with the important assistance of Mrs. Stevenson, was employed in making
collections and studies at Zuñi. The collection from there is much
larger than any heretofore obtained and includes many objects relating
to the outdoor ceremonies of the Zuñi. Specimens of these were secured
from their sacred springs, caves, and shrines. All details relating to
their ceremonials were attentively studied, and a series of water color
sketches was made of altars used and of masks worn on these important
occasions. A large number of fetiches was also obtained, representing
many of the animals held in religious esteem by the Zuñi. A series of
photographs was made of the sacred springs, wells, monuments, picture
writings, and shrines of the Zuñi located at different points over an
area of about seventy-five miles from Zuñi, and a collection was secured
of representative specimens of their fetiches, plume sticks, and other
objects connected with their mythology and religious practices. The
collection made during the year was unusually large and important. It
comprises about eighty-five hundred specimens from the Indian tribes of
the Southwest embraced in the research; these consist of woven fabrics
and pottery, bone, and stone implements, both ancient and modern, and
represent nearly all phases of the life, art, and industries of these
tribes. These collections have been deposited in the U. S. National
Museum for arrangement, classification, and description.
WORK OF MR. VICTOR MINDELEFF.
A party in charge of Mr. Victor Mindeleff left Washington on August 5 to
survey the ruined pueblos of the Chaco, in New Mexico. Five of the ruins
were accurately measured and platted to scale, and a full series of
sketches, plans, and photographs was secured. Mr. Mindeleff returned
from the field on the 1st of October. He then made a trip to the great
Etowah mound, near Cartersville, Ga., under the direction of Prof. Cyrus
Thomas, in order to secure an accurate survey and scale drawing, as a
basis for the construction of a model.
At the close of this work Mr. Mindeleff returned to Washington, on
October 7, and was engaged in office work until the middle of the
following June, when he took the field in advance of his party for
further studies among the ruins and pueblos of the Cibola and Tusayan
groups. He was also instructed to secure similar material at other
available points for comparison.
LINGUISTIC FIELD WORK.
WORK OF MRS. ERMINNIE A. SMITH.
From the 1st of July to the 15th of August, 1884, Mrs. Smith, assisted
by Mr. J. N. B. Hewitt, of Tuscarora descent, was engaged among the
Onondaga living near Syracuse, N. Y., in translating and annotating two
Onondaga manuscripts; afterward, until the latter part of October, with
the same assistance, she was at work on the Grand River reservation in
Canada, where she filled out the vocabulary in the Introduction to the
Study of Indian Languages from the dialect of the Cayuga. She also
obtained from the Mohawk a translation, with annotations, of a
manuscript in their dialect.
The three manuscripts mentioned are now in the possession of the Bureau
of Ethnology. Their origin and history are not distinctly known, as they
are all probably copies of originals which seem to have been lost or
destroyed. It was intended in these manuscripts to reproduce, by the
alphabet and the script used by English writers, the sound of the
dialects employed.
These records have their chief interest in the preservation of many
archaic words, or those of ceremony, law, and custom, which in these
dialects, as is the general rule, remain unchanged, although the
colloquial language may be modified. The subject matter of all these
records is genuinely and exclusively Iroquoian.
The Mohawk manuscript was copied about the year 1830 by Chief John
"Smoke" Johnson from an earlier original or perhaps copy. The
orthography of this copy is quite regular and is that of the early
English missionaries, being similar in many respects to the well known
Pickering alphabet.
One of the Onondaga manuscripts was found in the possession of Mr.
Daniel La Fort and the other in that of Mrs. John A. Jones, both of the
Onondaga reserve, New York. These two copies differ from each other in
orthography and substance, the Jones manuscript being probably a full
detail of a part of the other.
The orthography of the La Fort manuscript is very irregular and
difficult to read, but that of the Jones manuscript is regular and
legible. The Mohawk manuscript contains a detailed account of the rites
and ceremonies, speeches and songs, of the condoling and inducting
council of the Iroquoian League in the form in which that council was
conducted by the elder brothers or members of the Onondaga, Mohawk, and
Seneca divisions, which have been generally called tribes, but are more
correctly confederacies, their villages being the tribal unit. The La
Fort Onondaga manuscript comprises a similar ritual of the same council
as carried out by the younger brothers, viz., the Cayuga, Oneida, and
Tuscarora members or confederacies of the league. The Jones Onondaga
manuscript is the charge of the principal shaman to the newly elected or
inducted chief or chiefs.
During the remainder of the year material was collected and work
continued on the Tuscarora-English part of the Tuscarora dictionary.
WORK OF MR. H. W. HENSHAW.
Mr. H. W. Henshaw visited southern California for the purpose of
pursuing linguistic studies in the group of languages spoken by the
Santa Barbara Indians. Although these Indians became known at a very
early day, being mentioned with particularity in the relation of
Cabrillo's voyage along the California coast in 1542, but little has
been ascertained in respect to their language and its relations to the
speech of neighboring tribes.
Few vocabularies were collected by the early Spanish missionaries and
those gathered were very imperfect, so that no conclusions can be based
upon them with confidence.
As a result of the policy pursued by the various missionaries among
these docile tribes, aboriginal habits were soon exchanged for others
imposed by the priests. Tribal organizations were broken up and the
Indians were removed from their homes and located about the missions. In
addition the Spanish language was early introduced and so far as
possible made to replace the aboriginal tongue. As a consequence Spanish
became familiar to a large number of the proselytes, and all the
surviving Santa Barbara Indians speak Spanish fluently, or rather the
Mexican dialect of Spanish. Indeed, the impression prevails generally in
California that none of the Indians can speak their own tongue. As a
matter of fact, however, in their own families and when away from the
white men they discard Spanish entirely.
The attempt to preserve the language was begun none too soon, as of the
large population attributed to this part of the California coast Mr.
Henshaw was able to discover only about fifty survivors, and these were
widely scattered over several counties. A number of the dialects of the
linguistic family are now extinct, and only a month before Mr. Henshaw's
arrival at San Buenaventura an old woman died who, it is believed, was
the last person to speak the dialect belonging to the Island of Santa
Cruz. In Santa Barbara and Ventura counties six dialects of the family
were found, which are believed to be all that are now extant.
In the case of the dialect of Santa Rosa island, but one Indian remained
to speak it. Two more dialects are spoken by two or three individuals
only. The existing dialects, named according to the missions around
which they were spoken, are as follows: San Buenaventura, Santa Barbara,
Santa Rosa Island, Purissima, Santa Inez, and San Luis Obispo. With the
exception of the last named the several dialects are very closely
related, and, although each possesses a greater or less number of words
not contained in the others, their vocabularies show many words which
are common to all.
The dialect formerly spoken at San Luis Obispo differs much from any of
the others, and a critical comparison is necessary to reveal a
sufficient number of words possessing identical roots to render their
common parentage obvious.
Extensive vocabularies of the dialects of San Antonio and San Miguel
were obtained, there being about a dozen Indians who speak these
languages around the old San Antonio mission. These languages have been
supposed to be of the Santa Barbara family (as it has hitherto been
termed, now called Chumashan family), but the material obtained by Mr.
Henshaw disproves this, and, for the present at least, they are
considered to form a distinct family.
Mr. Henshaw visited Los Angeles and San Diego counties for the purpose
of determining the exact northern and southern limits of the Shoshonian
family, which extends quite to the coast in California.
At San Diego and San Luis Rey he obtained vocabularies representing four
dialects of the Yuman family.
WORK OF MR. A. S. GATSCHET.
In August, 1884, Mr. Gatschet proceeded to visit the Tonkawē and Lipan
tribes in Texas.
He reached Fort Griffin on the 29th of August. The Tonkawē tribe was
encamped about a mile and a half south of Fort Griffin, Shackleford
county, and consisted of 78 individuals, while the Lipan camp, one mile
north-northwest, consisted of 19 persons only. All these Indians were on
the point of removing to the Oakland reserve, Indian Territory.
The Tonkawē constitute an aggregate of several tribal remnants formerly
living independently of one another in southern Texas and on the Rio
Grande. Mr. Gatschet devoted five weeks to the study of their language
and one week to that of the Lipan, which is a dialect of Apache
(Athapascan). The Tonkawē is a sonorous and energetic form of speech.
The radix of many of the adjectives becomes reduplicated to form a kind
of plural, and the same thing is observed in some of the verbs, where
iteration or frequency has to be indicated. Case suffixes are observed
in the substantive, which can easily be traced to postpositions as their
original forms. Very few of the natives were sufficiently conversant
with English or Spanish to serve as interpreters, so that it was
difficult to secure trustworthy results. A white man who had lived over
six years among them was of material help, and several mythologic and
other texts were obtained with tolerable correctness through his aid.
On October 9 Mr. Gatschet left Fort Griffin and reached Fort Sill, in
the Indian Territory, on the 15th. Many Kaiowē and Comanche Indians
encamped during the warmer months of the year around this fort, which is
situated at the southeast base of the Wichita mountains. He engaged the
best help he could find for studying the Kaiowē language, for which
there is no Government interpreter. The Comanche is the predominating
language on the whole Kaiowē, Comanche, and Apache reservation, although
the Comanche exceed the Kaiowē but little in number. The Comanche is
more easily acquired, at least to the extent required in conversation,
and all the traders and shopkeepers on the reservation have a smattering
of it.
Better interpreters for Kaiowē were obtained at Anadarko, the seat of
the agency, where Mr. Gatschet remained from October 31 to December 12.
A few Kaiowē were found who had passed some months or years among
Americans or at the Indian schools at Carlisle, Chilocco, and elsewhere,
and could express themselves intelligibly in English. A few white
Mexicans were found among the Comanche, who were captured by them in
infancy, acquired the Comanche language, and have ever since lived among
these Indians. Of the Kaiowē, Mr. Gatschet acquired over two thousand
terms, phrases, and sentences, several historic texts of value, and of
the Comanche, eight hundred or a thousand words. The circumstances
necessitated careful and numerous revisions of everything obtained, by
which much of the time was absorbed.
The Na-ishi Apache, about four hundred in number and formerly roaming
with the Kaiowē, furnished also a large amount of terms, exceeding
fifteen hundred.
There are a few verbal similarities between the Kaiowē and the Shoshoni
languages, but apparently not enough to indicate anything more than long
association of these peoples. The Kaiowē has a dual in the intransitive
verb and in some nouns. There are more than a dozen different modes of
forming the plural of nouns. The subject pronoun is incorporated with
the verb as a prefix, and every tense has a different subject pronoun,
as in Otomi and other languages of southern Mexico.
Vocabularies were also obtained of Delaware, Ottawa, Yuchi, Caddo,
Wichita, and of the hitherto unstudied Caddo dialects of Anadarko and
Yatassi.
In spite of persevering search it was not possible to find any of the
Bidai or the Tonica in Texas, although it is probable that some of them
survived in that State as late as 1850.
Mr. Gatschet then passed a whole month among the Atakapa at Lake
Charles, the county seat of Calcasieu parish, Louisiana. Of the two
dialects traceable, only the western one seems to exist now, being still
spoken by a few women living at the town. The language is sonorous, but
strongly nasal.
Returning to the Indian Territory, after a fruitless search for the
Tonica and Adai, he stopped at Eufaula, Creek Nation, to meet a Na'htchi
Indian named Lasley, about sixty years old, who had represented his
tribe in the councils of the Creek Nation. This man explained his
Na'htchi terms and phrases by Creek equivalents, and these had to be
translated into English to obtain full light concerning the Na'htchi
terms. One legendary text was also obtained. The language is rather
consonantal and has a multiplicity of verbal forms.
Among the Yuchi tribe on Middle Arkansas river, southwestern bank, and
over 40 miles from Muscogee Station, Indian Territory, he remained but a
week, too short a time to obtain full information respecting this
interesting language. There are five or six hundred Yuchi still living
on this tract. Two texts and a few popular songs, with one thousand
terms of the language, were obtained.
The last stop was made among the Modoc at Quapaw Agency, at the agency
buildings. About ninety are left of those brought there for having taken
part in the Modoc war of 1872-'73. Five mythic tales were gathered from
the natives within the short time of three weeks, one of them being of
considerable length and of importance. It is called "The birth of
Aishish." The birth of this astral deity resembles in most particulars
that of Bacchus from the thigh of Jupiter after his mother, Semele, had
been burned to death. The terms, phrases, and sentences gathered,
besides the myth mentioned, amount to over fifteen hundred items, which
will prove useful for completing the work on the Klamath Indians of
Oregon now in preparation.
Of the Shawnee language several hundred words were gathered from the
Indians of that tribe settled around the agency.
Mr. Gatschet returned to Washington in April, 1885.
WORK OF REV. J. OWEN DORSEY.
Rev. J. Owen Dorsey visited the Siletz Agency, Oregon, in August, 1884,
to gain linguistic and other information respecting the tribes in that
region. When he returned, in November, he brought back as the result of
his work the following vocabularies:—Athapascan family: Applegate Creek,
Galice Creek, Chastā Costa, Miko-no-tunne, Chetco, Smith River, Cal.,
and Upper Coquille.—Yakonan family: Yaquina, Alsea, Siuslaw, and Lower
Umpqua.—Kusan family: Mulluk or Lower Coquille.—Takilman family: Takilma
or Upper Rogue River.—Shahaptian family: Klikitat.—Sastean family:
Shasti—total, nineteen vocabularies, ranging from fifty to three
thousand entries, exclusive of phrases and grammatical notes.
He also obtained materials for an account of the social organization
into villages of some of these Indians, the basis for which appears to
have been the clan or gens. Rough maps, showing the localities of the
villages, were made. Mr. Dorsey also obtained from several tribes the
corresponding Indian names of about sixty vegetal products, specimens of
which were brought to Washington for identification.
WORK OF MR. JEREMIAH CURTIN.
Mr. Curtin spent the first two weeks of July at the Quapaw agency,
Indian Territory, in making a collection of Modoc myths, which he had
begun in the preceding winter, being part of a general collection of
Indian myths begun in 1883. The number of Modoc myths obtained was
nearly one hundred.
After finishing work at the Quapaw Agency, he returned to Washington,
and shortly afterward was directed to proceed to northern California and
obtain vocabularies of the Nosa and Kombo languages, and thence to
Oregon to obtain vocabularies of the Wasco, Tyigh, and Tenina languages.
Work was begun on the Nosa language (Yanan family) at Redding, Cal., on
October 11. The difficulties were very great, especially at first, owing
to the fact that the Nosa are few in number, live far from one another,
and have a very imperfect knowledge of English.
The Nosa were a prominent and rather numerous people until 1864, when
all of them who could be found were massacred by white settlers, who
organized two companies for the purpose of exterminating the tribe.
Owing to a chance by which a few escaped and to the exertions of Mr.
Benjamin Oliver, who secreted several in his cellar, about fifteen full
blood Nosa survived.
Work on Nosa was continued in and around Redding until the end of
November, when Round Mountain was visited to complete the Nosa
vocabulary and obtain that of the Atsugei (Palaikan family), a very
interesting language. Work at Round Mountain was finished on January 8
and Redding was revisited on January 9, preparatory to departing for
Oregon.
Owing to the excessive severity of the winter and the snow blockades,
which lasted six weeks, communication with Warm Spring was closed, and
it was impossible to enter the reservation till January 27, when
Sinnashee, a school and center of the Warm Spring Indian population, was
reached.
At this place the Tyigh vocabulary (Shahaptian family) was collected.
The Wasco (Chinookan family) was obtained at the agency headquarters
near the Deschutes river. Tenina, being identical with the Tyigh
language, was omitted. From April 18, at which date work at the Warm
Spring agency was finished, until June 30, the time was devoted to
collecting myths in the Klamath reservation and at Yreka.
During the whole period of work all the myths that could be found among
the people whose languages were being investigated were reduced to
writing. In this manner a large body of Nosa, Atsugei, Tyigh, and Wasco
myths was collected. In the cases of Klamath and Shasti, myths were the
objects directly in view.
The vocabularies were obtained with satisfactory completeness and the
verbal systems worked out in detail.
The Nosa is remarkable for a regularity of structure which yields to
analysis and has a certain monotonous harmony of sound.
The Atsugei has a sonorous roll, a strong letter _r_, and a certain
number of words in common with the Shasti, itself one of the _r_
languages.
GENERAL FIELD WORK.
WORK OF DR. WASHINGTON MATTHEWS.
Dr. Washington Matthews, assistant surgeon U. S. Army, continued his
investigations among the Navajo Indians in New Mexico and Arizona. He
had been stationed in the Navajo country as post surgeon of Fort
Wingate, N. Mex., from 1880 to 1884, during which time he devoted
himself to studying the language, customs, and ceremonies of this tribe
as much as his official duties would permit. Some of the great
shamanistic ceremonies of the Navajo, occupying nine days for their
performance, he had often seen in part; but he had never had an
opportunity of witnessing one throughout its entire duration, as he had
not sufficient time at his disposal.
Before leaving New Mexico, however, he secured the friendship and
confidence of some of the leading medicine men and obtained their
promise to admit him to their most secret rites during their entire
performance whenever he should be able to avail himself of the
privilege. He was also promised complete instruction in the mythology
and symbolism of these rites.
In the autumn of 1884 he was given an opportunity, under the auspices of
the Bureau of Ethnology, to return to the Navajo country and devote
himself for a considerable time entirely to anthropologic studies among
the people.
He first visited the Navajo who dwell in the neighborhood of the San
Mateo mountains, the Tsotsildinè, or people of the Great Peak, a local
division or subtribe living much farther to the east and having longer
and more intimate associations with Mexicans and Americans than the main
body of the people. While at this place, he ascended the peak of San
Mateo, or Mount Taylor, a mountain held sacred by the Navajo, to observe
the various places on the mountain mentioned in the Navajo myths.
Leaving San Mateo he proceeded to Fort Wingate, and learning that one of
the most important of the Navajo rites was about to be celebrated at a
place called Niqotlizi (Hard Earth), north of Fort Wingate on the Navajo
reservation, he repaired thither without delay. The ceremony which he
went to witness was that of dsilyídje-qaçàl, or mountain chant. It is
also called Ilnasjingo-qaçàl, or chant in the dark circle of branches,
from the great corral of evergreens in which the public rites of the
last night are performed. It is known to the white men who live among
these Indians as the hoshkawn dance, from one of the public dances of
the last night, in which the Indian jugglers pretend to grow and develop
the hackàn, or _Yucca baccata_. This last night's performance is varied
and interesting and all persons, including whites and Indians of other
tribes, are permitted to witness it; but previously, for several days,
mystic rites are celebrated in the medicine lodge, to the most of which
only the initiated are admitted. Dr. Matthews remained ten days in the
Indian camp at Niqotlizi, during which time the shamans admitted him
into their medicine lodge and allowed him to observe their rites and
practices.
His most interesting discovery on this occasion was that of their system
of mythic dry paintings, by which they represent various legends or
traditions with dry pigments on the sanded floor of the medicine lodge.
A full account of the ceremonies and of the myth on which they are based
was prepared by Dr. Matthews and appeared in the Fifth Annual Report of
this Bureau.
When the ceremony at Niqotlizi was over he proceeded to a locality in
Arizona called by the whites The Haystacks, from the peculiar appearance
of the rock formations there. At The Haystacks another great ceremony,
probably the second in importance of the Navajo rites, was to take
place. Here he again encamped with the Indians and remained until the
work of the shamans was done.
The ceremonial observances witnessed on this occasion are, collectively,
called by the Navajo Klèdji-qaçàl, or chant of the night. They are
called by the whites the Yàybichy dance, from the name of the principal
masked character, Yèbitcai or Gebitcai, the granduncle of the gods. Like
the hoshkawn dance, it has several days of secret rites with elaborate
symbolic sand pictures and one night of public dances, less varied and
interesting than those of the hoshkawn. Dr. Matthews was permitted to
witness the whole performance and to take as many notes and sketches as
were necessary.
From The Haystacks Dr. Matthews went to the Indian agency at Fort
Defiance, Arizona, where he secured the services of one of the oldest
and most learned (in their own peculiar lore) of the Navajo priests, and
from him he obtained full explanations of all these rites and of the
symbolism of the pictures and masked characters, with a complete recital
of the long and elaborate myths on which the ceremonies depend, and the
texts and translations of the very numerous songs which form the ritual
of the ceremonies.
WORK OF DR. H. C. YARROW.
Dr. H. C. Yarrow, acting assistant surgeon U. S. Army, with the
assistance of military details and supplies, in addition to the
instruction and facilities provided by this Bureau, started, August 8,
1884, on an expedition into the Territory of Utah, with reference mainly
to the exploration of burial mounds and the study of mortuary customs.
Near Choke Cherry Spring a burial cave was discovered, containing the
skeletons of three persons, which were secured. Other skeletons, with
contents of graves, were obtained near Willow creek; also, an
interesting specimen of tree burial.
At Deep creek an explanation of the curious form of water burial was
gained from a chief of the Gosiats, to the effect that the bodies of the
turbulent and disorderly men of the tribe were thus disposed of to
prevent the spirits of these objectionable persons from joining the rest
of the tribe after death. Their bodies were sunk in springs and marshy
places and kept down by sticks and stones, so that their spirits could
never get out.