Ohio History Journal

AMERICAN ABORIGINES AND THEIR SOCIAL

CUSTOMS.

 

 

 

REV. J. A. EASTON, PH. D.

[Mr. Easton was a native Ohioan, born at Sinking Springs, Highland

County, August 9, 1852. His father and grandfather, like himself, were

ministers in the Methodist Episcopal Church. Eugene Easton, his son,

the distinguished American newspaper correspondent in the Boer War,

is the present owner of Fort Hill (Highland County), which is crowned

by one of the most interesting and best preserved prehistoric fortifications

in the state. Fort Hill and much of the adjacent land has been in the

possession of the Easton family for several generations. It was in such

a locality, amid the surroundings of the remains and traditions of an

aboriginal race that the author of this article was raised. His subject

therefore has the flavor of personal interest as well as the value of

scholarly study. - EDITOR.]

 

INTRODUCTION.

No feature of American history has been more darkened by

multiplicity of words than that relating to the Aborigines, re-

specting the manner of their life, their native, every day life; the

customs and usages that obtained, especially, those which con-

stituted their social relations and made up the woof and warp of

their primitive, yet prescribed social order.

 

 

THE ABORIGINES.

Our favorite childhood pictures, of painted, disfigured war-

riors attacking humble cabins of adventurous frontiersmen, or

the ruthless torturing of their unfortunate victims, abide with

us, lending an early prejudice to any maturer knowledge of the

real character of the North American Indian.

We think of him as a veritable wild-man of the wood; a

wanderer without limit of habitation; a restless rover, seeking

whom he may devour, blood-thirsty, relentless, cruel and crafty,

without even method in his madness, as fickle as the wind, and

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more devoid of fixed relationship in life than the beasts of the

field, the fowls of the air, or the fishes of the sea. That he was

not only, (we must think of him as belonging to the past, the

original * type is lost), a little lower than the "baser sort" of

his professedly civilized brother, but, lower than the game he fed

upon, and with less instinct of kindred ties than the trees, vines

and flowers that constituted his favorite haunt, made the fast-

nesses of his retreat and bedecked the fields to his irresponsive

nature. A be-fethered, be-smeared villain!  Capable only of

dark deeds. A vicious idler! "Good only when dead."

The scalping scene is no more the true picture of savagery,

than the bayonet charge of civilization. It is fortunate that be-

fore the American Indian shall have been robbed of his last re-

servation and the inexorable progress of events more human

than divine, shall have not alone dispoiled him of his original

rights, but effaced him from his native valleys, plains and moun-

tains, that something is known respecting his true type, and real

character that redeem him from the false conception and unjust

caricature to which he has so long been subject.

That he was a child of nature, none can deny. That he

was a son-of-man, linked to the human family by all the bonds

of ethnologic law is patent to the superficial observer.

The implements of his cunning artifice bespeak his artistic

skill. While the range of his work was largely confined to the

useful he was not wanting in instinct, admiration or love of the

purely ornamental. Much of his handiwork shows the latent

genius, possible under more favorable conditions of vieing with

the masterpieces of Grecian and Roman sculpture. The house-

hold utensils while crude were not without evidence of beauty

as well as utility. Their pottery presents not only skill of execu-

tion but an endless variety of fantastic designs in shape and rep-

resentation of bird, beast and creeping thing to the envy of the

modern artist whose inventive genius would discover something

new in ceramic art.

The articles of personal adornment from his feather-head-

dress to his bead bespangled moccasins, in which he gratified his

* Eth. Ann. 1, p. 76, "History, Customs and Ethnic Characteristics."

-Powell.

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American Aborigines and their Social Customs.   423

 

love of display, were no less exhibitions of human vanity than

the "gew-gaws" of fashionable finery, paste and "paidless" dia-

monds that express the pride, folly and vanity of their recent

imitators, the elite "Four Hundred" of our topmost, boasted,

cultured (?) society.

No one can look upon the specimens of their workmanship,

found scattered, more or less, over the face of the whole coun-

try, remains of camp sites, and enduring monuments of earth

works, stone mounds, burial fields,1 extensive communal resi-

dences including vast tracts of ground, protected by miles of

earthen embankments, such as Fort Hill in Highland County,

Ohio, and Fort Ancient in Warren County, Ohio, the extensive

works at Marietta, Ohio, and others equally elaborate, and not

recognize that time, numbers, skill and patience were indispen-

sable requisites in the construction of works of such magnitude.

Many instances of their work are suggestive of a system of civil

engineering of no mean order, squares, circles, octagons, embrac-

ing the same number of acres in different localities. No one can

observe this cumulative evidence without being impressed with

the magnitude of the aborigine population and the existence of

method, and some basis of calculation, in all that characterized

their undertakings.

RACIAL TYPE.

It is useless to indulge in fanciful speculations as to the

origin or differences of racial type that may have made one or

another of the various kinds of mounds, effigies, stone and earth

works that are found in all parts of the land. The best ethnolog-

ical thought finds the simplest solution of the vexed theories of

different peoples in recognizing pronounced and divergent char-

acteristics in the same people. That human nature was not

more uniform in its expression of individual and community life

then than now. That the same race-stock can and does exhibit

widely divergent tendencies even under the same climatic condi-

tions. While some will build with permanence and leave indeli-

ble impress, others will leave little or nothing that abides. Num-

bers may execute and carry into effect that which fails to be

1The Problem of the Ohio Mounds, Chapter III. -Thomas.

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realized when their ranks are broken by disease or their forces

decimated by more powerful foes. As to origin, Beard well ob-

serves, in reference to the "New World": "It is quite as old if

not older than that on the other side of the globe. Ages before

it was known to Europe, successive civilization arose, flourished

and decayed, and, as far as anything is actually known on the

subject, it is just as possible that the Old World was discovered

ages and ages ago and was peopled from America, as that the

native inhabitants, the forefathers of our Indians, came from the

Eastern Hemisphere, for America is a very ancient land. Of

course no one thinks this is the case, but really nothing at all is

known about it.² The unity and identity of the Mound Build-

ers³ and the Indians of the discovery of America is evidenced by

similarity of earth works known to have been constructed by the

Cherokees in East Tennessee and Western N. Carolina, and also

that the Shawnees were the authors of a certain type of stone

graves,⁴ and of mounds⁴ and other works possessing similar char-

acteristics to the mound and earth works of Ohio and Wiscon-

sin. Thomas reasons that the "Tallegwi" were the same as Cher-

okee or Chelakee of our historical period. "That the character

of the works and traditions of the latter furnish some ground

for assuming that the two were one and the same people."⁵

 

 

THE DWELLING PLACE.

The house, the dwelling place, the integral of the home and

home-life, the unit of society, savage, barbarous and civilized in

its most primitive condition was not an original, but a borrowed

idea. The house shelter, temporary or permanent, as a dwell-

ing, did not originate with man in his "wild estate" or archaic

condition, but was a borrowed idea, copied by him from the

habits of the lower animals with which he was associated, and

necessitated by local conditions and climatic influence. This is

manifest by the character of their structures from the house of

the Lake Dwellers, through the whole list of the varied forms of

2 Curious Homes and their Tenants, P. 87.

3 To What Race Did the Mound Builders Belong, p. 74 - Force.

4The Problem of the Ohio Mounds, pp. 25-32.-Thomas.

5The Problem of the Ohio Mounds, p. 46.- Thomas.

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American Aborigines and their Social Customs.  425

 

temporary and permanent buildings; from the brush house of the

individual family, to the many chambered house of the Cliff-

dwellers in the fastnesses of the rocks; from the tepee of the

nomad Indian to the elaborate Pueblo or communal residence of

the Village Indian with their hundreds of occupants.⁶

The same local conditions that gave individuality to mani-

fold dialects, so different as to constitute new languages, would

also tend to give individuality to habits of life and all that make

for differences between peoples.

To our thoughts the North American Indian whether dwell-

ing in the bejeweled (?) palace of the ancient Aztec of sunny

Mexico, or the snow hut of our Northern ice-fields: whether

known as the Mound-builder or the more romantic nomad of the

primeval forests, he is to be regarded,⁷ not as presenting differ-

ent orders of racial classes, but as representatives of a common

stock, possibly modified here and there by infusion of new blood.

But in the main, differentiated only by the many-fold variety of

aptitudes, tendencies and racial vagaries that are to be found in

any separate stock of people subject to varied vicissitudes of life

through a long period of time. The difference to be observed in

children, born of the same parents, reared under the same disci-

pline, is sufficient for unlimited racial specialization.

When America was discovered, in its several parts, the In-

dian tribes presented one sub-period of savagery-the "Middle

period" - and two sub-periods of barbarism - the "Older" and

"Middle" periods. The least advanced tribes were without the

art of pottery, without horticulture, and were therefore in savag-

ery, but in the arts of life they were advanced as far as the pos-

session of the bow and arrow. Such were the tribes in the valley

of the Columbia, in the Hudson Bay territory, in parts of Can-

ada, California, Mexico and some of the Coast tribes of South

America. These depended upon fish, bread, roots and grain for

subsistence. The second class were intermediate in the scale of

ethnic culture. They had the art of pottery, lived on game and

6 Con. N. A. Eth., Vol 4, House and House-Life of the American

Aborigines, Chapt. 6.- Morgan.

7 Eth. Ann. 1, p. 74, Limitations to the Use of Anthropologic Data.-

Powell.

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426       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

the products of a limited horticulture. Such were the Iroquois,

the New England and Virginia Indians, the Creeks, Cherokees,

Choctaws, Miamis, Mandan, Minatarees and other tribes East of

the Missouri River, together with certain tribes of Mexico and

South America."⁸ These represent the "Older" period and

"lower" status of barbarism. The third class were the Village

Indians.⁹ They were horticultural, cultivated maize and plants

by irrigation, constructed adobe-brick and stone houses, usually

more than one story high.10  Such were the tribes of New Mex-

ico, Central America and upon the plateau of the Andes. These

represent the "Middle Period" and "Middle Status" of Barbar-

ism. An entire ethnic period intervened between the highest

class of Indian and the genesis of civilization.

The weapons, arts, usages, customs and forms of govern-

ment of each and all bear the impress of a common mind and

reveal in the wide range, the successive stages of development of

the same original conceptions. The evidence of their unity of

origin, has now accumulated to such a degree as to leave no rea-

sonable doubt upon the question of racial unity.

 

 

THE FAMILY OR HOUSEHOLD.11

All society has its unit in the family. The family life is the

index to the social life of any people. The family is the instru-

mentality by means of which society is organized and held to-

gether. The family is based upon the sanctity and sacredness

of marriage relation. Consanguinity, as in all the early period

of gentile life, inhered in the female, or mother line. The wo-

man being the head of the house,12 the lines of descent were

reckoned from her. Relationship was originally recognized on

the maternal side. From a survey of the facts, it seems highly

 

8 House and House-Life of American Aborigines, Chapter 2, pp. 42,

43.- Morgan.

9 House and House-Life of American Aborigines, Chapter 7, p. 154,

Morgan.

10 Jackson's Report, p. 434.

11 Eth. Ann. 1, p. 59, A Study of Tribal Society.- Powell.

12 Eth. Ann. 1, p. 59, A Study of Tribal Society.-Powell.

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American Aborigines and their Social Customs.    427

 

probable that kinship society as it existed among the tribes of

North American Indians in both the Clan and Gens was devel-

oped from connubial society. The fabric of Indian society is a

complete tissue of kinship, the warp was made of streams of kin-

ship blood, and the woof of marriage ties.

 

THE GENS.

The fundamental units of the social organization were

bodies of consanguineal kindred either in the male or female

line. The units were well denominated "Gentes." In the an-

cient clan and archaic gens descent wad limited to the female

line. In the Middle Status of barbarism, the North American

Indian changed descent from the female to the male line. As

intermarriage in the gens was prohibited it withdrew the mem-

bers from the evil of consanguine marriages, and thus preserved

the vigor of the stock. "The woman carries the gens,"14 is the

formulated statement by which a Wyandot expresses the idea that

descent was in the female line. Each gens bore the name of an

animal or an inanimate object, never the name of a person. The

ancient of such animal or object, being their tutelar god. In

some tribes the members of the gens claimed their descent from

the animal whose name they carried and would not eat of such

animal, their remote ancestors having been transformed from the

animal to the human form.¹⁵ Up to the time the Wyandots left

Ohio eleven gentes were recognized, as follows: Deer, Bear,

Highland Turtle (striped), Highland Turtle (black), Mud Tur-

tle, Smooth Large Turtle, Hawk, Beaver, Wolf, Sea Snake and

Porcupine.¹⁶

An individual was said to be a Wolf, a Deer or a Bear, indi-

cating the gens to which he belonged. In speaking of a body of

people comprising a gens they were said to be relatives of the

Wolf, Deer or Bear as the case might be.

 

13 Eth. Ann. 1, p. 69 A Study of Tribal Society.- Powell.

14 Eth. Ann. 1, p. 59, A Study of Tribal Society.- Powell.

16 Con. N. A. Eth., Vol. 4, p. 8, House and House Life of the Amer-

ican Aborigines.- Morgan.

15Eth. Ann. 1, p. 59, A Study of Tribal Society.-Powell.

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428        Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

GENS, jivos, and ganas, kin, have the same elements as

gigno, jivouos, and ganamia, signifying to beget. A gens was

therefore an organized body of consanguineal kindred. The

modern family as expressed by its name is an unorganized gens

with the bond of kin broken and its members as widely dispersed

as the family name is known. When the idea of gens was

evolved it naturally took the form of gentes in pairs, thus the

males and females of one could marry the males and females of

the other, and the children would follow the gentes of their re-

spective mothers in the archaic, and that of the father in the

more recent order, or Upper Status of society. Resting on the

bond of kin, as the cohesive principle, the gens afforded to each

individual that personal protection, which no other existing

power could give. The gens of the Iroquois, the best represen-

tative branch of the Indian family North of New Mexico, pos-

sessed the following "rights, privileges and obligations, conferred

and imposed upon its members which made up the jus gen-

tilicium."17

I. The right of selecting its sachem and chiefs.

II. The right of deposing its sachem and chiefs.

III. The obligation not to marry in the gens.

IV. Mutual rights of inheritance of the property of deceased mem-

bers.

V. Reciprocal obligations of help, defense, and redress of injuries.

VI. The right of bestowing names upon its members.18

VII. The right of adopting strangers into the gens.¹⁹

VIII. Common religious rites.

IX. A common burial place.

X. A council of the gens. (composed of four women).²1

Similar in substance were the rights and privileges of the

gentes of the Indian tribes in general. The four women coun-

cillors of the gens, were chosen by the heads of households, them-

selves being women. They were selected by sentiment of fitness.

 

17 Con. N. A. Eth., Vol. 4, p.7, Houses and House Life, etc.- Powell.

18 Eth. Ann. 1, p. 59, A Study of Tribal Society-. Powell.

19 Eth. Ann. 1, p. 69, A Study of Tribal Society.- Powell.

20 Con. N. A. Eth., Vol. 4, p. 7, Houses and House Life, etc.-Morgan.

21 Eth. Ann. 1, p. 61, A Study of Tribal Society.- Powell.

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American Aborigines and their Social Customs     429

 

Potential members were expected to attend the meetings of the

council, but had no voice or vote.22  When a woman was in-

stalled, a feast was prepared by her gens and all the members of

the tribe were invited. She was painted and dressed in her best

attire. The sachem of the tribe placed upon her head the gentile

chaplet, and formally announced that she had been chosen a

councillor.²³ The gentile chief was chosen by the council of

women. At his installation they invested him with an orna-

mented tunic, placed upon his head a chaplet of feathers, and

painted the gentile totem on his face. He was head of the gen-

tile council. The Tribal Council was therefore composed of four

times as many women as men.²⁴ Thus substantial and import-

ant in the social system was the gens as it anciently existed and

as it still exists in the fading remnants of the once numerous,

powerful and widely distributed tribes of the North American

Indian.

THE BROTHERHOOD.

The Phratry25 or brotherhood as the term implies, was an

organic union or association of two or more gentes of the same

tribe for certain common objects. "It did not possess original

governmental functions as the gens, tribe and confederacy pos-

sessed them, but was endowed with certain powers in the social

system." The gentes in the same phratry were brother gentes

to each other and cousins to those of another phratry. In the

social games one phratry would play and bet against another, the

parties of the contestants on opposite sides of the field watched

the games with eagerness cheering their respective players at

every successful turn of the game.²⁶ The phratry was often

called in to aid the gens in redressing wrong or avenging crime

within the gens. This unit in their organization had a mytho-

 

22 Eth. Ann. 1, p. 61, A Study of Tribal Society.- Powell.

23 Eth. Ann. 1, p. 62, A Study of Tribal Society.-Powell.

24 Eth. Ann. 1, p. 61, A Study of Tribal Society.- Powell.

25 Con. N. A. Eth., Vol. 4, p. 12, Houses and House Life, etc.-Mor-

gan.

26 Leagues of the Iroquois, p. 294.

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430        Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

logical basis and was chiefly used for religious purposes and in

festivals and games.²⁷

There was an interesting institution among the Wyandots

and some others of the North American tribes, namely that of

"Fellowhood."    Two young men agreed to be perpetual friends

to each other or more than brothers. Each revealed to the other

the secrets of his life, counseled with him, defended him    from

wrong, and at death was chief mourner.²⁸      A   veritable David

and Jonathan Society.

TRIBE.

An Indian tribe was composed of several gentes developed

from two or more, all the members of which were intermingled

by marriage, and all of whom spoke the same dialect,²⁹ and moved

within  well defined               geographical   limits.  A   tribe  was   a

body of kindred.³⁰                         The functions and attributes of an Indian

tribe were as follows:

 

I. The possession of a territory and a name.

II. The exclusive possession of a dialect.

III. The right to invest sachems and chiefs elected by the gentes.

IV. The right to dispose these sachems and chiefs.

V. The possession of a religious faith and worship.

VI. A supreme government consisting of a council of chiefs.

VII. A head of the tribe in some instances.31

 

The tribe was limited in the number of its people, poor in

resources, but yet a completely organized society. It illustrates

society in the Lower Status of barbarism.³²

The confederacy or uniting of kindred of contiguous tribes

for mutual defense or aggressive warfare would naturally sug-

gest itself, when interests of such tribes were imperiled by con-

ditions equally hostile to either. It would be simply a growth

 

27 Eth. Ann. 1, p. 60, 9 Study of Tribal Society.- Powell.

28 Eth. Ann. 1, p. 68, A Study of Tribal Society.- Powell

29 Con. N. A. Eth., Vol. 4, p. 18, Houses and House Life, etc.-

Morgan.

30 Eth. Ann. 1, p. 61, A Study of Tribal Society.- Powell

31 Con. N. A. Eth., Vol. 4, p. 21, Characteristics of a Tribe.- Morgan.

32 Con. N. A. Eth., Vol. 4, p. 22, The Confederacy of Tribes.- Morgan.

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American Aborigines and their Social Customs.         431

 

from a lower into a higher organization by extension of the prin-

ciple that united the gentes in a tribe.33 The highest examples

of Indian Confederacy of North American Indians were those of

the Iroquois and Aztec. The general features of the Iroquois

Confederacy may be summarized in the following propositions;

1. The Confederacy was a union of Five Tribes, composed of com-

mon gentes, under one government on the basis of equality; each Tribe

remaining independent in all matters pertaining to local self-government.

II. It created a General Council of Sachems, who were limited in

number, equal in rank and authority, and invested with supreme powers

over all matters pertaining to the Confederacy.

III. Fifty Sachemships were created and named in perpetuity in

certain gentes of the several Tribes; with power in these gentes to fill

vacancies, as often as they occurred, by election from among their respec-

tive members, and with the further power to depose from office for cause;

but the right to invest these Sachems with office was reserved to the

General Council.

IV. The Sachems of the Confederacy were also Sachems in their

respective Tribes, and with the Chiefs of these Tribes formed the Coun-

cil of each, which was supreme over all matters pertaining to the Tribe

exclusively.

V. Unanimity in the Council of the Confederacy was made essential

to every public act.

VI. In the General Council the Sachems voted by Tribes, which

gave to each Tribe a negative upon the others.

VII. The Council of each Tribe had power to convene the General

Council; but the latter had no power to convene itself.

VIII. The General Council was open to the orators of the people

for the discussion of public questions; but the Council alone decided.

IX. The Confederacy had no Chief Executive Magistrate or official

head.

X. Experiencing the necessity for a General Military Commander,

they created the office in a dual form, that one might neutralize the other.

The two principal war chiefs created were made equal in power.³⁴

The Confederacy rested upon the tribe ostensibly, but pri-

marily upon the common gentes. The bond of kin here as else-

where being the cementing unit.

 

33 Con. N. A. Eth., Vol. 4, p. 23, The Confederacy of Tribes.-Morgan.

34Con. N. A. Eth., Vol. 4, pp. 28-29, The Confederacy of Tribes.-

Morgan.

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432       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

 

 

COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE.

As to courtship and marriage customs, while there were

differences as to form, there was agreement as to the prevailing

idea of tribal etiquette. There was little of child-betrothal. Gifts

were extended to parents and friends upon the part of suitors to

curry favor, but parents did not sell their daughters35 except

the Karok³⁶ and "Digger" Indians of California, and those of

lowest status, among whom marriage was sometimes compulsory

or by force.37 And in those cases what appears as purchase may

have been merely the exhibition of the suitor's ability to provide

for the future. In case of presents, if the suitor did not com-

mend himself the presents were returned. A man could not

marry his mother's sister's daughter, but he could marry his

father's sister's daughter, as she belonged to a different gens.38

A man could marry any woman, not his kin, if she were not

among the forbidden affinities.³⁹  Polygamy, or rather polygyny,

was permitted, for the first wife remained the head of the house-

hold. The maximum number of wives were three. When a man

wished to take a second or third wife he always consulted his

first wife, reasoning thus: "I wish you to have less work, so I

think of taking your sister, your aunt, or your brother's daugh-

ter."  Should the first wife refuse, he could not marry the other

women. Polyandry was prohibited. The marriageable age was

from fifteen years upward, anciently men waited until they were

twenty-five or thirty and the women until they were twenty.⁴⁰

The men courted the women either directly or by proxy.⁴¹

Among Wyandots a man seeking a wife consulted her mother,

sometimes direct and sometimes through his own mother. A

council of women was held, and the young people usually sub-

mitted to their decision. "The women used to weigh the matter

 

35 Con. N. A. Eth., Vol. 3, p. 22, The Karok.-Powers, Stephen.

36 Eth. Ann. 3, p. 259, Courtship and Marriage Customs.-Dorsey, J. O.

37 Eth. Ann. 11, p. 188, The Hudson Bay Eskimo.- Turner, L. M.

38 Eth. Ann. 1, p. 63, The Study of Tribal Society.- Powell.

39 Eth. Ann. 3, intro., p. LIV.- Powell.

40 Eth. Ann. 3, p. 259, The Courtship and Marriage Custom.- Dorsey.

41Eth. Ann. 11, p. 21, The Sia.- Stevenson, Wm. C. Mrs.

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American Aborigines and their Social Customs.   433

 

well, but now they hasten to marry any man they can get."⁴² It

was customary to consummate the marriage before the end of

the moon in which the betrothal was made, and to give a feast in

which the gentes of both parties participated.⁴3  At the death of

the mother the children belonged to the mother's sister or nearest

kin. Sometimes the courtship continued through years.⁴⁴  Girls

were as coquettish then as now. Among the Santee Dakotas

where mother's right (?) prevailed, a wife's mother could take

her from her husband and give her to another man. Among the

Seri, "Probably the most primitive tribe in North America in

which the demotic unit is the clan, there is a rigorous marriage

custom under which the would-be groom is required to enter the

family of the girl and demonstrate (1) his capacity as a provider,

(2) his strength of character as a man by a year's probation be-

fore he was finally accepted."⁴⁵  The conjugal theory of the

tribe was monogamy. Unfortunately the original strictures are

being broken down by the looseness of civilized customs. Among

the American Indians both clan and gentile, the taboo and pro-

hibitions are used chiefly in connection with marriage in clan and

gentile organizations. "Marriage in the clan or gens being pro-

hibited, a vestige of the inferential condition is found in the

curious prohibition of communication between children-in-law

and parents-in-law, the clan taboos are commonly connected with

the tutelar beast-god, perhaps represented by the totem."⁴⁶  The

above prohibition as to communication between mother-in-law

and son-in-law is illustrated in the social etiquette of the Omahas.

A man does not speak to his wife's mother or grandmother nor

the woman to her father-in-law if it can be avoided. The son-in-

law tries to avoid meeting his mother-in-law alone.⁴⁷  This is

not peculiar to Aborigine life. Divorce was by mutual agree-

ment and either party was free to marry again. Bastards⁴⁸ had

 

42 Eth. Ann. 3, p. 259, Courtship and Marriage Customs.-Dorsey.

43 Eth. Ann. 1, p. 64, A Study of Tribal Society.- Powell.

44 Eth. Ann. 3, p. 260, Courtship and Marriage Customs.- Dorsey.

45 Eth. Ann. 15, p. 202, Classification of Tribal Society.- McGee.

46 Eth. Ann. 15, p. 204, Classification of Tribal Society.-McGee.

47 Eth. Ann. 3, p. 263, Omaha Sociology.- Dorsey.

48 Con. N. A. Eth., Vol. 3, p. 23, The Karok.- Powers.

Vol. XVI - 28.

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434        Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

no recognition even among the "Digger" Indians, and no rela-

tionship in the gens unless adopted. Foeticide was rare. "In-

fanticide was not known among them."⁴⁹         In Western tribes

virtue was rare. Concerning love-making among the Cherokees

this extract from one of their love formulas must suffice:

"Ha! I belong to the (Wolf) (--) clan, that one alone which was

allotted into for you. No one is ever lonely with me. I am handsome.

Let her put her soul the very center of my soul, never to turn away. Grant

that in the midst of men she shall never think of them. I belong to the

one clan alone which was allotted for you when the seven clans were

established.

"Where (other) men live it is lonely. They are very loathsome. The

common polecat has made them so like himself that they are fit only for

his company. * * * Your soul has come into the very center of my

soul never to turn away. I- (Gatigwanasti,) (O O) -I take your soul.

Sge !"50

Among the Omahas, the Ponkas, the Otos and Pawnees,

widows and widowers waited from       four to seven years before

marrying again. Widows over forty did not remarry.

"Marriage among all Indian tribes is primarily by legal appoint-

ment, as the young woman received a husband from some other prescribed

clan or clans, and the elders of the clan, with certain exceptions, control

these marriages, and personal choice has little to do with the affair.

When marriages are proposed, the virtues and industry of the candidates,

and more than all, their ability to properly live as married couples and to

supply the clan or tribe with a due amount of subsistence, are discussed

long and earnestly, and the young man or maiden who fails in this re-

spect may fail in securing an eligible and desirable match. And these mo-

tives are constantly presented to the savage youth."51

 

 

HABITS AND SOCIAL ETIQUETTE.

As to personal habits of the Indians, while some were sloven

and unclean, the majority observed habits of cleanliness and for

want of more delicate perfume to complete their toilet dropped

cedar twigs on hot stones and caught what they could of the

 

49 Eth. Ann. 3, p. 264, Omaha Sociology.- Dorsey.

50 Eth. Ann. 7, pp 376-7, Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees.-Mooney,

James.

51 Eth. Ann. 7, p. 35, Indian Linguistic Families.- Powell.

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American Aborigines and their Social Customs.      435

 

incense produced by the burning of the fragment and pungent

wood. Greetings were exchanged among kindred and friends

long separated. The parental caress was not entirely wanting,

though verbal salutations were not indulged. Hands were ex-

tended and thanks returned at feasts and in receiving presents.

Persons were not addressed by name except when there were

two or more present of the same kinship degree. Mothers

taught their children not to pass in front of people if they could

avoid it. Girls could not speak to any man except he were a

brother, father, mother's brother or grandfather who were blood

relation, otherwise they would give rise to scandal.⁵²

"Though perhaps not realized in its full force by anthropologists, and

obscured by the degredation resulting from contact with civilization, the

separation of the immature youth of the two sexes is a feature originally

strongly insisted upon in the social practice of all the North Western

American tribes, I have been intimate with and without doubt of all our

aborigines when their culture was in its primitive vigor."⁵³

Hospitality has characterized the North American Indian

from the landing of Columbus to the present time. Treachery

in defence of real or imaginary wrong might follow his humble

entertainment yet he shared with the stranger his meager fare.

Should an enemy appear in a lodge and put the pipe to his mouth

or receive a mouthful of food or water, the law of hospitality

compelled his protection until he was returned whence he came,

though they might kill him the next day. The hospitality which

is so marked a trait in our North American Indians had its

source in law.

"As is well known, the basis of the Indian social organization was

the kin-ship system. By its provision all property was possessed in com-

mon by the gens or clan. Food, the most important of all, was not left

to be enjoyed exclusively by the individual or family obtaining it."54

The hungry Indian had but to ask to receive. To this in

part may be attributed the indolence that prevailed more or less

among them. The lazy shared in the products of the industri-

 

52 Eth. Ann. 3, p. 81, Labretifery, 81.-Dall, W. H.

53 Eth. Ann. 3, p. 270, Omaha Sociology.-Dorsey.

54 Eth. Ann. 7, p. 34, Indian Linguistic Families.- Powell.

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436       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

ous, thus putting a premium on improvidence. John Bartram

writing of an experience among the Onondagos, 1743, says,

"their hospitality is agreeable to the honest simplicity of ancient

times."⁵⁵  Hernando de Soto in 1539 in his explorations in Flor-

ida and the South West records many instances of gracious hos-

pitality⁵⁶ at the hands of the several tribes of South Carolina and

west of the Mississippi. The custom of hospitality was almost

universal.⁵⁷ That there were inhospitable Indians but evidence

their kinship in the flesh to their civilized brother.

Many of the early writers indulged in harrowing accounts

of ingratitude and neglect upon the part of Indians to the aged

and helpless among them. What may have obtained of cruelty

and neglect in some isolated instances, is happily not confirmed

as general customs. In many tribes the aged were cared for

with all the tenderness and consideration of which their circum-

stances admitted, and the helpless and unfortunate were not with-

out the aid and sympathy of those who were able to minister to

them. To the aged were allotted such things as they could do,

with leisure hours to sit and smoke or relate incidents of their

early days or tell myths for the amusement of those around them.

Their legends so rich in imagery, so mythical in conception, so

varied in description were not idle dreams of fantastic youth, but

rather the metaphysical speculation and transcendental theoriz-

ing of mature age, as in quiet meditation and long periods of deep

reflection it sought, out of long experience and wide observation

to find some solution of the phenomena of Being - some ex-

planation of the genesis of life - some answer to the vexed prob-

lems that confront us everywhere. These evidence that age was

not only protected but also, given opportunity to weave its web

of fancy and transmit its best thought to posterity.

 

 

MYTHS.

The myths or legends to which reference has been made form

one of the most interesting phases of aborigine social life. We have

 

55 Bartram Observations, London 1751, p. 16.

56Historical Collection of Louisiana, Part II, p. 139.

57 Con. N. A. Eth., Vol. 4, p. 53.- Morgan.

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American Aborigines and their Social Customs.        437

 

thought of them as living sordid, stoical lives, void of interest be-

yond the excitement of the chase or the vagaries indulged in prep-

aration for the war-path, or the orgies following the successful

hunting expeditions and victories in their predatory or defensive

warfare, when in fact they were not dependent upon these alone

but were fertile in imagination and inventive in conjuring the most

fantastic conceptions of things visible and invisible, formulating

their crude ideas in fables and committing these, and by frequent

recital transmitted them to others. The traditionary matter of

almost any tribe with reference to their tutelar origin, the creation

of the world, the peopling of the earth, their stories of the flood,

their theories of the origin of fire, their mystic account and ex-

planations of the various phenomena of the organic and inorganic

world, if written, would constitute a great literature in itself.

And as it possesses the element of pathos, humor, tragedy and

wit, the recital of their legends, was one of their many social

pastimes, and the utmost care was observed that the ancient tra-

dition be repeated without the loss of jot or tittle. They were

scrupulously careful that they be unimpaired in transmission

from one generation to another. It was their unwritten bible.

On winter nights the Indians gathered about the camp fire, and

the doings of the gods were recounted in many a mythic tale.

"I have heard the venerable and impassioned orator on the camp

meeting stand rehearse the story of the crucifixion, and have seen the

thousands gathered there, weep in contemplation of the story of divine

suffering, and heard their shout roll down the forest aisles as they gave

vent to their joy at the contemplation of redemption. But the scene was

not a whit more dramatic than another I have witnessed in an ever green

forest of the Rocky Mountain region when a tribe was gathered under the

great pines, and the temple of light from the blazing fire was walled by

the darkness of midnight, and in the midst of the temple stood the wise

old man, telling, in simple savage language the story of 'Ta-wats,' when

he conquered the sun, and established the seasons and the days.^"58

In that pre-Columbian time before the advent of white men,

all the Indian tribes of North America gathered on winter nights,

by the shores of the sea, where the tides beat in solemn rhythm,

 

58Esthmann, Vol. 1, p. 40, Mythology of North American Indians.--

Powell.

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438        Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

by the shore of the great lakes where the waves dashed against

frozen beaches, and by the banks of the rivers flowing over in sol-

emn mystery, each in its own temple of illumined space - and

listened to the story of its own supreme god, the ancient of time.

There is a basis here for the possible evolution of the theistic

idea of "The Ancient of Days."

Every tribe had one or more persons skilled in the relation

of their tribal lore, their philosophy, their miraculous history,

their authority for their governmental institutions, their social

institutions, their habits and customs.

"A camp fire of blazing pine or sage boughs illumines a group of

dusky faces intent with expectation, and the old man begins his story,

talking and acting; the elders receiving his words with reverence, while

the younger persons are played upon by the actor until they shiver with

fear or dance with delight."59

 

And ever as he tells his story he points a moral. Some of

the stories afforded striking apothegms.

"You are buried in the hole you dug for yourself."

"When you go to war everyone you meet is an enemy; kill all."

"You were caught with your own chaff."

"Don't get so anxious that you kill yourself."

"You are bottled in your own jug."

"That is a blow of your own seeking."60

 

The following myths, fables or legends must suffice as il-

lustrative of their character. The Maidris legend of the Flood.

"Of old the Indians abode tranquilly in the Sacramento Valley and

were happy. All of a sudden there was a mighty and swift rushing of

waters, so that the whole valley became like the Big Waters, which no

man can measure. The Indians fled for their lives, but a great many were

overtaken by the waters." Also the frogs and the salmon pursued swiftly

after them and they ate many Indians. Then all the Indians were drowned

but two who escaped into the foot-hills. But the Great-Man gave these

two fertility so the world was soon repeopled. From these two there

 

59 Esthmann, Vol. 1, p. 43, Mythology of North American Indian.-

Powell.

60 Ethmann, Vol. 1, p. 56, Mythology of North American Indians.-

Powell.

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American Aborigines and their Social Customs.          439

 

sprung many tribes, even a mighy nation, and one man was chief over

them all.⁶¹

 

 

THE GENESIS OF THE WORLDS, OR THE BEGINNING OF NEWNESS.

Before the beginning of the new-making, Awenawilona (the Maker

and Container of All, the All-father Father), solely had being. There was

nothing else whatsoever throughout the great space of the ages save every-

where black darkness in it, and everywhere void desolation.

In the beginning of the new-made, Awonawilona conceived within

himself and thought outward in space, whereby mists of increase steams

potent of growth, were evolved and uplifted. Thus by means of his innate

knowledge, the All-container made himself in person and form of the

Sun whom we hold to be our father and who thus came to exist and

appear. With his appearance came the brightening of the spaces with

light, and with the brightening of the spaces the great mist-clouds were

thickened together and fell, whereby was evolved water in water; yea, and

the world-holding sea.

With his substance of flesh (yepnane) outdrawn from the surface of

his person, the Sun-father formed the seed-stuff of twain worlds, impreg-

nating therewith the great waters, and lo! in the heat of his light these

waters of the sea grew green and scums (k'yanashotsiyallawe) rose upon

them, waxing wide and weighty until, behold! they became Awitelin Tsita,

the "Four-fold Containing Mother-Earth," and Apoyan Ta Chu, the All-

covering Father-sky.⁶²

ORIGIN OF THE ECHO.

I-o-wi (the turtle dove) was gathering seed in the valley, and her

little babe slept. Wearied with carrying it on her back, she laid it under

the ho-pi (sage bush) in care of its sister, O-ho-tou (the summer yellow-

bird). * * * Now when I-o-wi returned and found not her babe under

the ti-ho-pi, but learned from O-ho-tou that it had been stolen by a tso-

a-vwits, (a witch, * * * then she went in search of the babe for a long

time, mourning, as she went and crying and still crying, refusing to be

comforted, though all her friends joined her in the search, and promised

to revenge her wrongs. Chief among her friends was her brother, Kwi-na

(the eagle) * * *. Well I know Kwi-na is the brother of I-o-wi, he

is a great warrior and a terrible man; I will go to To-go-a (the rattle-

snake), my grandfather, who will protect me and kill my enemies.

To-go-a was enjoying his mid-day sleep on the rocks, and as the tso-

a-vwits came near her grandfather awoke and called out to her, "Go back,

go back, you are not wanted here; go back!" But she came on begging:

61 N. A. Eth. Vol. 3, p. 290.-Powers.

62 Eth. Ann. 13, p. 379, Zuni Creation Myths.-Cushing.

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440        Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

his protection; and while they were still parleying they heard Kwi-na

coming, and To-go-a said, "Hide, hide !" But she knew not where to hide,

and he opened his mouth and the tso-a-vwits crawled into his stomach.

This made To-go-a very sick, and he entreated her to crawl out, but she

refused, for she was in great fear. Then he tried to throw her up, but

could not, and he was sick nigh unto death. At last, in his terrible

retchings, he crawled out of his own skin, and left the tso-a-vwits in it,

and she, imprisoned there, rolled about and hid in the rocks. When

Kwi-na came near he shouted, "Where are you, old tso-a-vwits? where

are you, old tso-a-vwits?  She repeated his words in mockery. Ever

since that day witches have lived in snake skins, and hide among the

rocks, and take great delight in repeating the words of passers by. This

is the origin of the echo.63

There was not only this formal method of instruction and

entertainment but also, the informal recital of incidents, the pro-

pounding of riddles, the use of puns, and proverbs, by way of

comparison. An Omaha would state:

 

"A thing having gone to the water, and looked at it, is coming back,

weeping. What is it? It is a kettle."

"There is a place cut up by gulleys. What is it? An old woman's

face."

"There is a mountain covered with trees. Horses are moving there,

some have black hair, some red and some white. What is it? A person's

head is the mountain, the hairs are trees and lice are the horses."

"The raccoon wet his head." This refers to one who talks softly,

when he tries to tempt another. Sometimes they say of an obstinate man,

"He is like an animal." 64

 

 

AMUSEMENTS.

The instinct for amusement was not dormant, and many de-

vices were employed in their social games. Their dice before

the introduction of the spotted cubes of the whites, were plum-

stones or oblong and flattened bones. Five were used in the

game, three of which were marked on, one side only with a

greater or smaller number of dots or lines, two of them were

marked on both sides..

A wide dish and a certain number of sticks as counters were

 

63 Etn ann 1, p. 45, Mythology of North American Indians.-Powell.

64 Eth. Ann. 3, p. -, Omaha Sociology.-Dorsey.

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American Aborigines and their Social Customs.   441

 

also provided. The plum stones or bones were placed in the dish

and a throw was made by jolting the dish against the ground

causing the seeds or bones to rebound, and they were counted

as they lay where they fell, whoever gained all the sticks won the

game. This was called plum stone shooting.

The Bowl game, or shooting the Bowl, was somewhat simi-

lar. The players were of the same sex or class. Men played

with men, girls with girls and women with women. They were

not wanting in games that were intricate and difficult of success-

ful execution. Such as shooting at the Rolling Wheel (Banan

ge-Kide).65

Their ball games were equally tests of skill with our mod-

ern golf, base-ball, foot-ball and lawn-tennis. Their tribal and

village contests were scenes of exciting interest and exhibitions

of alertness, dexterity and endurance.  The children imitated

their elders as children do to-day. The boys early mastered the

bow, by contests of rivalry, and were urged to greatest excellency

by the conditions of the contests, as in the absence of stakes those

losing must submit to a blow from the more successful. The

little girls made dolls of sticks and no doubt had the same fond-

ness for their wooden babies that is evinced by the little maiden

of to-day toward her Bisque and French doll of marvelous beauty

and mechanical perfection.

They were adepts in the terpsichorean art. Finding in the

maddening whirl of their nocturnal delights as their lithe bodies

moved in rhythm with their solemn chants and monotonous tones

of their tom-toms, and the wierd shadows of their dance fires,

that perfection of sensuous joy, that inspires the soul to valorous

deeds or opens the vision to spiritual things that make revela-

tions of the mysteries known only to the gods. The form varied

as the entertainment had reference to a mere social event or to

ulterior objects, subtle and remote, using the dance as a means

to arouse passion and induce the frenzy necessary to the accom-

plishment of the sinister purpose. The Ghost Dance,-a relig-

ious ceremony- lead to the Sioux outbreak of 1890, effecting all

the tribes of the South West. In fact the various revolts of the

 

65Eth. Ann. 3, p. 335, Games.-Dorsey.

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442       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

Indians since 1680 to the present have found their inspiration in

the Ghost dance as practiced by the several tribes.⁶⁶  The Moun-

tain Chant,⁶⁷ a Navajo ceremony as described by Dr. Washing-

ton Matthews is truly typical of the various forms of entertain-

ment and instruction serious and comic, that characterized the

American Aborigine in his sylvan life before and since the ad-

vent of his civilized dispossessor. The purpose of the ceremony

was various, its professed reason was to cure disease, but it was

made the occasion for invoking the unseen powers in behalf of

the people particularly for good crops and abundant rain. It

was an occasion when the people met to have a jolly time. The

patient paid the expense and hoped to obtain social distinction

for his liberality. The feasting and dancing continued nine days.

It was a winter festival accompanied with elaborate ceremonies,

pictures,⁶⁸ songs,⁶⁹ music and dancing.⁷⁰ During the days the

women danced with the men, but at night the men danced alone.

There were eleven⁷¹ dances in all. The last dance was a fire

dance,⁷² or fire play which was the most picturesque and startling

of all.

CULTS.

Another interesting feature of the social life of the American

Aborigines was the secret organization or "Cults"⁷³ with their

several order of degrees-as many as four -74 in which the

courage and endurance of the candidate was put to the severest

test. They were not mock ceremonies, pretended imprisonments,

imaginary fastings, burial without graves, and resurrections void

of meaning until their significance was explained in exhaustive

post lectures, but most realistic. The tests were real. Fire was

fire, abstinence was enforced until hunger fed upon the vitals,

 

66 Eth. Ann. pt. II, 14, p. 659, The Ghost Dance Religion.-Mooney.

67 Eth. Ann. 5, p. 385, The Mountain Chant.-Mathews.

68 Eth. Ann. 5, Plts. XV, XVI, XVII, XVIII.

69 Eth. Ann. 5, p. 445.-Mathews.

70Eth. Ann. 5, p. 442.-Mathews.

71 Eth. Ann. 5, p. 441.-Mathews.

72 Eth. Ann. 5, Plt. XIII.

73 Eth. Ann. 11, p. 361, A Study of Siouan Cults.-Dorsey.

74 Eth. Ann. 7, p. 183, The Mide Wiwin of the Objivwa.-Hoffman.

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American Aborigines and their Social Customs.    443

 

and the pangs of thirst were most excruciating. The Lodge was

decked with symbolic⁷⁵ pictures, emblems and tokens. Their

paraphernalia was emblematic, picturesque and awe inspiring.

There were personal generic signs worn upon garments and

robes and decorated the tent of the owner, as sacred as the "Coat-

of-Arms of our forefathers. Part of the initiatory rite of the

"Dancing Lodge" was as follows: The candidate was made to

stand before four posts⁷⁷ arranged in the form of a square and

the flesh on his back being sacrificed in two places thongs were

run through them and fastened to them and to the posts behind

him. His chest was also scarified in two places, thongs were in-

serted and tied, and then fastened to the two posts in front of

him.⁷⁸ This is but a sample of the ordeals incident to the initia-

tory rites of their numerous organizations. The Sun Dance and

Snake Dance were even more severe in their exactions than what

is specified above. The last dance of this character allowed by

the government was in 1883. Women as well as men, submitted

to all the requirements of the mystic rites in order to give dem-

onstration of personal courage and secure social prestige. Ac-

companying these formal lodge dances there were informal or

"intrusive" dances held outside the lodge, such as the "Mandan"

dance of the "Society of the Stout Hearted Ones," the "Wakan"

or "Mystery" dance, the "Ghost" dance, the "Buffalo" dance and

"Grass" dance. The variety is almost endless, while possessing

much in common. Each tribe had its individual peculiarities

which were sacredly observed and preserved. The social life of

the Aborigine was greatly intensified by their communal habits

of living. The variety of its character is marked in the more

settled or Village Indian, as the Iroquois, Cherokees and Zuni

Indians. It is impossible in a paper of this length to more than

hint at the more salient features of the Social Customs of the

American Aborigines. But sufficient has been produced to re-

lieve them of much of the common odium to which they have

 

75 Eth. Ann. 7, p. 88, Fig. 11.

76 Eth. Ann. 11, pits. XIV, XV, XVIII, XIX, The Sia Cult Societies.

-Stevenson.

77Eth. Ann. 11, p. 63.

78 Eth. Ann. 11, p. 463, A Study of Siouan Cults. - Dorsey.

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444       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications. been most unjustly subject, and to assure us that the darkness of barbarism was not without its rifts of light. And that even savagery gives promise and prophecy of the abiding social in- stinct and fellow-feeling that show the spark of divinity, latent though it be, that unifies the human race, and allies it to the brotherhood of man and the Fatherhood of God.

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