admirable example of the beforementioned conversion of a dwelling into a
sepulcher. The probability is that the deceased died in his house, which
was made of adobe bricks, and that it was at once abandoned and the body
left therein, the roof being first removed. The corpse was placed on the
floor and covered with a paste of moist clay, on which were placed the
mortuary gifts of weapons, utensils, and food. Cottonwood branches were
then piled above and set on fire, thus baking the clay crust and
charring the several objects. The whole structure had been covered, so
that on first examination the hard surface of burnt clay, 18 inches
below the loose earth, appeared to be the floor of a former dwelling.
In the whole of the expedition, which continued into the last days of
September, much difficulty was experienced from the suspicion and
consequent hostility of the Indians of the localities visited.
WORK OF DR. W. J. HOFFMAN.
Dr. W. J. Hoffman proceeded early in August to Victoria, B. C., where
numerous sketches of Haida totem posts and carvings were obtained, in
connection with the myths which they illustrated. At this locality
attention was paid to the burial customs and osteologic remains of the
nearly extinct tribe of Songish Indians.
At Port Townsend sketches were obtained of Thlinkit ivory and wood
carvings, clearly indicating the adoption by that tribe of Haida art
designs. Here, too, many Indians of British-American tribes were met on
their way south to work in the Puyallup hop fields, notable among which
was a large number of Haida, whose persons were examined for the purpose
of copying the numerous and varied tattoo designs with which they were
profusely decorated. Interpretations of many of these characters were
obtained from the persons bearing them, as well as from the chief artist
of the tribe, together with concise descriptions of the methods and
customs in connection with tattooing and the materials used. Drawings
were made of a collection of Eskimo pictographs and ivory carvings at
the museum of the Alaska Commercial Company and the California Academy
of Sciences, San Francisco, Cal.
At Santa Barbara, Cal., Dr. Hoffman discovered some painted pictographs
and examined a number which have not yet been published. In several
private collections at this place were found interesting relics of the
Indians formerly inhabiting Santa Cruz island, the most important of
which was a steatite cup containing earthy coloring matter and pricking
instruments of bone, which had evidently been used in tattooing. Painted
pictographs were also visited in the Azuza cañon, twenty-five miles
northeast of Los Angeles.
At Tule Indian Agency, in the deep valleys on the western slope of the
Sierra Nevada, sketches of pictographs were made in continuation of work
accomplished there two years before. Vocabularies were also obtained
from the Waitchumni Indians here located, as well as from the few
remaining Santa Barbara Indians at Cathedral Oaks, Santa Barbara county,
Cal. By far the greatest amount of pictographic material was collected
in Owen's valley, California, where series of petroglyphs are scattered
over an arid, sandy desert, the extremes of which are more than twenty
miles apart.
OFFICE WORK.
The work upon a synonymy of the Indian tribes of North America, which
has been mentioned to some extent in former reports, has been continued
with increased energy.
Every tribe of Indians of any size and importance has been treated of by
historians under a variety of names. The sources of these different
appellations are manifold. In very many instances the names of tribes or
other bodies of Indians communicated by themselves have been imperfectly
understood and erroneously recorded; misspelled names and typographical
errors have been perpetuated.
Traders, priests, and colonists have called the same tribes by different
names and the historian has often added to the confusion by handing down
these synonyms as the names of other and different tribes. Not a few
tribes well known under established names have received new names upon a
change of residence, especially when they have removed to a great
distance or have coalesced or allied with other tribes. Added to these
and to other sources of confusion are the loose and dissimilar
applications of the terms clan, band, tribe, confederacy, and league,
the same term having been used with various meanings by different
authors.
As a consequence the student of Indian languages and customs finds
himself in a tangle, as regards tribal names, which it is beyond the
power of the individual worker, unaided, to unravel. The scope of the
work in question includes the attempt to trace the several names back to
their sources and to ascertain their original and proper application, to
define their meaning when possible, and to relegate each tribe under its
proper title to the linguistic family to which it belongs. In the
completion of this work the whole force of the Bureau assists.
The need of a volume giving the results mentioned has long been felt,
and it is believed that it will prove to be one of the most important
contributions to the accurate study of Indian history ever made. The
classification of the languages of the North American Indians is closely
connected with the synonymy of tribal names, each work assisting the
other. During recent years the number of students who have directed
their attention more or less exclusively to the study of Indian
languages has been constantly augmented, and as a result of their labors
the number of vocabularies has been correspondingly increased; hence the
demand for a more comprehensive and satisfactory classification than now
exists.
Prior to Gallatin's time little or nothing had been done in the
direction of a systematic classification of Indian languages. In 1836
Gallatin issued his treatise in which he classified all the languages
which he was able to study by a direct comparison of vocabularies. His
classification was an immense advance over anything previously done and
has proved a boon for scholars, having served, indeed, practically as
the basis for most of the work in the same line performed since his
time. No fixed rules of nomenclature, however, have ever been adopted by
linguistic writers, and authors have named and renamed linguistic groups
without regard to the names imposed upon the same or similar groups by
earlier writers. As a result great confusion has followed not only
respecting the status of the various linguistic families, but also
respecting the identity of the languages which have served as a basis
for the several groups proposed. The remedy for this state of affairs is
the adoption, with strict adherence thereto, of a code of nomenclatural
rules similar in scope to those prevailing among zoölogists.
There would appear to be no good reason why the rule of priority of
name, for instance, should not be followed in linguistic as well as in
zoölogic classification, or why the same beneficial result of fixity of
nomenclature should not be expected to result from the adoption of this
rule in the one case as in the other. Students who may attempt to
unravel the many perplexing nomenclatural problems arising from
unnecessary change of names will certainly agree that such a rule is no
less desirable in linguistics than in zoölogy.
Accordingly, the rule of priority of name, within certain limitations,
together with some other rules, has been adopted by the Bureau. These
limitations and rules, together with a discussion of the subject, which
would still be premature, may be presented by the Director in his next
annual report.
Mr. H. W. HENSHAW, when not in the field, was specially engaged in the
organization and details of the office work upon tribal synonymy and
linguistic classification above described. A careful examination of all
the literature pertaining to these correlated subjects was necessary and
also the preparation of tentative tables of synonymy. He has prepared
such tables and made in connection with them a brief historical résumé
of the literature. Much longer time and the work of the whole official
force will, however, be needed for the completion for publication of the
results of this vast and complicated undertaking.
Mrs. ERMINNIE A. SMITH was occupied, while not engaged in the field as
reported above, in the revision for publication of her Tuscarora
dictionary, the material for which had been collected during several
years.
Col. GARRICK MALLERY continued the collection and classification of
material on the two correlated subjects of sign language and
pictographs. His two preliminary papers on those subjects have appeared
in former annual reports. It is intended, while increasing the data
obtained from the Indian tribes of North America, bearing upon these
subjects, to supplement and illustrate the mass of information collected
from those tribes by comparison with everything of a similar character
to be found in other parts of the world and to publish the results of
the collection and study in the form of monographs.
Dr. W. J. Hoffman, when not in the field, continued to assist in the
work mentioned.
Mr. JAMES C. PILLING'S preparation of the Bibliography of North American
Languages continued during the year. In October and November he visited
several libraries in Boston and Providence, for the purpose of clearing
up a number of doubtful points. During the year pages 839-1135 were
received from the printer, which completed the volume. In the spring a
limited number of copies were struck off by the Public Printer, and
these have been sent to various libraries, public institutions, and to
individuals interested in the subject, for the purpose of obtaining
additions and corrections, with the intention, if these should prove to
be numerous, of resetting the matter.
Mr. FRANK H. CUSHING was stationed at Washington at the commencement of
the fiscal year and was engaged in the classification of his field
material in preparation for its publication. During the fall he
completed a short paper on Zuñi culture growth as evidenced by studies
of Pueblo ceramics, which was published in the Fourth Annual Report of
the Bureau. In this paper he maintains, with a large amount of
linguistic evidence, that the Zuñi culture is mainly autochthonous, and
that its growth, especially the growth of architectural, agricultural,
ceramic, and other arts and industries pertaining to it, has been
largely accomplished within the desert areas of America which still form
the habitat of the Pueblo Indians, and probably, also, within a period
more limited than has usually been supposed essential to such
development.
He prepared also a paper on the "Ancient province of Cibola and the
seven lost cities," in which he not only identifies the seven cities of
Cibola above referred to with seven ruins near the present Zuñi village,
but also furnishes interesting examples of the permanence of Indian
tradition and of its value, when properly used, as a factor, in
ethnographic and historic research.
Among the later and perhaps more important results of his studies during
the year are investigations of the myths and folk tales abundantly
recorded by him during previous years among the Zuñi.
By the extended comparison which he is able to make between these folk
tales and myths, now first brought together as a whole, and by the
application to their study of the linguistic method employed by him in
the preparation of the two papers already mentioned, he is able to trace
the growth of mere ideas or of primitive conceptions of natural or
biotic phenomena and of physical or animal function into the personæ and
incidents which go to make up myths, as well as to trace the influence
of these growths on the worship of the Zuñi.
Early in 1885 Mr. Cushing furnished the Director with a schedule of his
manuscript, notes, and sketches, and from an examination of this it was
deemed advisable that he should continue putting his linguistic material
into permanent shape, in order that it might be used as a check on
ensuing studies of the sociology and mythology of the Zuñi, as well as
for its suggestive value towards the explanation of obscure passages in
those departments of study. This work had progressed but little,
however, when a severe illness necessitated its temporary abandonment.
Prof. CYRUS THOMAS, in addition to his administrative duties in charge
of the division of mound exploration, was engaged in preparing for
publication the results of the operations of that division. The constant
arrangement, comparison, and study of the material objects and facts
ascertained required his close application. He also commenced the paper
presented by him in this volume.
Mr. VICTOR MINDELEFF, in the first part of the fiscal year, completed
models of the seven villages of the ancient Province of Tusayan,
together with a relief model illustrating the topographical character of
the province. The model of Walpi, of this series, was carried out in
such a manner as to show on a large scale the character of the rocky
mesa on which the town is built. Several types of cliff ruins were also
modeled for this series, among them the White House ruin of Cañon de
Chelly and the mummy cave of Cañon de la Muerte. After August 1 this
work was carried on under the supervision of Mr. Cosmos Mindeleff, who
also prepared a model of the great Etowah mound from the data of Mr. V.
Mindeleff's survey; he also furnished several other examples of mounds,
with sections, under the direction of Prof. Cyrus Thomas. This work was
carried on without interruption until December 7, when Mr. Cosmos
Mindeleff was ordered to New Orleans, to take charge of the combined
exhibits of the U. S. Geological Survey and the Bureau of Ethnology, and
was instructed to look after the proper installation of the same in the
Government building. He returned to Washington about February 1. During
the ensuing four months the small force in the modeling room was engaged
in making models of the ancient pueblos of the Chaco, from the plans
secured during the preceding summer, as referred to in the report of
field work. This work continued until early June, when Mr. C. Mindeleff
was again ordered to New Orleans to take charge of the packing and
shipment of the exhibits of the Geological Survey and Bureau of
Ethnology for their return to Washington and for the installation of a
portion of the material at the Louisville Exposition. During the
interval from February 1 to June 15 Mr. Victor Mindeleff was engaged in
the preparation of a report on the architecture of the ancient provinces
of Cibola and Tusayan, together with the plans and diagrams necessary
for its illustration. This study was based on the large amount of data
that had been secured during former field seasons for modeling purposes.
Rev. J. OWEN DORSEY, when not in the field, made nearly 10,000 entries
for the Ȼegiha-English dictionary, and prepared Ponka and Omaha native
texts, with free and interlinear translations, in addition to those
found in part 1 of vol. 6, Contributions to North American Ethnology.
After December 1, 1884, he collated the following vocabularies obtained
by him in Oregon, viz: Takelma, Shasti, Applegate Creek, Chastā Costa,
Galice Creek, Mulluk, Siuslaw, Lower Umpqua, Yaquina, Klikitat, and one
on Smith River, California. He also prepared a list of the villages
obtained from the tribes at the Siletz Agency, Oregon.
Mr. ALBERT S. GATSCHET was engaged at the beginning of the fiscal year
in revising and perfecting his grammar of the Klamath language of
southern Oregon. The phonology was completed and stereotyped, extending
from page 200 to 245. He was engaged in correcting proofs of the
subsequent section on morphology when he proceeded to the Southwest, as
elsewhere reported, to investigate several languages spoken there, the
affinities of which had not before been ascertained.
Mr. W. H. HOLMES, as in previous years, has supervised the illustrations
of the Bureau publications. He also continued his archæologic studies,
chiefly in the department of ceramics, the character of which is shown
by his papers in this volume. He was in charge of the preparation of
exhibits for the expositions at New Orleans, Louisville, and Cincinnati;
but, owing to the pressure of other duties, much of this work was
intrusted to Mr. Cosmos Mindeleff, who was assisted materially by Mr.
Victor Mindeleff. The most important feature of the exhibits consisted
of models of plaster and papier mâché of the pueblo towns and cliff
houses of New Mexico and Arizona.
Aside from the models, exhibits of ethnologic and archæologic materials
were made. A large and important collection of objects of pueblo art was
obtained by Mr. James Stevenson, but much of it failed to reach
Washington in time for exhibition purposes, and a series of similar
objects, already classified and labeled, was selected from the National
Museum and forwarded to New Orleans. A valuable collection of the
ancient fictile products of Tusayan belonging to Mr. Thomas Keam was
also utilized in perfecting the exhibits of Pueblo art.
Archæologic materials from other sections of the country were placed on
exhibition, notably a superb collection of prehistoric relics from the
province of Chiriqui, Panama, which was purchased for the purpose.
The collections of ethnologic and archæologic material made during the
year are of unusual importance and magnitude. This is chiefly due to the
facilities afforded by the New Orleans Exposition fund, a liberal
portion of which was devoted to the collection and purchase of objects
of permanent value to the Government and to science. The collections
made by Mr. Stevenson in Zuñi and Acoma comprise upward of four thousand
pieces, chiefly objects of clay, but including other classes of
products. The collection of prehistoric relics obtained by Mr. J. A.
McNiel from the tombs of Chiriqui is one of the most important and
complete series of ancient American products to be found in any country,
and must prove of great value to students.
Mr. Victor Mindeleff secured a small series of relics from the ancient
ruins of northern New Mexico and Arizona, and Dr. H. C. Yarrow added
some objects of archæologic and ethnologic interest from central Utah.
Mrs. Erminnie A. Smith procured a number of articles of shell,
illustrating the modern manufacture of wampum in New Jersey; a small
collection of fragmentary pottery from the eastern shore of Maryland was
presented by Mr. Joseph D. McGuire, of Ellicott City; and Mr. Holmes
secured a series of articles, including arrowheads, shell implements,
and pottery, from the island of Nantucket. Mound explorations, conducted
by Dr. Cyrus Thomas, yielded a valuable series of objects of stone and
clay. An unusually interesting series of the earthen vessels of the
ancient pueblo races was secured by Mr. E. W. Nelson in eastern central
Arizona. The greater part of the abovementioned material has already
been catalogued and turned over to the U. S. National Museum.
Dr. H. C. YARROW, acting assistant surgeon, U. S. Army, besides his
field explorations described, continued to collect information relative
to the mortuary customs of North American Indians. Of the material
gathered, a considerable portion has been forwarded by various persons
throughout the country in answer to the circular sent out early in the
last year, but much has also been derived from the published works on
anthropologic subjects, including scientific journals and reports.
Numerous authorities have been consulted and much time has been devoted
to the consideration of the many theories advanced to account for
certain peculiar rites and customs.
Mr. CHARLES C. ROYCE continued during the year the preparation of a
historical atlas of Indian cessions. The boundaries of the various
cessions of land by the different Indian tribes were traced out and
located upon the maps of the States and Territories left uncompleted at
the date of the last annual report. All that remains to be done in
completing the atlas for publication is to transcribe, with considerable
elaboration, the historical and descriptive notes pertaining to the
various cessions, and to make, from the rough working sheets, legible
copies of the maps showing the boundaries of the cessions within the
States of California, Oregon, Nevada, and Texas and the Territories of
Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, and
Dakota. Most of these States and Territories will each require two maps,
showing respectively the primary and secondary cessions. The work will
be finished as rapidly as possible.
ACCOMPANYING PAPERS.
The present volume contains papers the subject matter of which may be
classified under the grand divisions of Technology, Philosophy,
Sociology, and Ethnography.
They are all prepared by experts of recognized authority in their
several lines of research and are illustrated to the degree required by
the text for full understanding, the number of figures presented being
548, besides ten full page plates. Special mention of each of these
papers follows in their order as printed.
ANCIENT ART OF THE PROVINCE OF CHIRIQUI, COLOMBIA, BY
WILLIAM H. HOLMES.
The archæology of Chiriqui should be studied, not only for comparison
with that of the territory comprised in the present political divisions
of North America, but because geographically the province should be
considered as a part of the North American continent. Until recently
this isthmian region was little known, the explorations for railroads
and canals having furnished the first valuable accounts of its modern
inhabitants and the relics left by former occupants.
The National Museum now contains a large and precious collection of
archæologic material from the province, chiefly obtained by Mr. J. A.
McNiel during years of enthusiastic labor. The information derived and
the lessons to be learned from this collection, together with all
particulars relating thereto gathered from other sources, are now
presented in this paper by Mr. W. H. Holmes. His work in the
classification of the immense number of objects and in the elucidation
of their functions, material, construction, forms, and decorations has
been careful and comprehensive. His manifest success has been owing to
his artistic insight and skill as well as to his archæologic training.
His ability in both fields can be appreciated by an examination of the
287 illustrations in his paper, considered not only as to their number,
but as to their instructive arrangement in his text.
The objects of ancient art found in Chiriqui are, as elsewhere in North
America, derived almost entirely from graves. The cemeteries, apart from
their contents and the mode of sepulture, constitute in themselves
topics of interest which are discussed and illustrated in the paper.
Another curious feature is that the objects buried generally appear to
have been manufactured for mortuary purposes and not for use by the
living. A general review of the contents of the graves shows that the
ancient inhabitants were skillful in the manipulation of stone, gold,
copper, and clay, and tombs of undoubtedly great antiquity yield
evidence of long continued culture.
It also appears that, while the art of the old peoples of the isthmus
can in some respects be connected with that of adjacent regions in North
America, in others it is remarkable for individuality. Ornaments of
stone were seldom used by them and those of gold and copper were common.
The articles of gold which the graves have yielded in large quantities
to explorers during the last quarter of a century, and for which only
they have until recently been searched, have generally been considered
to be mere ornaments, but they probably had a fetichistic origin.
It is remarkable that no weapon, tool, or utensil of metal has been
noticed. The objects were generally formed by casting in molds, which
was done with considerable skill, and gilding, or at least plating, was
practiced. The art of alloying also appears to have been understood.