The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft Part 20

Serious crimes, as the robbery of a burial-place, were sometimes punished with death by the people, but no special authorities or processes seem to have been employed, either for detection or punishment.[359]

Slavery, common to all the coast families, is also practiced by the Chinooks, but there is less difference here perhaps than elsewhere between the condition of the slaves and the free. Obtained from without the limits of the family, towards the south or east, by war, or more commonly by trade, the slaves are obliged to perform all the drudgery for their masters, and their children must remain in their parents'

condition, their round heads serving as a distinguishing mark from freemen. But the amount of the work connected with the Chinook household is never great, and so long as the slaves are well and strong, they are liberally fed and well treated. True, many instances are known of slaves murdered by the whim of a cruel and rich master, and it was not very uncommon to kill slaves on the occasion of the death of prominent persons, but wives and friends are also known to have been sacrificed on similar occasions. No burial rights are accorded to slaves, and no care taken of them in serious illness; when unable to work they are left to die, and their bodies cast into the sea or forest as food for fish or beast. It was not a rare occurrence for a freeman to voluntarily subject himself to servitude in payment of a gambling-debt; nor for a slave to be adopted into the tribe, and the privilege of head-flattening accorded to his offspring.[360]

[Sidenote: MARITAL RELATIONS OF THE CHINOOKS.]

Not only were the Chinooks a peaceable people in their tribal intercourse, but eminently so in their family relations. The young men when they married brought their wives to their father's home, and thus several generations lived amicably in their large dwellings until forced to separate by numbers, the chief authority being exercised not by the oldest but by the most active and useful member of the household.

Overtures for marriage were made by friends of the would-be bridegroom, who offered a certain price, and if accepted by the maiden's parents, the wedding ceremony was celebrated simply by an interchange and exhibition of presents with the congratulations of invited guests. A man might take as many wives as he could buy and support, and all lived together without jealousy; but practically few, and those among the rich and powerful, indulged in the luxury of more than one wife. It has been noticed that there was often great disparity in the ages of bride and groom, for, say the Chinooks, a very young or very aged couple lack either the experience or the activity necessary for fighting the battles of life. Divorce or separation is easily accomplished, but is not of frequent occurrence. A husband can repudiate his wife for infidelity, or any cause of dissatisfaction, and she can marry again. Some cases are known of infidelity punished with death. Barrenness is common, the birth of twins rare, and families do not usually exceed two children.

Childbirth, as elsewhere among aboriginals, is accompanied with but little inconvenience, and children are often nursed until three or five years old. They are carried about on the mother's back until able to walk; at first in the head-flattening cradle, and later in wicker baskets. Unmarried women have not the slightest idea of chast.i.ty, and freely bestow their favors in return for a kindness, or for a very small consideration in property paid to themselves or parents. When married, all this is changed--female virtue acquires a marketable value, the possessorship being lodged in the man and not in the woman. Rarely are wives unfaithful to their husbands; but the chast.i.ty of the wife is the recognized property of the husband, who sells it whenever he pleases.

Although attaching no honor to chast.i.ty, the Chinook woman feels something like shame at becoming the mother of an illegitimate child, and it is supposed to be partly from this instinct, that infanticide and abortion are of frequent occurrence. At her first menstruation a girl must perform a certain penance, much less severe, however, than among the northern nations. In some tribes she must bathe frequently for a moon, and rub the body with rotten hemlock, carefully abstaining from all fish and berries which are in season, and remaining closely in the house during a south wind. Did she partake of the forbidden food, the fish would leave the streams and the berries drop from the bushes; or did she go out in a south wind, the thunder-bird would come and shake his wings. All thunder-storms are thus caused. Both young children and the old and infirm are kindly treated. Work is equally divided between the s.e.xes; the women prepare the food which the men provide; they also manufacture baskets and matting; they are nearly as skillful as the men with the canoe, and are consulted on all important matters. Their condition is by no means a hard one. It is among tribes that live by the chase or by other means in which women can be of little service, that we find the s.e.x most oppressed and cruelly treated.[361]

[Sidenote: CHINOOK FEASTS AND FESTIVITIES.]

Like all Indians, the Chinooks are fond of feasting, but their feasts are simply the coming together of men and women during the fishing season with the determination to eat as much as possible, and this meeting is devoid of those complicated ceremonies of invitation, reception, and social etiquette, observed farther north; nor has any traveler noticed the distribution of property as a feature of these festivals. Fantastically dressed and gaudily decked with paint, they are wont to jump about on certain occasions in a hopping, jolting kind of dance, accompanied by songs, beating of sticks, clapping of hands, and occasional yells, the women usually dancing in a separate set. As few visitors mention their dances, it is probable that dancing was less prevalent than with others. Their songs were often soft and pleasing, differing in style for various occasions, the words extemporized, the tunes being often sung with meaningless sounds, like our tra-la-la. Swan gives examples of the music used under different circ.u.mstances. Smoking was universal, the leaves of the bear-berry being employed, mixed in later times with tobacco obtained from the whites. Smoke is swallowed and retained in the stomach and lungs until partial intoxication ensues.

No intoxicating drink was known to them before the whites came, and after their coming for a little time they looked on strong drink with suspicion, and were averse to its use. They are sometimes sober even now, when no whisky is at hand. But the favorite amus.e.m.e.nt of all the Chinook nations is gambling, which occupies the larger part of their time when not engaged in sleeping, eating, or absolutely necessary work. In their games they risk all their property, their wives and children, and in many instances their own freedom, losing all with composure, and nearly always accompanying the game with a song. Two persons, or two parties large or small, play one against the other; a banking game is also in vogue, in which one individual plays against all comers. A favorite method is to pa.s.s rapidly from hand to hand two small sticks, one of which is marked, the opponent meanwhile guessing at the hand containing the marked stick. The sticks sometimes take the form of discs of the size of a silver dollar, each player having ten; these are wrapped in a ma.s.s of fine bark-fibre, shuffled and separated in two portions; the winner naming the bunch containing the marked or trump piece. Differently marked sticks may also be shuffled or tossed in the air, and the lucky player correctly names the relative position in which they shall fall. A favorite game of females, called _ahikia_, is played with beaver-teeth, having figured sides, which are thrown like dice; the issue depends on the combinations of figures which are turned up. In all these games the players squat upon mats; sticks are used as counters; and an essential point for a successful gambler is to make as much noise as possible, in order to confuse the judgment of opponents. In still another game the players attempt to roll small pieces of wood between two pins set up a few inches apart, at a distance of ten feet, into a hole in the floor just beyond. The only sports of an athletic nature are shooting at targets with arrows and spears, and a game of ball in which two goals are placed a mile apart, and each party--sometimes a whole tribe--endeavors to force the ball past the other's goal, as in foot-ball, except that the ball is thrown with a stick, to one end of which is fixed a small hoop or ring.[362] Children's sports are described only by Swan, and as rag babies and imitated Catholic baptisms were the favorite pastimes mentioned, they may be supposed not altogether aboriginal.

[Sidenote: CUSTOMS AND SUPERSt.i.tIONS.]

Personal names with the Chinooks are hereditary, but in many cases they either have no meaning or their original signification is soon forgotten. They are averse to telling their true name to strangers, for fear, as they sometimes say, that it may be stolen; the truth is, however, that with them the name a.s.sumes a personality; it is the shadow or spirit, or other self, of the flesh and blood person, and between the name and the individual there is a mysterious connection, and injury cannot be done to one without affecting the other; therefore, to give one's name to a friend is a high mark of Chinook favor. No account is kept of age. They are believers in sorcery and secret influences, and not without fear of their medicine-men or conjurers, but, except perhaps in their quality of physicians, the latter do not exert the influence which is theirs farther north; their ceremonies and tricks are consequently fewer and less ridiculous. Inventions of the whites not understood by the natives are looked on with great superst.i.tion. It was, for instance, very difficult at first to persuade them to risk their lives before a photographic apparatus, and this for the reason before mentioned; they fancied that their spirit thus pa.s.sed into the keeping of others, who could torment it at pleasure.[363] Consumption, liver complaint and ophthalmia are the most prevalent Chinook maladies; to which, since the whites came, fever and ague have been added, and have killed eighty or ninety per cent. of the whole people, utterly exterminating some tribes. The cause of this excessive mortality is supposed to be the native method of treatment, which allays a raging fever by plunging the patient in the river or sea. On the Columbia this alleviating plunge is preceded by violent perspiration in a vapor bath; consequently the treatment has been much more fatal there than on the coast where the vapor bath is not in use. For slight ills and pains, especially for external injuries, the Chinooks employ simple remedies obtained from various plants and trees. Many of these remedies have been found to be of actual value, while others are evidently quack nostrums, as when the ashes of the hair of particular animals are considered essential ingredients of certain ointments. Fasting and bathing serve to relieve many slight internal complaints. Strangely enough, they never suffer from diseases of the digestive organs, notwithstanding the greasy compounds used as food. When illness becomes serious or refuses to yield to simple treatment, the conclusion is that either the spirits of the dead are striving to remove the spirit of the sick person from the troubles of earth to a happier existence, or certain evil spirits prefer this world and the patient's body for their dwelling-place. Then the doctor is summoned. Medical celebrities are numerous, each with his favorite method of treatment, but all agree that singing, beating of sticks, indeed a noise, however made, accompanied by mysterious pa.s.ses and motions, with violent pressure and kneading of the body are indispensable. The patient frequently survives the treatment. Several observers believe that mesmeric influences are exerted, sometimes with benefit, by the doctors in their mummeries.[364]

[Sidenote: CHINOOK BURIAL RITES.]

When the Chinook dies, relatives are careful to speak in whispers, and indulge in no loud manifestations of grief so long as the body remains in the house. The body is prepared for final disposition by wrapping it in blankets, together with ornaments and other property of a valuable but not bulky nature. For a burial place an elevated but retired spot near the river bank or on an island is almost always selected, but the methods of disposing of the dead in these cemeteries differ somewhat among the various tribes. In the region about the mouth of the Columbia, the body with its wrappings is placed in the best canoe of the deceased, which is washed for the purpose, covered with additional blankets, mats, and property, again covered, when the deceased is of the richer cla.s.s, by another inverted canoe, the whole bound together with matting and cords, and deposited usually on a plank platform five or six feet high, but sometimes suspended from the branches of trees, or even left on the surface of the ground. The more bulky articles of property, such as utensils, and weapons, are deposited about or hung from the platform, being previously spoiled for use that they may not tempt desecrators among the whites or foreign tribes; or, it may be that the sacrifice or death of the implements is necessary before the spirits of the implements can accompany the spirit of the owner. For the same purpose, and to allow the water to pa.s.s off, holes are bored in the bottom of the canoe, the head of the corpse being raised a little higher than the feet. Some travelers have observed a uniformity in the position of the canoe, the head pointing towards the east, or down the current of the stream. After about a year, the bones are sometimes taken out and buried, but the canoe and platform are never removed. Chiefs' canoes are often repainted. Farther up both the Columbia and Willamette Rivers, excavations of little depth are often made, in which bodies are deposited on horizontal boards and covered over with a slightly inclining roof of heavy planks or poles. In these vaults several tiers of corpses are often placed one above another. At the Cascades, depositories of the dead have been noticed in the form of a roofed inclosure of planks, eight feet long, six feet wide, and five feet high, with a door in one end, and the whole exterior painted. The Calapooyas also buried their dead in regular graves, over which was erected a wooden head-board. Desecration of burial places is a great crime with the Chinook; he also attaches great importance to having his bones rest in his tribal cemetery wherever he may die. For a long time after a death, relatives repair daily at sunrise and sunset to the vicinity of the grave to sing songs of mourning and praise. Until the bones are finally disposed of, the name of the deceased must not be spoken, and for several years it is spoken only with great reluctance. Near relatives often change their name under the impression that spirits will be attracted back to earth if they hear familiar names often repeated.

Chiefs are supposed to die through the evil influence of another person, and the suspected, though a dear friend, was formerly often sacrificed.

The dead bodies of slaves are never touched save by other slaves.[365]

[Sidenote: CHINOOK CHARACTER.]

There is little difference of opinion concerning the character of the Chinooks. All agree that they are intelligent and very acute in trade; some travelers have found them at different points harmless and inoffensive; and in a few instances honesty has been detected. So much for their good qualities. As to the bad, there is unanimity nearly as great that they are thieves and liars, and for the rest each observer applies to them a selection of such adjectives as lazy, superst.i.tious, cowardly, inquisitive, intrusive, libidinous, treacherous, turbulent, hypocritical, fickle, etc. The Clatsops, with some authors, have the reputation of being the most honest and moral; for the lowest position in the scale all the rest might present a claim. It should however be said in their favor that they are devotedly attached to their homes, and treat kindly both their young children and aged parents; also that not a few of their bad traits originated with or have been aggravated by contact with civilization.[366]

THE INLAND FAMILIES, const.i.tuting the fifth and last division of the Columbians, inhabit the region between the Cascade Range and the eastern limit of what I term the Pacific States, from 52 30' to 45 of north lat.i.tude. These bounds are tolerably distinct; though that on the south, separating the eastern portions of the Columbian and Californian groups, is irregular and marked by no great river, mountain chain, or other prominent physical feature. These inland natives of the Northwest occupy, in person, character, and customs, as well as in the location of their home, an intermediate position between the coast people already described--to whom they are p.r.o.nounced superior in most respects--and the Rocky Mountain or eastern tribes. Travelers crossing the Rocky Mountains into this territory from the east, or entering it from the Pacific by way of the Columbia or Fraser, note contrasts on pa.s.sing the limits, sufficient to justify me in regarding its inhabitants as one people for the purposes aimed at in this volume.[367] Instead, therefore, of treating each family separately, as has been done with the coast divisions of the group, I deem it more convenient, as well as less monotonous to the reader, to avoid repet.i.tion by describing the manners and customs of all the people within these limits together, taking care to note such variations as may be found to exist. The division into families and nations, made according to principles already sufficiently explained, is as follows, beginning again at the north:

[Sidenote: THE SHUSHWAPS.]

THE SHUSHWAPS, our first family division, live between 52 30' and 49 in the interior of British Columbia, occupying the valleys of the Fraser, Thompson, and Upper Columbia rivers with their tributary streams and lakes. They are bounded on the west by the Nootkas and on the north by the Carriers, from both of which families they seem to be distinct.

As national divisions of this family may be mentioned the Shushwaps proper, or _Atnahs_,[368] who occupy the whole northern portion of the territory; the _Okanagans_,[369] in the valley of the lake and river of the same name; and the _Kootenais_,[370] who inhabit the triangle bounded by the Upper Columbia, the Rocky Mountains, and the 49th parallel, living chiefly on Flatbow river and lake. All three nations might probably be joined with quite as much reason to the Salish family farther south, as indeed has usually been done with the Okanagans; while the Kootenais are by some considered distinct from any of their adjoining nations.

THE SALISH FAMILY dwells south of the Shushwaps, between 49 and 47, altogether on the Columbia and its tributaries. Its nations, more clearly defined than in most other families, are the _Flatheads_,[371]

or Salish proper, between the Bitter Root and Rocky Mountains on Flathead and Clarke rivers; the _Pend d'Oreilles_,[372] who dwell about the lake of the same name and on Clarke River, for fifty to seventy-five miles above and below the lake; the _Coeurs d'Alene_,[373] south of the Pend d'Oreilles, on Coeur d'Alene Lake and the streams falling into it; the _Colvilles_,[374] a term which may be used to designate the variously named bands about Kettle Falls, and northward along the Columbia to the Arrow Lakes; the _Spokanes_,[375] on the Spokane River and plateau along the Columbia below Kettle Falls, nearly to the mouth of the Okanagan; and the _Pisquouse_,[376] on the west bank of the Columbia between the Okanagan and Priest Rapids.

[Sidenote: THE SAHAPTIN FAMILY.]

THE SAHAPTIN FAMILY, the last of the Columbian group, is immediately south of the Salish, between the Cascade and Bitter Root mountains, reaching southward, in general terms, to the forty-fifth parallel, but very irregularly bounded by the Shoshone tribes of the Californian group. Of its nations, the _Nez Perces_,[377] or Sahaptins proper, dwell on the Clearwater and its branches, and on the Snake about the forks; the _Palouse_[378] occupy the region north of the Snake about the mouth of the Palouse; the south banks of the Columbia and Snake near their confluence, and the banks of the lower Walla Walla are occupied by the _Walla Wallas_;[379] the _Yakimas_ and _Kliketats_[380] inhabit the region north of the Dalles, between the Cascade Range and the Columbia, the former in the valley of the Yakima, the latter in the mountains about Mt. Adams. Both nations extend in some bands across into the territory of the Sound family. The natives of Oregon east of the Cascade Range, who have not usually been included in the Sahaptin family, I will divide somewhat arbitrarily into the _Wascos_, extending from the mountains eastward to John Day River, and the _Cayuse_,[381] from this river across the Blue Mountains to the Grande Ronde.

[Sidenote: PHYSIQUE OF THE INLAND TRIBES.]

The inland Columbians are of medium stature, usually from five feet seven to five feet ten inches, but sometimes reaching a height of six feet; spare in flesh, but muscular and symmetrical; with well-formed limbs, the legs not being deformed as among the Chinooks by constant sitting in the canoe; feet and hands are in many tribes small and well made. In bodily strength they are inferior to whites, but superior, as might be expected from their habits, to the more indolent fish-eaters on the Pacific. The women, though never corpulent, are more inclined to rotundity than the men. The Nez Perces and Cayuses are considered the best specimens, while in the north the Kootenais seem to be superior to the other Shushwap nations. The Salish are a.s.signed by Wilkes and Hale an intermediate place in physical attributes between the coast and mountain tribes, being in stature and proportion superior to the Chinooks, but inferior to the Nez Perces.[382] Inland, a higher order of face is observed than on the coast. The cheek-bones are still high, the forehead is rather low, the face long, the eyes black, rarely oblique, the nose prominent and frequently aquiline, the lips thin, the teeth white and regular but generally much worn. The general expression of the features is stern, often melancholy, but not as a rule harsh or repulsive. Dignified, fine-looking men, and handsome young women have been remarked in nearly all the tribes, but here again the Sahaptins bear off the palm. The complexion is not darker than on the coast, but has more of a coppery hue. The hair is black, generally coa.r.s.e, and worn long. The beard is very thin, and its growth is carefully prevented by plucking.[383]

[Sidenote: HEAD-FLATTENING IN THE INTERIOR.]

The custom of head-flattening, apparently of seaboard origin and growth, extends, nevertheless, across the Cascade barrier, and is practiced to a greater or less extent by all the tribes of the Sahaptin family. Among them all, however, with the exception perhaps of the Kliketats, the deformity consists only of a very slight compression of the forehead, which nearly or quite disappears at maturity. The practice also extends inland up the valley of the Fraser, and is found at least in nearly all the more western tribes of the Shushwaps. The Salish family do not flatten the skull.[384] Other methods of deforming the person, such as tattooing and perforating the features are as a rule not employed; the Yakimas and Kliketats, however, with some other lower Columbia tribes, pierce or cut away the septum of the nose,[385] and the Nez Perces probably derived their name from a similar custom formerly practiced by them. Paint, however, is used by all inland as well as coast tribes on occasions when decoration is desired, but applied in less profusion by the latter. The favorite color is vermilion, applied as a rule only to the face and hair.[386] Elaborate hair-dressing is not common, and both s.e.xes usually wear the hair in the same style, soaked in grease, often painted, and hanging in a natural state, or in braids, plaits, or queues, over the shoulders. Some of the southern tribes cut the hair across the forehead, while others farther north tie it up in knots on the back of the head.[387]

The coast dress--robes or blankets of bark-fibre or small skins--is also used for some distance inland on the banks of the Columbia and Fraser, as among the Nicoutamuch, Kliketats, and Wascos; but the distinctive inland dress is of dressed skin of deer, antelope, or mountain sheep; made into a rude frock, or shirt, with loose sleeves; leggins reaching half-way up the thigh, and either bound to the leg or attached by strings to a belt about the waist; moccasins, and rarely a cap. Men's frocks descend half-way to the knees; women's nearly to the ankles. Over this dress, or to conceal the want of some part of it, a buffalo or elk robe is worn, especially in winter. All garments are profusely and often tastefully decorated with leather fringes, feathers, sh.e.l.ls, and porcupine quills; beads, trinkets and various bright-colored cloths having been added to Indian ornamentation since the whites came.

A new suit of this native skin clothing is not without beauty, but by most tribes the suit is worn without change till nearly ready to drop off, and becomes disgustingly filthy. Some tribes clean and whiten their clothing occasionally with white earth, or pipe-clay. The buffalo and most of the other large skins are obtained from the country east of the mountains.[388]

[Sidenote: INLAND DWELLINGS.]

The inland dwelling is a frame of poles, covered with rush matting, or with the skins of the buffalo or elk. As a rule the richest tribes and individuals use skins, although many of the finest Sahaptin houses are covered with mats only. Notwithstanding these nations are rich in horses, I find no mention that horse-hides are ever employed for this or any other purpose. The form of the lodge is that of a tent, conical or oblong, and usually sharp at the top, where an open s.p.a.ce is left for light and air to enter, and smoke to escape. Their internal condition presents a marked contrast with that of the Chinook and Nootka habitations, since they are by many interior tribes kept free from vermin and filth. Their light material and the frequency with which their location is changed contributes to this result. The lodges are pitched by the women, who acquire great skill and celerity in the work.

Holes are left along the sides for entrance, and within, a floor of sticks is laid, or more frequently the ground is spread with mats, and skins serve for beds. Dwellings are often built sufficiently large to accommodate many families, each of which in such case has its own fireplace on a central longitudinal line, a definite s.p.a.ce being allotted for its goods, but no dividing part.i.tions are ever used. The dwellings are arranged in small villages generally located in winter on the banks of small streams a little away from the main rivers. For a short distance up the Columbia, houses similar to those of the Chinooks are built of split cedar and bark. The Walla Wallas, living in summer in the ordinary mat lodge, often construct for winter a subterranean abode by digging a circular hole ten or twelve feet deep, roofing it with poles or split cedar covered with gra.s.s and mud, leaving a small opening at the top for exit and entrance by means of a notched-log ladder. The Atnahs on Fraser River spend the winter in similar structures, a simple slant roof of mats or bark sufficing for shade and shelter in summer.

The Okanagans construct their lodges over an excavation in the ground several feet deep, and like many other nations, cover their matting in winter with gra.s.s and earth.[389]

[Sidenote: FOOD OF THE INLAND NATIONS.]

The inland families eat fish and game, with roots and fruit; no nation subsists without all these supplies; but the proportion of each consumed varies greatly according to locality. Some tribes divide their forces regularly into bands, of men to fish and hunt, of women to cure fish and flesh, and to gather roots and berries. I have spoken of the coast tribes as a fish-eating, and the interior tribes as a hunting people, attributing in great degree their differences of person and character to their food, or rather to their methods of obtaining it; yet fish const.i.tutes an important element of inland subsistence as well. Few tribes live altogether without salmon, the great staple of the Northwest; since those dwelling on streams inaccessible to the salmon by reason of intervening falls, obtain their supply by annual migrations to the fishing-grounds, or by trade with other nations. The princ.i.p.al salmon fisheries of the Columbia are at the Dalles, the falls ten miles above, and at Kettle Falls. Other productive stations are on the Powder, Snake, Yakima, Okanagan, and Clarke rivers. On the Fraser, which has no falls in its lower course, fishing is carried on all along the banks of the river instead of at regular stations, as on the Columbia. Nets, weirs, hooks, spears, and all the implements and methods by which fish are taken and cured have been sufficiently described in treating of the coast region; in the interior I find no important variations except in the basket method in use at the Chaudieres or Kettle Falls by the Quiarlpi tribe. Here an immense willow basket, often ten feet in diameter and twelve feet deep, is suspended at the falls from strong timbers fixed in crevices of the rocks, and above this is a frame so attached that the salmon in attempting to leap the fall strike the sticks of the frame and are thrown back into the basket, in the largest of which naked men armed with clubs await them. Five thousand pounds of salmon have thus been taken in a day by means of a single basket. During the fishing-season the Salmon Chief has full authority; his basket is the largest, and must be located a month before others are allowed to fish. The small nets used in the same region have also the peculiarity of a stick which keeps the mouth open when the net is empty, but is removed by the weight of the fish. Besides the salmon, sturgeon are extensively taken in the Fraser, and in the Arrow Lakes, while trout and other varieties of small fish abound in most of the streams. The fishing-season is the summer, between June and September, varying a month or more according to locality. This is also the season of trade and festivity, when tribes from all directions a.s.semble to exchange commodities, gamble, dance, and in later times to drink and fight.[390]

[Sidenote: HUNTING BY SHUSHWAPS, SALISH, AND SAHAPTINS.]

The larger varieties of game are hunted by the natives on horseback wherever the nature of the country will permit. Buffalo are now never found west of the Rocky Mountains, and there are but few localities where large game has ever been abundant, at least since the country became known to white men. Consequently the Flatheads, Nez Perces, and Kootenais, the distinctively hunting nations, as well as bands from nearly every other tribe, cross the mountains once or twice each year, penetrating to the buffalo-plains between the Yellowstone and the Missouri, in the territory of hostile nations. The bow and arrow was the weapon with which buffalo and all other game were shot. No peculiar cunning seems to have been necessary to the native hunter of buffalo; he had only to ride into the immense herds on his well-trained horse, and select the fattest animals for his arrows. Various devices are mentioned as being practiced in the chase of deer, elk, and mountain sheep; such as driving them by a circle of fire on the prairie towards the concealed hunters, or approaching within arrow-shot by skillful manipulations of a decoy animal; or the frightened deer are driven into an ambush by converging lines of bright-colored rags so placed in the bushes as to represent men. Kane states that about the Arrow Lakes hunting dogs are trained to follow the deer and to bring back the game to their masters even from very long distances. Deer are also pursued in the winter on snow-shoes, and in deep snow often knocked down with clubs. Bear and beaver are trapped in some places; and, especially about the northern lakes and marshes, wild fowl are very abundant, and help materially to eke out the supply of native food.[391]

[Sidenote: FOOD AND ITS PREPARATION.]

Their natural improvidence, or an occasional unlucky hunting or fishing season, often reduces them to want, and in such case the resort is to roots, berries, and mosses, several varieties of which are also gathered and laid up as a part of their regular winter supplies. Chief among the roots are the cama.s.s, a sweet, onion-like bulb, which grows in moist prairies, the couse, which flourishes in more sterile and rocky spots, and the bitter-root, which names a valley and mountain range. To obtain these roots the natives make regular migrations, as for game or fish.

The varieties of roots and berries used for food are very numerous; and none seem to grow in the country which to the native taste are unpalatable or injurious, though many are both to the European.[392]

Towards obtaining food the men hunt and fish; all the other work of digging roots, picking berries, as well as dressing, preserving, and cooking all kinds of food is done by the women, with some exceptions among the Nez Perces and Pend d'Oreilles. Buffalo-meat is jerked by cutting in thin pieces and drying in the sun and over smouldering fires on scaffolds of poles. Fish is sun-dried on scaffolds, and by some tribes on the lower Columbia is also pulverized between two stones and packed in baskets lined with fish-skin. Here, as on the coast, the heads and offal only are eaten during the fishing-season. The Walla Wallas are said usually to eat fish without cooking. Roots, mosses, and such berries as are preserved, are usually kept in cakes, which for eating are moistened, mixed in various proportions and cooked, or eaten without preparation. To make the cakes simply drying, pulverizing, moistening, and sun-drying usually suffice; but camas and pine-moss are baked or fermented for several days in an underground kiln by means of hot stones, coming out in the form of a dark gluey paste of the proper consistency for moulding. Many of these powdered roots may be preserved for years without injury. Boiling by means of hot stones and roasting on sharp sticks fixed in the ground near the fire, are the universal methods of cooking. No mention is made of peculiar customs in eating; to eat often and much is the aim; the style of serving is a secondary consideration.[393] Life with all these nations is but a struggle for food, and the poorer tribes are often reduced nearly to starvation; yet they never are known to kill dogs or horses for food. About the missions and on the reservations cattle have been introduced and the soil is cultivated by the natives to considerable extent.[394]

[Sidenote: PERSONAL HABITS IN THE INTERIOR.]

In their personal habits, as well as the care of their lodges, the Cayuses, Nez Perces, and Kootenais, are mentioned as neat and cleanly; the rest, though filthy, are still somewhat superior to the dwellers on the coast. The Flatheads wash themselves daily, but their dishes and utensils never. De Smet represents the Pend d'Oreille women as untidy even for savages.[395] Guns, knives and tomahawks have generally taken the place of such native weapons as these natives may have used against their foes originally. Only the bow and arrow have survived intercourse with white men, and no other native weapon is described, except one peculiar to the Okanagans,--a kind of Indian slung-shot. This is a small cylindrical ruler of hard wood, covered with raw hide, which at one end forms a small bag and holds a round stone as large as a goose-egg; the other end of the weapon is tied to the wrist. Arrow-shafts are of hard wood, carefully straightened by rolling between two blocks, fitted by means of sinews with stone or flint heads at one end, and pinnated with feathers at the other. The most elastic woods are chosen for the bow, and its force is augmented by tendons glued to its back.[396]

[Sidenote: THE INLAND NATIONS AT WAR.]

The inland families cannot be called a warlike race. Resort to arms for the settlement of their intertribal disputes seems to have been very rare. Yet all are brave warriors when fighting becomes necessary for defense or vengeance against a foreign foe; notably so the Cayuses, Nez Perces, Flatheads and Kootenais. The two former waged both aggressive and defensive warfare against the Snakes of the south; while the latter joined their arms against their common foes, the eastern Blackfeet, who, though their inferiors in bravery, nearly exterminated the Flathead nation by superiority in numbers, and by being the first to obtain the white man's weapons. Departure on a warlike expedition is always preceded by ceremonious preparation, including councils of the wise, great, and old; smoking the pipe, harangues by the chiefs, dances, and a general review, or display of equestrian feats and the manoeuvres of battle. The warriors are always mounted; in many tribes white or speckled war-horses are selected, and both rider and steed are gaily painted, and decked with feathers, trinkets, and bright-colored cloths.

The war-party in most nations is under the command of a chief periodically elected by the tribe, who has no authority whatever in peace, but who keeps his soldiers in the strictest discipline in time of war. Stealthy approach and an unexpected attack in the early morning const.i.tute their favorite tactics. They rush on the enemy like a whirlwind, with terrific yells, discharge their guns or arrows, and retire to prepare for another attack. The number slain is rarely large; the fall of a few men, or the loss of a chief decides the victory. When a man falls, a rush is made for his scalp, which is defended by his party, and a fierce hand-to-hand conflict ensues, generally terminating the battle. After the fight, or before it when either party lacks confidence in the result, a peace is made by smoking the pipe, with the most solemn protestations of goodwill, and promises which neither party has the slightest intention of fulfilling. The dead having been scalped, and prisoners bound and taken up behind the victors, the party starts homeward. Torture of the prisoners, chiefly perpetrated by the women, follows the arrival. By the Flatheads and northern nations captives are generally killed by their sufferings; among the Sahaptins some survive and are made slaves. In the Flathead torture of the Blackfeet are practiced all the fiendish acts of cruelty that native cunning can devise, all of which are borne with the traditional stoicism and taunts of the North American Indian. The Nez Perce system is a little less cruel in order to save life for future slavery. Day after day, at a stated hour, the captives are brought out and made to hold the scalps of their dead friends aloft on poles while the scalp-dance is performed about them, the female partic.i.p.ators meanwhile exerting all their devilish ingenuity in tormenting their victims.[397]

The native saddle consists of a rude wooden frame, under and over which is thrown a buffalo-robe, and which is bound to the horse by a very narrow thong of hide in place of the Mexican _cincha_. A raw-hide crupper is used; a deer-skin pad sometimes takes the place of the upper robe, or the robe and pad are used without the wooden frame. Stirrups are made by binding three straight pieces of wood or bone together in triangular form, and sometimes covering all with raw-hide put on wet; or one straight piece is suspended from a forked thong, and often the simple thong pa.s.sing round the foot suffices. The bridle is a rope of horse-hair or of skin, made fast with a half hitch round the animal's lower jaw. The same rope usually serves for bridle and lariat. Sharp bones, at least in later times, are used for spurs. Wood is split for the few native uses by elk-horn wedges driven by bottle-shaped stone mallets. Baskets and vessels for holding water and cooking are woven of willow, bark, and gra.s.ses. Rushes, growing in all swampy localities are cut of uniform length, laid parallel and tied together for matting.

Rude bowls and spoons are sometimes dug out of horn or wood, but the fingers, with pieces of bark and small mats are the ordinary table furniture. Skins are dressed by spreading, sc.r.a.ping off the flesh, and for some purposes the hair, with a sharp piece of bone, stone, or iron attached to a short handle, and used like an adze. The skin is then smeared with the animal's brains, and rubbed or pounded by a very tedious process till it becomes soft and white, some hides being previously smoked and bleached with white clay.[398]

[Sidenote: PREPARATION OF SKINS. RIVER-BOATS.]

On the lower Columbia the Wascos, Kliketats, Walla Wallas, and other tribes use dug-out boats like those of the coast, except that little skill or labor is expended on their construction or ornamentation; the only requisite being supporting capacity, as is natural in a country where canoes play but a small part in the work of procuring food.

Farther in the interior the mountain tribes of the Sahaptin family, as the Cayuses and Nez Perces, make no boats, but use rude rafts or purchase an occasional canoe from their neighbors, for the rare cases when it becomes necessary to transport property across an unfordable stream. The Flatheads sew up their lodge-skins into a temporary boat for the same purpose. On the Fraser the Nootka dug-out is in use. But on the northern lakes and rivers of the interior, the Pend d'Oreille, Flatbow, Arrow, and Okanagan, northward to the Tacully territory, the natives manufacture and navigate bark canoes. Both birch and pine are employed, by stretching it over a cedar hoop-work frame, sewing the ends with fine roots, and gumming the seams and knots. The form is very peculiar; the stem and stern are pointed, but the points are on a level with the bottom of the boat, and the slope or curve is upward towards the centre.

Travelers describe them as carrying a heavy load, but easily capsized unless when very skillfully managed.[399]

[Sidenote: HORSES, PROPERTY, AND TRADE.]

Horses const.i.tute the native wealth, and poor indeed is the family which has not for each member, young and old, an animal to ride, as well as others sufficient to transport all the household goods, and to trade for the few foreign articles needed. The Nez Perces, Cayuses and Walla Wallas have more and better stock than other nations, individuals often possessing bands of from one thousand to three thousand. The Kootenais are the most northern equestrian tribes mentioned. How the natives originally obtained horses is unknown, although there are some slight traditions in support of the natural supposition that they were first introduced from the south by way of the Shoshones. The latter are one people with the Comanches, by whom horses were obtained during the Spanish expeditions to New Mexico in the sixteenth century. The horses of the natives are of small size, probably degenerated from a superior stock, but hardy and surefooted; sustaining hunger and hard usage better than those of the whites, but inferior to them in form, action, and endurance. All colors are met with, spotted and mixed colors being especially prized.[400]