Man, Past and Present Part 39

Whenever it is possible the men spend the short days in hunting and each woman prepares the food for her husband. The long nights are mainly spent in various recreations. The social life in the summer settlement is somewhat different. The families do not cook their own meals, but a single one suffices for the whole settlement. The day before it is her turn to cook the woman goes to the hills to fetch enough shrubs for the fire. When a meal is ready the master of the house calls out and everybody comes out of his tent with a knife, the men sit in one circle and the women in another. These dinners, which are always held in the evening, are almost always enlivened by a mimic performance. The great religious feasts take place just before the beginning of winter.

There are three forms of social grouping: the Family, House-mates, and Place-mates. (1) The family consists of a man, his wife or wives, their children and adopted children; widows and their children may be adopted, but the woman retains her own fireplace. Sometimes men are adopted, such as bachelors without any relatives, cripples, or impoverished men. Joint owners.h.i.+p and use of a boat and house, and common labour and toil in obtaining the means of support define the real community of the family.

(2) House-mates are families that join together to build and occupy and maintain the same house. This form of establishment is especially common in Greenland, but each family keeps its separate establishment inside the common house. (3) Place-fellows. The inhabitants of the same hamlet or winter establishment form one community although no chief is elected or authority acknowledged.

Generally children are betrothed when very young. The newly married pair usually live at first with the wife's family. Both polygyny and polyandry occur. A man may lend or exchange his wife for a whole season or longer, as a sign of friends.h.i.+p. On certain occasions it is even commanded by religious law. There is no government, but there is a kind of chief in the settlement, though his authority is very limited. He is called the "pimain," _i.e._ he who knows everything best. He decides the proper time to s.h.i.+ft the huts from one place to another, he may ask some men to go sealing, others to go deer hunting, but there is not the slightest obligation to obey him. The men in a community may form themselves into an informal council for the regulation of affairs. The decorative art of the Eskimo is not remarkably developed, but the pictorial art consists of clever sketches of everyday scenes and there is a well developed plastic art. Many of the carvings are toys and are made for the pleasure of the work. "The religious views and practices of the Eskimo while, on the whole, alike in their fundamental traits, show a considerable amount of differentiation in the extreme east and in the extreme west. It would seem that the characteristic traits of shamanism are common to all the Eskimo tribes. The art of the shaman (angakok) is acquired by the acquisition of guardian spirits.... Besides the spirits which may become guardian spirits of men, the Eskimo believes in a great many others which are hostile and bring disaster and death.... The ritualistic development of Eskimo religion is very slight[814]."

II. Mackenzie Area. Skirting the Eskimo area is a belt of semi-Arctic lands almost cut in two by Hudson Bay. To the west are the Dene tribes, who are believed to fall into three culture groups, an eastern group, Yellow Knives, Dog Rib, Hares, Slavey, Chipewyan and Beaver; a south-western group, Nahane, Sekani, Babine and Carrier; and a north-western group, comprising the Kutchin, Loucheux, Ahtena and Khotana. The material culture of the south-western group is deduced from the writings of Father Morice[815]. All the tribes are hunters of large or small game, caribou are often driven into enclosures, small game taken in snares or traps; various kinds of fish are largely used, and a few of the tribes on the head waters of the Pacific take salmon; large use of berries is made, they are mashed and dried by a special process; edible roots and other vegetable foods are used to some extent; utensils are of wood and bark; there is no pottery; bark vessels are used for boiling with or without stones; travel in summer is largely by canoe, in winter by snowshoe; dog sleds are used to some extent, but chiefly since trade days, the toboggan form prevailing; clothing is of skins; mittens and caps are worn; there is no weaving except rabbit-skin garments, but fine network occurs on snowshoes, bags, and fish nets, materials being of bark fibre, sinew and bab.i.+.c.he; there is also a special form of woven quill work; the typical habitation seems to be the double lean-to, though many intrusive forms occur; other material culture traits include the making of fish-hooks and spears; a limited use of copper; and poorly developed work in stone.

The physical characteristics vary very much from tribe to tribe. The Sekani, according to Morice, are slender and bony, in stature rather below the average, with a narrow forehead, hollow cheeks, prominent cheekbones, small eyes deeply sunk in their orbit, the upper lip very thin and the lower somewhat protruding, the chin very small and the nose straight. The Carriers, on the contrary, are tall and stout, without as a rule being too corpulent. The men average 1.66 m. in height. Their forehead is much broader than that of the Sekani, and less receding than is usual with American aborigines. The face is full, and the nose aquiline. All the tribes are remarkably unwarlike, timid, and even cowardly. Weapons are seldom used and in personal combat, which consists in a species of wrestling, knives are previously laid aside. The fear of enemies is a marked feature, due in part, doubtless, to traditional recollection of the raids of earlier days. Their honesty is noted by all travellers. Morice records that among the Sekani a trader will sometimes go on a trapping expedition, leaving his store unlocked, without fear of any of its contents going amiss. Meantime a native may call in his absence, help himself to as much powder and shot or any other item as he may need, but he will never fail to leave there an exact equivalent in furs.

The eastern Dene are nomad hunters who gather berries and roots, while the western are semi-sedentary, living for most of the year in villages when they subsist largely on salmon. The former are patrilineal and the latter are grouped into matrilineal exogamic totemic clans. The headmen of the clans formed a cla.s.s of privileged n.o.bles who alone owned the hunting grounds. Morice speaks of clan, honorific and personal totems.

The first two were adopted from coastal tribes, the honorific was a.s.sumed by some individuals in order to attain a rank to which they were not ent.i.tled by heredity. The "personal totem" is the guardian spirit or genius, the belief in which is common to nearly all North American peoples. Shamanism prevails throughout the area. The mythology almost always refers to a "Transformer" who visited the world when incomplete and set things in order. They have the custom of the potlatch[816]. If a man desires another man's wife he can challenge the husband to a wrestling match, the winner keeps the woman[817].

III. North Pacific Coast Area. This culture is rather complex with tribal variations, but it can be treated under three subdivisions, a northern group, Tlingit, Haida and Tsims.h.i.+an; a central group, the Kwakiutl tribes and the Bellacoola; and a southern group, the Coast Salish, Nootka, Chinook, Kalapooian, Waiilatpuan, Chimakuan and some Athapascan tribes. The first of these seem to be the type and are characterised by: the great dependence upon sea food, some hunting upon the mainland, large use of berries (dried fish, clams and berries are the staple food); cooking with hot stones in boxes and baskets; large rectangular gabled houses of upright cedar planks with carved posts and totem poles; travel chiefly by water in large seagoing dug-out canoes some of which had sails; no pottery nor stone vessels, except mortars; baskets in checker, those in twine reaching a high state of excellence among the Tlingit; coil basketry not made; mats of cedar bark and soft bags in abundance; no true loom, the warp hanging from a bar and weaving with the fingers downwards; clothing rather scanty, chiefly of skin, a wide basket hat (the only one of the kind on the continent, apparently for protection against rain); feet usually bare, but skin moccasins and leggings occasionally made; for weapons the bow, club and a peculiar dagger, no lances; slat, rod and skin armour; wooden helmets, no s.h.i.+elds; practically no chipped stone tools, but nephrite or green stone used; wood work highly developed; work in copper possibly aboriginal but, if so, weakly developed. The central group differs in a few minor points; twisted and loosely woven bark or wool takes the place of skins for clothing and baskets are all in checkerwork. Among the southern group appears a strong tendency to use stone arrowheads, and a peculiar flat club occurs, vaguely similar to the New Zealand type[818].

Physically the typical North Pacific tribes are of medium stature, with long arms and short bodies. Among the northern branches the stature averages 1.675 m. (5 ft. 6 in.), the head is very large with an average index of 82.5. The face is very broad, the nose concave or straight, seldom convex, with slight elevation. Among the southern tribes, notably the Kwakiutl, the stature averages 1.645 m. (5 ft. 4-3/4 in.), the cephalic index is 84.5, the face very broad but also of great length, the nose very high, rather narrow and frequently convex.

The social relations of these peoples vary from tribe to tribe, but on the whole they fall into a sequence from north to south. In the northern portion descent is matrilineal, but patrilineal in the south. J. G.

Frazer does not accept the view of Boas "that the Northern Kwakiutl have borrowed both the rule of maternal descent and the division into totemic clans from their more northerly neighbours of alien stocks; in other words, that totemism and mother-kin have spread southward among a people who had father-kin and no totemic system[819]." He inclines "to the other view, formerly favoured by Boas himself, namely, that the Kwakiutl are in a stage of transition from mother-kin to father-kin[820]."

Each village is autonomous and originally may have been restricted to a single totem clan. The population is divided into three ranks, n.o.bles, common people and a low caste consisting of poor people and serfs who cannot partic.i.p.ate in the secret societies. In addition there is a totemic grouping. There may be several totemic clans in one village and the same totem may not only occur in every village, but may extend from one tribe to another. This suggests that there were originally two, or in some cases more than two, totemic clans which in process of time became subdivided into sub-clans; these, while retaining the crest of the original clan, acquired fresh ones, and the families contained in each sub-clan may have their special crest or crests in addition. New crests and names are constantly being introduced. Marriage is forbidden between people of the same crest, irrespective of the tribe. The natives according to Boas do not consider themselves descendants from their totem. A wife brings her father's position, crest and privileges as a dower to her husband, who is not allowed to use them himself, but acquires them for the use of his son, in other words this inheritance is in the female line.

The widely spread American custom of a youth acquiring a guardian spirit is far more prevalent among the southern section than the northern, but among the Kwakiutl he can only obtain as his patron, one or more of a limited number of spirits which are hereditary in his clan. In the northern tribes the secret societies are coextensive with the totemic clans; among the Kwakiutl they are connected with guardian spirits and it is significant that during the summer, when the people are scattered, society is based on the old clan system, but when the people live together in villages in the winter, society is reorganised on the basis of the secret societies. There is a highly developed system of barter of which the blanket is now the unit of value, formerly the units were elk-skins, canoes or slaves. Certain symbolic objects have attained fanciful values. A vast credit system has grown up based on the custom of loaning property at high interest, at the great festivals called "potlatch" and by it the giver gains great honour. The religion is closely related to the totemic beliefs; supernatural aid is given by the spirits to those who win their favour. The raven is the chief figure in the mythology; he regulates the phenomena of nature, procures fire, daylight, and fresh water, and teaches men the arts.

To the south, and extending inland to the divide, forming a much less characteristic group are the Salish or Flat-heads who are allied to the Athapascans. The coastal Salish a.s.similate the culture just described, but the plateau Salish are more democratic, less settled and more individualistic in religious matters[821]. The Chinooks or Flat-heads of the lower reaches of the Columbia river are nearly extinct. They deformed the heads of infants. These tribes and the Shahapts or Nez Perces are differentiated by garments of raw hides, cranial deformation, absence of tattooing and plain bows, but they still have communal houses though without totem posts. They cook by means of heated stones and have zoomorphic masks[822].

IV. Plateau Area. The Plateau area lies between the North Pacific Coast area and the Plains. It is far less uniform than either in its topography, the south being a veritable desert while the north is moist and fertile. The traits may be summarised as: extensive use of salmon, deer, roots (especially camas) and berries; the use of a handled digging stick, cooking with hot stones in holes and baskets; the pulverisation of dried salmon and roots for storage; winter houses, semi-subterranean, a circular pit with a conical roof and smoke hole entrance; summer houses, movable or transient, mat or rush-covered tents and the lean-to, double and single; the dog sometimes used as a pack animal; water transportation weakly developed, crude dug-outs and bark canoes being used; pottery not known; basketry highly developed, coil, rectangular shapes, imbricated technique; twine weaving in flexible bags and mats; some simple weaving of bark fibre for clothing; clothing for the entire body usually of deerskins; skin caps for the men, and in some cases basket caps for women; blankets of woven rabbit-skin; the sinew-backed bow prevailed; clubs, lances, and knives, and rod and slat armour were used in war, also heavy leather s.h.i.+rts; fish spears, hooks, traps and bag nets were used; dressing of deerskins highly developed; upright stretching frames and straight long handled sc.r.a.pers; wood work more advanced than among Plains tribes, but insignificant compared to North Pacific Coast area; stone work confined to the making of tools and points, battering and flaking; work in bone, metal, and feathers very weak[823].

Of the tribes of this area, the interior Salish, the Thompson, Shushwap and Lillooet, appear to be the most typical of those concerning which any information is available. The Shahapts or Nez Perces, and the Shoshoni show some marked Plains traits. "The interior Salish are landsmen and hunters, and from time immemorial have been accustomed to follow their game over mountainous country. This mode of life has engendered among them an active, slender, athletic type of men; they are considerably taller and possess a much finer physique than their congeners of the coastal region, who are fishermen, pa.s.sing the larger portion of their time on the water squatting in their canoes, never walking to any place if they can possibly reach it by water. The typical coast Salish are a squat thick-set people, with disproportionate legs and bodies, slow and heavy in their movements, and as unlike their brothers of the interior as it is possible for them to be[824]."

The Thompsons represented the Salish at their highest and best, both morally and physically, and their ethical precepts and teaching set a very high standard of virtue before the advent of the Europeans.

Hill-Tout says that receptiveness and a wholesale adoption of foreign fas.h.i.+ons and customs are their striking qualities, and "if they have fallen away from these high standards, as we fear they have, the fault is not theirs but ours.... We a.s.sumed a grave responsibility when we undertook to civilise these races[825]."

The simplest form of social organisation is found among the interior hunting tribes, where a state of pure anarchy may be said to have formerly prevailed, each family being a law unto itself and acknowledging no authority save that of its own elderman. Each local community was composed of a greater or less number of these self-ruling families. There was a kind of heads.h.i.+p or nominal authority given to the oldest and wisest of the eldermen in some of the larger communities, where occasion called for it or where circ.u.mstances arose in which it became necessary to have a central representative. This led in some centres to the regular appointing of local chiefs or heads whose business it was to look after the material interest of the commune over which they presided; but the office was always strictly elective and hedged with manifold limitations as to authority and privilege. For example, the local chief was not necessarily the head of all undertakings. He would not lead in war or the chase unless he happened to be the best hunter or the bravest and most skilful warrior among them; and he was subject to deposition at a moment's notice if his conduct did not meet with the approval of the elders of the commune. His office or leaders.h.i.+p was therefore purely a nominal one. All hunting, fis.h.i.+ng, root, and berry grounds were common property and shared in by all alike.... In one particular tribe even the food was held and meals were taken in common, the presiding elder or headman calling upon a certain family each day to provide and prepare the meals for all the rest, every one, more or less, taking it in turn to discharge this social duty[826].

V. Californian Area. Of the four sub-culture areas noted by Kroeber[827]

the central group is the most extensive and typical. Its main characteristics are: acorns as the chief vegetable food, supplemented by wild seeds, while roots and berries are scarcely used; the acorns are made into bread by a roundabout process; hunting is mostly of small game, fis.h.i.+ng wherever possible; the houses are of many forms, all simple shelters of brush or tule, or more substantial conical lean-to structures of poles; the dog was not used for packing and there were no canoes, but rafts of tule were used for ferrying; no pottery but high development of basketry both coil and twine; bags and mats scanty; cloth or other weaving of simple elements not known; clothing simple and scanty; feet usually bare; the bow the only weapon, usually sinew-backed; work in skins, wood, bone etc., weak, in metals absent, in stone work not advanced. In the south modifications enter with large groups of Yuman and Shoshonian tribes where pottery, sandals and wooden war clubs are intrusive. The extinct Santa Barbara were excellent workers in stone, bone and sh.e.l.l, and made plank canoes.

Topographical variation produces consequent changes in mode of life as the well watered and wooded country of Oregon and Northern California gradually merges into the warm dry climate of South California with decreasing moisture towards the tropics. As Kroeber says[828], "From the time of the first settlement of California, its Indians have been described as both more primitive and more peaceful than the majority of the natives of North America.... The practical arts of life, the social inst.i.tutions and the ceremonies of the Californian Indians are unusually simple and undeveloped. There was no war for its own sake, no confederation of powerful tribes, no communal stone pueblos, no totems, or potlatches. The picturesqueness and the dignity of the Indians are lacking. In general rudeness of culture the Californian Indians are scarcely above the Eskimo.... If the degree of civilisation attained by people depends in any large measure on their habitat, as does not seem likely, it might be concluded from the case of the Californian Indians that natural advantages were an impediment rather than an incentive to progress.... It is possible to speak of typical Californian Indians and to recognise a typical Californian culture area. A feature that should not be lost sight of is the great stability of population.... The social organisation was both simple and loose.... Beyond the family the only bases of organisation were the village and the language." In so simple a condition of society difference of rank naturally found but little scope. The influence of chiefs was comparatively small, and distinct cla.s.ses, as of n.o.bility or slaves, were unknown. Individual property rights were developed and what organisation of society there was, was largely on the basis of property. The ceremonies are characterised by a very slight development of the extreme ritualism that is so characteristic of the American Indians, and by an almost entire absence of symbolism of any kind. Fetis.h.i.+sm is also unusual. One set of ceremonies was usually connected with a secret religious society; during initiation members were disguised by feathers and paint, but masks were not worn. There was also an annual tribal spectacular ceremony held in remembrance of the dead. In the north-west portion of the state a somewhat more highly developed and specialised culture existed which has some affinities with that of the north-west tribes, as is indicated by a greater advance in technology, a social organisation largely upon a property basis and a system of mythology that is suggestive of those further north. The now extinct tribes of the Santa Barbara islands and adjacent mainland were more advanced. They alone employed a plank-built canoe instead of the balsas or canoe-shaped bundles of rushes of the greater part of California. They made stone bowls and did inlaid work.

Like the North Californians and tribes further north they buried instead of burning their dead. The eastern tribes shade off into their neighbours. The Luiseno, the southernmost of the Shoshonians, had p.u.b.erty rites for girls and boys[829]. The belief in a succession of births "is reminiscent of Oceanic and Asiatic ways of thought[830]."

[About] 1788 a secret cult arose inculcating, with penalties, obedience, fasting, and self-sacrifice on initiates[831].

VI. Plains Area. The chief traits of this culture are the dependence upon the bison ("buffalo") and the very limited use of roots and berries; absence of fis.h.i.+ng; lack of agriculture; the _tipi_ or tent as the movable dwelling and transportation by land only, with the dog and the travois (in historic times, with the horse); no baskets, pottery, or true weaving; clothing of bison and deerskins; there is high development of work in skins and special bead technique and raw-hide work (parfleche, cylindrical bag etc.), and weak development of work in wood, stone and bone. This typical culture is manifested in the a.s.siniboin, Arapaho, Blackfoot, Crow, Cheyenne, Comanche, Gros Ventre, Kiowa, Kiowa-Apache, Sarsi and Teton-Dakota[832]. Among the tribes of the eastern border a limited use of pottery and basketry may be added, some spinning and weaving of bags, and rather extensive agriculture. Here the tipi alternates with larger and more permanent houses covered with gra.s.s, bark or earth, and there was some attempt at water transportation. These tribes are the Arikara, Hidatsa, Iowa, Kansa, Mandan, Missouri, Omaha, Osage, Oto, p.a.w.nee, Ponca, Santee-Dakota[833], Yankton-Dakota[833] and Wichita.

On the western border other tribes (Wind River Shoshoni, Uinta and Uncompahgre Ute) lack pottery but produce a rather high type of basketry, depending far less on the bison but more on deer and small game, making large use of wild gra.s.s seeds.

On the north-eastern border the Plains-Ojibway and Plains-Cree combine many traits of the forest hunting tribes with those found in the Plains.

The Dakota or Sioux are universally conceded to be of the highest type, physically, mentally and probably morally of any of the western tribes.

Their bravery has never been questioned by white or Indian and they conquered or drove out every rival except the Ojibway. Their physical characteristics are as follows: dark skin faintly tinged with red, facial features more strongly marked than those of the Pacific Coast Indians, nose and lower jaw particularly prominent and heavy, head generally mesocephalic and not artificially deformed. They are a free and dominant race of hunters and warriors, necessarily strong and active. Their weapons of stone, wood, bone and horn are tomahawk, club, flint knife, and bow and arrow. All their habits centre in the bison, which provided the staple materials of nutrition and industry. Drawing and painting were done on prepared bison skins and elaborately carved pipes were made for ceremonial use.

They are divided into kins.h.i.+p groups, with inheritance as a rule in the male line. The woman is autocrat of the home. Exogamy was strictly enforced in the clan but marriage within the tribe or with related tribes was encouraged. The marriage was arranged by the parents and polygyny was common where means would permit. Government consisted in chieftains.h.i.+p acquired by personal merit, and the old men exercised considerable influence.

Religious conceptions were based on a belief in _Wakonda_ or _Manito_[834], an all-pervading spirit force, whose cult involved various shamanistic ceremonials consisting of dancing, chanting, feasting and fasting. Most distinctive of these is the Sun dance, practised by almost all the tribes of the plains except the Comanche. It is an annual festival lasting several days, in honour of the sun, for the purpose of obtaining abundant produce throughout the year.

The Sun dance was not only the greatest ceremony of the Plains tribes but was a condition of their existence. More than any other ceremony or occasion, it furnished the tribe the opportunity for the expression of emotion in rhythm, and was the occasion of the tribe becoming more closely united. It gave opportunity for the making and renewing of common interests, the inauguration of tribal policies, and the renewing of the rank of the chiefs; for the exhibition, by means of mourning feasts, of grief over the loss of members of families; for the fulfilment of social obligations by means of feasts; and, finally, for the exercise and gratification of the emotions of love on the part of the young in the various social dances which always formed an interesting feature of the ceremony[835].

Being strongly opposed by the missionaries because it was utterly misunderstood[836], and finding no favour in official circles, the Sun dance has been for many years an object of persecution, and in consequence is extinct among the Dakota, Crows, Mandan, p.a.w.nee, and Kiowa, but it is still performed by the Cree, Siksika (Blackfoot), Arapaho, Cheyenne, a.s.siniboin, Ponca, Shoshoni and Ute, though in many of these tribes its disappearance is near at hand, for it has lost part of its rites and has become largely a spectacle for gain rather than a great religious ceremony[837].

The p.a.w.nee do not differ at all widely from the Dakota, but have a somewhat finer cast of features. They are more given to agriculture, raising crops of maize, pumpkins, etc. The p.a.w.nee type of hut is characteristic, consisting of a circular framework of poles or logs, covered with brush, bark and earth. Their religious ceremonies were connected with the cosmic forces and the heavenly bodies. The dominating power was Tirawa generally spoken of as "Father." The winds, thunder, lightning and rain were his messengers. Among the Skidi the morning and evening stars represented the masculine and feminine elements, and were connected with the advent and perpetuation on earth of all living forms.

A series of ceremonies relative to the bringing of life and its increase began with the first thunder in the spring and culminated at the summer solstice in human sacrifice, but the series did not close until the maize, called "mother corn," was harvested. At every stage of the series certain shrines or "bundles" became the centre of a ceremony. Each shrine was in charge of an hereditary keeper, but its rituals and ceremonies were in the keeping of a priesthood open to all proper aspirants. Through the sacred and symbolic articles of the shrines and their rituals and ceremonies a medium of communication was believed to be opened between the people and the supernatural powers, by which food, long life and prosperity were obtained. The mythology of the p.a.w.nee is remarkably rich in symbolism and poetic fancy and their religious system is elaborate and cogent. The secret societies, of which there were several in each tribe, were connected with the belief in supernatural animals. The functions of these societies were to call the game, to heal diseases, and to give occult powers. Their rites were elaborate and their ceremonies dramatic[838].

The Blackfeet or Siksika[839], an Algonquian confederacy of the northern plains, agree in culture with the Plains tribes generally, though there is evidence of an earlier culture, approximately that of the eastern woodland tribes. They are divided into the Siksika proper, or Blackfeet, the Kainah or Bloods, and the Piegan, the whole being popularly known as Blackfoot or Blackfeet. Formerly bison and deer were their chief food and there is no evidence that they ever practised agriculture, though tobacco was grown and used entirely for ceremonial purposes. The doors of their tipis always faced east. They have a great number of dances--religious, war and social--besides secret societies for various purposes, together with many "sacred bundles" around every one of which centres a ritual. Practically every adult has his personal "medicine."

The princ.i.p.al deities are the Sun, and a supernatural being known as _Napi_ "Old Man," who may be an incarnation of the same idea. The religious activity of a Blackfoot consists in putting himself into a position where the cosmic power will take pity upon him and give him something in return. There was no conception of a single personal G.o.d[840].

The Arapaho, another Algonquian Plains tribe, were once according to their own traditions a sedentary agricultural people far to the north of their present range, apparently in North Minnesota. They have been closely a.s.sociated with the Cheyenne for many generations[841]. The annual Sun Dance is their greatest tribal ceremony, and they were active propagators of the ghost-dance religion of the last century which centred in the belief in the coming of a messiah and the restoration of the country to the Indians[842].

The Cheyenne, also of agricultural origin, have been for generations a typical prairie tribe, living in skin tipis, following the bison over large areas, travelling and fighting on horseback. In character they are proud, contentious, and brave to desperation, with an exceptionally high standard for women. Under the old system they had a council of 44 elective chiefs, of whom four const.i.tuted a higher body, with power to elect one of their number as head chief of the tribe. In all councils that concerned the relations with other tribes, one member of the council was appointed to argue as proxy or "devil's advocate" for the alien people. The council of 44 is still symbolised by a bundle of 44 invitation sticks, kept with the sacred medicine-arrows, and formerly sent round when occasion arose to convene the a.s.sembly. The four medicine-arrows const.i.tute the tribal palladium which they claim to have had from the beginning of the world. It was exposed once a year with appropriate rites, and is still religiously preserved. No woman, white man, or even mixed blood of the tribe has ever been allowed to come near the sacred arrows. In priestly dignity the keepers of the medicine-arrows and the priests of the Sun dance rites stood first and equal[843].

VII. Eastern Woodland Area[844]. The culture north of the Great Lakes and east of the St Lawrence is comparable to that of the Dene (see p.

361), the main traits being: the taking of caribou in pens; the snaring of game; the importance of small game and fish, also of berries; the weaving of rabbit-skins; the birch canoe; the toboggan; the conical skin or bark-covered shelter; the absence of basketry and pottery and the use of bark and wooden utensils. To this northern group belong the Ojibway north of the lakes, including the Saulteaux, the Wood Cree, the Montagnais and the Naskapi. Further south the main body falls into three large divisions: Iroquoian tribes (Huron, Wyandot, Erie, Susquehanna and Five Nations); Central Algonquian to the west of the Iroquois (some Ojibway, Ottawa, Menomini, Sauk and Fox[845], Potawatomi, Peoria, Illinois, Kickapoo, Miami, Piankashaw, Shawnee and Siouan Winnebago); Eastern Algonquian (Abnaki group and Micmac).

The Central group west of the Iroquois appears to be the most typical and the best known and the following are the main culture traits: maize, squashes and bean were cultivated, wild rice where available was a great staple, and maple sugar was manufactured; deer, bear and even bison were hunted; also wild fowl; fis.h.i.+ng was fairly developed, especially sturgeon fis.h.i.+ng on the lakes; pottery poor, but formerly used for cooking vessels, vessels of wood and bark common; some splint basketry; two types of shelter prevailed, a dome-shaped bark or mat-covered lodge for winter and a rectangular bark house for summer, though the Ojibway used the conical type of the northern border group; dug-out and bark canoes and snowshoes were used, occasionally the toboggan and dog traction; weaving was of bark fibre (downward with fingers), and soft bags, pack lines and fish nets were made; clothing was of skins; soft-soled moccasins with drooping flaps, leggings, breech-cloth and sleeved s.h.i.+rts for men, for women a skirt and jacket, though a one-piece dress was known; robes of skin or woven rabbit-skin; no armour or lances; bows of plain wood and clubs; in trade days, the tomahawk; work in wood, stone and bone weakly developed; probably considerable use of copper in prehistoric times; feather-work rare.

In the eastern group agriculture was more intensive (except in the north) and pottery was more highly developed. Woven feather cloaks were common, there was a special development of work in steat.i.te, and more use was made of edible roots.

The Iroquoian tribes were even more intensive agriculturalists and potters. They made some use of the blow-gun, developed cornhusk weaving, carved elaborate masks from wood, lived in rectangular houses of peculiar pattern, built fortifications and were superior in bone work[846].

In physical type the Ojibways[847], who may be taken as typical of the central Algonquians, were 1.73 m. (5 ft. 8 in.) in height, with brachycephalic heads (82 in the east, 80 in the west, but variable), heavy strongly developed cheek-bones and heavy and prominent nose. They were hard fighters and beat back the raids of the Iroquois on the east and of the Foxes on the south, and drove the Sioux before them out upon the Plains. According to Schoolcraft, who was personally acquainted with them and married a woman of the tribe, the warriors equalled in physical appearance the best formed of the North-West Indians, with the possible exception of the Foxes.

They were organised in many exogamous clans; descent was patrilineal although it was matrilineal in most Algonquian tribes. The clan system was totemic. There was a clan chief and generally a tribal chief as well, chosen from one clan in which the office was hereditary. His authority was rather indefinite.

As regards religion W. Jones[848] notes their belief in a cosmic mystery present throughout all Nature, called "Manito." It was natural to identify the Manito with both animate and inanimate objects and the impulse was strong to enter into personal relations with the mystic power. There was one personification of the cosmic mystery; and this was an animate being called the Great Manito. Although they have long been in friendly relations with the whites Christianity has had but little effect on them, largely owing to the conservatism of the native medicine-men. The _Medewiwin_, or grand medicine society, was a powerful organisation, which controlled all the movements of the tribe[849].

The Iroquois[850] are not much differentiated in general culture from the stocks around them, but in political development they stand unique.

The Five Nations, Mohawk, Onondaga, Oneida, Cayuga and Seneca (subsequently joined by the Tuscarora), formed the famous League of the Iroquois about the year 1570. Each tribe remained independent in matters of local concern, but supreme authority was delegated to a council of elected sachems. They were second to no other Indian people north of Mexico in political organisation, statecraft and military prowess, and their astute diplomats were a match for the wily French and English statesmen with whom they treated. So successful was this confederacy that for centuries it enjoyed complete supremacy over its neighbours, until it controlled the country from Hudson Bay to North Carolina. The powerful Ojibway at the end of Lake Superior checked their north-west expansion, and their own kindred the Cherokee stopped their progress southwards.

The social organisation was as a rule much more complex and cohesive than that of any other Indians, and the most notable difference was in regard to the important position accorded to the women. Among the Cherokee, the Iroquois and the Hurons the women performed important and essential functions in their government. Every chief was chosen and retained his position and every important measure was enacted by the consent and cooperation of the child-bearing women, and the candidate for a chieftains.h.i.+p was nominated by the suffrages of the matrons of this group. His selection from among their sons had to be confirmed by the tribal and the federal councils respectively, and finally he was installed into office by federal officers. Lands and the "long houses"

of related families belonged solely to the women.

VIII. South-eastern Area. This area is conveniently divided by the Mississippi, the typical culture occurring in the east. The Powhatan group and the Shawnee are intermediate, and the chief tribes are the Muskhogean (Creek, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Seminole, etc.) and Iroquoian tribes (Cherokee and Tuscarora) with the Yuchi, Eastern Siouan, Tunican and Quapaw. The main culture traits are: great use of vegetable food and intensive agriculture; maize, cane (a kind of millet), pumpkins, watermelons and tobacco being raised. Large use of wild vegetables, the dog, the only domestic animal, eaten; later chickens, hogs, horses and cattle quickly adopted; large game, deer, bear and bison, in the west; turkeys and small game also hunted; some fis.h.i.+ng (with fish poison); of manufactured foods bears' oil, hickory-nut oil, persimmon bread and hominy are noteworthy, together with the famous black drink[851]; houses generally rectangular with curved roofs, covered with thatch or bark, often with plaster walls, reinforced with wicker work; towns were fortified with palisades; dug-out canoes were used for transport.

Clothing chiefly of deerskins and bison robes, s.h.i.+rt-like garments for men, skirts and toga-like, upper garments for women, boot-like moccasins in winter; there were woven fabrics of bark fibre, fine netted feather cloaks, and some bison hair weaving in the west (the weaving being downwards with the fingers); baskets of cane and splints, the double or netted basket and the basket meal sieve being special forms; knives of cane, darts of cane and bone; blow-guns in general use; pottery good, coil process, with paddle decorations; a particular method of skin dressing (macerated in mortars), good work in stone, but little in metal[852].

The Creek women were short though well formed, while the warrior according to Pickett[853] was "larger than the ordinary race of Europeans, often above 6 ft. in height, but was invariably well formed, erect in his carriage, and graceful in every movement. They were proud, haughty and arrogant, brave and valiant in war." As a people they were more than usually devoted to decoration and ornament; they were fond of music and ball play was their most important game. Each Creek town had its independent government, under an elected chief who was advised by the council of the town in all important matters. Certain towns were consecrated to peace ceremonies and were known as "white towns," while others, set apart for war ceremonials, were known as "red towns." The solemn annual festival of the Creeks was the "busk" or _puskita_, a rejoicing over the first-fruits of the year. Each town celebrated its busk whenever the crops had come to maturity. All the worn-out clothes, household furniture, pots and pans and refuse, grain and other provisions were gathered together into a heap and consumed. After a fast, all the fires in the town were extinguished and a priest kindled a new fire from which were made all the fires in the town. A general amnesty was proclaimed, all malefactors might return to their towns and their offences were forgiven. Indeed the new fire meant the new life, physical and moral, which had to begin with the new year[854].

The Yuchi houses are grouped round a square plot of ground which is held as sacred, and here the religious ceremonies and social gatherings take place. On the edges stand four ceremonial lodges, in conformity with the four cardinal points, in which the different clan groups have a.s.signed places. The square ground symbolises the rainbow, where in the sky-world, Sun, the mythical culture-hero, underwent the ceremonial ordeals which he handed down to the first Yuchi. The Sun, as chief of the sky-world, author of the life, the ceremonies and the culture of the people, is by far the most important figure in their religious life.

Various animals in the sky-world and vegetation spirits are recognised, besides the totemic ancestral spirits, who play an important part.

According to Speck[855] "the members of each clan believe that they are relatives and, in some vague way, the descendants of certain pre-existing animals whose names and ident.i.ty they now bear. The animal ancestors are accordingly totemic. In regard to the living animals, they, too, are the earthly types and descendants of the pre-existing ones, hence, since they trace their descent from the same sources as the human clans, the two are consanguinely related." Thus the members of a clan feel obliged not to do violence to the wild animals having the form or name of their tutelaries, though the flesh and fur may be obtained from the members of other clans who are under no such obligations. The different individuals of the clan inherit the protection of the clan totems at the initiatory rites, and thenceforth retain them as their protectors through life.