62. II. _Guaima_, por los guaimas, guaymas, gayamas,
cocomaques, en Sonora.
Orozco’s map assigns to the Seri family an immense area (recalling
Villa-Señor’s “despoblado”) extending from just above the mouth
of the Yaqui, northward to the thirtieth parallel on the coast,
stretching inland nearly to Cucurpe, Opodepe, and Ures, and including
Tiburon; the “Salineros” lying adjacent to the coast in the north,
the “Tepocas” medially, and the “Guaymas” in the south, within this
area. In elucidating the map he wrote, under the title “El séri.—El
upanguaima.—El guaima”:
The Séris, a tribe inhabiting Sonora, forms, with its
subtribes, a separate family. By their language, by their
customs, and by their physiognomy, they are completely set
apart from affiliation with the surrounding nations; and
apparently they have lived in the district which they now
occupy from times anterior to the establishment of the Pima
race and its affines; their use of poisoned arrows recalls
the Caribs of the islands, as well as of the continent, and
it seems not unlikely, although very curious, that they are
related to them. The Séris, known also as Tiburones, a name
derived from the island of Tiburon in the Mar de Cortés, which
serves them as a shelter, considered as parts of their tribe
the Tepocas and the Salineros.
The “Upanguaima” (a very small tribe occupying the Seri border) and the
“Guaimas”, as well as the “Cocomagues” were combined chiefly on the
authority of Jesuit writers.[189] In describing the State of Sonora he
further wrote:
[189] Ibid., p. 42.
The Séris, bounded by the sea on the west, the Pimas Altos on
the north, the Opatas and the Pimas Bajos on the east, and the
pueblos of Rio Yaqui on the south, form the smallest nation
of Sonora, but at the same time the most cruel and deceitful
and the least capable of reduction to political organization.
Hardly uniting with the smaller pueblos as at Populo and
Belen, the rest of the nation engaged so constantly in cruel
warfare that it was necessary to persecute and exterminate
them.... Small as was the tribe, three divisions are known: the
Salineros, extending to the confines of Pimeria Alta; south
of them the Tepocas, nearest to the island of Tiburon; the
Guaymas and Upanguaymas occupying the territory adjacent to
the harbor of the same name, afterward added to the pueblo at
Belen and blended with the Indians of Rio Yaqui. Ferocious and
savage, they preferred to die in war against the whites rather
than adopt their usages and customs; lazy and indolent, they
so surrendered themselves to the passion of intoxication that
mothers conveyed aguardiente from their mouths to the smallest
babes. They are tall and well formed, the women not lacking
in beauty. The poison with which they envenom their arrows is
proverbial for deadly effect; they compound the venomous juice
from a multitude of ingredients and fortify the compound by
superstitious practices.[190]
[190] Ibid., pp. 353-354.
The classifications by Pimentel and Orozco were widely accepted, and
were given still wider currency by republication in standard works,
such as the classic dictionary of the Nahuatl tongue by Rémi Siméon, in
which is defined “La famille _Seri_, dans la Sonora, avec 3 idiomes:
le _Seri_, le _Guaima_ et l’_Upanguaima_.”[191] In his ethnographic
tableau of the nations and languages of Mexico, M. V. A. Malte-Brun
followed Orozco almost literally, save that he emphasized the suggested
Caribbean affiliation of the Seri, saying:
[191] Dictionnaire de la Langue Nahuatl ou Mexicaine, rédigé d’après
les Documents imprimés et Manuscrits les plus authentiques et précédé
d’une Introduction; Paris, 1885, p. xviii.
They make use of poisoned arrows, and when one studies their
manners, their habits, their modes of life, one is tempted
to find in them a strong affinity [grande affinité] with the
Caribs of the continent and the islands.[192]
[192] Tableau de la Distribution ethnographiques des Nations et
des Langues au Mexique; Congrès International des Américanistes,
Compte-rendu de la Seconde Session, tome II, 1878, p. 37.
During the seventies Hubert Howe Bancroft was engaged in collecting
material for his monumental series of works, and in arranging the
ethnologic data for publication. Of the Seri he wrote:
East of the Opata and Pima bajo, on the shores of the Gulf of
California, and thence for some distance inland, and also on
the island of Tiburon, the Ceri language with its dialects, the
Guaymi and Tepoca, is spoken. Few of the words are known, and
the excuse given by travelers for not taking vocabularies is,
that it was too difficult to catch the sound. It is represented
as extremely harsh and guttural in its pronunciation and well
suited to the people who speak it, who are described as wild
and fierce. It is, so far as known, not related to any of the
Mexican linguistic families.[193]
[193] The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft, vol. III (The Native Races,
vol. III, 1882, p. 704). The “east” in this quotation is obviously a
misprint for west.
The only vocabulary of this language which Bancroft was able to find
was added (without reference to the aboriginal source); it comprised
the eleven words collected by Lavandera and discussed by Ramirez in
1850.[194]
[194] Ibid., p. 705.
The Seri, with their affines, the Tepoka, Salinero, Guayma, and
Upanguayma, were included by Bancroft in his arbitrarily defined
“Northern Mexican family”.[195] The accompanying map (which is highly
inaccurate) located the “Salineros” on the gulf coast, considerably
north of the common embouchure of “R. de Horcasitas” and “Rio de
Sonora”; while the “Seris” were more conspicuously represented about
the broad estuary into which the rivers embouch, and the “Tepocas”
were located still farther southward on both Tiburon and the mainland,
the island being placed too far southward and the river much too far
northward.[196] Numerous data relating to the Seri were incorporated in
his text; all were second-hand, though many were taken from unique or
rare manuscripts. The coastwise natives of Sonora were said to “live
on pulverized rush and straw, with fish caught at sea or in artificial
enclosures”; mention was made of the allegation that “the Salineros
sometimes eat their own excrement”; anthropophagy was noted, but as
pertaining rather to the interior than to the coastwise tribes;[197]
and prominence was given to the Seri arrow poison, of which an early
author wrote:
[195] Op. cit., vol. I, pp. 604-605.
[196] Ibid., p. 471.
[197] The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft, vol. III (The Native Races,
vol. III, 1882, p. 576.)
The poison with which they envenom the points of their arrows
is the most active that has ever been known here.... It has not
been possible to ascertain with certainty the deadly materials
of which this pestilential compound is brewed. Many things
are alleged, e. g., that it is made from the heads of vipers,
irritated and decapitated at the moment of striking their teeth
into a piece of lung or of half putrefied human flesh.
Reference was made also to the “magot” (probably the yerba mala of
the modern Mexicans) as a source of arrow poison.[198] The girls’
puberty feast was said to be kept up for several days among the Seri
and Tepoka, and the former were said to “superstitiously celebrate
the new moon, and bow reverentially to the rising and setting sun”,
and also to “employ charms in their medical practice”.[199] Finally,
the constituent tribes were discriminated in a manner recalling the
persistent assumption that the parasite-converts at the missions fairly
represented the Seri:
[198] Ibid., p. 579.
[199] Ibid., pp. 584, 587, 589.
The Tepocas and Tiburones are fierce, cruel, and treacherous,
more warlike and courageous than the Ceris of the mainland, who
are singularly devoid of good qualities, being sullenly stupid,
lazy, inconstant, revengeful, depredating, and much given to
intemperance. Their country even has become a refuge for evil
doers. In former times they were warlike and brave, but even
this quality they have lost, and have become as cowardly as
they are cruel.[200]
[200] Ibid., p. 590.
It is evident that this characterization of “the Ceris of the mainland”
was based on the degraded scavengers outlawed by the tribe and attached
to the missions and pueblos during much of the historical period.
It was also during the seventies that the errors and uncertainties of
three and a half centuries concerning the coasts of the Californian
gulf were finally brought to an end through the surveys of Commander
(now Admiral) George Dewey, U. S. N., and the officers of the United
States ship _Narragansett_, under the direction of the Hydrographic
Office of the United States. These surveys resulted in trustworthy and
complete geodetic location of all coastwise features, in geographic
placement of the entire coast-line, in soundings of such extent as
to determine the bottom configuration, in tidal determinations, in
recognition of the currents, in definition of harbors and anchorages,
and eventually in a series of elegant and accurate charts (dated
1873-75) available for the cartographers and navigators of the world.
As the largest island in the gulf, Tiburon received especial attention;
its coast was accurately surveyed and mapped, while the interior
was sketched in considerable detail, and the adjacent channels were
carefully defined and sounded.
Naturally the surveyors came into contact with the Seri tribesmen. Of
them Commander Dewey wrote:
During the greater part of the year Tiburon Island is resorted
to by the Seris (or Ceres) tribe of Indians, who inhabit the
adjacent mainland, and their huts and encampments may be seen
in many places along the shore, principally on the eastern side
of the island. They are reputed to be exceedingly hostile and
to use poisoned arrows in opposing the landing of strangers on
what they consider their domain, but during the stay of the
_Narragansett_ in the vicinity they were very friendly. At
first they were shy and made threatening gestures, but soon
finding that our intentions were peaceable, became friendly
and returned our visits to the shore by frequent and lengthy
calls on board ship. They are very expert in hunting with the
bow and arrow and in catching fish and turtles, which abound
in the surrounding waters. The canoes of these Indians deserve
especial mention. They are made of long reeds, which are bound
together with strings after the manner of fascines, three of
which when fastened together ... have sufficient buoyancy to
support one or two persons. They kneel in these canoes when
paddling, the water being at the same level in the canoe as
outside of it.[201]
[201] Publication No. 56, U. S. Hydrographic Office, Bureau of
Navigation. The West Coast of Mexico, from the Boundary Line between
the United States and Mexico to Cape Corrientes, including the Gulf of
California (revised edition), 1880, p. 145.
Illustrations of the “Tiburon canoe” (or balsa), drawn by H. Von
Bayer, were also introduced.[202] In addition Mr Von Bayer succeeded
in obtaining two photographs of Seri Indians, taken on shipboard; one
of these is of special interest in that it illustrates the peculiar
attitude of the Seri archer in the act of using his weapon.[203]
[202] Ibid., pl. XV, p. 136 (one of these illustrations is reproduced
in figure 28).
[203] The negatives of these pictures were retained by Mr Von Bayer,
and have been kindly turned over to the Bureau of American Ethnology.
Unfortunately the archery negative had been shattered, but enough of
the fragments were preserved to show all essential details and to
afford a basis for the drawing reproduced in plate XXIX.
Unfortunately the surveys were confined to the coast, and the interior
remained unmeasured and unmapped save on the basis of tradition
and travelers’ tales, supplemented by a few vague itineraries and
traverses. Except along the international boundary and the railway
(Ferrocarril de Sonora), the locations of pueblos and ranches remained
guesses, the delineation of mountains remained a work of imagination,
and even the best cartographers continued to run in rivers at random or
in such wise as to afford artistic effect.[204]
[204] The imposing official map of 1890, titled Carta General de la
Republica Mexicana, formada en el Ministerio de Fomento con los datos
mas recientes, por disposicion del Secretario del Ramo, General Carlos
Pacheco, engraved and printed by Erhard Hermanos, Paris, on a scale of
about 32 miles to the inch, represents Rio Bacuache as about the right
length and with its center in about the right location, but as running
at almost exactly right angles to its actual course; and it contains
divers other equally startling errors.
* * * * *
In 1879 M. Alphonse L. Pinart traveled extensively in northern Mexico
and southwestern United States, and made considerable linguistic
collections among various tribes. Desiring to obtain a Seri vocabulary,
he planned a visit to the tribal territory; but on reaching Caborca in
March he was met by the information that the Seri were on the warpath,
and had recently devastated a hacienda on their frontier and slain more
than a dozen white settlers.[205] Thence he repaired to Pueblo Seri,
and early in April obtained there a Seri-Spanish vocabulary of several
hundred words, with a number of short phrases throwing some light on
the grammatic construction. This record was transmitted to Dr Albert
S. Gatschet. It comprises a title page inscribed “Vocabulario de la
lengua Séri Interprete el GI. de los Seris y otro Indio. Pueblo
de Seris 4 Abril 1879”; four foolscap sheets (written on both sides,
thus making 16 pages) of vocabulary; and a final page bearing two short
phrases and inscribed “Los Séris, me dice el general de ellos, son como
doscientos hombres de llevar armas—viven todavia parte en la isla de
Tiburon, parte en la costa.[206] Pueblo de Seris, 4 Abril, 1879, Alph.
Pinart.” A transcript of this invaluable vocabulary is preserved in the
Bureau of American Ethnology. There is nothing either in the original
vocabulary or in the known correspondence relating to it to identify
the aboriginal informant, but the identification is made easy through
the coincident testimony of living witnesses and the unmistakable
implication of the historical records to the effect that there was at
that time but a single Seri Indian[207] resident at Pueblo Seri—i. e.,
the official interpreter, “El General” Kolusio. This identification is
strengthened by the remarkable similarity between this vocabulary and
that of Bartlett, a similarity made the more striking by the fact that
one was recorded in English, the other in Spanish; the identification
is supported, too, by Kolusio’s memory of “giving his language” to
a stranger “not a Mexicano” yet familiar with the Spanish; and the
identification is practically established by the considerable number
of terms expressing concepts alien to the Seri (e. g., ax, adobe,
house, horse, hog, field, irrigate, pigeon, thresh, tobacco, shirt,
the names of the months, etc.), evidently acquired through long and
intimate acquaintance with Mexican customs and domiciles and modes
of thought—for all these concepts were familiar enough to Kolusio,
yet to no other known Seri Indian of recent decades. Accordingly it
may be deemed practically certain that M Pinart’s vocabulary, like
that of Commissioner Bartlett, was obtained from Kolusio; and it is
at least strongly probable that both the Lavandera-Ramirez and the
Tenochio-Pimentel vocabularies were derived from the same aboriginal
source—an indubitably excellent source, save for the occasional
interjection of alien notions, and the infrequent substitution of
foreign equivalents for forgotten terms.
[205] Recorded by Gatschet, Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, Berlin, Band
XV, 1883, p. 130. The location of the hacienda was not specified,
but there are local traditions of Seri raids about that time, both
at Hacienda Serna (between Caborca and Libertad anchorage) and at
Bacuachito.
[206] “The Seris, the chief tells me, comprise about 200 men fit to
bear arms—they still live part on the island of Tiburon, part on the
coast.”
[207] M Pinart’s reference to his interpreter is not only impersonal
but ambiguous. “Interpreted by the chief of the Seri and another
Indian” might be considered to imply _two_ Seri Indians, though it
may, with equal linguistic probability, be interpreted to mean _the_
specified Seri and another Indian; and while the temporary presence of
a second Seri at the pueblo seems possible, the sum of probabilities
points so clearly the other way as to demand the latter interpretation.
Barred from Seriland by the current war craze, M Pinart was prevented
from obtaining much collateral information concerning the Seri; but he
concluded (on grounds not stated) that “the Tepoca spoken on the south
of Rio del Altar is identical with the Seri”,[208] and also that “the
Guaymas were of the stock of the southern Pimas, or Nebomes”.[209]
[208] Gatschet, op. cit., p. 131.
[209] Bandelier, Final Report of Investigations among the Indians of
the Southwestern United States, part i, in Papers of the Archæological
Institute of America, American series, iii, Cambridge, 1890, p. 76.
As already noted, it is probable that the Guayma lost their “antigua
idioma” (Ramirez, op. cit. p. 149) long before M Pinart’s visit; and
pending definite statement of the facts on which his conclusion rests
it is necessary to retain the classification based on specific and
repeated, albeit unskilled, observations of the identity of the Guayma
speech with that of the Seri.
While M Pinart failed to publish, his linguistic collections were
compared, systemized, and made public by Dr Albert S. Gatschet in a
notable memoir on “Der Yuma-Sprachstamm”, 1883. Comparing the Seri,
as represented by the Pinart and Bartlett and Pimentel vocabularies,
with the Yavapai, M’Mat, and incidentally with the Konino, Tonto,
Cochimi, and other tongues, Dr Gatschet was led to adopt the suggestion
of Professor Wilhelm Herzog[210] that the Seri is a dialect of the
Yuman stock. In the comparative vocabulary, which comprises about a
hundred and forty Seri words (selected from the 611 terms in the Pinart
collection), there are perhaps a dozen terms presenting some similarity
to those of one or more Yuman dialects; among these are terms for ax,
tree, split, tobacco, heaven, pigeon, dog, and others of presumptively
or certainly alien character.[211]
[210] In correspondence with Dr Gatschet, op. cit., p. 133.
[211] Dr. Gatschet has recently revised the data and recognized the
distinctness of the Seri tongue (Science, new series, vol. XII, 1900,
p. 556-558).
Herzog’s suggested classification, with Gatschet’s indorsement, was
accepted even more promptly and widely than the earlier classifications
of Pimentel and Orozco. It was tacitly adopted by Director J. W. Powell
in his classic arrangement of Indian linguistic families of America
north of Mexico;[212] it was explicitly approved by Adolph F. Bandelier
in his “Final Report of Investigations”;[213] and it was implicitly
accepted and fortified by Dr Daniel G. Brinton in his work on “The
American Race”.[214] Brinton’s Seri words were “chiefly from the
satisfactory vocabulary obtained by the late John Russell Bartlett”; of
the 21 terms, about 8 (including that for the alien concept “house”)
suggest affinity with the Yuman, chiefly in the Mohave dialect; the
others are either wholly distinct or only superficially similar,
e. g., in the concurrence of a consonant or two, or merely in the
correspondence in number of syllables.[215]
[212] Seventh Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, 1885-’86;
Washington, 1891, p. 137.
[213] Op. cit., p. 74.
[214] The American Race: A Linguistic Classification and Ethnographic
Description of the Native Tribes of North and South America; New York,
1891, p. 335.
[215] Mr. Hewitt’s discussion (postea, pp. 299-344) gives fuller
details of this short vocabulary.
* * * * *
Stated briefly, the scientific researches relating to Seriland and the
Seri during the fifty years from the fourth decade of the century to
the middle of the last decade resulted in (1) a satisfactory survey
of the coast, (2) the collection of two excellent Seri vocabularies,
with a few others of less extent, and (3) two discrepant linguistic
classifications of the tribe, both widely quoted and accepted.
During the half century of historical silence from 1844 forward, and
pending the progress of the desultory researches, the Seri suffered a
succession of external shocks more serious in their internal effects
than any of those of the three centuries preceding; indeed it is just
to say that during this half century the Seri range was curtailed, the
Seri customs were modified, and the Seri population was diminished
more effectively than during the preceding sesquicentury of fairly
definite record. The chief factor in this transformation was an
intrepid pioneer, who pushed actual settlement toward the Seri frontier
more vigorously than any predecessor—Señor Pascual Encinas, a son of
Sonora.[216]
[216] The following paragraphs are condensed from oral recitals by
Señor Encinas (a notably straightforward and judicious authority),
supplemented and corroborated in all essential details by Señores
Andres Noriega, Ygnacio Lozania, and several other habitués of the
Seri borderland, as well as by Kolusio and Mashém, several Papago
informants, and various collateral documents.
Born near Hermosillo in 1819, Don Pascual was in early maturity at the
time of Colonel Andrade’s expedition, and was fully conversant with
the later history of the Seri. Of adventurous disposition, and holding
interests in Bacuachito, he was familiar with the Seri frontier; and
in hunting deer and other large game over the vast delta plain of
Rio Sonora he had perceived the agricultural possibilities of the
region. During the struggle of 1844 he became impressed with the idea
that the Seri might be controlled and gradually inducted into useful
citizenship through a judicious combination of industrial, educational,
and evangelical agencies; and before the end of the year he began the
establishment of a rancho (the present Rancho San Francisco de Costa
Rica) on the Seri borderland, with the double object of developing new
resources and regulating the relations between tribesmen and settlers.
Enlisting the aid of a corps of vaqueros, mechanics, and farmers,
he excavated a deep well, erected corrals and adobe houses, cleared
away the exceptionally luxuriant mesquite forests, fenced fields, and
stocked the plains with horses, burros, and cattle. At the same time he
sought Seri wanderers and treated them with such kindness and firmness
as to gain their confidence; and while most of the tribe held aloof,
some attached themselves to the rancho, and a few even were taught to
labor; albeit in desultory fashion. In this stage, as for some years
afterward, he was materially aided by his contemporary, Kolusio, then
in his physical prime and still in good repute among his kinsmen.
Meantime he obtained the assignment of two priests, who made it their
chief duty still further to placate the tribesmen and their families
and to induct them into religious observances and belief; and as the
confidence of the Indians increased, he had two boys domiciled in the
rancho and educated in the Spanish as well as in the faith, in the hope
that they might pass into priesthood and so form a future bond with
their kin. One of these neophytes disappeared in the troublous times
of a later decade, though tradition indicates that he became a tribal
outcast (like Kolusio still later) and slunk away to Pitiquito and
Altar, and afterward to California; the other, christened Juan Estorga
and nicknamed El Gran Pelado (“The Great Shorn”), survives as subchief
Mashém, long since relapsed into his native savagery, save that he
remembers the Spanish, affects a hat, cuts his hair to the neck (whence
his nickname), and prefers footgear to the fashion of his fellows.
Industrially, Don Pascual’s venture proved successful; the fertile
soil, periodically watered from below by the underflow of the
semiannual freshets, yielded incredible crops; reveling in the
exceptional floral wealth of the delta and tided over bad seasons
by the artificial forage, the stock increased and multiplied beyond
precedent; and so the rancho became a flourishing establishment,
housing a score or more of families and harboring a hundred or two
dependents, in addition to the thousands of half-wild horses and
cattle. Meantime, the industrial lines ramifying from the rancho formed
a drag net for Seri raiders, practically cutting off forays eastward
toward Hermosillo and Horcasitas, and greatly reducing the sallies
southeastward toward Guaymas and northeastward toward Bacuachito and
Caborca; and Don Pascual began to receive recognition and state and
federal concessions as a public benefactor. For a decade the industrial
and evangelical influence and the effect of the bold kindness of
El Patron extended and became felt throughout the tribe, and most
of the families visited the rancho at least occasionally. Yet even
the best of them remained averse to labor save in sporadic spurts,
and indifferent to the religious teaching, save when sweetened by
substantial largess; while all but the decrepit and the two carefully
restrained neophytes came and went capriciously, and were much given to
decamping incontinently by night to return shamefacedly one by one in
the course of a week or two, without consistent or adequate excuse for
their stampede—indeed the vaqueros habitually classed these nocturnal
flights of the Seri and the reasonless stampedes of their stock in
the same category. Ostensibly a few of the larger boys and girls and
a still smaller number of the adults were helpers about the rancho;
actually they were scavengers, consuming the waste of the shambles and
the earth-mixed scatterings from the thrashing floors, and saving the
rancheros the noisome duty of removing the carcasses of animals dead
by disease or accident; and as their indolence increased under the
easy régime, they grew into more and more open thievery. By no means
deficient in shrewdness and cunning, they adopted numberless devices
for imposing on the credulity of the majordomo and other officials
of the rancho. When coin-like tokens of stamped copper were used in
the transactions of the rancho as equivalents of labor, the Seri
ingeniously obtained sheet copper by stealth or barter, systematically
counterfeited the tokens, and exchanged them for supplies at the rancho
store; it was a favorite trick to surreptitiously break the neck or a
leg of a horse, cow, or burro, and report finding the dead or crippled
animal, at the same time begging for the carcass; and, whenever
opportunity offered, they slyly slaughtered a head of stock, consumed
it to the hoofs and horns and larger bones, sucked up the blood
stains, and buried the few remains in cactus thickets, impenetrable
save by their own hardy limbs and bodies. Nor did any of the tribe
except the two restrained neophytes ever really enter the collective
life of the patriarchal group headed by Don Pascual; they attended no
industrial or social or churchly function save in response to reminder
and solicitation; they craved the white man’s medicines in slight
disorders, but rejected them in extremis; and the dying or dead were
spirited away to be inhumed and mourned, according to their wont, in
their harsh but beloved motherland.
[Illustration: BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY