and a slightly pictographic nature. It shows little resemblance to that
of the coast, but a strong relationship to that of the Plains. The
decorative art of the Nez Perce region includes motives from the Plains
and also from the Pacific Coast.[353] Some of their designs partake
strongly of motives from the Plains, while here in the Yakima Valley
there are perhaps more examples of coast art and still much influence
from the Plains. Spinden says that in early times the Nez Perce were
very poor in decorative ideas and that the richness and variety found in
their modern art may be ascribed to the absorbing of ideas from other
cultures. This is perhaps equally true of the Yakima region where the
influence of coast art in proportion to that from the Plains is perhaps
greater than in the Nez Perce region.
[353] Spinden, p. 233.
_Paintings._ Pictographic line paintings somewhat geometric in
character, made on the basaltic columns on the west of the mouth of
Cowiche Creek, on the south side of the Naches River, about four miles
northwest from North Yakima, are shown in Plates XIV-XVI. These
pictures, some in red, and some in white, were probably painted with
mineral matter mixed with grease. Their antiquity is unknown. In the Nez
Perce region to the east,[354] pictographs in red, yellow and black
occur, while in the Thompson River area[355] and in the Lillooet
Valley,[356] pictographs in red are found. Some of the Yakima
pictographs have been destroyed during the construction of the
irrigation flume which runs along the top of this cliff. Others are
partly covered by the talus slope. All those remaining, are here
represented by those reproduced in the plates. They extend from the top
of the talus slope upward a distance of perhaps five feet. Many of them
are indistinct, and appear more easily seen, if they are not actually
clearer, in the photographs here reproduced than in the originals. Many
of the paintings represent human heads and headdresses and one of them
the whole figure with such a headdress. These headdresses may be
compared to similar designs in the petroglyphs (Plate XI) at Sentinal
Bluffs, thirty-three miles to the northeast (Fig. 2, Plate XII and Fig.
1, Plate XIII) at Selah Canon, eight miles to the northeast and the
headdress pecked on the grooved net sinker shown in Fig. 14. Also, taken
together with the pictographs representing the full figure with similar
headdress shown in Fig. 1, Plate XIV, may be compared to the petroglyphs
of men each with a headdress among those at Sentinal Bluffs, the human
figure with a headdress carved in antler found near Tampico, only
fourteen miles to the southwest and shown in Fig. 121, petroglyphs which
apparently represent human forms somewhat similar to this, on Buffalo
Rock, in the Nez Perce region to the east[357] and the quill flattener
carved to represent a human form with headdress or hair from the Dakota
shown in Fig. 122.
[354] Spinden, p. 232.
[355] Teit, (a), p. 339 and 381.
[356] Teit, (b), Pl. IX.
[357] Spinden, Plate X, Fig. 5.
The human figure with feather headdress indicated by ten lines shown in
Fig. 1, Plate XIV is all in red. It is the next to the westernmost
pictograph at this site. It is 457 mm. high, the ends of the legs are
279 mm. apart, the tip of the arms 254 mm., the width of the headdress
229 mm. and the height of the middle feather 101 mm. There are four
horizontal red lines on the overhanging column above the figure.[358]
Fig. 2, Plate XIV shows human heads with feather headdresses in
white.[359] Fig. 1, Plate XV shows similar human heads with feather
headdresses also in white.[360] Fig. 2, Plate xv shows human heads with
feather headdresses in white and a double star figure in white and
red.[361] Plate XVI[362] shows human heads with feather headdresses in
white and red. In addition, Fig. 2 shows the advertisement of a modern
business man over the pictographs. Some of the pictographs at the same
place have every alternate radiating line in red, while others are in
white.
[358] Museum negative no. 44479, 4-4 taken from the east. First
reproduced in Smith, (g), Fig. 2, Plate VIII.
[359] Museum negative no. 44483, 4-8 from the north. First
reproduced _Ibid._, Fig. 1, Plate VIII.
[360] Museum negative no. 44485, 4-10 from the north.
[361] Museum negative no. 44480, 4-5 from the north.
[362] Museum negatives nos. 44486, 4-11, 44487 4-12 from the north.
Mr. G. R. Shafer informed me that he knows of painted rocks in the Teton
River Valley, 20 miles above the Nelson Bridge, which crosses the Naches
a short distance above the mouth of Cowiche Creek. Mr. W. H. Wilcox of
North Yakima stated to me that there are pictures on rocks on the west
side of the Columbia River ten miles south of Wenatchee. Bancroft[363]
refers to painted and "carved" pictures on the perpendicular rocks
between Yakima and Pisquouse. According to Mallery, "Capt. Charles
Bendire, U. S. Army, states in a letter that Col. Henry C. Merriam, U.
S. Army, discovered pictographs on a perpendicular cliff of granite at
the lower end of Lake Chelan, lat. 48° N., near old Fort O'Kinakane, on
the upper Columbia River. The etchings appear to have been made at
widely different periods, and are evidently quite old. Those which
appeared the earliest were from twenty-five to thirty feet above the
present water level. Those appearing more recent are about ten feet
above water level. The figures are in black and red colors, representing
Indians with bows and arrows, elk, deer, bear, beaver, and fish. There
are four or five rows of these figures, and quite a number in each row.
The present native inhabitants know nothing whatever regarding the
history of these paintings."[364] Apparently only paintings are meant.
[363] Bancroft, IV., p. 735; Lord, II, pp. 102 and 260; Gibbs, I, p.
411.
[364] Mallery, p. 26.
Red ochre is rubbed in the circle and dot designs and the grain of the
stone of the pestle shown in Fig. 30 and also in the incised lines on
the pipe shown in Fig. 104. Red paint (mercury) partly fills some of the
holes and lines on the pendant made of steatite shown in Fig. 119.
Because of the mineral nature of this paint, it may have remained a long
time and its presence does not necessarily prove that the supposedly old
grave in which the object was found is recent. Red paint also fills the
circles and dots in the slate object shown in Fig. 120 while vermilion
paint is found in the grooves of the animal form shown in Fig. 125 and
as this is probably a mineral which would be rather enduring, it does
not indicate that the painting was recently done.
Painting was done on moccasins in the general plateau area of which this
is a part.[365] Spinden states that in the Nez Perce region the natives
depended upon minerals for dyes, except in the cases of a wood, which
produced a brown dye, and rock slime which produced green[366] and that
white, red, blue and yellow earth paints were obtained by them further
east from the vicinity of the Grande Ronde Valley;[367] also, that rock
surfaces were painted over with brown as a field upon which to peck
petroglyphs.[368] In the same region moreover, white clay[369] was used
for cleaning clothing.
[365] Lewis, p. 190.
[366] Spinden, p. 191.
[367] _Ibid._, p. 222.
[368] _Ibid._, p. 231.
[369] _Ibid._, p. 216.
_Petroglyphs._ The petroglyphs pecked into the weathered surface of the
basaltic columns found in this region, are similar in style to the
paintings, being largely line designs of geometric or conventional
representation together with a few realistic figures. The pictures are
formed by pecking away the weathered surface and exposing the lighter
color of the basalt below. Some of them may be very old, but the bruised
surfaces making up the lines are not weathered very much in comparison
with the surrounding rock surface and yet there is no history of their
manufacture. In the Nez Perce region[370] such pecked pictographs are
also found, some of them being upon fields painted brown.
[370] Spinden, p. 232.
In Plate XI are shown petroglyphs on the vertical basaltic columns on
the eastern side of the Columbia River at Sentinal Bluffs, immediately
above Priest Rapids. They are at the base of the cliffs shown in Plate
V. Those shown in Fig. 1 are to the east of the road which runs along a
notch blasted in the top of the columns that rise from the river at this
point, while those shown in Fig. 2 are about fifteen feet to the
southwest on the columns that rise shear from the river.
Some of those shown in Fig. 1[371] represent human figures each with a
feather headdress which may be compared with that of the antler figure
found at Tampico (Fig. 121) and the pictographs of Cowiche Creek. This
place is only about 47 miles northeast from Tampico, and 33 miles in the
same direction from the mouth of Cowiche Creek. One of these is shown in
Fig. 2.[372] The long form in the centre has a headdress which taken
with its shape reminds us especially of the human form in antler from
Tampico. The general shape of the body and the row of dots on each side
edge suggest a resemblance to the quill flattener made of antler from
the Dakota shown in Fig. 122. On each side are human heads, each with a
similar feather headdress that might be interpreted as rising suns with
eyes and mouths. On the left are some similar figures without eyes and
mouths. Below, is a horizontal figure resembling five links of a chain.
There is also a goat which resembles the two pecked in a granite boulder
near Buffalo Rock in the Nez Perce area, eighteen miles above Lewiston
on the east bank of the Snake River.[373] The star at the bottom, the
rays of which end in dots, a small oval with radiating lines at the
left, and two connected ovals with radiating lines at the top, remind us
of the stars at Selah Canon, shown in Fig. 1, Plate XII, the petroglyphs
near Wallula Junction, shown in Fig. 2, Plate XIII, somewhat similar
figures on the large petroglyph at Nanaimo[374] and perhaps even more
than of the Nanaimo figures, those in the petroglyphs beyond Nanaimo at
Yellow Island, near Comox.[375] However, the two connected ovals with
the radiating lines may represent hands of a human figure with a
headdress having radiating feathers. All of these headdresses remind us
of the others at this place shown in Fig. 1, the rising suns at Selah
Canon next described, the pictographs at the mouth of Cowiche Creek, and
the incised human form in antler.
[371] First reproduced. Smith, (g), Fig. 2, Plate IX; negative no.
44534, 8-11, taken from the west.
[372] _Ibid._, Fig. 1; Negative no. 44533, 8-10 as viewed from the
north.
[373] Spinden, Fig. 4, Plate X.
[374] Smith, (b), Plate XI.
[375] _Ibid._, Fig. 115.
In Plate XII and Fig. 1, Plate XIII are shown petroglyphs which appear
fresher and whiter or yellower than the naturally weathered reddish
basaltic columns into which they are pecked. They are on the north side
of Selah Canon about one and a half miles from the Yakima River at a
point about a mile north of Selah station or one half a mile south of
the intake of the Moxee Canal. It is about twenty-five miles west
southwest of Sentinal Bluffs, eight northeast from the mouth of Cowiche
Creek and twenty-two miles northeast from Tampico. They are more easily
made out from a distance than close by.
The petroglyph shown in Fig. 1, Plate XII, is the most northeasterly of
the group. This seems to be made up of circles with a dot in the middle
and radiating lines, some of which end in dots. They remind us of some
of the same series of figures as the oval with radiating lines at Priest
Rapids.[376]
[376] Museum negative no. 44463, 2-12 from the east and from a
greater distance, showing its relation to the next in negative
catalogue no. 44162, 2-11.
The one shown in Fig. 2, is about eight feet to the southwest and a
little lower down. The upper part of the left figure and the two main
parts on the right, each consisting of a curve with short radiating
lines like a representation of the rising sun, may be compared with the
top of the petroglyph on the rocks a few feet to the southwest shown in
Fig. 1, Plate XIII, next described, and with some of those at Sentinal
Bluffs, shown in Plate XI; also, with the pictographs at the mouth of
Cowiche Creek.[377]
[377] Represented in Museum, with the one shown in Fig. 1, by
negative no. 44462, 2-11 and from a nearer point as shown in this
figure in negative no. 44476, 4-1.
The petroglyph shown in Fig. 1, Plate XIII, is a few feet southwest of
those shown in Plate XII, taken from the south. The segment with
radiating lines like the rising sun at the top reminds us of similar
figures among the other petroglyphs here just described, those at
Sentinal Bluffs and pictographs at the mouth of Cowiche Creek, but the
other lines are not interpreted and are not suggestive to us of other
figures in the neighborhood. A small figure, similar in that it consists
of two nearly vertical lines crossing each other and topped by a curved
line, shows very faintly above, a little to the right.[378] A design
similar to the part of some of these pictures interpreted as
representing a headdress was also found pecked in the surface of the
grooved net sinker shown in Fig. 14.
[378] Museum negative no. 44477, 4-2, is also represented from a
greater distance in negative no. 44478, 4-3.
The petroglyph shown in Fig. 2, Plate XIII, is pecked on the top of a
rock which projects about three feet from the surface of the ground near
mile post 209 between it and 210 above the Spokane branch of the O. R. &
N. on the south side of the Columbia River about four miles west of
Wallula Junction and is here illustrated as one twentieth of the natural
size, from a tracing made by Mr. J. P. Newell, of Portland, assistant
chief engineer on that road. We are indebted to Mr. W. E. Elliott of New
York City, formerly engineer with Mr. Newell for permission to copy this
tracing.[379] The top of the rock forms an east and west ridge. The
pecked grooves are all of about equal depth and there are no other
petroglyphs on the rock. The large figure at the left reminds us of the
dog-like figures with "spines" in the petroglyphs at Nanaimo,[380] on
Vancouver Island, especially as it has waved parallel lines, a fin or
"spine" and two concentric curves at the top similar in shape to the
lines indicating the back of the head and the mouth of the Nanaimo
figure. This is less suggestive of certain harpoon points that are
incised apparently to represent fish found in the main shell heap in the
Fraser Delta at Eburne[381] although Eburne is nearer than Nanaimo and
en route, and although these harpoon points have parallel lines, a
fin-like projection and two lines representative of the back of the head
or cheek and the mouth. The small circles some with lines radiating
from them, remind us of similar marks on the same large petroglyph at
Nanaimo and even more so of the petroglyphs beyond Nanaimo at Yellow
Island near Comox.[382] The large figure on the right reminds us of the
human form of the petroglyph at Nanaimo.[383]
[379] Museum negative no. 45696.
[380] Smith, (b), Fig. 117a and Plate XI.
[381] Smith, (a), Fig. 52.
[382] Smith, (b), Fig. 115.
[383] _Ibid._, Fig. 117a.
I am informed by Mr. Owen that there is a petroglyph on the north side
of the Columbia River below Kennewick and that it has been destroyed by
recent railroad construction; by Mr. W. H. Willcox of North Yakima that
there are petroglyphs or pictographs on the rocks ten miles south of
Wenatchee on the western side of the Columbia River; and by Prof. Mark
Harrington that it is said that there are "engravings" on the cliffs
overhanging Lake Chelan. Mallery[384] refers to etchings at the lower
end of Lake Chelan but his information seems to refer to painted figures
only (See p. 120). The late Prof. Israel C. Russell informed me that
there are etchings close to the river on both sides in the Snake Canon
at Buffalo Rock in the extreme southeast corner of the state of
Washington.[385]
[384] Mallery, p. 26.
[385] Cf. Spinden, Figs. 4 and 5, Plate X.
_Incised Designs._ Among the designs incised on stone, attention may be
called to the top of the pestle made of steatite shown in Fig. 35, which
bears two parallel longitudinal incisions and notches, ten on the left
and eleven on the right of each side edge of the obverse. There are
fifteen fine incisions running obliquely down from the notches on the
left to the first longitudinal incision. They begin at the eighth notch
from the bottom and extend to the lower notch. On the reverse are three
longitudinal incisions apparently more recently made, and eleven notches
on each side edge. This incised knob is said by the Indians to represent
the head of a snake. On the reverse of the steatite object, possibly a
mat-presser, shown in Fig. 59a, is an incised pictographic sketch which
unfortunately, with the exception of the nine short lines above, was
re-scratched by its owner. It is reproduced in Fig. 59b. The first
figure beginning at the left possibly represents a tree. The middle
figure has not been identified but it is clear that the one on the right
represents a human being. On the left of the groove in the object are
incised two hands pointing towards the left. These also were re-cut and
are not reproduced in Fig. 59. The incision in the edge of the top of
the club shown in Fig. 62 and the incisions at right angles to this were
probably intended for decorative purposes. There is an incised design on
the rounded surface of the saddle-shaped hollow of the club shown in
Fig. 64. This design is made of transverse notches above and a zigzag
line below. The upper part of the right edge of this knob is flat with
two incisions across it. Incised lines arranged parallel to each other
in rows may be seen on the handle and knob of the club shown in Fig. 68.
There are thirteen of these lines on either edge of the knob. The other
incisions are arranged in four vertical rows on the handle. The lines on
the top of the shell pendant shown in Fig. 88 may be merely the depths
of the teeth rather than incisions artificially made, but in this case
they may have been considered as decorative and the shell may even have
been chosen because of these lines. There are nine incised lines on the
bone tube shown in Fig. 98. These run around it in a spiral direction in
such a way that the lower end of each line is on the opposite side from
the upper end.
The three transverse incisions on the top of the steatite specimen shown
in Fig. 99 may be for decorative purposes or merely as tallies as also
the five small drilled pits arranged about equi-distant from each other
around the top and the four similarly arranged near the bottom.
[Illustration: Fig. 114 _a_ (202-8159). Incised Design on a Fragment of
a Wooden Bow. From grave No. 10 (5) in a rock-slide near the mouth of
Naches River. 1/2 nat. size. _b_ Section of Fragment of Bow shown in
_a_.]
The oblique incised lines on the edge of the mouthpiece and on the ridge
about the middle of the pipe shown in Fig. 100, which slant outward from
left to right at an angle of about 45° and make the ridge at least
suggest a twisted cord, were no doubt made for decorative purposes.
Pictographic scratches may be seen on the disk-shaped stone pipe, shown
in Fig. 107. Those on the reverse are shown in Fig. 115. A simple
geometric incised line decoration on wood may be seen on a fragment of a
bow shown in Fig. 111. It will be remembered that parallel irregularly
arranged cuneiform incisions decorated a fragment of a bow found in the
Thompson River region.[386] The incised design on the stone dish
previously mentioned on p. 38 and shown in Fig. 116 consists of two
horizontal incisions running around the upper part of the dish a little
below its middle and a zigzag line made up of twenty-five V-shaped marks
which fills the space between the flat rim of this dish and the upper
horizontal line.
[386] Smith, (c), p. 411.
[Illustration: Fig. 115. Incised Design on Bowl of Pipe shown in Fig.
107. 1/2 nat. size.]
[Illustration: Fig. 116. Incised Design on Stone Dish. From Priest
Rapids. 1/2 nat. size. (Drawn from photograph 44537, 9-3. Original in
the collection of Mrs. Hinman.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 117 (202-8193). Incised Designs on Dentalium Shells.
From under the skeleton in grave No. 25 of a child in a stone cyst in
dome of volcanic ash near Tampico. Nat. size.]
[Illustration: Fig. 118 (202-8178). Incised Designs on Dentalium Shells.
From among broken and charred human bones of about twelve individuals in
cremation circle No. 15 (10) on terrace northwest of the junction of the
Naches and Yakima Rivers.]
Incised designs on dentalium shells are shown in Figs. 117 and 118. The
first four were found under the skeleton in grave No. 25. This skeleton
was of a child and was surrounded by a stone cyst buried in a dome of
volcanic ash near Tampico, as shown in Plate X. This lot contained two
shells ornamented with designs of the type shown in _a_, but in the one
not figured the diamond points met and formed a checker pattern. There
were four of the type shown in _b_, one of the type shown in _c_, and
two like the type shown in _d_. The specimens shown in Fig. 118 were
found among broken and charred human bones of about twelve individuals
in cremation circle No. 15 (10) on the terrace northwest of the mouth of
the Naches River. While there was only one specimen of the type shown in
_a_, there were two of the type shown in _b_, and one like the four
represented by Fig. 117b. Another cremation circle containing incised
dentalium shells is known as No. 18 (13) and was located on the same
terrace. The specimens are mere fragments, one of them, from the tip of
the shell, bears a design similar to that shown in Fig. 117b, the other
bears a simple incised spiral, the space between one incision and
another being about equal to the width of the incision itself. The
character of both the technique and the motive of these designs
resembles that of those found on similar shells at Kamloops in the
Thompson River region[387] and in the Nez Perce area to the east.[388]
The design shown in Fig. 117a at least reminds us of paintings on the
parfleches found among the modern Sahaptin and Plains tribes.
[387] Smith, (c), Fig. 369.
[388] Spinden, p. 181 and Plate IX, Fig. 15.
[Illustration: Fig. 119. Incised Pendant made of Steatite with Red Paint
(Mercury) in some of the Holes and Lines. From manubrium of adult male
skeleton in grave covered with rocks on a low ridge about two and a half
miles south of Fort Simcoe. Nat. size. (Original in the collection of
Mrs. Lynch.)]
The incised design on the pendant made of steatite (p. 94, Fig. 119)
does not seem to differ greatly in technique or motive from other
incised designs found in this area and in the Thompson River region to
the north. While most of the lines and pits can be considered as forming
symmetrical or geometric designs, the central figure on the side shown
in Fig. 119b may be interpreted as a conventional representation of a
life form, namely, a fish. Red paint is rubbed into some of the lines
and pits.
The human figure described under costume (p. 100, Fig. 121) is a
somewhat conventionalized realistic form indicated by incisions on one
surface of a piece of antler 2 to 5 mm. thick.[389] It was found in the
grave of an infant under the vertebrae, No. 25 in a dome of volcanic
ash. It is of good technique and artistic execution. The eyes are of the
shape of a parallelogram with rounded corners. These, with similarly
shaped figures on the headdress or inner hair-rolls, and on the hands,
knees, and insteps, slightly resemble a motive common in the art of the
coast to the northwest. The crescent-shaped mouth and thick lips are
indicated by incised lines, while the cheeks are full, and the entire
head is somewhat set out in relief from the rest of the object. The
radiating figures above the head do not represent feathers in a
realistic way, but closely resemble the conventional paintings made by
the Dakota on buffalo robes. These paintings have been called sun
symbols, but are interpreted by the Dakota as the feathers of a
war-bonnet or other headdress. The fingers and thumb are set off from
the palm by two lines, which, with the mark at the wrist, make a figure
resembling the eye-form so common in Northwest coast art. The concentric
design on the knees is probably related to the wheel, sun, or spider-web
pattern common as a symbol on the shirts, blankets, and tents of some
Plains tribes. The feet jutting out at the sides are slightly wider than
the legs. The inside of the foot is straight with the inside of the leg,
while the outer part is curved. The two, taken together with the lower
portion of the legs, resemble a divided hoof. The divided hoof is a
common design among Plains tribes.