Illustrated Catalogue Of The Collections Obtained From The Indians Of New Mexico Part 1

Ill.u.s.trated Catalogue Of The Collections Obtained From The Indians Of New Mexico.

by James Stevenson.

NOTE.

The following catalogue of the collections made during 1879 was prepared for the First Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, but owing to want of s.p.a.ce was not included in that volume. Before the necessity of this action was made apparent the matter had been stereotyped and it was impossible to change the figure numbers, etc. This will explain the seeming irregularity in the numbering of the figures--the first one of this paper following the last one of the above-mentioned report. The second catalogue, that of the collection of 1880, also included in this volume, has been made to correspond with the first, the figure numbers following in regular order.

LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL

WAs.h.i.+NGTON, _January 3, 1881_.

SIR: I have the honor to submit herewith an ill.u.s.trated catalogue exhibiting in part the results of the ethnologic and archaeologic explorations made under your direction in New Mexico and Arizona during the summer of 1879.

As you are already familiar with the mode of travel and the labor necessary in making such investigations and explorations, as well as the incidents common to such undertakings, and as I do not consider them of any special interest or value to the catalogue, I have omitted such details.

I beg, however, in this connection, to refer to the services of Messrs.

F. H. Cus.h.i.+ng, ethnologist of the Smithsonian Inst.i.tution, and J. K.

Hillers, photographic artist of the Bureau of Ethnology, both of whom accompanied me on the expedition.

Mr. Cus.h.i.+ng's duties were performed with intelligence and zeal throughout. After the field-work of the season was completed he remained with the Indians for the purpose of studying the habits, customs, manners, political and religious organizations, and language of the people; also to explore the ancient caves of that region. His inquiries will prove of the utmost interest and importance to science. Mr. Hillers labored with equal zeal and energy. His work is of the greatest value in ill.u.s.trating some of the most interesting features of our investigations. He made a large series of negatives depicting nearly every feature of the Pueblo villages and their inhabitants. The beauty and perfection of the photographs themselves fully attest the value and importance of his work.

I would extend most cordial thanks to General Sherman for the special interest he manifested in our work, and for directions given by him to the officers of the Army serving in the West to a.s.sist us in carrying out the objects of the expedition; and to the officers who so cordially rendered such aid.

To General Edward Hatch, commanding the district of New Mexico, we are indebted for valuable information and material a.s.sistance, which were liberally granted, and to which in great part our success was due. The party also received valuable aid from Gen. George P. Buell, U.S.A., who was in command at Fort Wingate during our work at Zuni, for which I am pleased to extend thanks. The large number and variety of objects collected by the members of the expedition, and the many difficulties incident to such undertakings, as well as the limited time devoted to the preparation of the catalogue, will account for any imperfections it may contain.

Hoping, however, that, notwithstanding these, it may serve useful ends in the continuation of such work,

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JAMES STEVENSON.

Prof. J. W. POWELL,

_Director Bureau of Ethnology_.

INTRODUCTION

It is not my intention in the present paper--which is simply what it purports to be, a _catalogue_--to attempt any discussion of the habits, customs, or domestic life of the Indian tribes from whom the articles were obtained; nor to enter upon a general comparison of the pottery and other objects with articles of a like character of other, nations or tribes. Occasionally attention may be called to striking resemblances between certain articles and those of other countries, where such comparison will aid in ill.u.s.trating form or character.

The collection contains two thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight specimens. Although it consists very largely of vessels and other articles of pottery, yet it embraces almost every object necessary to ill.u.s.trate the domestic life and art of the tribes from whom the largest number of the specimens were obtained. It includes, in addition to pottery, implements of war and hunting, articles used in domestic manufactures, articles of clothing and personal adornment, basketry, trappings for horses, images, toys, stone implements, musical instruments, and those used in games and religious ceremonies, woven fabrics, foods prepared and unprepared, paints for decorating pottery and other objects, earths of which their pottery is manufactured, mineral pigments, medicines, vegetable dyestuffs, &c. But the chief value of the collection is undoubtedly the great variety of vessels and other articles of pottery which it contains. In this respect it is perhaps the most complete that has been made from the pueblos. Quite a number of articles of this group may perhaps be properly cla.s.sed as "ancient," and were obtained more or less uninjured; but by far the larger portion are of modern manufacture.

ARTICLES OF STONE.

These consist of pestles and mortars for grinding pigments; circular mortars, in which certain articles of food are bruised or ground; _metates_, or stones used for grinding wheat and corn; axes, hatchets, celts, mauls, sc.r.a.pers &c.

The cutting, splitting, pounding, perforating, and sc.r.a.ping implements are generally derived from schists, basaltic, trachytic, and porphyritic rocks, and those for grinding and crus.h.i.+ng foods are more or less composed of coa.r.s.e lava and compact sandstones. Quite a number of the metate rubbing stones and a large number of the axes are composed of a very hard, heavy, and curiously mottled rock, a specimen of which was submitted to Dr. George W. Hawes, Curator of Mineralogy to the National Museum, for examination, and of which he says:

"This rock, which was so extensively employed by the Pueblo Indians for the manufacture of various utensils, has proved to be composed largely of quartz, intermingled with which is a fine, fibrous, radiated substance, the optical properties of which demonstrate it to be fibrolite. In addition, the rock is filled with minute crystals of octahedral form which are composed of magnet.i.te, and scattered through the rock are minute yellow crystals of rutile. The red coloration which these specimens possess is due to thin films of hemat.i.te. The rock is therefore fibrolite schist, and from a lithological standpoint it is very interesting. The fibrolite imparts the toughness to the rock, which, I should judge, would increase its value for the purposes to which the Indians applied it."

The axes, hatchets, mauls, and other implements used for cutting, splitting, or piercing are generally more or less imperfect, worn, chipped, or otherwise injured. This condition is to be accounted for by the fact that they are all of ancient manufacture; an implement of this kind being rarely, if ever, made by the Indians at the present day. They are usually of a hard volcanic rock, not employed by the present inhabitants in the manufacture of implements. They have in most cases been collected from the ruins of the Mesa and Cliff dwellers, by whose ancestors they were probably made. I was unable to learn of a single instance in which one of these had been made by the modern Indians. In nearly all cases the edges, once sharp and used for cutting, splitting, or piercing, are much worn and blunt from use in pounding or other purposes than that for which they were originally intended. On more than one occasion I have observed a woman using the edge of a handsome stone axe in pulverizing volcanic rock to mix with clay for making pottery.

Nearly all the edged stone implements are thus injured. Those showing the greatest perfection were either too small to utilize in this manner or had but recently been discovered when we obtained them.

The grinders and mortars are frequently found composed of softer rock, either ferruginous sandstone or gritty clays. For a more complete knowledge of these stone implements we must depend on a comparative study of large collections from different localities, and such information as the circ.u.mstances attending their discovery may impart, rather than upon their present condition or the uses for which they are now employed.

Metates or grain-grinders, pestles and rubbing stones belong to the milling industry among the Indians. The metates are generally quite large and heavy, and could not well be transported with the limited means at the command of Indians. They are therefore well adapted to the uses of village Indians, who remain permanently in a place and prosecute agricultural pursuits. They are generally of rectangular shape, and from 10 to 20 inches in length by 6 to 12 in width, and are composed of various kinds of rock, the harder, coa.r.s.e-grained kinds being preferable, though in some instances sandstone is employed; the most desirable stone is porous lava. These stones are sometimes carried with families of the Pueblos moving short distances to the valleys of streams in which they have farms in cultivation. In the permanent villages they are arranged in small rectangular bins (see Fig. 508), each about 20 inches wide and deep, the whole series ranging from 5 to 10 feet in length, according to the number of bins or divisions. The walls are usually of sandstone. In each compartment one of these metates or grinding stones is firmly set at a proper angle to make it convenient to the kneeling female grinder. In this arrangement of the slabs those of different degrees of texture are so placed as to produce an increased degree of fineness to the meal or flour as it is pa.s.sed from one to the other. But a small number of these slabs were collected on account of their great weight. Accompanying these metates are long, slim, flat stones, which are rubbed up and down the slabs, thus crus.h.i.+ng the grain.

These hand-stones are worn longitudinally into various shapes; some have two flat sides, while the third side remains oval. The same variety exists in regard to the texture of these rubbing-stones, as in the concave grinders.

The pueblo of Zuni, from which the most important portion of the collection was obtained, is situated in New Mexico, near the western border, about two hundred miles southwest from Santa Fe.

At the time of Coronado's visit to this country the pueblo was located at what is now known as "Old Zuni," on the summit of a high _mesa_. The modern Zuni is situated upon a knoll in the valley of the Zuni River, about two miles from the site of the old town. Certain writers have regarded Zuni, or rather "Old Zuni," as one of the "Seven Cities of Cibola." The evidences found at and around both the old and present Zuni are certainly not sufficient to warrant this view, and further and more careful investigations are necessary.

Zuni, although lying on the line of travel of military expeditions, emigrant trains, and trade between the Pacific coast and the Rio Grande, the foreigners visiting them have seldom remained long in their village; nor has the advancing wave of Caucasian settlement approached sufficiently near to exert any marked influence on their manners and customs; at least the form and decoration of their pottery bear no marked evidence of the influence of the more highly civilized races.

The collection made here by the expedition was more extensive than that from any other place, and numbers about fifteen hundred objects, of which by far the larger part is composed of earthenware articles. These include large and small water vases, canteens of various sizes and shapes, cooking cups, and pottery baskets used in their dances, paint-pots, ladles, water jugs, eating bowls, spoons, pepper and salt boxes, pitchers, bread-bowls, Navajo water jugs, treasure boxes, water vases, cups, cooking pots, skillets, ancient pottery, animals, and grotesque images. It belongs mostly to the variety of cream-white pottery, decorated in black and brown colors; a portion is red ware, with color decorations in black. There are also several pieces without ornamentation, and one or two pieces of black ware, but the latter were most probably obtained from other tribes, and possibly the same is true in reference to a few pieces of other kinds which present unusual figures or forms.

A slight glance at the figures depicted on the _tinajas_, or water vases, will suffice to show any one who has examined the older pottery of this region, specimens and fragments of which are found among the ruins, that a marked change has taken place in their ideas of beauty.

Although the rigid, angular, zigzag, and geometric figures are yet found in their decorations, they have largely given way to carved lines, rounded figures, and attempts to represent natural objects.

A few apparently conventional figures are still generally retained, as around the outside of the necks of the vases and on the outer surface of the bowls, probably suggested originally by the rigid outlines of their arid country, and in fact by their buildings. The figure of the elk or deer is a very marked feature in the ornamentation of their white ware, and is often found under an arch. Another very common figure is that of a grotesquely-shaped bird, found also on the necks of water vases and the outer surface of bowls.

ARTICLES OF CLAY.

Tinajas, or water vases, are called in the Zuni tongue _tkah-wi-na-ka-tehl-le_. They are usually from 8 to 12 inches in height, and from 12 to 15 in diameter. A smaller size of the same form of vessels, which are from 5 to 7 inches in height and from 8 to 10 in diameter, are called _det-tsan-na_. They are of three colors, cream white, polished red, and black: there are in the collection comparatively few of the second, and but one of the last variety. The decorations are chiefly in black and brown, but four or five pieces being in black. The decorations of the cream-white group present some four general types--those represented by Figs. 359, 363, 364, and ----, in which the uncolored circular s.p.a.ce forms the distinguis.h.i.+ng characteristic; those of which Fig. 360 may be considered a representative, of which type there are but two specimens in the collection; those represented by Fig. 361, and those distinguished by the rosette (see Figs. 366, 367, 368, and 370).

The following appear to be unique: (39935) Fig. 371, (40785) Fig. 375, (41149) Fig. 372, and (41167) Fig. 374.

By a careful study of these decorations we find that they consist chiefly of the following figures, which are combined in various ways: triangular figures, usually on the neck; large open circles, frequently in a diamond figure, as in Fig. 359 (39871); scrolls; or arches as in Figs. 361, 362, &c.

In no instance do we find the meander or Greek fret on these, or in fact any other Zuni vessels. A marked characteristic of the decorations on the pottery of this pueblo is the absence of vines and floral figures so common on those of some of the other pueblos. The nearest approach to the vine is the double line of scrolls seen in (40785) Fig. 375.

Although the checkered figure is common on bowls, the Zuni artists have appreciated the fact that it would be out of place on the convex surface of the water vase. The elks or deer--for it is difficult to tell which are intended--are usually marked with a circular or crescent-shaped spot, in white, on the rump, and a red diamond placed over the region of the heart, with a line of the same color extending from it to the mouth, both margined with white; the head of the animal is always toward the right.

As will be observed by examining the decorated pieces, the surface is divided into zones by lines--sometimes single, sometimes double, but generally slender--one near the base, one or two around the middle, one at the shoulder, and one at the rim; thus forming one zone embracing the neck, and two or three on the body, exclusive of the undecorated base.

Sometimes there is but one zone on the body as seen in Figs. 364 (40322) and 359 (39871); sometimes two, as shown in Figs. 367 (40317) and 370 (41146); but often three, the middle one quite narrow, as seen in Figs.

361 (39934) and 362 (41150). Although not always shown in the figures, the lines at the rim, shoulder, and bottom are seldom wanting in Zuni vases. The zones are often interrupted by broad perpendicular stripes or inclosed s.p.a.ces in which circles, scroll figures, or rosettes are inserted.

Measurements of these vessels show considerable uniformity of proportion, the widely exceptional specimens being also exceptional in decorations. As indicating size and proportion I give here the measurements of some typical as well as some abnormal specimens.

The figures show the height, the diameter of the body at the widest part, and the diameter of the mouth in inches.

+-----------------------------------+--------+-----------+----------+ | | Height.| Diameter | Diameter | | Number. | | of body. | of mouth.| +-----------------------------------+--------+-----------+----------+ | 1 | 8.25 | 12.00 | 6.75 | | 2 | 10.25 | 13.75 | 7.50 | | 3 | 11.00 | 13.25 | 7.15 | | 4 | 12.00 | 14.50 | 8.50 | | 5 | 10.75 | 14.50 | 8.25 | | 6 | 11.00 | 13.00 | 8.00 | | 7 | 7.25 | 10.00 | 5.00 | | 8 | 7.00 | 9.25 | 5.40 | | 9 | 4.25 | 6.75 | 4.60 | | 10 | 4.40 | 5.50 | 3.75 | | 11 | 3.50 | 4.50 | 3.25 | | 12 | 3.50 | 4.25 | 2.90 | | 13 | 7.75 | 8.00 | 5.75 | | 14 | 9.00 | 9.75 | 6.50 | +-----------------------------------+--------+-----------+----------+