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Vol.18. The Chipewyan. The Western Woods Cree. The Sarsi.{view image of page i} The North American Indian {view image of page ii} ctm Erifttiaff iI LimittPlf tLr Jibe?tunlrretr Aet of btulcfr tlfid it JIutmber..n. {view image of Frontispiece} A Blackfoot [photogravure plate] {view image of page iii} THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN BEING A SERIES OF VOLUMES PICTURING AND DESCRIBING THE INDIANS OF THE UNITED STATES, THE DOMINION OF CANADA, AND ALASKA WRITTEN, ILLUSTRATED, AND PUBLISHED BYEDWARD S. CURTIS EDITED BY FREDERICK WEBB HODGE FOREWORD BY THEODORE ROOSEVELT FIELD RESEARCH CONDUCTED UNDER THE PATRONAGE OF J. PIERPONT MORGAN IN TWENTY VOLUMES THIS, THE EIGHTEENTH VOLUME, PUBLISHED IN THE YEAR NINETEEN HUNDRED AND TWENTY-EIGHT {view image of page iv} to lf 0 0 1 Cr1W V \% COPYRIGHT, I928 BY EDWARD S. CURTIS } THE PLIMPTON PRESS * NORWOOD * MASSACHUSETTS PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA {view image of page v} Contents of Volume Eighteen PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS..................... vii ALPHABET USED IN RECORDING INDIAN TERMS...... X INTRODUCTION.................. xi THE CHIPEWYAN.................... 3 THE WESTERN WOODS CREE............... 55 THE SARSI..................... I M YTHOLOGY................... 125 Be-fiune'-yenehlshain, His Grandmother She-reared-him (Chipewyan).................. I25 Bozelin-aze, Powerless Small (Chipewyan)....... 126 Tseqi T'safainei Hehonll'ain, Woman Copper She-found (Chipewyan).................. I27 The First Beavers (Chipewyan)........... 28 Dza-ghal-iaze, Lower-leg Trembles Little (Chipewyan). 28 Da-fan-fhi, Beak Excrement [Raven] Head (Chipewyan). 129 Niyanimis Overcomes Cold (Cree)........ I29 Origin of the Sun Dance (Cree)......... 131 Some Adventures of Wisakechahk, The Trickster (Cree). 132 Isqeu Ka-napeu Isihut, Woman Like-man Dressed (Cree) 133 The Chief's Son Who Wanted an Otter-skin (Cree).. I34 Missui-gchuinnisag'ha, His-grandmother Reared-him(Sarsi) 136 The Girl Who Married a Star (Sarsi)........ I40 The Creation (Sarsi)............ 141 Sarsi Migration Myth.............. I4I His Brother Chopped the Tree Down with Him in the Water (Sarsi)...... 141 Natiuusuighui-sitinne, Snake Sleeping (Sarsi)..... 43 V {view image of page vi} vi CONTENTS APPENDIX TRIBAL SUMMARY The Chipewyan. The Western Woods Cree The Sarsi... The Northern Assiniboin Piegan and Blackfeet The Piegan The Blackfeet.. VOCABULARIES.... Chipewyan... Cree Sarsi.... Northern Assiniboin. INDEX........ * *.. * *............ *....... *....... * *................ PAGE I47 I47 152 158 I63 I76 176 I87 20I 201 205 210 214.................................... 221 {view image of page vii} Illustrations A Blackfoot Frontispiece A Chipewyan tipi 4 Nasurethur - Chipewyan 6 Nasurethur, profile - Chipewyan 8 A Chipewyan woman 10 Camp among the aspens - Chipewyan 12 Berry-pickers in camp - Chipewyan 14 Calling a moose - Cree 16 A Cree 18 Cree fishing camp 20 Picking blueberries - Cree 22 A Piegan woman 24 Makoyepuk - "Wolf-child" - Blood 26 Niukskai-Stamik - "Three Bulls" - Blood 28 An old woman - Blood 30 Atso Tohkomi - "Call-on-all-sides" - Blood 32 Astanihkyi - "Come-singing" - Blood 34 A travois - Blackfoot 36 A typical Blackfoot 38 A Blackfoot soldier 40 Blackfoot finery 42 A Blackfoot woman 44 Blackfoot cookery 46 Kaistosinikyi - "Kill-for-nothing" - Blood 48 Cree tipis 60 Isqe-sis - "Woman Small" - and child - Cree 62 Cree boatwomen 64 A Cree camp 66 Landing - Cree 68 Birchbark baskets - Cree 70 Mawinehikis - "Tries-to-excel" - Cree 72 {view image of page viii} Lac les Isles - Cree 74 A Cree girl 76 Wapistan - "Marten" - Cree 78 Napeu - "Man" - Cree 80 A Cree canoe 82 Frame of the sponsor's tipi, Cree sun-dance 84 Cree woman with fur robe 86 Aki-tanni - "Two Guns" - Sarsi 92 Typical female physiognomy - Sarsi 94 Ka'ni - Sarsi 96 A Sarsi tipi 98 A Sarsi woman 100 A Sarsi kitchen 102 Missi-tsatsa - "Owl Old-woman" - Sarsi 104 A Piegan play tipi 106 A Blood horseman 108 Modern Blackfoot burial 110 Bow River and the sandhills - Blackfoot 112 In a Blackfoot camp 114 A medicine-bag - Blackfoot 116 Frame of the sun-lodge - Piegan 118 Offerings in the sun-lodge - Piegan 120 Central post of the sun lodge - Piegan 122 A Piegan war-bonnet 148 Oksoy-Apiw - "Raw-eater Old-man" - Blackfoot 156 Itsipstsinikyi - "Kills-inside" - Piegan 158 Piksohkomi - "Calling-bird" - Piegan 162 Assiniboin bowman 164 The chief - Assiniboin 166 Assiniboin camp near the Rocky Mountains 168 Woman's costume and baby swing - Assiniboin 170 Assiniboin camp on Bow River 172 Painted tipis - Assiniboin 174 A chief's son - Assiniboin 176 Akatsim-atsissi - "Whistle Smoke" - Piegan 178 A Piegan tipi 180 {view image of page ix} Transporting the ceremonial bag and tipi-cover of a Blackfoot society 182 A beaver-bundle - Blackfoot 184 A Blackfoot ceremonial bag 186 Fat horse, with insignia of a Blackfoot soldier 188 Head-dress of Matoki Society - Blood 190 Lodge of the Horn Society - Blood 192 Blackfoot war-bonnet 194 A Blackfoot tipi 196 {view image of page x} Alphabet Used in Recording Indians Terms [The consonants are as in English, except as otherwise noted] a a ai e 6 i o o 0 o u u u d h ghk k as in father as in cat as in awl as in aisle as in they as in net as in machine as in sit as in old as in how as in oil as in ruin as in nut rounded u as in French peu as in push faintly sounded as ch in German Bach the sonant of h a non-aspirated k k velar k q as kw hi the surd of 1 n as in caion n as ng in sing n nasal, as in French dans p a non-aspirated p r alveolar, approaching d s with tip of tongue retracted ih as in shall Ah the sonant of sh t a non-aspirated t fh as in thin th as in the a glottal pause! stresses enunciation of the preceding consonant superior vowels are voiceless, almost inaudible x {view image of page xi} Introduction IN this volume are treated the more representative tribes of the Canadian province of Alberta. The northern portion of sub-arctic western Canada is sparsely inhabited by various wandering Athapascans, of whom the Chipewyan have been chosen as a type. Their extremely simple material culture was due largely to their pursuit of the caribou, which in countless herds migrated southward in autumn and returned to the Arctic tundra for the brief summer. It was with a kindred band that Samuel Hearne in 1771-1772 wandered over the barrens from Hudson bay to the Arctic, living their life and recording many of their customs. The extracts from his invaluable narrative depict phases of life of these people at a time, long since past, when they were untrammeled by civilization. The southerly neighbors and inveterate enemies of the Chipewyan were the Cree, a group of Algonquian tribes closely related to the Chippewa. Cree bands are found from the province of Ontario to the foothills of the Rocky mountains, but the Cree chapter in this volume must be understood as applying solely to the western Woods Cree of Alberta. Intimate contact with fur-traders, who because of the allegedly superior charms of the Cree women commonly chose their wives among them, apparently had no beneficial effect on the tribal descendants, for the modern Cree of Alberta are decidedly inferior both in physique and in observance of the laws of hygiene. At various times in the distant past Athapascan groups wandered far from the chill northland, so that today representatives of the stock are found in western Washington and Oregon, in northern California, and in Arizona and New Mexico. Another tribe, the Sarsi, apparently began a similar movement just before the opening of the historic epoch, at which time they were found separated from their congeners by the intrusive Cree and in- close association with the Algonquian Blackfoot confederacy, whose culture they had largely adopted. Here we find ourselves once more concerned with a true xi {view image of page xii} xii INTRODUCTION tribe, in contradistinction to a group of bands loosely, if at all, associated, but speaking a common language. The Sarsi, who also are described in the present volume, were reputedly among the bravest warriors of the northern plains, as well as good friends of the traders. The prairies of southern Alberta were dominated by three allied Algonquian tribes - Blackfeet, Bloods, and Piegan, composing a part of what is commonly designated the Blackfoot confederacy. The southern branch of the Piegan, resident in Montana, is described in Volume VI of this series, and additional data on the Piegan and the Blackfeet are presented in the Appendix of the present volume, where also notes on the northern Assiniboin will be found in amplification of the Assiniboin chapter in Volume III. In the field research covering many years, including that of which the present volume is the result, I have had the valued assistance of Mr. W. E. Myers, and it is my misfortune that he has been compelled to withdraw from the work, owing to other demands, after so long a period of harmonious relations and with the single purpose of making these volumes worthy of the subject and of their patrons. He joined me in the field in I906, while research among the Navaho was in progress, and thereafter we spent practically every season in camp together until the close of I925. His service during that time has been able, faithful, and self-sacrificing, often in the face of adverse conditions, hardship, and discouragement. It is with deep regret to both of us that he has found it impracticable to continue the collaboration to the end. EDWARD S. CURTIS {view image of page 1} The Chipewyan VOL XVIII-I {view image of page 2} {view image of page 3} THE CHIPEWYAN NORTHERN Canada from about the fifty-seventh parallel to the Arctic circle and from Hudson bay to, and even beyond, the Rocky mountains is predominantly Athapascan territory. The region is characterized by large streams, numerous lakes, extensive swamps, prairies, barrens, evergreen forests, aspen groves, and bush-covered areas. There are two principal water systems. In the south, between Saskatchewan and Athabasca rivers, Churchill river flows eastwardly to Hudson bay. In the northwest Athabasca and Peace rivers, carrying Rocky Mountain waters eastward, unite below Lake Athabasca and flow northward as Slave river into Great Slave lake, thence as Mackenzie river to the Arctic. The Chipewyan, who call themselves simply Dene ("people"), are a linguistic group occupying the country from Slave river southward to Cold lake, and from Heart lake (55~ North, III~ 30 ' West) eastward to Reindeer lake in north-central Saskatchewan. The name is from Cree Wichipwayaniwuik ("they pointed fur people"), referring to the northerners' fur coats with pointed skirts. The Chipewyan at Cold lake recognize the following divisions: (I) Kai-theli-kle-hot!inne ("willow flat-country up they-dwell"), centering about the western end of Athabasca lake at Fort Chipewyan and extending northward to Fort Smith on Slave river and southward to Fort McMurray on Athabasca river. (2) Kes-ye-hot!inne ("aspen house they-dwell"), at Lac Isle a la Crosse, Portage la Loche, Cold lake, Heart lake, Onion lake, all of which are near the head of the Churchill River system. The name probably came into use among other Chipewyan divisions when the traders built at Isle a la Crosse the first log houses seen in the region.' (3) Hathel-hot!inne ("lowland they-dwell"), in the region of Reindeer lake, which drains southward into Churchill river. (4) Gane-kuinan-hot!inne ("jack-pine home they-dwell"), in the 1 These "Aspen-house Dwellers" are the "Thilanottine ('dwellers at the foot of the head,' i.e., of the great glacier)," noted in Handbook of American Indians. 3 {view image of page 4} 4 THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN barrens east of Athabasca lake and centering at Fond du Lac near the eastern end of that body. Other Athapascan groups of this northern land, in the nomenclature of the Cold Lake dialect, follow: I. Sa-yinsin-dene ("sun under [i.e., eastern] people"), in the barrens between Reindeer lake, Hudson bay, and Chesterfield inlet.1 2. Tandzan-hot!inne, on the northern shore of Great Slave lake (Deni-nu-eke-towe, "moose island up lake-on") and along Yellowknife river, and formerly on Coppermine river. They are commonly known as Yellowknives in allusion to their former manufacture of knives and axes of native copper found near Coppermine river. Some of them now live at Fort Resolution on the south shore of Great Slave lake.2 3. Hlinchan-dene ("dog flank people"), or Hli-chanhe, usually called Dogribs, between lakes Great Slave, Great Bear, and La Martre, and Coppermine river, where Sir John Franklin found them in I820-I82I. In the previous century they had lived near Hudson bay north of Churchill river and also near the sources of that system.3 1 This is the group noted in Handbook of American Indians as "Etheneldi ('cariboueaters')." Sir John Franklin, in his Narrative of a Journey to the Shores of the Polar Sea, in the Years 1819-20-21-22, Third Edition, London, 1824, I, 241-242, says: "Those who come to Fort Chipewyan term themselves Saw-eessaw-dinneh, (Indians from the rising sun, or Eastern Indians,) their original hunting grounds being between the Athabasca, and Great Slave Lakes, and Churchill River. This district, more particularly termed the Chipewyan lands, or barren country, is frequented by numerous herds of rein-deer, which furnish easy subsistence, and clothing to the Indians; but the traders endeavour to keep them in the parts to the westward where the beaver resort. There are about one hundred and sixty hunters who carry their furs to the Great Slave Lake, forty to Hay River, and two hundred and forty to Fort Chipewyan." In the northern part of this region Samuel Hearne in I771 found Yathkyed (Chipewyan yafh-delgayi, "snow white") lake and Cathawhachaga (now Kazan) river to be Athapascan hunting-ground. In I894 J. B. Tyrrell, his editor, found the district occupied by Eskimo. 2 Tan is perhaps for to dan, lake; dzan, scum; hence, "dwellers at the dirty lake." Handbook of American Indians has "Tatsanottine ('people of the scum of water,' scum being a figurative expression for copper)." But in the legend of the discovery of copper the metal is called fta-tiOne, which apparently means "beaver excrement." Franklin, II, 76, says: "The Copper Indians, termed by the Chipewyans, Tantsawhot-dinneh, or Birch-rind Indians... were originally a tribe of the Chipewyans, and, according to their own account, inhabited the south side of Great Slave Lake, at no very distant period.... The number... may be one hundred and ninety souls.... There are forty-five hunters in the tribe." 3 Franklin, II, 80, 82-83: "The Thiingcha-dinneh, or Dog-ribs, or, as they are sometimes termed after the Crees, who formerly warred against them, Slaves, inhabit the country to the westward of the Copper Indians, as far as Mackenzie's River.... The chief tribe of the Dogrib nation, termed Horn Mountain Indians, inhabit the country betwixt Great Bear Lake, and the west end of Great Slave Lake. They muster about two hundred men and boys capable of pursuing the chase. Small detachments of the nation frequent Marten Lake, and hunt during {view image of facing page 4} A Chipewyan tipi [photogravure plate] {view image of page 5} THE CHIPEWYAN 5 4. Kechaghe-hot!inne ("down-stream they-dwell"), or Echaghehot!inne ("confluence they-dwell"), west and southwest of Great Slave lake, near the mouth of Hay river (which flows into the lake), along Mackenzie river, and on the lower course of Liard river, an important affluent of the Mackenzie. Their self-name is Kai-ffizhot!inne ("willow dry they-dwell"), in reference to the character of their fuel.' When the Cree obtained firearms in the first half of the eighteenth century they made relentless warfare on their Athapascan neighbors, and drove this group out of the country between Athabasca and Lesser Slave lakes. In reference to their comparative inferiority and the ease with which captives were taken the Cree applied to them the epithet of Slaves, and by that name they are still commonly known. This is the origin of Slave as the name of a river and two lakes.2 5. Ga-ch6-hot!inne ("hare big they-dwell "), north of Great Bear lake and on Mackenzie river from Fort Norman, at the mouth of the outlet of the lake, well beyond the Arctic circle, where they adjoined the Athapascan Kutchin of the Yukon. They are commonly called Hare Indians, in reference to their use of the Arctic hare for food and clothing.3 6. Tsa-hot!inne ("beaver they-dwell"), on Peace river (Tsa-des, "beaver river") from Fort Vermilion to the Rocky mountains. There are now three bands, centering respectively at Fort Vermilion, Dunthe summer in the neighborhood of Fort Enterprise. [Enterprise was the depot established by Franklin north of the source of Yellowknife river and occupied by him from August I820 to June 1821.] Indeed this part of the country was formerly exclusively theirs, and most of the lakes and remarkable hills bear the names which they imposed upon them. As the Copper Indians generally pillage them of their women and furs when they meet, they endeavour to avoid them, and visit their ancient quarters on the barren grounds only by stealth." 1 Handbook of American Indians says "they were a timid, pacific people, called 'the people sheltered by willows' by the Chipewyan." 2 Franklin, II, 85: "The Edchawtawhoot-dinneh, Strong-bow, Beaver, or Thickwood Indians, who frequent the Riviere aux Liards, or south branch of Mackenzie's River. The Strong-bows resemble the Dog-ribs somewhat in their disposition; but when they meet they assume a considerable degree of superiority over the latter, who meekly submit to the haughtiness of their neighbours. Until the year 1813, when a small party of them, from some unfortunate provocation, destroyed Fort Nelson on the Riviere aux Liards, and murdered its inmates, the Strong-bows were considered to be a friendly and quiet tribe, and esteemed as excellent hunters." 3 Franklin, II, 83: "Immediately to the northward of the Dog-ribs, on the north side of Bear Lake River [which connects Great Bear lake with Mackenzie river], are the Kawchodinneh, or Hare Indians.... These people report that in their hunting excursions to the northward of Great Bear Lake they meet small parties of Esquimaux." Of the Kutchin he says, II, 83: "Immediately to the northward of the Hare Indians, on both banks of Mackenzie's River, are the Tykothee-dinneh, Loucheux, Squint-eyes, or Quarrellers. They speak a language distinct from the Chipewyan. They war often with the Esquimaux at the mouth of Mackenzie River." {view image of page 6} 6 THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN vegan, and Fort St. John. Beyond them, partly east but mostly west of the mountains, are the Athapascan Sekani. Excepting the Hares, the Kutchin, and the Sekani, the Chipewyan readily converse with all these people. The northern branch of the Athapascan stock east of the mountains have contact with but two alien peoples: the Eskimo on the shores of the Arctic ocean and Hudson bay, and the Algonquian Cree all along their southerly border. The Cree are called Enna ("strangers"), the Eskimo Hathel-enna ("lowland strangers"). The Sarsi, cut off from the main area of Athapascan occupancy by the Cree, have been so long separated as to be known to their congeners only as Sasuwe, an adaption of Cree Sasiu, which in turn is from Blackfoot Sahsi ("not good"). Franklin at Fort Chipewyan talked to four men who had taken part in hostile expeditions against the Arctic Eskimo, and of the "Copper Indians" he recorded that "the last war excursion they made against the Esquimaux was ten years ago [I8IO], when they destroyed about thirty persons, at the mouth of what they term Stony-point River, not far from the mouth of the Copper-Mine River."1 In July of I77I Samuel Hearne, on his memorable pathfinding journey from Hudson bay to the Arctic at the mouth of Coppermine river, was an unwilling spectator at the slaughter of a band of Eskimo by his Athapascan companions. "During our stay at Clowey [Athapascan h7lwe-, fish - a lake east of Great Slave Lake watershed] a great number of Indians [sixty] entered into a combination with those of my party to accompany us to the Copper-mine River; and with no other intent than to murder the Esquimaux.... Each volunteer, as well as those who were properly of my party, prepared a target, or shield, before we left the woods of Clowey." Arriving at Coppermine river, they surprised five tents of sleeping Eskimo and ruthlessly murdered the occupants, who numbered about twenty. They then came upon an aged woman killing salmon at the foot of a waterfall, and "the wretches of my crew transfixed her to the ground in a few seconds, and butchered her in the most savage manner. There was scarcely a man among them who had not a thrust at her with his spear; and many in doing this, aimed at torture, rather than immediate death, as they not only poked out her eyes, but stabbed her in many parts very remote from those which are vital." Finally they plundered seven tents and killed one old man 1 II, 79, 80. {view image of facing page 6} Nasurethur - Chipewyan [photogravure plate] {view image of page 7} THE CHIPEWYAN 7 on the opposite side of the river; but all the rest of the inhabitants fled in canoes. This was within sight of the ocean.1 As to Athapascan relations with the Hudson Bay Eskimo, Hearne says that the latter were frequently suspected of causing the death of Northern Indian chiefs by sorcery, which was the principal cause of hostilities. "For some time past, however, those Esquimaux who trade with our sloops at Knapp's Bay, Navel's Bay, and Whale Cove, are in perfect peace and friendship with the Northern Indians; which is entirely owing to the protection they have for several years past received from the Chiefs at the Company's Fort at Churchill River. But those of that tribe who live so far to the North, as not to have any intercourse with our vessels, very often fall a sacrifice to the fury and superstition of the Northern Indians; who are by no means a bold or warlike people; nor can I think from experience, that they are particularly guilty of committing acts of wanton cruelty on any other part of the human race beside the Esquimaux.... In the Summer of 1756 a party of Northern Indians lay in wait at Knapp's Bay till the sloop had sailed out of the harbour, when they fell on the poor Esquimaux, and killed every soul [forty in all]... and for no other reason but because two principal Northern Indians had died in the preceding Winter." 2 The northern Athapascans were no exception to the general rule that linguistic affiliation does not necessarily result in friendly intercourse. The depredations of the Yellowknives upon the Dogribs, as noted by Franklin, have been referred to; and the same writer says: 1 A Journey from Prince of Wales's Fort in Hudson's Bay to the Northern Ocean in the Years 1769, 1770, 1771, and 1772, Edited by J. B. Tyrrell, Toronto, I9II, pages 149, 181-183. Hearne, a clerk of the Hudson's Bay Company, after two abortive attempts, left Prince of Wales Fort near the mouth of Churchill river in December of 1770 and returned in June of I772, during which time he was the only white man among a band of Indians frequently numbering one hundred and fifty to two hundred. Progressing by short marches across the barrens, sometimes in the midst of plenty, sometimes for days without food, he had an opportunity probably unequalled in the experience of any other European of observing intimately the habits of a really primitive North American tribe. More than any other traveller in the far north he was interested in human beings rather than trade, and being an understanding and accurate observer (he was a capable artist), he left an unusually complete and authentic ethnological account. His comrpanions were inhabitants of the barren grounds between Reindeer lake and Hudson bay, the "Caribou-eaters." He calls them Northern Indians, in distinction to the Cree, whom he designates Southern Indians. He never mentions the Chipewyan as such, although his "Athapuscow" sometimes seems to refer to that branch of the family, while in other passages he definitely infers that the "Athapuscow" speak the "Southern Indian" language and therefore are western Cree. In spite of his silence as to the Chipewyan, the similarity of that branch to the people with whom Hearne lived and travelled was such that the following numerous quotations from this author may be taken as fairly descriptive of Chipewyan life. 2 Hearne, 321-322. {view image of page 8} 8 THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN "At the time of Hearne's visit [in I77I], the Copper Indians being unsupplied with fire-arms, were oppressed by the Chipewyans.... Since they have received arms from the traders, the Chipewyans are fearful of venturing upon their lands." 1 The Cree, holding the country about the southwesterly shores of Hudson bay, obtained firearms at an early date, and with this advantage they pressed beyond Churchill river, which had been their northerly limit, drove the Athapascans before them, and took possession of Athabasca river down to the lake. This occupancy resulted in fastening a Cree name upon the flat, marshy region about the westerly end of the lake and the mouth of Athabasca and Peace rivers - Ayapaskau, a wide stretch of low-lying hay slough, the original form of Athabasca.2 This is the native account of the events leading up to the first contact of the Chipewyan with English traders: The first trading post on Hudson bay was established in Cree territory. More robust than the slender Cree, and more reckless fighters, the Chipewyan had held their own; but when they discovered that the Cree could point a stick which made a flash and a cloud of smoke and a noise of thunder, and kill a man, they felt helpless. Occasionally the Cree in their raids would catch a handsome young woman and carry her away. Such a woman was Thanadelfihir ["marten shake"]. Her Cree husband took her on a long journey eastward, and after a time left her behind and went on. When he returned, he had supplies of articles she had never seen. She wondered where he had got them. This happened again the next season. The following year when he left her in camp she followed far behind, keeping hidden in the bush. She saw her husband and his companions disappear in the side of a rock. She crept up and found that it was a stone house. She peered through the window. The factor saw her through the glass, opened the door and called her in. She entered and he asked, "Who are you?" She answered in Cree. He inquired if her people were numerous, and she said they were many. 1 Franklin, II, 79, 80. 2 J. N. B. Hewitt translates: "athap, 'in succession,' -askaw, 'grass,' 'reeds;' hence 'grass or reeds here and there."' According to Abbe Petitot the word refers to a reedy, grassy mouth of a river, and means "the herbaceous network." Dr. John Richardson, surgeon of Sir John Franklin's party, recorded a number of Cree words at Carlton House, a short distance above the mouth of the North Saskatchewan. He writes th for a slightly affricative sound represented in the present volume by y; as in Eithinyoowuc, Iyiniwik ("people"). From this it appears probable that a hundred years ago the Cree said "Afhipaskau," instead of Ayipaskau, or that the language of the Prairie Cree at Carlton House differed dialectally from that of Woods.Cree described herein. Peter Pond's map of 1785 has "Arabasca" lake, which is the Bush Cree pronunciation. {view image of facing page 8} Nasurethur, profile - Chipewyan [photogravure plate] {view image of page 9} THE CHIPEWYAN 9 "Are they good-looking people?" "You see me. Do I look bad?" "No, you look better than these people." "Well, that is how my people look." The man turned to the Cree, who on the woman's entrance had appeared disconcerted, and said: "You have been telling me that the people with whom you have been fighting are bad-looking people, that they are like devils; and that is why you wanted to kill them. I think you are liars." He paid them for their furs and bought the woman. The following winter he said to her, "Do you think you could find your country?" "Of course I know my country," she replied. So a party set out with several sleds, following the Cree trail westward for a time, then branching northward. Here the woman was sent ahead in order that her people might not be frightened. At last she met a man in the trail. She related what had happened and how she was bringing the White Flesh to trade with her people. Then she sent him home with the news and told him that the party would camp at the lake. When the people saw a great fire, the men were to come down and make a treaty. A few came to the camp, but some were fearful and hid. Those who came saw a flag flying, and they were in awe of it. The white men had raised a platform on which they placed the woman, so that her people could see her and have confidence. When she beheld her people coming, she sang with joy. The factor gave the Chipewyan presents, especially guns, and for each article he told how many skins they must bring him to pay for it. A gun he would hold upright with the butt on the ground, and explain that a pile of beaver-skins of equal height would pay for it. All day he taught them how to shoot at a mark, how to use axes and files, how to prepare furs. The woman returned with the factor to the fort on Hudson bay. Unlike the Cree, according to Hearne, "few of the Northern Indians are fond of spirits, especially those who keep at a distance from the Fort: some who are near, and who usually shoot geese for us in the Spring, will drink it at free cost as fast as the Southern Indians, but few of them are ever so imprudent as to buy it." 1 In spite of the contemptuous epithet of Slaves applied by the Cree to their dispossessed enemies, native accounts of the Cree, as well as of the Chipewyan, indicate that this Athapascan group, at least, were stubborn fighters when attacked, even under the terrific handicap of bowmen against musketeers. They are said to have been without fear, undaunted by the death of a few, and the Cree 1 Hearne, 271. VOL. XVIII-2 {view image of page 10} IO THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN commonly called them "bad people" in reference to their reckless, headlong attack. Ultimately they obtained arms and forced the Cree southward to the Saskatchewan, taking possession of the country formerly occupied by the Slaves. There followed a period during which a stretch of neutral ground separated the enemies, and still later a Cree band settled peaceably in the swampy country about Lake Claire between the deltas of Athabasca and Peace rivers, and another at Isle a la Crosse. All these events occurred prior to the establishment of the first trading posts in Athapascan territory. In I775, according to Alexander Mackenzie's journal,' John Frobisher met a party of Indians from the northwest on English, or Churchill, or Missinipi (Cree, "great water") river at a point somewhat west of the stream that flows out of Reindeer lake. The place was the portage connecting Churchill with lower Saskatchewan river, and the name Portage la Traite was given to it in reference to his trade negotiations with the Indians on that occasion. Prior to Frobisher's visit the Cree had driven back the Athapascan inhabitants of this region, and the portage at one time represented the limit of the northwestward advance of the Algonquians. They called it Portage of the Stretched Frog Skin in derision; for "they held them [the Athapascans] in great contempt, on many accounts, but particularly for their ignorance in hunting the beaver, as well as in preparing, stretching, and drying the skins of those animals. And as a sign of their derision they stretched the skin of a frog, and hung it up at the Portage." The Indians whom Frobisher encountered at this place were on their way to trade at Fort Churchill at the mouth of the river. Apparently they were Cree, not Chipewyan, for Mackenzie says that it was the former who carried their furs down the river, while the latter made a hazardous and laborious journey over the barren grounds, where they sometimes met death by starvation. Fear of exciting the marauding instinct of the Cree by exposing valuable furs to their sight no doubt led the Chipewyan to this course. Two years later Frobisher sent his brother to explore northwestward, and the expedition reached Isle a la Crosse, which was destined to become one of the most important stations in the Northwest, a point of departure for Arcticflowing waters by way of Portage la Loche and Clearwater river (an affluent of Athabasca river), for Hudson bay via Churchill river, for the Great Lakes and Montreal by way of the Churchill and Lake 1 Voyages from Montreal through the Continent of North America to the Frozen and Pacific Oceans in 1789 and I793, London, I80I. Reprint, New York, I90I, I, xxxiv et seq. {view image of facing page 10} A Chipewyan woman [photogravure plate] {view image of page 11} THE CHIPEWYAN II Winnipeg, and for the upper Saskatchewan system by way of Beaver river and its southerly affluents. Isle a la Crosse was frequented, according to Mackenzie, by Cree even more than by Chipewyan, and Cree domination is predicated by the name itself, which refers to the fact that here was a well-known field for the game of lacrosse, an Algonquian, but not an Athapascan, institution. Nevertheless, Daniel W. Harmon, a North West Company partner who was at this post in I808, wrote: "The Indians who come to this establishment, are Chippewyans, in considerable numbers, and a few Crees." The locality is now claimed by the Chipewyan. In 1778 a number of traders into the Saskatchewan country pooled their surplus goods and despatched Peter Pond (whose name appears on maps of the Northwest) with four canoes up Churchill river and over Portage la Loche. On Elk river, forty miles from Lake of the Hills (Athabasca river and lake), he established a post and passed the winter in trade. He found "a vast concourse of the Knisteneaux [Cree] and Chipewyan tribes." In 1781 smallpox depopulated the country by carrying off thousands and causing the survivors to flee into remoter regions. In 1786 a post was established on Slave river, and in 1788 Fort Chipewyan was built. It stood on a point eight miles east of the mouth of Athabasca river and on the southerly shore of the lake.2 To this establishment came canoe-loads of trade goods from Rainy lake by way of lakes Winnipeg and Cumberland, Churchill river, Isle a la Crosse, Portage la Loche, and Athabasca river, a two-months voyage. And from there some were 1 A Journal of Voyages and Travels in the Interior of North America, New York, 1922 (reprint). This work has comparatively little ethnological value for three reasons: (I) Data on Indian life refer in general terms to tribes west of the Rocky mountains and those east of the mountains, not to specific tribes. (2) There are numerous passages lifted, almost verbatim, from Mackenzie's journal or some earlier common source. (3) Harmon's manuscript was "edited" by a New England clergyman, and there is always uncertainty as to what stood in the original and what the editor interpolated. 2 Mackenzie, I, I93, cxxxiv, is specific as to the situation of this post. "June, 1789. Wednesday, 3. - We embarked at nine in the morning, at Fort Chepewyan, on the South side of the Lake of the Hills, in latitude 58.40. North, and longitude I Io.30. West from Greenwich." "In the year I788 it [the Old Establishment of Peter Pond on Athabasca river] was transferred to the Lake of the Hills, and formed on a point on its Southern side, at about eight miles from the discharge of the river. It was named Fort Chepewyan, and is in latitude 58.38. North, longitude II0.26. West." Harmon is indefinite: "This fort stands on a rocky point, at the south western end of Athabasca Lake." Subsequently the fort was removed to the northern shore, for in I820 Franklin wrote: "Fort Chipewyan has been built many years, and is an establishment of very considerable extent, conspicuously situated on a rocky point of the northern shore.... The portion of this extensive lake which is near the establishments, is called 'The Lake of the Hills,' not improperly, as the northern shore and the islands are high and rocky." (I, 237, 238.) Both the Hudson's Bay Company and the North West Company, which had not yet combined, had trading posts at this place. {view image of page 12} 12 THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN sent on westward up Peace river nearly to the Rocky mountains to trade with the Beavers, others northward down Slave river and beyond Great Slave lake. Fort Chipewyan was the point of departure for Mackenzie's voyage to the Arctic ocean in I789. The most important game animals to all the northern Athapascans were caribou, moose, hares, and beaver. The barren-ground caribou, in a vast herd, migrate southward at the approach of winter and return northward in the spring. Their southerly limit was formerly a few miles from Fort Chipewyan, at which place a few stragglers from the main body were killed. In autumn and spring the people proceeded to various well-known places where the migrating animals always made use of certain narrow crossings of lakes or streams, to lie in wait in their canoes and spear the swimming caribou. The meat was dried, the fat rendered, and the pounded mixture, packed in rawhide bags of a width convenient for sled transportation, constituted etfins-tles, pemmican. The woodland caribou, much larger than the barren-ground species, and, like it, dark in summer and whitish in winter, is found as far south as Cold lake. The importance of caribou to the Chipewyan of former days is sufficiently indicated by the use of its name as a term for meat. Sir John Franklin describes three interesting methods of hunting caribou. The Copper Indians... in summer.. enclose a herd upon a neck of land, and drive them into a lake, where they fall an easy prey.... The Copper Indians find by experience that a white dress attracts them most readily, and they often succeed in bringing them within shot, by kneeling and vibrating the gun from side by side, in imitation of the motion of a deer's horns when he is in the act of rubbing his head against a stone.... The hunters [of the Dogribs] go in pairs, the foremost man carrying in one hand the horns and part of the skin of the head of a deer [caribou], and in the other a small bundle of twigs, against which he, from time to time, rubs the horns, imitating the gestures peculiar to the animal. His comrade follows treading exactly in his footsteps, and holding the guns of both in a horizontal position, so that the muzzles project under the arms of him who carries the head. Both hunters have a fillet of white skin round their foreheads, and the foremost has a strip of the same kind round his wrists. They approach the herd by degrees, raising their legs very slowly, but setting them down somewhat suddenly, after the manner of a deer, and always taking care to lift their right or left feet simultaneously. If any of the herd leave off {view image of facing page 12} Camp among the aspens - Chipewyan [photogravure plate] {view image of page 13} THE CHIPEWYAN I3 feeding to gaze upon this extraordinary phenomenon, it instantly stops, and the head begins to play its part by licking its shoulders, and performing other necessary movements. In this way the hunters attain the very centre of the herd without exciting suspicion, and have leisure to single out the fattest. The hindmost man then pushes forward his comrade's gun, the head is dropt, and they both fire nearly at the same instant. The herd scampers off, the hunters trot after them; in a short time the poor animals halt to ascertain the cause of their terror, their foes stop at the same instant, and having loaded as they ran, greet the gazers with a second fatal discharge. The consternation of the deer increases, they run to and fro in the utmost confusion, and sometimes a great part of the herd is destroyed within the space of a few hundred yards.1 Hearne made the following observations: When the Indians design to impound deer [caribou], they look out for one of the paths in which a number of them have trod, and which is observed to be still frequented by them. When these paths cross a lake, a wide river, or a barren plain, they are found to be much the best for the purpose; and if the path run through a cluster of woods, capable of affording materials for building a pound, it adds considerably to the commodiousness of the situation. The pound is built by making a strong fence with brushy trees, without observing any degree of regularity, and the work is continued to any extent, according to the pleasure of the builders. I have seen some that were not less than a mile round, and am informed that there are others still more extensive. The door, or entrance of the pound, is not larger than a common gate, and the inside is so crowded with small counter-hedges as very much to resemble a maze; in every opening of which they set a snare, made with thongs of parchment deer-skins well twisted together, which are amazingly strong. One end of the snare is usually made fast to a growing pole; but if no one of a sufficient size can be found near the place where the snare is set, a loose pole is substituted in its room, which is always of such size and length that a deer cannot drag it far before it gets entangled among the other woods, which are all left standing except what is found necessary for making the fence, hedges, &c. The pound being thus prepared, a row of small brush-wood is stuck up in the snow on each side the door or entrance; and these hedge-rows are continued along the open part of the lake, river, or plain, where neither stick nor stump besides is to be seen, which makes them the more distinctly observed. These poles, or brush-wood, are generally placed at the distance of fifteen or twenty yards from each other, and ranged in such a manner as to form two sides of a long acute angle, growing gradually wider in proportion to the distance they 1 Franklin, II, 8, IO-II. {view image of page 14} 14 THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN extend from the entrance of the pound, which sometimes is not less than two or three miles; while the deer's path is exactly along the middle, between the two rows of brush-wood. Indians employed on this service always pitch their tent on or near to an eminence that affords a commanding prospect of the path leading to the pound; and when they see any deer going that way, men, women, and children walk along the lake or river-side under cover of the woods, till they get behind them, then step forth to open view, and proceed towards the pound in the form of a crescent. The poor timorous deer finding themselves pursued, and at the same time taking the two rows of brushy poles to be two ranks of people stationed to prevent their passing on either side, run straight forward in the path till they get into the pound. The Indians then close in, and block up the entrance with some brushy trees, that have been cut down and lie at hand for that purpose. The deer being thus enclosed, the women and children walk round the pound, to prevent them from breaking or jumping over the fence, while the men are employed spearing such as are entangled in the snares, and shooting with bows and arrows those which remain loose in the pound. This method of hunting... is sometimes so successful, that many families subsist by it without having occasion to move their tents above once or twice during the course of a whole winter; and when the Spring advances, both the deer and Indians draw out to the Eastward, on the ground which is entirely barren.... When the Indians see a herd of deer [in summer], and intend to hunt them with bows and arrows, they observe which way the wind blows, and always get to leeward, for fear of being smelled by the deer. The next thing to which they attend, is to search for a convenient place to conceal those who are appointed to shoot. This being done, a large bundle of sticks, like large ramrods, (which they carry with them the whole Summer for the purpose), are arranged in two ranks, so as to form the two sides of a very acute angle, and the sticks placed at the distance of fifteen or twenty yards from each other. When those necessary arrangements are completed, the women and boys separate into two parties, and go round on both sides, till they form a crescent at the back of the deer, which are drove right forward; and as each of the sticks has a small flag, or more properly a pendant, fastened to it, which is easily waved to and fro by the wind, and a lump of moss stuck on each of their tops, the poor timorous deer, probably taking them for ranks of people, generally run straight forward between the two ranges of sticks, till they get among the Indians, who lie concealed in small circular fences, made with loose stones, moss, &c. When the deer approach very near, the Indians who are thus concealed start up and shoot; but as the deer generally pass along at full speed, few Indians have time to shoot more than one or two arrows, unless the herd be very large.1 1 Hearne, I20-I22, 309. {view image of facing page 14} Berry-pickers in camp - Chipewyan [photogravure plate] {view image of page 15} THE CHIPEWYAN 15 Moose are still numerous wherever there is swampy cover, but except in the rutting season or in deep snow they are killed with great difficulty. The Chipewyan call this animal "the wary one." The favorite method used to be to surround a bit of swamp or brush in which one was known to be feeding; and while one hunter slowly followed its trail, others disposed themselves in favorable spots and loosed their arrows if the animal came within range. Few men possess the cunning required for successfully stalking a moose under ordinary conditions. In the mating season, however, the animals are with little difficulty lured to the hunter by the use of a birchbark trumpet with which he imitates the call of either male or female. Snow of great depth so impedes this small-hoofed animal that it has little chance of escaping a hunter on snowshoes. Both moose and woodland caribou were formerly snared, and the practice no doubt still exists in some remote districts. The end of a rawhide rope was attached near the top of a stout but resilient sapling, and the other end, arranged in a noose, was hung at the proper height in a trail. At the four sides of a rectangle the noose was attached by light threads to adjacent branches, so that a slight pressure would snap the threads and permit the noose to tighten on the animal's neck. The pursuit of moose over the snow is thus described by Hearne: The moose are so tender-footed, and so short-winded, that a good runner will generally tire them in less than a day, and very frequently in six or eight hours; though I have known some of the Indians continue the chace for two days, before they could come up with, and kill the game. On those occasions the Indians, in general, only take with them a knife or bayonet, and a little bag containing a set of fire-tackle, and are as lightly clothed as possible; some of them will carry a bow and two or three arrows... When the poor moose are incapable of making farther speed, they stand and keep their pursuers at bay with their head and fore-feet; in the use of which they are very dexterous, especially the latter; so that the Indians who have neither a bow nor arrows, nor a short gun, with them, are generally obliged to lash their knives or bayonets to the end of a long stick, and stab the moose at a distance.... The flesh of the moose, thus killed, is far from being well-tasted,... being soft and clammy,... neither resembling fish, flesh, nor fowl.... Though I was a swift runner in those days, I never accompanied the Indians in one of those chaces, but have heard many of them say, that after a long one, the moose, when killed, did not produce more than a quart of blood, the remainder being all settled in the flesh; which, in that state, must be ten times worse tasted, than the spleen or milt of a bacon hog.l 1 Hearne, 279-280. {view image of page 16} I6 THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN Hares become overwhelmingly abundant in some years, but a periodic epidemic destroys them in vast numbers, leaving the ground in some places so thickly covered with decaying bodies that the stench is unbearable. The survivors multiply rapidly, and in a few years the country is again overrun with hares and the epidemic once more spreads. One need not actually see these swarming animals to realize the infinity of their number. Here and there are to be observed hundreds of acres where every shoot up to three-quarters of an inch in diameter has been gnawed off to a cleanly rounded end a foot or two from the ground to furnish winter food for the rodents. In such places one may see remnants of many snares. The noose of these snares hangs in a runway beneath an arching stick - either a naturally growing vine or a hoop placed by the hunter, - and just above the noose the cord is attached to this arch by a slip-knot. The end of the cord is fastened to the tip of a pole balanced across a branch or a stump, and the base of the pole is sufficiently heavy to lift the hare from the ground when the slip-knot is released by its struggles. In winter the vine or hoop is replaced by a branch or a small sapling broken above the level of the snow and bent down at an angle across the trail. Hares are also shot when the female leaps from cover in response to a squeaking sound, imitative of the cry of her young, produced by means of a vibrating fibre tongue held between the ends of two splints lashed together. In this region of numerous streams and swamps beaver were very plentiful, a condition that led to its early exploration by the traders. It has already been noted that Peace river is known to the natives as Beaver river and the inhabitants of that district are called Beaver People. Not only for their fur but for their flesh, beaver were taken by four methods. Poles were so placed as to obstruct the entrance of a hut, and the hunter opened the roof and speared the animals. The implement for opening a hut was tfhan R, a beaver's skull with a single incisor in place. It was not swung, like an adz. Pressure was applied with a movement approximating that of a gnawing beaver. Less laborious, but also less productive, was the practice of standing on the dam at an opening made in it and catching an investigating beaver on a caribou-antler gaff. A third method was to set below an opening in the dam a bag-net about six feet square and having a drawstring controlled by a man on shore. The mesh was just large enough to admit a beaver's head. The net was lightly attached at the corners to two poles, by means of which it was pushed down into the water and held in place. When a beaver {view image of facing page 16} Calling a moose - Cree [photogravure plate] {view image of page 17} THE CHIPEWYAN I7 passed into the net, the hunter hauled on his line, the light fastenings were broken, the net was drawn shut. If a beaver got into the net while the hunter was warming himself at his fire, it very soon cut the net to pieces; therefore in later times a warning bell was attached to the line and hung on a pole. In winter poles were driven so as to obstruct a stream above a pond, and the beaver, confined to the water immediately above their dam, were speared at their breathingholes in the ice. Of beaver-hunting Hearne says: When the beaver which are situated in a small river or creek are to be taken, the Indians sometimes find it necessary to stake the river across, to prevent them from passing; after which, they endeavour to find out all their holes or places of retreat in the banks.... Every man being furnished with an ice-chisel, lashes it to the end of a small staff about four or five feet long; he then walks along the edge of the banks, and keeps knocking his chisels against the ice. Those who are well acquainted with that kind of work well know by the sound of the ice when they are opposite to any of the beavers' holes or vaults. As soon as they suspect any, they cut a hole through the ice big enough to admit an old beaver; and in this manner proceed till they have found out all their places of retreat, or at least as many of them as possible. While the principal men are thus employed, some of the understrappers, and the women, are busy in breaking open the house, which at times is no easy task; for I have frequently known these houses to be five and six feet thick; and one in particular, was more than eight feet thick on the crown. When the beaver find that their habitations are invaded, they fly to their holes in the banks for shelter; and on being perceived by the Indians, which is easily done, by attending to the motion of the water, they block up the entrance with stakes of wood, and then haul the beaver out of its hole, either by hand, if they can reach it, or with a large hook made for that purpose, which is fastened to the end of a long stick. In this kind of hunting, every man has the sole right to all the beaver caught by him in the holes or vaults; and as this is a constant rule, each person takes care to mark such as he discovers, by sticking up the branch of a tree, or some other distinguishing post, by which he may know them. All that are caught in the house also are the property of the person who finds it.... Where one beaver is caught in the house, many thousands are taken in their vaults in the banks.... The Northern Indians think that the sagacity of the beaver directs them to make that part of their house which fronts the North much thicker than any other part,... and for this reason... generally break open that side of the beaverhouses which exactly front the South.1 Hearne, 245-246, 249. VOL. XVIII-3 {view image of page 18} i8 THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN Elk and woodland buffalo were abundant on Peace, Athabasca, and Slave rivers,1 but were of little importance to the natives. Of the former Hearne says they "are the most stupid of all the deer kind, and frequently make a shrill whistling, and quivering noise,... which directs the hunter to the very spot where they are. They generally keep in large herds, and when they find plenty of pasture, remain a long time in one place. Those deer are seldom an object of chace with the Indians bordering on Basquiau [Cree pasqau, prairie?], except when moose and other game fail." 2 Whatever tribe this statement refers to, it is certain that the Chipewyan attached no importance to the elk; otherwise the animal would be mentioned in tales, and a well-informed member of that tribe now living at Cold lake would not think, as he does, that his ancestors were unacquainted with the species. Of the buffalo, which he found very plentiful south of Great Slave lake, the same explorer says: "Of all the large beasts in those parts the buffalo is the easiest to kill, and the moose are the most difficult; neither are the deer [woodland caribou] very easy to come at, except in windy weather." 3 In the far north were musk-oxen, and in his boyhood an informant saw many of their hides brought down to Fort Chipewyan. He has heard that the people of the north, when they find a herd of these animals near a small, frozen lake, send a man to make a trail in the snow almost encircling the lake. Through the opening left by his trail they cautiously drive the herd out upon the ice, where the oxen begin to move slowly in a circle, never attempting to cross the trail. In this situation they are easily shot down. Hearne repeatedly mentions the wasteful killing of game, a thing quite contrary to the custom of most Indians. "They insisted on it, that killing plenty of deer and other game in one part of the country, could never make them scarcer in another. Indeed, they were so accustomed to kill every thing that came within their reach, that few of them could pass by a small bird's nest, without slaying the young ones, or destroying the eggs." 4 Probably this trait was partly the result of their living in a vast and almost uninhabited 1 Mackenzie, II, 27, has the following interesting passage: "He [a Beaver Indian on Peace river one hundred and twenty miles west of Lesser Slave lake] remembered the opposite hills and plains, now interspersed with groves of poplars, when they were covered with moss, and without any animal inhabitant about but the rein-deer. By degrees, he said, the face of the country changed to its present appearance, when the elk came from the East, and was followed by the buffalo; the rein-deer then retired to the long range of high lands that, at a considerable distance, run parallel, with this river." 2 Hearne, 337 3 Hearne, 257. 4 Hearne, I52. I -1 I {view image of facing page 18} A Cree [photogravure plate] {view image of page 19} THE CHIPEWYAN I9 region. Indians confined to smaller and definitely limited territories easily recognized the danger of wanton destruction of game. The Chipewyan at Cold lake have the reputation of being skilful and industrious trappers. The winters are spent in localities remote from the summer camps, never more than two trappers being associated. A man recently took in one winter furs that sold for more then three thousand dollars. This of course was exceptional. Half of that amount is regarded as a good return for a successful trapper. The fur-bearing animals are fox, lynx, coyote, wolf, marten, fisher, mink, otter, beaver, muskrat, skunk, weasel, and an occasional bear. The arch-enemy of northern trappers is the wolverene, glutton, or carcajou - rapacious, cunning, and wanton, difficult to catch in a trap, seldom seen, given to robbing traps of bait and captives and to destroying stores of provisions that he cannot devour. Many amusing tales are told of his depredations. A trapper found his cache of provisions opened and much of the food destroyed. There were tracks of two wolverenes. He set a trap, but they dragged it aside and entered the cache again. Several times this was repeated. Then he killed a moose, filled its stomach with the blood, poured in a quantity of alcohol, tied it up, and laid it in the cache. The next morning he came to see what had happened. On the ice near by he saw two black spots. He went out and found the two robbers. They would stand on their hind-legs and endeavor to fight, but would fall like drunken men. He watched them a while and then killed both with an ax. A man, about to leave his tipi for a time, piled his food on a platform five or six feet above the ground and covered the fire with ashes. When he returned he found his tipi demolished and partially burned, and near by a wolverene with badly burned mouth and eyes and singed fur. He killed it with his ax, and deduced that it had climbed up the side of the tipi, crept through the smoke-vent, and dropped down upon the platform. Opening the bundle, it had tossed aside the inedible articles, among which was a bag of gunpowder. Unextinguished embers beneath the ashes had ignited the bag, and the resultant explosion had wrecked the tipi and greatly surprised the marauder. In spite of the importance attached to the caribou and the periodic abundance of hares, fish were the staff of life for many of the northern Athapascans, including those Chipewyan who lived on Slave river and Athabasca lake and southward. When game animals failed, it {view image of page 20} 20 THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN was usually possible to catch fish through the ice - maskinonge (locally known as jack-fish), lake trout, and whitefish. Bone-pointed spears, antler gorge-hooks, and gill-nets were used both summer and winter. The nets, made of babiche (caribou rawhide cord), weighted with stone sinkers and supported by wooden floats, were as long as thirty fathoms. Mackenzie tells of his own men at Fort Chipewyan using nets sixty fathoms long and fifteen five-inch meshes broad. In making a winter set, the fisherman chopped, or burned with hot stones, a hole through the ice, pushed the end of the net about thirty feet with a forked pole, opened another hole, and pushed the net forward again. Shorter nets were set in streams and the fish were removed by men in canoes. There is an old tale about two members of a party wandering in search of food, who in the night swam out to a net in midstream to steal fish. One of them became entangled in the net. His struggles were heard, and the owner of the net put off in a canoe and speared him joyously, as if he were a great fish caught in the net. Fifty or sixty years ago it became customary to catch a large quantity of fish after the arrival of cold weather and hang them on pole frames to freeze without drying or smoking. In ancient times the people fished throughout the year.1 When they found a good station, they remained close at home all winter, carefully avoiding leaving tracks that might betray them to the Cree who frequented the southerly lakes. According to Mackenzie, raw fish-eyes were a delicacy. Waterfowl were shot with arrows and caught in snares. Of the latter method Hearne says: To snare swans, geese, or ducks, in the water, it requires no other process than to make a number of hedges, or fences, project into the water, at right angles, from the banks of a river, lake, or pond; for it is observed that those birds generally swim near the margin, for the benefit of feeding on the grass, &c. Those fences are continued for some distance from the shore, and separated two or three yards from each other, so that openings are left sufficiently large to let the birds swim through. In each of those openings a snare is hung and fastened to a stake, which the bird, when intangled, cannot drag from the bottom; and to prevent the snare from being wafted out of its proper place by the wind, it is secured to the stakes which form the opening, with tender grass, which is 1 This does not necessarily conflict with Mackenzie, who says that in his time fish were frozen in enormous quantities and kept in good condition until April. He was speaking of his own crew's activities, and the custom may not have been a native one. Myths and tales consistently support the statement in the text. {view image of facing page 20} Cree fishing camp [photogravure plate] {view image of page 21} THE CHIPEWYAN 21 easily broken.... To snare those birds in their nests requires a considerable degree of art, and, as the natives say, a great deal of cleanliness; for they have observed, that when snares have been set by those whose hands were not clean, the birds would not go into the nest. Even the goose, though so simple a bird, is notoriously known to forsake her eggs, if they are breathed on by the Indians. The smaller species of birds which make their nest in the ground, are by no means so delicate, of course less care is necessary to snare them. It has been observed that all birds which build in the ground go into their nest at one particular side, and out of it on the opposite. The Indians, thoroughly convinced of this, always set the snares on the side on which the bird enters the nest; and if care be taken in setting them, seldom fail of seizing their object. For small birds, such as larks, and many others of equal size, the Indians only use two or three hairs out of their head; but for larger birds, particularly swans, geese, and ducks, they make snares of deer-sinews, twisted like packthread, and occasionally of a small thong cut from a parchment deer-skin.1 The same author notes that white owls and great-horned owls were much esteemed by Indians and Europeans, but only the natives cared for eagles and hawks. Out of the fulness of his experience he describes many peculiar dishes and tastes of his companions. A favorite dish was blood-pudding made with the blood [of a caribou], a good quantity of fat shred small, some of the tenderest of the flesh, together with the heart and lungs cut, or more commonly torn into small shivers; all which is put into the stomach, and roasted, by being suspended before the fire on a string. Care must be taken that it does not get too much heat at first, as the bag would thereby be liable to be burnt, and the contents be let out. When it is sufficiently done, it will emit steam... and if it be taken in time, before the blood and other contents are too much done, it is certainly a most delicious morsel, even without pepper, salt, or any other seasoning.2 The most remarkable dish among them... is blood mixed with the half-digested food which is found in the deer's stomach or paunch, and boiled up with a sufficient quantity of water, to make it of the consistence of pease-pottage. Some fat and scraps of tender flesh are also shred small and boiled with it. To render this dish more palatable, they have a method of mixing the blood with the contents of the stomach in the paunch itself, and hanging it up in the heat and smoke of the fire for several days; which puts the whole mass into a state of fermentation, and gives it such an agreeable acid taste, that were it not for prejudice, it might be eaten by those who have the 1 Hearne, 274-275. 2 Hearne, 171. {view image of page 22} 22 THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN nicest palates.... Most of the fat which is boiled in it is first chewed by the men and boys, in order to break the globules that contain the fat.... Neither old people with bad teeth, nor young children, have any hand in preparing this dish... The stomach of no other large animal beside the deer is eaten by any of the Indians that border on Hudson's Bay. In Winter, when the deer feed on fine white moss, the contents of the stomach is so much esteemed by them, that I have often seen them sit round a deer where it was killed, and eat it warm out of the paunch... The young calves, fawns, beaver, &c. taken out of the bellies of their mothers, are reckoned most delicate food; and I am not the only European who heartily joins in pronouncing them the greatest dainties that can be eaten.... The same may be said of young geese, ducks, &c. in the shell. In fact, it is almost become a proverb in the Northern settlements, that whoever wishes to know what is good, must live with the Indians. The parts of generation belonging to any beast they kill, both male and female, are always eaten by the men and boys; and though those parts, particularly in the males, are generally very tough, they are not, on any account, to be cut with an edge-tool, but torn to pieces with the teeth; and when any part of them proves too tough to be masticated, it is thrown into the fire and burnt. For the Indians believe firmly, that if a dog should eat any part of them, it would have the same effect on their success in hunting, that a woman crossing their hunting-track at an improper period would have. The same ill-success is supposed also to attend them if a woman eat any of those parts. They are also remarkably fond of the womb of the buffalo, elk, deer, &c. which they eagerly devour without washing, or any other process but barely stroking out the contents.... The Indian method of preparing this unaccountable dish is by throwing the filthy bag across a pole directly over the fire, the smoke of which, they say, much improves it, by taking off the original flavour; and when any of it is to be cooked, a large flake, like as much tripe, is cut off and boiled for a few minutes... The lesser stomach, or, as some call it, the many-folds, either of buffalo, moose, or deer, are usually eat raw, and are very good.l The Athapascans dried their meat in sun and wind, the Cree in heat and smoke. Meat cured by the former method Hearne found much the more tasty. Flesh was commonly cooked by broiling, less often by boiling in birch-bark vessels by means of heated stones; but, For want of firing, they are frequently obliged to eat their victuals quite raw, particularly in the Summer season, while on the barren ground;... they frequently do it by choice, and particularly in the 1 Hearne, 306-308. {view image of facing page 22} Picking blueberries - Cree [photogravure plate] {view image of page 23} THE CHIPEWYAN 23 article of fish; for when they do make a pretence of dressing it, they seldom warm it through. I have frequently made one of a party who has sat round a fresh-killed deer, and assisted in picking the bones quite clean, when I thought that the raw brains and many other parts were exceedingly good.l Though the flesh of the moose is esteemed by most Indians both for its flavour and substance, yet the Northern Indians of my crew did not reckon either it or the flesh of the buffalo substantial food. This I should think entirely proceeded from prejudice, especially with respect to the moose; but the flesh of the buffalo, though so fine to the eye, and pleasing to the taste, is so light and easy of digestion, as not to be deemed substantial food by any Indian in this country.2 Their clothing, which chiefly consists of deer-skins in the hair, makes them very subject to be lousy; but that is so far from being thought a disgrace, that the best among them amuse themselves with catching and eating these vermin; of which they are so fond, that the produce of a lousy head or garment affords them not only pleasing amusement, but a delicious repast. My old guide, Matonabbee,3 was so remarkably fond of those little vermin, that he frequently set five or six of his strapping wives to work to louse their hairy deerskin shifts, the produce of which being always very considerable, he eagerly received with both hands, and licked them in as fast, and with as good a grace, as any European epicure would the mites in a cheese.4 When the rutting season is over, and the Winter sets in, the deerskins are not only very thin, but in general full of worms and warbles; which render them of little use, unless it be to cut into fine thongs, of which they make fishing-nets, and nets for the heels and toes of their snow-shoes. Indeed the chief use that is made of them in Winter is for the purpose of food; and really when the hair is properly taken off, and all the warbles are squeezed out, if they are wellboiled, they are far from being disagreeable. The Indians, however, never could persuade me to eat the warbles, of which some of them are remarkably fond, particularly the children. They are always eaten raw and alive, out of the skin; and are said, by those who like them, to be as fine as gooseberries.5 Although vegetal products, and especially roots, were of little importance to the more northerly Chipewyan, the southerly portion of their territory yields a fairly wide variety of such foods, especially four species of Vaccinium: blueberries, otter-berries (a species of 1 Hearne, 305. 2 Hearne, 262. 3 Unquestionably a Cree name, containing the element napiw, old man. 4 Hearne, 312. 6 Hearne, 215. See also our page 29. {view image of page 24} 24 THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN blueberry on stalks four to six inches high), and dwarf and swamp cranberries; and service-berries, or June-berries (Amelanchier Canadensis), which are known throughout western Canada as saskatoon (misaskotu-mina), their Cree name. The dwarf cranberries occur in great abundance, not in bogs, but in sandy and partially shaded soil in company with dwarf blueberries and bearberries. They are stored far into the winter. Service-berries are dried and stored, but blueberries cannot be so treated. The fruit of all the Vaccinia, however, remains on the plants through the winter, and this exposure improves it in the opinion of the Indians. Chokecherries, said to be unknown farther north, are found at Cold lake, and are crushed and dried in small cakes, to be used as a relish and as an ingredient in meat stew. Formerly they were sometimes added to pounded meat and grease in making a special kind of pemmican. Gooseberries, bearberries, raspberries, strawberries, and rosehips are now of little moment, but were not despised when commercial products were either unknown or almost prohibitively expensive. The roots of cattail (Typha) were peeled and roasted on embers. For storage they were then thoroughly dried, enclosed in a folded rawhide, and beaten with stones into a meal that was kept in bags and used for making porridge. The tender young root-stalks of tule (Scirpus) also were eaten. Bast was scraped from the bark of aspens and jack-pines with a rib and eaten directly from the tool, and a glutenous soup was made of a species of lichen. This lowly plant, the tripe de roche of the Canadian voyageurs, was for days at a time the sole resource of Franklin's party on its return from the Arctic to Fort Enterprise. Famine is a favorite theme in tales, and the people are compared to coyotes constantly roving in search of food, sometimes feasting, sometimes starving. In recent years the Chipewyan at Cold lake have raised small quantities of wheat. Their summers are devoted to fishing, their winters to fishing through the ice, trapping, or patiently waiting for spring. The Chipewyan house was a conical frame of poles covered with caribou-skins. In the southerly territory wrested from the Cree, into which the migratory caribou did not penetrate, moose-skins became the mode. Wickiups of spruce boughs were constructed for temporary use, and traditions tell of a long fire flanked by two semicircular windbreaks, each of which sheltered a family. It is of interest to note that Mackenzie saw exactly this type of shelter {view image of facing page 24} A Piegan woman [photogravure plate] {view image of page 25} THE CHIPEWYAN 25 among the Dogribs on lower Mackenzie river. The season was summer, and the winter habitation no doubt was a skin-covered tipi. Modern summer dwellings are canvas-covered tipis. The sweatlodge was not a Chipewyan institution. The typical garment of northern Athapascans was a sleeved coat or shirt reaching to mid-thigh and terminating in a point before and behind. It was put on over the head, tied together at the throat and at the sides of the skirt, and belted with a leather thong passing twice around the waist. For summer use the material was caribouskin tanned on both sides. The winter parka was of caribou-fur worn with the dressed surface next to the body, and in extremely cold seasons two such garments were used, one with the fur against the skin, the other with the fur exposed to the weather. The winter garment had an attached hood. In addition there were fur robes, either entire skins sewn together or preferably ropes of hare-fur with cord weft, which were tied at the throat so that the hands were not impeded. Both sexes wore parkas, but those of women reached slightly below the knee so as to meet their shorter leggings. A distinctive feature was a tail pendent from the rear point of the skirt, and sometimes from the front one also. In winter the under-parka served as a sleeping garment. Says Mackenzie: "This dress is worn single or double, but always in the winter, with the hair within and without. Thus arrayed a Chepewyan will lay himself down on the ice in the middle of a lake, and repose in comfort; though he will sometimes find a difficulty in the morning to disencumber himself from the snow drifted on him during the night." Franklin thus describes the bedtime preparations of one of his Yellowknife companions: "He stripped himself to the skin, and having toasted his body for a short time over the embers of the fire, he crept under his deer-skin and rags, previously spread out as smoothly as possible, and coiling himself up in a circular form, fell asleep instantly. This custom of undressing to the skin even when lying in the open air is common to all the Indian tribes. The thermometer at sunset stood at 29." 1 Moose-skin moccasins are still worn, the only relic of primitive dress among the Chipewyan at Cold lake. Formerly caribou-skin was much used, and probably it still is in more northerly districts. The separate sole curves upward at the edges so that the seam is not in contact with the ground. There was no ornamentation, it is said, on moccasins in really primitive times, but dyed porcupine-quills, beads, and bright silks are cleverly employed now. Mackenzie ob1 Franklin, I, 361. VOL. XVIII-4 {view image of page 26} 26 THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN served the ornamentation of clothing and of navel-cord packets with dyed quills, beads, and dyed moose-hairs. Winter moccasins are lined with hair or grass; or fur, especially that of hares, is made into socks. Warriors having outworn their moccasins removed the skin from the shank of a caribou or a moose and fitted it immediately to the foot. The only sewing required was the seam to close the opening left by cutting off the animal's foot. If such moccasins became wet and then dried, the wearer experienced much difficulty until he found another supply of water to wet them again. The leggings of men were of the kind common to the Plains Indians - hip-length and supported by a belt beneath the parka, which also confined the leather breech-cloth. The material was caribou-skin, which for winter use was cured in the fur. In warm weather the legs were ordinarily bare. Women's leggings were tied just below the knee. Mackenzie repeatedly says that leggings were sewed to the moccasins. Mittens of hare-fur were either sewed to the sleeves or attached to cords fastened to the shoulder or passing behind the neck. It requires the prime parts of the skins of from eight to ten deer to make a complete suit of warm clothing for a grown person during the Winter; all of which should, if possible, be killed in the month of August, or early in September.... Beside these skins, which must be in the hair, each person requires several others to be dressed into leather, for stockings and shoes, and light Summer clothing; several more are also wanted in a parchment state, to make clewla [hluh] as they call it, or thongs to make netting for their snow-shoes, snares for deer, sewing for their sledges, and, in fact, for every other use where strings or lines of any kind are required: so that each person, on an average, expends, in the course of a year, upwards of twenty deer skins in clothing and other domestic uses, exclusive of tent cloths, bags, and many other things which it is impossible to remember.' Infants are now bedded on soft, dry moss (Sphagnum) and laced tightly in cloth bags; but Hearne says: "They make no use of cradles, like the Southern Indians, but only tie a lump of moss between their [infants'] legs, and always carry their children at their backs, next the skin, till they are able to walk." 2 Men and women cut the hair at the level of the eyes and permitted it to hang loosely before and behind. Tattooing, and ornaments for nose and ears, were unknown so far as modern informants 1 Hearne, 2I4. 2 Hearne, 303. {view image of facing page 26} Makoyepuk - "Wolf-child" - Blood [photogravure plate] {view image of page 27} THE CHIPEWYAN 27 are aware; but Mackenzie reported that "both sexes have blue or black bars, or from one to four straight lines on their cheeks or forehead," and that the designs were made either by pricking the skin or by drawing a thread under it; and Hearne says that "every tribe of Northern Indians, as well as the Copper and Dog-ribbed Indians, have three or four parallel black strokes marked on each cheek; which is performed by entering an awl or needle under the skin, and, on drawing it out again, immediately rubbing powdered charcoal into the wound." Probably the Chipewyan also had the custom. The writer quoted describes the typical Northern Indian woman as having "a broad flat face, small eyes, high cheek-bones, three or four broad black lines a-cross each cheek, a low forehead, a large broad chin, a clumsy hook-nose, a tawny hide, and breasts hanging down to the belt." 1 The tools and utensils of the Chipewyan include articles made of bone, horn, antler, tooth, wood, and skin. Their bows were of willow or birch split from the main stem of the tree, and if designed for large game or for fighting they were recurved and strengthened with sinew, which was not a backing cemented to the wood with glue, as in more southerly areas, but was rather a stout cord tied while "green" in a series of half-hitches two or three inches apart. Horn bows were unknown. Strips split from a spruce growing in a moist locality were the favored material for arrow-shafts, because arrows were much used for shooting waterfowl, and such wood was believed to resist warping. The strips were shaved down with a knife and smoothed by drawing them between two blocks of hard wood. The cylindrical point, made of a small bone from the fore-leg of a moose, or of antler, was socketed in the shaft. Its sides were sometimes notched. Flint points are found in the region, but their use by the ancient Chipewyan is not credited by the writer's informants. Arrows were triply winged with eaglefeathers, which were fastened with spruce-gum and sinew thread. Says Hearne: "They have so far lost the art of shooting with bows and arrows, that I never knew any of them who could take those weapons only, and kill either deer, moose, or buffalo, in the common, wandering, and promiscuous method of hunting. The Southern Indians, though they have been much longer used to fire-arms, are far more expert with the bow and arrow." 2 Spears six to eight feet long were used for killing swimming caribou, beaver trapped in their huts, and fish, as well as for fight1 Hearne, 129, 299. 2 Hearne, 3IO. {view image of page 28} 28 THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN ing at close quarters. In primitive times the spear was a man's constant companion. Spear-heads were of moose shin-bone, and of moose- or caribou-antler. Those designed for caribou hunting and for fighting were wider than thick,' while those for fishing were pointed cylinders notched on the sides. An informant has heard of a primitive fish-spear with detachable point, but never saw one of this kind. Aboriginal knives were made of moose-antler, but these crude tools were so quickly supplanted by the crooked steel implements of trade that neither Hearne nor Mackenzie mentions them. A chisel or adz, rather than an ax, was the upper incisor of a beaver in place in the maxilla. This novel tool, remembered in tradition, was seen by Mackenzie among the Dogribs, as were stone adz-blades fastened perpendicularly to wooden handles with green rawhide. A gaff consisting of a sharply pointed tine of caribou-antler lashed to a slightly curving wooden handle was used for capturing beaver when they approached under water to investigate a gap opened by the hunter in their dam. The fish-hook was a double-pointed spindle of caribou-antler, and the line, an untwisted cord of caribou rawhide, was attached at its middle, so that a jerk turned the device crosswise in the fish's gullet. Hearne mentions a hook made by lashing a pointed bone to a wooden shank. In the preparation of skins the primitive flesher and scraper are still employed. The flesher is a moose ulna beveled at the lower end by fracturing the bone and grinding the fractured surface on a stone, and serrated on the cutting edge by means of a sharpened rib. At the knee-end a looped thong passes through a nerve orifice. Of equal length with the bone, the loop at its lower end encircles the wrist of the worker when the tool is grasped just above the beveled edge. With the left hand bearing heavily on the upper end and pushing from her, she draws the cutting edge toward her with a movement like that of a canoeman using a paddle, the looped thong giving additional leverage. The bone, almost as close-grained as ivory, takes a high polish, and with age becomes very hard. The scraper is a longitudinal half-section of a moose ulna ground fairly sharp along one of the fractured edges and wrapped with leather for hand-holds at both ends. A hide having been soaked in water and 1 Mackenzie says the caribou-spear had a barbed head of bone. He recorded things seen, but it would appear that a hunter in a canoe must have had difficulty in withdrawing his spear from the body of a caribou killed in the water if the barbs were at all prominent. {view image of facing page 28} Niukskai-Stamik - "Three Bulls" - Blood [photogravure plate] {view image of page 29} THE CHIPEWYAN 29 draped on a post set firmly aslant in the ground, the scraper is used in the manner of a draw-knife downward against the hair. Having removed hair and flesh, the workwoman rubs grease into the skin and hangs it in the heat of a smoking fire. Next she works a quantity of brains into its pores and weights it down in water. She then rubs it vigorously with a round, flat stone, in order to remove as much water as possible, and works it with her hands until it becomes pliable. In this last process she usually attaches both ends of a sinew cord to the post and draws the hide back and forth against the loop. The most important skins were those of caribou, not because they were of the highest quality but because they were so easily obtained. Sir John Franklin noted that the caribou were pestered by swarms of gadflies, which deposited their ova under the skin. The larvae, maturing in the spring, produced so many perforations that skins taken at that season were worthless, and the natives therefore made their clothing of skins taken in the fall, at which time of the year former perforations were represented by cicatrices. The same pest attacked the elk, but not the moose.' Seven caribou-skins were required for a single robe, and though light yet warm and therefore excellent for winter, they were unfit for summer use, because moisture caused the skin to spoil, and lose its hair. The primitive instrument for sewing skins was a pointed section of one of two small bones that lie behind a moose's shin. The thread was, and is, sinew. Skin bags of several kinds are still seen. Most distinctive is naInhche{h, a rectangular, satchel-like receptacle for dried meat, dried berries, or personal articles of value. It is made of skin, tanned in the fur, from caribou fore-legs, and is laced together along the top. Another bag has a carrying-strap, a fringed bottom, and a flap buttoned on the side by means of a wooden toggle. Infants are confined in bags of soft skin laced down the front, lined with dry moss, and carried on the back by a thong passing across the chest. In winter they were placed in that position under the mother's loosefitting parka, where they were conveniently suckled. Quivers were the entire furs of any animals of appropriate size, as fox, coyote, otter; and receptacles for pemmican were like the familiar parfleche of the Plains Indians, flat, folded rectangles of rawhide. Leather and fur were the sole materials for garments, and the favorite robe was, and still is, made by weaving ropes of hare-fur on a warp of caribou-skin cord. 1 These encysted larvae are the "warbles" noted by Hearne as a delicacy of the Indians. {view image of page 30} 30 THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN Cordage of the Chipewyan was either babiche, a continuous thong of caribou rawhide cut with much skill to a surprisingly uniform thickness, or sinew. Babiche was used for nets, fish-lines, snares, and snowshoes; sinew for bowstrings and thread. Chipewyan nets, it has been noted above, were designed for capturing fish by the gills and for enmeshing beaver. Mackenzie saw snares for caribou and moose consisting of twenty to thirty strands of rawhide, so closely twisted that the rope shrunk to a diameter "no thicker than a codline." The nets of the Dogribs, he said, were made of willow-bark cord. Hearne is explicit on this point: It is of the inner bark of willows... that the Dog-ribbed Indians make their fishing-nets; and they are much preferable to those made by the Northern Indians. The Northern Indians make their fishingnets with small thongs cut from raw deer-skins; which when dry appear very good, but after being soaked in water some time, grow so soft and slippery, that when large fish strike the net, the hitches are very apt to slip and let them escape.... Beside this inconvenience, they are very liable to rot, unless they be frequently taken out of the water and dried.1 In the borderland of Cree culture, water-pails, platters, berrybaskets, and cooking vessels were of birch-bark. For berry-baskets and containers of general utility these are still made. The material is in a single piece, and the only seams are near three edges of one end. The material for sewing is spruce-roots, and imperfect joints and small orifices in the bark are sealed with spruce-gum. Primitive boiling was accomplished in vessels of this kind by means of heated stones. The antiquity of the use of bark for containers is indicated by its mention in traditions, as in one to the effect that if a man suspected the presence of enemies in camp at night and required a torch at once, he would seize a bark dish and light it at the smoldering fire. Mackenzie noted water-tight spruce-root baskets among the Dogribs. Bowls were hollowed out of poplar knurls. In the far north musk-ox horns were boiled, split, and shaped into dishes and ladles. Fire was made by means of a wooden spindle twirled between the palms, and by striking two stones together, processes so laborious that particular pains were taken to carry fire from one camp to another. Hearne observed only the second method. The Chipewyan had no tobacco pipes, for smoking was unknown 1 Hearne, 265. {view image of facing page 30} An old woman - Blood [photogravure plate] {view image of page 31} THE CHIPEWYAN 3I prior to the advent of European traders. Corroborative evidence on this point is found in the story of a man who received a twist of tobacco from a trader and proceeded to eat it, and in Mackenzie's observation that the Dogribs did not know the use of the tobacco he gave them. Bearberry leaves mixed with tobacco are now smoked in commercial pipes. The primitive canoe is said to have been a wooden frame covered with the hides of caribou, a craft frequently mentioned in myths and tales as g'huljai-t~!i ("rawhide canoe"). Although birch-bark canoes were generally used in the earliest times of which we have record, it is quite likely that the inhabitants of the barrens formerly found it easier to use hides than to obtain suitable bark. Hearne noted with surprise that "they do not make use of the skin-canoes." The canoes made by his companions are thus described: In shape the Northern Indian canoe bears some resemblance to a weaver's shuttle; being flat-bottomed, with straight upright sides, and sharp at each end; but the stern is by far the widest part, as there the baggage is generally laid, and occasionally a second person, who always lies down at full length in the bottom of the canoe. In this manner they carry one another across rivers and the narrow parts of lakes in those little vessels, which seldom exceed twelve or thirteen feet in length, and are from twenty inches to two feet broad in the widest part. The head, or fore part, is unnecessarily long, and narrow; and is all covered over with birch-bark, which adds considerably to the weight, without contributing to the burthen of the vessel. In general, these Indians make use of the single paddle, though a few have double ones, like the Esquimaux: the latter, however, are seldom used, but by those who lie in wait to kill deer as they cross rivers and narrow lakes.l Canoes were used mainly for crossing unfordable streams, and for killing swimming caribou and waterfowl. The Indians, says Hearne, "are sometimes obliged to carry their canoes one hundred and fifty, or two hundred miles, without having occasion to make use of them;... and were they not very small and portable, it would be impossible for one man to carry them, which they are often obliged to do, not only the distance above mentioned, but even the whole Summer." 2 A canoe was carried crosswise on the back, supported by a thong passing across the chest. In ferrying a large party it was customary, if several craft were available, to construct a raft on them. 1 Hearne, 135. 2 Hearne, 91. {view image of page 32} 32 THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN Goods were transported in winter on sleds, which consisted of two narrow slips of board, up-curving at the forward end and rigidly joined by wooden cross-bars. Sleds mentioned in stories are usually uncured hides with the hair next to the ice, and the motive power in such cases is supplied by human beings, usually women, with a strap across the chest. Dogs as beasts of burden are a comparatively recent revival of ancient practice, but they now not only draw sleds in winter but carry loads on their backs in summer. Mackenzie tells of women dragging loads of two hundred to four hundred pounds, and Sir John Franklin observed that the Yellowknives and Chipewyan in I820 had killed all their dogs on the advice of a religious fanatic: The Northern Indians suppose that they originally sprang from a dog; and about five years ago, a superstitious fanatic so strongly pressed upon their minds the impropriety of employing these animals, to which they were related, for purposes of labour, that they universally resolved against using them any more, and, strange as it may seem, destroyed them. They now have to drag every thing themselves on sledges. This laborious task falls most heavily on the women.... When a party is on a march, the women have to drag the tent, the meat, and whatever the hunter possesses, whilst he only carries his gun and medicine case. In the evening they form the encampment, cut wood, fetch water, and prepare the supper; and then, perhaps, are not permitted to partake of the fare until the men have finished.... We were surprised by a visit from a dog; the poor animal was in a low condition, and much fatigued. Our Indians discovered, by marks on his ears, that he belonged to the Dog-ribs. This tribe, unlike the Chipewyans and Copper Indians, had preserved that useful associate of man, although from their frequent intercourse with the latter people, they were not ignorant of the prediction alluded to in a former page.1 As usual, Hearne's account is comprehensive: In the fall of the year, and as the Winter advances, those people sew the skins of the deer's legs together in the shape of long portmanteaus, which, when hauled on the snow as the hair lies, are as slippery as an otter, and serve them as temporary sledges while on the barren ground; but when they arrive at any woods, they then make proper sledges, with thin boards of the larch-tree, generally known in Hudson's Bay by the name of Juniper... The boards of which those sledges are composed are not more than a quarter of an inch thick, and seldom exceed five or six inches in width; as broader would be very unhandy for the Indians to work, 1 Franklin, I, 250; II, I3-I4. {view image of facing page 32} Atso Tohkomi - "Call-on-all-sides" - Blood [photogravure plate] {view image of page 33} THE CHIPEWYAN 33 who have no other tools than an ordinary knife, turned up a little at the point.... The boards are sewed together with thongs of parchment deer-skin, and several cross bars of wood are sewed on the upper side, which serves both to strengthen the sledge and secure the ground-lashing, to which the load is always fastened by other smaller thongs, or stripes of leather. The head or fore-part of the sledge is turned up so as to form a semi-circle, of at least fifteen or twenty inches diameter.... The trace or draught-line to those sledges is a double string, or slip of leather, made fast to the head; and the bight is put across the shoulders of the person who hauls the sledge, so as to rest against the breast. The tents... are generally composed of deer-skins in the hair; and for convenience of carriage, are always made in small pieces, seldom exceeding five buck-skins in one piece. These tents, as also their kettles, and some other lumber, are always carried by dogs, which are trained to that service, and are very docile and tractable. Those animals are of various sizes and colours, but all of the fox and wolf breed, with sharp noses, full brushy tails, and sharp ears standing erect. They are of great courage when attacked.... These dogs are equally willing to haul in a sledge, but as few of the men will be at the trouble of making sledges for them, the poor women are obliged to content themselves with lessening the bulk of their load, more than the weight, by making the dogs carry these articles only, which are always lashed on their backs.1 Chipewyan snowshoes now to be seen at Cold lake are comparatively long and narrow, not up-curved at the tip, and the birch frame is netted with babiche. "The Chipewyans," says Franklin, "are celebrated for making them good and easy to walk in; we saw some here upwards of six feet long, and three broad." 2 These were unusually large. According to Hearne, the snowshoes of his Northern Indians "differ from all others made use of in those parts; for though they are of the galley kind, that is, sharp-pointed before, yet they are always to be worn on one foot, and cannot be shifted from side to side, like other snow-shoes; for this reason the inner-side of the frames are almost straight, and the outer-side has a very large sweep."3 His accompanying sketch shows them turned up at the tip, and fifty-four inches long by thirteen inches broad. "Small staves of birch-wood, about one and a quarter inch square, and seven or eight feet long... serve as tent-poles all the Summer, while on the barren ground; and as the fall advances, are converted into snow-shoe frames for Winter use." 4 Hearne's pages are full of vivid pictures of the hazards and hard1 Hearne, 310-312. 2 Franklin, I, 209. 3 Hearne, 312. 4 Hearne, I27-I28. VOL. XVIII-5 {view image of page 34} 34 THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN ships of primitive life, particularly with respect to women. His principal guide on the journey to Coppermine river explained the economic status of women on the march: "When all the men are heavy laden, they can neither hunt nor travel to any considerable distance; and in case they meet with success in hunting, who is to carry the produce of their labour? Women," added he, "were made for labour; one of them can carry, or haul, as much as two men can do. They also pitch our tents, make and mend our clothing, keep us warm at night; and, in fact, there is no such thing as travelling any considerable distance, or for any length of time, in this country, without their assistance. Women," said he again, "though they do every thing, are maintained at a trifling expence; for as they always stand cook, the very licking of their fingers in scarce times, is sufficient for their subsistence." In times of want the poor women always come off short; and when real distress approaches, many of them are permitted to starve, when the males are amply provided for. One of the Indian's wives, who for some time had been in a consumption, had for a few days past become so weak as to be incapable of travelling, which, among those people, is the most deplorable state to which a human being can possibly be brought.... Without much ceremony, she was left unassisted, to perish above ground.... They say it is better to leave one who is past recovery, than for the whole family to sit down by them and starve to death; well knowing that they cannot be of any service to the afflicted. On those occasions, therefore, the friends or relations of the sick generally leave them some victuals and water; and, if the situation of the place will afford it, a little firing. When those articles are provided, the person to be left is acquainted with the road which the others intend to go; and then, after covering them well up with deer skins, &c. they take their leave, and walk away crying. Sometimes persons thus left, recover; and come up with their friends, or wander about till they meet with other Indians.... The poor woman above mentioned, however, came up with us three several times, after having been left in the manner described. At length, poor creature! she dropt behind, and no one attempted to go back in search of her.1 Harmon's remark now becomes credible: "Instances of suicide, by hanging, frequently occur, among the women of all the tribes, with whom I have been acquainted; but the men are seldom known to take away their own lives." 2 On the eleventh of January [I772, south of Great Slave lake], as some of my companions were hunting, they saw the track of a strange 1 Hearne, 101-102, 218-219, 288. 2 Harmon, I63-164. {view image of facing page 34} Astanihkyi - "Come-singing" - Blood [photogravure plate] {view image of page 35} THE CHIPEWYAN 35 snow-shoe, which they followed; and at a considerable distance came to a little hut, where they discovered a young woman sitting alone. As they found that she understood their language, they brought her with them to the tents. On examination, she proved to be one of the Western Dog-ribbed Indians, who had been taken prisoner by the Athapuscow Indians 1 in the Summer of one thousand seven hundred and seventy; and in the following Summer, when the Indians that took her prisoner were near this part, she had eloped from them, with an intent to return to her own country; but the distance being so great, and having, after she was taken prisoner, been carried in a canoe the whole way, the turnings and windings of the rivers and lakes were so numerous, that she forgot the track; so she built the hut in which we found her, to protect her from the weather during the Winter, and here she had resided from the first setting in of the fall. From her account of the moons passed since her elopement, it appeared that she had been near seven months without seeing a human face; during all which time she had supported herself very well by snaring partridges, rabbits, and squirrels; she had also killed two or three beaver, and some porcupines. That she did not seem to have been in want is evident, as she had a small stock of provisions by her when she was discovered; and was in good health and condition, and I think one of the finest women, of a real Indian, that I have seen in any part of North America. The methods practised by this poor creature to procure a livelihood were truly admirable, and are great proofs that necessity is the real mother of invention. When the few deer-sinews that she had an opportunity of taking with her were all expended in making snares, and sewing her clothing, she had nothing to supply their place but the sinews of the rabbits legs and feet; these she twisted together for that purpose with great dexterity and success. The rabbits, &c. which she caught in those snares, not only furnished her with a comfortable subsistence, but of the skins she made a suit of neat and warm clothing for the Winter. It is scarcely possible to conceive that a person in her forlorn situation could be so composed as to be capable of contriving or executing any thing that was not absolutely necessary to her existence; but there were sufficient proofs that she had extended her care much farther, as all her clothing, beside being calculated for real service, shewed great taste, and exhibited no little variety of ornament. The materials, though rude, were very curiously wrought, and so judiciously placed, as to make the whole of her garb have a very pleasing... appearance. Her leisure hours from hunting had been employed in twisting 1This is one of several instances in which Hearne seems to designate the Chipewyan as "Athapuscow." It was the Chipewyan who harassed the tribes north of Great Slave lake, and the Chipewyan who inhabited the country along Slave river, where Hearne noted several abandoned camps of "Athapuscow." Nevertheless, he represents the people so called as speaking the language of the Southern Indians (Cree). {view image of page 36} 36 THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN the inner rind or bark of willows into small lines, like net-twine, of which she had some hundred fathoms by her; with this she intended to make a fishing-net as soon as the Spring advanced.... Five or six inches of an iron hoop, made into a knife, and the shank of an arrow-head of iron, which served her as an awl, were all the metals this poor woman had with her when she eloped; and with these implements she had made herself complete snow-shoes, and several other useful articles. Her method of making a fire was equally singular and curious, having no other materials for that purpose than two hard sulphurous stones. These, by long friction and hard knocking, produced a few sparks, which at length communicated to some touchwood; but as this method was attended with great trouble, and not always with success, she did not suffer her fire to go out all the Winter. Hence we may conclude that she had no idea of producing fire by friction, in the manner practised by the Esquimaux, and many other uncivilized nations; because if she had, the above-mentioned precaution would have been unnecessary. The singularity of the circumstance, the comeliness of her person, and her approved accomplishments, occasioned a strong contest between several of the Indians of my party, who should have her for a wife; and the poor girl was actually won and lost at wrestling by near half a score different men the same evening... When the Athapuscow Indians took the above Dog-ribbed Indian woman prisoner, they, according to the universal custom of those savages, surprised her and her party in the night, and killed every soul in the tent, except herself and three other young women. Among those whom they killed, were her father, mother, and husband. Her young child, four or five months old, she concealed in a bundle of clothing, and took with her undiscovered in the night; but when she arrived at the place where the Athapuscow Indians had left their wives (which was not far distant), they began to examine her bundle, and finding the child, one of the women took it from her, and killed it on the spot. This last piece of barbarity gave her such a disgust to those Indians, that notwithstanding the man who took care of her treated her in every respect as his wife, and was, she said, remarkably kind to, and even fond of her; so far was she from being able to reconcile herself to any of the tribe, that she rather chose to expose herself to misery and want, than live in ease and affluence among persons who had so cruelly murdered her infant. The poor woman's relation of this shocking story, which she delivered in a very affecting manner, only excited laughter among the savages of my party. In a conversation with this woman soon afterward, she told us, that her country lies so far to the Westward, that she had never seen iron, or any other kind of metal, till she was taken prisoner. All of her tribe, she observed, made their hatchets and ice-chisels of deer's horns, and their knives of stones and bones; that their arrows {view image of facing page 36} A travois - Blackfoot [photogravure plate] {view image of page 37} THE CHIPEWYAN 37 were shod with a kind of slate, bones, and deer's horns; and the instruments which they employed to make their wood-work were nothing but beavers' teeth. Though they had frequently heard of the useful materials which the nations or tribes to the East of them were supplied with from the English, so far were they from drawing nearer, to be in the way of trading for iron-work, &c. that they were obliged to retreat farther back, to avoid the Athapuscow Indians, who made surprising slaughter among them, both in Winter and Summer.1 The favorite form of gambling among the Chipewyan is udzi, the well-known hand-game. There are two markers, one a short length of bone or wood, the other a stone or a bit of bone nearly spherical, and the play is between two sets of men who kneel in opposite rows. The leader of one party places the markers while concealing his actions beneath a blanket draped over his knees. Both may be held in either hand or left on the ground beside his knees, or either may be placed in any one of these positions. He folds his arms, with fists clenched, and the other leader, after studying while his opponents sing, indicates his guess. A motion of the thumb to right or left means that the round marker is on the ground, the other in the left or the right hand; and if the long one is thought to be on the ground, the same gesture is made with extended forefinger. Thumb and forefinger extended means that both markers are in the hands, the thumb indicating which hand is thought to hold the round one, the forefinger the long one. The forefinger moved directly toward the opponent signifies that both markers are supposed to lie on the ground. Failure to locate either marker yields the "in" side one of the four tally-sticks that lie between the players. Guessing one correctly and missing the other is only a half success, therefore the same man hides the markers again, but does not win a tally. The next correct guess gives the inning to the other side. But if both markers are held in one hand, either the thumb or the finger directed to that hand wins the inning. A side losing a point replaces in the pool a tally-stick from its accumulated store, if it has any; otherwise, the winner, as noted, takes one from the pool. Thus one side must be successful at least four consecutive times in order to win a game. Wagers are laid between individuals, not between parties. A player sets out an article to be wagered and declares that it will require, say, two games to win it. An opponent places beside it something of equal value, or of greater or less value, in which case he and his rival agree on how many games it is worth in comparison 1 Hearne, 263-267. {view image of page 38} 38 THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN with the other wager. Having come to terms, each lays beside his wager the number of sticks that indicates how many games will win it, and when a game is decided, the winner takes from his opponent one of these game indicators. If he loses the next game, this tally is returned to its place. It is apparent that one side must have a long run of luck in order to take a wager, and that the contest may last for days, as indeed it often does. The dice play, sas-ka-gane ("bear foot claw"), is no longer in fashion at Cold lake. Four bear-claws were filled with lead and carefully squared off at the base. Before lead was available, they probably were weighted with sand and plugged with gum. On the back of each was a mark indicating its value: one, two, or three notches, and a cross. The four were placed on a shallow bowl made of a knurl, which was shaken and then suddenly raised and lowered. The dice that stood upright on their base scored the number of notches on their backs. Ten points thus counted, or a single scoring with the cross, constituted a game. The system of wagering was the same as in the hand-game. A player continued to cast so long as he scored, until he reached ten. The other then cast, and if he reached ten without missing, there was no count; they stood even. If the first player scored less than ten and then missed, his opponent proceeded to cast; and if he counted ten, the first player had another opportunity to even the score. If he in turn reached ten, his opponent made a single cast, and the other did likewise; and the one scoring the greater number on this trial won the bout. If in the first round neither counted ten, the score of the second round was added to that of the first. The rod-game is called dechen-dar-aze ("stick thin small"). An odd number of sections of cattail stalks are separated into two parts as nearly equal as possible without actual counting. The player holds them out very quickly, and the other must immediately choose one packet. The one who holds the larger number of rods wins a point. This game is played also with three or more packets, but always with such a number of rods that there must be one remaining when they are divided as nearly equally as possible. The cup-and-ball game, pekegwiyi ("insert something with a thrusting movement"), is played more by women than by men. The small bone from the fore-leg of a lynx is the pin, and on a leather cord attached to its larger end are strung eight cones made of caribou toes. The cord terminates in a tail-like flap pierced by a double row of small holes and a slightly larger orifice between them. A large {view image of facing page 38} A typical Blackfoot [photogravure plate] {view image of page 39} THE CHIPEWYAN 39 bead, a modern addition to the device, is on the cord just above the tail. The pendent string is swung forward and upward, and the point of the pin is thrust at the row of cones. Catching any one or more of them counts one, except that the one nearest to the bead, if caught by itself, scores ten. The bead counts fifty, the larger hole in the tail one, and a small hole entitles the player to another trial. String-game patterns include "beaver-net," "raven foot," and "stomach filled with moose blood." A favorite winter sport was nalzusi (a word suggesting a sliding movement). Each of two contestants cast over the hard snow or ice, with a sidewise swing, a wooden missile about four feet long, heavy near the head and having a long, slender point beyond this bulging part. Sometimes it was dipped in water and thus encased in a coat of ice. The trial was for distance, not accuracy, and ten successive points won a game. In ndzel-guh7l ("shafts launch") one of two opponents cast a javelin so that it stood upright, and each then launched his two javelins after it. He won whose missile impaled the ground nearest the target. Of the same character was nazel-ttiazi ("shafts shoot"). An arrow was cast by hand, and the two players, having carefully observed where it fell, shot their sheafs of arrows toward it with averted faces. He who placed a missile nearest the mark took up this targetarrow, and each recovered his own sheaf. All this was merely preliminary to the contest, a trial for priority. The winner of the trial let fly the target-arrow, then in turn they shot their arrows, this time without averting their faces. The one who placed a dart nearest the mark took the target-arrow and one of the missiles of his opponent, laying the latter aside along with one of his own. He shot the target-arrow again, and they contested as before. If the same man won again, he took another arrow from his opponent and placed it and one of his own with the two already withdrawn from the game. If, however, he lost, he gave back the arrow taken from his opponent and recovered his own, so that both had the original number. The contest continued until one or the other had lost all his arrows. As to Chipewyan pastimes, Mackenzie says that they seldom sang and danced; that they shot at marks and played games, but preferred to sleep, because the task of obtaining food was so arduous that they were glad to rest in idleness. Of Chipewyan warfare little can be said. Their enemies were Cree and Eskimo, and the Athapascan Dogribs and Yellowknives. {view image of page 40} 40 THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN They are said to have been reckless fighters when attacked, and their weapons were bows and arrows, spears, and clubs. Their tales are silent as to scalping, though of course the Cree practice was known, and the customary victory-dance was represented simply by extemporized songs of exultation. In his record of the raid upon the Eskimo, Hearne sheds light on Northern Athapascan war customs: Each volunteer... prepared a target, or shield, before we left the woods of Clowey. Those targets were composed of thin boards, about three quarters of an inch thick, two feet broad, and three feet long; and were intended to ward off the arrows of the Esquimaux. When we arrived on the West side of the river, each painted the front of his target or shield; some with the figure of the Sun, others with that of the Moon, several with different kinds of birds and beasts of prey, and many with the images of imaginary beings.... Each man painted his shield with the image of that being on which he relied most for success in the intended engagement... [After maltreating the bodies and despoiling the tents, they] assembled on the top of an adjacent high hill, and standing all in a cluster, so as to form a solid circle, with their spears erect in the air, gave many shouts of victory. Immediately after my companions had killed the Esquimaux at the Copper River, they considered themselves in a state of uncleanness, which induced them to practise some very curious and unusual ceremonies. In the first place, all who were absolutely concerned in the murder were prohibited from cooking any kind of victuals, either for themselves or others.... When the victuals were cooked, all the murderers took a kind of red earth, or oker, and painted all the space between the nose and chin, as well as the greater part of their cheeks, almost to the ears, before they would taste a bit, and would not drink out of any other dish, or smoke out of any other pipe, but their own.... iWe had no sooner joined the women, at our return from the expedition, than there seemed to be an universal spirit of emulation among them, vying who should first make a suit of ornaments for their husbands, which consisted of bracelets for the wrists, and a band for the forehead, composed of porcupine quills and moose-hair, curiously wrought on leather. The custom of painting the mouth and part of the cheeks before each meal, and drinking and smoking out of their own utensils, was strictly and invariably observed, till the Winter began to set in; and during the whole of that time they would never kiss any of their wives or children. They refrained also from eating many parts of the deer and other animals, particularly the head, entrails, and blood; and during their uncleanness, their victuals were never sodden in water, but dried in the sun, eaten quite raw, or broiled, when a fire fit for the purpose could be procured. When the time arrived that was to put an end to these {view image of facing page 40} A Blackfoot soldier [photogravure plate] {view image of page 41} THE CHIPEWYAN 41 ceremonies, the men, without a female being present, made a fire at some distance from the tents, into which they threw all their ornaments, pipe-stems, and dishes, which were soon consumed to ashes; after which a feast was prepared, consisting of such articles as they had long been prohibited from eating; and when all was over, each man was at liberty to eat, drink, and smoke as he pleased; and also to kiss his wives and children at discretion, which they seemed to do with more raptures than I had ever known them do it either before or since.1 The absence of clans and a property-holding system leaves the Chipewyan with no reason for fixing descent as either patrilineal or matrilineal. Girls were married soon after puberty, and matches were either the result of negotiations between the elders, in which case payment was made to the girl's father and gifts to the girl herself, or informal mating, either partner bringing his or her personal possessions to the home of the other. A man regarded his son-inlaw as the support of his old age, and between them relations were somewhat ceremonious; but the familiar mother-in-law taboo was known only as a Cree custom. Polygyny was practised by men that could provide for more wives than one. An informant knew a man that had simultaneously six wives of different families, living in six skin tipis pitched in a row. He spent one day in each tipi and "hunted from there," bringing the result of his efforts to the wife of the day. Hearne's guide "had no less than seven, most of whom would for size have made good grenadiers. He prided himself much in the height and strength of his wives, and would frequently say, few women would carry or haul heavier loads." Since mother's sister and stepmother are synonymous in Chipewyan, it is inferable that marrying a wife's younger sisters was common practice, and, in fact, Franklin noted that "they frequently marry two sisters." Further, the identity of stepfather and mother's sister's husband seems to point to the custom of marrying a wife's widowed sister and adopting her children. A man usually married his deceased brother's widow, but not against her wish. The marriage of a man and his father's sister's daughter was encouraged to such an extent that paternal aunt and mother-in-law, and uncle and father-in-law, became synonymous.2 1 Hearne, 149, I8I, 220-22I. The reference to kissing does not necessarily confute the averment of a modern informant that "kissing came from the Cree," for the smoking mentioned in the same passage was certainly an introduced custom. 2 See Relationship Terms in the Appendix. Franklin, II, 79, says, "There is no prohibition to the intermarriage of cousins." VOL. xvIIi-6 {view image of page 42} 42 THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN Sharing a wife with another man had the status of an institution; 1 but an adulterous wife might be flogged or simply discarded, or husband and lover might engage in personal combat by wrestling, each grasping the other's hair. The winner of the bout claimed the woman, and the affair went no farther. Says Hearne: It has ever been the custom among those people for the men to wrestle for any woman to whom they are attached; and, of course, the strongest party always carries off the prize. A weak man, unless he be a good hunter and well-beloved, is seldom permitted to keep a wife that a stronger man thinks worth his notice: for at any time when the wives of those strong wrestlers are heavy-laden either with furrs or provisions, they make no scruple of tearing any other man's wife from his bosom, and making her bear a part of his luggage. This custom prevails throughout all their tribes, and causes a great spirit of emulation among their youth, who are upon all occasions, from their childhood, trying their strength and skill in wrestling. This enables them to protect their property, and particularly their wives, from the hands of those powerful ravishers; some of whom make almost a livelihood by taking what they please from the weaker parties, without making them any return.... I never knew any of them receive the least hurt in these rencontres; the whole business consists in hauling each other!about by the hair of the head: they are seldom known either to strike or kick one another. It is not uncommon for one of them to cut off his hair and to grease his ears, immediately before the contest begins. This, however, is done privately; and it is sometimes truly laughable, to see one of the parties strutting about with an air of great importance, and calling out, "Where is he? Why does he not come out?" when the other will bolt out with a clean shorned head and greased ears, rush on his antagonist, seize him by the hair, and though perhaps a much weaker man, soon drag him to the ground, while the stronger is not able to lay hold on him.... The standers-by never attempt to interfere in the contest.... It was often very unpleasant to me, to see the object of the contest sitting in pensive silence watching her fate, while her husband and his rival were contending for the prize. [Sometimes the woman was loath to accompany the victor.] On those occasions their grief and reluctance to follow their new lord has been so great, that the business has often ended in the greatest brutality; for, in the struggle, I have seen the poor girls stripped quite naked, and carried by main force to their new lodgings. At other times it was pleasant enough to see a fine girl led off the field from a husband she disliked, with a tear in one eye and a finger on the other: for custom, or delicacy if you please, has taught them to think it necessary to whimper a little, let the change be ever so much 1 See pages 73, 75, for details of this practice. {view image of facing page 42} Blackfoot finery [photogravure plate] {view image of page 43} THE CHIPEWYAN 43 to their inclination.... They are... the mildest tribe, or nation, that is to be found on the borders of Hudson's Bay: for let their effronts or losses be ever so great, they never will seek any other revenge than that of wrestling. As for murder, which is so common among all the tribes of Southern Indians [Cree], it is seldom heard of among them. A murderer is shunned and detested by all the tribe, and is obliged to wander up and down, forlorn and forsaken even by his own relations and former friends.... [Even men of tribal eminence were not exempt from losing wives to superior strength.] An Indian man... insisted on taking one of Matonabbee's wives from him by force, unless he... should give him a certain quantity of ammunition, some pieces of iron-work, a kettle, and several other articles; every one of which, Matonabbee was obliged to deliver, or lose the woman; for the other man far excelled him in strength. Matonabbee was more exasperated on this occasion, as the same man had sold him the woman no longer ago than the nineteenth of the preceding April.... Matonabbee... at that time thought himself as great a man as then lived.l Politically the Chipewyan consisted of local bands, and he was chief who by reason of ability as hunter, fighter, and thoughtful leader proved himself the most capable man of the band. The interesting, but not unique, practice of designating individuals as the parents of their pet dogs or of their children, instead of employing personal names, was noted by Franklin as a custom of the Slave Indians, who "take their names, in the first instance, from their dogs. A young man is the father of a certain dog, but when he is married, and has a son, he styles himself the father of the boy. The women have a habit of reproving the dogs very tenderly when they observe them fighting. -'Are you not ashamed,' say they, 'are you not ashamed to quarrel with your little brother?' The dogs appear to understand the reproof, and sneak off." 2 Referring to the people of the barrens, Hearne says: "The names of the girls are chiefly taken from some part or property of a Martin; such as, the White Martin, the Black Martin, the Summer Martin... Matonabbee had eight wives, and they were all called Martins." 3 Among the modern western Cree a name referring to marten is always feminine. There was no puberty ceremony for girls. All females in their periods remained apart from the men in small huts secluded in the bush. They refrained from eating the internal organs and the heads of animals, for these parts represent the "life," and their association 1 Hearne, 141-146. 2 Franklin, II, 85-86. 3 Hearne, I32. {view image of page 44} 44 THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN with menstrual blood would have offended the animals and game would have been too wary for the hunters. For the same reason such women were not permitted to approach a place where hunters had dammed a stream above a beaver colony for the purpose of spearing the animals at their breathing-holes in the ice, nor to step across a hunter's trail. According to Hearne, "the young girls, when those symptoms make their first appearance, generally go a little distance from the other tents for four or five days, and at their return wear a kind of veil or curtain, made of beads, for some time after, as a mark of modesty." 1 The Chipewyan disposed of a corpse by wrapping it in a skin and leaving it exposed on the ground, unless the bereaved family were an important one, in which case the body was laid in a tipi. It is probable that tree-burial was practised in wooded country, but the absence of trees and soil in the barrens made simple exposure the easiest solution. Personal property was left with the corpse, and members of the family discarded all their possessions, cut the hair, blackened the face, and wore old clothing for two or three years. When the deceased person was a favorite son or a beloved spouse, men and women slashed their limbs and breasts and severed the first joint of a finger with deliberate prolongation of torture. The name of a deceased person was not mentioned in the presence of relatives during a period of two or three years. Franklin's narrative has the following passage: "We found several of the [Yellowknife] Indian families in great affliction, for the loss of three of their relatives who had been drowned in the August preceding [this November], by the upsetting of a canoe near Fort Enterprise. They bewailed the melancholy accident every morning and evening, by repeating the names of the persons in a loud singing tone, which was frequently interrupted by bursts of tears. One woman was so affected by the loss of her only son, that she seemed deprived of reason, and wandered about the tents the whole day, crying and singing out his name." 2 The contradiction of the taboo on names of the recently dead is only apparent, for this restriction applied to the mention of such names by others in the presence of relatives who had ceased grieving. The home of the dead was conceived to be in the west. There is no evidence of a ceremony or of customary precautions for laying the ghost, except that an informant cited the practice of warriors after a battle covering the face with charcoal, which he regarded as 1 Hearne, 304. 2 Franklin, II, 364. {view image of facing page 44} A Blackfoot woman [photogravure plate] {view image of page 45} THE CHIPEWYAN 45 an attempt to frighten the ghosts of slain enemies. This plausible explanation of a wide-spread custom would apply equally well to the blackening of the faces of mourning relatives. The Chipewyan had neither religious nor fraternal societies, and apparently no tribal ceremonies. An informant who passed his boyhood at Fort Chipewyan never saw them perform a dance except in imitation of the Cree. Franklin is corroborative on this point, while describing dancing observed among the Dogribs and the Slaves. When bands of Dog-ribs meet each other after a long absence, they perform a kind of dance. A piece of ground is cleared for the purpose, if in winter of the snow, or if in summer of the bushes; and the dance frequently lasts for two or three days, the parties relieving each other as they get tired. The two bands commence the dance with their backs turned to each other, the individuals following one another in Indian file, and holding the bow in the left hand, and an arrow in the right. They approach obliquely, after many turns, and when the two lines are closely back to back, they feign to see each other for the first time, and the bow is instantly transferred to the right hand, and the arrow to the left, signifying that it is not their intention to employ them against their friends... These people are the dancing-masters of the country. The Copper Indians have neither dance nor music but what they borrow from them.1 Franklin's subordinate, George Back, observed some Slave Indians at Fort Resolution on Great Slave lake. They had four feathers in each hand. One commenced moving in a circular form, lifting both feet at the same time, similar to jumping sideways. After a short time a second and a third joined, and afterwards the whole band was dancing, some in a state of nudity, others half dressed, singing an unmusical wild air with (I suppose,) appropriate words; the particular sounds of which were, ha! ha! ha! uttered vociferously, and with great distortion of countenance, and peculiar attitude of body, the feathers being always kept in a tremulous motion.2 Hearne refers to a similar backwardness in the matter of dancing among the people of the barrens. Those people, though a distinct nation, have never adopted any mode of dancing of their own, or any songs to which they can dance; so that when anything of this kind is attempted, which is but seldom, they always endeavour to imitate either the Dog-ribbed or Southern 1 Franklin, II, 82. 2 Franklin, II, 60. {view image of page 46} 46 THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN Indians, but more commonly the former, as few of them are sufficiently acquainted either with the Southern Indian language, or their manner of dancing. The Dog-ribbed method...consists in lifting the feet alternately from the ground in a very quick succession, and as high as possible, without moving the body, which should be kept quite still and motionless; the hands at the same time being closed, and held close to the breast, and the head inclining forward.... [The singing] is always accompanied by a drum or tabor; and sometimes a kind of rattle is added, made with a piece of dried buffalo skin, in shape exactly like an oil-flask, into which they put a few shot or pebbles.1 Chipewyan religious belief and practice were comprehended in the dream cult of the shamans and in numerous hunting-charms and taboos. A shaman is called i"ka"ze-dene ("shadow person"), and i"ka"ze is the dream or vision through which he derives his power. In dreams various animals and phenomena, and particularly monstrous creatures living under the water and under hills, appear and instruct the shamans, and to these tutelars they offer prayers. The treatment of a sick person took place at night and without artificial light. The shaman's assistants erected a small, skincovered tipi, the four poles being oriented to the cardinal points and anchored by as many ropes to stakes or trees. They sometimes wound a rawhide rope about the frame from top to bottom, supposedly laying the coils close together but actually leaving wide interstices. This structure was called hu"s. The patient lay on the ground near by. The shaman walked about it once, uttering a rapid sound, rarararara, and quickly disappeared inside, professedly by magically projecting his body through the cover and the coils of rope. He beat the sides of the tipi rapidly, and shook it violently. His "power" sometimes caused one of the ropes to part, and he then suddenly appeared, took the broken rope in his hand, blew on it, and magically mended it. He reentered the shu"s and called out to the patient to think what wrong he had committed. Sickness was thought to be the result of violation of one of numerous taboos, most of which were of a personal nature and imposed upon an individual by a dream. A generally observed taboo was to leave an injured animal to die a lingering death, and one who was guilty of this act became ill of a lingering malady. As soon as the patient, after long thought, confessed what taboo he had violated, the shaman in his 1 Hearne, 318-319. {view image of facing page 46} Blackfoot cookery [photogravure plate] {view image of page 47} THE CHIPEWYAN 47 hut fell in a pretended trance. His assistants then carried the sick man away to his own tipi and returned to build a fire near the Ahun for the purpose of waking the shaman. When, as he pretended, he had partially recovered his senses, he came forth and rushed to the fire with the professed intention of leaping into it in his halfunconscious state. To prevent this his assistants grappled and struggled with him. A shaman was sometimes requested to bring news of an absent relative. He then went into his hut to project his spirit to the distant place, and in a few minutes the fu'ns began to shake. In response to the client's anxious questioning, he made report in a disguised voice, pretending that his tutelar was speaking. Impending events were sometimes perceived in dreams, and this was called "looking forward." The following is Hearne's account of shamanistic practice. A conjuring-house is erected, by driving the ends of four long small sticks, or poles, into the ground at right angles, so as to form a square of four, five, six, or seven feet, as may be required. The tops of the poles are tied together, and all is close covered with a tent-cloth or other skin, exactly in the shape of a small square tent, except that there is no vacancy left at the top to admit the light. In the middle of this house, or tent, the patient is laid, and is soon followed by the conjurer, or conjurers. Sometimes five or six of them give their joint-assistance; but before they enter, they strip themselves quite naked, and as soon as they get into the house, the door being well closed, they kneel round the sick person or persons, and begin to suck and blow at the parts affected, and then in a very short space of time sing and talk as if conversing with familiar spirits, which they say appear to them in the shape of different beasts and birds of prey. When they have had sufficient conference with those necessary agents, or shadows, as they term them, they ask for the hatchet, bayonet, or the like, which is always prepared by another person, with a long string fastened to it by the haft, for the convenience of hauling it up again after they have swallowed it... At the time when the forty and odd tents of Indians joined us, one man was so dangerously ill, that it was thought necessary the conjurers should use some of these wonderful experiments for his recovery; one of them therefore immediately consented to swallow a broad bayonet. Accordingly, a conjuring-house was erected in the manner above described, into which the patient was conveyed, and he was soon followed by the conjurer, who, after a long preparatory discourse, and the necessary conference with his familiar spirits, or shadows, as they call them, advanced to the door and asked for the bayonet, which was then ready prepared, by having a string fastened {view image of page 48} 48 THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN to it, and a short piece of wood tied to the other end of the string, to prevent him from swallowing it.... Though I am not so credulous as to believe that the conjurer absolutely swallowed the bayonet, yet I must acknowledge that in the twinkling of an eye he conveyed it to - God knows where; and the small piece of wood, or one exactly like it, was confined close to his teeth. He then paraded backward and forward before the conjuring-house for a short time, when he feigned to be greatly disordered in his stomach and bowels; and, after making many wry faces, and groaning most hideously, he put his body into several distorted attitudes, very suitable to the occasion. He then returned to the door of the conjuring-house, and after making many strong efforts to vomit, by the help of the string he at length, and after tugging at it some time, produced the bayonet, which apparently he hauled out of his mouth, to the no small surprize of all present. He then looked round with an air of exultation, and strutted into the conjuring-house, where he renewed his incantations, and continued them without intermission twenty-four hours. Though I was not close to his elbow when he performed the above feat, yet I thought myself near enough... to have detected him. Indeed I must confess that it appeared to me to be a very nice piece of deception, especially as it was performed by a man quite naked.... For some inward complaints; such as, griping in the intestines, difficulty of making water, &c., it is very common to see those jugglers blowing into the anus, or into the parts adjacent, till their eyes are almost starting out of their heads: and this operation is performed indifferently on all, without regard either to age or sex.... Being naturally not very delicate, they frequently continue their windy process so long, that I have more than once seen the doctor quit his patient with his face and breast in a very disagreeable condition.... His disorder was the dead palsey, which affected one side, from the crown of his head to the sole of his foot. Besides this dreadful disorder, he had some inward complaints, with a total loss of appetite; so that he was reduced to a mere skeleton, and so weak as to be scarcely capable of speaking. In this deplorable condition, he was laid in the center of a large conjuring-house...The same man who deceived me in swallowing a bayonet in the Summer, now offered to swallow a large piece of board, about the size of a barrelstave, in order to effect his recovery. The piece of board was prepared by another man, and painted according to the direction of the juggler, with a rude representation of some beast of prey on one side, and on the reverse was painted, according to their rude method, a resemblance of the sky.... I advanced close to him, and found him standing at the conjuring-house door as naked as he was born. When the piece of board was delivered to him, he proposed at first only to shove one-third of it down his throat, and then walk round the company afterward to shove down another third; and so proceed till he had swallowed the whole, except a small piece of the end, which was left behind to haul it up again. When he put it to his {view image of facing page 48} Kaistosinikyi - "Kill-for-nothing" - Blood [photogravure plate] {view image of page 49} THE CHIPEWYAN 49 mouth it apparently slipped down his throat like lightning, and only left about three inches sticking without his lips; after walking backwards and forwards three times, he hauled it up again, and ran into the conjuring-house with great precipitation. This he did to all appearance with great ease and composure; and notwithstanding I was all attention on the occasion, I could not detect the deceit; and as to the reality of its being a piece of wood that he pretended to swallow, there is not the least reason to doubt of it, for I had it in my hand, both before and immediately after the ceremony.... It is necessary to observe, that this feat was performed in a dark and excessively cold night; and although there was a large fire at some distance, which reflected a good light, yet there was great room for collusion: for though the conjurer himself was quite naked, there were several of his fraternity well-clothed, who attended him very close during the time of his attempting to swallow the board, as well as at the time of his hauling it up again... On the day preceding the performance of this piece of deception, in one of my hunting excursions, I accidentally came across the conjurer as he was sitting under a bush, several miles from the tents, where he was busily employed shaping a piece of wood exactly like that part which stuck out of his mouth after he had pretended to swallow the remainder of the piece.... So that when his attendants had concealed the main piece, it was easy for him to stick the small point into his mouth, as it was reduced at the small end to a proper size for the purpose.... As soon as our conjurer had executed the above feat, and entered the conjuring-house,... five other men and an old woman, all of whom were great professors of that art, stripped themselves quite naked and followed him, when they soon began to suck, blow, sing, and dance, round the poor paralytic; and continued so to do for three days and four nights, without taking the least rest or refreshment, not even so much as a drop of water. When these poor deluding and deluded people came out of the conjuring-house, their mouths were so parched with thirst as to be quite black, and their throats so sore, that they were scarcely able to articulate a single word.... Some of them, to appearance, were almost as bad as the poor man they had been endeavouring to relieve. But great part of this was feigned; for they lay on their backs with their eyes fixed, as if in the agonies of death, and were treated like young children; one person sat constantly by them, moistening their mouths with fat, and now and then giving them a drop of water. At other times a small bit of meat was put into their mouths, or a pipe held for them to smoke. This farce only lasted for the first day; after which they seemed to be perfectly well, except the hoarseness, which continued for a considerable time afterwards. And it is truly wonderful, though the strictest truth, that when the poor sick man was taken from the conjuring-house, he had not only recovered his appetite to an amazing degree, but was able to move all the fingers and toes of the side that had been so long dead. In three weeks he recovered so far as VOL. XVIII-7 {view image of page 50} 50 THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN to be capable of walking, and at the end of six weeks went a hunting for his family.' The susceptibility of Indians to suggestion has heretofore in volumes of this series been offered as the reason for their sometimes remarkable response to treatment by incantation, and for their not infrequent succumbing to the arts of the sorcerer. On the latter phase of the subject Hearne has an extremely interesting passage. His guide begged him to employ sorcery against an enemy whom Hearne had seen but once and who was then several hundred miles distant. To please this great man to whom I owed so much, and not expecting that any harm could possibly arise from it, I drew a rough sketch of two human figures on a piece of paper, in the attitude of wrestling: in the hand of one of them, I drew the figure of a bayonet pointing to the breast of the other. This is me, said I to Matonabbee, pointing to the figure which was holding the bayonet; and the other, is your enemy. Opposite to those figures I drew a pine-tree, over which I placed a large human eye, and out of the tree projected a human hand. This paper I gave to Matonabbee, with instructions to make it as publicly known as possible. Sure enough, the following year, when he came in to trade, he informed me that the man was dead, though at that time he was not less than three hundred miles from Prince of Wales's Fort. He assured me that the man was in perfect health when he heard of my design against him; but almost immediately afterwards became quite gloomy, and refusing all kind of sustenance, in a very few days died.2 As usual, hunting-charms were based on mimetic magic. With the pelvis of a beaver or a lynx in the left hand a hunter stood with arms widely extended and uttered a short prayer, ending, "Tomorrow I will kill [for example] a moose." Then he brought his hands together above his head, the right forefinger being extended and the other fingers of that hand closed. If he succeeded in placing his finger cleanly in the femur socket, he would have success; but if not, he was not necessarily deterred from proceeding to hunt. A scapula of any animal was marked with an irregular black line representing a trail, with a tipi, the present camp, at one end, and another, the next camp, at the opposite end. The bone was then exposed to a smoking fire, and when it became slightly blackened, it was studied with care. From the character of the deposit 1 Heare, 209-212, 228-232. 2 Hearne, 233. {view image of page 51} THE CHIPEWYAN 51 of carbon the events of the next march were foretold, as, "At such and such a place we will find a bear." When a woman cut open a beaver, she very carefully removed the spleen and gave it to her husband. He held it by the two ends, the larger of which was called the head, the smaller the tail. If it was full and symmetrical, he predicted good luck; if it was thin and ill-formed, bad luck was bound to come and nothing could be done to prevent it. Sometimes a flat, round object covered with fur is found under the skin of a hare. A charm of this sort exhibited by an informant is two and a half inches in diameter, an inch thick, quite hard, and covered with perfect fur. He found it just beneath the skin of the flank. Several of these objects are known. They are held to bring good luck in hunting if carried by the hunter, and are particularly effective for snaring hares. When a snare is set, the charm is passed through the loop. Another man has a hard concretion found under the skin of a moose. He keeps it in a secret place well removed from his house, and before hunting large game he scrapes off a bit with his knife and rubs the powder on a bullet. " Few of the Northern Indians," says Hearne, " chuse to kill either the wolf or the quiquehatch [wolverene], under a notion that they are something more than common animals.... I have frequently seen the Indians go to their [wolf] dens, and take out the young ones and play with them. I never knew a Northern Indian hurt one of them: on the contrary, they always put them carefully into the den again; and I have sometimes seen them paint the faces of the young Wolves with vermillion, or red ochre." 1 The same author describes some interesting fishing-charms. When they make a new fishing-net, which is always composed of small thongs cut from raw deer-skins, they take a number of birds bills and feet, and tie them, a little apart from each other, to the head and foot rope of the net, and at the four corners generally fasten some of the toes and jaws of the otters and jackashes [mink]. The birds feet and bills made choice of on such occasions are generally those of the laughing goose, wavey, (or white goose,) gulls, loons, and black-heads; and unless some or all of these be fastened to the net, they will not attempt to put it into the water, as they firmly believe it would not catch a single fish. A net thus accoutred is fit for setting whenever occasion requires, and opportunity offers; but the first fish of whatever species caught in it, are not to be sodden in the 1 Hearne, 224, 339. {view image of page 52} 52 THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN water, but broiled whole on the fire, and the flesh carefully taken from the bones without dislocating one joint; after which the bones are laid on the fire at full length and burnt. A strict observance of these rules is supposed to be of the utmost importance in promoting the future success of the new net.... When they fish in rivers, or narrow channels that join two lakes together, they could frequently, by tying two, three, or more nets together, spread over the whole breadth of the channel, and intercept every sizable fish that passed; but instead of that, they scatter the nets at a considerable distance from each other, from a superstitious notion, that were they kept close together, one net would be jealous of its neighbour, and by that means not one of them would catch a single fish.... When they bait a hook, a composition of four, five, or six articles, by way of charm, is concealed under the bait, which is always sewed round the hook. In fact, the only bait used by those people is in their opinion a composition of charms, inclosed within a bit of fish skin, so as in some measure to resemble a small fish. The things used by way of charm, are bits of beavers tails and fat, otter's vents and teeth, musk-rat's guts and tails, loon's vents, squirrel's testicles, the cruddled milk taken out of the stomach of sucking fawns and calves, human hair, and numberless other articles equally absurd.... Without some of those articles to put under their bait, few of them could be prevailed upon to put a hook into the water, being fully persuaded that they may as well sit in the tent, as attempt to angle without such assistance...The same rule is observed on broiling the first fruits of a new hook that is used for a new net; an old hook that has already been successful in catching large fish is esteemed of more value, than a handful of new ones which have never been tried.l A hunter returning with large provision of dry meat and pemmican gave a feast to as many as forty to fifty people. Quantities of food were prepared and set before the guest, and every bit must be eaten lest he have bad luck in his future hunting. Women must not step in or across the fresh blood of any animal, for creatures of that species would detect the odor and would be impossible to kill. The northern Athapascans had the common custom of adding a stone to a heap beside the trail, and murmuring a wish for good luck as they passed. Unlike most Indians, the Chipewyan attach no ceremonial importance to the eagle. They are characterized by poverty of mythology as well as of ceremony. There is no cycle of anecdotes about a transformer or trickster, although the neighboring Cree have numerous tales of this kind. 1 Hearne, 314-3i6. {view image of page 53} The Western Woods Cree {view image of page 54} 'L"7 {view image of page 55} THE WESTERN WOODS CREE T HE Cree, an important and well-known branch of the great Algonquian family, are geographically and linguistically closely related to the Ojibway, or Chippewa. In no sense are they a tribe: the vast extent of the territory over which they are scattered precludes any such conception of them. On the basis of habitat they are generally designated as Plains Cree and Woods, or Swamp, Cree. Bands of the former division roamed the prairies of Manitoba (Manitui-wapau, supernatural strait), Saskatchewan (Kuisiska-ftiwan, swift current), and eastern Alberta, where they are now sedentary on numerous small reserves. Their movement into the open country in pursuit of buffalo was westward up the Saskatchewan, which flows into Lake Winnipeg. The Woods Cree, Swamp Cree, or Maskegon (muskek, swamp), are found in this western region north of the prairies and Lake Winnipeg and south of Peace river, Athabasca lake, and Churchill river; and from Loon river, a southerly affluent of Peace river, on the west to the shore of Hudson bay at the mouth of Nelson and Churchill rivers. In Alberta they are usually called Bush Cree. It was the advance guard of the western Woods Cree that expelled the former Athapascan inhabitants of the country south of Athabasca lake, only to be forced in turn southward to the Saskatchewan, and still later to take up their residence in the disputed territory on amicable terms with their former enemies. The eastern Woods Cree extend from Lake Winnipeg to Lakes Mistassini and Nitchequon in the Province of Quebec, a territory which may be described as including all the country that drains into James bay and the southern part of Hudson bay. The word Cree is a contraction of Kristenaux (Knisteneaux, et cetera), the French spelling of Kenisteniwuik, which is the native name of a local division now unknown. That this original form is a Cree term is proved by the inclusion of the element niwuk, which is 55 {view image of page 56} 56 THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN a contraction of iyiniwuik, people, the usual termination of Cree group-names. The Cree have been in friendly contact with the white race since the early years of the seventeenth century, and the intimacy of this relation may be judged from the fact that no other Indian language of northern America has proved so prolific a source of Anglicized terms as have Cree and certain closely allied Algonquian dialects of New England and eastern Canada. Their nomadic habits and dispersal over a vast territory, some parts of which were seldom visited by white men, made an estimate of population difficult. Alexander Henry, the younger, a careful and judicious observer, wrote concerning the Plains Cree, but expressly making an exception of the Woods Cree: More than one family seldom inhabit the same tent.... Smallpox some years ago 1 made great havoc among these people, destroying entire camps; but they are again increasing very fast. To find the exact number of men would be difficult, as they are dispersed over a vast extent of country, and often mix with Assiniboines and other natives with whom they are at peace. As nearly as I could ascertain, they have about 300 tents, which may furnish 900 men capable of bearing arms. It must, however, be observed that in this calculation I do not include those Crees who live N. of Beaver river.2 The neighbors of the western Cree were Athapascans on the north and northwest, Blackfeet on the west, and Assiniboin on the south. With the Assiniboin they were closely associated from the time of the separation of that tribe from the parent Sioux prior to the opening of the country by exploration in the early years of the seventeenth century; nevertheless, there were rather frequent drunken brawls, with consequent murders, between the two tribes in the boisterous era of the fur-trade. They joined forces in pushing the Blackfeet, Bloods, and Piegan southwestward out of the plains bordering Saskatchewan river, and up to the termination of intertribal warfare remained constant enemies of these other Algonquians. The Cree inheritance of the historic Sioux hostility toward the Chippewa was not lessened by the friendly reception they accorded the renegade Assiniboin, for whom the Sioux entertained bitter hatred mixed with professed contempt. The Woods Cree had little, if any, part in this warfare with the Blackfeet and the Sioux; their operations 1 This may refer to the epidemic of I78I-I782, which originated on the upper Missouri and swept northward to Great Slave lake. 2 Coues, New Light on the Early History of the Greater Northwest, I897, 512-516. {view image of page 57} THE WESTERN WOODS CREE 57 were limited to dispossessing the Athapascans of their territory between the Saskatchewan and Athabasca lake. Peace river, according to Henry, received its name from the circumstance that the Cree and the Beavers settled their hostilities at Peace point. The pages of the journals of the fur-traders and explorers contain numerous references to Cree warfare. Says Alexander Mackenzie: Formerly they struck terror into all the other tribes whom they met; but now they have lost the respect that was paid them; as those whom they formerly considered as barbarians are now their allies, and consequently become better acquainted with them, and have acquired the use of fire-arms. The former are still proud without power, and affect to consider the others as their inferiors: those consequently are extremely jealous of them, and, depending upon their own superiority in numbers, will not submit tamely to their insults; so that the consequences often prove fatal, and the Knisteneaux are thereby decreasing both in power and number.1 According to Franklin: Their character has been still more debased by the passion for spirituous liquors, so assiduously fostered among them.... They are no longer the warriors who drove before them the inhabitants of the Saskatchawan, and Missinippi [Churchill]. The Cumberland House Crees, in particular, have been long disused to war. Betwixt them and their ancient enemies, the Slave nations [Blackfeet, not the Athapascan tribe called Slaves], lie the expansive plains of the Saskatchawan, inhabited by the powerful Asseeneepoytuck [Assiniboin], or Stone Indians, who having whilst yet a small tribe entered the country under the patronage of the Crees, now render back the protection they received.2 Alexander Henry, who constantly complains of the dishonesty, drunkenness, and laziness of the Cree, says further: The Crees have always been the aggressors in their disturbances with the Slaves [Blackfeet], and no sooner is a crime committed than they fly below, or to the strong wood [French, bois fort] along Beaver river, which makes the others suppose we are concerned in secreting them.... They are fully as much addicted to spirituous liquors as are the Saulteurs [Chippewa], but generally have no means of obtaining it. Those only who frequent the strong wood country can purchase liquor and tobacco. Those who inhabit the plains are a useless set 1 Mackenzie, I, cxIII. 2 Franklin, I, o18. VOL. XVIII-8 {view image of page 58} 58 THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN of lazy fellows - a nuisance both to us and to their neighbors, and much addicted to horse stealing. They are generally found in large camps winter and summer, idle throughout the year. Buffalo is their only object. Although passionately fond of liquor and tobacco, still they will not resort to the woods where they could procure furs to purchase those articles. In winter they take to the bow and arrows; firearms are scarce among them, and they use but little ammunition. If they procure a gun, it is instantly exchanged with an Assiniboine for a horse... The Crees had eight horses stolen during the night, within 30 paces of their tents. They dare not pursue the thieves, whom they suppose to be only six men, while they are 18 men, all well armed; this is a proof of their cowardice... A Cree... confirmed the news of the Assiniboines and Crees assembling at the Eagle hills for war.... Met two Indian families going to camp at Terre Blanche for some time, to join a smoking-match to be given by a Cree. They will then go to war upon the Snares [the Shuswap, a Salishan tribe], on the other side of the Rocky Mountains, about due W. These are defenseless Indians, who know not the use of firearms, have only bows and arrows, and are scattered in small camps of three or four tents -an easy prey to the Crees. But their country is so nearly destitute of animals that the Crees suffer from famine when they go to war upon those people, and are frequently obliged to return before they can fall upon them.... Three Crees from the Moose hills arrived. I could not but reflect upon their imprudence in coming when the Slaves are here; it cannot be called bravery, for it is well known that Crees are the most arrant cowards in the plains, afraid of their own shadows. They depend upon us for protection, and it gives us a great deal of trouble to keep both parties quiet. The Blackfeet are as foolhardy as the Crees. Two of them appeared last fall on the S. side, and called out to be crossed over, while there was a Cree camp of 80 tents, all drinking, who, on observing the Blackfeet, had flown to arms and declared they would murder them. My neighbor and myself crossed over to them, and with the utmost difficulty prevailed upon them to return to their friends, telling them the Crees were determined to kill them if they crossed. They appeared perfectly unconcerned, and said they did not care, as they would have the satisfaction of dying at the white people's fort. However, we insisted upon their going back, which they did with great reluctance.1 When the Cree came upon the northern plains, the lack of horses was so acutely felt that successful warriors had difficulty in limiting the size of their raiding parties. About ten was the desired number. 1 Coues, 512-5I3, 540, 557-558, 588, 593, 596. {view image of page 59} THE WESTERN WOODS CREE 59 Planning an expedition, a leader would notify two or three of his friends as to the time of departure and the rendezvous, and bid them inform certain other men but keep the project secret from all others. The start was always made at night after the camp was asleep. Sometimes the proposed expedition became generally known, and so many men presented themselves at the rendezvous that the party was unwieldy and difficult to conceal from the enemy. Notable feats in running off horses were sometimes performed single-handed. The following narrative concerns an historical personage, and may be accepted as substantially true. In their war with the Rapids People [Atsina] the Cree captured a promising boy, and a man whose child of the same age had recently died begged the captor: "Oh, my friend, that looks like my own child! Give him to me!" So he received the little captive and brought him back to the Cree country. When the people, as usual, flocked out of the camp to greet the returning warriors, a widow who had recently lost a boy ran up and exclaimed: "Oh, that is like my lost son! Give him to me, and I will rear him like my own child." So the boy was given to her. He became generally known as Paustikuwinis ["rapid-on small," that is, Little Atsina]. As he grew older, he remained very small. When he was a youth he said one day: "Mother, we are very poor. Others have horses, I have none. I am going to steal some from the Blackfeet. Make moccasins, and I will make a rope." He started at night alone, because he had no friends. Mostly he slept and remained hidden by day and travelled at night, walking and running alternately. Just at dawn one morning he went to the top of a hillock to select a place of concealment, and saw below him a narrow valley and on the other side a small clump of bushes. He thought that would be a good place. The morning was foggy. As he stood there, he happened to look around and saw a large herd of grazing horses. He knew then that he was close to a camp and in danger, but no other concealment than the little thicket was in sight. He went forward, and just as he was about to creep in he saw projecting above the rising ground before him the tips of tipi-poles. Quickly he crept into the bushes. He was scarcely concealed when a man approached. It seemed that he must be discovered. He notched an arrow and crouched there, pointing it at the approaching man. The Blackfoot passed with a few feet of him, but did not see him. When he had passed, the boy turned cautiously and released the arrow. It struck the Blackfoot in the back, and he fell without uttering a cry. The boy hurriedly crept out, scalped him, took his gun and clothing, and ran to the herd of horses. He caught a fine bay stallion by its trailing rope, mounted, and drove off the entire herd. His horse was a good one, and he made speed; and the Blackfeet, left with {view image of page 60} 60 THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN only a few stray animals, were unable to overtake him. Three times that day he looked back and saw his pursuers in the distance. It was early the next morning when he arrived home with three hundred horses. No such feat had ever been known. To his fostermother he gave five animals, and told her to go about the camp and send in all the poor people who had no horses, or only one or two, but none who had as many as three. Among them he distributed all the remaining animals except his stallion. That very morning an old man had left the camp. When he returned in the afternoon and heard what had happened, his friends laughed at his misfortune. Nevertheless he went to the youth, thinking that there might be a horse or two remaining. "Grandson," he said, "I am sorry I was not here this morning to receive one of your horses." The boy answered: "Well, grandfather, here, take this, my best horse. And here is something else for you." He gave the old man the scalp, which he had stuffed with sweetgrass, not having had time to stretch it properly on a hoop. The old man was filled with joy. He broke the string with which the scalp was tied like a bag, and seeing its contents he exclaimed: "Grandson, you have no name! But I will give you a name. Hereafter you shall be Wikasku-kiyesin ["sweetgrass old-man"], and all shall know you by that name. And more I say. You are a chief, a great chief. Nobody has ever done what you have done, and from this time you shall be our chief." With that he went about the camp, leading the stallion and swinging the scalp, calling out the name of Wikaskukiyesin and the declaration that henceforth he should be the headchief. And so it was. The former chief made no objection, for there was no denying the fact that the youth could not be surpassed.' On the prairies the buffalo, in wooded country the moose, was the most important source of flesh food. Buffalo were most commonly captured by enticing a herd into an enclosure and there shooting them down with arrows. Franklin thus describes a pound observed near Carlton House, a post established by Samuel Hearne a short distance above the mouth of the North Saskatchewan, where the route branched off northward for Beaver river and Isle a la Crosse: The buffalo pound was a fenced circular space of about a hundred yards in diameter; the entrance was banked up with snow, to a sufficient height to prevent the retreat of the animals that once have entered. For about a mile on each side of the road leading to the pound, stakes were driven into the ground at nearly equal distances of about twenty yards; these were intended to represent men, and 1 Sweetgrass was one of the signers of a treaty with the Canadian Government. He is said to have died a few years prior to 1879 at an advanced age. The narrative therefore refers to a year in the first quarter of the century. {view image of facing page 60} Cree tipis [photogravure plate] {view image of page 61} THE WESTERN WOODS CREE 6i to deter the animals from attempting to break out on either side. Within fifty or sixty yards from the pound, branches of trees were placed between these stakes to screen the Indians, who lie down behind them to await the approach of the buffalo. The principal dexterity in this species of chase is shewn by the horsemen, who have to manoeuvre round the herd in the plains so as to urge them to enter the roadway, which is about a quarter of a mile broad. When this has been accomplished, they raise loud shouts, and, pressing close upon the animals, so terrify them that they rush heedlessly forward towards the snare. When they have advanced as far as the men who are lying in ambush, they also rise, and increase the consternation by violent shouting and firing guns. The affrighted beasts have no alternative, run directly to the pound, where they are quickly despatched, either with an arrow or gun. There was a tree in the centre of the pound, on which the Indians had hung strips of buffalo flesh and pieces of cloth as tributary or grateful offerings to the Great Master of Life; and we were told that they occasionally place a man in the tree to sing to the presiding spirit as the buffaloes are advancing, who must keep his station until the whole that have entered are killed.1 Native accounts of the method of starting a herd into the pound differ from Franklin's observation. The night before a proposed drive certain men gathered in a tipi and prepared a quantity of stewed service-berries. When the feast was ready, they summoned the man who was to call the buffalo. They treated him with the greatest consideration, giving him the seat of honor, ceremoniously extending a filled pipe, and feeding him berries and other choice foods. After all had eaten and smoked, three or four old men began to sing the buffalo songs, and with intervals of rest and smoking this continued through the night. Buffalo-stones, mustus-asin y, which are stones or fossil casts of a shape suggesting the animal, were exposed like sacred altar objects during the proceedings. Early in the morning the caller, wearing a buffalo disguise, went toward the herd reported by the scouts, and coming in sight of the animals he mounted a knoll and uttered a high-pitched cry, "Hu...!" Hearing this sound, the buffalo looked up and started toward him, soon breaking into a gallop. Before they approached too close, and in order to turn them before they came upon the scent of his tracks, he ran unseen to another knoll and repeated the call. In this manner he brought the herd into the wide opening of the wings leading to the pound, then ran along the outside of one wing, and from behind 1 Franklin, I, 175-176. {view image of page 62} 62 THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN the corral repeated his call. It seems to have been believed that the animals were angered by the cry and endeavored to catch the man. Probably horsemen were employed in conjunction with the caller. As the buffalo dashed along the runway, if any tried to break through the lines, men in hiding behind the stones and brush stood up and waved blankets. Once in the pound, the animals started milling in the direction of the course of the sun, and the hunters brought them down with arrows. The Cree also copied a method of the wolf pack, and drove buffalo down a peninsula and out on smooth ice, where the creatures either fell and broke their legs or were helpless to defend themselves by making quick charges. The buffalo chase by mounted hunters was strictly controlled by the soldiers' society. At the great summer encampments individual hunting was forbidden, because it would have driven the animals from the vicinity, and one who violated this rule was punished in the usual manner by having clothing and tipi slashed into shreds. Moose were, and are, hunted by tracking, by pursuit in deep snow with dogs, by ambush, and by calling with a birch-bark trumpet. Hearne says: The kidneys of both moose and buffalo are usually eat raw by the Southern Indians [Cree]; for no sooner is one of those beasts killed, than the hunter rips up its belly, thrusts in his arm, snatches out the kidneys, and eats them warm, before the animal is quite dead. They also at times put their mouths to the wound the ball has made, and suck the blood; which they say quenches thirst, and is very nourishing.1 Woodland caribou and "jumping" deer were of some importance to the Woods Cree, and elk were plentiful in park regions. Beaver and waterfowl, especially geese, were esteemed. Fish, particularly maskinonge, whitefish, lake trout, and wall-eyed pike-perch (locally called dore), are still of great importance. Of these the whitefish is most highly regarded, although the maskinonge is called the "genuine fish." Unlike the Chipewyan, the Cree did not fish under ice. In winter they employed a rawhide dip-net at the base of small waterfalls, and in summer a willow-bark gill-net in lakes. At a narrow stream connecting two lakes they would stand on a platform and spear passing fish in the flare of birch-bark flambeaux. Great quantities of fish were preserved in a frozen state. Spearing fish was an employment for men, but nets were generally attended by women. 1 Hearne, 308. {view image of facing page 62} Isqe-sis - "Woman Small" - and child - Cree [photogravure plate] {view image of page 63} THE WESTERN WOODS CREE 63 Meat was preserved by drying, pounding on a rawhide with a stone, adding melted fat and sometimes dried service-berries, and storing in flat rawhide bags. So typical was this process that the Cree name, pimikan, was Anglicized into "pemmican." Under the urge of necessity the Cree, like other northern Indians, sometimes resorted to cannibalism. It is the general opinion of the Southern Indians, that when any of their tribe has been driven to the necessity of eating human flesh, they become so fond of it, that no person is safe in their company. And though it is well known they are never guilty of making this horrid repast but when driven to it by necessity, yet those who have made it are not only shunned, but so universally detested by all who know them, that no Indians will tent with them, and they are frequently murdered slyly. I have seen several of those poor wretches.1 Vegetal products, especially berries, are abundant. Of prime importance are service-berries, or saskatoon, which are dried in large quantities. Resembling dried currants in appearance, but quite devoid of flavor, they are soaked and boiled, usually with the addition of fat or meat. Blueberries and otter-berries, both species of Vaccinium, are usually eaten fresh, but sometimes are boiled and dried in shallow dishes or on sheets of bark. They are not easily preserved by this process. Two kinds of cranberries, also members of the Vaccinium family, are stored in birch-bark containers and kept throughout the winter. A boiled mixture of cranberries and shredded fish or roe is a favorite dish. A modern practice is the sweetening of the boiled berries with commercial sugar. Chokecherries crushed on a flat stone with a round one, dried in small lumps, stored, and cooked with meat, afford, with their slight astringency, a refreshing appetizer. The crushed pits are doubtless a healthful forage food. Cattail-roots, tule root-stalks, and bast of the aspen and the jack-pine, are important on the score of adding variety to a rather limited diet. Cree dwellings were of the kind common to the Plains Indians. Alexander Henry thus describes them: Their tents, like those of all other tribes of the plains, are of dressed leather, erected with poles, generally 17 in number, of which two are tied together about three feet from the top. These being 1 Hearne, 85-86. An Iroquois hunter attached to Sir John Franklin's expedition murdered and ate another member of the party and was in turn killed by Doctor Richardson. {view image of page 64} 64 THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN erected and set apart at the base, the others are placed against them in a slanting position, meeting at the top, so that they all form nearly a circle, which is then covered with the leather. This consists of 10 to 15 dressed skins of the buffalo, moose, or red deer [elk], well sewed together and nicely cut to fit the conical figure of the poles, with an opening above, to let out smoke and admit the light. From this opening down to the door the two edges of the tent are brought close together and well secured with wooden pegs about six inches long, leaving for the door an oval aperture about two feet wide and three feet high, below which the edges are secured with similar pegs. This small entrance does well enough for the natives, who are brought up to it from infancy, but a European is puzzled to get through, as a piece of hide stretched upon a frame of the same shape as the door, but somewhat larger, hangs outside, and must be raised by hand to pass. These tents are spacious, measuring 20 feet in diameter. The fire is always made in the center, around which they generally place a range of stones to prevent the ashes from scattering and keep the fire compact. New tents are perfectly white; some of them are painted with red and black figures. These devices are generally derived from their dreams, being some sea-monster or other hideous animal, whose description has been handed down from their ancestors. A large camp of such tents, pitched regularly on a level plain, has a fine effect at a distance, especially when numerous bands of horses are seen feeding in all directions.1 With the substitution of canvas for skin, this description remains good today. Cree tipis are pitched with the back toward the prevailing wind. The head of the family sits and sleeps ninety degrees to the left of the door as one enters; but when he has visitors he assigns this place to the principal guest, at whose right he seats himself. Other men sit at the left of the guest of honor, and women on the opposite side of the tipi. On the lower Saskatchewan Franklin saw a party of waterfowl hunters encamped in "a very large tent. Its length was about forty feet, its breadth eighteen, and its covering was moose deer leather, with apertures for the escape of smoke from the fires which are placed at each end; a ledge of wood was placed on the ground on both sides the whole length of the tent, within which were the sleeping places, arranged probably according to families; and the drums and other instruments of enchantment were piled up in the centre. Amongst the Indians there were a great many half-breeds." 2 The sweat-house is a dome-shape frame of willow shoots covered 1 Coues, 513-514. 2 Franklin, I, 75. {view image of facing page 64} Cree boatwomen [photogravure plate] {view image of page 65} THE WESTERN WOODS CREE 65 with cloth (formerly skins), and steam is generated by means of heated stones. Its use is a pseudo-religious rite. The physical characteristics and dress of the Cree have been described at length by various early observers. Mackenzie notes that they are of "moderate stature, well proportioned, and of great activity," 1 and proceeds to draw such a picture of feminine beauty that there remains little wonder, if the half were true, that European employes of the fur-trade companies generally selected Cree wives. A melancholy decadence must have ensued, if the Woods Cree of Alberta are a fair example of the entire group, for few Indians are so wretchedly filthy and unkempt. The men in general tattoo their bodies and arms very much. The women confine this ornamentation to the chin, having three perpendicular lines from the middle of the chin to the lip, and one or more running on each side, nearly parallel with the corner of the mouth. Their dress consists of leather; that of the men is a pair of leggings, reaching up to the hip, and fastened to the breech-clout girth. The clout itself is generally a few inches of woolen stuff; when this cannot be procured, they use a piece of dressed leather about nine inches broad and four feet long, whose ends are drawn through the girth and hang down before and behind about a foot. They are not so particular and decent in this part of their dress as the Saulteurs [Chippewa]. The shirt is of soft dressed leather, either cabbrie [antelope] or young red deer [elk], close about the neck and hanging to the middle of the thigh; the sleeves are of the same, loose and open under the arms to the elbows, but thence to the wrist sewed tight. The cap is commonly a piece of leather, or skin with the hair on, shaped to fit the head, and tied under the chin; the top is usually decorated with feathers or other ornament. Shoes are made of buffalo hide dressed in the hair, and mittens of the same. Over the whole a buffalo robe is thrown, which serves as covering day and night. Such is their common dress; but on particular occasions they appear to greater advantage, having their cap, shirt, leggings, and shoes perfectly clean and white, trimmed with porcupine-quills and other ingenious work of their women, who are supposed to be the most skillful hands in the country at decorations of this kind. Their dress consists of the same materials as the men's. Their leggings do not reach above the knee, and are gathered below that joint; their shoes always lack decoration. The shift or body-garment reaches down to the calf, where it is generally fringed and trimmed with quill-work; the upper part is fastened over the shoulders by strips 1 Henry uses almost the same words in describing the Assiniboin: "They are generally of moderate stature, rather slender, and very active." Sentences almost identically phrased are of such frequent occurrence in the journals of the period that one must believe them to have been derived in part from one another or from a common source, perhaps Umfreville. VOL. XVIII-9 {view image of page 66} 66 THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN of leather; a flap or cape hangs down about a foot before and behind, and is ornamented with quill-work and fringe. This covering is quite loose, but tied around the waist with a belt of stiff parchment, fastened on the side, where also some ornaments are suspended. The sleeves are detached from the body-garment; from the wrist to the elbow they are sewed, but thence to the shoulder they are open underneath and drawn up to the neck, where they are fastened across the breast and back. Their ornaments are two or three coils of brass wire twisted around the rim of each ear, in which incisions are made for that purpose; blue beads, brass rings, quill-work, and fringe occasionally answer. Vermillion is much used by the women to paint the face. Their hair is generally parted on the crown, and fastened behind each ear in large knots, from which are suspended bunches of blue beads, or other ingenious work of their own. The men adjust their hair in various forms; some have it parted on top and tied in a tail on each side, while others make one long queue which hangs down behind, and around which is twisted a strip of otter skin or dressed buffalo entrails. This tail is frequently increased in thickness and length by adding false hair, but others allow it to flow naturally. Combs are seldom used by the men, and they never smear the hair with grease, but red earth is sometimes put upon it. White earth daubed over the hair generally denotes mourning. The young men sometimes have a bunch of hair on the crown, about the size of a small teacup, and nearly in the shape of that vessel upside down, to which they fasten various ornaments of feathers, quillwork, ermine tails, etc. Red and white earth and charcoal are much used in their toilets; with the former they usually daub their robes and other garments, some red and others white. The women comb their hair and use grease on it.' To this may be added that in cold weather women wore an outer garment, similar to the dress described but of skins tanned "in the hair"; and some had undershirts of the skins of small animals. When the Cree reached the plains, their women adopted winter shirts of calf-skin in the hair, as well as robes of buffalo-skins; but men preferred not to be encumbered with coats. The Woods Cree, however, adopted the Chipewyan coat, but without the pointed skirt. A hooded winter coat is now made of a Hudson's Bay blanket. Robes of hare-skins are made by a process of netting, not weaving. An entire skin is cut into a continuous strip, an end of which is tied to a spindle. While the rope is held in the left hand a short distance from the spindle, the latter is twirled on the thigh. The twisted portion is then wound on the spindle, and the process is 1 Coues, 514-515. {view image of facing page 66} A Cree camp [photogravure plate] {view image of page 67} THE WESTERN WOODS CREE 67 continued. The rope is either allowed to dry on the spindle or is wound into a large ball. The purpose of the twisting is to produce a rounded material that yields a robe furry on both sides. Franklin's surgeon, Dr. John Richardson, observed that tattooing was very general. The lines on the face are formed by dexterously running an awl under the cuticle, and then drawing a cord, dipped in charcoal and water, through the canal thus formed. The punctures on the body are formed by needles of various sizes set in a frame. A number of hawk bells attached to this frame serve by their voice to cover the suppressed groans of the sufferer, and, probably for the same reason, the process is accompanied with singing. An indelible stain is produced by rubbing a little finely-powdered willow-charcoal into the punctures. A half-breed, whose arm I amputated, declared, that tattooing was not only the most painful operation of the two, but rendered infinitely more difficult to bear by its tediousness, having lasted in his case three days.1 An informant of the present writer saw in his youth numerous men with chests tattooed in the same design, a pair of vertical lines on each half of the thorax, with sloping cross-lines. This was a good-luck symbol. A certain man had on each 1 side of his chest a tattooed hand, in commemoration of - a fight with the Blackfeet, in which an enemy actually | |(J\ laid hold of him but nevertheless was killed. Some men had themselves ornamented with figures representing their dream-animals. The process observed by this informant consisted of rubbing moistened gunpowder on the punctured skin. Cree handicraft employs wood, vegetal and animal fibre, bone, horn, antler, skin, and stone. Arrows were service-berry shoots triply feathered and either selfpointed or tipped with stone. A laminated mineral called wapikan, found where stream erosion had exposed it and said to resemble mica, was oxidized by fire, and the resultant powder, mixed with water, furnished the cement for feathering arrows and securing sinew wrappings. Willow and birch were the materials for Cree bows, which were simply-curved and were reinforced along the back by a layer of sinew applied with glue and sinew wrapping. The quiver was the entire skin of any animal of suitable size, such as beaver, otter, or fox. Axes and knives were of stone, awls and fish-hooks were slender, 1 Franklin, I, III-112. {view image of page 68} 68 THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN pointed bones. The gaff-hook for dragging beaver from nets or their huts was a pointed tine of antler lashed to a wooden handle. The hide-flesher is a bone from the lower fore-leg of a moose, and has a beveled and notched cutting edge and a thong hand-loop attached at the upper end. The hair-scraper, also a moose leg-bone, has leather wrappings at the ends for hand-holds, is sharpened along one edge, and is used in the manner of a draw-knife. Household vessels for water, berry-picking, and cooking are made of birch-bark. The sewing material is spruce-roots, and the adhesive for calking joints and small knot-holes is gum of the same tree. Such vessels are fashioned from single sheets of bark, which are so cut that there are two vertical seams at each end and none at the bottom. The water-pail is approximately square at the bottom, and the sides rise to a round, slightly restricted opening. Berrypails, in which boiling is (or was) accomplished by means of hot stones, are oblong at the bottom and have elliptical, restricted mouths. Spoons are made of enlarged roots and fresh-water shells, and bowls of knurls. The drum was a thin and rather narrow band of wood bent into a circle and covered with rawhide shrunk on. It was double-headed, shallow, and as much as three feet in diameter. The rawhide rattle contained a few pebbles or shot, and was provided with a wooden handle. Fire was kindled by means of a wooden drill. The cordage most generally used is still babiche, or shaganappy,1 which is a long, thin strip of rawhide. It is employed wherever a strong, tough fibre is required, and particularly for the mesh of snowshoes and formerly for dip-nets. For transportation the Woods Cree had birch-bark canoes, wooden sleds drawn by dogs or by women, and snowshoes. The Prairie Cree of course acquired horses and employed the travois. Doctor Richardson observed that the Cree obtained a scarlet dye from the roots of bedstraw (Galium tinctorium and G. boreale). "The roots, after being carefully washed are boiled gently in a clean copper kettle, and a quantity of the juice of the moose-berry [Viburnum edule], strawberry, cranberry, or arctic raspberry, is added together with a few red tufts of pistils of the larch. The porcupine quills are plunged into the liquor before it becomes quite cold, and are soon tinged of a beautiful scarlet." 2 Black, he adds, was made from elder1See the vocabulary and page 30. 2 Franklin, I, I38. {view image of facing page 68} Landing - Cree [photogravure plate] {view image of page 69} THE WESTERN WOODS CREE 69 bark and a little "bog-iron-ore" dried and pounded, and there were several yellows, the best from a root, others from lichens. For amusement the Cree had guessing contests, dice play, and athletic games. Pakesiwn,l the hand-game, and tipaskunamatuwln ("act of dividing a pack of rods and extending them") were played in the same manner as their Chipewyan counterparts. Maskukasiyzuk ("bear-claws") was a dice play in which eight bear-claws were used, and tfakaqewzn ("act of throwing down sticks") was a similar game for women, in which there were four flat sticks six to eight inches long and an inch or more wide. Three were marked respectively with one, two, and three transverse black lines, and the fourth with a cross. Titipinituwan was both a small hoop of entwined willows wound with bark, and the contest in which it was employed. The hoop was rolled swiftly from two opponents, who ran after it and rapidly discharged arrows. The one who first "killed" it won a point, and ten points decided the trifling wager at stake. Tsikaqewin ("act of implanting a javelin") was a contest between two men, each of whom had two sharpened shafts about five feet long. One cast a fifth javelin so that it pierced the turf, and each in turn endeavored to place his missiles upright as close as possible to this target. Lacrosse, as Richardson observed, was played with a racket having a handle two feet long and a shallow, bag-like head. The modern Cree of the Alberta forests seem to know nothing of the game, but it was of sufficient importance to the Cree of a former generation to give a name to Isle a la Crosse. The only social unit among the Cree, besides the family, is the local band. In spite of their past association with the Chippewa, they lack the exogamic, totemic clans with patrilineal descent that their congeners have. Indeed, those not in immediate contact with the Chippewa are totally ignorant of the very existence of such a system. Each local band and each larger division had its chief, a man who had proved himself courageous and resourceful in war and sagacious in counsel. Usually the chief indicated his choice of a 1The word is said to refer to the singing of the contestants with folded arms. The affix win indicates a verb form. This suggests Doctor Richardson's "puckesann," of which he says: "Puckesann is played with stones of a species of Prunus which, from this circumstance, they call puckesann-meena [mina, berries]. The difficulty lies in guessing the number of stones which are tossed out of a small wooden dish." The names appear to be identical, though the games referred to are different. {view image of page 70} 70 THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN successor before death, and when too old for further useful service he resigned his place. In matters of general policy his mandate prevailed. Brawls ceased at his command, and noisy crowds were dispersed with a word. When grass became scarce or the camp-site defiled, or when the buffalo had moved to a distance, his order to move was sufficient. Large camps were policed by the Unimihituwuik, a fraternity corresponding to the Soldiers of the Plains Indians. A recalcitrant youth was punished by having his clothing cut to pieces; but if he took the chastisement in good spirit, laughing and joking, they showed their appreciation of his sportsmanship by calling him to their lodge, where, after a dance, each of them gave him a garment, and he departed with more than he had lost. A man who forced a woman without pay was deprived of a horse or other property, which was given to her. The Unimihituwuik had a long lodge, with two or three fires, pitched in the centre of the summer camp, where they spent most of their time with much singing and dancing. Men who had performed any one of certain valorous deeds were called Okeftitau.1 Such feats were the killing or scalping of an enemy, capturing a gun or a horse, and laying hold of an enemy or striking him with a weapon held in the hand. Such men were greatly esteemed, and at all ceremonies and public gatherings occupied positions of honor. On such occasions they frequently gave away valuable possessions, after reciting their warlike accomplishments, in order to demonstrate their greatness and their superiority to the pettiness of ordinary men. So characteristic of the Okefkitau was this custom, that the term is now applied to the sun in reference to his beneficence. The Okeftitau still function in this manner, but how the title has been acquired by men who never made war is uncertain.2 Since there are no clans, blood relationship is the only restriction upon mating, and even this does not always prevail, for a man is permitted to marry the daughter of his father's sister or of his mother's brother. To such an extent was this a favored match that maternal uncle and father-in-law are designated by a single term, as also are 1 Skinner, Political Organization, Cults, and Ceremonies of the Plains-Ojibway and Plains-Cree Indians, Anthropological Papers American Museum of Natural History, Vol. XI, Part VI, gives the same explanation of the Okeffitiu, but infers that they alone constituted the "soldiers' society." The Woods Cree do not appear to be well informed on the subject, possibly because of their remoteness from the focus of distribution of the cult. 2 Lack of capable interpreters blocked many lines of inquiry in the field work among the Cree. {view image of facing page 70} Birchbark baskets - Cree [photogravure plate] {view image of page 71} THE WESTERN WOODS CREE 7I paternal aunt and mother-in-law. Similarly, paternal uncle and stepfather are identical, and maternal aunt and stepmother, because of the former prevalence of the custom of marrying one's deceased wife's sister and one's brother's widow. Negotiations for marriage originated with either of the families concerned. A girl's father might visit the parents of a certain youth and propose marriage. If they acquiesced, she was sent without dowry to their tipi, and they gave her parents whatever articles of value they could afford. Though the transaction was regarded as a sale, the price to be paid was not discussed; for it was a matter of pride on the part of the purchasers to make the sum as great as possible. When families of standing were concerned, the girl's father received horses and provided a new tipi for the couple. The following tale was related as an example of a match negotiated by a girl's father desirous of obtaining a promising son-in-law. A youth lived with his grandmother. He asked, "Grandmother, how is it so many have horses and we have none?" "Oh, my grandson, those people have men in the tipi! We are only two. Your father and mother are gone." "Well, I think when I grow up I will steal some Blackfoot horses." She begged him not to think of it, for men were killed in that way. Nevertheless it was not long that he started out alone. He returned with two fine horses, and when the chief saw them he sent for the youth. He offered a large pipe, but the boy knew nothing about smoking. So he touched the pipe and said: "That is enough. I do not smoke." Said the chief: "I would like one of your horses. I will give you five of mine, and a new tipi, and my daughter who sits there. Do not answer at once. Consider what your answer shall be." So the youth departed without replying. His grandmother inquired what the chief had wanted, and he told her, adding: "I like my horses. I do not want to sell them." But she urged him to do so, because she was old and he must soon have a woman to work for him; and when he agreed, she led one of the horses to the chief's tipi and called, "Here is your horse!" He hurried out, exclaiming: "Hal, hal, hal! Thanks! You are old. You have no home except with your grandson. We will pitch a new tipi here close to mine, and you shall live with my son-in-law; for my daughter is young and does not know everything about working for a husband. You shall teach her." So the old woman returned, and the youth asked, "Where are the five horses?" She replied: "Oh, we are going to have a big time! The new {view image of page 72} 72 THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN tipi will be pitched close to the tipi of the chief, and we will move our things into it." Soon they saw a man leave the chief's tipi and go about the camp getting a new pole here and another there, until he had the requisite number. Before long a new tipi was erected, and the girl came and said to him, "Come home!" So the youth and his grandmother went to the new tipi, where they found the promised five horses. A marriage proposal could also originate with the youth's family. A man returning from war with horses or a scalp might send his father to negotiate with the father of a certain girl, or his mother to talk with her mother. The following narrative was related to an informant by an old man who died a few years ago. When I was a little boy I lived alone with my old mother. My father was dead. We were very poor. Other boys had small horses of their own, and looked down on me, so that I had no companions. One day I found another boy like myself, very poor. He lived with an old woman, a distant relative. We became companions, and every day we were together. For several years this continued. My sister's husband "threw her away," and gave her a horse, which however after a short time he took back. I said to my chum, "I think I will take that horse from my brother-in-law." He advised me not to try it, because that man had been to war with the Blackfeet and would kill me. So I agreed not to do it, and said, "Let us go then to the Blackfeet and steal some of their horses." We talked it over and agreed to try it. We obtained some rawhide and made two ropes. My chum had a gun, but I had only a small Hudson's Bay knife. One day we started southward. After a long way we came in the darkness to another Cree camp. Somebody was walking up and down. We thought it was a guard set against enemies, but found it was another boy, poor like ourselves. After talking together we invited him to join us, and we three went on southward. A time came when we had no food. It was foggy. We saw a lone buffalo, and I urged my friend to kill it, but he refused: "No, I think we are close to the Blackfeet. Always I feel as if somebody were striking me." But after a time he gave in and shot the buffalo. We butchered it, carried the meat and the stomach to a clump of willows where there was water, and cleaned the stomach for a water-bag when fleeing from the Blackfeet. We ate, washed the remainder of the meat, and left our new friend to pack it, while we two went on. My friend was ahead. Suddenly he pushed me down. He pointed to one side. The fog was drifting, and after a time it opened again and we saw many tipis. "What shall we do?" Just then the boy with the meat came up, and we decided to hide in a clump of willows just ahead. We got into them unseen and lay there all day. We could see the Black {view image of facing page 72} Mawinehikis - "Tries-to-excel" - Cree [photogravure plate] {view image of page 73} THE WESTERN WOODS CREE 73 feet riding about here and there, but nobody discovered us. That night we found some horses and quietly drove them off. After going a short distance I feared I was losing my companions, so I stopped and howled like a coyote. Right beside me I heard my chum say, "That must be our friend!" I called, and they came. We drove the horses slowly forward, and after a time caught three and rode, driving the others ahead. So we returned safely with thirteen horses. We three became constant friends. I was the chief. After three or four years we were young men. One day the youngest member of our band was riding about, and happening to go to the place where the women got water he observed a pretty girl, one he had never before seen. He said nothing, but watched her and saw that she went into one of a group of three tipis belonging to a small band recently arrived at the main camp. In those days we camped in a large circle for protection from the Blackfeet. He came to us and sat without speaking or laughing. We asked what was wrong, and he answered, "I want to marry." We inquired who the girl was, and he told us. So I said to my other friend, "Well, what will you do?" "I will give a horse!" "And I will do the same," I promised. So we two got on our horses and led three others to the three tipis. In the middle one we saw a girl. The old man in the tipi said: "Well, my boys, it appears that you have come to buy something. You come with five horses." "Yes, we want to buy your daughter. Our friend saw her at the water. He was riding a brown horse." The man asked his daughter if she had noticed such a young man, and she admitted it. The youth, she said, had not addressed her, had merely gazed at her. The man went out, observed the three horses, came in, and said: "It is well! You offer all the girl is worth. You may have her." So we went back, and that same day they were married. If a man coveted a married woman sufficiently to pay a horse, a gun, or other article of like value, he would talk it over with her, and if she acquiesced he gave her the promised gift, which she brought to her husband. If he accepted it, by this act he took the other for okusaka ("his comrade").1 Whenever the latter desired the woman's company, he notified the husband, who absented himself for the night. Presents of lesser value were given at intervals, and if the husband at any time especially needed some certain thing he despatched his wife to his comrade, who was bound to provide it if he had or could in any way procure it. Such an arrangement 1 Ni-kusak, my comrade. The word is the equivalent of Lakota Sioux k6la. VOL. XVIII-IO {view image of page 74} 74 THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN was made only when the woman was pleased with her proposed secondary husband. When a man learned that his unmarried daughter was cohabiting with a man, he said nothing immediately, but if the relationship continued indefinitely he would become angry and declare: "If you are going to keep this up, you will have to leave my tipi, or your lover will have to marry you. Go and talk to him, and see if he will pay for you." He himself would not make overtures to the man. Mother-in-law and son-in-law never address each other directly, but speak when necessary through the daughter and wife; and if the two chance to be in the same tipi together, they sit with bowed head or averted face. An instance is cited of a woman and her sonin-law left alone for a moment, when a birch-bark dish hanging in the tipi fell into the fire. Both simultaneously reached for it, and both recoiled. Both reached again, and again drew back; and so until it was too late to save the dish. Neither was willing to lay hand to it at the same time as the other. No explanation of the taboo is offered, though Doctor Richardson records as hearsay that "a woman's speaking to her son-in-law is a sure indication of her having conceived a criminal affection for him." 1 Mackenzie says that "when a young man marries, he immediately goes to live with the father and mother of his wife, who treat him, nevertheless, as a perfect stranger, till after the birth of his first child: he then attaches himself more to them than to his own parents; and his wife no longer gives him any other denomination than that of the father of her child."2 This phenomenon of tecnonymy is of rather common occurrence among Indians, and has heretofore been particularly noted as a Haida custom. An adulterous wife was either "thrown away," perhaps with the loss of her nose, or flogged and retained. Sometimes after long separation a couple reconciled their differences and remarried. Combat with deadly weapons over women were not rare, especially in the times of the fur-traders, whose ambassador was "fire water." Mackenzie had a low and undoubtedly just opinion of Cree connubial fidelity. It does not appear, that chastity is considered by them as a virtue; or that fidelity is believed to be essential to the happiness of wedded life. Though it sometimes happens that the infidelity of a wife is punished by the husband with the loss of her hair, nose, and 1 Franklin, I, I09. 2 Mackenzie, I, CXLVII. {view image of facing page 74} Lac les Isles - Cree [photogravure plate] {view image of page 75} THE WESTERN WOODS CREE 75 perhaps life; such severity proceeds from its having been practised without his permission: for a temporary interchange of wives is not uncommon: and the offer of their persons is considered as a necessary part of the hospitality due to strangers.1 When a man loses his wife, it is considered as a duty to marry her sister, if she has one; or he may, if he pleases, have them both at the same time. A woman about to become a mother is attended by two or three women experienced in such affairs. A pole with its base resting on the ground near the door is lashed at its other end to one of the tipi-poles at such a height that she can conveniently rest her arms on it while kneeling, and in this position she endures the labor pains and delivers the infant, the others from time to time pressing her sides and administering hot decoctions of various herbs. The navel cord is held in the tightly clasped hand and cut off a handbreadth from the infant; but if the midwife has a small hand she adds the thickness of her thumb. To cut closer would, in Cree opinion, result in the death of the child. After bathing it they lay it on a bed of dried bog-moss (Sphagnum) on a piece of cloth (formerly tanned skin), tuck in the bottom, fold over the sides, and lace the edges tightly together with a thong passing through looped eyelets. In this "moss-bag" the infant will spend practically every hour of its existence until it is old enough to creep. It is carried on the mother's back by means of a tump-line passing across her forehead. The moss is renewed several times daily, and in any Cree camp quantities of the freshly gathered material may be seen drying on poles or on the ground. The placenta is wrapped in the skin on which the infant was received, and the packet is suspended in a tree. For a few days the mother receives only soft food, such as soup of dried berries. The sloughed stump of the umbilical cord is carefully preserved for a long time, wrapped in a bit of skin and tied at the side of the moss-bag. Cree women, according to Mackenzie, "are sometimes known to destroy their female children, to save them from the miseries which they themselves have suffered. They also have a ready way, by the 1 I, CXLVI. Compare the similar passage in Henry's Journal, Coues, 515-516: "Chastity does not seem to be a virtue among the Crees, who make frequently temporary exchanges of wives among themselves. But clandestine amours, if discovered by the husband, are often attended with serious consequences to the woman, who is punished by loss of her nose, and sometimes even by death. Polygamy is very common; the first wife is considered as mistress of the tent, and rules the others, frequently with a rod of iron, obliging them to perform all the drudgery." This is in part an adaptation of Mackenzie, or both authors derived their phraseology from a common source {view image of page 76} 76 THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN use of certain simples, of procuring abortions, which they sometimes practise, from their hatred of the father, or to save themselves the trouble which children occasion." 1 When a child is eight days old, the father invites to his tipi a number of old people. He himself sits at the right hand of the row, with his wife and the baby at his right, and at his left the man who is to bestow a name. He fills a large pipe and lays it before the godfather, and from time to time drops a bit of sweetgrass on a small incense fire. After the sponsor has smoked, the host places the infant in his arms and requests him to give it a name. The old man regards the child thoughtfully, considering an appropriate and lucky name. When he has decided, he begins a long speech, addressing the child and wishing it all manner of good luck, phrasing his words appropriately to the sex of the infant, and ends by saying, "I will name you thus and so." Then he passes it to the man at his left, who more briefly expresses similar sentiments, caresses the child, and repeats the name. Thus the child is passed from hand to hand, always to the left, and each man, and then each woman in turn, receives it, blesses it, and repeats the name. Finally it is returned to the mother, the host lights the pipe, and food is served. Typical names for boys are Kapipfinapit ("sit all winter"), Kamisponipatau ("runs when it snows"), Kamusqapitukeu ("like bear comes in"), Pisimopiwiyin ("sun sit down person"). Feminine names are Wiapistan ("marten"), Mawinehikis ("tries to excel"), fsqesis ("woman small"), Kakisimus ("pray"). Cree names are not ancestral, but either are invented or selected at random by the sponsors. Seasonal circumstances sometimes play a part in determining the name. There is no puberty ceremony for girls. Formerly a menstruating girl was isolated four days in the brush with a single companion, either another girl in the same condition or an old woman. The heads, but not the internal organs, of all animals were taboo. She collected fuel, which her mother carried to the camp and distributed among the tipis, sewed moccasins, and in other ways endeavored to be constantly engaged in useful occupations. The Woods Cree disposed of their dead in trees, on scaffolds, and under piles of logs; the Plains bands on scaffolds or, according to Mackenzie, in graves lined with branches. A corpse was arrayed in the finest clothing, the face was blackened, and a lock of hair was removed. Tightly wrapped with skins and rope, the body was 1 I, CXLVIII. {view image of facing page 76} A Cree girl [photogravure plate] {view image of page 77} THE WESTERN WOODS CREE 77 lashed in a tree, or on an elevated platform, or under a quantity of logs, and covered with a rawhide. The head was directed northward. Packets of food and tobacco are still deposited at Cree graves. In case of necessity tobacco or tea may be "borrowed" from such places without offense, but it must be repaid at the first opportunity. A dead man's possessions were distributed among the people, but dogs and horses were not slain and the tipi was neither burned nor abandoned. Even today, however, a night is not permitted to intervene between a funeral and removal to a new camp-site. The shorn lock of hair, wrapped in skin or cloth with a bit of tobacco, is exposed on a post at the rear of the tipi; it is preserved for an indefinite period, and in time by the addition of new packets this family memento of the departed becomes a sizable bundle. Adult mourners cut their hair, wear old clothing, and refrain from washing the face. Formerly they pierced the thighs and arms with knives, blackened the face, and avoided the use of leggings. The period of mourning continues about a year. Relatives of the dead sometimes visit the place of burial, clear the ground, and sit down to smoke with the departed, addressing him as if he were actually present. Franklin says that the Cree call the hoot-owl "cheepai-peethees, or death bird, and never fail to whistle when they hear its note. If it does not reply to the whistle by its hootings, the speedy death of the inquirer is augured." 1 The religious beliefs of the Cree centre about the conception of manitu.2 Manitu is not a being, but a power possessed by numerous supernaturals, of whom Thunder is the most powerful and therefore most supplicated. It was an ancient custom to prepare a short post with the top carved in the likeness of a head, dress it like a man, and set it up outside the camp or beside a trail. Whenever anyone passed, he made an offering, such as a bit of tobacco, and addressed it as manitu-hakan ("supernatural kind-of"). Such offerings are always of little or no value, and those who now make them frequently laugh while so engaged. Sir John Franklin mentions these effigies: Kepoochikawn... is represented sometimes by rude images of the human figure, but more commonly merely by tying the tops of a few willow bushes together.... When the women had completed the preparations [for a sweat], the hunter made his appearance, perfectly naked, carrying in his hand an image of Kepoochikawn, rudely 1 Franklin, I, 121. 2 Younger members of the Woods Cree say mentu. {view image of page 78} 78 THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN carved, and about two feet long. [After describing the sweat-bath, he continues:] Several Indians, who lay on the outside of the sweating-house as spectators, seemed to regard the proceedings with very little awe, and were extremely free in the remarks and jokes they passed upon the condition of the sweaters, and even of Kepoochikawn himself. One of them made a remark, that the shawl would have been much better bestowed upon himself than upon Kepoochikawn, but the same fellow afterward stripped and joined in the ceremony... Kepoochikawn was formerly held in high veneration by the Indians, and is still looked upon with some respect. It is merely a high willow bush, having its tops bound into a bunch. Many offerings of value such as handsome dresses, hatchets, and kettles, used to be made to it, but of late its votaries have been less liberal.1 The term Kifti-manitu ("great supernatural"), occurring in literature as Gitchie Manitou, is the Cree equivalent of Lakota Sioux Wakan-tanka.2 Such expressions are sometimes ascribed to missionary influence. "Great supernatural," as an expression, is quite conceivably of uninfluenced native origin; but as a conception of a supreme being, a "Great Spirit," it is entirely alien to Indian thought. It appears probable that these terms were in actual use and were adopted by missionaries as convenient translations of "God." Before serving an assembled company of guests, a man raises a dish of food and says, "Manitu, I wish to give this food to [for example] my father." He then turns toward the direction in which his father's body was buried (or exposed), and says: "Here, my father, is food. Take it. May I have good luck." In the same way he then turns in other directions and offers the food to other deceased relatives. Finally he gives the dish to his guests and then helps himself. Every bit must be eaten, and everybody must partake. Manitu is the power that enables shamans to exorcise disease. It is acquired by going apart to spend several days in solitude, when, if' the seeker dreams, he is supposedly transported to a distant place by the supernatural that appears in the dream and there kept for instruction. After his return from a successful vigil, it remains for a man to prove to the people that he has manitu, that he is manitukasiu ("supernatural like"), a shaman. He makes the frame of a small hut (kospaafiikan) with eight willows. As the diameter is not greater than three feet, the poles are so closely spaced that it seems impossible for a man to pass between them. The frame is 1 Franklin, I, 119, I60. Informants of the present writer were unable to identify the name Kepoochikawn in this connection, but explained that one who does not answer when spoken to is so designated. It thus appears to be an excellent appellation for a wooden god. 2 See Volume III. {view image of facing page 78} Wapistan - "Marten" - Cree [photogravure plate] {view image of page 79} THE WESTERN WOODS CREE 79 covered with cloth (formerly skins), and the shaman directs his assistants to wind a long rope about him, pinioning his arms to his sides and trussing up his knees. In this condition they set him on the ground just outside the enclosure and draw an edge of the cover over him. While the people stand at a little distance and sing his dream-songs (which apparently he has taught to some of them), the shaman is supposedly projected by magic into the hut, and in a short time the rope is flung out through the top. Then the singing ceases, and from within come all manner of sounds, as if birds and beasts of various kinds were talking. After this demonstration of his power, someone outside requires communication with a distant friend. The shaman audibly despatches his spirit to that place, and almost at once a voice, supposedly that of the distant person, is heard in the hut, and the one outside questions him and is answered. Again, one may speak to the shaman about a sick relative, inquiring what will be the outcome of the illness, and the shaman answers, for example, that he will be better in a few days. All this is done only at night and without artificial light. Sometimes the hut is erected within a large tipi. If the seance occurs in a log house, all lights are extinguished, and if the moon is shining the windows are draped. A patient is never treated except inside the hut in company with the shaman. Spirit creatures of all kinds are thought to present themselves, though invisible, and address the patient. The shaman himself is not supposed to utter a word, but in fact he not only speaks but utters sounds in imitation of various animals. When a spirit voice is heard, the spectators ask, "Who are you?" And the voice replies, "I am Bear," or "I am Loon," or "I am Stone." The shaman receives a goodly fee, preferably a horse. The shamanistic cult is more prominent among the Cree than in most of the western tribes, yet they lack the shamanistic fraternity of the Chippewa and other central Algonquians. Doctor Richardson says: Every Cree fears the medical or conjuring powers of his neighbour: but at the same time exalts his own attainments to the skies. "I am God-like," 1 is a common expression amongst them, and they prove their divinityship by eating live coals, and by various tricks of a similar nature. A medicine bag is an indispensable part of a hunter's equipment.2 1 That is, "I am a shaman (manitu-kasiu, supernatural like)." 2 Franklin, I, 98. The "eating" of live coals was a function of the Wabano cult of the Plains Cree, and did not pertain to the more northerly bands. {view image of page 80} 80 THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN The use of the sweat-house is of a religious character. The lodge is a frame of numerous willows, in the usual hemispherical form, covered with blankets. The man in charge, that is, whoever is moved to "give a sweat," prepares the hut, heats stones, and places them in the pit by means of a split pole. Just as the sun sets he engages another man to enter, and hands him two fresh willow sticks and a filled pipe, which has been lying on the top of the lodge. The frame is then partially covered, and the man inside utters a prayer to Piyesiu (thunder), beseeching health, long life, good luck in hunting, and to Asiniy (stone, that is, the heated stones), begging it to "speak to Thunder." The other passes a large ember on a forked stick down through the opening left in the top, and the devotee inside raises the pipe south, north, east, west, giving smoke to Thunder. Then the others go in, a helper places the rest of the covering, and the men inside remove their clothing and toss it out through the opening in the top, which the helper then closes. Another prayer is offered, and water is thrown on the stones. The man in charge gives one of the willow batons to any one of his companions, the prayer-maker keeps the other, and all sing while these two strike the water-vessel rhythmically. There are four songs, and after each song water is poured on the stones. After about fifteen minutes the blankets are thrown aside, and the men are discovered sitting naked, with bunches of freshly cut hay modestly disposed. They proceed to rub their bodies with the hay, then creep out and sit about with blankets across their thighs and the torso bare. After drying during a brief period of jovial conversation, they resume their clothing. The principal religious ceremony of the Cree is the Sun dance, Nipa-qe-sim6 ("kill drink dance"), the name alluding to the taboo of water. It is initiated by a man who during the autumn or winter has promised to do so, hoping that thus he will bring about the recovery of a seriously ill member of his family. Having made such a vow, he calls four principal men into wiwatahukan, a long tipi made of three ordinary structures. He fills three pipes and passes them around to the left. The first man lights the pipe, moves it in four circles, and holds it upward, offering smoke to manitu. He then moves it again in four circles and extends it eastward, offering smoke to Sun. Then with four circular motions he raises it to the south for Thunder, to the west for Wind, and to the north also for Wind. {view image of facing page 80} Napeu - "Man" - Cree [photogravure plate] {view image of page 81} THE WESTERN WOODS CREE 8i Each of the other three then does the same, and then all together address manitu, begging help for the sick person. Inside the door are hanging several strips of print cloth or strouding, which the sponsor, ka-nipa-qe-sim6ni-ket ("he kill drink dance make"), will offer to Sun in the coming ceremony. In allusion to their purpose they are called wipenasu-wina (" throw-away objects"). The sponsor and three other men (not the four who smoke and pray) take drums and beat them while the sponsor with the assistance of the other four sings two or three songs. He then gives his drum to the first of the four, who leads in like fashion, and the remaining three follow suit in turn. All this is repeated in mid-winter, at which time at least one man vows that he will dance without drinking and eating; and from the sponsor he receives one of the pieces of cloth, which he will keep until the time of the ceremony as a visible symbol of his pledge. At this time also a messenger is sent with a twist of tobacco, which the sponsor, at the time of his vow, has carefully wrapped in a good piece of deerskin. The messenger visits the camps in the surrounding territory, presents the tobacco to the leading men, and, while they cut off a bit and smoke it, tells them what has occurred, that such and such a man is going to give the Sun dance. Having travelled a reasonable distance from home, he entrusts the remaining tobacco in its wrapping to another messenger, who carries it on to more distant camps. The tobacco packet, wapiklnikun ("white wrapped"),1 is delivered to the chief of a camp, who at once summons all the local men to his tipi. He fills a pipe with his own tobacco, passes it about, makes incense of sweetgrass, holds the packet in the smoke, opens it deliberately, cuts off enough tobacco to fill another pipe, passes this one around, and then bids the messenger deliver his news. The deerskin wrapping and the thong are finally returned to the sponsor, who then knows that his message has been transmitted to all the people. In early spring, before vegetation has started to grow, the long tipi is erected for the third time, and the ceremonial smoke is repeated. Again at least one man promises to dance, and each who takes the vow receives a strip of cloth. On each occasion when the 1 The term was so translated by an intelligent informant. But the second element is strikingly similar to kinikinik, the Algonquian name of a mixture of tobacco and various barks and leaves, especially the bark of Cornus stolonifera and the leaves of bearberry. Note, however, that the invitational packet contains a twist of commercial tobacco, and not the mixture known as kinikinik. VOL. XVIII —II {view image of page 82} 82 THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN long tipi is erected, the sponsor and the four men who smoke and pray fast until noon. On this third occasion the sponsor announces that the dance will occur when Hopaskuwa-pisim ("molting moon"), the July moon, is full, and he names the place where the lodge will be built. He wraps another twist of tobacco in the deerskin, and, as before, sends the message among the camps. When the July moon is nearing the full, the people move by easy stages toward the appointed place, and shortly before the designated time a young man is sent among them to name the actual day. They begin to arrive two or three days ahead of time. The long tipi is now set up for the fourth time, and besides the four who smoke and pray, other principal men are invited to be present. From now until the ceremony begins the sponsor, when not engaged in outdoor rites, must remain in wiwatahukan, where hang all the cloth offerings which the dancers have had in their custody. Some of the oldest men sleep in the long tipi. Next morning the sponsor rises before the sun and calls four old men by name. He fills a pipe and gives it to the one at his left, who with the usual circular motions extends it successively to the zenith and the cardinal directions. They smoke, and then the four start out with a gun or two in search of a suitable tree, an aspen with a tall, straight stem and without large branches below a place where it has two crotches. Having found such a tree, one of them fires his gun into the top of it (or having no gun he calls to one of his fellows to do so). Hearing the shot, the other three rush up, and any who has a gun fires into the tree as if it were an enemy. They sit down then about the aspen, one at each cardinal point, and each kindles an incense fire in front of him at the base of the tree. The leader fills a pipe, offers it to the five points, and hands it to the man at his left, and it is passed four times about the tree before it is smoked out. They tie a willow withe about the trunk, and return to camp, each bearing an aspen shoot with leafy tip. They do not enter the camp directly, but in the manner of scouts creep carefully around it under cover, approaching from the south. Outside the camp-circle some young men have already deposited a pile of green aspen boughs. As the scouts approach, all the men rush out of the camp and kick the pile to pieces, and each one takes a bough. They form a circle, and between them and the camp the sponsor takes his place. The scouts give him their branches and the pipe, and their leader reports: "Now, that tree is waiting for you. It has good health and long life for you." {view image of facing page 82} A Cree canoe [photogravure plate] {view image of page 83} THE WESTERN WOODS CREE 83 The sponsor accepts the boughs, and with them returns to wiwatahukan. The sun is now rising. He has four pipes, one of which he fills and gives to one of the old men, asking him to help by procuring the timbers for the sun-lodge. In the same manner he requests another to dig the holes for the posts, a third to dig a hole for the tree, a fourth to be the public announcer. These duties having been assigned, the men depart. Most of the male population immediately saddle their horses, procure their guns and such drums as are available, gallop to wiwatahukan, surround it, and start to sing, riding about it in a circle. While they are so engaged, the sponsor, accompanied by a few old men, goes out to the selected tree, and the horsemen follow, the four scouts and some other principal men remaining at the site of the sun-lodge. Those who have been assigned to the task of digging the holes are busy with helpers selected by themselves. The sponsor and his companions fill a pipe and smoke while the horsemen surround the tree. After smoking and praying, he stands up and sings while shaking a rawhide rattle, asking manitu for success in building the lodge. The horsemen who have drums beat them, and all join in the song, and at its conclusion guns are fired into the top of the tree, and all shout as if killing an enemy. Immediately two young men with axes attack the tree from opposite sides, felling it toward the south. As it falls, all rush upon it (the men having dismounted and tied up their horses), each person trying to get a handful of the leaves. This is symbolical of scalping an enemy. They attach ropes to the top, and with the other ends fastened to their saddle-horns drag it to the camp, carrying the boughs in their hands, singing on the way. After depositing it with the butt over the hole, the horsemen take their women in front and ride several times about the camp, outside the circle, singing and shouting. Meantime the man assigned to this work is in the bush with his helpers, cutting the timbers for the lodge. The horsemen now ride to the woods, still shouting and singing, and drag the timbers to the centre of the camp, the women still in the saddles and the men behind them. Everybody lends a hand at placing the timbers. The tree, which becomes the central post, is erected first by means of ropes and poles, and when it falls into the hole there is much shouting but no shooting. Women are busy stripping willow-bark and lashing the eaves-timbers to the circle of posts, and the long rafters to the eaves. The lower part of the roof and the northerly wall are covered with canvas (formerly skins), the southerly wall is open. {view image of page 84} 84 THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN The lodge is finished about mid-afternoon. It is of the same type as the sun-lodge of the Plains Indians. From the forks of the central post sloping rafters radiate to eaves-timbers connecting the forked tops of a circular series of wall-posts. The cloth offerings are tied to the central post, and in the crotch is fastened a bundle of aspen brush, representing the nest of Thunder, who is conceived as a great bird. Anyone who especially desires good luck may tie an offering to the post, and sometimes even a gun is thus "thrown away." These offerings remain in place after the dance. The sponsor's seat is at the north side, opposite the entrance. At his right and his left is a barrier of leafy aspen, slightly higher than the head of a sitting man. A fire burns midway between the sponsor and the tree, and another between the tree and the entrance. The long tipi has not been struck. The sponsor takes his place in the sun-lodge and bids his herald call the dancers, indicating them by name. The male dancers take their place inside the brush fence at the sponsor's right hand, the females similarly at his left, and the spectators, arrayed in their best garments, congregate at the south side of the lodge. Many group themselves outside. The sponsor now begins a season of constant praying and frequent burning of sweetgrass. Another incense fire burns in front of the drummer, whose place is on the side of the women dancers. Near the sponsor are four singers with rattles. At his right and left, in front of the brush fences, are old men in a row, to see that no mistakes occur. Another singer with a rattle stands close to the tree. The sponsor starts a song, shaking his rattle, and the others assist. No drums are used at this particular time. With the beginning of the song the dancers rise and dance in their places, men in one row, women in another. Each has a whistle, the wing-bone of an eagle or other large bird. The sponsor and the singers wear no shirts, but the dancers have donned their best garments and their faces are striped with red. The second song is started by one of the singers, and then each of the others leads in turn. Thereafter anyone in the crowd who has a dream name may start a song. All songs except that of the sponsor are accompanied by drums. Between the songs the dancers sit, and while dancing they look straight ahead at the tree. The performance continues until dark, is resumed at sunrise, and ends the following mid-afternoon. Should any dancer fall unconscious, his relatives bring presents to the sponsor, and "life returns." From beginning to end the dancers and the sponsor neither eat nor drink. {view image of facing page 84} Frame of the sponsor's tipi, Cree sun-dance [photogravure plate] {view image of page 85} THE WESTERN WOODS CREE 85 Relatives of the dancers necessarily "give to the sun-lodge" property of much value, such as horses, guns, and clothing. This is either piled in the lodge, or, in the case of horses, which are tethered outside, is represented by small sticks. All this is distributed among visitors by a man who first recounts his own generosity in previous Sun dances and his warlike feats. The Woods Cree did not mutilate their breasts in the ceremony. The Prairie-chicken dance, Pihiyeu-simowin ("prairie-chicken dance-they"), is more distinctively Cree than the widespread Sun dance. In allusion to the bird whose mating dance it imitates, the earlier name of the ceremony was Tsimistawikteu-simowin ("legcovered-with-hair dance-they"). It is sponsored by a man who has made a pledge to Okefsitau (here an epithet of the beneficent sun) in hope of thus combatting sickness or other bad luck. For the purpose of making known his intention he invites a number of old men, and after the usual preliminary smoke and the recital of his vow, they agree upon a certain time during the next summer. The sponsor proceeds to accumulate quantities of cloth, and when, a few days before the appointed time, the summer encampment has been formed, the ceremonial smoke is repeated. Early in the morning young men procure poles for the elliptical dance-house, which consists of two tripods connected by a long ridge-pole against which are leaned the tips of rafters with their butts on the ground. One end of the ridge-pole terminates in a mass of foliage and extends considerably beyond the rear tripod. The frame is covered with canvas from several ordinary tipis. The structure is finished about noon. In the centre is planted an aspen four or five inches in diameter, its tip rising well above the roof, and its length festooned with the cloth offerings of the sponsor. At its base is a small stone. The sponsor, accompanied by two or three assistants, now enters with a drum, and sings a song, after which an assistant goes out to call by name all men of importance. After these have entered, others follow, women and children coming last. The sponsor sits beside an upright aspen stake at one end of the lodge, opposite the doorway, and behind him are the principal men, sitting in a row. At their right and left, along the sides of the lodge, are younger men, and women and children are grouped on both sides of the entrance. Midway between the central tree and one side of the lodge is an {view image of page 86} 86 THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN aspen stake thrust into the ground and surrounded by four men with drums. Other similar stakes may be implanted here and there. When all have assembled, the sponsor fills three or four pipes and passes them in succession to the man at the right end of the row of important personages, requesting him and his fellows to pray in his behalf to manitu, Sun, and the Winds. They smoke and pray, extending the pipe toward the tree and the stone, and when they have finished, steaming vessels of dog-flesh and venison are brought in. Should the sponsor have been unable to provide the necessary dog-flesh, his venison is eaten and some other man ostentatiously announces that he is going to give a dog to the dance-house, thereby winning favorable comment. The feast ends about the middle of the afternoon, when the drummers strike their instruments and some of the men dance in the space between the tree and the rear of the lodge, imitating in action and utterance the courting dance of a flock of prairie-chickens. Occasionally there is a special song without drums, and women dance; but such participation as they have with the men is casual and apart. The sponsor dances more than anyone else. The aspen stakes heretofore mentioned are about thirty inches long, and are decorated with feathers, beads, and strips of colored cloth. On the reserve at Lac les Isles there are three such devices owned by certain men. They are pointed at the base, and are used for transferring the dog-flesh from pots to platters. They and the drums are reserved for use in the Prairie-chicken dance. In the ceremony the stakes are thrust into the turf, and when the dancing begins any man may take up one of them and dance with it, holding it vertically before him. At the conclusion of the song, he returns it to its place, and another uses it during the next song. This is supposed to impart good luck. Dancing continues all night and until sunset the following day. This, or some similar ceremony, is referred to by Mackenzie: There are also stated periods, such as the spring and autumn, when they engage in very long and solemn ceremonies. On these occasions dogs are offered as sacrifices, and those which are very fat, and milk-white, are preferred. They also make large offerings of their property, whatever it may be. The scene of these ceremonies is in an open inclosure on the bank of a river or lake, and in the * The subject of the facing photograph is half Chippewa. On her back is an oblong bag made of the skins of caribou forelegs. {view image of facing page 86} Cree woman with fur robe [photogravure plate] {view image of page 87} THE WESTERN WOODS CREE 87 most conspicuous situation, in order that such as are passing along or travelling, may be induced to make their offerings.... On these occasions, if any of the tribe, or even a stranger, should be passing by, and be in real want of anything that is displayed as an offering, he has a right to take it, so that he replaces it with some article he can spare, though it be of far inferior value; but to take or touch any thing wantonly is considered as a sacrilegious act, and highly insulting to the great Master of Life [Kifsi-manitu], to use their own expression, who is the sacred object of their devotion.1 In the autumn there used to be a round dance called Wasukamisimowin ("in-circle dance-they"). A long lodge was pitched, so large that three tipi-covers and three fires were required. Men danced with a shuffling step, one behind another, around the entire lodge, and women followed them in the same manner. This dance was "promised" in the expectation of aiding the recovery of a sick person. When victorious warriors returned, the people gathered in the open for the dance called Ekamafkiwisimok, standing in two opposing lines with the scalp-takers grouped at one end and the other end open. Each scalp was borne aloft on the tip of a short pole in the hands of some female relative of the successful warrior. The warsongs were sung by the entire company, and men, as they felt inclined, danced in their places. From time to time a woman danced with a sidewise, shuffling movement, proceeding along one line to the scalpers, whom she embraced and kissed, and then along the other side back to her place. As in other dances, the movement was always in the direction of the course of the sun. 1 Mackenzie, I, CL-CLI. {view image of page 88} I ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ {view image of page 89} The Sarsi VOL. XVIII-I2 {view image of page 90} ~~ {view image of page 91} THE SARSI HE Sarsi are a small Athapascan tribe that separated, before the historical period, from the Beaver Indians, who still are found in the upper reaches of Peace river. Traditions of the Beavers assign a feud over the killing of a dog as the cause of the separation; but the Sarsi content themselves with a mythologic explanation to the effect that as a large body of people were migrating southward across a frozen lake, the ice was suddenly shattered by a water-monster whose horn had been frozen in it, and those who had already crossed were the ancestors of the Sarsi. At the beginning of the nineteenth century they ranged from the Saskatchewan to the Missouri and from the Rocky mountains far out on the plains; but their true habitat was the prairies south of Beaver hills and the adjacent foothills. Their former home, as Alexander Henry observed, was north of the Saskatchewan. They became so closely associated with the Blackfeet, Bloods, and Piegan that they were often considered a fourth member of that confederacy and adopted many of the material and religious customs of these Algonquians. Nevertheless they preserved their own language. They were alternately at peace and at war with the other inhabitants of the northern prairies, the Cree and the northern Assiniboin, and consistently hostile to all tribes beyond the limits of their own range. For the purpose of capturing horses small parties made forays into distant regions, attacking Crows, Kutenai, Flatheads, Shoshoni, Nafiuwu (who, living west of the Montana Rockies and southwest of the Flatheads, were probably Shahaptians), and southern Assiniboin. They were friends of the Chipewyan, but not of the Sekani. In his youth a man still living in 1925 made an expedition on foot to "Black mountain" at the mouth of a northerly tributary of Milk river, and was absent four months. After horses became more plentiful he accomplished the same journey in less than a single month. 91 {view image of page 92} 92 THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN Alexander Henry gives the Sarsi a high rating as to courage, while deprecating some other characteristics: The Sarcees, who all traded at this post [Fort Vermilion, on the north bank of the Saskatchewan, opposite the mouth of Vermilion river] in the winter of 8 Io-181, were excellent beaver hunters while on the N. side of the Saskatchewan, but from intercourse with the Slaves [Blackfoot tribes] have become fully as lazy and indolent. A quarrel which they had last summer with the Assiniboines has caused them to remain near the mountains for the present; the environs of the Beaver Hills are generally their station. These people have the reputation of being the bravest tribe in all the plains, who dare face ten times their own numbers; and of this I have had convincing proof during my residence in this country. They are more civilized and more closely attached to us than the Slaves, and have on several occasions offered to fight the others in our defense. None of their neighbors can injure them with impunity; death is instantly the consequence....Their manners and customs are nearly the same as those of all the other Meadow Indians. They are a hard people to deal with; the most arrant beggars known. A refusal makes them sullen and stubborn; for being, as they term themselves, our real friends, they imagine we should refuse them nothing. Most of them have a smattering of the Cree language, which they display in clamorous and discordant strains, without rule or reason. Their own language is so difficult to acquire that none of our people have ever learned it.' According to Mackenzie the Sarsi had one hundred and twenty warriors in thirty-five tipis, and a decade later Henry said: "Of late years their numbers have much augmented; in the summer of 1809, when they were all in one camp, they formed 90 tents, containing about I50 men bearing arms." 2 By Sir John Franklin they were credited with one hundred and fifty tents, and he usually estimated about ten persons to a lodge. On the other hand, Old Sarsi is quite precise in his assertion that there were two hundred and twenty-three lodges after the second great epidemic of smallpox, which occurred in I869. He thinks there were about eight hundred lodges prior to the epidemic of 1837-1838! John Whitney, the interpreter, says there were six hundred Sarsi in I88I, when the treaty with the Canadian government was signed, and avers that Father Doucette has told him there were three hundred and twenty Sarsi lodges when he first became acquainted with the tribe about the year 1875. They are now reduced to about two hundred persons, 1 Coues, 737. 2 Coues, 535. {view image of facing page 92} Aki-tanni - "Two Guns" - Sarsi [photogravure plate] {view image of page 93} THE SARSI 93 living on a reserve among the foothills along upper Bow river, near Calgary and adjoining the northern Assiniboin. The Sarsi have the physical characteristics typical of the Athapascans: small features, medium stature, spare, lithe bodies. They appear to have great vitality. In a camp of harvest workers visited by the writer were Two Guns, age sixty-five; Star Child, otherwise His Tooth, sixty-nine; Runs In The Middle, sixty-seven; Otter, seventy-one; Crow Collar, seventy-four; Foxtail, a dwarf, seventytwo; Two Young Men, seventy-four; and Old Sarsi, ninety-eight. All worked actively shocking wheat at forty-five cents per acre. Old Sarsi rounded up his horses with a light, springing step. His face was less wrinkled than that of most of his juniors, and but for his white hair, which was abundant, and his shrunken muscles, he would have passed for a man of less than sixty.1 From their Blackfoot allies the Sarsi learned the art of decoying buffalo into a stockaded pound, nassag/ha, and of stampeding them over abrupt declivities. The use of a pound was preceded by a night of ceremonial preparation, in which songs and fossils called "buffalo stones" played a leading part. Single hunters and small parties pursued the buffalo on swift horses trained to dash alongside one of the plunging animals and then veer off before the wounded beast could gore them. Mainly it was the cherished desire for such horses that led war-parties to undertake dangerous and arduous expeditions to the distant camps of their enemies. In the vicinity of tribal encampments pursuit of the buffalo was controlled by the Taskihlna, an organization of camp police, and severe punishment was inflicted upon one who attacked a herd or a solitary animal on his own initiative. In stalking deer and antelope the hunter bound a fillet about his head, thrust long green shoots of grass down under it, and held 1 In his youth Old Sarsi twice tortured himself in the Sun dance, and he cut off a fingerjoint in mourning for a deceased child. In I9oI, at the age of seventy-four, he was doctoring a man who promised him his younger sister in payment. The cure was effected, and Old Sarsi at once discarded his wife and took the sixteen-year-old girl, who in I925 still lived with him. She was held to have made an advantageous marriage because her husband was a medicineman, a person of importance, whose fees for healing placed him in a position of comparative wealth. Sarsi's former wife, having borne five children by a prior marriage, presented him with no fewer than twenty-seven. Of her thirty-two children, only two reached marriageable age. His second wife bore ten children, one annually since her seventeenth year, and of these none survived childhood. Old Sarsi did not delude himself that these were his children, but the question of their paternity did not disturb his equanimity. His discarded wife, then aged fifty, was married six months later by Crazy Tom, eighteen years her junior, a union that has endured up to the present. {view image of page 94} 94 THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN before his face a bunch of tall white sage, so that as he peered over a hillock only waving vegetation was visible to his prey. He crept slowly and carefully against the wind, taking advantage of the conformation of the land until he was within gunshot. After flaying and butchering his kill, he bundled the flesh and organs in the hide and either carried it on his back or dragged it on the ground. At his tipi neighbors and friends received portions of the meat, and the remainder was cooked for a feast, in the course of which he recounted his experience in the chase. Meat was never given to a chief, for he was supposed to be the best hunter of all and would have scorned the fruits of another's skill. Rather, his duty was to distribute bounty among the less capable. When mosquitoes were very troublesome, a hunter would make a smudge of buffalo-dung and conceal himself near by, with a long stick to attend the fire, while his companion went forward to lie in ambush. A small band of deer or antelope, seeing the smoke, would run toward it, now advancing, now retreating, shaking their heads to rid themselves of the insects. Almost distracted, they had little thought of danger, and the stalker found no great difficulty in creeping within range. The skin of a deer's head with the horns attached was dried and worn as a disguise by a hunter armed preferably with bow and arrows. If he used a gun he had his powder-horn on a thong about his neck, and kept two or three bullets in his mouth. Ordinarily it was next to impossible to come upon a moose lying down; so keen were his ears that the slightest crackle of a stick aroused him, and he was off. But a careful hunter, favored by the roar of a heavy wind, sometimes succeeded in finding a moose at rest. The direction of the wind was tested by dropping dry grass. A fleeing moose charged ahead regardless of possible danger, and anyone near his course had a good chance of getting a shot; but it was useless to attempt ambushing him. When one was killed, a part of the meat was carried to the camp, and both men and women returned to the place for the remainder, which they brought in on travoix dragged by dogs. Moose-hides were used for robes, shirts, and dresses, but not for moccasins. Elk were not so wary as moose. When approached they sometimes stood and stared at the hunter until he came close enough to shoot. No disguise was used, but the hunter took advantage of cover to approach them, and then when necessary came into the open and moved rapidly and steadily. They were never hunted {view image of facing page 94} Typical female physiognomy - Sarsi [photogravure plate] {view image of page 95} THE SARSI 95 with horses, because they would turn and gore their pursuers. Animals of the deer kind were never driven into corrals. For their winter pelts coyotes, wolves, and foxes were caught in open country in deadfalls of appropriate size. The walls of upright posts had a single opening, across which a small log lay on the ground, while another was supported above it on a trigger stick. On each end of this fall log rested the end of another timber, which sloped to the ground outside the trap, like a rafter, giving additional weight. From the entrance the bait stick, a forked pole, extended into the trap a sufficient distance so that an animal reaching it with his jaws would have his chest or belly over the log on the ground. The base of the trigger stick was set on the rounded upper side of the bait stick, so that when an animal tried to remove the bait, the trigger was dislodged and the fall log descended between two pairs of guide posts and crushed the victim. Each trapper had his own line of seven to ten falls, and all the trappers of a camp went to inspect their lines at the same time, early in the morning, so that none would be able to rob his neighbor. Coming close to the deadfalls, they ran swiftly to be the first to secure an animal, and such a one was hailed with approbation when they returned to camp. After removing an animal from the deadfall, the trapper carefully obliterated all evidence of its struggles, and with a long branch brushed out his own footprints as he withdrew from the spot. Hunters sometimes concealed themselves in burrows in a snowbank, waiting for wolves to feast on the bones of a recently butchered buffalo. For their highly prized skins, which were used to ornament the shirts and head-dresses of warriors, weasels were taken in noose snares set at the mouths of their burrows. Beaver were not trapped before the era of steel traps, but were shot with arrows, as were rabbits, prairie-chickens, and waterfowl. Pitfalls were unknown. The capture of eagles involved long religious rites. When a man intended to hunt them, he and the occupants of four or five other tipis, those who desired to obtain feathers to be made into headdresses, moved apart from the rest of the band and camped in the region of the proposed trap. During his hunt the people understood that if a bird perched on or near a tipi, they were not to name the bird but simply say, "A young man is sitting on such and such a tipi." To name the bird would have given the hunter bad luck. Rosehips were temporarily taboo, for they would have caused the {view image of page 96} 96 THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN eagles to scratch themselves and avoid the trap. Quiet in the camp was essential. Should a hunter, in spite of a violated taboo, try to catch eagles and fail, camp was struck immediately. The hunter practised continence, and ate and drank only before sunrise and after sunset. Eagle-hunters were middle-aged or elderly men of great patience. On the top of a hill far from camp the eagle-hunter dug a hole extending east and west, and only a little larger than was necessary to admit him. He covered it with sticks and leaves, which were supported by three cross-pieces, and left a small aperture. The bottom he covered thickly with white sage. With rawhide he bound to a cross-piece of the roof the bait, a small animal, such as a wolf, with a piece of skin cut away from the ribs so as to expose the flesh. Before concealing himself in the pit he masticated incense leaves, spit on his hands, and rubbed them over his body. He entered the pit very early in the morning, and at once began to mutter wishes that eagles would come. Hawks, crows, and buzzards would come for the bait, but as soon as they alighted he would jab them with a sharpened stick. When an eagle came in sight, he knew it by the hurried departure of other birds. The eagle would wheel in great circles, high in the air, before descending, and never alighted directly on the bait, but paused at a short distance to observe if danger threatened. The hunter could hear the thump of its claws on the ground when it alighted. When the bird hopped upon the bait, the hunter waited while it tore at the meat, then very carefully and slowly put his hand through the hole, grasped both of its legs, pushed the branches aside, and drew it downward. All this was managed very deliberately, and the bird scarcely struggled. The hunter grasped its neck, placed it across his knee, and broke the neck, while saying, "I hope I shall catch a larger and better eagle than you!" Then with his foot he pushed the body into the end of the pit. Everything done in connection with catching eagles was deliberate and gentle. With good luck four or five were captured in a day. Seven were unusual, and ten about the maximum. A bird called iskanitalR, or izah7lfitla, which builds its nest in inaccessible crevices and is smaller than an eagle, is greatly feared because if caught it would drag the hunter away. Old Sarsi said that he had seen it carrying young deer. Asked how so small a bird could do that, he replied simply, "It has the power." In spite of the extraordinary power attributed to it, the bird appears to be the falcon, for it is described as the swiftest of all birds of prey. The {view image of facing page 96} Ka'ni - Sarsi [photogravure plate] {view image of page 97} THE SARSI 97 bald eagle also is feared. When either of these alighted on the pit, the hunter pricked it with his stick. Toward evening the eagle-hunter crept out, laid the bait in the pit, and covered the opening from which he had emerged. Then he went home carrying his catch, walking very slowly, praying, and thanking his "power" for success. Those who were already in his tipi remained, but no others could enter. At the back of the lodge in the place of honor he laid a bit of buffalo tongue and covered it with incense leaves of creeping cedar, and on this bed he deposited the birds in a row on their breasts with outstretched heads. In the beak of each one he placed a bit of pemmican (a mixture of pounded meat, fat, and dried berries). In front of them he made incense, and then covered them with a good piece of cloth or fur. Whatever buffalo-stones (ta-hanni, stone buffalo) he might have he set in a row between the eagles and the incense fire. Then he took an eagle on his back, grasping its wings with his hands at his shoulders, and danced while four men whom he had engaged for this service sat in a row on the north side and shook buffalo-hide rattles obtained for a price from the custodian of the Water Bundle,1 and sang four songs. One of these ran: "Good Eagle and all your children, give me wealth and health. If I get you and your children, I shall have many horses." The other songs "belonged to the Water Bundle," and were supplied for the occasion with such words as these: "Sun, help me! Make these birds crazy and hungry, so that they will come down quickly and I shall catch many of them." The eagles lay in state during the night. In the hunter's tipi the woman was the first to rise. She hurried to look at the buffalo-stones, which were set up on their "tails," and if any had fallen in the night she shook her husband and said, "So many buffalo-stones have fallen!" Then he was glad, for this meant that he would catch that many eagles during the day. But should any relative of the hunter be destined to die soon, the hunter would catch nothing for four days. Therefore when a man was unsuccessful four days, the family was greatly downcast. If no taboo were violated, the eagle-hunt continued at least four days, and if many birds were caught the kill of each day was laid on top of those previously taken. Should luck be good, the hunt was carried on six days. Each time he returned after the first night, the hunter stood outside at the back of the tipi and prayed. When he was heard there, 1See page II8. VOL. xvIII-13 {view image of page 98} 98 THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN everybody in the tipi departed except his wife, who at once placed incense of sweetgrass on the coals in front of the eagles, first raising the sweetgrass to the four directions and then making four circular movements above the embers. The man then came around on the north side to the door, faced about to the east, and stood at the door. The woman knelt with bowed head on the south side. White clay mixed with crumbled sweetgrass was smeared on her hair. With a long stick painted yellow she pushed the flap aside and the man came in. At the same time she said, "My children, I have the bed ready for you, and your food." He passed around in front of her lifting the eagles one by one from his back over the left shoulder.1 He made four circular movements with them in the incense, and then with four similar movements deposited them on the other birds. Any ruffled feathers he carefully and gently smoothed. The woman continued to sit in her place, reiterating, "My children, I have a good bed and good food for you." As before, the man put a bit of pemmican in each beak. When an eagle-hunter had finished trapping, his wife cooked a large quantity of food the following morning, and all the people of every age were invited. The hunter sat in the place of honor in front of the incense fire; most of the other men were at his left and a few at his right. Mothers and children were mainly grouped near the door on the south side. The hunter sat quietly and prayed. The men at his left started an eagle song, and the others assisted while four men shook the rattles. In this way the first man sang four times, then those at his left in turn did likewise, while the same four men used the rattles. The songs were expressions of thanksgiving for success. Then followed the feast, at the end of which the hunter, still sitting in his place, said, "Now we will skin the eagles." Each of the four rattle-shakers, in turn, stood up and recounted the brief history of a battle in which he had participated and in which an enemy had been killed without loss to the Sarsi. Then to the first of these four the hunter said, "You will skin so many." He divided the entire number of birds among these four men, who stepped forward one by one and took up the indicated number of birds, returned to their seats, spread blankets, laid the eagles on them, and removed from their beaks the bits of pemmican, which they put back in the place where the eagles had been lying. They proceeded then to skin the birds, being very deliberate, and careful that no feather 1 All ceremonial movements follow the course of the sun. {view image of facing page 98} A Sarsi tipi [photogravure plate] {view image of page 99} ' I to lr. west. THE SARSI 99 became dislodged from the skin or disordered in any way. The claws were left attached to the skin. Then each of the four, and the hunter himself, piled the bodies on five pieces of red strouding, and the hunter placed with them some object pertaining to his wife and each of his children, such as an earring, a bead, or failing these a lock of hair. He then said to the first man of the four, "I give you so many tail-feathers for helping me," and handed him that number. Thus he paid each of the four. An entire skin he laid aside, saying, "That is for the man who owns the rattles." Then the five went out, carrying the pieces of cloth wrapped about the bodies. They went to a hill, and each one tied his bundle, along with bunches of white sage, to a stick lashed crosswise to the tip of a pole, which he planted in the ground. While thus engaged the four men prayed and the hunter himself cried as one who mourns for dead children. As soon as they returned, no matter how late in the night it might be, the people broke camp and moved away to rejoin the main band, all as if they had just disposed of the dead bodies of their children. The hunter removed all the feathers and claws from the skins and carefully wrapped them in bundles, and the skins he bound in a cloth and exposed on a pole set on a hill. He then summoned the custodian of the Water Bundle, fed him, restored his rattles, and presented him with an eagle-skin, which was received with gratitude. The staple vegetal foods of the Sarsi were service-berries, parsnips, blueberries, and chokecherries. Various other edible berries and roots were indigenous, but less important. In primitive times the best bows were made of elk-antler. An aged informant saw a weapon of this kind among the Blackfeet. It was short, recurved, and backed with sinew, and he thought it was made of a single piece. Ordinary bows were of service-berry, cherry, or birch. These too were recurved and reenforced, the sinew backing being applied with glue while the bow was bent in the reverse direction, and the surface of the wood being scarred to give a better bond. An ornamented bow was made by cementing a snake-skin over the sinew. Glue was the residue of a boiled mixture of buffalo testicles and fat from the hump. Branches of service-berry and cherry, straightened by bending in a perforated false vertebra of a buffalo, and smoothed by drawing them between two flat stones, were used for arrow-shafts. They were triply winged, and the feathers, prefer {view image of page 100} IOO THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN ably those of hawks and eagles, were secured with buffalo-sinew thread, which was covered with white clay or with roasted and powdered iron pyrites, to make it adhere. An arrow-shaft treated with a boiled mixture of beaver castor and fat, applied with a bit of deerskin and rubbed into the cells of the wood, became very highly polished and passed more easily through a buffalo. Arrow-points were flints roughly shaped by flaking with a heated stick, and finally they were rubbed with hot fat, which was supposed to impart hardness. Arrows were carried in beaver- or fox-fur quivers. The primitive knife was a flake of flint, and the ax was a sharpened piece of moose-antler, bound to a wooden handle with sinew from the back of a buffalo's neck. Stone-pointed javelins are said to have been used in fighting. The war-club was of the type common to the plains, a roundish stone covered with shrunken rawhide, by which it was attached to a wooden handle. A thong loop secured the weapon to the wrist. When traders introduced steel tomahawks, the Sarsi began to make similar weapons of elk-antler. The Sarsi hide-scraper had a slightly curved wooden handle and a blade of laminated stone, probably slate, ground to a blunt edge. Bone and antler scrapers are said to have been foreign to their usage. Skins were sewn by perforating the edges with a pointed small bone from a buffalo's fore-leg and pushing through the holes the twisted end of a sinew thread, in the manner of a cobbler with his awl and waxed end. The principal use of skins was for clothing and tipi-covers, but they were indispensable in making numerous implements and such articles as storage-bags, baby-bags, and saddle-gear. The tobacco-pipe had a stone bowl, which was ground to shape with a harder stone and reamed out with a steel instrument. The long wooden stem was bored with a heated wire. The oldest Sarsi traditionist thinks that before the arrival of commercial products there was little smoking; but he has heard that his ancestors sometimes boiled a section of buffalo trachea, bent it slightly, and used it for a pipe. Timbers were split by driving wooden wedges with a stone maul, and fire was generated by rubbing a stick on wood, not by twirling a drill. An interesting bit of work is the horseman's whip, the handle of which is a tine of elk-antler with the spongy core removed and a transverse hole bored near each end, one for a wrist loop, the other for the reception of a wooden pin which passes through a perforation in the end of the leather lash. {view image of facing page 100} A Sarsi woman [photogravure plate] {view image of page 101} THE SARSI IOI The primitive dishes and pots of the Sarsi were made, unusual as it was for this region, by smearing clay on both sides of roughly woven forms of fibrous roots and baking them in a fire. A man born about I827 never saw utensils of this kind, though they were then of such recent occurrence that in his boyhood reference to them was frequent and casual. In his boyhood the Sarsi used bark and wooden dishes, elk-antler spoons and ladles. Iron pots were becoming common, but war-parties then and long after cooked their food by lining a pit with a fresh hide and boiling water in it by means of hot stones. They also lined a pit with willows, laid buffalo tongues on them, covered the meat with willows, and set fire to the fuel. Fish were caught by sharpening the end of a brass-wire earring and attaching it to a hair from a horse's tail, and were baked by wrapping them in strips of green bark and burying them in a mass of embers. Eggs were cooked in the same manner. Sarsi dwellings were skin-covered tipis. Spruce saplings were favored for poles, the number of which depended on the size of the structure. Fifteen buffalo-skins were required for a lodge of average size, and about six more formed the lining, which, pegged closely to the ground and attached at the upper edge to the poles five or six feet from the floor, served to deflect drafts upward through the vent at the peak. Dome-shape sudatories were employed, and heat was supplied by pouring water on hot stones. Men's leggings were breechless, had a wide, fringed flap at the outer seam, and were suspended from the same thong-belt that secured the breech-clout. The favored material was the upper part of a discarded tipi-cover, because from long exposure to smoke it was more pliable than other leather. The breech-clout was a long strip drawn up between the legs, the ends passing under the belt and dangling before and behind. In later days it became the custom to tear a Hudson's Bay blanket down the middle and wear half hanging from the belt in front and half behind, with nothing at all between the legs. This was done so that warriors who in stress had to abandon their blankets would still have a piece of bedding. Entering a battle or closing up on a herd of horses, they would tuck the cloth up under the belt for greater freedom of action. Moccasins were worn habitually, but shirts of the common Plains type were frequently dispensed with in hot weather. Fur robes, usually buffalo-hides, were thrown about the shoulders for warmth. Fur caps made of the skin of a buffalo's cheeks had flaps that covered the ears, while in summer {view image of page 102} I02 THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN some men wore rawhide sunshades, which encircled the head like a crownless hat. Snowshoes were used occasionally. Women wore deerskin shifts, fringed at the bottom and along the seams, and provided with separate sleeves held in place by a cord passing behind the neck. The belt was a broad band of rawhide. Their leggings, attached to the moccasins, were tied at the top below the knee. Sarsi men arrange the hair in a braid at each side and another in front thrown back over the crown; while women part it in the middle and usually let it hang in unkempt condition at the sides of the face. The tribe was divided into bands, each of which, except during the summer ceremonial season, roamed apart from the others. The following are named: Kachiti-fot!inna,1 Blood Sarsi, reputedly the descendants of a Blood man and a Sarsi woman. Tliu-wghu`ghu, Smoke Kill, whose tipis were ill-ventilated and murderously smoky. Mift!ita-nif!itl!na, His-robe Small. Naftihltina, "turning the head away and not wishing to do what others wish to do or are doing." Magha-kukahlifilna, His-lodge Cut-off (at the bottom). Chachigha-mit!itana, Three-year-old-buffalo His-robe. Magha-gichoghona, His-lodge Large. Tsot!inna-tina, Sarsi Genuine. Each band of course had its chief, and the tribal chief was he who by common consent was the greatest warrior and most efficient leader. Heredity was not considered. There were no clans. Marriage within the band was discouraged, because of the possibility that an unknown blood-relationship might exist. A man lived with his wife's people, not because the matriarchate was recognized, but because a marriageable daughter was an asset to be disposed of in return for the service of an active foodwinner. In the spring, when the buffalo were becoming fat, all the bands joined in one large camp for the purpose of pursuing the society activities, performing the Sun dance, and transferring sacred bundles and painted tipis. After these affairs had been attended to, each chief decided whither he would lead his people to hunt buffalo. Some would go first to the wooded country to provide new lodgepoles. By the middle of August the bands had separated and were 1 Na, a collective affix indicating human beings. {view image of facing page 102} A Sarsi kitchen [photogravure plate] {view image of page 103} THE SARSI I03 roaming the country following the herds. At this season the heifers were calving, and only two- and three-year-old bulls were killed. In late autumn and in winter cows and heifers were killed, their flesh being better and their hides more easily tanned than those of bulls. Great,quantities of pemmican were prepared and packed in rawhide containers, and innumerable animal-tissue bags were filled with rendered tallow, for trading at the posts of the fur companies. When two bands happened to meet, there was much rejoicing, feasting, and exchange of presents. There were frequent changes of campsites during the winter, for it was necessary to keep close to the buffalo. If there were plenty of skins on hand to keep the women busy dressing them for the trade, a band might remain in a favorable situation in a creek bottom, where there was good shelter and fuel, for a month or two. It might camp for some time in the vicinity of a favorite place for running buffalo over a cut-bank. Such a locality was not the exclusive property of a band: any group held possession as long as it could profitably use it. In the summer encampment all the lodges were pitched in a great circle, each band in a group but without any prescribed position in the circle. In the centre, surrounded by the tipis of his married children, was the lodge of the principal chief. He frequently walked or rode about inside the circle, uttering loud exhortations to good conduct. When the season of society activities came, the lodges of the societies were pitched westward of the centre, with the tipis of the chiefs behind them, while the centre itself was occupied by the lodge of the woman who was to sponsor the Sun dance. War-parties seldom operated in winter. Not only was the weather a deterrent, but footprints were too easily followed in the snow. Since in this northern latitude the spring was uncertain and snow might be expected at any time, late summer and fall were the favorite time for warlike adventures. At that season, too, game was easily killed and berries were ripe. Travelling by night and hiding by day, warriors could pass undetected over wide stretches of country infested with hostile bands of buffalo-hunters. Nevertheless there was always the risk of finding themselves in a country deserted by buffalo and with no enemy camp accessible where they might provide themselves with horses; for warriors were almost invariably afoot, the prime purpose of the expedition being the acquisition of mounts. If they experienced this misfortune, they might pursue their way farther and farther in the false hope that surely the next night would bring better luck. Having passed a region devoid of game, they {view image of page 104} I04 THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN feared to turn back without supplies, and so perforce went forward. In this fashion they might travel much farther and remain absent much longer than they had intended, and at home their relatives would begin to mourn them as dead. Before going to war a man prayed to the sun and vowed that if successful he would sever a finger at the Sun dance, or would have his wife or sister sponsor that ceremony, or that he would purchase a certain painted tipi. On his first expedition a man was addressed by a feminine name, usually that of his grandmother, and this disgrace impelled him to reckless deeds of valor in order to win a new and honored name. At the scalp-dance following the return of a successful foray, each "new warrior" (that is, one who had performed one of the recognized deeds, such as killing an enemy, taking a scalp, or capturing a horse or a gun), apparelled in beaded leggings and a shirt ornamented with weasel-skins and strands of enemy hair, mounted a horse and was led to the centre of the encampment, where, surrounded by an admiring throng dressed for the dance, he received from the chief his new name. This was generally that of an honored uncle, either maternal or paternal. In the ensuing dance the drummers and singers stood in a row and danced with warlike gestures, while opposite them women held aloft poles from which the scalps dangled. It was the privilege of the aged to visit the tipis of new warriors and appropriate any articles they desired. Sarsi childbirth customs were explained by the narration of the personal experience of a middle-aged woman, who, convinced of the investigator's serious purpose, spoke with a clear-eyed frankness tempered by genuine modesty. During my pregnancy there were many kinds of food I could not eat, because it would not stay down; but at first nobody told me not to eat certain kinds. There was a boy I used to hate; whenever I saw him, it turned me sick. We never eat sweets in pregnancy, lest the baby become too fat and make delivery difficult. I was told not to kill any animals. I ate no buffalo intestines, lest the child be born with the navel-cord running out of its mouth. To eat the manyplies, they said, would bring me a child with water running from its mouth; the heart and the spleen would make black marks on my face; the large intestine would make the rectum protrude during delivery. While a woman is pregnant her husband must not snare any animal, lest the child strangle in birth, nor strike any animal on the head, lest it have an enlarged skull. {view image of facing page 104} Missi-tsatsa - "Owl Old-woman" - Sarsi [photogravure plate] {view image of page 105} THE SARSI I05 In the middle of the night I felt the pains, and tried to eat but could not. I told my husband to sleep alone. It felt like something cutting across my back. I called my husband, but he did not wake. I bit his toe, and he got up. His mother was with us, but she was weak and sick. I sat up. Another old woman kept pressing on my back. I was on hands and knees, bending forward. They put up a little tipi outside the log house, and made a fire in it. Just as I got there, the delivery started. I caught a lodge-pole with one hand and pressed my side with the other. By that time my mother came, and she and the old woman took the baby. My sister got a bowl of warm water and washed it. They tied the navel-cord in two places close together with a deerskin thong and cut it between the two places. A small section of dry gut was turned with the fatty inner side out, and bound against the umbilicus. They told my husband not to smoke. They crushed a dry buffalo-chip with a stone, laid a heated stone on the powder in order to kill any worms that might be in it. The powder was spread on a cloth, so that when the baby was wrapped its buttocks lay on the powder, which absorbed its urine. They laid the baby with its back to the fire so that the warmth would drive the "dirty stuff" [frothy saliva] from its mouth. My husband rubbed the bowl of his pipe on its closed eyes, to give it good eyesight. Our children do not open their eyes for three or four days. [In a recent case the Government physician poured a liquid into the eyes of a newborn child. It opened them at once, to the great astonishment of the spectators.] They wrapped a wide belt tightly about me, and pressed my hips to put the bones back in place. They gave me nothing to drink. On the tenth day I stretched my legs and sat up. While recovering we lie with the legs close together. In turning over the woman helped me. The placenta was wrapped in a cloth and buried in the burrow of a badger or other animal. Some people burn it. Each morning the baby was taken from its bag, washed, and powdered with pulverized charcoal wherever its skin was creased, so as to avoid chafing. After two or three days charcoal powder mixed with tallow was applied to the umbilicus, and the stump of the navel-cord was placed in a little beaded bag, which was attached to the baby-bag or to the child's back. After the child outgrew the bag and its first pair of moccasins, these articles with the navel-cord bag I took to the stream and cast into the water with a prayer for long life and health for my child. The navel-cord bag for a boy is made in a shape suggestive of a snake. A woman walking about and coming upon a snake thinks that she is going to have a child and it will be a boy. Many children are not weaned until they walk. Once I had one nursing on each side. [That is, a child was born while she was still nursing its predecessor. There is no rule against sexual relations during the nursing period.] After childbirth the general rule is to lie four days without moving and six more before rising. VOL. XVIII-14 {view image of page 106} io6 THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN The grandfather of Tazikatanihlta had a supernatural experience in which he helped a shellfish deliver its young, and from it he received power to assist in parturition. My grandfather gave a shell of this kind to each of my two sisters, and to me and my brother. My sisters wanted no children, and have never had any. I had no preference, and never had children. My brother wanted just one son, and that is what he got. So each of us had his wish by the power of the charm. My grandfather said that if a woman in childbirth was in need of help, no other woman being available, I would be able to help her. This proved to be true. Twice I have tried it, though this is not a man's business, and each time the woman came through without trouble. Inside the charms my grandfather scratched a figure. A painted deerskin thong passed through a hole in the edge of the shell, and thus it hung on the breast. When a woman calls on me for help, I mix alder bast with hot water in a pail, and give her a drink. If the child is not soon born, I put red paint on her forehead and rub the paint back on her hair. Then I raise her blanket and shake it sharply above her abdomen, as if shaking out the child, and before long the infant is delivered. I do not use pressure on the abdomen. I give the child a name at once. Infants are known by such nicknames as Round Face, Little Mischief, One Tooth. At the age of five or six years a formal name is bestowed in the following manner: My grandfather was called to our tipi. He said: "Yes, I have seen something. I am going to give this child, my grandchild, a name. May he have long life, good health, and wealth. This is what I saw. I was fasting. I heard something moaning. I looked and saw a large mussel. It was creeping through the water toward me. It said, 'Only humans can help in trouble.' I took it up and it said, 'Press my sides.' I pressed them, and a small mussel dropped out. The large one said: 'My son, that is my child. Take it and keep it. Now press my ribs together again.' I pressed its sides, and its shell closed. It said: 'My son, you have helped me. Now I am going to help you. Take this mussel, this my child. I give you power to help women in childbirth. When a woman is in pain, you will press her as you did me, and she will deliver her child without trouble. When you see a shell like mine, take it and make a charm [nImhltiy, protector].' I put the mussel back into the water." My grandfather painted me red from the waist up, and with the ends of his fingers he scratched the paint off across my forehead and down each cheek. He then hung his shell about my neck and said: {view image of facing page 106} A Piegan play tipi [photogravure plate] {view image of page 107} THE SARSI I07 "Now, if what you told me is false, it will all be false; but if what you told me is true, all will be true. If this, my grandchild, is ever called upon to help a woman, help him. Now I will give you a name, my grandchild. All the Sarsi know that there was a great battle at Buffalo lake and that there I captured a gun in the midst of the enemy., Therefore I name you Tazikatanihlta, so that you will have long life and health." Marriage was usually arranged in a series of conferences instituted by the family of the prospective bride. When the two interested families had come to an agreement, the girl's mother made a pair of moccasins and sent her with them and a quantity of food to the man's tipi. He ate, while the girl sat near the door, and then gave her the dish and a present, such as a blanket, a gun, a garment for her father or mother. At intervals this was repeated for a period that might be as long as two years, during which the girl's relatives prepared a tipi and all necessary furnishings and clothing, including moccasins for each close relative of the bridegroom. On the appointed day they pitched the new tipi, the bride entered, and the young man was called to his new home. The girl carried her family's gifts to the tipi of her husband's parents, and received blankets and a horse or two, which she brought back to her father. Finally, the young man's relatives visited his new tipi with presents of clothing for the young people. From that time the two families were "like one people," frequently exchanging presents. When the young man's father died, each person who had helped to pay for the bride received an appropriate part of the possessions he left, such as a horse, while the remainder belonged to his widow. A man having good luck in acquiring horses was expected to be generous in giving part of them to his wife's brothers and her father. He was in duty bound to divide his game with the occupants of his father-in-law's tipi. Father-in-law and brothers-in-law, after receiving gifts from a man, would try to outdo him in generosity. In time of stress the duty of providing for the family devolved more upon the son-in-law than upon the sons. He endured the greatest hardships for his father-in-law, encouraged by the thought that when his own daughter was married he would receive the same consideration from her husband. In return for his efforts, his mother-in-law kept a new pair of moccasins on hand for him, and prepared special dishes which her daughter carried to her own tipi. With the exception to be noted, in no circumstances may a man {view image of page 108} Io8 THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN remain in the presence of his mother-in-law. Should either by chance enter a tipi where the other is, he or she departs precipitately, and must then give the other a horse or a present of equal value in order to requite the shame of the encounter. It is the duty of those in a tipi to warn an approaching individual that the mother-in-law or the son-in-law is present, in order to avoid these costly meetings. In explanation of this taboo the informant said: "The daughter is the flesh of her mother. A woman in the presence of her son-in-law feels ashamed that while her own husband possesses her body, here is another man who also possesses her body in the flesh of her daughter." Another Sarsi, a woman, independently offered the same explanation, which thus appears to be a tribal conception.1 The only time when two persons in this relationship may remain in the same tipi is when the son-in-law's wife or child is dying. Both then sit with covered and averted faces, addressing each other, when necessary, as son and mother. This special occasion past, they exchange presents. The taboo does not extend to father-in-law and daughter-in-law. If a woman does not love her husband, it is easily known. She will sit with her head turned away. When she gives him food, she puts it in the wrong place, with averted face. When he wishes to caress her, she resists. In the course of time the man, thoroughly exasperated, seizes her roughly and casts her out of the lodge. Usually he grasps her front hair and cuts it off, so that people seeing her shorn forelock will say, "Oh, she has been cast out!" Or he may secretly ask four, five, or as many as ten of his society friends, men of his own age, to assemble in a certain place, where he gives his wife over to their use. That is her punishment. She then returns to her father's tipi. It will be difficult for her to obtain another husband, except a worthless fellow, and usually she must wait a long time before she can remarry. A man's feeling when a woman treats him without affection is that she must have a secret lover. A woman detected in adultery used to be mutilated by the loss of her nose, and was sent away. A Blackfoot treated his wife in this fashion as recently as I9I5. Having paid a good price for his wife, a man felt cheated when she gave herself freely to another, and his emotional condition was not improved by knowledge of the fact that 1 Harmon (page 295) refers to this explanation of the taboo in a passage relating to the Cree, Chippewa, Chipewyan, et al.: "All the Indians on the east side of the rocky mountains, think it very indecent for a father or mother in law, to speak to, or look in the face of a son or daughter in law; and they never do either unless they are very much intoxicated. The reason which they give for this custom, when questioned on the subject is, the peculiar intercourse which this person has had with their child." {view image of facing page 108} A Blood horseman [photogravure plate] {view image of page 109} THE SARSI Io09 he could recover nothing of the property invested in a woman now discarded. A wife learning that her husband has been guilty of adultery may let it pass because she loves him; or she may retaliate by doing likewise, or tax him with his fault and leave him. If she takes the step of giving herself to another man, and the husband learns of it and censures her, she admits it and calls his attention to his own dereliction. In this event he may say, "Go to him!" She goes and tells her lover what has occurred, and he, knowing what is expected, gives her a horse, which she brings to her husband. Thereafter this man becomes a sort of second husband. He has the privilege of coming at any time to her tipi and receiving her favors with the husband's consent. On each such occasion he gives the husband a present of nominal value. All this is with the knowledge and consent of his own wife and the woman's brothers. Should the husband and wife let the matter pass, each one committing adultery secretly, and the woman's parents learn about it, they usually kill her, for she has disgraced her family by freely giving herself to a man. A newly married man who discovers that his wife's breasts are developed beats her severely, thinking that she must have been indiscreet. Girls therefore usually marry at an early age. Some men had as many as five wives, not necessarily sisters; but the second wife was generally the younger sister of the first. All wives occupied the same lodge. A deceased man's brother generally married his widow, but was not compelled to do so, nor could he take the woman against her will. A widower was apt to look to his deceased wife's family for her successor. Many men refrained from marriage for years, because they were active in roaming the country for horses and had no time for family ties. When in spite of the efforts of medicine-men and promises to give the Sun dance and to join a society, a sick man died, the relatives came in and took away all knives and guns from his parents, so that they would not kill nor mutilate themselves. The men painted the face of the corpse, arranged its hair, and put good clothing on it. Before the body was disposed of, the parents would secure some cutting implements, such as arrow-points, and scarify the legs and wrists, and cut off their hair. Sometimes they severed a joint of the little finger. Men not relatives of the deceased wrapped the body in a skin and lashed it on a travois attached to a horse. One led the animal, the parents followed, and the rest of the relatives came be {view image of page 110} IIO THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN hind. A platform of sticks was constructed in a tree, and the body was laid on it. But for a man of means his painted tipi was pitched, all his clothing and weapons were hung in it, and the body was deposited in the position of honor. If before death a man had not bequeathed a certain favorite horse, it was led to the tree or the tipi and there killed. If it was bequeathed, its tail and mane were cut. If a dying man was visited by a good friend, he would promise a certain horse or valued weapon, and such bequests were always honored by the surviving relatives. After returning from the funeral, the father called in those who had tried to comfort him by clothing his dead son, and said to each: "Go and catch such and such a horse. It is yours." At the same time people would flock into the lodge, and each person would take one article that struck his fancy, leaving the tipi stripped of all its contents. The horses however were not subject to these claims, but remained the property of the widow. Sometimes when a wealthy man died his sons drove his horses into a bend of the stream or other favorable place and shot many of them. Mourners wore neither leggings nor moccasins. For a long time they would spend entire days on hilltops crying. After a few months the parents might adopt their dead son's best friend. If he was good to them, they treated him exactly as if he were their son. If not, they would let him go. Very seldom would an adopted son appropriate the dead man's widow. Sometimes a dying man would ask his wife to marry his friend so that his son would have a father. This wish was not to be disregarded. For a long time people refrained from uttering the name of a dead person in the presence of his relatives, but no payment was demanded of one who by chance was guilty of such bad taste. Those who had handled the corpse exposed themselves to the smoke of incense, and received payment for their services. After the period of mourning, which might be from six months to a year, each person'was visited by one of the same sex, who announced that the time of mourning was over and proceeded to dress him or her in good clothing. For this he received a horse or an article commensurate with the means of the mourner. After a corpse was removed from a dwelling, some of the people went about striking the ground and the structure here and there, driving away the ghost. The spirit of a dead person, it is thought, goes instantly eastward to Tsa-ftihl-cho, Stone Coarse Big, that is, Big Gravel hills, where the disembodied live in small tipis, cohabiting promiscuously regardless of relationship. Some spirits however {view image of facing page 110} Modern Blackfoot burial [photogravure plate] {view image of page 111} THE SARSI III remain roaming the country in which they lived as humans, and it is to guard against such that the tipis are struck with whips. Sometimes a man feels himself "possessed of a ghost," which greatly depresses him. The presence of a ghost is usually made known by a whistling sound. Feeling certain that wandering ghosts are a reality, an informant said that this is his reason for not believing the Christian religion, which tells him that all spirits go to heaven. As for his reason for believing that Big Gravel hills are the home of spirits, he said: I was very sick. For seven days I lay on my back without food. My bones were sore, the skin was almost worn off them. They told me afterward that on that seventh day my eyes were open but I could not see. My body was there, but I went walking out. I walked without touching the ground. After a time I came to four men butchering a deer. They did not look at me. An old man whom I recognized came and stood beside me, but did not look at me. He wore an old blanket and a pair of unfastened moccasins. Without looking at me he said: "See that bundle of meat. Pick it up." I thought, "How can I lift it?" He seemed to know my thought, for he got a piece of gut and tied the bundle with it, and said, " Put it on your back." I put the gut rope about my shoulders and carried the bundle homeward. As I came near the camp the dogs began to bark. A woman passed me on her way to the spring. She did not see me. I followed to get a drink. But when I stooped, the spring was full of worms, so I turned away and followed the woman. All at once I was lying in the tipi. Sweat was running from me. I was very thirsty. They gave me a little water, and before long I asked for food. Those four men butchering a deer were on their way to Big Gravel hills. As soon as I was able to walk, I went to the old man's tipi and told him I had seen him on the way to Big Gravel hills. He said: "You are still dead. Your head is not right." He thought perhaps my spirit was still wandering. I went home. A few days later I heard that he was sick. He soon died. The earth is believed to be a disc surrounded by water. The conception of an ocean is actual knowledge derived from the traders. The sun does not pass over the earth, for if it did it would always follow the same path. Since it goes overhead in midsummer and far to the south in winter, it follows that the flat earth moves by revolving in a horizontal plane. This revolution consumes an entire year, since at a given season the sun rises and sets at the same places with reference to the distant mountains. Why the moon sometimes shows only a part of its face is not known, but it must be that something solid comes between us and the moon, because if there were {view image of page 112} II2 THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN only clouds intervening some of the light would filter through. "We have never studied about that. If we had, perhaps we could find the reason." The stars are much farther away than the sun, but no explanation of them is offered. Rain comes from the clouds. It starts as snow, and as it falls becomes rain; for it has been observed that on high mountains the precipitation is in the form of snow, while below it is rain. There is no explanation of the formation of clouds. The ancient belief about thunder and lightning was the familiar one of a great bird uttering its cries and flashing its eyes. The present informant does not believe that. He thinks that no bird could send a noise and a flash of its eyes such a distance. The phenomenon must be the result of two objects striking together, something in the nature of striking fire from flint and pyrites. Sarsi medicine-men derived their power through the medium of dreams. The power is significantly called naghaf-nastal ("that-which I-dreamed"). Such dream experiences never came to a man while sleeping at home. They sometimes, but not usually, were received by individuals in trouble but not actually seeking supernatural help. Mostly the power was deliberately sought in a place suspected of being the abode of a spirit: a high hill, an overhanging bank above a dark pool, a remarkable rock, a lonely lake. Four days and nights were the rule, but not all endured that long. Some however stood the ordeal seven days and nights. During this period the suppliant ate and drank little or nothing. No fire was built at night. If a spirit visited him, he kept the nature of the revelation a secret until such time as the power was to be used. This power might be for the purpose of curing disease or of having success in war or of giving long life to the possessor. Agfhakuwile ("doctoring") is the term applied to any medicineman regardless of his particular method. Ch!at!it!a ("miracle performer") is one who uses roots and herbs taken internally. Haku hltot!i ("sucker") employs the method of sucking out the foreign object that causes, or is, disease. In many cases the same man uses both roots and sucking, and hence may be known by any one of the three terms. Mi-mihla-kulni ("his dream possesses") is a man who dreams a painted tipi. He is not a healer. Many medicine-men, becoming old, transferred their power to their sons by instruction. Various roots and herbs are used for healing, but only by the shamans; and the manner of using them and the diseases for which {view image of facing page 112} Bow River and the sandhills - Blackfoot [photogravure plate] {view image of page 113} THE SARSI II3 they are effective are learned in the vision from which comes their power. These are used for ordinary sickness. When a root doctor is summoned, he supplies the remedy, tells how to use it, offers a prayer, and departs. At such times there is little singing. A mother would not think of giving a sick child an herb remedy of her own choice. Crow Collar narrated his own experience as an illustration of the manner of obtaining and employing curative power. Before I was married my father gave me a long steel dagger with a handle made of the bone of a bear's fore-leg. At the end of the handle were some eagle tail-feathers, two long bear-teeth, two bearears, and some small bells. Two strings of otter-fur hung from the handle. With the knife were a necklace of bear-claws and a belt of bear-skin. I still have the knife and the necklace. My father was going to give me his power. He painted me yellow from head to foot and put red paint on my forehead, green below my eyes, a black mark like a bear's tooth on each cheek. He engaged two men to beat drums. He told me to get on my knees in the doorway. He told me not to jump. The knife was thrust into the ground at the back of the tipi. "My son, if you jump, worms will devour you. Spread your hands ready." He then threw the knife straight at my chest. The drums were beating. Before the knife reached my chest, I clapped my hands together and caught it. My father said: "Now, my son, four nights do not sleep in the tipi. Sleep outside anywhere you like. I have pity on you because you are my son. Through me you shall have power." Four nights I slept on the prairie. On the fourth night he [Bear] came walking up to me. When my father gave me the knife he taught me the four songs. Bear now sang the first of these songs. He gave me his two small fingers to tie at my wrists. "My son, this is the way you will doctor sick people." He put his mouth to the ground. When he raised his head, he had a small crawfish. That is how I am a medicine-man. "The way I did this, my son, you do the same. This way you will take out sickness." Bear was right, because I have many times cured sickness this way. The last time was two years ago. I still have the power. When they come for me, they generally pay me first. Two years ago the brother of Two Guns came to me and after dismounting said: "My brother Two Guns is very sick. This horse I am riding I give to you. Come and cure my brother." I had my horse picketed. The camp was a little distance away, too far to walk; so I rode there. I went to his tipi. The horse they had given me was tethered outside. I felt the sick man's body and told him there was nothing wrong with his body. I asked, "Have you drunk anything?" I have the power to see what is outside, but not what is inside. He answered, "Yes, I drank some medicine." Two Guns' wife filled a pipe and placed it behind the fire. I told them to set a small dish VOL. XVIII-15 {view image of page 114} II4 THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN beside me. Two Guns lay at my side. I sang two songs. I put a hollow bone cylinder against his body and sucked, and spit some yellow medicine into the dish. I did this three times, and the third time I got the real poison from his body. I struck my chest a few times to drive the sickness out by magic, and then spit it out. It made me sick, and I could do nothing more. I told them I had the poison and it was making me sick. I struck my chest and vomited. I took the pipe and prayed to my dream which Bear had given me: "You told me you would give me power to cure sickness. Now give this sick man health. To you I smoke this pipe." I lighted and smoked it. In my dream Bear told me about four kinds of medicine. One for sickness of the heart, one for sickness of the kidneys or the lungs, one for headache or loss of appetite, one for stomach cramp and constipation. All were roots. The first one is the root of bearberry, the third is a yellow-flowering plant growing in sloughs and having a sticky centre in the flower. I am not afraid to tell you this, because I know you cannot take my power. It is mine. Tipis symbolically painted in a manner prescribed in a dream are held in high regard, because no ill luck comes to those who live in them and because they bring a good price when transferred. Each painted tipi has an individual name referring to its decoration and to the "flag" hanging from its peak. A native readily identifies such a tipi by its name. The following narrations are typical of the dream experiences in which painted tipis are acquired. North of Calgary is an elevation called Nose hill. Near by are several lakes called Rolling lakes from the rough, rocky character of the country. It was winter. I was a grown man, sliding down [that is, past twenty-five, at which age a man gave up participation in youthful amusements]. I was on the hill looking around and saw my father come out of his tipi with a gun on his shoulder. I went down to my grandfather's and changed my moccasins. I dressed well and took my knife. I followed my father's tracks. I went some little distance, and then heard the gun. A little farther I came upon buffalo-tracks. I saw drops of blood and followed them up to a slough, and there I saw a buffalo on its back. I did not see my father. I began to butcher it. The head was pointing east. I cut a piece of fat from the breast, sat down on the head, and started to eat. I heard another shot. It was growing late. I heard a wind coming, and soon it began to snow hard. I lay down in the shelter of the buffalo. It became dark. All night it snowed. My father did not know I had followed him. In the middle of the night I lost my senses. The buffalo spoke: "My son, I have pity for you. I {view image of facing page 114} In a Blackfoot camp [photogravure plate] {view image of page 115} THE SARSI I15 will give you my tipi. You see this gray hair on my head? I will give you that also. Here is my tail; I give you that. Now see the tipi I give you." The tipi faced eastward. There was a buffalo painted on the left and one on the right. "My son, do not fear to make this tipi. I am the one who with six others came out of the mountains. Pray to me; I am jealous; do not pray to any other." The tipi had a calf-skin hanging from its peak. I looked at the tipi again, and it was covered with buffalo. "Do not give this tipi away to other tribes. Keep it among your own people. All evil will fail to touch you so long as you live in this tipi." That is how I got a painted tipi. I made one just like that when the time came, a few years ago.1 I have now had it nearly four years, and when the fourth year has passed I shall have to transfer it to someone. The Buffalo gave me four songs to go with the tipi. I was just growing up. The band was moving camp along Cut Knife creek [north of Battleford in Saskatchewan]. This creek was so called from a Sarsi chief of that name, who was killed there. I had no moccasins and no leggings. I was walking behind the band. I was very poor. A yellow weasel met me. He went down into a hole. We used to carry a hank of sinew for trapping weasels. I set a snare over the hole. While waiting for the weasel to come out, I lost myself [became unconscious]. I was taken into Weasel's tipi. It was painted with three rows of yellow circles representing the sun and the stars. He said: "My son, this tipi I give you. This is the song that goes with it. My name is Weasel Bear." About two years ago I painted this tipi for the first time and gave [sold] it to a Stony [northern Assiniboin] Indian. Weasel Bear gave me no medicine to cure sickness. Another time, after I had been going to war, the camp was moving. I was walking along a bank. I saw many snakes. I sat down apart from them to rest. While I was sleeping I lost myself. A little boy came to me. Half of his hair was cut close. He said, "My father asks you to come down." He repeated it, but I did not go down. The boy went away. Then a little girl came. She touched my foot and said, "My father asks you to come down." I found myself in a tipi. One side was red, the other yellow. On the red side was painted a large blue eagle; on the yellow side were many stars. Snake said: "I have pity for you, my son. I give you this tipi. I give you this song." When the song was finished, a chum of mine came and shook me. This nearly spoiled everything. I got no more songs from Snake. He did not tell me how to cure sickness. I have not yet made this tipi, but I shall do so when the time comes. Then if anyone wants it, I shall give it up, because Snake gave me no instructions to keep it. 1 All visions, whether for healing power, war power, or a painted tipi, remained unfulfilled by the dreamer until many years had elapsed. {view image of page 116} II6 THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN About thirty years ago I lost a horse that I was keeping for old times' sake. I thought he was mired somewhere, so I went down along the creek looking for him. I followed the creek and saw a beaver-dam. A man stood there. I came up to him. He told me to wait. Then I lost myself. I heard someone singing in the beaverdam. There were two songs. An old man with matted hair came out, followed by a woman. The man had a digging-stick wrapped in a skin, and the woman had a bundle. A girl came behind them and had a beaver-skin draped over her right shoulder. They went around the way the sun goes. The man stood next to me, then the woman, then the girl, on the north side of me. He said: "My son, look toward that slough. We are going into the tipi. This tipi I will give you." He took me into his tipi under the dam. The woman laid the bundle at the back opposite the door. "Four days I will mark for you. What has happened here you must not reveal during these four days." He gave me two songs. Two days passed and this woman of mine asked me, "Why are you so without life?" I told her what had happened to me. Then I was sorry I had told her. I went back to the dam. The man appeared to me again. He said: "I will give you only this tipi which you saw, and nothing else. I was going to give you something more, but you have not listened to me. My name is Chief Beaver. I have another house on Bow river." I got nothing except the tipi. It was all yellow and had a dark beaver on each side at the back, and another pair on the sides near the door. If I had not told my wife too soon, I should have received the Water Bundle.1 I have not yet made this tipi. Some time I will paint it. The following narrative describes the ceremony of transferring a painted tipi and a name My father's sister had painted a tipi like the one my grandfather had. The original, made like a dream of my grandfather, had been given to my father and was abandoned when he died. My brotherin-law [father's sister's husband] called in some men to do the singing, and then sent for me. I had not been told that the tipi was to be given to me. When I came to the painted tipi, he told me to sit at the back. Then I knew what was going to be done. He said: "This is your father's tipi. That is why I called you." At the back of the lodge where I sat were a blanket, a pair of moccasins, and a pipe. I said: "Good. I will give you two horses." I had been present when my grandfather pitched the original of this lodge. He had said, "If my dream is true, a prairie-chicken will perch on the poles." As soon as the tipi was set up, a prairie-chicken alighted on the peak. So I was glad to be able to buy the tipi. My brother-in-law took my hand and picked up a small ax. He 1 See page 1 8. {view image of facing page 116} A medicine-bag - Blackfoot [photogravure plate] {view image of page 117} THE SARSI II7 spit out some incense which he was chewing, and made four motions of putting the ax in my hand. With the fourth motion he gave it to me and guided my hand in cutting away the turf to make the place for burning incense. He started then to paint me, and my aunt painted my wife. In this case the face was made yellow, with a red stripe across the mouth and another across the eyes. In other cases the painting would be different, referring to the decoration of the tipi itself. Then my brother-in-law announced: "Now I am giving this tipi to Tazika-tani-hlta ['in-midst gun he-captures'].1 At the same time I am giving him the name of his father, Ihlacha-missalla ['eagle-tail-feather with necklace']." After this was finished, he guided my hand with four ceremonial motions, and placed a pair of sticks in it. With these he made four motions, and with the fourth he lifted a coal from the fire and set it on the hearth. On it he dropped some incense leaves. His wife then guided my wife through the same acts. All this was at night. During the day my brother-in-law had gone to the custodian of the Water Bundle with a blanket, or some other gift, and asked for the rattles. The custodian made incense, ceremonially held the bag of eight rattles in the smoke, and then roughly thrust it at my brother-in-law, who took it to the painted tipi. After incense had been offered, my brother-in-law took a rattle and each of the seven men to his left took another, and they began to sing the four songs belonging to the tipi. I listened, and sang as best I could, learning the songs. When these were finished, the rattles were passed one seat to the left, and the man at my brotherin-law's left sang the four songs of his own tipi, the others helping the best they could. Thus the rattles went around the circle to the left, and four songs were sung for every man present. Most of the men were, or had been, owners of painted tipis, but a few old men who had never owned one were there. Such a man had to engage another to sing four songs for him. The singing was repeated on the next three nights. Around this tipi near the bottom was a row of connected semicircles in red, and above each semicircle was a red prairie-chicken, as if perched on a hill. There were ten on each half of the tipi. Near the top were four red rings encircling the lodge, one above another. Above these on the north side were five small red circles representing Soh-tafShichachi ["star bunch-sitting-on-something," the Pleiades], and on the south side seven circles representing Sohchisch!iti ["star bunch," Ursa Major]. From each ventilating flap hung a buffalo-tail [the distinguishing "flag"], and a third was inside at the top of the doorway. Small bells were attached to the tails. I kept this tipi two years and then sold it for two horses, just what I had paid for it. It has since been sold to a Blackfoot. 1 This individual is now usually known by an abbreviation of his original name, Tazika. {view image of page 118} Ii8 THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN Among the Sarsi are three priesthoods having custody of the sacred bundles known respectively as Tu-wihl ("water bundle"), Mist!6-kas, or Mist!oti-kas ("pipe alone"), and Mist!oti-dihlkashf ("pipe black"). They are in all respects like the priesthoods of the Blackfoot tribes, from whom doubtless the cults were derived. The Water Bundle contains the skins of various aquatic beasts and birds, a buffalo-tail with small bells attached, a buffalo-rib used for stirring berry soup, seven deer-bladders, a quantity of tobacco seed, and t!a. The last-named article is a bark cup covered with a dried buffalo scrotum. The edge is a wooden hoop sewed to the bark with rawhide cord. Fastened here and there to the inner surface are several crow-feathers, to each of which is attached a beaver toe-nail. All these objects are wrapped in a buffalo-hide, on the outside of which, secured by a rawhide rope, are two black-stone pipes and a digging-stick. Occasionally a group of men will come to the custodian of the bundle, and each gives him a large piece of tobacco, asking that he place it inside a certain skin. Only one piece is put in a given skin. The custodian then sings the song for the opening of the bundle and the songs pertaining to the animals with the skins of which the tobacco has been placed. At the conclusion of each song he removes the twist of tobacco from that skin, cuts it in halves, gives one piece to the man who brought it, and keeps the other for himself. The ceremonial planting of tobacco, in which the Water Bundle plays a leading part, has not been done for many years, and all informants declined to discuss it. In former times it is said they opened the bundle at each new moon, and beginning with the first winter moon one of the seven deer-bladders was turned with the orifice pointing in the opposite direction, by which means they kept account of the seven winter moons. The mythic account of the origin of the Water Bundle follows: A man went hunting buffalo on horseback in the time of my great grandfather's great grandfather's great grandfather.1 Far in the north there is a large lake. He saw there herds of buffalo running. They were headed for a large hill. He went around to intercept them. The buffalo came close to him. He was looking carefully to see which was the fattest. He fired his flint-lock. It fell, and the others ran away. He went to butcher the animal. It was a very hot day, and 1Ten generations go back to a time long antedating the horse era; but the informant insists the story is right on both points. {view image of facing page 118} Frame of the sun-lodge - Piegan [photogravure plate] {view image of page 119} THE SARSI II9 he threw off his clothes. He tied up his hair. He turned the animal on its back with the head under the carcass. He drew his knife. He whetted it. He slit the skin down the breast and inside the legs. He flayed it. He cut off the legs and laid them aside. He cut off the fleshy parts and spread them in the sun. He laid the hind-quarters in a separate place. He cut all the meat from the bones, ready to be taken to camp. With a shin-bone he was knocking off the ribs, getting them ready to carry home. He separated all the bones into short lengths. He began to cut the hide into long strips for a packrope. The meat he wrapped in the rest of the hide. Just as he was ready to pack the horse he looked up and observed a small cloud. He was stooping to tie the bundle when something moved between his legs. He saw a monster from the lake. A horn was in the centre of its head. It coiled about his feet. Its head was between his legs. It spoke to him: "Son, see me. You are living on this earth and I am living on this earth. My word is strong. The reason I want you to protect me is this: See that cloud in the sky. That which pursues me fears human beings." The man heard a clap of thunder. He saw three Thunders [Cha] sitting opposite him. One was black, one was blue, one was white. "My son," they said, "move aside. We want to eat it." The water monster said: "No, my son. I will give you something, power for you and your children. Do not listen to them, my son. They will go away, and you will never see them again. My son, if you do not do what I ask, some day you will step over water." He meant that the man would die while stepping across a pool of water. The Thunders said, "No, my son, we will give you something better if you will move aside." The man spoke then for the first time: "No, I pity this animal. Take my meat instead." The Thunders looked up, and lightning flashed from their eyes. They disappeared, and the meat also was nowhere to be seen. The water creature was saved. "My son, you shall see what I give you. This will last a long time. Do not give it to any other tribe. There are many other things belonging with it. All the animals that live in the water, and all things that fly, make a bundle of them." He gave the man a bark cup covered with the scrotum of a buffalo, and sang all the songs, one by one, for the things that were to be in the bundle. "Now, my son, lead me to the lake." The man led the creature to the lake. "Now, my son, look at me." It went into the lake, and a great column of water was thrown into the air. The man went home with the charm. He at once made the four rawhide rattles he had been told about, and he killed one of each kind of water animal and bird that he could find, and prepared their skins, and some skins he bought from those who could find them. The bundle known as Mist!6kas, or Mist!otikas, was formerly called Cha-mist!oti ("thunder pipe"). A stone pipe and a quantity of cloth are enclosed in a skin wrapping, and associated with the {view image of page 120} I20 THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN bundle are four drums of buffalo-hide stretched over wooden rings. When the first thunder is heard in spring, the drums are struck and a dance is arranged, the sponsor being some man who has promised to act in this capacity in order that a sick relative may recover. He dances with the pipe, and pays the custodian of the bundle. The singers are those who happen to know the songs, and doubtless are principally former custodians. Control of the bundle passes at rather frequent intervals, the price being fifteen to twenty horses. An informant can recall ten changes of ownership. The pipe is said to have been obtained by Tsassi-hayihla ("crow has-(for)-pennant," referring to a crow-skin dangling from the peak of a painted tipi) and his friend Dit!fnni-ditlighi ("eagle spotted") from a factor whose fort at Hudson bay they visited. The Black Pipe bundle, said to have been acquired from the Blackfeet, is used in the same way as the Thunder Pipe. In both cases the prayers are to Thunder and Sun. The principal religious ceremony of the Sarsi was the Sun dance, which they called Tsistatl!uwu.1 The ceremony was held only as the fulfilment of a vow by a virtuous wife that she would "make Sun dance" if a sick relative recovered. Adopted as a result of Sarsi affiliation with the Blackfeet, its similarity to the Plains ceremony is evidenced by the following account of a certain individual's first participation. When I made my first war-party and captured a horse, I was sixteen or seventeen. This was the year the first smallpox came.2 I had promised the Sun that if I returned unharmed I would take part in the Sun dance. Big Bear made a dance that summer north of Red Deer river at a place called Kicking hill, from a fight between two enemies who met there without weapons and pummelled each other. The people camped in a circle, and young men dug the holes for the posts of the sun-lodge, and others went for the timbers. There were many Cree and Blackfeet and Bloods camping there. The central post was selected by a noted warrior, who sought it out in the manner of a scout. After marking the tree, he came home like a scout and kicked a pile of dry dung, and the young men scrambled to obtain a bit of this dung. Success in this meant good luck in stealing a horse. The scout made his report, and led the young men on horses to the tree. There he recited the 1Tsis, hill; ta, sit, established; tl!u, herb medicine; wi, probably a collective affix. 2 If the event referred to is the great epidemic that swept through the northwest in i837-I838, the narrator, Old Sarsi, must have been about five years older than the ninetyeight years he claimed. {view image of facing page 120} Offerings in the sun-lodge - Piegan [photogravure plate] {view image of page 121} THE SARSI 121 account of four of his great deeds, and said, "This young man who is going to cut this tree, may he do the same things!" The riders tied their ropes to the tree and dragged it to the camp and piled a fagot under the top so that it resembled a man lying on a pillow. The pole was raised with shears made of tipi-poles, and as it rose men and women came flocking out of the tipis, singing. Some of them tied children's moccasins to the pole, so that the children would have long life.' After the framework was up, young men and women on horses brought in bundles of willows, with which they thatched it. The warriors of all the societies came and recited their brave deeds. A Blackfoot was going to make me brave. He put rings of white sage about my wrists, ankles, and head. He painted me yellow from head to foot. I lay down. He said, "If you are going to be an old man, this rope will not break out of your flesh." He raised the skin and flesh on my breast, thrust a knife under it, pushed a bit of wood through the slit and looped the end of a rawhide rope under the ends of the stick. When this was done, he fixed another stick in the same way on the other breast. Then I got up and clasped the pole and bowed my head on my arms and prayed to the Sun. I went back to my place and the Blackfoot pulled on the rope to see if it would break out. Then he tied the other end to the top of the pole, and I started to dance, pulling back; but it would not break the flesh. After a long time an old woman got behind me, put her arms around my neck, and pulled back. Still it did not break. All this time I was looking at the sun. I was beginning to faint. Finally I fell. They got another old man, who stood beside me and told his war record. Then they cut the flesh and pulled out the sticks. I was too weak to walk, and was carried out. I was the only one dancing at that time. After they carried me out, different warriors, one after another, stood up and told their records and gave away property, and a feast ended the day. At night a fire was built, each warrior putting on a single stick and recounting a deed. The dancing lasted all night. Young men who did not wish to participate took their lovers on horses and circled about the camp, singing during the night. The ceremony continued three days more, with boasting of war deeds by the members of different societies. Any warrior who had promised to do so would stand within a small circle outlined on the ground and dance as long as possible, looking at the sun and sounding his bone whistle. The dance was started by a woman as a pledge for the recovery of a sick husband or male relative. She must be able to stand up publicly and truthfully say that she had never committed adultery. If she lied about this, the sick person would die. Children's moccasins were never carelessly thrown away, but were always disposed as offerings. VOL. XVIII I6 {view image of page 122} I22 THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN Along with other phases of Plains culture the Sarsi acquired certain societies, the functions of which were partly social, partly religious, partly military. The following groups are named: Ts!i'hina, Mosquitoes Tawo' 1 Tl!ikuwa, Dogs Nakulchuusna, Preventers Taskih-na, Black-painted-ones Tl!itaq6hlchita, Dogs Reckless Each society had one, two, or four leaders, who wore distinctive regalia. Membership was obtained by purchase, and was evidenced by acquisition of the dispossessed member's accoutrement. Having sold his membership, a man proceeded to join another society. No fixed sequence was observed, hence Sarsi societies are not properly described as age-societies; but for most men the Mosquitoes were the first step. Annually in spring or summer each society pitched its lodge inside the circle and engaged in dancing, a notable feature of which consisted in rushing forth to harass the spectators in a manner suggestive of the name of the society. All the societies except Mosquitoes and Taw6' had pseudomilitary duties. They preserved order in large encampments, especially at the Sun dance, and had the right to destroy the tipis and clothing of those who resisted or disobeyed them at such times. The Reckless Dogs were pledged never to retreat from an enemy while a companion was in danger. Sarsi mythologists of course recite many tales familiar to Plains culture, such as The Girl Who Married a Star, Blood-clot Boy, Scarface, the creation of the earth from a bit of mud brought up from the depths of the water, and a long cycle of the amusing and sometimes indescribable adventures of the trickster, whom the Sarsi variously call Falifta-finna ("old-man not-respected"), Chutighaf ("liar"), and Nihlka-kulakyi ("earth maker"). Other myths, if not unique, at least contain elements less widely employed. Such are the tales of His Grandmother Reared Him, His Brother Chopped the Tree Down with Him in the Water, and Snake Sleeping. 1 A small yellow bird found in sloughs. {view image of facing page 122} Central post of the sun lodge - Piegan [photogravure plate] {view image of page 123} Mythology {view image of page 124} {view image of page 125} MYTHOLOGY Be-tsune-yenehlshai, His Grandmother She-reared-him 1 PEOPLE were living on an island in a lake. They were fishing through the ice. The women would hear a child crying, and would search for it, but none could find it. When they came close to the place, the crying ceased, and as soon as they went away it was heard again. An old woman went alone to search for the infant. She perceived that the sound came from a large heap of caribou-dung. She scraped it aside and found a baby no larger than her thumb. She placed it in the thumb of her mitten and carried it home. The baby grew rapidly. One day the little boy, still no larger than an ordinary baby, said: "Grandmother, tell my four uncles, whenever they kill a caribou they are to bring me the front feet. I like to play with them." Another day he said, "My eldest uncle has a caribou foot and has not brought it to me." His grandmother went to the tipi of her eldest son and said, "My grandchild wants his caribou foot." He answered: "Oh, that is not for him. I too have a child, and he likes to play with caribou feet." So she returned without the foot and told her grandson what had occurred. He said: "Grandmother, we will not go with them. We will go west." "Oh, my grandchild, how would we live? You know your uncles hunt and bring me some of their meat. That is how we live. Who will feed us if we do not go with them?" "Do not fear. We shall have plenty, and they will be the hungry ones." So they went westward by themselves. They came to a small lake in which fish had never been caught. He said, "Grandmother, make a hole in the ice and put in your hook." So she heated stones and made a hole in the ice. "Put in your hook, grandmother." As soon as she had done so, he exclaimed, "Somebody is coming!" A fish seized the hook and she pulled out a large trout. "Put in your hook again, grandmother; I think you will catch another kind." She did so, and he said, "Somebody is coming!" She drew out a whitefish. "Try again, grandmother; I think you will catch another kind." She put in her hook. "Somebody is coming!" he said. She pulled out a maskinonge. "That will be enough. We have plenty, and I think my uncles will be hungry." "Oh, do not say that! They are my sons. I do not wish them to starve." "Grandmother, they will not starve. They will be hungry, but after a time they will kill a bear and then all will be right." 2 One day the boy said, "Grandmother, make me some snowshoes." She made a pair of tiny snowshoes and bundled him in his jis-kure-i ["mittens round-pointed coat"].3 She tied a leather belt about his waist, and he went out to play. When night came, he had not returned. She wept, thinking he must have fallen into a snowdrift and frozen. She cried herself to sleep, 1 A Chipewyan tale. 2 A period of unsuccessful hunting is caused by a spell, which is broken when a bear is killed. 3 A coat of caribou-hide for children, with sleeves closed at the bottom and with cap attached, the sleeves slit at the wrists so that the hands could be used when necessary, and the skin sometimes doubled so that there was fur outside as well as next to the skin. 125 {view image of page 126} 126 THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN and in the middle of the night she felt something cold at her breast. Her grandchild had returned and crept under the bedding. In the morning he stood up and said, "Grandmother, untie my belt." She did so, and a large number of objects fell out. "What is that, my grandson?" "Why, grandmother, those are caribou tongues." "Where did you get them?" "Oh, I have killed many caribou. Come and see them." They went a short distance and she found a large number of dead caribou. He had been playing with them, and in their gambols he had bitten off their tongues and they had died from loss of blood. The old woman butchered them and filled their tipi with meat. One day Betfsunyenehilhain said: "Grandmother, I am going to visit my uncles. I think they are hungry." He put on his little snowshoes and went straight toward their camp, although they had moved away from the old place. A short distance from the lake where they were now camped he took off his snowshoes and became a small caribou. He went to the holes where they had been fishing, and found the bundles of branches on which the fishermen sat. He kicked them all aside, went back to his snowshoes, and returned home. Again his grandmother had cried herself to sleep, and in the night found him creeping in to warm himself at her breast. In the morning he said, "Grandmother, I think my uncles will soon be coming." At their camp his uncles went to fish that morning and saw the tracks of a caribou, which had kicked their bundles of branches aside. They said: "Caribou do not do that. It must be Btfsuneyenehshhain." One of them followed the trail and found where the snowshoes had been left, and saw that the caribou tracks became the marks of snowshoes. He followed them, and came to his mother's tipi. The boy told him to bring his brothers, and when they arrived they feasted on caribou meat. The boy said, "Hereafter you must always bring me the front feet of the caribou you kill." Bozeli-aze, Powerless Small BOZELINAZE had two handsome wives and a fine camp. But he was so small that people thought him only a little boy. One day he saw a trail in the snow leading across a small lake. At the other side was smoke. He followed the trail and came to a tipi. Inside were two women, a small one and a large, fat one. They did not move aside and offer him a seat, and he sat down near the door. They were cooking a piece of beaver fat on a spit over the coals. The fat woman said: "Little boy, fetch some snow for water. Some day you may be my husband." She was joking him because she thought him a little boy playing with his father's snowshoes. He took the bark pail and brought snow from the foot of a birch where the dogs had been urinating. The woman angrily threw it out. She cut off a thin strip of fat where the spit-stick passed through it and gave it to him. He was displeased, because he was used to good food in plenty. So he slipped it inside his shirt and soon departed. On the back trail he thrust into the snow the spit-stick with the bit of fat still impaled on it. When the husband of the two women came homeward he saw a trail, and beside it the stick with a piece of beaver fat. He went on home and asked, "Who was here?" The woman said: "Oh, a foolish little boy who brought me snow on which the dogs had urinated. I told him some day he would be my husband, making fun of him." The man was displeased, because he thought perhaps this boy belonged to good people. The next day he took his wives and followed the trail to a fine camp. Two women outside were working with large quantities of meat. The tipi was lined with beaver fur. There sat the boy. It was plain that he was the man of this camp. "Come in," said Bozelinaze. The man entered, but his two wives remained outside with the women of the camp. Bozelinaz6 ordered his wives to prepare food, and they roasted a sheet of the fat that lines a moose's belly. When it was dripping hot grease, Bozelinaz6 gave it to his visitor, who greedily ate it. Then he gave him a pail of cold water. When the man 1 A Chipewyan tale encouraging hospitality. {view image of page 127} MYTHOLOGY I27 drank, the hot fat became tallow, and he choked and strangled. Then Bozelinaz~ went outside and lay with the fat woman who had promised jokingly to be his wife. He came back and said: "This woman promised to be my wife. Well, I have already used her. She is mine. If this makes you angry, you can fight me now." "No, my friend, you may keep her." So the man went away with his other wife, and Bozelinaz6 had three. Tseqi Tsatsane Hehohl'ai, Woman Copper She-found AN Eskimo captured a woman and took her northward across the great water. She bore a child and lived in that country two or three years. But she was homesick and cried. One night she took her child and ran away. At the shore of the great water she sat down and cried. A wolf came close and looked at her. Tears were streaming down her face. The wolf licked them off. He whimpered like a dog, i'ni'i, and ran a few steps toward the water. He stopped, looked back, and whimpered. He went a little farther and looked back. The woman thought, "It must be that he wants me to follow him." She got up and followed. The wolf ran down to the water and stepped into it. She found the water very shallow, and days and nights she followed him until at last they came to the other shore. Tired out, she lay down to rest. Looking back, she saw the water dotted with shapes. She thought the Eskimo were pursuing her, but after a time she perceived that it was a large herd of caribou crossing the water. They landed at a cut-bank, and climbed up by a narrow trail through a gap. At the top the woman waited. She had tied a sharp awl to a stick, and as the caribou passed, she pierced them. But only one was killed. It lay down under a tree and died. The woman butchered it and dried the meat. She cleaned the stomach, filled it with blood, fat, and meat, and cooked it with hot stones. When she opened it to eat, the baby greedily seized it. She saw that he was voracious, and feared him. She said: "My child, wait here. I will carry the dry meat a little way and come back for you. I cannot carry the meat and you at the same time." The child did not object. He was satisfied with the blood sausage. The woman took up her load of dry meat, and from the top of the hill she looked back and saw the child greedily devouring the sausage. Many days she travelled. One night she thought she saw the light of a fire, and rejoiced because she would find her people. But the next day she saw no camp. At night she beheld the light again, just as far away as before, and again she found no camp. After observing the light on four successive nights she searched carefully in the place where it had appeared to be. She found two lumps of shining yellow material, the like of which she had never seen. It was heavy and hard. She struck one piece with the other, and found that it could be shaped. She beat out a knife and sharpened the edge by rubbing it on a stone. She proceeded, and on the top of each hill as she journeyed she raised a large stone, marking the trail. When at last she found her people and told them of her discovery, the men asked her to go back and show them the place. But she said: "I have marked the trail. From the top of each hill you will be able to see a stone on the top of the next." Still they insisted that she accompany them, and she agreed when they promised not to molest her. When they arrived at the place, they made what implements they desired. They called the yellow material ftafi'nne.2 Then some proposed that they use the woman, and though others objected, they did so. They prepared to return home, but the woman refused to accompany them. The next time they visited the place they found her sitting in the same spot, but her body had sunk into the ground above the waist, and the lumps of fiafa'ne- were half hidden in the soil. They took what they wished and asked the woman to go home with them. Again she refused, and said that whenever they came they should leave meat for her. The third 1 Narrated by a Chipewyan. The myth belongs to the Yellowknives, but is well known to all the northern Athapascans. The incident of the greedy child abandoned by the mother through fear of its blood-lust, and that of the woman becoming embedded in the ground, are reminiscent of Kwakiutl mythology. Perhaps the source of these conceptions, so far as the Kwakiutl and the northern Athapascans are concerned, is Eskimoan. 2 The word appears to mean "beaver excrement." But the narrator said that to him there is a difference of pitch between the terms for beaver excrement and copper. See page 4. {view image of page 128} I28 THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN time a party visited the place there was neither woman nor fiatafi"n. They killed a caribou and left the meat. The next year they found that the flesh had become ftaftia"n; but that which had been the liver was too hard for use, and that which had been the lungs was too soft. The First Beavers 1 AN old woman fell in love with her son-in-law, and while he was hunting, she killed her daughter. She scalped her, and put the skin over her own gray hair. When her son-in-law returned with a deer, she opened it and they sat down to eat the tripe. Knowing that her toothless gums would not produce the crackling sound made in chewing raw tripe, she secretly threw a handful of ashes on her portion; and lest the man observe her gums, she sat half averted and without speaking to him. Unused to such treatment, he became angry. He grasped her hair to chastise her. The scalp came off. In the morning he went hunting, and the old woman moved camp after him. During the day he worked back to the old camp and found the body of his wife. He put the scalp on her head and lay down beside her. In the morning she was alive. They rejoined his mother-inlaw, and the three lived as before. The woman had a child. One day her mother said, "Son-in-law, when you are breaking trail, leave a sign at every slough, stream, or lake that you cross." So whenever he crossed water he broke down a tree and made a mark in the snow pointing the direction of his trail. One day he crossed a valley so narrow that he thought it useless to leave a sign. He went on, marked the place where they would camp, and proceeded to hunt. In the evening he returned to the intended camping place, but nobody was there. He went back along his trail, and in the valley where he had left no sign he found a beaver-dam and a large pond. He saw a whiteheaded old beaver swimming with a younger one and a very small one. He realized that these were his family. He called his wife and his child. The smallest one swam close to him, but when he extended his hand, it dived. He begged them to come with him, but the white-haired one said: "You have started something for all time. We shall remain beavers." It is because beavers were once people that they work like humans. Dza-ghal-iaze, Lower-leg Trembles Little 2 A GREAT chief was Dzahailiaze. He lived in the tundra country far east of Cold lake. One day a band of caribou were reported to be lying on the ice of a small lake. He sent his men to set snares in all the trails leading into the brush that surrounded the lake, and themselves to take their places beside the trails and wait with their spears. When the snares were set, some of the men rushed out on the ice to drive the animals into the snares. But instead of caribou they found Cree disguised by covering themselves with skins and wearing antlers. A fierce fight ensued. A woman came running to the chief's tipi and told what was going on. He dashed out upon the ice. The strong wind that was blowing retarded him, and he turned his shoulders so as to offer less resistance to it. Just as he reached the enemy, he slipped on the ice and shot forward under the spears that were directed toward him. Their spears struck the ice. He turned and attacked them with his spear; his men rallied and destroyed the Cree. He was a very small man, but could run faster than a caribou. Once the Chipewyan had been looking for the Cree, but could not find them. Much discouraged, Dzaghiliaz6 was walking behind the party. They climbed a small hill, and suddenly drew back. Dzaghiliaz6 came up and asked what was the matter. "Something dangerous! Do not go there!" But he insisted. He started forward, leaving them holding the blanket. They ran to the top of the hill and saw something like a cloud of smoke. When the cloud subsided, they saw their chief standing between two great white bears, leaning with his chin on his little spear. He had killed both animals. They cut them up and feasted. Then they went on, still discouraged because they could not find the Cree. Dzahailiaze went ahead. He came back and reported that he had found a man and a woman. The men 1 This Chipewyan myth was cited as evidence that the mother-in-law taboo was not a custom of that tribe. 2 "Little Shaky-leg" was probably an actual person whose deeds have attained the status of miracles. The story was told by a Chipewyan. {view image of page 129} MYTHOLOGY I29 hurried forward to the attack and discovered a great camp of Cree on a point of land. All the Cree in the country had assembled in a large summer camp, and it was for that reason that the Chipewyan had been unable to come upon one of their camps. They rushed forward to the attack. Unobserved by the others, Dzahailiaz6 went around and attacked from the point of the peninsula. As the slaughter proceeded, he met his men more than half-way, for he had killed more than half of the enemy. Da-tsa-thi, Beak Excrement [Raven] Head 1 DATSANTHI, whose mother was a captive Cree, was a great leader in the border country between the Cree and the Chipewyan along the line from Athabasca lake to Cree and Caribou [Reindeer] lakes. He sometimes associated with the Cree, sometimes with the Chipewyan, but mostly with the latter. Fighting was a mania with him. All feared him, but none could kill him. He was called Raven Head because of a skirt of raven-skins, the beaks of which were tied together, two and two. The people were camped beside a lake, and Raven Head went for birch-bark to make a canoe. While he was absent, the Cree attacked the camp, and when he and a small boy who had accompanied him returned, they found everybody dead, even the old grandmother with whom he lived. He said, "I am going to sleep here." He placed the dead in a heap and said to the boy: "While I sleep, if you see the Cree coming, call to me, 'Wolverene is coming!"' He slept so long that the corpses were rotting beside him. His power was working to bring the Cree back. At last the boy saw a large number of canoes approaching, and he called, "Wolverene is coming!" But Raven Head lay there like a dead man. He called again, and Raven Head leaped up. When he saw the Cree, he sent the boy into the bush. The Cree did not recognize him, for he was creeping about, crying, calling upon father and mother, as if he were a small boy. The Cree said one to another, "There is a boy we did not kill." They came ashore and leaped out of their canoes. But Raven Head turned suddenly and with a large bone broke their legs and arms. He made them sit in a circle and called for the boy. He gave him his spear and let him kill all the crippled Cree. Niyanimis Overcomes Cold 2 THERE was a large camp. A baby began to cry and continued far into the night. Its mother tried in every way to soothe it, and at last she impatiently pushed it aside to the doorway, and immediately it ceased. She and her husband fell asleep. In the morning they heard a man and a woman in another tipi suddenly begin to wail, and saw them go from tipi to tipi, crying: "Our baby is lost! The bag is empty!" The next night their baby cried again, and would not stop until it was pushed aside to the doorway. And in the morning another infant's bag was empty. This continued to happen, and after the sixth child had disappeared an old man came to the tipi of the crying baby. He said, "I will sleep here." Again the baby cried and was pushed aside, and the parents fell asleep. But the old man watched. He saw the baby begin to squirm and wriggle, and finally slip out of its bag. The baby shook itself and became a white owl. It flew up through the smoke-vent. Soon the old man heard the sound of a baby crying in the air. The sound passed rapidly away into the distance. Then the white owl flew back through the vent, alighted on the floor, shook itself, and became a baby. It squirmed and wriggled back into the bag and slept. In the morning another baby-bag was empty. The old man called the people together and said: "It is this Niyinimis that is stealing your infants. He is a white owl." The child's father said: "Well, if my child is stealing your children, take him. Do what you will with him. You had better kill him or there will be no infants left." They answered: "No, we could not do that. It would not bring back our children." "If you are not willing to do it," the father said, "I will do it." He raised a knife, but the old man restrained him: "Stop! Do not do it. We will move camp and leave Niyainimis 1 Raven Head (not Crow Head, as the name is usually translated) was probably, like Little Shaky-leg, a historical person, a long-ago hero of the Chipewyan. 2 A Cree myth. VOL. XVIII-17 {view image of page 130} 130 THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN here. Perhaps something good will come of it." For he had had a dream. So the camp was moved and Niyanimis was left lying on the ground in his bag. Two young men crept back secretly and hid in the bushes. They watched, and saw Niyinimis wriggle out of his bag, shake himself into a white owl, and fly away. Soon he returned, carrying a baby. Seven times he flew away and returned with a baby. The children were just large enough to walk. Niyanimis said: "Now, my boys, let us try what we can do. Look about and see if you can find some leather." They scattered about the camp-site and soon returned with small bits of leather. Niyanimis stretched them this way and that, until he had many large pieces of tanned skin. He sent his boys to search for sinew, and from the discarded bits they found he made long pieces of thread. They brought a moose leg-bone, and from it he split a sliver and fashioned an awl. Then he made fine clothing for all of them. By this time the two young men had fallen asleep, and when they woke the place was deserted. They followed the trail of their people, but before they overtook them all these things had vanished from their minds. They remembered nothing. Niyanimis led his companions northwestward, and after many days they came to a spruce tree. He made bows and arrows, and they killed many caribou and made a tipi. They were on the shore of a large, frozen lake. Niyanimis said: "My boys, let us see what we can do. On yonder island lives a man who wishes to wrestle with me. If I lose, he will kill us. If I win, our people will be glad." They started across the ice. It was so smooth that no man could stand on it. But wherever Niyanimis set his foot a depression was left, and in these his companions stepped and went forward. They reached the shore of the island, and a very large man came down to them. He said: "Well, Niyanimis, have you come to play with me? Come, I will make a road for you to my camp. See if you can follow me." He started toward his tipi, and each time he raised a foot a long sharp knife was left protruding from the earth. Niyinimis set his feet on them one by one, and followed him without harm, and his companions did likewise. At the camp the man said: "You have beaten me the second time. But come, we will eat and sleep, and tomorrow we will play again." So they ate and slept. In the morning the man said: "Now, Niyanimis, come with me. Leave your boys here. Do you see that hill? We will play there." They went to the top of a hill, and the man caused a hard wind to blow. It became very cold. The trees were cracking with the cold and crashing before the wind. The man became a shaggy buffalo, and Niyinimis became a snowbird. When it grew even colder, the bird crept under the thick hair on the back of the buffalo's neck. At noon the buffalo called, "Niyanimis!" "Yes!" "Oh, all right." In the middle of the afternoon he called again, "Niyanimis!" And again the bird answered. Just before sunset he called once more, and after sunset the fourth time. When for the fourth time Niyanimis answered, the buffalo said: "Well, we must go back to camp and eat. You have beaten me the third time." So they went back to the tipi, and the man treated the boys well. The next morning he said: "Niyanimis, yesterday it was very cold. Today it will be warm. We will take a sweat." He brought out two very large bark vessels and filled them with water. He put in hot stones until the water boiled. He got into one, and Niyanimis got into the other. But Niyanimis had tied a small feather to the crown of his head and had told his boys that so long as the feather remained above the water he would be all right; but if it dropped into the water, he would be dead. All day they remained in the boiling water, and at sunset the man got out and called, "Niyanimis!" And Niyanimis stepped out also. The man said: "Well, you have beaten me the fourth time. I can do no more. Do with me what you will." Niyanimis took the man's great knife and quartered his body. One piece he threw eastward and said, "You will be East Wind." Another he threw to the south: "You will be South Wind." Another he threw to the west: "You will be West Wind." Another he threw to the north: "You will be North Wind and hereafter you will not blow cold. There will be warm weather so that the people can live." Before this time the wind had always blown from the north, and everything was frozen. But Niyanimis divided its power into four. Niyanimis said to his companions: "In the morning we shall have a visitor. The people {view image of page 131} MYTHOLOGY I3I are camping not far from here, and they are starving. Our visitor will look very bad." In the morning came a man. He could scarcely walk. Niyinimis invited him to the tipi and said, "You must be having a hard time." "Yes, my people are starving. They can no longer hunt, so weak are they." Niyinimis fed him and gave him a bag of meat, saying, "If this does not suffice to give your people strength to come here, return tomorrow and get more." The man carried the meat to his camp and fed the people, but they had no strength to walk. So he returned the next day and received more meat. When he arrived with the second load, the old man who had discovered that Niyanimis had been carrying away the lost children said: "Oh, I told you something good would come! I think this meat is from Niyanimis." The next day they were able to visit the camp of the strangers. Niyinimis seated his own parents at the left of the door, and one after another he called the parents of his companions and seated them, man and wife together. Then he pointed out to each boy his parents, and all rejoiced. He said: "You will go back to your camp, but we shall remain here. But we are going to marry." He sent all the people apart, except his own parents, and told his mother to bring a certain girl to be the wife of one of his boys. Thus he sent for seven girls. Finally he told her to bring for him the daughter of the principal chief. Origin of the Sun Dance 1 A MAN was constantly trying to seduce his younger brother's wife, but she would not consent. He decided that it would be necessary to kill his brother, but he was reluctant to do it with his own hands. One day he said: "My brother, I know where is an eagle's nest. Let us go and capture the young ones." So they went together. They came to the top of a high mountain, and there in the rock was a deep hole. The elder brother said: "Look down. You can see the eaglets." The younger brother stooped and peered down into the hole. His brother pushed him, and he fell in. He found himself with a young Thunderbird, who said: "Oh, I am glad to have you. When my parents are hunting, I am all alone. Now I will have someone to play with." When the father Thunderbird came home, bringing a dead body, he said, "I smell a human being!" "Of course you do, my father. You have brought one with you." "No, but what I smell is a living person." "Yes, my father, I have found a man. But I wish you would not kill him. I want him for a playmate." "Let me see him." The young Thunderbird raised a wing and showed the young man. "Well, for myself," said the father, "it is all right. You may keep him. But your mother is the worst. She is very bad toward the people." Soon the mother Thunderbird came. "I smell human beings! " she said. "Yes," said the father. "Our son has found a man, and wishes to keep him for a playmate. Now, you are very bad toward people. If you will promise not to harm him, you may see him." "Where is he?" "No, first you must promise." So she promised, and her son raised a wing and showed the young man. Her eyes flashed lightning, and her feathers raised. "Stop!" cried the young Thunderbird. "You have promised!" So she became quiet. The father Thunderbird said to the young man: "You will remain with us four nights. But our nights are not like yours. When the sun rises, sets, and rises again, you call that a day. From summer to summer is a day with us." So the young man remained with them four years. Whenever they returned from their hunting they appeared just like people. Every night the Thunderbird and the young man sang together. At the end of four years the father Thunderbird said: "Now you will go home. I have taught you my songs. My son will carry you home. When you find your camp, stop on the windward side so that you will not smell them. Go up on a hill, and someone will come to you. Then you can send for your father." 1 A Cree legend. {view image of page 132} 132 THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN So the young Thunderbird carried the man home and left him on a hill on the windward side of the camp. Soon he saw a boy approaching. When the boy came near, he recognized his own son. But the boy did not know him, because he had been an infant when his father was killed by a wild animal, as his uncle had reported. The man mentioned his father's name and asked the boy if he was alive. "Yes, he is my grandfather." "Go and tell him to come." When the young man's father came, he was told to stop at a short distance. "Go back to the camp and put up a new tipi on fresh ground outside the circle. When you have done so, let no woman go there. Then come again to me." All this his father did, and the young man went to the tipi. He made four incense fires about the central spot in the tipi, and then called the principal men. There during four days and nights he instructed them in the Sun dance, which he had learned from the Thunderbirds. Some Adventures of Wisakechahk, The Trickster 1 WISAKECHAHK saw a flock of swans on a lake. He called: "My brothers, come to me! I wish to see you closely and talk with you." They swam to him and he said, "Oh, my brothers, I wish to be like you." The leader answered, "My brother, you cannot do it, we have a hard life." "Yes, yes, I can do it. I will be one of you." So the swan pulled out two wing-feathers and gave them to him. He placed one on each arm and blew on them. He became a swan. At the molting season the old swan cautioned him: "My brother, do not call too much in the evening. The people might hear you, and come in canoes to kill us. For we cannot fly well now. In the day, when the wind is blowing, you can call." That evening Wisakechahk suddenly called, "Kuku... kukuku..." The others in alarm said, "Do not so, brother!" But again he called. Some people in the distance heard him and got into their canoes. They surrounded the swans and killed them, but Wisikechahk was too quick and avoided them. When they had killed all the others, he cried: "Do not kill me, my friends! I am Wisikechahk! Take me into your canoe." They picked him up, and when they came ashore he shook off his swan-skin and participated in the feast. Wisakechahk saw some geese on the lake. He wondered how he could get them. He made a pack of leaves and grass and carried it down to the lake, and the geese asked, "What have you there, brother?" "Oh, you must not ask about it. With that we dance. We close our eyes while dancing." "That is something strange. We never heard of that kind of dancing." "I will show you." He made a windbreak of boughs, laid the bundle inside, and seated the geese about the fire. He said: "I will dance first, and then you may dance. But everybody must shut his eyes." So they sat there with closed eyes, and Wisakechahk danced about the circle, singing, "Paseqapi-simowin nipetiwitan ['shut-eyes they-dance I-brought']." Whenever he came to a fat goose, he twisted its neck. The one beside the door heard the sound of flapping wings. He opened his eyes and cried, "Wisakechahk is trying to kill us, brothers!" The few that remained alive flew up and away. Wisakechahk said to himself: "I have too many geese for one person. I wish I had someone to help me." He saw a fox limping along, and called: "Come, brother! I have something for you." The fox came limping up, and Wisikechahk said, "Let us go to that hill and race back." "Oh, brother, you see me, how my leg is crippled. I cannot run fast." "Oh, that is all right. I will tie a stone to my foot, so that we will be equal. We will have some fun." So they went to the hill, and Wisikechahk tied a stone to one foot. They started back. Soon Wisakechahk was ahead, and looking over his shoulder he laughed, "Oh, that poor fox cannot run!" But suddenly the fox passed him, running on four good legs. Wisikechahk stopped to remove the stone, but the fox reached the windbreak and ate all the geese. He put the feet in a circle in the ashes. 1 Wisikechahk is the buffoon of Cree mythology. {view image of page 133} MYTHOLOGY I~) 1 When Wisakechahk arrived, he said, "That fox has put all my fine geese in the fire!" He took a foot, and found there was no goose. He tried another and found only a foot. He said, "That fox, I wish I could catch him!" He started after the fox. After running a while the fox, his belly full, stopped to sleep, and Wisakechahk came up and built a fire about him. The fox woke and dashed through the flames, and his hair was singed red. Wisikechahk had a wife, a small son, and a daughter. He pretended to be very ill. He said to his wife: "I am going to die. When I die, you must go away. Move two days, and on the third night a young man will come. Ask no questions, but give him our daughter. He will be a good son-in-law." So Wisikechahk died, and they laid the body outside and moved camp. The next day they moved again, and on the third night the little boy, playing outside the tipi, saw a man coming. "Mother, a man is coming!" "Be quiet! That will be your brother-in-law." The man came into the tipi and sat down beside the girl. He hung his head, and the elder woman turned aside from her son-in-law. After eating, he lay down with the girl. In the morning he busied himself making the fire, and the boy saw on his buttock a mark which he recognized. He nudged his mother and whispered, "Mother, my brother-in-law is my father!" "Do not say that. You are foolish." "But look, mother, at the mark on his buttock." The woman looked and recognized her husband. She picked up a stick and beat him on the head, crying: "I believed you when you said you were going to die! But you wanted only to marry your daughter!" He leaped out and ran away. Isqeu Ka-napeu Isihut, Woman Like-man Dressed 1 A WOMAN was married to a brave warrior. They had two small sons. But she fell in love with a young man, and they met secretly in the bush. One day her lover said, "I wish we could be always together." "That would be easy to do," she answered. "How could we do it?" "Well, I will pretend to sicken and die. Then you can come and get me and we will go away. So they arranged it. The woman pretended to be very ill. She ate nothing, and became thin. The shamans could do nothing for her. At last she called her husband and said: "I feel I am going to die. When I die, you must go away at once, for I do not wish my parents and my five brothers to grieve for me." Then she pretended to die. They wrapped her in a skin, tied it with a rope, and placed her on a platform in a tree. At once they moved away. In the night came her lover. "Are you alive?" he called. "Yes! Cut the rope and take me out. I am hungry." He cut the rope and fed her, and they travelled far away. The woman wore her hair like a man and put on a man's clothing. They practised singing together, and when she had learned to sing like a man they went back to their people. The young man told his family that he had been visiting people far in the south and had brought home a chum; and they were pleased. The two were constantly together. They would go down to the place where the girls got water, in order to make people think they were both young men looking for lovers. One day the woman's two little boys came for water. She was filled with longing to speak to them, to hear them speak. She said, "Little boys, give me a drink." The elder boy gave her the pail. She drank, and gave it back and laughed. Now when she laughed she had a dimple in each cheek. The boy looked closely at her. He recognized his mother, but said nothing. He went home, and to his father he said, "My father, I have seen my mother." "Oh, my little son, do not say that!" The man took him in his arms and cried. Then he said: "My boy, never say that. Your mother has gone away. She is dead. Never say that. Do not say it to your grandmother and make her sad." 1 A Cree tale. {view image of page 134} 134 THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN So the boy said nothing more. But a few days later he went again for water, and again the woman asked for a drink. Once more he noticed the dimples, and was sure it was his mother. He went home and told his father what he had seen; and this time his father listened, but told him to say nothing to others. Early in the morning he got on his horse and rode to the place where they had left the body of his wife; and he saw that the skin was empty and the rope cut with a knife. He returned and said to his son, "Go to your grandmother and ask her for two dishes of serviceberry soup." The boy did so, and soon returned with the dishes. Then he sent his son to invite the two who were constantly together; and when they arrived, he placed the man at his left and the woman at her lover's left. He fed them, then gave a large pipe to the young man. The man smoked, and passed the pipe to the woman. But she had not learned to smoke; and when she inhaled the smoke she began to cough, and the sound was that of a woman's cough. Instantly her lover leaped up and out of the tipi. She tried to follow, but her husband grasped her by the hair and forced her to sit down. He had a long knife, and he was a warrior. So she feared to resist. He sent his elder son to call his grandparents and his five uncles. When they came in and sat down, he said: "My father-in-law, you thought your daughter was dead. This morning I went to the place where we left her. The skin was empty and the rope cut with a knife. There sits your daughter. Look closely and you will recognize her. Now what do you think of her?" The old man looked closely and saw that it was so. He said: "I thought my daughter was a woman, but I find that she is an animal. I do not want to see her. I thought she was dead. Let her remain dead." He got up and went out. His wife followed, and one by one their five sons departed. The woman's husband took up his knife and killed her. The young lover disappeared. He intended to let the Blackfeet kill him: that would be better than dying at the hands of his own people. One day as he was picking service-berries, he saw three people on horseback. He hid among the bushes, and when they came close he saw an old woman, a middle-aged woman, and a girl. They tied their horses and separated to pick berries. The two elder women were close to his hiding-place. He made a noise like a grizzly-bear, and they were frightened. He seized one and plunged his knife into her, then the other. The girl was running for the horses, but he intercepted her. He said by signs: "Do not fear. I will not harm you." He scalped the two women, placed the girl on a horse, mounted another, and drove the third ahead, riding rapidly to escape pursuit. At night he built a small wickiup. He said: "You will sleep there. I will sleep here." She was surprised, and asked in signs: "Why do we not sleep together?" "No, I did not take you for my wife. When we get home you will be the wife of my brother." It was night when they reached the Cree camp. He told the girl to make herself clean and paint her face. Then he led her to the tipi of the man he had wronged, and by signs told her to enter and sit beside the man she would find there. This she did. The man was surprised, but said nothing. Then the young man came in. He sat down opposite the other and said: "My brother, I did something very bad to you. But take this woman. And here is something more for you." He gave him the two scalps. "Outside are three horses. They are yours. There is one thing more: I give you my body. Do with it what you will." He bowed his head. The other raised him up and said: "My brother, say not so. I will not harm you. It is true you did something very bad to me, but today you have done something very good. Henceforth you shall be my real brother." The Chief's Son Who Wanted an Otter-skin 1 A CHIEF'S son saw a beautiful otter-skin and asked his father to buy it for him. The chief went to the owner of the skin and offered a horse, which was refused. He increased his 1 A Cree tale. There was no warfare among the various Cree bands, but between the Prairie Cree and the Woods Cree there was no intimacy, and the former both looked askance at the latter, because they were comparatively poor, and feared them as powerful sorcerers who could project a bit of iron or a bead into the body of a distant enemy and thus cause sickness that could be cured only by an equally powerful shaman. {view image of page 135} MYTHOLOGY I35 -) offer to five horses, but nothing would induce the other to sell his otter-skin. The young man was so greatly disappointed that he said: "My father, since my wife is a Woods Cree, I will go with her into the northern country and kill an otter for myself." "No, no, my son!" said the chief. "Those are very bad people. They will do you harm." Nevertheless the young man asked his wife if she knew where to find otters. She said: "Yes, I know a place where a river runs between two lakes. Otters go back and forth between the lakes to fish. The river is open in certain places all winter. If you watch at those places, some time you will see an otter come out from under the ice, and you can shoot it." So they loaded their horses and rode northward. To their camp in the bush one night came an old man, and the Prairie Cree invited him to come in and sit down. To his wife he said, "Prepare food for my friend." She gave the visitor a dish of pemmican and the old man ate. His clothing was very old and dirty. His leather leggings were so old that they were baggy at the knees and shrunken about the calves. His cloth shirt was so dirty that the young chief's son was loath to look at it. He laid before the old man a new shirt and a pair of new leggings and said, "Here is something for you. The man said: "Ho! Nobody ever treated me in this fashion!" He seemed to be displeased. The young man thought he was not satisfied, and laid before him a new Hudson's Bay coat. "Ho! This is a very strange way!" It was plain that the old man was not pleased. The chief's son brought out a new blanket and laid it before him. Then the old man became really angry, and at this the other exclaimed: "Begone! I wish to see you no more! I thought to please you by giving you these things, but you are only displeased. Leave my tipi and go! I know what you are thinking. You think you know something. But see that animal outside? He is covered with hair. Yet the things I know are more numerous than the hairs of his hide. Do not try to do anything bad to me,' for if you do, I will be there myself with this knife. I am a Prairie Cree and a brave man. I fight with a knife and not with sorcery." His visitor departed without a word. As soon as he had gone the chief's son got up and followed him. Soon he saw a small camp. The old man went into a tipi. The chief's son crept close and heard him call to the others in the camp: "Come and talk! I have something to tell you!" The others assembled, and the young man heard his visitor saying: "I found a tipi and was invited to eat by a handsome young man, a Prairie Cree. When I had finished, he laid a new shirt and a pair of leggings before me. This did not please me, because he was giving them only so that afterward he might laugh at me. Then he brought out a coat, and this displeased me the more; then a blanket, and by this time I was really angry. He told me to go home, and he said that if I tried to do anything bad to him, he would be right here with a knife. He had a strange animal outside his tipi. Its foot had only one toe. It was covered with hair, and he said that the things he knows are more than the hairs of its hide. Now I want to see if he spoke the truth. I am going to try." He began to sing. By this time the young man had crept up to the tipi, and now suddenly he stepped in with his knife upraised. "I told you that if you tried to harm me, I would be here with my knife. Now this is the way I kill people." He grasped the old man's hair and raised the knife higher. The man fell back lifeless with fright, and the others rushed out. When the old man came to life, he whispered, "Sit down, my friend." The young man sat down. "My friend, do not be angry. Stay where you are. Fear nothing. I am going out." He disappeared, but soon returned with a pack of skins - otter, beaver, mink. "These are for you, my friend. Take them, and do not be angry." The young man selected the otter-skins and departed. As soon as he reached his camp, he said: "Now we are in danger. Surely they will try to kill me. Come, let us go." They packed their horses and rode southward to the prairies. When they arrived home, the chief feared that the Woods Cree might try to kill his son by sorcery, and he engaged a man who understood these things to guard the young man's tipi. But nothing happened to him. 1Ekawiya ki- manitu- wiwfn ohfti wi- mayi- rftawin. do-not your super- (future with (future) bad make-me natural verb) {view image of page 136} 136 THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN Missu-ghunnisagha, His-grandmother Reared-him 1 A MAN was camping alone. His wife was pregnant. He always warned her that when she heard any sound about the tipi she must not peer out to see what caused it. He hunted daily. One day she heard a sound. Curiosity overcame her. She punched a little hole in the tipi with a bone awl and peeped out. She beheld a man. He came in. She cooked food for him, and offered it in a wooden dish. He said, "I do not eat from that kind of dish." She removed it and put the food in the dry integument of a stomach. He refused this, and she put it in a bark dish. "No," he said, "I do not eat from that kind of dish." She removed it and put the food in her blanket. "That is nearly right," he said. "But I do not eat from that kind of'dish." She removed a moccasin and put the food in it. "That is better, but still I do not eat from that kind of dish." She tried a legging. He said, "You are coming close to it, but I do not eat from that kind of dish." She took off her dress and placed the food in it, and he said, "It is very close, but still I do not eat from that kind of dish." Then she lay down in front of him and put the food on her abdomen, and he said: "That is right. That is where I always eat." He ate. He devoured the food and the flesh of her abdomen. Inside he found two infants. He threw one into the creek and the other between the tipi-cover and the lining. He laid the woman's body with the face in the fire. The features became drawn as if she were laughing. He placed her then with the face in the doorway, and departed. Then her husband approached. He asked: "Why are you laughing? It is seldom you do that." He came close and looked at her. He perceived that she was dead. "Did I not warn you?" he complained. "This is what has happened." He laid her in the tipi opposite his bed. He had a small dog. He went up on a high hill and cried far into the night. One evening when he came home from the hill of mourning, he saw in the cold ashes a very small footprint. He wondered about it. He made a bow and some arrows. He went back to the hill, left his blanket there in a heap as if he were still sitting there, and crept back to the tipi. He became a feather and flew close. The little child behind the tipi-lining called to his brother in the creek: "Come up! Our father made a bow and some arrows for us to play with." The man went back to the hill, and that evening he saw the prints of two pair of feet. He thought, "There must be two of them." So he made another bow and more arrows. The next morning he left his blanket again on the hill, made himself like a small log, and lay across the doorway just inside the tipi. The little boy behind the tipi-lining peeped out and called: "One-that-was-thrown-into-the-creek, come up! Our father has made another bow. There is one for each." The two played in the tipi. He crept to them and caught one. He wanted One-that-was-thrown-into-the-creek, but caught One-that-was-thrown-behind-the-tipilining. The other slipped under his arm and ran to the creek. The little boy struggled. He kicked and bit. But the man quieted him, saying: "You are my son. There is your mother, lying dead." Finally the boy ceased to struggle. The man said: "Look, my son. Try to catch your brother for me. I will leave my blanket on the hill and turn myself into a log." So he did this. The boy called his brother, "One-that-was-thrown-into-the-creek, come up and play!" "No, our father caught you. I am not going to play with you." "No, our father did not catch me. I got away. Our father is up on the hill. You can see him there." So the other came and played. His brother seized him, and called, "Now, father, I have him!" The man took his other son. The boy struggled, but they talked to him and finally he yielded. They lived together. One day the boys said, "Father, make two good arrows for each of us." He made them. They painted two black and two red. They said: "Now, father, we are going to get our mother back. Take her out and lay her on her back with her head eastward." When he had done this, they directed him to go to the hill and watch from there. One-that-was-thrown-behindthe-tipi-lining said: "My brother, let me shoot my arrow first. If my mother moves her foot, we shall get her back." He spat on his bow and arrow four times, and shot into the air above his mother's body. As the arrow descended, he cried: "Look out, my mother, look out! The arrow is coming!" Her foot moved. His brother said, "You should have done this way." He spat four times on his bow and arrow and shot into the air. As the arrow was coming down, he cried: "Look out, my mother; look out, my mother! The arrow is coming down!" She 1 A Sarsi tale. {view image of page 137} MYTHOLOGY I37 moved both legs. One-that-was-thrown-behind-the-tipi-lining said, "I will do better." He shot the other arrow and cried: "Look out,.my mother; look out, my mother! The arrow is coming down!" She moved, and tried to sit up. One-that-was-thrown-into-the-creek then shot his second arrow and cried: "Jump up, my mother; jump up, my mother! The arrow is coming down!" She jumped up and shook her blanket. Then their father came running down from the hill. He warned his sons: "Do not go in that certain direction. There is a buffalo with ditillil horns." "No, my father, we will not go there. He must be very dangerous." They went to shoot little birds, and soon turned in the direction of the buffalo. When they saw him, they said, "Charge at us; charge at us!" The buffalo charged, and they shot him dead. They said, "Oh, that was not dangerous." When they got home, they said, "Father, we killed that animal you thought was dangerous." "My sons, you should not have done that. You might have been killed. But I will warn you again. In yonder direction is a dangerous bear. Do not go near it." "No, we will not go there. It must be dangerous. We will play outside for a time." They soon crept around in that direction. They saw the bear and said, "Come, charge at us!" The bear charged, and they killed him. They told their father, and he said: "You should not have gone there, you might have been killed. Now, in this other direction is the person who killed your mother. Please do not go there, for he certainly will kill you." "Oh, we will not go there, father. He might kill us as he did our mother." They played outside, and agreed to go and see that person. When they came to the place, they found an old man lying under a brush shelter. "What are you doing, grandfather?" "Oh, I am just sunning myself. My grandchildren, look in my hair. See if there are any lice." One-that-was-thrown-behind-the-tipi-lining whispered to his brother, "I will be the one to look for the lice." He knew how the old man would try to kill them. He protected his abdomen with a flat stone. While he was lousing the old man, his brother was tying locks of the man's long hair to the trees. The other said, "Grandfather, my brother is tying your hair to the trees." " Oh, that is all right. He is just playing." He was sitting with his head bowed over the boy's abdomen. His teeth gnashed against the stone. The boy asked, "What is that, grandfather?" "Oh, my old teeth clatter together." "Grandfather, lift your head a little." The old man raised his head, and the boy slipped out and leaped away. The man snapped at him, but missed, and the other brother killed him with an arrow. They returned and told their father about their adventure. He said: "Well, my sons, you might have been killed. Now I warn you again. There is a hill. If you go there, a strong wind will blow you into it." "We will not go there. We are afraid of it. We will play outside." But they went to the hill and said, "Now, blow, blow!" The wind blew, and they were carried into the hill. It was a monster that swallowed people. Inside were many human skeletons. Above their heads hung a large object. It was the heart of the hill. They said to the skeletons: "Get ready! We will have a dance." While they danced, they poked at the heart with an arrow. The hill moved. Then they knew it was the heart. They shot an arrow into it, and it dropped. They began to cut the flesh away from the ribs of the hill, and all the dead people came to life. They went home and told their father. "My sons," he said, "you do not heed my warnings. Some day you will find something that has greater power than yours. I warn you again. There is a red eagle on yonder hill. Do not try to touch its feathers." They went outside and said, "Let us go and see this red eagle." They found it sitting on a tree. One of its feathers hung down loosely. One-that-was-thrown-behind-the-tipi-lining said, "Oh, I think I will take that one." "No, you know what our father said." " It would look pretty in my hair." He put out his hand to take it. The instant he touched it the eagle flew up into the air and the boy was carried along. His brother cried, and cried, See footnote, page I43. VOL. XVIII-I8 {view image of page 138} 138 THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN and cried, and cried, until he began to grow smaller and smaller and smaller and smaller, and at last he was a baby once more. It was autumn. One day an old woman was looking for medicine-roots. She heard something crying. She thought, "Somebody must have thrown a baby away." She searched and found the infant lying on a mass of eagle-feathers. She picked it up with the feathers and carried it home. She had ten sons, all grown men. She had a tipi of her own, but she thought it would be best to take the child to the lodge of one of her sons. "My son," she said, "I have found a little baby. May I keep it in your tipi?" "No, it would cry and annoy me. I do not want it." She tried each of her sons, and all except the youngest refused her. When he consented to take the baby, she gave him the eagle-feathers and said, "Do not give any of these to your brothers." The baby was covered with scabs, and they called him Tsillunna [scabby head]. One day the chief of the camp announced: "There are two silver foxes. If anybody catches them, he shall have my two daughters for the skins." He had a Water Bundle and wanted the skins for it. All the young men tried, but none could trap the foxes. When Scabby Head heard about it he cut four small, dry service-berry shoots. He asked his grandmother to sharpen them for him. She did so, and he took them to the fox burrow. He thrust them into the hole with the sharp ends projecting out. He went apart and sat down to watch. A fox came out, and he made a loud noise. The fox leaped back, and the sharp ends pierced its throat. He took it away, and set the trap again. The second one was killed in the same way. He covered his tracks so that nobody would know he had been there, and took the foxes away and skinned them. He hid the skins under a pile of wood outside the tipi. "What have you been doing all day long, you silly boy?" asked his grandmother. "I have done something, grandmother. I have killed the two silver foxes." She would not believe him, and he brought a few hairs to prove it. "Grandson, you should not do this. Do not pluck my old dog's hair. It is going to be a cold winter. The dog will freeze." "Well, since you will not believe me, I will show you more." He brought some hairs from the other skin. Still she did not believe. "Surely you will freeze my dogs, plucking their hair like this." He said, "Well, then, I will bring the skins." So he brought the skins to her, but she said: "My grandson, you are not good enough to marry those girls. You are scabby. Let me give the skins to one of my sons." "No, grandmother. When I was a baby you went from one to another, asking them to take me in, and all refused." And her youngest son said: "Yes, do not give them away. Take them to the man who has the Water Bundle. He said nothing about scabby heads. He said whoever killed the foxes should have his daughters." She thought, "Well, I might as well take them to him." She had never visited the chief, for she was poor. When she came to him, he said: "Sit down, sit down. This is the first time you have visited us." To his daughter he said: "Feed her well. Feed her of the berries in the Water Bundle." 1 The old woman ate, but her courage failed and she did not show the skins. She went home and said: "My grandson, I was ashamed. You are so scabby. I could not tell him you have killed the foxes." Her son answered: "You should give him the skins. Go back with them." Once more she went and returned without having shown the skins. The third time, after they had fed her and she was about to depart, one of the skins fell from under her blanket. The chief quickly picked it up. "Come back and sit down," he said. She did so. "You have ten sons. Which one is it?" She answered: ' No, my son. I was ashamed, that is why I came three times without telling you. It is that Scabby Head grandson of mine." He turned to his daughters: "You have heard who it is. Him you will have for husband." The elder began to vomit, and said, "I do not want that scabby thing." But the other said, "I will marry him, my father." 1 An unusual honor, since the dry berries in the Water Bundle are reserved for ceremonial use. {view image of page 139} MYTHOLOGY I39 So the younger daughter of the chief and Scabby Head were married. The people were camping at a buffalo pound; but all winter they had been unable to get buffalo, and they were starving. One day Scabby Head said to his wife: "Tell your father to prepare the pound again. I am going to drive in some buffalo." He went out very early in the morning. A short distance away he hid on a hill. As the hunters passed on their way to attempt to drive in a buffalo herd, he counted them. All day he waited, and when in the evening they returned he counted again. He saw that all had returned. He went down from the hill, picked up some buffalo-chips, and began shouting at them as if stampeding a herd. The chips became a buffalo. He had told his wife to have her father watch for him. So when he drove a buffalo into the pound, the chief saw him. He killed the animal, and his grandmother's share was only one foot. The next day he brought in two buffalo, and his grandmother received a larger portion. The third day he drove in three buffalo, and the old woman received a hind-quarter. The fourth day he told his wife to warn her father to have the people make the pound strong, and himself to go up on the hill as usual. "When he sees me bringing the buffalo, call the people to the hill and watch Missuhiinnisaiha bringing the buffalo. There will be a white buffalo among them. Let none kill it except me." He departed in the morning. He gathered some chips and crushed them with his heel. He put a white pebble in the midst of the pile of dust. It became a large herd of buffalo, and the pebble became a white buffalo. About noon his father-in-law on the hilltop saw the young man coming with a herd of buffalo. He shouted to the people, "Come out and see this Missu.ghunnisigha bringing in the buffalo!" So the herd was driven into the pound, and Missuihuonnisigha went home, leaving the people to kill the animals. But they did not molest the white buffalo. At the tipi he told his wife to put her hands behind her to the wall of the tipi, and draw them out as if pulling something from a bag. She did so, and brought forth a fine dress. Thus she provided herself with every article of clothing. He did the same for himself. They arrayed themselves, and he put his hand behind him and brought out bow and arrows. He went with his wife to the pound and killed the white buffalo. He began to butcher it. When his wife scraped the blood from the pieces of meat, she used arrows which she then tossed aside as if they were of no value. The people scrambled for them. When her sister observed this, she went to Missuighuinnisigha and asked, "What can I use for scraping my meat?" "Oh, take a stick," he said. She tried in every way to make advances to him, but he would have nothing to do with her. She troubled him so much that sometimes he had to sleep on a hilltop and spend part of his days there. Finally she learned where he was sleeping. She became a mole and dug a burrow at the place, just large enough for his body. When he went there again to sleep, he fell into the burrow. The next day he was missing, and his father-in-law announced, "My son-in-law has disappeared since yesterday." When she heard that, his elder daughter went to the hill and perceived that he was buried in the burrow. He said, "Take me out, and I will marry you." "No, you refused me. Stay where you are." She defecated on him. After waiting and searching a long time the people moved away, and all the while the woman was using the burrow for defecating. The younger sister mourned. She cut her hair and her legs, and kept her face dirty. After the camp was moved, Missughunnisfiha lay in his burrow crying. Wolf Old Woman came to him. She looked down into the hole. He begged: "Help me! Take me out!" She began to howl, and soon a band of wolves, badgers, coyotes, all the large burrowing animals, gathered there. Wolf Old Woman said: "I have found something. Whoever takes this man out shall have him for a son." All tried in turn to take him out. When they had nearly released him, Wolf Old Woman said: "Oh, you cannot do it! Let me show you." She finished the work and took him for her son. She said to the other wolves, "Go and kill a buffalo, and I will make him a robe." When they brought a skin, she prepared a robe. At night the wolves would put their tails together in a row, and on them the man lay down, and others covered him with their tails. So he lived among the wolves, and he howled like a wolf. The people used to hear a strange voice in the wolf pack. They would say, "There is a man with the wolves." They made traps. The first wolf caught was Wolf Old Woman. The {view image of page 140} I40 THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN chief, father-in-law of Missuihuinnisagha, said: "All you people, hide yourselves. The next time the wolves howl, let us surround them and see if you can catch the man who is among them." When the wolf pack was heard again, the people surrounded it and caught the man. He tried to fight them off. They told him: "Your wife is grieving for you. Do not struggle." So he became quiet and they took him to the camp. He asked for the skin of Wolf Old Woman, and they gave it to him. He took it by the tail and shook it, and howled. She got up and ran away. One day Missuihunnisagha said he would drive in some buffalo. He found a herd and said to a young buffalo: "When I shoot you with an arrow, do not die in the pound. There is a clump of trees a short distance from the pound. Die there." He drove the herd into the pound, and the people killed all except that one, which Missughunnisaiha shot. It ran away and died in the clump of trees on the bluff. He went to his tipi, and as before he and his wife drew fine clothing from behind them and put it on. "Ask your sister to come with us," he said. His wife spoke to her sister, who thought, "Now he is going to marry me." So she went with them. He cut the best part of the animal for his wife, and sent her home. His sister-in-law he told to remain and pack home the rest. As soon as his wife was gone, he began to howl like a wolf, three times, and with the fourth time all the wolves and other animals came. "Now," he said, "the reason I have called you is this: Here is the woman for you; you know what she did to me." He went home, and the wolves leaped upon the woman and devoured her. Wolverene snatched her vulva and ran up a tree with it.' When Missighuinnisalga got home, he called in all the men and related his history from the beginning, and how his sister-in-law had treated him. They approved his killing her. The Girl Who Married a Star 2 A MAN had the Water Bundle. He called some old people in to eat and smoke. It was night, and the moon was full. He had two daughters. Outside was a pile of wood. The girls were sitting on it. They were looking at the sky. The younger said, "I wish that little shining star were my husband." The next morning they went to the river to gather fuel. A young man, very handsome, stood before them. He said to the younger, "I have come for you." "I do not know you. Who are you?" "Yes, I was in the sky last night when you were wishing I was your husband." "It is true, I did wish it." "Well, close your eyes." She did so, and they went into the sky. They lived there. She had a child. Her husband said, "When you are walking about, do not dig parsnips." One day however she dug a root of that kind. It was growing from the midst of a buffalo-chip. When she lifted it out, she saw a hole, and she looked down through it and beheld a large camp far below. She began to weep. She could not cease, for it was the camp of her own people. When her husband came home, he perceived that she had been crying. "Why have you been weeping?" he asked. "Yes, I saw my people down below." "Did I not warn you not to dig parsnips? Well, I will hunt, and get all the skins I can." So he brought home many skins, which he cut into strips to make a long rope. "Where is the hole?" he asked. She led him to the place. He wrapped her and the infant in a skin, tied the rope to it, and lowered them through the hole. Down below the men were playing the wheel-and-arrow game. A young man with sore eyes was watching them. He lay on his back gazing into the sky, and saw something black coming down. "See what is coming down from the sky, something black," he chanted. But the others could see nothing. They threw dirt into the youth's eyes, thinking he was trying to deceive them. He said, "It is close; look at it." Then they saw it. They piled all their 1 According to folklore, a young man lonesome for his lover and wandering about thinking of her may meet a wolverene in her likeness, with clawed fingers carefully concealed. If he embraces her, he becomes insane. Therefore wolverene, kayizi, is called by the epithet t!.ikaatiichi ("turns into woman"). 2 A Sarsi tale. {view image of page 141} MYTHOLOGY 14I robes in a heap, and the bundle dropped on it. The girl cried: "Drag me away quickl! The rope is coming behind me!" They pulled her away, and a great pile of rope dropped down. They opened the bundle, and found the girl who had disappeared from the camp. The Creation 1 THERE was no land, only water. Old Man called Muskrat and said, "I am going to make land." He gave Muskrat a bit of dirt, and said: "Be very careful with this. Run around it, and as it grows larger, keep running around it." So Muskrat ran around it, but the bit of dirt did not grow. Old Man said: "I know the trouble. I shall have to get different dirt." He sent Muskrat to dive into the depths of the water, and said, "Try hard to get a bit of mud from the bottom." Muskrat dived three times, and the fourth time he touched bottom and got a bit of mud under his nails. When he came up, Old Man took the mud, rolled it between his palms, and it began to swell. When it was as large as he could handle, he called Plover, and said: "Keep going around this earth. Do not stop, because it must be a large earth. There will be many people." Plover started to run round and round the swelling disc, which became constantly larger. Soon it was as large as Old Man desired it. He thought of making a man. He took a piece of clay and created people. He made birds and animals of different-colored clays. The crow was among the last. He said: "I have no good clay. I forgot you." He took charcoal and made the crow. He said, "You will be in every society." He took a long stick and as he walked he struck the earth in various places, and formed streams. He told humans, beasts, and birds how they should do. When he was ready to leave the earth he remembered that he had not created the Sarsi. He rolled up some cuticle and made them. Sarsi Migration Myth THIS is the way the story goes. Buffalo lake northeast of Edmonton, right there when ice was on the water people were travelling across it. There was no snow on the ice. Half of the people got across. Some were still on the ice, and some had not yet started across. Among those on the ice a small boy saw a horn embedded in it. He asked his mother to get it for him. He cried. She took a large knife and began to chop it out. When she had nearly released it from the ice, the animal [a water monster] moved, and the ice was suddenly broken up. The people sank. Those who had crossed went southward, and those who had not yet started across went back northward. These were Sissuwui [Chipewyan]. It was heard afterward that they divided, some going west and some east. The former still speak our language, but the latter have changed. Those who went south began to fight among themselves and split up into different bands. The Sarsi were the largest band. A great rain flooded the country. The people ran to the mountains. After the water went down the Sarsi walked back, and two or three bands went south to the mountains. His Brother Chopped the Tree Down with Him in the Water 2 THERE was a young married man. He had a younger brother. They were catching eagles in a pit. He had a pretty wife. His brother was a handsome youth. She was in love with him. Every morning the elder brother went to the eagle trap. At the same time the younger brother would go up the hill so as not to be left alone with his sister-in-law. She always was thinking how she could entice him. One morning he was sleeping when his brother left the tipi. She came to him and tried to lie with him. He repulsed her several times, then he went out. She thought, "He will tell my husband." So she scratched her legs. She watched, and as soon as she saw her husband coming, she began to cry. He asked why she cried, and she answered: "Yes, I have reason to cry. You say your brother loves you. As soon as you left the tipi he tried to make love to me and scratched me." He believed her. On the trail to the eagle pit was a tree growing out over the edge of a precipice and overhanging the river. In the tree was an eagle's nest. When the younger brother returned, they ate, and the elder said, "Let us try to get that eagle's nest." They went to the tree, and the 1 A Sarsi myth. 2 A Sarsi tale, also known as Having Buffalo. {view image of page 142} I42 THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN younger brother climbed out along its sloping trunk. The other followed him, and then climbed down, cutting off the branches as he came. "My brother, why are you doing that?" asked the other. Then he remembered what had occurred, and said, "Perhaps you are angry for what your wife did to me." "Yes, I did not believe you would do it to me," answered the elder. He cut the tree, and the youth dropped into the deep water. He was carried down-stream. Far below lived an old man, his wife, and their daughter. They had a large herd of buffalo, but they ate frogs and snakes. The girl went to get water, and saw a young man floating in the river. She ran home and said: "There is a handsome young man floating in the river. I want him for my husband." "Yes, my daughter. Make four sweat-houses." She built them. "Now, my daughter, take this wooden platter and scoop him up very carefully. Do not lose him." For the young man was in the form of froth. She lifted the body out on the dish very carefully. All the sweathouses faced east. She brought the body in from the west to the first lodge. Her father was inside, and she handed the platter to him. He made steam, and from the outside she lifted the cover four times, to admit fresh air. Her father went into the second lodge, and she handed the platter to him. In the first house a large heap of sand was left. The second and the third sweats were taken, and the sand left behind was less and less. His body was becoming cleaner and cleaner. In the fourth bath the young man sat up. No sand was left. The old man said, "Now, my daughter, put up your own tipi." She did so, and he said, "Take your husband into your tipi." Her mother said, "Feed your husband." They cut up a cooked snake and she took it to him. He said. "I do not eat that kind of food." She took it away and brought frogs. He refused them. She offered him tahltlannz ["huge thing" -the water monster]. He refused it. She brought pieces of lizard, and he refused. She began to caress him and asked, "What do you eat?" "I eat these dogs of yours." She told her parents, and the old man said: "That is what I thought. Now, my daughter, call your pets down to the watering place. Here are bow and arrows. Let him take these and use them. When they come out after drinking, let him kill what he needs." The girl called the buffalo, "Manfhilfi!i-tlika ['wind-against dog,' that is, dogs that graze to windward]!" They came running to the watering place. As they came out, the young man shot the fattest heifer. When the girl saw one of her pets killed, she cried, but her father said: "Be still. It is for the husband you have found." She watched the young man cook the meat, and it was repulsive to her. He cooked the tongue and cut off a bit, and began to caress her. She slipped under him. He put the piece of meat in her mouth, and she vomited. He said, "No, hold it. It is good." She chewed it slowly and sat up. "It is good. Give me more." Then he gave her the entire tongue and she ate it. She informed her parents that the dogs were good to eat. They lived there a long time, and had a child. The young man became homesick, wondering about his relatives. One day he came to a spring, and idly he thrust a sharp stick into it to test its depth. When he drew it out, there was blood on it. He took it home and showed it to his wife. She reported this to her father, who said: "Oh, my son-in-law has killed something for me to eat. That is tahltlanni." He went to the spring, and there he found the water monster dead. He cut it up and brought the meat home. Still the young man was lonely. The girl asked why he was so quiet. He said: "There are many brothers and sisters, a father and a mother, who are missing me. I am lonely when I think of them. I want to go home. You have a son, and here are your parents. You will not be lonely. After I have seen my people I shall return." She repeated this to her father, and said, "I love my husband, and I wish to go with him." "Good, my daughter. You may do so. Take your pets with you. When you are hungry, kill them for your use." So the two started. They travelled far, and when they were hungry she called her pets and they killed one. Three nights they camped. He said: "The fourth night we will reach my home. Now, I want to kill two of these buffalo. I will go ahead and find the camp." So he killed two buffalo and went on. He saw the camp. He entered it and looked about until he found the tipi of his parents. He peeped in and saw them. Their hair was cut short in mourning for him. He slipped away and returned to his wife. "Tonight we shall move. Nobody will see us." So they did, and stopped close to the camp. {view image of page 143} MYTHOLOGY I43 Early in the morning they were astir. He said to his little son: "See yonder tipi where the smoke is rising. Go and raise the flap. Inside you will see an old man and an old woman. Tell them your father wishes them to come and eat." The little boy went to the tipi and looked in. "Grandfather, grandmother, my father wants you to come and eat." Then he ran back. They waited, and no one came. He sent the boy again. "Grandfather, grandmother, why do you not come? My father wishes to feed you. The old man said to his wife, "Observe where this boy goes." She looked out and saw a new tipi outside the camp. Then the two went to the strange tipi. When they entered they beheld their own son. They embraced and caressed him and wept with joy. They inquired what had happened to him. He said: "Wait. Later I will tell you. But now eat." After they had eaten, he said, "Call the people to eat, and then I will tell my story." The old man called: "Get up, all! Get up and come! My son has made something to eat, ready for you!" The first to appear were the elder brother and his wife. Said the younger brother: "Wait. Do not come near me just now. Let the others come first." After all the others had eaten, he called these two. They attempted to embrace him, but he said, "No, do not touch me." He picked up two large stones. While they sat there, he cast the stones and struck them on the chest. With his knife he killed them. He related then what had occurred and why he had killed his brother and his sister-in-law. "Now I will give you buffalo meat. When you wish more, tell me." There was famine in the country. His father said, "We want to see buffalo on the fourth day." The others said: "You are foolish. Why not say tonight?" But he paid no attention. The young man said: "Now I must tell you. On the fourth night let none look out of his tipi, no matter what you hear." When the time came, his wife went outside and called her pets. The young man had told his father to come early on the following morning. When he came, he called: "You lazy people! Get up and chase the buffalo!" They came hurrying, and the men hunted and killed the buffalo. The girl said: "From now on the buffalo will increase and you will have plenty. You will never have another famine." Natuusughu-sitinne, Snake Sleeping 1 SLEEPING SNAKE had a wife. His father-in-law used to send him his elk-horn scraper to be sharpened. One day he said: "I am getting tired of sharpening this thing. Tell your mother to make some moccasins. I will get ditilli." 2 The old woman made many moccasins, and he and his wife went southward. They had two dogs that dragged their travois. They arrived at a large camp. The people asked, "Where are you going?" He said, " I am going to get ditlli." "You are foolish. The man who has it likes pretty women. You will lose your wife. But it is the fourth camp." At the second camp the people had a small quantity of ditilli, which they gave to the travellers and advised them to go home. But they went on. At the third camp the people gave him a little more ditilli and advised him to turn back. But he said he would go on. "I want to see this man. If he is more powerful than I, he will beat me." It was night when they came to the fourth camp, and they slept unseen close by. The next morning Sleeping Snake said to his wife: "Make your hair unkempt. Put something on your face to make it dirty and ugly." She did so. He had a charm, the tongue of a wolverene. The chief of this camp was Tsa-muhil-tahkaiya.3 When he rose and saw a strange tipi, he said to one of his many wives, "Go and see who is camping there." The woman reported, "The man is very ugly, and the woman also." He sent a younger wife to invite the strangers to eat. When she had delivered the invitation and departed, Sleeping Snake said to his wife: "Make yourself pretty. I know what he wants. He wishes to take you away from me. Take this wolverene's tongue, and when we go into the tipi, sit nowhere but close to the door. When you sit down, put this in the ground beside the door." So they went to the camp, and the people 1 A Sarsi tale. 2 Hard, inflexible. Ditilli is the term applied to iron. Apparently it was originally the word for flint. 3 Tsa, stone; muill, for mus, knife; tahikaiya, unexplained. {view image of page 144} 144 THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN came out to observe them. When they entered the tipi, Tsamuhltahkaiya saw that the woman was beautiful. He said, "Come and sit close to me." But she answered, "No, I will sit here by the door." Just inside the door were two huge rattlesnakes, one on each side. As soon as the visitors entered, they raised their heads and shook their rattles. The man said: "Be quiet! I am Sleeping Snake." They sank back to the ground. The people of the camp came in to see what would happen. They gave the visitors a drink of poison; but before putting the cup to his lips, Sleeping Snake blew on it and the liquid disappeared. He handed back the empty cup. Tsamuhltahkaiya filled a large pipe. Inside it was a rattlesnake. He handed the pipe to Sleeping Snake and struck him lightly on the nose with it. He said, "You are not going to take your wife out of this tipi." Sleeping Snake lighted the pipe, and before he had taken two puffs the snake shot out of it; so he finished the smoke and gave back the pipe. He said: "You have not the power I have. It is useless for you to try to kill me." He said to his wife, "Come, let us go." They went out, leaving the wolverene's tongue in the ground. As soon as they reached their tipi, they struck it and packed up. The people came from the camp and gave them a great quantity of ditilli. Tsamiuhltahkaiya came outside to see if they had gone, for he was still determined to kill the man and take the woman. As he passed the door, the wolverene's tongue leaped from the ground and pierced his heart. By sunset he was dead, and all his people were crying. They made a great fire on his body, which broke into fragments of flint. On his way home, Sleeping Snake got much ditilli from each of the camps he had passed. That is how the people first got ditilli. {view image of page 145} Appendix VOL. XVIII-I9 {view image of page 146} {view image of page 147} APPENDIX Tribal Summary The Chipewyan LANGUAGE - Athapascan. POPULATION - As nearly as can be determined from the official census, the total number of Chipewyan in I924 was I507. According to the same authority the population of the other northern Athapascan tribes was: Slaves, 1246; Hares ("Hare-skins"), 740; Beavers, 550 (excluding a few among the Cree in Alberta); Loucheux, 479; Dogribs, 272; Sarsi, 160; Sicani, I 5. DRESS - The distinctive garment of all northern Athapascans, both men and women, was the parka, a sleeved shirt with the skirt cut to a point behind and before. The material was caribou-skins, dressed on both sides for summer wear, tanned "in the hair" for winter. The winter garment was also hooded, and hare-skin mittens were either sewed to the sleeves or attached to a cord passing across the neck of the wearer. Leggings of men came to the hip in the Plains fashion, those of women to the knee. The moose-hide and caribou-skin moccasins had separate soles slightly upturned at the edge. Fur robes were of course indispensable. According to Hearne, "it requires the prime parts of the skins of from eight to ten deer to make a complete suit of warm clothing for a grown person during the Winter: all of which should, if possible, be killed in the month of August, or early in September." The hair of both sexes was cut at the level of the eyes, and hung unconfined. Early observers noted parallel blue or black bars tattooed on the cheeks of members of various northern Athapascan tribes. DWELLINGS- Chipewyan lodges were conical tipis constructed in the usual manner of poles covered with caribou-skins. The sweat-lodge was unknown. PRIMITIVE FOODS - The principal game animal was the caribou, the Chipewyan name of which signifies "flesh." During the spring and autumn migration of the vast herds to and from the Arctic feeding grounds great numbers were easily killed by spearsmen in narrow defiles or at water crossings. In summer caribou were driven into large enclosures, there to become entangled in thong snares; they were crowded down a peninsula and into the surrounding water; they were approached by a pair of hunters, tandem, bearing the horns and head-skin of a caribou and imitating its peculiar movements. Moose are still numerous, and during the mating season are successfully lured within gunshot by means of a birch-bark trumpet with which the hunter imitates the voice of either bull or cow. Rawhide snares attached to resilient saplings were formerly much used for this animal, as well as for woodland caribou. The surest but most laborious method was to run the moose down when deep snow impeded it. Beaver were important to the northern tribes even before the traders created a demand for their skins. They were captured by barring them in their huts, opening the roof, and spearing them; by breaching a beaver-dam and hooking an investigating animal on a caribou-antler gaff; by setting a bag-net below a breach in the dam. They were speared also in their refuges under the banks of streams. The fourth important game animal was the hare, which was and is taken in noose snares. The woodland buffalo was not unknown, but was unimportant. Waterfowl swarmed in the marshy lakes and were shot with arrows and caught in snares set at the nests or between parallel fences built out at right angles from the shore. Fish - principally maskinonge, lake trout, and whitefish - were and are a prime staple. They were taken at all seasons with bone-pointed spears, antler gorge-hooks, and gill-nets. 147 {view image of page 148} I48 THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN Vegetal foods were of comparatively little importance to the tribes of the far north, but in the southerly Chipewyan area such products occur in fair abundance. Besides two species of blueberries, two of cranberries, and service-berries, various other fruits were harvested, and cattail-roots, tule root-stalks, bast from the bark of aspens and pines, and lichens were universally held in regard. ARTS AND INDUSTRIES - For their tools and utensils the Chipewyan employed bone, horn, antler, tooth, skin, and wood. The bow was of willow or birch, recurved and strengthened by a sinew wrapping. The arrow-shaft, usually of spruce, was tipped with a cylindrical bone point or with an antler point socketed in the shaft. The quiver was the entire fur of a fox, coyote, or otter. Spears for killing swimming caribou and beaver, for fishing, and for fighting, had points of moose shin-bone or of moose- or caribou-antler. The aboriginal knife is said to have been made of moose-antler. The adz was a stone blade lashed with rawhide to a wooden handle, and a similar hook consisted of a beaver maxilla with a single incisor in place. The gaff was a sharp tine of caribou-antler lashed to a curved handle, and the fish-hook a double-pointed spindle of the same material fastened at its middle to an untwisted rawhide cord. The flesher for preparing hides is a moose-ulna beveled at the lower end, and the hair-scraper a longitudinal half-section of an ulna. The preparation of skins for clothing, shelter, fish-lines, snares, sleds, and snowshoes was among the most important duties of women in this land where rigorous winter follows close upon fleeting summer. The instrument for sewing was a bone awl, and the thread of course was sinew. Various kinds of skin bags were made for containing dried food and valuables. Cordage was either sinew or a continuous thong of caribou rawhide, the babiche or shaganappi of Canadian vernacular. Some, if not all, of the northern Athapascans made net cordage of willow-bark. In the southerly area birch-bark was the material for water-pails, platters, berry-baskets, and cooking vessels. In other localities water-tight baskets were made of spruce-roots. Poplar knurls were fashioned into bowls. In the far north spoons and ladles were made of musk-ox horns. Fire was kindled by means of a wooden spindle twirled between the palms, and by striking two stones together. Tradition points to the use of skin-covered canoes, but the earliest observers saw only birch-bark craft. For winter transportation there was the sled, consisting of two narrow, parallel boards up-curving at the front and rigidly joined by wooden cross-bars. In emergency a toboggan was made by sewing together as many caribou leg-skins as were required; the short, smooth hair glided over the ice with little friction. Women usually furnished the motive power for sled transport, though the use of dogs was not unknown. Every individual of course had his netted snowshoes. They were longer and narrower than the Cree type. GAMES- The gambling contests of the Chipewyan include the hand-game, a dice play in which four bear-claws plugged with lead (originally no doubt with sand and gum) were employed, and the rod game. Contests of skill were the ball-and-pin game, in which the object was to impale with a bone pin as many as possible of eight sections of caribou-toes, and various games of archery and javelin-casting. Mackenzie observed that the Chipewyan seldom sang and danced, that they shot at marks and played at games, but preferred to sleep, because the task of obtaining food was so arduous that they were glad to rest in idleness. POLITICAL AND SOCIAL ORGANIZATION - The Chipewyan consisted of local bands wandering here and there in quest of food, each under the leadership of the man who by common consent was best fitted to be chief. They had neither clans nor totems, and the concept of descent as being either maternal or paternal is foreign to their thought. Names are not ancestral. Feminine names frequently refer to marten, and formerly an adult was commonly spoken of as the father or mother of a certain pet dog or a child. MARRIAGE- Girls were married soon after puberty. If the match was made by negotiation between the respective parents, payment was made to the girl's father; but informal mating was not uncommon. The young couple are said to have made their home indiscriminately with either family; but the fact that a man looked upon his son-in-law as the support of his old age points to the young man's joining his wife's family as the regular procedure. The familiar mother-in-law taboo did not here prevail. Polygyny was customary for men of ability, and the first wife's younger sisters frequently became her co-wives. It was almost a man's duty to marry his brother's widow, if she acquiesced. First cousins in the relation of a man and his father's sister's daughter regularly married, with the result that paternal aunt and mother-inlaw, and uncle and father-in-law, became synonymous. Sharing a wife with another man, who thereby became, if he was not already, the husband's close companion, was an institution; but {view image of facing page 148} A Piegan war-bonnet [photogravure plate] {view image of page 149} APPENDIX 149 a wife adulterous without permission could be flogged or dismissed. Women, whether single or married, were regularly the prize, willing or reluctant, of lusty wrestling bouts; and regardless of the respective standing of the contestants, the winner claimed his reward without further hostilities or expressed ill-feeling. MORTUARY CUSTOMS-The dead were wrapped in skins and exposed on the ground; but men of importance were laid in their tipis, which were then abandoned. Personal effects were left with the corpse, and members of the family gave away their possessions, cut the hair, blackened the face, and wore old clothing for two or three years. The bereaved of both sexes sometimes scarified limbs and breasts and severed the first joint of a finger. Names of the recently deceased were taboo. The home of the dead was thought to be in the west. RELATIONSHIP TERMS 1 I. /tha, father (III, IV) I. father (3, 7) II. hian, mother (III, IV) 2. mother (3, 7) III. inyess, son (I, II, XVI, XVII) 2 3- son (I, 2) 5. woman's sister's son (32) 4. stepson (33, 34) 6. wife's sister's son (35) IV. linen, daughter (I, II, XVI, XVII) 7. daughter (I, 2) 9. woman's sister's daughter (32) 8. stepdaughter (33, 34) IO. wife's sister's daughter (35) V. tfsi6, grandfather (VII, VIII, IX) II. father's father (I5, i6, 17, I8) 12. mother's father (I5, i6, I7, I8) VI. ftuin6, grandmother (VII, VIII, IX) 13. father's mother (I5, i6, I7, I8) 14. mother's mother (I5, i6, 17, i8) VII. unnaghaz ("elder-brother small"), grandson (V, VI) 15. son's son (II, 12, 13, 14) i6. daughter's son (II, 12, 13, 14) VIII. 6haraz6 ("elder-sister small"), granddaughter 3 (V, VI) 17. son's daughter (II, 12, 13, 14) I8. daughter's daughter (II, I2, 13, 14) IX. ttfhiuy6, grandchild (V, VI) X. unnaih6, elder brother (XI, XIII) 19. elder brother (20, 22) XI. 6chele, younger brother (X, XII) 20. younger brother (19, 21) XII. ehar6, elder sister 4 (XI, XIII) 21. elder sister (20, 22) XIII. dez&, younger sister (X, XII) 22. younger sister (19, 21) XIV. e&he, uncle, father-in-law (XVIII) 23. father's brother (36) 25. father-in-law (39, 40) 24. mother's brother (37) 26. father's sister's husband (38) XV. &esun, paternal aunt, mother-in-law, man's sister-in-law (XIX) 27. father's sister (41) 30. man's brother's wife (45) 28. mother-in-law (43, 44) 3I. wife's sister (46) 29. man's father's sister's daughter (42) 1 Reciprocal terms are indicated by numerals in parentheses. 2 SiyJse, my son, according to Goddard, is used only by women. This is erroneous. The term is employed by both sexes. 3 Saraze, my granddaughter. 4 Sare, my elder sister. {view image of page 150} 150 THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN A favorite marriage was that of a man and his father's sister's daughter. Paternal aunt and mother-in-law therefore became synonymous. By mental processes not comprehensible to us, this female cross-cousin also was designated by the same term as was her mother, that is, maternal aunt (mother-in-law); and since it might be one's brother instead of one's self that married this female cross-cousin, the same term came to mean also a man's brother's wife. But her sister also was a potential wife of the same man; hence she, the wife's sister, was designated by the term. Women, as well as men, employ the word in the sense of mother-in-law, although originally its application in this sense must have been restricted to men. Conversely, the woman concerned in cross-cousin marriage became the daughter-in-law of her mother's brother, hence the identity of uncle and father-in-law (XIV). Cross-cousin marriage results also in the identity of brother-sister child and child-in-law (XVIII, XIX), and of brother-sister by marriage and cross-cousins of the same sex (XX). This institution has been of immense importance in shaping the Chipewyan system of relationship terms. XVI. hankliye, maternal aunt, stepmother I (III, IV) 32. mother's sister (5, 9) 33- stepmother (4, 8) Since a wife's sister is one's potential wife, she is logically called stepmother by one's children. XVII. Md6hlfhune, stepfather (III, IV) 34. stepfather (4, 8) 35. mother's sister's husband (6, Io) The application of this term to mother's sister's husband is perhaps by analogy; mother's sister being stepmother, her husband is naturally stepfather. But it may point to the former existence of a practice of marrying one's wife's widowed sister and adopting her children. Conceivably, also, it might even be the result of a polyandrous phase, a man having a natural claim to his wife's younger sister and partially enforcing it after her marriage to another, in which case the younger sister's husband would stand in the relation of a second father to the elder sister's children. This is purely hypothetical; but plural wives were frequently, though not always, sisters (whence the identity of maternal aunt and stepmother), and sharing a woman by two men was not unknown in the recent past. XVIII. 6hazz, brother's child, sister's child, child-in-law: (used only by males) 2 (XIV) 36. man's brother's child (23) 39. man's son-in-law (25) 37. man's sister's child (24) 40. man's daughter-in-law (25) 38. wife's brother's child (26) XIX. 6chiay, brother's child, child-in-law, brother-in-law: (used only by females) (XV) 41. woman's brother's child (27) 44. woman's daughter-in-law (28) 42. woman's mother's brother's son (29) 45. husband's brother (30) 43. woman's son-in-law (28) 46. woman's sister's husband (31) XX. e'he, man's brother-in-law, woman's sister-in-law, man's male cross-cousin, woman's female cross-cousin (XX) 47. man's sister's husband (48) 51. woman's brother's wife (52) 48. wife's brother (47) 52. husband's sister (5I) 49. man's mother's brother's son (50) 53. woman's mother's brother's daughter (54) 50 man's father's sister's son (49) 54. woman's father's sister's daughter (53) XXI. ella, man's male cousin (the related parents being of the same sex) (XXI) 55. man's father's brother's son (55) 56. man's mother's sister's son (56) Of the sixteen first-cousin relationships, eight are designated by special terms as noted above (XV, XIX, XX, XXI). The other eight are included in the brother-sister terms. These brother-sister cousins Lre (i) female cousins whose related parents are both male or both female; and (2) cousins of opposite sex whose related parents are (a) both female, (b) both male, (c) of the sex opposed to that of the child (man's mother's brother's daughter, woman's father's sister's son). 1 Sa"klye, my maternal aunt. The term is based on the word for mother, an + kfye. Note that its reciprocals are son and daughter. 2 Saze ("my little"), my nephew, etc. {view image of page 151} APPENDIX I5I Inflection by Incorporation of Possessive Pronouns 1 eh ia, mother athia, father Singular Plural Singular Plural First enne [se-in] nuhin setha nutha Second nna [ne-an] nuhan nethi nuthi Third ban [bie-n] hobehan; h6ban bethi hobetha Indefinite ehian [e-an] tha Vocative enne sethi PUBERTY CUSTOMS- There was no puberty ceremony for either sex. A female in her periods lived apart in a small isolated hut, and avoided eating the heads and internal organs of animals, lest game be offended. She was careful not to cross a hunter's trail, nor to approach men engaged in trapping beaver in their huts. SHAMANS - A shaman derived his power by instruction from animals and monsters in dreams, and therefore was described as a "shadow person." He treated the sick by entering a small hut and there pretending to communicate with his tutelars. Sleight-of-hand feats were performed, such as "swallowing" a hatchet or a large piece of board. Shamans were greatly feared for their supposed ability to kill by magic. WARFARE- The enemies of the Chipewyan were Cree and Eskimo, and the Athapascan Dogribs and Yellowknives. They were not fond of warfare, but are said to have been reckless fighters when attacked. A period of purification after combat was observed, but the customary victory-dance was represented by extemporized songs of exultation. Among themselves they had no blood feuds. Says Hearne: "They are the mildest tribe, or nation, that is to be found on the borders of Hudson's Bay: for let their effronts or losses be ever so great, they will never seek any other revenge than that of wrestling. As for murder, which is so common among all the tribes of the Southern Indians [Cree], it is seldom heard of among them." RELIGION AND CEREMONIES -The Chipewyan had neither societies, religious or fraternal, tribal ceremonies, nor dances. Even a fraternity of shamans was lacking. Their religious life was summed up in the shamanistic cult and in numerous hunting charms, in which mimetic magic was the underlying principle. 1 Forms in brackets are idealized to show the structure of the terms actually in use. The vocative of the word for mother has completely supplanted the original sean. {view image of page 152} 152 THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN The Western Woods Cree LANGUAGE - Algonquian. In 1841 James Evans, an English Wesleyan missionary at Norway House, devised a syllabary system for writing Cree by which nine basic characters, placed four different ways, expressed thirty-six elementary syllabic sounds. Evans manufactured both press and types himself, casting the latter from the lead lining of tea-chests and whittling them into shape, all of which was preliminary to a translation of the Bible. The first Bible to appear entirely in the Cree syllabic characters, however, was that of Rev. William Mason, published in i86i by the British and Foreign Bible Society. The system is very widely understood, though comparatively few of the Woods Cree write it readily. The following key reproduced from P~re Lacombe's Prayer Book of i886, and a brief story with interlinear Cree and English, illustrate it. ALPHABETIl DES CARACTERES SYLLABIQUES rouR t.& LANGUE CRISE r I I i 17 0 V6 >Ai 1> -u <a ow(final) V P AP >po-xt <pA up UtC flti Dto-u Cta it cjk6 ki dkko-u bkIa 1k " /. tc-li1 ' ftc ii \J tcj1u 1) iU h e - tch Ij 1 a i!D 10 Cflc In I'' "1 rn6 Fl l J mlO"l L ma 'tlQ a n' 6 - ni -0 no41 Q.-.'na n re fri ro-u yra zr 4y S6 rlySi r' so- u n-a i LYy ~ yi fyo-u Ya + yy i Lo point. daunse nlot ou final, V'gale::ON=E- Cet Alpbabet est destltn A donner IA vicur des differents signes. Ka yas e sa long ago (past tense) V q,\ vo -4, r pe yfik na peu a si 61i one man with 4&- ~a4 -WI Wa his wife e ni si yit both his r> i 1_'t<- rj F 1-l a ta wui si mi si wa wa. children E si sI pas qat tz' ki zOik. he maple sugar was making {view image of page 153} APPENDIX I53 fCCQA Ki t6 ta wi suddenly An 90o A9d V5'4A, 1LVL VL-rf-x is qeu pi ki e ha pit o na pse ma e ma fi yit. woman alone at home her husband he hunting <-c Poa ta Sioux jnJ( Cd ko ti ti kut came to her sos qaf? by fate e sa 6 ti ik (past) her took ki we ta hik. his home to vQ j d ccd e ta ko ta hi kut he brought her Wfi ki wak his tipi <4. <(C A wa Poa ta that Sioux i sik toward zS' eQ < wi ki wak. his tipi C LIU A h 6"c- q' S' ka ya ti e sa ki ni sus qe wiu. already (past) he two women yd e E ku si thus v'. C C-On e qa ta nis ti yit he have (future) three AL. Lb wi wa. Ma k6 his wife 6 ki ni su these two but An nl(.' is qe wuk women 4~ ' pe yuk one e sa pa qa tik. (past) hate dc Ku ta ka other sa ki hik like Al, 14 vn 9-4*, e sa. (past) A wa pe tis qe wan this brought-woman a ni hi ka sa ki hi kut: that one the one who liked f b 6-L "Ki ka ni ma I will fooc f Vw- L a. Kz we kan." you go home will 1?e Vtn, ka si poe tit start hi tin d give L-n C e a mus ki si ni moccasins mi na ka mi yi tin. berries I will give mnn all: I tik e sa she (past) V3 0 vn Air!-,V-k ku si. E ti pis ka yik e sa thus at night (past) tc<-~- A?, V,' r^'6 tas kik i si. Pe yuk si ply to her land there one river e ki wit go home Vr -4 4- a', e ki a si wa hak. she had crossed -rC vA' (o< ka wa pa mat she see Mwe 6ti just when e wi ka pat she landed <. c Va T nh'd/. Poa ta e pi mi ti sa ho kut. Sioux her follow VOL. XVIII 20 s ya s su n e a qa na t ki.f willows at edge bent down covering willows at edge bent down covering {view image of page 154} 154 THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN (o d( e< ( fA' p%- g(V t'p At, v)C Ka se ko pa ye hut ni pik ki kaft ka pe ki sik e sa e ku ta she went under them in water nearly all day (past) there Ucf vb 4P"' VLCALJ ka ko ftihk. E ka a yi wak e ma ta hi kut, she floating not more her track (verb) AI >&A lo 7^/ V> 6JZ, VPd pi yis, po ni hik, ka ki we yit, e po ni hi kut. E ku si ceased left went home her left thus b!C '2' A~ A.- '4b' 7V~-. ka ki tah ku sihk e sa wi ki w6k e o ku is qeu. return (past) her tipi that woman Long ago a man with his wife and his two children was making maple sugar. The woman was alone at home, her husband was hunting, when suddenly a Sioux came to her and took her by force to his home. He brought her to his tipi. That Sioux already had two women. Thus he was going to have three wives. But of those two women, one hated her, the other liked her. The one that liked her said to this captive woman: "I will give you food, I will give you moccasins and berries. You will go home." So at night she started to go home to her country. She had crossed a river, and just as she came ashore she saw a Sioux following her. Willows were at the edge of the water, bent down, forming a cover. She went under them, and nearly all day she was there, floating in the water. Then no more could he track her, and he ceased, he left her and went home. Thus the woman got back to her tipi. POPULATION -The various Cree groups are no longer fully officially segregated. According to the census of 1924 their numbers were: Cree, about 6750 (including a few Beavers, Assiniboin, and Saulteaux); Woods Cree, 355; Plains Cree, about 2034 (including a few other Cree); Swampy Cree, 6716 (including some mixed-bloods and Saulteaux); Bush Cree, I332; mixed Cree, Chippewa, and Saulteaux, 1870. DRESS- Cree men wore loose shirts of skin- deer, antelope, or elk - with the sleeves open from arm-pit to elbow; hip-length leggings of the same material suspended from a thong girdle, which also confined the breech-clout; buffalo-skin moccasins with the hairy side next to the foot, and on occasion close-fitting fur caps and buffalo-skin robes. When the westward movement of the Cree brought certain bands in contact with the Chipewyan, they adopted the parka, but omitted the distinctive points of the skirt. The hair was either parted on the crown and tied in two braids at the sides of the face, or was gathered into a single queue behind. Tattooing of the face and chest was general. Women wore a skin dress falling below the knees and confined at the waist by a broad, stiff belt; knee-length leggings; moccasins, and in winter an outer garment of skins tanned "in the hair." The hair was parted on the crown and arranged in two knots behind the ears. DWELLINGS -The Cree used tipis of the familiar Plains type. Skins for this purpose were buffalo, moose, or elk. The sudatory also was that of the Plains area, a dome-like frame of willow shoots covered with skins, in which steam was generated by throwing water on heated stones. PRIMITIVE FOODS - Buffalo on the prairies and moose in the wooded regions were the principal game animals. The former were most commonly captured by driving or enticing them into stockades; they were also driven out upon smooth ice, and were shot by mounted hunters. Moose are still hunted by tracking, by pursuit in deep snow with dogs, by ambush, and by calling with a birch-bark trumpet. Woodland caribou, deer, and elk were killed for food. Beaver and hares were esteemed, and such animals as bear, lynx, marten, otter, skunk, porcupine, and muskrat were not despised. Fish were plentiful and of first importance, but unlike the Chipewyan the Cree did not set nets under ice. In winter they employed a dip-net {view image of page 155} APPENDIX I55 at the foot of small cascades and in summer a gill-net in lakes. The principal vegetal foods were and are service-berries, blueberries, cranberries, chokecherries, cattail-roots, tule rootstalks, and bast. ARTS AND INDUSTRIES - Cree arrows were triply feathered service-berry shoots, either self-pointed or tipped with stone, and bows were willow or birch, simply curved and reinforced with sinew along the back. Stone was the material for axes and knives, bone for awls and doublepointed fish-hooks. Hide-flesher and scraper were made of a moose's ulna. Numerous household utensils, as well as canoes, are still made of birch-bark, the edges being stitched with spruceroot fibres and small holes calked with spruce-gum. Various vegetal dyes were extracted for coloring the porcupine-quills used in artistic ornamentation of clothing and skin bags. Rawhide rattles and flat drums were the instruments of rhythm. A spindle twirled between the hands produced fire. Cordage was made of caribou rawhide, of sinew, and of willow-bark. For transport the Woods Cree employed, besides canoes, wooden sleds drawn by dogs or women. In open country the horse-drawn travois was sometimes used. GAMES - The principal form of gambling was the hand-game. Men's dice were eight weighted bear-claws, and women's dice were four flat sticks variously marked. Arrows were discharged at a rolling hoop, and javelins were cast at a mark. Lacrosse was played at Isle a la Crosse in Sir John Franklin's time, but the modern Cree of Alberta are ignorant of the game. POLITICAL AND SOCIAL ORGANIZATION - In spite of their former close affiliation with the Chippewa, the Cree have neither totems nor clans. Each local band and each larger geographical division had its chief, who held his position by reason of native ability, not by inheritance; his duties included the maintenance of peace among his people and the decision as to migratory movements in quest of food and safety from enemies. The Unimihituwuk, a society corresponding to the Soldiers of the Plains tribes, preserved order in the large camps, particularly during tribal ceremonies, and their word was law. RELATIONSHIP TERMS- The forms recorded have the first person singular possessive ni (n) incorporated. Dropping this prefix usually gives what we may call the absolute term, which however cannot be used without a qualifying particle. Vocatives are given in parentheses. They are always, of course, based on the first person singular possessive, but usually show an altered accent and falling inflection on the final syllable. It is a common thing to find in any system of Indian relationship nomenclature, similarities of word-construction such as may be seen in English father, mother, brother. This feature is remarkable in the Cree system. I. n6tawiy (n6ta), father 2. nikawiy (neka, ika), mother 3. nikosis (nik6sis), son 4. nitanis (nitanis), daughter 5. nimus6m (nimuso), grandfather 6. nohkum (n6hko), grandmother 1 7. n6sisim (n6sis6), grandchild 8. nistes (nistesi), elder brother 9. nisim (nisim), younger brother, younger sister, woman's father's brother's daughter, woman's mother's sister's daughter 2 10. nimis (nimise), elder sister, woman's father's brother's daughter, woman's mother's sister's daughter I I. n6komis (nok6mise), paternal uncle, stepfather 12. nisis (nisis6), maternal uncle, father-in-law 13. nisik6s (nisikos6), paternal aunt, mother-in-law 14. nitosis (nit6sis6), maternal aunt, stepmother With reference to uncle-aunt terms, the Cree is identical with the Chipewyan system; except that in Cree only the paternal uncle is stepfather and maternal uncle is father-in-law, whereas in Chipewyan both uncles are stepfather and there is a separate term for father-in-law. 1 Nohkrum, grandmother, is probably a contraction of niyohkum. Cf. the singular indefinite form, o-yohkfzmi-m6u. 2 Younger sister is sometimes distinguished by using the term nisimis. {view image of page 156} I56 THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN This difference is due to the fact that a Cree could marry his paternal aunt's daughter or his maternal uncle's daughter, while Chipewyan custom did not permit the latter marriage. The identity of paternal uncle and stepfather, and of maternal aunt and stepmother, indicates the former prevalence of the custom of marriage between a man and his brother's widow and between a man and his wife's sister. 15. nitosim, man's brother's son I6. nitosim-isqem, man's brother's daughter, woman's sister's daughter 1 17. nitiqatim, man's sister's son, woman's brother's son I8. nistim, man's sister's daughter, woman's brother's daughter 19. nikosim, woman's sister's son 20. nichiwim (nichiwa), cousin: (between males, the related parents being brothers or sisters) 21. nischis (nischas), cousin: (between males, the related parents being brother and sister) 22. nichak6s (nichakose), cousin: (between females, the related parents being brother and sister) 23. nitawimau (nitawi), cousin: (between male and female, the related parents being brothers or sisters) 24. nitimis (nitimuse), cousin: (between male and female, the related parents being brother and sister) 2 25. ninahiksim (ninahiksim), son-in-law 3 26. ninahakan-isqEm, daughter-in-law 4 27. nistauh (nista), man's brother-in-law 5 28. nitim (nitim), woman's brother-in-law, man's sister-in-law Nitim is from nitimns, male or female cross-cousin (24). The lexical connection is quite logical, because marriage between such cousins was encouraged. Thus, when a man married his cross-cousin (nitimus), he and her sister became nitim. 29. ninap.m (ninaipm), husband 6 30. niwa (niwa), wife Inflection by Incorporation of Possessive Pronouns -ka, mother -ota, father Singular Plural Singular Plural First nikawiy kikawinau n6tawiy kotawiniu Second kikawiy kikiwiwiu k6tawiy kotiwiwiu Third okiwiya okawiwiu otawiya otiwiwau Indefinite okiwimau otawimau Vocative neka, ika n6ta MARRIAGE - Marriage matches were the result of negotiation between the respective parents. Price was not discussed, for it was a matter of pride to give the girl's parents as much as possible, thus enhancing the new daughter-in-law's value and consequently the social standing of the bridegroom's family. Very rigid was the mother-in-law taboo. Polygyny was not uncommon, and there was a suggestion of polyandry, a man sharing his wife on request with a comrade, or with one who by assuming this relationship became his comrade. A favored match was that of a man and the daughter of his paternal aunt or maternal uncle. Marriage with one's brother's widow and with one's deceased wife's sister was the logical thing. An adulterous wife was flogged or was dismissed with loss of her nose. In spite of this, by all accounts chastity was very rare and little admired. 1 Isqem, for isqeu, woman. 2 The only cousin relationship expressed by a brother-sister term is that existing between females whose related parents are brothers or sisters (9, IO). 3 With the singular indefinite particle this is o-nahaksimi-mau, which is usually abbreviated to nahakis. 4 This is the term for son-in-law with isqem (for isqeu, woman) added. In the indefinite sense it is nahan-isqem. 5 But wife's sister's husband is called nichiwam, male parallel cousin. 6 From napeu, man. {view image of facing page 156} Oksoy-Apiw - "Raw-eater Old-man" - Blackfoot [photogravure plate] {view image of page 157} APPENDIX I57 MORTUARY CUSTOMS - A corpse was wrapped in skins and lashed in a tree, exposed on a scaffold, or laid on the ground under a pile of logs. The head was northward. Food and tobacco were provided for the journey to the world of spirits. Personal possessions of the deceased were distributed, but horses and dogs were not killed. Camp was immediately struck. A skin packet containing a lock of the dead person's hair was, and still is, tied to a post at the rear of the tipi and is thus preserved for an indefinite period. Adult mourners cut the hair, abandon good clothing, and never wash the face. Formerly they pierced legs and arms and blackened the face. PUBERTY CUSTOMS - A menstruating girl passed four days in an isolated hut with another girl in the same condition or with an old woman. In order to become an industrious woman, she constantly busied herself, collecting fuel, sewing moccasins, making baskets. She avoided eating of the head, but not the internal organs, of any animal. SHAMANS - Manitu, the supernatural power of shamans, was acquired by solitary vigil, when the seeker in a dream was transported to a distant place by some supernatural, whether animal or natural phenomenon or imagined monster, and there kept for instruction. He treated the sick in a small conical hut erected for the occasion, and the dominating feature of the performance was a medley of sounds, issuing from the shaman's throat but supposed by the audience to be the voices of birds and beasts, the shaman's tutelars. He also pretended to communicate audibly with distant friends of the wondering throng. Every shaman was also a conjurer, and any malady not understood as the result of natural causes was thought to be a magic infliction. Formerly the conjuring power of the Woods Cree was greatly dreaded by their Prairie congeners. WARFARE - The western Cree were constant enemies of the Blackfeet, Bloods, and Piegan, whom they steadily pressed southwestward out of the Saskatchewan plains, and with the Sioux on the south and the Chipewyan on the north. The Prairie Cree were very good friends of the Assiniboin. The Woods Cree had no part in the warfare with the Sioux and but little in that with the Blackfeet, Bloods, and Piegan, whom they encountered only in the trading season, when tribes from north and south visited the post on Saskatchewan river. Practically all of Woods Cree warfare was concerned with the Chipewyan and other Athapascans. Peace river is so named because of a treaty there effected between the Cree and the Beavers. Scalping was a Cree custom, and victory was celebrated in a scalp-dance. RELIGION AND CEREMONIES - Manitu is not a spirit, but the power inherent in the supernaturals. Every species of animal has its supernatural counterpart. Many phenomena of nature and geographic features are in the same category. Most important of all these is Thunder. Man can acquire this power, or at least can make use of it, by communing with the supernaturals in dreams during voluntary vigils in the solitudes. Thus he becomes manitu'-kasiu, supernatural-like, a shaman. This concept of manitu lies at the base of all Cree religious thought and practice. The tribal ceremony is the Sun dance. It does not materially differ from the Plains version, but the Woods Cree, even before reservation days, did not mutilate the breasts. This indicates that the ceremony was of comparatively recent date among the most northerly Cree. The Prairie-chicken dance is more distinctively Cree. It imitates the mating dance of the bird for which it is named, and, like the Sun dance, is sponsored by a man who hopes thus to overcome sickness or other misfortune. With the same purpose in view they had formerly an autumnal round dance. NAMES OF INDIAN TRIBES 1 -Assiniboin, Northern Asini-poatuik (Asini-poata) 2 Atsina Paustiku-iyiniwuk (Paustiku-iyiniu), Rapids-at People 3 1 Singulars are in parentheses. Iyiniwak, people, in these terms is ordinarily heard as winiwuk. 2 Whence "Assiniboin." The " boin" of the English term (Cree poata) is derived byWilliam Jones, according to Handbook of American Indians, from Chippewa upwdwa, "he cooks by roasting." The writer's informants were unable to corroborate this etymology with a cognate term in their own language. 3 The Atsina, Gros Ventres of the Prairie, or Minnetarees of the Prairie, were often called "Fall Indians" or "Rapid Indians" by early explorers, because, according to Sir John Franklin, of their former residence near the falls of the Saskatchewan. {view image of page 158} 158 THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN Blackfeet Kaskiteu-weyasittk (KaskIttu-wtyasit), Black They-foot Chipewyan Wichipwayaniwiik (Wichipwayaniu) Chippewa Nakawi-yiniwfik 2 Cree Iyiniwtk (Iyiniu), People 3 Cree, Athabasca Lake Ayapaskiu-iyiniwfik, Reeds-here-and-there People 4 Cree, Down-stream Mimiki-yiniwqk Cree, Lac Isle a la Crosse Saskitawau-iyiniwilk 5 Cree, Prairie Pasqau-iyiniwik, Prairie People Cree, River Sipiu-iyiniwuk, River People Cree, Woods Sakau-iyiniwuk, Bush-country People Eskimo Ayeskimiwiik (Ayeskimeu) 6 Sarsi Susiwuk (Sisiu) 7 Sioux Poatfik (Poata) 8 The Sarsi LANGUAGE - Athapascan. POPULATION -Mackenzie estimated I20 warriors in 35 tipis; Henry, in I809, saw the Sarsi in one camp of 90 tipis with about I50 men; Franklin credited them with 150 tipis, and he usually estimated about ten persons to a lodge. Estimates of population two or three generations ago by natives now living are much higher. There are now about I6o Sarsi. DRESS- Sarsi costumes for men and women differed in no wise from the often described garments of the Plains Indians. The men still arrange the hair in a braid at each side, and another of the front hair thrown back over the crown. Women part it in the middle and let it hang loose and unkempt at the sides of the face. DWELLINGS-The tipi-poles were preferably spruce, the number depending on the size of the structure. Fifteen buffalo-skins were required for the cover of an average lodge, and six for the lining. Tipis painted to conform with a dream were numerous, and were supposed to bring the owner good luck. The sudatory was of the Plains type. PRIMITIVE FOODS- Typical plainsmen, the Sarsi subsisted principally on buffalo, which they decoyed into pounds, or stampeded over declivities, or shot from horseback. Deer were stalked by a hunter wearing the stuffed skin of a deer's head and neck, and antelope were made approachable by indulging in grotesque antics. Moose and elk were less frequently hunted; mountain-goats and mountain-sheep were sometimes killed in the Rocky mountains. Many of the smaller quadrupeds of the country, including some carnivores, were regarded as good food. The principal vegetal foods were service-berries, chokecherries, parsnips, and blueberries. Other edible products of the soil were cranberries, cornel-berries, rosehips, lily corms, and numerous unidentified fruits and roots. The great staple was pemmican, a mixture of pounded dried meat, tallow, and dried berries 1 Whence "Chipewyan." The etymology is wi, they; chipwau, pointed; wayan, fur skin; iyiniwuk, people. The reference is to the characteristic Chipewyan coat, the skirt of which was cut in a point before and behind. 2 Nakawi is said to be an onomatope imitating the rapid enunciation of the Chippewa. 3 Cree-speakers are called Nihiyawuk (Nihiyau). 4 Whence "Athabasca." 5 Saskitawau, where a river enters a lake. 6 According to Handbook of American Indians, Eskimo is "from the Abnaki Esquimantsic, or from Ashkimeq, the Chippewa equivalent, signifying,'eaters of raw flesh."' But two linguistically intelligent informants of the writer independently gave the following: wiygskimeu, one who is going to net snowshoes; Ayfskimeu, or btuskimeu, a snowshoe-netter, an Eskimo. One of these two informants, however, admitted the etymological possibility of the derivation from aski, raw flesh, and moweu, he eats, noting that all northern Indians make snowshoes but only the Eskimo eat raw flesh. 7 An adopted term, from Blackfoot Satisi ("not good"). 8 See Note 2, page I57. {view image of facing page 158} Itsipstsinikyi - "Kills-inside" - Piegan [photogravure plate] {view image of page 159} APPENDIX I59 ARTS AND INDUSTRIES - The best bows were of elk-antler, but the usual material was birch, cherry, or service-berry wood. They were recurved and reinforced with a layer of sinew glued to the back while the weapon was bent in the reverse direction. Arrows were triply feathered shoots of service-berry or cherry tipped with flint points, which were shaped by flaking under the pressure of a heated stick. The knife was a flint flake, the ax a section of moose-antler bound to a wooden handle. The war-club was a roundish stone enclosed in rawhide and attached to a handle. The hide-scraper was a flat stone, probably slate, fastened to a wooden handle. Hides were prepared by scraping off the adhering flesh and fat, and the hair unless a fur skin was desired, and softening by the application of the animal's brains, by manipulation, and by exposure to smoke. Sewing was done by perforating the skin with a bone awl and pushing through the hole the end of a sinew thread. Objects made of skin, in addition to clothing and tipi-covers, were storage-bags, baby-bags, and saddle-gear. Wooden wedges and a stone maul were the implements for splitting timber, and fire was kindled by rubbing a stick on wood, not by twirling a drill. Dishes and pots were made by smearing clay on both sides of forms woven out of fibrous roots and baking them in a fire. Early in the nineteenth century these were supplanted by bark and wooden dishes. Spoons and ladles were made by boiling and shaping elk-antler. The travois, drawn by dogs and later by horses, was used in transporting camp equipment. POLITICAL AND SOCIAL ORGANIZATION- The tribe was divided into bands, which within the memory of the oldest men did not exceed eight. Except during the summer ceremonial season these bands roamed apart from one another. Each had its chief, and there was also a tribal chief. Warlike accomplishment was the basis of chiefship, and heredity was not considered. Partly social, partly religious, partly military were the six fraternities joined in succession by all the men of the tribe. Membership was obtained by purchase and was evidenced by acquisition of the dispossessed member's regalia. Each society pitched its lodge inside the circle of tipis at the summer encampment, and sang its songs, danced, transferred memberships, and sallied forth to harass spectators in ways suggested by the name of the group concerned. Four of these societies officiated as camp police, and one was pledged never to give ground to an enemy while a comrade was in danger. RELATIONSHIP TERMS -The terms as recorded are equivalent to "my father," "my mother," et cetera. Normally, as in Chipewyan, the first person singular possessive is indicated by s prefixed to the initial vowel of the objective form, but there are many irregularities:inna, my mother; it!a (or sit!a), my father; kinighai, my elder brother; mafhchani, my wife's brother (a very irregular form, inasmuch as other inflectional forms show its root to be anichani); and a few words beginning with Ys, is, AT, which probably represent metathesis of the regular si. Reciprocals are indicated by numerals in parentheses. I. it!a, father (III) I. father (5, 6) II. inna, mother (IV, V) 2. mother (7, Io) 4. man's elder brother's wife (9) 3. mother's sister (8, II) Maternal aunt and mother are synonymous because frequently sisters married the same man. A man's elder brother's wife is called mother in imitation of the children of the family, and she properly responds by calling him son. III. sihaf, man's child 1 (I) 5. man's son (i) 6. man's daughter (I) IV. siza ("my boy"), woman's son I (II) 7. woman's son (2) 8. woman's sister's son (3) 9. husband's younger brother (4) V. sifs!a ("my girl"), woman's daughter 1 (II) 10. woman's daughter (2) I I. woman's sister's daughter (3) 1 The vocative of sighai, siza, sif.!ab, is tla. {view image of page 160} i6o THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN VI. issigha, grandfather (VIII) 12. parent's father (I7, I8) VII. issu, grandmother (IX) 14. parent's mother (20, 21) 13. husband's father (I9) 15. husband's mother (22) I6. husband's sister (23) A woman calls her husband's parents grandfather and grandmother in imitation of her children, and the husband's parents in turn call her their grandchild. But though the children address their paternal aunt as sister (39, 43), their mother calls her also grandmother (23). VIII. issuwa, man's grandchild (VI) 17. man's grandson (12) 19. man's son's wife (13) i8. man's granddaughter (12) IX. hihhighai, woman's grandchild (VII) 20. woman's grandson (I4) 22. woman's son's wife (I5) 21. woman's granddaughter (I4) 23. woman's brother's wife (I6) These grandparent-grandchild terms show a curious trait. Each grandparent calls his or her grandchildren by a derivative of their name for the other grandparent. The grandchild terms perhaps grew out of childish mispronunciation of the grandparent terms; for example, a grandmother playfully adopted an infant's mispronunciation of issigha, grandfather, as a sort of nickname which became fixed practice. Similarly, issiwa may be the grandfather's adoption of the infantile attempt at issi, grandmother. lssigha, grandfather, seems to be a development of sigha, man's child. X. kinighi, elder brother (XI, XIII) 24. elder brother (31, 42) 25. mother's elder brother (36, 45) 26. man's father's elder brother (34) 27. man's elder brother's son (33) XI. ishshitl!, younger brother (X, XII) 3I. younger brother (24, 38) 32. mother's younger brother (29, 40) 33. man's father's younger brother (27) 34. man's younger brother's son (26) XII. siti, elder sister (XI, XIII) 38. elder sister (31, 42) 39. father's elder sister (35, 44) XIII. istafta, younger sister (X, XII) 42. younger sister (24, 38) 43. father's younger sister (28, 41) 28. woman's elder brother's son (43) 29. man's elder sister's son (32) 30. wife's elder sister's husband (37) 35. woman's younger brother's son (39) 36. man's younger sister's son (25) 37. wife's younger sister's husband (30) 40. man's elder sister's daughter (32) 4I. woman's elder brother's daughter (43) 44. woman's younger brother's daughter (39) 45. man's younger sister's daughter (25) The present generation says sistaia, which has the appearance of being regular but is not approved by the oldest living Sarsi. The term is probably a derivative of sita, elder sister, and was originally sita-ta. By the metathesis hypothecated in the opening paragraph, the possessive prefix became is. The modern attempt to bring the word into conformity with the regular inflection therefore is anomalous to this old man, for to his mind it already signifies "my younger sister." But he feels no incongruity in mistafia, his younger sister, kzstafta, one's younger sister, which, if the supposed metathesis exists, should be, and originally were, mitaaa and kutafSa. XIV. sis'a, woman's paternal uncle (XV) 46. woman's father's brother (47) XV. sazzuwu, man's brother's daughter (XIV) 47. man's brother's daughter (46) Since, with the single exception of terms XIV-XV, uncle-aunt and nephew-niece relationships are in the brother-sister category, it follows logically that cousins also are brothers and sisters. Thus, my paternal uncle and I are brothers, and his son is in the same relation to my {view image of page 161} APPENDIX i6I father; and since that son is my father's " brother," I can only call him brother. No exception is made of the cousins resulting from terms XIV-XV. XVI. sihlnazi, son-in-law, wife's parent (XVI) 48. daughter's husband (49) 49. wife's parent (48) XVII. mashchani, man's brother-in-law (XVII) 50. wife's brother (5I) 51. man's sister's husband (50) XVIII. sihlnitahli, man's sister-in-law, woman's brother-in-law 1 (XVIII) 52. wife's sister (54) 54. woman's sister's husband (52) 53. man's younger brother's wife (55) 55. husband's elder brother (53) Inflection by Incorporation of Possessive Pronouns inna, mother it!a, father Singular Plural Singular Plural First inna nahi sit!a; it!i nahet!a Second nia (na) naha nit!a nahet!a Third mia (ma) kimi mit!a kimit!a Indefinite kua (kwa) kt!a Vocative inna it! The vocatives inna and it!a have the appearance of being absolute terms, the objective particle i (in before a vowel) being prefixed to the roots a and t!a. The first person possessive s may be prefixed to it!a, but not to inna; and the difference between these terms applied objectively and vocatively is that in the former case the voice remains suspended, while in the vocative it falls. The forms nia, mia, kua are idealized for the purpose of the paradigm. Actually they are heard as na, ma, kwa (a indicating long quantity). As in Chipewyan, the first and the second person plural are identical. MARRIAGE - Negotiations for marriage were usually begun by the family of the prospective bride. Presents were exchanged at intervals, and finally her family pitched a new tipi, seated her in it, and escorted the bridegroom to his new home. It became his duty to support his wife's parents to the best of his ability, but he was not permitted to address his mother-inlaw nor to come into her presence. A woman detected in adultery - which among Indians generally meant only the clandestine surrender of her favor without compensation and in circumstances not connected with ceremonial periods of promiscuity - could be dismissed with suitable punishment, which might be the loss of her nose or her front hair, either mutilation a lasting blight on her reputation. But under certain conditions a woman's lover became a legitimate sharer of her affection, and for this privilege he paid her husband. He was in fact a co-husband without the responsibility of supporting a family. Polygyny was common, some men having as many as five wives. The second co-wife was generally the younger sister of the first. The levirate was optional. MORTUARY CUSTOMS - With the face painted, the hair carefully dressed, and clothed in good garments, a corpse was wrapped in a skin and lashed to a travois, and so was taken to a tree in which a platform had been constructed. On this the body was deposited. But a man of rank was laid out in his painted tipi, with his clothing and weapons, and the lodge was abandoned. Those who touched the corpse afterward exposed themselves to the smoke of incense. Bereaved parents mutilated legs and wrists, and cut their hair short, and fathers sometimes severed the first joint of a finger. Names of the dead were temporarily taboo. The ghost was driven away by striking the tipi and the surrounding ground. The spirits travelled eastward to Big Gravel hills. PUBERTY CUSTOMS -There was no formal rite celebrating the puberty of either girls or boys. Menstruating females usually remained apart from the family tipi. 1 Said to mean "the one with whom I joke." Among Plains Indians brother-in-law and sister-in-law are very intimate. The translation is probably erroneous, inasmuch as the element si-in (plus -za, boy) appears in the term for daughter's husband and wife's parent, individuals who treated each other with the greatest respect. The interpreter probably meant to explain the relations existing between brother-in-law and sister-in-law, rather than to translate the term. VOL. XVIII —21 {view image of page 162} 162 THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN SHAMANS - Desiring to become a shaman, a man departed to some lonely spot to fast and watch for as long as he could endure it. The normal term was four days and four nights. The nature of the revelation experienced in his vision he kept secret for years, until he felt impelled to try his curative power. Some shamans administered herbs, others pretended to suck a foreign object from the sufferer's body. Shamanistic power was also received by instruction from an aged member of the cult. Many "dreamers" were instructed in their visions to prepare a new tipi and paint thereon certain figures suggesting the dream experience. The behest was never carried out immediately; an interval of many years always elapsed before the tipi was painted. A tipi of this sort was usually held for a few years and then sold with full explanation of the vision it commemorated. In the same manner it continued to change ownership. A dream experience of this kind did not necessarily or even usually involve curative power. The possession of the tipi was a supposed source of good fortune. WARFARE -The Sarsi were very closely associated with the Blackfeet, Bloods, and Piegan, friendly toward the Chipewyan, intermittently at odds with the Cree and the northern Assiniboin, and consistently hostile to all other tribes within their knowledge. Their forays were made for the purpose of capturing horses, and with this object they proceeded against Crows, Kutenai, Flatheads, Shoshoni, and Assiniboin. According to Alexander Henry they were reputed to be the bravest of all the prairie tribes. RELIGION AND CEREMONIES - Sarsi religion is summed up in shamanistic practice, the painted tipi cult, the Sun dance, and three priesthoods having custody of as many sacred bundles. Painted tipis, Sun dance, and sacred-bundle cults were all undoubtedly derived from Blackfeet, Blood, and Piegan sources. NAMES OF INDIAN TRIBES - Apsaroke Tsassuwu 1 Assiniboin' Tlitikaihna 2 Assiniboin, Northern Ichita-nishinna, Woods-in Cree Atsina Kitichi Blackfeet Kachi, Goose; Ch!a-dihlkahnai, Odd Black-ones 3 Chipewyan Sissiuwu 4 Cree Nishinna Kutenai Tatleghifta 5 Piegan Tsitahlkanna 6 Sarsi Ts6-t!inna 7 Sekani Tsiskaku-t!inna 8 Shoshoni Natiuusuha, Creep Sinuously 9 Sioux Kaspa 10 1 From tfassd, crow. 2 Explained as tli, with, having; tannikassi, boat; na, collective affix. The reference is to the hide coracles of the Milk R |