mooney, _The Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees_ (pages 300-398):
e-text 24788
The papers are identical except that a few more typographical errors
have been corrected in this combined version, and some minor formatting
has been changed for consistency. Plates and Figures were numbered
continuously in the published volume, and have not been changed.
Typographical errors are listed separately after each paper and
after the combined Index. Bracketed passages other than footnotes or
illustration tags are in the original.]
* * * * *
* * * *
SEVENTH ANNUAL REPORT
of the
BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY
to the
Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution
1885-’86
by
J. W. POWELL
Director
[Illustration]
WASHINGTON
Government Printing Office
1891
* * * * *
CONTENTS.
REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR.
Page.
Letter of transmittal XIII
Introduction XV
Field work XVI
Mound explorations XVI
Work of Prof. Cyrus Thomas XVI
Explorations in stone villages XVIII
Work of Director J. W. Powell XVIII
Work of Mr. James Stevenson XXIV
Work of Messrs. Victor Mindeleff and Cosmos
Mindeleff XXV
Work of Mr. E. W. Nelson XXVIII
General field studies XXVIII
Work of Dr. H. C. Yarrow XXVIII
Work of Mr. James C. Pilling XXX
Work of Mr. Jeremiah Curtin XXX
Office work XXX
Work of Prof. Cyrus Thomas XXX
Work of Mrs. V. L. Thomas XXXI
Work of Mr. James C. Pilling XXXI
Work of Mr. Frank H. Cushing XXXI
Work of Mrs. Erminnie A. Smith XXXI
Work of Mr. Charles C. Royce XXXII
Work of Dr. H. C. Yarrow XXXII
Work of Dr. Washington Matthews XXXII
Work of Mr. W. H. Holmes XXXII
Work of Mr. Victor Mindeleff XXXII
Work of Mr. Cosmos Mindeleff XXXIII
Work of Mr. E. W. Nelson XXXIII
Work of Col. Garrick Mallery XXXIV
Work of Mr. H. W. Henshaw XXXIV
Work of Mr. Albert S. Gatschet XXXIV
Work of Rev. J. Owen Dorsey XXXIV
Work of Mr. James Mooney XXXIV
Synonymy of Indian tribes XXXIV
Accompanying papers XXXVI
Linguistic families of North America XXXVI
The Midē´wiwin or Grand Medicine Society of the
Ojibwa, by Dr. W. J. Hoffman, and The Sacred
Formulas of the Cherokees, by Mr. James Mooney XXXIX
Financial statement XLI
ACCOMPANYING PAPERS
INDIAN LINGUISTIC FAMILIES OF AMERICA NORTH OF MEXICO,
BY J. W. POWELL.
Nomenclature of linguistic families 7
Literature relating to the classification of
Indian languages 12
Linguistic map 25
Indian tribes sedentary 30
Population 33
Tribal land 40
Village sites 40
Agricultural land 41
Hunting claims 42
Summary of deductions 44
Linguistic families 45
Adaizen family 45
Algonquian family 47
Algonquian area 47
Principal Algonquian tribes 48
Population 48
Athapascan family 51
Boundaries 52
Northern group 53
Pacific group 53
Southern group 54
Principal tribes 55
Population 55
Attacapan family 56
Beothukan family 57
Geographic distribution 58
Caddoan family 58
Northern group 60
Middle group 60
Southern group 60
Principal tribes 61
Population 62
Chimakuan family 62
Principal tribes 63
Chimarikan family 63
Principal tribes 63
Chimmesyan family 63
Principal tribes or villages 64
Population 64
Chinookan family 65
Principal tribes 66
Population 66
Chitimachan family 66
Chumashan family 67
Population 68
Coahuiltecan family 68
Principal tribes 69
Copehan family 69
Geographic distribution 69
Principal tribes 70
Costanoan family 70
Geographic distribution 71
Population 71
Eskimauan family 71
Geographic distribution 72
Principal tribes and villages 74
Population 74
Esselenian family 75
Iroquoian family 76
Geographic distribution 77
Principal tribes 79
Population 79
Kalapooian family 81
Principal tribes 82
Population 82
Karankawan family 82
Keresan family 83
Villages 83
Population 83
Kiowan family 84
Population 84
Kitunahan family 85
Tribes 85
Population 85
Koluschan family 85
Tribes 87
Population 87
Kulanapan family 87
Geographic distribution 88
Tribes 88
Kusan family 89
Tribes 89
Population 89
Lutuamian family 89
Tribes 90
Population 90
Mariposan family 90
Geographic distribution 91
Tribes 91
Population 91
Moquelumnan family 92
Geographic distribution 93
Principal tribes 93
Population 93
Muskhogean family 94
Geographic distribution 94
Principal tribes 95
Population 95
Natchesan family 95
Principal tribes 97
Population 97
Palaihnihan family 97
Geographic distribution 98
Principal tribes 98
Piman family 98
Principal tribes 99
Population 99
Pujunan family 99
Geographic distribution 100
Principal tribes 100
Quoratean family 100
Geographic distribution 101
Tribes 101
Population 101
Salinan family 101
Population 102
Salishan family 102
Geographic distribution 104
Principal tribes 104
Population 105
Sastean family 105
Geographic distribution 106
Shahaptian family 106
Geographic distribution 107
Principal tribes and population 107
Shoshonean family 108
Geographic distribution 109
Principal tribes and population 110
Siouan family 111
Geographic distribution 112
Principal tribes 114
Population 116
Skittagetan family 118
Geographic distribution 120
Principal tribes 120
Population 121
Takilman family 121
Geographic distribution 121
Tañoan family 121
Geographic distribution 123
Population 123
Timuquanan family 123
Geographic distribution 123
Principal tribes 124
Tonikan family 125
Geographic distribution 125
Tonkawan family 125
Geographic distribution 125
Uchean family 126
Geographic distribution 126
Population 27
Waiilatpuan family 127
Geographic distribution 127
Principal tribes 127
Population 128
Wakashan family 128
Geographic distribution 130
Principal Aht tribes 130
Population 130
Principal Haeltzuk tribes 131
Population 131
Washoan family 131
Weitspekan family 131
Geographic distribution 132
Tribes 132
Wishoskan family 133
Geographic distribution 133
Tribes 133
Yokonan family 133
Geographic distribution 134
Tribes 134
Population 135
Yanan family 135
Geographic distribution 135
Yukian family 135
Geographic distribution 136
Yuman family 136
Geographic distribution 137
Principal tribes 138
Population 138
Zuñian family 138
Geographic distribution 139
Population 139
Concluding remarks 139
THE MIDĒ´WIWIN OR “GRAND MEDICINE SOCIETY” OF THE OJIBWA,
BY W. J. HOFFMAN.
Introduction 149
Shamans 156
Midē´wiwin 164
Midē´wigân 187
First degree 189
Preparatory instruction 189
Midē´ therapeutics 197
Imploration for clear weather 207
Initiation of candidate 210
Descriptive notes 220
Second degree 224
Preparation of candidate 224
Initiation of candidate 231
Descriptive notes 236
Third degree 240
Preparation of candidate 241
Initiation of candidate 243
Descriptive notes 251
Fourth degree 255
Preparation of candidate 257
Initiation of candidate 258
Descriptive notes 274
Dzhibai´ Midē´wigân 278
Initiation by substitution 281
Supplementary notes 286
Pictography 286
Music 289
Dress and ornaments 298
Future of the society 299
THE SACRED FORMULAS OF THE CHEROKEES, BY JAMES MOONEY.
Introduction 307
How the formulas were obtained 310
The A‛yûⁿinĭ (Swimmer) manuscript 310
The Gatigwanastĭ (Belt) manuscript 312
The Gahunĭ manuscript 313
The Inâlĭ (Black Fox) manuscript 314
Other manuscripts 316
The Kanâhe´ta Ani-Tsa´lagĭ Etĭ or Ancient Cherokee
Formulas 317
Character of the formulas-- the Cherokee religion 318
Myth of the origin of disease and medicine 319
Theory of disease-- animals, ghosts, witches 332
Selected list of plants used 324
Medical practice-- theory of resemblances-- fasting--
tabu-- seclusion-- women 328
Illustration of the gaktûⁿta or tabu 331
Neglect of sanitary regulations 332
The sweat bath-- bleeding-- rubbing-- bathing 333
Opposition of shamans to white physicians 336
Medicine dances 337
Description of symptoms 337
The ugista´‛tĭ or pay of the shaman 337
Ceremonies for gathering plants and preparing medicine 339
The Cherokee gods and their abiding places 340
Color symbolism 342
Importance attached to names 343
Language of the formulas 343
Specimen formulas 344
Medicine 345
To treat the crippler (rheumatism)-- from Gahuni 345
Second formula for the crippler-- from Gahuni 349
Song and prescription for snake bites-- from Gahuni 351
When something is causing something to eat them--
Gahuni 353
Second formula for the same disease-- A‛wanita 355
For moving pains in the teeth (neuralgia?)--
Gatigwanasti 356
Song and prayer for the great chill-- A‛yûⁿini 359
To make children jump down (child birth)-- A‛yûⁿini 363
Second formula for child birth-- Takwatihi 364
Song and prayer for the black yellowness
(biliousness)-- A‛yûⁿini 365
To treat for ordeal diseases (witchcraft)-- A‛yûⁿini 366
Hunting 369
Concerning hunting-- A‛yûⁿini 369
For hunting birds-- A‛yûⁿini 371
To shoot dwellers in the wilderness-- A‛wanita 372
Bear song-- A‛yûⁿini 373
For catching large fish-- A‛yûⁿini 374
Love 375
Concerning living humanity-- Gatigwanasti 376
For going to water-- Gatigwanasti 378
Yûⁿwehi song for painting-- Gatigwanasti 379
Song and prayer to fix the affections-- A‛yûⁿini 380
To separate lovers-- A‛yûⁿini 381
Song and prayer to fix the affections-- Gatigwanasti 382
Miscellaneous 384
To shorten a night-goer on this side-- A‛yûⁿini 384
To find lost articles-- Gatigwanasti 386
To frighten away a storm-- A‛yûⁿini 387
To help warriors-- A‛wanita 388
To destroy life (ceremony with beads)-- A‛yûⁿini 391
To take to water for the ball play-- A‛yûⁿini 395
ILLUSTRATIONS.
Page.
Plate I. Map. Linguistic stocks of America north
of Mexico In pocket.
II. Map showing present distribution of Ojibwa 150
III. Bed Lake and Leech Lake records 166
IV. Sikas´sige’s record 170
V. Origin of Âníshinâ´bēg 172
VI. Facial decoration 174
VII. Facial decoration 178
VIII. Ojibwa’s record 182
IX. Mnemonic songs 192
X. Mnemonic songs 202
XI. Sacred objects 220
XII. Invitation sticks 226
XIII. Mnemonic songs 228
XIV. Mnemonic songs 238
XV. Sacred posts 240
XVI. Mnemonic songs 244
XVII. Mnemonic songs 266
XVIII. Jĕs´sakkīd´ removing disease 278
XIX. Birch-bark records 286
XX. Sacred bark scroll and contents 288
XXI. Midē´ relics from Leech Lake 290
XXII. Mnemonic songs 292
XXIII. Midē´ dancing garters 298
XXIV. Portrait of A‛yûⁿini (Swimmer) 306
XXV. Facsimile of A‛yûⁿini manuscript-- Formula for
Dalâni Ûⁿagei 310
XXVI. Facsimile of Gatigwanasti manuscript--
Yûⁿwĕhĭ formula 312
XXVII. Facsimile of Grahuni manuscript-- Formula for
Didûⁿlĕskĭ 314
Fig. 1. Herbalist preparing medicine and treating
patient 159
2. Sikas´sigē’s combined charts, showing descent
of Mī´nabō´zho 174
3. Origin of ginseng 175
4. Peep-hole post 178
5. Migration of Âníshinâ´bēg 179
6. Birch-bark record, from White Earth 185
7. Birch-bark record, from Red Lake 186
8. Birch-bark record, from Red Lake 186
9. Eshgibō´ga 187
10. Diagram of Midē´wigân of the first degree 188
11. Interior of Midē´wigân 188
12. Ojibwa drums 190
13. Midē´ rattle 191
14. Midē´ rattle 191
15. Shooting the Mīgis 192
16. Wooden beads 205
17. Wooden effigy 205
18. Wooden effigy 205
19. Hawk-leg fetish 220
20. Hunter’s medicine 222
21. Hunter’s medicine 222
22. Wâbĕnō´ drum 223
23. Diagram of Midē´wigân of the second degree 224
34. Midē´ destroying an enemy 238
25. Diagram of Midē´wigân of the third degree 240
26. Jĕs’sakkân´, or juggler’s lodge 252
27. Jĕs’sakkân´, or juggler’s lodge 252
28. Jĕs’sakkân´, or juggler’s lodge 252
29. Jĕs’sakkân´, or juggler’s lodge 252
30. Jĕs’sakkân´, or juggler’s lodge 252
31. Jĕs’sakkīd´ curing woman 255
32. Jĕs’sakkīd´ curing man 255
33. Diagram of Midē´wigân of the fourth degree 255
34. General view of Midē´wigân 256
35. Indian diagram of ghost lodge 279
36. Leech Lake Midē´ song 295
37. Leech Lake Midē´ song 296
38. Leech Lake Midē´ song 297
39. Leech Lake Midē´ song 297
LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL.
Smithsonian Institution,
Bureau of Ethnology,
_Washington, D.C., October 1, 1886_.
SIR: I have the honor to submit my Seventh Annual Report as Director of
the Bureau of Ethnology.
The first part consists of an explanation of the plan and operations
of the Bureau; the second part consists of a series of papers on
anthropologic subjects, prepared to illustrate the methods and results
of the work of the Bureau.
I desire to express my thanks for your earnest support and your wise
counsel relating to the work under my charge. I am, with respect, your
obedient servant,
[Signature:] J. W. Powell
Prof. SPENCER F. BAIRD,
_Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution._
* * * * *
SEVENTH ANNUAL REPORT
of the
BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY.
By J. W. POWELL, Director.
* * * * *
INTRODUCTION.
The prosecution of ethnologic researches among the North American
Indians, in accordance with act of Congress, was continued during the
fiscal year 1885-’86.
The general plan upon which the work has been prosecuted in former
years, and which has been explained in earlier reports, was continued in
operation.
General lines of investigation were indicated by the Director, and the
details intrusted to selected persons trained in their several pursuits,
the results of whose labors are published from time to time in the
manner provided for by law. A brief statement of the work upon which
each of these special students was engaged during the year, with its
condensed result, is presented below. This, however, does not specify in
detail all of the studies undertaken or services rendered by them, as
particular lines of research have been temporarily suspended in order to
accomplish immediately objects regarded as of superior importance. From
this cause the publication of several treatises and monographs has been
delayed, although in some instances they have been heretofore reported
as substantially completed, and, indeed, as partly in type.
The present opportunity is used to invite and urge again the assistance
of explorers, writers, and students, who are not and may not desire to
be officially connected with this Bureau. Their contributions, whether
in the shape of suggestion or of extended communications, will be
gratefully acknowledged and carefully considered. If published in whole
or in part, either in the series of reports or in monographs or
bulletins, as the liberality of Congress may in future allow, the
contributors will always receive proper credit.
The items which form the subject of the present report are presented in
two principal divisions. The first relates to the work prosecuted in the
field, and the second to the office work, which consists largely of the
preparation for publication of the results of the field work,
complemented and extended by study of the literature of the several
subjects and by correspondence relating to them.
FIELD WORK.
This heading may be divided into, first, Mound Explorations; second,
Explorations in Stone Villages; and, third, General Field Studies, among
which those upon mythology, linguistics, and customs have been during
the year the most prominent.
MOUND EXPLORATIONS.
WORK OF PROF. CYRUS THOMAS.
The work of the mound-exploring division, under the charge of Prof.
Cyrus Thomas, was carried on during the fiscal year with the same
success that had attended its earlier operations.
It is proper to explain that the title given above to the division does
not fully indicate the extent of its work. The simple exploration of
mounds is but a part of its scope, which embraces, as contemplated in
its organization, a careful examination and study of the archeologic
remains in the United States east of the Rocky Mountains. The limitation
of the force engaged on this work renders it necessary that the
investigations should be conducted along but one or two selected lines
at a time.
Before and even during some portion of the year now reported upon
attention had been devoted almost exclusively to the exploration of
individual mounds, with a view of ascertaining the different types of
tumuli, as regards form, construction, and other particulars and the
vestiges of art and human remains found in them. The study of these
works in their relation to each other and their segregation into groups,
and of the mural works, inclosures, and works of defense, is important
in the attempt to obtain indications of the social life and customs of
the builders. This plan of study had not received the attention
desirable and involved the necessity of careful surveys. It was thought
best to make a commencement this year in this branch of investigation.
During the summer of 1885 Prof. Thomas was in Wisconsin, engaged in
investigating and studying the effigy mounds and other ancient works of
that section.
Messrs. James D. Middleton, John P. Rogan, and John W. Emmert were
permanent assistants during the year; Mr. Charles M. Smith, Rev. S. D.
Peet, and Mr. H. L. Reynolds were employed for short periods as
temporary assistants.
During the summer and autumn of 1885 Messrs. Middleton and Emmert were
at work on the mounds and ancient monuments of southwestern Wisconsin,
the former surveying the groups of effigy mounds and the latter
exploring the conical tumuli. When the weather became too cold for
operations in that section they were transferred to east Tennessee,
where Mr. Emmert continued at work throughout the remainder of the
fiscal year.
When it had been decided to commence the preparation of a report on the
field work of the division, in the hope of its early publication, Mr.
Middleton was called to the office to assist in that preparation, where
he remained, preparing maps and plats and making a catalogue of the
collections, until the latter part of April, 1886, when he again entered
upon field work in the southern part of Illinois, among the graves of
that neighborhood.
Mr. Rogan was in charge of the office work from the 1st of July until
the latter part of August, during which time Prof. Thomas was in the
field, as before mentioned. He was engaged during the remainder of the
year in exploring the mounds of northern Georgia and east Tennessee.
Rev. S. D. Peet was employed for a few months in preparing a preliminary
map showing the localities of the antiquarian remains of Wisconsin and
the areas formerly occupied by the several Indian tribes which are known
to have inhabited that region. In addition he prepared for use in the
report notes on the distribution and character of the mounds and other
ancient works of Wisconsin.
Mr. Smith was engaged during the month of June, 1886, in exploring
mounds and investigating the ancient works in southwestern Pennsylvania;
and Mr. Reynolds, during the same time, in tracing and exploring the
monumental remains of western New York.
Notwithstanding the details necessary for office work in the preparation
of maps and plats for the report, and cataloguing the collection, the
amount of field work accomplished was equal to that done in previous
years. Although, as before stated, one of the assistants, Mr. Middleton,
was chiefly engaged, while in the field, in surveying, about 3,500
specimens were collected and a large number of drawings obtained
illustrating the different modes of construction of the mounds.
EXPLORATIONS IN STONE VILLAGES.
WORK OF DIRECTOR J. W. POWELL.
During the summer of 1885 the Director, accompanied by Mr. James
Stevenson, revisited portions of Arizona and New Mexico in which many
structures are found which have greatly interested travelers and
anthropologists, and about which various theories have grown. The
results of the investigation have been so much more distinct and
comprehensive than any before obtained that they require to be reported
with some detail.
On the plain to the west of the Little Colorado River and north of the
San Francisco Mountain there are many scattered ruins, usually having
one, two, or three rooms each, all of which are built of basaltic
cinders and blocks. Through the plain a valley runs to the north, and
then east to the Little Colorado. Down the midst of the valley there is
a wash, through which, in seasons of great rainfall, a stream courses.
Along this stream there are extensive ruins built of sandstone and
limestone. At one place a village site was discovered, in which several
hundred people once found shelter. To the north of this and about
twenty-five miles from the summit of San Francisco Peak there is a
volcanic cone of cinder and basalt. This small cone had been used as the
site of a village, a pueblo having been built around the crater. The
materials of construction were derived from a great sandstone quarry
near by, and the pit from which they were taken was many feet in depth
and extended over two or three acres of ground. The cone rises on the
west in a precipitous cliff from the valley of an intermittent creek.
The pueblo was built on that side at the summit of the cliff, and
extending on the north and south sides along the summit of steep slopes,
was inclosed on the east, so that the plaza was entered by a covered
way. The court, or plaza, was about one-third of an acre in area. The
little pueblo contained perhaps sixty or seventy rooms. Southward of San
Francisco Mountain many other ruins were found.
East of the San Francisco Peak, at a distance of about twelve miles,
another cinder cone was found. Here the cinders are soft and friable,
and the cone is a prettily shaped dome. On the southern slope there are
excavations into the indurated and coherent cinder mass, constituting
chambers, often ten or twelve feet in diameter and six to ten feet in
height. The chambers are of irregular shape, and occasionally a larger
central chamber forms a kind of vestibule to several smaller ones
gathered about it. The smaller chambers are sometimes at the same
altitude as the central or principal one, and sometimes at a lower
altitude. About one hundred and fifty of these chambers have been
excavated. Most of them are now partly filled by the caving in of the
walls and ceilings, but some of them are yet in a good state of
preservation. In these chambers, and about them on the summit and sides
of the cinder cone, many stone implements were found, especially
metates. Some bone implements also were discovered. At the very summit
of the little cone there is a plaza, inclosed by a rude wall made of
volcanic cinders, the floor of which was carefully leveled. The plaza is
about forty-five by seventy-five feet in area. Here the people lived in
underground houses--chambers hewn from the friable volcanic cinders.
Before them, to the south, west, and north, stretched beautiful valleys,
beyond which volcanic cones are seen rising amid pine forests. The
people probably cultivated patches of ground in the low valleys.
About eighteen miles still farther to the east of San Francisco Mountain
another ruined village was discovered, built about the crater of a
volcanic cone. This volcanic peak is of much greater magnitude. The
crater opens to the eastward. On the south many stone dwellings have
been built of the basaltic and cinder-like rocks. Between the ridge on
the south and another on the northwest there is a low saddle in which
other buildings have been erected, and in which a great plaza was found,
much like the one previously described. But the most interesting part of
this village was on the cliff which rose on the northwest side of the
crater. In this cliff are many natural caves, and the caves themselves
were utilized as dwellings by inclosing them in front with walls made of
volcanic rocks and cinders. These cliff dwellings are placed tier above
tier, in a very irregular way. In many cases natural caves were thus
utilized; in other cases cavate chambers were made; that is, chambers
have been excavated in the friable cinders. On the very summit of the
ridge stone buildings were erected, so that this village was in part a
cliff village, in part cavate, and in part the ordinary stone pueblo.
The valley below, especially to the southward, was probably occupied by
their gardens. In the chambers among the overhanging cliffs a great many
interesting relics were found, of stone, bone, and wood, and many
potsherds.
About eight miles southeast of Flagstaff, a little town on the southern
slope of San Francisco Mountain, Oak Creek enters a canyon, which runs
to the eastward and then southward for a distance of about ten miles.
The gorge is a precipitous box canyon for the greater part of this
distance. It is cut through carboniferous rocks--sandstones and
limestones--which are here nearly horizontal. The softer sandstones
rapidly disintegrate, and the harder sandstones and limestones remain.
Thus broad shelves are formed on the sides of the cliffs, and these
shelves, or the deep recesses between them, were utilized, so that here
is a village of cliff dwellings. There are several hundred rooms
altogether. The rooms are of sandstone, pretty carefully worked and laid
in mortar, and the interior of the rooms was plastered. The opening for
the chimney was usually by the side of the entrance, and the ceilings of
the rooms are still blackened with soot and smoke. Around this village,
on the terrace of the canyon, great numbers of potsherds, stone
implements, and implements of bone, horn, and wood were found; and here,
as in all of the other ruins mentioned, corncobs in great abundance were
discovered.
In addition to the four principal ruins thus described many others are
found, most of them being of the ordinary pueblo type. From the evidence
presented it would seem that they had all been occupied at a
comparatively late date. They were certainly not abandoned more than
three or four centuries ago.
Later in the season the Director visited the Supai Indians of Cataract
Canyon, and was informed by them that their present home had been taken
up not many generations ago, and that their ancestors occupied the ruins
which have been described; and they gave such a circumstantial account
of the occupation and of their expulsion by the Spaniards, that no doubt
can be entertained of the truth of their traditions in this respect. The
Indians of Cataract Canyon doubtless lived on the north, east, and south
of San Francisco Mountain at the time this country was discovered by the
Spaniards, and they subsequently left their cliff and cavate dwellings
and moved into Cataract Canyon, where they now live. It is thus seen
that these cliff and cavate dwellings are not of an ancient prehistoric
time, but that they were occupied by a people still existing, who also
built pueblos of the common type.
Later in the season the party visited the cavate ruins near Santa Clara,
previously explored by Mr. Stevenson. Here, on the western side of the
Rio Grande del Norte, was found a system of volcanic peaks, constituting
what is known as the Valley Range. To the east of these peaks,
stretching far beyond the present channel of the Rio Grande, there was
once a great Tertiary lake, which was gradually filled with the sands
washed into it on every hand and by the ashes blown out of the adjacent
volcanoes. This great lake formation is in some places a thousand feet
in thickness. When the lake was filled the Rio Grande cut its channel
through the midst to a depth of many hundreds of feet. The volcanic
mountains to the westward send to the Rio Grande a number of minor
streams, which in a general way are parallel with one another. The Rio
Grande itself, and all of these lateral streams, have cut deep gorges
and canyons, so that there are long, irregular table-lands, or mesas,
extending from the Rio Grande back to the Valley Mountains, each mesa
being severed from the adjacent one by a canyon or canyon valley; and
each of these long mesas rises with a precipitous cliff from the valley
below. The cliffs themselves are built of volcanic sands and ashes, and
many of the strata are exceedingly light and friable. The specific
gravity of some of these rocks is so low that they will float on water.
Into the faces of these cliffs, in the friable and easily worked rock,
many chambers have been excavated; for mile after mile the cliffs are
studded with them, so that altogether there are many thousands.
Sometimes a chamber or series of chambers is entered from a terrace, but
usually they were excavated many feet above any landing or terrace
below, so that they could be reached only by ladders. In other places
artificial terraces were built by constructing retaining walls and
filling the interior next to the cliff with loose rock and sand. Very
often steps were cut into the face of a cliff and a rude stairway formed
by which chambers could be reached. The chambers were very irregularly
arranged and very irregular in size and structure. In many cases there
is a central chamber, which seems to have been a general living room for
the people, back of which two, three, or more chambers somewhat smaller
are found. The chambers occupied by one family are sometimes connected
with those occupied by another family, so that two or three or four sets
of chambers have interior communication. Usually, however, the
communication from one system of chambers to another was by the outside.
Many of the chambers had evidently been occupied as dwellings. They
still contained fireplaces and evidences of fire; there were little
caverns or shelves in which various vessels were placed, and many
evidences of the handicraft of the people were left in stone, bone,
horn, and wood, and in the chambers and about the sides of the cliffs
potsherds are abundant. On more careful survey it was found that many
chambers had been used as stables for asses, goats, and sheep. Sometimes
they had been filled a few inches, or even two or three feet, with the
excrement of these animals. Ears of corn and corncobs were also found in
many places. Some of the chambers were evidently constructed to be used
as storehouses or caches for grain. Altogether it is very evident that
the cliff houses have been used in comparatively modern times; at any
rate since the people owned asses, goats, and sheep. The rock is of such
a friable nature that it will not stand atmospheric degradation very
long, and there is abundant evidence of this character testifying to the
recent occupancy of these cavate dwellings.
Above the cliffs, on the mesas, which have already been described,
evidences of more ancient ruins were found. These were pueblos built of
cut stone rudely dressed. Every mesa had at least one ancient pueblo
upon it, evidently far more ancient than the cavate dwellings found in
the face of the cliffs. It is, then, very plain that the cavate
dwellings are not of great age; that they have been occupied since the
advent of the white man, and that on the summit of the cliffs there are
ruins of more ancient pueblos.
Now, the pottery of Santa Clara had been previously studied by Mr.
Stevenson, who made a large collection there two or three years ago, and
it was at once noticed that the potsherds of these cliff dwellings are,
both in shape and material, like those now made by the Santa Clara
Indians. The peculiar pottery of Santa Clara is readily distinguished,
as may be seen by examining the collection now in the National Museum.
While encamped in the valley below, the party met a Santa Clara Indian
and engaged him in conversation. From him the history of the cliff
dwellings was soon obtained. His statement was that originally his
people lived in six pueblos, built of cut stone, upon the summit of the
mesas; that there came a time when they were at war with the Apaches and
Navajos, when they abandoned their stone pueblos above and for greater
protection excavated the chambers in the cliffs below; that when this
war ended part of them returned to the pueblos above, which were
rebuilt; that there afterward came another war, with the Comanche
Indians, and they once more resorted to cliff dwellings. At the close of
this war they built a pueblo in the valley of the Rio Grande, but at the
time of the invasion of the Spaniards their people refused to be
baptized, and a Spanish army was sent against them, when they abandoned
the valley below and once more inhabited the cliff dwellings above. Here
they lived many years, until at last a wise and good priest brought them
peace, and persuaded them to build the pueblo which they now occupy--the
village of Santa Clara. The ruin of the pueblo which they occupied
previous to the invasion of the Spaniards is still to be seen about a
mile distant from the present pueblo.
The history thus briefly given was repeated by the governor and by other
persons, all substantially to the same effect. It is therefore evident
that the cavate dwellings of the Santa Clara region belong to a people
still extant; that they are not of great antiquity, and do not give
evidence of a prehistoric and now extinct race.
Plans and measurements were made of some of the villages with sufficient
accuracy to prepare models. Photographic views and sketches were also
procured with which to illustrate a detailed report of the subject to be
published by the Bureau.
WORK OF MR. JAMES STEVENSON.
After the investigations made in company with the Director, as mentioned
above, Mr. Stevenson proceeded with a party to the ancient province of
Tusayan, in Arizona, to study the characteristics of the Moki tribes,
its inhabitants, and to make collections of such implements and utensils
as illustrate their arts and industries. Several months were spent among
the villages, resulting in a large collection of rare objects, all of
which were selected with special reference to their anthropologic
importance. This collection contains many articles novel in character
and with uses differing from any heretofore obtained, and forms an
important addition to the collections in the National Museum.
A study of their religious ceremonials and mythology was made, of which
full notes were taken. Sketches were made of their masks and other
objects which could not be obtained for the collection.
Mrs. Stevenson was also enabled to obtain a minute description of the
celebrated dance, or medicine ceremony, of the Navajos, called the
Yéibit-cai. She made complete sketches of the sand altars, masks, and
other objects employed in this ceremonial.
WORK OF MESSRS. VICTOR MINDELEFF AND COSMOS MINDELEFF.
Mr. Victor Mindeleff, who had been engaged for several years in
investigating the architecture of the pueblos and the ruins of the
southwest, was at the beginning of the fiscal year at work among the
Moki towns in Arizona, in charge of a party. Mr. Cosmos Mindeleff left
Washington on July 6 for the same locality. He was placed in charge of
the surveying necessary in the Stone Village region, and the result of
his work is included in the general report of that division.
Visits were paid to the Moki villages in succession, obtaining drawings
of some constructional details, and also traditions bearing on the ruins
in that vicinity. The main camp was established near Mashongnavi, one of
the Moki villages. A large ruined pueblo, formerly occupied by the
Mashongnavi, was here surveyed. No standing walls are found at the
present time, and many portions of the plan are entirely obliterated.
Typical fragments of pottery were collected.
Following this work, four other ruined pueblos were surveyed, and such
portions of them as clearly indicated dividing walls were drawn on the
ground plans.
Many of the ruins in this vicinity, according to the traditions of the
Mokis, have been occupied in comparatively recent times---a number of
them having been abandoned since the Spanish conquest of the country. In
several cases the villages now occupied are not upon the same sites as
those first visited by the Spaniards, although retaining the same names.
While the work of surveying was in progress, in charge of Mr. Cosmos
Mindeleff, Mr. Victor Mindeleff made a visit of several days at Keam
Canyon, there to meet a number of the Navajo Indians to explain the
purpose of the work and allay the suspicions of these Indians,
a necessary precaution, as some of the proposed work was laid out in
Canyon de Chelly, in the heart of their reservation. Recent restrictions
to which they had been subjected, as a consequence of new surveys of the
reservation line, had made them especially distrustful of parties
equipped with instruments for surveying. Incidental to explanations of
the purpose of the work, an opportunity was afforded of obtaining a
number of mythologic notes, and also interesting data regarding the
construction of their “hogans,” with the rules prescribing the
arrangement of each part of the frame and other particulars. A number of
ceremonial songs are sung at the building of these houses, but of these
only one could be secured, which was obtained in the original and
translated. Whenever opportunity occurred, during the progress of the
work, photographs and diagrams of construction of “hogans” were
procured.
On August 17 the ceremony of the snake-dance took place at Mashongnavi,
similar in every detail to that performed at Walpi, and differing only
in the number of participants. Several instantaneous negatives of the
various phases of the dance were secured. On the following day the same
ceremony was performed on a larger scale at Walpi, the easternmost of
the Moki villages.
Mr. Cosmos Mindeleff assisted in collecting from the present inhabitants
of the region legendary information bearing upon ruins and in observing
the snake-dances, a description of which was prepared for publication.
While the surveys of the ruins were in progress many detailed studies
were made of special features in the modern villages, particularly among
the “kivas” or religious chambers. In several instances the large
roofing timbers of the “kiva” were found to be the old beams from the
Spanish churches, hewn square, and decorated with the characteristic
rude carving of the old Spanish work. A number of legends connected with
the ruined pueblos were recorded.
On closing this work in the vicinity of the Moki villages, late in
August, the party moved into Keam Canyon, en route for Canyon de Chelly.
A day was devoted to the survey of a small pueblo of irregular
elliptical outline, situated about eighteen miles northeast from Keam
Canyon. This ruin is in excellent state of preservation and exhibits in
the masonry some stones of remarkably large size. The early part of
September was employed in making a close survey of the Mummy Cave group
of ruins in Canyon de la Muerte, this work including a five-foot contour
map of the ground and the rocky ledge over which the houses were
distributed. Detailed drawings of a number of special features were made
here, particularly in connection with the circular ceremonial chambers.
The latter were so buried under the accumulated debris of fallen walls
that much excavation was required to lay bare the details of internal
arrangement. A high class of workmanship is here exhibited, both in the
execution of the constructional features and in the interior decoration
of these chambers. Later the White House group, in the Canyon de Chelly,
comprising a village and cliff houses, was examined and platted in the
same manner.
The drawings and plans were supplemented with a series of photographs.
Some negatives of Navajo houses were also made.
On closing this work the party went into Fort Defiance, en route for
Zuñi, and thence to Ojo Caliente, a modern farming pueblo of the Zuñi,
about twelve miles south of the principal village. Here two ruins of
villages, thought to belong to the ancient Cibola group, were platted.
One of these villages had been provided with a circular reservoir of
large size, partially walled in with masonry. Here, also, the well
preserved walls of a stone church can be seen. The other contains the
remains of a large church, built of adobe. A series of widely scattered
house-clusters, occurring two miles west of Ojo Caliente, was also
examined, but the earth had drifted over the fallen walls and so covered
them that the arrangement of rooms could scarcely be traced at all.
The modern village of Ojo Caliente was also surveyed and diagrams and
photographs made.
Towards the end of September camp was moved to the vicinity of Zuñi.
Here four other villages of the Cibola group and the old villages on the
mesa of Ta-ai-ya-lo-ne were examined. Camp was then moved to Nutria,
a farming pueblo of Zuñi. From this camp Nutria was surveyed and
photographed, and also the village of Pescado, which is occupied only
during the farming season. Both of these modern farming pueblos appear
to be built on the ruins of more ancient villages, the remains of which
were especially noticeable in the case of Pescado, where the very
carefully executed masonry, characteristic of the ancient methods of
construction, could be seen outcropping at many points.
WORK OF MR. E. W. NELSON.
Following the return of the main party to Washington, some preliminary
exploration was carried on by Mr. E. W. Nelson, who made an examination
of the headwaters of the South Fork of Salt River, but did not find any
ruins. Thence the Blue Ridge was crossed, and the valley of the Blue
Fork of the San Francisco River visited. Here ruins were frequently
increasing in number toward the south. Farther south three sets of cliff
ruins were also located.
GENERAL FIELD STUDIES.
WORK OF DR. H. C. YARROW.
During the summer and fall of 1885, Dr. H. C. Yarrow, acting assistant
surgeon U.S. Army, examined points in Arizona and Utah. In the vicinity
of Springerville, Apache County, Arizona, in company with Mr. E. W.
Nelson, he visited a number of ancient pueblos and discovered that the
people formerly occupying the towns had followed the custom of burying
their dead immediately outside the walls of their habitations, marking
the places of sepulcher with circles of stones. The graves were four or
five feet in depth, and various household utensils had been deposited
with the dead. Mr. Nelson, who had made a careful search for these
cemeteries, informed him of the locality of hundreds. Unfortunately for
anthropometric science, most of the bones are too much decayed to be of
practical value. The places of burial selected at these pueblos are
similar to the burial places discovered in 1874 near the large ruined
pueblo of Abiquiu, in the valley of the Chama, New Mexico.
Dr. Yarrow also visited the Moki pueblos in Arizona, and obtained from
one of the principal men a clear and succinct account of their burial
customs. While there he witnessed the famous snake dance, which occurs
every two years, and is supposed to have the effect of producing rain.
From his knowledge of the reptilian fauna of the country he was able to
identify the species of serpents used in the dance, and from personal
examination satisfied himself that the fangs had not been extracted from
the poisonous varieties. He thinks, however, that the reptiles are
somewhat tamed by handling during the four days that they are kept in
the estufas and possibly are made to eject the greater part of the venom
contained in the sacs at the roots of the teeth, by being teased and
forced to strike at different objects held near them. He does not think
that a vegetable decoction in which they are washed has a stupefying
effect, as has been supposed by some. He also obtained from a Moki high
priest a full account of the ceremonies attending the dance. Through the
assistance of Mr. Thomas V. Keam, of Keam Canyon, Arizona, and Mr. A. M.
Stephen, he was able to procure from a noted Navajo wise man an exact
account of the burial customs of his people, as well as valuable
information regarding their medical practices, especially such as relate
to obstetrics.
From Arizona Dr. Yarrow proceeded to Utah, and made an examination of an
old rock cemetery near Farmington, finding it similar to the one he
discovered in 1872 near the town of Fillmore. The bodies had been
carried far up the side of the mountain; cavities had been prepared in a
rock slide, and the bodies placed therein. Branches of cottonwood were
then laid over and large boulders piled on top. In several of these
graves the skeletons were in a fair state of preservation, and were
removed, as well as the articles found with them.
Through the kindness of Mr. William Young, of Grantsville, a skeleton of
a Gosiute, in excellent preservation, was obtained, and has been
presented to the Army Medical Museum. It may be stated that the
examination of the rock cemetery at Farmington showed that the
inhabitants of the eastern slope of the Wahsatch Range, in Great Salt
Lake Valley, followed the mode of rock sepulture from this, the most
northern point visited, to below Parowan, a distance of at least two
hundred miles southward, and it seems that these people occupied the
valley long subsequent to those living near the water courses who
constructed the small mounds on top of which were the rude adobe
dwellings, and in some instances used these huts for burial purposes.
WORK OF MR. J. C. PILLING.
In the spring of 1886 Mr. James C. Pilling made a trip to Europe in the
interest of his work on the Bibliography of the Languages of the North
American Indians, and spent many days in the library of the British
Museum, the Bibliothèque Nationale at Paris, and several extensive
private libraries in England and France. The results of this trip are
highly satisfactory and valuable.
WORK OF MR. JEREMIAH CURTIN.
Mr. Jeremiah Curtin continued to collect vocabularies and myths in
California. The whole number of myths obtained in California and Oregon
was over three hundred. The number of vocabularies was eight, being the
Yana, Atsugëi (Hat Creek), Wasco, Miléblama (Warm Springs), Pai Ute,
Shasta, Maidu, and Wintu. Texts were also obtained in Yana, Wasco, Warm
Spring, and Shasta.
OFFICE WORK.
Prof. CYRUS THOMAS was engaged during the year, except the few weeks he
was in the field, in the preparation of his general report and in
correspondence relating to the archeology of the district before
specified. He also finished a paper published in the Sixth Annual Report
of this Bureau under the title, “Aids to the study of the Maya Codices,”
and a special report on the “Burial mounds of the northern sections of
the United States.” The latter has appeared in the Fifth Annual Report
of the Bureau.
Mrs. V. L. THOMAS, in addition to her duties as clerk, has been employed
in preparing a catalogue of the ancient works in that part of the United
States east of the Rocky Mountains. This catalogue, now nearly complete,
is intended to give the localities and character of all the antiquities
in the region mentioned, including discoveries which have been noted in
publications, as well as those mentioned in the reports of work done
under the Bureau.
Mr. JAMES C. PILLING continued to give a large share of his time and
attention throughout the year to the “Bibliography of the languages of
the North American Indians,” which has been adverted to in previous
reports. The advance “proofsheets” of this work, printed in the last
fiscal year, were distributed to collaborators and have been the means
of obtaining the active cooperation of many persons throughout this and
other countries who are interested in linguistic and bibliographic
science. They have thus elicited a large number of additions,
corrections, suggestions, and criticisms, all of which have received
careful consideration.
Mr. FRANK H. CUSHING was engaged in the preparation, from the large
amount of Zuñi material collected by him during several years, of papers
upon the language, mythology, and institutions of that people.
Mrs. ERMINNIE A. SMITH continued her study of the Iroquoian languages.
The first part of her final contribution on the subject was intended to
be a Tuscarora grammar and dictionary. The first portion of the
dictionary was completed, and had been forwarded to the Bureau when her
sudden and lamented death occurred on June 9, 1886, at her home in
Jersey City. Her former assistant, Mr. J. N. B. Hewitt, of Tuscarora
descent, has been engaged to complete the work she so successfully
began, and it is expected that the results of her long labors in the
field will be published without delay.
Mr. CHARLES C. ROYCE resigned his connection with the Bureau in the
early part of the year, thereby delaying the completion of the work upon
the primal title of the Indian tribes to lands within the United States
and the methods of procuring their relinquishment, the scope and value
of which have before been explained. Mr. Royce, before his departure
from Washington, completed a paper on the “Cherokee Nation of Indians,”
which has appeared in the Fifth Annual Report of the Bureau.
Dr. H. C. YARROW was still engaged in preparing the material for the
final volume upon the mortuary customs of the North American Indians, in
the prosecution of which the large amount of information received and
obtained from various sources has been carefully classified and arranged
under proper divisions, so that the manuscript is now being rapidly put
into shape for publication.
Dr. WASHINGTON MATTHEWS, U.S. Army, continued to prepare for publication
the copious notes obtained by him during former years in the Navajo
country, his chief work being upon a grammar and dictionary of the
Navajo language. He also wrote several papers, one of which, a “Chant
upon the Mountains,” has been published in the Fifth Annual Report.
Mr. W. H. HOLMES continued his work in the office during the year,
superintending the illustration of the various publications of the
Bureau. His scientific studies have been confined principally to the
field of American archeologic art. Two fully illustrated papers have
been finished and have appeared in the Sixth Annual Report of the
Bureau. They are upon “Ancient art of the province of Chiriqui,
Colombia,” and “A study of the textile art in its relations to the
development of form and ornament.” Mr. Holmes has, in addition,
continued his duties as curator of aboriginal pottery in the National
Museum.
Mr. VICTOR MINDELEFF, when not in the field, prepared reports on the
Tusayan and Cibola architectural groups. These, when completed, are to
be fully illustrated by a series of plans and drawings now being
prepared from the field-notes and other material. In this work it is
proposed to discuss the architecture in detail, particularly in the case
of the modern pueblos, where many of the constructional devices of the
old builders still survive. The examination of these details will be
found to throw light on obscure features of many ruined pueblos whose
state of preservation is such as to exhibit but little detail in
themselves.
In connection with the classification and arrangement of new material
from Canyon de Chelly, a paper was prepared on the cliff ruins of that
region.
Mr. COSMOS MINDELEFF has been in charge of the modeling room during the
last year. Upon his return from the field a series of models to
illustrate the Chaco ruins, architecturally the most important in the
Southwest, was commenced. Two of these, viz, the ruin of Wejegi and that
of a small pueblo near Pueblo Alto, have been finished and duplicates
have been deposited in the National Museum. The third, a large model of
Peñasco Blanco, is still uncompleted. All of these models are made from
entirely new surveys made in the summer of 1884. The scale used in the
previous series--the inhabited pueblos and the cliff ruins--though
larger than usually adopted for this class of work, has shown so much
more detail and has proved generally so satisfactory, that it has been
continued in the Chaco Ruin group, bringing the entire series of models
made by the Bureau to a uniform scale of 1:60, or one inch to five feet.
In addition to this the work of duplicating the existing models of the
Bureau for purposes of exchange was commenced. Three of these have been
completed, and two others are about half finished.
Mr. E. W. NELSON was engaged upon a report of his investigations among
the Eskimo tribes of Alaska. A part of this report, consisting of an
English-Eskimo dictionary, he has already forwarded.
* * * * *
As hereinafter explained, the year was principally devoted to the
synonymy of the Indian tribes, the special studies of several officers
of the Bureau being suspended so that their whole time might be employed
in that direction. In the year 1885, however, and at subsequent
intervals, their work was as follows:
Col. GARRICK MALLERY, U.S. Army, continued the study, by researches and
correspondence, of sign language and pictography. A comprehensive,
though preliminary, paper on the latter subject has been printed, with
copious illustrations, in the Fourth Annual Report.
Mr. H. W. HENSHAW was engaged during the year in work upon the synonymy
of Indian tribes, as specified below.
Mr. ALBERT S. GATSCHET continued to revise and perfect his grammar and
dictionary of the Klamath language, a large part of which work is in
print. He also took down vocabularies from Indian delegates present in
this city on tribal business, and thus succeeded in incorporating into
the collections of the Bureau of Ethnology linguistic material from the
Alibamu, Hitchiti, Muskoki, and Seneca languages.
Rev. J. OWEN DORSEY pursued his work on the Ȼegiha language. Having the
aid of a Winnebago Indian for some time he enlarged his vocabulary of
that language and recorded grammatical notes. He also reported upon
works submitted to his examination upon the Tuscarora, Micmac, and
Cherokee languages.
Mr. JAMES MOONEY, who had been officially connected with the Bureau
since the early part of the fiscal year, was also engaged upon
linguistic work.
SYNONYMY OF INDIAN TRIBES.
The Director has before reported in general terms that the most serious
source of perplexity to the student of the history of the North American
Indians is the confusion existing among their tribal names. The causes
of this confusion are various. The Indian names for themselves have been
understood and recorded in diverse ways by the earlier authors, and have
been variously transmitted by the latter. Nicknames arising from trivial
causes, and often without apparent cause, have been imposed upon many
tribes. Names borne by one tribe at some period of its history have been
transferred to another, or to several other distinct tribes.
Typographical errors, and improved spelling on assumed phonetic grounds,
have swelled the number of synonyms until the investigator of a special
tribe often finds himself in a maze of nomenclatural perplexity.
It has long been the intention of the Director to prepare a work on
tribal names, which so far as possible should refer their confusing
titles to a correct and systematic standard. Delay has been occasioned
chiefly by the fundamental necessity of defining linguistic stocks or
families into which all tribes must be primarily divided; and to
accomplish this, long journeys and laborious field and office
investigations have been required during the whole time since the
establishment of the Bureau. Though a few points still remained in an
unsatisfactory condition, it was considered that a sufficient degree of
accuracy had been attained to allow of the publication for the benefit
of students of a volume devoted to the subject. The preparation of the
plan of such a volume was intrusted to Mr. H. W. Henshaw, late in the
spring of 1885, and in June of that year the work was energetically
begun in accordance with the plans submitted. The preparation of this
work, which to a great extent underlies and is the foundation for every
field of ethnologic investigation among Indians, was considered of such
prime importance that nearly all the available force of the Bureau was
placed upon it, to the suspension of the particular investigations in
which the several officers had been engaged.
In addition to the general charge of the whole work, Mr. Henshaw gave
special attention to the families of the northwest coast from Oregon
northward, including the Eskimo, and also several in California. To Mr.
Albert S. Gatschet the tribes of the southeastern United States,
together with the Pueblo and Yuman tribes, were assigned. The Algonkian
family in all its branches--by far the most important part of the whole,
so far as the great bulk of literature relating to it is concerned--was
intrusted to Col. Garrick Mallery and Mr. James Mooney. They also took
charge of the Iroquoian family. Rev. J. O. Dorsey’s intimate
acquaintance with the tribes of the Siouan and Caddoan families
peculiarly fitted him to cope with that part of the work, and he also
undertook the Athapascan tribes. Dr. W. J. Hoffman worked upon the
Shoshonean tribes, aided by the Director’s personal supervision. Mr.
Jeremiah Curtin, to whom was assigned the California tribes, also gave
assistance in other sections.
Each of the gentlemen named has been able to contribute largely to the
results by his personal experience and investigations in the field,
there being numerous regions concerning which published accounts are
meager and unsatisfactory. The main source of the material to be dealt
with has, however, been necessarily derived from books. A vast amount of
the current literature pertaining to the North American Indians has been
examined, amounting to over one thousand volumes, with a view to the
extraction of the tribal names and the historical data necessary to fix
their precise application.
The work at the present time is well advanced toward completion. The
examination of literature for the collation of synonyms may be regarded
as practically done. The tables of synonymy and the accounts of the
tribes have been completed for more than one-half the number of
linguistic families.
ACCOMPANYING PAPERS.
LINGUISTIC FAMILIES OF NORTH AMERICA.
In harmony with custom, three scientific papers accompany this report,
designed to illustrate the nature, methods and spirit of the researches
conducted by the Bureau. The first is on the “Classification of the
North American Languages.” It is by no means a final paper on the
subject, but is intended rather to give an account of the present status
of the subject, and to place before the workers in this field of
scholarship the data now existing and the conclusions already reached,
so as to constitute a point of departure for new work. With this end in
view Mr. Pilling is engaged upon the bibliography of the subject and is
rapidly publishing the same, and Mr. Henshaw is employed on the tribal
synonymy. Altogether it is hoped that this work will inaugurate a new
era in the investigation of the subject by making available the vast
body of material scattered broadcast through the literature relating to
the North American Indians.
In the course of these ethnic researches an interesting field of facts
has been brought to view relating to the superstitions of the Indians.
Already a very large body of mythology has been collected--stories from
a great number of tongues which embody the rude philosophy of tribal
thought. Such philosophy or opinion finds its expression not only in the
mythic tales, but in the organization of the people into society, in
their daily life and in their habits and customs. There is a realm of
anthropology in this lower state of mankind which we call savagery, that
is hard to understand from the standpoint of modern civilization, where
science, theology, religion, medicine and the esthetic arts are
developed as more or less discrete subjects. In savagery these great
subjects are blended in one, as they are interwoven into a vast plexus
of thought and action, for mythology is the basis of philosophy,
religion, medicine, and art. In savagery the observed facts of the
universe, relating alike to physical nature and to the humanities, are
explained mythologically, and these mythic conceptions give rise to a
great variety of practices. The acts of life are born of the opinions
held as explanations of the environing world. Thus it is that philosophy
finds expression in a complex system of superstitions, ceremonies and
practices, which together constitute the religion of the people. The
purpose of these practices is to avert calamity and to secure prosperity
in the present life. It is astonishing to find how little the condition
of a life to come is involved. The future beyond the grave is scarcely
heeded, or when recognized it seems not to affect the daily life of the
people to any appreciable degree. That which occupies the attention of
the savage mind relates to the pleasures and pains, the joys and sorrows
of present existence.
Perhaps the chief motive is derived from the consideration of health and
disease, as the pleasures and pains arising therefrom are forever
present to the experience or observation. Good and evil are also
involved in those gifts of nature to man by which his biotic life is
sustained, his food, drink, clothing and shelter. These bounties come
not in a never-changing stream, but are apparently fitful and
capricious. Seasons of plenty are accented by seasons of scarcity, and
thus prosperity and adversity are strangely commingled in the history of
the people. To secure this prosperity and avert this adversity seems to
be the second great motive in the development of the superstitious
practices of the people. A third occasion for the development of this
primitive religion inheres in the social organization of mankind,
primarily expressed in the love of man and woman for each other, but
finally expressed in all the relations of kin and kith and in the
relations of tribe with tribe. This gives rise to a very important
development of primitive religion, for the savage man seeks to discover
by occult agencies the power of controlling the love and good will of
his kind and the power of averting the effect of enmity. To attain these
ends he invents a vast system of devices, from love philters to war
dances. A fourth region of exploitation in the realm of the esoteric
relates to the origin of life itself, as many of their practices are
designed to secure perpetuity of life by frequent births and less
painful throes.
It will thus be seen that life, health, prosperity, and peace are the
ends sought in all this region of human activity as they are presented
in the study of savage life. The opinions held by the people on these
subjects are primarily expressed in speech and organized into tales,
which constitute mythology, and they are expressed in acts, as
ceremonies and observances, which constitute their religion, their
medicine, and their esthetic arts. These arts consist of sculpture and
painting, by which their mythic beings are represented, and they also
consist of dancing, by which religious fervor is produced, and they give
rise to music, romance, poetry, and drama. Thus it is that the esthetic
arts have their origin in mythology. The epic poem and the symphony are
lineal descendants of the dance, and the dance arises as the first form
of worship, born of the mythic conception of the powers of nature.
THE MIDĒ´WIWIN, OR GRAND MEDICINE SOCIETY OF THE OJIBWA, BY W. J.
HOFFMAN, AND THE SACRED FORMULAS OF THE CHEROKEES, BY JAMES MOONEY.
Mr. Hoffman presents a paper on the “Midē´wiwin, or Grand Medicine
Society of the Ojibwa,” and sets forth the vestiges of a once powerful
organization existing among these people. Mr. Mooney has made a study of
the Cherokee with the same end in view. In the opinion of the Director
they are important contributions to this subject. The same lines of
investigation have been carried on by other members of the Bureau with
other tribes where societies and practices have been but little modified
by the contact of the white man, and where the subject is therefore much
more plainly arrayed. In due time these additional researches will be
published.
In Mr. Hoffman’s paper it is seen that two and a half centuries of
association with the white man has not only served to break down this
organization to some extent, but has also inculcated in the minds of the
Ojibwa a clearer conception of a Great Spirit and a future life than is
normal to the savage mind. Mr. Mooney, whose paper largely deals with
the use of plants by the Indians for the healing of disease, naïvely
compares the pharmacopoeia of savagery with that of civilization,
assuming that the latter is a standard of scientific truth. Perchance
scientific men will make one step in advance of this position, and will
be interested in discovering the extent to which savage philosophy is
still represented in civilized materia medica as expressed in officinal
formulas.
A word in relation to the dramatis personæ of Indian mythology. In all
those mythologies which have been studied with any degree of care up to
the present time zoic deities greatly prevail, the progenitors and
prototypes of the animals of the land, air, and water; yet there are
other deities. Chief among these are the sun, moon, stars, fire, and the
spirits of mountains and other geographical and natural phenomena. Yet
these beings are largely zoomorphic, being considered rather as mythic
animals than as mythic men; but it must be understood that the line of
demarcation between man and the lower animals is not so clearly
presented to the savage mind as to the civilized mind. In speaking of
the theology of the North American Indians as being zoomorphic it must
therefore be understood to mean that such is its chief characteristic,
but not its exclusive characteristic; and further, it must be understood
that it contains by survival many elements from an earlier condition in
which hecastotheism prevailed, that is, that the form of philosophy
known as animism was generally accepted, and that psychic life, with
feeling, thought, and will, was attributed to inanimate things. But more
than this, zootheism is not a permanent state of philosophy, but only a
stepping-stone to something higher. That something higher may be
denominated physitheism, or the worship of the powers and more obtrusive
phenomena of nature. In this higher state the sun, the planets, the
stars, the winds, the storms, the rainbow, and fire take the leading
part. The beginnings of this higher state are to be observed in many of
the mythologies of North America. It is worthy of remark that a
mythology with its religion subject to the influences of an overwhelming
civilization yields first in its zoomorphic elements. Zoic mythology
soon degenerates into folk tales of beasts, to be recited by crones to
children or told by garrulous old men as amusing stories inherited from
past generations; while physitheism is more often incorporated into the
compound of paganism and Christianity now held by the more advanced
tribes. Notwithstanding this general tendency, zootheism is often,
though not to so great an extent, compounded in the same way. The study
of this stage of mythology, and of the arts and customs arising
therefrom, as they are exhibited among the North American Indians, will
ultimately throw a flood of light upon that later stage known as
physitheism, or nature worship, now the subject of investigation by an
army of Aryan scholars.
FINANCIAL STATEMENT.
_Table showing amounts appropriated and expended for North American
ethnology for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1886._
--------------------------------------+-----------+---------------
Expenses. | Amount | Amount
| expended. | appropriated.
--------------------------------------+-----------+---------------
| |
Services |$31,287.93 |
Traveling expenses | 2,070.71 |
Transportation of property | 478.91 |
Field subsistence | 284.99 |
Field expenses and supplies | 360.32 |
Field material | 163.61 |
Modeling material | 63.11 |
Photographic material | 34.44 |
Books and maps | 469.69 |
Stationery and drawing material | 169.44 |
Illustrations for reports | 289.65 |
Goods for distribution to Indians | 767.82 |
Office furniture | 12.00 |
Office supplies and repairs | 63.56 |
Correspondence | 13.87 |
Specimens | 800.00 |
Bonded railroad accounts forwarded to | |
Treasury for settlement | 103.84 |
Balance on hand to meet outstanding | |
liabilities | 2,566.11 |
+-----------+---------------
Total | 40,000.00 | $40,000.00
--------------------------------------+-----------+---------------
* * * * *
* * * *
Errata for Introduction:
General Table of Contents:
Adaizen
Yokonan
[_spellings unchanged; Linguistic Families article and general
Index both have “Adaizan”, “Yakonan”_]
expressed in officinal formulas. [_not an error_]
* * * * *
* * * *
* * * * *
ACCOMPANYING PAPERS.
* * * * *
INDIAN LINGUISTIC FAMILIES OF AMERICA
NORTH OF MEXICO.
by
J. W. POWELL.
* * * * *
CONTENTS.
Nomenclature of linguistic families 7
Literature relating to the classification of
Indian languages 12
Linguistic map 25
Indian tribes sedentary 30
Population 33
Tribal land 40
Village sites 40
Agricultural land 41
Hunting claims 42
Summary of deductions 44
Linguistic families 45
Adaizan family 45
Algonquian family 47
Algonquian area 47
Principal Algonquian tribes 48
Population 48
Athapascan family 51
Boundaries 52
Northern group 53
Pacific group 53
Southern group 54
Principal tribes 55
Population 55
Attacapan family 56
Beothuakan family 57
Geographic distribution 58
Caddoan family 58
Northern group 60
Middle group 60
Southern group 60
Principal tribes 61
Population 62
Chimakuan family 62
Principal tribes 63
Chimarikan family 63
Principal tribes 63
Chimmesyan family 63
Principal tribes or villages 64
Population 64
Chinookan family 65
Principal tribes 66
Population 66
Chitimachan family 66
Chumashan family 67
Population 68
Coahuiltecan family 68
Principal tribes 69
Copehan family 69
Geographic distribution 69
Principal tribes 70
Costanoan family 70
Geographic distribution 71
Population 71
Eskimauan family 71
Geographic distribution 72
Principal tribes and villages 74
Population 74
Esselenian family 75
Iroquoian family 76
Geographic distribution 77
Principal tribes 79
Population 79
Kalapooian family 81
Principal tribes 82
Population 82
Karankawan family 82
Keresan family 83
Villages 83
Population 83
Kiowan family 84
Population 84
Kitunahan family 85
Tribes 85
Population 85
Koluschan family 85
Tribes 87
Population 87
Kulanapan family 87
Geographic distribution 88
Tribes 88
Kusan family 89
Tribes 89
Population 89
Lutuamian family 89
Tribes 90
Population 90
Mariposan family 90
Geographic distribution 91
Tribes 91
Population 91
Moquelumnan family 92
Geographic distribution 93
Principal tribes 93
Population 93
Muskhogean family 94
Geographic distribution 94
Principal tribes 95
Population 95
Natchesan family 95
Principal tribes 97
Population 97
Palaihnihan family 97
Geographic distribution 98
Principal tribes 98
Piman family 98
Principal tribes 99
Population 99
Pujunan family 99
Geographic distribution 100
Principal tribes 100
Quoratean family 100
Geographic distribution 101
Tribes 101
Population 101
Salinan family 101
Population 102
Salishan family 102
Geographic distribution 104
Principal tribes 104
Population 105
Sastean family 105
Geographic distribution 106
Shahaptian family 106
Geographic distribution 107
Principal tribes and population 107
Shoshonean family 108
Geographic distribution 109
Principal tribes and population 110
Siouan family 111
Geographic distribution 112
Principal tribes 114
Population 116
Skittagetan family 118
Geographic distribution 120
Principal tribes 120
Population 121
Takilman family 121
Geographic distribution 121
Tañoan family 121
Geographic distribution 122
Population 123
Timuquanan family 123
Geographic distribution 123
Principal tribes 124
Tonikan family 125
Geographic distribution 125
Tonkawan family 125
Geographic distribution 125
Uchean family 126
Geographic distribution 126
Population 127
Waiilatpuan family 127
Geographic distribution 127
Principal tribes 127
Population 128
Wakashan family 128
Geographic distribution 130
Principal Aht tribes 130
Population 130
Principal Haeltzuk tribes 131
Population 131
Washoan family 131
Weitspekan family 131
Geographic distribution 132
Tribes 132
Wishoskan family 132
Geographic distribution 133
Tribes 133
Yakonan family 133
Geographic distribution 134
Tribes 134
Population 135
Yanan family 135
Geographic distribution 135
Yukian family 135
Geographic distribution 136
Yuman family 136
Geographic distribution 137
Principal tribes 138
Population 138
Zuñian family 138
Geographic distribution 139
Population 139
Concluding remarks 139
ILLUSTRATION
Plate I. Map. Linguistic stocks of North America north of Mexico.
In pocket at end of volume
[Transcriber’s Note:
The Map is available in the “images” directory accompanying the html
version of this file. There are two sizes in addition to the thumbnail:
mapsmall.jpg: 615×732 pixels (about 9×11 in / 23×28 cm, 168K)
maplarge.jpg: 1521×1818 pixels (about 22×27 in / 56×70 cm, 1MB)]
* * * * *
INDIAN LINGUISTIC FAMILIES.
By J. W. POWELL.
* * * * *
NOMENCLATURE OF LINGUISTIC FAMILIES.
The languages spoken by the pre-Columbian tribes of North America were
many and diverse. Into the regions occupied by these tribes travelers,
traders, and missionaries have penetrated in advance of civilization,
and civilization itself has marched across the continent at a rapid
rate. Under these conditions the languages of the various tribes have
received much study. Many extensive works have been published,
embracing grammars and dictionaries; but a far greater number of minor
vocabularies have been collected and very many have been published. In
addition to these, the Bible, in whole or in part, and various religious
books and school books, have been translated into Indian tongues to be
used for purposes of instruction; and newspapers have been published in
the Indian languages. Altogether the literature of these languages and
that relating to them are of vast extent.
While the materials seem thus to be abundant, the student of Indian
languages finds the subject to be one requiring most thoughtful
consideration, difficulties arising from the following conditions:
(1) A great number of linguistic stocks or families are discovered.
(2) The boundaries between the different stocks of languages are not
immediately apparent, from the fact that many tribes of diverse stocks
have had more or less association, and to some extent linguistic
materials have been borrowed, and thus have passed out of the exclusive
possession of cognate peoples.
(3) Where many peoples, each few in number, are thrown together, an
intertribal language is developed. To a large extent this is gesture
speech; but to a limited extent useful and important words are adopted
by various tribes, and out of this material an intertribal “jargon” is
established. Travelers and all others who do not thoroughly study a
language are far more likely to acquire this jargon speech than the real
speech of the people; and the tendency to base relationship upon such
jargons has led to confusion.
(4) This tendency to the establishment of intertribal jargons was
greatly accelerated on the advent of the white man, for thereby many
tribes were pushed from their ancestral homes and tribes were mixed with
tribes. As a result, new relations and new industries, especially of
trade, were established, and the new associations of tribe with tribe
and of the Indians with Europeans led very often to the development of
quite elaborate jargon languages. All of these have a tendency to
complicate the study of the Indian tongues by comparative methods.
The difficulties inherent in the study of languages, together with the
imperfect material and the complicating conditions that have arisen by
the spread of civilization over the country, combine to make the problem
one not readily solved.
In view of the amount of material on hand, the comparative study of the
languages of North America has been strangely neglected, though perhaps
this is explained by reason of the difficulties which have been pointed
out. And the attempts which have been made to classify them has given
rise to much confusion, for the following reasons: First, later authors
have not properly recognized the work of earlier laborers in the field.
Second, the attempt has more frequently been made to establish an ethnic
classification than a linguistic classification, and linguistic
characteristics have been confused with biotic peculiarities, arts,
habits, customs, and other human activities, so that radical differences
of language have often been ignored and slight differences have been
held to be of primary value.
The attempts at a classification of these languages and a corresponding
classification of races have led to the development of a complex, mixed,
and inconsistent synonymy, which must first be unraveled and a selection
of standard names made therefrom according to fixed principles.
It is manifest that until proper rules are recognized by scholars the
establishment of a determinate nomenclature is impossible. It will
therefore be well to set forth the rules that have here been adopted,
together with brief reasons for the same, with the hope that they will
commend themselves to the judgment of other persons engaged in
researches relating to the languages of North America.
A fixed nomenclature in biology has been found not only to be
advantageous, but to be a prerequisite to progress in research, as the
vast multiplicity of facts, still ever accumulating, would otherwise
overwhelm the scholar. In philological classification fixity of
nomenclature is of corresponding importance; and while the analogies
between linguistic and biotic classification are quite limited, many of
the principles of nomenclature which biologists have adopted having no
application in philology, still in some important particulars the
requirements of all scientific classifications are alike, and though
many of the nomenclatural points met with in biology will not occur in
philology, some of them do occur and may be governed by the same rules.
Perhaps an ideal nomenclature in biology may some time be established,
as attempts have been made to establish such a system in chemistry; and
possibly such an ideal system may eventually be established in
philology. Be that as it may, the time has not yet come even for its
suggestion. What is now needed is a rule of some kind leading scholars
to use the same terms for the same things, and it would seem to matter
little in the case of linguistic stocks what the nomenclature is,
provided it becomes denotive and universal.
In treating of the languages of North America it has been suggested that
the names adopted should be the names by which the people recognize
themselves, but this is a rule of impossible application, for where the
branches of a stock diverge very greatly no common name for the people
can be found. Again, it has been suggested that names which are to go
permanently into science should be simple and euphonic. This also is
impossible of application, for simplicity and euphony are largely
questions of personal taste, and he who has studied many languages loses
speedily his idiosyncrasies of likes and dislikes and learns that words
foreign to his vocabulary are not necessarily barbaric.
Biologists have decided that he who first distinctly characterizes and
names a species or other group shall thereby cause the name thus used to
become permanently affixed, but under certain conditions adapted to a
growing science which is continually revising its classifications. This
law of priority may well be adopted by philologists.
By the application of the law of priority it will occasionally happen
that a name must be taken which is not wholly unobjectionable or which
could be much improved. But if names may be modified for any reason, the
extent of change that may be wrought in this manner is unlimited, and
such modifications would ultimately become equivalent to the
introduction of new names, and a fixed nomenclature would thereby be
overthrown. The rule of priority has therefore been adopted.
Permanent biologic nomenclature dates from the time of Linnæus simply
because this great naturalist established the binominal system and
placed scientific classification upon a sound and enduring basis. As
Linnæus is to be regarded as the founder of biologic classification, so
Gallatin may be considered the founder of systematic philology relating
to the North American Indians. Before his time much linguistic work had
been accomplished, and scholars owe a lasting debt of gratitude to
Barton, Adelung, Pickering, and others. But Gallatin’s work marks an era
in American linguistic science from the fact that he so thoroughly
introduced comparative methods, and because he circumscribed the
boundaries of many families, so that a large part of his work remains
and is still to be considered sound. There is no safe resting place
anterior to Gallatin, because no scholar prior to his time had properly
adopted comparative methods of research, and because no scholar was
privileged to work with so large a body of material. It must further be
said of Gallatin that he had a very clear conception of the task he was
performing, and brought to it both learning and wisdom. Gallatin’s work
has therefore been taken as the starting point, back of which we may not
go in the historic consideration of the systematic philology of North
America. The point of departure therefore is the year 1836, when
Gallatin’s “Synopsis of Indian Tribes” appeared in vol. 2 of the
Transactions of the American Antiquarian Society.
It is believed that a name should be simply a denotive word, and that no
advantage can accrue from a descriptive or connotive title. It is
therefore desirable to have the names as simple as possible, consistent
with other and more important considerations. For this reason it has
been found impracticable to recognize as family names designations based
on several distinct terms, such as descriptive phrases, and words
compounded from two or more geographic names. Such phrases and compound
words have been rejected.
There are many linguistic families in North America, and in a number of
them there are many tribes speaking diverse languages. It is important,
therefore, that some form should be given to the family name by which it
may be distinguished from the name of a single tribe or language. In
many cases some one language within a stock has been taken as the type
and its name given to the entire family; so that the name of a language
and that of the stock to which it belongs are identical. This is
inconvenient and leads to confusion. For such reasons it has been
decided to give each family name the termination “an” or “ian.”
Conforming to the principles thus enunciated, the following rules have
been formulated:
I. The law of priority relating to the nomenclature of the
systematic philology of the North American tribes shall not extend
to authors whose works are of date anterior to the year 1836.
II. The name originally given by the founder of a linguistic group
to designate it as a family or stock of languages shall be
permanently retained to the exclusion of all others.
III. No family name shall be recognized if composed of more than one
word.
IV. A family name once established shall not be canceled in any
subsequent division of the group, but shall be retained in a
restricted sense for one of its constituent portions.
V. Family names shall be distinguished as such by the termination
“an” or “ian.”
VI. No name shall be accepted for a linguistic family unless used to
designate a tribe or group of tribes as a linguistic stock.
VII. No family name shall be accepted unless there is given the
habitat of tribe or tribes to which it is applied.
VIII. The original orthography of a name shall be rigidly preserved
except as provided for in rule III, and unless a typographical error
is evident.
The terms “family” and “stock” are here applied interchangeably to a
group of languages that are supposed to be cognate.
A single language is called a stock or family when it is not found to be
cognate with any other language. Languages are said to be cognate when
such relations between them are found that they are supposed to have
descended from a common ancestral speech. The evidence of cognation is
derived exclusively from the vocabulary. Grammatic similarities are not
supposed to furnish evidence of cognation, but to be phenomena, in part
relating to stage of culture and in part adventitious. It must be
remembered that extreme peculiarities of grammar, like the vocal
mutations of the Hebrew or the monosyllabic separation of the Chinese,
have not been discovered among Indian tongues. It therefore becomes
necessary in the classification of Indian languages into families to
neglect grammatic structure, and to consider lexical elements only. But
this statement must be clearly understood. It is postulated that in the
growth of languages new words are formed by combination, and that these
new words change by attrition to secure economy of utterance, and also
by assimilation (analogy) for economy of thought. In the comparison of
languages for the purposes of systematic philology it often becomes
necessary to dismember compounded words for the purpose of comparing the
more primitive forms thus obtained. The paradigmatic words considered in
grammatic treatises may often be the very words which should be
dissected to discover in their elements primary affinities. But the
comparison is still lexic, not grammatic.
A lexic comparison is between vocal elements; a grammatic comparison is
between grammatic methods, such, for example, as gender systems. The
classes into which things are relegated by distinction of gender may be
animate and inanimate, and the animate may subsequently be divided into
male and female, and these two classes may ultimately absorb, in part at
least, inanimate things. The growth of a system of genders may take
another course. The animate and inanimate may be subdivided into the
standing, the sitting, and the lying, or into the moving, the erect and
the reclined; or, still further, the superposed classification may be
based upon the supposed constitution of things, as the fleshy, the
woody, the rocky, the earthy, the watery. Thus the number of genders may
increase, while further on in the history of a language the genders may
decrease so as almost to disappear. All of these characteristics are in
part adventitious, but to a large extent the gender is a phenomenon of
growth, indicating the stage to which the language has attained. A
proper case system may not have been established in a language by the
fixing of case particles, or, having been established, it may change by
the increase or diminution of the number of cases. A tense system also
has a beginning, a growth, and a decadence. A mode system is variable in
the various stages of the history of a language. In like manner a
pronominal system undergoes changes. Particles may be prefixed, infixed,
or affixed in compounded words, and which one of these methods will
finally prevail can be determined only in the later stage of growth. All
of these things are held to belong to the grammar of a language and to
be grammatic methods, distinct from lexical elements.
With terms thus defined, languages are supposed to be cognate when
fundamental similarities are discovered in their lexical elements. When
the members of a family of languages are to be classed in subdivisions
and the history of such languages investigated, grammatic
characteristics become of primary importance. The words of a language
change by the methods described, but the fundamental elements or roots
are more enduring. Grammatic methods also change, perhaps even more
rapidly than words, and the changes may go on to such an extent that
primitive methods are entirely lost, there being no radical grammatic
elements to be preserved. Grammatic structure is but a phase or accident
of growth, and not a primordial element of language. The roots of a
language are its most permanent characteristics, and while the words
which are formed from them may change so as to obscure their elements or
in some cases even to lose them, it seems that they are never lost from
all, but can be recovered in large part. The grammatic structure or plan
of a language is forever changing, and in this respect the language may
become entirely transformed.
* * * * *
LITERATURE RELATING TO THE CLASSIFICATION
OF INDIAN LANGUAGES.
While the literature relating to the languages of North America is very
extensive, that which relates to their classification is much less
extensive. For the benefit of future students in this line it is thought
best to present a concise account of such literature, or at least so
much as has been consulted in the preparation of this paper.
1836. Gallatin (Albert).
A synopsis of the Indian tribes within the United States east of the
Rocky Mountains, and in the British and Russian possessions in North
America. In Transactions and Collections of the American Antiquarian
Society (Archæologia Americana) Cambridge, 1836, vol. 2.
The larger part of the volume consists of Gallatin’s paper. A short
chapter is devoted to general observations, including certain historical
data, and the remainder to the discussion of linguistic material and the
affinities of the various tribes mentioned. Vocabularies of many of the
families are appended. Twenty-eight linguistic divisions are recognized
in the general table of the tribes. Some of these divisions are purely
geographic, such as the tribes of Salmon River, Queen Charlotte’s
Island, etc. Vocabularies from these localities were at hand, but of
their linguistic relations the author was not sufficiently assured. Most
of the linguistic families recognized by Gallatin were defined with much
precision. Not all of his conclusions are to be accepted in the presence
of the data now at hand, but usually they were sound, as is attested by
the fact that they have constituted the basis for much classificatory
work since his time.
The primary, or at least the ostensible, purpose of the colored map
which accompanies Gallatin’s paper was, as indicated by its title, to
show the distribution of the tribes, and accordingly their names appear
upon it, and not the names of the linguistic families. Nevertheless, it
is practically a map of the linguistic families as determined by the
author, and it is believed to be the first attempted for the area
represented. Only eleven of the twenty-eight families named in this
table appear, and these represent the families with which he was best
acquainted. As was to be expected from the early period at which the map
was constructed, much of the western part of the United States was left
uncolored. Altogether the map illustrates well the state of knowledge of
the time.
1840. Bancroft (George).
History of the colonization of the United States, Boston. 1840,
vol. 3.
In Chapter XXII of this volume the author gives a brief synopsis of the
Indian tribes east of the Mississippi, under a linguistic
classification, and adds a brief account of the character and methods of
Indian languages. A linguistic map of the region is incorporated, which
in general corresponds with the one published by Gallatin in 1836. A
notable addition to the Gallatin map is the inclusion of the Uchees in
their proper locality. Though considered a distinct family by Gallatin,
this tribe does not appear upon his map. Moreover, the Choctaws and
Muskogees, which appear as separate families upon Gallatin’s map (though
believed by that author to belong to the same family), are united upon
Bancroft’s map under the term Mobilian.
The linguistic families treated of are, I. Algonquin, II. Sioux or
Dahcota, III. Huron-Iroquois, IV. Catawba, V. Cherokee, VI. Uchee, VII.
Natchez, VIII. Mobilian.
1841. Scouler (John).
Observations of the indigenous tribes of the northwest coast of
America. In Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London.
London, 1841, vol. 11.
The chapter cited is short, but long enough to enable the author to
construct a very curious classification of the tribes of which he
treats. In his account Scouler is guided chiefly, to use his own words,
“by considerations founded on their physical character, manners and
customs, and on the affinities of their languages.” As the linguistic
considerations are mentioned last, so they appear to be the least
weighty of his “considerations.”
Scouler’s definition of a family is very broad indeed, and in his
“Northern Family,” which is a branch of his “Insular Group,” he includes
such distinct linguistic stocks as “all the Indian tribes in the Russian
territory,” the Queen Charlotte Islanders, Koloshes, Ugalentzes, Atnas,
Kolchans, Kenáïes, Tun Ghaase, Haidahs, and Chimmesyans. His
Nootka-Columbian family is scarcely less incongruous, and it is evident
that the classification indicated is only to a comparatively slight
extent linguistic.
1846. Hale (Horatio).
United States exploring expedition, during the years 1838, 1839, 1840,
1841, 1842, under the command of Charles Wilkes, U.S. Navy, vol. 6,
ethnography and philology. Philadelphia, 1846.
In addition to a large amount of ethnographic data derived from the
Polynesian Islands, Micronesian Islands, Australia, etc., more than
one-half of this important volume is devoted to philology, a large share
relating to the tribes of northwestern America.
The vocabularies collected by Hale, and the conclusions derived by him
from study of them, added much to the previous knowledge of the
languages of these tribes. His conclusions and classification were in
the main accepted by Gallatin in his linguistic writings of 1848.
1846. Latham (Robert Gordon).
Miscellaneous contributions to the ethnography of North America. In
Proceedings of the Philological Society of London. London, 1816,
vol. 2.
In this article, which was read before the Philological Society, January
24, 1845, a large number of North American languages are examined and
their affinities discussed in support of the two following postulates
made at the beginning of the paper: First, “No American language has an
isolated position when compared with the other tongues en masse rather
than with the language of any particular class;” second, “The affinities
between the language of the New World, as determined by their
_vocabularies_, is not less real than that inferred from the analogies
of their _grammatical structure_.” The author’s conclusions are that
both statements are substantiated by the evidence presented. The paper
contains no new family names.
1847. Prichard (James Cowles).
Researches into the physical history of mankind (third edition), vol.
5, containing researches into the history of the Oceanic and of the
American nations. London, 1847.
It was the purpose of this author, as avowed by himself, to determine
whether the races of men are the cooffspring of a single stock or have
descended respectively from several original families. Like other
authors on this subject, his theory of what should constitute a race was
not clearly defined. The scope of the inquiry required the consideration
of a great number of subjects and led to the accumulation of a vast body
of facts. In volume 5 the author treats of the American Indians, and in
connection with the different tribes has something to say of their
languages. No attempt at an original classification is made, and in the
main the author follows Gallatin’s classification and adopts his
conclusions.
1848. Gallatin (Albert).
Hale’s Indians of Northwest America, and vocabularies of North
America, with an introduction. In Transactions of the American
Ethnological Society, New York, 1848, vol. 2.
The introduction consists of a number of chapters, as follows: First,
Geographical notices and Indian means of subsistence; second, Ancient
semi-civilization of New Mexico, Rio Gila and its vicinity; third,
Philology; fourth, Addenda and miscellaneous. In these are brought
together much valuable information, and many important deductions are
made which illustrate Mr. Gallatin’s great acumen. The classification
given is an amplification of that adopted in 1836, and contains changes
and additions. The latter mainly result from a consideration of the
material supplied by Mr. Hale, or are simply taken from his work.
The groups additional to those contained in the Archæologia Americana
are:
1. Arrapahoes.
2. Jakon.
3. Kalapuya.
4. Kitunaha.
5. Lutuami.
6. Palainih.
7. Sahaptin.
8. Selish (Tsihaili-Selish).
9. Saste.
10. Waiilatpu.
1848, Latham (Robert Gordon).
On the languages of the Oregon Territory. In Journal of the
Ethnological Society of London, Edinburgh, 1848, vol. 1.
This paper was read before the Ethnological Society on the 11th of
December. The languages noticed are those that lie between “Russian
America and New California,” of which the author aims to give an
exhaustive list. He discusses the value of the groups to which these
languages have been assigned, viz, Athabascan and Nootka-Columbian, and
finds that they have been given too high value, and that they are only
equivalent to the primary subdivisions of _stocks_, like the Gothic,
Celtic, and Classical, rather than to the stocks themselves. He further
finds that the Athabascan, the Kolooch, the Nootka-Columbian, and the
Cadiak groups are subordinate members of one large and important
class--the Eskimo.
No new linguistic groups are presented.
1848. Latham (Robert Gordon).
On the ethnography of Russian America. In Journal of the Ethnological
Society of London, Edinburgh, 1848, vol. 1.
This essay was read before the Ethnological Society February 19, 1845.
Brief notices are given of the more important tribes, and the languages
are classed in two groups, the Eskimaux and the Kolooch. Each of these
groups is found to have affinities--
(1) With the Athabascan tongues, and perhaps equal affinities.
(2) Each has affinities with the Oregon languages, and each perhaps
equally.
(3) Each has definite affinities with the languages of New California,
and each perhaps equal ones.
(4) Each has miscellaneous affinities with all the other tongues of
North and South America.
1848. Berghaus (Heinrich).
Physikalischer Atlas oder Sammlung von Karten, auf denen die
hauptsächlichsten erscheinungen der anorganischen und organischen
Natur nach ihrer geographischen Verbreitung und Vertheilung bildlich
dargestellt sind. Zweiter Band, Gotha, 1848.
This, the first edition of this well known atlas, contains, among other
maps, an ethnographic map of North America, made in 1845. It is based,
as is stated, upon material derived from Gallatin, Humboldt, Clavigero,
Hervas, Vater, and others. So far as the eastern part of the United
States is concerned it is largely a duplication of Gallatin’s map of
1836, while in the western region a certain amount of new material is
incorporated.
1852. In the edition of 1852 the ethnographic map bears date of 1851.
Its eastern portion is substantially a copy of the earlier edition, but
its western half is materially changed, chiefly in accordance with the
knowledge supplied by Hall in 1848.
Map number 72 of the last edition of Berghaus by no means marks an
advance upon the edition of 1852. Apparently the number of families is
much reduced, but it is very difficult to interpret the meaning of the
author, who has attempted on the same map to indicate linguistic
divisions and tribal habitats with the result that confusion is made
worse confounded.
1853. Gallatin (Albert).
Classification of the Indian Languages; a letter inclosing a table of
generic Indian Families of languages. In Information respecting the
History, Condition, and Prospects of the Indian Tribes of the United
States, by Henry E. Schoolcraft. Philadelphia, 1853, vol. 3.
This short paper by Gallatin consists of a letter addressed to W.
Medill, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, requesting his cooperation in an
endeavor to obtain vocabularies to assist in a more complete study of
the grammar and structure of the languages of the Indians of North
America. It is accompanied by a “Synopsis of Indian Tribes,” giving the
families and tribes so far as known. In the main the classification is a
repetition of that of 1848, but it differs from that in a number of
particulars. Two of the families of 1848 do not appear in this paper,
viz, Arapaho and Kinai. Queen Charlotte Island, employed as a family
name in 1848, is placed under the Wakash family, while the Skittagete
language, upon which the name Queen Charlotte Island was based in 1848,
is here given as a family designation for the language spoken at “Sitka,
bet. 52 and 59 lat.” The following families appear which are not
contained in the list of 1848:
1. Cumanches.
2. Gros Ventres.
3. Kaskaias.
4. Kiaways.
5. Natchitoches.
6. Pani, Towiacks.
7. Ugaljachmatzi.
1853. Gibbs (George).
Observations on some of the Indian dialects of northern California. In
Information respecting the History, Condition, and Prospects of the
Indian tribes of the United States, by Henry E. Schoolcraft.
Philadelphia, 1853, vol. 3.
The “Observations” are introductory to a series of vocabularies
collected in northern California, and treat of the method employed in
collecting them and of the difficulties encountered. They also contain
notes on the tribes speaking the several languages as well as on the
area covered. There is comparatively little of a classificatory nature,
though in one instance the name Quoratem is proposed as a proper one for
the family “should it be held one.”
1854. Latham (Robert Gordon).
On the languages of New California. In Proceedings of the Philological
Society of London for 1852 and 1853. London, 1854, vol. 6.
Read before the Philological Society, May 13, 1853. A number of
languages are examined in this paper for the purpose of determining the
stocks to which they belong and the mutual affinities of the latter.
Among the languages mentioned are the Saintskla, Umkwa, Lutuami, Paduca,
Athabascan, Dieguno, and a number of the Mission languages.
1855. Lane (William Carr).
Letter on affinities of dialects in New Mexico. In Information
respecting the History, Condition, and Prospects of the Indian
tribes of the United States, by Henry R. Schoolcraft. Philadelphia,
1855, vol. 5.
The letter forms half a page of printed matter. The gist of the
communication is in effect that the author has heard it said that the
Indians of certain pueblos speak three different languages, which he has
heard called, respectively, (1) Chu-cha-cas and Kes-whaw-hay; (2)
E-nagh-magh; (3) Tay-waugh. This can hardly be called a classification,
though the arrangement of the pueblos indicated by Lane is quoted at
length by Keane in the Appendix to Stanford’s Compendium.
1856. Latham (Robert Gordon).
On the languages of Northern, Western, and Central America. In
Transactions of the Philological Society of London, for 1856. London
[1857?].
This paper was read before the Philological Society May 9, 1856, and is
stated to be “a supplement to two well known contributions to American
philology by the late A. Gallatin.”
So far as classification of North American languages goes, this is
perhaps the most important paper of Latham’s, as in it a number of new
names are proposed for linguistic groups, such as Copeh for the
Sacramento River tribes, Ehnik for the Karok tribes, Mariposa Group and
Mendocino Group for the Yokut and Pomo tribes respectively, Moquelumne
for the Mutsun, Pujuni for the Meidoo, Weitspek for the Eurocs.
1856. Turner (William Wadden).
Report upon the Indian tribes, by Lieut. A. W. Whipple, Thomas
Ewbank, esq., and Prof. William W. Turner, Washington, D.C.,
1855. In Reports of Explorations and Surveys to ascertain the most
practicable and economical route for a railroad from the Mississippi
to the Pacific Ocean. Washington, 1856, vol. 3. part 3.
Chapter V of the above report is headed “Vocabularies of North American
Languages,” and is by Turner, as is stated in a foot-note. Though the
title page of Part III is dated 1855, the chapter by Turner was not
issued till 1856, the date of the full volume, as is stated by Turner
on page 84. The following are the vocabularies given, with their
arrangement in families:
I. Delaware. }
II. Shawnee. } Algonkin.
III. Choctaw.
IV. Kichai. }
V. Huéco. } Pawnee?
VI. Caddo.
VII. Comanche. }
VIII. Chemehuevi. } Shoshonee.
IX. Cahuillo. }
X. Kioway.
XI. Navajo. }
XII. Pinal Leño. } Apache.
XIII. Kiwomi. }
XIV. Cochitemi. } Keres.
XV. Acoma. }
XVI. Zuñi.
XVII. Pima.
XVIII. Cuchan. }
XIX. Coco-Maricopa. }
XX. Mojave. } Yuma.
XXI. Diegeno. }
Several of the family names, viz, Keres, Kiowa, Yuma, and Zuñi, have
been adopted under the rules formulated above.
1858. Buschmann (Johann Carl Eduard).
Die Völker und Sprachen Neu-Mexiko’s und der Westseite des britischen
Nordamerika’s, dargestellt von Hrn. Buschmann. In Abhandlungen (aus
dem Jahre 1857) der königlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu
Berlin. Berlin, 1858.
This work contains a historic review of early discoveries in New Mexico
and of the tribes living therein, with such vocabularies as were
available at the time. On pages 315-414 the tribes of British America,
from about latitude 54° to 60°, are similarly treated, the various
discoveries being reviewed; also those on the North Pacific coast. Much
of the material should have been inserted in the volume of 1859 (which
was prepared in 1854), to which cross reference is frequently made, and
to which it stands in the nature of a supplement.
1859. Buschmann (Johann Carl Eduard).
Die Spuren der aztekischen Sprache im nördlichen Mexico und höheren
amerikanischen Norden. Zugleich eine Musterung der Völker und
Sprachen des nördlichen Mexico’s und der Westseite Nordamerika’s von
Guadalaxara an bis zum Eismeer. In Abhandlungen aus dem Jahre 1854
der königlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin. Berlin, 1859.
The above, forming a second supplemental volume of the Transactions for
1854, is an extensive compilation of much previous literature treating
of the Indian tribes from the Arctic Ocean southward to Guadalajara, and
bears specially upon the Aztec language and its traces in the languages
of the numerous tribes scattered along the Pacific Ocean and inland
to the high plains. A large number of vocabularies and a vast amount
of linguistic material are here brought together and arranged in
a comprehensive manner to aid in the study attempted. In his
classification of the tribes east of the Rocky Mountains, Buschmann
largely followed Gallatin. His treatment of those not included in
Gallatin’s paper is in the main original. Many of the results obtained
may have been considered bold at the time of publication, but recent
philological investigations give evidence of the value of many of the
author’s conclusions.
1859. Kane (Paul).
Wanderings of an artist among the Indians of North America from Canada
to Vancouver’s Island and Oregon through the Hudson’s Bay Company’s
territory and back again. London, 1859.
The interesting account of the author’s travels among the Indians,
chiefly in the Northwest, and of their habits, is followed by a four
page supplement, giving the names, locations, and census of the tribes
of the Northwest coast. They are classified by language into Chymseyan,
including the Nass, Chymseyans, Skeena and Sabassas Indians, of whom
twenty-one tribes are given; Ha-eelb-zuk or Ballabola, including the
Milbank Sound Indians, with nine tribes; Klen-ekate, including twenty
tribes; Hai-dai, including the Kygargey and Queen Charlotte’s Island
Indians, nineteen tribes being enumerated; and Qua-colth, with
twenty-nine tribes. No statement of the origin of these tables is given,
and they reappear, with no explanation, in Schoolcraft’s Indian Tribes,
volume V, pp. 487-489.
In his Queen Charlotte Islands, 1870, Dawson publishes the part of this
table relating to the Haida, with the statement that he received it from
Dr. W. F. Tolmie. The census was made in 1836-’41 by the late Mr. John
Work, who doubtless was the author of the more complete tables published
by Kane and Schoolcraft.
1862. Latham (Robert Gordon).
Elements of comparative philology. London, 1862.
The object of this volume is, as the author states in his preface, “to
lay before the reader the chief facts and the chief trains of reasoning
in Comparative Philology.” Among the great mass of material accumulated
for the purpose a share is devoted to the languages of North America.
The remarks under these are often taken verbatim from the author’s
earlier papers, to which reference has been made above, and the family
names and classification set forth in them are substantially repeated.
1862. Hayden (Ferdinand Vandeveer).
Contributions to the ethnography and philology of the Indian tribes of
the Missouri Valley. Philadelphia, 1862.
This is a valuable contribution to our knowledge of the Missouri River
tribes, made at a time when the information concerning them was none too
precise. The tribes treated of are classified as follows:
I. Knisteneaux, or Crees. }
II. Blackfeet. } Algonkin Group, A.
III. Shyennes. }
IV. Arapohos. } Arapoho Group, B.
V. Atsinas. }
VI. Pawnees. } Pawnee Group, C.
VII. Arikaras. }
VIII. Dakotas. }
IX. Assiniboins. }
X. Crows. }
XI. Minnitarees. } Dakota Group, D.
XII. Mandans. }
XIII. Omahas. }
XIV. Iowas. }
1864. Orozco y Berra (Manuel).
Geografía de las Lenguas y Carta Etnográfica de México Precedidas de
un ensayo de clasificacion de las mismas lenguas y de apuntes para
las inmigraciones de las tribus. Mexico, 1864.
The work is divided into three parts. (1) Tentative classification of
the languages of Mexico; (2) notes on the immigration of the tribes of
Mexico; (3) geography of the languages of Mexico.
The author states that he has no knowledge whatever of the languages he
treats of. All he attempts to do is to summarize the opinions of others.
His authorities were (1) writers on native grammars; (2) missionaries;
(3) persons who are reputed to be versed in such matters. He professes
to have used his own judgment only when these authorities left him free
to do so.
His stated method in compiling the ethnographic map was to place before
him the map of a certain department, examine all his authorities bearing
on that department, and to mark with a distinctive color all localities
said to belong to a particular language. When this was done he drew a
boundary line around the area of that language. Examination of the map
shows that he has partly expressed on it the classification of languages
as given in the first part of his text, and partly limited himself to
indicating the geographic boundaries of languages, without, however,
giving the boundaries of all the languages mentioned in his lists.
1865. Pimentel (Francisco).
Cuadro Descriptivo y Comparativo de las Lenguas Indígenas de México.
México, 1865.
According to the introduction this work is divided into three parts: (1)
descriptive; (2) comparative; (3) critical.
The author divides the treatment of each language into (1) its
mechanism; (2) its dictionary; (3) its grammar. By “mechanism” he means
pronunciation and composition; by “dictionary” he means the commonest or
most notable words.
In the case of each language he states the localities where it is
spoken, giving a short sketch of its history, the explanation of its
etymology, and a list of such writers on that language as he has become
acquainted with. Then follows: “mechanism, dictionary, and grammar.”
Next he enumerates its dialects if there are any, and compares specimens
of them when he is able. He gives the Our Father when he can.
Volume I (1862) contains introduction and twelve languages. Volume II
(1865) contains fourteen groups of languages, a vocabulary of the Opata
language, and an appendix treating of the Comanche, the Coahuilteco, and
various languages of upper California.
Volume III (announced in preface of Volume II) is to contain the
“comparative part” (to be treated in the same “mixed” method as the
“descriptive part”), and a scientific classification of all the
languages spoken in Mexico.
In the “critical part” (apparently dispersed through the other two
parts) the author intends to pass judgment on the merits of the
languages of Mexico, to point out their good qualities and their
defects.
1870. Dall (William Healey).
On the distribution of the native tribes of Alaska and the adjacent
territory. In Proceedings of the American Association for the
Advancement of Science. Cambridge, 1870, vol. 18.
In this important paper is presented much interesting information
concerning the inhabitants of Alaska and adjacent territories. The
natives are divided into two groups, the Indians of the interior, and
the inhabitants of the coast, or Esquimaux. The latter are designated by
the term Orarians, which are composed of three lesser groups, Eskimo,
Aleutians, and Tuski. The Orarians are distinguished, first, by their
language; second, by their distribution; third, by their habits; fourth,
by their physical characteristics.
1870. Dall (William Healey).
Alaska and its Resources. Boston, 1870.
The classification followed is practically the same as is given in the
author’s article in the Proceedings of the American Association for the
Advancement of Science.
1877. Dall (William Healey).
Tribes of the extreme northwest. In Contributions to North American
Ethnology (published by United States Geographical and Geological
Survey of the Rocky Mountain Region). Washington, 1877, vol. 1.
This is an amplification of the paper published in the Proceedings of
the American Association, as above cited. The author states that
“numerous additions and corrections, as well as personal observations of
much before taken at second hand, have placed it in my power to enlarge
and improve my original arrangement.”
In this paper the Orarians are divided into “two well marked groups,”
the Innuit, comprising all the so-called Eskimo and Tuskis, and the
Aleuts. The paper proper is followed by an appendix by Gibbs and Dall,
in which are presented a series of vocabularies from the northwest,
including dialects of the Tlinkit and Haida nations, T’sim-si-ans, and
others.
1877. Gibbs (George).
Tribes of Western Washington and Northwestern Oregon. In Contributions
to North American Ethnology. Washington, 1887, vol. 1.
This is a valuable article, and gives many interesting particulars of
the tribes of which it treats. References are here and there made to the
languages of the several tribes, with, however, no attempt at their
classification. A table follows the report, in which is given by Dall,
after Gibbs, a classification of the tribes mentioned by Gibbs. Five
families are mentioned, viz: Nūtka, Sahaptin, Tinneh, Selish, and
T’sinūk. The comparative vocabularies follow Part II.
1877. Powers (Stephen).
Tribes of California. In Contributions to North American Ethnology.
Washington, 1877, vol. 3.
The extended paper on the Californian tribes which makes up the bulk of
this volume is the most important contribution to the subject ever made.
The author’s unusual opportunities for personal observation among these
tribes were improved to the utmost and the result is a comparatively
full and comprehensive account of their habits and character.
Here and there are allusions to the languages spoken, with reference to
the families to which the tribes belong. No formal classification is
presented.
1877. Powell (John Wesley).
Appendix. Linguistics edited by J. W. Powell. In Contributions to
North American Ethnology. Washington, 1877, vol. 3.
This appendix consists of a series of comparative vocabularies collected
by Powers, Gibbs and others, classified into linguistic families, as
follows:
Family.
1. Ká-rok.
2. Yú-rok.
3. Chim-a-rí-ko.
4. Wish-osk.
5. Yú-ki.
6. Pómo.
7. Win-tūn´.
8. Mūt´-sūn.
9. Santa Barbara.
10. Yó-kuts.
11. Mai´-du.
12. A-cho-mâ´-wi.
13. Shaś-ta.
1877. Gatschet (Albert Samuel).
Indian languages of the Pacific States and Territories. In Magazine of
American History. New York, 1877, vol. 1.
After some remarks concerning the nature of language and of the special
characteristics of Indian languages, the author gives a synopsis of the
languages of the Pacific region. The families mentioned are:
1. Shóshoni. 15. Cahrok.
2. Yuma. 16. Tolewa.
3. Pima. 17. Shasta.
4. Santa Barbara. 18. Pit River.
5. Mutsun. 19. Klamath.
6. Yocut. 20. Tinné.
7. Meewoc. 21. Yakon.
8. Meidoo. 22. Cayuse.
9. Wintoon. 23. Kalapuya.
10. Yuka. 24. Chinook.
11. Pomo. 25. Sahaptin.
12. Wishosk. 26. Selish.
13. Eurok. 27. Nootka.
14. Weits-pek. 28. Kootenai.
This is an important paper, and contains notices of several new stocks,
derived from a study of the material furnished by Powers.
The author advocates the plan of using a system of nomenclature similar
in nature to that employed in zoology in the case of generic and
specific names, adding after the name of the tribe the family to which
it belongs; thus: Warm Springs, Sahaptin.
1878. Powell (John Wesley).
The nationality of the Pueblos. In the Rocky Mountain Presbyterian.
Denver, November, 1878.
This is a half-column article, the object of which is to assign the
several Pueblos to their proper stocks. A paragraph is devoted to
contradicting the popular belief that the Pueblos are in some way
related to the Aztecs. No vocabularies are given or cited, though the
classification is stated to be a linguistic one.
1878. Keane (Augustus H).
Appendix. Ethnography and philology of America. In Stanford’s
Compendium of Geography and Travel, edited and extended by H. W.
Bates. London, 1878.
In the appendix are given, first, some of the more general
characteristics and peculiarities of Indian languages, followed by a
classification of all the tribes of North America, after which is given
an alphabetical list of American tribes and languages, with their
habitats and the stock to which they belong.
The classification is compiled from many sources, and although it
contains many errors and inconsistencies, it affords on the whole a good
general idea of prevalent views on the subject.
1880. Powell (John Wesley).
Pueblo Indians. In the American Naturalist. Philadelphia, 1880,
vol. 14.
This is a two-page article in which is set forth a classification of the
Pueblo Indians from linguistic considerations. The Pueblos are divided
into four families or stocks, viz:
1. Shínumo.
2. Zunian.
3. Kéran.
4. Téwan.
Under the several stocks is given a list of those who have collected
vocabularies of these languages and a reference to their publication.
1880. Eells (Myron).
The Twana language of Washington Territory. In the American
Antiquarian. Chicago, 1880-’81, vol. 3.
This is a brief article--two and a half pages--on the Twana, Clallam,
and Chemakum Indians. The author finds, upon a comparison of
vocabularies, that the Chemakum language has little in common with
its neighbors.
1885. Dall (William Healey).
The native tribes of Alaska. In Proceedings of the American
Association for the Advancement of Science, thirty-fourth meeting,
held at Ann Arbor, Mich., August, 1885. Salem, 1886.
This paper is a timely contribution to the subject of the Alaska tribes,
and carries it from the point at which the author left it in 1869 to
date, briefly summarizing the several recent additions to knowledge. It
ends with a geographical classification of the Innuit and Indian tribes
of Alaska, with estimates of their numbers.
1885. Bancroft (Hubert Howe).
The works of Hubert Howe Bancroft, vol. 3: the native races, vol. 3,
myths and languages. San Francisco, 1882.
[Transcriber’s Note:
Vols. 1-5 collectively are “The Native Races”; vol. 3 is _Myths and
Languages_.]
In the chapter on that subject the languages are classified by divisions
which appear to correspond to groups, families, tribes, and dialects.
The classification does not, however, follow any consistent plan, and is
in parts unintelligible.
1882. Gatschet (Albert Samuel).
Indian languages of the Pacific States and Territories and of the
Pueblos of New Mexico. In the Magazine of American History. New
York, 1882, vol. 8.
This paper is in the nature of a supplement to a previous one in the
same magazine above referred to. It enlarges further on several of the
stocks there considered, and, as the title indicates, treats also of the
Pueblo languages. The families mentioned are:
1. Chimariko.
2. Washo.
3. Yákona.
4. Sayúskla.
5. Kúsa.
6. Takilma.
7. Rio Grande Pueblo.
8. Kera.
9. Zuñi.
1883. Hale (Horatio).
Indian migrations, as evidenced by language. In The American
Antiquarian and Oriental Journal. Chicago, 1888, vol. 5.
In connection with the object of this paper--the study of Indian
migrations--several linguistic stocks are mentioned, and the linguistic
affinities of a number of tribes are given. The stocks mentioned are:
Huron-Cherokee.
Dakota.
Algonkin.
Chahta-Muskoki.
1885. Tolmie (W. Fraser) and Dawson (George M.)
Comparative vocabularies of the Indian tribes of British Columbia,
with a map illustrating distribution (Geological and Natural History
Survey of Canada). Montreal, 1884.
The vocabularies presented constitute an important contribution to
linguistic science. They represent “one or more dialects of every Indian
language spoken on the Pacific slope from the Columbia River north to
the Tshilkat River, and beyond, in Alaska; and from the outermost
sea-board to the main continental divide in the Rocky Mountains.”
A colored map shows the area occupied by each linguistic family.
* * * * *
LINGUISTIC MAP.
In 1836 Gallatin conferred a great boon upon linguistic students by
classifying all the existing material relating to this subject. Even in
the light of the knowledge of the present day his work is found to rest
upon a sound basis. The material of Gallatin’s time, however, was too
scanty to permit of more than an outline of the subject. Later writers
have contributed to the work, and the names of Latham, Turner, Prichard,
Buschmann, Hale, Gatschet, and others are connected with important
classificatory results.
The writer’s interest in linguistic work and the inception of a plan for
a linguistic classification of Indian languages date back about 20
years, to a time when he was engaged in explorations in the West. Being
brought into contact with many tribes, it was possible to collect a
large amount of original material. Subsequently, when the Bureau of
Ethnology was organized, this store was largely increased through the
labors of others. Since then a very large body of literature published
in Indian languages has been accumulated, and a great number of
vocabularies have been gathered by the Bureau assistants and by
collaborators in various parts of the country. The results of a study of
all this material, and of much historical data, which necessarily enters
largely into work of this character, appear in the accompanying map.
The contributions to the subject during the last fifty years have been
so important, and the additions to the material accessible to the
student of Gallatin’s time have been so large, that much of the reproach
which deservedly attached to American scholars because of the neglect of
American linguistics has been removed. The field is a vast one, however,
and the workers are comparatively few. Moreover, opportunities for
collecting linguistic material are growing fewer day by day, as tribes
are consolidated upon reservations, as they become civilized, and as the
older Indians, who alone are skilled in their language, die, leaving, it
may be, only a few imperfect vocabularies as a basis for future study.
History has bequeathed to us the names of many tribes, which became
extinct in early colonial times, of whose language not a hint is left
and whose linguistic relations must ever remain unknown.
It is vain to grieve over neglected opportunities unless their
contemplation stimulates us to utilize those at hand. There are yet many
gaps to be filled, even in so elementary a part of the study as the
classification of the tribes by language. As to the detailed study of
the different linguistic families, the mastery and analysis of the
languages composing them, and their comparison with one another and with
the languages of other families, only a beginning has been made.
After the above statement it is hardly necessary to add that the
accompanying map does not purport to represent final results. On the
contrary, it is to be regarded as tentative, setting forth in visible
form the results of investigation up to the present time, as a guide and
aid to future effort.
Each of the colors or patterns upon the map represents a distinct
linguistic family, the total number of families contained in the whole
area being fifty-eight. It is believed that the families of languages
represented upon the map can not have sprung from a common source; they
are as distinct from one another in their vocabularies and apparently in
their origin as from the Aryan or the Scythian families. Unquestionably,
future and more critical study will result in the fusion of some of
these families. As the means for analysis and comparison accumulate,
resemblances now hidden will be brought to light, and relationships
hitherto unsuspected will be shown to exist. Such a result may be
anticipated with the more certainty inasmuch as the present
classification has been made upon a conservative plan. Where
relationships between families are suspected, but can not be
demonstrated by convincing evidence, it has been deemed wiser not to
unite them, but to keep them apart until more material shall have
accumulated and proof of a more convincing character shall have been
brought forward. While some of the families indicated on the map may in
future be united to other families, and the number thus be reduced,
there seems to be no ground for the belief that the total of the
linguistic families of this country will be materially diminished, at
least under the present methods of linguistic analysis, for there is
little reason to doubt that, as the result of investigation in the
field, there will be discovered tribes speaking languages not
classifiable under any of the present families; thus the decrease in the
total by reason of consolidation may be compensated by a corresponding
increase through discovery. It may even be possible that some of the
similarities used in combining languages into families may, on further
study, prove to be adventitious, and the number may be increased
thereby. To which side the numerical balance will fall remains for the
future to decide.
As stated above, all the families occupy the same basis of dissimilarity
from one another--i.e., none of them are related--and consequently no
two of them are either more or less alike than any other two, except
in so far as mere coincidences and borrowed material may be said to
constitute likeness and relationship. Coincidences in the nature of
superficial word resemblances are common in all languages of the world.
No matter how widely separated geographically two families of languages
may be, no matter how unlike their vocabularies, how distinct their
origin, some words may always be found which appear upon superficial
examination to indicate relationship. There is not a single Indian
linguistic family, for instance, which does not contain words similar
in sound, and more rarely similar in both sound and meaning, to words
in English, Chinese, Hebrew, and other languages. Not only do such
resemblances exist, but they have been discovered and pointed out, not
as mere adventitious similarities, but as proof of genetic relationship.
Borrowed linguistic material also appears in every family, tempting the
unwary investigator into making false analogies and drawing erroneous
conclusions. Neither coincidences nor borrowed material, however, can be
properly regarded as evidence of cognation.
While occupying the same plane of genetic dissimilarity, the families
are by no means alike as regards either the extent of territory
occupied, the number of tribes grouped under them respectively, or the
number of languages and dialects of which they are composed. Some of
them cover wide areas, whose dimensions are stated in terms of latitude
and longitude rather than by miles. Others occupy so little space that
the colors representing them are hardly discernible upon the map. Some
of them contain but a single tribe; others are represented by scores of
tribes. In the case of a few, the term “family” is commensurate with
language, since there is but one language and no dialects. In the case
of others, their tribes spoke several languages, so distinct from one
another as to be for the most part mutually unintelligible, and the
languages shade into many dialects more or less diverse.
The map, designed primarily for the use of students who are engaged in
investigating the Indians of the United States, was at first limited to
this area; subsequently its scope was extended to include the whole of
North America north of Mexico. Such an extension of its plan was,
indeed, almost necessary, since a number of important families, largely
represented in the United States, are yet more largely represented in
the territory to the north, and no adequate conception of the size and
relative importance of such families as the Algonquian, Siouan,
Salishan, Athapascan, and others can be had without including
extralimital territory.
To the south, also, it happens that several linguistic stocks extend
beyond the boundaries of the United States. Three families are, indeed,
mainly extralimital in their position, viz: Yuman, the great body of the
tribes of which family inhabited the peninsula of Lower California;
Piman, which has only a small representation in southern Arizona; and
the Coahuiltecan, which intrudes into southwestern Texas. The Athapascan
family is represented in Arizona and New Mexico by the well known Apache
and Navajo, the former of whom have gained a strong foothold in northern
Mexico, while the Tañoan, a Pueblo family of the upper Rio Grande, has
established a few pueblos lower down the river in Mexico. For the
purpose of necessary comparison, therefore, the map is made to include
all of North America north of Mexico, the entire peninsula of Lower
California, and so much of Mexico as is necessary to show the range of
families common to that country and to the United States. It is left to
a future occasion to attempt to indicate the linguistic relations of
Mexico and Central America, for which, it may be remarked in passing,
much material has been accumulated.
It is apparent that a single map can not be made to show the locations
of the several linguistic families at different epochs; nor can a single
map be made to represent the migrations of the tribes composing the
linguistic families. In order to make a clear presentation of the latter
subject, it would be necessary to prepare a series of maps showing the
areas successively occupied by the several tribes as they were disrupted
and driven from section to section under the pressure of other tribes or
the vastly more potent force of European encroachment. Although the data
necessary for a complete representation of tribal migration, even for
the period subsequent to the advent of the European, does not exist,
still a very large body of material bearing upon the subject is at hand,
and exceedingly valuable results in this direction could be presented
did not the amount of time and labor and the large expense attendant
upon such a project forbid the attempt for the present.
The map undertakes to show the habitat of the linguistic families only,
and this is for but a single period in their history, viz, at the time
when the tribes composing them first became known to the European, or
when they first appear on recorded history. As the dates when the
different tribes became known vary, it follows as a matter of course
that the periods represented by the colors in one portion of the map are
not synchronous with those in other portions. Thus the data for the
Columbia River tribes is derived chiefly from the account of the journey
of Lewis and Clarke in 1803-’05, long before which period radical
changes of location had taken place among the tribes of the eastern
United States. Again, not only are the periods represented by the
different sections of the map not synchronous, but only in the case of a
few of the linguistic families, and these usually the smaller ones, is
it possible to make the coloring synchronous for different sections of
the same family. Thus our data for the location of some of the northern
members of the Shoshonean family goes back to 1804, a date at which
absolutely no knowledge had been gained of most of the southern members
of the group, our first accounts of whom began about 1850. Again, our
knowledge of the eastern Algonquian tribes dates back to about 1600,
while no information was had concerning the Atsina, Blackfeet, Cheyenne,
and the Arapaho, the westernmost members of the family, until two
centuries later.
Notwithstanding these facts, an attempt to fix upon the areas formerly
occupied by the several linguistic families, and of the pristine homes
of many of the tribes composing them, is by no means hopeless. For
instance, concerning the position of the western tribes during the
period of early contact of our colonies and its agreement with their
position later when they appear in history, it may be inferred that as a
rule it was stationary, though positive evidence is lacking. When
changes of tribal habitat actually took place they were rarely in the
nature of extensive migration, by which a portion of a linguistic family
was severed from the main body, but usually in the form of encroachment
by a tribe or tribes upon neighboring territory, which resulted simply
in the extension of the limits of one linguistic family at the expense
of another, the defeated tribes being incorporated or confined within
narrower limits. If the above inference be correct, the fact that
different chronologic periods are represented upon the map is of
comparatively little importance, since, if the Indian tribes were in the
main sedentary, and not nomadic, the changes resulting in the course of
one or two centuries would not make material differences. Exactly the
opposite opinion, however, has been expressed by many writers, viz, that
the North American Indian tribes were nomadic. The picture presented by
these writers is of a medley of ever-shifting tribes, to-day here,
to-morrow there, occupying new territory and founding new homes--if
nomads can be said to have homes--only to abandon them. Such a picture,
however, is believed to convey an erroneous idea of the former condition
of our Indian tribes. As the question has significance in the present
connection it must be considered somewhat at length.
INDIAN TRIBES SEDENTARY.
In the first place, the linguistic map, based as it is upon the earliest
evidence obtainable, itself offers conclusive proof, not only that the
Indian tribes were in the main sedentary at the time history first
records their position, but that they had been sedentary for a very long
period. In order that this may be made plain, it should be clearly
understood, as stated above, that each of the colors or patterns upon
the map indicates a distinct linguistic family. It will be noticed that
the colors representing the several families are usually in single
bodies, i.e., that they represent continuous areas, and that with some
exceptions the same color is not scattered here and there over the map
in small spots. Yet precisely this last state of things is what would be
expected had the tribes representing the families been nomadic to a
marked degree. If nomadic tribes occupied North America, instead of
spreading out each from a common center, as the colors show that the
tribes composing the several families actually did, they would have been
dispersed here and there over the whole face of the country. That they
are not so dispersed is considered proof that in the main they were
sedentary. It has been stated above that more or less extensive
migrations of some tribes over the country had taken place prior to
European occupancy. This fact is disclosed by a glance at the present
map. The great Athapascan family, for instance, occupying the larger
part of British America, is known from linguistic evidence to have sent
off colonies into Oregon (Wilopah, Tlatskanai, Coquille), California
(Smith River tribes, Kenesti or Wailakki tribes, Hupa), and Arizona and
New Mexico (Apache, Navajo). How long before European occupancy of this
country these migrations took place can not be told, but in the case of
most of them it was undoubtedly many years. By the test of language it
is seen that the great Siouan family, which we have come to look upon as
almost exclusively western, had one offshoot in Virginia (Tutelo),
another in North and South Carolina (Catawba), and a third in
Mississippi (Biloxi); and the Algonquian family, so important in the
early history of this country, while occupying a nearly continuous area
in the north and east, had yet secured a foothold, doubtless in very
recent times, in Wyoming and Colorado. These and other similar facts
sufficiently prove the power of individual tribes or gentes to sunder
relations with the great body of their kindred and to remove to distant
homes. Tested by linguistic evidence, such instances appear to be
exceptional, and the fact remains that in the great majority of cases
the tribes composing linguistic families occupy continuous areas, and
hence are and have been practically sedentary. Nor is the bond of a
common language, strong and enduring as that bond is usually thought to
be, entirely sufficient to explain the phenomenon here pointed out. When
small in number the linguistic tie would undoubtedly aid in binding
together the members of a tribe; but as the people speaking a common
language increase in number and come to have conflicting interests, the
linguistic tie has often proved to be an insufficient bond of union. In
the case of our Indian tribes feuds and internecine conflicts were
common between members of the same linguistic family. In fact, it is
probable that a very large number of the dialects into which Indian
languages are split originated as the result of internecine strife.
Factions, divided and separated from the parent body, by contact,
intermarriage, and incorporation with foreign tribes, developed distinct
dialects or languages.
But linguistic evidence alone need not be relied upon to prove that the
North American Indian was not nomadic.
Corroborative proof of the sedentary character of our Indian tribes is
to be found in the curious form of kinship system, with mother-right as
its chief factor, which prevails. This, as has been pointed out in
another place, is not adapted to the necessities of nomadic tribes,
which need to be governed by a patriarchal system, and, as well, to be
possessed of flocks and herds.
There is also an abundance of historical evidence to show that, when
first discovered by Europeans, the Indians of the eastern United States
were found living in fixed habitations. This does not necessarily imply
that the entire year was spent in one place. Agriculture not being
practiced to an extent sufficient to supply the Indian with full
subsistence, he was compelled to make occasional changes from his
permanent home to the more or less distant waters and forests to procure
supplies of food. When furnished with food and skins for clothing, the
hunting parties returned to the village which constituted their true
home. At longer periods, for several reasons--among which probably the
chief were the hostility of stronger tribes, the failure of the fuel
supply near the village, and the compulsion exercised by the ever lively
superstitious fancies of the Indians--the villages were abandoned and
new ones formed to constitute new homes, new focal points from which to
set out on their annual hunts and to which to return when these were
completed. The tribes of the eastern United States had fixed and
definitely bounded habitats, and their wanderings were in the nature of
temporary excursions to established points resorted to from time
immemorial. As, however, they had not yet entered completely into the
agricultural condition, to which they were fast progressing from the
hunter state, they may be said to have been nomadic to a very limited
extent. The method of life thus sketched was substantially the one which
the Indians were found practicing throughout the eastern part of the
United States, as also, though to a less degree, in the Pacific States.
Upon the Pacific coast proper the tribes were even more sedentary than
upon the Atlantic, as the mild climate and the great abundance and
permanent supply of fish and shellfish left no cause for a seasonal
change of abode.
When, however, the interior portions of the country were first visited
by Europeans, a different state of affairs was found to prevail. There
the acquisition of the horse and the possession of firearms had wrought
very great changes in aboriginal habits. The acquisition of the former
enabled the Indian of the treeless plains to travel distances with ease
and celerity which before were practically impossible, and the
possession of firearms stimulated tribal aggressiveness to the utmost
pitch. Firearms were everywhere doubly effective in producing changes in
tribal habitats, since the somewhat gradual introduction of trade placed
these deadly weapons in the hands of some tribes, and of whole congeries
of tribes, long before others could obtain them. Thus the general state
of tribal equilibrium which had before prevailed was rudely disturbed.
Tribal warfare, which hitherto had been attended with inconsiderable
loss of life and slight territorial changes, was now made terribly
destructive, and the territorial possessions of whole groups of tribes
were augmented at the expense of those less fortunate. The horse made
wanderers of many tribes which there is sufficient evidence to show were
formerly nearly sedentary. Firearms enforced migration and caused
wholesale changes in the habitats of tribes, which, in the natural order
of events, it would have taken many centuries to produce. The changes
resulting from these combined agencies, great as they were, are,
however, slight in comparison with the tremendous effects of the
wholesale occupancy of Indian territory by Europeans. As the acquisition
of territory by the settlers went on, a wave of migration from east to
west was inaugurated which affected tribes far remote from the point of
disturbance, ever forcing them within narrower and narrower bounds, and,
as time went on, producing greater and greater changes throughout the
entire country.
So much of the radical change in tribal habitats as took place in the
area remote from European settlements, mainly west of the Mississippi,
is chiefly unrecorded, save imperfectly in Indian tradition, and is
chiefly to be inferred from linguistic evidence and from the few facts
in our possession. As, however, the most important of these changes
occurred after, and as a result of, European occupancy, they are noted
in history, and thus the map really gives a better idea of the pristine
or prehistoric habitat of the tribes than at first might be thought
possible.
Before speaking of the method of establishing the boundary lines between
the linguistic families, as they appear upon the map, the nature of the
Indian claim to land and the manner and extent of its occupation should
be clearly set forth.
POPULATION.
As the question of the Indian population of the country has a direct
bearing upon the extent to which the land was actually occupied, a few
words on the subject will be introduced here, particularly as the area
included in the linguistic map is so covered with color that it may
convey a false impression of the density of the Indian population.
As a result of an investigation of the subject of the early Indian
population, Col. Mallery long ago arrived at the conclusion that their
settlements were not numerous, and that the population, as compared with
the enormous territory occupied, was extremely small.[1]
[Footnote 1: Proc. Am. Ass. Adv. Science, 1877, vol. 26.]
Careful examination since the publication of the above tends to
corroborate the soundness of the conclusions there first formulated.
The subject may be set forth as follows:
The sea shore, the borders of lakes, and the banks of rivers, where fish
and shell-fish were to be obtained in large quantities, were naturally
the Indians’ chief resort, and at or near such places were to be found
their permanent settlements. As the settlements and lines of travel of
the early colonists were along the shore, the lakes and the rivers,
early estimates of the Indian population were chiefly based upon the
numbers congregated along these highways, it being generally assumed
that away from the routes of travel a like population existed. Again,
over-estimates of population resulted from the fact that the same body
of Indians visited different points during the year, and not
infrequently were counted two or three times; change of permanent
village sites also tended to augment estimates of population.
For these and other reasons a greatly exaggerated idea of the Indian
population was obtained, and the impressions so derived have been
dissipated only in comparatively recent times.
As will be stated more fully later, the Indian was dependent to no small
degree upon natural products for his food supply. Could it be affirmed
that the North American Indians had increased to a point where they
pressed upon the food supply, it would imply a very much larger
population than we are justified in assuming from other considerations.
But for various reasons the Malthusian law, whether applicable elsewhere
or not, can not be applied to the Indians of this country. Everywhere
bountiful nature had provided an unfailing and practically inexhaustible
food supply. The rivers teemed with fish and mollusks, and the forests
with game, while upon all sides was an abundance of nutritious roots and
seeds. All of these sources were known, and to a large extent they were
drawn upon by the Indian, but the practical lesson of providing in the
season of plenty for the season of scarcity had been but imperfectly
learned, or, when learned, was but partially applied. Even when taught
by dire experience the necessity of laying up adequate stores, it was
the almost universal practice to waste great quantities of food by a
constant succession of feasts, in the superstitious observances of which
the stores were rapidly wasted and plenty soon gave way to scarcity and
even to famine.
Curiously enough, the hospitality which is so marked a trait among our
North American Indians had its source in a law, the invariable practice
of which has had a marked effect in retarding the acquisition by the
Indian of the virtue of providence. As is well known, the basis of the
Indian social organization was the kinship system. By its provisions
almost all property was possessed in common by the gens or clan. Food,
the most important of all, was by no means left to be exclusively
enjoyed by the individual or the family obtaining it.
For instance, the distribution of game among the families of a party was
variously provided for in different tribes, but the practical effect of
the several customs relating thereto was the sharing of the supply. The
hungry Indian had but to ask to receive and this no matter how small the
supply, or how dark the future prospect. It was not only his privilege
to ask, it was his right to demand. Undoubtedly what was originally a
right, conferred by kinship connections, ultimately assumed broader
proportions, and finally passed into the exercise of an almost
indiscriminate hospitality. By reason of this custom, the poor hunter
was virtually placed upon equality with the expert one, the lazy with
the industrious, the improvident with the more provident. Stories of
Indian life abound with instances of individual families or parties
being called upon by those less fortunate or provident to share their
supplies.
The effect of such a system, admirable as it was in many particulars,
practically placed a premium upon idleness. Under such communal rights
and privileges a potent spur to industry and thrift is wanting.
There is an obverse side to this problem, which a long and intimate
acquaintance with the Indians in their villages has forced upon the
writer. The communal ownership of food and the great hospitality
practiced by the Indian have had a very much greater influence upon his
character than that indicated in the foregoing remarks. The peculiar
institutions prevailing in this respect gave to each tribe or clan a
profound interest in the skill, ability and industry of each member. He
was the most valuable person in the community who supplied it with the
most of its necessities. For this reason the successful hunter or
fisherman was always held in high honor, and the woman, who gathered
great store of seeds, fruits, or roots, or who cultivated a good
corn-field, was one who commanded the respect and received the highest
approbation of the people. The simple and rude ethics of a tribal people
are very important to them, the more so because of their communal
institutions; and everywhere throughout the tribes of the United States
it is discovered that their rules of conduct were deeply implanted in
the minds of the people. An organized system of teaching is always
found, as it is the duty of certain officers of the clan to instruct the
young in all the industries necessary to their rude life, and simple
maxims of industry abound among the tribes and are enforced in diverse
and interesting ways. The power of the elder men in the clan over its
young members is always very great, and the training of the youth is
constant and rigid. Besides this, a moral sentiment exists in favor of
primitive virtues which is very effective in molding character. This may
be illustrated in two ways.
Marriage among all Indian tribes is primarily by legal appointment, as
the young woman receives a husband from some other prescribed clan or
clans, and the elders of the clan, with certain exceptions, control
these marriages, and personal choice has little to do with the affair.
When marriages are proposed, the virtues and industry of the candidates,
and more than all, their ability to properly live as married couples and
to supply the clan or tribe with a due amount of subsistence, are
discussed long and earnestly, and the young man or maiden who fails in
this respect may fail in securing an eligible and desirable match. And
these motives are constantly presented to the savage youth.
A simple democracy exists among these people, and they have a variety of
tribal offices to fill. In this way the men of the tribe are graded, and
they pass from grade to grade by a selection practically made by the
people. And this leads to a constant discussion of the virtues and
abilities of all the male members of the clan, from boyhood to old age.
He is most successful in obtaining clan and tribal promotion who is most
useful to the clan and the tribe. In this manner all of the ambitious
are stimulated, and this incentive to industry is very great.
When brought into close contact with the Indian, and into intimate
acquaintance with his language, customs, and religious ideas, there is a
curious tendency observable in students to overlook aboriginal vices and
to exaggerate aboriginal virtues. It seems to be forgotten that after
all the Indian is a savage, with the characteristics of a savage, and he
is exalted even above the civilized man. The tendency is exactly the
reverse of what it is in the case of those who view the Indian at a
distance and with no precise knowledge of any of his characteristics. In
the estimation of such persons the Indian’s vices greatly outweigh his
virtues; his language is a gibberish, his methods of war cowardly, his
ideas of religion utterly puerile.
The above tendencies are accentuated in the attempt to estimate the
comparative worth and position of individual tribes. No being is more
patriotic than the Indian. He believes himself to be the result of a
special creation by a partial deity and holds that his is the one
favored race. The name by which the tribes distinguish themselves from
other tribes indicates the further conviction that, as the Indian is
above all created things, so in like manner each particular tribe is
exalted above all others. “Men of men” is the literal translation of one
name; “the only men” of another, and so on through the whole category. A
long residence with any one tribe frequently inoculates the student with
the same patriotic spirit. Bringing to his study of a particular tribe
an inadequate conception of Indian attainments and a low impression of
their moral and intellectual plane, the constant recital of its virtues,
the bravery and prowess of its men in war, their generosity, the chaste
conduct and obedience of its women as contrasted with the opposite
qualities of all other tribes, speedily tends to partisanship. He
discovers many virtues and finds that the moral and intellectual
attainments are higher than he supposed; but these advantages he
imagines to be possessed solely, or at least to an unusual degree, by
the tribe in question. Other tribes are assigned much lower rank in the
scale.
The above is peculiarly true of the student of language. He who studies
only one Indian language and learns its manifold curious grammatic
devices, its wealth of words, its capacity of expression, is speedily
convinced of its superiority to all other Indian tongues, and not
infrequently to all languages by whomsoever spoken.
If like admirable characteristics are asserted for other tongues he is
apt to view them but as derivatives from one original. Thus he is led to
overlook the great truth that the mind of man is everywhere practically
the same, and that the innumerable differences of its products are
indices merely of different stages of growth or are the results of
different conditions of environment. In its development the human mind
is limited by no boundaries of tribe or race.
Again, a long acquaintance with many tribes in their homes leads to the
belief that savage people do not lack industry so much as wisdom. They
are capable of performing, and often do perform, great and continuous
labor. The men and women alike toil from day to day and from year to
year, engaged in those tasks that are presented with the recurring
seasons. In civilization, hunting and fishing are often considered
sports, but in savagery they are labors, and call for endurance,
patience, and sagacity. And these are exercised to a reasonable degree
among all savage peoples.
It is probable that the real difficulty of purchasing quantities of food
from Indians has, in most cases, not been properly understood. Unless
the alien is present at a time of great abundance, when there is more on
hand or easily obtainable than sufficient to supply the wants of the
people, food can not be bought of the Indians. This arises from the fact
that the tribal tenure is communal, and to get food by purchase requires
a treaty at which all the leading members of the tribe are present and
give consent.
As an illustration of the improvidence of the Indians generally, the
habits of the tribes along the Columbia River may be cited. The Columbia
River has often been pointed to as the probable source of a great part
of the Indian population of this country, because of the enormous supply
of salmon furnished by it and its tributaries. If an abundant and
readily obtained supply of food was all that was necessary to insure a
large population, and if population always increased up to the limit of
food supply, unquestionably the theory of repeated migratory waves of
surplus population from the Columbia Valley would be plausible enough.
It is only necessary, however, to turn to the accounts of the earlier
explorers of this region, Lewis and Clarke, for example, to refute the
idea, so far at least as the Columbia Valley is concerned, although a
study of the many diverse languages spread over the United States would
seem sufficiently to prove that the tribes speaking them could not have
originated at a common center, unless, indeed, at a period anterior to
the formation of organized language.
The Indians inhabiting the Columbia Valley were divided into many
tribes, belonging to several distinct linguistic families. They all were
in the same culture status, however, and differed in habits and arts
only in minor particulars. All of them had recourse to the salmon of the
Columbia for the main part of their subsistence, and all practiced
similar crude methods of curing fish and storing it away for the winter.
Without exception, judging from the accounts of the above mentioned and
of more recent authors, all the tribes suffered periodically more or
less from insufficient food supply, although, with the exercise of due
forethought and economy, even with their rude methods of catching and
curing salmon, enough might here have been cured annually to suffice for
the wants of the Indian population of the entire Northwest for several
years.
In their ascent of the river in spring, before the salmon run, it was
only with great difficulty that Lewis and Clarke were able to provide
themselves by purchase with enough food to keep themselves from
starving. Several parties of Indians from the vicinity of the Dalles,
the best fishing station on the river, were met on their way down in
quest of food, their supply of dried salmon having been entirely
exhausted.
Nor is there anything in the accounts of any of the early visitors to
the Columbia Valley to authorize the belief that the population there
was a very large one. As was the case with all fish-stocked streams, the
Columbia was resorted to in the fishing season by many tribes living at
considerable distance from it; but there is no evidence tending to show
that the settled population of its banks or of any part of its drainage
basin was or ever had been by any means excessive.
The Dalles, as stated above, was the best fishing station on the river,
and the settled population there may be taken as a fair index of that of
other favorable locations. The Dalles was visited by Ross in July, 1811,
and the following is his statement in regard to the population:
The main camp of the Indians is situated at the head of the narrows,
and may contain, during the salmon season, 3,000 souls, or more; but
the constant inhabitants of the place do not exceed 100 persons, and
are called Wy-am-pams; the rest are all foreigners from different
tribes throughout the country, who resort hither, not for the
purpose of catching salmon, but chiefly for gambling and
speculation.[2]
[Footnote 2: Adventures on the Columbia River, 1849, p. 117.]
And as it was on the Columbia with its enormous supply of fish, so was
it elsewhere in the United States.
Even the practice of agriculture, with its result of providing a more
certain and bountiful food supply, seems not to have had the effect of
materially augmenting the Indian population. At all events, it is in
California and Oregon, a region where agriculture was scarcely practiced
at all, that the most dense aboriginal population lived. There is no
reason to believe that there ever existed within the limits of the
region included in the map, with the possible exception of certain areas
in California, a population equal to the natural food supply. On the
contrary, there is every reason for believing that the population at the
time of the discovery might have been many times more than what it
actually was had a wise economy been practised.
The effect of wars in decimating the people has often been greatly
exaggerated. Since the advent of the white man on the continent, wars
have prevailed to a degree far beyond that existing at an earlier time.
From the contest which necessarily arose between the native tribes and
invading nations many wars resulted, and their history is well known.
Again, tribes driven from their ancestral homes often retreated to lands
previously occupied by other tribes, and intertribal wars resulted
therefrom. The acquisition of firearms and horses, through the agency of
white men, also had its influence, and when a commercial value was given
to furs and skins, the Indian abandoned agriculture to pursue hunting
and traffic, and sought new fields for such enterprises, and many new
contests arose from this cause. Altogether the character of the Indian
since the discovery of Columbus has been greatly changed, and he has
become far more warlike and predatory. Prior to that time, and far away
in the wilderness beyond such influence since that time, Indian tribes
seem to have lived together in comparative peace and to have settled
their difficulties by treaty methods. A few of the tribes had distinct
organizations for purposes of war; all recognized it to a greater or
less extent in their tribal organization; but from such study as has
been given the subject, and from the many facts collected from time to
time relating to the intercourse existing between tribes, it appears
that the Indians lived in comparative peace. Their accumulations were
not so great as to be tempting, and their modes of warfare were not
excessively destructive. Armed with clubs and spears and bows and
arrows, war could be prosecuted only by hand-to-hand conflict, and
depended largely upon individual prowess, while battle for plunder,
tribute, and conquest was almost unknown. Such intertribal wars as
occurred originated from other causes, such as infraction of rights
relating to hunting grounds and fisheries, and still oftener prejudices
growing out of their superstitions.
That which kept the Indian population down sprang from another source,
which has sometimes been neglected. The Indians had no reasonable or
efficacious system of medicine. They believed that diseases were caused
by unseen evil beings and by witchcraft, and every cough, every
toothache, every headache, every chill, every fever, every boil, and
every wound, in fact, all their ailments, were attributed to such cause.
Their so-called medicine practice was a horrible system of sorcery, and
to such superstition human life was sacrificed on an enormous scale. The
sufferers were given over to priest doctors to be tormented, bedeviled,
and destroyed; and a universal and profound belief in witchcraft made
them suspicious, and led to the killing of all suspected and obnoxious
people, and engendered blood feuds on a gigantic scale. It may be safely
said that while famine, pestilence, disease, and war may have killed
many, superstition killed more; in fact, a natural death in a savage
tent is a comparatively rare phenomenon; but death by sorcery, medicine,
and blood feud arising from a belief in witchcraft is exceedingly
common.
Scanty as was the population compared with the vast area teeming with
natural products capable of supporting human life, it may be safely said
that at the time of the discovery, and long prior thereto, practically
the whole of the area included in the present map was claimed and to
some extent occupied by Indian tribes; but the possession of land by the
Indian by no means implies occupancy in the modern or civilized sense of
the term. In the latter sense occupation means to a great extent
individual control and ownership. Very different was it with the
Indians. Individual ownership of land was, as a rule, a thing entirely
foreign to the Indian mind, and quite unknown in the culture stage to
which he belonged. All land, of whatever character or however utilized,
was held in common by the tribe, or in a few instances by the clan.
Apparently an exception to this broad statement is to be made in the
case of the Haida of the northwest coast, who have been studied by
Dawson. According to him[3] the land is divided among the different
families and is held as strictly personal property, with hereditary
rights or possessions descending from one generation to another. “The
lands may be bartered or given away. The larger salmon streams are,
however, often the property jointly of a number of families.” The
tendency in this case is toward personal right in land.
[Footnote 3: Report on the Queen Charlotte Islands, 1878, p. 117.]
TRIBAL LAND.
For convenience of discussion, Indian tribal land may be divided into
three classes: First, the land occupied by the villages; second, the
land actually employed in agriculture; third, the land claimed by the
tribe but not occupied, except as a hunting ground.
_Village sites_.--The amount of land taken up as village sites varied
considerably in different parts of the country. It varied also in the
same tribe at different times. As a rule, the North American Indians
lived in communal houses of sufficient size to accommodate several
families. In such cases the village consisted of a few large structures
closely grouped together, so that it covered very little ground. When
territory was occupied by warlike tribes, the construction of rude
palisades around the villages and the necessities of defense generally
tended to compel the grouping of houses, and the permanent village sites
of even the more populous tribes covered only a very small area. In the
case of confederated tribes and in the time of peace the tendency was
for one or more families to establish more or less permanent settlements
away from the main village, where a livelihood was more readily
obtainable. Hence, in territory which had enjoyed a considerable
interval of peace the settlements were in the nature of small
agricultural communities, established at short distances from each other
and extending in the aggregate over a considerable extent of country. In
the case of populous tribes the villages were probably of the character
of the Choctaw towns described by Adair.[4] “The barrier towns, which
are next to the Muskohge and Chikkasah countries, are compactly settled
for social defense, according to the general method of other savage
nations; but the rest, both in the center and toward the Mississippi,
are only scattered plantations, as best suits a separate easy way of
living. A stranger might be in the middle of one of their populous,
extensive towns without seeing half a dozen houses in the direct course
of his path.” More closely grouped settlements are described by Wayne in
American State Papers, 1793, in his account of an expedition down the
Maumee Valley, where he states that “The margins of the Miamis of the
Lake and the Au Glaize appear like one continuous village for a number
of miles, nor have I ever beheld such immense fields of corn in any part
of America from Canada to Florida.” Such a chain of villages as this was
probably highly exceptional; but even under such circumstances the
village sites proper formed but a very small part of the total area
occupied.
[Footnote 4: Hist. of Am. Ind., 1775, p. 282.]
From the foregoing considerations it will be seen that the amount of
land occupied as village sites under any circumstances was
inconsiderable.
_Agricultural land_.--It is practically impossible to make an accurate
estimate of the relative amount of land devoted to agricultural purposes
by any one tribe or by any family of tribes. None of the factors which
enter into the problem are known to us with sufficient accuracy to
enable reliable estimates to be made of the amount of land tilled or of
the products derived from the tillage; and only in few cases have we
trustworthy estimates of the population of the tribe or tribes
practicing agriculture. Only a rough approximation of the truth can be
reached from the scanty data available and from a general knowledge of
Indian methods of subsistence.
The practice of agriculture was chiefly limited to the region south of
the St. Lawrence and east of the Mississippi. In this region it was far
more general and its results were far more important than is commonly
supposed. To the west of the Mississippi only comparatively small areas
were occupied by agricultural tribes and these lay chiefly in New Mexico
and Arizona and along the Arkansas, Platte, and Missouri Rivers. The
rest of that region was tenanted by non-agricultural tribes--unless
indeed the slight attention paid to the cultivation of tobacco by a few
of the west coast tribes, notably the Haida, may be considered
agriculture. Within the first mentioned area most of the tribes, perhaps
all, practiced agriculture to a greater or less extent, though
unquestionably the degree of reliance placed upon it as a means of
support differed much with different tribes and localities.
Among many tribes agriculture was relied upon to supply an
important--and perhaps in the case of a few tribes, the most
important--part of the food supply. The accounts of some of the early
explorers in the southern United States, where probably agriculture was
more systematized than elsewhere, mention corn fields of great extent,
and later knowledge of some northern tribes, as the Iroquois and some of
the Ohio Valley tribes, shows that they also raised corn in great
quantities. The practice of agriculture to a point where it shall prove
the main and constant supply of a people, however, implies a degree of
sedentariness to which our Indians as a rule had not attained and an
amount of steady labor without immediate return which was peculiarly
irksome to them. Moreover, the imperfect methods pursued in clearing,
planting, and cultivating sufficiently prove that the Indians, though
agriculturists, were in the early stages of development as such--a fact
also attested by the imperfect and one-sided division of labor between
the sexes, the men as a rule taking but small share of the burdensome
tasks of clearing land, planting, and harvesting.
It is certain that by no tribe of the United States was agriculture
pursued to such an extent as to free its members from the practice of
the hunter’s or fisher’s art. Admitting the most that can be claimed for
the Indian as an agriculturist, it may be stated that, whether because
of the small population or because of the crude manner in which his
operations were carried on, the amount of land devoted to agriculture
within the area in question was infinitesimally small as compared with
the total. Upon a map colored to show only the village sites and
agricultural land, the colors would appear in small spots, while by far
the greater part of the map would remain uncolored.
_Hunting claims_.--The great body of the land within the area mapped
which was occupied by agricultural tribes, and all the land outside it,
was held as a common hunting ground, and the tribal claim to territory,
independent of village sites and corn fields, amounted practically to
little else than hunting claims. The community of possession in the
tribe to the hunting ground was established and practically enforced by
hunting laws, which dealt with the divisions of game among the village,
or among the families of the hunters actually taking part in any
particular hunt. As a rule, such natural landmarks as rivers, lakes,
hills, and mountain chains served to mark with sufficient accuracy the
territ
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