The Archaeology of the Yakima Valley Part 20

[420] See Museum negative no. 44519, 7-9. The same slide from the southwest (p. 13).

The following quotation may refer to rock-slide pits:[421] "In the eastern part of Marion County, Oregon, there stands an isolated and most strikingly regular and beautiful b.u.t.te some three hundred feet in height and covering nearly a section of land. It was fringed about its base, at the time of which I write, with fir groves, but its sides and well rounded and s.p.a.cious top were devoid of timber, except a few old and spreading oaks, and perhaps a half dozen gigantic firs, whose weighty limbs were drooping with age. A meridian section line pa.s.ses over the middle of this b.u.t.te, and four sections corner near its top. While running this line and establis.h.i.+ng these corners in 1851, I observed many semi-circular walls of stone, each enclosing s.p.a.ce enough for a comfortable seat, and as high as one's shoulders when in a sitting posture, upon cross-sticks as high as the knee ... the older white residents said the Indians made them, but for what purpose they could not say. I became a witness to the use, and was particularly impressed with the fitness for what I saw. Indians from the North and South traveling that way generally camped upon the banks of the Abiqua Creek, a rapid stream of pure, cold water, just issued from the mountains upon the plain. The b.u.t.te was near, and this they ascended and, taking seats within the stone sanctuaries, communed in silence with the Great Spirit.

Bowing the head upon the hands and resting them upon the knees for a few moments, then sitting erect and gazing to the west over the enchanting valley interspersed with meadow, grove and stream." The author states that the place is now called Mount Angel, is surmounted by a Roman Catholic cathedral and that the Indians called this b.u.t.te Tap-a-lam-a-ho, signifying Mount of Communion; and the plain to the west Chek-ta, meaning beautiful or enchanting.

[421] Pp. 35 and 36 of an article ent.i.tled "Extract from T. W.

Davenport's, Recollections of an Indian agent (not yet published)."

The Quarterly of the Oregon Historical Society, March, 1904, Vol. V, No. 1.

Possibly the burials in the domes of volcanic ash and those in the rock-slides are practically the results of a common motive by the same people in the same time and the differences may be due simply to the difference in the character of the near by topography and the relative convenience of securing the material to cover the graves. This idea is strengthened by information given me by Mr. W. H. Hindshaw who stated that from sixteen to thirty miles above the mouth of the Snake River where it cuts through canons there are rock burial heaps immediately above flood level and burials in the flood sand below, both of which he found to contain human bones and implements. He also stated that graves are found on the bluff overlooking the river. One was curbed with the remains of a cedar canoe. The grave had a bottom of plank and a cover over the body--that of a small child--which was wrapped in a fur, apparently a beaver skin. There were a number of beads and bra.s.s b.u.t.tons and a large fragment of the sh.e.l.l of the _Schizoth.o.e.rus nuttallii_ which must have come from the coast.

_Cremation Circles._ Rings of stones (Fig. 1, Plate IX)[422] were also seen and on excavation within them cremated human remains were found usually several in each circle. In some cases the ring was irregular and in others a.s.sumed the form of a rectangle. None of them are known to be recent. In such places, dentalium sh.e.l.ls, flat sh.e.l.l beads, and sh.e.l.l ornaments were usually seen. Mr. Teit says that rings of stones were also put on top of graves in the Thompson River region. Along the Columbia, below the mouth of the Snake River, vaults or burial houses like those found among the Upper Chinook were used.[423] A somewhat similar method was observed even among the Nez Perce.[424] This suggests that the cremation circles here described, may be the caved-in remains of earth-covered burial lodges built somewhat on the plan of the semi-subterranean winter houses.

[422] Museum negative no. 44493, 5-6 of circle no. 14 from the east on the terrace northwest of the junction of the Yakima and the Naches Rivers (p. 15 and 157). Cf. also Museum negative no. 44522, 7-2.

[423] Cf. Lewis, p. 190; Lewis and Clark, II, pp. 139-140.

[424] Lewis and Clark, IV, p. 369; Lewis, p. 190.

_Position of the Body._ In all the old graves the skeletons were flexed and usually on the side (Plate VIII, Fig. 2).[425] The graves where the body was buried at length with the feet to the east were doubtless recent and probably placed that way due to the teachings of Christians.

In the Nez Perce region to the east, the body was placed in a variety of positions, either flexed or at length[426] and sometimes upon the side.

Considering the difference between the costume and objects used by the men and those by the women, in the Nez Perce region to the east,[427] it would seem that the contents of the graves in this near by region may be used to check the determination of the s.e.x of the skeletons.

[425] Museum negative no. 44516, 7-6, see grave no. 22, p. 160.

[426] Spinden, pp. 182 and 252.

[427] Cf. Spinden, p. 216.

_Property with the Dead._ Objects are usually found with the remains of the dead in all cla.s.ses of old burials but some of the graves contained nothing; others very little. There was apparently no radical difference in the character of the material in the graves in volcanic domes and those in the rock-slides; but the more modern rock-slide graves seemed, on the whole, to contain a greater number of objects than the older graves or the graves in domes. On the coast, objects are found with recent burials, but rarely in ancient graves. The cremation circles often contained dentalium sh.e.l.ls and bits of sh.e.l.l objects but little else. In the Nez Perce region to the east a considerable amount of property, ornaments and utensils is found buried with the dead.[428]

[428] Spinden, pp. 182 and 252.

_Horse Sacrifices._ We discovered no graves containing horse bones or over which a skeleton of a horse was found, although it will be remembered that such were found in the Nez Perce region east of here.[429] There, the killing of horses over the graves of their owners became the usual practice when horses were plentiful. Sometimes a horse was buried over the body.[430] In this region, however, we found no evidences of the horse in connection with the graves other than the presence of an old Spanish bit in one of the more recent burials.

[429] Spinden, p. 182.

[430] Spinden, p. 252.

_Diseases._ Out of about seventeen complete skeletons and six skulls secured in this region by our party those of two children (99-4323, 99-4326) and two adults, one of which was apparently a female (99-4336), exhibited anchylosis of some of the vertebrae. The left ankle bones of the other skeleton (99-4327) showed anchylosis with the tibia and one of the ribs was abnormal. The skeleton of a young child (99-4329) with persistent frontal suture, an example of r.e.t.a.r.ded development was also found.[431]

[431] Cf. Wounds, p. 82.

CONCLUSION.

The connection, nay partial ident.i.ty, of this culture with that of the Thompson River region in the southern interior of British Columbia is supported by considerable evidence. Small heaps of fresh-water clam sh.e.l.ls are found in both regions. The preponderance of chipped points over those ground out of stone, bone and antler; the presence of digging stick handles; pestles with flaring bodies and no striking heads, others with tops in the form of animal heads; celts; the sites of cache pits, of circular summer lodges marked by rings of stones; and of semi-subterranean houses with stones on the encircling ridge; pairs of arrow-shaft smoothers, and bone tubes, were all found to be common to both regions. The simple pipe bowl found here, although with one exception not found among archaeological objects in the Thompson area is commonly used by the present Indians there. Tubular pipes, modern copper tubes or beads, incised designs consisting of a circle with a dot in it and engraved dentalium sh.e.l.ls, each of a particular kind, besides pictographs in red, rock-slide sepulchres, modern graves walled up with parts of canoes, the marking of recent graves with sticks, and the custom of burying artifacts with the dead were also found to be common to both areas. Perforated slate tablets of gorget-form are unknown in both regions. Circles of stones which mark places where cremated human remains were found in this region sometimes indicate graves in the Thompson River region.

Frazer[432] mentions meeting Yakima Indians in the Lillooet Valley which shows that they travelled even beyond the Thompson River country and readily accounts for the dissemination of cultural elements.

[432] Fraser, p. 175.

On the other hand, many differences in culture are observable. Thus objects made of nephrite and mica which occur, the former being common in the Thompson River valley, were not found in the Yakima area.

Quarries and terraced rock-slides such as were seen here are not known to us in the Thompson River region. The bone of the whale occasionally found in the Thompson River country is lacking in Yakima collections.

That gla.s.sy basalt was not the chief material for chipped implements, as it was in the Thompson River region, is probably due to the scarcity of this material and its use is perhaps as rare in the Yakima valley as on the coast. Chipped implements were made of a greater variety of stone than in the interior of British Columbia, and a greater proportion were of the more beautifully colored materials. No harpoon points made of a unio (?) sh.e.l.l, such as the object found in the Thompson River region or other objects made of such a sh.e.l.l, were seen. Notched sinkers and large grooved sinkers were more commonly found than in the Thompson Valley, while sap sc.r.a.pers which were common there, were not found in the Yakima district. A great number of pestles made from short cylindrical pebbles, forming a type rather rare in the Thompson River region; many long pestles, of which only four or five have been found in interior British Columbia; and one with a zigzag design not represented among the finds from that region, were found in the Yakima area. Saucer-shaped depressions marking summer lodge sites were not noted by the writer.

Clubs made of stone were more numerous and all are of a different type.

Clubs or other objects made of the bone of the whale or drilled pendants either circular or elongated were not found. Petroglyphs, pictographs in white, and representations of feather headdresses were not found among the archaeological objects in the Thompson region. Graves in knolls, some with a cyst made of thin slabs of stones const.i.tute another distinct trait of the Yakima area.

There is relatively less evidence of contact with the prehistoric people of Puget Sound and the Pacific coast of Was.h.i.+ngton, and of southern British Columbia. Several kinds of sea sh.e.l.ls, including dentalium, haliotis and pectunculus, which must have come from the coast, were found in the Yakima Valley. Small points chipped from beautiful material found in this region were occasionally seen on the coast, more particularly south of Puget Sound. Gla.s.sy basalt was used here perhaps about as much as on the coast. Net sinkers are also about as common here as on the coast from Gray's Harbor southward. The pestles found in the vicinity of Vancouver Island are similar to some of the short pestles found in the Yakima region. Short tubular pipes are found on the coast in the vicinity of the Saanich Peninsula and the Lower Frazer. The pipe previously described as clearly representative of the art of the Northwest coast must have been brought from there or made by a coast artist, not by one merely familiar with the art of the coast. A portion of the material indicative of coast culture that was found in the Yakima Valley may have come up the Cowlitz and down the Topp.e.n.i.sh River.

The similarities mentioned are, however, outweighed by marked differences. Large sh.e.l.l heaps--the chief feature of Coastal archaeology--have not been found in the Yakima area, while quarries are unknown to us on the coast. Objects made of nephrite and whale's bone are lacking in the Yakima Valley. A very great number of points rubbed out of slate and bone are found on the coast, but none rubbed out of slate and only a few rubbed out of bone have been found on Yakima sites.

Net sinkers are much more common than on the coast, where they are plentiful only from Gray's Harbor southward and in the Lower Columbia Valley. Long pestles with the tops carved to represent animal heads are distinctive of the Yakima area, while cylindrical pebbles used as pestles but slightly changed from the natural form, which are quite common in the Yakima Valley, are rarely found in the Coast country. One style of club made of stone commonly found in this vicinity has not been seen anywhere on the coast, although some clubs made of stone are like specimens from that region. Perforated slate tablets like Coastal gorgets are unknown to us from the Yakima area. Cairns common on the coast are not found in the Yakima country, while the reverse holds true of rock-slide burials. Graves in knolls are unknown on the Pacific, and artifacts are often found in the Yakima graves but they seldom, if ever, occur with ancient burials on the coast.

Much of the material from the Yakima region resembles that which I have seen from the general area including the Columbia Valley between Umatilla and The Dalles, and possibly extending further down the valley.

There seems to be a greater similarity of the art products of the Yakima to those of the Thompson River region than to those of the Columbia Valley below the mouth of the Snake, so far as we understand the latter region at this time, and this according to Lewis[433] is certainly not contrary to the belief in an earlier occupancy of this region by the Salish. The culture here resembles that of the Nez Perce region to the east in that a considerable variety of material was used for chipped implements.[434]

[433] Lewis, p. 196.

[434] Spinden, p. 181.

Inter-tribal trade may have been a factor in the production of some observed similarities. It was seen that pipes of three types, one of which is found as far east as the Dakota, another as far north as the Thompson River country, and a third as far west as the Queen Charlotte Islands are all found in this region. It is clear that the ancient people from the Yakima region had extensive communications not only with the region southward as far as The Dalles, but also northward, as far as the more distant Thompson River tribes. If the products of the sea found in this region came up the Columbia, as may be inferred from Lewis,[435]

it is a good ill.u.s.tration of how trade as a rule, follows the line of least physical resistance; although the migrations of the tribes do not always follow such lines because the lines of trade as a rule are thickly populated by people who resist the migration of their neighbors.

Lewis[436] states that from the coast inward there was only one trade route of importance in the Was.h.i.+ngton-Oregon-Idaho region and this led up the Columbia River to The Dalles where was found the greatest trade center in the whole region and whither the tribes were wont to come from the north and south as well as from the east.[437] Klamath,[438] Cayuse, Nez Perce, Walla Walla and other Sahaptin and probably Salish tribes were all in the habit of going there to traffic. He also states that further east, the Sahaptin in their turn, traded with the Shoshone from whom they obtained buffalo robes and meat. The center for this trade at least in later times was the Grande Ronde in eastern Oregon;[439] but this later center probably came into being after the advent of the horse. The Okanogan are known to have crossed the mountains to Puget Sound to trade wild hemp for sea sh.e.l.ls especially dentalia as well as for other small objects.[440] The Yakima also in later times crossed the mountains and traded with Puget Sound tribes according to Gibbs,[441]

but if this trade were carried on in earlier times its effect in the Yakima Valley seems to have been slight as indicated by the few dentalium sh.e.l.ls, the sh.e.l.l pendants shown in Figs. 87-94 and the pipe of coast art, shown in Fig. 127. It is possible that this trade with the coast became customary only after the horse was introduced. There was a considerable amount of trade between the Yakima and the Thompson River and other tribes of British Columbia which was carried on chiefly through the Okanogan.[442] Lewis[443] states that the Walla Walla who lived to the south of the Yakima at least in later times visited as far north as the Thompson River region, and that certain Sahaptin tribes seem to have moved northward and westward and forced back the Salish tribes which at the time of Lewis and Clark's visit were on the north bank of the Columbia and on its tributaries.[444] These tribes were particularly the Klickitat and the Yakima, an a.s.sumption which Lewis states is supported by the definite a.s.sertions of the natives themselves. A number of old men positively a.s.sured Dr. Suckley that they had pushed their way into the country formerly occupied by the Salish.[445] The Klickitat, although living in a well wooded region on the southern slopes of Mt. Adams and Mt. St. Helens are thought to have been driven by the Cayuse from their earlier home which was further east and south. Later, they went further west into the Cowlitz Valley.[446]

This may account for the circular pit surrounded by an embankment which I saw near Rochester in Thurston County and interpreted as the remains of a semi-subterranean winter house site. Lewis also states that the Yakima probably lived on the Columbia near the mouth of the river which now bears their name, and are in fact so located by c.o.x who places them on the north and east side of the Columbia. The pressure of neighboring tribes caused by the coming of the white race no doubt facilitated the adoption of new cultural details.

[435] Lewis, p. 193.

[436] Lewis, p. 193.

[437] Lewis and Clark, IV, p. 286; Ross, (b), p. 117.

[438] Gatschet, p. 93.

[439] Wilkes, IV, p. 394.

[440] Ross, (a), p. 290; (b), I, p. 44.

[441] Gibbs, (a), p. 408.

[442] Cf. Teit, (a), p. 258.