FIELD WORK.
The field work of the year is divided into (1) mound explorations and (2) general field studies, the latter being directed chiefly to archeology, linguistics, and pictography.
MOUND EXPLORATIONS.
WORK OF MR. CYRUS THOMAS.
The work of exploring the mounds of the eastern United States was, as in former years, under the superintendence of Mr. Cyrus Thomas. The efforts of the division were chiefly confined to the examination of material already collected and to the arrangement and preparation for publication of the data on hand. Field work received less attention, therefore, than in previous years, and was mainly directed to such investigations as were necessary to elucidate doubtful points and to the examination and surveys of important works which had not before received adequate attention.
The only assistants to Mr. Thomas whose engagements embraced the entire year were Mr. James D. Middleton and Mr. Henry L. Reynolds. Mr. Gerard Fowke, one of the assistants, ceased his connection with the Bureau at the end of the second month. Mr. John W. Emmert was engaged as a temporary assistant for a few months.
WORK OF MR. GERARD FOWKE.
During the short time in which he remained with the division, Mr. Fowke was engaged in exploring certain mounds in the Sciota valley, Ohio, a field to which Messrs. Squier and Davis had devoted much attention. Its reexamination was for the purpose of investigating certain typical mounds which had not been thoroughly examined by those explorers.
WORK OF MR. J. D. MIDDLETON.
Mr. Middleton was employed from July to the latter part of October in the exploration of mounds and other ancient works in Calhoun county, Illinois, a territory to which special interest attaches because it seems to be on the border line of different archeologic districts. From October until December he was engaged at Washington in preparing plats of Ohio earthworks. During the next month he made resurveys of some of the more important inclosures in Ohio, after which he resumed work in the office at Washington until the latter part of March, when he was sent to Tennessee to examine several mound groups and to determine, so far as possible, the exact locations of the old Cherokee “over-hill towns.” The result of the last-mentioned investigation was valuable, as it indicated that each of these “over-hill towns” was, with possibly one unimportant exception, in the locality of a mound group.
WORK OF MR. H. L. REYNOLDS.
Near the close of October Mr. Reynolds, having already examined the inclosures of the northern, eastern, and western sections of the mound region, went to Ohio and West Virginia to study the different types found there, with reference to the chapters he was preparing on the various forms of ancient inclosures in the United States. While thus engaged he explored a large mound connected with one of the typical works in Paint creek valley, obtaining unexpected and important results. The construction of this tumulus was found to be quite different from most of those in the same section examined by Messrs. Squier and Davis.
WORK OF MR. J. W. EMMERT.
Mr. Emmert devoted the few months in which he was employed to the successful exploration of mounds in eastern Tennessee. Some important discoveries were made and additional interesting facts were ascertained in regard to the mounds of that section.
GENERAL FIELD STUDIES.
WORK OF COL. GARRICK MALLERY.
Early in the month of July Col. Garrick Mallery proceeded to Maine, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick to continue investigation into the pictographs of the Abnaki and Micmac Indians, which had been commenced in 1887. He first visited rocks in Maine, on the shore near Machiasport, and on Hog island, in Holmes bay, a part of Machias bay. In both localities pecked petroglyphs were found, accurate copies of which were taken. Some of them had not before been reported. They are probably of Abnaki origin, of either the Penobscot or the Passamaquoddy division, the rocks lying on the line of water communication between the territories of those divisions. From Maine he proceeded to Kejemkoojik lake, on the border of Queens and Annapolis counties, Nova Scotia, and resumed the work of drawing and tracing the large number of petroglyphs found during the previous summer. Perfect copies were obtained of so many of them as to be amply sufficient for study and comparison. These are incised petroglyphs, and were made by Micmacs. The country of the Malecites, on the St. Johns river, New Brunswick, was next visited. No petroglyphs were discovered, but a considerable amount of information was obtained upon the old system of pictographs on birch bark and its use. Illustrative specimens were gathered, together with myths and legends, which assisted in the elucidation of some of the pictographs observed elsewhere.
WORK OF MR. W. J. HOFFMAN.
Mr. W. J. Hoffman proceeded in July to visit the Red Lake and White Earth Indian reservations in Minnesota. At Red lake he obtained copies of birch bark records pertaining to the Midē'wiwin or Grand Medicine Society of the Ojibwa, an order of shamans professing the power to prophesy, to cure disease, and to confer success in the chase. The introductory portion of the ritual of this society pertains particularly to the Ojibwa cosmogony. At the same place he secured several birch bark records of hunting expeditions, battles with neighboring tribes of Indians, maps, and songs. He also investigated the former and present practice of tattooing, and the Ojibwa works of art in colors, beads, and quills.
At White Earth Reservation two distinct charts of the Grand Medicine Society were obtained, together with full explanations by two of the chief midé or shamans, one of whom was the only fourth-degree priest in either of the reservations. Although a considerable difference between these three charts is apparent, their principles and the general course of the initiation of the candidates are similar. The survival of archaic forms in the charts and ritual indicates a considerable antiquity. Some mnemonic songs were also obtained at this reservation. In addition to the ritual, secured directly from the priests, in the Ojibwa language, translations of the songs were also recorded, with musical notation. On leaving the above reservations, Mr. Hoffman proceeded to Pipestone, Minnesota, to copy the petroglyphs upon the cliffs of that historic quarry.
He then returned to St. Paul, Minnesota, to search the records of the library of the Minnesota Historical Society for copies of pictographs reported to have been made near La Pointe, Wisconsin. Little information was obtained, although it is known that such pictographs, now nearly obliterated, existed upon conspicuous cliffs and rocks near Lake Superior, at and in the vicinity of Bayfield and Ashland.
Mr. Hoffman afterward made an examination of the “pictured cave,” eight miles northeast of La Crosse, Wisconsin, to obtain copies of the characters appearing there. These are rapidly being destroyed by the disintegration of the rock. The colors employed in delineating the various figures were dark red and black. The figures represent human beings, deer, and other forms not now distinguishable.
WORK OF MR. H. W. HENSHAW.
Mr. H. W. Henshaw spent the months of August, September, and October on the Pacific coast, engaged in the collection of vocabularies of several Indian languages, with a view to their study and classification. The Umatilla Reservation in Oregon was first visited with the object of obtaining a comprehensive vocabulary of the Cayuse. Though there are about four hundred of these Indians on the reservation, probably not more than six speak the Cayuse tongue. The Cayuse have extensively intermarried with the Umatilla, and now speak the language of the latter, or that of the Nez Percé. An excellent Cayuse vocabulary was obtained, and at the same time the opportunity was embraced to secure vocabularies of the Umatilla and the Nez Percé languages. His next objective point was the neighborhood of the San Rafael Mission, Marin county, California, the hope being entertained that some of the Indians formerly gathered at the mission would be found there. He learned that there were no Indians at or near San Rafael, but subsequently found a few on the shores of Tomales bay, to the north. A good vocabulary was collected from one of these, which, as was expected, was subsequently found to be related to the Moquelumnan family of the interior, to the southeast of San Francisco bay. Later the missions of Santa Cruz and Monterey were visited. At these points there still remain a few old Indians who retain a certain command of their own language, though Spanish forms their ordinary means of intercourse. The vocabularies obtained are sufficient to prove, beyond any reasonable doubt, that there are two linguistic families instead of one, as had been formerly supposed, in the country above referred to. A still more important discovery was made by Mr. Henshaw at Monterey, where an old woman was found who succeeded in calling to mind more than one hundred words and short phrases of the Esselen language, formerly spoken near Monterey, but less than forty words of which had been previously known. Near the town of Cayucas, to the south, an aged and blind Indian was visited who was able to add somewhat to the stock of Esselen words obtained at Monterey, and to give valuable information concerning the original home of that tribe. As a result of the study of this material Mr. Henshaw determines the Esselen to be a distinct linguistic family, a conclusion first drawn by Mr. Curtin from a study of the vocabularies collected by Galiano and Lamanon in the eighteenth century. The territory occupied by the tribe and linguistic family lies coastwise, south of Monterey bay, as far as the Santa Lucia mountains.
WORK OF MR. JAMES MOONEY.
On July 5 Mr. James Mooney started on a second trip to the territory of the Cherokee in North Carolina, returning after an absence of about four months. During this time he made considerable additions to the linguistic material already obtained by him, and was able to demonstrate the former existence of a fourth, and perhaps even of a fifth, well-marked Cherokee dialect in addition to the upper, lower, and middle dialects already known. The invention of a Cherokee syllabary which was adapted to the sounds of the upper dialect has tended to make that dialect universal. A number of myths were collected, together with a large amount of miscellaneous material relating to the Cherokee tribe, and the great tribal game of ball play, with its attendant ceremonies of dancing, conjuring, scratching the bodies of the players, and going to water, was witnessed. A camera was utilized to secure characteristic pictures of the players. Special attention was given to the subject of Indian medicine, theoretic, ceremonial, and therapeutic. The most noted doctors of the tribe were employed as informants, and nearly five hundred specimens of medicinal and food plants were collected and their Indian names and uses ascertained. The general result of this investigation shows that the medical and botanical knowledge of the Indians has been greatly overrated. A study was made of Cherokee personal names, about five hundred of which were translated, being all the names of Indian origin now remaining in that region. The most important results of Mr. Mooney’s investigations were the discovery of a large number of manuscripts containing the sacred formulas of the tribe, written in Cherokee characters by the shamans for their own secret use, and jealously guarded from the knowledge of all but the initiated. The existence of such manuscripts had been ascertained during a visit in 1887, and several of them had been procured. This discovery of genuine aboriginal material, written in an Indian language by shamans for their own use, is believed to be unique in the history of aboriginal investigation, and was only made possible through the invention of the Cherokee syllabary by Sequoia in 1821. Every effort was made by Mr. Mooney to obtain all the existing manuscripts, with the result of securing all of that material which was in the possession of the tribe. The whole number of formulas obtained is about six hundred. They consist of prayers and sacred songs, explanations of ceremonies, directions for medical treatment, and underlying theories. They relate to medicine, love, war, hunting, fishing, self-protection, witchcraft, agriculture, the ball play, and other similar subjects, thus forming a complete exposition of an aboriginal religion as set forth by its priests in their own language.
WORK OF MR. JEREMIAH CURTIN.
Early in October Mr. Jeremiah Curtin left Washington for the Pacific coast. During the remainder of the year he was occupied in Shasta and Humboldt counties, California, in collecting vocabularies and data connected with the Indian system of medicine. This work was continued in different parts of Humboldt and Siskiyou counties until June 30, 1889. Large collections of linguistic and other data were gathered and myths were secured which show that the whole system of medicine of these Indians and the ministration of remedies originated in and are limited to sorcery practices.
WORK OF MR. A. S. GATSCHET.
The field work of Mr. Albert S. Gatschet during the year was short. It had been ascertained that Mrs. Alice M. Oliver, now in Lynn, Massachusetts, formerly lived on Trespalacios bay, Texas, near the homes of the Karánkawa, and Mr. Gatschet visited Lynn with a view of securing as complete a vocabulary as possible of their extinct language. Mrs. Oliver was able to recall about one hundred and sixty terms of the language, together with some phrases and sentences. She also furnished many valuable details regarding the ethnography of the tribe. Ten days were spent in this work.
WORK OF MR. J. N. B. HEWITT.
Mr. J. N. B. Hewitt was occupied in field work from August 1 to November 8, as follows: From the first of August to September 20 he was on the Tuscarora reserve, in Niagara county, New York, in which locality fifty-five legends and myths were collected. A Penobscot vocabulary was also obtained here, together with other linguistic material. From September 20 to November 8 Mr. Hewitt visited the Grand River reserve, Canada, where a large amount of text was obtained, together with notes and other linguistic material.
WORK OF MR. VICTOR MINDELEFF.
Mr. Victor Mindeleff left Washington on October 23 for St. John’s, Arizona, where he examined the Hubbell collection of ancient pottery and secured a series of photographs and colored drawings of the more important specimens. Thence he went to Zuñi and obtained drawings of interior details of dwellings and other data necessary for the completion of his studies of the architecture of this pueblo. He returned to Washington December 7.
WORK OF MR. A. M. STEPHEN.
Mr. A. M. Stephen continued work among the Tusayan pueblos under the direction of Mr. Victor Mindeleff. He added much to the knowledge of the traditionary history of Tusayan, and made an extensive study of the house lore and records of house-building ceremonials. He also reported a full nomenclature of Tusayan architectural terms as applied to the various details of terraced-house construction, with etymologies. He secured from the Navajo much useful information of the ceremonial connected with the construction of their conical lodges or “hogans,” supplementing the more purely architectural records of their construction previously collected by Mr. Mindeleff. As opportunity occurred he gathered typical collections of baskets and other textile fabrics illustrative of the successive stages of their manufacture, including specimens of raw materials and detailed descriptions of the dyes used. These collections are intended to include also the principal patterns in use at the present time, with the Indian explanations of their significance.