Part 32 (1/2)

_Kane's Wand._, pp. 237-9; _Ind. Aff. Rept._, 1857, pp. 327-8.

[331] _Sproat's Scenes_, p. 92; _Simpson's Overland Journ._, vol. i., pp. 242-3; _Kane's Wand._, pp. 214-15. The Nooksaks 'have no slaves.'

_Ind. Aff. Rept._, 1857, pp. 327-8; _Schoolcraft's Arch._, vol. iv., p.

601. It is said 'that the descendants of slaves obtain freedom at the expiration of three centuries.' _Pickering's Races_, in _U. S. Ex. Ex._, vol. ix., p. 28.

[332] The Makahs have some marriage ceremonies, 'such as going through the performance of taking the whale, manning a canoe, and throwing the harpoon into the bride's house.' _Ind. Aff. Rept._, p. 242. The Nooksak women 'are very industrious, and do most of the work, and procure the princ.i.p.al part of their sustenance.' _Id._, 1857, p. 327. 'The women have not the slightest pretension to virtue.' _Id._, 1858, p. 225; _Siwash Nuptials_, in _Olympia Was.h.i.+ngton Standard, July 30, 1870_. In matters of trade the opinion of the women is always called in, and their decision decides the bargain. _Seemann's Voy. Herald_, vol. i., p. 108.

'The whole burden of domestic occupation is thrown upon them.' Cut of the native baby-jumper. _Wilkes' Nar._, in _U. S. Ex. Ex._, vol. iv., pp. 319-20, 361. At Gray Harbor they were not jealous. At Port Discovery they offered their children for sale. _Vancouver's Voy._, vol. i., p.

231; vol. ii., pp. 83-4. 'Rarely having more than three or four'

children. _Swan's N. W. Coast_, p. 266; _Clark's Lights and Shadows_, pp. 224-6.

[333] _Wilkes' Nar._, in _U. S. Ex. Ex._, vol. iv., pp. 320, 444; _Rossi_, _Souvenirs_, pp. 298-9; _San Francis...o...b..lletin_, _May 24, 1859._

[334] _Vancouver's Voy._, vol. i., pp. 263, 270. The Lummi 'are a very superst.i.tious tribe, and pretend to have traditions--legends handed down to them by their ancestors.' 'No persuasion or pay will induce them to kill an owl or eat a pheasant.' _Ind. Aff. Rept._, 1857, pp. 327-8; _Kane's Wand._, pp. 216-17, 229. No forms of salutation. _Pickering's Races_, in _U. S. Ex. Ex._, vol. ix., pp. 23-4; _Winthrop's Canoe and Saddle_, pp. 21-2.

[335] Among the Skagits 'Dr. Holmes saw an old man in the last stage of consumption, s.h.i.+vering from the effects of a cold bath at the temperature of 40 Fahrenheit. A favourite remedy in pulmonary consumption is to tie a rope tightly around the thorax, so as to force the diaphram to perform respiration without the aid of the thoracic muscles.' _Wilkes' Nar._, in _U. S. Ex. Ex._, vol. iv., p. 512. Among the Clallams, to cure a girl of a disease of the side, after stripping the patient naked, the medicine-man, throwing off his blanket, 'commenced singing and gesticulating in the most violent manner, whilst the others kept time by beating with little sticks on hollow wooden bowls and drums, singing continually. After exercising himself in this manner for about half an hour, until the perspiration ran down his body, he darted suddenly upon the young woman, catching hold of her side with his teeth and shaking her for a few minutes, while the patient seemed to suffer great agony. He then relinquished his hold, and cried out that he had got it, at the same time holding his hands to his mouth; after which he plunged them in the water and pretended to hold down with great difficulty the disease which he had extracted.' _Kane's Wand._, pp.

225-6. Small-pox seemed very prevalent by which many had lost the sight of one eye. _Vancouver's Voy._, vol. i., p. 242. To cure a cold in the face the Queniults burned certain herbs to a cinder and mixing them with grease, anointed the face. _Swan's N. W. Coast_, p. 265. Among the Nooksaks mortality has not increased with civilization. 'As yet the only causes of any amount are consumption and the old diseases.' _Ind. Aff.

Rept._, 1857, p. 327. At Neah Bay, 'a scrofulous affection pervades the whole tribe.' The old, sick and maimed are abandoned by their friends to die. _Id._, 1872, p. 350.

[336] Slaves have no right to burial. _Kane's Wand._, p. 215. At a Queniult burial place 'the different colored blankets and calicoes hung round gave the place an appearance of clothes hung out to dry on a was.h.i.+ng day.' _Swan's N. W. Coast_, p. 267. At Port Orchard bodies were 'wrapped firmly in matting, beneath which was a white blanket, closely fastened round the body, and under this a covering of blue cotton.' At Port Discovery bodies 'are wrapped in mats and placed upon the ground in a sitting posture, and surrounded with stakes and pieces of plank to protect them.' On the Cowlitz the burial canoes are painted with figures, and gifts are not deposited till several months after the funeral. _Wilkes' Nar._, in _U. S. Ex. Ex._, vol. iv., pp. 323, 347-8, 509-10. Among the Nisquallies bodies of relatives are sometimes disinterred at different places, washed, re-wrapped and buried again in one grave. _Lord's Nat._, vol. ii., pp. 238-9. 'Ornes de rubans de diverses couleurs, de dents de poissons, de chapelets et d'autres brimborions du gout des sauvages.' _Rossi_, _Souvenirs_, pp. 74-5. On Penn Cove, in a deserted village, were found 'several sepulchres formed exactly like a centry box. Some of them were open, and contained the skeletons of many young children tied up in baskets.' _Vancouver's Voy._, vol. i., pp. 254-6, 287; _Ind. Aff. Rept._, 1854, p. 242; _Stevens_, in _Pac. R. R. Rept._, vol. i., p. 429. A correspondent describes a flathead mummy from Puget Sound preserved in San Francisco.

'The eye-b.a.l.l.s are still round under the lid; the teeth, the muscles, and tendons perfect, the veins injected with some preserving liquid, the bowels, stomach and liver dried up, but not decayed, all perfectly preserved. The very blanket that entwines him, made of some threads of bark and saturated with a pitchy substance, is entire.' _Schoolcraft's Arch._, vol. v., p. 693; _Pickering's Races_, in _U. S. Ex. Ex._, vol.

ix., p. 32.

[337] 'Their native bashfulness renders all squaws peculiarly sensitive to any public notice or ridicule.' Probably the laziest people in the world. The mails are intrusted with safety to Indian carriers, who are perfectly safe from interference on the part of any Indian they may meet. _Kane's Wand._, p. 209-16, 227-8, 234, 247-8. 'La memoire locale et personelle du sauvage est admirable; il n'oublie jamais un endroit ni une personne.' Nature seems to have given him memory to supply the want of intelligence. 'Much inclined to vengeance. Those having means may avert vengeance by payments.' _Rossi_, _Souvenirs_, pp. 113, 295-9.

'Perfectly indifferent to exposure; decency has no meaning in their language.' Although always begging, they refuse to accept any article not in good condition, calling it _Peeshaaak_, a term of contempt.

_Seemann's Voy. Herald_, vol. i., pp. 108-9. Murder of a Spanish boat's crew in lat.i.tude 47 20'. _Maurelle's Jour._, pp. 29, 31. 'Cheerful and well disposed' at Port Orchard. At Strait of Fuca 'little more elevated in their moral qualities than the Fuegians.' At Nisqually, 'addicted to stealing.' 'Vicious and exceedingly lazy, sleeping all day.' The Skagits are catholics, and are more advanced than others in civilization.

_Wilkes' Nar._, in _U. S. Ex. Ex._, vol. iv., pp. 317, 444, 510-11, 517.

Both at Gray Harbor and Puget Sound they were uniformly civil and friendly, fair and honest in trade. Each tribe claimed that 'the others were bad people and that the party questioned were the only good Indians in the harbor.' _Vancouver's Voy._, vol. i., p. 256; vol. ii., pp. 83-4.

'The Clallam tribe has always had a bad character, which their intercourse with s.h.i.+pping, and the introduction of whiskey, has by no means improved.' _Ind. Aff. Rept._, 1854, p. 243. 'The superior courage of the Makahs, as well as their treachery, will make them more difficult of management than most other tribes.' _Stevens_, in _Pac. R. R. Rept._, vol. i., p. 429. The Lummis and other tribes at Bellingham Bay have already abandoned their ancient barbarous habits, and have adopted those of civilization. _Coleman_, in _Harper's Mag._, vol. x.x.xix., pp. 795-7; _Simpson's Overland Journ._, vol. i., pp. 240-2. 'The instincts of these people are of a very degraded character. They are filthy, cowardly, lazy, treacherous, drunken, avaricious, and much given to thieving. The women have not the slightest pretension to virtue.' The Makahs 'are the most independent Indians in my district--they and the Quilleyutes, their near neighbors.' _Ind. Aff. Rept._, 1858, pp. 225, 231; _Id._, 1862, p.

390; _Id._, 1870, p. 20; _Schoolcraft's Arch._, vol. iv., p. 601; _Winthrop's Canoe and Saddle_, p. 58; _Cram's Top. Mem._, p. 65.

[338] Perhaps the Cascades might more properly be named as the boundary, since the region of the Dalles, from the earliest records, has been the rendezvous for fis.h.i.+ng, trading, and gambling purposes, of tribes from every part of the surrounding country, rather than the home of any particular nation.

[339] For details see TRIBAL BOUNDARIES at the end of this chapter. The Chinooks, Clatsops, Wakiak.u.ms and Cathlamets, 'resembling each other in person, dress, language, and manners.' The Chinooks and Wakiak.u.ms were originally one tribe, and Wakiak.u.m was the name of the chief who seceded with his adherents. _Irving's Astoria_, pp. 335-6. 'They may be regarded as the distinctive type of the tribes to the north of the Oregon, for it is in them that the peculiarities of the population of these regions are seen in the most striking manner.' _Domenech's Deserts_, vol. ii., pp.

15-6, 36. All the tribes about the mouth of the Columbia 'appear to be descended from the same stock ... and resemble one another in language, dress, and habits.' _Ross' Adven._, pp. 87-8. The Cathleyacheyachs at the Cascades differ but little from the Chinooks. _Id._, p. 111. Scouler calls the Columbia tribes _Cathlascons_, and considers them 'intimately related to the Kalapooiah Family.' _Lond. Geog. Soc., Jour._, vol. xi., p. 225. The Willamette tribes 'differ very little in their habits and modes of life, from those on the Columbia River.' _Hunter's Cap._, p.

72. Mofras makes _Killimous_ a general name for all Indians south of the Columbia. _Explor._, tom. ii., p. 357; _Dunn's Oregon_, pp. 114-18; _c.o.x's Adven._, vol. ii., p. 133. The Nechecolees on the Willamette claimed an affinity with the Eloots at the Narrows of the Columbia. The Killamucks 'resemble in almost every particular the Clatsops and Chinnooks. _Lewis and Clarke's Trav._, pp. 427, 504. 'Of the Coast Indians that I have seen there seems to be so little difference in their style of living that a description of one family will answer for the whole.' _Swan's N. W. Coast_, pp. 153-4. 'All the natives inhabiting the southern sh.o.r.e of the Straits, and the deeply indented territory as far and including the tide-waters of the Columbia, may be comprehended under the general term of Chinooks.' _Pickering's Races_, in _U. S. Ex. Ex._, vol. ix., p. 25.

[340] 'The race of the Chenooks is nearly run. From a large and powerful tribe ... they have dwindled down to about a hundred individuals, ...

and these are a depraved, licentious, drunken set.' _Swan's N. W.

Coast_, pp. 108-10. The Willopahs 'may be considered as extinct, a few women only remaining.' _Stevens_, in _Pac. R. R. Rept._, vol. i., p.

428; _Mofras_, _Explor._, tom. ii., p. 351; _Ind. Aff. Rept._, 1854, pp.

239-40; _Lord's Nat._, vol. i., p. 354; vol. ii., p. 217; _De Smet_, _Missions de l'Oregon_, pp. 163-4; _Kane's Wand._, pp. 173-6, 196-7; _Irving's Astoria_, pp. 335-6; _Fitzgerald's Hud. B. Co._, pp. 170-2; _Hines' Oregon_, pp. 103-19, 236; _Thornton's Ogn. and Cal._, vol. ii., pp. 52-3; _Domenech's Deserts_, vol. ii., p. 36; _Palmer's Jour._, pp.

84, 87; _Parker's Explor. Tour_, pp. 191-2. 'In the Wallamette valley, their favorite country, ... there are but few remnants left, and they are dispirited and broken-hearted.' _Robertson's Oregon_, p. 130.

[341] 'The personal appearance of the Chinooks differs so much from that of the aboriginal tribes of the United States, that it was difficult at first to recognize the affinity.' _Pickering's Races_, in _U. S. Ex.

Ex._, vol. ix., p. 27. 'There are no two nations in Europe so dissimilar as the tribes to the north and those to the south of the Columbia.'

_Domenech's Deserts_, vol. i., p. 88; vol. ii., p. 36. 'Thick set limbs,'

north; 'slight,' south. _Id._, vol. i., p. 88; vol. ii., p. 16. 'Very inferior in muscular power.' _Id._, vol. ii., pp. 15-16. 'Among the ugliest of their race. They are below the middle size, with squat, clumsy forms.' _Hale's Ethnog._, in _U. S. Ex. Ex._, vol. vi., pp. 198, 216. The men from five feet to five feet six inches high, with well-shaped limbs; the women six to eight inches shorter, with bandy legs, thick ankles, broad, flat feet, loose hanging b.r.e.a.s.t.s. _c.o.x's Adven._, vol. i., pp. 303-4. 'A diminutive race, generally below five feet five inches, with crooked legs and thick ankles.' 'Broad, flat feet.' _Irving's Astoria_, pp. 87, 336. 'But not deficient in strength or activity.' _Nicolay's Oregon_, p. 145. Men 'stout, muscular and strong, but not tall;' women 'of the middle size, but very stout and flabby, with short necks and shapeless limbs.' _Ross' Adven._, pp.

89-93. At Cape Orford none exceed five feet six inches; 'tolerably well limbed, though slender in their persons.' _Vancouver's Voy._, vol. i., p. 204. The Willamette tribes were somewhat larger and better shaped than those of the Columbia and the coast. _Lewis and Clarke's Trav._, pp. 425, 436-7, 504, 508. _Hunter's Cap._, pp. 70-73; _Hines' Voy._, pp.

88, 91. 'Persons of the men generally are rather symmetrical; their stature is low, with light sinewy limbs, and remarkably small, delicate hands. The women are usually more rotund, and, in some instances, even approach obesity.' _Townsend's Nar._, p. 178. 'Many not even five feet.'

_Franchere's Nar._, pp. 240-1. Can endure cold, but not fatigue; sharp sight and hearing, but obtuse smell and taste. 'The women are uncouth, and from a combination of causes appear old at an early age. _Parker's Explor. Tour_, pp. 244-5. 'The Indians north of the Columbia are, for the most part good-looking, robust men, some of them having fine, symmetrical, forms. They have been represented as diminutive, with crooked legs and uncouth features. This is not correct; but, as a general rule, the direct reverse is the truth.' _Swan's N. W. Coast_, p.

154; _Dunn's Oregon_, pp. 122-3.