Chapter XVII: Part 17

From the tables it will be seen that the American Indians in some parts of North America are not decreasing, but either holding their own or even increasing; also that thousands of them are now to all intents and purposes the equals in wealth, thrift, industry and intelligence of the average white man and citizens with him in the same society. In certain regions of the continent small tribes have been annihilated in the course of wars with other Indians or with the whites, and others have been decimated by disease, famine, &c.; and over large areas the aboriginal population, according to some authorities, has vastly diminished. Thus Morice estimates that the Athabaskan population at present in Canada (about 20,000) is less than one-seventh of what it was a century or more ago; Hill-Tout thinks the Salishan tribes (c. 15,000) number not one-fifth of their population a hundred years ago, and equally great reductions are claimed for some other peoples of the North Pacific region; Kroeber thinks probable an Indian population in California of 150,000 before the arrival of the whites, as compared with but 15,000 now; by some the arid regions of the south-west are supposed to have sustained a very large population in earlier times; certain of the Plains tribes are known to have lost much in population since contact with the whites. But under better care and more favourable conditions generally some tribes seem to be taking on a new lease of life and are apparently beginning to thrive again. A considerable portion of the "disappearance" of the Indian is through amalgamation with the whites. Undoubtedly, in some parts of the country, exaggerated ideas prevalent in the early colonial period as to the numbers of the native population have interfered with a correct estimate of the aborigines past and present. Mooney thinks that the Cherokee "are probably about as numerous now as at any period in their history" (_Hndb. Amer. Inds._, 1907, pt. i. p. 247), and this is perhaps true also of some other tribes east of the Mississippi. Major J. W. Powell was of opinion that the Indian population north of Mexico is as large to-day as it was at the time of the discovery. This, however, is not the view of the majority of authorities. The total number of Indians in Canada (_Ann. Rep. Dept. Ind. Aff._, 1907) for 1907 is given as 110,345, as compared with 109,394 for the previous year, not including the Micmac in Newfoundland and the Indians and Eskimo in that part of Labrador belonging to Newfoundland. In 1903 the figures were 108,233. The gain may be largely due to more careful enumeration of Indians in the less well-known parts of the country, but there is evidently no marked decrease going on, but rather a slight increase in Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, &c. In the United States (exclusive of Alaska, which counts about 30,000) the Indian population (_Ann. Rep. Ind. Aff._, 1906) is estimated at 197,289, no including the "Five Civilized Tribes," of whose numbers (94,292) some 65,000 can be reckoned as Indians--a total of 382,000. The figures of 197,289, according to the report, show an increase in population "due mainly to increase in number of Indians reported from California."

The financial condition of the Indians of the Dominion of Canada for
the year ending March 31, 1907, is indicated in the following table:--

+--------------+---------------+--------------+
| | Total Amount | |
| | of Real and | Total Income |
| | Personal | for the |
| | Property. | Year. |
+--------------+---------------+--------------+
| Ontario | $7,566,125 | $1,426,690 |
| Quebec | 1,781,330 | 915,783 |
| N. Brunswick | 189,701 | 109,892 |
| N. Scotia | 151,949 | 76,603 |
| P. E. I. | 6,370 | 15,374 |
| Manitoba | 2,102,044 | 348,966 |
| B. Columbia | 7,475,719 | 1,501,456 |
| Sask | 7,721,532 | 548,533 |
| Alberta | 5,154,789 | 211,839 |
+--------------+---------------+--------------+
| Total | $30,129,659 | $5,155,052 |
+--------------+---------------+--------------+

The total amounts earned during the year were: from agriculture,
$1,337,948; wages and miscellaneous industries, $714,125; fishing,
$544,487; hunting and trapping, $630,633. Of these hunting and
trapping show a decided decrease over 1906. The Indian Trust Fund
amounts to $5,157,566.59. The total appropriation in connexion with
the Indians of the Dominion for all purposes for the year 1906-1907
was $1,055,010 and the actual expenditure some $114,000 less. The
total amount of sales of lands for the benefit of Indian tribes was
$422,086.13. The balance to the credit of the Indian savings account
for the funding of the annuities and earnings of pupils at industrial
schools, together with collections from Indians for purchase of cattle
and for ranching expenses, was $51,708.92.

According to the _Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs_ the
total amount of trust funds held by the United States government for
the Indians, in lieu of investment, amounted to $36,352,950.97,
yielding for 1906 interest at 4 and 5% of $1,788,237.23. The total
incomes of the various tribes from all sources for the year ending
June 30, 1906, was $6,557,554.39, including interest on trust funds,
treaty agreement and obligations, gratuities, Indian money, proceeds
of labour, &c.

Physical characteristics.

While the general constitution of the American aborigines north of Mexico is such as to justify their designation as one "American race," whose nearest congener is to be found in the "Mongolian race" of eastern Asia, &c., there is a wide range in variation within the American tribes with respect to particular physical characteristics. Some authorities, like Dr Hrdlicka (_Handb. Amer. Inds. N. of Mex._, 1907, pt. i. p. 53), separate the Eskimo from the "Indians," regarding them as "a distinct sub-race of the Mongolo-Malay," but this is hardly necessary if, with Boas (_Ann. Archaeol. Rep. Ontario_, 1905, p. 85), we "consider the inhabitants of north-eastern Asia and of America as a unit divided into a great many distinct types but belonging to one and the same of the large divisions of mankind." Upon the basis of differences in stature and general bodily conformation, colour of skin, texture and form of hair, shape of nose, face and head, &c., some twenty-one different physical "types" north of Mexico have been recognized.

Although the variation in stature, from the short people of Harrison Lake (average 1611 mm.) to the tall Sioux (average 1726 mm.), Eastern Chippewa (average 1723 mm.), Iroquois (average 1727 mm.), Omaha and Winnebago (average 1733 mm.) and other tribes of the Plains and the regions farther east, is considerable, the North American Indian, on the whole, may be termed a tall race. The stature of women averages among the tall tribes about 92%, and among the short tribes about 94% of that of the men.

The proportion of statures (adult males) above 1730 mm. in certain
Indian tribes (Boas) is as follows: Apache and Navaho, 25.3; Arapaho,
45.9; Arikara, 15.2; British Columbia (coast), 28.8; British Columbia
(interior), 16.4; California (south), 32.7; Cherokee (eastern), 21.0;
Cherokee (western), 40.7; Cheyenne, 72.2; Chickasaw, 23.8; Chinook,
36.2; Choctaw, 32.6; Coahuila, 14.2; Comanche, 27.1; Cree, 33.4;
Creek, 53.6; Crow, 51.3; Delaware, 41.1; Eskimo (Alaska), 5.9; Eskimo
(Labrador), 0.0; Flathead, 18.9; Harrison Lake, B.C., 1.0; Hupa, 18.7;
Iroquois, 52.1; Kiowa, 41.3; Klamath, 20.0; Kootenay, 26.0; Micmac and
Abnaki, 45.7; Ojibwa (eastern), 42.7; Ojibwa (western), 427; Omaha and
Winnebago, 54.9; Oregon (south), 5.1; Ottawa and Menominee, 30.6;
Paiute, 22.1; Pawnee, 39.0; Puget Sound and Makah, 6.5; Round Valley,
Cal., 3.3; Sahaptin, 28.2; Shuswap, 15.9; Sioux, 50.8; Taos, 18.5:
Ute, 124; Zuñi and Moqui, 1.9.

Very notable is the percentage of tall statures among the Cheyenne,
Creek, Crow, Iroquois, &c. The form of the head (skull) varies
considerably among the Indian tribes north of Mexico, running from the
dolichocephalic eastern Eskimo with a cephalic index of 71.3 on the
skull to the brachycephalic Aleuts with 84.8. Several tribes
practising deformation of the skull (mound-builders, Klamath, &c.)
show much higher brachycephaly.

The percentage of cephalic indices above 84 (on the heads of living
individuals) among certain Indian tribes (Boas) is as follows: Apache,
87.6; Arapaho, 5.0; Arikara, 24.6; Blackfeet, 6.2; Caddo, 47.2;
Cherokee, 20.0; Cheyenne, 10.4; Chickasaw, 14.4; Comanche, 65.3; Cree,
4.9; Creek, 25.0; Crow, 12.0; Delaware 12.0; Eskimo, (Alaska), 10.6;
Harrison Lake, B.C., 88.8; Iroquois, 15.4; Kiowa, 25.0; Kootenay,
19.1; Mandan, 4.5; Micmac and Abnaki, 7.0; Mohave, 86.5: Montagnais,
21.7; Moqui, 54.3; Navaho, 49.4; Ojibwa (eastern), 26.6; Ojibwa
(western), 10.2; Omaha, 23.0; Oregon (south), 50.9; Osage, 79.1;
Ottawa and Menominee, 24.7; Pawnee, 4.8; Pima, 9.6; Round Valley,
Cal., 4.8; Sahaptin, 57.4; Shuswap, 59.9; Sioux, 9.6; Taos, 6.0; Ute,
8.9; Wichita, 96.0; Winnebago, 66.8; Zuñi, 41.4.

The Apache, Mohave, Navaho, Osage, Sahaptin, Wichita and Winnebago
practised skull-deformation, which accounts in part for their high
figures. The brachycephalic tendency of the Caddo, Moqui, Shuswap and
Zuñi is marked; the Comanche, with an average cephalic index of 84.6
and the Harrison Lake people with one of 88.8, are noteworthy in this
respect. As in the case of stature, so in the case of head-form, there
seems to have been much mingling of types, especially in the
Huron-Algonkian region, the Great Plains and the North Pacific coast.

The North American Indian may be described in general as brown-skinned (of various shades, with reddish tinge, sometimes dark and chocolate or almost black in colour) with black hair and eyes varying from hazel brown to dark brown. Under good conditions of food, &c., the Indian tends to be tall and mesocephalic as to head-form, and well-proportioned and symmetrical in body. The ideal Indian type can be met with among the youth of several different tribes (Plains Indians, Algonkians, Iroquoians, Muskogians and some of the tribes of the south-western United States). Beauty among the aborigines of America north of Mexico has been the subject of brief studies by Dr R. W. Shufeldt and Dr A. Hrdlicka (_Boas Anniv. Vol._, New York, 1906, pp. 38-42).

Race mixture.

The extent to which the red and white races have mixed their blood in various parts of North America is greater than is generally thought. The Eskimo of Greenland have intermarried with the Danes, and their kinsmen of Labrador with the English settlers and "summerers." The eastern Algonkian Indians in New England and Acadia have now considerable French, English and Scottish blood. Many of the Canadian Iroquois are more than half French, many of the Iroquois of New York half English. The Cherokee, an Iroquoian people of the Carolinas, have some admixture of Scottish and German blood, to which Mooney would attribute some, at least, of their remarkable progress. In the state of Oklahoma, which has absorbed the old "Indian Territory," the results of race-amalgamation are apparent in the large number of mixed bloods of all shades. In spite of the romance of Pocahontas, the intermarriages of the two races in the Virginian region seem not to have been very common or very important. Nor does there appear to have been much intermarriage between Spaniards and Indians in the south Atlantic region, though in Texas, &c., there was a good deal. In New France, in spite of the efforts of some recent Canadian-French writers to minimize the fact, intermixture between whites, and Indians began early and continued to be extensive. In parts of New Brunswick, Quebec, Ontario, some of the northern American states and regions of the Canadian north-west, there are Indian villages and white settlements where hardly a single individual of absolutely pure blood can now be found. In the veins of some of the "Iroquois" of Caughnawaga and New York state to-day flows blood of the best colonial stock (Rice, Hill, Williams, Stacey, &c., captives adopted and married within the tribe). In the great Canadian north-west, and to a large extent also in the tier of American states to the south, the blood of the Indian, through the mingling of French, Scottish and English traders, trappers, employees of the great fur companies, pioneer settlers, &c., has entered largely and significantly into the life of the nation, the half-breed element playing a most important rôle in social, commercial and industrial development.

In 1879, besides those whose mixed blood had not been remembered and those who wished to forget it, there were, according to Dr Havard (_Rep. Smiths. Inst._, 1879), at least 22,000 _métis_ in the United States and 18,000 in Canada (i.e. in the north-west in each case). When the province of Manitoba entered the Canadian Confederation it numbered within the borders some 10,000 mixed-bloods, one of whom, John Norquay, afterwards became its premier. In the Columbia river region and British Columbia some intermixture has taken place, originating in the conditions due to the establishment of trading-posts, the circumstances of the early settlement of the country, &c.--this has been both French and English and Scottish. Farther north in Alaska the Russian occupation led to not a little intermixture, both with the Aleuts, &c., and the coast Indians. In some parts of the far north intermixture of the whites with the Athabaskans is just beginning. In Canada no prohibition of marriage between whites and Indians exists, but such unions are forbidden by law in the states of Arizona, Oregon, North Carolina and South Carolina.

A considerable number of the chiefs and able men of the various Indian
tribes of certain regions in recent times have had more or less white
blood--Iroquois, Algonkian, Siouan, &c.--who have sometimes worked
with and sometimes against the whites. In the case of some tribes
there have been "pure blood" and "mixed blood" factions. Some tribes
have frowned upon miscegenation; even the Pueblos (except Laguna,
which is Keresan) have never intermarried with the whites. Both in
Canada and the United States strains of Indian blood run in the veins
of prominent families. Some of the "first families of Virginia" are
proud to descend from Pocahontas, the Algonkian "Princess," who
married the Englishman Rolfe. In Maine may still be discovered perhaps
those whose line of life goes back to the Baron de St Casteins and his
Abnaki bride, while in Ontario and New York are to be met those who
trace their ancestry back to the famous Iroquois Joseph Brant and his
half-English wife. In the early history of Pennsylvania and Ohio were
noted the Montours, descendants of a French nobleman who about 1665
had a son and two daughters by a Huron woman in Canada. In 1817
Captain John S. Pierce, U.S.A., brother of President Franklin Pierce,
married the fair Josette la Framboise, who had at least a quarter
Indian (Ottawa) blood. In the latter part of the 18th century a young
Irish gentleman married Neengai, daughter of the Michigan Ojibwa chief
Waubojeeg, and of the daughters born to them one married a Canadian
Frenchman of reputation in the early development of the province of
Ontario, another the Rev. Mr McMurray, afterwards Episcopal archdeacon
of Niagara, and a third Henry R. Schoolcraft, the ethnologist.

Several Indians, some full-blood, others with more or less white blood
in their veins, have rendered signal service to ethnological science.
These deserve special mention: Francis la Flesche, an Omaha, a
graduate of the National University Law School. D.C., holding a
position in the Office of Indian Affairs; Dr William Jones, a Sac and
Fox, in the service of the Field Museum, Chicago, a graduate of
Harvard and of Columbia (Ph.D.); and J. N. B. Hewitt, a Tuscarora,
ethnologist in the Bureau of American Ethnology, Washington, D.C. In
some regions considerable intermixture between negroes and Indians
(_Science_, New York, vol. xvii., 1891, pp. 85-90) has occurred, e.g.
among the Mashpee and Gay Head Indians of Massachusetts, the remnants
of the Pequots in Connecticut, the Shinnecocks and the Montauks, &c.,
of Long Island; the Pamunkeys, Mattaponies and some other small
Virginian and Carolinian tribes. In earlier times some admixture of
negro blood took place among the Seminoles, although now the remnants
of that people still in Florida are much averse to miscegenation. Of
the tribes of the Muskogian stock who kept large numbers of negro
slaves the Creeks are said to have about one-third of their number of
mixed Indian-negro blood. Sporadic intermixture of this sort is
reported from the Shawnee, the Minnesota Chippewa, the Canadian
Tuscarora, the Caddo, &c., in the case of the last the admixture may
be considerable. It is also thought probable that many of the negroes
of the whole lower Atlantic coast and Gulf region may have strains of
Indian blood. The mythology and folk-lore of the negroes of this
region may have borrowed not a little from the Indian, for as Mooney
notes (_19th Rep. Bur. Amer. Ethnol._, 1900, pp. 232-234), "in all the
southern colonies Indian slaves were bought and sold and kept in
servitude and worked in the fields side by side with negroes up to the
time of the Revolution." When Dr John R. Swanton visited the Haida
recently the richest man among the Skidegate tribe was a negro. Some
of the Plains tribes and some Indians of the far west, however, have
taken a dislike to the negro.

The leader in the "Boston Massacre" of March 5, 1770, was Crispus
Attucks, of Framingham, Mass., the son of a negro father and a Natick
Indian mother. The physical anthropology of the white-Indian
half-blood has been studied by Dr Franz Boas (_Pop. Sci. Monthly_, New
York, 1894).

Culture, arts, industries, &c.

The culture, arts and industries of the American aborigines exhibit marked correspondence to and dependence upon environment, varying with the natural conditions of land and water, wealth or poverty of the soil, abundance or scarcity of plant and animal life subsidiary to human existence, &c. Professor O. T. Mason (_Handb. of Amer. Inds. N. of Mexico_, 1907, pt. i. pp. 427-430; also _Rep. Smiths. Inst._, 1895, and _Pop. Sci. Monthly_, 1902) recognizes north of Mexico twelve "ethnic environments," in each of which there is "an _ensemble_ of qualities that impressed themselves on their inhabitants and differentiated them."

These twelve "ethnic environments" are:--

(1) _Arctic_ (_Eskimo_); (2) _Yukon-Mackenzie_ (practically _Athabaskan_); (3) _Great Lakes and St Lawrence_ (_Algonkian-Iroquoian_); (4) _Atlantic Slope_ (_Algonkian_, _Iroquoian_, _Siouan_, &c.); (5) _Gulf Coast_, embracing region from Georgia to Texas (_Muskogian_ and a number of smaller stocks); (6) _Mississippi Valley_ (largely _Algonkian_ and "_mound-builders_"); (7) _Plains_, including the country from the neighbourhood of the Rio Grande to beyond the Saskatchewan on the north, and from the Rocky Mountains to the fertile lands west of the Mississippi (_Algonkian_, _Siouan_, _Shoshonian_, _Kiowan_, _Caddoan_); (8) _North Pacific Coast_, from Mount St Elias to the mouth of the Columbia river (_Koluschan_, _Haidan_, _Tsimshian_, _Wakashan_, _Salishan_); (9) _Columbia-Fraser region_ (_Salishan_, _Sahaptian_, _Chinookan_, &c.); (10) _Interior Basin_ between Rocky Mountains and Sierras (_Shoshonian_); (11) _California-Oregon_ ("the Caucasus of North America," occupied by more than twenty-five linguistic stocks); (12) _Pueblos region_, basin of Rio Grande, Pecos, San Juan and Colorado (_Pueblos-Keresan_, _Tanoan_, _Zuñian_, &c.; on the outskirts predatory _Shoshonian_, _Athabaskan_ tribes; to the south-west, _Yuman_, &c.).

In the Arctic environment the Eskimo have conquered a severe and
thankless climate by the invention and perfection of the snow-house,
the dog-sled, the oil-lamp (creating and sustaining social life and
making extensive migrations possible), the harpoon and the kayak or
skin-boat (the acme of adaptation of individual skill to environmental
demands). In the region of the Mackenzie especially the older and
simpler culture of the Athabaskan stock has been much influenced by
the European "civilization" of the Hudson's Bay Company, &c., and
elsewhere also by contact with Indian tribes of other stocks, for the
Athabaskans everywhere have shown themselves very receptive and ready
to adopt foreign elements of culture. The culture-type of the North
Pacific coast, besides being unique in some respects, stands in
certain relations to the culture of the Palaeo-Asiatic tribes of
north-eastern Asia who belong properly with the American race. The
culture of the Great Plains, which has been studied by Drs Wissler
(_Congr. intern. d. Amér._, Quebec, 1906, vol. ii. pp. 39-52) and
Kroeber (_ibid._ pp. 53-63), is marked by the presence of a decided
uniformity in spite of the existence within this area of several
physical types and a number of distinct linguistic stocks. Here the
_tipi_ and the camp-circle figure largely in material culture;
innumerable ceremonies and religious practices (e.g. the "sun-dance")
occur and many societies and ceremonial organizations exist. The
buffalo and later the horse have profoundly influenced the culture of
this area, in which Athabaskan (Sarcee), Kitunahan, Algonkian, Siouan,
Shoshonian, Kiowan tribes have shared. In some respects the Plains
culture is quite recent and the result of "giving and taking" among
the various peoples concerned. Some of them merely abandoned an
earlier more sedentary life to hunt the buffalo on the great prairies.

The culture of the Mississippi valley region (including the Ohio, &c.)
is noteworthy in pre-Columbian and immediately post-Columbian times
for the development of "mound-building," with apparently sedentary
life to a large extent. In this Algonkian, Iroquoian and Siouan tribes
have participated. In the region of the Great Lakes and on the
Atlantic slope occurred the greatest development of the Algonkian and
Iroquoian stocks, particularly in social and political activities,
expressed both generally, as in the leagues and alliances (especially
the famous "Iroquois League"), and individually in the appearance of
great men like Hiawatha, Tecumseh, &c. The Gulf region is remarkable
for the development in the southern United States of the Muskogian
stock (Creek, Choctaw, Chickasaw, &c.), to which belonged the
"civilized tribes" now part of the state of Oklahoma. In this area
also, toward the west, are to be met religious ideas and institutions
(e.g. among the Natchez) suggestive of an early participation in or
connexion with the beginnings of a culture common to the Pueblos
tribes and perhaps also to the ancestors of the civilized peoples of
ancient Mexico. In some other respects the culture of this area is
noteworthy. In the east also there are evidences of the influence of
Arawakan culture from the West Indies. The Pueblos region has been the
scene of the development of sedentary "village" life on the largest
scale known in North America north of Mexico, and of arts, industries
and religious ideas (rain-cult especially) corresponding, as Professor
J. W. Fewkes (_Rep. Smiths. Inst._, 1895, pp. 683-700) has shown, most
remarkably to their environment. The arid interior basin is the
characteristic area of the great Shoshonian stock, here seen at its
lowest level, but advancing with the Piman and other Sonoran and
Nahuatlan tribes till in ancient Mexico it attained the civilization
of the Aztecs. The California-Oregon area is remarkable for the
multiplicity of its linguistic stocks and also for the development of
many local culture-types. Within the limits of California alone Dr
Kroeber (_Univ. of Calif. Publ. Amer. Arch. and Ethnol._ vol. ii.,
1904, pp. 81-103) distinguishes at least four types of native culture.

On account of climatic conditions, in part at least, the development
of agriculture in North America has not reached with many Indian
tribes a high state of development, although its diffusion is much
greater than is generally believed. In the south-eastern part of the
United States beans, squashes, pumpkins and some other gourds and
melons, potatoes, Indian corn, tobacco, a variety of the sunflower,
&c., were cultivated, the growing of beans, squashes and pumpkins
extending as far north as Massachusetts and the Iroquois country, in
which latter also tobacco was cultivated, as the tribal name ("Tobacco
Nation") of the Tionontati indicates. The cultivation of Indian corn
extended from Florida to beyond 50° N. and from the Atlantic to far
beyond the Mississippi, and, to judge from the varieties found in
existence, must have been known to the Indians for a very long period.
In the arid region of Arizona and New Mexico a special development of
agriculture occurred, made possible by the extensive use of irrigation
in pre-Columbian and in more recent times. Here Indian corn, melons,
beans, cotton, &c., were cultivated before the arrival of the
Spaniards. For religious purposes the Zuñi appear to have selectively
produced a great variety of colours in the ears of corn. Where women
had much to do with agricultural operations they greatly influenced
society and religious and mythological ideas. Hunting and fishing, as
might be expected in an extensive and varied environment like the
North American continent, exhibit a great range from simple individual
hand-capture to combined efforts with traps and nets, such as the
communal nets of the Eskimo, the buffalo and deer "drives" of the
Plains and other Indians, with which were often associated
brush-fences, corrals, "pounds," pitfalls, &c., advantage taken of a
natural _cul-de-sac_, &c. A great variety of traps, snares, &c., was
used (see Mason in _Amer. Anthrop._, 1899) and the dog was also of
great service with certain tribes, although no special variety of
hunting-dogs (except in a few cases) appears to have been developed.
The accessory implements for the chase (spear, bow and arrow, harpoon,
club, &c.) underwent great variation and specialization. The
throwing-stick appears in the north among the Eskimo and in the
south-west among the Pueblos. In the Muskogian area the blow-gun is
found, and its use extended also to some of the Iroquoian tribes
(Cherokee, &c.). In part of this area vegetable poisons were used to
capture fish. In the New England region torch-fishing at night was in
vogue. With the tribes of the Great Plains in particular the hunt
developed into a great social event, and often into a more or less
marked ceremonial or religious institution, with its own appropriate
preliminary and subsequential rites, songs, formulae, taboos and
fetishes, &c., as seen e.g. among certain tribes of the Caddoan stock
in very interesting fashion.

The art of transportation and navigation among the American aborigines
north of Mexico has received special treatment from Mason (_Rep. U.S.
Nat. Mus._, 1894) and Friederici, in his recent monograph _Die
Schiffahrt der Indianer_ (Stuttgart, 1907). On land some of the Indian
tribes made use of the dog-sled and the toboggan in winter, while the
dog-_travois_ was early met with in the region of the Great Plains.
The Eskimo made special use of the dog-sled, but never developed
snow-shoes to the same extent as did the Athabaskan and Algonkian
tribes; with the last and with the Iroquoian tribes came the
perfection of the skin-shoe or moccasin. In the south and south-west
appear sandals. In North America the cradle, as pointed out by
Professor Mason (_Rep. U.S. Nat. Mus._, 1894), has undergone great
variation in response to environmental suggestion. No wheeled vehicle
and no use of an animal other than the dog for means of transportation
is known among the aborigines north of Mexico, men, women and
children, women especially, having been the chief burden-bearers.
Among the types of boats in use are the seal-skin _kayak_ and _umiak_
(woman's boat) of the Eskimo; the bull-boat or coracle (raw-hide over
willow frame) of the Missouri and the buffalo-region; the dug-out of
various forms and degrees of ornamentation in divers regions from
Florida to the North Pacific coast; bark-canoes (birch, elm, pine,
&c.) in the Algonkian, Iroquoian and Athabaskan areas, reaching a high
development in the region of the Great Lakes; the peculiar bark-canoe
of the Beothuks in the form of two half ellipses; the bark-canoe of
the Kootenay (a similar type occurs on the Amur in north-eastern
Asia), noteworthy as having both ends pointed under water; the
plank-canoes of the Santa Barbara region; the basketry-boats
(_coritas_) of the lower Colorado and in south central California; the
_balsas_ of tule rushes, &c., in use on the lakes and streams of
California and Nevada. In various parts of the country log-rafts of a
more or less crude sort were in use. No regular sail is reported from
North America, although from time to time skins, blankets, &c., were
used by several tribes for such purposes.

Since the appearance of Morgan's monograph on the _Houses and
House-life of the American Aborigines_ (Washington, 1881) our
knowledge of the subject has been materially increased by the studies
and researches of Boas, Fewkes, Mindeleff, Dorsey, Matthews, Murdoch,
Willoughby and others. The dwellings in use among the aborigines north
of Mexico varied from the rude brush huts of the primitive Shoshonian
tribes, and the still earlier caves, to the communal dwellings of the
Iroquois and the Pueblos stocks of New Mexico and Arizona. The
principal types are as follows:

Crude brush shelters and huts of the lowest Shoshonian tribes, the
Apache (more elaborate), &c.; the _hogan_ or earth-lodge of the
Navaho, and the earth-lodges of certain Caddoan and Siouan tribes
farther north, with similar structures even among the Aleuts of
Alaska; the grass-lodge of the Caddoan tribes, still in use among the
Wichita; the semi-subterranean earth-covered lodges of parts of
California, &c.; the roofed pits of various styles in use in the
colder north, &c.; the Eskimo snow-house and wooden _karmak_; the
elaborately carved and painted wooden houses of Pacific coast region
(Tlingit, Haida, Nootka, &c.), some of which were originally built on
platforms and entered by log-ladders; the simple wooden house of
northern California; the dome-shaped bark wigwams of the Winnebago and
the conical ones of many of the Algonkian tribes; the skin tents or
tipis of many of the Plains peoples; the mat tents of the Nez Percé,
Kootenay, &c., and the mat houses of the South Atlantic region; the
circular wigwam of bark or mats banked up at the base, of the
Ohio-Mississippi valley; the palmetto-house of certain Louisiana
Indians; the pile-dwellings of the ancient Floridians. Communal houses
of divers types were found among the Mohegans, Iroquois, &c., but are
especially illustrated by the so-called _pueblos_ of the south-western
United States, out of which grew probably the elaborate structures of
ancient Mexico. Some tribes appear to have had simple and ruder summer
dwellings and more elaborate or better constructed winter houses. The
Eskimo have sometimes temporary hunting-lodges; the Comanches
brush-shelters for summer and lodges of buffalo-skin for winter; with
some tribes temporary dwellings were erected for the use of those
cultivating the land. Many tribes had their "village-houses" for
social purposes, like the _kashim_ of the Eskimo. Special tipis or
houses for shamans, "medicine-men," &c., were common in many parts of
North America. Secret societies had their own lodges and the so-called
"men's-house." The houses of the North American Indians are the
subject of a monograph by E. Sarfert (_Arch. f. Anthr._, 1908, pp.
119-215).

The art of fire-making was known to all the aborigines north of
Mexico, two methods being widespread, that with flint and pyrites and
that by reciprocating motion of wood on wood. For the latter several
varieties of apparatus were in use, the simple two-stick apparatus was
very common; the Eskimo have a four-part fire-drill and the Iroquois a
weighted drill with spindle whorl. The skill displayed in fire-making
by some Indians is very great, and the individual parts of the
apparatus have in certain regions been highly specialized. The subject
of fire-making apparatus and the kindred topic of illumination have
been specially treated by Dr Walter Hough (_Rep. U.S. Nat. Mus._,
1890, pp. 531-587; _Rep. Smiths. Inst._, 1901-1902). The camp-fire,
the torch and the Eskimo lamp represent the employment of fire for
artificial light among the aborigines. Fire and smoke were used for
signalling by the Plains tribes, &c., and fire-ceremonies form an
important part ("new-fire," "fire-dance") of the ritual observances of
not a few peoples, especially in the region from Florida to the Rio
Grande. In metal-working there is up to the present no convincing
evidence of the use of fire (heat only being employed to facilitate
the cold-hammering processes by which the metals, copper, silver, gold
and iron were manufactured into weapons, implements and ornaments) in
metallurgy north of Mexico. The tools used were few and the processes
simple, as Cushing (_Amer. Anthrop._, vol. vii., 1894) has proved by
actual experiment. The only metal actually mined in large quantities
was copper in the region of Lake Superior, whence came most of that
employed in the east and south. In Alaska was a source of copper for
the North Pacific coast. No special process of hardening copper other
than by hammering was known to the Indians. The gold objects of most
interest come from mounds in Florida and a few also from those in the
Ohio valley. Galena was used to make simple ceremonial objects by the
Indians of the Mississippi valley and the "mound-builders."

The art of sculpture in wood, stone, bone and ivory is best
represented by the wooden masks, utensils, house-carvings and
totem-poles of the Indians of the North Pacific coast, the stone
pipes, ornaments and images of various sorts of the "mound-builders"
and other Indians of the Mississippi valley, the carvings of the
people of the Floridian pile-dwellings, and the remarkable ivory
carvings, sometimes minute, of the Eskimo. Noteworthy also are the
slate-sculpture of the Haida, and the work in bone, ivory and deer and
mountain goat horn of the British Columbian Indians. The Indians of
the region south of the Great Lakes were expert in the manufacture of
tobacco-pipes of great variety, among the most interesting being the
Catlinite pipes of the Sioux of Minnesota, &c. Soapstone served some
of the Eskimo to make lamps and some Indian tribes for other purposes.
Pottery appears to have been unknown in certain regions, but
flourished remarkably in the Mississippi valley and the Pueblos region
of the south-west, where specialization in form and decoration
occurred, and ceramic objects of all sorts were manufactured in
abundance. The pottery of the Iroquoian and Algonkian tribes of the
north-east was, as a rule, rather crude and undeveloped. In many
places the relation of ceramic art to basketry is in evidence.
Basketry, of which Professor O. T. Mason has recently made a detailed
study in his _Aboriginal American Basketry_ (Washington and New York,
1902, 1904), and related arts were carried on (especially by women)
with great variety of form, decoration, material, &c., over a large
portion of the continent. In North America basketry is "_the_
primitive art," and here "the Indian women have left the best witness
of what they could do in handiwork and expression." The most exquisite
and artistic basketry in the world comes from an utterly uncivilized
tribe in California. The relation of basketry to symbolism and
religion is best observable among the Hopi or Moqui of Arizona. The
appreciation of white men for the products of Indian skill and genius
in basketry finds full expression in G. W. James's _Indian Basketry_
(1900). Weaving is exemplified in the goat's hair blanket of the
Chilkat Indians (Koluschan) of Alaska, and similar products; also in
the manufactures of buffalo-hair, &c., of the Indians of the Great
Plains and Mississippi valley and the textile art of a higher type
known to the Pueblos tribes and by some of them taught to the Navaho.
Famous are the "Navaho blankets," less so the "Chilkat."

Feather-work and the utilization of bird-skins and feathers for
dresses, hats, ornaments, &c., are known from many parts of the
continent. In the Arctic regions bird-skins with the feathers on were
used to make dresses; the Algonkian tribes of Virginia, &c., had their
bird-skin "blankets" and "turkey robes"; the tribes of the North
Pacific coast used feathers for decorative purposes of many kinds, as
did Indians in other regions also; feather head-dresses and ornaments
were much in use among the Plains tribes, &c.; with the Pueblos
Indians eagle and turkey feathers were important in ritual and
ceremony; some of the tribes of the south-east made fans of turkey
feathers. Beads made from various sorts of shell, rolled copper
("mound-builders," &c.), seeds, ivory (Eskimo) and the teeth of
various animals are pre-Columbian, like the turquoise-beads of the
Pueblos, and they were put to a great variety of uses. Wampum was
manufactured by many Algonkian and Iroquoian tribes, who also later
produced fine specimens of work with the glass beads introduced by the
whites. These glass beads made their way over most of the continent,
soon driving out in many sections the older art in shell, &c.
European-made wampum-beads affected native art in the 17th century. In
the regions where the porcupine abounded its quills were used for
purposes of ornamentation on articles of dress, objects of bark, &c.,
some of the Algonkian and Iroquoian tribes producing beautiful work of
this sort.

Besides face and body painting, employed for various purposes and
widespread over the continent, particularly in ceremonial observances,
during war-time, in courting, mourning, &c., painting found expression
among the North American aborigines most fully in the products of the
wood art of the Indians of the North Pacific coast (masks, utensils,
houses, totem-poles, furniture, &c.), in the more or less ceremonial
and symbolic paintings on skins, tipi-covers and the like of some of
the Plains tribes (e.g. Kiowa, Sioux) and in ceramic art, notably in
the remarkable polychrome pottery of the Pueblos tribes. Among several
Pueblos tribes of Arizona and New Mexico (also the Navaho and Apache
and of a ruder sort among some of the Plains tribes, e.g. Cheyenne,
Arapaho, Blackfeet) "dry-painting," most highly developed in the
sacred ceremonies of the Navaho, is practised and is evidently of
great antiquity. The pictures of deities, natural phenomena, animals
and plants are made of powdered sandstone of various colours, &c.

Pictography among the aborigines north of Mexico varied from the rude
petroglyphs of some of the Shoshonian tribes to the incised work on
ivory, &c., of the Eskimo and the paintings on buffalo and other
animal skins by some of the Plains tribes, the work of the Pueblos
Indians, &c., the nearest approach to hieroglyphics in North America
outside of Mexico. Some Indian tribes (e.g. the Kootenay) seem not at
all given to pictography, while many others have practised it to an
almost limitless extent. The pictography and picture-writing of the
North American Indians have been the subject of two detailed
monographs by Mallery (_4th Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethnol._, 1882-1883, pp.
3-256; _10th Rep._, 1888-1889, pp. 1-1290), and the graphic art of the
Eskimo has received special treatment by Hoffman (_Rep. U.S. Nat.
Mus._, 1895). Some have argued that this ivory pictography of the
Eskimo is of recent origin and due practically to the introduction of
iron by the whites, but Boas thinks such a theory refuted by the
resemblance of the Eskimo graphic art in question to the birch-bark
art of the neighbouring Indian tribes. No real "hieroglyphs," much
less any system of writing of an alphabetic nature, have been
discovered north of Mexico; the alleged specimens of such, turning up
from time to time, are frauds of one sort or another.

The music and song of the American Indians north of Mexico have been
studied since the time of Baker (_Über die Musik der
Nordamerikanischen Wilden_, Leipzig, 1882) by Boas, Fillmore, Curtis,
Fletcher, Stumpf, Cringan (_Ann. Arch. Rep. Ont._, 1902, 1905), &c.
According to Miss Fletcher (_Indian Story and Song_, 1900; also _Publ.
Peab. Mus._, 1893), "among the Indians music envelops like an
atmosphere every religious tribal and social ceremony, as well as
every personal experience," and "there is not a phase of life that
does not find expression in song"; music, too, is "the medium through
which man holds communion with his soul and with the unseen powers
which control his destiny." Music, in fact, "is coextensive with
tribal life," and "every public ceremony as well as each important act
in the career of an individual has its accompaniment of song."
Moreover, "The music of each ceremony has its peculiar rhythm, so also
have the classes of songs which pertain to individual acts: fasting
and prayer, setting of traps, hunting, courtship, playing of games,
facing and defying death." In structure the Indian song "follows the
outline of the form which obtains in our own music," and "the compass
of songs varies from 1 to 3 octaves." Among some of the tribes with
highly developed ceremonial observances "men and women, having clear
resonant voices and good musical intonation, compose the choirs which
lead the singing in ceremonies and are paid for the services." A
peculiar development of music among the Eskimo is seen in the
"nith-songs," by which controversies are settled, the parties to the
dispute "singing at" each other till the public laughter, &c.,
proclaim one the victor. Among the American Indians songs belonging to
individuals, societies, clans, &c., are met with, which have to be
purchased by others from the owners, and even slight mistakes in the
rendition of singing, dancing, &c., are heavily penalized. Musical
contests were also known (e.g. among the Indians of the Pacific
coast). The development of the "tribal song" among the Iroquoian
peoples is seen in Hale's _Iroquois Book of Rites_ (1881). Songs
having no words, but merely changeless vocables, are common. As Dr
Boas has pointed out, the genius of the American Indian has been
devoted more to the production of songs than to the invention of
musical instruments. The musical instruments known to the aborigines
north of Mexico, before contact with the whites, according to Miss
Fletcher (_Handb. of Amer. Inds._, 1907, pt. i. p. 960), were drums of
great variety in size and form, from the plank or box of some of the
tribes of the North Pacific coast to the shaman's drums of the
Algonkian and Iroquoian peoples; whistles of bone, wood, pottery, &c.
(often employed in ceremonies to imitate the voices of birds, animals
and spirits); flageolet or flute (widely distributed and used by young
men in courtship among the Siouan tribes); the musical bow (found
among the Maidu of California and important in religion and sorcery).
Rattles of gourd, skin, shell, wood, &., are universal, and among some
of the tribes of the south-west "notched sticks are rasped together or
on gourds, bones or baskets to accentuate rhythm." From the rattle in
the Pueblos region developed a sort of ball of clay or metal.

Culture of Indians essentially indigenous.

So far as is known, the primitive culture of the aborigines of North America is fundamentally indigenous, being the reactions of the Indian to his environment, added to whatever rude equipment of body and of mind was possessed by the human beings who at some remote epoch reached the new world from the old, if, indeed, America was not, as Ameghino, on the basis of the discoveries of fossil anthropoids and fossil man in southern South America, maintains, the scene of origin of man himself.

Professor A.H. Keane (_Internat. Monthly_, vol. v., 1902, pp. 338-357), Stewart Culin (_Proc. Amer. Assoc. Adv. Sci._ vol. lii., 1903, pp. 495-500) and Dr Richard Andree (_Stzgsb. d. anthrop. Ges. in Wien_, 1906, pp. 87-98) all agree as to the general autochthony of aboriginal American culture. The day of the argument for borrowing on the ground of mere resemblances in beliefs, institutions, implements, inventions, &c., is past. An admirable instance of the results of exact scientific research in this respect is to be found in Dr Franz Boas's discussion (_Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus._, 1908, pp. 321-344) of the needle-cases of the Alaskan Eskimo, which were at first supposed to be of foreign (Polynesian) origin. Other examples occur in Mr Culin's study of American Indian games, where, for the first time, the relation of certain of them in their origin and development, and sometimes also in their degeneration and decay, is made clear. The independent origin in America of many things which other races have again and again invented and re-invented in other parts of the world must now be conceded.

The extreme north-western region of North America has recently been
shown to be of great importance to the ethnologists. The
investigations in this part of America and among the more or less
primitive peoples of north-eastern Asia, carried on by the Jesup North
Pacific expedition in 1897-1902, have resulted in showing that within
what may be called the "Bering Sea culture-area" transmissions of
culture have taken place from north-eastern Siberia to north-western
America and vice versa. The only known example, however, of the
migration of any people one way or the other is the case of the
Asiatic Eskimo, who are undoubtedly of American origin, and it seems
probable, in the language of Dr Boas, the organizer of the Jesup
expedition and the editor of its publications, that "the Chukchee,
Koryak, Kamchadal and Yukaghir must be classed with the American race
rather than with the Asiatic race," and possibly also some of the
other isolated Siberian tribes; also that, "in a broad classification
of languages, the languages of north-eastern Siberia should be classed
with the languages of America" (_Proc. Intern. Congr. Amer._, New
York, 1902, pp. 91-102). It appears, further, that the arrival of the
Eskimo on the Pacific coast (this, although not recent, is
comparatively late) from their home in the interior, near or east of
the Mackenzie, "interrupted at an early period the communication
between the Siberian and Indian tribes, which left its trace in many
cultural traits common to the peoples on both sides of the Bering
Sea."

This establishment of the essential unity of the culture-type
(language, mythology, certain arts, customs, beliefs, &c.) of the
"Palaeo-Asiatic" peoples of north-eastern Siberia and that of the
American Indians of the North Pacific coast, as demonstrated
especially by the investigations of Jochelson, Bogoras, &c., is one of
the most notable results of recent organized ethnological research. No
such clear proof has been afforded of the theory of Polynesian
influence farther south on the Pacific coast of America, believed in,
more or less, by certain ethnologists (Ratzel, Mason, &c.). This
theory rests largely upon resemblances in arts (clubs, masks and the
like in particular), tattooing, mythic _motifs_, &c. But several
things here involved, if not really American in origin, are so recent
that they may perhaps be accounted for by such Hawaiian and other
Polynesian contact as resulted from the establishment of the whale and
seal-fisheries in the 18th century.

Between the Indians of North America and those of South America few
instances of contact and intercommunication, or even of transference
of material products and ideas, have been substantiated. It is by way
of the Antilles and the Bahamas that such contact as actually occurred
took place. In 1894 (_Amer. Anthrop._ vol. vii. p. 71-79) Professor W.
H. Holmes pointed out traces of Caribbean influences in the ceramic
art of the Florida-Georgia region belonging to the period just before
the Columbian discovery. The decorative designs in question,
paddle-stamp patterns, &c., akin to the motives on the wooden and
stone stools from the Caribbean areas in the West Indies, have been
found as far north as 36° in North Carolina and as far west as 84° in
Tennessee and 89° in south-eastern Alabama. But the evidence does not
prove the existence of Carib colonies at any time in any part of this
region, but simply the migration from the West Indies to the North
American coast of certain art features adopted by the Indians of the
Timuquan and Muskogian Indians and (later) in part by the Cherokee.
More recently (1907) Dr F. G. Speck, in a discussion of the aboriginal
culture of the south-eastern states (_Amer. Anthrop._ vol. ix., n.s.,
pp. 287-295), cites as proof of Antillean or Caribbean influence in
addition to that indicated by Holmes, the following: employment of the
blow-gun in hunting, use of hammock as baby-cradle, peculiar
storage-scaffold in one corner of house, plastering houses with clay,
poisoning fish with vegetable juices. It is possible also that the
North American coast may have been visited from time to time by small
bodies of natives from the West Indies in search of the mythic
fountain of youth (_Bimini_), the position of which had shifted from
the Bahamas to Florida in its movement westward. Indeed, just about
the time of the advent of the Europeans in this part of the world a
number of Indians from Cuba, on such a quest, landed on the
south-western shore of Florida, where they were captured by the
Calusas, among whom they seem to have maintained a separate existence
down to 1570 or later. This Arawakan colony, indicated on the map of
linguistic stocks of American Indians north of Mexico, published by
the Bureau of American Ethnology in 1907, is the only one demonstrated
to have existed, but there may have been others of a more temporary
character. In the languages of this region there are to be detected
perhaps a few loan-words from Arawakan or Cariban dialects. The
exaggerated ideas entertained by some authorities concerning the
"mound-builders" of the valley of the Ohio and Mississippi and their
alleged "civilization" have led them to assume, without adequate
proof, long-continued relations of the tribes inhabiting this part of
the country in the past with the ancient peoples of Yucatan and
Mexico, or even an origin of their culture from beyond the Gulf. But
since these mounds were in all probability wholly the work of the
modern Indians of this area or their immediate ancestors, and the
greater part, if not all, of the art and industry represented therein
lies easily within the capacity of the aborigines of North America,
the "Mexican" theory in this form appears unnecessary to explain the
facts. In its support stress has been laid upon the nature of some of
the copper implements and ornaments, particularly the types of
elaborate repoussé work from Etowah, Georgia, &c. That the repoussé
work was not beyond the skill of the Indian was shown by Cushing in
his study of "Primitive Copper Working" (_Amer. Anthrop._ vol. vii.
pp. 93-117), who did not consider the resemblance of these
mound-specimens to the art of Mexico proof of extra-North American
origin. Holmes (_Handb. of Inds. N. of Mex._, 1907, pt. i. p. 343)
points out that the great mass of the copper of mounds came from the
region of Lake Superior, and that had extensive intercourse between
Mexico or Central America and the mound-country existed, or colonies
from those southern parts been present in the area in question,
artifacts of undoubtedly Mexican origin would have been found in the
mounds in considerable abundance, and methods of manipulation peculiar
to the south would have been much in evidence. The facts indicate at
most some exotic influence from Mexico, &c., but nothing far-reaching
in its effects.

In the lower Mississippi valley the culture of certain peoples has
been thought to contain elements (e.g. the temples and other religious
institutions of the Natchez) suggestive of Mexican or Central American
origin, either by inheritance from a common ancient source or by later
borrowings. When one reaches the Pueblos region, with its present and
its extinct "village culture," there is considerable evidence of
contact and inter-influence, if not perhaps of common origin, of
culture-factors. Dr J. Walter Fewkes, a chief authority on the ethnic
history of Arizona, New Mexico and the outlying areas of "Pueblos
culture," especially in its ceremonial aspects, has expressed the
opinion (_Amer. Anthrop._ vol. vii. p. 51) that "it is not improbable
that both Mexican and Pueblos cultures originated in a region in
northern Mexico, developing as environment permitted in its northern
and southern homes." Unfavourable milieu in the north prevented the
culture of the Pueblos Indians and the Cliff-dwellers, their
ancestors, reaching the height attained in Mexico and Central America,
represented by temple-architecture, ornamentation of buildings,
hieroglyphs, &c. Strong evidence of Pueblos-Mexican relationship Dr
Fewkes sees (_Proc. Wash. Acad. Sci._, 1900) in the great serpent cult
of Tusayan, the "New Fire" and other Pueblos ceremonials of
importance; also in the mosaic objects (gorgets, ear-pendants,
breast-ornaments, &c.) from Pueblos ruins in Arizona, some of the
workmanship of which equals that of similar character in old Mexico.
The arid region of the south-western United States and part of
northern Mexico may well have been a centre for the dispersion of such
primitive, institutions and ideas as reached their acme in the country
of the Aztecs. But of the Pueblos languages, the Moqui or Hopi of
north-eastern Arizona is the only one showing undoubted, though not
intimate, relationship with the Nahuatl of ancient Mexico. The
Shoshonian family, represented in the United States by the Shoshonees,
Utes, Comanches and other tribes, besides the Moqui, includes also
the numerous Sonoran tribes of north-western Mexico, as well as the
Nahuatl-speaking peoples farther south, some of the outliers having
wandered even to Costa Rica (and perhaps to Panama). This linguistic
unity of the civilized Aztecs with the rude Utes and Shoshones of the
north is one of the most interesting ethnological facts in primitive
America. Change of environment may have had much to do with this
higher development in the south. Besides the Shoshonian, the
Coahuiltecan and the Athabaskan are or have been represented in
northern Mexico, the last by the Apaches and Tobosos. From the period
of the Spanish colonization of New Mexico down to about the last
quarter of the 19th century (and sporadically later, e.g. the attack
in 1900 on the Mormon settlement in Chihuahua), these Indians have
hovered around the Mexican border, &c., their predatory expeditions
extending at one time as far south as Jalisco. In the far west the
Yuman family of languages belongs on both sides of the border.

Religion, Mythology, &c.