CIVILIZATION--ACTUAL AND ALLEGED.
Tried in the Balances and Found Wanting--Indian Archers--Bow and Arrow
Lore--Barbarous Customs that Die Slowly--"Great Wolf," the Indian
Vanderbilt--How the Seri were Taught a Valuable Lesson--Playing with
Rattlesnakes with Impunity.
Does Prohibition prohibit? is a question politicians and social
reformers ask again and again. Does civilization civilize? is a question
which is asked almost exclusively by persons who are interested in the
welfare of the American Indian, and who come in daily contact with him.
In the preceding chapter we have seen some little of the peculiar habits
of the American Indian, civilized and otherwise, and it will be
interesting now to see to what extent the white man's teaching has
driven away primeval habits of living, hunting and fighting. Within the
last few weeks, evidence of a most valuable character on this question
has been furnished by the report submitted to the Secretary of the
Interior by the Commission sent to investigate matters concerning the
five civilized tribes of Indians in the Indian Territory. This says that
they have demonstrated their incapacity to govern themselves, and
recommends that the trust that has been reposed in them by the
Government should be revoked.
The courts of justice have become helpless and paralyzed. Murder,
violence and robbery are an every-day occurrence. It was learned by the
Commission that fifty-three murders occurred in the months of September
and October in one tribe only, and not one of the culprits was brought
to justice. The Dawes Commission recommends that a large portion of the
Indian reservation be annexed to Oklahoma; this action to be followed by
forming that country into a Territory. But to accomplish this, it would
be necessary that the consent of the Indians be obtained, and this is
doubtful.
The statement that the Indians have cast aside their ancient weapons and
adopted more modern ones, and that through the use of them, they are
gradually extending their hunting grounds beyond the lines of their
reservations, is false. The report of the Commission makes this clearly
known. Throughout the West the Indians still trust to their bows and
arrows. On the northwest coast most of the Indians live by hunting and
fishing. They use principally the bow and arrow, knife, war club and
lance. In the North Pacific Ocean are several islands inhabited only by
Indians. In the Queen Charlotte and the Prince of Wales Archipelago is
found one of the most remarkable races of aborigines on the American
continent. These are the Haida tribes, and consist of strikingly
intelligent Indians. They acquire knowledge readily; learn trades and
exhibit much ingenuity in following the teachings of missionaries and
traders. But for all that, they still cling with something bordering
upon affection to the primitive weapons of their race.
During the long winter nights the old Indians seat themselves before the
fire and carve bows, ornament club handles, and feather and point
arrows. Perhaps in some of the tepees hang polished guns furnished by
the Government, but they are more for ornament than use. This evening
work is accompanied by the low croaking of some old Indian, who tells
over again the legends, folk-lore and nursery tales of their
grandfathers and grandmothers.
The Haida tribe is more rapidly advancing in civilization than any of
its neighbors, yet they still carve and paint bows, arrows, club handles
and paddles. The Indians still cling to other rude implements and take
not kindly to metal ones. Rude knives are still used for skinning deer,
especially by the old Indians. The axe, of course, is employed for
cutting trees and excavating canoes and mortars. It has really taken the
place of the stone chisel, yet many old men prefer burning the roots of
the tree until it can be made to fall by giving it a few hacks with the
rude stone hatchet.
In archery, the Indian has scarcely been excelled. With a quick eye and
a powerful muscle, he sends the arrow as unerringly as the archers of
olden time.
The Indian bow is usually from three and one-half to four feet in
length, with such a difficult spring that one with no experience can
scarcely bend it sufficiently to set the string. Different tribes, of
course, carry bows of different lengths, the Senecas having the longest.
The best of woods for making bows are Osage orange, hickory, ash, elm,
cedar, plum and cherry; some of these are strengthened with sinews and
glue. Almost every tribe has three sizes, the largest being used for war
purposes, and until an Indian can handle this war bow, he is not
considered entitled to be called a warrior.
Some claim the Sioux and the Crows make the best bows, although the
Apaches come close in the rank. When the Sioux bow is unstrung, it is a
straight piece of wood, while the Apaches and the Southern Indians make
a perfect Cupid's bow. The Crows often use elk horns as material, and
carve them beautifully. The Sioux, to make the straight piece of wood
more elastic, string the backs with sinews. Often these are beautifully
beaded and leathered, quite equaling, as a piece of art, the elaborate
elk horn bows made by the Crows. The Comanches' bows are covered with
sinew, much like those of the Apaches. The object of practice is to
enable the bowman to draw the bow with sudden and instant effect. It is
seldom that the Indian has need of throwing the arrow to a great
distance.
The bow of the Western Indian is small and apparently insignificant,
though its owner makes it very powerful, indeed. From his babyhood days
he has habituated it to his use, until it has become, as it were, a very
part of his nature. The Indian studies to get the greatest power out of
the smallest possible compass, and he finds a short bow on horseback far
more easily used and much more reliable in its execution. In the Far
West, bows are made largely of ash, and are lined with layers of buffalo
or deer sinews on the back. The Blackfeet have in use very valuable bows
of bone. Other tribes make use of the horns of mountain sheep. Sometimes
the bone bows will fetch very large sums of money, and deals have been
noticed in which the consideration for one of them was a pair of ponies,
with five pounds of butter thrown in as make-weight.
An athletic Indian on a fleet horse can do terrible execution with one
of these bows, which, even in these days of repeating rifles, is by no
means to be despised as a weapon. No one can estimate the force of a
throw from one of them when an artistic archer is in charge. The effects
from a wound from an arrow are so distressing that it is quite common to
accuse an Indian of using poisoned arrows, when possibly such a fiendish
idea never entered his head. Only those who have ridden side by side
with an Indian hunter really know how much more powerful an arrow shot
is than the average man supposes.
In war the Indians would even now arm themselves in part with bow,
quiver, lance, war club and shield. The Northwestern tribes are partial
to fighting with the bow and lance, protected with a shield. This shield
is worn outside of the left arm, after the manner of the Roman and
Grecian shield.
The Western Indians are fonder of horseback riding than the Eastern
tribes, and have learned to wield their weapons while mounted. They are
taught to kill game while running at full speed, and prefer to fight on
horseback. Some of them are great cowards when dismounted, but seated on
an Indian pony they are undaunted.
It is a mistake to suppose that arrow-heads are no longer manufactured;
the art of fashioning them is not lost. Almost every tribe manufactures
its own. Bowlders of flint are broken with a sledge-hammer made of a
rounded pebble of hornstone set in a twisted withe. This bone is thought
to be the tooth of the sperm whale. In Oregon the Indian arrow is still
pointed with flint. The Iroquois also used flint until they laid aside
the arrow for the lack of anything to hunt. The Iroquois youth, though
the rifle has been introduced largely into his tribe, will have none of
it, but takes naturally to the bow and arrow. Steel for arrow-heads is
furnished by the fur-traders in the Rocky Mountains, and iron heads are
often made from old barrel hoops, fashioned with a piece of sandstone.
In shooting with the bow and arrow on horseback, the Indian horse is
taught to approach the animal attacked on the right side, enabling its
rider to throw the arrow to the left. Buffalo Bill was an adept at
slaughtering game on horseback, and he won his great bet at killing the
greatest number of buffaloes, by following the custom of the Indians and
shooting to the left. The horse approaches the animal, his halter
hanging loose upon his neck, bringing the rider within three or four
paces of the game, when the arrow or rifle ball is sent with ease and
certainty through the heart.
Indians who have the opportunity to ride nowadays, still exercise with a
lance twelve or fifteen feet in length. In their war games and dances
they always appear with this lance and shield. The spears are modern and
have a blade of polished steel, and the shields are made of skin. Those
of old make are of buffalo neck. The skin is soaked and hardened with a
glue extracted from the hoofs. The shields are arrow-proof, and will
throw off a rifle shot if held obliquely, and this the Indian can do
with great skill. Since there is no war or the occasion for the use of
these arms, except in games of practice, many of the Indians, for a few
bottles of "fire water," have sold their best shields, and now they are
seen scattered over the country, preserved as curios.
It is folly to assume that the Indians have wholly or partly done away
with their barbaric customs. In their celebrations it is their great joy
to cast off their clothing and to paint their bodies all colors of the
rainbow, wear horns on their heads and make themselves look as hideous
as possible. The arrow game is introduced--never are there
demonstrations with the modern weapons--and the man is esteemed above
all others who can throw the greatest number of arrows in the sky before
the first one falls. In hunting, the Sioux kill muskrats with spears, as
they did in early days spear the buffaloes, managing to get close to
them by being dressed in wolf skin, and going on all fours. There are
Indians who would, on horseback, attack and kill a bear with a lance,
but are afraid to molest the animal unless they have the Indian pony as
a means of escape.
The arrow-heads of chert used for hunting are peculiarly fastened, in
order to make the arrow revolve. The Indian feathers the arrow for the
same purpose, and also carves the arrow shaft with a spiral groove. This
is not, as has been supposed, to let the blood out of the wound, but to
make the arrow carry.
Every tribe has its own arrow. It is claimed that the Pawnees are the
best manufacturers. The Comanches feather their arrows with two
feathers; the Navajos, Utes and all Apaches, except the Tontos, have
three feathers--the Tontos using four feathers for each shaft. The bird
arrow is the very smallest made.
"I have practiced" says one traveler, "for hours with the Utes,
uselessly trying to blame the twist of the feathered arrow for my bad
shots. The Indians say the carving and feathers are so arranged as to
give the arrow the correct motion, and one old chief on seeing the twist
in the rifle barrel by which the ball is made to revolve in the same
manner, claimed that the white man stole his idea from the Indian."
Stones, with grooves around their greatest circumference, are secured to
a handle by a withe or thong and become war clubs. They are dangerous
weapons in the hand of an Indian. Tomahawks, manufactured by white men,
have succeeded the war club in a way, as it is claimed the rifle has the
bow and arrow. Recent tomahawks taken from the Indians bear an English
trade-mark. They originally cost about 15 cents, and were sold to the
Indians for nothing less than a horse, and perhaps two.
Chief "Wolf," an Indian Croesus, and the Vanderbilt of the red men,
though he is worth over $500,000 and drives at times in an elegant
coach, clings closely to his tepee, ever demonstrating the savage part
of his life.
He lives at Fishhook Bay, on the Snake River, in the State of
Washington. He is of the Palouse Snake Indians, and though he has a
comfortable house, he never sleeps there, but goes to the tepee, no
matter how inclement the weather. In the days when the buffalo were
plenty, "Wolf" was a great hunter. He tells a tale of driving 3,000
bison over a bluff near the Snake, where they were all killed by the
fall. This is supposed to be true, because until late years the place
was a mass of bones. Though he has his guns and all the modern
fire-arms, both he and his children cling to the primitive weapons of
war.
The correspondence between the Governments of the United States and
Mexico over the brutal murder of two men by the Seri Indians, seems to
show that some at least of the North American Indians have gained
nothing at all from the civilizing influences which are supposed to have
extended for so many years. The deed had no other motive than pure
fiendishness. Small as is the tribe of Seris--they number only about 200
souls--these savages are the most blood-thirsty in North America. For a
long time they have terrorized Sonora, but the Mexican Government seems
powerless to control them.
The tribe was visited recently by an expedition from the Bureau of
Ethnology, which has just returned to Washington with some very
interesting information. Prof. W. J. McGee, who led the party, says: "It
is understood that the Seris are cannibals--at all events they eat every
white man they can slay. They are cruel and treacherous beyond
description. Toward the white man, their attitude is exactly the same as
that of a white man toward a rattlesnake--they kill him as a matter of
course, unless restrained by fear. Never do they fight in open warfare,
but always lie in ambush. They are copper-colored Ishmaelites. It is
their custom to murder everybody, white, red or Mexican, who ventures to
enter the territory they call their own."
In many respects the Seris are the most interesting tribe of savages in
North America. They are decidedly more primitive in their way than any
other Indians, having scarcely any arts worth mentioning. In fact, they
have not yet advanced as far as the stone age. The only stone implement
in common use among them is a rude hammer of that material, which they
employ for beating clay to make a fragile and peculiar kind of pottery.
When one of the squaws wishes to make meal of mesquite beans, and she
has no utensil for the purpose, she looks about until she finds a rock
with an upper surface, conveniently hollow, and on this she places the
beans, pounding them with an ordinary stone.
The Seris live on the Island of Tiburon, in the Gulf of California. They
also claim 5,000 square miles of the mainland in Sonora. Their dwellings
are the rudest imaginable. A chance rock commonly serves for one wall of
the habitation; stones are piled up so as to make a small enclosure, and
the shell of a single great turtle does for a roof. The house is always
open on one side, and is not intended as a shelter from storms, but
chiefly to keep off the sun. The men and women wear a single garment
like a petticoat, made of pelican skin; the children are naked. Not far
from Tiburon, which is about thirty miles long by fifteen miles wide,
there is a smaller island where pelicans roost in vast numbers. The
Seris go at night and with sticks knock over as many birds as they
require.
These Indians are fond of carrion. It makes no difference to them
whether a horse has died a natural death a week or a month ago, they
devour the flesh greedily. The feet of the animal they boil until those
parts are tender enough to bite. The Seris are among the very dirtiest
of savages. Their habits in all respects are filthy. They seem to have
almost no amusements, though the children play with the very rudest
dolls. Before the whites came they used pieces of shells for cutting
instruments. They are accustomed to killing deer by running and
surrounding the animals. No traditions of sufficient interest to justify
recording in print appear to exist among these people. The most
interesting ornament seen on any member of the tribe was a necklace of
human hair, adorned with the rattles of rattlesnakes, which abound in
the territory infested with these remnants of all that is most
objectionable among the aboriginal red men of this continent.
Physically speaking, the Seris are most remarkable. They are of great
stature, the men averaging nearly six feet in height, with splendid
chests. But the most noticeable point about them is their legs, which
are very slender and sinewy, resembling the legs of the deer. Since the
first coming of the Spaniards they have been known to other tribes as
the runners. It is said that they can run from 150 to 200 miles per day,
not pausing for rest. The jack rabbit is considered a very fleet animal,
yet these Indians are accustomed to catch jack rabbits by outrunning
them.
For this purpose, three men or boys go together. If the rabbit ran
straight away from the pursuer it could not be taken, but its instinct
is to make its flight by zigzags. The hunters arrange themselves a short
distance apart. As quickly as one of them starts a rabbit, a second
Indian runs as fast as he can along a line parallel with the course
taken by the animal. Presently the rabbit sees the second Indian, and
dashes off at a tangent. By this time the third hunter has come up and
gives the quarry another turn. After the third or fourth zigzag, the
rabbit is surrounded, and the hunters quickly close in upon him and grab
him.
It is an odd fact that this method of catching jack rabbits is precisely
the same as that adopted by coyotes, which work similarily by threes. By
this strategy, these wild dogs capture the rabbits, though the latter
are more fleet by far. It is believed that no other human being
approaches the Seris in celerity of movement. A favorite sport of the
boys is lassoing dogs. Mongrel curs are the only animals domesticated by
these wild people. For amusement sake, the boys take their dogs to a
clear place and drive them in all directions, then they capture the
frightened animals by running and throwing the lassos, which are made of
human hair. They have no difficulty in overtaking the dogs.
One day, a party of boys returning with their dogs after a bout of this
sport, passed near a bush in which there were three or four blackbirds;
on spying the birds, they dashed toward the bush and tried to catch them
with their hands; they did not succeed, though one of the birds only
escaped with the loss of several feathers. Some women of the tribe were
watching, and they actually jeered at the boys for their failure. The
boys were so mortified that they did not go into camp, but went off and
sat by themselves in the shade of a greasewood bush. What white man or
boy would think of catching blackbirds in such a way? Yet non-success in
an attempt of that kind was the exception and not the rule. The Seris
often take birds in this fashion.
Señor Encinas was the pioneer in that region. He found good grazing
country in the territory claimed by the Seris, and so established his
stock farm there. He brought priests with him to convert the savages,
and caught a couple of the latter to educate as interpreters. The plan
for civilizing the Indians proved a failure. They did not care to become
Christians, and they killed the Señor's stock. So, finally, the Señor
decided to adopt a new course of procedure. He summoned the Indians to a
council, as many of them as would come, and informed them that from that
time on he and his vaqueros would slay an Indian for every head of
cattle that was killed. At the same time he sent away the priests and
engaged an additional number of vaqueros.
The Indians paid no attention to the warning, and a few days later they
killed several head of cattle. Without delay the Señor and his men
coralled and killed a corresponding number of the Seris. Then there was
war. The savages made ambushes, but they had only bows and arrows, and
the vaqueros fought bravely with their guns. Every ambush turned out
disastrously for the Indians. Finally, the Seris made a great ambush,
and there was a battle which resulted in the killing of sixty-five
savages. The lesson proved sufficient, and the Indians were glad to
conclude a permanent peace, agreeing that no further depredations
against the Señor or his property should be attempted. From beginning to
end the fighting lasted ten years.
After the killing of the two Americans, the Seris were very much afraid
of reprisals. For a good while they did not dare to come to the ranch of
Señor Encinas, but at length one old woman came for the philosophical
purpose of seeing if she would be killed. She was well treated and went
away. Eventually confidence was restored, and about sixty of the savages
were visiting on the premises.
No other people in North America have so few conceptions of civilization
as the Seris. They have absolutely no agriculture. As well as can be
ascertained they never put a seed into the ground or cultivate a plant.
They live almost wholly on fish, water fowl, and such game as they kill
on the main land. The game includes large deer, like black tails, and
exquisite species of dwarf deer, about the size of a three months' fawn,
pecarries, wild turkeys, prairie dogs, rabbits and quail. They take very
large green turtles in the Gulf of California. Mesquite beans they eat
both cooked and raw. The mesquite is a small tree that bears seeds in
pods.
The snake dance is another evidence of the comparative failure of
civilization to civilize. This is seen chiefly in the vicinity of the
Grand Cañon of the Colorado. Venomous rattlesnakes are used in the
dance, which is an annual affair. Hundreds of snakes are caught for the
occasion, and when the great day arrives the devotees rush into the
corral and each seizes a rattler for his purpose. Reliable authorities,
who have witnessed this dance, vouch for the fact that the snakes are
not in any way robbed of their power to implant their poisonous fangs
into the flesh of the dancers. It even appears as though the greater the
number of bites, the more delighted are the participants, who hold the
reptiles in the most careless manner and allow them to strike where they
will, and to plant their horrible fangs into the most vulnerable parts
with impunity. When the dance is over, the snakes are taken back to the
woods and given their liberty, the superstition prevailing that for the
space of one year the reptiles will protect the tribe from all ill or
suffering.
The main interest attached to this dance is the secret of why it is the
dancers do not die promptly. No one doubts the power of the rattlesnake
to kill. Liberal potations of whisky are supposed by some people to
serve as an antidote, while Mexicans and some tribes of Indians claim to
have knowledge of a herb which will also prolong the life of a man stung
by a snake and apparently doomed to an early death. Tradition tells us
that for the purposes of this dance, a special antidote has been handed
down from year to year, and from generation to generation, by the
priests of the Moquis. It is stated that one of the patriarchs of old
had the secret imparted to him under pledges and threats of inviolable
secrecy. By him it has been perpetuated with great care, being always
known to three persons, the high priest of the tribe, his vice-regent
and proclaimed successor, and the oldest woman among them. On the death
of any one of the three trustees of the secret, the number is made up in
the manner ordered by the rites of the tribal religion, and to reveal
the secret in any other way is to invite a sudden and an awful death.
During the three days spent by the dancers in hunting snakes, it is
stated that the secret decoction is freely administered to them, and
that in consequence they handle the reptiles with perfect confidence.
When they are bitten there is a slight irritation but nothing worse. On
the other hand, there is often a heavy loss of life during the year from
snake bites, for the sacred antidote is only used on the stated occasion
for which it was, so the legend runs, specially prepared or its nature
revealed.
The people living within almost sight of the Grand Cañon vary as much in
habits and physique as does the scenery and general contour of the cañon
vary in appearance. The Cliff Dwellers and the Pueblos do not as a rule
impress the stranger with their physical development, nor are they on
the average exceptionally tall or heavy. There are, however, small
tribes in which physical development has been, and still is, a great
feature. Unlike the Pueblos, these larger men wear little clothing, so
that their muscular development and the size of their limbs are more
conspicuous. Naturally skilled hunters, these powerful members of the
human race climb up and down the most dangerous precipices, and lead an
almost ideal life in the most inaccessible of spots.
The Maricopa Indians must be included among those whose general
appearance seems to invite admiration, however much one may regret the
absence of general civilization and education. These men are for the
most part honest, if not hard working, and they are by no means
unpleasant neighbors. Right near them are the homes of smaller Indians,
who have reduced peculation to a fine art, and who steal on general
principles. We have all heard of the little boy who prefers to steal
poor apples from his neighbor's tree to picking up good ones in his
father's orchard. Much the same idea seems to prevail among these
Indians. They will frequently spend several hours and even the greater
portion of a day, maneuvering to secure some small article worth but a
few cents to any one.
They have a way of ingratiating themselves with white tourists, and
offering to act as guides not only to spots of special beauty, but also
to mines of great value. When they succeed in convincing strangers of
their reliability, they are happy, and at once proceed to exhibit the
peculiar characteristics of their race. Pocket handkerchiefs, stockings
and hats are believed to be the articles after which they seek with the
most vigor. They are, however, not particular as to what they secure,
and anything that is left unguarded for but a few hours, or even
minutes, is certain to be missed. The perquisites thus obtained or
retained are regarded as treasure trove. When first charged with having
stolen anything, they deny all knowledge of the offense, and protest
their innocence in an amusing manner. When, however, convincing proof is
obtained, and the missing article discovered, the convicted thief thinks
the matter a good joke, and laughs most heartily at the credulity and
carelessness of the white man.