The Archaeology of the Yakima Valley Part 19

[398] Spinden, Plate IX, Fig. 19.

[399] Smith, (c), Fig. 341a; Teit, (a), Fig. 295.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 124. Fragment of a Sculpture with Hoof-like part.

From Pasco. 1/2 nat. size. (Drawn from a sketch. Original in the collection of Mr. Owen.)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 125. Sculptured Animal Form made of Lava. From an Indian who claimed to have found it in a grave on the Yakima Reservation two miles below Union Gap below Old Yakima. 1/2 nat. size. (Drawn from photographs 44452, 2-1, 44455, 2-4, and 44503, 6-4. Original catalogue No. 36 in the collection of Mr. Janeck.)]

Fig. 124 ill.u.s.trates a fragment of sculpture from Pasco. It is hoof-shaped and is here reproduced from a sketch of the original in the collection of Mr. Owen. The sculptured animal form made of lava shown in Fig. 125 which was mentioned on p. 38, bears a mortar or dish in its back. It is a good example of an art form which has been specialized so that it may be used or at least so that the useful part is less prominent than the animal figure. It has been sculptured by pecking. The raised eyes are almond-shaped rather than elliptical, and the ears are indicated by raised places on the transverse ridge at the top of the head. The mid-rib or dewlap under the chin is about 6 mm. wide and of the three transverse grooves in this, only the upper one is deep. The tail is slightly under cut. The grooves are all more or less colored with vermilion, apparently a mineral paint and consequently sufficiently lasting so that we need not consider even the painting as necessarily modern. The general form and especially the four elephantine legs remind us of a somewhat similar animal form with a dish in its back found in a sh.e.l.l heap in the delta of the Fraser River[400] and the animal form with the dish in its back resembles slightly carvings found in the Lillooet Valley[401] and the Thompson River region.

[400] Smith, (a), Fig. 56.

[401] Teit, (b), Fig. 97.

The pipe made of steat.i.te shown in Fig. 128[402] ill.u.s.trates the modern type of carving in soft, easily cut stone, as well as the style of white metal inlaying employed here during recent years. In this case, the inlaying is nearly bilaterally symmetrical as may be seen by comparing Fig. 128a with the outlines in _c_ and _d_. The carving is not symmetrical, the human form holding a fish-like form appearing on one side only, while the rear figure evidently represents a turtle which animal is found in the valley. The other two figures are not easily identified but the forward one perhaps represents a dog, the white metal inlay on it possibly representing a harness, but as likely was merely for decoration. The figure on the base of the pipe might represent a lizard or any quadruped with a long tail. This form and the way it is represented as clinging to the cylindrical part of the pipe at least remind us of similar forms seen on totem poles in the region from Puget Sound to Victoria.[403] The technique is rather crude and the style of art does not closely resemble that of the coast, but reminds us of certain sculptures found on pipes and on the carved wooden stems of pipes in the Plains where this particular shape of pipe is much more common than here.

[402] First figured on p. 283, Archaeology of the Yakima Valley by Harlan I. Smith, Was.h.i.+ngton Magazine, June, 1906.

[403] Cf. also Smith, (b), Fig. 185a.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 126 (202-8121). Handle of Digging Stick made of Horn of Rocky Mountain Sheep. From an Indian woman living near Union Gap below Old Yakima. 1/4 nat. size.]

In Fig. 105 is ill.u.s.trated a fragment of a sculptured tubular pipe made from steat.i.te by cutting or scratching and drilling the soft material rather than by pecking. It was apparently intended to represent an anthropoid form. The mouth is indicated by an incision, the other features of the head are more difficult to determine, but both the arm and the leg stand out in high relief. As previously suggested on p. 111, this style of art slightly resembles that found in the region from the Lillooet Valley to the Lower Willamette and as far east at least as The Dalles.[404] It is possible that some of the sculptures found in the Thompson River region[405] adjoining the Lillooet Valley on the east and the Yakima region on the north, may be somewhat related to the style of art of this fragmentary pipe. The human form shown in Fig. 121 has been discussed on p. 127 as it is incised rather than carved in the round.

Clark mentions a "malet of stone curiously carved,"[406] which he says was used by the Indians near the mouth of the Snake River and Eells[407]

mentions two stone carvings from the general area of which this is a part which he describes as horses' heads. If this interpretation be correct, the carvings are evidently modern. The fish form shown in Fig.

119 has been mentioned on p. 127.

[404] Teit, (b), Figs. 68 and 95-97; Smith, (d), Fig. 183 and especially Figs. 195b and 198.

[405] Smith, (d), Fig. 113; (b), Fig. 185a.

[406] Lewis and Clark, III, p. 124.

[407] Eells, p. 293.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 127. Pipe made of Stone. From a hillside grave on Topp.e.n.i.sh Creek near Fort Simcoe. Collected by Mrs. Lynch. 1/2 nat.

size. (Now in the collection of Mr. George G. Heye, New York.)]

The very form of the pestle shown in Fig. 34 and the symmetrical outline of the club shown in Fig. 62 are in themselves somewhat artistic, while the fact that the pipe shown in Fig. 113 somewhat represents a tomahawk or hatchet suggests that it may have been sculptured as representative art. It seems likely that it was modelled after the metal tomahawk pipe introduced by the traders which of course would indicate that it was recently made.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 128. Sculptured and Inlaid Pipe made of Steat.i.te with Wooden Stem. From Chief Moses of the Yakima Region. 1/2 nat. size.

(Drawn from photograph 44508, 6-9, 6-10, 6-11. Original in the collection of Mrs. Lynch.)]

_Coast Art._ The pipe shown in Fig. 127 which was mentioned on p. 116 is clearly of the art of the northwest coast. It must have been brought to this region from as far at least, as the Kwakiutl and Haida region, and may be the work of an artist from that part of the coast, on Vancouver Island, north of Comox. Although in a fragmentary condition, this sculpture exhibits an excellent technique of its style of art. Astride of the stem is a human figure with the left hand to the chest, and the right one resting on the right knee. The head is missing, the chest muscular. The other end of the pipe apparently represents the thunder bird. The head and most of the figure are bilaterally symmetrical. The beak is cut off in such a manner as to form a flat surface at the tip.

The feathers of the rear portion of the left wing extend in a different direction from those on the tip, while those of the right wing are parallel with those on the rear part of the left wing. The lower side or tail of this bird figure is broken off, but it probably extended to the broken place shown at the neck of the human face on the base of the pipe. In it, may be seen a groove, the half of a longitudinal perforation which does not connect with the pipe bowl. The carving on the right side of the pipe bowl, the top of which is broken away, is practically the same as that on the left, while the base is carved to represent a human head.

METHOD OF BURIAL.

In ancient times, there were three princ.i.p.al methods of disposing of the dead: in graves in domes of volcanic ash, in rock-slide graves, and in cremation circles. In all of these they were covered with stones.[408]

Detailed descriptions of the graves explored by us, are given in the appendix. There are also burials covered with pebbles, some of which may be old; and recent graves (p. 20), where the bodies were apparently buried at length with the feet to the east, and both head and foot marked by a stake, the one at the head being the larger. Simple graves in the level ground known to be old were not found. Gibbs saw bodies wrapped in blankets and tied upright to tree trunks at some distance above the ground near the mouth of the Okanogan River.[409]

[408] Cf. also Yarrow, p. 178; Gibbs, (b), p. 201.

[409] Gibbs, (a), p. 413.

_Burials in Domes of Volcanic Ash._ In this arid region are stretches of country locally known as 'scab land,' on which are occasionally groups of low dome-shaped knolls from about fifty to one hundred feet in diameter, by three to six feet in height.[410] These knolls consist of fine volcanic ash, and apparently have been left by the wind because held in place by roots of sage brush and other vegetation. This ashy material has been swept from the intervening surface leaving the 'scab land' paved with fragments of basalt imbedded in a hard soil. The prehistoric Indians of this region, have used many of these knolls, each as a site for a single grave (Fig. 2, Plate IX).[411] These graves, which are located in the tops of the knolls, are usually marked by large river pebbles, or, in some cases, by fragments of basalt that appear as a circular pavement projecting slightly above the surface of the soil.

None of them are known to be recent. On the other hand, there is no positive evidence of their great antiquity. In these we sometimes find a box or cyst. This box (Plate X) was formed of thin slabs of basaltic rock some placed on edge and large flat slabs covering the cyst so formed. Above this, as was usually the case, above the skeletons in this kind of grave, the s.p.a.ce was filled with irregular rocks or pebbles. The rocks and cyst were entirely different from those of the cairns of the coast of Was.h.i.+ngton and British Columbia.[412] The skeletons were found flexed, on the side. In the graves, artifacts such as dentalium sh.e.l.ls were deposited at the time of burial.

[410] See Museum negative nos. 44442, 1-3, and 44496, 5-9.

[411] See Museum negative no. 44497, 5-10, taken from the north of east. See also pp. 17 and 161. First mentioned in Smith, (g), VI.

[412] See Smith and Fowke.

The Kalapuya of the Willamette Valley to the southwest, buried their dead in the earth. One writer described the process as follows:--"When the grave was dug they placed slabs on the bottom and sides, and when they had lowered the wrapped body down, placed another over, resting on the side ones, and filled in the earth."[413] The account does not seem to indicate whether these slabs were of wood or stone, but in either case there is a certain similarity to the graves with the stone cyst found near Tampico.

[413] Lewis, p. 178; Galschet, p. 86; American Antiquarian, IV, 1882, p. 331.

A grave which may be of this type, found about two and one half miles south of Fort Simcoe was reported to me by Mrs. Lynch who furnished the following information about it. It was on a low ridge with the usual cairn of rocks about three feet high covering it. This cairn was made up of two distinct layers of rocks, both lying above the contents of the grave which included the skeleton of an adult man estimated to be at least six feet tall and that of a child about six to eight years of age, according to identifications made by the physician of the United States Indian service stationed at Fort Simcoe. The man's skull which was well preserved though brittle, was found four feet below the ground or approximately seven feet below the top of the cairn and on the eastern side of the grave. The pelvis of the child was completely decayed, and few of the bones were intact except the maxilla which was found in the western part of the grave between the patellae of the man. Near them were found four "links" [beads] of a copper necklace. The maxilla was deeply copper-stained. The steat.i.te ornament shown in Fig. 119 was found on the man's manubrium.

_Rock-slide Graves._ The rock-slides on the hill and canon sides as in the region to the north had frequently been used as burial places. The graves are found from top to bottom. Some of them seem very old. Others were proven to be recent by the character of the objects found in them.

The skeletons were in or on the ground and the rocks of the slide had been piled or caused to slide over them (Fig. 1, Plate VIII).[414] The skeleton was buried from one to five, six or even ten feet deep. In some cases, the rocks seemed to have sunk as the body decayed, in others they formed a pile as if placed there to mark the grave. Some graves were marked with sticks (Fig. 3, Plate VI). In others, probably always the older graves, sticks were not seen having doubtless decayed. One of the graves found rifled 75 feet above the little flat at the edge of the north side of the Naches River about a mile and a half above its mouth, seemed to lie walled up with rocks like a well and slabs of a broken canoe, part of which had been thrown out surrounded a few of the disturbed bones. The skeletons were always in a flexed position (Fig. 2, Plate VIII) and objects were found to have been placed in some of these graves.

[414] See Museum negative no. 44513, 7-3, from the south in base of rock-slide on the north side of the Yakima River about a mile below the mouth of the Naches River, see p. 15.

Spinden states that cemeteries are readily located by the heaps of "river-worn or rock-slide boulders" piled over the graves in the Nez Perce country.[415] They are usually on the first bench above the river bottom and are found near the traditional village sites, from which they can be seen. The more common method of disposing of the dead there, was by burial in the ground, especially on stony hillsides, and covering the graves with stones to keep off the wild animals. This seems to have been the prevailing method throughout the whole Columbia region of which this is a part.[416] Rock-slide graves were sometimes made in basaltic cliffs in the Nez Perce region. One of these is known to have been used in recent times from the presence of a Lewis and Clark medal,[417] and graves marked by pieces of upright cedar and covered by large piles of stone are reported by Spinden on the east bank of the Snake River, beside the mouth of the Grande Ronde.[418]

[415] Spinden, p. 181.

[416] Lewis, p. 190; Lewis and Clark. IV, pp. 366-7, 371, V, p. 99; Ross, (a), pp. 320-321; c.o.x, p. 105; Douglas, p. 339; Gibbs, (a), p.

405.

[417] Spinden, p. 181.

[418] Spinden, pp. 181 and 252.

Indian graves filled up with stones are numerous in the vicinity of the several remains (pp. 29, 54 and 82) near Mr. Turner's home, according to Mr. J. S. Cotton. Mr. Turner told him that all the graves that had been excavated contained bones in a greatly decayed condition, which suggested to him that they were very old. These graves, like the other remains of the vicinity previously mentioned, have been in the same condition since about 1874.

The terraces mentioned on p. 13 (Fig. 1, Plate VII)[419] may have been made to facilitate reaching rock-slide graves in the same slide; while the pits which were found in the slides (Fig. 2, Plate VII)[420] walled up on the outer sides like balconies, with the rocks that apparently came both from the pits and the disturbed slide above them, have been considered as rifled graves or graves from which the burials had been removed (p. 13).

[419] See Museum negative no. 44520, 7-10, from the southwest, about a mile above the mouth of the Naches River, (p. 13).