Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 8.djvu/791

 KUNIGONDE

711

KWANOO

south Ijy the Cauvery (which divides it from the Dio- ceses of Madura and Coimbatore), on the east by the Bay of Bengal and the French territory of Karikal. It includes part of the British civil districts of Tanjore, Trichinopoly, South Arcot, and Sale. The first and present occupant (1909) is Dr. H. M. Bottero of the Society of P^oreign Jlissions (Paris), author of the first Catholic version of the Bible in Tamil, and editor of several classical and devotional books in both this and the Bengah languages. The diocese numbers 88,000 native Catholics (out of a population of about 3,000,000), evangelized by 50 priests (35 European, 15 native). In the mission there are 67 schools, with 3400 children in attendance, 5 orphanages, 4 dispen- saries and a hospital under care of the French nuns. A native Catholic gentleman has built at Perunipan- niyur a monumental church at a cost of about 133,000 dollars (four lacs of rupees), and has also richly en- dowed it. H. M. BoTTEno.

Kunigonde, Blessed. See Cunegdndes, Blessed.

Kutenai Indians, an important tribe of southeast- ern British Columbia and the adjacent portions of Montana and Idaho, occupj-ing cliiefly the present Kootenay County, B. C, between the main Rockies and the Selkirk Range, from about 52° southwards, in- cluding the basins of the Kootenay antl Lower Colum- bia rivers, and extending to Lake Pend d'Oreille in Idaho. They constitute a distinct linguistic stock, designated as the Ivitunahan, from the proper name, Kitonaqa. The meaning of this name is unknown, but it occurs in the form of Cattanahowes on the Mac- kenzie map of 1801. To their Salishan neighbours they are known as Skalzi, "lake, or water, people", and to the French a-s Arcs-a-plats, anglicized Flat- bows. They have a tiistinct tradition of having for- merly lived in the plains ea.st of the Rockies, whence they were probably driven by the Blackfeet, their hereditary enemies. Up to a recent period they were in the habit of making annual descents into the Plains, in company with the Flatheads, Kalispel, and Xez Perces, for the purpose of hunting the buffalo. They are commonly differentiated as Upper and Lower (or Flatbow proper), appro-ximately in British Columbia and the United States respectively, with several minor subdivisions and two main dialects.

Physically the Kutenai rank as the tallest and best built Indians of British Columbia, being also almost entirely free from blood taint and other consequences of dissipation so prevalent among other tribes of the region. Intellectually they are more stable and cap- able of continuous mental exertion, while concurrent testimony of traders, travellers, and missionaries places them in the first rank for morality, honesty, re- liability, and manly qualities. In their primitive condition the Kutenai lived in small skin or mat-cov- ered tipis, of which the universal sweat lodge (see Indians) was always an important adjunct. Theysul> sisted by hunting, fishing, and tiie gathering of wild berries and roots, particular!}' caraas (Camassia: see Kalispel). The Lower Kutenai dried immense quan- tities of fish for winter. They made no pottery, but were expert basket-weavers, boiling their food in water-tight baskets by means of heated stones. They dressed in buckskin, painted their faces in bright colours, and wore their hair full length, either braided or flowing. Their social organization was extremely simple, with no trace of the clan system or the secret societies common to most other tribes of the region. Each band had its own cliief, hereditary in a certain family, who was assisted by a council. Both slavery and polygamy existed, the slaves being captives taken in war. Erring wives were punished by cutting off one of their hair liraids, instead of by death or mutila- tion a.s in other trilies. Orphan children were adopted by their relatives, while near relatives were not allowed to marry. Murder was compounded by a fine

or punished with death by the family of the victim. The dead were buried in the grountl with all their finery, and the debts of the deceased were paid by the surviving relatives. The religion was the usual In- dian Animism, with the Sun, personified as a woman, as the highest and most beneficent deity, to whose home the spirits of the dead journeyed, to rejoin their friends later in this w-orld at a place of sacred pilgrim- age on the shore of Lake Pend d'Oreille. Tabus, fast- ing, and sacrifice were a part of the system, and the shaman doctors exercised great influence. Among their great ceremonies was the fish festival, described by De Smet as witnessed by him in 1845. The Lower Kute- nai, who retained more of their primitive custom, are still much addicted to gambling games.

Although known to the Hudson Bay traders and other adventurers as early, perhaps, as 1 780, the Kute- nai remained practically unchanged until the ad vent of the Jesuits under the leadership of Father Peter De Smet, about 1840. In the ne.xt two years he preached to visiting bands of the tribe at the Flathead mission, and, on the establishment of Saint Ignatius mission among the Kalispel (q. v.) by Fathers Adrian Hoecken and Antonio Ravalli, the southern bands were brought regularly under mission influence. In August, 1845, at a large camp on Kutenai River, L^. S., De Smet himself celebrated "the first Mass ever offered in their land" and set up the cross of a mission, which he named in honour of the day "The Assumption ". The mission of the Sacred Heart of Mary was founded on the Tobacco Plains, B. C, within the next year. The whole tribe, with the exception of a portion of the Lower Kutenai, accepted almost at once the new faith, in which they have remained steadfast and exemplary ever since. Those within the United States are chiefly gathered upon the Flathead reservation, Mon- tana, by treaty of 1855, where the}' are still under Jesuit teaching, while some few in Idaho probably re- tain their old beliefs. Those in British Columbia are under the ministn,- of the Oblate Fathers, who, as- sisted by the Sisters of Charity, conduct a successful mission school at Saint-Eugene, near Fort Steele. The school was established in 1874 by Father Leon Fouquet, the first of the Oblates to enter the Kutenai field. The great majority have long since adopted the ways of civilization, and subsist by farming, stock- raising, and labouring in the lumber camps and for the white ranchers. The official Canadian report (1908) describes the various bands as "industrious, steady and law abiding", " temperate and moral ", and "pro- gressing", while the mission work " deserves the great- est praise". In spite of several great epidemic visita- tions in years past, notably smallpox, the Kutenai have held their own well, thanks to their innate manli- ness and to their strict observance of the precepts in- culcated by their religious teachers. They probably number now nearly as many as at any period in their history and even seem to have largely increased within the past twenty years. Official reports for 1908 give them about 1120 souls, viz: British Columbia, Koot- enay Agency, 513; Montana Agency, 606.

Our principal authorities on the Kutenai are Chamberl.\i.v, De Smet. amt the official reports. Consult: Chamberlain, Kootenay Indians in Kept. Brit. Asn. Advancement Science (Lon- don, 1892) ; Idem. Kootenay Indians in Ontario Archceoloaical Re- port (Toronto, 1905); Idem, Some Kutenai Lingui.ilie Material m .4m. Anthropologist (Lancaster, Jan., 1909); Maximilian, Travels (London, 184.'!); MomcE. Catholic Church in Western Canada (Toronto, 1910); ,Shea. Catholic Missions (\ew York, 1854); De Smet, Oregon Missions (New York, 1847); also An- nual Reports of the Commissioner of Indian .Affairs (U. S ) (Wiishington), and of Department of Indian Affairs (Canada)

(Ottawa). James Moonet.

Kwango, Prefecture Apostolic of.— Kwango is the name of a river which flows into the Kassai, which itself is a tributary of the River Congo. This mis- sion (missin Kwangensis) formed part of the Vicariate Apostolic of Belgian Congo till 8 .A.pril, 1892, when a decree was issued, entrusting this new mission to the