Chapter VII: Introduction: Salient Features (6)

[174] Peñafiel defines “Seris” as the “name of a tribe of Sonora, originating probably in the Opata language” (Nomenclatura Geográfica de Mexico—Etimologías de los Nombres de Lugar ... por el Dr. Antonio Peñafiel, primera parte, 1897, p. 225); while Pimentel defines two suggestively similar Opata words, “_Serarai_, paso menudo y bueno”, and “_Sërerài_, velocidad de la persona que corre” (Vocabulario Manual de la Lengua Opata, Bol. Soc. Mex. Geog. y Estad., tomo X, 1863, p. 306), i. e., a good and direct pace, and the speed of a person running, respectively (cf. postea. p. 125).

In 1850, Don Diego Lavandera transmitted to the Mexican Society of Geography and Statistics, through the hands of Señor José F. Ramirez, certain documents, accompanied by a note to the effect that “The tribe of the Seris speak Arabic, and it is understood by the Moors at the first interview”—this note merely expressing a prevailing current opinion. Undertaking to test the opinion, Señor Ramirez sent to Lavandera, in Sonora, a number of words in three Arabic dialects, at the same time asking for the Seri equivalents; and the inquiry yielded a Seri vocabulary (probably the first ever printed) of eleven words. Of these none show the slightest affinity with the Arabic dialects; at least four (horse, chamber, population, wine) express concepts alien to the Seri; and only three or four can be identified with Seri terms recorded in later vocabularies. No reference is made to Señor Lavandera’s aboriginal informant; but there is a strong presumption that it was the official interpreter at Hermosillo and Pueblo Seri—a presumption warranted by coincident historical records and statements of contemporaries still living, to the effect (1) that an official interpreter was there then and for a long time later, (2) that neither then nor later were there other Seri representatives able to furnish vocabularies at Hermosillo, Pueblo Seri, or other towns, and (3) that at that time (as at most others) the relations between the Seri and the whites were such as to prevent amicable communication through casual meeting or otherwise.

Proceeding with his discussion, Señor Ramirez sought to correct the allegation of Abbé Hervas that “in the mission of Belen live three nations, called Hiaqui, Seri, and Guaima, who speak _three different languages_.” After quoting a Jesuit manuscript of July, 1730, reporting that “the language of the Seris is the same as that of the Guaimas”, he added a significant statement contained in a manuscript report from the Bishop of Sonora, directed to Don José de Galvez, under date of September 20, 1784, concerning the mission of Belen: “Two nations of Indians, Pimas Bajos and Guaimas, live united, the latter having abandoned their pueblo under the continuous assaults of the Seris. The Pimas use their own language.... The Guaimas use their ancient language.” Summarizing the evidence (of course secondhand and derived from the observations and reports of the missionaries), Señor Ramirez held as proved, first, “the existence of two diverse languages at the mission of Belen—that of the Guaimas and that of the Pimas Bajos”; and second, that “the Guaimas and the Seri are the same”.[175] It would appear that Señor Ramirez hardly appreciated the significance of the statement of sixty-four years before that the Guayma were still using their “ancient” language, with the implication that they were acquiring familiarity with the Piman tongue—a familiarity that may well have misled later inquirers.

[175] Lenguas Primitivas, in Boletin del Institute Nacional de Geografía, y Estadística de la República Mexicana, third edition, tomo II; Mexico, 1861, pp. 148-149.

* * * * *

It is just to say that scientific knowledge of the Seri began with the visit to Hermosillo of United States Boundary Commissioner John Russell Bartlett, on December 31, 1851. True, Commissioner Bartlett approached no nearer Seriland than Hermosillo and Guaymas, and saw but a single Seri; yet he obtained an excellent vocabulary and considerable collateral information from this Indian. According to this information—

The Ceris tribe of Indians, with the exception of those which
are christianized and reside in the village near Hermosillo,
occupy the island of Tiburon in the Gulf of California, north
of Guaymas. Although believed not to number over 100 warriors,
they have long been the dread of the Mexicans between Guaymas
and Hermosillo, as well as the country to the north, on account
of their continual depredations and murders. Their practice
is to lie in wait near the traveled roads, and there surprise
small and unprotected parties. Their place of abode being
on an island or the shores adjacent, and their subsistence
being chiefly gained by fishing, they have no desire to steal
animals, which would be of no use to them; nor do they take
any prisoners. To murder and plunder small parties of Mexicans
seems to be their only aim, and every arrow or lance thrown
by the Ceris that pierces the skin causes death, as all are
poisoned. Many expeditions, fitted out at a great expense, have
been sent against them; but, though commanded by competent
officers, all have failed. The number being so small, they
manage when pursued to conceal themselves where they can not
be found. The island of Tiburon, as well as the mainland
adjacent, is exceedingly barren and destitute of water; hence
parties have suffered greatly in the campaigns against them,
without accomplishing anything. I was told that the Government
had already expended more than $1,000 for every male of the
tribe. The last serious attack of these people was made upon a
gentleman traveling to Guaymas in his carriage with his family
and attendants, embracing 16 persons. They were surprised in an
unfrequented place and every soul put to death.[176]

[176] Personal Narrative of Explorations and Incidents in Texas, New Mexico, California, Sonora, and Chihuahua, Connected with the United States and Mexican Boundary Commission, during the years 1850, ’51, ’52, and ’53; New York, 1854, vol. I, p. 403 et seq.

Commissioner Bartlett quoted Hardy’s description of the arrow poison, and, speaking of the Seri tongue, added:

I found it an extremely harsh language, very difficult to
express with our letters, and totally different from any
aboriginal tongue I had heard spoken; ... but it was impossible
for me, without a close philological comparison with other
Indian languages, to arrive at any correct conclusion as to
whether this people are allied or not to other aboriginal
tribes.

He also referred to a prevalent notion that “the Ceris were of Asiatic origin, in proof of which some statements were made too improbable to repeat. This idea seems to have originated from the resemblance between their name and that given by the ancients to the Chinese.”

In order to obtain a Seri vocabulary, Commissioner Bartlett had a messenger dispatched “to a pueblo or village of these Indians near Hermosillo. The person sent for made his appearance in a few hours”; he was “a good-looking man, about 30 years of age. His complexion was fair, and resembled that of an Asiatic rather than an American Indian. His cheek bones were high, and his head round and well formed, though the anterior portion was somewhat angular and prominent. His hair was short, straight, and black. He was a full-blooded Ceris, and came originally from the island of Tiburon. In about three hours I completed the vocabulary quite satisfactorily to myself.”[177] The vocabulary was not printed with the narrative; nor were references made to the Seri population, either in the pueblo or in Seriland.

[177] Ibid., pp. 463-464.

While the vocabulary was not published by Commissioner Bartlett, it was preserved and passed into the hands of George Gibbs, who made a systematic transcript;[178] this came into possession of Dr Albert S. Gatschet, and a copy is preserved in the archives of the Bureau of American Ethnology. The name of the native informant is not recorded, but fortunately he was found still living, and was fully identified, during the expeditions of 1894 and 1895—especially toward the end of the latter, when, on January 4, 1896, he was employed as an informant. He was then a fine-looking man of noble stature and figure, and of notably dignified air and manner, dressed in conventional attire; his hair was luxuriant, iron-gray in color, and trimmed in Mexican fashion. His looks indicated an age of about 70, but in his own opinion (which was corroborated by that of Señor Pascual Encinas and other old acquaintances) he was at least 75. His movements were vigorous, his eyes clear and bright, his vision good, and, except for hardly perceptible imperfection of hearing, he was in full possession of normal faculties. He was in the employ of the state as a trustworthy attaché of the governor’s palacio, where his services were nominal; his real function was that of a Seri interpreter in case of need; and on the day specified he was temporarily assigned to the service of the expedition by His Excellency Governor Corral. By Mexican acquaintances he was commonly called Fernando, though he called himself Kolusio, sometimes using the former designation as a forename; he was also known as “El General” (= Chief), or “El General de los Seris”. He had a vague memory of Tiburon island, which he left in childhood (at about 6 years of age, according to his estimate) and had never revisited, though he had been on the Seri border so late as 1870. Except when temporarily at Rancho San Francisco de Costa Rica, he had lived in Pueblo Seri, usually reporting in Hermosillo daily for such duty as might be assigned to him at the palacio. He was aware that he was regarded as a tribal outlaw, and admitted that no consideration could induce him to approach Seriland, since he would be slain by his tribesmen more eagerly than any alien; indeed, he hardly dared venture so far westward as Molino del Encinas, in the outskirts of Hermosillo, and only did so in daylight or in company of others. His few kinsfolk in Pueblo Seri had died or deserted so long before that he had forgotten names and dates; and, as he remarked with half-realized pathos, he had been alone amid aliens for very many years (“muy muchos años”). The linguistic inquiries put to him reminded him of previous interrogations of the sort, and he voluntarily described the visit of a distinguished American who, a long time ago (more than 40 years, he thought), came down from Ures, with many books and papers, and spent New Year’s day in interrogating him about his language and his people. He was much impressed with the ability displayed by the “Gringo muy grande” in writing the terms and afterward repronouncing them properly; and he described the visitor as appearing very pale and sick (“muy palido y malo”), and under the necessity of frequently resting and taking medicine, and also as having wavy hair, worn so long as to hang down over the neck and shoulders. He could not recall that he had ever heard the American’s name; but his description pointed clearly to Commissioner Bartlett, who had risen from a sick-bed at Ures and was on his way to Guaymas to get the benefit of a sea voyage, and who wore his hair long during a part or all of his expedition (as was subsequently ascertained by extended inquiry). Kolusio also remembered “giving his language” (a bold if not sacrilegious act, according to his view) to two or three other persons, (one “not a Mexicano” though speaking Spanish, none “Americano”[179]); but the first-mentioned instance was the one most deeply impressed on his mind. At this time (1896) he retained a working knowledge of the Seri tongue, and was able to serve satisfactorily as a Spanish-Seri interpreter; yet careful test showed that he had forgotten numerous native terms, and sometimes inadvertently substituted other Indian (Yaqui, Papago, and probably Opata) and Spanish words; while he knew so little of the tribal customs and beliefs that inquiries pertaining to them were too nearly fruitless to be long pursued. Undoubtedly his knowledge of the Seri tongue was fresher and fuller in 1852; but since he was practically isolated from his tribe in early childhood, he probably never possessed much information concerning the esoteric characters of his people.

[178] This transcript is entered in a blank schedule Vocabulary of 180 Words, printed by the Smithsonian Institution for Gibbs, with a supplementary sheet; it is dated January 1, 1852; and while the published “Narrative” implies that it was recorded December 31, 1851, the manuscript date is confirmed by the Seri interpreter, Kolusio.

[179] At the time of inquiry the importance of the other vocabularies was not suspected, and the interrogation was not pushed far enough to permit identification of the persons to whom they were given.

The next noteworthy scientific student of the Seri was Johann Carl Eduard Buschmann, who visited various Mexican tribes, but whose knowledge of the Seri was wholly secondhand. Quoting Villa-Señor and Arrecivita and other early writers, noting unfortunate passages from Bartlett, and magnifying Mühlenpfordt’s misapprehensions into positive error, he reduced knowledge of this and neighboring tribes to chaos. The “Guaymas” were separated from the “Seris (oder Seres)”, and these (at least by implication) from the “Tiburones”, while the “Piatos” were combined with the Seri, the traditional alliance with the Apache was greatly overdrawn, and the “Heri oder Heris” and the “Tepocas” were treated as distinct.[180] No new facts were adduced, no use was made of local sources of information, and no notice was taken of other than literary data.

[180] Die Spuren der aztekischen Sprache im nördlichen Mexico und höheren amerikanischen Norden. Zugleich eine Musterung der Völker und Sprachen des nördlichen Mexicos und der Westseite Nordamerikas von Guadalaxara an bis zum Eismeer. Von Joh. Carl Ed. Buschmann (in Abhandlungen der Königlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin, aus dem Jahre 1854, zweiter Supplement-Band); Berlin, 1859, pp. 218-221 and elsewhere.

In 1857 the gigantic surveying enterprise of Jecker & Co. was undertaken, under a concession from the Government of Mexico, and the scientific surveys were intrusted to a commission headed by El Capitan Carlos Stone (General Charles Pomeroy Stone, U. S. A.). The commission headquartered at Guaymas, purchased vessels for the survey of the coast, and began operations also in the interior; Bahia Pinacati and George island (named by Hardy in 1826) were surveyed, as well as the entire Sonoran coast south of Guaymas, and “one hundred miles of coast near Tiburon”, besides many hundred square miles of valuable lands. At this stage friction developed between the progressive commission and the conservative Sonorenses, which ended in the expulsion of the scientific commission by the State government.[181] By reason of the premature termination of the work, few of the observations and other results were ever published. General Stone himself traveled extensively in Sonora, and delved deeply in the historical records of northern Mexico; and, while there is no indication that he ever came in personal contact with the Seri, he collected and sifted current local information relating to the tribe with notable acumen. In certain “Notes” prepared in Washington in December, 1860, he wrote:

[181] Arizona and Sonora, etc., by Sylvester Mowry; New York, 1864. pp. 98-102.

The _Ceris_ are a peculiar tribe of Indians occupying the
island of Tiburon and the neighboring coast. They are yet in a
perfectly savage state, and live solely by fishing and hunting.
Having been at war with the whites from the time of the first
missions, they have become reduced in numbers to about 300,
counting some 80 warriors. They are of large stature, well
made, and athletic. In war and in the chase they make use of
poisoned arrows, the wounds from which are almost always fatal.
In preparing the poison, it is said they procure the liver of a
deer or cow, and by irritating rattlesnakes and scorpions with
it, cause it to be struck by a great many of these reptiles.
They then hang up the mass to putrefy in a bag, and in the
drippings of this bag they soak their arrowheads. I can not
vouch for the truth of this statement, but it is current in
Sonora. I was informed by a gentleman in Hermosillo that one
of his servants, who was slightly shot by a Ceri’s arrow,
died quickly from the effect of the wound (which mortified
almost immediately) in spite of the best medical treatment.
Their language is guttural, and very different from any other
Indian idiom in Sonora. It is said that on one occasion some
of these Indians passed by a shop in Guaymas, where some Welsh
sailors were talking, and on hearing the Welsh language spoken,
stopped, listened, and appeared much interested, declaring that
those white men were their brothers, for they had a tongue like
their own. They are very filthy in their habits, and are said
to be worshipers of the moon.[182]

[182] Notes on the State of Sonora, by Charles P. Stone, 1800; Washington, 1861, p. 19. Reprinted in Historical Magazine, vol. V, 1861, pp. 161-169.

Another Mexican traveler of note who collected local and contemporary information concerning the Seri, though enjoying no more than slight inimical contact with them, was Herr Clemens A. Pajeken, of Bremen (for some time a resident of California). He classed as wild Indians (“Wilde Indianer, Indios broncos”) the Seri and Apache tribes. Of the former he wrote:

Ceris. This is a small tribe, their number not exceeding 400
souls, or rather head [dessen Seelenzahl oder besser Kopfzahl];
yet the government of the State could not restrain this little
band of robbers and marauders that for more than twenty years
have perpetrated their atrocities on travelers between the
port of Guaymas and the city of Hermosillo, the metropolis
of the State.... The Ceris appear not to grasp the idea that
they are human. Like the prey-beasts of the wilderness, they
go out to slay men and animals, sparing only their own kind.
In many respects they are viler than the beasts, since they
slay without need merely to satisfy a lust for slaughter.
They are not only the stupidest and laziest of the Indians of
Sonora, but also the most treacherous and deceitful. During the
Spanish rule, from the time the first visit was made to lead
them toward social life, they have rebelled more than forty
times. Only a couple of families [ein paar Familien] still
reside in the village [Pueblo Seri], where they make ollas and
subsist on the offal of the shambles. The proper home of these
barbarians is the island of Tiburon and the adjacent coasts,
whither they return after their outbreaks, although it is an
incredibly desert region. Thence they repair to the highways to
kill travelers and arrieros, or to the ranges to steal cattle.
They confine themselves to the bow and arrow, and the latter
are poisoned, so that every wound made by them is deadly, or at
best highly dangerous. On my second journey into the interior
of the country my horse received an arrow in the hip; the
arrow, which entered 4 inches, could not be withdrawn until the
following day; and for seven months the wound suppurated....
Their chief food consists of oysters, mussels, snakes, with
fish and other sea food, which they consume entirely raw and
which surrounds them with an intolerable stench; though this
may be partly due to their exceeding uncleanliness, since the
process of washing is wholly unknown to them. Their clothing
consists of a kilt of pelican skin. They tattoo their faces,
and some pierce their noses to insert a certain green stone
[obsidian]. They are of dark copper color, large and strongly
built. Although in their faces no human sentiments can be
discerned, yet they can not be called ugly. Their limbs are so
beautifully proportioned that the Spanish ladies in Hermosillo
view with envy the slender shapes and the comely hands and
feet of the young Ceris maidens. They wear no headdresses, and
as their coarse, shaggy hair is neither combed nor cleaned,
it sticks out in tangled tufts in all directions like spines
on a hedgehog; this alone gives them a forbidding appearance.
Their speech is quite like their character; it is guttural,
discordant, and meager, resembling more the howling of wild
animals than human speech, wherefore it is difficult for a
human to learn. They have no religion—at least, I do not deem
the gambols and amusing capers in which they indulge at the
new moon to be religious customs. The tribe is constantly
diminishing in numbers, and it is hoped they may soon disappear
from the earth by natural decrease—unless the State government
sooner undertakes a war of extermination.[183]

[183] Reise-Erinnerungen und Abenteuer aus der neuen Welt in ethnographischen Bildern, von C. A. Pajeken; Bremen, 1861, pp. 97-99.

Herr Pajeken’s record bears inherent evidence (at least to one familiar with the region) of reflecting the current local knowledge and opinion concerning the Seri with unsurpassed—indeed unequaled—fidelity; and it is also of value in that it indicates the approximate number of the tribe then surviving in Pueblo Seri, and in that it gives the contemporary estimate of the tribal population.

Among the more careful students of the Seri at second hand should be mentioned Buckingham Smith, an enthusiastic collector, translator, and publisher of rare Americana. In the introduction to an anonymous and dateless grammar of the Heve language he wrote in 1861:

The lower Pima are in the west of the province [of Sonora],
having many towns extending to the frontier of the indomitable
Seri, who live some 30 leagues to the north of the mouth of
the Hiaqui, and have their farthest limit inland some dozen
leagues from the sea, finding shelter among the ridges and in
the neighboring island of Tiburon.

He added in a note:

The Guaima speak nearly the same language as the Seri,
are few in number, and live among the Hiaqui in Belen and
elsewhere, having retreated before the sanguinary fury of their
conquerors.[184]

[184] A Grammatical Sketch of the Heve Language, translated from an unpublished Spanish manuscript; in Library of American Linguistics, vol. III, New York, 1861, p. 7.

While the scientific knowledge of the Seri began with Bartlett’s visit, it assumed definite shape only through the classic researches of Don Francisco Pimentel (Count Herras) in the early sixties. His analysis and classification of the Seri tongue rest on a short vocabulary collected by Señor D. A. Tenochio and transmitted to the Mexican Society of Geography and Statistics. Noting the condition of the tribe at the time, Señor Pimentel wrote:

The Seris are now reduced to a few families only, inhabiting
Sonora, especially the island of Tiburon, for which reason
they are also known sometimes by the name Tiburones. The
Indians called Salineros, who live on the borders of Pimeria
Alta, and the Tepocas, who live toward the south, belong to
the Seri nation. The Seris have always been notable for their
ferocity and barbarism, preferring death in war against the
whites to the adoption of civilization. They are dreaded and
notorious for their arrows, poisoned with a most virulent venom
[emponzoñadas con activísimo veneno]. They are tall and well
formed, and their women are good-looking. By reason of their
distrust of the whites, it has not been possible to ascertain
their traditions, farther than that their ancestors came from
distant lands of unknown direction. Of their religion it is
known that they adore daily the rising sun.[185]

[185] Cuadro Descriptivo y Comparativo de las Lenguas Indigenas de México, ó Tratado de Filología Mexicana, por Francisco Pimentel, segunda edicion unica completa, tomo II; Mexico, 1875, p. 229. The first edition of the work was published in two volumes, dated, respectively, 1862 and 1865.

After brief discussion of the grammar, and extended comparison of some sixty out of the seventy vocables selected by Señor Tenochio, he concluded:

Although in the list of Seri words consulted the foregoing
reveal analogies with those of the Mexican group, there are,
without doubt, other terms belonging exclusively to the Seri
or some other branch extraneous to the Mexican group; for this
reason it would appear that the idiom represents a distinct
family.[186]

[186] Ibid., p. 241.

The list of these distinct words was appended. Referring to the dialects, Señor Pimentel expressed the opinion, based on literary references, that the “Guayma” or “Gayama”, “Upanguaima”, and “Cocomaques” may be considered as belonging to the Seri family.[187]

[187] Ibid., p. 234.

While Señor Pimentel gave credit to his informant, Señor Tenochio, he did not indicate the original source of the vocabulary; but the source may be defined approximately by a process of elimination: there is hardly a possibility that the terms were obtained from any tribesmen in Seriland, since they were all inimical to the whites, and since very few of them have ever known enough of the Spanish tongue to permit communication with the Mexicans; accordingly, it is practically certain that the Seri interpreter must have been either (1) a resident of Pueblo Seri or (2) an attaché of rancho San Francisco de Costa Rica (of which more anon); and in either case it would seem certain that the native informant could have been none other than the standard Seri-Spanish interpreter of the last half century—Kolusio. Indeed, Kolusio was, at the time, the only Seri habitué of Pueblo Seri possessing sufficient knowledge of the Spanish and enough intelligence and independence to “give his language”, and was one of the two frequenters of the rancho similarly equipped.

Pimentel’s contemporary, Licenciate Manuel Orozco y Berra, contributed in important measure to systematic knowledge of the Seri, which he defined (apparently on the basis of the Tenochio vocabulary systemized and published by Pimentel) as a distinct linguistic family with two dialectic branches,[188] viz.:

[188] Geografia de las Lenguas y Carta Etnográfica de México, Precedidas de un Ensayo de Clasificacion de las Mismas Lenguas y de Apuntes para las Inmigraciones de las Tribus, por el Lic. Manuel Orozco y Berra; Mexico, 1864, p. 59.

_IX FAMILIA.—SÉRI._

XXXIII. _Séri_, por los séris, céris, tiburones, tepocas,
salineros, en Sonora.

61. I. _Upanguaima_, por los upanguaimas, en Sonora.

62. II. _Guaima_, por los guaimas, guaymas, gayamas,
cocomaques, en Sonora.

Orozco’s map assigns to the Seri family an immense area (recalling Villa-Señor’s “despoblado”) extending from just above the mouth of the Yaqui, northward to the thirtieth parallel on the coast, stretching inland nearly to Cucurpe, Opodepe, and Ures, and including Tiburon; the “Salineros” lying adjacent to the coast in the north, the “Tepocas” medially, and the “Guaymas” in the south, within this area. In elucidating the map he wrote, under the title “El séri.—El upanguaima.—El guaima”:

The Séris, a tribe inhabiting Sonora, forms, with its
subtribes, a separate family. By their language, by their
customs, and by their physiognomy, they are completely set
apart from affiliation with the surrounding nations; and
apparently they have lived in the district which they now
occupy from times anterior to the establishment of the Pima
race and its affines; their use of poisoned arrows recalls
the Caribs of the islands, as well as of the continent, and
it seems not unlikely, although very curious, that they are
related to them. The Séris, known also as Tiburones, a name
derived from the island of Tiburon in the Mar de Cortés, which
serves them as a shelter, considered as parts of their tribe
the Tepocas and the Salineros.

The “Upanguaima” (a very small tribe occupying the Seri border) and the “Guaimas”, as well as the “Cocomagues” were combined chiefly on the authority of Jesuit writers.[189] In describing the State of Sonora he further wrote:

[189] Ibid., p. 42.

The Séris, bounded by the sea on the west, the Pimas Altos on
the north, the Opatas and the Pimas Bajos on the east, and the
pueblos of Rio Yaqui on the south, form the smallest nation
of Sonora, but at the same time the most cruel and deceitful
and the least capable of reduction to political organization.
Hardly uniting with the smaller pueblos as at Populo and
Belen, the rest of the nation engaged so constantly in cruel
warfare that it was necessary to persecute and exterminate
them.... Small as was the tribe, three divisions are known: the
Salineros, extending to the confines of Pimeria Alta; south
of them the Tepocas, nearest to the island of Tiburon; the
Guaymas and Upanguaymas occupying the territory adjacent to
the harbor of the same name, afterward added to the pueblo at
Belen and blended with the Indians of Rio Yaqui. Ferocious and
savage, they preferred to die in war against the whites rather
than adopt their usages and customs; lazy and indolent, they
so surrendered themselves to the passion of intoxication that
mothers conveyed aguardiente from their mouths to the smallest
babes. They are tall and well formed, the women not lacking
in beauty. The poison with which they envenom their arrows is
proverbial for deadly effect; they compound the venomous juice
from a multitude of ingredients and fortify the compound by
superstitious practices.[190]

[190] Ibid., pp. 353-354.

The classifications by Pimentel and Orozco were widely accepted, and were given still wider currency by republication in standard works, such as the classic dictionary of the Nahuatl tongue by Rémi Siméon, in which is defined “La famille _Seri_, dans la Sonora, avec 3 idiomes: le _Seri_, le _Guaima_ et l’_Upanguaima_.”[191] In his ethnographic tableau of the nations and languages of Mexico, M. V. A. Malte-Brun followed Orozco almost literally, save that he emphasized the suggested Caribbean affiliation of the Seri, saying:

[191] Dictionnaire de la Langue Nahuatl ou Mexicaine, rédigé d’après les Documents imprimés et Manuscrits les plus authentiques et précédé d’une Introduction; Paris, 1885, p. xviii.

They make use of poisoned arrows, and when one studies their
manners, their habits, their modes of life, one is tempted
to find in them a strong affinity [grande affinité] with the
Caribs of the continent and the islands.[192]

[192] Tableau de la Distribution ethnographiques des Nations et des Langues au Mexique; Congrès International des Américanistes, Compte-rendu de la Seconde Session, tome II, 1878, p. 37.

During the seventies Hubert Howe Bancroft was engaged in collecting material for his monumental series of works, and in arranging the ethnologic data for publication. Of the Seri he wrote:

East of the Opata and Pima bajo, on the shores of the Gulf of
California, and thence for some distance inland, and also on
the island of Tiburon, the Ceri language with its dialects, the
Guaymi and Tepoca, is spoken. Few of the words are known, and
the excuse given by travelers for not taking vocabularies is,
that it was too difficult to catch the sound. It is represented
as extremely harsh and guttural in its pronunciation and well
suited to the people who speak it, who are described as wild
and fierce. It is, so far as known, not related to any of the
Mexican linguistic families.[193]

[193] The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft, vol. III (The Native Races, vol. III, 1882, p. 704). The “east” in this quotation is obviously a misprint for west.

The only vocabulary of this language which Bancroft was able to find was added (without reference to the aboriginal source); it comprised the eleven words collected by Lavandera and discussed by Ramirez in 1850.[194]

[194] Ibid., p. 705.

The Seri, with their affines, the Tepoka, Salinero, Guayma, and Upanguayma, were included by Bancroft in his arbitrarily defined “Northern Mexican family”.[195] The accompanying map (which is highly inaccurate) located the “Salineros” on the gulf coast, considerably north of the common embouchure of “R. de Horcasitas” and “Rio de Sonora”; while the “Seris” were more conspicuously represented about the broad estuary into which the rivers embouch, and the “Tepocas” were located still farther southward on both Tiburon and the mainland, the island being placed too far southward and the river much too far northward.[196] Numerous data relating to the Seri were incorporated in his text; all were second-hand, though many were taken from unique or rare manuscripts. The coastwise natives of Sonora were said to “live on pulverized rush and straw, with fish caught at sea or in artificial enclosures”; mention was made of the allegation that “the Salineros sometimes eat their own excrement”; anthropophagy was noted, but as pertaining rather to the interior than to the coastwise tribes;[197] and prominence was given to the Seri arrow poison, of which an early author wrote:

[195] Op. cit., vol. I, pp. 604-605.

[196] Ibid., p. 471.

[197] The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft, vol. III (The Native Races, vol. III, 1882, p. 576.)

The poison with which they envenom the points of their arrows
is the most active that has ever been known here.... It has not
been possible to ascertain with certainty the deadly materials
of which this pestilential compound is brewed. Many things
are alleged, e. g., that it is made from the heads of vipers,
irritated and decapitated at the moment of striking their teeth
into a piece of lung or of half putrefied human flesh.

Reference was made also to the “magot” (probably the yerba mala of the modern Mexicans) as a source of arrow poison.[198] The girls’ puberty feast was said to be kept up for several days among the Seri and Tepoka, and the former were said to “superstitiously celebrate the new moon, and bow reverentially to the rising and setting sun”, and also to “employ charms in their medical practice”.[199] Finally, the constituent tribes were discriminated in a manner recalling the persistent assumption that the parasite-converts at the missions fairly represented the Seri:

[198] Ibid., p. 579.

[199] Ibid., pp. 584, 587, 589.

The Tepocas and Tiburones are fierce, cruel, and treacherous,
more warlike and courageous than the Ceris of the mainland, who
are singularly devoid of good qualities, being sullenly stupid,
lazy, inconstant, revengeful, depredating, and much given to
intemperance. Their country even has become a refuge for evil
doers. In former times they were warlike and brave, but even
this quality they have lost, and have become as cowardly as
they are cruel.[200]

[200] Ibid., p. 590.

It is evident that this characterization of “the Ceris of the mainland” was based on the degraded scavengers outlawed by the tribe and attached to the missions and pueblos during much of the historical period.

It was also during the seventies that the errors and uncertainties of three and a half centuries concerning the coasts of the Californian gulf were finally brought to an end through the surveys of Commander (now Admiral) George Dewey, U. S. N., and the officers of the United States ship _Narragansett_, under the direction of the Hydrographic Office of the United States. These surveys resulted in trustworthy and complete geodetic location of all coastwise features, in geographic placement of the entire coast-line, in soundings of such extent as to determine the bottom configuration, in tidal determinations, in recognition of the currents, in definition of harbors and anchorages, and eventually in a series of elegant and accurate charts (dated 1873-75) available for the cartographers and navigators of the world. As the largest island in the gulf, Tiburon received especial attention; its coast was accurately surveyed and mapped, while the interior was sketched in considerable detail, and the adjacent channels were carefully defined and sounded.

Naturally the surveyors came into contact with the Seri tribesmen. Of them Commander Dewey wrote:

During the greater part of the year Tiburon Island is resorted
to by the Seris (or Ceres) tribe of Indians, who inhabit the
adjacent mainland, and their huts and encampments may be seen
in many places along the shore, principally on the eastern side
of the island. They are reputed to be exceedingly hostile and
to use poisoned arrows in opposing the landing of strangers on
what they consider their domain, but during the stay of the
_Narragansett_ in the vicinity they were very friendly. At
first they were shy and made threatening gestures, but soon
finding that our intentions were peaceable, became friendly
and returned our visits to the shore by frequent and lengthy
calls on board ship. They are very expert in hunting with the
bow and arrow and in catching fish and turtles, which abound
in the surrounding waters. The canoes of these Indians deserve
especial mention. They are made of long reeds, which are bound
together with strings after the manner of fascines, three of
which when fastened together ... have sufficient buoyancy to
support one or two persons. They kneel in these canoes when
paddling, the water being at the same level in the canoe as
outside of it.[201]

[201] Publication No. 56, U. S. Hydrographic Office, Bureau of Navigation. The West Coast of Mexico, from the Boundary Line between the United States and Mexico to Cape Corrientes, including the Gulf of California (revised edition), 1880, p. 145.

Illustrations of the “Tiburon canoe” (or balsa), drawn by H. Von Bayer, were also introduced.[202] In addition Mr Von Bayer succeeded in obtaining two photographs of Seri Indians, taken on shipboard; one of these is of special interest in that it illustrates the peculiar attitude of the Seri archer in the act of using his weapon.[203]

[202] Ibid., pl. XV, p. 136 (one of these illustrations is reproduced in figure 28).

[203] The negatives of these pictures were retained by Mr Von Bayer, and have been kindly turned over to the Bureau of American Ethnology. Unfortunately the archery negative had been shattered, but enough of the fragments were preserved to show all essential details and to afford a basis for the drawing reproduced in plate XXIX.

Unfortunately the surveys were confined to the coast, and the interior remained unmeasured and unmapped save on the basis of tradition and travelers’ tales, supplemented by a few vague itineraries and traverses. Except along the international boundary and the railway (Ferrocarril de Sonora), the locations of pueblos and ranches remained guesses, the delineation of mountains remained a work of imagination, and even the best cartographers continued to run in rivers at random or in such wise as to afford artistic effect.[204]

[204] The imposing official map of 1890, titled Carta General de la Republica Mexicana, formada en el Ministerio de Fomento con los datos mas recientes, por disposicion del Secretario del Ramo, General Carlos Pacheco, engraved and printed by Erhard Hermanos, Paris, on a scale of about 32 miles to the inch, represents Rio Bacuache as about the right length and with its center in about the right location, but as running at almost exactly right angles to its actual course; and it contains divers other equally startling errors.

* * * * *

In 1879 M. Alphonse L. Pinart traveled extensively in northern Mexico and southwestern United States, and made considerable linguistic collections among various tribes. Desiring to obtain a Seri vocabulary, he planned a visit to the tribal territory; but on reaching Caborca in March he was met by the information that the Seri were on the warpath, and had recently devastated a hacienda on their frontier and slain more than a dozen white settlers.[205] Thence he repaired to Pueblo Seri, and early in April obtained there a Seri-Spanish vocabulary of several hundred words, with a number of short phrases throwing some light on the grammatic construction. This record was transmitted to Dr Albert S. Gatschet. It comprises a title page inscribed “Vocabulario de la lengua Séri Interprete el GI. de los Seris y otro Indio. Pueblo de Seris 4 Abril 1879”; four foolscap sheets (written on both sides, thus making 16 pages) of vocabulary; and a final page bearing two short phrases and inscribed “Los Séris, me dice el general de ellos, son como doscientos hombres de llevar armas—viven todavia parte en la isla de Tiburon, parte en la costa.[206] Pueblo de Seris, 4 Abril, 1879, Alph. Pinart.” A transcript of this invaluable vocabulary is preserved in the Bureau of American Ethnology. There is nothing either in the original vocabulary or in the known correspondence relating to it to identify the aboriginal informant, but the identification is made easy through the coincident testimony of living witnesses and the unmistakable implication of the historical records to the effect that there was at that time but a single Seri Indian[207] resident at Pueblo Seri—i. e., the official interpreter, “El General” Kolusio. This identification is strengthened by the remarkable similarity between this vocabulary and that of Bartlett, a similarity made the more striking by the fact that one was recorded in English, the other in Spanish; the identification is supported, too, by Kolusio’s memory of “giving his language” to a stranger “not a Mexicano” yet familiar with the Spanish; and the identification is practically established by the considerable number of terms expressing concepts alien to the Seri (e. g., ax, adobe, house, horse, hog, field, irrigate, pigeon, thresh, tobacco, shirt, the names of the months, etc.), evidently acquired through long and intimate acquaintance with Mexican customs and domiciles and modes of thought—for all these concepts were familiar enough to Kolusio, yet to no other known Seri Indian of recent decades. Accordingly it may be deemed practically certain that M Pinart’s vocabulary, like that of Commissioner Bartlett, was obtained from Kolusio; and it is at least strongly probable that both the Lavandera-Ramirez and the Tenochio-Pimentel vocabularies were derived from the same aboriginal source—an indubitably excellent source, save for the occasional interjection of alien notions, and the infrequent substitution of foreign equivalents for forgotten terms.

[205] Recorded by Gatschet, Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, Berlin, Band XV, 1883, p. 130. The location of the hacienda was not specified, but there are local traditions of Seri raids about that time, both at Hacienda Serna (between Caborca and Libertad anchorage) and at Bacuachito.

[206] “The Seris, the chief tells me, comprise about 200 men fit to bear arms—they still live part on the island of Tiburon, part on the coast.”

[207] M Pinart’s reference to his interpreter is not only impersonal but ambiguous. “Interpreted by the chief of the Seri and another Indian” might be considered to imply _two_ Seri Indians, though it may, with equal linguistic probability, be interpreted to mean _the_ specified Seri and another Indian; and while the temporary presence of a second Seri at the pueblo seems possible, the sum of probabilities points so clearly the other way as to demand the latter interpretation.

Barred from Seriland by the current war craze, M Pinart was prevented from obtaining much collateral information concerning the Seri; but he concluded (on grounds not stated) that “the Tepoca spoken on the south of Rio del Altar is identical with the Seri”,[208] and also that “the Guaymas were of the stock of the southern Pimas, or Nebomes”.[209]

[208] Gatschet, op. cit., p. 131.

[209] Bandelier, Final Report of Investigations among the Indians of the Southwestern United States, part i, in Papers of the Archæological Institute of America, American series, iii, Cambridge, 1890, p. 76. As already noted, it is probable that the Guayma lost their “antigua idioma” (Ramirez, op. cit. p. 149) long before M Pinart’s visit; and pending definite statement of the facts on which his conclusion rests it is necessary to retain the classification based on specific and repeated, albeit unskilled, observations of the identity of the Guayma speech with that of the Seri.

While M Pinart failed to publish, his linguistic collections were compared, systemized, and made public by Dr Albert S. Gatschet in a notable memoir on “Der Yuma-Sprachstamm”, 1883. Comparing the Seri, as represented by the Pinart and Bartlett and Pimentel vocabularies, with the Yavapai, M’Mat, and incidentally with the Konino, Tonto, Cochimi, and other tongues, Dr Gatschet was led to adopt the suggestion of Professor Wilhelm Herzog[210] that the Seri is a dialect of the Yuman stock. In the comparative vocabulary, which comprises about a hundred and forty Seri words (selected from the 611 terms in the Pinart collection), there are perhaps a dozen terms presenting some similarity to those of one or more Yuman dialects; among these are terms for ax, tree, split, tobacco, heaven, pigeon, dog, and others of presumptively or certainly alien character.[211]

[210] In correspondence with Dr Gatschet, op. cit., p. 133.

[211] Dr. Gatschet has recently revised the data and recognized the distinctness of the Seri tongue (Science, new series, vol. XII, 1900, p. 556-558).

Herzog’s suggested classification, with Gatschet’s indorsement, was accepted even more promptly and widely than the earlier classifications of Pimentel and Orozco. It was tacitly adopted by Director J. W. Powell in his classic arrangement of Indian linguistic families of America north of Mexico;[212] it was explicitly approved by Adolph F. Bandelier in his “Final Report of Investigations”;[213] and it was implicitly accepted and fortified by Dr Daniel G. Brinton in his work on “The American Race”.[214] Brinton’s Seri words were “chiefly from the satisfactory vocabulary obtained by the late John Russell Bartlett”; of the 21 terms, about 8 (including that for the alien concept “house”) suggest affinity with the Yuman, chiefly in the Mohave dialect; the others are either wholly distinct or only superficially similar, e. g., in the concurrence of a consonant or two, or merely in the correspondence in number of syllables.[215]

[212] Seventh Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, 1885-’86; Washington, 1891, p. 137.

[213] Op. cit., p. 74.

[214] The American Race: A Linguistic Classification and Ethnographic Description of the Native Tribes of North and South America; New York, 1891, p. 335.

[215] Mr. Hewitt’s discussion (postea, pp. 299-344) gives fuller details of this short vocabulary.

* * * * *

Stated briefly, the scientific researches relating to Seriland and the Seri during the fifty years from the fourth decade of the century to the middle of the last decade resulted in (1) a satisfactory survey of the coast, (2) the collection of two excellent Seri vocabularies, with a few others of less extent, and (3) two discrepant linguistic classifications of the tribe, both widely quoted and accepted.

During the half century of historical silence from 1844 forward, and pending the progress of the desultory researches, the Seri suffered a succession of external shocks more serious in their internal effects than any of those of the three centuries preceding; indeed it is just to say that during this half century the Seri range was curtailed, the Seri customs were modified, and the Seri population was diminished more effectively than during the preceding sesquicentury of fairly definite record. The chief factor in this transformation was an intrepid pioneer, who pushed actual settlement toward the Seri frontier more vigorously than any predecessor—Señor Pascual Encinas, a son of Sonora.[216]

[216] The following paragraphs are condensed from oral recitals by Señor Encinas (a notably straightforward and judicious authority), supplemented and corroborated in all essential details by Señores Andres Noriega, Ygnacio Lozania, and several other habitués of the Seri borderland, as well as by Kolusio and Mashém, several Papago informants, and various collateral documents.

Born near Hermosillo in 1819, Don Pascual was in early maturity at the time of Colonel Andrade’s expedition, and was fully conversant with the later history of the Seri. Of adventurous disposition, and holding interests in Bacuachito, he was familiar with the Seri frontier; and in hunting deer and other large game over the vast delta plain of Rio Sonora he had perceived the agricultural possibilities of the region. During the struggle of 1844 he became impressed with the idea that the Seri might be controlled and gradually inducted into useful citizenship through a judicious combination of industrial, educational, and evangelical agencies; and before the end of the year he began the establishment of a rancho (the present Rancho San Francisco de Costa Rica) on the Seri borderland, with the double object of developing new resources and regulating the relations between tribesmen and settlers. Enlisting the aid of a corps of vaqueros, mechanics, and farmers, he excavated a deep well, erected corrals and adobe houses, cleared away the exceptionally luxuriant mesquite forests, fenced fields, and stocked the plains with horses, burros, and cattle. At the same time he sought Seri wanderers and treated them with such kindness and firmness as to gain their confidence; and while most of the tribe held aloof, some attached themselves to the rancho, and a few even were taught to labor; albeit in desultory fashion. In this stage, as for some years afterward, he was materially aided by his contemporary, Kolusio, then in his physical prime and still in good repute among his kinsmen. Meantime he obtained the assignment of two priests, who made it their chief duty still further to placate the tribesmen and their families and to induct them into religious observances and belief; and as the confidence of the Indians increased, he had two boys domiciled in the rancho and educated in the Spanish as well as in the faith, in the hope that they might pass into priesthood and so form a future bond with their kin. One of these neophytes disappeared in the troublous times of a later decade, though tradition indicates that he became a tribal outcast (like Kolusio still later) and slunk away to Pitiquito and Altar, and afterward to California; the other, christened Juan Estorga and nicknamed El Gran Pelado (“The Great Shorn”), survives as subchief Mashém, long since relapsed into his native savagery, save that he remembers the Spanish, affects a hat, cuts his hair to the neck (whence his nickname), and prefers footgear to the fashion of his fellows.

Industrially, Don Pascual’s venture proved successful; the fertile soil, periodically watered from below by the underflow of the semiannual freshets, yielded incredible crops; reveling in the exceptional floral wealth of the delta and tided over bad seasons by the artificial forage, the stock increased and multiplied beyond precedent; and so the rancho became a flourishing establishment, housing a score or more of families and harboring a hundred or two dependents, in addition to the thousands of half-wild horses and cattle. Meantime, the industrial lines ramifying from the rancho formed a drag net for Seri raiders, practically cutting off forays eastward toward Hermosillo and Horcasitas, and greatly reducing the sallies southeastward toward Guaymas and northeastward toward Bacuachito and Caborca; and Don Pascual began to receive recognition and state and federal concessions as a public benefactor. For a decade the industrial and evangelical influence and the effect of the bold kindness of El Patron extended and became felt throughout the tribe, and most of the families visited the rancho at least occasionally. Yet even the best of them remained averse to labor save in sporadic spurts, and indifferent to the religious teaching, save when sweetened by substantial largess; while all but the decrepit and the two carefully restrained neophytes came and went capriciously, and were much given to decamping incontinently by night to return shamefacedly one by one in the course of a week or two, without consistent or adequate excuse for their stampede—indeed the vaqueros habitually classed these nocturnal flights of the Seri and the reasonless stampedes of their stock in the same category. Ostensibly a few of the larger boys and girls and a still smaller number of the adults were helpers about the rancho; actually they were scavengers, consuming the waste of the shambles and the earth-mixed scatterings from the thrashing floors, and saving the rancheros the noisome duty of removing the carcasses of animals dead by disease or accident; and as their indolence increased under the easy régime, they grew into more and more open thievery. By no means deficient in shrewdness and cunning, they adopted numberless devices for imposing on the credulity of the majordomo and other officials of the rancho. When coin-like tokens of stamped copper were used in the transactions of the rancho as equivalents of labor, the Seri ingeniously obtained sheet copper by stealth or barter, systematically counterfeited the tokens, and exchanged them for supplies at the rancho store; it was a favorite trick to surreptitiously break the neck or a leg of a horse, cow, or burro, and report finding the dead or crippled animal, at the same time begging for the carcass; and, whenever opportunity offered, they slyly slaughtered a head of stock, consumed it to the hoofs and horns and larger bones, sucked up the blood stains, and buried the few remains in cactus thickets, impenetrable save by their own hardy limbs and bodies. Nor did any of the tribe except the two restrained neophytes ever really enter the collective life of the patriarchal group headed by Don Pascual; they attended no industrial or social or churchly function save in response to reminder and solicitation; they craved the white man’s medicines in slight disorders, but rejected them in extremis; and the dying or dead were spirited away to be inhumed and mourned, according to their wont, in their harsh but beloved motherland.

SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. VII

HOUSE FRAMEWORK, TIBURON ISLAND]