Yakima Valley within eight miles of North Yakima. About 1/2 nat. size.
(Drawn from photograph 44454, 2-3. Original in the collection of Mr.
Janeck.)]
The pestle shown in Fig. 30 is made of sandstone, was found at Priest
Rapids and is in the collection of Mrs. Hinman. The shaft is a long
cylinder, expanding somewhat towards the base which is only slightly
convex. Like the preceding, it has no striking head. It has a
hemispherical top, is unusually large and is decorated with an
encircling line of circles and dots. There is also a circle and dot in
the top. This decoration is again mentioned in the consideration of art
on p. 130.[103]
[103] Museum negative no. 44537, 9-3.
The pestle shown in Fig. 31 is 355 mm. long. It has a conoid body
perhaps more pronounced than the one shown in Fig. 29 but much less
typical than the one shown in Fig. 24. The top is apparently intended to
represent an animal head. It is made of very hard breccia and well
polished. At each side of the lower part of the body is a design made by
four parallel zigzag grooves, further discussed on p. 132. It was found
in the Yakima Valley, and is in the collection of Mr. Janeck.[104] A
pestle figured by Spinden, as from the Nez Perce Indians,[105] is
somewhat similar to this in that it has a knob protruding slightly to
one side, but there is a notch or groove made longitudinally in the top
of this knob.
[104] Museum negative no. 44502, 6-3.
[105] Spinden, Fig. 7, Plate VIII.
The pestle shown in Fig. 32 might perhaps be considered as a war club.
It was found at Priest Rapids and is in the collection of Mr. Mires. The
top is somewhat flat and smoothed. There is a groove around the specimen
near this end. From here it constricts gradually to the lower end which
is broken off. It was made from a triangular piece of gray basalt,
probably a column, the natural angles and parts of the faces of which
have been reduced by pecking.[106]
[106] Museum negative no. 44534, 8-12.
The specimen shown in Fig. 33 from the Yakima Valley, is in the
collection of Mr. Janeck and is 630 mm. long. The top apparently
represents an animal head indicated by three nipples the larger of which
is interpreted as representing the nose, the others as indicating the
ears. The body is of circular cross section and expands evenly to a
cylindrical striking head 70 mm. in diameter by 76 mm. long.[107]
[107] Museum negative no. 44502, 6-3.
A long pestle with a knob at the top which is divided into four
pyramidal or dome-shaped nipples was found at Five Mile Rapids on Snake
River and was seen in Mr. Owen's collection. The next figure represents
a stone pestle of somewhat similar shape but more specialized. It was
found in the Yakima Valley and is in the collection of Mr. Janeck. It is
590 mm. long. The top is roughly the form of the fustrum of a cone,
being circular in cross section and gradually expanding downward, but it
is somewhat celt-shaped, the sides for some distance being ground off
nearly flat. They approach each other more closely towards the front
than they do towards the back. In each of these surfaces there is an
incision which represents one side of an animal's mouth and a pecked dot
indicating an eye. The tip of the nose is broken off. Across the curved
part behind the flat surfaces or on the back of this animal head are
four incisions. Below this portion the object is circular in section
until near its middle, or 178 mm. from the top, where there is a band
roughly sub-pentagonal in section with rounded corners 88 mm. long.
Following this band it is nearly cylindrical, being 57 mm. in diameter
for 178 mm. until it expands suddenly into the striking head which is
unusually bulging, 108 mm. long by 64 mm. in diameter.[108]
[108] Museum negative no. 44502, 6-3.
[Illustration: Fig. 29. Pestle made of Stone. From Satus on the Yakima
Reservation near Old Yakima. 1/2 nat. size. (Drawn from a sketch.
Original in the collection of Mr. York.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 30. Pestle made of Sandstone. From Priest Rapids.
1/2 nat. size. (Drawn from photograph 44537, 9-3. Original in the
collection of Mrs. Hinman.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 31. Pestle made of Stone. From the Yakima Valley.
1/4 nat. size. (Drawn from photograph 44502, 6-3. Original in the
collection of Mr. Janeck.)]
The object 498 mm. long shown in Fig. 35 is made of steatite, material
seemingly unsuited by its softness for a pestle, and may possibly be a
war club. Mr. McCandless, in whose collection it is, calls the material
a soft sandstone which he says is found at the head of the Wenatchie
River. He says the specimen is from Lake Chelan and that he obtained it
from a man above Wenatchie on the Columbia River. This man told him that
he secured it from Chief Moses' tribe on Lake Chelan, and that the
Indians there call it a war club and a family heirloom. The upper end is
of the form of a truncated pyramid with two flat sides, two bulging
edge's and rounded corners. It shows peck marks and is engraved as
described under art, on p. 124, and is said by the Indians to represent
the head of a snake. The shaft is circular in cross section and
gradually enlarges towards the base where it suddenly constricts. The
specimen has been polished by the natural sand blast.[109]
[109] Museum negative no. 44507, 6-8.
The noise of the women at one of the Nez Perce villages, pounding roots,
reminded Lewis of a nail factory.[110] Beyond the Nez Perce country
which bounds this area on the east, according to Spinden,[111] the use
of stone pestles disappears until the region of the Great Lakes is
reached, but I have seen pestles in collections in Wyoming which are
said to have been found in that state.
[110] Lewis and Clark, V, p. 16.
[111] Spinden, p. 187.
_Rollers._ Another class of specimens considered as pestles or rollers
is shown in Figs. 36 and 37. These do not seem to have been used as
pestles.
[Illustration: Fig. 32. Pestle made of Stone. From Priest Rapids. 1/4
nat. size. (Drawn from photograph 44534, 8-12. Original in the
collection of Mr. Mires.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 33. Pestle made of Stone. From the Yakima Valley.
1/4 nat. size. (Drawn from photograph 41502, 6-3. Original in the
collection of Mr. Janeck.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 34. Pestle made of Stone. From the Yakima Valley.
1/4 nat. size. (Drawn from photograph 44502, 6-3. Original in the
collection of Mr. Janeck.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 35. Pestle made of Steatite. From Lake Chelan. 1/4
nat. size. (Drawn from photograph 44507, 6-8. Original in the collection
of Mr. McCandless.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 36. Pestle or Roller made of Stone. From Priest
Rapids. 1/4 nat. size. (Drawn from photograph 44537, 9-3. Original in
the collection of Mrs. Hinman.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 37 (202-8197). Pestle or Roller made of Stone. From
the surface, about one mile east of Fort Simcoe. 1/4 nat. size.]
The one shown in Fig. 36 from Priest Rapids is in the collection of Mrs.
Hinman. The convex ends of this cylindrical form present the natural
surface of a pebble and they are not battered. The material is a
yellowish quartzite or closely allied rock. It is 457 mm. long, 75 mm.
in diameter and the entire cylindrical surface has been pecked
apparently to bring it to form. If it had been used as a pestle the
ends would show the signs of battering or grinding. The cylindrical
surface does not seem to show any signs of its having been used as a
roller or grinder. It may possibly be a pestle in process of manufacture
although it seems very strange that so much work should have been
expended on the cylindrical surface in a region where natural pebbles
very nearly of this shape were common.[112] The specimen shown in Fig.
37 is apparently made of basalt and was found on the surface about a
mile east of Fort Simcoe. The ends are considerably chipped and one of
them has apparently been somewhat battered since. If the object were
used as a pestle the chipping of the ends is unusually great. The
cylindrical surface has been formed by pecking except in one place where
the natural surface shows. This bit of natural surface is such that it
suggests the specimen to have been made of a prismatic basaltic column.
While these two specimens may have been intended for pestles, it seems
possible that they were made for rollers. Several such objects made of
stone were seen in Mr. Owen's collection. He says that they were used
like rolling pins for crushing camas and kouse roots in making bread.
Both of these roots were extensively used in the Nez Perce region to the
east.[113]
[112] Museum negative no. 44537, 9-3.
[113] Spinden, pp. 201-203.
[Illustration: Fig. 38 (202-8157). Fragment of Hearth of Fire Drill.
From Grave No. 10 (5) in a rock-slide about half a mile above the mouth
of Naches River. 1/2 nat. size.]
_Fish Knives._ No fish knives made of slate were found, as in the
Thompson River region, at Lytton,[114] rarely at Kamloops,[115] and
commonly on the coast at Fraser Delta,[116] Comox,[117] and
Nanaimo.[118]
[114] Smith, (d), p. 140.
[115] Smith, (c) p. 414.
[116] Smith, (a), p. 159.
[117] Smith, (b), p. 315.
[118] P. 345, _ibid._
_Fire Making._ The method of making fire formerly employed in this
region is suggested by a fragment of the hearth of a fire drill found in
grave No. 10 (5) in a rock-slide about one half a mile above the mouth
of the Naches River and is shown in Fig. 38. It is made of porous wood,
of light cellular structure, possibly cottonwood. This is similar to the
fire drill hearths of the Thompson River region,[119] where I have seen
the Thompson River Indians make fire with the palm drill, using
cottonwood root for the hearth. In the Nez Perce region to the east,
also, fire was made with the palm drill, the hearth stick being of the
root of the light leaved willow or the stem of "smoke wood." It was of
the shape of the hearth here described. The twirling stick was made of
the dead tips of red fir.[120]
[119] Teit, (a), p. 203.
[120] Spinden, p. 200.
_Caches._ A number of small circular holes about four feet in diameter,
encircled by a slight ridge, as mentioned on p. 15, were seen which are
possibly the remains of ancient food caches. The Nez Perce Indians in
the region to the east referred to a field at Kamiah, near the mouth of
Lawyer's Creek which has the appearance of being "hilled" like an old
hop field, as being the site of winter cache pits.[121]
[121] Spinden, p. 181.
_Boiling._ Natural pebbles were plentiful in the river bottoms near the
village sites. Such were no doubt used in boiling food in baskets or
boxes, as fragments of burned and cracked pebbles were also found while
pottery was entirely absent. These facts suggest that it was the custom
to boil the food in baskets or even in boxes as on the coast to the
west. This idea is strengthened by the fact that in the Nez Perce region
to the east, watertight coiled baskets were regularly used in
cooking.[122] We may naturally suppose that roasting before open fires
was also customary in this region. No fireplaces such as were probably
used in this area and are found in the Nez Perce region,[123] were
recognized by us, although beds of clam shells previously mentioned, may
indicate the sites of ancient hearths.
[122] Spinden, pp. 190 and 194.
[123] Spinden, p. 178.
HABITATIONS.
_Semi-subterranean House Sites._ Sites of ancient semi-subterranean
winter houses, modern lodges and what may possibly have been a shell
heap were seen and photographed by us in this region. Two of the
examples of the remains of semi-subterranean house sites found here, as
shown in Fig. 2, Plate IV, had stones on top of the surrounding
embankments. Although on the top of the embankments of the remains of
similar underground winter houses in the Thompson River region,[124] we
saw no stones other than those of the soil. I am informed by Mr. James
Teit that such are occasionally to be found there also, but that these
stones are generally found only in those places where boulders were
removed during the excavation for the houses. He was told that it was
the custom to place these boulders around the base of the house. Two
semi-subterranean winter house sites, as mentioned on pp. 7 and 15, may
be seen on the flat along the north side of the Yakima River about a
mile below the mouth of the Naches. One of these may be seen in Fig. 2,
Plate III.[125] There are water-worn boulders in and on the embankments
surrounding them. These boulders were probably uncovered during the
excavation for the house. The holes are situated within twenty-five feet
of the river and between it and the Yakima Ridge which rises by
perpendicular cliffs, almost immediately behind these winter house
sites. In fact, the photograph reproduced in the figure was taken from
the hill side north of the pit and just up stream from the cliffs. They
are on a little terrace about three feet high which gives them the
appearance of having been connected by a ridge. The hole shown in the
figure measured from the top of the ridge was nine feet deep. The top of
the bank measured at points on the flat between it and the river, up
stream from it, and between it and the hill, was four feet, two feet,
and two feet, four inches, respectively. Averaging these measurements,
the height of the embankment above the level is thirty-three and one
third inches. The hole was so near the level of the river, and was so
deep that when we visited it on June 18, 1903, which was during high
water, the waters of the Yakima had soaked through the terrace and were
about two feet deep in the bottom of the hole where it was about eight
feet in diameter, measuring north and south. Measuring in the same
direction the diameter of the top of the hole from points inside of the
surrounding ridge was twenty-two feet, from points on top thirty-three
feet, from points outside forty-seven feet, and from points outside of
the wash from the ridge fifty-one feet. These measurements give us
twelve and a half feet as an approximate width of the ridge or fourteen
and a half feet if we measure from the bottom of the wash. The two sites
mentioned on pp. 7 and 16 were also examined and photographed by us. One
is plainly shown from the north of west in Fig. 2, Plate IV. They are
located on a high terrace on the north side of the Naches River about
one and a half miles above its mouth. There are angular rocks on each
encircling ridge. Some of the large angular rocks found on the
embankment of this ridge, may also have been dug out during the
excavation for the house if such rocks are found under the surface of
the soil in this terrace. Similar rocks are scattered about on the
surface so thickly that it must have been necessary to remove a number
of them from the site where the house was to stand and possibly others
that were scattered about may have been put up around the base of the
house in order to clear the immediate vicinity especially since many of
them are disagreeably sharp angular fragments.[126]
[124] Smith, (d), p. 140 and Fig. 2, Plate XIII; (c), p. 414.
[125] Museum negative no. 44517, 7-7 from the north. Negative no.
44518, 7-8 shows the same from the northwest.
[126] These two sites are represented by Museum negatives nos.
44181, 4-6 reproduced in the figure; 44491, from the west; and
44492, 5-5 nearer from the west.
Measuring the site best shown in the figure, east and west, the level
floor inside the extreme wash from the ridge is nine feet in diameter,
the rocks fallen from the ridge thirteen feet, the inner edge of the
ridge 20 feet, the points on the top of the embankment, twenty-five and
a half feet; the outside of the rocks, thirty feet; the extremes of the
embankment thirty-five feet. These measurements north and south are
respectively, nine feet, thirteen and a half feet, sixteen and a half
feet, twenty-one feet, twenty-five and a half feet and thirty-three
feet. Judging from these measurements, the original dimensions were
probably thirty feet by twenty-five and a half feet over all,
twenty-five and a half feet by twenty-one feet for the top of the
embankment, twenty by sixteen and a half feet for the inside of the
embankment and sixteen and a half feet by fifteen feet for the bottom of
the floor. These measurements are also east and west and north and south
respectively. The present depth of the hole below the top of the rocks
is twenty-nine inches and from the top of the earth embankment is
twenty-six and twenty-one inches. The measurements were taken east and
west and north and south respectively. The slope of the hill from north
to south and its attendant wash, of course, affect the north and south
measurements, while the east and west measurements are probably near the
original dimensions. Contiguous to this hole on the south, or in the
sage brush to the right in the figure, is the other site. It is on the
slope of the hill and not so clearly shown in the Plate. This hole
measures ten and a half feet by eleven feet across the level floor
inside; thirteen by fourteen feet inside of the rocks; nineteen by
eighteen feet at the top of the embankment twenty-three by twenty-three
feet outside of the rocks; and twenty-seven by twenty-six feet outside
of the embankment; fourteen and eighteen inches in depth from the top of
the rocks and ten and twelve inches from the top of the earth, the
measurements being taken east and west and north and south respectively.
Mr. G. R. Shafer informed me that there were holes, the remains of old
houses on the flat in the Naches Valley, twelve miles above the Nelson
Bridge which crosses the river a short distance above the mouth of
Cowiche Creek. At Fort Simcoe, immediately south of the Indian agency,
on the north edge of "scab land" overlooking a small ravine as mentioned
on p. 8, is a large pit surrounded by an embankment of earth, the
remains of a winter house site. This hole is so deep and the embankment
is so high that both Mrs. Lynch and the Indians call it a fort. About
fifteen miles above Kennewick on the eastern side of the Columbia River,
according to Mr. D. W. Owen, there were the remains of hundreds of
semi-underground winter houses and we saw several large and deep sites
immediately below Mr. Craig's house above Priest Rapids as mentioned on
page 20.
A semi-subterranean winter house, with an entrance through the roof,
seen by Lewis and Clark[127] on the north side of the Columbia near the
mouth of White Salmon River, was uninhabited at that time (1805). As
described, it does not differ from the winter house of the Thompson
Indians. The Chinook, so far as we know, never erected such houses. The
pit of an underground house, according to Clark[128] was found among the
Nez Perce. Gibbs[129] mentions what were probably similar pits on the
Lower Yakima. Kane[130] describes a somewhat similar house used by the
Walla Walla but much ruder. Such houses were used by the Klamath.[131]
[127] Lewis, p. 185; Lewis and Clark, IV, p. 280.
[128] Lewis and Clark, V, p. 35.
[129] Gibbs, (a), p. 409.
[130] Kane, p. 272.
[131] Gatschet, pp. 177, 124; Abbott in the Pacific Railroad Report,
VI, p. 69.
Not far from the ranch of Mr. Frank Turner on Rock Creek about six miles
below Rock Lake on Section 6, Town 18 north, Range 40 east in the
country locally known as "The Rocks," there are two pits that are
supposed to be the remains of houses which with other remains (pp. 29,
82, 140) have been in their present condition since about 1874 when they
were first seen by the whites. Both the pioneers and the old Indians are
said to know nothing about them. Mr. Turner's place is best reached from
Sprague on the Northern Pacific Railroad, although his Post Office is
Winona. My information regarding these two pits is from Mr. J. S.
Cotton, then in charge of cooperative range work in Washington.
It is quite possible as pointed out by Lewis[132] that the introduction
of the buffalo skin covered lodge which probably came after the advent
of the horse into this region, had something to do with the apparent
scarcity of the semi-subterranean winter house in the Yakima region in
historic times, the buffalo skin lodge possibly having taken the place
of the earth-covered dwellings.
[132] Lewis, p. 186.
The so-called cremation circles near Cherry Creek and near the mouth of
the Naches which were mentioned on pp. 12 and 15 and described on pp.
163 and 157, may be the remains of small houses of the type of
semi-subterranean winter house sites that were made especially as grave
houses. As before mentioned, this type of semi-subterranean circular
lodge is found as far north as the Thompson River country, and I have
seen one site on the prairie near Rochester, Thurston Co., probably of
this type. In the Nez Perce region to the east, remains that appear like
those of semi-subterranean houses consisting of ridges of earth about a
foot above the general level of the ground, surrounding a circular pit,
from three to five feet deep, measuring from the top of the ridge; and
about seventy feet in diameter, are found near the mouth of Tammany
Creek on the east bank of Snake River, a few miles above Lewiston. The
site may be identified with Hasutin.[133] The place is known to have
been used as a camp until about 1878, especially during the season of
lamprey eel fishing. These house rings are in several groups. A little
charcoal, some unio shell, flint chips, a digging stick with a bone
handle, glass beads and other objects are reported to have been found in
them. Somewhat similar house rings about twenty-five feet in diameter
were found on the south bank of the Middle fork of Clearwater River,
near the town of Kooskia. Spinden[134] refers to Lewis and Clark[135]
for evidence of considerable antiquity for the circular house rings in
this Nez Perce region. They mention one as being about thirty feet in
diameter with a rim over three feet high and the floor sunken four feet
below the surface of the ground or seven feet below the top of the rim.
The Mountain Snakes, according to Ross[136] never used underground
houses.
[133] Spinden p. 179.
[134] Spinden, p. 197.
[135] Lewis and Clark, V, p. 33.
[136] Ross, (b), II, p. 117.
At the site near Kooskia there is another type of house site such as I
have not seen in the Yakima, Thompson or Coast regions. Spinden
describes them as long and narrow, about sixty to eighty-five feet long
by eighteen feet wide. The interior is sunken from one to three feet and
surrounded by well marked elevated rims. As a rule, these pits are not
so deep or clearly marked as those of the circular type. The axis of the
house is parallel with the river. He states that these house sites have
not been used for a long time and that trees, some of which are eighteen
inches in diameter grow directly out of them. Excavation revealed a
number of fireplaces about twelve feet apart along the axis of these
houses suggesting that they were communal lodges.[137] We discovered no
indications of communal dwellings in the Yakima region.
[137] Spinden, p. 197.