angry. They said, "Now the evil which he foretold will come, for he
died without changing his vision." And they said "We will not bury him
honorably upon a scaffold according to our custom, but we will bury
him in a hole in the ground, as he said his 'wandering people' bury
their dead." So they dug a hole and into this they put the body of the
old man and put the earth back again upon the body.
At evening some women were gazing out across the river in the
twilight, and they saw a man come up out of the river and advance
toward the village. When he came nearer they saw it was the holy man
who had died and whose body had been buried in a hole in the ground.
When he died he had changed from this life to the life of those who
dwell in "The Land of Evening Mirage." From the place where they
buried him he had gone out under the ground and had come up out of the
water of the river. Now when he came up out from the water he was
changed back again to the life on earth. From this it was evident to
all the people that he was indeed a very holy man, and that his vision
was true and must come to pass. They gave him a good dwelling and
provided for all his needs, and the women cooked for him the best food
they had, and every one did homage to him and paid him reverence.
After a time he knew that the end of his life was approaching, and as
he was about to die he called the leading men about him and said, "The
vision which I had will truly come to pass in future time. Now I am
about to die. When I am dead let me be buried in the ground again at
the place where I was buried before. You will see that some good thing
will come of it for our people at this place. And it shall be good for
all people at this place forever." When he said something good would
come they thought he meant that the people should be saved from the
cruel and savage, strange, pale-skinned people of his vision, but that
was not what he meant.
When the holy man was dead they would have preferred to give him
honorable scaffold burial as was customary, but they did as he had
directed and buried him in the ground where he had been buried before.
But this time, they dug out a roomy place, and made walls and a roof
with timbers, and in this place they put the body of the holy man
after dressing him in the best of garments decorated with porcupine
quill embroidery, and wrapped in a fine buffalo robe painted with
beautiful designs. And they placed with him his pipe and tobacco and
food and valuable presents of all kinds. Then they covered it all over
with earth again and set the sod as it was before.
At evening they watched the place in the river where he had reappeared
the other time after his burial. They thought he might return again
out of the water of the river, but he did not come. And they listened
above the little house they had made for him under the ground, but
they heard not the slightest sound of breathing or any movement. Then
they made a sacred fire by the grave from twigs of the cedar tree, for
this tree is holy and sacred to the Good Powers and the breath of its
fire will bring persons of good intention into communion with those
Unseen Powers. But the holy man did not appear by the sacred fire and
he was never seen again by any of the people.
Now the people became so burdened with sadness that they could not
endure to remain at this place, so they moved far away, where they
found another good country. In this new place they stayed until all
the people who were grown at the time they left the village of the
holy man's grave, had become old and had died. And none had ever been
back there. Then, when all those who were but boys and girls when they
left the former village had now become old men and women, their tribe
began to suffer harrassment from an enemy people of another tribe.
Their enemies were too strong for them, so they had to think of moving
to another place. And so it came into their minds to return to the
place by the Muddy-Water River, where they had lived at the time when
those of their people who were now old had been merry, happy children.
So they came back, and before they had reached the place the old men
said, "Let us go on ahead and see the grave of the holy man." And when
the old men came to the place where the holy man had been buried they
found that a spring of good water issued from the place where the holy
man's grave had been. And that is why we call this spring "The Holy
Man's Waterspring."
And it is said that now a bright star is often seen shining over this
spring for a while and that it then goes down and disappears into the
water of the spring. And it is said that sometimes when the moon is
full and bright the holy man may be seen walking near the spring.
When one approaches to speak to him he disappears into the spring. Not
all persons can see these things, but only those whose hearts are kind
and gentle, and whose minds are in accord with Nature, and who have
reverence for holy things and for the beauties and mysteries in
Nature.
THE SACRED SYMBOL OF THE CIRCLE
To the Dakotas the form of the circle is a sacred symbol because Great
Spirit caused everything in nature except stone to be round. Stone is
the implement of destruction. The sun, the earth and the moon are
round like a shield, and the sky is round like a bowl inverted over
the earth. All breathing creatures are round like a human body. All
things growing out of the ground are round, as the trunk of a tree or
the stem of an herb. The edge of the world is a circle, hence the
circle is a symbol of the world and of the winds which travel to us
from all points on the edge of the world. The sun and the moon which
mark the day and the night travel in a circle above the sky; for this
reason the circle is a symbol of these divisions of time, and of the
year, and so is the symbol for all time.
Raindrops are round, and so are the drops of dew hanging like strings
of beads upon the grass blades. Pellets of hail and of sleet are
round. Every snowflake has a centre from which lines radiate as from
the centre of a circle. The rainbow, which beautifies the sky after
showers, is round.
Because Great Spirit has caused almost all things to be round it is
for us a sacred symbol; it reminds us of the work of Great Spirit in
the universe. And for this reason Dakotas make their tipis round; and
in laying a camp the tipis are set in a circular line; and in all
ceremonies they sit in a circle.
The circle is a symbol of the tipi and of shelter and comfort. In
decorative figures the undivided circle is a symbol of the world and
of time. If the circle be filled with red it is a symbol of the sun;
if filled with blue it is a symbol of the sky. If the circle be
divided into four parts it is a symbol of the four winds.
The mouthpiece of a pipe should always be passed about the circle and
offered to the four directions before it is formally smoked.
THE SACRED NUMBER FOUR
It appears that Great Spirit caused everything in the world to be in
fours; for this reason mankind's activities of all kinds should be
governed by the number four out of respect to this sacred number and
in agreement with it.
We see that there are four directions: the north, the east, the south,
and the west; four divisions of time: the day, the night, the moon,
and the year; there are four seasons: the spring, the summer, the
autumn, and the winter; there are four parts to everything that grows
from the ground: the roots, the stems, the leaves, and the fruits;
four kinds of things that breathe: those that crawl, those that fly,
those that walk on four legs, and those that walk on two legs; four
things above the world: the sun, the moon, the sky, and the stars;
four kinds of gods: the great, the associates of the great, the gods
below them, and the spirit kind; four periods of human life: infancy,
youth, adulthood, and old age; mankind has four fingers on each hand,
four toes on each foot, and the thumbs and big toes of each taken
together make four.
All these tokens of the works of Great Spirit should cause mankind to
order his ceremonies and all activities so far as possible by this
sacred number.
THE PRISTINE PRAIRIE
To obtain even an approximate appreciation of the conditions of life
as they presented themselves to the people of the nations which
formerly occupied the region drained by the Missouri River and its
tributaries we must bring ourselves to see it as it was in its natural
condition, void of all the countless changes and accessories which we
have erected here by our European culture and custom.
Imagine, then, a country of open prairie stretching away and away
beyond the range of vision over hill, valley, and plain, the skyline
unbroken by trees, except a fringe along the course of the streams.
The aspect of this landscape in summer was that of a boundless sea of
shining green, billowing under the prevailing south wind, darkened
here and there by the swiftly marching shadows of clouds sailing high
and white in the brilliant blue sky. Toward the end of summer the sun
appears to have shed some of its lustre upon the plain below, for it
now shines with a paler light, while the ever restless, rustling,
whispering sea of grass waves in rolling billows of golden green,
seeming to be forever flowing on before the south wind into the
mysterious North, changing again into yellow and warm brown as autumn
comes on.
Then it may happen some day that the whole aspect is suddenly changed.
Fire has escaped in the sea of dry grass. To the windward the horizon
is one long line of smoke, which, as it comes nearer, rolls up in
black masses shot through with darting tongues of angry red flames
leaping a hundred feet skyward, while the sound of the conflagration
is like that of a rushing storm. Frightened animals are fleeing before
it in terror for their lives and birds are flying from the threatened
destruction.
This scene passes, and now the whole visible earth is one vast stretch
of coal black, and the whole sky is a thick blue haze in which the sun
seems to hang like a great red ball, while an unbroken silence
pervades the land.
Then winter comes with days of leaden sky and blackened earth,
succeeded by clear days when the snow-covered earth appears like a
vast white bowl encrusted with frost-diamonds and inclosed by an
over-arching dome of most brilliant blue.
Again the season changes; warm airs blow from the south; soft showers
fall; the sound of the first thunder wakens all Nature; the blackened
earth appears once more, soon showing color from the pale green spears
of tender young grass, and in a short time the form of Mother Earth is
once more clothed in a mantle of shining green.
And now as the biting winds of winter yield to the balmy breezes from
the south all the vernal flora is quickened into life and beauty. The
modest blue violets appear in such profuse abundance that they seem
like shreds of the sky wafted by the spring breezes over the land and
drifted into every swale and ravine. On the upland the purple flowers
of the buffalo pea show themselves; in sandy places of the Middle
Great Plains the dainty lavender blue bonnets of the early wind-flower
are trembling in the breeze. In the Northern Great Plains the snow is
scarcely gone before the pasque flowers, first gladsome harbingers of
the lovely hosts to follow, troop forth over the bleak hillsides,
"very brave little flowers," the Cree Indians say, "which come while
it is still so cold that they must come wearing their fur coats." This
is in allusion to the furry appearance of the pasque flower.
And as the floral life manifests itself all the native faunal life is
also awakened to renewed activity. The migratory birds are seen and
heard flying northward by relays in hundreds of thousands. The course
of the Missouri River marks upon the earth the chart by which they
direct their northward flight toward their summer homing places. The
Arkansas River, the Kansas, the Platte, the Niobrara and the White
River are relay stations of their journey, and the countless V-shaped
flocks coming northward in long lines wheel, circling down until
tracts many acres in extent are whitened by the great numbers of snow
geese, while the Canada geese in equal numbers darken other tracts;
ducks in great numbers are swimming on all the ponds and quiet
streams, and regiments and brigades of tall gray cranes are
continually marching and counter-marching on land or sailing like
fleets of monoplanes far up in the clear blue, whence float down to
earth the vibrant notes of their bugle calls as they travel on into
the North. On the higher prairies at sunrise as the long rays of the
red morning sun slant brightly across the land the booming, drum-like
sound of hundreds of prairie chickens is heard at their assemblies,
for at this season they dance the mating dance at the sunrise hour.
Soon the meadowlarks, "the birds of promise," appear, singing their
songs of promise of good things for their friends, the human beings;
and they set about the duties of housekeeping, building their lowly
nests at the grass roots, and all about are scenes of brightness and
sounds of gladness.
It was in such a country as this, then, that the people of the several
different native nations who were here before us lived and took joy of
the good gifts of Mother Earth and from their own activities, and in
all the beauty of this good land. And they loved this land for all its
good gifts and for its beauty, and for these and for its mystery and
grandeur they paid reverence.
[Illustration: {Map to Show Aboriginal Agriculture}]
ABORIGINAL AMERICAN AGRICULTURE
_See Map. Vertical lines indicate region under agriculture by natural
rainfall. Horizontal lines indicate region farmed under irrigation.
Both regions were settled in permanent villages._
Most people of this country, of the now dominant European race, seldom
give a thought to the aboriginal economic conditions which prevailed
here before this country was Europeanised. They seldom think of the
precolumbian utilisation of the natural resources of this continent by
the people of the native American race. They do not consider the
myriad possible uses of plants and plant products by the people of the
native tribes. Most persons of our European race in arrogant
self-satisfaction have not been accustomed to think of those of the
American race as agriculturists at all, much less have we given
thought to the contributions made by that race to the world's
agriculture. But according to the United States crop report of 1916
the value of the crops in this country alone, of plants which were
first brought under cultivation by Indians, is $3,000,000,000.
No doubt the beginnings of agriculture, with our own European race and
with every race, was simply the gathering and storing of supplies of
wild plant products, and proceeded by the stages of intentional
dissemination and cultivation, selection and improvement of stock into
myriad varieties.
When European explorers first visited the Atlantic shores of America
they found the native tribes to be agriculturists, living in villages
of permanent houses, and with their cultivated fields stretching about
the villages. And as the explorers advanced into the interior of the
continent they found similar conditions to prevail as far as to and
including the Missouri River valley. So it was found that in all the
region from the Gulf of Mexico to the St. Lawrence River, the Great
Lakes and the region of the upper Missouri river all the various
Indian nations were settled agriculturists. On the High Plains and in
the western mountains the tribes could not cultivate the soil because
of the unfavorable conditions.
The crops cultivated by the tribes in the region above defined
consisted of corn, beans, squashes and pumpkins in many varieties,
gourds, sunflower, and tobacco. According to the testimony of some of
the early explorers it appears that in the southeastern part of the
continent they also cultivated sweet potatoes and peanuts. It may be
said that the sunflower is native to the western plains and was there
brought under cultivation and improved to what we have as the
cultivated sunflower and was distributed throughout the region from
the Great Plains to the Atlantic coast. The other crops above named
were introduced from the south many centuries ago from Mexico. Their
wild ancestors grow there, which would indicate that there they were
first brought into domestication by cultivation and improvement of the
wild stock. All evidence from every source seems to point to the
plateau of southeast Mexico as the place of origin of corn. It seems
to have been originally a large, coarse wild grass with seeds which
were at least large enough to furnish an article of food when gathered
in quantity. The botanical evidence would indicate that it was a
branched stalk and that all the branches and the terminal alike bore
loose panicles of seeds, not in compact ears as we now know the corn
ear. But ages of cultivation and selection by obscure and forgotten
tribes of primitive farmers have produced a plant which bears its
staminate flowers generally on the terminal and its pistillate flowers
on side branches modified into what we know as the corn ear. Not only
had the above-described modification taken place in the process of
long ages of cultivation and selection, but the five great types of
corn had been formed and developed into innumerable varieties of each
type prior to the advent of white men on this continent. The five
types to which I have referred are dent corn, flour corn, flint corn,
sweet corn, and pop corn. Dent corn was obtained first by white men
from the Indians of Virginia in the beginning of the seventeenth
century at the first settlement of that colony by the English. The New
England tribes had flint corn, flour corn, and sweet corn, and pop
corn, but not dent corn. The tribes of the upper Missouri River had
flint corn, flour corn and sweet corn.
The Arikara and Mandan on the upper Missouri were the great
agricultural tribes of this region. Omaha legend credits the Arikara
with first having corn and with having distributed to other tribes.
And the common pictograph to represent the Arikara among all the
surrounding tribes was a conventionalised ear of corn. In the sign
language also the surrounding tribes designated the Arikara by a
motion of the hands depicting the act of shelling corn, or by the
motions of eating an ear of corn. Washington Matthews says: "There are
some reasons for believing that the Arikara represent an older race of
farmers than the Mandan; for their religious ceremonies connected with
the planting are the more numerous, and they honor the corn with a
species of worship." And it is the work of these northern tribes in
past centuries in acclimating corn to the short northern summer with
its cool nights which has made it possible for the states of North
Dakota, Montana and Minnesota now to be corn-producing states; for
acclimation is a long and gradual process and was accomplished during
a northward migration from Mexico which occupied many centuries of
time.
In the arid region of what is now New Mexico and Arizona the work of
agriculture was carried on by means of irrigation ages before the
coming of white men, and the old irrigation ditches made by the
primitive Indian farmers of that region may still be traced--irrigation
works made without other power than human muscles and without the use
of iron; the shovels used being made of bone.
The world is indebted to the aboriginal American agriculturists not
only for all types of corn which we now have, but also for all kinds
of beans, for pumpkins and squashes, cultivated sunflowers, sweet
potatoes, peanuts, and many other crops among our present day staples.
A great handicap to the primitive American farmer was the lack of iron
tools; for they had no iron before the coming of white men. Another
handicap was the absence of horses. The horse was not native to the
western hemisphere, and was first introduced by the Spaniards.
Previously the only beast of burden in North America was the dog. So
the cultivation of the ground was entirely handwork; and the tool most
in use was a hoe made from the shoulderblade of the buffalo or of the
elk. One may imagine the immense labor which was required to develop
and extend the above-named crops over the continent, acclimated and
ready to our hand when we arrived in the New World.
THE EARTH-LODGE
As an example of the modifying power of geographic influence exercised
upon the arts, we may consider the style of architecture or
domiciliary structure prevailing in the Plains region. In each
geographic province, which also constitutes a culture area, the style
of housing is different according to natural resources and climatic
conditions. In the Plains area the permanent dwelling was the
earth-covered structure; while the temporary dwelling was the skin
tent.
The earth-covered house seems to be an evolution from the thatched
house of the southern plains, exemplified in the dwellings of the
Wichitas. Farther north the exigencies of the climate suggested the
addition of an earth covering.
All the nations and tribes of the Missouri, of whatever racial stock,
employed the same style of dwelling. In order to effect the
construction of an earth-covered house, a circle of the desired
diameter was stripped off from the surface soil. Four tall, strong
forked posts were set in the center about 8 or 10 feet apart in a
quadrangle. Beams were laid on these forks. Outside of the center
posts a circle of shorter posts was set and beams laid in their forks.
Rafters were laid from the lower to the upper beams. A wall of timbers
was leaned up against the circle of lower beams, the base of the
leaning timbers resting upon the ground. An opening was left at the
east, and here was made a vestibule 6 to 14 feet long.
Timbers were laid upon the rafters, willow poles were laid upon the
timbers, and a thatch of dry grass upon these poles. A covering of
earth was now built up about the walls and over the roof to a total
thickness of about 2 feet, making, when complete, a dome-shaped
structure.
All structural timbers and poles were fastened by tying with ropes of
raw hide or of basswood or elm fiber.
An opening of several feet in diameter was left at the top of the dome
for a skylight, ventilator, and smoke-escape. The fireplace was at the
center of the earth floor; the sleeping compartments were ranged about
next to the wall. The altar was at the west side, opposite the
doorway.
The diameter of the house varied, according to the needs of the family
which occupied it, from 30 to 50 or 60 feet; the height from 15 to 20
feet. This was a family domicile and not a community or tenement
house. Such family dwellings were clustered in villages. The evidences
of many such village sites may be seen throughout all the region of
the Missouri River drainage basin. Their fields of agricultural crops
were cultivated in alluvial valleys usually near the villages,
although sometimes, when suitable land was not nearby, their fields
might be at some distance.
The earth-covered house probably originated with the tribes of Caddoan
stock, that is, the Pawnee and Arikara, and was adopted by the tribes
of other stocks upon their migration into the Missouri River region.
The Pawnee had very elaborate ceremonies and traditions connected with
the earth-lodge. The earlier star cult is recognized in the
signification attached to the four central posts. Each stood for a
star--the Morning Star, and the Evening Star, symbols of the male and
female cosmic forces, and the North and South stars.
In the rituals of the Pawnee the earth-lodge is made typical of man's
abode on the earth; the floor is the plain, the wall the horizon, the
dome the arching sky, the central opening the zenith, the
dwelling-place of Tirawa, the invisible power which gives life to all
creatures.
In the poetic thought of the Pawnee the earth was regarded as Mother
and was so called because from the earth's bounty mankind is fed. To
their imagination the form of the earth-lodge suggests the figure of
speech by which these human dwellings symbolised the breasts of Mother
Earth; for here man is nourished and nurtured, he is fed and sheltered
and blessed with tenderness of life. Here he knows love and warmth and
gentleness.