[Illustration: TEOCALLI OF THE SUN, PALENQUE, YUCATAN
Discovered about 1750; 28 × 38 feet on the ground, about 25 feet
high without the “roof-comb,” a feature of the Palenque buildings
here particularly well preserved. Like all the structures of the
group, this crowns a mound of considerable height. The construction
is stone; ornamentation, stucco. Charnay calls attention to the
resemblance to a Japanese temple. On pages 210, 235, and 237
constructive features are shown, on page 185 is a reproduction of
a tablet from it, and on page 238, second figure, is the ground
plan. Page 404 gives another of the group, and page 436 shows
geographical location.
From a photograph by Maudsley
]
The North-Americans
of Yesterday
A Comparative Study of North-American Indian Life
Customs, and Products, on the Theory of
the Ethnic Unity of the Race
By
Frederick S. Dellenbaugh
“But their name is on your waters,
Ye may not wash it out.”—_Mrs. Sigourney._
[Illustration]
With over 350 Illustrations. And an Appendix giving list of stocks,
sub-stocks and tribes
G. P. Putnam’s Sons
New York and London
The Knickerbocker Press
+Copyright+, 1900
BY
FREDERICK S. DELLENBAUGH
Fourth Printing
The Knickerbocker Press, New York
To
MAJOR POWELL
WHOSE COURAGE SOLVED THE PROBLEM
OF THE
COLORADO RIVER
AND WHOSE FORESIGHT ESTABLISHED
THE BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY
THIS BOOK
IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED
IN MEMORY OF DAYS
AFLOAT AND AFIELD
NOTE
The author suggests the reading in conjunction with this volume of the
first four chapters of his _Breaking the Wilderness_: Also the article
in the _Atlantic Monthly_ for March 1906, by Charles M. Harvey: _The
Red Man’s Last Roll Call_.
[Illustration: MOKI DRAWINGS OF STARS]
PREFACE
The basis of this volume is eight lectures given before the Lowell
Institute in Boston in 1894. They have been expanded by the addition of
further matter relating to the various subjects, but even with these
additions there is but a brief _résumé_ of the vast store of material
extant.
The “Indian” has never seemed to me an abnormal factor, but rather a
natural part of our society, for it is now nearly thirty years since
I first associated with him in the Far West, and before that the
Iroquois were familiar to me as a small boy. When I first went among
the Western tribes, it was with the second Colorado River expedition
of that gallant explorer and foremost student of Amerindian affairs,
John Wesley Powell. His own works and the reports of the United
States Bureau of Ethnology, of which he has so long been the head,
and where he has gathered together so many eminent ethnologists and
archæologists, have furnished me with much material. These reports
form a fine library on Amerindian matters, and reflect great honour
on Professor Powell who conceived the idea, and on Congress which
has ungrudgingly supported it. A great and timely work has become
established, which to private enterprise would have been next to
impossible. Add to these the invaluable reports of the Smithsonian
Institution and the memoirs and reports of the Peabody Museum and
American Museum, and the student has before him a large fund of
material without seeking farther. Then there are the brilliant works
of Parkman, Brinton, Winsor, Bandelier, Putnam, Morgan, Schoolcraft,
Prescott, Maudsley, Goodman, Wilson, Keane, and many others, with the
huge production of H. H. Bancroft filling an important place. To all of
these and to others I owe much, and I have intended in every case to
give credit and references. Where these, in some cases, may not have
been properly awarded, it is due to oversight and not to intention. My
especial thanks are due to the Bureau of Ethnology for copies of all
the reports, and for permission to utilise the illustrations contained
in them, and to the American Museum, Archæological Institute, Field
Columbian Museum, Peabody Museum, and Smithsonian Institution for
similar generosity. I take pleasure also in acknowledging favours
from Professor Putnam, Professor Powell, Professor Mason, Dr. McGee,
Mr. Saville, Professor Seymour, Professor Langley, Mr. Bancroft,
Professor Holmes, Dr. Baum, and others, and from Mr. E. H. Harriman the
opportunity of visiting Alaska under the most favourable circumstances.
The title, _The North Americans of Yesterday_, seems to me appropriate,
because while there are still some Amerinds extant, and a few are even
yet apparently leading the old-time life, nevertheless they are merely
remnants of a people whose sun has set, and who therefore properly
belong to yesterday. For this reason I have mainly treated them as a
bygone race. Between the so-called “Red Indian” of the United States
and northern regions and the so-called “Civilised Tribes” of Mexico
and southern regions I have made no race differentiation, because the
differences, whatever they may be, are discovered to be not of kind,
but of degree. Confusion was formerly caused by misconceptions and by
romantic ideas which have been dispelled by the more scientific methods
of later days. Some confusion has been caused also by the persistent
efforts to classify the progress of mankind as a whole into distinct
world-epochs or time periods. It seems to me that no such universal
epochs of even progress could have existed in past time any more than
in present time. Tribes of men are differentiated now, always will be,
and, I believe, always have been. Common world-planes of culture in
time periods are an impossibility. Such schedules as Morgan’s may apply
to tribes and stocks as indicating their special, individual advance,
but not to the whole world, except in a very general way. That is,
they may be _culture_ but never _time_ classifications. The closer we
approach the beginnings of man’s existence, the less marked, perhaps,
the differences in tribes, but differences certainly began at the
moment when one group of men left another group of men to live apart.
The environment and necessities of each group would cause differences
and varying rates of progress. One group would gain the bow a thousand
years before another.
Long before the beginning of the glacial period, therefore, some groups
must have been far ahead of others, and in the manufacture of stone
implements some tribes excelled others; some making ruder ones than
others, and some perhaps making well-finished, polished tools. There
are a good many arrow- and spear-head shapes, and it is possible that
each form originated at a different time or in a different locality.
And in our present state of knowledge of these matters, no time
position can be assigned to many American stone tools, polished or
not. They may have been used over and over again by various tribes
for centuries, or for a thousand years, or they may have been made
by tribes of our own day. Some of these tribes made no smoothed or
polished implements, though otherwise of advanced type, and polished
implements have been found that may be many thousand years old. This
is no indication that tribes do not change, but that development
began and continues unevenly, and that tribes existed ten thousand or
more years ago that were in advance of some that are extant to-day.
Nobody can say whether the stone implements, rough or smooth, that
have been found in Chiriqui belong to comparatively modern or to very
ancient times. The whole subject of stone implements appears to be
in a chaotic state, mummified and petrified by a slavish respect and
devotion to European patterns. It is a case of cart before the horse.
It will be apparent that I do not consider the finish of stone tools,
in the present state of our understanding of them, any guide for a
world-classification of peoples in a time-scale, especially in North
America. This has been admitted by others back to a certain point, but
beyond that point they have continued to play follow-the-leader with
their world-classifications of “Paleolithic” and “Neolithic,” two of
the most confusing, misleading, and useless terms ever invented. Below
the limit of the ice action there is nothing to fix the age of stone
tools when found on the surface or near it. “Paleoliths” and “neoliths”
might therefore be picked up side by side, and the paleolith might
not be as old as the neolith, or both might be of the same age. And
if a well-made tool, or one resembling some of to-day, is found in an
ancient gravel, it does not necessarily mean an intrusion, but that
men lived in that far past who were more skilful than some of their
neighbours, and more skilful than we have heretofore been willing to
admit. That very ancient men made very rude tools is doubtless true,
but that _all_ ancient men made rough tools of the same style down to
a certain fixed time, and then all began on an improved or a smoothed
type, is undoubtedly wrong.
How the Amerinds came here I explain by a theory that there was before,
or perhaps during the early part of the glacial period, a wider
distribution of land surfaces on latitudinal lines, which invited
latitudinal migrations.[1] These land surfaces may have been no more
than groups of larger or smaller islands which have been since wholly
submerged or have left only their highest parts above the sea. Before
the beginning of the glacial cold, a mild climate extended to the North
Pole, facilitating migrations also in that region. Changes in the
ocean’s bottom were probably greater in pre-glacial time than now, but
they have not altogether ceased. It is little more than fifteen years
since a new island appeared off the Aleutian chain, and I think it is
doubtful if any of that group existed above water six or eight hundred
years ago. I am also of the opinion that no human life was in Alaska or
in Northeast Siberia five hundred years back.
Races not being all of an even grade of culture before the beginning
of the cold period any more than now, the tribes that found themselves
isolated on this continent by changes in the land levels and by the
southward extension of the glaciation, were unevenly developed, some
being in advance of others in various ways, though none, of course,
had passed beyond the use of stone tools, a condition in which they
practically continued down to the Discovery. In this respect the term,
“Stone Age,” as indicating a condition, is applicable, but it would
not be possible to differentiate it into “Paleolithic” and “Neolithic”
periods. The cold pushed them all southward, whether they came by
northlands or by latitudinal lands, or both, towards the narrow
funnel-like part of the continent, and also to the lower levels,
as there was no chance for latitudinal expansion as in the Eastern
Hemisphere, the most advanced tribes being the most southerly, if not
from original position, because they were able to choose. Eventually
communication with Asia and Europe by the north was by the glaciation
severed completely, as it had previously been latitudinally by the
disappearance of favourable land surfaces, and communication by the
north remained closed till within three or four hundred years. The most
crowded tribes developed most rapidly, because such development was
imperative for self-preservation, and their culture filtered through
in diminishing ratio, according to distance, to the less crowded
regions—that is, to the climatically less favourable regions; but all
who were closely crowded into the “funnel” progressed along similar
lines and in much the same degree, _without regard to relationships_,
so that we find in the narrow part of the continent, where the
largest number found refuge from the cold, many different stocks in
almost parallel stages of culture. There were no isolated “areas of
characterisation” as in the latitudinally broader lands of the Eastern
Hemisphere, though in some cases there were slight barriers tending to
produce or maintain slight variations. The long longitudinal chain of
the Sierra Nevada abounding in glaciers to a late date, and to a less
extent that of the Rocky Mountains, brought about a partial isolation
of the stocks in the great north-and-south migrations, maintaining
previous differences and originating others, so that now we distinguish
differences between what is called the Atlantic and what is called the
Pacific group, while they are yet practically the same.[2] The tribes
farthest advanced at the beginning of the isolation on this continent
would not necessarily continue at the front of progress, for a change
of conditions that might cripple such tribes might at the same time
be beneficial to others previously inferior. For instance, as the
heat gradually returned, the highly developed lowland tribes began to
find themselves at a disadvantage, which grew with the intensity of
the heat, while others, inured to harsher conditions, found warmth
stimulating, and they began to develop germs received from the superior
but now declining stocks. “The American Indians,” says Brinton, “cannot
bear the heat of the tropics even as well as the European.” The heat,
which at first seems to have been intense in the daytime, then caused
a decline of the highest stocks, and a corresponding progression of
lower stocks existing on, or migrating to, higher levels. The Yucatec
tribes declined, while the Nahuatls, at higher altitudes, began to
develop. The finest monuments of North American antiquity, for these
reasons, are generally found on comparatively low levels and below a
certain latitude, where conditions during the greatest cold were most
favourable; conditions that may have continued fairly favourable down
to within, say, a thousand years.
Long before the dawn of the Columbian era, therefore, the Amerind
peoples had become, through the influences indicated, a world-race by
themselves, existing in various stages of the same general culture,
and with a rising and a declining of tribes and stocks directed by
environment and circumstances. The great stocks surviving at the
beginning of the Columbian era may be approximately traced by their
languages, in layers, from Panama northward, about as they expanded
mainly eastward of the Sierra Nevada in response to the gradual relief
from the pressure of the cold. The Yucatec tribes had held the region
south of the Tehuantepec isthmus, and owing to this slight barrier,
and perhaps to another barrier of a strait through the land about
on the line of the proposed Nicaragua canal, had developed somewhat
differently from tribes to the north, and may also have preserved
more of their original character. Thence stretching north far into
the United States was the great composite Shoshone, or Uto-Aztecan
family, in all its variations, with what appears to be an “island” of
Athapascans or Boreal men preserved in its midst by glacial conditions
lingering in the high regions near the Mexico-United States line;
then follows the Siouan; then the widespread Algonquian stock; next
the Athapascan; and finally the Eskimauan, which had always been held
against the edge of the glaciers by the back pressure of the southern
stocks, and being most remote was less affected by filtration from
the development centre, and thus remains to-day a more differentiated
stock than any other.[3] The western arm of these stocks was generally
farther north than the eastern because the climate was and is milder
in the west, the trend of the ice front being now, and apparently
always having been, N.W. to S.E. Distribution of skill in pottery
follows about the same lines, “petering” out with stocks farthest
from the Yucatec centre. The Algonquins crowded the Athapascans off
to the N.W., and together they crowded the Eskimo to the limits of
human subsistence. In California many stocks found refuge in a climate
kept comparatively mild by the ocean currents, where they secured
subsistence on fish, and went no farther south. Along the Gulf coast
were other tribes resting somewhat aside from the great continental ebb
and flow, while in Florida and in the islands of the Caribbean region
there was sufficient separation to produce a slight differentiation
from the surging continental stocks. Remnants of other stocks were
scattered here and there through the regions below the glaciated
area. Mingled with all these developments there were probably certain
traits and “tinges” derived from earlier ancestry, and these, with the
similarity of development of all races under like conditions prevailing
wherever human beings can live, fully account for resemblances to
other-world tribes and peoples that have caused so much speculation.
There has been an error, I believe, in considering the glacial
period as of the remote past. It does not seem to have yet closed.
It influences our climate now, and probably a thousand years ago
its meteorological effects were marked as far south as Yucatan. The
glaciers of the Northern Hemisphere everywhere appear to be slowly
disappearing, and not so slowly either, if the Muir can be taken as a
gauge, for it has been for twenty years receding at the rate of 500
feet per annum, and probably at the same rate before that. However
this may be, it is probably less than 5000 years since the ice front
was at Lake Erie. Eminent geologists have estimated it at less than
7000, based on the erosion at Niagara; but as the erosion immediately
following the disappearance of the ice is extremely rapid, it seems
safe to cut down the estimate. The subtleties of meteorology are far
from being understood also, and the theories as to the causes of the
cold seem mere guesses. Considerable heat there must have been during
the glacial period, or there would have been no glaciers.
On the theory of the ethnic unity of the Amerind people, I have
briefly brought together in chapters notes on their chief habits,
products, languages, etc., so that the reader may be able to compare.
In collecting material that is now obtainable, but which will shortly
be gone forever, much remains to be done, and to be done quickly. If
this book helps to arouse a deeper public interest in the gathering of
this material, and in the general study of the subject, I shall feel it
needs no apology.
+F. S. Dellenbaugh+
+New York+, January 31, 1900.
[Illustration: MOKI DRAWINGS OF THE SUN]
[Illustration: TERRA-COTTA FUNERAL URNS FROM A MOUND, VALLEY OF
OAXACA, MEXICO.
Average height, 15 inches. This is a complete series preserved
in the order in which they were found. The usual number of these
urns in a series was five. Nothing was put in them and they were
not placed inside the burial chambers but in front of the door, on
the roof, fastened into the façade, or in niches over the door.
See _Funeral Urns from Oaxaca_, Marshall H. Saville, _American
Museum Journal_, vol. iv. pp. 49–60, and _Explorations in Zapotecan
Tombs_; same author, _American Anthropologist_, N. S., vol. i.
April, 1899.
]
[Illustration: MOKI DRAWINGS OF SQUASH-BLOSSOMS]
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
+Preface+ iii
I—+Introductory+ 1
II—+Languages and Dialects+ 17
III—+Picture Writing, Sign-Language, Wampum, Cupped-Stones+ 39
IV—+The Mexican and Central-American Writing, Inscriptions,
and Books+ 68
V—+Basketry and Pottery+ 88
VI—+Weaving and Costume+ 123
VII—+Carving, Modelling, and Sculpture+ 161
VIII—+Shelters, Dwellings, and Architecture+ 194
IX—+Weapons, Armour, Implements, and Transportation+ 248
X—+Mining, Metallurgy, and Science+ 285
XI—+Musical Instruments, Music, Amusements, and Games+ 308
XII—+Works and Agriculture+ 332
XIII—+Customs and Ceremonies+ 352
XIV—+Myths, Traditions, and Legends+ 390
XV—+Organisation and Government+ 410
XVI—+Origin, Migrations, and History+ 428
+Appendix—Containing a List of North-American Stocks,
Sub-Stocks, and Tribes+ 461
NOTE
Particular attention is called to the appendix by means of which
the linguistic stock to which a tribe belongs may be readily
found. First refer to the _list of tribes_ where the abbreviation
following the tribal name, will indicate the family or stock to
which that tribe belongs in the _list of stocks_. Example: “Navajo.
_Ath._” refers to “_Ath._ +Athapascan+,” in the stock list,
Athapascan being the linguistic family to which the Navajo belong.
The geographical range of the stock follows.
[Illustration: MOKI DRAWINGS OF RAIN CLOUDS AND LIGHTNING]
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
+Teocalli of the Sun, Palenque, Yucatan+ Frontispiece
+Moki Drawings of Stars+ iii
+Moki Drawings of the Sun+ ix
† +Gargoyle—Serpent Head+ 1
[From débris of temple, Copan]
* +South Portion of the Tewa Pueblo of Taos, New Mexico.
Adobé Construction+ 3
† +Seated Figure Carved in Trachyte+ 5
[From débris of hieroglyphic steps, Copan. Slightly larger
than life size]
* +Kicking Bear, Sioux+ 7
+A Corner of a Mitla Ruin, Mexico+ 9
[From Bandelier’s _Archæological Tour_, published by the
Archæological Institute of America]
† +Sculpture from Terrace East of the Great Plaza, Copan+ 11
* +A Kieskabi, or Covered Passage, at Walpi, Arizona+ 13
* +Moki Mask of Pawikkatcina+ 15
† +Specimen of Sculpture on Hieroglyphic Stairway, Copan+ 16
* +Eskimo Jade Adze+ 17
[Drawn by Mary Wright Gill]
† +“Singing-Girl” Sculptured in Trachyte+ 19
[From débris of Temple 22, Copan. Slightly larger than life]
* +Terra-Cotta Stool, Chiriqui+ 20
+Altar Q, Copan, Honduras+ 21
[From photograph by M. H. Saville. American Museum]
+South-West Corner of the Temple of Xochicalco, State of Morelos,
Mexico+ 23
[Photographed by M. H. Saville for the American Museum of.
Natural History]
* +Polished Black Ware, Santa Clara, New Mexico+ 27
+Eastern Façade of the Temple of Xochicalco, State of
Morelos, Mexico+ 31
[Photographed by M. H. Saville for the American Museum of
Natural History]
+Amerind Linguistic Map of North America+ 33
[After the one prepared by the U. S. Bureau of Ethnology]
* +Fac-Simile of a Cherokee Manuscript+ 35
[Written in Sequoyah’s Syllabary]
* +Petroglyphs near Wrangell, Alaska, probably Tlinkit+ 37
* +Human Forms, Moki+ 38
* +Omaha War Club+ 39
* +Painted Petroglyphs, Santa Barbara County, California+ 40
* +Petroglyphs in Brown’s Cave, Wisconsin+ 41
* +Painted Petroglyphs, Southern Utah+ 42
* +Petroglyph at Millsboro, Pennsylvania+ 43
* +Petroglyphs in Georgia+ 44
+Runic Inscription on Stone Found at Igalikko, Greenland+ 45
* +Dighton Rock, Massachusetts+ 45
+Illustration of the “Walam Olum” of the Lenapé+ 46
[From Brinton]
+Katcinas in the Somaikoli Ceremony, Cichumovi, Arizona,
November, 1884+ 47
[Photograph by the Author]
* +Killed Two Arikarees+ 48
* +Petroglyphs on Paint Rock, North Carolina+ 49
+Landa’s Maya Alphabet, after Brasseur+ 50
[From Bancroft’s _Native Races_]
* +Fac-Simile of the Lord’s Prayer in Micmac Hieroglyphs+ 51
[From Le Clercq]
* +Sequoyah’s Cherokee Syllabary+ 52
* +Lean Wolf’s Map, Hidatsa+ 54
* +The “Penn” Wampum Belt+; * +Strings of Wampum+ 55
* +Orca or Killer-Whale Decoration, Haida+ 56
* +Haida Tattooing+ 57
* +Eskimo Drawing—“The Man in the Moon Comes Down”+ 58
* +Eskimo Picture-Writing+ 59
* +Specimens of the Dakota Winter Counts+ 60
* +Killing a Bison+ 61
* +Shell Disc, Tennessee+ 62
* +Shell Gorget, Tennessee+ 64
[Actual size]
+Cup Markings+ 65
* +Cup from Chiriqui+ 67
* +Terra-Cotta from Chiriqui+ 68
+Page from an Aztec Book+ 70
[From a copy in the possession of M. H. Saville]
+Mexican Writing of Name of Montezuma+ 71
[From Brinton]
* +Part of Plate 65, Dresden Codex+ 72
[Maya]
† +Vase from Labna, Yucatan, with Peculiar Markings+ 74
* +Convex Discoidal Stone, North Carolina+ 75
† +Female Head in Trachyte+ 79
+Usual Type of Sculptured “Yokes,” Central America+ 81
[Field Columbian Museum]
+A Suggestion of the possible Scheme of Maya Numerals. Wholly
Tentative+ 86
[From drawing by the Author]
* +Omaha Calumet+ 87
* +Omaha War Club+ 88
* +North-West Coast Feather Ornamentation on Baskets+ 89
* +Eskimo Bag-Basket+ 89
* +Moki Wicker Water-Jug+ 89
* +Havasupai Clay-Lined Roasting Tray+ 90
* +Iroquois Birchbark Vessel+; * +North-West Coast Basket+ 91
* +McCloud River Basket, California+ 92
* +Moki Food Basket+; * +Klamath Basket+ 93
* +Moki Food Tray+; * +Moki Floor Mat+ 95
* +Eskimo Whalebone Dish+; * +Clallam Basket, Washington+ 96
* +Amerind Wicker-Work—Apache Basket; Pai Ute Water-Jug;
Moki Food Tray; Klamath Basket+ 97
* +Modelling an Olla at Hano+ 100
[Photograph by the Author]
* +Clay Nucleus+ 100
* +Method of Building up Coil+ 100
* +Ware from Moki Region, Arizona+ 102
* +Cup from Arizona+ 103
* +Vase from Arkansas, Showing Lines Made with a Sharp
Point before Firing+ 103
* +Bottle-Shaped Vase, Arkansas+ 105
* +Earthenware Burial Casket, Tennessee+ 106
* +Death-Mask Vase, Tennessee+ 107
* +Fluted Vase, Arkansas+ 109
* +Impression of Parts of Basket Mould on Pottery+ 109
* +Vase from Chiriqui. Decorated in Black, Red, and Purple+ 111
+An Ancient Figure of Terra Cotta from the Valley of Mexico+ 113
[From photograph by American Museum of Natural History]
* +Coil Indented for Decoration+ 114
+Zapotecan Terra-Cotta Funeral Urns Found on Cement Floor in
Front of Tomb 1, Mound 7, Xoxo, Oaxaca, Mexico+ 115
[Photographed by M. H. Saville for the American Museum of
Natural History]
* +Pot Showing Diagonal Grooves across the Lines of the Coil
Made by the Hand in Smoothing up. Mancos Canyon, Colorado+ 116
+Zapotecan Terra-Cotta Tubing Found Leading down into a Field
from the Centre of Mound 7, Xoxo, Oaxaca, Mexico+ 117
[Photographed by M. H. Saville for the American Museum of
Natural History]
* +Pueblo Pot. Pattern Produced by Obliterating Pinch Marks+ 118
* +Pinch-Marked Coil+ 119
* +Engraved Ware, Arkansas+ 120
* +Engraved Ware, Arkansas+ 121
+Black Cup, Chiriqui+ 122
* +Woven Moccasin from Kentucky Cave+ 123
* +Menominee Beaded Garters+ 125
* +Navajo Woman at the Loom+ 127
+Part of the Somaikoli Ceremony at Cichumovi, November, 1884,
Showing a Sacred Blanket on Figure in Foreground+ 129
[From photograph by the Author]
* +Details of Navajo Loom Construction+ 131
* +A Puebloan of San Juan, New Mexico+ 135
* +Method of Making Feather-Work+ 137
* +Chilkat Ceremonial Shirt+ 139
* +Chilkat Ceremonial Blanket+ 142
* +Moki Wall Decoration. Pink on a White Ground. Mishongnuvi,
Arizona+ 144
* +Bellacoolas+ 145
* +Top View of Conical North-West Coast Hat+ 146
+Wonsivu, a Pai Ute Girl+ 147
[Posed by Thomas Moran]
+A Navajo Leader in Native Costume+ 148
[Figure from photograph by the U. S. Bureau of Ethnology]
* +Interior of a Moki House, Arizona+ 149
* +Pueblo Head Mat+ 151
* +Navajos+ 152
* +Seminole Man’s and Woman’s Costume+ 154
* +Ear-Perforating and Hair-Dressing of Seminoles+ 155
* +The Ghost-Shirt, Simple Form+ 157
* +Eskimo Boots+ 158
[Drawn by Mary Wright Gill]
* +Rain Hat, Haida+ 160
* +Toucan of Squier and Davis, Really a Crow+ 161
+Deserted Village near Cape Fox, Alaska+ 162
[Photographed by the Harriman Alaska Expedition, 1899]
+Interior House-Column+ 162
[Sketch by Author from post at Cape Fox Village, Alaska]
+Major Part of Interior House-Post from Cape Fox Village, S. E.
Alaska+ 163
+Totem Pole with Bear on the Top, Wrangell+ 164
[Sketch by the Author]
* +Terra-Cotta Statuette, Chiriqui+ 165
* +The Bear-Mother, Haida, N. W. Coast+ 165
* +Wooden Masks, N. W. Coast+ 166
* +Kwakiutl Carving, N. W. Coast+ 167
* +Eskimo Carved Ivory Drum-Handles+ 168
* +Specimen of Moundbuilder Sculptural Skill with Human Figure+ 170
* +Stone Pipe from North Carolina Mound+ 171
* +So-Called Elephant Pipe, Iowa+ 172
* +Toucan of Squier and Davis, possibly Meant for a Young
Eagle+ 172
* +Tripod Vase, Chiriqui. Legs Modelled to Imitate Fish+ 173
* +Shell Gorget, Missouri+ 175
* +Bird-Shaped Earthen Bowl, Arkansas+ 176
* +Shell Mask, Virginia+ 177
+Moki Sculptural Skill with the Human Figure+ 178
+The Alosaka (Moki)+ 179
[After drawing by A. M. Stephen]
* +Sculptural Art of Chiriqui+ 179
* +Shell Gorget, Tennessee+ 180
+The Aztec “Calendar” Stone+ 182
[From Bandelier’s _Archæological Tour_]
+Aztec Sculpture, the Indio Triste+ 183
[From Bandelier’s _Archæological Tour_]
+Sanctuary Tablet Temple (Teocalli) of the Sun, Palenque+ 185
[Field Columbian Museum]
† +“Altar” in Front of Stela D, Copan+ 186
† +Stela No. 6, Copan; Back of Stela No. 6+ 187
* +Puma-Shaped Stool of Grey Andesite, Chiriqui+ 188
† +Head Sculptured in Stone. Chultunes of Labna, Yucatan+ 189
+Large Built-up Head at Izamal+ 191
[From Stephens]
* +Stool of Grey Basalt, Chiriqui+ 192
* +Copper Bell from Tennessee+ 193
* +Pueblo Mealing Stones+ 194
+Pai Ute Wikiups, Northern Arizona+ 195
[From photograph by Colorado River Expedition, 1872]
* +Moki Kisi Construction+ 196
* +Primitive Amerind Ladders+ 197
* +A Navajo House+ 198
* +A Sweat House+ 199
* +An Omaha Tipi+ 201
* +A Seminole Dwelling+ 203
* +Mississippi Valley Method of Using Jacal Construction,
according to Thomas+ 206
* +Cliff Outlook, Canyon del Muerto, Arizona+ 207
+Hall of Columns, Mitla+ 209
[Field Columbian Museum]
+Transverse Section (somewhat Generalised) Showing Construction
of Palenque Buildings, Yucatan+ 210
[Field Columbian Museum]
* +Some Details of Pueblo House Architecture—A Triangular
Sipapu or Sacred Kiva Orifice; Moki Doorway with Transom;.
Pueblo Roof Construction; Some Moki Roof Drains+ 211
* +Moki Notched Doorway, so Made that Large Bundles could be
Taken in+ 213
+A Zuñi Chimney, Moki the Same+ 215
+One Form of Moki Chimney Hood+ 215
* +Ground Plan of Eskimo Snow Iglu+ 217
* +Section of Snow Iglu+ 218
* +An Alaska Eskimo Winter House, Point Barrow+ 219
* +Interior Ground Plan of a Moki House+ 220
* +An Alaska Eskimo Winter House of Wood and Earth, Point
Barrow+ 221
* +Interior of Wood and Earth Iglu+ 221
* +Stone Steps at Oraibi+ 222
* +Cliff-Dwelling, Eastern Cove of Mummy Cave, Canyon de
Chelly, Arizona+ 223
+Houses in Walpi, One of the Moki Towns, Arizona+ 224
[Photograph by U. S. Geological Survey]
* +General View of a Group of Cavate Lodges, Arizona+ 225
* +Plan and Sections of a Cavate Lodge+ 227
* +Diagram Showing Pocket at Back of some Cavate Lodges+ 228
‡ +Theoretic Roof Construction of Mitla+ 230
* +Ground Plan of a Kiva and Ceiling Plan of Another+ 231
+Chaco Ruins Masonry; Chaco Ruins, Ground Plans+ 232
[From _Report_ of Hayden Expedition]
* +Ruin Called Casa Grande, Arizona+ 233
‡ +Transverse Section of an Ordinary Yucatec Building+ 235
‡ +Forms of the Maya Corbel Vault+ 237
‡ +Ground Plans of Yucatec Buildings+ 238
¶ +Kwakiutl House Front+ 239
¶ +North-West Coast Houses and Totem Poles+ 241
‡ +Ruin of East Façade and Iglesia, “Palace,” Chichen-Itza,
Yucatan+ 243
¶ +Elevation of Kwakiutl House+ 244
* +View in the Moki Town of Mishongnavi, Arizona+ 245
* +Eskimo Horn Dipper+ 247
[Drawn by Mary Wright Gill]
* +Horn Arrow Straightener+ 248
* +Modern Iron Arrow-Heads of the Omahas+ 248
* +Forms of the Bow+ 249
+Pai Ute Palm-Drill+ 250
[Drawn by the Author]
¶ +The Palm-Drill (Fire-Making); The Pump-Drill (Fire-Making)+ 251
* +Eskimo String-Drill (For Fire-Making with Mouthpiece)+ 251
* +Pueblo Pump-Drill (For Boring)+ 251
* +Drill-Point of Chipped Flint+ 251
¶ +Set of Fire-Making Tools, Bristol Bay Eskimo, Alaska+ 253
* +Eskimo Bow-Drill+ 254
¶ +Modern Rod Armour of the Klamaths, Oregon+ 255
¶ +Hupa Rod Armour, California+ 255
¶ +Eskimo Plate Armour, Diomede Island, Bering Strait+ 257
¶ +Tlinkit Skin Armour, Alaska+ 258
¶ +Prehistoric Aleutian Rod Armour+ 259
* +Chipped Flint; Chipped Flint Blunt Arrow-Head, Georgia;
Chipped Flint Implement, Tennessee; Specimen “Cores,” or
Blocks of Flint; Specimen of Chipped Flint Discs, called
“Turtleback,” Mississippi Valley; Grooved Stone Axe,
Tennessee (Ground)+ 261
[Drawn by Mary Wright Gill]
* +Diagram Explaining Terms to be Used in Describing Stone
Weapons+ 263
¶ +Tlinkit Slat-and-Rod Armour, Alaska, Front View+ 265
* +Apache War-Bonnet+ 266
[Drawn by Mary Wright Gill]
* +Eskimo Throwing-Boards for Darts+ 268
* +Eskimo Bird Bolas+ 268
* +Amerindian Knives+ 269
* +Moki Throwing-Stick, or Putchkohu; Pueblo Planting Stick;
Zuñi Wooden Spade+ 270
+A Moki Throwing the Putchkohu+ 271
[From a drawing by the Author]
* +Shell Spoon, Mississippi Valley+ 273
* +Pueblo Mountain Sheep-Horn Spoon+ 274
* +Menominee Wooden Mortar and Pestle+ 274
* +Stone House-Lamp, Point Barrow, Alaska+ 275
* +Eskimo Sledges+ 277
* +Central Eskimo Dog Harness+ 278
¶ +Enclosed Canadian Toboggan or Travelling Sled+ 279
* +Eskimo Snow-Shoe, Point Barrow, Alaska+ 280
¶ +Canoes of the North-West Coast+ 281
* +Umiak of the Central Eskimo+ 282
* +Eskimo Kayaks+ 283
* +Method of Attaching Oars to Umiak+ 284
* +Method of Tying Frame of Kayak+ 284
* +Thin Plate of Copper Wrought by Repoussé Method, Illinois
Mound+ 285
* +Amerindian Method of Mining Steatite for Utensils+ 287
* +Chipped Spade+ 289
[Drawn by Mary Wright Gill]
* +Eskimo Stone Maul+ 290
[Drawn by Mary Wright Gill]
* +Small Figure of Frog in Base Metal, Plated with Gold,
Chiriqui+ 292
+Coppers from the North-West Coast; Painted Design in Black
Representing a Sea Monster with Bear’s Head; Painted Design
Representing a Hawk+ 293
[U. S. National Museum]
* +Hollow Silver Beads of Navajo Make, Arizona+ 294
* +Navajo Silver Work, Arizona; Engraved Button; Bracelet+ 295
¶ +Kwakiutl Chief Holding his Copper, North-West Coast+ 297
* +Triple Bell or Rattle of Gold from near Panama+ 302
* +Bronze Mexican Bell+ 302
* +Bronze Bells, Plated or Washed with Gold, Chiriqui+ 304
* +Small Metal Figure, Chiriqui+ 306
* +Silver Plate with Spanish Coat of Arms+ 307
* +Moki Rattle of Animal Hoofs+ 308
* +Amerindian Rattles; Gourd, ; Earthenware Rattlee from
Chiriqui; Tin, Ojibwa+ 309
* +Omaha Large Flute+ 310
* +Drum of Terra-Cotta, Chiriqui+ 312
* +Menominee Tambourine Drum+ 313
* +Omaha Box Drum+ 314
¶ +Set of Playing Sticks+ 315
* +Pueblo Rattles—Turtle Shell with Hoofs of Goats or Sheep,
Fastened to the Rear of the Right Leg near the Knee in
Dancing; Painted Gourd with Wood Handle+ 317
* +Zuñi Dance Ornament+; * +Moki Notched Stick+; ¶ +Kwakiutl
Double Whistle, with Four Voices+ 319
¶ +The Awl Game+ 320
¶ +Amerind Gambling Tools—Set of Bone Dice, Arapaho; Set of
Counting Sticks, Blackfeet; Set of Plum Stones, Arikaree+ 322
* +Terra-Cotta Rattle from Chiriqui+ 325
* +Cat-Shaped Whistle of Terra-Cotta, Chiriqui+ 327
¶ +Mandan Game of Tchungkee+ 328
* +Double Whistle in Terra-Cotta from Chiriqui+ 330
¶ +Set of Staves for Game+ 331
* +“Banner-Stone,” Tennessee+ 332
* +So-Called Elephant Mound, Wisconsin+ 334
* +Ancient Fabric Design, from Impression on Pottery, Utah+ 335
* +Ancient Fabric, Preserved by Copper Celt, Iowa+ 336
* +Large Mound of the Etowah Group, Georgia+ 337
+A Votive Adz of Jadite from Mexico, Showing Front and Side+ 339
[American Museum, Kunz Collection]
+Back of Votive Adz+ 341
[American Museum]
* +Patterns of Ancient Fabrics from Pottery; from New York;
from Illinois; from Tennessee+ 344
* +Eskimo Mechanical Toy+ 345
¶ +Máhtotóhpa (The Four Bears), a Mandan Chief+ 347
+An Onyx Jar from Mexico in Process of Manufacture+ 349
[American Museum]
¶ +Wooden Food Bowl, Haida+ 351
* +Dancing Mask of the Makahs, Washington+ 352
¶ +Moki Wicker Cradle with Awning; Carrying Basket of the
Arikarees+ 353
¶ +Tlinkit Man and Woman Thirty Years Ago, or about 1870+ 355
+A Pawnee in Battle Array+ 357
[Photographed by J. K. Hillers, U. S. Geological Survey]
¶ +The Kwakiutl Wolf Dance, called Wālasaxa, North-West Coast+ 359
¶ +Ute Woman Carrying Child+ 361
¶ +Keokuk, a Sauk Chief+ 362
¶ +Shrine of the War-Gods, Twin Mountain, Pueblo of Zuñi, New
Mexico+ 365
¶ +A Costume of a Hāmatsa in the Kwakiutl Cannibalistic
Ceremony, where Slaves and Corpses were Formerly Devoured+ 367
¶ +Mexican Operating the Palm Drill for Fire+ 368
¶ +Zuñi Woman Carrying Water+ 369
¶ +Ute Cradle, Frame of Rods Covered with Buckskin+ 372
¶ +Eskimo Woman of Point Barrow Carrying Child+; * +Apache
Woman Carrying Child+ 374
* +Moki “Snake dance” at Walpi+ 376
* +Amerindian Picture-Writing+ 377
* +Beginning of the Moki “Snake Dance” at Walpi+ 378
¶ +Horned Rattlesnake, Crotalus Cerastes+ 380
¶ +The Okeepa Ceremony of the Mandans, Lasting Four Days+ 382
* +The Sacred Pole of the Omaha+ 383
+Cruciform Stone Tomb, Oaxaca+ 384
[American Museum]
+Ground Plan of Cruciform Tomb, Oaxaca+ 385
* +Amerindian Art+ 387
+Moki Earthen Canteen, Arizona+ 388
¶ +Modern Laced Sandal of Leather from Colima, Mexico+ 389
* +Eskimo Pipe with Stone Bowl+ 390
+Teocalli (Temple) of Tepoztlan, State of Morelos, Mexico+ 391
[Monumental Records]
¶ +Kwakiutl Wood-Carving of the Sīsul North-West Coast+ 392
¶ +Rushing Eagle, 1872+ 394
* +Fine Cloth Preserved by Copper Beads+ 395
* +Ancient Fabric-Marked Potsherds, with Clay Casts by Holmes+ 398
¶ +Ehtohkpahshepeeshah, the Black Moccasin, Chief of the
Minatarees, over One Hundred Years Old+ 400
+Lacandon (Mayan) Amerind from Chocolhao, Yucatan+ 402
[Photographed by M. H. Saville]
+One of the Buildings of the Palenque Group+ 404
[Photographed by M. H. Saville]
¶ +Costume Worn in the Kwakiutl Festivals, called Laōlaxa,
North-West Coast+ 406
+God-Houses of the Huichols at Teakáta, near Santa Catarina,
State of Jalisco, Mexico+ 409
[American Museum]
* +Eskimo Mask of Wood, Prince William Sound, Alaska+ 410
+Plenty-Horses, a Cheyenne+ 413
[U. S. Geological Survey]
¶ +North-West Coast Basketry Hats+ 415
¶ +North-West Coast Mortuary and Commemorative Columns+ 417
¶ +Ancient Puebloan Moccasins of Fibre, Arizona+ 422
¶ +Chimmesyan Head-dress Representing the White Owl+ 426
¶ +Wooden “Seal” Dish, Haida+ 428
+Tlinkit Summer Camp+ 429
[Photographed by the Harriman Alaska Expedition, 1899]
+Eskimo Summer Camp, Port Clarence+ 431
[Photographed by the Harriman Alaska Expedition, 1899]
* +Wooden Snow Goggles of the Central Eskimo+ 433
+Principal Known Ruins of Central America+ 436
[American Museum]
* +Necklace of Dried Human Fingers Obtained on Battlefield of
Wounded Knee by Captain Bourke+ 437
+Principal Known Ruins of Mexico+ 438
[American Museum]
+Probable Aspect of Alaska Summer Landscape some Six Hundred
Years Ago+ 440
[Harriman Alaska Expedition, 1899]
* +A Puebloan Warrior of Nambé, New Mexico, in Battle Array+ 442
¶ +Apache Woman Carrying Water in a Wicker Bottle+ 444
+Group of Eskimo, Port Clarence, Alaska+ 446
[Photographed by the Harriman Expedition, 1899]
* +Shell Spider Gorgets+ 447
¶ +Black Hawk+ 448
+Portion of the So-Called “Palace” of Labna, Yucatan+ 450
[American Museum]
+Musical Bow of the Southern Tepehuanes and the Aztecs,
Mexico+ 451
[American Museum]
¶ +General Type of Chimmesyan, Haida, and Tlinkit Chief’s
Costume, North-West Coast+ 452
* +Perforated Discoidal Stone, Illinois+ 453
+Hobobo, the Fire Katcina, in the Somaikoli Ceremony, Cichumovi,
1884+ 454
[From a drawing by the author]
+Circle of Dancers in the Intervals between the Appearances of
the Various Katcinas in the Moki Somaikoli Ceremony,
Cichumovi, Arizona, 1884+ 455
[Photographed by the author]
+Front of the House of Columns, Mitla, Oaxaca+ 457
[American Museum]
+A Costumed Human Figure from Tampico, Washington+ 459
+Entrance of a Tomb at Culapa, Mexico+ 460
* +Stick Used in the Awl Game+ 461
¶ +Wooden Seal-Dish, Haida, North-West Coast+ 478
¶ +The Swastika+ 488
* U. S. Bureau of Ethnology.
† Peabody Museum.
‡ Field Columbian Museum.
¶ U. S. National Museum.
NOTE
The cover, designed and drawn by the author, has for its central
feature a sketch of a stone animal head removed from one of the
buildings at Copan and brought to the Peabody Museum by Saville. The
sacred butterfly of the Mokis fills the four corners of the space
around this, and above and below an arrangement of Puebloan scrollwork
completes the composition. On the back is a figure representing the
terra-cotta statue shown more exactly on page 113, with a further
arrangement of scrollwork and some minor Moki symbols.
THE NORTH-AMERICANS OF
YESTERDAY
[Illustration: TERRA-COTTA FUNERAL URN FOUND IN FRONT OF A TOMB AT
CUILAPA, MEXICO
Height: 2 feet 3¾ inches. Shows traces of four colours: white,
yellow, red, and blue
Marshall H. Saville
]
[Illustration:GARGOYLE—SERPENT HEAD
From débris of temple, Copan]
THE
NORTH-AMERICANS OF YESTERDAY
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTORY
When those rapacious enthusiasts, the Spaniards of the sixteenth
century, had unfolded some of the mysteries of the great half-world
that the resolution and daring of Columbus had opened to them, they
found it everywhere already peopled, though often sparsely, by a race
strange to the other half, with totally different ideas and customs,
existing in various degrees of sylvan felicity, or in the budding
promise of a civilisation. They also found imposing ruins that told of
the long previous departure of some of the occupants of this land into
the vaster unknown, and indeed evidences of still earlier hosts that
had travelled the dim pathway through the outer darkness. These new
lands were believed to be some part of India, and because of this first
error the inappropriate title of “Indians” was bestowed on the natives,
and this name continued to cling after the mistake was discovered,
growing more and more confusing as intercourse increased with the real
Indians, till now in our day it is exceedingly troublesome, and we
are compelled to differentiate, when accuracy is desirable, by saying
“East Indian,” “Red Indian,” or “American Indian,” etc. To add further
to this confusion, many persons persist in considering the Algonquin
and Iroquois as the type specimens of “Indians,” and exclude all who
do not accord with this limited and erroneous standard. The natives of
the Western Hemisphere appear all to have been of one race, for there
are only minor differences, which will be shown in following pages, and
there is therefore a necessity for a broad designation for all these
people. When these words were first written I had determined to adopt
the term “Redskin” for use in this book, but learning that Amerind,
compounded of the first syllables of American and Indian, had been
suggested by the Anthropological Society of Washington, I gave it the
preference over Redskin, and on full examination was convinced that it
is a satisfactory and useful substitute for “Indian,” and, in order to
avoid the latter, have used it exclusively in these pages, except where
another writer is quoted.
This Amerind people were indeed more remarkable than has been popularly
appreciated.[4] They possessed, as a rule, strong personality, great
physical vigour, quick intelligence, and dauntless courage. Their
brain power was of a high order and the cerebral quality extremely
fine; capable through the processes of time of a development second to
none. They had their trials, their wars, their sicknesses, and their
various tribulations before the Europeans fell down upon them; but had
the cargo of misery, disease, and death for them which freighted the
bold caravels of Columbus possessed tangible weight in proportion to
its magnitude, those vessels would have plunged to the depths of the
unknown sea. But Destiny had traced another course for events, and
thus the gay banners, glowing on one side with Hope for one race and
black on the reverse with Despair for another, flaunted at length their
ominous folds in the sunshine of the Amerind continent. Great good
fortune it was for the Europeans, especially for the Spaniards, but the
latter failed to read their star aright. Upon the conquered tribes, an
easy prey before the superior weapons of the invaders, they lavished a
cruelty which eclipsed that of savages, and settled like a blight over
the country, to finally stifle by just retribution the haughty power of
Spain herself, and wrench forever from her the last foot of the domain
which the unfaltering courage of the Adelantados had bequeathed to her.
To attempt to gloss over the oppression of the Spanish rule of the
Amerind people would be fruitless. There is no excuse for it. Fresh
from the methods of the Inquisition, the Spaniards themselves perhaps
were not wholly aware of the horror of their acts. Unfortunately, they
do not stand alone as sinners in this respect, and the contemplation of
the early intercourse of Europeans and Amerinds is not likely to give
a candid person an agreeable sensation, as it is frequently difficult,
if not impossible, to decide which race is the one to whom rightfully
belongs the description, “treacherous, bloodthirsty, and savage.”
Certain it is that the Amerinds from the very beginning had numerous
vivid lessons from the whites in murder, treachery, and kindred
crimes.[5] They were frequently slain without cause or mercy; they
were enslaved when possible; their records were destroyed; and, most
terrible of all, they were burned alive at the stake. But this latter
diversion had been practised in Europe, where St. Ferdinand with his
own hands heaped the fagots on the blazing pile. The Conquistadores of
the sixteenth century were versed in as much cruelty as the Amerinds
had ever dreamed of; yet in the midst of it all there were men like Las
Casas and Viceroy Mendoza, who had no sympathy with the barbarities
practised, and whose characters bring relief in the broad and hideous
blackness. Ship-loads of slaves were carried off each year, and the
system of _repartimientos_ placed every Amerind in bondage.
[Illustration: SOUTH PORTION OF THE TEWA PUEBLO OF TAOS, NEW MEXICO
Adobé construction
]
Opposition was punished in the most terrible ways possible to devise.
In one instance the offenders, seventeen or eighteen caciques, were
strangled and mangled by dogs kept for the purpose, the execution
taking place in the public square, so that the struggles of the
unfortunates might make a spectacle. Again the Spaniards invited some
chiefs to a conference, as told by Brinton, in a large wooden building,
which was then burned up with the chiefs in it. But it is not necessary
to go back so far for examples of the treacherous brutality with which
the whites have treated the Amerinds. Were it so, the cruelty and
injustice might perhaps be regarded as merely circumstances of the
period, but Beckwourth, in his _Narrative_,[6] relates an incident,
also referred to by Washington Irving, quite as horrible as any that
occurred in the sixteenth century. Beckwourth came upon some white
trappers who had captured two Amerinds from a party of Arikarees who
had stolen their horses. The Arikarees offered to return some, but not
all, of the horses in exchange for the prisoners, but the trappers
declared they would burn their captives alive if all the horses were
not returned. The threat was disregarded. Thereupon the logs on the top
of a huge fire were separated, the two helpless, chain-bound prisoners
were dropped into the red furnace, and the flaming logs replaced.
“There was a terrible struggle for a moment,” says Beckwourth, “then
all was still.” And thus was another lesson of the mercy and justice of
the White rendered unto the Red.
[Illustration: SEATED FIGURE CARVED IN TRACHYTE
From débris of hieroglyphic steps, Copan. Slightly larger than life
size
]
Nearer to us than this we have an incident even more diabolical,
because without the provocation the trappers had. Horse stealing down
to recent times in the West has always been liable to punishment by
death, so the trappers might be somewhat excused on that ground in
the minds of some, but in the year 1898, in the Indian Territory,
two Amerinds were burned alive at the stake by a mob of whites. The
accusation, too, was a mere suspicion, and it was later established
that the Amerinds were perfectly innocent. After such deeds we may well
pause when our inclination is to vaunt the superiority of the white men
over the red.
Notwithstanding the popular idea that the Amerinds were devils
incarnate, many tribes when first encountered were kindly, and trusted
the newcomers till the moment came, as it soon did, when they were
basely deceived. That all tribes were trusting is not claimed, but it
is well known that many explorers found the Amerinds ready to receive
them fairly and honestly. Neither Cartier nor Roberval met with
hostility from natives, and the success of the straightforwardness
of Penn in his dealings with them is unquestioned.[7] It has been
stated that the European is no more than a whitewashed savage, and
his intercourse with the Amerind people bears out this description.
There was often provocation on both sides, augmented by the complete
ignorance of each other’s ways and customs. Actions which were correct
according to the manners of the Amerinds were offensive to the whites,
and _vice versa_, and, to add to the ever-increasing hostility, the
whites resented upon all Amerinds the crime or indiscretion of one
or a few members of a particular tribe. If an Amerind committed a
crime, the next one met with suffered for it. When Walker, in 1833,
treacherously abandoned the line of work Bonneville had laid out for
him and struck down the Humboldt for California, one of the men had his
traps carried off by some of the Shoshokoes. He swore to kill the first
one he should meet, and so their trail was one of blood. At one place
they murdered no less than twenty-five unsuspecting red people without
provocation. This was the manner in which these pioneers exhibited
their superiority. There have always, too, been certain whites, more
or less outlawed, like one Rose, who have struck up a friendship with
the worst tribes for the purpose of inciting them against the whites to
advance their own profit.
[Illustration: KICKING BEAR, SIOUX]
Previous to the European invasion the Amerind was not always at war,
though many seem to think that he was. His territorial lines were
generally well defined, and, as a rule, he stayed within them. Their
villages, for the Amerind was always a village dweller, were far apart
north of Mexico, and as long as there was no contention over property
or water rights, things went smoothly, and even during hostilities
intercourse was not always entirely broken off. So that there was
frequently a large measure of security and periods of uninterrupted
peace. He _worked_ at hunting, fishing, and, in all the tribes east
of the Mississippi, in Mexico, and many tribes west, at agriculture.
The arrival and the westward movement of the Europeans crowded back
the tribes across boundaries and upon lands they had no right to, and
frequent wars were the inevitable result. Finally the acquisition of
the horse gave facility of movement never before possessed, and made
quick journeys and night attacks feasible, while the desire to secure
as many of the valuable animals as possible added a new and great
incentive to theft and consequent warfare. The Amerind began to change,
in fact, the moment he acquired the horse and the gun, adapting both
to his needs and using them with consummate skill. The whites did not
try to understand him, nor were they superior to him in the matter of
patience or forgiveness. One thing was well understood by the whites,
however, and continues to this day, and that was that an Amerind has
no rights that a white man is bound to respect, or even to consider.
The natives north of the Aztec country were regarded as vagabonds
and vagrants who had no right to anything, while those of Mexico,
whom the Spaniards had meanwhile reduced everywhere to abject slaves,
were believed to be a different race, with former qualities that were
greatly exaggerated by the Europeans. And then, later, in the effort
to counteract the extravagant notions entertained of the Aztecs, their
remarkable growth, and that of the Mayas, was by some writers reduced
to the level of that of the Pueblo tribes of New Mexico and Arizona,
which is undoubtedly a serious error in the other direction. Montezuma
was probably not a king nor an emperor as those terms are understood
by us, but it is difficult to accept him as little more than a Moki
war-chief, especially as one can readily see that a few steps farther,
even in the line of Moki development, might have produced a form of
government partaking of the monarchical, but different from anything
that we know about.[8] Ever since I saw one of our Arizona Pai Ute
guides, a chief of his band, command a follower to take off his shoes
as he reclined by the fire, I have suspected the existence among the
Amerinds of a latent germ of aristocracy.
[Illustration: A CORNER OF A MITLA RUIN, MEXICO
From Bandelier’s _Archæological Tour_, published by the
Archæological Institute of America
]
In the first flush of the discovery of America, Europe was wild
with the romance of it, and mystery was the order of the day. More
wonderful things still were expected. Fables that had done good service
for centuries were transported to the new lands, and there blazed up
with the mysterious uncertainty of the _ignis fatuus_, luring and
deceiving, till the gold-thirsting Europeans struggled in the pursuit
of such phantoms as the “Seven Cities.” The most extraordinary tales
appeared tame in that atmosphere of dazzling imagination. Exaggeration
of one kind or another has ever since been the inheritance of the
Amerind people, and it is only within a comparatively few years that
these “Americans of Yesterday” have been scientifically studied and
their real character and attainments given proper places. The whole
matter of American ethnology and archæology is new; so new that it is
impossible to speak with decision on a great many points. In the United
States we have usually regarded the Amerind as the incarnation of evil;
a treacherous demon with a bloody knife in one hand and a scalp-lock in
the other, and we have generally refused to consider the finer traits
of his character. So callous have we become to his good points that
Cooper is ridiculed for his delineation of Amerinds that have instincts
or principles above the brute, and yet Cooper’s chief models were the
Iroquois who established a remarkable political organisation.
It is not necessary to be what has been scornfully called “an Indian
lover” to be interested in this extraordinarily homogeneous race that
was scattered from Alaska to Patagonia. Such interest should be a
matter apart from sentiment. We are interested in the primitive man of
Europe; few would have been pleased to live with him. So the question
whether we “like” the Amerind people and would enjoy social intercourse
with them is not to the point. It is a matter of education; a matter,
in fact, of the study of ourselves as others saw us some thousands
of years ago, for the Amerind people were passing through phases of
human existence which, in all probability, our remote ancestors also
passed through; so that by examining this kind of life we are holding
up the mirror to ourselves. Till recently the apathy shown on this
subject was surprising. People generally were not aware that there
were differences in “Indians,” or that they spoke different languages.
The idea that there was any profit in studying them was popularly
considered ridiculous. He was a “good-for-nothing,” and that was all
that there was about it. But we can no more find fault with the Amerind
for not being a European than we can with a stage-coach for not being
a locomotive. We must accept him as he was, and as he is, and wherever
possible study him and write him down so minutely that generations
of ethnologists to come will shower blessings on our heads. We must
constantly remember that the Amerind point of view is different from
ours, and that we too are only in a transitional stage.
[Illustration: SCULPTURES FROM TERRACE EAST OF THE GREAT PLAZA, COPAN]
The Amerind people, like ourselves, represent merely a stage of human
progress. Our stage is in advance of theirs, but it is by no means
perfection. We do not scalp, but the revolver is quite as active as
their scalping-knife, and we require a great number of policemen to
keep us civilised. As for war, the European race has certainly not
been backward in that respect. In Europe to-day vast bodies of men
are withdrawn from every other service and trained for war with a
completeness that the Amerind never dreamed of; and in the United
States we have probably already killed more men in wars than ever
at one time peopled it in aboriginal days. For in those days the
various groups of Amerinds were separated by tracts of unoccupied
territory; unoccupied except as the hunters roamed over it in search
of their food, and the population outside of the Aztec country and
Central America was generally sparse. Nor was the distribution of this
population always the same as it was revealed to us by the Discovery.
Tribes developed, rose to power, declined and passed away, leaving
little, where their art development was slight, to indicate their
former presence, no matter what may have been the degrees of their
political attainments. Had not our own history come in to rescue the
confederacy of the Iroquois, their remains, assuming them to have
declined without further art development, would have conveyed no
suspicion of their political organisation.
Back and forth the Amerind race moved, up and down, across the face
of the American continent through the forgotten ages in ever shifting
waves impelled, in the main, by climatic conditions and food quest,
some leaving behind no record, others bequeathing to the future
monuments and edifices that astonished the world and gave birth to
elaborate and far-fetched theories to account for a development that
seems to have required no more than time and the circumstances which
existed. All the remains on this continent appear to be palpably
American; the work of the Amerinds in their various degrees of
progress. Whether they came from one source or several, they have been
long enough here to become homogeneous from one end of the hemisphere
to the other, and this, it is evident, would require a great stretch
of time.[9] They clearly separated from the other inhabitants of the
world, in any case, at a period before those inhabitants had developed
present characteristics. From the time the human race was born, whether
as an ape or as it now stands, there was differentiation of habits,
customs, and knowledge which has never ceased and which never will
cease. But as light, air, and natural conditions are similar or the
same the world round, and as cerebral matter seems to be practically
the same in all peoples, humanity has passed everywhere through about
the same stages of development, and each stock or tribe in time has
arrived at about the same place on the road of progress because they
could not help it. Conditions might force one people ahead while
other conditions might be retarding another, but whatever progression
there has ever been was made on practically the same lines. The same
race, however, does not throughout always develop evenly. Sir John
Lubbock has said that “different races in similar stages of development
often present more features of resemblance to one another than the same
race does to itself in different stages of its history,” and to-day in
Arizona there exist near to each other two branches of the widespread
Shoshonean[10] stock, the Pai Utes and the Mokis, who exhibit the most
marked differences of customs, the latter living in substantial houses
of stone while the former occupy the rudest kind of brush wikiups.
[Illustration: A KIESKABI, OR COVERED PASSAGE, AT WALPI, ARIZONA]
The Amerind people were living in various stages of progress at the
time of the Discovery. The Mexicans, according to Lewis Morgan, were
“one stage higher than the Mohawks and one stage lower than the
warriors of the _Iliad_.” Accepting this as correct, we would be able
to trace human development back of the Greeks through the Amerinds of
North America. Morgan suggested the classification of mankind in three
broad ethnic stages: Savagery, Barbarism, and Civilisation,[11] the
first ending with the acquisition of the bow and arrow, represented
here by the Pai Utes; the second ending with the smelting of iron
ore, represented by the early Greeks; and the third beginning with a
phonetic alphabet, and represented by ourselves. In this scheme the
Mexicans would fall in the middle period of Barbarism. This is a fairly
good working basis, but, like all generalisations, it is only general.
It must not be rigidly adhered to. The conditions on this continent
were quite different from those in Europe, and consequently the line
of development could not be precisely the same. There seems to be no
good argument yet advanced and no archæological data yet exhibited
that compel us to seek an outside derivation for the Amerind race; and
this being so, it is about as reasonable to search this continent for
the original home of the yellow race as to go to Asia for that of the
red. That they may have come from there is possible, and so also it is
possible that they came from Europe. Nor should we at present exclude
even the lost Atlantis,[12] for the geography of the world was not
always as it is now, and the elevation and subsidence of lands are
still in progress. This, of course, is admitted, as also that there was
a land connection across the Atlantic before man appeared in the world;
but man may have appeared earlier than we suspect, and this lost land
may have been in sunshine later than we believe.[13]
[Illustration: MOKI MASK OF PAWIKKATCINA]
The Amerinds of North America were practically a people of stone
culture, because while some had developed an ability to employ copper
to a limited extent, they used stone tools for most of their work;
their highest government appears to have been the confederacy, with in
some cases perhaps a monarchical tendency; they were without domestic
animals; without beasts of burden; without fireplaces or chimneys;
without inside stairs; and without wheeled vehicles. There was no
mystery about them. They ranged the continent, as has been noted,
impelled by food quest and climate. They lived bravely and they died
without fear. The following chapters will tell some of the things they
did, with the hope that readers may arrive at a better understanding of
the people that so long had a half-world to themselves.
[Illustration: SPECIMEN OF SCULPTURE ON HIEROGLYPHIC STAIRWAY, COPAN]
[Illustration: ESKIMO JADE ADZE]