Part 19 (1/2)
All the tribes flatten the head more or less, but none carry the practice to such an extent as their neighbors on the south, unless it be the Cowlitz nation, which might indeed as correctly be cla.s.sed with the Chinooks. By most of the Sound natives tattooing is not practiced, and they seem somewhat less addicted to a constant use of paint than the Nootkas; yet on festive occasions a plentiful and hideous application is made of charcoal or colored earth pulverized in grease, and the women appreciate the charms imparted to the face by the use of vermilion clay.
The nose, particularly at Cape Flattery, is the grand centre of facial ornamentation. Perforating is extravagantly practiced, and pendant trinkets of every form and substance are worn, those of bone or sh.e.l.l preferred, and, if we may credit Wilkes, by some of the women these ornaments are actually kept clean.
[Sidenote: SOUND DRESS AND DWELLINGS.]
The native garment, when the weather makes nakedness uncomfortable, is a blanket of dog's hair, sometimes mixed with birds' down and bark-fibre, thrown about the shoulders. Some few fasten this about the neck with a wooden pin. The women are more careful in covering the person with the blanket than are the men, and generally wear under it a bark ap.r.o.n hanging from the waist in front. A cone-shaped, water-proof hat, woven from colored gra.s.ses, is sometimes worn on the head.[321]
Temporary hunting-huts in summer are merely cross-sticks covered with coa.r.s.e mats made by laying bulrushes side by side, and knotting them at intervals with cord or gra.s.s. The poorer individuals or tribes dwell permanently in similar huts, improved by the addition of a few slabs; while the rich and powerful build substantial houses, of planks split from trees by means of bone wedges, much like the Nootka dwellings in plan, and nearly as large. These houses sometimes measure over one hundred feet in length, and are divided into rooms or pens, each house accommodating many families. There are several fire-places in each dwelling; raised benches extend round the sides, and the walls are often lined with matting.[322]
[Sidenote: FOOD OF THE SOUND INDIANS.]
In spring time they abandon their regular dwellings and resort in small companies to the various sources of food-supply. Fish is their chief dependence, though game is taken in much larger quant.i.ties than by the Nootkas; some of the more inland Sound tribes subsisting almost entirely by the chase and by root-digging. Nearly all the varieties of fish which support the northern tribes are also abundant here, and are taken substantially by the same methods, namely, by the net, hook, spear, and rake; but fisheries seem to be carried on somewhat less systematically, and I find no account of the extensive and complicated embankments and traps mentioned by travelers in British Columbia. To the salmon, sturgeon, herring, rock-cod, and candle-fish, abundant in the inlets of the sound, the Cla.s.sets, by venturing out to sea, add a supply of whale-blubber and otter-meat, obtained with spears, lines, and floats.
At certain points on the sh.o.r.e tall poles are erected, across which nets are spread; and against these nets large numbers of wild fowl, dazzled by torch-lights at night, dash themselves and fall stunned to the ground, where the natives stand ready to gather in the feathery harvest.
Vancouver noticed many of these poles in different localities, but could not divine their use. Deer and elk in the forests are also hunted by night, and brought within arrow-shot by the spell of torches. For preservation, fish are dried in the sun or dried and smoked by the domestic hearth, and sometimes pounded fine, as are roots of various kinds; clams are dried on strings and hung up in the houses, or occasionally worn round the neck, ministering to the native love of ornament until the stronger instinct of hunger impairs the beauty of the necklace. In the better cla.s.s of houses, supplies are neatly stored in baskets at the sides. The people are extremely improvident, and, notwithstanding their abundant natural supplies in ocean, stream, and forest, are often in great want. Boiling in wooden vessels by means of hot stones is the ordinary method of cooking. A visitor to the Nooksaks thus describes their method of steaming elk-meat: ”They first dig a hole in the ground, then build a wood fire, placing stones on the top of it.
As it burns, the stones become hot and fall down. Moss and leaves are then placed on the top of the hot stones, the meat on these, and another layer of moss and leaves laid over it. Water is poured on, which is speedily converted into steam. This is retained by mats carefully placed over the heap. When left in this way for a night, the meat is found tender and well cooked in the morning.” Fowls were cooked in the same manner by the Queniults.[323]
I find no mention of other weapons, offensive or defensive, than spears, and bows and arrows. The arrows and spears were usually pointed with bone; the bows were of yew, and though short, were of great power.
Vancouver describes a superior bow used at Puget Sound. It was from two and a half to three feet long, made from a naturally curved piece of yew, whose concave side became the convex of the bow, and to the whole length of this side a strip of elastic hide or serpent-skin was attached so firmly by a kind of cement as to become almost a part of the wood.
This lining added greatly to the strength of the bow, and was not affected by moisture. The bow-string was made of sinew.[324] The tribes were continually at war with each other, and with northern nations, generally losing many of their people in battle. Sticking the heads of the slain enemy on poles in front of their dwellings, is a common way of demonstrating their joy over a victory. The Indians at Port Discovery spoke to Wilkes of scalping among their warlike exploits, but according to Kane the Cla.s.sets do not practice that usage.[325] Vancouver, finding sepulchres at Penn Cove, in which were large quant.i.ties of human bones but no limb-bones of adults, suspected that the latter were used by the Indians for pointing their arrows, and in the manufacture of other implements.[326]
[Sidenote: MANUFACTURES OF PUGET SOUND.]
The Sound manufactures include only the weapons and utensils used by the natives. Their articles were made with the simplest tools of bone or sh.e.l.l. Blankets were made of dog's hair,--large numbers of dogs being raised for the purpose,--the wool of mountain sheep, or wild goats, found on the mountain slopes, the down of wild-fowl, cedar bark-fibre, ravellings of foreign blankets, or more commonly of a mixture of several of these materials. The fibre is twisted into yarn between the hand and thigh, and the strands arranged in perpendicular frames for weaving purposes. Willow and other twigs supply material for baskets of various forms, often neatly made and colored. Oil, both for domestic use and for barter, is extracted by boiling, except in the case of the candle-fish, when hanging in the hot sun suffices; it is preserved in bladders and skin-bottles.[327]
Canoes are made by the Sound Indians in the same manner as by the Nootkas already described; being always dug out, formerly by fire, from a single cedar trunk, and the form improved afterwards by stretching when soaked in hot water. Of the most elegant proportions, they are modeled by the builder with no guide but the eye, and with most imperfect tools; three months' work is sufficient to produce a medium-sized boat. The form varies among different nations according as the canoe is intended for ocean, sound, or river navigation; being found with bow or stern, or both, in various forms, pointed, round, shovel-nosed, raised or level. The raised stern, head-piece, and stern-post are usually formed of separate pieces. Like the Nootkas, they char and polish the outside and paint the interior with red. The largest and finest specimen seen by Mr. Swan was forty-six feet long and six feet wide, and crossed the bar into Shoalwater Bay with thirty Queniult Indians from the north. The paddle used in deep water has a crutch-like handle and a sharp-pointed blade.[328]
[Sidenote: TRADE AND GOVERNMENT OF THE SOUND INDIANS.]
In their barter between the different tribes, and in estimating their wealth, the blanket is generally the unit of value, and the _hiaqua_, a long white sh.e.l.l obtained off Cape Flattery at a considerable depth, is also extensively used for money, its value increasing with its length. A kind of annual fair for trading purposes and festivities is held by the tribes of Puget Sound at Bajada Point, and here and in their other feasts they are fond of showing their wealth and liberality by disposing of their surplus property in gifts.[329]
The system of government seems to be of the simplest nature, each individual being entirely independent and master of his own actions.
There is a nominal chief in each tribe, who sometimes acquires great influence and privileges by his wealth or personal prowess, but he has no authority, and only directs the movements of his band in warlike incursions. I find no evidence of hereditary rank or caste except as wealth is sometimes inherited.[330] Slaves are held by all the tribes, and are treated very much like their dogs, being looked upon as property, and not within the category of humanity. For a master to kill half a dozen slaves is no wrong or cruelty; it only tends to ill.u.s.trate the owner's n.o.ble disposition in so freely sacrificing his property.
Slaves are obtained by war and kidnapping, and are sold in large numbers to northern tribes. According to Sproat, the Cla.s.sets, a rich and powerful tribe, encourage the slave-hunting incursions of the Nootkas against their weaker neighbors.[331]
Wives are bought by presents, and some performances or ceremonies, representative of hunting or fis.h.i.+ng scenes, not particularly described by any visitor, take place at the wedding. Women have all the work to do except hunting and fis.h.i.+ng, while their lords spend their time in idleness and gambling. Still the females are not ill-treated; they acquire great influence in the tribe, and are always consulted in matters of trade before a bargain is closed. They are not overburdened with modesty, nor are husbands noted for jealousy. Hiring out their women, chiefly however slaves, for prost.i.tution, has been a prominent source of tribal revenue since the country was partially settled by whites. Women are not prolific, three or four being ordinarily the limit of their offspring. Infants, properly bound up with the necessary apparatus for head-flattening, are tied to their cradle or to a piece of bark, and hung by a cord to the end of a springy pole kept in motion by a string attached to the mother's great toe. Affection for children is by no means rare, but in few tribes can they resist the temptation to sell or gamble them away.[332]
[Sidenote: AMUs.e.m.e.nTS OF THE SOUND INDIANS.]
Feasting, gambling, and smoking are the favorite amus.e.m.e.nts; all their property, slaves, children, and even their own freedom in some cases are risked in their games. Several plants are used as subst.i.tutes for tobacco when that article is not obtainable. If any important differences exist between their ceremonies, dances, songs and feasts, and those of Vancouver Island, such variations have not been recorded.
In fact, many authors describe the manners and customs of 'North-west America' as if occupied by one people.[333] There is no evidence of cannibalism; indeed, during Vancouver's visit at Puget Sound, some meat offered to the natives was refused, because it was suspected to be human flesh. Since their acquaintance with the whites they have acquired a habit of a.s.suming great names, as Duke of York, or Jenny Lind, and highly prize sc.r.a.ps of paper with writing purporting to substantiate their claims to such distinctions. Their superst.i.tions are many, and they are continually on the watch in all the commonest acts of life against the swarm of evil influences, from which they may escape only by the greatest care.[334]
[Sidenote: CHARACTER OF THE SOUND INDIANS.]
Disorders of the throat and lungs, rheumatism and intermittent fevers, are among the most prevalent forms of disease, and in their methods of cure, as usual, the absurd ceremonies, exorcisms, and gesticulations of the medicine-men play the princ.i.p.al part; but hot and cold baths are also often resorted to without regard to the nature or stage of the malady.[335] The bodies of such as succ.u.mb to their diseases, or to the means employed for cure, are disposed of in different ways according to locality, tribe, rank, or age. Skeletons are found by travelers buried in the ground or deposited in a sitting posture on its surface; in canoes or in boxes supported by posts, or, more commonly, suspended from the branches of trees. Corpses are wrapped in cloth or matting, and more or less richly decorated according to the wealth of the deceased.
Several bodies are often put in one canoe or box, and the bodies of young children are found suspended in baskets. Property and implements, the latter always broken, are deposited with or near the remains, and these last resting-places of their people are religiously cared for and guarded from intrusion by all the tribes.[336] All the peculiarities and inconsistencies of the Nootka character perhaps have been noted by travelers among the Indians of the Sound, but none of these peculiarities are so clearly marked in the latter people. In their character, as in other respects, they have little individuality, and both their virtues and vices are but faint reflections of the same qualities in the great families north and south of their territory. The Cape Flattery tribes are at once the most intelligent, bold, and treacherous of all, while some of the tribes east and north-east of the Sound proper have perhaps the best reputation. Since the partial settlement of their territory by the whites, the natives here as elsewhere have lost many of their original characteristics, chiefly the better ones. The remnants now for the most part are collected on government reservations, or live in the vicinity of towns, by begging and prost.i.tution. Some tribes, especially in the region of Bellingham Bay, have been nominally converted to Christianity, have abandoned polygamy, slavery, head-flattening, gambling, and superst.i.tious ceremonies, and pay considerable attention to a somewhat mixed version of church doctrine and ceremonies.[337]
THE CHINOOKS const.i.tute the fourth division of the Columbian group.
Originally the name was restricted to a tribe on the north bank of the Columbia between Gray Bay and the ocean; afterwards, from a similarity in language and customs, it was applied to all the bands on both sides of the river, from its mouth to the Dalles.[338] It is employed in this work to designate all the Oregon tribes west of the Cascade Range, southward to the Rogue River or Umpqua Mountains. This family lies between the Sound Indians on the north and the Californian group on the south, including in addition to the tribes of the Columbia, those of the Willamette Valley and the Coast. All closely resemble each other in manners and customs, having also a general resemblance to the northern families already described, springing from their methods of obtaining food; and although probably without linguistic affinities, except along the Columbia River, they may be consistently treated as one family--the last of the great coast or fish-eating divisions of the Columbian group.