Tribes of California 0520031725, 9780520031722

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TRIBES

OF CALIFORNIA

STEPHEN POWERS Introduction

&

Annotations by

ROBERT F. HEIZER

For Reference Not

to be taken from this

room

SAN MATtO tllY f'UOLH. Lior^Mn

3 9047

02288138

»

4

TRIBES OF CALIFORNIA

STEPHEN POWERS

TRIBES OF CALIFORNIA With an Introduction and Notes

ROBERT F.HEIZER

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS BERKELEY • LOS ANGELES • LONDON

V

Reprinted from Contributions

Volume

III,

Department

to

North America Ethnology,

of the Interior, U.S.

Geographical and

Geological Survey of the Rocky Mountain Region, J.W. Powell, in charge

(Washington: Government Printing Office, 1877).

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS Berkeley and Los Angeles, California

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS, LTD. London, England Copyright

The Regents

1976, by

of the University of California

ISBN: 0-520-03172-5 Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 75-13150 Printed in the United States of America

3 4 5 6 7 8 9

EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION

Stephen Powers was an unusual man. He was a true adventurer, addicted to what he called "vagabondizing," a writer of some ability, a

newspaper publisher, sheepherder, gold miner, and an expert in the raising of Merino sheep. He was born in Waterford, Ohio, in 1840 and graduated from the University of Michigan in 1863. The Civil War was on, and Powers served as an "army correspondent" for the Cincinnati Commercial (now Enquirer) until the war's end. pioneering anthropologist,

In 1866 he went to Europe for fifteen months, supporting himself as a

New York Times found elsewhere.^ On January 1, 1869, Powers started on a walking trip across the United States by the "southern route." He began at Raleigh, North Carolina, "dressed," as he wrote in his brief autobiography, ^ "in a pair of

correspondent for various newspapers, principally the

and Nation.

Details of his life can be

doeskin trousers, light top boots, with the ends of the trousers inserted

and a planter's hat." He then proceeded to Charleston, Savannah, Macon, Columbus, Montgomery, Selma, Vicksburg, Shreveport, Athens, El Paso, Tucson, and Los Angeles to San Buenaventura where he reached the Pacific Ocean, and "stooping and dipping my hand into the brine, I said: 'The Sunrise to the Sunset Sea, through a weary footman. Greeting." From there he tramped to San Francisco, where he arrived on November 3, 1869. The entire trip was about 3700 miles and took ten months. Powers in his autobiography says of this excursion, "It was not a remarkable feat in any respect, as the only qualities required were health and persistence; at no time did I accomtherein, a shortish frock coat

plish over forty miles a day, generally only twenty or twenty-five." In 1872

Powers published the account of called Afoot '

S.

Park,

The

No. 28 (University 2

S.

his transcontinental

and Alone: a Walk from Sea

tramp

in a

book

to Sea.

Life of Stephen Powers, Archaeological Research Facility. Contribution of California, Berkeley, 1975).

Powers, Autobiographical Sketch, Archaeological Research Facility, Contribution

No. 25 (University

o» California, Berkeley, 1975), pp. 220-221.

EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION

2

\

—

Powers next decided to try his hand at a new writing project one which would also be based upon his own experiences and observations. He selected the California Indians as his subject, and studied them during the summers of 1871 and 1872. "[I] travelled some thousands of miles on foot and horseback among the California Indians during which time I collected a mass of original material and prepared an elaborate account of the habits, customs, legend^, geographical boundaries, religious ideas, etc.

which the principal portion I published Overland Monthly, and one chapter in the Atlantic, in the

of the California Indians of

serially in the

years 1872-1875." Actually articles,

and

I

append a

Powers wrote more than

full list of these at the

this in the

end of

form of

this Introduction.

(The complete collection of his articles has recently been reprinted in Contribution No. 25 of the Archaeological Research Facility, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley.) Powers realized about $600.00 for the articles on Indians published in the Overland Monthly. No record has survived to inform us of Powers' itinerary and travel schedule. It

seems probable, however, that he wrote the

articles

soon

Klamath River (Karok, Yurok, and Hupa) moving south into the Coast Range north of San Francisco Bay to visit the Yuki and Pomo, and from there across the Sacramento Valley to study the Miwok. At the time he owned a 160-acre ranch at Sheridan, Placer County, and the Miwok study could have been done as an independent, local investigation during the period when he was not travelling among tribes. Then follow studies of the Modocs, Yokuts, southern Maidu (Nisenan), Achomawi, Yana, Maidu, Wintun and Patwin a series of tribes whose locations make it clear their descriptions were not written in the same sequence as they were studied. Powers did not make investigations south of the Tehachapi Pass since he believed the cultures of these tribes had become too much altered in the missions to be worth studying. In 1874 Powers seems to have decided that the main part of his ethnographic researches were completed, and he got in touch with Major J. W. Powell, then in charge of the Department of Interior's Geographical and Geological Survey of the Rocky Mountain Region. Powell, who was much interested in American Indians, agreed that the collection of articles after his visit

with each

—

tribe,

beginning with the

tribes of the

EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION

3

should be brought out in book form.^ Tribes of California was not a mere reprinting of the earlier published articles.

The

general order of tribal

descriptions was preserved as they were originally presented, but a

and

ber of additional tribes were described,

there

ment, rewriting, and adding of information. So

seems that the sketches

it

appearing in the Overland Monthly were exactly

that,

and

notes contained additional information secured by

him

in 1871

In 1875 Powers had

Through

left

num-

was much rearrangethat Powers'

and

1872.

California and was living on the family farm

and at Powell's instigation, came an appointment as Special Commissioner "to make a collection of Indian manufactures, etc., illustrative of Indian life, character, and habits on the eastern slope of the Sierras, and also in California, for the Centennial Exhibition of 1876." To perform this duty. Powers returned to the West, remaining from September, 1875, to late January, 1876, visiting new tribes and revisiting familiar ones. Some of the information he secured on this last trip was incorporated into the book. in Ohio.

his contact with Powell,

Powell apparently objected to certain of Powers' theories.

One differ-

ence of opinion was regarding Powers' suggestion that the California

who had first Healdsburg and, as they increased in numbers, expanded out in

Indians were descendants of Chinese transpacific voyagers settled at

all directions

from

this theory in

two

in Tribes.

A

this seed colony.

articles (1874b, 1874h),

first

but the theory does not appear

second point of argument was over what Powell

over-estimation of the

had

Powers had proposed and defended

number

of

was an pre-white Native Californians. Powers

(1872e) estimated the population at 1,520,000.

He

felt

later (1875)

reduced this to 705,000, and despite Powell's urging, refused to lower further

and

insisted that

it

it

app)ear in Tribes.

Powers genuinely liked the California Indians he was visiting and studying in the summers of 1871 and 1872, and was aware of their shattering experience of contact with the Americans from Gold Rush times, some twenty years before. But Powers, as a man of a century ago, could scarcely fail to reflect in his writings (which It

^

of

is

obvious,

I

think, that

R. F. Heizer, ed., Letters of Stephen Powers to California,'

Archaeological

Calilornia, Berkeley, 1975).

Research

John Wesley Powell Concerning 'Tribes

Facility,

Contribution No. 28 (l^niversity

oi

EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION

4

we musl

not forget were dire( ted toward a body of eon tern fx^rary readers)

which Americans generally held about all Indians. injustices done to the Native Californians. He recognized these injustices, accepted them as facts, deplored them, f)ut made no real attempt to generate corrective measures in the low opinion

Powers was no brave champion of the

his writings.

The

af)peal for federal attention to aid the neglected Cali-

came

fornia Indians

at this

Powers apparently saw And,

if

lime with the Ames^ and Wetmore

and not

his job as that of a reporter

Powers often observed the unpleasant

reports.^

a reformer.

Indian

realities of

life

and

commented unfavorably on the character of the people themselves, let us remember that these were the broken, dispirited and decimated survivors of a series of independent tribal nations which, until more than two decades before, had never even seen a while man. By 1870, from

fifty to

seventy thousand Indians were blown away by the well-armed Americans and by starvation and disease. Kven the will to live had been destroyed, and this we must remember when we read Powers. The anthropological value of Powers' century-old observations of the

Indian cultures of the northern two-thirds of (California

is

Powers (perhaps with some help from Powell) drew up the linguistic classification for California.

was not a trained linguist, and method of comparing word lists were

related.

But

Alexander

showing the tribal

S.

it

to dec ide

general

crude, partly because

Powers

first

attempt

name

in the general area of cxc

upancy

map shows

ExcdJlivc DfKumrni No. 91 (Washingion.

G. Ames in Regard to ihe (iondilifin "

at

drawing up

a

map

the locations of Indian tribes in Cialifornia,*' but he merely wrote

— there are no territorial

The original

I). C:..

1874).

large folded

a

is

Congress,

l^^rd

Idem. "RefK)rJ

Mission Indiansol

ol the

boundaries, which he

tribal

C. Arncs, Mission Indians of Southern California,

J.

employed the simple

whether or not two languages

represented a beginning.

learned from native informants.

lif)ns,

is

partly fx-cause he

Taylor made the

boundaries indicated. Powers'

*

It

substantial. first

1st

ol Sfxrial

(^alilf)rnia,

with

map

Session,

Agent John

Re(ommenda-

Hrf)orf of the (.ornrnissionrr of Indian Affairs of ISjf (Washington.

I)

i..,

1874),

A|)|x iidix A. pp. 29-40.

A.

'•

Wetmore. A Rrfjort

of Charles A.

Wetmore,

on the Mission Indians, CiPO (Washington. R.

F.

Hei/er. "Alexandei S.

l

Map

ayior's

Ihstorual Sodety Quarterly 20( 194

1

):

1

7

I). Ci..

1

-

1

80.

f)l

Sf)e< lal

I

'

niled States Cointnissioner

187')).

(ialiiorrna Indian

I

rihes, \H(r\."

California

EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION printed in colors, and since

reproduce

The

it

exactly,

it

too difficult, as well as too costly, to

is

an abstract

5

presented here on page 465.

is

one-volume coverage of California Indian cultures is Alfred L. Kroeber's Handbook of the Indians of California which was definitive

published in 1925, a half-century

Powers' Tribes of California.

after

Kroeber, the acknowledged master on the subject, had this to say about

Powers I

Handbook's Introduction:

in the

should not close without expressing

my

sincere appreciation to

cessor in this field, the late Stephen Powers, well

known

my one

prede-

for his classic 'Tribes of

California," one of the most remarkable documents ever printed by any govern-

ment. Powers was a journalist by profession, and

.... He

often the crudest

it is

true that his ethnology

is

... an astoundingly quick and vivid keen as it was untrained, and an invariably

possessed

sympathy, a power of observation as

spirited gift of portrayal that rises at times into the realm of the sheerly fasci-

nating. Anthropologically his great service

lies

method he was able seize and fix the salient

looseness of his data and before or after

him

to

people he described.

The

ethnologist

he fingers Powers' pages, but for he can

still

do no

slovenly edges,

it

this brief

have provided annotations

The

they are keyed to the

The

all their

With

and smile

as

highlights and shadows,

all its

flimsy texture and

best introduction to the subject.

Introduction and redrawing Powers' map,

to certain passages in the book.

are corrections or clarifications,

pages.

therefore by turns writhe

remain the

than anyone

qualities of the mentality of the

better than consult the book.

will always

Beyond writing

few as possible.

may

values with

its

in the fact that with all the

to a greater degree

and

annotations

I

may

have

tried to

Usually these

keep them as brief and

be found at the end of the

numbers appearing

I

and the book text,

margin of one section at and the figure numbers appear in the margins in the outer

original illustrations have been condensed into

the beginning of the text,

adjacent to the text references.

Annotating

this reprint of

Powers' book was done

at the

suggestion of

August Fruge, Director of the University of California Press. I thank him for asking me to do this happy task. My own teacher, Alfred Kroeber, would approve of this reprinting, but if he had done the annotations I am certain they would have been far better than mine. Robert July

F.

13,

Heizer

1975

STEPHEN POWERS' PUBLISHED WRITINGS

ON CALIFORNIA INDIANS 1872a

"The Northern

California Indians, No.

1

•

^

[the Karok],"

Overland Monthly

[the Karok],"

Overland Monthly

8:325-333.

1872b

"The Northern

California Indians, No.

II

California Indians, No.

Ill [the

8:425-435.

1872c

"The Northern ly

1872d

"The Northern Monthly

1872e

Yurok],

'

Overland Month-

S:5S\-bS9.

California Indians,

No. IV [the Hupa]," Overland

9:155-164.

"The Northern

California Indians, No.

V

[the Yuki],"

Overland Monthly

9:303-313.

1872f

"The Northern

California Indians, No. VI [the Porno]," Overland Monthly

9:499-507.

1873a

"The Northern Monthly

1873b

"The Northern Monthly

1873c

"The

California Indians, No. VII [the Meewocs]," Overland

10:323-333.

California Indians, No. VIII:

The Modocs," Overland

10:535-545.

California Indians, No. IX:

The

Yocuts," Overland Monthly

11:

105-116.

1874a

"The

California Indians, No. X:

The Neeshenams," Overland Monthly

12:21-31.

1874b

"Aborigines of California; an Indo-Chinese Study," Atlantic Monthly

33:

313-323.

1874d

"A Pony Ride on Pit River," Overland Monthly 13:342-351. "The California Indians, No. XI: Various Tribes [Achumawi, Yana, Sierra

1874e

"The

1874c

Maidu]," Overland Monthly 12:412-424. California Indians, No. XII:

The Wintoons," Overland Monthly

12:

The Patweens," Overland Monthly

13:

530-540.

1874f

"The

California Indians, No. XIII:

542-551.

1874g

"Aboriginal Botany," Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences 5:373-379.

1874h

"The

California Aborigines," Proceedings of the California

Academy

of

Sciences 5:392-396.

1875

"Californian Indian Characteristics," Overland Monthly 14:297-309.

1877a

"Centennial Mission to the Indians of Western Nevada and California,"

Annual Report 1877b

of the Smithsonian Institution for 1876: 449-460.

Tribes of California, Contributions of North American Ethnology, Vol.

(Washington, D.C.: United States Department of the

Interior, U.S.

Ill

Geo-

graphical and Geological Survey of the Rocky Mountain Region.) 1970

"The and

Life

and Culture

of the

Washo and

Paiutes [in 1875]," D. D. Fowler

C. S. Fowler, eds., Ethnohistory 17:117-149

6

Figure

5.

Tolowa man and

wife.

dressed tor While Deer Dance.

Figure

6.

Hu-pa Woman,

Figure

7.

Hu-pa mush-paddle,

pillow, and money-purses, spoons and

wedge

of

elkhorn.

Plan of

Figure

19.

Figure 20. Ventura's Lodge.

Plan ot Old

Se-nel'.

Figure 21. Earth-lodges ot the Sacramento Valley.

Figure 23.

1

lu

old

Chauoal

Artist

Figure 26. Mai-du Girl, with ornaments. (See page 339.)

V

%

Figure 27. Captain John, a Ni-shi-nam Chief.

Figure 28. Captain

Tom

and

wite. (See

page

339.)

Figure

37.

Yosemite Lodge.

Figure

38. Tis-se-yak.

Figure 42.

Woman

pounding acorns.

Figure 43. Tobacco pipes and Case.

V

Figure 44. Mortars and Pestles.

J

Dancing ^on£ of

cHi/Ttnowe

-no-lxxn-no

cHiniTxowe

-rtO'Tiirmo

I}Vv—rto

n

J

J

I

Wfn—TU)

^

^

I

u/n.-Tvo

r

J"j

J

Jl

f

wirt-rto

I

wxirt-n^o

o-Tuvrvno TuTKiTurto

J

J

turv--rto

J

vun-nxo

wxrvru) I

a-rt-'TU)

YcL-a

"Yct-CL

wv-n-^o

Ixe-le

l^e-le

wrt-mo

vvx-n-

no

ya-TU) Ixi-lo^ you-cu

ycL-TLO

Ixi-lo

W\Tvno f

lx--mo

vLiri-

lie-le

II

I

nohxrino

oTtirt-rLO

Tixrtixowe

o-Tixn-no

tUTt- -no

wiia--ru>

Tt/iTi/Ttowe

o-Ttirt-Tto

f

ihe J(!^ctTa^.

ttrt tu)

r

1

tfrt-'rto

r

f

wx-rt-no

I

ixo

v/a-TLo

"ke-le ycL-lo

wi-n-rto.

Txl-I^

Tti-lo

—

O

'

JHirTti-o

4

d

^

Tie-lte-o

'

«'

^ P

'

'kl-kvo

— —AJ 0

^

zi

"ke-"ke-o

"ke- o

"ke-o,

-rnoAiTvne

i ^

N

\

N

— =s:

T^oUe^- Valley.

Jfo -]3il ]oU-li welcL Timy tt >ta - a. - o.

e)\

-

TUt - s

THE MAKH' EL-CHEL. An

—

—

Haughty and exclusive Death to au adulteress— Wigwams, implements, and canoos Good Indians burned; bad Indians "holed"— A treaty Medical practices— A story of the lake.

island tribe

—

Chapter XXIV. THE

PAT-WIN'.

— Geographical distribution — Seats of population— Food— Lodges— Chiefship— Clannishness — War — Treatment of children — California Indian physiqm* — Change of skin — Raising the •lead — Kaising the devil— Widows — Medical art — Bidding the dead adieu— Legends— Origin of Clear Lake — The Great Fire— The Kejos.

Lack

of cohesion

Chapter XXV. THE WIN

TUN'.

— Distribution of tribes — A metropolitan nation, and a court language^Dress — Fondness for water— Fishing-stations — Manzanita cider — Rotation of foods — Traffic — Puberty dance— Songs A social race — Scalp dance — Gift dance — Husband ai:d wife— Midwifery — Disposal of the dead

Characteristics

" Spirit-roads"— No religious acts— Trinity

Winlun— Weapons— Specimen

of tattooing.

Chapter XXVI. THE

SHAS-Tl-KA.

— Dominion — Physical aspects — Degenerated — Sweat-ovens— Range of fwnl- Not strictly Calil\»rnia Indians— Power of the chief— A treaty with Tolo-.-Prostitution— Women go to war — Their rights— Old feuds-Strong desire to be buried in native place— Language Legends — Prehistoric horses.

Difficulty of learning national

names

Chapter XXVII. THE MO-DOK. name— Habitat— Rugged strength of features— A fierce race— Bloody wars with the settlers— Retaliation— Dealt in slaves— Toughness of vitality— Dwellings stood near water— Dress, canoes, fooil, lish, etc.— Baby-baskets Morning chants Chiettainship— Does civilization improve Indian morals? Reasons given for polygamy A new religion Suicide of Curly-headed .Jack Origin of Modok war Influence of priests Their skill and bravery— Lava-bed defenses Captain Jack His bad record— Dying speech— John Sconchin— Boston Chailey— Wby they killed the commissionersMelancholy history of the Modok Always a persecuted race, always wronged, and driven to des-

Origin of

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

peration at

lust.

Chapter XXVIII. THE Pit

A-CHO-MA'-WI.

River- Physique in Hot Spring Valley— On the South Fork— In Big Valley— Custom of digging pits— Fooil supply— Position of women— Made slaves of— Social lift One of twins killed— Belief as to spirits of dead— Singular tradition— Legend of creation — Numerals— The Pakamalli.

—

— — TABLE OF CONTENTS.

13

Chapter XXIX. THE A

—

N6-ZI, ETC.

—

—

—

small, tierce, monntaiu tribe Their home Pwiessy— Aboriginal honesty Nearly extinct Tradition of their eastern origin — Mill Creek Indians — A doomed race Wonderful resistance to civilization Five Indians against the world Present home — Summary of customs — Apparently foreign to Cali-

—

—

fornia—Story of Snowflake.

Chapter XXX. THE MAl-DU.

—

—

— Guarded against surprise— Hill-stations Old camps Description of a village— Daily life Fowling-snares Acorn dance Cloverdance-Manzanita dance— Great Beliefs An Indian schottish Legend of the Flood W6-lok-ki and Spirit dance— Annihilation y6-to-wi The lion and the cat— Legend of Oan-koi'-tu-peh— Sacred songs.

Distribution of tribes— Sites of villages

— —

—

— —

—

—

—

Chapter XXXI. THE

Nl-SHI-NAM.

— Differences in langnage— Great number of dialects — Boundaries — System of names—Personal names — Villages and geography — Low estate of the tribe— Instances — No payment made for wife— Childless women — Murder of a woman — Nomadic habits— Origin of government — Penalty of crimes — Customs in war— Spears — Collecting debts — Sacrificeof the aged — Indian field-commissary Captain Sutter's Indians —Not misers — First grass dance — Second grass dance — A gala-day in spring — Spiritualism —Women's dance-house — Medical art— Death scenes —Mourning of widows Dance for the dead —The "cry"— Story of Captain Tom.

Classification

Chapter XXXII. THE NISHINAM— Continued. at target — Boys' games— Different kinds of gambling— An athletic game— "Learning —Jugglery— Shell-money—Wealth of the aborigines— Two kinds of money— Personal ornaments — Mythology — Ai-kutand Yo t6-to-wi — Origin of incremation —The bear and the deer Origin of -The old man-eater —The road-woman— Insanity — Hermaphrodites.

Games — Shooting the rules"

fire

Chapter XXXIII. THE Ml-WOK. A

—

—

—

dense aboriginal population A common language, but no nationality Greeting Characteristics Tribal geography The Walli Houses Food Shell-money Chieftainship Old Sam Tai-pok'-si Honeymoons Kill one of twins Medicine Dances Annual mourning A legend of the Tu-olum-ne Creation of man Numerals.

—

—

—

—

—

— —

—

—

— —

—

—

—

Chapter XXXIV. YOSEMITE.

— Origin of the word— Inteqireters— Old Jim—List of names—Translations— Villages —Legend of Tu-tok-a-nu'-la — Legend of Tis-8omeridianmn) wdien they are hard pushed in the spring.

They

extract the poisonous quality from

which they do by heaping a large quantity of it

over with green leaves, and building a

burn is

many

hours until the poison

said to be quite

cammas, and

peeled

sweetish and toothsome.

wliich are sweet

when

by

roasting,

over

They

This

it.

out,

is

allowed to

when

the root

also find a root

grow-

which they make much account, and which

]n'obably

is

fire

thoroughly roasted

sweet and palatable.

ing in moist places, of

is

is

it

on the ground, covering

it

called the wild potato,

roasted,

The

great

nnd especially

which w^hen roasted and

amount of tlie

is

roots in this State

cammas

— the digging

of

TRIBES TRIBUTARY TO TBE IIUPA^

90

whicli i^rocured for

"Dig-gers"

them

—seems

tlie

to

Califprnia Indians

the injurious

appellation of

account partly for the sweet- tooth that every one of

Let a squaw get together a few dimes by hook or crook, and she

has.

will hie her to a trading-post

and invest every cent of

They

grievously needs a few breadths of calico. as the eastern Indians are of whisky,

and eat

it

it

in sugar,

when she

are as fond of the article

as they

would bread.

The

large quantity of saccharhie matter which the California Indians get in the roots they eat seems to have

to

do with their fatness in youth,

always eating candy, and have round cheeks.

just as children are

They

somewhat

gather also huckleberries and manzanita-berries, which latter are

exceptionally large and farinaceous in the Trinity Valley.

I

have seen

thickets of them wherein an acre could be selected that would yield more

nutriment to

human

life, if

the berries Avere all plucked, than the best acre

grown in California, after the expenses of cultivation were The agriculture of the Upper Trinity and South Fork ^lieaven will never support a population one-fourth as numerous as mark

of wheat ever

—

deducted.

save the

!

—

the Indians were, and I greatly doubt

years of their yield, supported as

if

the placers, even in the halcyon

many

as lived there in the days of

savagery.

Before the miners troubled that all the river

tlie

was darkened by

w^aters the

their

salmon crowded up so thick

black-backed myriads, and they

sometimes lingered until they perished by hundreds before they could return to salt

water and rid themselves of the devouring fresh-water

old settler says he has often seen the thin stream in

them lying

figure-head of a chief,

so close that he could go across

prevails

whom

among

the Kelta, each village having

they obey or not, as they

Hupa, adultery committed by a married man

is

list.

As among

its

the

punished by the loss of one

murder by ransom.

Like

game

An

summer-time stepping every step on a dead salmon.

Extreme democracy

eye, and

parasites.

all

savages, the Kelta are inveterate gamblers, either with the

of " guessing the sticks " or with cards

;

and they have a curious way

of punishing or mortifying themselves for failure therein.

been unsuccessful

in

gaming, he frequently

glass on the outside of the leg from the

scarifies

knee down

When

himself with

one has flints

or

to the ankle, scratching

CLAIRVOYANCE— DESTINY OF the limb

all

up

believing that

criss-cross until

it

appease some bad

will

Their shamans profess to be dreams, which

be able

is

common among

related which

is

of ghost-stories narrated

who had murdered

by

is

created

at that

There was a certain Indian

the gente de razon.

Mr. Stockton, the agent of the reservation, besides three

was then a hunted speculation

day a Kelta shaman

moment with

the place where he

waking hours by clairvoyance.

about as worthy of credence as the majority

much excitement and

Indians, and one

murderer

against him.

the California Indians, but pretending to

other persons at various times, and ter

is

for luck",

not merelj having visions in

spiritualists,

to hold converse with spirits in their

An incident

who

spirit

91

lie does this

bleeds freely.

it

ISOULS.

the

tattle-loving

cried out suddenly that he

his spiritual eyes.

was concealed,

The mat-

fugitive.

among

He

how long he had been

told

saw the

described minutely there, etc.

Subsequent events revealed the fact that the shaman was substantialh^ corwhether he drew on his clairvoyant vision or on knowledge somehow

rect,

smuggled.

They make

a curious and rather subtle metaphysical distinction in

According

the matter of spirits.

{Kitoanchwa, a

The

less. is

Hupa word) and

evil errands

bent

;

The former

but the latter

is

science the is

spirit

good

heart", they

evil spirit or devil

;

name-

but the good

spirit

without, and ranges through space it

is

their

Like Confucius, who

seem

spirit is

own

spirit,

calls the

con-

to believe that the original nature of

good, and that he does evil only under temptation from the bad

without or external to himself

When away with catch the

a Kelta dies, according to their pretty fancy, a his soul to the spirit-land.

little

bird

their

If

bird

flies

he was a bad Indian, a hawk

will

and eat him up, soul and feathers

he will reach the spirit-land.

bury

an

but the good

within them;

is

their better nature, or conscience.

man

;

and powerful

evil spirit is positive, active,

negative and passive.

on

to them, there is

a good spirit

;

but

little

if

he was good,

Before the Americans came, they used to

dead in a squatting posture, which

they follow the Ilupa custom, which

is

is

a Win-tun custom

;

but

now

also that of civilization.

THE CIII-MA1/-A-KWE.

The Chi-mar-a-kwe

lived on

New

River, a tributary of the Trinity, but

TEIBES TKIBUTATY TO THE HDPA^

92

^

they are

now

When

extinct.

the Americans arrived there were only two

famihes, or about twenty-five persons, on that stream wlio

malakwe;

On

the rest of them used Hupa.

all

Burnt Ranch up

to the

mouth of North Fork,

Chim-a-ri-ko (evidently

tlie

still

the Trinity

spoke Chiitself,

from

there lived a tribe called the

same word as the kbove), who spoke the same

language as the Chimalakwe, and there are perhaps a half dozen of them

The New River Branch were

yet living.

Hupa

proof that the

when

the time

exacted tribute from certain surrounding

i^er capita

—that

among them named White

pioneer

tribes, for at

Chimalakwe were paying them yearly

the whites arrived the

a tax of about seventy-five cents

An early

interesting as affording indubitable

is,

an average deer-skin.

states that

they were once

nearly as numerous as the Hupa, but the restless aggression and persistency

them

of that sturdy race crushed

utterly out.

represent the true California Indians, while the

bascan races; and invasion,

whose

we behold

speaking more or

many

it

had dwindled

of the tribe

to a

left to

pliant

and

less heroic

speak either

Hupa or Chimalakwe.

away

before the white man, while the

lowlanders, conserving their strength through

sluggishness, have held on for years. to them,

mere category of names, though

are a melancholy illustration of the rapidity with which the sim-

ple tribes of mountaineers have faded

more

Atha-

to the

here one of the last conquests of this northern

southward was only checked by the advent As above stated, there were two families of Indians less Chimalakwe when the whites arrived; but in fifteen

years from that time

They

Hupa belong

to

stead}' progress

of the Americans.

there were not

The Chimalakwe seem

When

and they found they were naked,

the serpent of civilization

like

Adam and Eve in

they made for themselves garments or stole them.

Then when

came

the garden, there

came

one of those sweltering days of California the savages chafed themselves,

and grew hot piece.

fashion.

in their

new

clothes,

and they stripped them

off to the last

Besides that, they suddenly changed their diet to a semi-civilized All these things opened a broad door to quick consumption and

other maladies, and the poor wretches went off like leaves on a frosty morn-

ing in October.

It is related th-at at

one time there were not enough able-

bodied Indians in the tribe to dig graves for the dead; and whites, to their

shame be

it

tlie

neighboring

recorded, refused to assist them, so that

many

SWEATING FOK NEUllALGIA -THE CHIMARIKO. of them became a prey to the birds and the beasts.

93

So they went Hke a

wisp of fog, no bigger than a man's hand, on the top of a mountain,

little

when

the sun comes

up

in the

morning, and they are

all

gone.

Living so far up the Trinity as they did, toward the great family of

Wintun, on the Sacramento, they showed a trace of Wintiin influence that they doubled

Wintun,

like the

up a corpse too, in

into a

bunch

bury

to

sucking the patient for

in

Their doctors were

it.

many

ailments, especially

for snake-bites.

But

panacea was

their

tlie

Mr. White relates that he once

sweat-house.

ventured an experiment in one of these sweating-dungeons out of curiosity

and

in despair

many

things of

over a neuralgia, for the healing of which he had suffered

many

physicians, and had spent all that he had, and

The

nothing bettered, but rather grew worse. sufl'ocated

by

the dense and bitter

first

smudge made by

was

time he was well-nigh the green wood.

For

two hours he lay with his face pressed close to the ground, with a wet handkerchief over his nostrils (the Indians purposely build the the door, so that they cannot escape until

wonder

to himself that

that he

made

We mariko,

a second

of

it,

But he was

it.

so

much

it

was a

benefited

and was quite cured.

have seen that the branch living on the Trinity are called ChiI

have above intimated

Californians, while the

the river

he lived through trial

fire close to

burns down), and

it

we

find the

had the enterprise

Hupa are

my

belief that these represent the true

to get

one up over the

'Mountain, and no redwoods

As

Athabascan.

redwood canoe, but no

grow

far as the

falls in

in their

Hupa ascended

The Chimariko never

farther.

the caiion at

own

territory.

New

River

Hence they

crossed the river on willow baskets, holding them under their breasts and propelling themselves wdth their feet and hands. It is related that their hunters,

when they went out

to lie in

ambush

near salt-licks and other springs, were accustomed to smear their bows and

arrows with yerha huena, to prevent the deer from detecting the

and that when they took

The oak

mistletoe

this

human

odor,

precaution they generally had good success.

was occasionally smoked by

these Indians in lieu of

tobacco.

In the early days, before the mining operations

filled

up the

Trinity,

94

TllIBES

TRIBUTAKY TO THE HUPA.^ ^

there was a

fall five or six feet

Hence

could not pass.

the

Wintun

were not so well provisioned as the river the salmon

and

tlie

high at Big Flat, above which the salmon living

on the upper reaches of the river

their down-river neighbors.

In running up

numbers at

this obstruction,

would accumulate

in great

Chimariko used to allow the Patch'-a-^^e (Wintun) living as far up

as North

Fork and Canon Creek

to

come down

in the season

and catch

all

they could carry home.

They occupied and tempting to the

a long and narrow caiion, which atiri

was

sacra fa^nes of the early miners.

rich in gold placers

The mining neces-

sarily roiled the river, so that the Indians could not see to spear salmon.

As

a matter of course they protested.

The miners

Being deprived of salmon,

nothing worse.

the miners' pack-mules and ate them.

The eloquence

replied with insults, if

their staff of

life,

they stole

The miners made bloody

of Pu-yel-yal-li, of Big Flat, stirred

reprisals.

them up

to seek

revenge, and thus matters went on from bad to worse until the deep canon of the Trinity liorrid

was

luridly lighted

war-whoops and the

up by the torch of war, and reechoed

to

wounded and dying. In 1863-64 The Indians for For twenty miles along the river there was

yells of the

the conflict raged with frightful truculence on either side. the nonce got the upper hand.

scarcely a white family or even a miner

and burned the waters ruins;

;

left;

the trading-posts were sacked

the ponderous wheels in the bed of the river lazily flapped in

now muddied no

longer, silent

and untended amid the blackened

and the miners' cabins were very small heaps of

But the Americans

finally rallied

ashes.

and returned, and sternly were the

Indians taught that they must not presume to discuss with American miners the question of the proper color for the water in Trinity River.

hunted

to the

over precipices

dragged down

death, shot ;

to

down one by

They were

one, massacred in groups, driven

but in the bloody business of their taking-off they also death with them a great share of the original

settlers,

alone could have given some information touching their customs.

who

In the

summer of 1871 it was commonly said that there was not an Indian left The gold was gone too, and the miners for the greater part and amid the ;

stupendous ripping-up and wreck of the earth which miners leave behind them, in this grim and rock-bound canon, doubly lonesome

now

with

its

INDIANS sagging

desei'ted villages

this

GOLD—THE PATAWE.

VS.

way and

that on

95

margins of shores, the

little

stripped and rib-smashed cabins, corrugated gravel-beds, shattered turbine-

wheels, and the hollow roaring of

a kind of querulous lament over

skinned fishermen peering keenly

ready poised

;

tlie

its

salmon

to

amid the gray

departed glories

down from

boAvlders, as if in

—long

ago, the dark-

their leafy booths, with spears

afterward, the restless, toiling bands of miners

"The gold

himself indulging in this reflection: the white

river

man wanted ofl'er

;

nothing else

;

is

the Trinity

—one

finds

gone, to return no more;

now

the Indian wanted nothing else

;

has nothing but

would not a

savages be better than this utter and irreclaimable waste, even

if

its

tribe of

the gold

had never been gotten f

THE PAt'-A-WE (pATCH'-A-WE). This

is

the

name given by

the Chimariko to the Wintun, consequently

they will be treated of elsewhere. to the

Hupa.

mouth

of North Fork.

Tlieir habitat extended

They were

down

the Trinity

not in any degree subject to the

CHAPTER

.

THE Around Humboldt Bay

there

PAT' A-WAT. is

a broad margin of land which

out dispute the most valuable compact

poses in

all

The extraordinary exuberance

coast.

body of

the northern part of the State

phere of this region makes

it

X.

with-

is

for agricultural pur-

soil

— the very jewel of the California

of vegetation in the

humid atmos-

look ragged and unhandsome, with flaunting

brake and ferns by every roadside, and concealing every fence-row, and affording a lodging-place for great quantities of dust i-ichness of the

—that

soil

is

home

of

but the depth and

And

the wonderful thing.

almost u.nparalleled fecundity was the

;

yet this land of

some of the most degraded

races of Northern California.

The Patawat 29

live

on the lower waters of

boldt

Bay

They

are black-skinned

lives

stiff

hair

envy of

by

on the the

in

stature

;

down

as Eureka.

well cushioned with adipose

berry -like eyes, often bleared; low foreheads; harsh,

extremely timid and inoffensive

;

and a prey

their

all

Living on the richest and goodliest of lands, they were the

their poorer neighbors,

and were harried from time immemo-

the fierce Mattoal on the south, east,

common

shallow their

;

;

pudgy

Hum-

long to the most frightful and ghoulish superstitions I have heard

anywhere.

rial

River, and round

as far south as Areata, perhaps originally as far

tissue; with little

black,

Mad

and by the Chillula on

tlie

by

the fiercer Sai'-az and Whilkut

north.

They formerly

built either

Klamath lodge of puncheons, with a round, though now most of them imitate the American house and

conical hut, or the

cellar,

implements are about the same as everywhere.

;

The squaws

tattoo in

blue three narrow, pinnate leaves perpendicularly on their chins, and also 90

— FUR PtOBES— BILLY TDE CHIEF. lines

They make

of small dots on the backs of their hands.

robes of hare-skins, and

you may any time

97 beautiful

see a stout brave slumbering-

on the naked earth with his head piHowed on a convenient

wood and

body covered with a wild

his

envy

might

milhonaire

an

for

slaughter seventy-five hare

cat-skin ru^^

An

afghan.

tliat

Indian

trap

will

one of these robes, making

for

billet

of

a San Francisco

and

double,

it

with fur inside and out; and on one of the dank niglits wlien the sea-

wind howls dismally

in

from Humboldt Bay, or when

dense over the land that one can cleave a nft in these are very comfortable to tial

lie

They

under.

with his swung

it

make very

also

One day

long while with one Billy,

only son of the

last

an Indian with a good knowledge of English, and a

suit

I talked a

chief,

fist,

substan-

bamboo.

tule-mats, almost equal to the Chinese manufacture of

recognized

fog broods so

tlie

tlie

of clothing which was neat and chastened in tone and complete even to the

dapper ure

;

was

He was

necktie.

little

soft;

manner

his

He

pleasant smile.

gentle;

said he

He

man

of about five feet two inches in stat-

and

was

it

was long perhaps;

appeared

would be In

my

to

for

have

him

to

grow melancholy when the

sufiicient

his voice

round cheeks easily rippled into a

his

fully entitled to the succession

pretended to be chief; but the tribe was so wasted that

else

upon him, and he seemed

it

a

with a pudding-sack face broader than

acumen

to perceive

lie

subject

and nobody took nothing

was broached.

what a mournful farce

to strut in a little fifteen-man authority.

conversation with him I caught a glimpse of what might be

called hereditary imbecility

—

that

is,

the stunting of intellect which comes

of a few families marrying in and in for a long period of years. chief of the I-tok on Eel River (there

is

no

He

said the

tribe calling themselves that

he probably meant the Vi-ard) had lately died, leaving the succession to his son

;

but the latter was unfit to

him crazy", his

sound mind.

was

"Me no want

said.

Billy

placid

and vacuous

among

rule,

said Billy in explanation.

far

to

being a natural.

He

be chief;

me

too

from being crazy, but he was a

inutility

which we occasionally see

those born in the purple.

"White man

also said that himself

much

fine

call

was not

like play",

in

he

specimen of that

illustrated in

Europe,

THE PAT A WAT.

98

V

The Patawat have reduced mechanism

tolerably accurate

The average

punishment.

five strings of

and

erally average,

amount a

in

one matter at least

imposed

fine

for the

—

down

to

a

that of mulctuary

murder of a man

ten

is

of dllikochik, each string consisting of ten pieces, and for that of a

string's

squaw

the science and practice of law

to

As

equal length.

as

it

was

the pieces of this shell-money gen-

valued in American coin, these fines

at first

about SlOO and» $50, respectively.

more determinate Indian standard,

1

may

If

any one

is

curious to have

say that an average Patawat's

considered worth about six ordinary canoes, each of which occupies

life is

two Indians probably three months tantamou.nt to the labor of one California homicide has

in the

man

making

(that

of old), or, in

is,

for a period of three years.

all,

Many

a

escaped with no more than three years' " hard

labor" in the penitentiary.

A

wife

is

always acquired by purchase, and her market value

lated on a sliding scale, on

which the prices range

all

the

is

regu-

way from two up a Patawat

may

get his spouse for the equivalent of about nine months' labor, such as

it is,

Jacob wrought seven years

to fifteen strings.

or she

may

cost

him

The Patawat

much

as

also

for

Eachel

;

as five years' labor.

Imve the custom, which prevails among the Yurok,

of contractino- ''half-marriao^es."

This tribe has a superstition which, pires, is a close

approximation thereto.

chief, there are

innumerable spooks,

not actually a belief in vam-

if

According

in the

to

forms of

my

are in the habit of digging up dead Indians and carrying

the forest.

infernal alchemy, divers kinds of poisons,

in the destruction of other victims.

the dead and the living. in forests, catch

also

squirrels,

little

them away

into

There they extract from these dead bodies, by burning and by

some process of

They

veracious

men and women who

to turn

and other animals

ble measure.

These ghouls have equal power over

In the night they frequently give chase to people

them, and rob them with violence of

have power

;

These imps of

men and women

hell

do not appear

all their dlUkochik.

into dogs, coyotes,

and they often resort

that they are not dead Indians returned to

assuming the human form.

which they use

to

life,

to this

ground-

highly unjustifia-

be proper vampires, in

but pre-existing demons

:

MEDICINES— OLD GRAVEYARDS. All these things Billy related to

ness and good faith, and

many

me

99

with the most profound earnest-

other matters he added thereto, the recital of

which would make the hair of the human race stand on end.

now something

to record of

him which

One day

ligence and that of his tribe.

my

through the

Mad

on the practice of medicine he pointed out

little

chaperone,

my

to

me as we went He must have

attention to fifty different kinds of vegetation, all used

by

physicians for medicine, and to every one he gave a distinct name. is

have

and our conversa-

along every plant or shrub that possessed a healing virtue. called

I

I strolled leisurely several miles

tion turning

River forest with

But

greatly more creditable to his intel-

is

the

There

not the smallest moss or lichen, not a blossoming shrub or tree or root,

weed grow-

not a flower or vine, no forest parasite, bulrush, or unsightly

ing in the water or out, or any sea-weed or kelp, for which they have not a specific

name

and

;

seemed

it

to

me

one disease or another nearly half of copious and carefully defined

on "Aboriginal Botany.

Among

is

all

;

for

so

(See chapter

")

the Patawat the dead are always buried

There

is

and

their possessions

evidence to show that this cus-

tom long antedates the advent of the Americans,

me

we saw

the herbs or bushes

the Patawat materia medica.

placed in the graves with them.

to

good

that Billy pointed out as

^[r.

that in the early days of the settlements around

Hempfield related

Humboldt Bay, he

had seen old Indian burying-grounds containing hundreds of graves, each

marked with a redwood for its durabihty

rendered

it

;

Though

slab.

and the

a soft wood, the redwood

is

noted

and condition of some of these head-boards

size

probable that the graves had been made seventy-five or a hun-

dred years.

The Patawat to obtain various

are like the Yiard in almost every respect, and I

supplementary particulars of the

add here the numerals common

to

;

Koh'-tseh.

5.

2.

Di'-teh.

G.

Chil-6-keh.

3.

Di'-keh.

7.

A-tloh.

4.

Di'-oh.

8.

1-wit.

9.

10.

Sri-ro-keh.

Lo-kel'.

was able

so I will only

both tribes

Weli'-sah.

I.

latter

100

*

THE PATAWAT. ^

The pronunciation of the Patawat, like that of the Yurok, is quite Judge Rosborough states, in the letter above quoted, that one guttural. and the same language extends from Humboldt Bay to Waitspek, and that it is

'^not unpleasing to the ear,

being free from harsh and guttural sounds."

This does not correspond with

my

observation^.

The Patawat and Viard by

are undoubtedly identical with the Koquilth or Kowilth mentioned

Gibbs.

The Yurok

does»not extend as far south as

Fio.

9.

— ludiauB at sea.

Humboldt Bay.

CHAPTER XL THE Vl-ARD OK WI-YOT. The Viard Eagle

live

on lower Humboldt Bay and Eel River as

On

the north side of

Prairie.

extending-

down

Van

noted, are very nearly identical in customs

They appear

up

as

Dusen's Fork were the Whil-kut,

The

confluence of the streams.

to the

far

Viard, as above

and language with the Patawat.

have constructed both the conical and the Klamath

to

River wig'wam of hcAvn puncheons, in the making of which they displayed

They

some ingenuity.

took elk-horns and rubbed them on stones to

first

Then

sharpen them into axes and wedges. that

was

straight

and

free

some

selecting

fiiUen

redwood

from knots, with incredible labor they hacked a

notch a few inches deep and reaching perhaps a third or more of the

around the

of the

A

Next they brought the elk-horn wedges

tree.

and

for beetles,

split off

wigwam, two

veteran

of seven

woodman

feet.

or three inches in thickness

this

and four or

it

smooth with

puncheon observes the curvature of the

elk-

Very much the same process If the lodge

wood bark

;

five feet wide.

them of the enormous width

but on being exposed to the sun for a few days then dressed

into play, with stones

a kind of jacket-slab, long enough for the height

relates that he has seen

Of course

way

is

horn or

flint axes,

said to have

it

it

They for use.

been employed on the Klamath.

was conical they could employ

but only puncheons

flat.

was ready

warps out

and

tree,

set in the

slabs of the

huge red-

ground would make a

tolerably secure against the tempestuous winds of

Humboldt Bay.

shelter

For a

door they take one of these enormous puncheons, and with their elk-horn axes perforate a round hole through

passage of an Indian on

all

fours

;

it,

just large

enough

to

admit the

and on the inside they frequenth' place

a sliding panel, so that the door can be rendered baby-tiglit on occasion.

Being notably timid and unskillful

depended mainly on snares and traps

to

in

hunting the larger animals they

supply themselves with game. 101

To

THE VIARD OR WIYOT.

102

^

catch deer or elk they constructed two long lines of brush-wood fence, so slight as not to arouse the animals' suspicions, or

from tree to tree in a continuous

l)ark

simply tied single

two

string, the

strips of

lines gradually con-

verging until they compelled the elk to pass through a nan-ow chute. this point

down

to let

At

they placed a pole in such a mann^- that the animal was obliged

and thus he inserted

his horns to pass underneath,

the noose.

his

head into

This was made of grass or fibrous roots, twisted in a rope as

large as a man's arm, and w\as attached to a pole in such a fashion that the elk dragged

it

down, whereupon

contiguous bushes and anchored him

speedily

it

became entangled

in the

fast.

Sometimes, to their great dismay, they snared ''Old Ephraim," instead

Among

of an elk or a deer.

boldt

the earliest colonists in the vicinity of

Bay was Seth Kinman, who

relates the following incident

an Indian came running to his cabin with after a

hard six-mile stretch, and so cut in

all his

his

and

in a drip of perspiration as

sweat-house, he

made out

that

he could not divulge

and they ran back

by pantomime some time down his rifle

quickly caught

Arrived on the spot he found an enonnous

snared in the noose,

grizzly bear ajDOut,

together.

Kinman

Panting and

he had just emerged from the

if

to reveal his errand

before he recovered his wind.

Hum-

One day

might, desperately blown

wind

the matter of his business for a considerable space of time. puffing,

:

frantic

with rage,

roaring,

lunging

dragging down bushes and saplings with the pole, and throwing

when suddenly brought up by some tree. The Indian would not venture within rods of him. Kinman slowly approached and

himself headlong

waited for the mighty beast to become a

long though,

lest the

rope might chafe

off,

little

He

pacified.

waited not

and presently drew up and sent

The great brute fell, quivered, then lay was only when Kinman approached and stamped on his head

a bullet singing into his brain. quiet.

But

it

with his heel that the cowardly Indians were assured

;

and then from

all

From a score down in all haste. Not more than a dozen had when Kinman arrived on the ground, but now^ scores col-

the forest round about there went up a multitudinous shout.

of trees they scrambled

been

in sight

lected in a few minutes, gazing

wonder, not unmixed with

terror.

upon the enormous brute with owl-eyed

— EEL-FISHING— A POPULOUS TRIBE. Like sistence,

all

103

coast tribes the Viard depended largely on fishing for a sub-

and the lower waters of Eel River yielded them a wonderful

amount of

rich

and oleaginous

To

eels.

capture these they constructed a

funnel-shaped trap of splints, with a funnel-shaped entrance at the large

him

end, through which the creature could wriggle, but which closed on

and detained him

Traps of

inside.

kind they weighted down so that

this

they floated mostly below the surface of the water, and then tied them to stakes planted in the river bottom.

swish of the

Thus they turned about with the

keeping the large ends always against the

tide,

cui-i-ent,

that

the eels might slip in readily.

The

operation of driving these stakes into the river-bed as points of

Wading

attachment for eel-traps, illustrates a point of Indian character.

out into the stream the fisherman gripes the top of the stake firmly in one

from being splintered, and with a stone

hand

to prevent

softly

and carefully beats

saws

it

it

about, tapping

it

into the

gently the while

it

sometimes for hours on one nothing can root

out,

it

;

but drives

pile,

and

where a white man, with

sledge-hammer, would have battered

it

into a

works and

in this fashion

down

it

the other

in

He

hard-packed shingle.

he labors

at last so solid that

his impatience

hundred

slivers

and

and

his

failed

Mr. Dunganne relates that in former times the great number of

totally.

these stakes driven into the river-bed in

summer made

it

look like an old,

deserted corn-field.

Besides this they practiced

by

salmon and smelt

They by observing

the Yurok.

water bayous, and large quantities of

thing

fish for

little

flat

fish

also drive

in all the various

down

little

resembling the eastern perch, but some-

diff'erent.

The amazing fecundity grave-yards, above referred

Humboldt l^ay The populousness of the ancient

of both land and water about

to, is

testimony of the oldest settlers

one proof thereof

;

is

conclusive.

eyes were often

But

their

filled

and the concordant

— Dunganne, Duncan, Kinman, and others

as to the multitudes living on the shores of this noble

their

Aveirs across tide-

the ebb and flow of the waters capture

once sustained a dense Indian population.

rived,

methods

manner of

bay when they

smelt-fishing in the surf,

ar-

whereby

with brine, and the high, sand-driving winds

:

The viard or wiyot.

104

^

which prevail

at certain seasons

much ophthalmia amongMighty that he

when

them, and eventually a great deal of blindness.

eaters are the Yiard

was once hunting

the latter beat

condition,

about the estuary of Eel River, occasioned

upon

company with

in

Mr. Robinson relates

occasion.

four Indians and a white man,

up and shot an elk wh^ch proved

to

He

and which he consequently abandoned.

be not

gave

in

good

to the In-

it

at once*kindled a fire

hard by to protect them against the

assaults of grizzly bears,

made every

preparation for a vigorous campaign

on the tough and ancient

flesh of the animal,

dians,

and they

and then

fell

In

to lively.

twenty-four hours they accomplished the whole matter, and picked the

bones clean.

Chancing

to ])ass the place

again at the expiration of that

period of time, he found the Indians lying in a torpid sleep, and nothing left

but the skeleton.

like pork,

and a

fat

Now

the flesh of the elk

very solid and weighty,

is

and full-grown buck on Humboldt Bay not unfrequently This one was lean but large-boned, and these

weighs 600 or 700 pounds.

four Indians, at a low computation, must have devoured 150 pounds of meat

Perhaps their dogs helped.

within twenty-four hours.

was

It

often a source of

wonder

to

me how

the delicate arrow-heads

used on war- arrows, with their long, thin points, could be made without

The Viard proceed

breaking them to pieces.

Taking a piece of

jasper, chert, obsidian, or

in

the following

common

sharp-cornered and with a conchoidal fracture, they heat cool

it

slowly, which splits

and gives

He

mer. fit

it

it

then sHps over his

and

in his right

hand he takes a

the point with a thong.

ing or wrenching motion.

may

is

it

to prevent the

flint

in a

in

his left

a tiny fragment with the pincers

The

to

hand from being wounded),

piece

is

hand he

by a

twist-

often revei'sed in the hand, so that

Arrow-head manufacture

arrow -making, medicine, and other

Paul Schumacher,

takes a flake

with a kind of ham-

pair of buck-horn pincers, tied together at

be worked away symmetrically.

specialty, just as

it

and then

hand a piece of buckskin, with a hole

Holding the piece of

breaks off from the edge of

it

left

which breaks

in the fire

The arrow-maker then

in flakes.

an approximate rough shape by striking

over the thumb (this buckskin

flint, it

manner

communication

to the

is

a

arts.

Smithsonian Institution,

gives the following account of a different process in use

among the Klamath

MAKING ARROW HEADS—THANKSGIVING DANCE. "*

Kiver Indians:

one and a half

shaft

and raised

to

shown with being

The motions

with but

little

bone

*

^

wooden

fastened to a

is

be made- with

To guide

held between the

is

*

which

this

is

crooked

instrument are

emjdoyed

the force

the instrument with a steady

arm and

the breast, while the point,

play-room, assisted by the thumb, works on the edge of the

which again

is

held for greater safety in a piece of deer-skin.

the two sides have been is

to

two principal angles,

the time solely pushing.

all

of

feet in length, the working- point of

an edge.

the

hand, the handle

flake,

Apiece

*

^

105

worked down

to a point, then another instrument

which the barbs and projections are broken

required, with

After

a needle or awl of about three inches length, and

by

This

out.

is

a pushing motion the

desired pieces are broken out similar as with the first-mentioned tool".

Judging by

worked

one

like

this description,

the tool here mentioned

made and

is

saw among the Washo of Nevada.

I

Besides the ordinary dances of enjoyment, of friendship,

Viard have an annual thanksgiving dance foraneous tribes,

affair like

but

is

in

autumn.

It is

etc.,

the

not an extra-

most of the great anniversary dances of the northern

held in a large assembly-hall.

A

number of men,

fifteen or

twenty, according to the room, and two or three maidens, constitute the performers,

all

whom

of

are arrayed in barbaric splendor, with feather

head-dresses, fur robes, strings of abalone shells, beads, etc. in a circle

around the

fire,

They dance

chanting their monotonous and meaningless

choruses, as usual, with occasional improvised recitative, as the spirit

move them, but not

may

The observant reader

Ideating time to their singing.

has probably remarked that most of the tribes so far mentioned do not

cadence their harmony, although they keep remark-

employ the baton

to

ably good time

but south of Humboldt

;

Bay most

of

them beat time

to

their chanting.

But the great feature of the occasion "old

man

eloquent".

At a

is

the oration pronounced

by some

certain turn of the celebration he proceeds to

make them

a set liarangue, in round and sonorous phrasing, wherein he

sums up

the bounties and triumphs of the year.

fat,

all

lie enumerates all the

firm-fleshed elk they have snared or shot, all the cotton-tailed deer they

have run down, the cougars,

if

any, their braves

may have killed,

the grizzly

— ;

V

THE VIARD OR WIYOT.

106

bears they have snared, the bear, otter, and seal skins they have tanned dwells with unction on the bushels of rich and oily eels they have captured red-fleshed salmon they have, speared, the smelt, the

in their traps, the

perch, the squaw-fish, the red-fish they have taken in their nets for winter let

;

gives an account»of the rich, sweet hazel-nuts, acorns, the scar-

manzanita-berries, and the purple whortleberries they have stored up in

the attics of their

wigwams

describes with pride the

;

canoes they have launched, the Fig. 9

and dried

graceful

slender,

new wigwams that have been

built,

and the

fine stock of bows, arrows, nets, baskets, tule-mats, bear-skin rugs, fish-

and beads they have accumulated

gigs, grass ropes,

marriages, but carefully refrains from

;

tells

any naming of

of the births and

the dead

;

glorifies

the victories they have achieved over their enemies, and the heads they

have cut

off,

combines

in this

but patriotically slurs over their defeats,

In short, he

etc.

one speech the President's message, Department reports,

and the municipal and health

officers' statistics,

and adds

to the

whole a brief

thanksgiving homily, exhorting them to good behavior, decency

—

in short,

the practice of the whole limited decalogue of Indian virtues.

This oration conclusion of

it is

is

received with stolid solemnity

giving sermon would be in Trinity Church. that

is

lacking.

feeding.

There

The dance

winding up

and

silence,

and the

no more disturbed by indecorous applause than a thanks-

is

is

But the thanksgiving dinner

no feasting on dainties

resumed

until the

at night is celebrated

by

—nothing but

company have

their

fill,

common and the

a carousal, wherein they violate the

moral precepts of the chief to the top of their bent.

CHAPTER XIL THE MAT-TOAL. The Mat-t6al have their main habitat on the creek which bears thenname (Mattole) and on the still smaller stream dignified with the appellaFrom the coast they range across to Eel River, and tion of Bear River.

by immemorial Indian usage and bank of Viard

this river

from about Eagle Prairie

—up southward

bounded by

One form the

prescriptive right they hold the western

to the

— where

they border upon the

mouth of South Fork, where

their

first

is

notable in regard to the Mattoal, and that

were always a terror

The Tolowa,

in

Del Norte County, have

Lower Klamath time out

to the Chillula,

and the

Viard on Humboldt Bay; but here the rule

is

The Yurok

of mind.

latter to the

reversed,

Patawat and the

and a southern

afterward, the Mattoal harried the feeble folk about the bay;

day, excepting the whites alone, there

name

of the Mattoal."

because living principally

sist

in

The

is

on

fish, eels,

And

whip mercilessly the

and roots

no other so

latter

and

to this

bugbear

terrible

form an exception

to

to this law,

a valley secluded from the cold, raw ocean

and subsisting more on a strong meat

ciently well fed to

tiibe

Before the whites came to meddle, and for years

masters a northern.

fogs,

that they

is

exception and the termination to the law of supremacy which

beaten the Yurok on the

as the

is

that of the Lo-lon'-kuk.

thing

prevails all along the cpast above.

them

domain

diet,

tribes

they are fighting men,

suffi-

on Humboldt Bay, who sub-

to a greater extent.

here I would venture most respectfully to suggest that Professor

Agassiz's theory of a phosphoric fish-diet being nutritive above all others to the

human

brain,

is

not corroborated

by the

facts ])revailiiig

among 107

these

THE MATTOAL.

108 Not only do

races.

by

coast tribes

the interior tribes almost invariably lord

over the

it

force of arms, but I have found not only the most beautiful

legends, but about

there are of

all

any

one or two layers

description, at-^east

of tribes back from the sea, -while these fog-sodden i-chthyophagi have the

most revolting and incredible

As above feeble Viard

superstitions.

noted, the Mattoal were ever

and Patawat, and

enlarged their operations to include theni

had

tribes generally

fine-spun distinctions which

''Mattoal he

heap; run

no

um

Bay

boldt

characteristic of the sincere but illogical

is

do.'

came

steal

um,

in their

'You

White man

steal um.'

say,

'You

is

Injun say,

Injun he run.

lie.'

with great its

simple

cow, chicken; steal

He

cuss.

'N-o,

way

touching in

steal hoss, pig,

White man get heap mad; he

off".

Injun,

come

on the

that profound disregard of

Their story, as related by a Viard,

impartiality.

raids

into the country they

For this the unfortunate bay

With

pioneers, they sacrificed whatever Indians

pathos:

came

also.

bear the blame.

to

making predatory

after the whites

say one

Humme

no; one Mattoal;

White man run

after

The Americans forbade the Viard and the Mattoal from quarreling; but when the latter wished to see their hereditary foes suff'er, they had only to make a foray and steal some Ameri-

him; he shoot um;

kill

heap Injun."

can horses in the Viard territory, and the thing would speedily be done.

The Mattoal language the

30

two

tribes

differs

from that of Humboldt Bay so much that

cannot understand each other until they have conversed

together -some months.

Though

the Indians that

same

the

it is

the case, the Mattoal

I

have no specimens of

to

to the

wigwams, implements, tliere is

is

This being

holding their rich low-

but the

all sides

are like tliose around

superior to anything

not excepting Spalding's patent.

strain.

by

sea.

them every-

nothing of special interest to be noted save the glue

they manufacture, which

their bows,

etc.,

told

Humboldt Bay tribes would still

them on

lands against the invaders surrounding

where, and

am

Athabascan races who made the

be a remnant of the true Californians,

Tlieir

I

as the Wai-lak-ki of Eel River.

would belong

great invasion of Northern California, while the

seem

it,

With

it

made by

civilized processes,

they glue their

strips of

sinew on

which render them quite infrangible by any ordinary reasonable

Bend

the

bow

with the strength of a Ulysses, yet the sinew cleaves

1

THEORY OF TATTOOING—BOUNDARY STUDIES. tight, for the

The

glue neither cracks nor scales np until the

secret of

composition

its

is

known

not

wood

109

itself is

broken.

to the whites.

In another regard, also, the Mattoal differ from other tribes, and that is

that the

men

Their distinctive mark

tattoo.

The squaws

center of the forehead.

In respect to

is

tattoo pretty

a round blue spot in the

much

matter of tattooing there

this

is

all

a theory entertained

by some old pioneers which may be worth the mention. the reason

why

the

women

alone tattoo in

own

they are taken captives, their

when

people

all

may

over their faces.

They hold

other tribes

that in case

is

be able to recognize them

There are two

there comes an opportunity of ransom.

that

which

facts

One is that the California divisions, any one of which may

give some color of probability to this reasoning.

Indians are rent into such infinitesimal

be an-ayed

in

deadly feud against another at any moment, that the slight

differences in their

A

squaws.

second

dialects

would not

that the

is

the captive

suffice to distinguish

squaws almost never attempt any ornamental

tattooing, but adhere closely to the plain regulation-mark of the tribe.

Besides the coyote stories with which gifted squaws amuse their children,

and which are common throughout

all this

In the

graphical study.

aries of all the tribes

and

in fact

defined

by

first

place,

it is

among the name of geo-

region, there prevails

Mattoal a custom which might almost be dignified with the

necessary to premise that the bound-

on Humboldt Bay, Eel Eiver, Van Dusen's Fork,

everywhere, are marked with the greatest precision, being

certain creeks, canons, bowlders, conspicuous trees, springs,

each one of which objects has

its

own

individual name.

an Indian to be found outside of his tribal boundaries, wherefore

him well

in

hand

to

make himself acquainted with

etc.,

It is perilous for it

stands

the same early in

Accordingly the squaws teach these things to their children

in a

life.

kind of

sing-song not greatly unlike that which was the national furore some time

ago

in rural singing-schools,

wherein they melodiously chanted such pleas-

ing items of information as this: "California, Sacramento, on the Sacra-

mento River." bowlders, ings.

etc.,

Over and

over, time

and again, they rehearse

describing each minutely and

Then when

by name, with

the children are old enough, they take

beat the bounds like

Bumble

its

all

these

surround-

them around

the Beadle; and so wonderful

is

to

the Indian

3

THE MATTOAL.

110

memory

naturally,

and so

been

faithful has

their instruction, that the little

shavers generally recognize the objects from the descriptions of them previously given

32

by

their mothers.

If

an Indian knows but

little

of this great

world more than pertains to boundary bush and bowlder, he knows small fighting-ground infinitely better than learn

own

it.

It is

above remarked that no Indian in war-time can cross

proper metes and bounds on penalty of death. of the herald, whose person

So

his

any topographical engineer can

inviolable

is

far as his dialect is spoken,

There

"wide

is

his

own

one exception, that

as the Indian idiom rings."

he can pass with impunity on en*ands of

weighty business, and especially with a declaration of war, protected by

He

the aegis of his sacred function.

simply whispers two mysterious and

may

sacred words as a countersign, which no other Indian

utter even

under

What these words are my informant, Mr. Burleigh, did not know they are taboo to the vulgar herd. The Mattoal burn their dead, thus showing their relationship with the Upper Eel and Russian River races rather than with the northern. They

his breath. ;

hold that the good depart to a happy region somewhere southward in the great ocean, but the soul of a

which they consider, of

all

bad Indian transmigrates

Creation, according to this tribe,

The Big Man

ditious manner.

first

The one lone

bleak.

It

was accomplished

aboriginal of humanity

upon a

gladden

time, suddenly there

and smoke, and the Indian

When

the tempest passed

his

filled all

fell flat

away he

upon

it

and dark and

silent

roamed over

desolate

it

his face in

drifting

is

to-day

—the

all this

The work

beasts,

terror.

pleasant

earth swarded with

green, lush grass, and dappled with sweet flowers, the forests already

and inhabited by

which

sand and dust

an unspeakable !

and

Then,

swift whirlwind,

heaven with

arose and looked, and lo

world was finished and perfect as

very expe-

eyes or appease his hunger.

came a strong and

sucked up from the ground and

in a

with the exception of

life,

was a huge, black world,

cheerless, finding nothing to

sin.

fashioned the naked ground, without

form and void, destitute of animal and vegetable one solitary Indian.

into a grizzly bear,

animals, the cousin-german of

and the great sea teeming with

its

of creation having been thus consummated

grown

finny flocks.

all

on a sudden,

:

TRADITIONS— LEGEND OF SATTIK. they hold that there

among up

its

the animals.

Ill

only a certain limited number of

is

When

one departs

this life his spirit

spirits existing

immediately takes

abode in some other one just then entering into existence. never- ending cycle, qualis ah inceptOj

Thus they revolve through a

and

are of necessity immortal, though the Indians do not carry out the philoso-

phy

to these fine conclusions.

They have

also a tradition of the flood,

took place in their immediate vicinity.

and as usual

Taylor's

Peak

is

this

occurrence

the mountain on

which the surviving Indians took refuge. Frogs and white mice are reverenced by the Mattoal, and they never

on any account stitious

kill

or injure one of these sacred animals.

regard for frogs

is

illustrated in the

Their super-

legend following

LEGEND OF SATTIK.

Many snows ago

there

came up a white man out of the southland,

He was

journeying down Eel River to the country of the Mattoal. first

white

man who had

could not find

it

and had

the dust, and his heart

from

fallen in the trail with

Tims

man was

but he could not yet walk. for the white

revived,

Then

He

his

mouth

and

eat,

and

and he spoke kind words

his soul

was cheered within him,

the heart of Sattik was

man, and he took him on

in

took him and

fresh water to drink in his hands,

he gave him dried salmon to the

hunger with

was touched because of him.

him up, and he brought him his basket

to him.

down faint in the trail, and he came way an Indian who was called Sattik,

fallen

But there passed that

and he saw the white man

lifted

the

way and

For lack of food through many days he was sore

again.

distressed with hunger,

near dying.

ever come into that land, and he lost his

moved with

pity

back and carried him on the

his

They journeyed three sleeps down Eel River, but Sattik earned the white man on his shoulders, and he sat down often to rest. At the end of the third day they came to a large spring wherein were many frogs and way.

;

Sattik dipped

up water

but the white

man bowed down on

he caught a frog

in his

in his

hands

hand and

his belly

eat

the sight of this the Indian's heart

to drink, as the

it,

manner of Indians

and drank of the waters, and

because of the hunger he had.

became

is,

as water for terror,

and he

At fled

;

V

THE MATTOAL.

112

from the wrath of the Big Man,

lest,

because of

this

impious

come down quick out of heaven, and with

done, he should

rend a tree to splinters and smite them both dead

one day and two nights, and turned not neither did he

Then

rest.

he* climbed

his face

tlie

baok

up a redwood

thing- that

his red right

groimd.

was

hand

He

tree to the top of

but the tree was hollow, and he broke through at the top, and

ran

behind him,

to look

fell

it

down on

the inside to the bottom and died there.

Like most wild peoples, the Mattoal are exceeding generous upon the

moment

spur of the

—generous with —but they are sometimes

their parents.

casual comer

to-morrow

that thriftless disregard of

characteristic of savages

They will who has not

heartlessly indifferent to

divide the last shred of dried salmon with

of that exaggerated and supererogatory hospitality that savages use

when

their elders

household

st(^ck,

turn them

adrift.

will enable

them

and are only a burden on

They

are

;

but

made

to

they often

their scant larder,

understand that any assistance which

to shuffle off this mortal coil with dispatch will

be cheer-

among them,

says they

sufficiently affectionate

whites

;

too decrepit to contribute anything more to the

Mr. Burleigh, a long time resident

fully rendered.

were

grow

any

a shadow of claim upon them, except the claim

toward their parents before the arrival of the

but their sadly dwindled resources, and the hard necessities that

have griped them

As an

since,

have stunted

instance of black

filial

their piety.

ingratitude, I

saw an old squaw who had

been abandoned by her children because she was blind, and who was wandering alone in the Eel River Mountains. eternal to her sightless eyes,

she groped her

way about

and through

with a

staff in

Day was all

night and night was

hours of the twenty-four alike

each hand, going everywhere and

nowhere, turning her head quickly toward any noise with that piteous, appealing movement so pathetic in the blind, and uttering every few minutes a wild, mournful,

hare

when

to imagine

it is

pierced

any

and haunting

by

spectacle

wail,

which sounded

the fangs of the hounds.

like the cry of a

It is

more melancholy than that of

hardly possible this

poor blind

by all her natural protectors, and left to wander in a darkwhich knew no day through those forests and among those wild

savage, deserted

ness

canons.

By

the merest chance she had happened upon the bivouac of a

INSTANCE OF FILIAL IMPIETY. party of

men

conducting a pack-train, and they gave

she could take, and volunteered to guide her to ria

;

lier

what provisions

nearest Indian ranche-

but the poor soul could not understand a word they uttered, or

if

her chances of casual wdiites rather than throw

did, preferred to take self

tlie

113

she lier-

again on a people whose hearts a hard and bitter poverty had steeled,

or invoke again even that cheap humanity of blood-relationship which years

of calamity had destroyed.

THE LO-LOn'-KUK.

The Lo-lon'-lmk owning the

territory

live

on Bull Creek and the south fork of Eel River,

between those streams and the

Pacific,

along which

they have a prescriptive right to a certain length of frontage for fishing purposes.

They have

the same language and customs as the Mattoal, and

no separate description of them rupted

by the Americans

is

Their name has been corby which they are generally known.

required.

into Flonk'-o,

CHAPTER THE In

VVAl' LAK-KI, ETC.

Wintun language

tlie

XIII.

ivai signifies

"north," and

way

a language in any

related to the

lalJci

''tongue,"

But they do not speak

So these are the North People.

hence ''people."

Wintun; and are therefore another

name given them by a neighbor. mystery attaching to this tribe. They live along

instance of a California tribe bearing a

There

is

a certain

the western slope of the Shasta Mountains, from North Eel River (above

Round Valley)

to

the latter about to

Hay Fork along Eel and Mad Rivers, extending down Low Gap also on Dobbins and Larrabie Creeks. Hence ;

;

they are not north of the AYintun at the Sacramento

Wintun and

proper, belonging to the

as their

all,

Wintun

their geographical location, live

nation,

Ketten

is

Ken'-es-ti),

Pum

some former time; and

their

that they probably

may have

were yet their

north.

received their present

I see not

linguistic

114

Ketten

them 1

how

for

them-

Chow and

drawn from the

must have displaced the Wintun

own language being related

came from the

to the north of

name, and

On

that they

to

Blulf.

own name

places,

of

These geographical terms lying

their domain.

show

they

(their

and there are two names of

within their territory

tvest

The Wailakki

on the Sacramento above Red

(these should be spelled Hetten), w^hich are

Wintun language within

but

indicates,

and whose name corresponds

As remarked, they have a Wintun name selves

name

south of the Trinity Wintun.

Is

it

to the

at

Hupa shows

not possible therefore that

name from

the

Wintun while they

This supposition explains the origin of

else

it

can be explained.

and other grounds

I

am

inclined to believe that the

ORIGIN OF

NAME—MIGRATIONS.

115

Wailakki are the descendants of a former secession or offshoot from the

Hupa, who migrated up the Trinity many years ago, and acquired

name from

the

Wintun

wliile

tlieir

they actually were "North People," though

they continued to push on southward, displacing the Lassik (a tribe of

Wintun

now

affinities)

within the American period, until they lodged where they

whites became acquainted with the

"Wailakki" from them, and applied

name

to the

one

now

bearing

it,

it

and

33

The Wintun first, picked up the name without any regard to the tribe's own

and the whites came and arrested

are,

all

further migration.

has remained to this day.

it

If the

whites call a California tribe b}^ a certain name, no matter what, they soon learn to use that, whether speaking with whites or with one another.

The

fact that the

Wailakki dwell on small ineligible mountain streams

and the head- waters of one or two really

good valley

who had

to

to themselves,

wedge themselves

Judge Rosborough,

in

in

any one

swift rivers, without having

shows that they were once interlopers

where they could.

the letter referred to in a previous chapter,

advances the theory that there have been three principal lines of migration

from the north second,

— one along the

up the Willamet River,

ains into Scott

lakes and across I

coast, diverging slightly into the interior

am much

in

;

and a

third,

down

Klamath

this theory, and, indeed, before I

letter, I

had come

to

facts in

my

had

a similar conclusion in

regard to the line of southward migration along the coast

any

past the

lava regions to Pit River.

inclined to accept

ever seen Judge Rosborougli's

that time

a

Oregon, and over the Kalapuya Mount-

and Shasta Valleys tlie

;

;

but I had not at

possession as to the two other migrations, nor

even a suspicion that they had ever occurred.

I

had discovered already

that along the supposed track of this coast-line of migration there

is

a series

of tribes, begiiming in Del Norte County, and including the Tolowa, the Ilupa, and tribes),

some of

their tributaries (not counting in the

and the Wailakki, who speak languages closely

Humboldt Bay related.

It is a

singular fact that these languages are also closely related to the Navajo, of

New

Mexico, showing that the Navajo must have removed from the Pacific

coast within comparatively recent times.

The

following table of numerals

34

V

THE WAILAKKI,

116

ETC.

(The Navajo are taken from another work,

corroborates this statement.

and probably have the Eng-Ush sound of the vowels). TOLOWA.

WAILAkKL

IIUPA.

NAVAJO.

»

1

chlah.

chlah.

klai'-hai.

kli.

2 3

nakh'-eh.

nakh.

nok'-ah.

nahkee.

takh'-eh.

takh.

tok.

tah.

4

tenkh'-eh.

tinkh.

tenkli'-ah.

dteen.

5

swoi'-lah.

chw6-lah.

tus-kul'-lah.

estlahh.

6

os-ta-neh.

hos-tan'.

kus'-lak.

hostonn.

7

tse-teh.

okh'-kit.

kus'-nak.

susett.

8

la-ni-shi-tna-ta.

ka-nem.

kus'-tak.

seepee.

9

chla-ntukh.

no-kos'-tah.

kus-tenkli'-ah.

n eh' -sun.

minkh'-lah.

kwang-en'-ta.

nastyy. niznahh.

10

The Wailakki, though

so obviously

Hupa

in affinity,

owing

to their

nearness to the Wintun, have adopted some of their customs, as scalping,

and some other

the scalp dance, the clover dance, Fig. 10

hand they

things.

On

the other

by some somewhat

tattoo nearly like the Yuki, so that they are mistaken

for that singular people.

composite people

:

Hupa

Thus

it

will

in speech,

be seen that they are a

Wintun

in

name and

in several cus-

toms, and almost Yuki in tattooing.

depression slightly scooped out for a

wigwam of poles and bark, with a floor. One sees among them very

pretty strings of shell-money, called

to-7cal'-U,

They

build the

common

conical

disks about a quarter of an inch in diameter,

consisting of thin, circular

and resembling somewhat the

Catholic rosaries, in having one larger button or "Gloria Patri" to every

ten small ''Ave Marias".

I

have seen a Wailakki squaw with ear-drops or

pendants carved from the ear-shell {Haliotis) in the shape of

fish,

and exhib-

iting the glinting tints of that beautiful shell to great advantage.

only instance of fancy shell or bone carving, aside from the

money, that

I ever

remember

to

It is the

common

shell-

have noticed.

In the hot and sweltering interior of the State the Indians generally

warm winter lodges as soon as the dry season is well established, and camp for the summer in light, open wickiups of brushwood, which they

leave their

HAUNTS— MODES OF THE CHASE.

117

sometimes abandon two or three times during the summer for convenience in fishing, etc.

Immediately on

coast this

tlie

scarcely done at

is

all,

cause not necessary; but the AVailakki generally go higher up the

be-

little

streams in the heated term, roaming and camping along where the salmon trout {Salmo Masoni)

They

and the Coast Range trout (Salmo

capture those and other

When

minnows

iridea)

most abound.

in a rather ignominious

summer

and un-

up the streams

to stag-

nant pools they rub the poisonous soap-root in the water until the

fish are

Waltonian fashion.

stupefied,

when they

the

easily scoop

lieat dries

them up, and the poison

will not affect

the tough stomach of the aborigines.

In Ketten

Chow

cammas {Cammasia

Valley they used to gather immense quantities of

esculenta).

Then

there

a kind of wild potato grow-

is

ing on high and dry places (I saw no specimens of considerable extent, in addition to roots eaten

by

which they use

it)

all

to a

California Indians.

Win tun language, ''Hetten Chow" denotes ^'cammas valley," and 'MIetten Pum" means ''cammas earth". The Wailakki have also a very unsportsmanlike method of capturing They run them down afoot. This is not so difficult a matter as one deer.

In the

buck.

Deer have a habit of run-

in certain established trails,

and the Indians make these

might imagine in the case of a very ning pretty trails

much

a study, post relays of

tain to pass,

men

fat

at points

where the animal

and so give him continuous chase

until he

and thereby frequently get him so blown that he

An

takes to the water.

old hunter tells

capture a fine buck in this manner.

brushwood

lines of

hare and rabbits, and this

this snare.

is still

get together in a space of

beat the cover to flush the quarry.

and runs

burrow.

is

or

where a snare

A

slight

is set,

and

down

company

of Indians

or in an open wood, and

whoop and

Puss

is terrified

by

the nuiltitude of

wild, springs in tlie air, doubles, tacks, flings somersaults,

noise near

This

bay

Beside deer, they also run

ducks, leaps square off from a straight run even

makes a

out of his range,

either stands at

he has frequently seen them

more easily done.

meadow

pretty cer-

Then, again, they construct two

fence, converging to a point,

they chase the animal into

voices,

me

is

is

it,

great

and so beats s})ort for

itself

when nothing moves

completely out, or

the Indians.

They whoop,

sli})s

into

or its

laugh, scurry

— V

THE WAILAKKF,

118

the woods, jump, swing their arms, fling chibs,

tliroug-li

minutes, split a stick fine at one end, thrust its scut,

and pull

shoot

especially

it,

and make a deal of

have seen an Indian boy of fourteen run a rabbit to cover

I

noise.

ETC.

out

it

This was easier

alive.

if lie

down

it

misse^

thart

the hole, twist .it

in ten it

into

would have been to

it.

One of their favorite dances is the black-bear dance, which is celewhen one of the Wailakki braves has been so fortunate as to kill or trap one of these animals of happy omen, or has even succeeded in purchasing a skin of one. They stretch it up on stakes, and then caper and brated

chant around

it

in a circle, beating the skin with their fists as if

they were

tanning the same.

Another joyous occasion the season

when

the clover dance, which

is

performed in

is

The squaws

the burr-clover gets lush and juicy to eat.

deck themselves out in deerskin-robes and strings of pretty jingle

and

glint to their hopping, while

the soft white as his arm,

down

each

man

has a

shells,

which

circlet or coronal of

of owls around his head, twisted in a fluffy roll as large

and another very long one of the same description around

loins, tied

behind, with the two ends reaching

short, the

men endeavor

to

down

make themselves look

as

his

In

to the ground.

much

like the great

white owl as possible, and the main purpose of their numerous antics appears to

be to keep these long

the

men

inside, the

tails

women

flopping about.

outside; strike

They

stand in two circles

up the inevitable droning chant,

and the women dance by simply jumping up and down on both their partners in front of

them

certain turn of the chant they

leap, skip, brandish

all

jump up

shaking of bows and arrows, after which

their arrows,

together, with a loud tliere is

moments, when they commence chanting again da

feet,

while

and

at

a

whoop and

a dead silence for a few capo.

There

is

no

feast-

ing at any time. Filial piety or, in fact, of

cannot be said to be a distinguishing quality of the Wailakki,

any

Indians.

No

aged and decrepit are counted a battles,

sometime "lord of the

how high may be their station, the burden. The old man, hero of a hundred matter

lion heart

and eagle eye," when

eyesight no more can guide the winged arrow as of yore,

compelled to accompany his sons into the

forest,

is

his fading

ignominiously

and bear home on

his

COURSE OF TRAILS.

He may

poor old shoulders the game they have kilkd. feebly in behind them, their skill, while he

is

much

meek and uncomplaining, even speaking proudly

if

of

is

greatly

more able

they touch

to support, but

35

it

as one of their fingers.

Most people who have traveled especially

be seen tottering

almost crushed to earth beneath a burden which their

unencumbered strength not with so

119

they were on

in the frontier regions of California,

have probably been no

foot,

worried and

little

exasperated at the perversity with which the road-makers have run the

and roads over the summits of the

hills.

my

hill in all this

hot impatience, "If there

one

is

trails

Often have I said to myself in land that

is

higher than

another, these engineers and graders are never content until they -have carried the road over the top of this

than our engineers.

it."

But the Indians are more responsible

Time and again

I

have wondered Avhy the

mountain

so laboriously climb over the highest part of the

discovered that the reason

is

for

trails

but I afterward

;

because the Indians needed these elevated

points as lookout-stations for observing the m.ovements of their enemies.

They run

The

the original trails through the chaparral.

in their footsteps,

pioneers followed

and widened the path when need was, instead of going

new one on an easier grade; and in process when a wagon-road became necessary they often followed the line

vigorously to work and cutting a of time

of the ancient

trail.

When

the whole face of the country

the old Indian trails will be found along the streams; but

what open they invariably run along the crest

— on

the south side of

east side, if

it

it,

if

ridges, a rod or

the ridge trends east

trends north and south.

This

is

may

California Indians seek open

by

not be surprised either

bears, of

of

The

their

ground

enemies or

which beasts they entertain a lively

two below the

and west; on the

for the reason, as botanical

readers will understand, that the west or north side of a

wooded.

is wooded alike, when it is some-

hill is

by cougars and

idly fretted

;

away by

they

grizzly

terror.

The Wailakki are a choleric, vicious, quarrelsome race, Round Valley, whom they resemble and these two tribes

rascals of all that country.

most thickly

for their trails that

Naturally, therefore, the

the white men, and they

ti'ibc

like .the

Yuki

are the prime

has been rap-

would have been wholly

36

V

^

THE WAILAKKI,

120

ETC.

Round Valley

abolished before this time had they not been gathered on the Reservation.

An

by

adventure related

T. G. Robbins, of

shows that the Wailakki are not

stiff

One

and when Robbins and

his

of

comrades emerged on the bank, they saw him

fire,

he perceived

across,

so he concealed himself again.

and swam over

the water around him

would be death

it

to

like

run up the bank

Robbins stripped to the

As he came out

to tackle him.

He now

eddy of a bowlder.

struck out again, and the bullets spattered in

Once

soutli of

them being a poor swimmer lagged behind,

resting in the middle of the river, in the

hail.

His regiment, the

campaign against them

a bloody fight, and drove them pell-mell over

in

the river at Big Bend.

under

California volunteers,

lacking" in bravery.

Second Infantry, had been piishing a Eel River, routed them

t^ie

buff'

of the water the Indian

Both men were stark

dashed at him with an enormous root in each hand.

naked, except that the Wailakki had a shell-button and a dime hanging

from each

The

ear.

soldier struck at him, but his rotten billet of driftwood

splintered harmlessly over the savage's head.

blow

in return,

but the soldier threw up his

and the club broke over

it,

mighty

Tlie Indian aimed a left

arm

as in

sword

though the end slammed down on

practice,

his sconce,

causing him to perceive ten or twelve Indians and several hundred

The Indian

strucJ^:

stars.

with his second club, but Robbins parried again, and

the club bounced high in the

Both men were now disarmed.

air.

Instead

of closing in and grappling, as he should have done, the Indian

dive to recover his club.

Quick

as thought the soldier caught

made

a

up another,

and as the Indian stooped he dealt him a stunning blow on the base of the

The savage

ear.

fell all

along on the gravel, and lay quivering in every

nniscle, while the soldier, as

bone

in his

he says, ''beat him until there was not a whole

body", and the compan}^ on the other side looked on and

applauded.

This

trifling

relating only as races,

affiiir,

with

its

an instance of a

truly

fair,

Homeric termination,

naked

fight

courage, but was inferior in fencing.

worth

between men of the two

armed only with the Aveapons which nature

shows that the savage was the equal of the other

is

off'ered.

The upshot

in strength, agility,

and

THE LASSIK—A llOBBER THE

The waters

TEIBE.

121

LAS'-SIK.

Mad

Las'-sik formerly dwelt in

River Valley, from the liead-

down to Low Gap, or thereabout, where they bordered on the They took their name from their last famous chief As above

Whilkut.

narrated, a

by

little

before the whites arrived they were driven out of this region

the incursion of

tlie

Wailakki, whence they removed to

Fork and Dobbins and Larrabie Creeks.

They were

Van

Wintun

of

Dusen's affinities,

and

so here again they jostled against the original occupants, the Saiaz others,

and

in

every place where they tried to establish homes

numerary

in a crystallized population, beaten

their hearts full of rancorous bitterness

gypsies, or rather of thugs, houseless

was

Thus ousted from

hard-fought battles were routed again.

assassination,

and despair

enemy.

murdering.

It is said

and hands.

They even

with

—they became a band of

pillage.

Their hand was All the world was

hand against them.

They roamed over the

their natural

pillar to post,

and homeless nomads, whose calling

and whose subsistence was

against every man, and every man's

— crowded, elbowed, super-

about from

face of the earth, robbing

they took no scalps, but cut

off

and

a slain enemy's feet

penetrated into the distant valley of the Sacra-

mento, where they came in conflict with the newly-arrived white man, and

by bloody defeat and

fierce pursuit

they were hurled back over the mountains

whence they came. After

much tough and

bitter experience in this adoptive

the Lassik gradually ceased to

murder

in robbing,

method of life,

but continued to prose-

cute the latter occupation with undiminished vigor and brilliant success.

They would blacken forest near

their faces

and bodies with charcoal, then go

into the

some sequestered house, or by the wayside, and squat there

hours togetlier motionless as a stump. latter object

would pass

for

So closely would they resemble the

backwoodsman and hero of fifty figlits When some one came along at last them by unaware.

that the lynx-eyed

who was seemingly weak, and promised good picking, they would sally catch forth quickly strange how these stumps will get up and run! Day after the horse by the bit, and proceed to pluck the rider clean.

—

—

day,

week

after

week, they would come and squat in

some lonely house, with

this fashion

near

that infinite persistence of the Indian, watching

V

THE WAILAKKI,

122 tlie

ETC.

inmates as they came and went, counting them over and over again,

until they

were certain of their number and quality.

happy day, when

all

the signs of the zodiac, the

Then

ST^^.n

at last,

were favorable, and no owl screeched, and the spiders were

everybody was gone out

the house except perhaps

of*

summon courage

swaddled baby, they would

make

to

on some

and moon and

planets,

all still,

and

some old crone or a rush, capture the

and plunder the house with neatness and

solitary occupant, pinion him,

dispatch.

me an

Mr. Robinson related to

dered

by them

to a day.

instance where a certain house was plun-

three Aprils in succession, punctually to a week, and almost

was the property of a lone wild Irishman, a shepherd, who

It

was necessarily absent day-times with

on the mountains, thus

his flock

leaving his household substance an easy prey to the savages. t\vi3e

robbed

Paddy took unto

in succession,

and a defense

to

liis

possessions round about.

came when he looked not den

This she

did,

third tim^e the Lassik

garden fence, made a sud-

and knowing the propensity of women

cauglit the Irishman's wife, tied life.

But a

for them, scaled the

irruj)tion into the house,

After being

himself a wife for a bulwark

up her mouth

to talk,

and bade her escape

tight,

and they then proceeded without interruption

to

for

make

a choice selection of household goods, which they carried away.

This predatory gypsy

life

(they subsisted largely

this

way, not having

a right to any fishing-grounds), insured their speedy destruction whites.

In 1871

had returned

it

was

said there

were only three of them

Mad

to the ancestral valley of

by

the

these

left;

River, and were living under

protection of the whites.

THE

As nearly 37

SAl'-AZ.

as I could ascertain,

the

Sai'-az

•

formerly occupied the

tongue of land jutting down between Eel River and

They were

all

carried

so long dragged about

that they

away

to the

Van Dusen's

Fork.

Hoojoa Valley Reservation, and had been

between home, the Smith River Reservation, and

were dwindled away

to a

most

pitiful

could give no intelHgible account of themselves.

The only

can be stated with certainty

somewhere on the

bank of Eel

River.

is

this,

and miserable remnant, who

that they once dwelt

thing which east

THE SAIAZ— THEIR ABJECT CONDITION. It is the

who

testimony of white men,

123

liad l)ad a taste of their quality,

that they were once among- the bravest of the California Indians. after a

long and

heroic resistance that they

was indeed hard

it

thing manly.

They were

;

away

in

Iloopa Valley that I saw

they had ever done any-

It

was

the most abject of

from living eternally in the smudge, horribly protruding

was only

to believe then that

captive to the Smith River Reservation.

them, and

It

gave under, and were led

some with

w^ith

human

beings

—many of them

one or both eyes swollen and

their noses half eaten

away

;

all

with their

coarse black hair drooping over faces pitted and slashed, or purple, blotched,

and channel-worn with the dribblings of bleared and sodden

naked and unspeakably

filthy

Their

eyes.

board cabins stood on a hot mesa beside the

river,

with never a tree or a shrub to dapple their roofs with a sprinkle of

shade

;

the flaming sun

fouled earth this place of

swarming isiana, or

;

made

riot in the exhalations

bones, chips, skins, festering flesh

miasma

tatters,

staggering up from the

were strewn about

;

and

in

iind famine the ghastly beings lay about in their

basking in the sun like muddy-skinned caymans of Lou-

drowsily shelling a few acorns, for they received no rations.

Most

tribes of California either

them frequently

to escape

burn

their lodges annually or

from the vermin

;

abandon

but here, condemned to live

always on one spot and in the same lodges which they w^ere not taught how to cleanse, they are almost

devoured

alive.

bathe the entire person daily in cold ^vater foul, fair

reeking quarters, what

little

In their native state they always ;

but here, huddled together in

pride of person they ever had w^as in a

w^ay to be crushed out of them.

Judging from the wretched remnants that are

left,

the Saiaz resemble

most Eel River Indians, having rather squatty, adipose bodies, chubby heads, and long simian hands. outside of their legs

They

may

when they

Like the Kelta they frequently scarify the lose a -bet in gambling.

entertain a belief in what, out of contradistinction to Pantheism,

be called Pandemonism.

Most

tribes living near the coast believe

that the devils or evil spirits of the world pervade life,

many

forms of animal

or at least are able to assume those forms at pleasure for the torment-

ing of

men (though

all

of

them have some one or more animals,

as a

V

THE WAILAKKI,

124:

ETC.

white deer, a white mouse, a frog, a black bear, a black eagle, into which the devil never does enter)

but the Saiaz hold that these evil

;

spirits also

take possession of the vegetable world for the plag^i^ig" of mankind.

For their

instance, acorns, leaves, or twigs falling from trees

wigwams

ous influence

compass

on the roofs of

are all instincfwith the devil, replete with demoniac, poison-

and they think that the bad

;

When

their destruction.

spirits

the winter

assume these forms

lonesome, ghostly shriek, and brings the acorns and leaves rattling

on

their roofs, they shudder,

would think

enough in

and the timid squaws scream with terror.

most of

their villages, as

on open ground, though

hostile tribes

open ground.

the case throughout California, are

is

done rather with a view of preventing

this is

the Saiaz

and other Eel River Indians sometimes adopt

crossing swift and deep rivers in winter

to

is

stay under nearly two minutes, and

they can cross streams of some rods

by

in

pudgy stature,

physique in general

ances are deceptive.

These

;

They will

selecting smootli, gravelly places

width

this

way.

observations have been that the Indians of Eel and

of a rather short and

in

hold stones on their heads to

weight them down so that they can wade over on the bottom.

inferior

And,

from ambushing them.

One way

My

down One

would involve common sense

that an imagination so lively

to suggest the building of the lodges in the

fact,

built

to

wind goes over them with a

Mad

Rivers are

especially the Wailakki, and a decidedly

but the pioneers say that present appear-

tribes

have suffered nnich from wars with the

whites, and the remnants of them are the poorest specimens of their

race,

who took

little

two

than the Indians of Sacramento Valley and the Weaverville Basin,

taller

part in fighting.

and were much wits";

i.

c,

finer

men.

In an early day they averaged an inch or

The Wailakki

are called

by

the

Yuki -'Kak'-

"North People".

The Wailakki kuk, Tul'-bush.

call the Saiaz

Noan'-kakhl, and the Mattoal and Lolon-

All these tribes here mentioned originally spoke Wailakki.

CHAPTER THE To

the traveler arriving on the

YTJ-KI.

summit between Eden Valley and the

Middle Eel River, looking north, there ful is

and picturesque landscapes

is

presented one of the most beauti-

in California.

descriptive of this noble domain,

and there

an ocean of yellow grain and pasture white oak and encompassed on

XIV.

fields,

all sides

The name, "Round Valley", it lies,

far

below and beyond,

islanded with stately groves of

with a coronal of blue, far-sloping

mountains, dappled green and golden with wild-oat glades and shredded forest or chaparral.

There

something rich and generous, like ripened

is

corn and wine, in the landscapes of the Coast Range in autumn, and over all

bends the

soft

sky of

Italy,

and pours the wonderful

lilac chiaroscuro of

the atmosphere, which lends an inexpressible charm.

Here

in the heart of the lofty

Eel River Mountains, which shut

sixty or seventy miles from all the outer world,

a pure democracy, fierce and truculent.

unequaled

mere

in its loveliness

—the Yuki—were

by

all

that

is

was a

The said or

little

it

in

Indian cockagne,

inhabitants of this valley,

sung of the Vale of Cash-

indisputably the worst tribe

among

the California

Indians.

had a great deal of trouble

I

heard

about "Yuki" over in the Sacramento Valley, at Weaver^•ille, on

Hay

I

Fork, on

Mad

River, on

Van

always the "Yuki" were

At last

I

began

to

to

in finding this singular people.

Dusen's Fork, and

all

along Eel River, and

be the next tribe that

be skeptical of

their

I

would come upon.

very existence, and smiled an incred-

name "Yuki" mentioned. curious. The word i/uJii in the Wiutun

ulous smile whenever I heard the

The reason

for this

is

guage signifies "stranger", andlience, secondarily, "bad Indian" or

lan-

"thief";

THE YUKF.

126 and

was applied by

it

that people to different tribes around tliem, just as

the ancient Greeks called

many

of old

all the.

outside world

tribes contiguous to

barbarians". There were them who actually were "bad Indians"

compared witk the peaceful Wintun

but the

;

latter applied the epithet so

indiscriminately that the Americans, not troubling themselves to investigate the matter, got confused on this subject.

As a matter

called *'Yuki".

whites and Indians

and use

"Yuki"; but

call

HeJace the number of tribes

of fact, there are several tribes this tribe alone

"Yuki"

to

me

as terrific fellows,

Range Mountains, dwelHng they

and

ley"),

own name for those

nom (meaning

in caves

for themselves is

;

by

the

but there

instance,

at

Red

savage giants living in the Coast

Uk-um-nom (meaning

Wintum is

"in the val-

Those over on the ocean are

It is possible that the wordi

into yuki, their present

no ceremony

in

the head-chief of the

on the reservation Captain Mike, a child does not

bestowment of the

is

the Americans

is

For

seem

to

frequently given to

name.

I

became

Their present

Pam-mem'-mi

well, or otherwise

virile

cor-

in infancy, the other in later

when

Y\iki,

called

lucky under one name, another

uhwn was

connection with the christening.

When

grow

called

name.

quainted with them, was Toal-ke-mak' or Wil-osh'.

to the

Bluff described

and dens, horribly tattooed (which

Most of them have two names, one given life

title

on South Eel River speaking the same language, Hilch'-

"outside the valley").

IJk-hoat-nom ("on the ocean"). rupted

acknowledge the

and cannibals.

are),

Tlieir

38

both

it.

The unphilosophical and double-seeing Wintun the

whom

ac-

chief,

or Oal'-wal-mi.

be prosperous and This

it.

is

previous

have not often in California found

name bestowed on account of circumstances in the person's history but it is done among the Yuki, though genei^ally a child takes its father's or grandfather's name. Thus Mil-choi-mil (I talk) was given to a talkative a

child

;

;

another was called Wo-nun'-nuli (Blue Head)

;

and another Mai-

el-hoat-meli (Big Legs).

The Yuki and intellect,

Indians.

the Wailakki are considered of a rather low grade of

and on the Round Valley Reservation they are the butt of the other

The common saying regarding

these two tribes

is

that

"they do

PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS. not want to

know

127

They both prefer against each other the who had no friends were dragged away

anything".

charge that, in old times, the dead

into the brush, or hidden in hollow logs, or barely covered with leaves, &c.

Hence the Yuki had few friends among their neighbors, except the Wailakki, and they had more intercourse with them than with any otliers, although

They joined Round Valley and North Eel River, and The a progeny called Yuki-Wailakki.

they occasionally fought each other with a hearty good-will.

about half-way bet^\'^en

territories

they intermarried, giving

rise to

Yuki were unrelenting enemies of the N6am-lak-ki (Wintun), and often fought them on the summit east of trees

up there and wait

Round

Valley.

N6am-lak-ki

for hours for a

They would climb come along, when

to

they would imitate the grouse, the California quail, or some other choice

They were

game-bird, and so lure them within arrow-shot. bitter against the whites,

their

squaws who went

The Yuki have

also especially

and seized an early opportunity to

to live

kill

disproportionately large heads,

mounted

cannon-

like

on smallish, short bodies, with rather protuberant abdomens.

balls

eyes are a

trifle

green- wood

under-sized, but keen

smudge

in

which they

swollen and horribly protruding. the nares expanded short,

;

and

restless,

live in winter

and from

and hence bushy-looking.

Their noses are

They

tlie

Their

execrable

they are not unfrequently stout, short,

and they have heavy shocks of

stiff,

and

straight,

bristly hair, cut

are variously complexioned, with-

out any perceptible law, from yellowish-buff to

They

any of

with them.

brown and almost

are a truculent, sullen, thievish, revengeful, and every

black.

way bad

Two of them from whom I attempted to get their numerals consider me bent on some devilish errand, and they lied to me so

but brave race. chose to

systematically that I did not get a single numeral correct.

most desperate persistence

where a

tribe

seemed

to

in pursuit of revenge.

to

was

the

told of an instance

have decreed that a certain offending pioneer and

hunter, formidable with the

them who were sent

I

They have

rifle,

must be

killed,

do the work, were one

and more than a dozen of after another slain

by

liim

before they accomplished their purpose.

On

the reservation at the present

piece of ground which

day the Yuki quarters are on a low

was once occupied

as a burying-ground, hence the

39

;

THE YUKI.

128 place

infested with miasmatic exhalations

is

gines were better sanitarians

they built their lodges

bench or

all

series of knolls,

when they had

to

They had

is

The

vmhealthy.

abori-

the control of these matters

around the edge of the valley, on the

and not on the plain

was of the Sacramento Valley from one

and

at

first little

Their assembly-hall

all.

order, dome-shaped, capable of containing

two hundred persons, thatched with grass and covered with

earth.

the mountain style of lodge, conical-shaped and built of poles,

bark, and puncheons, but often thatched in winter.

Most of the

tribes in

in their lodges, espe:.ually

Northern California use wood almost exclusively

on the Coast Range, and near the redwood

but in the coast valleys and on the great plains of the earth are used for roofing.

mia and blindness prevail

As a

partial consequence,

we

find that ophthal-

more than

in the latter region

belt;

thatch and

interior,

in the former,

on

account of deficient ventilation.

There have been various estimates of the aboriginal population of

Round

Valley.

I

am

set foot in the valley,

At

5,000 souls.

Sam. Kelsey, the

told that

and a man accustomed

this figure there

first

American who ever

to Indians, estimated

would have been one Indian

acres in the valley, or IGO to the square mile

!

And

to

yet this

is

it

at

every four not at

all

improbable, because the Indians lived wholly in the valley (except for brief seasons in the summer), while they had usufructuary possession of a vast

circumjacent area of mast-bearing forest, besides

On

streams.

the

many

same reasoning, the above conjectural

must by no means be applied

miles of salmon

rate of j^opulation

to the great, naked, arid plains of the Sacra-

mento and San Joaquin.

As

the Yuki were so often involved in war, martial matters necessarily

engage a great deal of their attention, and occupy a large part of versation. rate.

Mrs.

Their customs and usages in

Dryden Laycock, one

described to fantastic

and

me

of the pioneer

women

terrible spectacle.

The

warriors to the

little

naked (though

costume consisted of

;

of

Round

Valley,

a Yuki war-dance, that she once witnessed, which was a

hundred assembled behind a

cloths)

their con-

were quite elabo-

this direction

their aboriginal

hill,

number of

several

where they stripped themselves little

else

but breech-

then they smeared their bodies with pitch or some other sticky

W A R DANCE— BATTLES. and sprinkled on

material,

they

lieads

bows and arrows, and

their

eagle-down from

^vhite

bushy })lumes and eoronals of larger

j)ut

On

tip to toe.

Then,

feathers.

their

seizing*

slinging their quivers over their shoulders they

rushed over the brow of the

and down upon the plain

hill

disorderly throng, uttering unearthly yells ishing their

129

weapons above

and chanting

their heads,

in a

wild and

and whoops, leaping, and brandtheir war-songs.

Before a battle takes place the heralds of the two contending parties

meet on neutral ground and arrange the time and place of the

The night

before going out they dance

the warrior possesses a wide elk-skin belt he ties

but otherwise he

vitals,

warrior

is

the

is

About

quite naked.

complement of ammunition

it

around him

to protect his

The Wailakki, on

for a raid.

The body

wide enough to shield two or three men. to

inconmiode the warrior in

turns his

back

to

it,

battle,

of the skin

It is

is

stiff",

may

strike

him

in the legs

he ducks.

the battle-field at daybreak. is

be

stung by a yellow-jacket,

If a it is

is

left

so as not

his friends, if

they choose, screen

They time

their

Yuki stumbles and

a bad

it

or around

an arrow^ coming so low that

omen

;

march

falls

it

so as to be at

on the march, or

he must go home, or he will

killed.

During the

battle

they simply stand up in masses in the open ground or

amid the chaparral, and shoot of

and

and wdien he sees an arrow coming he

and two or three of

If the shield- bearer sees

it.

the

and tough,

worn on the back,

themselves behind his shield, at the same time shooting over the sides of

If

three hundred arrows to the

other hand, wear shields of tanned elk-skin, which are very thick

and proof against most arrows.

conflict.

night to inflame their courage.

all

them expressed

on the

field

it;

at

each other until they "get enough," as one

then they cry quits and go home.

If

any dead

are left

both parties return afterward and carry them away and bury

them (they burn only those not invariable)

;

whom

but a pioneer

they do not honor, though

states that

he has seen Yuki dead

this rule is left

on the

a prey to beasts and birds.

fleld,

The Yuki say

that they never scalped white men, but they take scalps

from Indians.

When sleep

;

the

men

are absent on a

war expedition the women do not

they dance without ceasing, in a

circle,

and chant and wave wands

THE YUKI.

130

They say

of leaves.

y

AVhen they return they join

the time".

Eacli

that of the Avonien.

woman

flour over him, to

and waves a wisp of leaves over him

ing,

rain falls in

to

come

keeper turns her mind to a good her

''

groom and

rest him,

to cool him.

autumn enough

and the angle-worms begin

all

in the dance, in a circle within

behind her own husband, and she wets

is

him with water, and sprinkles acorn

When

dance

their luisbands ''will not get tired if rfiey

thorough soak-

to give tVie earth a

Yuki house-

to the surface, then the

Armed

basket of worm-soup.

woman-stick," the badge of her sex

— which

is

with

a pole about six feet

long and one and a half inches thick, sharpened and fire-hardened at one

end

— she seeks out a piece of

rich,

moist

soil,

and

the pole into the ground about a foot, she turns

and so

tion,

numbers

agitates the earth that the

for a radius of

two or three

them home, and cooks them which

celli,

is

much esteemed by

After this lickerish mess

is

the

and

good

work.

around

worms come

feet around.

into a rich

sets to it

fiat

hair,

She gathers and

oily soup,

tlie

carries

an aboriginal vermi-

wife's family.

eaten, perhaps she discovers that the youngest

piece of stone and a sharp-edged bone

while with

Thrusting

every direc-

to the surface in large

boy's hair needs cutting, and she brings out the scissors.

a

in

bone she haggles

;

the stone

This consists of is

held under the

Then with a

off as best she can.

it

coal of fire she evens off the ends around quite nicely.

Tattooing

is

done with pitch-pine soot and a sharp-pointed bone.

the designs have been traced on the skin, the soot Fig. 11

is

rubbed

After

In

in dry.

another place the reader will find a series of tattoo patterns employed

by

different tribes.

Candidates for the degree of M. D. pass their competitive examination in

assembly

tlie

liall

—an

examination more severe than the contention

between Doctor Clierubino and Doctor Serafino Salern

".

It consists

*'

the great School of

simply of a dance, protracted through day and night

without cessation, until they

all

fall

then admitted to practice the healing

One method

in

of procedure

is

utterly exhausted except one,

is

art.

as follows

:

The

i)atient is

ground stark naked, face upward, and two doctors take his feet,

who

one directly behind the other.

placed on the

their stations at

Striking up a crooning chant, they

;

THE POISON DOCTOR.

131

down the unfortunate individual with their legs advancing by infinitesimal jumps all the way up to his

hopping- up and

commence

astride of him,

backward

head, then

to his feet

—both

keeping close together and hopping

in regular accord.

The The

''poison doctor"

hereditary

office is

member

the most important

is

a

;

little

child

is

of the profession.

prepared for holding

it

by being

poisoned and then cured, which in their opinion rendei'S him invulnerable

Of course

ever afterward.

will

it

be understood that a great part of

tliese

supposed cases of poisoning are merely the creation of their suj^erstitious

They

imaginations.

are

somewhat homeopathic

in their practice

cure poisoning with poison, expel a cold with cold water,

by

of a white

and

cepted, tliirty

woman volunteered man who was friendly

where a

related

at the

with the

tails,

;

woman

to the

was

proposition

by

fiber,

a train of about

a beautiful wild-cat skin robe tasseled

gay

feather in the end of

tall

it.

eagle feathers,

She carried

simulated great effort in drawing out

down and

while she ejected a

flint

and assured the

humbug, so

in

She was described

Walking round and round the

to the children of the sun.

wound and

course),

ac-

she was dressed sumptuously in fringed leggings,

with her attendants, and chanting, she repeatedly apj^lied her

P^inally she stooped little

Her

middle to tremble with her motions.

witli a

is

of a majestic presence, graceful with that unstudied cliarm

which belongs })atient

in the

wand

entitled

instance

an arrow-point from the body

and a rich otter-skin bandeau, supporting

which were cut her hand a

to extract

to the Yuki.

appointed time she arrived followed

female attendants

a tlu-ead petticoat of milkweed

as a

An

but they expect and generally receive presents.

to a fee,

They go

etc.

Female doctors are not absolutely

the rule, no cure no pay.

they

;

transparent,

applied her lips to the

tlie

wound

;

and

from her mouth (previously placed

man

he would

and yet

now

so insinuatingly

wand

arrow-head.

speedily recover.

a

after

tliere

For

of

this

and elegantly administered,

she expected no less a present than a gayly-figured bandana handkerchief

and

five

pounds of sugar.

When but

if

their

own

friends fall sick they give

an old person has no blood-relations he

attended.

Public

spirit is

a thing unknown.

them

is

sufticient attention

generally

left to

die un-

THE YUKI.

132 There

by

the

is

phenomenon among-

a curious

the CaKfornia Indians called

and by the Pomo

i-tva-musp (man- woman),

Yuki the

heard of them elsewhere, but never saw one except in

was a human

beino- in the

Yuki

villai2^e

and was tattooed (which no man

have

I

class.

There

this tribe.

on the reservation who wore a dress

but he had a man's (querulous) voice,

is),

and an unmistakable thoug-h very short and sparse whisker.

At

my

in-

stance the agent exerted his authority and caused this being to be brought to headquarters

and submitted

the fact that he

was a human male without malformation, but apparently and

destitute of desire

performed

all

He

virility.

lived with a family, but voluntarily

the menial tasks imposed upon a squaw, and shirked

tions appertaining to a

Agent Burchard informed me

man.

at one time four of these singular beings

and Charles Eberle, a pioneer, stated

When

Quien sabef

away

that they do

it

when

func-

that there were

that, in his opinion, there were, in

questioned about

but

;

all

on the Round Valley Reservation,

Yuki

early day, as high as thirty in the

the matter

This revealed

medical examination.

to a

it

Why

tribe.

do they do

an

this

?

the Indians always seek to laugh

pressed for an explanation they generally reply

because they wish to do

or else with that mystifying

it;

circumlocution peculiar to the Indian, they answer with a long rigmarole, of which the plain interpretation

moves them his heart

to

do

which

it,

tells

or, as

him

to

women

that, as

do

it.

phenomenon

:

;

still

a kind of order of priests or teachers.

;

This

last

Others

among

the

men-women once to the Mis-

Yuki have been known

devote themselves to the instruction of the young tales.

it is

theory has some ap-

Sonon>a County and "preached"

sion Indians in Spanish.

legends and moral

another, that

another, that they are set apart

pearance of confirmation in the fact that one of these to

burning in

feels a

one, that they arc forced to

as a penalty for cowardice in battle

went down from Pit River

spirit

There are several theories advanced by

done as a punishment for self-abuse {IS

a Quaker would say, the

an Indian would say, that he

the whites to account for this dress like

is,

They have been known

by

the

to

narration of

to shut themselves

up

in

the assembly-hall for the s[)ace of a month, with a few brief intermissions, living the

life

of a hermit, and spending the whole time in rehearsing the

tribal history in

a sing-song monotone to

all

who

chose to

listen.

;

BUlilAL—ANNIVERSARY DANCE. Ncvertlieless, I consider

simplest this

—namely, that

unnatural

lite

manhood; and

tlie

Indian explanation the best, because the

this folly is

all

133

voluntary; that these

men

choose

merely to escape from the duties and responsibilities of

tliat tlie

whole phenomenon

ilhistration of that strang-e capacity

is

to

be regarded as another

which the California Indians develop

doing morl)id and abnormal things.

for

The

Pit River Indians

mon-women

have a regular ceremony for consecrating these

chosen

to their

life.

When

an Indian shows a desire to shirk

1ms manly duties they make him take his position in a circle of fire, then a bow and a ''woman-stick" are offered to him, and he is solemnly enjoined

in

the ])resence of

tlie

ever afterward to abide

From

witnesses assembled to choose which he will, and

by

his choice.

the outrageous character of this tribe, wliite

about their religious beliefs and ideas. Great the

]\Ian

first

of the Yuki

man

in

it.

But

mythology this

;

Tai-ko-mo

men know very is

name

the

little

of the

he created the world and was himself

42

has probably been ingrafted from the Christian

story.

The Yuki bury feet

dead

their

in a sitting posture.

deep sometimes, and at the bottom of

recess in

which the corpse

There

is

is

it

They

''coyote" under,

dig a hole six

making a

little

deposited.

an anniversary dance observed by them called the green-corn

dance, though this manifestly dates only from

taught them to cultivate corn.

period

tlie

The performers

when

the Spaniards

are of both sexes

;

the

men

being dressed with a breech-cloth and a mantle of the black tail-feathers of eagles,

cumbering the arms of shells,

hop

down

reaching from under the shoulders

etc.,

to the

;

to the thighs,

but not en-

while the squaws wear their finest fur robes, strings

and hold gay-colored handkerchiefs

in their hands.

music of a chant, a chorister keeping time with a

The men split stick

but the squaws, standing behind their respective partners in an outside cle,

cir-

simply sway themselves backward and forward, and swing their hand-

kerchiefs in a lackadaisical manner.

Thievery the thief

is

sly

is

a virtue with them, as

enough not

often treat their

women and

it

was with the Spartans, provided

to get caught.

Turbulent and choleric, they

children with cruelty, whereas most California

43

THE YUKI.

134

They were

Indians are notable for their leniency.

deadly feuds among

frequently involved in

themselves, and were seldom off the war-path in former

and domestic Pomo being their constant victims. woodman related to me a small circumstance which illusremarkable memory of savages. One time he had occasion to piece of labor in a certain wood where water was very scarce,

times, the pacific

A

veteran

trates the

perform a

and where he was grievously tormented with have seen a worth

little

his while

without success,

thirst.

He remembered

spring somewhere in that vicinity, and he considered

under the circumstances

when

there

search for

to

came along a Yuki woman,

it

to

years, and, like himself, probably

it

two days, but

whom

he made

Although she had not been near that place

mention of the matter.

to

for six

had never seen the spring but once, yet

without a moment's hesitation or uncertainty she led him straight to the

Probably there

spot.

is

no other thing

in this country, so arid

through the

long summer months, of which the Indians have better recollection than of the whereabouts of springs.

THE YUKI DEVIL.

On

who was so thoroughly bad in every respect that he was generally known by the sobriquet of The Yuki Devil. He committed all the seven deadly sins and a good many more, if not every day of his life, at least as often as he could. One time the reservation there once lived an Indian

he wandered

by

off a considerable distance

from the reservation, accompanied

two of his tribal brethren, and the three

dered three squaws.

fell

They were pursued by

upon and wantonly mur-

a detachment of the garrison,

overtaken, captured, carried back, manacled hand and foot, and consigned to the guard-house.

break

In some inexplicable manner the Devil contrived to

his fetters asunder,

and then he

tied

them on again with twine

in

such fashion that when the turrdcey came along on a tour of inspection he perceived nothing amiss.

Being taken out

soon afterward, he seized the opportunity to

some purpose or other wrench off his mamicles and for

He was speedily overtaken and brought down with a bullet, which wounded him slightly, taken back to the guard-house, heavily ironed, and

escape.

cast into a dungeon.

Here he feigned

death.

For four days he never

— THE YUKI DEVIL. swallowed could

l)e

;i

criiinl)

135

of iintrlineiit, tasted no water, breathed no breath that

To

(hscovered, and lay with every muscle relaxed like a corpse.

was dead, except that his bod}' did not become At last a vessel of water was placed on a table hard by, rij^id or cold. information of that fact was casually imparted to him in his native tongue, ;dl the attendants withdrew, the dungeon relapsed into silence, and he was all

human

perce})tion he

secretly watched.

when profound

After a long time,

prevailed,

stillness

and when the watchers had begun to believe he was in a trance at least, he cautiously lifted np his head, gazed stealthily all around him, scrutinized every cranny and crevice of table,

taking care not to clank his chains the while, took doAvn the pitcher

and drank deep and long. so

then softly crawled on all-fours to the

light,

They rushed

in

upon him, but upon the

fatuous was the obstinacy of the savage

shot,

was quite too thin

for

as if he

instant

had been

But he was now informed that

and again sinudated death.

terfuge

—he dropped

any

further purposes,

and as soon

this sub-

as the gal-

lows could be put in order the executioners entered and told him plainly that the preparations sign.

were fully completed for

duct him forth to the scaffold.

they

lift

hihi

He made

no

All limp and flaccid and nerveless as he

upon the platform; but

and exhibits no consciousness of is

his taking-off.

Then, half dragging, half carrying the miserable wretch, they con-

all

still

these stern

and grim preparations.

supported in an upright position between two soldiers, hanging a

burden on their shoulders;

his

head

is,

he makes not the least motion,

is lifted

up from

his breast

He

lifeless

where

it

droops in heavy helplessness; the new-bought rope, cold and hard and pj'ickly is coiled

about his neck, and the huge knot properly adjusted at

the side; the merciful cap

which shuts

off these heart-sickening preparations

from the eyes of the faint and shuddering criminal in perfect readiness.

The solenm

spectacle about to be enacted falls

upon the few

everything

is

is

dispensed with, and

stillness befitting the

spectators; the fatal signal

is

given; the drop swiftly descends; the supporting soldiers sink wdth

if

about

to vanish into the earth

and hide

awful

their eyes

it,

as

from the tragedy; with

a dead, dull thud the tightened rope wrenches the savage from their upbearing shoulders into pitiless mid-air, and the Yuki Devil, hanging there -without a twitch or a shiver quickly passes from simulated to unequivocal and

unmistakable death.

:

TUE YUKI.

136

THE In the

Some

Pomo language

CIIU-MAl'-A.

it is

a good commentary on our

zation that, in frontier parlance, "stranger"

but in the Indian tongues

hence ''enemy".

cJiu-mai'-a signifies ''stranger'',

remarked that

writer has finely

it

seems

to

is,

synonymous

civili-

witli "friend";

be generally tantamount

"enemy".

to

The Chu-mai'-a are simply Yiiki; the more "southerly bands of them, in Eden Valley and on the Middle Eel, south of Round Valley, are sometimes called the Spanish Yuki, because their range

them

in contact

with the Spaniards from

was southward and

whom

brought

tliis

they acquired some words

and customs. The}' and the Yuki were ever on the war-path against the peaceful and

Pomo, and

inoffensive

the brunt of their irruptions generally

on the

fell

Potter Valley Pomo, because the mountains here interposed slighter obstacles

At the head of Potter Valley the watershed

to their passage.

the pass

easy, so easy that

is

of civilized there to

is

mark

to this

lenge the their ends

it

Pomo and

this cairn.

could readily be traversed

;

is

very low and

by heavy masses

the summit, a rod or two from a never-fjiiling spring,

day a conspicuous

the boundary

caught beyond

on

On

troo})s.

it

and

if

cairn,

which was heaped up by the Indians

member

a

he suffered death.

of either tribe in war-time

When

the

Chumaia wished

to chal-

to battle, they took three little sticks, cut notches

in the middle, tied

If the

Pomo

them

in a fagot,

was

around

and deposited the same

took up the gauntlet, they tied a string around the

middle notches and returned the fagot to

its

Then

place.

the heralds of

both tribes met together in the neutral territory of the Tatu, a living at the foot of the pass,

little

and arranged the time and place of the

which took place accordingly.

William Potter, the

first

tribe

battle,

settler in Potter

Valley, says they fought with conspicuous bravery, employing

bows and

arrows and spears at long range, and spears or casual clubs when they came to a square stand-up fight in the

open

field.

They

frequently surged upon

each other in heavy, irregular masses.

The

following almost incredible occurrence was related to

responsible citizen of Potter Valley, and corroborated

whose names could be given

if

necessary

by

me by

a

another, both of

TUE TALE OF BLOODY KOCK.

137

STORY OF BLOODY KOCK.

became

After the whites be4,

Thomas in 1873. But it by Ben. Wright, even

petrated

frightful to contemplate,

not the province of this work to enter into

no more black and infamous massacres recorded

sioner

is

]\Iodo]v,

its details.

There are

in history than those of the

and that of General Canby and Commisis

well not to forget that the butchery per-

as related

by a

friendly countryman, was

92

;

THE MODOK.

254

v

committed under circumstances every whit as damning and treacherous as

and that the war of 1864, according

either of the above;

to the old chief

by

Skon'-chin, (an Indian universally believed and respected to this day),

was begun by the whites simply

The

of some horses.

Modok

victims of

dreds, along the old emigrant-trail

names

in retaliation for the loss

treachery ,^e in scores, ay, in hun-

which leads up along the east

Tule Lake, past Big Bloody Point and gestible

Bloody Point

Little

But, on the other hand, I have

!

the whites

—

side of

terribly sug-

more than once when

sit-

ting at the- fireside in winter evenings, listened to old Oregonians telling

how when

with laughter

out hunting deer they had shot

down a "buck"

and merely

for

amusement, although the

they belonged were profoundly

at

peace with the Americans

squaw

or a

let

at sight,

tribe to

which

After that,

!

us say no more.

The Modok were always

churlishly exclusive,

reciprocity with other tribes like the joyous inviting none to their dances,

having no cartel or

and blithe-hearted Wintun,

and receiving no

invitations in return.

In

they have hardly any merry-makings, chiefly the gloomy and trucu-

fact

and of death.

lent orgies of war, of the scalp,

of old

;

They were

like

Ishmael

hand was against every man, and every man's hand was

their

They

against them.

attained in early years to a great infamy as slave-

being the timid, simple, joyous races of

dealers, their principal victims

California, especially

the

Pit

River

(Klamath Lake Indians) are said

to

They and

tribes.

have got

the

Muk'-a-luk

their first stocks of

cayuse

ponies in exchange for slaves, which they sold to the Indians on the Co-

lumbia River, about The Dalles.

They have About 1847 forever at

vened

;

and yet less

a toughness of vitality which corresponds to their character.

the small-pox destroyed

150 of their number;

war with the Shastika and other

tribes

they were

until the whites inter-

and they fought two terribly decimating wars with the Americans in 1872

they were slowly increasing again.

numerous than the Shastika

;

but just before the

In 1851 they were last

great outbreak

they numbered about 250 souls, while the Shastika had only 30 or 40.

were

like the

In

when he signed the treaty, "Once my people sand along yon shore. Now I cnll to them, and only the

1864 brave old Skonchin

said,

DWELLINGS, ANCIENT AND MODERN— CANOES. Four

wind answers. with the wliltes let us,

;

only 80 are

and be friends

We

left.

And

forever."

For a foundation from 2

be good

will

out with rne to M ar the white

if

man

will

individually he kej^t his word.

Modok

to his dwelling- the

4 feet deep, then erects over

to

men went

Iniiulred strong- young-

255

it

excavates a circular space

a rounded structure of poles and

puncheons, strongly braced up w ith timbers, sometimes hewn and squared.

The whole is warmly co\ eredwith earth, and an aperture left atop, reached by a center pole. Before the coming of the whites secured them against and incursions of

the constant assaults

slighter, consisting g-enerally

overspread.

It

was not

the great, arid, volcanic,

it

Hence

some sluggish

lucid, fresh,

nomenon

should lose

make

was an object of prime importance

ply of water. lake or

the}'

desert stream,

it

geologically a part of

to the aborigines to get a sup-

Modok always

the lodges of the

stand beside some

and they were notably fond of the

and wholesome waters of Lost River

in this land of acrid

all their labor-

and sage-bush plains which sweep over the

northeast corner of California, and which

Nevada,

were

w^orth their while to build ver}' substantial struc-

marauding expedition

tures, lest in the next

On

their enemies, their dwellings

of a frame of willow poles, with tule matting-

—that

sage-bush and lye-burnt

Both sexes always dressed themselves w^armly

pel-

so singular phe-

soil.

in skins

and

furs.

For

gala robes they took large skins and inlaid them with brilliant-colored duck-scalps, sewed on in various patterns, forming very beautiful

if

rather

evil-smelling, raiment.

They formerly had rude and unshapely

" dug-outs",

affairs

generally

made from

the

fir,

quite

compared with those found on the Lower Kla-

math, but substantial, and sometimes capable of carrying a burden of 1,800 pounds.

Across the bow^ of one of these canoes a fish-seine was stretched,

bellying back as the craft was propelled through the water, until the catch

was

sufficiently large,

when

it

was

lifted

up and emptied.

In these canoes they also gathered the plant with a floating leaf very ter of

seeds.

which

is

much

ivo'-hus.

This

is

an aquatic

like that of the pond-lily, in the cen-

a pod resembHng a poppy-head, full of rich farinaceous

These are pulled

in great quantities,

and the seed thrashed out on

shore, forming an excellent material for bread or panada.

Americans some-

— THE MODOK.

256

v ^

fimes gather and parch them, theii.eat

a dish which

very relishable.

is

them

in a

bowl of milk with a spoon

forms a large source of winter provis-

It

ions for this tribe.

Another thing which

of

is

much importance in

their stores

or kes, a root about an inch long and as large bitter-sweetish is

and agreeable

a variety of cammas.

and

scatter

something

taste,

June they

Eai*ly in

With

near the edge of swamps.

squaw

like ginseng.

quit their

warm

is

the

Jcais,

finger, of a

little

I

presume

it

winter-lodges,

about in small parties or families, camping in brush-wood booths,

They

for the purpose of gathering this root.

munching

children are

find

in moist, rich places

it

a small stick, fire-hardened at the end, a

more

will root out a half bushel or

men and

one's

it

all

in a day.

day

—or

eaten raw

It is

—the

dried and sacked up for

winter.

They were formerly accustomed to cache large quantities of tvoMs and cammas in the hills for safe-keeping during the winter. Forty years ago or more, as they

on the level

an unprecedented snow,

relate, there fell

plain, so that for

many days and weeks

deep

7 feet

together they were

unable to reach the caches, and there came upon them a grievous famine.

They

ate

perished the

up

all their

rawhides, thongs, and moccasins, and would

all

have

had not happened that a herd of antelope, struggling through

if it

snow down

Rhett Lake, got upon the ice and broke

to

were captured, and

their flesh saved

one village alive to

in,

when they

the tale.

tell

In Lost River they find a remarkable supply and variety of

There are black,

and speckled

silver-sided,

trout, of

which

individuals are said to be caught w^eighing twenty-five

from

five to

twelve pounds

and appearance, time the

fish

and very

;

for they are

first

pounds

large, fine suckers, such

no bonier than ordinary

fishes.

;

fish.

two species buffalo-fish,

only in name In spawning-

run up from Clear Lake in extraordinary numbers, so that the

Indians only have to place a slight obstruction in the stream to catch them

by

thousands.

Herein

which the Modok tribes,

lies

felt for

one good reason for the passionate attachment

Lost River.

they had not, for that royal

rapids below I^ower

gravel suitable for

it

fish

spawn

in.

ascends the Klamath only to the

first

Above them there is no deposit of They do not smoke-dry for winter con-

Klamath Lake. to

But the salmon, king of the finny

BABY BASKETS AND FLATTENED SKULLS. sumption any considerable amount of purpose being" the small white

lake-fish.

pretty baby-basket of fine willow-

work, cylinder-shaped, with one-half of

back; hence the infant

saw

this

cut awa}' except a few inches at

it

,

intended to be set up against the wall, or carried on the

It is

lashed perpendicular in

is

and the other covering

in one end,

the principal kind used for this

fish,

The Modok women make a very the ends.

head

his

it,

Avith his feet

si)irally

standing

Fig.

In one I

like a small parasol.

canopy was supported by small standards,

strips of

257

wrapped

\vitli

gay-colored calico, with looped and scalloped hangings between.

Let a mother black her whole face below the eyes, including the nose, shining black of the nose

thrust a goose-quill three inches long through the

;

don her

;

and

close-fitting skull-cap.

septum

town with her baby-

start to

basket lashed to her back, and she feels the pride of maternity strong within

The

her.

little

fellow

is

wrapped

all

around

like a

but his head, and sometimes even that

visible

may sleep standing. From the manner in which

nmmm}', with nothing

bandaged back

is

tight, so

that he

occasionally results that forty-five degrees.

it

the tender skull

back on a

line

Klamath Lake Indians

the

is

all

it

at

an angle of about

I

have seen a man,

gone, the head sloping right

with the nose, yet his faculties seemed nowise impaired.

The conspicuous painstaking which baby-basket

thus bandaged back,

grows backward and upward

Among

years old perhaps, whose forehead was

fifty

is

Modok squaw expends on her And, indeed, the Modok are abundantly attested by many

the

an index of her maternal love.

strongly attached to their offspring

—a

fact

sad and mournful spectacles witnessed in the closing scenes of the war of

On

1873.

baby

efi'ects, it is

call

the other hand, a California

in a deep, conical basket, the

leaving

him

loose

totally devoid of it

and

squaw

in

It is

;

and one

among

carelessly sets her

often

which she If she

liable to fall out.

ornament

" the dog's nest

same

carries her

household

makes a baby-basket,

tribe, the Mi'-wok,

contemptuously

Indians like these that

we hear

of

infanticide.

One

ancient aboriginal custom observed

pretty and poetical rose.-

—

by

the

At early da} light, before any one had

come

Modok was

morning

rather

l)ofore

they

out of his wickiu]),

they

that of intoning an orison in the

96

:

'

258

THE MODOK.

y ^

all sat

up

in their

couches and chanted together, in the loud, harsh voice in

which they are accustomed

to sing,

some unmeaning chorus.

This was

me by N. B. Ball, a soldier of Capt. Jesse Walker's company in who listened to it one morning with a thrill of strange and superstiawe as he lay close on his face on the brdftv of an overlooking hill

related to

1854, tious

waiting for the daylight to reveal the nick in the sights of his tory to a charge on the

The Modok have

rifle,

prepara-

villa*ge.

a hereditary chieftainship, and are less democratic

and independent than the California Indians, though there reveals

A

occasionally a surly and intractable character.

casual observer cannot

perceive any great difference between the nobility and the

twenty years ago the Modok were

savages, while

now more

speak good English. is

;

B. F. Dowell, for instance, all

roving, hostile, barbarous

than half are loyal, very kind, and

Their " loyalty

nothing else but fear

'',

is

many

of

them

as with a great majority of Indians,

they are neither more nor

less

as savages, if anything less generous to one another

which

riffraff.

Indians improve in moral character after

It is often asserted that the

they become acquainted with the Americans. states that

itself

;

kind than they were

and m}^ observation,

not limited, gives painful proof of the fact that the younger and

English-speaking generation are less truthful,

And

than the old simon-pure savages.

less honest,

this is the

whose knowledge of the race has been gained by

and

contact.

In a lecture delivered in San Francisco, Hon. A. B. the following statement concerning

"Within the confines of

less virtuous

testimony of everybody

Meacham made

Modok marriages

this State

nearly

all

the

young women

are the

men have the money to pay for them. Remonstrance on the part of a young woman is out of the question, because she is threatened constantly with the spirit of her father. Young men all over the country have old wives. A poor j^oung man has not fifty horses, wives of old men, because the old

He

and he must take an old woman. old

woman

lygamy allowed.

is

;

but,

becoming

rich,

accepts the situation and marries an

he takes

to himself a

young woman.

Po-

many reasons why it should be spirit-land women are very small that

allowed, and the Indians give

They say

that in the

;

OLD WIVES they are scarcely

woman

that

known

YOUNG ONES— A

vs.

at all

man

that one

;

can take care of several female

lie

is

SUICIDE.

259

much

greater than a

so

spirits

that in this

;

life

he

requires one to keep house, another to do hunting-, another to dig roots.

Tlien the

women

to the idea of

Of the

themselves are opposed to any change, and are opposed

manning

unless they are bought."

California tribes, this assertion that the old

young men old

wives, and the

wives,

is

untrue.

It

men may

all

have young

be true of the

Modok I doubt if it is even partially true. Horses were not so numerous among the Modok that it required fifty to purchase a woman farther up in Oregon they may have been. Of their religion, he states that a new one had been introduced within tribes in

Oregon, but of the

;

a few years past.

The substance back

to

where

The

new

of the

there he ought to die.

central idea of this

religion

that wherever a

neighbors, the Shastika, to

live, die,

will

man

body

is

born,

will not

go

wander around.

by no means new it has always among the Modok, as well as their

is

been one of the most passionate desires

Some

is,

and both body and soul

originated,

it

religion

If he changes his habitation, his

;

and be buried where they were born.

of their usages in regard to the dead and their burial

may

be gath-

ered from an incident that occurred while the captives of 1873 were on their

way from

the

witness.

Curly-headed Jack, a prominent warrior, committed suicide with

a

His mother and female friends gathered about him and

pistol.

dismal wailing

by

Lava Beds

;

to Fort

Klamath, as

life.

her lap, and scooped the blood from his ear his heart,

these poor old

was described by an eyeset

up a

they besmeared themselves with his blood, and endeavored

other Indian customs to restore his

hand upon

it

and a

third

women whose

terrible in its sadness.

blew

grief

;

The mother took another old

in his face.

The

his

woman

head in

placed her

sight of the group,

was unfeigned, and the dying man, was

Outside the tent stood Bogus Charley, Iluka Jim,

Shacknasty Jim, Steamboat Frank, Curly-headed Doctor, and others who

had been the dying man's companions from childhood,

When

all affected to tears.

he was lowered into the grave, before the soldiers began to cover

the body, Iluka

Jim was seen running eagerly about the camp, ti'ying to bill of currency for silver. He owed the dead war-

ex(ihange a two-dollar

THE MODOK.

260 rior that

amount of money, and

would be of any use national currency

from one of the

!

had grave doubts whether the currency world

in the other

— sad

commentary on our

desired to liave the coin instead.

he cast

soldiers,

dead man's other

him

to

—and

lie

-

and seemed greatly

it in,

consisting of clothingj trinkets,

effects,

were interred with him, together with some rc^t-flour journey to the It

it

All the

relieved.

and a half

dollar,

as victual for the

spirit-land.

does not come within the purpose of this report to narrate the Indian

wars of California

;

only those incidents are selected which throw some light

on aboriginal customs, habits, and

and by the Hon. A. 97

Procuring

B.

Meacham

into their last terrible outbreak

restored to

life

and come

ideas.

It

was asserted by some

by a

dead were about

belief that their

to their assistance,

cans would be swallowed up in the earth.

and

writers,

Modok were

in his lecture, that the

at the

led

to

be

same time the Ameri-

This curious expectation pre-

vailed not only

among them, but among

in fact all over

Northern California, as far down as Lower Russian River

and American River, and perhaps

farther.

imparted to them the information that the top of

Mount

and

the Yurok, Karok, Shastika,

The Shastika

all their

Shasta, waiting a favorable

crow had

said a

dead were hovering about

moment

to descend.

The

Karok prophets announced that the re-embodied dead of their tribe were already on the march from the east, myriads of pigmies, coming to overthrow the Americans.

But the

I

do not believe

Modok into

this

the rebellion.

prophecy had any active inlluence

To

their credit, a great majority of the In-

dians refused credence to their soothsayers in this thing.

was

infinite talk

about

ter of superstition,

it,

as there

in driving

always

is

To be

sure, there

among savages about any mat-

but they took good care not to attempt any rash thing

against the whites in the expectation that they

would be sustained

the w^ar through the force of

—

pared and made inevitable by events long antedating

There

is

no doubt, however, that

influence over them, both before the stance,

when an

attack

in

The Modok simply drifted circumstances a war which had been

the timely arrival of the revivified dead.

was ordered

by

into

pre-

outbreak.

their sorcerers exercised a baneful

war and

to

its

it

after

it

was begun.

For

in-

be made on the Lava Beds by 400

"

:

;

INDIAN MILITARY ENGINEERING— CAPTAIN JACK. men, January

when

and a dense fog overhung the face of the earth

17, 1873,

Modok beheved

the time arrived, the

brouglit

it

aged and kept hearty

Of

were favorable

that the spirits

;

firmly that their sorcerers had

them, and they were encour-

to

in the fight.

consummate

the

and daring with which they fought, when once

skill

who

and conscientious correspondent, Mr. Bunker, Beds soon

whom I have no man versed in

military engineers with

emphatic in their opinion that

Lava Beds

selected a fortress in the

Where

than this same stronghold.

careful

famous Lava

apparent defect.

It is a fact that

talked upon the subject are military tactics could have

better adapted to the ends of defense

nature has not fulfilled the requirements

of the situation, the Indians have piled

fifty

visited the

they were captured, writes

after

The

A

both soldiers and civilians bear abundant testimony.

in the war,

261

up the

lava,

and

so

remedied every

no soldier could have climbed within

yards of the stronghold while the Indians were in possession without

looking into the muzzles of guns; and nothing but a gun would be seen.

Modok has surpassed all draws warm commendation from

The ingenuity neering

Every

skill

of the

picket-post

is

arranged to cover a

understanding.

Their engi-

the best talent in the camps.

.thoroughly protected from assaults

by

riflemen,

and

The avenues are even more complicated than Even the Modok could not trust to

retreat.

the labyrintliian streets of Boston.

memory

in this fortification,

marked by

bits of

wood

hero,

a better leader than they had.

and does not deserve

and lied Jacket.

A

to

!

Captain Jack was not a

be mentioned with Tecumseh and Pontiac

full-blooded

withstanding), born at the

localities

They could not familiarize them-

sizes.

two hundred yards square

selves with a pile of rocks

They merited

and as a matter of precaution had

of difterent

Modok

(all idle tales to

mouth of Lost

the contrary not-

Eiver, he entered the last great

struggle of his tribe about thirty-five or forty years of age, in the full

ma-

turity of his powers.

A man

about

five feet eight inches high,

compactly and strongly built

a large, square head and massive cheek-bones; hair parted in the middle, and reaching

down

to the shoulders,

eyelashes, but no beard

;

where

it

was cut off even

dark, piercing, sinister eyes

;

all

around

;

long

the thin lips of an

THE MODOK.

262 insincere

and cowardly man

—such

was

having an undecided and irresohite

air.

"

his physique.

At the

last,

command

to overcloud his fortunes, he signally failed to

and even

his followers,

than led the bolder

is

described as

when adversity began

in the height of his prosperity

the obedience of

he rather followed

spirits.

He had an evil record from the beginning,\a record showing his native He ascended to the supremacy only by rebelling against his baseness. lawful chief, old Skonchiia, and tribe

Mukaluk ;

to the worst elements of his

on the reservation.

Soon

up

by pandering

after

he

left

the reserve he

gambled with Captain George, a

he lost twenty-one ponies, then refused to give them

chief, until

because his following was the larger of the two, and

and, finally,

Captain George's was unarmed, he began to bluster, threatened George's life,

and

at last coolly

There

drove the ponies away.

no doubt that he originally opposed the scheme of massacre-

is

ing the commissioners, but he was overborne of his band, and he

become

weakly allowed himself

by to

the fiery

young

warriors

be led into the plot and

the chief actor in that perfidious butchery

;

and then,

in his

speech, he proposed that a relation should be executed in his stead

dying ;

and

when the proposition was rejected cravenly followed after General Wheaton Two to know if there was not yet a prospect that it would be accepted !

passages in his speech reveal the to die.

When

death."

And

I look at

this

Scarface Charley to

:

is

man he was

my heart

I

would

"It

:

like

is

terrible to think I

to live

till

have

I died a natural

"I always had a good heart toward

the white people.

a relative of mine

am, and

;

he

is

worse than

I

I

propose

make an exchange and turn him over to be executed in my place." John Skonchin, brother to old Skonchin, desperado that he was, should

go down war.

to posterity as the real chieftain

and moral hero of the Modok

He

In his last speech he pleaded not for himself

children, that they

of his brother.

young men. and

said

was

in force

:

might be tenderly cared

for

and given

pleaded for his into the charge

He expressed himself willing to die for the misdeeds of his He was much moved by the words of the "Sunday Doctor",

"Perhaps the Great

among

Spirit will say,

the whites, ha& killed you.'

'Skonchin, *

*

*

my

law,

which

You have

tried

BOSTON CHARLEY— MURDER OF THE COMMISSIONERS. the law

me and know whether

on

will try to believe that the President did

Spirit in

not

condemning me

Yon

die.

love of ter of

it

^

to die.

are doing a great

am

or not I

*

heart

]\|y

my

to take

tells

that Indian stoicism of

Thus

life."

which poets and romancers

who

only Indian of the four

mere boy

in years, but

perfectly smooth

;

him the

should

his natural

a

more

Boston Charley.

he alone manifested

;

tell

And, fiend-

us.

justice to say that he

and of a splendid physique

a head small and round

human being with

real, tlian

cool

;

little,

—there

women. with me.

fierce eyes, set

;

A

a face

deep in

it

and reckless unconcern, not feigned but

In his speech he said

'^Although I

:

am

a boy,

am a man. When I look at the others I feel When I die and go to the other world I don't want them to go I am not afraid to die. I am the only man in this room to-day." that they are

Speculating on the purpose the

Modok had

murdering the commis-

in

an ingenious writer advanced the theory

that,

judging the Ameri-

themselves, they believed that the death of our leaders

terror into the hearts of their followers,

Probably the motive

dismay.

was the

never went to the scaffold

I feel that I

by

I

did not die with a falsehood in his mouth.

tall, athletic,

and gleaming with a devilish expression

cans

me

but he went to his death without any weakness.

;

incarnate though he was, let us do

sioners,

l

contended with his philosophic calm, sometimes getting the Let-

life

Boston Charley displayed the nerve of a devil

a

*

*

according to the will of the Great

^

wrong

^

a good man.

263

must be sought from two

and cause them

for this to us almost

sources.

would

strike

to disperse in wild

unaccountable act

they doubtless considered

First,

it,

educated in savage ideas as they were, as only a righteous retaliation for the massacre perpetrated

by

Ben. Wright

many

years before, in which

Captain Jack's father and the fathers or near relatives of ished.

Second, there

Indian that

if

is

a sentiment dwelling in the breast of every brave

Boston Charley, and perhaps of one or two others,

unreckoning malice and hatred.

any of them expected by the deed continent

others per-

he can only destroy the greatest, or at least a very great

out of the enemy's camp, he will die in battle content.

unreflecting,

many

flight.

They had

lived

to

put

among

all

it

It is

In the case of

was undoubtedly not at

man

all

pure,

probable that

our hundreds of soldiers to in-

the Americans too long

and knew

THE MODOK.

264 them too well

They knew

for that.

There was a burst of

Wright did the same is

and the person of an

thing, the

the use of talking

very same

is

the simple reason that in a struggle for

when

But when Ben.

the ''code of warfare"?

In

day of Miles Standish,

many

times on both sides, for

civilized

men

Disguise

war has

sides

been on both

men,

that, since the

except a war of extermination. practically

all

to recognize as sacred,

are arrayed against uncivilized

ceases to be civilized warfare, or

life, it

bloody,

this

disregarded what

aHii)assador.

the "code of warfare" has been broken very

men

so far

thing,' in all essential particulars,

any more about

and painful truth

the plain

Modok had

have universally agreed

civilized,

to wit, a flag of truce

where

we ^n^w them,

on two continents when

indig-nation

treacherous thing was done; that the

fact,

us better than

were concerned.

as fighthig qualities

savage as well as

-

it

as

we may,

any other

that

is

kind,

what the

from the settlement of the continent

to this hour.

Notwithstanding their acts of barbarous ferocity there

something

is

melancholy in the whole history of the Modok.

Seceders in the

from the Mukaluk, they drew down upon

heads the bitterest hatred

of the parent stock,

who became

their

their irreconcilable enemies.

offshoot without hereditary presciiptive rights

regarded

by

all

outcasts

and outlaws

and a patrimony, they were

that in this fact lay the secret of

much

upon

Thus they be-

whole Indian world, and who

to the

place

Being an

the surrounding nations as interlopers, and warred

accordingly, as was the case with the Lassik in California.

came

first

shall

doubt

of the rancorous cruelty and im-

placable revenge with which they afterward always prosecuted their wars

Finally they came upon the great

enemy who

leveled

all tribes

him, and in two bitter, bloody wars, in which they saw their

?

before

young men

away before some strange and dreadful weapon, they were utterly broken down to the earth, and consented by treaty to go upon a reservation. melt

But unhappily

for

them

this reservation

was

situated on the ancestral soil

of their old enemies, the Mukaluk, and their troubles began afresh.

They

had been able before

tradi-

tional rights

to take care of themselves,

on Lost River

;

but

now

and had established

a second time they were taunted as

A SCRAP OF RESERVATION interlopers,

and they were helpless

to

HISTORY.

defend themselves.

that savai^^es are so inixenious to invent their lives

Their

women were

})unity

;

scoffed

heaten and insulted whenever

their springs

were shot

and

were made it

were whipped

;

way

In every

hitter to them.

could be done with im-

and streams were muddied or poisoned

their children

;

265

their ponies

;

themselves were stoned and

flouted.

Their brave and honest old chief Skonchin had given his word to the

Government,

in 1864, that

The

to the letter.

he would stay on the reservation, and he kept

and wails of

cries

his sorely-persecuted people

it

came up

to his ears as did the lamentations of the children of Israel in the desert to

Moses.

But he was helpless

to save them.

He

when they

reservation authorities for relief, and

could only appeal to the

did nothing he

was forced

therewith to be content.

Finally Captain Jack arose as a would-be deliverer.

he pictured and magnified

to the long-sufi*ering

Modok

In fiery orations

the griefs which they

knew all too well. He gathered about him a band of reckless young men who chafed under the restraints of the reservation. He made common cause with them and united them to his fortunes.

At length,

in 1870,

em-

boldened by the imbecility which reigned on the reserve, he struck camp

and boldly marched away, taking with him one hundred and

Modok

about three-fifths of the

He went down

fifty followers,

tribe.

Lost River, the ancestral home of his race, and re-oc-

to

cupied the rich grazing lands which the Government had sought to secure to the settlers

by

the treaty of 18G4.

Troubles continually arose with the

The

air

was burdened with

their complaints.

settlers.

become impudent and

insolent

farce of the reservation

;

management.

Herein lay the great and

fatal

mistake of the American authorities,

that they did not deal firmly with the savages. to

urge them to return

The Modok had

they had learned to despise the wretched

They

sent agents to

;

they wheedled, then they threatened again, and so on through inefiicient

and

fiircical

to

all

the

round which has generally characterized the deal-

ings of our reservations with the

Modok

them

they threatened, they coaxed, they made promises,

contemn them.

American Indians.

They

taught the

All their lives they have done nothing but read

"

THE MODOK.

266 faces,

and they are consummate judges of human nature.

when

there

is

weakness

in

In

fact,

that the this

whom

he

Xliey

They judged

the enemy's camp.

Father in Washington by the sons

^

know

well

the Great

sent.

Captain Jack w^ent back to the reservation once on condition

Mukaluk should not be allowed

abuse began again.

him

to insult

M

guarantee was not kept, the old course

Jack withdrew a second

But

as a coward.

ignominious taunts and

time, declaring he

would not

remain in a home which was no home, and with an agent who had no heart.

There were changes of agents and changes of

knew

not what to depend on.

Skonchin and

his faithful

They were

The Indians

policies.

disgusted and defiant.

hundred were removed

to a

new

Old

reservation at

Yainax, where they were out of the reach of their hereditary tormentors,

and were allowed

to live in peace.

But

this

change came too

late.

In a sudden spasm of vigor a detachment of thirty-five soldiers was sent to Jack's camp,

him by

surprise.

lighted,

and

alleled

it

and on the

fatal

29th of November, 1872, they took

There was bloodshed.

The torch of the Modok war was They fought with unpar-

flamed up with a fearful burning.

heroism for their homes, but were crushed

their fallen

chiefs

were held

to a stern

by

superior

which they had no hand or voice in making, and whose

had been

as

power

and awful accountability spirit

;

and

to laws

and substance

wantonly violated by the conquering race as by themselves.

;

CHAPTER THE The

same

valley,

Clm-ma-wa;

in

tribe

The

in

Hot Spring

is

name

first

from

es-ta-Jx',

is

is

on the

Valley, the Es-ta-ke'-warh ;

(also

in

Round

Valley,

called sometimes

derived from a-cho'-ma, "the

river, opposite

Fort Crook, are

simply and pre-eminently "the river"; other

streams have their special names.

geographical nomenclature so

;

"hot spring".

on the south side of the Pit River

called Il-ma'-wi.

;

Big Valley, the A-tu-a'-mih

and Estakewach

Another

of tribes, of which the

below Hot Spring, the Han-te'-wa

the Ha-mef-kut'-tel-li). river";

number

In Fall River Basin, the A-cho-ma'-wi

:

South Fork, the Hu-ma'-whi

the

A-CnO-MA'-WI.

Pit River Indians are divided into a

principal are the following

in the

XXYIII.

In accordance with that minuteness of

common

in California,

they are not content

with designating the river as a whole, but everj/ reach, every cataract, every bend, has a

name

to'-keh, the next

There

is

to itself

bend below

Thus a

little

rapid above Burgettville

is

Cho-

Lo-ka'-lit.

a remarkable difference between the physique one sees in

Hot Spring Valley and that in Big Valley, only twenty miles below. It is partly caused by the meager supply of aboriginal food in the former valley

;

partly the deplorable result of generations of slave-wars and slave-

Modok and the Mukaluk, and partly the result of the awful scourging given them by General Crook, and the deportation of the heart of the tribe to a distant reservation. The Hot catching prosecuted against them

by

the

Spring Valley Indians are the most miserable, squalid, peaked-faced, mendicant,

and mendacious wretches

their teeth project

I

ever saw in California.

forward into a point, and when their

are wrinkled tight over

them

like a

drawn

purse.

Frequently

lips are closed

When

they

eating there 2C7

is

99

TDE ACnOMAWI.

268 often

tlie

same

and

grin,

rapid, mumbliTig-

Squatted on

.squinvl.

tlieir

Nibbhng

he.

motion one

may

observusicians

this sweet,

I not.

have given to

weird piece of savage

melody WO'-LOK-KI AND YO'-TO-WI.

Wo'-lok-ki and Yo'-to-wi were

young

children

One morning

away

a hole

iii

flight,

many

The boy

and these children with others were

followed and revealed their hiding-place.

for the purpose,

little

and afterward

snugly packed on the

and was halted and

floor,

as

slightly searched

young

quails

lie

With

deer-skins, bear-skins,

by

and

the officers of the law, but nothing

the strange instinct of their race, the

move a muscle, but lay as when the hawk is hovering over-

suffered to proceed, but in another

town

it

was

more thoroughly, and the young Indians brought

was gently mulcted

away It

his

in the

sum

of SlOO, and the good citizens of the place

captives from him, and they

chanced that our

little

became ^^apprenticed" unto

hero and heroine thus passed into the pos-

session of a great philanthropist of those regions,

been mightily

He

lifted

up

it

be a prosecution of the kidnapper, and he

w^as necessary that there should

trade''.

others, all

For the vindication of the excellent majesty of American law,

to light.

!

fortune they were

huge saddle-bags, made

wagon, with a number of

in the chaparral

halted and searched again,

them

dog had not

captives did not cry out, or whimper, or

The wagon was

took

in a

and covered with

was discovered contraband.

head.

By some good

in a pair of

sister therein so

their

In passing through a town the wagon attracted suspicion,

other peltries.

still

if

away

one suspended on each side of the horse, with their heads

just peeping out;

young

and

the w^hites.

had, in ten minutes' time, torn

the chaparral, and hidden himself and his

first,

sister,

their native village, their

completely that they would not have been discovered

not separated, but were carried,

and

Ji^cquainted with

was made on

w^ere killed,

into captivit5\

Indians, brother

became

their tribe first

at daylight a foray

parents put to cai'ried

when

Konkau

whose voice had often

in denunciation of the infamies of this

"Indian slave-

kept them some time, and finally transferred them to a negro

barber in exchange for a stove, did

this philanthropist

keep them long, but sold them

$25

for

!

The barber did not

apiece, the usual price of

an Indian

THE RETURN OF THE CAPTIVES. boy

to another until seven or

had elapsed, and they were grown nearly

eight years still

Thus they passed from one

in those times.

280

to maturity; hut they

remained iinseparated.

At the end of

this period

they regained their liberty, and at once they

set out together to return to their native valley.

they traveled

for them, for

but at

afoot,

last

was many days' journey

It

they arrived in sight of the

By some means

news of

their escape

and return had preceded them, and the parents now learned

for the first

village wherein they

were born.

time that their long-lost children were

the

still alive.

The wanderers now approach the village. They enter, and are guided by friends to the paternal wigwam, for there are many changes since they saw the village last. Ascending the earthen dome, they go down the wellworn ladder in the center, and seat themselves without a word. The father and mother give one hasty glance

What

uttered.

at

them, but no more, and not a word

the exceeding great joy of their hearts

themselves alone

know

passionless faces, he

;

but from

is,

heaven and

the spectator can read in their

all

is

would not know that they had ever borne any

still,

chihh-en,

or mourned them for years with that great and unforgetting sorrow that

An

savages sometimes know.

hour passes away, and

still

not a word

is

The returned captives sit in motionless silence, while the father and mother move about the lodge on their various duties. An hour and a half is gone. The spoken, not even a single glance of recognition exchanged.

parent:] turn

now and

Two

children.

and bolder.

It is

now perhaps

yet not a whisper.

and savage

then a sudden and stolen look upon their waiting

etiquette

But is

They

them, they

three hours since the captives entered,

at last all the fullness of

rounded and complete.

aged father and mother are tears.

The glances become more frequent

hours or more elapse.

full

to bursting.

turn and speak to their children

fall

upon

their necks,

and

time of savage custom

The waiting

hearts of the

Their eyes are

by name.

and together they mingle

filled

They

with

rush to

their tears, their

strange outcries of joy, and their sobs.

To

the reader this niay seem extravagant and imi)ossible, but, with the

exception of a few minor particulars,

custom of this singular race.

it is

a true story, illustrating a social

In receiving a guest, the

Konkau

frequently

THE MAIDU.

290

-

Thk substance

wait two or three hours before they addi-ess him.

above story was related

me by

to

of the

an American, who was an eye-witness of

the captives' return.

LEGEND OF THE FLOOD.

Of

old the Indians abode tranquilly in the Sacramento Valley,

were happy.

was a nighty and

All on a sudden there

waters, so that the whole valley

The

can measure.

became

like the

Indiaifs fled for their lives,

Thus

all

swiftly after them,

fertility

many were

over-

Also, the frogs

and they ate many Indians.

drowned but two, who escaped

the Indians were

But the Great Man gave these two

man

Big Water, which no

but a great

taken by the waters, and they slept beneath the waves.

and the salmon pursued

and

swift rushing of

into the foot-hills.

and blessed them, so that the

From these two there sprung many tribes, even man was chief over all this nation a chief greatly

world was soon repeopled. a mighty nation, and one

known

—

inhabited

by

and over

in his

think

only:

and

his

knoll, turning over

waters, and he strove to

sleeps he lay without food, for

mind was always thinking of

did this deep water cover the face of the world'"?

the end of nine sleeps he for

Nine

the land.

knoll over-

that they covered fertile plains once

mind the thoughts of these great

his thoughts alone,

How

knew

Nine sleeps he lay on the

his ancestors.

how they came upon

he lived on

Then he went out on a

renown.

in the world, of large

looking the wide waters, and he

was changed.

He was no more

this

And

at

like himself before,

now no arrow could wound him. Though a thousand Indians should shoot

at him, not

Great

Man

one flint-pointed arrow would pierce his in heaven, for

skin.

He was

no man could slay him forevermore.

spoke to the Great Man, and commanded him to the plains which his ancestors

had inhabited.

let the

water flow

The Great Man away

rent open the side of the mountain, and the water flowed

like the

Then he off

from

did this; he into the

Big

Water.

The following legend Nevada County":

is

taken from Bean's ''History and Directory of

THE LION AND THE It

was a long time

ago.

A

CAT.

California lion

and

his

younger brother,

THE LION AND THE WILD OAT. wigwam

the wild-cat, lived in a bigfleet

From

grizzly, or the serpent that crawled

He had

His young brother was wise.

the earth.

was strong and

lion

than a match for most of the animals he wanted

But he could not cope with the

to eat.

on

He was more

of foot.

The

together.

291

a wonderful power.

a magical ball of great beauty he deiived an influence potent to

destroy

One day

together, the cat going before.

went out

was

the animals his older brother

all

''There

to hunt.

is

killed in like

his skin for

its

it

was a long time ago

a bear", said the

the bear, said, ''Die", and the bear

and he was

—

dead.

fell

A

magical power.

little

the snake and took along

two

farther on

beautiful deer were found feeding together.

—the two

The cat, pointing to They next met a serpent,

lion.

They skinned

manner.

They hunted

afraid of

l^irge

and very

" Kill one of these for your-

boy brother to his man brother, "but catch me the other The lion gave chase, and at night he returned to his wigwam. "Did you bring me back one of the beautiful deer"? said the cat. "No", Then the cat said the lion, "it was too much work; I killed them both." was sorry, and did not love his brother. They were estranged. The cat would not go out to slay the bear and the snake any more, and the lion self", said the

alive."

would not go out

for fear of the bear

One day

the snake himself

with the It

ball,

and, tossing

—

it

Then

never came down.

hunting has been poor ever of the magical ball. for his loss

water run

all

wished for the

The

saw

it

— the

lion

The

the

wigwam

bear and

was

playing*

go up and up, and out of

cat to

to

was disconsolate

wander It

alone.

sight.

and the

for the loss

He

sorrowed

Big

was a long time ago.

Humbug, and

aw^ay up to the

He climbed a tree by the water. By and by he saw a beautiful ball hanging, He picked it off. It was very pretty. He keep it so it would not get away. He went

wild-cat went north.

lost ball.

buckeye, on a limb. in the snake-skin to

along the shore of the big water

on the other side cooking. tlu}

to kill the

the deer scattered all over the earth since.

left

put

rolled over in

and learn

was a long time ago

to find the ball again.

like a it

cat,

around from " Lankee" Jim

high mountains.

He

He

and looked

it

up, he

He thought he would

and the snake.

use the magical ball of his brother, the

water.

It

till

The

he could see across

ball

jumped out of

went across the

river.

it.

Two girls were

the snake-skin

One

of the girls

and

came

THE MAIDU.

292

down But

it

stream to get some water in her basket, and k^^^ the beantiful

to the

ball rolling

and shining

would

tiful ball,"

roll

away.

The

sister

She

in the water.

She said, " Sister, came.

They

tried to dip

np

it

in

her basket.

come and help me catch this beaulong time, but finally caught

tried a

it

They were afraid it would get away. One held it for a time, and then th^ other. They were very glad. At night they put it between them in the *bed. They kept awake a long time and talked about* their prize. But at last they fell asleep. They woke in the morning the ball was gone there was lying between them a full-grown young man. And that was the first man that ever came on the in the basket.

It

was bright and very

pretty.

,

—

—

This was a long time ago.

earth.

CREATION AND FALL OF MAN.

K6-do-yam-peh, the world-maker, and Hel'-lo-kai-eh, the from the east

Kodoyampeh

to We-le-u-deh.

but Hellokaieh told him he could not do

and dared

it,

But Kodoyampeh repeated that he could do two smooth, yellow

him

at evening,

sticks {ijo-ko-lon-chd)^

and said they would turn

the night, but they w^ould not

by

had tm-ned him

if

he

waked up

his

felt

selves

felt

them on the bed beside

man and woman

during

day.

Through

to bed.

companion and asked him

it

if

the

the night

two

sticks

would not happen.

the night passed away,

He

his

and early

as his sister

eat.

in the

morning Kodoyampeh

Looking up quick, he saw a man and a

body.

rose from his bed, and

and then come and

woman

it.

man and a woman yet. He made fun of him, and asked them move about in the bed. But Kodoyampeh replied that

two touches on

woman.

liim to attempt

to a

he must not trouble him, or

Thus

laid

into a

So the world-maker and the devil went the devil often

came

So he went out and got

it.

and

devil,

would make a man,

said he

made them

When

and the man

get up and go bathe them-

Hellokaieh came

as his brother-in-law.

in

he claimed the

Kodoyampeh

suf-

fered this for the time.

Then sticks

the devil said to

Kodoyampeh

that

if

he would give him two

he would do the same thing, and create a

Kodoyampeh

man and

a

woman.

did so, and the devil took the two sticks and laid them beade

TUE WORLD MAKER AND THE DEVIL. on

liini

Many

his bed.

had appeared

yet,

times during the night

At

but saw nobody.

last,

293

looked

lie

to see if

about daybreak, he

Presently he was awakened by two lusty thumps in the

jumped up

quickly, laughing, and saw two

man

a

fell asleep.

when he

ribs,

women, one with two eyes

He asked each one in turn, ''Are you "No, I am a woman we are two sisters."

and the other with only one.

man"?

But each

Then

replied,

He

without a man.

said

;

was sorely perplexed, because he could do nothing

the devil

Kodoyampeh

a

asked

Kodoyampeh why he had

not succeeded, and

was because he had laughed, whereas he had expressly

it

charged him not to laugh. The devil answered that he could not help it when he got two such sharp digs in the ribs. He asked Kodoyampeh if he would not make a man for him, but he refused. Then he asked him at least to make him a two-eyed woman but Kodoyampeh said he could not ;

do

were dead.

until they

it

and women are seen

This, then,

is

After this Kodo3^ampeli sent on the earth the created to gather food from the face of

and

all

the

the earth

had been tame, so

among them and been

prolific

fish

him

foi'

man whom he had

air,

all

the

game

and the insects of

to reach forth his

Also the

his food.

hand

soil

had

to this time, 3delding all products,

acoms, manzanita ber-

and many kinds of rich grass-seed

for the sustenance of

he

saw"

nuts, seeds,

whom

he had made he

—of the game and the — these things he

and desired

and

berries

for all

One injunction only he laid upon him, and that was he should bring home to his house whatever he wished to cook, and for him.

the woods.

fire in

So the man went out

all

man had only

take whatever he wished

and the birds and the

not kindle a

him

that a

to take freely of all that

had created that

men

one-eyed

before this

So when Kodoyampeh sent forth the man

man. told

up

pine-nuts,

ries,

Now,

it.

the grasshoppers, the birds of the

fish,

why

the reason

world to-day.

in the

to

the

cook

in the

game and

when they saw More than that, acorns,

to catch

game, but the devil saw him and told

woods whatever he wished.

the

the

fish, all

smoke

the ground

in

And he

did

the grasshoppers, the birds, the woods,

was changed,

and the manzanita bushes no more

became

so.

Therefore

and the

so that the oaks }'ielded berries,

insects,

wild, as they are to-day.

no more

nor was there anytJiing

THE MAIDU."

294

man on

the food of

left for

and earth-worms. Also

the face of the earth, save Qnly roots, clover,

These three things were

Kodoyampeh changed

men had

that

all

the air so that

it

was no longer always the

same the year round, but now there was frost, and rain, and and drought, together with the pleasant days.

heat,

them

fire to

warm

to eat.

fog,

and wind, and

As a recompense he gave

themselves, whereas befor'evthey had had only stones to

He

press against their bodies.

established the seasons

—Kum'-men-ni

(the

rain season); Yo'-ho-me»-ni (the leaf seasonj; I'-hi-lak-ki (the dry season);

He

Mat'-men-ni (the falling-leaf season).

give them

any dances.

but he did not yet

to sing,

Before this time they had had no diseases and no

cooked and ate

deaths, but after they

also instituted the sacred ht'-ineh,

Konkau songs

the assembly-hall, and gave the

fever and pestilences, and

many

woods they became subject

in the

But Kodoyampeh

died.

told

them

to

that

if

they were good, at death they would go away to the spirit-land by the right-

hand path (yim'-dum-ho), which

away by

is

light

;

but

they were bad they would go

if

the left-hand path (dah'-Jcum-ho), which leads

away

into darkness.

LEGEND OF OAN-KOl'-TU-PEH.

An

old

man named

Pi-u'-chun-nuh, long ago, lived at We-le'-u-deh

(above Oroville near Cherokee Flat).

wholly on clover,

no acorns, no praying

nuts,

roots,

the river.

He

and earth-worms

no grasshoppers.

to hear a voice

prayed

;

went

oak and looked

to the

;

there

was no game, no

he prayed to the woods, and

in the assembly-house,

to see if

it

fish,

Piuchunnuh went about everywhere,

might hear a voice answering his prayer. to the

In those days che Indians lived

to the rocks,

and listened

if

But he heard nothing.

bore acorns, but

and

He went

had only leaves

it

manzanita bush and looked for berries, but

it

to

perchance he

had only

he

;

leaves.

He

brought the leaves in the house and he prayed three days and nights

but

still

no answer, no

Far away

to the north, in the ice-land, there lived

kut-wo-to-peh (the

great

Piuchunnuh resolved the

boy went

like a

;

voice.

to

one\

and Woan'-no-mih

send for them.

He

sent a

two old men, Hai'(the

boy

humming-bird, and reached the ice-land

These two old men lived

in a

death-giver).

to see them, in

house and they were asleep inside

and

one day. (it

was

in

;

THE TWO OLD MEN OF THE ICE-LAND. the daytime), each in his

—the

overhead

own

attic of the

295

bed, placed on poles which reached across

Their hair was so long that as they

wigwam.

The boy went in. The old men awakened and asked him what he had come for. He told them he was sent by Piuchunnuli to ask them to come to him. They asked him if he had no other errand. He said he had not. They knew all this before, but they asked The boy offered to wait and show the boy to see what he would answer. told him to go on back for they knew the way and them the way, but they would come alone. They told him they would be there that night that lay

reached

it

down

to the floor.

;

they must wait until evening before starting, because they never traveled in the daytime

and did not wish

be seen by an^^body.

to

So the boy started home, and as soon two old men got down out of

was

and put on

earth,

their

went out of the house the

and the noise of

their beds,

They shook

like thunder.

as he

their alighting

out their long hair which reached to the

mystic garments, and prepared for their flight to the

south.

overhead, each in his

homeward way like a humming-bird all day They asked him, "Did they let you "They were asleep in high beds placed on poles own bed and their hair reached to the ground.

Their house was

of all kinds of food

But the boy sped on long,

and

"Yes", he

in"?

his

he reached home.

at night

said.

full

;

berries, grasshoppers, dried flesh

cooking."

When

said further,

in

voice.

he shall

must be

it,

and

all

If

any

light

is

That night

was made

with ashes

acorns, pine-nuts, manzanita

"They

will

come

women and no

to-night at midnight.

silent

and dark.

;

the old

There must be no

made and any one beholds

all

the old Indians

at

lest it

it

light

those two old

one side of

came together

men and

men

it,

should give a

but when

it

burned low

They came

out of

it

A

was covered over

light. left their

home

Their house was not like a house at

mountain.

into the assembly-hall

looking and waiting for the two old men.

That night the two old men land.

—

but there were no

;

die."

but some were on top of fire

fish

they come the assembly-house must be ready for them

must be no

And he

and

it

and

all,

in the far north, in the ice-

but

it

was

like a little

set their faces to the south,

low

and they

THE MAIDU.

296 sped on their

home

way

humming-bird; and

like a

They

of Piiichunnnh.

Indians were assembled

"

at midnigiitjhey

and, as they touched the top of

;

reached the

alighted on the assembly-house wherein the

opened and

it

it,

who were within beheld The}^ cried Qut, "Make room for us", and an open spaed \before the fire. And when

parted asunder in every direction, so that those the blue heavens and the stars.

they came down and stood in they

lifted

a tree

up their voices

to

speak the house was

The

of singing blackbirds.

full

full

of sweet sounds, like

heart of Piuchunnuh

was

filled

with joy.

One which

of the old

men had

in his

others since have been

all

hundred cocoons, dry, and

this,

and when

it is

modeled

—a

this rattle

spirit of

shaken your songs will sound

when Piuchunnuh had prayed, he had

waved them.

stick

whereon were

tied a

He said to

them,

with you, and

The

show you.

But the old men

said,

"The

be made

let it

sweet music

it

Have this them or when

leaves are not good.

was Woannomih who uttered

tofore

all

not so eloquent, but he stood behind

Woannomih further

put a word in his mouth.

you have

let all

your boys grow up

after

in this

Always before

better."

with you when you pray for acorns, and you will get you pray for grasshoppers, and you will get them. The leaves no fruit when you pray with them."

Now,

is

held leaves in his hand and

rattle

man was

from

rattle (sho'-Jo-yoh),

of acorns and grass-seed.

full

"Always when you sing have the pattern which I noAv rattle,

hand the sacred

these words

;

will bring

the other old

Woannomih and sometimes said to

Piuchunnuh, "Here-

like a wild tree in the

you have taught them nothing; they have gone

;

their

own way.

mountains

;

Henceforth

you must bring every youth, at a pi-oper age, into your sacred assemblyhouse, and cause him to be initiated into the ways and knowledge of man-

You

shall teach

him

to

which

I shall ordain in

my

honor."

dances

among the Konkau, nothing but we shall teach and instruct you.

hood.

nights

worship me, and to observe the sacred dances

voice in this house or 3^ou will listen.

We

need no light

;

die.

we have

your hearts; you need neither

to see

(Before this there had never been any songs.)

He

further said,

There must be no

light

Three nights you must be light in us.

You

nor to touch us."

shall

"Three and no

silent

know

and

us in

THE TEACHINGS OF VVOANNOMIH. Thus

two

for

chuunuli was

full

they taught the Konkau, and the heart of Piu-

nig-lits

of joy continually so that he could not utter

the third niglit, before the old Indians

come

But on

it.

together, there crept into full

of

Standing outside of the house they had overheard some of

mischief.

Woannomih's words, and they some pitch-pine and make a see

said one to another,

light in the night

what they look

and so did they.

hearts

liad

whose hearts were black and

the assembly-house two wicked boys,

men and

297

;

"Let us get

we can

then

in

and take

see these old

Thus they wickedly devised

like."

in their

Secretly they crept into the house and carried

with them some pitch-pine.

In the fire

niglit

when Woannomih was

and threw on the pitch-pine, when suddenly the house was

a strong light, and the old

had on

their

men

stood out plain in the sight of

heads woven nets {ho-noang' -wi-la j covered

of abalone-shell shining like the sun ch

'i)

talking these boys raked open the

of black eagle's feathers reaching

edges

shell-spangled breech-cloths

;

moccasins

{slw'-loh)

abalone-shell.

over with bits

they wore long mantles {ivu'-shwi-

;

;

buckskin

tight leggings of

deer; in another, antelope,

and they shone

his office to stand

They

stood revealed

like fine obsidian.

on top of the assembly-house

claim the approaching dance to the villagers. speech, he stood behind

the house.

to the

ground

;

but

Piuchunnuh covered

it

light,

in the

when

Also,

him and repeated

AVhen he saw the two boys making the and flung them

and low

in another, grasshop-

;

etc.

Near Piuchunnuh there was standing a harlequin or herald was

;

covered with red woodpecker's scalps and pieces of

in clear, bright colors,

it

with

They

below the knees, with acorns around the

Their flesh was salmon in one place

per; in another,

all

filled all.

all

his

{pe'-i-pcli)

made a

his chief

words

to the

people.

he grasped them in his hands

was too

late,

the light flamed vq) in

his face with his hands, so as not to

Woannonnli, and he groaned aloud a groan of

;

evening and pro-

behold

But Woannomih spoke quietly on a moment more: "Keep the sacred dance-house, as I

have told you, while the world endures.

honors.

and not hills

be

Keep

the sacred rattle

in the daylight. full

bitter despair.

Never neglect

and the dances.

Worship me

In the daytime I will none of

of acorns and nuts

;

your valleys

my rites

it.

and

my

in the niglit,

Then

sliall

your

shall }'ield plenty of grass-

seed and herbs

be

"

THE MAIDU.

298 ;

your

Then he ceased and went up

heaven

restrained her curiosity, but if

and

When

noon there

;

they lay

the still

There wa^valso a woman who had not

had groped about the house, feeling with her

men

She

also fell on the

died.

The people went out rejoiced.

Very soon

were stricken with death

fire

perchance she might touch the two old

floor quickly

rose through the roof,

Qii-jpi-ning' hoy-o-di').

and breathed no more.

floor,

men

speaking, and the two old

to the valley of

two boys who had kindled the

hands,

of salmon, and y^our hearts shall

full

Farewell."

rejoiced.

on the

be

rivers shall

fell fire

and washed

in the morning,

the sun was

their bodies,

up they took food and were

out of the sun upon the village, and burned

uttermost house, and

all

up

it

and

But

glad.

at

to the

the villages of that land round about, and all the

men, women, and children, save Piuchunnuh alone. covered his face with his hands when the

fire

Pie escaped because he

was kindled by the two boys,

but he was dreadfully burned, almost unto death.

Now, long before

all

these things happened, there lived at Ush'-tu-

ped-di (near Chico) a tribe of Indians whose chief was Ki-u-nad'-dis-si.

But Hai'-kut-wo-to-peh, one of the two old men of the north, came down and gambled with him.

They

two marked.

the players held If

lie

They had

rolled

four short pieces of bone, two plain and

them up

up one of them

in little balls of

in each hand,

matched them, he counted two There were sixteen

counted one.

got the sixteen he was winner.

;

if

dry grass

then one of

;

and the other h6ld up

his.

he failed to match them, the other

wood

bits of

and when one

as counters,

Haikutwotopeli used a trick

his

;

arms were

hollow, and there was a hole through his body, so that he could slip his ])ieces across

wished peli

from one hand

to bet

to the other

and win every time.

bows, arrows, shell-money,

etc.,

as usual

would not bet anything but men and women.

whole

tribe

;

Kiunaddissi

but Haikutwoto-

So he won Kiunaddissi's

from him, and carried them away to the north, to the

Tliere remained only Kiunaddissi, his daughter, and an old

So Piuchunnuh went down

to

ice-land.

woman.

Ushtupeddi, and abode there, because

they spoke the same language as himself

He

taught them

all

the things

BIRTH OF OANKOITUPEH. wliicli

Woannoniih had

299

and they observed them, and had plenty

told him,

of acorns and fish to eat, and were happy.

One

day, as the sun was setting, Kiunaddissi's daughter went out and

saw a beautiful red

cloud, the

most lovely cloud ever seen, resting

bar along the horizon, stretching southward.

come and

''0, father,

went back

He

see this beautiful cloud!"

house they heard, right in their

into the

the sweetest music

She cried out

man ever

heard.

It

continued

did

ears,

all

gather clover to

seemed

into the plain to

While picking the clover she found a very pretty

eat.

After gazing at

wonder, she turned to look at her basket, and there beside

who

Red Cloud),

was called Yang-wi'-a-kan-tih (the

resplendent to look upon that she was abashed

I love

If

you

;

you see you love me look

last

night

;

;

you love me, take and

me at

man knows

stranger.

Then

afraid."

all

she said,

away in But when

returned to her, behold she had given birth to a son

And

abashed, and Avould not look in his

full

but she was

air,

a swoon,

girl fell

and lay a considerable time there upon the ground.

fixce,

He

"

the pinole vanished in the

Thereupion the

whither.

and

is setting.

eat this basket of grass-seed pinole

touched the basket, and in an instant

going no

be not

;

man

other

hung down

am not a

every night Avhen the sun

me

awhile

it

stood a

so bright

she modestly

;

said to her, " I

But he

her head and uttered not a word.

it

who was none

He was

than the cloud she had seen the day before.

You saw me

they

to them,

tell

arrow, trimmed with yellow-hammer's feathers. in

a

the time without stop-

what caused it. Next day the daughter took a basket and went out and none of them could

ping,

When

so.

it

like

to her father,

man

the

the girl

was

of great joy

And Yangwiakanuh was glad when he looked at the babe, and he said to her: You love me now that is my boy, but he is not of this world. You were born in Ushtupeddi your father was born in Ushtupeddi. I know all that, but this, my son, is not of this world."

because of her new-born son.

;

;

Then he placed

the babe in her basket,

ons which arc used

saw

it.

come

And forth

lie

by

Indians

said to the

mother again

from the basket.

have power over

all,

and with him he put

—bows, arrows,

He

shall

:

weap-

—but no man

''In less than five days he shall

be greater than

and not fear any that

in also all

spears, slings

lives.

all

men

;

he shall

Therefore shall his

name

THE MAIDU.

300

Whenever you

be Oan-koi'-tu-peh (the Invincible). This boy has no

Then to

go

his

me

apart from

life

mother took

he

;

which the babe

this basket, in

to her father's house,

see him, think of me.

myself."

is

but when she had gone a

and started

lay,

little

way

she turned

to look back, and behold Yangwiakanuh was gone out of sight, and no man ever saw him more. She took her babe home, and secretly went into the assembly-house,

and hid him

bug on

of a

the wall.

But the

behind the great basket of acorns.

in the basket

was quick with

child's heart

and the beating of

life,

When

was

like the ticking

Kiunaddissi, the child's grandfather, heard

the noise, he said to his daughter, ''What noise

At

such a noise as that before."

it

that the girl

that?

is

I

never heard

was greatly ashamed, but

she held her peace.

On

the fourth night Kiunaddissi

house, and there was a hot it,

and

fell

upon the basket

fire

in

made

a sacred dance in the assembly-

A

of willow- wood.

coal snapped out from

which was hidden the young

man

through the basket, and the child came forth a

child.

It

burned

grown, and came

full

down and stood upon the floor. He knew his grandfather, and called him by name. But the old man was overcome with astonishment. He ran and called to his daughter, saying,

here

;

he

me

calls

"Come

grandfather, but I

came

in all haste,

knew

the five days were not expired,

When

child.

not

my

to

know

me

quick; there

and she feared

the lad spoke to the old

My

man

evil

He

full of joy.

He

to

them

sat there

took note of

beasts, the diseases, the fatal

and he said

meant

all

"You

are

out,

"My

;

all

he looked

my

son!

his face

around

all

son!"

and hands, ;

he

knew

the deadly snakes, the deadly

quagmires wherein men sank and perished,

that all the

men who had

other times had gone to the land of good Avhat

befall her

again, he replied,

But when the mother entered, she cried

things beforehand.

would

daughter has no husband."

She led him and seated him on a clean board, washed

all

His mother

nothing of him."

weeping, moaning, and wringing her hands, because she

grandson.

and her heart was

a stranger

is

perished

spirits.

the round pits about them.

He

He

by

these

means

in

nsked his grandfather

told liim that

people had lived there, but their chief had gambled them

all

once a great

away

in cap-

;

THE EXPLOITS OF THE DERO. tlvitv,

and

way

which

in

He wished

this

and begged him with

it,

am

I

gambling was done, and

greater than

all."

which Haikutwotopeh had won attempt

But

it.

mother did

his

There was an old at pleasure

He wanted

do

He wanted

to

show them

knew

to hmi,

though

But he went

you were born without a

She wanted

ing acorns in

his

begged him

war-weapons (which have been

father.

But

I

She said

saw you

to him,

;

He

touched

"Poor

child!

nobody helped yon

I can straighten

your back

if

you

will

He

and prayed

The

to do.

as she

which had a hole

middle of

and he

listened for the great voice of

him

that she

Nature

meant

to kill him,

lie

and stood over him, and if to

made by poundShe led him

to

in his

back

to put

him what

him on

his guard.

;

lifted

a stone far up almost to the sky, and brought

crush him with one tremendous blow.

second time she

to tell

but that he must do

down on the rock face upward but the old hag' down back upward. This he did, and then she came

back, and lay

as

it,

tins day.

bow and arrows, his sling, spear, belt, and Then he went a little aside, knelt down by a rock,

so.

voice told

him he must

down

in the

to lay off his

did

bade him, and have an eye

He came told

;

Chico, a straight, smooth rock, just

This rock can be seen here to

it.

and told him

feathers.

A

to

"Oankoitupeh! Oankoitupeh!"

his grandfather earnestly

^\\tll all

in the foothills near

the length of a man,

it

he could

in her heart that

me."

There was,

it,

to

she-devil, as tall as a great pine in the mountains,

you were born with a crooked back.

let

him not

it.

to the earth before him.

fell

by

the trick

models to the Konkau ever since), and met the old she-devil.

and she

know

said, " I fear

But he

it.

assume the form of man or woman.

to the forest,

not to follow her.

her,

to

showed him.

his grandfather

tears not to

not, for she

She called

as a speckled fawn.

and lured him

told

all this

She could, when she pleased, look young and beautiful

Oankoitupeh.

kill

He

stood.

Oankoitupeh knew

the tribe, but they besought

all

not die, because his father had said

who could

had

their houses

his people.

luck with Haikutwotopeh, but they earnestly warned

to try his

him against no man.

and

he asked, to hear what they would reply.

hefore, but

the

were the places where

tliosc pits

also the story of Piuchuiiiiuh

liini

301

lifted the great stone into the sky,

He

did not wmce.

but again he did not

^

THE MAIDU.

302

A

wince when she brought

it

earnest, but just before

reached him he turned quickly on his

it

down.

third time she bi^ou^ht

down

it

side,

in

and

the mighty stone, descending, smote on the rock close beside

him with the

noise of thunder, and splintered

The hag was

amazement and

stricken with

tupeh, drawing his knife of lungs,

and taking them on

his grandfather

many

fear

she

;

fell

thousand pieces.

prone upon the earth.

them home and gave them

to

but the old hag he burned.

;

black eagle in that country which had

fierce

Oankoitupeh wished

to

but his grandfather begged him with tears not to attempt

it.

killed

Oankoi-

with one plunge cut out her heart and

flint,

his spear carried

There was a large and

it,

into a

it

Indians in former times.

he prayed and listened for the great voice of Nature to

go and

him what

tell

kill

But again to do.

Before that they had sought to snare the eagle with a net, but he always

broke

it

Now Oankoitupeh

and destroyed many Indians.

prepared a

trap,

with which he caught him as he issued from the hole in the tree where he lived,

and

carried

so he killed him.

them

to his

Then he ripped out

grandfather

his heart

ashes there arose the woodpecker as

we

see

it

to-day.

These two exploits of Oankoitupeh were received by

unbounded joy

;

and lungs and

but the body he burned, and out of the

;

each time, as he returned home after

it,

his friends

with

he was welcomed

with a dance and with songs of triumph.

He was now

ready to go on

his great mission to the north, to

expose

the trick of Haikutwotopeh, and recover his grandfather's lost tribe from

bondage.

All four of his friends wished to go with him, but he said they

could not go with him unless they

and they

set out together

So they

first died.

with him, leaving the old

died, three of them,

woman

behind.

They

waded on the bottom underneath the great Haikutice to the home of Haikutwotopeh.

traveled far over the earth, then

and deep

sea,

then across the

wotopeh knew that he was come, and than himself

come.

He

Perhaps you are greater than

have done nothing gambling, and

all

felt

said to Oankoitupeh,

great."

your land

I."

Kiunaddissi is full

in his heart that

"I

felt in

my

he was greater

heart that

But Oankoitupeh said, "

of people."

You won

all

said,

my

you had

"No; I by

tribe

Haikutwotopeh answered,

WAGERING TRIBES ON A GAME.

303

You may gamble and win them back if you can. You are free to do but you cannot carry them away by force or fraud." So they sat down together in the assembly-house, Oankoitupeh and

that,

Haikutwotopeh,

gamble

to

and Piuchunnuh against the

his grandfather

game, and Oankoitupeh

lost.

Oankoitupeh

staked her.

that one counter.

First,

his opponent's

Oankoitupeh staked

They played

tribe.

Then he had only

his

mother

one counter after another, until fate of his

mother and of her

Haikutwotopeh became bold

moment Oankoitupeh

through

lost

The

teen were gone but one.

this

for the lost tribe.

;

He

arm and body, and opened one

now won back

piece after piece

was won;

his

mother was saved, and the whole

came over

to their rescuer with shouts of great

ous as the trees of the thick

and he

all

the six-

tribe

hung on At

he played recklessly.

asserted his secret power.

;

a quick

left,

stopped the hole

He

in his own.

The game redeemed. They

he gained the whole sixteen. tribe

joy

;

they were as numer-

forest.

So they came out of the icy assembly-house, and the friends of Oankoitupeh rejoiced over his splendid victory. a second game, and offered to bet his tribe tribe.

He

and won

You gambled with my grandfather in other days, tribe. You ought to have been satisfied to bet bows, but you would bet only men and women. You might

said to him,

his Avhole

arrows, money,

etc.,

Then Oankoitupeh proposed against Haikutwotopeli's own

"

as well have bet the earth

itself,

the rivers, the mountains, the rocks

you could not have carried these away if you had won them. I gamble with you for your lands and your rivers, but only for your

;

only

will not

people."

down in the assembly-house again and played, and OankoiEven before the game was ended, the tribe of Haikutwotopeh were eager to go over to Oankoitupeh, but he said to them, "No; you must wait; my people did not wish to come over before they were won". Then they all set out together for the far distant Ushtupeddi. But long before they arrived, the old woman who was left behind knew that They

sat

tupeh won.

Oankoitupeh was alive and had gained the

head plume

went

in her house,

out- doors, she

and she saw

it

victor}^.

waver and

saw the grass and flowers

There was a flutter

;

also,

quail's-

when

in a gentle tremor.

If

she

he

;

TDE MAIDU.

304 had been dead

or beaten in the game,

these things

all

would have been

lifeless.

When

they arrived at Ushtupeddi there was great rejoicing among the

Oankoitnpeh was then surely known

long-lost tribe over their restoration. as the son of the

was restored

Red Cloud, and he was held

the face of the earth,

back

yam-peh

now assembled

and pointed out

to

all

also called

of

tribe

place on

valley received

by Ko'-do-

first

Woan'-no-mih.

the people together in a great convo-

He

related to

tory of both these two men's tribes, and showed them

commands

own

them Piuchunnuh and Kiunaddissi

for their perpetual imitation or avoidance.

the

its

Every

and there was no confusion.

World-Maker), wlio was

(the

O.ankoitupeli cation,

village to

OAvn proper inhabitants, as was ordained at the

its

Every

in great honor.

and every

to its old original place,

as

examples

them the sad

how

his-

disobedience to

Woannomili had brought ruin and death upon them.

He

rehearsed to them their history in the dreary ice-land, and pointed out the beautiful contrasts of their restored.

He

they were

now

own

land, to

which they were now happily

adjured them to remember the precepts of the religion which to receive

old chiefs and himself their ancestors,

who

them rather pray

to

from Woannomili through the

lipa of these

two

Let them never return to the brutish worship of

})i-ayed to the rocks, the rivers,

AYoannomih.

He

told

the assembly-hall, the house of religion

and the

them never

hills

;

but

let

to forget or neglect

and of the sacred song and dance

they should never suffer any village to be without one while the world If they continued faithful in the worship of Woannomili,

endures.

any time

their

oak

them salmon, and

and

at

trees did not yield acorns, or their rivers did not afford their prophets

prayed

to him,

they should receive abun-

dance.

He to

have

said all

it

would be allowed

to

them

kinds of songs and dances

scalp dances skill

with the

ball

and

to

have their pleasures as before;

—dances

war and

of

and acorn dances;

to indulge in foot races

bow and arrow and

the sling, and

racket, with

gambling and

betting, etc.

all

of friendship,

and

in trials of

kinds of plays with the

But

in betting

they must

bet only such articles as were counted property, and must never more wager

men and women,

as their foolish ancestors did, thereby losing their tribe.

VARIOUS TKECEPTS—THE OEDER OF MANHOOD. Let the

man bo

his tribe in a

accursed wlio should ever bet his father or niother or any of

"ame of

cliance.

must no longer burn

lie told tliem also that they

them

305

Last of

in the earth.

their dead,

but

bmy

he appointed unto them four great dances

all,

namely

or festivals, to be held once a year as long as the world endures,

these: Ilok'-tom-we-dah (the open-air festival), in the spring; L-lak-kum-

we-dah (the dry-season burning

to the dead),

(the winter festival),

When

festival),

about the

about the

about the first

last of

of July;

first

Ush'-ti-moh (the

of September; and Yak'-kai-we-dah

December.

Oaiikoitupeh had made an end of speaking to his people, he

disappeared from before their eyes, rose upward toward the valley of heaven,

and was seen no more on earth in human form.

But when

his people cried

out and wailed in bitterness of heart, and ran after him, wringing their hands, to comfort them he appeared once

more

in the

form of a great and

splendid rainbow, spanning the earth from side to side.

them a moment

in this form, then

faded

He lingered

In accordance witli the injunctions in the above legend, the establislied

and have maintained

day a

to this

secret society

which

Konkau is

Ku'-meli (literally the ''assembly-house" or "dance-honse", though

be rendered the "

Order of Manhood").

age of about twelve,

Not

younger.

members

are

all

or, in

are initiated into

may

at the

youths are taken into membership, although the older

good propagandists, and use strenuous exertions

the youngsters of their acquaintance.

drowned, and their

it

called it

case of sober, thoughtful boys, a year or two

join they will be devoured

is

Boys

before

the skies.

avv'a}' in

by wild

spirits will

They

tell

them that

if

to

bring in

they do not

beasts, or IVUI over precipices, or

go the left-hand path into darkness.

be

Nothing

revealed to them beforehand, and boA's are often reluctant to join, having

heard from outsiders fearful stories of the doings inside.

There

When

a

is

no grip or password for admission

member approaches he simply says

ye'-2)om-mi hi'-mcli^ (I tai'-i-teh.

When

belong

a neophyte

to the order). is initiated,

meml)ers

in turn place their right

his virile

name, which

is

into

the sacred house.

to the doorkeeper, ^^Ni'-liai

The

services are called iva-

after the services are over the old

hands on

his left shoulder.

generally that of his

fiither or

A new name,

some other near

— THE MAIDU."

306 relative,

tiation

is

then added to

liis

he must refrain from

For ten day following the

baby-name. all flesh

ini-

meat, and eat nothing but acorn-por-

ridge.

As a 13

Konkau on Round Valley

special favor the

Reservation per-

mitted a few of us to witness (or rather hear) one of their secret meetings, for

everything

is

shrouded in profound

darkn'i^ss.

lodge of Tuni'-yan-neh (Captain George)

When we

entered the

—they had no assembly-house There was a feeble

they requested us to extinguish our lanterns.

fire in

the middle of the house, but before anything was done one of the sextons

covered

it all

up,

and several times during the

possible spark of fire bectime visible through the ashes,

thing creep stealthily over

There was a

it

and

it

would wink

some minutes

silence of

when the smallest we would see some-

exercises,

out.

in the impenetrable darkness,

then

the sacred rattle (described in the above legend) began a low, ominous quiv-

ering close to

tlie

ground, in which there was sufficient suggestion of a

snake to make one

feel chilly

about the

rattle-

Presently one of the four

scalj).

performers, apparently lying on his belly and holding his

mouth

close to

the ground, began to give forth a series of blubbering, gurgling sounds and

nasal whining, with frequent intermissions, growing shorter

At the same time the

the tone of his voice rose.

ing a

little

in force, until finally

it

shot up

all at

rattle rose

all

up

the while as

slowly, gain-

once, and seemed to dart

about the top of the room with amazing rapidity, giving forth

terrific rattles

and low, buzzing quavers, now and then bringing up against the post with a thud of the holder's

One bling, to

or

by

fist.

of the performers

now

begins to utter petitions with a rapid

which another responds simply

repeating the petition.

minutes, then

all

heli!

(yes), or with a

few words,

This strange fanfaronade goes on for several

of the four performers strike

up a verse of the sacred songs

(given below), which they repeat six or eight times, accompanied the house, in a low voice ''tiger". is

This

taken up.

is

;

then there

done four or

When

mum-

is

five times

by

a sharp sh! quickly followed ;

all in

by

a

then another verse of the song

they have sung for about half or three-quarters of an

hour without cessasion the

rattle

goes tunk, tunk, tunk on the

grows

i)ost

fast

and

furious, the performer's

fist

with great violence, the singers' voices

SACRED PERFORMANCES IN THE ASSEMBLY-DOUSE. sink into a long-drawn, dying wail

a tremendous " tiger". close over

it,

The

then

;

rattle

;dl at

once comes a sharp sh! and

drops to the ground and seems to hover

darting in every direction, and only two of the performers are

heard, groveling on the ground and muttering petitions finally the rattle dies slowly out, the voices hush, is

and

and responses,

all is over.

quickly raked open, straw and splinters are thrown on

up, laughing

and talking begin again, and

The Indians tribe,

and the

it,

until

Tlie fire

a blaze springs

cigarettes are lighted.

seize this breathing time to interpret to us the songs,

to explain that the petitions

uncovered.

307

were

for the blessings of

petitions last heard v/ere for blessings

Woannomih on

on the

fire

about

After smoking and chatting a few minutes they cover

and their

to

be

up the

and the programme above given is repeated; but the second we find it monotonous and wearisome. The reader will understand, if he knows anything about Indian habits, that there was a great deal introfire

again,

time

duced

into this

performance which no

man

and

terable groans, liissings, mutterings,

can describe or imitate

repetitions,

so delights to envelop his sacred exercises.

SACRED SONGS OF THE KONKAU. RED cloud's song. [Heard by the mother of Oan-koi'-tu-peh.J

Yang-wi'-a-kan-u mai'-dnm-iii. I am the Red Cloud. Hi-pi-nicig' koi-o-di' uik bai'-sbum

My

me

father formed

yan'-u-nom mai'-dum-ni. out of the sky,

Lu'-lul yan'-dih oi'-yih nai. I biug

[amoug] the mouutaiu

flowers.

Yi'-wi ynn -dih oi'-yih nai.

sing [among] the flowering chamize of the mountains. Wek'-wek yan'-dih ti'-yib nai.

I

I sing in the

mountains [like] the wek'-wck.

Wek'-wek o'-di so'-liu nai. I sing [among] the rocks [like] the Lai'-dam yan'-dih we'-wo In the

morning

cry in the mountains.

I

Lai'-dam ho u'-yo

morning

icek'-icelc.

nai.

nai.

walk the path. Lai'-dam liil'-luh we'-wc nai. I cry [to] the morning stars. In the

I

OAN-KOl'-TU-PKIl'S SONG.

Yn-dik-no' hel-ai-no', na'-knm yo'-wo, ha'-lo ni. I go to the north. I will win all, I begin [to gamble].

—unut-

with which the savage

THE MAIDU.

308

"

^

Yo'-wo, yo'-wnn nim, ynu' ni-iii. I will win, I will win, I will win.

Dum'-lan-no

^

di kiil'-leng wo'-rpan-di.

Tbe women weep

in tbe

shadows [of

tlio

assemlilj -hall].

Lai'-dam lil'-litn win nai'-uai ku'-leui ui. I twinkle [like] the morning star, my father (i. Hi-pi-uiug' koi-o-d'i', ko-wi'-cho-uung koi-o-di'.

The

.

e.,

am

I

vanishing in the sky).

valley of heaven, I apj)roach the valley [of heaven],

Hi-pi-ning' koi-o-di' ye'-wo nai.

[Now]

I

'

^

ran up the valley of heaven.

s

Hi-pi-niug' koi-o-di', nik'-ki koi-o-di'.

The

valley of heaven, mine [is] the valley [of heaven].

Hi-pi-uing' koi-o-di' lel'-ung-ku-ku

wuh'-wuh toan

I strike the heaven-reaching, sounding string,

nai.

(literal, tn/Ti-irM^-string).

THE ACORN SONG. Hu'-tim yo'-kim koi-o-di'. The acorns come down from heaven. Wi'-hi yau'-ning koi-o-di'. I plant the short acorns in the valley.

Lo'-whi yau'-ning koi-o-di'. I plant the long acorns in the valley. Yo-ho' uai-ni', hal-u'-dom yo nai, yo-ho' nai-nim'. I sprout, I, the black-oak acorn, sprout, I sprout. Pl-U' CIIUN-NUn'S SONG.

We-le'-u-deh Pi-u'-chuu-nuli I,

Pi-u'-chun-nuh,

am

uai'-i-ui.

in Wc-le'-u-deh.

Wi'-no niai'-keh we'-we

Dai.

I cry everywhere, like the boys

{i.e.,

the young chori^ters).

We-le-leh' tiim-bo'.

Foggy

is tbe path to \Ve-le'-u-deh. Wiu'-na, win'-na koi-o-di'. Bright, bright is the valley. Lu'-yeh, lu'-yem yan'-dih. All, all [are in] tbe assembly-hall. Pal'-a-kum bo u'-yo nai.

I

walk the red-feather path.

mam bo u'-ye nai. walk the white-feather path.

Pok'-al I

Ko'-i nie'-lu me'-ln nai.

[Like] the white goose I sing, I sing. Vu'-yem yan'-dih yu'-ycm nai. I put out all from tbe assembly-hall. Tai-a-raan -iug ya-ma-na' loi'-e-nio to nai'-i-uih. I throw together the mountains and the west mountains Coast Range).

(?.

c, the Sierra

Nevada and tho

ki-u-nad'-dis-si's song. Yo-in' nin-nim' yo-in' nin-nim'. I

am

the only one, the only one

[left].

Wa'-pum dat'-pan ka'-no-mai, si'-wing kn'-no ka'-no-mai, en'-ak wi'-wung ka'-no-raai. An old man, I carry the gambling-board; an old man, I sing the gambling song. Wai'-i pen'-noam so-loap'-kuin.

SO>GS AND TUElli INTEliPKETATION. The

roots

I

309

cat of the vnlley.

Su'-i-baug kut-diil-lul'.

Tbo pepper-ball

is

round.

Mo'-raih til-lak' til-lak'-keh.

The water

trickles, trickles.

Ta-a'-ti-ti yiu-uo-di' ti'-is

bum'-bum.

Tbe water-leaves grow along the

river bank.

Wi-li-pesb-o-yeb' nau'-iiib, buk-wi-lai'-lai. I rub tbe hands, I wiggle tbe tail (». e., Yo'-mih mai'-i-ni, yo'-mib mi'-mi-teb. I

am

a doctor,

I

am

I

am gambling, from

tbe motions made).

a doctor.

HAl'-KUT-WO-TO-PEH'S SONG. [Sung when Oan-koi'-tu-pcb appnianhed.J

Yu-dik-noam' bo u'-ye ni

Do you come from

?

tbe uortb

Ko-mo-wim' bo u'-ye ni? Do you come from the east

?

(lit.,

tbe patb to tbe north).

?

Tai bo u'-ye ni ? Do you come from tbe west? Ka'-nai bo u'-ye ni ? Do you come from the south? Hi-pi-ning' bo-o-di' u'-ye-ni?

Do you come from above ? Ko'-do ka'-na-neh u'-ye ni?

Do you come from below

?

In the acorn song, as above given,

it

will

be observed that

it

appears

be spoken by two different persons. The first three verses are attributed by some Indians to Oankoitupeh, and by others to the Red Cloud. The latter would seem to be more poetically correct. Then the last line is evidentl}^ spoken by the acorn personified. I have grouped both these together, and called it all the acorn song, but the Indians sing them some-

to

what confusedly,

as indeed they do the other songs

more or

less.

a great deal of patient labor to construct order out of their chaos

now to

I

am

that a

is

sometimes a

number

little

I

and even

men and

Besides that, the interpre-

uncertain, principally, I think, for the reason

of the ^vx)rds either belong to an occult, priestly language, or

are so antiquated that the

old

;

required

not always positive, for some Indians will attribute a given verse

one of the personages and others to another.

tation

It

modern

Indians, in the absence of most of their

prophets, are unable to agree absolutely

have tabulated below

all

upon

their

meaning.

the archaic forms occurring in these songs, the

meaning of which the Indians were agreed upon.

—

.

THE

310

.AIAIDIJ.

ARCHAIC.

MODKRjN.

Sing.

Flowering chamize. i^^ very where.

SO

-lin.

01 -yih,

ill

-bi.

yi'-wi.

1

-bi-den.

\

me

-lu.

wi'-no.

briglit.

yo -nak-muk-ka.

win^-na.

Level. North.

muh'-pi-teh. no'-to.

yo'-nah. yu-dik-no'.

jLast.

ko -mo.

ko-mo-wim

Jratn.

bo.

bo-o-di

Throw.

hoar-yell. VV 1 Iv

loi'-e.

mo'-to.

JtV^JLl,

All.

lak'-o.

lu'-yeh.

Grow.

hii'-no.

bum'-bum.

I.

ni'-hai.

nai.

The reader has pronoun of the

doubtless observed the great

first

person

.

number

of forms for the

nai, mai'-dum-ni, nim, ni'-ni, nai-nim', nai-ni\

nan'-nih, mai'-i-ni, mi'-mi-teh.

The white goose is sacred among the Konkau they call it "God's Its name ko'-i is formed from its cry Tiaiih! They and other tribes the Maidu (especially about Yuba City) make beautiful robes of its ;

bird".

of

down.

The Indians use the same word, house" and "mountain"

;

it is

yandih, in the song, to denote "assembly-

abbreviated from ya'-man-deh.

In the same assembly- hall where these sacred

rites are

sometimes have comic entertainments which correspond part of our circuses.

It is

necessary to

state,

observed they

to the acrobatic

however, that they are inferior

even as purely muscular performances to the corresponding displays of ization.

Among

othel* things the

civil-

Indians themselves admit that they never

witnessed or conceived of either a handspring or a somersault before they

became acquainted with the Americans and ;

that the gymnastic feats

they see in our circuses surpass anything ever compassed

by

which

their

own

athletes.

The performer

in those

shows

is

called pc-i-peh,

which

is

also the title

COMIC ENTERTAINMENTS. of the prompter or repeater to

One

a tumbler or an athlete.

He

tlie chief.

811

more properly a clown than

is

of his most "taking" performances

tend that a bear has crawled under the hollow slab which

whereupon he

up

straAvs

him

fastens

represent his

and

effort,

and

but

carry

tries to

by

and seizing something which

it,

falls

basket of soup, pretending that

smacks

mouth over

his

and licking lips

it

up so

is

very, very heavy.

of

its tail,

it

and places

some soup out of

legs tangled

after

many

all

false starts

and absurd

which

is

all

its

while a

his

to

it

in with a

fish flounces

about

men

to

to land

tug frantically at the spear, and finally they get their fall

in a

heap together.

Another performance they have

The

more properly acrobatic than those previously described. in feathers

and hangs head downward from a cross-bar and

Four men stand

company dance underneath.

join hands; then four others climb

four

it

it

snout to the utter-

clown (sometimes two), showily and fantastically arrayed paint, climbs a pole

and

flourishes he

purpose, driving

way through from yard beyond. The

the

and perhaps a

up and

it

that he falls

it

such a degree that he reqiiires the assistance of eight or ten him, and these

smells

perhaps, he mounts the roof of the house with a

and

comically surperfluous force tip

He

as if taking swallows of

the receiver takes

thrusts his spear into a fish prepared for the

most

on his back,

along on his belly, crushed to

all

far in the effort to get

Now,

over backward.

fish-gig in his hand,

it

Then when

his lips.

he raises

finger,

little

lifts it

Next, he offers somebody an (empty)

and makes motions

it,

supposed to

is

bundle about as large as one's

sprawling

drum,

Then he binds

lustily.

grunting and staggering, he

enormous burden.

his

Bruin roars

until

it

splinters into a

and with prodigious

the earth

in,

he twists

tail

used

is

to pre-

is

for a

more on top of

and

sings,

close together

and

up on their shoulders, standing up, and

these; then those underneath

walk about, and the

twelve join in singing. All this tumbling and tomfoolery goes under the general kuk'-kun,

and "brings down the house" with

name

of

irrepressible laughter, for the

simple savages are very easily amused.

Another

feat, called yan'-i-nih, is

Three or more men stand

them together

in

in a ring,

executed in the following manner:

and by bending

their legs they

such a manner that each of them stands on one

foot.

hook In

THE MAIDU.

312 tliis

attitude tliey

generally end

by

"

hop arouiid the house, singing and falling

down

in

a.

There

heap.

ma^iii^g-

is still

which these aboriginal merry-andrews draw upon, and that names.

Thus Captain George was

who prays humorous

to the rocks).

called

by

the

They generally bring

allusion to an idiosyncrasy,

These performers are not

to call nick-

into these

(he

nicknames some

which pi^oduces much merriment.

professionals,

etc.

is

name 0-ku-dik-noam

and no stated admission-fee

charged, but the audience Yhich may be rendered "easters", "easterns", and "easterners". tracted are their journeyings and their knowledge tliat they do not need a complicated system of names. miles it

away they

for

me

to learn

fixed

names of

American River, north

are the Pu-su'-na, at the moutli of to'-a, at Placerville;

any

living

twenty

In consequence of this

are not aware of their existence.

was almost impossible

There

tribes.

side;

the

Kwo-

the Ko-lo'-ma, at Coloma; and the Wa-pum'-ni, near

Indeed, I doubt

Latrobe.

any people

If there are

if

there

is

any considerable number of

tribal

names, for they are such a nomadic nation (within small limits) that they

They move

exist in a continual chaos.

camps

their

not even names for them, properly speaking; that

so often that they

have

no name separate and

is,

apart from that of the spring, bowlder, tree, creek, or what not, where they

happen

at

any

Hence,

particular time to be camping.

another, they always use the points of the compass tai

(north, south, east, west)

l\iver

always add

—in various forms;

Ixau (place),

as Ta'-sing-kau,

in designating

and those

one

lo'-nw, no' -to,

to' -slum,

living near

Bear

Ko-moang'-kau, No-toang'-

kau, Taing'-kau.

There are also some curious peculiarities

One can very seldom though they

learn an Indian's

will tell their

American

in regard to personal names.

and never a squaw's Indian name,

titles

readily enough.

breach of decorimi to ask a squaw her name than lady her age.

I

a squaw's Indian

name from her own

name on any account, and it is by no other provocation than that.

lips.

will reveal her

she can think of

A

husband never

said that divorces It is

between feminine human nature in the

half the

among

own name, but

amusing

calls his wife

have been produced Fig. 27

al)original

and the

civilized state.

her neighbors'

that,

For the reason above given many people believe

that

squaws have no names

was mentioned

Num'-num

us to ask a

to note the resemblances

at

all.

she will

So

tell all

far is this

from the truth that

every one possesses at least one and sometimes two or three. chi-chit

greater

have often made the attempt and never yet have learned

b}'

No squaw

it is

It is a

of three.

have no significance,

as an instance of two;

As usual

in California

being merely

and

Iler-la Ni-o'-

Ile'-wal-la Kle'-gli

a great majority of the names

such collections of sounds as are

TBE

316 euphonious to

Ni«ni:>A]\t:

If one has

tlieir ears.

any meaning

it is

name

generally the

of some animal.

Following

is

a formidable

of villages which once lined the banks

list

of Bear River from Sacramento up to the foot-hills, a

must have been dense: Ha'-nii-ting-Wo'-li-yuh,

the population an, Ta'-lak,

pa,

Mu-lam'-cha-pa (long' fjond by the

In'-tan-to,

So'-lak-i-yu,

(this*

Shu'-ta-mfd,

crossing),

was near the California and Oregon railroad

Chu'-em-duh, O'pel-to (the forks), Pu'-lak-a-tu,

Ka'-pa-ka, Yo-ko'-lim-duh and Toan'-im-but-tuk

These and the

are, in fact,

list

may

old Indian of

along

Le'-li-ki-

trees), Lid'-li-

Ka'-lu-plo, l^i'-kan-chi, Sho-kum-im'-lep-pi (wild potato

Bu'-sha-mul

place),

shows that

list wliic^li

only the names of

pine).

localities wliere

not include a half or a third of

good memory could

(little

all

On Bear

recall.

camps once

stood;

the camp-sites which an River, and in fact

the low bottom-lands in the Sacramento Valley, there are fre-

all

quently to be seen house-sites to keep

flat,

wide mounds which were raised by

them ;ibove the reach of

It is often asserted

alent along Bear River

by Californians

tlie

Indians for

floods in the rainy season.

now

prev-

in the great interior basin

date

that the malarial diseases

and other streams

only back to the beginning of the mining operations, which caused great

masses of debris to accumulate in the river-beds, thereby throwing the water out over the lowlands.

among

neers,

On

the contrary,

others Claude Cheney,

that the Indians even at that

who

it is

asserted

settled

the earliest pio-

on Bear River about 1846,

day were much subject

other diseases resulting from malarial influences.

by

to fever

To

and ague and

avoid these they not

only built the low mounds for their houses above mentioned, but the lowland tribes,

went up

the summer.

make had

this

to

by permission

of those living in the foot-hills and mountains,

into the latter regions to

But, of course,

it

spend a portion of the hotter months of

was only a part of any

tribe

annual migration, and that principally the hunters, for

remain behind

in sufiicient force to gather the

wliich were their principal food-supply,

that could tlie

women

wild grain and seeds

and which they required

for ex-

cliange with the mountaineers in return for aconis and mazanita berries.

And

yet, notwithstanding the rather

lands, large families of children

unhealthy condition of the low-

were common

in early days.

:

LOW

THEIR Bear River they

em

call

(greater river)

Se'ii

Cha'-pa-di

;

em Ya'-mun Both

ABORlGlNxVL CONDITION.

Nem

the plains, Tii'-kli-di

;

in

tlie

Sacramento, Nep'-

the timber-land, Cha'-pa,

;

the foot-hills, Ya'-muii, Ya'-mun-di

the Sierra Nevada, Nep'-

;

(greater hills); the Coast Range, Tai'-a-mun (western hills).

customs and in their

social

in their

Nishinam must be ranked on a

They had

Se'-u (great river);

317

the misfortune to

lovf grade,

political organization

probably the lowest

the

in the State.

occupy the heart of the Sierra mining region,

consequence of which they have been miserably corrupted and destroyed.

Indians in the mining

reasons not necessary to specify, are

districts, for

always worse debauched than those fact that

in the agricultural regions.

And

the

most observers and writers have seen the Indians of the diggings

more than

whole California race

an)^ others has contributed to bring the

unmerited opprobrium.

into

Let the following facts bear witness to their low aboriginal estate

Robert Gordon, a responsible

Auburn

surface-mining from

citizen of

up

as far

Auburn,

as the

states that in

1849 he was

North Fork of Feather River,

and that a great proportion of the men and women who entered were costumed

strictly after the fashion-plates of

his

camp

This was in a

Eden.

region pretty well up in the mountains, where the aborigines had not yet

come

in contact

Both sexes and

with Europeans.

camp, absolutely in

all

ages

moved about

with that perfect freedom and inno-

jiuris naturalibus,

cence which betoken unconsciousness of any impropriety.

unswathed mountaineers, according

ple,

often of a magnificent physique,

tall,

his

to the

But these sim-

same good authority, were

sinewy fellows, who would have made

the scale-beam kick at 180.

Most

tribes in the State lay considerable

emphasis on the formal estab-

lishment of marital relations in their way, that

is

by

those relations are faithfully observed afterward or not.

may

be said to

set

up and

do the brute beasts.

No

his shoulder, his

way

which

is

stipulated is

payment

bound

to say, he will

perhaps fling

But the Nishinam

dissolve the conjugal estate almost as easily as

seeking to become a son-in-law to the family,

purchase, whether

it

off

is

made

for the wife.

A man

make

presents

to cater {ye'-lin) or

come along some day with a deer on

on the ground before the wigwam, and go

without a single word l)eing spoken.

Some days

later

he

may

THE NISHINAM.

318

ham

bring along a brace of liare or a

He

a string of ha'-wok. if

he

of grizzly-bear meaf, or some

continues to

make

or

these presents f^r awhile, and

not acceptable to the girl and her parents they return

is

fish,

him an

equivalent for each present (to return his gifts would be grossly insulting;)

but

he finds favor in their eyes they are quietly appropriated; and in

if

due course of time he comes and leads her away, or comes

to live at

her

house, for both practices prevail.

When

a Nishinam wife

is

sympathizing female friends

childless her

sometimes make out of grass a rude image of a baby, and

tie it in

a minia-

Some day, when the home, they carry this grass baby and

ture baby-basket, according to the Indian custom.

woman and lay

her husband are not at

in their

it

holds

wigwam.

When

she returns and finds

to her breast, pretends

it

nurse

to

is

effect of

causing the barren

I will relate

woman

to

become

him

to his wife,

from her

up,

have the

will

an incident which shows the despotic and arbitrary power

A man

Wolf

living on

had performed the simple

Creek, a tributary of Bear River,

bring her home.

it

lullaby-songs.

fertile.

that a husband, even before marriage, exercises.

fled

it

done as a kind of conjuration, which they hope

All this

entitled

she takes

it,

and sings

it,

acts

which

and the day had arrived when he determined

to

But she loathed him, and when she saw him coming she

wigwam and

father's

with a motherly old

sought refuge, trembling and weeping,

widow who sympathized with

her.

The widow

con-

cealed her as well as she could, then hastened out to confront her pursuers.

When

they came up she told them the

from the

village.

search, baffled

where the

They

had passed that way and escaped

hurried on in pursuit, but returned after a long

and angry, and asked the widow's

fugitive was.

her mother's wigwam. their

girl

The

child innocently told

As soon

as they

bows and arrows and shot

the

They were not molested, bridegroom owned the girl, and that

little

widow

to

the

of kidnapping, for which the penalty

is

she

knew

them she was hidden

had dragged her

forth,

in

they drew

death in the middle of the

for the general

village.

girl if

feeling

was

that the

widow in concealing her was

guilty

death.

The Nishinam are the most nomadic of all the California tribes within They shift their lodges perpetually, if only a rod, prob-

narrow bounds.

WANDEEING HABITS— ORIGIN OF GOVERNMENT. ably to give the vermin the

one they abandon

slip

Nomadic

it.

habits

after a death has occurred in

among savages

aged and

better than death to the

little

and always

;

319

infirm, for

of a low grade are

they cannot

I'eadily fol-

low, and the few j)Oor conveniences and comforts which they collect around

themselves

when

stationary have often to be abandoned.

In

would

fact, it

way of ridding themselves of those The spectacle which is sometimes pre-

be hard for a tribe to devise a better

whom

they accounted burdensome.

among

sented

the mining towns of poor, old, purblind, tattered wretches,

perhaps laden with

they can carry, feebly tottering after the stronger

all

They wander about much more now than they did before the Americans came among them, because they have been jostled out of their ancient narrow limits, are fewer in numones,

is

a melancholy and pitiable one indeed.

ber,

and can roam widely without trespassing on the

ing

little

really

Then,

village.

amount

to nothing, for

a Nishinam, after

flat

soil

of some neighbor-

be remembered that these removes

they go to and

fro,

and

very seldom that

it is

migrations, dies a mile from the place

a home), like

all

California Indians.

for their political organization, like the snakes of Ireland,

described in three words captains, or

dowy

it

are thoroughly home-loving and home-keeping (count-

ing a certain valley or

As

let

all his infinite little

They

of his birth.

too,

headmen,

:

there

none.

is

in the villages,

can be

it

True, they have their hereditary

but their authority

is

the most sha-

thing in the world.

The

origin of

government

is

something like

this

:

We

will

suppose ,

there large,

is

a secession, and a village establishes an independent existence.

round dance-house

friends in

it

is

built,

and the prominent men entertain

in a succession of feasts,

far as the viands are concerned.

which are very bald

They make

The more

is

earnest and grave old

among

the

young fellows.

on a certain day he

is

affairs indeed, so

etc.

Always

at

a great deal of petty bickering and quarreling.

men of

the tribe notice these matters

observe the aspirant whose personal influence order

their

presents to their followers

according to their wealth— shell-money, bows and arrows, these gatherings there

A

He

is

is

most successful

finally pitched

in

;

they

keeping

on as the leader, and

informally proclaimed in the dance-house and makes

a talk to them, wearing or displaying

all his

beadery.

If he has not

enough

THE NISHINAM.

320 him

to enable strings,

to

make

For murder there nuist be

They

blood.

can take

This, however,

them

after the proclamatioil".

That

no punishment but individual revenge.

is

which steps

in

after the nnnxler, for thei'e

is

a kind of

then and forbids any further seeking of

consider that the keenest and niost bitter revenge which a is

is

not to slay the murderer himsblf, but his dearest friend.

probably only the sentiment of casual Indians, though

would comport well with For kidnaping, is

to

had within twelve moons

statute of limitations

man

a suitable aj^pearance, his friends^ lend him a few-

and they are returned

as

tlie

above mentioned, the punishment was death.

named number of women from

It

Ba-kar-lim-pun, living near Bear River, in

related that a chief,

1851, kidnaped a

it

subtle Asiatic character of the race.

On

the Spaniards for infamous uses,

his

own

detecting

tribe,

him

and sold them

Indians put him to death, and then hacked him into a thousand

They would throw an eye

to

to

in his villainies the little

pieces.

one of his fellow-villagers, a fiuger-joiut to

another, a toe-joint to another, etc.

It should,

however, be borne in mind

that the California Indians did not torture persons while alive.

For adultery with a foreigner the penalty was are few other tribes in the State of

whom

this

also death

can be affirmed.

and there

;

In 1850, a

by her people on Dry Creek, near Georgetown,

squaw was

sacrificed

this offense,

committed with an American, though there was really no crim-

inality her,

on her

and

all

They

part.

The

profanation of the loathed foreigner was upon

her tears and cries were of no

did not

mark

their boundaries

had them defined with the greatest (yamun), valleys {liunumcliuha)^

member fish or

au-zi,

by

artificial

They

by

signs,

springs

it,

they greatly dreaded.

they demanded

The

hills

did not ordinarily destroy a

frequently at war with the Pai-u'-ti,

whom

though they

(j^oJiJian),

of another tribe for trespassing on their territory, but

and

gressors,

avail.

strictness

etc.

game, or gathered acorns on

They were

for

whom

if

he caught

reparation in kind

they called Moan'-

Paiuti were al^^'ays the ag-

and came over armed with savage wooden knives, with which

they slaughtered the feeble Californians (they seldom cared to take prisoners),

and scalped the dead by cutting

of the head.

off a small

round patch of hair on top

WAR AND WEAPONS—COLLECTING

DEBTS.

321

In war, upon coming into close quarters, the Nishinam sought to stab the

enemy under the

They took no

arm, aiming at the heart.

scalps.

When

going into battle they frequently waxed and twisted out the fore-hair of their heads into

and painted

two devilish-looking horns, topped

their breasts black.

I

their

heads with feathers,

once heard an aged Indian descnbe

by appointment with when they were yet so numerous that beside the beautiful Yuba. They fought

with wonderful vividness a fight which his nation had the Maidu, their hosts

many

a long year ago,

darkened

the plains

all

a great part of a summer-day, and, according to his account, there was a

mighty deal of thwacking, prodding, and bloody

affair at all.

and ran away

He

himself,

killed a

Maidu

;

though

hustling,

it

was not a very

then presently he turned his back

and got a spear jabbed

into his heel.

He

described

both circumstances with the same simple honesty and remarkable vivacity,

which showed he was

telling the truth,

and which contrasted so strongly

with the boastful arrogance of the Algonkin, that never acknowledges

Their male captives they tied to trees and shot to death without

defeat.

lingering tortures, and the ried,

and sometimes put

when Cahfornia

tribes

women

they sometimes whipped and then mar-

A

to death.

named

chief

Sis'-ko told

that

had a battle they occasionally exchanged prisoners This

afterward, but did not do so with the Paiuti.

may have been done

have had an influence among them, but

since the whites

me

I

doubt

if it

was

before.

Their war-spear was quite a rude shaft of

flint-head similar to the arrow-head,

sinew wrapped around

They have another, itor to tle

it is

method.

his

and

way

;

it

a curious

He

way

consisting simply of a rough split at

taste, if

as the brutal

to the shaft with

When

an Indian owes

not positively insulting, for the cred-

Saxon does

number

of

;

so he devises a

little sticks,

tosses into the delinquent's

wigwam

It is a

more sub-

according to the

and paints a ring around the end of each.

whereupon the other generally takes the

destroys the sticks.

the end to receive a

which was fastened

of collecting debts.

prepares a certain

debt,

little

in a crease cut for the jourpose.

held to be in bad

dun the debtor,

amount of the carries

affair,

wood, eight or ten feet long, a

These he

without a word and goes hint,

pays the debt, and

reproach to any Indian to have these (hnming

THE NISHINAM.

322 sticks

thrown into

his

wigwam, and the

creditor does not resort to the meas-

ure except in case of a hard customer.

That

their treatment of superannuated parents

may

tenderness

be gathered from the following

immense concourse of them

concerted attack on the whites.

should follow

being, as

all

some coming even

was then supposed, a

Preparatory to this gathering and what

numbers of them put

aged and decrepit

to death the

camps who would have been an incumbrance, though

of their this

it,

In 1858 there was an

at a place called Spenceville,

from the Coast Range, the purpose of 118

not remarkable for

is

fact:

was done

at the instance of

Being so nomadic

commissary

many

They

was

they have brought the savage

in their habits,

to perfection.

it

said

of the victims themselves. field-

discovered the substantial principle of the

famous Prussian pea-sausage long before the Pickelhauben

When

did.

about to go on a journey the squaws pack in their deep, conical baskets a quantity of acorn-mush,

made by

processes heretofore described, which

food in as condensed a form as they could

They

pliances.

generally start from

camp

two by sun (the Californians are poor

it

to last

while they are dancing

As most of

and

tliirty

panada

— the

pounds.

hardest

fortnight,

work an Indian does

About 11

—nor

and

that

will her

o'clock they call a halt for the

camp again

until 2, 3, or

even 4

after.

was from the Nishinam that Captain John A. Sutter procured

his laborers, I

wish here to make mention of a matter which

properly within the scope of this narrative.

who came

this

In this manner a squaw

but when started march until night-fall or long it

once or twice

rest

two persons nearly or quite a

heat of the day, then they do not break o'clock,

scientific ap-

morning, an hour or

with large additions of water, making a cool, thick, rich

enough

burden exceed

without

Taking out some of

porridge, which they drink from small baskets. will carry

it

late in the

travelers),

during the forenoon, always by a spring.

they dilute

make

is

It is related

here in 1849 and subsequently (there

slight pique

is

to this

between the ante forty-niners and the

by

several

falls

men

day frequently a

forty-niners, the land

pioneers and the gold pioneers] that the captain was accustomed in clover-

time to compel his " slaves", as they field for their rations.

call

them, to go out into the clover-

In view of the amount of labor they performed for

:

CAPTAIN SUTTER AND HIS "SLAVES". him, this charge,

if true,

would be a grave one.

But

American families blossoms

will, if

a fact abun-

all their lives

when

permitted, in the season

is

it

dantly substantiated that Indians Avho have been reared

323

in

the savor of the

wafted sweet as honey on the breeze, go afield for dinner in

is

preference to the most lickerish viands ever cooked.

have been told by

I

Americans that they themselves had often eaten California clover boiled

and

salted,

and accounted it altogether a desirable mess of the season.

out doubt, then, this story

is

a true one; that

preferred to eat clover for a change and a relish,

do

That he was a kind master

it.

It

test.

folds of

ried

it

was shown

me by

to

to

them

the owner of

and he simply

let the

it,

With-

Captain Sutter's Indians

is.

—

them

let

following document at-

who had

it

wrapped

in

many

paper and inserted inside the lining of his hat, where he had car-

nearly ten years as a sacred treasure.

of the captain's major-domos,

and

He was said

to

have been one

have had charge at one time of nearly

to

two hundred Indians

The bearer

of this, Tucollie, chief of the

sented himself before

good behavior, and

me

it is

has pre-

with the request to give him a certificate of his

^

fellow-citizens,

tribe,

with pleasure that I comply with his wishes, as

know him over (22 twenty-two therefore I can recommend him to I

Wapumney

and particularly

years as a good and honest Indian the benevolence and kindness of

;

my

to those residing in his native country.

''Very respectfully, ''J.

A.

SUTTER,

Special Indian Agent.

''Hock Farm, August

UtJi, 1862."

Unlike several tribes in the northwest part of the State, these are not misers, but quite the contrary, as are all the Southern California Indians.

They never hoard up shell-money, factitious value, unless

it is

for the

great chieftain on his funeral pyre.

and store up years

;

gamble

in

beads, trinkets, or anything of a merely

purpose of bui-ning them in honor of some In a bountiful acorn harvest they gather

wicker granaries (sukin)

sufficient to last

them two or three

but they frequently use the surplus above the winter's supply to on,

and often gamble away even the provisions which are imme-

diately necessary.

No

Indian

is

despised so

much as one who

is

close-fisted;

119

THE NISniNAM.

324 nothing

more

is

will divide with

certain than that, if an Indian

him

to the uttermost

comes

hungry, they

al^ong

crumb.

The Indians immediately south of Bear River observe the following The most important is the first -grass dance (Jcoju' -Min^ the generic word for ''dance", hence the dance of the year), which is held in

fixed dances

autumn or

:

winter, after the rains have fully set in

and started the

grass.

None but a resident of California can appreciata^tlie joyfulness of the ing which gives rise to this drought, the

first

and the naked green.

when,

commences

cool rain

after the long,

trickling

down on

dance-house together, both

in the

feel-

weary summer

of

the parched plains

and they clothe themselves again with a

foot-hills,

Assembled

festival,

pale

soft,

men and women,

the

men dance

with such extraordinary enthusiasm and persistence that they

sometimes

fall

exhausted and

The next

is

in a trance for hours.

the second-grass dance (yo'-miis-si), which the grass takes

its

Hence

like the

first,

inside, the

open

this is held in the

in the other

— the

accompanied with plenty of good reeds,

the more sweet and full

blossoming

its

Otherwise

fete cJiampetre.

It

etc.

men

The musicians

eating.

ravisliing his strains are held to be. all

one

in

at this

dance play

in his

mouth

If he has his

mouth

pitched on the same key, and giving forth

from alternate sucking and blowing of the breath, then he has

tained the perfection of

it

continues three or four days,

and the more of them an Indian can get

from corner to corner,

blasts

—a

former decorated with feather mantles,

the latter more modestly with beads,

on whistles of

air

the dancers being in two concentric circles, the

women

celebrated

is

second growth, after the dry season

well established, but before the clover has faded from

glory. is

is

when

in the spring,

lie

at-

art.

Pretty early in the spring there comes a gala-day, which sion of a great deal of enjoyment.

It is called tve'-da,

is

the occa-

though that

one and the most important of the exercises of the day.

Its

is

purpose

only is

to

prevent the snakes from biting them during the summer, and though held for so

momentous a purpose

sports are initiated in the

ballet-dance, performed

sports are).

There

is

it is

a very

gay and

morning by the

by

the

lian' -pa-iva-lio^

women and

extremely

little art

sportive

girls in the

in

it,

affair.

First, the

a grand spectacular

open

and nothing

air (as all the is

represented

A DA>'CE WOICH PROTECTS AGAINST RATTLESN'AKES. except the wild, extravagant joy of this genial season. sequestered mountain glade, where the gi-ass jirateful

shade around, with flowers in

is

825

Collected in some

green and the trees throw a

and

encircling their heads

fillets

woven in their hair, and habited (aboriginally) only with narrow cinctures of woven bulrushes about the waists, a great company of girls join hands in wilder and

whole

place.

der with screams and laughter, and every one of

with

self pelted

alone.

spectators finds him-

act in the spectacle is the lau'-da, a

dance performed by

After

and flowers.

it

over, a

is

number

presents of acorn-bread,

solicit

They break asun-

tlie

girls

The second to

faster,

wilder gi*ows the motion, keeping time with the accelerating

chant, until finally they run riot over the

men

Faster and

and begin a voluptuous, dithyrambic dance.

a circle

women go around

of

with baskets

shell-money, and other articles,

fish,

wherewith to pay the singers, and on the liberaHty with which the spectators contribute

depends their immunity from snake-bites during the coming

summer The third act, toward the close of the day, is the neda. A bevy of voung maidens dance around two young men in succession, singing a verv gav and lively chorus, and ever and anon they make a dash at him, catching him

by

the shoulders, laughing, stretching out their arms toward

him, tantalizing him,

etc.

around among the women,

when

the

selves

by

women

After this dance

is

ended, some old fellows go

soliciting presents for the singers, as above,

and

are about to contribute, thev are frequentlv seized them-

the old fellows and dragged along spoitively, to the vast amuse-

ment of the bystanders. But, with

all this

terror of rattlesnakes.

bear, they exclude

fun and horse-play, they entenain a very genuine

When

an Indian

is

bitten

him rigorously from camp

that the bear or the snake,

by

one. or lacerated

by

a

beHeving

for certain days,

having tasted his blood, will follow him

to

camp

and play havoc.

On

the

American River and below there

is

lo'-leh.

held in the winter, simply for amusement.

dance

{pai'-d) held in

autumn, which

scribed, only there

ai'e

occasion of a **big

eat''.

difterent steps

is

an indoor dance called

Then

there

is

like the grass-dances

and chonises

for each.

an acorn-

above de-

It is

made the

THE NISHINAM.

326 There

no regular

is

secret organization like that (^escribed

Konkau, but there are wandering prestidigitators who, for a

young men

among

the

gift,

initiate

into the mysteries of juggling described further along.

There

who are versed in spiritualism, and who are scarcely inferior wonderful Fox sisters in their influence over the spirits of the vasty More than that, they make practical.Use of the spirits to excellent

are also Indians to the

deep.

When

purpose. invite

him

extinguished,

fires are

and the congregation

Presently the gates of hell

ness.

who

ter,

an Indian gets troublesome to manage, the headmen assembly-house some evening, a dance

to the

rustles his pinions

and

yawn

sit

profoundly

He

speaks as

adds a

well,

little

feathers, raps

many words

still

in the dark-

open, and there issues forth a spec-

and ramps over the

then addresses the company in the best English,

men

held, then all the

is

"Good

fit

and

language as he can command

in that

Spanish perhaps, then makes a long discourse

which always happens to

floor,

evening, gentle-

in Indian,

upon the back of the

excellently well

offender.

Most Indians are thoroughly convinced of the genuineness of these apparitions,

and

that these

grim familiars have the

hang them by the neck instantly if they do not p's

a

and

in the

make

gift

of tongues, also power to

apex of the lodge, or disembowel them

presents to the chief and look well to their

Americans are rigorously excluded from these proceedings, but

q's.

man named Wilham

GriflBn,

understanding the language, overheard from

the outside what was said and done.

There

is

a kind of assembly-house called the toad' -lam

devoted exclusively to female occupation. diff'erent sections

vocal music.

meet together

It is

in

it

Deputations of

hum which

women

is

from

occasionally and engage in contests of

held that that band of

women who

are victorious wiU

thereby secure to their neighborhood the most abundant harvest of acorns.

Of in

course,

it is

not to be supposed that these musical rivalries are decided

accordance with those principles of high art which would regulate the

award song

is

in a

German

Liederkranz, but they are accounted triumphant whose

loudest and longest.

There

is

a social gathering which

ing to our dinner-party or tea-party.

may be called The

lages meet at a designated place in the open

the soup-part}', answer-

inhabitants of two or air,

more

\"il-

bringing acom-flour (now-

SOCIAL PARTIES— DEATH— WIDOWS. adays frequently wheat-flour), a soup

in

—nothing

what thicker than great quantity of

Nothing

else.

and baskets to cook and eat the

little salt,

en regie except the soup, an article some-

is

and thinner than mush.

gruel,

After they have eaten a

young people amuse themselves

the

this,

327

in dancing, while

and scandal of which the Indians are so

their elders indulge in the gossip

inordinately fond.

Among many services of a ciple "

No

California Indians

shaman

cure,

no

pay him

to

The

fee

it is

benefit

his patient generally consists in

usual for a

it is

Death

for his

collect

around him

manifest to

all

requiring the

which the man of drugs renders

sucking from him certain sticks and stones,

which he alleges were lodged just under the

When

man

in advance, but these hold to the prin-

skin, to his great detriment.

beholders that the sufferer has been marked

by

own, and that he cannot long survive, his friends and relatives

As

stricken silence.

and stand

in a circle,

his breath

grows

awaiting' the final event in

stertorous,

showing that he

is

awepass-

ing through the last grim struggle, one of them approaches reverently and kneels

by

his side.

counts

its

feeble pulsations as they

ceases to beat and

hand over the region of the

his

ululations.

as the corpse

is

burn, a devoted

Of

is

conveyed

widow never

for several months,

band.

it

When

own burning-ground, and

it

speaks, on

as soon

Around Au-

thither for incremation.

any occasion or upon any

pretext,

sometimes a year or more, after the death of her hus-

this singular fact I

had ocular demonstration.

Elsewhere, as on

As you

the American River, she speaks onl}^ in a whisper for several months.

go down toward the Cosumnes

head

he

the death-dance, with frightful wails

Ever}" family have their cold

heart,

grow slower and weaker.

ended, he turns to the waiting relatives and silently

all is

Whereupon they commence

nods.

and

Holding

only

this

custom disappears, and only the tarred

remark that the widow

is

generally

memory of her husband than the widower to and seldom disgraces human nature by remarrying in a week or

his wife's,

is

more

observed.

It

is

fair to

faithful to the

two, as he

not infrequently does.

Apropos, the following story lost

:

An

Indian woman, living on Wolf Creek,

her husband, and went to live with her mother,

One day

who was

also a

widow.

before the customary period of mom-ning had expired, during

THE NISHINAM.

328 which a widow

is

forbidden to do any work or attend a^dance, her mother

down into the ravine and gather sofl^Q clover. She by a young girl, one of her unmarried companions. Going- afield with her basket, she was observed by an Indian named Pwi'-no, her husband's brother, who watched where she went and for what purpose. He reported to his father, and by him was chq^rged to follow and strike her requested her to

g-o

went, accompanied

He

dead.

did so, following her for several

home without accomplishing

His father upbraided him bitterly as a coward and an ingrate

his errand for not

avenging the insult to

memory.

his brother's

moment

the paternal reproaches, in a

Stung

madness by

to

of furious passion he rushed away,

upon the offending widow, and smote her unto death.

fell

When

a mother dies, leaving a very

relatives to destroy

This

it.

who

or other near relative, it is

but he had no heart for

hofilrs,

the butcherly business, and he finally returned

is

young

generally done

it

to her breast until

We must not judge them too harshly for this. Some Nishinam hold

it is

smothered.

They knew nothing

any kind of milk whatever other than that the dead linger

on earth a while

that they have such a mortal terror of ghosts. after

custom allows the

the grandmother, aunt,

holds the poor innocent in her arms, and while

seeking the maternal fountain, presses

nurture, patent nipples, or

infant,

by

If they are

;

of bottle-

the

human.

hence

good

it is

spirits,

Happy Western Land until they are who have preceded them thither come to meet and bear them away from earth in a whirlwind. When an Indian

they have traveled toward the

weary, other good them,

sees one of those

spirits

little

dust-columns which are frequent in

mate, he thinks some beatific soul

is

ascending in

it

to the

this

windy

cli-

Happy Western

Land.

As above recorded, the dance for the dead is observed as far south as American River (not below), through the influence and example of the Maidu, who observe burned, with

some

tribal

all

it

As soon as life is extinct the body possessions. Then the ashes are conveyed

annually.

the person's

burying-ground, and slightly covered up, in the earth.

the dance for the dead

is

held

by appointment

the spring, the ashes are uncovered and a

The

first

fire

is

to

When

at each place, generally in is

made

directly over them.

evening and morning the mourning-women dance in a

circle

A "CRY" FOK THE DEAD— CAPTAIN TOM'S around the

holding in their hands their votive

fii'e,

SON.

ofFering-s

;

329 the second

evening and morning they burn the offerings during the dance.

But the southern Nishinam custom

to hold a ''cry" at various vil-

is

lages and various times throughout the year, according to appointment, at

which they

made

or effigies of the dead are rudely

about over the

hills

most accustomed ones,

and

fill

After this

is

An

a circle on the ground, weeping and wailing.

sit in

and through the

to resort during

of skins and cloths, and carried

valleys,

wherever the departed were

to recall the

life,

the breasts of the mourners with a

done the

effigy

memory

of the absent

more piercing soitow.

burned, as the real bodies would have

effigies are

been.

witnessed a scene of cremation on Bear River that was one of the

I

most hideous and

aw^ful spectacles of

which the human mind can conceive.

The mourners leaped and howled around

the burning pyre like demons,

holding long poles in their liands, which ever and anon they thrust into the

On American lump, the women

seething, blistering corpse, with dismal cries of " Wu-wii-tvu!

River, after the

draw holds

body

out of the

it it

reduced to a

is

little

smouldering

then each one in succession takes

fire,

"

it

in her hands,

high above her head, and w^alks around the pyre, uttering doleful

wails and ululations.

A

touching story

is

Dick was an incorrigible for

something or other,

for ten years.

boy, with

him

as

had bound

him away

tried,

wickedness.

one who

like eternity),

rascal,

and

it

Tom,

of Auburn.

finally fell out that

is

proved guilty, and sentenced to San Quentin

man

dead.

When turned

away

his

iron,

years to an Indian seems

behold him.

hobbled him

his family

mourned

for

Dick

arose, gathered together all the things that

them out

The white man

like a horse, carried

ends of the earth, and buried him

turned sadly away, and went back to his wigwam.

and

Dick became

head and wept.

(for ten

his old eyes

and ankles with

to the uttermost

Dick was manacled and taken away

Nevermore

nevermore should

his wrists

together, he

His son

he w^as arrested

This was a terrible bloAV to Captain Tom, for he loved his

all his

out of his sight, the old to

related of old Captain

as for one dead.

had ever belonged

to the family burning-ground, erected a pyre,

alive.

He

Mingling their tears

Then they

to him, carried

and placed them on

121

THE NISHINAM.^

330 it.

Years ago, a brother to Dick had died while they were

place,

and

where they were burned.

his ashes rested

brought and sprinkled over the pyre

(for

living' in

'^They

another

were now

such a grievous calamity had

never befallen the Indians before, that they should be compelled to

own body

one's possessions without his

troubled to think

how they

if his

tears

With

else

They were sadly Happy

he was gon4 and they thought, they

them

to

torch,

and prayed

waft the clothes and

their son

many whose

money quickly man had

poor Dick in that undiscovered country to which the white

conveyed him.

his spirit

these feelings in their breasts, but with

and sad misgivings, they applied the

ashes they had sprinkled on to

it).

were sprinkled on the pyre, perhaps

brother's ashes

might convey them.

accompany

could send Dijck's clothing to him in the

Western Land, or wherever hoped,

to

bum

CHAPTER XXXII. THE NISHINAM— CONTINUED. There are numerous games with which old and young,

amuse themselves.

men and women,

All of them, except one perhaps, are very simple, and

several are quite puerile

;

but they

comport well with the blithe-hearted,

all

simple-minded, joyous temper of the people

—who originated them.

—

so fond of gayeties, so fond

of gambling

bow and arrow, a game called he'-u-to, is a men and boys. A triangular wicket about two feet high

Shooting at a target with favorite diversion of is

set up,

The

and under

it is

placed a

wooden

which constitutes the

ball

contestants stand about fifty yards distant.

wi'-oh (shooting at long range) there

The men

stand several hundred yards

that the wicket

is

He

not visible.

Frequently an arrow

the wicket. it is lost.

is

is

off,

is

ball,

In the

lia' -dang-kau

and the wicket

is

ol-om-

higher.

sometimes a quarter of a mile, so

victor

flies

This long-range shooting

no

target.

who

lodges most arrows within

high and wide of the mark, so that to give

them

skill

against the

day of

battle.

The pos'-kd JmJc'-um-toh kom-peh' (tossing the ball) is a boys' game. They employ a round wooden ball, a buckeye, or something, standing at around from one to the other. If two and the third " crosses out" or hits either exchange corners,

three bases or corners, and toss of

them

start to

it

of them, he scores one, and they count pletes the

game.

boys and

Little

ing clover in the mouth).

A

large

girls

up

to a certain

play chi'-wi

number

number, which com-

oi'-doi to'-ho-peh (catch-

of them stand in a circle, a few

paces apart, and toss from one to the other a pellet of green clover, which

must be caught

in the

ment among

little

the

mouth.

shavers,

This game produces a vast deal of merri-

and he who laughs

loudest,

and consequently

THE NISHINAM.

332 has his month open widest,

then entitled to

As a

eat.

mouth open, while another substances,

and he

is

most likely

one 'will stand with

A^ariation, fires

wads

to catch the clover,

which he

his eyes shut

is

and

at the port-hole, or occasionally harder

not particular whether he hits the mouth, the nose, or

is

some other portion of

his

physiognomy.

The most common mode of gambling (Jii'-lai), used by both men and women, is conducted by means of four longish cylinders of bone or wood, which are wrapped site

in j)ellets of grass

and held

in the hand, while the oppo-

party guesses which hand contains them.

from several materials, but the Indians the phrases pol'-loam

hi'-lai

Jiin,

call

toan'-em

Mn, which mean respectively

gai'-a hi'-lai

minds

in the quality of the

employed, but what tions, prevails

of seeing

it

it

pretty

is

all

bones.

Thus they have

du'-pem

There

is

on the Gualala.

Jiin,

game, according

a subtile difference in to the kind of

bones

This game, with slight varia-

over California; and as I had opportunity

on a much larger scale on Gualala Creek, the reader

to the chapter

lii'-lai

gamble with buckeye bones,

I cannot discern.

much

all

hi'-lai Inn,

to

pine bones, deer bones, and cougar bones. their

These cylinders are carved

them

The

su'-toh is the

same game

is

referred

substantially,

only the pieces are shaken in the hand without being wrapped in the grass.

The ha is a game of dice, played by men or women, two, three, or four The dice, four in number, consist of two acorns split lengthwise together. They are into halves, with the outsides scraped and painted red or black. shaken in the hands and thrown into a wide, flat basket, woven in ornamental patterns, sometimes worth $25. versa^ score

nothing

;

One

two of each, score one

paint and three whites, or vice ;

four alike, score four.

The

thrower keeps on throwing until he makes a blank throw, when another takes the dice.

When

all

the players have stood their turn, the one

has scored most takes the stakes, which in this

say a "bit".

As the Indians

say,

"This

is

game

who

are generally small,

a quick game, and with good

luck one can very soon break another."

The tl'-hel ti'-lxl is also a gainbling game, for two men, played with a bit of wood or a pebble, which is shaken in the hand, and then the hand closed upon it. The opponent guesses which finger (a thumb is a finger

GAMES AND ENTERTAINMENTS. with them)

The and

is

it is

under, and scores one

They keep

misses.

ti'-hel is

from

ties,

nowadays of strong

and

cloth,

stali',

from four to

parties take their stations into the air,

is

Two

parallel lines are

drawn

equi-

a few paces apart, and along these lines the opposing par-

it,

strong

game they use, The piece is made shaped like a small dumb-

center of a wide, level space of ground, in a furrow

Each player

equal in strength, range themselves.

slight,

if lie

men and boys

hollowed out a few inches in depth. distant

or the other scores

almost the only really robust and athletic

It is laid in the

bell.

hits,

tally with eight counters.

played by a large company of

of rawhide, or

he

if

333

The two champions

six feet long.

on opposite sides of the

caught on the

stalf of

equipped with a

is

piece,

which

is

of the

then thrown

one or the other, and hurled by him

With

the direction of his antagonist's goal.

this send-off there

in

ensues a

wild chase and a hustle, pell-mell, higgledy-piggledy, each party striving to

bowl the piece over the

often race

are dead

These goals are several hundred

other's goal.

yards apart, affording room for a good

2:,

IX

YU-KI

I

PO-MO

o

•T-"'\

yu-Ki

\

MUT-SUN

YO'-KUTS .SAN

ANTONIO SHO-SHO'-NI

V

J...

SANTA BARBARA

YUMA

INDEX

courtship and marriage, 198

A-cho-ma-wi: belief in a future state, 272

habitat of the, 196

burial customs, 272

infanticide, 198

courtship and marriage, 270

language, 198

derivation of the term, 267

legends, 200

food of the, 269

medical practices, 196

habitat of the, 267

migrations, 197

infanticide, 271

physical characteristics of the, 198

language, 272

religious worship of the, 199

legends, 273

social

mental characteristics of

mourning ceremonies,

customs of

the, 198

superstitious beliefs of the, 202

the, 271

traditions, 196

271

with the Gal-li-no-me-ro, 197 wars of the, 196

numerals, 273

treaty

physical characteristics of the, 267

wives, rights of the, 199

social life of the, 271, 272

superstitious beliefs of the, 270

Assembly chamber,

trapping, 269

24,

139,

158,

163,

205, 241, 279

Athabascan

267

tribal divisions of the,

wars of the, 268 w^omen, subjection of

races, 16, 115, 244, 369,

435

Avarice, 56, 66, 176, 216, 323, 411 the,

270

Avery, Mr. B.

P.,

375

Acorn-granaries, 284, 323, 351

Amazons, 160

Ball,

Americans, sentiments toward, 63, 214, 224, 229, 263, 265, 277, 320

Bancroft, Mr. H. H., 62 Barclay, Mr. C.

Amusements,

Baskets, 47, 186, 257, 350, 377

179, 310, 333

Mr. N.

B.,

258

J.,

70

Annihilation, 287, 348, 383 Antiquity of the Indians, 140, 184

Bastards, 23, 75

Annual mourning,

Battle-grounds, 148, 196, 405

328, 355, 356, 384,

437

Bell,

309

156, 249,

Arts, 48, 57, 78, 96, 104, 108, 116, 186, 189, 205, 220, 373,

422

Ash-o-chi-mi: belief in a future state,

200

J.

H., 383

Beverages, 235, 415

Bloody Rock, Story of, 137 Bolander, Prof. H. N., 420 Boston Charley, 263 Boundary lines, 16, 66. 109.

bravery in hunting, 200 burial customs, 200

E. B., 381

Harvey, 184

Bethel, Mr.

Appetite, 104, 402

Archaisms, 31,

Bateman, Dr.

197, 252, 320, 371

Bunnell, Dr. L. H.. 365

467

148.

155.

INDEX

468 Burgett, William, 271, 272

Burial customs, 33, 58, 99, 133, 145, 148,

Crook, General George, 42 Cunningham, Mr. S. M., 367

152

Burying-grounds,

33, 34, 99,

219

Dances, 28, 31, 56, 67, 85, 105, 118, 128, 133, 143, 155, 158, 212, 285, 324,

Calitornia big

trees,

381, 437

398

Camp-sites, 219, 255, 283, 316, 370

Cannibalism, 181, 196, 344 Canoes, 47, 69, 93, 215, 255, 394 Captain Jack, description ot, 261 of,

432

Chase, Mr. A. W., 52, 57, 60, 69, 432 Chiefs, 45, 66, 97, 157, 164, 172, 174, 243, 246, 261, 352, 353, 371

Children, 21, 206, 222, 276, 316, 331, 354 Chil-lu-la:

Degeneration, theory

434

of,

"Diggers", 90, 204, 214 Diseases, 23, 92, 103, 128, 139, 169, 220 232, 316, 378, 380, 393, 417

Divorces, 56, 178, 239

Dogs, 379, 385 F.,

258

Dress, 20, 220, 233, 244, 255, 284, 317,

burial customs, 87

338, 351

habitat of the, 87

language, 87

Early accounts, 400, 405, 434

superstitious beliefs of the, 88 tributary to the Hu-pa, 87

Chi-mal-a-kwe:

Earthquakes, 28, 203, 209 Education, 109, 131, 132, 150, 271 Ely, Dr. E., 197

burial customs, 93

English, use

habitat of the, 91

of, 227, 245,

314

E-ri-o:

language, 92

amusements Hu-pa, 91

wars of the, 94 Cho-ku-yen, the 195 Chu-mai-a:

of the, 195

burial customs, 194

dances, 195 habitat of the, 194

language, 194

habitat of the, 136

wars of

Debts, 321, 438

Dowell, Mr. B.

tributary to the

33, 68, 78, 166, 171,

181/^16, 226, 239, 272, 327

Devil-raising, 159, 225

Carillo, Joaquin, 129

Ceramic remains, lack

Death and the dead,

religious ideas of the, 194

the, 136

Civilization, effects of,

186, 205, 210,

Fishing, 48, 50, 93, 103, 117, 205, 233, 256, 376

258, 317

Clannishness, 73, 221 Climate, influence of, 149, 170, 214, 435 Clothing, effects of, 92, 403

Fitch, Joseph, 177, 178, 181

Courtship and marriage,

Food and

22, 56, 85, 98,

157, 192, 198, 258, 317, 413, 438

Coyote, 35, 37, 147, 182, 226, 250, 379, 413

Cremation,

152, 169, 181, 194, 207, 216,

328, 329, 356

Fiske, Prof. John, 414

Fitch, William, 198

labor, 23, 46, 49, 89, 107, 117,

130, 150, 167, 168, 176, 187,

220

232, 234, 255, 269, 322, 353, 378, 421, 424, 430

Future

state, 34, 59, 68, 91, 110, 144, 154,

161, 171, 181, 200,

240

INDEX courtship and marriage, 192

Gal-li-no-me-ro:

amusements

469

customs, 193

ot the, 179

a peaceable people, 178, 180

dances, 183, 194

avarice ot the, 173

diseases of the, 192

belief in a future state, 182

food of the, 187, 188

burial customs, 181

gambling, 189

color of the, 175

gravity of the, 191

courtship and marriage, 178

habitat of the, 186

cruelty of the, 176

implements, ornamentation

dances, 179, 181

infanticide, 192

of,

187

derivation of the term, 174

language, 186

habitat of the, 174

maftner of gathering seeds, 187

hospitality of the, 176

manner of preparing acorn-flour,

industry of the, 175

physical characteristics of the, 192

infanticide, 177

pipes, 189

legends, 182

political organization of the, 193

licentiousness of the, 178

theory of creation, 194

medical practice, 181

wigwams, 186

moral feebleness of

women,

the, 174

mourning ceremonies,

subjection of the, 194

181, 182

odor of the, 176 ornaments, 179

Hair, 20, 280, 422

Half breeds,

physical characteristics of the,

175

149,

403

He-nag-gi, the, 65

physical characteristics of the, 175

Heralds and ambassadors,

political organization of the, 174

purchase of citizenship, 177 purchase of relatives, 177

386 Hermaphrodites, 132, 345 Home, fondness for, 231, 249, 382 Hopps, Mr. Charles, 187

punishment

188

of murder, 177

1

10, 129, 136,

159, 210, 237, 264, 297,

religious ideas of the, 182

Horses, 27,

social organization of the, 174

Hospitalities, 28, 78, 164, 176, 183, 289

timidity of the, 178

Hunting, Hu-pa:

wigwams, 175 Games and gambling,

90, 151, 189, 193,

bastards, 75

courtship and mariage, 75, 85

Geysers, 196, 200

dance of peace, 81

312

Goldsmith, Mr. W. C, 216 Gordon, Mr. Robert, 317 Government, 15, 21, 45, 97, 258, 319

dances, 78, 79. 81, 85 habitat of the, 72 156,

174,

Grizzly bear, 102. 155, 161,240,397.398

hospitality of the, 78

immorality of the, 75 implements, 73 language, 72, 76

Gua-la-la:

amusements

53, 93, 101, 117, 241, 279

burial customs, 83

298, 303, 323, 331, 377, 407

Gifts, 238,

18, 209, 251, 258, 372,

ot the, 193

laws and usages of

the. 74

436

1

1

1

INDEX

470 legends, 80

lacking in poetFy and romance, 408

lodges, 73

licentiousness of the, 412

medical practice, 86 mental characteristics

mourning ceremonies, 83

medicines of the, 418 mental characteristics of the, 401, 411 mental weakness of the, 402, 406

numerals,

16

not a martial race, 404

78, 79, 81, 85

not a race of hunters, 406

1

ornaments,

of the, 72

political organization ot the, 74

not tavVdry in dress, 408

primitive dress ot the, 73

odor of

puberty dance, 85

punishment punishment

•

the.

403

physically considered. 401. 412

of adultery, 75

predominance

of murder, 75

403

shell-money, 76

prevalence

tattooing, 76

the.

of girls

of

amongst

infanticide

tribal divisions of the, 73

religious ideas of the. 413

revenge of

wars of

the, 73

Hutchings, Mr.

the. 4

skill of the.

M., 362

J.

amongst

416

war customs

of the, 74

the.

1

416

thievery of the. 410

treatment of captives by the. 403 uncleanliness of the. 403

Immorality. 22, 31, 412

75,

157, 206, 286,

Infanticide. 177. 183. 198. 207.222,232,

239, 328. 382

Insanity. 345

Indian reservations, 123, 264 Indians of California: a comparatively healthy race, 417

Ka-bi-na-pek:

attached to their home, 410

assembly house. 205

avarice of the, 41

bravery of the. 205

capacity to endure suffering, 406

cause of the extinction of

compared with

the,

415

the Algonkins, 404

burial customs, 207 conception of a Supreme Being, 208 dances, 210

diseases of the, 417

endurance of

division of the, 403, 417

fishing, 205

division of labor

endurance of feasts of the.

amongst

the.

the,

405

416

the,

213

food of the. 205 habitat of the, 204

408

infanticide, 207

food of the. 417. 419, 421

language, 204, 206

foulness of language of the, 412

mental characteristics of

good nature of the, 407 have no conception of

mourning ceremonies, 207

Being. 413

humor

of the, 409

industry of the. 409

a

Supreme

the,

205

ornaments. 211. 213 political organization of the, 204

physical characteristics of the. 204 religious ideas of the. 206. 207

ingratitude of the. 41

revival. 208

imitativeness of the, 406

sensuality of the, 206

INDEX

471

Kai Porno. 148

language. 89

Ka-rok:

lodges, 89

assembly chamber. 24

political organization of the, 90

belief in a future slate. 34

superstitious beliefs of the, 91 tributary to the Hu-pa, 89

bravery ot the, 19 burial customs, 33

Kinman,

conception of a Supreme Being, 24

Klamath, Jim, story Ko-ma-cho:

courtship and marriage, 22

dance of propitiation,

28. 30

Seth, 102 of. 41

dances, 172

dances, 28, 30, 31, 42

habitat of the, 172

derivation of the term, 19

mourning ceremonies,

diseases of the, 23

self-torture of the, 172

division of labor, 23

superstitious beliefs of the, 172

Kom-bo:

dress of the, 20

bravery of the, 279

habitat of the, 19 lack of virtue of the, 22

burial customs, 279

language, 32

cropping the

legends, 35, 37. 38. 39

habitat of the. 278

hair,

lodges, 24, 45

lodges. 279

medical practice, 26

nearly extinct, 277

money,

172

280

not California Indians. 279

21

mental characteristics of

mourning ceremonies,

the, 21

torture of captives, 279

trapping, 279 Kon-kau: numerals of the. 313

33

numerals, 45

ornaments. 30 physical characteristics of the. 19

political organization of the, 21

Language. 32, 44, 74, 76,92. 100. 146, 198, 206.215.231,250.272,314.347

primitive dress of the, 20

Las-sik:

physical endurance of the. 28

promiscuous cohabitation of

shamans

the, 23

of the. 25

superstitious beliefs of the. 31. 32 tattooing. 20

vocabulary of

war customs weapons. 21

the,

448

of the. 21. 42

Pomo. 147 Ka-to Pomo, 150 Kas-tel

habitat of the. 121

migration of the. 121 murders and robberies by the. 121 war customs. 127 wars of the. 121 Laws and usages. 21. 74. 98. 153. 177. 246

Laycock. Mrs. Dry den. 128 Legends. 35, 59. 60, 62, 69. 80.

1

10. 144.

Kelsey, Mr. Samuel, 128

150. 162. 171. 182. 200. 226. 251.

Kel-ta:

273. 287. 290, 339. 357. 366. 383.

belief in future state, 91

burial customs, 91

395. 434

Lodges, 45, 73. 101. 127. 128. 139. 163.

food of the. 89

168. 174. 186. 215. 221. 241. 255.

habitat ot the, 89

350. 436

1

INDEX

472 Lo-lon-kuk:

Mat-toal:

v

habitat ot the, 113

belief in a future state,

language,

burial customs,

Luttrell,

1

13

Hon.

J. K.,

247

1

1

10

10

education of children, 109 habitat of the, 107

implements, 108 Mai-du:

ingratitude of the, 112

acorn-granaries, 284

knowledge

assembly house, 284

109

of topographic features,

dances, 285

language, 108

derivation ol the term, 283

legends,

dress ot the, 284

lodges, 108

entertainments ot the, 310

tattooing, 109

habitat ot the, 282

1 1

theory of creation, 110

wars of the, 107, 108 McKee, Col Redick, 247

language, 310 legends, 290, 292, 294

Meacham, Hon. A. B., 258, 260 Medicine-men and medicines,

lodges, 284

religious ideas ot the, 287 secret societies, 305

130,

26, 86,

141, 152, 167, 216, 420, 423

songs, 287, 307

Melancholy,

theory ot creation, 287

Memorial offerings, 170, 387, 391 Mental attributes, 55, 72, 96, 107,

traits ot

character ot the, 284

trapping, 285

282

348, 397, 400, 406

Men-women,

283

132

Midwifery, 239, 246, 281, 379 Migrations, 69, 115, 116, 316, 318, 394, 397, 435

Makh-el-chel: burial customs, 216

exclusiveness ot the, 214 habitat ot the, 214

Milk, 186, 271, 328

implements and

Mi-sal-la

utensils, 215

indigenous origin of

the,

215

Ma-gun:

derivation of the term, 183

infanticide, 214

habitat of the, 174

intelligence of the, 214

hospitality of the, 183

language, 214, 215

infanticide, 183

Mi-wok: assembly

legends, 215 lodges, 215

medical practice, 216

hall,

260

belief in annihilation of the soul, 348

mourning ceremonies, 216

burial customs, 349, 356

physical characteristics of the, 214

courtship and marriage, 348, 354

punishment

of adultery, 214

theory of creation, 215 treaty

with Cache Creek Indians, 216

women,

134,

140, 147, 153, 174, 178, 191, 261,

tribal divisions ot the,

village-sites,

184, 193

deference

to,

217

Maltby, Mr. Charles, 382

dances, 352, 354, 356 dialectic variation of the, 347

dress ot the, 351

eloquence of

the,

352

feebleness of national unity, 346

INDEX

473

food ot the, 348, 351

physical characteristics of the, 252

food, storage ot, 351

political organization of the, 258

habitat ot the, 351

primitive dress of the, 255

habitat ot the, 346

religious ideas of the, 259

honesty ot

the, 351

customs

social

of the, 254

idioms ot the, 348 implements, 352

sorcerers, influence of the,

infanticide, 354

treatment of the, by American author-

language, 346, 347

ities,

265

war customs, 253

legends, 356, 358

wars of

lodges, 350

Money,

medical practice, 354

mental weakness of

the,

348

migrations, 350

the, 252, 253, 260, 264

21, 56, 66, 76, 217, 335

Mono: amusements

of the, 397

mourning ceremonies, 355

bravery of the, 397

numerals, 360

color of the, 397

obscenity, 348

freedom from vice of

physical stature of the, 348

habitat of the, 397

physiognomy

mental characteristics of numerals of the, 399

of the, 350

political organization of the, 352

primitive dress of the, 348

Mounds,

sensuality of the, 356

Murder,

of the, 346

397

the,

the,

397

physical stature of the, 397

salutations, 347

soil, fertility

260

superstitious beliefs of the, 260

52, 233, 316,

432

75, 178, 320, 411

Music and singing,

31, 105, 211, 257,

296, 326, 407

sweat-houses, 360

M6-dok: bravery of the, 253, 261

Names,

burial customs, 259

126, 154, 243, 247, 282, 305, 314,

362

courtship and marriage, 258

Nelson, Mr. A.

deformation of

Nicknames, 312, 409

the,

257

S.,

derivation of the term, 252

Nish-fang, story

diseases of the, 254

Ni-shi-nam:

dwellings, 255

198

of,

83

amusements of the, 331 nomadic tribe, 318, 322

food of the. 256

a

habitat of the, 252

assembly house, 326

implements, 255, 257 melancholy history of the, 264 mental characteristics of the, 253

burial customs, 327, 328

courtship and marriage, 317

migrations, 256

dances, 324

belief in a future state, 328, 340

military skill of the, 261

derivation of the term, 313

mourning ceremonies, 259

diseases of the, 316

not improved by contact with whites,

258

numerals, 45

food of the, 322, 323

geographical names of habitat ol the. 313

the.

317

INDEX

474 intanticide, 328

Origin,

insanity, 345

Ornaments,

language, 314

19, 140, 156, 276, 280,

394

30, 78, 1T6, 179, 211, 212,

238, 297, 338

legends, 339, 341, 343, 344, 345 lodges, 316

medical practice, 327

Pai-u-ti: 252, 274, 320, 369

migrations, 316

mode

tribal divisions ot the,

of collecting debts, 321

mourning ceremonies,

a warlike people, 274

314, 327

not a miserly people, 323

393

Pa-ka-maKli:

*

triendly to the Pai-u-ti, 274

numerals, 313

habitat ot the, 274

ornaments, 338

language, 274

personal names of the, 315

Pal-li-ga-wo-nap:

political organization ot the, 317, 319

burial customs, 394

primitive dress ot the, 317, 338

diseases ot the, 393

punishment punishment punishment

of adultery,

physical characteristics ot the, 394

ot

habitat ot the, 393

320 kidnapping, 318, 320 ot murder, 320 religious ideas ot the, 339 secret organization, 326 shell-money ot the, 335 slaughter

ot,

by the Pai-u-ti, 320

Parents, treatment ot, 112, 118, 131, 153, 178,

232

Pat-a-wat:

social gatherings, 326

boundaries ot

lodges, 394

religious ideas ot the, 394

Parricide, 178, 207, 322

social customs, 317

tribal

legends, 395

the,

a degraded race, 96

314

treatment ot the aged, 322

burial customs, 99

villages ot the, 316

courtship and marriage, 98

v^ar customs ot the, 320, 321 wars ot the, 320 weapons, 321

dress ot the, 97

habitat ot the, 96

language, 100 lodges, 96

N6-zi:

numerals, 99

habitat ot the, 275

honesty, 276

physical characteristics ot the, 96

industry, 26

political organization ot the, 97

migrations, 276 numerals, 277 wars ot the, 275

superstitious beliefs of the, 98

Numerals,

45, 100,

shell-money, 98 tattooing, 96 116,

167, 232, 250,

273, 277, 313, 360, 378, 392, 399

wars of

the,

96

Pat-a-we, the, 95

Pat-win:

Observation ot nature,

Old towns,

168,

40, 99, 188,

219

Oratory, 105, 159, 352, 372

419

amusements, 224 burial customs, 226

camp-sites, 219

INDEX civil

wars

475

assembly house, 157

of the, 221

clannishness ot the, 221 color of the, 224

belief in a future state, 153, 154, 161

courtship and marriage, 221

conception of a Supreme Being,

burial customs, 148, 149, 152, 153

derivation of the term, 218

146,

161

habitat of the, 218

courtship and marriage, 157

language, 218

dances, 154, 158, 159

legends, 226

dialectic variations of the, 146

licentiousness, 219

disposition of the, 146

linguistic boundaries of the, 218

food of the, 150 games, 151

medical practice, 220, 225 mode of gathering and preparing food, 220

gam.bling, 152 habitat of the, 146, 148

mourning ceremonies, 225 no conception of a Supreme Being, 224

hospitality, 153

implements, 148 Kai, 148

numerals, 232

Kastel, 147

parental government of the, 222

Kato, 150

physical characteristics of the, 222

lack of virtue, 157

political organization of the, 221

language, 150

population of

the,

219

linguistic studies, 150

primitive dress of the, 220

legends, 162

prostitution of the, 224

lodges, 148, 150

purchase of

medical practices, 152

relatives, 221

memory

religious ceremonies of the, 225 tribal divisions of the,

of the, 153

numerals, 167

218

vendettas of the, 221

physical characteristics of the, 149

war customs, 221

physique, 146

weapons, 221

Poam, 156

wigwams, 221

political organization of the, 156

predominance

Personal habits, 20, 55, 104, 123, 193, 233, 403

quarrels of the, 149

Phenomena,

religious ideas of the, 161

Physique, 174,

224,

261,

272,

290,

357

19, 44, 66, 96, 120, 124, 127

superstitious beliefs of the, 154

192, 204, 214, 22, 231, 267,

system of names, 154

400, 416, 433 Pifia,

of girls, 149

tattooing, 148

Louis, 178

traits of character, 147

Pipes, 433

Points of the compass, 73, Polyglots, 73, 151, 198

Po-mo: acts of worship, 147

arrival at puberty, 149

treatment of parents, 153 151,

198

tribal divisions of the, 147. 155

war customs, 160 wars of

women, women,

the, 147

authority of the, 160 subjection of the. 159

INDEX

476

Secret societies, 15^, 305, 406

Population, density of

the, 59, 103, 128,

168,204,219,254,365,415

Selt-torture, 83, 169,

1-73,

181,

406

Se-nel:

.

Pottery, 433

beliet in a tuture state, 170, 171

Potter, William, 156, 158

burial customs, 169

dances, 169

Pre-historics, 432, 435 Priests

and

priestesses, 67, 82, 164,

428

tood Qt the. 168 habitaiV)t the, 168

Prostitution, 225, 247, 382, 413

lodges. 168

Quarrels and teuds, 21, 49,

74»,

221, 238,

mourning ceremonies,

169

political organizaiton ot the, 168

249

religious ideas ot the, 171

Rattlesnakes, 160, 325, 379, 380

selt-torture of the, 169

Retorms,

sterile

42, 205, 352, 381

Relations of

tribes, 72. 87, 147, 149, 177,

Shamans,

Relatives: 177, 192, 271, 348. 356

83,

174, 199, 224, 259,

Shas-ti-ka:

133,

147,

161,

413

an Indian, 208

Robbins, Mr. T.

courtship and marriage, 247 dances, 250 dress of the, 244

120

division of labor, 249

J. B., 62, 100, 115,

exchange of names, 247

B.,

Rosborough, Judge

24, 26, 27. 68, 78, 91, 142, 152,

burial customs. 249

purchase ot, 221 Religious ideas, 24,

,

of the, 169

181. 225. 239, 270, 345. 354

238, 254, 264, 275

Revival

women

superstitious beliefs of the, 169

Re-ho, the, 228

120

feuds, 249

245

Sacred objects. 78, 240. 398

food of

Sai-az:

language, 250

the,

diseases ot the. 123

lodges, 245 medical practice, 249

habitat ot the. 122

migrations, 244

language, 124

not California Indians,

lodges, 123

numerals. 250

physical characteristics ot the, 123.

original habitat of the, 243

bravery ot the, 123

124

Salmon

Billy. 53

246 political

organizations of the, 243

246

Salutations. 58, 176. 305, 347

primitive dress of the, 246

San Ratael: habitat ot the, 195

punishment punishment

language, 195

relationship to

Savage lite, 284, 418 Schumacher, Mr. Paul. 104

245

physical characteristics of the, 243,

superstitious beliets ot the, 123

uncleanliness of the, 123

15.

of adultery, 246 of murder, 246

Oregon Indians, 243

religious ideas of the, 251

sweat-house, 243

INDEX

477

theory of creation, 250

timidity of the, 140

war customs

war customs, 139

women, women,

of the, 248

wars of

bravery of the, 248 prostitution of the, 247

Skonchin John, 262 Slaves, 22, 75, 177, 254, 267, 288

Social gatherings, 205, 326, 355

Somes, Mr.

A., 31

Songs, 211, 213, 236, 237, 287, 296, 307,

the, 139

wigwams, 139 women, subjection of the, 141 Time and seasons, 77, 85, 235, 294,

305,

352, 438

Tobacco, 415, 426, 428 Tol-o-wa: avariciousness of the, 66

335

Spanish, 136, 175, 180, 271, 382

belief in a future state, 68

Spies, 74

cruelty of the, 65

Spirits, 24, 91, 154, 169, 286, 326, 328,

dances, 67

food of

345, 414 Steele,

Mr.

Sterile

women,

E.,

69

implements and

318

169,

Stone implements,

the, 67,

habitat of the, 65

243

49, 52, 79, 252, 302,

344, 376, 377, 395, 432

utensils, 69

language, 65 legends, 70

numerals, 116

Suicide, 259

Sunshine, fondness

for, 68,

176

Superstitions, 31, 57, 58,87,98, 124, 144,

physical

characteristics

of

the,

66

religious ideas of the, 68

reverence of the dead, 68

260 Sutter, Capt.

Sweat-house,

John

A.,

wars of

322

15, 93, 244, 394,

436

the, 65

Tortures, 279, 321 Traffic, 235, 316, 352, 375

Tales, 41, 60, 83, 134, 137, 184,208,217, 280, 288, 329

Ta-ta-ten, 65

Tattooing, 20, 76, 96, 109, 130, 148, 242 Ta-tu:

assembly

hall, 139, 141

belief in a future state, 144

Trails, 58, 119, 382

Traits of character, 21, 53, 55, 112, 119, 127,

133,

Trapping,

139,

146, 153, 253, 276

50, 101, 269, 285, 351

Treaties, 197, 216, 246

Trophies, 21, 57, 221, 238

Twins, 271

burial customs, 145

dances, 143, 144

Vi-ard:

diseases of the, 139

a timid race, 101

habitat of the, 139

dance of thanksgiving, 105

legends, 144

fishing-weirs, 103

medical practice, 141, 142 ornaments, 143

habitat of the, 101

quarrels of the, 140

language, 101

implements and

utensils, 101

religious ideas of the, 144

lodges, 101

secret society, 141

numerals, 99

superstitious beliefs of the, 144

snares and traps, 101

INDEX

478

burial customs, 23^9 contemplation of des^th, 239 courtship and marriage, 238 dances, 235, 236, 237, 239, 240 derivation of the term, 229 diseases of the, 232 dress of the, 233

Vices, 6, 415

Villages, 46, 284, 300, 365

Wai-lak-ki:

bravery of the, 120 carving,

dances,

16

1

18

1

derivation of the term, 114

fishing, 232, 233

fishing,

food of

food of

1

17

food,

the, 117

the, 232, 234,

mode

habitat of the, 114

habitat of the, 229

language,

infanticide, 238, 239

lodges,

1

14

1

language, 231, 232

16

mental characteristics of

the, 119

16

1

ornaments, 116 snares

and

tattooing,

16

of

filial piety,

118

Waite, Mr. E. G., 374

Wappo,

241

Wa-pum-ni, numerals of the, 313 War and weapons, 21 42, 52, 73, 94, ,

129, 136, 221, 253, 321,

Warner, Mr.

J. J.,

puberty dance, 235 108,

404

417

religious ideas of the, 240

sensuality of the, 229

songs, 236, 237

Water, modes of crossing, 93, 124, 275, 352

superstitions, 229

Water,

traffic

on, 51, 53, 216, 222

Whil-kut:

amongst

the,

235

treatment of the aged, 231

habitat of the, 88

tribal divisions of the,

language, 89 tributary to the Hu-pa, 88 wars of the, 88 Whiskey, 175, 176, 205, 397 White, Robert, 153

Widowhood,

tattooing, 232, 242

trapping, 241

burial customs, 88

33, 225, 327, 383

Win-tun: belief in a future state,

Women,

240

story of, 288

20, 23, 32, 141, 150, 152, 160,

199, 217, 244, 246, 248, 270, 318,

405 J.

G., 415

Yo-kai-a:

Supreme Being, 240

230

war customs of the, 241 weapons, 234, 241 W6-lok-ki and Y6-to-wi,

Wood, Mr.

bathing, 233 belief in a

237

physical characteristics of the, 231,

196

skill

229

numerals, 232 ornaments, 238

119

traits of character,

want

the,

mode of transmitting news, mourning ceremonies, 240

traps, 117 1

lodges, 241

medical practice, 239 mental characteristics of migrations, 229

migrations, 115, 116

numerals,

235

of preparing, 234

assembly house, 163 dances, 164

INDEX derivation of the term, 163

479

Indian terms tor geographic features in the, 362

dress of the, 165

legends of the, 366, 367

habitat of the, 163

villages in the, 365

implements, 167 lodges, 163

Yuba, numerals

medical practice, 167

Yu-ki:

mourning ceremonies,

164, 166

assembly

of the,

hall, 128

numerals, 167

burial customs, 133

ornaments, 165

dances, 128, 133 derivation of the term, 125

Y6-kuts: burial customs, 383, 383

devil, the, 134

courtship and marriage, 381, 382

diseases of the, 125

dances, 380

food ot

derivation ot the term, 369

habitat of the, 125

diseases ot the, 380

intellect of the, 126

tood,

313

mode

ol preparing,

376

the, 128, 130

lodges of the, 128

man-woman,

tood of the, 376, 378 gambling, 377

consecration of the, 133

medical practice, 130

habitat ot the, 369 implements, 373, 376, 377 infanticide, 382

memory

of the, 134

mental characteristics

of the, 127

physical characteristics of the, 127

language, 382

primitive dress

legends, 383

religious beliefs ot the, 133

love ot

home, 382

t

the, 128

system of names, 126

medical practice, 378, 379

tattooing, 130

mourning ceremonies, 384 names tor days ot the vc^eek, 378

thievery of the, 133

numerals, 378 original habitat ot the, 370 political organization of the, 370, 371

prophets of

the,

war customs, 128 weapons, 129

women,

129

Yu-rok: acquisitiveness ot the, 56

372

sacred animals, 379

amusements, 56

shell-money, 375

arts of the, 57

theory ot disease, 378

assembly chamber, 58

trapping, 377

bathing, 55

tribal

boundaries

ot the, 371

tribal divisions ot the,

wars

ot the,

373

369

belief in a future state, 58,

conception ot a Supreme Being. 64

weapons, 373

color of the, 44

wigwams, 370

courtship and marriage. 56

wizards, 372, 380

cunning

Yosemite Valley: Indian

name

(A the, 361

59

burial customs, 58

of the, 53

curiosity ot the, 54

divorce, 56

INDEX

480

opinion of the whjtes, 63 ornaments, 47, 52

fishing, 48, 49, 50, 51

tood ot the, 46, 49, 51, 59 habitat of the, 44

physical description of the, 44

hunting, 53

implements and

political organization of the, 45 utensils, 47, 48

salutations of the, 58

industry of the, 46

superstitious beliefs of the, 57, 63

language, 44

tattooing, 44

legends, 59, 60, 62

trapping)50 weapons, 52

lodges, 45

mourning ceremonies, 58 numbers of the, 59 numerals, 45

•

women, 50 Yu-rok's revenge, 60

V

tribeso'fcalifornOOstep IribesofcalifornOOstep

I

This classic of American Indian ethnography, originally published in 1877, is again available in its complete form. In the summers of 1871

and 1872 Powers California.

visited Indian

groups

in the

northern two-thirds of

A journalist by profession,

he was untrained in ethnography, but was nonetheless an astonishingly intelligent observer who had a gift for writing in a spirited manner. He reported faithfully what he heard and portrayed accurately what he saw among the native survivors of Gold Rush days in a series of seventeen articles published

mostly in The Overland Monthly. These were partly rewritten, added to, and reorganized by Powers to be published in 1877 as a report of the U.S. Geographical

and Geological Survey of the Rocky Mountain

Region.

Powers' book

is still

with native cultures. California

is

rare volume.

basic

and

The 1877

at last reprinted in

For

is

referred to by everyone

was not

edition

large,

response to growing

who

deals

and Tribes of

demand

for this

this edition all

of the original illustrations have been retained and the basic text printed in facsimile. Professor Robert F. Heizer has provided annotations throughout and an introduction to indicate

contemporary thought about the volume.

''Tribes

of California

one of the most remarkable reports ever was able to a greater degree than anyone before or after him to seize and fix the salient qualities of [is]

printed by any government. Powers

.

.

.

the mentality of the people he described the culture of the California Indian, for lights

book

For the broad outlines of its

values with

all

their high-

and shadows, [one] can It will

still do no better than consult the always remain the best introduction to the subject."

—A.L. Kroeber