Part ISKETCHES OF VARIOUS TRIBES OF NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS[3][Contents]WIGWAM STORIESBOOKS IN THE INDIAN LANGUAGEJohn Eliot, of Massachusetts, published the first Indian Bible. This and other Bibles and books in the Indian languages may be seen in the larger city libraries.The Indians had no printed languages with letters before the white man came; their painted or carved picture-writing meant much to them. Their teepees were covered with histories of the battles their owners had fought, but they had no books of “talking leaves.”Se-quoyah, a Georgia Indian half-breed, was a modern Cadmus to his people. He invented a perfect alphabet of over eighty letters for his native Cherokee language, and by his own zeal inspired his nation with a love for written words. His paper was birch bark; his ink the juices of berries and weeds.[4]He hated the white people, for his white father had basely deserted his mother when Se-quoyah was a helpless babe. His mother’s father was a proud chief, and the grandson seems to have inherited his spirit.Se-quoyah never learned to read or to write a word or a letter of English, and his anger was aroused when he saw one of his tribe reading a book made by the hated white people; Se-quoyah then declared he would make as good a one for the Cherokees, and he did.He listened for sounds while his people talked. He became a silent student and lost or forgot his old warlike spirit. He sat beside his doorway and marked upon bark. His people pitied him, for he did not fight. At last he called a council; he wrote on bark and gave the writing to his little daughter, who had been taught by him to read. She read it and did as the writing commanded; the test was tried many times.This caused great excitement; young men came in scores to learn of him; they forgot hunting and war for letter-writing. The white missionaries adopted his letters and made a Bible which was read by all these Indian students. The nation became civilized in a short time, and the first printing press sent to an Indian tribe was that sent about 1820 by the United States government to the Cherokees. The type was cast in Cherokee characters, the same that Se-quoyah had invented.[5]A marble bust of Se-quoyah adorns the council house in Tahlequah, the capital of Indian Territory, where this tribe was sent after gold was found on their reservation in Georgia. They knew the value of these mines, but the white man’s power was stronger than theirs, and they had to leave homes and wealth for a strange new land.Sequoia, the botanical name of the big trees of California, is the only memorial the white man has given this truly American genius.Adapted from Smithsonian Report.[6][Contents]SOME THINGS THE INDIANS KNEW BEFORE WHITE MEN CAMESOME THINGS THE INDIANS KNEW BEFORE WHITE MEN CAMEThe Indians made and still make excellent canoes of bark or of logs and even of skins. The birch-bark canoe is light and very swift, and white hunters are proud of their skill in its use, but the skin boat has only strength as its merit.The Siwash Indian of Puget Sound hollows out from a single log a fine canoe with decorated prow. He makes it secretly in the dark forest, and white men have tried for years to solve the problem of its swiftness.The bows of strong wood bent by sinew cords and the stone-headed arrows with feather tips were excellent weapons in the Indians’ former methods of warfare and hunting, and a good arrowhead maker was famous throughout a nation.Pueblo House with Kivas in ForegroundPueblo House with Kivas in ForegroundFrom a PhotographIndian squaws were skillful in the making of buckskin suits for their braves. The handsomely embroidered moccasins were and are now good specimens of[8]woman’s work and love for beauty of coloring and design. Each tribe had its own pattern and shape, differing so much from those of other tribes that a footprint might announce an enemy in war time.The Indians are still noted trappers, and their squaws know well how to tan and dress the skins of animals. Fish-hooks were made of bone or flint, and spear points were of the same materials, but they were very sharp and with them the Indians caught many fish.Their roving habits as hunters gave them little time for house-building, and so their homes were simply tents made of strips of bark or, better yet, of large buffalo or deer hides, neatly sewed together for this purpose. These teepees and wigwams were easily put up or removed, and were a good shelter.The Village Indians, or Pueblos of Arizona, still build themselves houses of adobe or unburnt brick. As the Pueblos were and are now less warlike than the roving tribes which live in tent-like houses, they have had time to invent many useful things.The Pueblos weave excellent woolen blankets of gay stripes and a coarse cloth for wearing apparel. They make water-tight baskets and dishes of fiber, and these are often exchanged with the Tent Indians for dried meat and other food.The Village Indians have for centuries planted and cared for maize, pumpkins, beans, and other vegetables.[9]Turkeys are raised for food, and their feather fibers are woven into cloth. Eagles are caged and raised for their long feathers, which are held sacred.In the ruined houses of the cliff-dwellers of Texas and Arizona fragments of cloth woven from cotton and other substances have been found. No white man taught this ancient people these arts of weaving.Clay dishes, mortars, and pestles of stone, large sea-shells cut into shapes for holding food, stone axes, and knives show some of the skill of these early Americans.The ornaments made of silver by the Navajo, as well as the long strings of turquoise beads, are sometimes remarkable for their beauty.Wampum, used by so many tribes for money, was carefully made from shells by eastern Indians. It seems strange that their crude tools could have made such small beads so very well.The knowledge of medicine in all tribes was limited to a few herbs. The rest was a kind of sorcery; but with the herbs, fresh air, and fresh water they managed to cure many ills.The Pueblos of New Mexico are very different from the Zuñis or the Moki Pueblos of Arizona. They are now much like the white people, for they live in well-built houses, attend church, and send their children to school.[10][Contents]HOW THE IROQUOIS BUILT THEIR LOG FORTSThe French explorers in the land near Lake Champlain, and in what is now central New York, found many of the Iroquois villages protected by strong, well-built log forts.They were built in this way: The Indians first found a place where there were many tall trees; these were set on fire near their roots, and stone axes were used to rub off the coals, so they would burn faster. After the trees had fallen to the ground they were set on fire again, in places about three long steps apart. The fires burned through the logs in about half a day.As there were no horses, the logs were drawn by the Indians, and then put into place. Earth was heaped up on both sides of the logs to keep them from falling. The forts had two gates; the one in front for general use; the one in the rear for use when getting water.In making the fire to burn the logs, a small dry stick was quickly rubbed with a steady motion against[11]well-seasoned wood; after a while it would burn. Great care was used in preserving coals of fire through the night time for the next day’s use.On the shores of the beautiful Seneca Lake, by the banks of the Mohawk and Genesee rivers, in the forests of Oneida and Cayuga, and in many other parts of this fertile region, these strongholds of a savage people stood secure.Sometimes several acres of land were enclosed, with many homes well protected both day and night from wild animals and other foes.Some of these rude dwellings were more than one hundred feet in length, and were made of poles bent like an arch and covered closely with many layers of elm bark. These large houses, thus protected by forts, were used by several different families, for the “long-houses” were divided into rooms by deerskins or other robes.Fine fields of corn, squashes, and beans were planted and harvested by these fort dwellers, and they knew well how to protect themselves from intruders, for they had hundreds of stones and even huge rocks piled inside the fort ready to hurl at an enemy.[12][Contents]INDIAN RECORDSThe Leni Lennape, or Delaware Indians, kept a curious record of their early history by means of sticks which were notched and painted; these sticks were about six inches long. Each painted notch indicated some great event in their nation’s history. The meanings of the notches were taught by old chiefs to the younger ones, and the stories have been repeated for hundreds of years. Leni Lennape meansMen of MenorThe People, and these sticks have been held to prove that their nation is one of the oldest among the red men. Their chiefs were noted for their wisdom in war and peace.A white man, who proved himself a true friend to the Leni Lennapes, gained their confidence and they told him the secrets that were kept by the painted sticks. He had it printed, but had to leave out many words, as their language is very different from English. It is an easy matter to read the history now, and, although many words are omitted, any one can understand its meaning.[13]This record, which the notched and painted sticks have kept for several hundreds of years, is an account of the travels of the Leni Lennape Indians from the Northwest across the Wide River. This must have been the Mississippi. They call it Namesi Sipu, the “river of fish.”When across the Wide River, they found they had come to the country of the Great Serpent. Numerous earth mounds in the form of an immense serpent are found in the valley of the Mississippi. These are believed to have been made by a people, long ago extinct, who may have fought the Delawares.Other Indian tribes and nations have kept long records by means of similar sticks, but the account given by this people is the longest Indian history. The last marks upon these painted sticks are said to mean: “The white men have come from the north and the south. They are peaceful; they have great things. Who are they?”These Leni Lennapes are the Delawares, with whom the Quakers made their treaty near Philadelphia. The Iroquois had conquered these Indians, and had refused to let them go to war as a punishment for their great bravery. The Quakers found them peaceable, honest, and faithful friends, and for forty years no white person was harmed who had never broken his promise to the Leni Lennapes, or Delaware Indians.[14]The Aztecs, or Mexican Indians, had a serpent god, and some have said that these mounds must have been built by them. The Leni Lennape stick records tell only that the country of the Great Serpent was conquered little by little. The mounds are themselves the unsolved records of a great people. No Indian legends or histories have ever explained the meaning of these heaps of earth, which are shaped like animals or birds, and are now sometimes covered by huge trees.The wampum belt tells its story by the pictures upon it, while the record sticks had only painted notches to help the memory of the tribe’s historians.[15][Contents]WAMPUM MONEYWAMPUM MONEYWampum has been used among the Indians east of the Rocky Mountains since the whites first had dealings with them. Among the eastern Indians it was first found to be made of the white and purple parts of clam shells. These shells were carefully cut into small pieces by means of sharp-edged stone knives, and a hole was bored through the pieces, making them like little tubes.The white and the dark-colored beads were threaded and carefully arranged into patterns when belts or other woven pieces of ornament were made. The threads were either of vegetable fiber or of deer sinews, and long strings were sometimes made of the bark of the slippery-elm tree. Dark-colored parts of the shells from which the beads were made were called black, but they were really dark shades of purple. White beads meant peace. Dark beads were woven into the belt either in square or diamond patterns or in some more irregular shape.[16]The wampum belt used in the treaty between William Penn and the Indians is now in the rooms of the Pennsylvania Historical Society. It was given to this society by a great-grandson of William Penn. This wampum belt was given to its first white owner as a solemn token that they would keep their pledge. History has shown how faithfully these red men kept their pledge with the Quakers.This famous belt is an unusually wide one, having eighteen rows of wampum and nearly three thousand beads, which is proof that it was an important token. The center of the belt is of white wampum with two figures of men wrought in dark beads. The figures are pictured as clasping each other’s hands. One man pictured on the belt wears a hat, while the other does not; this shows that one was a white man, the other an Indian.This belt was kept in the Penn family and treasured with as much care as the chain and medal given to William Penn by the English Parliament; indeed, the medal and the wampum belt each served a like purpose: they were reminders of the promises of a nation.Wampum belts of great historic value are kept by the Onondaga Indians; the finest of these is called the George Washington belt. It is believed by those who have had charge of it to be a pledge relating to a treaty between the early government of the United States and the Six Nations. Fifteen men are pictured on this belt.[18]These may mean the original thirteen colonies and the people who were the speakers at the time of the treaty.Pueblo Indians making BeadsPueblo Indians making BeadsFrom a PhotographSuch uses of belts of wampum were common among the different tribes of Indians. Smaller belts were woven for the chiefs to wear, and the women made themselves bracelets and neck chains of the beads.It was necessary for the whites in the very early times to have this Indian money ready when they wished to purchase furs or other supplies of their wild neighbors. The beads had a certain value according to the number of strings. This value never changed.It is told by the people who wrote back to England in those early days that the Indians could not be made to understand why they should pay more wampum for anything when it was scarce than when it was plentiful. They were used to having one price for things they wished to buy and never having the price changed. For this reason the early settlers were able to buy many valuable things at a very small price.The chiefs of the Iroquois, while mourning a chief’s death, wore strings of black wampum. Other strings of different lengths or colors meant various things to the owners and those about them. The wearing of wampum in any quantity meant wealth and position.It is told of the famous Chief Logan that he saved a captive white by rushing through the circle of Indians[19]who were tormenting him, and throwing a string of wampum about the captive’s neck. From that minute he belonged to Chief Logan.Wampum has been made by machinery since 1670 and sold to the Indians. Old belts and strings of beads, so slowly made by hand, are very valuable. The white and colored glass beads now used are worth but little compared with the wampum of early days.Arranged from Powell’s Report to the Bureau of Ethnology.[20][Contents]INDIAN TRAITSAlmost unconsciously, even as our own eyes and other senses are trained to help us in city or country life, the Indians are adding to their education in the things which will make life and labor easier to them. Their reading of weather signs is very accurate, and possibly their rain-makers are simply experts in these signs.Their method of lying in ambush in war times calls out all their hidden powers in every line. They can decoy their foe by imitating bird calls or animals; they can make themselves into stump-like figures and almost defy a close inspection.If injured, they rarely show pain, though the torture of the broken limb or the bullet may be intense. Indian boys are taught by both parents from early childhood to bear their pain silently. It comes as a good lesson, when in manhood a groan might show an enemy where they were hidden.Their long trails or paths over mountains, through thick forests, across treeless plains, with no compass[21]but the North Star, have made them watchful of every earthly means of finding their way. They will tell you that trees are greener on the south side than on the north, and that there are plants whose leaves point due north. Flocks of birds sometimes help to guide them. They seem to have almost an instinct in finding their way home.An Indian’s natural pride is as great as a king’s. To him his nation is the greatest one on earth. No Indian must allow that the white is greater in numbers or strength.A number of years ago a Mandan chief named Ietan visited the city of Washington in company with others. On his return, at the council which was called in his honor, he told of boats he had seen that were one hundred and fifty feet long; of great houses filled with white people; of great cities and long railroad trails.The Indians will have nothing but absolute truth at these councils. They must not deceive each other. The council declared that Ietan was telling false tales to frighten the Mandans. No canoe could be built so large as he had said. No such number of white people could live in a land where there were no buffalo. Houses such as he had told about would be blown down by the great winds.Ietan was proven to have basely deceived the council. He was condemned to death for making the[22]white man stronger and greater than the red man. Ietan told them he was ready and willing to suffer the penalty, but when they were older they would know that his words were not false. He was punished as the council decreed. Perhaps they are wise enough now to read the signs made by the iron trails across the Dakota prairies, and their children know that what Ietan said was true.Indians seem to have great pity for the unfortunate few of their tribe who have lost their senses, becoming either insane or foolish. A certain professor belonging to a well-known eastern college had reason to be thankful for this trait not many years ago. He had been gathering plants and insects in one of the desolate regions in the west. He was unarmed, and knew nothing of any Indian language or of the sign language so much used west of the Mississippi.A marauding band of Indians caught sight of him. Wheeling their ponies in his direction, they were down upon him before he had time to do anything more than gather his collection into the boxes and get upon his pony. For some reason they did not offer to hurt him; they, however, were willing to make themselves richer by whatever they could get from him. The professor did not say a word, but handed them his case of roots and plants. At this they stared open-eyed, for it contained nothing that any one could eat. His boxes of[24]insects were next examined. Nothing of use to them was found. His pockets were searched. They were filled with bugs, flies, and flower specimens.Hogan of Navajo Blanket WeaverHogan of Navajo Blanket WeaverFrom a PhotographLooking him over from head to foot, they all seem to have reached the same conclusion at the same time; with shouts of laughter and mocking bows and grimaces, they gave him back his boxes. They had discovered by all the signs that he was a being who had not a sense left, and they would not harm him. So the learned professor was spared to return to tell the tale.The numerous Indian nations of America are and were as different in their character and conditions as are the civilized people living in America to-day. They had their unions and their divisions of land according to nation, not according to family or person. Many nations seem to have had wise laws.Very strangely, many of the tribes expected the coming of the white man. When the Indian has learned that village life is no disgrace, he may become even greater than the paleface with the talking leaves or printed book.A wise old Indian was once told that white men were beginning to think they had found where the Indian came from; that the place was northern China.“Perhaps the people of northern China came from the Indian race in America,” said the Indian. It was well said. There are many proofs that the mound-builders,[25]the Aztec, and the Indian have made this part of the world their home for ages, when it was unknown and unthought of in the wildest dreams of seamen or of kings.The hunting chase is the great happiness of the Indian. Now the wild buffalo is gone from the plains forever; the red deer, elk, moose, and bear hide away in the northern forests; the Indian’s hope for a long future for his nation is lost. They are no longer braves but squaws, for they must plant corn and watch it. Village life is very tame compared with the wandering life when the tribes moved to some new place almost every moon.They have an old, old prophecy among many tribes, “that the Great Manitou will some day send away the white race; the whole earth shall be given to the Indians.” This prophecy is repeated in the religious dances, and the medicine men comfort their people with it when the tribes feel the injustice of the whites. It excites them to battle with the invader.Their training has always been for revenge, but they are also trained to remember the good which has been done to them.[26][Contents]THE INDIAN’S EYE TRAININGAn Indian left his lodge for several days; when he came back, the dried deer meat which he had left hanging to a tree near his wigwam was gone. He did not go around asking questions of his neighbors, but just used his eyes instead of his tongue for the first hour, and his eyes told him many things.Then he went to a wigwam near by and asked: “Did you see a little, old, white man with a short gun? Did you see him in the last two days? Did he have a small dog with a short tail?”The neighbor Indian said: “Yes, I saw him. He and his dog were on the trail going south.”The Indian took the same trail and in a few days returned with the dog and the deer meat.Some white men had heard the questions of the Indian before he started out, and after he came back they went to him and said: “We want to know who took your meat. How did you know it was a white man?”[27]“White man turns toe out; Indian put foot so, one behind the other, walk straight.”“How did you know that he was little and that he was old?”“He put pile of stones by deer-meat tree; cannot reach, he little. He takes short steps; he old.”“How did you know that his gun was short?”“He stick gun on ground against tree. Gun muzzle make mark little way from ground. Short gun.”“Well, how did you ever know that he had a little dog like that, with a short tail?”“Dog sit in the sand. Watch man get meat. Dog leave mark where he sit down in sand. Indian can see with two eyes.”[28][Contents]MEDICINE MEN AMONG THE INDIANSNearly all tribes have their medicine men. These men choose this work, frequently because of some deformity which unfits them for the warpath, and they fit themselves for it, sometimes from boyhood. They have great power over all their people. They are called into the council when the tribe goes to war. They are called upon when any one is sick. They believe and teach that sickness is caused by an evil spirit. Their medicine is to contrive some way to drive out the evil spirit of sickness.The medicine man usually works himself into a frenzy or even into a fit, and while in this state his mutterings are taken for advice and followed. The patient must then get well. If he does not, it is because the evil spirit cannot be conquered.Big Medicine ManBig Medicine ManFrom a PhotographMany tribes believe that the soul leaves the body when the evil spirit of sickness enters. The Portage Indians of British America hold this belief. Their medicine men try to bring back the wandering soul by[30]many curious performances. For one thing, the sick man’s friends are ordered to hang up his buckskin moccasins stuffed with soft feathery down. If the feathers become warm to the touch, they will know that the wandering soul has touched them and perhaps is hiding in them. The moccasins are quickly put upon the feet of the patient that his soul may not escape. If he does not get well, it is because his friends were not quick enough in their work.The medicine men of many tribes dress themselves in hideous fashion to excite the fear and compel the respect of their people. They do not have to go on the warpath, but will do it sometimes. It seems to be a good chance for the deformed to win respect from the physically perfect.[31][Contents]THE INDIAN AT HOMEIndian feathered headgear.An Indian in his native costume is a subject artists are glad to paint,—tanned buckskin trousers with the buckskin fringe down the outside seams; buckskin moccasins with colored porcupine quills neatly woven into the leather in regular patterns, and a heavy blanket or buffalo robe over his shoulders, hanging nearly to the ground. But the paint upon his face is his chief pride.A traveler, in 1835, was taking a trip up the Mississippi. He espied an Indian on the forward deck who was making his toilet, apparently unaware that a paleface was watching the process.The traveler gives this account: “The Indian had secured at Fort Snelling, near St. Paul, a bit of broken looking-glass, and there he sat on deck, painting his face and neck. A daub of the brightest red paint went down the line marking the parting of his hair.[32]“He worried and worked as much over the daubs on his cheeks as some very civilized girls would over a naughty curl. First, a daub of yellow with red at the edge; then red on the yellow, and yellow on the red, until his eye was satisfied.“In the tuft of hair on his crown he stuck an eagle feather; the mirror showed it was not in a becoming place. Out it came and was poised at a different angle. Still, it was not just the style he wanted, and out it came again. At last it stood straight up, and the dandy finished his toilet.“Such a self-satisfied air did he put on when paint, feather, and blanket had been arranged to his liking! Perhaps some daughter of the Dakotas was the cause of all this patient study of the art of dressing; but I cannot dream of Hiawatha ever belittling himself to take so long a time with feathers and paint.”It seemed strange to the traveler for the Indian to take so much pains with the colors of paint and the place where he put them upon his face, but it is now known that each color has its meaning with them. The Indians paint their faces very differently when they are going on the warpath. The warriors of each nation have their own fashion of painting their faces and bodies.The war chiefs have a very noble look when they come out with their feather war bonnets reaching from[33]the crowns of their heads down to their feet. Their bearing is dignified; their faces are earnest and solemn; and each one treads the earth as a king.Indian women are sometimes very handsome when young; but the quantity of colored earth they use as paint does not hide half the dirt upon their faces. They wear blankets and buckskin skirts, and make a pretty picture if the wigwam is in the background. Many of the babies have a decidedly Japanese look and are attractive little creatures, as babies are apt to be.The Indian squaw is a good helpmate to her husband. His work is to hunt; her work is at home in the teepee, where he can find rest and food after his hunting. An Indian brave will not do his squaw’s work, and his squaw does not wish her brave to be different from other men.The Indian pony seems like a part of the family. He is not petted nor fed like the Arabian horse, but is just as necessary to his master’s happiness. Indian ponies know what little food and what no food mean. The rank prairie grass is usually easy for them to get, but sometimes it is burned off. The pony must search for his own food in summer or winter.The Indian pony or cayuse sometimes carries a load under which a donkey could hardly move; but he takes his own gait, and keeps it too. He is suited by[34]inherited years of hard work to his master and his home. The Indian pony is thought to be descended from the horses brought to America by the Spanish explorers.The dogs belonging to an Indian camp or village are numerous and often nearly starved. Whenever a stranger makes his appearance, his coming is announced by furious barks and howls of these hungry sentinels. The white hunter has reason to dread the attacks of these dogs, for they are much like the coyotes and wolves of the forests. Unless his gun is ready, or their masters call them back, it is usually best for the stranger to find refuge in a tree; but the braves, squaws, and children give the white visitor a kind welcome as soon as they know that his visit is friendly.[35][Contents]MEANING OF INDIAN TOTEMS AND NAMESIndian totem.An Indian, while hunting, followed a bear a long way into the forest. The rain came and he was lost, so he cut the bark from a tree and made with his tomahawk a picture of a fox. He put a ring under one foot in the picture. He belonged to the Fox tribe and had been lost one day. He made more such marks on the trees as he went on.Another hunter from the same tribe found him after three days. He had trailed him by the little marks on the trees; by bent twigs and branches; by his footprints in the mud or sand. He knew the lost one was very weak and hungry, for the last fox picture had three circles to show that he had been lost three days, and other marks to show that he had shot nothing. An untrained white hunter would not have seen one sign of the lost Indian.[36]If the Fox Indian had been asked why he used the fox picture, he would have said, if ready to talk: “My grandfather was a fox.” This would mean to us that his totem or first ancestor was a fox.Other tribes believe they are descended from bears, wolves, cranes, or other creatures. They nearly all have their totems, or sign-pictures. We write our names with letters; they use pictures. It is their coat-of-arms. Our names also have meanings.The tall, curiously carved totem poles of Alaska are really carved family histories. Where two or more animals are pictured on one pole it shows the marriage or other union of different bands to which the family belongs. These totem poles are usually put up before each native house. The natives will not sell them, for they are valuable family records.A Dakota warrior shot an arrow into the sky; the clouds parted just as his arrow turned to fall. He was thought to have shot the clouds; he was called Hole-in-the-sky.Old Chief Sleepy-eye had a bright mind, but his eyelids did not serve him well; hence his name.In some tribes the little ones are named after the first object that is seen, as Buffalo Horn, White Pony, Lame Dog, and names that are sometimes better but more often seem to us not so good.Alaskan Totem PolesAlaskan Totem PolesFrom a PhotographThe Sioux have names for their boys or girls[38]according to their order of birth. The first boy is called Chaska, until by some feat of bravery he changes it himself. The second son is Harpam; his next brother is Hapeda; the fourth son is Chatun; and the fifth boy has the name of Harka all ready for him.The first girl has the musical name of Winona, and her next younger sister takes the name of Harpan. Harpstena will be the name of the third girl baby. Waska and Weharka are for the fourth and fifth girls of a family, and other names are provided for a greater number of children.The Indians have titles and descriptive names for the white people whom they know. A certain military surgeon who has been among them and has keen, dark eyes and gray hair is always called Gray Eagle. Their senses are trained to observe very keenly, and they quickly know each person. Perhaps the paleface might be startled if he understood the name they gave him.Some Indian tribes call the horse Foot-with-one-toe. Few white Americans would have noticed the horse’s foot so closely.[39][Contents]THE INDIAN NAMES FOR THE MONTHS OR MOONSThe moon goes through its changes from new moon to new moon in twenty-eight days. The Indians reckon their time of year by these changes in the Night Sun, as they call the moon.Tribes living in different parts of America have various names for the months, which they call Moons. They all keep their calendar hung in the sky, and it is never lost for any length of time. They have given these moons names after what interests them most.One nation has named them in the following way. The month in our calendar is also given, so that you can easily guess the Indian’s reason for his name for the month.JanuaryThe Cold Moon.FebruaryThe Snow Moon.MarchThe Green Moon.AprilThe Moon of Plants.MayThe Moon of Flowers.JuneThe Hot Moon.[40]JulyThe Moon of the Deer.AugustThe Sturgeon Moon.SeptemberThe Fruit Moon.OctoberThe Traveling Moon.NovemberThe Beaver Moon.DecemberThe Hunting Moon.If you were spending the year among the Sioux or Dakotas, little Winona might tell you that January is the Hard Moon.February is when the braves and the boys take their dogs and hunt the raccoon; hence, they call it the ’Coon Moon.The Sioux have lived for a long time in the north. They know the effect of the bright sunshine of March when it shines upon the snowdrifts. It is called the Moon of Snow-blindness.April is the Egg Moon. It is the moon when the wild geese lay their eggs, and the Indians gather them for food. The next time you watch the dark triangle of wild geese flying northward, you can say it is near the time of the Egg Moon of the Dakotas.May is the Planting Moon. What! You did not know that the copper-colored people planted anything? Oh, yes, they do! Remember our maize, or Indian corn, is one great gift from them.June has the prettiest name. Bright, beautiful June that we all love. It is the Strawberry Moon. The[41]luscious wild strawberries are more delicate in flavor than any grown in the gardens. The wild Indian has many dainties.July, our red-white-and-blue month, is their Moon of Red Lilies. Has it ever been your good fortune to see a vast tract of land covered with these gorgeous wild tiger-lilies? O Moon of Red Lilies, how beautiful you make our western prairies! In this same moon the wild cherry is ripe, and many tribes know it as the Cherry Moon.August is the Ripe Moon. Have you ever heard of the Harvest Moon? Is not that nearly the same name? Seeds from thistle and the milkweed are filling the air with their downy carriers. Wild grasses and grains are ready for the gatherers, and the maize will shortly be ready for the harvest.While at Lake Superior, some time ago, we saw Chippewa Indians in their birch-bark canoes, anchored in what seemed to be a very reedy bay. We found out that the bay was filled with wild rice instead of reeds and rushes. It was the time of their wild-rice gathering. Two moons are given names referring to wild rice: September is the Ripe-rice Moon; October is often called the Harvest Moon. With plenty of maize and wild rice the winter is not dreaded. The Indian puts away his winter stores with much the same care that his white brother uses; he stores corn in pits[42]that he digs in the earth. He could learn this from the squirrel.November is the Moon of Michabo, or Indian Summer. Michabo is another name for Menabozho, the Chippewa Indian’s manitou friend; he has given them this second summer of the year, they believe.December is the Moon of Dropping Horns. The deer lose their long antlers about this time, and the Indians can find them in the forests where the deer trails are.The Indians have twelve moons in their year, the same number that we have in our calendar.[43]Mokis ready for a Sacred DanceMokis ready for a Sacred DanceFrom a Photograph[44][Contents]CUSTOMS OF KICKAPOO, SEMINOLE, AND OTHER TRIBESCUSTOMS OF KICKAPOO, SEMINOLE, AND OTHER TRIBESThe Kickapoo Indians first lived in what is now Illinois. Their present home is in the Indian Territory. One of their peculiar customs is that they have a tribe whipper who makes his weekly rounds with his whip to punish children, and in this way the parents save themselves from the pain of inflicting punishment upon their children. Indians dislike rudeness or noisy behavior when there should be quiet. Fire-water, as they call whiskey, makes them forget the manners their parents taught them.Many of the Seminole Indians live in the Everglades of Florida. They are a tall, dignified, intelligent race, and resent the visits of white people unless it is shown that the visitor is a friend, for they have been driven to these Everglades by reason of conquering whites. They live in roofed huts and cultivate several kinds of crops. They once owned rich lands in upper Florida and Alabama. Their language is said to be very musical.[45]The Cherokee and Natchez tribes once lived in Mississippi and Louisiana. They were very wise in war and had many things which they manufactured in times of peace. They carved curious shell ornaments, which are often found in southern mounds.The Flathead Indians of the west bind a piece of stiff board upon the forehead of their papooses. The child’s head flattens as it grows, and he carries his race mark through life.The Blackfoot Indians were so called because during a retreat the burnt prairie grass stained their moccasins as black as the blackest cayuse or pony.The term Digger Indians has been given to various tribes conquered and driven from their fishing and hunting grounds. They live almost wholly upon roots of weeds or the few insects and small animals found in the plains of eastern Utah and the surrounding country. The stronger tribes will not let them fish in lake or stream, and their whole life is miserable.The Indians of California were originally very brave and warlike, but the remnants of the tribes are broken in spirit and seem broken-hearted. Those which have drifted or have been driven by whites and red men into the peninsula of southern California are much like the Diggers.The different tribes and nations scattered over America seemed to have known much about metals,[46]although they used stone arrow points and stone axes when the first explorers visited their homes.The copper mines of Lake Superior show yet where the Indians have mined in them. Gold and silver ornaments were used in many tribes to decorate the braves and their squaws. Shells were carved with sharp tools and used as ornaments, or cut small into wampum.Arrowheads were of flint or jasper and were made by the arrow makers of the tribe. It is said each nation had its own shape of arrowhead. Some preferred very small points; some chose the larger ones.The early races of white people in all ancient lands used stone for many purposes. This first period has been called the Stone Age; this was followed by the Copper Age; then came the Iron Age. The Indians do not seem to have used iron before white men came, and were living in what history would call the Stone Age.[47][Contents]THE INDIANS WHO LIVE IN BRICK HOUSESTHE INDIANS WHO LIVE IN BRICK HOUSESThe native Indians of the southwestern part of the United States were much more civilized when discovered than the wandering tribes in other parts of the country. They have built adobe houses for many centuries. These houses of mud, brick, and hewn timbers cannot be removed like the wigwams, teepees, or wickiups of the other tribes. The Spaniards named these Indians Pueblos, forpueblois the Spanish word for village. There are twenty-seven Pueblo towns.The Pueblos are a peaceful people. They have had time to invent things that astonish the white men who have seen only the Indians of the wandering tribes.The pueblo of Zuñi is in New Mexico, about two hundred miles southeast of Santa Fé. This Indian town was sought for by Coronado and his Spanish soldiers. They had heard marvelous stories of the silver, gold, and jewels owned by the red people living north of Mexico; but the Pueblos were brave as well as wise, and the history of that Spanish expedition is sad reading.The town of Zuñi is built upon a hill, about forty feet above the bank of the river Zuñi; it covers about[48]fifteen acres. The town is like a great beehive, for the houses are merely rooms built one over the other, each family living in a few small rooms which are reached by means of ladders. Some houses are only two stories high, while others are fully five stories. The wealthier Indians live in the lower houses, except the official whose duty it is to give the orders of the governor from the housetop. He lives with his family in rooms near the roof. These Zuñi houses are built around two plazas, or squares, with several streets and covered ways to connect them with the other parts of the town. The mesa called Thunder Mountain, upon which similar homes were built by them in ancient times, is very near their peaceful village.Cliff-dwellings have been found that are entirely deserted, built by a very ancient people of whom we know little. Curious relics of dishes, cloth, and ornaments are found in these cliff-dwellings, but no one knows how many centuries since the empty houses were filled with living people, and no one knows why they were deserted. Some have thought the Zuñis are the descendants of this lost race; others think them to be like the mound-builders.The Zuñi Indians weave handsome wool blankets in handmade looms. They invented these looms themselves. They sell or trade these blankets to Indians of many other tribes.[49]Three-storied Pueblo Houses in OraibiThree-storied Pueblo Houses in OraibiFrom a Photograph[50]The Zuñi and other Pueblos make very good dishes of red clay. Their common cooking ware is much like the dishes seen in wigwams. They make handsome pitchers, vases, and table dishes of a brown color. They understand the working and coloring of clay, and the value of the different kinds. They make a common black ware, which is sometimes used instead of the red ware.Their very best work is of a cream-white color, and the vases and dishes are handsomely decorated with colored borders and pictures. Many travelers have brought home fine specimens of Zuñi dishes, for their town is not far from the railroad.The Navajos live near the Zuñis. Their hogans, or homes, are not so well made as the Zuñis’ adobe houses; they are low adobe huts. The Navajos find time and have the skill to do some very good work in metals, although their tools are rude. They make some use of iron, but their best work is shown in the making and carving of ornaments and other articles of silver. They also have invented hand looms and are blanket weavers.All the Pueblos make handsome water-tight baskets of elegant shape from the fibers of the yucca plant. This plant, sometimes called the Spanish bayonet, from its sharp-pointed leaves, grows to a great size on the plains. The Pueblos color the fibers in some manner[51]and weave handsome borders of black, white, or yellow into their baskets. These are used for flour or meal holders, or for holding water, and are called ollas.They grind their maize or other grain by hand between stones. They raise turkeys, and, as they are good weavers, they sometimes use the turkey feathers in weaving a downy cloth.The Apaches live near the Pueblos and are well known for their love of the warpath. They are not Village Indians, yet are noted for their fine basket weaving. They use the willows found in their country instead of the yucca fibers.The different tribes of Pueblos often use stone axes. It is believed that these are not made by them but were found in the deserted cliff-dwellers’ homes.These Village Indians make use of a plant called soaproot, the root of which will make water foam and will cleanse one’s skin the same as the white man’s soap. The Indian who lives in a teepee does not know the use of soap and is not anxious for a bath.White people have lived for years among the Zuñi and other Pueblos and have found them patient, kind, and intelligent. Some of these whites have returned and have written books about the people of whose home life they have learned so much.Some of the habits of the Navajos are very odd. After the death of one of their tribe, his house, or[52]hogan, is pulled down; if this is not done, every one who enters it fears danger.A Navajo will not look into the face of the mother of his wife; when they talk together he looks on the ground or in another direction. It is said a Navajo once forgot himself and, looking up, became blind. They believe that the souls of the women of their tribe enter fish when they leave this world; and they rarely eat fish for that reason. Indian customs and manners are taught to their children with just as much earnestness as white people teach their little ones.All the Pueblos make curious images or dolls of clay. These may possibly be idols, but are not always, for both old and young sometimes play with them as toys. They are a religious people. They believe in a Great Spirit and in a future life. Their forms of worship are very strange and sometimes cruel.The tribes called Pueblos of New Mexico are not included with those which continue to live in the twenty-seven Pueblo towns, for whatever may have been their customs in past centuries, they are now very different from the Village Indians, who still live and worship after the manner of their ancestors.[53]Moki Maiden in Native CostumeMoki Maiden in Native CostumeFrom a Photograph[54][Contents]THE MOKI INDIANSThe Moki Indians live in pueblos the same as the Zuñi people. Their name is also spelled Moqui and Hopi. The Moki pueblo of Walpi is in Arizona. It is at the end of a mesa or plateau which rises abruptly seven hundred feet above the desert. It is here that the great snake dance is held each alternate autumn.The Moki weave blankets and cloth for dresses, which they exchange with other Pueblos for ponies, turquoise beads, and silver ornaments for neck or hair.The Moki maidens, like those of a few other tribes, do not leave their straight black hair hanging down their backs. These maidens put up their locks in huge puffs over each ear. These puffs are to represent squash blossoms. The married women braid their hair and sometimes fasten it in a knot at the back of the head.All the water used in this elevated pueblo is carried up the seven hundred feet in clay ollas by the women. It is like a scene in Asia to see them gathered at evening about the springs at the foot of the mesa.[55]The Mokis are a very devout people, and their young men are taught daily in the kivas, or secret rooms, by the wise old men all the sacred rites and wisdom of their fathers.Interior of Kiva with Sacred AltarInterior of Kiva with Sacred AltarAmong the Mokis the kiva, orestufa, as the Spanish call it, is underground; among the Zuñis it is above the ground, but entered at the top by a ladder. In it is a sacred flat altar, usually surrounded by prayer-sticks called bahos. These sticks have a feather fastened at the top, to show that prayer rises.These bahos are always planted two or three times a year by the water ways, to do reverence to the water god who shows himself in the lightning. They believe[56]a serpent is the form lightning takes when on earth; hence the pictures of these on the prayer-sticks, and sometimes on the sides of rocks.There is an order of nuns among the Pueblos called Ko-Ko. These go to the springs in the early morning and place the bahos in the banks, so that rain may come on the corn, beans, and pumpkins which have been planted. No one dares to remove one baho.The Moki Indians have stories of Coronado’s people, who battled with them in 1540.[57][Contents]DAKOTA OR SIOUXDAKOTA OR SIOUXThe name the French gave the fierce, strong Dakotas is Sioux, which is the way they pronounced the name given them by their Algonquin neighbors. This has become the name of the people, and Dakota is the language which they speak.They are divided into many bands, each with a chief for a leader. His friends and relatives move their teepees wherever this chief thinks best on the land the Great Father in Washington has reserved for them.They are very brave and have many wise men among them. The chiefs of the bands are always ready to follow what the head chief of the nation commands. The head chief has learned that the Great Father in Washington has more warriors than he, and so the Sioux are not sent on the warpath any more.The buffalo and antelope are gone from the prairie. There is not meat enough in the woods, and the warlike Sioux has now to come to the Indian agency to get his rations. It is a fine sight to see the teepees of the bands when they have gathered at the agency. Even[58]here they show their respect to the head chief and his followers, for his teepees are placed in the center of the camp. The greatest chief comes next, and so on, till the weakest band places its teepees last.The Sioux who have been long in the south do not speak like their northern relatives. For example, they say Lakota instead of Dakota. The northern bands laugh at their southern brothers, and think they have been trying to become different. Many Sioux boys and girls are in the schools at the agencies learning to write and to read in English. They are very quick to learn and can draw very well.The Sioux women make such beautiful beadwork that a white woman thought it wise to teach them to make lace of the choicest kind. The young squaws and some of the Indian boys have learned to make this rare point lace with care and wonderful neatness. They cannot use it; but the money they get for it buys food and clothes for them and their relatives.[59][Contents]INDIAN GAMESThe Dakotas play their ball games in the hot moons of the summer and in the cold moons of the winter. The prairies give wide room for the games in summer, and the ice on the many lakes serves as winter ball grounds for them.Large spaces are needed, for there are many players. There is only one ball, but there are as many bats as players. The bats are about thirty inches long, with a loop at the lower end; this is laced across with deer sinew, to make a pocket in which the ball is caught and thrown.The center of the ball ground is chosen. Stakes are set many feet away from the center, on opposite sides, as the bounds for the game. Two parties of equal numbers are chosen. Each party chooses its own leader or chief.[60]The chief of one side drops his ball into the pocket of his bat and tosses it toward the center ground between the stakes. Both sides rush toward the place where the ball may fall, each brave hoping he may be the lucky one to catch it; whoever gets the ball tosses it with his bat into the air toward his side of the grounds. Then the screaming, howling mob of players tears across the field to the place where the ball may fall again. The ball is thrown and contended for until one side succeeds in throwing it beyond the bounds of the opposite party.The prizes for the winning side have hung all this time on the prize pole; and dangling in the air, waiting the finish of the game, are the knives, tomahawks, blankets, moccasins, fine buffalo and deerskin robes which the winners will divide among themselves. Indian girls play the same game and with nearly as much vigor and skill as their brothers.Always, at these games, the old men and squaws sit or stand at the outside of the ball ground, a mass of interested spectators.The ball game in some form, it seems, has been the national game on American soil since before American history began.The plum-stone game was and is yet played by the northern Indian tribes. The Dakotas call it kansookootaype, which simply means “shooting plum-stones.”[61]Each plum-stone is painted black on one side and red on the other side. The stones are also cut on one side to make them of different value according to the meaning of the marks cut.These black and red stones are put into a large shallow dish of clay or metal. The dish is struck against the nearest object with a sharp blow. The stones fall black or red side up, and the betting on the number of black or red stones makes the game.It is pure gambling. The prizes are valuable,—furs, clothing, food, everything goes in the excitement of the game. An Indian may be beggared in a minute.Father Hennepin describes the excitement of the game in hisDescriptions of Louisiana, published in Paris in 1683. This book is a description of his travels at that time in the valley of the Mississippi to the Falls of St. Anthony and beyond. Father Hennepin said:“There are some so given to the game that they will gamble away even their greatcoat. Those who conduct the game scream at the top of their voices when they rattle the platter; and they strike their shoulders so hard as to make themselves black and blue with the blow.”The Indian boys have their pony races and running matches. They play much like white boys, but with more cruelty.[62][Contents]SIOUX AND CHIPPEWAS OF MINNESOTAThe Iroquois drove the Chippewas, or Ojibways, from their hunting grounds and from fishing in many waters in central New York; as the bands increased and more needed food, many started westward, and Chippewa names of lakes and rivers mark their progress toward the Mississippi. They made a long halt at the Sault Ste. Marie, for many fish were in these waters, but there was no place to plant their corn. They built their wigwam fires farther westward each year, until they reached what is now northern Minnesota. Here they found the Dakotas, or Sioux, had possession of the beautiful lake region, which was so nearly like the country by the River of Islands in the east.The Chippewas had no wish to go back, and their warriors and chiefs were too brave to think that even the fierce western tribes could conquer them. They built their wigwams on islands and points of land projecting into the lake, for these made good places of[63]landing for their birch-bark canoes, and also gave them a better chance to watch for their enemies than in the thick forests of pine, birch, and cedar.Each band of Chippewas has yet many stories to tell of the terrible battles with the “nadoway-sioux,” as the French trappers and hunters call the Algonquin word which means “hidden enemies.” This warfare began years before the time of our war of the Revolution and did not end for nearly a century. The Chippewas fought for their new home very bravely, and the Sioux were just as brave in trying to hold what they believed to be the center of the world and nearest like the Happy Hunting Grounds of the future life. There is a very extensive view of the Mississippi at its junction with the Minnesota which is called by the Indians Mendota, or the “gathering of the waters.” The contending tribes fought fiercely to hold or to obtain this place, for here these red men, with their love for the beautiful in nature, had decided was where many of their gods liked best to stay. The building of Fort Snelling at this point and the arrival of white men put a stop to the battles, and neither tribe could claim Mendota.The Great Father in Washington made a treaty with the Chippewas whereby they hold much of their hard-won lake region as long as they keep their treaty promises; now that there is peace between the Indian[64]nations they are willing to admit that each had many heroes in war and council.During the conflict a trader attempted to bargain with the Sioux for furs, after having had dealings with a band of Chippewas. This band, wild with fury at what they called the trader’s treachery, broke open his storehouse and destroyed or took all his stores of furs and other articles. They were called Pillagers by the French and other bands, and hold the name yet and are proud of it, for the deed was done openly and for the sake of their nation.The Pillagers are nearly all Blanket Indians. They live in wigwams in summer and cover these with bark huts in winter for greater warmth. The wigwams are covered with woven mats made of reeds or grass and birch bark. The huts are like a one-room house and are covered also with pine or birch bark. Each spring these Indians make large quantities of maple sugar, which they pack in mokuks, or birch-bark baskets, and sell or exchange at the stores in towns. During the summer they pick and sell the berries which grow near the woods and lakes. They have gardens of maize, squash, pumpkins, beans, and onions, and some raise potatoes. Their meat supply is getting scarce, as the deer, moose, and bear are being hunted so freely by white men. The men often dress in true Indian costumes, with buckskin leggings, beadwork ornaments,[66]blankets, and a feather in their scalp lock if they have killed an enemy; this honor is hard to give up, and even a murderer of one of his own tribe has dared to wear the eagle feather.Chippewa Indian’s Summer WigwamChippewa Indian’s Summer WigwamFrom a PhotographThere is a large government school at Leech Lake, and many of the boys and girls have learned the customs and books of the white people, but when they return to their wigwam homes there is little chance to change the home life, except in very simple ways.Some of the finest work in lace, which has been taught in the Indian schools, has been done by these Chippewas at Leech Lake. They were so artistic in their bead and basket work that a lady who saw the point lace made in the mission schools in Japan decided to teach it to all the squaws who would learn the art. Their success has been a pleasure to her and to them. It brings the money with which to buy food.The lakes near the source of the Great River abound in wild rice, which is gathered in August and stored in mokuks for winter use. The wild swan, geese, and ducks also feed upon it, and they make good hunting.The extensive pine forests owned by the Chippewas have attracted many white men who are trying to gain possession of them, but the wise chiefs know their value and their people’s need, and they remember the years of warfare when the land was won; neither have they yet broken their treaty promises. A few years[67]ago the courts wanted several of the Leech Lake Indians for witnesses in a trial. It was cold, and if the men went their families would suffer, for they must be gone some weeks. The old chief would not let them go until the government promised money to support their families. The white men in council did not think best to make the promise, and the chief refused to send the witnesses. The soldiers came to take the men forcibly. There was a battle, and soldiers fell and much money was spent, but still the chief has not given up the men. The white people feel that the Indian chief had much in his favor, for he would not see his people suffer; the squaws and papooses must be cared for, and he had not the money with which to buy food for them.The Sioux in southern Minnesota made an uprising during the Civil War. Some friendly Indians warned the whites of the coming troubles and helped them to escape. A monument erected in 1900 to these good Indians shows the friendly feeling of the whites to their rescuers. These Indians were called traitors by the Sioux and had to flee for their own lives. Some of them settled at Mendota and are much respected by their white friends. The son of one became an Episcopal minister. The present chief of all the Chippewas is also a minister of the same church and an able leader of his people.[68][Contents]CHIEF LOGAN AND OTHERSThe Delaware Indians of eastern Pennsylvania have always called the Iroquois the Mingo Indians.Skikelling was a Mingo. He was chief of the Cayugas, one of the most intelligent tribes of the Iroquois union. The son of Skikelling was also a chief. He is celebrated in the history of Pennsylvania as Chief Logan.When a babe Chief Logan was brought by his father to Fort Augusta in 1742, to be baptized by the Moravian missionaries. Hence his American name, which is famous in history and romance.There was another Chief Logan who was for a time chief among the Delawares. This chief lost an eye in a battle and was then deprived of his position, as a chief must be physically perfect.History has preserved the names of numbers of Indians famous in war and peace.Samoset, who greeted the Pilgrims with the cordial “Welcome, Englishmen,” is one of the first on the list.[69]Squanto, Massasoit, Canonicus, Miantonomoh are well known in New England history. These are the names of men who kept their promises and fought bravely for their white friends.King Philip saw the ruin of his country and people and commanded an uprising. He was a terrible warrior, and his name is both famous and infamous. Tecumseh, Red Cloud, Black Hawk, and others are well known in western history. These names and hundreds of others are kept in memory as the names of cities, rivers, or lakes.[70][Contents]A NAVAJO MEDICINE CHANTA NAVAJO MEDICINE CHANTThe Navajos give a medicine dance and chant a long song when a sick person asks for this service. This chant is the story in song of the capture and escape of a young Navajo brave. He is helped by his people’s gods, who are like the creatures that live in his own country.This is the part of the chant telling of his escape:“He came to the house of the Butterfly. It was filled with butterflies and rainbows.“Kacluge, the great Butterfly, welcomed him to his lodge. His wife took the young brave by the hand. He was welcome.“She left the room, but came back with a great pearl dish in her hand. It was a sea-shell filled with water. She gave him soapweed. He washed and was white. He dried his hands with meal and painted his face with white earth; then he was fair as a white man.[71]“Kacluge gave him fine white moccasins. He gave him a collar of beaver skin, and a whistle to call for help.“His arms looked like wings, for plumed prayer-sticks were fastened to them in the Butterfly’s lodge.“The young man was no longer tired. He was strong again, and like a white butterfly in beauty. Kacluge fed him with white corn meal mixed with pure water. He slept in the house of the Butterfly.“In the morning the young Navajo stepped on the white sand. The wife of the Butterfly put two burning lines of white lightning before his feet. He stepped upon these, and his white moccasins fastened to the lightning.“ ‘Now,’ said the Butterfly, ‘the lightning is yours; follow where it leads.’“With one step he stood on a high hill. He saw a flash of lightning fill the valley.“ ‘It is the trail I must follow,’ said the young Navajo. Across the valley, on the trail of the lightning, he ran to the mountains; and now, pure in face, in heart, and with white feet, the lightning led him home.”Adapted from Powell’s Report.[72][Contents]HOW THE CAVE PEOPLE FOUND DRY LAND ON THE EARTH(Zuñi Chant)In the old days all men lived in caves in the center of the earth. There were four caves, one over the other. Men first lived in the lowest cave. It was dark. There was no light, and the cave was crowded. All men were full of sorrow.“The Holder of the Paths of Life, the Sun-father, heard the people cry. He created two children for himself, and they fell to the earth to help the cave people.“The Sun-father gave his two children eternal youth. He gave them power to do things as he would do them. He gave them gifts. One gift was a painted bow that reached from one end of the sky to the farther end. It was the rainbow. He gave them an arrow of fire. It was the lightning. He gave them a great shield[74]like his own. The shield was a net of cotton cords on a hoop of wood, and the last gift, a great magic war knife of flint, was fastened to the center of the shield.Interior of Zuñi HouseInterior of Zuñi HouseFrom a Photograph“After the two children had cut the face of the earth with the stone war knife, they rode on the magic shield to the lowest cave where men lived. There they lived with mankind as leaders.“The priests prayed to the Sun-children for help in the darkness. The Sun-children led mankind into the second cave; it was still all darkness. Men asked the priests to pray for more help. They came to the Sun-children, and the people were led into the third world or cave.“This was a larger world than the other two. It was like twilight in this cave, but at first all thought that they had reached the blazing sun, it was so light.“After a thousand years this cave became crowded. Men sought the priests and prayed them to find some way to help them.“The two Sun-children cut their way through the cave above them, and led the people out upon the earth. It was only a small island, for all the rest was water.“Men covered their faces with their hands, for the light made them blind. They fell down and tried to hide in the sand, they were so hot. The people were taught to make clothing of yucca fiber. Their eyes[75]were like owls’ eyes, and they covered them with their hands till they were strong.“The Sun-children led the people over the quaking earth to the east, where the Sun-father had his home.“The Sun-children were told to dry the earth. They put the magic shield upon the earth and laid the rainbow upon it. They put arrows of lightning to the north, south, east, and west, and the arrows crossed each other. The older brother shot with an arrow the lightning arrows where they crossed upon the rainbow.“Thlu-tchu! the lightning arrows shot toward every point. Fire rolled over the face of the earth. The earth was dried when the fire storm was over.“The earth was then full of great beasts that had lived in the water. The Sun-children shot the beasts with their arrows; then the beasts became stone. The people were free to go on the earth wherever they wanted to go.“Thus the people were led out of the deep caves; thus the land became dry, and men came to live on the earth.”From report by F. H. Cushing, who was adopted by the Zuñis.[77]
Part ISKETCHES OF VARIOUS TRIBES OF NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS[3][Contents]WIGWAM STORIESBOOKS IN THE INDIAN LANGUAGEJohn Eliot, of Massachusetts, published the first Indian Bible. This and other Bibles and books in the Indian languages may be seen in the larger city libraries.The Indians had no printed languages with letters before the white man came; their painted or carved picture-writing meant much to them. Their teepees were covered with histories of the battles their owners had fought, but they had no books of “talking leaves.”Se-quoyah, a Georgia Indian half-breed, was a modern Cadmus to his people. He invented a perfect alphabet of over eighty letters for his native Cherokee language, and by his own zeal inspired his nation with a love for written words. His paper was birch bark; his ink the juices of berries and weeds.[4]He hated the white people, for his white father had basely deserted his mother when Se-quoyah was a helpless babe. His mother’s father was a proud chief, and the grandson seems to have inherited his spirit.Se-quoyah never learned to read or to write a word or a letter of English, and his anger was aroused when he saw one of his tribe reading a book made by the hated white people; Se-quoyah then declared he would make as good a one for the Cherokees, and he did.He listened for sounds while his people talked. He became a silent student and lost or forgot his old warlike spirit. He sat beside his doorway and marked upon bark. His people pitied him, for he did not fight. At last he called a council; he wrote on bark and gave the writing to his little daughter, who had been taught by him to read. She read it and did as the writing commanded; the test was tried many times.This caused great excitement; young men came in scores to learn of him; they forgot hunting and war for letter-writing. The white missionaries adopted his letters and made a Bible which was read by all these Indian students. The nation became civilized in a short time, and the first printing press sent to an Indian tribe was that sent about 1820 by the United States government to the Cherokees. The type was cast in Cherokee characters, the same that Se-quoyah had invented.[5]A marble bust of Se-quoyah adorns the council house in Tahlequah, the capital of Indian Territory, where this tribe was sent after gold was found on their reservation in Georgia. They knew the value of these mines, but the white man’s power was stronger than theirs, and they had to leave homes and wealth for a strange new land.Sequoia, the botanical name of the big trees of California, is the only memorial the white man has given this truly American genius.Adapted from Smithsonian Report.[6][Contents]SOME THINGS THE INDIANS KNEW BEFORE WHITE MEN CAMESOME THINGS THE INDIANS KNEW BEFORE WHITE MEN CAMEThe Indians made and still make excellent canoes of bark or of logs and even of skins. The birch-bark canoe is light and very swift, and white hunters are proud of their skill in its use, but the skin boat has only strength as its merit.The Siwash Indian of Puget Sound hollows out from a single log a fine canoe with decorated prow. He makes it secretly in the dark forest, and white men have tried for years to solve the problem of its swiftness.The bows of strong wood bent by sinew cords and the stone-headed arrows with feather tips were excellent weapons in the Indians’ former methods of warfare and hunting, and a good arrowhead maker was famous throughout a nation.Pueblo House with Kivas in ForegroundPueblo House with Kivas in ForegroundFrom a PhotographIndian squaws were skillful in the making of buckskin suits for their braves. The handsomely embroidered moccasins were and are now good specimens of[8]woman’s work and love for beauty of coloring and design. Each tribe had its own pattern and shape, differing so much from those of other tribes that a footprint might announce an enemy in war time.The Indians are still noted trappers, and their squaws know well how to tan and dress the skins of animals. Fish-hooks were made of bone or flint, and spear points were of the same materials, but they were very sharp and with them the Indians caught many fish.Their roving habits as hunters gave them little time for house-building, and so their homes were simply tents made of strips of bark or, better yet, of large buffalo or deer hides, neatly sewed together for this purpose. These teepees and wigwams were easily put up or removed, and were a good shelter.The Village Indians, or Pueblos of Arizona, still build themselves houses of adobe or unburnt brick. As the Pueblos were and are now less warlike than the roving tribes which live in tent-like houses, they have had time to invent many useful things.The Pueblos weave excellent woolen blankets of gay stripes and a coarse cloth for wearing apparel. They make water-tight baskets and dishes of fiber, and these are often exchanged with the Tent Indians for dried meat and other food.The Village Indians have for centuries planted and cared for maize, pumpkins, beans, and other vegetables.[9]Turkeys are raised for food, and their feather fibers are woven into cloth. Eagles are caged and raised for their long feathers, which are held sacred.In the ruined houses of the cliff-dwellers of Texas and Arizona fragments of cloth woven from cotton and other substances have been found. No white man taught this ancient people these arts of weaving.Clay dishes, mortars, and pestles of stone, large sea-shells cut into shapes for holding food, stone axes, and knives show some of the skill of these early Americans.The ornaments made of silver by the Navajo, as well as the long strings of turquoise beads, are sometimes remarkable for their beauty.Wampum, used by so many tribes for money, was carefully made from shells by eastern Indians. It seems strange that their crude tools could have made such small beads so very well.The knowledge of medicine in all tribes was limited to a few herbs. The rest was a kind of sorcery; but with the herbs, fresh air, and fresh water they managed to cure many ills.The Pueblos of New Mexico are very different from the Zuñis or the Moki Pueblos of Arizona. They are now much like the white people, for they live in well-built houses, attend church, and send their children to school.[10][Contents]HOW THE IROQUOIS BUILT THEIR LOG FORTSThe French explorers in the land near Lake Champlain, and in what is now central New York, found many of the Iroquois villages protected by strong, well-built log forts.They were built in this way: The Indians first found a place where there were many tall trees; these were set on fire near their roots, and stone axes were used to rub off the coals, so they would burn faster. After the trees had fallen to the ground they were set on fire again, in places about three long steps apart. The fires burned through the logs in about half a day.As there were no horses, the logs were drawn by the Indians, and then put into place. Earth was heaped up on both sides of the logs to keep them from falling. The forts had two gates; the one in front for general use; the one in the rear for use when getting water.In making the fire to burn the logs, a small dry stick was quickly rubbed with a steady motion against[11]well-seasoned wood; after a while it would burn. Great care was used in preserving coals of fire through the night time for the next day’s use.On the shores of the beautiful Seneca Lake, by the banks of the Mohawk and Genesee rivers, in the forests of Oneida and Cayuga, and in many other parts of this fertile region, these strongholds of a savage people stood secure.Sometimes several acres of land were enclosed, with many homes well protected both day and night from wild animals and other foes.Some of these rude dwellings were more than one hundred feet in length, and were made of poles bent like an arch and covered closely with many layers of elm bark. These large houses, thus protected by forts, were used by several different families, for the “long-houses” were divided into rooms by deerskins or other robes.Fine fields of corn, squashes, and beans were planted and harvested by these fort dwellers, and they knew well how to protect themselves from intruders, for they had hundreds of stones and even huge rocks piled inside the fort ready to hurl at an enemy.[12][Contents]INDIAN RECORDSThe Leni Lennape, or Delaware Indians, kept a curious record of their early history by means of sticks which were notched and painted; these sticks were about six inches long. Each painted notch indicated some great event in their nation’s history. The meanings of the notches were taught by old chiefs to the younger ones, and the stories have been repeated for hundreds of years. Leni Lennape meansMen of MenorThe People, and these sticks have been held to prove that their nation is one of the oldest among the red men. Their chiefs were noted for their wisdom in war and peace.A white man, who proved himself a true friend to the Leni Lennapes, gained their confidence and they told him the secrets that were kept by the painted sticks. He had it printed, but had to leave out many words, as their language is very different from English. It is an easy matter to read the history now, and, although many words are omitted, any one can understand its meaning.[13]This record, which the notched and painted sticks have kept for several hundreds of years, is an account of the travels of the Leni Lennape Indians from the Northwest across the Wide River. This must have been the Mississippi. They call it Namesi Sipu, the “river of fish.”When across the Wide River, they found they had come to the country of the Great Serpent. Numerous earth mounds in the form of an immense serpent are found in the valley of the Mississippi. These are believed to have been made by a people, long ago extinct, who may have fought the Delawares.Other Indian tribes and nations have kept long records by means of similar sticks, but the account given by this people is the longest Indian history. The last marks upon these painted sticks are said to mean: “The white men have come from the north and the south. They are peaceful; they have great things. Who are they?”These Leni Lennapes are the Delawares, with whom the Quakers made their treaty near Philadelphia. The Iroquois had conquered these Indians, and had refused to let them go to war as a punishment for their great bravery. The Quakers found them peaceable, honest, and faithful friends, and for forty years no white person was harmed who had never broken his promise to the Leni Lennapes, or Delaware Indians.[14]The Aztecs, or Mexican Indians, had a serpent god, and some have said that these mounds must have been built by them. The Leni Lennape stick records tell only that the country of the Great Serpent was conquered little by little. The mounds are themselves the unsolved records of a great people. No Indian legends or histories have ever explained the meaning of these heaps of earth, which are shaped like animals or birds, and are now sometimes covered by huge trees.The wampum belt tells its story by the pictures upon it, while the record sticks had only painted notches to help the memory of the tribe’s historians.[15][Contents]WAMPUM MONEYWAMPUM MONEYWampum has been used among the Indians east of the Rocky Mountains since the whites first had dealings with them. Among the eastern Indians it was first found to be made of the white and purple parts of clam shells. These shells were carefully cut into small pieces by means of sharp-edged stone knives, and a hole was bored through the pieces, making them like little tubes.The white and the dark-colored beads were threaded and carefully arranged into patterns when belts or other woven pieces of ornament were made. The threads were either of vegetable fiber or of deer sinews, and long strings were sometimes made of the bark of the slippery-elm tree. Dark-colored parts of the shells from which the beads were made were called black, but they were really dark shades of purple. White beads meant peace. Dark beads were woven into the belt either in square or diamond patterns or in some more irregular shape.[16]The wampum belt used in the treaty between William Penn and the Indians is now in the rooms of the Pennsylvania Historical Society. It was given to this society by a great-grandson of William Penn. This wampum belt was given to its first white owner as a solemn token that they would keep their pledge. History has shown how faithfully these red men kept their pledge with the Quakers.This famous belt is an unusually wide one, having eighteen rows of wampum and nearly three thousand beads, which is proof that it was an important token. The center of the belt is of white wampum with two figures of men wrought in dark beads. The figures are pictured as clasping each other’s hands. One man pictured on the belt wears a hat, while the other does not; this shows that one was a white man, the other an Indian.This belt was kept in the Penn family and treasured with as much care as the chain and medal given to William Penn by the English Parliament; indeed, the medal and the wampum belt each served a like purpose: they were reminders of the promises of a nation.Wampum belts of great historic value are kept by the Onondaga Indians; the finest of these is called the George Washington belt. It is believed by those who have had charge of it to be a pledge relating to a treaty between the early government of the United States and the Six Nations. Fifteen men are pictured on this belt.[18]These may mean the original thirteen colonies and the people who were the speakers at the time of the treaty.Pueblo Indians making BeadsPueblo Indians making BeadsFrom a PhotographSuch uses of belts of wampum were common among the different tribes of Indians. Smaller belts were woven for the chiefs to wear, and the women made themselves bracelets and neck chains of the beads.It was necessary for the whites in the very early times to have this Indian money ready when they wished to purchase furs or other supplies of their wild neighbors. The beads had a certain value according to the number of strings. This value never changed.It is told by the people who wrote back to England in those early days that the Indians could not be made to understand why they should pay more wampum for anything when it was scarce than when it was plentiful. They were used to having one price for things they wished to buy and never having the price changed. For this reason the early settlers were able to buy many valuable things at a very small price.The chiefs of the Iroquois, while mourning a chief’s death, wore strings of black wampum. Other strings of different lengths or colors meant various things to the owners and those about them. The wearing of wampum in any quantity meant wealth and position.It is told of the famous Chief Logan that he saved a captive white by rushing through the circle of Indians[19]who were tormenting him, and throwing a string of wampum about the captive’s neck. From that minute he belonged to Chief Logan.Wampum has been made by machinery since 1670 and sold to the Indians. Old belts and strings of beads, so slowly made by hand, are very valuable. The white and colored glass beads now used are worth but little compared with the wampum of early days.Arranged from Powell’s Report to the Bureau of Ethnology.[20][Contents]INDIAN TRAITSAlmost unconsciously, even as our own eyes and other senses are trained to help us in city or country life, the Indians are adding to their education in the things which will make life and labor easier to them. Their reading of weather signs is very accurate, and possibly their rain-makers are simply experts in these signs.Their method of lying in ambush in war times calls out all their hidden powers in every line. They can decoy their foe by imitating bird calls or animals; they can make themselves into stump-like figures and almost defy a close inspection.If injured, they rarely show pain, though the torture of the broken limb or the bullet may be intense. Indian boys are taught by both parents from early childhood to bear their pain silently. It comes as a good lesson, when in manhood a groan might show an enemy where they were hidden.Their long trails or paths over mountains, through thick forests, across treeless plains, with no compass[21]but the North Star, have made them watchful of every earthly means of finding their way. They will tell you that trees are greener on the south side than on the north, and that there are plants whose leaves point due north. Flocks of birds sometimes help to guide them. They seem to have almost an instinct in finding their way home.An Indian’s natural pride is as great as a king’s. To him his nation is the greatest one on earth. No Indian must allow that the white is greater in numbers or strength.A number of years ago a Mandan chief named Ietan visited the city of Washington in company with others. On his return, at the council which was called in his honor, he told of boats he had seen that were one hundred and fifty feet long; of great houses filled with white people; of great cities and long railroad trails.The Indians will have nothing but absolute truth at these councils. They must not deceive each other. The council declared that Ietan was telling false tales to frighten the Mandans. No canoe could be built so large as he had said. No such number of white people could live in a land where there were no buffalo. Houses such as he had told about would be blown down by the great winds.Ietan was proven to have basely deceived the council. He was condemned to death for making the[22]white man stronger and greater than the red man. Ietan told them he was ready and willing to suffer the penalty, but when they were older they would know that his words were not false. He was punished as the council decreed. Perhaps they are wise enough now to read the signs made by the iron trails across the Dakota prairies, and their children know that what Ietan said was true.Indians seem to have great pity for the unfortunate few of their tribe who have lost their senses, becoming either insane or foolish. A certain professor belonging to a well-known eastern college had reason to be thankful for this trait not many years ago. He had been gathering plants and insects in one of the desolate regions in the west. He was unarmed, and knew nothing of any Indian language or of the sign language so much used west of the Mississippi.A marauding band of Indians caught sight of him. Wheeling their ponies in his direction, they were down upon him before he had time to do anything more than gather his collection into the boxes and get upon his pony. For some reason they did not offer to hurt him; they, however, were willing to make themselves richer by whatever they could get from him. The professor did not say a word, but handed them his case of roots and plants. At this they stared open-eyed, for it contained nothing that any one could eat. His boxes of[24]insects were next examined. Nothing of use to them was found. His pockets were searched. They were filled with bugs, flies, and flower specimens.Hogan of Navajo Blanket WeaverHogan of Navajo Blanket WeaverFrom a PhotographLooking him over from head to foot, they all seem to have reached the same conclusion at the same time; with shouts of laughter and mocking bows and grimaces, they gave him back his boxes. They had discovered by all the signs that he was a being who had not a sense left, and they would not harm him. So the learned professor was spared to return to tell the tale.The numerous Indian nations of America are and were as different in their character and conditions as are the civilized people living in America to-day. They had their unions and their divisions of land according to nation, not according to family or person. Many nations seem to have had wise laws.Very strangely, many of the tribes expected the coming of the white man. When the Indian has learned that village life is no disgrace, he may become even greater than the paleface with the talking leaves or printed book.A wise old Indian was once told that white men were beginning to think they had found where the Indian came from; that the place was northern China.“Perhaps the people of northern China came from the Indian race in America,” said the Indian. It was well said. There are many proofs that the mound-builders,[25]the Aztec, and the Indian have made this part of the world their home for ages, when it was unknown and unthought of in the wildest dreams of seamen or of kings.The hunting chase is the great happiness of the Indian. Now the wild buffalo is gone from the plains forever; the red deer, elk, moose, and bear hide away in the northern forests; the Indian’s hope for a long future for his nation is lost. They are no longer braves but squaws, for they must plant corn and watch it. Village life is very tame compared with the wandering life when the tribes moved to some new place almost every moon.They have an old, old prophecy among many tribes, “that the Great Manitou will some day send away the white race; the whole earth shall be given to the Indians.” This prophecy is repeated in the religious dances, and the medicine men comfort their people with it when the tribes feel the injustice of the whites. It excites them to battle with the invader.Their training has always been for revenge, but they are also trained to remember the good which has been done to them.[26][Contents]THE INDIAN’S EYE TRAININGAn Indian left his lodge for several days; when he came back, the dried deer meat which he had left hanging to a tree near his wigwam was gone. He did not go around asking questions of his neighbors, but just used his eyes instead of his tongue for the first hour, and his eyes told him many things.Then he went to a wigwam near by and asked: “Did you see a little, old, white man with a short gun? Did you see him in the last two days? Did he have a small dog with a short tail?”The neighbor Indian said: “Yes, I saw him. He and his dog were on the trail going south.”The Indian took the same trail and in a few days returned with the dog and the deer meat.Some white men had heard the questions of the Indian before he started out, and after he came back they went to him and said: “We want to know who took your meat. How did you know it was a white man?”[27]“White man turns toe out; Indian put foot so, one behind the other, walk straight.”“How did you know that he was little and that he was old?”“He put pile of stones by deer-meat tree; cannot reach, he little. He takes short steps; he old.”“How did you know that his gun was short?”“He stick gun on ground against tree. Gun muzzle make mark little way from ground. Short gun.”“Well, how did you ever know that he had a little dog like that, with a short tail?”“Dog sit in the sand. Watch man get meat. Dog leave mark where he sit down in sand. Indian can see with two eyes.”[28][Contents]MEDICINE MEN AMONG THE INDIANSNearly all tribes have their medicine men. These men choose this work, frequently because of some deformity which unfits them for the warpath, and they fit themselves for it, sometimes from boyhood. They have great power over all their people. They are called into the council when the tribe goes to war. They are called upon when any one is sick. They believe and teach that sickness is caused by an evil spirit. Their medicine is to contrive some way to drive out the evil spirit of sickness.The medicine man usually works himself into a frenzy or even into a fit, and while in this state his mutterings are taken for advice and followed. The patient must then get well. If he does not, it is because the evil spirit cannot be conquered.Big Medicine ManBig Medicine ManFrom a PhotographMany tribes believe that the soul leaves the body when the evil spirit of sickness enters. The Portage Indians of British America hold this belief. Their medicine men try to bring back the wandering soul by[30]many curious performances. For one thing, the sick man’s friends are ordered to hang up his buckskin moccasins stuffed with soft feathery down. If the feathers become warm to the touch, they will know that the wandering soul has touched them and perhaps is hiding in them. The moccasins are quickly put upon the feet of the patient that his soul may not escape. If he does not get well, it is because his friends were not quick enough in their work.The medicine men of many tribes dress themselves in hideous fashion to excite the fear and compel the respect of their people. They do not have to go on the warpath, but will do it sometimes. It seems to be a good chance for the deformed to win respect from the physically perfect.[31][Contents]THE INDIAN AT HOMEIndian feathered headgear.An Indian in his native costume is a subject artists are glad to paint,—tanned buckskin trousers with the buckskin fringe down the outside seams; buckskin moccasins with colored porcupine quills neatly woven into the leather in regular patterns, and a heavy blanket or buffalo robe over his shoulders, hanging nearly to the ground. But the paint upon his face is his chief pride.A traveler, in 1835, was taking a trip up the Mississippi. He espied an Indian on the forward deck who was making his toilet, apparently unaware that a paleface was watching the process.The traveler gives this account: “The Indian had secured at Fort Snelling, near St. Paul, a bit of broken looking-glass, and there he sat on deck, painting his face and neck. A daub of the brightest red paint went down the line marking the parting of his hair.[32]“He worried and worked as much over the daubs on his cheeks as some very civilized girls would over a naughty curl. First, a daub of yellow with red at the edge; then red on the yellow, and yellow on the red, until his eye was satisfied.“In the tuft of hair on his crown he stuck an eagle feather; the mirror showed it was not in a becoming place. Out it came and was poised at a different angle. Still, it was not just the style he wanted, and out it came again. At last it stood straight up, and the dandy finished his toilet.“Such a self-satisfied air did he put on when paint, feather, and blanket had been arranged to his liking! Perhaps some daughter of the Dakotas was the cause of all this patient study of the art of dressing; but I cannot dream of Hiawatha ever belittling himself to take so long a time with feathers and paint.”It seemed strange to the traveler for the Indian to take so much pains with the colors of paint and the place where he put them upon his face, but it is now known that each color has its meaning with them. The Indians paint their faces very differently when they are going on the warpath. The warriors of each nation have their own fashion of painting their faces and bodies.The war chiefs have a very noble look when they come out with their feather war bonnets reaching from[33]the crowns of their heads down to their feet. Their bearing is dignified; their faces are earnest and solemn; and each one treads the earth as a king.Indian women are sometimes very handsome when young; but the quantity of colored earth they use as paint does not hide half the dirt upon their faces. They wear blankets and buckskin skirts, and make a pretty picture if the wigwam is in the background. Many of the babies have a decidedly Japanese look and are attractive little creatures, as babies are apt to be.The Indian squaw is a good helpmate to her husband. His work is to hunt; her work is at home in the teepee, where he can find rest and food after his hunting. An Indian brave will not do his squaw’s work, and his squaw does not wish her brave to be different from other men.The Indian pony seems like a part of the family. He is not petted nor fed like the Arabian horse, but is just as necessary to his master’s happiness. Indian ponies know what little food and what no food mean. The rank prairie grass is usually easy for them to get, but sometimes it is burned off. The pony must search for his own food in summer or winter.The Indian pony or cayuse sometimes carries a load under which a donkey could hardly move; but he takes his own gait, and keeps it too. He is suited by[34]inherited years of hard work to his master and his home. The Indian pony is thought to be descended from the horses brought to America by the Spanish explorers.The dogs belonging to an Indian camp or village are numerous and often nearly starved. Whenever a stranger makes his appearance, his coming is announced by furious barks and howls of these hungry sentinels. The white hunter has reason to dread the attacks of these dogs, for they are much like the coyotes and wolves of the forests. Unless his gun is ready, or their masters call them back, it is usually best for the stranger to find refuge in a tree; but the braves, squaws, and children give the white visitor a kind welcome as soon as they know that his visit is friendly.[35][Contents]MEANING OF INDIAN TOTEMS AND NAMESIndian totem.An Indian, while hunting, followed a bear a long way into the forest. The rain came and he was lost, so he cut the bark from a tree and made with his tomahawk a picture of a fox. He put a ring under one foot in the picture. He belonged to the Fox tribe and had been lost one day. He made more such marks on the trees as he went on.Another hunter from the same tribe found him after three days. He had trailed him by the little marks on the trees; by bent twigs and branches; by his footprints in the mud or sand. He knew the lost one was very weak and hungry, for the last fox picture had three circles to show that he had been lost three days, and other marks to show that he had shot nothing. An untrained white hunter would not have seen one sign of the lost Indian.[36]If the Fox Indian had been asked why he used the fox picture, he would have said, if ready to talk: “My grandfather was a fox.” This would mean to us that his totem or first ancestor was a fox.Other tribes believe they are descended from bears, wolves, cranes, or other creatures. They nearly all have their totems, or sign-pictures. We write our names with letters; they use pictures. It is their coat-of-arms. Our names also have meanings.The tall, curiously carved totem poles of Alaska are really carved family histories. Where two or more animals are pictured on one pole it shows the marriage or other union of different bands to which the family belongs. These totem poles are usually put up before each native house. The natives will not sell them, for they are valuable family records.A Dakota warrior shot an arrow into the sky; the clouds parted just as his arrow turned to fall. He was thought to have shot the clouds; he was called Hole-in-the-sky.Old Chief Sleepy-eye had a bright mind, but his eyelids did not serve him well; hence his name.In some tribes the little ones are named after the first object that is seen, as Buffalo Horn, White Pony, Lame Dog, and names that are sometimes better but more often seem to us not so good.Alaskan Totem PolesAlaskan Totem PolesFrom a PhotographThe Sioux have names for their boys or girls[38]according to their order of birth. The first boy is called Chaska, until by some feat of bravery he changes it himself. The second son is Harpam; his next brother is Hapeda; the fourth son is Chatun; and the fifth boy has the name of Harka all ready for him.The first girl has the musical name of Winona, and her next younger sister takes the name of Harpan. Harpstena will be the name of the third girl baby. Waska and Weharka are for the fourth and fifth girls of a family, and other names are provided for a greater number of children.The Indians have titles and descriptive names for the white people whom they know. A certain military surgeon who has been among them and has keen, dark eyes and gray hair is always called Gray Eagle. Their senses are trained to observe very keenly, and they quickly know each person. Perhaps the paleface might be startled if he understood the name they gave him.Some Indian tribes call the horse Foot-with-one-toe. Few white Americans would have noticed the horse’s foot so closely.[39][Contents]THE INDIAN NAMES FOR THE MONTHS OR MOONSThe moon goes through its changes from new moon to new moon in twenty-eight days. The Indians reckon their time of year by these changes in the Night Sun, as they call the moon.Tribes living in different parts of America have various names for the months, which they call Moons. They all keep their calendar hung in the sky, and it is never lost for any length of time. They have given these moons names after what interests them most.One nation has named them in the following way. The month in our calendar is also given, so that you can easily guess the Indian’s reason for his name for the month.JanuaryThe Cold Moon.FebruaryThe Snow Moon.MarchThe Green Moon.AprilThe Moon of Plants.MayThe Moon of Flowers.JuneThe Hot Moon.[40]JulyThe Moon of the Deer.AugustThe Sturgeon Moon.SeptemberThe Fruit Moon.OctoberThe Traveling Moon.NovemberThe Beaver Moon.DecemberThe Hunting Moon.If you were spending the year among the Sioux or Dakotas, little Winona might tell you that January is the Hard Moon.February is when the braves and the boys take their dogs and hunt the raccoon; hence, they call it the ’Coon Moon.The Sioux have lived for a long time in the north. They know the effect of the bright sunshine of March when it shines upon the snowdrifts. It is called the Moon of Snow-blindness.April is the Egg Moon. It is the moon when the wild geese lay their eggs, and the Indians gather them for food. The next time you watch the dark triangle of wild geese flying northward, you can say it is near the time of the Egg Moon of the Dakotas.May is the Planting Moon. What! You did not know that the copper-colored people planted anything? Oh, yes, they do! Remember our maize, or Indian corn, is one great gift from them.June has the prettiest name. Bright, beautiful June that we all love. It is the Strawberry Moon. The[41]luscious wild strawberries are more delicate in flavor than any grown in the gardens. The wild Indian has many dainties.July, our red-white-and-blue month, is their Moon of Red Lilies. Has it ever been your good fortune to see a vast tract of land covered with these gorgeous wild tiger-lilies? O Moon of Red Lilies, how beautiful you make our western prairies! In this same moon the wild cherry is ripe, and many tribes know it as the Cherry Moon.August is the Ripe Moon. Have you ever heard of the Harvest Moon? Is not that nearly the same name? Seeds from thistle and the milkweed are filling the air with their downy carriers. Wild grasses and grains are ready for the gatherers, and the maize will shortly be ready for the harvest.While at Lake Superior, some time ago, we saw Chippewa Indians in their birch-bark canoes, anchored in what seemed to be a very reedy bay. We found out that the bay was filled with wild rice instead of reeds and rushes. It was the time of their wild-rice gathering. Two moons are given names referring to wild rice: September is the Ripe-rice Moon; October is often called the Harvest Moon. With plenty of maize and wild rice the winter is not dreaded. The Indian puts away his winter stores with much the same care that his white brother uses; he stores corn in pits[42]that he digs in the earth. He could learn this from the squirrel.November is the Moon of Michabo, or Indian Summer. Michabo is another name for Menabozho, the Chippewa Indian’s manitou friend; he has given them this second summer of the year, they believe.December is the Moon of Dropping Horns. The deer lose their long antlers about this time, and the Indians can find them in the forests where the deer trails are.The Indians have twelve moons in their year, the same number that we have in our calendar.[43]Mokis ready for a Sacred DanceMokis ready for a Sacred DanceFrom a Photograph[44][Contents]CUSTOMS OF KICKAPOO, SEMINOLE, AND OTHER TRIBESCUSTOMS OF KICKAPOO, SEMINOLE, AND OTHER TRIBESThe Kickapoo Indians first lived in what is now Illinois. Their present home is in the Indian Territory. One of their peculiar customs is that they have a tribe whipper who makes his weekly rounds with his whip to punish children, and in this way the parents save themselves from the pain of inflicting punishment upon their children. Indians dislike rudeness or noisy behavior when there should be quiet. Fire-water, as they call whiskey, makes them forget the manners their parents taught them.Many of the Seminole Indians live in the Everglades of Florida. They are a tall, dignified, intelligent race, and resent the visits of white people unless it is shown that the visitor is a friend, for they have been driven to these Everglades by reason of conquering whites. They live in roofed huts and cultivate several kinds of crops. They once owned rich lands in upper Florida and Alabama. Their language is said to be very musical.[45]The Cherokee and Natchez tribes once lived in Mississippi and Louisiana. They were very wise in war and had many things which they manufactured in times of peace. They carved curious shell ornaments, which are often found in southern mounds.The Flathead Indians of the west bind a piece of stiff board upon the forehead of their papooses. The child’s head flattens as it grows, and he carries his race mark through life.The Blackfoot Indians were so called because during a retreat the burnt prairie grass stained their moccasins as black as the blackest cayuse or pony.The term Digger Indians has been given to various tribes conquered and driven from their fishing and hunting grounds. They live almost wholly upon roots of weeds or the few insects and small animals found in the plains of eastern Utah and the surrounding country. The stronger tribes will not let them fish in lake or stream, and their whole life is miserable.The Indians of California were originally very brave and warlike, but the remnants of the tribes are broken in spirit and seem broken-hearted. Those which have drifted or have been driven by whites and red men into the peninsula of southern California are much like the Diggers.The different tribes and nations scattered over America seemed to have known much about metals,[46]although they used stone arrow points and stone axes when the first explorers visited their homes.The copper mines of Lake Superior show yet where the Indians have mined in them. Gold and silver ornaments were used in many tribes to decorate the braves and their squaws. Shells were carved with sharp tools and used as ornaments, or cut small into wampum.Arrowheads were of flint or jasper and were made by the arrow makers of the tribe. It is said each nation had its own shape of arrowhead. Some preferred very small points; some chose the larger ones.The early races of white people in all ancient lands used stone for many purposes. This first period has been called the Stone Age; this was followed by the Copper Age; then came the Iron Age. The Indians do not seem to have used iron before white men came, and were living in what history would call the Stone Age.[47][Contents]THE INDIANS WHO LIVE IN BRICK HOUSESTHE INDIANS WHO LIVE IN BRICK HOUSESThe native Indians of the southwestern part of the United States were much more civilized when discovered than the wandering tribes in other parts of the country. They have built adobe houses for many centuries. These houses of mud, brick, and hewn timbers cannot be removed like the wigwams, teepees, or wickiups of the other tribes. The Spaniards named these Indians Pueblos, forpueblois the Spanish word for village. There are twenty-seven Pueblo towns.The Pueblos are a peaceful people. They have had time to invent things that astonish the white men who have seen only the Indians of the wandering tribes.The pueblo of Zuñi is in New Mexico, about two hundred miles southeast of Santa Fé. This Indian town was sought for by Coronado and his Spanish soldiers. They had heard marvelous stories of the silver, gold, and jewels owned by the red people living north of Mexico; but the Pueblos were brave as well as wise, and the history of that Spanish expedition is sad reading.The town of Zuñi is built upon a hill, about forty feet above the bank of the river Zuñi; it covers about[48]fifteen acres. The town is like a great beehive, for the houses are merely rooms built one over the other, each family living in a few small rooms which are reached by means of ladders. Some houses are only two stories high, while others are fully five stories. The wealthier Indians live in the lower houses, except the official whose duty it is to give the orders of the governor from the housetop. He lives with his family in rooms near the roof. These Zuñi houses are built around two plazas, or squares, with several streets and covered ways to connect them with the other parts of the town. The mesa called Thunder Mountain, upon which similar homes were built by them in ancient times, is very near their peaceful village.Cliff-dwellings have been found that are entirely deserted, built by a very ancient people of whom we know little. Curious relics of dishes, cloth, and ornaments are found in these cliff-dwellings, but no one knows how many centuries since the empty houses were filled with living people, and no one knows why they were deserted. Some have thought the Zuñis are the descendants of this lost race; others think them to be like the mound-builders.The Zuñi Indians weave handsome wool blankets in handmade looms. They invented these looms themselves. They sell or trade these blankets to Indians of many other tribes.[49]Three-storied Pueblo Houses in OraibiThree-storied Pueblo Houses in OraibiFrom a Photograph[50]The Zuñi and other Pueblos make very good dishes of red clay. Their common cooking ware is much like the dishes seen in wigwams. They make handsome pitchers, vases, and table dishes of a brown color. They understand the working and coloring of clay, and the value of the different kinds. They make a common black ware, which is sometimes used instead of the red ware.Their very best work is of a cream-white color, and the vases and dishes are handsomely decorated with colored borders and pictures. Many travelers have brought home fine specimens of Zuñi dishes, for their town is not far from the railroad.The Navajos live near the Zuñis. Their hogans, or homes, are not so well made as the Zuñis’ adobe houses; they are low adobe huts. The Navajos find time and have the skill to do some very good work in metals, although their tools are rude. They make some use of iron, but their best work is shown in the making and carving of ornaments and other articles of silver. They also have invented hand looms and are blanket weavers.All the Pueblos make handsome water-tight baskets of elegant shape from the fibers of the yucca plant. This plant, sometimes called the Spanish bayonet, from its sharp-pointed leaves, grows to a great size on the plains. The Pueblos color the fibers in some manner[51]and weave handsome borders of black, white, or yellow into their baskets. These are used for flour or meal holders, or for holding water, and are called ollas.They grind their maize or other grain by hand between stones. They raise turkeys, and, as they are good weavers, they sometimes use the turkey feathers in weaving a downy cloth.The Apaches live near the Pueblos and are well known for their love of the warpath. They are not Village Indians, yet are noted for their fine basket weaving. They use the willows found in their country instead of the yucca fibers.The different tribes of Pueblos often use stone axes. It is believed that these are not made by them but were found in the deserted cliff-dwellers’ homes.These Village Indians make use of a plant called soaproot, the root of which will make water foam and will cleanse one’s skin the same as the white man’s soap. The Indian who lives in a teepee does not know the use of soap and is not anxious for a bath.White people have lived for years among the Zuñi and other Pueblos and have found them patient, kind, and intelligent. Some of these whites have returned and have written books about the people of whose home life they have learned so much.Some of the habits of the Navajos are very odd. After the death of one of their tribe, his house, or[52]hogan, is pulled down; if this is not done, every one who enters it fears danger.A Navajo will not look into the face of the mother of his wife; when they talk together he looks on the ground or in another direction. It is said a Navajo once forgot himself and, looking up, became blind. They believe that the souls of the women of their tribe enter fish when they leave this world; and they rarely eat fish for that reason. Indian customs and manners are taught to their children with just as much earnestness as white people teach their little ones.All the Pueblos make curious images or dolls of clay. These may possibly be idols, but are not always, for both old and young sometimes play with them as toys. They are a religious people. They believe in a Great Spirit and in a future life. Their forms of worship are very strange and sometimes cruel.The tribes called Pueblos of New Mexico are not included with those which continue to live in the twenty-seven Pueblo towns, for whatever may have been their customs in past centuries, they are now very different from the Village Indians, who still live and worship after the manner of their ancestors.[53]Moki Maiden in Native CostumeMoki Maiden in Native CostumeFrom a Photograph[54][Contents]THE MOKI INDIANSThe Moki Indians live in pueblos the same as the Zuñi people. Their name is also spelled Moqui and Hopi. The Moki pueblo of Walpi is in Arizona. It is at the end of a mesa or plateau which rises abruptly seven hundred feet above the desert. It is here that the great snake dance is held each alternate autumn.The Moki weave blankets and cloth for dresses, which they exchange with other Pueblos for ponies, turquoise beads, and silver ornaments for neck or hair.The Moki maidens, like those of a few other tribes, do not leave their straight black hair hanging down their backs. These maidens put up their locks in huge puffs over each ear. These puffs are to represent squash blossoms. The married women braid their hair and sometimes fasten it in a knot at the back of the head.All the water used in this elevated pueblo is carried up the seven hundred feet in clay ollas by the women. It is like a scene in Asia to see them gathered at evening about the springs at the foot of the mesa.[55]The Mokis are a very devout people, and their young men are taught daily in the kivas, or secret rooms, by the wise old men all the sacred rites and wisdom of their fathers.Interior of Kiva with Sacred AltarInterior of Kiva with Sacred AltarAmong the Mokis the kiva, orestufa, as the Spanish call it, is underground; among the Zuñis it is above the ground, but entered at the top by a ladder. In it is a sacred flat altar, usually surrounded by prayer-sticks called bahos. These sticks have a feather fastened at the top, to show that prayer rises.These bahos are always planted two or three times a year by the water ways, to do reverence to the water god who shows himself in the lightning. They believe[56]a serpent is the form lightning takes when on earth; hence the pictures of these on the prayer-sticks, and sometimes on the sides of rocks.There is an order of nuns among the Pueblos called Ko-Ko. These go to the springs in the early morning and place the bahos in the banks, so that rain may come on the corn, beans, and pumpkins which have been planted. No one dares to remove one baho.The Moki Indians have stories of Coronado’s people, who battled with them in 1540.[57][Contents]DAKOTA OR SIOUXDAKOTA OR SIOUXThe name the French gave the fierce, strong Dakotas is Sioux, which is the way they pronounced the name given them by their Algonquin neighbors. This has become the name of the people, and Dakota is the language which they speak.They are divided into many bands, each with a chief for a leader. His friends and relatives move their teepees wherever this chief thinks best on the land the Great Father in Washington has reserved for them.They are very brave and have many wise men among them. The chiefs of the bands are always ready to follow what the head chief of the nation commands. The head chief has learned that the Great Father in Washington has more warriors than he, and so the Sioux are not sent on the warpath any more.The buffalo and antelope are gone from the prairie. There is not meat enough in the woods, and the warlike Sioux has now to come to the Indian agency to get his rations. It is a fine sight to see the teepees of the bands when they have gathered at the agency. Even[58]here they show their respect to the head chief and his followers, for his teepees are placed in the center of the camp. The greatest chief comes next, and so on, till the weakest band places its teepees last.The Sioux who have been long in the south do not speak like their northern relatives. For example, they say Lakota instead of Dakota. The northern bands laugh at their southern brothers, and think they have been trying to become different. Many Sioux boys and girls are in the schools at the agencies learning to write and to read in English. They are very quick to learn and can draw very well.The Sioux women make such beautiful beadwork that a white woman thought it wise to teach them to make lace of the choicest kind. The young squaws and some of the Indian boys have learned to make this rare point lace with care and wonderful neatness. They cannot use it; but the money they get for it buys food and clothes for them and their relatives.[59][Contents]INDIAN GAMESThe Dakotas play their ball games in the hot moons of the summer and in the cold moons of the winter. The prairies give wide room for the games in summer, and the ice on the many lakes serves as winter ball grounds for them.Large spaces are needed, for there are many players. There is only one ball, but there are as many bats as players. The bats are about thirty inches long, with a loop at the lower end; this is laced across with deer sinew, to make a pocket in which the ball is caught and thrown.The center of the ball ground is chosen. Stakes are set many feet away from the center, on opposite sides, as the bounds for the game. Two parties of equal numbers are chosen. Each party chooses its own leader or chief.[60]The chief of one side drops his ball into the pocket of his bat and tosses it toward the center ground between the stakes. Both sides rush toward the place where the ball may fall, each brave hoping he may be the lucky one to catch it; whoever gets the ball tosses it with his bat into the air toward his side of the grounds. Then the screaming, howling mob of players tears across the field to the place where the ball may fall again. The ball is thrown and contended for until one side succeeds in throwing it beyond the bounds of the opposite party.The prizes for the winning side have hung all this time on the prize pole; and dangling in the air, waiting the finish of the game, are the knives, tomahawks, blankets, moccasins, fine buffalo and deerskin robes which the winners will divide among themselves. Indian girls play the same game and with nearly as much vigor and skill as their brothers.Always, at these games, the old men and squaws sit or stand at the outside of the ball ground, a mass of interested spectators.The ball game in some form, it seems, has been the national game on American soil since before American history began.The plum-stone game was and is yet played by the northern Indian tribes. The Dakotas call it kansookootaype, which simply means “shooting plum-stones.”[61]Each plum-stone is painted black on one side and red on the other side. The stones are also cut on one side to make them of different value according to the meaning of the marks cut.These black and red stones are put into a large shallow dish of clay or metal. The dish is struck against the nearest object with a sharp blow. The stones fall black or red side up, and the betting on the number of black or red stones makes the game.It is pure gambling. The prizes are valuable,—furs, clothing, food, everything goes in the excitement of the game. An Indian may be beggared in a minute.Father Hennepin describes the excitement of the game in hisDescriptions of Louisiana, published in Paris in 1683. This book is a description of his travels at that time in the valley of the Mississippi to the Falls of St. Anthony and beyond. Father Hennepin said:“There are some so given to the game that they will gamble away even their greatcoat. Those who conduct the game scream at the top of their voices when they rattle the platter; and they strike their shoulders so hard as to make themselves black and blue with the blow.”The Indian boys have their pony races and running matches. They play much like white boys, but with more cruelty.[62][Contents]SIOUX AND CHIPPEWAS OF MINNESOTAThe Iroquois drove the Chippewas, or Ojibways, from their hunting grounds and from fishing in many waters in central New York; as the bands increased and more needed food, many started westward, and Chippewa names of lakes and rivers mark their progress toward the Mississippi. They made a long halt at the Sault Ste. Marie, for many fish were in these waters, but there was no place to plant their corn. They built their wigwam fires farther westward each year, until they reached what is now northern Minnesota. Here they found the Dakotas, or Sioux, had possession of the beautiful lake region, which was so nearly like the country by the River of Islands in the east.The Chippewas had no wish to go back, and their warriors and chiefs were too brave to think that even the fierce western tribes could conquer them. They built their wigwams on islands and points of land projecting into the lake, for these made good places of[63]landing for their birch-bark canoes, and also gave them a better chance to watch for their enemies than in the thick forests of pine, birch, and cedar.Each band of Chippewas has yet many stories to tell of the terrible battles with the “nadoway-sioux,” as the French trappers and hunters call the Algonquin word which means “hidden enemies.” This warfare began years before the time of our war of the Revolution and did not end for nearly a century. The Chippewas fought for their new home very bravely, and the Sioux were just as brave in trying to hold what they believed to be the center of the world and nearest like the Happy Hunting Grounds of the future life. There is a very extensive view of the Mississippi at its junction with the Minnesota which is called by the Indians Mendota, or the “gathering of the waters.” The contending tribes fought fiercely to hold or to obtain this place, for here these red men, with their love for the beautiful in nature, had decided was where many of their gods liked best to stay. The building of Fort Snelling at this point and the arrival of white men put a stop to the battles, and neither tribe could claim Mendota.The Great Father in Washington made a treaty with the Chippewas whereby they hold much of their hard-won lake region as long as they keep their treaty promises; now that there is peace between the Indian[64]nations they are willing to admit that each had many heroes in war and council.During the conflict a trader attempted to bargain with the Sioux for furs, after having had dealings with a band of Chippewas. This band, wild with fury at what they called the trader’s treachery, broke open his storehouse and destroyed or took all his stores of furs and other articles. They were called Pillagers by the French and other bands, and hold the name yet and are proud of it, for the deed was done openly and for the sake of their nation.The Pillagers are nearly all Blanket Indians. They live in wigwams in summer and cover these with bark huts in winter for greater warmth. The wigwams are covered with woven mats made of reeds or grass and birch bark. The huts are like a one-room house and are covered also with pine or birch bark. Each spring these Indians make large quantities of maple sugar, which they pack in mokuks, or birch-bark baskets, and sell or exchange at the stores in towns. During the summer they pick and sell the berries which grow near the woods and lakes. They have gardens of maize, squash, pumpkins, beans, and onions, and some raise potatoes. Their meat supply is getting scarce, as the deer, moose, and bear are being hunted so freely by white men. The men often dress in true Indian costumes, with buckskin leggings, beadwork ornaments,[66]blankets, and a feather in their scalp lock if they have killed an enemy; this honor is hard to give up, and even a murderer of one of his own tribe has dared to wear the eagle feather.Chippewa Indian’s Summer WigwamChippewa Indian’s Summer WigwamFrom a PhotographThere is a large government school at Leech Lake, and many of the boys and girls have learned the customs and books of the white people, but when they return to their wigwam homes there is little chance to change the home life, except in very simple ways.Some of the finest work in lace, which has been taught in the Indian schools, has been done by these Chippewas at Leech Lake. They were so artistic in their bead and basket work that a lady who saw the point lace made in the mission schools in Japan decided to teach it to all the squaws who would learn the art. Their success has been a pleasure to her and to them. It brings the money with which to buy food.The lakes near the source of the Great River abound in wild rice, which is gathered in August and stored in mokuks for winter use. The wild swan, geese, and ducks also feed upon it, and they make good hunting.The extensive pine forests owned by the Chippewas have attracted many white men who are trying to gain possession of them, but the wise chiefs know their value and their people’s need, and they remember the years of warfare when the land was won; neither have they yet broken their treaty promises. A few years[67]ago the courts wanted several of the Leech Lake Indians for witnesses in a trial. It was cold, and if the men went their families would suffer, for they must be gone some weeks. The old chief would not let them go until the government promised money to support their families. The white men in council did not think best to make the promise, and the chief refused to send the witnesses. The soldiers came to take the men forcibly. There was a battle, and soldiers fell and much money was spent, but still the chief has not given up the men. The white people feel that the Indian chief had much in his favor, for he would not see his people suffer; the squaws and papooses must be cared for, and he had not the money with which to buy food for them.The Sioux in southern Minnesota made an uprising during the Civil War. Some friendly Indians warned the whites of the coming troubles and helped them to escape. A monument erected in 1900 to these good Indians shows the friendly feeling of the whites to their rescuers. These Indians were called traitors by the Sioux and had to flee for their own lives. Some of them settled at Mendota and are much respected by their white friends. The son of one became an Episcopal minister. The present chief of all the Chippewas is also a minister of the same church and an able leader of his people.[68][Contents]CHIEF LOGAN AND OTHERSThe Delaware Indians of eastern Pennsylvania have always called the Iroquois the Mingo Indians.Skikelling was a Mingo. He was chief of the Cayugas, one of the most intelligent tribes of the Iroquois union. The son of Skikelling was also a chief. He is celebrated in the history of Pennsylvania as Chief Logan.When a babe Chief Logan was brought by his father to Fort Augusta in 1742, to be baptized by the Moravian missionaries. Hence his American name, which is famous in history and romance.There was another Chief Logan who was for a time chief among the Delawares. This chief lost an eye in a battle and was then deprived of his position, as a chief must be physically perfect.History has preserved the names of numbers of Indians famous in war and peace.Samoset, who greeted the Pilgrims with the cordial “Welcome, Englishmen,” is one of the first on the list.[69]Squanto, Massasoit, Canonicus, Miantonomoh are well known in New England history. These are the names of men who kept their promises and fought bravely for their white friends.King Philip saw the ruin of his country and people and commanded an uprising. He was a terrible warrior, and his name is both famous and infamous. Tecumseh, Red Cloud, Black Hawk, and others are well known in western history. These names and hundreds of others are kept in memory as the names of cities, rivers, or lakes.[70][Contents]A NAVAJO MEDICINE CHANTA NAVAJO MEDICINE CHANTThe Navajos give a medicine dance and chant a long song when a sick person asks for this service. This chant is the story in song of the capture and escape of a young Navajo brave. He is helped by his people’s gods, who are like the creatures that live in his own country.This is the part of the chant telling of his escape:“He came to the house of the Butterfly. It was filled with butterflies and rainbows.“Kacluge, the great Butterfly, welcomed him to his lodge. His wife took the young brave by the hand. He was welcome.“She left the room, but came back with a great pearl dish in her hand. It was a sea-shell filled with water. She gave him soapweed. He washed and was white. He dried his hands with meal and painted his face with white earth; then he was fair as a white man.[71]“Kacluge gave him fine white moccasins. He gave him a collar of beaver skin, and a whistle to call for help.“His arms looked like wings, for plumed prayer-sticks were fastened to them in the Butterfly’s lodge.“The young man was no longer tired. He was strong again, and like a white butterfly in beauty. Kacluge fed him with white corn meal mixed with pure water. He slept in the house of the Butterfly.“In the morning the young Navajo stepped on the white sand. The wife of the Butterfly put two burning lines of white lightning before his feet. He stepped upon these, and his white moccasins fastened to the lightning.“ ‘Now,’ said the Butterfly, ‘the lightning is yours; follow where it leads.’“With one step he stood on a high hill. He saw a flash of lightning fill the valley.“ ‘It is the trail I must follow,’ said the young Navajo. Across the valley, on the trail of the lightning, he ran to the mountains; and now, pure in face, in heart, and with white feet, the lightning led him home.”Adapted from Powell’s Report.[72][Contents]HOW THE CAVE PEOPLE FOUND DRY LAND ON THE EARTH(Zuñi Chant)In the old days all men lived in caves in the center of the earth. There were four caves, one over the other. Men first lived in the lowest cave. It was dark. There was no light, and the cave was crowded. All men were full of sorrow.“The Holder of the Paths of Life, the Sun-father, heard the people cry. He created two children for himself, and they fell to the earth to help the cave people.“The Sun-father gave his two children eternal youth. He gave them power to do things as he would do them. He gave them gifts. One gift was a painted bow that reached from one end of the sky to the farther end. It was the rainbow. He gave them an arrow of fire. It was the lightning. He gave them a great shield[74]like his own. The shield was a net of cotton cords on a hoop of wood, and the last gift, a great magic war knife of flint, was fastened to the center of the shield.Interior of Zuñi HouseInterior of Zuñi HouseFrom a Photograph“After the two children had cut the face of the earth with the stone war knife, they rode on the magic shield to the lowest cave where men lived. There they lived with mankind as leaders.“The priests prayed to the Sun-children for help in the darkness. The Sun-children led mankind into the second cave; it was still all darkness. Men asked the priests to pray for more help. They came to the Sun-children, and the people were led into the third world or cave.“This was a larger world than the other two. It was like twilight in this cave, but at first all thought that they had reached the blazing sun, it was so light.“After a thousand years this cave became crowded. Men sought the priests and prayed them to find some way to help them.“The two Sun-children cut their way through the cave above them, and led the people out upon the earth. It was only a small island, for all the rest was water.“Men covered their faces with their hands, for the light made them blind. They fell down and tried to hide in the sand, they were so hot. The people were taught to make clothing of yucca fiber. Their eyes[75]were like owls’ eyes, and they covered them with their hands till they were strong.“The Sun-children led the people over the quaking earth to the east, where the Sun-father had his home.“The Sun-children were told to dry the earth. They put the magic shield upon the earth and laid the rainbow upon it. They put arrows of lightning to the north, south, east, and west, and the arrows crossed each other. The older brother shot with an arrow the lightning arrows where they crossed upon the rainbow.“Thlu-tchu! the lightning arrows shot toward every point. Fire rolled over the face of the earth. The earth was dried when the fire storm was over.“The earth was then full of great beasts that had lived in the water. The Sun-children shot the beasts with their arrows; then the beasts became stone. The people were free to go on the earth wherever they wanted to go.“Thus the people were led out of the deep caves; thus the land became dry, and men came to live on the earth.”From report by F. H. Cushing, who was adopted by the Zuñis.[77]
[3]
[Contents]WIGWAM STORIESBOOKS IN THE INDIAN LANGUAGEJohn Eliot, of Massachusetts, published the first Indian Bible. This and other Bibles and books in the Indian languages may be seen in the larger city libraries.The Indians had no printed languages with letters before the white man came; their painted or carved picture-writing meant much to them. Their teepees were covered with histories of the battles their owners had fought, but they had no books of “talking leaves.”Se-quoyah, a Georgia Indian half-breed, was a modern Cadmus to his people. He invented a perfect alphabet of over eighty letters for his native Cherokee language, and by his own zeal inspired his nation with a love for written words. His paper was birch bark; his ink the juices of berries and weeds.[4]He hated the white people, for his white father had basely deserted his mother when Se-quoyah was a helpless babe. His mother’s father was a proud chief, and the grandson seems to have inherited his spirit.Se-quoyah never learned to read or to write a word or a letter of English, and his anger was aroused when he saw one of his tribe reading a book made by the hated white people; Se-quoyah then declared he would make as good a one for the Cherokees, and he did.He listened for sounds while his people talked. He became a silent student and lost or forgot his old warlike spirit. He sat beside his doorway and marked upon bark. His people pitied him, for he did not fight. At last he called a council; he wrote on bark and gave the writing to his little daughter, who had been taught by him to read. She read it and did as the writing commanded; the test was tried many times.This caused great excitement; young men came in scores to learn of him; they forgot hunting and war for letter-writing. The white missionaries adopted his letters and made a Bible which was read by all these Indian students. The nation became civilized in a short time, and the first printing press sent to an Indian tribe was that sent about 1820 by the United States government to the Cherokees. The type was cast in Cherokee characters, the same that Se-quoyah had invented.[5]A marble bust of Se-quoyah adorns the council house in Tahlequah, the capital of Indian Territory, where this tribe was sent after gold was found on their reservation in Georgia. They knew the value of these mines, but the white man’s power was stronger than theirs, and they had to leave homes and wealth for a strange new land.Sequoia, the botanical name of the big trees of California, is the only memorial the white man has given this truly American genius.Adapted from Smithsonian Report.[6]
WIGWAM STORIESBOOKS IN THE INDIAN LANGUAGE
John Eliot, of Massachusetts, published the first Indian Bible. This and other Bibles and books in the Indian languages may be seen in the larger city libraries.The Indians had no printed languages with letters before the white man came; their painted or carved picture-writing meant much to them. Their teepees were covered with histories of the battles their owners had fought, but they had no books of “talking leaves.”Se-quoyah, a Georgia Indian half-breed, was a modern Cadmus to his people. He invented a perfect alphabet of over eighty letters for his native Cherokee language, and by his own zeal inspired his nation with a love for written words. His paper was birch bark; his ink the juices of berries and weeds.[4]He hated the white people, for his white father had basely deserted his mother when Se-quoyah was a helpless babe. His mother’s father was a proud chief, and the grandson seems to have inherited his spirit.Se-quoyah never learned to read or to write a word or a letter of English, and his anger was aroused when he saw one of his tribe reading a book made by the hated white people; Se-quoyah then declared he would make as good a one for the Cherokees, and he did.He listened for sounds while his people talked. He became a silent student and lost or forgot his old warlike spirit. He sat beside his doorway and marked upon bark. His people pitied him, for he did not fight. At last he called a council; he wrote on bark and gave the writing to his little daughter, who had been taught by him to read. She read it and did as the writing commanded; the test was tried many times.This caused great excitement; young men came in scores to learn of him; they forgot hunting and war for letter-writing. The white missionaries adopted his letters and made a Bible which was read by all these Indian students. The nation became civilized in a short time, and the first printing press sent to an Indian tribe was that sent about 1820 by the United States government to the Cherokees. The type was cast in Cherokee characters, the same that Se-quoyah had invented.[5]A marble bust of Se-quoyah adorns the council house in Tahlequah, the capital of Indian Territory, where this tribe was sent after gold was found on their reservation in Georgia. They knew the value of these mines, but the white man’s power was stronger than theirs, and they had to leave homes and wealth for a strange new land.Sequoia, the botanical name of the big trees of California, is the only memorial the white man has given this truly American genius.Adapted from Smithsonian Report.[6]
J
ohn Eliot, of Massachusetts, published the first Indian Bible. This and other Bibles and books in the Indian languages may be seen in the larger city libraries.
The Indians had no printed languages with letters before the white man came; their painted or carved picture-writing meant much to them. Their teepees were covered with histories of the battles their owners had fought, but they had no books of “talking leaves.”
Se-quoyah, a Georgia Indian half-breed, was a modern Cadmus to his people. He invented a perfect alphabet of over eighty letters for his native Cherokee language, and by his own zeal inspired his nation with a love for written words. His paper was birch bark; his ink the juices of berries and weeds.[4]
He hated the white people, for his white father had basely deserted his mother when Se-quoyah was a helpless babe. His mother’s father was a proud chief, and the grandson seems to have inherited his spirit.
Se-quoyah never learned to read or to write a word or a letter of English, and his anger was aroused when he saw one of his tribe reading a book made by the hated white people; Se-quoyah then declared he would make as good a one for the Cherokees, and he did.
He listened for sounds while his people talked. He became a silent student and lost or forgot his old warlike spirit. He sat beside his doorway and marked upon bark. His people pitied him, for he did not fight. At last he called a council; he wrote on bark and gave the writing to his little daughter, who had been taught by him to read. She read it and did as the writing commanded; the test was tried many times.
This caused great excitement; young men came in scores to learn of him; they forgot hunting and war for letter-writing. The white missionaries adopted his letters and made a Bible which was read by all these Indian students. The nation became civilized in a short time, and the first printing press sent to an Indian tribe was that sent about 1820 by the United States government to the Cherokees. The type was cast in Cherokee characters, the same that Se-quoyah had invented.[5]
A marble bust of Se-quoyah adorns the council house in Tahlequah, the capital of Indian Territory, where this tribe was sent after gold was found on their reservation in Georgia. They knew the value of these mines, but the white man’s power was stronger than theirs, and they had to leave homes and wealth for a strange new land.
Sequoia, the botanical name of the big trees of California, is the only memorial the white man has given this truly American genius.
Adapted from Smithsonian Report.[6]
[Contents]SOME THINGS THE INDIANS KNEW BEFORE WHITE MEN CAMESOME THINGS THE INDIANS KNEW BEFORE WHITE MEN CAMEThe Indians made and still make excellent canoes of bark or of logs and even of skins. The birch-bark canoe is light and very swift, and white hunters are proud of their skill in its use, but the skin boat has only strength as its merit.The Siwash Indian of Puget Sound hollows out from a single log a fine canoe with decorated prow. He makes it secretly in the dark forest, and white men have tried for years to solve the problem of its swiftness.The bows of strong wood bent by sinew cords and the stone-headed arrows with feather tips were excellent weapons in the Indians’ former methods of warfare and hunting, and a good arrowhead maker was famous throughout a nation.Pueblo House with Kivas in ForegroundPueblo House with Kivas in ForegroundFrom a PhotographIndian squaws were skillful in the making of buckskin suits for their braves. The handsomely embroidered moccasins were and are now good specimens of[8]woman’s work and love for beauty of coloring and design. Each tribe had its own pattern and shape, differing so much from those of other tribes that a footprint might announce an enemy in war time.The Indians are still noted trappers, and their squaws know well how to tan and dress the skins of animals. Fish-hooks were made of bone or flint, and spear points were of the same materials, but they were very sharp and with them the Indians caught many fish.Their roving habits as hunters gave them little time for house-building, and so their homes were simply tents made of strips of bark or, better yet, of large buffalo or deer hides, neatly sewed together for this purpose. These teepees and wigwams were easily put up or removed, and were a good shelter.The Village Indians, or Pueblos of Arizona, still build themselves houses of adobe or unburnt brick. As the Pueblos were and are now less warlike than the roving tribes which live in tent-like houses, they have had time to invent many useful things.The Pueblos weave excellent woolen blankets of gay stripes and a coarse cloth for wearing apparel. They make water-tight baskets and dishes of fiber, and these are often exchanged with the Tent Indians for dried meat and other food.The Village Indians have for centuries planted and cared for maize, pumpkins, beans, and other vegetables.[9]Turkeys are raised for food, and their feather fibers are woven into cloth. Eagles are caged and raised for their long feathers, which are held sacred.In the ruined houses of the cliff-dwellers of Texas and Arizona fragments of cloth woven from cotton and other substances have been found. No white man taught this ancient people these arts of weaving.Clay dishes, mortars, and pestles of stone, large sea-shells cut into shapes for holding food, stone axes, and knives show some of the skill of these early Americans.The ornaments made of silver by the Navajo, as well as the long strings of turquoise beads, are sometimes remarkable for their beauty.Wampum, used by so many tribes for money, was carefully made from shells by eastern Indians. It seems strange that their crude tools could have made such small beads so very well.The knowledge of medicine in all tribes was limited to a few herbs. The rest was a kind of sorcery; but with the herbs, fresh air, and fresh water they managed to cure many ills.The Pueblos of New Mexico are very different from the Zuñis or the Moki Pueblos of Arizona. They are now much like the white people, for they live in well-built houses, attend church, and send their children to school.[10]
SOME THINGS THE INDIANS KNEW BEFORE WHITE MEN CAMESOME THINGS THE INDIANS KNEW BEFORE WHITE MEN CAME
SOME THINGS THE INDIANS KNEW BEFORE WHITE MEN CAME
The Indians made and still make excellent canoes of bark or of logs and even of skins. The birch-bark canoe is light and very swift, and white hunters are proud of their skill in its use, but the skin boat has only strength as its merit.The Siwash Indian of Puget Sound hollows out from a single log a fine canoe with decorated prow. He makes it secretly in the dark forest, and white men have tried for years to solve the problem of its swiftness.The bows of strong wood bent by sinew cords and the stone-headed arrows with feather tips were excellent weapons in the Indians’ former methods of warfare and hunting, and a good arrowhead maker was famous throughout a nation.Pueblo House with Kivas in ForegroundPueblo House with Kivas in ForegroundFrom a PhotographIndian squaws were skillful in the making of buckskin suits for their braves. The handsomely embroidered moccasins were and are now good specimens of[8]woman’s work and love for beauty of coloring and design. Each tribe had its own pattern and shape, differing so much from those of other tribes that a footprint might announce an enemy in war time.The Indians are still noted trappers, and their squaws know well how to tan and dress the skins of animals. Fish-hooks were made of bone or flint, and spear points were of the same materials, but they were very sharp and with them the Indians caught many fish.Their roving habits as hunters gave them little time for house-building, and so their homes were simply tents made of strips of bark or, better yet, of large buffalo or deer hides, neatly sewed together for this purpose. These teepees and wigwams were easily put up or removed, and were a good shelter.The Village Indians, or Pueblos of Arizona, still build themselves houses of adobe or unburnt brick. As the Pueblos were and are now less warlike than the roving tribes which live in tent-like houses, they have had time to invent many useful things.The Pueblos weave excellent woolen blankets of gay stripes and a coarse cloth for wearing apparel. They make water-tight baskets and dishes of fiber, and these are often exchanged with the Tent Indians for dried meat and other food.The Village Indians have for centuries planted and cared for maize, pumpkins, beans, and other vegetables.[9]Turkeys are raised for food, and their feather fibers are woven into cloth. Eagles are caged and raised for their long feathers, which are held sacred.In the ruined houses of the cliff-dwellers of Texas and Arizona fragments of cloth woven from cotton and other substances have been found. No white man taught this ancient people these arts of weaving.Clay dishes, mortars, and pestles of stone, large sea-shells cut into shapes for holding food, stone axes, and knives show some of the skill of these early Americans.The ornaments made of silver by the Navajo, as well as the long strings of turquoise beads, are sometimes remarkable for their beauty.Wampum, used by so many tribes for money, was carefully made from shells by eastern Indians. It seems strange that their crude tools could have made such small beads so very well.The knowledge of medicine in all tribes was limited to a few herbs. The rest was a kind of sorcery; but with the herbs, fresh air, and fresh water they managed to cure many ills.The Pueblos of New Mexico are very different from the Zuñis or the Moki Pueblos of Arizona. They are now much like the white people, for they live in well-built houses, attend church, and send their children to school.[10]
The Indians made and still make excellent canoes of bark or of logs and even of skins. The birch-bark canoe is light and very swift, and white hunters are proud of their skill in its use, but the skin boat has only strength as its merit.
The Siwash Indian of Puget Sound hollows out from a single log a fine canoe with decorated prow. He makes it secretly in the dark forest, and white men have tried for years to solve the problem of its swiftness.
The bows of strong wood bent by sinew cords and the stone-headed arrows with feather tips were excellent weapons in the Indians’ former methods of warfare and hunting, and a good arrowhead maker was famous throughout a nation.
Pueblo House with Kivas in ForegroundPueblo House with Kivas in ForegroundFrom a Photograph
Pueblo House with Kivas in Foreground
From a Photograph
Indian squaws were skillful in the making of buckskin suits for their braves. The handsomely embroidered moccasins were and are now good specimens of[8]woman’s work and love for beauty of coloring and design. Each tribe had its own pattern and shape, differing so much from those of other tribes that a footprint might announce an enemy in war time.
The Indians are still noted trappers, and their squaws know well how to tan and dress the skins of animals. Fish-hooks were made of bone or flint, and spear points were of the same materials, but they were very sharp and with them the Indians caught many fish.
Their roving habits as hunters gave them little time for house-building, and so their homes were simply tents made of strips of bark or, better yet, of large buffalo or deer hides, neatly sewed together for this purpose. These teepees and wigwams were easily put up or removed, and were a good shelter.
The Village Indians, or Pueblos of Arizona, still build themselves houses of adobe or unburnt brick. As the Pueblos were and are now less warlike than the roving tribes which live in tent-like houses, they have had time to invent many useful things.
The Pueblos weave excellent woolen blankets of gay stripes and a coarse cloth for wearing apparel. They make water-tight baskets and dishes of fiber, and these are often exchanged with the Tent Indians for dried meat and other food.
The Village Indians have for centuries planted and cared for maize, pumpkins, beans, and other vegetables.[9]Turkeys are raised for food, and their feather fibers are woven into cloth. Eagles are caged and raised for their long feathers, which are held sacred.
In the ruined houses of the cliff-dwellers of Texas and Arizona fragments of cloth woven from cotton and other substances have been found. No white man taught this ancient people these arts of weaving.
Clay dishes, mortars, and pestles of stone, large sea-shells cut into shapes for holding food, stone axes, and knives show some of the skill of these early Americans.
The ornaments made of silver by the Navajo, as well as the long strings of turquoise beads, are sometimes remarkable for their beauty.
Wampum, used by so many tribes for money, was carefully made from shells by eastern Indians. It seems strange that their crude tools could have made such small beads so very well.
The knowledge of medicine in all tribes was limited to a few herbs. The rest was a kind of sorcery; but with the herbs, fresh air, and fresh water they managed to cure many ills.
The Pueblos of New Mexico are very different from the Zuñis or the Moki Pueblos of Arizona. They are now much like the white people, for they live in well-built houses, attend church, and send their children to school.[10]
[Contents]HOW THE IROQUOIS BUILT THEIR LOG FORTSThe French explorers in the land near Lake Champlain, and in what is now central New York, found many of the Iroquois villages protected by strong, well-built log forts.They were built in this way: The Indians first found a place where there were many tall trees; these were set on fire near their roots, and stone axes were used to rub off the coals, so they would burn faster. After the trees had fallen to the ground they were set on fire again, in places about three long steps apart. The fires burned through the logs in about half a day.As there were no horses, the logs were drawn by the Indians, and then put into place. Earth was heaped up on both sides of the logs to keep them from falling. The forts had two gates; the one in front for general use; the one in the rear for use when getting water.In making the fire to burn the logs, a small dry stick was quickly rubbed with a steady motion against[11]well-seasoned wood; after a while it would burn. Great care was used in preserving coals of fire through the night time for the next day’s use.On the shores of the beautiful Seneca Lake, by the banks of the Mohawk and Genesee rivers, in the forests of Oneida and Cayuga, and in many other parts of this fertile region, these strongholds of a savage people stood secure.Sometimes several acres of land were enclosed, with many homes well protected both day and night from wild animals and other foes.Some of these rude dwellings were more than one hundred feet in length, and were made of poles bent like an arch and covered closely with many layers of elm bark. These large houses, thus protected by forts, were used by several different families, for the “long-houses” were divided into rooms by deerskins or other robes.Fine fields of corn, squashes, and beans were planted and harvested by these fort dwellers, and they knew well how to protect themselves from intruders, for they had hundreds of stones and even huge rocks piled inside the fort ready to hurl at an enemy.[12]
HOW THE IROQUOIS BUILT THEIR LOG FORTS
The French explorers in the land near Lake Champlain, and in what is now central New York, found many of the Iroquois villages protected by strong, well-built log forts.They were built in this way: The Indians first found a place where there were many tall trees; these were set on fire near their roots, and stone axes were used to rub off the coals, so they would burn faster. After the trees had fallen to the ground they were set on fire again, in places about three long steps apart. The fires burned through the logs in about half a day.As there were no horses, the logs were drawn by the Indians, and then put into place. Earth was heaped up on both sides of the logs to keep them from falling. The forts had two gates; the one in front for general use; the one in the rear for use when getting water.In making the fire to burn the logs, a small dry stick was quickly rubbed with a steady motion against[11]well-seasoned wood; after a while it would burn. Great care was used in preserving coals of fire through the night time for the next day’s use.On the shores of the beautiful Seneca Lake, by the banks of the Mohawk and Genesee rivers, in the forests of Oneida and Cayuga, and in many other parts of this fertile region, these strongholds of a savage people stood secure.Sometimes several acres of land were enclosed, with many homes well protected both day and night from wild animals and other foes.Some of these rude dwellings were more than one hundred feet in length, and were made of poles bent like an arch and covered closely with many layers of elm bark. These large houses, thus protected by forts, were used by several different families, for the “long-houses” were divided into rooms by deerskins or other robes.Fine fields of corn, squashes, and beans were planted and harvested by these fort dwellers, and they knew well how to protect themselves from intruders, for they had hundreds of stones and even huge rocks piled inside the fort ready to hurl at an enemy.[12]
T
he French explorers in the land near Lake Champlain, and in what is now central New York, found many of the Iroquois villages protected by strong, well-built log forts.
They were built in this way: The Indians first found a place where there were many tall trees; these were set on fire near their roots, and stone axes were used to rub off the coals, so they would burn faster. After the trees had fallen to the ground they were set on fire again, in places about three long steps apart. The fires burned through the logs in about half a day.
As there were no horses, the logs were drawn by the Indians, and then put into place. Earth was heaped up on both sides of the logs to keep them from falling. The forts had two gates; the one in front for general use; the one in the rear for use when getting water.
In making the fire to burn the logs, a small dry stick was quickly rubbed with a steady motion against[11]well-seasoned wood; after a while it would burn. Great care was used in preserving coals of fire through the night time for the next day’s use.
On the shores of the beautiful Seneca Lake, by the banks of the Mohawk and Genesee rivers, in the forests of Oneida and Cayuga, and in many other parts of this fertile region, these strongholds of a savage people stood secure.
Sometimes several acres of land were enclosed, with many homes well protected both day and night from wild animals and other foes.
Some of these rude dwellings were more than one hundred feet in length, and were made of poles bent like an arch and covered closely with many layers of elm bark. These large houses, thus protected by forts, were used by several different families, for the “long-houses” were divided into rooms by deerskins or other robes.
Fine fields of corn, squashes, and beans were planted and harvested by these fort dwellers, and they knew well how to protect themselves from intruders, for they had hundreds of stones and even huge rocks piled inside the fort ready to hurl at an enemy.[12]
[Contents]INDIAN RECORDSThe Leni Lennape, or Delaware Indians, kept a curious record of their early history by means of sticks which were notched and painted; these sticks were about six inches long. Each painted notch indicated some great event in their nation’s history. The meanings of the notches were taught by old chiefs to the younger ones, and the stories have been repeated for hundreds of years. Leni Lennape meansMen of MenorThe People, and these sticks have been held to prove that their nation is one of the oldest among the red men. Their chiefs were noted for their wisdom in war and peace.A white man, who proved himself a true friend to the Leni Lennapes, gained their confidence and they told him the secrets that were kept by the painted sticks. He had it printed, but had to leave out many words, as their language is very different from English. It is an easy matter to read the history now, and, although many words are omitted, any one can understand its meaning.[13]This record, which the notched and painted sticks have kept for several hundreds of years, is an account of the travels of the Leni Lennape Indians from the Northwest across the Wide River. This must have been the Mississippi. They call it Namesi Sipu, the “river of fish.”When across the Wide River, they found they had come to the country of the Great Serpent. Numerous earth mounds in the form of an immense serpent are found in the valley of the Mississippi. These are believed to have been made by a people, long ago extinct, who may have fought the Delawares.Other Indian tribes and nations have kept long records by means of similar sticks, but the account given by this people is the longest Indian history. The last marks upon these painted sticks are said to mean: “The white men have come from the north and the south. They are peaceful; they have great things. Who are they?”These Leni Lennapes are the Delawares, with whom the Quakers made their treaty near Philadelphia. The Iroquois had conquered these Indians, and had refused to let them go to war as a punishment for their great bravery. The Quakers found them peaceable, honest, and faithful friends, and for forty years no white person was harmed who had never broken his promise to the Leni Lennapes, or Delaware Indians.[14]The Aztecs, or Mexican Indians, had a serpent god, and some have said that these mounds must have been built by them. The Leni Lennape stick records tell only that the country of the Great Serpent was conquered little by little. The mounds are themselves the unsolved records of a great people. No Indian legends or histories have ever explained the meaning of these heaps of earth, which are shaped like animals or birds, and are now sometimes covered by huge trees.The wampum belt tells its story by the pictures upon it, while the record sticks had only painted notches to help the memory of the tribe’s historians.[15]
INDIAN RECORDS
The Leni Lennape, or Delaware Indians, kept a curious record of their early history by means of sticks which were notched and painted; these sticks were about six inches long. Each painted notch indicated some great event in their nation’s history. The meanings of the notches were taught by old chiefs to the younger ones, and the stories have been repeated for hundreds of years. Leni Lennape meansMen of MenorThe People, and these sticks have been held to prove that their nation is one of the oldest among the red men. Their chiefs were noted for their wisdom in war and peace.A white man, who proved himself a true friend to the Leni Lennapes, gained their confidence and they told him the secrets that were kept by the painted sticks. He had it printed, but had to leave out many words, as their language is very different from English. It is an easy matter to read the history now, and, although many words are omitted, any one can understand its meaning.[13]This record, which the notched and painted sticks have kept for several hundreds of years, is an account of the travels of the Leni Lennape Indians from the Northwest across the Wide River. This must have been the Mississippi. They call it Namesi Sipu, the “river of fish.”When across the Wide River, they found they had come to the country of the Great Serpent. Numerous earth mounds in the form of an immense serpent are found in the valley of the Mississippi. These are believed to have been made by a people, long ago extinct, who may have fought the Delawares.Other Indian tribes and nations have kept long records by means of similar sticks, but the account given by this people is the longest Indian history. The last marks upon these painted sticks are said to mean: “The white men have come from the north and the south. They are peaceful; they have great things. Who are they?”These Leni Lennapes are the Delawares, with whom the Quakers made their treaty near Philadelphia. The Iroquois had conquered these Indians, and had refused to let them go to war as a punishment for their great bravery. The Quakers found them peaceable, honest, and faithful friends, and for forty years no white person was harmed who had never broken his promise to the Leni Lennapes, or Delaware Indians.[14]The Aztecs, or Mexican Indians, had a serpent god, and some have said that these mounds must have been built by them. The Leni Lennape stick records tell only that the country of the Great Serpent was conquered little by little. The mounds are themselves the unsolved records of a great people. No Indian legends or histories have ever explained the meaning of these heaps of earth, which are shaped like animals or birds, and are now sometimes covered by huge trees.The wampum belt tells its story by the pictures upon it, while the record sticks had only painted notches to help the memory of the tribe’s historians.[15]
T
he Leni Lennape, or Delaware Indians, kept a curious record of their early history by means of sticks which were notched and painted; these sticks were about six inches long. Each painted notch indicated some great event in their nation’s history. The meanings of the notches were taught by old chiefs to the younger ones, and the stories have been repeated for hundreds of years. Leni Lennape meansMen of MenorThe People, and these sticks have been held to prove that their nation is one of the oldest among the red men. Their chiefs were noted for their wisdom in war and peace.
A white man, who proved himself a true friend to the Leni Lennapes, gained their confidence and they told him the secrets that were kept by the painted sticks. He had it printed, but had to leave out many words, as their language is very different from English. It is an easy matter to read the history now, and, although many words are omitted, any one can understand its meaning.[13]
This record, which the notched and painted sticks have kept for several hundreds of years, is an account of the travels of the Leni Lennape Indians from the Northwest across the Wide River. This must have been the Mississippi. They call it Namesi Sipu, the “river of fish.”
When across the Wide River, they found they had come to the country of the Great Serpent. Numerous earth mounds in the form of an immense serpent are found in the valley of the Mississippi. These are believed to have been made by a people, long ago extinct, who may have fought the Delawares.
Other Indian tribes and nations have kept long records by means of similar sticks, but the account given by this people is the longest Indian history. The last marks upon these painted sticks are said to mean: “The white men have come from the north and the south. They are peaceful; they have great things. Who are they?”
These Leni Lennapes are the Delawares, with whom the Quakers made their treaty near Philadelphia. The Iroquois had conquered these Indians, and had refused to let them go to war as a punishment for their great bravery. The Quakers found them peaceable, honest, and faithful friends, and for forty years no white person was harmed who had never broken his promise to the Leni Lennapes, or Delaware Indians.[14]
The Aztecs, or Mexican Indians, had a serpent god, and some have said that these mounds must have been built by them. The Leni Lennape stick records tell only that the country of the Great Serpent was conquered little by little. The mounds are themselves the unsolved records of a great people. No Indian legends or histories have ever explained the meaning of these heaps of earth, which are shaped like animals or birds, and are now sometimes covered by huge trees.
The wampum belt tells its story by the pictures upon it, while the record sticks had only painted notches to help the memory of the tribe’s historians.[15]
[Contents]WAMPUM MONEYWAMPUM MONEYWampum has been used among the Indians east of the Rocky Mountains since the whites first had dealings with them. Among the eastern Indians it was first found to be made of the white and purple parts of clam shells. These shells were carefully cut into small pieces by means of sharp-edged stone knives, and a hole was bored through the pieces, making them like little tubes.The white and the dark-colored beads were threaded and carefully arranged into patterns when belts or other woven pieces of ornament were made. The threads were either of vegetable fiber or of deer sinews, and long strings were sometimes made of the bark of the slippery-elm tree. Dark-colored parts of the shells from which the beads were made were called black, but they were really dark shades of purple. White beads meant peace. Dark beads were woven into the belt either in square or diamond patterns or in some more irregular shape.[16]The wampum belt used in the treaty between William Penn and the Indians is now in the rooms of the Pennsylvania Historical Society. It was given to this society by a great-grandson of William Penn. This wampum belt was given to its first white owner as a solemn token that they would keep their pledge. History has shown how faithfully these red men kept their pledge with the Quakers.This famous belt is an unusually wide one, having eighteen rows of wampum and nearly three thousand beads, which is proof that it was an important token. The center of the belt is of white wampum with two figures of men wrought in dark beads. The figures are pictured as clasping each other’s hands. One man pictured on the belt wears a hat, while the other does not; this shows that one was a white man, the other an Indian.This belt was kept in the Penn family and treasured with as much care as the chain and medal given to William Penn by the English Parliament; indeed, the medal and the wampum belt each served a like purpose: they were reminders of the promises of a nation.Wampum belts of great historic value are kept by the Onondaga Indians; the finest of these is called the George Washington belt. It is believed by those who have had charge of it to be a pledge relating to a treaty between the early government of the United States and the Six Nations. Fifteen men are pictured on this belt.[18]These may mean the original thirteen colonies and the people who were the speakers at the time of the treaty.Pueblo Indians making BeadsPueblo Indians making BeadsFrom a PhotographSuch uses of belts of wampum were common among the different tribes of Indians. Smaller belts were woven for the chiefs to wear, and the women made themselves bracelets and neck chains of the beads.It was necessary for the whites in the very early times to have this Indian money ready when they wished to purchase furs or other supplies of their wild neighbors. The beads had a certain value according to the number of strings. This value never changed.It is told by the people who wrote back to England in those early days that the Indians could not be made to understand why they should pay more wampum for anything when it was scarce than when it was plentiful. They were used to having one price for things they wished to buy and never having the price changed. For this reason the early settlers were able to buy many valuable things at a very small price.The chiefs of the Iroquois, while mourning a chief’s death, wore strings of black wampum. Other strings of different lengths or colors meant various things to the owners and those about them. The wearing of wampum in any quantity meant wealth and position.It is told of the famous Chief Logan that he saved a captive white by rushing through the circle of Indians[19]who were tormenting him, and throwing a string of wampum about the captive’s neck. From that minute he belonged to Chief Logan.Wampum has been made by machinery since 1670 and sold to the Indians. Old belts and strings of beads, so slowly made by hand, are very valuable. The white and colored glass beads now used are worth but little compared with the wampum of early days.Arranged from Powell’s Report to the Bureau of Ethnology.[20]
WAMPUM MONEYWAMPUM MONEY
WAMPUM MONEY
Wampum has been used among the Indians east of the Rocky Mountains since the whites first had dealings with them. Among the eastern Indians it was first found to be made of the white and purple parts of clam shells. These shells were carefully cut into small pieces by means of sharp-edged stone knives, and a hole was bored through the pieces, making them like little tubes.The white and the dark-colored beads were threaded and carefully arranged into patterns when belts or other woven pieces of ornament were made. The threads were either of vegetable fiber or of deer sinews, and long strings were sometimes made of the bark of the slippery-elm tree. Dark-colored parts of the shells from which the beads were made were called black, but they were really dark shades of purple. White beads meant peace. Dark beads were woven into the belt either in square or diamond patterns or in some more irregular shape.[16]The wampum belt used in the treaty between William Penn and the Indians is now in the rooms of the Pennsylvania Historical Society. It was given to this society by a great-grandson of William Penn. This wampum belt was given to its first white owner as a solemn token that they would keep their pledge. History has shown how faithfully these red men kept their pledge with the Quakers.This famous belt is an unusually wide one, having eighteen rows of wampum and nearly three thousand beads, which is proof that it was an important token. The center of the belt is of white wampum with two figures of men wrought in dark beads. The figures are pictured as clasping each other’s hands. One man pictured on the belt wears a hat, while the other does not; this shows that one was a white man, the other an Indian.This belt was kept in the Penn family and treasured with as much care as the chain and medal given to William Penn by the English Parliament; indeed, the medal and the wampum belt each served a like purpose: they were reminders of the promises of a nation.Wampum belts of great historic value are kept by the Onondaga Indians; the finest of these is called the George Washington belt. It is believed by those who have had charge of it to be a pledge relating to a treaty between the early government of the United States and the Six Nations. Fifteen men are pictured on this belt.[18]These may mean the original thirteen colonies and the people who were the speakers at the time of the treaty.Pueblo Indians making BeadsPueblo Indians making BeadsFrom a PhotographSuch uses of belts of wampum were common among the different tribes of Indians. Smaller belts were woven for the chiefs to wear, and the women made themselves bracelets and neck chains of the beads.It was necessary for the whites in the very early times to have this Indian money ready when they wished to purchase furs or other supplies of their wild neighbors. The beads had a certain value according to the number of strings. This value never changed.It is told by the people who wrote back to England in those early days that the Indians could not be made to understand why they should pay more wampum for anything when it was scarce than when it was plentiful. They were used to having one price for things they wished to buy and never having the price changed. For this reason the early settlers were able to buy many valuable things at a very small price.The chiefs of the Iroquois, while mourning a chief’s death, wore strings of black wampum. Other strings of different lengths or colors meant various things to the owners and those about them. The wearing of wampum in any quantity meant wealth and position.It is told of the famous Chief Logan that he saved a captive white by rushing through the circle of Indians[19]who were tormenting him, and throwing a string of wampum about the captive’s neck. From that minute he belonged to Chief Logan.Wampum has been made by machinery since 1670 and sold to the Indians. Old belts and strings of beads, so slowly made by hand, are very valuable. The white and colored glass beads now used are worth but little compared with the wampum of early days.Arranged from Powell’s Report to the Bureau of Ethnology.[20]
Wampum has been used among the Indians east of the Rocky Mountains since the whites first had dealings with them. Among the eastern Indians it was first found to be made of the white and purple parts of clam shells. These shells were carefully cut into small pieces by means of sharp-edged stone knives, and a hole was bored through the pieces, making them like little tubes.
The white and the dark-colored beads were threaded and carefully arranged into patterns when belts or other woven pieces of ornament were made. The threads were either of vegetable fiber or of deer sinews, and long strings were sometimes made of the bark of the slippery-elm tree. Dark-colored parts of the shells from which the beads were made were called black, but they were really dark shades of purple. White beads meant peace. Dark beads were woven into the belt either in square or diamond patterns or in some more irregular shape.[16]
The wampum belt used in the treaty between William Penn and the Indians is now in the rooms of the Pennsylvania Historical Society. It was given to this society by a great-grandson of William Penn. This wampum belt was given to its first white owner as a solemn token that they would keep their pledge. History has shown how faithfully these red men kept their pledge with the Quakers.
This famous belt is an unusually wide one, having eighteen rows of wampum and nearly three thousand beads, which is proof that it was an important token. The center of the belt is of white wampum with two figures of men wrought in dark beads. The figures are pictured as clasping each other’s hands. One man pictured on the belt wears a hat, while the other does not; this shows that one was a white man, the other an Indian.
This belt was kept in the Penn family and treasured with as much care as the chain and medal given to William Penn by the English Parliament; indeed, the medal and the wampum belt each served a like purpose: they were reminders of the promises of a nation.
Wampum belts of great historic value are kept by the Onondaga Indians; the finest of these is called the George Washington belt. It is believed by those who have had charge of it to be a pledge relating to a treaty between the early government of the United States and the Six Nations. Fifteen men are pictured on this belt.[18]These may mean the original thirteen colonies and the people who were the speakers at the time of the treaty.
Pueblo Indians making BeadsPueblo Indians making BeadsFrom a Photograph
Pueblo Indians making Beads
From a Photograph
Such uses of belts of wampum were common among the different tribes of Indians. Smaller belts were woven for the chiefs to wear, and the women made themselves bracelets and neck chains of the beads.
It was necessary for the whites in the very early times to have this Indian money ready when they wished to purchase furs or other supplies of their wild neighbors. The beads had a certain value according to the number of strings. This value never changed.
It is told by the people who wrote back to England in those early days that the Indians could not be made to understand why they should pay more wampum for anything when it was scarce than when it was plentiful. They were used to having one price for things they wished to buy and never having the price changed. For this reason the early settlers were able to buy many valuable things at a very small price.
The chiefs of the Iroquois, while mourning a chief’s death, wore strings of black wampum. Other strings of different lengths or colors meant various things to the owners and those about them. The wearing of wampum in any quantity meant wealth and position.
It is told of the famous Chief Logan that he saved a captive white by rushing through the circle of Indians[19]who were tormenting him, and throwing a string of wampum about the captive’s neck. From that minute he belonged to Chief Logan.
Wampum has been made by machinery since 1670 and sold to the Indians. Old belts and strings of beads, so slowly made by hand, are very valuable. The white and colored glass beads now used are worth but little compared with the wampum of early days.
Arranged from Powell’s Report to the Bureau of Ethnology.[20]
[Contents]INDIAN TRAITSAlmost unconsciously, even as our own eyes and other senses are trained to help us in city or country life, the Indians are adding to their education in the things which will make life and labor easier to them. Their reading of weather signs is very accurate, and possibly their rain-makers are simply experts in these signs.Their method of lying in ambush in war times calls out all their hidden powers in every line. They can decoy their foe by imitating bird calls or animals; they can make themselves into stump-like figures and almost defy a close inspection.If injured, they rarely show pain, though the torture of the broken limb or the bullet may be intense. Indian boys are taught by both parents from early childhood to bear their pain silently. It comes as a good lesson, when in manhood a groan might show an enemy where they were hidden.Their long trails or paths over mountains, through thick forests, across treeless plains, with no compass[21]but the North Star, have made them watchful of every earthly means of finding their way. They will tell you that trees are greener on the south side than on the north, and that there are plants whose leaves point due north. Flocks of birds sometimes help to guide them. They seem to have almost an instinct in finding their way home.An Indian’s natural pride is as great as a king’s. To him his nation is the greatest one on earth. No Indian must allow that the white is greater in numbers or strength.A number of years ago a Mandan chief named Ietan visited the city of Washington in company with others. On his return, at the council which was called in his honor, he told of boats he had seen that were one hundred and fifty feet long; of great houses filled with white people; of great cities and long railroad trails.The Indians will have nothing but absolute truth at these councils. They must not deceive each other. The council declared that Ietan was telling false tales to frighten the Mandans. No canoe could be built so large as he had said. No such number of white people could live in a land where there were no buffalo. Houses such as he had told about would be blown down by the great winds.Ietan was proven to have basely deceived the council. He was condemned to death for making the[22]white man stronger and greater than the red man. Ietan told them he was ready and willing to suffer the penalty, but when they were older they would know that his words were not false. He was punished as the council decreed. Perhaps they are wise enough now to read the signs made by the iron trails across the Dakota prairies, and their children know that what Ietan said was true.Indians seem to have great pity for the unfortunate few of their tribe who have lost their senses, becoming either insane or foolish. A certain professor belonging to a well-known eastern college had reason to be thankful for this trait not many years ago. He had been gathering plants and insects in one of the desolate regions in the west. He was unarmed, and knew nothing of any Indian language or of the sign language so much used west of the Mississippi.A marauding band of Indians caught sight of him. Wheeling their ponies in his direction, they were down upon him before he had time to do anything more than gather his collection into the boxes and get upon his pony. For some reason they did not offer to hurt him; they, however, were willing to make themselves richer by whatever they could get from him. The professor did not say a word, but handed them his case of roots and plants. At this they stared open-eyed, for it contained nothing that any one could eat. His boxes of[24]insects were next examined. Nothing of use to them was found. His pockets were searched. They were filled with bugs, flies, and flower specimens.Hogan of Navajo Blanket WeaverHogan of Navajo Blanket WeaverFrom a PhotographLooking him over from head to foot, they all seem to have reached the same conclusion at the same time; with shouts of laughter and mocking bows and grimaces, they gave him back his boxes. They had discovered by all the signs that he was a being who had not a sense left, and they would not harm him. So the learned professor was spared to return to tell the tale.The numerous Indian nations of America are and were as different in their character and conditions as are the civilized people living in America to-day. They had their unions and their divisions of land according to nation, not according to family or person. Many nations seem to have had wise laws.Very strangely, many of the tribes expected the coming of the white man. When the Indian has learned that village life is no disgrace, he may become even greater than the paleface with the talking leaves or printed book.A wise old Indian was once told that white men were beginning to think they had found where the Indian came from; that the place was northern China.“Perhaps the people of northern China came from the Indian race in America,” said the Indian. It was well said. There are many proofs that the mound-builders,[25]the Aztec, and the Indian have made this part of the world their home for ages, when it was unknown and unthought of in the wildest dreams of seamen or of kings.The hunting chase is the great happiness of the Indian. Now the wild buffalo is gone from the plains forever; the red deer, elk, moose, and bear hide away in the northern forests; the Indian’s hope for a long future for his nation is lost. They are no longer braves but squaws, for they must plant corn and watch it. Village life is very tame compared with the wandering life when the tribes moved to some new place almost every moon.They have an old, old prophecy among many tribes, “that the Great Manitou will some day send away the white race; the whole earth shall be given to the Indians.” This prophecy is repeated in the religious dances, and the medicine men comfort their people with it when the tribes feel the injustice of the whites. It excites them to battle with the invader.Their training has always been for revenge, but they are also trained to remember the good which has been done to them.[26]
INDIAN TRAITS
Almost unconsciously, even as our own eyes and other senses are trained to help us in city or country life, the Indians are adding to their education in the things which will make life and labor easier to them. Their reading of weather signs is very accurate, and possibly their rain-makers are simply experts in these signs.Their method of lying in ambush in war times calls out all their hidden powers in every line. They can decoy their foe by imitating bird calls or animals; they can make themselves into stump-like figures and almost defy a close inspection.If injured, they rarely show pain, though the torture of the broken limb or the bullet may be intense. Indian boys are taught by both parents from early childhood to bear their pain silently. It comes as a good lesson, when in manhood a groan might show an enemy where they were hidden.Their long trails or paths over mountains, through thick forests, across treeless plains, with no compass[21]but the North Star, have made them watchful of every earthly means of finding their way. They will tell you that trees are greener on the south side than on the north, and that there are plants whose leaves point due north. Flocks of birds sometimes help to guide them. They seem to have almost an instinct in finding their way home.An Indian’s natural pride is as great as a king’s. To him his nation is the greatest one on earth. No Indian must allow that the white is greater in numbers or strength.A number of years ago a Mandan chief named Ietan visited the city of Washington in company with others. On his return, at the council which was called in his honor, he told of boats he had seen that were one hundred and fifty feet long; of great houses filled with white people; of great cities and long railroad trails.The Indians will have nothing but absolute truth at these councils. They must not deceive each other. The council declared that Ietan was telling false tales to frighten the Mandans. No canoe could be built so large as he had said. No such number of white people could live in a land where there were no buffalo. Houses such as he had told about would be blown down by the great winds.Ietan was proven to have basely deceived the council. He was condemned to death for making the[22]white man stronger and greater than the red man. Ietan told them he was ready and willing to suffer the penalty, but when they were older they would know that his words were not false. He was punished as the council decreed. Perhaps they are wise enough now to read the signs made by the iron trails across the Dakota prairies, and their children know that what Ietan said was true.Indians seem to have great pity for the unfortunate few of their tribe who have lost their senses, becoming either insane or foolish. A certain professor belonging to a well-known eastern college had reason to be thankful for this trait not many years ago. He had been gathering plants and insects in one of the desolate regions in the west. He was unarmed, and knew nothing of any Indian language or of the sign language so much used west of the Mississippi.A marauding band of Indians caught sight of him. Wheeling their ponies in his direction, they were down upon him before he had time to do anything more than gather his collection into the boxes and get upon his pony. For some reason they did not offer to hurt him; they, however, were willing to make themselves richer by whatever they could get from him. The professor did not say a word, but handed them his case of roots and plants. At this they stared open-eyed, for it contained nothing that any one could eat. His boxes of[24]insects were next examined. Nothing of use to them was found. His pockets were searched. They were filled with bugs, flies, and flower specimens.Hogan of Navajo Blanket WeaverHogan of Navajo Blanket WeaverFrom a PhotographLooking him over from head to foot, they all seem to have reached the same conclusion at the same time; with shouts of laughter and mocking bows and grimaces, they gave him back his boxes. They had discovered by all the signs that he was a being who had not a sense left, and they would not harm him. So the learned professor was spared to return to tell the tale.The numerous Indian nations of America are and were as different in their character and conditions as are the civilized people living in America to-day. They had their unions and their divisions of land according to nation, not according to family or person. Many nations seem to have had wise laws.Very strangely, many of the tribes expected the coming of the white man. When the Indian has learned that village life is no disgrace, he may become even greater than the paleface with the talking leaves or printed book.A wise old Indian was once told that white men were beginning to think they had found where the Indian came from; that the place was northern China.“Perhaps the people of northern China came from the Indian race in America,” said the Indian. It was well said. There are many proofs that the mound-builders,[25]the Aztec, and the Indian have made this part of the world their home for ages, when it was unknown and unthought of in the wildest dreams of seamen or of kings.The hunting chase is the great happiness of the Indian. Now the wild buffalo is gone from the plains forever; the red deer, elk, moose, and bear hide away in the northern forests; the Indian’s hope for a long future for his nation is lost. They are no longer braves but squaws, for they must plant corn and watch it. Village life is very tame compared with the wandering life when the tribes moved to some new place almost every moon.They have an old, old prophecy among many tribes, “that the Great Manitou will some day send away the white race; the whole earth shall be given to the Indians.” This prophecy is repeated in the religious dances, and the medicine men comfort their people with it when the tribes feel the injustice of the whites. It excites them to battle with the invader.Their training has always been for revenge, but they are also trained to remember the good which has been done to them.[26]
A
lmost unconsciously, even as our own eyes and other senses are trained to help us in city or country life, the Indians are adding to their education in the things which will make life and labor easier to them. Their reading of weather signs is very accurate, and possibly their rain-makers are simply experts in these signs.
Their method of lying in ambush in war times calls out all their hidden powers in every line. They can decoy their foe by imitating bird calls or animals; they can make themselves into stump-like figures and almost defy a close inspection.
If injured, they rarely show pain, though the torture of the broken limb or the bullet may be intense. Indian boys are taught by both parents from early childhood to bear their pain silently. It comes as a good lesson, when in manhood a groan might show an enemy where they were hidden.
Their long trails or paths over mountains, through thick forests, across treeless plains, with no compass[21]but the North Star, have made them watchful of every earthly means of finding their way. They will tell you that trees are greener on the south side than on the north, and that there are plants whose leaves point due north. Flocks of birds sometimes help to guide them. They seem to have almost an instinct in finding their way home.
An Indian’s natural pride is as great as a king’s. To him his nation is the greatest one on earth. No Indian must allow that the white is greater in numbers or strength.
A number of years ago a Mandan chief named Ietan visited the city of Washington in company with others. On his return, at the council which was called in his honor, he told of boats he had seen that were one hundred and fifty feet long; of great houses filled with white people; of great cities and long railroad trails.
The Indians will have nothing but absolute truth at these councils. They must not deceive each other. The council declared that Ietan was telling false tales to frighten the Mandans. No canoe could be built so large as he had said. No such number of white people could live in a land where there were no buffalo. Houses such as he had told about would be blown down by the great winds.
Ietan was proven to have basely deceived the council. He was condemned to death for making the[22]white man stronger and greater than the red man. Ietan told them he was ready and willing to suffer the penalty, but when they were older they would know that his words were not false. He was punished as the council decreed. Perhaps they are wise enough now to read the signs made by the iron trails across the Dakota prairies, and their children know that what Ietan said was true.
Indians seem to have great pity for the unfortunate few of their tribe who have lost their senses, becoming either insane or foolish. A certain professor belonging to a well-known eastern college had reason to be thankful for this trait not many years ago. He had been gathering plants and insects in one of the desolate regions in the west. He was unarmed, and knew nothing of any Indian language or of the sign language so much used west of the Mississippi.
A marauding band of Indians caught sight of him. Wheeling their ponies in his direction, they were down upon him before he had time to do anything more than gather his collection into the boxes and get upon his pony. For some reason they did not offer to hurt him; they, however, were willing to make themselves richer by whatever they could get from him. The professor did not say a word, but handed them his case of roots and plants. At this they stared open-eyed, for it contained nothing that any one could eat. His boxes of[24]insects were next examined. Nothing of use to them was found. His pockets were searched. They were filled with bugs, flies, and flower specimens.
Hogan of Navajo Blanket WeaverHogan of Navajo Blanket WeaverFrom a Photograph
Hogan of Navajo Blanket Weaver
From a Photograph
Looking him over from head to foot, they all seem to have reached the same conclusion at the same time; with shouts of laughter and mocking bows and grimaces, they gave him back his boxes. They had discovered by all the signs that he was a being who had not a sense left, and they would not harm him. So the learned professor was spared to return to tell the tale.
The numerous Indian nations of America are and were as different in their character and conditions as are the civilized people living in America to-day. They had their unions and their divisions of land according to nation, not according to family or person. Many nations seem to have had wise laws.
Very strangely, many of the tribes expected the coming of the white man. When the Indian has learned that village life is no disgrace, he may become even greater than the paleface with the talking leaves or printed book.
A wise old Indian was once told that white men were beginning to think they had found where the Indian came from; that the place was northern China.
“Perhaps the people of northern China came from the Indian race in America,” said the Indian. It was well said. There are many proofs that the mound-builders,[25]the Aztec, and the Indian have made this part of the world their home for ages, when it was unknown and unthought of in the wildest dreams of seamen or of kings.
The hunting chase is the great happiness of the Indian. Now the wild buffalo is gone from the plains forever; the red deer, elk, moose, and bear hide away in the northern forests; the Indian’s hope for a long future for his nation is lost. They are no longer braves but squaws, for they must plant corn and watch it. Village life is very tame compared with the wandering life when the tribes moved to some new place almost every moon.
They have an old, old prophecy among many tribes, “that the Great Manitou will some day send away the white race; the whole earth shall be given to the Indians.” This prophecy is repeated in the religious dances, and the medicine men comfort their people with it when the tribes feel the injustice of the whites. It excites them to battle with the invader.
Their training has always been for revenge, but they are also trained to remember the good which has been done to them.[26]
[Contents]THE INDIAN’S EYE TRAININGAn Indian left his lodge for several days; when he came back, the dried deer meat which he had left hanging to a tree near his wigwam was gone. He did not go around asking questions of his neighbors, but just used his eyes instead of his tongue for the first hour, and his eyes told him many things.Then he went to a wigwam near by and asked: “Did you see a little, old, white man with a short gun? Did you see him in the last two days? Did he have a small dog with a short tail?”The neighbor Indian said: “Yes, I saw him. He and his dog were on the trail going south.”The Indian took the same trail and in a few days returned with the dog and the deer meat.Some white men had heard the questions of the Indian before he started out, and after he came back they went to him and said: “We want to know who took your meat. How did you know it was a white man?”[27]“White man turns toe out; Indian put foot so, one behind the other, walk straight.”“How did you know that he was little and that he was old?”“He put pile of stones by deer-meat tree; cannot reach, he little. He takes short steps; he old.”“How did you know that his gun was short?”“He stick gun on ground against tree. Gun muzzle make mark little way from ground. Short gun.”“Well, how did you ever know that he had a little dog like that, with a short tail?”“Dog sit in the sand. Watch man get meat. Dog leave mark where he sit down in sand. Indian can see with two eyes.”[28]
THE INDIAN’S EYE TRAINING
An Indian left his lodge for several days; when he came back, the dried deer meat which he had left hanging to a tree near his wigwam was gone. He did not go around asking questions of his neighbors, but just used his eyes instead of his tongue for the first hour, and his eyes told him many things.Then he went to a wigwam near by and asked: “Did you see a little, old, white man with a short gun? Did you see him in the last two days? Did he have a small dog with a short tail?”The neighbor Indian said: “Yes, I saw him. He and his dog were on the trail going south.”The Indian took the same trail and in a few days returned with the dog and the deer meat.Some white men had heard the questions of the Indian before he started out, and after he came back they went to him and said: “We want to know who took your meat. How did you know it was a white man?”[27]“White man turns toe out; Indian put foot so, one behind the other, walk straight.”“How did you know that he was little and that he was old?”“He put pile of stones by deer-meat tree; cannot reach, he little. He takes short steps; he old.”“How did you know that his gun was short?”“He stick gun on ground against tree. Gun muzzle make mark little way from ground. Short gun.”“Well, how did you ever know that he had a little dog like that, with a short tail?”“Dog sit in the sand. Watch man get meat. Dog leave mark where he sit down in sand. Indian can see with two eyes.”[28]
A
n Indian left his lodge for several days; when he came back, the dried deer meat which he had left hanging to a tree near his wigwam was gone. He did not go around asking questions of his neighbors, but just used his eyes instead of his tongue for the first hour, and his eyes told him many things.
Then he went to a wigwam near by and asked: “Did you see a little, old, white man with a short gun? Did you see him in the last two days? Did he have a small dog with a short tail?”
The neighbor Indian said: “Yes, I saw him. He and his dog were on the trail going south.”
The Indian took the same trail and in a few days returned with the dog and the deer meat.
Some white men had heard the questions of the Indian before he started out, and after he came back they went to him and said: “We want to know who took your meat. How did you know it was a white man?”[27]
“White man turns toe out; Indian put foot so, one behind the other, walk straight.”
“How did you know that he was little and that he was old?”
“He put pile of stones by deer-meat tree; cannot reach, he little. He takes short steps; he old.”
“How did you know that his gun was short?”
“He stick gun on ground against tree. Gun muzzle make mark little way from ground. Short gun.”
“Well, how did you ever know that he had a little dog like that, with a short tail?”
“Dog sit in the sand. Watch man get meat. Dog leave mark where he sit down in sand. Indian can see with two eyes.”[28]
[Contents]MEDICINE MEN AMONG THE INDIANSNearly all tribes have their medicine men. These men choose this work, frequently because of some deformity which unfits them for the warpath, and they fit themselves for it, sometimes from boyhood. They have great power over all their people. They are called into the council when the tribe goes to war. They are called upon when any one is sick. They believe and teach that sickness is caused by an evil spirit. Their medicine is to contrive some way to drive out the evil spirit of sickness.The medicine man usually works himself into a frenzy or even into a fit, and while in this state his mutterings are taken for advice and followed. The patient must then get well. If he does not, it is because the evil spirit cannot be conquered.Big Medicine ManBig Medicine ManFrom a PhotographMany tribes believe that the soul leaves the body when the evil spirit of sickness enters. The Portage Indians of British America hold this belief. Their medicine men try to bring back the wandering soul by[30]many curious performances. For one thing, the sick man’s friends are ordered to hang up his buckskin moccasins stuffed with soft feathery down. If the feathers become warm to the touch, they will know that the wandering soul has touched them and perhaps is hiding in them. The moccasins are quickly put upon the feet of the patient that his soul may not escape. If he does not get well, it is because his friends were not quick enough in their work.The medicine men of many tribes dress themselves in hideous fashion to excite the fear and compel the respect of their people. They do not have to go on the warpath, but will do it sometimes. It seems to be a good chance for the deformed to win respect from the physically perfect.[31]
MEDICINE MEN AMONG THE INDIANS
Nearly all tribes have their medicine men. These men choose this work, frequently because of some deformity which unfits them for the warpath, and they fit themselves for it, sometimes from boyhood. They have great power over all their people. They are called into the council when the tribe goes to war. They are called upon when any one is sick. They believe and teach that sickness is caused by an evil spirit. Their medicine is to contrive some way to drive out the evil spirit of sickness.The medicine man usually works himself into a frenzy or even into a fit, and while in this state his mutterings are taken for advice and followed. The patient must then get well. If he does not, it is because the evil spirit cannot be conquered.Big Medicine ManBig Medicine ManFrom a PhotographMany tribes believe that the soul leaves the body when the evil spirit of sickness enters. The Portage Indians of British America hold this belief. Their medicine men try to bring back the wandering soul by[30]many curious performances. For one thing, the sick man’s friends are ordered to hang up his buckskin moccasins stuffed with soft feathery down. If the feathers become warm to the touch, they will know that the wandering soul has touched them and perhaps is hiding in them. The moccasins are quickly put upon the feet of the patient that his soul may not escape. If he does not get well, it is because his friends were not quick enough in their work.The medicine men of many tribes dress themselves in hideous fashion to excite the fear and compel the respect of their people. They do not have to go on the warpath, but will do it sometimes. It seems to be a good chance for the deformed to win respect from the physically perfect.[31]
N
early all tribes have their medicine men. These men choose this work, frequently because of some deformity which unfits them for the warpath, and they fit themselves for it, sometimes from boyhood. They have great power over all their people. They are called into the council when the tribe goes to war. They are called upon when any one is sick. They believe and teach that sickness is caused by an evil spirit. Their medicine is to contrive some way to drive out the evil spirit of sickness.
The medicine man usually works himself into a frenzy or even into a fit, and while in this state his mutterings are taken for advice and followed. The patient must then get well. If he does not, it is because the evil spirit cannot be conquered.
Big Medicine ManBig Medicine ManFrom a Photograph
Big Medicine Man
From a Photograph
Many tribes believe that the soul leaves the body when the evil spirit of sickness enters. The Portage Indians of British America hold this belief. Their medicine men try to bring back the wandering soul by[30]many curious performances. For one thing, the sick man’s friends are ordered to hang up his buckskin moccasins stuffed with soft feathery down. If the feathers become warm to the touch, they will know that the wandering soul has touched them and perhaps is hiding in them. The moccasins are quickly put upon the feet of the patient that his soul may not escape. If he does not get well, it is because his friends were not quick enough in their work.
The medicine men of many tribes dress themselves in hideous fashion to excite the fear and compel the respect of their people. They do not have to go on the warpath, but will do it sometimes. It seems to be a good chance for the deformed to win respect from the physically perfect.[31]
[Contents]THE INDIAN AT HOMEIndian feathered headgear.An Indian in his native costume is a subject artists are glad to paint,—tanned buckskin trousers with the buckskin fringe down the outside seams; buckskin moccasins with colored porcupine quills neatly woven into the leather in regular patterns, and a heavy blanket or buffalo robe over his shoulders, hanging nearly to the ground. But the paint upon his face is his chief pride.A traveler, in 1835, was taking a trip up the Mississippi. He espied an Indian on the forward deck who was making his toilet, apparently unaware that a paleface was watching the process.The traveler gives this account: “The Indian had secured at Fort Snelling, near St. Paul, a bit of broken looking-glass, and there he sat on deck, painting his face and neck. A daub of the brightest red paint went down the line marking the parting of his hair.[32]“He worried and worked as much over the daubs on his cheeks as some very civilized girls would over a naughty curl. First, a daub of yellow with red at the edge; then red on the yellow, and yellow on the red, until his eye was satisfied.“In the tuft of hair on his crown he stuck an eagle feather; the mirror showed it was not in a becoming place. Out it came and was poised at a different angle. Still, it was not just the style he wanted, and out it came again. At last it stood straight up, and the dandy finished his toilet.“Such a self-satisfied air did he put on when paint, feather, and blanket had been arranged to his liking! Perhaps some daughter of the Dakotas was the cause of all this patient study of the art of dressing; but I cannot dream of Hiawatha ever belittling himself to take so long a time with feathers and paint.”It seemed strange to the traveler for the Indian to take so much pains with the colors of paint and the place where he put them upon his face, but it is now known that each color has its meaning with them. The Indians paint their faces very differently when they are going on the warpath. The warriors of each nation have their own fashion of painting their faces and bodies.The war chiefs have a very noble look when they come out with their feather war bonnets reaching from[33]the crowns of their heads down to their feet. Their bearing is dignified; their faces are earnest and solemn; and each one treads the earth as a king.Indian women are sometimes very handsome when young; but the quantity of colored earth they use as paint does not hide half the dirt upon their faces. They wear blankets and buckskin skirts, and make a pretty picture if the wigwam is in the background. Many of the babies have a decidedly Japanese look and are attractive little creatures, as babies are apt to be.The Indian squaw is a good helpmate to her husband. His work is to hunt; her work is at home in the teepee, where he can find rest and food after his hunting. An Indian brave will not do his squaw’s work, and his squaw does not wish her brave to be different from other men.The Indian pony seems like a part of the family. He is not petted nor fed like the Arabian horse, but is just as necessary to his master’s happiness. Indian ponies know what little food and what no food mean. The rank prairie grass is usually easy for them to get, but sometimes it is burned off. The pony must search for his own food in summer or winter.The Indian pony or cayuse sometimes carries a load under which a donkey could hardly move; but he takes his own gait, and keeps it too. He is suited by[34]inherited years of hard work to his master and his home. The Indian pony is thought to be descended from the horses brought to America by the Spanish explorers.The dogs belonging to an Indian camp or village are numerous and often nearly starved. Whenever a stranger makes his appearance, his coming is announced by furious barks and howls of these hungry sentinels. The white hunter has reason to dread the attacks of these dogs, for they are much like the coyotes and wolves of the forests. Unless his gun is ready, or their masters call them back, it is usually best for the stranger to find refuge in a tree; but the braves, squaws, and children give the white visitor a kind welcome as soon as they know that his visit is friendly.[35]
THE INDIAN AT HOME
Indian feathered headgear.An Indian in his native costume is a subject artists are glad to paint,—tanned buckskin trousers with the buckskin fringe down the outside seams; buckskin moccasins with colored porcupine quills neatly woven into the leather in regular patterns, and a heavy blanket or buffalo robe over his shoulders, hanging nearly to the ground. But the paint upon his face is his chief pride.A traveler, in 1835, was taking a trip up the Mississippi. He espied an Indian on the forward deck who was making his toilet, apparently unaware that a paleface was watching the process.The traveler gives this account: “The Indian had secured at Fort Snelling, near St. Paul, a bit of broken looking-glass, and there he sat on deck, painting his face and neck. A daub of the brightest red paint went down the line marking the parting of his hair.[32]“He worried and worked as much over the daubs on his cheeks as some very civilized girls would over a naughty curl. First, a daub of yellow with red at the edge; then red on the yellow, and yellow on the red, until his eye was satisfied.“In the tuft of hair on his crown he stuck an eagle feather; the mirror showed it was not in a becoming place. Out it came and was poised at a different angle. Still, it was not just the style he wanted, and out it came again. At last it stood straight up, and the dandy finished his toilet.“Such a self-satisfied air did he put on when paint, feather, and blanket had been arranged to his liking! Perhaps some daughter of the Dakotas was the cause of all this patient study of the art of dressing; but I cannot dream of Hiawatha ever belittling himself to take so long a time with feathers and paint.”It seemed strange to the traveler for the Indian to take so much pains with the colors of paint and the place where he put them upon his face, but it is now known that each color has its meaning with them. The Indians paint their faces very differently when they are going on the warpath. The warriors of each nation have their own fashion of painting their faces and bodies.The war chiefs have a very noble look when they come out with their feather war bonnets reaching from[33]the crowns of their heads down to their feet. Their bearing is dignified; their faces are earnest and solemn; and each one treads the earth as a king.Indian women are sometimes very handsome when young; but the quantity of colored earth they use as paint does not hide half the dirt upon their faces. They wear blankets and buckskin skirts, and make a pretty picture if the wigwam is in the background. Many of the babies have a decidedly Japanese look and are attractive little creatures, as babies are apt to be.The Indian squaw is a good helpmate to her husband. His work is to hunt; her work is at home in the teepee, where he can find rest and food after his hunting. An Indian brave will not do his squaw’s work, and his squaw does not wish her brave to be different from other men.The Indian pony seems like a part of the family. He is not petted nor fed like the Arabian horse, but is just as necessary to his master’s happiness. Indian ponies know what little food and what no food mean. The rank prairie grass is usually easy for them to get, but sometimes it is burned off. The pony must search for his own food in summer or winter.The Indian pony or cayuse sometimes carries a load under which a donkey could hardly move; but he takes his own gait, and keeps it too. He is suited by[34]inherited years of hard work to his master and his home. The Indian pony is thought to be descended from the horses brought to America by the Spanish explorers.The dogs belonging to an Indian camp or village are numerous and often nearly starved. Whenever a stranger makes his appearance, his coming is announced by furious barks and howls of these hungry sentinels. The white hunter has reason to dread the attacks of these dogs, for they are much like the coyotes and wolves of the forests. Unless his gun is ready, or their masters call them back, it is usually best for the stranger to find refuge in a tree; but the braves, squaws, and children give the white visitor a kind welcome as soon as they know that his visit is friendly.[35]
Indian feathered headgear.
An Indian in his native costume is a subject artists are glad to paint,—tanned buckskin trousers with the buckskin fringe down the outside seams; buckskin moccasins with colored porcupine quills neatly woven into the leather in regular patterns, and a heavy blanket or buffalo robe over his shoulders, hanging nearly to the ground. But the paint upon his face is his chief pride.
A traveler, in 1835, was taking a trip up the Mississippi. He espied an Indian on the forward deck who was making his toilet, apparently unaware that a paleface was watching the process.
The traveler gives this account: “The Indian had secured at Fort Snelling, near St. Paul, a bit of broken looking-glass, and there he sat on deck, painting his face and neck. A daub of the brightest red paint went down the line marking the parting of his hair.[32]
“He worried and worked as much over the daubs on his cheeks as some very civilized girls would over a naughty curl. First, a daub of yellow with red at the edge; then red on the yellow, and yellow on the red, until his eye was satisfied.
“In the tuft of hair on his crown he stuck an eagle feather; the mirror showed it was not in a becoming place. Out it came and was poised at a different angle. Still, it was not just the style he wanted, and out it came again. At last it stood straight up, and the dandy finished his toilet.
“Such a self-satisfied air did he put on when paint, feather, and blanket had been arranged to his liking! Perhaps some daughter of the Dakotas was the cause of all this patient study of the art of dressing; but I cannot dream of Hiawatha ever belittling himself to take so long a time with feathers and paint.”
It seemed strange to the traveler for the Indian to take so much pains with the colors of paint and the place where he put them upon his face, but it is now known that each color has its meaning with them. The Indians paint their faces very differently when they are going on the warpath. The warriors of each nation have their own fashion of painting their faces and bodies.
The war chiefs have a very noble look when they come out with their feather war bonnets reaching from[33]the crowns of their heads down to their feet. Their bearing is dignified; their faces are earnest and solemn; and each one treads the earth as a king.
Indian women are sometimes very handsome when young; but the quantity of colored earth they use as paint does not hide half the dirt upon their faces. They wear blankets and buckskin skirts, and make a pretty picture if the wigwam is in the background. Many of the babies have a decidedly Japanese look and are attractive little creatures, as babies are apt to be.
The Indian squaw is a good helpmate to her husband. His work is to hunt; her work is at home in the teepee, where he can find rest and food after his hunting. An Indian brave will not do his squaw’s work, and his squaw does not wish her brave to be different from other men.
The Indian pony seems like a part of the family. He is not petted nor fed like the Arabian horse, but is just as necessary to his master’s happiness. Indian ponies know what little food and what no food mean. The rank prairie grass is usually easy for them to get, but sometimes it is burned off. The pony must search for his own food in summer or winter.
The Indian pony or cayuse sometimes carries a load under which a donkey could hardly move; but he takes his own gait, and keeps it too. He is suited by[34]inherited years of hard work to his master and his home. The Indian pony is thought to be descended from the horses brought to America by the Spanish explorers.
The dogs belonging to an Indian camp or village are numerous and often nearly starved. Whenever a stranger makes his appearance, his coming is announced by furious barks and howls of these hungry sentinels. The white hunter has reason to dread the attacks of these dogs, for they are much like the coyotes and wolves of the forests. Unless his gun is ready, or their masters call them back, it is usually best for the stranger to find refuge in a tree; but the braves, squaws, and children give the white visitor a kind welcome as soon as they know that his visit is friendly.[35]
[Contents]MEANING OF INDIAN TOTEMS AND NAMESIndian totem.An Indian, while hunting, followed a bear a long way into the forest. The rain came and he was lost, so he cut the bark from a tree and made with his tomahawk a picture of a fox. He put a ring under one foot in the picture. He belonged to the Fox tribe and had been lost one day. He made more such marks on the trees as he went on.Another hunter from the same tribe found him after three days. He had trailed him by the little marks on the trees; by bent twigs and branches; by his footprints in the mud or sand. He knew the lost one was very weak and hungry, for the last fox picture had three circles to show that he had been lost three days, and other marks to show that he had shot nothing. An untrained white hunter would not have seen one sign of the lost Indian.[36]If the Fox Indian had been asked why he used the fox picture, he would have said, if ready to talk: “My grandfather was a fox.” This would mean to us that his totem or first ancestor was a fox.Other tribes believe they are descended from bears, wolves, cranes, or other creatures. They nearly all have their totems, or sign-pictures. We write our names with letters; they use pictures. It is their coat-of-arms. Our names also have meanings.The tall, curiously carved totem poles of Alaska are really carved family histories. Where two or more animals are pictured on one pole it shows the marriage or other union of different bands to which the family belongs. These totem poles are usually put up before each native house. The natives will not sell them, for they are valuable family records.A Dakota warrior shot an arrow into the sky; the clouds parted just as his arrow turned to fall. He was thought to have shot the clouds; he was called Hole-in-the-sky.Old Chief Sleepy-eye had a bright mind, but his eyelids did not serve him well; hence his name.In some tribes the little ones are named after the first object that is seen, as Buffalo Horn, White Pony, Lame Dog, and names that are sometimes better but more often seem to us not so good.Alaskan Totem PolesAlaskan Totem PolesFrom a PhotographThe Sioux have names for their boys or girls[38]according to their order of birth. The first boy is called Chaska, until by some feat of bravery he changes it himself. The second son is Harpam; his next brother is Hapeda; the fourth son is Chatun; and the fifth boy has the name of Harka all ready for him.The first girl has the musical name of Winona, and her next younger sister takes the name of Harpan. Harpstena will be the name of the third girl baby. Waska and Weharka are for the fourth and fifth girls of a family, and other names are provided for a greater number of children.The Indians have titles and descriptive names for the white people whom they know. A certain military surgeon who has been among them and has keen, dark eyes and gray hair is always called Gray Eagle. Their senses are trained to observe very keenly, and they quickly know each person. Perhaps the paleface might be startled if he understood the name they gave him.Some Indian tribes call the horse Foot-with-one-toe. Few white Americans would have noticed the horse’s foot so closely.[39]
MEANING OF INDIAN TOTEMS AND NAMES
Indian totem.An Indian, while hunting, followed a bear a long way into the forest. The rain came and he was lost, so he cut the bark from a tree and made with his tomahawk a picture of a fox. He put a ring under one foot in the picture. He belonged to the Fox tribe and had been lost one day. He made more such marks on the trees as he went on.Another hunter from the same tribe found him after three days. He had trailed him by the little marks on the trees; by bent twigs and branches; by his footprints in the mud or sand. He knew the lost one was very weak and hungry, for the last fox picture had three circles to show that he had been lost three days, and other marks to show that he had shot nothing. An untrained white hunter would not have seen one sign of the lost Indian.[36]If the Fox Indian had been asked why he used the fox picture, he would have said, if ready to talk: “My grandfather was a fox.” This would mean to us that his totem or first ancestor was a fox.Other tribes believe they are descended from bears, wolves, cranes, or other creatures. They nearly all have their totems, or sign-pictures. We write our names with letters; they use pictures. It is their coat-of-arms. Our names also have meanings.The tall, curiously carved totem poles of Alaska are really carved family histories. Where two or more animals are pictured on one pole it shows the marriage or other union of different bands to which the family belongs. These totem poles are usually put up before each native house. The natives will not sell them, for they are valuable family records.A Dakota warrior shot an arrow into the sky; the clouds parted just as his arrow turned to fall. He was thought to have shot the clouds; he was called Hole-in-the-sky.Old Chief Sleepy-eye had a bright mind, but his eyelids did not serve him well; hence his name.In some tribes the little ones are named after the first object that is seen, as Buffalo Horn, White Pony, Lame Dog, and names that are sometimes better but more often seem to us not so good.Alaskan Totem PolesAlaskan Totem PolesFrom a PhotographThe Sioux have names for their boys or girls[38]according to their order of birth. The first boy is called Chaska, until by some feat of bravery he changes it himself. The second son is Harpam; his next brother is Hapeda; the fourth son is Chatun; and the fifth boy has the name of Harka all ready for him.The first girl has the musical name of Winona, and her next younger sister takes the name of Harpan. Harpstena will be the name of the third girl baby. Waska and Weharka are for the fourth and fifth girls of a family, and other names are provided for a greater number of children.The Indians have titles and descriptive names for the white people whom they know. A certain military surgeon who has been among them and has keen, dark eyes and gray hair is always called Gray Eagle. Their senses are trained to observe very keenly, and they quickly know each person. Perhaps the paleface might be startled if he understood the name they gave him.Some Indian tribes call the horse Foot-with-one-toe. Few white Americans would have noticed the horse’s foot so closely.[39]
Indian totem.
An Indian, while hunting, followed a bear a long way into the forest. The rain came and he was lost, so he cut the bark from a tree and made with his tomahawk a picture of a fox. He put a ring under one foot in the picture. He belonged to the Fox tribe and had been lost one day. He made more such marks on the trees as he went on.
Another hunter from the same tribe found him after three days. He had trailed him by the little marks on the trees; by bent twigs and branches; by his footprints in the mud or sand. He knew the lost one was very weak and hungry, for the last fox picture had three circles to show that he had been lost three days, and other marks to show that he had shot nothing. An untrained white hunter would not have seen one sign of the lost Indian.[36]
If the Fox Indian had been asked why he used the fox picture, he would have said, if ready to talk: “My grandfather was a fox.” This would mean to us that his totem or first ancestor was a fox.
Other tribes believe they are descended from bears, wolves, cranes, or other creatures. They nearly all have their totems, or sign-pictures. We write our names with letters; they use pictures. It is their coat-of-arms. Our names also have meanings.
The tall, curiously carved totem poles of Alaska are really carved family histories. Where two or more animals are pictured on one pole it shows the marriage or other union of different bands to which the family belongs. These totem poles are usually put up before each native house. The natives will not sell them, for they are valuable family records.
A Dakota warrior shot an arrow into the sky; the clouds parted just as his arrow turned to fall. He was thought to have shot the clouds; he was called Hole-in-the-sky.
Old Chief Sleepy-eye had a bright mind, but his eyelids did not serve him well; hence his name.
In some tribes the little ones are named after the first object that is seen, as Buffalo Horn, White Pony, Lame Dog, and names that are sometimes better but more often seem to us not so good.
Alaskan Totem PolesAlaskan Totem PolesFrom a Photograph
Alaskan Totem Poles
From a Photograph
The Sioux have names for their boys or girls[38]according to their order of birth. The first boy is called Chaska, until by some feat of bravery he changes it himself. The second son is Harpam; his next brother is Hapeda; the fourth son is Chatun; and the fifth boy has the name of Harka all ready for him.
The first girl has the musical name of Winona, and her next younger sister takes the name of Harpan. Harpstena will be the name of the third girl baby. Waska and Weharka are for the fourth and fifth girls of a family, and other names are provided for a greater number of children.
The Indians have titles and descriptive names for the white people whom they know. A certain military surgeon who has been among them and has keen, dark eyes and gray hair is always called Gray Eagle. Their senses are trained to observe very keenly, and they quickly know each person. Perhaps the paleface might be startled if he understood the name they gave him.
Some Indian tribes call the horse Foot-with-one-toe. Few white Americans would have noticed the horse’s foot so closely.[39]
[Contents]THE INDIAN NAMES FOR THE MONTHS OR MOONSThe moon goes through its changes from new moon to new moon in twenty-eight days. The Indians reckon their time of year by these changes in the Night Sun, as they call the moon.Tribes living in different parts of America have various names for the months, which they call Moons. They all keep their calendar hung in the sky, and it is never lost for any length of time. They have given these moons names after what interests them most.One nation has named them in the following way. The month in our calendar is also given, so that you can easily guess the Indian’s reason for his name for the month.JanuaryThe Cold Moon.FebruaryThe Snow Moon.MarchThe Green Moon.AprilThe Moon of Plants.MayThe Moon of Flowers.JuneThe Hot Moon.[40]JulyThe Moon of the Deer.AugustThe Sturgeon Moon.SeptemberThe Fruit Moon.OctoberThe Traveling Moon.NovemberThe Beaver Moon.DecemberThe Hunting Moon.If you were spending the year among the Sioux or Dakotas, little Winona might tell you that January is the Hard Moon.February is when the braves and the boys take their dogs and hunt the raccoon; hence, they call it the ’Coon Moon.The Sioux have lived for a long time in the north. They know the effect of the bright sunshine of March when it shines upon the snowdrifts. It is called the Moon of Snow-blindness.April is the Egg Moon. It is the moon when the wild geese lay their eggs, and the Indians gather them for food. The next time you watch the dark triangle of wild geese flying northward, you can say it is near the time of the Egg Moon of the Dakotas.May is the Planting Moon. What! You did not know that the copper-colored people planted anything? Oh, yes, they do! Remember our maize, or Indian corn, is one great gift from them.June has the prettiest name. Bright, beautiful June that we all love. It is the Strawberry Moon. The[41]luscious wild strawberries are more delicate in flavor than any grown in the gardens. The wild Indian has many dainties.July, our red-white-and-blue month, is their Moon of Red Lilies. Has it ever been your good fortune to see a vast tract of land covered with these gorgeous wild tiger-lilies? O Moon of Red Lilies, how beautiful you make our western prairies! In this same moon the wild cherry is ripe, and many tribes know it as the Cherry Moon.August is the Ripe Moon. Have you ever heard of the Harvest Moon? Is not that nearly the same name? Seeds from thistle and the milkweed are filling the air with their downy carriers. Wild grasses and grains are ready for the gatherers, and the maize will shortly be ready for the harvest.While at Lake Superior, some time ago, we saw Chippewa Indians in their birch-bark canoes, anchored in what seemed to be a very reedy bay. We found out that the bay was filled with wild rice instead of reeds and rushes. It was the time of their wild-rice gathering. Two moons are given names referring to wild rice: September is the Ripe-rice Moon; October is often called the Harvest Moon. With plenty of maize and wild rice the winter is not dreaded. The Indian puts away his winter stores with much the same care that his white brother uses; he stores corn in pits[42]that he digs in the earth. He could learn this from the squirrel.November is the Moon of Michabo, or Indian Summer. Michabo is another name for Menabozho, the Chippewa Indian’s manitou friend; he has given them this second summer of the year, they believe.December is the Moon of Dropping Horns. The deer lose their long antlers about this time, and the Indians can find them in the forests where the deer trails are.The Indians have twelve moons in their year, the same number that we have in our calendar.[43]Mokis ready for a Sacred DanceMokis ready for a Sacred DanceFrom a Photograph[44]
THE INDIAN NAMES FOR THE MONTHS OR MOONS
The moon goes through its changes from new moon to new moon in twenty-eight days. The Indians reckon their time of year by these changes in the Night Sun, as they call the moon.Tribes living in different parts of America have various names for the months, which they call Moons. They all keep their calendar hung in the sky, and it is never lost for any length of time. They have given these moons names after what interests them most.One nation has named them in the following way. The month in our calendar is also given, so that you can easily guess the Indian’s reason for his name for the month.JanuaryThe Cold Moon.FebruaryThe Snow Moon.MarchThe Green Moon.AprilThe Moon of Plants.MayThe Moon of Flowers.JuneThe Hot Moon.[40]JulyThe Moon of the Deer.AugustThe Sturgeon Moon.SeptemberThe Fruit Moon.OctoberThe Traveling Moon.NovemberThe Beaver Moon.DecemberThe Hunting Moon.If you were spending the year among the Sioux or Dakotas, little Winona might tell you that January is the Hard Moon.February is when the braves and the boys take their dogs and hunt the raccoon; hence, they call it the ’Coon Moon.The Sioux have lived for a long time in the north. They know the effect of the bright sunshine of March when it shines upon the snowdrifts. It is called the Moon of Snow-blindness.April is the Egg Moon. It is the moon when the wild geese lay their eggs, and the Indians gather them for food. The next time you watch the dark triangle of wild geese flying northward, you can say it is near the time of the Egg Moon of the Dakotas.May is the Planting Moon. What! You did not know that the copper-colored people planted anything? Oh, yes, they do! Remember our maize, or Indian corn, is one great gift from them.June has the prettiest name. Bright, beautiful June that we all love. It is the Strawberry Moon. The[41]luscious wild strawberries are more delicate in flavor than any grown in the gardens. The wild Indian has many dainties.July, our red-white-and-blue month, is their Moon of Red Lilies. Has it ever been your good fortune to see a vast tract of land covered with these gorgeous wild tiger-lilies? O Moon of Red Lilies, how beautiful you make our western prairies! In this same moon the wild cherry is ripe, and many tribes know it as the Cherry Moon.August is the Ripe Moon. Have you ever heard of the Harvest Moon? Is not that nearly the same name? Seeds from thistle and the milkweed are filling the air with their downy carriers. Wild grasses and grains are ready for the gatherers, and the maize will shortly be ready for the harvest.While at Lake Superior, some time ago, we saw Chippewa Indians in their birch-bark canoes, anchored in what seemed to be a very reedy bay. We found out that the bay was filled with wild rice instead of reeds and rushes. It was the time of their wild-rice gathering. Two moons are given names referring to wild rice: September is the Ripe-rice Moon; October is often called the Harvest Moon. With plenty of maize and wild rice the winter is not dreaded. The Indian puts away his winter stores with much the same care that his white brother uses; he stores corn in pits[42]that he digs in the earth. He could learn this from the squirrel.November is the Moon of Michabo, or Indian Summer. Michabo is another name for Menabozho, the Chippewa Indian’s manitou friend; he has given them this second summer of the year, they believe.December is the Moon of Dropping Horns. The deer lose their long antlers about this time, and the Indians can find them in the forests where the deer trails are.The Indians have twelve moons in their year, the same number that we have in our calendar.[43]Mokis ready for a Sacred DanceMokis ready for a Sacred DanceFrom a Photograph[44]
T
he moon goes through its changes from new moon to new moon in twenty-eight days. The Indians reckon their time of year by these changes in the Night Sun, as they call the moon.
Tribes living in different parts of America have various names for the months, which they call Moons. They all keep their calendar hung in the sky, and it is never lost for any length of time. They have given these moons names after what interests them most.
One nation has named them in the following way. The month in our calendar is also given, so that you can easily guess the Indian’s reason for his name for the month.
JanuaryThe Cold Moon.FebruaryThe Snow Moon.MarchThe Green Moon.AprilThe Moon of Plants.MayThe Moon of Flowers.JuneThe Hot Moon.[40]JulyThe Moon of the Deer.AugustThe Sturgeon Moon.SeptemberThe Fruit Moon.OctoberThe Traveling Moon.NovemberThe Beaver Moon.DecemberThe Hunting Moon.
If you were spending the year among the Sioux or Dakotas, little Winona might tell you that January is the Hard Moon.
February is when the braves and the boys take their dogs and hunt the raccoon; hence, they call it the ’Coon Moon.
The Sioux have lived for a long time in the north. They know the effect of the bright sunshine of March when it shines upon the snowdrifts. It is called the Moon of Snow-blindness.
April is the Egg Moon. It is the moon when the wild geese lay their eggs, and the Indians gather them for food. The next time you watch the dark triangle of wild geese flying northward, you can say it is near the time of the Egg Moon of the Dakotas.
May is the Planting Moon. What! You did not know that the copper-colored people planted anything? Oh, yes, they do! Remember our maize, or Indian corn, is one great gift from them.
June has the prettiest name. Bright, beautiful June that we all love. It is the Strawberry Moon. The[41]luscious wild strawberries are more delicate in flavor than any grown in the gardens. The wild Indian has many dainties.
July, our red-white-and-blue month, is their Moon of Red Lilies. Has it ever been your good fortune to see a vast tract of land covered with these gorgeous wild tiger-lilies? O Moon of Red Lilies, how beautiful you make our western prairies! In this same moon the wild cherry is ripe, and many tribes know it as the Cherry Moon.
August is the Ripe Moon. Have you ever heard of the Harvest Moon? Is not that nearly the same name? Seeds from thistle and the milkweed are filling the air with their downy carriers. Wild grasses and grains are ready for the gatherers, and the maize will shortly be ready for the harvest.
While at Lake Superior, some time ago, we saw Chippewa Indians in their birch-bark canoes, anchored in what seemed to be a very reedy bay. We found out that the bay was filled with wild rice instead of reeds and rushes. It was the time of their wild-rice gathering. Two moons are given names referring to wild rice: September is the Ripe-rice Moon; October is often called the Harvest Moon. With plenty of maize and wild rice the winter is not dreaded. The Indian puts away his winter stores with much the same care that his white brother uses; he stores corn in pits[42]that he digs in the earth. He could learn this from the squirrel.
November is the Moon of Michabo, or Indian Summer. Michabo is another name for Menabozho, the Chippewa Indian’s manitou friend; he has given them this second summer of the year, they believe.
December is the Moon of Dropping Horns. The deer lose their long antlers about this time, and the Indians can find them in the forests where the deer trails are.
The Indians have twelve moons in their year, the same number that we have in our calendar.[43]
Mokis ready for a Sacred DanceMokis ready for a Sacred DanceFrom a Photograph
Mokis ready for a Sacred Dance
From a Photograph
[44]
[Contents]CUSTOMS OF KICKAPOO, SEMINOLE, AND OTHER TRIBESCUSTOMS OF KICKAPOO, SEMINOLE, AND OTHER TRIBESThe Kickapoo Indians first lived in what is now Illinois. Their present home is in the Indian Territory. One of their peculiar customs is that they have a tribe whipper who makes his weekly rounds with his whip to punish children, and in this way the parents save themselves from the pain of inflicting punishment upon their children. Indians dislike rudeness or noisy behavior when there should be quiet. Fire-water, as they call whiskey, makes them forget the manners their parents taught them.Many of the Seminole Indians live in the Everglades of Florida. They are a tall, dignified, intelligent race, and resent the visits of white people unless it is shown that the visitor is a friend, for they have been driven to these Everglades by reason of conquering whites. They live in roofed huts and cultivate several kinds of crops. They once owned rich lands in upper Florida and Alabama. Their language is said to be very musical.[45]The Cherokee and Natchez tribes once lived in Mississippi and Louisiana. They were very wise in war and had many things which they manufactured in times of peace. They carved curious shell ornaments, which are often found in southern mounds.The Flathead Indians of the west bind a piece of stiff board upon the forehead of their papooses. The child’s head flattens as it grows, and he carries his race mark through life.The Blackfoot Indians were so called because during a retreat the burnt prairie grass stained their moccasins as black as the blackest cayuse or pony.The term Digger Indians has been given to various tribes conquered and driven from their fishing and hunting grounds. They live almost wholly upon roots of weeds or the few insects and small animals found in the plains of eastern Utah and the surrounding country. The stronger tribes will not let them fish in lake or stream, and their whole life is miserable.The Indians of California were originally very brave and warlike, but the remnants of the tribes are broken in spirit and seem broken-hearted. Those which have drifted or have been driven by whites and red men into the peninsula of southern California are much like the Diggers.The different tribes and nations scattered over America seemed to have known much about metals,[46]although they used stone arrow points and stone axes when the first explorers visited their homes.The copper mines of Lake Superior show yet where the Indians have mined in them. Gold and silver ornaments were used in many tribes to decorate the braves and their squaws. Shells were carved with sharp tools and used as ornaments, or cut small into wampum.Arrowheads were of flint or jasper and were made by the arrow makers of the tribe. It is said each nation had its own shape of arrowhead. Some preferred very small points; some chose the larger ones.The early races of white people in all ancient lands used stone for many purposes. This first period has been called the Stone Age; this was followed by the Copper Age; then came the Iron Age. The Indians do not seem to have used iron before white men came, and were living in what history would call the Stone Age.[47]
CUSTOMS OF KICKAPOO, SEMINOLE, AND OTHER TRIBESCUSTOMS OF KICKAPOO, SEMINOLE, AND OTHER TRIBES
CUSTOMS OF KICKAPOO, SEMINOLE, AND OTHER TRIBES
The Kickapoo Indians first lived in what is now Illinois. Their present home is in the Indian Territory. One of their peculiar customs is that they have a tribe whipper who makes his weekly rounds with his whip to punish children, and in this way the parents save themselves from the pain of inflicting punishment upon their children. Indians dislike rudeness or noisy behavior when there should be quiet. Fire-water, as they call whiskey, makes them forget the manners their parents taught them.Many of the Seminole Indians live in the Everglades of Florida. They are a tall, dignified, intelligent race, and resent the visits of white people unless it is shown that the visitor is a friend, for they have been driven to these Everglades by reason of conquering whites. They live in roofed huts and cultivate several kinds of crops. They once owned rich lands in upper Florida and Alabama. Their language is said to be very musical.[45]The Cherokee and Natchez tribes once lived in Mississippi and Louisiana. They were very wise in war and had many things which they manufactured in times of peace. They carved curious shell ornaments, which are often found in southern mounds.The Flathead Indians of the west bind a piece of stiff board upon the forehead of their papooses. The child’s head flattens as it grows, and he carries his race mark through life.The Blackfoot Indians were so called because during a retreat the burnt prairie grass stained their moccasins as black as the blackest cayuse or pony.The term Digger Indians has been given to various tribes conquered and driven from their fishing and hunting grounds. They live almost wholly upon roots of weeds or the few insects and small animals found in the plains of eastern Utah and the surrounding country. The stronger tribes will not let them fish in lake or stream, and their whole life is miserable.The Indians of California were originally very brave and warlike, but the remnants of the tribes are broken in spirit and seem broken-hearted. Those which have drifted or have been driven by whites and red men into the peninsula of southern California are much like the Diggers.The different tribes and nations scattered over America seemed to have known much about metals,[46]although they used stone arrow points and stone axes when the first explorers visited their homes.The copper mines of Lake Superior show yet where the Indians have mined in them. Gold and silver ornaments were used in many tribes to decorate the braves and their squaws. Shells were carved with sharp tools and used as ornaments, or cut small into wampum.Arrowheads were of flint or jasper and were made by the arrow makers of the tribe. It is said each nation had its own shape of arrowhead. Some preferred very small points; some chose the larger ones.The early races of white people in all ancient lands used stone for many purposes. This first period has been called the Stone Age; this was followed by the Copper Age; then came the Iron Age. The Indians do not seem to have used iron before white men came, and were living in what history would call the Stone Age.[47]
The Kickapoo Indians first lived in what is now Illinois. Their present home is in the Indian Territory. One of their peculiar customs is that they have a tribe whipper who makes his weekly rounds with his whip to punish children, and in this way the parents save themselves from the pain of inflicting punishment upon their children. Indians dislike rudeness or noisy behavior when there should be quiet. Fire-water, as they call whiskey, makes them forget the manners their parents taught them.
Many of the Seminole Indians live in the Everglades of Florida. They are a tall, dignified, intelligent race, and resent the visits of white people unless it is shown that the visitor is a friend, for they have been driven to these Everglades by reason of conquering whites. They live in roofed huts and cultivate several kinds of crops. They once owned rich lands in upper Florida and Alabama. Their language is said to be very musical.[45]
The Cherokee and Natchez tribes once lived in Mississippi and Louisiana. They were very wise in war and had many things which they manufactured in times of peace. They carved curious shell ornaments, which are often found in southern mounds.
The Flathead Indians of the west bind a piece of stiff board upon the forehead of their papooses. The child’s head flattens as it grows, and he carries his race mark through life.
The Blackfoot Indians were so called because during a retreat the burnt prairie grass stained their moccasins as black as the blackest cayuse or pony.
The term Digger Indians has been given to various tribes conquered and driven from their fishing and hunting grounds. They live almost wholly upon roots of weeds or the few insects and small animals found in the plains of eastern Utah and the surrounding country. The stronger tribes will not let them fish in lake or stream, and their whole life is miserable.
The Indians of California were originally very brave and warlike, but the remnants of the tribes are broken in spirit and seem broken-hearted. Those which have drifted or have been driven by whites and red men into the peninsula of southern California are much like the Diggers.
The different tribes and nations scattered over America seemed to have known much about metals,[46]although they used stone arrow points and stone axes when the first explorers visited their homes.
The copper mines of Lake Superior show yet where the Indians have mined in them. Gold and silver ornaments were used in many tribes to decorate the braves and their squaws. Shells were carved with sharp tools and used as ornaments, or cut small into wampum.
Arrowheads were of flint or jasper and were made by the arrow makers of the tribe. It is said each nation had its own shape of arrowhead. Some preferred very small points; some chose the larger ones.
The early races of white people in all ancient lands used stone for many purposes. This first period has been called the Stone Age; this was followed by the Copper Age; then came the Iron Age. The Indians do not seem to have used iron before white men came, and were living in what history would call the Stone Age.[47]
[Contents]THE INDIANS WHO LIVE IN BRICK HOUSESTHE INDIANS WHO LIVE IN BRICK HOUSESThe native Indians of the southwestern part of the United States were much more civilized when discovered than the wandering tribes in other parts of the country. They have built adobe houses for many centuries. These houses of mud, brick, and hewn timbers cannot be removed like the wigwams, teepees, or wickiups of the other tribes. The Spaniards named these Indians Pueblos, forpueblois the Spanish word for village. There are twenty-seven Pueblo towns.The Pueblos are a peaceful people. They have had time to invent things that astonish the white men who have seen only the Indians of the wandering tribes.The pueblo of Zuñi is in New Mexico, about two hundred miles southeast of Santa Fé. This Indian town was sought for by Coronado and his Spanish soldiers. They had heard marvelous stories of the silver, gold, and jewels owned by the red people living north of Mexico; but the Pueblos were brave as well as wise, and the history of that Spanish expedition is sad reading.The town of Zuñi is built upon a hill, about forty feet above the bank of the river Zuñi; it covers about[48]fifteen acres. The town is like a great beehive, for the houses are merely rooms built one over the other, each family living in a few small rooms which are reached by means of ladders. Some houses are only two stories high, while others are fully five stories. The wealthier Indians live in the lower houses, except the official whose duty it is to give the orders of the governor from the housetop. He lives with his family in rooms near the roof. These Zuñi houses are built around two plazas, or squares, with several streets and covered ways to connect them with the other parts of the town. The mesa called Thunder Mountain, upon which similar homes were built by them in ancient times, is very near their peaceful village.Cliff-dwellings have been found that are entirely deserted, built by a very ancient people of whom we know little. Curious relics of dishes, cloth, and ornaments are found in these cliff-dwellings, but no one knows how many centuries since the empty houses were filled with living people, and no one knows why they were deserted. Some have thought the Zuñis are the descendants of this lost race; others think them to be like the mound-builders.The Zuñi Indians weave handsome wool blankets in handmade looms. They invented these looms themselves. They sell or trade these blankets to Indians of many other tribes.[49]Three-storied Pueblo Houses in OraibiThree-storied Pueblo Houses in OraibiFrom a Photograph[50]The Zuñi and other Pueblos make very good dishes of red clay. Their common cooking ware is much like the dishes seen in wigwams. They make handsome pitchers, vases, and table dishes of a brown color. They understand the working and coloring of clay, and the value of the different kinds. They make a common black ware, which is sometimes used instead of the red ware.Their very best work is of a cream-white color, and the vases and dishes are handsomely decorated with colored borders and pictures. Many travelers have brought home fine specimens of Zuñi dishes, for their town is not far from the railroad.The Navajos live near the Zuñis. Their hogans, or homes, are not so well made as the Zuñis’ adobe houses; they are low adobe huts. The Navajos find time and have the skill to do some very good work in metals, although their tools are rude. They make some use of iron, but their best work is shown in the making and carving of ornaments and other articles of silver. They also have invented hand looms and are blanket weavers.All the Pueblos make handsome water-tight baskets of elegant shape from the fibers of the yucca plant. This plant, sometimes called the Spanish bayonet, from its sharp-pointed leaves, grows to a great size on the plains. The Pueblos color the fibers in some manner[51]and weave handsome borders of black, white, or yellow into their baskets. These are used for flour or meal holders, or for holding water, and are called ollas.They grind their maize or other grain by hand between stones. They raise turkeys, and, as they are good weavers, they sometimes use the turkey feathers in weaving a downy cloth.The Apaches live near the Pueblos and are well known for their love of the warpath. They are not Village Indians, yet are noted for their fine basket weaving. They use the willows found in their country instead of the yucca fibers.The different tribes of Pueblos often use stone axes. It is believed that these are not made by them but were found in the deserted cliff-dwellers’ homes.These Village Indians make use of a plant called soaproot, the root of which will make water foam and will cleanse one’s skin the same as the white man’s soap. The Indian who lives in a teepee does not know the use of soap and is not anxious for a bath.White people have lived for years among the Zuñi and other Pueblos and have found them patient, kind, and intelligent. Some of these whites have returned and have written books about the people of whose home life they have learned so much.Some of the habits of the Navajos are very odd. After the death of one of their tribe, his house, or[52]hogan, is pulled down; if this is not done, every one who enters it fears danger.A Navajo will not look into the face of the mother of his wife; when they talk together he looks on the ground or in another direction. It is said a Navajo once forgot himself and, looking up, became blind. They believe that the souls of the women of their tribe enter fish when they leave this world; and they rarely eat fish for that reason. Indian customs and manners are taught to their children with just as much earnestness as white people teach their little ones.All the Pueblos make curious images or dolls of clay. These may possibly be idols, but are not always, for both old and young sometimes play with them as toys. They are a religious people. They believe in a Great Spirit and in a future life. Their forms of worship are very strange and sometimes cruel.The tribes called Pueblos of New Mexico are not included with those which continue to live in the twenty-seven Pueblo towns, for whatever may have been their customs in past centuries, they are now very different from the Village Indians, who still live and worship after the manner of their ancestors.[53]Moki Maiden in Native CostumeMoki Maiden in Native CostumeFrom a Photograph[54]
THE INDIANS WHO LIVE IN BRICK HOUSESTHE INDIANS WHO LIVE IN BRICK HOUSES
THE INDIANS WHO LIVE IN BRICK HOUSES
The native Indians of the southwestern part of the United States were much more civilized when discovered than the wandering tribes in other parts of the country. They have built adobe houses for many centuries. These houses of mud, brick, and hewn timbers cannot be removed like the wigwams, teepees, or wickiups of the other tribes. The Spaniards named these Indians Pueblos, forpueblois the Spanish word for village. There are twenty-seven Pueblo towns.The Pueblos are a peaceful people. They have had time to invent things that astonish the white men who have seen only the Indians of the wandering tribes.The pueblo of Zuñi is in New Mexico, about two hundred miles southeast of Santa Fé. This Indian town was sought for by Coronado and his Spanish soldiers. They had heard marvelous stories of the silver, gold, and jewels owned by the red people living north of Mexico; but the Pueblos were brave as well as wise, and the history of that Spanish expedition is sad reading.The town of Zuñi is built upon a hill, about forty feet above the bank of the river Zuñi; it covers about[48]fifteen acres. The town is like a great beehive, for the houses are merely rooms built one over the other, each family living in a few small rooms which are reached by means of ladders. Some houses are only two stories high, while others are fully five stories. The wealthier Indians live in the lower houses, except the official whose duty it is to give the orders of the governor from the housetop. He lives with his family in rooms near the roof. These Zuñi houses are built around two plazas, or squares, with several streets and covered ways to connect them with the other parts of the town. The mesa called Thunder Mountain, upon which similar homes were built by them in ancient times, is very near their peaceful village.Cliff-dwellings have been found that are entirely deserted, built by a very ancient people of whom we know little. Curious relics of dishes, cloth, and ornaments are found in these cliff-dwellings, but no one knows how many centuries since the empty houses were filled with living people, and no one knows why they were deserted. Some have thought the Zuñis are the descendants of this lost race; others think them to be like the mound-builders.The Zuñi Indians weave handsome wool blankets in handmade looms. They invented these looms themselves. They sell or trade these blankets to Indians of many other tribes.[49]Three-storied Pueblo Houses in OraibiThree-storied Pueblo Houses in OraibiFrom a Photograph[50]The Zuñi and other Pueblos make very good dishes of red clay. Their common cooking ware is much like the dishes seen in wigwams. They make handsome pitchers, vases, and table dishes of a brown color. They understand the working and coloring of clay, and the value of the different kinds. They make a common black ware, which is sometimes used instead of the red ware.Their very best work is of a cream-white color, and the vases and dishes are handsomely decorated with colored borders and pictures. Many travelers have brought home fine specimens of Zuñi dishes, for their town is not far from the railroad.The Navajos live near the Zuñis. Their hogans, or homes, are not so well made as the Zuñis’ adobe houses; they are low adobe huts. The Navajos find time and have the skill to do some very good work in metals, although their tools are rude. They make some use of iron, but their best work is shown in the making and carving of ornaments and other articles of silver. They also have invented hand looms and are blanket weavers.All the Pueblos make handsome water-tight baskets of elegant shape from the fibers of the yucca plant. This plant, sometimes called the Spanish bayonet, from its sharp-pointed leaves, grows to a great size on the plains. The Pueblos color the fibers in some manner[51]and weave handsome borders of black, white, or yellow into their baskets. These are used for flour or meal holders, or for holding water, and are called ollas.They grind their maize or other grain by hand between stones. They raise turkeys, and, as they are good weavers, they sometimes use the turkey feathers in weaving a downy cloth.The Apaches live near the Pueblos and are well known for their love of the warpath. They are not Village Indians, yet are noted for their fine basket weaving. They use the willows found in their country instead of the yucca fibers.The different tribes of Pueblos often use stone axes. It is believed that these are not made by them but were found in the deserted cliff-dwellers’ homes.These Village Indians make use of a plant called soaproot, the root of which will make water foam and will cleanse one’s skin the same as the white man’s soap. The Indian who lives in a teepee does not know the use of soap and is not anxious for a bath.White people have lived for years among the Zuñi and other Pueblos and have found them patient, kind, and intelligent. Some of these whites have returned and have written books about the people of whose home life they have learned so much.Some of the habits of the Navajos are very odd. After the death of one of their tribe, his house, or[52]hogan, is pulled down; if this is not done, every one who enters it fears danger.A Navajo will not look into the face of the mother of his wife; when they talk together he looks on the ground or in another direction. It is said a Navajo once forgot himself and, looking up, became blind. They believe that the souls of the women of their tribe enter fish when they leave this world; and they rarely eat fish for that reason. Indian customs and manners are taught to their children with just as much earnestness as white people teach their little ones.All the Pueblos make curious images or dolls of clay. These may possibly be idols, but are not always, for both old and young sometimes play with them as toys. They are a religious people. They believe in a Great Spirit and in a future life. Their forms of worship are very strange and sometimes cruel.The tribes called Pueblos of New Mexico are not included with those which continue to live in the twenty-seven Pueblo towns, for whatever may have been their customs in past centuries, they are now very different from the Village Indians, who still live and worship after the manner of their ancestors.[53]Moki Maiden in Native CostumeMoki Maiden in Native CostumeFrom a Photograph[54]
The native Indians of the southwestern part of the United States were much more civilized when discovered than the wandering tribes in other parts of the country. They have built adobe houses for many centuries. These houses of mud, brick, and hewn timbers cannot be removed like the wigwams, teepees, or wickiups of the other tribes. The Spaniards named these Indians Pueblos, forpueblois the Spanish word for village. There are twenty-seven Pueblo towns.
The Pueblos are a peaceful people. They have had time to invent things that astonish the white men who have seen only the Indians of the wandering tribes.
The pueblo of Zuñi is in New Mexico, about two hundred miles southeast of Santa Fé. This Indian town was sought for by Coronado and his Spanish soldiers. They had heard marvelous stories of the silver, gold, and jewels owned by the red people living north of Mexico; but the Pueblos were brave as well as wise, and the history of that Spanish expedition is sad reading.
The town of Zuñi is built upon a hill, about forty feet above the bank of the river Zuñi; it covers about[48]fifteen acres. The town is like a great beehive, for the houses are merely rooms built one over the other, each family living in a few small rooms which are reached by means of ladders. Some houses are only two stories high, while others are fully five stories. The wealthier Indians live in the lower houses, except the official whose duty it is to give the orders of the governor from the housetop. He lives with his family in rooms near the roof. These Zuñi houses are built around two plazas, or squares, with several streets and covered ways to connect them with the other parts of the town. The mesa called Thunder Mountain, upon which similar homes were built by them in ancient times, is very near their peaceful village.
Cliff-dwellings have been found that are entirely deserted, built by a very ancient people of whom we know little. Curious relics of dishes, cloth, and ornaments are found in these cliff-dwellings, but no one knows how many centuries since the empty houses were filled with living people, and no one knows why they were deserted. Some have thought the Zuñis are the descendants of this lost race; others think them to be like the mound-builders.
The Zuñi Indians weave handsome wool blankets in handmade looms. They invented these looms themselves. They sell or trade these blankets to Indians of many other tribes.[49]
Three-storied Pueblo Houses in OraibiThree-storied Pueblo Houses in OraibiFrom a Photograph
Three-storied Pueblo Houses in Oraibi
From a Photograph
[50]
The Zuñi and other Pueblos make very good dishes of red clay. Their common cooking ware is much like the dishes seen in wigwams. They make handsome pitchers, vases, and table dishes of a brown color. They understand the working and coloring of clay, and the value of the different kinds. They make a common black ware, which is sometimes used instead of the red ware.
Their very best work is of a cream-white color, and the vases and dishes are handsomely decorated with colored borders and pictures. Many travelers have brought home fine specimens of Zuñi dishes, for their town is not far from the railroad.
The Navajos live near the Zuñis. Their hogans, or homes, are not so well made as the Zuñis’ adobe houses; they are low adobe huts. The Navajos find time and have the skill to do some very good work in metals, although their tools are rude. They make some use of iron, but their best work is shown in the making and carving of ornaments and other articles of silver. They also have invented hand looms and are blanket weavers.
All the Pueblos make handsome water-tight baskets of elegant shape from the fibers of the yucca plant. This plant, sometimes called the Spanish bayonet, from its sharp-pointed leaves, grows to a great size on the plains. The Pueblos color the fibers in some manner[51]and weave handsome borders of black, white, or yellow into their baskets. These are used for flour or meal holders, or for holding water, and are called ollas.
They grind their maize or other grain by hand between stones. They raise turkeys, and, as they are good weavers, they sometimes use the turkey feathers in weaving a downy cloth.
The Apaches live near the Pueblos and are well known for their love of the warpath. They are not Village Indians, yet are noted for their fine basket weaving. They use the willows found in their country instead of the yucca fibers.
The different tribes of Pueblos often use stone axes. It is believed that these are not made by them but were found in the deserted cliff-dwellers’ homes.
These Village Indians make use of a plant called soaproot, the root of which will make water foam and will cleanse one’s skin the same as the white man’s soap. The Indian who lives in a teepee does not know the use of soap and is not anxious for a bath.
White people have lived for years among the Zuñi and other Pueblos and have found them patient, kind, and intelligent. Some of these whites have returned and have written books about the people of whose home life they have learned so much.
Some of the habits of the Navajos are very odd. After the death of one of their tribe, his house, or[52]hogan, is pulled down; if this is not done, every one who enters it fears danger.
A Navajo will not look into the face of the mother of his wife; when they talk together he looks on the ground or in another direction. It is said a Navajo once forgot himself and, looking up, became blind. They believe that the souls of the women of their tribe enter fish when they leave this world; and they rarely eat fish for that reason. Indian customs and manners are taught to their children with just as much earnestness as white people teach their little ones.
All the Pueblos make curious images or dolls of clay. These may possibly be idols, but are not always, for both old and young sometimes play with them as toys. They are a religious people. They believe in a Great Spirit and in a future life. Their forms of worship are very strange and sometimes cruel.
The tribes called Pueblos of New Mexico are not included with those which continue to live in the twenty-seven Pueblo towns, for whatever may have been their customs in past centuries, they are now very different from the Village Indians, who still live and worship after the manner of their ancestors.[53]
Moki Maiden in Native CostumeMoki Maiden in Native CostumeFrom a Photograph
Moki Maiden in Native Costume
From a Photograph
[54]
[Contents]THE MOKI INDIANSThe Moki Indians live in pueblos the same as the Zuñi people. Their name is also spelled Moqui and Hopi. The Moki pueblo of Walpi is in Arizona. It is at the end of a mesa or plateau which rises abruptly seven hundred feet above the desert. It is here that the great snake dance is held each alternate autumn.The Moki weave blankets and cloth for dresses, which they exchange with other Pueblos for ponies, turquoise beads, and silver ornaments for neck or hair.The Moki maidens, like those of a few other tribes, do not leave their straight black hair hanging down their backs. These maidens put up their locks in huge puffs over each ear. These puffs are to represent squash blossoms. The married women braid their hair and sometimes fasten it in a knot at the back of the head.All the water used in this elevated pueblo is carried up the seven hundred feet in clay ollas by the women. It is like a scene in Asia to see them gathered at evening about the springs at the foot of the mesa.[55]The Mokis are a very devout people, and their young men are taught daily in the kivas, or secret rooms, by the wise old men all the sacred rites and wisdom of their fathers.Interior of Kiva with Sacred AltarInterior of Kiva with Sacred AltarAmong the Mokis the kiva, orestufa, as the Spanish call it, is underground; among the Zuñis it is above the ground, but entered at the top by a ladder. In it is a sacred flat altar, usually surrounded by prayer-sticks called bahos. These sticks have a feather fastened at the top, to show that prayer rises.These bahos are always planted two or three times a year by the water ways, to do reverence to the water god who shows himself in the lightning. They believe[56]a serpent is the form lightning takes when on earth; hence the pictures of these on the prayer-sticks, and sometimes on the sides of rocks.There is an order of nuns among the Pueblos called Ko-Ko. These go to the springs in the early morning and place the bahos in the banks, so that rain may come on the corn, beans, and pumpkins which have been planted. No one dares to remove one baho.The Moki Indians have stories of Coronado’s people, who battled with them in 1540.[57]
THE MOKI INDIANS
The Moki Indians live in pueblos the same as the Zuñi people. Their name is also spelled Moqui and Hopi. The Moki pueblo of Walpi is in Arizona. It is at the end of a mesa or plateau which rises abruptly seven hundred feet above the desert. It is here that the great snake dance is held each alternate autumn.The Moki weave blankets and cloth for dresses, which they exchange with other Pueblos for ponies, turquoise beads, and silver ornaments for neck or hair.The Moki maidens, like those of a few other tribes, do not leave their straight black hair hanging down their backs. These maidens put up their locks in huge puffs over each ear. These puffs are to represent squash blossoms. The married women braid their hair and sometimes fasten it in a knot at the back of the head.All the water used in this elevated pueblo is carried up the seven hundred feet in clay ollas by the women. It is like a scene in Asia to see them gathered at evening about the springs at the foot of the mesa.[55]The Mokis are a very devout people, and their young men are taught daily in the kivas, or secret rooms, by the wise old men all the sacred rites and wisdom of their fathers.Interior of Kiva with Sacred AltarInterior of Kiva with Sacred AltarAmong the Mokis the kiva, orestufa, as the Spanish call it, is underground; among the Zuñis it is above the ground, but entered at the top by a ladder. In it is a sacred flat altar, usually surrounded by prayer-sticks called bahos. These sticks have a feather fastened at the top, to show that prayer rises.These bahos are always planted two or three times a year by the water ways, to do reverence to the water god who shows himself in the lightning. They believe[56]a serpent is the form lightning takes when on earth; hence the pictures of these on the prayer-sticks, and sometimes on the sides of rocks.There is an order of nuns among the Pueblos called Ko-Ko. These go to the springs in the early morning and place the bahos in the banks, so that rain may come on the corn, beans, and pumpkins which have been planted. No one dares to remove one baho.The Moki Indians have stories of Coronado’s people, who battled with them in 1540.[57]
The Moki Indians live in pueblos the same as the Zuñi people. Their name is also spelled Moqui and Hopi. The Moki pueblo of Walpi is in Arizona. It is at the end of a mesa or plateau which rises abruptly seven hundred feet above the desert. It is here that the great snake dance is held each alternate autumn.
The Moki weave blankets and cloth for dresses, which they exchange with other Pueblos for ponies, turquoise beads, and silver ornaments for neck or hair.
The Moki maidens, like those of a few other tribes, do not leave their straight black hair hanging down their backs. These maidens put up their locks in huge puffs over each ear. These puffs are to represent squash blossoms. The married women braid their hair and sometimes fasten it in a knot at the back of the head.
All the water used in this elevated pueblo is carried up the seven hundred feet in clay ollas by the women. It is like a scene in Asia to see them gathered at evening about the springs at the foot of the mesa.[55]
The Mokis are a very devout people, and their young men are taught daily in the kivas, or secret rooms, by the wise old men all the sacred rites and wisdom of their fathers.
Interior of Kiva with Sacred AltarInterior of Kiva with Sacred Altar
Interior of Kiva with Sacred Altar
Among the Mokis the kiva, orestufa, as the Spanish call it, is underground; among the Zuñis it is above the ground, but entered at the top by a ladder. In it is a sacred flat altar, usually surrounded by prayer-sticks called bahos. These sticks have a feather fastened at the top, to show that prayer rises.
These bahos are always planted two or three times a year by the water ways, to do reverence to the water god who shows himself in the lightning. They believe[56]a serpent is the form lightning takes when on earth; hence the pictures of these on the prayer-sticks, and sometimes on the sides of rocks.
There is an order of nuns among the Pueblos called Ko-Ko. These go to the springs in the early morning and place the bahos in the banks, so that rain may come on the corn, beans, and pumpkins which have been planted. No one dares to remove one baho.
The Moki Indians have stories of Coronado’s people, who battled with them in 1540.[57]
[Contents]DAKOTA OR SIOUXDAKOTA OR SIOUXThe name the French gave the fierce, strong Dakotas is Sioux, which is the way they pronounced the name given them by their Algonquin neighbors. This has become the name of the people, and Dakota is the language which they speak.They are divided into many bands, each with a chief for a leader. His friends and relatives move their teepees wherever this chief thinks best on the land the Great Father in Washington has reserved for them.They are very brave and have many wise men among them. The chiefs of the bands are always ready to follow what the head chief of the nation commands. The head chief has learned that the Great Father in Washington has more warriors than he, and so the Sioux are not sent on the warpath any more.The buffalo and antelope are gone from the prairie. There is not meat enough in the woods, and the warlike Sioux has now to come to the Indian agency to get his rations. It is a fine sight to see the teepees of the bands when they have gathered at the agency. Even[58]here they show their respect to the head chief and his followers, for his teepees are placed in the center of the camp. The greatest chief comes next, and so on, till the weakest band places its teepees last.The Sioux who have been long in the south do not speak like their northern relatives. For example, they say Lakota instead of Dakota. The northern bands laugh at their southern brothers, and think they have been trying to become different. Many Sioux boys and girls are in the schools at the agencies learning to write and to read in English. They are very quick to learn and can draw very well.The Sioux women make such beautiful beadwork that a white woman thought it wise to teach them to make lace of the choicest kind. The young squaws and some of the Indian boys have learned to make this rare point lace with care and wonderful neatness. They cannot use it; but the money they get for it buys food and clothes for them and their relatives.[59]
DAKOTA OR SIOUXDAKOTA OR SIOUX
DAKOTA OR SIOUX
The name the French gave the fierce, strong Dakotas is Sioux, which is the way they pronounced the name given them by their Algonquin neighbors. This has become the name of the people, and Dakota is the language which they speak.They are divided into many bands, each with a chief for a leader. His friends and relatives move their teepees wherever this chief thinks best on the land the Great Father in Washington has reserved for them.They are very brave and have many wise men among them. The chiefs of the bands are always ready to follow what the head chief of the nation commands. The head chief has learned that the Great Father in Washington has more warriors than he, and so the Sioux are not sent on the warpath any more.The buffalo and antelope are gone from the prairie. There is not meat enough in the woods, and the warlike Sioux has now to come to the Indian agency to get his rations. It is a fine sight to see the teepees of the bands when they have gathered at the agency. Even[58]here they show their respect to the head chief and his followers, for his teepees are placed in the center of the camp. The greatest chief comes next, and so on, till the weakest band places its teepees last.The Sioux who have been long in the south do not speak like their northern relatives. For example, they say Lakota instead of Dakota. The northern bands laugh at their southern brothers, and think they have been trying to become different. Many Sioux boys and girls are in the schools at the agencies learning to write and to read in English. They are very quick to learn and can draw very well.The Sioux women make such beautiful beadwork that a white woman thought it wise to teach them to make lace of the choicest kind. The young squaws and some of the Indian boys have learned to make this rare point lace with care and wonderful neatness. They cannot use it; but the money they get for it buys food and clothes for them and their relatives.[59]
The name the French gave the fierce, strong Dakotas is Sioux, which is the way they pronounced the name given them by their Algonquin neighbors. This has become the name of the people, and Dakota is the language which they speak.
They are divided into many bands, each with a chief for a leader. His friends and relatives move their teepees wherever this chief thinks best on the land the Great Father in Washington has reserved for them.
They are very brave and have many wise men among them. The chiefs of the bands are always ready to follow what the head chief of the nation commands. The head chief has learned that the Great Father in Washington has more warriors than he, and so the Sioux are not sent on the warpath any more.
The buffalo and antelope are gone from the prairie. There is not meat enough in the woods, and the warlike Sioux has now to come to the Indian agency to get his rations. It is a fine sight to see the teepees of the bands when they have gathered at the agency. Even[58]here they show their respect to the head chief and his followers, for his teepees are placed in the center of the camp. The greatest chief comes next, and so on, till the weakest band places its teepees last.
The Sioux who have been long in the south do not speak like their northern relatives. For example, they say Lakota instead of Dakota. The northern bands laugh at their southern brothers, and think they have been trying to become different. Many Sioux boys and girls are in the schools at the agencies learning to write and to read in English. They are very quick to learn and can draw very well.
The Sioux women make such beautiful beadwork that a white woman thought it wise to teach them to make lace of the choicest kind. The young squaws and some of the Indian boys have learned to make this rare point lace with care and wonderful neatness. They cannot use it; but the money they get for it buys food and clothes for them and their relatives.[59]
[Contents]INDIAN GAMESThe Dakotas play their ball games in the hot moons of the summer and in the cold moons of the winter. The prairies give wide room for the games in summer, and the ice on the many lakes serves as winter ball grounds for them.Large spaces are needed, for there are many players. There is only one ball, but there are as many bats as players. The bats are about thirty inches long, with a loop at the lower end; this is laced across with deer sinew, to make a pocket in which the ball is caught and thrown.The center of the ball ground is chosen. Stakes are set many feet away from the center, on opposite sides, as the bounds for the game. Two parties of equal numbers are chosen. Each party chooses its own leader or chief.[60]The chief of one side drops his ball into the pocket of his bat and tosses it toward the center ground between the stakes. Both sides rush toward the place where the ball may fall, each brave hoping he may be the lucky one to catch it; whoever gets the ball tosses it with his bat into the air toward his side of the grounds. Then the screaming, howling mob of players tears across the field to the place where the ball may fall again. The ball is thrown and contended for until one side succeeds in throwing it beyond the bounds of the opposite party.The prizes for the winning side have hung all this time on the prize pole; and dangling in the air, waiting the finish of the game, are the knives, tomahawks, blankets, moccasins, fine buffalo and deerskin robes which the winners will divide among themselves. Indian girls play the same game and with nearly as much vigor and skill as their brothers.Always, at these games, the old men and squaws sit or stand at the outside of the ball ground, a mass of interested spectators.The ball game in some form, it seems, has been the national game on American soil since before American history began.The plum-stone game was and is yet played by the northern Indian tribes. The Dakotas call it kansookootaype, which simply means “shooting plum-stones.”[61]Each plum-stone is painted black on one side and red on the other side. The stones are also cut on one side to make them of different value according to the meaning of the marks cut.These black and red stones are put into a large shallow dish of clay or metal. The dish is struck against the nearest object with a sharp blow. The stones fall black or red side up, and the betting on the number of black or red stones makes the game.It is pure gambling. The prizes are valuable,—furs, clothing, food, everything goes in the excitement of the game. An Indian may be beggared in a minute.Father Hennepin describes the excitement of the game in hisDescriptions of Louisiana, published in Paris in 1683. This book is a description of his travels at that time in the valley of the Mississippi to the Falls of St. Anthony and beyond. Father Hennepin said:“There are some so given to the game that they will gamble away even their greatcoat. Those who conduct the game scream at the top of their voices when they rattle the platter; and they strike their shoulders so hard as to make themselves black and blue with the blow.”The Indian boys have their pony races and running matches. They play much like white boys, but with more cruelty.[62]
INDIAN GAMES
The Dakotas play their ball games in the hot moons of the summer and in the cold moons of the winter. The prairies give wide room for the games in summer, and the ice on the many lakes serves as winter ball grounds for them.Large spaces are needed, for there are many players. There is only one ball, but there are as many bats as players. The bats are about thirty inches long, with a loop at the lower end; this is laced across with deer sinew, to make a pocket in which the ball is caught and thrown.The center of the ball ground is chosen. Stakes are set many feet away from the center, on opposite sides, as the bounds for the game. Two parties of equal numbers are chosen. Each party chooses its own leader or chief.[60]The chief of one side drops his ball into the pocket of his bat and tosses it toward the center ground between the stakes. Both sides rush toward the place where the ball may fall, each brave hoping he may be the lucky one to catch it; whoever gets the ball tosses it with his bat into the air toward his side of the grounds. Then the screaming, howling mob of players tears across the field to the place where the ball may fall again. The ball is thrown and contended for until one side succeeds in throwing it beyond the bounds of the opposite party.The prizes for the winning side have hung all this time on the prize pole; and dangling in the air, waiting the finish of the game, are the knives, tomahawks, blankets, moccasins, fine buffalo and deerskin robes which the winners will divide among themselves. Indian girls play the same game and with nearly as much vigor and skill as their brothers.Always, at these games, the old men and squaws sit or stand at the outside of the ball ground, a mass of interested spectators.The ball game in some form, it seems, has been the national game on American soil since before American history began.The plum-stone game was and is yet played by the northern Indian tribes. The Dakotas call it kansookootaype, which simply means “shooting plum-stones.”[61]Each plum-stone is painted black on one side and red on the other side. The stones are also cut on one side to make them of different value according to the meaning of the marks cut.These black and red stones are put into a large shallow dish of clay or metal. The dish is struck against the nearest object with a sharp blow. The stones fall black or red side up, and the betting on the number of black or red stones makes the game.It is pure gambling. The prizes are valuable,—furs, clothing, food, everything goes in the excitement of the game. An Indian may be beggared in a minute.Father Hennepin describes the excitement of the game in hisDescriptions of Louisiana, published in Paris in 1683. This book is a description of his travels at that time in the valley of the Mississippi to the Falls of St. Anthony and beyond. Father Hennepin said:“There are some so given to the game that they will gamble away even their greatcoat. Those who conduct the game scream at the top of their voices when they rattle the platter; and they strike their shoulders so hard as to make themselves black and blue with the blow.”The Indian boys have their pony races and running matches. They play much like white boys, but with more cruelty.[62]
T
he Dakotas play their ball games in the hot moons of the summer and in the cold moons of the winter. The prairies give wide room for the games in summer, and the ice on the many lakes serves as winter ball grounds for them.
Large spaces are needed, for there are many players. There is only one ball, but there are as many bats as players. The bats are about thirty inches long, with a loop at the lower end; this is laced across with deer sinew, to make a pocket in which the ball is caught and thrown.
The center of the ball ground is chosen. Stakes are set many feet away from the center, on opposite sides, as the bounds for the game. Two parties of equal numbers are chosen. Each party chooses its own leader or chief.[60]
The chief of one side drops his ball into the pocket of his bat and tosses it toward the center ground between the stakes. Both sides rush toward the place where the ball may fall, each brave hoping he may be the lucky one to catch it; whoever gets the ball tosses it with his bat into the air toward his side of the grounds. Then the screaming, howling mob of players tears across the field to the place where the ball may fall again. The ball is thrown and contended for until one side succeeds in throwing it beyond the bounds of the opposite party.
The prizes for the winning side have hung all this time on the prize pole; and dangling in the air, waiting the finish of the game, are the knives, tomahawks, blankets, moccasins, fine buffalo and deerskin robes which the winners will divide among themselves. Indian girls play the same game and with nearly as much vigor and skill as their brothers.
Always, at these games, the old men and squaws sit or stand at the outside of the ball ground, a mass of interested spectators.
The ball game in some form, it seems, has been the national game on American soil since before American history began.
The plum-stone game was and is yet played by the northern Indian tribes. The Dakotas call it kansookootaype, which simply means “shooting plum-stones.”[61]Each plum-stone is painted black on one side and red on the other side. The stones are also cut on one side to make them of different value according to the meaning of the marks cut.
These black and red stones are put into a large shallow dish of clay or metal. The dish is struck against the nearest object with a sharp blow. The stones fall black or red side up, and the betting on the number of black or red stones makes the game.
It is pure gambling. The prizes are valuable,—furs, clothing, food, everything goes in the excitement of the game. An Indian may be beggared in a minute.
Father Hennepin describes the excitement of the game in hisDescriptions of Louisiana, published in Paris in 1683. This book is a description of his travels at that time in the valley of the Mississippi to the Falls of St. Anthony and beyond. Father Hennepin said:
“There are some so given to the game that they will gamble away even their greatcoat. Those who conduct the game scream at the top of their voices when they rattle the platter; and they strike their shoulders so hard as to make themselves black and blue with the blow.”
The Indian boys have their pony races and running matches. They play much like white boys, but with more cruelty.[62]
[Contents]SIOUX AND CHIPPEWAS OF MINNESOTAThe Iroquois drove the Chippewas, or Ojibways, from their hunting grounds and from fishing in many waters in central New York; as the bands increased and more needed food, many started westward, and Chippewa names of lakes and rivers mark their progress toward the Mississippi. They made a long halt at the Sault Ste. Marie, for many fish were in these waters, but there was no place to plant their corn. They built their wigwam fires farther westward each year, until they reached what is now northern Minnesota. Here they found the Dakotas, or Sioux, had possession of the beautiful lake region, which was so nearly like the country by the River of Islands in the east.The Chippewas had no wish to go back, and their warriors and chiefs were too brave to think that even the fierce western tribes could conquer them. They built their wigwams on islands and points of land projecting into the lake, for these made good places of[63]landing for their birch-bark canoes, and also gave them a better chance to watch for their enemies than in the thick forests of pine, birch, and cedar.Each band of Chippewas has yet many stories to tell of the terrible battles with the “nadoway-sioux,” as the French trappers and hunters call the Algonquin word which means “hidden enemies.” This warfare began years before the time of our war of the Revolution and did not end for nearly a century. The Chippewas fought for their new home very bravely, and the Sioux were just as brave in trying to hold what they believed to be the center of the world and nearest like the Happy Hunting Grounds of the future life. There is a very extensive view of the Mississippi at its junction with the Minnesota which is called by the Indians Mendota, or the “gathering of the waters.” The contending tribes fought fiercely to hold or to obtain this place, for here these red men, with their love for the beautiful in nature, had decided was where many of their gods liked best to stay. The building of Fort Snelling at this point and the arrival of white men put a stop to the battles, and neither tribe could claim Mendota.The Great Father in Washington made a treaty with the Chippewas whereby they hold much of their hard-won lake region as long as they keep their treaty promises; now that there is peace between the Indian[64]nations they are willing to admit that each had many heroes in war and council.During the conflict a trader attempted to bargain with the Sioux for furs, after having had dealings with a band of Chippewas. This band, wild with fury at what they called the trader’s treachery, broke open his storehouse and destroyed or took all his stores of furs and other articles. They were called Pillagers by the French and other bands, and hold the name yet and are proud of it, for the deed was done openly and for the sake of their nation.The Pillagers are nearly all Blanket Indians. They live in wigwams in summer and cover these with bark huts in winter for greater warmth. The wigwams are covered with woven mats made of reeds or grass and birch bark. The huts are like a one-room house and are covered also with pine or birch bark. Each spring these Indians make large quantities of maple sugar, which they pack in mokuks, or birch-bark baskets, and sell or exchange at the stores in towns. During the summer they pick and sell the berries which grow near the woods and lakes. They have gardens of maize, squash, pumpkins, beans, and onions, and some raise potatoes. Their meat supply is getting scarce, as the deer, moose, and bear are being hunted so freely by white men. The men often dress in true Indian costumes, with buckskin leggings, beadwork ornaments,[66]blankets, and a feather in their scalp lock if they have killed an enemy; this honor is hard to give up, and even a murderer of one of his own tribe has dared to wear the eagle feather.Chippewa Indian’s Summer WigwamChippewa Indian’s Summer WigwamFrom a PhotographThere is a large government school at Leech Lake, and many of the boys and girls have learned the customs and books of the white people, but when they return to their wigwam homes there is little chance to change the home life, except in very simple ways.Some of the finest work in lace, which has been taught in the Indian schools, has been done by these Chippewas at Leech Lake. They were so artistic in their bead and basket work that a lady who saw the point lace made in the mission schools in Japan decided to teach it to all the squaws who would learn the art. Their success has been a pleasure to her and to them. It brings the money with which to buy food.The lakes near the source of the Great River abound in wild rice, which is gathered in August and stored in mokuks for winter use. The wild swan, geese, and ducks also feed upon it, and they make good hunting.The extensive pine forests owned by the Chippewas have attracted many white men who are trying to gain possession of them, but the wise chiefs know their value and their people’s need, and they remember the years of warfare when the land was won; neither have they yet broken their treaty promises. A few years[67]ago the courts wanted several of the Leech Lake Indians for witnesses in a trial. It was cold, and if the men went their families would suffer, for they must be gone some weeks. The old chief would not let them go until the government promised money to support their families. The white men in council did not think best to make the promise, and the chief refused to send the witnesses. The soldiers came to take the men forcibly. There was a battle, and soldiers fell and much money was spent, but still the chief has not given up the men. The white people feel that the Indian chief had much in his favor, for he would not see his people suffer; the squaws and papooses must be cared for, and he had not the money with which to buy food for them.The Sioux in southern Minnesota made an uprising during the Civil War. Some friendly Indians warned the whites of the coming troubles and helped them to escape. A monument erected in 1900 to these good Indians shows the friendly feeling of the whites to their rescuers. These Indians were called traitors by the Sioux and had to flee for their own lives. Some of them settled at Mendota and are much respected by their white friends. The son of one became an Episcopal minister. The present chief of all the Chippewas is also a minister of the same church and an able leader of his people.[68]
SIOUX AND CHIPPEWAS OF MINNESOTA
The Iroquois drove the Chippewas, or Ojibways, from their hunting grounds and from fishing in many waters in central New York; as the bands increased and more needed food, many started westward, and Chippewa names of lakes and rivers mark their progress toward the Mississippi. They made a long halt at the Sault Ste. Marie, for many fish were in these waters, but there was no place to plant their corn. They built their wigwam fires farther westward each year, until they reached what is now northern Minnesota. Here they found the Dakotas, or Sioux, had possession of the beautiful lake region, which was so nearly like the country by the River of Islands in the east.The Chippewas had no wish to go back, and their warriors and chiefs were too brave to think that even the fierce western tribes could conquer them. They built their wigwams on islands and points of land projecting into the lake, for these made good places of[63]landing for their birch-bark canoes, and also gave them a better chance to watch for their enemies than in the thick forests of pine, birch, and cedar.Each band of Chippewas has yet many stories to tell of the terrible battles with the “nadoway-sioux,” as the French trappers and hunters call the Algonquin word which means “hidden enemies.” This warfare began years before the time of our war of the Revolution and did not end for nearly a century. The Chippewas fought for their new home very bravely, and the Sioux were just as brave in trying to hold what they believed to be the center of the world and nearest like the Happy Hunting Grounds of the future life. There is a very extensive view of the Mississippi at its junction with the Minnesota which is called by the Indians Mendota, or the “gathering of the waters.” The contending tribes fought fiercely to hold or to obtain this place, for here these red men, with their love for the beautiful in nature, had decided was where many of their gods liked best to stay. The building of Fort Snelling at this point and the arrival of white men put a stop to the battles, and neither tribe could claim Mendota.The Great Father in Washington made a treaty with the Chippewas whereby they hold much of their hard-won lake region as long as they keep their treaty promises; now that there is peace between the Indian[64]nations they are willing to admit that each had many heroes in war and council.During the conflict a trader attempted to bargain with the Sioux for furs, after having had dealings with a band of Chippewas. This band, wild with fury at what they called the trader’s treachery, broke open his storehouse and destroyed or took all his stores of furs and other articles. They were called Pillagers by the French and other bands, and hold the name yet and are proud of it, for the deed was done openly and for the sake of their nation.The Pillagers are nearly all Blanket Indians. They live in wigwams in summer and cover these with bark huts in winter for greater warmth. The wigwams are covered with woven mats made of reeds or grass and birch bark. The huts are like a one-room house and are covered also with pine or birch bark. Each spring these Indians make large quantities of maple sugar, which they pack in mokuks, or birch-bark baskets, and sell or exchange at the stores in towns. During the summer they pick and sell the berries which grow near the woods and lakes. They have gardens of maize, squash, pumpkins, beans, and onions, and some raise potatoes. Their meat supply is getting scarce, as the deer, moose, and bear are being hunted so freely by white men. The men often dress in true Indian costumes, with buckskin leggings, beadwork ornaments,[66]blankets, and a feather in their scalp lock if they have killed an enemy; this honor is hard to give up, and even a murderer of one of his own tribe has dared to wear the eagle feather.Chippewa Indian’s Summer WigwamChippewa Indian’s Summer WigwamFrom a PhotographThere is a large government school at Leech Lake, and many of the boys and girls have learned the customs and books of the white people, but when they return to their wigwam homes there is little chance to change the home life, except in very simple ways.Some of the finest work in lace, which has been taught in the Indian schools, has been done by these Chippewas at Leech Lake. They were so artistic in their bead and basket work that a lady who saw the point lace made in the mission schools in Japan decided to teach it to all the squaws who would learn the art. Their success has been a pleasure to her and to them. It brings the money with which to buy food.The lakes near the source of the Great River abound in wild rice, which is gathered in August and stored in mokuks for winter use. The wild swan, geese, and ducks also feed upon it, and they make good hunting.The extensive pine forests owned by the Chippewas have attracted many white men who are trying to gain possession of them, but the wise chiefs know their value and their people’s need, and they remember the years of warfare when the land was won; neither have they yet broken their treaty promises. A few years[67]ago the courts wanted several of the Leech Lake Indians for witnesses in a trial. It was cold, and if the men went their families would suffer, for they must be gone some weeks. The old chief would not let them go until the government promised money to support their families. The white men in council did not think best to make the promise, and the chief refused to send the witnesses. The soldiers came to take the men forcibly. There was a battle, and soldiers fell and much money was spent, but still the chief has not given up the men. The white people feel that the Indian chief had much in his favor, for he would not see his people suffer; the squaws and papooses must be cared for, and he had not the money with which to buy food for them.The Sioux in southern Minnesota made an uprising during the Civil War. Some friendly Indians warned the whites of the coming troubles and helped them to escape. A monument erected in 1900 to these good Indians shows the friendly feeling of the whites to their rescuers. These Indians were called traitors by the Sioux and had to flee for their own lives. Some of them settled at Mendota and are much respected by their white friends. The son of one became an Episcopal minister. The present chief of all the Chippewas is also a minister of the same church and an able leader of his people.[68]
T
he Iroquois drove the Chippewas, or Ojibways, from their hunting grounds and from fishing in many waters in central New York; as the bands increased and more needed food, many started westward, and Chippewa names of lakes and rivers mark their progress toward the Mississippi. They made a long halt at the Sault Ste. Marie, for many fish were in these waters, but there was no place to plant their corn. They built their wigwam fires farther westward each year, until they reached what is now northern Minnesota. Here they found the Dakotas, or Sioux, had possession of the beautiful lake region, which was so nearly like the country by the River of Islands in the east.
The Chippewas had no wish to go back, and their warriors and chiefs were too brave to think that even the fierce western tribes could conquer them. They built their wigwams on islands and points of land projecting into the lake, for these made good places of[63]landing for their birch-bark canoes, and also gave them a better chance to watch for their enemies than in the thick forests of pine, birch, and cedar.
Each band of Chippewas has yet many stories to tell of the terrible battles with the “nadoway-sioux,” as the French trappers and hunters call the Algonquin word which means “hidden enemies.” This warfare began years before the time of our war of the Revolution and did not end for nearly a century. The Chippewas fought for their new home very bravely, and the Sioux were just as brave in trying to hold what they believed to be the center of the world and nearest like the Happy Hunting Grounds of the future life. There is a very extensive view of the Mississippi at its junction with the Minnesota which is called by the Indians Mendota, or the “gathering of the waters.” The contending tribes fought fiercely to hold or to obtain this place, for here these red men, with their love for the beautiful in nature, had decided was where many of their gods liked best to stay. The building of Fort Snelling at this point and the arrival of white men put a stop to the battles, and neither tribe could claim Mendota.
The Great Father in Washington made a treaty with the Chippewas whereby they hold much of their hard-won lake region as long as they keep their treaty promises; now that there is peace between the Indian[64]nations they are willing to admit that each had many heroes in war and council.
During the conflict a trader attempted to bargain with the Sioux for furs, after having had dealings with a band of Chippewas. This band, wild with fury at what they called the trader’s treachery, broke open his storehouse and destroyed or took all his stores of furs and other articles. They were called Pillagers by the French and other bands, and hold the name yet and are proud of it, for the deed was done openly and for the sake of their nation.
The Pillagers are nearly all Blanket Indians. They live in wigwams in summer and cover these with bark huts in winter for greater warmth. The wigwams are covered with woven mats made of reeds or grass and birch bark. The huts are like a one-room house and are covered also with pine or birch bark. Each spring these Indians make large quantities of maple sugar, which they pack in mokuks, or birch-bark baskets, and sell or exchange at the stores in towns. During the summer they pick and sell the berries which grow near the woods and lakes. They have gardens of maize, squash, pumpkins, beans, and onions, and some raise potatoes. Their meat supply is getting scarce, as the deer, moose, and bear are being hunted so freely by white men. The men often dress in true Indian costumes, with buckskin leggings, beadwork ornaments,[66]blankets, and a feather in their scalp lock if they have killed an enemy; this honor is hard to give up, and even a murderer of one of his own tribe has dared to wear the eagle feather.
Chippewa Indian’s Summer WigwamChippewa Indian’s Summer WigwamFrom a Photograph
Chippewa Indian’s Summer Wigwam
From a Photograph
There is a large government school at Leech Lake, and many of the boys and girls have learned the customs and books of the white people, but when they return to their wigwam homes there is little chance to change the home life, except in very simple ways.
Some of the finest work in lace, which has been taught in the Indian schools, has been done by these Chippewas at Leech Lake. They were so artistic in their bead and basket work that a lady who saw the point lace made in the mission schools in Japan decided to teach it to all the squaws who would learn the art. Their success has been a pleasure to her and to them. It brings the money with which to buy food.
The lakes near the source of the Great River abound in wild rice, which is gathered in August and stored in mokuks for winter use. The wild swan, geese, and ducks also feed upon it, and they make good hunting.
The extensive pine forests owned by the Chippewas have attracted many white men who are trying to gain possession of them, but the wise chiefs know their value and their people’s need, and they remember the years of warfare when the land was won; neither have they yet broken their treaty promises. A few years[67]ago the courts wanted several of the Leech Lake Indians for witnesses in a trial. It was cold, and if the men went their families would suffer, for they must be gone some weeks. The old chief would not let them go until the government promised money to support their families. The white men in council did not think best to make the promise, and the chief refused to send the witnesses. The soldiers came to take the men forcibly. There was a battle, and soldiers fell and much money was spent, but still the chief has not given up the men. The white people feel that the Indian chief had much in his favor, for he would not see his people suffer; the squaws and papooses must be cared for, and he had not the money with which to buy food for them.
The Sioux in southern Minnesota made an uprising during the Civil War. Some friendly Indians warned the whites of the coming troubles and helped them to escape. A monument erected in 1900 to these good Indians shows the friendly feeling of the whites to their rescuers. These Indians were called traitors by the Sioux and had to flee for their own lives. Some of them settled at Mendota and are much respected by their white friends. The son of one became an Episcopal minister. The present chief of all the Chippewas is also a minister of the same church and an able leader of his people.[68]
[Contents]CHIEF LOGAN AND OTHERSThe Delaware Indians of eastern Pennsylvania have always called the Iroquois the Mingo Indians.Skikelling was a Mingo. He was chief of the Cayugas, one of the most intelligent tribes of the Iroquois union. The son of Skikelling was also a chief. He is celebrated in the history of Pennsylvania as Chief Logan.When a babe Chief Logan was brought by his father to Fort Augusta in 1742, to be baptized by the Moravian missionaries. Hence his American name, which is famous in history and romance.There was another Chief Logan who was for a time chief among the Delawares. This chief lost an eye in a battle and was then deprived of his position, as a chief must be physically perfect.History has preserved the names of numbers of Indians famous in war and peace.Samoset, who greeted the Pilgrims with the cordial “Welcome, Englishmen,” is one of the first on the list.[69]Squanto, Massasoit, Canonicus, Miantonomoh are well known in New England history. These are the names of men who kept their promises and fought bravely for their white friends.King Philip saw the ruin of his country and people and commanded an uprising. He was a terrible warrior, and his name is both famous and infamous. Tecumseh, Red Cloud, Black Hawk, and others are well known in western history. These names and hundreds of others are kept in memory as the names of cities, rivers, or lakes.[70]
CHIEF LOGAN AND OTHERS
The Delaware Indians of eastern Pennsylvania have always called the Iroquois the Mingo Indians.Skikelling was a Mingo. He was chief of the Cayugas, one of the most intelligent tribes of the Iroquois union. The son of Skikelling was also a chief. He is celebrated in the history of Pennsylvania as Chief Logan.When a babe Chief Logan was brought by his father to Fort Augusta in 1742, to be baptized by the Moravian missionaries. Hence his American name, which is famous in history and romance.There was another Chief Logan who was for a time chief among the Delawares. This chief lost an eye in a battle and was then deprived of his position, as a chief must be physically perfect.History has preserved the names of numbers of Indians famous in war and peace.Samoset, who greeted the Pilgrims with the cordial “Welcome, Englishmen,” is one of the first on the list.[69]Squanto, Massasoit, Canonicus, Miantonomoh are well known in New England history. These are the names of men who kept their promises and fought bravely for their white friends.King Philip saw the ruin of his country and people and commanded an uprising. He was a terrible warrior, and his name is both famous and infamous. Tecumseh, Red Cloud, Black Hawk, and others are well known in western history. These names and hundreds of others are kept in memory as the names of cities, rivers, or lakes.[70]
T
he Delaware Indians of eastern Pennsylvania have always called the Iroquois the Mingo Indians.
Skikelling was a Mingo. He was chief of the Cayugas, one of the most intelligent tribes of the Iroquois union. The son of Skikelling was also a chief. He is celebrated in the history of Pennsylvania as Chief Logan.
When a babe Chief Logan was brought by his father to Fort Augusta in 1742, to be baptized by the Moravian missionaries. Hence his American name, which is famous in history and romance.
There was another Chief Logan who was for a time chief among the Delawares. This chief lost an eye in a battle and was then deprived of his position, as a chief must be physically perfect.
History has preserved the names of numbers of Indians famous in war and peace.
Samoset, who greeted the Pilgrims with the cordial “Welcome, Englishmen,” is one of the first on the list.[69]Squanto, Massasoit, Canonicus, Miantonomoh are well known in New England history. These are the names of men who kept their promises and fought bravely for their white friends.
King Philip saw the ruin of his country and people and commanded an uprising. He was a terrible warrior, and his name is both famous and infamous. Tecumseh, Red Cloud, Black Hawk, and others are well known in western history. These names and hundreds of others are kept in memory as the names of cities, rivers, or lakes.[70]
[Contents]A NAVAJO MEDICINE CHANTA NAVAJO MEDICINE CHANTThe Navajos give a medicine dance and chant a long song when a sick person asks for this service. This chant is the story in song of the capture and escape of a young Navajo brave. He is helped by his people’s gods, who are like the creatures that live in his own country.This is the part of the chant telling of his escape:“He came to the house of the Butterfly. It was filled with butterflies and rainbows.“Kacluge, the great Butterfly, welcomed him to his lodge. His wife took the young brave by the hand. He was welcome.“She left the room, but came back with a great pearl dish in her hand. It was a sea-shell filled with water. She gave him soapweed. He washed and was white. He dried his hands with meal and painted his face with white earth; then he was fair as a white man.[71]“Kacluge gave him fine white moccasins. He gave him a collar of beaver skin, and a whistle to call for help.“His arms looked like wings, for plumed prayer-sticks were fastened to them in the Butterfly’s lodge.“The young man was no longer tired. He was strong again, and like a white butterfly in beauty. Kacluge fed him with white corn meal mixed with pure water. He slept in the house of the Butterfly.“In the morning the young Navajo stepped on the white sand. The wife of the Butterfly put two burning lines of white lightning before his feet. He stepped upon these, and his white moccasins fastened to the lightning.“ ‘Now,’ said the Butterfly, ‘the lightning is yours; follow where it leads.’“With one step he stood on a high hill. He saw a flash of lightning fill the valley.“ ‘It is the trail I must follow,’ said the young Navajo. Across the valley, on the trail of the lightning, he ran to the mountains; and now, pure in face, in heart, and with white feet, the lightning led him home.”Adapted from Powell’s Report.[72]
A NAVAJO MEDICINE CHANTA NAVAJO MEDICINE CHANT
A NAVAJO MEDICINE CHANT
The Navajos give a medicine dance and chant a long song when a sick person asks for this service. This chant is the story in song of the capture and escape of a young Navajo brave. He is helped by his people’s gods, who are like the creatures that live in his own country.This is the part of the chant telling of his escape:“He came to the house of the Butterfly. It was filled with butterflies and rainbows.“Kacluge, the great Butterfly, welcomed him to his lodge. His wife took the young brave by the hand. He was welcome.“She left the room, but came back with a great pearl dish in her hand. It was a sea-shell filled with water. She gave him soapweed. He washed and was white. He dried his hands with meal and painted his face with white earth; then he was fair as a white man.[71]“Kacluge gave him fine white moccasins. He gave him a collar of beaver skin, and a whistle to call for help.“His arms looked like wings, for plumed prayer-sticks were fastened to them in the Butterfly’s lodge.“The young man was no longer tired. He was strong again, and like a white butterfly in beauty. Kacluge fed him with white corn meal mixed with pure water. He slept in the house of the Butterfly.“In the morning the young Navajo stepped on the white sand. The wife of the Butterfly put two burning lines of white lightning before his feet. He stepped upon these, and his white moccasins fastened to the lightning.“ ‘Now,’ said the Butterfly, ‘the lightning is yours; follow where it leads.’“With one step he stood on a high hill. He saw a flash of lightning fill the valley.“ ‘It is the trail I must follow,’ said the young Navajo. Across the valley, on the trail of the lightning, he ran to the mountains; and now, pure in face, in heart, and with white feet, the lightning led him home.”Adapted from Powell’s Report.[72]
The Navajos give a medicine dance and chant a long song when a sick person asks for this service. This chant is the story in song of the capture and escape of a young Navajo brave. He is helped by his people’s gods, who are like the creatures that live in his own country.
This is the part of the chant telling of his escape:
“He came to the house of the Butterfly. It was filled with butterflies and rainbows.
“Kacluge, the great Butterfly, welcomed him to his lodge. His wife took the young brave by the hand. He was welcome.
“She left the room, but came back with a great pearl dish in her hand. It was a sea-shell filled with water. She gave him soapweed. He washed and was white. He dried his hands with meal and painted his face with white earth; then he was fair as a white man.[71]
“Kacluge gave him fine white moccasins. He gave him a collar of beaver skin, and a whistle to call for help.
“His arms looked like wings, for plumed prayer-sticks were fastened to them in the Butterfly’s lodge.
“The young man was no longer tired. He was strong again, and like a white butterfly in beauty. Kacluge fed him with white corn meal mixed with pure water. He slept in the house of the Butterfly.
“In the morning the young Navajo stepped on the white sand. The wife of the Butterfly put two burning lines of white lightning before his feet. He stepped upon these, and his white moccasins fastened to the lightning.
“ ‘Now,’ said the Butterfly, ‘the lightning is yours; follow where it leads.’
“With one step he stood on a high hill. He saw a flash of lightning fill the valley.
“ ‘It is the trail I must follow,’ said the young Navajo. Across the valley, on the trail of the lightning, he ran to the mountains; and now, pure in face, in heart, and with white feet, the lightning led him home.”
Adapted from Powell’s Report.[72]
[Contents]HOW THE CAVE PEOPLE FOUND DRY LAND ON THE EARTH(Zuñi Chant)In the old days all men lived in caves in the center of the earth. There were four caves, one over the other. Men first lived in the lowest cave. It was dark. There was no light, and the cave was crowded. All men were full of sorrow.“The Holder of the Paths of Life, the Sun-father, heard the people cry. He created two children for himself, and they fell to the earth to help the cave people.“The Sun-father gave his two children eternal youth. He gave them power to do things as he would do them. He gave them gifts. One gift was a painted bow that reached from one end of the sky to the farther end. It was the rainbow. He gave them an arrow of fire. It was the lightning. He gave them a great shield[74]like his own. The shield was a net of cotton cords on a hoop of wood, and the last gift, a great magic war knife of flint, was fastened to the center of the shield.Interior of Zuñi HouseInterior of Zuñi HouseFrom a Photograph“After the two children had cut the face of the earth with the stone war knife, they rode on the magic shield to the lowest cave where men lived. There they lived with mankind as leaders.“The priests prayed to the Sun-children for help in the darkness. The Sun-children led mankind into the second cave; it was still all darkness. Men asked the priests to pray for more help. They came to the Sun-children, and the people were led into the third world or cave.“This was a larger world than the other two. It was like twilight in this cave, but at first all thought that they had reached the blazing sun, it was so light.“After a thousand years this cave became crowded. Men sought the priests and prayed them to find some way to help them.“The two Sun-children cut their way through the cave above them, and led the people out upon the earth. It was only a small island, for all the rest was water.“Men covered their faces with their hands, for the light made them blind. They fell down and tried to hide in the sand, they were so hot. The people were taught to make clothing of yucca fiber. Their eyes[75]were like owls’ eyes, and they covered them with their hands till they were strong.“The Sun-children led the people over the quaking earth to the east, where the Sun-father had his home.“The Sun-children were told to dry the earth. They put the magic shield upon the earth and laid the rainbow upon it. They put arrows of lightning to the north, south, east, and west, and the arrows crossed each other. The older brother shot with an arrow the lightning arrows where they crossed upon the rainbow.“Thlu-tchu! the lightning arrows shot toward every point. Fire rolled over the face of the earth. The earth was dried when the fire storm was over.“The earth was then full of great beasts that had lived in the water. The Sun-children shot the beasts with their arrows; then the beasts became stone. The people were free to go on the earth wherever they wanted to go.“Thus the people were led out of the deep caves; thus the land became dry, and men came to live on the earth.”From report by F. H. Cushing, who was adopted by the Zuñis.[77]
HOW THE CAVE PEOPLE FOUND DRY LAND ON THE EARTH
(Zuñi Chant)In the old days all men lived in caves in the center of the earth. There were four caves, one over the other. Men first lived in the lowest cave. It was dark. There was no light, and the cave was crowded. All men were full of sorrow.“The Holder of the Paths of Life, the Sun-father, heard the people cry. He created two children for himself, and they fell to the earth to help the cave people.“The Sun-father gave his two children eternal youth. He gave them power to do things as he would do them. He gave them gifts. One gift was a painted bow that reached from one end of the sky to the farther end. It was the rainbow. He gave them an arrow of fire. It was the lightning. He gave them a great shield[74]like his own. The shield was a net of cotton cords on a hoop of wood, and the last gift, a great magic war knife of flint, was fastened to the center of the shield.Interior of Zuñi HouseInterior of Zuñi HouseFrom a Photograph“After the two children had cut the face of the earth with the stone war knife, they rode on the magic shield to the lowest cave where men lived. There they lived with mankind as leaders.“The priests prayed to the Sun-children for help in the darkness. The Sun-children led mankind into the second cave; it was still all darkness. Men asked the priests to pray for more help. They came to the Sun-children, and the people were led into the third world or cave.“This was a larger world than the other two. It was like twilight in this cave, but at first all thought that they had reached the blazing sun, it was so light.“After a thousand years this cave became crowded. Men sought the priests and prayed them to find some way to help them.“The two Sun-children cut their way through the cave above them, and led the people out upon the earth. It was only a small island, for all the rest was water.“Men covered their faces with their hands, for the light made them blind. They fell down and tried to hide in the sand, they were so hot. The people were taught to make clothing of yucca fiber. Their eyes[75]were like owls’ eyes, and they covered them with their hands till they were strong.“The Sun-children led the people over the quaking earth to the east, where the Sun-father had his home.“The Sun-children were told to dry the earth. They put the magic shield upon the earth and laid the rainbow upon it. They put arrows of lightning to the north, south, east, and west, and the arrows crossed each other. The older brother shot with an arrow the lightning arrows where they crossed upon the rainbow.“Thlu-tchu! the lightning arrows shot toward every point. Fire rolled over the face of the earth. The earth was dried when the fire storm was over.“The earth was then full of great beasts that had lived in the water. The Sun-children shot the beasts with their arrows; then the beasts became stone. The people were free to go on the earth wherever they wanted to go.“Thus the people were led out of the deep caves; thus the land became dry, and men came to live on the earth.”From report by F. H. Cushing, who was adopted by the Zuñis.[77]
(Zuñi Chant)
I
n the old days all men lived in caves in the center of the earth. There were four caves, one over the other. Men first lived in the lowest cave. It was dark. There was no light, and the cave was crowded. All men were full of sorrow.
“The Holder of the Paths of Life, the Sun-father, heard the people cry. He created two children for himself, and they fell to the earth to help the cave people.
“The Sun-father gave his two children eternal youth. He gave them power to do things as he would do them. He gave them gifts. One gift was a painted bow that reached from one end of the sky to the farther end. It was the rainbow. He gave them an arrow of fire. It was the lightning. He gave them a great shield[74]like his own. The shield was a net of cotton cords on a hoop of wood, and the last gift, a great magic war knife of flint, was fastened to the center of the shield.
Interior of Zuñi HouseInterior of Zuñi HouseFrom a Photograph
Interior of Zuñi House
From a Photograph
“After the two children had cut the face of the earth with the stone war knife, they rode on the magic shield to the lowest cave where men lived. There they lived with mankind as leaders.
“The priests prayed to the Sun-children for help in the darkness. The Sun-children led mankind into the second cave; it was still all darkness. Men asked the priests to pray for more help. They came to the Sun-children, and the people were led into the third world or cave.
“This was a larger world than the other two. It was like twilight in this cave, but at first all thought that they had reached the blazing sun, it was so light.
“After a thousand years this cave became crowded. Men sought the priests and prayed them to find some way to help them.
“The two Sun-children cut their way through the cave above them, and led the people out upon the earth. It was only a small island, for all the rest was water.
“Men covered their faces with their hands, for the light made them blind. They fell down and tried to hide in the sand, they were so hot. The people were taught to make clothing of yucca fiber. Their eyes[75]were like owls’ eyes, and they covered them with their hands till they were strong.
“The Sun-children led the people over the quaking earth to the east, where the Sun-father had his home.
“The Sun-children were told to dry the earth. They put the magic shield upon the earth and laid the rainbow upon it. They put arrows of lightning to the north, south, east, and west, and the arrows crossed each other. The older brother shot with an arrow the lightning arrows where they crossed upon the rainbow.
“Thlu-tchu! the lightning arrows shot toward every point. Fire rolled over the face of the earth. The earth was dried when the fire storm was over.
“The earth was then full of great beasts that had lived in the water. The Sun-children shot the beasts with their arrows; then the beasts became stone. The people were free to go on the earth wherever they wanted to go.
“Thus the people were led out of the deep caves; thus the land became dry, and men came to live on the earth.”
From report by F. H. Cushing, who was adopted by the Zuñis.[77]