Pictographs of the North American Indians. A preliminary paper / Fourth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1882-83, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1886, pages 3-256

by Garrick Mallery

MESSAGES AND COMMUNICATIONS.

Fig. 61.—Letter to Little-Man from his father. Cheyenne.

Figure 61 is a letter sent by mail from a Southern Cheyenne, named Turtle-following-his-Wife, at the Cheyenne and Arapaho Agency, Indian Territory, to his son, Little-Man, at the Pine Ridge Agency, Dakota Territory. It was drawn on a half-sheet of ordinary writing paper, without a word written. It was inclosed in an envelope, which was addressed to “Little-Man, Cheyenne, Pine Ridge Agency,” in the ordinary manner, written by some one at the first-named agency. The letter was evidently understood by Little-Man, as he immediately called upon Dr. V. T. McGillycuddy, Indian agent at Pine Ridge Agency, and was aware that the sum of $53 had been placed to his credit for the purpose of enabling him to pay his expenses in going the long journey to his father’s home in Indian Territory. Dr. McGillycuddy had, by the same mail, received a letter from Agent Dyer, inclosing $53, and explaining the reason for its being sent, which enabled him also to understand the pictographic letter. With the above explanation it very clearly shows, over the head of the figure to the left, the turtle following the turtle’s wife united with the head of the figure by a line, and over the head of the other figure, also united by a line to it, is a little man. Also over the right arm of the last-mentioned figure is another little man in the act of springing or advancing toward Turtle-following-his-Wife, from whose mouth proceed two lines, curved or hooked at the end, as if drawing the little figure towards him. It is suggested that the last-mentioned part of the pictograph is the substance of the communication, i. e., “come to me,” the larger figures with their name totems being the persons addressed and addressing. Between and above the two large figures are fifty-three round objects intended for dollars. Both the Indian figures have on breech-cloths, corresponding with the information given concerning them, which is that they are Cheyennes who are not all civilized or educated.

The illustration, Figure 62, was made by a native Alaskan, and represents a native of the Teninahs making a smoke signal to the people of the village on the opposite shore of a lake, so that a boat may be sent to carry the signalist across. The K’niqamūt band of the Tenina have no boats, as they live inland, and therefore resort to signaling with smoke when desiring transportation. On account of this custom they are termed “Signal People.” If the pictograph could be transmitted in advance of the necessity, the actual use of the smoke signal, with consequent delay in obtaining the boat, would be avoided.

Fig. 62.—Drawing of smoke signal. Alaska.

1. Represents the mountain contour of the country.

2. A Tenina Indian.

3. Column of smoke.

4. Bird’s-eye view of the lake.

5. The settlement on opposite shore of lake.

6. Boat crossing for the signalist.

Under this head of messages and communications may be included the material objects sent as messages, many accounts of which are published. It is to be expected that graphic representations of the same or similar objects, with corresponding arrangement, should have similar significance. Among the Indians painted arrows, bearing messages when discharged, are familiar. The Turkish Selam, or flower letters, are in the same category.

The following account of a “diplomatic packet” is extracted from Schoolcraft, Vol. III, p. 306, et seq.:

In the month of August, 1852, a message reached the President of the United States, by a delegation of the Pueblos of Tesuque in New Mexico, offering him friendship and intercommunication; and opening, symbolically, a road from the Moqui country to Washington. * * *

This unique diplomatic packet consists of several articles of symbolic import. The first is the official and ceremonial offer of the peace-pipe. This is symbolized by a joint of the maize, five and a half inches long, and half an inch in diameter. The hollow of the tube is filled by leaves of a plant which represents tobacco. It is stopped to secure the weed from falling out, by the downy yellow under plumage of some small bird. Externally, around the center of the stalk, is a tie of white cotton twisted string of four strands, (not twisted by the distaff,) holding, at its end, a small tuft of the before-mentioned downy yellow feathers, and a small wiry feather of the same species. The interpreter has written on this, “The pipe to be smoked by the President.” * * The object is represented in the cut, A, [represented in Figure 63.]

Fig. 63.—Part of diplomatic packet.

The second symbol consists of two small columnar round pieces of wood, four and a half inches long, and four-tenths in diameter, terminating in a cone. The cone is one and a half inches long, and is colored black; the rest of the pieces are blue; a peace color among the Indians south, it seems, as well as north. This color has the appearance of being produced by the carbonate of copper mixed with aluminous earth; and reminds one strongly of the blue clays of the Dacotahs. The wood, when cut, is white, compact, and of a peculiar species. A notch is cut at one end of one of the pieces, and colored yellow. A shuck of the maize, one end of which, rolled in the shape of a cone, is bound up by cotton strings, with a small bird’s feather, in the manner of the symbolic pipe. There is also tied up with the symbolic sticks, one of the secondary feathers and bits of down of a bird of dingy color. The feather is naturally tipped with white. Together with this, the tie holds a couple of sticks of a native plant or small seed of the prairie grass, perhaps. It may, together with the husk of the maize, be emblematic of their cultivation. The whole of the tie represents the Moquis. The following cut, B, [reproduced in Figure 64,] represents this symbol:

Fig. 64.—Part of diplomatic packet.

Fig. 65.—Part of diplomatic packet.

The third object is, in every respect, like B, [reproduced in Figure 64,] and symbolizes the President of the United States. A colored cotton cord, four feet long, unites these symbols. Six inches of this cord is small and white. At the point of its being tied to the long colored cord there is a bunch of small bird’s feathers. This bunch, which symbolizes the geographical position of the Navajoes, with respect to Washington, consists of the feathers of six species, the colors which are pure white, blue, brown, mottled, yellow, and dark, like the pigeon-hawk, and white, tipped with brown. (See the preceding cut, C.)

The interpreter appends to these material effigies or devices [which are arranged as in D, reproduced in Figure 66] the following remarks.

Fig. 66.—Part of diplomatic packet.

“These two figures represent the Moqui people and the President; the cord is the road which separates them; the feather tied to the cord is the meeting point; that part of the cord which is white is intended to signify the distance between the President and the place of meeting; and that part which is stained is the distance between the Moqui and the same point. Your Excellency will perceive that the distance between the Moqui and place of meeting is short, while the other is very long.

“The last object of this communication from the high plains of New Mexico, is the most curious, and the most strongly indicative of the wild, superstitious notions of the Moqui mind. It consists of a small quantity of wild honey, wrapped up in a wrapper or inner fold of the husk of the maize, as represented in E, [reproduced in Figure 67.] It is accompanied by these remarks:

“A charm to call down rain from heaven.—To produce the effect desired, the President must take a piece of the shuck which contains the wild honey, chew it, and spit it upon the ground which needs rain; and the Moquis assure him that it will come.”

Fig. 67.—Part of diplomatic packet.

The Maori used a kind of hieroglyphical or symbolical way of communication; a chief inviting another to join in a war party sent a tattooed potato and a fig of tobacco bound up together, which was interpreted to mean that the enemy was a Maori and not European by the tattoo, and by the tobacco that it represented smoke; he therefore roasted the one and eat it, and smoked the other, to show he accepted the invitation, and would join him with his guns and powder. Another sent a water-proof coat with the sleeves made of patchwork, red, blue, yellow, and green, intimating that they must wait until all the tribes were united before their force would be water-proof, i. e., able to encounter the European. Another chief sent a large pipe, which would hold a pound of tobacco, which was lighted in a large assembly, the emissary taking the first whiff, and then passing it round; whoever smoked it showed that he joined in the war. See Te Ika a Maui, by Rev. Richard Taylor, London, 1870.