[2] See linguistic map p. 33, and list of tribes and stocks in
Appendix.
[3] When the ice front was along the Ohio, the Eskimo
naturally were distributed along the southern fringe.
[4] For many details of the life of the American Indians,
or Amerinds, see The Indians of To-Day, by George Bird
Grinnell. For the origin of the word Amerind see the American
Anthropologist, N. S., vol. i., No. 3, p. 582.
[5] It must be borne in mind that the general estimate of the
Amerind is entirely drawn from white men’s writings. The Amerind side
has never been presented.
[6]Narrative of James P. Beckwourth, p. 254; Irving’s
Bonneville, p. 225.
[7] “Amidst all the devastating incursions of the Indians in
North America it is a remarkable fact that no Friend who stood faithful
to his principles in the disuse of all weapons of war, the cause of
which was generally well understood by the Indians, ever suffered
personal molestation from them,” vol. v., p. 63, Brinton’s Library
of Am. Ab. Literature, from An Account of the Conduct of the
Society of Friends toward the Indians, p. 72. London, 1844.
[8] Payne says, “Anahuac was becoming a military despotism.”
History of the New World called America, vol. ii., p. 494.
[14] The widest differences were in the Maya and the
Timuquanan. Each of these differed greatly from the bulk of the Amerind
languages and from each other, probably because both stocks held more
isolated positions than the others during the glacial period, and
preserved more of their earlier life, whatever it may have been.
[15] See J. N. B. Hewitt, American Anthropologist,
October, 1893.
[16] “There are well-known examples in the ethnography
of other races, where reliance on language alone would lead the
investigator astray; but all serious students of the native American
tribes are united in the opinion that with them no other clue can
compare to it in general results.”—D. G. Brinton, The American
Race, Preface.
[17] As to the value of linguistics as a means of
classification, Cyrus Thomas says: “On the one side, it is held by some
authors that affinity of languages implies racial identity or unity of
origin; on the other, it is contended that the theory that the affinity
of languages necessarily implies identity of race is not warranted.”
[18] D. G. Brinton, The American Race. He does not
approve wholly of these terminations.
[19]Seventh Annual Report, U. S. Bureau of Ethnology,
contains complete list of American race stocks, north of Mexico, as far
as known. See Appendix.
[21] Hopi is the singular; Hopituh the plural. Dr. Fewkes and
others having decided in favour of the singular form, it is so given
here.
[22] They have intermarried with the Hopi and Navajo till
Fewkes believes that in “the next generation the percentage of pure
Tañoan blood will be so small that we cannot regard the stock as
Tañoan.”—American Anthropologist, April, 1894, p. 167.
[28] There are analogies between the Nahuatl and some
languages of the North-west and Alaska, especially that of the
Koluschan, or Tlinkit, living along the sea from Dixon Entrance to
Prince William Sound.
[29] The Maya, however, has been found a useful language by
Europeans. Dr. Berendt met “whole families of pure white blood” who
used this language and did not know Spanish. This is not the usual fate
of the Amerind tongues.
[30] This word was popularly written Esquimaux, after the
French. Then the Bureau of Ethnology wrote it Eskimo, and this has been
the accepted spelling and pronunciation. But it is from the Abnaki
dialect of Algonquin, according to Brinton (The American Race,
p. 59), and is properly Eskimwhan. This is better represented by Eskimä
than by Eskimo.
[32] “Their language was reduced to writing some sixty years
ago and has now a considerable literature. Nearly all the men of
the tribe are able to conduct personal correspondence in their own
language.”—Mooney, American Anthropologist, N. S., vol. i., No.
1, p. 137, 1899.
[34] See also Payne’s History of the New World, vol.
ii., p. 96 et seq., for an excellent discussion of Amerind
languages.
[35] “Cherokee Formulas,” Mooney, Seventh Ann. Rept. Bu.
Eth.
[36] For a complete presentation of the subject of
sign-language, see paper by Garrick Mallery, First Ann. Rept. Bu.
Eth., and for that of picture-writing see Tenth Ann. Rept.,
a paper by same author, and one in Fourth Ann. Rept.
[37] Note in Preface and last chapter statement as to
irregularity of culture progress.
[38] The Mayas, however, had passed the zenith of their
development.
[39] “Etching” is the word commonly used, but as etching is a
totally different thing it has no place in this connection, and only
adds to the incongruities already existing in writings on the Amerind subject.
[40]Painted characters are found in southern
California, west and south-west of Sierra Nevada; painted
and scratched, from Colorado River to Georgia, north to West
Virginia and along the Mississippi. Remaining parts of United States
show rock scratchings almost exclusive of paintings, according to Mallery.
[41] The name applied by the Pai Utes to the old Puebloans.
[42] That is, the rock faces change slowly. Other changes may
occur, as, for instance, the foothold from which the pictures were
made. I remember seeing in Keam’s Canyon, Arizona, some pictographs on
a cliff wall that were far above reach, ten or twelve feet above my
head. My explanation was that the ground had been washed away after
they were made.
[43] I say “type,” because the Pueblo culture was not confined
to one stock. “Puebloan” may be used to designate them.
[44] A rock near Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, is inscribed with
characters supposed to be Runic, which have been translated by
Phillips, “Harkussenmen varu” = “Harko’s son addressed the
men.” The Dighton inscription was read as an account of the party of
Thorfinn, while other interpreters have made out Scythian and Phœnician
characters. It is possible that there may have been a few Runic
characters mingled with the Algonquian on the Dighton Rock.
[45] For a full account of the Walam Olum, see Brinton’s “The
Lenapé and their Legends,” in vol. v. of his Library of American
Aboriginal History.
[46] The pronunciation of this word always sounded to me
“kat-chee´-nah,” but Dr. Fewkes eliminates the “h” sound from
this and other words, and as he has devoted much attention to the
subject I follow his spelling.
[47] See Brinton, Essays of an Americanist, p. 213.
[48] At Newark, Ohio, a business was carried on in the
manufacture of inscribed stones, buried and dug up to suit occasion.
[49] See “A Remarkable Counterfeiter” by A. E. Jenks,
American Anthropologist, April-June, 1900.
[50] J. T. Goodman, Biologia Centrali Americana, part
ix., p. 11.
[51] The Sauk, of Algonquian stock, “have a syllabic alphabet,
apparently the work of some early French missionary, by means of which
they keep up a correspondence with friends on their various scattered
reservations.”—Mooney, American Anthropologist, January, 1899, p. 143.
[52] For an explanation of the Lost Tribes theory see Payne’s
History of the New World Called America, vol. ii., p. 75 et seq.
[53] Finally, after 1714, the machine-made beads grew in
favour, because the supply of native beads diminished with the
diminution of the number of Amerinds. These machine-made beads were of
uniform size, while the native beads varied considerably. See Horatio
Hale, Pop. Sci. Monthly, February, 1897.
[54] “The best blanket-makers, smiths, and other artisans
among the Navajos are the descendants of captives from Zuñi and other
Pueblos.”—J. G. Bourke, Jour. Am. Folk-Lore, p. 115.
[57] See “The Mountain Chant,” by Washington Matthews,
Fifth Ann. Rept. Bu. Eth. The dry-paintings also occur in the
“Yebitchai” ceremony, described by James Stevenson, Eighth Ann.
Rept. Bu. Eth.
[58] “Pictographs of the feathered, horned serpent are also
found on the cliff to the south-west of Walpi. These pictographs have
the head, with a representation of a horn and feathers, and the same
conventionalised markings of parallel lines and arrow-points which
are found on the kilts of the Snake priests.”—Fewkes, Journal of
American Ethnology, vol. ii., p. 38.
[60] By Dr. Nicolas Leon. Science, Jan. 27, 1899,
p. 156. Still another lately turned up in possession of an English
gentleman.
[61] “They may have passed through some of the same stages of
growth, but the general consensus of opinion is that the Mayan is the
older of the two classes, and that these two classes have developed
independently.”—Thomas, Study of American Archæology, p. 360.
[67] For a fac-simile of part of the Landa MS. and
bibliographic notes on Mayan and Mexican writing see Winsor’s Nar.
and Crit. Hist. of the U. S., vol. i., p. 197.
[68] See the Preface, p. vii., and the last chapter.
[69] Cyrus Thomas, Introduction to Study of American
Archæology, p. 361.
[73] The “Codex Cortesianus is considered to furnish a
connecting link between Maya and Mexican symbols.”—Powell.
[74] Written in 1558. An abridgment of an older book.
[75] Goodman gives these three signs for 20
symbol and remarks, “the last of the three being drawn with a great
variety of detail.”—Biologia Centrali Americana, part viii., p. 64.
[77] See the monumental work on basketry by Otis T. Mason, and
other writings on this subject by the same author.
[78] See the American Anthropologist, April, 1894, vol.
vii., “The Basket Drum,” by Washington Matthews, as an illustration of
how a certain specialty in an art may survive after the art itself is
neglected.
[79] Murdoch found fragments of a cooking pot at Point
Barrow.—Ninth Ann. Rept. Bu. Eth., p. 91. Rude cups were also
sometimes made.
[81] W. H. Holmes, Fourth Ann. Rept. Bu. Eth., “Pottery
of the Ancient Pueblos.”
[82] The Amerind paste was generally quite dark, a light
surface colour being obtained by a “slip.” But I have found fragments
of a pinkish-white ware in Arizona the same colour all the way through.
[83] The earthenware of the Greeks and Romans was not glazed,
but covered with wax, bitumen, etc.
[84] With all the differences, however, an examination of
pottery from all over North America will convince any close observer of
its general homogeneity.
[85] W. H. Holmes, “Ancient Pottery of the Mississippi
Valley,” Fourth Ann. Rept. Bu. Eth., p. 372.
[86] W. H. Holmes, “Ancient Art of the Province of Chiriqui,”
Sixth Ann. Rept. Bu. Eth., p. 56.
[87] F. S. Dellenbaugh, “Death-Masks in Ancient American
Pottery,” American Anthropologist, February, 1897.
[88] In this connection it may be mentioned that Swallow found
a human skull enclosed in an earthen jar, the opening of which was too
small to admit of the skull’s extraction.
[89] W. H. Holmes, “Prehistoric Textile Fabrics,” Third
Ann. Rept. Bu. Eth.; Ibid., “Prehistoric Textile Art,”
Thirteenth Ann. Rept. Bu. Eth.
[90] F. S. Dellenbaugh, “Fabric-Marked Pottery,” Popular
Science Monthly, March, 1898.
[91] Brinton states that the art of the potter was extensively
practised by the Lenapé, but if this were accurate fragments of pottery
ought to be commoner than they are in the region formerly their home.
[93] M. H. Saville, “Exploration of Zapotecan Tombs in
Southern Mexico,” American Anthropologist, N. S., April, 1899.
[94]American Anthropologist, N. S., 1899, i., p. 355.
[95] W. H. Holmes, “Ancient Art of the Province of Chiriqui,”
Sixth Ann. Rept. Bu. Eth.
[96] W. H. Holmes, “Ancient Art of the Province of Chiriqui,”
Sixth Ann. Rept. Bu. Eth.
[97] Rib is the term applied by our potters to the small thin
pieces of wood used for smoothing the ware. The Moki “rib” corresponds
closely in size, shape, and use to that I have seen employed by our
potters.
[98] For soapstone or steatite vessels, see Chap. X.
[99] Hoffman, Fourteenth Ann. Rept. Bu. Eth., p. 260.
[100] Holmes, Thirteenth Ann. Rept. Bu. Eth., p. 22.
[102] Gibbs, U. S. G. S., Contrib. to N. A. Ethnology,
vol. i., part ii., p. 219.
[103] National Academy of Sciences, Bones of the Hemenway
Expedition, Introduction by Washington Matthews, p. 157.
[104] See for description of kiva the chapter in this
book on Architecture, etc., and also Macmillan’s Dictionary of
Architecture.
[105] Dr. Washington Matthews, “Navajo Weavers.” Third Ann.
Rept. Bu. Eth., p. 375.
[106] Washington Matthews, Third Ann. Rept. Bu. Eth.,
p. 377.
[107] Some of the finest Navajo blankets command high prices.
A two faced blanket is described by Matthews in the American
Anthropologist, vol. ii., No. 4.
[112] The timatli or tilmatli for men was a
piece of cloth, according to Biart, “four feet long, which enveloped
the body, and two corners of which were knotted upon the breast or upon
the shoulder.”
[122] John W. De Forrest, History of the Indians of
Connecticut, pp. 9–11.
[123] Catlin had wonderful success in persuading Amerinds to
pose for him. When I went amongst the Navajos and Mokis in 1884–85
I found it next to impossible to get them to sit for me. Only one
solitary specimen in the whole region was willing to run the risk. It
was considered very “bad medicine.”
[124] The Crows, Sioux, Mandans, and Assiniboins are the same
stock—the Dakota or Siouan.
[125] Catlin, Smithsonian Report, 1885, pp. 450, 451.
[126] Dorsey, “Omaha Sociology,” Third Ann. Rept. Bu.
Eth., p. 310.
[127] Geo. Gibbs, “Tribes of Western Washington and
North-western Oregon,” U. S. G. S. Contrib., vol. i., part ii.,
p. 220.
[130] The same kind of a wicker cap is worn by many California
Amerinds.
[131] Cushing says of the early Zuñis: “They wore but scant
clothing besides their robes and blankets—breech-cloths and kilts,
short for the men, long for the women, and made of shredded bark and
rushes or fibre; sandals also of fibre.... The hair was bobbed to the
level of the eyebrows in front, but left long and hanging at the back,
etc.”—Thirteenth Ann. Rept. Bu. Eth., p. 358.
[132] “Coronado Letter,” Fourteenth Ann. Rept. Bu.
Eth., p. 562.
[133] “Narrative of Jaramillo,” Ibid., pp. 586, 587.
[134] “Relación Postrera de Sívola,” Ibid., p. 569.
[135] C. MacCauley, “Seminole Indians of Florida,” Fifth
Ann. Rept. Bu. Eth., p. 486.
[136]Memoirs Long Island Hist. Soc., vol. i., p. 99,
“Journal of a Voyage to New York in 1679–80.”
[137] See chapter on Weapons, and note also the quotation from
Prescott—pp. 134 and 136.
[138] James Mooney, “The Ghost-Dance Religion,” Fourteenth
Ann. Rept. Bu. Eth., pp. 789, 790; see also Chap. IX., this work.
[139] Murdoch, “The Point Barrow Eskimo,” Ninth Ann.
Rept. Bu. Eth.; Boas, “The Central Eskimo,” Sixth Ann. Rept.
Bu. Eth.; Turner, “Hudson Bay Eskimo,” Eleventh Ann. Rept. Bu.
Eth.
[141] Dr. Kane, Arctic Exploration, vol. i., p. 203.
[142] John D. Hunter, Memoirs of a Captive among the
Indians of North America, London, 1823, pp. 289, 290.
[143] Sometimes two high poles are set up, between which, at a
potlatch or “grease feast,” the piles of blankets forming payment for a
“copper” are laid. These are called “blanket-poles.”
[144] There is a fine specimen in the American Museum of
Natural History, New York.