The Native Races [of the Pacific states], Volume 1, Wild Tribes

DEATH AND BURIAL.

The temescal, or sweat-house, is the same here as elsewhere, which renders a description unnecessary.⁵⁹⁸ The dead were either burned or buried. Father Boscana says that no particular ceremonies were observed during the burning of the corpse. The body was allowed to lie untouched some days after death, in order to be certain that no spark of life remained. It was then borne out and laid upon the funeral pyre, which was ignited by a person specially appointed for that purpose. Everything belonging to the deceased was burned with him. When all was over the mourners betook themselves to the outskirts of the village, and there gave vent to their lamentation for the space of three days and nights. During this period songs were sung, in which the cause of the late death was related, and even the progress of the disease which brought him to his grave minutely described in all its stages. As an emblem of grief the hair was cut short in proportion to nearness of relation to or affection for the deceased, but laceration was not resorted to.⁵⁹⁹ Mr Taylor relates that the Santa Inez Indians buried their dead in regular cemeteries. The body was placed in a sitting posture in a box made of slabs of claystone, and interred with all the effects of the dead person.⁶⁰⁰ According to Reid, the natives of Los Angeles County waited until the body began to show signs of decay and then bound it together in the shape of a ball, and buried it in a place set apart for that purpose, with offerings of seeds contributed by the family. At the first news of his death all the relatives of the deceased gathered together, and mourned his departure with groans, each having a groan peculiar to himself. The dirge was presently changed to a song, in which all united, while an accompaniment was whistled through a deer's leg-bone. The dancing consisted merely in a monotonous shuffling of the feet.⁶⁰¹ Pedro Fages thus describes a burial ceremony at the place named by him Sitio de los Pedernales.⁶⁰² Immediately after an Indian has breathed his last, the corpse is borne out and placed before the idol which stands in the village, there it is watched by persons who pass the night round a large fire built for the purpose; the following morning all the inhabitants of the place gather about the idol and the ceremony commences. At the head of the procession marches one smoking gravely from a large stone pipe; followed by three others, he three times walks round the idol and the corpse; each time the head of the deceased is passed the coverings are lifted, and he who holds the pipe blows three puffs of smoke upon the body. When the feet are reached, a kind of prayer is chanted in chorus, and the parents and relatives of the defunct advance in succession and offer to the priest a string of threaded seeds, about a fathom long; all present then unite in loud cries and groans, while the four, taking the corpse upon their shoulders, proceed with it to the place of interment. Care is taken to place near the body articles which have been manufactured by the deceased during his life-time. A spear or javelin, painted in various vivid colors, is planted erect over the tomb, and articles indicating the occupation of the dead are placed at his foot; if the deceased be a woman, baskets or mats of her manufacture are hung on the javelin.⁶⁰³

Death they believed to be a real though invisible being, who gratified his own anger and malice by slowly taking away the breath of his victim until finally life was extinguished. The future abode of good spirits resembled the Scandinavian Valhalla; there, in the dwelling-place of their god, they would live for ever and ever, eating, and drinking, and dancing, and having wives in abundance. As their ideas of reward in the next world were matter-of-fact and material, so were their fears of punishment in this life; all accidents, such as broken limbs or bereavement by death, were attributed to the direct vengeance of their god, for crimes which they had committed.⁶⁰⁴

Though good-natured and inordinately fond of amusement, they are treacherous and unreliable. Under a grave and composed exterior they conceal their thoughts and character so well as to defy interpretation. And this is why we find men, who have lived among them for years, unable to foretell their probable action under any given circumstances.

THE SHOSHONE FAMILY.

The Shoshone Family, which forms the fourth and last division of the Californian group, may be said to consist of two great nations, the Snakes, or Shoshones proper, and the Utahs. The former inhabit south-eastern Oregon, Idaho, western Montana, and the northern portions of Utah and Nevada, are subdivided into several small tribes, and include the more considerable nation of the Bannacks. The Utahs occupy nearly the whole of Utah and Nevada, and extend into Arizona and California, on each side of the Colorado. Among the many tribes into which the Utahs are divided may be mentioned the Utahs proper, whose territory covers a great part of Utah and eastern Nevada; the Washoes along the eastern base of the Sierra Nevada, between Honey Lake and the west fork of Walker River; the Pah Utes, or, as they are sometimes called, Piutes, in western and central Nevada, stretching into Arizona and south-eastern California; the Pah Vants in the vicinity of Sevier Lake, the Pi Edes south of them, and the Gosh Utes, a mixed tribe of Snakes and Utahs, dwelling in the vicinity of Gosh Ute Lake and Mountains.

The Shoshones⁶⁰⁵ are below the medium stature; the Utahs, though more powerfully built than the Snakes, are coarser-featured and less agile. All are of a dark bronze-color when free from paint and dirt, and, as usual, beardless. The women are clumsily made, although some of them have good hands and feet.⁶⁰⁶

On the barren plains of Nevada, where there is no large game, the rabbit furnishes nearly the only clothing. The skins are sewn together in the form of a cloak, which is thrown over the shoulders, or tied about the body with thongs of the same. In warm weather, or when they cannot obtain rabbit-skins, men, women and children are, for the most part, in a state of nudity. The hair is generally allowed to grow long, and to flow loosely over the shoulders; sometimes it is cut straight over the forehead, and among the Utahs of New Mexico it is plaited into two long queues by the men, and worn short by the women. Ornaments are rare; I find mention in two instances⁶⁰⁷ of a nose-ornament, worn by the Pah Utes, consisting of a slender piece of bone, several inches in length, thrust through the septum of the nose. Tattooing is not practiced but paint of all colors is used unsparingly.⁶⁰⁸

The Snakes are better dressed than the Utahs, their clothing being made from the skins of larger game, and ornamented with beads, shells, fringes, feathers, and, since their acquaintance with the whites, with pieces of brilliant-colored cloth. A common costume is a shirt, leggins, and moccasins, all of buck-skin, over which is thrown, in cold weather, a heavy robe, generally of buffalo-skin, but sometimes of wolf, deer, elk, or beaver. The dress of the women differs but little from that of the men, except that it is less ornamented and the shirt is longer.⁶⁰⁹

DRESS OF THE SNAKES.

The dress of the Snakes seen by captains Lewis and Clarke was richer than is usually worn by them now; it was composed of a robe, short cloak, shirt, long leggins, and moccasins.

The robe was of buffalo or smaller skins, dressed with the hair on; the collar of the cloak, a strip of skin from the back of the otter, the head being at one end and the tail at the other. From this collar were suspended from one hundred to two hundred and fifty ermine-skins,⁶¹⁰ or rather strips from the back of the ermine, including the head and tail; each of these strips was sewn round a cord of twisted silk-grass, which tapered in thickness toward the tail. The seams were concealed with a fringe of ermine-skin; little tassels of white fur were also attached to each tail, to show off its blackness to advantage. The collar was further ornamented with shells of the pearl-oyster; the shirt, made of the dressed hides of various kinds of deer, was loose and reached half-way down the thigh; the sleeves were open on the under side as low as the elbow, – the edges being cut into a fringe from the elbow to the wrist, – and they fitted close to the arm. The collar was square, and cut into fringe, or adorned with the tails of the animals which furnished the hide; the shirt was garnished with fringes and stained porcupine-quills; the leggins were made each from nearly an entire antelope-skin, and reached from the ankle to the upper part of the thigh. The hind legs of the skin were worn uppermost, and tucked into the girdle; the neck, highly ornamented with fringes and quills, trailed on the ground behind the heel of the wearer; the side seams were fringed, and for this purpose the scalps of fallen enemies were frequently used.

The moccasins were also of dressed hide, without the hair, except in winter, when buffalo-hide, with the hair inside, answered the purpose. They were made with a single seam on the outside edge, and were embellished with quills; sometimes they were covered with the skin of a polecat, the tail of which dragged behind on the ground. Ear-ornaments of beads, necklaces of shells, twisted-grass, elk-tushes, round bones, like joints of a fish's back-bone, and the claws of the brown bear, were all worn. Eagles' feathers stuck in the hair, or a strip of otter-skin tied round the head, seem to have been the only head-dresses in use.⁶¹¹ This, or something similar, was the dress only of the wealthy and prosperous tribes. Like the Utahs, the Snakes paint extensively, especially when intent upon war.⁶¹²

DWELLINGS AND FOOD OF THE SHOSHONES.

The Snakes also build better dwellings than the Utahs. Long poles are leaned against each other in a circle, and are then covered with skins, thus forming a conical tent. A hole in the top, which can be closed in bad weather, serves as chimney, and an opening at the bottom three or four feet high, admits the occupants on pushing aside a piece of hide stretched on a stick, which hangs over the aperture as a door. These skin tents, as is necessary to a nomadic people, are struck and pitched with very little labor. When being moved from one place to another, the skins are folded and packed on the ponies, and the poles are hitched to each side of the animal by one end, while the other drags. The habitations of the people of Nevada and the greater part of Utah are very primitive and consist of heaps of brush, under which they crawl, or even of a mere shelter of bushes, semi-circular in shape, roofless, and three or four feet high, which serves only to break the force of the wind. Some of them build absolutely no dwellings, but live in caves and among the rocks, while others burrow like reptiles in the ground. Farnham gives us a very doleful picture of their condition; he says: "When the lizard, and snail, and wild roots are buried in the snows of winter, they are said to retire to the vicinity of timber, dig holes in the form of ovens in the steep sides of the sand-hills, and, having heated them to a certain degree, deposit themselves in them, and sleep and fast till the weather permits them to go abroad again for food. Persons who have visited their haunts after a severe winter, have found the ground around these family ovens strewn with the unburied bodies of the dead, and others crawling among them, who had various degrees of strength, from a bare sufficiency to gasp in death, to those that crawled upon their hands and feet, eating grass like cattle."⁶¹³ Naturally pusillanimous, weak in development, sunk below the common baser passions of the savage, more improvident than birds, more beastly than beasts, it may be possible to conceive of a lower phase of humanity, but I confess my inability to do so.

Pine-nuts, roots, berries, reptiles, insects, rats, mice, and occasionally rabbits are the only food of the poorer Shoshone tribes. Those living in the vicinity of streams or lakes depend more or less for their subsistence upon fish. The Snakes of Idaho and Oregon, and the tribes occupying the more fertile parts of Utah, having abundance of fish and game, live well the year round, but the miserable root-eating people, partly owing to their inherent improvidence, partly to the scantiness of their food-supply, never store sufficient provision for the winter, and consequently before the arrival of spring they are invariably reduced to extreme destitution. To avoid starvation they will eat dead bodies, and even kill their children for food.⁶¹⁴ A rat or a rabbit is prepared for eating by singeing the hair, pressing the offal from the entrails and cooking body and intestines together. Lizards, snakes, grasshoppers, and ants are thrown alive into a dish containing hot embers, and are tossed about until roasted; they are then eaten dry or used to thicken soup. Grasshoppers, seeds, and roots, are also gathered and cooked in the same manner as by the nations already described. The Gosh Utes take rabbits in nets made of flax-twine, about three feet wide and of considerable length. A fence of sage-brush is erected across the rabbit-paths, and on this the net is hung. The rabbits in running quickly along the trail become entangled in the meshes and are taken before they can escape. Lizards are dragged from their holes by means of a hooked stick. To catch ants a piece of fresh hide or bark is placed upon the ant-hill; this is soon covered by vast swarms of the insects, which are then brushed off into a bag and kept there until dead, when they are dried for future use. Among the hunting tribes antelope are gradually closed in upon by a circle of horsemen and beaten to death with clubs. They are also stalked after the fashion of the Californians proper, the hunter placing the head and horns of an antelope or deer upon his own head and thus disguised approaching within shooting distance.

NATIVE FISH-WEIR.

Fish are killed with spears having movable heads, which become detached when the game is struck, and are also taken in nets made of rushes or twigs. In the latter case a place is chosen where the river is crossed by a bar, the net is then floated down the stream and on reaching the bar both ends are drawn together. The fish thus enclosed are taken from the circle by hand, and the Shoshone as he takes each one, puts its head in his mouth and kills it with his teeth. Captain Clarke describes an ingeniously constructed weir on Snake River, where it was divided into four channels by three small islands. Three of these channels were narrow "and stopped by means of trees which were stretched across, and supported by willow stakes, sufficiently near to prevent the passage of the fish. About the centre of each was placed a basket formed of willows, eighteen or twenty feet in length, of a cylindrical form, and terminating in a conic shape at its lower extremity; this was situated with its mouth upwards, opposite to an aperture in the weir. The main channel of the water was then conducted to this weir, and as the fish entered it they were so entangled with each other, that they could not move, and were taken out by emptying the small end of the willow basket. The weir in the main channel was formed in a manner somewhat different; there were, in fact two distinct weirs formed of poles and willow sticks quite across the river, approaching each other obliquely with an aperture in each side of the angle. This is made by tying a number of poles together at the top, in parcels of three, which were then set up in a triangular form at the base, two of the poles being in the range desired for the weir, and the third down the stream. To these poles two ranges of other poles are next lashed horizontally, with willow bark and withes, and willow sticks joined in with these crosswise, so as to form a kind of wicker-work from the bottom of the river to the height of three or four feet above the surface of the water. This is so thick as to prevent the fish from passing, and even in some parts with the help of a little gravel and some stone enables them to give any direction which they wish to the water. These two weirs being placed near to each other, one for the purpose of catching the fish as they ascend, the other as they go down the river, are provided with two baskets made in the form already described, and which are placed at the apertures of the weir."

For present consumption the fish are boiled in water-tight baskets by means of red-hot stones, or are broiled on the embers; sometimes the bones are removed before the fish is cooked; great quantities are also dried for winter. Some few of the Utahs cultivate a little maize, vegetables, and tobacco, and raise stock, but efforts at agriculture are not general. The Snakes sometimes accompany the more northern tribes into the country of the Blackfeet, for the purpose of killing buffalo.⁶¹⁵

In their persons, dwellings and habits, the Utahs are filthy beyond description. Their bodies swarm with vermin which they catch and eat with relish. Some of the Snakes are of a more cleanly disposition, but, generally speaking, the whole Shoshone family is a remarkably dirty one.⁶¹⁶

WEAPONS OF THE SHOSHONES.

The bow and arrow are universally used by the Shoshones, excepting only some of the most degraded root-eaters, who are said to have no weapon, offensive or defensive, save the club. The bow is made of cedar, pine, or other wood, backed with sinew after the manner already described, or, more rarely, of a piece of elk-horn. The string is of sinew. The length of the bow varies. According to Farnham, that used by the Pi Utes is six feet long, while that of the Shoshones seen by Lewis and Clark was only two and a half feet in length. The arrows are from two to four feet, and are pointed with obsidian, flint, or, among the lower tribes, by merely hardening the tip with fire. Thirty or forty are usually carried in a skin quiver, and two in the hand ready for immediate use. Lances, which are used in some localities, are pointed in the same manner as the arrows when no iron can be procured. The Snakes have a kind of mace or club, which they call a poggamoggon. It consists of a heavy stone, sometimes wrapped in leather, attached by a sinew thong about two inches in length, to the end of a stout leather-covered handle, measuring nearly two feet. A loop fastened to the end held in the hand prevents the warrior from losing the weapon in the fight, and allows him to hold the club in readiness while he uses the bow and arrow.⁶¹⁷ They also have a circular shield about two and a half feet in diameter, which is considered a very important part of a warrior's equipment, not so much from the fact that it is arrow-proof, as from the peculiar virtues supposed to be given it by the medicine-men. The manufacture of a shield is a season of great rejoicing. It must be made from the entire fresh hide of a male two-year-old buffalo, and the process is as follows. A hole is dug in the ground and filled with red-hot stones; upon these water is poured until a thick steam arises. The hide is then stretched, by as many as can take hold of it, over the hole, until the hair can be removed with the hands and it shrinks to the required size. It is then placed upon a prepared hide, and pounded by the bare feet of all present, until the ceremony is concluded. When the shield is completed, it is supposed to render the bearer invulnerable. Lewis and Clarke also make mention of a species of defensive armor "something like a coat of mail, which is formed by a great many folds of dressed antelope skins, united by means of a mixture of glue and sand. With this they cover their own bodies and those of their horses, and find it impervious to the arrow." I find mention in one instance only, of a shield being used by the Utahs. In that case it was small, circular, and worn suspended from the neck. The fishing spear I have already described as being a long pole with an elk-horn point. When a fish is struck the shaft is loosened from its socket in the head, but remains connected with the latter by a cord.⁶¹⁸ Arrows are occasionally poisoned by plunging them into a liver which has been previously bitten by a rattlesnake.⁶¹⁹

MANNER OF MAKING WAR.

The tribes that possess horses always fight mounted, and manage their animals with considerable address. In war they place their reliance upon strategy and surprise; fires upon the hills give warning of an enemy's approach. Prisoners of war are killed with great tortures, especially female captives, who are given over to the women of the victorious tribe and by them done to death most cruelly; it is said, however, that male prisoners who have distinguished themselves by their prowess in battle, are frequently dismissed unhurt. Scalps are taken, and sometimes portions of the flesh of a brave fallen enemy are eaten that the eater may become endued with the valor of the slain. He who takes the most scalps gains the most glory. Whether the warriors who furnished the trophies fell by the hand of the accumulator or not, is immaterial; he has but to show the spoils and his fame is established. The Snakes are said to be peculiarly skillful in eluding pursuit. When on foot, they will crouch down in the long grass and remain motionless while the pursuer passes within a few feet of them, or when caught sight of they will double and twist so that it is impossible to catch them. The custom of ratifying a peace treaty by a grand smoke, common to so many of the North American aborigines, is observed by the Shoshones.⁶²⁰ The pipe, the bowl of which is usually of red stone, painted or carved with various figures and adorned with feathers, is solemnly passed from mouth to mouth, each smoker blowing the smoke in certain directions and muttering vows at the same time.

The only tools used before iron and steel were introduced by the whites were of flint, bone, or horn. The flint knife had no regular form, and had a sharp edge about three or four inches long, which was renewed when it became dull. Elk-horn hatchets, or rather wedges, were used to fell trees. They made water-proof baskets of plaited grass, and others of wicker-work covered with hide. The Snakes and some of the Utahs were versed in the art of pottery, and made very good vessels from baked clay. These were not merely open dishes, but often took the form of jars with narrow necks, having stoppers.⁶²¹

LAWS AND GOVERNMENT.

Boats, as a rule, the Shoshones have none. They usually cross rivers by fording; otherwise they swim, or pass over on a clumsy and dangerous raft made of branches and rushes.⁶²² By way of compensation they all, except the poorest, have horses, and these constitute their wealth. They have no regular currency, but use for purposes of barter their stock of dried fish, their horses, or whatever skins and furs they may possess. They are very deliberate traders, and a solemn smoke must invariably precede a bargain.⁶²³ Although each tribe has an ostensible chief, his power is limited to giving advice, and although his opinion may influence the tribe, yet he cannot compel obedience to his wishes. Every man does as he likes. Private revenge, of course, occasionally overtakes the murderer, or, if the sympathies of the tribe be with the murdered man, he may possibly be publicly executed, but there are no fixed laws for such cases. Chieftainship is hereditary in some tribes; in others it is derived from prestige.⁶²⁴

The Utahs do not hesitate to sell their wives and children into slavery for a few trinkets. Great numbers of these unfortunates are sold to the Navajos for blankets. An act which passed the legislature of Utah in 1852, legalizing slavery, sets forth that from time immemorial, slavery has been a customary traffic among the Indians; that it was a common practice among them to gamble away their wives and children into slavery, to sell them into slavery to other nations, and that slaves thus obtained were most barbarously treated by their masters; that they were packed from place to place on mules; that these unfortunate humans were staked out to grass and roots like cattle, their limbs mutilated and swollen from being bound with thongs; that they were frozen, starved, and killed by their inhuman owners; that families and tribes living at peace would steal each other's wives and children, and sell them as slaves. In view of these abuses it was made lawful for a probate judge, or selectmen, to bind out native captive women and children to suitable white persons for a term not to exceed twenty years.⁶²⁵

Polygamy, though common, is not universal; a wife is generally bought of her parents;⁶²⁶ girls are frequently betrothed in infancy; a husband will prostitute his wife to a stranger for a trifling present, but should she be unfaithful without his consent, her life must pay the forfeit. The women, as usual, suffer very little from the pains of child-bearing. When the time of a Shoshone woman's confinement draws near, she retires to some secluded place, brings forth unassisted, and remains there for about a month, alone, and procuring her subsistence as best she can. When the appointed time has elapsed she is considered purified and allowed to join her friends again. The weaker sex of course do the hardest labor, and receive more blows than kind words for their pains. These people, in common with most nomadic nations, have the barbarous custom of abandoning the old and infirm the moment they find them an incumbrance. Lewis and Clarke state that children are never flogged, as it is thought to break their spirit.⁶²⁷

GAMBLING AND DRINKING.

The games of hazard played by the Shoshones differ little from those of their neighbors; the principal one appears to be the odd-and-even game so often mentioned; but of late years they have nearly abandoned these, and have taken to 'poker,' which they are said to play with such adroitness as to beat a white man. With the voice they imitate with great exactness the cries of birds and beasts, and their concerts of this description, which generally take place at midnight, are discordant beyond measure. Though they manufacture no intoxicating liquor themselves, they will drink the whisky of the whites whenever opportunity offers. They smoke the kinikkinik leaf when no tobacco can be procured from the traders.⁶²⁸ In connection with their smoking they have many strange observances. When the pipe is passed round at the solemnization of a treaty, or the confirmation of a bargain, each smoker, on receiving it from his neighbor, makes different motions with it; one turns the pipe round before placing the stem to his lips; another describes a semicircle with it; a third smokes with the bowl in the air; a fourth with the bowl on the ground, and so on through the whole company. All this is done with a most grave and serious countenance, which makes it the more ludicrous to the looker-on. The Snakes, before smoking with a stranger, always draw off their moccasins as a mark of respect. Any great feat performed by a warrior, which adds to his reputation and renown, such as scalping an enemy, or successfully stealing his horses, is celebrated by a change of name. Killing a grizzly bear also entitles him to this honor, for it is considered a great feat to slay one of these formidable animals, and only he who has performed it is allowed to wear their highest insignia of glory, the feet or claws of the victim. To bestow his name upon a friend is the highest compliment that one man can offer another.

The Snakes, and some of the Utahs, are skillful riders, and possess good horses. Their horse-furniture is simple. A horse-hair or raw-hide lariat is fastened round the animal's neck; the bight is passed with a single half-hitch round his lower jaw, and the other end is held in the rider's hand; this serves as a bridle. When the horse is turned loose, the lariat is loosened from his jaw and allowed to trail from his neck. The old men and the women have saddles similar to those used for packing by the whites; they are a wooden frame made of two pieces of thin board fitting close to the sides of the horse, and held together by two cross-pieces, in shape like the legs of an isosceles triangle. A piece of hide is placed between this and the horse's back, and a robe is thrown over the seat when it is ridden on. The younger men use no saddle, except a small pad, girthed on with a leather thong. When traveling they greatly overload their horses. All the household goods and provisions are packed upon the poor animal's back, and then the women and children seat themselves upon the pile, sometimes as many as four or five on one horse.⁶²⁹

DISEASES AND BURIAL.

The poorer Utahs are very subject to various diseases, owing to exposure in winter. They have few, if any, efficient remedies. They dress wounds with pine-gum, after squeezing out the blood. The Snakes are much affected by rheumatism and consumption, caused chiefly by their being almost constantly in the water fishing, and by exposure. Syphilis has, of course, been extensively introduced among all the tribes. A few plants and herbs are used for medicinal purposes, and the medicine-men practice their wonted mummeries, but what particular means of cure they adopt is not stated by the authorities. I find no mention of their having sweat-houses.⁶³⁰

Concerning the disposal of the dead usage differs. In some parts the body is burned, in others it is buried. In either case the property of the deceased is destroyed at his burial. His favorite horse, and, in some instances, his favorite wife, are killed over his grave, that he may not be alone in the spirit land. Laceration in token of grief is universal, and the lamentations of the dead person's relatives are heard for weeks after his death, and are renewed at intervals for many months. Child-like in this, they rush into extremes, and when not actually engaged in shrieking and tearing their flesh, they appear perfectly indifferent to their loss.⁶³¹