Man, Past and Present - Agustus Henry Keane, A. Hingston Quiggin, Alfred Court Haddon (most popular novels txt) 📗

almost entire absence of symbolism of any kind. Fetishism 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 puberty 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]. 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 fishing; 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 Assiniboin, 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 grass, bark or earth, and there was some attempt at water transportation. These tribes are the Arikara, Hidatsa, Iowa, Kansa, Mandan, Missouri, Omaha, Osage, Oto, Pawnee, 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 grass 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 kinship 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 chieftainship 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, Pawnee, and Kiowa, but it is still performed by the Cree, Siksika (Blackfoot), Arapaho, Cheyenne, Assiniboin, 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 Pawnee 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 Pawnee 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 Pawnee 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 principal 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 god[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 associated 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 constituted 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 assembly. The four medicine-arrows constitute 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; fishing was fairly developed, especially sturgeon fishing on the lakes; pottery poor, but formerly used for cooking vessels, vessels of wood and bark common; some splint basketry; two types of