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SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 


BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 
BULLETIN 133 


ANTHROPOLOGICAL 
PAPERS 


Numbers 19-26 


UNITED STATES 
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 
WASHINGTON : 1943 


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LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL 


SMITHSONIAN LystrruTion, 
Bureau or AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY, 
Washington, D. C., June 1, 1941. 

Sir: I have the honor to submit the accompanying manuscripts, 
entitled: “A Search for Songs Among the Chitimacha Indians in 
Louisiana,” by Frances Densmore; “Archeological Survey on ,the 
Northern Northwestern Coast,” by Philip Drucker, with appendix, 
“Harly Vertebrate Fauna of the British Columbia Coast,” by Edna 
M. Fisher; “Some Notes on a Few Sites in Beaufort County, South 
Carolina,” by Regina Flannery; “An Analysis and Interpretation 
of the Ceramic Remains from Two Sites Near Beaufort, South 
Carolina,” by James B. Griffin; “The Eastern Cherokees,” by William 
Harlen Gilbert, Jr.; “Aconite Poison Whaling in Asia and America: 
An Aleutian Transfer to the New World,” by Robert F. Heizer; “The 
Carrier Indians of the Bulkley River: Their Social and Religious 
Life,” by Diamond Jenness; and “The Quipu and Peruvian Civiliza- 
tion,” by John R. Swanton, and to recommend that they be pub- 
lished as a bulletin of the Bureau of American Ethnology. 

Very respectfully yours, 
M. W. Srietine, Chief. 
Dr. C. G. Axport, 
Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. 
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PUBLISHER’S NOTE 


A separate edition is published of each paper in the series entitled “Anthro- 
pological Papers.” Copies of Papers 1—26 are available at the Bureau of American 
Ethnology, Smithsonian Institution, and can be had free upon request. 


List of ANTHROPOLOGICAL PAPERS PUBLISHED PREVIOUSLY 


No. 1. A Preliminary Report on Archeological Explorations at Macon, Ga., 
by A. R. Kelly. Bull. 119, pp. v-ix, 1-68, pls. 1-12, figs. 1-7. 1988. 
. The Northern Arapaho Flat Pipe and the Ceremony of Covering the 
Pipe, by John G. Carter. Bull. 119, pp. 69-102, figs. 8-10. 1988. 
No. 3. The Caribs of Dominica, by Douglas Taylor. Bull. 119, pp. 103-159, 
pls. 138-18, figs. 11-87. 1988. 
No. 4. What Happened to Green Bear Who Was Blessed with a Sacred Pack, 
by Truman Michelson. Bull. 119, pp. 161-176. 1938. 
No. 5. Lemhi Shoshoni Physical Therapy, by Julian H. Steward. Bull. 119, 
pp. 177-181. 1938. 
No. 6. Panatiibiji’, an Owens Valley Paiute, by Julian H. Steward. Bull. 119, 
pp. 183-195. 1938. 
No. 7%. Archeological Investigations in the Corozal District of British Honduras, 
by Thomas and Mary Gann. Bull. 123, pp. v-vii, 1-57, 61-66, pls. 1-10, 
figs. 1-11. 19389. 
Report on Two Skulls from British Honduras, by A. J. BE. Cave. Buli. 
128, pp. 59-60. 1939. 
No. 8. Linguistic Classification of Cree and Montagnais-Naskapi Dialects, by 
Truman Michelson. Bull. 123, pp. 67-95, fig. 12. 1939. 
No. 9. Sedelmayr’s Relacion of 1746. Translated and edited by Ronald L. 
Ives. Bull. 128, pp. 97-117. 19389. 
No. 10. Notes on the Creek Indians, by John R. Swanton. Bull. 123, pp. 119- 
159, figs. 18, 14. 1939. 
No. 11 The Yaruros of the Capanaparo River, Venezuela, by Vincent Petrullo. 
Bull. 123, pp. 161-290, pls. 11-25, figs. 15-27. 1939. 
No. 12. Archeology of Arauquin, by Vincent Petrullo. Bull. 123, pp. 291-295, 
pls. 26-82. 1939. 
No. 18. The Mining of Gems and Ornamental Stones by American Indians, by 
Sydney H. Ball. Bull. 128, pp. ix—xii, 1-78, pls. 1-5. 1941. 
No. 14. Iroquois Suicide: A Study in the Stability of a Culture Pattern, by 
William N. Fenton. Bull. 128, pp. 79-188, pls. 6-8. 1941. 
No. 15. Tonawanda Longhouse Ceremonies: Ninety Years after Lewis Henry 
Morgan, by William N. Fenton. Bull. 128, pp. 189-166, pls. 9-18. 
1941. 
No. 16. The Quichua-Speaking Indians of the Province of Imbabura (Ecuador) 
and Their Anthropometric Relations with the Living Populations of 
the Andean Area, by John Gillin. Bull. 128, pp. 167-228, pls. 19-29. 
figs. 1-2. 1941. 
No. 17. Art Processes in Birchbark of the River Desert Algonquin, a Circum- 
boreal Trait, by Frank G. Speck. Bull. 128, pp. 229-274, pls. 30-42. 
figs. 3-25. 1941. 
No. 18. Archeological Reconnaissance of Southern Utah, by Julian H. Steward. 
Bull. 128, pp. 275-856, pls. 48-52, figs. 26-77. 1941. 


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CONTENTS 


. 19. A Search for Songs Among the Chitimacha Indians in Louisiana, 


byalrances; Densmore ere) fal) Se OG Me Cam wee Sei abes 


. 20. Archeological Survey on the Northern Northwest Coast, by 


Philip Drucker; with Appendix, Early Vertebrate Fauna of the 
British Columbia Coast, by Edna M. Fisher_______-_______-_- 


. 21. Some Notes on a Few Sites in Beaufort County, South Carolina, 


byrkegina;Plannerye eee ee I ae ee Beh Wee as 


, 22. An Analysis and Interpretation of the Ceramic Remains from 


Two Sites near Beaufort, South Carolina, by James B. Griffin. 


. 23. The Eastern Cherokees, by William Harlen Gilbert, Jr____-___-_- 
. 24, Aconite Poison Whaling in Asia and America: An Aleutian Trans- 


fer to the New World, by Robert F. Heizer______--_---_---- 


. 25. The Carrier Indians of the Bulkley River: Their Social and 


Religious Life; by Diamond, Jenness 7. =. 2. -2 23 .=-2-23-_8 


No. 26. The Quipu and Peruvian Civilization, by John R. Swanton__-_-_- 
Ril exe oe Ae ete tac 31 SS eRMn ee a ere aN Ph ARE ee ee AS Ne fl 
ILLUSTRATIONS 
PLATES 
(Densmore) 


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13. 
14. 
15. 
16. 
1 


1, Bayou Teche. 2, Pirogue beside Bayou Teche___..-..__-_______ 
1, Benjamin Paul. 2, Christine Paul, wife of Benjamin Paul_______ 
1, Benjamin Paul’s house. 2, Delphine Decloux’s house____._____-_- 
1, Delphine Decloux. 2, Live oak in Delphine Decloux’s yard_-___-_ 
(Drucker) 
ASIN TS TAN ST GES te ice eS a RNR i PE NE EP Te Se ee 
IGP KAI GIRS Tbsp aoe a a eect oe Sern eo yee Rr reece ae Ce AR 
FE GUISE CCMA TNS © eer nL Ry a, ens Ral od eh aca Meg a dp 2 sae eae 
DESO ee TUS) ohh a ba al eB ena a aE A a i De EAL OE ale Ble Men Sra aS 
MistellaneOUseViC WR vast ha) eet ee ete 7 Ive hy Mees. drs tan ge 
(Griffin) 


1, Stallings Plain sherds from the Chester Field site. 2, Stallings 
Punctate sherds from the Chester Field site___________-___-_--_-- 
1, Stallings Punctate sherds from the Chester Field site. 2, Check 
Stamped and Cord Marked sherds from the Lake Plantation-_--_-- 
Miscellaneous sherds from Lake Plantation and two Stallings Punctate 
sherdsiftrom Jones slame ea seen as oe 2 ea yo seep atie years eeod nt ee 


(Gilbert) 


1, Cherokee terrain. 2, Cherokee Eagle Dance____----------------- 
1, Cherokee Ball Game, Tackle. 2, Cherokee Ball Game, Intermission 
1, Cherokee Ball Game, Foul. . 2, Wiliwesti’s artifacts__._._.____-_-- 
1, John Driver family. 2, Four women of Big Cove____-_.--_-_-_-- 
1, Sampson Owl, ex-chief and interpreter. 2, Sampson Ledford, in- 

formants, Graham © OuUmGyre tn ee et ah i AT ae ne aie 


PAGE 


597 


vill CONTENTS 


(Hetzer) 
PAGE 
18. The whale fishery of the Greenland Eskimo_______________-______- 468 
19. Greenland whale and harpoon with bladder__.__.___---___--_----- 468 
20; Cutting up the whale; Japan. eo.¢ eel ged bee 468 
21. Dispatching the already harpooned and netted whale with lances, 
ARs Ue a by ee Ty a ahd A a ceca A Re 468 
22. Japanese whalers setting out nets for a whale______________-_-____- 468 
aes The whale hunt.of the Aleuts..- 2222-22 eee eee tee we 468 
234. Whale hunt of the Kodiak Island natives (after Mofras)_____.____ 468 
(Jenness) 
24. Modern’ village of Hagwilpate<: YP 7Ue nis Soe os See 586 
25. 1, Canyon in the Bulkley River showing the modern high-level bridge 
and the ruins of the old village of Hagwilgate below the cliff. 2, A 
Hortehrasertamilyroutsideitsnousese. ooo ae ee ee 586 
26. A Fort Fraser Indian wearing a cloth replica of the ancient costume, 
thatishows; nisiclanyerest onsthe back lee yas eee 586 
27. Scenes at a potlatch held by the Laksilyu phratry at Hagwilgate-_-_ 586 
28. Hagwilgate Carrier dramatizing his personal crest____-------------- 586 
29. 1, A Hagwilgate Indian’s tombstone, depicting his crest. 2, The four 
totem poles.at Hagwileates 272425) ee ee ee 2a ae 586 
30) VA) Carrier family ab, Alkatehos f.+.4ewaby 220 48. oe FU ee 586 
SoC arriereinlcdressingy aries is eee ee i aN eee 586 
oz. sHish traps in the canyon at ‘Hapwileates] ! ene 2 oe wees eee 586 
33. 1, Village of Fort Fraser, on Fraser Lake. 2, Grave of Bini at Hag- 
hia Fea 2 i} Ae lla CR MLN Ga Qk Ae ORE ta MMU RL A ART eS 586 
34. 1, Old Paul wearing his top hat and purple sash. 2, Hagwilgate Indian 
iment lm teastwimen 20) 2 a ek hh 586 
TEXT FIGURES 
(Drucker) 
1. Tribal distribution on the northern Northwest Coast___-------- oe 28 
Diedey Pes OM DA pOOn DATDS2s00- 22 2222S Se cee Se  ge e  ee 37 
Dieter POOR POMS. Ses = he Se a oe ee es ees ey See 38 
4. Compositemnarpoons.s 20 2. ee Ae a SNS 40 
5. Fixed bone (or horn) projectile points (class A)_._____------------- 40 
6. Fixed bone (or horn) projectile points (class B)__..___---_---------- 42 
7 Ground slate pointe vat steel) Wi sro5) afeeni ly nae tne ee dae t ty ee 43 
&. Nomenclature ‘ofsplittiny adzese J.) veels_ a dye bl Seu ee ee ess 44 
> Spolitingiadzest!ltie.0 Ps 2008 dy ee, fle bok) eerie ete aloe 45 
i Celt 0OMENClAbUTE oo oe eis iiss ss PE SE Fy Earn 46 
1 A FM ef SD RD RD cA es pa RN an ee ye 47 
i wevone mails, batted sot 2.0) on Te oe NEN to Ae 48 
[gevban gimaitls stones kiero Rin Cen be ek A pile ae Oy, Dal dk Te ns ee 49 
te Stone Dark sured der eee! i i oy oy oO tee | ey ee ae 51 
libtrislate blades 22 = 92 vests 0 eee ee le ay cl as 53 
16. Anianrisland middéene she = 222 22 oe 1 sl aa udp Fas eel gl EN ee 64 
172 Natim faceof Pit JA, Aman Island. 0. 24 6 a 65 
1RecPlan.(Charles (Pomp. eee eke | tle tie Se yee ek ee ee 68 
19. Profile of east face of trench 1, Charles Point______-_-------------- 69 
A0 Plan, Qalanaitik: oo foe eee ee eo se ke i a ee 74. 


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. Profile of east face of trench 1, house 9, Qalahaituk___-------------- 75 


61. 
62. 


CONTENTS 


PED USO ule nGya tulle leinmeers cay SL Le ea Pe eee 
PeIROSCOC Malet meu A = sey as ote te Se ee eee ee 
Pe OUSCyleprOsLOe huleten ie. een 2 Se! ne ee ek eS 
cy DRL R Tee RVGIS C018 2 WOT) 81), ARS Be kale ee ef ee RE ae OP Be ema wl RRL 
. Profile of east face of trench 1, drain, Roscoe Inlet 1________________ 
Sel raineprOntoe met, WAC. . St pros sus Se Nie Me 
2 EMESIS LEC TEV GME fo EE Ss Ao ree cnt ei RR SSE Bs 
. Profile of south face of trench 1, Kilkitei Village. ._______.________ 
. Profile of south face of trench 2, Kilkitei Village.__..._____________ 
MES CHOONET EU ASSAS Culm yeae Lime woe ala Sa ye EPONA eye ee Tea sy ae 


wEronic oneenooner Passage 1... 1.2.22 2-2- 225. 2ldsece | pau G3 
. Pit burials Nos. 3 and 4, Troup Rapids Cemetery__.______________- 
(Flannery) 
Pein Grmibe beaufort regiome sf. Khe. ee ew lly a 
mphexC nesperebicldisitens Oo tne. Paw ire aN ee pe ae 
(Gilbert) 


. The Cherokee settlements, 1762-1776 (map)________-_.-..__._____- 
. The Cherokee settlements, 1825-1830 (map)____-_-_________-______ 
. The Cherokee Indian Reservation, N. C., 1987 (map)___-_--_______- 
EP Dideram- of the spleres of tribal activity 0.2225 2422222222223 
. Western Cherokee Kinship: Male ego (after Morgan)______________ 
. Cherokee kinship consanguines: Male ego____.__-_______-___--___- 
. Cherokee kinship consanguines: Female ego______________________- 
Se Cherokeetsnshipratumipieses ss ee. oe ape ae ue ahs We ee 
. Eastern Cherokee kinship consanguines: Male ego (after Morgan) -____ 
. Eastern Cherokee kinship consanguines: Female ego (after Morgan) _ 
. Eastern Cherokee kinship affinities (after Morgan)____-_____________ 


Western Cherokee kinship consanguines: Male ego (after Morgan) ___ 


. Western Cherokee kinship consanguines: Female ego (after Morgan) _ 
. Western Cherokee kinship affinities (after Morgan)_________________ 
MmiatherspmMatrilimealiimes sts cee ea eae et 


. Balance of marriage exchanges between clans_____________________-_ 
. Seating in the Cherokee Council House (diagram) __________________ 


(Heizer) 


. Whaling methods in the North Pacific and Bering Sea (map) -----_-_- 
. Whaling scenes as represented by native artists____________________ 
. Whaling scenes according to native Eskimo artists___._____________ 
. South Alaskan lance-heads of ground slate________._______________-_ 
. Ordinary whale harpoon and poison harpoon with hinged barbs______ 


(Jenness) 


Subdivisions of the Carrier Indians, British Columbia (map)_-______ 
Diagrammatic plan of old Carrier village tse’kya, ‘‘Rock-foot,’”’ beside 
the Hagwilgate Canyon on the Bulkley River, British Columbia__- 


486 


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SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 
Bureau of American Ethnology 
Bulletin 133 


Anthropological Papers, No. 19 


A Search for Songs Among the Chitimacha Indians in Louisiana 


By FRANCES DENSMORE 


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CONTENTS 


PAGE 

CMe hitimmeCna tmiDeu. it et ah se Eee ey a bc tl fe esa 5 
LLL EE RE TIES) 05 Bet EE) Me May Sa eRe AN al 2 gh PS ie sty See lg Ae an Age BI 6 
Reminiscences by benjamin Pauli sss ile! ie kus Oe Se 8 
Concerning his grandmother, who was a medicine woman____-__-___~-- 8 
IRGsi nwt cube medicine Man oo. ole ee yee A ie i 2 haa 9 
Boretellineatheshighiwateninwdes2 222. 22 ee nee ee ee a eee 10 
ibheseustom. ah blessing thie seed) corn__ 22 --- 3-2 ee ease ee 10 
The medicine man who brought snow and ice__________-___-__-__- 10 
Beliefs concerning the wild canary and the woodpecker__-__---_-----.--- 11 
Megends relateduby, benjamin iPanliie. A745 Son Gh See 12 
Pbhevorieim Ofuhestiite sae tes ot es ee tea ee hee Sie ee 12 
Pie wue winevor sue direst piIroguele: 22 see 9 oe ee Se 12 
ihevoldvcauple than burned into bears! 22. 4- 2 2. Le 2 ee ee 13 
bas foldicouple thatwurned into deer: 4) o/ie. 2222 eel. pe 14 
Masee linen Usimohesis foe. ieee: i eins Si0n) we sees ody eB wiles Loser tee i geiee 14 
eae timer cipede yeah NUS sya alos) ge faa Lg Ler aes eek RN 15 

ILLUSTRATIONS 
PLATES 

1. 1, Bayou Teche. 2, Pirogue beside Bayou Teche__-__-_-------------- 16 
2. 1, Benjamin Paul. 2, Christine Paul, wife of Benjamin Paul-_-_------ 16 
3. 1, Benjamin Paul’s house. 2, Delphine Decloux’s house___---------- 16 
4. 1, Delphine Decloux. 2, Live oak in Delphine Decloux’s yard_-----_- 16 


A SEARCH FOR SONGS AMONG THE CHITIMACHA 
INDIANS IN LOUISIANA 


By FRANCES DENSMORE 


THE CHITIMACHA TRIBE 


Two derivations are suggested for the name of this tribe. Dr. 
J. R. Swanton states (in correspondence) that the name may be 
derived from sheti, their name for Grand River, and imasha, “it is 
theirs,” or “they possess,” transmitted through the Choctaw. Gats- 
chet attributes the origin of the term to Choctaw, chuti, “cooking 
pot,” and imasha, “they possess,” the name meaning “they have cook- 
ing vessels” (Handbook, 1907, pt. 1, p. 286). “At the present day 
they call themselves Pantc pinanka’nc, ‘men altogether red’” (Swan- 
ton, 1911, p. 337). 

Dr. Albert S. Gatschet says: 


The Chitimacha came into notice soon after the French settled Louisiana, 
through the murder by one of their men of the missionary St. Cosme on the 
Mississippi in 1706. This was followed by protracted war with the French, who 
compelled them to sue for peace, which was granted by Bienville on condition 
that the head of the murderer be brought to him; this done, peace was concluded. 
[Gatschet in Handbook, 1907, pt. 1, p. 286.] 


Swanton states: 


This peace was concluded late in 1718.... When we first get a clear view of 
the whole Chitimacha territory we find them divided into two sections, one living 
on the Mississippi or the upper part of Bayou La Fourche, the other on Bayou 
Teche and Grand Lake. It is possible, of course, that this second division was 
the result of a reflux from the Mississippi in later times, but the Chitimacha 
themselves maintain that they have lived there always. ... In 1784 we learn 
that there was a village of about 27 warriors on the La Fourche and two others 
on the Teche. One of the latter was under Fire Chief, .. . and was 10 leagues 
from the sea, while the other, under Red Shoes, was a league and a half higher 
up. ... The La Fourche band is probably the same that settled later at Plaque- 
mine and of which one girl is said [1907] * to be the sole survivor. The remnants 
of the Teche band are located at Charenton, where they are still to be found. 

This tribe was officially recognized by French and Spanish governors of Louisi- 
ana and its territorial integrity guaranteed. An act of June 19, 1767, signed by 
Gov. W. Aubry, recognizes the Chitimacha nation and orders the commandant at 


1 Swanton, John R., in correspondence. 


6 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Burn, 133 


Manchac to treat their chief with respect. Another act, under signature of Gov. 
Galvez, at New Orleans, September 14, 1777, commands the commandant and 
other subjects of the Spanish Government to respect the rights of these Indians 
in the lands they occupy and to protect them in the possession thereof. .. . 

The material culture of this tribe was similar in most respects to that of the 
Indians along the lower Mississippi. It was distinguished from them principally 
by the increased importance of food obtained from the waters and the decreased 
importance of food from land animals. If we may trust the early French writers, 
the Chitimacha and other coastal tribes were less warlike and more cowardly 
than the tribes higher up the Mississippi. 

Their houses were like those of their neighbors, i. e., they consisted mainly of 
palmetto leaves over a framework of poles, and like them, the houses of the 
chiefs were larger than those of the common people. According to Benjamin 
Paul, there was a smoke hole, which could be closed when the weather was bad, 
but, if this feature was ancient, it constituted a distinct advance on the Mississippi 
houses usually represented, which are generally without any opening other than 
the door. [Swanton, 1911, pp. 342-345. An extended consideration of the his- 
tory, mythology, and customs of the Chitimacha is presented in pp. 337-361, and 
pls. 22-31. A comparison of the language with that of certain other tribes is pre- 
sented in Swanton, 1919.] 


Gatschet states: 


In their aboriginal state the [Chitimacha] tribe supported themselves mainly 
by vegetable food; but they also ate the products of the hunt, which consisted of 
deer and other smaller animals. The women had to provide for the household 
by collecting pistaches, wild beans, a plant called kfipinu (kaéntak in Ché’hta), 
and another called woman’s potatoes, the seed of the pond-lily (a4kta), grains of 
the palmetto, the rhizoma of the common Sagittaria, and that of the Sagittaria 
with the large leaf, persimmons (plaquemine in Creole, ninu in Shetimasha), 
wild grapes, cane seed, and sficcfi [soco] (guspi in Shetimasha) [the muscadine]. 
They also planted, to some extent, maize, sweetpotatoes, and, after the arrival 
of the whites, wheat; or procured these articles by exchanging their home-made 
baskets for them. 

The fishing in the lakes and bayous was done by the women, men, and boys; not 
with nets, but only with hook and line. They fished at night just as often as 
during daytime. [Gatschet, 1883, p. 152.] 


The Chitimacha have intermarried with the Acadian French until 
small trace of Indian ancestry remains in their appearance. 
They take pride in the fact that they have never married among 
the Negroes. 

DETAILS OF FIELD WORK 


In January 1933 the writer visited the Chitimacha to ascertain 
whether any songs remained among them. This was part of a survey 
of Indian music in the Gulf States, made possible by a grant from 
the National Research Council, whose aid is gratefully acknowledged. 

About 50 Chitimacha live in or near Charenton, La., a village in 
St. Mary’s Parish about 17 miles from Franklin and a similar dis- 
tance from Baldwin. This is the region known as the Evangeline 
country and the Indians, as stated, have intermarried with the 
Acadian French. The village is located on Bayou Teche and is 


AnTHROP. Pap. No.19] CHITIMACHA INDIANS—DENSMORE 7 


picturesque with old live oak trees from which the moss hangs in 
long festoons (pl. 1). 

The study of the Chitimacha continued about a week, the writer 
and her sister, Margaret Densmore, staying in Franklin and going out 
to Charenton by automobile. 

On arriving at Charenton, an inquiry was made for the home of 
Benjamin Paul, recognized as chief of the Chitimacha.? His house 
(pl. 3, fig. 1) was not far from the center of the village and was of 
cypress, unpainted and weathered to a soft gray. A large yard was 
between the house and the road. The fence was unpainted, like the 
house, and the gate hung by Jeathern hinges. Benjamin Paul (pl. 2, 
fig. 1) was found sitting in a comfortable chair on the porch of his 
house with his hat on and his hands folded on top of his cane, looking 
toward the gate as though expecting visitors. He showed no surprise, 
and said that a little bird had told of our coming. He said the bird 
was “a kind of canary” and always foretold the approach of strangers. 
The bird had predicted our coming several weeks before and Paul 
had mentioned it to his wife, saying that someone was coming from 
the west to see him. His wife said that the previous day he told 
her that the bird had given its peculiar note again, facing toward 
the west. The bird always faced in the direction from which the 
strangers would come, and we approached from Texas, where the 
music of the Alabama had been studied. 

Benjamin Paul was about 64 years of age, gentle in manner and 
frail in health. His eyesight was almost gone. Other students have 
visited him, desiring to know more of the history and language of 
this interesting and disappearing tribe. He was said to be the only 
person surviving who could speak the language fluently. He pointed 
to a huge live oak tree beside his house and said that he had lived in 
the house since the tree was a sapling. Wild pecan and other trees 
were in the yard. Back of the house was the bayou, the ground 
sloping down to the water’s edge. The interior of the house was 
of wide cypress boards, beautiful in their grain and mellowed to 
a soft color. A fire was burning in the wide fireplace in the front 
room, and there our conversations were generally held. 

Benjamin Paul’s wife, Christine Paul (pl. 2, fig. 2), and his niece 
Delphine Decloux (pl. 4, fig. 1), assisted him in giving information.* 
Delphine lived on adjoining land and her house (pl. 3, fig. 2) resembled 
Paul’s, with a large live oak in the yard (pl. 4, fig. 2). Beyond Del- 
phine’s was the home of her brother Ernest Dardin, who had taken the 

2 Benjamin Paul was recognized unofficially as the chief of the remnant of the band, al- 
though Gatschet stated that the Chitimacha “have abandoned the tribal organization since 
the death of their chief, Alexander Dardin, in April 1879” (Gatschet, 1883, p. 149). 

3 Pauline Paul, of Charenton, La., stated in December 1940 that Benjamin, Paul died 


October 15, 1934 ; Delphine Decloux died January 27, 1940; and Christine Paul died June 19, 
1940. 


405260—43 


) 
a“ 


8 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Buut, 133 


responsibility of tribal affairs since the old chief had been in failing 
health. Ernest Dardin was deeply interested in the education of the 
children and a room in his house was fitted as a schoolroom. These 
three families were the nucleus of the band. They were nearest to 
the old customs yet they wanted the younger generation to progress 
in the white man’s way. Others, though known as Chitimacha, were 
more French than Indian and it was considered useless to question 
them. The basketry of the Chitimacha has been encouraged and 
made profitable through the interest of white friends in the vicinity, 
and the best basketmakers were in the little group of Benjamin 
Paul’s relatives. (Concerning the basketry of the Chitimacha, see 
Swanton, 1911, pp. 347, 348, and pls. 23-30.) 

Benjamin Paul remembered customs that pertained to music but 
said that he “never was a singer and did not learn the songs.” The 
women of his household were questioned, and they, too, did not know 
any of the old songs. Mrs. Dardin, a relative who was at Benjamin 


Paul’s house during the inquiry, recalled that her grandmother used 
to sing to the children but they “just laughed at her.” Thus, the old 


songs of the Chitimacha have disappeared forever. This is the first 
locality visited by the writer in which this condition has been found. 
(The research has continued from 1907 to the present time.) From 
the information given by Paul, however, it was possible to reconstruct 
some of the musical customs of the Chitimacha which were similar 
to the customs in other tribes. He related legends and indicated the 
points at which songs were formerly sung. 


REMINISCENSES BY BENJAMIN PAUL 


CONCERNING HIS GRANDMOTHER, WHO WAS A MEDICINE WOMAN 


The paternal grandmother of Benjamin Paul was a medicine 
woman and skilled in the use of herbal remedies. She wanted to 
transfer this knowledge to him but died before he was old enough 
to receive it. As a child he sometimes went with her when she 
gathered herbs but was not allowed to watch her. It is a custom 
of medicine men or women to sing when gathering their herbs and 
he could hear her singing softly at her work. (Concerning this 
custom among the Menominee, see Densmore, 1932, p. 119.) 


Swanton, in his extended consideration of the Chitimacha states: 


Medicines were owned by certain individuals reputed to be skillful in the cure 
of this, that, or the other ailment—being native specialists, in other words. These 
might be men or women, and it is said to have been customary for them to keep 
their methods of treatment a profound secret until they were ready to die or give 
up practice, when they confided them to whoever was to succeed them. Thus 
Benjamin Paul’s grandmother was a snake doctor, and claimed to cure snake 
bites of all kinds. She had communicated to Benjamin Paul her manner of treat- 


ANTHROP. Par. No.19] CHITIMACHA INDIANS—DENSMORE 9 


ing rattlesnake bites, but he did not feel at liberty to reveal it. All knowledge of 
her other remedies had died with her. She also had a reputation in cases of 
blindness, and was reputed to have cured patients given up by white physicians. 
[Swanton, 1911, p. 351.] 

Benjamin Paul said that on one occasion he went with his grand- 
mother to get a certain root for a very sick person.* This root was 
used only as a last resort, and in order to be effective it must be pulled 
from the ground, not dug, and it must not be broken. The medicinal 
part of the root grows horizontally from the main root and is about 
14 inches long. His grandmother pulled the root and it broke so 
suddenly that she fell on her back. Weeping she said, “There is no 
hope.” Paul said, “Let me dig it,” and she replied, “It is no use. 
The root broke.” Paul begged to be allowed to try, so she let him 
take her knife and he dug some of the root. His grandmother 
treated the patient with this root and he began to improve. Thus 
encouraged, she gathered more of the root and the patient recovered. 


POSTIYU, THE MEDICINE MAN 


One of the last medicine men among the Chitimacha was Postiyu, 
who lived in the Indian village at Plaquemine Bayou. Benjamin 
Paul was about 10 years old when Postiyu used to come to his father’s 
house to visit. Sometimes he stayed around the village for 6 weeks. 
The people gave him food, and sometimes he prepared his own food, 
parching corn in the ashes and pounding it in a mortar until he had 
fine meal for his sofki. All the children liked him and ran to him. 
He told them stories and they would do anything for him. The 
parents said, “Get him anything he wants.” Postiyu had a drum 
and used to sing war songs, corn harvest songs, and all sorts of 
songs, but the people only laughed at his singing. Paul remembered 
this distinctly. 

Only one form of Postiyu’s magic is remembered. Paul said that 
Postiyu could make any horse win or lose a race. If he was bribed 
with whisky when a race was in progress, he would do anything. 
For that reason many men would not enter their horses in a race if 
he was around. His method of making a horse win a race was not 
described but he often made horses lose by the following procedure: 
He strewed crumbs of dry wood, like hackberry wood, across the 
track. The horse saw the fragments of wood and mistook them for 
a log that he must jump over, so he lost time and lost the race. 

Postiyu had a nephew and he used to tell the boy to do this or 
that. One day the boy refused, saying “That’s a humbug.” So 
Postiyu took his nephew over to the bayou and said, “Take a good 
gun for I am going to send you to get a bear.” Together they crossed 


‘Narratives by Benjamin Paul are presented as nearly as possible in his own words, 
except for changes from the first to the third person. 


10 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Buuy, 138 


the bayou. Postiyu made a rotten hackberry tree look like a bear 
and the boy was so frightened that he climbed a tree. Then Postiyu 
shot the rotten tree with his old rifle and said to the boy, “You see 
that you can’t kill even a rotten tree. What would you do if a real 
bear came along?” 


FORETELLING THE HIGH WATER IN 1882 


At the age of about 18, Benjamin Paul went into the woods and 
cooked for a logging camp. The men were getting logs ready to 
“float.” One day he saw some ants working in the trunk of a tree 
about 10 feet above the water. A bug came out of the bog and went 
up as high as the ants. At noon Paul showed this to his uncle, 
saying, “Hurry and fix a way to take out the timber for we will have 
high water.” His uncle said, “How can that be? The paper did 
not say we would have high water.” Paul said, “The water will be 
so high,” indicating the height of the ants in the tree. “How do you 
know?” asked his uncle, and Paul replied, “I saw the sign in Red 
River.” The water rose so high that it came into his house, high 
on the bank of Bayou Teche. This was the earliest high water 
remembered in the region, and there was no high water again until 
1927. Paul still lives in the house, which shows the mark of the high 
water on both the outer and inner walls. The mark inside the house 
is about level with the windowsill. 


THE CUSTOM OF BLESSING THE SEED CORN 


In old times each family kept its own seed corn, which was 
“blessed” by the chief before being planted. Alex Dardin was the 
jast chief who followed this custom and he died the year that Ben- 
jamin Paul was born, but the old people showed Paul the motion of 
the “blessing” and the dance connected with it. The chief also 
blessed the harvest before any of the grain was eaten. The same 
custom was observed with the first fish or game of the year. A boy 
was not allowed to taste the first fish or game he secured until it had 
been “blessed.” 


THE MEDICINE MAN WHO BROUGHT SNOW AND ICE 


A Chitimacha medicine man, long ago, knew how to “make magic” 
and destroy the crops in the fields. The “beard” of the wild turkey 
was used in this magic which brought snow and ice. The turkey, 
like the eagle, was believed to have magic power and neither bird 
was killed by the Chitimacha. Benjamin Paul related an instance 
of this man’s power. After the white people came among the In- 
dians they had a fine crop. The medicine man said, “I will freeze the 


AnTHROP. Pap, No.19] CHITIMACHA INDIANS—DENSMORE 11 


white people’s crop.” The white missionary said, “No; that will 
make it hard for everybody.” 

The medicine man took the beard of a wild. turkey, “did something 
with it,” and next day the crops were frozen. This happened in 
June. The missionary went to that medicine man and said, “See; 
everybody is having a bad time.” The medicine man replied, “Well, 
I have done it now.” 

The conditions were so bad that the white people had to send to the 
“old country” for food, and help the Indians. Paul added, “So the old 
Indians did not teach those tricks to the half-breeds.” 


BELIEFS CONCERNING THE WILD CANARY AND THE 
WOODPECKER 


Benjamin Paul said, “Those who know our language can under- 
stand what the birds say. They are very tame.” He understands 
the notes of two birds and “talks with them.” One is “a kind of 
wild canary”® that foretold the arrival of the writer. (See p. 7.) 
The other is a large woodpecker that foretells rain or approaching 
danger, especially danger from a snake. At such times its warning 
note is “chuee’, chuee’.” Before a rain this bird often makes a sound 
like “kering’ kering’.” This sounds like pounding on a board. Long 
ago the woodpecker used to make its nest in the houses and the chil- 
dren were forbidden to touch the nests. When the bird made its 
sound “kering’, kering’,” the old people said, “The bird is building 
a house.” Another of its notes is like pulling out a nail, and as a 
sign of good luck or approval it says, “keee’ suya.” 

The chief function of the woodpecker is to warn of rain. In ex- 
planation it was said that the big woodpecker “would not go into 
the barge, or houseboat, at the time of the flood.” He stayed up in 
the sky and his feet became very cold. As a result, his feet ache in 
cold, wet weather. When rain is coming he gives a call like “kwi- 
kéke’.” “If you are on the water and hear this call you had better 
land and camp for there will be rain the next day.” 

As an example of a warning by the woodpecker, Paul said that 
once he went with his aunt and grandmother to gather berries. After 
picking some they saw a tempting berry on the top of a high bush. 
The woodpecker warned Paul of danger. His aunt approached from 


5 “A small yellow bird, called tcintc, said to be the wild canary, was able to talk with 
human beings and foretell the weather. Another bird able to converse with men is a bird 
called ki’nsnu, which appears as cold weather approaches. [Paul stated further that] 
“While the flood prevailed the redheaded woodpecker (cuc-ka’kénism6n) hooked his claws 
into the sky and hung there.’ The water rose so high that his tail was partly submerged 
and sediment deposited upon it by the disturbed waters marked it off sharply from the rest 
of the body as it is today. After the sea had subsided considerably this bird was sent to 
find land, but after a long search he came back empty-handed. Then the dove was sent and 
returned with a single grain of sand”’ (Swanton, 1911, pp. 354, 357-358). 


12 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bunn 133 


the other side and he told her of the bird’s warning but she said, 
“Ha! You and your bird!” As she touched the berry, a snake bit 
her. The grandmother came but was so frightened that she could not 
see the herb toapply. This is a plant with a white root that resembles 
the rattles of a snake. Although Paul was young, he knew this herb 
and said, “Here it is.” He took the fresh plant down to a lake, 
crushed and moistened it, and put it in his handkerchief. He took 
it to his grandmother who applied it to the snake bite, covering it with 
s bandage. This was in the nature of first aid. A white doctor was 
consulted and said the treatment could not be improved. Then the 
woman was treated by an Indian doctor and completely recovered. 


LEGENDS RELATED BY BENJAMIN PAUL 
THE ORIGIN OF THE FLUTE 


A boy sat wishing that he could make music on a piece of cane, 
when the supreme deity * came by, disguised as a traveler. The boy 
gave deer meat to the deity, who showed him how to make a flute of 
cane and burn the holes with sharp pieces of hot wood. The flute had 
four holes on top and one underneath. Later he came by again and 
the boy had made the flute but did not know how to play on it. The 
deity showed him how to make music on it. 

Concerning the musical instruments of the Chitimacha, Swanton 
writes as follows: 

For musical instruments they used a horn made of cane or reed, a drum, and an 
alligator skin. The drum was made in ancient times by stretching a deerskin 
over the top of a large clay pot, but later the end of a hollow log took the place 
of the pot. Alligator skins were prepared by first exposing the [dead] alligator 
to ants until all of the softer parts had been eaten out and then drying the skin. 
Musie was made by scratching this with a stick. [Swanton, 1911, p. 350.] 


THE MAKING OF THE FIRST PIROGUE 


The canoe used by the Chitimacha was a dugout, commonly called 
a pirogue. It is said that the knowledge of how to make the pirogue 
was given to the Chitimacha by their supreme deity (designated as 
God by the informant), who took six Indians into the woods and 
showed them how to fell a cypress tree by burning the trunk. After 
the tree had fallen he showed them how to secure a section of the 
right length by lighting fires under the log, and how to shape the 


®A connection between the appearance of a plant and its power or medicinal use was 
noted among the Chippewa. “A class of plants highly valued as medicines are those having 
a divided tap root supposed to resemble the legs of a man”’ (Densmore, 1928, p. 325). 

7 Chitimacha equivalents: The supreme deity, ku’tnahin; the supreme deity when dis- 
guised as a traveler, ohcuma’ ; cane of which a flute was made, piiya’; a flute, or the sound 
of a flute or any wind instrument, ha’hpkopig’ ; singing or any music except that of a flute, 
te’kashonkent. 


ANnTHROP, Pap. No.19] CHITIMACHA INDIANS—DENSMORE 13 


- bottom and ends of the canoe by burning the surface of the log and 
scraping off the charred wood with a clam shell. A fire was made on 
top of the log for its entire length in order to make the inside of the 
canoe, the wood being charred and scraped so the opening would be 
the right depth and width. A mold of mud was laid along the upper 
edge of the partly finished canoe so the burning would not go too 
far down on the side, and the upper edge of the opening was made 
smooth by careful scraping. The supreme deity showed them how 
to do all this, so the pirogue “would be useful to the Indians in going 
from place to place.” It was propelled by a paddle, like that used in 
other tribes. 

The pirogue was commonly used by the Chitimacha in 1938, 
one being seen and photographed on Bayou Teche, back of Delphine 
Decloux’ house. Her son demonstrated its use by paddling it up 
and down the bayou. This pirogue (pl. 1, fig. 2) was 14 feet long and 
about 18 inches wide in the middle, this being the usual size for two 
people. It was pointed at both ends and sharper at the stern, with 
a little keel. Larger pirogues would hold 8 or 10 persons. 


THE OLD COUPLE THAT TURNED INTO BEARS 


Long ago an old couple raised two nephews. When the boys 
could talk they called the old people their grandparents. One day 
the old woman said that she was going into the woods to get some 
firewood, and she went away. The children were about half grown 
at that time. 

Late that evening the boys went to look for their grandmother 
and instead they saw a bear. ,The younger boy said, “That is not a 
bear. That is grandmother.” He wanted to go to her but the older 
boy said, “No, let her alone.” The children went home and said to 
the old man, “We saw grandmother but she was hairy. The face 
and ears were grandmother’s but her body was hairy.” 

Soon afterwood the old man went for wood. Next morning the 
children went for wood and saw a bear that ran from them. 

Later the old woman came back, and again she went for wood. 
The children sought her a second time and saw only a bear. Both 
children cried, and the older boy began to sing a song so they would 
forget the change in their grandmother. It was said that each song 
occurring in the stories had a different melody, though none was 
remembered. 

Three times the grandparents went away, returned and found that 
the children had been all right without them. Then they went away 
a fourth time and never came back. They did this so the children 
would become self-reliant and able to make their own living. 


14 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL, 133 


Benjamin Paul said that a family called He’kaaton cannot eat bear 
meat because their ancestors turned into bears, and Swanton 
(1911, p. 854) states that some of the old-time Indians “would not 
eat bear meat because they thought the bear was related to human 
beings.” Swanton also states (in correspondence) that hé’kx-atxkon 
was a name for the medicine man or shaman.” Two names were ap- 
plied to these men, as it is said that: 

Duties connected with the supernatural were performed by a class of priests 
or shamans called katemi’c in the language of the common people, but 
hé’k:x-atxkon by the nobility. There was at least one in every village, each of 
whom was accompanied by an apprentice who took his place when he died. A 
very famous hé’kx-atxk06n lived at Graine 4 Volée cove, but after his death the 
institution was abandoned. [Swanton, 1911, pp. 351, 352.] 


THE OLD COUPLE THAT TURNED INTO DEER 


An old couple lived in the woods, as in the preceding story, and the 
old woman went away every evening. Once she did not come back 
and the man said, “What has become of my wife?” It was too late 
for him to search for her that night so he waited until morning. 
Then he saw something in the woods and said, “That looks like my 
wife. The nose and ears are hers.” But when she saw that he 
recognized her, she ran away. The man sang a sad song with the 
words, “My wife went away like a deer.” (Here occurred a song.) 

The next spring he did as his wife had done, going into the woods 
and changing into a deer. Then the oldest daughter sang a sad song 
which no one remembers at the present day. 

A few months afterward the old couple returned and they were 
hairy, like deer. One of the children asked, “How did this happen 2?” 
They replied, “We had to have deer hair on our bodies.” The oldest 
daughter said, “That is queer.” Then she sang a sad song which, 
like the others, is now forgotten. Each of these songs has its own 
words and melody. 

When the old couple went back into the woods they never returned. 
Their descendants cannot eat the meat of the deer. 


MISCELLANEOUS NOTES 


If a man kills a snake “a big snake will fight him all night.” Such 
a man cannot treat those who have been bitten by snakes. 

If an infant holds its hands to the fire to warm them, it is a sign of 
cold weather. 

If you had a watermelon patch, an Indian would imitate a crippled 
dog and go into the melon patch. You would see the motion among 
the vines and say, “What is that dog doing in my yard?” In this way 
the Indian would locate the best melons in the daytime, then he would 
hide in the vines and carry away the melons at night. 


ANTHROP. Pap. No.19] CHITIMACHA INDIANS—DENSMORE 15 


LITERATURE CITED 


DENSMORE, FRANCES. 
1928. Uses of plants by the Chippewa Indians. 44th Ann. Rep. Bur. Amer. 
Ethnol., 1926-27, pp. 275-397. 
1932. Menominee music. Bur. Amer. Ethnol. Bull. 102. 
GATSCHET, ALBERT S. 
1882-83. The Shetimasha Indians of St. Mary’s Parish, Southern Louisiana. 
Trans. Anthrop. Soc., vol. 2. (Paper read before the 70th regular 
meeting of the Anthropological Society of Washington, May 1, 
1883.) 
HANDBOOK OF AMERICAN INDIANS NORTH OF MEXICO. 
1907-10. Bur. Amer. Ethnol. Bull. 30, pt. 1, 1907; pt. 2, 1910. Frederick 
Webb Hodge, ed. 
SWANTON, JOHN R. 
1911. Indian Tribes of the Lower Mississippi Valley and adjacent coast of 
the Gulf of Mexico. Bur. Amer. Ethnol. Bull. 48. 
1919. A structural and lexical comparison of the Tunica, Chitimacha, and 
Atakapa languages. Bur. Amer. Ethnol. Bull. 68. 


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BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BUEEERIN 133) PEAIE 1 


l- BAYOU TECHE: 


2. PIROGUE BESIDE BAYOU TECHE. 


“1NWd NINVENAG AO 34IM “1NVd ANILSIYHD *Z “TNWd NINVENAg *1 


Satvid se) NELARAINS ASOTIONHLA NYOIMAWY AO NVaeNa 


BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULEEE TRING Sse PEeARE, 3 


+ 


1. BENJAMIN PAUL’S HOUSE. 


5) 


2. DELPHINE DECLOUX’S HOUSE. 


BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 133 PLATE 4 


i. BEEPHINE, DECLOUX: 


2. LIVE OAK IN DELPHINE DECLOUX'S YARD. 


SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 
Bureau of American Ethnology 
Bulletin 133 


Anthropological Papers, No. 20 


Archeological Survey on the Northern Northwest Coast 
By PHILIP DRUCKER 


With Appendix 


Early Vertebrate Fauna of the British Columbia Coast 
By EDNA M. FISHER 


17 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 
Acknowledgments. -.-._---------- MBLs te Pee 2 yey es eh Mee EM EG Uk Aha, eye Byte ety Mesto et 21 
Hin brOGUCtIOME a tas wie Mee ee ee SE a ew Bie eS eet es leak Sat paee 23 
sheshistoric period == 22 2 .= — eh oe ee ee ak a el oe em eh et 25 
Tribal distributions on the northern British Columbia coasts _ - - ~~ -- 28 
eneland and she people= 222) Bemei see NV Pascoe cee ek se 28 
Artifacts fromither Northwest, Coastescs eee a ee se oe ye 34 
SSSR VV ra Soo capes Sa FE A es eee. SEL eae 62 
Coast Tsimshian sites: Prince Rupert district_-____.__-___-______-- 63 
PAINT Ura ee S12 7) Cee oere se allan bl eA DIA Ne et olcale) Seas NUE ae mie RSA Et ohne ee 63 
(ar ESM Ora Geek ee eater aan) a die reed CN Me MAR 67 
Other sitessinithe) brincesupertidistricte. 2 ses es eee ee 71 
Sobihenme@o as ties iran slot eh rye eee ae aah a aed teh eee ene Ae 73 
Cap ope rs Ul Keene 0s tee) Oe) Mer seayc athe Sees ahs oh wll Ame ve TE AS eee 73 
OtherisoutherniCoasteEsimshianisitess- "22-4 e 2-2) ee ee Ee 80 
Heltsuk: (Northern kMwakiutl)vsites 22 2222.2) 29) .'= ou Ce 80 
Khutze Anchorage- ----- Su ken Ml Poh eet 8 la hey yin eee Pao faye 81 
ROS COeMEATetabraTIG deel ah ale Que tee th Nee DN ed Se vo es 81 
Artiiaets from ioscoesniet (LAM 2 bes. ae Oe Bi ee 90 
TEGH US TPE NAIUE {cet Bel sey aan Ane ae D NMBA, Mies aie i pads 5 elie cide sea 92 
Kynumpt Harbors 2535.52 Syn aati pat id ah ey dM Ne Minin dda 98 
SchagHer Passage) bers is § ny oy fe sa ets Aaa Siew wt, apt elles 98 
SlLes LOCApEa ANG TEpOrveG mak aus eae a ele ore rene wee 104 
SOUpRermey aA Kilt Perri tory ss see ere WEE AE Se ei ek Ae eee 106 
WG HCW ATVACHISTOMS Shots s Sine ew stl ste et Ae Tn ee eS 107 
Oihenarcheolowic renege cs se men te oe Se ANE ee Ri eR 109 
Results Of theslOSS SUnVey Mu tet na emia ed see Uae OIE Aes 110 
Niaterialssrecovereduine laser ess foe aetna 2m ky eM eoe ereeee 111 
PC CTOLC HEELERS Aue om a Lat me sie me SM OU ten Nemes SIME Musee ghee Ty ate i118} 
ETE VAGUS VESUIo A IONE Site lit. ise Tate nae 8 a) chet Oe alla DENT) Soe ey 2 Nn 115 
Distributions of elements on the northern Northwest Coast-_------------ 123 
PAGANO ErTIRAS eC tam mann snes Net Ulne hee reat ne EN eae er ra 125 
The Milbanke-Queen Charlotte Sound aspect_______-_------------ 125 
The Straits of Georgia-Puget Sound aspect_--______-------------- 126 
Culturerof the! Wraser-Columbia Basins2)oyo20 22 92 bo reel Nami 127 
LTE BVT G LESTE OUNS tan A, ge gel ey SLs hs MP kl ig a Oe fe pe 129 
Appendix A. Early vertebrate fauna of the British Columbia coast, by 
TDs tak. WW (TOTES cS) gy ee be IR alg yt A te Me ape a isha aN ae ae RANE Ld aac 133 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


PLATES 
Sy leumshbian sites... oo = Ue ee EE ee ee 132 
Guticwakiutlsitess2= 22 fis sou. Se a ee ee 132 
7s SELOUBE TEMOINS 2 25 2 4 4s a eee ea a BG ee ln ee 132 
8: Burials. 2 52 ie oe Rd a tS Sea gs Si a 132 
0... Miscellancous Views = 220% 3.4 42co ee sos eee 132 
TEXT FIGURES 
1. Tribal distribution on the northern Northwest Coast__--____-.--__- 28 
2: iy pes of harpoon barbs.2suec0 hoc ee eo eR et te ee 37 
S. arpoon points. 2-228 2 ei ee ee ee 38 
A. Composite harpoons =: =... 2s Sous Nios ee oe ee 40 
5. Fixed bone (or horn) projectile points (class A)_-__-___-____._____- 40 
6. Fixed bone (or horn) projectile points (class B)_-__-----.--------_-- 42 
7) Ground slate: pomtse. 20. ook ooh ek ae wes Be ee 43 
8. Nomenclature of splitting adzess2. = = ee Ses a eee 44 
OF Splitting adzes= 2 22 ae =. Dee es lek ee oe a er fi 45 
10:4 Celtinomenclatures: 22 205. 22s he ee eee oe 46 
Bi i@eltse =< Gee sess Se a Oe ee ed 2 ee 9 ee A 47 
2 Stone mais; \hafted. oe <2 22 3 es ee ee 48 
Eo-vblandsmauls, stones] 1. 2. So. 22) a koa tS Shes 2k ed 49 
MmStone barkishredder 2.2.8 09 5. 205. Uae le td eee er 51 
te SlaterDIAdeS 2 hs) feast cc eee ee we te oe oe ee es 53 
16. Anian Island midden_----- AU pee LIC ae ge ae  ea ek 64 
Ne. North face-of pit A; Anian Island: 2 -.'. 2224-5522. 24 Be 65 
is. Jetan. heres) Pots 12 i. Us 2h ee Se he ay ee 68 
19. Profile of east face of trench 1, Charles Pomt- =~... 24... 34.5508 69 
20. ela, Oalahartuke: 2 es os oe ls 74 
21. Profile of east face of trench 1, house 9, Qalahaituk_-___-_------------ 75 
22) SELOUSe il OLA ATK ee Wee Ek el oo a ee rvs 
aan avoseoe Inlet, Vi andar fo he 8 Oe SL pis 2 82 
24 House 1, Roscoe Inlet; fo eee the ee eee Bie 83 
25 Plan, Roscoe Mmilet VAs 2.222 22 tg te 85 
26. Profile of east face of trench 1, drain, Roscoe Inlet 1____-----_----- 87 
2 Drain; Roscoe Imlet WA. 2b = aa es ee 88 
28: Plan, whokiter, Villager." 2G. 0). 03 es ee ee 2 93 
29. Profile of south face of trench 1, Kilkitei Village_-_------_-.-------- 94 
30. Profile of south face of trench 2, Kilkitei Village___-_______-_------ 95 
aie Schooner Passage w= 1228 set a Se ee ee 99 
32. Profile of Schooner Passage 2) o2 os) a eee ee 101 
33. Pit burials Nos. 3 and 4, Troup Rapids Cemetery------------------ 108 


20 


ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 


In making this study I became indebted to a number of individuals 
and institutions for kindnesses which greatly facilitated my work. To 
all I wish to express my thanks. Spatial limitations preclude men- 
tioning all these friends, but particular thanks are due to the National 
Research Council, whose grant made the study possible; to Dr. 
William Duncan Strong, of Columbia University, whose invaluable 
advice and criticism guided the research; and to the following museum 
officers, through whose courtesy collections were made available for 
study: Dr. Clark Wissler and Mr. N. C. Nelson, of the American 
Museum of Natural History; Dr. Paul Martin, of the Field Museum 
of Natural History; Dr. Diamond Jenness, of the National Museum 
of Canada; Mr. Donald Scott, of the Peabody Museum of American 
Archaeology and Ethnology (Cambridge) ; the staff of the Prince 
Rupert City Museum; Mr. F. Kermode, of the Provincial Museum 
of British Columbia; Mr. Frank Setzler, of the United States 
National Museum; and Mr. T. P. O. Menzies, of the Vancouver 
(British Columbia) City Museum. To Maj. D. M. MacKay, Com- 
missioner of Indian Affairs for British Columbia, I am indebted for 
courteous cooperation, and for permission to visit Indian Reserves 
under his jurisdiction. Mr. W. A. Newcombe, of Victoria, again gave 
me the benefit of his knowledge of Northwest Coast ethnography, 
which is surpassed by none. To Mr. and Mrs. Wearmouth, of 
Prince Rupert; Mr. and Mrs. J. A. Findlay, of Hartley Bay; and 
Dr. G. E. Darby and staff, of the R. W. Large Memorial Hospital at 
Bella Bella, thanks are owing for generous hospitality which made 
the field research so pleasant. 


21 


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aU, oi: julien ybists silt obecn jcmy ide eave 
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sivas BRE ROD (Ot Oh Pok har itigiinctony baht EE ne 
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fe Lee’ asl rag phowmed. : TAA virtueaie y 
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ARCHEOLOGICAL SURVEY ON THE NORTHERN 
NORTHWEST COAST? 


By PHILIP DRUCKER 


INTRODUCTION 


This paper has a twofold aim, first to present the results of an 
archeological survey in the northern British Columbia coast in 1938, 
and second to attempt to integrate the various materials, published 
accounts, and museum collections, relating to Northwest Coast 
archeology. The Northwest Coast, so well studied by ethnographers 
and linguists, has been grievously neglected as a field for archeological 
research, despite the fact that numerous features of custom and myth 
point to strong relationships with Eskimo cultures on the one hand 
and those of northeast Asia on the other, and raise intriguing prob- 
lems of historical development. The reasons for this neglect stem 
from the belief that the coastal sites are small and few, that they are 
poor in artifactual material, and that much of what material they con- 
tain is so poorly preserved owing to climatic conditions as to be 
irrecoverable. Actually, along the entire coast, sites, consisting of 
middens of occupational debris on which the villages stood, are both 
numerous and large. Their artifact content is not high, compared, 
for example, to that of Eskimo sites, and the lack of pottery 
is a handicap to survey and stratigraphic testing, but the fact 
remains that they do contain a moderate per-yard quantity of 
artifacts, and that objects of bone and horn, and even pieces of 
wood, are well preserved even in the deepest of the _ per- 
petually damp levels. Human skeletal material, too, can be 
recovered. Archeological research in the area is not only desirable 
but entirely practicable. It is hoped that this summary of available 
data, incomplete as it must necessarily be, will stimulate further 
investigations on the Northwest Coast and thus lead to an under- 
standing of the historical processes involved in the development of 


1 The research on which this study is based was made possible by a fellowishp from the 
National Research Council. Typing and drafting for this paper was done by personnel 
of Works Projects Administration Official Project No. 65—08—3-—30, Unit A—15. 


405260—43——3 23 


24 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bubt, 133 


the complex, and in many respects unique, civilization found by the 
first European explorers to touch on these shores. 

It may be well to make clear that the present work deals primarily 
with the northern portions of the Northwest Coast culture area, which 
in its entirety extended from Yakutat Bay in Alaska to the vicinity of 
Mad River in northern California. Some data from the lower Colum- 
bia River are drawn on for comparative purposes. This is a some- 
what arbitrary division, although ethnographic data indicate that this 
northern section was a unit distinguishable at a considerable series of 
points from the southern province or subarea composed of the Oregon 
and northern Californian coasts. So little is known of this southern 
province archeologically, however, that it is next to impossible to deal 
with it in conjunction with the distant northern regions.? It is highly 
desirable that investigations be made throughout the Oregon-Cali- 
fornia coast, to establish the relationships of the cultures of this dis- 
trict with the northern ones on the one hand, and those of central 
California on the other. 

The survey here described was made during the fall of 1938. Accom- 
panied by R. K. Beardsley, an undergraduate anthropology stu- 
det of the University of California, I located and tested a series of 
midden sites from Prince Rupert to Rivers Inlet (Coast Tsimshian and 
Northern Kwakiutl territories) and located a number in Southern 
Kwakiutl territory. The aim of the survey was to apply the direct 
historical approach to the regional archeology, testing sites which on 
historic or other evidence were known to have been inhabited during 
historic times, to define if possible the historic and protohistoric hori- 
zons, and to set the stage for linking them with, or distinguishing 
them from, the prehistoric cultures of the area. It was found that the 
coast sites lend themselves exceptionally well to this method, for 
because of their considerable size many of them reveal a series of 
levels underlying the historic ones (identifiable through the occur- 
rence of contact goods of various sorts) which by reason of their depth 
must have been laid down in prehistoric times. Conditions are thus 
extremely favorable for checking possibilities of culture stratigraphy 
or change. 

It is only fair to state that in the light of the ethnographically deter- 
minable diversity of the coastal cultures, and evidence of populational 
changes (Smith, 19038, p. 190), I feel that the probabilities are quite 
high that culture change should be manifested in these archeological 
deposits. While definitive evidence of such change was not found, sug- 
gestions of it were noted, as will be brought out in a subsequent 
section. The failure to get conclusive evidence pro or con stratigraphy 


2 Such investigations as have been made (see Schumacher, 1877; Loud, 1918, Cressman, 
1933) have been at the southern end of the province. 


AnTHRoP. Pap. No. 20] NORTHERN NW. COAST ARCHEOLOGY——DRUCKER 25 


is attributable to the relatively small sampling it was possible to get 
with a small party on a program that entailed covering a large region. 
Nonetheless, I am thoroughly convinced that the results obtained 
justify themselves by proving the possibility of archeological research 
in the area. More important still, they form a nucleus of carefully col- 
lected data around which more intensive operations may be built, and 
with which the scattered, illy documented, but surprisingly numerous 
lots of specimens in museum collections can be coordinated and evalu- 
ated. Typologies based on the museum materials as well as those col- 
lected on the 1988 survey, and distributions of some of the more com- 
mon types, have, therefore, been included in this paper with the aim 
of making these materials more easily available to future investiga- 
tors in Northwest Coast prehistory. 


THE HISTORIC PERIOD 


An attempt to apply the direct historical approach to a new archeo- 
logical field ordinarily must be based on the records of the period of 
early European contacts, utilizing them to determine tribal distribu- 
tions and to identify sites. For the Northwest Coast, however, his- 
toric records are less essential, though of unquestionable value as a 
check and guide, because of the fact that the native cultures there per- 
sisted little modified much longer than in many other parts of the 
New World. The nature and effects of European contacts on the 
Northwest Coast differed markedly from those in other areas. The 
chief difference rests in the fact that there have been no major popula- 
tional movements, voluntary or enforced, since earliest historic times. 
Even despite the steady numerical decrease of population, and the 
tendency for survivors of decimated groups to assemble in central or 
stronger villages, the sites of early historic times (and many of them 
go well back into the prehistoric period) are not only still known and 
occasionally utilized, but are also considered the property of the 
rightful heirs of the past occupants. Most of these sites in British 
Columbia have been set aside by the Canadian Government as Indian 
Reserves. Consequently, the identification of historic horizons with 
ethnically known groups does not constitute anywhere near as difficult 
a problem as in the Plains or the Southeast. Any tolerably well- 
informed modern native can tell to what ethnic group, and what 
division within the group, a given site belongs; indeed, he can ordi- 
narily point out a number of the older people who were born there. 

The first important date in Northwest Coast history is that of 
Cook’s voyage in 1778. Bering and Chirikoff had made landfall on 
the southeast Alaskan Coast in 1741. In 1774 Perez, and Heceta 
in 1775, had sailed up from the south and put in at a few places, but 
the cultural effects of these early voyages could have been only 


26 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BuLL. 133 


infinitisimal. Even Cook’s visit was indirectly rather than directly 
influential on native life, for it was the sale in Canton of the sea- 
otter furs his men bought at Nootka Sound that drew the fleets of 
adventurers to the coast—Hanna in 1785, Dixon, Portlock, Meares, 
and the rest in 1786, and after them a veritable multitude. In the 
course of a few years, the seafaring traders had pretty thoroughly 
combed the coast from the mouth of the Columbia to Prince William 
Sound. Real exploration culminated in the painstaking surveys of 
Vancouver, 1792-95. The sailing trade continued for some years, 
until the golden harvest of sea-otter pelts was exhausted. 1835 may 
be set as the final date of this first contact era on the coast.* 

So far as native life is concerned, the sailing trade era affected 
it but little. True, the people acquired quantities of new material 
objects—knives, copper kettles, guns, red silk parasols, and the 
like—and the hunting of fur-bearers undoubtedly came to have a 
greater importance than formerly, but the ancient patterns of life 
prevailed with little change. The fact is that these first contacts 
were of an ephemeral sort. A ship would anchor off a native village, 
waiting until the people came out with their furs. Often the traders 
did not go ashore at all; at most they spent but a few days in the 
vicinity, making sail for another village as soon as it appeared 
there were no more pelts to be bought. Relations were not always 
pleasant, of course. The traders were a hard-bitten lot, and some 
did not scruple to take by force or strategem furs they thought were 
priced too dear. On the whole, however, the numbers and warlike 
proclivities of the natives were a constant enough threat to ensure 
them reasonably good treatment at the traders’ hands. The North- 
west Coast was never the scene of long and bitter wars of the kind 
that climaxed Indian-White relationships in most other areas. 

From the historical ethnologist’s viewpoint, the sailing trade era 
is tantalizingly sterile. Not only were the trader’s opportunities for 
observing anything but the most obvious features of native life 
quite limited, owing to the short and casual nature of the contacts, 
but only a few of the journals kept are known. Much more valuable 
are the journals of the two scientific observers, Vancouver and 
Caamanio, who explored the region with which the present paper is 
immediately concerned. For our purposes it will suffice to point out 
that in addition to village-site locations, both accounts show that 
the tribal distributions at the end of the eighteenth century were 
the same as those of the more recent ethnographically documented 
era. Caamafio (1938, pp. 273, 278; compare Garfield, 1939, p. 336) 
speaks of a “Samoquet” (Tsimshian; sam-6 get, “chief”) in the Nepean 


? For a summary of voyages of the early period, see Wagner, 1938, and Howay, 1928. 


ANTHROP. Pap. No. 20] NORTHERN NW. COAST ARCHEOLOGY——DRUCKER Zt 


Sound region, called Gitejon (probably a tribal, not a personal, 
name), and Vancouver (1798, vol. 2, pp. 276, 278) mentions a number 
of chiefs of the Restoration Cove and Roscoe Inlet vicinity: Keyet 
(qai’d), Comockshulah, Whacosh (wokas), Amzeet (hamtzid), 
Nestaw Daws, Moclah (maLo), all good Heiltsuk names. 

The sailing-ship traders were finally driven off the coast by the 
Hudson’s Bay Company which, under Simpson, began a vigorous 
compaign for a monopoly of trade in the region. By 1835 the Com- 
pany had established Fort Nass (later moved to modern Port Simp- 
son) in Tsimshian territory, Fort McLoughlin, near the site of the 
modern village of Bella Bella, and Fort Langley on the Fraser, and 
was in complete control of the coast from the Columbia north to 
the Russian-held Alaska. With the leasing of the Russian post on the 
Stikine in 1840, and the building of another on the Taku, the entire 
area came into Hudson’s Bay Company’s hands. Under Company 
rule, a new era came into being. The natives for the first time—save 
for a few localities such as Nootka, the lower Columbia, and Sitka, 
where there had been permanent stations for some time—were sub- 
jected to sustained contacts with Europeans. The increasing im- 
portance of European goods is reflected in the tendency of the people 
to move in close to the posts. Important Indian villages grew up at 
Fort Rupert, Fort McLoughlin, Port Simpson, Massett, etc. At the 
same time, the Company under its laissez-faire policy did little to 
interfere with native life. What changes came about were volun- 
tary adjustments to new materials and new values offered at the 
trading posts. There appears to have been an actual florescence of 
native culture. Well supplied with tools, with a new and unlim- 
ited source of luxury, or wealth goods, native art reached a new 
peak, and elaborate rituals and festivals came to be everyday rather 
than occasional occurrences. Even despite the steady shrinking of 
population, this was a Golden Age. It has only been in recent times, 
with the coming of the salmon cannery and the missionary, that 
native culture has been drastically and more or less forcibly altered. 
Yet through it all, the fact that the Indian has not been torn from 
his ancestral homeland but has remained in close contact with it 
has aided him in the difficult period of reassortment of culture 
patterns. 

For present purposes, the chief significance of the modern condi- 
tion of the natives is that it so markedly simplifies the task of identi- 
fying historic horizons, as previously remarked. There can be little 
question regarding the exact group to which an historic site is to be 
referred. Even in the case of places of which we have no docu- 
mentary notice, reliable ethnographic identifications can be made. 


28 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL, 133 


TRIBAL DISTRIBUTIONS ON THE NORTHERN BRITISH COLUMBIA 
COASTS * 


From ethnographic and historical sources, the following divisions 
can be mapped out (fig. 1). The Coast Tsimshian held the outer 
seaboard from the mouth of the Nass to the northern shores of Mil- 
banke Sound. There were several major divisions of these people: 
The Northern Coast Tsimshian, consisting of nine “tribes” (really 
local groups), who fished on the lower Skeena as far up as the cafion 
in summer and fall, wintered in separate tribal villages along Venn 
Passage, and held olachon fishing rights at the mouth of the Nass 
where they went in the spring. There were three southern groups: 
The Kitkahtla, whose main village is on Porcher Island; the Kitqata 
(or Hartley Bay) group, of lower Douglas Channel and Nepean 
Sound; and the Kitasu tribe, of the Laredo Sound vicinity. The 
inner waterways adjacent to Southern Tsimshian territory were held 
by Northern Kwakiutl groups; the Xaisla at the heads of Douglas 
and Gardner Channels, and the Xaihais (“China Hat”) of Poison 
Cove and Kynoch Inlet. From Milbanke Sound south, the outer 
coasts were held by groups speaking the Heiltsuk variety of Kwakiut] 
(also spoken by the Xaihais). These groups cut the Salishan- 
speaking Bella Coola off from the sea. The southernmost Heiltsuk 
were those of Rivers Inlet. From Smith Sound south to Cape Mudge, 
lived the Southern Kwakuitl tribes, on both the mainland and Van- 
couver Island shores. 


THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE 


As an introduction to the regional archeology, the salient features 
of the natural landscape and of the civilization of its native inhabi- 
tants, at least those features likely to be reflected in archeological 
findings, may be summarized. The northern British Columbia coasts 
are extremely rugged. Great mountain ranges rise boldly from the 
water’s edge to barren crests 2,000, 3,000, and even more thousands of 
feet above. The coast line is cut by a network of channels and fiords, 
and dotted with islands, large and small. Heavy glaciation, fol- 
lowed by general subsidence, is responsible for a great part of this 
irregularity. Tortuous ironbound coasts are typical of the region. 
Here and there, one sees a level terrace, a shallow beach, or an alluvial 
fan at a river mouth, but such places are not frequent. There are 
hundreds of miles of shoreline but few places to land. 

The coast ranges have an important climatic effect, acting as a 
barrier to the sea winds, which are saturated with moisture after 


* The allocations of tribal territories are based on : Garfield, 1939, pp. 175-177 ; Boas, 1897, 
pp. 328 ff; and supplementary information obtained by the present writer. 


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AnrHrop, Pap, No, 20] NORTHERN NW. COAST ARCHEOLOGY—DRUCKER 29 


passing over the warm Japanese current offshore. As a consequence, 
the coast is a region of heavy rainfall and moderate if not warm 
climate, while just across the mountains, a hundred miles from the 
outer coasts as a crow flies, dry sub-Arctic conditions prevail. Even 
at the heads of some of the longer inlets, such as Dean and Douglas 
Channels, a marked difference may be noted—less rain than on the 
outer coasts, colder winters and warmer summers, and very obvious 
floral changes.® 

Temperature correlates of the prevailing winds emphasize the 
difference between coast and interior. A southeaster, the storm wind, 
often of gale intensity, is always accompanied by heavy rain, as are 
the westerly winds which are common in summer. Offshore winds 
(north or northeast) are in winter accompanied by clear skies 
and dry cold. 

The typical portions of the coast are covered with a dense tangle 
of forest. Conifers dominate—Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga tawxifolia), 
Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis), hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla), red 
cedar (Thuja gigantea, or plicata), and yellow cypress (Chamaecy- 
paris nootkatensis). Aside from alders (Alnus oregona, A. sif- 
chensis), most of the deciduous forms are bushes, many of which 
are berry producing. Salmonberry, wild currant, red and black 
huckleberry, and salal are among the more common varieties. They 
form well nigh impenetrable thickets at the edge of the timber along 
the shores and stream courses. Once through them, one enters a 
silent gray realm of moss-covered ground and tree trunks, and jutting 
rocky slopes. The woods are relatively open, for the trees branch 
high, but are dank and sunless. So abrupt are the slopes that the 
precipitation runs off nearly as fast as it falls. Perhaps because of 
this, there is very little soil. The thick layer of needles and leaves 
remains half rotted and half leached out, and seems never to form 
good black earth. Occasional blocked basins contain black icy lakes 
if they are large, muskeg swamps if they are small. All in all, the 
woods are grim, forbidding. 

One need not wonder that the natives were beach dwellers who 
penetrated the woods but rarely. Dwelling along the shore, they 
were conveniently situated to exploit the vast aquatic food resources 
of the area—fish (salmon of five species, herring, olachon, halibut, 
cod, etc.), mollusks, and, for variety, various marine mammals, and 
birds. Such land game as was used was “hunted” chiefly by means 
of traps set along the river banks. The sea even provided some 
vegetable foods: Several kinds of edible sea weeds were utilized. 
The important vegetable products, such as berries and roots of one 
kind and another, could, however, be obtained close to the beach or 


5 Data on precipitation, etc., in the area can be found in Koeppe (1931). 


30 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Buuy, 133 


river. Thus it was that the people lived at the water’s edge, derived 
most of their livelihood from the water, traveled waterways in pref- 
erence to trails, and regulated their activities by the tides quite as 
much as by daylight and dark. 

Though there were numerous minor differences of culture between 
the various groups, a few major trends and patterns were common 
to all. Economically, dependence was not only on fish, but on species 
—particularly salmon—seasonly available. This brought about a 
series of annual movements of each group, for a settlement adjacent 
to a salmon stream might not be conveniently located for digging 
clams when the salmon run was over or for the herring fishery, or, 
in late spring and summer, for halibut fishing and sea-mammal hunt- 
ing. Each tribe, and often each lineage within the tribe, had a series 
of sites used at different times during the year. Some ranked as 
important settlements, while others were little more than camps in 
use but a short season. Within the territory claimed by each tribe 
there would, therefore, normally be a considerable number of sites, 
large and small. 

Of no little importance is the fact that the chief staple, salmon, 
could be obtained in great quantity, and was fairly easy to preserve. 
A surplus could be put up at the fall fishing that would last well 
through the winter, or to the time of the herring or olachon run. 
Not only did this almost inexhaustible food source support a dense 
population, and allow for leisure time in which the native arts could 
be developed to the peak for which Northwest Coast culture is justly 
famous, but it permitted the assembling of large groups in the winter 
villages. In each tribe, lineages returned from their several fishing 
places to congregate in the winter village for a season of festivity 
and ceremonial. It was here that carved ornaments and masks and 
the like were made and used, and here that the great potlatch 
houses stood. 

The dwellings of both Tsimshian and Northern Kwakiutl con- 
formed to the general areal pattern: they were large rectangular 
structures of split planks. Specifically, they were of the northern 
type, nearly square in plan with the side planking morticed into 
slotted plates between the corner posts, and gabled roofs. Southern 
Kwakiut] houses are known to have changed in type during the late 
historic period. The old type was long and narrow, the roof, gabled 
or occasionally of “shed” type,’ supported by massive posts and 
beams against which the planking was laid up. ‘These southern 
houses were usually stripped of their planking when time came to 
move to fishing stations, the planks being taken along to be used 


®The occurrence of shed-roof houses in this region is reported on the basis of a photo- 
graph taken in the 1870’s, in the possession of W. A. Newcombe, which shows both shed and 
gabled roofs at Alert Bay. 


AnTuHRoP, Pap. No. 20] NORTHERN NW. COAST ARCHEOLOGY—DRUCKER 31 


there. All the groups constructed houses at important fishing places 
similar in plan to those at the winter village, although sometimes 
smaller and usually less carefully built. Among minor patterns, we 
may note frequent use of pile dwellings, use of cribwork foundations 
to compensate for inequalities in ground level, and_ sporadic 
occurrence of central pits (often “stepped,” having four levels) 
throughout our region. 

Like all Northwest Coast groups, Tsimshian and Kwakiutl em- 
phasized woodworking in their manufactures. The presence of a 
variety of trees—straight-splitting, easily worked red cedar, the 
finer-grained yellow cypress and alder, and the tough elastic yew— 
made possible the use of wood for a great number of purposes, and 
permitted the development of a trend toward woodworking unique 
in western North America. Not only were there dwellings of wood, 
but the all-essential canoes that made possible efficient exploitation 
of the country were cedar dugouts, and food vessels and spoons, stor- 
age containers, quivers, and a great deal of the ceremonial parapher- 
nalia—rattles, drums, masks, and headdresses—were made of wood. 
A variety of tools served the native craftsman. Stone mauls, hand- 
held among Southern Kwakiutl, both hand-held and hafted among 
their northern kin and the Tsimshian, served to drive wooden or 
whale-bone wedges; stone-bladed splittmg and planing adzes (the 
former a Tsimshian tool), and hafted stone chisels were for cutting 
and planing. Drills with bone points were used to make holes for 
lashings or dowels at joints. For fine carving, it is probable that 
knives of beaver teeth were used, although steel blades were adopted 
so early that no modern natives are sure of the ancient implement.’ 
Sandstone and shark or dogfish skin gave smooth finish. With 
these tools, and a few simple techniques, the natives were able to 
make neatly and often beautifully finished objects for whatever 
purpose they required. 

A glance at a collection of tools and weapons from the region makes 
apparent the pattern of preference for bone, horn, and shell for cut- 
ting edges. Arrow, harpoon, and spear points were made most often 
of these materials. Women’s knives were usually the sharpened shells 
of the large mussel Mytilus californianus. Most noteworthy is the 
dearth of chipped stone. The stone projectile points, and occasional 
stone knives, were of ground slate. Stone mauls, adzes, and celts 
were pecked to shape and polished. That the absence of chipped 
stone was a matter of cultural preference, not environmentally con- 


7™The pre-European occurrence of iron tools on the coast has been noted by Barbeau (1929) 
and has been critically analyzed by Rickard (1939). It is worth noting here that presence 
of small amounts of iron in an archeologic horizon is not of itself diagnostic of the historic 
period. 


a2 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BuLL, 183 


ditioned, is indicated by the fact that stone suitable for fiaking occurs 
in the region, although perhaps not in vast quantities. 

The trees that furnished material for so many articles of manufac- 
ture were the source of another product, textiles. Dress consisted of 
furs and woven robes and capes. In such a humid climate native 
leathers are of little service. Neither Tsimshian nor Kwakiutl 
equalled the Tlingit or Coast Salish in excellence of their woven goods 
(though traditionally the Tsimshian are supposed to have invented 
the Chilkat blanket), but they were able to make technologically 
rather simple robes of shredded cypress bark. The inner layers of 
the bark were stripped off, soaked, beaten with a heavy grooved mallet, 
loosely spun, then twined together on a suspended warp loom. Some- 
times mountain-goat wool was woven, but less was used than by Coast 
Salish or the Chilkat Tlingit. The bark of the red cedar was utilized 
for making the ubiquitous checkerwork mats, used for a thousand 
purposes—to sleep and sit on, to cover canoes, to gamble or cut fish 
on, to wear asaraincape. Checkerwork baskets of red-cedar bark met 
nearly as many needs. The same bark was hackled with a whale- 
bone “shredder” to make ceremonial insignia, bandages, cradle pad- 
ding, and, in the days of muzzleloaders, gun wadding. 

The Kwakiutl and Tsimshian were important centers of ceremonial- 
ism on the Northwest Coast. Their rituals were for the most part 
dramatic performances at which supernatural beings and deeds were 
represented realistically. Deities, spirits, and other beings were per- 
sonified by masked dancers, who performed to an accompaniment of 
carved rattles, wooden drums, and wooden whistles. Elaborate and 
ingenious devices were made to reproduce supernatural events. Great 
wooden birds flew from one end of the house to the other, a super- 
natural mink might come up through the floor, run across the room, 
and disappear, a human dancer would be dragged down into the 
ground by a spirit from the underworld. Shamanism, too, had a 
wealth of regalia and tricks that depended on mechanical contrivances. 

The social system of our region is of interest on several counts. 
First of all, the area was heavily populated. Estimates in terms of 
number of persons per square mile mean little in a region where just 
the shoreline was habitable, but even such figures indicate a large 
population. Kroeber (1934, p. 12) has calculated the prehistoric 
density of the Northwest Coast from the Straits of Georgia north to be 
26.3 per 100 square kilometers. At the winter villages, where numbers 
of clans or lineages assembled, large groups were the rule. Within the 
group, individuals occupied fixed statuses of graduated rank, the sys- 
tem of grading closely linked with heritage and wealth. Token 


® Some spruceroot, cedar withe, etc., twined basketry was made, but less, and of poorer 
quality, than by Tlingit and Haida. 


AnTHRop. Pap. No. 20] NORTHERN NW. COAST ARCHEOLOGY—DRUCKER 33 


wealth consisted of “coppers” and copper ornaments, Dentalium shells, 
furs, and slaves, all of which were articles of trade. The chief source of 
copper was far to the north (though there appear to have been several 
places in the interior from which placer copper was obtained) ; the 
dentalia came from the west coast of Vancouver Island. The wide 
occurrence of these articles throughout the area and in neighboring 
regions points to a network of trade routes—channels by which not 
only token wealth but other culture items could be transmitted. 
Along with the system of graduated status in part based on ancestry 
was a marked interest in historical tradition. Genealogies were sys- 
tematically remembered, to be recited on formal occasions. These 
family legends, which purport to cover the family’s history from the 
time of its earliest ancestors, are far more than a recital of personal 
names and relationships—they tell also of war and conquest, and of 
movements of families from one place to another. The places referred 
to are actually long-abandoned village sites. So matter-of-fact and 
internally consistent are these relations, and above all, so consistent 
are those of one family line with the traditions of their neighbors, 
that no ethnographer who has worked in the area has denied their 
historic value. Coast Tsimshian traditions trace the spread of the 
several tribes coastward and north and south along the seaboard 
from an ancient site above the canon of the Skeena—Temlaxam. 
Heiltsukan folk-history brings these people from the landlocked heads 
of long inlets, Rivers Inlet, Dean and Burke Channels, through a 
series of movements down to the outer coasts and northward. One of 
the most fascinating possibilities of archeological research in the area 
is that of checking these traditions once the various archeological com- 
penents have been defined. Nor should it be hard to do, for, as pre- 
viously remarked, the sites of villages founded during the process 
of pushing out to the open sea coast are well known by name to modern 
natives. Archeology may thus be the means of determining the actual 
historical worth of these traditions; should they prove reasonably 
sound they could become an aid to research in the regional prehistory. 
Differences in social position were reflected in the treatment ac- 
corded the dead. Men of standing were accorded great honor; the 
bodies of the aged, and of slaves, were disposed of with a minimum 
of formality. The Northwest Coast as an area is one in which there 
was great diversity in mortuary customs. Among the Tsimshian, 
bodies of chiefs were sometimes put in caves in cedar boxes, but most 
people were cremated; while “the body of a slave was thrown out on 
the beach.” Interment is reported by some informants, denied by 
others. Kwakiutl did not practice cremation. Among the northern 
groups, small gravehouses were built, and bodies of relatives were put 
in them from time to time. Among Southern Kwakiutl, a common 


34 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [ Bux. 133 


mode was to put the cedar box containing the body in the branches 
of a tree. Cave (or better, rock shelter) burials were also common. 
All the groups destroyed quantities of property, at least at the death 
of a person of note. Much of it was burned, although in late historic 
times valuables were placed at or near the grave. Graniteware dishes, 
Hudson’s Bay blankets, and even sewing machines and gramophones 
may be seen scattered about near recent graves. Mortuary potlatches, 
often involving the setting up of a memorial pole, may be construed 
as another form of the prevalent property destruction. More re- 
cently, erection of an expensive tombstone has been equated with the 
mortuary potlatch and memorial column. 

The foregoing all-too-brief résumé of Tsimshian and Kwakiutl cul- 
ture may serve to preface an attempt to link the ethnologic and 
archeologic data at hand. The major trends of native life, as we know 
it ethnographically, should be expressed in material remains from his- 
toric archeologic horizons, enabling us to identify and define the cul- 
ture of the upper levels so that with some surety we may trace it back 
in time. 


ARTIFACTS FROM THE NORTHWEST COAST 


As a part of the survey of Northwest Coast archeology, a number 
of museum collections from the area were examined, with the twofold 
aim of placing comparatively the materials recovered from the sites 
tested, and of assembling as many of the scattered data as possible 
for the convenience of future workers in the area. Collections in 
the following museums were utilized: American Museum of Natural 
History (AMNH)?, Field Museum of Natural History (FMNH), 
National Museum of Canada (NMC), Peabody Museum of Ameri- 
can Archaeology and Ethnology (Cambridge) (PMAAE), Prince 
Rupert City Museum (PRCM), Provincial Museum of British 
Columbia (PMBC), United States National Museum (USNM), and 
the Vancouver (British Columbia) City Museum (VCM). Since so 
little archeology has been done on the northern coasts previously, 
ethnologic materials were drawn upon to fill out the comparative 
picture. Their inclusion seems quite compatible with the direct his- 
torical approach, which aims first of all at a definition of historically 
identifiable archeologic components. It must be granted that, quan- 
titatively, the sampling error introduced by use of ethnologic 
specimens is considerable. These collections ordinarily contain many 
more masks than harpoon points and celts put together. The mate- 
rial, therefore, can be expected to show only gross patterns, not re- 
fined regional differentiations and linkages. Nonetheless, it seems 


® Abbreviations in parentheses are those used in the following sections to indicate pro- 
venience of specimens. 


ANTHROP. Pap. No. 20] NORTHERN NW. COAST ARCHEOLOGY—-DRUCKER 35 


worth while to set up some preliminary classifications of materials 
found or likely to be found archeologically, and the following para- 
graphs are concerned with the problem of typology. 

A heterogeneous lot of material objects may be classified in various 
ways. Theoretically, it should be advantageous to group them pri- 
marily according to a single one of the several possible criteria— 
form, material, or function. To follow this procedure consistently 
would mean that it would be possible to compare components widely 
separated in time and/or space. In practice, any single criterion 
is insufficient for specific and detailed classification. The present 
body of material has been classified according to whichever of the 
three aspects—material, form, or function—seemed to meet imme- 
diate demands. In some cases, material seemed the primary factor 
of classification; in others, function or form played this role. This 
procedure has the advantage of flexibility, which outweighs its theo- 
retically objectionable inconsistency. 

The ultimate test of any classification of cultural material, of 
course, is whether or not it is meaningful. Basic to classification is 
the assumption that the traits differentiating types reflect not random 
variations of pattern but real cultural differences—differences of 
manufacturing methods, of motor habits, of use of the finished ob- 
jects. Thus sometimes no particular significance can be attached 
to what first appear rather wide differences in form, while certain 
minute variations are the critical ones. In other words, the validity 
of any typology must be determined empirically. The best testing 
ground for material such as the present is that of distribution, ver- 
tical or horizontal. Traits that can be shown to occur consistently 
within a certain archeologic horizon, or throughout a certain region, 
may be considered valid criteria of culture. Features of sporadic 
distribution cannot be considered significant. I have attempted to 
put the present typologies to the proof (tables 1,2). Many varia- 
tions of form and material noted in comparing a series of objects 
without regard as to provenience turned out to have no demonstrable 
meaning, and, consequently, have been lumped together, so that cer- 
tain “types” cover a wide range of variants. As fuller and more 
precise data are recovered from the Northwest Coast, and our knowl- 
edge of its prehistory grows, it is probable that we shall be able to 
discover cultural significances in some of these variations. For the 
present, however, it is preferable to simplify the classifications as 
much as possible. Refinement of the typologies will keep pace with 
the accumulation of information. 

Harpoon points—Harpoon points constitute a class of artifacts 
easily recognizable in any collection. They may be defined as detach- 
able projectile points usually of bone or horn (metal forms are known 
only from postcontact collections), equipped for the attachment of a 


36 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Buuy, 133 


retrieving line. The harpoon points from the Northwest Coast fall 
into one or the other of two major categories: one-piece heads with 
lateral barbs, and composite forms.’® One-piece toggling heads, the 
common Eskimo variety, do not occur in the collections from the area 
except for some late metal types which approximate the more 
northerly implements." 

The one-piece laterally barbed points at first glance present a con- 
fusing range of variation of several form criteria, which may be vari- 
cusly combined in a single specimen: Type of barbs (isolated or 
enclosed; high or low) ; application of barbs (unilateral, bilateral, 
trilateral; in case of bilateral or trilateral: opposed, staggered) ; cross 
section of head (heavy rectanguloid, heavy cylindrical, heavy ellip- 
tical, thin elliptical, thin ovate); type of tip (simple sharp, wide 
spatulate, slotted) ; type of attachment (drilled, slotted, or crescentic 
line hole; unilateral or bilateral line guard; notch or groove; line 
shoulder) ; type of butt (conical, spatulate, truncated, pyramidal, wide 
flat squared). 

Despite the apparent great range of form, however, the barbed 
harpoon points from the area fall into a fairly small number of 
types and subtypes. These types are as follows: 


Type I. Point of moderate length, 4 to 6 inches), relatively heavy (cylindrical 
to rectanguloid) in cross section, 1 to 3 high isolated unilateral barbs, 
simple (unslotted) point, bilateral projectiles for line guard, heavy 
trunecated-conical butt. (See fig. 3, a, bd.) 

Variants of this basic type, which may eventually prove to be distinct subtypes 
but which for the present had best be lumped into the major group, are as 
follows: Ia, same as type I, with drilled line hole in addition to line guards 
(fig. 3, c) ; Ib, same as type I, but with unilateral] instead of bilateral projec- 
tion for line guard; Ic, same as type I, with wide rectanguloid butt with line 
shoulder instead of conical butt with guards; Id, same ag Ic, with drilled line 
hole in addition to shoulder. 

Type II. Short heavy point (length usually 2 to 4 inches), heavy elliptical cross 

section, 1 or 2 low enclosed unilateral barbs, simple point, rounded 
laterally tapered spatulate butt, slotted line hole. (See fig. 3, g, h.) 
Frequently the line of the under side of the barb is continued along 
the shaft by carving or incising. 


10 “One-piece” and “composite” refer to the structure of the body of the harpoon point, 
not to the presence of inserted end or side blades. Thus, one type of one-piece heads is 
frequently slotted for insertion of a cutting point of stone (or in recent times of metal). 

11 See Niblack, 1890, figs. 137, 137e. 

12 While barb types are quite varied, basically they fall into two major classes: Enclosed 
and isolated, within each of which there are two or three subtypes. The critical feature is 
whether or not the barbs are enclosed within the silhouette of the specimen or stand out 
detached from the shaft. This actually depends on the relative areas of the barbs as com- 
pared with the spaces between them. If the barbs are larger than the intervening spaces, 
the silhouette will be of the enclosed type. (See fig. 2, a, b.) The backs of enclosed barbs 
necessarily are convex (either curved or rectanguloid), those of isolated barbs may be con- 
cave or convex. (See fig. 2, c,d.) The terms “high” and “low” refer to the relative pro- 
portions of length of the barbs and thickness of the shaft. Occasional specimens may be 
found in which the barbs are intermediate as to type, and cannot be classified on this basis, 
but for the present these may be disregarded. 


AnTHROP. Par. No, 20] NORTHERN NW. COAST ARCHEOLOGY—DRUCKER 37 


Type II variants include: IIa, same as type II, with crescentic line slot (fig. 3, i) ; 
IIb, same as type II, with drilled line hole instead of slot; IIc, same 
as type II, but with low enclosed bilateral barbs (fig. 3, 7). 

Type III. Medium to long point (6 to 9 inches) with heavy cylindrical cross 
section, 2, 3, or 4 staggered rows of low enclosed barbs, slotted point, 
wide laterally tapered spatulate butt, drilled or slotted line hole (see 
fig. 3, k). The underlines of the barbs are often continued as in 
type II. 


ER ESE a 
d 


FEE PEN EE LS TT EY BEI ST TE TE 


FIguRE 2.—Types of harpoon barbs. ; 
a, High, enclosed. 6b, Low, enclosed. c, High, isolated. d, Low, isolated. 


Type III variants are: IIIa, same as type III, with low isolated barbs (fig. 3, 1) ; 
IIIb, same as type III, with simple point. 

Type IV. Harpoon-arrow points (usually under 5 inches long), thin elliptical 

cross section, low enclosed or isolated barbs, rounded base, drilled 
line hole (fig. 3, m). 

Type V. Medium to long point (6 to 10 inches), thin elliptical to lozenge-shaped 
cross section, 3 or more high isolated (occasionally enclosed) unilateral 
barbs, simple point, spatulate butt, drilled line hole (fig. 3, n). This 
appears to be a simple unspecialized form, which can be duplicated 
in collections from many other areas. 


38 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Buwn, 133 


Bebe 


Ai 


_—— 


CHA EK 


/ 


a 
ONE INCH 


FicurE 3.—Harpoon points. 


a, Type I (VCM, no number). b, Type I (AMNH 16/5055). c, Type Ia (AMNH 16/5054). 
g, Type II (AMNH B/836). h, Type II (NMC XII-B-268). i, Type Ila (AMNH 
B/1983). j. Type Ile (FMNH-18045), Tsimshian. (Sketch, scale approx.) k, Type 
III (NMC XII-B-272). 1, Type IIIa (AMNH 16/8476). (Sketch, scale approx.) m, 
Type IV (NCM XII-B-861). Massett. n, Type V (1938/14). 


Anrnrop. Pap, No. 20] NORTHERN NW. COAST ARCHEOLOGY—DRUCKER 39 


It would be possible to alter the present classification to make, it 
more elastic, indicating the various diagnostic features by factors or 
symbols as Gillin (1938) has suggested might be done with South- 
western potsherds, so that any combination of elements can be repre- 
sented by a compact formula. Until a larger series of Northwest 
Coast specimens is assembled, however, the foregoing classification 
will serve. Occasional specimens which fit no single category may be 
regarded as typological sports until the particular combination of 
traits occurs often enough to warrant designation as an additional 
type. 

Composite harpoons.—A. type of implement in fairly common use, 
though not well represented in archeological collections, is the com- 
pound harpoon, made of two proximally diverging barbs fitted to 
form a basal socket, and at their outer ends to hold a point or blade. 
Two types may be distinguished : 


Type I. Barbs channeled for tip (i. e., for a tip with a stem or slender base) 
(fig. 4, a). 

Type II. Barbs scarffed to form a blade slot (i. e., for a wide cutting blade). 
Many of these barbs have lashing grooves as well (fig. 4, 0). 


Ethnologically collected specimens unfortunately can be used but 
seldom, as a rule, because the lashing and pitch conceals the structural 
features. 

Fixed bone (or horn) projectile points—From ethnographic 
sources we know that bone and horn were often utilized as materials 
for arrow and dart points. Such objects may be recognized by the 
following features: Sharp tip, more or less symmetrical outline, and 
base modified for mounting or hafting. It must be admitted that all 
the objects classed as “points” may not have been made for tipping 
arrows—some may have been tips for composite harpoons or even 
halibut hook barbs (although the mounted hook barbs of bone that 
I have seen are more slender than the objects in the present category). 

The bone points present a considerable range of form. The most 
obvious division is that between those with, and those without lateral 
barbs. These two major classes designated as: (A) Fixed points 
with lateral barbs, and (B) fixed points without lateral barbs, may 
be treated separately. 

Class A—Fixed bone points with lateral barbs: Several types of 
laterally barbed points are distinguishable according to type of cross 
section, placement, and type of barbs, and form of butt. Some of 
these points which are very long may have been end prongs for 
multipoint bird darts. The barbs of this class of points are more 
variable than those of the barbed harpoons, many being very 
elaborate and delicate. Presumably strength was less of a considera- 
tion than in the harpoon points where the barbs had to be strong 

405260—43—4 


BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BuLL, 133 


ONE INCH 
FicurE 4.—Composite harpoons. 


a, Type (NMC XII-B-425. N.S.) b, Type II (AMNH 16/6210). Comox. 

Rpts 

itt ! i 
a et 
peril alts 
rit fh of 
tiil uD { 
piit i 
pits it 1 
iit fay 
ple ape Sl { 

o 
d CS 
ONE INCH 
(Class A.) 


Figure 5.—Fixed bone (or horn) projectile points. 

a, Type AI, low isolated barbs (AMNH 16/5131). Eburne. 0b, Type AI, low enclosed 
barbs (VCM, no number). (Sketch, scale approx.) c, Type AI, long angular enclosed 
barbs (AMNH 16/4536). Port Hammond. d, Type AI, low ridged barbs (AMNH 
16/5125). Eburne. e, Type AII (FMNH 19900). S. Tlingit. (Sketch, scale approx.) 
jf, Type AII (FMNH A 78725). Chilkat Tlingit. 


ANTHROP. Par. No. 20] NORTHERN NW. COAST ARCHEOLOGY—DRUCKER 4] 


enough to hold a drag or float. The following barb varieties may be 
distinguished (see fig. 5) : Isolated (fig. 5, a), enclosed (fig. 5, 6), long 
angular enclosed (fig. 5, ¢), low ridged (fig. 5, d), and notched (fig. 
5, ¢). Heavy high barbs are rare. The following types may be 
distinguished among the complete specimens: : 


AI. Rounded cross section (flattened to heavy elliptoid or ovoid); unilateral 
barbs, ridged, isolated, enclosed, or long angular enclosed; spatulate or 
conical butt (fig. 5, a-d). 

AIT. Thin lozenge or lenticular cross section (i. e., 2 cutting edges) ; unilateral 
or bilateral barbs, notched, often irregularly spaced; stemmed butt (fig. 
5, €, f). 

In addition to the foregoing, collections from some regions, par- 
ticularly northern Tlingit territory, contain points of obvious Eskimo 
or Aleut type—heavy cylindrical pieces, with rows of long enclosed, 
or low isolated barbs, and reduced tang.’* These indicate alien in- 
fluences, if the specimens themselves are not trade pieces of Eskimo 
manufacture. 

Class B.—Fixed bone points without lateral barbs: A series of 
formal features relating to outline, hafting, base form, and cross 
section occur in various combinations in these points. Type of hait- 
ing and silhouette seem at present the most significant criteria for 
definition of types: 


BI. Points with thin squared or rounded bases, produced by convergence of 
the faces. Such points were made to be inserted in the cleft end of a 
shaft. Two subtypes may be distinguished: 

A. Full (unconstricted) silhouette. Four variants within this form 
have been noted, but as yet do not appear to have diagnostic 
Significance: (a) parallel sides, abrupt tip (fig. 6, a); (b) 
parallel sides, gradually tapering tip (fig. 6, b); (¢c) gradually 
tapering sides, abrupt tip (fig. 6, ¢); (d) gradually tapering 
sides and tip (fig. 6, d). 

B. Constricted sides (fig. 6, e). 

BII. Points with shaft bed and basal barb(s). These points were meant to 
be lashed against a scaffold or beveled shaft end. Informants probably 
have reference to this type when they tell of arrow points which 
detached from the shaft, and “worked around” in the quarry’s body. 
Subtypes are based on silhouettes like those of the preceding type: 

A. Full (unconstricted) silhouette (fig. 6, f). 

B. Constricted sides (fig. 6, 9). 


Chipped stone points—Chipped stone is of peculiarly restricted 
distribution on the Northwest Coast, occurring only in certain local- 
ities. In the collected materials, a fair range of point types are found: 
NAa, NAbi, NAb2, NBa, NBal, NBb, NE, SAa, SAb, SBa, SBc, 
SCb2, SCb3.14 In order of frequency, NAb1, NBa, SAa, and SBa 


18 Collins figures a variety of points of this general type (Collins, 1937, pl. 34, figs. 1-13, 
pl. 74, figs. 5-10). 
14 Classification following Strong, 1935, pp. 89-90. 


4? BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL, 133 


d 


Ficure 6.—Fixed bone (or horn) projectile points. (Class B.) 


a, Type BIA. b, Type BIA. c, Type BIA. d, Type BIA. e, Type BIB. f, Type BIIA. 
g, Type BIIB. 


types predominate, the others being represented by a few specimens 
only. Basalt and slate figure prominently as the materials for 
chipped points in most localities. 

Ground slate points—Points made of ground slate are common 
along the coast as also in the regions farther north. They run for 
the most part to elongate triangular and leaf shapes (NBa, NAb1, 
NAb2) proportionately much longer than chipped points, some in 
fact suggesting ND forms, though with long tapering tips. Stemmed 
forms (SBa, SBc) also occur, though rather infrequently (these 
seem to be the commonest forms in southwest Alaska) (de Laguna, 
1934, pp. 70 ff., pls. 31, 32). In cross section the points range from 
elongate hexagonal (flat sided with bevelled edges), lozenge shaped, 
to lenticular. No significant correlations of outline and cross section 
have been noted as yet. A distinctive form is represented by a few 
species only: This is a very wide point, vaguely suggesting in its 
proportions the shell cutting blade of the recent Nootkan whaling 
harpoon. Two such points from Tlingit territory had drilled lashing 
holes near the base (fig. 7,@). The very long heavy “bayonet” points 
should be classed separately. A number of such objects have blunt 
or even rounded lateral edges, so that they must have been made for 
a purpose rather different from that of the small points. The func- 
tion of these objects on the coast is unknown; they would have made 
serviceable lance or dagger points. 

Type I. Slate points, variable cross section, usually unstemmed (fig. 7, a, 0). 

IA. Very wide short points (fig. 7, c, d). 

Type II. Long “bayonet” points (or blades) (fig. 7, e, f). 


AnTHRoP. Pap. No, 20] NORTHERN NW. COAST ARCHEOLOGY—DRUCKER 43 


Splitting adzes.—The designation of heavy adze blades modified 
(usually by a one-quarter groove) for hafting to a T-shaped handle 


e or 


os 
ONE INCH 


Ficuke 7.—Ground slate points. 


a, Type I (AMNH E/122). Angoon, Alaska. b, Type I (AMNH #/1803). Sitka. ¢ 
Type IA (NMC VII-B-207). N. Saanich. d, Type IA (USNM). SE. Alaska. (Sketch, 
scale approx.) e, Type II (AMNH E/122). Angoon, Alaska. f, Type II (PMBC 983). 


N. Saanich. 


as “splitting adzes,” in accordance with de Laguna’s suggestion (1934, 
p. 57), is a convenient one for typological purposes. It should be 


44 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BuLt, 133 


noted, however, that large flat celts sometimes served the same pur- 
pose.® The Northwest Coast splitting adzes?* are of various mate- 
rials, tough igneous stones being preferred, and vary in size from 
4.6 inches long, 1.8 inches wide, and 1.2 inches high” to huge un- 
wieldy-appearing blades, the approximate measurements of one of 
which are: Length, 11 inches; width, 1.5 inches; height, 5 inches." 
Most adzes are from 6 to 8 inches long, with width-height measure- 
ments from 2 to 3 inches (though width-height ratios vary consider- 
ably). It is interesting to note that the polls of many of the adzes 


HAFTING 
PLANE 


}—_——_———_—_—_——_,— HAFTING 


| GROOVE 


FRONT- 
LENGTH 


ave ENN i Jp ee 


Ficure 8.—Nomenclature of splitting adzes. 


from Tlingit territory are rough and battered; ‘some apparently were 
never completely trimmed and polished. 

The splitting adzes are rather difficult to classify, for they present 
considerable variation of form, and the several traits which might 
have had typologic value—type of poll, type of cross section, number 
of grooves, fluting, etc.—seem to occur in all possible combinations 
with little tendency to cluster. Nonetheless, a few major divisions 
may be made based on examples which are extremes in one or another 
respect, with intermediate groups for the in-between specimens. 
When further examples have been collected, it should be possible to 
refine, or entirely revamp, the present classification. 

Type I. Elliptical cross section, flat (i. e. wider than high), rounded poll 


(fig. 9, a). (I have seen but few of this type; they are quite 
distinct from the other forms, and may, indeed, be cultural sports.) 


1° AMNH No. 16.1/297, 19/106. 

16 See fig. 8 for nomenclature of splitting adzes. 
7 AMNH 19/183. : 

18 PRCM- (no number). 


AnTHROP. Pap, No. 20] NORTHERN NW. COAST ARCHEOLOGY—DRUCKER 45 


Type II. Rectanguloid cross section, much higher than wide; heavy squared 
poll, height as great or greater than at shoulder, giving the adze a 
more or less triangular profile (fig. 9, b). 

Type III. (Transitional.) Cross section like type II; poll laterally narrowed, 
and rounded from front to back (fig. 9, ¢). 


—! 
ONE (NCH 


FIGuRE 9.—Splitting adzes. 


a, Type I (AMNH B/1265). 6, Type II (PRM-32). c, Type III (PRM-33). 4d, Type 
IV (PRM-14). e,TypeV. f, Type VI. g, Type VII. 


Type IV. (Transitional.) Rectanguloid cross section, width and height nearly 
equal, poll as in type II (fig. 9, d). 

Type V. Rectanguloid cross section, width and height nearly equal, poll 
rounded from front to back (fig. 9, e). 

Type VI. Long slender adzes, rectangular with rounded corners to cylindrical 
in cross section (fig. 9, f). 


46 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Buu 133 


In addition to the foregoing, a group of adzes from southeast 
Alaska 1° appear to form another type, distinguished chiefly by their 
rudeness. On these pieces only the bit ends are well worked, the 
remainder being only rudely pecked to form, and not too symmetrically. 
Only two of the dozen had good deep hafting grooves. (See fig. 9, g.) 
The high polish and signs of use of the bits indicates these are not unfin- 
ished blanks, but finished pieces. As will be pointed out later, other 


POLL 


SIDE 


ASYMMETRIC 8/T 


SYMMETRIC BIT 


CURVED B/T STRAIGHT &/T 
Figure 10.—Celt nomenclature. 


utilitarian objects from Tlingit territory—celts—characteristically 
show the same sort of roughly blocked out asymetric polls. These 
rough-polled adzes will be listed as type VII. 

Celts.—Northwest Coast celts were an important part of the wood- 
working complex. A series of typologic differences to be seen in them 
probably reflect different modes of use. Some were hafted as adze 
blades, on either the “V-shaped” or the “elbow” adzes, others served. as 
chisels, being mounted in socketed antler hafts in the Georgia Straits 


12 USNM Nos. 150075-76, 150080-81, 150083-84, 150088, 150091-92, 150094-95, 287515. 


ANTHROP. Pap, No. 20] NORTHERN NW. COAST ARCHEOLOGY—DRUCKER 47 


region (Smith, 1903, fig. 29, d@), in scarffed or bedded wooden handles 
(Boas, 1909, fig. 45, a, 6, and pp. 319-820), or, as the battered polls of 
some specimens indicate, struck directly without a haft to absorb the 
blow. The most common materials of which the implements were 
made are jadeites in the Straits of Georgia and southeast Alaskan 
regions, and serpentines in the intervening districts. A fairly high 
percentage of the jadeite specimens show traces of sawing on one or 
both sides. 
A preliminary classification of celt types is as follows: ° 


—SSS— 
ONE INCH 


Figure 11.—Celts. 


a, Type IA (NMC XII-B-425). N. Saanich. 6, Type IB (AMNH 19/142). Chilkat. 
ec, Type IC (NMC XII-549). Lower Fraser. d, Type IC (AMNH 16.1/1529). e, Type 
IIA (AMNH E/2627). (Not to scale.) f, Type ILA (PRCM, no number). 


I. Celts with symmetrical outlines, sides parallel or tapering very slightly 
toward the poll. A number of variations in form set off the subtypes of 
this group. 

IA. Small, very thin celts, with flat faces, usually flat or square-cut 
poll, slightly curved symmetrical bit (fig. 11, a). 

IB. Larger celts, with square-cut poll, cross section elliptical to rectan- 
gular, bit symmetrical, usually curved (fig. 11, f). 

IC. Celts with rounded poll, elliptical to rectangular cross section, bit 
usually asymmetric, straight (fig. 11, ¢, d). 

IIA. Celts with asymmetric outline, sides tapering strongly to poll, poll rounded 
or coming to round point, cross section elliptical, bit straight, usually 
asymmetric (fig. 11, e, b). 

IIB. Same, but with roughly finished (unpolished) faces and poll. 


20 See fig. 10 for nomenclature of celts. 


48 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY (BULL. 133 


FIcuRE 12.—Stone mauls, hafted. 


a, Type I, plain (FMNH-A/18611). (Sketch, scale approx.) 6b, Type I, zoomorphic 
(FMNH-—A/18607). (Sketch, scale approx.) e¢, Type II (FMNH A/18617). (Sketch, 
scale approx.) 


ANTHROP. Pap. No. 20] N ORTHERN NW. COAST ARCHEOLOGY—DRUCKER 49 


Occasionally, one sees a double-bitted celt in a lot of material from 
the area. These are variants of the widespread type IB.7 They may 
have been hafted to T-hafts as adzes. 

Hafted mauls.—Stone mauls, intended for hafting, to be used like 
our sledge hammers, show few significant typological differences. The 
chief point of difference is mode of hafting, that is (three-quarter) 
grooved (type I) (fig. 12, a, 6), and perforated (type IT) (fig. 12, ¢) 


FiIguRE 13.—Hand mauls, stone. 


a, Type IA (FMNH—A-18562). Bella Coola. (Sketch, scale approx.) 0b, Type IB 
(FMNH-—A/23318). Bella Coola. (Sketch, scale approx.) c, Type 1B1 (PRCM-H-114), 
d, Type IB1 (PRCM, no number). e, Type IC1 (PRCM,’no number). f, Type IC2 
(AMNH 16/6276). Nimkish River. g, Type II (NMC—XII-B-365). Port Simpson. 
h, Type II (NMC—XII-B-365). Port Simpson. i, Type III. 1938/307. 


forms. The latter are usually higher (the same nomenclature is 
applied to these implements as to the splitting adzes, q. v.), and more 
nearly elliptical in cross section (parallel to the striking surface) than 
the former, which tend to be more nearly equal in height-width dimen- 
sions, and D-shaped. Grooved mauls vary chiefly in type of poll 
(round, pointed, or carved zoomorphic), and in number of grooves 
(one, two, or three), but no clearly defined subtypes appear. 


21 AMNH E/2663 (Angoon, Alaska), CNM—XII—-B—1630 (Bella Coola). 


50 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL, 133 


The dimensions of the hafted mauls range as follows: Length, 4 to 
7 inches; height (type I), 2.5 to 3.6 inches; (type II) 3.5 to 5 inches; 
width 2 to 3.5 inches. 

Hand mauls——A considerable variety of stone mauls or hammers 
meant to be used without hafts occur in collections from the coast. 
They fall into a number of types, as outlined below. 


I. Mauls cylindrical to elliptical in cross section, striking surface(s), with 

IA. Plain to slightly expanded ends (fig. 13, a). 

IB. Flanged end(s) 2? (fig. 13, b). 

IB1. Cone or nipple top (fig. 18, ¢, d). 

IC. Elliptical cross section, longitudinally tapering, square-cut ends, 
both ends used, occasional traces of lateral wear, with or with- 
out the following: 

IC1. Very slight longitudinal taper, long (fig. 18, e). 
IC2. Pronounced longitudinal taper, short, markedly elliptical 
(Gabe 318% 77). 

II. Mauls with T- or stirrup-shaped handle (fig. 13, g, h). All mauls of this 
type are grouped together because the T-handled specimens seem mostly 
to be broken and reworked variants of stirrup-handled forms.” 

Ill. Rectanguloid mauls (rectangular with rounded corners), D-shaped cross 
Section, striking surface at one end (often concave), other end rounded 
(fig. 18, i). These implements may have been hafted, the one flat sur- 
face being a hafting plane; however, there are no definite modifications 
for hafting, and most of these implements are much smaller and lighter 
than the usual hafted stone mauls. 

IV. Battered cobbles. Beach cobbles of convenient size were often used for 
pounding. Hither or both end or lateral battering indicates such use. 
They are probably much more common in the area than number of 
examples in collections indicates. 

VY. One-piece handled mauls with lateral striking surfaces. (See Boas, 
1909, fig. 44, a, b.) 


Pile drivers —Large flat stones, often 20 to 80 pounds in weight, were 
used for driving stakes for fish weirs, etc. They ordinarily have 
grooves cut near the ends for grips; some have the grips cut in the form 
of hands, to fit the thumbs and fingers of the user. Occasionally one 
sees an object of this class with low-relief decorative carving. Boas 
has distinguished the main types: 

I. Circular (Boas, 1909, fig. 42). 

II. D-shaped to rectanguloid (Boas, 1909, fig. 43). . 

Stone bark shredders (%?).—These objects, whose identification is 
quite speculative, resemble in form the IB type of bone cedar-bark 
shredders, though the latter are generally thinner, longer, and wider. 
The stone implements have a perforated grip a little above the 


* Hand mauls with flanged end(s) exhibit a complete range of all possible combinations: 
flanged striking end with plain poll, flanged poll with plain (slightly expanded) striking 
end, both ends flanged. Those with flanged polls may or may not have cone or nipple tops. 
So far no distributional significance appears to attach to any particular combination of 
features, so all flanged forms are lumped together. 

78 Niblack refers to these mauls as “paint-pestles” (Niblack, 1890, p. 281). 


ANTHROP. Pap, No. 20] NORTHERN NW. COAST ARCHEOLOGY—DRUCKER 5l 


middle, and taper rapidly to a rather dull, often slightly battered, 
edge; they were certainly pounders or choppers of some sort (fig. 
14). A typical example (FMNH-A 18981) is roughly D-shaped, 6.3 
inches long, 4.7 inches wide, and 1.3 inches thick. The objects are 
usually of rather coarse material; I have not seen any well-finished 
and polished pieces of this kind. 

Slate blades—Wide flat blades of ground slate are common in 
some regions. Complete specimens are usually rectanguloid in form, 
with slightly curved edge and back, and vertical sides. Numerous 
pieces occur, however, which appear to be reworked or modified frag- 
ments of the large blades. These are irregular in outline, though the 
backs are polished from use. The cutting edges are often straight. 
Occasional examples of a third type of blade are found: small, el- 


———l 
ONE INCH 


FicurE 14.—Stone bark shredder (PRCM, no number). 


liptical blades, notched or tanged for hafting, similar to certain types 
of Eskimo ulos. Narrow parallel-sided blades, similar in form to 
the Eskimo man’s knife, also occur, though infrequently; they may 
be a subvariety of the second type—the reworked, straight-edged 
fragments of large blades. The use of these various types of slate 
blades is not known. Smith (1903, p. 159) has assumed that those he 
found were all knives for cutting fish, drawing attention to their 
similarity in form to present-day fish knives of metal.2* As a matter 
of fact, however, while such knives were in use in recent times, they 
were far less common than blades of the shell of the large mussel 
(Mytilus californianus). I believe that many of the blades, par- 
ticularly the reused fragmentary forms with straight edges, were 
used as saws for cutting stone and bone. The regions in which 
these implements occur commonly are just those in which sawing 


** Smith has pointed out other types of objects as well which may have served as saws 
(1903, p. 167). 


52 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Buun, 133 


was a common cutting technique. The wide blades with curved 
edges and the hafted forms may have been knives, of course. 
I. Wide rectanguloid blade, no modifications for hafting, cutting edge usually 
slightly curved (fig. 15, a). 
II. Small irregularly shaped blade, wear-polished back, straight edge (fig. 15, 
b). (Distinguished from fragments of type I by wear on back.) 
III. Small, elliptical blade, hafted (or modified for hafting) (fig. 15, ¢c). 

Bone awls and awllike forms.—Kaidder’s classification of bone 
‘ awls,*> with some modifications and additions, serves very well for 
our Northwest Coast material. Many of the pieces in collections 
unfortunately are unclassifiable because of their fragmentary condi- 
tion. The types found on the coast are as follows: 

1. Mammal leg bone. 
a. Head of bone intact. 
1. Ulna. 
b. Head unworked except by original splitting. 
c. Head partly worked down. 
1. Square-cut head. 
d. Head wholly removed. 
e. Splinter awls. 
2. Mammal rib. 
a. Whole rib. 
3. Bird bone. 
a. Whole bone. 
b. Splinter. 
c. Hafted in another bone. 

Bone needles—Eyed needles, similar to those used in recent times 
for making sewn tule mats, are found in some sites. Typically, they 
are long, flat, and thin. Very fine needles like those of the Eskimo 
do not seem to occur, although moderately small forms are sometimes 
found. The criterion of size suggests a basis for a primary division. 
Such traits as type (drilled or ground) and location (distal or proxi- 
mal) of the eye may be serviceable characters when we have enough 
specimens to have use for detailed classifications. 

I. Long flat thin needles (mat needles). 

II. Small needles. 

A. Mammal bone. 
B. Bird bone. 

Bone (and horn) knives.—Several kinds of bone implements identi- 
fiable as knives occur in the collections. The most easily recognized 
are the ulnae pointed and sharpened for slitting herring and other 
small fish for drying. Knives of this type may have either intact 
or trimmed heads. Blades of similar form were made of mammal ieg 
bone. Another type consists of the “bark splitters,” blades used for 
prying loose the inner layers of cedar bark used in matting and 
basketry. These have rounded sharpened tips and edges. Two sub- 

> Kidder, 1932, pp. 202, 203-220. For eonvenience in making comparisons, Kidder'’s 


order of types and numerical designations have been retained, new forms or subforms being 
added on at the end of each series. 


ANTHROP. Pap. No. 20] NORTHERN NW. COAST ARCHEOLOGY—DRUCKER 53 


types—one short, wide, and flat; the other long and curved, with a 
perforation at the butt—may be distinguished. 
I. Ulna knife. 
II. “Bark splitting knives.” 
A. Short, flat, side. 
B. Long curved (often of sea mammal rib), perforated. 
Bone scrapers and gouges.—Two major and several minor categories 
of bone implements which may have served for scraping hides, re- 


ONE INCH ; 7 
Figure 15.—Slate blades. 


a, Type I (AMNH 16/6686). Comox. 6b, Type II (AMNH 16/4070). Port Hammond. 
c, Type III, horn-hafted chipped and ground ulo (PRCM, no number). Marine Station 
site, Digby Island. 


moving the edible inner layers of spruce and hemlock bark, etc., 
can be recognized. These tools seem fairly widespread, but are by no 
means numerous. 


I. End scrapers (characterized by a flat, square-cut to spatulate working 
end, which may be wide or laterally tapering). 
A. Mammal bone (usually leg), head intact, one end cut away ina 
long bevel to produce rounded tip. Wear usually on back of tip. 
B. Mammal leg bone, split, part of head remaining tip as in IA. 
C. Mammal leg bone, spilt, head entirely removed, blade wide 
rounded, dentate. 
1. Same as C, blade at both ends. 
D. Ulna with spatulate tip. 
II. Sidescrapers (usually split mammal leg bone). 


54 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Buun, 138 


Bone drills (%).—Several objects which may have been drills were 
noted. The identification of the first type, hand drills, seems fairly 
sure because of the wear on the points; that of the shafted drill points 
less certain, because no complete specimens, or specimens with recog- 
nizable wear, were seen. (Boas (1909, fig. 50 and pp. 321, 323) 
describes one form of shafted drill point of bone.) 

I. Hand drill of bone, sharply reduced (shouldered) cylindrical tip. 
A. Of ulna. 
B. Of mammal leg bone. 
II. Hafted drill of bone, cylindrical, square to rectanguloid butt (cf. Boas, 
loc. cit.). 

Flaking tools (?).—Tools which may have served for flaking stone 
occur in the districts in which this technique was in use. Of course, 
some of the heavier, blunter “awls” may have served this purpose; there 
are, however, a few distinctive types which may be designated as 
flakers. Some are of antler tines, usually hacked or whittled off, 
some with unworked (but worn) points, others with reduced, but 
heavy, shouldered tips. Bone implements of this class are usually 
short heavy rods of dense bone. 

I. Antler flakers. 
A. Plain tip. 
B. Reduced tip. 
II. Bone flakers. 

Stone vessels—Stone vessels occur practically throughout the en- 
tire area. They vary considerably in size and form, and probably 
alsoinuse. The northernmost groups, Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian, 
are known to have used small stone vessels as mortars for grinding 
the native “tobacco,” and the larger ones served occasionally for 
smashing berries (presumably for drying) (Krause, 1885, p. 206). 
This use seems hardly important enough to account for the many 
vessels one finds. Northwest Coast foods (save in the southern pe- 
riphery of the area) were not of the sort that had to be pulverized, nor 
is grinding reported as an important culinary technique. Some of 
the vessels, particularly the decorated ones, were very likely dishes 
used on special occasions. Birket-Smith has argued that some may 
have been lamps,?° although they are not quite similar to any known 
Eskimo form. 

A preliminary classification may be made as follows: 


76 Birket-Smith, 1929, vol. 2, pp. 189ff, esp. p. 190. His view is lent some substance by 
Krause’s mention of use of shallow oval stone lamps among the Tlingit (Krause, 1885, p. 
206). However, in the absence of any evidence (ethnographic reports, indications of 
burning on collected specimens), his interpretation of all shallow stone vessels along the 
coast as lamps seems dubious. Further, the use to which he puts this view—linking Hskimo 
lamps, Northwest Coast dishes and/or mortars, and Californian mortars, thus proposing a 
genetic relationship of objects differing in both form and function—is logically unsound. 


ANTHROP. Pap. No. 20] NORTHERN NW. COAST ARCHEOLOGY—DRUCKER 955 


I. Vessels with unshaped (or slightly shaped) exteriors (usually round to 
elliptical boulders), cavity usually shallow.” 
1. Plain. 
2. Decorated (usually by incising. Sometimes irregularities have 
been accentuated or modified to produce a representative form). 
II. Vessels of completely modified forms. 
A. Relatively high straight sides, usually wider at top than bottom, 
flat bottom.” 
1. Plain. 
2. Decorated. 

B. Low, round to oval forms, sides straight to convex. (Such 
vessels, when decorated, are often completely carved into 
zoomorphic forms, which consequently cannot easily be differ- 
entiated as a class). 

1. Plain. 
2. Decorated (including zoomorphs). 

C. Vessels “with seated human figures.” (See Smith, 1907, pp. 
420-424. ) 

III. Paint dishes. These are small vessels, with shallow elliptical cavities 
with traces of wear indicating that paints were ground in them by 
rubbing, metate-fashion, rather than by pounding. 


Wedges.—Splitting wedges of bone and horn are common North- 
west Coast tools. They vary considerably in size, from small forms 
for fine work to great heavy implements for splitting logs. (In 
some parts of the coast wooden wedges, of yew or seasoned spruce 
knots, were preferred for heavy work.) Typological distinctions 
can best be made according to material. 

I. Wedges of mammal bone. 

II. Wedges of antler. 

Long bone rods——Long slender cylindrical or rectanguloid rods 
of bone, usually of sea mammal bone, are of rather wide occurrence. 
Most of them are broken, so it is difficult to tell how they were fin- 
ished. Some, however, had one rounded or subconical end, and at 
the other a tapered though not very sharp tip. Cross section varies 
from round to rectanguloid. The purpose of these objects is un- 
known. Some may have been fixed foreshafts of harpoons, though 
one would expect to find the butts modified for hafting in this case. 
They may have been points for killing lances (the Nootkans de- 
scribe using very long slender bone points on lances for finishing 
off harpooned whales). One unusual specimen from Digby Island *’ 


27 These vessels correspond in form to Lillard, Heizer, and Fenenga’s B.2, B.4, and B.3 
mortar types (Lillard, Heizer, and Fenenga, 1939, ipp. 8-9). 

28 This type corresponds in external form to Lillard, Heizer, and Fenenga’s A.1 to A.5, B.1 
mortar types (1939, pp. 8-9). I have not noted such marked differences in cavity shape 
(wear-produced in the California mortars), which suggests the Northwest Coast vessels were 
used chiefly as receptacles rather than for heavy grinding. Reexamination of the Coast 
specimens, however, may reveal some distinctive features of wear. 

227 PMBC 1830. 


405260—43——_5 


56 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BuLu, 133 


has a projection on one side like the unilateral line guards of certain 
barbed harpoons. 

Bone mallets —Heavy mallets of whale bone, with a longitudinally 
grooved lateral striking surface, shouldered and reduced handle, are 
known to have been used in preparing cypress bark for weaving into 
garments. They all seem to conform fairly closely to a single type, 
although variant forms may eventually be found. 

Cedar-bark shredders—For shredding or hackling the bark of 
the red cedar, wide whale-bone blades, with a perforated grip, were 
used. Two types of these may be distinguished. 

I. Short, rather heavy choppers. 
A. Rectanguloid form, straight edge. 


B. Round to ovate form. 
II. Long, thin choppers. 


Small slender pointed bone objects—Almost any collection of 
archeological materials from the area contains numbers of small 
pointed bone artifacts, which may have served various purposes: 
hook barbs, herring rake teeth, hafted drill points, pins or skewers, 
etc. Worked and/or polished butts show them not to be fortuitous 
scraps, broken awls, needles, etc., but purposefully designed imple- 
ments. The following classification is tentative; further information 
may enable us to distinguish at least some of the types according 
to function. 

I. Bipointed forms. 

II. Single pointed forms. 

A. Sharpened mammal bone splinter. 
B. All-over worked mammal bone. 
C. Bird bone splinter. 

D. Fish spine “pins.” 

Stone disks (rolling targets ?).—A distinctive group of objects 
is that consisting of well-worked thick stone disks, usually of lava, 
which are supposed to have been targets for a local version of the 
widespread hoop and pole game (Culin, 1907, pp. 490, 521-522). 
The disks range in size from 2.5 inches in diameter by 0.6 inches 
thick to 8 inches in diameter by 3 inches thick; most are from 4 to 5 
inches in diameter and 1.5 to 2 inches thick. Slightly more than 
half of them are perforated; some imperforate specimens have pits 
pecked into the two faces. Some have a wide groove concentric to 
the perforation or pit. Similarly placed grooves occur on unpitted 
imperforate specimens. In general, the objects are so similar that 
these variations are probably not significant, and the disks may be 
considered essentially of a single type. The lava of which most of 
the disks are made may be identifiable; it is possible that most of 
them are trade pieces, coming from certain localities only. 


ANTHROP. Pap. No. 20] NORTHERN NW. COAST ARCHEOLOGY—DRUCKER 57 


Slate “pencils.”—Slender rods of ground slate, usually hexagonal 
or octagonal in form, are classed separately at present. Some appear 
to have been bevelled or pointed at the ends, and may have been 
projectile points. Most of those in collections, however, are frag- 
mentary, so that it would be quite hazardous to speculate on their 
function. 

Chipped stone (except points)—A few pieces of chipped stone- 
work, other than the previously mentioned points and blades, occur 
in the collections. Of these, small discoidal “scrapers” constitute a 
fair proportion; the remainder are miscellaneous blades and 
tragments. 

Biconical stones ——From several sites elliptical stones with conical 
ends have been obtained. They are usually of limestone or sand- 
stone, show few signs of battering, and no modification for attach- 
ment or hafting. Their use is unknown; I would suggest that they 
may have been grindstones, for sanding down large pieces of worked 
wood. A typical example is 6.8 inches long and 3.5 inches in greatest 
diameter. 

Grooved, notched, and perforated stones.—The objects in this class 
are stones unworked except for modifications for the purposes of 
suspension. Most of them were probably sinkers, e. g., for fish lines, 
nets, anchor lines, etc. These objects are not common in Northwest 
Coast collections, not occurring in anywhere near the quantities that 
de Laguna (1934, pp. 51-56) found in Cook Inlet. For that reason 
elaborately divided classifications will not be necessary. 

I. Elliptical grooved stones. 
A. Grooved about middle. 
B. Grooved about middle and over one end. 
1. Small stones. 
2. Large (10 lbs. and over). (These are presumably anchor 
stones, or sinkers for deep-water angling.) 

II. Notched stones; small flat beach pebble with lateral notches made by 

percussion. 

III. Perforated stones. 

Whetstones.—Small stones used for sharpening various cutting 
implements, or perhaps for bringing them to their proper shape, 
have been recovered from some sites. They vary from neatly fin- 
ished flat rectangular blocks to irregularly shaped fragments with 
a central depression produced by the grinding. The former can be 
set off as a well defined type, the latter form a rather loose and 
heterogeneous group. 

Stone polishers (?).—Numbers of small round to elliptical beach 
pebbles of various materials averaging 2 or 2.5 inches in diameter, 
occur at certain sites, sometimes in considerable quantities. None 
show any evidences of working, but a number show wear facets, 


58 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL, 133 


indicating that they have been used as polishers or rubbing stones 
for some purpose. Whether this was their only use, or whether some 
were collected for other purposes (e. g., for sling stones, or for throw- 
ing) is impossible to decide. They certainly have been selected for 
size, and are much smaller than the stones used for cooking. 

Drinking tubes and whistles—Tubes formed by cutting off the 
ends of large bird bones occur in some sites, as do bird-bone whistles 
(tubes with a single stop). Fragmentary specimens cannot always 
be determined as one or the other, of course. Drinking tubes are 
known from ethnographic evidence to have been used at various life- 
crisis observances, and by the Southern Kwakiutl for drinking from 
the covered wooden water “buckets” taken in canoes.*° Bone whistles 
are very rare, so far as I know, perhaps having been supplanted by 
the various wooden whistles associated with the widely diffused 
Kwakiutl ceremonial patterns. 

Stone and bone clubs.—Boas (in Smith, 1907, pp. 403-420) has dis- 
cussed the more common varieties of these implements in Northwest 
Coast collections; there is little that can be added to his summary 
at present. The major categories are: 

I. Bone clubs. 

A. Whale bone, flat, spatulate, decorated (Boas, 1909, 165-171). 
II. Stone clubs. 
A. Flat, edged or spiked, ‘‘zoomorphic” (Boas, 1909, figs. 
179-180). 
B. Heavy, pointed, square to cylindrical, daggerlike outline. 
(Boas, 1909, figs. 175-176). 
1, With ringed top and guard. 

Spindle whorls.—Boas (1909, p. 373) has summarized most of the 
available information of these objects. A simple classification would 
be the following: 

I. Large (5 inches in diameter or more) (of bone).™ 

A. Plain. 

B. Decorated. 
II. Small (bone or stone). 

A. Plain. 

B. Decorated. 

Ornaments.—Inspection of ethnographic collections from the area 
impress one by the profusion of ornaments of various materials made 
by natives. Such objects are relatively less numerous in archelogical 
collections, but whether this is to be attributed to lack of investiga- 
tion in the centers of manufacture, to increased interest in ornamenta- 
tion in historic times, or simply to unequal sampling of the two types 


* Boas, 1909, 'p. 447 (tubes of elderberry twigs; my informants have described bone tubes 
also, however). 

* Wooden examples of both types were made, but since they are less likely to be found 
archeologically, they are omitted from the classification. 


AntTHROP, Par, No, 20] NORTHERN NW. COAST ARCHEOLOGY—DRUCKER 59 


of material, it is impossible to say. At any rate, eventually these 
objects should have some significance in both vertical and horizontal 
distributions, and for this reason an outline of the more common 
classes and types of them will be given. Future work will doubtless 
require more refined classifications of most of the types. 


I. Shell beads. 
A. Dentalia. 
B. Clamshell disk beads. 
II. Bone beads. 
A. Bird bone. 
B. Narrow (0.4-0.5 inches), of mammal bone. 
III. Cannel-coal beads (asymmetric polished lumps). 
IV. Pendants. 
A. Animal tooth or claw. 
1. Grooved about end. 
2. Perforated. 
B. Bone or horn. 
1. Long cylindrical rods. 
a. Plain. 
b. Decorated. 
2. Representative carvings on flat pieces of bone. 
C. Hatiotis (historic only?). 
D. (Native) copper. 
1, Flat crescents or rings (Smith, 1907, p. 178). 
2. Conical rolled tubes (historic only?). 
BH. Deer and/or goat hoof pendants. 
, 1. Plain. 
2. Carved. 
F., Stone, carved. 
V. Labrets. 
A. Elliptical, grooved around circumference, of wood, stone, or 
bone. 
B. T-shaped, of stone. 
VI. Flat curved bone bands (brow bands?). 
A. Plain. 
B. Decorated. 
1. Geometric design. 
2. Realistic design. 


Miscellaneous objects recovered in 1938—In addition to the sev- 
eral classes of artifacts described in the preceding section, a few 
unique or unidentifiable forms, not duplicated in the collections ex- 
amined, were recovered from the site tests in 1938. Some of them 
may prove to be of significance when further work has been 
done in the area, and therefore they will be described briefly. 

37." Bone handle (?) with carved bird head. A well polished bone frag- 
ment with a somewhat impressionistic bird head (raven?) at the unbroken end. 
The object may have been the handle of a Sopallalli-berry spoon, or part of an 


ornament. Length, 3.6 (+) inches; width of shaft, 0.42 inch; thickness, 0.1 
inch. 


2 Numbers preceding the descriptions are field catalog numbers of the 1938 expedition. 


60 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 133 


78. Antler pendant (?). An unfinished object of antler with a drilled hole 
near one end may have been intended for a pendant. The horn was sawed 
longitudinally from both sides, broken off, and the cancellous material partly 
ground down. Two transverse cuts were made opposite each other, and the 
piece was broken off to length. The perforation is parallel sided, though some- 
what irregular, perhaps from reaming out after drilling. A shallow pit was 
cut or gouged in one side to start the drill. 

122. Heavy whittled wooden point. A fragment of rather dense wood whittled 
to taper to a sharp four-sided point. The object could have served as a heavy 
awl, a marlinspike, or it may have been an unfinished foreshaft for a (composite 
point) salmon harpoon. 

124. Bird bunt (?) fragment. A whittled stick fragment, cylindrical, with a 
sharply shouldered expanded end roughly cut off to a blunt point, suggests in 
form the head of a bird bunt, or the end of a float plug. 

128. Small whittled wooden object. A small piece of carved wood, with a blunt 
point and a lateral projection near the point, an expanded base reduced by a 
square shoulder to a cylindrical peg ; it resembles an antler of a forked-horn buck, 
and may have been attached to a mask or other carving. Length, 2.5 inches; 
average width, 0.38 inch; width of base, 0.6 inch; diameter of peg, 0.4 inch. 

183. Worked deer parietal. A fragmentary object made of the right parietal 
bone of a deer, with part of the “burr” remaining; it may have been a scraper, 
or a spoon. The anterior portion of the bone has been cut to a neat rounded 
corner and straight edge; the corners are sharp, indicating polish rather than 
wear. The posterior portion has been cut irregularly anterior to the suture 
line, the unbroken portions of this side are rounded off; the end is missing. 

210. Heavy wedgelike bone object. A whale-bone object with tapering squared 
off ends and elliptical cross section; it resembles a symmetrical wedge in out- 
line, but the head is not battered, the tip is square cut and blunt, and a wide 
groove, perhaps for lashing, runs across the cancellous side of the object at 
right angles to its long axis. Length, 7.95 inches; maximum width, 1.6 inches; 
width at head, 1.18 inches; width at tip, 0.74 inch; maximum thickness, 0.78 
inch; thickness at head, 0.64 inch; thickness at tip, 0.12 inch. 

269. Bird head ornament (?) of bone. A small fragmentary carving repre- 
senting the head of a long-billed bird is made of whale bone. The tip of the 
bill is laterally tapered and cut off by a bevel from the under side. Eyes are 
incised on either side of the head. The object is broken just back of the 
head, but traces of a groove or perforation remain. It appears too fragile for 
any utilitarian purpose, and was probably an ornament of some sort. Length, 
2.2 (+) inches; diameter of the bill, 0.24 inch. 

277. Notched or perforated long flat bone (needle?). A long flat pointed 
bone, with a laterally expanded head with what appears to be part of a slotted 
eye remaining, may have been a bone needle type I. However, the V-shaped 
notches along the sides of the head would seem awkward for any sort of 
sewing. The object apparently broke in manufacture, for it shows numerous 
work marks (was not well polished like most bone objects) and shows no wear. 
Length, 6.6 (-++) inches; width of tip, 0.48 inch; width of head, 0.76 inch; 
thickness, 0.14 inch. 

334. Bone peg with expanded head. A small bone peg with cylindrical shaft, 
rounded tip, and flat laterally expanding head (not the original head of the 
bone) might have been meant for any one of a number of purposes: a peg 
or pin, a float plug, a fine drill point (though it shows no wear indicating use 
as a drill, and seems fragile for this use), or a novice’s labret. Length, 1.54 
inches; width of head, 0.26 inch; diameter of shaft, 0.12 inch. 

336. Socketed harpoon (?) fragment. A bone fragment which appears to 


AnTHropP, Pap, No. 20] NORTHERN NW. COAST ARCHEOLOGY—DRUCKER 61 


have been the butt of a small socketed harpoon is made by cutting the proximal 
end of a humerus off diagonally, then making a deep notch in from one side to 
accommodate a rather wide spatulate-tipped foreshaft. A triangular line hole 
has been cut through close to the socket. The shaft of the bone was left unaltered 
to the point of the break; if the object was to be a serviceable harpoon, it must 
have been slotted for an inserted blade with barbs. It has a_ superficial 
resemblance to certain types of Eskimo toggling harpoon heads, but the sim- 
ilarity is more apparent than real. 

374. Whale-bone object (fragmentary). A piece of whale bone split and 
rounded off to an elliptical cross section, tapers rapidly to a blunt, apparently 
rounded end. The object was fairly carefully made, but is too fragmentary at 
present for us to determine its use. 

397. Cut deer mandible. A fragment of a deer mandible cut 1.06 inches 
anterior to the premolar. One of the molars is in place, the others are missing. 
The edges of the cut are rounded and suggest wear, though what purpose such 
an object could have served is not known. 

Manufacturing techniques.—There are a number of important tech- 
nological processes manifested in the specimens examined. They 
may be described briefly according to material to which they were 
applied. 

Work in stone-—Stone was worked by pecking, grinding, chipping, 
and sawing. ‘Tough rocks, used for splitting-adze blades, mauls, and 
the like, were pecked to shape, and then polished, the latter prob- 
ably with fine-grained sandstone grinders. Slate points and blades 
were ground to form from thin sheets of the stone; some pieces, how- 
ever, appear to have been roughed into shape by chipping before 
being ground down. Stone chipping (as mentioned elsewhere, p. 41) 
is restricted to certain regions. Some of the materials (obsidian, 
etc.) may have been imported, but chipped objects in local rock, 
such as the coarse basalts of the Georgia Straits and Puget Sound 
districts, attest to no little ability in this craft. That sawing of stone 
was an important technique was pointed out by Smith (1903, pp. 
164, 167). In both the interior and Straits of Georgia regions, he 
notes many instances of its application. Jadeite (used for celts) was 
the material most often so treated. The jadeite tools of southeast 
Alaska were similarly worked. The possibility that the common 
slate blades may have been used for cutting out celt blanks and the 
like has been mentioned elsewhere (p. 51). 

Work in bone.—Bone, of course, lends itself very well to shaping 
by grinding-polishing techniques, and an emphasis on ground bone 
characterizes Northwest Coast tool and weapon patterns. Large 
bone, such as that of whale and other sea mammals, must be worked 
into blanks before the finer techniques can be applied efficiently. Sev- 
eral methods were in use. A piece of whale bone was sometimes 
reduced to workable size by hacking along the grain of the bone with 
a jagged cobble until it split. In other instances unfinished speci- 


38 Obsidian occurs only in the interior, not on the coast, and the occasional worked 
Pieces one sees were doubtless traded in. 


62 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Buun, 133 


mens show clear traces of an initial sawing, probably with the com- 
mon slate blades. Small bone objects were sometimes given a 
preliminary shaping by battering to crack and chip them to approxi- 
mate form; others were sawed out. 

Perforations in bone were made in a variety of ways. Biconical 
holes were rather common. Cylindrical perforations, drilled from 
one side only, were also made. The type of drill used for this opera- 
tion is not well known, even from the better ethnographic reports; 
it must have been a very efficient one. In addition, slotted holes 
were put through, for example, in certain types of barbed harpoon 
points, and some bone needles, by sawing or gouging. The method 
by which the crescentic slots of some type II harpoons were made is 
not clear. 

Little data are available on woodworking techniques, except as 
these may be inferred from the tool complex. Adzes, celts, wedges, 
hafted and hand mauls, grinding stones, and the rest, represent the 
same woodworking methods that have been described ethnographi- 
cally for the area (cf. Boas, 1909, pp. 327 ff.). 


SURVEY IN 1938 


In the following pages, archeologic sites located during the survey 
of Coast Tsimshian and Kwakiutl territory in 1938 are described. 
The methods used in the reconnaissance were as follows: Each site 
found was located on a chart of the district, and a site-card was 
made out for it, recording the following information: Site designa- 
tion, chart reference, location, water supply, type of deposit, length, 
width, height, house remains visible, burials, cover, owned by, 
mapped, photo, remarks, date. 

Sites to be tested were trenched, laying out the test pits to cut 
across the edge of an historic house, where traces of these could be 
seen. Artifacts recovered from the tests were located as to vertical 
position, and in the case of cuts made partly in the sloping face of 
the midden (for drainage) the horizonal distance from a fixed 
datum was also recorded. During the latter part of the survey it was 
found very helpful to note also the matrix in which the artifact lay, 
as a check on depth measurements, which are sometimes difficult to 
make accurately in deep pits and ones put down from sloping or 
uneven surfaces. This makes it possible to locate every artifact 
precisely on the trench profiles. All these data were recorded by 
means of artifact slips of the type used by the University of Cali- 
fornia archeologic surveys. Most of the digging was done with 
shovels, scraping the bottom of the trench, then shoveling out the dirt 
thus piled up. It was thus possible to uncover most of the artifacts 
without disturbing them. Want of time and somewhat low artifact 
yield prevented use of trowels as the chief tools. Faunal remains 


ANTHROP, PAP. No. 20] NORTHERN NW. COAST ARCHEOLOGY—DRUCKER 63 


recovered were kept in foot-level bags. After completion of each 
cut, profiles were drawn, vertical measurements from top to bottom 
being taken at 3- or 4-foot intervals. The dip of various layers was 
read off with a Brunton compass. Samples were taken of the various 
layers. The point at which each sample was taken was noted on 
the profile, as a check. A sketch map was then made of the site with 
a Brunton and tape. Large measurements are in whole feet and 
tenths (as: “36.8 feet” means 36 whole feet and 8/10) ; small measure- 
ments are in inches and tenths of inches (as: “7.5 inches” means 7 
whole inches and 5/10) .*4 

Method of designating sites —The designations given the sites refer 
to the island, headland, or bay on which they are situated, and have 
been taken from the standard marine charts of the region.** Follow- 
ing the site designation, the chart reference is given. Canadian 
Hydrographic Office charts are indicated by “Can.” followed by the 
chart number; United States Hydrographic Service charts by 
“U.S.” and the chart number; British Admiralty charts by “B. A.” 
and the number. This procedure should facilitate the recording of 
additional sites as they are reported from the area. 


COAST TSIMSHIAN SITES: PRINCE RUPERT DISTRICT 


ANIAN ISLAND 
(Can. 301) 

A large midden on Anian Island, on the north side of the inner 
end of Venn Passage, was located and tested. (See pl. 5,a.) Entirely 
surrounding the island are sand and mud shoals which dry at low 
water. ‘These shoals, which extend most of the way along Venn Pas- 
sage, are rich clam beds, and are probably the source of the shell 
material of the Anian Island and other middens of the vicinity. 
Near the beach, on the south side of the midden, is a spring which is 
sald to flow constantly, even in rainless periods. 

The site consists of a large mass capping the southern promontory 
of the island, with a lower terrace along the southern face. (See fig. 
16.) The terrace is relatively narrow (about 50 feet in width) and 
somewhat longer than the main upper midden; since it was in cultiva- 
tion, testing was confined to the main portion. The latter extends 
350 feet (measured along the crest) in a northwest-southeast direc- 
tion; the greatest width is 180 feet. On the southwest side, the deposit 
rises gradually from the terrace, falling away sharply (30°-40°) on 
the northeast face. The crest is about 30 feet above the high-tide 
line (the terrace is about 10 feet lower). The subsoil on which the 
deposit rests rises to the northwest, so that the deposit, with little 


84 1 foot=0.3048 meter ; 1 inch—=2.54 centimeters. 
35 Native designations have not been used, except in one instance (Qalahaituk) in which 
the locality is not indicated on any published chart. 


64 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY (BULL, 133 


change in altitude becomes progressively shallower, until it dwindles 
away entirely. To southeast the deposit slopes away gently to merge 
with the lower terrace. In form, the midden is irregular, tending 
to parallel the south beach frontage. Owing to clearing, the natural 
cover could not be determined. Mr. Wearmouth, the owner, informed 
us that formerly there were several large shallow depressions visible 


SEACH 
Figure 16.—Anian Island midden. (Sketch, contours only approx.) 


(which he had filled in), which may have been house pits. It was 
not possible for us to test these pits, however, to determine if they 
were houses or not. 

Two trenches and two test pits were dug in the main midden. 
Trench 1, at the western corner of the deposit, was 20 feet long 
(northeast-southwest) by 4 feet wide. The deposit at this point 
proved to be quite shallow, 31 inches deep at the inner northeast 
end of the cut, while a rock outcrop rose nearly to the surface at 
the outer end. Trench 2 was cut into the northern face of the midden 
at about the midpoint. When completed, it was 13.5 feet long by 
9 feet wide. At the outer end of the trench the midden material 
was 35 inches deep; at the inner, where the upper edge was approxi- 
mately 48 inches below the highest portion of the midden, 103 inches. 
Pit A, sunk near the crest of the deposit, was 6 feet by 4 feet by 110 
inches; pit B, nearby, was 6 feet by 4 feet, and discontinued at a 
depth of 60 inches. Human skeletal remains, occurring near the 
surface 6 to 10 feet east of pit B, were exposed and excavated. 

The composition of the midden material exposed by the four cuts 
was essentially uniform. <A layer of black earth with broken shell 
varying in thickness from 4 inches (pit A) to 16-27 inches (trench 2) 


AnTurop, Pap, No. 20] NORTHERN NW. COAST ARCHEOLOGY—DRUCKER 65 


capped the midden. Below this mantle was a mass, chiefly of shell, 
with small quantities of dirt, charcoal and ash, stones, animal bone, 
and occasional artifacts, overlying a thin layer of finely divided black- 
dark brown material (organic ?) which overlay the clay subsoil. In 
the shell which composed most of the deposit a variety of species were 
represented in varying proportions.*®° There were pockets or thin 
horizons in which one species noticeably predominated, but no well- 
defined and significant horizons could be noted. In every cut the lay 
of the shell lenses, etc., conformed roughly to the surface slope. A 
good deal of the unworked stone encountered had been burned; par- 
ticularly common were chunks of a rather coarse laminated slate 
which acquires a vivid red color on oxidation. Ledges of this slate are 
common along the beach in this locality. Nothing determinable as 
a house-floor or habitation level was encountered, with the possible 
exception of the black dirt with sand and yellow sand with charcoal 
layer noted at a depth of 90 inches in pit A and the dark organic (?) 
layer at the base of the midden. (See fig. 17.) 


w= —E 


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H | | 
reat) 
SHELL ‘fOlRT Cow TENT INCREASES 
TOWARDS Borrord) 


SURFACE OF SUGSOsL 


WY 6" (Grey cLay) 


Figure 17.—North face of Pit A, Anian Island. 


The most common forms were: Sarodomis nuttali Conr., Venerupis staminea Conr., 
and Cardium clinocardium nuttali Conr. Strongolo centrotis spines were plentiful in 
restricted areas. 


66 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Buun. 133 


The most noteworthy feature of trench 2 was the apparent indica- 
tion of wave-cutting at the edge of the midden, at the juncture of the 
shell material and the dirt-with-shell layer; this point is at present 
10 to 12 feet above highest tides. 

The artifact yield of the tests was disappointingly low. Pit A 
yielded most; from it 20 worked pieces, chiefly bone, were recovered. 
Subsequent operations at other sites suggest a possible reason for the 
dearth of cultural remains, as will be brought out later. 

One complete burial and portions of a number of fragmentary bur- 
ials were found. Burial 1 lay in the shell material just below the black 
dirt, 13 inches below the present surface, near pit B. The remains 
were those of an adult male, laid on the back, head to the west, and 
legs semiflexed to the left. (See pl. 8, a). A worked bone fragment 
and a ground slate point were found near the burial, but not in definite 
association. A few dissociated human bones occurred near the burial, 
and 2 feet to the east, in an irregular shallow pit penetrating the shell 
for a foot or so and filled with black dirt, were disturbed and frag- 
mentary remains of a small adult and an infant. Of the adult, only 
the leg bones, more or less articulated, a lower arm with the hand, 
and a fragmentary innominate remained. The legs were loosely 
flexed. Enough remained of the infant to indicate a semiflexed posi. 
tion with the head to the east. There were no associated artifacts. 
Mr. Wearmouth, the owner of the site, states that in clearing and 
Jeveling he has encountered a considerable number of skeletons, con- 
sistently at shallow depth—either in the black dirt or immediately 
below it. Two human metapodials were noted at a depth of 32 inches 
in pit A. 


TABLE 1.—Artifacts from Anian Island 
PIT A 


Measurements ! (inches) 
F oe he Oe ee Ee Dep the lecerels 
No. Description in _ by 
Length | Width ThE: inches | inches 


SS en 


11 Bone gouge tip iragmentatypewlp (ah) sees aa | eee ee 5 0-12 
3 |eBone)gougeitip fragment, type beni) sere a aca c eh eee ea ee | ee ee 20 } 12-24 
4a |ABONO BWI pe lesen aes eee Get er iG ASD, | eet Male | [Dee ats 22 i 

10 | Hand maul, CY DOSE Ves See UPN eet Cierra ce! ila ek) yeas a, SLY Oe 24-36 24-36 

12 | Bone point, class B (or awl fragment ?) parallel sides, 

abrupt itipls 0 te te ee ee nmin e ee ter tee (ee ho EA eee eS 60 60-62 

17. | Chipped bone fragment (point blank ?) 66 

14 | Barbed harpoon head, type V___--_-_____- ; ! ! 73 

19 | Sawed bone fragment (awl tip?).-._._-_-- 74 

15 | Serpentine celt tip, fragment_..----------- 77 

20) Bone. paint type Bs LAU eo a ee E 5 ‘ 78 72-84 

21 Bone point; type B=LAS.- sees eee h ; ‘ 78 

26a) | (Handimanl: type TV as aera ae Ae) | lee ee es Seed 60-84 

26b | Stone polishers EE 8 Ne OR ES ONES Va tie RS Boris 8208 | Taree Ae ah See Wh Sieh: 5 60-84 

16 | Chipped and ground slate point a fragmento|e seen .9 .38 85 

23) | BOne LouULe tip tragmMent (LY PCy LB vl) ec ee ee eg | ee | ees 92 84-96 

28), WwStonemolisherse: ecified re Bek PR Deed Mapa | ie Da a) de 84-110 

24 | CBORG AWLP) sibV DO LO. oe noe. em ts oe he eee well ur ose N [rcp ev arn | eee Ee 98 | 96-110 


Total artifacts......__- 17 (+8 indeterminable worked fragments). 

Total yardage.__._--__ 8.2 cu. yards. 

Artifact yield on 28220525 2 ai ere 2: ee ber yard (excluding indetermina- 
es). 


eS Sa_aaaSaqQ-“ 


ANTHROP. PAP, No, 20] NORTHERN NW. COAST ARCHEOLOGY—DRUCKER 67 


TasLe 1.—Artifacts from Anian Island—Continued 


VEEN oT} 


Measurements ! (inches) 


Depth 
No. Description Pai in Remarks 
30 ick- | inches 
Length | Width rigae 
So |/Small/boneaw!\(tipmmnissing), type lbls=- se. - |e ea oo ae Ere lee 42 
TRENCH 
Ste | sone handler(e) withicarved head sssa= 29-2 sn sehen eee ee Ee eae 48-60 | See p. 59. 
39 | (2) Stone maul chips, type indeterminable_....-_|-..-.----|----.----|--------- 48-60 
VICINITY OF BURIAL! 
OsiBoneawlsty pelle esse ee ee Rt 1] Sea ety (er = 8 
7 | Ground slate point, type I, sharp beveled sides, 
unworkeddaces; tapered squared base=_---=--2-|"--=—--=-|==- 2 Eee ee il 
SHB Ona Wile fu YG Cl Oe ee fei ne ere SAN cee Ee see Sele Jobe Ae ces il 
1 See p. 63. 


In addition to the foregoing, through the kindness of the owner of 
the site, Mr. Wearmouth, the expedition acquired a number 
of stone artifacts, most of which had been found in leveling some of 
the higher portions of the midden, i. e., apparently the later levels. 
The implements are: Splitting adze (poll broken), height 2.6 inches, 
width 1.5 inches, type II or III; splitting adze, length 6.5 inches, 
height 1.8 inches, width 1.9 inches, poll broken and reworked, orig- 
inally type IV or V; hand maul, top broken, diameter of shaft 2.2 
inches, diameter of striking face 3.5 inches, type IBb1 (the sharp edge 
at the break has been roughly trimmed by percussion-chipping) ; three 
battered cobble (type IV) hand mauls; two squared whetstones, one 
rectanguloid, with rounded corners and bevelled edges, length 6.4 
inches, width 2 inches, thickness 0.7 inch; the other fragmentary, 
with two worn troughs on one side, the other side fairly smooth, 2.55 
inches wide, 0.55 inch thick (length 2.2 inches +) ; one stone polisher 
(7) with wear facet, and two stones of same size without wear facet; 
a decorated (?) stone—a small crescentic stone, waterworn to that 
shape, slightly trimmed along the concave surface, and roughly grooved 
near the thick end, apparently to suggest the gill opening of a fish. 


CHARLES POINT 
(Can. 301) 


A small midden site on the north shore of Charles Point, just east 
of the Department of Marine Station on Digby Island, was tested. 
The size of the site indicates that it was probably a camp rather 
than a main village. Though documentary evidence is lacking, the 


68 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL, 133 


occurrence of a few articles of Caucasian make in the deposit indi- 
cates use in historic times. The site is in a relatively sheltered situa- 
tion, the high ground and timber behind it breaking the force of the 
southeast winds. A wide though somewhat rocky beach fronts the 
site; on the end of the point, directly east of the fog bell, a number 
of parallel rows of sizeable rocks, apparently canoe runways, are 
exposed by low tides. Several ephemeral springs occur just west of 
the midden. 

The midden extends 120 feet in an east-west direction, following the 
contour of the beach (see fig. 18). The natural subsoil, on which the 
deposit rests, rises, forming a 5-foot bank at the eastern end of the 
site; to the west, the lower edge of the midden is only slightly above 


er wilinig TIDE-CUT BANK 
RAD Cts 
é 


MAGNETIC ) 


Fiaure 18.—Plan, Charles Point. 


average high water. The front of the midden consists of a rather 
steep face, 5 or 6 feet in width, the top is fairly level for the most part, 
running back to merge with the rising ground of the hill behind the 
site. The average width of the deposit is in the neighborhood of 25 
feet. A dense thicket, chiefly wild currant and salmonberry bushes, 
covers the surface. No indications of house pits, posts, etc., could be 
seen on the surface. 

Three trenches and three test pits were put down (see fig. 18). 
Trench 1 was 12 feet by 3 feet, with a maximum depth of 48 inches; 
trench 2 was 15.5 feet by 2.5 feet by 52 inches; trench 3 was 10 feet by 
4 feet with a maximum depth of 70 inches. Pit A, adjoining trench 


AnTHROP. Pap, No, 20] NORTHERN NW. COAST ARCHEOLOGY—DRUCKER 69 


2, was 6 feet square with a maximum depth of 50 inches. Pits B and C 
were both 3 feet by 4.5 feet, and were put down to a depth of 48 
inches. 

The nature and structure of the deposit at this site differed con- 
siderably from that of the Anian Island midden. Although shell 
(of the same species represented at Anian Island) formed the chief 
constituent of the deposit, there was a considerably greater propor- 
tion of dirt in the Charles Point midden, and in addition the profiles 
showed very well defined horizons separated by dark layers 1 to 
2 inches thick (see fig. 19). Determination of the nature of these 


GRAY, WITH CHARCOAL ASH, GRUEN SHEL 


vile 7 LLL LLL LITLE iP 
IL 
LEI be ‘ 


nner Mes 
— Me LAL ANG PUSSEL SHELL 


SOUTH re a 


ysl Tum WENT (WCREASING TO 
—__ 
ll — ROLLE LEE LA LLL 
iil ill (Ue VLE. LLL LEE CZ" 


= OSCR 


1TH SANO, ODT, | ih mn 6TH SHELL 


ead ANO (4USSEL SHELL GREY 


| lil 
IM Mm : WLLL ZL. 


Zo LLL 


ET 
aot i 
ANA HAN STERILE SANO ANB GRAVEL (sues) 


Via MMM <essvece YH Grown orcanic mareriAc RRR Cvvancoac ASH ——ni 5 
Ficur# 19.—Profile of east face of trench 1, Charles Point. 


dark layers appears to be of importance. They consisted of finely 
divided material, varying in color from a dark reddish brown to 
black, apparently being decomposed wood with varying amounts of 
charcoal and ash (the decomposed outer portions of pieces of wood 
in the deposit had the same color and texture; a number of such 
pieces of wood, still relatively sound at the center, occurred in these 
layers). One firepit was found directly connected with such a layer 
at the Charles Point site, and such associations were noted at sites 
tested elsewhere. The layers were noticeably more compact than 
the shell-and-dirt horizons on which they rested. It seems fairly 
clear that the dark layers represent habitation levels, and are the 
equivalents of the floors found in other areas. These levels would 
likely yield information on house types if they were traced out. 

A number of minor features of the Charles Point midden must 
be noted. A very large (6 feet in east-west diameter, 5 feet in 
north-south diameter, 6 to 8 inches deep) rock-filled fireplace was 
found in the area of trench 3, in the uppermost layer (of brown mold 
with fresh-looking clamshell). (See pl. 7, a.) This was the type 
of fireplace commonly described in ethnographic accounts, in which 
a large quantity of stones were kept in the fire to be used for stone- 
boiling as required. This same upper level was the one from which 


70 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BuLL, 133 


the European articles—sail grommets, and a small piece of glass— 
were obtained. Burned stones were found at all levels in the cuts, 
but not in concentration. Some burned slate occurred, but infre- 
quently as compared with Anian Island; most of the stones appeared 
to be ordinary beach cobbles. Relatively little animal bone was 
found in the cuts. No burials were encountered. 


TABLE 2.—Artifacts from Charles Point 
TRENCH 1! 


Measurements 


No. Description Depth Remarks 


Thick- 
Length | Width ibe 


— | SE 


62 | Irregular eliptoidal stone vessel, with 
elliptical depression, containing red- | Inches | Inches | Inches | Inches 


brown stain (pigment?) ....._.-_______- 10 5.5 3.5 10 | Depression. 6X2.6 
X1.3 inches. 
639)sbone pointiblank (2) sees =) nee ee 1.9 At 25 36-48 
64 | Bone hand drill (?) of ulna with un- 
mougiieatherd, reducedutipees=. = == oe |e ee aes ee ee 34 | Diameter of tip, 
0.15 inch. 
66 | (Several) elliptoidal stones, like “pol- 
ishers’” but lackingtwear facets.» 9. 422 ae Silesia 12-24 
73 | Slate blade fragment, with strongly 
curvedbevellodiedger=- = io aek ye aires NAN ee oes ee eae 24-36 
TRENCH 2 
671 \Contactizoods) (2) brass/saili grommets) 2222-22 ee | eee eee eee 1-3 
68) Stoneshand/ maul fragment, type LV. -_.-|2-- 2 o-c | --o noe eee 0-12 
69 | Elliptoidal stone, like ‘‘polisher’’ but 
lackinoiweariiacets. 0 bpanidey see A epee | aoee sen | os See | ee 0-12 
70 | Bone awl or flaker (?) of sea mammal |__---___- 0. 55 0.35 12-24 


bone (butt fragment), rectanguloid 
cross section, round base. 


WipBoneawilirarments type ler =- os seen poe ae oo ee 38 vem slender sharp 
tip. 
78 | Sawed and perforated piece of antler |_-.-_-_-_|_-------_|_------_- 45 
(unfinished pendant?). 
SO] gsnlittinejadze:ipirasments se. 22 =e eee pe ee ee 30 
Sisiistone: handimraul 4 type) TVs mee pe ee Ee ee eee ie eee 36 
82 | Elliptoidal cut whalebone object, |_-..-___- 6 PLP) 34-36 


smoothed rounded end. 


TRENCH 3 
99 | Contact goods (glass fragment, one end |.--.-----|__--_____]_-_---_-_- 2-6 | From close to fire- 
opaque [due to heat?]). place area. 
JO2uie Stone han dimanly typerl Vest 2 eae ee 2 lee oe 24-36 
103 | Bone awl fragment, erobAbiy ty peste. |S See ee eee 43 
104,|)Boneawil; typevicl-..-- 2-2 ee- 2 Zils. -secc~ aloes 36-48 
At 
Sea Stonevhandimaul stype dvs = eae ee ee ed oe ee 12 
Bia ein CA)noL shi spines soe ee ee ee Gand | Se See ee 12-36 
106 | Stone hand maul, type STV es A | a a a As a Ace 24-36 
PEO 
SON ESDUDLIng Adzeitipiracment) se a sleet ee ae eek eee 18 
FEOLAIFVALOAG Or oe nee enn ee man ee ne 29cu. vee SB SSS Fo) |ABeRSAS  e  e. 


PATULUACES POE, yard sl See Ue swe ee ae TD lee eae SEES eee A 


1 Two feet from the end oftrench 1 were found arectanguloid knife blade of schistose material with acurved 
cutting edge, 3.5 by 3.1 by 0.2 inches, at a depth of 6 inches; and a crude (incomplete?) stone vessel of 
unmodified rectanguloid form 7.4 by 4 inches, with a depression 3.1 by 3.3 by 0.6 inches at depth of 6 inches. 

A biconical sandstone ‘‘grinder,’”’ found on the beach near the site, was acquired by the expedition. 


ANTHROP, Pap. No. 20] NORTHERN NW. COAST ARCHEOLOGY—DRUCKER 71 
OTHER SITES IN THE PRINCE RUPERT DISTRICT 


In addition to the Anian Island and Charles Point sites, a number 
of other middens in this same region were located. They will be 
listed and described briefly. 

Wilgiapshi Island (Can. 301).—A large midden is situated on 
the west side of Wilgiapshi Island, at the east entry to Venn Pas- 
sage. (See pl. 5,¢.) The dimensions of the midden were estimated 
as follows: Length, 400 feet; width, 80 feet; external height (i. e., 
from the lower edge, at high-tide line, to the highest adjacent point), 
18 feet at the southern end, 22 feet at the northern. The front slopes 
very steeply from the water’s edge to a sharp crest, the top is rela- 
tively level. The shape of the midden conforms to the beach line, 
swinging around a little cove on the south end. A dense stand of 
salmonberry, bracken, fireweed, and nettle covers the site. 

Robertson Point (Can. 301).—Another large midden stands on the 
south side of Robertson Point, fronting on Venn Passage. (See pl. 
5, 6.) As in the previous instances, the midden is irregular in 
plan, following the beach line around a little point and bight, mak- 
ing the dimensions difficult to estimate. The length along the beach 
is in the neighborhood of 800 feet, the average width probably 100 
feet. The external height of the midden is about 15 feet. The front 
of the midden is rather steep, the top fairly level, merging into the 
rising timbered ground behind the site. Salmonberry bushes, bracken, 
nettle, and tall grasses dominate in the cover. A few small areas 
have been cleared and planted to potatoes by Metlakahtla people. 
A muskeg swamp, drained by a small stream, lies at the west end. 

Emerson Point (Qan. 301).—A midden of roughly triangular shape, 
fronting on the beach on either side of the point, is situated on 
Emerson Point, on the east shore of Digby Island, about 7 (nautical) 
miles south of Charles Point. The length along the northeast beach 
is about 700 feet, along the opposite beach, about 300 feet. The 
midden rises in three terraces (probably conforming to rising of 
the natural subsoil), so that the highest point is about 30 feet 
above tide line. Most of the site is under cultivation at present; 
around the edges of the garden plots salmonberry bushes grow, and 
may have dominated in the former cover. Some timber is said to 
have stood on the midden; if this is so, it was probably along the 
back (inland) edge. The present occupant, in the course of culti- 
vation, has recovered a number of artifacts, chiefly worked stone, and 
also a few glass trade beads and bits of iron, indicating the presence 
of a historic horizon. He reported that he had encountered no 
burials. 

405260—43—6 


tae BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Butn, 133 


Shawatlan Falls (U. S. 1584). —A small site, apparently a fishing 
station, is located on the north shore of the inlet a quarter mile from 
the falls draining Shawatlan Lake. (See pl. 5, d.) The midden is 
165 feet long by 20 feet wide, with an average external height of 
about 6 feet. Mosses, ferns, and grasses form the cover. The place 
is still used when the sockeye salmon run. The beach is rocky and 
abrupt. 

Morse Basin (U. 8. 1584).—Another small site is situated in a 
cove with a wide sloping beach on the south side of the channel 
nearly due south of the preceding one. The high cone behind the 
city of Prince Rupert bears 223° (true) from the site. The dimen- 
sions of the deposit were estimated as 100 feet by 40 feet, the ex- 
ternal height, 7 feet. There is a small stream just to the south. 
A depth test near the middle of the site showed the deposit to con- 
sist of a thick layer of gravel, dirt, and ash overlying material 
consisting chiefly of mussel shell. The depth of deposit at the 
point tested was 48 inches. The vegetation is the same as that of 
the Shawatlan Falls site. 

Due to the distinctive features of middens in this region—the 
plant cover (which, though differing somewhat from one site to 
the next, invariably differs from the surrounding woods, and has 
a characteristic light green color), and the typical midden form; 
a steep front rising from the beach giving way to a fairly level 
top—a number of sites were located by cruising, marked on the 
chart, and not further investigated. Most of these are on Venn 
Passage, at or near the following points, beginning at the eastern 
entry (Can. 301): DuVernet Point; on the west side of Shkgeaum 
Bay; directly across from the preceding, in the cove south of Dun- 
das Point; in the cove west of Dundas Point; on the north shore due 
east of Ritchie Island; on the next point north (north of Grassy 
Island); two sites on Carolina Island; one on Auriol Point; on 
Gribbell Islet (U. S. 1584); a point on Digby Island west of the 
preceding; a point opening on Chatham Sound; west of Modern Met- 
lakahtla (the last mentioned is probably also a site). Most of these 
are quite large. The total number of sites along this one short 
stretch of water (including those previously discussed) is thus 16. 
Two small sites were noted on the west shore of Kaien Island not far 
from Prince Rupert; one at Fairview Observation point, and the 
other about a half mile farther south. 

Reported sites.—Several sites were reported which were not in- 
vestigated. 

Marine Station site——There was a very large site at the place where 
the present Marine Station stands, on the east side of Digby Island 
(west of Charles Point). The site is well-sheltered from most storm 
winds, and is fronted by a moderate beach of fine gravel. The 


ANTHROP. Pap. No. 20] NORTHERN NW. COAST ARCHEOLOGY—DRUCKER 73 


cover of the remaining portions of the midden at the west end, appears 
about the same as that of the Charles Point site. Most of the 
deposit has been disturbed in excavating and leveling for the station. 
The deposit consisted of shell and dirt. In addition to a considerable 
number of artifacts, numerous burials were encountered. According 
to modern Tsimshian, the site was not occupied by any of the known 
divisions, but is attributed to a long extinct tribe in the traditions. 

Other sites were reported at Dodge Cove and Grindstone Point, 
on the northeast shore of Digby Island (Can. 301), and at Seal 
Cove, at the north end of the city of Prince Rupert. The Tsimshian 
fishing stations on the lower course of the Skeena were not visited 
but are probably easy enough to find; one should have local pilotage 
to survey on the river, however, because of the numerous sandbars. 


SOUTHERN COAST TSIMSHIAN 


One site in Southern Coast Tsimshian territory (i. e., territory of 
groups who did not winter in the Prince Rupert district) was tested, 
a number of others located and reported. 


QALAHAITUK ™ 


An interesting small site, belonging to the Kitkiata (Hartley Bay) 
Tsimshian, was tested. The site is situated on a low island a mile 
up the main river flowing into Kitkiata Inlet, on the north side of 
Douglas Channel (U. S. 1584). (See pl. 5, e.) The head of tide- 
water lies several miles farther upstream; at low water only the 
natural stream-flow covers the bottom of the channel around the 
island, while at the bimensal spring high tides most of the island is 
awash. There is no fresh water close at hand (the river, of course, 
is brackish). We were informed that, when occupying the site, the 
people had to go more than a mile up river by canoe to get drinking 
water. The site was used regularly as a fishing station and as a 
refuge in time of war (being protected by the numerous bars too shoal 
after half tide for a war canoe) until the time that Duncan assembled 
the people at Metlakahtla (1862), but only occasionally since.** Some 
house posts still stand (see pl. 7, ¢), and the remains of timbers are 
to be seen at the location of each of the 10 house remains. House 
1, in fact, was said to have been standing more or less intact up to 
about 380 years ago. The vegetation is somewhat varied; wild rose, 
nettle, wild currant, and salmonberry, in mixed stands, are most 
common. <A few “crabapple” trees occur on the center of the island, 


37 This site is designated by its native name because its location does not appear on the 
coastal charts. 

°8The Kitkiata people went to Metlakahtla, but most of them returned to their old ter- 
ritory at the time of the removal to New Metlakahtla in Alaska (1887). 


74 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Buun, 133 


and a few large spruce and hemlock grow over the ends of the 
timbers of some of the houses. 


The Qalahaituk site was of special interest because of its peculiar 
situation. Owing to tidal flooding, the houses had to be built on 


QD 
3 
2 
rc) 
tv 
S 


4OW WarerR 


~~ 


——— 
a 7 
SVS 
w 
Su ! 
9 
ae 


, 


/ 


PR 
iS) 
SS 
= 

’ 

‘ 

1 s;F#OUSE! 
Cie, 

t 

‘ e 

os { 


4 *HOUSE 


(Per. 


He , 
Figure 20.—Plan, Qalahaituk. 


<o., 
by 
Ware 
a 
' 
! 
ere 


/ 


‘ 
tae 
/ 


‘ 


, 
1 + 4o 


/ tse 


’ 


MIOOEN. (t/GHEST 
WATER LINE. 


STANOING MOUSE 
POST. 


Se 2 LOGE: OF HOUSE 


P 


raised foundations. The deposit is not continuous, but consists of 10 
separate house middens, each containing the timber foundation and 
refuse of its house (see fig. 20). The 22.0-foot tide of October 11, 


AnTHRop. Pap, No. 20] NORTHERN NW. COAST ARCHEOLOGY—DRUCKER 75 


1938,” came close to the upper edges of most of the visible founda- 
tion timbers of the houses. The single row of house middens extends 
400 feet northwest-southeast, and averages about 50 feet wide. The 
subsoil rises slightly toward the northwest end. The maximum 
depth of deposit encountered was 52 inches. 

Work done at this site was as follows: To investigate the struc- 
tural details of the houses a section 12 feet by 6 feet by 50 inches 
was taken out of the northwest quadrant of house 1, a cross trench 


DARK GRAY, SANDY, WITH 


STREAKS OF CHARCOAL 


SPRUCE 


CROWN SAND 
BROWN SAND FLOOR 
TIMBER WITH SHELL 


WITH SHELL FRAGMENTS 
FRAGMENTS 


STERILE SUBSO/L 


Ficur# 21.—Profile of east face of trench 1, house 9, Qalahaituk. 


20 feet by 3 feet was driven across the middle of the house, and a 
test pit 3 feet by 8 feet by 56 inches was dug at the center of the 
house just off the cross trench. In house 9, two stratigraphic 
trenches, each 12 feet by 3 feet by 40 to 44 inches, were dug longi- 
tudinally in the central portion of the midden. 

The stratigraphic trenches in house 9 will be described first. Both 
trenches revealed a series of horizons, in each of which ash, shell,” or 
ash-and-charcoal-stained sand predominated, making the layers im- 
mediately discernible. The contact lines were brought into further 
prominence in several cases by the occurrence of a black charcoal 
layer, 0.5 to 2 inches thick (see fig. 21). The dip of all the horizons 


* Height at Prince Rupert, B. C., port of reference for the locality; the mean rise of 
springs at Hartley Bay is about 2 feet less than at Prince Rupert. Tide Tables, 1987, p. 7. 

40 Shell horizons were chiefly of mussel; both Mytilus edulis and M. californianus were 
represented. The “clam” shell which occurred was so broken up that it could not be 
identified. 


76 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Butn, 133 


was in general to the north-northeast and west-northwest across the 
trenches, i. e., from the center to the outer walls. A number of foun- 
dation timbers and poles were encountered in positions indicating 
that the mode of construction was essentially the same as that of 
house 1 (q. v.), though structural details of house 9 were not worked 
out. A considerable amount of stone, mostly unworked river cobbles 
which had been subjected to fire, occurred in the deposit, with a def- 
inite concentration in trench 2 in the 12- to 24-inch level from 3 to 
8.5 feet from the south-southwest end of the trench, presumably a 
fireplace. Just beneath and in contact with this stone concentration 
was an extensive charcoal area in which pieces of bark matting and 
textile were preserved. At the 18- to 24-inch level in the same 
trench, north of the burnt stone area, a pair of juvenile human pari- 
etals were recovered. The maximum depth of occupational debris 
in either trench was 41.5 inches. There was little significant differ- 
ence in the profiles of the two trenches. Underlying the midden 
material was a sandy clay, brownish in color owing to the presence of 
vegetal fibers, apparently the roots or decayed stems of the coarse 
beach grasses growing outside the deposit. The sandy clay became 
progressively freer of these brown fibers downward, assuming a gray 
color. 

The most important feature of the profiles is the sorting of the 
midden constituents, ash, shell, etc., into well defined and extensive 
horizons (the length and combined breadth of the trenches, and up 
to 12 inches thick), just as occurred in the Charles Point site. 

Investigation of house 1 resulted as follows: The house appears 
to have been approximately square, about 38 by 88 feet (exact dimen- 
sions could not be determined because of the washing away of most of 
the timbers on the southeast side). Nearly all the superstucture was 
gone, only a few stubs of posts, stray poles, and large stones (prob- 
ably roofing weights) atop the midden mass remaining. The sub- 
soul over which the house was built rose somewhat to the north and 
west. The foundation consisted of a series of heavy timbers, mostly 
cedar (see fig. 22, and pl. 7, d). The main central support was an 
18-inch log lying northwest-southeast across the middle of the house. 
At either end, and at least at one point near the middle, it rested on 
large cedar blocks. It was not possible to determine if these blocks 
were shaped to fit the log; their function was clearly to steady and 
level it. At right angles to this cross timber were four longitudinal 
timbers, three of which rested on the cross support. These ranged 
from an average of 13 to 19 inches in diameter. Presumably there 
was at least one more of these on the southeast side. These timbers 
had not been adzed; some had stubs of branches remaining. Their 
ends, where preserved, showed both charring and adze-marks, indi- 


ANTHROP. Pap. No, 20] NORTHERN NW. COAST ARCHEOLOGY—DRUCKER 77 


cating the manner in which they had been trimmed to length. The 
timber along the northwest side lay directly on the ground, not on 
the cross log. The longitudinal timbers in the central portion of 
the house were covered with unbroken strata of midden material. 
The southwest ends of these timbers, extending out over lower 
ground, seem to have been supported by short vertical posts. Across 
the longitudinal timbers, poles averaging 5 to 8 inches in diameter 
were laid fairly close together. (See pl. 7, 6.) Traces of strips 


uN SPRUCE TREE 
®, a 


P - VERTICAL POSTS 
I-W- HOR/ZONTAL 
FLOOR SUPPORTS 
VI - WYPOTHETICAL 
FLOOR SUPPORT 
~~~ - HIGHEST WATER- 
(DOUBLE LINE 
DENOTES ABRUPT 
ERODED BANK) 


F = SUPPORT FOR TIMBER 


rPrr--e a. 
GAS se 


SCHEMATIC SECTION ALONG TIMBER VT 
FicuRE 22.—House 1, Qalahaituk. 


of spruce bark running at right angles to the poles were noted in a 
number of places, and perhaps represented the final layer of floor- 
ing. In the central section the floor poles were laid parallel to the set 
of innermost timbers, resting on subsidiary cross braces. 

The foundation timbers enclosed a small midden, the outer edges 
of which had been washed away by the tides. The highest (central) 


78 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Buun, 133 


portions of the deposit covered the longitudinal timbers to a depth 
of 7 to 8 inches, thin unbroken layers of ash and charcoal running 
across the central timbers. Ash, charcoal, shell, and sand, for the 
most part separated into thin strata and lenses, composed the 
midden mass. Contact goods (iron fragments, trade beads, etc.) 
were found in quantities in the.upper levels. 

Trenching below the floor poles in the north quadrant next to the 
inner longitudinal timbers showed the midden material to dwindle 
away fairly rapidly toward the north and west. Some fine gray 
beach sand had been washed in and overlay the floor poles and 
midden material. Below the sand, ash, and charcoal layers was a 
layer of decomposed shell, containing some charcoal and sand. Under 
this was an area of brown sandy clay, apparently the same as that 
on the flooded margins of the island, but containing a great quantity 
of wood chips, cedar bark fragments, pieces of bark matting, withes, 
rope, etc. The general appearance of the material was that of car- 
pentering debris. This layer, which, though its full extent was not 
traced, appeared to be a sort of pocket, began suddenly 2 to 3 feet 
from the edge of the central cross timber (no pit outline could be 
noted there, however; the soil—a brown sandy clay—seemed identical 
with the matrix of the wood chips, etc.). Below this pocket, a layer 
of gravel and cobbles apparently indicated the original beach surface. 

It seemed probable that the pocket of carpentering debris dates 
from the time of building the house, particularly since it rests on 
the sterile subsoil underlying house and deposit. That it does not 
represent an earlier structure is indicated by the fact that no traces 
of habitation levels or of timbers, etc., unrelated to the house 1 
remains were encountered. Since we have a terminal date, 1862, 
for regular seasonal use of the site, it is of interest to note evidences 
of time required for the formation of the small house midden. No 
datable contact objects were recovered from the pocket of wood- 
working debris. However, the appearance of the chips, their rather 
large size, and cleanly cut surfaces, indicates that they must have 
been cut with metal tools—if not axes, steel-bladed adzes. House 
1, then, must be placed entirely within the historic period, and prob- 
ably was built at most no more than a couple of generations before 
its abandonment.‘t The state of preservation of the foundation 
timbers bears out this dating. 

41 Despite the pre-European acquisition of iron on the coast, metal axes and/or adzes 


indicate a postcontact date. The early iron tools seem to have been reserved for carving, 
ete.; heavy chopping was done with stone blades until trade times. 


ANTHROP, Pap, No. 20] NORTHERN NW. COAST ARCHEOLOGY—DRUCKER 79 


TABLE 3.—Artifacts from Qalahaituk 


Remarks 


See p. 60. 
See p. 60. 


Elements 0.10 to 0.14 
inch and 0.10 to 
0.12 inch; 0.18 to 
0.20 inch and 0.10 
to 0.12 inch; 0.12 
to 0.14 inch and 
0.12 to 0.14 inch. 

Elements 0.28 to 0.3 
inch and 0.18 to 
0.22 inch. 


See p. 60. 


Longest piece 30inch. 


HOUSE 1 
Measurements 
No. Description Depth (inches) 
emer jae Thick- 
(or di- | Width ness 
ameter) 
Inches | Inches | Inches 
169neContacts-coodsa(elass;sbeads| cere eee nae eee eee Surfacess20-2 a 
clay pipe fragment, etc.). 
109a} Imperforate ground disk of De bih| se a OS 22h a Bees Colle eee Ser 
schistose material. 
Contactecoodsm(classmbeadssy 2) eons Peen eee ee Layers above 
110 lead shot; copper bracelet; flooring. 
111 glass, iron, and copper frag- 
ments). 
114 | Diorite sinker, grooved about 8 6.5 Bi i/ol| dskeineyes jee ee ee 
middle and over one end. 
@ontact) coods 1 (classmbeads. | |Ss5 es ee |yaee ee ee Sand and shell 
116 glass and iron fragments, layers below 
117 clay pipe fragments, ax-cut floor. 
wood chips). 
122.| Heavy wooden point (fore- |___._----|.-_------ 
shaft fragment?). Pocket of car- 
1245 AWOOdenebiTgwbuntn (2)ieiraga—s |e 2 ene ae 2 oes || eee eee pentering de- 
ment. bris. 
a ha) DiecesHine;matting? 2525) foes ee | Pe oe 
125a| Large piece coarse checker- |__.._-.-.|-..------|--------- 
work matting of cedar bark. 
126alae)epleceswio-strand splaited: les. 205-4 |-e ees 2 (ea a seene 
bark rope. 
127 | 2-ply twisted bark rope (frag- |__.-_-_--|--------- . 25 
ment). Pocket of car- 
128 | Carved wooden ‘‘antler’’_____- QD altar ee 483 pentering de- 
129 bris. 
131 (5) plecestuwastednwithes==)--4|| 222-2 sae oe sete Se 
136 
130 | 2-ply twisted bark rope (frag- |..._..__-|_-.------ Bt 
ment). 
14a Vletal-cuts (2) wOOd Chips= a=. |e ons (bes snee ae eee one 
House 9, Trenches 1 and 2 (combined) 
TOM eC@ontacteoodsm(slass\ heads |saes ss eee erecta QE Diane hou eae 
metal tweezers, copper, 
glass and iron fragments). 
140), Splitting adzeiiracment, typei?, |o-- = ee eee lean ee 1 eae Sie eae 
141 | Bone point, type BITA______- . 88 0. 48 OMISh | PIQ=1S oe e er eee Ss 
142n PBonempointwitaament,, ty peu |Hoseee es anes eae eee pal: oe 
BIA (?). 
43h pBone pointurarment. ty Denes esas al eee eee eee Pi ei eee en 
144 | Bone point, type BIIA_____-- 3 
147 | Bone point, type BIIB_____-_- 
148 | Bone point, type BITA______-_ i 
149s Boneawl typed (tipbroken)s |p e242 o oe ese | aes 
150 | Bone awl fragment, type le 
152 Boner point fragment, type 2.62 48 op UG} |S a Ee ae 
@harreditextileviragments sso ae ee | ee OEY Y Uae 
RemainsioreG) plaim checker |pss ee se eves eee eee eee ee ee 
cedar-bark matting. 
154 


Small fragment of twilled 
checker cedar-bark matting. 

Cypress bark robe fragments 
(twined). 


0.08 to 0.11 inch and 
0.13 to 0.18 inch; 
0.09 to 0.12 inch 
and 0.16 to 0.18 
inch; 0.10 to 0.13 
inch and 0.18 to 
0.22 inch. 

0.08 to 0.10 inch and 
0.08 to 0.10 inch. 
Wefts each 0.5 inch 

apart. 


80 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Butn, 133 


OTHER SOUTHERN COAST TSIMSHIAN SITES 


A few other sites in this district were inspected by or reported to 
the expedition. 

Kitkiata (U.S. 1584).—The former winter village of the Hartley 
Bay Tsimshian is situated at the mouth of a stream on the east side 
of Kitkiata Inlet, off Douglas Channel. The site is still in use as a 
fishing place. In addition to modern frame houses, three plank 
houses still stand, and a number of sets of posts and beams. Wave- 
cutting at the outer end has disclosed a thick black-dirt layer, over- 
lying an equally thick horizon consisting chiefly of mussel shell; the 
two together are about 48 inches deep. The midden is long and 
sprawling, though the Indians maintain that a good half of it has 
been washed away. <A heavy growth of nettle stood between the 
houses and bordered the walks, despite the fact that the people had 
been there some weeks drying fish at the time of our visit. 

The presence of sites was reported at the following localities: Near 
a small lake a short distance from the salt water at Klewnuggit Inlet; 
on the east side of Grenville Channel (U. S. 1584, also 1763) ; at the 
stream mouth on the north arm of Lowe Inlet; on the same channel 
(U. S. 1584, also 1763); on the east shore of the south entrance of 
Laredo Channel (U. S. 1584) (large house frames are said to be 
standing here) ; on Hastings (?) Island in the mouth of Laredo Inlet 
(U. S. 1584); on an island in Higgins Passage (between Price and 
Swindle Islands) (U. S. 1584). These three last-named localities 
should be inspected only during the summer season, when reasonably 
good weather may be expected. This is true also of the localities 
in the Nepean Sound district described by Caamafio in 1792, in the 
recently published translation of his journals (Caamano, 1938). 


HEILTSUK (NORTHERN KWAKIUTL) SITES 


The territory with which this section is chiefly concerned is that 
part of the coast from Seaforth Channel on Milbanke Sound to the 
mouth of Rivers Inlet, exclusive of Dean and Burke Channels. This 
has been known as the range of groups speaking the Heiltsukan 
variety of Kwakiutl since earliest historic times.*? The Heiltsuk were 
never confederated until the historic period when a number of the 
tribes assembled at Bella Bella; formerly each local group or tribe 
had its own winter village and set of fishing stations and camps. 
Sites in this region are very numerous, and many are of considerable 
size. One small Xaihais (“China Hat”) site in Khutze Anchorage 
off Graham Reach was examined, and another nearby was located. 


“Tt was not practicable to include the territories of the northernmost Heiltsuk, the 
Xaisla of Douglas and Gardner Canals, during the present survey. 


Anrurop, Pap, No, 20] NORTHERN NW. COAST ARCHEOLOGY—DRUCKER 81] 


KuHvuTzE ANCHORAGE 
(B. A. 1927) 


A small Xaihais site lies on a point on the south shore of Khutze 
Anchorage, which opens off the east side of Graham Reach. The site 
is a fishing station (a salmon river empties into the salt water about 
a quarter mile past the point), and is used to the present time, as 
remains of temporary shacks and very recent Caucasian goods testi- 
fies. A sheltered cove with a gentle gravel beach fronts the site. 
Some 30 yards to the south is a small spring. A growth of young 
conifers between the midden and the beach partly screen it from view, 
though none grow on the site itself. A few bushes (wild currant, dev- 
ilsclub) and a good deal of nettle grow on the midden material. The 
maximum length of the deposit is 90 feet, the average width about 
30 feet. Twenty feet farther out on the point traces of an older, 
that is, less recently used, camp were noted, heavily overgrown with 
alders and brush. 

Three test pits, each 6 by 4 feet, and one 5 by 4 feet, were dug. The 
maximum depth of deposit noted was 34 inches. Shell formed a 
relatively small proportion of the midden material, which consisted 
mostly of ash, charcoal, and layers of sand and dirt with admixtures 
of ash and charcoal. There were also several layers composed of a 
brown soil which seemed to be chiefly rotten wood, with some sand, 
charcoal, etc., mixed in. Burnt stones and animal bone were noted 
throughout. There were almost no artifacts recovered. 


Roscoe INLET 1 AND 1A 
(Can. 320) 


In a cove just west of the mouth of Roscoe Inlet (near the junc- 
tion of Johnson and Return Channels), two large middens were found 
about 100 yards apart and on either side of a small point (see fig. 
23). Several trails run through the bush connecting them. The 
sites are fronted by a gently sloping beach that dries for a good 
hundred yards at low water, though rather exposed to the lash of sou’- 
easters blowing up Johnson Channel. On the beach in front of 
midden were several rows of stones, probably canoe runways, and 
on the west side of the cove was a tidal salmon weir of stones. Sev- 
eral small streams from the mountain behind the sites run along the 
edge of, and through the midden material. 

According to ethnographic information I obtained, the two middens 
were used as the winter village of the Owiklit (GwiLit.*) tribe. They 
were occupied contemporaneously. The eastern site (1) was known 
as “Landslide (place)” (hwinis), referring to the landslide scar on 


82 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BuLt, 133 


the mountain behind it; the western one (1A) was called “Ready (i.e., 
to fight),” (tiai’is). The statement that both were simultaneously 
used is borne out by the presence of house timbers on both middens, 
although those on midden 1 are better preserved (apparently more 
recent) than those on 1A. The general nature and order of the 
midden strata were likewise similar. 

In general conformation the two middens are similar. Both follow 
the shoreline; midden 1 is roughly crescentic in plan. Both rise from 
the high-tide line in a rather steep (ca. 30°) slope or face which forms 
an abrupt angular crest where it meets the level midden top. The 


N 


NICHOLSON J. Q, 


4 NAUTICAL MILE 
Figure 23.—Rosecoe Inlet 1 and 1A. 


tops of both 1 and 1A extend back to meet the hillside at the rear. 
The back part of 1A rounds off slightly, forming a shallow trough 
1 to 2 feet deep between the midden and the sidehill. Midden 1 
is more nearly level, so that no such depression is formed. Midden 
1 is about 300 feet long and averages ca. 60 feet wide. Its top is 12 
to 15 feet above tide line. A creek cuts through the deposit two- 
thirds of the way from its eastern end. The dimensions of 1A are 
nearly the same: Length, 360 feet; average width, 60 feet; height, 12 
to 15 feet. One-third of the distance from its eastern end the midden 
is cut through by a small stream, and at its southwestern end is 
another slightly larger creek. The cover of the sites is unusual. 
The eastern half of midden 1, and most of the face (the slope to the 
beach) supports a growth of long tough grass of a distinctive light 


ANTHROP. Pap. No. 20] NORTHERN NW. COAST ARCHEOLOGY—DRUCKER 8&3 


green color. Occasional nettles grow among the grass. The rest 
is wooded. 1A is, in fact, covered with such a heavy stand that it 
was not recognized as a midden from the foreshore. (See pl. 6, d.) 
The timber consists entirely of young hemlocks (7suga heterophylla 
[Raf.] Sargent) except for a small clump of alders which follow 
the course of the creek cutting through midden 1. The hemlocks grow 
in most cases on decaying logs, house posts, and fallen beams, ex- 


HAG. 


N 
FAVE BEAM 
————— 


SILL 


ELEVATION 


Ficure 24.—House 1, Roscoe Inlet 1. 


tending their roots along the grain of the timber—a type of growth 
noted by Sudworth as characteristic of the species (Sudworth, 1908, 
p. 98). (See pl. 7, e, 7.) This habit probably has enabled them to 
become established where other conifers could not. In a number of 
instances sizable hemlocks were seen growing in a row on a very slight 
ridge—seedlings had become established on a fallen beam and had 
continued to grow after the beam had almost completely decomposed. 

As previously mentioned, remains of a number of houses are indi- 
cated by the presence of posts and beams on the surface. House 1, 


84 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Butn, 133 


midden 1, is represented by three pairs of posts (see fig. 24), one of 
which has rotted out and fallen over. The posts are all from 32 to 35 
inches in diameter; the central pair, front and rear, are 94 and 106 
inches high, the eastern side pair 83 and 72 inches. Height of the 
other pair could not be determined. They stand in two rows, along 
the front and rear walls, each pair formerly connected by a heavy 
adzed beam. Three of the posts are sound enough at the top to show 
that they had been concavely notched to fit the beam. The dimensions 
of the house, as indicated by the posts, were: Length, front to rear, 
46 to 47 feet (the central pair of posts were 46.5 feet apart) ; width, 
38.5 feet. The side beams are larger than the ridge timber, being 32 and 
36 inches in diameter. The beautifully fluted central beam has an aver- 
age diameter of 21 inches. In length, the timbers are from 51 to 52 
feet. Along the front of the house, 2.5 to 3.5 feet from the front posts, 
and exactly on the edge of the midden face, lies a 16-inch timber 
embedded in the soil so that only its upper and outer surfaces are 
exposed. (See elevation, diagram, fig. 24.) This was a structural 
part of the house, a sill laid down to bank dirt against, in order to 
level off the floor. 

Just west of house 1, its near posts within a foot of the line along 
the outside of the western pair of house 1’s posts, are the remnants of 
a similar set of three pairs of posts and beams. ‘The timbers of this 
house (house 2), are much smaller than those of house 1, as are its 
dimensions (37 by 33 feet). To the east of house 1, stubs of several 
posts indicate another house (house 3), but a complete set was not 
found and it was not measured. It was probably about the size of 
house 2. 

On midden 1A (see fig. 25), a rectangular area, 38 by 36 feet, was 
identified as a house (house 4). It is outlined by a row of hemlocks 
growing along a low ridge on one side, a rounded bank of earth about 
2 feet high along the rear, and a ridge 1 foot high along the third 
side. The area thus enclosed is noticeably more level and slightly lower _ 
than adjacent portions of the midden. No posts or visible timbers 
remain. Adjacent to it is a smaller level area marked by low ridges, 
35 by 23 feet, also a house. House 6, next to the last described, is indi- 
cated by a similar level area, 48 by 38 feet, with a slight bank along the 
rear side. In addition, two heavy beams lie, one along one side of the 
floor area, the other along its center. Probably more traces of houses 
could be found on the surface; these six are the most obvious ones. 

Two trenches were dug, one in midden 1, the otherin1A. The former 
was put down 20 feet in from the sill in house 1; its dimensions were 
13 feet by 5 feet by 36 inches. At the 36-inch level percolation of 


ANTHROP. Pap. No. 20] NORTHERN NW. COAST ARCHEOLOGY—DRUCKER 85 


surface water made excavation impossible. An attempt was made to 
dig a drain in the face of the midden, but this proved unsatisfactory. 
On midden 1A, a small pit (trench 2), 8 to 5 feet, was staked out just 
behind the crest of the face, and a drain 2 feet wide was dug down the 
face. The drain, when completed, extended 12 feet out (horizontally) 
from the crest and revealed a maximum depth of deposit of 150 inches. 


3% 
Seed 
"SS Rocky 
4 Re; by Pont 
STEEL Aa 7, 
sorted iererseeae TTT 


nN 
(MAGNETIC) 


FIauRE 25.—Plan, Roscoe Inlet 1A. 


It was slightly narrower at the bottom than at the top. The depth of 
deposit made it impossible in the available time to complete trench 2, 
and the structure of the layers in the drain made it unnecessary to do 
so, so the trench was discontinued at 42 inches. 

The results of the excavations at Roscoe Inlet 1 and 1A are of some 
importance. Both middens were shown to be composed of well differ- 


86 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bun, 133 


entiated and extensive horizons of ash, charcoal, dirt, or shell. The 
artifact yield was relatively high, and moreover, there appeared to be 
a tendency for the artifacts to be concentrated in certain levels which 
on the basis of other evidence, probably are habitation levels or floors. 

A profile of trench 1 (see fig. 26) showed beneath the dark brown 
surface layer a thick horizon of light brown dirt with considerable sand 
and burnt stones. A few small lenses of charcoal and charred woods, 
or ash, and one relatively large pocket of charcoal and stone occurred in 
it. The large lens was probably not a fireplace, but a dump of hearth 
refuse, for it contained no ash layers, It appears likely that this 
whole horizon is fill. It certainly is not ordinary occupational debris. 
Beneath it, at an average depth of 20 inches, was a thin stratum of 
finely divided brown to black material. In appearance, the layer was 
identical with the “decomposed wood” layers identified as habitation 
levels at the Charles Point site. In the east end of the trench, con- 
tinuing into the south wall but cutting off just short of the north 
wall (and, therefore, not shown in the profile) were the charred rem- 
nants of a number of large boards or slabs. Caving of the wall during 
profiling disclosed a vertical stake, 2 inches in diameter, 1.25 feet north 
of the trench wall, whose point of origin apparently lay above the floor. 
Below the floor level in the east end of the trench a series of black 
sandy layers alternated with layers in which mussel shell predomi- 
nated. In the west end an intrusive pit antecedent to the floor had 
been cut, then filled with brown soil and with coarse sand and stone. 
The west edge of the pit cut sharply back to the west wall of the trench, 
then around eastward 3 or 4 feet from the north wall. Unfortunately, 
the exact size and shape of this pit was not worked out, nor could its 
purpose be ascertained. There was a notable dearth of artifacts and 
faunal remains in this material as compared with the corresponding 
levels in the east half of the trench. Rapidly dug test holes could be 
put down to a depth of 72 inches (36 inches below the bottom of the 
trench) and would not fill with water for several minutes. Two of 
these, one at either end of the trench, indicated that the deposit con- 
tinued downward in a series of alternating shell and dark soil levels, 
similar to those in the east end of the trench between 20 and 36 inches. 

The drain cut from the south wall of the trench to the midden face 
to carry off seepage water showed the upper dark brown layer to ex- 


ANTHROP. Pap. No, 20] NORTHERN NW. COAST ARCHEULOGY—DRUCKER 8&7 


‘L J@[UL Voosoy ‘ulvap ‘T youss} ‘vdey Sve Jo o[yorg—'9z AAI, 


(Pe 


o 


G 27) 


oes 


SINOLS BIVvW7 sNPowsWwaN | 
HALIM GNYS NMOYD 


Oo 


oO 


IIHS 


Tonys "S20 79D 


fee 


Sye7 279HS HLIO AONYS OW TE 


< YOIWbHD) woW~7D sow7s OFYYVHD 


INOLS H4LIM ‘AON YS WMOVE 


TAsSsaW 


AONVS ‘WO”VTAI-NMOYE WYWd 


<({_| ae 
> 


7 


405260—43 


88 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL, 133 


tend unbroken, though thinning out, to the sill (fig. 27). Against the 
sill was an area of brown sandy dirt with numerous large stones. This 
apparently was an artificial fill to level off the latest house floor, that 


ae CHARCOAL ye 
SHELL [Je 


a 
Y, : : 
&b 
LL7 RQ 
é f Dy 
oe, Ny 
Fred lay =. 
) DS BAK DIRT . 
Oa, S SS, © WITH SHELL 
SROWN SANDY OIRT. wrt STONES 

C: 
y 
8 
] 
§ 
ai cies et ete halle N 
i: > 
© 
~ 
a = 
(of BROWN, WITH MICACEOUS pines Y 
EE aa ale x 
SANO, STONES aah) Gp ay wipe eg. Be =. S 
Oeil eet tra hs Re oe ig : 


~- 3 = ee oe ee ee ew wee 
we —— 


STERILE Y&tLlouw 
SAND 


tm 


i 


(CwEXCAVATED) 


— SE. 


FicuRE 27.—Drain, Roscoe Inlet 1A. (X=location of artifact; numbers in 
parentheses indicate indeterminable worked fragments. ) 


of house 1, represented by the uppermost black horizon. Beneath 
the fill, the mussel-shell horizon rose to a slight crown 19 inches from 
the surface (from 35 inches at the north wall of trench 1), then dipped 
beachward. 


ANnTHROP. Pap, No. 20] NORTHERN NW. COAST ARCHEOLOGY—DRUCKER 89 


Contact goods (trade beads and iron) were found in trench 1 in the 
uppermost (dark brown) horizon, and in the light brown sand with 
stone horizon (fill) beneath it. 

The drain of trench 2 (see fig. 27) exposed a series of differentiated 
layers in which the predominating constituent was sandy soil, with 
varying amounts of charcoal, ash, burnt stone, faunal remains, and 
cultural material, alternating with ash layers and layers of shell 
(chiefly mussel). A number of dark brown or black strata con- 
taining a considerable quantity of organic matter, and occasionally 
small amounts of broken shell, seemed of the same type as the dark 
brown to black horizons in trench 1. 

Tests to determine the back edge of the deposit showed the midden 
to contain a fairly large proportion of clam (Saaidomus nuttalli 
Conr., Venerupis staminea Conr.) and cockle (Cardiuwm clinocardium 
nuttalli Conr.) shell there, rather than mussel shell as in the outer 
(and probably older) part of the site. 

The artifact yield of the drain and trench corresponded to that of 
trench 1. 

The most striking feature of the profile of the drain is the change 
in the trend of the habitation levels. The uppermost level carries 
straight out to meet the sloping face at a definite angle. Presumably 
this reflects the use of a type of house similar to that found around 
the point at Roscoe Inlet 1, where the house was built as far out over 
the edge as possible, filling in against a sill where necessary to level 
off the floor. The lower strata (again as in the adjacent site) in- 
dicated a gradual, more usual type of deposition, in which the layers 
slope off gradually, and the areas of occupation kept moving back- 
ward as well as upward. 

To summarize, the middens Roscoe Inlet 1 and 1A represent an 
extensive site extending downward in time from the historic period. 
The very characteristic conformation of these middens, steep face 
joining the top at a pronounced angle (as in some Tsimshian sites), 
is probably to be associated with a late feature of house construction, 
and the tendency to build houses as close to the midden front as 
possible, artificially filling and leveling when necessary. The occur- 
rence of certain distinctive strata which seem to be habitation levels 
should make it possible with more extensive excavation to define the 
earlier as well as the recent dwelling types of the region. 


90 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 133 


TABLE 4.—Artifacts from Roscoe Inlet 1 


Measurements 
N D ipti reac no Depth te R 
0. escription Length ? ept | oR emarks 
(or di- | Width aloe inches 
ameter) HASSE 
Inches | Inches | Inches | Inches 
72a Contact goods: (Plass bead) =-225|) 200 == |. eae een Aer 5 
176; |) Bone\point fragment (class! B)=-|_2 2 | ee i 6 
178) || Bone awl; typerlb----=----25-=- 2.86 0.8 0. 45 8 
173 | Stone hand maul, type III_--_-- 4.77 2.4 1.96 9 
174 | Stone hand maul, type IV____- 3.4 2.79 1.73 10 
180) Bone awl), type Lal -- = 2128 S208 bl teen =o. ee 10 
181 | Bone point, type BIIA (4 2. 28 32 21 10 
asymmetrical proximal 0-12 
barbs). 
182 | Bone point, type BIA__________ 3. 22 .47 .16 11-12 
183 | Scraper (?) of deer parietal_____ 3.6 1.78 “15 12 
177 | Elliptical chipped bone (point 1.97 42 .14 7-12 See p. 62. 
blank?). 
184 | Contact goods (chinaware frag- |______.__|_..--.-__|_-____-_- 0-12 
ment). 
192 | Whale-bone cypress bark beat- |________- 1.85 1. 65 10 (1) 
er, handle missing. 
185 Sie celt fragment, type |________- TEAS te eet 2 14 
1 ; 
226)| Contact goods) (ron object) 22 |e eee ee eee eee 16 
1874| Boneiawilhtype ld. a2 4.6 . 54 . 24 19 12-24 
188 | Bone gouge or scraper, small, 2. 63 APT . 23 19 
type IA. 
201 | Rectanguloid slate straight- 1.78 1. 52 . 34 24 
edged stone blade (‘‘saw’’). 
195 ewe CU) PALSe MEN LS Ey; pe s|mewee ee ere Soe ee Ra 25 
1 5 
197 | Whale-bone object (blank?), 14.5 . 93 .6 27 
one side hacked, one sawed. 
202 | Serpentine (?) celt poll frag-} _-_.___}_-_.___- . 63 27 
ment, type IB (?). 
206 | Fish-spine pin (?) fragment____ Cc | eee A ee 27 
207 | Bone point fragment, type 2.7+ 3 15 27-28 
BIIA (?). 
208; | sawe dunone fragment: 2 ee |e |S es ee 28 
210° | ‘Blunt. tipped “wedge-shaped”? {228-220 i ijti22) Bie 30 See p. 60. 
object. 
Zit || *BoneawlifragmentAtypedoo sete l i ee Ce ee 30 
212 | Composite harpoon point frag- |_________ . 54 322 30 
ment, type II. 24-36 
200) | ;Stoneiband maul) type VV sso so ae eee eee 30 
199 | Bone point, type BIIB_________ 3. 22 . 44 a3 27-30 
191) |pStonehand) maulatype ves ete ue a ee ee 24-32 
215 eerepen point butt fragment, |___._____ - 96 . 34 33 
type I. 
216 ae nie (?) fragment, type |________. . 88 +22 33 
203 ||| Large ‘flati chip! of ‘serpentine? | .25) 3/2 al ee 34 
(celt fragment?) 
217 | Bone awl (or gouge?) fragment, |___.____. 4 . 25 34 
sawed, type 1b (?). 
219 | Small bone (sea mammal rib) 3.3 . 96 . 53 35 
wedge. 
220 | Bone point, type BIB__-_______ 3.5 42 wee, 36 
205 | Bone awl, type le______________ BOO 4 | sen ee eee 24-36 24-36 
222 | Stone polisher with wear facets_ VBA CEAL ELLE AES Ba 24-36 24-36 
22 | Splittingadzeragment=_ = 222" Sih eee Se ee ee No loc. (2) 
228 | Harpoon fragment, spatulate |__.______]_.._..___]_..__-..- No loc. () 
tip type, V (?). | 
Total mum ber artifacts fromytrvenchl 2: ae a ee OY (See as Se eee So 40-3 from drain. 
Total yardage tee ere ee ee ee epee ees PT OPS TiO Vardss use aes 
Artifact ils 2s se ee eer ee eh ee wa ES ORD. 5.2 per yard_______ Also 6 indetermin- 
able worked bone 
fragments recov- 
ered. 


1 From drain. 
2 From drain. 


ARTIFACTS FROM ROSCOE INLET 1A 


For descriptive purposes, four levels may be distinguished on the 
basis of type of midden material. It must be made clear that these 


ANTHROP. Pap. No. 20] NORTHERN NW. COAST ARCHEOLOGY—DRUCKER. 9] 


levels are not culturally defined, but represent periods of different 
usage of the portion of the midden through which the trench cut. 
Level a (see diagram fig. 27), extending to a depth of 39 inches at the 
northwest face, consisted chiefly of ashy strata, with one black dirt 
(habitational) horizon. Level 0, 39 to 60 inches at the northwest face, 
consisted of several habitational layers, interspersed by layers of 
lenses of mussel shell, and of ash. Level c, 60 to 125 inches may also 
represent a type of habitation, although the composition of the 
midden material differs somewhat from that of other habitational 
layers. Level d, 125 to 151 inches, differs again, containing as it does 
quantities of stones and sand (fill). The small habitation area at 
the bottom of the deposit might be distinguished from “d” had we 
enough material to make it worth while to do so. 


TABLE 5.—Artifacts from Roscoe Inlet 1A* 
DRAIN 


Measurement 


No. Description ‘ Depth Remarks 
Length | Width | Thick- 


Inches | Inches | Inches 


200K sUlnaknifeirapmentinns. sto a eee Level a___ 
246 | Bone point, type BIA heavy, | 2.26 0. 48 0.2 | Levela__- 
blunt tip. 
237 | Bone point, type BIA__-_----_- 3. 54 41 .25 | Level b__- 
247 | Split piece of whale bone,hacked | 11.5 =‘ |_--------|--------- Level 6.__| Saw cuts 0.26 in. wide. 


to length, split sawed from can- 
cellous surface. 
276 | Seamammal bone rod, elliptoidal | 5. 2(-++) . 58 .39 | Level 6... 
cross section, tapered toward 
one end (tip broken). 
2iaioue awilu (tip emMissine) by pen sssses— ease aae an aaa ae Level 6..- 


lal. 

277 | Thin flat bone object (needle?)__| 6.6(++) 3 .18 | Level 6___| See p. 60. 

242 | Bone point, type BIA__._-_-__- 4,12 5 .26 | Level c____ 

259 | Bone point, type BIA_-____-_-_- 2.6 . 62 wae wevelicsies 

251 | Bone gouge (Scraper), type IA, | 5.58 |-.-------]--------- Level c___. 
narrow rounded tip. 

241 | Hacked seamammal bone object} 3.1 . 56 .44 | Level c___- 

(point blank?). 

258 SIT awl fragment, type 1 |___------ .42 . 24 | Level c___- 

257 | Cylindrical, tapered, sea mam- |_______-- zi. Vol age Level d__- 
mal bone rod, (broken medial 
portion missing). 

273 | Awl tip (broken annd reused), | 2.18 aR hl ee Level d__- 
original type indeterminate. 

234 | Seamammal bonerod,rectangu-} 3.7(-+) .39 .29 | Level 6___| Objects 234-245 were im- 
loid cross section, one rounded properly located, so 
end, one end missing. that their loci are not 

245 | Bone awl, type le_-_---.-------- 6 4aR) Seen | tues Level b___| certain, except that 

they came from levels 
aand b. 

274 | Cylindrical whale-bonerod frag- |________- PEE Lay oY (ees Asa ee || De Be os APE Objects 274, 275, 278, 260, 
ment, with rounded end. 289 from the drain are 

275 | Bone awl, type 1ld____-----_---- 4,21 .61 SEOs, [ear ee ea without location. 

278 eral pointed bone, square-cut | 1.6 . 28 BA ys 2 ee See 

ase. 

260 | Bone point, type BIA____----_- 2. 59 . 44 LOH | Reet ween 

289)1|) Stonepolisher® lek Ae ek sie Ske Oi Ao le wey oH es a Ue ep Several noted not saved. 
In addition, a total of 
15 pointed or otherwise 
worked bone fragments 
indeterminable as to 
form, were recovered 
from the cut. 


92 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL, 133 


Taste 5.—Artifacts from Roscoe Inlet 1A *—Continued 


TRENCH 2 
Measurement 
No. Description f Depth Remarks 
Length | Width | Thick- 
ness 
Inches | Inches | Inches Inches 
279 | Bone awl, type le_..------------ BROT bak a eer che ee 1 t ee oes Sage Level a, depth 0-89 
inches. 
266 | Slender sea mammal bone rod,} 9.9(+)| 70.45 |--------- 16=17eee= Point slot, 0.08 inch 
slotted for point, (arrow fore- wide. 
shaft?) butt broken. 
Pay fal Ofte tl rah fay yee I ee AE Sp Cer) A ee a ee ee ee 72 ee 
264 | Hand drill (?) fragment reduced |_________ aS1Ob 2 2 eee 14-18te 4 % 
cylindrical, blunt point. 
263 | Small sea mammal bone rod 1.9(+) co Nye | eens SS ee nb EAT Level a, 0-39 in. 
fragment, 1 rounded end 
(drill point?). 
269) pirdsheadionnament (2) pes eee es ee eee | aeons [pone oeee PAS ea es See p. 60. 
281 | Barbed harpoon point tip frag- | 1.34 . 62 ON2bi | p22q25 eee 
ment, whale bone, type ? 
280 | Bone awl, type le (tip broken)--| 5.2(-++)|_--------]--------- 79 Nie ara say 
282) sBonewawl strasment type: LO: 222-22 eles eee as lece ee be 72 has aE Objects associated. 
partly sawed on one side. 
QBS ABONE BWI t ye il Omen eS | eh an Sa ie a a BNE 
234 yBone awl, fragment type lei(7)2s|o- 8 2s oe ee 77 EA A 
285 | Mountain-goat horn core with |_......._|-.--.----]----.---- bh) ee 
cut base. 
2860 MBOneOINt CY POND LAr on sameenn pena Sone ere ee eee Lee 24-288) 20s) 
237) Bonerawl, typevtc (ulna, head. | 222222 Pan kasi eee 40-41______ Level b. 
partly worked). 
ROtAIATUILACES See el canes Aap Mee IAN tee ae SIR wee tl ng se wedge Met 14} Also 6 indeterminable 
MROLBIEV ATG Ao Ore eee eet a Jou re Emre cent UN 3 ai se nn ne RRR eee 4.5 worked fragments. 
ATtILACTS DOLEVaLd cee er ee ere a ae ee aire Loe a ee ee A 3.1 | Excluding indetermina- 
es. 
In a depth test at the 
rear side of the midden, 
ashort heavy rectangu- 


lar cedar-bark shredder 
of whale bone: length, 
6.23 inches; height, 7.38 
inches; thickness, 0.6 
inches; with an irregu- 
lar elliptoidal perfora- 
tion near the upper 
end, 1.46 inches by 0.61 
inches, was found at a 
depth of 18 inches. 


1 See profile diagram (fig. 27) and indicated artifact loci. 
? Diameter. 


KILKITEI VILLAGE 
(Can. 320) 


A site designated on the chart as “Kilkitei Village” is situated on a 
small promontory on the southwest end of Yeo Island, at the junction 
of Spiller and Return Channels. (See pl. 6, 6.) It belongs to the 


Qoqwaiat (qdqwaiat*) division of the Heiltsuk, and is known as 
“kaba.” # The site is fairly well sheltered, being protected from 


heavy seas in so’easters by the islands to the south (though the force 
of the wind is not abated), and from westerlies by Grief Island di- 
rectly in front. A narrow beach, wide enough, however, for launch- 
ing canoes, and rocky in some places, fronts the site. At either end 
of the promontory is a narrow sheltered cove; the one to the north 


42 Tt was probably the village from which the attempted massacre of the Atahualpa was 
made in 1815. (See Howay, 1928 a.) 


AnTHROP. Pap. No. 20] NORTHERN NW. COAST ARCHEOLOGY—DRUCKER 93 


has a good landing, from which a trail leads to the village. Remains 
of several native houses are to be seen on the site, as well as a modern 
frame house. The site is used by people from Bella Bella for grow- 
ing potatoes, and a good part of the surface has been cultivated at 
one time or another. On the little knoll at the north end of the 
promontory are several modern graves with marble headstones, in a 
fenced plot. Next to them are a pair of carved grave posts (ca. 15 
feet apart) between which a gravehouse once stood. (See pl. 8, g.) 
A landslip, caused by the fall of a large tree over the bluff, has car- 
ried away the house. A creek running into the cove to the north 


gS canoe 


SNIPS 


‘Ficure 28.—Plan, Kilkitei Village. 


provides water, for a well-defined trail leads from the site to the 
stream. Three canoe runways were seen on the beach, one directly 
in front of the site, two at the landing in the cove to the north. 
Unlike those previously seen, these have been kept in repair, poles 
about 8 feet long being laid across, 2 to 5 feet apart and weighted 
down with the rocks of the row of stones on either side. The arrange- 
ment is a most effective one, as we learned by sliding our skiff up 
the one in the cove. 

The midden is long, straggling along the front of the promontory 
(see fig. 28). Its dimensions are: Length, 575 feet (along the top) ; 
average width, 50 feet. Formerly, it must have been both longer 
and wider, for the north end appears to have been considerably 
eroded, and the front has suffered from wave cutting. Height of 


94 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 133 


the midden varies from 5 to 8 feet about tide line. Some midden 
material, black dirt with shell fragments, was noted over the low 
saddle to the landing in the north cove, but whether this is but a 
thin mantle or deep deposit was not determined. The portions of 


“MATERIAL 1S" 


HETEROGENEOUS -: 


SAND AND 
STONE 


MATERIAL 


HETEROGEN Equs 


WITH SHELL 


GREY SANOY, 
Ba 
CCOARSE REO-YELL OW sano) 


Ficure 29.—Profile of south face of trench 1, Kilkitei Village. 


GREY, SANDY 


BROWN 


i 
re) 
2 
q 
t 
“ 
3 Sore 
3 Es “foe 
5 a 2 © 4 
5 e 8 
= w is) NS 
3 & v 3 N 
2 5 Ay 
x (5) a N 
0 = tt W BS 
$ E 2 z 
= 3 3 ry 
> < 
5 t 9 
$ E 
\ 


the site which have not been cultivated support coarse grasses, nettles, 
and some salmonberry bushes. 

Various stubs of house posts and miscellaneous timbers were noted, 
but none of the houses was measured, save for a rectangular pit, 
19 feet by 22 feet, at the northern end. The pit is surrounded by a 
low bank, 1 to 2 feet high, and 3 or 4 feet wide. Pieces of boards, 
etc., were noted in the pit. Presumably, this is the remnant of a 
plank house with a central pit, like those so often described ethno- 
graphically, although this pit seems rather small for such a structure. 


ANTHROP. Pap, No. 20] NORTHERN NW. COAST ARCHEOLOGY—DRUCKER 95 


Two trenches were dug in from the outer face in apparently undis- 
turbed portions of the site; trench 1, 12 by 4 feet, showed a maximum 
depth of deposit of 38 inches; trench 2, 9 by 4 feet, horizontally, 
had a maximum depth of 73 inches. 

Trench 1 was complex in the stratigraphy of the undisturbed por- 
tions (fig. 29). The outer 5 to 6 feet proved to be mixed, owing 
to wave undercutting and caving-off of the midden face. The re- 
mainder of the deposit at this point consisted of numerous small 
lenses and strata of differentiated material—dirt, sand, shell, and ash. 


x 344 ate) 


x345 


CK ¥ 
ae 
’ ' & 
» SP. 
iS 
C 
BARNACLE 
SHELL X S38 
x 339 
Muss 
| CLA SH 


STERILE SvGsoiL CY¥EL6OW SAND avo GRAVEL) 


e—— 


Ficure 30.—Profile of south face of trench 2, Kilkitei Village. 


Apparently the trench cut across the former point or corner of the 
midden, for the layers in general dipped both north and west. The 
trench cut through an historic house. In the upper layer a 6-inch 
pole with iron spikes lay horizontally along the edge of the midden. 
This may have been a sill similar to that of house 1 in Roscoe Inlet 1, 
though no clear evidence of artificial fill behind it could be noted. 
There were traces of fill at lower depths which, however, were not 
related to the same sort of house construction: a few bone fragments, 
chiefly in the black dirt with burnt stone layer (4 to 8 inches below 
the surface) lay at rather acute angles, suggesting loading of this 
material, and at 19 inches a 4.5-inch lens of beach-worn shell and 
gravel extended in a tongue to 1.7 feet of the head of the trench, 
widening rapidly beachward to cover the width of the trench. 

A few other observations may be recorded here. In the northeast 
corner of the trench an ovoid pit, 1.4 feet by 1.8 feet, extended down- 
ward 15 inches from its point of origin at the bottom of the black 


96 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BuLn. 133 


sandy surface layer. Its purpose could not be ascertained. In mid- 
trench in the 0- to 12-inch level and again at the base of the deposit 
(overlying the lowest midden layer) at the edge of the cave-in 
material, were a number of large unworked stones, 20 to 40 pounds 
in weight. There was no determinable purposeful arrangement of 
either of the two lots. The artifact yield of the trench was moderate, 
as compared to the Roscoe Inlet middens; the layers below 24 inches 
yielded little artifactual material or animal bone. 

Trench 2, like the preceding, cut through a recent house on the 
surface, as indicated by stubs of house posts on either side. The 
outer edge of the deposit for about 5 feet from the present face has 
been disturbed by undercutting and sloughing of upper levels. The 
undisturbed portion presents a simpler stratigraphy by far than 
did trench 1. (See fig. 30.) The layers, again well differentiated, 
are for the most part thicker and apparently continuous, and slope 
gradually beachward. The original face of the midden must have 
been much farther out than is the present one. In the upper levels 
a series of horizons resembling the habitation levels of previously 
investigated sites were noted. They did not occur at this point 
below the 30-inch level. The artifact and animal bone yield of the 
lower levels (51 to 73 inches) was somewhat less than above that 
point. A pit penetrating the lower levels for 10 inches had its point 
of origin in dark brown dirt horizon at 65 inches. 

In general, the Kilkitei Village midden paralleled those at Roscoe 
Inlet in structure, though it was considerably shallower. Again the 
latest houses were built out to the midden edge with sills to hold 
and level the floor, while the strata below dipped gradually beach- 
ward, indicating that houses of a different type were in vogue 
anciently. 


ANTHROP. Pap, No, 20] NORTHERN NW. COAST ARCHEOLOGY—DRUCKER 97 


TABLE 6.—Artifacts from Kilkitei Village 
TRENCH 


Measurements 


No. Description ; Depth Remarks 


311 | Stone celt (burned) ___-______-- 5. 93 1. 62 0. 68 6-12 
310 | Contact goods (glass fragment) _|___..____]_--______]_-_-____- 12 
ala) Contact coods! (glass) iron)p ee |e noe pane 0-12 
318 | Small cylindric bone object, 1 | 1.35 Es 1p ee ees 17 


end pointed, 1 spatulate ; 
(hook barb?). 
323 | Bone point, type BIA_--_-__-_-- 2. 98 .39 aval 32 


B0Sn Contact eoodsiGrGm) eee see | he eile Sk eae eas See 
312 | Small hand maul, type III_____| 2.4 1.39 117, RCN ee 
IS) eHand maulitype TVs 222 4. 66 2. 68 IL GSY | Pee Sve 
314 | Hand maul, type III___________ 3. 38 1.65 1072 |e wee aN Objects that cannot be def- 
315 | Small pebble with abraded | 2,28 1.19 LOSE |e werent ces initely located as to depth, 
ends (hand maul, type IV?). since they came from the 
222 | Bone awl, tip missing, sawed, | 2.7(+) -41 3 Pee ee disturbed ground at the 
type 1d. outer (wavecut) portion of 
330 | Stone celt, type IB__________-- 3. 65 1.47 BAZ) eho = Pee the trench. 
331 | Hand maul, type IlT__..2--___- 2.95 1.7 TS2ie | esate 
zie py VoOpkeaiclam shellifragmentes.|seeees sehen a oe ae ane 


THOLAIALUILAC TS eae eee eens a Jo nee oe eee le 1b) Peeps ae Excluding contact goods, 5 
indeterminable worked 
fragments. 

eMotalby ara meas ve ak 5 a em Ae pn Se Ast oyoe ea Approximate. 

PAT Tifa CESIPEL VAL Ge see ee tne oe See ee PT eee 220 2a Excluding contact goods, 
indeterminables. 

TRENCH 22 
Measurements 
No. Description Level Remarks 


. Thick- 
Length | Width Miss 


—!| | SS 


Inches | Inches | Inches 
Soon MO ONLACH ZOOGS CrOlOLCs) acs oe | ee eee | ee teem | tee ee a 
336) | Socketedibone harpoon fragment. — 2 2- |) 22 2 | ee b See p. 60. 
335 | Hand drill (?) fragment (reduced cylin- |-_-______]__---____]_-___-___- b Tip diameter, 0.12in. 
drical tip). 
334 | Small blunt bone pin with expanded |__-----__|__-______]__---___- b See p. 60. 
head (drill point?). 
338 | Bone gouge (?) fragment, type IC (?) | 3.92 |_--__--__]---_-__-- c 
(shorter and narrower than Tlingit 
skin-scrapers of this type). 


339 | Bone gouge tip fragment, type IA or IB_|---_--_-- 0. 66 0. 27 c 
342 | Bird bone awl (?) fragment hafted in |__-______- AD? yl ae oleae d Diameter of haft, 

another bone. 0.38. 
344 | Flat, elliptical cross section bone pin (?) 1.8(+) APL ail d 

fragment, with tapering rounded butt. 
345 | Bone point (?) tip fragment, type B- | 1.2(-+) 41 .15 d 

IB (?). Width at tip, 0.22 in 
346 | Bone gouge tip fragment, type IB (?).__| 3.2(+) . 58 . 24 d 
347 ey oe fragment, tip broken, type | 2.4(++) P46 Ulsan ee e 

e (?). 
Area 

348 | Bone point, type BIA (?), butt broken_| 2.6(++) . 34 215 f Objects recovered 
from the disturbed 
area (f). 

351 | Slate blade fragment, with beveled |__-___-__|__----__-- 722 

blade, unworked sides (saw?). 

FROG Ar LI SCs eases See ee ees ee eee eee eae eS ee ae ee OEE py een co Excluding contact 
goods, 3 indeter- 
minable worked 
fragments. 

Motali Vard ages cee se sence seen eee see ee eae rah Senne TR WARN Seem ete 5.0to 5.5 | Approximate. 

WAT tifacts| pen yardescece onsale ase ae BCE ee a 2.1 to 2.4 


1 Diameter. 

2 As in the case of material from Roscoe Inlet 1A, artifacts from trench 2 will be listed according to location 
levels. The various strata can be grouped according to type into 5 main levels, a-e, with anjareaf to 
designate the disturbed area at the outer end of the cut. (See profile, fig. 30.) 


98 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BuLL, 133 


KYNUMPT HARBOR 
(Can. 320) 


A small site is situated on the north end of Campbell Island, on 
the narrow peninsula between Kynumpt Harbor and Norman Mor- 
rison Bay, fronting on the former body of water. The site is locally 
reputed to be the place in which Vancouver wintered and careened 
his vessels in 1793; however, Vancouver did not winter on the coast 
that year, nor can I identify the harbor from his account. The 
navigator entered Milbanke Sound by way of Return Channel, and 
probably never came near this place. A pit, 25 feet square, enclosed 
by low ridges of earth, marks the site of a native house. 

According to native testimony, Kynumpt Harbor (qaindmt‘ is the 
Heiltsuk name) was a minor camp, used chiefly in late summer for 
berry-picking. The site is fairly well sheltered, and fronted by a long 
gravel beach. It actual extent was difficult to ascertain owing to clear- 
ing and cultivation of a considerable portion of it. The length is in 
the neighborhood of 200 feet; from the beach the deposit sprawls 
back following the rising contour of the hillside for about 100 feet. 
The maximum depth of deposit noted was 69 inches. 

Several test pits were dug, but all proved to be in disturbed ground; 
the present occupants of the site were unable to inform us of the full 
extent of cultivating and leveling that had been done by previous 
white settlers. Pit A had undisturbed deposit below 24 inches; the 
upper portion being fill to level off the slight terrace at that part of 
the midden. Below this point were well-defined horizons of char- 
coal, decomposed wood (similar to habitation levels seen elsewhere), 
and shell, resting on the clean gravel bottom (apparently an old 
beach). A small number of artifacts were recovered. Of some in- 
terest was the incidence of fragmentary human remains in the deposit. 
Those in the disturbed ground, of course, indicated only presence 
of skeletal material, perhaps burials or just fragments, in the site. 
A skull fragment (portion of parietal), however, occurred in the 
undisturbed black dirt with shell layer at a depth of 30 to 36 inches. 


SCHOONER PASSAGE 1 “ 


An important site in Wikeno (southernmost Heiltsuk) territory 
on lower River’s Inlet was tested. The midden is located on the 
northwest end of a small island just off the entry to Schooner Pas- 
sage, the northern entrance to Rivers Inlet. (See pl. 6, ¢.) <Ac- 
cording to ethnographic information, the site was an important 


“4 The general locality is sketched in on B. A. 1927 and U. 8. 5361, but no accurate charts 
of the Rivers Inlet region have as yet been published. 


ANTHROP. Par. No. 20] NORTHERN NW. COAST ARCHEOLOGY—DRUCKER 99 


Wikeno center until about the contact period (accounts vary as to 
whether the date is to be put just before or just after). At that 
time a number of other Heiltsuk groups, chiefly at the instance of 
the Oyalit division, made a very successful raid, killing a great num- 
ber of the inhabitants. The survivors fled to their kindred villages 
farther up the inlet. As I understand, the site was never actually 
occupied by the victors, who sought control of the rich fishing and 
sea-hunting grounds at the mouth of the inlet, and after a time the 


STEEP-70 


Fievre 31.—Schooner Passage 1. (Sketch, scale approx.) 


Wikeno repossessed the place, using it as a camp, however, not as a 
main winter village. It is from the incident of the raid that the 
site gets its local name: “Slaughter Illahee.” 4° Another version of 
the story adds that quantities of human remains are to be found 
lying about at the site, which are interpreted as corroboration of the 
massacre. We found none on the surface, however. Those that have 
been found may have washed out of the deposit, which contains both 
burials and fragmentary skeletal material. 


“6 “Tilahee” is Chinook jargon for “land,” “place,” and is used at present on this part of 
the coast for the middens. 


100 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Buut, 133 


The midden follows an irregular shoreline around three coves and 
out on the western point of the island for 1,050 feet. (See fig. 31.) 
In width it averages at present about 60 feet, except in one place near 
the north end, where it cuts back across a narrow neck to a cove on 
the shore for 150 feet. The creek which cuts through this back por- 
tion of the midden has exposed a vertical section 48 to 60 inches high. 
External height of the deposit varies considerably, for the point of 
the island rises to the west, forming steepto bluffs 20 feet high. The 
extent of actual deposit varies from 10 to 17 or 18 feet, 15 feet prob- 
ably being the average external height. Notwithstanding the excel- 
lent shelter afforded by the surrounding islands, a considerable portion 
of the midden front has been cut away. The deposit was much more 
extensive at one time. A dense thicket, mostly salmonberry and 
wild currant, covers the site. No traces of native houses were seen 
on the surface except for remnants of two or three very recent 
shacks. 

A strip of the midden face was cleared on the largest cove, and a 
trench 4 feet wide was dug back to 9 feet from the edge of the bank. 
At the 72-inch level, the trench was narrowed to 38 feet and carried 
down to the seepage level at 191 inches. The outer end of the com- 
pleted trench was 21 feet from the inner face. At 108 inches a block 
5 feet long (from the inner face) was left, and the trench walls were 
brought in slightly so that at the bottom the cut was 2 feet wide. At 
this level seepage prevented further excavation, although depth tests 
put down 36 inches showed the midden material to continue (i. e., 
227+ inches). The bottom of the trench, at 191 inches, was 47 inches 
below high-tide line. Several depth tests were dug at low tide down 
the beach in front of the site, in an effort to determine the extent of 
the midden material. 

Inspection of the profile of the cut brings out a number of signifi- 
cant features in addition to the impressive depth of the deposit (see 
fig. 32). Perhaps most important of all was the occurrence of defi- 
nite firepits containing charcoal, ash, and burnt stone (with the 
underlying shell, etc., definitely calcined, showing that burning had 
taken place in situ) definitely connected with dark horizons (of heavy 
organic content) similar to those tentatively identified as habitation 
levels at other sites. In addition to those which appear in the 
profile, a number of firepits were encountered in the trench, at the 
28-inch, 60- to 72-inch, and 99-inch levels.*7 


46 The species of shells represented at this site in quantity were more varied than at other 
sites. In addition to Savidomus nuttalli Conr., Oardiwm clinocardium nuttalli Conr., and 
a mussel (Mytilus sp.), quantities of a large barnacle (Balanus sp.), Thais lamellosa Gmelin, 
and Thais canalculata Ducl. were common in some levels. 

47 The second in the series (at 60 to 72 inches) was a fireplace of considerable size, 5 feet 
across and about 20 inches deep. It was cut through, leaving a cross section in the south 
wall of the trench to be noted and photographed, but was lost in a cave-in, 


ANTHROP. PAP, No, 20] NORTHERN NW. COAST ARCHEOLOGY—DRUCKER 101 


In general trend, the strata appear more uneven than those at 
Roscoe Inlet 1A, indicating a different type of midden growth. 


> 429 
ao sSN 6 
SAS 
erry CORE Ss) 
AR 
a 


~ °Cog 


DAR GREY DIRS 

Z 

Witt ASH, SOME SHELL, BURNT 5 7; are 
(sor sARPLY PLUFFERENTIATEO) EES 


XAOS 


“ MUSSEL SMELLS WiTy ASH, 


| Se Wy < CHARCOAL wf =o Ct 
BACK DIRT, ; 


K399 CUXEOD SHELL 398 
AND OIRT x907 


DARK GREY ORT 
WITH LENSES OF SHELL 


SARNACLE SHELL 
«424 


* LOCATION OF 
I ARTIFACT 


@ APPROXIMATE 
LOCATION, DE- 


TERMINED BY 
MATRIX. 


a E-PIT AR 

Die zs EA 
<a - SSeS OCF ASH CHARCO 
SLA tee S°RNED Stones 


Ast 


OARK BROW 
TO ad. 
BLACK OR; Gh 


WS SSS 
a ~ 


°E4 Ue 
‘ Z > 
©4738) RCome 2 aN 
\ a 


aay g 
BROWN Sanoy OR 


WITH SYELL, ASH, STONES €7¢ 


CROWN SANDY ————— xIS2 
OIRT WITH SHELL 
LENSES, ASH, 


SIUSSEL SHELL AND SANA Ere 


CLE v7 fe 
CAN uss. SHELL eo ae FLEVEL 


FigurE 32.—Profile, Schooner Passage 1. 


Erosion of the outer face, of course, makes interpretation of so 
small a section as the present one difficult, but the small well-defined 
peak in the lowest exposed section, succeeded by lenticular horizons 


102 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Butn. 133 


whose apices appear to have been beachward (at present eroded 
away), seems to have been followed by a period of retreat of the 
midden landward. This irregular growth brings up the problem of 
the mode of deposition of the lower levels. Tests on the beach 
showed, at a point of 40 feet from the datum, shell material to a depth 
of 38 inches, at which point the hole flooded. The upper 10 inches 
consisted of fine particles of white shell (apparently crushed clam 
and barnacle), overlying a thick bed of mussel shell with fragments 
of white shell. Both layers contained some ash, and in the lower 
layers bits of charcoal and burnt stones were noted. At 60 feet 
from the datum (by eye, 4 feet below the beach line), shell mate- 
rial was found to extend to a depth of 86+inches (the seepage level.) 
At the surface was a layer of beach gravel, followed by a 9-inch 
layer of mussel shell with clam and/or barnacle fragments and con- 
siderable ash and charcoal. Inferior to this was a very compact 
layer of broken mussel shell 8 inches thick, which overlay a bed of 
mussel shell with ash (lighter in color than the preceding) which 
continued to the bottom of the hole. The presence in several of these 
apparent strata of materials of differing specific gravity (different 
types of shell, charcoal, ash, and burnt stone) argues against the 
differentiation being due to water-sorting. If this is correct, the 
midden formerly extended much farther outward, which means that 
there has been a sharp subsidence of the island. It must be noted, 
of course, that the possibility of subsidence does not demand the 
assumption of profound geologic changes over a long period of time, 
for the northern Pacific coast is notoriously unstable, numerous minor 
local subsidences and emergences being known (Dawson, 1877; 1880, 
p- 94B ff.). 

One burial and numerous isolated human bones were found in the 
trench. The burial, that of a child of 10 or 12, was found in a layer 
of mussel and barnacle shell with ash at a depth of 106 inches, 1.25 
feet from the head of the trench, level 4 in the profile. The body 
was laid on the back, tightly flexed, with the head to the east. (See 
pl. 8, 7.) No pit outline could be traced but the lay of the remains— 
the pelvis and feet slanted upward—indicated there had been a pit. 
An undisturbed mussel-shell horizon 92 to 97 inches (part of level g) 
lay above the burial, indicating the point of origin of the pit was 
below 97 inches. Finely divided black material covered the entire 
burial; no artifacts were found in association. The bones were some- 
what crushed, but articulated. Fragmentary remains were found as 
follows: Skull fragment (sphenoid, adult) 89 to 94 inches; a tibia 
and several fragmentary vertebrae (juvenile), 123 to 126 inches; a 
group of bones consisting of a humerus, radius clavicle, two ribs, 
portion of a tibia, and a cervical vertebra (all juvenile) in an area 
of 1.8 feet by 1.5 feet at 131 to 133 inches. 


AntTurop, Pap, No. 20] NORTHERN NW. COAST ARCHEOLOGY—DRUCKER 103 


The predominance of juvenile remains is of interest. None of the 
bones showed traces of gnawing, indicating that they were not from 
burials dug up by animals.‘ 

The artifact yield of the trench was moderate compared to that 
of the Roscoe Inlet middens, although there was a decrease in quan- 
tity in the lower level (in part, at least, owing to reduction of the 
horizontal area excavated). 


TABLE 7.—Artifacts from Schooner Passage 1 


Measurements 
No. Description : Level Remarks 
Length | Width | Thick- 
Inches | Inches | Inches 
Bb77 |Oontact 2o0dsi(1AsS Dead) kostees seas aaa eee ee eee a 
358 | Bone point, type BIA _-..------------ 1. 66 0. 46 0.19 a 


Sot |! Contact’ zoods'Gron bucket: bale) 222-3 |---| as | a eee Probably level a, 
369 "Serpentine celt fragment, type t+. =---|--------=}=-----2-2)0-2_-- = depth 0-12 inches. 
360 | Small flat elliptical cobble with ab- | 2.71 2.22 . 92 
raded ends (type IV, hand maul). 
362))|)Serpentine(celifracment> "as ies (ee oa aad eee 

363 | Composite harpoon barb, type II---_-- 

428 | Small bone pin, one end pointed (?) 
(tip missing), one cut to steep bevel 
hook or rake point?). 

364) |) Bone point) type BAG >. 2 ~~~ = === 3. 28 41 35 

365 | Hand maul, type IV (burned) ------- 

371 | Longitudinally split bear (?) canine, 
with encircling groove at base for 
suspension. 

372 | Serpentine chip with rounded sharp 
ground tip (knife of reworked celt 
fragment?). 

367 | Bone awl, type le (?) tip missing_--_-_- 

429 | Bone point, type BIA__-_----------- 


e 
: : d 
374 | Split whale-bone fragment, tapering | 5.8(+)| 1.9(+) ats d See p. 61. 
with rounded edges. 
d 
d 
e 


logos 


meh 

oe 
~ 
oa 
to 
fo‘) 

aan 


on 
on 
vs 
7 
\ 
1 
1 
H 
1 
‘ 
' 
i 
oO 
Qan 


wo 
S 
o 
~1 
a 
et 
er) 
° 


S73h i pBonelawlinagment type t-sas—22 2-24 leone ae |e” |e eeeee 
3760) Bonelawl hyped 22es2 2 ee eee 
368 | Split bone awl (?or gouge), tip miss- 
ing, head unmodified except by 
original splitting (awl, type 1b). 
378 | Composite harpoon barb, type II 
(broken). 
377 | Boneawl, type3 (a head broken) ----- 
379 | Bone point, type BIB_-_-_----------- 
382 | Bone point, type BIA (butt broken) -- : : 
384 | Bipointed bone pin (gouge?) - __----- Bh2 . 28 Po sc | (eae From disturbed are 
381 | Rounded cut whale-bone fragment. -_-|_-_--_---|--------- 6) (or pit?). 
390 | Elliptoidal cut whale-bone object-_--- 


442 | Whale-bone fragment with slanting |--------- 1.38 . 28 
beveled edge (chisel or wedge frag- 
ment?). 

383 | Small bone gouge, type IA__--------|--------- 

403 | Worked whale-bone fragments_-___--_-|--------- 

392 | Ulna knife, with partly modified |--------- 
(square cut) head, 

393 | Whale-bone fragments_-______--------|--------- 

402 | Small (bird-) bone pin fragment with 
slender tapering point. 

394 | Bone awl, type 1c____.___----------- 5 - 

395 | Boneawl, fragment, sawed, typeld__|____----- . 54 AB} 

422 | Small cylindrical bone ‘‘pin’”’ (1 end |__-_------ That Henn ee es 
missing), rounded end (drill point?) 

396 | Sea mammal bone “‘bark splitter,’ 
fragment, type IIB. 

404 | Small bone awl (?), unfinished (?), 
type 3a. 


1 Diameter. 


Width at tip, 0.28. 


_~ 
o 
a 
x 
00 
to 
oo 
BS bp ppb’ ae eee 


48 Natives state that occasionally wolves and bears molested graves in former times. 
Modern graves are often covered with a layer of concrete, apparently to prevent this. 


405260—43——_8 


104 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bunn. 133 


TaBLE 7.—Artifacts from Schooner Passage \—Continued 


Measurements 


No. Description Level Remarks 


Length | Width | Thick- 


| | S| 


Inches | Inches | Inches 

Soven@ut deer mandible: <<a See eels | Se rere le este a le cae h See p. 61. 
405 Boneawistypeles ee ssee eeu ee 264s: sacs Ea Srey 
398 | Bone awl or gouge fragment, with |_-_-_____|___._____|_________ i 

whole head, square-cut. 
399 | Bone awl, sawed, type 1d___.________ 5.6 0. 63 0. 33 i 
407 eBoneawl type lb: 20480 Ee areas 2. 64 48 SPH i 
443 | Split whale-bone fragment with cut |__..__.__|_--_--___|_-_______ i 

and worn end. 


406\) Bone awl, type lal 8 oe CY fliggh | PE eC | eee i 

413) |§Bone point. type BLAL y see 2.42 .39 15 i 

408) "Bone awl) type lds soe ees 4. 04 44 BONY i 

At0| Bone awliity pe ids.) s. eee 3. 25 . 62 502) i 

416. Boneewiy type lel -02 se anes 2. 08 .72 . 53 i 

409 jPheriorated bird-claw pend anions ets| mone yea Pen Meet i 

Alia WUinaiknifetragment me obs be gt came ott Tae) Swe lt Pe oe i 

412 | Small pointed (bird-) bone object, | .9(++) .14 . 06 i 

stemmed, one end broken. 

21:75 Fo. SLONe POLISherse sce: fen cer sweet an rae eens) eH Gd i Occurred in same gen- 
eral area, but not 
definitely associated. 

416 | Small bipointed bone__._____________ 1.85 .16 Sil i 

423 | Boneawl withsawedend,typeld____| 3.14 . 34 £04 i 

424 eres Withcot ends) (drinking\| 35) || eee i 

ube). 
425 | Sea mammal bone rod fragment with |_-_-___-- . 36 25 i 
steeply beveled end. , 
426 | Small pointed bone fragment, sawed- -9(+) m2 .07 i 
448 | Elliptical bone rod fragment with |-_--_-_-__- . 36 20 j 
tapered end. 
449 Bone avi, medial portion missing, |----_---- . 62 4333 j 
ype ld. 
450 | Small cylindrical bone object, bro- |---_----- MY tise ee J 
ken, square-cut end. 
AsTa|MBOne Awl tye 1C. 22 ees eeu 2a ca 4.06 . 59 . 34 k 
438 | Small bipointed (? tips broken) bone | 1.1(+) 215 aplz k 
object, rectangular cross- section. 
439 | Sawed bone fragment with square- |_--_-___- . 34 .16 k 
cut end (point butt?). 
451 | Bipointed bone object, elliptoidal | 3.73 . 33 au!) k 
cross section. 
452 | Long slender bone awl fragment, | 5.4(+)| .44 Ay? } k 
probably type 1d (?). 
369 | Bone fragment, probably type le___.|_.....___|_---_---_|_-----_-- aor b ; 
387 | Small pointed (bird-) bone object, | 1.3( ) .18 .06 | dore || Objects that cannot be 
1 end missing. located with certain- 
O05 | a keri fee he ee ea Ns ied ee ae 3.2 ee eee eens eord ty. 
64 | Thin elliptical cross section bone frag- |________- . 45 -12} jork 


ment with sharp parallel edges 
(point fragment)? 


459" \ Split) pieceiof whalebone, sawed ons |e sess | eee | ee ee ee 
one side, hacked on other. 


434 \stone polishers; fronl various Gepihss| =o. tes | ees nee || eee | aon 


PE OtalartilActs ee sa eee te La ARLES My Dk al ere ee te: Ue 69 Not including contact 
goods, and 10 inde- 
terminable worked 


fragments. 
Motalvardapozsstie 4-2 <7 irc ee SON chen EUS LP Peake AE heey 22 Approximate. 
Ariifactsperryard 232 Ree pears a Thee Po ee ee a ee ae Te 3.1+ Do. 


1 Diameter. 


SITES LOCATED AND REPORTED 


A number of other sites in Heiltsuk territory were inspected, in 
addition to those reported, which lack of time prevented our 
investigating. 

Canoora River (U. S. 1684) —On the north bank of Canoora 
River, which runs into Graham Reach from the west, and nearly 


ANTHROP. Pap, No. 20] NORTHERN NW. COAST ARCHEOLOGY—DRUCKER 105 


opposite the mouth of Khutze Anchorage, a fishing station was 
located. The river empties into the channel at this point over a 
series of small falls and rapids, making an ideal fishing place. The 
site lies a short distance back from the salt water on a small terrace, 
occupying an area of about 250 feet by 100 feet, with an external 
height (including the terrace) of 8 to 9 feet. It is remarkable among 
sites located in the total absence of a beach. The shore line ends 
in a steepto rocky ledge, 8 to 10 feet above high-water line, that 
drops abruptly to a considerable depth. The place is still used 
occasionally. 

McLoughlin Bay (Can. 320)—McLoughlin Bay on Campbell 
Island, about a mile and a half south of the modern Indian village 
of Bella Bella, was the site of the early Hudson’s Bay post in the 
region (established 1833). (See pl. 6, a.) A midden, apparently 
not very deep, extends about 1,000 feet northward from the mouth 
of the creek, flowing into the bay, and rises landward, following the 
rising hillside, for about 100 feet. Salmonberry and wild currant 
bushes alternate with patches of bracken to form the cover. Several 
abandoned recent shacks stand on the site. 

Raven Cove (Can. 320).—A peculiarly situated site was examined 
in Daven Cove, on the northwest end of Chatfield Island near the 
southern entrance of Return Channel. A small isolated knoll, steepto 
on all sides, is connected to the main island by a narrow low saddle. 
The southern side of the knoll drops off in a rocky bluff 50 feet to a 
slough between it and the island. The entire knoll is capped by’ 
depositional material. On the front north side are two terraces, the 
lower, containing three leveled areas about 20 to 30 feet each; the 
upper, one such an area, perhaps marking the position of former 
houses. Midden material covers an area of about 200 by 100 feet, 
though it was not ascertained how much of that is undisturbed 
Geposit and how much slough-off from the top of the knoll. The 
cover consists of grasses and nettles. The beach is very rocky, mak- 
ing landing difficult, although the slough may serve for landing at 
certain stages of the tide. The site conforms to ethnographic 
descriptions of “refuge island” settlements. 

Troup Rapids (Can. 320).—A fishing station was inspected in a 
cove on the northwest end of Cunningham Island just east of the 
rapids in Troup Passage. It lies on the south bank of a salmon 
stream flowing into the cove over a series of rapids—an ideal fishing 
place. The midden is roughly L-shaped, with a 90-foot front along 
the wide gravel beach, and an arm 60 feet long fronting on the 
river. The maximum width determination is 40 feet. Depth indi- 
cated a maximum depth of deposit of 26 inches. The midden consists 
mostly of sandy soil with occupational debris. A few poles, boards, 


106 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY (BULL, 133 


and scraps of iron on the surface prove recent use. Wild currant 
and salmonberry dominate in the cover; at the southern (lower) end 
a few young hemlock and spruce have encroached upon the site. A 
small tidal salmon weir of stones was noted on the beach. 

Meadow Island (Can. 320).—Another small site is situated on the 
southern shore of Meadow Island, opposite Kliktsoatli Harbor on 
the northwest shore of Denny Island. The deposit (black sandy dirt 
with shell) is situated on a terrace above the moderately sloping 
gravel beach. The site is used for a Caucasian cemetery at present; 
it is possible, however, that this portion is but a segment of a more 
extensive midden around the point to the east. A series of very 
interesting petroglyphs occur nearby (see p. 110). 

Sites were reported as occurring at the following places: Eastern 
shore of Roscoe Inlet, 4 or 5 miles from the mouth; School Bay (or 
Swede Bay), northwest end of Denny Island; Bella Bella Islet, off 
the northwest end of Denny Island (at present used as a cemetery) ; 
head of Kakushdish Harbor; a place on the western shore of John- 
son Channel across from Walker Lake Cannery; (all the preceding 
shown on Can. 320); Jane Creek, northern end of Hunter Island; 
Lagoon Bay, opening off the east side of Fisher channel; Namu 
Lake (remarkable as one of the few sites inaccessible from salt 
water) ; Koeye River, eastern shore of Fitzhugh Sound; Safe Pass 
vicinity, west of Campbell and Hunter Island; several large sites 
in Schooner Retreat, southwest of Schooner Passage on lower 
River’s Inlet. 


SOUTHERN KWAKIUTL TERRITORY 


Lateness of the season and inclement weather made it impossible 
to survey the extensive territory of the Southern Kwakiut! divisions. 
The village site at the mouth of the Nimkish River was inspected, 
and several others reported. The Nimkish River site is Vancouver's 
“Cheslakee’s village” (Vancouver, vol. 1, p. 345 ff., and plate facing 
346). (See pl. 6, e.) . It is situated on the west bank of the river, 
just across Broughton Strait from the modern town of Alert Bay. 
The deposit lies on two high terraces, the uppermost 45 to 50 feet 
above tide line, the other about 10 feet lower. The sketch of the 
village in Vancouver’s account shows four rows of houses; appar- 
ently the two lower terraces have been eroded away. Subsoil out- 
crops along the bank between the upper and lower terraces. Depth 
of deposit was not ascertained. The upper trace measured 405 feet 
long by 95 feet wide. Remnants of one set of house posts are visible, 
and several depressions which may represent house pits. Tide and 
river have formed a fair beach in front of the site. Long coarse 
grasses, and mixed patches of wild rose, salmonberry, and wild 
currant bushes form the cover. A creek runs down either side. 


AnTHROP, Pap. No. 20] NORTHERN NW. COAST ARCHEOLOGY—DRUCKER 107 


Sites are reported at the following localities: Inside Nawhitti Bar, 
Goletas Channel; in Hardy Bay; Salmon Bay, upper Johnstone 
Strait; Topaze Harbor, off Sunderland Channel (midden reported 
to contain skeletal material) ; cove on northern shore Cordero Chan- 
nel, just west of Green Point Rapids; cove on mainland between 
Dent Islands and Arran Rapids. There are numerous other sites 
in Southern Kwakiutl territory, of course, many of them being in 
use to the present. 


MORTUARY CUSTOMS 


Some information was obtained on mortuary practices in the region 
surveyed. The incidence and types of midden burials have been 
described in connection with the excavations—burials were encoun- 
tered in deposits at Anian Island (also reported from the Marine 
Station site), and at Schooner Passage 1. Dissociated skeletal 
remains were encountered at Anian Island (pit A), Qalahaituk, 
Kynumpt Harbor, and Schooner Passage. The significance of this 
latter feature is not clear, though the numerous occurrences suggest 
that more extensive operations may show it common to most sites. 
Several possible explanations suggest themselves, any or all of which 
may be valid. Some of the fragmentary material may represent 
midden burials disturbed in digging post holes, house pits, etc., as 
might happen in any region where the custom of midden burial 
obtained.” Ethnographic data suggest two other possibilities: We 
know that human bones were used in various ceremonials, particu- 
larly those of the Cannibal cycle, and human remains (though not 
always bones) were frequently used in witchcraft. (The Nootkan 
method of using human bones in individual hunting rituals and at 
shrines is denied by modern Tsimshian and Kwakuitl informants.) 
Evidences of working (cutting, perforating) of the bones which 
would definitely indicate one of the two last modes of use were not 
found, however. 

In addition to midden burial other mortuary customs were known, 
as mentioned in the ethnographic sketch of areal culture—crema- 
tion, box burial in caves, in trees, and in gravehouses being reported 
from various districts. Lack of time prohibited search for ancient 
cemeteries in each of the localities investigated, but two Heiltsuk 
burial places were found. One was a fairly recently used rock shel- 
ter in Whisky Cove on the northwest shore of Denny Island. (See 
pl. 8, 6.) The shelter is rather small. The area of the overhang is 


49 The skeletal material reported from Topaze Harbor was said to have consisted of com- 
plete skeletons (i. e., burials). 
50de Laguna (1934, p. 50) so interprets fragmentary remains in the Cock’s Inlet middens. 


108 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Buuu, 133 


13.25 feet along the back edge, 8.6 feet deep at the north end, 5.4 
feet deep at the south end. Height varied from 5.7 feet at the front 
to 5.25 feet at the rear of the north end, and 5.4 feet to 3.1 feet at 
the south end. Within this space are four boxes containing burials 
(two of kerfed and bent cedar, two of sawed lumber with nails), and 
the remnants of a fifth, cedar-bark matting, and a variety of grave 
goods (mostly Caucasian objects, so far as could be seen without 
disturbing them). Seven or eight split-cedar boards lay horizontally 


PLAN 


Z 40, 
MOSS , ROOTS Z /10SS , ROOTS 


BURIAL 3 | 


[aa | 
Y 
YELL Wylde 


ELEVATION 
Ficure 33.—Pit burials Nos. 3 and 4, Troup Rapids Cemetery. 


against the boxes, partly sheltering them, but it was not possible to 
determine if these represented remnants of an attempt to close the 
front of the shelter enirely or not. None of the covers were in place 
on the boxes. A few bones had been draggd out of the boxes, prob- 
ably by animals: most of a leg (femur, tibia, fibula, in articular rela- 
tion) lay outside the enclosing boards. The interesting point was the 
position of the bones, in the undisturbed or apparently less disturbed 
boxes. Uniformly they formed a small heap or layer in the bottom 
of the box, due to slumping down and collapse of the body with 
decay of the tissues, the bodies having been crammed into the boxes 
diagonally, i. e., partially upright. The shelter and burial boxes 
were photographed, but not molested. 


ANTHROP. Pap, No, 20] NORTHERN NW. COAST ARCHEOLOGY—DRUCKER 109 


On the promotory at the southwest end of Troup Rapids a burial 
was found of a type not ethnographically reported. The burial was 
situated on a low clay terrace about 5 feet above high tideline, and 
8 feet back from the bank. There was almost no surface indications, 
except for a very slight rise of the moss, and scant growth of bushes. 
The rotted and moss-covered stumps of three smallish trees on the 
bank in front of the burial may have been associated with it, that is, 
the trees may have been felled to expose the burial place. Under 
6 to 7 inches of root-bound moss several boards and poles were found 
(fig. 33, and pl. 8, ¢), covering a pit in the clay 2.2 feet by 2.9 feet 
by 36 inches. Within this pit were two kerfed and bent-cedar boxes, 
one (1.6 feet by 1.75 feet by 21 inches) nested in the other (1.75 feet 
by 2.25 feet; original height of sides not determinable). (See pl. 
8, d,e.) The lids of the boxes had been put edgewise and horizon- 
tally on the long sides of the pit. Both boxes were of native manu- 
facture, with no nails, the bottoms rabbetted and doweled. Each 
contained a fragmentary burial. That of the uppermost box lacked 
(among the more obvious parts), the skull and mandible (though 
an incisor was found), one entire leg and foot, sacrum, and one innom- 
inate. The remains were those of an adult. No grave goods were 
present. In the lower box, only two femora, a tibia, a scapula, a 
few vertebrae, and one unidentified bone fragment were found. 
Some material which appeared to be partly decomposed textile un- 
derlay the bones in the bottom of the box. Below the lower box, 
a layer of gravel with bits of charcoal overlay dark gray dirt and 
stones. All the bones found were fairly sound, indicating decomposi- 
tion would not account for the missing parts. Also the presence of 
a tooth in the upper box suggests skull and mandible had formerly 
been present in the box. Apparently the burials had been opened, 
a miscellaneous set of parts removed, after which the grave was 
carefully re-covered. It seems likely that the disturbance may be 
attributed to need for human bones for ceremonials, or for witchcraft. 


OTHER ARCHEOLOGIC REMAINS 


In addition to the middens and cemeteries described, a number of 
other types of remains were found. Some of these, the canoe-run- 
ways (represented by parallel rows of stones along the beach below 
tideline), and the stone tidal fish weirs, have been mentioned in the 
site descriptions. Neither are very elaborate structures, being simply 
low walls of sizeable beach boulders. As was noted in the descrip- 
tion of Kilkitei Village, the canoe runways formerly had rows of 
poles lying across them, held in place by the uppermost rocks. Mr. 
Newcombe has shown me photographs of such runways at Alert Bay, 
in Southern Kwakiutl territory; Smith (1907, p. 482) refers to fea- 


110 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BuLn, 133 


tures apparently of the same sort in the Georgia Straights region. 

The fish weirs noted were all rather small and simple in form. 
Some very elaborate extensive weirs are reported in the (uncharted) 
channels and lagoons on the southern end of Hunter Island in 
Northern Kwakiutl territory. 

Petroglyphs are not uncommon along the coast. We saw them at 
the following places: Near Robertson Point site (Venn Pass); near 
Kitquiata (off Douglas Channel) ; on Meadow Island. Others were 
reported in localities which we were not able to visit; there are 
probably many more. Several distinct styles were recognizeable. 
In addition to the unusual intaglio human figure near Robertson 
point, Venn Passage,*! there are several small beach rocks with 
designs representing faces. The faces are indicated by a rectanguloid 
outline with rounded corners, with circles for eyes, etc., very similar 
in treatment to the petroglyphs along the beach near Kitkiata (see 
pl. 9, e, d, e,) although in some of the latter there was no facial out- 
line indicated. At Meadow Island, in Northern Kwakuitl territory, 
a large number of petroglyphs were exposed when a large tree (with 75 
ascertainable annual rings) blew over. Three styles are represented 
here: (1) relief carving, in which human faces, grease-dishes, etc., 
were carved in very realistic fashion on the rock; (2) intricate line 
incising, in which figures (the clearest is a Raven) were indicated 
in the manner of the very highly conventionalized intricate designs 
painted on boxes, etc., and (3) rather simple crude line incising, in 
which irregular geometric figures (nonrepresentative) were de- 
lineated. These last may possibly be the work of tyros at the art. 
A number of “coppers” are depicted among the carvings on the rock 
at Meadow Island. (See pl. 9, 7.) 

Pictographs seem to be less frequently met with. The only group 
we found was at Troup Rapids, in an almost inaccessible part of the 
bluff. The painting was done with a reddish-brown pigment, and 
consisted of several rows of large round dots, and with these, a few 


traces of conventionalized figures in classic (recent) Northwest Coast 
style. 


RESULTS OF THE 19388 SURVEY 


The survey of Coast Tsimshian and Kwakiutl territories resulted 
in the location of a considerable number of midden sites, 61 in all, 
as well as certain other types of archeologic remains. From the in- 
formation collected on the sites certain conclusions as to the regional 
cultures may be derived. First of all, it is apparent that the habita- 
tion sites (middens) are nearly all at the water’s edge, indicating 
that substantially the same subsistence and transportation patterns 


5. Known locally and described by Smith as “the Man who fell from Heaven.’ Smith, 1936. 


> 


ANTHROP. PAP, No, 20] NORTHERN NW. COAST ARCHEOLOGY—DRUCKER 111 


as those in vogue in the historic period have prevailed throughout 
the period represented by the accumulations. This interpretation is 
substantiated by the fact that the prime requisite of an important site 
was clearly a good beach where one might land at any stage of the 
tide; shelter from storms, defence, and the like, were far less im- 
portant, although native legends speak often of refuge sites occupied 
in time of war. From the time of first occupancy of the sites, good 
landing places were sought, and ipso facto canoe navigation and all 
that it signifies in recent native life and economy was an integral 
part of the culture. The great number of sites in the area bears out. 
the same interpretation. The survey located only a fraction of the 
total sites in the region surveyed. To account for so many middens 
we must assume that the dense population of the early historic period, 
which was functionally linked with the basic economy of the area, was 
no new condition but one of moderately long standing. The only 
alternative would be that the region has been occupied by a small 
population for an extremely long time, a view for which I can see 
little justification. 

It should also be pointed out that the midden sites of the area 
are extremely well suited for the type of approach used in the sur- 
vey—that of beginning with historic horizons and working back from 
the ethnically identifiable known cultures to the prehistoric horizons. 
At all but one of the sites tested (Anian Island) European goods 
were encountered in the upper levels, with a series of underlying 
horizons which carry well back into prehistoric times. The value of 
the direct historical approach has been discussed elsewhere, and I do 
not need to go into it, but I feel bound to point out that, as facile as 
it is to follow on the Northwest Coast, no future investigations in the 
area should slight it. 


MATERIALS RECOVERED IN 1938 


. The most obvious fact concerning the artifactual material recovered 
by the 1938 survey is the varying quantitative yield of the sites. 
It seems possible to account for this in terms of type of site, although 
a certain allowance must be made for sampling error. Two of the 
three Tsimshian sites tested were camps rather than winter villages; 
the major site, Anian Island, yielded but little apparently because we 
missed the inhabited areas, i. e., the houses. Even there, pit A, near 
the midden crest, yielded moderately well, especially from the 60-inch 
level down. The trench on the back slope (trench 2), on the other 
hand, patently was not in pay dirt. The tests in Northern Kwakiutl 
winter sites, which yielded well, all by good fortune cut through 
habitation levels (floors). Camp sites, whether Tsimshian or 
Kwakiutl—Charles Point, Qalahaituk, Khutze Anchorage, and 


112 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Buny, 133 


Kynumpt Harbor—are plainly poor digging. A reasonable explana- 
tion of this site difference is that natives did not take much beyond 
the immediately necessary tools and gear to camp sites and thus 
might be expected to leave less in the way of artifacts. Consequently, 
the increase in the horizontal area worked in a given time by no 
means increases the yield. On the basis of our exploratory work, 
therefore, it is possible to make certain recommendations in regard 
to choice of sites in the future. Winter village sites (identifiable 
both by ethnographic data, and size) should be selected, and if there 
are no surface indications of houses, the floor or habitation levels 
should be prospected for by small test pits before laying out the 
major trenches. The matter of yield in general may be brought up 
here appropriately: The moderate yield even at the better sites in- 
dicates that the middens require a fairly large investment of man- 
hours before really definitive results can be obtained. While there 
are well preserved artifactual and skeletal remains in the middens, 
one must be prepared to move a fairly large yardage of dirt to get 
them. Had our party consisted of six or eight men instead of two, or 
had we been able to treble or quadruple the length of our stay at each 
site, I am convinced that it would be possible to define the various 
components with some precision. Since the 1938 expedition was 
primarily exploratory, and not at all aimed at solving all the prob- 
lems of Northwest Coast prehistory at a blow, it was felt preferable 
to cover as much ground as possible rather than to devote enough 
time at a single site to get a full sampling of artifact material. 

The general impression given by the collections made is that, al- 
lowing for minor site differences and sampling error, there is little 
difference between the archeological cultures and those enthnograph- 
ically recorded. The chief division appears to be between Tsimshian 
and Northern Kwakiutl, as will be emphasized in the discussion of 
horizontal distributions of traits. Vertically, at none of the sites 
was there any indication of early cultural components radically differ- 
ent from those of the uppermost, i. e., historic, levels. While the 
sampling is not at all adequate to permit us to state that no changes 
have occurred, it appears that the cultures of the earliest horizons 
explored were essentially coast cultures of the same general order 
as those of the historic period. Nonetheless, I see no reason for assum- 
ing that Northwest Coast culture has remained perfectly static all 
that time, particularly since series of cultures have appeared in regions 
both to north and south (in Alaska and central California). A few 
vertical distributions at Schooner Passage hint at change which future 
investigation may verify or negate: The occurrences of human re- 
mains only in levels f to 2; objects (bone knives, awls) with square-cut 
heads; and increased quantity of whale bone, from level f downward. 


ANTHROP. Pap, No, 20] NORTHERN NW. COAST ARCHEOLOGY—DRUCKER 113 


Whether the simultaneous appearance of these traits is fortuitous and 
due to sampling error, or whether the items are among those indicative 
of cultural stratigraphy cannot be stated as yet. Two other sugges- 
tions of culture change may be pointed out from our present data. 
Whether they are veritable changes or only due to our limited sam- 
pling must be checked by more intensive investigations; whether they 
are to be reckoned of major or minor significance can be determined 
only after the areal archeologic complexes have been defined more 
precisely. The first concerns the absence of splitting adzes from the 
lower levels of the Anian Island tests. It will be recalled that a num- 
ber of these objects have been found in the surface layers (p. 67). 
Their apparent absence in our tests may be due to sampling error, or 
it may mean that they are relatively late introductions.*? It is im- 
possible to estimate at present to what extent the entire woodworking 
complex must have differed from that of the ethnographic horizon 
without this important tool; certain it is that some changes must have 
accompanied its introduction. 

Perhaps of more import than the addition of a new tool to the 
woodworker’s outfit is the change in house type suggested by the re- 
sults of the tests in the Heiltsuk sites. The squarish house built out 
over the front of the midden slope, with a sill to level off the floor, 
apparently is the “Northern” type. Its recency in Kwakiutl territory 
is attested by the changes in midden structure close below the surface 
at the Roscoe Inlet middens and at Kilkitei. Erosion of the midden 
face at Schooner Pass has made it impossible to determine if the type 
was ever in use there even in late times, although the lower horizons 
clearly show it absent anciently. 

All in all, while the present collections are insufficient for the certain 
determination of presence and extent of culture change over the period 
represented by the middens tested, they suggest that more extensive 
excavation will show some local and temporal differences, but that in 
the main the various components are intelligible as pertaining to the 
same phase and aspect as their latest (historic) manifestations. 


AGE OF THE SITES 


There is no key as yet to the temporal span represented by the 
midden deposits. The tremendous extent of some of the winter village 
sites suggests a fairly long period of accumulation, particularly in 
view of the fact that they were occupied only part of the year (the 
annual shifting of residence reported ethnographically may be predi- 
cated for early times as well because of the distance of these sites 
from salmon streams). A few possible approaches to the problem, 
however, are worth suggesting. 


52 de Laguna (1934, p. 172) has suggested that the splitting adze may be a late element 
on the basis of its position in the Cook Inlet horizons and its limited distribution. 


114 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BuLL, 133 


The first and most obvious line of attack is through dendrochro- 
nology. As yet Iam not certain that woods from the area are suitable 
for this type of analysis—whether annual fluctuations in rainfall 
and/or sunlight are marked enough to be reflected consistently in 
the growth rings. If the wood can be used, it should be no great task 
to work out a master chart, beginning with standing trees and then 
beams and posts still in place above ground, as at the Roscoe Inlet 
middens, or at Qalahaituk. Wood from the various levels in the 
middens should make it possible to carry the ring count back, for not 
only charcoal but large pieces of wood occur in deposits, even at con- 
siderable depth. The wood comes out fairly sound, although on dry- 
ing it tends to check and crack. Whether any of the present tech- 
niques for salvaging ancient wood would suffice to preserve these 
pieces, I am not certain, but a method could surely be devised. 

The house middens at Qalahaituk suggest the possibility of working 
out a rough time scale of yardage-accumulation of midden material. 
That is, had one a dateable house deposit (or even one belonging en- 
tirely in the historic period, as presumably did house 1), it might be 
possible to calculate an approximate deposition rate. The numerous 
variant factors—length of time the site was used each year, size of the 
house group, seasonal differences in food habits, ete-—would render it 
impossible to reach more than an approximate figure, although the 
ethnographic data that could be acquired with reference to specific 
historic horizons should partly correct the error here. Even an esti- 
mate with a probable error of a couple of centuries would be useful in 
default of a more precise time gauge. 

Another time indicator—although this one is even rougher than the 
preceding—is the type of cover on the sites. It will be recalled that 
at all but one place (Roscoe Inlet) the sites were devoid of the normal 
forest cover, supporting instead deciduous bushes, grasses, and the 
like. The apparent reason is that conifers require a slightly acid 
soil, whereas the shell content of the middens makes the deposit 
basic. The hemlock cover at Roscoe Inlet is Jess a contradiction than 
it appears, for there the trees grew chiefly on the fallen house timbers. 
Both Smith (1903, p. 187; 1907, pp. 331, 373, 399, 400) and Reagan 
(1917), however, report sites covered with normal forest. Seemingly, 
the only way to account for such sites is that sufficient time has elapsed 
since their abandonment to allow precipitation to leach out the calcium 
carbonates of the upper levels. Whether this leaching process pro- 
ceeds at a rate near enough constant to make it possible to calculate 
the time represented by such strata is a matter for a soils expert or 
chemist, but other things being equal, a site which supports a stand 
of mixed conifers can safely be assumed to be considerably older—at 
least, last occupied at a much earlier date—than sites with distinctive 


ANTHROP, Pap, No, 20] NORTHERN NW. COAST ARCHEOLOGY—DRUCKER 115 


deciduous cover.®* Although the 1938 survey found no such wooded 
middens, it cannot be assumed they do not occur in the regions sur- 
veyed. Obviously, such places would be difficult to find except by very 
careful combing of each district. Our party was looking for late sites 
with historic levels. The possibility that ancient hidden sites may 
occur should not be overlooked when the time comes to do intensive 
work in the area. 
PREVIOUS INVESTIGATIONS 


The prehistory of the Northwest Coast has been sadly neglected. 
What little work has been done north of the Columbia cannot be 
compared in point either of quantity or of scientific precision to the 
investigations made in recent years to the north and south. The me- 
ticulous researches of Jenness, Collins, and de Laguna in west and 
southwest Alaska, and of the University of California surveys in 
central California, have brought order and intelligibility to cultural 
melanges as confused and complex as that of the Northwest Coast. 
The prehistory of this vast intervening stretch has been left to the 
mercies of specimen collectors, who in their quest for beautiful 
jadeite celts and objets d’art have failed to unravel the first skein 
of culture history. The contrast with our ethnographic knowledge 
of the area is incredibly great. Thanks to the efforts of a series of 
scholars, early and late—one need cite only a few outstanding names 
of the many worthy ones: Krause, Dawson, Swanton, Boas—the re- 
cent culture of the region is about as well known as that of any com- 
parable part of North America. The archeology is the least known, 
with the possible exception of that of the Mackenzie-Yukon, and 
northern Plateau hinterland. 

One of the first to concern himself seriously with coast archeology 
was Hill-Tout (1895-96, pp. 103-113; 1900, pp. 492-494), who has 
recorded his impressions in a series of papers, although various 
earlier notices had been made of the occurrence of sites, and of 
“relics” picked up here and there in the region. (Eells, 1889; 
Wickersham, 1900; Dawson, 1877.) 

Hill-Tout called attention to the occurrence of large middens at 
the mouth of the Fraser River, and described some of the artifactual 
and skeletal material they contained. He was the first to note the 
presence of two sharply differentiated physical types in the skeletal 
material from these sites. He also described some of the burial 
cairns of the vicinity. 


53'The possible significance of distinctive midden cover may be of value in many other 
regions. (See Hrdlitka, 1987; Lillard, Heizer, and Fenenga, 1939, p. 65.) Of course, 
temporal interpretations of midden flora would have to be based in each instance on local 
factors of climate, drainage, soil chemistry, etc. In the New World, where exact dates are 
exceptional, all possible leads to chronology must be tested. 


116 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Buun, 133 


As a part of the American Museum of Natural History Jesup 
Expedition program, intensive archeological investigations were to 
be conducted on the Northwest Coast. Harlan I. Smith carried on 
this work for a number of years, chiefly in the Fraser-Columbia 
River drainages and the Straits of Georgia-Lower Puget Sound re- 
gion. Later he extended his operations northward on the coasts, 
but, lacking time and facilities, these later explorations have borne 
less fruit than did his initial ones. 

Smith has published full accounts of his work, in addition to a 
series of preliminary and summary papers.** His results can be 
briefed as follows: Although he dug in a considerable number of 
sites in the Georgia Straits-Puget Sound district, Smith’s important 
localities were Eburne midden near the mouth of the Fraser, Port 
Hammond near the upper part of the Fraser Delta, and North Saa- 
nich on the southeastern end of Vancouver Island. Despite minor 
differences in material from these sites, Smith maintains that, by and 
large, they represent a single culture, and one which was but slightly 
different from that of the historically known Coast Salish occupants 
of the region. Nor is there, according to Smith, any evidence of 
culture change from bottom to top in any of his sites. Nonetheless, 
he did find evidence of population change. In the three sites men- 
tioned above there were remains of two markedly different physical 
types. Boas’ description (7m Smith, 1903, p. 190) makes their dif- 
ference apparent: 

The one is characterized by a narrow head, the narrowness of which was 
emphasized by lateral pressure, with a marked median ridge on the forehead, 
narrow and high nose, and rather narrow face . . .; the other, by a wide head 
(produced partly by antero-posterior pressure) and a wide face. 

The brachycephals appear to be essentially the same in type as the 
recent inhabitants of the region. Stratigraphically they are reported 
to be later. The sequence appears only at North Saanich, where 
only the dolichocephalic type occurred in the lower levels, the brachy- 
cephalic in the upper (Smith, 1907, p. 354). At Eburne, both types 
were found “in the same layers,” and at Port Hammond only the 
brachycephalic type occurred (Smith, 1903, p. 187). The sequence 
T would suggest to be: 


Period North Saanich EHburne Port Hammond 
Brachycephalsie2-u) eae een ee eee Brachycephals. 
Transitionals (3) S22 goes eee Brachycephals and 
dolichocephals. 
Batly..224 2-2-2 Dolichocephals. 


Smith’s (1929, p. 4) interpretation is that the broad-headed type rep- 
resents an intrusion from the interior, which, in view of recent 
linguistic distributions seems reasonable enough. The anomalous 


5% See bibliography. 


AntTHroP, Pap, No, 20] NORTHERN NW. COAST ARCHEOLOGY—DRUCKER 117 


thing is that he denies any correlated culture change, despite the 
fact that he sees the culture of the adjacent interior as quite dis- 
tinct from that of the coast. Yet at the same time he feels himself 
forced ino the position of postulating culture change, to account for 
occurrence of interior traits: Stone chipping, tubular stone pipes, 
decorative art (geometric representative) (Smith, 1903, p. 190). 
Smith’s views on the way this came about are not altogether clear; 
he seems to link these elements (and there are others that can be 
pointed out as probably of interior derivation) with the migration of 
interior people to the coast (i. e., presumably the brachycephals), 
yet treats the traits as reflecting strong cultural influence from the 
interior (Smith, 1907, pp. 489, 441), by which one would understand 
something different from migration-borne introductions, and really 
more consistent with his denial of abrupt change. If these interior 
elements correlate perfectly with the intrusive physical type, it should 
have shown up at North Saanich—in other words, there should be 
stratigraphic change there, else the change must have transpired 
still earlier, and so cannot be associated with the brachycephalic in- 
trusion. Smith recognizes the decrease of “interior influence”— 
another culture change, though perhaps slight—in the period between 
the occupancy of his sites and proto- or early historic times (Smith, 
1907, p. 441). His plight is that of an archeologic Ancient Mariner: 
culture stratigraphy all about, but not a sequence could he find. 
It is to be regretted that neither his published accounts nor his 
catalogs give vertical distributions consistently enough to make it 
possible to re-examine his results. One can say only that there 
may or may not be determinable sequences in the Lower Fraser and 
other middens of the district; properly conducted excavations remain 
to be made. 

Among the various archeologic remains of the Georgia Straits- 
Puget Sound region, Smith found numbers of burial cairns of stone, 
or stone and earth, some containing interments made in the flesh 
and others apparently cremated remains. These he has been unable 
to correlate with any particular time interval, especially since there 
are no ethnographic accounts describing such a mode of burial in 
the region (Smith and Fowke, 1900, see especially p. 55). I would 
suggest that some at least are relatively late, on the following 
grounds: Some are situated on top of middens (at North Saanich, 
Point Roberts, etc.) (Smith, 1907, pp. 331, 362); while we have 
no data on physical types found, it is reported that the same antero- 
posterior type of skull deformation prevalent in historic times in the 
district occurred among the cairn burials; and, finally, in at least one 
of them contact goods have been found (Smith, 1907, pp. 60, 63).°° 


5 AMNH No. 16.1/1922, “7 white porcelain beads found in skull of 99/1698 from cairn. 
North Saanich, British Columbia.” 


ts BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 133 


Smith’s investigations in the adjacent interior regions, on the 
middle Fraser (1899, 1900) and in the Yakima Valley (1910), should 
be of significance in their relation to the archeology of the coast. He 
excavated burials at a number of sites in both districts. His interpre- 
tations are that the archeologic cultures were essentially the same as 
those of the ethnographically known natives of the region, and that, 
despite a few points of difference, the middle Fraser and Yakima 
Valley (middle Columbia) are closely akin (Smith, 1899, p. 161; 
1900, pp. 432-433; 1910, p. 143 ff.). We have but little data for 
temporal placing of the materials; they would have to be examined 
with considerable care to determine whether or not there are but 
two components—a middle Fraser, and a Yakima Valley one—repre- 
sented. By and large, the material in Smith’s figures and plates sug- 
gests that these two would stand, and that, as Smith sees it, the two 
foci are related. The logical conclusion must be that both foci are 
to be placed as relatively late in time, the northern one slightly 
earlier, on the basis of scarcity of such elements as: Contact goods 
(unless some of the plentiful copper found should prove to be of 
European origin), and small triangular chipped points reminiscent 
of late Plains types.°* Nonetheless, the presence in many poorly 
sheltered graves of such perishables as tule matting, woven textile of 
sagebrush, birchbark, deer and bird skins, and the like (Smith, 1899, 
p. 185, 159 ff.; 1900, pp. 484, 486-440), indicates that to none of the 
finds can much antiquity be attributed. The lateness of the Yakima 
Valley graves is attested by the frequency of contact goods, late 
Plains type points, and quantities of perishable materials of the 
same sort as those just mentioned.*" 

All in all, it is probable that in comparing this material from the 
interior with that from coastal middens of Georgia Straits, Smith 
is crossing boundaries not only of space but of time. The floral 
cover of Smith’s coast middens suggests a fairly long time since 
their abandonment (see p. 114) and they are said not to have yielded 
contact goods (although one of the burial cairns did; see p. 117). 

Reagan (1917), in a brief sketch, refers to sequences of archeological 
components in northwestern Washington, beginning with historically 
occupied horizons (in which contact goods occur). He finds three 
components (including the historic) in Quileute territory, four in 
that of the Makak-Ozete, the third of which (counting from the 
historic downward) he links with the prehistoric Quileute, and sev- 
eral—it is not clear whether three or four—in the Clallam and 
66 Contact goods (aside from the doubtful copper) consisted of an iron awl found in grave 
1, Government Hill site (Smith, 1900, p. 436) ; European textiles, grave at mouth of Niola 
Lake (Smith, 1900, p. 4838) and (probably) the spiral end copper hair ornaments from the 
“main burial site’ at Lytton (1899, p. 151). Small triangular points were found in graves 
9 and 10 (these are the only ones figured) at Kamloops (Smith, 1900, p. 435 and fig. 


332, f-j). 
7 Smith, 1910. See lists of grave lots 152-171 for contact goods; pl. 2 for point types. 


AntHrop. Par, No, 20] NORTHERN NW. COAST ARCHEOLOGY—DRUCKER 119 


Lummi-Nootsak region, one of the older again being linked with 
an early member ‘of the Quileute series. “The most serious difficulty 
from the point of view of intelligent criticism of his results is that 
Reagan gives no information at all as to the diagnostic elements of 
his various components, beyond saying that some—the historic and 
supposedly prehistoric Makak-Ozete horizon and the earliest—are 
distinguishable from the intervening “Quileute,” and the other com- 
ponents in Quileute territory, by an abundance of stone implements 
and decorated objects (Reagan, 1917, pp. 18-20). Lacking these 
pertinent data, there is no way to judge how he has arrived at his 
conclusions, nor to compare his horizons with those of adjacent 
» regions. 

Reagan also extends the distribution of the burial cairns to include 
northwest Washington. 

Strong, Schenck, and Steward’s (1930) excavations in the Dalles- 
Deschutes region represent the first systematically conducted re- 
searches on the Northwest Coast. Properly speaking, however, their 
sites were less coastal than interior in culture, though Wakemap 
mound and adjacent localities are in territory held in historic times 
by Chinookan groups, who, of course, are culturally coast people. 
The occurrence of semisubterranean earth lodges, cremation, mortars, 
metates, tubular stone pipes, etc., indicates to the authors an Interior 
Salishan culture, rather than one of coastal genre. Coastal trade 
connections, apparently up the Columbia, are indicated by presence 
of dentalia, whale-bone objects, etc. The upper levels at Wakemap 
and the cremation material seem to be referable to the protohistoric 
period, indicating that a cultural change had taken place sometime 
during this period but previous to the arrival of Lewis and Clark, 
who saw near the midden the “Echeloot” (Wishram) village of 
rectangular plank dwellings. 

The components revealed in the Dalles-Deschutes region are not, 
however, identical to those of the Yakima Valley and Thompson 
River regions. Different types of mauls, absence of celts, absence of 
large carved stone objects, comparable to the zoomorphic “mortars” 
and “vessels with a seated human figure,” occurrence of small stone 
statuettes or figurines of northern Basin type, different point types, 
the “throwing stones” and notched pebble sinkers, all point to con- 
siderable local deviation from the culture configurations to the north. 
The problem of the relationships in time and space of these various 
cultures is a critical one, and must be solved before that of their 
bearing on coast cultures can be approached. It is to be hoped that 
presentation of Krieger’s (1927, 1928, 1935) extensive operations 
further upstream, as yet only summarily recounted, will bring 
solution near. 


405260—43——_9 


120 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BuLn, 133 


TABLE 8.—Distribution of northern Northwest Coast artifact types 


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abate) ils} eee |e a eee eae 1 fy a Fe ees esl Peabo 28) ee ea 
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Atk oY ee Tesh lessee pal hed ee al eee 1 eee | eee ee Se See Tic Soe Cimaniins 
TypevEAs- - == 94.) Be alot males cle koe aloe ee eal ella Ee || WP Hes Sh Lea le ee 
Type IITA------ eee ee |e eel ee ee Sf |e ie alle 2352) 2228/0 oA) eee eee 2 
Motaleess == PH eee [ani | 84d Peel bere Dee Os ee oe [Eee eee 87 3.) 10 6 25 


points: 
A 


See footnotes at end of table. 


ANTHROP. Pap. No. 20] NORTHERN NW. COAST ARCHEOLOGY—DRUCKER 121 


Taste 8.—Distribution of northern Northwest Coast artifact types.—Continued 


Artifacts 


Tsimshian (general) 
Anian Island 


-_ 

~_ 

3 
= 
a4 

» ss 
a BR 
o | 4 | .8 Ma 
a}e; es C3) 
= 2 ss 
3/a]}0 |a~ 
eh Cll Pech I ee 
ae) Silas 
aq 3 o |° 
O/C A1Z 


Roscoe Inlet 1 


Roscoe Inlet 1A 


Kynumpt Harbor 


Schooner Pass. 


South Kwakiutl 


Georgia 


of 
(general) 


—— | — | — | | fe ef ef | | —— | —— | 


bo] 
qa 
HE 
alle 
eles 
S 2 
alegre 
si (eer 6 ea 
ZOE ae 
LAMM SG 
Gaanainice 
dy a a 
12} 9] 26 
Sia ia leary 
a Suet tong 
Pheu ey ae 
He lerolieire 
3 4 1 
3/19] 16 


111 [133 | 126 


1 Fragment(s) (type indeterminable) included. 


2 Specimen is from the Interior Tsimshian (Gitksan) (PMAAE 85849). 


3 Provenience not certain. 

4 Smith reports recovering 24 points at North Saanich and figures some NAa, NBa, SAa, SB6, and SC61 
forms from the vicinity (Smith, 1907, p. 332, and fig. 118). 

5 Specimen from Xaisla (Katamat). 

6 Specimen type IB or IB1 fragments noted. 

7 Five type IB or IB1 fragments noted. 


122 


BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 


[BuULL, 133 


TABLE 9.—Distribution of northern Northwest Coast artifact types (occurrence, 
not frequency )* 


Artifacts 


Bone awls: 


A_lolf 
23) 8/8 |4/s 
a Salle ie 
oar SislO 
8 mol Sala 
S18) 3/3 /S 
a 2\3\éia 
& OIC |A 


a = 
et | 
[-+} ~— 
zo] 2 
m8] 8 
S| 
Sis 
Ho) 
Siete S 
a [ae] 


’ Lo} 
sis gi\a |ka| |S/e 
2 Id Ee Sa om | Oo 
5) AY ji a aig 
= |e SalO oO 
§ \es w | Si.e| [ale 
» |£.a| ‘So & S/S 3). IFIS)o 
o|3 = 8 less] S/alela 
oO — 

Ble |B| S| fesislelels 

fo} . 4g 2 & tp ro) 

me | |< 8 ja ldlzicla 
Ain |n |O|Z\u\y 


Type la 
Type lal 
Type 1b 
Type le 
Type Icl 
Type 1d 
Type le 
Type 2d 
Type 3a_ 
Type 3b 
Bone knives: 
[D7 0]2)8 ee eee Se Se Sarre 
AS 4012) 6 Se ee eee Seine nL eee 
Wedges: 
bi Ord 0: a eer eer reer ee 
iy pews Sa 
Bone or horn flakers z 
Horn celtibatts...2---- 2 to = 
iBone wmalleweses o=2 Ge eee 
Cedar-bark shredders: 
POL. aie se Sa A oe eee 
ype lubes --22" eee es Re ee 2. 
Bone needles: 
TO Ne seas 2 Se ona oes ae 
Af ol: 0 tl eS ee 
Stone ‘‘bark shredders’’.-..----------- : 
Piloidriversse sc s--astdesveocs ssh se 
Biconical stones (grinders) 
Wihetston@se os. sleet eee 
Grooved sinkers= 22.242 ee 
Woteched'sinkers:: #2. 5 --.---4-2--- + == 
Perforatedisinkers»-2.--. -.*..-.22--<= ssl)-5 
Spindle whorls: 
PRY DOW ae saaee soe ee ase --|--|---- ee | |e FE ae I IN ee re (eee b> el ia eh | [ 
Adio Ml 123 a A Sees te ||5=l= oneal De) Cees fa 2] Ga =o] ce nll 
Stone vessels: 
ie bal sone ear ene neee eae --|X| X |--]--]--]--]----]---- oat eee eee 222] XK] GABE ISS 
Nv NOW Roe eee ee ee ea|es|eeen|@| ool e=|2N ete ----|----]---- =-|-=--=| % |--len}e- 
TAY pe VAT» het he ee ay Sle Ae (rae feel Ps eae eee eee | wera 5 eee eee alee ee hee 
MyneuliBila sss 22 eee 2 ee ee BE eel ex |e ae as | ee ae eae pee eee) aie nal Ia feo izial ip clio |< 
MyMenBOs 2 ho: 28S ok Ue Sal hae =| 2/2 ere = =|) Xa lens easa]) Silicone eae eee 
Ty POC seers ene 64/54) SeS eee Seles) |Se= 4) Se Ae oe =o =| coal woe Teen eee 
Tyne ile aa er aL ARE EI Xlloee 2X |e] a5| 23 | sao ae ealeeeligos 3 ella Oya pee en 
Stoneidiskss 222e- een ese Belay eel Eel eels feed eee =| lore Yeap eer eel| ase 2 s| Ss el a een 
Slatetpencilsvs2- 222 P= 2 P<) eS EA EE pd sel ese elt Sears [ ae WP We ||P <8 ea bse! | =X 
Outibird=-bone tubes: 2)-.--—---- Es ies | ees oN eee ae pe | eres | ee Ge een Sal | 58) Sar! 2 IIe 
Bird-bone whistles--_----------------- 1B ES |S a (ed fe ae Fe ee eo bcs | rae ed eee | 
Shell beads: 
Dentalia(archeo).)/==--=--2-=-- = ey (a Peal fe (ee) (ee Ome eee [aural Rm ary eee | Se Heme Pees edt Nal 2 1 
@lameholldiskse2-22222222 25-225 a >< ee ae | 2 el Pe meee el fe eee Be es ee al eae ile 
Bone ease sees a ee ee eee See ee ee ee ee ee | ere HE CE | ae TP SRIS 
Cannel-coal beads- ------------------- Ba ee res |e | | eae nee |e ao is ee 3 odes tee | eee 
Pendants: 
Mooth or claw--------s-- -=------— sa 2s| Xe eal 2 alee eee eee Se [>| eee |e SQPaaISe 
ong boneirods. -.=-+--=---==—-- Sal] Be Io ee ee ee) e=ee ae eae (semen WED CYS | ll 
Blaticarved bones:—2-=-=-------—— | ae ees ees | ce re ee ao|eecu)c eel ee eee 
Copper crescents. .--------------- te eS aS a el fae] ee x | SS 
Ooppertubess. 26 ee EY NS PSE See Se es fn aa Ce eel 
Peer or goat hoof-.----=2=-~---=- SoCal ee estos] alesis Eee peak) 2 | Seca] eee es eer eae 
Stone. 2220. eee eae Mis lesss|==|es|=3 | Peres eel ee eye |uL eel SS Se es ee 
Labrets: 
Mi ptiCilessss="20 pe oeerseesneaee Sos eer se el Pd Se pees Jafeceal deeal 2k Se eos ee 
Ticciet\o\:s Wake ee ees eee Kisales-= s={\= 2|23))S5) Bese 23 .|-ce cc eSelh aa Seis 
Flat bone bands.._------------. ~----|--|--|----|--|--|--|--|----|----|----]----]----|----]----]-2>-|--lzsls5 
Stone pinesicas.0 2c -- esa oes eee ee S| aan e= meena Rae (es (An Weel eR Ste SII Nc 
Massive stone carving. ...---.--------|--|--|----|--|--|--]--|----|----]----]----]----]----]----|----]--|z5]=; x 
Geometric incised design__----------- x|x< | PO Fee VR ee ey |) eee (ee et <I XlX 
Stone chipping. ss-e- 2. oe ee oeeee eee oe p> > [eV (RI ld | een ee | Pe << XSI IS 
Stone and bone sawed_..-------------|--|--|----|--]--|--|--|----|---- sleceoe be cnleo 3] Cass] Ree et ee a 


Dee ee ee EERIE EERE 


1 The artifacts in this table are those whose frequency, because 


the several parts of the area, 
by (X). 
however, 


Blanks mean no specimens seen; 


of insufficient number of examples from 
is not worth recording at present. For this reason occurrences only are indicated 
they are not necessarily true absences. 
where fair samplings of material have been recovered, the blanks are probably significant. 


In a number of cases, 


ANTHROP. Pap, No, 20] NORTHERN NW. COAST ARCHEOLOGY—DRUCKER 123 


DISTRIBUTIONS OF ELEMENTS ON THE NORTHERN 
NORTHWEST COAST 


If we turn now to an examination of the horizontal distributions of 
archeological elements in our area (see tables 8 and 9), without regard 
‘to possible vertical differences, some striking facts appear. There are, 
first of all, three fairly well set off divisions, which in the main fit 
geographic and linguistic groupings. It is possible that this seeming 
regularity may be in part a result of generalized information as to 
provenience of some of the museum material (ie., “Tlingit,” “Tsim- 
shian,” “Bella Coola,” etc.) that further research may modify. At 
present, however, we may suggest a Northern aspect ** which would 
includeTlingit-Haida-Tsimshian territories; a Milbanke-Queen Char- 
lotte Sound aspect, coextensive with the Kwakiutl territory of historic 
times, and a Straits of Georgia-Puget Sound aspect, all belonging to 
the Northwest Coast pattern. (Our data are inadequate for placing 
the Bella Coola. Some strong affiliations of this group to the North- 
ern aspect are indicated; in other respects they aline with their 
Kwakiutl neighbors.) It is worth stressing that ethnographic mate- 
rials indicate essentially the same divisions. The diagnostic features 
of these aspects can be summarized from the distribution charts: 


THE NORTHERN ASPECT 


One-piece barbed harpoons, Types II, III, and IV. 
(Composite harpoons rare?) * 

Class A fixed bone points. 

Chipped stone points (not common). 
Ground slate points. 

Splitting adzes. 

Hafted stone mauls. 

Hand mauls, type I. 

Slate blades, especially type II. 

Few bone awl types (?). 

Celts, types I and II, usually jadeite. 
Stone “bark shredders.” 

Stone vessels, especially type ITA1. 
Grooved, notched, perforated stones (?). 
Cut bird-bone tubes. 

Bird-bone whistles. 


* Parentheses denote a significant absence. Italics denote relatively high frequency. 


58 The taxonomic designations proposed by McKern (1934) for the Middle West are used 
here in a modified sense, indicating cultural divisions of differing order. By ‘‘pattern’’ is 
meant a group of cultures sharing the same basic industries and general cultural orientation. 
In the present instance, the Northwest Coast ‘‘pattern’’ is synonymous with the Northwest 
Coast culture area. ‘Phases’ are subdivisions of the pattern which are alike in the trend 
of their specializations of the basic trends of the pattern. I would group the coast cultures, 
from the Columbia north, into one phase, as opposed to those of coastal Oregon and north- 
west California (this is on the basis of comparative ethnography). Within the phases are 
the ‘‘aspects’”—cultural-regional divisions of fairly high degree of similarity of culture. 


124 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Buun, 133 


Tooth and/or claw pendants. 

Long rodlike bone pendants. 

Deer and/or goat hoof pendants. 

Elliptical, T-shaped labrets. 

Stone polishers. 

Biconical stones. 

Geometric incised designs (occasional). 

Midden burial, cave burial in boxes, cremation (ethnographic). 


MILBANKE-QUEEN CHARLOTTE SOUND ASPECT 


(One-piece barbed harpoons rare). 
Composite harpoons (probably common) 
(Class A fixed bone points rare). 
Class B fixed bone points, highly specialized types. 
(Chipped stone points rare or absent). 
(Ground slate points rare). 
(Splitting adzes very rare). 
Hafted stone mauls(?). 
Hand mauls, types III and IV. 
Considerable number of types of bone avwls. 
Celts, type I, chiefly of serpentine. 
Stone pile drivers. 
Stone vessels, especially Bella Coola. 
Stone disks, especially Bella Coola and southern Kwakiutl. 
Grooved stones. 
Spindle whorls, type II. 
Long bone rods. 
Bone mallets for shredding cypress bark. 
Rock-shelter burial in boves, midden burial, grave houses, box burial in trees 
(ethnographic). 
STRAITS OF GEORGIA-PUDGET SouUND( ASPECT 


One-piece barbed harpoons, types I and IV. 
Composite harpoons, type I (lacking at Eburne). 
Class A fixed bone points 

Class B fixed bone points, types IA-IB. 
Chipped stone points, [especially Eburne]. 
Ground slate points, all types. 

(No splitting adzes). 

(No hafted mauls). ~ 

Hand mauls, type J. 

Slate blades, types I and II. 

Variety of bone-awl types. 

Celts, types I, and II, commonly of jadeite. 
Bone needles [Eburne only]. 

Flaking tools. 

Stone vessels, type IIC. 

Bone and horn wedges. 

Horn celt hafts. 

Perforated stones. 

Cut bird-bone tubes [Eburne]. 

Bird-bone whistles [Eburne]. 

Spindle whorls, type I. 

Clamshell disk beads (not common). 


AnTHROP. Pap. No. 20] NORTHERN NW. COAST ARCHEOLOGY—DRUCKER 125 


Cannel-coal beads (not common). 

Tooth, claw pendants. 

Copper crescents. 

Labrets, T-shaped. 

Stone pipes (not common). 

Flat bone “browbands.” 

Massive stone carving. 

Geometric incised designs. 

Midden burial, cairn burial, occasional cremation. 


THE NORTHERN ASPECT 


An interesting feature of materials from the Northern aspect, par- 
ticularly from Tlingit territory is the lack of finish of many of the 
pieces, particularly adzes and celts. This would seem a minor point, 
were it not for the well-marked tendency on the Coast as a whole to 
finish all manufactures well and neatly. So pronounced is this habit 
that it seems basic to Northwest Coast material culture and technology. 
The rough-polled celts and adzes suggest again influences from the 
ruder culture of the interior, where expediency took precedence over 
pride in workmanship. 

In addition to the interior affiliations of the Northern aspect, it 
has strong ties in another direction, namely, to the southwest Alaskan 
variants of Eskimo cultures. The parallels in our limited sampling 
from the Northern (Northwest Coast) division—numerous barbed 
harpoon points, splitting adzes, hafted mauls, mirrors, sawing in stone 
working, and the like (cf. de Laguna, 1934, passim)—are amply cor- 
roborated by the occurrences of Eskimoid barbed bone arrow points, 
Eskimoid harpoon-arrow points (type IV), and ethnographic par- 
allels such as the Tlingit throwing-boards, lamps, and umiaks.*? 
Which way the major trend of influence has moved cannot be known 
until we have the results of investigations on the northern part of 
the Coast to compare with de Laguna’s meticulous studies in Cook 
Inlet. 

That the two regions have exerted mutual influences at many points 
cannot be doubted. It may even be that each owes its distinctive- 
ness—the Northern from other Northwest Coast phases, the southwest 
Alaskan phase from the rest of the Eskimo pattern—to contacts with 
the other. This is once more sheer speculation, yet it seems to help 
place transitional aspects whose relationships to each other are very 
nearly as strong as those binding each to its distinctive pattern. 


THE MILBANKE-QUEEN CHARLOTTE SOUND ASPECT 


With the few data that we have at our disposal, it is difficult to 
say much about this phase, other than to point out the apparent basis 


59 (Throwing boards) : Niblack, 1890, fig. 127; Dalton, 1897, p. 230. (Lamps): Krause, 
1885, p. 206. (Umiaks) : La Perouse, p. 35 and pl. facing p. 34: Olson, 1936, p. 214. 


126 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BuLL, 133 


of its distinctiveness. I would stress that its outstanding char- 
acteristic, that which differentiates it from adjacent divisions, is the 
absence (or much smaller quantity) of elements traceable to 
interior influences. This is intelligible enough on the ethnographic 
time level. We know that the historic occupants of the region had 
very little contact with interior tribes (save for the Bella Coola, 
themselves presumably intrusive). In this regard the Kwakiutl dif- 
fered from Tlingit and Tsimshiar to the north, and from the Coast 
Salish in the south. What intericr influences there are in Kwakiutl 
cultures must have come in a roundabout way. The apparent ab- 
sence of abrupt cultural change during the time interval represented 
by the Heiltsuk deposits tested indicates that this isolation was a con- 
dition of at least moderately long standing. This hints that in the 
Milbanke-Queen Charlotte Sound phase may be seen the coastal 
culture of purest strain. Whether not only the purest but the oldest 
coast-dweller culture is to be found in this region, only further 
investigations can determine. 


THE STRAITS OF GEORGIA-PUGET SOUND ASPECT 


Perusing the foregoing lists of elements brings out the surprising 
fact of the numerous parallels between the Northern and the Straits of 
Georgia-Puget Sound divisions, emphasizing, though in a negative 
fashion, the distinctiveness of the central Milbanke-Queen Charlotte 
Sound aspect. Although classifications based on ethnographic data 
indicate three divisions similar to these proposed from archeologic 
distributions, this high similarity does not appear so clearly. If we 
analyze the group of parallel elements—one-piece barbed harpoons, 
class A fixed bone points, chipped stone points, ground stone points, 
hand mauls type I, celt types and materials (especially jadeite), stone 
vessels, cut bird-bone tubes and whistles, geometric incised designs, 
cremation—it becomes evident that we have to do with a series of traits 
most of which can safely be attributed to interior influences.°° Many 
appear to be characteristic of the middle Fraser-Columbia River 
cultures, described by Smith, and Strong, Schenck, and Steward; 
others, like the one-piece barbed harpoons and ground slate blades, 
have a wide if not altogether regular distribution across the northern 
part of the continent. Lacking stratigraphic evidence, it is impossible 
to say whether in either or both of these coastal phases the interior 
elements form an old substratum or late overlay. The fact that the 
longest series of interior items of very restricted coastal distribution— 
bone mat needles, clamshell disk beads, tooth and claw pendants, flat 
bone “browbands,” cut bird-bone tubes and whistles (numerous)— 


60It is interesting in this connection to note that the only Type I harpoon point noted 
north of Georgia Straits is from the interior-dwelling Gitksan of the Upper Skeena (table 
8, and note 2). 


ANTHROP, Pap, No, 20] NORTHERN NW. COAST ARCHEOLOGY—DRUCKER 127 


come chiefly from Eburne (which, on the basis of physical type occur- 
rence, has been suggested as possibly transitional) or from Eburne 
and Port Hammond, suggests that for the Straits of Georgia phase at 
least the interior elements may overlie an older purely coastal 
component. 


CULTURE OF THE FRASER-COLUMBIA BASINS 


It becomes pertinent to bring up the question of relationship be- 
tween the block of interior traits apparently intrusive on the coast 
in the Georgia Straits region, and the archeologically known cul- 
tures of the interior. Our data, unfortunately, are so indecisive as 
to the interrelations of the Fraser-Columbia cultures that the most that 
can be done at present is to point out certain possibilities. For the 
most part we have to do with late manifestations; apparently late 
prehistoric to full historic in the Thompson district, mostly historic 
in the Yakima Valley, and only in the Wakemap material do we have 
remains suggesting a temporal span even possibly comparable to 
that of the coastal middens. 

Smith’s conclusions as to the downstream trend of culture flow on 
the Fraser (whether by migration or diffusion is beside the point) 
appear logical enough. They raise the problem whether or not the 
coastal components at Eburne and Port Hammond, and their equiva- 
lents at other sites in the district, may not be derivatively interior 
in genre; in other words, whether these cultures might not be viewed 
as a specialized or modified aspect of a Plateau, or, perhaps better, 
Fraser-Columbia River phase. In default of conclusive evidence, 
this much may be offered: The massive stone carving appears so 
widely distributed in the interior as to suggest that region as its 
source, particularly when we include the “sculptured ape heads” 
from eastern Oregon as part of the complex (Terry, 1891). This 
stone carving is the oldest art style of which we have any knowledge 
on the coast; the many stylistic similarities to northern wood carving 
of the classic period have been pointed out. (Boas in Smith, 1907). 
Its place of origin inevitably must be regarded as the fountainhead 
of everything we consider “Northwest Coast” in culture in the sense 
of the coast culture of historic times. The antiquity of this art in 
the Georgia Straits region is not known. Yet Smith reports no ex- 
ample of it from the lower levels of North Saanich—those containing 
only the older type dolichocephalic skeletal material, and by far the 
greatest quantity comes from Eburne, the site with mixed (transi- 
tional?) population and with the greatest number of interior traits. 
This at least hints at an interior provenience of the carving complex. 
While we have no evidence of this massive art at Wakemap, there are 
traces of a rather similar stone carving of small animal forms which 


128 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BuLy. 133 


may well be related to the complex and which extends far down into 
the Great Basin.* Also it is probably significant that the very dis- 
tinctive bone carving tradition that seems to center on the middle 
Columbia * is patently linked with the massive stone art, as indi- 
cated by the carved “ribs” and “vertebrae” on a number of the stone 
pieces. (See Smith, 1907, figs. 183¢, 185¢, 190, 196, 198.) 

I can see nothing impossible about the suggestion advanced by 
Strong, Schenck, and Steward (1930, p. 145) that “in coast Salish [I 
would say simply ‘Salish’] territory we may yet distinguish the 
early manifestations of the widespread northwest coast culture,” if 
by that they mean Northwest Coast culture of the classic or ethno- 
graphically known period. Such an origin would involve the as- 
sumption that the center of dominance or focal center (in Kroeber’s 
sense) shifted northward in the course of time. Such shifts have 
occurred more times than one. The dominant center of Anasazi 
culture has not been the San Juan for many years; and the rude 
Pima and Papago gaze uncomprehendingly at the cultural remains 
of their Hohokam predecessors. 

On the other hand, it is entirely possible that the culture hearth 
Jay to the north, in the Northern phase, where stimulus to new de- 
velopments may have grown out of the welding of inland, Eskimoid, 
and coastal elements. Or, as a matter of fact, the Milbanke-Queen 
Charlotte Sound phase may have produced the new trends 
autochthonously. The truth of the matter can be determined only 
by careful and extensive investigations. My aim here, however, is 
not to soar off into the realms of speculation, but to point out a 
series of problems, and specifically at this point, the vital need for 
more rigidly controlled excavations in the Fraser-Columbia region 
as well as on the adjacent coast. 


RR, F. Heizer has recovered a series of surprisingly well done stone figurines, etc., in his 
surveys of the Humboldt Basin region in Nevada. They are quite similar to the objects 
figured by Strong et al. 1930, pl. 26, c—d, h-i, fig. 17, b,c, e, f. 

82 See Smith, 1904; Steward, 1927; Strong, et al., 1930, pl. 9, a—j, and pp. 142-143 (dis- 
tribution). : 


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1928. A prehistoric pit house village site on the Columbia River at Wahluke, 
Grant County, Wash. U. S. Nat. Mus. Proc., vol. 73, art. 11, 
pp. 1-29. 
1935. Salvaging early cultural remains in the Valley of the Lower Columbia 
River. Explor. and Field work of the Mmithsonian Inst. in 1934. 
pp. 53-56. 
KROEBER, A. L. 
1934. Native American population. Amer. Anthrop., n. s., vol. 36, No. 1, 
pp. 1-25. 
LAGUNA, FREDERICA DE 
1934. The archaeology of Cook Inlet, Alaska. Univ. Mus., Univ. Pa. Press. 
La PE£ROUSE, JEAN FRANCOIS DE GALAUP, COMTE DE 
1937. Le Voyage de La Pérouse sur les cétes de ]’Alaska et de la Californie 
(1786) avee une introduction et des notes par Gilbert Chinard. Inst. 
Francais de Washington, cahier X. The Johns Hopkins Press, 
Baltimore. 
Liarp, J. B., Heizer, R. F., and Fenenga, F. 
1939. An introduction to the archeology of Central California. Sacramento 
Junior Coll., Dept. Anthrop., Bull. 2. 
Loup, LLEWELLYN L. 
1918. Ethnogeography and archaeology of Wiyot territory. Univ. Calif., 
Publ. Amer. Archaeol. and Ethnol., vol. 14, No. 3, pp. 221-436. 
NIBLACK, ALBERT P. 
1890. The Coast Indians of Southern Alaska and Northern British Colum- 
bia. Ann. Rep. U. S. Nat. Mus. 1888, pp. 225-3886. 


ANTHROP, Pap, No. 20] NORTHERN NW. COAST ARCHEOLOGY—DRUCKER 131 


Otson, Ronatp L. 
19386. Some trading customs of the Chilkat Tlingit. Hssays in honor of 
A. L. Kroeber, pp. 211-214. Berkeley. 
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1899. Archaeology of Lytton, British Columbia. Mem. Amer. Mus. Nat. 
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York. 


132 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BuLL, 133 


TIDAL AND CURRENT SURVEY DIVISION 
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1937. The cartography of the northwest coast of America to the year 1800. 
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1900. Some relics of the Stone Age from Puget Sound. Amer. Antiquarian, 
vol. 22, pp. 141-149. 


BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BUEEE RING SS PEA ES 


TSIMSHIAN SITES. 


a, Anian Island midder. 6, Robertson Point midden. c, Wilgiapshi Island midden. 
d, Shawatlan Falls camp site. ¢, Qalahaituk midden. 


BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 133 PLATE 6 


KWAKIUTL SITES. 


a, McLoughlin Bay site. 6, Kilkitei Village midden. c, Schooner Passage 1 midden. 
d, Roscoe Islet 1A, front slope of midden. e¢, Nimkish River 1 site. 


BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BUEEPEGINGTS3S> PEATE 7 


‘A ‘ Pe 


HOUSE REMAINS. 


a, Rock-filled fire pit, Charles Point midden. 6, Flooring, northwest corner House 1, 
Qalahaituk, from west. c, Standing house post, House 6, Qalahaituk. d, Cross trench 
through House 1, Qalahaituk, showing supporting timbers, from center of house.  e, 
Southwest cornerpost, end of beam, and front sill, House 1, Roscoe Inlet 1. Note hem- 
lock growing over end of beam. f, Southeast cornerpost and beam, House 1, Roscoe 
Inlet 1. Note hemlock which has split post from top, and others growing on beam. 


‘aSUT[[A IIH[ly avou sodaarig ‘3 


‘] odesseg Jauooysg “9 [vlung “{ ‘sseg dnoiy, *(paaowai ¢ yeling jo xoq) + [lang Suruiequos xog ‘a ‘sseg dnory, ‘*poaouias ButsaAco pivog ‘¢ 


re 


[elaing SULUIeUOD xOq ? “SSt dnoiy, *p9aowod snuny SSOUL id [elang SULIOAOD Sp1vOq ‘2 “dAeD [elang 9A07) AYSIU “q “puelsy uPluy ‘T [eng ‘D 


“SIVINNG 


8 3ALV1d €€1 NILA1TINA ASOIONHLA NVOIMAWY SO NvaeYHnNEG 


BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BUIEEERIN 1337 (PEAhESS 


MISCELLANEOUS VIEWS. 


a, Rows of rocks for canoe skids, east of Charles Point. 6, Midden face cleared for trench, 
Schooner Passage 1. c, Petroglyphs, Kitkiata Inlet. d, Petroglyphs, Kitkiata Inlet. 
e, Petroglyph, Kitkiata Inlet. f, Petroglyphs, Meadow Island. 


BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 133 PLATE 10 


t — 


STALLINGS PLAIN AND PUNCTATE SHERDS FROM THE CHESTER FIELD SITE. 
(For explanation, see page 168.) 


BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 133 PLATE 11 


Oo 


STALLINGS PUNCTATE SHERDS FROM THE CHESTER FIELD SITE AND CHECK 
STAMPED AND CORD MARKED SHERDS FROM THE LAKE PLANTATION. 


(For explanation, see p. 168) 


BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULEERIN 133) PEATE si2 


f 


MISCELLANEOUS SHERDS FROM LAKE PLANTATION AND TWO STALLINGS PUNC- 
TATE SHERDS FROM JONES ISLAND. 


(For explanation, see p. 168) 


- 


EEE 


APPENDIX A 
EARLY VERTEBRATE FAUNA OF THE BRITISH COLUMBIA COAST 


By EpNA M. FISHER 


The excavation of several kitchen-middens along the coast of 
British Columbia resulted in the collection of numerous animal bones 
of interest. The animal bones are on the whole in a poor state cf 
preservation; several are cracked and most of them are broken; flak- 
ing and peeling are a common condition; and in many instances all 
important diagnostic characteristics are gone. Owing to this frag- 
mentary condition, it has been impossible to do more than assign 
some of the bones to certain major vertebrate groups. For example, 
there are many bones that surely belong to three genera of the Order 
Artiodactyla, but only a relatively few of these that can be definitely 
identified as those of either mountain sheep, mountain goat, or 
Columbian black-tailed deer. 

I wish to thank Edward W. Gifford, Curator of the Anthropology 
Museum, Berkeley, Calif., for his most cordial cooperation in this 
study. Also I wish to thank Dr. Alden H. Miller, Director of the 
Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, University of California, for the 
privilege of consulting the osteclogical collections under his care. 

The identification of the bones brought no unusual finds. No form 
was found that might not have been expected to occur within the 
regions studied. In fact, fewer species occurred in the sampling of 
the kitchen-middens than had been expected; particularly is this 
true for the water birds. Evidently, the elements recovered repre- 
sent some of the species that were hunted by the early inhabitants 
for food and as a source of clothing. The comparatively small num- 
ber of elements is most surprising. Why so few? Was it due to 
lack of equipment for capturing the game, the small number of 
natives living at a given site at any one time, or the lack of interest 
in large amounts of animal food as compared to plant materials? 
Surely it could not be that there was a scarcity of animals in 
the region. 

In a study of the vertebrate remains no species was found that 
was not already known from this province. Food and clothing needs 


133 


134 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BuLL, 133 


would account for the largest number of bones, but hardly for the 
many bones of the domestic dog that were found. For details con- 
cerning the age of the different levels and of the respective deposits, 
the reader will be referred to Dr. Drucker’s discussion of the sub- 
ject (pp. 113-114). No attempt has been made here to evaluate the 
various areas of relationships. 

The different localities from which animal bones were saved have 
been grouped in this study into five major areas. These major areas 
are as follows: 1, Anian Island (a winter village), Kaien Island, 
and Charles Point (the northernmost group included here) ; 2, Qala- 
haituk; 8, Khutze Anchorage; 4, Roscoe Inlet and Kilkitei Village 
(both winter habitations), and Kynumpt Harbor; 5, Schooner Pas- 
sage (a winter village site). By winter village is meant the perma- 
nent home site that supposedly was occupied throughout the year 
with, perhaps, short trips inland at certain seasons. 

The following is the list of genera and species which it has been 
possible to identify to date among the vertebrate remains in 
this collection: 


MAMMALIA 

Euarctos americanus perniger (Allen)__---__-___- Black bear. 
Euarctos americanus pugnax (Swarth)___________ Black bear. 
Euarctos americanus altifrontalis (Elliot) -_-______ Northwestern black bear. 
(GER TESIC eg wl OH g g(a peep, Cae an 2S IR OS SN CON, le Bear, genus and species un- 

known. 
Canis jamiusaris Linnaets: oe ee EY Domestic dog. 
Lutra canadensis periclyzomae Elliot___.------__- Alaskan river otter. 
Enhydra lutris lutris (Linnaeus) ._.---.--------_- Northern sea otter. 
TODS: se bes BaP Ms ys A Ne MMR on Sea lion, species unknown. 
Eumetopias jubata (Schreber)______-------_____- Steller sea lion. 
Callorhinus alascanus Jordan and Clark__________ Pribilof fur seal. 
Phoce richardi richardi (Gray). 2 see. 6 oP) oe Harbor, or hair seal. 
Erethizon epixanthum nigrescens Allen_______---- Porcupine. 
Castor canadensis canadensis Kuhl___________-_-_- Beaver. 
Odocoileus hemionus columbianus (Richardson)_.__. Columbian black-tailed deer. 
Ovisrearindensist ia. oUt See i ole Bake oe wesc Mountain sheep, subspecies 

unknown. 
Oreamnus americanus columbiae Hollister - - -_-__- Mountain goat. 
Phocaena phocoena (Linnaeus)____-------------- Harbor porpoise. 

AVES 

Gavia immer immer (Briinnich) _---_-___-_------ Common loon. 
Gavia arctica pacifica (Lawrence) ___-.___-_------ Pacific loon. 


1It is doubtful at present if the bones of mountain sheep are included in the collection. 
There is insufficient comparative material available at present to settle this point. The 
bones herein listed as mountain sheep are probably those of mountain goat. So far as is 
known there is no record of the natural occurrence of mountain sheep in the area studied, 
either in paleontological or recent times, It is known that the coast Indians did trade with 
the inland tribes for the horns of the sheep and there is the possibility that some Indian 
might have traded for more of a sheep than just the horns. 


ANTHROP. Pap. No, 20] FAUNA OF BRITISH COLUMBIA COAST—FISHER 135 


Cygnus columbianus (Ord) tos. ese a he Whistling swan, probable 
species. 
Branta canadensis canadensis (Linnaeus)_.___._._..- Canada goose. 
Branta canadensis occidentalis (Baird) -_--------- White-cheeked goose, prob- 
able subspecies. 
Daflaacuta tzitzthoas(Vieillot)\.- 9. 32 = = American pintail duck. 
Glaucionetta islandica (Gmelin) ----------------- Barrow golden-eye duck. 
Oidemia americana Swainson------------------- American scoter, probable spe- 
cies. 
PCCUMI GTI LO: 2 oo 5 ie nee ees Se eye ciara ae ee Genera and species unknown. 
Haliaeetus leucocephalus alascanus Townsend -- - - - Northern bald eagle. 
IBUteOrSDOANSONt BONDAPALLe === se ea ae ae a Swainson’s hawk. 
Worusiglaucescens Naumann===* 2s a es Glaucous-winged gull. 
Larus occidentalis occidentalis Audubon- - - -- - - --- Northwestern gull. 
Manus Reermannt Cassin. of 2uen oo Heermann’s gull. 
Larus canus brachyrhynchus Richardson - - - - ----- Short-billed gull. 
Cerorhinca monocerata (Pallas)_. 2222) U = se eee Rhinoceros auklet. 
AMPHIBIA 


Several leg bones of a medium-sized species of amphibian. Owing to the com- 
plete lack of comparative material, it is quite impossible to further identify them. 
The size of the bones suggests that they might be from either a frog or toad. 


PISCES 


Again owing to insufficient comparative material, accurate identification is 
not possible at this time. That the bones are from salmon and bass seems a 
logical suggestion since these two types of fish are relatively numerous along 
this northern coast line. 

The bones of the domestic dog were found at almost all levels 
explored on the Anian Island site. Of all the sites excavated Anian 
Tsland contained the most dog bones. In some of the other mounds 
there were a few dog bones but these were usually at lower levels only. 
Artiodactyls (deer, sheep, or goats) were present in most deposits 
and at most levels. The deer bones identified certainly outnumbered 
by far the bones of sheep or goats. There were numerous bones or 
fragments that were from some carnivore but due to the condition 
of the bones it has been impossible to date to identify them further. 
This group may contain pieces of fox or wolf since these forms 
probably did occur within the region. There are numerous bones 
too fragmentary to even hazard a guess as to the kind of animal 
to which they belonged. 

The number of species represented and the number of elements, that 
is, the volume of material recovered, is small in the northern deposits 
and increases with each area studied to the south. Perhaps more ex- 
tensive collections from the northern areas would change the picture 
somewhat. 


405260—43——_10 


136 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BuLn, 133 


The following is a list of the species for the various areas begin- 
ning in the north and continuing to the southward: 


ANIAN ISLAND 


Mammalia: 
Odocoileus hemionus coluwmbianus (Richard- Columbian black-tailed deer. 
son). 
Brethizon epizanthum nigrescens Allen-__--_- Porcupine. 
Canis familaris Winnaeus22=- = {ot ea ee Domestic dog. 
@amniGdaes = 222 oe ee Genera and species unknown. 
Enhydra Wtris lutris (Linnaeus) —---------___ Northern sea otter. 
Aves: 
Dafila acuta tzitzihoa (Vieillot)__-_________- American pintail duck. 
Oidemia americana Swainson-----------_-_-- American scoter, species un- 
certain. 
KAIEN ISLAND 
Mammalia: 
Cams familiaris Linnaeus___—-—_==-==_-+_____ Domestic dog. 
CHARLES Point 
Mammalia: 
Odocoileus hemionus columbianus (Richard- Columbian black-tailed deer. 
son). 
Canidae sho ae eee aes fhe RE aS Genera and species unknown. 
Enhydra lutris lutris (Linnaeus)--.-.---.---- Northern sea otter. 
Canis familiaris Linnaeus 2224+ 2241222 none- Domestic dog. 
Phoca richardii richardii (Gray) --.--------- Harbor seal. 
Aves: 
Branta canadensis canadensis (Linnaeus)__.._._ Canada goose. 
Cerorhinca monocerata (Pallas)_..._._____-_- Rhinoceros auklet. 
QALAHAITUK 
Mammalia: 
Odocoileus hemionus columbianus (Richard- Columbian black-tailed deer. 
son). 
Enhydra lutris lutris (Linnaeus)_--._--------- Northern sea otter. 
Euarctos americanus perniger (Allen) - ----~--- Black bear. 
UO CLOS | QIMETUCEILUS 2 eee eae Black bear, subspecies un- 
known. 
Phoca richardii richardii (Gray)_.---------- Harbor seal. 
Oreamnus americanus|columbiae Hollister_-__ Mountain goat. 
Callorhinus alascanus Jordan and Clark --- -- Pribilof fur seal, probable 
species. 
Aves: 
Haliaeetus leucocephalus alascanus Town- Northern bald eagle. 
send. 
KuutTzE ANCHORAGE 
Mammalia: 
Odocoileus hemionus columbianus (Richard- Columbian black-tailed deer. 
son). 
Canis familaaris Linnaeus_...~--=-----=---- Domestic dog. 
Ovis.canadensisza: So 2u% Sf ee Shs es Se Mountain sheep, subspecies 


unknown. 


AnTuror. Pap, No.20] FAUNA OF BRITISH COLUMBIA COAST—FISHER 137 


KuHuUTzE ANCHORAGE—Continued 
Mammalia—Continued. 


Phoca richardii richardii (Gray) ------------ Harbor seal. 

Erethizon epizanthum nigrescens Allen- --- --- Porcupine. 

Castor canadensis canadensis Kuhl --- ------- Beaver. 

IE} UORCLOSACTILETUCOAL LS © eee eae = Black bear, subspecies un- 

known. 

Enhydra lutris lutris (Linnaeus) - - - --------- Northern sea otter. 

Ovis canadens7sia ean eo Mountain sheep, probably. 
Aves: 

Branta canadensis canadensis (Linnaeus) -- - - - Canada goose. 


Roscot INLET 


Mammalia: 
Phocaena phocoena (Linnaeus) - - - - ---------- Harbor porpoise. 
Odocoileus hemionus columbianus (Richard- Columbian black-tailed deer. 
son). 
Erethizon epizanthum nigrescens Allen- ------ Porcupine. 
Enhydra lutris lutris (Linnaeus) - - ---------- Northern sea otter. 
Phoca richardii richardii (Gray) ------------ Harbor seal. 
Lutra canadensis periclyzomae Elliot_-------- Alaskan river otter. 
USO CONMOMEIUS Sa ne See River otter, subspecies un- 
known. 
Castor canadensis canadensis Kuhl-_--------- Beaver. 
AUG 1 MOISSY SUM Rapa Pas SUSIE ope a ep en Sea lion, species unknown. 
Kynumpt Harsor 
Mammalia: 
Phocaena phocoena (Linnaeus) -------------- Harbor porpoise. 
Enhydra lutris lutris (Linnaeus) ------------- Northern sea otter. 
Odocoileus hemionus columbianus (Richard- Columbian black-tailed deer. 
son). 
MAGN NAST) PUR aI SAANATED esl ee Ata oy Sead ep ae Bene a at Sea lion, species unknown. 
KILKITEI VILLAGE 
Mammalia: 
Phocaena phocoena (Linnaeus) - ------------- Harbor porpoise. 
Odocoileus hemionus columbianus (Richard- Columbian black-tailed deer. 
son). 
Euarctos americanus pugnaz (Swarth) -------- Black bear. 
Enhydra lutris lutris (Linnaeus) ------------- Northern sea otter. 
Erethizon epixanthum nigrescens Allen- ------- Porcupine. 
Castor canadensis canadensis Kuhl____------- Beaver. 
PHI AY OY (AUIS cs Riel EI a SLSR Aa ge cee ap Sea lion, species unknown. 
Phoca richardw richardi (Gray) =.----.-_-=-- Harbor seal. 
Aves: 
Larus heermanni Cassin. 2 222225 222-22. - Heermann’s gull. 
NCEIPICTHO Reem oe ee ia ee ee Hawks, eagles, genera un- 
known. 


Cygnus columbranus (Ord:)2e4nes oo Skee Whistling swan, probably. 


138 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Butn, 133 


SCHOONER PASSAGE 1 


Mammalia: 
Odocoileus hemionus columbianus (Richard- Columbian black-tailed deer. 

SOM) 225. 3). ah Be ee 
LALO DAUR yin om ois Di ee Sl a Sea lion, species unknown. 
Phoca richardii richardii (Gray) ~----__--- Harbor seal. 

Enhydra lutris tutris (Linnaeus) —~-~------- Northern sea otter. 
Phocaena phocoena (Linnaeus) —-------------~ Harbor porpoise. 
Eumetopias jubata (Schreber) —-—----------- Steller’s sea lion. 
Canis familiaris: Linnaens. ene atl Domestic dog. 
Erethizon epixanthum nigrescens Allen______ Porcupine. 

Aves: 
Da/jila acuta tzitzihoa (Vieillot)-___________ American pintail duck. 
Branta canadensis canadensis (Linnaeus)____ Canada goose. 
Gavia immer immer (Briinnich)____________ Common loon. 
Larus occidentalis occidentalis Audubon____ Northwestern gull. 
Haliaeetus leucocephalus alascanus Town- 

Seng Sri aie FON A TS ee Northern bald eagle. 
Larus glaucescens ‘Naumann—__.-__-—- 3 Glaucous-winged gull. 
Glaucionetta islandica (Gmelin)_~__________ Barrow golden-eye duck. 
Buteo swainsoni Bonaparte________-_-____- | Swainson’s hawk. 
Gavia arctica pacifica (Lawrence)___________ Pacific loon. 

Am DNV Sood = IRONS Uae een RT Probably frog or toad. 


The following tables give the vertical distribution of the various 
animal remains. These tables are also arranged from the north 
group to the south. Blank spaces indicate that no animal bones 
were found at those levels. All measurements of depth are given in 
inches unless otherwise stated. 


ANTHROP. Pap. No. 20] FAUNA OF BRITISH COLUMBIA COAST—FISHER 139 


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‘9s003 Bpeury ‘Shy 


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140 


BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 


[BULL. 133 


TABLE 2.—Vertical distribution of animal remains, area 2 


0-12..-.- Sesjotter, deers 2o-42". 2s see 

12-24____| Fish, salmon?, sea otter, harbor 
seal, deerlike,!deer, moun- 
tain goat. 

24-36_._..| Mammal, sea otter, harbor 
seal, deer? 

DO-psee= Mammal, carnivore?, sea otter, 


harbor seal. 


Qalahaituk 


House 9: Trench 2 


Carnivore, bear?, deer?_-__---- 


Fish, bird, Northern bald 
eagle, mammal, sea otter, 
seal, harbor seal, bear, moun- 
tain goat. 


.|Bird, seal, deerlike, deer. 


1 House 1: X. 


House 1: A 


Carnivore, sea otter, deer? 


House 1: B 
Deer? 


House 1: C 


.| Carnivore, bear, deer? 


House 1: D 


Fish, carnivore, sea otter, 
bear? (Euarctos americanus 
perniger), deer? 


1 Explanation of levels: X, Trench in house 1; house 1: A, northwest quadrangle, in sand below floor poles; 
house 1: B, northwest quadrangle, sand horizon with large shell fragments; house 1: C, northwest quadrangle, 
sand with charcoal lenses; and, house 1: D, sandy muck with wood chips. 


TABLE 3.—Vertical distribution of animal remains, area 3 


Khutze Anchorage 


Depth 
in 
inches Pit A Pit B Pit C Pit D 
0-6) 22-2 Fish, harbor seal, dog, | Mammal, carnivore, | Bird, Canada goose, | Bird, sea otter, seal, 
deer?, mountain sea otter, bear, seal, mammal, harbor harbor seal, porcu- 
sheep, deer. porcupine, deer, seal, porcupine, pine, deer. 
mountain sheep?. deer, mountain 
sheep? 
6-12"-+| Kish, harbor ‘seal, Mammal, carnivore, |2-!222222--==---2---se 
mountain sheep?. seal, porcupine, 
deer?. 
FR ae as re pps | eee, Sly Seema | ERE hed Bird, Canada goose, 
carnivore, sea otter, 
beaver, deer. 
DA Nios aI aes ae BSS ee ee Nish; mammal, deer.24| 222-2 - =) oneal eee nee = 
GDB | ae oe Ses eS Se Pe ee eee Deer, see 
TRS Od ee EY Se Ee oa Se ee ee | Be See ee Se Pee ans Se a Bee Deer? 
7) she Re PR 1 ee ee SUS CE eS Le ee ne oe See Bear (Euwarctos amer- 
icanus perniger), 
m deer. 


ANTHROP, Pap. No. 20] FAUNA OF BRITISH COLUMBIA COAST—FISHER 14] 


estodiod ‘1eep ‘4[eas 
‘s[pmMmeM ‘[[ns 
SuutullooE §=‘SPJIq 
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“astodiod ‘1990p *10940 
wos ‘[euIUTeUT § ‘UST 


‘asiodiod ‘190p ‘10A 
-Baq ‘[Bas ‘[euLUIeUL 
“parq ‘(guour[es) ST 


"1990p ‘Twas ‘4.19}]0 Bes 
‘spaiq ‘guour[es ‘qsTy 


‘Ieap ‘{[Bas ‘10990 
eos ‘[euImmeU ‘UBMs 


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‘aurdnoiod 
‘Teas ‘1090p ‘pug “YStA 
‘asiod 
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‘19}40 BOS ‘{a[sBO ‘USI 


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spiiq ‘juomyes ‘ysl |~~~F2-Z1 
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p DawD ‘supUmad JoUUD fo W014NgGL.L4SIP 19914440 A—P ATAV I, 


142 


Depth in 
inches 


Surface_--- 


BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 


[BuLL, 133 


TABLE 5.—Vertical distribution of animal remains, area 5 


SCHOONER PASSAGE 1 


Trench 1 


Seal?, bear?, deer. 


Fish (salmon?), American pintail 
duck, Canada goose, common loon, 
mammal, seal, harbor seal, sea lion, 
sea otter, Canidae (dog?), bear?, 
deer?. 

Fish (salmon?), western gull, northern 
Mel eagle, mammal, sea otter, seal?, 

eer. 

Fish, salmon?, Canada goose, Barrow 
golden-eye duck, mammal, sea otter, 
seal, carnivore, Steller’s sea lion, deer, 
porpoise. 

see (salmon), birds, mammals, seal, 

eer. 

Fish, salmon, American pintail duck, 
mammals, sea otter, deer. 

Fish, salmon?, glaucous-winged gull, 
Barrow golden-eye duck, mammal 
sea otter, seal?, deer. 


Depth in 
inches 


84-128 ___ 
130-138... 
136-150___ 


150-162__-- 
162-174. 5 - 
108-120 __- 
120-132-_-. 


132-144. __ 
144-156___. 
156--. ..4=- 


Trench 1 


Fish (salmon?), bird, deer. 

Fish (salmon), birds, mammals. 

Fish (salmon?), Swainson’s hawk. 

Fish, salmon?, birds, sea otter, deer? 

Fish, bird, deer?. 

Fish, salmon, Amphibia, birds, Ameri- 
can pintail duck, northern bald 
eagle, mammals, sea otter, dog, 
porcupine, deer. 

Fish (salmon?), carnivore, dog, deer. 

Birds, Pacific loon, mammals, porpoise. 

Fish (salmon), American pintail duck. 

Fish (salmon?), birds, American pin- 
tail duck. 

Fish (salmon?), birds. 

Fish, bird, sea otter, porcupine, deer. 

ae salmon, birds, glaucous-winged 
gull. 


SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 
Bureau of American Ethnology 
Bulletin 133 


Anthropological Papers, No. 21 


Some Notes on a Few Sites in Beaufort County, South Carolina 


By REGINA FLANNERY 
The Catholic University of America 


143 


aap, 


ay } * ¥ i 


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pacar eel 1 J 


ILLUSTRATIONS 
TEXT FIGURES 


S41) Mapvor-the Beatifort regions A. 2. 2.2 ah ee eee Be eee 


35. The Chester Field site 


eA) CURMOR AM THEE. Vly 
CO en ah Re ee On ewe WMT AM Ma RL 
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y= of eee | Lo ‘- = tary, 4 a | 


& 


ry fe 


SOME NOTES ON A FEW SITES IN BEAUFORT 
COUNTY, SOUTH CAROLINA 


By REGINA FLANNERY 
The Catholic University of America 


This is a summary account of some archeological work done on 
Port Royal and the sea islands near Beaufort, S. C., by Dr. Warren 
K. Moorehead, February 8 to March 12, 1933. Assisting Dr. Moore- 
head were especially Woldemar H. Ritter, an architect of Boston, 
and Hughes H. Lake, of Port Royal Island. Mr. Ritter did 
the surveying, supervised the excavations, and carefully compiled the 
daily field report. Mr. Lake, devoting his whole time to the under- 
taking, was in charge of the workmen and assisted in the digging 
operations. Both Dr. Moorehead and Mr. Ritter have since died. 
The present writer participated in the work as a student assistant. 
She is not in a position to draw up a complete technical report; * 
she does, however, wish to put on record something at least of the 
culture revealed by the excavations in this little-studied region (fig. 
34) 2 

The interest of Dr. Moorehead in the archeology of Port Royal 
Island had been awakened by Mr. Ritter, who, together with Mr. 
Lake, had done some exploratory digging in several sites during 
1931 and 1982. The excavation of a burial mound on St. Helena 
Island prior to 1898 by Moore (1899) had been the only other 
archeological work done in the immediate region. 

During some 20 years’ residence on his plantation, Mr. Lake had 
accumulated a collection of surface finds from Port Royal Island. 
These comprise some 80 or 40 chipped-stone objects, including 1 
fine black flint point 7 inches in length, 1 celt, a few decorated bone 


1 The detailed field report containing all notes, maps, and drawings is available for con- 
sultation at the Department of Anthropology, Catholic University. A few specimens from 
the Chester Field site are also here. Samplings of pottery were sent to the Ceramic Reposi- 
tory for the Eastern United States at the University Museums, Ann Arbor, for analysis. 
The bulk of the pottery, other artifacts, and all skeletal material were sent to the Charleston 
Museum. A few of the choicer specimens were retained in the small local museum at the 
Library, Beaufort, S. C. 

2The writer wishes to acknowledge her indebtedness to Dr. John R. Swanton and Dr. 
James B. Griffin for their valuable suggestions, and to Miss Grace Fowler for her kindness 
in drawing the accompanying map. 


147 


148 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bun. 133 


awls, and quantities of potsherds. There is also one small pottery 
figurine in the shape of an animal head. The stone and bone ma- 
terial is rather scarce as compared with the number of sherds. 
The Lake Plantation occupies a considerable portion of the south- 
ern tip of the southwestern extension of Port Royal Island, and 
had been a strategic center for Indian life, with direct access to deep 
water as well as to numerous springs. In addition to the extensive 


SS 


ZXSTAMPED AND CORD-MARKED POTTERY FOUND 
~~“? MARSH LAND FLOODED AT HIGH TIDE 


‘ 
1 ° 1 2 & 
b—— et — ——: et 


SCALE IN MILES 


X= 


FIGURE 34.—Map of the Beaufort region. 


1, The Lake Plantation. 2, Cat Island. 3, The Chester Field site. 4, The Jones Island 
site. 5, The burial mound. 


shell heaps along the shores, the entire cultivated area of 20 or 30 
acres north of the Lake house is strewn with broken oyster and conch 
shells, ete. Indian occupation of the locality indicated on the map 
drawn by Jacques Le Moyne, 1564, is borne out by the archeological 
evidence, although unfortunately we are unable to correlate the arche- 
ological and ethnological source materials.* 


® Dr. Moorehead concluded that the numerous shell heaps on the Lake Plantation repre- 
sented temporary camp sites to which the Indians returned from time to time rather than 
permanent habitations. Juan Rogel, S. J., who arrived at St. Helena Island 1569, wrote 
that the Indians lived scattered for 9 months of the year, ‘“‘each one to his own place, and 
came together only at certain feasts, which they held every 2 months, and this was not 
always in one place, but at one time here and another time in another place, etc.’’ (See 
Swanton, 1922, p.57). There is no evidence to date, however, which would indicate whether 


ANTHROP. Pap. No.21] BEAUFORT CO. ARCHEOLOGY—FLANNERY 149 


More than 200 test pits were sunk at various points on the Lake 
Plantation. A great many oyster, periwinkle, and clam shells * were 
found as well as a number of bones of deer and other animals,* but, 
with the exception of pottery, scarcely any artifacts. In excavating 
the larger test pits it was noted that the earth had been disturbed 
in places to a depth of 6 feet. But there were no true ash pits, and 
no suggestion of a hearth or fireplace, except at one spot where the 


on his 
eon" TER —~ 4 
/ : 


f 
f 
Lut Lise ani uy 


ae MARSH ~ Slane SE 
put Mla. EV?) rae aha 


ily 


M 


Fieurn 35.—The Chester Field site. 


clay was rather hard and burned to a depth of 3 feet below the sur- 
face. Griffin (whose paper appears in this Bulletin, pp. 155-168) has 
analyzed the pottery from the Lake Plantation and has discussed it 
in its wider distributions. Ware similar to the types found there, 
with the exception of the few sherds of Stalling’s Island culture 


or not the Indians referred to used artifacts of the type recovered from the shell heaps. 
Griffin informs me that the available material gives us no reason to expect European trade 
goods. 

4A random sampling of shells from one of the larger pits was sent to Dr. Frank C. Baker, 
Museum of Natural History, University of Illinois, who kindly reported as follows : ‘“‘“Marine 
species—the common oyster, Ostrea virginica Gmelin, Nova Scotia south to Florida ; a long 
narrow clam with thin shell, Tangelus gibbus Spengler, range from Cape Cod to Trinidad. 
West Indies; a small quahog or round clam, Venus mortoni Conrad, range Virginia south 
to Florida Keys; a salt water mussel, with coarse radiating lines at one end, Modiolus de- 
missus plicatulus (Lam.), range Nova Scotia south to Georgia; a periwinkle or snail with 
very thick shell, Littorina irrorata Say, range Rhode Island south to Jamaica. Land snails— 
a 2-inch long, elongate ovate shell, Huglandina rosea (Ferussac), found from South Carolina 
to Florida and Texas; a small land snail, 44 inch in diameter, shell thin, the aperture with 
2 teeth or ridges on the base, Gastrodonta gularis (Say), range S. Carolina west to Ten- 
nessee, a rare shell in South Carolina at least.”’ 

5 A sampling of bones from the same pit was sent to Dr. Glover M. Allen, Curator, Museum 
of Comparative Zoélogy at Harvard, who wrote as follows: “I have examined the bones, and 
find most of them to be Virginia deer, some of the antler-bases of maximum size, but I can 
match them with material here. There is one raccoon jaw, and a fragment of a large radius 
as large as that of a medium-sized cow and apparently indistinguishable from domestic cow, 
but cut square across near the end. There were no other species.” 


150 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Buun, 133 


type, were recovered by excavation of shell heaps at Cat Island and 
elsewhere from the surface as indicated on the map. Unfortunately, 
none of this material was sent to the Ceramic Repository and no 
more definite statement can be made regarding it. 

On the same southwestern extension of Port Royal Island, but on 
the west side thereof, and on ground owned by Chester Field, is a 
horseshoe-shaped mound, the ends of which meet the steep overgrown 
bank of Broad River. (See fig. 35.) A marsh at the foot of the 
bank extends half a mile or so into the river, but is flooded at high 
tide. Whether or not the mound was at one time circular is impos- 
sible for the present writer to say. Nothing in the lay of the land 
suggested this possibility to Dr. Moorehead at the time. At present, 
however, the level space enclosed by the mound measures about 110 
feet at its widest point and 55 feet from the riverbank to the center 
inner periphery of the mound. There is a good spring about 130 
feet to the south. 

Scattered in the central portion of the level area enclosed by the 
mound, seven test holes disclosed the ground disturbed to a depth 
of from 12 to 30 inches, but otherwise sterile. One test hole, dug 
by Mr. Ritter in 1932, in the true center of this enclosed area showed 
a fire pit, 24 inches below the surface and filled with debris. In the 
northeast section of the level area, another test hole, 10 feet by 10 
feet, showed sand disturbed to a depth varying from 18 to 30 inches, 
and in the southeast corner of the test hole a compact shell deposit 
12 inches thick and 16 inches below the surface. The artifacts re- 
covered from this test hole comprise some 27 potsherds, a worked 
antler prong, several chipped flints and flakes, one-half of a round 
pitted stone, and some animal bones. The test hole on the opposite 
side of the level space enclosed by the mound showed near the surface 
a 6-inch layer of shells, below which was disturbed sand to a depth 
of 30 inches. Only 6 or 8 sherds and a few animal bones were recov- 
ered therefrom. 

The mound itself is about 25 feet wide and varies in height from 
3 feet above the level of the enclosed space on the south side, to 
5 feet on the north side, or from 14 feet 8 inches to 16 feet 2 inches 
above the high-water mark on the bank. As Mr. Ritter and Mr. 
Lake had already excavated the central portion of the mound to some 
extent, a trench 10 feet wide was started where the north side of 
the mound meets the riverbank and was run 25 feet east through 
the middle of the mound. The mound is artificial, being composed 
largely of oyster and other shells, interspersed occasionally with ir- 
regular layers of dark earth several inches thick and containing a 
few shells and some debris. Pockets of periwinkle shells, measuring 
roughly about 2 gallons each, occur rather frequently. Undisturbed 


ANTHROP. Pap, No. 21] BEAUFORT CO. ARCHEOLOGY—FLANNERY 151 


ground is reached on an average at 30 inches below the present level 
of the enclosed area, which corresponds with the undisturbed base 
of the enclosed area itself. 

Refuse occurred with equal frequency among the shells and in 
the irregular layers of earth. More than 1,000 potsherds were re- 
covered from the midden when the trench had been extended 20 
feet to the east. There were a large number of animal bones and 
pieces of antler, but relatively little stone—only 8 pieces of worked 
flint, several chips, 3 round rocks, and one pitted stone. Worked 
bone was represented by four carved pointed objects ® and one bone 
scraper broken into three pieces. There were also one antler prong, 
marked with an incised line, and one antler point. 

The trench dug by Mr. Ritter and Mr. Lake in the central portion 
of the mound was then enlarged. The same type of midden com- 
position as described above was noted. Parts of four more carved 
bone objects, a large flint nodule from which pieces had been flaked, 
and several worked antler prongs were added to the collection. Of 
the two test holes toward the south end of the mound, one revealed 
two potsherds with drilled holes, and the other, sunk at the highest 
point at the south side of the mound, yielded about 20 sherds and 
about 40 small pieces of animal bones. The shells were much de- 
cayed, and more dirt and sand were mixed therewith than was the 
case at the north end of the mound. 

The Chester Field site seems to indicate a permanent camp or 
village, the level space enclosed by the mound evidently having 
been reserved for the dwellings. The numerous animal bones sug- 
gest that meat was an important element in the diet of this people, 
although seafood was probably the staple. There was no evidence 
of maize.’ 

The importance of the site lies especially in the fact that it repre- 
sents another locality of the Stalling’s Island culture. The complex is 
present at the Chester Field site in its essentials, though some of the 
items ascribed to the complex by Claflin (1931) are lacking. The 
pottery of the site has been analyzed by Griffin (p. 159), who states 
that it identifies the site as a component of the same cultural division 
as the Stalling’s Island complex. Found in association with this 
type of pottery are decorated bone-pointed objects of the same gen- 
eral types as those described by Claflin. The designs on these objects 
are individual, no two of ours are identical in carving, nor presum- 


6 Decorated bone objects of the same type are considered by Claflin to be ornamental pins. 
See Claflin (1931, pp. 23—24, and pl. 38, f, d, g). 

™Two caches of burned corncobs were found in Stalling’s Island site (see Claflin, 1931, pp. 
12-13) but not assigned definitely to the true Stalling’s Island culture. Griffin informs me 
by letter that there is every reason to believe that maize was not grown in the Southeast at 
the Stalling’s Island period. 


405260—43——11 


152 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Buun. 133 


ably are those from Stalling’s Island. The stone material from the 
Chester Field site is not so varied as that from Stalling’s Island, 
but so far as it goes it agrees therewith. In neither the Chester Field 
nor Stalling’s Island sites was there any evidence of pipes of any 
sort, but worked and unworked antler is characteristic of both. The 
net sinkers, so numerous at the Georgia site, are lacking, so far as 
we know, from the Chester Field midden. 

The Stalling’s Island pottery type was yielded by one other mound 
investigated by Dr. Moorehead and his assistants in 1933. This shell 
mound, belonging to C. C. Jones, lies in the marshland, across the 
Beaufort River from Paris Island. The mound covers about half of 
the land left free at high tide, and runs parallel to the river for about 
350 feet. The deposit is massed at the southern end, being exposed 
30 inches above ground level and extending to a depth of 30 inches 
below level at the high point, which is on the western side. The de- 
posit gradually pales off toward the other side of the mound and 
rather abruptly toward the land side, where the deposit is only a few 
inches thick and does not extend appreciably below the level of the 
ground. Several test pits were sunk and one small trench was dug. 
The mound is composed of compact shells, lacking the layers of earth 
as intermixed in the Chester Field midden. The ware is the same 
as the Stalling’s Island type. One decorated bone object and a bone 
comb, together with some food bones and pieces of antler, were 
recovered, 

Another site, the last one to be investigated, proved to be a burial 
mound, similar to that excavated by Moore on St. Helena Island. 
This mound is at the Kempfer place on Ladies Island, about 565 feet 
from the Beaufort River, on level sandy ground about 15 feet above 
the river which runs close to the steep bluff forming the bank. 
There are a spring and a small water course a short distance north 
of the mound, but no signs of Indian occupation in the immediate 
vicinity. The gently sloping mound is circular in shape, the diam- 
eter being about 70 feet, and the highest point 41 inches above the 
present surrounding level. The ground had never been cultivated, 
and four large live-oak trees are growing on the mound. 

A systomatic excavation was made of the central portion of the 
mound to include an area 15 feet by 15 feet, and 12 test holes were 
sunk at various other points. The mound is artificial and composed 
of sandy soil. At a level 48 inches below the grade at the highest 
part of the mound, or 7 inches below the present surrounding level, 
is a stratum of very dark earth, heavily colored by charcoal. This 
stratum is 4 inches thick in the central area of the mound and grad- 
ually thins out until about 10 feet from the periphery on the east- 
west axis it becomes very faint. Directly in the center of the mound, 


ANTHROP. Pap, No.21] BEAUFORT CO. ARCHEOLOGY—-FLANNERY 153 


and resting on this charcoal bed, were massed human bones forming 
a compact layer over an area 12 feet by 6 feet on the north-south 
axis. Disposition of the skeletal remains suggests that the bones 
were massed on the charcoal layer with no regard for order or com- 
pleteness. Skulls, jawbones, and long bones predominated, repre- 
senting at least 30 or probably 40 individuals. Evidence of crema- 
tion in situ on top of this layer of bones was noted in seven instances. 
The remains were in a bad state of preservation but were removed 
as carefully as possible to the Charleston Museum where they await 
further study. Three feet to the west of the northern end of the 
massed bones and just below the charcoal stratum was evidence of 
another cremation. Six feet west of the southern end of the massed 
bones, and just below the charcoal stratum, was a basin or depres- 
sion about 24 inches deep and 18 inches in diameter, apparently lined 
with clay which had been slightly burned. Half of this depression 
was filled with charcoal and ashes. 

There was no trace of any artifacts with the exception of one round 
sandstone with two hollows, found in the charcoal stratum, under the 
layer of massed bones, at about the center of the mound. The fact 
that, as Claflin notes (1931, p. 44), it was not a common practice.of 
the Stalling’s Island people to place mortuary offerings with their 
dead may suggest the possibility that the mound on Ladies Island 
may have been made by people of Stalling’s Island culture. On the 
other hand Claflin (1931, p. 43) ascribes a number of flexed burials 
to the Stalling’s Island people and, furthermore, concludes that it was 
customary for them to bury their dead beneath the floors of their dwell- 
ings. Investigation of the Chester Field village site showed no evi- 
dence of such a practice. It would seem then that no conclusion can 
at present be reached regarding the culture type to which belonged 
the people whose burial mound on Ladies Island was investigated. 


LITERATURE CITED 


CLAFLIN, WILLIAM H., JR. 
1931. The Stalling’s Island Mound, Columbia County, Ga. Pap. Peabody 
Mus. Amer, Archaeol. and Ethnol., vol. 14, No. 1. 


GRIFFIN, JAMES B. 
1942. An analysis and interpretation of the ceramic remains from two sites 
near Beaufort, South Carolina. Bur. Amer. Ethnol. Bull. 133, 
Anthrop. Pap. No. 22. 


Moore, CLARENCE B. 
1899. Certain aboriginal mounds of the coast of South Carolina. Journ. 
Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, vol. 11, pt. 2, art. 3. 


SWANTON, JOHN R. 
1922. Harly history of the Creek Indians. Bur. Amer. Ethnol. Bull. 73. 


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SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 
Bureau of American Ethnology 
Bulletin 133 


Anthropological Papers, No. 22 


An Analysis and Interpretation of the Ceramic Remains from 
Two Sites near Beaufort, South Carolina 


By JAMES B. GRIFFIN 


Assistant Curator, Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan 


155 


Seneca keen Se coe 
Ae ea. u 
sieht pnmnS ere 


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CONTENTS 


‘ PAGE 
Chores prep) UCM Ke eso ee Py Sa eC ESI of Sie, af hla OY Sia pl 159 
Mey PE TAMIC MN SbALINRS Aa tien Sree ee se es eee ahs ee 159 
Thezil Eeey- 4 22 Wo EN EGY a RN is Ma PE A pee ny FS =e eS Re eR DE CPSP de, 162 
Comparable rstavemMenG a. 12 eke oe rete, Reka bee et Re ees 163 
BS nTa ang Teper ae say se Sk Rl ee eS ee eae a 2 aS a ae 165 
eaoliogEa ply eso tere Sakis eee ee ae ea ee ee hae 167 
HE xplanatOuvol pla veaee = <a tse we A Riget. Ne MEL! Slee RO va a es 168 
ILLUSTRATIONS a 
PLATES 

10. 1, Stallings Plain sherds from the Chester Field site. 2, Stallings 
Punctate sherds from the Chester Field site___________-------- 168 

11. 1, Stallings Punctate sherds from the Chester Field site. 2, Check 
Stamped and Cord Marked sherds from the Lake Plantation_ _-- -- 168 

12. Miscellaneous sherds from Lake Plantation and two Stallings Punctate 
Sherdsiromie domes (shan diss teers 202 obs Ree eee, Se Re a ee 168 


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AN ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF THE CERAMIC 
REMAINS FROM TWO SITES NEAR BEAUFORT, 8. C. 


By James B. GrirFin 


Assistant Curator, Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan 


The pottery in this report was obtained during 1933 by a field party 
under the direction of Dr. W. K. Moorehead. Shortly after the field 
season was over, the Ceramic Repository received a shipment of sherds 
from both the Chester Field site and from the Lake Plantation. In 
January 1941, Dr. Flannery turned over to the Ceramic Repository a 
series of sherds from the Chester Field site and two sherds from a site 
on Jones Island. It is assumed that the pottery available for study is 
representative of the total collections obtained from each site, for 
the bulk of the pottery is in the Charleston Museum. 


CHESTER FIELD . 


The Chester Field pottery is quite homogeneous in paste, temper, 
color, surface finish, and shape. It belongs to the fiber-tempered ware, 
which is apparently the oldest ceramic horizon in the Southeast. The 
best known site is that on Stalling’s Island (Claflin, 1931) and the 
name of the site has been given to the pottery described in that report 
as belonging to the lower level. The pottery from the Chester Field 
site is similar to that illustrated by Claflin and to the sherds from 
Stalling’s Island in the Ceramic Repository. It is also very similar 
to the ware called Saint Simons Fiber Tempered by Holder during 
his excavations near Savannah and to pottery from the Bilbo site near 
Savannah, which will be described by Waring. Since the Stalling’s 
Island site is the only one now fully described in the literature, it 
is suggested that the names Stallings Plain (pl. 10) and Stallings 
Punctate (pl. 11) be applied to the pottery ware described below 
from the Chester Field site with the full recognition that they are es- 
sentially the same product. The type description will be headed 
Stallings Plain, but, with the exception of the decorative techniques 
described below, the type description applies to both divisions. 


TYPE NAME: STALLINGS PLAIN 


PASTE 
Method of Manufacture.—A suggestion of coiling or ring building on some 
sherds, but it is not too clear. 
Temper.—Varying proportions of a fiber which has almost uniformly disap- 
peared in firing, presenting a vesicular appearance. In some examples there is 


159 


160 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Butn. 133 


a very small amount of fiber while in others the sherd is honeycombed. The 
majority of sherds have nonplastic inclusions very much like fine grains of sand, 
which were apparently inclusive in the clay. Some of the sherds have rather 
large (2 to 4 mm.) particles of rock. 

Texture.—Cross-sectional appearance is medium fine to medium coarse; granu- 
lar if fairly large sand particles are present and honeycombed if a large amount 
of fiber was used. 

Hardness.—The exterior surface hardness ranges from 2 to 2.5. The majority 
can be scratched by the finger nail. 

Color.—Almost always a dark grey to black core with narrow, lighter, oxidized 
surface layer. The exterior surface when oxidized ranges in the yellows and 
chocolate browns. 


SURFACE FINISH 


Exterior is roughly smoothed with a porous surface or is compacted due to 
surface smoothing. Usually both surfaces are treated in the same manner. 
Some of the sherds have an uneven surface, possibly caused by an impressing 
technique something like the so-called Simple Stamping found in the Southeast. 
Those specimens whose surfaces were not well compacted most clearly show the 
channels left by the disintegration of the fiber temper. 


DECORATION 


None. Described under companion type Stallings Punctate. 


FORM 


Vessels are from 15 to 30 centimeters or more in diameter. No whole vessels 
are known. 

Rim.—Vertical to slightly ineurving walls. 

Lip.—Most commonly narrowed and rounded. Rarely a flattened lip. 

Body.—Bowl shape only one known. No angled rims at Chester Field site. 

Base.—Somewhat rounded to flattened. 

Thickness.—Lip from 3 to 7 millimeters, rim and side wall from 0.6 to 1 
centimeter, base 0.6 to 1 centimeter. 

Appendages.—None. Examples of crack lacing (?) from Stalling’s Island. 


UsuaL RANGE OF TYPE 


Stalling’s Island and related sites mentioned by Claflin. At least as far north 
along the coast as Charleston and south along the Georgia coast toward the 
St. John’s area of Florida. Comparable types described by Holmes, Griffin, and 
Haag. Also mentioned by Kelly. 


CHRONOLOGICAL POSITION OF TYPE IN RANGE 


First pottery type at Stalling’s Island, and Wheeler and Pickwick Basins in 
northern Alabama. Found in early levels at Savannah and along the Atlantic 
coast. Generally thought to be the earliest pottery in the Southeast. 

The plain sherds are in the minority in the collection at the Ceramic 
Repository although this was probably not the case at the site. ~The 
accompanying table lists the sherds available for study according to 
surface treatment and decoration. The proportions would undoubt- 


AnTuror, Pap, No, 22] CERAMIC REMAINS, BEAUFORT, 8. C.—GRIFFIN 161 


edly be changed with the complete sherd count from an archeological 
site of this horizon. The tabular presentation of the various decora- 
tive styles does serve, however, to indicate the prevalence of different 
kinds of punctating as the favored decorating technique. 

The most prevalent punctating technique I have called linear punc- 
tate. The punch marks are placed in a straight incised line and were 
made at about a 45° angle to the surface. They are usually close 
together. Sometimes the punctates and the incised line were made 
as part of a single continuous operation. The size of the individual 
punctated line varies from 8 to 7 millimeters wide and they are 
usually 2 to 3 millimeters deep. The linear punctates are most often 
arranged in closely spaced rows which run parallel to the lip. The 
next most common orientation is to be placed vertically on the outer 
surface. 

Individual punctates of varying shapes are sometimes arranged in 
orderly horizontal and vertical rows. While sherds differed as to 
the type of punctate impression which was used, no sherd carried 
more than one type of individual punctate. The punctates include 
small hemispherical depressions; circular with conical base, and 
many of these have ridges suggesting they were made by small 
marine gastropods; hemiconical punctates; large semicircles, per- 
haps made by a split reed; small, circular punctates; finger-nail punc- 
tates; and hollow-cylinder punctates. 

The individual punctates and the linear punctates are often found 
on the same sherd. The size of the sherds listed as incised in table 1 
offers no guarantee that there were not also punctates on the same 
vessel. While none of the pottery from Chester Field offers good evi- 
dence of the use of incising as a sole decorative technique the sherds 
illustrated by Claflin (1931) on plate 15 do show such treatment. Most 
of the sherds on plate 14 of the report on the Stalling’s Island mound 
have a roughened surface similar to that mentioned in the type descrip- 
tion given above of Stallings Plain. It is very suggestive of the sur- 
face treatment widely called “simple stamping” by Southeastern 
archeologists. Some advantage was taken of plain areas to separate 
linear punctated areas from other linear punctates or from groups of 
individual punctates. 

Relatively little use was made of a curvilinear arrangement of linear 
punctates, or individual punctates in curved lines and nothing quite 
comparable to some of the patterns illustrated by Claflin (1931) on 
plates 19and20. The fiber-tempered ware at Stalling’s Island itself is 
apparently more complex, i. e., it has more variety in surface treat- 
ment and decoration, and in the angled rim possesses a modification 
of the bowl shape which is apparently absent at the Chester Field 
site. While Claflin stated that the tempering material of the Stallings 


162 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY ~- [Buun, 133 


types at Stalling’s Island was primarily grit, that does not seem to 
be the case with the relatively small number of sherds in the Ceramic 
Repository from that site. All of the sherds belonging to the Stal- 
lings types had varying amounts of fiber included in the paste. 
There are also other kinds of nonplastic material in the clay includ- 
ing small quartz and other grit particles which, because of their 
rounded edges, were probably waterworn and inclusive in the clay 
beds. This is also true of the Chester Field sherds. 

The two sherds from a site on Jones Island are Stallings Punctate 
specimens. One of these is a linear punctate and the other is a curious 
paired punctate such as could have been produced by the distal end 
of the femur of asmall mammal. (See pl. 12.) 


LAKE PLANTATION 


The pottery in the Ceramic Repository from Lake Plantation is 
assumed to be characteristic of the site as a whole (pl. 12). It presents 
a decidedly more complex ceramic picture than did the Chester Field 
site. The accompanying table presents the variation in surface treat- 
ment and decoration found on sherds possessing different types of 
tempering material. 

On the basis of other excavations in the Southeast, particularly 
those recently made by Holder (1938), Fewkes (1938), and Caldwell 
and Waring (1939), it can be safely assumed that all of the sherds listed 
above are not assignable to a single cultural group at a single time 
period. As has been mentioned above, the four sherds of the 
fiber-tempered ware belong in the Stalling’s Island culture. The 
tentative sequence presented by Caldwell and Waring (1939) for the 
area around Savannah, which is contiguous to the Beaufort area, 
strongly suggests that the sherds called Deptford and perhaps 
those with simple stamping, belong in the first ceramic period 
following the fiber-tempered horizon. The majority of the rest of 
the sherds belong in the Savannah period, but their exact allocation 
is difficult due to the paucity of the sherds and the absence of rims. 
The clay-tempered sherds that are probably closely related to 
Wilmington Heavy Cord Marked apparently belong somewhere in 
between the Deptford and Savannah periods. One of the plain, 
sand-tempered sherds has the remains of a red slip which has almost 
disappeared. It was probably applied after firmg. This treatment 
is found in Florida pottery. The net-impressed sherd is an apparent 
anomaly in this area.? 

The absence of pottery of the Irene period at this site is note- 
worthy. The Irene period began during the Lamar Focus period 


1 Holder (1938) reports net-impressed pottery at a mound on the north end of Sea Island. 


ANTHROP, Pap, No. 22] CERAMIC REMAINS, BEAUFORT, S. C.—GRIFFIN 163 


in central Georgia and continued into the historic period. On the 
basis of the available ceramic material, we would not expect to 
find European trade goods at this site. 


COMPARATIVE STATEMENT 


It is unfortunate that the artifacts obtained by Moore along the 
South Atlantic coast have not been reexamined by students familiar 
with the current progress in the Southeast. The brief mention in 
his reports of sites in the Beaufort area which yielded cord-marked 
sherds, or those with cord-marked and stamped sherds, are tantaliz- 
ingly indefinite. The sites which appealed to Moore were usually the 
large, more complex units of the Irene or Savannah periods with 
the result that the majority of the pottery he illustrates does not 
belong to the earlier periods from which the pottery described in this 
report was obtained. 

A report on the archeology of a small area near Charleston, 8. C., 
sheds some light on the northern distribution of some of the pottery 
types.2 The illustrations clearly indicate the presence of Stallings 
Punctate sherds with individual and linear punctates. There are 
also sherds related to the Deptford horizon and to Wilmington 
Heavy Cord Marked. The majority of the sherds, however, belong 
to the complicated-stamp group and range from the early Brewton 
Hill type down to the Irene Filfot Stamp type which comes into 
the historic period. This surmise is borne out by the presence of 
glass beads and European clay pipes on the site. Thus, if this area 
was occupied by the Sewees alone at the early historic period and 
the Sewees were Siouan, we would have still another archeological 
complex to add to the already remarkably diversified material cul- 
ture remains of that linguistic stock. If the occupants of the Charles- 
ton area who left the Irene Complex were Muskhogean, it would 
agree linguistically with the closely related sites in the central 
Georgia area. 

It would be advantageous to have the archeological material at- 
tributed by Claflin to the later period at Stalling’s Island reexamined 
in the light of recent Southeastern developments. As Claflin (1931) 
pointed out, certain of the types attributed to the later period are 
found alone on other sites and the great variety of ceramics dis- 
cussed by him does not indicate cultural contemporaneity for the 
assemblage in the Augusta area. 

Excavations in the Savannah area, the most recent of which has 
been by Waring, indicates not only that the fiber-tempered ware 
is the oldest, but that there is strong indication of stratigraphy 


2Gregorie (1925). A representative collection of sherds from this site in the Ceramic 
Repository certify to the accuracy of the drawings in Dr. Gregorie’s report. 


164 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bunn. 133 


within that horizon. At the Bilbo site, Waring found no pottery 
in the lower level of a deep refuse midden. His second zone con- 
tained fiber-tempered plain ware while the third zone introduced 
a strong proportion of decorated fiber-tempered ware. In the top 
and surface zone Waring found sand-tempered pottery of the Dept- 
ford horizon with conical to round bases and some tetrapodal sup- 
ports. The rest of the cultural items from this site fit in well with 
the Stalling’s Island complex. 

The excavations by Preston Holder (1938), on and near Saint 
Simons Island south of the mouth of the Altamaha River, uncovered 
considerable evidence of different archeological groups. At the 
Charlie King site, the fiber-tempered ware was predominant. Also 
present was a cord-marked type and a checked-stamp type. The 
mound described by Holder for this site was probably not erected 
by the makers of the fiber-tempered pottery. The Sea Island site 
yielded a high percent of net-impressed clay-tempered pottery while 
other sites showed a high proportion of fine cord-marked pottery 
and still others a dominance of complicated stamped ware of the 
Irene period. 

In the Macon area, Kelly (1938) has mentioned the presence of a 
fiber-tempered ware at the Swift Creek, One Mile Track, Shell Rock 
Cave, Macon Plateau, and the Stubb’s Mound and Village Site. He 
suggests that it belongs in the Early Swift Creek period. Unless 
the central Georgia area sequence and cultural association differs 
from that to the east and northwest, such a contemporaneous ceramic 
grouping would not be expected. However, the complete evidence 
on the sites from the Macon area has not been presented and until 
that time further speculation is not warranted. Other units of 
Kelly’s early Swift Creek period such as the Mossy Oak Simple 
Stamp type, the plain plaited fabric pottery, plain-surface sherds, 
and early check-stamped types have been segregated in contiguous 
areas into what are apparently more meaningful cultural divisions. 
Again, full comparative treatment must await more complete 
publication. : 

A small collection of pottery from Wilkes County, Ga., in the 
Ceramic Repository, indicates the presence of the fiber-tempered 
ware up the Savannah River Valley northwest of Augusta. 

The coastal area of Georgia and South Carolina form a significant 
unit of the fiber-tempered ceramic ware which is different from the 
St. Johns development on the one hand and the fiber-tempered ware 
in northwest Alabama on the other. (Griffin, 1939; Haag, 1939.) In 
this latter area the ware has a plain surface, is simple stamped, 


* Waring, T., verbal report at the Fifth Southeastern Archaeological Conference, Baton 
Rouge, La., 1940. 


AnTHROP, Pap, No. 22] CERAMIC REMAINS, BEAUFORT, S.C.—GRIFFIN 165 


punctated, or dentate stamped. The simple stamping is somewhat 
more common than in the Stallings Island Focus,‘ while there is a 
marked absence of the linear punctate in the Tennessee Valley. The 
individual punctating is not as varied in type nor as regularly ap- 
plied as in the Stallings Punctate specimens. The dentate stamp 
impressions form a distinctive Tennessee Valley style which may 
be related to one style of Deptford Linear Check Stamp. It is cer- 
tainly related to the dentate stamp of the early Woodland and Hope- 
wellian pottery in the north. 

From the illustrations of Wyman (1868) and Holmes (1894), it is 
probable that the St. Johns area had significantly different fiber- 
tempered types, which would certainly suggest a different cultural 
grouping if not a different time horizon. The strong use of incised 
decoration including the use of a curvilinear scroll is not compatible 
with the style of decoration in the Stallings Island Focus or in north- 
west Alabama. This decorative style is usually found at a much later 
time period. Unfortunately there are no examples of the fiber- 
tempered ware from east Florida available for direct comparison. 


SUMMARY 


The pottery from the Chester Field site identifies it as a com- 
ponent of the same cultural division as the Stallings Island com- 
plex. This is the oldest ceramic horizon in the Southeast. The pot- 
tery from the Lake Plantation indicates greater cultural diversity 
and a longer time period of aboriginal occupation. It is related on 
the one hand to the stamped ware of the Southeast and on the other 
to the cord-marked pottery which is common throughout the entire 
area east of the Rocky Mountains. 


TABLE 1.—Fiber-tempered ware from the Chester Field site 


Sherds 
Type Surface treatment and decoration aan 
Rim | Body } Total 
SS Gea ra rsh po aaa ee Ea eR i) Se) NS lk RE 2 eo, IN ti ea 8 20 28 
Stallings punctate.___________ Linear punctate, various shapes___----_---_----- 22 29 51 
Stallings punctate____________ Linear punctate plus finger punctate____________]_-_____- 2 2 
Stallings punctate___________- Linear punctate plus circular punctate__________ 1 1 2 
Stallings punctate____________ Linear punctate plus incised_______._--.--.---_- 1 1 2 
Stallings punctate____________ Individual punctates of various shapes___-_-___- 15 25 40 
Stallings punctate____________ Individual punctates—circular to conical punc- 9 13 22 
tate. 

Stallings punctate____________ arce)W-shapemmunctaterc.- 526s ae ee 5 5 
Stallings punctate____________ Min gern Che Gc Ae ee ee | eee ae 1 1 
Stallings punctate____________ ENT CISE CENA Nae 8 So ay 8 es ane Ce COL Sead Sea 3 
Stallings punctate____________ Imeisedinlusipunctatesan= 25-2 s- sae ee eee 1 1 
Heavyicord marked 22225 22s eS ee eae 1 1 

FS Gea ge ee pat spl nie eh | aed UE vas ne er Nae Sey SRE RY RY ONE: Ne AS ne 57 99 158 


4 This term is used as a convenient one to express the close similarity of a group of coastal 
sites. 


166 


BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 


[ BULL, 133 


TABLE 2.—Fiber-tempered ware from the Stalling’s Island site, from Ceramic 


Repository Collection 


Sherds 
Type Surface treatment and decoration == 
Rim | Body | Total 
Stallings plain a7 2 eee a eee net ea eee eben Sea Skee ee 1 15 16 
Stallings punctate ____--___-_- Linest punetate-. -: 263: setae, 2s pote oa ee 9 29 38 
Stallings punctate____________ Indiviaual-punctate®:222-- 2-8-2 ese-- one ee 4 2 6 
Stallings punctate___________- Linear punctate plus individual punctate____-__|_______- 1 1 
Stallings punctate____________ Linear punctate plus incised-_-._.._---.--------- | is ae 1 
Stallings punctate____________ Simple:stamp=—-2.~2 a oe a ee | 1 1 
Potallys £2» sect eon Da NT es pee LOREEN Oe oe teal LEN Lined ty ook ee 15 48 63 
| 
TABLE 3.—Pottery from the Lake Plantation in the Ceramic Repository 
Collection * 
Sherds 
Pottery 
Rim | Body | Total 

Stallings plain’. 242. pest or iis oS. ck ee RE. SUL ee ed 1 3 4 
Stallingsipunctates =< -0-- - 8 - ya == nee se eee eee co eA sok ek ee eae noe 2 2 
Deptforddinear stamp. 5262 SUP Ee eee ee este de eee SE SL eee 1 1 
Doeptiord: bold: Check: Stamps 2-2 eee a ee oe see enee one eases be aneeee 10 10 
Sandy tempered check aa related to Savannah check stamp---____-----.-----|_-------- 16 16 

Sandy tempered complicated stamp perhaps related to Savannah Complicated. 

Stam pies oer SS ee LB AS Ut OO ee eee eee 3 7 10 
Sandy to grit tempered plain surface_-_---_-=-----==---- = --__ = 5 15 20 
Coarse grit tempered with heavy simple stamping---_---_-__--------------------|-------- 5 5 
Sandy tempered cord marked, related to Savannah fine cord marked_-_-_-_-_-____-|_-_----_- 30 30 
Clay tempered cord marked related to Wilmington Heavy Cord Marked ---_-_-__- 1 20 21 
Clayrtempered met impressed so. 9. sa as NS Ee ee ee eo | eee 1 1 

GUA Ge eee ere ee ses See Ss ree Wee cee ee Oe ee ee 10 110 120 


1 31 of the best sherds from this site were loaned to Joseph Caldwell at Savannah, Ga., for comparative 


purposes in the summer of 1939. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


CALDWELL, JOSEPH, and WARING, TONO, Jr. 
1939. The use of a ceramic sequence in the classification of aboriginal sites 
in Chatham County, Ga. News letter Southeastern Archaeol. Con., 
vol. 2, No. 1. 
CLAFLIN, W. H., Jr. 
1931. The Stalling’s Island Mound, Columbia County, Ga. Pap. Peabody 
Mus. Amer. Archaeol. and Ethnol., vol. 14, No. 1, pp. 18-17, pls. 


11-20. 
FEWKES, V. J. 
1938. W. P. A. excavations at Irene Mound, Savannah. Savannah Chamber 
Commerce. 


GREGORIE, ANNE KING 
1925. Notes on Sewee Indians and Indian remains. Contr. Charleston Mus. 
No. 5. 
GRIFFIN, JAMES B. 
1939. Report on the ceramics of Wheeler Basin in Webb, W. 8., An archae- 
ological survey of Wheeler Basin on the Tennessee River in Northern 
Alabama. Bur. Amer. Ethnol. Bull. 122. 
Haac, WILLIAM G. 
1939. Pottery types from the Pickwick Basin. News letter Southeastern. 
Archaeol. Con., vol. 1, No. 1. 
HoLprErR, PRESTON 
1938. Excavations on Saint Simons Island and vicinity. Proc. Soc. Georgia 
Archaeol., vol. 1, No. 1. 
HoiMEs, W. H. 
1894. EFarthenware of Florida: Collection of Clarence B. Moore. Journ. 
Acad. Nat. Sci., Philadelphia. 2d Ser., vol. 10, pt. 1, art. 2, pp. 
105-128. 
KELLY, ARTHUR R. 
1938. A preliminary report on archeological explorations at Macon, Ga. 
Anthrop. Pap. No. 1, Bur. Amer. Ethnol. Bull. 119. 
WYMAN, JEFFRIES 
1938. On the fresh-water shell heaps of the St. Johns River, Hast Florida. 
Amer. Nat., vol. 2, No. 8, pp. 898-404, October; No. 9, pp. 449-463, 
November. 


495260—43——12 ; 167 


168 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BuLn. 133 
EXPLANATION OF PLATES 
PLATE 10 


Figure 1.—Stallings Plain sherds from the Chester Field site. 
a, b, Bowl rims with well compacted outer surface. 
c, Bowl rim with the small channels of burned-out fiber clearly visible. 
d, e, Body sherds with roughened surface or simple stamping. 
f, Body sherd with well smoothed surface. (U. M. M. A. 4287.) 
Figure 2.—Stallings Punctate sherds from the Chester Field site. 
a—c, Bowl rims with individual punctates. 
d, Incised. 
e, f, h-j, Body sherds with single punctates. 
g, Pinched style of punctate. 
k, l, Finger nail individual punctate. 
m, Cord-marked body sherd which may not belong to the Stalling’s Island Fo- 
cus. (U. M. M. A. 4288.) 


PLATE 11 


Figure 1.—Stallings Punctate sherds from the Chester Field site. 

a-g, Bowl] rims with various styles of linear punctates. 

h, Individual punctates placed unusually low on outer rim. 

i, Body sherd combination of incised and linear punctate. 

j, k, and m, Various styles of linear punctate on body sherds. 

1, Finger punctate and linear punctate on same sherd. (U. M. M. A. 4289.) 
Figure 2.—Check stamped and Cord Marked sherds from the Lake Plantation. 

a, b, Deptford Bold Check Stamp. 

c, Deptford Linear Check Stamp. 

d-f, Check Stamp sherds probably of Deptford horizon. 

g-k, Cord-marked body sherds with sand and grit aplastic. 

l-o, Clay tempered Wilmington Heavy Cord Marked sherds. (U. M. M. A. 

4250.) 


PLATE 12 


Miscellaneous sherds from Lake Plantation and two Stallings Punctate sherds 
from Jones Island. 
a, b, Plain surface sand-tempered rims. 
c, Net impressed. 
d, Fugitive red, sand-tempered body sherd. 
e-h, Sand-and grit tempered sherds with simple stamp impressions. 
i-j, Indistinct complicated stamp sherds with grit temper. 
k, l, Stallings Punctate sherds from a site on Jones Island. (U. M. M. A. 4291.) 


SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 
Bureau of American Ethnology 
Bulletin 133 


Anthropological Papers, No. 23 


The Eastern Cherokees 


By WILLIAM HARLEN GILBERT, Jr. 


169 


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fy ibue eh, Wit ee te LE Oh RL May 3 
i) Rael Ct Bat ase Shehdaca vedas Minutes a, Sane 
_ ae} eee Cis vitmcy sg AAyiae poses (es a iy hig ait, ASR ea iy! Ms: a 
se ig J «ae Ped teh oe ba eC ST a a e re Mestre ledgainets's 


ft Lone i 


oy e ‘4 OA 


‘ iat see athe 


+. jeabhhe a 
; ¥ on ny .W ; (mln ee 
f ’ re f | f ‘ any) f p i : { a , é ry} yy 


| ; ; ( ar) uf 
4 aw 8 an Pik id ante : ity ied, ee Ste, 
i aati ee aly Aires, Ram SAPNA bent) ay) ih Main LR 
» Pars oes mire ahs ‘ “ * * hh i a hy om 


aa ae Bray Ole Hh Pope ly ‘ ; 
deta enter oD ee me ESS EL CSA. y 
a aly W. 5 : { mati Rae bene hae ve pi a tat TRS 
i ane. bey ie Pianta ¥ ‘iin baci “ali es sk, fori ek ? i ; 


a ‘ag 
ee aay ave 7 pon Meine: lise yea LAN ale is sana, soso Panay 
Va . NC athe Ae ny None teh penne Po er a” ee Ans iy Ras :) on oe 


Bs eis hore Nc een | on DAE I EA toi lie think ae 


Dug rea 
ir ps HAN 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 
SPSS eg NO PS A I OR I Pee Sey BE, Se ERE Tg Gree 175 
PRTOCUCHIOTIN myer eee ee re ee AS ee eh ee eee 177 
PEseription of the present soeiety- = 8222) AEN. soos ee Ne oe 177 
ANava ranisirovavscrssonee || ancora ee eee 177 
General sfactorseet ee mee = Sed ae SE, Fee NE no Sp os cle ib7(7/ 

I Gyorer: <ivope pombe ta 2 CA UL a ea ae ae ers ee ae eee 178 

Gitar bie: FACEOTS teres ee ae ee a Se ea ee pet aye 182 
Inoreanicielermicatamone ae 2 oat Aas sh ir wa ety hah he 183 

Morava ni afar a epee ay ee ere ee lee a A ee a See 184 

Heology: of, the @herokees®_ 8.2 oo ee eee es 186 

PONS ORNS GLC, RSIS ces tere a Sie ye eR a a Ry AN NTE 193 
History of our knowledge of Cherokee somatology--_--_------- 193 

TBH Kexoroliesve boat b-c,5) 5 osha ee ge AS lg ul a eet ed See cr 2 Os Wale 194 
Present-day physical type: -4-— ese os. ok Se ak 2 195 
@Wensuses'of numbers and pedigrees... 222. 422-23 ee 197 
@nitunslUbackerounds ooo ae eae ee ee Eee cred 2 | 198 
Southessterm traitse 2 so) sec eee te eo eee 198 
Culturalispprosede ss — oo2 2k OE ee ee ae ghee 199 
present-day, Quallaoe 2-22 ste 2 ee Soe oe ee eas el 201 
Docume aeons eee aioe) Brad corn Beh IG ed AAS ge 201 

HD aya ec EI ee em i A Re ns Re UY ee WAC NAN aL 201 

PPO RHOUSENOIG ss a! eee Sn ee ee gE Sy eae 202 

FIN GYe5. CCL I) Mo iy ag aa oe: A ge YA nen epee pared MPa ML Abin | 4 203 
IBCONOMNCTUDIGS | soe he eee eek. Po ee ea ieee Se ee 209 

VEY Tope Ley ae ef es, vt St ae Ea ey per Sy ae Pag NL a 215 

ner einship SySleMias antes ese ee ae SOI ae 216 
Principal terms, used 22222 Se Noll ce ae Pla ee 216 
IMOorzan 6 SYSteMies-2 oe see are to ee een eee eee 227 

KGS hp) GISbiINCUlONS= 42 22 So oka ee ek ee ee ee ie eee 227 

WINCH PCS! Mee eo Mv a Me eR An ek uae Mt Rem 235 
Preferential mating ees ee ee EU ee cp ee a 238 
Hamiliarity and) Tespecte( cr. ee i 245 

Kinship behavior Of pairs:o%2s 2 Aes Seo) a ae eee ene 249 

General social features. 2252 oe oe ee eee i eae ey 254 
Birth and: childhoodss see os soe ey a ns Ai ee eee oe 254 
MarTIAre ATIC AAUILROOR hls Nl ee NE SUN Uy eevee nena epee 255 

SW (ol avaistowes wove lute fete 0a we lg ct cade, ap N na ae lg mr Dagwaetat HON sree Hem A Ea ap 256 

MISTSV CRT CE Me Coes arte ah anny Rie tetera ere ORY MINN tN le Cag a ae 257 

STPCCTICTE ATA CORO ere th See Ye Seah i SA oa Se ee hee 259 

SI en bis Dh cane 2 se Saeed eet ee es eee eens 268 

ChE re recent ees 2m ace) ee el Lo 8 oe Sek a ee 269 
Imtegration of the present society 264). 42) Us 3 ee ee 272 
The functions of the present-day traits________------------------- 272 
Hunctioning on tue familys) aso oe ee ae oS se eee eee 272 
Dunectionimsyor therclanuseat. 2 5 Se ee eee ee eee eee 278 
Functioning of the dancers 2.22" boned» Aa eee eee ee | Zeb 
Funetions of the kinship tisages2.¢ = 222225222502. -2-22-----22= 2381 

Seocisu be sep ctor Sage ee arate a ey ee te art Be I eee 284 

Magica) formulas! or prayers. ....--- .555.-----------'-=------- 286 


Lz BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BuLn, 133 


Integration of the present society—Continued. 


The functions of the present-day traits—Continued. PAGE 
Bunetions of the formmilas= 20>. 2-2: 2 = 23 ed eee 287 

Towe formulas: anaes Seas O ay i a kes ON ee 289 

Disease Tormpylad -aeee Ree Ne ete nes Cee eee ee ee alpha et 292 
Ofherrformulast =: SSee sis es ake whe eine tA eR ee ee 297 
Mythology and itsfumetion= *7 SA 5 stern ee es Lee OU 
Summaryrof the present-dayculture mes eee Se ee eee ee ee 304 
Sotialtopposition==* ses 2s 2s 225 Miler ks oh = pe eee eee ae 304 
Social‘solidantysamd reciprocity S220 4 hes = hts ee eee 306 
NOcialriNvepraviony 256 .* <= t/a\) yay ee ee ee eee eo ee ee ee 309 

Ae fOLMeET SOCIEbYy Bae ae © Me = oe wee SHEL Le eee ne nee ee 313 
MErOUMChIONS esa a Ne wees ae oo Se SEE Se ot en eee eee 313 
snheories sof Oni cins#!= 2204 ye eee ee 313 
Barlybistoricalrecordsss == ==" mss asses Usa ssa 315 
Payne-Bubrick’ Manuscripts dava- 22 at Sees 319 
Thewwihiteiorganizationesa=: “+ as yee ver hee eee eee ee ee 321 
Oificisisus <"<s*Aclesi ks Seaweee ae AEN ee 321 
Majarceremonies =: 55554 ANS ae ESS) See te ee Oe 325 
Ceremonial\procedures 2 #220 426 ore ash os tt A ee ee 327 

MEATIY CYCLO Cts 50 = = ii~ cael 5 A EN Oe ear Oe ee eae Eee ee 336 

BAL ay Ss ose ert wis es Skee ER Sls ny Aieeey Oe 2 Stari Ane ye ne Men be oi 33/ 
IVER C LAGE S56 gies yh Pocky Wo id 90 ae es A eS hee 338 
nereatiOms sea he amen bE Aw aie Se eo, Soe el es en 341 
ibreatmenttofidiseases=s sm seeks ta oer ys es See Sie ee 342 
Mythology and beliefs_____- ie oie rethen cS SU SN ee 344 
Sacrednessiand uncleanmesses 2 4a...0 2 22 8 Sey 2 oe nr ee 345 
Lnewmedrorganization: 22 22 sae bss ee Cal ye ot oo EE Se 348 
ONC A See A Pa Bike is Silty 30 Be ah oe ee 2 ee re 348 

War procedures reas 2 betes mika hrc sit Pte Eas en eee 350 

IMaIMCA EY SPAR TICS TN = 2 = 88 12 Eee ton ee 353 
Retumfrom war se s2Sseo 222 o> xDk ss vee eee Se eee eee 354 
Otheriwanr features: 5! sot: o =e Sak sss Ae Aen ee oe eee 355 
Structure and function of the former society. _____---__-_-_--_--__- 356 
AlernahloncOL war ikia peacens ne +2 Ht Sorter sede Re oe ee 356 
Symbolism of the ceremonies—social cohesion______-__________ 358 
DOCININeHangel t= hss Kane esa cy hai nto: onli sl ae ARI ee ot We 360 
(herevidenceror changers “35 te ae: seo se ee ee ee eee 360 
Heonomickehanges 53597 2Nom = ye) 0 > sete Eee oe Re 360 
Politieaitchange ss 223 8a0 9-226 252 ee ee Sree gee or ee 363 
Ceremonialc hamper 25 oa 2 e.5 5a. 91S Hey REE ee RRR ree 367 

IVER On trends ee et i Nef abe eS 26am 87s me pon Vine Oren any Sr 370 
POMCIVSION! <9 602» Fn mat Wrens Nei sam bs Bind 4 Wa Nie Ae Ba ely oer ee eee 371 
Appendix A. Chronologically arranged data summary on Cherokees- - - _ - 373 
Appendix:b: Outline of Cherokee: cultures oo os Sesh. eee 374 
Appendix C. Material culture of the Cherokees_____...___________-_---- 385 
Appendix D. Cultural traits of the Cherokee (Payne)_-___----_--------- 388 


Bibtiogreph yt sos sree se soi) Pela ses nlitnst 5 LORIE. ee See enone rae eae 402 


Nb 


OND oe 


ILLUSTRATIONS 
PLATES 


. 1, Cherokee terrain 2, Cherokee eagle dance_.____._-.------.----- 
. 1, Cherokee ball game, tackle. 2, Cherokee ball game, intermission- 
. 1, Cherokee ball game, foul. 2, Wiliwesti’s artifacts__.------------ 
. 1, John Driver family. 2, Four women of Big Cove_--------------- 
. 1, Sampson Owl, ex-chief and interpreter. 2, Sampson Ledford, 


informant, Grahamypeounty so. h2cheyes k eos ee 


FIGURES 


The Cherokee settlements, 1762-76, G@nap)) 2. 224-32 e022 64s Seen 
+) Dhe-Cherokee settlements, 1825-80 map) se). 2222 e228 see 
. The Cherokee Indian Reservation, N. C., 1937 (map)-_------------- 
E Disgramoh jhe spueres Of tribal activity... 25—- = ose es25 252 oe 
. Western Cherokee kinship: Male ego (after Morgan)-------._------ 
. Cherokee kinship consanguines: Male ego 
. Cherokee kinship consanguines: Female ego___.------.------------ 
a @herokeelkinshipiaiamities w= Ce Uke eee a Sk a ee ke 
. Eastern Cherokee kinship consanguines: Male ego (after Morgan) - - - 
. Eastern Cherokee kinship consanguines: Female ego (after Morgan) -_- 
. Eastern Cherokee kinship affinities (after Morgan) ----------------- 
. Western Cherokee kinship consanguines: Male ego (after Morgan) --- 
. Western Cherokee kinship consanguines: Female ego (after Morgan) -- 
. Western Cherokee kinship affinities (after Morgan) __--------------- 
minathersmatrlines| Niner ss. ee Leek eh De ls oes ee Ot ee 
PeNViotherspmatrilinealalime seem sees eee iy ote eee Ee 
A Mother s1acher sunagrlinealiine: 30342.) 202 Je ee ee eee 
Mathers tather samatrilines|lingy) 2250 ss Gee eee 
. Balance of marriage exchanges between clans___------------------- 


Seating in the Cherokee Council House (diagram) ------------------ 


TABLES 


Clanimnames Of tie @herokees sii sik: 2 Mik eh hese apes 
Survey of clan affiliations of family heads of Eastern Cherokee house- 


Representative numbers of the members of the various clans among 

Pari livres shea li GO yee eae a ln lee see eres ee sary 
Comparative table of kinship terms of the Cherokee_____--_----~- 
Dancessol ihe Cherokees Wi wily bln 2h Slee hea Be ale 2 ee 
Cherokee:kanship. 322222 oo ae sl 2 Spe Le ae Ae aS oe ao 
Hlementsiin! Cherokee myths 202 20a ae ee 
Principles of Cherokee social organization_._...---.-----...---- 
Culture changes as gleaned from comparison of Cherokee omens in 

MSS Gy suita hl TG Bok ose SL Pe tee fg aR Sa 


ie on be oe wenn bee ES : 
pee: Heraeus Te Sa t 
wee Petih Ahi ne Vw 
on ‘ Dea Rah Ca he it i 
Pci Poke ry ic ae oF 
ee a ste cee 


Fi aie 


Oe 


a iy tate ie 


iy bi gacvsl fe BLE 
Oa Dai a 


; “aaron: 
Rh Wire se shea rig cee “ehae) ween aes 
Wi APR oR cgi Val ag ae slyly OBA eineauahitee 
nT) eee tea ROWE Oe nobiensaait agatha! oat 
si ad ia inh ae Sar Past 1 Oy abe a ladie toc sont ad W 
ne es ie hy ph A ‘ im x Sing Wf. ote Ua) ger TaN” Seite: mia Osea ai Sin 

| aS pee OL as Me i ~ope efeM wsctihyenagg aitauioks 
ERR AC aera mis mi La aac tn ier ONE smeorths gelato qidas? oye 


Ad a A Aue aproa y a itelitin fo frie asl a elie raid eosin atl de ada vr 
PA eT ‘sit Ome Slalk teantiuingamos Cfistastiol oatooa ae saz 

bane ie ep” Re ort ties ahartby 44: cenhasermuutesey: iteuttol neil HAD 

Gs ) eat ed rf PO amie wajiay seiiiha qidentd Bee ect 

Gee Noi iow ty jaa Bim somnis imate) qlelavtias nse ui 

bah.) i i aH Bur), hig Shin"! jawaleranennus qth wg honed im 

1s): RDN odes lpia igus aneiny roi atdebidl edit owed a 
min | LRG ana ee SER ere Peers 1.) fund inhale 

ilu he sees i eam pe oe ER cOHa ee Boe 

. oe Pui dehy i Seibtearttterecct 4 yltal wags 

et ‘ ae heat me = ie Lh a eel Rees) ony “ett tag cethnisn a yisd hak it 
ys SARE! alae Md te ky 1e cogent Ci arden heey once oer sae saiN yao A 
a Saye eens Sk an BissoRE eres Fowmurie: ag ld Age 
C08 Fe eS ae 1b asl bean Re sieae ec A ‘phosstin or Mee a : afar 

A Sakic tat: ake i eat 6 olin ulin ® % asaited ‘ait inh, lo 4a 

i SRR SO ARUIER RD Ts 3 at apa ps ce oa Sc de casa de ae a ee 


ites ait? ane 1 gO" ay ths he itanfsveci Hibh eo enaclanzer ovina 
Pe eas oa eg at nv can ROW st le ocala ak 
Hivantty outs ie’ bAvead i Seat lo vide} gvetep 


Nee nM ah oe pha ~o ei Cen OE 
sates f , ~ : vee 
a 


MeN ee eee Le eae mee ire \ 
ae a eh ip aretngey ke" sanlgarheon, wiped, Hotta vey wogoulty, ¢ 
corey i. i ail CER ice 


PREFACE 


This study is the result of 2 years’ research on the Cherokee In- 
dians of North Carolina. Field work with this band was made 
possible by a grant from the Department of Anthropology of the 
University of Chicago in 1932 and was carried out in two visits 
from September to December of that year. 

The village of Big Cove was made the type of the whole reserva- 
tion because it was the most conservative district of the region. The 
data from Big Cove was later checked by material collected from 
the other five towns of the Eastern Cherokee Reservation. 

The purpose of the field survey was to obtain a fairly complete 
description of the existing society of the Cherokees. The data col- 
lected consisted in the main of descriptions of persons, households, 
land tenures, genealogies, clan memberships, places of residence, and 
the terms and behavior included in the kinship system. 

The author endeavored to enter into the social life of the people 
as fully as possible. By virtue of living at the home of the chief 
informant, who was also the head man of the village, he was able 
to follow the daily round of activities and participate frequently in 
the native dances and games. In this way a better understanding of 
the spirit of Cherokee affairs was obtained than might have been 
acquired through the method of having the informant come to some 
strange and unfamiliar surroundings for questioning. 

It is a pleasure to acknowledge the assistance of many kind friends. 
Invaluable aid was rendered in the field by native Cherokees, notably 
Will West Long, the councilman at Big Cove, and ex-Chief Sampson 
Owl. Aid was also rendered by local white officials, in particular Miss 
Louvica Wyman, Superintendent R. L. Spalsbury, Farm Agent A. M. 
Adams, and Chief Clerk J. L. Walters. Elsewhere, Dr. J. R. Swanton, 
of the Bureau of American Ethnology, furnished the original stimu- 
lus for this study and many subsequently helpful suggestions; Drs. F. 
Olbrechts, F. Speck, and the late J. N. B. Hewitt, as students of the 
Troquoian-Cherokee field, made helpful comments; and, at Chicago, in- 
dispensable aid was rendered in the final organization of the materials 
by Prof. A. R. Radcliffe-Brown and by Drs. Fay-Cooper Cole, Robert 
Redfield, and Fred. R. Eggan. 


175 


| ? rite ¢ hy ita t 
HW ioe WE. weuiliacaly 

ee ot: 40 nl opt: ‘davthehn agg, atl Arab pee Mt 

; sate ow of a byter as BAW: Deo SOE dite ibs 0 

Mk Oe DRE ae ey i nHRTI ich sr aedcay 

BAA fom bate me ti. hep dh shea sor geod pi Ao das 

Pout stuskins od¥ ter tiruily help iru pacity oF cere te 

canort etaalfary firteatany sad bent Beth oR era ued . 

vi saa Nodkbevwang? eoakirey Ae se apes Bk 4 Ny: deve 

mgt cio viaiet @ iitidh ot amie Yavin bist aby het | 

ea MeO aE, easly tas!! J at bi, yoaiodse DATE RY aglty te 

jotdslontoetro wanoateg: ty suo tmeb! ta. apoyo, she hg. 

PBs: aN niteb ey ED) amoaley edi tboredite weet, pate ae / 

oe gta? iF alas weet eh (te: hebieloisl if 0 te 

sisi. a, toahil igh: 10%, ee ment Oa nasa Oe at eae ae 10 5 safle 

Rais arty Bo satus oukt de iia fey Supt ake. VETERE Bits 

aide Bai mt. onal lhe el}. Dey cenerd, lined oot ale zante ONS Cae 

“ey tlinergoyt Bee or tad bina # meth create Geni ipebrines alte, ae 

6, gorbtredeietu rr yaid ae yaw eit sik, petioles Tai ep ORS 

Ligad Hradd Aehna iaxt won Foohiatorls: ‘wat cn tis | colo em, 

iad oe eat daatnqot ot aslh ibukend a bodies od syeiay 

| eect a ‘Baldaltennh. ad eamtbnoiratia ath crs be Bie 

; iobeh fae yinper to appt Mager sd Het Ae ese 

ate font ioasle sah) Hy ides ed Sits ett git fy betaine sig bis Fale 9 

ARTLINE Ran OED. brid rel atti Kgasenlaibinlged a stock SG 

chent SF weaker: Shes Pe eet averiiy: Lae, Syct Fieve Wier. aE BAD he 

ots ey ree We J yeah. SAUCE nt 7 t) te alae rod teneriny igs Gt DF 

HOTTY ve a pa shoal ae sen OD eh Jeol tale 

2. Dy be Reo tel, Baud: eet (eiehie en 1st ota: As Qt 

wok: Cabal pak ngs Sesipns ur hh eee Ais iat Mi: ya, pie 


sh wi ats ri iota vie: Pty ae it Aba acon the ey } a it Sane Hak 
Diakacise ai ses mosis ae ed Pca owronttsaihi tintin ia 


Ca ie dees, <a ae 


| je 


THE EASTERN CHEROKEES 


By WILLIAM HARLEN GILBERT, JR. 


INTRODUCTION 


The Cherokees of the Southeastern United States were a tribe of 
great importance in early colonial times. Much has been recorded 
concerning their merciless wars with the white settlers, yet they 
remain today a tribe about which little is definitely known so far 
as social organization is concerned. The various ethnologic observa- 
tions on the Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws, and other Southeastern 
tribes have been summarized and systematized by J. R. Swanton 
(1928), so that we have today a generalized picture of social organi- 
zation in the Southeast. The Cherokees have remained outside of 
this picture. 

The present study is concerned with two very definite problems: 

1. The outlining of the present social organization of the Cherokee 
in its formal and integrative aspects. 

2. The portrayal of the historical changes in this social organization 
so far as they can be gleaned from past records of Cherokee culture. 

A third possible problem arises in connection with the classifying 
of social structures in the Southeast and the relating of Cherokee 
social organization to these. Consideration of this problem will be 
deferred, for reason of its magnitude, to a later time. 


DESCRIPTION OF THE PRESENT SOCIETY 


THE ENVIRONMENTAL FRAME 
GENERAL FACTORS 


The natural environment of a people is divisible into several sets of 
influences, depending on the type of material concerned. The terrain, 
climate, minerals, plants, and animals are all conceivable as types of 
unified influences helping to give order to a people’s culture. The fac- 
tors arising from the terrain comprise such characteristics as the sur- 
face configuration of the land, the distribution of surface water in riv- 
ers, lakes, or ponds, the sites of settlements, trails, and the human orbit 
of activities. 


177 


178 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BuLL, 133 
LOCATION 


The general locus of the Cherokee tribe was by States—western 
North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia; the 
north of Georgia and Alabama; all but the western parts of Tennessee ; 
and parts of Kentucky adjoining Tennessee.1. The eastern part of the 
Cherokee domain was part of the Southern Piedmont Province, a gen- 
tly rolling plateau dissected by rejuvenated streams with valleys from 
50 to 150 feet deep. Numerous monadnocks and isolated peaks rear 
their heads over the surrounding areas. This was the territory com- 
prised in the Lower Settlements. The central area of the Cherokees, 
comprising the Kituhwa (Middle) and the Valley Settlements, was the 
heart of the tribe. This area lay within the Blue Ridge Province and 
comprised the slopes of the Unakas or Great Smokies (with spurs such 
as the Snowbird and Balsam ranges) and the numerous coves and 
flat-bottomed valleys nestling to the south of the main range. Finally, 
on the north and west lay the Overhill, or Tennessee Settlements, in the 
Appalachian Great Valley Province with river valleys from 50 to 500 
feet deep, in a region predominantly of a gently rolling character. 

The chief rivers of the Cherokee area flowed out from the great cen- 
tral watershed in three directions, viz, southeast to the Atlantic Ocean 
directly (Chatooga-Tugaloo and Keowee affluents of the Savannah) ; 
south and southwest to the Gulf of Mexico direct (Coosa and its afflu- 
ents, the Oostanaula and Etowah; Chatahoochee and its affluents) ; 
west by north to the Ohio River drainage (Little Tennessee and its 
affluents, the Tuckaseegee and Nantahala, the Hiwasee and its affluent, 
the Valley River). 

At the time of the earlier contacts with the whites, the Cherokee 
town sites were grouped in four main divisions, namely: (1) Lower 
Settlements on the upper tributaries of the Savannah River in what 
is now South Carolina; (2) Middle Settlements or Kituhwa lying to 
the north of the Lower Settlements on the easternmost reaches of the 
Little Tennessee and Tuckaseegee Rivers in North Carolina between 
the Cowee Mountains and the Balsam Mountains; (3) Valley Settle- 
ments in extreme western North Carolina along the Nantahala, the 
Valley River, and the Hiwassee; (4) Overhill Settlements north of the 
Unakas and south of the Cumberland Chain along the upper Ten- 
nessee and Lower Little Tennessee Rivers. 

Later, in Revolutionary times, the whole Cherokee nation was 
pushed bodily southward into northern Georgia where a thriving 
group of settlements sprang up on the banks of the upper Coosa 
tributaries such as the Oostanaula, Coosawattee, Etowah, Chatooga, 
and the Little River. 

1 During the nineteenth century Cherokee Indians settled at various times in Ohio, 


Virginia, Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, and even in Mexico in Jalisco near Lake 
Chapala. 


AnTHROP. Pap. No.23] THE EASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 179 


After the removal of 1838 only fragmentary remnants of the Val- 
ley and Middle Settlements were left. The numerous branch creeks 
along the Valley River sheltered small groups until quite recent times. 
The upper reaches of the Cheowa River and its branches—Buffalo 
Creek, Santeetlah Creek, the Snowbird River, Little Snowbird Creek, 
and others—were the sites of a cluster of settlements up until quite re- 
cently. This was called the Graham County group. The damming 
of the Cheowa River and the formation of Lake Santeetlah has in 


oe 


SITE OF KNOXVILLE 
o 


OQUE 
or GREAT /SLAMD @ 
REGe 5} 


HIWASSEE 
© OLD TOWN .” 


— 
@ ESTATOE 
je QUARATCHI 


Ficurre 36.—The Cherokee settlements, 1762-1776. 


recent times done away with habitation sites for all of the groups in 
this region save those on Buffalo Creek West and Little Snowbird 
Creek. 

By far the largest and most important of the remnantal Cherokee 
groups after the removal were those clustering around the juncture 
of the Ocona and Tuckaseegee Rivers near the old settlement of 
Kituhwa in the heart of the old Middle Settlements. With the ex- 
ception of the “Thomas 3,200 acre tract” along the east and west 
slopes of a ridge south of the Tuckaseegee, all of this group is settled 
along the axis of the Ocona River and its tributaries in what was 


180 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL 133 


early known as “The Qualla Boundary,” but which is now called sim- 
ply “The Eastern Cherokee Reservation.” ‘This area consists of five 
towns, at the present time known as Birdtown, Yellow Hill, Big Cove, 
Painttown, and Wolftown. This pitiful remnant contrasts with the. 


HICKORY LOG 
VILLAGE 
~~ e 


o ELLIJAY 


coe ooer 
iESAW ir 
j Q 


SS KENN 
SS Mi 


VANN’S OLD PLACE 
© (SPRING PLACE) 
COOSAWATTEE 
WO RUNS 
WrowerR pive® 
HIGHTOWER.. 


awe 
Wy 


VILLAGE OF 


GEORGIA 


Figure 37.—The Cherokee settlements, 1825-30. 


\ 
GUNTERSVILLE 


< 
= 
<= 
rac) 
xt 
=] 
<x 


64 villages mentioned by Adair in 1775 and the 48 mentioned by 
Bartram in 1790. 

At the time of the earlier white contacts with the Cherokees there 
were some seven main groups of trails or means of access to this area. 
These were as follows: 


1. A group of trails running north to the Kanawha and Big Sandy Rivers. 

2. A group of trails running north through the great valley to Pennsylvania. 

3. Trails running northeast and east to the tidewater in Virginia and North 
Carolina. 


AnTHROP, PaP. No. 23] THE EASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 181 


4. Trails running down the Savannah to tidewater in South Carolina. 

5. Trails leading south and east to the Chattahoochee and Coosa valleys of 
Georgia. 

6. Trails westward along the Tennessee River and others through Tennessee. 

7. Trails running northward through Kentucky to the Ohio. 


Through trail group 1 the Cherokees had contact with the Mingoes, 
Iroquois, and Shawnees; through group 2 they contacted with Senecas, 
Mohawks, and Delawares; group 3 connected them with the nearly 
related Tuscaroras, the Catawbas, and the Eastern Siouans; group 4 
with the Uchees, Cheraws, and others; group 5 with the Creeks; group 
6 with the Chickasaws, Shawnee, Choctaws, and Natchez; and group 
7 with the Shawnees. It was through trail groups 2, 3, and 4 that the 
westward rolling stream of white population first connected up with 
the Cherokees, but it was not until the whites had crossed the moun- 
tains and attacked the Cherokees in the rear through trail groups 6 
and 7 that the latter were finally subdued. 

Although parts of the Tennessee Valley are scarcely over 600 feet 
above sea level, the major part of the ancient Cherokee domain is above 
1,200 feet in altitude and considerable areas over 3,000 feet, especially 
in the present-day settlements along the steep sides of the Oconaluftee 
River Valley. The Cherokee were predominantly mountaineer 
tribesmen, an aggregation of marauding, predatory warriors who 
swooped down on the more peaceful lowlanders of the east continu- 
ously when mountain conditions became too crowded or meager for 
sustenance. The cutting up by the mountains of the Cherokee area 
into so many small self-sustaining communities may account for their 
lack of political cohesiveness. In this they stand out in contrast with 
their kinsmen, the Iroquois, who lived in a less rugged topography. 
What cultural cohesion there was to the Cherokees appertained rather 
to historical tradition and common heritage. Such political cohesion 
as existed was fragile and broke at the slightest shock from without. 
The Cherokees of the past, and those of today, owned and still possess a 
certain individualism and independence of thought tinged with a type 
of conservatism peculiar to mountain peoples. 

The Cherokees had a vigorous reaction on the terrain in which they 
found themselves. Materially this took the form of (1) numerous 
footpaths and trails leading over mountain gaps and through stream 
valleys, (2) villages—consisting of aggregations of square boxlike 
houses of poles clustered around large heptagonal town houses set on 
mounds or clearings with maize-bean crops growing on them, (3) 
chunkey yards and ball grounds—large flat areas cleared for the games, 
(4) stream weirs and dams impounding the swift mountain torrents 
into quiet ponds for fishing, (5) stone cairns, (6) mounds for burials, 
(7) stockades, and (8) canoes and dugouts on the larger streams and 
other constructions. Less obviously visible, this reaction on the ter- 


182 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 133 


rain took the form of an elaborate toponymic system connecting with 
plants, animals, and the general mythology of the tribe. Origin 
myths for many place names are to be found in Mooney. Probably 
every mountain, open level area, cave, stream, and such had a name, 
and this terminology, if completely recovered, would comprehend 
fairly well the totality of factors arising from the terrain involved in 
Cherokee culture. 

The terrain, then, furnished the orbits for the revolution of the cul- 
tural elements of Cherokee life about their central factor, the indi- 
vidual. It furnished the routes for diffusion of cultural elements 
and for contacts. It furnished the protecting walls which enabled 
elements of Cherokee culture to survive to this day. It afforded the 
necessary basis for the growth of the various factors of reaction on 
environment mentioned in the above paragraph. Finally, the terrain 
formed the foundation on which could grow the other factors of plant, 
animal, and climatic influences. 


CLIMATIC FACTORS 


The climate of the Cherokee Country furnishes functional influ- 
ences allied with the topography and the latitude. The area has essen- 
tially a mild, temperate climate. In the winter the sun is capable of 
heating the surface of the mountain slopes to around 50° or 60° Fahr- 
enheit at midday even though a temperature of 15° to 20° above may be 
recorded during the night. In the summer a midday temperature of 
around a hundred will be succeeded by a night temperature of 35° or 
40° Fahrenheit. Some 9 hours of daylight in the winter are succeeded 
by about 13 hours in the summer. Seasonal variation in temperatures 
in the mountains is not as great as the diurnal variation since the aver- 
age Fahrenheit temperature of July is 80° and that of January is 40°. 
On the high mountains the moon and stars shine brilliantly at night 
and the burning sun beats down mercilessly by day. The average baro- 
metric pressure is slightly higher in winter (30.15 cm.) than in sum- 
mer (30 cm.). The winds in winter are prevailingly north to south 
and southwest to northeast in summer. On the high mountain slopes 
there are few winds save during storms. A high wind can appear 
and disappear in a remarkably short time. 

Air humidity varies with the altitude. In winter the precipitation 
is 40 inches or more in the high mountains, 30 to 40 inches in the semi- 
high areas, and 20 to 80 inches in the remainder. In winter, espe- 
cially, the wispy cottonlike masses of clouds billowing against heavily 
wooded mountain slopes appears weird even to the chance outside ob- 
server. Ziegler and Grosscup mention the uncanny foreboding which 
afflicts the traveler in the high mountain country when he sees the dark 
glens and steep uncouth declivities of the higher ranges. What must 


ANTHROP, PaP. No. 23] THE EASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 183 


have been the effect, then, on the superstitious mind of the native-born 
Cherokee in earlier times? 

In summer this region wears on the whole a more genial aspect. 
In the high mountains the rainfall is 30 to 40 inches and about 20 to 
30 inches in the remainder. Storms are fewer and of shorter dura- 
tion in the summer. The lightning is an object of great attention 
on the part of the Cherokee mythology and is connected with the 
daylight. Such local phenomena as landslides, earthquakes, and 
floods do not appear in the mythology as of much importance. It 
would be instructive, if some way of measuring the process could 
be devised, to ascertain the effects of change of locale of residence 
from higher to lower altitudes on the ideas and culture of the more 
recent western Cherokees. 

The climatic factor consists primarily of a rhythmic or cyclic set 
of influences operating to produce a seasonal effect on the culture. 
The regular repetition of these influences constituted a unifying 
factor of tremendous importance in the tribal life. The alternation 
of moon and no moon (occasions for special monthly rites), of winter 
and summer (ceremonial and nonceremonial seasons), plant sprout- 
ing and ripening (rites and dances at planting and harvest), and 
other events serve as examples. The menstruation process was ac- 
companied by severe taboos and was related in the minds of the 
Cherokees to the phases of the moon, 

The reaction of the Cherokees on the natural forces of the climate 
are to be found in their uses of fire, smoke signalling, divination by 
sunlight through crystals, gazing at the sun as a shaman training 
ordeal, imitation of the noises of nature in the hunting of animals, 
rites to control the weather, cosmogonic wondertales, and in the inti- 
mate linkage which they made between the celestial phenomena and 
health or disease. Curious linkages also occur of waterfalls with 
thunder and of snakes with lightning. 


INORGANIC ELEMENTS 


The chemical constituents of the earth’s crust entered into the 
Cherokee culture in various ways. Quartz crystals were used in 
divining the future, fiint and chert were used in the manufacture 
of cutting tools and weapons, various river clays were used in pot- 
tery manufacture, red hematite powder from certain hillsides was 
made into pigment for face paint (connected here with one of the 
clans), white clays were also made and used for pigments, steatite 
was used for pipe carving and the heavier ferromagnesian minerals 
were chipped and ground into axes, celts, and hammers, slates into 
ceremonial pendants and gorgets, and so on for many others of the 
natural minerals of the hill country. 


405260—_43——_13 


184 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 133 


Water had a tremendously important role in Cherokee culture. 
Aside from its practical value for drinking and fishing, as a place 
to stalk game, and a means of travel by canoes, it played an indis- 
pensable part in ritualistic bathing, in divination, and as a base 
for decoctions of medicinal plants. The present Cherokees claim that 
in the autumn when all of the trees seem to be dropping their 
leaves and many of these find their way into the streams, the latter 
have an especial curative value. This is owing to the mingling of 
all the curative properties of different plants in one big decoction for 
the season of the medicine dance. 


FLORA AND FAUNA 


The flora of the southern Appalachians belongs phytogeographi- 
cally to three plant worlds. These are (1) the Appalachian Moun- 
tain district of deciduous forests, (2) the Piedmont: vegetation, and 
(3) the Alleghanian-Ozark district. The general characteristics of 
the first area are: A predominance of hardwoods such as poplar, 
pine, spruce, balsam or fir, hemlock, buckeye, tulip-tree, chestnut, 
and birdseye maple along with many species of herbaceous plants and 
cryptogams. The second area is one largely of undergrowth and 
herbaceous species. The third area is marked by a great variety of 
broadleaved trees of some 700 species and a scarcity of evergreens. 

Plants appear in the Cherokee culture in connection with food, 
shelter, clothing, and medicine. Compared with the animals in gen- 
eral, plants are friendly agents to man and fight in this way against 
their enemies, the animal world. They especially help man through 
their curative properties for the human diseases believed to result 
from the machinations of animals. According to Mooney some 800 
species of plants were known and used by the Cherokees. 

Most important of the cultivated food plants were maize and beans, 
to which were added at a later date potatoes, pumpkins, peas, squash, 
strawberries, tobacco, and gourds. Weeds from streams were burnt 
for lye, which was then used as a salt substitute and for soap making. 
Wood served a wide variety of uses. Houses of poles were the 
earliest type known and these were later supplanted by the log cabin 
of the pioneer white settlers. The log cabin had become the com- 
mon type of dwelling among the Cherokees by the period of the 
American Revolution. In the nineteenth century plank or frame 
houses gradually supplanted the log cabin, which is now very rare. 
Wooden artifacts are numerous and woodworking is highly regarded. 
Various bark and herb fibers were used as twine and for weaving 
a certain type of garment. The typical medicinal plants are sassa- 
fras, cinnamon, wild horehound, seneca, snakeroot, St. Andrew’s Cross, 
and wild plantain. 


AnTHROP, Pap, No.23] THE EASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 185 


Zoogeographically, the Cherokee area belongs in the Alleghany 
subregion of the North American, or Nearctic Region. The char- 
acteristic native mammals of the area are bats, moles, shrews, rac- 
coons, skunks, weasels, otters, bears, wolves, foxes, wildcats, panthers, 
hares, porcupines, groundhogs, beavers, rats and mice, squirrels, 
bison, deer, opossum, and a native dog. The descriptions of these 
species and the explanation of techniques for dealing with them forms 
a substantial section of Cherokee myth and folklore. 

The bird species of the area are especially diversified and numer- 
ous. Among the more important can be mentioned tanagers, larks, 
finches, buntings, creepers, woodwarblers, pipits, nuthatches, king- 
lets and goldcrests, titmice, shrikes, vireos, thrushes, wrens, gnat- 
catchers, swallows, hummingbirds, owls, buzzards, hawks, woodpeck- 
ers, cuckoos, kingfishers, eagles, ospreys, vultures, cormorants, pel- 
icans, geese, ibises, storks, herons, cranes, plovers, quail, woodcocks, 
snipes, sandpipers, grebes, doves, rails, coots, and pigeons. It was 
taboo to kill some species of birds but many types were snared by 
various means or shot with blow gun or arrow. Along with quad- 
rupeds, birds were closely connected with clan names. 

Especially important in the medicinal mythology of the Chero- 
kee were the reptiles and amphibians. In this group were the rattle- 
snakes, copperheads, and other snake species, the lizards, skinks, 
glass snakes, iguanas, turtles, frogs, toads, and salamanders. 

The rivers and streams of the early days, before the chemical plants 
of the white man began using them for waste-product dumping 
places, abounded in fish such as perch, croakers, bass, pike, catfish, 
garfish, salmon, trout, and sturgeon. Many species of shellfish were 
also to be found. In Cherokee mythology fish, as well as quadrupeds 
and birds, cause diseases in man. 

The insect world was not neglected in the Cherokee mythology. 
The warlike proclivities of the ants interested them greatly as did 
also the ways of the butterflies, beetles, crickets, flies, bugs, dragon- 
flies, bees, and wasps. Among the lower animals worms were con- 
sidered an important source of disease in man. 

In summarizing the utilitarian effects of animals in Cherokee 
Culture it is worthy of note that scarcely any animal was domesti- 
cated in the older days. The dog appears to have been tamed and 
possibly also the bee, and turkeys were kept in captivity when young. 
The chief pursuit of the Cherokee men in the older period was the 
hunt. The principal objects of the hunt were bears, deer, bison, eagles, 
elk, beaver, turkeys, wild duck, and geese. These animals were hunted 
for food and for their hides, teeth, and bones. Anciently, also mol- 
lusks were gathered for food and for shell working and decoration. 
Fishing was seasonally very important in the Cherokee economy. 


186 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BuLL, 188 


Among the ceremonial and nonutilitarian aspects of animals we 
note the important part played in mythology and lore. Intimately 
connected with the causation and cure of disease they were also linked 
with clan names, with mimetic dances, and education. The mimetic 
dances seem to have been connected with success in the hunt. Ani- 
mals were conceived of as being organized like the Cherokees into 
clans and tribes with council houses and village settlements. The 
relationship between the Cherokee and animal species took on the 
character of international relations in which wars were waged, blood 
revenge was demanded and secured, alliances were contracted and 
dissolved, and peace declared. The prime objects of Cherokee raids 
on the animal world took on the same character as their plundering 
raids on other tribes of Indians, the only difference being that, in 
relation to the animals, the plunder was the body of the animal 
itself and that magic played a major part in the warding off of 
blood revenge and successful capture in the latter case, 


ECOLOGY OF THE CHEROKEES 


This tribe had a special adaptation to the Blue Ridge Physio- 
graphic Area. Settlements were elongated and strung out on river 
banks for considerable distances with little more than a few acres of 
level land in river bottoms. As in every case of tribal reaction to en- 
vironment, there were two aspects visible in the ecology, namely: (1) 
An autecological aspect, or the means adopted by the tribe to adjust it- 
self to immediate natural environment, and (2) the synecological aspect, 
or the means adopted whereby the tribe might adjust itself to other 
tribes, i. e., trade, theft, war, and predatoriness. Within the tribe each 
community or settlement had a corresponding autecology and syn- 
ecology although the two tended to coincide in view of the relative 
homogeneity of the environment. It is through the tribal synecology 
that we find the existence of so-called “trade artifacts,” or objects 
used by a specific tribe which could not possibly have been made by 
this group (or the material of which could not have come from 
the territories of this particular tribe). Thus, in one instance only 
the material may be foreign, in another both technique and material 
are foreign. In our catalog of material artifacts at least four cate- 
gories can be distinguished: (1) Native articles made by native 
techniques of native materials, (2) native articles made by native 
techniques of foreign materials, (3) foreign articles made by foreign 
techniques of foreign materials, and (4) foreign articles made by 
foreign techniques of native materials. This came into great im- 
portance, especially in the distinction of marine from fresh-water 
shells, and their working. 


AnTHROP, Pap. No. 23] THE EASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 187 


The spheres of activities of the tribal members in relation to 
environment ought to be noted as follows: (1) The widest activity 
was war, which took the males far afield out of the normal habitat; 
in the case of the Cherokees as far north as the Ohio, as far west 
as the lower Tennessee, or even Mississippi River, and as far east 
as the Atlantic coast. The exaggerated land claims of the Cherokees, 
Chickasaws, and other tribes were undoubtedly based solely on the 
exploits of war parties in traveling immense distances, and resemble 
the claims of present day nations to uninhabited tropical jungles, 
or barren polar ice fields. (2) The next widest activity was hunting, 
which seemed hardly to have acquired the constancy of location 
characteristic of the northern Algonkians and often took members 
of the tribe great distances along rivers or valleys or mountain 
ridges in search of game. (3) The next activity, that of land culti- 
vation and utilization, was not nearly as extensive as the first two 


Habitation | | 
| Cultivation | 
| Hunting | 
| War and Predatory Activity | 
| Indirect and Direct—TRADE—Direct and Indirect | 


Figure 39.—Diagram of the spheres of tribal activity. 


activities mentioned. It corresponds roughly with what we under- 
stand as the true habitat of the tribe and consisted invariably of 
river bottoms or nearby slopes. There was generally here, as well 
as in the next category of activities, a primary and a secondary 
type habitat. Examples of this form of Cherokee habitat are (a) Blue 
Ridge primary habitat, (b) Piedmont or Valley Provinces as secondary 
habitat. (4) The last of the spheres was the actual habitation area 
or sites of settlement. These latter are, of course, our primary 
concern as the nuclei of tribal life, which can still be discovered and 
described by archeological techniques. The trade relations of a tribe 
are difficult to fit into any of the foregoing categories. They might 
be said to constitute an elemental form wider than any other of 
the foregoing spheres. Trade relations are, however, of different 
sorts, direct trade or indirect trade (trade through intermediaries). 
The indirect trade extends spheres of trade interaction to virtually 
continental dimensions. 

In the Southeast considerable attention has been directed to the 
Eastern Siouans, Choctaw, and Chitimacha as primarily trading 
groups who acted as intermediaries between tribes living in quite 


188 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Butn, 133 


different environments in the exchange of products. Undoubtedly 
the development of peaceful trade largely accounts for the building 
up of the entire material culture of the Southeast. Elements became 
known first through intermediaries, then directly, and finally are pro- 
duced by the tribe itself. Thus a regular series of stages in growth 
is observed. Trade is probable whenever there are possibilities of 
contact with foreign groups. War enters in as a factor to counter- 
act trade activities and to differentiate major social groups. The 
line of warlike relationships is generally the dividing line between 
major political groups, or confederacies. Thus we find Cherokee 
vs. Chickasaw, Cherokee vs. Creek, Chickasaw vs. Creek, etc. In 
some instances “civil” wars occurred within poorly organized areas 
as in the Timucuan region, the Eastern Siouan area, etc. This latter 
occurrence was rather unusual and clan blood revenge took care of 
most troubles within these social bodies. Thus we have the anti- 
thetical intertribal relations of trade and war. 

These constitute the synecology of a tribe. Within the tribes hunt- 
ing, soil cultivation, and habitation activities might be said to con- 
stitute the autecology. Hunting among the Cherokees was the prac- 
tice of specialists and we know very little about it. The habits of 
animals were carefully observed, compounded with magical practices 
derived from the myths, and so “formulas” were developed and 
monopolized by the specialists. This lore has, unfortunately, been 
lost to a large extent. We know much more about soil cultivations, 
and the divisions of labor involved therein between the sexes. In 
common with most of the Southeastern tribes, the Cherokees were 
primarily sedentary agriculturalists, not migrants, and hence we can 
pin them down to definite areas. We know the plants cultivated, the 
supplementary wild plants used in times of scarcity, and much of 
the mythology and magic connected therewith. The final group of 
activities connected with habitations, eating, sleeping, physiological 
events, and the accompanying ritual are fairly well recorded in the 
literature. 

At this point a word must be said about culture change and en- 
vironment. None of the activities heretofore mentioned make for 
a static cultural situation. As a result we have to catch our culture 
traits on the run, so to speak, and hope that observers of some con- 
temporaneousness will record a definite picture. Cherokee material 
culture was a very evanescent thing. New techniques were constantly 
in process of adoption and old ones of being discarded. The result 
is evident in such things as pottery. No one can definitely say what 
Cherokee pottery was at the time when the mounds were built in 
these areas although we might eventually find some strong indications 
by digging in historically recorded sites. The present-day techniques 


ANTHROP, Pap. No. 23] THE EASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 189 


are presumed to be of Catawba origin, although the clay is, of course, 
from the Cherokee area. The early observers, moreover, omitted 
the description of such fine points as basketry techniques or weaving 
of clothing. Hence, present-day Cherokee basketry is a mystery. 
Likewise the stone tools, both chipped and polished, were given 
absolutely no attention by ethnological writers. In hardly any 
sphere of material culture and especially in food preparation, cloth- 
ing, manufacture and use, and house construction is it possible to 
derive a great deal of suggestion or helpful data from ethnological 
writers on the Cherokees for interpretation of present-day archeologic 
finds. This appears so potently before the mind of the present writer 
that he is forced to suggest that site analysis of known historic 
Cherokee settlements is the only practicable method of linking up 
any of the present-day archeologic finds with this specific tribe. A 
list of historic culture traits of the Cherokee may be suggestive in 
attempting to interpret archeologic finds, but that is probably the 
extent of its value. The Cherokees were possessed, let it be emphasized 
once more, of an especially dynamic culture whose composition was the 
result of diverse contacts and frequent changes of old lamps for new. 

Among the items connected with environmental adaptation we 
ought to notice the extensive use of plants for medicines. Un- 
doubtedly the Great Smokies is one of the richest areas in North 
America in varieties of plants from which the Indian could make 
his beloved decoctions for specific ills. Perhaps it was the attrac- 
tion of this type which originally induced the Cherokees to settle 
in their rather inhospitable and inaccessible mountain homes. 

The Cherokee area of eastern Tennessee, in common with the other 
surrounding regions, was one furnishing a fundamentally nonvegetable 
diet of deer, turkey, bear, and fish. The deer is an animal preferring 
open glades in mixed forest-grassland areas and eats grasses, shrub 
leaves, tree leaves, aquatic plants, and acorns. Besides being eaten by 
man, it is eaten by cougar, wolf, and wildcat. The bear is an omniv- 
orous eater of grasses, fruits, berries, roots, ants, honey, small mam- 
mals and birds, fish, frogs, and carrion. It prefers thickets more than 
the deer. 

It must be emphasized that food-chain relationships between ani- 
mals and man are established habits and are fairly consistent over 
long periods of time. The dietary habit of the Cherokee tribes of this 
area, then, conjoined with known ecological areas, is a fundamental 
key to the early distribution of the Cherokee aborigines. 

A great majority of the existing archeological sites of the Cherokee 
area occur on rivers. This is especially the case in eastern Tennessee. 
Here the best places for cultivation were canebrake areas because the 
cane stalks could be easily pulled out by their roots from the ground 


190 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL 183 


and the latter thus cleared for crops. Maize, being likewise a grass 
plant, probably flourished in this environment. There are no native 
grass lands in eastern Tennessee excepting for the high mountain 
balds. On the whole, the forest areas were not suitable for cultivation 
since the trees obscured the sunlight necessary for crop growth and 
took up the better part of the space available. The clearing of such 
land was a task of considerable magnitude with stone implements. 

The location of settlements in the lower valleys made them suscepti- 
ble to flooding by the rivers and this insecurity frequently lead to 
hasty vacating of the town. In one site in Hamilton County, Tenn., 
T. M. N. Lewis found a layer of river silt between two distinct strata 
of cultural remains. Characteristic also of the low-lying areas was 
the hunting of small animals whereas the larger game animals were 
hunted in the mountain areas back from the river generally. This 
came to be especially true at a later date when game was becoming 
scarcer through the use of guns and white man’s techniques. The 
modes of stalking and hunting game have not been reported in much 
detail for the Cherokee area. Animals may have been secured when 
they repaired to springs or other such drinking places and at salt 
licks. 

The types of available materials and their uses reflect physiographic 
environments. The river bank emphasis is shown, for example, in the 
many uses of shells for decoration and utensils, the extensive use of cane 
for basketry and for blowguns, the use of cane for thatching dwellings 
or even for walls, the use of cane in fire making, the ritualistic impor- 
tance of the river, the great emphasis on fish food, and, finally, the divi- 
sions of groups of settlements into localities by particular river 
habitats. On the other hand the occasional use of small trees for 
houses, especially large ceremonial structures, the dugout canoes, and 
the extensive use of bark fiber for clothing and basketry point to the 
supplementary use of the forested areas of the high slopes back from 
the rivers. Chipped and polished stone tools are also secured in quar- 
ries which are generally at a distance from the streams. Again, as has 
already been indicated, the character of the animals used reflects 
physiographic areas insofar as these animals have known habitat 
preferences. 

It has been noted that major tribal groups are frequently located on 
small affluents of larger streams rather than on the major river courses. 
Thus, the early Choctaw sites were mainly on small affluents of the 
Tombigbee River, the early Chickasaw on small branches of the Tom- 
bigbee, Big Black, and Yazoo Rivers; in the case of the Cherokee, on 
the smaller branches of the Tennessee River and the Savannah River. 
In this connection, of course, it is very likely that the military value 
of back positions away from main traveled routes was of protective 
significance, 


ANTHROP, Pap. No, 23] THE EASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 19] 


Locations again frequently occur at transition points between two 
distinct types of physiographic developments. For example, the Creeks 
were located on the fall line between the Coastal Plain and the Pied- 
mont, as were also the Eastern Siouans. The Cherokees appear to 
have located on the border lines of the Piedmont and the Blue Ridge 
Provinces in part and on the border between the Appalachian Great 
Valley and the Blue Ridge for the remainder. An even more obvious 
case is furnished by the tribes on the coast proper, such as the Chiti- 
macha of Louisiana, who traded on the advantage of having both land 
and sea products to use. In a sense the Cherokees were a peripheral 
group insofar as they were in the-Blue Ridge Province the sole in- 
habitants apparently, whereas in the Piedmont and Great Valley 
Provinces they were in competition with other tribal groups. The 
more favored areas from the cultural standpoint in early days were 
the regions such as the Piedmont-Coastal Plain transition wherein 
trading peoples developed. 

A few words should be said regarding the mountain balds. These 
clear grassy spaces on the ridges of high mountains were not used 
by the Cherokees, but were superstitiously avoided. As before men- 
tioned, ritualistic use of rivers prevented settlement very far away 
from the valleys even though the balds did furnish springs. The 
openness of the balds together with the presence of springs seem to 
have attracted a considerable number of game animals, especially 
deer. Apparently at some early date the balds were resorted to by 
Indian groups since projectile points have been found in them. It 
is possible that the balds may have been used to drive game into the 
open yet it seems unlikely that they were created by the burning off 
of original forested areas for this purpose. Nor were they likely to 
have been burnt off by early man for settlement purposes. Their 
inaccessibility and exposed location are disadvantages for any type 
of permanent settlement. Most likely the mode of their creation was 
by natural soil factors. 

Several lines of evidence go to prove that, in the main, the primary 
adaptation of the Cherokee was to a fairly high altitude. There is, 
first, the evidence furnished by the Cherokees themselves and, sec- 
ond, the evidence furnished by their cultural and linguistic relatives, 
the Iroquois and Caddo. 

In the first place, there is the fact of the existing location of the 
Cherokees of the east in the high mountain areas of the Blue Ridge 
Province. Their expressed preference for this habitat is quite marked 
even at the present time. The mere threat that the United States 
was planning to remove the final remnant from their beloved moun- 
tain homes several times in the nineteenth century almost created a 
panic. Divinations, magical prayers, and other devices were resorted 


192 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BuLL, 133 


to by the conjurers to prevent this anticipated calamity. Various 
ideas still circulate that the lowlands of Oklahoma are unhealthy and 
cause Cherokees to sicken and decay. 

When the first of the emigrant Cherokees removed from their 
original Appalachian home in the late eighteenth century to the west- 
ward, their first sites of settlement were in the Ozarks, on the slopes 
of the Boston and Ouachita Mountain ridges of Arkansas. These 
areas furnished an environment most like the original habitat in the 
east. Later the Cherokees were forced by pressure from the whites 
into the northeastern hilly sections of Oklahoma. Those Cherokees 
who went to Mexico found, after a temporary sojourn in the Rio 
Grande Valley, a permanent home in the highlands of Jalisco near 
Guadalajara and Lake Chapala. 

The original four groups of settlements of the Cherokees were all, 
except one group, in the highland area of the Appalachians. The 
single exception consisted of the Lower Settlement group of South 
Carolina, which seems to have been located exclusively in the Pied- 
mont. This group of settlements disappeared so early before the 
advancing tide of European settlers that we have scant knowledge as 
to its character. There is some evidence that this region was in- 
habited by Siouans or Yuchi at the time of the earliest explorers and 
was later conquered by Cherokees from the north. 

Finally, there is the evidence furnished by kindred cultural groups. 
The original sites of Iroquois settlements appear to have been ex- 
clusively confined to the high plateau areas of southern New York 
and northern Pennsylvania and it is only within the historic period 
itself that we find them settling in the lake valleys with which the 
tribal names have come to be indelibly associated. The stockading 
of bluff sites continues in the new habitat of the lowland areas, be- 
side the lakes and rivers of central New York. Apparently both the 
Iroquois and the Cherokee are found sharing a preference for high- 
land life when we first glimpse them. The Caddoan Tribes, likewise, 
although more plainslike than forestlike, in many respects show an 
original preference for the highlands of the Ozarks when we first 
hear of them. Later they find secondary adaptation, like the Iroquois, 
to lowland areas. 

The Cherokee environment was a highly variegated one owing to the 
close juxtaposition on steep mountain slopes of diverse altitudinal 
assemblages of plants and animals. This variegation was probably a 
stimulant to local trade and cultural interrelations. Although com- 
munication in this rough topography was difficult, nevertheless we 
find a vigorous and a dominant people whose influence on the whole 
of the Southeastern Woodlands area was quite marked. 


ANTHROP, Par, NO,23] THE EASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 193 


THE SOMATIC BASIS 


HISTORY OF OUR KNOWLEDGE OF CHEROKEE SOMATOLOGY 


Scattering observations on the physical type of the Cherokees occur 
in a number of authors of the last two centuries. The first attempt at 
an accurate study was that of Frederick Starr in 1892 for the Chicago 
World’s Fair of that year. Evidently no use was ever made of this 
study or the results ever published. In 1928 A. R. Kelly, of the Uni- 
versity of L[llinois, made a prolonged survey of physical traits, both 
descriptive and metric, among the Eastern Cherokees. 

The Cherokees early showed a great susceptibility to ‘smallpox 
and treated it so inexpertly that the tribe was at one time reduced by 
50 percent through that disease. 

The cephalic index in the southeastern area of aboriginal American 
Indian populations ranges from 75 to 84 and skulls average from 170 to 
175 cm. in height. According to Brinton, Cherokee skulls are dolicho- 
cephalic. According to Hrdlitka, Cherokee skulls are brachycephalic. 
Whether there was ever any artificial cranial deformation of the skull 
among the Cherokees is not definitely settled. The Western Cherokees 
were once called “flatheads.” The custom could have been sporadic 
among the Cherokees in the earlier times from contacts with the 
Eastern Siouans. 

The stature of both males and females was always recorded as from 
middle to tall. The body build is universally described as thin, deli- 
cate, and slender in both men and women. The extremities are rather 
small. 

The complexion is described as rather light for Indians of the South 
by most observers. Starr describes two types—one with a light yel- 
low-brown complexion and the other dark as burnt coffee, possessing a 
fat round little nose and hairy forehead. The forehead of these per- 
sons is narrow, low, and covered with fine, soft, short black hair, this 
characteristic disappearing after the age of 20. Other observers de- 
scribe the skin as copper colored, or deep chestnut colored and obscured 
by red paint or other colored pigments. 

The long black coarse hair sometimes appears brownish red and 
is almost soft in children. The hair has been variously treated in the 
course of the centuries. In the earlier times it was shaved save for a 
patch on the back of the head in the young and plucked out by the roots 
in the old. The long scalplock alone remained hanging from the apex 
of the head. Later the hair was allowed to grow and be confined by a 
fillet or a turban. Feathers were always favorite decorations for the 
hair. Women wore the hair of the head long but plucked it elsewhere. 

According to Butrick, the ancient Cherokees wore beards but these 
were discarded with the coming of the white man in order to distin- 


194 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BuLL. 133 


guish themselves from him. Other authorities concur in the statement 
that facial hair on the Cherokee visage was always scant and generally 
plucked. 

Ears were slit and stretched to an enormous size in the old days. 
Silver pendants and rings hung from these ear slits. 

Most authorities concur in the opinion that both physically and tem- 
peramentally the older Cherokees made a most favorable impression. 
’ They delighted in athletics and excelled in endurance of intense cold. 
Well featured and of erect carriage, of moderately robust build, they 
were possessed of a superior and independent bearing. Although 
grave and steady in manner and disposition to the point of melan- 
choly and slow and reserved in speech they were withal frank, cheer- 
ful, and humane, as well as honest and liberal. 


BLOOD ADMIXTURE 


Mixing of blood between Cherokees and whites has been prolonged 
and extensive. Among the earlier blood infusions were those from 
Scotch traders, Scotch-Irish soldiers, and English or German farmers 
of the poor white class who came in Jand-hungry hordes. The Scotch 
contribution was notable and from it developed several important 
leaders. Negro admixture was negligible in the early days. Leaving 
out of this consideration the Western Cherokees, who are much more 
thoroughly mixed in blood than those in the east, we find several 
additions to the mixture already mentioned. 

First, the Catawbas who were always close neighbors and who for 
a time in the nineteenth century dwelt with the Cherokee, introduced 
considerable blood of a highly mixed character, Indian-Negro-White. 
Land-hungry whites from all of the surrounding area are ever in- 
creasing intruders into Eastern Cherokee families and have given 
rise to a large class of “White Indians” (possessing a sixteenth or 
more blood of Cherokee origin). Again, some of the Cherokee stu- 
dents away at Indian Government Schools in Pennsylvania, Kansas, 
Virginia, and Oklahoma have brought back wives of other tribes 
(Seneca, Pueblo, Chippewa, etc.). Even Creek and Shawnee blood 
is still traceable in some families of the Eastern Cherokee. 

A new method of possibly determing extent of admixture of bloods 
was tried about 1926 in the case of a sample of 250 Cherokees of North 
Carolina and reported on by L. H. Snyder. The percentages of the 
four recognized blood types were (in the Cherokees) : 


1 2 3 4 
74.4 percent 16.0 percent 7.2 percent 2.4 percent 


The relative percentages of the four recognized blood types in 
the average white American is— 


1 2 3 4 
45,00 percent 42.00 percent 10.00 percent 3,00 percent 


AnTHRoP, Par. No. 23] THE EASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 195 


Of the sampling of 250 Cherokees, 110 were pure-blooded (by testi- 
mony) and 140 were definitely known to be mixed. In the pure- 
blooded group the percentage of group 1 was 93.6 while the mixed 
group percentage of group 1 was 59.3 or much nearer the white ratio. 
This appears to substantiate a claim already made that the American 
Indian is predominantly of group 1 (Pacific-American) blood type 
and that the occurrence of other types is due to mixture of bloods. 

The influence of personal differences in Cherokee culture seems 
to have been extensive, and the amount of individual freedom allowed 
among the Cherokees accounts not only for their singular lack of 
strong internal cohesion but also for the strong influence wielded by 
single leaders such as John Ross and others. The individual was in 
some lights more important than the group. 

Population movements of various types have been noticed. Passing 
over the alleged early movement from the headwaters of the Ohio to 
their present homes, we perceive first the increasing southwesterly 
movement under pressure of the Anglo-Americans at the time of the 
Revolution. At the time of the Removal in 1830, Cherokee popula- 
tion centered in northern Georgia. The grand exodus of 1888 through 
Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, and Missouri to Oklahoma removed 
all except a scant hundred individuals who hid in the mountains. 
From these Indians who remained have sprung the present-day Eastern 
Cherokee. 

The Cherokee physical type was variously modified through a re- 
action expressed in a number of ways, the chief being through labrets, 
earrings, scratching (scarification), bleeding of veins, coiffure ar- 
rangements, various body paintings, ornaments, and the like. 


PRESENT-DAY PHYSICAL TYPE 


Passing to the subject of general present-day somatology, we find 
that one of the best places to observe the general Cherokee type is at 
the dance. The average height is rather under that of the white 
man in the neighborhood, appearing to be about 5 feet 4 inches. The 
women are shorter than the men. The taller men range to 5 feet 
10 inches. The build of the men, although in a few cases strikingly 
muscular and athletic, is in the main asthenic and wiry. The build 
of the women is variable. The younger girls are thin as a rule. 
The married and older women are well-rounded and rather heavy- 
set, especially around the waistline. Some of the very young girls 
are very chubby cheeked and almost obese. The face of the females 
is rather rounded with prominent cheek bones. Prognathism is some- 
times apparent. The men seem to be lighter boned in the face and 
more approaching the white type of feature. 

The long black hair of the women is in many cases rather attractive. 
The skin color is a variable brown tending toward lighter shading. 


196 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BuLn. 133 


Mostly the hair is straight and black and moustaches or beards are 
rare. The complexion of the unexposed parts of the body is very light 
according to the testimony of informants. The Mongolian fold ap- 
pears in the eyes of the females occasionally. . 

The beaklike formation of the face characteristic of Maya sculpture 
sometimes crops out. Ears are generally small, lips rather full but 
vary to thin. Brownish hair appears occasionally in children and is 
attributed to burning by the sun. Lighter eye coloring than is usual 
with dark races appears now and then. 

The Cherokees have a peculiar walking gait consisting of short steps 
with the foot pointed straight forward and the back humped a little. 
A man can average 30 miles a day in walking although the Cherokees 
are not especially great travelers. Swimming is a favorite activity in 
summer. If cramps develop, a taboo is laid on rabbit meat with a fast 
of several days and scratchings. The swimming is mostly of the dog 
paddle variety although diving and water somersaults are indulged 
in. Formerly the Cherokees rode horses a good deal. 

Sleeping postures vary immensely from the curled-up position of . 
the child or the prone position of the adult to the chair-sleeping posture 
of the old men. 

Childbirth is treated in some detail by other authorities. The 
woman is generally aided by midwives who hold the arms of the par- 
turient upright while she keeps a standing or sitting position. The 
general practice is for the woman to go to the water with the conjurer 
when she has been pregnant for 5 months to see if the baby will be born 
sound or not. She then takes a physic every new moon from then on. 
Just before the birth, the woman is rubbed on the stomach to help her 
out. If the child is sidewise in the uterus, they will raise the woman up 
while the conjurer examines to see about the position. The beads are 
used to examine for the future of the expected child. Decoctions are 
sometimes drunk to aid difficult childbirths while the beads are re- 
examined to see what the probable outcome will then be. 

The Cherokee physique is subject to a variety of diseases and disease 
symptoms. From study of the magical formulas almost any kind of 
disease can be deduced. The following is a list of symptoms treated in 
the prayers: 

1. Urinary disorders. 

2. Digestive disorders (stomach troubles, bloody flux, piles, ete.). 

3. Skin disorders (cancers, scrofula, pellagra, pimples, warts, boils). 

4. Birth and menstrual disorders (suppression, excessive flow, retention of after- 
birth, breast sickness). 

5. Circulatory disorders (anemia from hookworm, weak heart, leg swelling). 

6. Respiratory disorders (tuberculosis, inflamed palate, pains in the chest, ete.). 

7 

8 


. Minor disorders such as toothache, earache, ete. 
. Nervous troubles such as insane terrors, paralysis. 


AnTHROP, Pap. No. 23] THE HASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 197 


9. Accidents such as lacerations, broken bones, gunshot wounds, snake bites, 
sunstroke, worms in bowels, etc. 

According to one informant, the Cherokees suffer considerably from 
kidney trouble because they are in the custom of leaching lye from 
ashes to use with their bread to raise it. Also goitre was attributed 
to the excessive loads carried up hills by the women with the cloth 
straining on their neck muscles. 

Tuberculosis is rather a common disease, along with another mal- 
nutrition disorder, pellagra. Gonorrhea is known, but a sure cure 
is claimed for it. It does not appear to be widespread. Syphilis is 
almost unknown. The very symptoms of this king of all diseases are 
apparently unrecognizable. 

In summarizing these somatic asides, we might notice that the 
Cherokee physique is of the type called asthenic by Kretschmer, im- 
plying that a schizothymic diathesis might be expected. Be that as 
it may, the most noticeable insanities on the reservation have been 
manic-depressive, implying thereby a cyclothymic predisposition. 
There are no especially noticeable dysplasias, but a tendency toward 
hyperthyroidism might be suspected. An introverted or melancholic 
disposition is characteristic. The large abdomens seem to point to 
an emphasis on the digestive activities in the average Cherokee. 


CENSUSES OF NUMBERS AND PEDIGREES 


(For the following lists, see the files of the Indian Office at Wash- 
ington, D. C.:) 


1835. Treaty Roll. 

1848. J. C. Mullay Roll. Names of North Carolina Cherokees of 1886 who did not 
go west. There were also some in Georgia, Tennessee, and Alabama, 
totaling 2,133. 

1850. D. W. Siler. Names of all in North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, and 
Alabama. 

1862. Terrell Roll listed soldiers of Cherokee extraction in Civil War. 

1868. S. H. Swetland. 

1882. J. G. Hester. Listed some 2,956. Most of these were in North Carolina, 
although some were in Georgia, Tennessee, and Alabama. 

1890. Jas. Blythe and H. W. Spray listed some 1,520 and 256 blockhouses. 


(At the Cherokee, North Carolina, Indian Office the following rec- 
ords are to be found:) 
1900. H. W. Spray and Jas. Blythe list for North Carolina and Tennessee of 1,376. 
1910. Churchill Census. “This is the most authentic,” says Mr. Walters, chief clerk 

of the reservation. 

1920. Henderson Census. 
1930. L. W. Page and S. D. A. 

Yearly enumerations are made on the basis of annually registered 
births and deaths at the present time. One, Baker, in the 1926 enu- 
meration, used the records at Washington in making up his list. 


198 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BuLL. 183 


The age groups in the 1930 census were as follows: .- 


Age No. Age No. 
(<a a fac a oe ae ee eee 9340-40 cal rs Eee ety CE eee eee 104 
5 LES SMW RE eee eee ee eee 19 }}50=69i2s35_ steak Hee ee 104 
AOR et not ge: ela ee EEE Sd 79 1\60=69 2 12 8 ee ee 55 
a0 |! SAR SNe Ee oes ae ee area S See 163) O10 eo eee ee 30 
SAAD VEL Me ea RP ERE el i og 2 tae ="146) 80-802 2 obese ee 11 
B03 see SN ss ee eae 110 


This great predominance of the younger elements in this population 
is significant of the mental attitude of the Cherokees, a youthful out- 
look on life, which we might not at first sight expect from such a con- 
servative community. 

These census records are hardly more than of supplemental value to 
the pedigrees collected from the natives themselves. The premarital 
names of wives are not mentioned and, of course, clanship affiliations 
go totally unnoticed in the official census records. On the other hand, 
the degree of social mobility indicated by the places of residence is 
given as well as the state, living or dead, of the persons enumerated at 
the time of listing. Also ages are rendered in the official censuses. 
The native names, which are so often valuable material, are generally 
faultily rendered in the censuses. 

The writer’s lists of Cherokee pedigrees, which were obtained from 

Will W. Long, Charley Lambert, John Lasi, Jim Taylor, Saunook 
Littlejohn, and others, are the first to be collected in this region. In 
the lists the writer endeavored to list, where possible, both the native 
and English name, condition (living or dead), clan affiliations, place 
of residence, and, of course, consanguinities and affinities so far as 
they were remembered. The limit of informants’ knowledge was gen- 
erally reached at the third or fourth ascending generation above his 
own and the generations descending were rather hazy (hence best 
supplemented from the official census records). Most of the pedigrees 
were obtained through the wonderful cooperation of Will W. Long 
by means of his ability to extract information from his relatives and 
neighbors where his own extensive stock of knowledge failed. Re- 
markable as it might seem, he was almost invariably able to give clan 
affiliations even where he forgot: names and consanguinities. Only in 
a few cases wherein persons had moved in from some remote section 
was the clan unremembered. 


CULTURAL BACKGROUNDS 
SOUTHEASTERN TRAITS 


In the main, the elements of the aboriginal material culture of the 
Cherokee were typically Southeastern. The chief cultivated plants 
were maize, beans, and tobacco. Other typical culture elements were 


ANTHROP, Pap. No, 23] THE HASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 199 


the skin breechclout and shirt, the feather cloak, the female short skirt 
of deerskin, the square house with gables and constructed of poles, 
the dugout canoe, and the blowgun. 

Owing to the poverty of resources in the mountain environment, the 
Cherokees were lacking elements in which the rest of the Southeast 
shared. In several important respects, moreover, the Cherokees dif- 
fered entirely from the rest of the Southeast, particularly in their use 
of triangular unnotched arrowpoints, round-bottom pottery, the 
grooveless celt, and some other points exclusively Iroquoian. 

In the matter of ceremonies and beliefs the Cherokees differed but 
little from the rest of the Southeast. Typical elements shared by 
them with the other Southeastern tribes were the green corn feast, 
the sacred ark, the new fire rite, religious regard for the sun, use of 
divining crystals, scarification, priesthood, animal spirit theory of 
disease, and certain medical practices. A few of the myths of the 
Cherokees are reminiscent of the Iroquois, but the majority seem to 
be of Southeastern types. 

From what we know of the superficial features of Cherokee social 
organization, such elements as matrilineal clans, matrilocal residence, 
a double division of government into white and red organizations, an 
emphasis on rank and military titles, intertown rivalry in ball games, 
and many features of the sexual division of labor were shared with 
the other Southeastern tribes. 

Linguistically, the Cherokee shared a com:non inheritance with the 
Iroquois of the North, and showed remote, if any, affinity with the 
Muskogean family of the Southeast. In keeping with the topograph- 
ically dissected nature of the country of the Cherokees, several dia- 
lectic variations occurred: (1) The Elati, now extinct, was once spoken 
in the Lower Settlements; (2) the Kituhwa was spoken in the Middle 
Settlements; and (3) the Atali was spoken in the Valley and Overhill 
Settlements. The Graham County Cherokees still use the Atali, and 
the Qualla Boundary Cherokees the Kituhwa dialect. 


CULTURAL APPROACH 


The primary purpose of this study, as was pointed out at the begin- 
ning, is to deal with two related problems: (1) The delineation of the 
principles involved in the present social organization of the Eastern 
Cherokees, and (2) the portrayal of the historical changes in this 
social system so far as these changes can be gleaned from past records 
of Cherokee culture. It must be realized from the outset that we are 
dealing with a partially deculturalized group in studying the present- 
day Cherokees, and that the admixture of white and native elements 
has gone so far in some instances as to render impossible any attempt 
to separate the two. The purpose of the first half of this study, there- 

405260—483——14 nau 


200 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL 133 


fore, is simply to describe, and, if possible, interpret the existing 
social organization and social integration of the Cherokees, laying 
emphasis on those elements which seem most important, regardless of 
their white or Indian origin. The purpose of the second half will be 
to attempt to trace back those elements which have had a recorded 
role in Cherokee history and separate them from the recent intrusive 
elements of white origin. 

The form of procedure in the first part will be to outline the kinship 
system and kinship behavior, the clan organization, and the various 
political and economic groupings. The discussion in the second part 
will interpret the data presented in the first part in terms of the struc- 
tural viewpoint developed by A. R. Radcliffe-Brown and his group of 
investigators. 

This represents, so far as is known to the writer, the first attempt to 
apply to data from the Southeast the principles of structural sociology. 
The literature on the Southeast is lacking in those data on which the 
structuralist lays most stress, namely, kinship usages and detailed ma- 
terial on social integration. This places a double duty on the pioneer 
in this area of both making sure of his ground in his statements con- 
cerning his particular subarea (in this case the Cherokee) and of 
cautiously avoiding erroneous interpretation of the data of other 
writers on this and culturally related tribes. 

This synchronic study of the first two parts will be followed in the 
third part by a consideration of certain important early materials 
which would possibly lead to a historically helpful explanation of the 
existing features of Cherokee social organization and furnish the basis 
for a comparative study of change in methods of social integration. 
One of the results to be expected from this study is a test of the value 
of historical data as an adjunct to functional studies in general. If it 
should be shown that historical material is necessary in explaining the 
findings of present-day culture, then one of the basic premises of the 
Radcliffe-Brown school, namely, that historical reconstructions are un- 
necessary, will be opposed by an apparently negative case. If, on the 
other hand, the culture type of the Cherokees can be shown to have 
been unstable and shifting, then the historical data will prove itself to 
be of little value or importance for functionalism. 

Finally, a fourth part will be devoted to a discussion of Cherokee 
culture considered in its diachronic aspects, in order to discern, if pos- 
sible, the fundamental principles of the cultural changes undergone by 
this people. The changes in mode of integration and the significance 
of these changes will be pointed out and a definite answer will be sought 
for the question of the stability of the culture pattern or type. 


AnTHROP, Par, No.23] THE EASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 201 


PRESENT-DAY QUALLA 


Before proceeding to a discussion of social units it might be helpful 
to consider the general background in which the Cherokee Society 
exists. The five towns of the Qualla Boundary today are Birdtown, 
Yellow Hill, Painttown, Wolftown, and Big Cove. Birdtown, Yellow 
Hill, and Big Cove are located in the valley of the Oconaluftee River 
proper while Wolftown and Painttown are located on the Soco Creek 
tributary of the Oconaluftee. Each town consists of a number of log 
cabins strung out at intervals of from a quarter to a half mile apart. 
There are two recognized neighborhoods in Big Cove, upper Big Cove, 
or “Raven,” and lower Big Cove, or “Calico.” Each of these neigh- 
borhoods is distinguished by certain social groupings limited to each. 

The total native population of the Eastern Cherokee Reservation 
numbers scarcely 1,900 persons, and of these about 1,000 are still native 
enough to have clan affiliations. In Big Cove there are perhaps 300 
persons grouped in 50 families. Of these scarcely half a dozen are 
white families. The town of Big Cove is the least permeated by white 
influences of the several towns. 

The existing material culture of these towns is not distinguishable 
from that of the neighboring mountain whites. Each family possesses 
a tract of hillside or woodland of about 30 or 40 acres. Of this area 
perhaps some 6 acres may be cultivated and planted with corn, beans, 
or potatoes. The amount of stock owned is scant and consists of a 
horse, cow, a few hogs, and chickens.? 

Such of the old culture as remains consists principally of non- 
material elements. The speech of the home is still native although 
most, if not all, of the Cherokees speak or understand English. The 
kinship system and the various local political and other social organ- 
izations betray much of the aboriginal nonwhite inheritance. Locally 
there occur sporadic survivals of the old time dances, medicinal 
prayers, and other lore. 

SOCIAL UNITS 


THE TOWN 


The Eastern Cherokees are organized politically in six towns ?® 
which have locally elected officials and which are united in a repub- 
lican form of government known as The Eastern Band of Cherokees. 
Members of a: Band Council are elected annually and a chief and 
vice-chief are also elected. These officials, as well as the United 
States Superintendent of the district, regulate affairs among the 
Indians and determine policies. The Eastern Band is incorporated 

2 Data on these subjects is contained in a thorough census of economic conditions in the 
reservation made by Roy Adams, the local school principal, in the summer of 1932, and 


kindly made available to the present writer by R. L. Spalsbury, Superintendent of the 


Reservation. 
3 The sixth town comprises the Graham County Settlements. The other five towns are 


of the Qualla Boundary. 


202 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BuLn. 133 


under the laws of the State of North Carolina and hence a most 
confusing conflict of State, National, and Cherokee jurisdictions is 
to be found. Generally speaking, the State regulates taxation and 
administers common law in the area, the National Government regu- 
Jates education and local welfare work, and the Cherokee Band 
regulates its own land policies. 

Each of the six towns comprising the Eastern Band is composed 
of one or more local neighborhoods whose interests are expressed 
in several local organizations. These latter consist mainly of co- 
operative bodies such as the gadugi, and the funeral or poor aid 
societies. The unity of the town itself is recognized not only in 
its political organization with head councilman or councilmen but 
also in the organization of a town ball team and, in some cases, a 
town dance team. The importance of the ball team in emphasizing 
the unity of the town will be later elaborated. Suffice it to say 
here that the town organization has important ritualistic and kin- 


ship connections. 
THE HOUSEHOLD 


A smaller social unit, yet one of the utmost importance as the 
fundamental unit of Cherokee society, is the household, in which 
dwells the domestic family. The individual land tenure is not held 
in fee simple but rather as a grant to the individual householder 
on the condition of his occupation and cultivation of the area. Yet 
these tenures can be bought, sold, traded, or inherited just as if they 
were actually private property. The conditions under which land 
reverts to the band are not clear but generally pertain to circum- | 
stances in which the holder of the tenure has become a person who 
is not an actual bona fide member of the band. Usually, in order to 
be judged a member of the band, the possession of at least one- 
sixteenth Indian blood must be proved to the satisfaction of the band 
council. 

The Cherokee household is generally made up of the simple do- 
mestic family with occasionally a few other relatives. Extended 
domestic families consisting of father, mother, children, mother’s 
connections, and daughter’s connections occur occasionally. Resi- 
dence has many matrilocal features although the prevailing trend 
is toward the patrilocal type. In some cases two or more families 
quite unrelated may dwell together in perfect amity under the same 
roof. 

The ordinary head of the household is the father. The authority 
and prestige of the father is shown in various ways. Family names 
are English and can be traced back at least three generations in a 
patrilineal line. Given names for children are selected by the father 
or the father’s connections. The father must be obeyed by the child 
and must be defended and upheld on all occasions. The father is 


AnTHROP, Par. No. 23] THE EASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 203 


the economic head of the family and is generally the wage earner 
bringing in a monetary income from handicraft arts or from labor 
with the gadugi in white employment. 

The father was not always in a position of high authority in ap 
Cherokee family. It is historically recorded that the father at one 
time came to live at the house of his wife and was there quite 
restricted in his activities and authority over the children. The 
mother’s line was the most important means of tracing descent and 
the mother’s brother was the person of authority in the family 
whose commands must be obeyed on all occasions. It is to be in- 
ferred, consequently, that the patripodestal family of today is a 
form borrowed from the white people. 

The household is the land-owning unit. The title to the land 
resides in the male head of the family generally. In Big Cove 
some 35 native households were listed and from the accompanying 
table of household members some idea can be obtained of the degree 
of solidarity residing in the female connections within the individual 
household. 


BIG COVE HOUSEHOLDS AND THEIR MEMBERS 
Number 


of cases 
1. Simple complete families—husband, wife, with or without children__ 16 
2. Simple complete families with wife’s or daughter’s relatives____--____ 4 
3. Simple complete families with husband’s or son’s relatives______________ al 
LEMS UTP 71 © TVA eA ee te as ee ne a en a nee ee eee 2 
Desimele women seal ro) Nees Loh Si ee Sk Se Se 2 eee 0 
6. Widow: 
a. With her own or her daughter’s relatives__________________--__- 2 
AR Vali chat OT CLUE Gey eee A a a eg Oe i 3 
CM We NOS Sh = RSS AS ST ROSE eA RN SAE eS ee te 2 
7. Widower: 
as Withee hiss relatives? OF his SON) S22 sa 42 Ske el Ee ae ee 2 
iy Noy Veen ee CEE YE Oa ee NE nee ie SAL We rae eM tee pee Cree aL (8 3 


THE CLAN 


The next unit of importance in Cherokee society is the clan. The 
many and often widely diverging definitions of the clan, as a seg- 
mentary division of society, a totemic lineage, and a kinsnip group- 
ing, need not obscure the fundamental reality of its existence. 
Among the Cherokees matrilineal exogamous groups bearing totemic 
designations and having apparently some correlation with ritual, 
marriage, and other phases of culture function as social factors and 
are called “clans.” 

There are, and have always been, to the present memory of the 
natives, seven clans among the Cherokee. Their names are: Ani- 
wahiya (Wolf), Anikawi (Deer), Anidjiskwa (Bird), Aniwodi 
(Red Paint), Anisahoni (Blue?), Anigotigewi (Wild Potatoes?), 
and Anigilohi (Twisters?)- 


204 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BuLn. 133 


The names of these clans call up totemic associations and are 
derived by the natives from various resemblances and occupations. 
The Wolf Clan used to hunt in the old days much like wolves. 
They were fond of wolves and used to raise them in captivity, train- 
ing the pups just as dogs are trained. The Wolf clan used to be 
called Anidzogohi when the bears were said to have belonged to 
this clan and to the Cherokee tribe. It was, and still is, regarded 
as bad luck for a Cherokee to kill a Wolf.* Wolftown is named 
after this clan. 

The Deer Clan used to be like the deer for swiftness. They also 
used to keep deer in captivity. They were skilled especially in 
being able to hunt and kill deer.» Part of Painttown was formerly 
called Deer-place (Kawiyi). 

The Bird Clan people were always fond of birds and often kept 
captive crows and chicken hawks. They were noted for their suc- 
cessful use of snares and blowguns in bear hunting. Birdtown is 
named after this clan. 

The Red Paint, or Hematite clan people were formerly noted for 
their ability and magic with the red iron oxide paint employed for 
love attraction and for protection. They were great conjurers in 
these matters. Painttown is named after them. 

The Anisahoni Clan are named after a bluish plant that they used 
to gather from the swamps for food and medicine. This plant is 
called sakoni or sahoni and is a kind of narrow-leaved grass having 
a berry like a young cucumber. Only the roots were used. It was 
customary to bathe the children every new moon in a decoction of 
this plant to protect them from all diseases. 

The Anigotigewi Clan always used to gather wild potatoes. Wild 
potatoes are like sweet potatoes except that they are round. They 
grow in swampy places along the rivers. This clan was especially 
fond of the wild potato, and many Indian people still eat them. 

The Anigilohi clan are supposed to have derived their name in 
two ways. One way would be through the word gagiloha, “one who 
twists,” changed to ugilaha, “one born twisted,” and Anigilohi, “those 
who are born twisted,” referring to the fact that they used to be a 
very proud people who strutted when they walked and twisted their 
shoulders in a very haughty manner. According to another version, 
the name is derived from ugilohi, “long hair,” referring to the love of 
adornment and display of their elaborate coiffures which was once 
characteristic of this people. r 

*Mooney (1900, pp. 261-311, section on Wolf) mentions the professional “wolf killer” 
who used magic. 


SJ. H. Logan (1859, p. 26) mentions the professional “deer killer” who, like the wolf 
killer, used magic to avoid evil consequences. 


205 


GILBERT 


THE EASTERN CHEROKEES 


ANTHROP, PaP. No, 23] 


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206 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BuLL. 133 


There are some six or seven previous lists of Cherokee clans from 
as many authors and altogether there is a fair amount of correla- 
tion in names as may be seen from table 1 (p. 205). 

A list was compiled of 321 families among the Eastern Cherokees 
(table 2), and clan affiliations of the family heads were noted for some 
475 individuals (table 3). Of these families 28 (about 8 percent) were 
absolutely clanless; in 71 families (22 percent) showed only one of the 
two heads of the family to possess clan affiliations, and in 31 families 
(9 percent) father and mother both appeared to be of the same clan. 
So far as absolute numbers go, the Wolf Clan was far in the lead 
with 142 members (30 percent) followed tardily by the Bird with 94 
members (20 percent). These two clans accounted for 50 percent 
of all the individuals listed as having clan affiliations. The Twister 
and Deer Clans tied for third place with 73 members each (15 per- 
cent each) and far below them came Red Paint with 34 members, 
Wild Potato with 32, and Blue with 27 members. 

The Wolf clan predominates in Wolftown, the Wright’s Creek 
area of Painttown, in Yellow Hill and Birdtown, besides disputing 
first place in Big Cove with the Deer clan. The Wolf clan is, in 
fact, strongly represented everywhere except in Graham County, 
where it hardly exists. The Deer clan ranks highest in Big Cove and 
is numerous in Graham County. Elsewhere it is weakly represented. 
The Bird clan ranks highest of all clans in numbers in Graham 
County and ranks second in Wolftown, Painttown, and Yellow Hill. 
The Paint clan predominates locally in the Wright’s Creek area of 
Painttown. The Blue clan is scarce everywhere except in Big Cove, 
and the Potato clan is scarce everywhere save that it increases toward 
the western towns. The Twister clan is at its strongest in Birdtown 
and Yellow Hill. 


TABLE 2.—Survey of clan affiliations of family heads of Eastern Cherokee 
households 


A B Cc D 
Town Only one |Bothheads} Normal Total 

yg anes of two of same clanned | bouseholds 

‘ with clan clan households 
Big-Coyestse * eos nh 0 cal See 10 6 1 38 55 
VOLO WP EID see 2 Seer) SUD Sete eee 11 22 4 31 68 
Wolftown and Painttown__________.-_-_-- 3 28 13 66 110 
BIKdbOWwN) stan. pea ee eee aeons 4 15 35 61 
Grabam\County eos os ee ee Se 6 21 0 27 
128 277 346 4170 321 


1 Mostly ‘‘white Indian.’”’ 
2 Mixed families. 

3 Abnormal! marriages. 

4 Typical marriages, 


Local preponderances of one or two clans is quite large. Some 57 
percent of Big Cove consists of Deer and Wolf; 60 percent of Yellow 


AnTHROP, Pap. No. 23] THE EASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 207 


Hill consists of Wolf and Bird; 50 percent of Wolftown and Paint- 
town consists of Wolf and Bird; 65 percent of Birdtown consists of 
Wolf and Twister; and 73 percent of Graham County consists of Bird 
and Deer. On the whole, the less thickly settled areas such as Gra- 
ham County and Big Cove show a greater preponderance of one or two 
clans over the others than do the more densely populated areas such as 
Painttown and Yellow Hill. 


TABLE 3.—Representative numbers of the members of the various clans among 
family heads in each town 


Town 1 Wolf | Deer Bird | Paint | Blue Potato | Twister | Total 
IBige@ Over. 2 ose ts ae eee 19 21 8 1 12 1 7 69 
Mello weHiill 2288s 3 Chee ces 3 ey os 32 7 19 4 7 4 10 83 
Wolftown and Painttown---_---- 57 22 32 22 4 16 22 175 
Birdtowmne ose 5 es eee ee 32 8 11 3 3 8 39 95 
Graham County 222s 15 24 4 1 3 4 53 
Totaletee ss so sates ea ee 142 73 94 34 27 32 73 475 


1 The figures herein cited by no means include all of the individuals possessing clan affiliations among the 
Eastern Cherokees but rather a representative sampling in each town of a total of 475 individuals, 

The significance of the relative percentages of the various clans in 
each town will be seen later in the discussion on the preferential mar- 
riage system. 

The clan is the subject of a number of magical ideas and practices. 
The clan is regarded as being identical with the mother’s blood. This 
blood gets into the food a woman prepares during her menstrual 
period, and if a man eats of this tainted food he becomes sick. Only 
a woman with clan can cause this sickness, not a white woman. For 
this sickness there is a medicine, but the application of the cure to the 
man causes the woman to become still more violently taken during 
her own sickness. 

It is the idea of the blood connection of the clan which allies with 
the blood revenge principle. According to the old Mosaic idea of 
“an eye for an eye” and “a tooth for a tooth,” the older brother of a 
person who has been injured by a certain man takes revenge on the 
offender or a member of his clan. The principle of blood revenge, held 
in abeyance by white man’s laws, may still function under cover in 
the conjuring battles between rival magicians. 

The clan is believed by the Cherokees to have been derived along 
with their songs, dances, and magical formulas from the great mythi- 
cal giant Old Stonecoat, who was slain long ago. The legend relates 
that this giant was burned at the stake and as his spirit ascended on 
high it sang forth the whole culture of the Cherokees. Included in the 
words uttered were the rules and regulations which govern the clan 
even today. Going to the water in clan groups for purificatory cere- 
monies is a custom abandoned only recently. As the conjurer prayed 


208 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BuLy. 133 


for the family he mentioned the clan by name and prognosticated as 
to the future fortunes of its individual members. In all of his con- 
juring practices, whether for the good or ill of the person affected, the 
conjurer is above all careful to get the right name and clan of the 
person to be conjured on, otherwise the charm would be powerless. 

A council of seven members to represent the seven clans is always 
employed in selecting a conjurer to pray for rain or to magically 
order a favorable change in the weather. This clan representative 
council is allied to the older council pattern of village government 
by an executive council of seven members recorded for the Cherokees 
of the earlier culture in the Payne manuscripts. 

The clan is inherited through the mother. Hence the mother’s clan 
is ego’s clan. From ego’s clan a whole series of relationships are 
developed. All members of ego’s clan except mother and her sisters, 
brothers, and grandparents are “brothers” and “sisters” to ego. Ego 
is forbidden to ever marry one of these “brothers” or “sisters.” The 
term “child” is applied to anyone whose father is one of these brothers. 

The next most important clan is ego’s father’s clan. Everyone in 
this clan is a “father” or a “father’s sister” or “grandmother.” All 
men marrying “father’s sisters” are “grandfathers” and all of the 
women marrying “fathers” are “step-parents” if of a different clan 
from ego’s, or “mothers” if of ego’s clan. All children of “fathers” 
are “brothers and sisters.” 

Two other clans are important in the average individual’s reckoning, 
the mother’s father’s clan and the father’s father’s clan. All the 
persons in both these clans are “grandmothers” and “grandfathers.” 
It is among these “grandfathers” and “grandmothers” that the ego 
must find a marriageable mate. Toward all of these persons behavior 
of a familiar nature is allowed. 

The regular configuration of rights and duties toward some four 
clans is carried on in every village wherever one chances to be. When 
a man is traveling in a distant village and needs shelter for the night 
he seeks one of his “brothers” of his own clan. The ascertaining of 
mutual clan affiliations is the ordinary form of greeting between two 
persons when meeting for the first time. There are several ways of 
ascertaining a given man’s clan without asking him. He may be 
found always associating with his own clansmen, and the affiliations 
of one of these may be known. Then again it is only necessary to 
observe his behavior toward these persons whose clan affiliations are 
already known to determine his clan. Hence, in general, it is quite 
easy after some slight acquaintance within a given village to know 
how to behave toward a number of persons who stand in given rela- 
tionships to ego. 

One’s grandfather on the maternal side is generally of a different 
clan from one’s grandfather on the paternal side. The reason for this 


ANTHROP, Pap. No. 23] THE EASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 209 


is that marriage with a “sister” or woman whose father is the same as 
one’s own is forbidden with the result that in few cases is the wife’s 
father of the same clan as her husband’s father. 

In order to properly objectify the relationships involved in a clan 
pedigree, we will select a typical three-generation set of individuals. 
Only the clans of the individuals will be given since that is the primary 
concern of this chart. 

Gnlt _ ein! og to even engin! se a1 GF SSG id) 
Deer | Potato Paint | Wolf Wolf | Blue Bird | Deer 
¥, ————— M. Fr, ————— M. (2) 
Potato Wolf Blue Deer 
Wife (3) 
Deer 


Ego (male) ————_—-— 
Wolf 


In the above pedigree, ego sustains the following relationships: 

(1) Wolf clan—This is his own clan and he is on the terms of 
fullest familiarity with its members except that he cannot marry a 
woman of this clan and he must respect his mother and her siblings, 
his own children, and his sister’s children. 

(2) Potato clan—He must always respect this clan because its 
members are all “fathers” and “father’s sisters.” Anyone whose father 
is in this clan is a “brother” or “sister” to ego. 

(3) Deer clan.—He may find his wife in this clan and did in this 
ease. This is his ginisi (paternal grandfather’s) clan and can be 
joked with and treated pretty freely. After marriage with a Deer 
woman, however, he must respect the wife’s mother and her siblings. 

(4) Paint clan.—This is treated exactly like the Deer clan. 

(5) Persons of the other three clans are treated exactly as their 
personal relationships to the Wolf or Potato clans prescribe. In this 
case wife’s father (Blue) is respected. Yet, if X, say, is Blue and 
has a father who is Potato, then X is a brother to ego. 

If ego in this case lives in Big Cove and goes to Painttown on a 
visit, he finds out the clan affiliations of everyone he meets. Then he 
knows how to behave. Every Potato that he meets must be treated 
with great respect and praised highly. On meeting persons whose 
father is Potato he jokes with them as brothers and sisters. He would 
not think of marrying one of these, however. He stays at the house 
of Wolf people in Painttown. If he were visited by Wolf people, he 
would keep them in his own house at Big Cove. He must respect 
people whose fathers were of Wolf clan as they are the same as chil- 
dren to him. If he finds a man whose father’s father is of Deer clan, 
he must respect him because his own father’s father was Deer and 
hence that man is a brother of his own father. 


ECONOMIC UNITS 


After the household and clan the most important social units are 
the economic divisions. Some account must be given of the general 


210 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL 133 


economic situation by way of introducing the economic units. The 
methods of landholding afford the foundation of Cherokee economics. 
“~~ Since Congress passed the law in recent years allowing persons of 
one thirty-second Indian blood to be enrolled as members of the band, 
the number of Cherokees has much increased. ‘The 1,900 members of 
the band in 1930 was suddenly increased by 1,100 more persons of 
one-sixteenth or less blood. There is evidently a desire on the part 
of white people to become enrolled as members of the band. It is the 
land which attracts the whites into the tribe, and the possibility of a 
future allotment of the land to individual owners in fee simple is 
very alluring. Some 12 families out of the 50 families at Big Cove 
are “white Indians,” or persons showing no perceptible Indian char- 
acteristics either in physique or culture. Some white families have 
even been admitted into the tribe by the act of adopting a Cherokee 
child, others by the marriage of a relative to an Indian man or woman. 
The “white Indians” tend to take up all of the best land. In the 
district of Raven, for example, practically all of the best bottom land 
along the streams is preempted by two or three white families. The 
purebloods retain small holdings of steep hillside land, rocky and 
forested. The average Indian holding is 80 acres, and of this hardly 
more than six is cultivated asarule. There is nothing to prevent the 
buying up or inheriting of land beyond the 30-acre limit. 

In the Adam’s Creek district of Birdtown the same situation exists, 
namely the white Indians occupying all the low-lying level and fertile 
areas while the purer bloods occupy the rim of the valley. Again in 
the rich Soco bottoms, an immense amount of white invasion has taken 
place and intermarriage with the Indians occurred. 

The pureblood Indians acting as individuals are not able to hold 
their property or land for long. Several instances, which occurred 
in Big Cove in recent years, of the loss of property and money at the 
hands of unscrupulous persons emphasizes this. Moreover, larid titles 
have always been in a confused state. Claims are generally based on 
the Temple survey, made in 1876. But the boundaries are constantly 
in dispute. The end result of the constant wrangling which has oc- 
curred is that the small landowner has been pushed to the wall by a 
few white Indians. Consequently, there are many persons in favor 
of an allotment of the tribal lands in individual holdings with fee 
simple. As yet, the allotment principle has not been adopted. 

An examination of some 49 households in Big Cove showed that in 
40 cases the land was a simple grant from the tribe and that in the 
remaining 9 cases the holdings were rentals from other members of 
the tribe. This constitutes a proportion of home owners to renters 
of approximately 80 percent to 20 percent. The proximity of con- 
siderable unclaimed land has allowed a great amount of homesteading. 


AnTHROP, Par. No.23] THE EASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 211 


Also, unimproved land reverts to the tribe, and keeps the land from 
becoming absorbed in unused claims. 

As far as was remembered by the informant, the average number 
of changes of tenure of households in Big Cove was from two to 
three times; however, limitations of knowledge on the part of in- 
formants may vitiate this estimate. Of the recorded changes of 
property in Big Cove, 32 were changes of possession through inherit- 
ance, and 23 were changes of possession through purchase. 

The methods of obtaining the land tenures were the following: (1) 
Inheritance, in 17 cases; (2) homesteading and improving wild land 
in 11 cases; (3) purchase from previous owners in 8 cases; (4) “swap- 
ping” in 4 cases; and (5) squatting on disputed land in 1 case. 

In the 17 cases of inheritance, 8 households were inherited from the 
man’s father or grandfather, 5 inherited from the wife’s father, 1 
from taking care of an old person, 1 from the wife’s mother, 1 from 
the deceased husband, 1 from the wife’s former husband, and 1 from 
the sister’s husband. 

All of the 50 households were originally homesteads. The general 
method of homesteading consists in clearing a small acreage for crops 
and erecting some sort of a dwelling thereon, after having applied to 
the Council for a grant to legalize the holding. Places which are 
unoccupied become liable to homesteading even if still claimed by the 
original owners. 

“Swapping” of lands is a common practice. Persons are constantly 
moving from one town to another or from lowland to highland. 
Cherokees of the more conservative type are perpetually trying to lo- 
cate further away from the trails which lead to the white man’s world. 

The annual cycle of events in Cherokee economy are as follows: In 
latter April or early May, pototoes, corn, and beans are planted. The 
harvest comes in August or in early September. The corn is ground 
in corn mills run by water power. During the summer, fish consti- 
tutes a large item of sustenance. Any rainy day in summer, the 
Cherokee man can be seen wending his way to the stream with his 
hornet’s larvae bait over his shoulders. In good weather, during the 
summer, he spends his time hoeing the corn or in making hay. He 
may have a few side crops such as sweetpotatoes, cabbages, turnips, 
pumpkins, squash, parsnips, carrots, and tobacco. In the late spring 
various kinds of berries are gathered, such as blackberries, blue- 
berries, gooseberries, huckleberries, and strawberries. During the 
summer, fruit such as apples, plums, grapes, and the like ripen. Dur- 
ing the summer also, the ball game is played. The fall is the period 
for hunting and dancing. Various small rodents such as rabbit and 
squirrel are hunted, and nuts are gathered. In the winter, a great 
part of the time is spent in gathering wood for the fire, tending the 


249 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Butu. 133 


stock, and dancing. The amount of stock is now very limited, but 
may consist of some pigs, chickens, a few cows, steers, and horses. 
Bacon and sausage are sometimes made. In early spring, some hunt- 
ing is done, and plowing on the steep hillsides with the aid of steers. 

Various forms of economic cooperation exist between Cherokee 
neighbors. Of these the most typical are the gadugi, or “companies,” 
and the poor aid societies.® The gadugi consists of a group of a 
dozen men organized in the form of a corporation, with a treasurer, 
a sheriff or money collector, a warner to catch the laggards, a secre- 
tary, and a chief. All of these officials are elected by the members 
of the company annually. The most important officials are the chief, 
who hires out the company, and the warner, who commands the op- 
erations of the company, tells them how long to work, and regulates 
the labor in general. 

The gadugi hires out its services, and divides the profits annually 
among its members. In addition to this, the members of the gadugi 
work in rotation each other’s farms for 4 days in the week. For 
example, white people hire the gadugi for $2 a day, which averages 
about 20 cents a day per member. The members of the gadugi may 
borrow money from the common treasury, such as 10 cents or 50 cents 
on the dollar earned by the month. In order to borrow money, how- 
ever, one has to place a mortgage on stock, land, or dwelling. ‘Two or 
three women often belong to the gadugi, as cooks. A woman cooks in 
the morning and helps in the other tasks of the gadugi in the afternoon. 
During her menstrual period, a woman is not allowed to cook. The 
tasks of the gadugi consist of ordinary agricultural labors, such as hoe- 
ing corn, cutting the tops of corn for cattle fodder, and clearing fresh 
land for agriculture. About one-fourth of the people of Big Cove be- 
long to these gadugi. There are two gadugi in Big Cove, one in Raven, 
or upper Big Cove, and one in Calico, or lower Big Cove. 

The habit of exchange of services between neighbors still persists. 
Farmer A and his family spend a day with farmer B and his fam- 
ily in digging potatoes. Here there is no money transaction in- 
volved, but rather a simple exchange of services with the gift of a 
few potatoes and some meals. A pattern of spontaneous coopera- 
tion for a common purpose exists among the Cherokees. Whenever 
the community desires the services of some useful person, such as a 
conjuror, everyone in the neighborhood assembles and proceeds to 
render some service to that person. Some will hoe the corn, some 
will cut wood, others will fix up his house. Another form of co- 
operation is shown in enterprises for public good. When a new 
footbridge is needed, the band will furnish the materials, and the 


6° The gadugi are described by Starr, Boston (1899, p. 140). 


AnTHrop, Pap, No. 23] THE EASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 213 


people in the neighborhood will assemble and put the bridge to- 
gether in a short time. 

Still another form of cooperation of great importance among the 
Cherokees is the poor aid society.” Annually the people of the Raven 
district meet on August 10th in the graveyard. Here they elect a 
chief undertaker, a secretary, gravedigger, coffin maker, and two 
warners. The assembly then combines to clean up the graveyard of 
weeds, and to straighten up the tombstones. The officials have va- 
rious duties. The chief acts as director of poor aid, the warners are 
delegated to look after the poor. 

When a family is in bad straits, the chief directs the two warners 
to go around and collect the neighbors together. When these are 
collected together, they do the planting, hoeing, harvesting, and 
cutting wood for the family. For this the neighbors expect payment 
in kind from the family which they assist, in the form of chickens 
or other livestock. The chief can command the services of the com- 
munity with 3 days’ notice during the summertime. At other times, 
he can command immediate service. 

At the death of a certain person, the gravedigging company is noti- 
fied, and the chief gives notice to his helpers to collect together and dig 
the grave. The gravediggers consist of a company of six volunteers 
who obey the chief. All these are appointed for 1 year. The coffin is 
made by the coffin maker and two assistants. Nomination and election 
of all of these officials is generally made from volunteers. The ritual 
accompanying death and burial will be mentioned in the section on 
the life cycle. 

There is, in addition to the foregoing forms of cooperation, a farm 
organization in Big Cove which is sponsored by the United States . 
Government. Intended to include all of the adults of the community, 
it has the purpose of raising the level of crop production in quality and 
quantity. Its head is the Government farm agent, and annual and 
other meetings are held in the schoolhouse. 

The economic life of the Cherokees today is largely a resultant of 
the interracial situation which exists between the Cherokees and the 
white man. As we have already noted, the whites have tended to ab- 
sorb the best lands of the reservation even under a stringent system of 
land grants only to members in good standing of the tribe. 

Because of this there has grown up a chronic resistance to white 
encroachments in the form of a resilient negativism to all white influ- 
ences. In this connection several examples came to the fore. A century 
of missionary proselytizing has few results to show among the Chero- 
kees. A very small minority of the Cherokees of Big Cove are pro- 


® Described by Olbrechts (Mooney and Olbrechts, 1932, pp. 135-36). 


214 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 133 


fessing Christians. These few are divided between the Baptist and 
Methodist sects in the main, and their influence is ebbing steadily. 

In the case of the penal sanctions governing the Cherokees there is 
also a complete failure of the white influences to become entirely domi- 
nant. In cases of murder the local white authorities are left utterly in 
the dark as to witnesses since the racial solidarity of the Indians is 
great enough to prevent reliable testimony being given in court. 

The principal North Carolina State laws affecting them are resented 
by the Cherokees. They are regarded as being the cause of the present 
depressed economic state of the people. In the old days during autumn 
the Cherokees were accustomed to setting fire to the brush and light 
timber on hillsides in order to roast the chestnuts, which were to be 
found in great numbers at that time of the year. Now, the State Law 
forbidding brush or timber fires has ruined all of the chestnut trees and 
made them subject to blight, say the Indians. The hills, again, were 
formerly the free grazing ground of the cattle, razorback hogs, and 
other stock of the Cherokees, but the State stock law passed some time 
ago, which required the fencing in of grazing areas, has caused the 
Cherokee stock to dwindle and disappear. 

Still other grievances are laid against the white man. The poison- 
ing of the wolves has ridded the country of these sacred animals 
and the white hunters have exterminated the deer, pigeon, bear, and 
other game. The State law forbidding the poisoning of the streams 
has at one stroke ruined one of the principal methods of fishing 
formerly in vogue among the Cherokees. Moreover, it is claimed 
that the State tax on corporations is so high that the formerly 
flourishing cooperative companies, the gadugi, have been taxed out 
of existence. The gadugi existed in a time when a more universal 
prosperity existed among the Cherokees than that which exists today. 

Even the white education instilled in the younger generation of 
Indians does not always take root. The college graduates of Haskell 
or Chilocco often return to their hillside farms and forget entirely 
their profession or trade learned while away at school. 

In one line of effort, however, white influence has been an entire 
success. The commercial activities of the Cherokees have increased 
owing to the more frequent and numerous contacts with white de- 
mand for local products. An annual fair is held at Yellow Hill in 
September in which a complete display of products from Cherokee 
hands competes with a graphic display of sports and dances char- 
acteristic of the tribe for local and State interest. For agricultural 
products and Indian artifacts there has arisen a considerable demand 
and the interest in the dancing and the ball game on the part of the 
whites has led to the formation of Indian companies to travel and 
give exhibitions of native games and dances in white communities. 
Qualla itself forms an ideal “ethno-park.” 


AnTHROP, Par, No, 23] THE EASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 215 
POLITICAL UNITS 


The economic units having been mentioned, there remains only the 
political units to be considered in closing this discussion. These 
units consist of the town and the band. The town is a unit only 
in elections and most of its functions are purely fictitious. The real 
political life resides in the band council and the chieftainship (Don- 
aldson, 1890). 

The Cherokee Council meets annually the first Monday in October. 
It consists of members elected from each of the six towns of the 
Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. Elections of the council mem- 
bers take place every 2 years on the first Thursday of September. 

The Chief is elected on the same day every 4 years. Previous to 
the election there is a convention of delegates from all over the band, 
two delegates from each district or town. Each town chooses its 
delegates at a special meeting in the summer. At Big Cove a meet- 
ing is held the first Saturday in August at the schoolhouse and a 
regular organization of officers presides. This might be said to 
resemble the primaries held under the American party system. 

The old council meets 60 days before the election at the town of 
Yellow Hill when summoned by the chief. It then passes a resolu- 
tion to choose delegates from each town to the band convention. 
From two to six candidates may be making the rounds, stumping for 
office. Sixty days before the election the council also selects two 
judges to preside over the election. 

The council decides questions having to do with land tenure and aid 
to the needy, the disposition of tribal funds, improvements for the 
public welfare, questions of membership in the tribe, and other prob- 
lems. It meets for 2 or 3 days in early December, elects a marshal, and 
then transacts general business. Much of its time is taken up in dis- 
cussions of the budget, the advisability of leasing lands for lumbering 
purposes, petitions to the Congress of the United States, solving press- 
ing land disputes, and the like. The decisions on land disputes are a 
constant necessity. No tribesman possesses land in fee simple but only 
as a grant tenable during the lifetime and good behavior of the indi- 
vidual. The land reverts to the tribe at the death of the individual 
but is usually regranted to the heirs. Improvements are willed to the 
heirs. 

The chief of the band has a position of great dignity analogous to the 
position of the Chief Executive of the United States. Before the pres- 
ent form of government was adopted by the Eastern Cherokees in 
1870-75, there were chiefs in each settlement. There were, moreover, at 
that time several more towns than there are now among the Eastern 
Cherokees. There have been some 13 national chiefs among the East- 
ern Cherokees from 1870 to the present. 

4052604315 


216 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BuLL. 133 


The chief, together with the vice chief, constitutes a sort of execu- 
tive committee of the council, which latter is theoretically supreme. 
The chief has great dignity, however, and travels about the reservation 
deciding questions of boundaries, trespasses on land, etc. He can veto 
acts of the council, but his veto can be overridden by a two-thirds 
majority vote. The marshal enforces the decisions of the chief and 
the council. 

The United States has long ago abolished the Indian agent among 
the Cherokees but has allowed an attorney to be retained by the tribe. 
The American Government has two departments of contact with the 
Cherokees; the schools and the charity work, both under the super- 
vision of the Indian Bureau at Washington. A superintendent has 
charge over the schools and tribal affairs in general and can override 
decisions of both council and chief. He regulates the disposal of 
funds, the health and welfare activities of the American Government, 
and the like. 

The school system consists of several day schools of four grades in 
the outlying towns and some eight grades at the main school in Yellow 
Hill. From here students leave for free educations at Haskell, Chil- 
occo, and elsewhere in the west. 

The influence of the State of North Carolina is but weakly felt. 
The administration of criminal law and the collection of some kinds 
of taxes seems to represent all that is at present actively affecting 
the Cherokees. In some years the Cherokees vote in national elections 
as registered citizens of the United States. 

The band of Eastern Cherokees, in conclusion, is unified in the fol- 
lowing ways: (1) Through possession of a local semiautonomous 
political organization into towns and band; (2) through the system of 
land tenure grants to persons judged as genuine Cherokees and mem- 
bers of the tribe, and (3) through the possession by most of the Chero- 
kees of clan affiliation inherited through the mother, which affiliation 
automatically links the individual with the distinctive kinship system 
of the Cherokee Society. 


THE KINSHIP SYSTEM 


PRINCIPAL TERMS USED 


The accompanying charts outline the main kinship terms employed 
by the Cherokees. Figures 40, 41, and 42 are mostly terms of consan- 
guinity while figure 43 includes the terms of affinity. It will be seen 
at once that the system is of the “classificatory” type common among 
the American Indian tribes in which relatives of near and remote 
propinquity are classed together. 

In the grandparent’s generation there are separate terms for 
“father’s father,” “mother’s father,” and “grandmother.” In the par- 


THE EASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 217 


ANTHROP, PapP, NO, 23] 


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[BULL, 133 


BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 


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THE EASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 219 


ANTHROP, PapP, NO. 23] 


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[BULL. 133 


BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 


220 


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ANTHROP, Par, No. 23] THE EASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 22K 


ent’s generation there are distinct terms for “father,” “mother,” “fath- 
er’s sister,” “mother’s brother,” and “mother’s brother’s wife.” The 
father’s sister’s husband is classed as “grandfather” and the father’s 
brother’s wife and mother’s sister’s husband are classed as “step- 
parents.” <A single term is used for the wife’s parents and their sib- 
lings and a single term is likewise used for the husband’s parents and 
their siblings. 

In ego’s generation the male speaker distinguishes his older and 
younger brothers by distinct terms. The female speaker uses a single 
term for “brother” which when used by the male speaker means “sis- 
ter.” In ego’s generation, also, the cross cousins are differentiated, 
the children of the father’s sister being “father” and “father’s sister,” 
while the children of the mother’s brother are “children.” Parallel 
cousins are “brothers” and “sisters” and a single reciprocal term is 
used for brother’s wife, sister’s husband, wife’s brother or sister, and 
husband’s brother or sister. 

In the children’s generation, sex of the individual is not ordinarily 
distinguished except that a man distinguishes his sister’s children as 
“nephew” and “niece” and the “son’s wife” and “daughter’s hus- 
band” are distinguished. In the grandchildren’s generation, a general 
term is used which differs in consonantal quality for male grandchil- 
dren through a male child, on the one hand, and female grandchildren 
through a male child, or grandchildren through a female child, on the 
other. The children of nephew or niece, male speaking or female 
speaking, are “grandchildren.” 

Before analysing the separate terms we will list for convenience the 
prefixes used in the Cherokee kinship terms. 


Prefixes Used in the Cherokee Kinship Terms 


pa 


. agi-, or gi-, agw-, ungi-, ungw-, meaning “my.” Hxample: agiDaDa, agwetsi, 
unginutsi, ungwatu. 

. esta-, or tsa-, meaning “your.” Example: tsaDaDa. 

u-, uw-, meaning “her, his, its.” Hxamples: ulisi, uwetsi. 

. di-, pluralizing prefix. Hxample: digwetsi. 

. tci-, dji-, tsi-, dzi-, pluralizers. Example: tcungilisi. 

. gini-, our (two of us). Hxample: giniDaDa. 

. iga-, ig-, oga-, odji-, odzi-, tadji-, ours (three of us). Example: igiDaDa. 

. ogini, yours and his. Example: oginiDaDa. 

. ogi-, your (pl.) and his. Hxample: ogiDaDa. 

. uni-, their (his and their). Example: uniDaDa. 

. Ski-, your (sing.) and my. Example: skiDaDa. 

. Skini-, your (pl.) and my. Example: skiniDaDa. 

. denda-, ana-, they are. 

. Otsa-, ita-, we are. Example: otsalinudji. 

. isa-, you are. 

. weti-, old one. Example: wetiginisi. 

. taline-, second. Example: talinegiDaDa. 


bh be be et ek et 
SAP ehh Sowmraanwn 


- 
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[BULL, 133 


BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 


222 


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THE EASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 223 


ANTHROP, PaP. No, 23] 


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224 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BuLL, 133 


With these prefixes in mind it will be somewhat easier to place the 
principal terms as they occur in the list that follows: 


The principal kinship terms of the Cherokee are the following: giDaDa 
(father), gitoki (aunt), giDzi (mother), giDudji (uncle), agwetsi (child), 
ungiwina (nephew), ungwatu (niece), u Natsi (wife’s parents), djiDzo i (hus- 
band’s parents), agi Nudji (daughter’s husband), agiDzo i (son’s wife), agila 
Na (uncle’s wife), giDuDiya (aunt’s husband), ginisi (male paternal grand- 
parent, male grandchild), gilisi (female grandparent, female or male grand- 
child), giDuDu (mother’s father), ungiDa (sister, brother), unginutsi (younger 
brother), unginili (older brother), ungilu i (sister), and agwelaksi (relatives- 
in-law). 

giDaDa (“Ah-ge-do-da” of Morgan): This term means “father” primarily. It 
is extended to father’s brothers and to all male members of the father’s clan 
except lineal ascendants of ego’s father. This term is applied to father, father’s 
brother, father’s sister’s son, father’s sister’s daughter’s son, mother’s sister’s 
husband (along with the term agwatina i, or “stepparent’’), father’s father’s 
brother’s son, and father’s father’s father’s brother’s son’s son. 

Special uses are made of the father term in the following: giDaDa awina, 
“vounger father’ (father’s younger brother), giDaDa ayuli, “older father” 
(father’s older brother), giDaDa udanti, “gentle father,” and giDaDa unagalu i, 
“cranky father” (the last two referring to distinguishing characteristics of the 
father’s brothers). 

Giloki (“Ah-ge-h lo -gih” or Morgan): This term means “father’s sister” pri- 
marily. It is extended to all females of the father’s clan except those lineally 
ascendant to him. This term is applied to father’s sister, father’s sister’s daugh- 
ter, father’s sister’s daughter’s daughter, father’s father’s brother’s daughter and 
father’s mother’s sister’s daughter. 

giDzi (‘‘Ah-gid-ze” of Morgan): This term means “mother” primarily. It is 
extended to the mother’s sisters and to the wife of any male member of the 
father’s clan if she is of ego’s clan. This term is applied to mother, father’s 
sister’s son’s wife, mother’s sister, mother’s mother’s sister’s daughter, mother’s 
mother’s mother’s sister’s daughter’s daughter, and father’s brother’s wife if she 
is of ego’s clan. 

giDudji (‘Ah-gedoo-dzi” and “Ah-ge-doo-tsi’” of Morgan): This term means 
“mother’s brother” primarily. It is applied also to mother’s mother’s sister’s 
son, and to mother’s mother’s mother’s sister’s daughter’s son. Various epithets 
are used to distinguish the mother’s brothers such as udanti giDudji, “gentle 
uncle,” unagalu i giDidji, “mad uncle,” utkanista giDudji, “cranky uncle,” and 
udajati giDudji, “stingy uncle.” 

agwetsi (‘“‘Ah-gwa-tse” of Morgan) : This term means “child” primarily, and is 
used by both sexes generally. It is extended to the child’s parallel cousins and 
to anyone whose father is of ego’s clan. This term is applied to one’s son and 
daughter (male and female speaking), to a brother’s son and daughter (male and 
female speaking), to a sister’s son and daughter (by a female speaker), father’s 
brother’s daughter’s child (female speaker), father’s brother’s son’s child (f. sp.), 
mother’s sister’s son’s child (m. and f. sp.), mother’s sister’s daughter’s child 
(f. sp.), father’s father’s brother’s son’s son’s child (m. and f. sp.), mother’s 
mother’s sister’s daughter’s daughter’s child (f. sp.), mother’s mother’s sister’s 
daughter’s daughter’s daughter’s child (f. sp.), mother’s mother’s brother’s 
children (m. and f. sp.), etc. The absence of sex distinctions in the term agwe- 
tsi requires various supplementary terms. The term tcu ’tsa awina, “male child,” 
and ge’yutsa, “female child,” are used for children not yet at the age of puberty 


AnTHROP, PaP. No. 23] THE EASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 225 


(12-14 years). The term awinutca is used for young males from 12 to 20 years 
of age and the term atu(N) is likewise used for young women of this age. At 
20 the boy becomes askaya, a “man,” and the girl agehiyu, a “woman.” 

ungiwina (“Un-ge-we-nuh” of Morgan): This term means “nephew” primarily 
and is used only by the male speaker for sister’s son, father’s brother’s daugh- 
ter’s son, mother’s sister’s daughter’s son, and mother’s mother’s sister’s daugh- 
ter’s daughter’s son. 

ungwatu (“Ungwa-tuh” of Morgan): This term means “niece” and is used by 
the male speaker only. It is applied to sister’s daughter, father’s brother’s 
daughter’s daughter, mother’s sister’s daughter’s daughter, and mother’s mother’s 
sister’s daughter’s daughter’s daughter. ; 

u Natsi (“Tse-na-tze of Morgan’): This term refers primarily to the wife’s 
parents (male speaking). It is applied to wife’s father, wife’s mother, and their 
brothers and sisters, and to wife’s grandfather and grandmother (and their 
brothers and sisters). This term seems to be closely related to the term for 
son-in-law, agi Nudji. 

dji dzo i: This term refers primarily to the husband’s parents and is used only 
by the female speaker. It is applied to the husband’s father, husband’s mother, 
husband’s parent’s siblings, husband’s grandfather, and husband’s grandmother. 

agi Nudji (“Ah-ge-h na-tze” of Morgan): This term refers to the daughter’s 
husband, brother’s daughter’s husband, sister’s daughter’s husband, and mother’s 
brother’s daughter’s husband. 

agi Dzo i (“Ah-ge-tzau-hi” of Morgan) : This term refers to son’s wife, brother’s 
son’s wife, sister’s son’s wife, and mother’s brother’s son’s wife. 

agila Na: This term refers to the mother’s brother’s wife or to the mother’s 
mother’s sister’s son’s wife. 

giDuDiya: This term refers to the father’s sister’s husband and means “he 
becomes grandfather” or “he makes himself grandfather.” Any husband of a 
giloki is called giDuDiya or giDuDu. 

ginisi (“Eni-si’ of Morgan) : This term refers to the father’s father or son’s son, 
primarily. It is applied to the following: Father’s father, father’s father’s 
brother, father’s father’s brother’s son, the father’s mother’s brother, son’s son, 
brother’s son’s son, sister’s son’s son, father’s brother’s son’s son’s son, father’s 
brother’s daughter’s son’s son, mother’s sister’s son’s son’s son, mother’s sister’s 
daughter’s son’s son, mother’s brother’s son’s son, and mother’s brother’s son’s 
son’s son. 

gilisi (‘‘An-ge-lee-see” of Morgan) : This term refers primarily to female grand- 
parents through the mother and to grandchildren through a daughter. It is 
applied to the following: Mother’s mother, mother’s mother’s sister, mother’s 
father’s sister, mother’s father’s sister’s daughter, daughter’s children, son’s 
daughter, brother’s daughter’s children, brother’s son’s daughter, sister’s daugh- 
ter’s children, sister’s son’s daughter, mother’s brother’s son’s daughter, mother’s 
prother’s daughter’s children, mother’s sister’s daughter’s children, mother’s sis- 
ter’s son’s daughter’s children, mother’s sister’s son’s son’s daughter, father’s 
brother’s son’s son’s daughter, father’s brother’s daughter’s daughter’s children, 
father’s brother’s son’s daughter’s children, ete. 

giDuDu (‘‘Ah-gedoo-dze’’(?) of Morgan) : This term refers to mother’s father 
or father’s father’s father. It is also applied to mother’s father’s brother, moth- 
er’s mother’s brother, and mother’s father’s sister’s son. It is apparently a term 
meaning “grandfather” on the mother’s side. 

ungiDa (“An-ke-do(h)” of Morgan) : This term means “sister” with the male 
speaker and is extended by him to father’s brother’s daughter and mother’s sister’s 
daughter. The same term is used by the female speaker for “brother” and is 
extended by her to the father’s brother’s son and mother’s sister’s son, 


226 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Buin. 133 


unkinu’tsi (“Aun-ke-na-tsi” of Morgan): This term means “younger brother” 
with the male speaker. It is extended to the father’s brother’s son younger than 
self, mother’s sister’s son younger than self, father’s sister’s son’s son younger 
than self, and father’s mother’s brother’s son younger than self. The term 
awinage’i, “he is younger,” is also used for this relative. 

unkinili (‘“‘An-ke-nee-lee” of Morgan): This term means “older brother” with 
the male speaker and is used for the same relatives as the above who are older 
than the speaker. 

ungilu i (“An-ge-la-ih” of Morgan) : This term means “sister” and is used by 
the female speaker for the following relatives: Sister, mother’s sister’s daughter, 
father’s brother’s daughter, father’s sister’s son’s daughter, father’s mother’s 
brother’s daughter, ete. 

agwelaksi (‘‘Squa-lo-sih”’ and “Ga-ya-loh-sih” of Morgan): This term refers 
primarily to relatives-in-law and is applied to the following: Wife’s brother or 
sister, husband’s brother or sister, sister’s husband, brother’s wife, and to affini- 
ties of like relatives. There are various supplementary terms used for particu- 
lar persons in this relationship. astadali i (‘“Au-sda-li-gi’” of Morgan) is used 
jokingly for father’s brother’s son’s wife. asatlu i (“Au-su-dlun-hi” of Morgan) 
is used by the female speaker for her father’s brother’s daughter’s husband and 
is a joking term. awadu i (“K-na-duh-hi” of Morgan), meaning “they are 
pretty,” refers to husband’s brother’s wife (f. sp.) and to wife’s brother’s wife 
(m. sp.). 


There are a number of other supplementary kinship terms of which 
the following are of importance: 


agwati Na i (“A-gwa-ti-na-i” of Morgan) refers to “step-parent” and is applied 
primarily to the father’s brother’s wife and the mother’s sister’s husband 
and for genuine stepparents. 

agi Nudji a is a term applied to the man who is courting one’s daughter and is 
a prospective agi Nudji, or ‘‘son-in-law.” 


There are several terms used for siblings which are of considerable 
importance with reference to the solidarity of brothers and sisters in 
the individual family. The following are notable: 


uda Nilige i, “he is older,” is used for older brother. 

awinage i, “he is younger,” is used for the younger brother. 

tsukinu’dji, is used by the younger brother with the meaning, “we are brothers.” 

tsukinili, is used by the older brother with the meaning, “we are brothers.” 

otsalinu’dji, “‘we are brothers and sisters,” is used by siblings in referring to 
their common relationship together. 

tsotsalinu’dji, ‘‘we are brothers,” is applied to the wife’s sister’s husband. 


In the husband-and-wife relationship there are a number of supple- 
mentary terms. The most notable are the following: 


agwada iyusti, “like a wife,” is applied to a woman with whom a man is keep- 
ing company but not living. 

dji’ye i, “I’m holding her,” is a term sometimes used for wife. 

akstayu uski, “she’s my cooker,” is often used for wife. 

owasulasu i, is applied to a widow or widower. 

agi(X)yei (husband), is often supplemented by such terms as ostine’li, “we are 
living inside together” (in a house), and utusane i, “the old man.” 


AnTHROP, Pap, No, 23] THE EASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 227 


MORGAN’S SYSTEM 


As may have been noted from the parenthetical inclusions, the kin- 
ship terms listed by L. H. Morgan in 1871 for the Cherokees differ 
somewhat from the present kinship terms. 

From its incomplete character, so far as collateral lines are con- 
cerned, it is difficult to obtain a clear-cut pattern for kinship terms in 
the list furnished by Morgan in his tables. A complete comparison of 
this list of terms with the one just described (Long’s) is therefore 
impossible. Enough can be adduced, however, to note two differences 
from the Long terminology. There is, first, the rather inconsequential 
differences in the morphological forms used for the same relative, such 
differences arising from alternation of prefixes, use of substitute words, 
and the like. Secondly, there are the differences arising from real 
usage, relatives being classified in a different pattern. 

Differences of the latter category include two important instances: 
(1) the mother’s mother’s brother’s son is called “mother’s brother” in 
Morgan’s terminology and “child” in Long’s; and (2) the father’s 
father’s sister’s daughter is called “father’s sister” in Morgan’s list 
and “grandmother” in our terminology. 

In spite of the Cherokee tendency to equate the father’s sister with 
the grandmother in behavior and terminological usage, it would seem 
that, in Morgan’s terminology, there is a real asymmetry in the terms 
used for the father’s and mother’s cross cousins. This point is still 
further emphasized in that the paternal male cross cousin’s male 
descendants are called “fathers” by ego. This fact leads one to sus- 
pect that Morgan’s terminology may be to some extent “filled out” on 
a generation or other basis from analogy with other tribes, according 
to the logic of the compiler. The Long version, obtained at Big Cove 
in 1932, does not possess a perfectly symmetrical terminology, but it 
does allow of a lineage basis for the implied usage of preferential 
mating indicated in the pedigrees. Following the version of Morgan, 
it would be difficult to obtain a clear-cut lineage basis for preferential 
mating. 

KINSHIP DISTINCTIONS 


The kinship terms are always of some use to the people who possess 
them in the distinguishing of certain relatives toward whom specific 
behavior is due. The type of distinction made is best analyzed by 
comparing the native terms for relatives with our own English system 
as a yardstick. 

The first and most obvious distinctions occurring in the Cherokee 
system are those of lineage and generation. The unilateral basis for 
the kinship grouping on a lineage line is perceptible in the identity 
of the terms applied to persons in a direct descent through females. 


228 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL,. 183 


The giDaDa-giloki descent in the father’s matrilineal lineage is in- 
dicative of a lineage distinction which is heightened by the application 
of the terms eTee (grandfather) and giDzi (mother) to persons 
marrying into this line. The eles Dua descent in the mother’s 
matrilineal lineage is likewise further distinguished by the application 
of the term agwetsi (children) to the issue of all of these persons. In 
this case, however, there is a difference in terminology for those gen- 
erations above ego from those below. 


TABLE 4.—Comparative table of kinship terms of the Cherokee 


Eastern Cherokee Western Cherokee 
Long Morgan Morgan 
Fein isis 2 ee eT ee era a eee ee ee fe ee ese eS E-ni-si 
PSC he eae ee Se oe eeaye An-ge-lee-sih. 
SAIN PHISi eyes Ocnh ete hae oo An-ge-lee-se_._________--______-- An-gi-li-si or Un-gi-li-si. 
Per at DCB | eas ee ee ee ee Aner e=do-d are 2 io nee eo E-dau-da. 
SLU Zig Lee rare Sy tA, Fock Ah-gid-zess 23 tg Perk pi sees E-tsi 
GHEY Spel SS Ee aL ae ee AN=DWA=bZe ee neetees 2 ten ae gene A-gwae-tsi. 
Hs An-ke-nee-li____._.--__---------- Un-gi-ni-li. 
8. SI MAn=ke-d0 (Dye fe ar EN ee etd Un-gi-dau. 
9. i ATinpG-le-ihrs._beiyt bcikae Man | Wea Un-gi-lun-i. 
10. -| Ah-ge-doo-tsi. 
ll. uw _..| Aun-ke-na-tsi or An-ke-na-tsi____| Un-gi-nun-tle or Un-gi-nun-tli. 
r2) Tsa-ke-na-tsi or Tsan-ke-toh_____ An-tsa-li-nun-tli. 
13. ae plas ee ae rR ey sh |i Ah-ge-tzau-hi____.......__.-___-_- E-tsau-hi. 
GU IE VEA Uh 0 TC Ip k pe ae I PA Peshy =Na=O7h eo. na ee a ce E-hua-tsi. 
AUG) (ohat'd hvshats ey Seeger 5 ee ON as ee Un-ge-we-nuh______-______-_____ Un-gi-wi-nun. 
LBIUIN Sw Btls 2 eee No oe Lee ii Swaeci hae eee See Un-gwa-dun. 
DAbAliNe LOND Zier seo Pe ae te Ta-le-na-ah-gi-tze. 
Lr AEWA TION Giles Waseem 2a Wien Soe ORT ee eee es SU Lee 8 A-gwa-ti-na-i. 
19 S05 me oe ese eek 90. eee De-na-da-nuh-tsi____________-_-- Tsan-sda-da-nun-tli. 
20; OStaGalinive-s=mes eed 34 awed Ath =Ire-tS0-Hle chro See Au-sda-dun-hi. 
DIP AM AGU Lee ereyee  wieeie dye Sh TOF ats 6) 0) ats sb eey gun Se ey ee one ee ee Au-sda-li-gi. 
22. asalu i or agwelakei____.__-______ Ga-ya-loh-si or Squa-lo-sih______- Au-sda-dun-hi or Au-sda-lau-si 
or Au-se-dlun-hi. 
PareOUiO Kies eee e ete eee ee Alh-ve-hilo-pihe 02 =  e e E-hlau-gi. 
24 italine el DaDa- 22 8 eee Ta-le-na-ah-ge-do-da. 
PAHS 3 a DAY (Gh) Ui See Se SE es Ne ae oe Ah-ge-doo-dzi or Ah-ge-doo-tsi | E-du-tsi. 
or Ah-ge-doo-tse. 
Grav CX) yoni 22 ee ae SN Nae Ah-ge-he-a-hih___________-__ _._--| Ah-gi-ya-hi. 
27 np DS WAALS ses 8s See eo eee Ag-gwa-da-le-ih_________________ Ah-gwa-da-li. 
Za Cties G20 nao ann oe ee ARSE=1 = GZ teeta See a ee E-hua-tsi. 
20) TN atsieeg ie De Teo wD ee Tse-na-tz0. <2 22a sch eee. Soe E-dzau-hi. 
SOS Ws eat ee one eae emer te ae Mba ier pie Vek en ENS See OSS Si-da-na-lun. 


In the mother’s father’s matrilineal lineage there is again a carry- 
ing of the giDuDu-gilisi descent from above to below ego’s gen- 
eration. In the father’s father’s matrilineal lineage the giDuDu- 
gilisi descent is again carried on from above to below ego’s genera- 
tion. 

The distinctions of generation are most apparent in the termi- 
nology for immediate relatives and for siblings. As Lowie’s ter- 
minology expresses it, this is a “bifurcate-merging” system in that 
one-half of the collaterals are merged with the lineal line. This 
is to say that the persons who are parallel cousins are “brothers” 
and “sisters,” while cross cousins are given a different terminology. 
In the case of the Cherokee this terminology happens to take the 
line of a lineage basis; in the case of cross cousins through the 


229 


THE EASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 


ANTHROP, PaP. NO, 23] 


*(UBSIOW 10}JB) SaTjluUnTe drysuLy voyxoI19yO UslsISVA— OF TINY 


18}-Bny-9 Ty nesp-9 
: =V @— Y 


(or 9)c! | Ty-BA-13-Ye 


O=V, O= Gay O=v AV 
| af | ? 
1S}-eny-9 a | 1sj-eny-9 
O=V ony V 

| i | | v 

Isy-Bny-9 | Isqj-eny-o Isj-6ny-9 | Is}-enp-9 

O=V Oy 
Isj-eny-o 1q-nes}-9 
O=V O=V 


[oI pecans REE oan | 
I[-Bp-BM3-Y8 | ODA 


O=V O77 =V O=V 
| | ° T | 
Iy-nesp-9 | Iy-nesp-o 
i ° qe % a ic 
Iy-nesp-9 | Ty-nesp-o 1y-Nesp-9 | Ty-nesp-2 
O=V O=V 


[BULL, 133 


BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 


230 


O }s-)]-16-up 
1S-1]-16-uy 


ie 


if 


1S-1-16-up) Is-1P16-uN) 1s-1,15-uQ 


Q Vv O V 


1s}-aemb-y 1s}-2emb-y 
ae 
}-U-aj-emb-y —1S}-np-9 
O=V 


*(UBs10y_ 19}JV) OSa a[ByT : SoUINSuUBSUOD AIYSUIYy VoyOIEYO UW19}soAA— LP AANOLA 


> oF 
2 2 ©. 
is-1]-16 -up $-1]-16-u py) i ft 1s-1]-16-up) 1S -1]-16 - 
OViory 6 ¥ ov ORVFOEV 40 WW OrV =O) V; OW OnY, OLY, 
er (! aL Sei wled ale re 
unu-1m-18-up) —18}-8emb-y unu-1mb-up)  }s}-aeMB-7 1s}-3em5-\/ 274-eMb-yY 
O Vv O V Oo V O Vv O Vv Oo Vv Oo V 
| al} unt As “Un | 11}- PU ae un 
nep-16-up yA ub. -u} nep-)6-up) 094 y-lu-16-up) 1yJ-unu-16-uy nep-15-up) ie 1 ‘6- “un 
O V oO Oo WV Vv Vv Oo V 
1S}-}—}-eu-1}-emb-y 1$}-9 S}-9- &p-nep-9 ep-nep-3}-eu-1}-emB-y — ep-nep-J 
O=V Oo O=V Vv O=V 


Peey 


16-nely-3 ep-nep 
Oo Vv 


16-ne[y-3 
fe) 


oO 


nee wane 


L g ep-nep-3 


nep-3 
Vv 


ep-nep-3 
Vv 


16-ne]y-9 1-eu-1}-emB-y 


O 


1S}- abe 3 Be 


7 


ba j 


eer a nt Oe ee 


3 


Vv O Vv Oo Vv O Vv Oo Vv 12) 


=V 


ep-nep-3 16-neyy-3 


V Oo 


\S-IU-JYS-]U-JS-YU-9 \S-1U-J{$-1U-1S-10-3 


4 
fe) 


Oo O=V V oO O=V V 


Vv 


THE EASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 254 


ANTHROP, PaP. NO, 23] 


oO 


eae 


*(UBSIO 19}J8) OSa s[VUAy : SOUINSUBSUOD AtYysUTY voyOIeyO U19ISa9AA—'SP TAOOIT 
OW OO WV/AORV OL ORV Oy, (o) WY 10) WW -@) W/ (0) Sy 


OV 

Tia! Tt TUT [tet ae ae 

15}-aemb-y unU-|M-16-U unu-1M-16-Up) 1S}-aeMb-y unu-1M-36-up) 
0} 


cult un 1S}-3emb-7 np- ae un unp-em6-up) 
O Vv oO V O V 
1-un}-16-up) nep-16-up -un-b-ug = ()9)4 nep-16-upj 1-un}-I6-up —nep- [ 
Oo Vv e) Oo O Vv V @) Vv 


16 


405260—43 


[Butu. 133 


BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 


232 


*(UBZIOJ, JojJe) setae drysury svoyxo1eyH U19}S9oM— 6p TAAL 


ees eee ——————— ee 


9z4-8uU Y -08-Y4B 1y-Nez4-03-Yye 
O =V O= y 
OD | YIYy-8-oY-03-38 
QD Oy O=V Ce a 
| | | 
9Z4-BU-98} | 9Z4-BU-984 
OT O ay, V 
| | ’ | | i 
9Z4-BU-BS} | 2Z4-BU-BS} 9Z4-BU-98} | 9Z4-BU-BS} 
OEAY O=V7 
9Z4-8U Y-08-Ye Iy-N’s}-93-4B 
O=V O=V 
| 
Y-o]-Bp-BM3-38 | ODa 
O=V O=V ORV o-™ O=V 
| | 
9Z4-BU-eS} | 9Z4-BU-98} 
Y i ry i Y 
9Z4-BU-BS} | 0Z4-BU-BS} 02Z4-BU-98} | 9Z4-BU-BS} 
O=V Omy 


oe SS ee eae 


AnTHROP, Pap. No. 23] THE EASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 233 


father the cousins are put in the father’s matrilineal line, whereas 
in the case of cross cousins through the mother the descendant terms 
“child,” “grandchild,” etc., are used. Hence, generation can be said 
to be important so far as immediate siblings and parallel cousins 
are concerned. Also, the use of certain distinctions of superordina- 
tion and subordination distinguishes the parental generation from 
the child’s. The grandparent generation is alone distinguished 
throughout as “grandparents,” the other generations being bisected 
by the lineage principle. 

Two important types of relationships occur in the terminology, 
namely, the complementary reciprocal and the self-reciprocal. The 
complementary reciprocal terms are terms used between close rela- 
tives exclusively and are not used by others. Such terms are father- 
child, mother’s brother-sister’s child. The self-reciprocal terms con- 
sist in identical terms used between two relatives. Such would be 
grandmother-grandchild, brother-sister, ete. In the case of com- 
plementary reciprocal terminology, linkages of persons who must 
remain distinct for certain reasons are secured. In the self-recip- 
rocal terminology a merging of social personalities is desired and to 
a certain extent obtained.® 

Other factors entering into kinship distinctions are those of sex 
and age. The sex distinction is expressed in three principal ways: 
(1) Sex of the speaker, (2) sex of the person spoken to, and (3) sex 
of the person through whom the relationship exists, including relatives 
by affinity. 

The distinction of the sex of the speaker is often made clear by 
implication. The male speaker calls his sister’s children “nephew” 
and “niece,” while the female speaker calls them “child,” the husband 
and wife apply different specific terms to each other and each other’s 
parents, and the male and female speakers use entirely different terms 
for brothers. 

The distinction of the sex of the person spoken to is expressed in 
the following: Father and father’s sister distinguished, mother and 
mother’s brother distinguished, nephew and niece through sister dis- 
tinguished by a man, grandfathers distinguished from grandmothers, 
husband and wife distinguished, and the use of the term giloki for 
any female member and of giDaDa for any male member of the 
father’s clan. 


8 The present writer has experimented with the use of the reciprocal terminology among a 
group of University of Chicago students engaged in a common vocational activity. In this 
ease the term “John” was introduced and adopted among a dozen male persons ag a sort of 
joking term for each other in direct address. The general result was a surprising increase 
in group solidarity and familiarities. A like solidarity was generated by the use of the 
terms “citizen” and ‘‘comrade” during the French and Russian Revolutions, 


234 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Buun. 133 


The distinction of the sex of the person through whom the rela- 
tionship is traced is expressed in the following: The giloki or aunt 
is a person related through the father; the mother’s brother is related 
through the mother, the mother’s brother’s wife is related through 


A=0 - 
grandfather | grand- father | mother 


FicvrRE 50.—Father’s matrilineal line. 


mother or step 
or ‘‘aunt”’ parent 
_ihoustiiogr we Jott [toate 
| | | | 
20) A=0O A O 
grandfather | grand- father mother older sister 
mother or step brother 
or “aunt” parent or younger 
brother 
salads 60 tah eo pang sl see 
| | | | 
A=0O A=0 A O 
grandfather | aunt father mother older sister 
or step brother 
parent or younger 
brother 
| 
| | | 
= = A 2 O 
grandfather | aunt father mother ego sister 
or step 
parent 
| 
| | b 
= ee A 
grandfather | aunt father mother older sister 
or step brother 
parent or younger 
brother 
1 
| | | 
ae = A og 
grandfather aunt father mother older sister 
or step brother 
parent or younger 
brother 


1, All women are “‘father’s sisters’ or “‘grandmothers,” all men 
are “‘fathers.’’ 2, All men marrying “father’s sisters’ are ‘‘grandfathers,”’ all women marrying ‘‘fathers” 
are “‘mothers’’ or “step parents.’’ 3, All children of ‘‘fathers’’ are ‘‘brothers’’ and ‘‘sisters’’. 4, The fathers 


clan and line is nonmarriageable. 


the mother and brother, and the relationships through the wife are 
distinguished from the relationships through the husband. 

With regard to the relative importance of the various sex distine- 
tions the following may be said: Of some 28 kinship terms listed, the 


AnTHROP, Pap. No, 23] THE EASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 235 


distinction of sex of the person spoken to is omitted in 10, the distine- 
tion of the sex of the person through whom the relationship is traced 
is omitted in 12, and the distinction of the sex of the person speaking 
is omitted in 18. Hence, the order of importance of emphasis of 
distinctions is in the following order: (1) Sex of person addressed, 
(2) sex of person through whom relationship is traced, and (8) sex 
of the speaker. 

The age of relatives is not distinguished as a rule except by supple- 
mentary terms such as “older” and “younger.” In the case of brothers, 
however, the distinction of older male sibling from the younger is 
clearly marked in the terminology. This is a relationship of a com- 
plementary terminology and is to be explained on the basis of the 
function of the older brother in the family to protect and avenge the 
younger brother and to act to some extent like a father or uncle to him. 


LINEAGES 


The nature of the kinship system will be still more elaborated in a 
study of the charts which illustrate the lineage basis for the kinship 
reckoning (figs. 51-53). The grouping is partially on a vertical and 
partially on a horizontal basis and there is as much of an emphasis 
on the unilateral matrilineal descent as there is on the bilateral origin 
of the individual, so far as the terminology is concerned.® 

In ego’s father’s matrilineal lineage all of the women are “father’s 
sisters” or “grandmothers” and all of the men are “fathers” or “grand- 
fathers.” All men marrying women of the father’s matrilineal lineage 
are “orandfathers” and the wives of “fathers” are “mothers” if of the 
same clan as ego, or “stepparents” if not of the same clan. Any 
child of a man of the father’s clan is a “brother” or “sister.” 

In ego’s mother’s matrilineal lineage the women may be “grand- 
mother” or “mothers” and “sister,” “niece” (male speaking), or 
“child” (female speaking). The men are “grandfathers,” “mother’s 
brothers,” “brothers,” “nephew” (male speaking) and “child” (female 
speaking). All of the women who marry a “grandfather” are “grand- 
mothers” and the women who marry a “mother’s brother” are denoted 
by a special term. Any child of the mother’s clan may be a “mother’s 
brother,” “mother,” or “child.” 

In ego’s mother’s father’s matrilineal lineage all of the men are 
called “grandfathers,” the women are called “grandmothers.” ‘The 
rules of ey for women marrying into this line are the same 
as in the case of ego’s mother’s matrilineal lineage above. 

In ego’s father’s father’s matrilineal lineage all of the males are 
“orandfathers” and the women “grandmothers.” A man marrying 


®The writer is indebted to Dr, Fred Eggan for the initial suggestion in drawing up these 
lineage charts, 


236 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Buut. 133 


into this line is a “grandfather”; a woman marrying into this line is a 
“orandmother.” . 

The kinship terminology of the Cherokees extends the terms for 
relatives of close degree in the lineage to collateral and remoter rela- 


| 
A= A= 


grand- | grand- older or | ‘‘relative’”’ 
father | mother younger | (agwelaksi) 
brother 
a ea 
6 : LG 
A= A=0 A 
grand- | grand- older or | ‘‘relative’’ children 
father | mother younger 
brother 
(sometimes 
grandfather) 
) | 
au REO ; 
father | mother mother’s | mother’s children 


brother | brother’s 
wife (gila 
Na) 


| aii 


“rela- | sister EGO older or | ‘“‘relative’’ children 
tive” younger 
brother 
| 
| | 
AS ©, ; 
son-in- | niece nephew | daughter- children 
law in-law 
| | : 
A=6 A=0 Aer’ 
grandchild older or “relative’’. grand- 
younger children 
brother 


FIGURE 51.—Mother’s matrilineal line. 1. All women are grandmothers, grandchildren, mothers, sisters, 
or nieces; all men are brothers, mother’s brothers, nephews, or grandchildren. 2. Men marrying grand- 
mothers are grandfathers, those marrying mothers are fathers, those marrying sisters are relatives, those 
marrying nieces are sons-in-law, women marrying brothers are relatives, those marrying mother’s brothers 
are mother’s brothers’ wives; those marrying nephews are daughters-in-law. 3. Children of males of own 
lineage are children or grandchildren; children of females of own clan are nieces and nephews, etc. 4. 
Mother’s matrilineal line is nonmarriageable. 


tives. “ Qualificatory terms such as taline, “second,” and weti, “far 
off,” may be attached to the terms when the remoter relatives are 
designated. The range of the primary extensions of kinship in line- 


ages may be considerable but it is still further extended by means of 
the clan system, 


ANTHROP, Pap, No. 23] THE EASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 237 


The clan extends the range of kinship almost to every one in the 
community. Every male in the father’s clan is a “father” and every 
female is a “father’s sister.” Likewise every member of ego’s clan is a 
“brother” or “sister” and any child of a “brother” is a “child” to ego, 
Every member of ego’s father’s father’s clan or mother’s father’s clan 
is a “grandfather” or “grandmother.” Any person whose father is of 
ego’s father’s clan isa “brother.” In the ordinary Cherokee town aver- 
aging 300 persons, it is possible to discover relationships with almost 


| | 
A=0 A=0 


grand- | grand- grand- | grand- 
father | mother father | mother 
| 
| | | | 
A=0O A=0O A 
grand- | grand- grand- | grand- grand- ‘grand- 


father | mother father | mother father mother 


Trike Care aa ery a cam aes 


grand- | grand- grand- | grand- mother’s father | mother 
mother brother 


father | mother father 
| 


| | | | | | 
A=O A=0O A O A © 


grand- | grand- grand- grand- grand- grand- EGO EGO 
father | mother father mother father mother 
| | 
A=0O A=0O 
grand- grand- grand- grand- 
father mother father mother 


FIGURE 52.—Mother’s father’s matrilineal line. 1, All women are grandmothers; all men are grandfathers. 
2, Allmen marrying grandmothers are grandfathers, all women marrying grandfathers are grandmothers. 
3, All children of grandfathers (except own mother and her siblings) are grandfathers and grandmothers. 
4, The mother’s father’s clan and line is marriageable. 

everyone in the community since there are generally only 4 or 5 main 

clans predominant. 

The configuration of Cherokee kinship relations is extended to 
the world of plants, animals, and inorganic elements and forces. 
The bears and other animals of the forest and the mountains are 
regarded as being organized into moieties, clans, and towns, and the 
magical “little people” of the wastelands live in a similar organiza- 
tion and dance and play ball just as the Cherokees do. Spirits 
designated as “father” and “mother’s brother” are thought to send 
apoplexy. The maize in the fields is regarded as a “mother,” the 
fire and the sun are “grandmother,” while the moon is regarded 
as a powerful protecting “elder brother.” 


238 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Butn. 133 


PREFERENTIAL MATING 


When the author was first collecting pedigrees among the Chero- 
kees, he was told by an informant that, “The Cherokees marry their 
‘grandmothers’ (digilisi).” Since then the preponderance of the 
evidence collected has tended to substantiate this statement of a 
basic preferential mating principle. 

The marriage preference principle stated in its simplest form is 
that the choice of one’s mate is generally restricted to persons in 


| 
A=0O A=0O 


grand- | grand- grand- | grand- 
father | mother father | mother 
BES Na :* 
| | | | 
A=0O A=O A O 
grand- | grand- grand- | grand- grand- grand- 


father | mother father | mother father mother 
Ral ct Se Alaa elt ea 
| | | | 
b= (@) AX @ 
grand- | grand- grand- | grand- grand-  grand- 
father | mother father | mother father mother 


————) paailittonnatil lee Bi" 


grand- | grand- grand- | grand- father | mother father’s 
father | mother father | mother sister 
(ginisi) (ginisi) 
| | 
| | | | | | 
A=0O A=O A O A O 
grand- grand-_ grand- EGO EGO 


grand- | grand- grand- 
father | mother father | mother father mother 

Tein wanda ove ye (ny aay dsb) unt 
| | | | 


A=0O me SH) A 
grand- grand- grand- grand- grand- 
mother father mother father mother 


wer 
FiGuRE 53.—Father’s father’s matrilineal line. 1, All women are grandmothers; all men are grandfathers 
(father’s father distinguished by term “‘ginisi’’). 2, All men marrying grandmothers are grandfathers; all 
women marrying grandfathers are grandmothers. 3, All children of grandfathers are grandmothers and 
grandfathers (except ego's father and his siblings). 4, Father’s father’s clan and line is marriageable. 
one’s father’s father’s clan or in one’s mother’s father’s clan. The 
matrilineal lineage of the father’s father and the mother’s father, 
as we have seen in the section on the kinship system, contain only 
grandfathers (digiDuDu) and grandmothers (digilisi). 
The evidence for preferential marriage can be divided into two 
parts, direct evidence and indirect evidence. Under direct evidence 


ANTHROP, PaP, No. 23] THE EASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 239 


can be listed the testimony of the pedigrees and the inherited clan 
affiliations. Under the classification of indirect evidence there ex- 
ists the pedigree evidence of the children within given families pre- 
ferring to marry certain clans, the statistics indicating a tendency 
for persons who marry more than once to marry into the same clan, 
the statistical evidence of a low incidence of marriage with one’s own 
or one’s father’s clan, and, finally, the overwhelming evidence of 
the kinship usages. 

First, as to the evidence from the pedigrees directly. It was ex- 
ceedingly difficult to derive many cases showing marriages of the 
preferential type for the reason that families are always moving from 
one village to another and the informant’s knowledge soon stops in 
these cases. Again, it is difficult for the informant to recall clan 
affiliations for more than two generations above his own and the 
determining of marriage preferences in the present day require a 
knowledge of the clan affiliations of the grandfathers on both sides 
of the union, a total of four persons who can be exceedingly elusive 
on occasions. 

As may be seen from a glance at the accompanying list of clan mar- 
riages (below), recorded from the pedigrees of Big Cove, a random 
sampling of 35 unions gives the following results: Marriage with the 
grandparent or great-grandparent clan occurred in 29 cases, marriage 
with the father’s clan occurred in 4 cases, and marriage with own clan 
in 2 cases. The marriages within the clan constitute about 6 percent 
(2 cases out of 35), and the marriages with the father’s clan 11 percent 
(4 cases out of 85). The other 83 percent of the marriages are of the 
normal Cherokee type. 


List or SAMPLE CLAN MARRIAGES IN Bia COVE AREA 
A. Marriages according to the rule of preference 


1. J. W. (Twister) and M. T. (Deer). This marriage resulted from an acquaint- 
anceship in which both respected Bird Clan. In addition, the man’s 
father’s father was Deer. 

2. D.C. (Blue) and N. B. (Deer). The woman was of the man’s father’s father’s 

clan. 

0. B. C. (Wolf) and O. W. (Blue). Her mother’s father was Wolf. 

. C. W. (Wolf) and N. T. (Deer). His mother’s father was Deer. 

J. L. (Paint) and A. (Wolf). Her mother’s father was Paint. 

C. L. (Wolf) and M. A. (no clan). Her father’s father was Wolf. 

W. W. L. (Wolf) and M. W. S. (Deer). Her father’s father was Wolf. His 

father’s father was Deer. 

8. U. W. (Wolf) and M. W. S. (Deer). Her father respected Wolf. The man and 
the woman of this marriage both respected Blue. 

9. U. S. (Wolf) and N. D. (Deer). Her father’s father was Wolf. Both the man 
and the woman in this marriage respected Blue. 

10. W. T. (Potato) and G. (Deer). His father’s father was Deer, 

11. A. B. (Deer) and S. P. (Blue). Her mother’s father was Deer. 


NOME 


240 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Butu. 133 


12. N. P. (Blue) and BH. (Deer). His mother’s father was Deer. 

13. A. W. (Wolf) and A. R. (Blue). His mother’s father was Blue. 

14. J. L. (Deer) and C. P. (Blue). She and he respected Blue. His father’s father 
was Deer. 

15. S.S. (Wolf) and K. D. W. (Bird). Her mother’s father was Wolf. 

16. U. (Blue) and L. A. T. (Deer). Her mother’s father was Blue. His father’s 
father was Deer. 

17. L. L. (Deer) and K. L. (Twister). His father’s father was Twister. 

18. C. D. (Blue) and O. W. (Wolf). Her mother’s father was Blue. 

19. ©. D. (Wolf) and E. B. (Twister). Her father’s father was Wolf. His grand- 
mother’s father was Twister. 

20. C. B. W. (Twister) and R. D. (Wolf). His father’s father was Wolf. 

21. T. W. (Twister) and K. C. B. (Blue). Her mother’s father was Twister. 

22. O. C. (Wolf) and M. I’. (Blue). Her mother’s father was Wolf. 

23. L. H. (Deer) and L. J. W. (Wolf). Her mother’s father was Deer. 

24. D.S. (Blue) and A. F. (Wolf). His mother’s father was Wolf. 

25. J. C. (Bird) and C. T. (Blue). Her father’s father was Bird. 

26. L. C. (Wolf) and HE. B. (Paint). His mother’s father was Paint. 

27. L. C. (Wolf) and O. C. (Paint). His mother’s father was Paint. 

28. J. W. (Bird) and J. W. (Wolf). His father’s father was Wolf. 

29. W. D. (Blue) and E. W. (Bird). His father’s father was Bird. 


B. Marriages of Outlaw Status 


1. J. D. (Blue) and E. W. (Wolf). This is a violation of rule because her father’s 
clan was Blue. 

2. J. W. (Wolf) and A. C. (Deer). This marriage is a violation of rule because 
her father’s clan was Wolf. 

3. F. S. (Deer) and L. D. (Blue). This marriage is a violation of the rule because 
her father’s clan was Deer. 

4. M.C. (Wolf) and 8S. A. L. (Deer). This marriage is a violation of rule because 
his father’s clan is Deer, 

5. L. S. (Deer) and O. C. B. (Deer). This marriage is outlaw because both are of 
the same clan. Both the man and the woman in this case respect Blue. 

6. W. W. L. (Wolf) and A. E. W. (Wolf). Here again both are of the same clan. 

The predominant factor governing marriage choices as shown by 
this list seems to be the membership in the grandfather’s or great- 
erandfather’s clan. Only in the case of the woman’s mother’s 
father’s clan was there a slight predominance of one of the four 
possibilities over the others. Again, it is noticeable that, of the out- 
law marriages with the father’s clan, there were more on the part 
of the women than on the part of the men. Common respect for the 
clan seems to have led to acquaintanceship and marriage in several 
cases. 

The preceding element to marriage is the familiarity relationship 
and in some cases extensive pedigree investigation is necessary in 
order to determine just how such a familiarity relationship can exist. 
Persons standing in the relation of giDuDu (grandfather-grandchild) 
or gilisi (grandmother-grandchild) to each other are always on fa- 
miliar terms and capable of marital relation. Just such a cause 


ANTHROP, PaP. No. 23] THE EASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 241 


arises in the case of the marriage of J. T. (Potato) and L. W. 
(Wolf). According to the pedigree record, he should have married 
either Deer or Blue and she should have married either Deer or 
Twister. But the Deer Clan is giDuDu to both of them and such 
being the case they were placed in the relationship of familiarity to 
each other (and not being of the same clan as each other) were 
allowed to marry, as giDuDu to each other. 

One favorable factor in the present pedigree studies is the fact 
that family names are now transmitted back through the male line 
for at least three generations in most cases. This is a valuable aid 
in determining the fathers whose clans are so important in the selec- 
tion of a mate. 

The pedigree showed among other things several cases of the soro- 
rate, at least one case of the levirate, and several examples of mar- 
riage by exchange and marriage of two or more brothers to two or 
more sisters. The pedigrees demonstrate also the practical necessity 
of determining the identity of the so-called “invisible man” in the 
case of illegitimate births in order for the child to develop a proper 
orientation in its kinship relations. 

The mechanics of the pedigree allow for no alterations of the kin- 
ship behavior anywhere along the line. If there is a slip-up at any 
time this is bound to affect later generations. Therefore outlaw 
marriages tend to run in certain families and to cause increasing dis- 
ruption as they proceed. There ensues a conflict of principles such 
as that in which one party married within his own clan because his 
father’s father was of his own clan. 

Some quite unexpected consistencies are brought out in the pedi- 
grees. In one case a Cherokee man whose father was of Wolf Clan 
married a white woman of no clan. The woman bore him a daughter 
who was, of course, clanless since the clan is transmitted only 
through the mother. But the daughter followed true to the rules of 
the tribe and married a Cherokee man of the Wolf Clan. In a few 
cases a literal following out of the rules of preferential mating has 
taken the line of marrying an actual grandmother or person of the 
grandmother’s generation. One man contracted marriage with a 
woman and later with his adopted daughter through her. 

In summary of the pedigree situation, then, it is possible to say 
that actual evidence seems to point in a sprinkling of sample cases to 
a law of preferential mating with the grandfather’s clan or the 
lineage of the father’s father or mother’s father of ego. This is the 
direct evidence adducible. 

The limitations of the pedigree samples make some corborating 
evidence for preferential mating desirable and this is to be found in 
the incomplete pedigrees in connection with certain rules which seem 


242 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bunt 133 


to inhere in them, together with census data as to relative numbers of 
clan members and, lastly, kinship usage. 

The evidence from the incompleted pedigrees, i. e., pedigrees in 
which the clan affiliations of one or more of the four grandfathers of 
the two members of a union are not at all certain, can be characterized 
as the indication by choices of mate. These choices of mate by clan 
affiliations may be of two types, namely, (1) a preference may be 
shown by all of the children of a family for marrying persons of one 
or two clans, and (2) a preference may be shown by persons who 
marry more than once to marry persons of the same clan. 


List oF CLAN CHOICES IN MATES IN Bic COVE 


Clan of mother of family Clan choices of children 

nA) S41 beens A Sa ea Se oe Bird, Deer (2). 

AND) 0) Ys 2 leh toe ren a ie Wolf (2), Bird, Twister. 

£3 es ar Es, Fea aaa Wolf (3), Twister, Potato. 

g: apd O22) pices Sst iae APN aI Wolf (2), Deer, Bird. 

8: Wolf. Sees bec aeey PG. Twister (3), Paint (3), Blue, Potato, Deer. 
Gi (Deere srelever im ipa DES, Blue (5), Wolf (3), Twister (1). 
(6133 ees ee ee Deer (8), Wolf (1). 

fo} 012) pee Wolf (2), Potato (1), Twister (1). 
SV BluGe aaa e Sey Bird (2), Wolf (1). 
nC oh hh (owe pcan he EAP Deer (2), Bird, Blue, Wolf. 
DTT Bie Se ee a ers Wolf (3), Potato, Blue. 
AQ PB C208 ua eas ere, Wolf, Deer. 
13. BUC Tee eee ek Ce sae Twister (2), Deer, Blue. 
1 Berd fey) ees Rk a Ba Deer, Blue, Twister. 

BLS pee Pn ee gE Ee A Deer (3), Potato (1). 
GR aia tes eee eB Deer (2). 
Be (i) Oey ey ek MY CERES WAL ett oa BE REY Bird, Deer. 
Bere 2d a larch “ae ELD, Bird (2), Wolf (2). 
TOS TE wiSsternie es eke 2 tee Twister (2), Paint (1). 
ZOO CS a. SUA ae Wolf (3), Deer. 
DAW OLR as ee a ace caer Deer (2), Blue (2), Wolf. 
SEE WISUGT er een eer Deer, Wolf. 
2a ALWISter tose heat oe Deer (2), Blue, Wolf. 
24a Deers: ives ibs pee 2 Ve Twister (2), Wolf. 
P5901 D ITs ease ae ee eM ee Wolf (3), Bird (3). 
OG et AO = ee ee Wolf, Paint, Deer. 


Seven of the families listed exhibited no clan preferences in the 
mates chosen by the children. Of the remaining 20 which seemed to 
exhibit a definite preference, some five were shown by additional data 
to be preferences which conflicted directly with the principles of non- 
marriage with one’s own or one’s father’s clans. The remaining 15 
(about 60 percent of the cases) showed a definite preference in mar- 
riage for one or two clans. It is not entirely impossible to suppose 
that these two clans are the grandfathers’ clans. 

The remarriage of individuals shows even more definitely a tendency 
to select certain clans. An examination was made of 35 persons who 


ANTHROP, Pap. No. 23] THE EASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 243 


married more than once with the following results. One person mar- 
ried four times, and two of the mates were of the same clan. Six 
persons married three times and five of these six married persons of 
the same clan twice. Twenty-eight persons married twice and of 
these, nine married in the same clan both times. This appears to be 
a rather large percentage of repetition of choice. 

Another line of indirect evidence, the average local numbers of clan 
members, shows a close correlation with the data just cited. The 
average local preponderance of two clans is about 58 percent as can 
be seen by comparing the local percentages mentioned in the section 
on the clan. The average percentage of marriages showing a definite 
choice in clan affiliations is about 60 percent. Here is an interesting 
correlation. This can be interpreted in three ways: (1) The local 
preponderance in clan numbers may have given rise to the marriage 
preferences, (2) the marriage choices may have given rise to the 
preponderances, and (3) both of these phenomena may be examples of 
an underlying principle. 

The local preponderancies in clan numbers can hardly have given 
rise to the indicated marriage preferences for the following reason. 
An enumeration of the heads of households in Big Cove showed the 
following numbers of clan memberships: Deer, 19; Wolf, 18; Blue, 
10; Bird, 9; Twister, 6; Paint, 1, and Potato, 1. On the basis of the 
relative clan numbers, a certain order of expected matings would 
occur if local concentration of clan numbers was the most important 
determining factor in marriage preferences. If a comparison of 
expected order of matings in terms of frequencies of occurrence of 
clan persons as based on local clan numbers were made with the 
actually observed order of frequency of matings and a fair amount 
of coincidence were shown, then it would seem justifiable to assume 
that chance local or geographic propinquity governed clan matings.?° 
But such a coincidence does not occur as can be seen from the ac- 
companying table. 


ORDER OF FREQUENCY OF CLAN MATINGS 


Expected order: Observed order: 

1. Deer-Wolf. 1. Deer-Wolf. 

2. Deer-Blue. 2. Wolf-Blue. 

3. Wolf-Blue. 3. Deer-Twister. 
4, Deer-Bird. 4. Wolf-Bird. 

5. Deer-Twister. 5. Deer-Blue. 

6. Wolf-Bird. 6. Deer-Bird. 

7. Wolf-Twister. 7. Wolf-Twister. 
8. Blue-Bird. 8. Paint-Bird, _ 
9. Blue-Twister. 9. Potato-Blue. 


19 Unless, of course, previous factors had interfered. None such were recorded, however. 


244. BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Buun. 133 


It will be observed from this table that with the exception of the 
Deer-Wolf matings, which are unavoidably most numerous because 
of the immense local concentrations in numbers of these two clans, 
the observed order of matings does not in any way correspond with 
the expected order. 

Another indication that geographic propinquity does not govern 
clan marriage preferences may be obtained from the relatively low 
percentage of marriage within the clan already cited, namely, 6 per- 
cent, and the similarily low percentage of marriage with the father’s 
clan. If local number of clans governed clan marriage choices, then 
in some regions an immense amount of Wolf-Wolf matings would 
occur, and so on. The inevitable conclusion must be from this evi- 
dence that cultural factors operate to restrict and guide behavior 
rather than chance propinquity so far as marriage choices are con- 
cerned. 

It is a difficult task to show that the marriage preferences indicated 
could have given rise to the local clan preponderancies. If clan mar- 
riages had been totally a chance series of permutations, it would per- 
haps be expected that the numbers of clan members would be locally 
and generally quite equal or roughly so. With only chance guiding 
marriages, the possibilities of selecting mates from any 2 of the 7 
clans would be 29 out of 100. Instead, there occurs an average selec- 
tion of 2 clans in marriage in 60 cases out of 100. 

It is most likely that the local clan concentration and the marriage 
choices indicated are the expression of some common principle. This 
principle may be the formerly existing dual division of society into 
dual organizations. Two groups of clans may have existed, probably 
comprising four in each, and marriage regulations were possibly orig- 
inally such that marriage only into the opposite moiety was allowed. 
The basis for this argument lies in the historical records showing 
that not only the ancient Cherokees but also the neighboring Creeks 
and other Southeastern tribes had a complete double system at one 
time involving the division into red and white groups of a basic eight- 
clan series. The Creeks still retain remnants of the moiety system 
but the Cherokees have lost it entirely. The ancient Cherokee double 
division and its functioning will be discussed more fully in the section 
on historical change. 

It would be exceedingly desirable if the pedigrees would be able to 
show within given lineages that a balance was struck between mar- 
riages with the father’s father’s clan and marriages with the mother’s 
father’s clan but unfortunately the genealogies are not complete 
enough to show this definitely. It can be observed from the List of 
Sample Clan Marriage in Big Cove Area (p. 239-240) that there were 
six choices each of the man’s father’s father’s clan, man’s mother’s 


AnTHrop, Pap, No. 23] THE EASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 245 


father’s clan, and the woman’s father’s father’s clan, while in the case 
of the woman’s mother’s father’s clan there were nine choices. This 
latter number may or may not have been accidental and of no signifi- 
cance but the general purport of the sample seems to be that there is a 
remarkable degree of evenness in the numbers of selections from the 
four primary possibilities of a given union. 

There is generally an active and a passive party in each case of pref- 
erential mating. The active party is the one whose grandfather’s clan 
is the same as the passive party’s clan. The passive party is the one 
who is “selected out,” so to speak, by the active agency of the active 
party. There is apparently no correlation of active and passive 
parties with either of the sexes. 

Preferential mating is carried on mainly by means of the clan 
mechanism. As has already been stated, four clans are important in 
the life of every individual, and it is the kinship restrictions and 
privileges attaching to one’s behavior toward each of these four clans 
which determines the choice of a mate. Therefore, we can safely make 
the functional generalization that the Cherokee clan is primarily the 
regulating agent of preferential mating and the most important single 
manifestation of its structural basis. The clan is a structural mecha- 
nism whose rasion d’etre lies in the special principle of preferential 
mating. 

The single clan is a unit possessed of intense social solidarity but, 
by means of a self-adjusting mechanism expressing itself through 
preferential mating, it allows of an exchange of constituent members 
in marriage between itself and other clans. Under present condi- 
tions there exist no relationships between clans as a whole. There 
exist only relationships between individual members of the clan 
and other clans as wholes. This situation was probably not always 
in existence, as historical evidence seems to indicate that formerly 
the clans were divided equally into two groups. If this was true, 
preferential mating was probably between these two segmentary 
groups. This, however, brings us into the problem of diachronic 
changes which will be discussed later. 


FAMILIARITY AND RESPECT 


As has been mentioned before, the problem of usages of privileged 
familiarity and respect involves the mechanism which leads to pref- 
erential mating. At an early age the Cherokee child learns that 
he may be familiar with some relatives and not with others. These 
two categories of relatives standout as most important in his be- 
havior throughout life. 

The following relatives must be respected and never directly joked 
with: (1) First degree ascending generation persons (father, mother, 


246 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Butn. 133 


aunt, and uncle); (2) first degree descending generation (chil- 
dren, nephews, and nieces); (3) the respected relatives of one’s 
familiar relatives (wife’s parents, husband’s parents) ; (5) the fami- 
har relatives of one’s respected relatives (son’s wife, father’s sister, 
father’s clan, etc.) ; and (5) one’s son’s child or father’s father. 

The following relatives may be joked with: (1) One’s siblings and 
their affinities (brothers and sisters and their wives and husbands) ; 
(2) cousins through the father’s brother or mother’s sister (parallel 
cousins); (3) one’s whole clan except the mothers and mother’s 
brothers; (4) most persons in the grandparent generation except own 
father’s father; (5) reciprocally the grandchildren’s generation can 
be joked with except the son’s children; (6) one’s own affinities and 
their siblings (spouses and their brothers and sisters); and (7) the 
familiar relatives of one’s familiar relatives and the respected rela- 
tives of one’s respected relatives (parents’ parents and children’s 
children) with exceptions above noted. 

Respect and familiarity behavior may be extended in various ways. 
Ego may be forced to respect a man whose father is of the same clan 
as ego’s father’s father since that man is a “brother” to ego’s father 
and hence is a “father” to ego. Ego may likewise set up relationships 
of familiarity at once with any man whose father is of the same 
clan as ego’s father since that man is a “brother” to ego. 

First, as to the privileged familiarity connected with preferential 
mating: It has already been mentioned that familiarity and respect 
are two fundamental poles of behavior in Cherokee society. The 
distinction seems to be correlated with the marriageability of lineages. 
The father’s and mother’s matrilineal lineages are not to be inter- 
married with nor (by extension) the clans correlated with these two 
lineages. The individual must always maintain an attitude of formal 
respect toward the father’s matrilineal lineage and clan. With his 
mother’s matrilineal lineage and clan he can maintain an attitude of 
familiarity with the men (except mother’s brother and his own sons) 
but with the women he must maintain a certain reserve. On the 
other hand toward the persons whom he meets and finds to be in the 
matrilineal lineages and clans of his grandfathers he can maintain 
the utmost familiarity. They are giDuDu and gilisi to ego and he 
or she can marry the women or men of these lineages and clans. 

Familiarities may be of three types, namely, intersexual, satirical, 
and indirect. Each of these types of familarity has a functional cor- 
relation with the preferential mating pattern. 

Intersexual familiarities transpire between persons of different sex 
standing in the grandparent-grandchild relationship to each other. 
The most common occasions for the display of these familiarities is at 
the dance and while visiting. We shall mention those occurring at the 
dance as typical. 


AntHROP, Pap, No. 23] THE EASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 247 


The young men convey various meanings to the young women by sign 
language with the hands or by scratching and tickling the hands of the 
girls in the dance circle. The various familiarities of the Friendship 
Dances are in particular occasions for the display of familiarity be- 
havior—the men putting their hats on the heads of the women, plac- 
ing their arms about their shoulders or necks, and other movements. 
In the Raccoon Dance the men pretend to rub grease on the women. 
In the Bear Dance the men pretend that they are bears and endeavor 
to scratch the women. In the Chicken Dance the women place one foot 
on one foot of their male partners. More violent and overt forms of 
familiarity take the form of feinted blows with the hands, tickling, 
and poking with the fingers, and in various obscene gestures in the Bear 
Dance and Bugah Dance. 

All of these familiarities are limited to persons of the grandparent- 
grandchild relationship and the other persons present are relatives who 
cannot be joked with and who enjoy the fun in a vicarious fashion, so 
to speak. The end result of the familiarities is that the sexual rela- 
tionship is established between young men and the young women with 
whom they are enabled by means of the familiarities to become ac- 
quainted. Acquaintanceships of the type leading to marriage are not 
likely to be developed between a young man and his gitoki (father’s 
sister) or with his ungiDa (own sister). 

Intersexual familiarities appear to have a special correlation with 
the dance as a vehicle of the display of the relationship. In this con- 
- nection it is curious to note that the periodicity of the dances inclined 
them to correlate with the lunar cycle throughout the Southeastern 
area. Regular monthly dances were formerly held among the Chero- 
kees and Creeks at the time of full moon only. There is a negative 
correlation of sexual familiarities with the periodic menstrual cycle. 
During the menstrual flow, great stress is laid on avoidance of relation- 
ships so far as the woman is concerned, and this sets up a barrier to 
intersexual familiarities. She cannot participate in the dance during 
this period. The husband-wife relationship of solidarity is set up from 
the intersexual familiarities. This acts to break up the former soli- 
darity of the two families of orientation of the pair forming the 
new union. Thus anew family is born. 

The second form of familiarity, the satirical type, is that which pre- 
vails between brothers in the main. In the Eagle Dance and in the 
Friendship Dance ego’s clan brothers may twit him about his faults 
and misdeeds and indulge in various comments at his expense. The 
person who is addressed is made the butt of every joke and sly dig. 
This is also an incessant activity wherever two or three relatives of 
the correct relationship are gathered together and is accepted as the 
only forms of exchange of the social amenities between great numbers 


405260—43——_17 


248 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY (Boy. 133 


of persons. The principal feature to be noted in connection with this 
joking is the very obscene and coarse joking directed toward these men 
who attempt to marry their own giloki (father’s sister). The person 
who indulges in this socially unwholesome marriage is made the butt of 
severe ridicule for the rest of his day. The satirical familiarities can, 
in this case, be seen to have the force of a satirical sanction of preserv- 
ing the social system from violation of rule because few are the men 
able to stomach the ridicule thus self-imposed. 

Another form of satirical familiarity, or at least familiarity used 
with the force of a satirical sanction, occurs in the case of the man 
who marries the father’s sister. This person is said to “make him- 
self grandfather” and he is the subject of a peculiar joke on the 
part of his wife’s brother’s sons and daughters. These latter gather 
together on an auspicious occasion when they can catch the father’s 
sister’s husband alone and ask him for tobacco, saying that they have 
diarrhea and need the tobacco to cure it. If the father’s sister’s 
husband refuses or has no tobacco on him, the children of his wife’s 
brother have perfect right to set upon him, throw him to the ground, 
and then strike, kick, and otherwise maltreat him without resistance 
on his part. 

This joke can be played only once by the same person on the 
same father’s sister’s husband but ego can play it on any one who 
marries a woman of his father’s clan, otherwise he must respect 
persons of this relationship. The application of this ridicule sanc- 
tion to the system of preferential mating can occur through the 
fact that the brothers and sisters of ego can plague him with this 
joke and get others to do so should ego decide to marry a woman 
of his father’s clan. The threat of this joke has been known to 
actually deter men from such a violation of clan law. 

The third form of familiarity, the indirect, is that which occurs 
between a father and mother and their children or between an uncle 
and his nephew or niece. This has been referred to in the section 
on preferential mating as one of the preceding elements to that 
event. Indirect familiarity between a father and mother and their 
children or between an uncle and his nephew or niece is allowed with 
preferential mating. The relation between the father and his son 
is typical. 

At an early age in his son’s life the father speaks to him about 
marriage. “You must marry my aunt,” he tells the boy. The boy 
cannot understand at that time that it is the father’s classificatory 
“aunt” who is meant and thinks only of the old and somewhat ugly 
person whom his father calls “aunt” in the home. This is hugely 
enjoyed by the father who is aware that sooner or later the boy 
will “catch on” to the joke. This enables the father, however, to 


AnTHROP. Pap. No. 23] THE EASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 249 


have a good deal of enjoyment at the expense of two relatives 
whom he cannot ordinarily joke, his father’s sister and his own son. 
The point of this joke is that a respected relative is joked indirectly 
by ego about another respected relative. In this manner familiarity 
relations are implied between the two respected relatives. And so 
it turns out. Eventually the son finds that he can joke with and 
be entirely familiar with his father’s giloki, who is gilisi to him- 
self. It seems possible, then, to interpret the indirect joking of 
this type as correlated with preferential mating through its asso- 
ciation with the embryonic stage of the grandparent-grandchild 
familiarity. 

The kinship terminology of the Cherokees finds a natural comple- 
ment in the general kinship behavior peculiar to the tribe. The 
behavior, however, must be kept separated from the terminology in 
order to discover the amount of correlation between the behavior 
and the terminology in the case of the individual relationships. 


KINSHIP BEHAVIOR OF PAIRS 


The kinship behavior is best analysed as a series of relationships 
between pairs of relatives. The most important relationships are the 
following: Father-son; mother-daughter; father-daughter; mother- 
son; husband-wife; brother-brother; brother-sister; sister-sister ; 
father’s sister-brother’s child; mother’s brother-sister’s child; father’s 
father-son’s child; mother’s father-daughter’s child; grandmother- 
grandchild; wife’s parents-daughter’s husband; husband’s parents- 
son’s wife; and, lastly, the somewhat involved relation between hus- 
band’s or wife’s siblings and sibling’s husbands or wives. 

The father-son relationship (giDaDa-agwetsi).—Neither the father 
nor the mother differentiates the sex of the child in the terminology, 
yet behavior is conditioned somewhat by the sex of the child. The 
father jokes in an indirect fashion with his son but does nothing 
of the kind with his daughter. The father does not regard it as his 
duty to discipline the son since the latter is of the mother’s clan and 
not his. The father, therefore, leaves to a considerable degree the up- 
bringing of the son to the latter’s mother’s brother. Yet the father 
is very important in the boy’s life. He aids and assists his son in 
obtaining skill in the crafts of life. Beyond that he always maintains 
a reserve and distant aloofness toward the son, as befits a person to be 
respected. 

For the son the father is a skayegusta, which means a “road boss,” 
“a chief,” or “a person well dressed.” The father is the representative 
of a clan or group of persons of the highest quality. The father must 
always be upheld in arguments with other persons, and it is impos- 
sible for a son to derogate or belittle his father in the slightest degree. 


250 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BuLL. 133 


In joking with his “brothers,” the son must never joke about his 
father’s clan. 

The father often jokes with his son about a third party, but the 
joking is kept on a strictly impersonal plane and as will be seen later 
develops into an important functional relationship. The father 
will joke with, and derogate his clan brothers and it will be the duty 
of his son to come to their defense. 

So far as could be ascertained, the child does not differentiate in his 
behavior toward his real father and the numerous clan “fathers” with 
whom he is brought into relation. Toward all the attitude he must 
maintain is one of respect and exaltation. 

Mother-daughter relationship (giDzi-agwetsi)—The somewhat 
stiff and formalized relationships existing between father and son pre- 
vail also between mother and daughter. The mother attempts to 
instruct the daughter in the arts of life, but the bonds of sympathy 
between the two are apparently not many. Most of the daughter’s 
affection goes to the mother’s mother, with whom relations of famili- 
arity are maintained. 

Father-daughter relationship (giDaDa-agwetsi).—Little could be 
ascertained as to the importance of this relationship. The father 
plays with his daughter when she is little but he maintains an aloof 
attitude later. The daughter in turn learns to respect and uphold 
her father and his clan. 

Mother-son relationship (giDzi-agwetsi).—The mother is very im- 
portant in the life of the son. It is she who first introduces him to 
the age-old lore of the tribe and starts him out in life. The mother 
must be respected and upheld by the son. Between the mother and 
son there can take place the same indirect joking as that which takes 
place between father and son, namely joking about a third party. 

Husband-wife relationship (agi(x) yehi-agwadali e).—The relation- 
ship of husband and wife is held close by bonds of familiarity privi- 
leges. Various accessory epithets are used between the pair, the hus- 
band being referred to as “my supporter” or “he who lives with me,” 
while the wife is called “the old woman,” “my cooker,” ete. 

The sexual division of labor is somewhat marked, the woman doing 
the domestic work of cooking and laundering while the husband culti- 
vates the fields or cuts wood for the fire. There are many cooperative 
labors such as hoeing and harvesting, in which the sexes join. In 
some fields of work the division of labor is very marked indeed; only 
the women make pottery, only the men carve wooden effigies or stone 
pipes. Certain games such as the ball game and bow and arrow games 
are reserved for the men exclusively. On the other hand certain 
dances are exclusively feminine. 


AnTuRop, Par, No. 23] THE BRASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 251 


There is an avoidance of sexual relations between husband and wife 
during the menstrual period and also in pregnancy but there is no 
segregation of the woman during these events. 

Divorce is easy and frequent. The mode of separation depends 
upon the type of marital relationship involved. In those cases in 
which the husband has come to live with the wife at her home he 
simply leaves and does not return. The business of protecting the 
abandoned wife and her issue is then relegated to the woman’s broth- 
ers. In other cases wherein the man and woman are living together 
away from relatives or with the man’s relations, the woman picks up 
her belongings and goes back to her family. 

The bonds of privileged familiarity which bind husband and wife 
together are described in the section on familiarity. 

Older brother-younger brother relationship (unkinili-unkinutsi).— 
The relations between brothers are very close. There isa great amount 
of familiarity and privileged joking between them and brothers take 
a special pleasure in teasing each other before one another’s children. 
The children must always defend their fathers in cases like this. 

The older brother has the express function of protecting the younger 
brother and avenging any wrong done to him. 

The older brother generally leaves the family household at an early 
date to set up his own home elsewhere. The youngest or younger 
brothers tend to stay at home and to take care of their parents. It 
is the younger sons who generally inherit the land tenures. 

Brothers act as the moral censors of each other’s behavior. If a 
man attempts to violate the law of clan exogamy or to marry someone 
of his father’s clan, his brothers tease him and threaten a large 
number of practical jokes which are calculated to make the offender 
uncomfortable for the remainder of his life. There is no differentia- 
tion apparently between brothers who are sons of the same clan and 
real brothers so far as joking is concerned. 

In the use of coarse and quite obscene joking between brothers, a 
tendency toward homosexual relationships characteristic of the South- 
eastern area is to be seen. Significantly enough, obscene joking is not 
extended to the sisters. Brothers often name each other’s children 
and may joke each other by giving silly or ridiculous names to the 
children. 

Brother-sister relationship (ungiDa—ungiDa).—The brother gen- 
erally takes a protective attitude toward his sister. If his sister has 
been made pregnant, it is her brothers who take the initiative in 
accusing the so-called “invisible man” responsible. The accusation, 
if sustained by local opinion, leads to some sort of settlement on the 
part of the man responsible. If a sister has a number of children by 
“invisible men,” her brothers will take the lead in building a house for 
her to live in and raise her children in. 


252 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 133 


Brothers act as moral censors to prevent their sister from marrying 
someone in her own clan or her father’s clan. A sister who indulged 
in such an outlaw marriage would have to stand for a great amount 
of teasing, more than she would ordinarily have to endure. 

Brothers cannot joke on sexual topics with their sisters. She can 
be joked in a mild fashion only. 

The sexual division of labor separates brother and sister at an early 
age. The types of recreation and play of male and female children 
also differ immensely. Notwithstanding, if neither brother nor sister 
marries they may live together all of their lives in the parents’ home- 
stead. ‘The solidarity of brothers and sisters is immense, so great, in 
fact, that a number of accessory cultural devices in the line of privi- 
leged familiarity have to be called into play in order to overcome it 
and provide for the development of a normal husband and wife 
solidarity. 

Sister-sister relationship (ungilu i-ungilu i).—The older sister is 
not distinguished from the younger insofar as terminology is con- 
cerned as the brothers are distinguished. There is a greater amount 
of sister solidarity and identification with each other as sociological 
equivalents. There is still a tendency for a man to marry first one 
sister and later another younger sister of his wife. Polygamy would 
be more common, or at least more open, were it not for white laws. 

The older sister acts to instruct her younger sibling of the same sex 
in many of the duties of the household and she also acts somewhat as a 
protector. 

One sister may jokingly refer to the husband of the other sister as 
“my husband.” Outside of these points no marked features appeared 
in the sister-sister relationship. 

Father’s sister-brother’s child relationship (gitoki-agwetsi).—The 
paternal aunt is always accounted a person to whom the highest re- 
spect must be paid. She is just like a father. She protects and looks 
after her brother’s offspring whenever necessary. She accounts her 
brother’s children just as important as her own children. It is her 
function to name her brother’s children, quite frequently. She will 
pick out a name such as her father’s or her mother’s for the child. 

Mother’s brother-sister’s child relationship (gidu.dji-ungiwina or 
gidu.dji-ungwatu).—The mother’s brother is, next to the father, the 
person regarded with the highest respect of all ego’s male relatives. 
It is the mother’s brother who acts to regulate the conduct of the 
growing boy and he teaches his sister’s son much in the way of hunting 
lore and magical formulas. He also jokes with his sister’s son in an 
indirect fashion about third parties just as the boy’s father does. 
When his nephew or niece is sick, it is the mother’s brother who attends 


ANTHROP, Par, No. 23] THE EASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 258 


to them. The nephew or niece will be able to tell the mother’s brother 
to do something and he will generally do it. 

Father's father-son’s child relationship  (ginisi-ginisi).—The 
father’s father can play with and tease his grandchild but the grand- 
child is not supposed to reciprocate. It is thought best for the grand- 
child to accept the indignities involved in the teasing because the 
paternal grandfather is a person of respect. Toward anyone else in 
the father’s father’s clan, however, it is quite the proper thing to ex- 
hibit behavior of the utmost familiarity. 

Mother's father-daughter’s child relationship (giDuDu-gilisi). — 
The mother’s father can tease and joke with his daughter’s child to his 
heart’s content and the child is likewise free to tease and joke with 
the mother’s father to any degree. It is in his grandfather’s clan ma- 
ternal or paternal that the boy finds the greatest amount of freedom 
and familiarity. 

The husband of the paternal aunt, who is regarded as a giDuDu by 
ego, is the subject of a peculiarly ritualized joke on the part of his 
wife’s brother’s children. This is the tobacco joke to which full ref- 
erence was made in the section on familiarity (p. 248). 

Grandmother-grandchild relationship (gilisi-gilisi or gilisi- 
ginisi).—The great freedom prevailing between the mother’s father 
and his daughter’s children also exists between the grandmother both 
paternal and maternal, and their grandchildren. Joking is carried on 
all of the time and a great amount of familiarity is always present. 
The grandmother is the person who is remembered as having first 
borne her grandchild on her back and as the playmate of the grand- 
child. Yet some grandmothers are feared and an ugly old woman or 
grandmother is said to be a witch and the children are greatly afraid 
of her. 

Wifes parents-daughter’s husband relationship  (tcinatsi-agi 
Nudji).—This is a relationship of mutual respect. One may joke 
mildly with a son-in-law but not in a really familiar manner. Ego 
must respect the mother- and father-in-law just as he does his or her 
own father or mother. 

Husband’s parents-son’s wife relationship (djiDzo i-agiDzo 1).— 
This is a relationship of mutual respect which is virtually the same as 
the preceding. 

Mate’s sibling-sibling’s mate relationship (agwelaksi-agwelaksi) — 
The relations that ego bears to his wife’s brothers and sisters or to 
her husband’s brothers and sisters is invariably one of familiarity. 
There is reciprocal joking of a complicated and extensive nature be- 
tween these relatives which is partly expressed in special terms for 
agwelaksi relations. The familarities involved have important impli- 
cations and will be dealt with later. 


254 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Buun. 133 


GENERAL SOCIAL FEATURES 
BIRTH AND CHILDHOOD 


There are certain social features adhering to the individual life 
cycle, the dances, and the games of the Cherokee which merit atten- 
tion in this description. First, on the life cycle. 

The information available on the birth rites and early life of the 
Cherokee infant is rather scant. Frans Olbrechts has investigated 
this phase of Cherokee life and intends to publish considerable data 
on it in the future." 

The pregnant mother goes at each new moon to the waterside to 
pray. The conjurer laves her head, bosom, and face and prays with 
her. He then divines with beads on a cloth as to whether the child 
will live or not, and how long. In order to facilitate delivery and 
cleanse the system of the mother, various drinks are administered. 
Various taboos are laid on the pregnant mother as she is considered 
very dangerous. She must not prepare any meals nor go near grow- 
ing crops or fishtraps. She must not eat a number of foods, must not 
wear certain articles of apparel, must not see a corpse or a mask. 
The pregnant woman’s husband is likewise under various disabilities. 
He must dig no grave, not play in the ball game, and must accom- 
pany his wife in her various rites before delivery. 

In parturition, four women attend. A conjurer may be present if 
the delivery is difficult and he resorts to various magical formulas 
to induce the child to be born. The placenta is disposed of by the 
father, who crosses two to four ridges and then buries the placenta deep 
in the ground. The next child will be born within a number of years 
corresponding to the number of ridges crossed. If the placenta were 
thrown away in the open, another child would be born almost any 
time. 

The child is given a name some 4 or 7 days after birth, according 
to some accounts, by a prominent old woman of the community. From 
the field accounts of the present writer, the father’s family is gen- 
erally delegated with the task of selecting a name for the child. 
Sometimes the father’s brother will select a ridiculous name as a 
joke for the child and the parents will be forced to accept it. Gen- 
erally, however, the father’s sister selects the name for the child. 
Later on in life new names may be acquired by the child, descriptive 
of its character or achievements. 

When the child is 3 or 4 weeks old it is carried about sitting astride 
the mother’s back. The grandmother has this function also and the 
term gilisi used for her means “she bears me on her back.” 


rf 


u Parts of the following are from his Swimmer manuscript (Mooney and Olbrechts, 19382, 
pp. 116-131), 


ANTHROP, Pap, No. 23] THE EASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 255 


Certain children are raised to be “witches.” These are given a 
special diet of a liquid potion of corn hominy for some days and then 
certain other medicines are administered and prayers said at the end 
of a given period. These children then grow up to be powerful 
magicians who can fly through the air and under the ground and 
assume any shape. They can wish anything and it immediately takes 
place. They are a terrible calamity to the community so they are 
generally sought after and slain in infancy. Twins are regarded as 
potential witches, also, whose abilities may be even more readily 
developed. 

At the age of 4 or 5 the young boys make bows and arrows under 
the supervision of their fathers or elder brothers. Little girls of this 
age begin to assist in the household duties. The children also begin to 
participate in the dances at this age. Various games occupy the time 
of the children. Toy bows and arrows are used to shoot at crickets 
and apples in the trees. The game of hunter and deer is played. Other 
sports are indulged in, such as rolling stones down the mountains, and 
playing on toy musical instruments, and various athletic sports. 

Instruction now begins to follow the line of the sexual division of 
labor. The boys are taught by the mother’s brother various formulas 
for success in hunting and obtaining success in love affairs; the girls 
are taught to make baskets, pottery, and to perform various household 
tasks. 

MARRIAGE AND ADULTHOOD 


There are apparently no ceremonies connected with the initiation of 
the child into the adult group. Entrance into the adult status gen- 
erally occurs automatically with the marriage relation. The direct 
mechanism involved in courtship will be described later in the dis- 
cussion of familiarity and the dance. (See pp. 263-264.) 

The young people meet at various places. The principal mode of 
acquaintanceship is the habit of visiting relatives. The mother and 
the father of the family are always taking the children around with 
them in their visits to relations. The friendship of the boy and girl 
may be still further developed at the dances, at the friendship dances, 
and the ball dance in particular. 

A marriage may take place in various ways. The man may simply 
go to live at the house of the woman, and she may then bear him chil- 
dren. Afterward he may tire of the woman and leave for some other 
community. Or in other cases the man may take the woman to his 
own house, and she will stay there while their family is being raised. 
In still other cases the young couple may go out and found a home- 
stead of their own on the mountain slopes. 

There is little or no ceremony connected with the formation of a 
new family. The groom may give a wedding feast at his home for all 


256 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Buun. 133 


the relatives of his own and the bride. It is said that in the past a 
woman signified her acceptance of a young man’s proposal of marriage 
by pounding up into flour and then baking into bread a sack of corn 
left at her door by hin. 

The age of consent in marriage is 15 for girls and 17 for boys. How- 
ever, marriage earlier than these ages frequently occurs. Late mar- 
riages are by no means uncommon. Either these later marriages are 
generally of ugly persons unable to find a mate earlier in life or re- 
marriages by conjurers, Late marriages and many of the early ones 
involve the use of love charms or magic to induce affection in a woman 
who is much desired. 

After marriage the man farms, looks after the stock, cuts wood, 
hunts game, fishes in the river, or visits other villages. The woman 
does the household chores, looks after the children, cooks, sews, washes 
the clothes, and perhaps follows her husband around in his visits. 
In all public meetings, such as the ball game, dances, church services, 
and the like, the women always congregate by themselves apart from 
the men. 

The man regards with great respect his wife’s parents, and she does 
the same with his. The husband will never joke with or treat in a 
familiar manner the wife’s parents, but he can treat with great jocu- 
larity any brother or sister of his wife. She likewise jokes with the 
brothers and sisters of her husband. 


SICKNESS AND DEATH 


As age creeps up, the number of diseases afflicting the individual 
begin to multiply and assume increased importance. Disease is re- 
garded as being caused principally by malevolent conjurers or by 
nature spirits whose evil influence must be warded off by enlisting the 
aid of some powerful conjurer on the side of the patient. Later on 
in this paper some attention will be given to the theory of disease 
causation among the Cherokees and its social implications. (See 
pp. 294-297.) 

When sickness comes to the family and its activities are so definitely 
crippled as to threaten its health and well-being, the local cooperative 
poor-aid society steps in and does the farming and housework of the 
family until the latter is on its feet again. 

When death comes to the family, the local cooperative again func- 
tions, this time as an undertaking establishment. Mooney and Ol- 
brechts (1932, pp. 131-144) have graphically described the death and 
burial of an important member of the Big Cove community. 

Beyond a few miscellaneous tasks, relatives or immediate kin are not 
allowed to take any part in the funeral arrangements or burial of the 
deceased. The corpse is washed, dressed, and then lies in state for sev- 
eral days for all to come and get a last look. The friends of the family 


ANTHROP, Pap. No. 23] THE EASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 251, 


watch the corpse day and night. The coffin, which has been prepared’ 
by the funeral society, is brought, and then the corpse is placed inside 
it and borne to the cemetery. An ordinary Christian burial service is 
generally held at the house of the deceased before burial. And so the 


life cycle is completed. 
THE DANCE 


The next general social feature is the dance. There are some 24 
dances current or remembered among the Cherokeees of Big Cove. 
Some 8 of these have fallen into disuse. The following are the dances 
known: Ant, Ball, Bear, Beaver, Buffalo, Bugah, Chicken, Coat, 
Corn, Eagle, Friendship, Green Corn, Ground Hog, Horse, Knee Deep, 
Medicine, Partridge, Pheasant, Pigeon, Raccoon, Round, Snake, War, 
and “Woman Gathering Wood.” The Ant, Buffalo, Chicken, Medi- 
cine, Pheasant, Pigeon, Raccoon, and War Dances have all lapsed from 
current use and are only half remembered. In Birdtown several addi- 
tional dances are performed to which later reference will be made. 

In most of the dances both men and women participate, but only men 
are allowed to lead and to do the singing for the dancers. A few 
dances are confined to one or the other sex. 

Most dances are led by a singer who has a drum or gourd rattle in 
his hand and who may or may not participate in the motions of the 
dance. The rank and file of the dancers, who follow the leader in 
single file, may accompany the singing of their leader, or they may finish 
out his initial phrases, or they may reply in antiphony. A woman 
with tortoise-shell rattles fastened to her legs generally follows imme- 
diately after the leader and keeps time for his singing by shaking the 
rattles on her legs in rhythmic sequence. 

The musical instruments used in the dance consist of (1) a ground- 
hog skin drum, (2) one or more gourd rattles on short sticks, and 
(3) several tortoise-shell rattles bound about the legs of the woman 
leader. 

Various ornamental and characteristic features are introduced in 
the dances, such as pine boughs, sticks, eagle-feather wands, pipes, 
masks, and robes of various kinds. Costumes of skins were said to 
have been used in the past but today, except for the masked Bugah 
Dance and the dances at the annual fair in imitation buckskin, the 
plain overalls of everyday life are worn. 

The dances are usually held at night. Certain dances are given 
only in the early part of the evening and others are relegated to 
the hours after midnight. The evening dances are the Eagle, 
Bugah, Beaver, “Woman gathering Wood,” and Pigeon. The Friend- 
ship Dances may continue all night as may also the Ball dances. 
The general order of the evening dances is for a Bugah Dance to 
precede an Kagle Dance after which may come a Friendship Dance. 
Or perhaps a Pigeon Dance may start off the evening followed by a 


258 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Buu. 133 


Beaver and then a Bugah Dance. If the Eagle Dance was sched- 
uled, the Pigeon Dance would be left out, or vice versa. The Bugah 
Dance, again, will almost always contain a Bear Dance given by its 
masked performers. 

Somewhat after midnight, at about 2 o’clock in the morning, there 
commences another series of dances known as tcudale Nuda or “dif- 
ferent dances.” These are also called uskwiniye’da or “every kind,” 
from the word for a general store. These dances generally run in 
about the following order: Coat, Ground Hog, Corn, Knee Deep, 
Buffalo, Ant, Quail, Chicken, Snake, Raccoon, Bear, Horse, and, 
finally, the Round Dance after full daylight has come. 

Dances may be given in the daytime. The Green Corn Dance is 
given at any time during the day but is never ended until after dark. 
After a morning Round Dance as mentioned above, the new day 
may be started with another Eagle Dance or perhaps by a game of 
women’s football. 

Some dances should be given only at certain seasons. In the recent 
past if the Eagle, Bugah, or Snake Dance were given in the summer, 
snake bite or cold weather would be sure to follow. The proper time 
for these dances is the frosty season from November to March. 
It is thought that the disappearance of the old-time conjurers may 
have something to do with the fact that these dances can now be 
given with impunity in the summer. As we shall see in the section 
on culture change (p. 367), a regular annual cycle of dances used to 
be held monthly throughout the year among the Cherokees. Of this 
cycle but little evidence is available now. 

Although dances can, in the main, be held either out of doors or 
in the house, the majority are now held indoors. Sometimes a reg- 
ular periodic round is made of all the houses in the neighborhood, 
each weekly or biweekly dance being held at a different house. At 
Big Cove, during the writer’s visit there, all of the dances were 
held at a convenient house in the valley flats. 

The number of song accompaniments to a given dance may range 
from 1 to 14 but the average is about 4. A song consists of an in- 
dividual melody sung with a series of more or less meaningless 
words or syllables, consisting of terms for obsolete towns and places, 
unintelligible onomatopoetic phrases, and the like. In the Friendship 
Dances considerable scope may be given to the improvising of syl- 
lables and melodies and in the course of several hours as many as 40 
or 50 songs may be sung. In the main the syllables and the ac- 
companying melodies seem to be somewhat stereotyped except that 
vowel quality of the syllables seems to vary in the numerous repeti- 
tions. The average duration of a single dance with its 4 songs 
and their repetitions may be from a quarter to a half an hour, 


AnTHROP, Pap. No, 23] THE EHASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 259 


A roughly alternate order of slow and fast melodies seems to be 
maintained, with the faster tempos seeming to predominate toward 
the end of the dance. The steps used in dancing do not vary per- 
ceptibly from dance to dance and consist of simple rhythmic walk- 
ing steps in time with the drum or rattle. In fast time a sort of 
quick hopping motion develops. In the Bugah Dance any kind of 
a step may be allowed. Much dancing is done with the upper parts 
of the body, especially the arms, shoulder, and head. 

Ail kinds of conventionalized and naturalistic motions accompany 
the dances. Except in the cases of the Green Corn Dance and the 
Ball Dance, most of the dances have lost all significance in connection 
with outside activities or occurrences. True, hunting methods and 
habits of various animals are simulated as well as the movements of 
sowing seed and tillage of the soil. But these motions are incidental 
and apparently lost in a maze of other less explicable movements. 
The basic motif of the dances as they are at present performed seems 
to be the social one of a good time and making acquaintances. 

Clapping of the hands is a common feature of the Friendship 
Dances. This action expresses the joy and happiness being experi- 
enced by the participants. Bears are thought to clap their hands 
when pleased. The enjoyment of the dance was so great in the past 
that whenever some family had lost a member by death the rest of 
the neighbors would give a dance to make them forget their sorrow. 


SPECIFIC DANCES 


In the Friendship Dances the young people get acquainted. There 
is a great amount of teasing and joking of relatives occurring at these 
dances in particular. The young men will scratch the young girls’ 
hands with their fingernails, slap them or feint blows at them, poke at 
them, or otherwise tease these familiar relatives. For the older people 
the word “Friendship,” attaching to these dances, signifies the renewal 
of the pleasures of their youthful experiences in love and social inter- 
course. 

In the Eagle Dance and in the Friendship Dance the leader or 
principal performer can tell a story as he dances. He may perhaps 
recount his conquests over women or his acquiring of great wealth. 
He will never fail to get in some jibes at his joking relatives while he 
sings. 

The gotogwaski, or “caller,” is the organizer of a dance occasion and 
it is he who calls off the names of those who are to lead each song step. 
At the end of a song he shouts out words of encouragement and ap- 
plause. He always endeavors to pick the best and strongest singers as 
leaders. 'The leader starts to walk around in a circle singing his song 
and followed at first only by one or two old men. Other men join 


260 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bun. 133 


the circle and then the woman with rattles on her legs and finally a 
vast number of girls, boys, men, and women are circling around at a 
faster and faster rate. After the song ends the whole group makes a 
wild dash for the door and fresh air. 

Since the dances of the Cherokees are of extreme importance in the 
social integration of the tribe, it will be in point to briefly mention 
the outstanding characteristics of the remembered dances, especially 
those whose social function seems more strikingly important than 
others. 

The Ant Dance (daksu dali) consisted of a snakelike procession in 
single file, the participants moving about like a colony of ants. Both 
men and women participate but the men do all of the singing and the 
singing leader dances with a gourd rattle in his hand. The leader 
sings about the ants and says that their grandmothers are flying. 

The Ball Dance (dundje-la Nuni) is performed in two parts, one by 
the men and the other by the women.1?, The men go to water both 
before and after a ball game. The men’s dance consists of a proces- 
sion of the players about the fire, racquet in hand, singing some four 
songs. The singing leader has a gourd rattle in his hand and dances 
at the head of the line. Simultaneously with the men’s ball dance, 
or perhaps in its intermissions, the women give their dance. The 
details of this dance are very important and are worth considering 
at some length. 

A male singer seats himself facing the town which the team is to 
play against and takes his drum in his hands while the seven women 
dancers line up in a row behind him. Then, as the drummer begins to 
sing, the women dance forward and backward. Only the first and 
last songs are danced, the others consist in merely singing to the ac- 
companiment of the leader. After each song the drummer will give 
some derogatory remarks about his familiar clansmen in the opponent 
town, saying that their town is bound to lose in the coming game. 
Then the women may likewise make up jokes about their clans-persons 
in the opponent town. After one drummer is tired, another will take 
his place and joke his fellow clansmen of his own clan in the opponent 
town. ‘This magical rite concludes with the whole group “going to 
water” for certain lavations and purifications. This joking of the 
opponent town has the apparent effect of magically weakening the 
opponent town and causing them to lose the coming game. This is 
one of the most striking correlations of magical potency with relations 
of familiarity imbedded in the kinship system to be found." Fuller 
reference to the possible significance of this rite in connection with 

22 The Ball Dance has been described by various authors, of which Mooney’s description 
in his article on The Cherokee Ball Play (1890, pp. 105-132) is perhaps the best. This 
dance dates back at least 100 years. 

148 No previous mention has ever been made of this joking in the numerous references on 


the Ball Game. Mooney, in the article previously referred to, mentions the “conjuring” 
which goes on at the Ball Dance. 


AntTurop. Par. No, 23] THE EASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 261 


other magical establishments of familiarity will be made in the dis- 
cussion on integration and extension of social principles to magic 
and myth. 

The Bear Dance (yo na) is an important dance given after mid- 
night.* Men and women both take part in this dance, which requires 
the use of gourd and tortoise-shell rattles. The general course is a 
spiral motion by a group in single file about the fire or pot or what- 
ever can be made to serve as the center of revolution. Various obscene 
familiarities are indulged in between relatives in this dance, especially 
between the men and the women. The words of the songs refer to 
the bear’s habits. 

The Beaver Dance (doya) is mimetic of the beaver hunt.’ Each 
dancer carries a small stick about 2 feet long, and this stick is flourished 
in various manners. The principal feature of this dance is an animal 
skin, meant to represent the beaver, which is pulled back and forth on 
a series of strings and which the dancers attempt to hit. Missing the 
skin affords immense amusement to the participants and spectators 
alike and this is consequently a favorite dance. 

The Buffalo Dance is hardly remembered.1* Masks and skins were 
said to have been used in this dance, which was mimetic of the hunt 
of buffalo. 

The Bugah Dance (tsunagaduli) is a masked dance of particular 
social importance. The name is of obscure origin but the actors in 
the dance are called Bogeys or sometimes Buggers.” Considerable 
paraphernalia and preparation are necessary for this dance. From 
6 to 12 masks made of gourd, wood, or pasteboard are collected be- 
forehand in the neighborhood as well as 6 or 10 gourd rattles and a 
ground-hog skin drum. From all of the women present one man, the 
organizer, collects shawls, wraps, or sweaters to clothe the bogeys in. 

Six men seat themselves at one side of the room, a drummer or 
leader with five assistant music makers holding gourd rattles. These 
persons are known as dininogiski, “callers,” whose function it is to 
sing and call the bogeys. When the callers have completed their 
sixth song, the bogeys enter one by one, concealed by masks and 
various wrap-around materials, and hobbling in various comical 
positions and with odd motions. They wear the strangest make-ups 
and endeavor to do everything in a topsy-turvy manner. 

There are seven of the bogeys and as the seventh song is played 
they dance in a circle about the room and endeavor to scare those 
children who are ungilisi or digiDuDu relatives to them. They also 


14 Mentioned by Timberlake (1929, pp. 102 ff.). 

15 Described by J. P. Evans in Payne MSS., vol. 6, Sketches of Cherokee Characteristics, 
1836. 

16 Mooney (1900, pp. 352, 485) mentions it in an Iroquois myth. 

uJ. P. Evans (1836, in Payne MSS., vol. 6, Sketches of Cherokee Characteristics) de- 
scribes this dance as part of the Bagle Dance. 


262 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Buun, 133 


tease the grown-ups who are their familiar relatives. The relatives 
and spectators in the room enjoy this game of guessing which of their 
familiar relatives the teaser is. 

At the end of the seventh song the bogeys seat themselves in a 
comical fashion and with clumsy gestures on a log at one side of the 
room. The interpreter or organizer, meanwhile, is asked by the head 
caller to put some questions to the bogeys. The first question is 
generally, “What is your name?” or, “Where do you come from?” 
The interpreter then goes up to the first bogey and repeats the ques- 
tion to him. To this the bogey gives a whispered reply and the 
name he gives himself is always either ludicrous or obsence. He 
gives as his place of origin some remote or fanciful locality. He 
may joke a familiar relative in a neighboring town by giving his 
name. After the initial questions are over, the first bogey gets up 
ludicrously and clowns in a dance all his own. During the dance the 
music maker or chief caller calls the name of the bogey over and over 
again and the bogey goes through motions and gestures appropriate to 
the name which he has given himself. The steps of this solo dance are 
utterly unlike any other Cherokee dance and consist of a series of 
heavy hops in rhythmic time. When the first bogey is through, the 
whole thing is gone over again with the next one and so on down the 
line. 

Following this the interpreter asks the bogeys to do a bear dance 
together. This is done and then the audience joins in with the 
bogeys. As the dance proceeds the bogeys tease their familiar reia- 
lives, especially the women, in obscene and ridiculous ways. After 
this dance the bogeys leave and go to some remote field where they 
remove their disguise and slip home without being recognized. After 
the bogeys are gone, the audience generally begins a friendship 
dance. 

The Bugah Dance is one of the most extremely used occasions for 
the display of the joking and privileged familiarity relationships 
between relatives. The bogeys may even tease and joke each other 
if they are in the correct relationship. The crazy movements of 
the Bugah solo dance may imitate everything except the motions 
of white peoples’ dances. The bogeys themselves may imitate white 
people, negroes, or joking relatives. 

The next dance, the Chicken Dance (sata’ga) has not been given 
for some time in Big Cove. The principal feature of this dance 
consisted of the woman resting one of her feet on the foot of her 
male partner in the dance, and hopping with the other foot. This 
dance was said to have been the cause of much jealousy and fights. 
The Chicken Dance is possibly mimetic of a bird habit. 

The Coat Dance (gasule’na) is apparently of little significance, 
now. Inthe older days the men were said to have bought their brides 


ANTHROP, Pap. No, 23] THE EASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 263 


with buckskin coats as payment and in this dance some motions 
are made of covering or “claiming” a woman with the coat. 

The Corn Dance (se’lu) is apparently mimetic of the actions of 
planting corn. The women were said to have done the planting 
and the men to have followed with the hoe to cover the seeds with 
earth. The term adan wisi, “they are going to plant corn,” is possi- 
bly allied with the dance called “Yontonwisas” by Mooney (1900, 
pp. 365-867) and may be the Corn Dance. 

In the Corn Dance the men cup their hands as if they were pouring 
corn grains into the aprons of the women and then the women recipro- 
cate in giving the corn to the men. Various other arm movements take 
place between the sexes in this dance. 

The Eagle Dance (tsugi’dali) is probabiy the most important and 
most revered of the Cherokee Dances.* The eagles were said to have 
gathered together and teased each other just as men do in the Eagle 
Dance. The Eagle Dance used to be held in the fall or winter when 
the eagles were killed but now it is held at any time. In addition to its 
function as a celebration of the killing of an eagle, the Eagle Dance 
has several subordinate elements such as the Scalp Dance which cele- 
brates victory in war (Mooney, 1900, p. 496), and the Peace Pipe Dance 
which celebrates the conclusion of peace. The chief function of the 
Eagle Dance at the present time is the celebration of victory in the 
Ball Game. 

In its present-day performance, all of the elements of the Eagle 
Dance are somewhat mixed together. The Scalp Dance is a solo dance 
in which the young man can dance and tell his story, vaunting his 
bravery before the women or other men. He derogates the deeds of 
his clan brothers and joking relatives, saying that they are cowards 
and of no value to the tribe. When the derogated relative’s chance 
comes, he in turn derogates the former singer. 

The rather elaborate ceremonial involved in killing and propitiating 
the eagle which preceded the Eagle Dance has been described by 
Mooney. At present, dances can be given without killing an eagle. 
There are, in all probability, totemic values attaching to the Eagle. 

The Friendship Dances (dl’sti) are a mixed assemblage of a large 
number of dances whose primary significance is shared in common, 
namely the social intercourse which is necessary for the young people 
in order that they may find husbands and wives among potential rela- 
tives. 

The familiarities of the Friendship-Dances consist of such actions as 
the men placing their hats on the heads of their female partners, put- 
ting their coats around them, putting their arms around their shoulders 
and necks, and performing various overhand movements with them and 


18 Mooney, 1900, pp. 281-283. The Eagles were formerly killed only by a professional 
“eagle killer” like the deer and wolf. 


405260—43——18 


264 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bun, 133 


others. These are the dances for getting acquainted and all of the 
motions of the dance are designed, or appear to be designed, to break 
down shyness and reserve on the part of the young people. This re- 
serve is broken through, however, strictly along the line of the famili- 
arity relationship with specific relatives. It is impossible, or in general 
improbable, that a young man will tease or joke with a woman of his 
father’s clan, or even of his own clan. On the other hand if he finds a 
“grandmother” (gilisi) or a “grandfather” (giDuDu, ginisi) he can 
tease them to the extreme. It is most likely that he will tease the 
women rather than the men as privileged familiarities between men 
are reserved for other occasions. At the dance a man must find a wife 
and there is only one way to find a wife and that is to select her out of 
the group of women with whom he can carry on relations of famili- 
arity. 

The typical Friendship Dance begins with a few of the older men 
moving around in a circle about the room.” The woman with the tor- 
toise-shell rattles on her legs joins in the circle and then come the older 
women followed by the younger men and women. Round and round 
the circle goes, gradually picking up speed and volume as more join 
and none leave the magic ring of dancing humanity. Finally the 
crowd becames too great for the one small room, the heat and sweat 
becomes too much, the dust too choking, and so with a final whoop 
all rush forth into the open air. 

Aside from certain features, such as a stygian smell of old tobacco 
permeating the air and the constant spitting, the Friendship Dance 
is one of the most fascinating features of Cherokee life. This dance 
holds a gripping power as great as any opera in our own society, for 
its drama and music are the prime expression of the socially significant 
facts of Cherokee existence. In the renewal of their old-time mating 
memories the older people find their chief consolation as age advances. 
In the sex glamor of the occasion the young people find their chief 
recreation. In the general cheerfulness of the atmosphere generated 
those who mourn for deceased relatives may find forgetfulness. 

The Green Corn Dance (agohundi) is an all-day dance which takes 
place in September after “Roasting Ear’s Time.” ?° The name given 
to this dance refers to a town where, according to tradition, this dance 
was given especially well. This occasion has no direct connection 
with the Corn Dance, except that the latter celebrates the planting 
of the corn, while the Green Corn Dance celebrates the harvest. 

The Green Corn Dance is really a composite of several other dances. 
First, there is an all-day dance by the men in which guns are fired at 
intervals of half an hour to make the noise considered essential to this 

19 J, P. Evans (Payne MSS, vol. 6, Sketches of Cheroxee Characteristics) describes Friend- 
ship Dance in 1836. 


20 This dance is described by Butrick as the third in his Annual Series of Festivals... (See 
Payne Mss., vol. 1.) It is widespread among the tribes of the Southeastern area. 


ANTHROP, Pap. No.23] THE EASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 265 


dance. Secondly, there are three evening dances—a Grandmother 
Dance by the men, a Meal Dance by the women, and a Trail-Making 
Dance by both sexes. 

The all-day dance is the essential celebration of the completely 
successful harvest. ‘The Grandmother and the Meal Dances are 
mimetic of the preparation of the corn meal by the women and grand- 
mothers, and the Trail-Making Dance, as its name implies, mimics the 
activities of fixing up the trail for next year. After the dancing is 
over, a big feast is held in the evening, and everyone eats in great 
plenty of the fruits of the harvest. 

Now follow three dances of no great social importance. The Ground- 
hog Dance (ogonu) is not of any great importance now.” The motions 
of the dance are highly conventionalized and not significant. The 
Horse Dance (sogwili) is imitative of the marching and prancing 
movements of the horse. The dancers move slowly back and forth in a 
row, occasionally giving a kick as a horse will do. The Knee Deep 
Dance (dustu) is a short dance named after a little frog which appears 
in March in the part of the Spring known as “Knee-deep time.” 

The Medicine Dance (egwa nuwati) appears to have virtually disap- 
peared. It is of considerable significance, however, in connection 
with the familiarity relationship. This dance appears to have been 
held after the leaves had fallen into the streams in October.” This 
mixture of the virtues of the leaves with the water caused the people 
to believe that the river was a gigantic medicine pot whose boiling was 
evinced in the eddying and foaming of the water. So this became 
“Great, Medicine” time, the period in which life renewal and protection 
from all disease could be secured by bathing in the stream. 

A mixing of actual medicine in pots occurred at this time also. 
While the pot boiled all night, the women and men used to dance to 
keep awake, and then in the morning they went to bathe in the stream 
for purification. The long hours of the night used to be passed in 
joking each other’s “grandfathers” (digiDuDu) and “grandmothers” 
(digilisi). This joking became the main feature of the dance. The 
women were said to have taken the initiative in joking the men at this 
dance. If the men were shy, the women would catch them and force 
them to dance. 

The Partridge or Quail Dance (k.gwe) is a dance somewhat resem- 
bling the Horse Dance and supposed to be initiative of the movements 
of the quail. 

Similarly of little importance, the Pheasant Dance (tadisti) has com- 
pletely vanished but it is remembered that the drumming of the 


21 Origin myth for this dance is given by Mooney (1900, pp. 279, 452). 
22 This dance is a remnant of the 4th Great Annual Festival described by Butrick in Payne 
Mss., vol. 1. 


266 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Butt 133 


pheasant was imitated during the course of the dance (Mooney, 1900, 
p- 290). 

The Pigeon Dance (wayi) was an important dance in the past and 
numerous efforts are made to revive it from time totime. The actions 
seem to be mimetic of the stalking and capture of a flock of pigeons 
by a sparrowhawk. One strong man represents the hawk and he is 
painted red on the face, wears feathers, and is naked to the waist. He 
carries a buckskin in one hand and stands in a dark corner awaiting 
the line of dancers representing pigeons. As they pass him he swoops 
down and captures one with the buckskin. He then retires to his 
corner only to swoop down on another one and so on. 

The Raccoon Dance (kuli) is also lapsing. It was mimetic of the 
capture of the raccoon in the tree where he has taken refuge. Some 
of the motions of the dance indicate joking of the women by the men 
as in the Bear Dance. The men pretend to rub the grease of the 
raccoon on the women, the grease being an adorning feature. 

The Round Dance (ade’yohi) is a farewell dance which finishes an 
all-night series of different dances. It is said that this dance refers 
to the people having to go around the mountains in going home. 
The first half is a women’s dance but the men join in the second half. 

The Snakelike Dance, inadiyusti, consists of spiralings by the line 
of dancers about the fire. 

The War Dance (daNowehi) has not been given for a long time. It 
was said to have consisted of various military deployments backward 
and forward and about the fire, all imitative of the scouting and en- 
gagement of actual warfare. There was a magical significance attach- 
ing to this dance since it determined which warrior would come back 
safely of those who went to war. 

The Woman Gathering Wood Dance (adohuna) was once regarded 
as preliminary to all the other dances. It is apparently mimetic of, 
or at least connected with, the women’s gathering wood to feed the fire. 
The movements are mostly back and forth movements by a row of 
women, the men taking no part. 

This list concludes the series of dances known in the village of Big 
Cove. In this area the old-time methods of dancing have been remem- 
bered and carried on the longest, by universal testimony. Neverthe- 
less, a considerable interest in dancing and periodic indulgence in the 
characteristic Cherokee dances was found at Birdtown. Several addi- 
tional dances are known in Birdtown which seem to be lacking in Big 
Cove. These are: The Witch Dance (skili), in which the performers 
imitate goggles on their eyes with the use of their fingers; The Gagoyi 
Dance (“curled up,” or “twisted”) whose evolutions resemble the Ant 
Dance; and the Parched Corn Dance (gawicida itcu), which was an 
additional part of the Green Corn Dance. 


267 


THE EASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 


ANTHROP, PaP. No, 23] 


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268 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Buun, 133 


The main features of the Cherokee dances are presented in table 5 
(p. 267) in summary form. It will be seen from the data presented 
just how tremendously important the social motive is in the dances 
and how they play a most characteristic role as the vehicles of 
privileged familiarity between relatives. The analysis of this function 
will be presented in the section on social integration (p. 309). 


THE BALL GAME 


Similar to the dances in social importance are the sports. The chief 
sports or games among the Eastern Cherokee consist of the following: 
Cherokee ball; women’s football game; basket game; “arrows”; 
matches of various kinds such as archery, rock casting, pitching of 
stones, and match hunts; various children’s sports and others. In this 
discussion attention will be devoted only to those games which have 
social significance. 

The first and most important of all Cherokee sports is the ball game.” 
This game, apparently a local version of an Indian game almost conti- 
nental in its range of distribution, has a special importance in Cherokee 
culture as a basic form of organization of town units in opposition to 
each other. 

The dantelidahi, or “captain,” organizes his team from the available 
young men of the town and may have as many as 20 players enrolled. 
In the actual playing only 12 are allowed to participate. There are 
appointed two “drivers” to separate the players in the scrimmages 
and keep the game going. Asa rule each town has its team play three 
games a year. Summer is the ball game season. 

The way of arranging a match is for the captain of one team to send 
out two messengers to a rival town challenging them to a game. The 
rival town appoints two men to receive the challenge and to accept it. 
Then the rival captains get busy and search for the best conjurer avail- 
able in order that as strong a magical power as possible can be brought 
in to aid in winning. Extraordinary measures are sometimes resorted 
to in order to secure a good conjurer. The whole community may turn 
out to hoe the fields or perform work on the conjurer’s fields in order 
to show their good will and regard for the conjurer’s powers. 

The conjurer prays and divines what the future has in store by a 
special technique. If he finds that the opponents are stronger than 
the home team, he takes measures to strengthen the latter. These 
measures consist of “scratchings,” prayers, going to the river and bath- 
ing at stated intervals, and the dance for the 4th night before the day of 
the game. The players must fast and abstain from their wives during 


23 Described by Timberlake, 1929, p. 102; Bartram, 1853, p. 299; Haywood, 1823, p. 286; 
Butrick in Payne Mss., vol. 4; Evans in Payne Mss., vol. 6, pp. 17-25; Lanman, 1849, pp. 
100 ff.; Mooney, 1900 (already cited in connection with Ball Dance) ; and Culin, 1907, pp. 
574-588. 


ANTHROP, PaP. No, 23] THE EASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 269 


the latter part of their period of training. The captain of the team 
“calls” the leaders of the nightly ball dances. . In the magical rites for 
strengthening, the conjurer especially looks after the ayeli anakstone i, 
or “center knockers,” for these are the men who jump in the center when 
the ball is first tossed up at the beginning of the game and this event 
1s Important in deciding which side first gets the ball. 

Before the game bets are placed by players and spectators alike 
on the probable outcome. These bets, generally wearing apparel or 
more often money, are thrown in a pile and two men, one from 
each side, are appointed to watch them. Sharp sticks are stuck 
into the ground to register the bets. 

The game is played between two goals, generally trees. ‘The touch- 
ing of the opponents’ goal with the ball in hand by a player of 
the other side constitutes a score of one. Twelve scores win the 
game. The ball, a small golf-ball-sized object, is tossed into the 
air by one of the drivers and is then batted back and forth with 
racquets until someone catches it in his hand and runs to the op- 
posite goal. If two players start wrestling for the ball, a foul is 
declared and the ball is tossed up again for a fresh start. The 
manner of playing is extremely rough and injuries are frequent, 
especially since the players are dressed only in the equivalent of 
a pair of trunks. After the game, the players are ceremonially 
scratched and retire for supper, the bets being allotted out to the 
winners. Seven days after the game, the winners hold an Eagle 
or Victory Dance to celebrate. Great stress is laid on magical 
power as the sole determinant of the winning or losing of games. 
The games, in fact, resolve themselves into a rivalry of conjurers in 
opposing towns rather than into any rivalry of teams. Hence, the 
magical rites surrounding the game are extensive and esoteric. 


OTHER GAMES 


The game of Cherokee football was a form of social opposition 
between the sexes. It was played by a team of from 10 to 15 women 
matched against 10 or 15 men. Usually the women were given one 
strong man on their side for additional assistance. Each team was 
organized by a manager. The small groups comprising these teams 
were drawn from the same neighborhood. One side would challenge 
the other and the challenger had the privilege of kicking off. As 
in the ball game, scoring consisted in getting the ball to the enemy 
goal by fair means or foul and 12 scores counted a game. The 
ball used was the size of a baseball and was made of buckskin or 
cloth. An interesting phase of this game was the betting. The 
men generally bet a deer and the women bet bread. If the men 
were beaten they had to hunt and prepare a deer for a feast. If 


270 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Butn, 133 


the women were beaten they had to prepare bread for a feast. This 
was generally chestnut or walnut bread. 

The Cherokee basket game is a “parlor game” (Culin, 1907). It 
is used in the family circle to while away the long winter evenings. 
The dice are 6 beans cut in half, the one side showing the black 
husk and the other the white interior. Sometimes 6 pieces of wood 
or 6 grains of corn colored black on one side were used. The dice 
are shaken in a shallow basket (4 inches deep by a foot square) 
and if 1 bean of a given color comes up it counts 1, if none comes 
up it counts 2 for the player. From a pile of from 18 to 24 beans 
kept as counters the corresponding number according to the score 
are put in front of the player. As soon as the counters are ex- 
hausted in the main pile, it becomes a contest between the players’ 
piles and generally dwindles down into a contest between two. After 
the center pile is exhausted, 2 or 3 beans are taken from each player 
and this generally eliminates the weaker players. Most of the time 
2 or 8 beans of a color come up and the player cries, “konigit! (noth- 
ing)” and passes the basket on to another. If he scores, however, 
he gets another trial. Two partners may play against 2 others in 
this game and the women play against the men. Betting in the 
game as in the football game consists in the men betting a deer, 
squirrel, or rabbit against the women’s bread. Today money is 
bet. 

A sport current until the last few years was the grapevine pull- 
ing contest. This consisted in a contest between four to six men 
on one side and several women with one strong man on the other. 
The stronger side had to pull their opponents over a predetermined 
course in order to win. As in other sports, the women would bet 
bread and the men some form of game. 

Until very recently the Cherokees of Big Cove used to have match 
hunts at Thanksgiving and New Year’s. A manager was appointed 
and he would round up all of his recruits from one side of the river 
and the opponents would be collected from the other bank. One side 
challenged the other and the losers had to cook the feast on the 
holiday after the hunt. The score was determined by the total 
number of animals shot. 

In reference to children’s sports, one trait to be noted is the abso- 
lute separation of girls’ from boys’ sports. The boys play at hunt- 
ing and athletic contests, the girls play at housekeeping or the like. 

Running through Cherokee sports in general, then, are the fol- 
lowing elements: Opposition and separation of the sexes, opposition 
of towns and conjurer groups, betting of goods and money, and the 
influence of magic. 


AnTHROP, PaP. NO. 25] THE EASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT Paid 


With the description of sports and their social features, the survey 
of the formal aspects of Cherokee society has been completed. In 
the first place some of the features of the social units and their 
interrelationships were observed; secondly, the kinship system was 
sketched in order to properly set forth certain basic features of the 
Cherokee social organization; and thirdly, general descriptive fea- 
tures of social importance, such as the life cycle of the individual 
and the dances and the sports of the people, were rapidly noted. 


INTEGRATION OF THE PRESENT SOCIETY 


THE FUNCTIONS OF THE PRESENT-DAY TRAITS 


The first part of this paper, Description of the Present Society, 
has sketched for us the outlines of Cherokee society as it exists today. 
Much has been said about the externals of the social structure but 
less has been mentioned concerning the interrelations and functions of 
the various traits. So the purpose of this second part will be to try 
to relate the various structures which have previously been described. 


FUNCTIONING OF THE FAMILY 


Here and there in the foregoing discussion some hints have been 
given concerning the fundamental role of kinship in Cherokee so- 
ciety. In particular the regulations which surround and conduce to 
preferential mating have been stressed as basic to an understanding 
of the other parts of the system. What to make of the material now 
that we have it before us is the question. 

First, there is the domestic family which occupies the individual 
household. The individuals making up the family may be said to 
be held together in certain ways and kept apart in certain ways. 
The ways in which the family is held together in a working social 
mechanism will be entitled phases of social solidarity and the ways 
in which the individual members are kept apart, social opposition. 

The individual man is very close to his brothers in social position. 
He can take the place of a brother in many ways and from the view- 
point of the outside world is hardly distinguishable from him. So 
likewise in the case of the individual woman there is little to dis- 
tinguish her from her sisters to the view of outsiders. This identity 
for social purposes of brothers and sisters can be spoken of as social 
equivalence. Brothers are socially equivalent, then, and so are sisters 
while, to a certain extent, brothers and sisters together are equivalent 
in Cherokee society. There are many reciprocal privileges and obli- 
gations between these children of common parents which are exclu- 
sive to them and which bind them together in a type of common 
unity. 

Solidarity within the individual Cherokee domestic family takes on 
the character of a series of solidarities of the various primary pairs. 
The solidarity of husband and wife is manifested in the following 
ways: 

272 


ANTHROP, Pap, No, 23] THE EASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 243 


1. In their common attitude of respect toward each other’s parental genera- 
tion. 

2. In their shared attitude toward their children’s generation. 

3. In the fact that the familiarity relationship always exists as a medium 
of contact between them except on those extraordinary occasions on which 
taboos must be enforced. These latter will be mentioned in the section on 
magical extensions of social principles. (See pp. 299-300.) 

4. Reciprocity in marriage involves an exchange in the marriage feast and 
is symbolized in the women’s betting of bread against the meat bet by the 
men in several of the games. 

5. Pregnancy and menstrual taboos imposed upon the wife are extended to 
her husband in restriction of his contacts with other persons. 


The solidarity of parent and child is manifested in the following 
ways: 

1. The indirect joking relationship allows some degree of good fellowship 
between the parental and the children’s generations. 

2. Protection is afforded to the children by the parents, and the children who 
stay at home and take care of the old foiks are the ones who obtain the 
property by inheritance. 

3. The child must render a respect to his mother and father and he must in 
particular defend his father’s clan against all aspersions from without. 

The solidarity of brothers and sisters is manifested in the following 
ways. 

1. The terminology expresses group consciousness clearly in this case. There 
exist not only terms for “brothers and sisters” in general but also terms for 
“brothers” and for “sisters” taken collectively. The terminology between 
brothers and sisters is reciprocal, each calling the other by the same term. 

2. In certain inheritance customs whereby a man’s oldest sister’s son in- 
herits a position as chief or some like office (no longer practised). 

3. In the intense solidarity within the clan extensions of the brother and 
sister relationship. All clan brothers and sisters are regarded as being of 
one blood and of a common identity. 

4, In the solidarity of the parental generation within itself, the father with 
father’s brother, the mother with mother’s sister, ete. 

Of the three primary relationships just cited the strongest in 
solidarity would appear to be the brother-sister bond, the next 
stronger would be the husband-wife bond (which is a form of the 
grandfather-grandchild relationship), and the weakest relationship 
is that between parent and child. 

The rather firmly entrenched solidarity of the individual family 
can thus be seen to be made up of individual pair solidarities between 
which there can be—and often are—conflicts. Particularly strategic 
in this regard is the conflict tendency between the brother-sister bond 
and the husband-wife bond. For, in the course of each individual’s 
life, he or she is taken out of his or her brother-sister group and 
merged with his or her grandparental clan group at the time of 
marriage. This act can be looked upon both as setting up barriers 


274. BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Butn, 133 


of opposition within the formerly intact ego generation and as serv- 
ing to unite ego’s and the grandparental generation in a new bond 
of solidarity through the connecting link of ego’s marriage. 

Residence may or may not add to family solidarity. The typical 
Cherokee household consists of the family nucleus, the husband, wife, 
and children, together with parts or wholes of other families. The 
wife’s relatives are often found in the household, such as her sister, 
mother, brother, or her maternal aunts and uncles. Residence may 
have once been matrilocal but it is now patrilocal in the main. A 
man whose wife has died may go to live with his own sister, especially 
if she be widowed. Often the children marry and continue to reside 
for a considerable time in the parental household. 

The original husband, wife, and child triangle is connected by 
bonds of inheritance and marriage with other similar family nuclei. 
The husband is not only connected with his brothers, the wife with 
her sisters, but also both are connected by the ties already mentioned 
with their own siblings of the opposite sex, the husband with his 
sister, the wife with her brother. Thus ego comes into relation with 
two important individuals of the parental generation, his father’s 
sister and his mother’s brother. The father’s sister is not connected 
with ego by any too strong a bond of solidarity. He must respect 
her, it is true, but he is uncertain as to whether to behave toward 
her as a grandmother or as a father. His uncertainty, perhaps, finds 
release in joking with the man she marries, as mentioned in the section 
on privileged familiarity. The mother’s brother, also, is respected, 
but, due to his possession of the same clan as ego, he tends to be regarded 
asa sort of older brother. 

Other similarly disjointed sections of solidarity are carried over in 
the relationships which ego bears toward the mates of his siblings and 
vice versa with the siblings of his mate. These relationships are 
more or less combinations of brother-sister relationship with grand- 
father-grandchild relationship with the predominance of the weight 
tending in the latter direction. 

Familiarity relationships of rather extreme teasing unite ego with 
these relatives. He regards his brother’s wife as his wife. The 
woman regards a husband’s sister as a “wife” to her husband. 


THE EASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 275 


ANTHROP., PaP. NO. 23] 


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276 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Butn. 133 


The accompanying table shows the basic Cherokee relationships and 
the principles which underlie their solidarities (table 6). The 
parent-child relationship is a vertical one in which the barrier of 
opposition between contiguous generations seems to outweigh every 
other element. The brother-sister relationship, on the other hand, 
is a horizontal one in which the bond of clan equivalence or solidarity 
within the individual generation seems to outweigh every other ele- 
ment. The grandparent-grandchild relationship is a vertical one 
like the first but after the occurrence of marriage it becomes, in the 
form of the husband-wife relationship, a species of horizontal group- 
ing. This is expressed in the mate’s siblings-sibling’s mates’ relation- 
ship just mentioned. 

All three of the primary relationships are built up with the matri- 
lineal lineage in the background. The solidarity of the matrilineal 
lineage is immense and is perhaps the most stable fact in Cherokee 
kinship. This solidarity of the matrilineal lineage is the situation 
which underlies the sister-brother equivalence and solidarity. The 
father-child and the grandfather-grandchild relationships are pos- 
sessed of solidarity only so far as they touch on the continuity and 
the stability of the matrilineal lineage. The matrilineal lineage, it 
must be reemphasized, holds together the whole system, both in its 
vertical and in its horizontal aspects. 

It will be seen from the table of the Cherokee kinship system (table 
6) that each family contains within itself the seeds for its own re- 
production and replacement through the translation of the grand- 
parent-grandchild relationship into the husband-wife relationship. 
The importance of the chief relationships within the life cycle of the 
single individual can be expressed in the following order from infancy 
to age: (1) Child to parent, (2) brother to sister (or vice versa), (3) 
grandchild to grandparent, (4) husband to wife (or vice versa), 
(5) parent to child, and (6) grandparent to grandchild. The family 
of orientation includes the first three relations as the most important, 
and the family of procreation the last three (orientation referring to 
the family into which one is born and procreation the family created 
by one’s own marriage). It will be seen that an equating of the re- 
lationships of the first three in the family of orientation with the last 
three in the family of procreation places the husband-wife relationship 
in the second as the equivalent of the brother-sister relationship of 
the first. This would seem to indicate that the solidarity of ego’s 
family of procreation was inversely proportional to the solidarity of 
ego’s family of orientation. 

It is certainly true that the solidarity of the original family of 
procreation will tend to resist the development of opposition barriers 
occasioned by the marriage of its individual members. Therefore, 


ANTHROP. PaP. No, 23] THE EASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 2Et 


a considerable degree of solidarity is generated at all contacts with the 
“outstander.” This is manifested in the cases in which genitor or bi- 
ologically true father tends to become separated from pater or social 
father. When a woman has a child through her relations with several 
men, it is her brothers and sisters who take the lead in pointing out 
the man whom they think is the father. How this is determined is 
not clear, but to have the finger of accusation pointed at one is a serious 
thing because it involves responsibility for the child’s economic welfare 
and bringing up. In case the accused man cannot be reached, the 
brothers of the woman will build her a house in which she may bring 
up her family. 

Factors of social opposition operate most frequently along the lines 
of generation, sex, age, and lineage within the family. These act to 
make breaches in the social solidarity of the family and to help bring 
about the dissolution of the individual family after the agencies of 
death and marriage have enacted their role. 

The breach between the parental generation and the generation of 
age is marked by the superordination-subordination relationship. The 
generation that is going out transmits by way of the authority relation 
the cultural heritage to the generation that is coming in. This same 
relationship is extended to the clan and matrilineal lineage of the 
father so that a factor of social opposition is interposed with a whole 
group of relatives who come under this classification, as well as with 
the whole of at least one clan or social segment. The respect relation- 
ship to the father, however, is extended also to the father’s father 
himself but not to the father’s father’s clan. 

The factor of the sexual division enters into the list of social oppo- 
sition forces in several places. The sexual dichotomy operates between 
persons within a generation and between persons of different genera- 
tions, but its strongest manifestation lies in the distinction of relatives 
through the father from relatives through the mother. The mother 
and her sister are equivalent in terminology and behavior but the 
mother’s brother is distinct in terminology and in behavior. The 
same is true of the father in his relation to his brothers and to his 
sisters. ‘These various sex distinctions in the terminology and behavior 
have been mentioned in the descriptive section on kinship distinctions 
so we will not dwell on them here. The chief point to remember is that 
relatives through the father are more to be respected than relatives 
through the mother. 

Age as a factor of social distinction has already been mentioned in 
the same section. The older brother is invested with a considerable 
degree of the social superordination of the father, and the younger 
brother must take a subordinate position as the protected one. The 


age distinction applied to brothers are extended to cousins and other 
“brothers.” 


278 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL, 133 
FUNCTIONING OF THE CLAN 


The role of the clan in preferential mating has to a considerable 
extent been indicated by the implications in the discussion on the role 
of the domestic family. Preferential mating is really an affair between 
an individual and persons belonging to specific clans or a clan-indi- 
vidual relationship. The configurations already established in the 
domestic family are extended to the whole clans which happen to 
include the persons standing in certain familial relations to age. 

The clan is the exogamous social unit and is also a reciprocity 
mechanism. The severity of the ancient laws against marrying within 
the clan have been relaxed, but a survey of present-day marriages 
shows that there are still very few marriages of this type. And with 
good reason, for it does not take much inquiry into the mechanics of 
the Cherokee kinship system to show that marriage within one’s own 
clan would play havoc with the elaborate mechanism of reciprocity set 
up by the clan to deal with disturbances in balance of numbers caused 
by deaths, births, and marriages. 

The nature of the reciprocity between clans can best be shown by an 
hypothetical example, in which the balance of losses and gains is struck 
in a typical manner. In the accompanying diagram (fig. 54) four 
clans are involved and some dozen individuals serve as actors in the 
drama. The following are the steps involved in the process: 

1. The original solidarity of clan I of ego’s paternal grandfather was broken 
by the loss of the grandfather X when he married ego’s paternal grandmother Y 
of clan II. X was “lost” in the sense that he went to live with his wife’s people 
and no longer hunted with, or fought in company with, his own clanspeople. 

2. Ego’s father A was brought up as an integral member of clan II, but he 
ought to marry back into his father’s clan to redress the original loss of his 
father to that clan. But the incest regulations will not allow him to marry into 


his father’s clan. In consequence of this he marries ego’s mother B of clan III 
with a consequent loss of one member to clan II. 

38. Ego (male) is brought up in his mother’s household as an integral member 
of clan III. But the father of ego is reminded throughout his life of the loss 
suffered by clan I (through the marriage of ego’s grandfather X to ego’s grand- 
mother Y of clan II), by the attitude of extreme respect and solicitation which 
he is compelled to maintain toward clan I. His whole demeanor throughout life 
toward clan I was as if he owed it something, and circumstances are made to 
appear as if an exchange had been only half completed. 


The only way out of this impasse and to render justice to the original 
clan I, which has given one of its members and received nothing in 
return, is for ego’s father A to give ego of clan III to a woman of clan 
[ in marriage and by this act complete the exchange. The way in 
which this is brought about is by the indirect joking relationship which 
exists between ego’s father, A, and ego. A takes advantage of this 
privilege and jokes in an indirect fashion with ego. “You must marry 
my aunt,” hesaystoego. At first ego does not understand that it is his 


THE EASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 279 


ANTHROP. PaP. NO. 23] 


‘039 JO S}UBPUAdSe [BOUT] 0} Iojor 


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405260—43——_19 


280 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BuLy. 138 


father’s paternal aunt’s clan (I) into which he must marry. He thinks 
only of the old and ugly woman whom his father calls “aunt” ( giloki) 
and whom he (ego) calls “grandmother.” In time ego overcomes his 
shyness after continuous joking by his father on this subject and begins 
to joke with this “grandmother” whom his father tells him to marry. 
In time he will meet a girl of his own generation who is “grandmother” 
to him and belonging to clan I, and he will marry her after becoming 
acquainted through privileged familiarity. Then the exchange is 
completed, and clan I has been recompensed for the loss of ego’s grand- 
father X through X’s marriage. 

Ego’s father, A, does not concern himself about the loss occasioned to 
his own clan II by his marriage to ego’s mother, B, of clan III. Ego’s 
respect for clan II will remind ego that he should instruct his own 
children to marry into clan II and recompense the balance with that 
clan. This process can thus be seen to run on indefinitely in the agnatic 
line and to act as a principle of reciprocity between clans preserving 
the balance which is upset by the marriages of the male members of the 
clans. 

In the same way as the foregoing the mother, B, of ego respects 
ego’s maternal grandfather, Z, because her father’s clan, IV, has suf- 
fered a loss by the marriage of Z to C of clan III, her own clan. So 
she will compete with ego’s father, A, in joking with her son indirectly 
and tells ego that he must marry her paternal aunt, of clan IV. Ego 
may then become familiar with this class of gilisi (“orandmothers”) 
and marry into clan IV. This will complete another exchange. In 
the normal family of four or five brothers and sisters ego ordinarily 
possesses, some half will marry into the father’s father’s clan and the 
other half into the mother’s father’s clan. Thus the balance is pre- 
served. The sister of ego will likewise marry into her father’s father’s 
or mother’s father’s clan but the element of compensation is not so 
apparent here, since the children follow their mother’s line and not the 
father’s. In this case a restatement may be needed in broader prin- 
ciples and the marriage of a woman be regarded as part of a still wider 
principle of balance or reciprocity in which both patri- and matrilineal 
lineages are satisfied in exchange. 

Regarding those persons of his own generation with whom ego may 
actually marry, the following may be said: The clan affiliation is the 
prime consideration in marriage, not the actual lineage. Theoreti- 
cally, in his own generation ego can marry either (1) father’s father’s 
sister’s daughter’s daughter, (2) mother’s father’s sister’s daughter’s 
daughter, or (3) mother’s mother’s brother’s children’s daughter. 
Two persons of opposite sex and different clans may both be giDuDu 
(“grandchildren”) to the same clan and may, in the absence of other 
modifying factors, be giDuDu to each other and so marry each other. 


ANTHROP. PaP. No. 23] THE EASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 281 


FUNCTIONING OF THE DANCES 


The role that the Cherokee dances play in the drama of preferential 
mating is in some points quite clear and in other respects obscure. 
It is fairly certain that the chief occasions of social contacts with priv- 
ileged familiarities ripening into marriages of the preferential type is 
the dance. But the time of appearance and staging of the dances 
involves other less understood relationships. 

The dances originally occurred at intervals which appear to have 
corresponded with the cyclic ebb and flow of the tides of human 
desire for contacts with fellow humans. One of the most clearly 
recognizable of these cyclic tides of feeling in Cherokee Society are 
those connected with the female menstrual period. Regularly the 
male is seized with feelings of extreme revulsion and a desire for 
avoidance of the menstruating female. This feeling takes the form 
of strict monthly taboos and restrictions on the latter which find 
reflection not only in customs but also in the magical prayers of the 
Cherokees and even their myths. Anciently the Cherokee, as well as 
other Southeastern Indians, held monthly dances to celebrate the 
periodic social purification from uncleannesses of the whole com- 
munity (see third part of this paper, The Former Society). The 
primary significance of the dance of that period was in connection 
with the ritual sanctions of purification. At the present time the 
dances have lost this regularity and ritual significance but retained its 
function of bringing men and women together after separation. 

The dance today is an expression of neighborhood solidarity in 
which the whole family participates. Participation in the dance puts 
the individual in rapport with the rest of the community. Those who 
have offended others have their sins pointed out to them by satirical 
references in the dance. This act on the part of clan brothers func- 
tions as a satirical sanction to correct faults and purge differences 
from the community. The reuniting of families, who have lost a 
member by death, with the rest of the community is done through the 
functioning of the dance also. Therefore, the dance with its ritual 
sanctions acted as the primary channel for familiarity behavior of 
the socially approved modes. 


FUNCTIONS OF THE KINSHIP USAGES 


Kinship usages merit particular notice as a contributing factor to 
the system of preferential mating. Of these usages the most im- 
portant is privileged familiarity. 

Privileged familiarity among the Cherokees does not root itself in 
any one specific function, nor does it arise from any one particular 


282 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Buun. 133 


principle. Rather than existing as a unitary phenomenon, it seems 
to stem from a series of kinship usages with varying implications.” 

Privileged familiarity is, of course, the logical antithesis of the 
avoidance relationship. Between absolute avoidance and extreme 
familiarity there is a whole gamut of relations between pairs of rela- 
tives. We generalize the opposite poles of behavior as approach and 
avoidance. Among the Cherokees absolute avoidance is rare and is 
confined to magical taboo situations wherein direct kinship considera- 
tions are of minor import. But the modified form of avoidance known 
as respect is a characteristic trait of Cherokee kinship usages. Re- 
spect is used in this discussion in the sense of that type of behavior 
which channelizes within certain sharply limited areas the contacts 
between a pair of relatives. Privileged familiarity, on the other 
hand, is understood as that behavior between persons which is utterly 
unrestricted in its freedom and allows of contacts of all descriptions. 

Privileged familiarity between two persons in the Cherokee kinship 
system is not distinguishable from the so-called joking relationships. 
Where the pranks and raillery between relatives exist in a stereotyped 
form which can be recognized on any occasion as a definite cultural 
trait, we can speak of them as joking relationships. These are never 
more than condensations of amorphous familiarities within constant 
forms. Needless to say, joking relationships, as understood here, shade 
over into the respect relationships. Such a case occurs in the case of 
indirect joking between father and son and in joking with the man 
who marries the father’s sister. 

There are at least five types of present-day joking among the Chero- 
kees. These are the following: 

1. Mutually derogatory joking between clan brothers before each other’s 
children, 

2. Joking by maltreatment of the man who marries the father’s sister. 


3. Joking with grandparents or with grandchildren through teasing or deroga- 
tion. 


4. Joking of a son by his father concerning the father’s paternal aunt. 
5. Gentle joking of the mother’s brother and daughter’s husband. 


From these examples it can be seen that the joking relationship exists 
In varying contexts and even appears between relatives who should be 
ordinarily respectful to each other. Joking appears from these ex- 
amples to be allied with potentiality of sexual relations, social sanc- 
tions, and social opposition. 

First, as to potential sexual relations. It has been shown in the sec- 
tion on preferential mating that the relationship of alternate genera- 
tion clans to the individual ego is one of teasing and familiarity. It 


*% The Cherokees, as the present writer encountered them, were a cheerful people much 
given to fun making. Ziegler and Grosscup in 1883, however, found the Cherokees “in- 
capable of joking” (cf. Ziegler and Grosscup, 1883, pp. 5-42). 


ANTHROP, Pap, No.23] THE EASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 283 


has also been noted that obscenities and sexual references abound in 
this type of familiarity so obtrusively that their meaning is only too 
clear. Of course, the obscenities occur not only between persons of the 
opposite sex, but also between men. This implies some sort of homo- 
sexual tendencies latent in the culture—a fact noted for the South- 
eastern area in general by Swanton. 

Potentiality of sexual relationships appears in the joking between 
siblings’ spouses and spouse’s siblings. Joking expressions are used 
for these relatives which imply this potentiality. The wife of a brother 
is called “wife,” and like expressions occur. Sibling’s mates, it must 
be remembered, are one’s own potential mates because they are pre- 
sumably in the alternate generation relationship to one’s self as well 
as one’s siblings. 

The social sanctions are involved in the joking relationship through 
the fact that joking between clan brothers is typically functional in 
the sense of a ridicule sanction to cause persons who are erring to 
repent and “toe the mark.” Every fault of the other person is held 
up to view, and a return volley from him of the same kind of humor 
is invited. This type of joking enforces the solidarity of the clan 
because the children of the jokers are compelled to speak up and to 
defend their fathers, who are thus engaged in twitting each other. 
It is to be noted in this connection that joking occurs between all types 
of brothers among the Cherokees and not merely between brothers 
whose fathers are of the same clan as among the Crow. 

The indirect joking between parent and child is allied with social 
opposition. As has been stated in the section on kinship principles, 
the parental generation is in a position of social opposition to the gen- 
eration of ego. Between ego and all persons of the parental generation 
the relationships are not reciprocal, and the joking by the father of 
the son is an expression of the social opposition between them. This 
joking cannot be direct because it is not truly reciprocal. Neither is 
the joking of the father’s sister’s husband reciprocal. This man has 
no comeback when his wife’s brother’s children attack him. Likewise 
to the father-son joking, the mother’s brother in joking with his sister’s 
children jokes about some third party in a clan which is familiar to 
the person joked. 

In the father-son joking two objects are achieved: (1) The father 
is enabled to joke with his son whom he cannot ordinarily be familiar 
with; (2) he can have a bit of fun at the expense of his own father’s 
clan, which he must ordinarily respect. The son attempts a feeble kind 
of reciprocal joking and tells his father that he should not have mar- 
ried into so unworthy a clan as his own. 

In the joking with the father’s sister’s husband the following func- 
tional relationship is involved: The father’s sister’s position with ref- 


284 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Buny, 133 


erence to ego is uncertain. She has qualities of the father, father’s 
mother, and own mother combined. She is of the ascendant generation, 
and, in the case of the male ego, of a different sex. She is always of a 
different clan from ego. It can be seen that she is separated from ego 
by opposition barriers. She cannot be joked, as she is of the father’s 
clan. Therefore, the uncertainty of the relationship centers on the man 
who marries her and is of a different clan from the father’s. This man 
can be joked with by the tobacco joke. This joke isnonreciprocal on the 
part of the recipient and can be only indulged in once between the 
same two parties. 

Opposition and privileged familiarity are again allied in the joking 
of the ball dance. The joking against the opponents consists in a man 
joking with his fellow clansmen in the enemy town in the absence of 
the persons joked. This weakens the opponents by setting up a magi- 
cal channel of familiarity as we shall see later in the section on magi- 
cal extensions. This joking may be against the opponent town as a 
whole as well as against the fellow clansmen. 

At this point it seems desirable to reemphasize a connection which 
has already been mentioned several times in passing, namely, the asso- 
ciation of dancing with privileged familiarity. Undoubtedly, the be- 
havior of privileged familiarity occurs in all of the activities of every- 
day life among the Cherokees, such as visiting, cooperative labors, fes- 
tal occasions, the ball game, and the like. Its fullest expression, how- 
ever, takes place on these periodic occasions wherein social intercourse 
is foremost in the minds of the participants, which are the dances. 

The functional significance of the dance with reference to privileged 
familiarity can be stated, then, as follows: The dances are the princi- 
pal means by which privileged familiarity between relatives brings 
about acquaintanceships which eventually ripen into matings of the 
preferential type. Not only do the familiarities of the sexual type find 
their best expression in the dances but also the familiarities of the rid- 
icule sanction type also seem to be brought out in fullest form on these 
occasions. These occur in the Eagle and Friendship Dances as already 
noted. 

SOCIAL SANCTIONS 


The social obligations expressed reciprocally between relatives find 
their extended counterpart in the social sanctions of the wider integra- 
tions of culture. The social sanctions act as means of social control 
within the group and also to control the relations of members of oppo- 
sition groups. 

Diffuse sanctions are those loosely organized means of control which 
reside in public opinion. In the case of the Cherokees, this type of 
sanction operates mainly within the boundaries of the clan. The func- 
tion of moral reprobation for certain types of violation of established 


AnTHrop, Pap. No. 23] THE EASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 285 


usages is performed by one’s clan brothers. The mechanism involved 
consists of an extensive use of ridicule in connection with the so-called 
satirical sanction. Jokes of this type between clan brothers are always 
being made. One member will twit another about his achievements and 
abilities, and the other will reply. Any violation of the principle of 
preferential mating such as marrying into the father’s clan or even 
with one’s own clan becomes the material for endless joking by one’s 
clan brothers. 

Diffuse sanctions of wider type are often shared with white people. 
Thus it is held that association with negroes or the possession of 
negro blood is somewhat of a stigma, belief in the Christian deity 
is a requisite for holding office in the band government, and other 
opinions are shared with the southern mountain whites. 

The sanctions of an organized nature are somewhat divided in 
their appearance, some occurring in connection with direct white 
influence such as the state and county government, and others oc- 
curring as age-old ritual sanctions inherited from the past. The 
ritual sanctions will be mentioned more fully in the section on 
Political Change (p. 365). 

Premial sanctions are to be found in the rewards offered for the 
best products of home make in the annual fair and the stimulus like- 
wise accorded to the winners in the dance contests and ball game 
matches. The betting which takes place in many of the games and 
contests of the different forms of sport offers a sort of premial 
sanction for certain conduct. 

The retaliatory sanction functions today through the medium of 
the conjurer. The actual mode of action in this case consists in 
the employment of magical forces to cause severe disease and even 
death in opposition groups. This form of sanction will be discussed 
more fully in the section on magical extensions of social principles. 
Likewise the formerly wider and more important forms of the sanc- 
tion principle as they appeared in such organized retaliatory meas- 
ures as blood revenge and war will be postponed for discussion in 
the section on Political Change. 

Infractions of social usage of today may be divided into private 
and public delicts. The private delicts consist of cases between 
individuals while public delicts concern society and individuals. 
Such present-day private delicts as murder, theft, and adultery, now 
punishable only by the white man’s laws, were once accounted public 
delicts requiring clan revenge. Accusation of a man for contributing 
to illegitimacy in birth may be brought forward and used as grounds 
for support of the child according to the State law but this is not 
often successfully proved. The influence of white laws in this and 
other respects is resisted by the Cherokees and the solidarity of the 


286 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL, 133 


tribe appears in a feeling of collective responsibility to see that no 
member of the tribe shall be convicted of a crime on the testimony 
of a fellow tribesman. 

Some of the more public delicts, however, are efficiently dealt with 
by the State laws. Such is the case with public intoxication which, 
on conviction, carries a penalty of a period of forced labor in 
road building with the chain gang. White sanctions are appar- 
ently in the full way of adoption, but many of the old sanctions con- 
nected with the segmentary divisions of society and their main- 
tenance die but slowly. The satirical sanctions may be expected to 
last as long as the clan. 

Social sanction mechanisms of a ritual type appear in certain of 
the dances. The ancient Medicine Dance or Physic Dance involved 
a cleansing or purification at an all-night affair at which the physic 
was drunk freely. This type of dance was current on the reservation 
until quite recently and may be regarded as truly a section of the 
contemporary culture. 

Going to water occurred anciently and still occurs with some of 
the dances such as the Ball Dance. This allied a purification func- 
tion with the participation in the dance. It was thought that when 
some person was weak and the conjurer was conjuring in an effort, 
to divine a further life ahead of that person, an all-night dance in 
which no one went to sleep would help the cause of the weak person. 

In the case of a death in a family, the final act in the reuniting 
of the bereaved family with the rest of the town was the giving of 
a dance in which the persons who had been mourning would turn 
their faces upward and laugh again. In this way the plaguing spirit 
of the dead one would be cleansed from the mind of the mourner and 
he or she would not be in danger of dying also. 


MAGICAL FORMULAS OR PRAYERS 


James Mooney and Frans Olbrechts have brought to the attention 
of the world some of the extensive and important lore of the Cherokee 
conjurers as it is expressed in the sacred formulas or prayers. The 
manuscripts of these prayers were originally written in the charac- 
ters of the Sequoyah syllabary and in the western dialect of Cherokee 
by the conjurers for their own use. They are of uncertain age and 
often refer to situations of an antique period. 

Each written prayer consists generally of two parts. The first part 
consists of directions for a practical bringing about of certain results, 
such as the use of herbs and hot applications to cure specific diseases. 
The second part consists of a magical invocation or spell designed 
to bring to bear the supernatural forces which will effect desired 
results. The formulas have to do with every question of concern in 


ANTHROP, Pap. No, 25] THE EASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 287 


everyday Cherokee life, such as the curing of disease, success in love 
affairs, obtaining good crops, and protection from evil spells. The 
conjurers who employ the prayers are a class of shamans or medicine 
men who operate as individual practitioners.”® 

The comparative folklore student, Frazer, has classified the forms 
of Cherokee magic as varieties of contagious or homeopathic magic 
including both under the category of sympathetic magic. He under- 
stands sympathetic magic to be the operation of one magical force 
upon another, either directly through contagion (contagious magic) 
or through the homeopathic effect of a cause-and-event sequence 
(homeopathic magic). Contagious magic is exemplified in the prac- 
tice of eating animals whose qualities are desired to be added to 
one’s self. Homeopathic magic is exemplified in the belief that to 
dream of a snake bite results in the real symptoms of snake bite and 
requires the cure for a real snake bite. Frazer (1922-25) also finds 
other types of universal traits, such as the propitiation of animals, an 
annual expulsion of evils, and the invocation of vegetation spirits. 

The points adduced by Frazer from Cherokee culture show that 
the cultural inheritance of the tribe is capable of analysis on a com- 
parative basis with the rest of the world. It will be of advantage, 
however, if some attempt were made to relate these magical elements 
in a functional way with the social principles in Cherokee culture. 

Before proceeding to make this correlation in the case of some 
important traits, it might be worth while to note that Mooney (1900, 
pp. 250-252), whose interests were rather sharply limited to the field 
of folklore, contributed some remarkable functional connections 
within this field between medical and magical practices and the 
mythological complex associated with these. He pointed out such 
valuable connections, for example, as that between the theory of blood 
revenge on the part of animals and the causes ascribed to certain 
diseases such as rheumatism, the mythological explanations for cer- 
tain dances, and others. He was inclined to attribute most of 
Cherokee magical practice to a half mystical “theory of resemblances” 
in which like properties in objects were used as a basis of treatment 
in medicine by homeopathy and in taboos of possibly harmful objects 
und persons. 

FUNCTIONS OF THE FORMULAS 


From the viewpoint of the present study, the Cherokee prayers can 
be said to bear important functional relations to the other parts of 
Cherokee social organization. The elementary principles of opposi- 
tion, reciprocity, and solidarity appears constantly in the wording of 

25 Mooney collected 7 manuscript series of formulas in hig field work, comprising several 


hundred in all. The present writer examined 193 formulas while in the field and made 
synoptic notes on them. 


288 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL, 133 


the formulas. The principle of rivalry or opposition appears in the 
theory of the origin of the world constructed by the conjurers. <Ac- 
cording to the account which is to be pieced together from the dis- 
jointed sections recorded in the different prayers and myths, the world 
was created by the conjurers and the present condition of things is a 
direct result of the struggle for power between conjurers. Each con- 
jurer endeavors to obtain mastery over all the others by fair means or 
foul. It has already been made clear that the ball game consists 
largely in a struggle between the powers of conjurers in neighboring 
villages. In the ball dance a magical familiarity weakens the fellow 
clansmen in the other village. But, even in the ball game, the princi- 
pal weapon in conjurer rivalry is the magic weakening of the other 
side by means of formula repetition. The chief powers that a con- 
jurer uses in his struggles with rivals are disease and death. In order 
to work his magic, the conjurer often takes the form of a witch, man 
killer, a raven, owl, or a flash of blue light. These are the forms for 
which the average Cherokee native is most frequently on the lookout. 
One of the characteristic states produced by magical incantation in 
the formulas is that of being blue or lonesome. This consists in a 
state of isolation inflicted on an individual during which no one will 
have anything to do with him. Left in this state for very long, he 
pines away and dies. 

The principle of reciprocity appears in the formulas in several 
aspects. In the first place, the recital of a prayer or formula on the 
part of the conjurer requires some sort of recompense to him, ugistati, 
which is generally some garment, handkerchief, deerskin, moccasin, or 
cloth. ‘This payment is more necessary in the medical than in the other 
formulas as a rule. There is another form of reciprocity in the bal- 
ancing of collaborators against antagonists in the struggle against 
disease. For each ailment caused by a definite animal there is a cor- 
responding plant remedy and animal enemy of the disease cause. 
There is reciprocity also in the form of ritual sanctions which appear 
in the formulas. The state of uncleanness incurred by the violations 
of taboos requires certain balancing acts to remedy the dysphoria, such 
acts as “going to water” and various additional taboos. The retalia- 
tory sanctions incurred by the killing of animals and causing them to 
seek blood revenge on human beings as a result can only be avoided 
by compensatory acts or prayers. Such is especially the case with such 
sacred or totemic animals as the deer, bear, wolf, and eagle. 

The principle of social solidarity appears to be exemplified in the 
attractive medicine of the formulas. As we shall see in the ensuing 
discussion, attraction forces are used to establish solidarity with 
beneficent forces and with desired objects such as women, wild game, 
plants, and the like. Some of the sacred formulas mention clan and 
kinship affiliations. These references, when they occur, appear to re- 


AnTHROP, Pap. No. 23] THE EASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 289 


inforce the principles already adduced concerning kinship structure, 
and also furnish links in function between the formulas and the social 
groups. 

LOVE FORMULAS 


After this general mention, the easiest approach to the functional 
comprehension of the sacred Cherokee formulas lies in a detailed 
consideration of certain of the main types of formulas. One of 
the most important of Mooney’s classes of sacred formulas is that 
group having to do with “living humanity” (Yu we hi), a euphemism 
for love charms. The accompanying formula taken from Mooney’s 
published list is an example of this type of magic and demonstrates 
effectively its social function. 


CONCERNING Living HuMANITy (LOVE) 


Kai! Listen! In Alahi’yi you repose, O Terrible Woman, O you have drawn 
near to hearken. There in Elahiyi you are at rest, O White Woman. No one 
is ever lonely when with you. You are most beautiful. Instantly and at once 
you have rendered me a white man. No one is ever lonely when with me. 
Now you have made the path white for me. It shall never be dreary. Now 
you have put me into it. It shall never become blue. You have brought down 
to me from above the white road. There in mid-earth (mid-surface) you have 
placed me. I shall stand erect upon the earth. No one is ever lonely when 
with me. I am very handsome. You have put me into the white house. I 
shall be in as it moves about and no one with me shall ever be lonely. Verily, 
I shall never become blue. Instantly you have caused it to be so with me. 

And now there is Elahiyi you have rendered the woman blue. Now you 
have made the path blue for her. Let her be completely veiled in loneliness. 
Put her into the blue road. And now bring her down. Place her standing 
upon the earth. Where her feet are now and wherever she may go, let loneli- 
ness leave its mark upon her. Let her be marked out for loneliness where she 
stands. 

Ha! I belong to the (Wolf) Clan, that one alone which was allotted into 
for you. No one is ever lonely with me. I am handsome. Let her put her 
soul [into] the very center of my soul, never to turn away. Grant that in the 
midst of men she shall never think of them. I belong to the one clan alone 
which was allotted for you when the seven clans were established. 

Where (other) men live it is lonely. They are very loathesome. The com- 
mon polecat has made them so like himself that they are fit only for his com- 
pany. They have become mere refuse. They are very loathesome. The com- 
mon opossum has made them so like himself that they are fit only to be with 
him. They are very loathesome. Even the crow has made them so like him- 
self that they are fit only for his company. They are very loathesome. The 
miserable rain-crow has made them so like himself that they are fit only to 
be with him. 

The seven clans all alike make one feel very lonely in their company. 
They are not even good looking. They go about clothed with mere refuse. ‘They 
even go about covered with dung. But I—I was ordained to be a white man. 
I stand with my face toward the Sun Land. No one is ever lonely with me. 
I am very handsome. I shall certainly never become blue, I am covered by 


290 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY _ (Bou, 1338 


the everlasting white house wherever I go. No one is ever lonely with me. 
Your soul has come into the very center of my soul, never to turn away. 
I... take your soul. Sgé! [Mooney, 1891, pp. 376—-377.] 

In the first paragraph a solidarity with certain benevolent spirits 
between himself and themselves is asserted by the reciter of the 
formula, and a preliminary statement of the reciter’s own attractive- 
ness and charm is made. The second paragraph sets up barriers of 
avoidance between the woman whom the reciter desires to conquer 
and the rest of the world of humanity. Blueness and loneliness are 
to be her lot until she recognizes her true interest, which is with the 
reciter of the charm. In the third paragraph the reciter begins to 
set up a bond of familiarity between himself and the woman desired. 
He names himself and his clan and reminds her that she has been 
alloted to his clan in marriage from the beginning of the world, and 
that he alone of that clan is suitable for her as a mate. The indi- 
cation of a preferential mating with a given clan seems quite con- 
vincing from this paragraph. The fourth paragraph creates a bar- 
rier of avoidance between the reciter and the rest of humanity. 
The rest of mankind are compared to noxious animals and are made 
repulsive and loathesome. The fifth paragraph ends the prayer in a 
reiteration of the assertions of the first paragraph, the charms and 
attractiveness of the reciter, and ends with a statement of solidarity by 
identification, with the woman of his choice. 

It can be seen from a perusal of the accompanying love formula 
that several of the active principles already discovered in the social 
organization are also involved here. 

1. Social solidarity by means of attraction magic is evoked through an identi- 
fication of the reciter’s personality with the personality of the desired woman or 
with the helpful supernatural essence. 

2. Familiarity with one’s rivals is used as a means of derogating them and 
elevating one’s self, a common practice as we have seen in the joking between 
elan brothers in the Friendship and EKagle Dances. 

3. Social opposition barriers by means of forces of repulsion or avoidance are 
set up between the desired woman and all possible rivals in the world and she 
is made very lonely and blue. In such a state a person is avoided by everyone 
and he or she soon pines away and dies. Opposition forces are set up between 
the reciter of the formula and his rivals as he compares the last to noxious 
creatures and repulsive elements. 

4. A predestined or predetermined marriage prescription with certain clans 
seems to be intimated. The intense jealousy of other men of his own elan on 
the part’ of the reciter would seem to indicate his realization of their strong 
position as possible rivals. 

The use of attraction medicine is most frequently during the night. 
A young man sings his attraction song in a low voice about midnight 
while facing in the direction of the girl’s house. She will then dream 
about him and become lonesome for him unless she has fortified her- 
self, on going to bed, with counter spells. The next time she meets the 


ANTHROP, Pap, No. 23] THE BRASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 291 


young man she is irresistibly drawn toward him. She will then 
become attached to him by strong and permanent bonds. Thus a 
strong man and wife solidarity is set up through the agency of the 
love charms. No man among the Cherokees need be long without a 
wife with such powerful magic at his disposal. 

After he has gained a wife, however, his labors are not over. He 
must retain her only by constant spells, especially if she be at all 
attractive and liable to be subject to the magical spells of male rivals. 
In order to retain a wife, thé man must affirm the solidarity existing 
between himself and his wife in a magical formula and anoint her 
breast, while she is sleeping, with his spittle.2° In this rite he magi- 
cally unites the essences of his wife’s soul and his own soul in a bond of 
great solidarity and repels rivals by likening them to noxious crea- 
tures. 

Sometimes, in spite of the man’s best efforts, the woman will be 
attracted away from him by the superior magic of his rival. To 
remedy this and recall the woman he uses a prayer reaffirming his 
attractiveness and, allying himself with the goddess of fire, he re- 
asserts the solidarity of the woman with himself. 

The rival who is endeavoring to detach a man from a woman 
makes use of negative love prayers. These are of two types: (1) 
Designed to separate a man and wife preparatory to uniting the wife 
with himself through his own attractiveness, and (2) to render a man 
unattractive so that no woman will want him.?’ In the case of sep- 
aration of a man and wife, each is likened unto a noxious animal and 
a repulsion is set up between the conjugal pair. The wife will then 
leave her husband or vice versa, unless counterspells are resorted to 
by one or the other of the two. In the spells for rendering a man 
unattractive it is generally the purpose to render more humble some 
young man who is proud and boastful of his accomplishments with 
women. When he is rendered unattractive no one will speak with 
him, joke with him, or dance with him. 

In some cases a man’s love spells designed to attract a given women 
fail to move her. The man’s love then turns to hatred and a desire 
for revenge. He may practice a spell of unattractiveness on her 
and by making her similar to some noxious animal make her lone- 
some and repulsive to all men. Or he may continue to ply her with 
love spells and finally succeed in making her fall foolishly in love 
with him and go through many undignified acts to show her passion. 
Thus he attains revenge on her. 

The young man who wants to be popular resorts to various charms 
to enhance his attractiveness at the dance and to make his voice as 


26 Mooney, 1891, pp. 380-91. Formula for retaining a wife. 
27 Mooney, 1891, pp. 381-382. Formula for Separation of Lovers. 


292 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Buuy, 133 


singer liked by the people. He may also want to increase his popu- 
larity in the council. In order to do this he identifies himself with 
the sun or some other great magical personality while decorating 
himself with red paint (wodi).?* Ugly men often have to resort to 
these spells in order to attract a girl for a wife. The attraction force 
of the caller or the singer at the dance has the effect of acting as a 
power for social cohesion, bringing more people to the dance and 
consequently increasing group familiarity. For people will always 
want to dance with the attractive man and joke with him. Hence, 
the Cherokee feels keenly the necessity for this social attribute. The 
prayers affirm an attractiveness of the reciter with all of the seven 
clans, and even the respect clan. Attractiveness is also desired when 
visiting in a strange village. Therefore, a formula exists to enable 
a person to establish friendly relations on a visit. 


DISEASE FORMULAS 


Next to the love formulas in importance, if not equal with them, are 
those designed to cure and remove disease. Mooney (1891, pp. 867— 
368) gives a technical term for a class of diseases in the Cherokee 
nosology which are particularly important from a functional stand- 
point, the Tsundayeligaktanuhi diseases. This term he defines as 
“the enthusiastic outburst of sociability when two old friends meet,” 
really meaning, he says, “an ordeal.” It can be seen that a euphe- 
mism is herein employed for a very dangerous type of disease, which 
is often the result of the concentrated hate and revenge arising from 
quarrels between persons. 

Mooney does not explain why he calls these “ordeal diseases” be- 
yond mentioning that these may be sent to a man by a friend or even 
by his parents in order to test his endurance and knowledge of 
counterspells. Ata later date Olbrechts *® encountered the same type 
of disease which he terms ayeligogi, or “simulators.” These diseases 
resemble other diseases in their symptoms but ordinary treatment 
utterly fails in these cases. To follow ordinary diagnoses in these 
cases is highly dangerous because the diseases are of a totally differ- 
ent nature. It is said that two parties often wage battles of weeks 
or months in which they pester each other with various ayeligogi 
diseases. Olbrechts, however, finds himself unable to confirm 
Mooney’s data concerning friends and relatives sending each other 
these diseases “as a joke” to mutually test their knowledge and apti- 
tude to ward off such attacks. 

It might be said that what appears here is an example of the magi- 
cal establishment of a privileged familiarity as a basis for disease 


% Mooney, 1891, p. 379. Formula in Preparation for a Dance. 
20 Mooney and Olbrechts, 1932, pp. 33-34. In some cases ordinary diseases may simulate 
a “simulator” disease (ibid., pp. 250-251). 


ANTHROP, Par. No, 23] THE EASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 293 


transmission between persons or groups in social opposition. Disease 
can be regarded as in its essence a condition in which a magical 
channel of familiarity allows a harmful agent to be sent from a sor- 
cerer to his victim. In order to check this familiarity, a series of 
avoidances or taboos must be set up between the two objects or per- 
sons involved. The person who is sick or unclean must be avoided 
and must in turn avoid certain acts and certain foods until he is well. 


THis Is THH MEDICINE (IF) SIMULATORS HAvE MApdr Ir RESEMBLE IT 
(I. e., a Real Sickness) 


Now, then! Yellow Dog, thou wizard, thou art staying toward where the 
sun land is. Thou wizard, nothing is overlooked (by thee). 

Maybe it is a ghost that has caused it, or maybe it is the Purple Man that has 
caused it. But it has been said falsely—it is merely the Simulator who has made 
it resemble it (a real sickness). 

But now its track has been found. It has been undone, and not for a night 
(but forever). It shall bury itself into thy stomachs. They have made thee 
filled; it has become so again. It is the very thing thou eatest. He has put the 
important thing under him, (but now) relief has been caused. 

This is to treat (them) with, (and) which has to be given them to drink. 
Pine (tops) should be boiled. And beads, white and black, one of each (should 
be used with it). [Olbrechts, 1932, pp. 187-188.] ” 

We have already seen how the magical familiarity set up by the 
singer at the ball dance in joking with the opponent town weakens 
that town and its ball team just as a disease weakens a person. Like- 
wise in this connection it might be noted that the conjurer called 
in to treat a disease establishes a magical familiarity with the causal 
agent of the disorder by belittling it. A regular scale of deprecia- 
tion exists. A disease caused by a rattlesnake, a really dangerous 
creature, is referred to a frog or some other insignificant animal 
(Mooney, 1891, p. 352). 

The flow of menstrual blood at periodic intervals sets up a magical 
familiarity dangerous to all who come into contact with it. A female 
in the state of menstruation must be avoided (Mooney and Olbrechts, 
1932, p. 34). One must not eat anything cooked by her, or touch any 
object that she has touched, or even walk along a trail over which she 
has traveled. She must not be allowed to wade in the river near where 
the fish traps are set or she will spoil the catch. If she should walk 
through the cornfield, she will stunt and injure the crops. Even the 
husband of a woman in this condition is, by virtue of his relationship to 
her, compelled to avoid other people. 

The violation of taboos or compulsory magical avoidances, whether 
such violation be voluntary or involuntary, will lead to the establish- 


80 Mooney and Olbrechts also give three other examples of this type of disease (1932, pp. 
172-173, 256-257, and 216-217). 


294 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Buu 133 


ment of harmful channels of familiarity with the causal agents of 
disease. To urinate in the river or spit in the fire constitutes breaches 
in taboo which inevitably result in disease. To dream of being bitten 
by a rattlesnake is sufficient to set up the symptoms of an actual 
snake bite. 

In the case of omens as in others, the bad effects of those are only 
to be averted by the establishment of avoidance relationships with 
the causal agents. If a dog barks for a long time it is a sign that the 
inmates of the house may die. To avert this effect the master of the 
house says, “You die first !” which makes an exchange and avoids the 
evil consequences of the omen. Formerly, it is said, the dog was killed 
on these occasions. 

In every case of disease there are friendly agents and enemy agents. 
The purpose of the magical formulas to cure disease is to attract 
the friendly agents and repel or expel the enemy agents. The 
friendly or helpful agents are attracted by channels of familiarity 
and identification being set up between them and the patient. The 
enemy agents are expelled and kept at a distance by avoidance for- 
mulas and with the help of the friendly agents, which latter are 
generally the natural enemies of the creature causing the disease. 
Mooney and Olbrechts (1932, pp. 44-50) give an extensive list of dis- 
ease agents and curers, enumerating in addition all of the collaborators 
and the antagonists of the patient in each disease. This seems to bring 
out the fact that in the causation and cure of disease opposition 
forces between two social groups are constantly at work. In one 
disease the seven fairy clans are said to be playing ball in the 
stomach of the patient, which gives rise to the symptoms. 

The antagonism of the unfriendly agents to mankind is explained 
as due to the operation of the law of blood revenge. The ghosts 
of those animals who have been slain by the human hunter warn 
their friends of their own species that they must avenge their deaths 
on mankind. When a deer is killed the hunter must take special 
precautions to prevent the deer ghost from following him into 
camp for if it does rheumatism will strike him down. Therefore, 
a special avoidance prayer is pronounced and a fire is built by 
the hunter on the trail in back of him to stop the deer ghost. Like 
precautions must be taken in the slaying of an eagle or a wolf, 
both of which operations were formerly the function of a special 
conjurer versed in these protection prayers. 

The retaliatory sanction of blood revenge is not the only sanction 
entering into the theory of disease. Some very obvious sanctions 
are present also. The man who leaves his wife and children for 
another woman may become subject to a disease manifesting itself 
as extreme sore throat. As we have seen, the violation of ritual 


AntHROP. Pap, No, 23] THE EASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 295 


sanctions surrounding certain acts compels a cleansing in order to 
reestablish the avoidance and original freedom from the disease. 

Various purificatory rites must be gone through by the patient 
in order to rid himself of the elements of the disease. These con- 
sist of sweatbaths, bleeding, scratching, vomiting, and going to wa- 
ter for lavations. In order to help out these procedures, it is also 
necessary for him to avoid certain foods and the opposite sex. To 
impart the qualities of the friendly agents to the patient, decoctions 
of herbs are rubbed or blown on him generally at sacred intervals 
of from four to seven times. 

The most extreme and hurtful phases of disease are those that 
arise in connection with the opposition between human and human 
or between human and supernatural forces. The ordinary native 
must be constantly on the lookout for plotters, witches, sorcerers, 
and conjurers possessed of extensive and very evil powers. When 
sickness attacks a person, the first inference is always that a con- 
jurer or conjuring spirit has launched an attack on the patient which 
must be answered by a strong counterattack on the part of the 
patient and his friends. Among other devices designed to ward 
off the evil effects are those formulas which render the enemy con- 
jurer confused, or make him forget what he is doing, or even make 
him become actually friendly instead of hostile. A confused state 
can be induced in the enemy conjurer by identifying him with 
animals such as the rabbit, which hops about witlessly. He can be 
separated from his powers and be put into a black fog in which 
he forgets all of his repertoire of magical powers. Attraction magic 
is sometimes so strong in its effects that the conjurer can be brought 
around to a friendly attitude by it. 

Needless to say, all of the deaths and diseases attributed to the con- 
jurer are due either to secondary rationalizations of preexisting dis- 
orders or to the fears aroused by the discovery that a plotter is actually 
using his magic to one’s detriment. 

The use of death-producing formulas to bring about the killing of a 
person gives rise to certain questions.*_ We cannot, in our own culture, 
begin to appreciate the enormous force that ritual sanctions have in 
determining the course of events within small communities such as the 
villages of the Eastern Cherokees. The violation of some simple 
taboo, or the accidental encountering of some slight ill omen, may 
give rise to a weakened constitutional condition which becomes ready 
prey to the superstitious imaginations of those who are in attendance. 
All of the old persons of the neighborhood are regarded with suspi- 


%1See Mooney (1891, pp. 391-395) for characteristic death-producing formula with the 
use of beads and spittle. 


405260—_43——20 


296 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Buun,. 133 


cion as being possible witches anxious to acquire by magic some of 
the life of the sick man to add to their own span. There is the added 
possibility of clan or family revenge. The whole problem of social 
opposition magic resulting in deaths remains awaiting further 
investigation. 

The best specific against disease known to the Cherokees is the use of 
protection prayers and prayers for long life. Divinations are con- 
stantly being made to ascertain the probable future length of life 
reserved for each person in the community and, where there is any 
danger of a person’s dying in the immediate future, measures are taken 
to counteract the danger. 

It has just been mentioned above that the motive of theft enters 
largely into the calculations of the natives in attributing reasons for 
the activities of witches and wizards. The conjurer and disease pro- 
ducer are always hovering around the sick bed in order to add some 
life to their own span of existence. As we shall see presently, the 
motive of theft is strong also in the myths. This motivation of theft 
would seem to tie up with the personal delicts punishable by certain 
of the social sanctions. 

There are two classes of particularly dangerous causers of disease. 
These are the man killers and the witches (Mooney and Olbrechts, 1932, 
pp. 29-383). The man killers are to be feared only when their anger 
has been incurred through some violation of taboo, or a joke, and some 
act of familiarity has established a channel of force with them. They 
seem to be some type of male spirit whose disease-producing activities 
against human beings are definitely exact and for specific reasons. 
These can be counteracted by the proper spells. On the other hand, 
the activities of the witches are far more nefarious. They are natu- 
rally of a base, mean disposition, and are always attacking human 
beings on every and any occasion. They seem to be identified with 
old persons in the community, male or female. Formerly, as we shall 
see later, the crime of witchcraft was one of the most serious charges 
possible among the Cherokees.*? 

To summarize this discussion on the Cherokee theory of disease, it 
may be said that, according to the evidence, disease is thought to be the 
result of the violation of social sanctions or as simply a form of social 
opposition between humans or between humans and supernatural 
forces. It is necessary to combat diseases, then, through the reestab- 
lishment of the broken taboos, or to impose new ones so that the social 
sanctions can be restored and social well-being regained. The oppo- 
sition of the witches and evil forces must be overcome by the establish- 
ment of solidarities between the patient and the natural antagonists 


= Especially the bringing about of a death by magical means. See Mooney (1891, pp. 
391-395). 


Anturop, Pap. No, 23] THE EASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 297 


of the causal agents of the disease. The retaliatory sanction of blood 
revenge on the part of offended animal ghosts must be satisfied or 
averted by magical processes. 


OTHER FORMULAS 


The same forces of attraction and repulsion which are invoked in 
Disease and Love Magic are also to be found in the magical formulas 
devoted to other purposes. When the hunter goes after bear, deer, or 
fowl he uses certain prayers to attract the game to where he can 
shoot it. These prayers have a magical attraction effect and are sung 
in a low-pitched voice. When animal traps, such as bear traps, otter 
traps, raccoon traps, squirrel traps, rabbit traps, and bird snares, are set 
out they must be accompanied with certain spells to assure their suc- 
cess in attracting the game. In all hunters’ formulas the fire is the 
chief deity appealed to, although the great terrestrial hunter, Kanadi 
(called sometimes “the river”), is also helpful. Both of these beings 
are full of attraction for the game, and the hunter endeavors to identify 
himself with them. The following is a typical hunter’s formula from 
Mooney: 


CoNcERNING HUNTING 


Give me the wind. Give me the breeze. Yi! O Great Terrestrial Hunter, I 
come to the edge of your spittle where you repose. Let your stomach cover 
itself; let it be covered with leaves. Let it cover itself at a single bend, and may 
you never be satisfied. 

And you, O Ancient Red, may you hover above my breast while I sleep. Now 
let good (dreams?) develop; let my experience be propitious. Ha! Now let my 
little trails be directed, as they lie down in various directions (?). Let the leaves 
be covered with the clotted blood, and may it never cease to be so. You two (the 
Water and the Fire) shall bury it in your stomachs. Yt! [Mooney, 1891, pp. 
369-370. ] 


In the case of formulas designed to attract fish every device is used 
to cause the fish to move toward the fishhook or into the fishtrap. The 
fishhook may be anointed with spittle after certain leaves have been 
chewed which exercise an attraction power. The prayer is often 
directed to the fish to travel over his water trails to the trap. The 
following is a specimen from Mooney: 


THIS IS FOR CATCHING LARGE FIsH 


Listen! Now you settlements have drawn near to hearken. Where you have 
gathered in the foam you are moving about as one. You Blue Cat and the 
others, I have come to offer you freely the white food. Let the paths from every 
direction recognize each other. Our spittle shall be in agreement. Let them 
(your and my spittle) be together as we go about. They (the fish) have become a 
prey, and there shall be no loneliness. Your spittle has become agreeable. I am 
called.... Ya! [Mooney, 1891, p. 374.] 


298 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Buun, 133 


The gathering of medicinal herbs such as ginseng requires the re- 
cital of certain attraction formulas to attract the gatherer to the place 
wherein the ginseng is growing most abundantly. Here, as in the 
other cases of economic ceremonies, no luck greets the hunter who 
neglects the sacred formula. 

Allied to the economic formulas are those devoted to finding out 
lost things and for divining other events. A pebble, straw, bread ball, 
or brown stone is suspended on a string, and the direction of its swing- 
ing will indicate the position of the lost object. The diviner repeats 
the following: 


I HAveE Lost SOMETHING 


Listen! Ha! Now you have drawn near to hearken, O Brown Rock; you 
never lie about anything. Ha! Now I am about to seek for it. I have lost a 
hog, and now tell me about where I shall find it. For is it not mine? My name 
is.... [Mooney, 1891, p. 386.] 

Weather-control formulas are resorted to principally in order to 
prevent bad wind storms, to induce rain after a drought, or to stop 
rain after a prolonged period of it. A typical wind-averting formula 
given by Mooney compares the storm to an eager husband pursuing 
his wife. The reciter of the formula averts the storm, telling it that 
the wife has gone in some other direction. Here again the social rela- 
tionship is applied to explain a natural phenomenon. 

Some of the formulas are concerned with forms of social opposi- 
tion such as war and ball play. The war formulas are in the main 
forgotten and only a few survive.*? Their general tenor is a theme 
involving confusion of the enemy in the black fog and the likening 
of the reciter of the formula to some small bird which is able to 
dodge shots with ease. The ball play formulas have to do with the 
strengthening of ball players when they go to water for purification 
through ritual sanctions (Mooney, 1891, pp. 396-397). The home 
team is compared to swift animals and identified with them; the enemy 
team is identified with slow and clumsy animals. This weakens the 
opponents and strengthens the home team. There is, in general, a 
close resemblance between the ritual sanctions surrounding war and 
the ball play. 

One element occurring in the formulas which clearly reflect actual 
social relationships is kinship. Such is one of the formulas described 
by Mooney as “To Make Children Jump Down.” It is designed to 
assist in childbirth, and runs as follows: 


% Mooney (1891, pp. 888-391) gives an example. The present author’s informant pos- 
sessed two war formulas in 1932. 


AnTHROP, Pap. No. 23] THE EASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 299 
THIS 1s TO MAKE CHILDREN JUMP DowN 


Listen! You little man, get up now at once. There comes an old woman. 
The horrible [old thing] is coming, only a little way off. Listen! Quick! Get 
your bed and let us run away. Yt! 

Listen! You little woman, get up now at once. There comes your grand- 
father. The horrible old fellow is coming only a little way off. Listen! Quick! 
Get your bed and let us run away. Ya! [Mooney, 1891, p. 363.] 

This formula is described by Mooney as an expression of kinship 
usages. The male child is frightened into being born sooner by being 
told that its grandmother is coming and is only a short distance away. 
This seems to be related to the idea that the male child is often fright- 
ened by an old grandmother telling him that he will have to marry her 
when he grows up, shriveled and ugly though she may be. This is, 
of course, the indirect joking of the son by his father in a new guise. 
In the same manner the girl child is told that the maternal grand- 
father is coming. This person is a privileged character in the com- 
munity so far as teasing the children is concerned and is greatly 
feared by them. Thus it can be seen that the joking relationship 
between grandparents and grandchildren is employed in a magical 
rite for expediting a speedy childbirth. 

In general there seems to be some connection with magical powers 
and old persons or grandparents. As we shall see below, the most 
powerful forces in Cherokee cosmology, the fire and the sun, are re- 
garded as grandparents. The fire is given a variety of names in the 
formulas, “ancient red,” “ancient white,” “grandmother,” etc. This 
element is a powerful and magical grandmother and one dare not be 
familiar with it as one is with the human grandmother. Any lack 
of respect for the fire will result in immediate disease. If one spits 
on the fire his teeth are going to fall out, if he urinates on the fire 
worms will attack his bladder. In this case, as in others, disease is 
looked upon as the operation of a sanction mechanism. The fire is 
invoked to protect her grandchildren in the house and bits of charcoal 
are tied about the necks of the children so that their magical grand- 
mother will look after them and not allow them to become lost. 
Grandmother fire is the old woman gathering wood after which 
one of the present-day Cherokee dances is named. When a sacred 
new fire is kindled it is very powerful and may be used in witch- 
craft to cause the death of an enemy. Ritual sanctions are closely 
tied up with the kindling of the magical new fire. It must be con- 
stantly fed on a special diet of liver, otherwise it will become dangerous 
and “go after” its owner, and cause illness. Existing in the same way 
as fire, but not looming to such importance in the relationship with 
humans, is the grandmother sun. She is appealed to in various rites 
for love attraction and the cure of certain diseases, 


300 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BuLu. 133 


The moon is regarded as a strongly protecting elder brother or some- 
times as a maternal grandfather. He is the especial protector of ball 
players just as the fire is of the hunter. He has a strong influence over 
women and is appealed to by the young man who is painting up in 
preparation for the dance. 

There is one other important relative in the magical kinship system 
of the Cherokees. This is agawe’la, “the old woman of the corn,” who 
is also regarded'asa mother. Various myths and rites cluster about this 
figure whose importance in the past was undoubtedly much greater 
than now. . 

Certain other beings are related to the Cherokees in the manner of 
human beings although their exact relationship status is vague. Such 
beings are the man of the Whirlwind, the Rain-maker (agandiski), 
the Cloud People who often come to visit humans, the Red Man of 
Lightning, the Thunder Men, the Snow Man, the Hot and Cold 
Weather Men, the Rainbow Man, Hail Man, Frost Man, Waterfall 
Man, and last but not least, the Long Man of the River. One must 
always respect these persons and never joke with them. 

Certain unexplained relationships occur in the invocation of spirits 
which cure apoplectic fits. Two of the spirits so invoked are “my 
father” and “my mother’s brother.” Evidently there is a linking in 
function of these two male ascendant generation persons in some man- 
ner not now remembered. 

Regarding the relationships existing between the persons who send 
diseases on each other, it is difficult to speak accurately. Mooney men- 
tions that the ayeligogi diseases might be sent by one’s parents in order 
to test one’s aptitude to ward off attacks of magical disease. It is also 
possible that clan revenge may still function as a retaliatory sanction 
by way of the magical disease route. It is certain that personal revenge 
functions by this means. Magical relatives such as the fire or the river 
send diseases for slights and insults. Conjurers send diseases to each 
other when in rivalry over a woman. 

The linking of one’s clan with one’s personal name occurs in the love 
formulas in particular. In these prayers, as we have noted, the woman 
is reminded that, of all the seven clans,** she is destined to marry only 
into the clan of the reciter. 

In summary, it will be seen that the kinship relations appear to be 
reflected to some extent in the magical formulas, especially those for- 
mulas which have to do with disease and love motives, and occasionally 
in others. 


* The totemic aspects of the Cherokee clans, to which previous reference has been made, 
are unclear. The number of sacred and taboo animals was anciently quite large. At the 
present time there is no definitely expressed relationship between groups and totemic objects. 
See Frazer (1922-1925, vol. 3, pp, 182-195) for a negative view in Cherokee totemism. 


ANTHROP, PaP. No. 23] THE EASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 301 


MYTHOLOGY AND ITS FUNCTION 


One element remaining in Cherokee culture capable of being closely 
connected with the social structure is the mythology. ‘The mythical 
lore of the Cherokees has to do primarily with explanations of the 
present world in terms of happenings in the past. Most of the events 
recounted in the myths relate the adventures of various animal deities 
in the usual fashion of North American Indian and other primitive 
folklore. Much of this material could be paralleled, if not duplicated, 
by corresponding stories from the other tribes of the Southeastern area 
of the United States.*° 

The animal species are pictured as organized into a society resem- 
_ bling that of the Cherokees themselves and as being possessed of town 
houses, towns, trails, and the like. The animals of today live in clans, 
each species being a single clan, and these clans are pictured as fre- 
quently meeting together in council to decide on important enterprises. 
Yet the animals of today are not as great as those of the past, who 
appear to have been powerful conjurers in disguise. The clan coun- 
cils administer penal sanctions and enforce social control among the 
various animal species. Yet the most important features of the latter- 
day culture of the Cherokees, such as fire and tobacco, are represented 
as having been obtained by stealing on the part of various animals at 
the behest of their clan councils. When certain animals were punished 
for their misdeeds the characteristic marks survive until now. Steal- 
ing of wives and other booty was an early characteristic of the Chero- 
kees and one that seems best reflected in the myths. Some of the 
animals appear not only great conjurers, but also as great tricksters of 
the type of the practical joker among relatives today. The rabbit, in 
particular, is an expert trickster and few are the creatures who escape 
his pranks. The animals’ clans are perpetually at war with human 
beings as has been mentioned before in the discussion on the theory 
of disease. This war amounts to a conflict involving blood revenge for 
all of the animals slain by man, either as game or crushed as worms 
heedlessly beneath the tread of human feet. 

The extensive collection of Cherokee tales made by Mooney was 
classified by him under seven groups, namely : Cosmogonic, quadruped, 
bird, snake-fish-insect, wonder stories, historical traditions, and mis- 
cellaneous (the last being mainly explanations of topographical desig- 
nations). This classification is based on the formal subject matter of 
the myths rather than on the story themes contained in them. For 
the purposes of a functional study such as this, the internal relation- 
ships between the characters in the myths are of more importance than 


* Mooney (1900, pt. 1) must be read at least in part before attempting to understand the 
generalizations derived in this discussion. Lack of space forbids the inclusion of even some 
of the shorter myths in this discussion. 


302 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY | [BuuL, 133 


the actual animals involved. It is possible to conceive the social rela- 
tionships described in the myths as types of the actual relationships 
to be found among the Cherokees themselves. It is in projection of 
various types of human relationships into the animal and myth- 
ological world that value inheres in the myths in a functional inter- 
pretation. 


TABLE 7.—Elements in Cherokee myths 


Ex- | prick- |Ama-| Kin- | Theft] Re- | Corresponding myth 


Title of myth Pee ster | tory | ship verge in Bee s list 

14;Otter.and the,Rabbit:..- = 2. = ae OKO jes ees ae cee ee Myth 17, p. 267. 

2. Phe Cranecet testa sea ee enone x OT le ema oS ee ee 

Si-Nherfirst Blks +23: 3-2. soe bs May Ease sacs pa die RE Ee ers 

4. Marriage of the Corn and Bean- ot b> la pete gee by Gog Re A eal (A cota gab sed 

5. The Lion and the Rabbit_-- a abate oe 

6. The Bear’s Short Tail-_--_-_-- : ek 2 Al PRS ere Bale Ne 2 

7. The Great Leach. > 2.3) .- =. = z xX | Myth 77, p. 329. 

8. The Woman of the Corn! REE a3) (er Myth 8, p. 242. 

ONStonecoatt se saa aes xX | Myth 67, p. 319. 
TAOS HAS ay S Yess MO) Ue ae ee AEs El aad i i a PO eit Fc ares tl Myth 75, p. 325. 
11. Turkeys and the Rabbit-_-_--.----_-- SES EEA (SER |e Myth 19, p. 269. 
12 Rabbit and he Wii ke 2 See ee Se oe a es eae Myth 16, p. 266. 
13. How the Deer got his Horns_-_--_-_----- < ae | eee et eee Su ee Te Myth 26, p. 275. 
14) Terrapints whistle:<"':**--2eLse 2! x rat | Se eee | eee > Sige thee tec Myth 40, p. 289. 
TabhesBeaver, Wate-h 3 2 be See fa Se > ER OR BEN Ieeete Sel eee Myth 83, p. 343(?) 
16. The man who married the thunder’s |______|___-___- Re eer Nera ae) eS ee Myth 84, p. 345. 

sister. 
17. Story of Oconaluftee-___--.----------- ier ee x St Beene he 
TSC regonmiommean:2=. oe. Se ee a a eo ee eR 
19. Isayi and the thunder boy------------ x CS NRE: oe S| SUPRA ATER Myth 63, p. 311. 
Summary of number of occurrences 15 9 5 3 2 2 
of element. 


1 This myth appears in the Payne Manuscripts also. 
2 This myth appears in the Payne Manuscripts and elsewhere, 


Table 7 (above) consists of an enumeration of the elements in a 
group of some 19 myths collected by the writer at Big Cove in 1932.%? 
The explanatory element looms as the largest single factor in this 
random sampling. The explanatory element, however, involves 
several subordinate elements which constitute the means of explana- 
tion. ‘These subordinate elements are those important social relation- 
ships such as jokester trickery, revenge, love, and family relationships. 

The jokester-trickster element consists of practical jokes played on 
each other by the animal actors of the mythical drama. The rabbit 
is the type trickster of the Southeastern woodlands and in the Chero- 
kee myths he tricks the otter, possum, turkeys, wolf, flint, and the 
deer. He is in turn tricked by the terrapin and the deer. Other 
animals also play tricks. The wolves, in particular, are very gullible 
and are tricked not only by the rabbit but also by the terrapin and 


*6 This series of myths is still in manuscript but will appear later as part of a formal 
study of Cherokee ethnology by the present writer. 


AnTurop, Pap. No, 23] THE EASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 303 


the ground hog. The terrapin is also gullible for he is tricked by the 
turkey and the partridge. 

The trickery and practical jokes between the animals are quite fre- 
quently reciprocated, one animal returning with interest the tricks 
of the other. The favorite mode of trickery is for one jokester to 
lure another into a situation in which the latter is made to appear 
ridiculous and loses something of value. In this way the bear loses 
his tail, the otter his coat, the deer his sharp teeth, and the ’possum 
his furry tail. 

The trickster element is closely similar to the joking between rela- 
tives which, as we have seen, is so important in the social structure. 
The joking of the myths is not between close relatives, it is true, but 
the forms of the relationship are such that one is forceably reminded 
of the joking between kinfolk. In this connection we should recall 
the famous tobacco joke between the man who marries the father’s 
sister and the children of the wife’s brother. 

Closely allied to the trickster element is the motive of theft. Theft 
of souls and life span plays an important part in explaining the mo- 
tives of witches, as we have already seen in the formulas. In the 
inythology the important culture elements possessed in later times by 
the Cherokees, such as fire and tobacco, are represented as having 
been stolen by the great animals of the past from some far country. 
In the trickster myths subterfuges are used by the deer to steal the 
rabbit’s horns and the quail to steal the terrapin’s whistle. In this 
connection it would be pertinent to note that the Cherokees were 
formerly a predatory mountain people given to swooping down on the 
lowland tribes of the east and south in search of booty and perhaps 
wives. 

Revenge appears in the myths as a life for a life principle in the 
killing of Stonecoat and of the monster leech. Many of the historical 
and animal myths of Mooney’s list involve revenge motives. It is 
possible to see in the revenge motive a connecting point with the blood 
revenge or retaliatory sanctions of the earlier Cherokees. Even today 
the principle of rivalry and revenge is predominant in the relations 
between the conjurers. Struggle for power and for women leads to 
injury and revenge on the part of the various parties involved in the 
magical rivalry of conjuring. 

The amatory element appears in the myths in several guises. Some 
of the animals are seeking after wives and go through various adven- 
tures in their search. The love element appears in other cases in 
which explanations of present-day conditions are made. This resem- 
bles the love element appearing in the sacred formulas but no special 
indication of preferential mating occurs in the myths. Likewise the 
kinship element appears in several of the explanatory myths and al- 


304 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Buny. 133 


ways in a rather generalized form without important connections with 
the kinship structure described in this paper. 

The Cherokee myths, then, can be said to represent, under the guise 
of a predominantly explanatory element, a series of social relationships 
which are also found to underlie the social structure of the tribe. 
These social relationships unite the myths with the rest of Cherokee 
culture in a functional relationship. The myths express the rational- 
ized explanations of the existing world in terms of familiar social 
mechanisms known or recognized by all of the persons in the tribe, 
both the raconteur and the listeners in this case. 

The various usages which constitute the core of Cherokee social 
organization at the present time have now been reviewed in their 
functional aspects as part of a complicated interarticulating mecha- 
nism for the perpetuation of the clans through preferential mating. 
Each type of institution and usage was shown to have a definite role in 
connection with the system as a whole and to serve as supporting links 
in the chain of events leading from one point in the community and 
individual life cycle back to a similar point in the cycle. This set of 
usages can be said to constitute a specific social pattern for the 
Cherokees. 


SUMMARY OF THE PRESENT-DAY CULTURE 


The important points to be derived from the foregoing discussion 
of the Functions of the Present-Day Traits have to do almost entirely 
with the problem of preferential mating and the kinship usages that 
surround it. An attempt will now be made to generalize and to sum- 
marize in brief fashion the functional relationships just presented 
under the headings of social opposition, social solidarity, and social 
reciprocity. 

SOCIAL OPPOSITION 

The principle of social opposition always involves by implication 
some degree of the inverse principle of social solidarity, and since the 
two phenomena are so closely allied in appearance they will be treated 
here together. 

We have already discussed the appearance of social opposition 
within the individual Cherokee family and shown how the principle 
appears in the relationship of contiguous generations, older to younger 
siblings, in the nonreciprocal nature of some pair relationships, and in 
the sexual dichotomy. It remains for us here to sketch the outlines 
of social opposition as it occurs in nonkinship groups either as an ex- 
tension from kinship or as an analogous phenomenon to that occurring 
within kinship relations. 

The organized opposition between groups occurs in its clearest 
form in the sports, particularly in the ball game. In the ball game 
the opposition involves a rivalry not only of the teams and the towns 


ANTHROP, PaP. NO. 23] THE EASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 305 


but also of the conjurers in the rival towns and the fellow clansmen 
in the two localities. The rivalry between the conjurers was dis- 
cussed in the section on extensions in social opposition. The opposi- 
tion between clan brothers, already noted in several contexts, is of 
great significance for the participants in the game because it has a 
magical influence over the outcome of the game. One singer in the 
ball dance will look toward the enemy town and say, “Your town 
is no good. Your team is going to lose the game.” Thus he weakens 
the opponents, even though they are out of sight and hearing from 
him. 

The opposition involved in the ball game is very intense. A regu- 
lar melee occupies the greater part of the game and the number of 
serious injuries incurred is quite large. Yet the fighting is all ac- 
cepted in good spirit as part of the fun of the game. 

A different type of social opposition develops in the woman’s foot- 
ball game, the vine-pulling game, and the basket game. In these 
sports the women are generally aligned against the men. In each 
game the stakes are constituted by the products most characteristi- 
cally associated with each sex’s daily activities. If the men lose they 
are compelled to hunt for squirrel, rabbit, or some other game for a 
feast. If the women lose they are compelled to bake bread and beans 
for a feast. This sexual dichotomy appears in other contexts as, for 
example, in the tendency of the women and men to congregate in 
separate groups at all public gatherings and the relegation of some 
of the dances to either one or the other sex. 

Another, somewhat artificial, form of town opposition develops 
in the competition for prizes at the annual fair. This is especially a 
phase of the competition of dance teams from Birdtown and Big 
Cove. A regular feud has developed between these two towns with 
reference to the excellence of their respective dance teams. 

At the annual Thanksgiving Day match hunt in Big Cove two 
opposition groups are always involved, one from one side of the river 
and the other from the opposite bank. The losers are forced to do 
the work of preparing the dinner. This form of competing opposi- 
tion was formerly common in all of the Cherokee towns. 

Since war has disappeared, the greatest form of social opposition 
without the Cherokee group has disappeared. The Indians have re- 
tained, however, a strong measure of group solidarity and resistance 
to white laws as we saw in the section on the economic situation 
(pp. 213-214). The opposition is not organized but represents a 
spontaneous nonparticipation feeling of separation from the surround- 
ing white world. 

In summarizing the main points of social opposition, then, it can 
be said to be found in various forms of intertown and intersex 


306 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 133 


rivalries, but that its most manifest social function is in connection 
with the maintenance of the peculiar features inherent in the prefer- 
ential mating of relatives. 


SOCIAL SOLIDARITY AND RECIPROCITY 


Turning to the principle of social solidarity, we find that it also 
stems largely from a kinship base and by extensions becomes more 
widespread in its manifestations. The solidarity of the individual 
town is maintained by the local organization of ball and dance teams, 
the commonly shared councilman, and farm organizations. A more 
effective solidarity is that of the local neighborhood. This is mani- 
fested in the mutual aid societies, the local cooperative enterprises, 
and the dance groups. There are two typical dance groups which 
come to the fore in this connection, the group meeting in Raven in 
Big Cove and the Adams Creek group meeting in Birdtown. 

Social solidarity within Cherokee society can be said to be main- 
tained by various interlocking groups. The segmentary groups such 
as the family, lineage, and clan are the primary manifestations of 
group solidarity. These have never been broken down by white cul- 
ture although they have been greatly modified. Secondly, there are 
the groups founded on social reciprocity, the gadugi, poor aid so- 
cleties, and local cooperative enterprises. These are aboriginally 
remnantal organizations which function but feebly today and seem 
to be destined to soon disappear. Thirdly, there are groups whose 
solidarity is founded on their function as agents for maintaining the 
social sanctions. These are the town organizations and the Govern- 
mental system of the Band itself. These last have completely lost 
their aboriginal flavor and appear to be some sort of copy of the 
institutions of the white man. 

The most outstanding example of reciprocity in Cherokee culture 
is the reciprocity between clans in connection with the system of 
preferential mating whereby the balance of loss and gain is main- 
tained. This is but one of several important manifestations of this 
principle, however. 

The balancing of complementary forces is apparent in the mar- 
riage relationship, in the forms of economic exchange of goods and 
services prevalent in Cherokee society, and in the cooperative enter- 
prises. The process of evening up of social exchanges is a well- 
marked fact. The mutual assistance of husband and wife within 
the household is a primary manifestation of reciprocity. The man 
of the family performs the operations of hunting, fishing, fuel gather- 
ing, and land cultivation. The woman of the family attends to 
the household duties of cooking, mending, washing, and child rearing. 
The reciprocity of this arrangement is recognized by a symbolism 


ANTHEOP. Pap. No. 23] THE EASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 307 


in ritual among the Cherokee, the man being identified with meat 
and game while the woman is identified with corn and bean food 
or bread. Therefore, in all games between the sexes the women bet 
bread and the men bet meat. 

Reciprocity in exchange of goods and services appears in clear 
form in the various local or neighborhood cooperative enterprises. 
The gadugi is a company organized for the purpose of mutual ex- 
change of services and earning of money. Mutual aid between neigh- 
bors often takes the form of helping in the digging of each other’s 
potatoes and helping each other in the harvesting. The poor aid 
society functions as a form of mutual aid among neighbors when 
sickness or death disables one of the families. Payment for these 
services is, of course, expected, either in kind or in return services. 
Sometimes a group in a neighborhood will go together to build a 
house for some poor person or build a footbridge for common use. 

A more extensive type of reciprocity occurs in the cooperation of 
a whole town in helping out the cultivation and improvement of some 
particular conjurer’s farm in order to secure in return his aid to 
conjure for the ball game and obtain a magical success. 

Reciprocity in the form of true economic exchange consists of the 
changing of land, improvements, and goods. Land use is acquired 
by the individual in a number of ways—homesteading, inheritance, 
purchase, swapping, or renting. 

The theory of homesteading expresses an economic exchange of 
reciprocity although, perhaps, the practice does not entirely live up 
to the ideal. According to the principle of the laws, the Band grants 
the use of a homestead to a member of the Tribe who is a proved 
Cherokee and who promises to improve the land by building a house 
on it and cultivating it. In some cases, however, improvement of the 
iand is very slight and squatter sovereignty is far from unknown. 

The theory of inheritance involves another type of ideal reciprocity. 
A person who acquires a claim of land by homesteading acquires only 
the use of the land, not the ownership. But all improvements made 
on the land are owned outright so that ownership land becomes de 
facto if not in law. Theoretically, the homestead is willed to that 
person who “takes care” of its original owner in his last days. Gen- 
erally this implies that ultimogeniture, or youngest son inheritance, 
prevails and so it is in the main. However, almost any relative, and 
even a perfect stranger can take care of the aged owner of a homestead 
and thus acquire the land at his demise. There is an exchange, then, 
of “taking care” for a land tenure. One might well ask, “What be- 
comes of the other children of the family?” The answer is that they 
go out either to stake out new homesteads for themselves or leave the 
reservation. 


308 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Buuu, 133 


Outright purchase is a common form of acquiring land improve- 
ments and tenures. This is the means by which the more thrifty 
“white Indians” have been able to acquire huge holdings in Big Cove, 
Wolftown, and Birdtown. As these people advance, the native Chero- 
kee is pushed farther and farther up the slopes toward the inhospitable 
tablelands and mountain ridges. The reciprocity of the buying and 
selling of land lies, of course, in the exchange of land for cash. 

Swapping is a fairly common form of exchanging homesteads. In 
some cases one native will want to move to another town and he is 
able to find some other family that wants to move to his own town. 
In many cases owners desire to move nearer to relatives or to higher 
land away from the white settlements. Swapping is carried on not 
only in land, but also even more extensively in mobile goods such as 
household articles, written prayers, and the like. 

Quite a number of the Cherokee families rent their land from other 
fellow tribesmen. In this case a money rent is paid asarule. All im- 
provements made by renters are held to belong to the original owner, 
not the renter. This is a reciprocity of exchange for use. 

The relations of the Cherokee to the white Government are an ex- 
ample of economic semidependence owing to lack of full reciprocity 
of the relationship. The average Cherokee family does little more 
than provide itself with a mean type of shelter, a small margin of 
corn and bean food, and scant fuel. Articles of apparel such as shoes, 
sweaters, and the like are often supplied by the white Government. 
In addition to the supplying of life necessities, the white Government 
also supplies educational, health, and agricultural services. In re- 
turn the Cherokees render little beside some native products such as old- 
time artifacts and native dances and entertainment at the annual fair. 

The segmentary organizations of the Cherokee are permeated 
throughout with the principle of reciprocity. The effects of the dual 
organization of the aboriginal society will be discussed in the section 
on Political Change. The relationships of the various kinship pairs 
involve different kinds and degrees of reciprocity. The terminology 
reflects the differences between the less reciprocal (nonreciprocal terms) 
and the more or less completely reciprocal (self-reciprocal terms) rela- 
tionships as we have seen in the section on kinship integration. In 
general, it may be stated that relationships with persons of one’s own 
or the alternate generation are reciprocal and that relations with the 
contiguous (parental or children’s) generations is nonreciprocal. 
Reciprocity appears in the symbolism of certain of the dances. In 
the Corn Dance the cooperative labors of the two sexes in planting 
are symbolized in various motions. In the Green Corn Dance there 
are certain dances performed by one or the other sex which symbolize 


ANTHROP, PaP, No, 23] THE EASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 309 


their respective labors in the harvest. In the Coat Dance the coat 
denotes the trading of a cloth payment for a bride. 

Summarizing the manifestations of reciprocity, then, its primary 
forms can be said to lie in the exchange between clans in marriage, 
in cooperative societies, in economic exchange, and in the relations 
between kinship pairs. Through the agency of its function in clan- 
marriage exchange, reciprocity is tied up with the important nuclear 
complex in Cherokee society consisting of preferential mating, privil- 
eged familiarity, and the like. Through economic exchange, more- 
over, reciprocity is allied with social opposition between rival groups 
such as men and women, town and town, etc. The solidarity of groups 
is also bound up with group sanctions and reciprocity. 


SOCIAL INTEGRATION 


By way of summary of this discussion on functions, it can be stated 
that the meaning of Cherokee social institutions and structures is to be 
sought in a series of principles or agents which, taken together with a 
set of special principles associated with this particular area or tribe, 
constitute the basis of the present-day functioning society. The ac- 
tive agents in Cherokee society today consist of social opposition, social 
solidarity (both opposition and solidarity being possibly different 
facets of the same thing), social reciprocity, and social sanctions. 
Upon these is overlain a series of special principles such as preferen- 
tial mating, privileged familiarities, and the segmentary divisions. 
Preferential mating is by far the most important of these. 

The kinship system of the Cherokees involves a series of social soli- 
darities and social oppositions. The solidarities are built up from 
equivalence of brothers and equivalence within the clan and these are 
articulated with the opposition of parental generation to ego’s genera- 
tion to produce a mechanism allowing for preferential mating. The 
solidarities and oppositions within the individual family are extended 
to the social structure as a whole. 

There are three main types of pair relationships among the Chero- 
kees and these are (1) parent-child, (2) brother-sister, and (8) grand- 
parent-grandchild. The perpetuation of a complicated system such as 
the Cherokee depends upon its ability to adapt itself to the changes 
arising from the deaths, marriages, and births of its individual mem- 
bers. Provision for these necessary occurrences is made in the prefer- 
ential mating system through the fact that lineages are kept in close 
contact with each other. Marriage is made an interlineage affair and 
death is provided for by the production of new family groups. The 
generation of new families is brought about through a mechanism con- 
sisting of (1) privileged familiarity of satirical, intersexual, and 
indirect types; (2) a reciprocal arrangement between clans for ex- 


310 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Buut. 133 


changes in marriage of their respective members; (3) a definite system 
of preference in mating by individuals for certain clans; and (4) the 
enforcing power of certain strong social sanctions. 

The system of preferential mating prevailing among the Cherokees 
is probably the most important and pivotal item in the entire inte- 
gration. It is effected through the agency of that exogamous seg- 
mentary group, the clan. The special principle of preferential 
mating among the Cherokees allows marriage only with persons who 
are in the clans of ego’s father’s father or mother’s father. This is 
to say marriage is allowed only with the mother’s father’s matrilineal 
lineage and its corresponding clan, or with the father’s father’s 
matrilineal lineage or clan. It is forbidden to marry into one’s own 
matrilineal lineage or clan, and the same taboo exists with reference 
to one’s father’s matrilineal lineage and clan. Thus, it can be seen 
that Cherokee kinship lays stress on four lineages in tracing descent. 

Closely allied with the special principle of preferential mating is 
the special principle of privileged familiarity between certain rela- 
tives. Limited to its two main aspects, privileged familiarity can be 
said to be that form of close contact between relatives which functions 
as a means of establishing marital relationships through intersexual 
interchange and in promoting clan solidarity and conformity through 
the satirical sanction. 

Reciprocity in marriage between clans is established through the 
marriage with one’s grandfather’s clan which has lost a member 
through the previous marriage of one of its male members into ego’s 
father’s or mother’s clan. The return or exchange marriage is effected 
through the agency of one’s father or mother whose indirect familiari- 
ties are correlated with ego’s later marital inclinations. 

Social opposition appears in its most organized form in Cherokee 
sports. These forms of opposition may be a possible development 
and extension of opposition within the immediate family and clan. 
Social opposition within the family operates to prevent marriage with 
the father’s clan through the barrier of parental generation super- 
ordination (plus sexual barriers in case of female ego), and with the 
mother’s clan through the same former barrier, plus the sexual bar- 
rier in the case of male ego. Social opposition is thus seen to be that 
force which prevents marriage between certain lineages and clans. 

The principle of social solidarity is manifested mainly in that seg- 
mentary division of society known as the clan. Clan solidarity allows 
an identification between the social functions of the members of a given 
social segment, so far as kinship usages and preferential mating are 
concerned. The social sanctions within this clan group are largely of 
the satirical type, and serve to promote solidarity also. 


ANTHROP, PaP. NO. 23] THE EASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 311 


Other forms of social solidarity built up on a reciprocity basis in- 
clude the cooperative societies and the usages connected with them. 
These are a valuable adjunct to the economic organization of Cherokee 
society and prevent it from becoming totally dependent upon the white 
men. 

Social sanctions manifested in the form of group obligations are of 
two types, satirical sanctions with the kinship usages surrounding the 
segmentary divisions of society, and the sanctions build up by the 
agency of the band organization with the influence of the white man. 
These latter do not function with a maximum degree of efliciency, and 
tend to be disregarded. 

Social reciprocity manifests itself among the Cherokees mainly in 
two forms, through the types of economic exchange, and the coopera- 
tive societies and enterprises. The various forms of economic ex- 
change, such as inheritance, homesteading, and swapping, all involve 
theories of mutual reciprocity in exchange between participants. 
There are also forms of reciprocity surrounding various phases of the 
marriage relationship. 

A functional study of a given culture must necessarily be limited 
to a synchronous aspect in order to avoid confusion with comparative 
data from the past. However, after a synchronic analysis has been 
made of a culture, it is perfectly legitimate to depart in two directions, 
namely, (1) to endeavor to obtain pattern variations between the tribe 
in question and other tribes of its immediate neighborhood, or (2) to 
attempt to correlate the synchronic material with diachronic data 
derived from a survey of historical forms of integration within the 
tribe. The present study will follow the latter course. 


405260—43—_21 


(BULL, 133 


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THE FORMER SOCIETY 
INTRODUCTION 


The first part of this monograph was devoted to a descriptive 
and functional treatment of the present culture of the Cherokee 
and to the derivation of explanatory principles therefrom. In view 
of the fact that the present-day culture of the tribe is the result of the 
contact and commingling of aboriginal and European elements, it 
would seem desirable that some sort of separation be made between 
these two streams of cultural influence through a survey of the histor- 
ical records. In addition, it would seem that an extension of Cher- 
okee culture backward in time would be also a prerequisite for a com- 
parative study of the Cherokee with the other tribes of the South- 
east. In the third place, a study of the ancient culture of the Cherokee 
is valuable as an index of culture change and stability of type. 


THEORIES OF ORIGINS 


Of merely antiquarian interest are the numerous early theories 
ascribing a similarity between the ceremonial and social organization 
of the Cherokees and that of the ancient Hebrews. It was not until 
the work of Haywood in 1823 that a serious study of Cherokee origins 
was attempted. Haywood was a diffusionist, a forerunner perhaps 
of Elliot Smith. According to the Haywood (1823, pp. 231 ff.) 
historical reconstruction, two streams of culture and probably two 
races coalesced in the distant past to form the Cherokee tribe as it 
was found by the whites. The earlier of these two groups built 
mounds, made idols, performed human sacrifices, built walled wells 
of brick, erected fortifications, worshipped the lingam, revered the 
sacred number seven, and lived under despotic princes. These people 
were from southern Asia and bore a culture affiliated with that of 
the ancient Hindus and Hebrews. Their domain was coincident with 
that of the earlier Natchez people who at that time ruled the major 
part of the Lower Mississippi and Gulf Coast areas. Whether he 
thinks the Natchez of later times were a remnant of these particular 
people or not, Haywood does not make clear. Later, he postulates, 
there came a band of savages from the north, originally from north- 
ern Asia, democratic in organization and possessed of an efficient 
military organization. These people possessed themselves of the 
country of eastern Tennessee and gradually amalgamated with the 
aborigines to form the Cherokees as they are historically known. 


313 


314 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Buut, 133 


This theory of northern and southern influence can be said to sum 
up all subsequent thought on the origin of the Cherokees. Most of 
the theories have laid stress either on influences from the north or 
influences from the south. 

Documentary evidence for an Iroquois affiliation for Cherokee 
speech had been adduced before the time of Haywood by Benjamin 
Barton (1798, p. xtv). The similarities between Cherokee and the 
Iroquois speech were first adequately treated by Horatio Hale (1883, 
vol. 5) ina short paper. In our own day, Frans Olbrechts has been 
working on a comparative study of the Iroquois tongues with a view 
to definitely relating the Cherokees within that group. Cherokee 
speech shows little or no direct affiliation with the other tongues of the 
Gulf Region or the Muskogean Linguistic family. Therefore, a strong 
affiliation with the northern tribes of the Iroquois is established. 

Documentary and folkloristic evidence for a northern affiliation of 
the Cherokee was reviewed by W. W. Tooker in 1898 in a paper on the 
Rechahecrian Indians of early Colonial Virginia. Tooker (1898, vol. 
11, pp. 261-270) is inclined to see a mixed group of Cherokees and 
Algonkians in early Virginia as evidence for a more northerly position 
for the original Cherokees. His method of basing history on oral tra- 
ditions is open to question. 

Cyrus Thomas in 1880 studied the Cherokee with a view toward dis- 
proving their historical erection of mounds but was compelled on the 
basis of his evidence to reverse his opinion and to develop an exten- 
sive historical reconstruction for the Cherokee Tribe tracing their 
course of migration back as far as Lake Superior or at least to Iowa 
(Thomas, 1890). His evidence lay in the distribution of certain types 
of mounds, platform pipes, and engraved shellwork, together with the 
traditions of a northern origin for the Cherokees already cited. The 
folly and sterility of historical reconstructions is nowhere more la- 
mentably illustrated than in this paper, which is a monument to mis- 
directed energy. 

Another example of historical reconstruction on an archeological 
basis is to be found in the extensive studies of M. R. Harrington 
(1922) in Eastern Tennessee. On certain sites in this region he re- 
ports finding three strata of distinct cultural types. The lowest bore 
resemblances to a generalized “Algonkian,” the second was possibly of 
“Siouan” affinities, while the third bore artifacts of a definitely Chero- 
kee cast. Within the Cherokee stratum a succession of pottery types 
was observed from bottom to top leading gradually from a “Missis- 
sippi” type to a “Southern Appalachian” type. This would lead, he 
thinks, to the hypothesis that the Cherokees were migrants from the 
west or from the Ohio region who later abandoned their original pot- 
tery for Southeastern types after contact with the latter culture. The 


ANTHROP, Par. No. 23] THE EASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 315 


present-day Cherokee, it might be observed in this connection, are 
wholly dependent on the neighboring Catawba for pottery techniques. 
On the other hand, the original Iroquois triangular unnotched arrow 
point and the grooveless celt were retained throughout Cherokee 
history, Harrington finds. 

Of a somewhat different type is the work of F. G. Speck (1920) on 
the Southeastern affiliations of the Cherokees. It was already noted 
by such early writers as Adair and Bartram that the Cherokees re- 
sembled other tribes of the South in many ways. In later times both 
Mooney and Swanton noted the resemblances of this type and Swanton 
(1928) goes so far as to class the Cherokees as a cultural subtype of 
the Creeks. Speck, after a study of the decorative art motifs and 
basketry of the Cherokees, found that the Cherokee shared such com- 
plex techniques as the double-weave basketry with diagonal twills 
with the tribes of the Lower Mississippi but that in general poverty 
of design and coarseness of work the Cherokee compares unfavorably 
with the latter. In certain curvilinear and scroll designs the Cherokee 
work shows Creek and Choctaw affinities. 

Speck applied the age and area concept of Wissler to this material 
and finds that two principal lines of radiation were taken by culture 
elements spreading from the Lower Mississippi, one up that river and 
the other along the Gulf Coast and up the Atlantic Coast and the 
neighboring Piedmont to the North. The Cherokees he regards as 
peripheral to the main Southeastern tribes. 

It seems possible that the age and area concept, thus applied, may 
ultimately explain many of the resemblances between the Iroquois and 
the Cherokees if a diffusion from the latter northward was found a 
plausible theory. But many complications remain in connection with 
the whole Southeastern area, and the best that can be stated at present 
is to say that the Cherokees appear to share in the typical traits of the 
Southeast to a greater degree than they do in those of any other 
group. It is to be hoped that later studies on the social organizations 
of the southeastern tribes may bring more relationships to light than 
have been found hitherto. 


EARLY HISTORICAL RECORDS 


The earliest glimpse that we have of Cherokee culture is from the 
scattered notations from the De Soto Expedition of 1540 (Hakluyt, 
1851, p. 60). These narrators record the province of Chalaque as 
being inhabited by a poverty-stricken race subsisting on roots, herbs, 
service berries, and such game as deer and turkey, which they shot with 
the bow. These miserable savages were clothed in a few skin garments 
made mostly of deer hide and wore feather headdresses. They lived 
in palisaded villages and possessed a barkless native dog. 


316 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BuLn. 133 


The next view that we obtain of the Cherokee is from Bartram, 
Adair, and Timberlake some two centuries later. The Cherokees of 
the middle eighteenth century as pictured by these writers were a 
people living in scattered settlements on the waterways of the 
southern Appalachians. The towns were at considerable distances 
from each other because level tracts of as much as 450 acres were 
rare and the rugged topography furnished few suitable sites for 
extensive settlements. Where settlements did occur, it was neces- 
sarily on the banks of some stream. The rivers were used in every 
important religious rite as well as in fishing, fowling, and the stalk- 
ing of deer.*” 

The Cherokees of this period resided in square houses of poles or 
logs often containing three rooms and built one or two stories high.** 
These dwellings were plastered inside and out with grass-tempered 
clay and were roofed with chestnut-tree bark or long broad shingles. 
In the roof a smoke hole was left. Houses were constructed by the 
men. Within the ordinary dwelling there was little furniture aside 
from beds consisting of a few boards spread with bear skins. Bas- 
ketry of great excellence was used and also pottery, both made by 
the women. A small sweathouse stood opposite the front door of each 
dwelling and within the sweathouse a fire was kept constantly burn- 
ing. The use of the sweathouse for sweating was a means of puri- 
fying from disease. 

The household was the domain of the female sex. Here the fem- 
inine arts of a culinary nature were pursued. The most common 
food was corn bread which was baked in ash-covered dishes on the 
hearth. Meats were brought in by the men, and the women pre- 
pared them by frying, roasting, and boiling. Everything was over- 
done, complains Timberlake. Various preparations of potatoes, 
pumpkins, hominy, boiled corn, beans, and peas were served up in 
small flat baskets of split cane. The many duties of the women 
included not only the care of the house but also wood gathering, 
child care, assisting in planting, cultivation, and the harvest, and 
other tasks. The chief cultivated plants were melons, maize, beans, 
tobacco, peas, cabbages, potatoes, and pumpkins. 

Clothing was manufactured by the women and consisted of skin 
loincloth, buckskin shirt, buffalo robes, textile robes with feather 
decorations, moccasins, and cloth boots. Great attention was paid to 
body decoration and the skin was painted or tattooed with gun- 
powder pricked in the shape of various patterns. Ears were split to 
enormous size with silver pendants and rings, labrets were worn, 


31The deer came down to the banks not only to drink but to lick the salty moss of the 
stream banks. See Adair (1775, pp. 226-256). 

33 This and the remaining material in this section are mainly from Bartram (1853, p. 
296 ff.) and Timberlake (1929, pp. 57-102). 


ANTHROP, Pap, No. 238] THE EASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 317 


and wampum collars of clamshell beads were strung about the neck, 
armlets and wristlets about the arm, and silver breastplates on the 
bosom. All of the head hair of the men was plucked out save for a 
small patch from which grew the scalplock, which latter was orna- 
mented with wampum of shell and beads, feathers, and stained deer’s 
hair. 

The activities of the men were varied. Arrow pointing was done by 
cutting triangular bits of brass, copper, and bone and inserting them 
into the end of split-reed arrows. Deer sinew was wound around the 
split end and drawn through a small hole in the head and then the 
sinew was moistened. The wood of the bow was dipped in bear’s oil 
and then fire seasoned. Bear’s gut was used for the string. The chief 
animals shot with the bow were bison, deer, turkey, opossum, squirrel, 
partridge, and pheasant. Horses and hogs were kept by the more 
civilized Cherokees. The blowgun was used to kill small game, such 
as birds and rabbits. This was a hollow reed of cane through which 
were projected small darts by the breath. Fish were caught in a 
variety of cleverly devised water traps and were also speared and 
caught with bait and hook. A most simple method of catching fish 
lay in scaring the fish into shallow ponds, from which they were dipped 
out in baskets. The men also made dugout canoes by the use of fire 
and tools from large pine or poplar logs 40 feet long by 2 feet wide. 
The bottoms of these canoes were flat and the sides plain and alike, as 
were the ends. 

Warfare was a major event in the life of the Cherokee of this 
period. On the warpath the brave painted himself with black and 
red paint and the priest hoisted the red flag. At the end of a war the 
white flag of peace was hoisted, the bloody hatchet buried, and the 
peace pipe smoked. The calumet ceremony involved the smoking of 
tobacco in red and black stone pipes cut out of stone by tomahawks 
and then fired. The stems of these pipes were 3 feet long and adorned 
with quills, dyed feathers, and deer’s hair. The weapons used in war 
were guns and knives. The bow, spear, and tomahawk were passing 
or had passed into oblivion. 

Councils were held in large town houses capable of containing 500 
people. These immense seven-sided structures had peaked roofs and 
were supported on concentric circles of wooden pillars. Rafters were 
laid across these posts to support the roof of earth and bark. Around 
the walls were sofas or benches covered with woven oak or ash splint 
mats and arranged in the form of an amphitheatre. In the center of 
the rotunda or open space in the center a fire was kept burning. 

Dancing was a prominent feature of Cherokee life at this period. 
According to Timberlake, the principal feast of the year was the 
Green Corn Festival, and this consisted of a slow dance and singing 


318 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bunw. 133 


before the town house in the public square. He noticed other dances 
pantomimic of the habits of bears and the taking of pigeons at roost, 
and the physic dance at which the drinking of a physic decoction was 
followed by yells and efforts to frighten off evil disease spirits. For 
relieving the poor a war dance was held, and all of the participants in 
the dance contributed to a common fund of goods, which were later 
distributed to the indigent. The war dance consisted in one man 
giving a solo dance while he recited his individual exploits and 
derogated others. The war dance with contributions was also used to 
reward extraordinary merit, such as bravery in war. Other types of 
social dancing accompanied the ball play. 

The ball game or racquet play consisted of a form of lacrosse and 
was played in a manner not different from that of later times. The 
only other important game was nettecawaw or chunkey. This con- 
sisted in the darting of poles at rolling disks of stone, with the score 
depending on the distance of the spot where the pole hit from the 
center of the disk. The games were of social significance in that huge 
stakes were laid on them and sometimes even personal freedom and 
wives were lost in the betting. 

The political system of the Cherokees had a combination of aristo- 
eratic and democratic features. At the head of each village was a 
chief, chosen for merit in war or for wisdom in peace. The general 
assembly of warriors or civilians elected the chief. He was assisted 
by a council of wise men. Because of the strongly military outlook of 
the Cherokees, there were developed two classes of fighting men: (1) 
Warriors who had achieved various titles for acts of bravery such as 
man killer or raven; and (2) plebian fighters who were not distin- 
guished. There was also a class of titled females called Pretty Women 
who were delegated with the tasks of deciding on war and peace at 
certain times and on the fate of prisoners. 

The early writer, Adair, noticed the skill with which the Cherokees 
treated various diseases, all of them with considerable success except 
smalipox. Magical formulas were used to protect the patient from 
the harmful influences of evil spirits. Timberlake, quoted by Ol- 
brechts, mentions the protective prayers which were sung by the Cher- 
ckee “Ostenaco” when setting forth on a journey to England.® Magi- 
cal songs were also used to obtain revenge on the enemy, for when a 
Cherokee captive was being burned at the stake he would recite a song 
of his achievements and boast that his friends and relatives would 
soon arrive to avenge his death. At each mention of an exploit he 
would cleave a notch in a post with his tomahawk.* 


3° Mooney and Olbrechts (1932, p. 149) quoting from Timberlake (1929, p. 98). 

“©Mooney (1900, pp. 365, 491-492). A Cherokee Death song was current in London in 
1783 which is the subject of an extenSive discussion in The Death Song of the “Noble Say- 
age,” by H. B. Jones (1924). 


ANTHROP. Pap. No,23] THE EASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 319 
PAYNE-BUTRICK MANUSCRIPTS DATA 


The published data on early Cherokee culture is scattered and ex- 
tremely fragmentary, as can be noted from the points presented above. 
Considerable archeologic work has been done to substantiate historical 
records but without adding anything to our scant knowledge of the 
aboriginal culture. It is fortunate that there is in Chicago some rather 
valuable manuscript material collected by John Howard Payne from 
various residents and travelers in the Cherokee Country of northern 
Georgia about 1885, just previous to the removal of the tribe to Okla- 
homa in the west. The data thus collected is principally from the pen 
of the missionary, D. S. Butrick, and although marked by the peculiar 
missionary bias of its author, presents a fair sketch of salient points 
in early Cherokee Culture which were later found by other investi- 
gators among the Cherokees and other tribes of the Southeast." It is 
possible that a comparison of the data from Butrick and the other 
minor published observations on the Cherokees with the data from the 
present-day social organization herein presented may be of value in 
the establishing of trends of culture change within this group. 

The sympathetic soul of John Howard Payne was stirred to its 
depths by the misery of the Cherokees among whom he sojourned in 
1835. Believing that these Indians had suffered more than their share 
of wrongs and indignities from the white man, Payne rushed to their 
defense and became involved in the political controversies of the time 
with the State of Georgia and the Federal Government. The result 
of Payne’s inquiries into the subject of Cherokee history and rights was 
the accumulation of a large amount of manuscript material consisting 
of correspondence on the subject of Cherokee history, antiquities, and 
rights, dating back almost entirely to the period just preceding the 
removal in 1830. This collection of papers was bound together in 14 
volumes and is to be found at present in the Ayer Collection of Ameri- 
can Indian Lore in the Newberry Library of Chicago. Of the 14 
volumes, only 4 contain ethnologic data of importance. The latter 
consists of some 715 manuscript pages contained in volumes 1, 3, 4, 
and 6. 

Volume 1 is entitled “Traditions of the Cherokee Indians” and 
contains a fairly well organized summary by Payne himself in 170 
manuscript pages of parts of the other manuscripts dealing with 
origin legends, lore of the moon and corn, the uses of the divining 
crystals, shamanistic practices, moon festivals, and vegetation rites. 


“ Butrick’s essential observations are corroborated in the descriptions of Haywood 
(1823) and Washburn (1869). 


\ 


320 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BuLy; 133 


Volume 3 is entitled “Notes on Cherokee Customs and Antiquities” 
and consists of 128 manuscript pages of original field notes made by 
the missionary D. 8. Butrick concerning many different topics, with 
much repetition and lack of order. The matters treated are often 
very sketchily described and consist of divisions of time, social or- 
ganization of villages, clan names, shaman training, mourning cus- 
toms, dividing crystals, training of hunters, sacred things, the mean- 
ing of dreams and omens, the beliefs concerning a future life, the 
mode of tonsure, war customs, uncleannesses, treatment of snake bite, 
women’s dress, and the Cherokee calendrical festivals. 

Volume 4 contains “An Account of the Customs and Traditions of 
the Cherokees,” by D. S. Butrick, in 378 pages of manuscript. The 
subjects treated consist of even more extensive descriptions than are 
contained in volume 3. The matters dealt with are traditions of ori- 
gin, ceremonies and rites, government and social organization, priests, 
variations in dress and ornament, the different types of food, war 
and weapons, economic matters, musical instruments, crime and pun- 
ishment, the ball play, etiquette and manners, death and burial, the 
council house, marriage and the family, training of hunters, religious 
beliefs, houses and household organization, furniture, birth and educa- 
tion, uncleanness, omens, taboos, making of glue and soap, and the 
close number of similarities between the ancient Hebrews and the 
Cherokees. This extensive series of notes are much scratched and 
eressed out as if they had been recopied and discarded at a later 
date after the original writing. 

Volume 6 contains a short paper entitled “Sketches of Cherokee 
Characteristics,” by J. P. Evans, in 39 manuscript pages. The sub- 
jects treated in this sketch consist of a few points on social organi- 
zation (towns, clans, superstitions, and ceremonies), the dress of men 
and women, the dwellings, and a few observations on the physique, 
diet, ball play, and dances. 

The results of the present writer’s study of these manuscripts are 
summarized in the following two chapters in which the peace and war 
organizations of the Cherokees are sketched and contrasted. The first 
of the two chapters outlines the positions and duties of the white or 
peace functionaries and the general social features connected with 
these, the calendric ceremonies and the ball play, together with vari- 
ous items of social importance in the individual’s life cycle such as 
birth, marriage, sickness, and death. The second of the two chapters 
treats of the red or war functionaries and their duties, together 
with the military procedures and rites involved in organizing, con- 
ducting, and concluding a war expedition. 


AnTHROP, PaP. No. 23] THE EASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT BPA 


THE WHITE ORGANIZATION 
OFFICIALS 


The essential national officers in the White or Peace organization 
consisted in the following: 


1. The chief of the tribe or “high priest,” who is variously called uku, ookah, and 
other ceremonial titles.” 

. The chief’s right-hand man. 

. Seven prime counselors pomrecentine the seven clans. 

The council of elders. 

. Chief speaker. 

. Messengers. 

. Under officers for particular ceremonies such as 7 hunters, 7 cooks, 7 overseers 
for each festival, 7 firemakers for new fire, Jowah hymn singer, 7 cleansers, 
and the attendants at the Ookah Dance. 


ARP TR wh 


The above officials were those occurring in the principal town and 
served as officials for the whole tribe also. In each of the larger towns 
of the tribe the same series of officials were repeated with the exception 
of those listed under 7 since most of the ceremonies were held nation- 
ally. The officials in all of the towns outside of the capital were 
subject to the will of the high chief and his seven counselors and 
were often incorporated with them in a governing group when grave 
decisions confronted the tribe. 

The office of white chief or uku was the highest in the tribe. . Al- 
though each town had a white chief of its own, the white chief of the 
capital town was regarded as the chief of the nation. His office was 
more generally hereditary than elective, being transmitted from a man 
to his oldest sister’s son. The wife of the uku was of a station near to 
his own and might take his place until a new successor was elected if he 
should die suddenly. 

When an old uku died he was laid out in state for a period in order 
to remind his pupils and assistants of his instructions. His right- 
hand man then consulted with the council of seven clan heads of the 
metropolis and together with them appointed a time for the selection 
of asuccessor. Messengers were at once despatched to notify the town 
white chiefs throughout the nation to meet and inaugurate a new uku. 
This messenger carried strings of hemp braided into as many knots as 
there were nights previous to the meeting. Each town white chief on 
being notified sent his own messenger to the candidate of his choice 
requesting him to accept the appointment. Generally the candidate 
was a relative of the late uku and had been agreed upon in advance of 
the death of the latter. At the appointed time the white chiefs of the 
various towns assembled at the metropolis in front of the dwelling of 


4 ugutuyi is an archaic word still remembered by the Cherokees meaning “highest,” 
“furthermost excellence.” ugawiyu means ‘‘chief” today. 


322 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Buut. 133 


' the candidate. The latter was then inaugurated with elaborate ritual. 
The candidate must first undergo a 7-day fast. 

Certain persons were selected to prepare a platform constructed from 
a kind of strong and tall weed, together with an official white robe and 
a white staff or scepter. Sometimes deerskin painted yellow and a 
yellow cap ornamented with yellow painted feathers was prepared. 
These having been made ready and put in the council house, a vast’ 
multitude went to the house of the candidate on the seventh day of 
the latter’s fast. The platform was brought near him and he, having 
been anointed on the forehead with chalk or white clay and deer’s tallow 
and invested with his white robes, leaped onto it holding his scepter in 
hand. The platform was then raised high by means of four props and 
the candidate, preceded by one-half the company and followed by one- 
half, all singing as they went, was carried to the council house. They 
halted three times on the way. The people entered the council house 
and took their seats quietly. On reaching the council house the group 
bearing the candidate walked four times around it and then stopped 
at the door to let down the platform to within 3 feet of the ground. 
An appointed person then took the candidate on his back and carried 
him to the appointed white seat in the back of the council house, be- 
tween two other white seats. This white seat was covered with white 
dressed deerskin, and the ground before the seat was spread with a 
matting of cane and then covered with a large buckskin dressed white. 

The speaker then came before the assemblage and made a lengthy 
address at the end of which he directed the people to salute the new 
chief. The people then arose and all filed past the candidate repeating 
a formula to which he replied. Then all returned to their seats and 
sat in silence for the rest of the night. At daybreak the new uku 
made an address to the people in which he promised to exercise his 
authority according to the divine will and to bind the hearts of his 
subjects by kindness. All of the people pledged obedience to him. 
The right-hand man handed the new uku an eagle-tail fan and some 
old tobacco as signal for him to commence smoking with the other 
white chiefs in token of solidarity and friendship. The calumet pipe 
was then passed from mouth to mouth to celebrate the cementing of 
relationships at the occasion. At noon the younger people withdrew. 
The new uku then arose and put his scepter over his right shoulder. 
Two men put their hands under his arms and supported him as he 
walked to the door and from there to his house where his official dress 
was taken off and the ceremony was ended. 

Next to the white chief in importance were the seven prime counse- 
lors. These were the chief men of each of the seven clans in the 
metropolis and were white officials. Their consent and advice was 
necessary for most of the official acts of the uku. Their offices were 
probably hereditary in much the same manner as his own. 


AnTuHROP. Pap. No, 23] THE EASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 323 


In addition to the uku and his seven counselors there was a council 
of elders or old men, sometimes called “beloved men,” who resided near 
the council house and who wielded considerable power among the 
younger people. These were men who had served long and bravely 
in the wars of the tribe and who had retired to a well earned position 
of rest and security. 

Regarding the manner of appointment of the chief’s right-hand 
man, the chief speaker, the messengers, and the under officers of state 
there is no definite statement. There were, in each principal town of 
the tribe, as has been noted, the same group of white officials and the 
town chiefs were inducted into office in much the same way as the uku 
of the metropolis. 

The functions of the white chief and other white officials were 
rather varied. When any emergency or decision confronted a town 
the white chief blew his trumpet to assemble the counselers and people 
at his house. The trumpet used on this occasion was of special make 
and could be used by no person except the chief. When the assembly 
was completed, the white chief, his right-hand man, and the seven 
white clan counselors constituted the civil and religious tribunal of 
the town. This court decided on all inferior matters and attended 
to such religious matters as it was possible for the individual towns 
to decide. In very small villages where no such court existed the 
people called in the nearest town chief and his counselors to their 
assistance. 

In the capital town of the tribe there was a national council consist- 
ing of the uku, his town attendants, together with the white chiefs of 
the lesser towns and their attendants. This national council was con- 
vened by the newly elected uku before a Green Corn Feast and, on 
emergency occasions, through the raising of the uku’s standard, which 
consisted of a long white pole with a bird carved or painted near the 
top and bearing a pennant at the latter point made of white cloth or 
deerskin, 4 to 5 yards in length, painted with red spots like stars. In 
cases of great emergency, such as a sudden attack from without, the 
national council would select the officials to conduct the war after 
divination of the extent of the emergency had been made from the 
movements of tobacco smoke. 

In the courts of the towns public criminals were brought before 
the bar and, after their cases had been stated by the town chief’s 
right-hand man, the accused defended themselves as best they could. 
The judgment of the court was then given and immediately exe- 
cuted. Public criminals were stoned, killed with some weapon, or 
taken to a high precipice with elbows and feet tied behind and then 
cast headlong to be dashed to pieces on the rocks below. For pri- 
vate offenses the law of retaliation was strictly observed. 


324 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 133 


Private injuries were mainly settled by means of the law of blood 
revenge, the brother or nearest male relative of the victim revenging 
the injury by inflicting a like hurt on the offender or a member 
of the offender’s family or clan. This retaliation might be avoided 
by the defendant in two ways. First, he might settle with the 
family and clan of the injured party by payment of goods or other 
compensation, if there was some doubt as to the purposeful intent 
of the injury. Secondly, he might flee to one of the four white 
towns of the tribe wherein no blood could be shed and remain safe 
from revenge there. If the offender was within sight of a white 
chief or within his dooryard, he would also be safe. He then ap- 
pealed to the chief to save him. The latter would then follow one 
of two courses depending upon his own judgment of the case. He 
might send his messenger or blow his trumpet to call the whole 
town together and in their presence declare the man acquitted, or 
hold a regular court before which the defendant was brought and 
tried. If the examination showed that the guilt of the defendant 
was clear, he was not publicly condemned but was privately ex- 
posed to the shafts of death either in battle or in some other way 
so as generally to be soon taken away. 

According to Nuttall (1819, p. 189) the brothers of a murderer 
would often dispose of him in order to save one of themselves from 
blood vengeance. Accidental deaths could be recompensed by a 
scalp from a prisoner or enemy. “Towns of refuge” were those 
inhabited by a supreme chief. No blood could be shed in these 
towns and manslaughterers fleeing there could excuse themselves and 
profess contrition. 

From Haywood’s account, it would appear that the father of a 
family could not punish his children since they were of a different 
clan from his. If he should kill them, he would be subject to clan 
revenge on the part of his wife’s clan. The mother of the children 
could, however, kill them. Accidental killings could be punished 
by death through clan revenge or satisfied by a present. Always 
the nearest relative was punished if the culprit was not available. 
(See Haywood, 1828, section on laws and customs of the Cherokee.) 

Gregg mentions that the entire clan was responsible for the 
crime of one of its members and there were no exceptions. Satis- 
factory communication could almost always be obtained because the 
relatives themselves would bring the fugitive to justice in order to 
avoid the punishment falling on one of them. (Gregg in Thwaites, 
1904-07, vol. 20, p. 311.) 

Washburn (1869, p. 206) states specifically that it was the func- 
tion of the older brother to inflict clan revenge. The older brother 
together with the mother’s brother exercised more authority over 


AnTHROP, PaP. No. 23] THE EHASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 325 


the family than did the father since the latter was of a different 
clan and was afraid of hurting his children for reason of the likeli- 
hood of blood revenge on the part of their clan. . 

Beside their political and judicial functions, the white chiefs were 
also the solemnizers and presiding agents in marriage. The parents 
of a couple to be married consulted the chief and asked him to divine 
the fortunes of the proposed union. This the latter did through ob- 
serving the movements of two beads caused by involuntary twitch- 
ings of his hand while he held the beads in it. If the beads ulti- 
mately moved together the marriage would be a success, but if they 
moved apart separation was bound to be the outcome of'the union. 
In the event of unfavorable omens the match was called off and new 
partners were sought by the parties concerned. The prospective wife 
of the town white chief had to be passed on by the seven counselors 
as to her unblemished character. 

The white officials of the tribe had, in addition to the numerous 
secular and private functions, the priestly function of acting as the 
regulators and chief performers in the periodic tribal ceremonies now 
to be described. 

MAJOR CEREMONIES 


The ceremonialism described by Butrick is extensive and in many 
respects difficult to understand. Elements of both lunar and solar 
calendrical reckoning are to be found, but the most noticeable are the 
former.*® A monthly ritual of purification seems to have been a com- 
mon basis for several of the most important ceremonies. The lunar 
purifications at new moon would seem to coincide with the periodic 
menstrual separation of the women and the rites which acted to 
remove the uncleanness of that periodic event. 

The ceremonial period of the year included the months from 
August to November, inclusive. In this period occurred two agri- 
cultural ceremonies, and two great purificatory ceremonies. It will 
be noted that the Cherokees reckoned the year in two parts: The first 
was from the Great New Moon Feast of October to that of April 
(the 7th) and included the winter (gola) months; the second com- 
menced with the first new moon of spring in April and ran to the 
great new moon of October again (the 7th) and included the summer 
(gogi) months. Thus the two important new moons were in each 
case seventh in a continuous series reckoning from the other, each 
ended and each began a new season, and both served as the boundary 
points of the chief periods of the year, winter and summer. 

Each of the two important new moon festivals was marked by 
ceremonial hunts, dances, lustrations, divinations, and a feast. Hach 


“J. Haywood (1823), section on Computation of Time and Moon Feasts of Cherokees. 


326 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BuLL, 133 


was succeeded a short time after by a festival in which new fire was 
made to renew the seasons. Of these two succeeding festivals un- 
doubtedly the most important was the one which succeeded the fall 
new moon (Cementation Feast). 

The two main new moon festivals as well as the lesser ones, seem 
to have been in the main purificatory of periodic uncleanness and 
protective against harmful forces. It is possible to see in the dances 
that accompanied these rites the periodic renewal of familiarity and 
solidarity between men and women after the latter had been segre- 
gated due to their necessary monthly uncleanness. 

A significance of a similar kind with the added feature of disease 
exorcism would attach to the new fire festivals which succeed the two 
main moon festivals. The Cementation or Reconciliation Festival in- 
volved primarily the idea of the removal of all uncleanness and thereby 
also removed all possibility of disease. In order to accomplish this 
double feat a series of ritual sanctions were invoked at this festival. 
Cleansers were appointed to clean all the houses of the town, com- 
mencing with the council house, seven articles were cleansed as a 
symbol of all household belongings, differences between people were 
forgotten, and even cases of blood revenge lapsed, as no uncleanness 
must remain within the society. All old clothes were thrown away 
and new ones were donned. To bind this exorcism of all the causes 
for difference between people many would swear vows of eternal 
friendship and solidarity with other persons and exchange clothes 
with them. Finally, the making of the new fire signified the be- 
ginning of a new life in the community free from all of the impuri- 
ties of the old life. The festival was sealed with the usual fasts, 
lavations, divinations, scratching, and drinking of decoctions boiled 
in a pot. In later times forms of the propitiation festival were 
used in times of epidemic in the so-called “physic dances” in which 
disease was combatted and uncleannesses removed. 

The two Green Corn Feasts resemble each other and both were 
concerned with the ripening and harvesting of the corn and the 
rite of eating it. The details of these rites do not seem to have 
been well recorded but there was some fasting before the cere- 
monial partaking in the new corn. 

There were six greater festivals. These were held at the council 
house in the capital town where the seven clans assembled at the 
behest of the uku and his seven prime counselors. In addition to 
the six greater festivals there were also minor local festivals cele- 
brated at each quarter of the year, at each new moon, every 7 days 
(quarter month), and on each occasion of calamity or epidemic. 
In addition to these the ookah dance was given every 7 years in 
which the uku (here entitled ookah) performed a sacred dance. 
The following were the six greater festivals: 


AnTurop, Pap. No. 23] THE EASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 327 


1. The first new moon of spring.—This was celebrated when the grass began 
to grow and had no special title. The present-day Corn Dance, called adan 
wisi, or “they are going to plant” (Yontonwisas Dance of Mooney), may be 
descended from this rite of March. 

2. The Preliminary Green Corn Feast.—This is entitled ‘“sah-lookstiknee 
keehstehsteeh” in the Payne Manuscripts and is rendered selu tsunistigistiyi, 
or “roasting ear’s time,” by present-day informants. It was held in August 
when the young corn first became fit to taste. 

38. The Green Corn Feast.—This is called tungnahkawhooghni in the Payne 
Manuscripts and is rendered donagohuni by present-day informants. The ripe 
or mature Green Corn Feast succeeded the Preliminary Green Corn Feast of 
August in about 40 or 50 days in the middle or latter September when the corn 
had become hard or perfect and is still held today. 

4. The Great New Moon Feast.—This is called nungtahtayquah in the Payne 
Manuscripts and is rendered nuwati egwa, or “big medicine,” by present-day 
informants. This festival was held at the first new moon of autumn in 
October when the leaves had begun to fall into the waters of the rivers and 
impart their curative powers to the latter. This was identical with the 
medicine dance of later times. 

5. The Cementation or Reconciliation Festival.—This is called ahtawhhungnah 
by Payne and is rendered adahuna, or “woman gathering wood,” by present- 
day informants after the dance of that name. This festival succeeded the 
preceding one after a lapse of 10 days at the end of October and was con- 
nected with the making of new fire. 

6. The Eaalting or Bounding Bush Feast.—This is called elahwahtah laykee 
in the Payne Manuscripts and is rendered aliwatadeyi, or “pigeon dance,” by 
present-day informants. This festival occurred in December and was char- 
acterized by the use of spruce or pine boughs. 


CEREMONIAL PROCEDURES 


The procedure in the first festival was as follows: The seven prime 
clan counselors of the metropolis met at the national heptagon or 
council house. Certain selected “honorable women” performed a 
friendship dance in the public square before the heptagon at the same 
time. At their meeting the counselors reckoned the number of nights 
from the last new moon and consulted a divining crystal to determine 
the time of the appearance of the first spring new moon. After these 
matters were attended to, the counselors despatched a messenger 
throughout the nation to announce the new feast. 

Meanwhile preparations were being carried forward in the metropo- 
lis itself. Certain hunters were appointed to provide meat for the 
feast. These persons went out and killed what game they could, such 
as deer or turkey. One buck deer was dressed whole, the skin, en- 
trails, and feet being removed and the head, liver, lungs, and heart left 
intact. The skin was then cleaned and made white for the festival. 
Similarly a doe and fawn skin were prepared. The seven counselors 
now finished their work by selecting seven men to have charge of the 


405260—43——_22 


328 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Butn, 183 


feast and seven men to oversee the cooking. The altar in the center 
of the national heptagon was repaired by the uku’s right-hand man. 
The altar was a conical shaped mass of fresh earth about which at the 
top a circle was drawn to receive the fire of sacrifice. The inner bark 
from seven different specified trees was laid on the altar ready for 
use. The seven specified trees were white oak, black oak, water oak, 
black jack, bass wood, chestnut, and white pine, and the bark from 
these had to be free from rot or worms. 

On the evening of the new moon’s appearance, all of the populace 
assembled from every quarter of the nation and the delegated hunters 
brought in their meat and placed it in the storehouse on the west side 
of the national heptagon. The hunters delivered the white dressed 
buck, doe, and fawn skins to the presiding agents of the ceremony. 
Some of the general visitors at the ceremony brought game also. The 
early evening of the first assemblage was devoted to a friendship 
dance performed by the women. That night all retired early in order 
to be fresh for the day that followed. 

Early in the morning the entire population sawed in and around 
the national heptagon and the three white dressed skins before men- 
tioned were picked up by the uku’s right-hand man and spread near 
the altar fire with the head nearest the flame. Blood from a freshly 
killed bird was then sprinkled on the buck skin and the divining 
erystal was placed in the blood and the flowers of old or wild tobacco 
were dropped on the buckskin. At this point the entire population 
went to the river and the priest or uku came also with his assistant 
carrying deerskins. A series of 6-inch sticks were stuck into the 
ground along the river bank. It became then a bad omen for any- 
thing to come out of the river opposite the space between the sticks 
on the bank. All of the people then plunged into the water seven 
times with their faces eastward. The priest on the bank unrolled the 
skins and displayed the divining crystal and placed these on a plat- 
form or table together with medicinal roots. After leaving the water 
the people all walked by the table, touched the crystal with the fore 
finger wetted from the tongue, and took a piece of medicinal root from 
the table. The officials followed the common people in this rite and 
came out of the river last. This concluded the ceremonies of the 
second day and the third was devoted entirely to fasting. The fourth 
day was the final one. The people assembled at the national heptagon 
at sunset and the presiding priest flung flowers of old tobacco on the 
fire along with a piece of buck’s tongue. The manner of behavior of 
these substances under the action of the fire’s flame was used as a 
means of divining the future. The buck had been dressed whole and 
the meat eaten entirely together with a stiff mush of newly pounded 


AnTHRoP, Par. No. 23] THE EASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 329 


meal. That night was entirely spent in the friendship dances given 
by the women and concluded the ceremonies. 

Soon after this festival of the first new moon of spring, the seven 
prime counselors appointed a sacred night dance, sending out a mes- 
senger to assemble the people. On the seventh day after the issue of 
this order new fire was made by seven chosen men aiter the populace 
had spent the night of the sixth day in a religious dance. ‘The hearth 
was carefully cleaned and repaired. A hole was made in a block of 
wood into which goldenrod was dropped and then a stick was whirled 
rapidly about in this until the goldenrod caught fire. From this fire 
specially kindled a portion was taken to every house by women who 
waited around for the purpose. Old fires were everywhere extin- 
guished and the hearths cleansed of old ashes. After new fires had 
been lighted throughout the country, sacrifices were made in them of 
the first meat killed by the members of the households to which the 
fires belonged. Scratching of long gashes with flint and fishbone was 
administered freely during this rite. The medicine root used at the 
previous river bathing was chewed and rubbed on the skin and the 
same root was retained for each new moon rite of the year. ‘The three 
white dressed deerskins were also brought out and presented to the 
priest who had presided at the festival of the first new moon. 

The second great festival, the Preliminary New Green Corn Feast, 
was held in midsummer and at the time of the simultaneous ripening 
of the corn, or maize, throughout the nation. When the corn was found 
ripe, a messenger was despatched to gather seven ears, bring them back 
to the counselors, and assemble the people. A 6-day hunt was de- 
creed for the hunters and the seven prime counselors fasted for 6 days 
at the national heptagon. When the hunters had shot the first buck, 
they cut a small piece from the right side of the end of the tongue. 
On the evening of the sixth day, the populace assembled at the na- 
tional heptagon bringing in fresh ears of corn while the hunters 
brought in fresh meat. This night was spent in an all-night vigil and 
religious dance. On the seventh day, the festival began with the de- 
livery of the seven ears of corn to the uku. New fire was made by a 
firemaker on the altar from bark of seven selected trees. Leaves of old 
tobacco were sprinkled on the fire and omens were taken from this. 
The uku placed the seven ears in the fire also with the piece of deer’s 
tongue and then prayed that the sacrifice might be acceptable. After 
this rite the uku and his seven counselors fasted for seven more days 
and the populace then assembled for another general 1-day fast which 
completed the second festival. 

The third great feast was the Mature, or Ripe Green Corn Feast, and 
was held in September 40 or 50 days after the preceding festival. 
First, the seven counselors summoned the honorable women for a 


330 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Buwn, 133 


religious dance and then fixed the festival for some time later. The 
usual pattern of behavior occurred, the hunters being sent out and 
special officers appointed to order the festival. An arbor of green 
boughs was framed in the sacred square of the national heptagon 
wherein a beautiful shade tree was located. A large booth was erected 
and seats laid out. On the evening prior to the festival day, the 
hunters and the people assembled and everyone took a green bough for 
the rites of the next day. All then retired early. On the ensuing 
noon the people paraded with green boughs held overhead. The uku 
who presided at this rite was given the special ceremonial title of 
Netagunghstah and was elevated on a platform held up by carriers 
and was dressed in a white robe with leggings, moccasins, otter skins 
on the legs, and a red cap on the head. Altogether this festival lasted 
4 days and women were excluded from the sacred square during the 
dances. In the evenings they might mingle in the social dances, how- 
ever. This festival was the most deeply rooted rite that the Cherokees 
had and lasted the longest. It was said to have been connected at one 
time with a festival of green boughs which was more distinctive and 
exclusive in its characteristics. 

The fourth great festival, or great new moon of Autumn, followed 
the new moon’s appearance when the leaves began to yellow in the 
fall. The Cherokees fancied that the world was created at this time 
and they regulated their series of new moon feasts by it. There is 
some evidence, however, that.the Cherokees originally began their 
year with the first new moon of spring. The counselors carefully 
counted the number of nights from the last new moon and, if it was 
cloudy weather, they resorted to the divining crystal to ascertain 
the time of appearance of the new moon for autumn. Seven nights 
previous to the event they sent out hunters to hunt, seven men to 
prepare seats, tables, and in general order the feast, and seven honor- 
able women to get the provisions ready and to cook them. The end 
of the tongue of the first deer killed was carefully wrapped in old 
leaves and given to the presiding priest together with seven deer- 
skins. The entire population met and each family brought seven or 
more ears of hard corn, dried pumpkins, and samples of every crop 
which were all given to the priest. The women gave the sacred re- 
ligious dance and no one slept that night. The next day the populace 
assembled at the river and bathed seven times in the same manner 
as at the first feast of spring. The deer’s tongue wrapped in leaves 
was consumed in the fire and omens were invoked with the sacred 
crystal. Then followed feasting. The event lasted only 1 day. 

Some 10 days after the ceremony just described came the Propitia- 
tion or Cementation Festival, which was the greatest of all the annual 
celebrations being listed. A day or two after the Great New Moon 


ANTHROP, Pap. No. 23] THE EASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT Sor 


Festival the seven prime counselors withdrew to the national hepta- 
gon to decide on the time for the Cementation Feast. Seven days 
before the event, after a solemn address by one of the counselors, a 
messenger was despatched to call the people. Seven women (possibly 
the wives of the seven counselors) were selected to lead the dance 
and seven musicians to aid them. One person was appointed from 
each clan to assist these and to fast for 7 days. Seven cleaners were 
appointed to clean out the national heptagon, seven men were sent 
out to hunt game, and seven to seek seven different articles for puri- 
fication. A special fire maker was appointed to make holy new fire 
and six assistants were given him. A special attendant was ap- 
pointed to dress and undress the Jowah hymn chanter while he 
performed his sacred ablutions and duties. If the old Jowah hymn 
singer had died, a new one was appointed for life. 

All of these officials commenced a fast 7 days before the festival 
and the hunters went forth in quest of game as in the other feasts. 
The seekers after seven articles of purification returned with branches 
of cedar, white pine, hemlock, mistletoe, evergreen briar, heartleaf, 
and ginseng root. In later days other articles were purified such as 
mountain birchbark, mountain birch sprig, willow roots, swamp dog- 
wood roots, and spruce pine. These were all fastened in a cane 
basket expressly fashioned for the purpose on the evening of the 
sixth day after notice of the festival had been sent out. These ar- 
ticles were then stored away in the treasure house west of the na- 
tional heptagon along with the produce of the hunt. 

On the evening of the sixth day after the notice, the people gath- 
ered at the national heptagon and the women performed a dance 
while four musicians sang in turn. All retired early that night to 
sleep, for the festival proper began the following day. 

The first event was the making of new fires by the seven fire makers 
from seven different kinds of wood, namely blackjack, locust, post 
oak, sycamore, red bird, plum, and red oak. The seven cleansers began 
at the same time to exorcise the houses of the town. ‘These cleansers 
had a prescribed costume of which the most noticeable feature was 
a scarf on the head decorated with a set of fur tassels from the white 
fur on the underside of a deer’s tail. 

The heptagon had been previously swept clean, old ashes removed, 
and the earth in the altar renewed so that the latter stood 1 foot high 
again. A bench of planks had been also constructed at the side of 
the altar to hold the white dipping gourds, and sacred white purify- 
ing caldron. The whitened bench was covered with dressed buck- 
skin whitened with clay. Overhead a buckskin canopy protected from 
the weather. As soon as the new fire had been kindled by friction of 
two sticks, it was taken from the makers by the aspergers and kindled 


332 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 183 


on the altar. Then the sacred caldron was placed there and an as- 
perger walked around four times crying out as he took the gourds, 
filled them, and poured the water into the caldron. At this time the 
uku (called in this rite by the title of “oolestooleeh”), together with 
his assistants, proceeded to the treasure store house and got the seven 
articles for purification. Then he passed around the fire and sprinkled 
tobacco on it as he waved the wing of a white heron over it to waft the 
smoke in all directions as he prayed. He repeated this prayer four 
times and then placed the basket for purification in the caldron where 
it was watched day and night. The seven cleansers kept constantly 
renewing the fire on the altar because at the dawn of the first day 
every fire throughout the nation had been extinguished by the women 
and every fireplace cleansed of all ashes. The women then came to the 
national heptagon as soon as the new fire was made and supplied them- 
selves with a portion of it for their hearths. No food was tasted that 
day until the new fire had been made and a portion of the first meat 
cooked offered as sacrifice. 

Seven attendants now appeared, each with a white wand of syca- 
more, which were handed to the seven exorcisers for their duties. The 
leader of the seven cleansers now went out and struck the eaves of the 
roof of the storehouse with his rod and then sang a song. He then 
struck similarly all of the houses of the metropolis as did his fol- 
lowers. Then the meat from the hunters’ stores was distributed for 
cooking. 

An attendant called the Jowah hymn singer from his seat by name 
and invested him with his white robes, placing also in his hand a white 
gourd filled with pebbles (or a shell similarly prepared) and fastened 
on a stick. The singer rattled the gourd and sounded a few prelim- 
inary notes. He now began his song of seven verses, each repeated 
four times in seven different tunes. He then again rattled the gourd 
and retired for disrobing. The seven cleansers took the white gourds 
and dipped out water from the caldron and passed some to each 
head of a clan and on down until all had drunk and rubbed a little 
on their breasts. The Jowah hymn was then sung by the singer a 
second time. Following this came the previously noted bathing rite 
in the river by all the people, each person bathing seven times and 
alternately facing east and west. Some persons entered the water 
with old clothes on and let them float away while others changed clothes 
afterward. 

The oolestooleeh prepared the sacrifice on the altar. First a deer’s 
tongue and a piece of old tobacco were put on the fire. If the tongue 
popped, it meant death for somone during the year. A bluish or 
slowly ascending smoke meant sickness. The oolestooleeh then set the 
divining crystal on the deerskin and prayed. If health was to reign 


ANTHROP, Pap, NO, 23] THE HASTERN CHEROKE£S—GILBERT 300 


the crystal would be clear but if sickness was due a smokiness would 
appear along with the faces of those designated for it. Toward sun- 
set the chanter again gave the Jowah hymn. The great speaker called 
for cooked meat, bread from new corn, mush, hominy, potatoes, beans, 
and the like for a big feast. The officials, however, could not eat 
until dark. The Jowah singer ate once after dark every 24 hours 
during the four days of the feast. He had to bathe seven times 
before eating and at daybreak. The evening of the first day there 
was a religious dance until midnight and some of the women kept 
an all-night vigil or danced until dawn. 

The remaining 3 days of the festival were passed in much the same 
manner as the first. On the second day the Jowah hymn was not sung, 
and the officials alone fasted. The third and fourth days were about 
the same, except all of the events of the first day were repeated on the 
fourth. Fasting was a noticeable feature of this ceremony, the officials 
fasting 10 days in all and the people fasting on the first and fourth days 
of the festival, even infants fasting until noon. All-night vigils were 
maintained on the first and fourth nights, and at the end of the rites all 
put off old garments and put on clean ones. Every one on 2 different 
occasions plunged 7 times into the river, or 14 times in all. On the 
morning of the fifth day sacrifice was offered again, and then the 
oolestooleeh took the purified articles from the caldron and put them 
away in a buckskin, exclaiming, “Now, I return home.” He then 
departed, followed by the other officials. 

The Propitiation Festival was the subject of local variation in later 
times, especially in the manner of lighting the new fire. The term 
“physic dance” was later given to the rite of purifying the house, 
“physic” meaning a conciliation or expiation. Diseases requiring a 
physic had been sent from above to punish some offense among the 
people. A circle was sometimes laid about the altar of seven different 
kinds of wood curiously laid and by seven strings of white beads, each 
of the latter representing one of the seven clans and each placed there 
by one of the clan members and pointed toward the wood. Originally, 
say the Cherokees, the seven clans were commanded to feed the fire 
with their flesh, but wood was later substituted for this. The fire 
maker then produced two pieces of dry bass wood and put goldenrod 
between them. Two others then took hold of the wood and spun it 
around to produce fire by friction. 

The Propitiation Festival was instituted to cleanse all and to bind all 
together in a vow of eternal brotherhood. Passionate friendship was 
sworn between young men, and these vows were plighted in public by 
the solemn exchange of garment after garment until each was clad in 
the other’s dress. ; 

The ancient Propitiation Festival involved the swearing of friend- 


334 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Buu 133 


ships between men and between men and women of different clans. 
No sexual relation could be allowed between persons swearing such 
friendships. Between these friends, however, there was a sharing of 
everything. They would, perhaps, exchange garments and goods, giv- 
ing each other one garment after another at the friendship dance. 
Young men and young women might be prevented by the marriage 
restrictions from marrying, but they could swear friendship at this 
rite. There could be no secrets that were not shared together by these 
friends. 

The last ceremony of the six annual ones was the Festival of the 
Exalting, or Bounding Bush, which occurred in the winter after the 
Propitiation Ceremony. A group of people assembled in the evening 
before the fire, and a man chosen for the purpose appeared with a box 
and danced slowly around the fire singing as he danced. Each person 
present threw a piece of tobacco into the box and the man then disap- 
peared. A parade of alternately two men and two women then 
marched along abreast; the two forward men had in the right hand a 
hoop with two sticks in it crossing each other at right angles in the cen- 
ter and on the ends of the sticks having white feathers attached. Two 
men in the middle and two men in the rear also carried hoops and sticks 
while all of the rest held in their right hands green boughs of white 
pine. For 3 nights this march ended the dance and the green boughs 
were carefully deposited among the consecrated things until the repe- 
tition of the dance. On the fourth night a feast was held after dark. 
At midnight, the man with a box reappeared and sang four times a 
refrain, while each person took from the box a piece of the tobacco. 
Then each plucked off some of the pine needles from the bough he or 
she carried and crushed them in the hands with the tobacco. All of the 
people next stood in a circle around the fire and then each singer 
walked toward the fire as if to throw in the tobacco and the needles. 
As he sang he hesitated but finally threw the tobacco and needles into 
the fire, at which the rite was ended. 

The uku offered sacrifice at a peculiar rite which was celebrated 
every 7 years and which did not resemble the other festivals celebrated 
annually. At this septennial rite the uku took the title of ookah and 
performed a sacred dance of thanksgiving. The main procedures were 
as follows. At about the last of summer or early autumn, at the com- 
mencement of every seventh year, the people assembled at the national 
capital from every quarter for the rite. The precise time was set 
between the ookah and his seven counsellors. Messengers were de- 
spatched throughout the nation to notify the people beforehand. The 
seven hunters were sent out to hunt for 7 days prior to the festival 
and meat was brought in on the seventh night and distributed 
throughout the metropolis for public use. On the same evening all 


ANTHROP, PaP. No. 23] THE EASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 335 


of the nation assembled at the heptagon. The usual officials attended 
to the details, seven men to order and direct the banquet, women to 
superintend the cooking, and certain special ones, such as the aged and 
honorable women, appointed to warm the water for the bathing of 
the ookah, two men to dress and undress him, one man to fan hin, 
one man to sing for him and lead the music, and one man to prepare 
his seat. Under the superintendency of this last, a structure was raised 
midway between the abode of the ookah and the heptagon consisting 
of a tall throne with a canopy and footstool, all made white for the 
occasion. <A similar structure was set up in the public square, around 
which a broad circle was marked out, swept clean, and kept from 
unconsecrated feet. 

The festival began on the eighth morning after the preparations had 
begun with all of the officials led by the seven counselors proceeding 
to the abode of the ookah singing. Arriving there, they found the 
honored matron waiting with warm water. One person took off the 
ookah’s clothes while another bathed him in warm water. The ookah 
then received his garment of yellow and climbed up on the back of 
his attendant and, with his fanner carrying the eagle-tail fan and a 
musician on the sides and preceded by one-half of the priests and 
followed by the other half, was carried to the canopied white throne. 
Here, after a pause, the journey was resumed to the sacred square. 
Here the ookah sat all night in state attended by his second, his 
speaker, and the counselors. All kept a vigil in silence while the 
populace danced in the heptagon. 

The morning of the second day the ookah danced in the guarded 
circle a slow step while the fanner and musician stood by, the rest 
of the assistants following and imitating his steps. No woman was 
allowed in the vicinity. In the afternoon the ookah directed all of 
the rest of the people to feast but fasted himself with his suite until 
sunset. The ookah and his court then ate and was carried home and 
disrobed. The third day was marked by the same proceedings except 
that the bathing was omitted. On the fourth day the ookah seated 
on his throne was consecrated by his right-hand man, and invested 
with sacerdotal and regal power, thus ending the ceremonies. When- 
ever seated on the white ottoman in his official duties he wore only 
a white dress. During the ceremonies of the entire festival, the hepta- 
gon had to be purified if a polluted person transgressed and the 
ookah saw him. If anyone touched an unsanctified thing during the 
festival he was excluded and no drunkenness was allowed. The limbs 
of the young men were gashed with sharp flints and any flinching was 
berated highly. The general bearing during the festival was consid- 
erate and the discipline perfect, there being no need of reproof. 


336 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Buuu,. 133 


YEARLY CYCLES 


The ancient Cherokees divided the year into two parts, winter and 
summer. Winter commenced with the fall of the leaves in September 
at the time of the Great New Moon Feast, and corresponded with our 
fall and winter. Summer commenced with the first new moon of 
spring in March and corresponded with our spring and summer. 
There seems to have been some confusion as to which of the two was 
regarded as commencing the year but the general attitude in later 
time seems to have accorded the new year to September. 

Days were reckoned from sunset until sunset. When a person was 
fasting he ate just before sunset and then abstained until after sun- 
set of the next day. If, however, there was a religious feast the next 
day preceded by a sacrifice, the people ate just before sunset in order 
to honor the orb of day. 

The first business of spring was to prepare the fields and to plant 
corn, beans, and other crops. The time for this was determined by 
the uku and his council in order that the fruits of the fields might 
ripen everywhere at the same time. Old corn was used instead of new 
at the feast of planting the first corn. In order to secure good crops 
the weather must be favorable. 

The means resorted to in order to affect the weather were almost 
innumerable and as obscure as they were numerous. There were rites 
for rain, for warm and cold weather, and the like. In case of a 
dearth of rainfall, the people assembled at the town council house 
and had the conjurers appoint a ceremonial occasion. The usual pat- 
tern of seven hunters and fasting for 7 days was employed. The 
conjurer took the deerskin brought in by the hunters and put it be- 
side swan’s feathers on the waterside. He then prayed to the creator 
or moon to darken the sun’s face and then shook the terrapin shell 
with pebbles inside to resemble thunder. He then prayed to the 
little men (thunders) of the north and the greater man (thunder) 
of the west to come with clouds. Finally he prayed to the woman 
of the east to send rain in plenty without thunder. If rain should 
be too abundant, a piece of tobacco was offered to the woman of the 
east imploring her to stay the torrent. When the weather was too 
cold the people assembled at the council house and named seven 
managers who collected wood for a new fire. Then tobacco was sacri- 
ficed in the fire to the woman of the east and an all-night dance was 
held for her. When the weather was too warm the conjurers prayed 
to the man of the north to send his cold and cool the air. Spanish 
oak and ivy leaves were sacrificed at the same time. 


AnTuror, Pap. No. 23] THE EASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 337 


BALL PLAY 


Closely allied to the calendric ceremonies just described was the 
rite of the ball play. This game was called the friend or companion 
of battle because all the energies of the combatants were called into 
play and was ranked next to war as a manly occupation. In each 
town of note a respectable man was selected to attend to the ball 
play. Anciently the priests had but little to do with the ball play 
as it was not directly connected with religion. 

The young men of a village consulted their head man for the ball 
play and sent a challenge to a certain town or district by one or 
two messengers. ‘The players were selected by the manager and by 
seven counsellors. A man must be of good character to play. When 
a match had been arranged between two teams, an elderly man was 
selected to lead the ball dance and another man was selected to 
sing for the players, another to whoop, a musician to play for the 
seven woman dancers, and also a conjurer. Seven men were appointed 
to wait on the conjurer and seven women to provide food for the all- 
night dance on the seventh day of preparation. 

An open place in the woods was found and a fire was lit there. 
The party assembled about dark and seated themselves some dis- 
tance from the fire. The director of the dance called the players 
forward and whooped. This was a war whoop and was the signal 
for the dance to begin. Then the dancers paraded around the fire 
making the motions of playing the ball game, with their ball sticks. 
The musician led the dance with his gourd rattle. After circling the 
fire four times the dancers rested on the same note with which they 
had begun to dance and sat down for half an hour. After awhile a 
new dance began and then another intermission. After four dances 
they went to the water for ritual bathing. 

The next morning they all again went to water at daybreak and dur- 
ing the day they watched each other to see that none of the taboos for 
ball players were violated. The taboos and rules of the ball game were 
as follows: 

1. No player could go near his wife or any woman during the 7 days of the 
dances and training. Some scratched themselves in order the better to fit them- 


selves for the play. They could not associate with women for 24 days after being 
scratched. 

2. The players must eat no meat nor anything salty or hot. They must eat only 
corn bread and drink parched corn broth. 

3. Their food must be received from boys who took it from women who had set 
it down some distance off. The seven men with the conjurer could eat only food 
prepared by the seven women. 

4. The seven women officiating as cooks must not be pregnant nor afflicted with 
any uncleanness. 

5. The seven men assistants to the conjurer might be married but their wives 
could not be pregnant nor on any account unclean. 


338 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BuLL, 133 


6. If any player had a pregnant wife, he must keep behind the other players in 
the dancing and marching. 

7. No woman must come to the place of dance of the ball players nor walk a 
path that the players had to walk during the 7 days of training. 

On the second day of training the players killed a squirrel, without 
shooting it, for the ball skin. A man selected from the Bird Clan took 
the skin, dressed it, stuffed it with deer’s hair, and then placed it in the 
deerskin of the conjurer to stay until the play was over. On the seventh 
night the players danced seven times instead of four and the seven 
women danced the whole night a short distance away. Their musician 
accompanied his voice with the drum. 

On the morning of the eighth day just at sunrise the whooper raised 
his whoop and the players, standing in a cluster with their faces toward 
the ball ground, responded four times with a cry. Then all plunged in 
the creek seven times and started toward the ball ground. The con- 
jurer laid down the deerskin and the conjuring apparatus and the 
players laid down the articles which they had bet. The conjurer gave 
a certain root to the players to chew and rub on their bodies. He also 
gave red feathers to the players to wear in their hair. The leading 
player took the ball and kept it until the play commenced. 

An influential player then spoke to the players urging action. They 
marched forward to meet their antagonists in the middle of the field. 
Four men were selected as marshalls to keep order and to see that no 
detail was overlooked. Two others were chosen as tallymen. Each 
talleyman had 12 sticks, one of which he stuck in the ground as the 
ball was carried through by his side. A score of 12 runs to a tree or 
other goal won the game. A circle was made in the ground to show 
the players how far to approach. As the opening speech was being 
made by one of the overseers he suddenly tossed the ball into the air 
and the game began. When one side had gained the victory the spec- 
tators extolled the players in every way possible. On the way home the 
players kept together in good order. 

The ancient ball game can be seen to have been from this description 
quite similar if not identical with the game as it is played today. The 
same ritualistic elements which allied it to war existed at that time. 
The players were separated just as warriors were, from the ordinary life 
of the community and had to be purified from all uncleanliness or con- 
tamination. The same rivalry between villages and the same conjur- 
ing magic characterized the game in the ancient period as characterizes 
it today. 

MARRIAGE 


The final topic in this discussion of the white organization is the 
individual life cycle and its social aspects. The life cycle includes 
such features as marriage, the household, child training, treatment of 


AnTHROP, PaP. No, 23] THE EASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 339 


sickness, invocation of protective powers, unclean things, sacred 
things, and the treatment of death. Inasmuch as the white officials or 
“priests” were all important in the rituals connected with these mat- 
ters, the latter are included in the discussion on the white organization. 

Features of the ancient Cherokee marriage regulations have been 
mentioned by several authors. All describe polygyny as common, yet 
stress the importance of female relatives in the man’s selection of a 
mate. According to Nuttall, when a young man contemplated mar- 
riage he declared his desire through a female relative who conferred 
with the mother of the woman. If the mother disapproved she re- 
ferred the case to her brother or oldest son to say so. If the mother’s 
consent was obtained, the young man was admitted to the woman’s 
bed (Nuttall in Thwaites, 1904-7, vol. 13, pp. 188-189). 

According to Haywood’s account, the marriage contract is a pur- 
chase. The suiter either devotes his services for a time to the par- 
ents of the maid whom he courts, hunting or assisting in the making 
of canoes, or he offers them presents. The woman has not the power 
of refusing if her parents approve the match. The price that the man 
pays generally consists of wearing apparel, with which the bride is 
dressed out. On the appearance of the bridegroom she is stripped of 
this raiment by her relations, who claim it, and in that state she is 
presented to him as his wife (Haywood, 1823, p. 280 ff.). 

The marriage preliminaries were settled by the mother and one of 
her brothers on each side, according to Washburn (1869, p. 206 ff.). 
Generally there existed a previous attachment between the parties 
but very often the bride and groom were not consulted at all. The 
whole town convened. The groom feasted with his male comrades in 
a lodge a little way from the council house. The bride and her 
companions feasted a little way from the council house on the oppo- 
site side. The old men took the higher seats on one side of the coun- 
cil house and the old women took the higher seats on the opposite 
side. Then came the married men below the old men and the mar- 
ried women below the old women. Ata signal the groom was escorted 
to one end of the open space in the center and the bride likewise at 
the opposite end. The groom received from his mother a leg of 
venison and a blanket and the bride received from her mother an 
ear of corn and a blanket. Then the couple met in the center and 
the groom presented his venison and the bride her corn and the 
blankets were united. Thus the ceremony symbolized the respective 
functions of the man and the woman in the Cherokee household. 
They then walked alone and silently to their cabin. Divorce was 
called “dividing of the blankets.” 

According to Butrick, the consent of the parents was absolutely 
necessary to obtain a girl in marriage. The priest also must be called 


340 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Butn, 133 


upon to divine the future course of the marriage and, if the omens 
were bad, the marriage was forbidden. If a marriage was approved, 
the bridegroom and the bride’s brother exchanged clothes and posses- 
sions. A kind of engagement also existed whereby, after a girl’s 
first separation and with her parent’s consent, a young man brought 
her venison and presents and if she was unfaithful she was considered 
an adulteress. Adultery alone could break a marriage and the priest 
was often called in by anxious husbands to divine if their wives had 
been unfaithful or not. 

All authors concur in describing the laws against marriage within 
the clan as of the strictest degree possible. Anciently the death penalty 
was the inevitable result, and this was inflicted by the offended clan 
itself. In the early nineteenth century, whipping was substituted for 
the death penalty, and somewhat later formal penalties were abolished 
altogether. (Lanman, 1849, p. 93 ff.; Haywood, 1823; Gregg in 
Thwaites, 1904—7, vol. 30.) Adultery was also punished severely, either 
by death or disgrace if a woman were the offender. Adultery, if proved 
against a wife, would cause her to lose all her possessions and be turned 
out of the house. In any other case of a separation the possessions 
were divided equally, and the children went with and were provided 
for by the mother. 

The chieftainship could be transmitted, like the clan, only in the 
female line. The son of a chief could never inherit his power and was 
not regarded as of royal blood nor even as next of kin to his father. 
Instead, the power went to the son of the chief’s oldest sister (Hay- 
wood, 1923). This would point to the clan head as being the original 
chief political official. 

The mother had little difficulty in childbirth. She was generally 
assisted by the grandmother and mother, no men being allowed present 
except the priest. If the child fell on its breast it was a bad omen, if 
it fell on its head it was a good omen. If the omen was bad, the child 
was thrown into the creek and then fished out when the cloth over its 
head had become disengaged. The child was waved over the fire after 
birth or held before it, and a prayer was made to that element. Chil- 
dren were bathed at birth and every morning for 2 years. On the 
fourth or seventh day after birth, the child was bathed in the river by 
the priest, who prayed that it might have long life. The parents were 
excessively indulgent with their children, and the latter had great 
affection for their elders. They were named at the sixth or seventh 
day. 

The ancient houses were of split sticks laid in the mud, the ends 
being made fast by means of gutters in the side of the posts. The 
household fire was lighted in the middle of the building, and a hole 
was left in the roof above it for smoke to get out. On the side of the 


\ 


ANTHROP. PAP. NO, 23) THE EASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 341 


house were small holes 1 foot square for windows. There were beds on 
the side and the back ends of the house 3 feet high and covered with 
cane fastened together, or some other kind of mattress. There was a 
separate house for the females, who always retired when visitors ar- 
rived. A whole settlement was made up of near relatives, and the 
family connections generally settled together. The head of a village 
always invited strangers in, and his wife their wives. 

Within the household no male could carry water. The women pre- 
pared food, did the washing, and assisted in the fields. Formerly a 
whole town enclosed a large field, of which each family had a par- 
ticular share, indicated by land marks. In all the towns men and 
women worked together first in one part, then in another, according 
to the direction of him whom they had selected to manage the business 
and whom they called in this respect their leader. Individual fields 
were separated from each other by ridges of earth, stones, or posts. 
Except when they were employed in the common fields the men did 
little save hunt. Generally the women gathered wood for the cooking 
except for the assistance of the old men. The women also carried 
water for family use, pounded corn, and did the washing. 


EDUCATION 


Training of children for definite occupations was extensive and 
thorough. Two types of employment, in particular, demanded years 
of training and special tutoring, the priesthood and hunting. The 
descriptions given of the former are fairly detailed, those of the latter 
are meager and not clearly set forth. 

The priesthood was to some extent hereditary, but there was always 
a selection and weeding out of the less likely candidates. The priests 
were given forenotice to receive a new candidate. First, the conse- 
crated drink was administered by the parents, who fasted and tasted 
only of a certain root for 7 days in order to give the child magical 
powers. In the case of a child so designed for the priesthood, the 
mother would always deliver it to the care of the grandmother or some 
other aged matron to preserve its purity during her monthly dis- 
qualification. 

The boy designed for the priesthood was not allowed to wander about 
like other children and was supervised as to his eating so as to run 
no risk of uncleanness. The priest always kept the boy in view. He 
was given a knowledge of tabooed things. A child intended as chief 
speaker in war could eat no frogs, nor the tongue or breast of any 
animal. Generally the training for the sacred office began at about 9 
years of age. The boy was led by the priest at daybreak to the moun- 
tain top and, after a purifying drink had been given him, he had to 
follow the course of the sun with his eyes for a whole day. Nights 


342 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BuLt, 133 


were then spent in walking with the priest and in receiving knowledge 
concerning the lore of the priests. The use of the divining crystal was 
taught in a secret place, and various formulas and prayers. 

When the boy’s first 7 days’ training and his fast had ended, the 
priest consulted the crystal to see what would be the boy’s future. He 
set the stone in the sun. If an old man appeared in it, success was 
assured. Ifa man with black hair and beard appeared in it, the boy’s 
career would be a failure. 

Only as many as seven boys at a time could be tutored by the 
priest. At his death an aged priest gathered all of his pupils about 
him and presented his crystal to one of them. All of the secrets im- 
ported by the priests to their pupils were sacred, and to reveal them 
meant death. 

In the case of young men preparing to be hunters, the rites were 
somewhat different but are even less known. The boy went to certain 
priests at the beginning of the year in September or March and sepa- 
rated himself from women and other worldly affairs for 4 years while 
he was training. The use of the divining stone in hunting was taught 
to the pupils and also the sweatbath was taken by them. The melt of 
deer was sacrificed, and a ceremony was taught which was to accom- 
pany the opening and the closing of the hunting season. Houses were 
sometimes cleansed and new fire made in them at this time by hunters 
after a hunt. Sweating in the sweat house was followed by a cold 
plunge into the creek. During hunting expeditions the hunter could 
have no intercourse with his wife or other women. Although the 
priest could accompany the chief hunters whom he had trained, he 
often authorized the latter to perform sacrifice in his stead. Magical 
decoctions of plants were also drunk in these ceremonies. 


TREATMENT OF DISEASE 


The treatment of disease was generally a phase of the ceremonial- 
ism described under the physic dance, or Propitiation Festival. In 
cases of epidemics, the town assembled and requested the seven coun- 
selors of the town priest to make arrangements for stopping it. The 
counselors selected a Jowah hymn chanter and a regular set of seven 
officials and a priest to direct the ceremonies, which commenced on 
the evening of the seventh day next ensuing. 

The presiding priest went in pursuit of herbs and roots for the 
occasion which must be the same as the articles of purification, seven 
in number. A prayer was offered as each root was gathered and 
the seven kinds of wood were arranged about the altar in a circle. 
The wood was kindled by flint or fire sticks. After it had burned for 
a while, this fire was put aside to make a new fire for boiling the 
herbs. 


AnTHROP. Pap. No, 23] THE EASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 343 


A little before sunset of the seventh day the people assembled in 
the town council house and the ceremony began. Each clan sat 
together and officials occupied the center, the presiding priest 
(ooleestooleeh) and his right-hand man with cane matting for their 
feet, and the seven counselors and the speaker. The latter offi- 
cials occupied the two ottomans on the right and left. The hearth 
was cleaned of the old fire and new fire was made in its place. Hunt- 
ers brought in a buck, doe, and fawn skin, the white caldron was set 
up and the herbs dropped in. The seven counselors took turns 
watching it boil. The women and girls performed circle dances and 
the Jowah singer called in the seven cleansers. 

At sunrise the next day the seven counselors drank with gourds 
from the caldron and the same ceremonies were repeated as the day 
before. At the setting of the sun a sacrifice was made by the presid- 
ing priest. The smoke and the sacrifice were a good omen as to 
health or disease. The same rites continued for 7 days. On the 
eighth day the herbs were taken from the caldron and the meeting 
closed. 

The rite to avert smallpox was a form of the physic dance. Two 
invisible spirits were regarded as the cause of the disease, one hav- 
ing red spots and the other having black spots. The people assem- 
bled and the conjurer built new fire with bass wood and goldenrod 
weed with which herbs were boiled and the decoction drunk. There 
were fastings, vigils, and dancing as in the other rites. These rites 
continued for 7 days and on the seventh day there was a prayer 
to the setting sun, the owner of fire, and then all broke their fast. 
A portion of the fire kindled on this occasion was preserved for life 
by the keeper and was considered to be sacred and untouchable and 
not to be lighted from nor any coal extinguished in it. 

The Cherokees of ancient times had various charms, incantations, 
sacrifices, and prayers for removing and keeping off sickness. The 
charms sung or whispered (in the case of common diseases). On go- 
ing to bed a person might repeat a song as follows: 

Let my soul be in the first heaven, 
Let my soul be in the second heaven, ete. 
(on up to the seventh heaven.) 

In the case of snake bite there was a prayer in which the shaman 
invoked the men of the four directions while walking around the 
patient. He then used the beads to divine the course of the disease 
and, if the omens were unfavorable, he brought in an animal whole 
and unblemished for a sacrifice. Then he divined again and, if the 
omens were still unsatisfactory, the divining crystal was set in the 
sunlight and the final decision was made from seeing a man sitting 
upright or lying prostrate. 

405260—43——23 


344 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Butt, 133 


In some sicknesses the deer tongue sacrifice was resorted to. It was 
split into two halves, the left hand was called “the enemy” and the 
right hand was called “the friend.” These were thrown in the fire 
and the piece that popped first was the conqueror. The fire of the 
sacrifice was regarded as part of a greater fire above (not the sun), 
and the sacrifice meant that news was traveling to the great fire above 
in the smoke. | 

In general, the ceremonies for keeping off diseases involved the 
cleansing phases of the propitiation festival such as house whipping, 
dances by seven women, Jowah songs, new fire making, sacred hunts, 
and the like. The seven sticks in the new fire represented the seven 
clans. Seven men with handkerchiefs tied around their heads and 
white fur of deer’s tail stuck into the handkerchiefs, each took a stick 
of green elder 3 to 4 inches long with the bark removed. Then they 
struck the roofs or sides of the townhouse with the sticks and did like- 
wise to the other houses in the town. 


MYTHOLOGY AND BELIEFS 


Various protective powers, spirits, and substances were involved 
in disease and other misfortunes. Although the sun and the moon 
were considered supreme over the lower creation, the most active and 
efficient agent appointed by them to take care of mankind was sup- 
posed to be fire. When, therefore, any special favor was needed it 
was made known to fire, accompanied by an offering. Fire was the 
intermediate being nearest the sun. The same homage was extended 
to smoke, which was deemed fire’s messenger, always in readiness to 
convey the petition on high. 

A child immediately after birth was sometimes waved before fire. 
Children would be brought before the fire, and its guardian care en- 
treated for them. Hunters, also, would wave their moccasins and 
leggings over fire, to secure protection from snakes. It was a custom 
also to put chickens, as soon as hatched, into a basket and wave them 
over the fire to protect them from snakes, 

Various traditions are mentioned as to the origin of fire, which was 
supposed to have been like a man, an active and intelligent being from 
on high. The fire of the council house was descended from the origi- 
nal fire but was destroyed by enemies, hence sacred new fire must be 
made on occasions of importance, as has already been mentioned. 

The sun and moon were regarded as the creators of the world. The 
sun was generally considered the more powerful and was supposed 
to give efficacy for curing to roots and herbs. If the sun did not cure 
the ailment, the suppliant turned to the moon as the power control- 
ling the disease. There were many prayers for welfare made to the 
sun and the moon since they were such powerful protectors. 


AnTHROP, Pap. No. 23] THE EASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 345 


In the center of the sky at the zenith was the abode of the Great 
Spirit. He was supposed to have created certain lines or points on 
earth in the four directions and to have stationed at these points 
beings of different colors. In the north was a blue man, in the east a 
red man, in the south a white man, and in the west ablack man. These 
beings are vice regents for the Great Spirit and supplications are di- 
rected to them in regular succession. There were other sky beings, 
such as the morning star, who was a wicked conjurer, and the eight 
brothers or Pleiades. 

There was a belief in the transmigration of souls and in haunted 
places. When anyone died, the spirits hovered around and must be 
fed. Knockings occurred in various places due to witches.** For 
these tobacco smoke was a great remedy. Several classes of spirits 
dwelt in the earth. 


1. The nanehi dwelt under water, in the ground, rocks, and the mountains and 
could be seen only at night. They were characterized by eyes on the ends of 
horns. 

2. Another class with larger bodies have eyes extending up and down and live 
in the mountains. 

3. Still another group, the wkase, throw rocks and clubs at people at night 
but never hit them. 

4, Utselunuhi are transformation spirits or ghosts of the dead who hover 
about the scenes of their earthly life before taking their departure. 

There were five different sizes of divining stones used in ancient 
times. The largest was used in war divination; the next largest for 
feasts, purification, and divination concerning sickness; the next for 
hunting; the next for finding things lost or stolen; and the smallest 
for determining the time allotted for anyone to live. These curious 
stones were crystalline quartz and six-sided, coming to a point at 
one end like a diamond. They were called “lights,” and were im- 


portant in ritual. 


SACREDNESS AND UNCLEANNESSES 


Certain events in life were regarded as dangerous to the well being 
of people and were hence the subject of some special usages and re- 
strictions. These events were called “uncleannesses” by Butrick and 
were exemplified in a number of different taboos of which the fol- 
lowing are the most notable: 

Women were regarded as being unclean while pregnant and for 7 
days after childbirth. Rites of bathing in the river and priestly 
ministrations were necessary to cleanse and dissolve this uncleanness. 
A like taboo was laid on women in their monthly separations. A 
woman who was unclean was not allowed to associate with the rest 


“C. Washburn (1869, p. 133) gives an interesting account of the later development among 
the Western Cherokees of the treatment of witchcraft as a public delict. 


346 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Butn, 133 


of the household. Formerly a special house was buiit for women in 
this state but latterly a special room in the house was reserved for 
them. Rules for special bathing were likewise prescribed for men 
who had any night impurities. Certain of the more careful persons 
in the tribe resorted to a daily morning prayer on awakening. This 
wes supposed to purify from any uncleanness incurred during the 
night. It was followed by bathing in the river. 

Death was the occasion of uncleanness in all who had anything to 
do with the dead person either through kinship or through handling 
the corpse. The rules in connection with this uncleanness will be 
considered further on page 347. 

Certain foods, especially the meat of predatory and nocturnal 
creatures, was regarded as unclean, since these creatures were sub- 
ject to blood revenge on the part of their victims. Anciently the 
Cherokees would not eat foxes, dogs, wolves, snakes, moles, pole cats, 
opossums, buzzards, crows, cranes, fish hawks, eagles, owls, hoot 
owls, wood cocks, eels, catfish, or garfish. The meat of chickens, 
turkey, cattle, deer, buffalo, and bears was regarded as perfectly suit- 
able as a rule. Females, when in their separations, could only take 
hominy and a thin drink. 

Of a character somewhat similar to uncleanness was the sacred- 
ness which attached to certain places, persons, things, and events. 
A priest’s house or door was sacred and any refugee from blood 
revenge might find safety there. The west half of the council house 
was holier than the rest and no woman was allowed therein. Also 
the space above the white seats were still more sacred, and none 
could sit there but the highest officials. Mountains were more sacred 
chan low ground and Mount Ketunho the most of all. The moun- 
tains were probably more sacred because of the game which resided 
therein. Ground under the water was more sacred than open ground 
because the water was regarded as cleansing in its action. Places of 
refuge were sacred because no blood could be spilt there. Men were 
more sacred than women (possibly because of the numerous taboos 
on women already mentioned). Indians were more sacred than white 
men because Indians were the chosen of God. Priests, again, were 
more sacred than other men and their garments and pipes and wives 
were holy also. This holiness was allied with the general aura of 
magical power which surrounded the priests. Holy fire was sacred 
and no torches could be lit from it nor any cooking done with it. 
Holy fire could not be handled by a woman. The ark was likewise 
holy and no one but the priest or his right-hand man might carry 
it. Needless to say, no woman could touch it. The council house 
was more holy than other houses. December and January were the 


AnTHROP. Pap. No. 23] THE EASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 347 


most holy months. The most holy of the ceremonies was the Green 
Fruits Feast and after that the New Moon Feast of September. 

The general character of Cherokee sacredness is definable as that 
quality which separates the object, person, or thing from the rest of 
daily affairs and requires handling in a special manner. Uncleanness 
likewise fits into this definition, with the added qualification that a 
certain amount of social dysphoria or malaise is involved in the latter 
which requires a treatment calculated to restore euphoria or well-being 
by dissolving the uncleanness. As we shall see later, both uncleanness 
and sacredness correlate with the attitudes of familiarity and respect 
characteristic of the social situation. 

The general treatment of uncleanness which accompanied disease 
was also a feature of the usages surrounding death. The head of a 
family, on being convinced that he was near his end, summoned his 
children and gave them advice and repeated such ancient traditions 
and customs as he deemed important. Just previous to his death all 
were sent away except the doctor and adult relatives. 

At the death the males did no weeping, but the wailing of the females 
was excessive, and their doleful lamentations repeatedly called the 
relative name of the deceased. This was sung rather than spoken, and 
in an exceedingly mournful tone of voice. The expressions of grief 
were greater or less according to the circumstances. Sometimes the 
mourners were entirely unconsolable and went weeping to the grave. 

In each town there was a man appointed to bury the dead. This 
man came to the house of the deceased and buried the corpse. The 
most ancient custom was to bury the corpse in the house directly 
beneath the place where the person died, except in the case of a distin- 
guished chief, and in this case he was buried under the seat that he 
usually occupied in the council house. When the corpse was not buried 
in the house, the undertaker took the body and carried it himself to 
the place of interment, followed by the relatives. Sometimes the 
corpse was laid by the side of a huge rock, covered over, and then 
stones heaped on. Sometimes a grave was dug in the earth. Fre- 
quently the whole of the clothing of the deceased was buried with the 
corpse. 

The burial completed, the funeral procession returned and the man 
who buried the corpse entered the house alone, took out the gourds and 
what furniture happened to be in the house when the person died and, 
carrying them away, either broke up, buried, or burned them. He then 
took out all the old fire ashes and wood from the house and made new 
fire with cedar boughs and goldenrod weed for future use. He then 
took the family (after they had taken an emetic) to a stream where all 
plunged seven times, alternately facing east and west. Then, putting 
on clean new clothes, they remained in a state of separation in a camp, 


348 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Buun, 138 


being unclean for 4 days. A medicine was made for the family to drink 
and to sprinkle themselves with. 

The family then returned to the house and directly the priest’s right- 
hand man sent messengers to them with a piece of tobacco to enlighten 
their eyes and a strand of beads to comfort their hearts and requested 
them to take their seats in the council house that night. The family 
repaired there and all the town met them and took them by the hand 
as a token of affection. Then the mourners could return home while 
the others continued the dance. In case the deceased was a husband, 
his widow remained single for a long time and for 10 months let her 
hair grow loose without dressing or taking any particular care of it. 
Moreover, she did not wash or take any particular care of herself and 
clothes were thrown carelessly about her. Some mourned for a fixed 
period of 7 days. Often, if a husband had died, the widow was given 
to his brother or nearest relative unless she was very much opposed 
to him. 

A sacrifice was sometimes made and a divination made of the occur- 
rence of new deaths from the popping of the meat. The chief priest 
of the town often comforted mourners and feasted at the house of 
mourning. The head man of the town sent out hunters who brought 
meat for the bereaved family. ‘The priest who officiated at the mourn- 
ing was paid in clothing for his services. 


THE RED ORGANIZATION 
OFFICIALS 


The principal officials in the Red, or War, Organization of the 
Cherokees were the following (these officials in the capital town 
were duplicated in the lesser towns) : 


1. Great Red War Chief, or Captain (Skayagustu egwo),* or “High Priest 
of the War,’ who was sometimes called ‘‘The Raven” as he scouted forward 
when the army was on the march and wore a raven skin about his neck. 

2. Great War Chief’s Second, or Right-Hand Man. 

3. Seven War Counselors to order the war. 

4. Pretty Women (War Women) or honorable matrons to judge the fate of 
captives and the conduct of war. 

5. Chief War Speaker, or “Skatiloski.” 

6. A Flag Warrior, or “Katata kanehi,” to carry the banner. 

7. A Chief Surgeon, or “Kunikoti,”’ with three assistants. 

8. Messengers. 

9. Three War Scouts or titled men: 

a. The Wolf wore a wolfskin about his neck and scouted to the right of 
of the army when on the march. 

b. The Owl wore an owl skin about his neck and scouted to the left of 
the army when on the march. 


« Skayagusta means Captain, a boss, or a person well dressed, and is used today by a man 
in reference to any male member of his father’s clan. 


AnTHROP, Pap, No. 23] THE EASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 349 


c. The Fox wore a foxskin about his neck and scouted in the rear of the 
army when on the march. 
10. Sometimes a special War Priest was appointed to take over the divina- 
tory and other religious functions of the Great War Chief. 
11. There were a great number of under officers such as drummers, cooks. 
Certain special priests who had killed an enemy were called osi tahihi and 
alone superintended the building of sweat houses. 


The Great War Captain was generally elected to office. The 
warriors having nominated a candidate, his name was sent to the 
Uku and his white counselors for approval. If the approval of the 
latter was secured, the candidate was duly notified to assume his 
new office. He was consecrated at the first Green Corn Feast after 
his nomination except in cases of emergency in which event he was 
consecrated after 20 days. The predecessor in office directed the 
ceremonies. Persons were appointed to prepare his seat, which was 
a stool with a back 4 inches high and painted red. Others were ap- 
pointed to wash the candidate and to dress him in his official red 
robes. Superannuated warriors of high rank were appointed to 
conduct him to his seat. One walked before the candidate carry- 
ing the red war club, one at his right hand carrying a handful 
of red paint, one at his left hand carrying an eagle feather painted 
red, while still another walked behind him. The day and night 
previous and the day of his consecration, the candidate and his four 
counselors neither ate nor slept and could do neither until midnight 
of the following night. The dress of the candidate and his four 
assistants was all red. 

The candidate on reaching the council house took the central red 
seat directly before the white seat of the Uku facing east and when 
he was seated the attendant who had preceded the candidate 
stepped up and placed the red war club in his hand. Then the 
assistant who had walked on the left put the eagle feathers on his 
head. The quill of the feather had been previously inserted into 
a small cane 2 inches long painted red and this cane was fastened 
to the hair on the crown so as to cause the feather to stand out on 
the head. Then the paint carrier of the right hand stepped up 
and with the forefinger of the right hand made seven siripes alter- 
nately red and black across the candidate’s face and one red stripe 
from the forehead down along the nose and chin to the breast, together 
with various other stripes. 

The retiring captain now made a speech in which he commanded 
obedience to the new captain and warned the warriors never to go to 
war without his knowledge and directions. This was followed by a 
speech from the candidate in which he promised to be humane in 
war but proclaimed the necessity of defending the tribe from its 
enemies. All the assembly then filed by the new captain, took him 


350 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Butn, 138 


by the hand, and called him “uncle.” The new war chief and his 
retinue continued in their seats all of that day and night until the 
next noon. They also fasted until the afternoon, but the young war- 
riors and others had repaired to seven houses in the town to eat 
previously. After the counselors had broken their fast, strangers 
and others could eat in the council house. The inauguration was then 
ended, and the new chief left the council house. 

When the next war came, the young war chief called a council and 
the old war chief brought forward his bow, arrow, quiver, helmet, 
shield, and bracelet, all painted red, and delivered them to his suc- 
cessor. The old chief next took off his raven skin and put it about 
the neck of his successor. The head and neck of the skin fell on 
his breast while the end of the wing and tail were fastened about the 
back of his neck with red strings tied to the ends of the feathers. 
Eagle feathers painted red were the war chief’s badge of distinction 
and there were as many red stripes on the eagle feathers as there 
were enemies whom he had slain. In war the great war chief was 
never to retreat but be carried back by force in case of reverses. 

The seven red, or war, counselors were appointed at each war by 
the common consent of the warriors. These red counselors were 
distinguished by a small round object wrought of two small eagle 
feathers painted red and attached to the tuft of hair left on the 
crown of the head. They assisted in the preparations for war and 
were generally necessary for all acts of the war captain. The dress 
of the counselors and speaker were not as red as that of the war 
captain. 

When a messenger died or became superannuated, the war captain 
nominated a successor. There was a rite of ordination wherein a staff 
3 feet long was wound from end to end with a long strand of beads 
and given to the nominee, who took it and ran around the council 
house repeating a formal ritual. The messenger could always be 
distinguished by his staff. 

The war women were certain old and honored matrons high in the 
councils of the clans who were delegated with the task of deciding 
on the fate of captives in war. These women were also allowed a 
voice in the councils for deciding policy in war. 


WAR PROCEDURE 


War was a form of blood revenge for relatives killed by some 
other nation. It was determined by the council to comfort those 
who were now mourning for their friends who had been killed by 
such and such a nation and whose blood had not been revenged. 
The general season for offensive and voluntary war was in the spring 
or fall. The Great War Chief and his right-hand man consulted 


ANTHROP, Pap. No. 23] THE EASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 351 


together. The consultation was an expression of opinion to which 
the whole nation had to give consent. The chief voted for war 
and, if the others assented, he went out in the yard, rattled his gourd, 
and raised the war whoop, singing a loud song of mourning for him- 
self and his warriors. Then other officers went through the same 
procedure. Messengers were despatched to every war chief in all 
the towns of the nation. Certain warriors were asked by the right- 
hand man to select seven counselors to order the war. 

In each town the war chief consulted with his fellows or the next in 
authority and, in the same manner as the Great War Chief did at first, 
took the gourd rattle and went through the yard raising the war 
whoop. Soon the whole nation was convened at the place of rendez- 
vous or the house of the head warrior. The seven war counselors of 
the town then selected one of the sacred war paints to use for the 
present occasion, and also a red, or war, priest. The latter took charge 
of the sacred fire for the war and also of the war crystals used in divin- 
ing the results of the war. In some cases the warriors of each of the 
towns chose to have a red, or war, priest from each of their respective 
towns. 

The war chief appointed certain women to prepare provisions for 
the army. Provisions consisted of parched corn meal and corn bread, 
the latter made in long cakes about 6 inches wide and baked on the 
hearth covered with leaves and hot ashes. Each town provided provi- 
sions for its own menasarule. The warriors carried their own provi- 
sions and were often heavily loaded when starting. They also fur- 
nished themselves with their own weapons and armor. The war club, 
and, in later times, the tomahawk, were carried in the belt. Weapons 
consisted of bow, arrow, quiver, war club, spear, sling, tomahawk, and 
knife. Armor consisted of wooden or leather shields, buffalo-hide 
breast pieces, and leather arm bracelets. 

After assembling, a whole day and a night were devoted to prayer, 
fasting, and vigils. None could eat nor sleep, and no one must take 
anything whatever from the hand of another. A thing to pass from 
one hand to another must be dropped to the ground and then picked up. 

Every two towns formed a company, and under officers for the com- 
panies were selected by the seven war counselors. The under officers 
consisted of musicians, doctors, cooks, and the like. The main officers 
were also selected at this time and were the following: 

Three officers marched in front of the army and possessed equal 
powers. They were said to be able to track the enemy as well by night 
as by day and to be able to fly and to handle coals of fire. They could 
not be shot with a ball, and if an enemy approached they could throw 
themselves down and disappear. They had been initiated into the 
sacred office by looking at the sun. 


352 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BuLn, 133 


First, the Great War Chief, or “Raven” (Skayagustu, “Captain”), 
since he had a raven skin fastened about his neck. 

Second, Katata kanehi, or “Flag Warrior” (gaDaDi ganehi, “Flag 
Carrier”), who was considered the equal in almost all respects with the 
first officer. ‘The flag was raised on a pole painted red and consisted of 
a red cloth or a deerskin painted red. 

Third, Skatiloski, or “Great Speaker,” who addressed the army on 
occasion. 

Following these came the fourth officer, who was the Kunikoti, or 
surgeon (Ganikta, or “Doctor”). 

Each town war chief was called “skayagustu” and the chiefs headed 
the men of their own companies.. All were marshalled under the com- 
mand of the chief warriors mentioned above. In each company the 
seven counselors of the town war chief followed next after him along 
with his second and his speaker. The first of his assistants and the 
doctors and cooks marched behind their respective companies, while 
the drummers marched in the center. 

On the first day after assembling, some bathed in the river and under- 
went purification. In the evening the war standard, a high pole 
painted red with a red cloth or skin 4 to 5 yards long on top, was 
erected and the war dance was celebrated during the night. The war 
dance consisted in each company following their leader in a circle 
counterclockwise. A little before the dawn all went to the river and 
plunged in seven times. At daybreak the red priest appointed for the 
war took some of the sacred fire and fed it with some fresh wood, and, 
then, as the whole staff of the army watched, cast on it the deer’s tongue 
to divine the events of the war. If the fire burned brightly about the 
sacrifice and consumed it, they were destined to conquer the enemy, but 
if the fire went out around the meat and did not consume it, this indi- 
cated that they were to be conquered. If the meat popped east success 
was assured, but if it popped west it meant defeat. 

A little after sunrise the red war priest resorted to still further 
divination, this time with the beads. The priest raised his hands and 
commenced to pray. He prayed to the first heaven, the second heaven, 
and so on to the seventh, raising his hand higher each time. As he 
paused a moment in each heaven he held a bead between the thumb 
and forefinger of each hand. If they were to conquer the enemy the 
bead in his right hand would seem to be alive and move, but if they were 
to be conquered the bead in his left hand would manifest the most life. 

Still further divinations were resorted to. The magic crystal was 
set in the sun on a red post and all were compelled to march before it. 
If it did not sparkle in the sunlight as a certain person passed it, that 
person was thought destined to be killed and was sent home. Again, if 
they were to conquer the enemy, blood would flow from the left side of 


ANTHROP. Par. No. 23] THE EASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 353 


the stone, and if they were to be conquered, blood would fiow from the 
right side. 

The red war priest made new fire with basswood and goldenrod. 
This fire was regarded as a guide and helper in the war. The red war 
priest called himself “the second to fire” thus making fire the prin- 
cipal priest. The fire for the war was placed in the sacred ark for the 
war. The ark was a rectangular clay object about a foot long with a 
lid and was destined to hold only sacred fire. There were always two 
arks, one kept in the council house and the other used for war. 

When provisions were all secured and equipment made ready, the 
warriors were called to order by the skatiloski, or “speaker.” He made 
a speech with war club in hand encouraging the warriors and telling 
them not to fear. Even if the omens were bad, the war was to be 
undertaken nevertheless. Then came the command to march and the 
Great War Chief commenced the war whoop followed by all of the 
others. 

The skatiloski directed the march and the encampments and the 
order of procedure in all details while thus on the march. Various 
taboos were imposed on the warriors. On the march they might not 
discuss any vain or trifling subject such as women. No intercourse 
with women was allowed throughout the course of the war. In cross- 
ing a brook or stream all must pass over before any could drink from 
the stream. If anyone accidently broke a stick or twig while marching 
he carried it with him until camp was made that night. During the 
whole expedition the warriors were required to bathe and plunge seven 
times at night and in the morning. If they encountered the enemy sud- 
denly, all must await for the skatiloski to arrive. In starting to battle 
the warriors who passed.a pile of stones added one to the pile in order 
to insure a safe return. 


MILITARY TACTICS 


The military tactics of the war were virtually decided by the red, or 
war, priest in all details. He was consulted as to when and where to 
attack the enemy and how many to kill. Whenever the war priest 
needed advice he set up his crystals, beads, ark, and other parapher- 
nalia, just as he did in the council house before the army had started 
out, and prayed for instructions. The crystals or beads gave him ad- 
vice on how to proceed. Just previous to a battle the priest would 
exhort the men urging them to be brave and asking any of faint heart 
or newly married to turn back if they wished. 

At every encampment four scouts were sent out. The “Raven,” or 
Great Chief, went forward asa spy. He wore a raven skin and if he 
encountered the enemy he gave a raven call to sound the alarm. The 
“owl” went to the right as spy, wearing the owl skin. He also gave 


354 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Butn, 133 


the owl call if he encountered the enemy. To the left went the “wolf” 
wearing a wolfskin, and back along the trail they had marched went 
the “fox” wearing a foxskin. It was generally the Raven who watched 
the enemy and kept the skatiloski perfectly informed as to their move- 
ments. On meeting the enemy, the Raven blew the trumpet and then 
the whole army gave the war whoop and rushed forward to the attack. 
The Raven endeavored to reach and touch a house in the village of the 
enemy and the standard bearer rested his standard against it. 

The general plan of battle was for warriors to run forward on the 
right and left in two wings so as to enclose the enemy while the 
warriors of the center marched directly forward. Sometimes an angle 
ambush was set for the enemy and a few men were sent forward in 
the center as a decoy. Various other stratagems were used. A war- 
rior who had killed a person or who had touched a dead body or 
grave was unclean for 4 days. 


RETURN FROM WAR 


On their return from battle the warriors stayed at the council house 
for 24 days in order to purify themselves before going home or asso- 
ciating with their wives. Every night a scalp and snake dance were 
celebrated and often other dances. The twenty-fourth day was de- 
voted to fasting and early in the morning the war priest offered sac- 
rifice, again consulting his crystal. As many moons would appear in 
the stone as they were to enjoy peace. Also the deer’s tongue sacri- 
fice was made, and if the offering was quickly consumed peace would 
be lasting. 

The women danced first, in the scalp dance. They always stood 
quietly behind the musician until he came to a certain note. Then 
there was a snake dance around the fire in which they proceeded in a 
stooped posture and moved according to the beat of the drum. The 
song they sang was repeated four times. During this dance they 
raised their hands and made motions as if striking the enemy. The 
men then joined the dance. A man would dance beside a woman and 
hold a stick with scalps hanging from it as he danced. War songs 
were sung at this dance also. 

In general, the return home was in an orderly fashion. The warriors 
sent a messenger forward to the townspeople to meet them. As the 
warriors approached, two men followed by the women of the village 
came forward to meet them singing a song in honor of the warlike 
deeds and valor of the warriors. The women caught up the refrain 
and praised the returning soldiers. Each warrior delivered his spoils 
to his wife or nearest female relative, who took them home while the 
warriors continued their march to the council house, for their purifi- 
cation period. 


ANTHROP. PaP. No, 23] THE EASTERN CHEROKERS—GILBERT BOD 


The time of purification on the return from war varied according 
to the bloodiness of the war. Its general length was from 4 days to 24. 
This purification from the pollutions incurred in the war was done by 
the same priests who had consecrated the warriors at the begin- 
ning of the campaign. The wounded stayed in the council house for 
a longer separation than the others. They might dance with the others 
but must always carry a kind of staff by which they were distin- 
guished. They, like the others, could not associate with their wives 
until the period of purification was ended. Any warrior who violated 
the rule against sexual intercourse during the war was believed to 
have been killed in battle. 


OTHER WAR FEATURES 


In distinguishing themselves warriors were afterward given a new 
name in the general council. “Killer” was the highest name, followed 


WEST 


SOUTH 


Figure 55.—Seating in the Cherokee Council House. 


by “raven,” “owl,” “wolf,” and “fox” in the order named. The great 
warrior was followed by the six next in dignity and then by seven 
who served as the immediate attendants. The age of warriors was 
25 to 60 and those males who were under 25 were called “boys.” When 
war officers were past age, others were appointed to take their place. 

The council house in which many of the war ceremonies were held 
was a peculiar structure and is shown in the accompanying diagram. 
It was held up by seven posts set in a circle. There were seven slant- 
ing beams set on these posts and these beams met above the middle. 


\ 


356 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Buun, 133 


Side ribs were covered with grass thatching and this grass was covered 
with dirt and then thatch again to carry off the water. The roof was 
of bark with an opening for the escape of the smoke from the council 
fire. In the center the sacred fire always burned. On the east side 
was a door with a portice. On the west side of the house was set the 
sacred ark already mentioned. There was a shelf and rack on this 
side of the building for sacred things. There were several concentric 
rows of seats in the council house wherein the various officers were 
seated during the council. The seven sides of the council house were 
symbolic of the seven clans meeting in council. 

In summary, then, war can be said to have been a ritualized recur- 
rent event of immense importance in Cherokee society. There were 
three main phases, the preparation, the actual campaign, and the 
return. The first phase consisted in actual practical preparations of 
equipment and provisions as well as the divinations and magical rites 
of the priests. The second phase consisted of a series of stratagems 
and devices whereby the warriors, under the guidance of the priests 
and their magic, endeavored to outwit the enemy. The third phase 
consisted mainly in the ritual purification of the warriors for their 
return to the ranks of the civilians. 


STRUCTURE AND FUNCTION OF THE FORMER SOCIETY 


The description of the former culture which we have derived from 
the Payne manuscripts does not entirely make clear the workings of 
the various elements. Much has to be inferred regarding the work- 
ings of the former culture from analogy with present structures and 
functions or the structures and functions of other similar cultures. 


ALTERNATION OF WAR AND PEACE 


The early Cherokees lived in an alternating state of war and peace 
so far as their relations with their neighbors were concerned and this 
alternation of political states was allied with a dual organization of 
the tribal government into two halves, a war and a peace organiza- 
tion. Everyone in the tribe may possibly have belonged to one or the 
other organization, judging from analogy with the Creeks to whom 
the Cherokees seem to have been closely similar in these respects. 
The most characteristic feature of the dual division was its distinct 
set of political officials each largely independent in its activities from 
the activities of the other moiety. 

The white organization consisted of a set of officials ranging from 
a supreme chief with secular and religious functions down to a minute 
set of petty officers for carrying on the minor business of the state. 
There were several so-called white towns, or “cities of refuge,” where- 


ANTHROP. Pap. No. 23] THE EASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 357 


in the influence of the white organization was all powerful even to 
the extent of controlling and modifying the law of blood revenge. 
On the other hand, the red organization consisted of a set of officials 
corresponding in a great degree with the white officials except that 
their function was exclusively military. If either of the organiza- 
tions was subject in any degree to the other, it was the military or 
red group as the manuscript mentions particularly that the white 
Uku had the power to make or unmake the War Captains. More- 
over, the war officials were largely elected by popular vote at fre- 
quent intervals whereas the white officials were to some extent at 
least hereditary or subject to appointment by the supreme chief. 
Durability of structure resided in the white organization rather than 
in the red one. 

The white officials had a variety of functions to perform. They 
alone possessed prayers for invoking the sun and moon and other 
protective spirits who could take away disease and ill health. They 
could separate the unclean elements from polluted persons and re- 
store the normal condition. Their persons and belongings were 
sacred and were not like ordinary citizens and their possessions. The 
sacredness of the white officials was so great as to separate them as 
a class superior to the rest of the community and in some respects 
above the ordinary laws and usages. 

The red officials had a number of very important functions also. 
Bravery and warlike deeds were sustained by these officials. They 
acquired their titles in several cases as the result of bravery in battle. 
The wolf, fox, and owl were set up as symbols of bravery and used 
as titles. For those who had performed ably in the field also certain 
victory and scalp dances were given as a reward in which various 
goods were donated to the hero being honored. This has some re- 
semblance to the allotment of the winnings in the ball game as stakes 
of victory. War was an act of killing and because it involved blood 
was a polluting agent. Much of the ritual surrounding war was 
designed to deal with and remove this uncleanness. Like the hunter 
who had killed certain animals such as the deer, bear, and eagle, the 
warrior had to be purified both before and after his undertaking. 
As in the case of the player in the ball game, every precaution was 
taken to insure victory by constant invocation of protective powers 
cver, and the dissolution of uncleannesses from, the warrior. In war, 
as in hunting and the ball game, the expectation of success or failure 
was determined by the use of various forms of divination, these 
mostly centering around the use of fire, beads, and crystalline talis- 
mans. 

The opposition of war and peace functions in Cherokee society 
was similar to that existing between civil law and martial law among 


358 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BuLL, 138 


more civilized peoples. The ordinary affairs of state were admin- 
istered by the white organization but the extraordinary and fateful 
enterprise of war required a special set of officers who corresponded 
in a greatly magnified scale with the special officials presiding over 
the recurrent seasonal ceremonies. 

Turning now to the special enterprises of peacetime, we find that 
under this heading can be included the various public events con- 
nected with the calendar and with the socially significant occurrences 
in the individual life cycle. In the seasonal ceremonies of the Chero- 
kees two chief problems are dealt with, namely, the problem of food 
supply and the problem of health. 


SYMBOLISM OF THE CEREMONIES—SOCIAL COHESION 


The food problem was expressed symbolically in the rituals of all 
of the main ceremonies but particularly at the first new moon of spring 
and the two Green Corn Festivals. On these three ceremonial occa- 
sions the problem of an adequate food supply was grappled with and 
was, ceremonially speaking, conquered. One might see, without a con- 
siderable stretch of the imagination, that the fasting and food taboos 
followed by excessive feasting were symbolic repetitions of actual con- 
ditions, either formerly prevailing or still existing. In the tribe’s 
search for food, periods of prolonged duress were followed by satiety 
as the season of plenty recurred. 

The problem of social health and well-being was dealt with also in 
most of the ceremonies but particularly in the Great New Moon of 
Autumn and Cementation Festivals. The great new moon of autumn, 
like the first new moon of the year, represented the symbolic condensa- 
tion of the monthly new moon rites at which times periodic unclean- 
nesses were removed from everyone. ‘The periodic uncleannesses were 
thought of as being mainly the result of the periodic recurrence of the 
menstrual blood. At the monthly cleansing the whole village went to 
the river, family by family, and bathed under the guidance of white 
priests. The Great New Moon of Autumn Feast had to do primarily 
with physical health while the Cementation Festival had the function 
of overcoming unhealthy conditions of rivalry and enmity within the 
social group and with the renewal of the life of the tribe symbolically 
with the making of new fire. This latter event signified that all dif- 
ferences were forgiven and that new and unspotted relations of amity 
were to be entered upon by all with no retaliations carried over. This 
acted to renew the bonds of social cohesion and to eliminate any ele- 
ments making for conflict within the group. 

The social cohesion of the Cherokee was also maintained by the ritu- 
alistic events accompanying the individual life cycle. The events of 
the major crises of life required purification procedures similar to 


ANTHROP. Pap. No. 23] THE EASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 359 


those already mentioned. The white officials presided at these cere- 
monies which could not be performed without them. e 

The Cherokee tribe consisted of a series of villages held together by 
several bonds of social uniformity. Im each village the pattern of 
white and red officials was repeated in a set-up similar to that prevail- 
ing in the capital town. The villages were sometimes allowed to per- 
form ceremonies as units at their own convenience but the majority 
of the tribal ceremonies were national affairs held at the metropolis. 
Conflicts between villages were symbolized and to some extent given 
vent to by means of the ball games, which resembled regular battles in 
their ferocity. Each village contained members of the same seven 
clans as did the others and this allowed a feeling of blood relationship 
and solidarity to extend beyond the mere bounds of a single settlement. 

Concerning the clans of the former culture but little is recorded. 
Evidently they were seven in number and furnished the basic patterns 
for the white and red councils of seven which helped the chiefs in deci- 
sions of peace and war. Moreover, the descent of the title to chief- 
tainship from a man to his oldest sister’s son is such as to make us 
suspect the chiefs themselves represent a matrilineal succession within 
some one clan. 


405260—_43——-24 


SOCIAL CHANGE 


THE EVIDENCE OF CHANGE 


A comparison of the records of the synchronic view of eighteenth 
century Cherokee culture with late nineteenth and early twentieth 
century culture of the tribe can be summarized under the following 
headings: Changes in economic integration, changes in political inte- 
gration, and changes in ceremonial integration. 


ECONOMIC CHANGE 


First, as to changes in economic integration. These are at once the 
most obvious and the most fundamental of all of the changes that the 
Cherokee society has undergone in the last hundred years. The trans- 
formation of the people from a partly hunting and partly agricul- 
tural group of warriors into a sedentary and totally agricultural 
population has been the most noticeable event. 

The first things to be introduced among the Cherokees were im- 
proved weapons and cutting tools of metal for the old time stone and 
bone implements. These importations began as early as 1700. White 
traders began to infiltrate into the country and to bring in white agri- 
cultural complexes as well as trinkets, whiskey, and guns. These 
traders took native wives and settled down in the country. Their 
mixed descendants soon became the ruling class in Cherokee society 
and exerted an enormous influence in the changing of the native cul- 
ture through political leadership. These mixed families engaged in 
stock raising and the typical pioneer industries of the white colonial 
English settlers (Mooney, 1900, pp. 213-214). 

The dates of introduction of the various white culture traits are 
not precisely known but are approximately typified as 1700 or 1710 for 
guns, and 1740 for horses. In the latter year a horse trail was opened 
up between what later became Augusta, Ga., and the Cherokee country. 
By 1760 horses had become exceedingly numerous and by 1775 every 
man had at least from 2 to 12. The cow was said to have been intro- 
duced some time after the horse by Nancy Ward. The hog was prob- 
ably introduced at the same time and bees were kept for their honey 
from as early a date. European fruits were cultivated early (pears 
were introduced in 1670), and potatoes and coffee were brought in 
during the eighteenth century. Spinning wheels and looms were 
first used shortly before the American Revolution, being brought in 
by an Englishman in 1770 who taught their use to his Cherokee wife. 


360 


Anrurop, Pap. No, 23] THE EASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 361 


By 1791 ordinary English farming tools were in use and the plow in 
general demand for cultivation. 

Total replacement was the order of the day. The early arts in 
shell, stone, and feathers seem to have vanished at the first contacts 
with the white men, and, by the nineteenth century, of the older arts 
little more than split basketry and wood carving were retained. The 
ancient square house of poles was abandoned about the close of the 
eighteenth century for the log cabin of the white pioneer, which latter 
has been retained up to the present time. (Featherstonehaugh, 1847, 
p. 287; Lanman, 1849, p. 93). About the same time as he abandoned 
the house of poles, the Cherokee also took on the buckskin clothing of 
the white pioneers. The aboriginal moccasin lingered on until nearly 
the close of the nineteenth century (Ziegler and Grosscup, 1883, p. 
15). The disappearance of deer and bear led to changes in the meat 
diet in favor of pork and beef. The original vegetable staples, corn 
and beans, were retained in the diet and supplemented only slightly 
by the white man’s foods. 

Gradually the Cherokees became surrounded by a white man’s world 
upon which they became partly dependent for the means of obtaining 
food, clothing, and shelter (Gude, ms., section on Culture Contrasts). 
Their own cooperative efforts became gradually more and more obso- 
lete. By the end of the nineteenth century the neighborhood coop- 
eratives had become almost extinct. All trade had to be carried on in 
terms of white man’s currency instead of the skins and textiles for- 
merly used as medium of exchange and standard of value. Cherokee 
boys grew up to learn white men’s trades. White markets were the 
only ones to take their produce of the farm, pasture, or the forest. 

Finally, a more subtle and far-reaching influence began to make 
itself felt in the economic life. The white man from the first had 
tended to change the natural as well as the social environment of the 
redskin. As the exploitation of the natural resources of the southern 
Appalachians became more thorough, the whole system of economy 
of the Cherokee was removed from his life. The wild game disap- 
peared and little was left outside of a few rodents and small birds. 
Fishing became less remunerative and subject to all sorts of restric- 
tions. Even the Cherokee’s efforts to adopt live stock were sub- 
jected to hampering regulations. Lumbering interests came in from 
the north and bought up timber rights, with the result that huge 
areas became denuded of all trees. Mining and chemical interests 
dug into the ground and poisoned the plants over vast areas as well 
as polluting the streams. Finally, the water power interests came 
upon the scene and dams began to be built across the valleys, and lakes 
appeared where formerly smali Cherokee homesteads had stood. 
Electric power became common in the towns nearby. ‘The spread of 


362 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bunn 138 


communication and transportation has completed the havoc with the 
native culture at the present time. In the middle nineteenth century 
came the steam railroads and the logging trains and in the twentieth 
century came the automobile tourists with their demand for “Indian 
relics.” Today, while the writer was visiting Big Cove, the first 
telephone line was laid into that secluded valley for the benefit of the 
Gevernment forest-fire fighters. 

As typical of the changes that took place in the native economy, 
we will take the example of the cooperative companies or gadugi. 
Butrick describes the people of the village community as cooperating 
in each other’s fields in cultivation under the direction of a headman 
whom they had selected from among themselves. A century later 
F. Starr, while sojourning among the Cherokees, found the gadugi 
virtually unchanged from the condition in which they were described 
by Butrick (Starr, 1899, ch. 21, pp. 140-147). But about this time 
there commenced a rapid series of changes in this institution. The 
gadugi began to hire out its services to white people at fixed rates by 
the day and became in effect an ordinary labor gang. This change 
in function led to a dependence on white people for wages and sub- 
sistence instead of a reliance on their own unaided cultivation of the 
soil by mutual aid. Consequently the gadugi came under the North 
Carolina regulations as to corporations and became subject to taxa- 
tion. Unable to meet the taxes from their earnings, the gadugi soon 
declined and mostly disappeared in the opening years of the twenti- 
eth century. To this decline the Cherokee attribute the reason for 
the disappearance of the once prosperous farms that used to dot the 
hillsides of their country. The place of the gadugi was somewhat 
inadequately taken by the Farm Organizations sponsored by the In- 
dian agent, Cato Sells. The farm organizations, one for each town, 
were designed to include all of the farmers of a given community in 
a cooperative effort to secure better crops through improvement of 
seed, cultivation methods, and the like. 

The gadugi was but one of several forms of cooperation among 
the Cherokees which were gradually done away with under white in- 
fluence. A similar case appears in the Poor Aid Society of Yellow 
Hill in the center of the reservation. In the late nineteenth century 
the American Government took over the work of the Quakers in the 
education of the Cherokees and began an active program of bringing 
the younger generation into the Government day schools. In Yellow 
Hill a manual training course was set up for the boys and the latter 
were taught to make various handicraft objects. Among other 
things coffins began to be made at this school and soon the whole 
town was supplied from this source and the coffin maker lost his job. 


ANTHROP. PaP. No. 23] THE EASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 363 


The office of undertaker was also made less useful and the whole of 
the funeral functions of the Poor Aid Society vanished. 

Soon the effects of the native health and welfare service of the 
American Government made itself felt and the rest of the functions 
of the Poor Aid Society vanished also. So it has come about that the 
cooperative and mutual aid among neighbors in sickness and death 
have disappeared in favor of direct Government aid in Yellow Hill. 
The same thing is happening more slowly in the other towns of the 
reservation. 

From these two examples it can be readily seen that the pattern of 
mutual cooperation and economic interdependence between local 
groups in towns has given way to direct dependence on aid from the 
American Government. The integration of the Cherokee society 
has been loosened. 

To summarize, the change in mode of economic integration has been 
along two main lines: (1) There has been a complete change in the 
extractive and productive industries due to the adoption of white 
artifacts and techniques, and (2) there has been a transformation of 
exchange relationships from a relation of reciprocity between Chero- 
kee individuals and groups to a one-sided complete dependence on 
outside sources for the necessities of life. These changes in economic 
integration have been correlated with changes in political integration 
and to these correlations fuller reference will be made later. Suffice 
it to say here that the changes in the mode of economic integration 
have furnished the basis for the whole movement away from native 
modes of integration. 


POLITICAL CHANGE 


The political changes undergone by the Cherokees in the last cen- 
tury can be characterized as in the main a series of centralizations and 
contractions in governmental powers. There had been a trend toward 
centralization from a formerly loosély integrated series of villages 
toward a firmly organized group within the folds of the tribal bound- 
aries. There has been a trend toward contraction in area from a 
widespread sparsely settled area of seminomadic barbarians toward 
a small area of fairly thickly settled agriculturalists. 

The original Cherokee tribe consisted of a series of 80 or more 
towns scattered over hundreds of square miles in the southern Ap- 
palachians.*® These people came under the domain of one tribal 
chief only in times of great emergency and then most imperfectly. 
There was never the true unity among the Cherokee that prevailed 
among the closely allied Iroquois of the north. 


46 For an extensive review of ancient Cherokee towns and their population see Logan 
(1859, p. 206, ff). 


364 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BuLL. 133 


Into this scene of loose political integration came the rival forces 
of English and French colonial diplomatic powers and these acted 
to pull the Cherokee apart in divergent interests. In spite of their 
superior diplomatic machine, the French were ultimately outdis- 
tanced by the English by reason of geographic, economic, and other 
factors of a more strategic nature. The importation of a constant 
supply of arms and ammunition was of prime importance to so mili- 
tary a tribe as the Cherokees and these things the English were able 
to supply better than the French because of superior resources and 
closer contacts between bases of supply and the Indians. A close 
dependence, therefore, ensued on the part of the Cherokees for the 
English traders. 

Unfortunately for the harmony of this relationship, the Cherokee 
settlements stood squarely in the way of the oncoming tide of white 
settlements moving westward, so the inevitable result was war for the 
protection of their social unity. As we have already mentioned, the 
original settlements of the Cherokees were grouped in four divisions— 
the Lower, Middle, Valley, and Overhill sections. <A series of wars 
with the whites, lasting from 1756 to 1794, resulted in the virtual 


“ annihilation of all of the Cherokee settlements of these four areas 


(Mooney, 1900, pp. 43-79). All of the Lower Settlements in South 
Carolina were destroyed in a war of singular ferocity lasting from 
1756 to 1761. This war, as did the others, started with the Cherokee 
desire for blood revenge for their relatives slain by the English. Had 
the latter used a little more judgment and understanding in their 
dealings with the Cherokees, they might have avoided the conse- 
quences of this violation of the social well-being of the Cherokees by 
payment of blood money. It is an interesting commentary on the 
Cherokee social system that during the course of the war at the siege 
of Fort Loudon many of the Indian women who had found sweet- 
hearts among the English soldiers refused to allow them to be slain 
when they were captured and éven treated them to food and drink 
during the siege, declaring that their English relatives would come 
and avenge their blood if they were slain. 

The coming of the American Revolution caught up the Cherokees 
in a maelstrom of opposing forces and, because of their already exist- 
ing blood feud with the Americans and their tradition of long friend- 
ship with the British traders and officials, they joined the latter in a 
fatal war against the Revolutionists. As a result, the Americans at- 
tacked the Cherokees from all sides, since by this time their native 
hunting grounds had been contracted to a mere salient in the Ameri- 
can territory. From the direction of Tennessee a spirited attack by 
the Americans wiped out the Overhill towns; from Carolina and 
Georgia the Middle and Valley Settlements were badly ravaged. A 


9 


ANTHROP. PaP. NO. 25] THE EASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 365 


few refugees fled to the hill country of northern Georgia, where they 
found a haven for some years. 

During a period of comparative peace and respite from 1794 to 
1836 the Cherokees built up a thriving nation in northern Georgia 
which was governed by half castes as a dependency of the United 
States. This middle period saw great changes in the political in- 
tegration of the tribe. The slow and persistent efforts of Baptist, 
Methodist, and Quaker missionaries commencing about 1805 had 
the effect of undermining the old system of religion and society on 
which Cherokee social integration was originally founded and which 
has been described in the Butrick manuscripts. The faith in the con- 
jJurers or priests had been sadly shaken by the great smallpox epi- 
demics of the eighteenth century with their remorseless toll of over 
half the tribe and the defeats administered to the tribe in the military 
field had not added to the national conservatism. 

The old system of blood revenge for private delicts was super- 
seded by a system of regular civil courts about 1810 (Dubach, ms.). 
The death penalty for marrying within the clan was abolished in 
favor of simple whipping sometime later (ca. 1820) (Haywood, 1823, 
section on Laws of Cherokees under “Civil Customs”). Both of 
these changes were of tremendous import for the modification of 
the old system of clan rule. The clan became immensely less im- 
portant in the field of political integration and clan officials lost 
all political functions, retaining only the ceremonial ones. Organ- 
ized legal sanctions now took the place of the older diffuse rules for 
the control of individual behavior. 

Still more fundamental in significance was the abolition of the 
death penalty for witchcraft and somewhat later abolition of any 
recognition of the crime itself. This signified a thoroughgoing 
change in the attitude toward public delicts and toward the interpre- 
tation of the causes of disease and social dysphoria, or malaise. The 
loss of faith in witchcraft meant that the old system of ritual sanc- 
tions had indeed lost its hold and was replaced by organized penal 
sanctions, such as laws against theft, murder, and the like. 

A republican government was set up copying in its main features 
the characteristics of the United States Government (Dubach, ms., 
p- 16 ff.). There were democratically elected representatives and 
the usual tripartite division into legislative, judicial, and executive 
arms. Hight districts were established with four representatives to 
a district. The tribal legislature consisted of two houses, a national 
committee, and a national council. Four circuit judges were pro- 
vided for and courts were held in each district annually, the judges 
being provided with a company of light horse who executed the 
laws. A ranger was provided in each district to care for stray 


366 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Buun, 133 


property. Taxes were assessed to pay for tribal debts, road repairs, 
schoolhouses, and the like. Penalties were enacted for horse steal- 
ing and such things as the liquor traffic and slavery were regulated 
and restricted. Polygamy was discouraged and gradually disap- 
peared. 

From this description it can be seen that the Cherokee Tribe had 
by 1830 gone far toward completely transforming its mode of polit- 
ical integration. A recalcitrant group remained who refused to ac- 
cept white ways but the majority of the tribe were in a state of 
becoming American citizens in all but name. 

The situation was not so ideal as it appeared on the surface, how- 
ever, for the influx of white men from Georgia had become so great 
that they began a persistent clamor for the total abolition of the 
native Indian government and the substitution of the suzerainty of 
the State of Georgia. The complicated machinery of the American 
Federal Government began to grind and the result was that in 1838 
virtually the whole of the Cherokee Tribe were transported to Okla- 
homa. A few escaped refugees were allowed to remain in the moun- 
tain fastnesses of western North Carolina. This scattered remnant 
gradually collected in small local groups under the leadership of 
chiefs and were finally settled under the protection of Col. Wm. 
Thomas on his lands along the 'Tuckaseegee, the Qualla Boundary. 

There, several towns were laid out and the chiefs settled with their 
small groups of followers. These towns became the towns which con- 
stitute the Cherokee Reservation today and were finally united in a 
second federated government about 1870. This government was incor- 
porated under the laws of the State of North Carolina and remains 
virtually the same today as it was in 1870. 

The chief trends in political integration among the Cherokees can 
be listed as (1) a loss of the power of the ancient priestly ruling class 
and the substitution for it of a class of individual conjurers shorn of 
all political powers. (2) The disappearance of the military complex 
and with this the whole set of social sanctions surrounding war, such 
as war dances, war titles, and the like. (3) The loss of the retaliatory 
sanction of blood revenge along with that of war and the substitution 
of organized legal sanctions of the law courts. (4) The decline in 
power of the native officials and the substitution of the power of the 
Indian Bureau acting from Washington. (5) The increasing depend- 
ence as political wards of the American Federal Government and in- 
creasing regulation by a hierarchy of political, educational, and welfare 
officials of the Indian Bureau. 

In summary, then, the political changes in mode of integration have 
resulted in a group of people with the shadow of a government and 


ANTHROP, Pap. No. 23] THE EASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 367 


with formal functions rather than real ones, and with a complete 
dependence on the will of the party in power at Washington. 


CEREMONIAL CHANGE 


The changes in the sector of ceremonial organization have been, like 
the changes in the other fields, toward a decline and disappearance of 
the characteristic aboriginal traits. The ancient ceremonial cycle 
exists today only in secant traces in the form of a dozen or so dances 
given irregularly in one or two of the present villages. Most of these 
dances have lost all meaning and are given today in competition for 
cash prizes at the annual fair. 

As has been mentioned previously, some eight of the present-day 
remembered dances have disappeared within the last 50 or 60 years. 
The Buffalo Dance disappeared some time after the disappearance of 
that animal, owing to the lack of buffalo hides for its performance. 
The Eagle Dance would have suffered a like fate owing to the dis- 
appearance of the eagle and the activities of souvenir hunters in seek- 
ing out and buying up eagle-feather fans, had it not been for the kind- 
ness of certain ethnologists who supplied the natives of Big Cove with 
a cargo of imported feathers. The Pigeon Dance may have likewise 
lapsed owing to the disappearance of the native American wild pigeon. 

The War Dance has not been called into use since the Civil War and 
it is only partially recalled. This, of course, was part and parcel of 
the disappearance of the old retaliatory sanctions. Victory in the ball 
game is the only type of dance which resembles the War Dance and at 
the present time is in the form of the Eagle Dance. 

Certain dances seem to have reached a certain stage of frolicsome- 
ness and obscenity before they disappeared finally. The Medicine 
Dances were of this type and have entirely disappeared. Medicine 
Dances as recorded in the early nineteenth century were quite serious 
affairs, but, according to the testimony of present-day informants, they 
were mere burlesques at the time of their disappearance. The Chicken 
Dance has also disappeared in Big Cove for the same (purported) 
reason. At the present time only the Green Corn Dance retains in any 
measure its original ceremonial position and significance. The Ball 
Dances, which must accompany the ball game, are given regularly 
also. 

The functional role of the dance seems then to have largely fallen 
into abeyance. The modes of ritual cleansing having lapsed and the 
use of native medicine and conjuring having fallen into evil days, there 
is little use for the dances. Spontaneous revivals have occurred from 
time to time in several of the villages, but the enthusiasm for the old 
things has lagged. 


368 


BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 


[BuLu, 133 


TABLE 9.—Culture changes as gleaned from comparison of Cherokee omens in 


18386 and 1932 


Meaning 
1. Dreams. (Payne ms., vol. 3, p. 51) — 
18th century 1932 
1: Person) eoing west: . 222522622 se HeisisureiLoigiele=-= = eae Same (within a year). 
Oy nhacle feathers: os.scs bee e ee A DYS21 oles 8 sae aed See is Pa on one’s self for 
eath, 
Socouse Durning” =. eo. eee ee (OLS eee ER oe De a ee Same. 
4. Going down a stream of high water_-_|_____ 6 (ofan (Ae St a es Trouble. 
5, Hearing a family or number of indi- | These people will soon die_____ Serious sickness for them. 
viduals singing or dancing. 
6. A stream of low, clear water (when | Sure recovery_-_--.------------ Means nothing. 
one is sick in bed) and waterrises. | Death___._..__----__.-__-_--__ Do. 
7. Seeing person or animal dead__-_--_-_-- Sickness: Sew ene eos Do. 
SMOPimarrigees sce! - et ee ek ee | GOR See AG 2 A, Se Do. 
9. Hunters bearing fruits or bread_____- Game will be caught__________ Do. 
TONP AU WORTEn 2 hte O08 Nt aa Le AS ee Acneiandtever oe ese ee Rheumatism. 
11. Hunter having gunlock broken_____-_ Success during the winter_____ Same. 
12. Water rising around a house and en- | Death____-___-____---_---------- Disease. 
tering it. 
LorClothesnnianretersus..4es 4. pane see Sickneso set: Sie. aed Sie ees Same. 
14, A person in very clean clothing ____- DY Gyr oleesk 22) WAALS aaah See See Sickness 
15. Eagle or crow on the ground or fly- |----- ORR Abe AE oe Same. 
ing very low. 
16. Sickness and a snake____--_-__.-.____- Snakelis'cause®--2 52224 222 > O. 
17K 5 bf Ves aaa ae OU BN ee aD a ee Le, Bs Sickness! se acura ee eee Boils. 
Tbsp tli habe o Bee DRS eS Re ee be Be Mong litem! 2 ts ele Sk a Same, 
LORsH ating men tole. 22 ig oe 2 eee Sickniesssee sete eae ee ee Toothache 
Meaning 


2. Omens from actual events. 
mns., vol. 3, p. 55.) 


— 


. Startle a fox or wolf when on a jour- 
ney and have him turn around and 
bark. 

. Seeing a snake or uktena when com- 
mencing a journey. 

. To see ana ye hi (spirit of the bluffs 
or high mountains). 

. To see a giant specimen of an animal 
when away from home. 

. The tsi hi li li flies overhead and 
lights near the house. 

. See two squirrels fighting and one is 
killed. 

. Hear wailing or mourning_______.-__- 

. Apparition of a friend 

9: Bleonicrows! = 22) =a 4 o-o a ie 

Pekhe GOe tal Keds 2 Soc Eich eee 

. If a hominy pestle moved about the 
house with no one touching it. 

. Screech ow] makes moaning sound_-- 


. A tree falls without a wind, the top 
toward the house. 
. To hear a bird (‘Tso wa sku) singing. 
. If an owl lights on a tree in town_____ 
. If warriors are out on an expedition 
and the people at home hear the 
na ye hi sound, a long and protract- 
ed war whoop. 
. A bird flies into the house______--_-_- 
. Whippoorwill calls in daytime_-_-_-_-__- 
. When a certain blue bird sings_____-_- 
. Whippoorwill near the house___-_--__ 
. When you stretch hands toward a 
rattlesnake, ifit looks cross and evil 
it means that you have not long to 
live. If it is calm, you pick it up 
and then set it down. 
If it then travels west it means__- 
If it travels east it means__..--_-- 


(Payne 


18th century 1932 


PCat Rte eee Means nothing 
Pe Gos bene a ele Do. 
anges 10 29k Se sat hyn secs ea Do. 
Death in family soon____--__-- Do. 
One will soon meet a stranger Do. 


or visitor. 
A death in the family__..___-- Means nothing. 
Do. 


Do, 
Trouble. Kill the hen at once. 
Means nothing. 


Deat de 


Aeray Catastrophes ne neee ee 


aha the house would soon Do. 

ie. 

eatin +e ee Sickness for someone in the 
family. 

jam cen dos 2.) Si-0 22. - fete] Death ofa relative: 


Emeniyismears 122 ee Means nothing. 


Death of enemies___-___--__-_- Do. 

Victory if short whoop. De- Do. 
feat if long whoop (death). 

Visitor isicoming esse Do. 


Trouble or sickness. 
Means nothing. 
Sickness, 


A witch is present_...-.--.__-- 
There will be a storm. _______- 
Dealt y B witCh-----8ee see 


ANTHROP. Par. No, 23] THE EASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 369 


A clearer picture of the causes and interactions of change in 
modes of ritualistic sanctions is to be seen in the case of omens. 
Table 9 (p. 368) gives a list of 19 omens derived from dreams and 
21 omens derived from actual events, and compares their meanings 
as given in the Payne Manuscripts for the eighteenth century and 
their present-day interpretation. The lapses are shown in some 
20 of the omens which have totally lost all meaning. Change of 
interpretation from death to mere sickness occurred in some eight 
and would betoken a loss of original meaning. The loss of all 
meaning in the 13 omens is of interest from the standpoint of the 
functionalist. Eight of these which were lost were concerned with 
war and with long hunting-trip elements which have vanished from 
the life of the Cherokees. Twenty of the omens remained virtually 
the same as the original interpretations. This would represent a 
lack of change in 50 percent and these are concerned with elements 
still functioning in the life of the Cherokees. 

The greatest. percentage of omens to lose their original meaning 
entirely occurred in the case of the omens derived from actual events. 
Hence once could infer a greater conservatism in the case of omens 
derived from dreams. This might be taken as an indication that 
changes have taken place in the actual life of the Cherokees at a 
much faster pace than have taken place in the mental outlook as 
expressed in dream content. The examples adduced are, of course, 
too few to be taken as accurate indices of these changes but they 
serve to furnish a basis of preliminary interpretation of the mode 
of change. 

Still another type of change is visible in the case of the new fire 
rites. In the ancient culture, as was described previously, the new 
fire rites were public events performed by the priest at times when a 
renewal of the life or magic force of a family or other social group 
was considered necessary. We have no records of the changes under- 
gone in the interval from the eighteenth century to the present, but 
we do find traces of the new fire rite today. In the present town 
of Big Cove several of the conjurers have practiced the use of new 
fire. In fact its use as a magical force is probably known all over 
the reservation. There is immense difficulty, however, in extract- 
ing information on this topic, which has become an esoteric matter 
of the greatest importance. The present Cherokees use new fire in 
their rites for the transmission of witchcraft power against an enemy 
and its effects are thought to be fatal if not counteracted in time. 
It can be easily seen that with such a power in their hands the con- 
jurers could have dominated early Cherokee society. 

New fire, then, has changed from a public rite of meaning under- 
stood by all of the people to a secret rite performed by the con- 


370 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY (BULL, 133 


jurers for their own private purposes. Its public function has be- 
come a private one. This would accord with the trend which we 
have noticed in the case of witchcraft in general from being a public 
delict punishable by death toward an interpretation as a merely 
private matter of no public significance. 

In summary, then, it can be seen that from the examples of the 
dances, omens, and the new fire rite that the ancient ceremonial 
and ritual life of the Cherokees has declined to such a point that 
private significance, and that only in the case of a few of the older 
persons of the community, is attached to these events. Ancient 
public ritual has become black magic. 


MAJOR TRENDS 


It can be seen from the examples just adduced that there have been 
actually observable tendencies in the changes in the mode of integra- 
tion characterizing Cherokee society at different times in its history. 
Incomplete as the evidence is, there is yet enough of significance re- 
maining at the present time for use to generalize on the observable 
diachronic movements. 

There has been a leveling of social classes in Cherokee society and 
removal of the divisions between priests, war officers, and commoners. 
At one. time there may have been an hereditary class of religious 
officials who were delegated with the function of administering all of 
the ritual and perhaps many of the penal sanctions of the tribe. 
Women, moreover, had great power in the ajudgment of penalties 
for criminals and in the approval of public policies. All of this has 
been done away with, and there has developed a generally demo- 
cratic equality, modified to a slight degree by the presence of a 
privileged caste of white Indians and half-castes who possess a 
greater amount of land or other wealth than their purer blood Indian 
neighbors. 

A rather complete secularization of the Cherokees has taken place. 
Originally possessed of a government by priests, they have become 
the most republican of peoples, with little or no religious influence 
either in public office or in any occasion of common concern. 

There has been a decline in the old family controls with the eman- 
cipation of the younger generation through the Government schools. 
The control of the parents over the marriages of their children is no 
longer even advisory in capacity. The clan affiliations still control 
choices of mate, but to a less and less degree as time progresses. The 
mother’s brother is no longer a power in the family, and the trans- 
mission of family names for the last three generations through the 
father’s line has tended to shift the emphasis in lineality to the 
paternal ancestry. 


ANTHROP, PaP. No, 23] THE EASTERN CHEROKEES——-GILBERT 371 


Some elements in Cherokee social integration have completely 
lapsed, such as the retaliatory sanctions of war, blood revenge, and the 
ceremonial performance of many of the ritual sanctions. The death 
of each old person at the present time spells the accentuation of the 
dissolution. The disappearance of the old complexes has been fol- 
lowed by a transference of function to, and replacement by, white 
culture traits. The place of the deer and buffalo have been taken by 
cattle, the place of turkey by the chicken, the bear by the hog, and so 
forth. In some cases there has been a transfer of function of com- 
plexes before their final disappearance. Such was the case of the 
gadugi and such also the fate of the osi or sudatories, which became 
potato-storage houses before their final demise. 

Everything in the ancient culture has suffered diminution or ab- 
breviation and removal from its original matrix of events. Artifacts 
that were once in common use, such as the flute, trumpet, blowgun, 
and bow, are now made in small-sized toys for children to play with. 
Instead of completely singing all of the songs of the dances, only the 
first and last and perhaps one or two of the others are now sung. The 
dances that were formerly too sacred to be given at any but special 
occasions and seasons are now performed at any time with impunity 
and for monetary gain. 

There has been a trend away from independence, whether political, 
economic, or cultural, and toward a complete dependence upon the 
American Federal Government for all of the means of existence and 
for education as well. 

The sequence of changes leading from the past to the present 
Cherokee social organization were of profound extent and lead to the 
consideration that it is probable, if present tendencies continue, that 
the tribe will be completely deculturalized, so far as aboriginal ele- 
ments go, within another generation. 


CONCLUSION 


We have now completed a survey of two separate synchronic pic- 
tures of Cherokee culture and have, to some extent, traced the lines of 
change that lead from the earlier to the later culture. It has appeared 
that the present-day social culture of the tribe is utterly unlike that 
recorded for any other tribe of the Southeast and, for that matter, of 
North America. Only in far-off Australia, among certain tribes of 
the Northeast (the Ungarinyin), do we find anything remotely re- 
sembling this type of preferential mating allied with kinship atti- 
tudes extended to whole clans. It does not seem that any existing 
factors in Cherokee life are capable of explaining the entire mean- 
ing of this rather unusual development. 


372 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY - [BuLL, 133 


The pattern of Cherokee culture, then, has not been one of steady 
aspect but rather a blur of shifting relationships with changes in the 
external relations of the tribe. The picture presented of the present- 
day society gives one the impression of a compact and cohesive com- 
munity with a relatively intense emphasis on kinship and descent. The 
picture of the ancient society is one of a widespread tribe whose na- 
tional celebrations and political organization were of far reaching and 
many-sided importance. The age of the present-day features is en- 
tirely unknown and so far as our present knowledge reaches these may 
be products of certain special conditions surrounding the small in- 
bred Cherokee communities during the nineteenth century rather 
than an inheritance from the pre-Columbian past. 

The pattern of the former culture is not strikingly different in its 
social aspects from that of the Creeks or other typical Southeastern 
Tribes. There were many of the features of town, clan, and red-white 
organization which Swanton finds so characteristic of the Southeast. 
On the other hand, the picture of preferential mating and privileged 
familiarity prevailing among the present-day Cherokee is utterly dif: 
ferent from anything we would expect to find or have yet found among 
the Southeastern Indians. There is quite evidently, then, no one cul- 
ture type prevailing among the Cherokees from the past to the present. 
The double division of former times with its dual hierarchy of red and 
white officials is utterly lacking in the present-day culture and even 
the memory of it has vanished. Such contrasts are rather jolting to 
any hypothesis of continuity for culture patterns and, indeed, would 
tend to throw doubt on the value of historical inquiries in general as 
a means of explaining contemporary features in society. 

The summary of all the preceding material would tend to indicate 
that: 

1. The Cherokees were once possessed of a social organization re- 
sembling closely, in all external features, the social organizations of 
the other Southeastern tribes. 

2. The Cherokees were formerly under a dual hierarchy of red and 
white officials. 

3. The Eastern Remnant of Cherokees today are entirely bereft of 
the dual division and of social similarity to other described South- 
eastern tribes. 

4. The Cherokees of today are in possession of a system of prefer- 
ential mating which in its peculiarities and ramifications can be dupli- 
cated among described tribes only in Australia. 

5. The historical data available on the Cherokees throws little light 
on the present-day social organization, which latter can be best under- 
stood by a functional analysis of contemporary features. 


APPENDIX A 


CHRONOLOGICALLY ARRANGED DATA SUMMARY 


1540, De Soto Narratives. 
1714, Lawson. 

1787, Brickell. 

1750, Drake. 

1756-65, Timberlake. 
1762, An Inquiry—Marrant. 
1775, Adair. ; 

1790, Bartram. 

1823, Haywood. 

1830, Colton. 

1836, Payne-Butrick. 
1836-41. Catlin. 

1847, Featherstonehaugh. 
1849, Lanman. 

1854, McKenny and Hall. 
1855, Whipple. 

1859, Logan. 

1866, McGowan. 

1868, Dunning. 

1869, Washburn. 

1870, Morgan et al. 

1876, Jones, J. 

1876-79, Carr. 

1877, Clark. 

1883, Hale. 

1883-94, Thomas. 
1883-96, Holmes (1903). 
1885, Brinton-Gatschet. 
1888, Pilling. 

1888, Painter. 

1889, H. F. C. ten Kate. 
1889-95, Foster. 
1889-1907, Mooney. 

1890, Donaldson. 

1891, Powell. 

1895, Downing. 

1896, Brinton. 

1897, Landrum. 

1898, Tooker. 

1899, Starr, F. 


CHEROKEES 


1900, Hewitt. 
19038, Haddon. 
1904, Mason, O. T. 
1906, Hagar. 
1906, Jayne. 

1907, Parker. 
1907, Owen. 

1908, Hrdlitka, 
1910, Gude. 
1910-25, Frazer. 
1911, Spence. 
1913-20, Speck. 
1914, Katon. 

1915, MacCurdy. 
1915, Moore. 

1916, Alexander. 
1916, Heye. 

1917, Cotter. 

1918, Heye, Hodge, Pepper. 
1918, Wissler. 
1920, Bushnell. 
1920-27, Spier. 
1921, Starr, E. 
1921, Barnes. 
1922, Harrington. 
1923, Maddox. 
1923, Schwarze. 
1924, Stellwagen. 
1924, Jones, H. B. 
1925, Daugherty. 
1926, Snyder. 
1928, Black. 

1928, Smith. 

1928, Myer. 
1928-31, Olbrechts. 
1929, Mason. 

1929, Swanton. 
1931, Walker. 
1932, Gilbert. 
1935, Bloom. 


ON 


373 


APPENDIX B 
OUTLINE OF CHEROKEE CULTURE 


(Alphabetical by authors) 


ADAIR: 
Basketry. 
Disease. 
Location. 
Name. 
Population. 
Stone pipes. 
War. 
ALEXANDER: 
Ani kutani. 
Animal stories. 
Cosmogony. 
Cosmology. 
Deities. 
Legends. 
Lesser deities. 
Place of origin of myths. 
INQUIRY: 
Appearance. 
Arms. 
Domestic conveniences. 
Dwellings. 
Names. 
Religious rites. 
Shearing of hair. 
BARNES : 
Colors and directional symbols in 
sacred formulas. 
Onomatopaeia in myths. 
BARTRAM : 
Altars. 
Ball Play. 
Hothouses. 
Houses. 
List of towns. 
Ovens. 


Townhouses, or rotundas, and their 


interiors. 
BLACK: 
Agriculture. 
Appearance. 
Basket making. 


374 


Biack—Continued. 
Bibliography. 
Birth. 
Bone and wood implements, 
Canoes. 
Ceremonies and dances, 
Division of labor. 
Dress and ornament. 
Fishing. 
Food and its preparation. 
History. 
Houses. 
Hunting. 
Initiation burial. 
Languages. 
Location. 
Map. 
Marriage. 
Mythology. 
Names. 
Pipes. 
Population. 
Pottery. 
Religious beliefs. 
Social and political organization. 
Stone implements. 
Symbolism of division of time. 
Treatment of disease. 
Warfare. 
BRICKELL : 
Flaying of prisoner’s feet. 
War. 
BRINTON: 
Ani kutani. 
Myth. 
Seventh Son. 
Talisman. 
BRINTON-GATSCHET : 
Ancient history. 
Beard. 
Canoes. 
Characteristics. 


ANTHROP, PaP. No. 23] THE EASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 


BRINTON-GATSCHET—Continued. 
Clans. 
Complexion. 


Early traditions of the Cherokees. 


Ears. 

History of Cherokee. 
Houses. 

Linguistic studies. 
Name. 

Original location. 
Origin legend. 
Polygamy. 


Relation of Cherokees to other 


tribes. 
Scalp. 
Social organization. 
Towns. 
War. 
BRYSON : 


Comments on Mooney’s myths. 


BUSHNELL: 
Cairns. 
Stone-covered burials. 
CATLIN: 
A woman. 
Chief Black Coat. 
Chief Jol-lee. 
John Ross. 
CLARK: 
Idols. 
Pottery. 
CoLToN: 
Identity with Hebrews. 
Language. 
Rites’ history. 
Traditions. 
CULIN: 
Chunkey. 
Dice. 
Mythology of games. 
Racket Game. 
DAUGHERTY : 


Color symbolism in sacred formulas. 
Mysticism and associated symbols. 


DUBACH: 
Chiefs. 
Council government. 
Harly government. 
Republican government. 


Treaty relations with U. S. Govern- 
ment and Internal Government of 


the Cherokees. 
Village government. 


405260—43——25 


DUNNING: 


375 


Archeological explorations of stone 


and shell objects. 
Burial cairns. 
Deer hunting. 
Pottery. 
Stone cairns. 
Vases. 
DONALDSON: 
Census. 
Education. 
Industries. 
Maps. 
Political organization. 
Religion. 
Schools. 
DowNING: 
History. 
Race mixture in the 
Cherokee. 
HATON: 
Government of villages. 
Villages. 
FEATHERSTONEHAUGH : 
Beans. 
Boiled beef broth. 
Corn gruel with lye. 
Council house. 
Log huts. 
Maize. 
Old mine. 
Pumpkins. 
Squash. 
Striped shirts. 
Turbans. 
Wigwams. 


Western 


Foster (Literature of the Cherokees) : 


American Missions. 
Annals of victory. 
Baptists. 

Challenges. 

Folklore. 
Government changes. 
Hymns. 

Law. 

Methodists. 
Moravian influences. 
Nomenclature of persons. 
Numerals. 

Oratory. 

Pantomime. 


Periods in Cherokee literature. 


Pickering alphabet. 


376 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL, 133 
foster (Literature of the Cherokees)— | FrAzeR—Continued. 
Continued. Ideas about trees struck by light- 

Prayers. ning. 
Printing in Cherokee. Lamentations after first working of 
Scotch. the corn. 
Songs. Mode of averting an evil omen. 
Spanish influences. Mode of averting a storm. 
Symbols. Myth of old woman of the corn. 
The Book. Mythology. 
Visions. No clear distinction between ani- 
Whites. mals and men in their myth- 


Foster (Sequoyah) : 


Ball playing. 

Birth of Sequoyah. 
Boyhood to manhood. 
Chunkee. 

Conjurers. 

Cradle. 

Festivals. 

Games and dances. 
Green Corn Dance. 
Guest reception seat. 
Magic. 

Marriage. 

Speech sounds. 
Story telling. 
Sweatbath. 

The press. 

The syllabary. 
Traditions on beads. 
Translations. 


Iostrr (Cherokee Bible) : 


Quotations from Butrick’s antiq- 
uities. 
Story of Cabeza de Vaca. 


I’RAzER (Golden Bough) : 


Annual expulsion of evils. 

Attracting the corn spirit. 

Belief in the homeopathic magic of 
the flesh of animals. 

Charm to become a good singer. 

Charm to strengthen a child’s grip. 

Charms to insure success in ball 
playing. 

Custom with children’s cast teeth. 

Festival of first fruits. 

Foods avoided by the Cherokees on 
homeopathic principles. 

Homeopathic magic of animals. 

Homeopathic magic of plants. 

Hunters ask pardon of deer they 
kill. 

Hunters pray to eagle they have 
killed. 


ology. 

Old woman as maize. 

Removing hamstring of deer. 

Respect for rattlesnakes. 

Sacred Ark. 

Sorcery with spittle. 

Their ceremonies at killing a wolf. 

Their propitiation of the eagle 
they have killed. 

Think that to step over a vine 
blasts it. 

Treatment of navel string. 

Try to deceive the spirits of rattle- 
snakes and eagles. 


I’razER (Totemism and Exogamy) : 


Climate. 

Expulsion of Cherokee clans. 

Green Corn Dance. 

Houses. 

Location of Cherokees’ states, 
streams, areas, ranges. 

Myth of the origin of Corn. 

Sacred animals. 

Sacred Fire. 

Sylabary. 

Totemism. 

Town House. 


GUDE: 


Adoption of civilization. 
Culture contacis. 
Location. 

Maps. 

Somatic admixture. 


TIADDON: 


Crow’s foot ; a string figure. 


HAGAR: 


Celestial ancestor magic. 
Comets and meteors. 
Dog stars. 

Horned serpent. 

Legends of incest. 


ANTHROP, PaP. No. 23] THE EASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 


Hacar—Continued. 
Myth of star origin of earthly 
beings. 
Names of some constellations. 
Origin of moon. 
Perils of the soul. 
Pleiades myths. 
Seven burnt corncobs. 
Venus. 
HAKLUYT: 
Bow and arrow used. 
Deerskins. 
Feed on roots, herbs, and game. 
Gentle people. 
“Grouse.” 
Lean people. 
No clothing. 
Poor country. 
HALE: 
Language characteristics. 
Relation to surrounding tribes. 
HARRINGTON : 
Archeology — Pottery 
and utensiis. 
Beads. 
Bone working. 
Clothing fabrics. 
Games. 
House furnishings. 
Ornamental objects. 
Ornaments. 
Paints. 
Pendants. 
Pipes. 
Pottery tools. 
Shell working. 
Stoneworking. 
Stratifcation. 
Weaving. 
Woodworking. 
HAywoop: 
Computation of time 
Country of origin. 
Hebraic rites. 
Laws and civil customs. 
Military character. 
Political government. 
Traditions. 
HEWITT: 
Derivation of the name 
kee.” 
HEYE: 
Objects from mounds in eastern 
Tennessee. 


implements 


“Chero- 


377 


HEYE, HopcE, PEPPER: 

Beads. 
Bone and wood objects. 
Celts. 
Nacooche valley mound. 
Pipes. 
Pottery. 
Shell objects. 
Steatite. 
Stone objects. 
HOLMES: 
Basketry. 
Beads. 
Clothes baskets. 
Cups. 
Decoration. 
Disks. 
Pins. 
Pipes. 
Pottery making of Cherokees. 
Weaving. 

JAYNE: 

Crow’s foot string figure. 

Jones, C. C. (Antiquities of Southern 

Indiana) : 
Burials. 
Chunkey yard and games. 
Nacoochee Valley. 

JONES, H. B.: 

Death Song of a Cherokee Indian. 

JONES, J.: 

Burial customs. 
tock paintings. 
Traditions. 

KATE, H. F. C. ten: 
Horned snakes legend. 
Stone shields legend. 

LANDRUM : 

Agriculture. 
Appearance. 
Basketry. 
Chief. 
Clothing. 
Fire. 
Locale by counties. 
Remains. 
Rites. 
Sacrifice. 

LANMAN: 

Ball Game. 
Clans. 
Customs. 
Personages. 


378 


LoGaN: 
Bezoar Stone. 
Charms against snake bite. 
Fishing with spear and net. 
Game animals and hunting. 
Legend of origin of death. 
Poisoning. 
Rattlesnake. 
Scarification. 
Skin dressing. 
Smelting settlements. 
Traps. 
Turkey pens. 
MacCurpy : 
Implements of bone. 
Mound in East Tennessee. 
Pipes. 
Pottery. 
Rattlesnake gorgets. 
Shell. 
Stone. 
McCowan: 
Ketoomha. 
Nighthawks. 
Secret society of Ni-co-tani. 
McKENNEY and Hatt: 
Five biographies of eminent Chero- 
kees. 
MAppox : 
Cherokee theory of disease. 
Initiation to priesthood. 
Pharmacopoeia. 
Shamanistic practices. 
Mason, O. T.: 
Basket making. 
Ethnic varieties of basketry. 
Mason, R. L.: 
Cures for animal disease. 
Dividing of trees into evergreen and 
deciduous. 
Special trees and their lore. 
Trees struck by lightning. 
Moonety (in Handbook) : 
Bibliography of synonyms. 
Clans. 
Derivation of name. 
Early visits. 
Language. 
Later history. 
Location by states. 
Numbers. 
Origin and history. 


BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 


[BuLt. 133 


Moonry (Cherokee and Iroquois Paral- 
lels) : 
Corn legend. 
Flint legend. 
Old tobacco. 
Name for violets. 
Mooney (Cherokee Mound Building) : 
Tradition of mounds and green corn 
dances at town houses. 
Mooney (Cherokee Plant Lore) : 
Corn origin myth. 
Disease origin myth. 
Dividing of the trees. 
Legend of Cedar. 
Strawberries. 
Moonry (Cherokee Theory and Practice 
of Medicine) : 
Going to water. 
Names. 
Plant lore of doctors. 
Real value of herbs used. 
Scarification. 
Taboos. 
Theories of pain and diseases. 
Total number of plants used and 


known. 

Treatment with herbs. 

Various diseases and _ theories 
therefor. 


Mooney (Evolution in Cherokee Per- 
sonal Names): 
Adoption of English names. 
Samples. 
Moonrty (Improved Cherokee Alpha- 
bets) : 
Sequoyah syllabary defective. 
Father Morice’s. 
Wm. Hubank’s inventions. 
Moongty (Myths of the Cherokees, 
1889) : 
Animal cycle. 
Cosmogony and cosmology. 
Early contacts. 
Kanti and selu. 
Myths. 
MooneEy (Myths of the Cherokees, 
1900) : 
Animal stories. 
Archeology. 
Arts. 
Botany. 
Ceremonies. 


ANTHROP, Pav. No. 23] THE EASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 


Moonty (Myths of the 
1900) —Continued. 
Genesis stories. 
Geographical. 
Glossary of Cherokee words. 
Historical traditions of contacts 
with various tribes and with 
whites. 
History. 
Home life. 
Language. 
Local legends. 
Medicine. 
Nomenclature. 
Notes and parallels to the myths. 
Personal names. 
Plant lore and names. 
Religion. 
Rites in agriculture. 
Sacred myths. 
Songs. 
Sounds of Cherokee speech. 
Various plants described. 
Mooney (Sacred Formulas of the Cher- 
okees) : 
Colors. 
Contents. 
Dances. 
Gods. 
Hunting. 
Language of formulas. 
Love. 
Manuscripts containing formulas. 
Medical. 
Medical practice— 
Bleeding. 
Rubbing. 
Miscellaneous. 
Mythic references. 
Names. 
Pay of Shamans. 
Plants used. 
Rites in gathering plants. 
Specimen formulas. 
Sweatbath. 
Symptoms. 
Taboos. 
Theory of diseases. 
Moonrty (Cherokee Ball Play): 
Decoctions. 


Cherokees, 


379 


Moonry (Cherokee Ball Play)—Contd. 

Formulas repeated. 
Going to water. 
Legend of animal and bird ball 

play. 
Omens taken. 
Racket Dance. 
Rattle. 
Regimen of training. 
Rubbing. 
Scratching. 
Songs. 
Taboos. 

MoonrEy (Cherokee River Cult) : 
Divination with beads. 

Formulas. 

Going to water. 
Locations on water. 
Rites with water. 
River lore. 

Mooney (Indian Navel Cord) : 
Treatment of navel cord of child 

by Cherokees and other tribes. 

Moore: 

Archeology summary for Eastern 
Tennessee. 
MorGaNn } 
Clans. 
Notational system. 
Relationship terminology. 

MYERS: 

Ancient village excavated. 
Map of Tennessee archeology. 
Settlements. 

Trails. 

OLBRECHTs (Cherokee childbirth) : 

Care of child. 
Contraceptives. 
Disposal of afterbirth. 
Magic with children. 
Medical materials. 
Mode of parturition. 
Partus. 

Pregnancy. 
Taboos. 

OLBRECHTS (Methods of divination) : 
Divination of the future. 
Traditional methods of divination, 
True divination for lost things. 


380 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BuLn, 133 


OLsREcHTS (Cherokee treatment of dis- 
ease) : 
Boils. 


Chirugy. 
Dentistry. 


Divination. 
Fractures. 
Medical. 
Medicine man’s paraphernalia. 
Scarification. 
Sucking horn. 
Surgical. 
Wounds. 
OLBRECHTS (The Swimmer Manu- 
seript) : 
Disease— 
Birth. 
Care for child. 
Death. 
Formulas and analysis. 
Medicine men. 
Nature and causes. 
Specimen. 
Treatment of disease. 
OWEN: 
Aunts and uncles. 
Clans and social organization. 
Cures for snake bite. 
Tales. 
OWL: 
Beaver Dance. 
Corn planting ceremony. 
Scratching. 
PARKER: 
Treaty relations with the U. S. 
Government. 
PAYNE (Manuscripts) : 
Vol. 1. Traditions of the Cherokee 
Indians. 

Early faith—a rehash of Chris- 
tian Traditions and Yowah 
hymns. 

Hebrew origin and journey 
through the wilderness. 
Moon worship. Corn mother. 
Legend of corn and game 
(green corn dance myth). 
Divining crystal. Ancient 
selection of boys for priest- 
hood. Ancient 6 great festi- 
vals. Occasional festivals. 


PAYNE (Manuscripts)—Continued. 
Vol. 2. Clans. 
Two son’s story. Divining crys- 
tal. <A rite. 
Vol. 3. Notes on Cherokee Customs 
and Antiquities. 
Division of time. Government 


of village. Clans. Priest- 
hood. Mourning. Divining 
stone and rites. Sacred 
places and things. Omens 
from dreams. Omens. Cus- 
tom of beards. War cus- 
toms—Declaring war, waging 
war, officials. Uncleanliness. 
Snakebite. Cherokee wo- 
men’s clothes. Festivals of 
the Cherokees. 


Vol. 4. Traditions of the Cherokee 
Indians. 
Early traditions of new fire. 


New Moon Feast. Govern- 
ment a theocracy. Seven 
priests. Council house. 
Towns of refuge. Blood re- 
venge and crime. Clans. 
Marriage. Priests: their gar- 
ments, inauguration, pipes, 
ete. Dress of the Cherokees. 
Ornaments, hair. Meals. 
Cooking utensils. Warfare. 
Divination. Working in com- 
mon and division of labor. 
Baking. Musical instru- 
ments. Ark. Early society 
organization. Government 
in war. Chiefs, food and 
dishes. Mourning festivals. 
Moons, hymns, sacred fire. 
Dreams and omens. Purifi- 
cations. Furniture. Houses, 
ornaments. Birth and edu- 
eation of children, names, 
punishment. Music. Doc- 
toring. Council house. 
Glue. Soap. 


Vol. 6. Sketches of Cherokee Char- 
acter. 
Towns, clans. Customs in 


social exchange. Enchant- 
ments. Dress. Houses. 
Diet. Dances. 


ANTHROP, PaP. No. 23] THE EASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 381 


PILLING: 

Bibliography of authors on Chero- 
kee language. 

POWELL: 

Bibliography of languages. 

Boundaries of Cherokee area. 
SCHWARZE: 

Clans. 

Death rites. 

Derivation of tribe. 

Government. 

Language. 

Location. 

Name derived. 

Ornaments. 

Religion. 

Titles. 

White influence. 

SHETRONE: 

Early and later history of Chero- 
kees. 
Government. 

SNYDER: 

Blood typing of Cherokees. 

SPECK : 

Basketry, forms and uses— 
Designs. 
Materials. 
Technique. 
Comparison of basket types of the 
Southeast. 
Decoration. 
Origin of Cherokee basketry. 
Pottery. 

SPENCE (in Encyclopedia) : 
Ceremonial games and dances. 
Color symbolism. 
Decentralization of religious power. 
Gods and deities. 

Hunting and love formulas. 
Medico-religious formulas and their 
rituals. 
Medico-religious practice. 
Plant gathering rites. 
Shamanism and practices— 
Baths. 
Bleeding. 
Rubbing. 
Shamans or priests. 
Sources of religious history. 
Tabus. 
Type of religion. 


SPENCE (Myths) : 


Deities. 
Eagle feathers. 
Slanting eyes legend. 


SPIER: 


Character of Cherokee kinship sys- 
tem. 


Starr, E.: 


Genealogy. 

Origin and religion. 
Pictures of types. 
Political history. 


Srarr (Ethnogeographie Reader) 


Arrow race. 

Balls and rackets. 
Basketry and pottery. 
Home and characteristics 
Literature. 

Removal. 

Scratching. 

Syllabary. 


STarR (Measuring Cherokees) : 


Foods— 
Coffee. 
Greens. 
Hoe cake. 
Indian bread. 
Sassafras tea. 
Sweet beer. 
Physique. 
Psychology. 


STELLWAGEN : 


Agriculture. 

Clothing. 

Customs. 

Material culture— 
Agriculture implements, 
Art. 

Canoes. 

Houses and furnishings. 

Hunting and fishing implements. 
Pottery. 

Tools. 

Woodwork. 

Ornaments. 

Religion and myths. 

Social organization. 


Swanton (Aboriginal Culture of the 
Southeast) : 


Cherokee marginal to Creeks. 
Mythology of sharp _ buttocked 
beings. 


382 


SWANTON 
Southeast )—Continued. 
Seven clans. 
Summer ceremonial house. 
Swanton (Creek Religion and Medicine, 
Social Organizaticn and Usages of 
the Indians of the Creek Confed- 
eracy) : 

Clans. 

Food customs. 

Kin terms. 

Lore on comets. 

Steatite pipes. 

Swanton (Myths and Tales of South- 
eastern Indians) : 

Relative resemblances of myths of 
Cherokees and Natchez, Yuchi, 
Hitchiti, Alibamu, Creeks. 

THoMAS (Report on the Mound Explo- 
rations of the Bureau of Ethnology) : 

Archeology of North Carolina, ete. 

Art forms. 

Beads. 

Copper ear pendants. 

European bells. 

Iron. 

Shells. 

Symbols. 

THOMAS (Catalog 
Works) : 

Mounds and remains in Cherokee 
area. 

THoMAS (Burial mounds in Northern 
Sections of U. S.): 

Cherokee built mounds. 

Cherokees from Virginia. 

Townhouse mound of Carr in West 
Pennsylvania. 

THoMAS (Cherokees in pre-Columbian 
Times) : 
A theory of mound origins. 
Migrations of Cherokee traced back. 
TIMBERLAKE: 

Beds. 

Body care. 

Bows and arrows. 

Bread and meat preparation. 

Calumet rite. 

Canoes. 

Cave candle. 

Child care. 

Chunkey. 

Clothes. 


of Prehistoric 


BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 


[BuLL. 133 


(Aboriginal Culture of the | T1mpertAke—Continued. 


Division of labor. 
Eating. 
Flags of war and peace. 
Fishing. 
Gaming. 
Government an aristocracy and 
democracy. 
Green corn dance. 
Hothouse. 
Houses. 
Officials. 
Paint. 
Physie dance. 
Pipe. 
Poor relief. 
Snake lore. 
Tomahawk. 
Townhouse. 
Weapons. 
TOOKER: 
Original location of Cherokees in 
Virginia. 
WALKER: 
Cherokee literature. 
Customs. 
Dances. 
Early contacts. 
Rites. 
WASHBURN: 
Beads. 
Belief in demons and witches. 
Conjuring. 
Cosmogony. 
Disease treatment. 
Election of officers. 
Geo. Guess. 
Lick Logs. 
Marriage. 
Religious traditions. 
Rubbing. 
Thigh of deer cut out. 
Witchcraft. 
WEBSTER : 
Shamanistie lore. 
WHIPPLE: 
Aeschatology. 
Baptism. 
Priesthood. 
Rites of purification. 
WISSLER : 
Basketry. 
Food plants. 


_ANTHROP, Pap. No. 23] THE EASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 383 


WIssLER—Continued. 
Moccasins. 
Netting. 
Pottery and decoration. 
Special devices. 
Square houses of poles. 
Stone work. 
Suspended warp loom. 
Sweat House. 


WISsLER—Continued. 


Turkey-feather mantle. 
Weaving. 


ZIEGLER AND GROSSCUP: 


Government. 

Legends of toponymy, etc. 
Map. 

Material culture. 

Physique and characteristics. 
Place names. 


ADDENDA 


HRDLIcKA: 
Medical observations. 
THWAITES : 
Nuttall— 
Burial. 
Marriage. 
Towns of refuge. 
Training of warrior. 
Gregg— 
Clan revenge. 
Marriage. 
Michauz— 
Agriculture. 
Blood revenge. 
Burial customs. 
Clothing and ornament. 
Diseases. 
Food. 
Fur trading. 
Government— 
Chiefs. 
Constitution. 
Crimes and punishment. 
Grand council. 
Inheritance. 


Land sales and restrictions. 


Land system and grants. 
Law on debts. 
Police. 
Property rights. 
Ranks. 
Sheriffs. 
Houses. 
Hunting. 
Intertribal relations. 
Language. 
Manufactures— 
Blankets. 
Dress. 
Pipes. 
Salt. 


THWAITES—Continued. 


Michauz—Continued. 
Marriage customs. 
Occupations. 
Physique. 
Printing office. 
Relations with whites. 
Slavery. 
Social and domestic economy. 
Traditions. 
War customs. 


ARTHUR, J. P.: 


Customs. 
Hebraic resemblances. 


BLACK: 


Awl. 

Awls of bone or stone. 

Barbless bone fishhooks. 

Basketry (especially fish baskets). 

Beads. 

Bead garters, sashes, necklaces, and 
bracelets. 

Bear-tusk scratchers. 

Bells on knees. 

Bird bones and shells. 

Blowgun. 

Bow and arrow. 

Breechclout. 

Cane driller. 

Child cradle. 

Chisels of stone. 

Chunkey pole. 

Chunkey stone. 

Corner stones. 

Dams. 

Drum. 

Dugout canoe. 

Eagle tails for dances. 

Har pendants of animal teeth. 

Flesher. 

Flute. 


O84 


Brack—Continued. 
Gouges and punches of antlers. 
Gourd vessels. 
Gourd vizors. 
Granaries. 
Hammerstones. 
Handles for spears, axes, and hoes. 
Hand nets. 
Hoes of wood or stone. 
Houses. 
Leggings. 
Lines. 
Mantles. 
Mats of split cane. 
Moccasins. 
Net sinkers. 
Olivella shell beads. 
Ovens. 
Pipes. 
Pottery. 
Rattle gourd. 
Rectangular graves. 
Robes. 
Rubbing stones. 
Shell gorgets. 
Short skirt. 
Spears. 
Spoons for the ball game. 
Stained deer’s hair. 
Stakes in the ball game. 
Stone knife. 
Tambour. 
Town house. 
Traps. 
Triangular arrowpoint of flint or 

deer antler. 

Wampum. 


BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 


(BULL, 133 
BLack—Continued. 
Wampum collars of clam shell 
beads or clay beads. 
War club. 
Wigwams. 


Wooden falcons on hand. 
Wood spoons. 
Woodworking knives. 
Woven fabrics. 
BRINTON-GATSCHET ; 
Bark and poplar canoes. 
Charms (bones or panther, horn of 
horned snake). 
Houses. 
Pottery of red and white clay. 
FOSTER : 
Chunkey stones. 
String of white clay beads used to 
keep traditions. 
HAKLvyYT: 
Bows and arrows. 
Deerskins. 
HAYwoop: 
Ark, 
Calumet. 
Sweat house. 
Town house. 
Waist belt of shells (badge of 
orator). 
Wampum. 
LANDRUM : 
Arrow heads. 
Basketry. 
Clay pipes. 
Flint tomahawks. 
Soapstone vessels. 
Stone axes. 
War clubs. 


APPENDIX C 
MATERIAL CULTURE OF THE CHEROKEES 


MUSEUMS CONTAINING CHEROKEE OBJECTS 


Milwaukee Public Museum (specimens described by Speck). 

Field Museum of Natural History (specimens collected by Starr in 1892). 

Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation (specimens described by 
Harrington). 

American Museum of Natural History. 

United States National Museum (specimens collected by J. Mooney, E. Palmer, 
and A. Morgan). 

Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology. 

Miscellaneous: Wofford College, Charleston College, Laurensville Female 
Academy, Museum of the Great Smokies at Gatlinburg, Tenn. 


FiseLp Museum ARTIFACTS 


Pottery : Weapons: 
Cooking pots. Blowguns. 
Food bowls. Darts. 
Pottery paddles. Thistle heads used to feather blow- 
Wooden spoons. gun darts. 
Basketry : Medical instruments: 
Carrying basket. Cupping horn. 
Basket tray. Scratchers. 
Fish baskets. Gourd rattles. 


UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 


Cherokee material collected by James Mooney, Edward Palmer, and A. Morgan 
consists of baskets, pottery, eagle feathers, walking sticks, gourd, and wooden 
masks. f 


ARTIFACTS MENTIONED BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. 


Adair: Bartram—Continued. 
Rattle (calabash with pebble in- Mats or carpets (oak or ash splits). 
side). Altars. 
Sweathouse. Logan: 
Steatite pipe. Moccasins. 
Basket. Leggings. 
Tomahawk. Deerskin sinew thread. 
Knife. Bow and arrow. 
Bartram: Skins. 
Dwellings. Leather pouches. 
Sweathouse. Winter moccasins. 
Townhouse. Earthen jars. 
Sofa. Aly Spear and net. 


385 


386 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 


Logan—Continued. 
Baskets. 
Turkey pens. 
Rattles. 
Rattlesnake scratchers. 
Houses. 
Council House. 

Mason, O. T.: 
Baskets. 

Mooney: 
Townhouses. 
Granaries. 
Shaman houses. 
Cupping horn. 
Blowing tube. 
Hagle wands. 
Ball racket and poles. 
Beads. 
Crystals, ete. 

Payne: 
Divining crystal. 
Seats in council house. 
Robes and caps. 
Petticoats of mulberry bark. 
Turkey-feather gown. 
Holy ark. 
Breeches. 
Coats. 
Belts. 
Leggings. 
Garters. 
Pipes. 
Female gown. 
Moccasins. 
Headbands. 
Harrings. 
Ornaments. 
Deer’s horn. 
Labrets. 
Neckbands. 
Beads of horn or turkey bone. 
Leather blankets. 
Arm bands. 
Finger rings. 
Foods (bread, etc.). 
Oven earthenware. 
Bottles of deerskin. 
Sieves, griddles, and baskets. 
Battle axes. 
Bow and arrow and quiver. 
Oval wooden shields. 
Breastplate and armor of buffalo 

hide. 


Payne—Continued. 
Crane thighbone trumpet. 
Buffalo-horn trumpet. 
Cane flute. 
Kettle drum 
Cane pipe. 
Gourd trumpets. 
Tobacco bag. 
Weed platform. 
Scepter. 
War club. 
Flags. 
Spears. 
Slings. 
Knife or short sword. 
Bells. 
Council house. 
Chairs. 
Ball and hickory sticks. 
Salt. 
Soap. 
Medicinal and food plants. 
Drinks. 
Houses and beds. 
Glue. 
Hothouse. 
Speck: 


Baskets (pack, fish, rib, rectangular, 


double weave). 
Starr: 
Baskets. 
Pottery vessels. 
Wooden paddle. 
Bow and arrow. 
Scratcher. 
Stellwagen: 
Breechclout. 
Mantle. 
Moccasins. 
Leggings. 
Deerskin shirt. 
Mantle of fur. 
Fabric or feathers. 
Woven nets. 


Beads, pendants, ear ornaments. 


Marine shells. 

Animal tooth pendants. 
Pigments. 

Jewelry. 

Foods. 

Bone and wood hoes. 


Slate and sandstone implements. 


Triangular arrow points. 


[BULL, 133 


ANTHROP. PaP. No. 23] THE EASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 387 


Stellwagen—Continued. Timberlake—Continued. 


Darts. Red and white flag. 
Knives. Loin cloth. 
Tomahawks. Drums. 
Bone spears. Canes. 
Small wooden handles. Rattles of gourds. 
Hammerstones. Pipes. 

Hoes. 


Disk-shaped chunkee stones. 
Hoop and pole game. 


Lines, spears, and dams. 


Gannon Blowguns. 
Celt type axe. Heads. 
Wooden handle grooved with blade Heather work: 
i 5 Wampum. 
fitted into it. : 
Houses. Silver pendants, 
Rings. 
Beds. Bracelets. 
Pottery. Moceasins. 
Effigy. Guns. 
Vessels. Bows and arrows. 
Paddles, Darts. 
Schwarze: War clubs. 
Pendants and rings. Scalping knives. 
Timberlake; Tomahawks. 
Oven. Houses. 
Calumet. Canoes. 
Townhouses and seats. Basketry. 
Gourds. Earthern vessels. 
Hothouse. Foods. 
Bed. Chunkey Stone discoids. 


APPENDIX D 


CULTURAL TRAITS OF THE CHEROKEE 


PAYNE (1836) 
(Manuscripts described by W. H. Gilbert in 1982) 


The J. H. Payne Manuscripts of the Ayer Collection in Newberry Library, 
Chicago, consist of 14 volumes. The Ayer Collection was started between 
1880 and 1911, and it is not known how these manuscripts got into it. E. G. 
Squier quoted them in 1853. The data presented include Cherokee official 
records before 1838, letters of missionaries on the condition of the Indians 
before 1830, and, during the removal, letters of Cherokee children in the Mis- 
sion School to philanthropic people in the North, traditions and myths as 
related to John Howard Payne by prominent members of the tribe in 1836, 
data on Choctaws, Creeks, and Chickasaws collected from various sources, 
and, finally, the immense aggregation of facts about Cherokee ethnology collected 
by the Missionary Daniel Sabin Butrick from various informants, principally 
the following: Awayu, Corn Tassel, Deer-in-the-Water, Nettle, Nutsawi Pinelog, 
Nutsawi Saddler, Rain, Raven, Thos. Smith, T. Smith, Jr., Shortarrow, Situegi, 
Terrapin Head (Yuwiyoku), and Toleta. 

The volumes containing ethnological data on the Cherokees are volumes 1, 
3, 4, and 6. The titles of these volumes are: 

Vol. 1. Traditions of the Cherokee Indians, 170 pages. 

Vol. 3. Notes on Cherokee Customs and Antiquities, 128 pages. 

Vol. 4. Nine original letters written by John Ross, A. E. Blunt, Chas. R. Hicks, 
and Daniel Sabin Butrick, concerning Mr. Payne’s researches into 
Cherokee history, a poem by Wm. Stockwell, and an account of the 
customs and traditions of the Cherokees by D. S. Butrick, in all 3878 
pages. 

Vol. 6. Notes on Cherokee history from June 9, 1838, to Nov. 4, 1839, by J. H. 
Payne. A letter from T. 8S. Coodey to J. H. Payne, 1840; National 
Characteristics of the Cherokee (by J. H. Payne?) (65 pp.); and 
Sketches of Cherokee Characteristics, by J. P. Evans (39 pp.). Total, 
284 pages. 

The total pages of manuscript containing material of ethnologic value is 
about 780. 

The data represented may be classified under three main heads: 


1. Religious beliefs and usages 


Dances. Mourning. Snake bites. 

Divination with crystals. Names. Traditions. 

Divisions of time. Omens and taboos. Training of priests and 
Dreams. Priests. hunters. 

Festivals. Religious beliefs. Training of shamans. 
Future life beliefs. Sacred Fire. Uncleanness. 


Moon Cults and Corn Cult. Sacredness. 
388 


ANTHROP, PaP. No. 23] THE EASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 389 


2. Social customs 


Ball play. Death and burial. Manners. 

Birth and education. Economy. Marriage and Family life. 
Clans. Government and social or- Village social life. 

Crime. ganizations. War customs. 


3. Material culture 


Council House. Houses. Tonsure. 
Dress. Meals and food. Weapons. 
Furniture. Music and instruments. 

Glue, soap, salt. Ornaments. 


CHEROKEE ETHNOLOGY IN PAYNE MANUSCRIPTS 


. Theory of Hebrew origins and traditions in general. 

. Priesthood. 

Government. 

Judicature. 

War organization and weapons. 

. Ball play. 

. Seasonal calendar and festivals. 

. Social customs—Marriage and household, birth, childhood, division of labor, 
clan names, ete. ° 

. Schools. 

. Taboos, uncleanness, holiness. 

. Treatment of disease. 

. Death customs. 

. Deities, religion, and future life. 

. Crystals and divination in general. 

. Weather control magic. 

. Ethnobotany, foods, medicine, ete. 

. Dress. 

. Musical instruments. 

. General. 


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[BULL, 133 


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BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 


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nidisdidcs pe 


ANTHROP. PaP. No. 23] THE EASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 391 


VOLUME 1. TRADITIONS OF THE CHEROKEE INDIANS 
(Payne’s Writing) 


Chapter 1. Introduction. What is to be considered. Early faith, orthodox. 

Section 1. p. 3 ff. Traditions of the Cherokee concerning what is considered 
as their early and orthodox religion. A rehash of Christian-Jewish 
traditions and Yowah Hymn discussed. 

Section 2, pp. 6-29. Historical and moral traditions represented as having 
been received from professors of the early orthodox Cherokee religion 
(Hebrew traditions of origin of men and journey through the wilderness). 

Chapter 2. 

Section 1, p. 30. Narrative of various departures by the Cherokees from what 
is considered as their earliest and orthodox system of faith and worship. 
(Seem to be true Cherokee ideas, moon worship, corn mother, etc.) 

Section 2, p. 43. Legends connected with the departures from the religious 
system considered as the orthodox one among the Cherokee. (Legend of 
Origin of Corn and Game, Green Corn Dance, Origin Myth.) 

Chapter 3. Introduction, p. 538, account of what follows. 

Section 1, p. 55. Account of the divining crystal, a sort of talisman always 
employed in ancient times among the Cherokee upon solemn occasions. 
Section 2, p. 63. The manner in which boys were in ancient times selected and 

educated for the priesthood among the Cherokees, and in which way the 
divining crystal was therein employed. 
Chapter 4. Introduction, p. 69. Festivals to be described. 

Section 1: 

Page 70. Regular festivals of the primitive era. 
Page 71. List of festivals. First festival. 
Page 80. Second festival. 
Page 84. Third festival. 
Page 87. Fourth festival. 
Page 91. Fifth festival. 
Page 112. Sixth festival. 
Page 114. New Moon festivals. 
Page 115. Quarterly New Moon rites. 
Page 115. Seven Days’ sacrifice. 
Page 116. Primiiive occasional feasts. 
a. Propitiation (5th). 
b. Ookah 7-year dance. 
Page 121. General remarks. 
Section 2: 
Page 123. Recent condition of festivals. 
Page 124. First festival. 
Page 125. Second and third festival. 
Page 139. Fourth festival. 
Page 147. Fifth festival. 
Page 149. Sixth festival. 
Page 150. Occasional ceremonies. Physic Dance (Propitiatory festival). 
Page 153. Occasions of public anxiety. 
Page 170. Ookah Dance never changed. 


VOLUME 2, NOTES AND MEMORANDA ON THE CHEROKEE 
(273 pp.) 


A legend or two. No real data of ethnologic value. 
405260—43——26 


392 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Buun, 133 


VOLUME 8. NOTES ON CHEROKEE CUSTOMS AND ANTIQUITIES 
(139 pp.) 


Section 1, pp. 1-84 entitled “Indian Antiquities,” consists of badly scratched notes. 
some crossed out, etc., on beliefs and customs, war, dreams, ete. 
Section 2, pp. 1-55. Cherokee Feasts (Same as volume 1). 
Under Section 1 we have items on following matters: 
1. Division of time. 
2. Social organization of villages. 
3. The clans. 
4. Training of shamans. 
5. Mourning. 
6. Divining stones. 
7. Training of youth for priests. 
8. Training of youth for hunters. 
9. Sacredness, places and things. 
0. Dreams and interpretation. 
11. Omens. 
12. The Hereafter. 
18. Tonsure. 
14. War customs, 
. Declaring war. 
. Organizing the expedition—ofiicials. 
. Ceremonies starting to war—divination. 
On the march. 
The return from war. 
. Induction of new war officials. 
. Surprise attacks. 
. Dance on return from war. 
. Manner of battle. 
15. Uncleannesses. 
16. Snake bite. 
17. Dress of women, turkey-feather gowns. 
18. “Feeding” the sacred fire. 
Section 2, Cherokee Feasts. 
Contains nothing not already noted in volume I under Feasts. 


DOONAN WN HE 


VOLUME 4. TRADITIONS OF THE CHEROKEE INDIANS 
(By D. S. Butrick) 


This volume contains the real meat of the manuscripts as far as ethnology is 
concerned. It will be well worth while to note in detail its contents. It was evi- 
dently derived from a number of informants, and the diversity of facts, together 
with much repetition is somewhat confusing. The following items are listed as 
they occurred in the manuscripts with my own interpolations of topical heads 
for convenience of classification of the data.—W. H. G.: 


1. Traditions: 
Real and peculiar people. 
Wilderness journey, sacred fire. 
2. Ceremonies: 
New Fire made. 
Begin year in March. 
Annual new moon commenced with September new moon. 


ANTHROP, Pap. No, 23] THE EASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 393 


3. Government and Social Organization : 
Creeks make new moon rites at First Fruits. 
Government of Cherokees a theocracy. How carried on. Heredity. 
Seven priests. 
National Council. Council House described. 
Towns of refuge. 
Mosaic Law of Retaliation. Treatment of criminals. 
Divided into clans. No endogamy within clan on pain of death. 
Marriage. 
4. Priests: 
Marriage of priests. 
Duties of priests. 
Succession of High Priests. 
Garment of priests. 
Inauguration of priests. 
Supplying place of other priestly officers. 
Dress of High Priest. 
Pipes of priest. 
Dress of priests’ wives. 
5. Dress and ornament: 
Dress of common people—men. 
Women’s hair. 
Neck ornaments of men. 
Dress of women. 
Men’s body dress. 
Women’s body dress. 
Ornaments of men. 
Women’s petticoats. 
6. Meals, ete.: 
Meals, mode of living. 
Cooking utensils. 
Social intercourse. 
i War: 
Warfare. 
War Priest. 
War preparations. 
8. Ceremonies: 
Divination with Divining Stone. 
9. Dress and ornament: 
Women’s leggings. 
Men’s ornaments, finger ring. 
10. Economy: 
Mode of supplying towns. 
Work in common. 
Men hunting. 
Women’s share of labor. 
11. Meals: 
Mode of baking. 
Parched corn meal. 
12. Ceremonies: 
Divining Stone. 


394 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BuLL, 138 


18. War: 
War preparation, new fire in Ark, ete. 
Encampments. 
Weapons. 
Arms. 
Attacks. 
Address before battle. 
Fight and return. 
Ceremony before return. 
Priest for wars, peculiar dress. 
Instruments of war. 
14, Music: 
Long-necked gourds. 
Sound trumpets, music of kettledrum, pipes. 
War trumpets, buffalo horn, necked. 
Kinds of assemblages for religious purposes, trumpets. 
15. Traditions: 
Tradition encumbered with trash. 
Ancient history (profane) of Jews, confirmed. 
Starting for Promised Land, doubt of particulars. 
Early progress through the wilderness. 
Why law was given in stone. 
Kept distinct. 
Near perishing. 
Religious traditions long prior to coming of the whites. 
Old idea of creation of the Cherokees, of God’s teachings 
Preaching of priests. 
Priests’ sacrifices. 
Mosaic traditions. 
Clan’s mark. 
Delivery of Jews. 
Instructions for the Ark. 
16. Government and social organization : 
' Early government a theocracy. 
High priest—first choice. 
Inauguration of new priests. 
High priests’ assistant. 
Courts in towns. 
How governed in small towns. 
Priests had power to make kings. 
Kings, how inaugurated. 
Coronation. 
17. Crime: 
Towns of refuge for manslayers. 
Punishment. 
How respite was obtained. 
How criminals were punished and for what. 
18. War: 
Elders, authority over war officers, head oflicers. 
Peculiar war priest. 
Appointed at Green Fruits Feast. 
War officer and forms of inauguration. 
Concerning wars. 


ANTHROP, PaP. No. 23] THE EASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 


How to begin war. 
Declaring war. 
How command was obtained. 
War address. 
War flag hoisted, war songs. 
War march. 
Night encampment. 
War attack, 
Offense war. 
Course of beginning. 
War standard described. 
Priests in battle, charge of Ark. 
War shield, armor. 
How earried. 
Consequence of losing shield. 
Helmet, how worn. 
Quiver. 
Bow and arrow. 
Warrior at death with his shield. 
War club. 
Spear or dart. 
Sling. 
Knife or short sword. 
Return from battle. 
Arrived home. 
Dance of triumph. 
19. Music: 
Ancient musical instruments, drum, flute, pipe, trumpet. 
20. Games: 
Ball play. 
Decision of ball play. 
21. Ceremonies: 
Ancient dance. 
Uka dance at septennial feast. 
National council house. 
Septennial feast. 
The Uka, who? 
22. Manners: 
Native politeness of Cherokees. 
National manners. 


Chief’s bind hearts of their subjects to them by mildness. 


23. Dress and ornament: 
Royal coronation robes. 
Uku’s dress. 
Dress of priests’ wives. 
Ancient dress of people—men. 
Women, hair. 
Neck ornaments of men. 
Neck ornaments of women, 
Men’s body dress. 
Men’s arms, legs, feet. 
Blankets. 


ee) 


Qn 


396 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 


24. Heonomy: 
Domestic life. 
Women get wood, do cooking. 
Plan of ancient towns. 
Separation of fields. 
Ancient custom of mutual work, men and women. 
25. Meals: 
Cherokee women, mode of baking bread. 
Many kinds of bread. 
Other foods, corn meal. 
Food on journeys and expeditions. 
Old Indian men eat. 
Food most esteemed. 
Good cooking of Indian women. 
26. Death and burial: 
A father’s death. 
Ceremonies previous to death. 
Mourning, burial. 
Purification after burial. 
Mourning. 
Widow. 
Widower. 
Prayer. 
Purification, sitting silent. 
Bathing. 
27. War: 
Picture diagram of council house 
Declaration of war. 
Enlisting. 
Council house described. 
War priest. 
Ceremony in gathering warriors. 
Ark, anointing warriors. 
Order of March. 
Ceremonies. 
Eneampments. 
Previous to engaging in battle, speech. 
Return from war. 
Ceremonies after return from Ball Play. 
28. Marriage and family: 
Marriage and clans. 
Levirate. 
Marriage of priests. 
Polygamy. 
Courtship. 
Pregnancy. 
Childbirth. 
Parental affection. 
29. Ceremonies: 
Festivals. 
Year began in March. 
Spring feasts. 
Ancient living in towns. 


[Bun 133 


ANTHROP, Pap. No. 23] THE EASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 


High Priest or Uku. 
Proclaiming Green Corn Dance ceremony. 
Preparations. 
Green Corn Dance. 
Harvest. 
Animal feasts of Cherokee formerly observed. 
Now available. 
Described. 
30. Manners: 
Cherokees not covetous. 
Cherokees hospitable. 
31. Ceremonies: 
New Moons, began year with first autumnal moon. 
Dance, and its duration. 
Feast dress. 
Other moon ceremonies. 
Hunter’s feasts. 
Oceasional feasts, prayer feast for plants. 
Prayer feast for warm weather. 
Prayer feast for cold weather. 
Medicines. 
Long life. 
Smallpox and how averted. 
Warding off other diseases. 
Ineantations. 
Hymn Yowa. 
Old Language. 
National Council, Uku. 
Assembling House. 
Be WRN ee 
Special Council. 
How convened, in case of danger. 
War resolutions and ceremonies. 
War. 
Induction of chief officers. 
Term of warriors. 
Election of officials. 
Induction of War Chief. 
33. Ceremonies: 
Feast of First Fruits ceremonies. 
34. Hunters: 
Hunting priests. 
Training young hunters. 
College, ete. 
Hunter’s feasts. 
Hunter’s sacrifices. 
35. Religion : 
Grace and prayers of Cherokees. 
Holiness, ete. 
Officers of war. 
Divining Stone, how sacred. 
Ark. 
Sacred Fire. 


398 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Buun. 133 


35. Religion—Continued. 
Sacrificial altar. 
Great Council House. 
Mountains, seashore, river. 
Ceremony on cooking holy bits. 
Religion, Trinity. 
Early prediction. 
Nature of flood. 
World created with ripe fruits, hence year begins in fall. 
Clans kept distinct in passing through the wilderness. 
Law written on stone, when? 
Daybreak prayer and song. 
First priest selected for piety, hereditary. 
Jewish and Indian coincidences. 
Ablutions, manners, priests. 
Witches, poisoners. 
Not engaged in building Babel, hence language never changed. 
All priests’ homes refuge places, 
Cities of refuge keep all. 
Winter months—December, January, Holy burial, purifying after mourn- 
ing. 
Widows and widowers. 
Swearing friendships. 
Platonic friendship between sexes. 
Visitors. 
Dreams and omens explained. 
Vulgar errors, beards. 
Always had beards previous to arrival of Europeans. 
Red, Jews. 
Penn’s ideas. 
Sabbath, Jews’ seventh day. 
Two religious sects. 
Priests set apart. 
Hereditary basis, set apart from birth as priests. 
Divining stone, its uses described. 
36. War: 
Social government. 
General War Chief, place of abode. 
War priests. 
War doctors. 
War revenger. 
War declared. 
Divining stone for war. 
March. 
Women to prepare army food. 
Return from war. 
87. Religion: 
Divining stone for civil priests. 
Four sets of divining stone. 
Religion and future state. 
Infants, no souls. 
Doubles for priests, assistants, 
Consultation in cases of jealousy by husband with priest. 
Whipping. 


Anruror, PaP, No. 23] THE EASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 399 


87. Religion—Continued. 
Mystery of priesthood only disclosed to initiated. Death penalty for 
revealing secrets. 
Circumcision. 
38. Ceremonies: 
Feast of First Fruits. 
Treasure House. 
Purification after first new moon. 
Purification fast. 
Medicine feasts explained. 
Expiation fast. 
Feast called by seven counselors. 
Altar repaired. 
Council House whitewashed. 
Hunters selected. 
First buck shot. 
Articles for purification. 
Cleansing council and houses. 
New fire. 
Fresh water. 
Ceremonies with purifier articles. 
Appointment of Yowa singers. 
Meat distribution. 
Bathing. 
Clothes loosened in water. 
Sacrifice and omens. 
Feast. 
Yowa song. 
Septennial Dance. 
Two sects in religion. 
89. Meals: 
Food. 
Social meal. 
Drink. 
40. Dress and ornament: 
Common dress. 
Ornaments. 
Embroideries. 
Great warrior’s badge. 
Divining Stone. 
Searlet plume in war and Ball Play. 
Dress, how prepared. 
41. Traditions: 
Two great stones. 
Early journeyings in wilderness. 
God or Yehowa. 
Four letter names, ete. 
Moses. 
Abram. 
42. Ceremonies: 
Jowah Festival. 
Autumnal new moon, 
Great Moon. 


400 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Butn, 133 


42. Ceremonies—Continued. 


43. 


44. 
45. 
46. 
47. 
48. 
49. 
50. 


aR Sys 


56. 
57. 
58. 
59. 


Physic Dance. 
Autumn. 
Ceremonies. 
Uka dance. 
National feasts or dances described : 
1. At appearance of first new moon in spring about the time grass 
began to grow. New Fire on seventh day, pp. 297-304. 
2. Green Corn Feast when green corn became fit to eat, pp. 305- 
314. 
3. Second Green Corn Feast was 40 to 50 days after the first, pp. 315— 
316. 
4. Great New Moon Feast at its first autumnal new moon, pp. 317-319. 
5. Expiation or Reconciliation Feast, about 10 days after the last 
mentioned, pp. 321-334. 
6. Somewhat later. Dancing or Bouncing Bush Feast, pp. 335-337. 
There was also a feast every seventh year about the time of the appear- 
ance of first autumnal new moon. Also occasional feasts observed as 
circumstances dictated. 
A few promiscious comparisons between Indians and Jewish antiquities, 
pp. 889-350. 
Dress, pp. 852-619. Ornaments, pp. 353-354. 
Houses, p. 362. House customs, p. 363. 
Furniture. 
Food preparation, pp. 366-369. Drinks and taboos. 
Birth, pp. 376-378. 
Education of children, p. 379. 
Death, burial, etc., p. 384. 


. Mourning for dead, etc., pp. 396-398. 
. Rules at the death of a man, p. 400 ff. 
. Marriage, p. 403. 
. Uncleannesses, p. 409. 
. Omens, p. 419. 

Feasts, p. 421. 


Ball Play Dances, p. 429. 
Taboos, names, p. 486. 
Feast of new moons (crossed out from here on), p. 441. 
Septennial Feast, p. 455. 
Name of Feasts, p. 468. 
Ancient Feasts, p. 466. 
Creek Feasts, pp. 487, 495. 
Natchez Feasts, pp. 499, 502. 


. Ancient government, p. 510. 

. Punishment of criminals, p. 523. 

. Language, p. 530. 

. Warfare, etc., p. 538. Time of events and weapons, p. 547. New fire on 


going to war, p. 551. 


. Musical instruments—drums, flute, pipe, buffalo-horn trumpet, gourd trumpet, 


crane-thigh-bone trumpet, p. 559. 


5. Religion. Beings who created earth (Biblical lore), p. 575. The Devil, 


p. 579. Hell, p. 588. Origin of death, p. 584. -Doctoring, ete., p. 498. 
Sacred fire, p. 600. Smailpox, p. 609. New fire for sickness (needfire), 
p. 619. 


ANTHROP. PaP. No. 23] THE EASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 401 
VOLUME 6. SKETCHES OF CHEROKEE CHARACTERISTICS 


(By I. P. Evans, 39 pp.) 


1. Social traits: Towns, clans, customs, modes, and manners, superstitions. 
2. Dress: Men, women. 

3. Dwellings. 

4. Physical characteristics, diet. 

5. Language. 

6. Ball Play. 

‘4 


. Dances: Common Dance, Female Dance, Beaver Dance, Eagle Dance, Green 
Corn Dance. 


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1889 b. Cherokee plant lore. Amer, Anthrop., vol. 2, pp. 223-224. 

1889 ce. Evolution in Cherokee personal names. Amer. Anthrop., vol. 2, pp. 

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1890. Cherokee theory and practice of medicine. Journ. Amer. Folklore, 
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1890. The Cherokee ball play. Amer. Anthrop., vol. 3, pp. 105-132. 


ANTHROP. Pap, No, 23] THE EASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 409 


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410 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL 133 


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ANTHROP, Pap. NO. 23] THE EASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 411 


SonpDiey, F. A. 
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n.d. Unpublished mss. on Cherokee songs, dances, and ceremoniai. 
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Amer. Ethnol. Bull. 137. 


412 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 133 
TEN KatE, H. See KATE, HERMAN F. C. TEN 
TENNESSEE HISTORICAL MAGAZINE. 
1915-1925. Vols. 1-8. Nashville. 
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1937. The Great Smoky Mountains. 
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1897. Antiquities of Tennessee. 2nd ed. 
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1898. The problem of the Rechahecrian Indians of Virginia. Amer. 
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Hist. Prov. Ga. Wormsloe, 1849, p. 54. 


ANTHROP, Par, No. 23] THE EASTERN CHEROKEES—GILBERT 413 


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1928. Early travels in the Tennessee country. Johnson City, Tenn. 
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1908. Wooden bowls of the Algonquian Indians. Amer. Anthrop., n. S., 
vol. 10, pp. 423-434. 
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1864. Sketches on Nassau, to which is added The Devils Ball-alley; an 
Indian tradition. Raleigh, N. C. 
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1933. Culture and human behavior. Ronald Press. 
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1923. The American Indian. New York. 
ZEIGLER, W. A., and Grosscup, B. S. 
1883. Heart of the Alleghanies. 


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BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 133 PLATE 13 


1. CHEROKEE TERRAIN. 


ie 


2. CHEROKEE EAGLE DANCE. 


BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 133 PLATE 14 


1. CHEROKEE BALL GAME, TACKLE. 


2. CHEROKEE BALL GAME, INTERMISSION. 


BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BUIEEE GIN 183 “PEATE 15 


2. WILIWESTI’S ARTIFACTS, 


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1. JOHN DRIVER FAMILY, 


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SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 
Bureau of American Ethnology 
Bulletin 133 


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Anthropological Papers, No. 24 


Aconite Poison Whaling in Asia and America 
An Aleutian Transfer to the New World 


By ROBERT F. HEIZER 


VOUPITT EARL WAIAOReT Te 


ie eel soit ty witist 
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CONTENTS 


INGE UIWV ESN O@OASh te = ah lmpaye Ui ee Sue PAS ote A ee ge brah SPP GL 
COMICS O1SO MMe aes ele espe ery coh race foe lee Wie et ey EN, Soe aaeae ey ee 
General implications of North Pacific whaling________________________- 
Ja\y OY OVE4 0X0 Ub cs) LA an Shape Oi ed RE as Me dae irate aA we eM Ses ent Re One, 


The use of poison-harpoons and nets in the modern whale fishery -____ 
The modern use of heavy nets in whale catching______-____________- 


1 S:11]0 SUBYEao2)j 6) Nyc 2 Nate Sa SINS hs AEC A RIE, A iar Re Ne i ie (Mell yar oe 


18. 
19. 
20. 
21. 


22. 
23. 


56. 
57. 
58. 
59. 
60. 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


PLATES 


The whale fishery of the Greenland Eskimo________________________- 
Greenland whales and harpoon with bladder_______________________- 
Curching apne nwnale, Wapato Ree) ale ee i ey 
Dispatching the already harpooned and netted whale with lances, 


Japanese whalers setting out nets for a whale______________________- 
ihewhale huntiof.the Aletitsie 2 ee coho we lee elie bie lye. Aad 


TEXT FIGURES 


Whaling methods in the North Pacific and Bering Sea ae, apnea 2 Ds 
Whaling scenes as represented by native artists__._________________- 
Whaling scenes according to native Eskimo artists___.______________- 
South Alaskan lance heads of ground slate____________-._______--_-- 
Ordinary whale harpoon and poison harpoon with hinged barbs-_. -- - - - 


468 
468 
468 


468 
468 
468 
468 


420 
423 
428 
432 
455 


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ACONITE POISON WHALING IN ASIA AND AMERICA 
AN ALEUTIAN TRANSFER TO THE NEW WORLD 


By Roserr F. Hetzer 


INTRODUCTION 


In this paper I propose to discuss a subject which on its own merits 
deserves specific treatment, and in addition has the value of present- 
ing new evidence bearing on the important problem of the interchange 
of culture between Asia and America via the Aleutian Island chain. 
This latter aspect will be considered in the final section of the work. 

Whaling is of general occurrence on the east Asiatic littoral from 
East Cape at Bering Strait at least as far south as Japan. It is 
commonly considered a general feature of Eskimo culture, though 
some groups, by reason of continental cultural orientation or en- 
vironmental restrictions, do not indulge in it. It occurs from Point 
Barrow southward in Bering Sea and eastward to Greenland. Whal- 
ing spilled over in the east to the New England coast of Maine. 
Among the so-called Pacific Eskimo (Aleut, Kaniagmiut or Koniag) 
whaling was a very important subsistence feature. Its southward 
extension was the west coast of Vancouver Island and the coast of 
northwestern Washington from Cape Flattery as far south as the 
Quinault River. The intervening stretch north of the Nootka to 
the Kenai Peninsula is commonly thought of as an area of non- 
whaling; the suspicion, for which there is some evidence, of the 
former existence of whaling in this coastal and offshore-island area 
of maritime peoples raises a separate problem which I prefer to 
leave for future consideration. 

On the Pacific littoral of northeast Asia there is a small, restricted 
area where whaling was accomplished by the relatively simple pro- 
cedure of throwing a lance into the whale, the stone point of which 
was detachable and smeared with deadly aconite poison. The area 
is that of the Kurile Islands and the Kamchatkan coast. The Kor- 
yak to the north and Japanese to the south employed different 
methods. 


1I wish to acknowledge my indebtedness to Dr. Ronald L. Olson for the original stimulus 
leading to my treatment of this problem. 


419 


[BuLL, 183 


BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 


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ANTHROP. PAP. No, 24] POISON WHALING—HEIZER 421 
KAMCHATKA PENINSULA-KURILE ISLANDS 


Steller (1774, pp. 98, 103, ftn. (a)) has left the best description of 
Kamchadal whaling: ? 


Whales are also taken in the neighborhood of Kamtschatka in the number of 
ways which I shall cite here, however inconceivable such seem and are astonish- 
ing in view of [the size of] these great sea animals. Around Lapatka*® and 
the Kurile Islands the inhabitants travel into the sea in baidars,* seek places 
at which these are accustomed to sleep; as many animals as they meet, so 
many do they shoot with poisoned arrows, whereby they suddenly puff out 
[become animated?], storm and rage frightfully and go (down) into [sound] 
the sea, and it happens now and then, that one or more, at times even none 
of them, are cast upon the shore. When the Kuriles obtain a whale,’ no one 
begins to cut it up until all are assembled; first shamanizing takes place, each 
one puts on his best clothes, and carries home his portion, after this one yurt 
entertains the other. Before and after the entertainment they give their 
dance, and otherwise delight themselves in all sorts of ways, which will be 
treated in what follows. 

As soon as a whale comes to the land in Kamchatka, they fasten it with 
a thin line to a little stick stuck in the sand, and believe certainly on this 
account, that neither the spirits nor the sea nor Gamuti, or spirits of the land, 
can any longer have any claim to it. 


Further descriptions of the Kamchadal whale fishery are passing 
references,® or are seemingly traceable to Steller’s original account. 

Whaling in the Kurile Islands between Yezo and the Kamchatka 
peninsula is recorded, but not described adequately. Krashen- 
ninikov says (1764, p. 188; see also Steller, 1774, p. 98) the “Kuriles 
[kill whales] by throwing poison darts into them.” The same au- 
thor notes that the southern Kurilians (i. e., Ainu) feed on whale’s 
fat. Shelekhoff (1812, vol. 1, p. 128) states that the Japanese re- 
ceive whale oil from the Matmai Kuriltze.8 Kishinouye ® figures an 
engraved bone with a whale hunt (?) pictured on it. It represents 
a whale harpooned from a boat bearing eight men (fig. 57,a). A small 


2The accounts of Asiatic whaling by Tooke (1801, vol. 3, pp. 18-20) and Krashen- 
ninikov (1764, pp. 138-139) are similar to Steller’s fuller description, which I offer here in 
translation from the German edition. 

3? Cape Lopatka, the southernmost tip of the Kamchatka Peninsula. 

4This word ordinarily refers to skin-covered boats; here it means wooden boats with 
dugout hulls and built-up side planks (cf. Torii, 1919, pp. 178-183). 

5 Presumably this refers to the moment when the whale, previously attacked, has come 
ashore as already described by Steller. 

® Steller, 1774, pp. 100, 103, ftn (a); Krashenninikov, 1764, p. 141. Von Langsdorff 
(1813, p. 262) and Petroff (1884, p. 146) deny Kamchadal whaling. By Von Langsdorft’s 
time the practice may have been forgotten. 

7 Krashenninikov, 1764, p. 39. La Pérouse, 1799, pp. 59-60, 75. Drift whales cast 
ashore on Etorup are mentioned in Neue Beschreibung, 1782, p. 134. 

8 The Kurile Islands, except the two northernmost opposite Cape Lopatka, were occupied 
by Ainu. These two northern islands, Paramushir and Shumshiri, were inhabited by 
Kamchadal. There are a few slight indications that others of the Kurile Islands may have 
been occupied by Kamchadal, or, at any rate, strongly culturally influenced from Kamchatka. 

9 Kishinouye, 1911, p. 365. Tsuchiya (1937, p. 11) says this bone has been examined by 
Tsuboi, who thinks it is late and represents the sperm-whale fishery of medieval or modern 
times. Tsuchiya is unimpressed; apparently feels Tsuboi’s opinion may not be correct. 


422 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BuLt, 133 


boat-shaped figure just above the whale is unexplained. Von Siebold, 
in reproducing an account of 1643, says that whales are caught on 
Yezo,° and again, that whales are seldom caught by the Ainu.™ 
The same account mentions poisoned arrows but does not state that 
poison was employed in the capture of whales. The Ainu are ap- 
parently familiar with whales to the extent that they have 19 names 
for them (Von Siebold, 1859, p. 148; 1897, vol. 2, p. 260). La 
Pérouse says the Ainu trade with the Japanese in whale oil. “This 
fish is caught only on the southern coast of the island [Sakhalin].” 
I grant that these citations are inconclusive evidence to offer as proof 
of Kurilian Ainu whaling, but I feel that they may be tentatively 
interpreted as such. 
JAPAN 


As regards the origin of Japanese whaling, I can offer nothing. 
It suffices for present purposes, then, to note that the method is not 
like that employed in the Kamchatka-Kurile region to the north, 
but rather with iron harpoons and heavy nets (pls. 20-22). 

Kempfer ** (or Kaempfer, Kimpfer) says: 


Of all the animal productions of the Japanese seas, I know none of so extensive 
an use, for rich and poor, as the Kudsiri, or whale. It is caught frequently 
about Japan, but particularly in the Sea Khumano, which washes the southern 
coasts of the great island Nipon, as also about the islands Tsussima and Goto, 
and upon the coasts of Omura and Nomo. The common way of catching them 
is with darts, or harping irons, as they do in the Greenland fishery, but the 
Japanese boats seem to be fitter for this purpose than ours, being small, narrow, 
tapering to a sharp point at one end with 5 oars, or 10 men each, who row them 
with incredible swiftness. About 1680, a rich fisherman in the province Omura, 
whose name was Gitaijo, found out a new way of catching whales with nets 
made of strong ropes about 2 inches thick. This method was afterwards followed 
with good success by a countryman in the islands of Gotho, whose name was 
Iwonomo. They say, that as soon as the whale finds his head entangled in a 
net he cannot, without great difficulty, swim further, and may be very easily 
killed with harpoon irons after the common manner. The reason why this 
new method, which seemed to bid very fair for success, hath not been universally 
received is because it requires a great and much more expensive set of proper 
tackle than common fishermen can afford. 


Fraser (1937), in a preliminary paper, refers to a Japanese book * 
on whaling of 1790. The Dutch (e. g., Vries in 1643) may possibly 
have introduced whaling into Japan, judging not only from the 


10 Yon Siebold, 1859, p. 100. See Charlevoix, 1736, vol. 6, pp. 37-38. 

11 Von Siebold, 1859, pp. 147-148. The Ainu legend of how two men killed a whale 
between Alaid and Paramushiri may possibly reflect a memory of whaling (Torii, 1919, p. 
265). See also Lantis, 1938 a, p. 449. 

2% La Pérouse, 1799, vol. 3, p. 289. The Ainu live on the southern half of Sakhalin; the 
Gilyak inhabit the northern portion. 

13 Kempfer, 1811, pp. 705-706. A similar account is given by Charlevoix, 1736, vol. 8, 
pp. 98-102. 

14 This seems to be the same book republished in abstract by Mobius (1893, pp. 1053-1072). 
He claims the book was published in 1829. Fraser says the author is Yamada Yosei; Mobius 
attributes it to Koyamada of Yezo. 


423 


POISON WHALING—HEIZER 


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494 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bubn, 133 


method of capture but the use of windlasses, etc., and oil rendering.*® 
Fraser reproduces a picture showing 7 boats with 10 rowers each and a 
harpooner who stands in the bow holding the heavy harpoon upright, 
resting on the upper flat part of the leg, which is bent at the knee. The 
whale is entangled in rope nets, which played an important part in its 
capture. Harpoons, lances, and knives were used in their dispatch. 
Tsuchiya (1937, p. 17) says: 


. .. the fishing next in importance to the Kujukiri sardine industry, was whale 
hunting off the coasts of the western and southern provinces ... Whale hunt- 
ing had been carried on since the Civil Wars [from the middle of the Muromachi 
Period dated at 1500-1600] * off Kii, Ise, Mikawa, and Tosa provinces and north- 
ern Kyushu. At first harpoons were used, but from the Kammon era (1661-73) 
onwards they were superseded by nets. Whaling was carried out chiefly by 
wealthy people such as Gidayu Fukazawa, of Omura, in Hizen province. 


An incidental description of the Japanese whale fishery in 1870 
reiterates the essential details of the description of Kempfer and the 
illustrations of 1790 referred to above and reproduced at the end of 
this paper..7 Adam’s (1870, pp. 312-13) description is as follows: 


The day after our arrival there was great excitement in the village. All Kino-O- 
Sima was out of doors. A whale was reported in the offing. There was much 
noise and shouting. A dozen boats were quickly launched, and started off in 
wild pursuit. Long, gaily painted, sharp-prowed boats, propelled by four power- 
ful sculls, each worked by two men standing, darted through the water. A smart 
hand was placed in the bows in charge of the harpoon; while others, eager but 


1 Fraser, 1937, pl. 2. Cf. with the illustrations in Dow (1925, pl. 44, p. 119) of the 
early Greenland whale fishery of the Dutch and English, which was patterned after Basque 
whaling (for which see Markham, 1881). Steller (1774, p. 103) says that whaling around 
Japan was carried on “in the European manner.’ Tsuchiya (1937, pls. 24, 25) reproduces 
two incredibly detailed Japanese whaling scenes (Tokugawa Period) from the same source 
as Fraser. Plate 24 shows the dispatch with lances of the already harpooned whale 
entangled in the net. In both plates are shown interesting figures in distinctive dress, the 
individuals in the whaling boats in dark robes and the half-naked men in dark loin-cloths 
and beating drums (?). There is a suspicion of ceremonial or esoteric practices connected 
with whaling. Note also (pl. 24) the standards in the bows of the boats. The harpoons 
and windlasses look European. The harpooned whale (pl. 25) has in him a number of 
harpoon-irons which are attached to lines held by men in the boats. I have characterized 
Japanese whaling on the map as by the netting technique; harpoons were apparently used 
before 1680, but as to which were aboriginal, the line-and-float type, or merely, like Huro- 
peans, with a line attached (as shown by Tsuchiya, pl. 24), I cannot say. 

16 Japan was first visited by the Portuguese in 1543 (von Siebold, 1897, vol. 2, p. 235); 
the Dutch soon followed (see Hagenaar, 1786, pp. 38-39). Early European whaling in 
the area north of Japan is intimated by several early authors, who refer to whales found 
with European whaling irons sticking in them. These may be whales bearing old harpoons 
gotten in the North Atlantic or Spitzbergen whale-fishery. (See Steller, 1774, pp. 102-103; 
Charlevoix, 1736, vol. 6, pp. 52-53, 398; con Kotzebue, 1821, vol. 3, p. 267.) 

17 Kempfer’s stay in Japan was from 1690-92; the source used by Mobius, Fraser, and 
Tsuchiya dates from around 1800 (1790 or 1829?). A careful study of east Asiatic sea- 
mammal netting and a comparison of Japanese-Kamchadal-Koryak-Chukebee ‘“whale-cult” 
would probably yield interesting results. For example, the Japanese use nets, make noise, 
and shriek when the whale has been harpooned, and the inhabitants on shore beat drums 
and make cries of rejoicing (see Mobius, 1893, pp. 1055, 1057, 1060) as do the Kamchadal, 
Koryak, and Chukchee. Although Buddhist priests and prayers enter whaling (Mobius, 
1893, p. 1060), there is a strong suspicion of an older stratum of esoteric accompaniments 
to whaling. 


ANTHROP. Pap, No, 24] POISON WHALING—HEIZER 4.25 


still, squatted on the huge black nets coiled up in the boat. The boats soon 
approached, and quickly surrounded the whale [see pl. 22], which they wounded 
repeatedly with their lances and harpoons; and, when he was exhausted from 
loss of blood, enclosed him in their strong nets and hauled him ashore. 


It is not my intention to discuss Japanese whaling here, since some 
of the literature * is not available tome. I cannot forebear indicating, 
however, that Kempfer says the practice of using nets for whales was 
“found out” in 1680. Since the practice of netting sea mammals 
(e. g., Gilyak, sea lions;?® Olutorski Koryak, whale) is apparently 
quite widespread on the east Asiatic coast, it may be that the Japanese 
heard of this more northern method, which is described below, and 
imitated it. I present this as a problem whose solution remains to be 
accomplished. 

KORYAK 


These people live north of the Kamchatka peninsula and exhibit two 
distinct methods of capturing whale. The first, that of netting whales, 
is described for the Elutori *° in some detail by Steller : + 


The Elutori have another way of catching whales: They make nets of walrus 
hide, which they previously hang fer a long time in the smoke, so that they 
become as hard as a rock. These hides they then cut into pieces and straps, and 
from them weave very large and thick nets. Each strap is as thick as a strong 
man’s arm; they set these nets within the Elutorsk bay against the mouth of the 
bay, and secure one end of it [the net], with many large, fixed stones; if the 
whales go either in or out, they entangle themselves to death by the tail in the 
nets in a short time; thereupon the Hlutores go to them with Baidars [umiak], 
make him fast with straps and tow (buxieren) him onto the shore; however, 
before they row away with him, they shamanize over him in their baidars; during 
the time that they are rowing to the land, the young girls, women, and children, 
and, in general, young and old, stand on the bank, sing, cry out, dance and jump 
about, and congratulate their menfolk on the booty. When the whale is landed 
they all put on their best clothes and ornaments, bring a carved wooden whale 
two feet long, set up a new Balagan [pile storehouse], set the wooden whale 
underneath it with continual shamanizing, kindle a lamp, appoint a caretaker 
(Watcher) for it, who must pay attention that the lamp, from Spring on into the 
Fall, as long as the hunt lasts, may not go out, at which time they go in a body, 
cut the whale into pieces, and prepare it as their most important (principal) food 
for the entire year as follows: the meat, which does not permit long preservation, 
being very tough and coarse, is consumed first ; that which cannot be immediately 
consumed is hung up in the air and dried, the hide is separated from the blubber, 
scraped and smoke-dried, then beaten and made supple, and used for shoe 
soles. ... 


18K. g., the references cited by Steensby (1917, ftn. 2, p. 154) and Tsuchiya (1937, pp. 
183-184). 

19 Hawes, 1904, p. 256. See also Steensby, 1917, pp. 154-155, for an interesting discussion 
of the practice in Asia and America of netting sea mammals. 

20 A southern Koryak group living on Oliutorsk Bay. Jochelson calls them Alutor. Pet- 
roff (1884, p. 146) said the Olutorsky were called “strangers” by their Koryak neighbors. 

21 Steller, 1774, pp. 98-99. Tooke (1801, vol. 3, pp. 18-20) and Krashenninikoy (1764, 
p. 138) give accounts of Olutores whale netting, obviously derived from Steller’s fuller 
description of the same. 


426 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BuLu, 133 


When the Elutores bring out anew the whale nets, they have the biggest festival 
of the whole year. They begin the ceremony with great and lengthy shamanizing, 
in a large subterranean yurt, slaughter dogs and beat the magic drums at the 
same time; at which time they make a very big container of Tollunscha or brew 
of divers roots, berries, fish and whale oil put together, set this in front of the 
Schupan™ or draft hole (Zugloch), bring the wooden whale, accompanied by 
frightful uproar and [by] Shamans into the yurt, and close all the openings so 
that it becomes totally dark. All at once when (as soon as) the Shamans have 
conjured the wooden whale away, they make an outcry that the whale has escaped 
to the sea, whereupon young and old run out of the yurt to accompany it. The 
Shamans thereupon show the footsteps [traces] of it which look similar to the 
track of a mouse in the Tollunscha over which it has marched away, when it ran 
off to the Schupan.” If one asks them concerning the reason for this ceremony 
they answer only, that their fathers also did it this way and found it good and 
satisfactory. 7 


The difference between Olutores (Olutorsky, Elutori) whale netting, 
and that of the Japanese described by Kempfer and pictured by Fraser, 
is that the former set the nets in the bay mouth while the latter used 
them at sea. The stimulus for the use of nets in the capture of these 
largest sea mammals may have come from the Japanese knowledge 
that people to the north did catch whales with them. 

Jochelson (1905-8, pt. 2, pp. 550-552) has described the method of 
whale capture of the Koryak thus: The whaling crew in the boat nears 
the whale, the harpooner throws a toggle-type harpoon. The whale 
sounds, carrying the line, and when he breaches, is struck again. 
Finally, when he is tired and worn out, he is dispatched with lances 
with flaked stone heads. When dead, he is towed to shore. 


CHUKCHEE 


Here are the whalers, par excellence, of the northeast Asiatic coast. 
Steller (1774, p. 101) has an excellent account of Chukchee whaling: 


The Tschuktschi, who catch whales in great quantity, from the mouth of the 
Anadyr River down to the farthest cape [C. Navarin?] approach nearest the 
European method of capture. They row in very large baidars [umiak] made 
of wood with seal hides stretched over, 8, 10, and more men strong, also 2 to 3 
vessels at the same time into the sea; when they see a whale, they row vigorously 
up to it, and thrust a large Nosok [harpoon] of iron or bone into him, which then 
separates from the shaft, and fixes itself crosswise in the wound and does not 
become dislodged; a strap [line] is fastened to this, the other end of which they 
have in their baidar, laid in many coils and 100 and more fathoms in length. 
Not far from the strap is attached an inflated bladder or whale intestine, by 
which they can tell at all times upon the sea [surface] where the whale goes. 
Wherever he goes now, they let themselves be drawn along with him; if he goes 
into the depths [sounds] they let out the line, if he comes up they draw it in 
again, and row closer to the whale, thrust him again with a Nosok, or the other 
baidar does this; they hunt and follow him continually, until he again goes into 


224 sleeping compartment off the main room 
23 This passage may refer to scrying (see Cooper, 1928). 


AnTHROP, Pap, No. 24] POISON WHALING—HEIZER 427 


the depth and wears himself out. As soon as he comes up [breaches], the third 
baidar thrusts him. When they have collectively fastened onto him and pretty 
well worn him down, they begin with all their might to shriek, clap their hands, 
and make all sorts of noise, upon which the whale hurries with all his might to 
the shore and they are drawn after him. [When] he is near shore they storm 
and rage still more violently, until the whale in passion and blindness (Hifer 
und Blindheit) throws himself with greatest energy far upon the land, where he 
is completely massacred by them. In the meanwhile the rest of the people, 
young and old, dance and jump with great joy (Frohlocken) upon the shore, as 
has already been mentioned above. On those islands between America and the 
Tschuktschi Cape [St. Lawrence, Diomedes] the whale is taken in just this 
manner. The Tschukischi catch so many whales, and rely upon their skill 
therein to such an extent, that they touch none which are cast dead upon the 
shore, except that they use fat from them to burn. Although the Tschuktschi 
have very numerous herds of reindeer, and therewith can be satisfied, they never- 
theless occupy themselves intensively with the taking of sea animals, because 
they have the most extreme need for blubber not only as the greatest delicacy, 
but also the oil, lacking all wood, in order to obtain fire, which they pour [i. e., 
whale oil] upon moss, peat, and whale bones, and burn instead of wood.* The 
Tschuktschi make from the intestines of the whale shirts like the Americans, 
and use them [intestines] instead of barrels, as [do] the Elutorski Koryak. 


Bogoras (1904-9, pt. 1, p. 124) and Aldrich (1889, pp. 56-57) have 
good accounts of the Chukchee whale-fishery, and mention stone- 
headed harpoon, sealskin floats attached to the line 74* dispatching of 
exhausted whale with a lance, yelling and noise-making connected 
with the capture (fig. 57, c). 

With the Chukchee we leave the Asiatics who indulge in the whale 
fishery in such varied forms, and turn to a review of the American 
techniques of whaling in Bering Sea and the North Pacific. 


ALEUTIAN ISLANDS 


This island chain extends as a partly submerged continuation of 
the Alaskan peninsula, from Unimak Island in the east fairly continu- 
ously through the Fox Islands (Unalaska, Akutan, Umnak), the An- 
dreanof Islands (Amlia, Atka, Adak), the Rat Islands (Amchitka, 
Kiska), the Near Islands (Agattu, Attu), then jumps about 175 miles 
to the isolated Commander Islands (Bering, Copper), which are 
about 115 miles from the southeast shores of the Kamchatka penin- 
sula. It seems improbable that American or Asiatic natives could 
have made the trip over open water between Kamchatka and the Com- 
mander Islands or between the latter and the westernmost Aleutian 


*% This describes in a very clear manner an interesting and apparently unique cultural 
adaptation to the lack of wood. The principle is similar to the lamp with a wick set in 
train oil (ef. Birket-Smith, 1929, p. 99). 

24a Inflated sealskin floats or buoys described by Bogoras and Aldrich are not mentioned 
by Steller who says only that a small indicator float was employed by the Chukchee. In the 
light of abundant evidence of Chukchee cultural borrowing from the Eskimo, it appears 
that the use of double-floats attached to the harpoon line was adopted from the north after 
1770. In this connection, see footnote 15, p. 424. 


[BULL, 133 


BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 


428 


island, Attu. But evidence summarized in the latter part of this paper 
does show that such trips were actually made, presumably in both 


directions, and probably performed by Asiatic and American natives. 


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Von Wrangell (1839, ftn. 53) has a significant note implying the 
absence of whaling in the Aleutian Islands west of Atka in the eastern 


Andreanof group: 


ANTHROP, PAP, No, 24] POISON WHALING—HEIZER 429 


The Aleuts of Atka and those of the islands lying farther to the west have, as 
a result of fear, never been able to set their minds to the whale fishery. In the 
year 1832 they began to be instructed, with the help of Kadjak Aleuts [Kaniag- 
miut] in this so useful business.” 


Unalaska Island, the important location of the Russian settlement 
of the Aleutians, seems to have been the western center *® of the 
aboriginal whale fishery. 1 present here a series of translated ac- 
counts from the German, copies of manuscript translations from the 
Russian in the Bancroft Library, and from other published papers.*' 
I am omitting any but passing reference to the esoteric aspects of 
whaling (i. e., “whale cult”)—I hope later to present this to make a 
complete picture. 

Veniaminov ** says: 


The spear heads used in hunting the whale were greased with human fat, or 
portions of human bodies were tied to them, obtained from corpses found in 
burial caves, or portions of a widow’s garments, or Some poisoned roots or weed. 
All such objects had their own special properties and influence, and the whalers 
always kept them in their bidarkas. The hunter who launched a spear pro- 
vided with such a charm upon a whale at once blew upon his hands, and having 
sent one spear and struck the whale, he would not throw again but would 
proceed at once to his home. ... Then, taking with him a companion, he prec- 
ceeded to the shore where he presumed the whale had lodged, and if the animal 
was dead he commenced at once to cut out the place where the death wound 
had been inflicted. 


Von Wrangell (1839, p. 54) states: 


A single Aleut in his single-oared baidar,” and armed only with a short spear 
the point of which consists of sharp, ground slate, attacks this giant of the sea; 
he approaches him cautiously from behind until [he gets] in the vicinity of the 
head, thrusts his weapon into his body under the front fluke (Vorderflossen), 
and goes away with the greatest rapidity. If the spear has penetrated through 
the blubber into the flesh, the wound is mortal; within 2 or 3 days the whale 
dies; the current or the waves throw the body on the nearest shore. Each spear 
carries a certain mark, by which one recognizes the catcher and owner of the 
same if the weapon still sticks in the body of the slain animal. ; 


2% Jocheison (1925, text figs. 10, 11, 28) illustrates chipped throwing-lance points from 
Attu and Atka. Granting that these be whaling points, it may indicate that whaling was 
once known, but later lost on Attu Island, far to the westward of the Atka region where 
von Wrangell draws the line. If the Koniag did introduce whaling to the islands west of 
Atka, it is possible that they also introduced the polished slate-pointed lances, rather than 
the Unalaska chipped obsidian-pointed lance. Thus we may have a not uncommon Ssitua- 
tion of a complex once present, subsequently lost, and later reintroduced. This may account 
for the Aleutian nonwhaling area which I felt constrained to enter on the map. 

26 Kodiak is the eastern center of Aleutian poison-lance whaling. 

27 Again I wish to say that I do not claim complete citations—the ones I give here seem 
particularly appropriate in helping to give a general picture of Pacific Eskimo whaling 
methods. 

28 Quoted by Petroff (1884, pp. 154-155), from Veniaminoy, 1840. For a short biographi- 
cal sketch of Veniaminov, see Baker, 1906, p. 73. 

2 Refers to a kayak with a double-bladed paddle. Ordinarily the two-hatch bidarka 
seems to have been employed in whale hunting in both the Unalaska and Kodiak districts. 


430 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Buut, 138 


Markoff (1856, pp. 99-100) has this to say about the Aleut whale 
fishery: 


The Aleuts often shoot at whales with slate spear heads, which, entering 
deeply into the flesh, make a bad wound; the salt water of the sea gradually 
eats into it; the whale gradually weakens and finally dies in about 3 days; the 
waves wash the carcass upon the beach, and the feast is decked out for the 
Aleuts. 


Von Kittlitz (1858, pp. 266-269) was a particularly astute observer, 
and his description of the manner of whaling in the Fox Islands is full 
of significance: 


Adverse winds necessitated our going rather far to the south, and not until 
the 20th of August did we find ourselves in the vicinity of the Fox Islands, 
the most important of the entire [Aleutian] chain. Only once during this 
voyage had we seen from afar a dead whale floating on the sea, which from 
its great distance from any land seemed to have been floating around for a 
long time, after possibly having been hunted and killed at one of the eastern- 
most of these islands in the manner customary there. That is to say the 
Aleuts, who by instinct (durch ihren Naturtrieb durchweg) are most eager and 
skillful sea hunters, possess, however, no other means of securing for them- 
selves the numerous whales which inhabit these waters, than by wounding 
them with javelins, specially prepared for this purpose, in the hope that the 
monstrous beast, after it has died of the wound, will finally be grounded by 
wind and waves on one of their islands. The sea connection of the inhabitants 
of the islands with one another, but particularly the geographical situation of 
the islands themselves, make it possible that this practice can be accompanied 
by some success. It has not even been essentially altered since the Russian 
conquest, by which the natives have become serfs of the present Russian- 
American Co., since the whale fishery in this country is carried on only for 
the purpose of sustaining the natives, for whom the oil (Thran) as well as 
the meat of different species are principal means of nourishment. Im fact, 
the whale lines customary in Europe and America in our time are completely 
lacking in the Aleutian Islands and even the whalers, who even at that time, 
were frequenting the major portion of the ocean, were never accustomed to 
show themselves there although the quantity of great cetaceans of various 
kinds, was never on earth more considerable than in these regions.” But the 
aforementioned hunting method of the Aleuts is so frightfully wasteful. Of 
10 whales struck, as a rule it is to be expected that 9 will be completely 
lost—that one must suppose the population of the islands can never have been 
So considerable, as the fabulous statements of the first discoverers report,” 
because otherwise the whales, where not entirely exterminated, must have at 
least have been much rarer than they are at present. Among the darts which 


80 Jenkins (1921, pp. 28-29) defines the ‘““Kodiaec Grounds’ from Vancouver Island north 
to the Aleutian chain and from the west coast to 150 degrees west longitude as the home of 
the Japan whale, or the Right Whale. The California Grey Whale also inhabits this North 
Pacific area. All were hunted in aboriginal times. 

31H. g., Shelekhov said in 1786, the population of Kodiak was 50,000 people. It was 
actually nearer 6,500 (Petroff, 1884, p. 33). These remarks by von Nittlitz have a sig- 
nificant bearing on the problem of the population density of the Aleutian Islands. The 
series, Neue Nordische Beytriige, edited by P. S. Pallas, will be of value to those students 
of Pacific Eskimo population statistics. 


ANTHROP. Pap, No. 24] POISON WHALING—HEIZER 431 


the Aleuts carry with them in their sea hunts, particularly in the single-seated 
baidar [kayak], there are always some especially for whales. They are, 
like the others, made of wood, have toward the point a continuation made of 
bone and about a foot long [foreshaft?], which by its weight promotes the 
arched cast of the throw.” This bone piece is carefully smoothed and is 
notched on one side, so that a row of barbs juts out, by which the penetrated 
projectile remains very fast in the wound (pl. 23). The wounding points them- 
selves are made in part of obsidian or lava-glass, partly also of trachyte. The lat- 
ter material is used by preference, upon Kodiak and Aljaschka [Alaska Peninsula], 
the former, however, on the Fox Islands. By its brittle, glassy nature it is 
particularly fitted to cause inflammation in the body of the animal® as soon 
as the cast has penetrated the thick blubber. As a result of this inflammation 
the whale usually dies on the third day and the corpse is then cast up on one 
of the Aleutian Islands, the community that finds it first examines the wound, 
where the spear must be found which bears the mark of the community of the 
hunter. This community is immediately apprised, and shares in the booty with 
that [village] in which it was found. 

One would think that the Russian-American Co. must have been for long 
a petty one, not only not to have shown the Aleuts the use of whale lines, 
but also not to have supplied them with the materials they lacked [for making 
them]. In such case the whale fishery would have been much less wasteful 
and perhaps itself would have become a very profitable enterprise for the 
company. That the earlier Aleuts did not lack knowledge of the appropriate- 
ness of the use of such lines, is apparent from the arrangement of the darts 
(Wurfspiesse) used in hunting sea otters, which show something very similar 
in miniature. In these points, carved out of bone or walrus tusks, and supplied 
with strong barks, are movable; they are set in in such manner that they 
become detached from the shaft when they penetrate the body of the animal. 
They are, however, fastened to the shaft by a long cord of intestine sinew 
which is wound around it, and to which is fastened a bladder. The wounded 
animal has by this considerable space to dive, while the shaft with the bladder 
floating overhead indicates to the hunter, the vicinity in which it may be 
found. 


Von Kotzebue (1821, vol. 2, pp. 100-101) has an interesting state- 
ment concerning a drift whale: 


The 4th of June. A dead whale, stranded here [Unalaska District] set 
everything in a tumult; the Aleuts swarmed thither, and clung to the half- 
rotten fish, like flies on honey; to us the obnoxious exhalations barred the way. 
By an arrow, which still stuck in the corpse, they immediately recognized who 
killed it and hence was the owner. To the district, in which such a treasure 
comes ashore, one part of it is apportioned, and the inhabitants are permitted 
to eat upon the spot as much of it as they are able, which accordingly takes 
place uninterruptedly, for 24 hours. Often the owner [i. e., he who killed the 
whale] and the people eating the whale fall into a fierce altercation, because 
these had not thought to set aside (zuruckgelassen) for him the tidbits, that 
is to say, the parts which are most rotten. 


2 One of these “darts” with a bone foreshaft and flaked-stone point is illustrated by 
Scammon (1874). 

53 The inflammation referred to is probably a result of the poison, not of the obsidian. 
Cf. Holmberg (1855, p. 110). 


432 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bunn, 133 


The concern which von Kittlitz shows over the wastefulness of 
the native method of whaling is echoed by Veniaminoy (1840, pt. 2, 
p. 231), who says: 

Whales are sometimes very numerous in the summer, but only at Ounalashka 
and now and then at Akanna, and though the hunters there spear from 30 to 
60 every year, they only secure 338 of them on the average, and sometimes no 
more than 10. Ten or twenty whales would appear to be an enormous quantity 


of meat, but the whales here are generally of a small species, so that the 
meat of a whole whale is easily packed into single baidar. 


Von Langsdorff gives substantially the same account of whaling 
methods as presented before (Von Langsdorff, 1818, pp. 44-45; see 
also Scammon, 1874, p. 76). 


The javelins* . . . designed for whales . . . are pointed with Scoriae 
of lava, or Silex obsidianus. When the Aleutians see a whale they follow him 


Ficure 59.—South Alaskan lance-heads of ground slate. 


a, Unalaska (Dall, 1877, fig. opp. p. 75). 6, Wooden model of slate lance head, Aknanh 
cavern, Unga Island (Pinart, 1875, pl. 7, fig. 3), c and d, Cook Inlet (de Laguna, 
1934, pl. 31, figs. 11 and 13). 


in their boats, watching for the moment when he raises his gigantic head above 
the water to breathe, and then endeavor to wound him with their javelins near 
the front fin. If this is done effectually, the creature begins to writhe and 
rage furiously, till by degrees he grows faint and exhausted by the loss of 
blood. The Aleutian then returns perpetually during the day to the same spot, 
to watch for the monster floating dead upon the surface of the water; or if 
a strong wind blows towards land, he watches along the neighboring coast for 
its being blown thither, and then collects the whole village together, to draw 
him on to their dwellings * where he is cut up. 

The point of the javelin which is commonly found in the wound that occa- 
sioned the death of the animal, is a testimony to whom the fish of right belongs; 


*4 Darts cast by means of the spear-thrower. 
® This is the only reference to towing the whale ashore (pp. 44, 45.) 


ANTHROP. Pap, No, 24] POISON WHALING—HEIZER 433 


for every Aleutian has some peculiar mark by which his weapons are dis- 
tinguished from those of his neighbour’s. Formerly, according to the laws of 
the country, when a whale was taken, the chief of the village, the person by 
whom it was killed, and every individual of the society, had his regular portion 
assigned to him. 

The statements (by Holmberg, von Kittlitz, etc.) on drift whales 
bear out certain archeological evidence. De Laguna (1934, p. 183, 
ftn. 241) has called attention to the fact that the barbed polished 
slate blade is absent or atypical of the Aleutian Islands, but notes 
a single specimen collected by Dall from Unalaska (Dall, 1877 a, fig. 
opposite p. 75). (See fig. 59, a.) I interpret this specimen of Dall’s 
(and presumably there are others either hidden in undug sites or in 
museum collections) as a whaling lance head got from a drift whale 
which was struck near Kodiak or on the Peninsula and washed ashore 
on Unalaska. In this connection it will be recalled that Holmberg 
(1855, quoted on p. 434) mentions a case of this kind. The case seems 
clinched if we recall von Kittlitz’ statement (1858; quoted here) 
that the Kodiak and Alaska Peninsula natives (both of the Kaniag- 
miut group) preferred ground and polished slate, while the Unalaska 
natives preferred chipped obsidian or trachyte whale lance points.*° 


KODIAK ISLAND REGION 


This area includes Kodiak, Afognak, and the mainland opposite 
from 159 degrees west longitude into Cook Inlet. It was occupied 
by the Kaniagmiut,?’ of Eskimoan linguistic affinity, whose culture 
showed a significant compromise between Eskimo and Northwest 
Coast types.*® 

The most complete, single account of Koniag whaling is that of 
Holmberg,” who probably took some of his information from 
Davidof’s earlier report. 


Early in the morning customarily two two-oared baidars go from the shore 
and row to the vicinity of the bay in which most of the whales reside, who 


$6 See Pinart (1875, pl. 7, fig. 3) for a wooden model of a slate lance head of the Kodiak 
type from Unga in the Shumagin Archipelago. Pinart (1872, p. 15) describes an Unalaska 
javelin with an obsidian point as follows: “The point of the javelin used here [Unalaska] 
answers to the same purpose as the slate lance of the Kaniagmioute ; the whale which the 
Aleoutes hunt only in the bays, generally die at the end of several days, and are cast upon 
the coast ; the Aleoutes scarcely attack any but the two smallest species of whales, that is to 
say, the Megaptera versabilis and the Balaenoptera velifera.”’ Cf. Veniaminov, 1840, vol. 
2, p. 231, quoted on p. 482. 

3? Handbook, 1912, pt. 1, p. 652. Called here also Koniag. 

%3 See Lantis (1938, pp. 123-128, 168) and Petroff (1884, pp. 136-146) for brief descrip- 
tions of this little-known group. The cultural position of these intermediate Pacific Eskimo 
is important not only in relation to the larger Eskimo problem (see Birket-Smith, 1929, pp. 
229, 232), but as an Eskimoan group whose intermediate geographical location between the 
Northwest Coast and Western Eskimo may reflect developmental history and interinfluenc- 
ing of these regions. The people are nearly all gone, but there is a tremendous body of 
historical data waiting to be gathered together from its recondite sources. 

8? Holmberg, 1855, pp. 108-110. Petroff (1884, p. 142) seems to have got his data from 
this source. 


434 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL, 133 


always give evidence of their presence when they rise to the surface by a 
terrific waterspout.” Of the Koniags who are sitting in the baidarka, it is 
only the forward man who is the actual whale hunter; the other is a mere 
paddler and has nothing more to do than to set the boat in motion according 
‘to the command of the first. When the hunter has approached a whale, yet 
not within throwing distance, he observes exactly the direction in which the 
animal is moving in order to be in the vicinity when he dives below the 
surface. Nevertheless, he must take great care in this matter, not to be noticed 
by the animal, in which case it would immediately alter its direction under 
the water. If he succeeds, however, in approaching within 10 or 15 fathoms 
of the sounding Colossus, he casts his dart with his throwing-stick, aiming 
at the region of the dorsal flukes (Rtickenfldsse). When the weapon has been 
thrown, the hunters seek by paddling the baidarkas backward to place them- 
selves at a distance as soon as possible, in order to avoid the contortions and 
thrashings of the wounded animal, whereby it nevertheless happens occasionally, 
particularly when the distance is not so great as that abovementioned, that 
the baidarkas are overturned through the violent movements of the animal 
either by high waves or by the animal itself. In such case the hunters would 
be lost beyond hope of rescue, if it were not that usually two baidarkas went 
together on a hunt of this sort, in order to be able to support one another 
In ease of necessity. 

The spear has a length of about 3 ells and is furnished on the end with a 
dagger-shaped point fashioned of soft slate (Thonschiefer). When the cast 
weapon has struck the whale it breaks into two parts, so that the stone point 
remains in the wound which is made deadly by the movements of the animal.* 
Every whale hunter scratches his mark and token in the slate [point], for which 
reason a quarrel concerning the possession of a dead whale can never arise, 
inasmuch as the pieces of slate occurring in the wound declare the slayer, 
who is at the same time owner of the animal. 

When the whale has received a wound, he goes out of the bay toward the 
open sea, where, as the natives claim, on the third day he “goes to sleep” or 
in other words dies. If the direction of the winds and currents is toward the 
shore, the booty never escapes the hunter, for on the fourth or fifth day the 
dead animal is cast up by the waves, and is cut up in the manner previously 
described. Often enough it happens, however, that the animal is carried past 
the island and reaches a wholly remote shore. There are even examples that 
the sea about Unalaska has cast up a whale which was killed at Kodiak. 


Holmberg (1855, p. 107) distinguishes four names of whales 
hunted by the Koniags: 


1) Annikwaks = 2s 325 Oldimwihale2.3 a ca. 10 fathoms long. 
2: Kawwichnak--=---222 = Middle-aged whale_-____-_ ca. 8 fathoms long. 

3; Agashitnak= 1 sissslees One-year-old whale_-~--_- ca. 6 fathoms long. 

A -vACh Waki oe —~ So au eee Woung, whales 2=s222225 =—- ca. 34%-4 fathoms long. 


Von Wrangell (1859, p. 55) gives a list of four different species 
of whale distinguished by the Koniag: 


40 As Steensby (1917, p. 145) and Birket-Smith (1929, p. 77) point out, two-hatch skin 
boats (bidarkas) are a local development which took place in the Pacific Eskimo area. Kre- 
nitzyn and Lewaschef (1781, p. 269) said in 1768 that the two-hatch boats at Unalaska ap- 
peared to belong only to the chiefs (Hiupter) of the villages. As is shown elsewhere, chiefs 
were likely to be rich men and whalers, so there is a possibility that the local development 
of the bidarka out of the kayak is understandable as owing to whaling, in which this type 
of boat figured, and ascribable to whalers. 

41 Here again the deadly effect probably came from the aconite poison rather than the 
movements of the animal, 


ANTHROP, PAP, NO, 24] POISON WHALING—HEIZER 435 


The Aleuts of Kodiak distinguish four kinds of whales: Polossatik (the feared 
one) ; Aljama;* Kulema, and Utschulochpak (i. e., an old woman) ; at times, 
although seldom, the Kashelot also occurs. 


Sauer * states that: 


Whales are in amazing numbers about the straits of the islands, and in the 
vicinity of Kodiak; the natives pursue them in their small boats, and kill num- 
bers with a poisoned slate-pointed lance. 


This same author’s specific statement concerning the use, and 
method of preparing aconite arrow poison is valuable: 


They use darts and lances headed with slate, with which they kill the sea 
animals. They also use poison to their arrows, and the Aconite is the drug 
adopted for this purpose; selecting the roots of such plants as grow alone, 
these roots are dried and pounded, or grated; water is then poured upon them, 
and they are kept in a warm place until fermented: when in this state, the 
men anoint the points of their arrows, or lances, which makes the wound that 
nay be inflicted mortal. [Sauer, 1802, p. 177.] 


Pinart (1872, pp. 12-13), much of whose Kaniagmiut ethnog- 
raphy still remains in the form of manuscript field notes, has in- 
cluded, in a published catalog of a Pacific Eskimo collection, the 
following in regard to Koniag whaling: 


These lances [of slate] are used by the Kaniagmioutes“ [of Kodiak and 
Afognak] for whale hunting. Those struck once, generally die at the end of 
Several days, and are stranded on the beach; the lances are dipped, before they 
are used, in human grease, which has been prepared for this purpose by the 
whaler, from the corpses of rich persons whom they have just dug up and put 
to boil. 

Each of these blades carries the particular mark of its owner. 

This blade, fixed in its shaft, is then hurled by means of a board in the form 
of a lever [spear-thrower]... 


The use of a fat or grease rendered from the corpses of deceased 
whalers or rich persons is a characteristic feature of Koniag whaling. 
Apparently the danger involved in handling corpses was great, and 
only a whaler, initiated into the procedure, could indulge in it. 
(Lantis, 1988 a, pp. 441-443; Pinart, 1873, pp. 679-680.) 

Lisiansky says: *° 


The whale harpoon is about ten feet long; the spear or point is of slate stone 
and of the form of a knife, sharp on both sides, and is set loose in the handle. 

The whale fishing, however, belongs almost exclusively to particular families, 
and is handed down in succession to those children who prove to be most 


“2 Kotzebue (1821, vol. 1) says the whale is called Aliamak at Unalaska. Chamisso, 
quoted by MGbius (1893, p. 1067) mentions a whale, Alimoch, caught at Unalaska. 

: 48 Sauer, 1802, p. 181. Mention igs also made of hunting sea lions with poisoned arrows 
p. 180). 

“ See Pinart (1873, p. 673) for the area inhabited by this group. 

4 Lisiansky, 1814, pp. 206, 202, 174. Hoffman (1891, p. 70) has an excellent account of 
the use of dead whaler’s corpses as a “poison” and for amulets, He obtained his data from 
the Aigaluxamut, a group which I am unable to identify, but suspect that they are from the 
area (probably a single village) in the Cook Inlet-Kodiak-Alaska Peninsula region. 


436 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Butn, 133 


expert at it. But this art is not brought to such perfection in the island of 
Cadiack, as in Greenland, and many other places. A Cadiack whaler, in a single 
bidarka attacks only small whales; “ and for this purpose he is provided with 
a harpoon, the spear of which is made of slatestone, and so fixed into the 
handle, as to detach itself when the whale is struck. When wounded by it, 
the whale runs to sea and dies, and is perhaps never seen again, unless the 
currents and winds should throw it on the coast. Thus no whaler is sure of 
his prey. The spears of the whale harpoons are marked by the whalers, so that 
every one knows his own. 

Of these whalers a story prevails, that when the fishing Season is over, 
they conceal their instruments in the mountains till wanted again; and that 
they steal, whenever they can, the bodies of such fishermen that die, and 
were known to have distinguished themselves in their calling, which they 
preserve in caves. These bodies are said by some to be stolen, from the idea 
that the possession of them conduces to render the fishing season prosperous ; 
and by others, that a juice or fat is extracted from them, into which if an 
arrow be dipped, the whale, when wounded by it, dies the sooner. 


Weyer *7 has given what is likely to be the correct interpretation 
of this fat as a “poison”: 


Information secured by Frederica de Laguna from Athabascan Indians at 
Kenai, Cook Inlet, concerning the use to which the Kodiak Eskimos put dead 
human bodies is confirmatory of other Kodiak data but somewhat perplexing. 
The statement of these natives that the Kodiak Islanders killed whales with 
poison extracted from corpses by means of boiling may not mean that it was 
actually poison but only a fetish substance. The stuff was smeared on their 
weapon points, and was kept in the prows of their bidarkas. When they had 
lanced a whale, they used to paddle in a circle around it, and then paddle 
to the shore, dropping poison in the water behind them; the whale was sup- 
posed to wash up on the shore where they landed. The flesh around the 
wound had to be cut out before the whale could be eaten. 


Osgood (1937, p. 39) gives much the same description from his 
Tanaina informants: 


The large whale inhabiting the waters of Cook Inlet is not killed, though 
much relished by the Tanaina of the region. They obtain the meat from the 
neighboring Hskimo. These people (Kaniagmiut) they describe as hunting 
the whale with spears having heads of slatelike stone about 8 inches long 
and 1 inch wide which break off in the body causing death. The belief is 
that the Kaniagmiut poison these spear points by rubbing them in the decaying 
remains of a “fat man” [sic] over which an incantation has been made. 

The Tanaina do not have the proper medicine to kill whales so they trade furs 


for the meat. 


48 Small whales are mentioned often. If the species could be determined, identification 
from the archeological remains might be possible. If the Eskimo-type whaling was once 
practiced in this area, the species of whale hunted is likely to have been a larger one; this, 
too, ought to be reflected in the archeological remains. Dall 1877 b) claimed that only in 
the upper (i. e., later) layers were bones of the larger whale species found. Jochelson (1925) 
has challenged Dall’s interpretation of stratigraphic succession so seriously that little faith 
can be placed in it. 

47 Weyer, 1932, p. 309. As I have mentioned elsewhere, if uninitiated people aspired to 
become whale hunters, they would be reluctant to undertake the highly dangerous procedure 
of rendering from dead bodies fat “poison,” actually innocuous but putatively toxic. 
This latter may well have served to distract attention from the true poison made from 
aconite roots, the preparation of which, according to this view, was a secret closely guarded 
by initiated whalers. 


ANTHROP. PAP. No, 24] POISON WHALING——HEIZER 437 


The use of dead bodies of rich persons and of whalers may mean 
the same thing. A whaler was likely to be a rich person, for he 
would own a whale he killed, and would control the division of it 
among the community in which he lived and was accorded social 
position. His control of whaling ritual would include a knowledge 
of the preparation and use of aconite poison—the essential feature 
of whale hunting. This was likely to be a carefully guarded secret, 
since it was economically advantageous to its possessor. Some reason 
had to be given out to explain the tremendous effectiveness of the 
whaling dart-points, and the common people (i. e., the uninitiated) 
probably were led to believe that it was the fat rendered from dead 
bodies. This was a ruse to hide the identity of the true poison— 
indeed a clever dodge, since an ordinary person would consider it 
extremely dangerous to have anything to do with a corpse. 

The conclusion is that the Kodiak whalers used an actual poison 
of aconite,*® which was a carefully guarded secret. Additional “poi- 
sons” in the form of fat rendered from corpses were used, but these 
were ceremonial and actually innocuous as far as toxic effects go. 

In view of the break-down of the old culture under Russian impact, 
it is hikely from our evidence that the whaler’s secret society *° became 
abandoned or, at any rate, much more restricted. Such a situation as 


48 See citation this paper and the data in Heizer (1938, p. 359). Lantis (1938 a, pp. 454— 
455) gives further citations of the Koniag use of poisonous roots in whaling, presumably 
aconite. 

4 Pinart, 1875 a, p. 2. If not an actual secret society, Koniag whalers were of high social 
rank, holding their social position by hereditary rights. See Petroff (1884, p. 137) and 
Lisiansky (1814, p. 209) for statements on the hereditary whaler’s caste. The tendency 
toward forming a closed group of whalers has a modern parallel in Nantucket. The follow- 
ing rather lengthy but extremely interesting quotation illustrates how, in functional terms, 
such an organization might develop. 

“Tt was never fairly understood what were the secret obligations of these female Masons; 
and it was even doubted that they had any ‘secrets worth knowing,’ inasmuch as no im- 
portant operations, whether of good or evil tendency, were known to be put in practice in 
the little town of Sherburne Nantucket, or to disturb the world at large. Thus much, how- 
ever, came afterwards to be divulged: An obligation, if not under the solemnity of an oath 
or affirmation, was at least assumed by the novitiate under the charge of the officiating mis- 
tress, that she would favor the courageous whale fishermen, under every circumstance, in 
preference to a stranger and a landsman, if the alternative should ever occur. The letter 
and the spirit of this charge were for a long time pertinaciously adhered to by the unmarried 
members ; and some of them were known to carry it so far as to make it a sine qua non in 
permitting the addresses of their suitors, and they should have struck their whale, at least, 
before the smallest encouragement would be given or a favoring smile awarded as the 
earnest of preferment. 

“It has been shrewdly suspected that the chivalric ordeal, thus enforced by the 
fair maidens of the isle, was set on foot by some of the patriotic whale fishermen and oil 
merchants of the place in order to perpetuate a nursery of peculiar seamen; while in doing 
so they were sure to secure valorous husbands, and a certain competency for their daughters, 
as well as a monopoly of the trade to the island. The intermarriage of so many whale fish- 
ermen with the daughters of whale fishermen, until almost all the inhabitants did, in reality, 
claim near relationship and call each ‘cousin,’ at all events would seem to point that way, 
and to favor the presumption. Certain it is that the daughters of some of the wealthiest 
men of the island had already formed a compact not to accept the addresses of sighing 
swains, much less to enter into the holy bonds of matrimony with any but such as had been 
on a voyage and could produce ample proof of successfully striking a whale.” (Brown, 
1887, p. 220, ftn. quoting from Miriam Coffin, or the Whale Fisherman, pp. 57-58). 


438 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 133 


outlined above would account for some of the puzzling later aspects 
of whaling. Thus, Holmberg (1855, p. 110) said: 


An attempt has also been made to supply the spears with iron points instead 
of the stone ones. These were not found to fulfill the purpose, however, since 
never has a whale wounded with such weapons been cast up.” There is reason 
to suspect that the iron point does not inflict a deadly wound, and this supposi- 
tion is the more strengthened by the circumstance that not seldom whales with 
healed wounds are killed. 


Steensby (1917, p. 144) says of the Koniag that for whale hunting 
they used a lance with a broad-bladed point of slate. The hunters 
believe that wounds caused by slate spears prove fatal more quickly 
than those caused by iron points, and they have stuck to slate blades 
obstinately. 

As a final point in relation to the weakening of the complex in its 
old form, we have direct historical statements as to when the change 
began. Von Wrangell (1839, p. 55, ftn.) says: 


Since the year 1833 the harpoon and vessels outfitted properly after the 
European manner have been made use of for the whale fishery. A skilled English 
harpooner has already been invited to enter the service of the Russian-American 
Co. It is to be hoped that a happy result will crown this important attempt. 


Recalling Veniaminov’s statement (1840, pt. 2, p. 341; quoted on 
p. 432) of the low percentage of recoveries of wounded whales, and von 
Kittlitz’ remark that of 10 whales struck 9 will be expectably lost, 
it is of interest to note von Wrangell’s (1839, pp. 54-55) figures. He 
says: 


Since the whale hunter abandons the wounded animal to the sea, it is natural 
that many become lost. For example, in the summer of 1831 there were at 
Kadjak 118 whales wounded, of which only 48 found their way upon the shore. 


This concludes our survey of Aleutian-Kodiak whaling. Steensby ™ 
says that the Cook Inlet Indians hunt white whale (beluga), the 
hunter hurling a slate-pointed lance at the whale from a pole staging 
erected over the water. After the animal is hit, the hunter pursues it 


50 IT suspect quite strongly that these iron spear points simply did not bear aconite poison. 
The whalers society apparently kept as a strict secret their knowledge of the extraction of 
the poison. Thus, in historic times with the break-down of the old culture, a “Company 
man” might go whaling without poisoned dart heads—the result being that he (being unin- 
itiated into the whaling mysteries which include poison-extraction methods and use) could 
spear, but never succeed in killing whales. The decided preference shown by so many primi- 
tive peoples for stone weapon-points over those made of metal (for the area under discussion 
see Steensby, 1917, p. 144 (Koniag) ; Mason, 1902, p. 270 (Point Barrow) ; Jochelson, 1905— 
1908, p. 551, and Bogoras, 1904-1909, p. 124 (Koryak), may have a rational explanation, 
since stone-pointed projectiles are apparently more effective in cutting animal tissue than 
metal ones (see Murdock, 1892, p. 240; Pope, 1930, pp. 56-57). 

Sl Steensby, 1917, p. 143. Osgood claims the Tanaina do not hunt whales. Birket-Smith 
and de Laguna (1938, p. 107) state that the Eyak are not whalers. 


ANTHROP, PAP, No, 24] POISON WHALING—HEIZER 439 


in his boat. Large whales are not hunted. Shelekhoff * says of the 
Chugachmiut of the “Bay of Chugatzy”: °° 
The marine animals hunted there are as follows: sea-otter, whales, sea-lions and 


bear-seals, the weapons used being spears thrown with little boards and lances 
Such as used by the Kenaitze and other tribes. 


ESKIMO 


North of the Alaska Peninsula, we immediately find a different 
method of whaling. The same situation, as we have already seen, 
occurred on the eastern Asiatic coast north of the Kamchatka penin- 
sula where Koryak-Chukchee whaling was sharply distinguished from 
the Kamchatka-Kurile method. 

The Eskimo of St. Lawrence Island,** geographically intermediate 
between Asia and America, have the same type of whaling as the 
Chukchee © and their cousins, the American Eskimo. 

Eskimo whaling south of Point Barrow to Bristol Bay (?)** and 
eastward to Greenland,°*” covers a tremendous area, yet is without ques- 
tion historically related. The real break comes at the Alaska penin- 
sula, or more strictly, south of it in the Aleutian Islands-Kodiak area. 

There is abundant information concerning Eskimo whaling; typi- 
cal accounts may be found in Murdoch (1892, pp. 235-242, 272-276), 
Mason (1902, pp. 269-270) and Moore (1923, pp. 353, 359). The cap- 
ture of whales is carried out by a crew of 8 or 10 men in a large 
skin boat (figs. 57,d,;58). The heavy toggle-type harpoon has a long 
attached line to which are tied sealskin floats (generally two) with a 
third float called a trailer or indicator with a line 15 or 20 fathoms 
long which is used to determine the position of the whale.®* The whale 
is harpooned, he sounds, carrying down the line with the floats at- 
tached, and upon breaching is harpooned again. Finally exhausted, 
unable to dive again because the numerous floats or “pokes” buoy him 
up, he is dispatched with lances.°® The dead whale is towed ashore by 
a series of umiaks tied bow-to-stern (figs. 57, 58). 


52 Shelekhoft (Shelekof, Shelekov), 1812, vol. 2, p. 24. 

58 These are an Eskimoan group of the southern shore of the Kenai peninsula and Prince 
William Sound. See Handbook (1912, pt. 1, p. 294) and Petroff (1884, pp. 145-146, map). 
Shelekhoff said the Koniag and Chugatz spoke the same language, which was different from 
that of the neighboring Kenaitze and Ugalachmiut. 

54 These belong to the Siberian or Yuit group of Eskimo (Collins, 1932, p. 107). 

55 Steller, 1774, p. 101 (quoted verbatim supra). For St. Lawrence Island whaling, see 
Moore, 1928, pp. 353, 359. 

“6 Not all the Western Eskimo whale; some do not know how and in some places it is 
not convenient. Bristol Bay, aside from beluga “whaling” (which is not strictly whaling as 
treated in this paper) seems to be beyond the actual southern limit of Western Eskimo 
whale fishery. 

5? Here again the distribution is not always continuous. Geographical limitations have 
played their part in causing this. (Birket-Smith, 1929, vol. 2, pp. 223, 233.) 

58 An indicator float is also used in Nootka-Makah, as well as Chuckchee whaling. 

% Illustrated by Nelson (1899, pl. 55b, 57a) and Murdock (1892, figs. 238-240). 


405260—43 29 


440 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL, 133 


The lances used for dispatching the exhausted whale are of particu- 
lar interest to our study. Nelson (1899, p. 147) says of the Kuskowim 
and Norton Sound area: 


These lances were used when the seal or walrus has been disabled, so that it 
cannot keep out of reach of its pursuers, when the hunter paddles up close along- 
side and strikes the animal, driving the detachable head in its entire length. The 
head remains in the animal, and the hunter immediately fits another point into the 
shaft and repeats the blow, thus inserting as many of the barbed heads as possible, 
until the animal is killed or the supply of points is exhausted. Every hunter has 
his private mark cut on these points,” so that, when the animal is secured each is 
enabled to reclaim his own. 


There is immediately suggested by this statement, the similarity to 
the Kodiak whaling lance with its detachable slate (or in Unalaska, 
flaked obsidian or trachyte) head with property marks inscribed on 
it. De Laguna (1934, p. 183), in a discussion of the distribution 
of barbed slate lance blades, has rightly seen that the Norton Sound- 
Kuskokwim method of stabbing sea mammals is similar to Kodiak 
whale-lancing except that in the latter place only one penetration, 
instead of a series of thrusts, is made. The Kodiak-Aleutian pro- 
cedure is explainable by recalling that: (1) Only one penetration is 
possible, since the whale escapes after being lanced; and (2) a single 
thrust is normally mortal since the animal’s death results from the 
action of the aconite poison.*t With repeated stabs, death of the 


See Weyer, 1932, pp. 179-182; Wissler, 1919, p. 414, figs. 12, 32, 35. Boas (1899, 
p. 601) says: ‘They [property marks] occur almost exclusively on weapons used in hunting, 
which, after being dispatched, remain in the bodies of large game. These are, particularly, 
whaling harpoons [figs. 16-19], walrus harpoons [figs. 20-23], lanee-heads used for killing 
whales, and detachable arrowheads [figs. 24-25]. . . . It appears, therefore, that the 
object of the property mark is to secure property-right in the animal in which the weapon 
bearing the mark is found.” 

Nelson (1899, p. 147) indicates another possible origin for property marks, viz, the 
identification of each individual’s own points so that he is enabled to reclaim them, Where 
a number of hunters are shooting at one animal some question migth arise upon recovering 
the point from the dead animal as to who owned which points. Which of the two was 
first developed is impossible to say, but a problem is indicated. The place of property 
marks on Kodiak and the Aleutians is clearly that of securing property right in whales 
(see accounts quoted). Dawydow (1816, p. 218) mentions property marks for 
Kodiak. De Laguna (1934, pp. 71, 72) found only two slate points with ownership marks ; 
there is a suspicion that these may be Koniag (or Chugachmiut) points recovered from 
drift whales in Cook Inlet. This may not be so, however, since the barbed-slate point is 
common at Cook Inlet. 

The Right whale, despite its great size, seems to be a relatively easy animal to kill. 
The vegetable alkaloids are derived mainly from the Phanerogams, the Papaveraceae, 
Leguminosae, and Ranunculacae being richest in these substances. Allen, 1920, pp. 260-262, 
gives some interesting figures on letha doses of aconitine: 0.18 mgrm, per kilogram of 
body weight for warm-blooded animals. Two mgrm. (1/30 grain) is the minimum fatal dose 
for an adult man when the poison is taken by the mouth; but, if given hypodermically, 
0.15 mgrm, (1/45 grain) is sufficient to cause death, since all the poison is thrown into the 
circulation at the same time with no chance to throw it off by vomiing. Allen, 1929, 
p. 262, says, “The most constant symptoms of aconite poisoning are difficulty in breathing, 
progressive muscular weakness, a weak intermittent pulse. Death usually occurs from 
syncope, preceded in some cases by delirium and convulsions.’ Cheney (1924) discusses 
physiological effects of arrow poisons with alkaloidal properties. The relative toxic doses 
of aconitine are given by Allen (p. 263, see table p. 229) and its allies as: Aconitine 1, 


(Footnote 61 continued on following page) 


ANTHROP. PAP. No. 24] POISON WHALING—HEIZER 441 


animal results from loss of blood or because a vital spot is struck; 
the poisoned-lance technique actually effects an intravenous injection 
of aconitine.” 

In broad outline, then, I believe the gross differences between 
Bering Sea Eskimo and. Kodiak-Aleutian whaling methods to be: 


TABLE 1.—Differences between Bering Sea Eskimo and Kodiak-Aleutian whaling 


methods 
Whaling technique Kodiak-Aleutians Bering Sea Eskimo 
Whaling instrument____- Poisoned; polished slate or chipped | Heavy, toggle harpoon with line 


obsidian—pointed lance or dart; hand and floats. 

cast or spear-thrower. 
Boats and crew____------ 1-man kayak; 2-man bidarka_-___-_------- 8- or 10-man crew in umiak. 
Recovery of whale___---- rifts OntshOre 50h. -2a8 eo eee cheep ce ae neae Towed to shore. 


NORTHWEST COAST 


It is generally believed that most Northwest Coast peoples, viz, 
Tlinkit, Haida, Tsimshian, Kwakiutl, and Coast Salish, were not 
whalers. There is, however, some evidence that some of these tribes 
formerly were whalers, and, while I am reluctant to omit treating 
this question here, I reserve discussion till a later time. Thus, be- 
tween the Chugachmiut and the Nootka of Vancouver Island there 
is a blank area; a region where, at least in the full historic period, 
whaling was not practiced. 

Some of these nonwhalers make little or no use of drift whales which 
are cast upon their beaches. At the risk of indulging in a flight of 
fancy, I should like to present a possible explanation for the well- 
known aversion of the Tlinkit to whale blubber or flesh. Krashen- 
ninikov ®* gives a vivid description of a Kamchadal feast from a drift 
whale, the results of which were great sickness and some deaths by the 
participants. Petroff (1884, p. 140) says, “It frequently happens that 
a long time elapses between the killing of a whale and the capture of 
the carcass, and under such circumstances the consumption of the 
meat causes disease and sometimes death.” A possible explanation 


Indaconitine 1, Japaconitine 0.85—0.9, Bikhaconitine 0.75, and Pseudaconitine 0.4—0.45. If 
we knew what species of Aconitum plants were used in the Aleutian-Kodiak area, we might 
calculate the amount of poison necessary to kill a Right whale, since we have some data 
on the time elapsed from subcutaneous injection and death (generally 8 days). The above 
should answer a question which will occur to most readers, viz, Can a large animal like a 
whale be killed by an aconite smeared dart? The answer is yes; it is possible. 

® The statistics showing the large number of whale struck and small number of whales 
recovered given by von Wrangell, Veniaminov, and von Kittlitz for the Aleutian-Kodiak 
region are perhaps in part explainable on the basis that the single penetration did not pierce 
through the exterior blubber layer and therefore did not cause death of the animal. Whales 
which went too far to sea and drifted past the islands, to come ashore on the Northwest 
Coast, may account for some of the whales which were struck, killed, but not recovered to 
the knowledge of the people in the locality where they were hunted. 

* Krashenninikov (1764, p. 141), “. . . a healthy young man began to groan and complain 
that his throat burnt.” This sounds like a symptom of aconitine poisoning. Krashennini- 
kov himself says that eating a whale killed by poisoned darts may account for this. 


442 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Butn, 133 


of this might be as follows: A whale is struck near Kodiak (perhaps 
even by the Chugachmiut) with a lance heavily laden with aconite 
poison. The whale dies, remains drifting for some time, and finally 
becomes stranded. The flesh and possibly the blubber surrounding 
the wound is impregnated with aconite,** and proves toxic in varying 
degrees, some of the eaters of it sickening, others dying. The oceanic 
drift from Kodiak swings out to westward to about Unalaska, swings 
south and east, hits the Queen Charlotte Islands, goes north in the 
Gulf of Alaska, past the Kenai Peninsula, and on past Kodiak. Thus, 
a whale killed near Kodiak might easily drift ashore on the Northwest 
Coast anywhere north of the Queen Charlotte Islands. This would be 
Tlinkit country, and we note that there are numerous statements that 
these people did not have anything to do with drift whales. I sug- 
gest that the Tlinkit got hold of many poisoned whales over a period 
of time long enough to build up a dread of eating their flesh or blub- 
ber which is today reflected in their taboo. 

The chief whale hunters of the Northwest Coast were the Nootka, 
Makah, Clallam, Quinault, and Quileute. (Drucker, Nootkan manu- 
script; Koppert, 1930, pp. 56-63 (Clayoquot) ; Bancroft, 1886, p. 186 
(Nootka) ; Swan, 1870, pp. 19-22; Waterman, 1920; Gibbs, 1877, p. 175 
(Makah) ; Gunther, 1927, p. 204 (Clallam); Olson, 1936, pp. 44-48 
(Quinault) ; Reagan, 1925 (Quileute).) The Nootka are commonly 
considered the local fountainhead of whaling, the practice having 
spread southward across the Straits of Juan de Fuca to Cape Flattery 
and as far south along the coast as the Quinault River. 

The characteristic features of Vancouver Island—Western Washing- 
ton whaling include: A boat crew of eight in a dugout whaling canoe; 
a composite harpoon, in general type conforming to the usual local type, 
only larger,®* to which is attached a long line with inflated bladders 
tied on; dispatch of wounded whale with a lance; dead whale towed to 
shore (fig. 58, 0). 

If the features just enumerated are compared with Bering Sea 
whaling techniques in table 1, a great similarity will be seen. Appar- 


* That there is danger of this portion, at least, becoming impregnated with the aconite 
poison is suggested by the almost universally recorded cutting out of the area surrounding 
the wound where the poisoned weapon point has penetrated. See Heizer, 1938, pp. 360-361 
(Aleut, Ainu, Southwest China) ; St. John, 1873, p. 250 (Ainu). Petroff (1884, p. 140) says, 
“The Kaniags, however, claim to be able to decide whether the meat is still fit to eat by 
observing the gulls and other aquatic birds that swarm about the carcass; and if a certain 
species of bird is absent the Kaniag will not touch the meat.” 

6% Von Langsdorff (1813, p. 131) says, “Whale fat they never eat; it seems from some 
prejudice forbidden to them...” For further citations, see: Holmberg, 1855, p. 22; 
Erman, 1870, p. 316; Krause, 1885, p. 181. Dall (1877, pp. 86-37) says that of all the 
Tlinkit groups, the Yakutat were the only ones to eat whale’s flesh and blubber. The 
Yakutat Bay Tlinkit were strongly influenced by the Pacific Eskimo, as judged from their 
possessing the umiak and spear thrower. They may have learned, like the Athabascan 
Tanaina, that the Koniag killed whales with poison. 

® For illustration and description, see Waterman, 1920, pp. 29-34. 


ANTHROP, PAP, No, 24] POISON WHALING—HEIZER 443 


ently this southern whaling is more closely comparable in technology 
with that of the Eskimo than with Aleut-Koniag.* 


ACONITE POISON 


We have repeatedly made reference to the fact that aconite poison 
was used on the Kodiak-Aleutian whaling spears. Indeed, the effec- 
tiveness of this whole whaling method depends upon the use of this 
substance and is not intelligible without its employment. It has been 
suggested previously that the use ®* of an aconite extract as a weapon 
poison spread from the Kamchatka-Kurile region eastward along the 
Aleutian Islands to the Kodiak region.®*® There is some justification 
for this view, since the use of aconite arrow poison has a very extensive 
distribution in eastern Asia. 

Sternberg (1929, pp. 766-777) associated the aconite arrow poison of 
the Ainu with the extensive use of poisons in the Philippines and Indo- 
nesia. He neglects reference to China and India. It is true that the 
whole area of Southeastern Asia employs weapon poisons of vegetable 
alkaloids. In view of this, we cannot consider the use of aconite a 
particular, isolated poison technique, but as associated as a part of a 
widely distributed use of alkaloidal phytotoxins in the larger area. 
What does seem significant to me, however, is that the further north- 
east we go, the less important plant poisons become. Thus, the Ainu 
apparently use at least three poisons (Ranunculus, Aconitum, Anem- 
one); the Kurile-Kamchatka area only one or two; the Aleutian- 
Kodiak area only one. Not only is aconite used alone, so far as we 
know, in the latter area, but, in addition, is solely and functionally 
related to whaling, a concurrence which we have seen in the closest 
adjoining region (Kamchatka-Kurile Islands). The connection is 
thus strengthened ; it seems to be a northern peripheral occurrence of a 
climax or central-area or plant alkaloid-poison use in Southeastern 
Asia. 

Cornevin (1887, p. 214) says that, according to the age of the 
plant and the climate, there is inequality in the toxicity of Aconitum 
napellus (mentioned by Steller?). This plant is more toxic in 
southern than in northern latitudes. In proportion as one goes 
farther north, its venemosity decreases to such a degree that, ac- 
cording to the testimony of Linnaeus, in Norway and Lapland, the 
young stalks are eaten without danger. Von Middendorf (1867, 
vol. 4, p. 697) says, “A great advantage that the north possesses is 


6? With regard to the nonmaterial, or esoteric, aspects of whaling, the Vancouver Island- 
Western Washington area seems to be most closely comparable to the Aleutian-Kodiak area. 

*8 Heizer, 1938. In this paper I did little more than demonstrate the Asiatic-American 
connection of the use (not the function) of aconite poison in hunting. This functional 
aspect, with an obvious bearing upon the history of the whaling complex, will be treated here. 

® Birket-Smith and de Leguna (1938, pp. 465, 519) have suggested independently that 
vegetable poison is a circum-Pacific element ; they do not specifically isolate Aconitum species 
as the plants from which the particular poison was extracted. 


444 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Buun, 133 


that poison plants do not extend this far. There is known to me 
only one single example of a plant of the high north recognized 
as poisonous (Hedysaurum Mackenzti Richards).”7° Thus, we may 
have a botanical reason why poisons are not used north of the 
Kamchatka-Aleutian axis, since plants with a sufficient toxic con- 
tent do not grow. 

In a recent Flora of the Aleutian Islands, I find these statements: 


The middle Aleutians belong to a northern Pacific [floristic] region to which 
is added in both ends circumpolar and arctic-montane species and, further- 
more, in the eastern end Asiatic Pacific and in the western end American 
Pacific types ... the islands in phytogeographical respect belong in Asia, 
as their associations are decidedly Kamchatkan ... The northern Kuriles, 
South Kamchatka, and the Aleutians have a close affinity to each other. 
[Hultén, 1937, pp. 43-44. ] 


It will occur to the reader to ask whether or not the plants used 
for extracting poison are found outside the areas where their use 
as arrow-poisons is recorded. The answer is emphatically in the 
affirmative. Hultén, presenting the North American and Asiatic 
Mainland distributions of the flora of the Aleutian Islands, finds 
that 2 Aconitum species,” 3 Anemone species,” and 18 Ranunculus 
forms ** are shared by the islands with the mainland areas to the 
west and east. In most cases, the plants listed here are widely dis- 
tributed in the northern hemisphere, and are found in the Chukchi 
Peninsula and Alaskan areas. There thus seems to be no lack of 
toxin-producing plants—their restricted utilization seems due to two 
main causes: (1) A cultural one, meaning that the idea of the use 
of phytotoxins was not diffused; and, (2) a phytogeographical cause 
in terms of northern latitudes where the toxic properties of plants 
decrease to the degree that they may be innocuous. How important 
this latter reason has been I am unfortunately unable to say, but 
von Middendorf’s and Cornevin’s statements on the subject indicate 
that phytotoxins are at least rare in the high northern latitudes.” 

Since my first paper on aconite arrow poison appeared, additional 
sources of information have become available. Feng and Kilborn 
(1937), in a pharmacological study of Nosu and Miao arrow poisons, 


7 In a recent inquiry into fish poisoning, this same fact obtruded itself, viz, piscicides were 
not used north of Japan in Asia, or north of the State of Washington in western North 
America. 

1 Hultén, 1937, pp. 178-180 (Aconitum delphinifolium DC., A. maximum Pall.). 

7 Hultén, 1937, pp. 180-182 (Anemone narcissiflora L., A. parviflora Michx., A. Richarsonii 
Hook.). 

7 Hultén, 1937, pp. 182-189 (Ranunculus acer L., R. acer var. frigidus Regel, R. Bongardi 
Greene, R. Hschscholtizii Schlecht., R. Nelsonii DC., R. Nelsonii subsp. insularis Hult., R. 
nivalis L., R. repans L., R. reptans L., R. sulpherens, R. sulpherens var. intercedens Hult., 
R. trichophyllus Chaix., R. trichophyllus var. hispidulus. 

74 Lewin (1923, p. 175) says that the Koryak, Yukaghir, and Chukchee have arrow poisons, 
I am unable to state what these poisons are, but Lewin says that it is improbable that the 
Koryak use aconite. 


ANTHROP, Pap. No, 24] POISON WHALING—HEIZER 445 


list a series of sources which attest the use of aconite for this purpose 
among the ancient Chinese in Yunnan, and in Hokkaido (Yezo). 

Sina left blank or questionable on my distribution map, can now be 
shown to have used aconite arrow poisons, thus forming a continuous 
area of employment from India through China, to Yezo, the Kurile 
Islands, and Kamchatka (Heizer, 1938, p. 362). 

Steller (1774, pp. 235-236, ftn. (a) ) says of the southern Kamchadal, 
“Nichts destoweniger werden solche sehr gefiirchtet, weil sie dieselben 
mit dem aufgeleimten Pulver der Wurzel des Napelli | Aconitum 
napellus?|, auf russisch Ludik vergiften ...” Shelekhoff” says, 
“Paramushir Island has a plant called Zewtik, with the roots of which 
the natives paint themselves and into its juice they dip the points of 
their arrows, to kill animals.” Krashenninikov’s statement (1764, p. 
42) about “poisonous herbs, whose roots are as yellow as saffron and as 
thick as rhubarb, and are well known to the inhabitants of the first 
Kurilskoy island . . .” may refer to the same plant. Lewin 7 identi- 
fied the “zgate” spoken of by Krashenninikov as Anemone ranuncul- 
oides. Thus, there seems to be not a single clear reference to aconite 
poison from Kamchatka, but of Anemone. There can be little doubt 
but that this poison extracted from roots is related to the high develop- 
ment in the area to the south and southeast. 

The Ainu use of arrow poison made from aconite roots is well 
known; references to its use occur commonly,”* and there are several 
excellent special papers and descriptions of the method of making it.” 
(Batchelor, 1892, pp. 169-170; Eldridge, 1876; von Siebold, 1878.) 
Starr (1904, p. 42) says of the Ainu: 


The poisoned arrow was an ingenious affair. The foundation of the poison 
was aconite secured from the corm of the plant; to this various other ingredients 


7 Shelekhoff, 1812, vol. 1, p. 90. Neue Beschreibung . . . 1782, p. 118. Paramushir was 
occupied by Kamchadal. In fact, at least the two northernmost islands of the Kurile 
chain (Paramushir and Sumshiri), and perhaps still others, were not held by Ainu, but 
by Kamehadal. (See Golownin, 1818, vol. 2; Tooke, 1801, p. 127; Sarytschew, 1806, vol. 1, 
p. 59; Krashenninikov, 1764, pp. 34, 35, 89, 170; von Siebold, 1859, pp. 122-123; Torii, 
1919, pp. 77-82; von Siebold, 1897, vol. 2, p. 251.) This implies Ainu-Kamchadal contacts 
and probable cultural interchange. We know, for example, they both hunted whales in the 
same manner. 

76 Lewin, 1923, pp. 174-175. See also Cornevin, 1897, p. 193. 

™ Krashenninikov, 1764, pp. 92-93; Heizer, 1938, p. 360. Cheney (1924, pp. 13-14) 
refers in a rather obscure manner to Anemone sp. used in Northwest North America as an 
arrow poison. 

7 Savage-Landor, p. 223; Golownin, 1852, vol. 2, p. 200 (Ranunculus flammula) ; 
von Langsdorff, 1813, p. 334; Torii, 1919, p. 223; von Siebold, 1859, pp. 99, 101, 118, 164 
(Aconitum Kamchaticum) ; Batchelor, 1901, p. 454; St. John, 1873, p. 250. Another type 
of poison is described by St. John (1873, p. 250) as prepared from crows’ brains, tobacco 
ashes, and two insects named ‘“Yousiki’ and “Krombi.’”’ These four ingredients are mixed 
and allowed to putrefy. The poison is so strong that a considerable portion of the flesh 
around the wound must be cut out before the animal can be used as food. See also von 
Siebold, 1859, p. 157. 

79 Stegmiller, 1925, p. 612 (Khasi); Anderson, 1871 (Kakhyen to the east of Bhamo in 
Southwest Yunnan) ; Hamilton, 1824, pp. 249-251 (Himalayas) ; Fraser, T. R., 1916 (Abors, 
Mishmi). 


446 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL, 133 


were added. Not everyone knew how to compound the poison and today the 
knowledge is possessed by few. 

A thorough search of the literature would undoubtedly yield numer- 
ous additional references to aconite poison in India and the Himalaya 
provinces. 

In the earlier discussion of Kamchatkan and Kurilian whaling 
there were references to the use of poisoned darts. References, not 
only to poison-lance whaling, but to the use of poisoned darts for the 
killing of sea lions and in war, are given elsewhere.*®° 


TABLE 2.—Comparison of American and other whaling methods 


7A 

g E E 

3 cS o 

| q 3 he 

oO iss} qa nm 

| 1) s S 

Elements of whaling methods a 2 ic) E 

i ad a ° 8 4 Ez 

A cas e ay} S SS o 

a = ba is a 

a. I be =] ay; 5 uo] 
=] } pm! nan = ° 

2 < M 16) fea] < hs oa] 
yerpemotsiee eee. te oe OS teal eee Ue pe 2 keh eg OT eee BG ie ee Se ie 

Harpoon with line and attached floats_______________|--_-__]__--_- x x >, aie Fest GE! SS x 

Crew: 8 or 10 men in large boat_..-.._.____-________- eg || SEC a x x pa epee eS ye 

Whale harpooned repeatedly___...___-_..-_________- Lp ll ibe Aine >< x xh ee b 

Dispatched with hand-lances____-._____-__-_-_______- ES ae Meta 2 x x bap ema HLS we 

Dead whales towed to shore.__.....--__---___-_-___-_ > Git aye oe x >< KY Hee Ge RRS ~* 
Stone-headedidartor hant-lancess He ewes SECO EEE Sei ee ee Bia x ae 5a 
Poisoned’ withdconitine ott tr NaI Ee eee TED Se) ESE SRNR | URE) ee x SOs Le 
Wihslelancedionlyoncase hiss ouas Lee eee Pee a vee BCA fe EL CT | et x SOL EERE 
Whale dies of poison, drifts ashore_________-_________]_____- SP Lee ee OS OSG) Ear eee 
Bronertymarksionwance-Heag) e.0. wau eer = Wi Soh eee es >, on Re. aen) | LESS elie 8 


1 Harpoons also, but probably post-European (Tsuchiya, 1937, pl. 24, p. 171). 

?Likely also to be post-European (after 1543). An interesting parallel between the fundamental method 
of European and Eskimo types is shown by this. 

* Only Olutores (southern Koryak). : 

4 For identification and recovery of each hunter’s points. 

5 For identification of hunter and for property right in the whale. 


The evidence seems clear on the point that the Eskimo do not 
use arrow poisons (Weyer, 1932, p. 380; Lewin, 1923, p. 409), and they 
are apparently lacking on the Northwest Coast south of the Tlinkit 
to Puget Sound (Hoffman, 1888, p. 260). Unless we derive Kodiak- 
Aleutian Island aconite weapon poison from the Plateau,*! which I 
consider unlikely, we must assume its transference from the Kam- 
chatka-Kurile area. 

The technological aspects of whaling have set off the Kurile- 
Kamchatka area from that of the Koryak-Chukchee region to the 


8 Heizer, 1938, pp. 359-361. I have been unable to consult Lowe (1842, p. 479), who 
according to Birket-Smith and de Laguna (19388, p. 465), states vegetable poison was used 
among the Aleut. It is likely to be the same one given by Petroff (1884, p. 154), which 
mentions “poisoned roots or weed .. .” 

§1 Sources listed by Birket-Smith and de Laguna (1988, p. 465, ftn. 1). 


ANTHROP, PAP, No, 24] POISON WHALING—HEIZER “  Aag 


north, and from that of the Japanese area to the south.®? A similar 
conclusion was reached (see table 2) regarding American whaling, 
where it was seen that the Aleutian Islands-Kodiak method of whal- 
ing was sharply differentiated from that of the Bering Sea Eskimo 
te the north and from Vancouver Island-Western Washington coast 
whaling far to the south. 

There seems to be no reason for assuming the poison-tip lance 
method was ever practiced north of the areas where it now occurs, 
that is, in Chukchee or Eskimo territory. 

On the other hand, there is a possibility that the harpoon with 
line and floats method may have been once used in the Kodiak-Aleu- 
tian area as suggested by the following observations: 


1. Seal and otter hunting in the Kodiak-Aleutian region are performed by 
means of a dart with a line and float. This is the same principle as the 
larger Eskimo whale harpoons. There is no a priori reason that heavy whaling 
harpoons of this type were not once present in the Kodiak-Aleutian area, since 
there is no apparent cultural objection to the type, but only to their function. 
The latter, as far as whaling goes, may have been supplanted by poison 
lances or darts. 

2. Wherever whaling is practiced, the stone-headed lance is nearly always 
present.” But in the areas where the harpoon-line-float method of whaling is 
operative, lances are used only for dispatching the exhausted whale after 
being harpooned. The same lance, typologically speaking, is used as the sole 
whaling instrument in the Kodiak-Aleutian area with a specialized function 
resulting from the presence of poison on the tip. Thus, in the latter area, if 
the use of poisons for hunting was instituted, it might be transferred to whaling. 
The instrument used would be, obviously, not the harpoon with line and floats 
attached, but the stone-headed lance, 

3. MacLeod (1925; map opposite p. 125) correctly shows the use of corpses in 
whaling ritual in both the Kodiak and the distant pan-Nootka areas. If we 
hypothesize that: (1), At an earlier time Western Eskimo, Kodiak, and Nootka 
all shared the harpoon-line-float, eight-man crew whaling method, and that; 
(2), as part of a wider cultural use of corpses for hunting or fishing luck, the 
Kodiak and Nootka area applied this specifically to whale hunting, and subse- 
quently; (8), aconite-poison lance whaling diffused into the Kodiak region, we 
could explain in large part the present situation. Ceremonial fat “poison” 
rendered from corpses on Kodiak might be a specialization suggested by the 
existence of true poison. Both are lacking in the Nootka area, which shares 
with Kodiak only the closely similar use of corpses in getting “power” by 
bathing with them, etc. Whether whaling was once practiced and subsequently 
abandoned in the coastal area between the Chugachmiut and the Nootka, or 


8 If we knew for certain that Japanese whaling was aboriginal, and with what type it 
was classifiable, we should be on more certain grounds in reconstrucing the history of 
Asiatic whaling. Thus, the difference between Japanese and Koryak-Chukechee types of 
whaling, if Japanese whaling is post-1543, may not be a condition of very long standing. 
The independence of Kurile-Kamchatka as against Koryak-Chukchee whaling cannot be 
denied. Thus, the latter type may have been pressing southward, and meeting resistance 
in the Kamchatka region. The cultural break at this point is a very profound one, and we 
have noted that a great many cultural traits of the Asiatic littoral veer eastward across the 
Aleutians from Kamchatka rather than continuing north into Koryak or Chukchee territory. 

83 There are exceptions, e. g., Nootka, who use a long, chisel--pointed bone-headed lance. 
This may be a local specialization. Collins (1987 a, pp. 337-838) gives a very wide distribu- 
tion for ground slate points. 


448 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Buun. 133 


whether Nootka whaling is due to actual introduction by a non-Wakashan immi- 
grant group of whalers are two alternatives, either one of which may ultimately 
be shown to explain best this extremely puzzling situation. 

Marchand (1801, vol. 1, p. 344) describes Tlinkit whaling at Norfolk Sound 
(Sitka) in 1791—this is post-Russian in time, and may indicate Aleut or Koniag 
introduction, since we know many of these people were imported for sea-otter 
hunting as “ticket men.” Boas (1909, p. 495, fig. 158) figures a Kwakiutl har- 
poon rest which seems very similar to the Eskimo specimens shown by Nelson, 
Murdoch, and Hoffman. (Nelson, 1899, pl. 78, figs. 33, 37; pl. 107, fig. a; Mur- 
doch, 1892, p. 341-348, figs. 347-349; Hoffman, 1897, p. 798, pls. 29, 72.) Data 
of this sort, as well as the esoteric aspects of whaling,“ must be completely and 
critically analyzed before conclusions can be offered. 

Following the lead of Mathiassen’s work on the Thule culture, Birket-Smith 
(1929, pp. 231-232) points out that the development of this culture occurred in 
the western regions aided by Northwest coast and Asiatic stimuli. The Thule 
culture is one in which whaling is an important feature, and Birket-Smith 
(1929, p. 232) intimates a genetic connection between Vancouver Island whaling 
and that of the Thule culture,” at the same time recognizing the distinctive 
lance-whaling in the intervening Pacific Eskimo area (1929, p. 329). The prob- 
lem, therefore, will ultimately be referable to certain aspects of the major inquiry 
connected with the origins and development of Eskimo culture. 

4. There seems to be a more extensive use of aconite poison on the eastern 
Asiatic coast than in the Aleutian-Kodiak region where poison is employed 
only in whaile-hunting.*” Thus, in the Asiatic area poisoned weapons are 
used in war, bear, sea-lion, and whale hunting. This leads us to the con- 
clusion that poison for weapons was commonly known and not kept a strict 
secret as in the American (Aleutian-Kodiak) area where poisoned weapons 
were not generally used (e. g., for war), but almost exclusively for whaling.” 
Thus, the use of aconite poison in America seems to be associated with (1) 
whaling, and (2) a special guild of hereditary whalers who kept the knowledge 
of poison strictly unto themselves. Its entry into the Aleutian Islands and 
Kodiak could hardly, then, have been a gradual diffusion, else poison knowledge 
would be generally shared by all the people instead of the whalers alone. 
We conclude, therefore, that there is a close functional association of whaling 
and poison—they must have been introduced together, and as a unit. 


Thus, there are presented several possibilities for explaining the 
restricted and unique presence of the Aleutian-Kodiak whaling 
method in reference to the other American method. The possibility 
of there having been an earlier, now submerged and forgotten har- 


88a Subsequent inquiry into Northwest Coast whaling since the present paper was com- 
pleted has suggested the possibility that Nootkan whale hunting may be due to independ- 
ent, parallel origin. This possibility should be kept in mind in addition to the others out- 
lined above. 

*Lantis (1938 a) recognizes the problem, and sees the connection, but only incidentally. 

83 Collins (1937 a, p. 217) indicated at the time that whaling was not an Old Bering Sea 
culture trait. In his recent summary of Eskimo prehistory (1940, p. 549) Collins notes the 
single find at Kukulik (by O. W. Geist) of an O. B. S. whale harpoon head. 

8 Sea-lion hunting with poisoned arrows is mentioned only by Sauer, who, as we have 
seen, knew more about Kodiak whaling secrets than any other observer we have encountered. 
I suspect sea-lion hunting may have been similar to whale hunting, insofar as they were 
hunted by whalers with poisoned darts. Other men, when hunting sea lion, seem to have 
used a retrieving dart. (Jochelson, 1925.) 

87 Veniaminov (1840, vol. 2, pp. 105-106) says arrow polnts (?) were sometimes poisoned 
with a poison which was known to very few people. 


ANTHROP, PAP. No. 24] POISON WHALING—HEIZER 449 


poon-line-float-eight-man-crew-umiak method in the Kodiak area 
seems not unlikely, yet it is impossible to demonstrate it. It is sug- 
gested, however, by the very specific resemblances of the cult or 
ceremonial or esoteric aspects of Aleut-Koniag whaling to those of 
the Nootka region to the far south, which uses the Eskimo-type 
whale-hunting method. 

As to the probable history of whaling on the Asiatic coast, we are 
on less sure grounds, since the data are fewer and less specific than 
for the native American whale fishery. Chukchee-Koryak whaling 
is very much like Eskimo—in fact, identical. The Olutores’ specializa- 
tion of netting whales may be an extension of a rather widely spread 
method of netting sea mammals.** The presence of a highly de- 
veloped esoteric aspect of whaling among the Kamchadal and Olu- 
tores who lie south of the Chukchee-Koryak area is attested by 
Steller’s early account. We may never know the full details of 
the whale-cult here, since native cultures were shattered before full 
recording, incidental or planned, could be accomplished. But the 
significant point about the mere presence of a highly developed cere- 
monial accompaniment of whaling, which we are led to suspect from 
Steller’s tantalizing account, probably does indicate an old, developed 
area of whaling in Kamchatka and the area immediately north and 
east. Here, as in the Aleutian-Kodiak area, the dart-line-float 
method for hunting smaller sea mammals is present. The Chuckchee- 
Koryak typological equivalent for whales (i. e., the large whaling 
harpoon) is absent. If we knew more about early Japanese whal- 
ing there is some expectation that we could reconstruct the history, 
or rather prehistory, of whaling of the east Asiatic coast. From 
data available to me, there seems some warrant for believing that, 
if it was pre-European, it was like the Chukchee type.*® Yet, if so, 
it must have been heavily overlaid with European techniques at an 
early date. 

What does seem clear is this—a localized intercontinental area of 
maritime cultures has applied aconite poison to lances and used them 
for hunting whales. Granting the introduction of aconite poison to 
America from Asia (Heizer, 1938), there is reason to believe that it 
was spread in connection with the method of lance whaling, since in 
both areas poison and whaling method are associated. It is difficult, 
in view of the data presented in this paper, and with the knowledge 
that there has been some culture drift from Asia to America by this 
route,®° to assume a convergent development of whaling in the Asiatic 


88The Sakhalin Gilyak netted sea lions (Hawes, 1904, p. 256). See Steensby (1917, 
pp. 153-154) for a discussion which supports this view. 

8° Tsuchiya (1937, p. 11) mentions archeological finds of what may be bone stoppers 
similar to those used by the Hskimo to plug the inflated sealskin floats. 

% See last section of this paper; Birket-Smith and de Laguna (1938, p. 519) ; Jochelson 
(1925, p. 111 ff.). 


450 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Buu. 133 


and American areas **—rather, we cannot escape the conclusion that 
the presence of Aleutian Island-Kodiak poisoned lance whaling is 
attributable to introduction from the Kamchatka region, where it 
originated in connection with the use of aconite poison.” 


GENERAL IMPLICATIONS OF NORTH PACIFIC WHALING 


Leaving the specific inquiry connected with the whale hunting, let 
us review briefly the bearing of our main conclusions on the general 
problems of the route of entry of man and culture into the New 
World—problems basic to much work in American anthropology. 

The continuing interest in the question of man’s antiquity in the 
New World has had the salutary effect of focusing attention on how 
and when and with what cultural equipment man entered America.®** 
Alaskan archeologists are fully aware of this problem, yet have been 
unable to find actual evidence of ancient remains.°** The Old Bering 
Sea culture, as described by Collins (1937 a, 1940), is highly specialized 
with definite Eskimoid characteristics, yet is the oldest Alaskan 
culture known to date. 

In the absence of direct archeological evidence, we have left to us 
another method of approach—that of inferring cultural transference 
within the ethnographic time continuum. In most cases our conclu- 
sions as to relative time must depend on inferential deductions on the 
basis of geographical distribution. Thus, Kroeber (1923 a, p. 2; 1923, 
b, fig. 35) and Wissler (1938, p. 386) have listed a series of cultural 
elements which may be ascribed to the earliest immigrants to Amer- 
ica. This might be called the minimal basic substratum of New 
World culture with its roots perhaps in the Mesolithic or early Neo- 
lithic of the Old World. (See also Cooper, 1942, p. 30 ff.) 

A large number of studies have appeared whose aim has been to 
demonstrate the diffusion of Eurasiatic elements into North America. 
In general, these have implied the use of the Bering Strait (East Cape- 
Seward Peninsula~Yukon—Mackenzie Valley) route. Notable among 
these have been contributions by Hallowell (1926), Cooper (1936), 


J reject the theoretical possibility that the use of aconite poison was independently 
developed in the Aleutians and on the eastern Asiatic coast. 

®2 Needless to say, archeology will undoubtedly throw a great deal of light on the question 
of possible former occurrence of a different type of whaling from that practiced in any single 
area today. This remains the ultimate test. 

83 See Howard, 1935, 1936, for a statement of these problems. 

% Finds of the type reported by Rainey (1939) may be exceptions, but are still ‘“conti- 
nental’’ and do not prove cultural importation. They show, however, that hope may be 
entertained that evidence of early cultures, now known only from more southerly locations, 
may ultimately be disclosed in the critical areas of Alaska and Asia. Collins (1937 a, 
p. 378) says, “Although on theoretical grounds we are forced to assume that man originally 
entered the American continent at Bering Strait, it must be emphasized that archeological 
work in this region has revealed as yet no trace of these earliest migrants.’’ See also 
Nelson (1937) and Collins (1932, pp. 107-108). 


Anturor. Pav. No.24] POISON WHALING—HBIZER 451 


Lowie (1923, 1934), Davidson (1937), Boas (1929), and Hatt (1914, 
1984). 

The important papers of Collins (1937 a, 1940), de Laguna (1934), 
and Birket-Smith and de Laguna (1938), have reopened the question 
of the Aleutian Islands as a possible route of cultural exchange be- 
tween Asia and America. The early observations indicating the Com- 
mander Islands as uninhabited at the time of discovery (by Vitus 
Bering in 1742), and Aleut culture as of an American, rather than 
Asiatic type, for a long time led to the categorical denial of the proba- 
bility that the Aleutians served as a path of entry of Asiatic cultures 
or people into America.* 

Hrdlicka (1980, fig. 29) has indicated his belief in the probability 
of the use of this island chain as included in the itinerary of a portion, 
however small, of the people who settled America from Asia. 

Hrdlitka (1939, pp. 358-359) has recently summarized the results 
of his Alaskan labors of the last decade in a highly interesting and 
stimulating paper in which the following statements are of particular 
interest to us: 


The third and fourth major results were that the Koniag people of the once 
very populous Kodiak Island, though speaking an Eskimo dialect, were physically 
not Eskimo, but close to the Aleuts and also the southern Alaska Indians; and 
that, before these people arrived at Kodiak, the island had already for many 
centuries been peopled by a physically as well as culturally different type of 
American native, whose identity is not yet established. . . 

The fifth result—and one of equal importance—was that the Aleuts who, too, 
spoke Eskimoid dialects, were physically a radically different type from the 
Hskimo, allied to the upper people (Koniags) of Kodiak and the Indians of the 
Gulf of Alaska. 

The sixth fact of importance, reported formerly by Stejneger but decided 
definitely by our expedition in 1938, is that, contrary to expectations, the Com- 
mander Islands had never been peopled before the advent of the Russians and had 
therefore not served as a bridge for the coming of any part of the American popu- 
lation from Kamchatka. It now appears much more probable that the Aleuts 
may have come from more southern parts of the eastern Asiatic coast, across the 
Kuriles. * 


H. B. Collins and F. de Laguna have been able to demonstrate the 
fact of cultural exchange between the Kamchatka-Kurile and Aleu- 


8 See Jochelson (1925, p. 111 ff.) for citations and critical discussions of various 
theories as to the use of the Aleutian bridge as a cultural route. (See also de Laguna, 1940; 
Jenness, 1940 ; Hewes, 1942. These three important papers have appeared since the present 
paper was written.) 

88 Bering and Copper Islands are isolated, and people on their way from Kamchatka 
to the Aleutian Islands to the east might stop only temporarily, camping for a few 
days to replenish their food supply or to rest. Thus, there may be evidence of pre- 
Russian native visits on the Commander Islands. As for the Aleuts coming directly 
from the Kuriles to the Aleutians (e. g., Attu), I consider this very unlikely on the 
grounds that the open-water distance is too excessive. Evidence of cultural connections 
between the Aleutian and Kamchatka areas makes it not unlikely, even in view of the 
lack of evidence of occupation of the Commander Islands, that the connection is direct. 
Until we know definitely and conclusively that the Commanders were not visited or 
occupied, however, sporadically or temporarily, the question must remain an open one. 


452 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Butn. 138 


tian Islands-Kodiak-Cook Inlet areas via the Aleutian chain. (Col- 
lins, 1937 a, pp. 280, 345, 373-878; 1940, pp. 577-583; de Laguna, 
1934, pp. 216-220.) These data indicate a cultural connection as 
shown by: Roof entrance for the underground house; refuge island; 
notched and grooved stones; stone with hole; grinding stone and 
slab; oval stone lamp; hunter’s lamp with ring; labret; large bone 
arrowhead with blade but no barbs; broken and cut human bones; 
and Japanese form of harpoon head, toggle type with closed socket and 
line hole in the same plane with the spur. Collins (1937 a, p. 375), 
on the basis of the elements just listed, states “ ... there is un- 
mistakable evidence of cultural relationship between south Alaska 
and a fairly restricted area along the east Asiatic coast.” In sum- 
mary, Collins concludes that “The indications of cultural connections 
between the Aleutians and Kamchatka are so clear as to lead to the 
expectation that evidences of aboriginal occupancy will eventually 
be discovered on the Commander Islands.” (Collins, 1987 a, p. 377, 
See also Collins, 1937 b, pp. 880-884. ) 

The foregoing evidence seems to point mainly to a diffusion of 
cultural traits from ‘America to Asia; that is, from east to west. 
The Japanese type toggle harpoon head probably came from Asia to 
America. The use, as weapon poison, of aconitine, extracted from 
the roots of Aconitum plants, I have indicated previously as appar- 
ently a transfer from Kamchatka-Kurile region to the Aleutian 
Island-Kodiak region. (Heizer, 1938. See also Collins, 1940, p. 
580.) Another culture element, the bulbed enema syringe (Heizer, 
1940, map p. 87, p. 89), is possibly an American transfer to Kam- 
chatka and the Kurile Islands, but the evidence is slender and ascrip- 
tion to this element of intercontinental diffusion status is to be enter- 
tained with doubt until further evidence is forthcoming. MacLeod *" 
proposes that Pacific Eskimo mummification was introduced from 
the Asiatic coast. 

The welcome Eyak ethnography by K. Birket-Smith and F. de 
Laguna (1938) has thrown some clear light on the problem under 
discussion here. A comparative analysis of Eyak culture aimed at 
defining the cultural position (op. cit., pp. 365-514) has resulted in 
the identification of a series of traits with a cireum-Pacific distribu- 
tion which includes (op. cit., p. 519): Rectangular plank house; 
separate sleeping compartment; notched ladder; stockade; raised 
cache-houses; shirt made of horizontal strips of small animals’ fur; 
apron; stone pecking technique; stone mortar; twisted basketry; 
boat-shaped container; round plate; wooden quiver; openwater sea 
mammal hunting; vegetable arrow poison; slavery; transvestism ; 
bride service; cremation; shaman’s dolls; attitude toward dogs; 


°™ MacLeod, 1925, p. 143 ff. Until North Pacific mummification is more fully treated, 
this opinion should be considered tentative. 


ANTHROP, PAP, No, 24] POISON WHALING—HEIZER 453 


sounding board; raven myths; tale of the girl and the dog. The 
questionable inclusion of the following elements is tentatively offered : 
Nose ornaments; weregild; digging stick; dugout; fish buried in the 
ground to rot; mother-in-law taboo. These are elements of culture 
whose distributions are concurrent in this respect—they occur along 
the Pacific rim. The conclusion is that “There can hardly be any 
doubt that the general direction of this circum-Pacific drift has been 
from Asia, more particularly perhaps from the Lower Amur region, 
towards North America.” 

I submit that with poison-lance whaling we may add another item 
to the steadily mounting number of cultural elements and complexes 
which can be demonstrated to have entered the New World from 
Asia via the Aleutian Island chain. 


APPENDIX 1 


THE USE OF POISON HARPOONS AND NETS IN THE MODERN 
WHALE FISHERY 


The practical difficulties attendant upon hunting whales, the larg- 
est of all animals, has doubtless led those who follow this dangerous 
pursuit to make the method as effective as possible. Whaling is a 
very highly specialized hunting technique, but at best an exceed- 
ingly hazardous means of securing an animal. 

It is not surprising to learn that in modern times there are re- 
corded attempts to hunt whales with poison-laden harpoons. In 
recent times, with the scientific knowledge of poisons and their effects 
known, it is understandable that such an application of poison might 
be made to whaling by a progressive firm or shipowner. This is an 
origin of a somewhat different sort than the probable beginning of 
the aboriginal poison-lance whaling discussed in the main body of 
this paper. Logic would seem to indicate that the use of aconite 
poison for whaling in the Kamchatka-Kurile and Kodiak-Aleutian 
area is originally ascribable to a transfer from the use of poison in 
hunting land animals. As weapon poison became known to coastal 
people (presumably either Ainu or Kamchadal) they applied it to 
hunting the whale. 

The earliest occurrence of the modern use of poison for whaling 
that I have found dates from the year 1831 (Christison, 1860). 
Christison was requested in that year by the mercantile firm of W. 
and G. Young, of Leith, Scotland, to devise a means for catching 
whales by poison. Christison considered the problem of the size of 
the whale (60 feet long and up to 70 tons in weight, according to 


%8 Birket-Smith and de Laguna, 1938, p. 520. Kroeber (1923 b) emphasizes Asiatic 
influences on the Northwest coast. See also Collins, 1940, p. 578. 


454 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Butn. 133 


Scoresby) and decided that ordinary whales encountered would not 
be above 40 feet in length or weigh over 40 tons. Christison assumed 
that one minim of hydrocyanic (prussic) acid would kill a man of 
200-weight, and computed that 2 ounces (875 minims) would suffice 
for stupefying or even killing a 40-ton whale. A method was de- 
vised for introducing the poison at the right moment after the 
harpoon had penetrated the whale. The hydrocyanic acid was put 
in a glass tube and attached to the harpoon near the blade with a 
heavy copper wire which was also attached to the harpoon line. 
When the whale had received the harpoon the line was drawn tight, 
pulling the copper wire and crushing the tube which released the 
poison. Another type of dispenser was devised and described thus: 

The blade of the harpoon has commonly a double barb thus, figure 1. In 
the poison harpoons, the ends of the barbs were jointed as in figure 2 [see 
fig. 60]. It is evident, that as soon as the animal sprung off on the harpoon 
being struck into its body, the ends of the barbs would be pulled open by 
the drag exerted on the harpoon, and that the inner point of the barbs would 
be pressed strongly against the glass tubes, and crush them. ([Christison, 1860, 
p. 76.] 

Materials for producing concentrated hydrocyanic acid were carried 
on the voyage, but on the eve of beginning to hunt whales the ships 
carrying the harpoons and poison were crushed in the ice pack and 
lost. The next year (1833) the same firm made a second, and success- 
tul, attempt. One eyewitness said the poison tubes were fired from a 
musket at the whales but did no harm.1 A harpoon gun ? was used, but 
only once. The poisoned harpoon entered the whale’s body, the whale 
sounded, and in “a very short time” * the line relaxed, and the whale 
appeared dead on the surface. The terrific effect of the harpoon so 
appalled the men that they declined to use them any more. Christison 
goes on to say, however, that this ship caught 24 whales on this voyage, 
which was a record, no number for some time previously or afterward 
reaching this mark. This fact, together with the observation that the 
ship’s log made no mention of the use of poison, leads to the belief 
that the Youngs wanted to conceal their experiment. The news did 
spread, probably through men employed on the ship, and short notices 
appeared in newspapers and periodicals. An Aberdeen or Peterhead 
ship is reported to have successfully used harpoons poisoned with 
prussic acid. The whales struck either were killed outright or were 
so paralyzed that they were unable to move, and were easily dispatched 


1This may be the earliest of a series of attempts at using poison shells. If so, it was 
abortive. 

2A short-barrelled gun which shot an iron harpoon with the line attached. 

3 Normally a whale sounded for about a half hour. Presumably, in this instance, it was 
for a much shorter period of time. 

4 Secrecy was important, but too many people shared the secret and information leaked 
out. Christison himself was sworn to secrecy, and wrote his paper in 1866 after the 
Leith firm was no longer in existence, 


ANTHROP, Pap. No. 24] POISON WHALING—HEIZER 455 


with lances. This case is reported in 1838 or 1839. The crew was so 
frightened by the effect of the poison that they were afraid to flense 
the whales. 

The next case that comes to my attention is recorded by Clark.’ The 
Susan Swain, which sailed from Nantucket on November 17, 1833, 
carried poison harpoons, but the crew was frightened by reports of 
deaths resulting from handling blubber of whales killed with poison, 
and these harpoons were not used. Clark (1887, p. 249) thinks poison 
whaling originated in Scotland with Christison, whose report is sum- 


Figure 60.—Ordinary whale harpoon with simple lateral barbs and a poison 
harpoon with hinged barbs. (From Christison, 1860, p. 76, figs. 1, 2.) 


marized above, but he states that the American whale men attribute 
the development of poison whaling to the French.® 

There is a mention that whaling with poisoned harpoons originated 
in Baltimore in 1835 or 1838, but I have not found the original article 
(Niles National Register, 1843, p. 16). 

Between 1843 and 1849, a surgeon of the French navy named Acker- 
mann concerned himself with the problem of prussic acid as a means of 
whaling. He named his harpoon a harpon inoculateur; it seems to 
have had a tube of acid attached to the point which was crushed after 
penetration. He seems not to have published a full report of his 


5 Clark, 1887, p. 248. Given erroneously as 1873 by Spears (1908, p. 228). 

® Clark, 1887, p. 248. The French were known to have made and published the regult of 
their attempts at poison whaling. In this way they may have been attributed all efforts 
in this direction. 


405260—43——30 


456 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 133 


researches; and I find only three brief and unenlightening communi- 
cations to the Academy of Sciences. (Ackermann, 1848 a, 1843 b, 1849. 
Mentioned in Niles National Register, 18438, p. 16.) 

Scotland appears next in our chronological study of the modern 
development of whale hunting with poison-bearing harpoons. Clark 
(1887, p. 249) describes a large, two-grooved rifle made in 1861 in 
Edinburgh. It weighed 28 pounds and fired shells filled with one- 
half ounce of concentrated prussic acid and a small powder charge 
fired by a 10-second fuse. On May 12, 1862, at 11 a. m., a whale was 
struck with the harpoon gun and sounded, carrying out 4 lines (480 
fathoms). At 12 noon the whale surfaced and a prussic acid shell 
was fired into it. The whale submerged for 4 or 5 minutes, and upon 
surfacing, another shell was fired into its body. The whale then seemed 
quite helpless. Three harpoon guns were fired into the body as the 
whale lay on its side, and at 12:30 it was quite dead. 

In 1866 there appeared in France a paper by Thiercelin on the 
employment of strychnine and curare as a means of hunting the large 
cetaceans (Thiercelin, 1866). The experiment was carried out with 
the aim of improving the method of whale hunting. Two problems 
presented themselves; first, how to effect the greatest possible dissemi- 
nation of the poison and, second, how to cause the greatest absorp- 
tion of the poison in the shortest possible time. The choice of what 
poison to use caused trouble, since whales sometimes exceed 100,000 
kg. Finally, there was selected the most soluble of the salts of strych- 
nine’? united with a twentieth of curare.® 

As a result of a large number of experiments upon terrestrial mam- 
mals (dogs, rabbits, horses), Thiercelin found that this poison em- 
ployed in a minimal dose, resulted in the death of these animals in the 
space of 12 to 40 minutes, according to: (1) Being porphyrised, (2) 
being dispersed in a large wound by means of insufflation, and (3) 
being administered in a dosage of five ten-thousandths (0.005) of a 
gram per kilogram of the animal if the animal weighs more than 10 
kilograms. A larger dose caused a more rapid death; if the dose was 
less the animal recovered. The larger the animal being experimented 
with, the smaller the proportionate quantity of poison necessary to 
cause death. 


7 Mitchell (1929, p. 788) states that strychnine characteristically produces tetanic con- 
vulsions which are recurrent; lockjaw is a constant symptom. Death, in humans, has 
been known to ensue within as short a time as 12 minutes, but usually occurs in from 
% to 2 hours. In rare cases with fatal ending life has been prolonged for one or more 
days (p. 789). See also Henry (1924, pp. 190-191). 

8 Mitchell (1929, p. 771) says that “curare exercises both a paralysing and tetanising 
action, but it appears to owe its chief poisonous properties to its action on the motor 
nerves, which it paralyses, so that an animal under its influence dies of suffocation from 
paralysis of the muscles of the chest. .. . curare produces tetanus just like strychnine.” 
See also Henry (1924, p. 191). 


Anturor, Par, No.24] POISON WHALING—HEIZER 457 


The whales, in actual experiments performed by Thiercelin (de- 
scribed below), were inoculated with 0.005 gram per kilogram of body 
weight. Cartridges were made, each containing 30 grams of toxic 
mixture, one being sufficient to kill a whale of 60,000 kilograms or 
less, and two would be enough to kill the largest whales of the Arctic. 
Each cartridge was inserted in the powder of an ordinary explosive 
projectile known as the bomb lance.® After these preparations, Thier- 
celin shipped on a whaling cruise to make actual experiments. Ten 
whales were shot with bomb lances containing poison capsules. All 
died in a length of time indicating that he “had not presumed too much 
in the energetic action of the poison.” 


Case 1.—August 20, 1863 (Coral Sea, Chesterfield Islands). 

A rorqual, already wounded but still full of vigor and upon the point of 
escaping from the whalers, received a bomb lance in the abdomen. It died 11 
minutes after penetration, in convulsions and without sudden starts. 

Case 2.—August 22, 1863. 

A free whale received, accidentally, a bomb near the tail. The wound pro- 
duced would never have been mortal by an ordinary bomb. The animal acted as 
though it had an attack of tetanus. This state lasted 5 minutes and was followed 
by death. 

Case 3.—December 5, 1863 (on the Australian coast). 

A killer whale received a bomb in the dorsal fin. It exhibited a general 
trembling and small convulsive movements for 2 minutes. After 2 more minutes 
of automatic progression, it turned turtle, presented its ventral side to the air, 
was undeniably dead, and sank.” 

Case 4.—May 10, 1864 (in sight of one of the Kurile Islands). 

Another killer whale (Fr., jubarte) received a bomb and exhibited the same 
Symptoms as in the preceding case. Death followed 4 or 5 minutes after 
inoculation.” 

Case 5.—August 1, 1864 (Sea of Ochotsk). 

A polar whale received a bomb. It sounded immediately, and died near the 
shore in 15 fathoms. No movement could be ascertained. 

Case 6.—February 2, 1865 (Baja California, Santa Margarita Bay). 

A California gray whale received a bomb and died, so to speak, with the thrust. 
It sank in 10 fathoms in water clear enough to enable one to say that it made 
no movement. 

Case 7.—February 28, 1865. 

A female of the same species nursing a young one which had been made fast, 
received a bomb. For 10 minutes it exhibited several convulsions and a general 
trembling, then died on the surface. 

Case 8.—March 1, 1865. 

A bomb struck a whale, already issuing blood. It sank in 20 fathoms and died 
in 8 or 10 minutes without apparent movement. 

Case 9.—July 2, 1865 (Hast Cape, Bering Sea). 


®A lance with an explosive cartridge on the head and shot from either a shoulder gun 
or a heavier swivel gun attached to the rail of the whaleboat. 

10The killer whale is notoriously easy to kill. It was never hunted commercially by 
deep-sea whalers. 

“It is a curious coincidence that Thiercelin should be practicing poison whaling in the 
Kurile area where it was formerly an aboriginal technique. 


458 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Butb. 133 


A polar whale, held by two harpoons, received a bomb. Tremblings, ete., as 
in the preceding case. Death at the end of 10 minutes. 

Case 10.—September 6, 1865 (East Cape, Bering Sea). 

A polar whale, attached by a harpoon, received almost at the same time, two 
bomb lances. It exhibited the same symptoms as outlined in case 9, and died 
after 18 minutes, 

Of these 10 poisoned whales, 6 were “tried out.”?2. The blubber 
chunks were handled without excessive precautions by men having 
scratches and even recent (open) wounds on their hands, without a 
single one experiencing the slightest accident. Two whales be- 
longed to a species which is not regularly fished for, and the other two 
were lost as a result of the fortunes of the chase independent of the 
new (poisoning) method. Of the 10 whales receiving poisoned bombs, 
all died in a lapse of time not exceeding 18 minutes, and, if one does 
not object to the numerous wounds made by the lances and ordinary 
bombs which did not cause the death of the animals attacked, it is 
not possible to deny or gainsay the influence of poison on the whales. 
These marine mammals appear to be more susceptible to the action 
of the poison than all the terrestrial mammals. “By reason of this 
sensibility,” said Thiercelin in 1866, “there will be opportunity for 
the future to practice with diminishing the dose of the toxic agent 
for effecting a less immediate death.” The differences in the elapsed 
time between the wounding and death is probably attributable to the 
variable dispersion of the poison, depending upon the more or less 
complete fragmentation of the bomb, as well as the location of the 
wound. Thiercelin concludes by pointing out that the several ob- 
scurities and inconclusive results are due to difficulties attendant upon 
controlled or laboratory experiments. There can be little doubt, how- 
ever, that the method is an extremely effective one. 

There is suggested by the foregoing data a parallel between the 
aboriginal and modern poison whaling in the effort to keep the 
technique a secret. Fundamentally, secrecy in each instance had 
an economic motivation. Among the Koniag, for example, pos- 
session of a whale automatically gave the owner the privilege of 
giving it away—in this way his social prestige was elevated. I 
have treated the question of how and why these people maintained 
secrecy regarding the extraction and use of poison for whaling and 
refer the reader to this earlier discussion. We have noted the fact 
that in 1831, the date which marks the first recorded attempt to 
employ poison on modern, commercial whaling ships, the firm 
which innovated the practice attempted to keep it secret. It was 
not possible to do so, however, since the crew talked and other firms 
or individuals in other ports learned of the technique and tried 


12 The process of boiling the blubber to extract the oil. 


ANTHROP, Pap. No. 24] POISON WHALING—HEIZER 459 


it out. Among the Koniag each whaler found it expedient, for 
his own ends, to keep silent—the whale hunters constituted a closed 
group. Why modern poison whaling was not more widely accepted 
is difficult to say. There is no proof that men were ever killed by 
handling the whale blubber from animals killed by poison. The 
story may have been an excuse on the part of the whaling crews, 
to avoid implication in this type of whaling which, if accepted, 
would necessitate smaller crews and would result in fewer jobs. 
At any rate, our evidence does not indicate that the idea was ever 
accepted and turned to commercial advantage. 


THE MODERN USE OF HEAVY NETS IN WHALE CATCHING 


It is difficult to determine how early large nets were used in 
the modern whale fishery. The early Basque, Dutch, and New Eng- 
land whalers are not known to have employed nets in this connection. 
Clark gives an account of a certain Captain Josiah Ghenn, a Province- 
town whaleman, who attempted to capture a bowhead whale off the 
coast of Labrador in 1848 with a net made of whale-line. (Clark, 1887, 
p. 248. Cited by Spears, 1908, p. 225.) The net was 159 fathoms 
long and 8 fathoms deep with large meshes. After the net was set in 
aright angle out from, and then turned parallel to the shore, a bowhead 
whale entered the net and carried it away. 

In the Faro Islands in the north Atlantic, blackfish (Globicephalus 
melas) enter the fiords in great numbers. The herd is prevented 
from escaping by a large net 200 fathoms long, 8 fathoms deep, 
made of 9-yarn rope with lead sinkers at the bottom and oak barrels 
for floats (Clark, 1887, pp. 306-307). This fishery is reported as 
early as 1584, but whether nets were used at this early date is not 
stated. 

In the Norwegian fiords, in the neighborhood of Bergen, whales 
are impounded with nets stretched across the narrow entrance 
of the bay. Here, however, the net is used to prevent the whales 
from escaping, rather than entangling them as a means of capture 
(Brunchorst, 1899). 

In New Zealand, a large net made of three-quarter inch wire rope 
with a 6-foot mesh and buoyed with barrels, is put out to sea from 
a point of rocks. The whale gets entangled, is seen from shore by 
the lookout, and boats are put out to harpoon and lance it. (Kelly, 
1906. Mentioned also by Fraser, F. C., 1937.) 

This concludes our survey of modern whale netting. Parallels 
are suggested by these data to the aboriginal use of nets for catching 


8 Scoresby (1820, vol. 2, p. 173) says the English used rope nets for whales in the early 
seventeenth century, but further details are lacking. 


460 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bu. 133 


whales. The Japanese method of setting out a net in the open sea 
and entangling the whale by drawing the two ends together by 
boats (see pl. 22) has no modern parallel. The use of lookouts (noted 
also for the Faroe Islands, Bergen fiord, and New Zealand) in Japan 
is explainable in functional terms of shore-whaling—i. e., whale hunt- 
ing by small boats which put out from shore when a whale is sighted. 

The whale netting of the Olutorski Koryak is similar in this respect 
to the modern whale netting described above, viz, anchoring one end 
of the net on land. Inside the entrance of the bay, the net is placed 
by the Koryak so as to intercept the whales as they enter. There is 
nothing specifically like this recorded by modern whale netters— 
the New Zealand instance probably approaches the manner in which 
the Koryak net was set. 

There need only be added here that there seems to be no historical 
connection whatever between the aboriginal poison-lance whaling of 
the east Asiatic coast and Aleutian Islands and the modern European 
and American instances referred to above. The same is probably 
true of whale netting, but it must be remembered that Europeans 
were at a very early date whaling in the Japan Sea. Japanese whale 
netting must have been seen and described by Europeans and the mere 
transmission of the idea may have stimulated attempts to use them. 
This may, however, be doubted on the grounds that the Japanese 
use nets for entangling whales in the open sea, while all the modern 
instances recorded here refer to the setting of nets along the shore. 
The two are different, and the question obviously cannot be solved on 
logical grounds. There is no recorded evidence that the Japanese 
stimulated others in recent times to take up their rather unusual 
whaling technique. To have done so would have been a difficult 
undertaking, and it would be costly, since great numbers of men 
were needed; ** it might be said that Japanese whaling, however ef- 
fective, was extremely inefficient in modern terms of labor and invest- 
ment, considering the economic returns. Of course, only a rich Japa- 
nese could indulge in the whaling business on such a scale (Kempfer, 
1811, pp. 705-706), but the point I am making here is that it would 
be economically unprofitable in these days. This point is of possible 
further application in regard to the whole large question of the dif- 
fusion of whaling techniques, not only in modern whaling, but that 
of aboriginal forms as well. A specialized hunting method such as 
this is may not readily diffuse unless certain conditions are favorable. 


M4 Mobius (1893, p. 1056) says that at one coastal whaling station (Ichibuura) there 
were 587 people employed, 440 of which were rowers of the small boats. There is a record 
that in 1884 a Japanese whaling company employed 100,000 men. (State St. Trust Co., 


1915, p. 34.) In Buro-American culture, the labor costs would have prohibited anything 
of this sort. 


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OLson, R. L. 
1936. The Quinault Indians. Univ. Washington, Publ. Anthrop., vol. 6, 
No. 1. 
Oscoop, C. 
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PetRorFtT, I. 


1884. Report on the population, industries and resources of Alaska. Dept. 
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ANTHROP. Pap. No. 24] POISON WHALING—HEIZER 467 


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SAVAGE-LANDOR, A. H. 

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468 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BuLL,. 133 


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Russ. Reiches, vol. 1. 


BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 133 PLATE 18 


— 
SS ee 


THE WHALE FISHERY OF THE GREENLAND ESKIMO. 
(After Eggede, 1763, pl. opp. p. 78.) 


BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 133 PLATE 


19 


GREENLAND WHALES AND HARPOON WITH BLADDER. 
(After Eggede, 1763, pl. opp. p. 48.) 


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P Z¢6l A C681 IqOW Aq AT {Ns peonp 68 I O6Z1I '9SOX PF XA Iysiy xX TeUM J al F AT[PULSIIC) 


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O¢ ALV1d €€1 NILATING ASOIONHL]A NVYDIMSAWY AO NvaHna 


PEATE 21 


BULE EIN 133 


BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 


DISPATCHING THE ALREADY HARPOONED AND NETTED WHALE WITH LANCES, JAPAN. 


(From the volume of plates accompanying the Report on Fisheries, by G. B. Goode, 1887, Section 5.) 


(‘fesoX eprueA Aq ‘BureyAA JO sainqoig wos AjjeuisuQ) ‘apeym oy Suryovosdde Siouoodivy iM si¥oq a10N 


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SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 
Bureau of American Ethnology 
Bulletin 133 


Anthropological Papers, No. 25 


The Carrier Indians of the Bulkley River 
Their Social and Religious Life 


By DIAMOND JENNESS 


469 


ti; ) ; “aM h, i i Aye . i i hot a "i ‘4 nh a i ay 
Ce te acter cn atte acres i ies Surah Pr saat eaten Be tacts hety 
if | orn y 7 whe ay vintaant We ret Mem oe 
“t a r Ba iy Nf Oni ic Pcaidetyig to ters . 
aK sr eed itt eatluG 
ni Neh cemeae emt i! eee Le dieoinfonl yah) hee 


DY oi ff gal (flo tay) by eaedfral ngteny > 48h 
Cr iy lid ay neh eu Dim tnbnot waif? | 


5 pen 


eae lon a, e Banat tious a 


CONTENTS 


Brera cen mah Luis EEL SALES SU he See TA SRO ES ee ees eee 2 ee 
Location and relations with neighboring peoples_________________--___- 
TEA ERTL TEMES G0 Tes eso amr cece Ni at nC cee Pe a I 
Relations with surroundinesnecoplesae sas anes eae eee ee 
LECCE RlReN! Cavey TOW WAL Ae) a ey ents Sy a RS Ee Se ee Sel es 
1 SVG he ered] pe ee a a a en RE TE 
( OOS T Sa A ER SNe RRC gh  L RUAN OTA E I RS aE ety BO AR 
ditlestormo bless. 5.12 ty ait eee Mea te eel ee UE ee fe es, 
Tables of peerage, or titles and seating arrangements_—_--______ 
restos aneanG PETSONAls = = esas yesh SOs ie eee ee EN ee 
Wlamicrestse Se s)2 Seeks LAAs Uea Reem Pe rae 2 hf i See ee 
Hable:of clanverestge seats eli SOE 2 eh Dees Bee ii 
IReTGSOMAMCTEStS $)2)S x aia cree eer ys Bly ae a le all a ca 
psble OL personalicrests..20 5 Niele fhe Ce a a 
CCUIEED Ss a 592A aR i, RR 20 EIR ei ated Oth SE 
TENDS. GYRGID OL ae Il DE OTIS Pe ph i nl get Sgt vi it ag 
erms. of kinshipyand relationships 22) 2 = sue ee 2 ls eer Oe Se 
Dares WUSa Uy CMe ge ek i EN ead Ss panes A ae Re Ue ng Oe UR ea LL 
Miedicinewnene == S528 ye eich BE SN ao De abe nod | boy Sessa lute 8 
ADpEnGixel. Veuuimtingesberrmiteries. 22 ULL le WON a 2 es Sih ee ea aN 
Cri G MING ATAU bn a Tey eee ah tes ae Dee 9 Gy i 
ACIS CRINVAT SD MNES bjyi en emer Soest com atm oP SN GC cease crite, ae te aie se 
GAS yin Phin Liye ese Se a ee OEE Aa ee at SP 
laksamshujphretrye oes eer eye wey © Sa OPN REIMER eR LI on 
ALUSSEEATAUT 70) 011 1 cy Geet eee an Ce nUnree VeS yayaeM ee oh nyt ee RR CREEL RE Se Uae ATOR 
Appendix 2. Phratric organization of other Carrier subtribes___________- 
Braserlsakersulo Gripes GNia ttl evyitenrne) esse eens meena ce eee 
indako Rivemsubtribe CNustsent) te eso a ee See 
Cheslatta Lake Indians (Tatchatotenne).__._..._.-2.2.-__-22-._-- 
Stony Creck subtribei(Yuta’ wotenne)o 42: 2505426 5555 Poe eee 
MaMa CUPTes CLG ds ccs ope ale at ee gk oa a et ats tay Tk a a 

ILLUSTRATIONS 

PLATES 

DA Mederniyiliace of Lapwil Atos coe tee Ley Ma eS NE ee 


25. 1, Canyon in the Bulkley River showing the modern high-level bridge 
and the ruins of the old village of Hagwilgate below the cliff. 2, 
ABvor, eraser family outsideitsholse: 222252020002 452580 ed Nee 

26. A Fort Fraser Indian wearing a cloth replica of the ancient costume, 
thatishowsihis clan:crestiontthe back. 22 2 oh oe ee Eee 

27. Scenes at a potlatch held by the Laksilyu phratry at Hagwilgate_______ 

28. Hagwilgate Carrier dramatizing his personal crest________.____-__---- 

29. 1, A Hagwilgate Indian’s tombstone, depicting his crest. 2, The four 
totem polesta tbls o-wailio- sem smug meeier pee et ee ener Ru Rel 

SOmeeC arrierfamilviat Alkatchouseme eo ler 2 Li Vi ee ea ee 

SieMCarriencirliaressin pa nides wae aeenee 2 Do La ee Se es Sok 


405260—43——_31 


Page 
473 
475 
475 
477 
482 
482 
484 
489 
491 
495 
495 
497 
501 
505 
513 
519 
526 
539 
559 
581 
581 
581 
582 
582 
583 
584 
584 
585 
585 
586 
586 


586 


586 


586 
586 
586 


586 
586 
586 


472 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BuLu, 133 


32. 
33. 


34, 


61. 
62. 


Fish-traps in the canyon at Hagwilgate- .o.=..2- i 22a ee 
1, Village of Fort Fraser, on Fraser Lake. 2, Grave of Bini at Hagwil- 


1, Old Paul wearing his top hat and purple sash. 2, Hagwilgate 
Indian in Kalullim costume, viz., cedar-bark head band and neck- 
ring; leather coat with pearl buttons; cloth apron with pendants of 
beads, thimbles, and deer hoofs; and cloth leggings--____...___-_-_- 


TEXT FIGURES 


Subdivisions of the Carrier Indians, British Columbia (map) -________-_ 
Diagrammatic plan of old Carrier village, tse’kya, ‘‘Rock-foot,”’ 
beside the Hagwilgate Canyon on the Bulkley River, British Colum- 
bia; a-g mark the fishing places of the various phratries--________-_- 


Page 
586 


586 


586 


476 


PREFACE 


This report is the outcome of a visit to the northern interior of 
British Columbia during the winter of 1924-25, when I spent 3 months 
at Hazelton and Hagwilgate, and periods of about a week each at 
Fort Fraser, Stony Creek, and Prince George. I made no attempt to 
investigate the material culture or the language of the Carrier Indians, 
since these subjects had been adequately covered by Father Morice. 

The spelling of the numerous Indian names has presented some 
difficulty. In the field they were recorded phonetically ; but since this 
report has little value for linguists, and a welter of phonetic symbols 
would unnecessarily increase the difficulties of the reader, the words 
have been reduced to their nearest equivalents in English spelling, and 
only those special characters retained that seemed absolutely indispen- 
sable. These characters are: x, sound of ch in Scotch loch or German 
ach; x, sound of ch in German ich; q, the uvular equivalent of k; 
z, voiceless 2; w, sound of aw in Jaw;° (period above the line), denotes 
double length of the preceding vowel or consonant; ’ (above or after a 
letter), glottal stop; and ‘, breathing. Ch represents the sound of ch 
in church. 

The folk tales collected during the same winter have already been 
published under the title “Myths of the Carrier Indians of British 
Columbia.” (See Jenness, 1934.) 


473 


ie matty Mike 3 _ = wolel Laan 
Me: eee ba he i AK Ay 


m0 
ey ie “3 i 


Aid fans 
1 aaa ie ee 
' % See, » nt 


tk, 


Pein el ae ' 
34 Pentre ty AA ‘iy eee ga . i Ab 
aC ily cies Ais, aaa 
ae a Sei PE eens aaa Le as ero 
fon Raphi etme tate 4 OS oR a smhaare i es "7 a 
Cee Se eh eh, Wea bot Muti) He oS 
40 rogua? Gal Hei n fit tein 0 ‘ AUNTIE, nee | 
ae ark sevoet & Peay en ae (ry A a wishin’ gy 
Van og soar! ie tio sh Ais ‘ebsinag, Dahil; alive auth thei 
mS tae ieunatte | Oh ebare. y TOOK, Aol frre ny Sane 
4 bee variety ald Vo aude geal acl) 4 Seo SESS meth | 
HG EU BE tet i ey Om iy Ulodiseinala toed fad Bde 
iy eoeeoe atnaeasey eel wontnin “OsibiT) auotsen oe oe hp 
acd Bee aorre tod + whlanitarcestey. bubrooss s eepriey yest platy alt ca td 
e pisdteres. vitae ta aul far: 6 cn Staberdath ya cule aie 
Berto ott deoturiry oll) to aelstandhrb auth aapertorl ating 
| bitty antitleg: Hetty at ag minaletips: leote na His (tbs | 
“ sanaeysi tice nuHaleads bat iheaues, ad Pate? (104 ardiaeriels: Loa hvawegal 
seGILORD ty ob) Haingbh seh day Ys Faywnive yoo eEh rata am 
ass id Healeriage pans (ht: “y past ude skD BE bia ; 


f ant os oa: Pi alt oy Hay Roe i naoien ¥ py. hy ie 
AO 10 bat he fet) ator AY Mate Wei hide ry ote basset 


fron! eas ao Me 8 ee ise alt! metivey) bis tintin ats 
aeiatitl 30. mented taieent) wilt Fo adiyth” ataiy: eh biased 
oa CN a ASAE Bats anh ea 


Bas gh eh 


THE CARRIER INDIANS OF THE BULKLEY RIVER 
THEIR SOCIAL AND RELIGIOUS LIFE 


By DIAMOND JENNESS 


LOCATION AND RELATIONS WITH NEIGHBORING PEOPLES 


The westernmost subtribe of the Carrier Indians, the Hwitsowitenne, 
“Clever People,” as it called itself, occupied the basin of the Bulkley 
River, an important tributary of the Skeena in northern British Colum- 
bia, together with a block of territory that extended for an uncertain 
distance to the south (fig. 61). Flanking it on three sides were other 
subtribes of the same Carrier nation, but on the west were Gitksan 
Indians of the Tsimshian stock, whose nearest village, Hazelton, lay 
only 4 miles from the Carrier village of Hagwilgate (pl. 24). After 
1800 there were many disturbances of population in this area due to 
epidemics of diseases, the growth of European settlements, and the 
greater ease of communication through the building of roads and a 
railway. Many Carrier families were blotted out and their places 
taken by immigrant families from other districts; and there was much 
intermarriage with the neighboring Gitksan Indians. Today the sub- 
tribe numbers rather more than 3800, and has two main settlements, 
Hagwilgate and Moricetown, while a few families reside at other 
villages along the line of the transcontinental railway. Some of the 
Indians remain in their settlements throughout the entire year, others 
cut ties for the railway in winter, or hunt and trap in remote districts 
where the land is not yet preempted by white settlers and game still 
survives in fair numbers. Two or three families even roam occasion- 
ally as far south as the Eutsuk lake area, which the Bulkley people in- 
corporated into their territory after the earlier inhabitants, who seem 
to have formed a distinct subtribe, were destroyed by an epidemic of 
smallpox about 18388. In summer, again, there is generally a slight 
movement to the coast, where a few natives find employment in the 
salmon canneries during the fishing season. 


EARLIER HISTORY 


To recover the history of this Bulkley River subtribe prior to the 
nineteenth century seems impossible. Its members claim that they 


475 


476 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Botn, 133 


originally possessed one village only, Dizkle,, “Dead trees all point- 
ing in one direction,” which they locate on a site now farmed by a 
white man at Mosquito Flat, 12 miles east of Hazelton on the Bulk- 
ley River. Here, whither the salmon ascended in huge shoals, the 
Indians had built houses on both sides of the river, and constructed 


“SNU'TSEN 


RUEUER Goices 
= => ap 


SS 


> } “ fe ge 
i) Pepe 


, a ¢ 
Rational fNluseuin of Canada) j { 


FiaurE 61.—Subdivisions of the Carrier Indians, British Columbia 


a dam from one bank to the other. The cluster of houses on the 
right bank was known as Kwatso, “Excreta,” and the larger cluster 
on the left bank Hahwilamax, “Place where people throw away 
turnips,” because in the vicinity were many wild “turnips” that the 
Indians both roasted for food and tossed like balls to one another 
on a large sand bar in the middle of the river. Hahwilamax boasted 
of one very large house, Tsam’dek’ (said to be buried now 21% feet , 
under the ground), which was the residence of Guxlet, the chief of 


ANTHROP. Pap. No. 25] THE CARRIER INDIANS—JENNESS 477 


a small section of the subtribe, the Thin House clan of the Gilserhyu 
phratry; for though all members of the subtribe, and even Gitksan 
Indians from the Skeena river, Carriers of the Babine Lake subtribe, 
and Sekani from beyond Babine Lake, gathered at Dizkle each year 
to trap the migrating salmon, the surrounding territory (called 
Dizkle: like the village) was the hunting reserve of this one section 
of the Bulkley subtribe, and no one might hunt there except members 
of the same phratry. The Hagwilgate canyon, then as now, was 
the boundary line between the Bulkley Carrier and the Gitksan 
Indians, who had a permanent home of their own at Temlaham, 4 
miles below Hazelton; and the dispersal of the two peoples from their 
respective villages, Dizkle: and Temlaham, led to the establishment 
of all the modern villages in the area, to Moricetown and Hagwilgate 
by the Carrier subtribe, and to Hazelton, Kitwanga, and other places 
by the Gitksan. 

So runs one tradition of the Carrier. According to another, Dizkle: 
was the original home of three distinct tribes, the western Carrier, 
the Sekani, and the Gitksan. Superstitious fear when two squirrels 
inspected their dam made them scatter and flee to their present homes; 
and the passage of years has produced their present differentiation 
(Jenness, 1934, p. 241). 

I have examined the supposed site of Dizkle-, and Harlan I. Smith, 
archeologist of the National Museum of Canada, has visited the tra- 
ditional site of Temlaham. In neither place did we discern any 
traces of a permanent settlement. One may reasonably doubt, there- 
fore, whether the two villages, glorified by similar legends, ever held 
the prominent place that tradition assigns to them, if indeed they 
ever existed outside the fertile imaginations of the Indians. 

At the opening of the nineteenth century the principal fishing- 
place and village of the Bulkley Carrier was at Moricetown. Hag- 
wilgate was established only about 1820, when a rock slide in its 
canyon almost blocked the river and allowed very few salmon to pass 
beyond (pl. 25, fig. 1). Most of the inhabitants of Moricetown then 
moved en masse to the canyon and built new homes on a narrow shelf 
below it; but they abandoned this rather inaccessible site toward the 
end of the century and established their present village on the ter- 
race above. The last survivor of the migration from Moricetown, 
Satsa’n, died in 1914 at the age of about 90. 


RELATIONS WITH SURROUNDING PEOPLES 


Ease of travel in modern times has brought the Bulkley Indians 
greater knowledge of their fellow Carriers to the east, and revealed 
to them other Indian tribes in British Columbia of whom they were 
ignorant in earlier days. This greater knowledge is reflected in the 


478 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BuLL. 133 


accompanying sketch-map, which outlines their conception of the 
names and boundaries of their own and other Carrier subtribes in 
the latter half of the last century. (See fig. 61.) 

Of the easternmost Carrier they apparently knew very little until 
recently; but with their fellow-Carriers of Babine and Fraser Lakes 
the Bulkley people always maintained close and friendly relations, 
marred in the case of the Fraser Lake Indians by only one feud of which 
they retain any recoliection. Equally friendly were their relations 
with the Gitksan Indians; the difference in their speech neither de- 
barred intermarriage, nor hindered the Bulkley Indians from absorb- 
ing many culture traits from their more advanced neighbors. The 
Gitksan controlled the trade route down the Skeena River to the coast 
that brought to the Carrier objects of shell and copper in exchange for 
moose hides and various furs. The coast Tsimshian, who were the 
principals in this trade, tried to eliminate the Gitksan middlemen 
about 1850, and, themselves ascending the Skeena, established a yearly 
market on an open flat at the junction of that river with the Bulkley. 
There for several years they carried on so amicable a trade with the 
Carrier that a few of the latter ventured to accompany them back to 
the coast and to pass the winter months in their midst; but about 1866 a 
quarrel over some transaction led to a fight in which both sides sus- 
tained several casualties. One account states that the Tsimshian re- 
turned the following summer and demanded the surrender of the Bulk- 
ley River valley in compensation for their losses; but that they never 
took possession of the area, though the Carrier agreed to their terms. 
More credible, however, is the following version of the conflict and its 
issue : 

The Tsimshian ascended the Skeena in about 50 canoes and camped at Mission 
Flat, where that river is joined by the Bulkley. In the course of bartering a Hag- 
wilgate Indian quarrelled with a Tsimshian man over the price of some article and 
fired his gun to intimidate the dealer. Thereupon the Tsimshian, fearing treach- 
ery, seized their weapons and shot indiscriminately at men, women, and children; 
snd the Hagwilgate natives retaliated. Finally the latter retreated to their vil- 
lage, and the Tsimshian, loading up their canoes, hurried back to the coast. For 
three years they did not return. Then a large party appeared in ten canoes, and 
the two peoples concluded peace at a great potlatch in which the Tsimshian, as 
the aggressors in the fight, paid compensation for every Carrier who was slain. 

Besides the Tsimshian proper, Indians from the Nass River visited 
the Bulkley Carrier in order to barter oolakan grease for marten and 
other furs; and more than once the Carrier, pressed by famine toward 
the end of winter, themselves traveled through the territory of the 
Gitksan to one or other of the Nass villages in order to purchase oolakan 
and other food. Yet they have always disliked the Nass River people, 
and still remember with bitterness an episode that occurred about 
1864. The story, as related by one of the last survivors, who in 1924 


ANTHROP. Pap. No. 25] THE CARRIER INDIANS—JENNESS 479 


was a blind old man tottering toward his grave, throws an interesting 
light on the customs of the Indians at that time. 


One winter when our people were starving, my family, together with my uncle 
Gyedamskanish, Bini, the chief of the Beaver phratry, and many others traveled 
overland to Gitlaxdamks village on the Nass River to buy oolakan grease. Soon 
after our arrival my father discovered that one of the inhabitants bore the same 
title and crest as himself, and, claiming kinship, ordered me to lodge for the 
night with his namesake while he and the rest of the family lodged elsewhere. 
He came to the door early next morning and said to me, “We have bought all we 
want and will leave the village before noon.” So a number of us started back 
for Hagwilgate, and after traveling a few miles camped near a stump that 
supported a huge stone. I and some other youths tried in turn to push this 
stone over, and when it crashed to the ground under our united efforts we raised 
a shout of victory and returned to our camp. 

Now, some Gitwinlkul men who were passing heard our shouts and came to 
see what was happening. My father said to them, “Our lads were merely pushing 
a stone off a stump.” But they answered, “That was the gravestone of the late 
chief of the village.” Greatly alarmed, my father begged them to keep the deed 
secret, but they immediately went on to the village and spread the news every- 
where. Then a woman rushed weeping into a house where some of our people 
were eating and cried, “Why do we feast these wretches? They have disturbed 
the grave of our chief.” About half our people, led by Bini, retreated inside 
another house; the rest hastened after us and told us to flee, because Nass, 
Kispiox, and Gitwinlkul Indians were all mustering in pursuit. We did flee, but 
the Nass natives overtook and captured those who were in the rear. One cap- 
tive, a noblewoman named Anklo’, they proposed to enslave, but she said to them, 
“You cannot make me a Slave, for I am the daughter of a chief. If you carry 
me off as a captive, you must take also two Slave girls for me to lean upon. 
Besides, why do you want to make me a prisoner? Neither I nor my family 
touched the grave, but Gyedamskanish yonder and his family.” They led her 
away nevertheless, and with her two slave women to attend to her wants. A 
Kispiox Indian then disarmed Gyedamskanish, who said to them, “Remember 
that Iam a chief. What are you going to do with me?” “You must return with 
us,” they answered, “to pay for the insult you offered the grave.” “Take my 
brother also,” he said, “We will die together”; and when they paid no attention 
to his words he turned to his brother and said, “Come. Let us go together.” The 
two men were led out onto the ice of the river and ordered to run up and down 
while their enemies mocked them and shot at them with guns. Gyedamskanish’ 
brother dropped dead at the first shot, but Gyedamskanish himself, though fre- 
quently wounded, ran up and down for nearly half an hour before he fell with 
a bullet through his thigh. The Nass Indians then burned their corpses and 
returned to Gitlaxdamks. 

Meanwhile an influential Indian had concealed another of my uncles inside a 
large chest, and when the villagers searched the house sat on top of it and refused 
to move away; his countrymen dared not disturb him on account of his high 
rank. My uncle’s wife stood near him, grasping a large knife in readiness to stab 
the first man who molested her husband or herself, but no one laid a hand on 
her. Bini and the rest of our people barricaded themselves inside another house 
throughout the night, while their enemies threatened them from outside and 
occasionally fired off their guns. 

Early the following morning the principal chief of the village sent round word 
to all the houses that the fighting should cease and that our people should move 
over to his house along a path strewn with the white eagle-down that symbol- 


480 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BuLL. 133 


izes peace. Preceded by a messenger carrying a white feather, he then con- 
ducted them to our Camp, a day’s journey away, and we returned home without 
further mishap. 

Some time afterward a party of Nass Indians came to Hazleton to conclude 
a peace with us. They assembled within the potlatch house beside a huge pile 
of blankets, and we went down from Hagwilgate and stood outside, myself and 
another youth, the nearest relatives of Gyedamskanish, in the forefront. After 
our enemies had presented us with a number of blankets, we followed them in- 
side the house and ranged ourselves along one wall while they lined up against 
the other. Every man was dressed in his finest clothes and carried a gun and 
a knife, but, to prevent trouble, I and my companions sat in front of the Nass 
River chief and two Nass youths occupied corresponding places in front of our 
chief. As soon as we were thus seated, the two ringleaders in the murder ap- 
proached us and placed a red-tipped feather on each of our heads to indicate 
that they intended to pay full compensation. Then one of them delivered a 
speech declaring that they wanted to make peace, and, shaking a rattle, danced 
and sang a sonet. The sonet that he sang is a special chant used by Carrier, 
Tsimshian, Haida, Kitimat, Bella Coola, and other tribes whenever they make 
peace with each other. Though I know the words, I cannot understand their 
meaning, because they are in neither the Tsimshian nor the Carrier tongue. 

As the man repeated the song, both his Nass companions and my own people 
joined in. I, for my part, rose to my feet and, to show that he was smoothing out 
the issue, held flat on my outstretched palm a tail feather from an eagle. But 
before the singing ended I thought to myself, “They haven’t paid us enough,” 
and I turned the feather on its edge. Immediately the man broke off his chant, 
and his people added more blankets to those they had surrendered to us already. 
He then began his song anew, and this time I held the feather flat on my hand 
until he ended. Since we all felt too sad to hold a feast in common, my kinsmen, 
without further delay, gathered up the blankets and returned to Hagwilgate, 
while I and my companion, to cement the peace, stayed 4 days in Hazelton with 
the Nass Indians and danced with them each evening. 

Two years after my uncles were murdered some of us went over to the Nass 
River, collected their bones, and deposited them on top of a pole at Hagwilgate. 
At the same time we brought back Gyedamskanish’ widow, whom the Nass 
Indians had detained after her husband’s death. 


Still another coast people with whom the Bulkley Carrier came into 
conflict were the Kitimat Indians of Douglas Channel, a Kwakiutl- 
speaking people who sometimes hunted beyond the divide of the Cas- 
cade Mountains within the basin drained by the Zymoetz and Telkwa 
Rivers. It is noteworthy that both the Kitimat and the Carrier Indians 
were divided into five phratries, one of which was named the Beaver, 
and that neither a five-phratry division nor a phratry called the Beaver 
seems to appear anywhere else in British Columbia. This supports 
the tradition of the Bulkley Carrier that they borrowed several fea- 
tures in their peculiar social organization from the Kitimat Indians 
(Jenness, 1934, p. 232), and suggests that a few centuries ago the con- 
tact between the two peoples may have been more intimate than in 
recent times, when the Gitksan have lodged between them like a wedge. 
A well-frequented trail leads from Kitimat to Terrace and there forks, 
one branch leading up the Skeena River to the Bulkley, and another 


AnTHRoP. Pap. No. 25] THE CARRIER INDIANS—JENNESS 481 


up the Zymoetz River to the Telkwa, which again leads to the Bulkley. 
It would seem not impossible that the Carrier Indians once controlled 
the Skeena River down to Terrace and the boundary of the Kitimat 
Indians, but were then driven back inland by the Gitksan, who perhaps 
crossed over from the Nass River. To speculate further in this direc- 
tion, however, is futile until we know in detail the social organization 
of the Kitimat Indians and can compare it closely with that of the 
Carrier. 

With the Bella Coola Indians, the Bulkley Carrier had no direct 
relations, although they may have met a few individuals when visiting 
the Carrier subtribes in the Eutsuk lake and other areas to the south 
and southeast. They were better acquainted with the Sekani of the 
Findlay and Parsnip River Basins who often visited the north end of 
Babine Lake during the nineteenth century, probably also in earlier 
times; and they vaguely remember the now extinct T’set’sa’ut as an- 
other Athapaskan-speaking tribe, living behind Gitwinlkul, that was 
destroyed by the Tsimshian or Nass Indians. Some assert, indeed, 
that the inhabitants of Gitwinlkul itself once spoke the T’set’sa’ut 
tongue, and that a T’set’sa’ut woman was a slave for many years among 
the Tsimshian of the coast. Concerning the Tahltan of the Stikine 
River Basin they had little knowledge until the middle of the nine- 
teenth century, when the two peoples sometimes met at Bear Lake or 
at Old Fort Babine; yet it was doubtless a vague rumor of the Tahltan 
that gave rise to the legend of a semihuman race far to the north, the 
Na’ani, wonderfully skilled in hunting (Jenness, 1934, p. 242). Today 
the Bulkley Carrier call both the Sekani and the Tahltan itateni, or, 
more rarely, by their Tsimshian name T’set’sa’ut; but neither tribe 
has ever influenced them appreciably, or promoted any changes in 
their material culture, or their social and religious life, comparable with 
the changes promoted by the nearer Kitimat and Gitksan. 

Among these surrounding peoples the Bulkley Indians, like a many- 
tentacled cephalopod, had wandering feelers gathering sustenance 
that enriched the community’s life. Yet there was no central ner- 
vous system to coordinate the movements of the feelers and to assimi- 
late or reject their booty, no ruling chief or established council to con- 
trol the actions of the different families and govern their relations 
with the outside world. Like other Carrier subtribes, the Bulkley 
natives were divided into a number of fraternities or phratries, each 
intimately associated with the others, yet politically independent. 
The phratries assembled and lived together at the same fishing places 
each season, they joined in common feasts and ceremonies, and they 
united at times to repel a common danger; but they all owned sepa- 
rate hunting territories to which their members repaired for the 
winter months, and they associated at will with foreign peoples even 


482 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Buin. 133 


when these might be hostile to others of their countrymen. Since 
there was no regulation of foreign intercourse and trade and no 
hindrance to marriage outside the community, foreign ideas and 
foreign customs could take root in one family or phratry without 
permeating the others. It was only the constant association, the ties 
of kinship and marriage, the uniform dialect, and the pressure of 
common interests that counteracted the strong centrifugal tendencies 
and knitted the phratries into a definite, though headless, unit 
justifying the name of a subtribe. 


POLITICAL ORGANIZATION 
PHRATRIES 


The Bulkley Carrier recognized five phratries, which they named 
Gitamtanyu, Gilserhyu, Laksilyu, Laksamshu, and Tsayu. 

The suffix yu or shu in these words means “people,” and the prefix 
gi in two of them has the same meaning in Tsimshian. Only one 
of the five names, Tsayu, “beaver people,” is a true Carrier word, 
the rest being derived apparently from other sources. 

Of the other Carrier subtribes, the Babine Lake, west end of Fraser 
Lake, Cheslatta Lake, and Fort Fraser, recognized the same five 
phratries under exactly the same names,? except that the Babine 
Indians called Laksilyu, the third phratry, Kwanpe’hwotenne, 
“People of the fire-side,” while the Cheslatta Lake and west Fraser 
Lake subtribes gave to the second phratry, Gilserhyu, the name 
Tso’yezhotenne, “the small spruce people.” 

The Stony Creek subtribe, on the other hand, recognized two phra- 
tries only, Gilserhyu and Yesilyu (=Laksilyu). With regard to the 
Stuart Lake subtribe there is some uncertainty. Father Morice | 
(1892-93, p. 203) states that it possessed only four phratries, Lsama- 
eyu, Tsayu, Yasilyu, and Tam’tenyu; but a Sekani Indian of Fort 
McLeod, who was related by marriage to the Stuart Lake people, 
said that there used to be five, and gave names for them that coin- 
cided with Morice’s names, except that he substituted Eske for 
Tam’tenyu and added the fifth phratry Kwanpahotenne. I suspect, 
therefore, that there were originally five phratries at Stuart Lake 
just as elsewhere, but that in Morice’s day two of them had amal- 
gamated, as happened to two phratries among the Bulkley Carrier 
about 1865. 


1Lakselyu is evidently laxse’l, the name given by the Gitksan Indians of Hazelton to 
the Frog-Raven phratry; and laksamshu is probably the same as laxsamillix, the Hazelton 
name of the Beaver clan in the Eagle phratry. 

2? Apart from minor dialectal differences. 


Anrunop, Pap. No. 25] THE CARRIER INDIANS—JENNESS 483 


Hagwilgate, the westernmost Carrier village, lies only 4 miles from 
Hazelton, a village of the Gitksan Indians, and the two peoples 
commonly intermarry and participate in each other’s ceremonies. 
The phratries of the one subtribe then equate with the phratries of 
the other; and a man or woman who at Hagwilgate belongs to the 
Gitamtanyu phratry is attached to the Laxgibu phratry at Hazelton. 
But the Gitksan Indians have only four phratries to balance the five 
of the Carrier, so that one phratry has to equate with two. The 
following table shows how the two systems amalgamate: 


Carrier Gitksan 
Gitamtanyult eee ee Laxgibu (Wolf phratry). 
Gilserhyu and Laksilyu_. Laxse’] (Frog-Raven phratry). 
Makan Shes se eae Gisra’ast (Fireweed phratry). 
UST aa beste Maen Sea ERAT Be No Laxsamillix (a clan of the Laxski’k or Hagle phratry). 


The phratries were the most important units within the sub- 
tribe. Though each was divided into two or more clans that had 
their own chiefs and distinctive crests, the phratry overruled its clans 
in many ways. Thus it regulated marriage, for no man could marry 
a woman of his own phratry, even though she belonged to a different 
clan in that phratry, and to another subtribe or nation. It took an 
active interest in all the relations of its members with the members 
of other phratries, supporting them in their grievances and bear- 
ing the responsibility of their misdeeds. Through its chief (who 
was always a chief of one of its clans) it controlled the division of 
the hunting territories among its members and acted as a unit in 
resisting aggression by other phratries. If the members of one clan 
erected a totem pole, the members of other clans within the phratry 
contributed generously to the expense and regarded themselves as 
part owners, so that it was not merely a clan totem pole, but be- 
longed in a measure to the whole phratry. Furthermore, the phra- 
tries extended beyond the boundaries of the subtribe far more widely 
than the clans, so that a man’s phratric affiliation gained him sup- 
port and help where his specific clan was unknown. The first ques- 
tion asked of a stranger (if it were not apparent from his dress or 
tattooing), was not “what clan does he belong to,” or even “what 
subtribe does he belong to,” but “what is his phratry?” And any 
Laksamshu man, for example, who found himself in a strange 
Gitksan village looked for a house belonging to the Fireweed phratry 
(the phratry corresponding to his own) and sought there the pro- 
tection that he could claim on no other ground, perhaps, than mem- 
bership in a common phratry. 


484 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Buu. 133 


CLANS 


The following table shows the clans into which the phratries 
were divided, and gives the title of the chief who ruled each clan. 


Phratry Clans Title of Chief 
Gitamtanyu_-____- A, Grizzly House (Kyas-ya‘)______ Ww.s (“‘Whale’’). 
Bl, House in the Middle of Many Giste-hwa. 
(kaiyawinits). 
IBZ VANSKASKI Oe Sioa See Medi’k (‘*Grizzly 
Bear’’). 
Gulserhiyai= ae 2") A, Dark House (ya‘tsaolkas) ______ Netipish (‘Crane or 
Heron’’) 
B, Thin House (ya‘tsowitan) .____- Guxlet. 
C, Birchbark House (kai-ya‘)____- Samuix, 
Laksilyuc-tees se A, House of Many Eyes (giner- Hagwilnex}. 
klai-ya‘) 


B, House on Top of a Flat Rock Widaxkyet (Big Man). 
(tsekal-kai-ya‘). 
C, House Beside the Fire (kwan- Widak’kwats. 


per-ya‘). 
Laksamshu_- ------ Al, Sun or Moon House (sa ya‘)?__ Smogitkyemk. 
A2, Twisted House (ya‘hostiz) --__ 
B, Owl House (misdzi-ya‘) -______- Klo’mkan (‘‘Forest 
Slide’). 
Tsay tu ib. Lkone: Beaver House (djakan-ya‘)4______ Kwi's. 


The interpretations of these clan names are in some cases obscure. 
The Grizzly, Sun or Moon, Owl, and Beaver Houses derive their names 
from their principal crests; and the House of Many Eyes from an inci- 
dent in the legend attached to its crest.2 House in the Middle of Many 
was so-called because the house of its chief was once erected in the 
middle of a village; and House on Top of a Flat Rock because the 
house of a former chief at Moricetown was built upon a rock. The 
meaning of the word Anskaski, and the origins of the names Birchbark 
House and Twisted House, seemed unknown. For Kwanperya the 
Indians offered two different interpretations, “House Beside the Fire” 
and “House of a Small Bird named Kwanpe.” The title “Dark House” 
refers to the custom of quenching the house fire on the eve of a pot- 
latch, when the chief of the clan sang and danced in the gloom. The 
Thin House boasted leadership by two chiefs, one of whom had moved 
up from Hazelton when the village was established in the Hagwilgate 
eanyon. His old home (and section of the clan?) in Hazelton had 
borne the name “Robin’s House,” because tradition stated that its 
founder had once visited the nightly home of the robins in the land 
of the dead (Jenness, 1934, p. 144) ; but when he moved up with his 


3 The word sa means heavenly luminary, either sun or moon. 

According to one old man, the clan (and the chief’s house) was called Skeyuya‘: 
Eagle House, after its other crest. Possibly it had both names, the second, Hagle House, 
being more familiar to the neighboring Gitksan Indians. 

5 For the legends concerning these crests, see Jenness (1934, pp. 214, 225, 232). 


AnTHROP. Pap. No. 25] THE CARRIER INDIANS—JENNESS 485 


people to Hagwilgate, the clan name was changed to Thin House, be- 
cause the pillars in the new home were flattened on the inside instead 
of rounded. 

The clans have been listed in the order of their recent standing 
within their respective phratries. Yet the system was not absolutely 
rigid, for it underwent changes even during the last hundred years. 
About 1865 the Tsayu phratry was so decimated by smallpox that its 
members voluntarily incorporated themselves in the Laksamshu 
phratry, where they now rank merely as one clan. The Twisted House 
of the Laksamshu phratry was really a part of the Sun or Moon House 
that separated off under its own chief when the Sun House became very 
numerous. Similarly, the two clans in Gitamtanyu phratry, House in 
the Middle of Many, and Anskaski, had a single origin, though which 
was the earlier is now uncertain; a member of the House in the Middle 
of Many claimed priority for his clan, but at the present time the chief 
of Anskaski clan occupies a higher seat at potlatches. 

The head man of a clan was called tene’za’, “chief;” his wife (or 
the principal wife, if he had more than one), zegaiz*a. He was sup- 
ported by a body of nobles, skez‘a, most of whom were close kinsmen. 
Below the nobles were the common people of each clan, auxtaten’e, 
and below the common people the slaves, ene, who seem never to have 
been as numerous as among the coast tribes, and, indeed, owned by few 
Indians except the chiefs. The chief of the leading clan was the 
recognized head of the phratry, and the heads of the different phratries 
were coordinate in rank, though the one who had the largest follow- 
ing might possess more power and influence.* The principal settle- 
ments, Moricetown and Hagwilgate, contained representatives of all 
the phratries, usually also of all the clans. In such places the mainte- 
nance of peace and harmony rested on both the clan and the phratry 
chiefs. Each clan chief normally settled disputes that extended no 
farther than his own little unit; when they involved another clan in 
the same phratry, the head of the phratry, counseled by his clan 
chiefs, settled them ; and when they involved other phratries the heads 
of the phratries consulted, first with their clan chiefs, then with each 
other, decided the issues at stake, and arranged for any necessary 
compensation. 

In early times, when Moricetown was still the best place in the dis- 
trict for catching salmon, every clan had there its individual fishing 
stands, and every clan chief a permanent home. The settlement de- 
clined when the landslide 20 miles below partially blocked the Bulkley 
River, and the majority of the subtribe established the new village, 
Tsekya, “Rock-foot,” beside the Hagwilgate canyon. How many 


6 The strongest phratries at Hagwilgate today are the Laksilyu and the Laksamshu, which 
rank about equal, although the latter has the larger membership. At Moricetown the 
strongest phratry is the Laksilyu. 


486 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL 133 


houses this new village contained originally is not known, but after 
the smallpox epidemic of 1862 it possessed not only 9 large houses, 
each of which provided a home for perhaps 20 people, but also a num- 
ber of smaller houses that sheltered on the average 5 or 6. The 9 
large houses were the homes of the clan chiefs and their nearest rela- 
tives, and bore the same names as the clans, Grizzly House, etc.; but 
while the Gitamtanyu and Gilserhyu phratries were represented by a 
large house for each clan, Laksilyu had only 2 large houses, House 
of Many Eyes and House beside the Fire; Laksamshu only 1, Owl’s 
House; and the Tsayu or Beaver phratry no large house at all, having 
abandoned its dwelling when the epidemic carried away nearly all its 
members (see Plan, fig. 62). 


Re NAS ie Er rAg es 


ikl 


st ep @ Cannan 
ee sat {HI 
ppc 

Gs 


AN 


OQ0™ 90 


wo 
BSN 


\ 


o- ae 


CULM LB yo ges 


a 


Jtattonal flltuseum of Canada. 


Figure 62.—Diagrammatie plan of old Carrier village tse’kya, ‘““Rock-foot,” beside 
the Hagwilgate Canyon on the Bulkley River, British Columbia. 
a-g mark the fishing places of the various phratries. 


DESCRIPTION OF PLAN OF OLD CARRIER VILLAGE AT 
HAGWILGATE CANYON 


1. House of Many Eyes, Laksilyu phratry. This clan house was partly pre- 
served in 1924. 

la. Totem pole of this house, known as kaigyet. 

2. House in the Middle of Many, Gitamtanyu phratry. Partly preserved in 
1924. 

2a. Totem pole of this house, known as esril, “fungus.” 

3. Anskaski, Gitamtanyu phratry. In 1924 there remained of this house only 
two pairs of beams supporting a ridge pole. It had no totem pole. 

4. House beside the Fire, Laksilyu phratry. Of this house there remained 
only a few logs rotting on the ground. A flat stone that lay on the threshold 
served as an unusually fine doorstep. 


ANTHROP. PaP. No. 25] THE CARRIER INDIANS—-JENNESS 487 


5. Dark House, Gilserhyu phratry. This house also was reduced to a few rotten 
logs. It had no totem pole. 

6. Grizzly House, Gitamtanyu phratry. Its site was hardly discernible. 

6a. Totem pole of the Grizzly House, known as Grizzly Bear. 

7%. Thin House, Gilserhyu phratry. There remained on the ground a few logs. 
It had no totem pole. 

8. Owl House, Laksamshu phratry. A few rotten logs remained. 

8a. Totem pole of the Owl House, known as Fireweed, though today sometimes 
called Owl. It really belonged to the Beaver phratry. 

9. Birchbark House, Gilserhyu phratry. In 1924 its site was hardly discernible. 
It had no totem pole. 

A, B. Two houses of recent date, owned by Gitksan Indians of Hazelton. 

a-g. Fishing places owned by different clans but open to use by a member of any 
clan or phratry. 

m. Modern suspension bridge. 

Since the phratries were exogamous units, so also in consequence 
were the clans, although the decline of the system in recent years has 
permitted several marriages within the phratries. Children belonged 
to the clans and phratries of their mothers, not of their fathers, for 
inheritance and descent followed the female line. 

All the hunting territory of the subtribe was partitioned among the 
different phratries, and trespassing on the territory of another phratry 
without the consent of its chief led to quarrels and often bloodshed. 
Within the phratric territory each clan had its recognized hunting 
grounds that were theoretically subject to endorsement by the phratric 
chief and to any limitations and changes he might make in the 
interests of his phratry, but were practically inviolate as long as the 
clan was strong enough to resent encroachment. The families made 
mutual arrangements where each would hunt, and two or three gen- 
erally traveled and camped together. The country was too thinly 
settled to give occasion for many disputes, and such as did arise were 
settled by the clan or phratry chiefs. It is said that the phratry chief 
sometimes remained in the village all winter and did not go out to 
the hunting grounds, but was supplied with beaver, caribou, and 
other meat at irregular intervals by returning hunters. 

At the present time, individual noblemen who are not even clan 
chiefs claim possession of one or two small hunting grounds, and 
their claims are recognized by the rest of the Indians even though 
they admittedly violate the principle of phratric and clan ownership. 
But the clan and phratric chiefs have lost their authority, and game 
has become so scarce that many families do not find it worth their 
while to hunt, so that no one wishes to stir up trouble by disputing 
claims which, after all, have little value. How they first came to 
make these claims is not quite clear. Apparently they were insti- 
gated by the growth of individual rights in other directions brought 


405260—43——382 


488 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Buun, 133 


about by the decline of the phratries and clans, and by the indif- 
ference with which they had been permitted to reoccupy the same 
areas winter after winter for many years in succession. 

The division of the fishing grounds corresponded to the division 
of the hunting grounds. Each clan had the exclusive fishing rights 
over the lakes and streams within its hunting territories, subject 
theoretically to the jurisdiction of the entire phratry, exercised 
through its chief. Before the landslide occurred on the Bulkley 
River at Hagwilgate, the best place in the whole district for trapping 
the migrating salmon was at Moricetown, the common center of the 
phratries; and on the dam built there across the river most, if not 
all, of the clans had special stations where they could ply their 
gaffs or set their traps and baskets. The part of the subtribe that 
moved to Hagwilgate after the landslide subdivided among its clans, 
in exactly the same way, the various fishing stands in the Bulkley 
canyon; but the space was so limited, and fish so plentiful, that a 
member of any clan, in any phratry, might fish at any of the stands 
whenever it was not actually occupied by its proper owners. (See 
Plan, fig. 62.) 

Fishing places, and portions of the hunting territories, were often 
sold or given away in payment for certain services. If a chief or 
nobleman of one phratry contributed generously to the expense of 
a potlatch given by a nobleman in another phratry,’ the phratry 
that had received help, acting through its chief, might publicly 
“deed over” its fishing rights on a certain stream, or its title to hunt 
over a particular mountain. The new owners might retain these 
rights in perpetuity, but in most cases the transfer was regarded as 
a mortgage only, and the phratry that had originally owned the 
areas bought them back after three or four generations. In all such 
transactions the phratric chiefs played the leading roles, but they 
could not act without consultation with their clan chiefs and prin- 
cipal noblemen. 

The hunting grounds are now greatly restricted through the 
growth of white settlement, the construction of roads and a rail- 
way, the leveling of large areas of forests, and the blocking out of 
the land for villages and farms. It seems impossible today to map 
the original hunting areas of the various clans. Those that they 
now claim are widely scattered, and often of very small extent; 
yet it may be useful to list them in an appendix (see Appendix 1), 
if only to illustrate, what seems to have been true in earlier times, 
that the hunting territory of each clan was not a single strip of 


7Such a contributor was called antoma’na’k. Formerly the man who was giving the 
potlatch threw all contributions from outside his phratry into the fire, but since 1910, or 
thereabouts, they have been incorporated with the main pile of goods set aside for 
distribution, 


AnHrop, Pap, No. 25] THE CARRIER INDIANS—JENNESS 489 


country, but a number of discrete strips scattered here and there 
throughout the territory under the subtribe’s dominion. 


TITLES OF NOBLES 


Every clan boasted the exclusive ownership of a number of titles 
which carried a more or less definite ranking and alone bestowed on 
their owners the hallmarks of nobility. Women as well as men were 
eligible for all these titles, and a few, of no great importance, were 
even restricted to women. In general, accession to a title depended 
partly on inheritance, partly on the ability to give the potlatch 
necessary to make its assumption valid. The usual successor to a 
man’s title was his sister’s son or daughter; but if he had no children, 
or misfortune prevented the validation of the child’s claim by a 
proper potlatch, the title might pass to a more distant kinsman in 
the same clan, even one who previously had ranked among its com- 
moners. The boundary line between nobles and commoners was 
therefore fluid. The son of a chief never became a commoner, be- 
cause his parents, if only for their own prestige, invariably financed 
or contributed to the potlatch that gave him a title and opened for 
him the gate to nobility; but a grandson or great-grandson might 
easily descend in the social scale, if his parents neglected to ensure 
his succession by a potlatch and he himself lacked the necessary 
means. Descendants of nobles below the rank of chiefs naturally 
glided into the abyss more readily, because their parents’ means 
were limited and kinsmen did not always rally to their support. 
To climb the ladder again was difficult but not impossible, if we 
may trust the statements of present-day Indians, and the traditions 
that recount how friendless orphans through their own achievements 
married the daughters of chiefs and received the titles of nobles. 
Doubtless Carrier society, like many others, placed obstacles in the 
path of an aspiring nobody, and it was only through exceptional 
circumstances that a commoner could amass enough goods to give 
the one or more potlatches necessary for his elevation. Yet the his- 
tory of Satsa’n, a nobleman in the Gilserhyu phratry, bears out the 
traditions of the Indians that the barriers were not insuperable. 

Satsa’n’s ancestors, a century ago, were commoners without genealogical 
history or prominence who occupied at potlatches any place they could find in 
the vicinity of their fellow phratrymen. In the first half of the nineteenth 


century, however, One of them proved so skillful a carpenter that Widaxkyet, 
a chief in the Laksilyu phratry, engaged him to carve a totempole, promising 


8 Whether it could pass to a commoner of the same phratry, but in another clan, is not 
clear. The clan affiliation of a commoner seems to have been less fixed than his phratric 
affiliation, so that few objections would be raised if the title were relatively unimportant, 
and the man could make out a plausible genealogy. Even if he had no kinship claim, he 
could probably “jump” the title, provided he possessed sufficient influence. 


490 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BuLL. 133 


him a rich reward. The man worked on the pole all winter while the rest 
of the people were hunting; and when he had finished the carving he covered 
the pole with birchbark to hide it until the day of erection. The pole was 
duly raised into place at Moricetown, and stood there until about 1870 when 
it fell and was burned. At the close of the festivities connected with its erec- 
tion the carpenter found himself possessed of so much property (partly gained 
by gambling) that he decided to give a potlatch on his own account. He 
therefore invited all the people, and before distributing his presents stood up 
and proclaimed, “Hereafter let me not sit in a corner like a nobody, but in 
front of my phratry in a special place beside the fire. And let me be known, 
not by my own name, but as Satsa’n.” The chiefs of all the phratries con- 
sulted together and acceded to his request. He thus acquired a special rank 
that was neither a nobleman’s nor a commoner’s; but his niece, who succeeded 
to the title, ranked as a noble, though she retained the special seat beside 
the fire. Why the carpenter chose the title Satsa’n, which belonged to a 
Gitksan chief of Kitselas, on the Skeena River, the present-day Carrier do not 
know; they merely deny that there was any bond of kinship between the two 
families. 


Although a title never passed, apparently, from one phratry to 
another, it was sometimes transferred temporarily, and perhaps per- 
manently, from one clan to another within the phratry. Thus, a 
few years ago, when a member of the Dark House clan in the 
Gilserhyu phratry died, the clan transferred one of its nobles, 
Axal’kan, to the Thin House to repay that clan’s members for their 
contributions to the funeral expenses. Under present conditions it 
really makes no difference whether Axal’kan’s successor returns to 
the old clan or remains in the new, for the big semicommuna! dwel- 
lings that used to be the chief outward signs of the clan have 
disappeared. The Indians seemed to think that Axal’kan’s transfer 
was temporary only, and that the title would be “bought back” on 
some future occasion; but that permanent transfers had formerly 
occurred for special reasons, such as compensation for murders. 

At the present time there are more titles in each clan than there 
are people qualified to fill them, so that nearly every man or woman 
who wishes to adopt a new one can choose between several; but 
whether this was the case in earlier years also is not certain. With 
the decline in population many titles seem to have found no claim- 
ants and dropped from memory. Others, again, may have been 
superseded by newer titles; for just as Sir Arthur Wellesley, after 
his victories in Spain, became the Duke of Wellington, so a Carrier 
nobleman could commemorate some event in his life by adopting a 
new name and establishing it among his countrymen by a potlatch. 
His earlier title then dropped out of use, or, more often perhaps, 
was bestowed on his probable heir, who passed it on to his own 
heir whenever he himself succeeded to the new-found name. 

At feasts the clan chiefs sat together, the chief of the second 
ranking clan on the right of the phratry chief (i. e., the chief of 


Anrurop. Pap, No. 25] THE CARRIER INDIANS—JENNESS 491 


the principal clan), and the chief of the third clan, if there were 
more than two, on the phratry chief’s left. The nobles then sta- 
tioned themselves nearer or farther from their chiefs in accordance 
with their rank; and directly in front of each man or woman sat 
the probable successor, nearly always a nephew or a niece. The 
commoners and such slaves as were admitted lined up at the back 
or wherever they could find room. 

We are not unfamiliar, in our own society, with the serious dis- 
putes that have resulted in the course of state functions whenever 
the Ambassador of Timbuctoo has ventured to claim precedence over 
the Minister of Tierra del Fuego. Among the Bulkley Carrier sim- 
ilar quarrels arose over the order of seating at feasts and ceremonials, 
for this order was liable to change from one generation to another. 
At the present day they recognize the following arrangement, or 
“table of peerage,” as it may be called, but a hundred years ago it 
was certainly rather different. 


TABLES OF PEERAGE, OR TITLES AND SEATING ARRANGEMENTS 
GITAMTANYU PHRATRY 
Clans: A, Grizzly House; B, House in the Middle of Many, and Anskaski 


Rear 
TOW BSE EB ae BG b> BA BS Ag Bile WAI B2) SA3 (Ad Abe AG 


Second row: B3a A2a Bla B2a 


Front row: B9 B10 Bll 


Titles 

B8, Holits (Skunk).’ 

B7, Sowi:s.” 

B6, Hoigyet. 

B5, Wa’silop’. 

B4, Kano’ts. 

B38, Na’ok. 

A2, Djolukyet. 

Bl, Medi-k (Grizzly Bear), chief of Anskaski clan and 2nd ranking chief in the 
phratry. 

Al, We's (Whale), chief of the leading clan Grizzly House, chief of the 
phratry. 

B2, Gistehwa, chief of the clan House in the Middle of Many and third ranking 
chief in the phratry. 

A8, Skalit. 

A4, Samsmahix. 

A5, Gu’kyet. 

A6, Guxwog (Sleepy). 


1 Since the last holders of these titles died a few years ago, none have come forward to 
take their places. 


492 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Buun, 133 


Baa, Ismediks (Grizzly cub), who is the legal successor to B3, Na’ok, and 
therefore sits directly in front of that nobleman. 

A2a, Baxchan (War-leader), the legal successor of A2, Djolukyet. 

Bla, Goqaiuwil, the legal successor of B1, Medi-k. 

B2a, Atne (Bella Coola or Kitlope Indian), the legal successor of B2. 

B9, Dettsan (Raven), who must sit somewhere in front to the right of the 
chiefs. 

B10, Hwille- wi, who must also sit in front to the right of the chiefs. 

B11, Nagwa’on (Long Arm), who must sit in front to the left of the chiefs. 


A title Anklo’, belongs to the clan House in the Middle of Many, 
but the position of its holder is not known. 


At the present time there is attached to the phratry a Gitksan man bearing 
the Gitksan title Axgotdemash (Heartless, Cruel). Having no proper seat 
at potlatches he finds a place near the door, although he is trying to enroll 
himself in the Anskaski clan and recognizes its leading man Medi-k as his chief. 


GILSERHYU PHRATRY 
Clans: A, Dark House; B, Thin House; C, Birchbark House 


Rear row. <L. BG64- Bo-: B4.1A4i VAS = A2 B38 Bis tAls Bot Weiler? 


ZN 
Third row: Als, Aib) (Cillae Gib 
Second row: Coe C40 Bi, BSe B89 A5 
Front row: C5 
Titles 


X1, Altu:z, a nobleman of little importance whose clan was not ascertained. 

B6, Bita’nen. 

B5, As’ten (Fraser Lake Indian). 

B4, Gwatsikyet (He Who Cuts off Heads with a Knife). 

A4, Anabel’s. 

A3, Nustel (Wolverine). 

A2, Weli (Back-pack). 

B83, Ne’k (Slave). 

Bl, Guxlet, chief of the Thin House clan. 

Al, Netipish (Blue Heron), chief of the Dark House clan and chief of the 
phratry. , 

B2, Chaspit, second chief of the Thin House clan. 

C1, Samuix (Species of Small Bird), chief of the Birchbark House clan. 

X2, Sama’t, whose clan was not ascertained. 

C2, Gwitsin’alu (alu, bunched together, but the meaning of the full name was 
unknown). 

Ala, Mas’gibu (White Wolf), who sits directly in front of Al, the head chief, as 
one of two possible successors. 

Alb, Guita’: the second possible successor of Ai for the chieftainship. 

Cla, Chani (Marten): a niece and possible successor of Cl for the chieftain- 
ship of the Birchbark House. 

C3, Guxkalkalas. 

C4, Nenesenoxikaix (Let Some One Ferry Me Over in a Canoe). 

B7, Tenezik (Dead Man): more often called by the equivalent Gitksan work, 
lulak, 


ANTHROP. Pap. No. 25] THE CARRIER INDIANS—JENNESS 493 


B8, Kana’u (Gitksan word, Frog}. 

B9, Axal’kan (Gitksan), or Wusnik (Carrier) (Crazy). 

A5, Mistu’s (Buffalo or Cow). 

C5, Satsa’n, who occupies a special position near the fire in the center of the 
house. 


LAKSILYU PHRATRY 


Clans: A, House of Many Eyes; B, House on Top of a Flat Rock; C, House 
Beside the Fire. 


Riearroweeee Bobo Pb leAdl Cl A? As AL 
Front row: B3a B2a Bla Ala Cla 


Titles 


X, Dikyanteittam, whose clan was not ascertained. 

B3, Hataxkumex. 

B2, Dzi. 

Bl, Widaxkyet (Big Man), chief of the clan House on Top of a Flat Rock and 
second chief of the phratry. 

Al, Hagwilnext: chief of the clan House of Many Hyes and principal chief of the 
phratry. 

Cl, Widak’kwats (Grizzly’s Big Dung), chief of the clan House Beside the Fire 
and third chief of the phratry. 

A2, Kela. 

A3, Maxlaxlexs. 

A4, Dikyannulat (Grizzly that Bites and Scratches Trees). The present holder 
of the title, since becoming a Christian, does not attend potlatches, and 
his seat has been taken by Gwinu’, a Tsimshian Indian from Gitwinlkul, 
for whom there was really no seat. 

B3a, Stalo’p (Rain of Stones), who as the legal successor of B3 sits directly in 
front of that nobleman. 

B2a, Wiste:s, the legal successor of B2. 

Bla, Gowichan (He Who Pays the Blood-price), the legal successor of Bl for 
the chieftainship of the clan. 

Ala, Gyedamskanish (Mountain Man), nephew and legal successor of Al for 
the chieftainship of the clan and leadership of the phratry. 

Cla, Axgot (Heartless), the legal successor of C1 for the chieftainship of the 
elan House Beside the Fire. 

There are three other titles in this phratry. The title Klbe’kansi (klbe, 
“dentalium”), which belongs to the clan House Beside the Fire, has been 
assumed by a woman who sits anywhere behind the other nobles; Xa (“Goose”), 
which belongs to the clan House on Top of a Flat Rock, entitles its owner to 
sit anywhere that he can find room; and Negupte, which belongs to the same 
clan, has dropped out of use and the seat taken by its last possessor is not 
remembered. 

The Hagwilnexl who preceded hig nephew, the present Hagwilnexl, as chief 
of the House of Many Eyes and chief of the phratry, lived originally at 
Trembleur Lake, where he was either a nobleman in the same phratry, or its 
chief. When he moved to Hagwilgate in the latter half of the nineteenth 
century he succeeded, on the strength of some marriage connection, in wresting 
the title and chieftainship from its proper heir, Kela. There is consequently 
much ill-feeling in the House of Many Byes clan, kept alive by the former 


494. BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Buun. 133 


and present chiefs’ use of the clan hunting and fishing territories, to which 
as strangers from another subtribe they had no legal right. 


COMBINED LAKSAMSHU AND BEAVER PHRATRIE 
Clans: A, Sun House, including Twisted House; B, Beaver House; C, Owl House 


Rear row: BS B24 B3 (B2)) BVA UCI VA2 TAS C2) Xa 
Second row: Cla 
Front row: X2 


Titles 


B5, Wigetumstchol (a Tsimshian word meaning “Large Beaver Man’). 

B4, Namoksu (Tsimshian word). 

B3, Wila’t (Tsimshian word meaning “Echo”). 

B2, Mat (Tsimshian word meaning “Mountain Goat’’). 

B1, Kwi's, chief of the Beaver phratry and now second chief in the combined 
phratries. 

Al, Smogitkyemk (Tsimshian word of which the last syllable means “Sun”) ; 
chief of the Sun House and principal chief in the combined phratries. 

C1, Klo’mkan (Forest Slide), chief of the Owl House. 

A2, Gutseut (Short Belly). 

A3, Amgyet (Resurrected). 

C2, Sa’pek (Tsimshian word). 

X1, Biste’i (Tsimshian word meaning ‘“‘Grouse”) ; the clan that owned this title 
was not ascertained. 

Cla, Kitsilchak (Picks up Weapon Hastily) ; should succeed to the chieftain- 
ship of Owl House, but the title has fallen into disuse. The man who 
would normally inherit it has taken the title Axkis (Bald-head). 

X2, Skokamlaxa (Tsimshian word); the possessor of this title came from 
Gitsegyukla (Skeena Crossing), and has no proper seat in the phratry. 


There has been much confusion and dissension in the Laksamshu and Beaver 
phratries, since their fusion about 1865. Because the Laksamshu Sun clan was 
at that time the strongest, its chief became the dominant chief in the combined 
phratries and occupied the highest seat. The chief of the Beaver phratry then 
became the second ranking chief in the combined phratries, and the chief of the 
Owl House, or clan in the Laksamshu phratry, the third ranking chief. The 
last position (C1), however, was inherited by a woman who has few relatives 
to support her and at potlatches generally finds her seat usurped by the next 
ranking noble in the phratry, Gutseut (A2). Her husband claims that she 
should legally be the ranking chief of the combined phratries; that Smogitkyemk 
(A1) was originally chief of the Beaver phratry, and Klo’mkan (C1), ranking 
chief in Laksamshu phratry, with Gutseut (A2), the second chief, and Amgyet 
(A383), the third chief; and that Klo’mkan, after acquiring Amgyet’s title also 
when its former owner died without descendants, has been pushed aside by 
Smogitkyemk and Gutseut. Other natives denied this, however, and asserted 
that Smogitkyemk had always been the title of the leading chief in Laksamshu 
phratry, the head of the Sun House. In addition to the dissension on this score, 
there is ill-feeling between Kwi-s (Bl) and Smogitkyemk (A1), the former 
wishing his phratry to have the precedence and himself to be the leading chief, 
as was his predecessor and uncle, a man named Kwiss or Bini, who led a strong 
religious movement in the subtribe. The Beaver phratry, its present chief 
claims, is rapidly increasing in numbers, while the Laksamshu is now declining. 
It seems probable that the two phratries would separate again if the social 


Anrurop. Pap. No. 25] THE CARRIER INDIANS—JENNESS 495 


system retained its old life, but the younger generation of Indians holds it in 
slight regard. 

A cursory perusal of these peerage tables will indicate that many 
of the titles are in the Tsimshian tongue; in some, perhaps most, 
cases they coincide with titles actually in use among the Tsimshian. 
Yet only about a third of the Bulkley Carrier seem to have understood 
and spoken the Tsimshian language, so that the bearer of a title 
often knew little or nothing about its origin and real significance. 
This does not mean, however, that the Bulkley natives slavishly 
copied and borrowed from their Tsimshian neighbors. Their own 
system, though extremely fluid, was so full of vitality and life that it 
was capable of absorbing numerous elements from abroad without im- 
pairing its essential vigor. A more detailed examination of its struc- 
ture will substantiate this point, which is deserving of some attention 
because it indicates that the system, far from being a recent growth 
among the Bulkley Indians, has a history extending back over several 
generations. 

CRESTS, CLAN AND PERSONAL 


CLAN CRESTS 


The Bulkley Carrier, like our forefathers in medieval Europe, 
publicly represented their division into “houses,” or clans, by the 
display of certain crests (nettse’), of which every clan boasted at 
least one, and usually several. Such crests were carved on the clan 
totem poles, painted or carved on the fronts of the chiefs’ houses, 
painted on chiefs’ grave-boxes, represented at times on the ceremonial 
hats and blankets the chiefs wore at dances (pl. 26), and tattooed on 
the chests of the clansmen, on the wrists of the clanswomen, by close 
kinsmen of their fathers, who, of course, belonged to other phratries. 
Occasionally an individual was tattooed with his father’s clan crest 
instead of his own, although this required permission from the chief 
of his father’s clan. With nearly every crest went an origin legend 
that was not regarded as clan property, and might be related by any 
member of the tribe except at potlatches, when a sense of propriety 
restricted its narration to a clan member, generally to the highest- 
ranking member of the clan. Over the crests themselves, however, 
there was a jealous feeling of proprietorship, so that their representa- 
tion by another clan in the same phratry without the consent of their 
owners led to serious friction, while their usurpation by a clan in 
another phratry was almost unthinkable. In clans that had several 
crests, one (or occasionally two) generally ranked very much higher 
than the rest, because it was more deeply rooted in the local history 
and traditions. This crest was then as permanent as the clan, and 
deeply concerned the entire phratry, which felt toward it the same 


496 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bunn 133 


proprietorship as it felt toward the clan. On the other hand, the 
minor crests, being of comparatively slight importance, could conceiv- 
ably be alienated or even dropped. 

Clan crests were not restricted to natural objects, but included 
mythical beings and manufactured articles. The Indians paid no 
special regard to them when they were birds and animals, but, if the 
creatures were edible, killed and ate them without ceremony. They 
did, indeed, ascribe a certain kinship between themselves and two or 
three of the most conspicuous crests, conceiving that the relationship 
gave them a certain measure of protection. Thus, if a man of the 
Laksamshu phratry encountered a whale that seemed likely to en- 
danger his canoe, they believed he had merely to call out that he 
belonged to the Laksamshu phratry (which reckons whale as one of 
its principal crests) and the whale would leave him unharmed; even 
if he belonged to another phratry, but his father had been a Lak- 
samshu man or his mother a Laksamshu woman, he could obtain the 
same immunity by calling, “My father (mother) was a Laksamshu,” 
which was equivalent to saying, “I am one of your children.” Simi- 
larly, a Laksamshu man, or the child of a Laksamshu man, was 
credited with power to stop continuous rain by waving a piece of 
burning birchbark and calling for sunshine, because the sun also 
was an important crest in the phratry. 

A Bulkley Indian named Saiyella, while hunting with his wife some 40 
years ago, came upon two grizzly bears eating berries on a hillside, and, in 
spite of his wife’s warning that two grizzlies were too dangerous for one man 
to hunt, loaded his flint-lock and went after them. By careful stalking he drew 
close enough to shoot one animal, but as its body rolled down the hillside, the 
ether grizzly clambered the slope to attack him. Unable to retreat, he rolled 
some big stones down on top of it, but still it continued to advance. He shouted, 
“Ha-a,” and the bear stopped to listen, but after a moment moved towards him 
again. Then half weeping with fear, he shouted, “Why do you want to kill 
me, you grizzly. I am a Gitamtanyu man and you are my crest. Let me 
alone.” Hurriedly ramming two more bullets down his muzzle-loader, he 
climbed a big rock, and when the grizzly came directly below him, shot it in the 
head. It rolled over and over down the hill, and as it rolled, he mocked it, 
shouting, “Why are you rolling down and down? I told you that I was a 
Gitamtanyu man and you persisted in attacking me. Why are you rolling 
down now?” 

In spite of these instances, however, where one or two crests ap- 
peared to carry a totemic flavor it would be a mistake to look upon 
the system as really totemic. More correctly the crests were emblems, 
serving much the same purpose as the coats-of-arms adopted by the 
nobles of feudal Europe; and the representation of a clan crest on the 
house of a chief closely corresponded with the coat-of-arms carved 
over the gateway of a baron’s castle, and the national flag that waves 
over our embassies, 


TABLE OF CLAN CRESTS 


GITAMTANYU PHRATRY 
GRIZZLY HOUSE 


Grizzly (kyas) and Wolf (yis)—A Gitksan Indian specially engaged for 
the task carved these two crests on the clan’s totem pole in the Bulkley canyon. 
Below the summit, which was uncarved, was the figure of a wolf head down- 
ward; beneath the wolf was the grizzly standing up; and at the base of the 
pole, the grizzly seated. To explain the origin of both crests, the Indians 
invoke a single legend, “The Woman Who Married a Grizzly” (Jenness, 1934, 
p. 129), although the wolf does not appear in the recorded version of that 
legend. 


HOUSE IN THE MIDDLE OF MANY, AND ANSKASKI CLAN 


Raven (Dettsan).—This crest was represented in the Bulkley canyon by a 
carved image of a raven above the large dwelling of the clan House in the 
Middle of Many, and by two images, one above the other, on the totem pole 
in front of that house. The Carrier deduce the origin of the crest from the 
legend of the raven that perched itself on top of a totem pole in the land of 
the dead and gave warning of the approach of enemies (see Jenness, 1934, p. 
234), a legend that they also cite to account for the origin of Guxlet, the title 
of the second chief in Gilserhyu phratry. 

Fungus (esrit).—Below the two ravens on the totem pole just mentioned is 
the figure of a man to whose back was formerly attached a large hollow ball of 
wood made in imitation of an enormous fungus. This represented the crest 
Fungus. Tradition states that the Hagwilgate members of the clan House 
in the Middle of Many once contributed very generously to a potlatch given 
by Nelli, a chief of the Gitamtanyu phratry among the Nitchaotin or Alkatcho 
subtribe to the south. At that time Nelli owned and was using as his crest an 
enormous ball of fungus, the right to which he transferred to his Hagwilgate 
helpers. They did not take the ball north with them, but hired a Moricetown 
Indian of another phratry, the Laksilyu, to carve a wooden imitation and 
attach it to their totem pole, which in consequence received the name esril, 
“fungus.” 

Weasel.—This crest was represented on the ceremonial headgear worn by 
the chief of the Anskaski clan, perhaps also by the chief of the other clan House 
in the Middle of Many. 


GILSERHYU PHRATRY 
DARK HOUSE 


Logs Carved as Men (tutlemale:t).—This clan, like the other two clans of the 
Gilserhyu phratry, did not erect a totem pole, but at Hagwilgate displayed its 
crest inside the clan dwelling of the chief, which formerly had a row of carved 
images opposite the door. 


497 


498 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 133 


THIN HOUSE 


Three Stars (of no special constellation) .—This crest was represented on the 
old house of the clan in the Hagwilgate canyon by three holes in the front 
wall. Today the chief, who lives in a modern frame house on the terrace 
above, has only one star painted above his door. The natives seemed to have 
no explanation for the crest. 

Frog.—On the old clan house in the canyon, a frog was painted on the outside 
of the door. There was some disagreement concerning the origin of the crest. 
The majority of the Indians cited the legend of the “Girl Who Married a Frog” 
(Jenness, 1934, p. 168); but one man cited the legend of the “Woman Who 
Married a Grizzly” (Jenness, 1934, p. 129). 

Small owl (deltsa).—This crest was painted on the outside of the door, beside 
the frog. Its origin seemed unknown. 

Fire.—The front of the old clan house was painted red like fire. The crest 
is explained from the legend of the mythical chief of the clan, Guxlet, who 
came out of the ground (Jenness, 1934, p. 234). 

Sidewalk (ye’n).—An early chief built a sidewalk in front of his house and, 
sitting there with his head covered with swansdown, issued invitations to a 
potlatch. When the people gathered for the feast he proclaimed that “side- 
walk” was to be regarded henceforth as his new crest, and endorsed his 
assumption of it by presenting each guest with a bowl of berries covered with 
mountain-goat fat. Thus only the Thin House possesses the right to build a 
platform or sidewalk in front of its clan dwelling and to regard it as a clan 
crest. 

tsim’yak’yak (meaning wnknown).—This is the name of the mythical totem 
pole in the land of the dead (Jenness, 1934, p. 148), and would be the name 
of the clan’s totem pole, if it ever erected one. Hence it ranks as a erest. 

gitamgiye’ks (meaning unknown).—This crest would be represented on the 
clan totem pole by the figure of a man with uplifted palms and an image of a 
boy on his head. Legend states that it was acquired by a former chief of the 
clan who ate devilsclub for a year in order to have good luck in his hunting. 
He then met in the woods a strange woman carrying on her back a baby that 
cried, “wa wa wa.” He snatched the baby away and, without placing it on his 
back, since it would have scratched and killed him, planted it in a tree beyond 
her reach, but finally restored it to her for a suitable reward. Thus the clan 
obtained the crest gitamgiye’ks: and if a man wandering in the woods should 
hear an unseen baby cry, “wa wa wa,” he will be lucky thereafter. 

Crane (dit).—The chief of the clan sometimes impersonated this bird at 
ceremonies. It was classed by the Indians as a clan crest, though it might 
equally well have ranked as a personal crest of the chief. No legend seemed 
extant. 

BIRCHBARK HOUSE 


Woodpecker (mansit).—This crest would be placed on the clan’s totem pole, 
if one existed, but it now receives adequate representation from its use by the 
clan chief as a personal crest. It is based on a legend of a pileated wood- 
pecker that was killed by a Carrier chief (Jenness, 1934, p. 236). 


LAKSILYU PHRATRY 


House OF MANY EYES 


Kaigyet (a mythical monster).—This is the principal crest portrayed on the 
clan’s totem pole in the Hagwilgate canyon, and gives its name to the pole. 


ANTHROP. Pap. No. 25] THE CARRIER INDIANS—JENNESS 499 


The chief of the clan also impersonated it at potlatches, when he put on a 
long-nosed mask of wood, hobbled with bent knees into the potlatch house, and 
stared at the audience. Its mythical origin is a subject of controversy; some 
Indians invoke one legend (Jenness, 1934, p. 214) and others another (Jenness, 
1934, p. 220). 

Mountain Man (gyedamskani:sh).—This crest appears upon the clan’s totem 
pole, near its middle, as a human being wearing a collar of twisted cedar bark. 
The heir of the clan chief bears the title Mountain Man and impersonates that 
being at potlatches, thus using a clan crest as a personal crest. Its origin is 
attributed to a well-known legend (Jenness, 1934, p. 229). 

Otter (nilzik’).—This crest is represented on the clan totem pole, near its 
summit, by the figure of an otter. It is also the personal crest of a noble in 
the clan, Maxlaxlaxs. The Indians could give no explanatory legend. 


HOovusE ON Tor OF A FLAT ROCK 


Many Small Frogs.—Half a century ago or more the clan erected a totem 
pole at Moricetown on which it carved both this crest and a second one, “Big 
Man”; but when the pole rotted and fell it was burned and never replaced. 
The Indians ascribe the erest’s origin to the same legend, “The Girl Who 
Married a Frog” (Jenness, 1934, p. 168), as is invoked by the Dark House of 
the Gilserhyu phratry to explain its crest frog, stating that, when the latter 
phratry adopted the big father frog as its crest, the Laksilyu phratry adopted 
the baby frogs because the mother had belonged to the Laksilyu phratry. 

Big Man (denitcho, or, in the Gitksan dialect of Hazelton, widarkyet).—This 
crest was represented on the now vanished totem pole at Moricetown. ‘The 
Indians knew no origin legend. 

Swan.—tThe Indians do not now remember how this clan crest was represented, 
if at all, and could give no legend to explain its origin. A nephew of the clan 
chief, named Negupte, used it as a personal crest, but after he died no one 
took over the title or adopted the crest. 


HOUSE BESIDE THE FIRE 


It was said that this clan had no crest until recently, when it adopted as its 
emblem a flag obtained from the Hudson’s Bay Company; but since there seems 
no evidence that the clan is less ancient than others, it probably possessed a 
crest, like all the rest, and for some reason dropped it. 


LAKSAMSHU PHRATRY 


SuN HOUSE AND TWISTED HOUSE 


Sun or Moon (sa).—If these two clans had erected a totem pole, this is the 
crest that they would certainly have carved upon it. At the present time they 
occasionally display it at potlatches in the form of a glowing plaque or ball 
that slowly moves across the ceiling of the house after the lights have been 
extinguished. The people greet its passage with a song, chanted in the Gitksan 
dialect: 

Behold the sun just rising ; 
Behold the sun in the middle of its course ; 
Behold the sun going down. 

They ascribe its origin, and the origin of the clan name Sun House, to a 

widespread legend (Jenness, 1934, p. 215). 


500 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BuLL. 133 


Whale (neht).—The chief of the Sun House, Smogitkyemk, impersonates this 
crest at potlatches. After sprinkling swansdown over his head, he marches 
to and fro outside the feast house, clad in a ceremonial skirt and garters, and 
wearing on his back a blanket decorated with a bone figure of a whale. Two 
heralds enter the house to announce his coming, and two men enveloped in a 
wooden model of a whale crawl in behind them. Finally, the chief himself 
enters, walks around the house and withdraws from sight behind a curtain. 
After an interval he re-emerges, crawling with three other men inside an enor- 
mous whale that conceals them from view. Slowly the monster moves around 
the house, opening and closing its stupendous jaw; and, as it disappears behind 
the curtain, the chief of some other phratry sings Smogitkyemk’s private chant 
(Sonet). Smogitkyemk then appears for the third time, wearing now the 
mask of a grouse, the third crest of his clan. With bent knees, and hands on 
hips, he jerks his head from side to side like a bird and begins to dance. At 
some stage in the ceremony he may, if he wishes, relate the origin legend of the 
whale crest (Jenness, 1934, p. 225). 

Grouse (chaddzat’?).—When the chief enacted this crest as described above, 
he called it a clan crest; but occasionally he portrayed it in a different way 
and considered it his personal crest (see p. 511). Some natives claimed that 
it belonged originally to the Beaver phratry, and that it arose from a forgotten 
adventure with a being that had the body of a man and the head of a grouse. 

Weasel-skin decorated with the neck skin of a mallard duck.—The chief of 
the clan, if he chooses, may wear this crest at potlatches. Tradition derives it 
from an encounter with the Indians of Kitimat, at the head of Douglas 
Channel (Jenness, 1934, p. 232). 


OwL HovwssE 


Owl (misdzi) —This is the crest that would be carved on the clan totem pole, 
if one existed. The base of a front post in the old clan house in the Hagwilgate 
canyon bore a large carving of an owl; the doorway, in fact, was merely a hole 
in the owl’s body. The Indians attributed the crest to the same legend as the 
clan name (Jenness, 19384, p. 239). 

Moose (denni).—This crest is said to have been derived from the Babine Lake 
subtribe. It seems to carry no legend, and must have been acquired in fairly 
recent times, since the moose did not reach this part of British Columbia until the 
latter half of the nineteenth century. 

Sapsucker.—Tradition states that the Laksamshu phratry adopted this crest 
from the legend that gave rise to the woodpecker crest in the Birchbark House of 
the Gilserhyn phratry (Jenness, 1934, p. 236). 


BEAVER PHRATRY 


Beaver (tsa) and Eagle (ske).—Both these crests were represented on the totem 
pole of the combined Laksamshu and Beaver phratries in the Hagwilgate canyon, 
a pole erected about 1865 by a chief of the Beaver phratry, Kwi's, or, as he renamed 
himself, Bini. This man promoted a strange religious revival that established 
his leadership over the two phratries, and indeed over the entire subtribe. His 
influence even extended to the neighboring Gitksan Indians. Hence, when he 
erected a totem pole he named it Firewood (gila-s), after the principal crest of 
the Gitksan phratry that equated with the Laksamshu,* caused the figure of an 
eagle to be carved on its summit, and an image of a beaver to be attached at about 


®° There is a tradition that before the founding of the village in the Hagwilgate canyon, 
the Moricetown members of the Laksamshu phratry sometimes wore at potlatches robes of 
ground-hog skin patterned on each side with fireweed leaves. 


AntHrop. Pap. No. 25] THE CARRIER INDIANS—JENNESS 501 


mid-height. The Indians removed the beaver after his death and placed it on 
his grave. 

The chief of the phratry sometimes impersonated the beaver at potlatches, 
regarding it then as his personal crest. It arose, the Indians say, from an 
encounter with the coastal people of Kitimat (Jenness, 1934, p. 232). 


PERSONAL CRESTS 


In addition to the clan crests every chief, and most, originally per- 
haps all, of the nobles in each clan, owned at least one personal crest 
(chanka), which gave him at feasts the exclusive right to wear certain 
paraphernalia and to act in a certain way, for example, to imitate the 
movements of a caribou or robin. Whenever a man’s personal crest co- 
incided with his title it belonged to the permanent structure of the 
clan and was therefore inalienable; otherwise it ranked as purely per- 
sonal property and could be sold within or without the clan lke a 
garment or a piece of furniture. It was, therefore, much easier for a 
man to acquire a new personal crest than for a clan to adopt a new 
clan crest; the noble merely devised or purchased one that pleased his 
individual fancy, and established his right to ownership at a pot- 
latch. 

When a man (or woman) gave a potlatch, the object or theme that he 
dramatized, and alone had the right to dramatize, was his personal 
crest. It was only in this manner, through dramatization at a pot- 
latch, that he made it publicly known and obtained the public endorse- 
ment of his ownership. (See pl. 28.) But if a chief chose to drama- 
tize one of his clan crests, as often happened, was he thereby entitled 
to count it as his personal crest also? Actually the Indians were not 
consistent in this regard. Thus one of the two clan (or phratry) 
crests in the Beaver phratry (which contained only one clan) was the 
beaver, which was represented by the figure of a beaver on the phratry’s 
totem pole; but at potlatches the chief of the phratry dramatized the 
actions of a beaver and considered it as his personal crest. On the 
other hand, the chief of the clan House of Many Eyes, in Laksilyu 
phratry, who dramatized in a similar manner two of his clan crests, 
Mountain Man and Kaigyet, did not consider them his personal crests, 
but clan crests only. Generally only the chief of a clan might drama- 
tize a clan crest, whether he called it his personal crest or not; but in 
at least two instances a noble below the rank of chief has claimed 
and been allowed the same privilege. Such an anomaly might easily 
happen if the chieftainship changed hands, for then the deposed chief 
(or his legal successor) might continue to use at potlatches the clan 
crest he had used before his eclipse; but one receives an impression 
that any noble might adopt a clan crest as his personal crest, provided 
no other member of the clan was using it and the chief gave his consent. 
Probably, too, what was at one time only the personal crest of a chief 


502 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BuLn, 183 


might come to rank as a clan crest, particularly if the chief gained 
unusual prominence and frequently displayed his crest at potlatches. 

Since a personal crest was a mark of distinction, and a noble could 
hardly give a potlatch without displaying or dramatizing one, it 
tended to become hereditary, like the title, and a man normally adopted 
the crest of his mother’s brother when he inherited that uncle’s title. 
In such a case he could validate both badges of distinction in a single 
potlatch. ‘To lighten the excessive cost, three or four individuals often 
adopted crests (and, if they wished, titles) simultaneously; and par- 
ents, clansmen, and friends contributed to the expense, knowing that 
they would be repaid later. Every noble, who could afford it, be- 
stowed titles and crests on his children while they were still young, for 
though these early distinctions did not confer high rank, they gave 
the children definite places in the peerage and marked out their lines 
of advancement. A typical example was the career of Dikyannulat 
(European name, Denis), of the House of Many Eyes, Laksilyu 
phratry, in 1924 a blind old man of perhaps 70. 

When Denis had not yet reached his teens, his mother’s brother invited the 
people to attend a potlatch at which the lad blackened his face and danced. 
His uncle then distributed many blankets among the guests, and announced 
that his nephew, being descended from the nobility, would later acquire a title 
and a crest. 

Two or three years later, Denis’ kinsmen decided to give another potlatch 
for him and enroll him definitely in the peerage. At this potlatch he was 
to assume a personal crest, Throwing Dirt, which his grandfather also had 
assumed in boyhood. Whether it was derived from a legend Denis did not 
learn, for his grandfather merely instructed him how to dramatize it without 
explaining its origin. The guests gathered outside the potlatch hall at the 
appointed time, flung out their arms and shouted, “hau hau,” whereupon Denis, 
naked to the waist, ran in among them and scattered them with showers of 
dirt. Later they all gathered inside the hall so that Denis might sing and 
dance before them; and the ceremony ended with a feast and distribution of 
blankets. 

When Denis reached manhood, he gave still a third potlatch and adopted, 
again without learning its origin, the personal crest, Gun, that had belonged 
to his mother’s brother. Three relatives of his father went among the crowd 
to announce his coming, and two others hovered on the outskirts of the 
village, one dressed in a grizzly skin and the other in a black bear’s skin. 
Denis himself then appeared and pretended to shoot the two “animals” with 
a gun. Subsequently he confirmed his new crest with the usual distribution 


of presents. 

The neighboring Gitksan always narrated the legends attached to 
their crests when they dramatized them; but the Carrier troubled 
so little about the legends that many of them have dropped from 
memory. The owner of a crest had the right to decide how it should 
be dramatized, and although most men slavishly followed the meth- 
ods of previous owners, an ingenious individual often contrived some 


AntHrop. Pap. No. 25] THE CARRIER INDIANS—JENNESS 503 


new device to increase the pleasure of the spectators. The two 
examples that follow fairly represent the general pattern. 


(a) Guxlet, the present-day chief of the Thin House in Gilserhyu phratry, 
owns two personal crests, laba’on, “the Snatcher,” the origin of which he does 
not known, and the more important crest, guxlet, which goes with his title and 
is based on a legend of a person Guxlet who emerged out of the ground (Jen- 
ness, 1934, p. 234). Of his predecessors, the earliest, who had another title, 
Boikyet, is said to have lived at Mosquito Flat, where he was the principal 
chief in the Gilserhyu phratry; the last, born of a Gitksan father and Hag- 
wilgate mother, also bore the title Boikyet but lived at Hazelton, where he 
ranked as only the second chief of the phratry. The present Guxlet was born 
at Francis Lake, but moved to Hagwilgate when he was a young man, and, 
on the score of a rather distant relationship, obtained the title Guxlet, and the 
personal crest that went with it, when the previous incumbent died in 1918. 

Whenever Guxlet gives a potlatch he dramatizes his crest, Snatcher, outside 
the dance hall in the afternoon, and his principal crest, guxlet, within doors 
in the evening. Being the chief of his clan, he wears his chiefly regalia, a 
shirt of cloth covered with tinkling bells, a blanket, decorated with buttons, 
that partly conceals his trousers, cloth leggings, moccasins, and a coronet of 
grizzly bear claws. This, of course, is a modern dress that has superseded 
the older costume of skins. Three heralds announce his approach to the throng 
outside the dance hall. Finally he himself comes, and, snatching from the 
people everything that takes his fancy, hands them to his heralds, who carry 
them to his home and subsequently to the dance hall, where each object is 
returned to its owner together with a present of one or two dollars. 

When darkness closes in and the people have gathered in the potlatch 
house, Guxlet dramatizes his principal crest. He marches in full regalia 
around the central fire, singing his sonet or personal song” and vigorously 
shaking a rattle. At intervals he stops to lay his hand on some chief, who 
must then rise and dance; for thus honoring Guxlet he later receives a reward. 
After this has continued for an hour or more a chief calls out, “Guxlet, why 
do you just sing all the time?’ Then four men lay Guxlet on his back on a 
moose hide and pretend to throw him into the fire. His predecessor, the Indians 
claim, actually was thrown into the fire, which consumed all but his bones; 
but the present Guxlet merely steals away behind a curtain. After a brief 
interval 8 or 10 men who sit behind this curtain raise his song, and one 
of them calls, “O Guxlet, Guxlet.” Then the chief comes out again (his 
predecessor is said to have risen from the floor, unharmed), and joins in the 
song. A herald sprinkles swansdown over his head and crowns him with a 
special headdress representing one of his clan crests; and Guxlet closes the 
ceremony with a dance and song that he has prepared especially for the 
occasion. 

The following day is devoted to feasting, to the giving of presents, and the pay- 
ment of all those who have assisted Guxlet, except the members of his own phratry, 
who make personal contributions to the pile of presents, assist in distributing 
them, and receive their reward at some later date. 

(0) In 1921 a noble named Dzi, who belonged to the clan House on Top of a 
Flat Rock, in the Laksilyu phratry, adopted as his personal crest Caribou. He 
dressed his uncle and two other kinsmen on his father’s side as hunters, equipping 


1°The words are Gitksan, and the present Guxlet does not understand them, but this 
is of no significance. 


405260—43——_33 


504 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL 133 


them with snowshoes, guns, and packs, and sprinkling their heads with flour to 
simulate snow. Shortly after noon on the first day of the potlatch the men 
marched through the village in this array, telling the people they were going to 
hunt caribou; but when they reached the first ridge above the village and were 
still in plain view, they removed their snowshoes and packs, lit a fire, and pre- 
tended to camp. Soon four gunshots resounded in the woods behind them, and a 
fictitious caribou—Dzi covered with a caribou hide that had its front legs padded 
with two sticks—bounded into the open and headed for the village, closely fol- 
lowed by the hunter who had fired the shots. All four hunters took up the chase, 
and now and then, as they pretended to shoot the animal, tumbled over, to the 
amusement of the crowd. Finally the “caribou” leaped inside the potlatch house, 
and everyone trooped in after it. 

The people gathered again in the potlatch hall at dusk. As they sat there, 
talking and laughing, a herald entered with a gun, and said to one of the chiefs, 
“Have you seen any caribou?” The chief answered, “No, I have not.” Presently 
a second herald came in and shouted, “You are crazy. There are no caribou 
here.” Then came a third herald, who said, “I saw a caribou. It will soon come 
in.” Last of all, Dzi entered the hall with his face concealed beneath a wooden 
image representing a caribou’s head. After displaying his mask to the audience, 
he retired to rid himself of its cumbrous weight, and, reentering, danced and sang 
his personal song. The people lingered in the hall a little longer, then went home 
to prepare for the feast and gifts of the following day. (See pl. 27.) 


TABLE OF PERSONAL CRESTS 


GITAMTANYU PHRATRY 


GRIZZLY HOUSE 


Whale (ww’s).—This crest naturally belonged to the chief of the clan who 
bore the title “Whale.” At potlatches, after the people had gathered inside the 
feast house, a woman belonging to some phratry other than Gitamtanyu threw 
outside the door a hook attached to a long line of which she retained the other 
end. As She drew it slowly in again she drew with it a huge wooden model of a 
whale that concealed the chief and an assistant, who retired behind the curtain 
after being “dragged” round the room. Subsequently the chief came out again, 
danced, and, if he wished, narrated the legend on which his title and crest were 
based. (Jenness, 1934, p. 225.) 

Crazy Man (hwisnik).—This crest, which also belonged to the chief Whale, was 
said to have come from Kitwanga, a Gitksan village lower down the Skeena River. 
Whether or not it was based on some legend, the Carrier did not know. The chief 
used indoors only the crest Whale, but out-of-doors he dramatized this crest 
Crazy Man by dressing himself and his heralds in the oldest clothes he could find, 
and pretending to tear them to pieces. 

Wolf (yis).—This crest, which coincided with one of the two clan crests, and 
was sponsored by the same legend, belonged to Djolukyet, the second ranking 
noble in the clan. At feasts he dressed in a wolf skin and pretended to bite the 
leading chiefs and nobles. 

Old Woman (se.te).—Neither Djolukyet, who owned this crest also, nor any 
of the other Carrier seemed to know its origin. When dramatizing it at pot- 
latches, the owner dressed and acted like an old woman who could hardly walk. 

The Man Who Pinches Others (eni dzo-kis).—Djolukyet purchased this crest, 
his third, in 1923 from a Carrier of Babine Lake, but without enquiring into 
its origin. He dramatized it by pinching the arms of the leading nobles with 
two sticks each about 5 feet long. 

Sculpin (saskwa).—Another crest belonging to Djolukyet, though how he 
dramatized it was not recorded. It was derived from a well-known legend 
of a great flood (Jenness, 1934, p. 141). 

foxr.—Belonged to a kinsman of Djolukyet, whose title was not recorded. 
It was derived from a legend of a fox that stole fire for mankind (Jenness, 
1934, p. 289). 

Seated in the Dirt (klestaste).—Belonged to another kinsman of Djolukyet. 
It was derived from the same legend as the next crest and title Sleepy. 

Sleepy (guxwoq).—This crest belonged to the noble who bore the same title, 
at the present time a woman. When dramatizing the crest at feasts, she lay 
on the ground, wrapped in a blanket as if asleep. When “awakened” she 
moved off a few paces and lay down again. The crest was derived from a 
well-known legend (Jenness, 1934, p. 219). 


505 


506 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bunn. 133 


Dance (Gitksan: mitlamelw).—Belonged to a sister of Djolukyet, whose title 
was not recorded. This crest was obtained from a Gitksan Indian of Kitwanga, 
but nothing further was known about it. ; 

War Leader (baxrchan) .—Belonged to the noble of the same name. To drama- 
tize it he carried a stick in front of two men, whom he urged forward by 
raising the stick and crying, “he he.” Tradition states that it originated from 
a fight with the Indians of Fraser Lake (Jenness, 1934, p. 239). 

Grouse (gwitakak).—Belonged to Gu’kyet, who obtained it a few years ago 
from a Gitksan chief with whem she and her husband were traveling to Kit- 
kargas. They camped in the snow when they were overtaken by night, and 
the woman strewed boughs for their beds and cooked their supper and break- 
fast. In acknowledgment of her diligence, the Gitksan Indian gave her this 
crest, but did not explain its origin. When dramatizing it, she fluttered her 
blanket and pretended to fly like a grouse. 

Black Bear (sas).—Two nobles, Skalit and Samsmahix, shared this crest 
between them. They dramatized it by wearing plack-bear ‘skins and imitating 
the actions of the bear. The crest derived its sanction from the same legend 
as the clan name Grizzly (Jenness, 1934, p. 129). 


HOUSE IN THE MIDDLE OF MANY, AND ANSKASKI 


Grizzly (medi°k).—Belonged to the chief with the same title, who covered 
himself with a headless grizzly skin and acted like a grizzly. The Carrier did 
not seem to know the legend on which it was based. 

Club of Antler (dzan'xat).—Belonged to the same chief Medi‘k. It originated 
from an incident in a fight with the Witseni, or Nass River Indians (Jenness, 
1934, p. 231). To dramatize it the owner danced with an antler club whose knob 
was carved to represent a wolf’s head, and sang, in the Gitksan dialect: 


Soon the wolf will eat the Witseni. 


Prancing up to another chief, he tapped him lightly on the shoulder with the 
club, and subsequently gave this pretended enemy a gift, in one instance a 
rifle, 

Grizzly Cub (ismediks).—Belonged to the noble of the same name, who imper- 
sonated the animal by wearing its skin and imitating its actions. Its origin 
was unknown. 

Atne (Kitlope or Bella Coola Indian).—Belonged to the noble of the same 
name, who dramatized it exactly as his chief, Medi-k, dramatized the grizzly 
except that he retained the head on the grizzly skin that enveloped him. 
Tradition states that this crest was presented to a Hagwilgate Carrier by a 
Carrier of Ootsa Lake in payment for help at a potlatch; but its further origin 
was unknown. 

Grizzly Oud’s Head (guiaekkan).—Belonged also to Atne, who clad himself 
in the front half of a grizzly skin and impersonated the animal. One tradi- 
tion states that it arose from a man’s adventure in the woods; as he slept 
beneath a large tree something fell on him and a few minutes later a monster, 
half grizzly and half human, descended the tree beside him. More generally, 
however, it is credited to an incident in a raid on some coast Indians (Jenness, 
1934, p. 237). 

Raven (dettsan).—Belonged to the noble who bore the title Raven, which at 
present is unclaimed. Its origin was attributed to the same legend as the clan 
crest Raven. In dramatizing it the owner wore a dark blanket, flapped two 
mimie wings of moore-hide, and cried, “ka ka.” 


ANTHROP, PaP. No. 25] THE CARRIER INDIANS—_-JENNESS 507 


Arrow.—Belonged to Gistehwa, chief of the clan House in the Middle of 
Many, who dramatized it by pretending to shoot the people gathered at the 
potlatch. Its origin was derived from the legend of the two boys who burst 
a mountain with their arrows (Jenness, 1984, p. 229). 

Spring salmon.—Belonged to Holits, who clad himself in white clothes to 
match the color of the salmon and waiked in a stooping posture outside the 
dance house. There seemed to be no origin legend. 

Skunk.—Another crest belonging to Helits, of unknown origin. Its drama- 
tizer wore a Skunk skin when impersonating the animal. 

Avalanche (entlo’)—Belonged to Na’ok. It was credited to a legend about 
a man who emerged from a mountain and caused an avalanche by sliding 
Gown its flank. At potlatches the owner of this crest announced his approach 
by sending out a herald to sprinkle flour in imitation of snow and to warn the 
people of the impending avalanche. Na’ok himself then appeared and, like an 
avalanche, flung aside every one he encountered. 

Shaking the Head (Gitksan: qale:).—Belonged to Na’ok also, but its origin 
was unknown. At potlatches people cried, ‘“‘e,” and lay down as he approached 
them wearing a large wooden mask. One after another then raised his head 
and cried, “qale.” At each cry Na’ok turned his head until it was moving so 
fast that he became dizzy. 

Kano’ts.—Belonged to the noble of the same name. It commemorated the 
adventure of the girls in the canoe and the two medicine boys, or, in another 
version, the medicine man Guxlet (Jenness, 1934, pp. 175-177, 235). When 
Kano’ts, dressed in whatever paraphernalia he happened to possess, appeared 
outside the potlatch house, the people fell down and cried, “e,” then rose, clapped 
their hands and cried, “‘ww,” after the manner of the girls in the canoe. 

White Man (nid:0).—Belonged to Kano’ts also, but its derivation was un- 
known. Its owner, wearing a long moustache and a beard, strutted among 
the people with his hands on his hips and a stetson hat on his head. The 
present Kano’ts happens to be a woman. 

Shameless (agvata‘t).—Belonged to the noble with the same name, its most 
recent owner being a woman who preferred her other title Hogyet. At pot- 
latches she stared shamelessly into the faces of the chiefs and nobles outside 
the potlatch house, and, within, stared at them again from behind a large 
wooden face mask. The origin of the crest was unknown. 

Nasko River Indians (nas'kuten).—Belonged to the same woman Hogyet, and, 
like the last crest, of unknown origin. At potlatches five women supported 
Hogyet, two on one side and three on the other, and all six: swung adzes 
fastened by bright ribbons to their wrists while they chanted: 


We don’t know where this man comes from. 
A Nasko man is coming. 


Rain (chan).—Belonged to Sowi-s, a noble now dead who has left no suc- 
cessor. At potlatches he sprinkled water on the people in imitation of the 
rainstorm that formed an incident in a well-known legend (Jenness, 1934, p. 
219). 

Mosquitoes (detku) —Belonged to Hwille-wi, a woman now dead whose title 
remains unclaimed. At potlatches she covered her head with a blanket and 
pricked the arms of the people with a needle held in her mouth, imitating the 
mosquitoes of a legend (Jenness, 1984, p. 220). 

Long Arm (nagwa’on).—Belonged to the noble of the same name, who stretched 
out each arm alternately and cried, “Long Arm.” Tradition says that it was 


508 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 133 


derived through the Hazelton Indians from the Indians of the Nass River, but 
the Carrier knew of no story connected with it. 

Jump Inside (wittsen).—The owner and the method of representing this crest 
were not recorded. 

Heartless (axgotdemash) .—Belonged to the noble of the same name, a Gitksan 
Indian now living among the Carrier. Legend states that a grizzly once 
crushed a dog, whereupon its owner exclaimed, ‘The grizzly is a heartless 
animal,” and adopted Heartless as his personal crest. 


GILSERHYU PHRATRY 
DARK HOUSE 


Blue heron (netipish).—Belonged to the chief, since it accompanied his title 
Netipish. When dramatizing the crest, the chief enveloped his head in a blue 
blanket and fluttered his arms up and down. No legend recorded. 

Hook (sax).—Belonged also to Netipish, the chief. When dancing, he caught 
the skirts of various men in a small hook at the end of a long pole and made 
them dance in turn, for which he paid them later. No legend recorded. 

Wolverine (nustel).—Belonged to the bearer of the title Wolverine, at the 
present time the niece of the chief. She dramatized it by covering her head 
with a wolverine skin and biting people as she hopped over the floor on her 
hands and toes. Those whom she bit had to rise and dance with her. The 
crest probably owes its origin to one of several legends about the wolverine. 

Back-pack (weli).—Belonged to the bearer of the same title, who dramatized 
it by carrying a pack on his back. No legend recorded. 

Cow (mistu-s).—Belonged to the bearer of the title. At feasts a herald 
called to the people outside the dance house, “Has anyone lost a cow?” A 
second herald with a rope then asked, “Where is the cow? I want to rope it.” 
Last of all came the “cow,” Mistu’s and a paid helper covered beneath a large 
blanket decked with a tail and horns. The herald roped this cow and dragged 
it into the dance house. No legend recorded. 

Sekani Indian (ttaten).—This crest belonged to the mother of the chief, 
who has long been dead. No one has revived it since. 

Fast Runner (nitchaten).—Belonged to Anabel’s, who dressed as for a race, : 
and in dancing leaped high into the air, one step forward and one back. No 
legend recorded. 

Crazy Man (wusnik).—Belonged to the owner of the title, who pretended to 
be crazy and to beat the people with a stick. No legend recorded. 


THIN HOUSE 


Guazlet.—Belonged to the bearer of the title, the chief of the clan. (For 
details, see p. 5038.) 

Snatcher (laba’on).—Belonged also to Guxlet, the chief. (For its dramati- 
zation, see p. 5038.) 

Crane (dit).—Belonged to Tcaspit, the minor chief of the clan, who merely 
mimics the bird when giving a potlatch. No origin legend was discovered. 

His Heart Tastes Bad (Gitksan: kaskamqot; Carrier: bet’sidzal’kai’).—Be- 
longed to Bita’nen, who clawed at his heart, did everything wrong, and chanted 
a song in the Gitksan language. The last owner of the title and crest was a 
woman. No origin legend was discovered. 

Slave (etne).—Belonged to Ne’k, who dramatized it by wearing old clothes 
and shuffling about among the people like a wretched slave. No origin legend 
was discovered. 


AntHROP. Pap. No, 25] THE CARRIER INDIANS—JENNESS 509 


Gidamgiye’ks—This was a personal crest as well as a clan crest, but its 
owner’s name and the method of dramatizing it were not recorded. 

Agweakas (a Gitksan word of unknown meaning).—The owner of this crest 
has long been dead and his title was not recorded. The Indians remember that 
he flourished two knives when he dramatized the crest, but knew no legend 
about it. 

Thunder.—The unrecorded owner of this crest dramatized it by fluttering a 
blanket and beating a drum. Its origin seemed unknown. 

He Who Cuts Off the Head with a Knife (gwatsikyet).—Belonged to the 
noble of the same name, who dramatized a tradition relating how a hunter 
cut off the head of his wife’s paramour (Jenness, 1934, p. 215). <A pre-Euro- 
pean Gwatsikyet is said to have enacted the crest in a more dramatic way 
during the evening performances in the potlatch house. Dressed in his regalia 
he danced and sang his personal song, flourishing a large knife. A man 
shouted to him, ‘Why are you flourishing that knife?” whereupon two men 
forced Gwatsikyet to his knees, and while one jerked back his head by the hair, 
the other cut right through his neck. They then laid his body on a moose 
skin, placed the head against the trunk, and summoned a medicine man to sing 
and rattle over him. Finally Gwatsikyet rose up whole and unharmed. 

Dead Man (Carrier: tenezik; Gitksan: lulak).—Belonged to the noble of the 
same name. It was based on a tradition that a dead man once entered a house 
where some children were playing, gave them a present, and departed, leaving 
them unharmed. The dramatizer covered himself with a black cloth and, after 
walking a few paces, fell to the ground in the attitude of death. 

Fraser Lake Indian (asten).—Belonged to the noble of the same name, but: 
its origin was unknown. Its owner wore the costume of a Fraser Lake Indian, 
carried a pack on his back and brandished a spear. 

Frog (Gitksan: kanaw).—Belonged to the noble Kanau, and was derived from 
the same legend as the clan crest Frog. Its owner, when dramatizing it, hopped 
along the ground like a frog. 


BIRCHBARK HOUSE 


Pileated Woodpecker (mansil).—Belonged to the chief of the clan, Samuia, 
who dramatized it by standing in a tree, covered with a blanket, and pretended 
to fly. The legend is the same as for the clan crest woodpecker. 

Small Bird, sp.? (samuiz).—Belonged also to the chief, being his title. To 
represent this bird he wore a very small blanket beneath which he fluttered his 
hands to imitate the fluttering of wings. No legend was recorded. 

Satsa’'n.—Belonged to the noble of the same name. It was derived from the 
myth of a being, Satsa’n, who was able to swell and contract his body at will 
(Jenness, 1934, p. 141). When giving a potlatch, Satsa’n sat on the ground with 
a large circular cloth fastened around his neck. Assistants then crawled under 
the cloth to “swell” his body, and the people pushed them out again to make it 
“contract.” 

Porcupine (tetchok).—Belonged to Su’tli, who covered himself with a blanket, 
crawled like a porcupine among the people, and whipped them with a “tail.” 
It was based en a mythical contest between a porcupine and a beaver (Jenness, 
1934, p. 240). 

Marten (chani).—Belonged to the noble who bore the name, which was said 
to be restricted to women. As usual she mimicked the actions of the animal. 
Name and crest were derived from a myth about a marten that ate a youth who 
was Seeking medicine-power (Jenness, 1934, p. 239). 


510 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Butt 133 


Ferry Me in a Canoe (nenesenoztkaix).—Belonged to the noble who bore the 
name, always a woman. When giving’ a potlatch, she carried a paddle and sent 
out three heralds, the last of whom announced her approach with the words, 
“Here comes a woman who wants to cross the river. Let some one who owns a 
canoe ferry her over.” The crest was derived from the myth of the two boys who 
visited the land of the dead (Jenness, 1934, p. 99). 

gurkalkalas (Gitksan word, meaning unknown).—Belonged to the holder of 
the same title, who was always a woman. When dramatizing it she waved each 
hand in front of her as though turning two handles. No legend was known. 

gwitsin’alu (Gitksan word, meaning unknown).—Belonged to the holder of 
the same title. After sending out three heralds to dance, he himself arrived 
dancing, laid hold of a chief, and invited him to dance with him. No legend 
was known. 


LAKSILYU PHRATRY 
House oF MANY EYES 


Otter (nilzik” ).—Belonged to Maxlaxlexs, but the present holder of that title 
has given it to his nephew, who dramatized it by dressing in an otter skin and 
imitating the movements of the animal. No legend was known. 

Dog (klak).—Belonged to Kela, who similarly imitated the actions of a dog. 
No legend was known. 

Throwing Dirt (Gitksan: suwiyit; Carrier: klesgett’lat).—Belonged to Dikyan- 
nulat, who threw dirt at the people outside the potlatch house. No legend was 
known. 

The Man Who Pays the Blood-Price (gowittcan).—Presented to the present 
Hagwilnext about 1870 (before his accession to the chieftainship and while he 
bore the title Gyedamskanish), by a Gitwinlkul (Gitksan) Indian, whom he 
assisted in gathering skins and food for a potlatch. Subsequently Hagwilnext 
gave it to a cousin. The dramatizer covered his head with swansdown and 
danced with one or two other men. No legend was known. 

gwinu- (Gitksan, meaning unknown).—Obtained by Hagwilnext from the 
same source as the last crest. Nothing further was discovered about it. 


House oN Top oF A FLAT Rock 


Old Man (dene’te).—Belonged to the chief of the clan, Widaxkyet. The 
Indians referred it to a story about an old man who stole some boys, but they 
had forgotten the details of the legend. Widaxkyet dressed as an old man, 
concealed his face under a wooden mask, and, carrying a long stick, toddled 
among the people and squatted down in front of a chief. Then, pointing the 
stick at the chief, he slid his hand down it, causing four branching points to 
open at the top. He slid his hand up the stick and the points closed—the chief 
was trapped. 

Caribou (witsi)—Belonged to Dzi. (For its dramatization, see p. 503.) No 
legend was known. 

Goose (#a).—Belonged to the noble of the same name, who imitated a goose. 
No legend was known. 

Rain of Stones (stalo’b).—Belonged to the noble of the same name. When 
giving a potlatch he wore a mask and threw stones and sand on the roofs of 
the houses; and in the evening he scattered stones on the floor of the dance house. 
The noble who now possesses the title caused considerable excitement at ‘a pot- 
latch he gave in 1918 by substituting nuts for stones. The crest is attributed 


AnrHrop, Pap, No. 25] THE CARRIER INDIANS—JENNESS 511 


to an incident in the legend that gave rise to another crest, Sleepy (Jenness, 
1934, p. 219). ; 

Swan.—Belonged to Negupte, but no one has taken either the title or the 
erest since the last incumbent died. At potlatches he wore a white blanket and 
imitated a swan. No legend seemed known. 


HousE BESIDE THE FIRE 


Heartless (axgot).—Belonged to the chief of the clan, Widak’kwats, who 
beat the house with a big stick when he gave a potlatch. No legend was 
known. 

Water-grizzly (te’ben).—Belonged to the same chief, who dramatized it 
by wearing a grizzly robe and roaring. Legend states that the Indians once 
heard a water-grizzly roaring in a small lake on the top of a mountain near 
Smithers and saw the animal rise to the surface. Hence they adopted it as 
one of their crests. 

djudalatju (Gitksan word, meaning unknown).—Belonged also to the chief. 
When dramatizing it he wore a large human mask and pretended to grasp 
people, waving each arm alternately and shouting, “djudalatju”’. 

Big Medicine Man (Carrier: diyin’intcho; Gitksan: wi’hale ).—Belonged to 
Axgot, the chief’s heir. In dramatizing it he wore a headdress of grizzly claws, 
shielded his face with his right arm, and shook a rattle. No legend was known. 

Gambling (Gitksan: gu’he’).—Belonged to Klbegansi. When giving a potlatch 
he sat down with his assistants and pretended to gamble. 

Something Devours It All (Gitksan: dzetlas).—The title of the owner of this 
crest was not recorded. In his potlatch he pretended to claw the people. No 
legend was known. 


LAKSAMSHU PHRATRY 
SUN oR Moon HOUSE 


Grouse (tcaddzat’)—Belongs now to the chief Smogitkyemk but formerly 
to the chief of the Beaver phratry, according to several Indians, or to the chief 
of the second clan in the Laksamshu phratry, the Owl House, according to the 
woman who now ranks as its head. In his potlatch Smogitkyemk, clad in a 
special blanket, struck his elbows against his sides and fluttered his fists as 
a grouse flutters its wings. He then retired indoors and sent out three heralds 
to announce his return. The last of the heralds set a log on the ground and 
announced that the grouse was approaching, whereupon some man in the crowd 
pretended to set a noose for it. The chief then reappeared, and, kneeling down 
beside the log, pretended to be caught in the snare. 

Slave (Gitksan: an’ka’)—Belonged also to Smogitkyemk, who dramatized it 
by wearing old clothes and acting like a slave. No legend was known. 

Short Belly (Gitksan: gut’seut).—Belonged to the noble of the same name. 
When giving a potlatch he seized everything that came in his way and afterward 
restored it to its owner and gave him a present. 


OwL HOUSE 


Forest-Slide (klo’mkan).—Belonged to the chief with the same title. The 
present incumbent is a woman. At her potlatch she sent out three heralds, the 
first to announce an impending forest-slide, the second to ridicule the first, and 
the third to repeat the warning excitedly. Then she herself appeared carrying 
some sticks in each hand, and followed by a number of youths carrying brush- 
wood with which to push over the people who thronged around them. At the 


512 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Buin. 133 


evening performance in the potlatch house, Klo’mkan wore an owl mask and 
danced. Tradition states that when the Indians were clearing a site for a house 
at Hagwilgate they uprooted a big stump and sent it sliding down the hill. As 
they watched it descend, a man said, “Let the chief take this as his personal crest.” 

Moose.—Belonged to the chief of the clan, Klo’mkan, who dramatized it by 
imitating a moose. No legend was known. 

Cannibal (deni tsa’at).—Belonged also to the chief Klo’mkan, but was derived 
along with a strip of hunting territory from a Cheslatta Lake Indian in payment 
for help at a funeral potlatech. When dramatizing it, Klo’mkan covered her back 
with a blanket which she swung up and down on each side as though engulfing 
the children who came in her path. The crest refers to a legend of a cannibal 
woman who carried off all the boys in a village (Jenness, 1934, p. 164). 

Swbek (Gitksan word, meaning unknown).—Belonged to the noble with the 
same title. When he gave a potlatch he waved his left arm and shook a rattle 
after the manner of a medicine man, crying, “I am a medicine man from Wista 
(said to be a village on the coast).” 

Picks up Weapon Hastily (kitsilchak).—Belonged to the noble with the same 
title, who pretended to strike with a stick anyone who spoke to him while he 
was dramatizing the crest. No legend was known. 


BEAVER PHRATRY 


Beaver (tsa).—Belonged to the chief Kwi-s, who dramatized it in the follow- 
ing manner. After the usual three heralds had announced his approach to the 
throng gathered outside the potlatch house, he himself appeared, garbed in a 
beaver skin and crawling like a beaver in flight from two or three men who 
pretended to spear him with long sticks. When this pantomime ended, the people 
entered the potlatch house, where they were confronted with a pile of wood near 
the fireplace (the “beaver’s food’), and two or three “beaver lodges” of brush 
and cloth, in one of which the chief lay concealed. The chief of another phratry 
approached this lodge and exclaimed, “Why, here is a beaver lodge. Did you not 
notice it? There must bea beaver inside. Watch the water and the other lodges 
while I knock it over.” As he pushed the lodge over the “beaver” ran out, and, 
after being pursued by two or three men armed with spears and guns, retreated 
behind a curtain. There he was permitted an interval to dress, after which he 
came out again and danced, while the people, led by one of the chiefs, chanted his 
sonet or personal song. 

Drunken Man.—Belonged also to the chief Kwi's, who imitated a drunken man 
and sang, “Give me that whisky.” It is said to have originated from a dream of 
the present chief’s predecessor, Kwi's or Bini. 

Mountain Goat (mat).—Belonged to the noble with the same title, who drama- 
tized it by imitating a goat. It is attributed to a legend that presumes to account 
for its use as a crest by Guxsan, a Gitksan Indian of Gitsegyukla (Jenness, 1934, 
p. 240). 

Tree Floating Down the River (gwisuks).—Belonged to Wila’t, who carried a 
long stick to sweep people aside. No legend was known. 


The tables just given suggest a marked decline of the crest system 
under the influence of European civilization. After tattooing went 
out of favor a hundred years ago, and the large clan houses disap- 
peared a generation later, the clan crests were in evidence only in 
the graveyards (pl. 29, fig. 1), and on the four totem poles still stand- 
ing in the Hagwilgate canyon (pl. 29, fig. 2). They linger even 


Anturopr, Pap. No. 25] THE CARRIER INDIANS—JENNESS piles 


today in the Hagwilgate graveyard, on two headstones that were 
made in Vancouver according to the specifications of Indians anxious 
for the usual Christian burial and marble monument, yet conserva- 
tive enough to wish their bones to lie beneath representations of 
their clans and phratries; so their headstones have bird-figures en- 
graved on their faces, and one a life-sized figure of a bird on its 
summit. About 1913 the Hagwilgate Indians, prompted by their 
missionaries, gathered together most of the stage material they had 
used in dramatizing their personal crests—the wooden masks and 
other objects that they had religiously preserved from one potlatch 
to another—and burned them in a great bonfire. Since then they 
have acquired one or two masks from the Gitksan, who in earlier 
years gave them many crests and crest paraphernalia in exchange for 
the skins of beaver and other animals. Nearly every summer they 
display these masks in what are still called potlatches; but so little 
do most of them regard their old clan and phratric divisions that 
they no longer insist on phratric exogamy or pay any respect to the 
clan chiefs and leading nobles. The very distinction between nobles 
and commoners has broken down, for any one who wishes may now 
become a noble, and the chiefs are often poorer and less esteemed 
than the nobody who has pushed the past behind him and is success- 
fully carving out a career under the new economic conditions. So 
the acquisition and dramatization of the personal crests is fast be- 
coming a mere entertainment divorced from its old social significance, 
and ready to adopt new ideas, and new methods, that are more 
abreast of modern life. 
CHIEFS 


The chieftainship of a clan was highly coveted, although the au- 
thority conferred by the position was in most cases comparatively 
slight. A son could not succeed his father because of the marriage 
rules, which compelled a man to marry outside of his phratry and 
made his children members of the mother’s phratry and clan. Hence, 
the most usual successor to a chief was the son of a sister, or, if his 
sisters had no sons, a brother; in default of both nephews and broth- 
ers a niece could inherit the title provided her kinsfolk backed up her 
claim, otherwise the position passed to the leading noble in the 
clan. To prevent disputes a chief generally indicated his personal 
choice some years before his death by conferring on a nephew the 
title and crest he himself had used in his younger days, and seating 
him in front of himself at ceremonies. 

The accession of a new chief was a long and expensive affair, 
involving in former times no less than six potlatches (dze til). 
Within an hour or two of the old chief’s death, the candidate for his 
place sprinkled swansdown over his head and, standing in front of 


514 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BuLL, 133 


the corpse, shook the dead man’s rattle and chanted its owner’s sonel 
or personal songs. He then summoned all the people in the vicinity 
to join in the same songs, chanted without dancing to the accom- 
paniment of a drum. The chanting and weeping continued till late 
at night, when the candidate and his kinsmen brought in food for 
the mourners, who retired soon afterward to their homes. The 
people mourned for 2, 3, and sometimes, if the chief (whose corpse 
was meanwhile rotting at the back of the house) had enjoyed great 
prestige and influence, for as many as 15 days; and the feeding of 
the mourners during this period constituted the candidate’s first 
potlatch, known as the yeni’hatittse, “He Falls Down,” i, e., is dead. 

After the due interval, the candidate finaliy called on the clans- 
people of the dead chief’s father to gather firewood and cremate the 
remains. A day or two later he again summoned the people to his 
house and gave his second potlatch, habaraninne awilli, “Arranging 
the Arms and Legs (of the dead chief).” Aided by his kinsfolk, he 
set food before them all and distributed gifts of skins and other 
articles, taking care to offer most of his presents, first to the clan 
that had cremated the corpse, in payment for its services, and second, 
to the chiefs of other clans and phratries in order to win their sup- 
port for his candidature. 

His four succeeding potlatches followed each other at long inter- 
vals, because even with the help of kinsmen he could hardly gather 
the food and presents necessary for one potlatch alone in less time 
than a year, In the middle of the nineteenth century, the third in 
the series, called neokwan tesk’an, “Make a Fire” (on the theory that 
the old fire had been extinguished by the tears of the mourners), 
generally gave rise to two distinct ceremonies, the erection of a 
wooden grave-hut over the cremation place of the dead chief by his 
father’s clansmen, and the definite appointment of a successor. If 
there were two candidates for the position, they gave a potlatch 
jointly, and the chiefs of the other clans and phratries decided be- 
tween them after each in turn had entertained the people and dis- 
tributed his presents. If, on the other hand, there was only one 
candidate, and general agreement to his succession, he often assumed 
at this potlatch the title and a personal crest of the late chief, and 
encouraged some of his clansmen to assume crests also. An old man 
thus described the installation of a new phratry chief as he witnessed 
it in his early manhood: 


On the appointed evening the candidate wrapped round his shoulders the skin 
of a grizzly bear, his predecessor’s personal crest, and with three or four fellow 
phratrymen similarly clad to represent the new crests they were assuming, 
awaited in the potlatch house a visit from the men of the other phratries. They 
meanwhile were painting their faces, covering their heads with swan’s-down, and 
gathering at the houses of their respective chiefs. First, the phratry of the dead 


AnTurop, Pap. No. 25] THE CARRIER INDIANS—JENNESS 515 


chief’s father marched to the potlatch house, sounded drums and rattles outside 
. it, and beat on the walls with sticks. ‘The door opened for them, and they marched 
around to the right behind their chief, halting in a long file behind the waiting 
candidate. He conducted them outside again and through ail the other main 
houses in the village, after which they retired to spend the night under some 
trees while the candidate returned to the potlatch house to superintend the 
conducting of the other phratries on the same peregrination by his fellow clans- 
men. He and his phratry then provided an ample supper for the men camped 
under the trees, and retired to their homes to sleep. 

The next morning they carried more food to their fellow villagers, who had 
spent part of the night composing playful songs about the new chief and his 
phratry in order to wash away all traces of sorrow for the loss of its former 
chief. About noon one of the candidate’s assistants, dressed to represent his new 
personal crest, conducted them one behind the other to the potlatch house, where 
the phratries ranged themselves in order round the three sides, leaving an open 
space in the middle for dancing and for the coming and going of the members 
of the candidate’s phratry. Each in turn then danced to the chants it had 
composed the night before, and after they had resumed their seats the candidate’s 
phratry retaliated by offering pails of oil to the composers of the songs, who 
were obliged to drink as much as they could. Some became very sick, but others 
flourished the empty pails over their heads and victoriously repeated their chants. 
The candidate and his phratry feasted the entire assembly, paid the phratry that 
had just erected a gravehouse over the cremation place of the late chief, and 
distributed moose hides, beaver skins, and other valuable presents among all the 
guests. Then the candidate stepped forward and described where he had killed 
the moose, the beaver, the bear, and the other animals that had furnished the 
feast, and a prominent noble of his phratry listed all his helpers and the quantity 
of food and skins each of them had contributed. Finally, the entire phratry 
mustered behind the candidate and one noble, speaking for them all, announced, 
“Bear witness, all of you, that this man has assumed the title, the crest, and the 
personal songs (sonet) of our late chief and is now chief in his place.” After a 
short delay to enhance the solemnity of the occasion, the chief of another phratry 
rose to his feet and said, “It is well that he should be your new chief. He is a 
nephew of the old chief; he has provided us with much food and many skins. 
Hereafter let him take the place and bear the titles of his uncle.” The other 
chiefs spoke in the same strain and the gathering then dispersed. 


Occasionally a rival candidate did not submit to the decision of the 
other chiefs and presumed to direct his clan or phratry as though he 
himself had been elected. The chiefs of the other phratries then mus- 
tered the people at the house of the man they had appointed and re- 
affirmed his chieftainship, at the same time warning the defeated 
candidate to drop his pretentions lest he stir up enmity and ill-will. 
If he still refused to submit, some partisan of the new chief killed him, 
and the people united in protecting the murderer from blood-revenge. 

The new chief was expected to give three more potlatches before 
he could claim the same dignity as his predecessor. The first of the 
three, his fourth potlatch, was called ni’habaataltai, “Place the Corpse 
at the Back of the House;” and the next, tsar yin hatata’ai, “Cease 
the Song of Mourning,” because it ended the ritual connected with the 
dead chief. His sixth and last potlatch, called taraiyeteltit (meaning 


516 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY (BULL. 133 


unknown), was the greatest of all if he erected a new totem pole, for 
then he invited Indians from all the surrounding country, even from 
other subtribes and nations. The mere preparation for the potlatch 
extended over 2 or 8 years, for first he had to hire his father’s phratry- 
men to cut the tree in the woods and drag it to his house, then engage a 
skilled craftsman (in nearly all cases a Gitksan Indian) to carve the 
clan crests on it during the winter months when the people were absent 
at their hunting grounds. Yet apart from the erection of the pole, 
the ceremonies at this potlatch closely paralleled those at the others; 
and actually most chiefs either did not care to erect a pole, or were 
unable to afford the expense. There seem, indeed, to have been no 
totem poles at all in Carrier territory before the nineteenth century, 
with the possible exception of one at Moricetown. The oldest pole 
that the Bulkley Indians remember stood at Moricetown, where it 
fell about 1870 and was burned. One, about 25 feet high, uncarved, 
was erected at Francis Lake about 1875 and fell about 1919; and four, 
that were erected at various dates during the second half of the nine- 
teenth century, are still standing in the Hagwilgate canyon. 

By the end of the nineteenth century, when European settlement 
had caused the confinement of the Indians to certain reserves, 
six potlatches to become a chief were far too heavy a burden for 
any individual to undertake, especially since a _ chieftainship 
now carried no shred of authority and very little prestige. The 
present-day chief of the Thin House in the Gilserhyu phratry, Felix 
George, gave only four potlatches when he succeeded his uncle in 
1918, and none was as elaborate as the potlatches of earlier years. 
For his first potlatch he merely distributed a little tobacco among 
the villagers who assembled at his uncle’s home on the day of that 
kinsman’s death. For his second he summoned all the people to his 
own home immediately after the funeral and presented them with 
tea, sugar, apples, meat, biscuits, and other foods bought at the Euro- 
pean stores in Hazelton. To help him out, his kinsmen and fellow- 
clansmen purchased some of the food for him, and also placed con- 
tributions of money into a bowl so that he could both pay his father’s 
phratrymen for burying his predecessor and distribute a few dollars 
among the leading chiefs and nobles. Then his mother’s brother rose 
up and proclaimed that Felix George was now the chief of the clan 
and would bear the hereditary title, Guxlet, together with the per- 
sonal crest that accompanied it. Everyone understood, of course, 
that Felix would signalize his appointment by a more liberal feast 
as soon as he was able to raise the necessary funds. 

Two years later Felix summoned together all the phratries and dis- 
tributed among them 75 sacks of flour, 40 of which had been purchased 


11 For descriptions of these poles see Barbeau, C. M. (1929, pp. 132-133, 143-146, 149). 


AnTHROP. Pap, No. 25] THE CARRIER INDIANS—JENNESS 517 


by himself, 10 contributed by his brother, 10 by his brother-in-law, 
and the remaining 15 by various members of his own phratry. Since 
neither at this potlatch, nor at the two preceding, had any dancing 
occurred, and he still lacked the second personal crest, Snatching 
(p. 503), that had belonged to his predecessor, he determined to save 
up his money for a fourth potlatch, which would go under the same 
name, taraiyeteltil, as the sixth and last potlatch of earlier times. 

Within 3 years he accumulated between $700 and $800. He then 
approached three fellow-phratrymen who were erecting grave monu- 
ments for themselves and were anxious to celebrate the occasion by 
giving potlatches. The four men agreed to join forces, and in the 
middle of summer announced the date of their common potlatch and 
sent out the fo.mal invitations. Felix George himself bought from 
the stores in Hazelton 10 moose-hides, 4 cases of biscuits, 40 sacks 
of flour, several cases of milk and soit drinks, some soap, tea, meat, 
and a few other items. His eldest son gave him 12 sacks of flour; 
his brother-in-law and a cousin, each 10 sacks; Netipish, the chief of 
his phratry, and his brother, 4 sacks each; a kinsman, 3 sacks; a woman 
relative whose home was at Babine, 1 sack; and a friend from Burns 
Lake, 1 moose-hide. In addition, he paid a Hagwilgate native $5 to 
compose a song for him, and reserved a little money to distribute 
during the feast. His three colleagues bought other hides and food 
at the same time, but in less quantity. 

The potlatch lasted 4 days. On the first the three men adopted 
crests which they impersonated in the potlatch house during the 
evening. Then followed the unusual incident of a raid by the mem- 
bers of the kalutlim society (see p. 577 et seg.), who invaded the hall 
and carried off four neophytes. The rest of the people lingered 
and danced for a little while longer, then quietly dispersed about 
midnight to their homes. They passed the next 2 days in idle feast- 
ing, and the evenings in dancing. On the fourth day Felix and his 
colleagues distributed their presents and the guests from other places 
prepared to depart. 

Important potlatches brought many guests from other places, such 
as Hazelton, Gitsegyukla, and Babine; and the Bulkley Indians often 
attended Gitksan potlatches. Two or three young nobles, delegated 
by the chief who was giving the potlatch, traveled together and con- 
veyed the invitations to the surrounding villages. In each place they 
looked for the house of a phratry chief, who entertained them at a 
meal and received their message. They then visited any other phratry 
chiefs in the place, repeated the invitation, and passed on to the next 
village. On the opening day of the potlatch, again, the chief sent 
round a young noble to summon the people together. The youth 
entered every house, stood in front of each adult and, tapping the 
floor two or three times with a stick, said, “Come to the potlatch hall.” 


518 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BuLL. 133 


Gradually the people mustered outside the hall, where the members of 
each phratry waited for their chief to lead them inside. The giver 
of the feast guided every person to his seat, a delicate operation that 
required both a good memory and good judgment, for any error in 
ranking was certain to breed serious dissension and ill will. His own 
phratrymen either remained outside the building, or stood within 
wherever they could find room to assist in distributing the food and 
presents piled up in the middle of the floor. 

It is clear that whether he was the head of a phratry, or of only 
a clan within a phratry, a chief had to expend much labor and wealth 
to gain his position. Even after he had established himself firmly in 
his seat, he had to keep open house, as it were, to all members of his 
phratry, to relieve the wants of the poor, and to support his people 
in their relations with other phratries. His dwelling had to be in- 
stantly recognizable, to shelter his immediate family, the families of 
his nearest of kin, and visitors from other districts, and to serve as 
an entertainment hall at feasts and ceremonies. It was, therefore, 
much larger than the dwellings of the other villagers, its roof was 
supported by two rafters instead of one, and a crest of the clan was 
often carved or painted on its doorposts. Animal claws and shells 
suspended at night from the ceiling rattled at the touch of an in- 
truder and guarded the inmates against attack. 

A stingy chief who sought only his own profit soon lost his in- 
fluence; if he were a clan chief, his own clan and the phratry chief 
would look to one of his nobles for leadership; and if he were a phratry 
chief, one of his clan chiefs might push him into second place. Only 
a chief could lead a war expedition, because no one else possessed the 
means to gather the stores of food necessary to feed the warriors from 
different places who assembled to take part in it; but if it succeeded, he 
was given all the captives, who thenceforward became his slaves. 
These slaves, who were generally well treated and well dressed, per- 
formed most of his menial work, and even assisted him in the chase, 
so that he was able to acquire two or more wives, whereas the ordinary 
native could seldom support more than one. Yet he, himself, was 
expected to share the hardships of the chase as long as his strength 
lasted, when he might pass the rest of his days in quiet state within 
the village, supplied with all necessities by the able-bodied hunters, 
and receiving with his fellow-chiefs the largest gifts at every pot- 
latch. One of his special perquisites at feasts was a strip of bear fat 
about a foot long, which was handed to him at the end of a long stick. 

If the Indians demanded from their chiefs liberality, protection, and 
leadership, they in turn could demand that voluntary submission to 
their rulings without which the phratries and clans would have lost 
their coherence and the chiefs their prestige. Hence, when two families 


ANTHROP. PaP. No. 25] THE CARRIER INDIANS—JENNESS 519 


quarreled, the leading chief of any phratry might summon the people 
to his house, strew his head with swan’s-down, the time-honored symbol 
of peace, and dance before them to the chanting of his personal song 
and the shaking of his rattle. After the dance he would deliver an 
oration, recounting all the wealth that he and his clan or phratry had° 
expended in order to confer on him his title, his personal song, his 
rattle, his ceremonial leggings (xas), and his headgear (amali), all 
of which indicated their desire that he should be their leader and 
mediate in all their quarrels. Turning then to the disputants, he would 
exhort them to settle their strife, and warn them of the troubles that 
would overtake their families and clans if they persisted. In nearly 
all cases he was able to carry his audience with him, and the quarrelers, 
seeing that popular opinion was opposed to them, distributed moose 
skins in token of submission. So, although the authority of the chiefs 
was not codified, and they often ranked little or no higher than some 
of the nobles, an energetic and tactful man could occasionally guide 
the actions not only of his own clan and phratry, but of the entire 
subtribe, and become its official spokesman and leader in the eyes of 
all the surrounding subtribes. 

The four (or five) phratric chiefs did not constitute a definite council, 
but discussed informally with one another matters that affected more 
than one phratry. Thus, if a man of one phratry murdered a man of 
another, the two phratric chiefs, supported by their clan chiefs, co- 
operated to avoid a blood-feud by arranging for satisfactory compen- 
sation. It was they who enjoined on the murderer a fast that lasted 
sometimes for 25 days, and they presided at the ceremony in the pot- 
latch hall when the murderer and his clans-people handed over the 
blood-price. The ceremony held at Hazelton, when the Nass River 
Indians atoned for the murder of the Bulkley chief Gyedamskanish 
(see p. 479 et seq.), illustrates the usual procedure at such a ceremony. 
Besides handing over an enormous quantity of skins, blankets, stone 
adzes, and other goods, the murderer’s kinsmen nearly always surren- 
dered some fishing or hunting territory, usually, too, a marriageable 
maiden, who thenceforth could claim no protection from her clan or 
phratry, but became the unqualified property of the clan to which she 
was surrendered. 

THE CYCLE OF LIFE 


The Bulkley River child, like other Carrier children, started its 
career in life swaddled in sphagnum moss and warm furs inside a 
birchbark cradle that its mother carried perpendicularly on her back, 
or hung to a tree-limb or a lodge pole when she was working around 
her home. Not until it could run about did it receive clothes like its 
parents’, first of all a tunic, longer or shorter according to its sex, 

405260—43——34 


520 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Buxn, 183 


then leggings and moccasins, and, in winter, a cap, mittens, and a 
little robe to wrap around its shoulders. Within the cradle its legs 
hung perfectly straight, from fear that even the gentlest flexion might 
impair its speed in running when it grew older. If it cried continu- 
“ally, or was restless and troublesome, its mother believed that it was 
anxious for a brother or sister to follow it into this world and that 
she would soon give birth to another child. 

For the first few weeks or months it bore no other name than baby; 
then it received a name that suggested one of the crests in its father’s 
clan or phratry. Thus the daughter of a man who belonged to the 
Gitamtanyu phratry received the name “Fierce Grizzly,” because the 
grizzly was a crest in that phratry. Though the parents might confer 
any name they liked provided it suggested a paternal crest, they 
generally selected one that had been borne by a grandparent or other 
relative in childhood years. Commoners rarely changed this name 
in later life, and even a noble often retained it for everyday use. It 
conferred no rank of any kind, yet it possessed enough social signifi- 
cance to demand a potlatch—at least when the child’s parents were 
nobles, and perhaps, too, when they were commoners, for it is so long 
since all caste differences disappeared that the Bulkley natives are un- 
certain on this point. (P1.30.) Nobles summoned all their neighbors 
to the house of the chief of the mother’s phratry, where the chief, 
taking the child in his arms, publicly conferred the name, mentioned 
its previous bearer, and usually related any story that was connected 
with it. The mother then carried the child home again, the guests 
ate the food provided by the parents and by the mother’s phratry, 
and the father divided among his family and nearest kinsmen such 
gifts as her phratry had contributed for the occasion. 

According to the amount of property that the parents were willing 
to give away in potlatches, a child between infancy and manhood 
might assume three or four names that had been previously held by 
different relatives. He obtained his first definite rank among the 
nobles, however, between adolescence and manhood, when he assumed 
the title of his mother’s brother, or, if that brother were still alive, 
a title that he had borne in his earlier days. The child’s first name 
had signalized his relationship to his father’s clan and phratry; but 
this later name marked him out as a member of his mother’s clan. 
Thenceforward he sat directly in front of his uncle at all ceremonies, 
and was publicly recognized as the favored successor. A mother 
might have several brothers, or none at all; in any case she was 
related more or less closely to all the men in her clan. Hence, there 
was always a choice of titles, some marking a line of advancement 
higher than others; and parents naturally chose the more promising 
titles for their sons. Yet they did not neglect their daughters, and, 


AnTHROP, Pap. No. 25] THE CARRIER INDIANS—JENNESS 521 


in the absence of nearer male heirs, a woman might obtain the most 
honored titles and succeed to the highest positions. 

Children, from the time they could walk, underwent systematic 
training along two lines, which the natives distinguished as geretne 
and gidet’e. Geretne was instruction in the various manual tasks that 
would fall to their lot when they grew up. The girl learned to carry 
wood and water, to cure and cook fish, meat, and berries, tan the 
various hides, design and sew the clothing, make birchbark baskets, 
sinew thread, and many other objects required in the home. The 
boy helped to build the houses, learned to manufacture tools and 
weapons, snow-shoes and canoes, and especially to hunt and fish for 
the daily supply of food. When he killed his first game, even if it 
were only a robin or a squirrel, his father entertained his phratrymen 
and told of his son’s deed. Each sex had its own duties; if the men 
provided most of the necessities of the home, the women organized 
them and worked them up for use. So while the girl was helping her 
mother in the camp or village, the boy, as soon as he was old enough, 
followed his father to the chase, or plied a fish-rake beside him when 
the salmon were ascending the rivers. 

Gidet’e, religious and ethical instruction, was the natural comple- 
ment of this manual training, but followed a more indirect method. 
Its medium was the folk-tale, narrated in the evenings by the oldest. 
man in the camp when the Indians were scattered in their hunting- 
grounds, and, in the villages, by the chief of the clan as he lay on his 
couch at the back of the big clan dwelling. Nearly every story car- 
ried with it the explanation of some phenomenon (e. g., the moaning 
of the trees, the shape of a certain rock), or else a moral (such as the 
penalty involved in the violation of a certain taboo). While the 
parents or their brothers occasionally thrashed a child that had com- 
mitted some breach of etiquette, or violated an important taboo, they 
generally suffered the offence to pass without remark until the eve- 
ning, when the oldest man narrated a story just as the inmates were 
retiring to their beds. After developing the plot until it applied to 
the particular occasion, he turned to the culprit and asked, “Did you 
do such and such a thing today?” and the child had no option but to 
confess. Then the old man resumed his story, and stressed the pun- 
ishment meted out by Sa, the sky-god, or by the animals, for a similar 
breach of morals or of the customary law. If we may believe the 
present-day -Indians, the shame and humiliation inflicted by this 
method were harder to endure, and more efficacious, than the severest 
thrashing. 

It was only in the evenings that the Bulkley Carrier narrated their 
folk-tales, and then only from the beginning of November until mid- 
March, fearing to continue story-telling after that date lest it should 


o22 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BuL. 133 


lengthen out the winter. Very often they followed up a story with 
direct instruction about the habits of the game animals, the proper 
methods of hunting and fishing, the numerous rituals and taboos, and 
the etiquette that governed the relations between nobles and com- 
moners, and between elders and children. The child, they taught, 
should be respectful to his elders, especially to the widowed, the aged, 
and the infirm, whether of equal or lower rank; and they pointed to 
four stars in the Dipper as a warning of the efficacy of an old woman’s 
curse (Jenness, 1934, p. 137). Misfortune should never be mocked 
nor sorrow ridiculed. When a widower mourned his loneliness, weep- 
ing inside his hut, the boy should softly draw near and ask in low 
tones whether a little food would be acceptable, or a few sticks of wood 
to replenish the fire. He should never ridicule the animals, or gloat 
over success in hunting, remembering that the mountain goats de- 
stroyed a whole community because a few youths had cruelly tortured 
a little kid (Jenness, 1934, p. 155). In his play he should never be 
uproarious, but observe a certain dignity and moderation; for did not 
Sa, the sky-god, once carry a whole village into the sky and drop the 
lifeless bones to earth again, merely because the children, refusing 
to heed the warnings of their parents, had raised a tumult around 
their homes (Jenness, 1934, p. 125). Regulations such as these, pro- 
rouleated by the old men at night through folk-tales, had to be ob- 
served by every child, but especially by the nobler born, because their 
parents were expending much property in potlatches to give them 
high standing, and filial obligation demanded obedience. Often the 
degenerate son of a noble father had been eclipsed in fame and honor 
by a poor orphan who had drunk in the words of his elders from a 
seat behind the door. 

The Indians laid down some special rules of etiquette for young 
girls. A high-born girl was expected to look straight ahead as she 
walked, turning her head neither to right nor to left; girls of lower 
rank had to keep their eyes modestly fixed on the ground. While the 
dentalia shells attached to the ears of a chief’s daughter, and the labret 
inserted in her lip, indicated her high rank, they reminded her also 
that she should never speak ill of any one, but guard her words and 
talk slowly, as befitted the daughter of a chief. Mothers, of course, 
kept strict watch over their daughters, and taught them all these 
necessary rules; but the folk-tales drove home their lessons, and also 
warned the children beforehand of the special regulations and taboos 
that would be incumbent on them as they.approached maturity. 

Adolescence brought an intensification of the training to boys and 
girls alike. At that period some girl friend (what clan or phratry 
she belonged to did not matter) tattooed the boy’s wrist to make him 
a straight archer. From the moment his voice began to change, he 


ANTHROP. Pap. No. 25] THE CARRIER INDIANS—JENNESS 523 


was instructed to refrain from many foods that were thought to lessen 
his speed in running, impair his sight, or hinder in other ways his 
success in the chase. He might not eat the heart of any animal, lest 
it should give him heart trouble; nor the head, especially the head of 
a mountain goat, lest it should make him dizzy and half-paralyzed, 
and children born to him should fall sick and die; nor tripe, lest it 
should make him cough violently when running after game; nor 
marrow, lest his legs become sore; nor the meat of a bear cub, lest his 
limbs become stiff; nor the meat of a young beaver, which travels so 
slowly that he too might become slow at everything; nor caribou leg- 
meat that enclosed the sinew, lest his legs become tired or suffer cramp; 
nor the leg of a black or grizzly bear in which the bone lay embedded, 
lest it make his own legs sore; nor the paws of a black or grizzly bear, 
lest his feet swell; nor the spruce-partridge, whose slow, short flight 
might make him short-winded and slow of foot; nor eggs, lest his chil- 
dren have sore eyes, or he himself be sluggish like newly-hatched birds. 
Not until he reached middle-age might he neglect these taboos, and 
eat such foods with impunity. One further admonition his elders 
gave him; he should run up hill, but never down, so that he might be- 
come a fast and steady runner. At Hagwilgate several paths led from 
the high shelf above the canyon down to the water’s edge; boys were 
forbidden to run down these paths, but encouraged to race each other 
up them. 

More rigid still were the regulations for girls at this period. The 
Indians thought that the adolescent girl was fraught with mighty 
powers for good and evil; that if she carried a little child on her back 
the child would cease to grow, or grow extremely slowly; that if 
she drank from a stream that the salmon ascended they would ap- 
pear there no more; that if she touched a hunter’s snowshoes, tools, or 
weapons he would capture no game; that if a man so much as saw 
her face he might die, especially if he were a medicine man, though, 
if his medicine were very powerful, it might kill the girl instead. 
She herself was in grave danger; her parents’ blood was coursing 
to and fro in her veins, and only after a year or more did it yield 
to her own pure blood that would give her health and long life. 
So for at least 1 year, and generally 2, she might not contaminate 
her blood with the “blood” of fresh meat or berries lest it should 
bring on sickness and early death; dried fish and dried berries, roots, 
and barks became her only foods. On her head she wore a skin 
bonnet that had long fringes in front to conceal her face, and a long 
train behind. If her parents were noble, she wore over it a circlet 
of dentalia shells, and attached dentalia and other shells to three 
strands of her hair, one in front and one on each side, to make it 
seem long and trailing; girls whose parents were too poor to afford 


524 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BuLn, 133 


these shells merely bound their hair in two braids. Suspended 
from her neck, or fastened to her belt, were a drinking tube of goose 
or swan bone so that her lips would neither touch liquid nor any 
vessel that contained it, and a comb or scratcher to use on her head 
instead of her fingers. To prevent her hair from falling out, as 
might happen if she herself combed it, her mother or sister combed 
it for her. For about 2 years she lived in a tiny hut out of sight 
of the village or camp, and avoided as well as she could the trails 
of the hunters. When her people were traveling she followed far 
behind them, in the same trail, if it was easier, for she was not 
required, like Sekani girls, to break an entirely new trail. If the 
party came to a stream, her father laid a log across it so that she 
might cross without touching the water, or else her mother lingered 
behind and carried her across; and as the girl passed over, if possible 
without looking down, she dropped a few twigs into the water. The 
entire community knew of her condition, for, when the first few days 
of seclusion had expired, her parents took her home, and, setting her 
at the back of the house, announced her approaching maturity at a 
potlatch. If her father was a chief, his sister then pierced the girl’s 
lower lip with a bone awl to hold a labret, and after the presents 
were distributed she retired once more to her hut, where she was 
supplied each day with food and drink by her mother, sister, or 
grandmother. The neighboring Gitksan Indians, who were rather 
more sedentary than the Carrier, built the girl’s hut half underground, 
and connected it by one, or more often two cords to the parents’ 
house, so that she could signal in case of need. The Bulkley natives 
seem occasionally to have built similar lodges, but the practice never 
became usual. 

All these restrictions on the gir!’s liberty were of a negative char- 
acter, designed to protect herself and the community from fancied 
harm; and they recurred, for a few days at a time, throughout the 
whole of her subsequent life. The 2 years’ seclusion at adolescence, 
however, was a period also of positive training, when the mother or 
other near female relative gave the girl regular instruction in the 
duties of married life. They supplied her with birchbark to fashion 
into baskets and trays, hides to tan (pl. 31) and sew into moccasins, 
and rabbit skin to weave into blankets. If at certain times she was 
advised to lie down and rest continuously, most of her days were 
fully occupied with tasks that she would be performing in later 
years. 

Although the Bulkley natives no longer seclude their adolescent 
daughters in separate huts, they still subject them to various taboos, 
and warn them against eating fresh meat. A middle-aged woman 
can still remember how she caused her brother to lose a valuable 


ANTHROP. Pap. No. 25] THE CARRIER INDIANS—JENNESS 525 


beaver net. Her family was moving to another camping place, and, 
as she followed behind it, she found the net hanging forgotten on a 
tree. Not daring to touch it, she hooked it over the end of a long 
pole and deposited it in the evening near her mother’s lodge. Her 
brother used it for several days, but failed to catch any beaver, 
though all his companions were successful. He then concluded that 
she had spoiled the net, even though it had not touched her, and in 
his anger he threw it into the fire. 

Sometimes the Indians tried to use the mysterious forces operating 
in the adolescent girl to prevent the constant dying of infants in 
a family, which they attributed to the violation of some taboo by 
one of the parents during his or her youth. When a woman who 
had lost two or more babies gave birth to another child, she would 
ask an adolescent girl to bend a twig to the ground, tie down its 
end with a cord, and then cut the cord with a knife. Thus, the 
mother hoped, she could remove the curse that had overtaken her 
and raise her child in safety. 

After about 2 years, boys and girls emerged from the adolescent 
stage and were ready to take their places among the adults of the 
community. The girl laid aside her special costume and put on new 
garments; to keep her hair from falling out later, she cut off the three 
long strands to which she had fastened dentalia shells; and she held 
herself in readiness for her marriage, which usually took place very 
soon afterward. Boys, however, did not marry until at least 3 or 
4 years later, when they had proved their skill in fishing and hunt- 
ing and their ability to support a wife. In Carrier subtribes farther 
east they were expected at this time to undertake a diligent quest for 
guardian spirits that would help them in emergencies, enable them 
to heal the sick or to obtain game when the people were starving; 
but the Bulkley Carrier, believing that guardian spirits and medi- 
cine powers came to men unsought, did not insist on a definite quest, 
although they encouraged their young men to dream, and to pay 
the greatest attention to their dreams as likely to give them medi- 
cine power. They did require each youth, however, to practise a 
certain ritual (see p. 545 f), both before and after marriage, in order 
that he might thereby achieve greater success in the chase. 

Most young men tried to enhance their appearance by eradicating 
the eye-brows, moustache, and beard, although a man’s good looks 
counted for little in comparison with his rank, prowess in hunting, 
swiftness of foot, or reputation for medicine power. With girls, too, 
rank and conduct theoretically counted for more than beauty The 
well-bred girl seldom or never stumbled; if she were a chief’s daugh- 
ter, she looked straight in front of her; if a commoner’s daughter, 
she looked modestly down; whatever her rank, she refrained from 


526 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 133 


turning her head frequently to one side or the other; and when she: 
sat down, she kept her feet together, not stretched one in front of the 
other. A slender face and figure, well-developed eyebrows and long 
hair were very desirable, but neither in woman nor man was beauty 
considered of prime importance. 

The Bulkley Indians preferred a marriage between cross cousins, 
because it retained the family titles and privileges within a close 
circle and was more conducive to harmony. For the same reason, 
when a man’s wife died, he regularly married her younger sister, 
if she had one; and a woman whose husband died went to his un- 
married brother. Men who married more than one wife generally 
chose two sisters. 

The distinction between cross and parallel cousins appears in the 
terms of kinship and relationship given below, where it will be seen 
that men had one term for the daughters of their fathers’ sisters 
and their mothers’ brothers, who were eligible for wives since they 
necessarily belonged to other phratries, and another term for the 
daughters of their mothers’ sisters, who necessarily belonged to the 
same phratry, and of their fathers’ brothers, who must frequently 
have belonged to it also. Similarly women distinguished between 
the sons of their fathers’ sisters and mothers’ brothers, on the one 
hand, and of their fathers’ brothers and mothers’ sisters on the other. 


TERMS OF KINSHIP AND RELATIONSHIP 


an-e’, my mother (be-n, his mother). 

sbeb, my father (bebeb, his father). 

siyi’, my son. 

stse’, my daughter. 

sa°k’ai, my mother’s sister (man or woman speaking) ; sister's daughter (man 
or woman speaking). 

stai, my father’s brother, my mother’s or father’s sister’s husband, my wife’s 
sister’s daughter (man or woman speaking). 

sbits, my father’s sister, my mother’s brother’s wife, my mother-in-law (man or 
woman speaking) ; my brother’s daughter, my husband’s sister’s daughter 
(woman speaking). 

sezets, my father-in-law (man or woman speaking). 

sre, my sister’s husband, my brother’s wife (man or woman speaking) ; my wife’s 
brother, my wife’s sister, my husband’s brother, my husband’s sister. 

salt’en, my husband’s brother’s wife. 

sla, my wife’s sister’s husband, my husband’s sister’s husband, my wife’s brother’s 
wife. 

saz’e, my mother’s brother (man or woman speaking). 

sezi-t, my father’s sister’s daughter, my mother’s brother’s daughter (man or 
woman speaking) ; my father’s sister’s son, my mother’s brother’s son (woman 
speaking). 

so'n’di,my father’s sister’s son, my mother’s brother’s son (man speaking). 

salsen, my mother’s sister’s son, my father’s brother’s son (man or woman 
speaking). 

salte’tse, my father’s brother’s daughter, my mother’s sister’s daughter (man or 
woman speaking). 


ANTHROP, Pap, No. 25] THE CARRIER INDIANS—JENNESS 527 


stso, my sister’s son or daughter (man or woman speaking). 

stchal, my brother’s son (man or woman speaking), my wife’s or husband’s 
brother’s or sister’s son. 

stitl, my younger sister (man or woman Speaking), my brother’s daughter, my 
wife’s brother,s daughter (man speaking). 

sa-t, my older sister (man or woman speaking). 

songri, my older brother (man or woman speaking). 

stchatl, my younger brother (man or woman speaking). 

sranten, my son-in-law (man or woman speaking). 

siyes’at, my daughter-in-law (man or woman speaking). 

sti-l, my husband’s brother’s daughter (woman speaking). 

stchai, my grandchild (man or woman speaking). 

stsets, my grandfather (man or woman speaking). 

stsani, my father’s mother (man or woman speaking). 

stso, my mother’s mother (man or woman speaking). 

The choice of a husband rested with both the girl and her parents, 
who generally respected her wishes unless a chief asked for her in 
marriage, or required her surrender to atone for a murder or other 
crime. Occasionally the suitor, or one of his parents, suggested the 
match to the girl beforehand in order to sound out her inclinations, 
though she herself could neither accept nor reject the proposal. The 
youth then offered a large quantity of furs, moccasins, arrows, and 
other property to her mother and kinspeople, and if they rejected 
the amount as insufficient, gathered still more to add to the price. If 
they finally accepted, the father invited the suitor to join his household 
and to help him in hunting and other enterprises. The young couple 
did not marry immediately, even though they now lived in the same 
house or lodge; but they tested each other out, as it were, by carefully 
watching one another’s actions and listening to all the conversation 
that went on in the home. At last one night, when everything seemed 
propitious, the bridegroom silently crept under his bride’s robe, and 
remained seated beside her when the family arose in the morning, 
thus openly declaring their marriage. For a year or so longer they 
remained with her parents, handing over to them everything they 
acquired except the few skins they themselves needed for clothing. 
Thereafter they could build their own lodge and hunt by themselves, 
though the girl’s parents still had a claim on their services, and 
largely relied on their son-in-law’s help at potlatches. 

A widowed chief (for a man could hardly become a chief until 
long after his first marriage), or a chief who desired to take an 
additional wife, was exempt from any period of servitude. He 
merely notified the girl’s parents through a kinsman or kinswoman, 
who at the same time delivered the bride-price. The parents naturally 
coveted the honor for their daughter and rarely refused. Shortly 
afterward the girl, however reluctant she might be to wed an elderly 


528 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Butn. 183 


or middle-aged man, was escorted by the same kinsman to her new 
home. 

Neither was there any period of servitude for a girl surrendered 
in compensation for a murder or other crime. Her parents resigned 
every claim to her when they handed her over, with other property, 
in payment of the blood-price, and the brother or near kinsman of 
the murdered man who took her to wife enjoyed absolute authority 
over her. However harshly she was treated, she could not return 
to her parents, for she now belonged, body and soul, to her husband 
and his kin. Nevertheless, it does not appear that she was treated 
very differently from other girls, for every hunter needed a wife 
to handle the meat and hides he secured, to prepare his food and 
make his clothing; and an efficient and contented wife increased his 
own comfort. 

The Indians strongly discountenanced marriage outside the caste. 
If a nobleman married a commoner woman his children were com- 
moners, and only with the greatest difficulty could he secure their 
elevation, because his wife’s brothers and kinsmen could offer no 
appreciable aid. On the other hand, a girl of noble rank who 
married a commoner incurred general disapprobation, and was con- 
stantly mortified by the lowly position he occupied at all feasts 
and ceremonies. Her children, too, would in most cases remain 
commoners, unless her parents and brothers took pity on them and 
undertook the expenses of the potlatches necessary to raise their 
standing. If a commoner greatly distinguished himself by his 
prowess in hunting, or gained a reputation for great medicine power, 
he might aspire to marry even a chief’s daughter, but in that case 
the chief would certainly wipe away the stain of his birth and confer 
on him a title in a magnificent potlatch. The ordinary mésalliance 
was liable to turn into a tragedy. 


Several youths of noble rank were rivals for the hand of a nobleman’s 
daughter, and enlisted to serve her kinsfolk in the chase. The girl herself, 
however, favored a commoner, and in spite of her parent’s admonitions, refused 
all her authorized suitors and encouraged his addresses. One night he stole 
into her lodge and shared her sleeping robe, giving her parents no choice but 
to recognize their marriage and dismiss the other youths. Soon afterward a 
nobleman announced that he was holding a potlatch and invited all the people 
to attend. The chiefs and nobles occupied their accustomed places in the seats 
of honor, but the girl’s husband had to squeeze in among the commoners in 
one corner. Her old grandmother said to her, “Let us peer through that hole 
in the wall of the potlatch house and see where your husband is sitting.” They 
looked, and saw him squeezed among the rank and file in the corner. “We 
warned you about that,” the old woman said. The girl was so mortified that 
she returned home, tied a rope to a tree, and hanged herself. 


In a polygamous household, the first wife ranked above the others, 
who were in a measure her servants and did such cooking, drying 


AntHRopP. Pap. No. 25] THE CARRIER INDIANS—JENNESS 529 


of fish, cleaning of hides, and other duties as were not done by slaves. 
If they quarreled among themselves, their husband thrashed them 
soundly with a stick. A man could divorce his wife for misconduct, 
idleness, or, indeed, any reason at all by sending her back to her 
father or nearest kinsman, and either retaining the children or 
sending them with her. To be divorced by a chief in this way was 
so disgraceful that the woman’s father or brother might publicly 
censure her in a potlatch. For that purpose he stationed her in the 
middle of the hall with a woman on each side of her, and stood 
behind with three or four men hired to chant satirical songs, such 
as, “I did not cook for my husband; I sought after other men, etc.” 
At each song the two women compelled the divorced wife to dance 
while the audience mocked her. Afterward her kinsmen, to blot out 
the disgrace, distributed presents to all except their own phratrymen 
and took the woman home. 

Divorce by a chief needed no justification; but a nobleman who 
divorced his wife generally felt impelled to ventilate his reasons by 
engaging his father and some men in his father’s phratry to satirize 
the woman in the same way; and a woman who left her husband on 
account of ill-treatment or neglect similarly satirized him through 
her own father and kinsmen. The guilty person stayed away on 
these occasions, but might retaliate in a later potlatch. The divorce, 
however, was complete, and both the man and the woman were free 
to remarry whom they pleased. 

Before the birth of her child, a mother submitted to nearly as many 
taboos as an adolescent boy or girl. Old women cautioned the ex- 
pectant mother that if she lay down too much her child’s head might 
become elongated and impair its health, whereas constant activity 
would increase both her own strength and her baby’s. She was to 
be sparing in her diet, lest the child should grow too big and make 
delivery difficult. Neither she nor her husband should eat eggs, 
which would give the child sore eyes; nor the head of any animal or 
fish, particularly the head of a beaver, which would make the child’s 
eyes small like a beaver’s eyes, or of a rabbit or salmon, which would 
make the child cry continually; nor the meat of any animal that had 
been caught in a noose or snare, for it might produce a constriction 
in the child’s neck that would strangle it as it grew up. After the 
delivery of her first child, the mother should use a drinking-tube, and 
abstain from fresh meat and fresh fish for a whole year; with later 
children she could use a cup, if she wished, and eat fresh food after 
1 month. To insure her baby being a boy (or girl) she should 
make a noose and repeat continually, “I want a boy (girl). Ifa girl 
(boy) is born I'll hang it with this noose.” 


530 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY (BULL. 133 


As the hour of childbirth approached, the husband built for his 
wife a special hut which no man save himself dared to enter through 
fear of becoming lame. Here he attended to all her needs, or else 
he engaged a female relative to look after her, for a homicide who 
attended his wife in labor might render her incapable of bearing 
more children. The helper cut the umbilical cord, placed the baby 
in its cradle, and wrapped in bark or fur the afterbirth, which the 
mother herself later concealed in a tree where neither bird nor animal 
could touch it and by so doing destroy her fertility. 

Domestic life varied considerably with the seasons of the year, 
periods of isolation alternating with periods of intense social activity 
when the family was almost swallowed up in the clan and phratry. 
Dominating everything was the necessity of securing an adequate 
supply of the principal foods, meat, and fish. Consequently the man 
and his sons (as soon as the latter were old enough) spent most of 
their time in hunting and fishing, while the woman and _ her 
daughters carried home the meat, set snares for small game such as 
rabbits and marmots, collected berries and roots, cooked the food, 
dressed the skins, made the clothing, the bags and the baskets, and 
performed the many miscellaneous duties that are inseparable from 
a home. Very few women used the bow and arrow or the fish 
spear, but they shared the line fishing in the lakes and rivers. 

The Bulkley natives recognized four seasons, spring (kw-lit), sum- 
mer (kyen), autumn (ta’kait) and winter (xait). They counted by 
winters, and watched for the appearance of each new moon, which 
commonly evoked the cry, “Look” (ho biye) and the stereotyped 
answer, “The little moon” (sa inai). They seem to have divided 
the period from one winter to the next into 12 moons, beginning the 
cycle with the “little white fish moon,” which fell around September— 
October. At Fraser Lake, the Indians used a similar calendar, but 
had different names for certain moons. 


CALENDAR , 
Moons Bulkley Indians Fraser Lake Indians 
Sept.-Oct______.__ Little white-fish moon________ Little white-fish moon. 
(xlwts uzze’, because the (xlus uzza). 
fish spawns about that 
time). 
Oct.-Nov._-=----- Time-ot little cold. — ==. +-- Big white-fish moon. 
(binin’hozkatsyez). (xlu’uzza). 
Nov.—Dec-_._--_-_-- gyint’ek (meaning unknown)__ hankyi (meaning unknown). 
Jan—Heb ste tee Biggsumeee? 20 sos 2a ey Big sun. 
(sa-kyo). (sa-cho). 
Feb.—Mar_-_-__--_- Moon inverted like a cup (?)-- Black specks on the snow. 
(minkyes). (takasstil). 
Mar—Aprs. 22.4.2 Bish wonthy 2 ese eee Fish month. 


(vlo’gaxt’si uzze’). (t’lu’gas uzza). 


ANTHROP. Par. No. 25] THE CARRIER INDIANS—JENNESS 531 


Moons Bulkley Indians Fraser Lake Indians 
Apr.—May - ------- Monthofjsuekers 2. 4.2)22 2. Month of suckers. 
(guskyi uzze’). (taggus uzza). 
May—June_-----~- Time when ducks moult_-_--- - Thumb. 
(bininkyetkyas). (ne-chaz). 
June—July___-_--- Time when salmon come up Sock-eyed salmon. 
the river. (ta-lok). 
(biningyist’lex) . 
Iuly AUS eS ' Time top-of-mountain hunt- Char month. 
ing people go out. (bettuzza). 
(bininzilk’ats tsetattil). 
Aug.—Sept-------- When full moon comes up (?) 


over the last line of trees 
on the mountain side. 
(skyanlere-pes). 

In July the entire subtribe used to gather at Eo aleats (prior to 
1820, at. Moricetown) to intercept the migrating salmon, which were 
dried and stored away for the autumn and early winter (pl. 32). 
This month, and the month following, were periods of abundance, 
when the diet of salmon could be varied with fresh berries, with wild 
rice (djankatl), and with the roasted roots of the wild parsnip 
(djanyankotl) and of the djinittrets, an unidentified plant whose 
root attains the size of a pumpkin. Near relatives of each chief 
then shared with him the big clanhouse, while the other families 
in the clan occupied small individual dwellings round about. Many 
days and nights were given over to ceremonies and potlatches, at- 
tended not only by all the villagers, but by numerous guests from 
neighboring subtribes. Since every man and woman participated in 
these ceremonies, the individual families seemed for a few weeks 
nearly submerged. 

Before any snow settled on the ground, however, the subtribe 
broke up and the families dispersed to their hunting territories in 
search of beaver, caribou, bear, goats, and marmots. Tribal activi- 
ties then ceased, and for a time the families lived solitary, or else 
one or two together, eking out a precarious existence by the chase. 
In the autumn, and again in the spring, they snared hundreds of 
marmots, whose skins the women sewed together into robes and 
socks; but during the winter proper they secured very little game 
except bears and caribou. Surplus caribou fat they melted and 
poured into the long intestine of the animal and carried as a food 
ration on their journeys; and surplus meat they preserved in boxes 
or baskets, sealed with the grease that dripped from strips of bear 
fat laid sloping over a fire. 

In March the snow melted rapidly, and living by the chase became 
more difficult. After their long winter isolation, the families eagerly 
gathered on the lakes and rivers to fish through holes in the 
ice, making use of both the spear and the set line. The latter carried. 


532 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bun, 133 


a barb of bone lashed at an angle of about 45 degrees to a wooden 
shank and baited with a lump of fat. When using the three-pronged 
spear, the Indians commonly encircled the fishing hole with a low 
wall of spruce boughs, roofed the shelter with a blanket, and scraped 
away the snow outside so that the hght penetrated through the ice 
to the water beneath; then, peering through the hole, they observed 
the fish approaching the lure, and struck them when they disappeared 
within the shadow of the shelter. 

In some years March brought them famine; their stocks of dried 
salmon were exhausted, the lakes yielded few fish, and the game 
seemed to keep out of reach. A few families would then cross to 
the Nass River to join in the oolachan fishery, but the majority 
supported themselves on the inner bark of the hemlock, which they 
wrapped in spruce bark and roasted for several hours on hot stones. 
Then they crushed the fibers with stone hammers and dried the pulpy 
mass in large cakes that could be softened in water and eaten with 
fat. As soon as the ice broke up in the lakes, the various households 
generally scattered again to hunt until summer reassembled them for 
the salmon fishing at Hagwilgate or Moricetown. 

Despite their permanent settlements at Moricetown and Hagwil- 
gate, therefore, the Bulkley Indians were constantly on the move, 
driven from place to place by the vagaries of the food supply. In 
summer they used canoes of spruce bark (after the fur-traders 
came, of birchbark also), but even at that season they traveled mainly 
on foot, carrying on their backs the meager furniture of their homes. 
Down to the nineteenth century they lacked even snowshoes and 
toboggans, though they sometimes improvised a toboggan from an 
animal’s hide, and, in crossing wide expanses of glare ice, dragged 
their loads on sticks and branches. Present-day natives say that 
the man always carried the heaviest load, unless he was called away 
by the chase; but that even the little children bore burdens propor- 
tionate to their strength. Their tump-lines were of babiche, with 
a broad head band of skin, though for other purposes they often 
used ropes of twisted cedarbark. Torches of birchbark lighted their 
footsteps in the darkness; and two lumps of pyrites, or sometimes 
a stick rapidly twirled in the hands against another stick, gave them 
fire. A stake planted in the ground and pointed toward the sky 
told passers-by the hour at which friends had preceded them along 
the trail; and a crude grass image of a human being lying on his 
side, tied to a tree, indicated that some one had died recently in 
the vicinity. 

Yet life was not all toil and hardship for a Bulkley household. 
Whenever food was plentiful and three or four families settled down 
together, they indulged in many games and pastimes. The most 


ANTHROP. Par. No. 25] THE CARRIER INDIANS—JENNESS 533 


popular was a gambling game played with two short sticks of bone, 
one of which was marked. Two rows of men sat opposite, and over 
at one end someone beat a drum. Amid frenzied singing and drum- 
ming each side in turn passed the sticks from hand to hand and 
the other side guessed where the marked stick was concealed. It 
is probable that this game, so widespread in Canada at one time and 
still common in the Mackenzie River Valley, did not ‘reach the 
Bulkley River until the fur-trading days of the nineteenth cen- 
tury. There was, however, an older game, in which the marked 
stick was known as chat and the unmarked stick ke. The player 
seems to have thrown one of his sticks on a board of leather; but 
the further details are no longer remembered. 

Formerly, as today, jumping and racing were popular with the 
children and younger men. Other games now seldom or never 
played were: 


1. Snow-snake.—The players gambled on the distance to which they could 
“skip” a long wooden dart off a hard snowbank. Players at Fraser and 
Stuart Lakes did not use an elevated snowbank, but merely skipped the darts 
over the natural surface of the snow. Their darts were only about 4 feet long, 
whereas the darts used by the Bulkley Indians averaged 6 or 7 feet. 

2. nv’ hatilko.—Hach player hurled a 3-foot dart with a disk on the end 
against a thin slat of wood 1% inches wide set upright in the ground, and 
tried to catch the dart as it rebounded. If he failed to catch it, or missed 
the lath, he yielded place to his opponent. 

3. Hoop and stick.—The players hurled short spears through a small hoop 
as it rolled along the ground; or else one side shot an arrow through it, 
and the other tried to shoot the arrow at its resting place. 

4. Retrieving with a line——The players rivaled each other in retrieving a 
bundle of twigs sent floating down the river, each hurling a short hooked 
spear tied to a long line. 

5. Rough and tumble——Two small holes were dug in the ground a few yards 
apart, and the girls lined up at one hole, the boys at the other. A man then 
waved a strong 4-foot stick between them and chanted, “By and by I shall eat 
blueberries,” i. e., cause many bruises. The children rushed to catch the 
stick as he threw it into the air, and while the girls struggled to register a 
“touch” with it against their hole, the boys tried to register a touch at their 
own. 

6. Tug of War.—Men and women took opposite sides and tugged on a Stout 
rope of twisted cedar bark. If the front man could pull the opposite woman 
over to his side, she had to face round and help her adversaries. There were 
other forms of this game for two people only. Sometimes two men tugged on 
a swan’s bone about 9 inches long; at other times they sat on the ground, feet 
against feet, and tugged on a stick or rope until one or other was lifted to a 
standing position. 


So life jogged along for the Bulkley Carrier until at last old age 
overcame him or some catastrophe cut short his career; either he 
perished in a raid or while hunting, or he succumbed to one of the 
ailments that afflicted the natives even before the white man intro- 
duced new plagues toyincrease the toll from disease. 


534 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Buuu. 133 


The Indians ascribed most of their ailments to supernatural or 
psychological causes, and tried to combat them by the same means 
(see Medicine men, p. 559). Yet this did not prevent their employ- 
ment of many herbal remedies, some of which, e. g., the use of balsam 
gum for wounds and burns, and of fernroot for worms, possessed true 
therapeutic value. For coughs and colds they inhaled steam, or 
drank decoctions of wild-rose roots or juniper tips; and to check 
bleeding they applied a poultice made from the green roots of the 
cottonwood. Juniper tips, the root of the red-fruited elder, and the 
barks of the balsam and devilsclub supplied them with purgatives; 
and for biliousness they injected a decoction of red-alder bark, using 
the crop of a bird as a syringe. The prescription for a certain tonic 
called for the drinking, morning and night, of two tablespoonfulls 
of a decoction made from a handful of each of the following ingre- 
dients: Needle-tips of the Jack-pine and of another pine, inner barks 
of the wild gooseberry and of the wild rose, bark of the red osier 
dogwood, inner pulp of raspberry canes, and stems of the bear-berry. 
To this and many other prescriptions might be added a sweat bath, 
taken, as usual, inside a bee-hived lodge where the bather generated 
steam by pouring water on red hot stones. 

Sooner or later sweat baths, herbal remedies, and the frenzied 
chants of the medicine men were bound to fail the Indian, and the 
day came when his father’s phratry dressed him in his finest clothes 
and laid him on the funeral pyre. On top of him lay his widow, 
who had to embrace her dead husband until she could no longer with- 
stand the smoke and the flames. Even then his kinsfolk, whose 
servant she now became, pushed her repeatedly into the flames until 
she was severely burned, if for any reason she had incurred their 
displeasure. The people sat around in a circle and wept till evening, 
when they retired to their homes and either left the widow to spend 
the night at the pyre, or led her to some house of her husband’s 
kin. The neighboring Gitksan made her mourn at the pyre and 
weave a net to prove that she had passed the night in sleeplessness; 
but the Carrier, apparently, set her no task. The day after the 
cremation, the father’s phratry gathered the calcined bones in a box 
and handed them for safe keeping to the phratry of the deceased, 
who then repaid them in a potlatch. About a year later, the father’s 
phratry built a wooden grave-house over the cremation site, and 
deposited the bones on top of a post carved with the crest of the 
deceased’s clan or phratry. 

If a man died at his hunting grounds, his widow cremated his re- 
mains and carried the bones to the village when the hunting season 
ended. Among the more eastern Carrier, she was obliged to carry 
them on her back for a year or more, whence the early French 


AnTurop, Pap. No. 25] THE CARRIER INDIANS—JENNESS 535 


voyageurs called these Indians porteurs, i. e., Carriers; but the 
Bulkley natives have no recollection of the custom in their own 
district. 

A widow had to serve her husband’s kinsmen for at least a year, at 
times much longer, if they were unwilling to release her; indeed, if 
she was content with her position, and too old to remarry, she some- 
times continued to serve them the rest of her days. She slept in any 
part of the house that they assigned her, and preserved the strict 
semblance of mourning, wearing old clothes, keeping her hair short, 
and refraining from washing her face. In most cases her servitude 
was light—invariably so if her kinsmen were powerful—and she 
could secure her release and remarry after the 12 months ended. 
She usually married a brother or near kinsman of her dead husband, 
although she was free to exercise her own choice. 

A widower underwent exactly the same servitude as a widow, 
though he, of course, served his wife’s kinsmen, and was more immune 
from ill-treatment; thus, he was not forced to embrace his dead wife 
during her cremation. At the end of the mourning period, he 
washed his face and held a potlatch, if his kinsmen were influential ; 
if not, he moved without ceremony into one of the houses of his own 
clan or phratry. He then generally married any sister of his dead 
wife who was still unwed, although, like the widow, he was not 
restricted in his choice. 

Today each Bulkley Indian family has its individual frame house, 
and a widower (or widow), though expected to aid the kinsmen of 
his dead wife in minor ways, is not obliged to live with them. He 
refrains from remarrying, however, for at least a year, and gen- 
erally terminates the period of mourning by giving a small pot- 
jatch, at which he hires some one to compose a new song. All the 
guests dance to the new song, and after eating, return to their homes 
with trifling presents. 

Like other peoples, the Bulkley Indians did not look upon death as 
the ultima rerum, the final goal of all things. They believed that 
every human being possessed three parts besides his corporeal body : 
a mind or intelligence (bini, “his mind”); warmth (bizil, “his 
warmth”) ; and a third part, called while he was living his shadow 
(bitsen, “reflection in water, shadow cast by the sun or moon, ghost 
or apparition of a living person”), and after death his shade (bizul). 
These three parts were indispensable to give the body life and health; 
but whereas the warmth, being a mere attribute, as it were, of the 
body, perished with it, the mind probably persisted after death, 
though whether it then became identified with the shadow, or what 
happened to it, the natives held to be quite uncertain. Neither the 
mind nor the warmth left the body during life, but the shadow fre- 

4052604335 


536 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Butn. 133 


quently wandered abroad, especially in sleep or in sickness. Too 
Jenethy an absence, however, caused the owner’s sickness and death. 
To see an apparition of someone—his shadow—was a sure sign that 
the person to whom it belonged would soon fall sick and die. Ifa 
man chanced to see his own apparition, he placed a little bird’s down 
in his cap or moccasin, and hung it over his bed; if in the morning 
it still felt warm, his shadow had returned and he would live, but if 
it felt cold he would die. A dog was able to see a wandering shadow, 
and the barking of a dog at night indicated that such a shadow was 
roaming in the neighborhood. At times it threw a stick or a stone at 
someone, who knew at once that, unless he could obtain help from a 
medicine man, both he himself would die and also the person whose 
shadow was molesting him. A medicine man, in his dreams, could 
discover a wandering shadow and imprison it in his own body until, 
in a public ceremony a few hours later, he could restore it to its 
rightful owner. It was not infrequent, indeed, for one medicine man 
to accuse another of stealing a sick person’s shadow, and the accused 
had then either to restore the patient to health by returning it, or 
else be adjudged a murderer. More frequently still, powers in the 
animal or spiritual world captured and imprisoned men’s shadows, 
and such men, after recovering them, became imbued with special 
gifts of foresight and of healing not granted to the ordinary layman. 

After the death of the body the shadow, or, as it then became, the 
shade (bizul), journeyed to a City of the Dead somewhere toward 
the rising sun. It did not know that its body was dead and decaying, 
being conscious only that it was traveling along a broad smooth path 
through a pleasant land warm with the breath of summer. It began 
its journey the moment it left the body, but occasionally it returned 
an hour or a day afterward, and, reentering the lifeless form, revived 
the dead man, who was able to explain what his shade had seen. 

My cousin Gudzan lay dead one day for an hour, and during that time his 
shade fared forth along the path that leads to the City of the Dead. The 
warm, summery air was tinged with a faint smokelike haze, and the landscape 
was very beautiful. His shade had gone but a short distance through this 
country when it thought, “Why am I traveling along this path. I will return.” 
But as it started back a black streak moved across the path and barred its 
passage. Vainly it endeavored to circle round the obstacle, and at last, in its 
terror, it tried to leap over it. The object moved back, and the shade landed 
right on top of it. It was its own body that it lighted on, and straightway my 
cousin came to life again. 

In August 1923 a Babine Indian named Nettsis died for a day and also re- 
turned to life. He told me that he too found the broad path that leads to the 
City of the Dead. It ran through a gently undulating plain clothed with 
summer verdure, and was lined on either side with bushes of ripe blackberries. 


At the summit of a low hill bubbled a spring of pure clear water. Many 
footsteps had marked the road, all pointing eastward, but he saw no people. 


ANTHROP. Pap. No. 25] THE CARRIER INDIANS—JENNESS 537 


He halted at the spring, thinking to himself, “The people will laugh at me, for 
IT have no clothes. I had better turn back.” So he returned to life again. 


Two persons, and only two, the Indians relate, have ever reached 
the City of the Dead and returned to life again to describe their 
experiences. One was a youth, the hero of many strange adventures 
(Jenness, 1934, p. 99); the other a medicine man who, like Orpheus, 
followed his dead wife to bring her back to earth (Jenness, 1934, 
p. 143). The Indians derived all their notions of the after-life from 
these two myths, principally this section of the myth concerning the 
medicine man. 


-As the two shadows traveled along the wide, smooth road, the man ahead 
and his wife behind, they saw many tracks of unmoccasined feet, all pointing 
in the same direction, and none returning. On either hand were berry bushes, 
but all the berries were black. The medicine man refrained from eating 
them, for he was still alive; and when his wife attempted to eat them, he 
took the berries from her hand and threw them aside. Soon they came to a 
spring of water. Here the woman wished to drink from the small basket of 
birchbark that lay beside it; and again her husband forbade her. When he 
himself dipped the basket into the spring, all the water flowed through it, 
although he could see no hole; for he was still living, and the basket was 
intended for the dead alone. People are often thirsty when they die, and 
this place, a little above the road, is the last drinking place of the dead. 

Now they came to a great precipice, down which, in one place, led an easy 
road. The dead, trying to return to earth, often come back to this precipice, 
but they can neither find the road again nor can they scale the cliff. Beyond 
the cliff was a river, and on its farther bank a city, divided into two parts. 
On the one side all the houses and canoes were black, on the other red; and 
between them stood a totem-pole named tsim’yak’yak. The black houses were 
the homes of the dead, the red the homes of the robins, which dwell on earth 
during the day and depart to the underworld at evening. Here the dead woman 
yawned, and immediately a black canoe put off from the farther bank and 
began to cross toward her. The medicine man shouted, and the people in 
the red houses, hearing him, put off in a red canoe. Both canoes reached the 
bank together. The woman wished to enter the black one, but her husband 
told her to embark with him on the red canoe: When they reached the 
opposite shore she wished to enter a black house, but he constrained her to 
follow him into a red one. There he was given some good dried fish, which 
he ate. 

Behind the house which they had entered stood a smaller house inhabited 
by a little old woman. She informed the medicine man that the red houses 
were the homes of robins, the black the homes of the dead. ‘Presently,’ she 
said, “the dead will invite you and your wife to visit them. Go, but do not 
eat the food they offer you. Warn your wife also not to eat, for otherwise 
she will never return with you to the land above. I will stand behind your 
back, and whatever food they offer you, pass it back to me, for I am dead 
and can eat with impunity. They will seem to give you huckleberries, but 
the huckleberries will be dead men’s eyes.” 

After a time the occupants of a black house called to the medicine man, 
“Come over to our house.” When he entered with his wife, a man set a 
blanket on the floor for them to sit on, and offered the medicine man a 
wooden dish filled with seeming huckleberries. His wife grabbed them up, 


538 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 133 


but he forced her to release them, and in spite of her anger passed them back 
to the old woman behind him. Then they set before him the dried flesh of frogs 
and snakes and lizards. These, too, he handed to the old woman, and, when 
the meal had ended, led his wife back to the village of the robins. 

In the morning the old woman said to him, “If you wish to return to earth 
alive you must pass over the cliff again. There are two trails that lead to 
it, besides the broad road for dead people that you followed hither. One 
trail is very filthy, for it is the path taken by dead dogs. The other is a 
faint trail, not easy to find, that leads to a place where a huge snake spans 
the river of death. The snake undulates up and down so that any one who 
tries to cross on its back falls flat and cannot rise again.” 

Good and bad alike, the natives thought, shared the same fate; both 
made their way to the City of the Dead, where they dwelt in idleness, 
never hunting, and eating nothing but dried frogs, dried snakes, and 
other loathesome foods. Each morning the robins deserted them and 
flew back to earth to enjoy the sunlight and the society of man. 
The living Indian who heard a robin singing during the daytime 
would say, “yo’hodinne (I am grateful to you),” but when evening 
drew near, and it sang its departing note, “so so so so,” the note that it 
sings in the City of the Dead, he carefully said nothing, lest his shade 
should follow after it. He hoped, perhaps, that his own shade would 
be among the more fortunate that for some unknown reason did not 
journey to the City of the Dead, but lingered near the grave and 
sooner or later obtained reincarnation, 

The inheritance of physical characters provided the Indians with 
seemingly solid grounds for their belief in reincarnation. One man’s 
sister-in-law had six toes, and his son, born after her death, likewise 
had six toes, whence the conviction that the aunt had been reincar- 
nated in the child. Strangely enough, the second son had a crooked 
thumb that was said to resemble its grandmother’s. Another man 
had a birthmark on his foot similar to one on his mother’s uncle, 
and, believing that he possessed the same shadow, he adopted that 
uncle’s title. The Indians thought that deep and prolonged mourn- 
ing often induced the shade of a dead relative to enter into the next 
child, and if such a child cried frequently, its mother, believing that 
the desires of one life were carried over into the next, would search 
out something that had been prized by its predecessor. A child cred- 
ited with being a reincarnated relative was sometimes referred to as 
hwatchan e’kaidittsut, “a person who travels everywhere,” because its 
shadow seemed peculiarly liable to rebirth generation after generation. 

Like many Europeans, the Indians claim that they often see the 
shades of the dead haunting old burial places. Thus, one man stated 
that a few years ago, when traveling near Quesnel, he observed a 
woman emerge from a grave, wander away for two or three hundred 
yards, and return to the grave again. Being a fervent Christian, he 
went up to the place and prayed for her. 


Anrurop. Pap. No. 25] THE CARRIER INDIANS—JENNESS 539 


When Simon Fraser and his party reached Fraser Lake in 1806, 
the local Indians, who are closely related to the Bulkley River people, 
looked upon them as the reincarnated shades of cremated Indians, 
because they not only came from the east, up the Nechako river, but 
they blew smoke from their mouths (Jenness, 1984, p. 257). 


RELIGION 


John McLean, who spent several years among the Carrier in the 
first half of the nineteenth century, states that “the Takelly” (Carrier) 
language has not a term in it to express the name of Deity, spirit, 
er soul. When the Columbia religion was introduced among them, 
our interpreter had to invent a term for the Deity—Yagasita—the 
“Man of Heaven.” The only expression I ever heard them use 
that conveyed any idea whatever of a superior Being is, that when 
the salmon fail, they say, “The man who keeps the mouth of the 
river has shut it up with his red keys, so that the salmon cannot 
get up.” 

The Bulkley natives, however, assert that they at least recognized 
a superior Being long before Europeans penetrated to their country. 
At Stuart Lake he was called yutarre; at Fraser Lake, yutakki; and by 
the Bulkley people themselves, utakke, all meaning “that which is 
on high.” He was a typical sky god, and indeed the Bulkley natives 
often called him sa, “sky or sky luminary.” ‘They regarded the sky 
as another land abounding in lakes and forests like this earth, but 
neither very warm nor very cold. Sa and his children had their 
dwelling there, but occasionally he came down to earth to help some 
unfortunate man or woman (see Jenness, 1934, pp. 1838-184, 215-218, 
999-231), and once he sent his son instead (Jenness, 1934, pp. 164-165). 
Thunder the natives attributed to the flapping wings of a bird, about 
the size of a grouse, that lived on top of a mountain; but whenever 
the sun and sky were obscured by heavy rain or snow they would 
say, “utakke nenye” (Utakke is walking on earth), concealed in the 
storm. Whenever, again, the sun went under something (sa wi’inai), 
i. e., was eclipsed, they thought that Utakke was punishing them 
for some transgression and that the phenomenon foreboded sickness. 
They still recall the terrible epidemic of smallpox that ravaged the 
Skeena River Basin in 1862, shortly after a total eclipse of the sun. 

Although this belief in a sky-God probably dates back to pre- 
European times, it was not until elements of Christianity had pene- 
trated to the Bulkley Carrier that it gradually assumed a prominent 
place. Before that time the Indians had looked mainly to powers 
in the animal world for explanations of life’s phenomena and for 
assistance in life’s journey. They thought that animals possessed 
warmth, mind, and shadows equally with man; that they differed from 


540 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BuLL. 133 


man only in their corporeal forms, in possessing certain powers that 
man lacked, and in lacking other powers that man enjoyed. Thus, 
they could assume at will the shapes of human beings, and some- 
where or other had their individual homes where each species lived 
very much the same life as human beings. Legend recorded that the 
wolf, the caribou, the bear, and even the frog had carried people 
away and married them, or else sent them home with special medi- 
cine powers; and even today the Indians believe that such happenings 
are possible, although now, they claim, the animals usually abduct 
only the shadows of men. It was from the animals that man acquired 
much of his knowledge, and on the animal world he depended for 
his daily food. Every word that was spoken, every act that took 
place in a village or camp, the animals knew. Hence the Indian 
needed to be extremely careful in all his relations with them; if he 
were wise he scrupulously obeyed all the time-honored regulations 
and taboos, and never treated an animal with contumely or said a 
disparaging word about it. An old man well summed up their 
attitude thus: 


We know what the animals do, what are the needs of the beaver, the bear, 
the salmon, and other creatures, because long ago men married them and acquired 
this knowledge from their animal wives. Today the priests say that we lie, but 
we know better. The white man has been only a short time in this country 
and knows very little about the animals; we have lived here thousands of 
years and were taught long ago by the animals themselves. The white man 
writes everything down in a book so that it will not be forgotten; but our 
ancestors married the animals, learned all their ways, and passed on the knowledge 
from one generation to another. 


In the earliest times, the Indians continue, many monstrous animals 
disputed with man the lordship of the earth. There was a lynx 
larger and more savage than the existing lynx, grizzlies that attacked 
the Indian villages, huge snakes that destroyed all passers by, and 
frogs that killed from a distance. Although various heroes long ago 
rid the world of these creatures and left the fauna as it is today, even 
now the Indian who wanders in remote places harbors a lurking fear 
that some appalling monster may suddenly spring up to bar his path. 
Should a stranger approach his lonely camp he stands on his guard, 
partly from a traditional fear of human enemies, and partly because 
he is not sure that the visitor may not prove to be an animal in human 
guise. He firmly believes that the otter sometimes transforms itself 
into a youth or maiden and seduces an Indian to his destruction.” 
The hooting of a small owl night after night near his camp fills him 


12The Indians therefore advised their young men (and young women) not to think much 
about the other sex, lest they be deceived by the otter. They believed that a woman 
became insane if she merely touched the tail of a dead otter, or if someone wrapped one 
of her hairs round its tail; but that, contrariwise, she would conceive a violent attachment 
for the man who wrapped one of her hairs round the sweet-smelling hummingbird. 


AnTHROoP, Pap. No. 25] THE CARRIER INDIANS—JENNESS 541 


with dismay, for it is warning him that a relative will soon die; al- 
though the first time he hears it hooting he may throw a little fat into 
the fire and pray, “As I now give you this fat so do you provide rne 
with abundant fat hereafter”; or else he may divide his fat into three 
pieces, and sacrifice the first piece to the owl, the second to the raven, 
and the third to the bluejay, in order that these birds, rejoicing in the 
feast, may deliver the game into his hands.** Whenever he kills a 
black bear, he kneels beside its carcass and chants this song, on the 
vowel “e”; to please its departing shade and ensure his killing other 
bears thereafter. 


& a oS 


About 20 years ago, when I was traveling with my uncle and other Indians 
east of Moricetown, my dog scented out a black bear, which J killed quite easily, 
for I had often dreamed of killing bears. Six days later my uncle fell sick, and 
said to me, “Ill eat some of that fresh bear meat, and rub some of the grease over 
me. Then perhaps I shall feel better.” That evening a young Babine girl joined 
our camp and said to him, “I should like to eat some of that bear meat too.” At 
first my uncle refused her, because she seemed to be at the adolescent stage when 
fresh meat was forbidden her; but when she still pleaded he at last gave her a 
little. At midnight he died, and we discovered that the girl really was adolescent 
and should not have eaten the meat; it would have killed her had it not killed 
my uncle first. I myself was unable to kill any more bears for a long time after- 
ward, for they were angry with me; in my dreams I sometimes saw them on the 
far bank of a river or lake, and always they seemed very angry. Within the 
last few years, however, I have managed to kill one occasionally. 


Bearing this attitude toward the animal world, and being entirely 
dependent on it for his daily food, it was hardly strange that the Bulk- 
ley Indian should turn to that quarter for protection and guidance in 
the affairs of life. He conceived that he possessed a special gift lack- 
ing in white men, the gift of communing with the animal world in 
dreams, when his shadow wandered abroad and associated with the 
shadows of the animals. Dreams were therefore tremendously signifi- 
cant. If aman dreamed frequently of black bears, or of beaver, his 
shadow acquired special knowledge and power that enabled him to 
kill those animals more easily than other men. 

I have never dreamed a great deal, so I have never been a very successful 


hunter. One season I caught a beaver, not in the jaws of the trap, but 
with the chain, which became wound round the animal’s legs. I do not 


18 If the owl continued to hoot, night after night, after this sacrifice of fat, the Carrier 
of the Stony Creek district, farther east, would sometimes throw an old moccasin into 
the fire exclaiming, “I hope you'll swallow this old moccasin and choke to death.” 


542 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 133 


know why this should have happened, because I have seldom dreamed about 
beaver, and never of catching a beaver in that unusual manner. 

Kela, who died last winter, was always dreaming, and in consequence he 
was an exceptionally good hunter. He dreamed frequently of meeting three 
beaver girls, and sometimes, shortly before the beaver season opened, he would 
say to his wife, “I dreamed I saw the three beaver girls last night. They 
were laughing, so I know I shall catch many beaver this season.” At other 
times he would say, “I saw the three beaver girls last night and their heads 
were drooping, so I shall not catch many beaver this season.” In the autumn 
of 1923 he told his wife that the three beaver girls had spoken to him 
and warned him that he would die if he sat down to a meal with an unclean 
woman. Two months later some relatives from Moricetown visited him and 
stayed the night at his house. The following morning Kela said to his wife, 
“The beaver girls visited me in the night and reproached me for eating with 
those women. I think I am going to die.” Half an hour afterward he com- 
plained of pain in an elbow joint.. The pain spread rapidly all over his body 
and within a few days he died. 

Carrier Indians to the eastward, at Fraser Lake and beyond, made 
every youth seek an animal protector or guardian spirit, and taught 
him how he might gain it. Night after night during the summer 
months the youth wandered away, alone or in company with another, 
to sleep in solitude on a hillside, or beside a lake or a river, where 
an unbroken silence promoted dreaming and the contact of his shadow 
with the world of animals. The weirder or more dangerous his 
sleeping-place the more hope he entertained of achieving his quest. 
Some youths therefore slept on boughs overhanging the water, or 
bung, head downward, over a rock-slide, secured from falling by a 
thong around one leg; some slept in graveyards, which the Indians 
tended to avoid on other occasions. Not every dream betokened a 
significant visitation from the animal world, but only a dream so 
vivid and intense that it printed itself indelibly on the memory. Then 
the bird, the fish, or the animal so revealed became the youth’s guard- 
ian spirit, which he could summon to his aid in times of crises. 
Of the various methods of acquiring guardian spirits and medicine 
power three were in especially high repute, partly perhaps on account 
of their difficulty. 

1. Find a log on which a cock grouse stands and “drums” during the April 
mating-season, purify your body by bathing, and crawl underneath at dusk. 
Even though the grouse seems conscious of your presence and stays away for 
several nights, repeat the process until at last it comes and “drums” on the 
log above you. If nothing happens except that the noise keeps you from 
sleeping go home, for you have failed and will never become a medicine 
man. But if you are fortunate, when its wings begin to flap they will seem 
to embrace the whole world, and fire will shoot from under them, impelled by 
a mighty wind. You will lie as if dead, but your shadow, traveling away to 
a mountain or a river, will encounter a fish, a bear, or other creature and learn 
from it a song. Return to your home in the morning, but at evening sleep 


under the log again in order that the grouse may repeat its visit and your 
shadow may perhaps acquire a second song. When the third night comes 


AnTHROP, Pap, No. 25] THE CARRIER INDIANS—JENNESS 543 


beat your drum and practice the two songs, for now you are a potential 
medicine man and will have two guardian spirits at your command. 

2. Catch a number of live frogs, make a tub of birchbark, and lie in it stripped 
to the waist. Protect your eyes, mouth, and armpits with moss and let the 
frogs crawl over your chest. Lie thus night after night until a vision comes 
to you, and your shadow wanders away inside a cliff or a mountain where 
it sees a duck, a bear, or other creature, and hears a song and the beating 
of a drum. You will remember the song when you awake and must practice it 
each evening just after sunset. 

3. Go at evening to a swamp where frogs are numerous, remove your clothes 
and lie naked in the water. Repeat this evening after evening until at last 
a frog comes and settles on your body. Many others will follow it. As soon 
as they cover your body catch the first frog, go out of the water, and dress. 
Then lie down to sleep under a tree with the frog suspended by its leg 
only a foot or two above your head. In your dream your shadow, returning 
to the swamp, will find under the water medicine men chanting a song inside 
a big house whose door is coated with moss. This will be your medicine 
song. 

The Stuart Lake Carrier, like the Sekani and other Indian tribes 
to the eastward, seem to have believed that every youth obtained a 
guardian spirit, but that only a few favored individuals, through 
dreams of a special character, apparently, acquired definite medicine 


_ power and ranked as medicine men. Thus Morice says: 

They also attach to dreams the same importance as did most people of an- 
tiquity. It was while dreaming that they pretended to communicate with the 
supernatural world, that their shamans were invested with their wonderful 
power over nature, and that every individual was assigned his particular 
nagwal or tutelary animal-genius. Oftentimes they painted this genius with 
vermilion on prominent rocks in the most frequented places, and these rough 
inscriptions are about the only monuments the immediate ancestors of the pres- 
ent Dénés have left us. [Morice, 1888-89, p. 161.] 


At Fraser Lake and Stony Creek, however, this doctrine under- 
went a significant modification (pl. 33, fig. 1). There the Indians 
conceived that most youths were unsuccessful in their quest, that only 
a favored few acquired guardian spirits, and that these few became 
the medicine men able to cure diseases and to foresee the future. The 
Bulkley Indians modified the doctrine still further, probably through 
the influence of the Gitksan. They knew their kinsmen’s methods 
of obtaining medicine power, and stated that they too followed the 
same practices in earlier times. At a later period, however, they 
developed the notion that guardian spirits and medicine power were 
not amenable to search, but came to man unheralded; that animal 
spirits took possession even of unwilling Indians, causing dreaminess 
and a wasting sickness that only the medicine men could diagnose 
and cure. The medicine men fortified the patients with some of their 
own power, and trained them to perceive and thereby control the ani- 
mal spirits inside their bodies until, gaining the mastery, they re- 
covered their health and themselves acquired the power and status 
of medicine men. 


544 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [ButL, 133 


In this revised doctrine of the Bulkley natives, persons who seldcm 
dreamed, or whose dreams had no coherent content, were not attuned 
to the supernatural world and could never acquire medicine power, 
however earnestly they might desire it. For the first symptoms of 
approaching medicine sickness, or of possession by an animal spirit, 
were frequent dreams, especially dreams that centered about one or 
two animals. Often the man marked out for that possession was 
totally unconscious of his destiny; he merely knew that every now 
and then he dreamed of a black bear or a beaver, and following his 
dreams had unusual luck in killing those animals. Sooner or later, 
however, by slow stages or with a sudden onset, a languor overcame 
him, and he lay in his hut, too listless and weak even to rise to his 
feet. The people used three expressions to describe his malady: 
eyilsin, “something is inside his body” (sasilsin, “he has a black bear 
inside him”); “he is caught by a dream,” because dreams were the 
gates to the spiritual world and persisted like spirits, so that a man 
was frequently beset by the same dreams as his predecessors; and 
“he is caught by a medicine song,” because a medicine song invariably 
issued from every contact with the world of spirits. 

A later section will describe in fuller detail how medicine men 
acquired their status, and how they practiced their art. In no sense 
did they constitute a priesthood or interpose a barrier between the 
laity and the supernatural world. The lay Indian did not cease to 
dream, or to believe that his dream opened up contact with the spir- 
itual world and thereby brought him substantial benefits; for even 
the layman’s dreams gave him power to accomplish whatever they 
signified. If he was swift of foot, his swiftness came from dreams 
in which he seemed to pursue and overtake the fleeting caribou; if 
unusually successful in his salmon fishing, his success came from 
dreaming about the salmon. 


When I was about 12 years of age I often dreamed about a tailed man, which 
surely signified an otter. While still a lad, I dreamed that I was standing on 
a mountain-side gazing into a bear’s den among the roots of a giant cottonwood 
tree. I broke off a stick and thrust it down the hole. Then I awoke; but 
the dream, and subsequent dreams like it, brought me good fortune, for I 
was always finding black-bear dens along my trap-lines. Often I would dream 
at night about a bear and kill one the very next day. 

One winter when I was trapping with my uncle and his son our supplies of 
food gave out, and my uncle said to me, half jestingly, “You are such a won- 
derful hunter. Why don’t you bring us in some meat?’ At daybreak, with 
two dogs, I went out to visit my traps, leaving my flint-lock in the camp and 
carrying only my knife. I came to a bear’s half-finished den, and, searching 
about, found the bear itself hiding inside a real den beneath a fallen tree. I 
tied my knife to the end of a pole, lashed two other poles crosswise across the 
mouth of the den so that the animal would have to push its head above or 
below them, and urged on my dogs to scratch through the roof. When the bear, 


ANTHROP. Pap. No. 25] THE CARRIER INDIANS—JENNESS 545 


disturbed by their scratching, poked its head outside, I stabbed it in the back 
of the neck and killed it. 

In time all the people recognized that I was an unusually successful bear 
hunter. Then one day Djolukyet, who is a powerful medicine man, came to 
me and said, “The bears are angry with you. They have been visiting you 
in your dreams, they have been entering yous body and helping you to find 
their dens. Soon you would have become a powerful medicine man; but be- 
cause you stay with your wife at certain seasons they will no longer come 
near you-and before many years you will become blind. If you wish, however, 
I will catch the bear, put it back in your body, and make you a medicine man. 
Then your sight will remain unimpaired.” I refused him, because the priest 
had told us that it was wrong to practice medicine and I wished to do what 
the priest said. Consequently, before many years I lost my sight. 


Nevertheless, dreams were so erratic, visitations from the animal 
world so ungovernable, that no Indian hunter cared to stake all his 
fortunes upon them. He believed that in ancient days the animals 
themselves had delivered to him a powerful weapon by disclosing 


certain “medicines” and rituals that would deliver the game into 
his hands. 


Long ago wolverine was always successful in its hunting, but man and the 
other animals always unlucky. If a hunter cached his meat, wolverine stole 
it; if he baited a trap, wolverine stole the bait and eseaped scot-free. At last 
a man caught a wolverine alive, tied it up and threatened to beat it to death 
unless it revealed the secret of its luck. Wolverine said, “I eat such and such 
a grass.” But the man struck it with his stick saying, “You lie. I, too, have 
eaten that grass, but derived no luck from it.” Then wolverine wept bitterly 
and said, “Far up on the mountain, and there alone, grows a tiny grass. That 
is what I eat.” The man killed the wolverine, found the grass on the mountain 
and ate it. Thereafter he was always successful in his hunting. Many other 
medicines besides this one the Indians learned from the animals, though it 
was Hstes, the Trickster, who first revealed their existence to man. 


Hunting medicines of this type were called yu; the ritual that 
always accompanied their use, xat; and the hunter who employed the 
“medicine” and performed the ritual, xatlete. Apparently every hun- 
ter knew at least one such medicine, and the majority several. Al- 
though the rituals all conformed to one general plan, the Indians 
carefully preserved their details secret, believing that the man who 
revealed his “medicine” to another transferred also its efficacy and 
deprived himself of its further use. Older hunters imparted their 
knowledge to their sons and nephews, and occasionally men pur- 
chased hunting medicines from one another at considerable cost. The 
“formula” of one Bulkley native illustrates the general type. 

Cut a bundle of devilsclub sticks and, in the evening, after you and your 
wife have bathed, remove the outer bark of two sticks and from the serapings 
of the inner tissue make two or three balls about the size of marbles. Chew 
these thoroughly and swallow them. Repeat the same procedure every evening 


for a month, and carefully refrain from touching your wife. At the end of 
the month bathe, let your wife bathe, and sleep with her during the following 


546 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bunn. 133 


month. Alternate in this way for six months. Then you will be able to trap 
all manner of fur-bearing animals, and kill all kinds of game. But beware of 
immorality, lest the animals, smelling your corruption, keep away and compel 
you to purify yourself again by repeating the entire ritual, or another ritual 
of similar character. 

This was a formula for the “wolf” ritual, practised, with individual 
variations of detail, by many Bulkley Indians, and by a few Carrier of 
Fraser Lake. Some men limited its duration to the month immediately 
preceding the hunting season, others extended it over several months, 
although tradition states that one man who extended it over a full year 
made his medicine so powerful that it killed him. The “wolverine” 
ritual was similar to the “wolf,” but, according to one formula at least, 
required the use of hattak leaves instead of devilsclub™ until 6 days 
before the hunting season opened, the sleeping for alternate periods 
first on one side of the body, then on the other, complete continence 
before and during the hunting season except on the night preceding its 
opening day, and the bathing of husband and wife four times during 
the early morning of that day, after the analogy of the wolverine, which 
was reputed to end its ritual by diving four times into a swamp. In 
still another ritual unmarried men, and a few married men who had 
observed continence for a period, bathed each evening and rubbed 
their faces and bodies with the smoke of burning “poison-weed” 
(kanye). Inevery hunting district the Indians built at least one sweat- 
house for the practice of these rituals, and for use in cases of sickness. 

The early religion of the Bulkley natives that has just been outlined 
contains many obscure features very difficult to unravel today owing to 
what we may call the reformation brought about by Europeans and 
Kuropeanized natives during the nineteenth century. Before 1850 
Christian teachings, or garbled versions of them, had so leavened the 
aboriginal doctrines as to occasion their drastic reinterpretation. 
Dreams still retained their ancient significance, the animal world still 
held a prominent place in the Indians’ minds, but dominating them 
both was the once shadowy and neglected sky-god, Sa or Utakke, now 
identified with the God of the Christian religion and considered the 
ultimate power behind all dreams, the ruler of everything on earth 
and in the sky. If an animal continued to quiver after it was shot, the 
hunter raised his eyes to the sky and said, “Utakke, this is yours. You 
have granted me this trophy ;” for it was Utakke rather than the animal 
world that now demanded propitiation. If game was scarce, he threw 
a little meat or fat into the fire, as his ancestors had done, but instead 
of praying to the animals he prayed to Utakke, saying, “Utakke, this 
is yours. Increase this food for us. Grant us long life.” When he 
carried out the long hunting ritual, xal, he was not propitiating the 


14 Both are laxatives used by the natives for certain ailments. 


AnTHROP. Pap. No. 25] THE CARRIER INDIANS—JENNESS 547 


animals so much as striking a bargain with Utakke, who would deliver 
the game into his hands if he underwent proper penance. It was 
Utakke, too, not the animal world per se, that according to the new 
doctrine exacted punishment for the violation of taboos, for the wast- 
ing of food, for mockery of the animals, laughter while eating their 
flesh or the idle throwing-away of their bones; and the onlooker who 
rebuked such wrongdoing adopted new expressions such as, “Beware, 
Utakke made that” or “Don’t laugh. Utakke may hear you and give 
that animal power to harm you.” Similarly it was Utakke, not the ani- 
mal world, that raised the poor and depressed the proud and wealthy; 
whence the old and needy now blessed their benefactors by saying, 
“Thank you. Utakke will reward you,” and the chiefs warned their 
children, “Do not laugh at that poor orphan, for Utakke, who governs 
everything, may make him rich and you poor.” The expression mi, “it 
is taboo, take care,” took on a new sanction when the Indians thus in- 
vested their sky-god with supreme rank and made him the controlling 
force in the animal and human world alike. 

Once the sky grew very dark, the rain poured down in sheets, and the wind 
howled in the tree-tops. Then a woman called to her boy, who was shouting 
outside to his playmates, “Come in. You are making too much noise. Sa will 
hear you and send such heavy rain that no one will be able to go out.” 

Many years ago the Indians gathered in March to set their nets under the 
ice of Francis Lake. They caught and dried large numbers of fish, while the 
children played happily round the camp. Then a boy named Mek made a 
girdle of some fish-heads and began to dance with them. An old man scolded 
him, saying, “Don’t do that. Sa will see you and by and by you will be hungry.” 
A year passed, and the people gathered again at the same lake; but this time 
they caught no fish at all. The men left the women to tend the nets and went 
away to hunt, but the game too had vanished. Before long they were starving, 
and the first to die was Mek. No sooner was he dead than the lake seemed to 
teem with fish and the people had no difficulty in catching all they needed. 

The elevation of an obscure sky-god to the rank of a supreme deity 
was not the only readjustment occasioned by the impact of Chris- 
tian teaching. It led also to a reinterpretation of man’s relationship 
to the supernatural world, and produced a crop of reforming prophets 
who attempted to graft on the stalk of the older religion various 
Christian ideas and rituals. The first impetus in this direction came 
from other Carrier subtribes, themselves stimulated by certain fur- 
traders, by two Oregon Indians who had been educated at the Red 
River settlement in southern Manitoba, and, a few years later, be- 
tween 1842 and 1847, by visits from two Roman Catholic missionaries, 
Fathers Demers and Nobili. 

Two young men, natives of Oregon, who had received a little education at 
Red River, had, on their return to their own country, introduced a sort of 


religion, whose groundwork seemed to be Christianity, accompanied with some 
of the heathen ceremonies of the natives. This religion spread with amazing 


548 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 133 


rapidity all over the country. It reached Fort Alexandria, the lower part of 
the district, in the autumn; and was now embraced by all the Nekaslayans 
(Stuart Lake Carrier). The ceremonial consisted chiefly in singing and dancing. 
As to the doctrines of our holy religion, their minds were tou gross to compre- 
hend, and their manner too corrupt to be influenced by them. They applied 
to us for instruction, and our worthy chief spared no pains to give it... 
[M’Lean, 1849, pp. 268-264; see also Morice, 1904, chap. 15.] 

The Bulkley natives caught the infection from two sources, from 
their kinsmen at Old Fort Babine and from other relatives around 
Fraser Lake. At Old Fort Babine, they say, a white man named 
Misamombin, an employee of the Hudson’s Bay Company,” dressed 
in white clothes and white shoes, strung a rosary around his neck, 
hung a cross to his side, and sang and danced among them. He then 
ordered them to throw sundry skins and clothes into the fire as an 
offering to God, forbade them to work on Sundays, and warned them 
against “black coats” who would come after him to corrupt them with 
false teachings. If the Indians followed his instructions, he told 
them, they would become white men when they died; but if they 
listened to the “black coats” they would turn black. 

Soon afterward a Babine Indian named Uzakli, head chief of the 
Gilserhyu phratry, became afflicted with the medicine-dream sickness 
and, on his recovery, announced that he had visited God’s home in 
the sky and obtained a new medicine-song with power to heal the 
sick. He conferred new names on his followers and distributed tin 
crosses among them. Two years later he had a recurrence of the 
same sickness and acquired another song, which ran: 

ane-e nipili solle yilkyot 

ane-e nipili, solle yilkyot 

ane-e-yin betlol ustan a. 

(Nipili (an angel in the sky), hold my hand. 
Nipili, hold my hand. 

I hold the rope that holds up the earth.) 

Contemporary with Uzakli was Senesaiyea, a medicine man who 
lived at Fraser Lake. One summer, when the salmon were late in 
appearing, the Indians asked Senesaiyea to summon the fish up the 
river. Gathering his countrymen inside a smoke-house, he shook 
his rattle, sang a medicine-song, and lay down as if to sleep. After 
half an hour he arose and announced that his soul had traveled to 
the home of the salmon and that they would reach Fraser Lake 
within a few days. Subsequently he claimed that his soul made 
other visits to the salmon country, and also to the home of God in 
the sky. So often did he dream of wandering about in sky-land 
that the people grew skeptical, and he promised to bring back a 
piece of the sky as evidence. Then one night, as he slept in a smoke- 


1° Probably William McBean. See Morice, 1904, p. 221. 


ANTHROP. Pap. No. 25] THE CARRIER INDIANS—JENNESS 549 


house, he again dreamed that his soul ascended aloft through a hole 
in the sky, and, after wandering around for a time, returned to the 
same hole and broke a fragment from its edge. He slept until the 
sun had risen. When at last he threw off his blanket he found in his 
clenched fist only a scrap of spruce bark from the cabin roof. Laugh- 
ingly he showed it to his countrymen and said, “I have been deceiv- 
ing myself all this time; and other medicine men who claim to visit 
the sky are deceiving themselves also.” 

These earliest manifestations of the new ideas that Christianity 
was quickening in the minds of the Indians deviated only slightly 
from the old religion; but succeeding prophets introduced further 
innovations that altered its entire complexion. Among the first was 
a Fraser Lake woman named Bopa. Tradition states that she said 
to her daughter, “When I die don’t bury me, but leave my body in 
the house and keep watch from a distance.” When she died, there- 
fore, her daughter covered her body with a blanket and moved into 
a small hut at the edge of the woods. For three mornings she visited 
her mother’s corpse and nothing happened, but on the fourth morn- 
ing, though it was already decaying, a song issued from its mouth 
and a voice said, “Wash my body and cook me some food, for I am 
hungry.” The woman washed the body and cooked food, whereupon 
her mother came to life again and ate. She then announced that 
she had traveled to a large town on the shore of a sea and entered 
a house where people offered her fresh apples, which she had refused 
in order that she might return to life. They then offered her some 
bread, and she refused that also. Finally, on the fourth day, a man 
said to her, “Do you want to return to your body?” and when she 
answered, “It is too far away, the road is too difficult,” he replied, 
“No, it is not difficult.” So she returned to her body and lived for 
another 20 years. She taught the Indians that the dead become white 
men on the far side of a great sea, and that the whites, who were 
then beginning to enter the country of the Carrier, were their own 
kinsmen returning to their old homes. Hence the Fraser Lake In- 
dians gave to Europeans the name naunil, which means “ghosts of 
the dead.” 

Another Fraser Lake woman named Nokskan (a Gitksan word 
meaning Kan’s Mother) is reputed to have died while she was fishing 
alone beside a lake or stream. She lay on the ground many days, 
but at last came to life again and returned to her village, where she 
told the following story: 

I lay on the ground dead, and one side of my body rotted. My shadow did 
not go to the city of the dead, but to sky-land, where it met Sa and §Sa’s son. 
Murder, theft, adultery, and swearing are displeasing to Sa, who bade me 


tie the hands of offenders and purify them with the lash lest they go after 
death to an evil place. But whoever avoids these sins, and lives a pure life, 


550 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Butn, 133 


will go to Sa’s home, a happy country where people neither work nor eat, but 
idle away the days in song, or, when inactivity becomes monotonous, ride 
around the country on horses. 

White men will soon visit Fraser Lake, bringing with them horses and cows 
(or buffaloes). At first they will eat dried fish and dried berries as we do, 
but after a time they will bring various foods of their own. Then the Indians 
will have abundance of food and prosper as they never have before. 

Nokskan showed the Indians how to make the sign of the cross, 
and to dance with uplifted palms while they chanted her songs, one 
of which ran: 

Sa bez’kai asendla cho wasassalte 
ai ya ha-a ai ya he. 
(Sa’s child took and carried me aloft.) 

This and her other songs the people chanted inside her lodge at 
the fishing camp, stretching their palms towards heaven and slowly 
moving round in a circle, while Nokskan, carrying a small wooden 
cross, stood in their midst. On certain days she called out one man 
after another, made him kneel in front of her, and whispered in his 
ear, “What sins have you committed?” After he had confessed, she 
called for a rope, tied his hands in front or behind according to the 
gravity of his sins, and sometimes whipped him on the back 10 or 
12 times to cleanse him. She treated the women in the same way as 
the men. Unlike some of her successors, she never baptized the 
Indians, though she herself submitted to baptism many years later 
when a European priest visited Fraser Lake. 

The first Bulkley River Indian to take up the craze was Lexs, a 
man of the Beaver phratry. One old native said that Lexs claimed 
to have visited the sky and received there a new song and a new name, 
Sisteyel, “I, a man, visited the sky”; but that the people did not take 
him seriously because he was very poor. A still older man, however, 
who was a youth of about 14 when Lexs died, regarded him as the 
real founder of the religious movements which, through the influence 
of his younger brother and successor Bini, completely gripped the 
western Carrier and many of the neighboring Gitksan during the 
middle years of the nineteenth century. According to his account, 
Sisteyel fell sick and died, but after 2 or 3 days came to life again 
and declared that he had visited God in the sky and been sent back 
to earth to instruct his people. He warned them that God was dis- 
pleased with evil actions such as theft and murder, and that wrong- 
doers would go to an evil place when they died, whereas the good 
would ascend to the sky. From his visit he brought back one song, 
which his countrymen chanted as a prayer: 

sisteyal netaiyel sisteyel netaiyel 


he he he he he beyin. 
(Sisteyel walked down from the sky. His song.) 


ANTHROP, Pap. No. 25] THE CARRIER INDIANS—JENNESS ays I 


Not content with adopting a new name himself, he conferred new 
names on the members of his family and on one or two near kinsmen. 
Thus he called his wife Sutal, after a woman he claimed to have met 
in the sky. Soon afterward he became blind, but before he died he 
enjoined his younger brother to visit the sky as he had done in order 
to gain authority and knowledge to carry on his mission. 

This younger brother who took up Sisteyel’s mantle was Bini, who 
far eclipsed in fame and influence all his predecessors and successors. 
Although he died about 1870, within the memory of men still living, 
his name is fast passing into legend and every description of his life 
and teachings differs from every other. The following account is a 
composite one, based on the joint testimonies of three old Bulkley 
Indians, who had been with him in their childhood and were old 
enough to hunt when he died. One was his nephew and successor 
as chief of the Beaver phratry, another his sister’s nephew, and 
the third had accompanied him on his last journey and was present 
at his death. 


Bini’s boyhood name was Sami, derived from the name of a deceased uncle; 
and the name he acquired in early manhood Mat, a title in the Beaver phratry. 
Subsequently he became the chief of that phratry and assumed the title Kwi-s 
together with the two personal crests, Beaver and Drunken Man, that went 
with it. 

One spring, when he and his kinsmen were hunting near Decker Lake, he 
lay down in his house as though indisposed and mysteriously disappeared. His 
kinsmen searched all round the camp for him, and at last, with the aid of his 
dog, found him buried in the ground with only his arm protruding above the 
surface. They carried him home, seemingly dead, and sent for all their relatives 
in the vicinity; but, while they crowded round his body a man named Omak 
heard a voice issue from his chest, and listening intently, discovered that Bini 
was Singing, 

ane-e anesenle-e So anesenle-e-a 

anea aneneskye meneskye. 

(Someone healed me, made me well again. 
I came down from the sky.) 

All night Omak continued to watch beside him, and the next day Bini, grown a 
little stronger, spoke to him and bade him interpret to the people as follows: 

“T died and ascended to heaven, but God made me alive again and sent me 
back to earth to teach you what you must do. You must chant my songs, for 
they are prayers; and you must make the sign of the cross. Things are going 
to change. Soon you shall eat dust that is white like snow (flour), and shall 
hunt and fish for 6 days, but refrain from ail work on the seventh. Many 
horses will come to this country and you shall use them. But now you must 
cut out a smooth plank and write on it for me.” 

The people cut out a smooth board and under his direction one man made 
one letter, another another, until they had carved out his prayers. Quickly 
his strength returned, and he was able to proclaim his mission without the aid 
of an interpreter. As soon as he could walk he rose to his feet, and, supported 
by a man on each side, took a few steps forward. Then he said “Let me go. 


405260—43—_—36 


552 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BuLn. 133 


I will walk alone.” But as he walked his feet sank into the hard ground as 
though it were soft snow. For years afterwards the Indians pointed with awe 
to these footprints. 

When the fishing season opened, Bini and all his people moved down the 
Bulkley River to Hagwilgate. Both during and after this journey he lay down 
several times and died for a few hours; and each time he brought back from 
the sky a new song. Every evening he gathered the people around him and 
preached to them, using Omak to interpret and amplify his words. “On top 
of the sky,” he said, “is a happy land filled with happy people who told me to 
make you all new so that after death you too would go to live in the sky. Then 
a song issued from my body and I came back to life again in my hut.” Rising 
to his feet he would dance before them, feet together, arms outstretched, and 
his body swaying up and down; and as he danced he sang one or other of his 
songs. The best known, still used by Hagwilgate medicine men, ran: 

yisilkli yaneketitsai-a 


he he bi ha. 
(Horses stamp the ground as they gallop.) 
Others were: 
ni pa-kyo yatettso’til atso’te 
(People entered the great father’s house and became proud and wealthy.) 


eeeea 
noxdzi tobi eyinlea 
(Their hearts he (God) baptizes.) 
and 
The great father had a Cross. 
Let someone make a cross for me. 


After he taught them this last song, his followers made one large cross for 
himself and many small crosses to distribute among his disciples. 

When the fishing season ended, the prophet and his disciples toured the country 
to gain new converts; but during the remainder of the year he hunted, fished, 
gathered furs, and participated in potlatches like other Indians. A few years 
later he caused the totem pole called Fireweed to be erected in the Bulkley can- 
yon (see p. 500) and himself gave a great potlatch for the occasion. He then 
built in the canyon a frame house furnished with a chimney and decorated with 
a cross; it was modeled, he said, on a house he had seen in the sky. His cos- 
tume did not differ from that of other Indians, but in his later years he carried 
a small bell that he obtained from the Hudson’s Bay Company’s trading post 
at Old Fort Babine. During his lifetime he was generally known by his phratric 
title, Kwi's, not by the name Bini, which he adopted after his first visit to the 
sky, or Samtelesa, which he assumed after a later visit. 

Bini carried on his mission for about 15 years, gradually gaining so many ad- 
herents that at last he summoned them to his house and selected a number of 
men to maintain order and prevent wrongdoing. To these “watchmen” he gave 
sky names, Teluza, Nebezti, Samali, Chali (Charlie), Oyali, Nantali, Maskali, 
Sazzali, ete. The first three, Teluza, Nebezti,sand Samali, took precedence over 
all the rest and became his principal aides. He performed also one or two 
miracles in confirmation of his powers. Thus, while sitting with his followers on 
a hillside overlooking Long Lake, he put some twigs (or flowers) into his mouth 
and drew out berries. On one occasion, however, he gathered all the Hagwilgate 
Indians inside his house and ordered them to confess their sins and be purified 
with whippings from his aides; but, most imprudently, he allowed the con- 
fessions to be made openly in full hearing of the entire gathering, and thereby 
stirred up so much discord in the village that he never dared to repeat the 
ceremony. 


AnTuropr. Pap. No. 25] THE CARRIER INDIANS—JENNESS 553 


Often the sick appealed to Bini rather than to the regular medicine men. He 
would then set a basin of water beside the patient, and, after dancing and 
singing one of his songs, would lie down and gaze intently into the water to 
discover, apparently, what would be the issue. Finally, while attending a pot- 
latch at Old Fort Babine, he was asked to heal a certain woman who was sick. 
That night, as he slept, a voice from above warned him that if he complied 
with the request he would die. He was very troubled the next morning, but 
when the people carried the sick woman out of doors and laid her down in front 
of him he placed a pan of water beside her, danced around her onee, and, lying 
down, gazed into the water or perhaps drank some of it. Immediately he fell 
cn his face dead—through a judgment of God, the priests said afterward, though 
many Indians believe there was strychnine in the water, for at that time they 
were using strychnine in their hunting. Whatever the real cause, his death 
caused a great commotion, and a large crowd of his disciples, flocking to Old 
Fort Babine, conveyed his body to Hagwilgate and buried it in the village. 
[Pl. 33, fig. 2.] 

Folklorists have long recognized that tribal traditions have not the 
same historical value in all parts of the globe. In Polynesia, where 
the world of dreams and visions did not merge with the daily life so 
inextricably as in North America, where there were professional 
schools for preserving a correct memory of tribal occurrences and 
rights, and where we can compare the genealogies and tales of island- 
ers who were isolated for several hundred years, we may employ the 
native traditions with considerable confidence (though not, of course, 
uncritically) to recover the main sequence of events in the centuries 
preceding European penetration into the Pacific. But our Canadian 
Indians seem to have lacked the historical sense, as we interpret his- 
tory. Many of the plains’ tribes embellished with impossible myths 
so recent an event as the acquisition of horses; the Five Nations of the 
Iroquois failed to preserve any credible account of the formation of 
their great confederacy about 1580; and the Ojibwa narrate fantastic 
fairy tales about the part they played in the War of 1812. The Jn- 
dians of the British Columbia coast and hinterland, who evolved a 
complicated caste system in which the inheritance of rank and prop- 
erty depended largely on kinship and the memory of kinship rights, 
have so interwoven fact and fancy in their legends that, unless we 
ean confirm them from other sources, we cannot trust them even for 
the events of the early nineteenth century. The many conflicting ac- 
counts given of Bini’s career strikingly illustrate this “romanticism” 
in traditional lore. One version has been given above—a composite 
account derived from the statements of three old men who discussed 
the subject together. It should be compared with the “history” of 
Bini published by Father Morice in 1904 (pp. 235-236), and with 
the following accounts given by two old Bulkley Indians who also had 
associated with the prophet in their youth. 


1. Bini’s home was at Moricetown, but, in the spring following Sisteyel’s 
death, he and his people went to fish near his brother’s grave about 15 miles 


554 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BuLL. 133 


west of Burns Lake. I was then 14 or 15 years of age, and living with my 
uncle 20 miles to the eastward. Bini, or, as he then called himself, Samtelesa 
(the sky-name given him by his brother), walked several times around 
Sisteyel’s grave, and feeling dizzy, lay down in his house. He lay there for 
3 days, apparently dead, but his people made no attempt to bury him, for he 
had told them that he would die and come to life again. After watching over 
him for three days they heard a song mounting inside his body until at last 
it issued from his mouth. He then rose up and began to speak: 

“T went up to the sky and talked to God, who told me that his house would 
come down to this world and make it a happy place to live in. He ordered 
me to teach you this song, which you must continue to sing day after day, 
until God’s house descends :” 


gitaksiya asenla kyo satyinkai’o-nai 
ehyeha.. 
(Big house up above. We two come down together.) 


That evening the people danced and sang his song. 
Next day Bini died again, but only for about 3 hours, when he recovered 
as before, breathing another song: 


yizitkli e e yaneketiltsai. 
(Horses stamp the ground as they gallop.) 


He explained his new song thus: “By and by many horses will come to 
our country, and there will come also priests who will teach you what I teach 
you now.” 

On the third day he fell down and died for about 2 hours, bringing back the 
song: 


niba hanzu li’sta. 
(Our good father has many good things.) 


When he died on the fourth day, he produced the song: 


e ye he noxlen e. 
(Look at him (God)) ; 


and on the fifth day: 


sba kyo tagatkwas ele e’kat nesoltse. 
(My great father caused me to be born on top of a cross.) 


After he had danced and taught the people this last song, he made a number 
of little tin crosses, and, calling out the men and women one by one, tied a cross 
round each person’s neck and baptized him by sprinkling water over his 
head with a stick also shaped like a cross. He then made the sign of the cross 
over the disciple and conferred on him a new name. 

Bini moved his home to Hagwilgate when the Gitamtanyu phratry erected its 
totem-pole esrit, and scores of natives from all the surrounding villages had 
gathered to attend the ceremony. He warned them that a great sickness 
was approaching the country, but that if they danced and chanted his songs 
it would not harm them. Many of the Indians, however, refused to believe 
him. When smallpox did attack the Carrier in 1862, Bini gathered the Hag- 
wilgate people at an open spot about 2 miles from the village and made them 
dance round in a great circle, the children on the outside of their elders, all 
holding boughs shaped like crosses. He then ringed in the dancers with a 
long rope, and proclaimed that if the rope broke many of them would die. 
His prophecy came true, for a woman inadvertently touched and broke the 


Anturop. Pap. No. 25] THE CARRIER INDIANS—JENNESS 555 


rope while she was dancing, and soon afterward many of the villagers fell 
sick and died. I was a lad at this time and danced with them. 

Before and during the epidemic, Bini’s disciples had danced for an hour 
or more every day, but after the epidemic he announced, “Hereafter you 
shall work for 6 days and dance only on occasional days; but on the seventh © 
day you shall abstain from hunting and fishing and dance three times, at 
morning, noon, and night; because there are three gods, and you must pray 
to each, your prayers being dances. Furthermore, because there are three 
gods, three men must serve them, myself, Male (a man of the Gitamtanyu 
phratry), whom I have baptized Samali, and Gyedamskanish (of the Laksilyu 
phratry), whom I have baptized Teluza.” People say that he also ordered 10 
commandments received from God to be carved on a board; but I myself never 
saw this board, though I remember that three of the commandments were, 
“Do not steal; do not kill another by violence; do not kil! another by sorcery.” 

Thereafter Bini preached on the 7th day only. At such times he wore the 
everyday Indian costume, but often carried a bell in each hand, for he said 
that by and by people would be summoned to prayers with a bell. While 
dancing, he held his arms nearly horizontal and fluttered his hands. Occa- 
sionally he fell down as if dead. Then the people would quietly sit in a circle 
round him and await the issue, while Samali, his official interpreter, placed his 
ear against Bini’s mouth to catch the new song that came from above. As 
soon as the disciples learned it from Samali’s lips, they rose and danced to 
it; and Bini joined them a few minutes later. The last song that Bini brought 
back ran: 


e ya huballi hube nesiltchot. 
(Light, light, took hold of me (so that I came to life).) 


The prophet now traveled with his disciples all over the country, and appointed 
Samali and Teluza as his watchmen to punish wrongdoers. If anyone ventured 
to laugh when the people sang Bini’s songs, these two men struck the offender 
with whips of caribou hide. Whenever, too, Bini summoned the people to 
confess, they stood one on each side of the sinner with their whips and inflicted 
whatever punishment the prophet ordered. Once Teluza ordered away a certain 
woman who came to confess, saying to her, “You are only a poor woman and 
don’t need to confess. Go outside.” The woman, however, stood her ground 
and said loudly, “Why should I go outside? I want to confess to Bini that 
you seduced me.” Both disciple and master were thus put to shame, but 
' Bini had to let the incident pass because he dared not dispense with Teluza’s 
services. 

Bini’s travels throughout the country sowed the seeds of a great revival, 
which came to fruition when he erected the Fireweed totem-pole in the Hag- 
wilgate canyon. The potlatch that he and his phratry held on that occasion 
attracted a large concourse of people who carried his songs and dances far 
and wide. Nevertheless, it was among the Hagwilgate Indians that his mission 
gained its chief stronghold; elsewhere there were many Carrier who refused 
to recognise his authority. Whenever he traveled round the country four 
strong young men always attended him to carry him over streams; for he had 
declared that heavy rain would inevitably follow the wetting of his feet. On 
one occasion, when his party had crossed a creek near Barret station and was 
waiting for him to overtake them, someone suggested that they should let him 
wade through the water and so find out whether his prophecy would really come 
true. No sooner had Bini stepped out on to the bank than the clear sky 
became overcast, the rain poured down in torrents, and the stream rose so 
rapidly that the fearful Indians thought the whole world was to be covered 


556 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL, 138 


with the deluge. At Bini’s command they hastily built a lodge of spruce bark 
and frenziedly danced to his songs. Then the rain ceased, the stream subsided, 
and a warm sun dried up the land. 

After Bini had been preaching for a number of years, he had a contest at 
Hagwilgate with three medicine men, Widak’kwats, Gukswot, and Akyewas 
(the two last were Hazelton Indians), who resented Bini’s vaunt that their 
power was insignificant compared with his own. The medicine men shook their 
rattles and sang their medicine songs, while the prophet danced and chanted 
the songs he had brought back from the sky. Soon afterward the three men 
died, and last of all, but in the same year, Bini died also. 

The true cause of his death is uncertain. During a visit to Old Fort Babine 
he was asked to heal a man who was sick. He sipped up some water from a 
basin, intending to spout it over the patient; but suddenly he fell on his face 
dead. Some people say that he had used a medicine man’s rattle over this 
patient, and conducted himself in other ways like an ordinary medicine man, 
though forbidden by God under penalty of death. But I myself believe that 
someone had poisoned the water. 

2. Bini’s wife quarreled with his sister, who was living in their hunting 
camp, and when Bini ordered her to give his sister some food she refused. 
Very angry, he carried off the two caribou hides that served him for bedding 
and went away to sleep in the woods. At sunset his wife looked for him, but 
found only his empty bed-skins. Anxious and contrite, she looked for him 
again in the morning, and when he was still missing, notified some relatives 
who were hunting in the vicinity. After a long search they found his shirt, 
still buttoned at neck and sleeves, high up in a tree, and on the ground some 
distance away, faintly breathing, his naked body, which they carried to his 
lodge. He remained there motionless all through the day and night. Next 
morning he began to utter strange guttural sounds, and when the people failed 
to understand him—for he was speaking in the language of the dead—he opened 
his eyes and beckoned to his nephew Samali. Samali, to everyone’s amazement, 
understood what he was saying and interpreted his message. Bini declared that 
he had ascended to the sky and returned to teach them what was about to happen 
and what they themselves must do. Heaven, he said, had promised that the 
poor should be made rich and the rich poor; that the Indians should become 
like white men and speak a new language; and that great dogs (horses) would 
descend from the sky and raise a tumult as they ran about on earth. He him- 
self was to unite in marriage, with fitting ceremony, every young man and young 
woman who had attained the necessary age; and the people were to dance with 
him day after day. 

His relatives then conducted Bini from his hunting lodge to the village, where 
I myself saw him, being then about 8 years old. He was still unable to talk in 
our language, but used the language of the dead, which Samali interpreted for 
him. Yet he danced among the people, and they danced with him. One day 
he sent some young men to bring him a blossom-laden branch of a saskatoon 
tree, and as he danced with the blossoms in his mouth, ordered the people to 
dance their hardest with him. Presently he withdrew the blossoms from his 
mouth. To our astonishment they had changed to ripe berries. 

Later a large crowd escorted him to Hagwilgate, and, at his command, as- 
signed 12 young men to carry him over every stream. As we traveled along 
with packs on our backs (being very small, I myself did not carry a pack), some 
of the older people discussed what would happen if Bini wet his feet, and told 
the young men to let him wade through the next stream. When Bini saw his 
bodyguard walk over without waiting for him he said, “Very well. Tll wade 


AnTuropr. Pap. No. 25] THE CARRIER INDIANS—JENNESS 557 


across. It was only to save you trouble that I made you carry me.” Hardly 
had he set foot on the opposite bank when a terrific thunderstorm burst over us, 
though previously the sky had been cloudless. After this the Hagwilgate In- 
dians believed all that Bini told them, and everything he prophesied has come 
true. He regained his ability to speak our Carrier tongue when we reached 
Hagwilgate. 

Bini made only one mistake in his whole career, but that was a fatal one. He 
used a medicine man’s rattle to heal a dying Babine native, and through thus 
contaminating the ways of heaven with those of the medicine men he brought 
about his own death. 

The discrepancies and impossibilities in these biographies of the 
same reformer, all furnished by contemporaries and eyewitnesses of 
some of the events, show how little we can rely on Carrier traditions 
for reconstructing their earlier history. The natives have always 
lived in an age of miracles, and even today they look upon the inter- 
ference of the supernatural world as an everyday affair, and see super- 
natural forces at work in the most trivial events. The mundane 
details of these events signify little compared with the necessity of 
maintaining a proper rapport between the Indian and the unseen 
world so that he may enjoy long life and successful hunting. To 
most of the Bulkley natives Christianity (and today they all adhere to 
the Roman Catholic church) has not abolished the supernatural world 
of their forefathers, but merely added a second one that has increased 
life’s complexity because its teachers and missionaries condemn the 
old principality and demand undivided allegiance to the new. Some 
of the elder Indians, therefore, try to compromise. Christianity, they 
say, has introduced nothing that is radically new. Bini and his 
fellow prophets were ordinary medicine men, as others had been 
before them. Their shadows visited the sky in dreams, as other 
men’s shadows had visited the homes of the animals; and they ac- 
quired from their dreams the usual medicine songs and medicine 
power. The dream-force that attacked Bini was not really different 
in kind from other dream-forces, though its “content” was different. 
The same dream-force had attacked Bini’s uncle, Sami, then his 
brother, Sisteyel; that is why Sisteyel spoke rather crazily and at 
the last became blind. Bini happened to be made of sterner stuff 
than his predecessors; he gave full sway to the dream-force and 
thereby acquired the power to establish his gospel in the land. After 
Bini’s death the same dream-torce attacked his relative, Louis, but it 
was too strong for Louis, who could not obtain a medicine song and 
consequently became crazy and died. Last of all it attacked Jim 
Michel’s wife, but, when the priest forbade her to voice her song, she 
also became crazy and died from the pent-up force to which she gave 
no outlet. 

These struggles of the modern Bulkley Indians to reconcile their 
old religion with the religion that has been brought to them from 


558 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BuLt, 133 


without stand out quite clearly in the career of an old Indian named 
Paul, who distinguished himself at Hazelton every Sunday by wear- 
ing a top hat, and a broad sash of purple satin thrown over one 
shoulder like a bandolier and decorated with gold rosettes and his 
name in gold letters, “Ease Paul” (pl. 34, fig. 1). The following 
incidents in his life were taken down from his own lips in 1924, the 
year before he died. 


My father was Guxwogq, “Sleeper,” a Hazelton Indian, but my mother was 
a Hagwilgate woman and my hunting grounds are at Mosquito Flat, 12 miles 
east of Hagwilgate. As a child I bore the name Sowetinye, “Walking Away,” 
but when I was about 14 I was given another name Axweras, ‘Persistent Per- 
son,” and again, when I was about 19, Watex, “Land Otter.” Finally when 
I became a man I took the name Skagilth, “Grizzly Bear That Sleeps Across 
the road ;” but I prefer myself the “baptismal” name, Ease Paul, that was given 
to me in a vision. 

When I was a boy my father, who had recently been made chief, invited the 
Hagwilgate, Hazelton, and Babine Indians to a great potlatch that he proposed 
to hold in a meadow near Babine Lake. Many Hazelton and Hagwilgate fam- 
ilies traveled with my own family, and we camped together for the night at 
a place known as “Gitksan camping-place.” There a nephew of Satsa’n named 
Aiyuwindet, who was too poor to marry and consequently had no wife to 
arrange his bed, sat up in the night and called to the moon, “Travel fast. 
It is uncomfortable sleeping here alone.” Several people shouted to him to 
stop, because it was not right to speak thus to the moon; but he kept on 
calling until at last he became tired and fell asleep. 

Next evening we reached the meadow where my father was to give his pot- 
latch, and the women busied themselves in collecting fir boughs for our beds. 
Aiyuwindet’s nose then began to bleed copiously. He scooped out a hollow in 
the ashes of a fireplace and let the blood drip into it; but the hollow soon be- 
came full. Someone brought him a root-basket, and that also he filled with 
his blood. He sat there silent, while mesSengers went from house to house 
summoning the people to witness the fate of a man who had dared to talk 
disrespectfully to the moon. Some one said to him, “Why do you sit there 
and bleed to death? Stand up and ask the moon to heal you.” Aiyuwindet 
did not answer. Presently blood began to pour from his eyes and from under 
his nails; and at last he toppled over and died. His relatives drew his body 
to one side and debated what they should do with it. But that night nearly 
every one in the camp fell sick and many died, including my father; for 
smallpox had broken out among us. 

After my father’s death, my uncle became head of our household and we 
returned to Hagwilgate. He said to me, ‘So many people are sick that there 
are not enough left to hunt and we are starving. You are young and active. 
Take this gun and go with my son up Rocher Deboulé mountain, where you 
may come upon some mountain goats.” 

My cousin and I traveled all day without seeing any game, and at night we 
took shelter in a hunting-lodge on the slope of the mountain. Before dawn I 
woke my companion and said, “Get up. We must kill a goat today”; but he 
answered, “It is too early yet. Wait till dawn.” So I lay down again. 

As I lay there, just before the dawn, a strange man appeared and said, 
“Why have you come hither?’ “There are many sick in our village,” I 
answered, “and we are in need of meat.” “I know that,” he said. ‘Have you 


AnTHROP. Pap. No. 25] THE CARRIER INDIANS—JENNESS 559 


any powder?” “Yes,” I replied. “Give it to me,” he then said. “It is your 
own fault that sickness has broken out amongst you. You have sinned and 
used rattles.” Taking some of my powder in his hand, he poured on it pure 
water from his mouth and rubbed it over my neck. “This will keep you from 
becoming sick. Can you make the sign of the cross?’ I made it with my 
whole hand, but he corrected me, saying “That is not the proper way. Make 
it with the two middle fingers only, for the thumb and the other two fingers 
are small. It is useless for you to hunt goats up here. I am the spirit of 
fish and can give you fish. Go home now and fish; and stop the medicine man 
from using his rattle, for it is he who has brought the evil spirits that are 
killing you.” 

The spirit vanished, leaving in my hand a little water, which I rubbed over 
my neck. As I rubbed, a numbness crept over my body and my breathing 
became troubled. I said to my cousin, “Help me back to the village. A great 
sickness is coming over me.” In the village I lay ill for many days, and during 
that period I was able to foretell who of all those struck down by the sickness 
would die. 

After my recovery I became an excellent hunter, and could kill as many as 
20 caribou in a day. Our hunting lodges at Mosquito Flat were crowded with 
relatives dependent on me for meat. One night when all my household was 
asleep a great light suddenly filled the cabin and slowly concentrated over my 
head, leaving the rest of the house dark. Within the light I saw the figure 
of the Great Spirit holding a little child on his breast. It did not speak to 
me, nor could I speak myself, but when I moved my foot a little it disappeared 
and the light vanished. The Great Spirit visited me several times thereafter, 
even though I married, but only when perfect silence reigned. Once, too, white 
spirits visited me and told me that my name should be Hase Paul; that is 
why I wear those letters on my chest, though I have added my chief’s title 
below them to appease my family. Now for 3 years no spirit has visited me, 
perhaps because my brain is growing weak. I have been a faithful Christian 
for 30 years, have never attended a ceremony where the Indians were using 
drums or rattles, and have constantly implored my countrymen to put away 
those instruments. 


MEDICINE MEN 


Among the Bulkley Carrier, as we saw in the last chapter, the old 
doctrine that every youth could, by seeking, acquire a guardian spirit 
and medicine power underwent radical revision through the influence 
of new ideas that seeped in from the coast. These new ideas largely 
reversed the previous attitude of the Indian toward the supernatural 
world. He still depended on that world to guide him through the 
vicissitudes of life, but he no longer regarded himself as the active 
agent in bringing about the necessary contact. Rather he believed 
that the spirit world itself selected its intermediaries (whether they 
willed it or not), and that it revealed its selection by producing a state 
of dreamy phthisis ending, unless properly treated, in death. While 
the intermediary lay inert and listless, unaware of the reason for his 
condition and, therefore, unable to cure himself without aid, his sick- 
ness evoked from his kinsmen contradictory explanations as earlier 
ideas struggled with new to hold their place. Some natives, the con- 


560 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Butt, 133 


servatives of their group, maintained that during his dreams the 
shadow of the patient had wandered to the home of the eagle, the 
salmon, or the bear, beneath some lake or mountain, where it had 
remained imprisoned, unable to return; that the body in consequence 
languished, and the sick man could not regain his health until a 
medicine man recaptured the shadow and restored it to its home. 
Others conceived that the shadow returned from the spirit world, 
indeed, but acquired there a medicine song which remained below 
the threshold of consciousness pent up like an ill-digested meal, sapped 
away the man’s strength, and caused a slow languor and decline; these 
Indians, therefore, described him as being afflicted with the medicine- 
song sickness, and sought his cure through a revelation of the buried 
medicine song and its out-welling from his lips. Quite different was 
the interpretation favored by the majority of the natives. They 
asserted that entrenched within the patient’s body lay some super- 
natural force—the shadow of a bird or an animal; that without rein- 
forcement from the power in other medicine men, the sick man lacked 
the ability to throw off this incubus or to transform it into a source 
of strength; and that while the communion of the man’s and animal’s 
shadows certainly induced subconscious dreams and one or more 
medicine songs, no cure was possible until the patient was relieved 
of his burden or beheld with his own eyes the supernatural shadow 
within him and acquired from without the additional power neces- 
sary for its control. These variant theories led to three slightly 
different schools of practice. One group of practitioners claimed to 
recover the shadow from its supernatural prison house; another to 
open the patient’s eyes to his dreams and release his pent-up medicine 
song; while a third sought to discover and extract the incubating 
shadow, then either to reinsert it, if the patient was fitted to receive 
it. again, or else to dispose of it in some other way. In their actual 
treatment of individual cases, the first and third groups of prac- 
titioners looked for the ebullition of a medicine song just as much 
as the second group; but they regarded the song as an invariable 
concomitant of the sickness rather than its primary cause. 

When a man became ill, therefore, his wife or kinsmen called in 
a medicine man, who brought with him a bag containing his outfit— 
a rattle (into which some practitioners summoned their guardian spir- 
its), a coronet of grizzly-bear claws, a bone or skin image (bea) 
of his guardian spirit, animal or fish, to suspend from his neck, and 
a skin cloak, usually the hide of a bear or wolf. After donning this 
paraphernalia and seating himself beside the patient, he demanded 
a bowl of water, sipped up a mouthful and blew it out again to 
lubricate the passage of the “sickness.” He then shook his rattle 
and chanted one of his dream, or medicine songs, in which the 


AnrHrop. Pap. No. 25] THE CARRIER INDIANS—JENNESS 561 


audience joined. Sipping up more water he chanted a second song, 
sometimes a third. Finally, he sat silent with his eyes closed, but 
with his mind searching out the innermost recesses of his patient’s 
body to discern, if possible, the shadow. 

Any practitioner, whatever his school, might declare the shadow 
missing, for all natives believed that medicine men commonly used 
their powers to steal the shadows of their enemies. If this was the 
doctor’s diagnosis, he returned home, and during the night sent forth 
his own shadow to secure the release of the captive, or to regain it 
by force and lodge it for safekeeping in his body. In the morning 
he visited his patient again, proclaimed his success, and, dipping up 
a little water from a basin, sipped it into his mouth and spouted it 
over the sick man. The audience then drummed and chanted the 
doctor’s medicine song while he shook his rattle and danced vigor- 
ously round the room. After several minutes he stopped, rapped 
himself from stomach to chest, vomited the errant shadow into his 
cupped hands, and, laying them on the patient’s head, blew it into 
his body. Thus he restored the vital spark, dispelled the cause of 
the sickness, and set the patient on the road to health. 

A practitioner of the first school, however, might find that the shadow 
was imprisoned in the home of an eagle or a bear; that the patient’s 
malady arose, not from sorcery, but from enforced contact with the 
supernatural world. He then restored the shadow in exactly the 
same way as if it had been stolen by a medicine man, but his patient 
forthwith burst into song, the medicine song that his shadow had 
learned during its imprisonment. This outburst of song marked 
the first step in his recovery, and also in his acquisition of medicine 
power and elevation to the rank of a medicine man. 

It was not possible to ascertain what special symptoms, if any, 
the medicine men correlated with the loss of a shadow. Every 
practitioner claimed the power to discover (though not always to 
release) a shadow held captive by another medicine man; but he also 
maintained, whenever the sickness seemed attributable to enforced 
contact with the spiritual world, that only a medicine man who had 
experienced the same contact, i. e., contact with the same supernatural 
being, was able to effect a cure. Hence, he often declared himself 
unable to discern the cause of a man’s illness, and advised the rela- 
tives to call in other practitioners. Several in turn might shake 
their rattles and chant their songs over the sick man before one of 
them would undertake his cure. 

We have seen how the practitioner of the first school operated; he 
pretended to bring back the shadow from the home of the animal 
or fish that had imprisoned it. The practitioner of the second school 
adopted a different method. Sitting beside his patient with a bow] 


562 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BuLD, 133 


of water in front of him, he discerned and disclosed the sick man’s 
dream, and bade him recall the medicine song that went with it. 
The revelation of the submerged dream released the song, which 
escaped as by explosion from the patient’s lips. As it died away 
he belched out his accumulated sickness and obtained relief. 


If a man falls ill with a medicine song that does not come out of him he 
wastes away and dies; but if it comes out of him and he sings it night after 
night, he recovers his health and becomes a powerful medicine man. Just as 
eating bad food causes a pain in the stomach, and, unless vomited, sickness 
and death, so it is with the song; unless it comes out of you, unless you sing 
it to the accompaniment of a rattle, and vomit after singing, you become very 
ill and die. The missionaries now tell us that this singing is wrong, so today 
people who are stricken with songs are afraid to let them issue and in conse- 
quence fall sick and die. My own daughter has this malady; she has spells 
of craziness, because she is afraid of the priest and seldom allows her song to 
issue. Whenever she does allow the song to come out of her for a few nights 
she feels better, and if she would only sing every night for a year she might 
recover completely. But she has another sickness also, for she was caught by 
kyan (see below, p. 567) ; so I am afraid it would be very hard for any medicine 
man to cure her of both maladies. 

For many months young Djolukyet lay on his back, afflicted with a medicine 
sickness that no one seemed able to diagnose. Finally, his parents called in a 
famous medicine man named Wisanwan, who brought to assist him about a 
dozen other practitioners. The boy lay in the middle of the room beside the 
fire, the medicine men sat in line facing him, and the large audience lined the 
walls. Each medicine man in turn walked round the patient, singing and 
shaking his rattle; and the laity swelled his song with their voices, while his 
comrades, with closed eyes and pounding rattles, concentrated their thoughts 
on the case before them and prayed for a cure. Last of all Wisanwan rose 
and said, “Djolukyet here lies near to death, absorbed in his dreams. I will 
reveal those dreams to him; I will bring the object before his eyes.” ‘Good,” 
ejaculated his assistants; “We will help you with our prayers.” Wisanwan 
placed a beaver hide on his own chest, and another on Djolukyet’s, for the 
beaver was not only his own eyilseni, the object of his own dreams, but of 
Djolukyet’s also, though the boy did not know it. He then removed from his 
back the hide of a mountain goat, another eyilseni that he possessed, and laid 
it on the floor beside the fire, where it waved up and down of its own accord 
as he shook his rattle. With his free right hand he raised the beaver hide 
on Djolukyet’s chest—raised it just a little, for it clung as though it were 
the patient’s own skin. Instantly Djolukyet obtained release, became con- 
scious of his dream, and, opening wide his mouth, exploded with the medicine 
song that he still uses today: 


sa-bekyo asinler setelner aiyakke. 
(A big Dolly Varden trout did it to me; it tried to swallow me. O my.) 


Waving his hands in the air he rose to his feet and sang this song again and 
again. Every evening for about a year and a half he sang and danced until 
at last he was completely cured, and able himself to practice as a medicine 
man. During his convalescence and training, another medicine man made for 
him a wooden image of the Dolly Varden trout, his eyilseni, to suspend from 
the ceiling over his head; and whenever Djolukyet danced and sang beneath this 
image it swayed to and fro of its own volition. 


Anruropr. Pap, No. 25] THE CARRIER INDIANS—-JENNESS 563 


The practitioner of the third school began like the others; he sipped 
a mouthful of water, blew it out, and sang one of his medicine songs 
to the shaking of his rattle. After repeating this procedure two or 
three times he exclaimed, “Now I see what is wrong with you. I 
see the shadow of a bear (or other animal) inside your body. You 
have been dreaming of bears so often that at last one has taken 
possession of you. Or you have done wrong, eaten fresh meat in 
the company of an unclean woman, and the angry bear has lodged 
itself inside you.” His assistants called out, “Remove it from his 
body.” The medicine man chanted a few minutes longer, working 
himself into a state of ecstasy that brought out the perspiration on 
every limb; he then laid down his rattle, beat a tattoo on the pa- 
tient’s chest with both hands, and pulled out (or sucked out and 
caught in his hands) the obsessing bear-shadow. Holding it firmly 
aloft like a bayonet, he cried, “What shall I do with it? Shall I 
put it back inside him? Shall I make it enter my own body? Or 
shall I send it away?” 

Often it rested with the patient himself to decide the shadow’s 
future. If he said, “I am too weak and ill to endure it. Put it inside 
your own body,” the medicine man laid his hands on his own chest 
and blew the bear shadow into himself. Being already gifted with 
bear medicine, or, in other words, having the bear as his guardian 
spirit, he sustained no harm, and his patient, relieved of the incubus, 
gradually recovered his health. He recovered also if he requested 
the shadow to be sent away, and the medicine man blew it into space. 
But if he said, “Put it back inside me,” then he signified his desire 
to retain the bear as a guardian spirit, and required help from the 
medicine men to endure and control it. Accordingly they rose to 
their feet, still singing, and gathered round the fire, where each in 
turn received the bear shadow and warmed it over the hot coals before 
handing it on to his fellows. Thus shearing it progressively of its 
strength they passed it again, after two or three rounds, into the 
hands of the principal medicine man, who waved it to and fro before 
the patient’s eyes that he, too, might see and recognize it, although 
it remained invisible to the laity. He then laid it against the 
patient’s chest, blew it into his body, and bade him sing his dream 
song. With the singing of the dream song the ceremony ended for 
the day, unless the medicine man discovered a second shadow lurking 
within the sick man’s body and treated it in the same manner. 

In most cases a medicine man, whatever his school, had to work 
over his patient, night after night, for several weeks or months. 
Theoretically, his powers of healing increased with the amount of 
skins and money he received in payment, although the resources of 
a Carrier family were very limited, in spite of contributions from 


564 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BuLL, 133 


its kin. Moreover, whether a patient regained his health quickly 
or slowly, he needed several months of training before he was ready 
to graduate as a fully qualified medicine man. So usually 1 or 2 
years elapsed between the time of his submission to treatment and 
the date of the final potlatch when his “physician” publicly inducted 
him into his new station and allowed him to hang out his shingle. 

All the people of the village were invited to this potlatch. While 
the laity crowded against the walls, the medicine men who had 
assisted in the cure sat in line facing the ex-patient, who lay in the 
middle beside the fire. The procedure varied a little according to 
circumstances. Sometimes the ex-patient merely danced a few times 
round the room behind his healer and instructor, both shaking rattles 
and chanting the ex-patient’s song or songs. On other occasions each 
medicine man arose in turn, shaking his rattle and chanting a song 
of his own that was taken up by the audience. Rubbing the novice’s 
chest, he caught in his hands the incubating shadow, inserted it into 
his own body with a prayer that it might receive some of his strength, 
and restored it to the novice again. So strenuously did he labor in 
his task, so vehemently did he strive to impart some of his own 
supernatural power, that the perspiration poured down his face and 
he returned to his seat well-nigh exhausted. After each of his 
assistants in turn had carried out his part, the principal medicine 
man raised the novice up, placed a coronet of grizzly-bear claws on 
his head, and exhorted him to chant his medicine song. The novice 
then walked round the room, shaking his rattle and chanting his 
song, all the medicine men fell in behind him, and the entire gathering 
joined in the singing. A few presents distributed at the close of the 
ceremony concluded the potlatch. A new medicine man had made 
his debut. 

In outward appearance these medicine men—now called diyinne, 
but in earlier times nilkin—were indistinguishable from other In- 
dians except at ceremonies, when they wore the coronet of grizzly- 
bear claws, the special cloak, and the necklet with the bone image of 
the guardian spirit, that were mentioned on a previous page. A 
few, to ensure success in the chase, painted or carved the images of 
their guardian spirits on their snowshoes and arrows. Morice states 
(1904) that Carrier medicine men farther east, especially those of 
Stuart Lake, painted them also on rocks, but the Bulkley Indians 
deny this practice, asserting that such pictographs as occur in their 
own territory were made for pastime only. 

Of the special powers credited to a medicine man through his pos- 
session of guardian or dream spirits, first and foremost was his 
ability to restore human shadows that had been lost or stolen, and 
to cure persons obsessed by the same spirits as himself, or, as some 


Anturop. Par. No. 25] THE CARRIER INDIANS—JENNESS 565 


Indians expressed it, afflicted with the same dreams. Many thought 
that the violation of a taboo rendered a man peculiarly lable to 
obsession by an angry spirit, and that confession aided the medicine 
man in his diagnosis, though it could not alone effect a cure. Since 
the spirits were numerous, and a medicine man could control only 
those with which he himself had communion, the Indians needed a 
specialist for every class of spirit (bear, beaver, etc.), and required 
many medicine men to keep their communities in health. They still 
remember another theory of disease, namely, that it arose from a 
stick, a stone, or other object magically implanted by a sorceror, and 
removable only by a medicine man’s discernment and suction; but 
this theory they discarded many years ago in favor of the doctrine 
of a lost shadow or of obsession from the world of spirits. Today, 
they say, the medicine man who practices witchcraft does not implant 
something in his victim’s body, but steals and imprisons his shadow; 
and though this occurs quite commonly, being partly responsible for 
the high mortality from which they suffer, they no longer dare to 
kill the suspected sorceror, as happened not infrequently in the 
nineteenth century. As late as 1885, indeed, Kwi-s, the chief of the 
Beaver phratry, shot a medicine man whom he suspected of stealing 
his brother’s shadow; for his brother had intrigued with the medicine 
man’s wife, and both the woman and her lover had died soon after 


the aggrieved husband composed and openly chanted a song, “My 
wife shall die.” 


The most powerful of all Hagwilgate medicine men was Yip, who died 
during that great epidemic which we now know was smallpox. As it carried 
off one man after another he could see it traveling through the air, and 
dreamed that he should catch it in a salmon basket. He said to the villagers, 
“Tf I can hold this sickness in a salmon basket until the cold weather comes 
we shall be saved; but if the basket explodes I myself shall die 2 days later.” 
The people set the trap on the dry ground and watched over it all night. 
Shortly before daylight it shook and burst. Yip died 2 days later; the smallpox 
was too powerful even for him. 


The medicine man whose guardian spirit was a bear, a beaver, a 
caribou, or other animal enjoyed, the natives say, unusual success in 
killing that species of game. He was permitted to eat its flesh, and 
did so quite freely, although among the Stuart Lake Carrier, accord- 
ing to Morice, it would have been taboo to him. 


Two Hagwilgate brothers who were hunting bears one summer sat down 
beside a small lake and watched two loons swimming round and round in 
the placid water. Presently one man turned to his brother and said, “You 
have told me that you are always dreaming about loon. See the wakes of 
these two birds, stretching like ropes toward us. Take hold of one wake 
and capture the bird at its end. Then I will believe you.” His brother 
answered, “You know that no one has ever done that before. Nevertheless, I 
will try.” He rubbed his hands in the water, and the end of the wake 


566 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BuLL. 133 


approached him. He pulled on the wake as though it were a rope, and the 
loon drew nearer and nearer until he captured it in his hands. Then he laid 
the dead bird at his brother’s feet and said, ‘‘Here is the loon. Let us eat it.” 
But his brother was afraid and answered, “If I eat it I may die. Truly you 
are a medicine man.” 

Some medicine men were credited with power to control the 
weather. Dressed in their special costumes they would shake their 
rattles, chant their songs, and call for rain or sunshine. In a 
droughty summer such a man could cause the rain to fall by 
merely washing his body in a creek. 

There are many eyewitnesses still living who attest the marvelous 
feats ostensibly performed by these medicine men through power 
derived from dreams. One man, they say, ripped open his stomach 
while he was dancing, and by merely passing his hand over the gaping 
wound made his body whole again; another allowed his head to be 
split open with an axe, and after a brief interval rose up unharmed; 
a third rubbed his finger over a hard boulder and produced a deep 
groove visible to this day; and several swallowed fire from blazing 
torches of birchbark. 


About 40 years ago, at a time when many Indians from Hagwilgate, Hazelton, 
and other places had gathered at Old Fort Babine, a number of medicine men 
gave a display of their powers. Some pushed porcupine quills deep into their 
bodies, others, knives that had been heated in the fire. Then someone scornfully 
asked George, a young Babine medicine man, what he could do. George an- 
swered, “Bring me two dishpans and fill them with clear water.” When the 
pans had been set before him, he shook his rattle and danced till the perspiration 
streamed down his body—for a medicine man’s powers always increase as he 
perspires. He then raised his hand in the air and prayed for power to fulfill 
his dream, a dream that his stomach filled with black fluid for 3 days, emptied 
itself, filled with blood, and emptied itself again. Still praying and leaping he 
approached the two pans, lifted one in his hands and carried it round for inspec- 
tion. The clear water had turned to blood. He spilt a little beside the fire, laid 
the pan down, called on the people to sing faster and louder, and, after more 
dancing and leaping, raised the second pan. In this one the water had become 
thick and black like tar. Suddenly he swung around and emptied it over his fel- 
low medicine men, who crouched and covered their faces in fear. The black 
fluid, as it fell, changed to eagle down, which lighted gently on their heads 
like soft snow. 


A spectacular but not uncommon feat was fire-walking, of which 
perhaps the latest exhibition occurred at Hagwilgate in 1918. An eye- 
witness on that occasion stated that after the unconsumed logs from 
a large fire had been rolled to one side, leaving a bed of red-hot coals 
and ashes, the medicine man, a Moricetown Indian, walked four times 
barefooted through the glowing embers and emerged unscathed, al- 
though his feet sank nearly 5 inches into the ashes. Two other na- 
tives who had witnessed a similar performance some years earlier 
declared that the medicine man was wholly unconscious of his move- 


ANTHROP. Pap. No. 25] THE CARRIER INDIANS—JENNESS 567 


ments, and that, without the testimony of his countrymen, he would 
have regarded the episode as a dream. 

We have seen that the Bulkley Indians, under influences that seeped 
in from the coast, obtained the notion that medicine power came from 
the spiritual world not by man’s seeking, but through sickness that 
attacked him even against his will; yet that they still clung to their 
earlier ideas in regarding this spiritual world as inseparably asso- 
ciated with the world of animals, birds, and fish. It was still the 
beaver, the eagle, or the salmon that imprisoned a man’s shadow in its 
mysterious home and taught him a medicine song; or else it was the 
shadow of one of these creatures that took possession of his body. 
There were, however, other influences, coming in from the same source 
during the first half, apparently, of the nineteenth century, that gave 
rise to a slightly different class of medicine men, a class that intro- 
duced among the Bulkley Indians features that properly characterized 
the widely spread Cannibal Society of the Pacific Coast. These new 
medicine men received their “call” not through the usual form of 
sickness, but through a violent hysteria that recurred every few 
hours or days, when it induced in the subject cannibalistic cravings 
that made him a menace to his fellow men, even his own kin. In the 
eyes of the Indians he was kyanilkyot, seized by one of those mys- 
terious forces called kyan that have their home in the mountains; and 
he could be cured only by a kyanyuantan, a man who had experienced 
a similar affliction and acquired the power to control his kyan. The 
cure came slowly, in from 1 to 3 years, but on his recovery the patient 
also became a kyanyuantan, an accredited member of the loosely or- 
ganized group or society whose specialty was the treatment of this 
strange complaint. 

About 32 years ago, i. e., about 1892, Old Sam, who is now our principal 
kyanyuantan doctor, was camping out in his hunting grounds when he heard 
a cry, “hu hu,” from a neighboring mountain. The cry was repeated, and though 
he had never been ill in his life before, a burning fever spread over his body, 
passed away, and came on again. He prepared his bed for the night and was 
about to lie down when he heard other sounds from the mountain, the beating of 
a drum and the thumping of sticks on sticks, that brought to his mind thoughts 
of kyan and its incursions. Suddenly there came a whistling noise, and some- 
thing, he knew not what, lifted him from his feet, and hurled him to the back 
of his lodge, lifted him again and hurled him almost into the fire. There he 
lay in a daze, but after a few minutes he rubbed some cold, wet snow over his 
face and cleared his brain. 

In the morning he returned to the house where he had left his wife and 
children. Hitherto he had been very fond of them, but now he was conscious of 
a deep antipathy and would not go near them. As the inmates were preparing 
for bed they heard a queer sound from something that had accompanied Old Sam; 
but no one paid any attention to it, and in the morning the whole party started 
out for Hagwilgate several days’ march away. Throughout this journey Old 


405260—43-——37 


568 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BuLL, 133 


Sam’s brain seemed to cloud at intervals, and he nourished an impulse to devour 
his children; but he offered no open violence, and the party reached Hagwilgate 
without mishap. I was then a lad in my teens, and can remember seeing them 
arrive late one afternoon, men, women, and even children carrying packs on 
their backs. 

Three or four days after their arrival Old Sam cleaned four steel traps and 
prepared to set them along Bulkley River. His wife, knowing that he was 
not feeling well, remonstrated, but he answered her, “The winter is long and the 
children need more clothes. A foxskin or two will help us.” “I will go with you 
then,” she said, “and stand back when you set the traps.” So the two went 
out in the morning, set their traps about 2 miles from Hagwilgate, and started 
home together in the moonlight. As they walked along, there came from the 
mountains a peculiar sound like the whir of wings or an approaching tempest. 
It drew nearer, and from the woods rose an answering clatter as of a medicine 
man’s rattle. Old Sam trembled violently, for he could see the kyan that to his 
wife’s eyes remained invisible; and when a whistle shrieked he fell flat in the 
snow, his clothes dropped from him, and he vanished from sight. His wife fled 
in panic to the village, where she gasped to my mother and others, “My man 
was telling me a hunting story to shorten our homeward walk when he fell to 
the ground, shed his clothes, and disappeared.” 

About half an hour later Old Sam himself arrived. He was stark naked, 
his eyes were gleaming, and his quivering lips gave forth wild shrieks of “hu 
hu hu.” Gnashing his teeth, he tried to seize one of his children, but the 
people restrained him and forced some garments on him. One of his relatives 
hastened away immediately to Kispiox, whence he returned on the following 
afternoon with a kyanyuantan doctor named Djolusanak and his assistants. 

Old Sam had been quiet during the day, but as evening approached the 
frenzy attacked him again. He tore off his clothes, broke open the door, and 
raced about in the snow. Djolusanak and his kyanyuantan: assistants pursued 
him, while the members of the cognate kalullim society inside the house pounded 
long planks with sticks and chanted medicine songs. Old Sam knocked down 
several of his pursuers and tried to bite them, but Djolusanak caught him by 
the hair and with the help of others dragged him indoors. So contagious was the 
malady from which he suffered that no one was allowed within except the 
kyanyuantan and kaluilim people; but listeners outside the house heard 
Djolusanak remark,, “I have discovered what is wrong with him. He desires 
human flesh. Tomorrow I shall give him dog to eat’; and late that evening 
Old Sam’s brother bought six fat dogs. 

The villagers prepared a great feast for the following day. Soon after dawn 
Djolusanak sent round word that they shoald stay in their homes, and that when 
he escorted Old Sam through the houses, one after another, they should cover 
their heads with blankets and pray that Utakke would cure him. At the same 
time he warned them that Old Sam was so dangerous he might break loose 
and bite the face of anyone who neglected to cover himself. In spite of this 
warning I peeped through a little hole in my blanket, and saw him, stark naked, 
devouring an unskinned dog that he clutched in his arms; and people say that 
he devoured six dogs as he visited from house to house. His guardians finally led 
him back to the potlatch hall, where they danced around him, and shook their 
rattles. Then he woke up sane, and said “What is the matter with me? I must 
have been dreaming.” Since that time he has experienced no further attacks. 

Old Sam had what we call Indian sickness, that only an Indian doctor can 
cure. It is most prevalent in the vicinity of Kitimat, where many kyan haunt 
a neighboring hill. Once a man caught in that district by kyan became so 


AnTuRopP. Pap. No. 25] THE CARRIER INDIANS—JENNESS 569 


violent that the people, afraid to wait for a doctor, put hot stones on his 
stomach and burnt a hole right through him. He jumped to his feet and 

ran shouting towards the mountain, where he disappeared without leaving a 
trace. Kyan took possession of him permanently. 

One old Bulkley Indian cherished the idea that kyan was but a 
collective term covering all the spirits of the animal world, and that 
possession by kyan was not a new phenomenon, but merely a varia- 
tion of the old relationship that had always existed between the 
Indian and this spiritual domain. The shadows of the grizzly, the 
otter, the owl, the salmon, and other creatures, he claimed, dwell in 
houses beneath lakes or inside mountains, and when a man is seized 
by kyan, becomes kyanilkyot, his shadow wanders away to one of 
these houses during his dreams and becomes imprisoned there. 
Smoke or water then seems to swoop down into his body at inter- 
vals, rendering him crazy, and he cannot recover until a kyanyuantan 
travels in his dream to the same house and recovers the shadow. 
The most violent form of insanity arises from the otter, which some- 
times (in dreams) takes the form of a girl or youth, seduces a man 
or woman and carries off its victim’s shadow; insanity from this 
cause is well-nigh incurable. He himself, he believed had been 
kyanilkyot, caught by kyan; and he actually shook with incipient 
hysteria as he described his experience. He was traveling to Babine, 
and had camped for the night under a group of trees when he began 
to tremble violently and was seized with a mad impulse to run away. 
Unable to eat or sleep he lashed his body to a tree and lay down on 
the ground. Then a black eagle shouted to him from the top of a 
mountain, and, swooping down, settled with a loud explosion on a 
tree above his head. He swooned, and did not recover until nearly 
sunset the next day. During this trance he seemed to enter a great 
tunnel in the mountain, where two songs came to him from opposite 
directions. One ran: 


he ye nesateltsai eyesenlea he ya he ya. 
(A noise that moved away into the distance took hold of me.) 


And the other: 


he ya he ya tsilyak wate eyesenlea. 
(A man who remained in the mountain took hold of me.) 


Now and again, even today, the same strange feeling comes over 
him, but it always vanishes as soon as he takes his rattle and chants 
these songs. Because he has been caught by kyan, he ranks as a 
medicine man, and is sometimes called in to heal the sick. When he 
sings and shakes his rattle over his patient, night after night, he can 
generally see within the patient’s chest the shadow of the grizzly, 
the beaver, or whatever creature it may be that has caused the sick- 
ness. Then he withdraws it into his hands, forces his own power 


570 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Buun, 138 


into it, and restores it to the patient’s body. But he is not a 
kyanyuantan, is not a member of that society, because the kyan 
that attacked him was not powerful enough to bring on insanity 
or to call for treatment by the kyanyuantan 

The majority of the Bulkley Indians flatly rejected this interpre- 
tation. To them this old man was an ordinary diyinne or medicine 
man, and his visitation from the animal world was quite different in 
character from an attack by kyan. Some distinguished three kinds 
of sickness (apart from wounds and ailments obviously brought on 
by material causes): The ordinary medicine sickness induced by 
contact with shadows of the animal world and characterized by 
phthisis and dreamy languor; violent insanity caused by an otter in 
human form; and possession by kyan. Still more limited the number 
to two, regarding the otter sickness as only an aggravated form of 
possession by kyan. They often spoke of kyan as though it were a 
formless, indefinite but living force, as when they described it as 
a devouring sickness that travels invisible, though just as much alive 
as aman or animal; yet quite as often they insisted that there were 
many kyan, not all possessed of equal powers, whence some of their 
victims became violently insane and others only mildly deranged. 
What primarily distinguished seizure by kyan from every other sick- 
ness was a periodic hysteria or dementia associated with a craving for 
human flesh. 

There can be no doubt that this kyan sickness, and the kyanyuantan 
society based on it, was copied from the cannibal society of the neigh- 
boring Gitksan, itself derived from the tribes of the coast. Among 
the Gitksan, too, the initiates concealed their rites from the laity and 
devoured human corpses and dogs as they paraded through the vil- 
lages—or at least pretended to devour them, for in recent times they 
have not actually eaten the raw flesh, but chewed alder bark instead 
and let the red juice drip from their lips. The lay Indians in both 
tribes stand in such awe of the society that they commonly propitiate 
its members with trivial gifts in order to retain their goodwill; and 
at Hagwilgate any one who enters a member’s house by mistake, even 
though he is himself a medicine man, atones for the error with a small 
sum of money. Their awe of the society rests mainly on fear, for 
they credit its members with power to drive kyan into any person 
who offers it affront. Hagwilgate natives have heard that at Skeena 
Crossing—and what happened there might easily happen in their 
own communit y— 

A man once ridiculed the cannibal society and accused it of deceiving the 
people; but a short time afterward he himself, through the agency of the society 


members, was seized by kyan and became demented. The society escorted him 
through the village and worked over him until his condition became more normal, 


ANTHROP. Pap, No. 25] THE CARRIER INDIANS—JENNESS 571 


then ordered him to stay alone in the mountain all winter and eat devilsclub. 
When he returned at the end of the winter the kyan gripping him was so 
powerful that though they bound him with ropes he broke away, killed and ate 
two or three men and threw away their bones. The society then said, “We can’t 
restrain him. Let him loose.” Instantly he vanished toward the mountain and 
was not seen again for a whole year. Then one night the villagers heard loud 
shouts of “hu hu” from the top of the mountain. The laity hid in their houses, 
while the members of the kyanyuantan and kalullim societies hastily put on 
their head bands, necklets, armlets, leglets, and skirts of red-cedar bark, sprinkled 
their heads with swan’s-down, and gathered in an open spot, beating a drum. 
Then the man flew through the air erying, “hu hu hu,” and, lighting in their 
midst, said, “my kyan is so powerful that if I remain among you I shall devour 
you all. So I shall not come back again.” As he spoke feathers sprouted from 
his arms and face and he changed to an eagle that flew away and disappeared 
over the mountain. This was his fate for ridiculing the kyanyuantan society. 


Today, nevertheless, whatever may have been the case in the past 
before European influences began to break down the social order, 
there is an important difference in the attitudes of the two peoples 
toward the phenomenon. It may mean nothing that the Bulkley 
Carrier, who now considers everyone a noble, at least potentially, 
believes that in his community any individual whatsoever may be 
seized by kyan and ultimately gain entrance to the society, whereas 
the neighboring Gitksan limits membership to persons of noble rank 
and regards that class alone as liable to invasion by the supernatural 
force. The Carrier, however, looks upon the kyan sickness as a 
calamity that he would gladly avoid, even though recovery makes him 
a member of the society and brings him prestige and profit; but the 
Gitksan, except insofar as he is modernized and scorns his old customs, 
regards membership as highly desirable and the qualifying sickness as 
a matter of little concern. Indeed, if he is of noble birth, he may even 
offer himself as a candidate, indicating that in many cases the sickness 
is either simulated or self-induced. To the one people the society is 
primarily a group of medicine men joined together to treat a peculiar 
and dangerous disease; to the other it is an organization for conferring 
prestige and influence on a limited section of the community by means 
of a spectacular initiation rite that invokes the sanction of the super- 
natural. 

The following episode will illustrate this attitude of the Gitksan: 

About 1913 a low-born youth of Kispiox (a Gitksan village 16 miles from 
Hagwilgate) acquired a little wealth through working in the coastal canneries, 
and became so ambitious that he determined to enter the wilala society, the 
name by which the kyanyuantan, or cannibal society, is known among the Git- 
ksan. He made his ambition known, but the members of the wilala and kaluilim 
societies, at a joint meeting, decided that his low birth debarred him from 
the wilala society, but allowed him to enter the inferior kaluilim. This, how- 
ever, did not satisfy him. He invited the villagers to a potlatch at which he 


imitated in his dance the frenzy of the wilala member, and, before distributing 
the huge pile of skins, coats, and money he had heaped on the floor, made 


572 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Butn, 133 


his grandmother step forward and announce, “This huge pile of goods belongs 
to the poor young man whom you refused to make a wilala.” The members of 
the society said nothing, but the next time the people gathered in the potlatch 
house they set side by side near the fire a goose with level outspread wings and 
a small duck that had one wing stretched high in the air. Then a wilala man 
rose up and asked, ‘What is the meaning of this? Is not this goose a noble bird?” 
“Yes, it is indeed a noble bird,” responded his fellow members. “But this duck 
here, of what use is it?’ he questioned. “It is a worthless bird that no one 
wants,” they answered. “If that is the case, why does it stretch its wing 
so high above the goose?” And the answer came amid laughter, “It wants to be 
a wilala.” Thus they humiliated the presumptuous youth. 

Such an incident could hardly occur among the Bulkley Indians, 
where the kyan sickness seems never to be fictitious or consciously 
self-induced, but is looked upon as fatal unless treated with unremit- 
ting care. In the winter of 1924-25, during my visit to Hagwilgate, 
Old Sam’s wife was smitten by the disease, although she was well 
advanced in years, short, stout, and apparently healthy. An attack 
of hysteria overcame her each evening toward sunset, and she whis- 
tled shrilly and cried, “hu hu.” In her dreams she had seen a stick 
about 4 feet long wrapped in three places with cedar bark; and 
throughout the day, as she lay on her couch against the wall of her 
house, a copy of this stick lay beside her. At times she would wander 
painfully to the kitchen behind, using the stick to lean upon. 

The sickness had lasted for several days until her husband, devoid 
of confidence in the neighboring white physician, determined to use 
his own power as a kyanyuantan doctor and to treat her in accord- 
ance with the old-time custom. The noise of his drumming and 
singing disturbed the white school teacher on the reserve, who 
ordered Old Sam and the fellow members of his society to cease 
their humbug; but since he was afraid to enter Old Sam’s house, 
his exhortations from without passed unheeded. He complained to 
the white policeman at Hazelton, and to the Indian agent there. 
This alarmed Old Sam and his people, for they feared that the sick 
woman, deprived of proper treatment for her malady, would grow 
worse and die. They recalled two similar cases within the preceding 
10 years when the Indians had listened to the priest and had refrained 
from using their old-time method; and two other cases when the 
priest and the white doctor had sent the patients to the insane 
asylum at New Westminister, near Vancouver. All four of these 
patients had died within a few months, whereas their own treatment, 
they believed, had nearly always succeeded. Old Sam himself had 
been cured, and the wife of Felix, my interpreter; and there were 
two other women in the village suffering from the same malady who 
were almost cured. 

The Indians, therefore, invited me to attend one of their perform- 
ances that I might substantiate their protest that it was neither 


AnTHROP. Pap. No. 25] THE CARRIER INDIANS—JENNESS ie 


improper nor harmful. It might begin at 4 o’clock, they said, or at 
6 o’clock, whatever time the symptoms overtook the sick woman. 
I reached Felix’s house at 4 o’clock and went over with him to 
interview Old Sam. His wife seemed quite normal at that hour, but 
he promised to send us word as soon as her ailment developed. We 
therefore returned to Felix’s house and waited. The account that 
follows is taken directly from my notes, written during the ceremony 
and revised the following morning. 


Just before 6 a messenger put his head inside the door and announced that 
the patient was becoming restless. Felix had gone to visit a neighbor for a 
few minutes, but his wife, who, as a member of the kyanyuantan society, was 
to play a leading part in the performance, hastily dressed, combed her hair, 
and placed in a flour sack the head band of cedar bark that she would wear 
throughout the ceremony. Her brother and I followed her to Old Sam’s house, 
a new building consisting of a large, rectangular living room with a kitchen 
behind. In the center of the living room was a camp stove, along the right 
wall half a dozen chairs, and on the opposite side, against the other wall, Old 
Sam’s wife, lying on a pile of blankets. In three corners were some wooden 
chests, while in the right-hand corner nearest the door lay a blind old woman, 
wife of Netipish, chief of the Gilserhyu phratry, who was slowly dying in the 
Hazelton hospital. There she lay throughout the entire evening, helpless and 
apparently unconcerned. 

Two other Indians, a man and a woman, had entered the house just ahead 
of us. The woman, who was dressed entirely in black, had been stricken by 
the kyan sickness 2 years before, but her cure was now almost complete. In 
her hand she carried a stick about 18 inches long, representing the stick that 
had appeared in her dreams. The man, like the brother of Mrs. Felix, belonged 
to the kalutlim society, whose members assist the kyanyuantan society in their 
rituals. 

We sat on the chairs at the side of the room, quietly talking. From time to 
time Old Sam’s wife emitted from her bed a shrill whistling sound, and at 
intervals a “hu” like a distant wolf. The two women sitting near me caught 
the infection and broke their conversation with similar sounds. Presently the 
woman in black rose and drew down the blinds on all the windows so that no 
one could peer in from the outside. Then she lit a lantern and went out, re- 
turning a few minutes later with a young Indian woman, the wife of a China- 
man who was living on the edge of the reserve. This Chinaman’s wife was 
convalescing from the most dangerous of all ailments, violent dementia, caused 
by constantly dreaming about the land otter. 

After a brief conversation together, the three women removed their moc- 
casins and unbound their hair, and the woman in black drew off the moc- 
easins from the feet of the principal patient, Old Sam’s wife. Mrs. Felix 
took out of her bag the head band of red-cedar bark, the woman in black 
produced similar bands from a chest in the corner, and every person in the 
room (except myself) placed one on his or her head. The women then 
sprinkled eagle down over their hair, while Old Sam brought out a tambourine 
and pushed in front of our chairs two planks 7 feet long by 4 inches wide, 
which we were to pound with sticks. Finally Mrs. Old Sam shuffled from her 
bed into the middle of the room and squatted there; the woman in black 
squatted behind her, and the Chinaman’s wife placed herself third in the line. 
Old Sam, Mrs. Felix, her brother, and the third man remained seated on the 


574 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL, 133 


chairs against the wall, Mrs. Felix’s brother holding the tambourine, the others 
short sticks with which to pound the planks. Thus we waited in silence. 

Suddenly a whistle shrilled, blown by Old Sam, though none of us saw it. 
To the Indians it blew kyan into the room. The Chinaman’s wife flung her 
head to the floor with a shriek and beat a wild tattoo with her hands on the 
bare boards, while her two companions sighed loudly “hu hu hu,” and swayed 
their bodies up and down and from side to side. Old Sam from his chair 
began to shout his medicine-song, and his assistants joined in, beating the 
tambourine and pounding the planks. The three women in the middle were 
seized with violent hysteria; their eyes were staring and dilated, their bodies 
swayed, their hands quivered as with a palsy. Old Sam’s wife, holding her 
long stick before her in both hands, raised it up and down jerkily ; the woman 
in black swung her shorter stick first to one side, then to the other; while the 
Chinaman’s wife, more violent than either, shuffled along the floor, her head 
down and her hands beating the boards or clawing the air rhythmically in 
front of her. Occasionally this woman raised her head and faced the singers 
in an attitude of wild adoration, trying, like her companions, to join in the 
song, but, like them, able to utter only shrieks, or whistling sounds, or loud 
sighs of “hu hu hu.” 

The song, repeated over and over again, louder and with more frantic drum- 
beats and pounding of sticks whenever the women’s frenzy threatened to break 
out into greater violence, lasted some 15 minutes. It contained two or three 
significant words, but from lack of an interpreter I could not follow them. 
Suddenly it stopped, and there was an interval of about 10 seconds during 
which the women sighed loudly and repeatedly “hu hu.” 

Old Sam now started up another song, translated thus by Felix, who came 
in at this moment and sat down beside me: 


A big beaver’s nose goes inside the mountain. 


The music stirred up the women again, causing them to resume their frantic 
gestures. Sometimes they faced the drum and executed a kind of squatting 
dance in front of it, their waving arms and swaying bodies reminding me 
strongly of Malayan dances. The extreme paroxysm of their first frenzy, 
however, had passed over, and their movements seemed more controlled by 
the rhythm of the chant. As the song continued Mrs. Old Sam began to “hu hu” 
vigorously again, and Mrs. Felix, who herself had caught the infection and 
“hu hued” once or twice while pounding her plank, rose and slowly danced 
on her toes toward her. Stretching out her hand, she raised Mrs. Old Sam to 
her feet, braced her arm with her own, and led her round the room in a slow 
rhythmic dance, during which' the patient continued to bow her head over her 
horizontally held stick and toss it backward again. The woman in black 
danced on her toes behind them, flinging out her short stick first on one side, 
then on the other. Last of all, after two or three futile efforts, the Chinaman’s 
wife struggled to her feet and danced in their train, with her head lowered, 
her face almost concealed by her hair, and her hands waving gracefully to 
right and left alternately. As they passed me, so close that I had to move 
back my chair, I could see their fingers quivering as if palsied; but both their 
feet and their hands kept perfect time with the song and the drumbeats. 

At the close of this song, which also lasted about a quarter of an hour, 
Mrs. Felix retired to her seat, the three patients sank slowly to the floor, 
breathing heavily “hu hu,’ and Old Sam hobbled over to them to shout the 
same cry “hu,” in their ears, one after another. His wife, only half-conscious 
apparently, pushed back the hair from her forehead, then pulled out a pan of 
water from beside the stove and mechanically washed her hands, while the 


AnTHROP. Pap, No. 25] THE CARRIER INDIANS—JENNESS 575 


other two women squatted in an attitude of exhaustion. In less than half a 
minute Old Sam started a third song, which Felix translated as 


Something goes into the water, 


explaining that old Sam, by “hu huing” in the women’s ears, had expelled some 
of the kyan from their bodies into the air and was now driving it into the 
pan of water. The three women remained squatting, swaying their bodies as in 
the earlier songs, but less violently; and when the song ended Mrs. Old Sam 
pushed the basin of water under the stove again. 

The fourth song was in the Carrier language also, being, like the three 
preceding, one of Old Sam’s own medicine-songs. It ran: 


Many wolves come for something to eat. 


The women continued to squat throughout its repetition, but the Chinaman’s 
wife shuffled a little around the floor. 

The fifth song was wordless; the sixth a song of the kalullim society, in the 
language of the Haida Indians of the Queen Charlotte Islands, which my 
interpreter could not understand. As soon as it commenced, Mrs. Felix rose 
and slowly hopped in front of Mrs. Old Sam to lead them in another dance. 
They stood in line one behind the other, Mrs. Felix facing them and moving her 
arms like a band conductor to make their feet and bodies keep time with. the 
slow music. Mrs. Old Sam waved her stick up and down in front of her, 
the woman in black swung her stick from side to side, and the Chinaman’s 
wife waved her arms gracefully to left and right alternately. The dance was 
perfectly timed and would have found favor in any music-hall. When it 
ended Old Sam again hobbled forward to “hu” in each woman’s ears, even in 
Mrs. Felix’, since she also seemed to have become infected and cried “hu hu” 
occasionally with her patients. 

The last song, also a chant of the kalutlim society, was in the Gitksan language. 
It ran: 

The strong man afflicted by kyan is eating something. 


The women still breathed “hu” occasionally as they repeated their dance, 
and Mrs. Old Sam emitted one or two whistling sounds. So when the song 
ended and they squatted on the floor again, Old Sam hastened over to “hu” 
into their ears, and to beat them upward on chest and back with a bundle 
of eagle feathers in order to expel any kyan that still remained in their bodies. 
Each woman gave a loud-breathed “hu” as it left her and Old Sam blew it away 
from the crown of her head. But from the woman in black it seemed very 
reluctant to depart; even though Old Sam beat her vigorously with his eagle 
feather and shouted “hu” in her ears, she still “hu hued” hysterically. At 
last he dropped his feathers and rubbed her vigorously with his hands, when 
with one dying shriek “hu-e-e” she subsided and sat quiet. 

The performance was now over. It had lasted a full 2 hours, and every one 
was weary. The patients, to all appearance perfectly normai again, pushed back 
their disheveled hair, rubbed their eyes, and retired to the walls to rest. The 
tambourine and planks were hidden away, the cedar-bark head bands replaced 
in the chest, and all traces of the eagle down carefully removed. Presently 
the woman in black replenished the fire and examined the kettle to see if the 
water was boiling, for we were ail to share in a light supper before returning 
to our homes. Then the men gathered around me to ask whether their remedy 
for the dream-sickness was not perfectly reasonable and proper. I told them 


576 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Butn, 133 


that I could see nothing wrong in the ceremony, but advised them either to 
muffie the tambourine a little or to hold the performance in a house farther 
away from the school teacher and thus avoid any further complaints. 

The performance just described dissipates all doubts concerning the 
reality of the kyan malady among the Bulkley Indians, for clearly 
the morbid condition of each woman was neither fictitious nor con- 
sciously self-induced, although Old Sam deliberately provoked a tem- 
porary paroxysm. It would seem reasonable to conjecture that the 
Indians, generally speaking, are somewhat unbalanced mentally. 
They believe that the world around them is full of supernatural be- 
ings or forces that are constantly interfering in human affairs, and 
they readily fall victims to their hallucinations. The notion of a 
supernatural force or forces lurking in the mountains that may strike 
them down at any moment induces a condition of periodic hysteria. 
Since kyan is supposed to be most active in the evenings when darkness 
begins to close in, it is at that time that auto-suggestion brings on 
the first signs of hysteria. The blowing of Old Sam’s whistle was 
the spark that ignited the smouldering fire; the women became fran- 
tically hysterical, but in a manner conditioned by their beliefs and 
by the many cases of hysteria they had seen previously. The beat- 
ing of the drum and planks, the rhythm of the music, checked their 
frenzy in its first stages, and gradually governed all their movements 
until they danced, swayed their bodies, and moved their limbs in per- 
fect time with the slow and measured notes. Mrs. Felix’ leadership 
in the dance also helped to bring them under control; and the hys- 
teria was forced to express itself in slow, rhythmic movements until 
the patients became physically exhausted and their minds cleared. 
During periods of normality they encountered no social barriers or 
restraints, and incurred no feeling of inferiority, because they believed 
their malady unavoidable and fully expected permanent cure. So in 
time (some cases, the Indians say, require 3 years), they might well 
outgrow the mental and pathological conditions that induced the 
hysteria and become fully normal again. 

The kyanyuantan, or cannibal society of the Bulkley Indians, then, 
consists of a group of men and women who are credited with power 
to heal a peculiar type of hysteria or dementia because they them- 
selves have recovered from the same malady. The society appoints 
no definite leader, apparently, but one man usually stands preeminent 
over the rest by reason of his social standing or of the unusual medi- 
cine power he is presumed to derive through overcoming the dementia 
in its most violent form. There are no formal meetings apart from 
the clinics at which new patients are treated, and certain sessions at 
potlatches when candidates are initiated into the subordinate kalul- 
lim society. From these meetings outsiders are excluded because the 


AnTHROP. Pap. No. 25] THE CARRIER INDIANS—JENNESS 577 


dementia is deemed to be contagious, and no one would voluntarily 
expose himself to its onslaught. Members are entitled to charge for 
their services, and enjoy a certain amount of prestige; but their 
standing at all ordinary ceremonies and potlatches remains unaf- 
fected, and today not a single chief belongs to the society, though 
some may have been members in earlier years. 

The kalutlim society of the Bulkley Indians is younger than the 
kyanyuantan. The Indians said that it came from the Gitksan when 
Old Sam was stricken with the kyan sickness some 40 years ago, but 
did not take firm root until about 1900, and then only among the In- 
dians of Hagwilgate and Moricetown. Membership is limited to the 
nobles, that is to say, to the men and women who have assumed titles 
and claim definite seats at potlatches. Many of the younger Indians 
are, therefore, ineligible, not because they are debarred from assum- 
ing titles, but because they no longer value them enough to scatter 
their wealth on the necessary potlatches. While they fear to speak 
disrespectfully of the society, they tend to regard it as a profit-making 
organization, because its members regularly assist the kyanyuantan 
doctors in treating patients afflicted with the kyan sickness, and the 
patients, or their relatives, naturally pay for their services, though on 
a smaller scale than they pay the kyanyuantan. The majority of the 
villagers, however, hold the society in higher esteem. To them it is 
a true medicine-society, for its members have actually experienced the 
mysterious force of kyan, albeit in a weakened form, and thereby 
acquired power to assist in the treatment of kyan sickness, though un- 
able themselves to effect a cure. Indeed, they are considered the only 
people who dare assist in the treatment, because the disease is highly 
contagious and dangerous, and their past exposure has given them 
immunity. Moreover, even if some of the members have enrolled 
deliberately, submitting themselves of their own free will to a kyan 
infection induced either by a qualified member or by a kyanyuantan, 
others have caught the infection involuntarily, and only failed to be- 
come eligible for the kyanyuantan society because their malady was 
so slight. Consequently, the kalutlim society is really a lower order of 
the kyanyuantan, though the societies are mutually exclusive and 
members cannot pass from one order to the other. 

A man (or woman), we will presume, is indisposed, and the or- 
dinary medicine men or diyinne diagnose his ailment as a slight in- 
fection by kyan, and consequently outside of their scope. The patient’s 
relatives approach the members of the kalutlim society and entreat 
their aid, which is promised for the next feast or potlatch. His ini- 
tiation into the society then follows the same general course as if he 
is in perfect health, but merely aspires to become a member. On the 
first evening of the feast, when the man is sitting quietly in the pot- 


578 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Buu. 133 


latch hall among the audience, one of the leaders of the society (or 
else a kyanyuantan doctor), slipping outside unnoticed, suddenly 
bangs on the door and shrieks a wooden whistle. The candidate falls 
prostrate to the floor, for the thoughts of every member are concen- 
trated on him and the whistle is theoretically charged with kyan. A 
member may now raise one of the society’s songs, to which his co- 
members beat time by pounding on wooden planks. They encircle 
the candidate, lift him to his feet, and lead him round the fire, with 
loud shouts of “hu hu hu” or “hap hap hap.” Any kyan that has 
infected him now supposedly flees before the kyan blown into the room 
by the whistle, and the force that resides in the cries of the members. 
Once only they circle round the fire, then they go outdoors, leaving 
the spectators silent in their places, afraid to follow lest they too be 
stricken by kyan, or else seized and mulcted a heavy fine. 

Now from without comes the sound of a chant, and, at its conclu- 
sion, a clapping of hands and cries three times repeated of “pr pr pr.” 
The candidate has been “wafted” to kyanberhya, the “house of kyan,” 
some empty dwelling as far from the village as possible which the 
laity scrupulously avoid for the time, if indeed they are aware of its 
use. There the society members sing with the candidate all night, 
leaving him just before daylight to return to their homes. Sometimes 
they allow him to walk as usual about the village during the daytime; 
if he is wealthy, and therefore certain to pay liberally for his initiation 
and to distribute much largess among the people, they may even escort 
him to the potlatch hall so that the laity may join in their prayers for 
his recovery to health (a ceremony called by the Gitksan name gela-ls). 
More often, however, they keep him secluded for 3 or 4 days until the 
potlatch is drawing to its close. 

On the third or fourth night of the potlatch all visiting chiefs 
dance in succession until nearly dawn. ‘Then the head chief of the 
candidate’s phratry steps forward, holding a spoon of sheep horn 
whose handle is wrapped with red-cedar bark. Slowly he marches, 
singing his own special song, and, standing beside the fire, thrice 
raises the spoon aloft and cries, “hu.” Then, at the shout “kalutlim” 
from a leader of that society, he pours the grease into the fire and says, 
“May this grease be as a bridge whereby you (the candidate) may 
return to us.” All now retire to their homes to await the reappear- 
ance of the vanished man. 

Before noon the next day a kalullim member makes the circuit of 
the village and invites the people to stand at their doors and watch 
for something to happen. A near relative of the candidate (usually 
his father’s brother) dresses up in full dance regalia, dons a wooden 
mask representing one of his clan crests—we will say the grizzly—and, 
imitating the gait of that animal, searches round the outskirts for 


AntTHROoP. Pap. No. 25] THE CARRIER INDIANS—JENNESS 579 


the missing man, who has concealed himself in some prearranged 
hole in the ground or in a crevice among the rocks. The members 
of the society follow the “grizzly,” and, as soon as he noses out his 
quarry, drive him away, or, if he is himself a kalutlim member, re- 
move his mask and merge him in their throng. Then, singing, they 
escort their new member inside all the houses in the village, where 
every inmate who is not a member covers his head with a blanket 
lest he be rushed off to the same hiding place, initiated into the society, 
and forced to pay a heavy indemnity. 

After the novice and his escort have vanished from sight, the 
villagers resume their usual occupations for an hour or so, when a 
repetition of the procession again sends them hastily to their blankets. 
Only when the procession approaches for the third time are they free 
to gaze their fill. 

The society now secretes itself in the novice’s hiding place, and 
toward evening sends a messenger to gather the villagers in the pot- 
latch hall. The audience lines the walls of the room while the 
kalutlim members conceal themselves just inside the door behind a 
curtain guarded by two men, one of whom is a near relative of the 
novice. Drawn out by these two men, the novice emerges from under 
the curtain, prances with his relative round the room, gesticulating 
with his hands, and vanishes from sight again. He reappears a few 
minutes later, shaking a rattle, and executes a formal dance with his 
relative. Then his helpers bring in the food that has been provided 
by his phratry, and, when the audience has eaten, the blankets, strips 
of moose hide, and other goods that are to be given away. A fellow 
kalullim belonging to the same phratry as the novice distributes 
these goods, after which the people return to their homes. But an 
hour or so afterward the members of the society reassemble in the 
potlatch hall for a private feast, from which they carry away as their 
own booty the dishes and cutlery furnished by the novice. 

For 2 or 3 days more the novice must secrete himself in the vacant 
house and each evening learn from his fellow members the society 
dances and songs. Some one composes one or two new songs for his 
use, and these also they practice in the evenings. The villagers are 
then invited to attend the final ceremony in the potlatch house, to 
which the leader who blew the whistle brings a rattle and an extra 
head band made of cedar bark, and another member of the society 
an extra cedar-bark collar. The head band and the collar they place 
on the novice as he sits in front of them, and the leader, shaking his 
rattle, announces that his protégé is now a fully ordained kalullim 
and privileged to enjoy that title (pl. 34, fig. 2). The ceremony then 
closes with a distribution of food. Later the new member quietly 
pays everyone who has played a prominent role in his initiation, 


580 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bune. 133 


his payments varying from as much as $30 to the leader who blew the 
whistle down to a single dollar, perhaps, to the men who encircled him 
with the collar. His total expense, including what he spends for 
food, often runs to as high as $500. 

Such is the general method of initiation into the kalullim society, 
but the exact details vary on nearly every occasion. Thus in 1921, 
for the first time, the society used the potlatch hall for the opening 
ceremony only, and held its other public ceremonies out-of-doors dur- 
ing the hours of daylight. It possesses perhaps a dozen whistles, 
all purchased originally from the Gitksan Indians by a chief of 
the Laksilyu phratry, who subsequently sold most of them to three 
men in the Gitamtanyu phratry. It may be worth adding that the 
leaders are not elected, but are simply the ranking men and women of 
their respective phratries. 

Besides the kyanyuantan and kalullim, the Bulkley Carrier have 
still a third society known as the komitt’la, which was borrowed from 
the Gitksan Indians about the same time as the kalutlim. Unlike 
the latter, however, it exists for purely social purposes, and has no 
connection with religion or with the healing of the sick. Initiation, 
which takes place in a potlatch, is comparatively inexpensive. Mem- 
bers are entitled to blow a certain type of whistle, and to wear 
head bands and collars of cedar bark dyed red in a solution of boiling 
maple bark. The whistle has a different shape from that used 
by the kyanyuantan and kalullim societies, whose cedar-bark head 
bands and collars, too (as well as the wristlets worn by the kyan- 
yuantan doctors to protect themselves from the frantic biting of their 
patients) are not pure red, but mingled red and white, the latter being 
the natural color of the bark. In their dances the members of the 
komitt’ta society do not gesticulate with their hands, like the members 
of the kalutlim, but swing a wooden paddle. Some years ago it 
held private entertainments similar to those held by the kalutlim 
people, but latterly the two societies have held their meetings jointly. 
Their combined membership is small and apparently decreasing, so 
that both will probably disappear within another generation. The 
kyanyuantan society, being more deep-rooted, may last a few years 
longer, but it too has passed its hey day. 


APPENDIX 1 
HUNTING TERRITORIES 
GITAMTANYU PHRATRY 

GRIZZLY HOUSE 


1. An area about 20 miles long by 15 miles wide around Tayi (=Maclure?) 
Lake, near Telkwa, known as chwchet. 

2. A strip about 3 miles square at Lamprey Lake, between Francois and Morice 
Lakes. This belonged originally to a clan of the Gilserhyu phratry, the Dark 
House, but was surrendered to the Grizzly House when the brother of its chief 
was mortally wounded by the sister of Netipish, the chief of the Gilserhyu 
phratry. The area was known as cha pe’kaz. 

3. An area‘ of unspecified extent around a creek north of Moricetown, known 
as xat tatsali kwa, “the river in which people place their packs of meat to 
protect them from flies.” 

4. Two small lakes for trapping beaver in the Babine Mountains north of 
Barrett station, known as uwitak. 


HOUSE IN THE MIDDLE OF MANY, AND ANSKASKI CLAN 


1. A tract about 20 miles long by 15 miles wide along the middle reaches 
of the Morice River, known as tsamik’aitchan, ‘the bottom of the mountain 
on which tsami berries grow.” 

2. An area of undetermined extent around Trout Lake, between Owen Lake 
and the wagon road running to Francois Lake. Formerly there existed on 
Trout Lake a large potlatch house surmounted by the figure of a raven, the 
principal crest of conjoint clans. The area was known as t’a-k’as’lenli, “where 
the water flows into t’a-k’az lake.” 

3. The territory around a creek that flows into Owen Lake, known as tazgli 
kwa, “tazgli river.” 

4. A tract around Rose and Old Woman’s Lakes, just west of Burns Lake, 
known as djakaz, “middle place.” 

5. A tract about 5 miles square on Buck Creek, near Houston, known as 
tsanko ‘sai, ‘he remains in a graveyard.” 


GILSERHYU PHRATRY 
DARK HOUSE 


1. An area about 60 miles long by 30 miles wide around Tagetochlain Lake, 
between Morice and Francois Lakes, known as tagitsoxlen, “the place where 
the hunter watches for caribou to swim across.” 

2. An area about 25 miles long by 15 miles wide between the foot of Morice 
Lake, Morice River, and two creeks that join this river from the southwest 
and northwest. It belonged originally to the Tsayu or Beaver phratry, but was 
exchanged for a fishing station at Moricetown. It was known as talbitskwa. 


581 


582 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Buut, 133 


THIN HOUSE 


(Chief Gualet’s section of the clan) 


1. The area from Hagwilget canyon to Moricetown, about 35 miles long by 
28 miles broad, known as dizkle, “dead trees all pointing in one direction in 
the water.” 

2. A tract about 25 miles square around Owen Lake and Nadina Mountain, 
known as pitwinni. 

3. A tract about 8 miles square halfway between Francois Lake and Houston. 
known as tatak, “creek joining two lands.” 


THIN HOUSE 
(Chief Chaspit’s section of the clan) 

1. A tract about 20 miles square around Atna Lake, near Morice Lake, known 
as gilenepin diltan, “place around the head of the lake.” 

2. A tract about 50 miles square just south of Morice Lake, known as neneka. 

3. A tract about 35 miles long by 15 miles wide at the west end of Ootsa Lake, 
known as tailla, “swampy place where brush grows in the water.” 

4. A tract about 40 miles square on both sides of Francois Lake, known as 
tse konakaz, “one-eyed woman,” because there is a tiny lake in the middle of a 
wide plain. 

BIRCHBARK HOUSE 


1. A tract about 30 miles long by 25 miles wide around the west end of 
Ootsa Lake, known as netanli, “waterfall.” 


LAKSILYU PHRATRY 
HOUSE OF MANY EYES 


1. An area about 20 miles square around Topley, known as atk’at, “beaver dam 
on top.” 


2. An area about 10 miles square at the head of the Telkwa River, known as 
tse’tsenitla, “much cottonwood coming down the river.” 


HOUSE ON ToP OF A FLAT Rock 


An area about 15 miles long by 20 wide on each side of the Bulkley River 
around Moricetown, known as ta’perte, “trail beside the water.” 


HOUSE BESIDE THE FIRE 


1. A tract on the Zymoetz River below McDonnell Lake, known as kasklai 
k’watlat, “many grizzly at its end.” 


2. The Bulkley Valley from Barret Station to about Telkwa and McClure Lake, 
known as chost’let. 


3. The lower part of Buck Creek and the country around Houston. Recently 
this has been given to the clan House of Many Eyes in the same phratry. 


LAKSAMSHU PHRATRY 
SUN oR Moon Houses, AND TwisTED HousE 


1. A tract about 15 miles long by 10 miles wide at the head of a creek flowing 
from the southeast into the Zymoetz River, together with the mountain at its 
head. It was known as uiyeni, “far across.” 


AntHrop. Pap. No. 25] THE CARRIER INDIANS—JENNESS 583 


2. A tract around a small lake and mountain at the head of Reiseter Creek that 
flows into the Bulkley River west of Smithers. It was known as guskibewinni, 
“lake containing suckers.” 

8. A tract about 8 miles long and 2 or 3 miles wide along the Morice River 
just east of Barret Station, known as neltsikyet, “source of neltsi or Bulkley 
River.” 


Ow. House? 


1. A tract about 10 miles long and 5 miles wide at the head of the Suskwa 
River, wedged between territories belonging to the Gilserhyu phratry. It was 
known s alkane‘te, “a trail crossing a beaver dam.” 

2. A tract about 40 miles long by 20 miles wide around the end of Francois 
Lake, known as nestikyet, “source of Nesti Creek.” 

8. A tract around two small creeks flowing from the south into Tahtsa Lake. 


TSAYU PHRATRY 


BEAVER HOUSE 


1. Area around Telkwa River and Mooseskin Johnny Lake, known as taltse. 
wiyez. 

2. A Small area around Day Lake, near Forestdale, known as ndettsane. 

3. An area around the head of Buck Creek, known as neitsisklat. 

4, An area around Decker Lake, known as ndettlat. 


1 Hunting territories of this clan have been seized by the Sun or Moon clan, because the 
chieftainship of the Owl House, in the absence of male heirs, has descended to a woman who 
cannot maintain her rights against the chief of the Sun House, who is also chief of the 
phratry. 


405260—43——_38 


APPENDIX 2 
PHRATRIC ORGANIZATIONS OF OTHER CARRIER SUBTRIBES 


The phratry-clan system of organization seems to have extended no 
farther inland than the Bulkley River and Babine Lake, the two dis- 
tricts that bordered on the territory of the Gitksan. Some Carrier 
subtribes to the eastward ranged themselves into phratries whose chiefs 
bore hereditary titles; and they even adopted crests for these phratries, 
or for the chiefs who presided over them. Nowhere, however, did 
they subdivide their phratries into definite clans, nowhere did their 
chiefs erect large semicommunal houses or giant totem poles, nowhere 
was society clearly demarcated into the three strata, nobles, commoners, 
and slaves. The nobles comprised only the chiefs and their nearest 
relatives, who were far outnumbered by the common people; and 
the only slaves were prisoners of war, usually, if not always, women 
and children, who married their captors and obtained the same rights 
and status as other Indians. So unstable even were the phratries that 
today they are almost forgotten, and only resuscitated when members 
of these subtribes visit the Bulkley River or Babine Lake. The east- 
ernmost subtribe around Prince George, indeed, the Tannatenne, may 
never have adopted phratries at all, although its neighbors on Stuart 
Lake acquired the system, presumably through association with the 
Babine Indians. Father Morice (1892-93, p. 203 et seq.) has outlined 
the Stuart Lake system, which need not, therefore, be repeated. Here 
I shall merely append some brief notes on the phratries of certain other 
Carrier groups, whose locations may be found on the map on p. 476. 


(@) FRASER LAKE SUBTRIBE (NATTLEWITENNE) 


Phratries Crests of Phratries 

DESH) rae 2Th aa Me eee Pe re Grizzly, black bear, entire weasel, leaf. 

CoUISET iv See oe ea eee Big frog, crane, small owl. 

aki ye ue ee Be ee Raven, big frog. 

Llsamashu (tsamashu)________ Owl, grouse, whale, sun or moon, half of weasel. 
SS SA Aa pee ed Ee SN ek Beaver, owl. 


The phratries in this subtribe coincide with those of the Bulkley 
Indians, and the chiefs of the Bulkley phratries were regarded as the 
real chiefs of the Fraser Lake phratries also. Nevertheless, the Tam- 
tanyu and Gilserhyu phratries each acknowledged a local chief, and the 
Llsamashu had two local chiefs of coordinate rank. A man could 
not marry a woman of his own phratry unless she belonged to another 
subtribe; a Laksilyu man, for example, could marry a Laksilyu woman 
of Hagwilgate, but not of Fraser Lake. (Pl. 25, fig. 2.) Children 
belonged to the phratries of their mothers, but were not considered 
nobles unless their fathers were nobles. Thus the nephew (sister’s son) 
and logical successor of the old man who claimed the chieftainship of 


584 


ANTHROP. Pap. No. 25] THE CARRIER INDIANS—JENNESS 585 


Gilserhyu phratry did not rank as a noble because his father had been 
a commoner; yet he expected to be the next chief of the phratry, if it 
still continued to exist. 


(6) ENDAKO RIVER SUBTRIBE (NU’TSENI) 


Phratries Crests Chiefs’ Titles 
aarmnbamiy see se ace eee {easete Na al SS 2 
Tso’yezhotenne (small Woodpecker____ ? 
spruce people). 
Neigeliyias cele kee ee 1 Bo 90. BAe MO Oe ea ae 1. Naselti-at. 


bo 


. Tsekokak (Woman’s Skin). 
3. Pilancha (Big Hand). 


Kisamashulecw oii Pes o2 Ue Grouse xe) Jue) 2 1. Usakkye. 
2. Guzkli’. 
UIE 0 REE ih a Ea Ga Beaver e242 2 


An epidemic is said to have destroyed the Tam’tanyu phratry 
early in the nineteenth century. About the end of the century 
Naselti-al, one of the three chiefs in Yiselyu phratry, adopted a per- 
sonal crest, Frog, and about the same time the chief of Tsayu 
phratry, whose title was not recorded, adopted the personal crest, 
Wolverine. 


(c) CuEsLtATTA LAKE INDIANS (TATCHATOTENNE) 
Chiefs’ Personal 


Phrairies Crests Chiefs’ Titles Crests 
Tamtanyiue S237 4. Grigzhye © oe De ACG RES Eo Lt Old Grizzly, Wolf. 
2. Nelli 
Tsu’yaztotenne______ Woodpecker===—. ls Kiesala= aes Marten, lullim. 
2. Anaintil 16 
3. Ne’tsan 
Wesiliyuls*s28 eins oe des ae eng rey © one ear Ppt Pea a Sig a Be cult ? 
Lisamashue. 4 2j2_2 Grouiset 22 25 5 Tsakwiltai (But- Butterfly? 
terfly). 
Msay Wee e See vee Beaver. -f- * 1; Ayuna*tie.. 22. Eats Man. 
2. Nustel (Wolver- Wolverine. 
ine). 
3) ebapise yan. 22 ? 


About 1900 Kles’al, the chief of the Tsu’yaztotenne phratry, par- 
ticipated in a Horch at Stellaco, at the west end of Fraser Lake, 
and seized the opportunity to dramatize his personal crest lullim. 
Under the pretext that he was going away to hunt he disappeared for 
3 or 4 days. His fellow phratrymen then discovered him hiding 
near the village, adorned with the cedar-bark head band and wrist- 
lets that on the Bulkley River signify membership in the Kalutlim 
society; and when they conducted him to the potlatch hall he chanted 
a song that is still used by that society in Hagwilgate. Probably he 
had observed its initiation rite at Hagwilgate, or else among the 
Gitksan, and after he returned to his own district converted it into 
a personal prerogative; for the society itself has never taken root 
around Cheslatta or Fraser Lakes. 


586 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bunn, 133 


(d) Stony CREEK SUBTRIBE (YUTA’ WOTENNE) 


Chiefs’ Personal 


Phratries Crests Chiefs’ Titles Crests 
Gilserhy techs 2h ws. Small owl_-_---_- 1. Sisarpal.2 22-24 Wolverine. 
2. Wazchoresse oe Sturgeon. 
Yesilyu_ 2930. 2 iu Frog, crane_.--- IVBe-velsk oe 


Frog, crane. 


The Stony Creek Indians claim that they never had more than two 
phratries, that a man inherited his phratry from his mother, and that 
his rank depended less on his ancestry than on the number of potlatches 
he was able to give. Anyone could become a chief by giving a certain 
number of potlatches; a lesser number bestowed on him the status of a 
noble. His children were then nobles, potentially at least, provided 
their mother also was a noble, but if either parent was a commoner, 
the children were commoners until they succeeded in raising their 
status by the necessary potlatches. In 1924 these Indians counted on 
their reservation two chiefs, two who had almost the status of chiefs, 
since each required to give only one more potlatch, about 20 nobles of 
varying grades, and some 150 commoners. 

Before they were confined to a single reserve, they occupied two 
villages, one on Nulki Lake, the other on the neighboring Tatchik 
Lake. Some of them asserted that in former times all the Nulki Lake 
people belonged to the Yesilyu phratry, and all the Tatchik Lake people 
to the Gilserhyu. This is clearly impossible, since the phratries were 
exogamous units and every man must have belonged to a different 
phratry from his wife. It may be, however, that the hunting territory 
around these lakes was divided between the two phratries, the Tatchik 
Lake district going to the Gilserhyu and the Nulki Lake to the 
Yesilyu. Neither lake contained salmon, so the Stony Creek Indians 
used to merge during the fishing season with the Indians of Fraser 
Lake. 

LITERATURE CITED 


BARBEAU, CHARLES MARIUS 
1929. Totem poles of the Gitksan, Upper Skeena River, British Columbia. 
Nat. Mus. Canada, Bull. No. 61, Anthrop. ser., No. 12. 
Jenness, Diamond 
1934. Myths of the Carrier Indians of British Columbia, Journ. Amer. Folk- 
Lore, vol. 47, Nos. 184-185, April-September. 
M’Lean, John 
1849. Notes of a twenty-five years’ service in the Hudson’s Bay territory. 
2 vols. London. 
Morice, A. G. 
1888-89. ‘The Western Dénés. Their manners and customs. Proc. Canadian 
Inst., 38rd ser., vol. 7. Toronto. 
1892-93. Notes on the Western Dénés. Trans. Canadian Inst., vol. 4. 
1904, History of the northern interior of British Columbia. Toronto, 


BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 133 PLATE 24 


MODERN VILLAGE OF HAGWILGATE. 


(Photographs by C. M. Barbeau.) 


BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 133° PEATE 25 


1. CANYON IN THE BULKLEY RIVER, SHOWING THE MODERN HIGH-LEVEL BRIDGE 
AND THE RUINS OF THE OLD VILLAGE OF HAGWILGATE BELOW THE CLIFF. 


(Photograph by D. Jenness.) 


2. A FORT FRASER FAMILY OUTSIDE ITS HOUSE. 


(Photograph by D. Jenness.) 


(‘ssauuaf -q Aq sydei80j04g) 


“MOV AHL NO LSHYD NV1D SIH SMOHS LVHL ‘AWNLSOD LNSIONY AHL JO VOIIdSY HLOID V ONIYVAM NVIGN|] YSSVY4 LYOY Vv 


‘z ol 


9¢ 3A1V1d €€l NILSTING ASOTIONHLA NVOIMAWYV SO NvseHend 


BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULEETRIN 133) PEATE 27. 


SCENES AT A POTLATCH HELD BY THE LAKSILYU PHRATRY AT HAGWILGATE. 
(Paotographs by C. M. Barbeau.) 


BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 133 PLATE 28 
] 
u 


i 


HAGWILGATE CARRIER DRAMATIZING HIS PERSONAL CREST. 
(Photograph by Harlan I. Smith.) 


(‘ssouuaf *q Aq ydes80j04Q) 
“YUU “7 uvryiepzy Aq ydeiZ0j01 

( 1s | Hq id) “1LS3YD SIH DNILDOId 

-30d ‘3NOLSEHWOL S.,NVIGNI[ 3LVSOIIMSVH VW =|! 


“ALVOTIMSOVH LY SA10d WAHLOL YNO4 AHL °Z 


6¢ ALV1d €€1 NILSTINa ASOTONH.L]A NVDOIMAWY AO nvayna 


(‘yquug *T uepsezy Aq ydeisojoyg) 


“OHOLVHN1V LV ATINVA YSIYNYVD V 


o€ ALlW1d €€l NILATINGA ADOTIONH.LA NVYOIMSAWYV SAO NvaHnd 


133. PLATE 31 


BULLETIN 


BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 


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(Photograph by Harlan I. Smith.) 


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ADSDOTONHLA NVOIMAWY AO 


nvaena 


BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 133 PLATE 33 


1. VILLAGE OF FORT FRASER, ON FRASER LAKE. 


(Photograph by D. Jenness.) 


2. GRAVE OF BINI AT HAGWILGATE. 


(Photograph by Harlan I. Smith.) 


ve 


(‘yuurg *T urpiep, Aq ydeasojoyg) 


“SONID9OAT HLOIWD GNV 
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HLIM NOYdY HLONID ‘SNOLLNG WVAd HLIM LVOD 
YSHLV]AT -ONIN-MOAN GNV AGNVG GAVAH MYVE-yvVdsD 
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(‘ssauuaf *q Aq ydeiz0j0yg) 


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GQNV LVH dOL SIH SDNIYVAM NVd A1O ‘1 


ASDOTONHLSA 


NVOIYAWYV AO Nnvaynd 


SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 
Bureau of American Ethnology 
Bulletin No. 133 


Anthropological Papers, No. 26 


The Quipu and Peruvian Civilization 


By JOHN R. SWANTON 


587 


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aed Fay ike P \ . Wik 


THE QUIPU AND PERUVIAN CIVILIZATION 


By JoHN R. SWANTON 


As is well known, the ancient Peruvians used knotted cords as a 
substitute, or partial substitute, for written characters. Knotted 
cords were employed as mnemonic devices in other parts of both 
the New and the Old Worlds but were nowhere elaborated to the 
extent that we find in the old Incaic Empire. For scientific studies 
of the existing quipus we are indebted to L. Leland Locke (“The 
Ancient Quipu, or Peruvian Knot Record,’ American Museum of 
Natural History, 1923), and to a study by Erland Nordenskiéld (1925) 
entitled “The Secret of the Peruvian Quipus,” in two parts in No. 6 
of his Comparative Ethnographical Studies. Nordenskidld prom- 
ised further publications on this subject but his untimely death put 
an end to the undertaking. 

Mr. Locke’s conclusions regarding the quipu are: 


[1] The quipu was used primarily for recording numbers; [2] The quipu 
was probably used as memoria technica, in memorizing historical items, poems, 
lists of kings, ete.; [3] The quipu was not adapted to calculation; [4] A scheme 
of roughly suggestive colors was probably in use; [5] The evidence is intrinsi- 
cally against the supposition that the quipu was a conventional scheme of 
writing. [And he adds] In conclusion, the evidence is that all of the authentic 
quipu examined are numerical in nature. It may be that through the irony 
of fate no specimens of genuine historical quipu, if they existed, have been pre- 
served. It is recorded that great quantities of quipu were destroyed by the 
Spanish invaders. 


Locke and Nordenskiéld both depend mainly upon Garcilaso de la 
Vega for historical information regarding the use of this device, and 
Locke is probably influenced as to its limitations by Garcilaso’s state- 
ments, the following in particular: 


The Quipu-camayus noted, by means of the knots, all of the tribute that was 
given to the Inca every year, specifying each household and its peculiar mode 
of service. They also recorded the number of men who went to the wars, those 
who died in them, those who were born and those who died in each month. 
In fine they recorded everything relating to numbers by means of the knots, 
even putting down the battles that were fought, the embassies that had been sent 
to the Inca, and the number of speeches and arguments that were used by the 
envoys. But neither the words nor the reasoning nor any historical event could 
be expressed by the knots. For there was no means of conveying the words 
that were spoken, the knots expressing numbers only and not words. To remedy 


, 589 


590 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Butn, 133 


this defect they had signs by which they conveyed an idea of historical events 
and of reasonings and of speeches made in peace or war. These speeches were 
preserved by the Indian Quipu-camayus in their memories by means of short 
sentences giving the general meaning, which were committed to memory and 
taught to their successors, so that they were handed down from father to son. 
This was especially practised in the particular village or province where the 
event in question had taken place, and there it was remembered more than in 
any other place, because the natives valued their traditions. They had another 
way of preserving the memory of historical events and of embassies sent to the 
Incas; the Amautas, who were learned men, took care to put them into the form 
of brief narratives, or short fables, which were told to children and youths, and 
to the common people; so that by passing from one to another, they might be 
preserved in the memories of all. They also recounted their histories in the 
form of allegories, as we have related of some, and shall hereafter relate of 
others. Then the Haravicas, who were their poets, composed short pithy 
verses, in which the historical event was condensed. Thus they cast into 
traditional verse all that the knots were unable to record; and these verses 
were sung at their triumphs and festivals. They likewise recited tales to the 
Incas when the knights were armed and thus they preserved the memory of past 
events. But as experience has shown, all these were perishable expedients, 
for it is letters which preserve the memory of events. As the Incas had not 
attained to a knowledge of them ... they invented such substitutes as they 
were able. 


A system of knots of this kind does, of course, lend itself very 
readily to the expression of numbers and the method of recording 
these is made very clear by Locke and Nordenskidld. 
But it is evident that it is of little utility to have the exact number 
of things unless we know what things. Probably quipus were used 
by individuals for their own record, the objects, animals, or persons 
enumerated being lodged in the memory of the owner of the quipu. 
It would have been strange, however, if no mnemonic devices had 
been added to remind the user of the quipu of the specific application 
of the record. There would be occasions, particularly when the owner 
of the quipu was a public officer, when it would have been of im- 
portance to have such marks of identification in his quipu, and we 
have the best of evidence that these were made. These marks of 
identification were often peculiar colors. Garcilaso says: 

The thing to which a string referred was understood by its color, for instance 
a yellow string referred to gold, a white to silver, and a red one to soldiers. 

Bastian, on the authority of Calancha, adds to these black, signi- 
fying “time”; green, “killed in war”; carmine, “the Inca”; brown, 
“the curaca”; gray, “provinces”; variegated, “government”; blue, 
yellow, and white, “religion.” De Nadaillac suggests some others. 
Color was not, however, the only classificatory device. Garcilaso 
continues thus: 

Things which had no color were arranged according to their importance, 


beginning with those of most consequence, and proceeding in order to the most 
insignificant; ach under its generic head, such as the different kinds of grain 


ANTHROP, PaP. No. 26] THE PERUVIAN QUIPU-—-SWANTON 591 


under corn, and the pulses in the same way. We will place the cereals and 
pulses of Spain in their order, as an example. First would come wheat, next 
barley, next beans, next millet. In the same way, when they recorded the 
quantity of arms. First they placed those that were considered the most noble, 
such as lances, next darts, next bows and arrows, then shields, then axes, 
and then slings. In enumerating the vassals, they first gave account of the 
natives of each village, and next of those of the whole province combined. 
On the first string they put only men of sixty and upwards, in the second those 
of fifty, in the third those of forty, and so on down to babies at the breast. The 
women were counted in the same order. 


Under some of these classes were subclasses: 


Some of these strings had other finer ones of the same color attached to them, 
to serve as supplements or exceptions to the chief record. Thus, if the main 
strand of men of a certain age had reference to married people, the supple- 
mentary strand gave the number of widowers of the same age in that year. 
For these accounts were made up annually and only related to one year. 

From Garcilaso’s testimony it appears that he was particularly 
familiar with Indian accounts and that is perhaps why he lays so 
much stress on the fact that the knots expressed numbers only and not 
words. Of course, there is no probability that anything in the nature 
of a phonetic system was represented in the quipus. On the other 
hand, Garcilaso himself supplies pretty clear evidence that the quipu 
were used to indicate something more than mere numbers. 

When an event is indicated by means of a picture, there is little 
or no tax upon the memory to interpret it, but when pictures or con- 
ventional signs have become used to recall something indirectly to the 
memory, as when a pictograph indicates a syllable or perhaps an entire 
word which the pictograph in some way suggests, it is merely a mne- 
monic and a knot or a notch cut in a stick or some other device 
might be substituted. The only advantage which the pictograph 
has is in the fact that the picture may recall the thing to mind, but 
when this is shifted in significance or conventionalized beyond recog- 
nition, it is on the same plane as the knot. Ifa simple knot signifies 
“one” and red “a warrier,” then a simple red knot may be the mne- 
monic for “one warrior” just as truly as any pictographic symbol. 
And so one white knot might denote a single piece of silver, one 
yellow knot a single piece of gold, and so on. A supplementary 
strand might inform us whether the soldier were a widower or not 
and if this were green it might tell us that he had been killed. Just 
how many variations of the knots were possible I do not know, but 
Garcilaso himself suggests several such, and furthermore, in spite 
of what he has said regarding the limitations of the quipus to num- 
bers, he makes statements about them elsewhere which seem not alto- 
gether in harmony with that assertion. I quote again: 


The ordinary judges give a monthly account of the sentences they had pro- 
nounced to their superiors, and these to others, there being several grades of 


592 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 133 


judges, according to the importance of the cases. The way of making these 
reports to the Ynca, or to those of his Supreme Council, was by means of 
knots, made on cords of various colors, by which means the signification was 
made out, as by letters. The knots of such and such colors denoted that such 
and such crimes had been punished, and small threads of various colors attached 
to the thicker cords signified the punishment that had been inflicted, and in 
this way they supplied the want of letters. 


If a murderer had been executed by strangling, the fact might 
thus have been indicated by a red knot having a small thread of 
some other color hanging from it to indicate death by garroting. 
The knot would then have become a mnemonic and a form of lan- 
guage. Garcilaso again indicates something more than mere numbers 
in the following passage: 


The Quipu-camayus were referred to by the Curacas, and chiefs of the 
provinces to tell the historical events relating to their ancestors which they 
desired to know, or any other notable circumstance which had happened in 
their provinces. For these officers, like scribes and historians, kept the reg- 
isters or Quipus handed down by their predecessors, and were bound by their 
office to study them constantly by means of the signs and indications in the 
knots, so as to preserve the memory of the traditions respecting famous past 
events. It was their duty to narrate these events when called upon to do so; 
and for this service they were exempted from other tribute. Thus the meaning 
of the knots was never allowed to slip from their heads. By the same means 
they gave an account of the laws, ordinances, rites, and ceremonies. From the 
color of the thread or the number in the knot they could tell the law that 
prohibited such and such an offense, and the punishment to be inflicted on 
the transgressor of it. They could set forth the sacrifices and ceremonies that 
should be performed on such and such festivals; and could declare the rule 
or ordinance in favor of the widows or the poor: and to give an account in 
short, of all things preserved by tradition in their memories. Thus each thread 
and knot brought to the mind that which it was arranged that it should 
suggest. 


We do not know over how much territory the quipus had been 
standardized, but the above statements show that they were some- 
thing more than mere records of numbers. 

The following quotations may also be adduced, extracted from 
Locke’s collection of references: 

Polo de Ondegardo: 


They preserve the memory of these Lords by their quipus, but if we judge 
by the time that each is said to have lived, the historical period cannot be 
placed further back than four hundred years at the earliest. ... They have 
records in their quipus of the fish having sometimes been brought from Tumbez, 
a distance of more than three hundred leagues. 


Fernandez Montesinos gives a list of kings, substantiated from 
other sources “which he claimed to have acquired from quipus through 


learned natives.” 
Cristoval de Molina: 


ANTHROP, Pap. No. 26] THE PERUVIAN QUIPU—SWANTON 593 


They call them quipus, and they are able to understand so much by their 
means, that they can give an account of all the events that have happened 
in their land for more than five hundred years. 


Don Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa: 


It is a thing to be admired to see what details may be recorded on these 
cords, for which there are masters like our writing masters. 


José de Acosta: After seeming to minimize the value of the quipu, 
he says: 


According to the varieties of business, aS warres, pollicie, tributes, ceremonies 
and landes, there are sundry Quippos or braunches, in every one of the which 
there were so many knottes, little and great, and strings tied vnto them, some 
red, some greene, some blew, some white; and finally, such diversitie, that 
even as wee derive an infinite number of woordes from the foure and twenty 
letters, applying them in diverse sortes, so doe they draw innumerable woordes 
from their knottes and diversitie of colours. Which thing they doe in such a 
manner that if at this day in Peru, any Commissary come at the end of two 
or three years to take information vpon the life of any officer, the Indians 
come with their small reckonings verified, saying, that in such a village they 
have given him so many egges which he hath not payed for, in such a house a 
henne, in another two burdens of grasse for his horse, and that he hath paied 
but so much mony and remaineth debtor So much. The proofe being presently 
made with these numbers of knottes and handfulls of cords, it remaines for 
a certain testimony and register. 


Fr. Jeronimo Roman y Zamora: 


As the things which they wished to count differed they made the knots larger 
or smaller and with differences of colors in the manner so that for one thing 
they had a colored (red) knot and for another green or yellow, and so on; 
but that which to me was most thrilling is that by the same cords and knots 
they counted the succession of the times and how long reigned each king and 
if he was good or bad, if he was brave or cowardly, all, in fine, that which 
could be taken out of the books was taken out of that. 


Antonio de Herrera Tordesillas: 


With these [quipus] they found a way to preserve all knowledge of their 
history, their laws and .ceremonies, as well as their business affairs, with 
great exactness. 

Fray Antonio de la Calancha: Locke says of him, 

Calancha refers to the quipu many times in his voluminous work. It is 
Significant that he usually connects the quipu with with some such word as 
memorials, traditions, or histories. 

It seems evident from these quotations that most Spaniards who 
studied the quipus or heard accounts of them thought that they ex- 
pressed qualities as well as quantities and that historical, legal, and 
political matters were recorded by means of them. This is confirmed 
also by the body of Incaic history preserved by Spanish writers. The 
narratives agree so closely that it is evident we are dealing with some- 


594 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BuLL. 133 


thing more than memorized traditions and the only means of recording 
such events widely used was the quipu. 

The great body of quipus certainly deal with numbers, and this 
fact has been used to minimize the idea that they carried narratives 
of any sort. It must be remembered, however, that all of the quipus 
we now have were obtained from graves, and if Nordenskiéld is right 
in his contention that they “contained numbers that were magical in 
the eyes of the Indians, and that the nwmbers indicate days (italics 
his],” the absence of narrative quipus from our collections is ac- 
counted for. But if, as he goes on to assert, “these quipus are grave 
calendars” and if “it is highly probable that, like the Maya codices, 
they are to a great extent nothing but books of prophecy and divina- 
tion,” like the Maya codices they may contain something more than 
numbers. Apart from these grave quipus, however, it is inherently 
probable that the greater number of them were either individually 
owned and used in recording the extent of the owner’s property and 
his business transactions, or else were possessed by official enumerators 
of government properties and troops, including tribute. The quipu 
is without doubt better adapted to the preservation of tallies of this 
kind than to literary expression. But it is natural to suppose that 
legal, and particularly historical, records represented the last stages 
of evolution in this direction, that such quipus were fewer in numbers 
and that, being in the public repositories, they were heavily represented 
among those thousands known to have been destroyed by the Spaniards. 

Beyond all this, what we know of Peruvian culture furnishes an 
inherent probability that some device for recording cultural and 
historical facts would have attained considerable development. It 
is generally held that the higher cultures of the Old and the New 
Worlds evolved independently of each other. It is also probable 
that several of the higher cultures within each grand division arose 
in comparative isolation. At the same time there is evidence that 
certain cultural elements were shared in common or that they were 
exchanged during the evolution of the cultures in question. Thus 
the cultures of Babylonia and Egypt were not without certain early 
exchanges. Crete took something from both, and we know that there 
were early and intimate relations between Babylonia and the Indus 
Valley. And finally, the cultural influences at work in old China 
are known to have emanated from the west. It is to be suspected 
that when the Iranian Plateau has been fully explored the connection 
between the higher civilizations of the Old World will become much 
more apparent. 

In the New World two apical cultures have long been recognized, 
and discussions regarding the relations between these have been 
almost as heated as discussions of the relations between Babylonia 


ANTHROP, PaP, NO, 26] THE PERUVIAN QUIPU—SWANTON 595 


and Egypt. In certain particulars the cultuye of the Maya Indians 
apparently went beyond anything on the South American continent, 
particularly in their system of writing, their calendar, and their 
architecture. 

But on a great many other counts Andean civilization shows de- 
cided superiority—in its arts, including ceramics, textiles, metal- 
lurgy, and masonry, in the ability shown in linking together numbers 
of unrelated tribes into an empire without the same terroristic practices 
as those resorted to in North America, and apparently also in the 
greater purity of its religious beliefs. But particularly they excelled 
in the economic basis upon which all great civilizations must rest. They 
had established terraced farms everywhere which were intensively cul- 
tivated and which were fertilized, whereas the “milpa” culture of the 
Maya never seems to have gotten beyond a more refined type of clearing 
and cropping, and removal to other land when the farm became ex- 
hausted. To Peru, or the immediate neighborhood of Peru, the entire 
world owes several varieties of beans, squashes and pumpkins, white 
and sweetpotatoes, tomatoes, and perhaps the pineapple and corn. The 
same region gave to medicine quinine and cocaine. It is also significant 
that only Andean civilization could show any native American domesti- 
cated animals of economic value. These include the llama and the 
alpaca. We must not assume that one limited area gave birth to all 
of these products. But in Peru, from whatever sources they were de- 
rived, there came to be gathered a greater variety of cultivated plants, 
and we may add domesticated animals, than was to be found in Middle 
America or anywhere else in the New World. Upon the whole, it seems 
to the writer that Andean civilization represented the higher of the two 
American peaks of culture. Probably it would simplify the matter too 
much but there is a temptation to dramatize the world cultural situation 
by calling the Old World culture Iranian and the New World culture 
Andean. 

Over against the contributions of the Old World to our civilization 
we should, therefore, look for the maximum contribution and maxti- 
mum originality in its contributions to the Andean region, and in 
most particulars there we seem to find them. The one striking ex- 
ception, at first sight, seems to be in the graphic representation of 
ideas. In the Old World we have in Egypt the hieroglyphic sys- 
tem, in Babylonia the cuneiform system, in Crete a series of characters 
which has not yet been deciphered, in China an independent evolu- 
tion of characters from pictographs, and apparently another in the 
valley of the Indus. 

In the New World, however, it is only Middle America—indicated 
above as in most respects the lower American culture—which supplies 
us with pictographs and hieroglyphs which seem to have evolved 


596 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BuLL. 133 


to the threshold of a phonetic system. In Peru there was nothing 
of the sort although tradition spoke of an attempt at something simi- 
lar in earlier times. What we do have, however, is evolution toward 
an entirely novel method of expression, having the same originality 
in its field as were contributions of potatoes, beans, and corn in the 
economic field. It is true that incipient quipus had been used else- 
where, but only in Peru was an elaborate system of record and 
communication based upon them. Besides the arguments given above 
for supposing that this device was more highly developed and a 
much more perfect medium of expression than some recent students 
have thought, I therefore add the fact that something of the kind 
is called for by the accomplishments in other fields of the people who 
employed it. It is demanded by the very real splendor of the An- 
dean civilization as a whole. 

I do not pretend that knotty cords would be successful rivals in the 
long run to records made on papyrus, rice paper, maguey fiber or even 
clay tablets, but they must have had an advantage over stone when that 
was used for inscriptions, and perhaps an ethnologist who became 
an expert in manipulating knotted strings might find unexpected 
possibilities in such a form of expression. 


O 


INDEX 


Acadian French, intermarriage with 
Chitimacha Indians, 6, 8 ; 
Ackermann’s researches on prussic acid 

as whale poison, 455 
Aconite poison, use in whaling, 443-450 
Aconite poison whaling in Asia and 
America: An Aleutian transfer to the 
New World (Heizer), 415-468 
Acosta, José de, on Peruvian quipu, 593 
Acquaintanceships, method of making 
among Cherokees, 255, 264 
Activities (Cherokee), commercial, 214 
economic, 317 
eycle of, annual round, 211—212 
Adair, James, 315 
cited on early Cherokee culture, 
316-318 } 
cited on number of Cherokee vil- 
lages, 180 
Adams, A., on Japanese whaling, 424 
Adams, A. M., Farm Agent, 175 
Adams, Roy, 201 
Adolescents, training of among Bulkley 
Carrier Indians, 522-525 
Adultery, severe punishment of among 
Cherokees, 340 
Adulthood (Cherokee), 255-256 
Affiliations, linguistic, Cherokee with 
Iroquois, 199 
Age and area concept, applied by Speck 
to Cherokee basketry and decorative 
art motives, 315. 
Age groups, in Cherokee population 1930, 
198 
Agriculture (Cherokee), 201, 211-212, 
316 


exchange of services, 212-213 
farm organization, 213, 362 
importance of, 188 
Ainu use of aconite roots for arrow 
poison, 445 
whaling, 421-422 
Alabama, locus of early Cherokee set- 
tlement, 178 
Aleutian Islands, flora of, 444 
Aleutian whaling, 427 
Algonkian Indians, 314 
Altar, ceremonial use of by Cherokees, 
328, 331 
Altitude of ancient Cherokee domain, 
181 
Cherokee preference for high, 191- 
192 
American whaling methods, 427-443 


Amphibians, Cherokee area, 185 
Andean civilization, Mayan culture com- 
pared with, 595 
Anian Island, British Columbia, archeo- 
logie site, 63-67 
Anidjiskwa. See Bird Clan (Cherokee). 
Anigilohi. See Twisters Clan (Chero- 
kee). 
Anigotigewi. 
(Cherokee). 
Anikawi. See Deer Clan (Cherokee). 
Animals, beliefs concerning, Bulkley 
Carrier Indians, 539-546 
domesticated by Cherokees, 185 
effects of on Cherokee culture, 186 
forbidden as food by Cherokees, 346 
social life of in Cherokee myths, 21, 
301-302 
See also Fauna (Cherokee area) ; 
Food and cuisine (Cherokee). 
Anisahoni. See Blue Clan (Cherokee) . 
Aniwahiya. See Wolf Clan (Cherokee). 
Aniwoda. See Red Paint Clan (Chero- 
kee). 
Appalachian Great Valley, part of early 
_ Cherokee domain, 178, 191 
Appalachian Mountains, 192, 363 
Arbor, of green boughs, in sacred Square 
of Cherokees, 330 
Archeological sites, Cherokee, 189-190 
Archeological survey on the northern 
Northwest Coast (Drucker), 17-132 
geographical location, 24 
historic period, 25-27 
in 1938, 62 
Archeologie elements, distributions of, 
on northern Northwest Coast, 123-127 
Milbank-Queen Charlotte Sound 
Aspect, 124, 125, 128 
Northern Aspect, 123, 125 
Straits of Georgia—Puget Sound As- 
pect, 126 
Archeology of Port Royal Island, S. C., 
147-152 
Chester Field site, 150-152 
Lake Plantation sites, 147-149 
Arkansas, Cherokees in, 178 (ftn.), 192 
Ark, sacred, of Cherokees, 199, 353 
Arrow manufacture by Cherokees, 316 
Arrowpoints (Cherokee), triangular un- 
notched, 199, 315 
Arrow poison, Ainu use of aconite roots 
for, 445 


See Wild Potatoes Clan 


597 


598 


Artifacts (Cherokee), 314, 315, 371 
at annual fair, 214 
categories of, 186 
changes in, 360 
manufacture of, 317 
mentioned by various authors, 385- 
387 
museums containing, 385 
war weapons, 316, 318, 350, 351 
See also individual names of arti- 
facts such as Axes, ete. 
Artifacts from Northwest Coast, 34-62 
biconical stones, 57 
bone (and horn) knives, 52 
bone drills, 54 
bone mallets, 56 
bone needles, 52 
bone scrapers and gouges, 53 
cedar-bark shredders, 56 
celts, 46 
chipped stone (except points), 57 
chipped stone points, 52 
composite harpoons, 39 
distribution of types of (tables), 
120-122 
drinking tubes and whistles, 58 
fixed bone (or horn) projectile 
points, 39 
flaking tools, 54 
from Anian Island, 66 
Charles Point, 70 
Kilkitei Village, 97 
Qalahaituk, 79 
Roscoe Inlet 1 and 1A, 90, 91, 92 
grooved, notched, and perforated 
stones, 57 
ground slate points, 42 
hafted mauls, 49 
hand mauls, 50 
harpoon points, 35 
long bone rods, 55 
miscellaneous objects collected in 
1938, 59-61 
ornaments, 58 
pile drivers, 50 
slate pencils, 57 
small slender pointed bone objects, 
56 
spindle whorls, 58 
splitting adzes, 43 
stone and bone clubs, 58 
stone bark shredders, 50 
stone disks, 56 
stone polishers, 57 
stone vessels, 54 
wedges, 55 
whetstones, 57 
Art motifs, decorative, Cherokee, 315 
Arts, material, introduction of among 
Cherokees, 360-361 
Asiatie coast whaling, 449 
Atali, Cherokee dialect spoken in Valley 
and Overhill Settlements, 199 


INDEX 


Attraction formulas, use of by Chero- 
kees, for popularity and sex appeal, 
290-292 

in finding medicinal plants, 297-298 

Augusta, Ga., 360 

Australia, tribes of, showing resem- 
blances to Cherokee, 371, 372 

sees ete examples of in Cherokee life, 

6 

Axes (Cherokee), 183 

Ayeligogi, simulator or ordeal diseases 
among Cherokees, 292, 300: 

Ayer Collection of American Indian 
Lore, repository of Payne Manuscripts 
on Cherokees, 319 

Balds. See Mountain balds. 

Fall Ea of Cherokee, 268-268, 318, 337— 
33 

magic formulas for, 298 

rules of, 337-3388 

social opposition manifested by, 
304-305 

Balsam Range, 178 

Band (Cherokee), government of, 215— 
216 

See also Hastern Band of Cherokees, 
The. 
Baptists, 365 
influence waning among Cherokees, 
213-214 

Barometric pressure, Cherokee area, 182 

Barton, Benjamin, cited on Iroquois 
affiliation of Cherokee speech, 314 

Bartram, Wm., 315 

chet ou early Cherokee culture, 316— 
31 

cited on number 
villages, 180 

Basket game (Cherokee), 270 

Basketry, Cherokee, 189, 190, 255, 315 

Bathing, importance in ceremonials 
among Cherokees, 184 

Beard, Cherokees, 193-194 

Beardsley, R. K., 24 

Beaufort County, South Carolina, Some 
notes on a few sites in (Flannery), 
1438-153 

Beaufort, South Carolina, ceramic re- 
mains from two sites near, An analysis 
and interpretation of the (Griffin), 
155-168 

Beaver phratry of Bulkley Carrier In- 
dians, table of clan crests, 500 

table of peerage (combine with 
Laksamshu phratry), 494. 
table of personal crests, 512 

Bella Coola Indians, British Columbia, 
28, 481 

“Beloved men,” 
elders, 323 

aera Sea Eskimo, whaling methods, 

1 


of Cherokee 


council of Cherokee 


Betting among Cherokees, 269, 270, 285, 
318 
| Big Black River, 190 


INDEX 


Big Cove, N. C., 175, 180, 201, 215, 227, 
250, 257, 258, 266, 270, 305, 306, 362, 367, 
369 

clan of Cherokees predominating in, 
206, 207 

land tenure in, 210-211 

list of Cherokee households and 
members in, 203 

Big Sandy River, trail to, 180 

Bini, most famous prophet of Bulkley 
Carrier Indians, 551-557 

Bird Clan (Cherokee), 203, 205, 338 

location of, 206, 207 
origin of name, 204 

Birds, Cherokee area, 185 

Birdtown, N. C., 180, 201, 204, 210, 257, 
266 

clan of Cherokees predominating in, 
206, 207 
Birth (Cherokee), 254 
See also Childbirth. 


Blackfish, netted in fiords of Faro 
Islands, 459 
Blood, admixture, Cherokees with 


Whites, 194-195, 360, 365 
revenge among Cherokees, 207 
significance of in Cherokee clan, 207 
types, percentages of among Chero- 
kees, 194-195 
Blowgun, early Cherokee weapon, 199, 
317 
Blue Clan (Cherokee), 203, 205 
location of, 206-207 
origin of name, 204 
Blue Ridge, heart of Cherokee domain, 
178 
Bone, work in (Northwest Coast), 61 
Bopa, woman prophet of Bulkley Carrier 
Indians, 549 
Boston Mountains, 192 
Bow manufacture (Cherokee), 317 
Bride purchase among Cherokees, 339 
Brinton, D. C., cited on Cherokee skulls, 
193 
British Columbia archeologic survey, 
1938, age of the sites, 113 
materials recovered, 113 
results of the, 110 
British Columbia northern Northwest 
Coasts, artifacts from, 34-62 
distribution of types of (tables), 
120-122 
climate, 28, 29 
fauna, early vertebrate, 133-142 
flora, 29 
food resources of natives, 29 
historic period, 25-27 
topography, 28 
tribal distribution, 28 
Buffalo Creek, 179 
Bulkley Carrier Indians, British Colum- 
bia. See Carrier Indians of the 
Bulkley River. 
Burial (Cherokee), 213, 256-257, 347-348 
See also Death (Cherokee) ; Mourn- 
ing (Cherokee). 


405260—43— 


599 


Burial mound, Ladies Island, S. C., 152 
Butrick, Daniel Sabin, cited on Cherokee 
beards, 193 
cited on marriage customs of Chero- 
kees, 339-840 
source on early Cherokees, 319-820 
Caddo Indians, early preference for 
highlands, 192 
Calancha. See La Calancha. 
Calendar, Bulkley Carrier Indians, 530 
Cherokee ceremonial, 183, 325, 327, 
336 
changes in, 367 
lunar and solar aspects of, 325 
Calico, lower Big Cove, N. C., 201, 212 © 
“Caller,” organizer of Cherokee dances, 
259, 261, 262, 292 
Calumet rite, Cherokee, 317, 322 
Canary, wild, and the woodpecker, Be- 
liefs concerning the (Chitimacha), 11 
Canebrakes, sites of Cherokee settle- 
ment, 189-190 
Cane, Cherokee uses of, 190 
Cane matting used by Cherokee, 343 
Cannibal society (the kyanyuantan) of 
the Bulkley Carrier Indians, 576 
Canoe, dugout, early Cherokee trait, 199, 
317 
Canoora River, archeologic site, British 
Columbia, 104 
Cap (Cherokee), yellow deerskin, 322 
Carrier Indians of the Bulkley River, 
British Columbia, calendar, 530 
chiefs, 514 
clans, 484 i 
crests, clan and personal, 495-51 
eycle of life, 519-539 
earlier history, 475 
etiquette for young girls, 522 
fishing, method of, 531 
food resources, 531 
funeral customs, 534, 535 


games, 533 
kinship and relationship, terms of, 
526 


location, 475 
medicine men, 559-567 
origin of name, 534, 535 
phratries, 482 
hunting territories of, 581 
political organization, 482 
religion, 539-559 
societies (kyanyuantan, kalutlim, 
komitt’la), 576, 577, 580 
subtribes, phratric organization of, 
584, 585 
titles of nobles, 489-495 
Carrier Indians of the Bulkley River, 
The: Their social and religious life 
(Jenness), 469-585 
Catawba Indians, 189, 194 
Cherokee contact with, 181 
Cherokee use of pottery techniques 
of, 315 


600 


INDEX 


Cat Island, S. C., ware from shell heaps, | Chilocco college, 214, 216 


150 
similar to Lake Plantation pottery, 
149 
Celts (Cherokee), 183 
grooveless, 199, 315 
Cementation (or Reconciliation) Fes- 
tival (Cherokee), function of, 326 
procedures of, 330-334 
See also Feast (Cherokee). 
Censuses among Cherokee, 197-198 
Cephalic index, Cherokee, 193 
Ceramie remains from two sites near 
Beaufort, South Carolina, An analy- 
sis and interpretation of the (Griffin), 
155-168 
Ceremonies of Cherokees, agricultural, 
325, 326 
function of, 358-359 
major, White Organization, 325- 
3827 
procedures of, 327-335 
purificatory, 207, 295, 325-3826 
symbolism of, 358-359 
Chalaque. See De Soto. 
Characteristics, physical, of Cherokees, 
198, 194, 195, 196, 197 
Charenton, La., Chitimacha settlement 
at, 6 
Chatahoochee River, 178 
Chatooga—Tugaloo River, 178 
Cheowa River, 179 
Cheraw Indians, Cherokee contact with, 
181 
Cherokees, The Eastern (Gilbert), 169- 
413 
Chert, use of by Cherokees, 183 
Cheslatta Lake Indians (Tatchato- 
tenne), Subtribe of Carrier, 585 
Chester Field pottery, 159 
Stallings Plain, description, 159, 
160, 165, 166 
Stallings Punctate, 159, 165, 166 
site, Port Royal Island, 8S. C., arche- 
ology of, 150-151, 152 
artifacts from, 150, 151, 152 
Chickasaw Indians, 177, 187 
Cherokee contact with, 181 
Chief, election of, among Cherokees, 215 
powers of, 215-216 — 
Chiefs, Bulkley Carrier Indians, 513-519 
Childbirth (Cherokee), 196, 254, 340, 
345-346 
formulas for social principles in, 
298-299 
Childhood (Cherokee) , 254-255 
Children, Cherokee, 251 
carrying of, 254 
games of, 255 
instruction of, 255 
naming, 254 
raised to be witches, 255 
Children, method of naming, Buikley 
Carrier Indians, 520 


Chippewa Indians, 194 
Chitimacha Indians, 187, 191 
of Louisiana, A search for songs 
among the (Densmore), 1-15 
basketry, 8 
legends, 12-14 
medicine man, 9 
medicine woman, use of herbs, 
8, 9 
name, derivation, 5 
settlement at Charenton, La., 6 
songs of, forgotten, 8 
tribe, the, 5-6 
Choctaw Indians, 177, 187, 190 
sia of Cherokee to art motifs of, 
15 
Cherokee contact with, 181 
Christison, R., experiments with hydro- 
eyanie acid as whale poison, 453-456 
Chronology of data on Cherokees, 373 
Chugachmiut Indians, marine animals 
hunted by, 439 
Chukchee whaling, 426 
Chunkey game (Cherokee), 318 
City of the Dead, Bulkley Carrier In- 
dians, 536-538 
Clallam Indians, 442 
Clan, the Cherokee, 203-209 
association with blood, 207 
balance of gains and losses to by 
marriage, 278-280 
Bird (Anidjiskwa), 203, 205, 338 
Blue (Anisahoni), 203, 205 
Deer (Anikawi), 203, 205 
derivation and antiquity of, 207-208 
determinants of behavior toward 
members of each, 208-209 
etiquette of the, 209 
function of in preferential mating, 
238-245, 278-280 
magical associations of, 207-208 
pedigree, chart of typical, 209 
Red Paint (Aniwodi), 203, 205 
representative council of seven in, 
208 


Twisters (Anigilohi), 208, 205 
Wild Potatoes (Anigotigewi), 203, 
205 
Wolf (Aniwahiya), 2038, 205 
Clans, Cherokee, location of by towns, 
206 
names of among Cherokee, 203-205 
relative number of members in, 
206-207 
seven, 203 
See also Fairy clans. 
Clans of Bulkley Carrier Indians, 482 
erests, 495-513 
fishing grounds of, 487, 488 
functions of, 485 
hunting grounds of, 488 
names, derivation of, 484 
organization, 488 


INDEX 


601 


Clark, A. H., on origin of poison whaling, | Culture, Cherokee: 


455 
Classes, military, Cherokee titles for, 
318 
Clay, white, use of by Cherokees, 183 
Cleansers (Cherokee), seven, 326, 332 
costume of, 331 
Climate, effect on Cherokees, 183 
Clothing, Cherokee, 198-199, 315, 316 
See also Decoration (Cherokee), 
Club, Red war, of Cherokee, 349 
Coast Salish Indians, 441 
Coast Tsimshian archeologic sites. 
Prince Rupert District. 
Cole, Dr. Fay-Cooper, 175 
Commander Islands, aboriginal occu- 
pancy, Collins’ opinion on, 452 
Hrdli¢ka’s opinion on, 451 
Community life, character of early 
Cherokee, 341 
Complexion, Cherokee, 193, 195-196 
Conjurers, Cherokee, dominance of the 
world by, 288 
practices of, 207-208 
Cooking, Cherokee. See Foods and cui- 
sine (Cherokee). 
Cooks (Cherokee), seven, 321, 828 
Cooperation, economic, among Chero- 
kees, 212-214 
See also Gadugi; Poor Aid Society 
(Cherokee). 
Coosa River, 178 
Coosawattee River, 178 
Corn, the custom of blessing the seed 
(Chitimacha), 10 
Corpses, fat from used as whale poison, 
435, 436 
a ruse to hide identity of poison 
(aconite), 487 
Council (Cherokee), of band, election of, 
215 


See 


duties of, 215 
of clan, 208 
Council House (Cherokee), 317, 355-356 
seating in, White Organization, 322 
war, 355-356 
Counselors, seven, 322, 327, 343 
Courts (Cherokee), criminal, procedures 
of, 323-825 
See also Punishment. 
Courtship, Cherokee, 255 
Cowee Mountains, 178 
Creek Indians, 177, 191, 194, 244, 315, 
356, 372 
Cherokee a cultural subtype of, 315 
Cherokee contact with, 181 
Crests, clan and personal, of Bulkley 
Carrier Indians, 495 
dramatization of, 502-504 
Crops, grown by Cherokees, 211 
Cultural traits, diffusion of from Asia to 
America, 452, 453 


ancient, 313-371 
backgrounds, 198-201 
changes in, 368 
lack of continuity in, 872 
material, 188-189, 385-387 
modification of by Whites, 360— 
363 
of present-day Qualla, 201 
outline of, 374-884 
summary of present-day, 304-312 
traits, 388-401 
European introduced, 360-361 
lapse of, 370 
Southeastern, 198-199 
Culture elements, common to Kam- 
chatka—Kurile and Aleutian Islands— 
Kodiak—Cook Inlet areas, list of, 452 
transfer from Asia to America, 450- 
453 
Curare and strychnine, use as whale 
poisons, 456-458 
Dance, Cherokee, 257-268 
Ant, 257, 258, 260, 266, 267 
Ball, 257, 259, 260-261, 267, 286, 367 
Bear, 257, 258, 261, 267, 318 
Beaver, 257, 258, 261, 267 
Buffalo, 257, 258, 261, 267, 367 
Bugah, 257, 258, 259, 261-262, 267 
Chicken, 257, 258, 262, 267, 367 
Coat, 257, 258, 262-263, 267, 309 
Corn, 257, 258, 263, 264, 267, 308 
Eagle, 257, 258, 259, 263, 267, 269, 284, 
367 
Friendship, 257, 259-260, 263-264, 
267, 284, 327, 328, 329 
Gagoyi, 266 
Grandmother, 265. 
Green Corn, 257, 258, 259, 264-265, 
266, 267, 308, 317-318, 367 
Ground Hog, 257, 258, 265, 267 
Horse, 257, 258, 265, 267 
Knee-deep, 257, 258, 265, 267 
Meal, 265 
Medicine, 184, 257, 265, 267, 286, 318, 


367 

Ookah, 326, 335 

Parched Corn, 266 

Partridge or Quail, 257, 258, 265, 267 

Peace Pipe, 263 

Pheasant, 257, 265-266, 267 

aa 257, 258, 266, 267, 318, 327, 
367 

Raccoon, 257, 258, 266, 267 

Round, 257, 258, 266, 267 

Sealp, 263, 354 

Snakelike, 257, 258, 266, 267 

Trail-making, 265 

Victory Dance. See Eagle Dance. 

War, 257, 266, 267, 318, 354, 367 

Witch, 266 

Woman Gathering Wood, 257, 266, 
267 


602 


Dances, Cherokee, 257-268 
after midnight, 258 
changes in and disappearance of, 
367 
costumes for, 261 
daytime, 2538 
early, 317-318 
evening, 257-258 
familiarities involved in, 264 
functioning of, 281, 284 
indoor, 258 
leaders of, 257 
mimetic, 186, 259, 260-261, 265, 266, 
318 
movements of, 259 
musical instruments used at, 257 
names of, 257 
ornamental objects in, 257 
outdoor, 258 
participation in, 257 
physic, medicinal purpose of, 326, 
333, 342, 343 
seasonal, 258 
songs of, 258-259 
Darby, Dr. G. H., 21 
Dardin, Ernest, 7 
Data summary on Cherokees, arranged 
chronologically, 373 
Death, Cherokee customs and beliefs 
concerning, 213, 256-257, 286, 346, 347— 
348 
See also Burial (Cherokee) ; Mourn- 
ing (Cherokee). 
Death-producing formulas of the Chero- 
kee, 295 
Decoration, body, among Cherokee, 316— 
317 
ear, 316 
Deer Clan (Cherokee), 203, 205 
location of, 206—207 
origin of name, 204 
Deer’s skin, Cherokee ceremonial prepa- 
ration of, 827-828 
Deer’s tongue, divination from, 332, 344 
sacrifice of, 329, 330, 344 
Deformation, artificial cranial, among 
Cherokees, 193 
Delaware Indians, 
with, 181 
Delicts (Cherokee), private vs. public, 
285-286 
Densmore, Frances (A search for songs 
among the Chitimacha Indians in 
Louisiana), 1-15 
Densmore, Margaret, 7 
De Soto expedition chroniclers, observa- 
tions of on Chalaque, 315 
palisaded villages characteristic of 
Chalaque, 315 
Dialects, Cherokee, 199) 
Disease, Bulkley Carrier Indians, theory 
of cause, 534 
treatment of, 534 
by medicine men, 559-567 
herbal remedies used in, 534 


Cherokee contact 


INDEX 


Diseases among the Cherokee, causation 
of, 294-297 
characteristic types among Chero- 
kees, 193, 196-197 
formulas for, 292-297 
magie connected with, 287 
ordeal, 292-293. 
purification rituals for, 
342-344 
treatment of, 342-344 
See also Ayeligogi. 
Divination among Cherokees, bead, 325, 
352 
blood, 328 
deer’s tongue, 3829, 330, 332, 344 
divining stones or crystals, kinds 
and use, 183, 199, 328, 345 
fire, with flowers of tobacco and 
piece of buck’s tongue, 328 
of success of marriage, 325, 340 
tobaceo smoke, 323: 
war, 852-353 
Divorce procedure among Cherokees, 
257, 339 
Dizkle, traditional village of Bulkley 
River Carrier Indians, 476, 477 
Dog, barkless, of Cherokees, 315 
Dramatization of crests, Bulkley Carrier 
Indians, 502-504 
Dreams, significance of among Bulkley 
Carrier Indians, 541 
Drum, ground-hog skin, of Cherokees, 
257, 261 
Dual organization of Cherokee society, 
nature of, 356-358 
Dugout. See Canoe (Cherokee). 
Dwellings of Cherokees. See Houses 
(Cherokee). 
Ears, Cherokee decoration of, 194 
Ears of corn, seven gathered by Cherokee 
messengers, 329) 
“Hase” Paul, Bulkley Carrier Indian 
religious teacher, 558 
Eastern Band of Cherokees, The, 201, 
202, 215 
unification of, 216 
Eastern Cherokee Reservation, 175 
population, present-day, 201 
towns comprised in, 180, 201 
Eastern Cherokees, The (Gilbert), 169— 
413 
Eastern Siouan Indians, 193 
Cherokee contact with, 181, 187 
Ecology of Cherokees, 186-192 
Education of Cherokees, 214, 216, 341- 
342, 362 
Eggan, Fred R., 175, 235 
Elati, Cherokee dialect of Lower Settle- 
ments, 199 
Elements, archeologic. 


294-297, 


See Archeologic 


elements. 
cultural, common to Kamchatka— 
Kurile and  Aleutian—Kodiak— 


Cook Inlet areas, list of, 450 
transfer from Asia to 
World, 450-453 


New 


INDEX 


Elements, inorganic, effects on Cherokee 
life, 183-184 
Endarko River subtribe (Nu’tseni) of 
Carrier Indians, 585 
English and French rivalry over alliance 
with Cherokees, 364 
English and French traders, influence of 
on Cherokee politics, 364 
Environment of Cherokees, changes in 
due to Whites, 361-862 
influences of, 177-193 
river, effect on Cherokee culture, 
190 
Equivalence, of brothers and sisters, in 
Cherokee society, 272 
Eskimo whaling, 489-441 
“Wthno-park,” Qualla as an example of, 
214 
Etiquette for young girls, Bulkley Car- 
rier Indians, 522 
Etowah River, 178 
Evans, J. P., source on early Cherokees, 
320 
Exalting, or Bounding Bush, Festival, 
See Feast (Cherokee). 
Evak Indians, culture traits of, 452-453 
Fair, Cherokee annual, at Yellow Hill, 
214, 285, 305, 308 
Fairy clans, seven, of Cherokees, 294 
Familiarities among Cherokees, 245-249 
indirect, 248-249 
intersexual, 247 
privileged, 281-284, 310 
satirical, 247-248 
Family, the Cherokee, clan affiliation of 
heads of, 206-207 
functioning of, 272-277 
nucleus of Cherokee household or- 
ganization, 202, 272-277 
social opposition in, 277-278 
solidarity of, 272-274 
Fan, eagle-tail (Cherokee), 322 
Faro Islands, fiords of, net used to cap- 
ture blackfish, 459 
Farm organization of Cherokees, spon- 
sored by U. S. Government, 213 
Fast, seven-day, among Cherokees, 322 
Father, position of in Cherokee house- 
hold, 202-2038, 277 
Fauna of British Columbia Coast, Harly 
vertebrate (Fisher), 133-142 
genera and species, list of, 185, 136 
vertical distribution of, 189-142 
species from Anian Island, 136 
Charles Point, 136 
Kaien Island, 136 
Khutze Anchorage, 137 
Kilkitei Village, 137 
Kynumpt Harbor, 137 
Qalahaituk, 136 
Roscoe Inlet, 137 
Schooner Passage, 138 
Fauna of Cherokee area, 185-186 


603 


Feast (Cherokee), Cementation, 326, 
827, 830-834, 358 
Exalting or Bounding Bush, 327, 
334 
First New Moon of Spring, 327-329 
Great New Moon, 325-826, 230, 358 
New Fire, 326 
of Propitiation, 331, 333 
of Spring, 329 
New Green Corn (Preliminary and 
Mature), 199, 317-3818, 323, 327, 
3829-880, 349, 358 
Featherstonehaugh, G. W., 361 
Festival (Cherokee). See Feast (Chero- 
kee). 
FViber-tempered ware, Stallings Island, 
159, 165, 166 
Field, Chester, 150 
Findlay, Mr. and Mrs. J. A., 21 
Fire ritual (Cherokee), early import- 
ance of, 344 
kinship implications of, 299: 
See also Feast (Cherokee) ; New Fire 
(Cherokee). 
First New Moon of Spring. See Feast 
(Cherokee). 
Vish, Cherokee area, 185: 
Fishing among Cherokees, 211, 214, 317 
formulas for, 297 5 
Fishweirs, British Columbia, 110 
Flag Warrior, Cherokee title, 348, 352 
Flannery, Regina (Some notes on a few 
sites in Beaufort County, South Caro- 
lina), 143-153 
Flint, use of, by Cherokees, 183 
Flora, of Aleutian Islands, 444 
of Cherokee area, 184, 328, 331 
See aiso Plants. 
Flute, the origin of the (Chitimacha 
legend), 12 
Food chains, examples in the Cherokee 
area, 189) 
Foods and cuisine, Cherokee, 316, 346 
problems connected with expressed 
symbolically in rites and festivals, 
358 
war, 351 
Football, Cherokee form described, 269— 
270 
Formulas (Cherokee), attraction, 291— 
292, 297-298 
ball play, 298 
death-producing, 295 
disease, 292-297 
fishing, 297 
for childbirth, 298-299 
for finding lost articles, 298 
functions of, 287-289: 
opposition, 287-288 
reciprocity, 288 
solidarity, 288-289 
hunting, 297 
kinship occurring in, 298-300: 
love, 289-292 
magical, 286-287 


604 


Formulas—Continued. 
war, 298 
weather-control, 298 
See also Magie (Cherokee) ; Prayers 
(Cherokee). 
Fort Loudon, 364 
“Wox,” Cherokee war title, 354, 355 
Fraser—Columbia Basin (British Colum- 
bia), culture of the, 127 
Fraser Lake subtribe (Nattlewitenne) 
of Carrier Indians, 584 
Frazer, Sir James George, 
Cherokee magic, 287, 300 
French. See English and French. 
Friendships, swearing of, feature of 
Cherokee Propitiation Festival, 333- 
334 
Funeral society of Cherokees. 
Aid Society. 
Furniture, Cherokee, 316 
Gadugi, a Cherokee mutual aid organ- 
ization, 202, 2038, 306, 307, 362 
activities of, 212, 214 
organization of, 212 
Games (Cherokee), 255, 268-271 
ball, 268-269, 304-305, 318 
basket, 270 
chunkey, 318 
football, 258, 269-270, 3805 
grapevine pulling, 270, 305 
match hunts, 270, 305 
names of principal, 268 
social significance of, 304-306 
See also individual names such as 
Ball; Match hunts ete. 
Garcilaso de la Vega on the Indian 
quipu-camayus, 589, 590, 591, 592 
Genealogies (Cherokee). See Pedigrees 
(Cherokee). 
Georgia, influx of Whites from, into 
Cherokee territory, 866 
locus of early Cherokee settlement, 
178, 364 
place of refuge, 365 
trail leading to, 181 
Geretne, Bulkley Carrier Indians’ term 
for youth instruction in manual tasks, 
521 
Gidet’e, Bulkley Carrier Indians’ term 
for religious and ethical instruction of 
the young, 521 
Gifford, Edward W., 133 
Gilbert, William Harlen, Jr. (The East- 
ern Cherokees), 169-413 
Gilserhyu phratry of Bulkley Carrier 
Indians, 482 
table of clan crests, 497 
table of peerage, 492 
table of personal crests, 508 
Gitkan Indians, British Columbia, 475, 
478, 483, 502, 517, 543, 571 
Gitamtanyu phratry of Bulkley Carrier 
Indians, 482 
table of clan crests, 497 
table of peerage, 491 
table of personal crests, 505 


cited on 


See Poor 


INDEX 


Glenn, Capt. Josiah, unsuccessful use of 
net in whaling, 459 

Goitre, Cherokee, 197 

Goldenrod, employed in Cherokee New 
Fire rites, 329 

Gonorrhea (Cherokee), 197 

Gorgets, Cherokee, 183 

Government of Cherokees, 201, 202, 215- 
216, 3865-366 

Graham County Settlements, 179, 201 

clan of Cherokees predominating in, 
206, 207 

Grandmothers 
with, 241 

Grandparents (Cherokee), magical, 299 

Grapevine pulling contests (Cherokee), 
270, 305 

Gravedigging company (Cherokee). See 
Poor Aid Society of Cherokees. 

Great New Moon Festival (Cherokee). 
See Feast (Cherokee). 

Great New Moon of Autumn Feast 
(Cherokee). See Feast, Great New 
Moon (Cherokee). 

Great Red War Chief or Captain, among 
Cherokees, 348 

equipment of, 350 
ordination, 349-350 
procedure of appointment to office, 
3849-350 
titles, 348 
Great Smokies, 189 
site of Cherokee settlement, 178 

Great Spirit, Cherokee belief in, 345 

Green Corn Festival (Cherokee). See 
Feast (Cherokee). 

Gregg, Josiah, cited on ceremonial pro- 
cedure of blood revenge among Chero- 
kees, 324 

Griffin, James B. (An analysis and in- 
terpretation of the ceramic remains 
from two sites near Beaufort, South 
Carolina), 155-168 

Grosscup, B. 8., 182, 861 

Guadalajara, 192 

Gulf of Mexico, 178 

Gyedamskanish, Bulkley Carrier Indian 
chief, murder by Nass River Indians, 
478, 479, 480, 519 

Habitat, primary and secondary, 
Cherokees, 187 

Hagwilgate, Bulkley Carrier Indian fish- 
ing village, British Columbia, estab- 
lishment of, 483 

Haida Indians, 441 

Hair, character of among Cherokees, 
198, 195-196 

Hale, Horatio, cited on similarities be- 
tween Cherokee and Iroquois speech, 
314 

Hamilton County, Tenn., early Cherokee 
site at, showing evidences of flooding, 
190 

Hammers, Cherokee, 183 


(Cherokee), marriage 


of 


INDEX 


Harpoon-line-float whaling, in Kodiak— 
Aleutian area, 447 
Hskimo, 4389) 
Vancouver Island region, 442 
Harrington, M. R., cited on theory of 
stratification sequence in Cherokee 
area, 314-315 
Harvest rites, Cherokee, 183 
Haskell college, 214, 216 
Haywood, John, cited on courtship and 
marriage among Cherokees, 339 
cited on criminal procedure of blood 
revenge among Cherokee, 324, 365 
cited on theory of origin of Chero- 
kees, 313 
Head (Cherokee). 
artificial cranial. 
Hebraic theory of origin of Cherokees, 
313 
Hebrews. See Hebraic theory. 
Heiltsuk (Northern Kwakiutl) arche- 
ologic sites, British Columbia, 80-106 
Canoora River, 104 
Khutze Anchorage, 81 
Kilkitei Village, 92-97 
artifacts from, 97 
Kynumpt Harbor, 98 
Meadow Island, 106 
Roscoe Inlet 1 and 1A, 81-92 
artifacts from, 90, 91, 92 
Schooner Passage 1, 98-104 
artifacts from, 104 
Troup Rapids, 105 
Heizer, Robert F. (Aconite poison whal- 
ing in Asia and America: An Aleutian 
transfer to the New World), 415-468 
Hematite, use of by Cherokees, 183 
Heptagon, national council house of 
Cherokees, 328 
Herrera Tordesillas, 
quipus, 593 
Hewitt, Dr. J. N. B., 175 
High water in 1882, Foretelling (Chiti- 
macha), 10 
Hindus, culture traits shared with 
Cherokees, according to Haywood, 
313 
Historic period of Northwest Coast, 
PFT 
History, earlier, of the Carrier Indians 
of the Bulkley River, British Colum- 
bia, 475 
Hiwasee River, 178 
Holmberg, H. J., on Koniag whaling, 433, 
434, 438 
Homosexuality, tendency to implied in 
Cherokee culture, 251, 283 
“Honorable women,” Cherokee class, 
327, 329, 330 
Household, organization 
Cherokees, 202-203 
pees of Cherokees, 184, 199, 316, 340— 
Aq 
council, 317 


See Deformation, 


Antonio de, on 


of among 


605 


Hrdlitka, AleS, cited on Cherokee skulls, 
193 
quoted on populating of Kodiak and 
Aleutian Islands, 451 
Hultén, E., on flora of Aleutian Islands, 
444 
Humidity, in Cherokee area, 182, 183 
Humor (Cherokee). See Relationships, 
joking. 
Hunters, Cherokee, education of, 342 
seven, 321, 327 
Hunting, among Bulkley Carrier In- 
dians, medicines for, 545, 546 
territories of phratries, 581-583 
Hunting, among Cherokees, 214 
animals, list of, 185 
formulas for, 297 
geographical extent of, 187 
imitation of animal noises in, 183 
practices, 188, 317 
reasons for, 185 
Hunt, sacred, preliminary to sacrificial 
ceremonies among Cherokees, 827, 328, 
329, 330, 331 
Hwitsowitenne, the, westernmost sub- 
tribe of Carrier Indians, location of, 
475 
Hydrocyanic acid, Christison’s use of to 
kill whales, 4538-456 
Hyperthyroidism, Cherokee, 197 
Illinois, movement of Cherokees through, 
195 
Indian Bureau, 216, 366 
See also United States Government. 
Individualism, influence of in Cherokee 
culture, 181, 195 
Injuries, private, and recompense among 
Cherokees, 297, 324-325 
Insanity, manic-depressive, 
Cherokee, 197 
Insects of Cherokee area, 185 
Integration of present Cherokee society, 
272-312 
“Invisible man,” involved in Cherokee 
illegitimate births, 251, 277 
Iowa, traces of Cherokee culture in, ac- 
cording to Thomas, 314 
Iroquois Indians, 363 
affiliation of Cherokee with, 314, 
315 
Cherokee contact with, 181 
early preference of for highlands, 
191, 192 
evidence of influence of on Cherokee 
culture, 199 
Jalisco, 178 (ftn.), 192 
Japanese whaling, 422 
Jenness, Dr. Diamond, 21 
(The Carrier Indians of the Bulkley 
River: Their social and religious 
life), 469-585 
Jochelson, W., on Koryak whale capture, 
426 
Jokester element in Cherokee myths, 
301, 302-803 


among 


606 


Jones, C. C., 152 
Jones Island site, 8S. G., 159 
archeology of, 152 
Jowah hymn, Cherokee chanter of, 331, 
3a2z, ooo, O42 
Kalutlim, society of Bulkley Carrier In- 
dians, 577-580 
Kamadi, the great terrestrial hunter, in 
Cherokee mythology, 297 
Kamechadal whaling, 421 
Kamchatka—Kurile and Aleutian Is- 
lands—Kodiak—Cook Inlet areas, list of 
culture elements common to, 452 
Kempfer, E., on Japanese whaling, 422 
Kanawha River, trail to, 180 
Kansas, Indian Government schools in, 
194 
Kelly, A. R., physical traits of Cherokees 
studied by, 193 
Kentucky, part of Cherokee area, 178, 
195 
trails running through, 181 
Keowee River, 178 
Khutze Anchorage, archeologic site, Brit- 
ish Columbia, 81 
Kidney, Cherokee disorders of, 197 
Kilkahtla Indians, British Columbia, 28 
Kilkitei Village, archeologic site, British 
Columbia, 92-97 
artifacts from, 97 
“Killer,” Cherokee war title, 355 
Kinship and relationship terms of the 
Bulkley Carrier Indians, 526 
Kinship, Cherokee, behavior of pairs, 
249-253 
distinctions, 227-235 
age, 235 
generation, 228, 233: 
lineage, 227-228, 235-236 
sex, 233-235 
magical, invocation of nature spirits, 
237 
occurring in formulas, 298-300 
system, 216-253, 276 
magical, 298-300 
principal terms used, 216-226 
terminology, 224-226 
usages, functions of, 281-284 
Kermode, F., 21 
Kitasu Indians, British Columbia, 28 
Kitimat Indians of Douglas Channel, 
British Columbia, 480, 481 
Kitkiata, archeological site, British Co- 
lumbia, 80 
Kitqata Indians, British Columbia, 28 
Kittlitz, F. H. von, on wastefulness of 
Aleutian whaling method, 432 
Kituhwa Settlements, 179, 364 
area comprising, 178 
dialect of, 199 
Kles’al, chief of Tsu’yatotenne phratry, 
Carrier Indians, membership acquired 
in kalutlim society, 585 
Knotted cords (quipu), method of using 
as records, 591 


INDEX 


Kodiak—Aleutian area, 
float whaling in, 447 
whaling methods, 441 
Kodiak and Aleutian Islands, Hrdlitka 
on populating of, 451 
Komitt’la, a social society of Bulkley 
Carrier Indians, 580 
Koniag whaling, 4383 
Koryak whaling, 425 
Kotzbue, O. yon, on Aleuts’ use of drift 
whale, 431 
Kretschmer, E., cited on Cherokee pedi- 
gree, 197 
Kurile Islands whaling, 421-422 
Kwakiutl Indians of British Columbia 
northern coasts, 441 
dwellings, 30, 31 
manufactures, 31 
rituals, 32 
social system, 32-384 
textiles, 31 
tools, 31 
weapons, 31 
Kyan, a violent hysteria among Bulkley 
Carrier Indians, 567-577 
story of a victim of (Old Sam), 567— 
569 
treatment for (Old Sam’s wife), 
573-576 
Kyanyuantan, or cannibal society of 
Bulkley Carrier Indians, 576 
Kynumpt Harbor, archeologic site, Brit- 
ish Columbia, 98 
Labor, sexual division of among Chero- 
kees, 199, 255, 341, 316-317 
La Calancha, Fray Antonio de, cited by 
Bastian on significance of colom of 
string in quipus, 590 
cited by Locke on the quipu, 593. 
Ladies Island, S. C., burial mound on, 
152 
skeletal remains, 153 
Lake Chapala, 178 (ftn.), 192 
Lake, Hughes H., 147, 150, 151 
Lake Plantation, Port Royal Island, 
SAC 598162 
archeology of, 147-149 
artifacts from, 147, 148 
bones, animal, species of, 149 
Indian occupation of, 148 
pottery from, 162, 166 
shells from, species of, 149 
Lake Superior, Cherokee migration to, 
according to Thomas, 314 
Lakilyu phratry of Bulkley Carrier In- 
dians, 482 
table of clan crests, 498 
table of peerage, 493 
table of personal crests, 510 
Laksamshu phratry of Bulkley Carrier 
Indians, 482 
table of clan crests, 499 
table of peerage (combined with 
Beaver phratry), 494 
table of personal crests, 511 


harpoon-line- 


INDEX 


Lambert, Charley, Cherokee informant, 
198 
Land, in Cherokee area, acquired by 
homesteading, 211, 307 
acquired by “squatting,” 211 
importance of, 210 
inheritance of, 211, 307 
purchase of, 211, 308 
swapping of, 211, 308 
Land tenure, methods of obtaining 
among Cherokees, 202, 210-211 
Langedorff, G. H. von, on Aleutian whal- 
ing, 432 
Language, Cherokee, 199, 201 
See also Affiliation, linguistic. 
Lanman, Chas., 361 
Lasi, John, Cherokee informant, 198 
Legends of Chitimacha, 12-14 
Lewis, T. M. N., 190 
Life after death, Bulkley Carrier In- 
dians belief in, 535, 536 
Life cycle, Bulkley Carrier Indians, 519- 
5382 
adolescence, 522-525 
birth, 530 
childhood, 521, 522 
domestic life, 580, 531-533 
infancy, 519, 520 
marriage, 525, 526, 527, 528 
prenatal taboos, 529 
Life cycle, Cherokee, 254-257 
“Lights.” See Divination (Cherokee). 
Lineages, Cherokee, 235-237 
father’s, 235 
father’s father’s, 285-236 
mother’s, 235 
mother’s father’s, 235 
Lisiansky, U., on Kodiak whaling, 435 
on fat from corpses used as whale 
poison, 436 
Littlejohn. Saunook informant, 198 
Little River, 178 
Little Snowbird Creek, 179 
Little Tennessee River, 178 
Location, of early Cherokees, by rivers, 
178 
by States, 178 
Locke, J. Leland, on the quipu, 589 
Lonesomeness, magical generation of, in 
Cherokee belief, 288, 290 
Long Hair Clan (Cherokee). 
Twisters Clan (Cherokee). 
Long, Will West (Wiliwesti), Cherokee 
Indian, 175, 198 
Lost things, formulas for finding among 
Cherokees, 298 
Love formulas of Cherokees, social prin- 
ciples involved in, 289-292 
Lower Settlements (Cherokee), 192, 364 
area comprising, 178 
dialect of, 199 
Lunar cycle, correlation of with men- 
struation and intersexual familiarity 
among Cherokees, 247 
MacKay, Maj. D. M., 21 


See 


607 


McLean, John, 539 

McLoughlin Bay, archeologic site, Brit- 
ish Columbia, 105 

Magical spells (Cherokee), used to gain 
a wife, to detach a desired woman 
ete., 291-292 

See also Formulas. 

Magie (Cherokee), contagious and 
homeopathic as varieties of sympa- 
thetic, 287 

See also Formulas 
Prayers (Cherokee), 

Makah Indians, 442 

Man killers, among Cherokees, cause of 
diseases, 296 

Man’s entry into New World, route in- 
ferred from transfer of culture ele- 
ments, 450453 

Manufacturing techniques (Northwest 
Coast), 61 

Marine Station, British Columbia, 72 

Markoff, A., on Aleut whale fishery, 430 

Marriage between cross cousitis, Bulkley 
Carrier Indians, 526 

customs, 525-528 
Marriage, Cherokee, 255-256, 339-341 
divination of success of, 325, 340 
gains and losses to clan by, 278-280 
within one’s clan, death penalty for, 
340 
abolition of, 365 

Martin, Dr. Paul, 21 

Match hunts, Cherokee, 270, 305 

Mating, preferential, 238-245 

active and passive parties in, 245 

direct evidence for, 242-243 

indirect evidence for, 238-241 

pedigrees evidence of, 239-243 

privileged familiarity contributing 
factor to, 281-284, 310 

social principles operative in, 310 

Maya Indians, culture of, compared with 
Andean civilization, 595 

Meadow Island, archeologic site, British 
Columbia, 106 

Medicine, making of among Cherokees, 
265 

medical procedures, character of 
ancient, 342-344 
See also Diseases. 

Medicine man who brought snow and ice, 
The (Chitimacha), 10 

Medicine men of Bulkley Carrier In- 
dians, British Columbia, 559-567 

Medicine songs, Bulkley Carrier In- 
dians, insanity caused by suppression 
of, 557 

Menstruation, taboos and magical dan- 
gers of among Cherokees, 183, 207, 281, 
2938, 345-346 

Menzies, T. P. O., 21 

Messenger for war, ordination of among 
Cherokees, 350 

Methodists, 865 

influence waning among Cherokees, 
213-214 


(Cherokee) ; 


608 


Methodology of field survey of Chero- 
kees, 175 
Mexico, Cherokees in, 178 (ftn.) 
Middle Settlements (Cherokee). 
Kituhwa Settlements. 
Miller, Dr. Alden H., 133 
Mimicry, animal, by Cherokees in dances, 
186, 260-266 
Minerals, ferromagnesian, 
Cherokees, 183 
Mingo Indians, Cherokee contact with, 
181 
Missouri, Cherokees in, 178 (ftn.), 195 
Mixed bloods, ruling class among Chero- 
kees, 360 
Mohawk Indians, Cherokee contact with, 
181 
Moieties (Cherokee). 
zation (Cherokee). 
Molina, Cristoval de, on quipus, 593 
Mongolian fold, in Cherokees, 196 
Mooney, James, 315, 364 
cited on Cherokee death and burial, 
256 
cited on Cherokee disease formulas, 
292, 293, 294, 296 
cited on Cherokee magical formulas, 
286, 287 
cited on Cherokee myths, 182, 301 
cited on Cherokee plants, 184 
quoted on Cherokee formulas, 297, 
298, 299 
Moon rites, Cherokee, 183 
Moorehead, Dr. Warren K., 147, 150, 152, 
159 
Montesinos, Fernandez, references to use 
of quipus, 592 
Morgan, Lewis H., system of Cherokee 
kinship, 227 
Morice, A. G., 473, 477, 482, 582, 584 
Morse Basin, British Columbia, 72 
Mountain balds, significance of in Chero- 
kee environment, 191 
Mount Ketunho, 346 
Mourning among Cherokees, 348 
Musical instruments of Cherokees, 257, 
261 
Muskogean linguistic family. 199, 314 
Mythology, Cherokee, 344-345 
function of, 301-304 
Myths, Cherokee, amatory element in, 
303 
classification of, 301 
elements in (table), 302 
jokester or trickster element in, 301, 
302-303 
Names, Cherokee family, 202 
Naming of children as a joke among 
Cherokees, 251, 254 
Nanehi, nature spirits of mountains, 345 
Nantahala River, 178 
Nass River Indians, British Columbia, 
murder of Bulkley Carrier chief, 
Gyedamskanish, following quarrel 
with Bulkley Indians, 478, 479, 480, 519 


See 


use of by 


See Dual organi- 


INDEX 


Natchez Indians, Cherokee contact with, 


Nattlewitenne, Fraser Lake subtribe of 
Carrier Indians, 584 
Nature spirits, classes of in Cherokee 
belief, 345 
magical kinship in inyocation of, 
237, 299-300 
Nelson, E. W., on Eskimo whaling, 440 
Nelson, N. C., 21 
Netagunghstah, title of uku, Cherokee 
official, 330 
Nets in whale catching, the modern use 
of heavy, 459 
by Japanese, 460 
by Olutorski Koryak, 460 
in New Zealand whaling, 459 
in Norwegian fiords, 459 
to capture blackfish in fiords of Faro 
Islands, 459 
Nettecawaw. See Chunkey game (Cher- 
okee). 
Newberry Library, 319 
Newcombe, W. A., 21 
New Fire of Propitiation Festival 
(Cherokee). See Feast (Cherokee). 
New Fire of Spring Festival (Cherokee). 
See Feast (Cherokee). 
New Fire rites, changes in significance 
and use of among Cherokees, 369-370 
New Green Corn Feast (Preliminary and 
Mature). See Feast (Cherokee). 
New York State, Iroquois and Cherokee 
settlements in, 192 
Nobles, titles of, Bulkley Carrier In- 
dians, 489 
Noksan, woman prophet of Bulkley Car- 
rier Indians, 549 
Nootka Indians, 442 
Nordenskiéld, Erland, 589, 590 
North Carolina, influence of on Chero- 
kees, 202, 214, 216, 362 
locus of Cherokee settlement, 178, 
366 
trail to tidewater section of, 180 
Northern Kwakiutl Indians, British Co- 
lumbia, 28 
Northern Northwest Coast, Archeologi- 
cal survey on the (Drucker), 17-167 
geographic location, 24 
historic period, 25-27 
Northwest Coast, artifacts from, 34 
See also Artifacts. 
mortuary customs of region, 107-109 
survey, 1938, 62 
whaling, 441 
Nu’tseni, Endarko River suhtribe of Car- 
rier Indians, 585 
Nuttall, Thos., cited on Cherokee court- 
ship procedure and marriage, 339 
cited on Cherokee criminal pro- 
cedure of blood revenge, 324 
Obscenities, social function of among 
Cherokees, 248, 261, 283 
Oconaluftee River, 201 
Oconaluftee Valley, 181 


INDEX 


Ocona River, 179 
Ohio, Cherokees in, 178 (ftn.), 314 
Ohio River, trails to, 181 
Oklahoma, Cherokees in, 178 (ftn.), 192, 
194, 195, 366 
Olbrechts, Frans, 175, 254, 256 
cited on Cherokee disease formulas, 
292, 293, 294, 296 
cited on Cherokee magical formulas, 


cited on Iroquois affiliation of Cher- 
okee, 314 
cited on protective prayers, 318 
Old couple that turned into bears, The 
(Chitimacha legend), 13 
Old couple that turned into deer, The 
(Chitimacha legend), 14 
Old Sam, Bulkley Carrier Indian. 
Kyan. 
Old Stonecoat, Cherokee mythical giant, 


See 


Olutores whale netting, 426 
Omens, change in divination from among 
Cherokees, 368-369 
Ondegardo, Polo de, on quipus, 592 
Oostanaula River, 178 
ogee diseases among Cherokees, 292- 
Organization (Cherokee), farm, 362 
peace, 821-348 
Red, 348-356 
war, 348-356 
White, 321-348 
Caen eer family of, among Cherokees, 
76 
Origin myths, Cherokee, 182 
Origins (Cherokee), theories of based on 


historical reconstruction, negative 
view of, 313-315 
Ornamentation (Cherokee). See Deco- 


ration (Cherokee). 
Osgood, C., on use of fat from corpses 
as whale poison, 486 
Osi, Cherokee sudatory or sweathouse, 
transformation into potato storage 
place, 371 
“Ostenaco,”’ Cherokee song sung by, 318 
318 
Ouachita Mountain, 192 
Overhill Settlements (Cherokee), 364 
area comprising, 178 
dialect, 199 
Overseers, seven (Cherokee), 321 
“Owl,” Cherokee war title, 354, 355 
Owl, Sampson, 175 
Ozark Mountains, 192 
Painttown, N. C., 180, 201, 204 
clan of Cherokees predominating in, 
206, 207 
Parturition (Cherokee), 196, 254 
Paul, Benjamin, Chitimacha informant, 


7,8 
legends related by, 12-14 
reminiscences by, 8-12 
Paul, Christine, 7 


609 


Paul, “Ease,” Bulkley Carrier Indian re- 
ligious teacher, 558 
Payne, John Howard, 319 
Payne Manuscripts, 208 
contents, 319-320 
culture traits of Cherokee in, 388- 
401 
origin, circumstances of, 319 
Peace Organization of Cherokees. 
Organization (Cherokee). 
Pedigrees, Cherokee, evidence of prefer- 
ential mating, 239-243 
manner of obtaining among Chero- 
kees, 198 
Pellagra among Cherokees, 197 
Pendants, Cherokee, 183 
Pennsylvania, 194 
Iroquois settlements in, 192 
trail to, 180 
Personal crests, Bulkley Carrier Indians, 
501 
Peruvian civilization, The quipu and 
(Swanton), 485-596 
Petroff, I., on toxie effect of whale as 
food, 441 
Petroglyphs, British Columbia coasts, 
110 
Phratries of Bulkley Carrier Indians, 
482 
exogamous units, 487 
functions of, 483 
territories of, 487 
Physiographic area, transitional zones 
favorite sites of Cherokee settlement, 
191 
Physiology of Cherokees, present-day 
physical type, 195-197 
Pictographs, British Columbia coasts, 
110 
Pine needles, employed in Cherokee 
Bounding Bush Ceremony, 334 
Pipes (Cherokee), carving of, 183 
stone, 317 
Pirogue, The making of the first (Chiti- 
macha legend), 12 
Place names, Cherokee, 182 
Placenta, disposal of among Cherokees, 
254 
Plant alkaloid-poison, use in Southeast- 
ern Asia, 443 
Planting rites, Cherokee, 183 
Plants, cultivated by early Cherokee, 
184, 198, 316, 360 
food, 184, 201, 316 
medicinal, 184, 189 
use of attraction formulas in 
finding, 297-298 
role of in Cherokee culture, 184 
See also Flora of Cherokee area. 
Poison harpoons and nets in the modern 
whale fishery, The use of, 453 
Poison whaling, Aconite, in Asia and 
America: An Aleutian transfer to the 
New World (Heizer), 415-468 


See 


610 


Poison whaling, techniques kept secret, 
458 
Politics, Cherokee, influence of English 
and French traders on, 364 
political changes in Cherokee life, 
3863-367 
political organization of Bulkley 
Carrier Indians, 482 
political separatism of Cherokees 
due to terrain, 181 
political system, features of former 
Cherokee society, 318 
political units of present-day Chero- 
kee society, 215-216 
Polygyny, common in early times among 
Cherokees, 339 
Poor Aid Society of the Cherokees, 202, 
306, 362-363 e 
activities of, 213, 256, 307 
Population, Cherokee, 197-198 
age groups in, 1930, 198 
of Eastern Cherokee Reservation, 
present-day, 201 
movements among Cherokee, 178- 
180, 192, 195 
Port Royal Island, 8. C., archeology of, 
147-152 
Chester Field site, 150-152 
Lake Plantation sites, 147-149 
Postiyu, the medicine man (Chiti- 
macha), 9 
Postures, Cherokee, sleeping, 196 
Potato Clan (Cherokee). See Wild Po- 
tatoes Clan (Cherokee). 
Potlatches, Bulkley Carrier Indians, 
515-518 
Pottery: 
Beaufort, S. C., comparative state- 
ment, 163-165 
fiber-tempered ware, Stalling’s 
Island, 159, 161, 165, 166 
punctating technique, 161 
Stallings Plain, description, 159, 


160, 165, 166 
Stallings Punctate, 157, 159), 
165, 166 


Cherokee, 188-189, 255, 314-315 
river clays used in, 183 
round-bottom, 199 

Chester Field, 159, 161, 165, 166 

Lake Plantation, 162, 166 

Stalling’s Island, 159 

Prayers or spells, Cherokee composi- 
tion of, 286-287 
protective, 318, 343 
Preferential mating (Cherokee). 
Mating (Cherokee). 
Prefixes, in Cherokee kinship terms, 221 
Pregnancy taboos, Cherokee, 254 
“Pretty Women,” a Cherokee military 
class, 318, 348, 350 


See 


INDEX 


Priesthood, Cherokee education for, 341- 
342 
ruling class among early Cherokees, 
366 
training, 351 
Prince Rupert District, British Colum- 
bia, Coast Tsimshian archeologieal 
sites, 63-73 
Anian Island, 63-67 
artifacts from, 66 
Charles Point, 67-70 
artifacts from, 70 
Emerson Point, 71 
Marine Station, 72 
Morse Basin, 72 
Robertson Point, 71 
Shawatlan Falls, 72 
Wilgiapshi Island, 71 
Privileged familiarity, Cherokee. 
Familiarity, privileged. 
Procreation, family of, among Cherokee, 
276 
Propitiation Festival (Cherokee). See 
Cementation Festival Cherokee). 
Prussie acid as whale poison, 455 
Psychology of Cherokees, 194, 197, 214, 
282 (ftn.) 
Pueblo Indians, 194 
Punishment, Cherokee, for marriage 
within the clan, 340, 365 
of adulterers, 340 
of criminals, 323 
Pureblood Indians, disadvantages suf- 
fered among Cherokees by, 210 
Qalahaituk, archeologic site, British Co- 
lumbia, 738-79 
artifacts from, 79 
Quakers, 362, 365 
Qualla Boundary, 180, 201, 366 
See also Eastern Cherokee Reserva- 
tion. 
Qualla, present-day, 201 
as example of “ethno-park,” 214 
Quartz crystals, use of by Cherokees, 183 
Quipu and Peruvian civilization, The 
(Swanton), 585-596 
Radcliffe-Brown, Prof. A. R., 175, 200 
Rainfall, Cherokee area, 183 
Rattles, Cherokee, gourd, 257, 261 
tortoise-shell, 257, 261 
Raven Cove, archeologie site, British Co- 
lumbia, 105 
Raven, upper Big Cove, N. C., 201, 210, 
212, 213, 306 
“Raven,” Cherokee war title, 353, 354, 
355 
See also Great War Chief. 
Reagan, Albert B., 188, 119 
Rechahecrian Indians, 314 
Reciprocity, manifestations among Cher- 
okees, 806-309, 311, 363 
Reconciliation Festival (Cherokee). Sce 
Cementation Festival (Cherokee). 
Records, Cherokee early historical, 315— 
318 


See 


INDEX 


Redfield, Robert, 175 
Red Organization of Cherokees. 
ganization. 
Red Paint Clan (Cherokee) , 203, 205 
location of, 206-207 
origin of name, 204 
Refuge, towns of, among Cherokees, 324, 
356-357 
Reinearnation, Bulkley Carrier Indians’ 
belief in, 538, 539 
Relationships, Cherokee, complemen- 
tary-reciprocal vs. self-reciprocal, 233 
joking, 281-284 
types of, 282 
Relatives, Cherokee, animals and plants 
ete. regarded as, 237 
clan extends connections with, 237 
familiar, 246 
remoter, qualificatory terms applied 
to, 286 
respected, 245-246 
Religion, Bulkley Carrier Indians, 539- 
559 
Remedies, herbal, used by Bulkley Car- 
rier Indians, 534 
Remoyal of 1838 (Cherokee), 179 
Reptiles, Cherokee area, 185 
Residence, effects of location of on Cher- 
okee family, 274 
Revenge motive among Cherokees, in 
formulas, 291, 294, 297 
in myths, 294, 303 
Rites, river, Cherokee ceremonial im- 
mersions, 328 
Ritter, Woldeman H., 147, 150, 151 
Rivers of Cherokee area, 178 
See also individual names of rivers. 
Robertson Point, British Columbia, 71 
Roman y Zamora, Fr. Jeronimo, on the 
Peruvian quipu, 593 
Roscoe Inlet 1 and 1A, archeologic sites, 
British Columbia, 81 
artifacts from, 90, 91, 92 
Ross, John, 195 
Sacredness, various things, places, per- 
sons characterized by among Chero- 
kees, 846-347 
Sacred trees (Cherokee). 
Santeetlah Creek, 179 
Santeetlah Lake, 179 
Sarmiento de Gamboa, Don Pedro, ref- 
erence to quipus, 593 
Sauer, M., on Koniag whaling, 435 
Savannah River, 178, 181, 190 
Sealplock, Cherokee, 317 
Scarification, Cherokee, 195, 199 
Scepter, Cherokee, 322 
Schizothymia, Cherokee tendency to im- 
plied, 197 
Schools, Cherokee, 
Cherokee. 
Scotland. development in of poison-bear- 
ing harpoons for whaling, 456 
Seott, Donald, 21 
Seasons, Cherokee control of by magic 
formulas, 298, 336 


See Or- 


See Trees. 


See Education. 


611 


Sekani Indians of the Findlay and 
Parsnip River Basins, British Colum- 
bia, 481 

Sell, Cato, Indian agent, 362 

Seneea Indians, Cherokee contact with, 
181, 194 

Sequoyah syllabary, 286 

Settlements of Cherokees in 1762-1776, 
179, 316 

in 1825-1830, 180 
located on small streams, 190 

Setzler, Frank M., 21 

Seven (the number), among Cherokees, 
203, 294, 321, 322, 326, 327, 328, 329, 331, 
332, 333, 348, 848, 350 

clans, 203 

cleansers, 326, 331, 332 
cooks, 321, 328 
counselors, 322, 327, 343 
-day fast, 322 

ears of corn, 329 

fairy clans, 294 
honorable women, 330 
hunters, 321, 327 
overseers, 321 

sacred trees, 328 
strings of white beads. 333 
war counselors, 348, 350 

Sex differentiation in Cherokee chil- 
dren’s sports, 255, 270 

in Cherokee labor, 199, 255, 841 

Sex distinction in Cherokee kinship 
terms, 233-235 

Shaman, Cherokee, training ordeal, 183 

Shawnee Indians, Cherokee contact 
with, 181, 194 

Shawatlan Falls, British Columbia, 72 

Shelekhoff, G., on marine animals hunted 
by Chugachmiut, 439 

Shell heaps, Beaufort County, S. C., 148, 
149, 150: 

Sickness among Cherokees, 256 

See also Diseases. 

Simulator diseases of Cherokees. 
Ordeal diseases of Cherokees. 

Siouan Indians, 192 

Hastern, 193 
Cherokee contact with, 181, 187 

Sistelyel (Lexs), founder of religious 
movement among Bulkley Carrier In- 
dians, 550 

Sites, archeologic, British Columbia 
northern coasts, 63-107 

age of, 113-115 
located 19388, 62 
method of designating, 63 

Sites in Beaufort County, South Caro- 
lina, Some notes on a few (Flannery) 
143-153 


See 


’ 


Skatiloski, Cherokee title. See War 
Speaker, chief (Cherokee). 
Skayagustu, Cherokee title. See Great 


Red War Chief or Captain (Chero- 
kee). 

Skeletal remains, Ladies Island, §. (ON 
153 


612 


Skull form of Cherokees, 193 

Slates, use by Cherokees, 183 

Smallpox, averted by Cherokee physic 

dance, 343 
decimating effects of among Chero- 
kees, 193, 318, 365 

Smith, Elliot, 313 

Smith, Harlan I., 116, 117, 118, 127, 474 

Smoke signaling, Cherokee, 183 

Snake bite, Cherokee cure for, 343 

Snakes linked with lightning by Chero- 

kees, 183 

Snowbird Range, 178 

Snowbird River, 179 

Snyder, L. H., cited on Cherokee blood 

admixture, 194 

Social life of Cherokees. 

social. 

Society (Cherokee) : 
animal, Cherokee picture of, 301 
changes in, discussion, 360-371 

ceremonial, 367-370 
economic, 860-863 
political, 863-867 
classes of, changes in character of, 
3870 
cohesion of, 358-359) 
conclusions regarding, 371-372 
former, 313-359 
present, description of, 117-312 
economic units of, 209-214 
integration of, 272-312 
social features of, 254-271 
social integration, how main- 
tained, 309-311, 358-359, 370— 
371 
social opposition, in Cherokee 
society, 304-306, 310 
in domestic family, 277-278, 
310 
age, 277-278 
generation, 277 
lineage, 277 
sex, 277 
social principles, 304-312 
social reciprocity in, 306-309, 
311, 363 
social sanctions, diffuse, 284-285 
organized, 285 
premial, 285 
retaliatory, 285, 294, 297 
ritual, 286 
social solidarity, manifestations 
of, 306, 310 
social units of, 201-210 
principles operative in, 304-312 
secularization of, 370 
Sociology, Cherokee structural, applied 
to data from Southeast, 200 

Soco Creek, 201 

Soldiers (Cherokee). 

tary (Cherokee). 


See Society, 


See Classes, mili- 


INDEX 


Solidarity of Cherokee domestic family, 
brothers and sisters, 273 
husband and wife, 272-273 
parent and child, 273 
See also Society, Cherokee. 
Somatology, Cherokee, 193-197 
Songs, Cherokee, death, 318 
sung at dances, 258-259 
Songs, importance of, Bulkley Carrier 
Indians. See Religion, Bulkley Car- 
rier Indians. 
medicine men, 559-567 
South Carolina, locus of early Cherokee 
settlement, 178 
trail to tidewater area in, 181 
Southeastern area, Cherokee culture 
typical of, 198-199 
Southern Coast Tsimshian archeologie 
sites, Northwest Coast, 73-80 
Kitkiata, 80 
Qalahaituk, 73-79 
artifacts from, 79 
Southern Kwakiutl territory, British Co- 
lumbia, archeologice sites in, 106—107 
Southern Piedmont, part of early Chero- 
kee domain, 178 
Spalsburg, Supt. R. L., 175, 201 
Speck, Dr. F. G., 175 
cited on age-area theory of Cherokee 
culture origins in terms of 
basketry and art motifs, 315 
Speech, Cherokee, dialects of, 199 
Spirits, of the four directions, different 
colors of, in Cherokee belief, 345 
nature, classes of, 345 
magical kinship in invocation 
of, 237, 299-300 
Sports, Cherokee. See Games, Cherokee. 
Stalling’s Island culture (S. C.), 149, 151, 
152, 153: 
pottery, 159 
description, 159, 160, 212 
Starr, Frederick, on Ainu arrow poison, 
445 
cited on presence of gadugi, Chero- 
kee organization, 362 
cited on study of Cherokee physical 
type, 193 
Stature, Cherokee, 198, 195 
Steatite, use of by Cherokees for pipe 
carving, 183 
Steller, G. W., on Chukchee whaling, 426 
on Blutori whaling, 425 
on Kamchadal whaling, 445 
Stock owned by Cherokee, 212, 214, 317 
introduction of, 360 
Stone, work in (Northwest Coast), 61 
Strings (among Cherokees), braided into 
knots by messengers, 321 
of white beads, seven, 333 
Strong, Dr. William Dunean, 21 
Strychnine and curare, use as whale 
poisons, 456-458 
Sun gazing, Cherokee, 183, 341, 351 


INDEX 


Survey on northern Northwest Coast, 
Archeological (Drucker), 17-132 
geographic location, 24 
historic period, 25-27 
in 1938, 62 
Swanton, Dr, John R., 175, 177, 283, 315 
(The quipu and Peruvian civiliza- 
tion), 485-596 
Sweatbath, Cherokee, 342 
Sweathouse (osi), Cherokee, 316, 342, 
349, 371 
Swimming practices among Cherokee, 
196 
Synecology, examples of in Cherokee life, 
186 
Syphilis, not found in Cherokee, 197 
Tahltan Indians of Stickine River Basin, 
British Columbia, 481 
Tatchatotenne, Cheslatta Lake Indians, 
subtribe of Carrier, 585 
Taylor, Jim, Cherokee informant, 198 
Temlaham, traditional village of Gitsan 
Indians, 477 
Temperament in Cherokees, 197 
Temperature of Cherokee country, 182 
Temple survey of Cherokees, 210 
Tennessee, 195 
early locus of Cherokees, 178 
trails through, 181 
Tennessee River, 178, 181, 190 
Tennessee Settlements (Cherokee). 
Overhill Settlements (Cherokee). 
Terms of kinship and relationship, Bulk- 
ley Carrier Indians, 526 
Terrain, Cherokee reaction on, 181-182 
high, preferred by Cherokee, 191-— 
192 


See 


Texas, Cherokees in, 178 (ftn.) 
Theft motive, among Cherokees, 296, 301 
“Theory of resemblances,” Mooney’s at- 
tempt to explain Cherokee magic, 287 
Thiercelin, M. L., experiments with 
strychnine and curare as whale 
poisons, 456-458 
Thomas, Col. Wm., 366 
Thomas, Cyrus, cited on theory of Chero- 
kee origins, 314 
“Thomas 3,200 acre tract,” Cherokee set- 
tlement, 179 
Timberlake, Henry, cited on early Chero- 
kee culture, 316-318 
cited on protective prayers, 318 
Titles, military (Cherokee), 355 
Tlingit Indians, 441 
mane os to whale blubber as food, 
Tobacco joke, a form of Cherokee satiri- 
cal familiarity, 248, 303 
Tombigbee River, 190 
Tooker, W. W., cited on northern origin 
of Cherokees, 314 
Tools, stone, among Cherokees, 189, 190 
Toponymic system of Cherokees, 182 
i ae among Cherokees, 204, 300 
n. 


613 


Town sites (Cherokee), divisions of, 178 

“Towns of refuge,” (Cherokee), 324, 356— 
357 

Towns, organization of Cherokees in, 
201-203, 215 

Toys (Cherokee), present-day repre- 
sentatives of one-time useful artifacts, 
371 

Trade, geographical extent of among 
Cherokees, 187 

Traders, English and French, influence 
of on Cherokee polities, 364 

Trails, of Cherokee area, 180-181 

Trees, seven sacred, bark from used in 
Cherokee sacrifice, 328 

Tribal distribution on the northern Brit- 
ish Columbia coasts, 28 

Tribes in contact with Cherokees by 
various trails, 181 

intermediary, 187-188 

Troup Rapids, archeologic site, British 
Columbia, 105 

Trumpet, blown by Cherokees in emer- 
gency, 323 

Tsayhu phratry of Bulkley Carrier In- 
dians, 482 

Tsimshian Indians, 478, 495 

of British Columbia northern coasts, 
8 


dwellings, 30, 31 
manufactures, 31 
rituals, 32 
social System, 82-34 
textiles, 31 
weapons, 31 
Tsuchiya, T., on Japanese whaling, 424 
Tuberculosis (Cherokee), 197 
Tuckasegee River, 178, 179, 366 
Tuscarora Indians, Cherokee contact 
with, 181 
Twisters Clan (Cherokee), 203, 205 
location of, 206-207 
origin of name, 204 
Vere Indians, Cherokee contact with, 
See also Yuchi. 
Ukare, Cherokee nature spirits, 345 
yes Cherokee official, anointment of, 


cooperation of with National Guard, 
323 
death of, 321 
functions of, 323, 349, 357 
inauguration ceremonies, 322 
paraphernalia of, 322 
scepter of, 322 
selection of, 321-322 
Septennial rite of, 334-335 
standard of, 328 
Ultimogeniture, Cherokee, 307 
Unakas. See Great Smokies. 
Uncleanness, Cherokee ceremonial re- 
moval of, 354 
things characterized by, 345-346 


614 


Ungarinyin tribe, Australian group ‘re- 
sembling Cherokees in kinship system, 
371 

United States Government, influence 
among Cherokees, 213, 216, 362-863, 
865, 366-367, 371 
tselunuhi, Cherokee name for ghosts, 
345 

Valley River, 178, 179 

Valley Settlements Cherokee), 179, 364 

area comprising, 178 
dialect of, 199 

Vancouver Island—Western Washington 
whaling, characteristic features of, 442 

Veniaminoy, I., on Aleutian whaling, 429 

Virginia, 194 

locus of early Cherokee settlement, 
178 
trail to tidewater section of, 180 

Walk, characteristics of Cherokee, 196 

Walters, J. L., Chief Clerk, 175 

Wands, white sycamore, used by Chero- 
kees, 332 

War and peace functions, alternation of 
predominance in Cherokee life, 320, 
356-358 

War (Cherokee), ark, sacred use of, 353 

conclusion of, 354-3855 

counselors, seven, 348, 350 

declaration, 351 

divination, 352-353 
eographical extent of, 187 

new fire for, 353 

magie formulas for, 298 

officers of, 348-349, 351-352 

organization, 348-356 

preparations for, 351-353 

procedure, 350—854 

provisions, 351 

purification from, 854-355 

return from, rites of, 354-855 

season, 350 

taboos, 353 

tactics, 354 

titles, 355 

weapons, 317, 351 

whoop, 353 

with Whites, 364 

Ward, Naney, introduced cow among 
Cherokees, 360 

War Speaker, chief (or Skatiloski), of 
Cherokees, 348, 352, 353 

War women (Cherokee). 
Women.” 

Washburn, C., cited on Cherokee crimi- 
ee procedure of blood revenge, 324- 

25 
cited on Cherokee marriage pre- 
liminaries, 339 

Waterfalls linked with thunder by Cher- 
okees, 183 

Weapons employed in war by Cherokees, 
317, 351 

See also Artifacts (Cherokee). 

Wearmouth, Mr. and Mrs., 21, 66, 67. 


See “Pretty 


INDEX 


Weather-control, Cherokee magic for- 
mulas for, 183, 288, 336. 
Weaving, Cherokee, 189 
West Virginia, locus of early Cherokee 
settlement, 178 
Weyer, E. M., on use of fat from corpses 
as whale poison, 4385 
Whale as food, 441 
Tlingit aversion to, 441 
toxic effect of, 442 
Whaie hunters, chief, of the Northwest 
Coast, 442 
Whale hunting with poison-bearing har- 
poons, development of in Scotland, 456 
Whaling in Asia and America, Aconite 
poison: An Aleutian transfer to the 
New World (Heizer). 415-468 
Whaling methods, 421-443 
American, 427-443 
Aleutian, 427 
Eskimo, 489 
Koniag, 483 
Northwest Coast, 441 
Vancouver Island-Western 
Washington, 442 
Asiatie, 421-427 
Chukchee, 426 
Japanese, 425 
Kamchadal, 421 
Kurilian, Ainu, 421 
Olutores, 426 
Bering Sea Hskimo and Kodiak— 
Aleutian, differences between, 441 
ie Indians,” among Cherokees, 210, 
White Organization (Cherokee). 
Organization (Cherokee). 
White race, negative attitude of Chero- 
kees toward, 213—214 
Widows’ ordeal, Bulkley Carrier Indians, 
5384, 535 a 
Wild canary and the woodpecker, Beliefs 
concerning the (Chitimacha), 11 
Wild Potatoes Clan (Cherokee), 203, 205 
location of, 206-207 
origin of name, 204 
Wilgiapshi Island, British Columbia, 71 
Wind, Cherokee area, 182 
Wissler, Dr. Clark, 21, 315 
ee & crime among Cherokees, 
45 
abolition of death penalty for, 365 
Witches, cause of disease, Cherokee be- 
lief, 296 
children raised to be, among Chero- 
kees, 255 
“Wolf,” Cherokee war title, 354, 355 
Wolf Clan (Cherokee), 203, 205 
location of, 206-207 
origin of name, 204 
Wolftown, N. C., 180, 201, 204 
clan of Cherokee predominating in, 
206, 207 


See 


INDEX 615 


Wood, Cherokee uses of, 184 Xaihais Indians, British Columbia, 28 
Woodpecker, the, Beliefs concerning the : archeologic site, 81 
wild canary and (Chitimacha), 11 Xaisla Indians, British Columbia, 28 
eo once, 18s sles E180, 201, 215, 362, 368 
eS he F. von, on Aleutian whaling, Cherokee wunaal cae ae 314 
on Koniag whaling, introduction of ayaa ESSE TA 
Huropean equipment into, 438 main Cherokee school at, 216 
on whale species distinguished by | Yuchi Indians, 192 
Koniag, 434 Ziegler, W. A., 182, 361 
Wyman, Louviea, 175 Zoogeography, Cherokee area, 185-186 


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