DRESS--The Jicarillas in dress show the effect of their contact with the
Plains tribes, especially the Ute. The primitive dress of the men was a
deerskin shirt with sleeves, hip-leggings and moccasins, and the universal
loin-cloth. In winter a large loose deerskin coat was worn in addition.
The women wore a waist open at the sides under the arms, a deerskin skirt
falling below the knees, and legging-moccasins with very high tops. About
the waist the women now also wear a very broad leather belt, ten to
sixteen inches in width, extending well up under the arms. The men wear
their hair in braids hanging over the shoulders and wound with strips of
deerskin. Formerly they wore bangs in front on a line with the cheek-bones
and tied their hair in a knot at the back of the head, as the Navaho and
the Pueblo Indians do. The women part their hair down the middle, bring it
to the sides of the head, and tie it with strips of deerskin, cloth, or
yarn.
DWELLINGS--The Jicarilla dwelling is the same as the tipi of the Plains
Indians, once made of five buffalo skins on the usual framework of poles,
with smoke-hole at the apex. Since the disappearance of the buffalo,
canvas has replaced the skins, and many log houses are also to be found on
the reservation. The native house is called _kozhan_.
PRIMITIVE FOODS--The Jicarillas obtain corn from Rio Grande Pueblos in
exchange for baskets; but formerly they subsisted mainly by the chase,
killing buffalo, deer, antelope, and mountain sheep, besides many kinds of
small game and birds. Pinon nuts and acorns, with various wild fruits and
berries, were used. Bear and fish were never eaten.
ARTS AND INDUSTRIES--The Jicarillas make a great many baskets of fair
quality, from which industry the tribe gained its popular Spanish name.
The most typical of their baskets is tray-shaped; this not only enters
largely into their domestic life, but was formerly the principal article
of barter with their Pueblo neighbors and Navaho kindred. Some pottery is
made, practically all of which is in the form of small cooking utensils.
The large clay water jar was not used, their wandering life necessitating
a water carrier of greater stability.
ORGANIZATION--While the government of the Jicarillas is very loose, the
head-chief, selected from the family of his predecessor, exercises
considerable influence. The two bands into which the tribe is divided had
their origin when a part of the tribe remained for a period on the plains
after an annual buffalo hunt, and henceforth were called Kohlkahin, Plains
People; while those who returned to the mountains received the name Sait
Nde, Sand People, from the pottery they made. Each of the two bands has a
sub-chief. There are no clans.
MARRIAGE--Marriage is consummated only by consent of the girl's parents.
The young man proves his worth by bringing to her family a quantity of
game, and by building a _kozhan_, which is consecrated on the night of the
wedding, by a medicine-man, with prayers to Naye{~COMBINING BREVE~}nayezgani.
ORIGIN--People, existent with the beginning of time, are guided by
Chunnaai, the Sun God, and Klenaai, the Moon God, out of an under-world
into this, where the various tribes wander about and find their several
homes.
PERSONS OF MIRACULOUS BIRTH--Naye{~COMBINING BREVE~}nayezgani, son of the virgin Yolkai
Estsan and the Sun, and Kobadjischini, son of Estsan Natleshin and Water,
perform many wonders in ridding the earth of its monsters. The former was
the more powerful and much mythology centres about him.
CEREMONIES--The Girls' Maturity observance, an annual feast whose main
features are borrowed from the Pueblos, and a four-days medicine rite are
the principal ceremonies of the Jicarillas. Numerous less important
medicine chants are held.
BURIAL--The dead, accompanied with their personal possessions, are taken to
elevated places and covered with brush and stones. Their situation is
known to only the few who bear the body away. Formerly the favorite horse
of the deceased was killed and the _kozhan_ burned, and relatives
frequently cut their hair and refrained for a time from personal
adornment.
AFTER-WORLD--When the good die their spirits are believed to go to a home
of plenty in the sky, where they hunt among great herds of buffalo. Those
who have practised "bad medicine," or sorcery, go to another part of the
sky and spend eternity in vain effort to dig through the rock into the
land of the good.