These twelve "ethnic environments" are:--

(1) _Arctic_ (_Eskimo_); (2) _Yukon-Mackenzie_ (practically _Athabaskan_);

(3) _Great Lakes and St Lawrence_ (_Algonkian-Iroquoian_); (4) _Atlantic

Slope_ (_Algonkian_, _Iroquoian_, _Siouan_, &c.); (5) _Gulf Coast_,

embracing region from Georgia to Texas (_Muskogian_ and a number of

smaller stocks); (6) _Mississippi Valley_ (largely _Algonkian_ and

"_mound-builders_"); (7) _Plains_, including the country from the

neighbourhood of the Rio Grande to beyond the Saskatchewan on the north,

and from the Rocky Mountains to the fertile lands west of the Mississippi

(_Algonkian_, _Siouan_, _Shoshonian_, _Kiowan_, _Caddoan_); (8) _North

Pacific Coast_, from Mount St Elias to the mouth of the Columbia river

(_Koluschan_, _Haidan_, _Tsimshian_, _Wakashan_, _Salishan_); (9)

_Columbia-Fraser region_ (_Salishan_, _Sahaptian_, _Chinookan_, &c.); (10)

_Interior Basin_ between Rocky Mountains and Sierras (_Shoshonian_); (11)

_California-Oregon_ ("the Caucasus of North America," occupied by more

than twenty-five linguistic stocks); (12) _Pueblos region_, basin of Rio

Grande, Pecos, San Juan and Colorado (_Pueblos-Keresan_, _Tanoan_,

_Zuñian_, &c.; on the outskirts predatory _Shoshonian_, _Athabaskan_

tribes; to the south-west, _Yuman_, &c.).

In the Arctic environment the Eskimo have conquered a severe and

thankless climate by the invention and perfection of the snow-house,

the dog-sled, the oil-lamp (creating and sustaining social life and

making extensive migrations possible), the harpoon and the kayak or

skin-boat (the acme of adaptation of individual skill to environmental

demands). In the region of the Mackenzie especially the older and

simpler culture of the Athabaskan stock has been much influenced by

the European "civilization" of the Hudson's Bay Company, &c., and

elsewhere also by contact with Indian tribes of other stocks, for the

Athabaskans everywhere have shown themselves very receptive and ready

to adopt foreign elements of culture. The culture-type of the North

Pacific coast, besides being unique in some respects, stands in

certain relations to the culture of the Palaeo-Asiatic tribes of

north-eastern Asia who belong properly with the American race. The

culture of the Great Plains, which has been studied by Drs Wissler

(_Congr. intern. d. Amér._, Quebec, 1906, vol. ii. pp. 39-52) and

Kroeber (_ibid._ pp. 53-63), is marked by the presence of a decided

uniformity in spite of the existence within this area of several

physical types and a number of distinct linguistic stocks. Here the

_tipi_ and the camp-circle figure largely in material culture;

innumerable ceremonies and religious practices (e.g. the "sun-dance")

occur and many societies and ceremonial organizations exist. The

buffalo and later the horse have profoundly influenced the culture of

this area, in which Athabaskan (Sarcee), Kitunahan, Algonkian, Siouan,

Shoshonian, Kiowan tribes have shared. In some respects the Plains

culture is quite recent and the result of "giving and taking" among

the various peoples concerned. Some of them merely abandoned an

earlier more sedentary life to hunt the buffalo on the great prairies.

The culture of the Mississippi valley region (including the Ohio, &c.)

is noteworthy in pre-Columbian and immediately post-Columbian times

for the development of "mound-building," with apparently sedentary

life to a large extent. In this Algonkian, Iroquoian and Siouan tribes

have participated. In the region of the Great Lakes and on the

Atlantic slope occurred the greatest development of the Algonkian and

Iroquoian stocks, particularly in social and political activities,

expressed both generally, as in the leagues and alliances (especially

the famous "Iroquois League"), and individually in the appearance of

great men like Hiawatha, Tecumseh, &c. The Gulf region is remarkable

for the development in the southern United States of the Muskogian

stock (Creek, Choctaw, Chickasaw, &c.), to which belonged the

"civilized tribes" now part of the state of Oklahoma. In this area

also, toward the west, are to be met religious ideas and institutions

(e.g. among the Natchez) suggestive of an early participation in or

connexion with the beginnings of a culture common to the Pueblos

tribes and perhaps also to the ancestors of the civilized peoples of

ancient Mexico. In some other respects the culture of this area is

noteworthy. In the east also there are evidences of the influence of

Arawakan culture from the West Indies. The Pueblos region has been the

scene of the development of sedentary "village" life on the largest

scale known in North America north of Mexico, and of arts, industries

and religious ideas (rain-cult especially) corresponding, as Professor

J. W. Fewkes (_Rep. Smiths. Inst._, 1895, pp. 683-700) has shown, most

remarkably to their environment. The arid interior basin is the

characteristic area of the great Shoshonian stock, here seen at its

lowest level, but advancing with the Piman and other Sonoran and

Nahuatlan tribes till in ancient Mexico it attained the civilization

of the Aztecs. The California-Oregon area is remarkable for the

multiplicity of its linguistic stocks and also for the development of

many local culture-types. Within the limits of California alone Dr

Kroeber (_Univ. of Calif. Publ. Amer. Arch. and Ethnol._ vol. ii.,

1904, pp. 81-103) distinguishes at least four types of native culture.

On account of climatic conditions, in part at least, the development

of agriculture in North America has not reached with many Indian

tribes a high state of development, although its diffusion is much

greater than is generally believed. In the south-eastern part of the

United States beans, squashes, pumpkins and some other gourds and

melons, potatoes, Indian corn, tobacco, a variety of the sunflower,

&c., were cultivated, the growing of beans, squashes and pumpkins

extending as far north as Massachusetts and the Iroquois country, in

which latter also tobacco was cultivated, as the tribal name ("Tobacco

Nation") of the Tionontati indicates. The cultivation of Indian corn

extended from Florida to beyond 50° N. and from the Atlantic to far

beyond the Mississippi, and, to judge from the varieties found in

existence, must have been known to the Indians for a very long period.

In the arid region of Arizona and New Mexico a special development of

agriculture occurred, made possible by the extensive use of irrigation

in pre-Columbian and in more recent times. Here Indian corn, melons,

beans, cotton, &c., were cultivated before the arrival of the

Spaniards. For religious purposes the Zuñi appear to have selectively

produced a great variety of colours in the ears of corn. Where women

had much to do with agricultural operations they greatly influenced

society and religious and mythological ideas. Hunting and fishing, as

might be expected in an extensive and varied environment like the

North American continent, exhibit a great range from simple individual

hand-capture to combined efforts with traps and nets, such as the

communal nets of the Eskimo, the buffalo and deer "drives" of the

Plains and other Indians, with which were often associated

brush-fences, corrals, "pounds," pitfalls, &c., advantage taken of a

natural _cul-de-sac_, &c. A great variety of traps, snares, &c., was

used (see Mason in _Amer. Anthrop._, 1899) and the dog was also of

great service with certain tribes, although no special variety of

hunting-dogs (except in a few cases) appears to have been developed.

The accessory implements for the chase (spear, bow and arrow, harpoon,

club, &c.) underwent great variation and specialization. The

throwing-stick appears in the north among the Eskimo and in the

south-west among the Pueblos. In the Muskogian area the blow-gun is

found, and its use extended also to some of the Iroquoian tribes

(Cherokee, &c.). In part of this area vegetable poisons were used to

capture fish. In the New England region torch-fishing at night was in

vogue. With the tribes of the Great Plains in particular the hunt

developed into a great social event, and often into a more or less

marked ceremonial or religious institution, with its own appropriate

preliminary and subsequential rites, songs, formulae, taboos and

fetishes, &c., as seen e.g. among certain tribes of the Caddoan stock

in very interesting fashion.

The art of transportation and navigation among the American aborigines

north of Mexico has received special treatment from Mason (_Rep. U.S.

Nat. Mus._, 1894) and Friederici, in his recent monograph _Die

Schiffahrt der Indianer_ (Stuttgart, 1907). On land some of the Indian

tribes made use of the dog-sled and the toboggan in winter, while the

dog-_travois_ was early met with in the region of the Great Plains.

The Eskimo made special use of the dog-sled, but never developed

snow-shoes to the same extent as did the Athabaskan and Algonkian

tribes; with the last and with the Iroquoian tribes came the

perfection of the skin-shoe or moccasin. In the south and south-west

appear sandals. In North America the cradle, as pointed out by

Professor Mason (_Rep. U.S. Nat. Mus._, 1894), has undergone great

variation in response to environmental suggestion. No wheeled vehicle

and no use of an animal other than the dog for means of transportation

is known among the aborigines north of Mexico, men, women and

children, women especially, having been the chief burden-bearers.

Among the types of boats in use are the seal-skin _kayak_ and _umiak_

(woman's boat) of the Eskimo; the bull-boat or coracle (raw-hide over

willow frame) of the Missouri and the buffalo-region; the dug-out of

various forms and degrees of ornamentation in divers regions from

Florida to the North Pacific coast; bark-canoes (birch, elm, pine,

&c.) in the Algonkian, Iroquoian and Athabaskan areas, reaching a high

development in the region of the Great Lakes; the peculiar bark-canoe

of the Beothuks in the form of two half ellipses; the bark-canoe of

the Kootenay (a similar type occurs on the Amur in north-eastern

Asia), noteworthy as having both ends pointed under water; the

plank-canoes of the Santa Barbara region; the basketry-boats

(_coritas_) of the lower Colorado and in south central California; the

_balsas_ of tule rushes, &c., in use on the lakes and streams of

California and Nevada. In various parts of the country log-rafts of a

more or less crude sort were in use. No regular sail is reported from

North America, although from time to time skins, blankets, &c., were

used by several tribes for such purposes.

Since the appearance of Morgan's monograph on the _Houses and

House-life of the American Aborigines_ (Washington, 1881) our

knowledge of the subject has been materially increased by the studies

and researches of Boas, Fewkes, Mindeleff, Dorsey, Matthews, Murdoch,

Willoughby and others. The dwellings in use among the aborigines north

of Mexico varied from the rude brush huts of the primitive Shoshonian

tribes, and the still earlier caves, to the communal dwellings of the

Iroquois and the Pueblos stocks of New Mexico and Arizona. The

principal types are as follows:

Crude brush shelters and huts of the lowest Shoshonian tribes, the

Apache (more elaborate), &c.; the _hogan_ or earth-lodge of the

Navaho, and the earth-lodges of certain Caddoan and Siouan tribes

farther north, with similar structures even among the Aleuts of

Alaska; the grass-lodge of the Caddoan tribes, still in use among the

Wichita; the semi-subterranean earth-covered lodges of parts of

California, &c.; the roofed pits of various styles in use in the

colder north, &c.; the Eskimo snow-house and wooden _karmak_; the

elaborately carved and painted wooden houses of Pacific coast region

(Tlingit, Haida, Nootka, &c.), some of which were originally built on

platforms and entered by log-ladders; the simple wooden house of

northern California; the dome-shaped bark wigwams of the Winnebago and

the conical ones of many of the Algonkian tribes; the skin tents or

tipis of many of the Plains peoples; the mat tents of the Nez Percé,

Kootenay, &c., and the mat houses of the South Atlantic region; the

circular wigwam of bark or mats banked up at the base, of the

Ohio-Mississippi valley; the palmetto-house of certain Louisiana

Indians; the pile-dwellings of the ancient Floridians. Communal houses

of divers types were found among the Mohegans, Iroquois, &c., but are

especially illustrated by the so-called _pueblos_ of the south-western

United States, out of which grew probably the elaborate structures of

ancient Mexico. Some tribes appear to have had simple and ruder summer

dwellings and more elaborate or better constructed winter houses. The

Eskimo have sometimes temporary hunting-lodges; the Comanches

brush-shelters for summer and lodges of buffalo-skin for winter; with

some tribes temporary dwellings were erected for the use of those

cultivating the land. Many tribes had their "village-houses" for

social purposes, like the _kashim_ of the Eskimo. Special tipis or

houses for shamans, "medicine-men," &c., were common in many parts of

North America. Secret societies had their own lodges and the so-called

"men's-house." The houses of the North American Indians are the

subject of a monograph by E. Sarfert (_Arch. f. Anthr._, 1908, pp.

119-215).

The art of fire-making was known to all the aborigines north of

Mexico, two methods being widespread, that with flint and pyrites and

that by reciprocating motion of wood on wood. For the latter several

varieties of apparatus were in use, the simple two-stick apparatus was

very common; the Eskimo have a four-part fire-drill and the Iroquois a

weighted drill with spindle whorl. The skill displayed in fire-making

by some Indians is very great, and the individual parts of the

apparatus have in certain regions been highly specialized. The subject

of fire-making apparatus and the kindred topic of illumination have

been specially treated by Dr Walter Hough (_Rep. U.S. Nat. Mus._,

1890, pp. 531-587; _Rep. Smiths. Inst._, 1901-1902). The camp-fire,

the torch and the Eskimo lamp represent the employment of fire for

artificial light among the aborigines. Fire and smoke were used for

signalling by the Plains tribes, &c., and fire-ceremonies form an

important part ("new-fire," "fire-dance") of the ritual observances of

not a few peoples, especially in the region from Florida to the Rio

Grande. In metal-working there is up to the present no convincing

evidence of the use of fire (heat only being employed to facilitate

the cold-hammering processes by which the metals, copper, silver, gold

and iron were manufactured into weapons, implements and ornaments) in

metallurgy north of Mexico. The tools used were few and the processes

simple, as Cushing (_Amer. Anthrop._, vol. vii., 1894) has proved by

actual experiment. The only metal actually mined in large quantities

was copper in the region of Lake Superior, whence came most of that

employed in the east and south. In Alaska was a source of copper for

the North Pacific coast. No special process of hardening copper other

than by hammering was known to the Indians. The gold objects of most

interest come from mounds in Florida and a few also from those in the

Ohio valley. Galena was used to make simple ceremonial objects by the

Indians of the Mississippi valley and the "mound-builders."

The art of sculpture in wood, stone, bone and ivory is best

represented by the wooden masks, utensils, house-carvings and

totem-poles of the Indians of the North Pacific coast, the stone

pipes, ornaments and images of various sorts of the "mound-builders"

and other Indians of the Mississippi valley, the carvings of the

people of the Floridian pile-dwellings, and the remarkable ivory

carvings, sometimes minute, of the Eskimo. Noteworthy also are the

slate-sculpture of the Haida, and the work in bone, ivory and deer and

mountain goat horn of the British Columbian Indians. The Indians of

the region south of the Great Lakes were expert in the manufacture of

tobacco-pipes of great variety, among the most interesting being the

Catlinite pipes of the Sioux of Minnesota, &c. Soapstone served some

of the Eskimo to make lamps and some Indian tribes for other purposes.

Pottery appears to have been unknown in certain regions, but

flourished remarkably in the Mississippi valley and the Pueblos region

of the south-west, where specialization in form and decoration

occurred, and ceramic objects of all sorts were manufactured in

abundance. The pottery of the Iroquoian and Algonkian tribes of the

north-east was, as a rule, rather crude and undeveloped. In many

places the relation of ceramic art to basketry is in evidence.

Basketry, of which Professor O. T. Mason has recently made a detailed

study in his _Aboriginal American Basketry_ (Washington and New York,

1902, 1904), and related arts were carried on (especially by women)

with great variety of form, decoration, material, &c., over a large

portion of the continent. In North America basketry is "_the_

primitive art," and here "the Indian women have left the best witness

of what they could do in handiwork and expression." The most exquisite

and artistic basketry in the world comes from an utterly uncivilized

tribe in California. The relation of basketry to symbolism and

religion is best observable among the Hopi or Moqui of Arizona. The

appreciation of white men for the products of Indian skill and genius

in basketry finds full expression in G. W. James's _Indian Basketry_

(1900). Weaving is exemplified in the goat's hair blanket of the

Chilkat Indians (Koluschan) of Alaska, and similar products; also in

the manufactures of buffalo-hair, &c., of the Indians of the Great

Plains and Mississippi valley and the textile art of a higher type

known to the Pueblos tribes and by some of them taught to the Navaho.

Famous are the "Navaho blankets," less so the "Chilkat."

Feather-work and the utilization of bird-skins and feathers for

dresses, hats, ornaments, &c., are known from many parts of the

continent. In the Arctic regions bird-skins with the feathers on were

used to make dresses; the Algonkian tribes of Virginia, &c., had their

bird-skin "blankets" and "turkey robes"; the tribes of the North

Pacific coast used feathers for decorative purposes of many kinds, as

did Indians in other regions also; feather head-dresses and ornaments

were much in use among the Plains tribes, &c.; with the Pueblos

Indians eagle and turkey feathers were important in ritual and

ceremony; some of the tribes of the south-east made fans of turkey

feathers. Beads made from various sorts of shell, rolled copper

("mound-builders," &c.), seeds, ivory (Eskimo) and the teeth of

various animals are pre-Columbian, like the turquoise-beads of the

Pueblos, and they were put to a great variety of uses. Wampum was

manufactured by many Algonkian and Iroquoian tribes, who also later

produced fine specimens of work with the glass beads introduced by the

whites. These glass beads made their way over most of the continent,

soon driving out in many sections the older art in shell, &c.

European-made wampum-beads affected native art in the 17th century. In

the regions where the porcupine abounded its quills were used for

purposes of ornamentation on articles of dress, objects of bark, &c.,

some of the Algonkian and Iroquoian tribes producing beautiful work of

this sort.

Besides face and body painting, employed for various purposes and

widespread over the continent, particularly in ceremonial observances,

during war-time, in courting, mourning, &c., painting found expression

among the North American aborigines most fully in the products of the

wood art of the Indians of the North Pacific coast (masks, utensils,

houses, totem-poles, furniture, &c.), in the more or less ceremonial

and symbolic paintings on skins, tipi-covers and the like of some of

the Plains tribes (e.g. Kiowa, Sioux) and in ceramic art, notably in

the remarkable polychrome pottery of the Pueblos tribes. Among several

Pueblos tribes of Arizona and New Mexico (also the Navaho and Apache

and of a ruder sort among some of the Plains tribes, e.g. Cheyenne,

Arapaho, Blackfeet) "dry-painting," most highly developed in the

sacred ceremonies of the Navaho, is practised and is evidently of

great antiquity. The pictures of deities, natural phenomena, animals

and plants are made of powdered sandstone of various colours, &c.

Pictography among the aborigines north of Mexico varied from the rude

petroglyphs of some of the Shoshonian tribes to the incised work on

ivory, &c., of the Eskimo and the paintings on buffalo and other

animal skins by some of the Plains tribes, the work of the Pueblos

Indians, &c., the nearest approach to hieroglyphics in North America

outside of Mexico. Some Indian tribes (e.g. the Kootenay) seem not at

all given to pictography, while many others have practised it to an

almost limitless extent. The pictography and picture-writing of the

North American Indians have been the subject of two detailed

monographs by Mallery (_4th Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethnol._, 1882-1883, pp.

3-256; _10th Rep._, 1888-1889, pp. 1-1290), and the graphic art of the

Eskimo has received special treatment by Hoffman (_Rep. U.S. Nat.

Mus._, 1895). Some have argued that this ivory pictography of the

Eskimo is of recent origin and due practically to the introduction of

iron by the whites, but Boas thinks such a theory refuted by the

resemblance of the Eskimo graphic art in question to the birch-bark

art of the neighbouring Indian tribes. No real "hieroglyphs," much

less any system of writing of an alphabetic nature, have been

discovered north of Mexico; the alleged specimens of such, turning up

from time to time, are frauds of one sort or another.

The music and song of the American Indians north of Mexico have been

studied since the time of Baker (_Über die Musik der

Nordamerikanischen Wilden_, Leipzig, 1882) by Boas, Fillmore, Curtis,

Fletcher, Stumpf, Cringan (_Ann. Arch. Rep. Ont._, 1902, 1905), &c.

According to Miss Fletcher (_Indian Story and Song_, 1900; also _Publ.

Peab. Mus._, 1893), "among the Indians music envelops like an

atmosphere every religious tribal and social ceremony, as well as

every personal experience," and "there is not a phase of life that

does not find expression in song"; music, too, is "the medium through

which man holds communion with his soul and with the unseen powers

which control his destiny." Music, in fact, "is coextensive with

tribal life," and "every public ceremony as well as each important act

in the career of an individual has its accompaniment of song."

Moreover, "The music of each ceremony has its peculiar rhythm, so also

have the classes of songs which pertain to individual acts: fasting

and prayer, setting of traps, hunting, courtship, playing of games,

facing and defying death." In structure the Indian song "follows the

outline of the form which obtains in our own music," and "the compass

of songs varies from 1 to 3 octaves." Among some of the tribes with

highly developed ceremonial observances "men and women, having clear

resonant voices and good musical intonation, compose the choirs which

lead the singing in ceremonies and are paid for the services." A

peculiar development of music among the Eskimo is seen in the

"nith-songs," by which controversies are settled, the parties to the

dispute "singing at" each other till the public laughter, &c.,

proclaim one the victor. Among the American Indians songs belonging to

individuals, societies, clans, &c., are met with, which have to be

purchased by others from the owners, and even slight mistakes in the

rendition of singing, dancing, &c., are heavily penalized. Musical

contests were also known (e.g. among the Indians of the Pacific

coast). The development of the "tribal song" among the Iroquoian

peoples is seen in Hale's _Iroquois Book of Rites_ (1881). Songs

having no words, but merely changeless vocables, are common. As Dr

Boas has pointed out, the genius of the American Indian has been

devoted more to the production of songs than to the invention of

musical instruments. The musical instruments known to the aborigines

north of Mexico, before contact with the whites, according to Miss

Fletcher (_Handb. of Amer. Inds._, 1907, pt. i. p. 960), were drums of

great variety in size and form, from the plank or box of some of the

tribes of the North Pacific coast to the shaman's drums of the

Algonkian and Iroquoian peoples; whistles of bone, wood, pottery, &c.

(often employed in ceremonies to imitate the voices of birds, animals

and spirits); flageolet or flute (widely distributed and used by young

men in courtship among the Siouan tribes); the musical bow (found

among the Maidu of California and important in religion and sorcery).

Rattles of gourd, skin, shell, wood, &., are universal, and among some

of the tribes of the south-west "notched sticks are rasped together or

on gourds, bones or baskets to accentuate rhythm." From the rattle in

the Pueblos region developed a sort of ball of clay or metal.

Culture of Indians essentially indigenous.

So far as is known, the primitive culture of the aborigines of North

America is fundamentally indigenous, being the reactions of the Indian

to his environment, added to whatever rude equipment of body and of mind

was possessed by the human beings who at some remote epoch reached the

new world from the old, if, indeed, America was not, as Ameghino, on the

basis of the discoveries of fossil anthropoids and fossil man in

southern South America, maintains, the scene of origin of man himself.

Professor A.H. Keane (_Internat. Monthly_, vol. v., 1902, pp. 338-357),

Stewart Culin (_Proc. Amer. Assoc. Adv. Sci._ vol. lii., 1903, pp.

495-500) and Dr Richard Andree (_Stzgsb. d. anthrop. Ges. in Wien_,

1906, pp. 87-98) all agree as to the general autochthony of aboriginal

American culture. The day of the argument for borrowing on the ground of

mere resemblances in beliefs, institutions, implements, inventions, &c.,

is past. An admirable instance of the results of exact scientific

research in this respect is to be found in Dr Franz Boas's discussion

(_Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus._, 1908, pp. 321-344) of the needle-cases of the

Alaskan Eskimo, which were at first supposed to be of foreign

(Polynesian) origin. Other examples occur in Mr Culin's study of

American Indian games, where, for the first time, the relation of

certain of them in their origin and development, and sometimes also in

their degeneration and decay, is made clear. The independent origin in

America of many things which other races have again and again invented

and re-invented in other parts of the world must now be conceded.

The extreme north-western region of North America has recently been

shown to be of great importance to the ethnologists. The

investigations in this part of America and among the more or less

primitive peoples of north-eastern Asia, carried on by the Jesup North

Pacific expedition in 1897-1902, have resulted in showing that within

what may be called the "Bering Sea culture-area" transmissions of

culture have taken place from north-eastern Siberia to north-western

America and vice versa. The only known example, however, of the

migration of any people one way or the other is the case of the

Asiatic Eskimo, who are undoubtedly of American origin, and it seems

probable, in the language of Dr Boas, the organizer of the Jesup

expedition and the editor of its publications, that "the Chukchee,

Koryak, Kamchadal and Yukaghir must be classed with the American race

rather than with the Asiatic race," and possibly also some of the

other isolated Siberian tribes; also that, "in a broad classification

of languages, the languages of north-eastern Siberia should be classed

with the languages of America" (_Proc. Intern. Congr. Amer._, New

York, 1902, pp. 91-102). It appears, further, that the arrival of the

Eskimo on the Pacific coast (this, although not recent, is

comparatively late) from their home in the interior, near or east of

the Mackenzie, "interrupted at an early period the communication

between the Siberian and Indian tribes, which left its trace in many

cultural traits common to the peoples on both sides of the Bering

Sea."

This establishment of the essential unity of the culture-type

(language, mythology, certain arts, customs, beliefs, &c.) of the

"Palaeo-Asiatic" peoples of north-eastern Siberia and that of the

American Indians of the North Pacific coast, as demonstrated

especially by the investigations of Jochelson, Bogoras, &c., is one of

the most notable results of recent organized ethnological research. No

such clear proof has been afforded of the theory of Polynesian

influence farther south on the Pacific coast of America, believed in,

more or less, by certain ethnologists (Ratzel, Mason, &c.). This

theory rests largely upon resemblances in arts (clubs, masks and the

like in particular), tattooing, mythic _motifs_, &c. But several

things here involved, if not really American in origin, are so recent

that they may perhaps be accounted for by such Hawaiian and other

Polynesian contact as resulted from the establishment of the whale and

seal-fisheries in the 18th century.

Between the Indians of North America and those of South America few

instances of contact and intercommunication, or even of transference

of material products and ideas, have been substantiated. It is by way

of the Antilles and the Bahamas that such contact as actually occurred

took place. In 1894 (_Amer. Anthrop._ vol. vii. p. 71-79) Professor W.

H. Holmes pointed out traces of Caribbean influences in the ceramic

art of the Florida-Georgia region belonging to the period just before

the Columbian discovery. The decorative designs in question,

paddle-stamp patterns, &c., akin to the motives on the wooden and

stone stools from the Caribbean areas in the West Indies, have been

found as far north as 36° in North Carolina and as far west as 84° in

Tennessee and 89° in south-eastern Alabama. But the evidence does not

prove the existence of Carib colonies at any time in any part of this

region, but simply the migration from the West Indies to the North

American coast of certain art features adopted by the Indians of the

Timuquan and Muskogian Indians and (later) in part by the Cherokee.

More recently (1907) Dr F. G. Speck, in a discussion of the aboriginal

culture of the south-eastern states (_Amer. Anthrop._ vol. ix., n.s.,

pp. 287-295), cites as proof of Antillean or Caribbean influence in

addition to that indicated by Holmes, the following: employment of the

blow-gun in hunting, use of hammock as baby-cradle, peculiar

storage-scaffold in one corner of house, plastering houses with clay,

poisoning fish with vegetable juices. It is possible also that the

North American coast may have been visited from time to time by small

bodies of natives from the West Indies in search of the mythic

fountain of youth (_Bimini_), the position of which had shifted from

the Bahamas to Florida in its movement westward. Indeed, just about

the time of the advent of the Europeans in this part of the world a

number of Indians from Cuba, on such a quest, landed on the

south-western shore of Florida, where they were captured by the

Calusas, among whom they seem to have maintained a separate existence

down to 1570 or later. This Arawakan colony, indicated on the map of

linguistic stocks of American Indians north of Mexico, published by

the Bureau of American Ethnology in 1907, is the only one demonstrated

to have existed, but there may have been others of a more temporary

character. In the languages of this region there are to be detected

perhaps a few loan-words from Arawakan or Cariban dialects. The

exaggerated ideas entertained by some authorities concerning the

"mound-builders" of the valley of the Ohio and Mississippi and their

alleged "civilization" have led them to assume, without adequate

proof, long-continued relations of the tribes inhabiting this part of

the country in the past with the ancient peoples of Yucatan and

Mexico, or even an origin of their culture from beyond the Gulf. But

since these mounds were in all probability wholly the work of the

modern Indians of this area or their immediate ancestors, and the

greater part, if not all, of the art and industry represented therein

lies easily within the capacity of the aborigines of North America,

the "Mexican" theory in this form appears unnecessary to explain the

facts. In its support stress has been laid upon the nature of some of

the copper implements and ornaments, particularly the types of

elaborate repoussé work from Etowah, Georgia, &c. That the repoussé

work was not beyond the skill of the Indian was shown by Cushing in

his study of "Primitive Copper Working" (_Amer. Anthrop._ vol. vii.

pp. 93-117), who did not consider the resemblance of these

mound-specimens to the art of Mexico proof of extra-North American

origin. Holmes (_Handb. of Inds. N. of Mex._, 1907, pt. i. p. 343)

points out that the great mass of the copper of mounds came from the

region of Lake Superior, and that had extensive intercourse between

Mexico or Central America and the mound-country existed, or colonies

from those southern parts been present in the area in question,

artifacts of undoubtedly Mexican origin would have been found in the

mounds in considerable abundance, and methods of manipulation peculiar

to the south would have been much in evidence. The facts indicate at

most some exotic influence from Mexico, &c., but nothing far-reaching

in its effects.

In the lower Mississippi valley the culture of certain peoples has

been thought to contain elements (e.g. the temples and other religious

institutions of the Natchez) suggestive of Mexican or Central American

origin, either by inheritance from a common ancient source or by later

borrowings. When one reaches the Pueblos region, with its present and

its extinct "village culture," there is considerable evidence of

contact and inter-influence, if not perhaps of common origin, of

culture-factors. Dr J. Walter Fewkes, a chief authority on the ethnic

history of Arizona, New Mexico and the outlying areas of "Pueblos

culture," especially in its ceremonial aspects, has expressed the

opinion (_Amer. Anthrop._ vol. vii. p. 51) that "it is not improbable

that both Mexican and Pueblos cultures originated in a region in

northern Mexico, developing as environment permitted in its northern

and southern homes." Unfavourable milieu in the north prevented the

culture of the Pueblos Indians and the Cliff-dwellers, their

ancestors, reaching the height attained in Mexico and Central America,

represented by temple-architecture, ornamentation of buildings,

hieroglyphs, &c. Strong evidence of Pueblos-Mexican relationship Dr

Fewkes sees (_Proc. Wash. Acad. Sci._, 1900) in the great serpent cult

of Tusayan, the "New Fire" and other Pueblos ceremonials of

importance; also in the mosaic objects (gorgets, ear-pendants,

breast-ornaments, &c.) from Pueblos ruins in Arizona, some of the

workmanship of which equals that of similar character in old Mexico.

The arid region of the south-western United States and part of

northern Mexico may well have been a centre for the dispersion of such

primitive, institutions and ideas as reached their acme in the country

of the Aztecs. But of the Pueblos languages, the Moqui or Hopi of

north-eastern Arizona is the only one showing undoubted, though not

intimate, relationship with the Nahuatl of ancient Mexico. The

Shoshonian family, represented in the United States by the Shoshonees,

Utes, Comanches and other tribes, besides the Moqui, includes also

the numerous Sonoran tribes of north-western Mexico, as well as the

Nahuatl-speaking peoples farther south, some of the outliers having

wandered even to Costa Rica (and perhaps to Panama). This linguistic

unity of the civilized Aztecs with the rude Utes and Shoshones of the

north is one of the most interesting ethnological facts in primitive

America. Change of environment may have had much to do with this

higher development in the south. Besides the Shoshonian, the

Coahuiltecan and the Athabaskan are or have been represented in

northern Mexico, the last by the Apaches and Tobosos. From the period

of the Spanish colonization of New Mexico down to about the last

quarter of the 19th century (and sporadically later, e.g. the attack

in 1900 on the Mormon settlement in Chihuahua), these Indians have

hovered around the Mexican border, &c., their predatory expeditions

extending at one time as far south as Jalisco. In the far west the

Yuman family of languages belongs on both sides of the border.

Religion, Mythology, &c.

In the popular mind the religion of the North American Indian consists

practically of belief in the "Great Spirit" and the "Happy Hunting

Grounds." But while some tribes, e.g. of the Iroquoian and Caddoan

stocks appear to have come reasonably near a pantheistic conception

tending toward monism and monotheism, not a little of present Indian

beliefs as to the "Great Spirit," "God" and "Devil," "Good Spirit" and

"Evil Spirit," &c., as well as concerning moral distinctions in the

hereafter, can reasonably be considered the result of missionary and

other influences coming directly or indirectly from the whites. The

central idea in the religion and mythology of the aborigines north of

Mexico is what Hewitt (_Amer. Anthrop._, 1902) has proposed to term

_orenda_, from "the Iroquois name of the fictive force, principle or

magic power which was assumed by the inchoate reasoning of primitive man

to be inherent in every body and being of nature and in every

personified attribute, property or activity belonging to each of these

and conceived to be the active cause or force or dynamic energy involved

in every operation or phenomenon of nature, in any manner affecting or

controlling the welfare of man." The _orendas_ of the innumerable beings

and objects, real and imagined, in the universe differed immensely in

action, function, power, &c., and in like manner varied were the efforts

of man by prayers, offerings and sacrifices, ceremonies and rites of a

propitiatory or sympathetic nature to influence for his own welfare the

possessor of this or that _orenda_, from the "high gods" to the least of

all beings. Corresponding to the Iroquoian _orenda_ is the _wakanda_ of

the Siouan tribes, some aspects of which have been admirably treated by

Miss Fletcher in her "Notes on Certain Beliefs concerning Will Power

among the Siouan Tribes" (_Science_, vol. v., n.s., 1897). Other

parallels of _orenda_ are Algonkian _manito_, Shoshonian _pokunt_,

Athabaskan _cæn_. As Hewitt points out, these Indian terms are not to be

simply translated into English by such expressions as "mystery,"

"magic," "immortal," "sorcery," "wonderful," &c. Man, indeed, "may

sometimes possess weapons whose _orenda_ is superior to that possessed

by some of the primal beings of his cosmology."

The main topics of the mythology of the American Indians north of Mexico

have been treated by Powell in his "Sketch of the Mythology of the North

American Indians" (_First Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethnol._, 1879-1880), and

Brinton in his _American Hero Myths_ (1876), _Myths of the New World_

(1896) and _Religions of Primitive Peoples_ (1900). Widespread is the

idea of a culture-hero or demi-god (sometimes one of twins or even

quadruplets) who is born of a human virgin, often by divine secret

fecundation, and, growing up, frees the earth from monsters and evil

beings, or re-fashions it in various ways, improves the breed and

perfects the institutions of mankind, then retires to watch over the

world from some remote resting-place, or, angered at the wickedness of

men and women, leaves them, promising to return at some future time. He

often figures in the great deluge legend as the friend, helper and

regenerator of the human race. A typical example of these culture-heroes

is the Algonkian character who appears as Nanabozho among the Ojibwa,

Wisaketchak among the Cree, Napiw among the Blackfeet, Wisaka among the

Sacs and Foxes, Glooscap (Kuloskap) among the Micmac, &c. (see _Journ.

Amer. Folk-Lore_, 1891, and _Handbook of Amer. Inds._, 1907), whose

brother is sometimes represented as being after death the ruler of the

spirit world. The Iroquoian correspondent of Nanabozho is

Tehoronhiawakhon; the Siouan, in many respects, Ictinike. Among many

tribes of the North Pacific coast region the culture-hero appears as the

"transformer," demi-god, human or animal in form (coyote, blue-jay,

raven, &c.), the last often being tricksters and dupers of mankind and

the rest of creation as well. This trickster and buffoon (also liar)

element appears also in the Iroquoian and Algonkian culture-heroes and

has received special treatment by Brinton (_Essays of an Americanist_,

1890). On the whole, the Algonkian and Iroquoian culture-hero is mainly

actuated by altruistic motives, while the "transformer" of the Indians

of the North Pacific coast region is often credited with producing or

shaping the world, mankind and their activities as they now exist for

purely egotistic purposes. Other noteworthy heroes, "reformers," &c.,

among the North American Indians are the subject of legends, like the

Iroquoian "Good Mind and Bad Mind," the Algonkian (Musquaki) "Hot Hand

and Cold Hand," the Zuñian "Right Hand and Left Hand"; and numerous

others, including such conceptions as the antagonism and opposition of

land and water (dry and wet), summer and winter, day and night, food and

famine, giants and pigmies, &c. In the matter of the personification of

natural phenomena, &c., there is considerable variation, even among

tribes of approximately the same state of culture. Thus, e.g. as Hewitt

notes (_Handbook of Amer. Inds._, 1907, pt. i. p. 970), while with the

Iroquoian and eastern Algonkian tribes "the Thunder people, human in

form and mind and usually four in number, are most important and staunch

friends of man"; in the region of the Great Lakes and westward "this

conception is replaced by that of the Thunder bird."

The Pawnee Indians of the Caddoan stock seem both individually and

tribally to possess a deep religious sense expressing itself alike in

moods of the person and in ceremonies of a general popular character.

This is evident, alike from Miss Fletcher's description (_Amer.

Anthrop._, 1899, pp. 83-85) of a venerable priest of that tribe,

Tahiroossawichi, and from her detailed account of "The Hako: A Pawnee

Ceremony" (_Twenty-second Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethnol._, 1900-1901, pp.

5-372). This Hako ceremony, the original stimulus for which was

probably desire for offspring, and then to ensure friendship and peace

between groups of persons belonging to different clans, gentes or

tribes, had no fixed or stated time and "was not connected with

planting or harvesting, hunting or war or any tribal festival,"

although the Indians take up the Hako, with its long series of

observances and its hundred songs, "in the spring when the birds are

mating, or in the summer when the birds are nesting and caring for

their young, or in the fall when the birds are flocking, but not in

the winter when all things are asleep; with the Hako we are praying

for the gift of life, of strength, of plenty and of peace, so we must

pray when life is stirring everywhere,"--these are the words of the

Indian hieragogue.

In the arid region of the south-western United States there has grown

up, especially among the Moqui, as may be read in the numerous

monographs of Dr J. Walter Fewkes (and briefly in the _Report of the

Smithsonian Institution for 1905_), a system of religious ceremonials

and sympathetic magic, the object of which is to ensure the necessary

rainfall and through this the continued life and prosperity of the

people. Here everything is conceived as really or symbolically related

to sun, water, rain. The Moqui are essentially a religious people, and

their mythology, in which the central figures are the "earth mother"

and the "sky father," has been described as "a polytheism largely

tinged with ancestor-worship and permeated with fetishism." Part of

their exceedingly intricate, complex and elaborate ritual is the

so-called "snake dance," which has been written of by Bourke (_The

Snake Dance of the Moquis_, 1884), Fewkes and others.

In the Gulf region east of the Mississippi, "sun worship," with

primitive "temples," appears among some of the tribes with certain

curious myths, beliefs, ceremonies, &c. The Natchez, e.g. according to

Dr Swanton (_Amer. Anthrop._, 1907), were noteworthy on account of

"their highly developed monarchical government and their possession of

a national religion centring about a temple, which reminds one in many

ways of the temples of Mexico and Central America." They seem to have

had "an extreme form of sun-worship and a highly developed ritual." A

simpler form of sun-worship is found among the Kootenay of British

Columbia (_Rep. Brit. Assoc._, 1889, 1892). With the Yuchi occur some

Algonkian-like myths of the deluge, &c.

The best data as to the religion and mythology of the Iroquoian

tribes are to be found in the writings of Hewitt, especially in his

monograph on "Iroquoian Cosmology" (_Twenty-first Ann. Rep. Bur.

Ethnol._, 1899-1900, pp. 127-339), In the creation-myths several

instances of European influence are pointed out. Mother-earth and her

life are the source, by transformation and evolution, of all things.

The first beings of Iroquoian mythology (daylight, earthquake, winter,

medicine, wind, life, flower, &c.) "were not beasts, but belonged to a

rather vague class of which man was the characteristic type,"--later

come beast-gods. According to Hewitt the Iroquoian term rendered in

English "god" signifies really "disposer, controller," for to these

Indians "god" and "controller" are synonymous; and so "the reputed

controller of the operations of nature received worship and prayers."

Creation-legends in great variety exist among the North American

aborigines, from simple fiat actions of single characters to

complicated transformations accomplished with the aid of other beings.

The specific creation legend often follows that of the deluge.

Perhaps the most remarkable of all North American creation stories is

that of the Zuñi as recorded by Cushing (_Thirteenth Ann. Rep. Bur.

Ethnol._, 1891-1892) in his "Outlines of Zuñi Creation Myths." Here

the principal figure is "Awonawilona, the maker and container of all,"

and the growth-substance the "fogs of increase," which he evolved by

his thinking in the pristine night. The long tale of the origin of the

sun, the earth and the sky, and the taking form of "the seed of men

and all creatures" in the lowest of the four caves or wombs of the

world and their long journey to light and real life on the present

earth is a wonderful story of evolution as conceived by the primitive

mind, an aboriginal epic, in fact.

In the mythology and religion of the Algonkian tribes (particularly

the Chippewa, &c.) is expressed "a firm belief in a cosmic mystery

present throughout all nature, called _manitou_." This _manitou_ "was

identified with both animate and inanimate objects, and the impulse

was strong to enter into personal relation with the mystic power; it

was easy for an Ojibwa to associate the _manitou_ with all forms of

transcendent agencies, some of which assumed definite characters and

played the rôle of deities" (Jones). There were innumerable _manitous_

of high or low degree. The highest development of this conception was

in _Kitchi Manitou_ (Great Manitou), but whether this personification

has not been considerably influenced by teachings of the whites is a

question. The chief figure in the mythology of the Chippewa and

related tribes is Nanabozho, who "while yet a youth became the creator

of the world and everything it contained; the author of all the great

institutions in Ojibwa society and the founder of the leading

ceremonies" (Jones, _Ann. Arch. Rep. Ontario_, 1905; _Journ. Amer.

Folk-Lore_, 1902, &c.). It is to this character that some of the most

human of all Indian myths are attached, e.g. the Micmac legend of the

origin of the crowing of babies and the story of Nanabozho's attempt

to stick his toe into his mouth after the manner of a little child.

Nanabozho is also the central figure in the typical deluge legend of

the Algonkian peoples of the Great Lakes (_Journ. of American

Folk-Lore_, 1891), which, in some versions, is the most remarkable

myth of its kind north of Mexico.

The best and most authoritative discussion of the religions and

mythological ideas of the Eskimo is to be found in the article of Dr

Franz Boas on "The Folk-Lore of the Eskimo" (_Journ. Amer. Folk-Lore_,

1904, pp. 1-13). The characteristic feature of Eskimo folk-lore is the

hero-tales, treating of visits to fabulous tribes, encounters with

monsters, quarrels and "wars," shamanism, witchcraft, &c., and

generally of "the events occurring in human society as it exists now,"

the supernatural playing a more or less important rôle, but the mass

of folk-lore being "thoroughly human in character." In Eskimo myths

there appears to be "a complete absence of the idea that

transformations or creations were made for the benefit of man during a

mythological period, and that these events changed the general aspect

of the world," quite in contrast with the conceptions of many Indian

tribes, particularly in the region of the North Pacific, where the

"transformer" (sometimes trickster also), demi-god, human or animal

(coyote, raven, blue-jay, &c.), plays so important a part, as may be

seen from the legends recorded in Dr Boas's _Indianische Sagen der

nord-pacifischen Küste Amerikas_ (Berlin, 1895) and other more recent

monographs. In Eskimo folk-lore the field of animal tales is quite

limited, and Dr Boas is of opinion that the genuine animal myth "was

originally foreign to Eskimo folk-lore," and has been borrowed from

the Indians. Perhaps the most prominent character in Eskimo mythology

is Sedna, the old woman, who is mistress of the lower world beneath

the ocean (_Amer. Anthrop._, 1900). The highest being conceived of by

the Athabaskans of Canada was, according to Morice (_Ann. Arch. Rep.

Ontario_, 1905, p. 204), "a real entity, which they feared rather than

loved or worshipped." The way of communicating with the unseen was

through "personal totems," revealed usually in dreams. The Hupa, an

Athabaskan people of California, are reported by Goddard as possessing

a deep religious sense. But the most remarkable mythology of any

Athabaskan tribe is that of the Navaho, which has been studied in

detail under some of its chief aspects by Dr Washington Matthews in

his valuable monographs, _Navaho Legends_ (1897) and _The Night Chant_

(1902). According to Dr Matthews, the Navaho "are a highly religious

people having many well-defined divinities (nature gods, animal gods

and local gods), a vast mythic and legendary lore and thousands of

significant formulated songs and prayers, which must be learned and

repeated in the most exact manner; they have also hundreds of musical

compositions; the so-called dances are ceremonies which last for nine

nights and parts of ten days, and the medicine-men spend many years of

study in learning to conduct a single one properly." The most

prominent and revered of the deities of the Navaho is _Estsanatlehi_,

the "woman who rejuvenates herself," of whom it is believed that she

grows old, and then, at will, becomes young again.

The numerous Indian tribes subjected to the environment of the Great

Plains have developed in great detail some special religious

observances, ceremonial institutions, secret societies, ritual

observances, &c. The mental life of these Indians was profoundly

influenced by the buffalo and later not a little by the horse. Various

aspects of Plains culture have recently been discussed by Goddard,

Kroeber, Wissler, Dorsey, Fletcher, Boas, &c., from whose

investigations it would appear that much intertribal borrowing has

taken place. Among some of the Algonkian (Arapaho, Blackfeet,

Cheyenne, &c.), Siouan (Ponka, e.g.) Caddoan, Shoshonian, Kiowan and

perhaps Kitunahan stocks the "sun-dance" in some form or other

prevailed at one time or another. According to Wissler (_Amer.

Anthrop._, 1908, p. 205), this ceremony, as now practised by many

tribes, "is the result of a gradual accumulation both of ceremonies

and ideas,"--the torture feature, e.g., "seems to have been a separate

institution among the Missouri river tribes, later incorporated in

their sun-dance and eventually passed on to other tribes." Some other

complicated ceremonials have apparently grown up in like manner. As

ceremonies that are quite modern, having been introduced during the

historical period, Dr Wissler instances "the Ghost dance, Omaha dance,

Woman's dance, Tea dance and Mescal eating," of which all, except the

Ghost dance, "flourish in almost all parts of the area under various

names, but with the same essential features and songs." Other

interesting ceremonies of varying degrees of importance and extent of

distribution are those of "the medicine-pipe, buffalo-medicine,

sweat-lodge, puberty-rites, medicine-tipis, war-charms, &c."

Interesting also are the "medicine bundles," or "arks" as they were

once mistakenly called.

The "Ghost dance," the ceremonial religious dance of most notoriety

to-day, "originated among the Paviotso (its prophet was a young Paiute

medicine man, Wovoka or 'Jack Wilson') in Nevada about 1888, and

spread rapidly among other tribes until it numbered among its

adherents nearly all the Indians of the interior basin, from Missouri

river to or beyond the Rockies" (Mooney). Wovoka's doctrine was that a

new dispensation was at hand, and that "the Indians would be restored

to their inheritance and united with their departed friends, and they

must prepare for the event by practising the songs and dance

ceremonies which the prophet gave them." East of the Rocky Mountains

this dance soon came to be known as the "Ghost dance" and a common

feature was hypnotic trances. The Sioux outbreak of 1890-1891 was in

part due to the excitement of the "Ghost dance." According to Mooney,

"in the Crow dance of the Cheyenne and Arapaho, a later development

from the Ghost dance proper, the drum is used, and many of the

ordinary tribal dances have incorporated Ghost dance features,

including even the hypnotic trances." The doctrine generally "has now

faded out and the dance exists only as a social function." A full

account of this "dance," its chief propagators, the _modi operandi_ of

its ceremonies and their transference, and the results of its

prevalence among so many Indian tribes, is given in Mooney's detailed

monograph on "The Ghost Dance Religion and the Sioux Outbreak of 1890"

(_Fourteenth Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethnol._, 1892-1893).

In reference to "Messiah doctrines" among the aborigines of North

America, Mooney calls attention to the fact that "within the United

States every great tribal movement (e.g. the conspiracy of Pontiac,

the combination of Tecumseh, &c.) originated in the teaching of some

messianic prophet." In primitive America the dance has figured largely

in social, religious and artistic activities of all kinds, and one of

its most interesting developments has occurred among the Plains

Indians, where "the Mandan and other Siouan tribes dance in an

elaborate ceremony, called the Buffalo dance, to bring game when food

is scarce, in accordance with a well-defined ritual" (Hewitt). Among

other noteworthy dances of the North American aborigines may be

mentioned the calumet dance of several tribes, the scalp dance, the

"Green-corn dance" of the Iroquois, the _busk_ (or _puskitau_) of the

Creeks (in connexion with "new fire" and regeneration of all things),

the "fire dance" of the Mississaguas, &c.

The Californian area, remarkable in respect to language and culture in

general presents also some curious religious and mythological

phenomena. According to Kroeber, "the mythology of the Californians

was characterized by unusually well-developed and consistent

creation-myths, and by the complete lack not only of migration but of

ancestor traditions." The ceremonies of the Californian Indians "were

numerous and elaborate as compared with the prevailing simplicity of

life, but they lacked almost totally the rigid ritualism and extensive

symbolism that pervade the ceremonies of most America." The most

authoritative discussions of the religion and mythology of the

Californian Indians are those of Dr Dixon and Dr Kroeber, the latter

especially in the _University of California Publications in American

Archaeology and Ethnology_ for 1904-1907.

The shamans, "medicine-men," &c., of the American Indians are of all

degrees from the self-constituted _angekok_ of the Eskimo to those

among tribes of higher culture who are chosen from a special family or

after undergoing elaborate preliminaries of selection and initiation.

The "medicine-men" of several tribes have been described with

considerable detail. This has been done for the "Midewiwin, or Grand

Medicine Society of the Ojibwa" by Hoffman (_Seventh Ann. Rep. Bur.

Ethnol._ pp. 143-300); for the "Medicine-men of the Apache" by Bourke

(_Ninth Ann. Rep._ pp. 443-603) and for those of the Cherokee by

Mooney (_Seventh Ann. Rep._ pp. 301-397), while a number of the chief

facts concerning American Indian shamans in general have been gathered

in a recent article by Dr R. B. Dixon (_Journ. Amer. Folk-Lore_, 1908,

pp. 1-12). In various parts of the continent and among diverse tribes

the shaman exercises functions as "healer, sorcerer, seer, priest and

educator." These functions among the tribes of lower culture are

generally exercised by one and the same individual, but, with rise in

civilization, the healer-sorcerer and shaman-sorcerer disappear or

wane in power and influence as the true priest develops. The priestly

character of the shaman appears among the Plains tribes in connexion

with the custody of the "sacred bundles" and the keeping of the

ceremonial myths, &c., but is more marked among the Pueblos, Navaho,

&c., of the south-west, while "a considerable development of the

priestly function may also be seen among the Muskogi, particularly in

the case of the Natchez, with their remarkable cult and so-called

temple." The reverent character of the best "priests" or shamans among

the Pawnee and Omaha has been emphasized by Miss A. C. Fletcher and

Francis la Flesche. The class-organization of the shamans reaches its

acme in the _midé_ societies of the Chippewa and the priest-societies

of the Pueblos Indians (Moqui, Zuñi, &c.).

Games.

The games of the American aborigines north of Mexico have been made the

subject of a detailed monograph by Culin, "Games of the North American

Indians" (_Twenty-fourth Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethnol._, 1902-1903, pp. 1-846),

in which are treated the games of chance, games of dexterity and minor

amusements of more than 200 tribes belonging to 34 different linguistic

stocks. According to Culin, "games of pure skill and calculation, such

as chess, are entirely absent." There are more variations in the

materials employed than in the object or methods of play and in general

the variations do not follow differences in language. The type known as

"dice game" is reported here from among 130 tribes belonging to 30

stocks; the "hand-game" from 81 tribes belonging to 28 stocks. The

centre of distribution of North American Indian games, which, with the

exception of a few post-Columbian additions, are all autochthonous,

Culin finds in the south-west--"there appears to be a progressive change

from what appears to be the oldest forms of existing games from a centre

in the south-western United States, along lines north, north-east and

east." Similar changes radiating southward from the same centre are

likewise suggested. He is of opinion that, outside of children's games

as such and the kinds of minor amusements common in all civilizations,

the games of the North American Indians, as they now exist, "are either

instruments of rites or have descended from ceremonial observances of a

religious character," and that "while their common and secular object

appears to be purely a manifestation of the desire for amusement or

gain, they are performed also as religious ceremonies, as rites pleasing

to the gods to secure their favour, or as processes of sympathetic

magic, to drive away sickness, avert other evil, or produce rain and the

fertilization and reproduction of plants and animals or other beneficial

results." He also believes that these games, "in what appears to be

their oldest and most primitive manifestations are almost exclusively

divinatory." This theory of the origin of games in divination, which

receives considerable support from certain facts in primitive America,

needs, however, further proof. So, too, with Mr Culin's further

conclusion that "behind both ceremonies and games there existed some

widespread myth from which both derived their impulse," that myth being

the one which discloses the primal gamblers as those curious children,

the divine Twins, the miraculous offspring of the sun, who are the

principal personages in many Indian mythologies. These eternal

contenders "are the original patrons of play, and their games are the

games now played by men."

Social organization, customs, &c.

It was formerly thought that "totemism" and real "gentile organization"

prevailed over all of North America. But it now appears that in several

sections of the country such beliefs and institutions were unknown, and

that even within the limits of one and the same stock one tribe did,

while another did not, possess them. Matriarchal ideas and the

corresponding tribal institutions were also once regarded as the primal

social condition of all Indian tribes, having been afterwards in many

cases replaced by patriarchal ideas and institutions. Since the

appearance of Morgan's famous monograph on _Ancient Society_ (New York,

1878) and his _Systems of Consanguinity and Affinity in the Human

Family_ (Washington, 1871), the labours of American ethnologists have

added much to our knowledge of the sociology of the American Indians.

Forms of society among these Indians vary from the absolute democracy of

the Athabaskan Ten'a of Alaska, among whom, according to Jetté (_Congr.

int. d. Amér._, Quebec, 1886), there exist "no chiefs, guides or

masters," and public opinion dominates ("every one commands and all

obey, if they see fit"), to the complicated systems of some of the

tribes of the North Pacific coast regions, with threefold divisions of

chiefs, "nobles," and "common people" (sometimes also, in addition,

slaves), secret and "totemic" organizations, religious societies, sexual

institutions ("men's houses," &c.), and other like divisions; and beyond

this to the development along political and larger social lines of

alliances and confederations of tribes (often speaking entirely

different languages) which have played an important rôle in the

diffusion of primitive culture, such as the Powhatan confederacy of

Virginia and the Abnaki confederacy of the North Atlantic region; the

confederacy of the Chippewa, Ottawa and Potawatomi of the Great Lakes;

the Huron confederacy of Ontario; the Dakota alliance of the north-west;

the Blackfoot confederacy of the Canadian north-west; the Caddoan

confederacy of the Arkansas region; the Creek confederacy of the South

Atlantic country. The acme of federation was reached in the great

"League of the Iroquois," whose further development and expansion were

prevented by the coming of the Europeans and their conquest of primitive

North America. According to Morgan (_League of the Iroquois_, New York,

1851) and Hale (_Iroquois Book of Rites_, 1881), who have written about

this remarkable attempt, by federation of all tribes, to put an end to

war and usher in the reign of universal peace, its formation under the

inspiring genius of Hiawatha took place about 1459. But J. N. B. Hewitt,

himself an Iroquois, offers reasons (_Amer. Anthrop._, 1892) for

believing that the correct date of its founding lies between 1559 and

1570.

Tribes like the Kootenay (_Rep. Brit. Assoc._, 1892) have no totems

and secret societies, nor do they seem to have ever possessed them.

This may also be said of some of the Salishan tribes, though others of

the same stock have complicated systems. The Klamath Indians

(Lutuamian stock) "are absolutely ignorant of the gentile or clan

system as prevalent among the Haida, Tlingit and Eastern Indians of

North America; matriarchate is also unknown among them; every one is

free to marry within or without the tribe, and the children inherit

from the father" (Gatschet). In all parts of California indeed,

according to Kroeber (_Handbook of Amer. Inds._, 1907, pt. i. p. 191),

"both totemism and a true gentile organization were totally lacking."

Nor does it appear that either personal or communal totemism is a

necessary attribute of clan and gentile organizations where such do

exist. The Heiltsuk of British Columbia have animal totems, while the

Kwakiutl do not, although both these tribes belong to the same

Wakashan stock. Among the Iroquoian tribes, according to Hewitt

(_Handbook_, p. 303), the primary unit of social and political

organization, termed in Mohawk _ohwachira_, is "the family, comprising

all the male and female progeny of a woman and of all her female

descendants in the female line and of such other persons as may be

adopted into the _ohwachira_." The head of the _ohwachira_ is "usually

the oldest woman in it," and it "never bears the name of a tutelary or

other deity." The clan was composed of one or more of such

_ohwachiras_, being "developed apparently through the coalescence of

two or more _ohwachiras_ having a common abode." From the clan or gens

developed the government of the tribe, and out of that the Iroquois

confederation.

The power of the chief varied greatly among the North American

aborigines, as well as the manner of his selection. Among the Eskimo,

chiefs properly understood hardly have existed; nearly everywhere the

power of all sorts of chiefs (both war and peace) was limited and

modified by the restraints of councils and other advisers. Age,

wealth, ability, generosity, the favour of the shaman, &c., were

qualifications for the chieftainship in various parts of the

continent. Women generally seem to have had little or no direct voice

in government, except that they could (even among some of the

Athabaskan tribes) sometimes become chiefs, and, among the Iroquois,

were represented in councils, had certain powers and prerogatives

(including a sort of veto on war), &c. Many tribes had permanent

peace-chiefs and temporary war-chiefs. According to Hewitt (_Handb. of

Amer. Inds._, 1907, pt. i. p. 264), "In the Creek confederation and

that of the Iroquois, the most complex aboriginal government north of

Mexico, there was, in fact, no head chief. The first chief of the

Onondaga federal roll acted as the chairman of the federal council,

and by virtue of his office he called the federal council together.

With this all pre-eminence over the other chiefs ended, for the

governing power of the confederation was lodged in the federal

council. The federal council was composed of the federal chiefs of the

several component tribes; the tribal council consisted of the federal

chiefs and sub-chiefs of the tribe." The greatest development of the

power of the chief and his tenure of office by heredity seems to have

occurred among the Natchez and certain other tribes of the lower

Mississippi and Gulf region. Among the Plains tribes, in general,

non-inheritance prevailed, and "any ambitious and courageous warrior

could apparently, in strict accordance with custom, make himself a

chief by the acquisition of suitable property and through his own

force of character" (Hewitt).

Among the North American aborigines the position of woman and her

privileges and duties varied greatly from the usually narrow limits

prescribed by the Athabaskans, according to Morice (_Congr. int. d.

Amér._, Quebec, 1906), to the socially high status reached among some

of the Iroquoian tribes in particular. In the North Pacific coast

region the possession of slaves is said to have been a cause of a

relatively higher position of woman there than obtained among

neighbouring tribes. The custom of adoption both of children and

captives also resulted advantageously to woman. The rôle and

accomplishments of woman in primitive North America are treated with

some detail in Mason's _Woman's Share in Primitive Culture_ (1894).

The form of the family and the nature of marriage varied considerably

among the North American aborigines, as also did the ceremonies of

courtship and the proceedings in divorce, &c. With some tribes

apparently real purchase of brides occurred, but in many cases the

seeming purchase turns out to be merely "a ratification of the

marriage by means of gifts." Great differences in these matters are

found within the limits of one and the same stock (e.g. Siouan).

Female descent, e.g., prevailed among the Algonkian tribes of the

south-east but not among those of the north and west; and the case of

the Creeks (Muskogian) shows that female descent is not necessarily

the concomitant of a high social status of woman. Among the Zuñi,

where the man is adopted as a son by the father of his wife, "she is

thus mistress of the situation; the children are hers, and she can

order the husband from the house should occasion arise" (Lowie and

Farrand). With many tribes, however, the husband could divorce his

wife at will, but Farrand and Lowie in their discussion of Indian

marriage (_Handb. of Amer. Inds._, 1907, pt. i. p. 809) report on the

other hand the curious fact that among the Wintun of California "men

seldom expel their wives, but slink away from home, leaving their

families behind." In the case of divorce, the children generally go

with the mother. From a survey of the available data Lowie and Farrand

conclude that "monogamy is thus found to be the prevalent form of

marriage throughout the continent," varied from to polygamy, where

wealth and other circumstances dictated it. In California, e.g.,

polygamy is rare, while with some of the Plains tribes it was quite

common. Here again differences of note occurred within the same stock,

e.g. the Iroquois proper could not have more than one wife, but the

Huron Indian could. The family itself varied from the group of parents

and children to the larger ones dictated by social regulations among

the eastern tribes with clan organizations, and the large "families"

found by Swanton (_Amer. Anthrop._, 1905) among certain tribes of the

North Pacific coast, where relations and "poor relations," servants

and slaves entered to swell the aggregate. Exogamy was widely

prevalent and incest rare. Cousin-marriages were frequently tabooed.

With many of the North American aborigines the giving of the name, its

transference from one individual to another, its change by the

individual in recognition of great events, achievements, &c., and

other aspects of nominology are of significance in connexion with

social life and religious ceremonies, rites and superstitions. The

high level attained by some tribes in these matters can be seen from

Miss Fletcher's description of "A Pawnee Ritual used when changing a

Man's Name" (_Amer. Anthrop._, 1899). Names marked epochs in life and

changed with new achievements, and they had often "so personal and

sacred a meaning," that they were naturally enough rendered "unfit for

the familiar purposes of ordinary address, to a people so reverently

inclined as the Indians seem to have been." The period of puberty in

boys and girls was often the occasion of elaborate "initiation"

ceremonies and rites of various kinds, some of which were of a very

trying and even cruel character. Ceremonial or symbolic "killings,"

"new-births," &c., were also in vogue; likewise ordeals of whipping,

isolation and solitary confinement, "medicine"-taking, physical

torture, ritual bathings, painting of face or body, scarification and

the like. The initiations, ordeals, &c., gone through by the youth as

a prelude to manhood and womanhood resembled in many respects those

imposed upon individuals aspiring to be chiefs, shamans and

"medicine-men." Many facts concerning these rites and ceremonies will

be found in G. Stanley Hall's _Adolescence_ (1904) and in the articles

on "Ordeals" and "Puberty Customs" in the _Handbook of American

Indians North of Mexico_ (1907-1910). In the method of approach to the

supernatural and the superhuman among the North American aborigines

there is great diversity, and the powers and capacities of the

individual have often received greater recognition than is commonly

believed. Thus, as Kroeber (_Amer. Anthrop._, 1902, p. 285) has

pointed out, the Mohave Indians of the Yuman stock have as a

distinctive feature of their culture "the high degree to which they

have developed their system of dreaming and of individual instead of

traditional connexion with the supernatural." For the Omaha of the

Siouan stock Miss A. C. Fletcher (_Proc. Amer. Assoc. Adv. Sci._,

1895, 1896; _Journ. Anthr. Inst._, 1898) has shown the appreciation of

the individual in the lonely "totem" vigil and the acquisition of the

personal _genius_.

Contact of races.

From the Indians of North America the white man has borrowed not only

hosts of geographical names and many common terms of speech, but

countless ideas and methods as to food, medicines, clothes and other

items in the conduct of life. Even to-day, as G. W. James points out in

his interesting little volume, _What the White Race may learn from the

Indian_ (Chicago, 1908), the end of the instruction of the "lower" race

by the "higher" is not yet. The presence of the Indians and the

existence of a "frontier" receding ever westward as the tide of

immigration increased and the line of settlements advanced, have, as

Prof. Turner has shown (_Ann. Rep. Amer. Hist. Assoc._, 1893),

conditioned to a certain extent the development of civilization in North

America. Had there been no aborigines here, the white race might have

swarmed quickly over the whole continent, and the "typical" American

would now be much different from what he is. The fact that the Indians

were here in sufficient numbers to resist a too rapid advance on the

part of the European settlers made necessary the numerous frontiers

(really "successive Americas"), which began with Quebec, Virginia and

Massachusetts and ended with California, Oregon, British Columbia, Yukon

and Alaska. The Indians again are no exception to the rule that one of

the fundamentally important contributions of a primitive people to the

culture-factors in the life of the race dispossessing them consists of

the trails and camping-places, water-ways and trade-routes which they

have known and used from time immemorial. The great importance of these

trails and sites of Indian camps and villages for subsequent European

development in North America has been emphasized by Prof. F. J. Turner

(_Proc. Wisconsin State Histor. Soc._, 1889 and 1894) and A. B. Hulbert

(_Historic Highways of America_, New York, 1902-1905). It was over these

old trails and through these water-ways that missionary, soldier,

adventurer, trader, trapper, hunter, explorer and settler followed the

Indian, with guides or without. The road followed the trail, and the

railway the road.

The fur trade and traffic with the Indians in general were not without

influence upon the social and political conditions of the European

colonies. In the region beyond the Alleghanies the free hunter and the

single trapper flourished; in the great north-west the fur companies. In

the Mackenzie region and the Yukon country the "free hunter" is still to

be met with, and he is, in some cases, practically the only

representative of his race with whom some of the Indian tribes come into

contact. J. M. Bell (_Journ. Amer. Folk-Lore_, xvi., 1903, 74), from

personal observation, notes "the advance of the barbarous border

civilization,--the civilization of the whaler on Hudson's Bay, of the

free trader on the Athabasca Lake and river, of the ranchers and placer

miners on the Peace and other mountain rivers," and observes further (p.

84) that "the influx of fur-traders into the Mackenzie River region, and

even to Great Bear Lake within the last two years, since my return, has,

I believe, very much altered the character of the Northern Indians." In

many parts of North America the free trapper and solitary hunter were

often factors in the extermination of the Indian, while the great fur

companies were not infrequently powerful agents in preserving him,

since their aims of exploiting vast areas in a material way were best

aided by alliance or even amalgamation. The early French fur companies,

the Hudson's Bay Company, the North-West Company, the American Fur

Company, the Missouri Fur Company, the Russian-American Company, the

Alaska Commercial Company, &c., long stood with the Indians for the

culture of the white man. For two centuries, indeed, the Hudson's Bay

Company was ruler of a large portion of what is now the Dominion of

Canada, and its trading-posts still dot the Indian country in the far

north-west. The mingling of races in the region beyond the Great Lakes

is largely due to the fact that the trading and fur companies brought

thither employés and dependants, of French, Scottish and English stock,

who intermarried more or less readily with the native population, thus

producing the mixed-blood element which has played an important rôle in

the development of the American north-west. The fur trade was a valuable

source of revenue for the early colonists. During the colonial period

furs were sometimes even legal tender, like the wampum or shell-money of

the eastern Indians, which, according to Mr Weeden (_Econ. Hist. of New

England_), the necessities of commerce made the European colonists of

the 17th century adopt as a substitute for currency of the Old World

sort.

In their contact with the Indians the Europeans of the New World had

many lessons in diplomacy and statecraft. Alliances entered upon chiefly

for commercial reasons led sometimes to important national events. The

adhesion of the Algonkian tribes so largely to the French, and of the

Iroquoian peoples as extensively to the English, practically settled

which was ultimately to win in the struggle for supremacy in North

America. If we believe Lewis H. Morgan, "the Iroquois alliance with the

English forms the chief fact in American history down to 1763."

The whites in their turn have influenced greatly the culture,

institutions and ideas of the American aborigines. The early influence

of the Scandinavians in Greenland has had its importance exaggerated by

Dr Tylor (_Journ. Anthrop. Inst._, 1879). French influence in Canada and

Acadia began early and was very marked, affecting the languages (several

Algonkian dialects have numerous loan-words, as have the Iroquois

tongues still spoken in Quebec) and the customs of the Indians. French

authorities, missionaries and traders seemed to get into more

sympathetic relations with the Indians, and the intermarriage of the

races met with practically no opposition. Hence the French influence

upon many tribes can be traced from the Atlantic past the Great Lakes

and over the Plains to the Rocky Mountains and even beyond, where the

trappers, _voyageurs, coureurs des bois_ and missionaries of French

extraction have made their contribution to the modern tales and legends

of the Canadian north-west and British Columbia. In one of the tales of

the North Pacific coast appears _Shishé Tlé_ (i.e. Jesus Christ), and in

another from the eastern slope of the Rockies _Mani_ (i.e. Mary).

Another area of French influence occurs in Louisiana, &c. The English,

as a rule, paid much less attention than did the French to the

languages, manners and customs and institutions of the aborigines and

were in general less given to intermarriage with them (the classical

example of Rolfe and Pocahontas notwithstanding), and less

sympathetically minded towards them, although willing enough, as the

numerous early educational foundations indicate, to improve them in both

mind and body. The supremacy of the English-speaking people in North

America made theirs the controlling influence upon the aborigines in all

parts of the country, in the Pacific coast region to-day as formerly in

the eastern United States, where house-building, clothing and ornament,

furniture, weapons and implements have been modified or replaced. Beside

the Atlantic, the Micmac of Nova Scotia now has its English loan-words,

while among the Salishan tribes of British Columbia English is "very

seriously affecting the purity of the native spech" (Hill-Tout), and

even the Athabaskan Nahané are adding English words to their vocabulary

(Morice).

The English influence on tribal government and land-tenure, culminating

in the incorporation of so many of the aborigines as citizens of Canada

and the United States, began in 1641. The first royal grants both in New

England and farther south made no mention of the native population of

the country, and the early proprietors and settlers were largely left to

their own devices in dealing with them, the policy of extinguishing

their titles to land being adopted as needed. Later on, of course, due

recognition was had of the fact that certain parts of America were

inhabited by "heathen," "savages," &c., and the chiefs of many of the

tribes were looked upon as rulers with prerogatives of princes and royal

personages (e.g. the "Emperor" Powhatan and the "Princess" Pocahontas,

"King" Philip, the "Emperor" of the Creeks, &c.). The method of dealing

with the Indian "tribes" by the Federal government as autonomous groups

through treaties, &c., lasted till 1871, when, by act of Congress,

"simple agreements" were favoured in lieu of "solemn treaties."