GENERAL FIELD WORK.
WORK OF DR. WASHINGTON MATTHEWS.
Dr. Washington Matthews, assistant surgeon U. S. Army, continued his investigations among the Navajo Indians in New Mexico and Arizona. He had been stationed in the Navajo country as post surgeon of Fort Wingate, N. Mex., from 1880 to 1884, during which time he devoted himself to studying the language, customs, and ceremonies of this tribe as much as his official duties would permit. Some of the great shamanistic ceremonies of the Navajo, occupying nine days for their performance, he had often seen in part; but he had never had an opportunity of witnessing one throughout its entire duration, as he had not sufficient time at his disposal.
Before leaving New Mexico, however, he secured the friendship and confidence of some of the leading medicine men and obtained their promise to admit him to their most secret rites during their entire performance whenever he should be able to avail himself of the privilege. He was also promised complete instruction in the mythology and symbolism of these rites.
In the autumn of 1884 he was given an opportunity, under the auspices of the Bureau of Ethnology, to return to the Navajo country and devote himself for a considerable time entirely to anthropologic studies among the people.
He first visited the Navajo who dwell in the neighborhood of the San Mateo mountains, the Tsotsildinè, or people of the Great Peak, a local division or subtribe living much farther to the east and having longer and more intimate associations with Mexicans and Americans than the main body of the people. While at this place, he ascended the peak of San Mateo, or Mount Taylor, a mountain held sacred by the Navajo, to observe the various places on the mountain mentioned in the Navajo myths.
Leaving San Mateo he proceeded to Fort Wingate, and learning that one of the most important of the Navajo rites was about to be celebrated at a place called Niqotlizi (Hard Earth), north of Fort Wingate on the Navajo reservation, he repaired thither without delay. The ceremony which he went to witness was that of dsilyídje-qaçàl, or mountain chant. It is also called Ilnasjingo-qaçàl, or chant in the dark circle of branches, from the great corral of evergreens in which the public rites of the last night are performed. It is known to the white men who live among these Indians as the hoshkawn dance, from one of the public dances of the last night, in which the Indian jugglers pretend to grow and develop the hackàn, or Yucca baccata. This last night's performance is varied and interesting and all persons, including whites and Indians of other tribes, are permitted to witness it; but previously, for several days, mystic rites are celebrated in the medicine lodge, to the most of which only the initiated are admitted. Dr. Matthews remained ten days in the Indian camp at Niqotlizi, during which time the shamans admitted him into their medicine lodge and allowed him to observe their rites and practices.
His most interesting discovery on this occasion was that of their system of mythic dry paintings, by which they represent various legends or traditions with dry pigments on the sanded floor of the medicine lodge. A full account of the ceremonies and of the myth on which they are based was prepared by Dr. Matthews and appeared in the Fifth Annual Report of this Bureau.
When the ceremony at Niqotlizi was over he proceeded to a locality in Arizona called by the whites The Haystacks, from the peculiar appearance of the rock formations there. At The Haystacks another great ceremony, probably the second in importance of the Navajo rites, was to take place. Here he again encamped with the Indians and remained until the work of the shamans was done.
The ceremonial observances witnessed on this occasion are, collectively, called by the Navajo Klèdji-qaçàl, or chant of the night. They are called by the whites the Yàybichy dance, from the name of the principal masked character, Yèbitcai or Gebitcai, the granduncle of the gods. Like the hoshkawn dance, it has several days of secret rites with elaborate symbolic sand pictures and one night of public dances, less varied and interesting than those of the hoshkawn. Dr. Matthews was permitted to witness the whole performance and to take as many notes and sketches as were necessary.
From The Haystacks Dr. Matthews went to the Indian agency at Fort Defiance, Arizona, where he secured the services of one of the oldest and most learned (in their own peculiar lore) of the Navajo priests, and from him he obtained full explanations of all these rites and of the symbolism of the pictures and masked characters, with a complete recital of the long and elaborate myths on which the ceremonies depend, and the texts and translations of the very numerous songs which form the ritual of the ceremonies.
WORK OF DR. H. C. YARROW.
Dr. H. C. Yarrow, acting assistant surgeon U. S. Army, with the assistance of military details and supplies, in addition to the instruction and facilities provided by this Bureau, started, August 8, 1884, on an expedition into the Territory of Utah, with reference mainly to the exploration of burial mounds and the study of mortuary customs.
Near Choke Cherry Spring a burial cave was discovered, containing the skeletons of three persons, which were secured. Other skeletons, with contents of graves, were obtained near Willow creek; also, an interesting specimen of tree burial.
At Deep creek an explanation of the curious form of water burial was gained from a chief of the Gosiats, to the effect that the bodies of the turbulent and disorderly men of the tribe were thus disposed of to prevent the spirits of these objectionable persons from joining the rest of the tribe after death. Their bodies were sunk in springs and marshy places and kept down by sticks and stones, so that their spirits could never get out.
In the neighborhood of Fillmore a mound was excavated which afforded an admirable example of the beforementioned conversion of a dwelling into a sepulcher. The probability is that the deceased died in his house, which was made of adobe bricks, and that it was at once abandoned and the body left therein, the roof being first removed. The corpse was placed on the floor and covered with a paste of moist clay, on which were placed the mortuary gifts of weapons, utensils, and food. Cottonwood branches were then piled above and set on fire, thus baking the clay crust and charring the several objects. The whole structure had been covered, so that on first examination the hard surface of burnt clay, 18 inches below the loose earth, appeared to be the floor of a former dwelling.
In the whole of the expedition, which continued into the last days of September, much difficulty was experienced from the suspicion and consequent hostility of the Indians of the localities visited.
WORK OF DR. W. J. HOFFMAN.
Dr. W. J. Hoffman proceeded early in August to Victoria, B. C., where numerous sketches of Haida totem posts and carvings were obtained, in connection with the myths which they illustrated. At this locality attention was paid to the burial customs and osteologic remains of the nearly extinct tribe of Songish Indians.
At Port Townsend sketches were obtained of Thlinkit ivory and wood carvings, clearly indicating the adoption by that tribe of Haida art designs. Here, too, many Indians of British-American tribes were met on their way south to work in the Puyallup hop fields, notable among which was a large number of Haida, whose persons were examined for the purpose of copying the numerous and varied tattoo designs with which they were profusely decorated. Interpretations of many of these characters were obtained from the persons bearing them, as well as from the chief artist of the tribe, together with concise descriptions of the methods and customs in connection with tattooing and the materials used. Drawings were made of a collection of Eskimo pictographs and ivory carvings at the museum of the Alaska Commercial Company and the California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, Cal.
At Santa Barbara, Cal., Dr. Hoffman discovered some painted pictographs and examined a number which have not yet been published. In several private collections at this place were found interesting relics of the Indians formerly inhabiting Santa Cruz island, the most important of which was a steatite cup containing earthy coloring matter and pricking instruments of bone, which had evidently been used in tattooing. Painted pictographs were also visited in the Azuza cañon, twenty-five miles northeast of Los Angeles.
At Tule Indian Agency, in the deep valleys on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada, sketches of pictographs were made in continuation of work accomplished there two years before. Vocabularies were also obtained from the Waitchumni Indians here located, as well as from the few remaining Santa Barbara Indians at Cathedral Oaks, Santa Barbara county, Cal. By far the greatest amount of pictographic material was collected in Owen's valley, California, where series of petroglyphs are scattered over an arid, sandy desert, the extremes of which are more than twenty miles apart.