Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 7.djvu/828

 INDIANS

750

INDIANS

plains, in fact, lived by the buffalo, which, in one way or another, furnished them with food, clothing, shel- ter, household equipment, and fuel.

In this connexion there were many curious tribal and personal taboos founded upon clan traditions, dreams, or other religious reasons. Thus the Navaho and Apache, so far from eating the meat of a bear, refu.se even to touch the skin of one, believing the bear to be of human kinship. For a somewhat similar reason some tribes of the plains and arid South-West avoid a fish, while considering the dog a delicacy.

Besides the cultivated staples, nuts, roots, and wild fruits were in use wherever procurable. The Indians of the Sierras lived largely upon acorns and pinons. Those of Oregon and tlie Columbia region gathered large stores of camass and other roots, in addition to various species of berries. The .Apache and other south-western tribes gathered the cactus fruit and roasted the root of the maguey. The tribes of the upper lake region made great use of wild rice, while those of the Ohio Valley made svigar from the sap of the maple, and those of the southern states extracted a nourishing oil from the hickory nut. Peramican and hominy are Indian names, as well as Indian in- ventions, and maple sugar is also an aboriginal dis- covery. Salt was used l)y many tribes, especially on the plains and in the South-West, but in the Gulf States lye was used instead. Cannibalism simply for the sake of food could hardly be said to exist, but, as a war ceremony or sacrifice following a savage tri- umph, the custom was very general, particularly on the Texas coast and among the Iroquoian and Algon- quian tribes of the east. The Tonkawa of Texas were known to all their neighbours as the "Man- Eaters". Apparently the only native intoxicant was tiswin, a sort of mikl beer fermented from corn by the Apache and neighbouring tribes.

Domesticated Animals. — The dog was practically the only domesticated animal l>efore the advent of the whites and was found in nearly all the tribes, being used as a beast of biu'den by day and as a constant sentinel by night, while with some tribes the flesh also was a favourite dish. He was seldom, if ever, trained to hunting. Eagles and other birds were occasionally kept for tlieir feathers, and the children sometimes had other pets than puppies. The horse, believed to have been introduced by the Spaniards, speedily became as important a factor in the life of the plains tribes as the buffalo itself. In the same way the sheep and goats, introduced by the early Francis- cans, have become the chief source of wealth to the Navaho, numbering now half a million animals from which they derive an annual income of over a million dollars.

Industries and Arts. — In the falirication of domestic implements, weapons, ornaments, ceremonial objects, boats, seines, and traps, in house-building, and in the making of pottery and baskets, the Indian showed considerable ingenuity of design and infinite patience of execution. In the division of laliour the making of weapons, hunting and fishing requirements, boats, pipes, and most ceremonial objects fell to the men, while the domestic arts of i)oltery and basket-making, weaving and dressing of skins, the fashioning of cloth- ing, antl the preparation and preservation of food commonly devolved upon the women. Among the sedentary or semi-setlentary tribes house-building belonged usually to the men, although the women sometimes assisted. On the plains the entire making and keeping of the tipi were appointed to the women. In many tribes the man cut, sewed, and decorated his own buckskin suit, and in some of the Pueblo villages the men were the basket-weavers.

While the house, in certain tribes, evinced consider- able architectural skill, its prime purpose was always utilitarian, and there was usually but little attempt at decorative elTect, excepting among the Haida,

Tlingit, and others of the north-west coast, where the great carved and painted totem poles, sometimes sLxty feet in height, set up in front of every dwelling, were a striking feature of the village picture. The same tribes were notable for their great sea -going canoes, hollowed out from a single cedar trunk, elaborate!}' carved and painted, and sometimes large enough to accommodate forty men. The skin boat or kaialc of the Eskimo was a marvel of lightness and buoyancy, being practically unsinkable. The birch- bark canoe of the eastern tribes was especially well adapted to its purpose of inland navigation. In the southern states we find the smaller "dug-out" log canoe. On the plains the boat was virtually un- known, e.xcept for the tub-shaped skin boat of the Mandan and associated tribes on the upper Mi.s.souri.

The Eskimo were noted for their artistic carving of bone and walrus ivory: the north-we.st coast tribes for their slate carving; the Pueblos for their turquoise inlaid work and their wood-carving, especially of mythologic figurines; and the .\tlantic and California coast tribes for their work in shell. The wampum, or shell beads, made chiefly from the shells of various clams found along the Atlantic coast, have become historic, having been extensively used not only for dress ornamentation, but al.so on treaty bells, as tribal tribute, and as a standard of value answering the purpose of money. The ordinary stoiw hammer or club, found in nearly every tribe, represented much patient labour, while the whole skill of the artist was frequently expentled upon the stone-carved pipe. The black stone pipes of the Cherokee were famous in the southern states, and the red stone pipe of cat- linite from a single cpiarry in Minnesota was reputed sacred and was smoked at the ratification of all solemn tribal engagements throughout the plains and the lake region. Knives, lance-blades, and arrow-heads were also usually of stone, preferably flint or olisidian. Along the Ciulf Coast keen-edged knives fashioned from split canes were in use. Corn mortars ami bowls were usually of wood in the timber region and of stone in the arid country. Ilide-scrapers were of bone, and spoons of wood or horn. Metal work was limited chiefly to the fashioning of gorgets and other orna- ments hammered out from native copper, found in the southern .\lleghenies, about Lake Superior, and about Copper River in Alaska. The art of smelting was apparently imknown. Under Franciscan and later Alexican teaching the Navaho have developed a silver- working art which compares in importance with their celebrated blanket weaving, the material used being silver coins melted down in stone moulds of their own carving. Mica was mined in the Carolina moun- tains by the local tribes and fashioned into gorgets and mirrors, which found their way by trade as far as the western prairies. All of these arts belonged to the men.

The making of pottery belonged to the women and was practised in nearly all the tribes, excepting those of the plains and interior basin, antl the cold north. The Eastern pottery was usually decorated with stamped patterns. That of the Pueblo and other sovith-western tribes was smooth and painted with symbolic designs. A few specimens of glazed ware have been found in the same region, but it is doubtful if the process is of native origin. The Catawba and some other tril)es proiluceil a beautiful black ware by burning the vessel under cover, so that the smoke penneated the pores of the clay. The simple hand process by coiling was universally u.sed.

Basket-weaving in wood splits, cane, rushes, yucca- or bark-filjre, and various grasses was practised by the same tribes which made pottery, and, excepting in a few tribes, was likewise a woman's work. The basket was usually stained in various designs with vegetable dyes. The Cherokee made a double- walled basket. Those of the Choctaw, Pueblo tribes,