Such are the principal characteristics of the religion of the Indians
of California as a whole, and of the larger ethnographical areas of the
state. It is obvious that with so great a linguistic and political
diversification as existed among these Indians, there must have been
many local modifications of the scheme which has been outlined. The
most conspicuous or best known of these special modifications it is the
purpose of the remainder of this paper to consider. In this review the
groups to be taken up will, for the sake of greatest convenience of
classification, be the linguistic families. These numerous families are
territorially so restricted, and usually so small in numbers, that they
almost form the equivalent of the tribe in other regions of North
America, that is to say, of a subdivision of the family. Strictly there
are no tribes in the greater part of California. The families or stocks
are the largest linguistic units, usually subdivided into several
dialectic areas, each of which contains a number of small village
communities that are the only units of political or social
organization.
In the Northwestern region, in spite of the excessive limitation of
this territory, a distinction must be made between three tribes which
occupy the heart of the region and show the culture in its most extreme
form, and a fringe of surrounding tribes where the Northwestern culture
is either less developed or subject to greater extraneous influences.
The three more characteristic groups are the Yurok and Karok, small
independent linguistic families, and the Hupa division of the
Athabascan family. These alone practice the Deerskin dance and the "New
Year's" or world-making ceremonies. With them also the peculiar
mythological and shamanistic conceptions typical of the region are
found in the purest form. The surrounding tribes are the Wishosk or
Wiyot, perhaps the Chimariko and some of the Shasta, the Athabascan
Tolowa, and the Athabascans southwest of the Hupa.
The Yurok held the Deerskin and Jumping dances at three places along
the Klamath river, and the Jumping dance alone at three points on the
coast, to the south. At the mouth of the river an annual spring
ceremony to cause or regulate the ascent of the salmon was made. Until
this ceremony had been made salmon were not eaten. The shamans of the
Yurok were almost all women. Alone of all the tribes in the
Northwestern region the Yurok held no dance or public ceremony on the
occasion of a girl's puberty. Their traditions seem to have the
peculiar Northwestern qualities perhaps more deeply impressed upon them
than even those of their neighbors, the Karok and Hupa, especially in
regard to the underlying conception of a previous race and its
function. In accord with the development of this conception, the
mythical heroes of the Yurok show less approximation to being creators
than those of the other tribes, and animals are mentioned in the
mythology surprisingly little.
The Karok, who live immediately upstream from the Yurok on the Klamath,
held the Deerskin and Jumping dances at three places. At each of these
the dances were conducted in connection with a sacred ceremony called
"New Year's" by the whites and "making the world" by the Indians. This
ceremony was performed early in autumn, practically by one man, the
priest who knew the formula and ritual. A similar ceremony was held at
a fourth locality in spring, in connection with the coming of the
salmon. The Karok regard the Deerskin and Jumping dances of the Yurok
and Hupa as the equivalents of these ceremonies of their own, reckoning
altogether ten places in the world at which they are performed. Karok
mythology is of the Northwestern type, but shows more animal characters
than that of the Yurok.
The territory held by the Hupa was much less extended than that of
their neighbors, and this was no doubt the occasion of their making
only one Deerskin and Jumping dance in their valley. They held a New
Year's ceremony in autumn which had distinct reference to the acorn
crop. Ceremonials and restrictions connected with menstruation were
considerably developed, much more than among the neighboring Yurok. It
was thought dangerous to speak to a dog, as he might be provoked to
answer, which would be a fatal portent.
The religion of the other Athabascans in this part of the state is very
little known, but it is certain that before the southern end of
Humboldt county is reached, in other words, in the Eel river drainage,
a totally distinct set of conceptions and practices is encountered,
which are allied to those of the Central region.
The Wiyot or Wishosk, who adjoin the Yurok on the south, did not
practice the Jumping dance, other ceremonies, which are very little
known, taking its place among them. One dance was performed by women
standing up to the hips in water. Shamanism is of more prominence among
them than with their neighbors the Yurok, and men as well as women are
affected with supernatural powers. The sex of the guardian spirit is
usually the opposite of that of the shaman. It is possible that on
account of the almost complete disappearance of their tribal life and
communal religious practices, shamanism, which has been retained with
greater vigor among the Wiyot, now appears relatively more important,
as the only remnant of the religious side of their culture. An
elaborate hanging feather head-dress, a belt, a pipe for smoking, and
another for sucking, are the constant paraphernalia of the
medicine-man. Two shamans often support each other in curing disease,
one diagnosing, the other removing the pain. The mythology of the Wiyot
resembles that of the Yurok chiefly through possessing certain specific
narrative episodes in common with it. But the idea of a previous
parallel race is very little developed, and there is a true creator,
Above-Old-Man. Most of the other mythical characters are animals. The
whole mythology therefore is of the Central rather than of the
Northwestern type.
With the Yuki of Mendocino county a pure form of the Central culture
obtains. The creator is Taikomol, "he who goes alone." His companion,
who supplements his work, especially as regards the culture of man, is
Coyote. There is a Taikomol ceremony in which this character is
impersonated, and which is shamanistic at least to the degree of being
performed to cure an individual of sickness. There is no trace of the
sacred formulae of the Northwest. The shaman, who is usually a man,
receives his power either by dreaming or in a vision in a desolate
place. His power is not sought by him and he possesses definite
guardian spirits. Bear shamans are much feared. All the Yuki possess a
sacred society initiation ceremony, in which performances of magic are
prominent. Among the northern Yuki and neighboring Wailaki this is
called Flint ceremony, and the initiates display magic powers in
handling and swallowing flint points. Among the southern Yuki, as among
the neighboring Pomo and Athabascan Kato, the ceremony relates to
ghosts and is popularly known as Devil dance. The members possess power
of causing sickness and contend against each other much like the
shamans of the Maidu and Yokuts.
One of the most conspicuous features of the religion of the Pomo, who
are south of the Yuki, is their shamanistic fetishes. The medicine-man
possesses a number of objects, stones, parts of animals, and other
articles, which he treasures and with which his power is largely bound
up. Pomo mythology is characterized by the importance of Coyote, who
comes nearer than any other personage to playing the part of creator.
In certain ceremonies there are exhibitions of fire-eating and the
clown occurs.
The Wintun occupy a territory which is of much greater extent from
north to south than from east to west. The northern and southernmost
members of the family therefore differ considerably. In the north there
is a well defined conception of a creator who dwells above, and to whom
Coyote forms an antithesis. In the south, where everything shows the
Wintun and Pomo to have influenced each other considerably, he is
replaced by Coyote. In both regions a world-fire is prominent in the
mythology. In the north the shaman is inaugurated in his career in a
ceremony in which he is assisted by his older colleagues. The southern
Wintun may prove to have been the people who largely developed the
dances and ceremonies characteristic of a large part of the Sacramento
valley. They show much in common with their western neighbors the Pomo,
and with the Maidu who adjoin them on the east and who themselves
declare that they have derived the Hesi and other dances from them.
None of the groups so far discussed, with the possible exception of
part of the Wintun, practiced any distinct mourning ceremony. On the
other hand, all that follow, with the possible doubtful exception of
one or two tribes on the outskirts of the state, held mourning
ceremonies as among the most important of all their religious
practices.
The Maidu everywhere possessed a secret society. Their system of dances
becomes less and less developed as one proceeds farther from Wintun
influence. Among the mountain tribes almost all ceremonies were much
less developed than in the Sacramento valley. Shamanistic beliefs and
practices also varied, although there was everywhere a clear idea of
spirits personally acquired and controlled by the medicine-man. Among
the northeastern Maidu every shaman's son invariably became a shaman,
although only through his own acquisition of spirits, which might be
those of his father. In the Sacramento valley spirits were acquired by
involuntary dreaming without much regard to heredity. Puberty
ceremonies for girls were performed both among the northwestern and
northeastern Maidu, perhaps among those of the south also. The
mythology of the several Maidu divisions is much more uniform than
their religious practices. The creator is always opposed and his
beneficent work rendered incomplete by Coyote. It is clear that the
mythology of the Maidu is distinctive and much less under Wintun
influence than their ceremonies.
Among the Miwok the Coyote largely takes the place of the creator. As
among their northern neighbors the Maidu, the mourning ceremony was
important, and the two stocks held at least certain dances in common.
The individual mourning practices and restrictions of the widow were
elaborate and severe. Nothing is as yet known of a secret society, but
as both the southern and northern neighbors of the Miwok performed
initiation ceremonies, it is likely that they also possessed them.
Among the Yokuts, who occupied the head of the San Joaquin-Tulare
valley south of the Miwok, there are no traces of the ceremonial system
of the Sacramento valley, which is replaced by public shamanistic
ceremonies, in which contests and exhibitions of magic were
conspicuous. The annual rattlesnake ceremony which has been described
is of this type, as is the Ohowish, a ceremony in which medicine-men
from different villages or districts; directed their powers against
each other. There seem to have been also certain animal dances among
the Yokuts. Medicine-men usually acquired their power by dreaming,
sometimes by visions while alone. Bear shamans were known, but were not
so much dreaded as farther north. Rain doctors, who could control the
weather, were important. Their power was bound up with certain stone
amulets evidencing a fetishistic development. Formulae, some with
ritualistic accompaniment, were spoken, but differed from those of the
Northwest in being short direct prayers or supplications instead of
mythical narratives. The creators in Yurok mythology are several
animals, the chief of whom is the eagle and among whom Coyote always
finds a place. A favorite mythological personage is the prairie-falcon,
and a myth which has found a particular development relates the visit
of a husband to the world of the dead in pursuit of his wife.
Very little is known of the ethnology of the coast tribes west of the
Miwok and Yokuts. Among the Southern Costanoan peoples creation myths
resembling those of the Yokuts are found. Coyote is at once a trickster
and a giver of civilization and arts to man. Similar ideas probably
prevailed among the Salinan tribes. As regards the Esselen and Chumash
nothing is known.
Tribes belonging to the great Shoshonean family held almost all the
eastern border of the state as well as a large part of the southern
desert and coast region. The former inhabited the Great Basin, and are
culturally entirely distinct from those of Southern California, of whom
alone is there any considerable knowledge extant as regards religion.
Certain of the northern groups, such as the Mono, lived on the western
or California slope of the Sierra Nevada, in contact with the Yokuts
and Miwok, and partook more largely of the culture and presumably
religion of these people than of the tribes of the Basin.
Among the Shoshoneans of Southern California, such as the Gabrielino
and Luiseno, the so-called Mission Indians, mourning ceremonies were
more important than any others, and were held both on the death of a
person, sometime afterwards, and again in a still more public manner at
large gatherings. At some of these ceremonies images representing the
dead, and recalling those of the Maidu far to the north, were burned.
One form of mourning ceremony was the Eagle dance, performed with an
eagle that was slowly killed as the ceremony went on through the night.
Many of the songs of the mourning ceremonies are of mythological
content, referring to the great leader or culture-hero Wiyot. The
puberty ceremonial for girls was elaborate and contained symbolic
actions. The initiation of males was intended for boys, and therefore
also took on largely the character of a puberty ceremony. This
character was heightened by the presence of numerous ordeals. Part of
the initiation of boys consisted of the drinking of jimson-weed. Sand
paintings of a very simple type, evidently influenced by basket
patterns, but thoroughly symbolic in meaning and therefore essentially
of the same nature as those of the Pueblos and Navaho, were made in
connection with this initiation. On the whole religious symbolism was
more developed than in Central California or even among the Yuman
tribes to the east, who are geographically so much nearer the Indians
of the Southwest. The shaman acquired his power by dreaming, and the
pipe with which he sucked as well as smoked was of the utmost
importance to him. Paraphernalia were much used by the shamans,
especially boards or wooden swords, which were swallowed and worn as
head-dresses. These, however, were not purely fetishistic objects, but
of potency rather through symbolism and association. The mythology of
the Shoshonean Mission Indians was not essentially different from that
of the other Indians of Southern California.
The Yuman family, which is so much represented in Arizona and Lower
California, occupied the southernmost portion of Southern California.
The Diegueno in the coast mountains and on the coast were culturally
similar to the Shoshonean Luiseno, with whom they are generally
included as the present Mission Indians. Along the Colorado river the
physical and ethnic environment was quite different, but as has already
been said, there was much closer resemblance to the Mission Indians in
matters of religion than in almost any other phase of culture. The
principal Yuman tribes in this Colorado region are the Mohave and the
Yuma. The religion of only the former is known, but the two give every
evidence of having been very similar. The religion of the Shoshonean
Paiute or Chemehuevi in the desert adjoining the Mohave has been
largely colored by the influence of the latter. The most distinctive
feature of Mohave religion is the insistence upon dreaming as the
source of everything religious, although this dreaming must be
interpreted rather as a belief in the presence of the individual in
spirit form at the great events of mythic times. All myths that are at
all of sacred character are believed not to be handed down by
tradition, but to be dreamed by each narrator. The shaman receives his
power by dreaming ritualistic myths, which reveal to him his practices.
The lengthy series of songs which are the essence of all ceremonies,
and the mythical narratives connected with them, are also learned in
dreams. It is probably a result of this importance of the dream-world
and of the identification of myth and ceremony, of religious belief and
religious practice, that ritualism is so slightly developed among the
Mohave. Their geographical nearness and intercourse with the Hopi and
other southwestern tribes, among whom ritualism and symbolism find
perhaps their highest development on the continent north of Mexico,
would certainly justify a contrary expectation. Both ceremonial actions
and ceremonial paraphernalia and dress are developed only to a very
slight extent. There is no initiation or society. The singing
ceremonies, which with the exception of a few minor observances such as
that for a girl's puberty, constitute all the Mohave ceremonies other
than mourning ceremonies, are quite numerous, more than twenty being
known. Some of these ceremonies are acknowledged to have been borrowed
from other Yuman tribes, especially the Yuma, and these Indians no
doubt have also acquired Mohave ceremonies. Some of the ceremonies are
primarily mythical in character, others somewhat shamanistic. All are
also sung in mourning. In addition there is a distinctive mourning
ceremony held annually for important men.