Американские индейцы

athletic contests, and gambling games.

The principal athletic game everywhere east of the Missouri, as well as

with some tribes of the Pacific coast, was the ballplay adopted by the

French of Canada under the name lacrosse and in Louisiana as racquette. In

this game the ball was caught, not with the hand, but with a netted ball-

stick somewhat resembling a tennis racket.

A special dance and secret ceremonial preceded the contest. Next in

tribal favour in the eastern region was the game known to the early traders

under the corrupted Creek name of chunkee, in which one player rolled a

stone wheel along the ground, while his competitor slid after it a stick

curved at one end like an umbrella handle with the design of having the

spent wheel fall within the curve at the end of its course. This game,

which necessitated much hard running, was sometimes kept up for hours. A

somewhat similar game played with a netted wheel and a straight stick was

found upon the plains, the object being to dart the stick through the

certain netted holes in the wheel, known as the buffalo, bull, calf,

etc.(remember ‘to catch the bull’s eye’).

Foot races were very popular with certain tribes, as the Pueblo, Apache.

Wichita and Crows, being frequently a part of great ceremonial functions.

On the plains horse-racing furnished exciting amusement. There were

numerous gambling games, somewhat of the dice order, played with marked

sticks, plum stones, carved bones, etc., these being in special favour with

the women. Target shooting with bow and arrow, and various forms of dart

shooting were also popular.

Among distinctly women's games were football and shinny, the former,

however, being merely the bouncing of the ball from the toes with the

purpose of keeping in the air as long as possible. Hand games, in which a

number of players arranged themselves in two opposing lines and alternately

endeavoured to guess the whereabouts of a small object shifted rapidly from

hand to hand, were a favourite tipi pastime with both sexes in the winter

evenings, to the accompaniment of songs fitted to the rapid movement of the

hands.

Story-telling and songs, usually to the accompaniment of the rattle or

small hand-drum, filled in the evening. The Indian was essentially musical,

his instruments being the drum, rattle, flute, or flageolet, eagle-bone

whistle and other more crude devices. Each had its special religious

significance and ceremonial purposes, particularly the rattle, of which

there were many varieties. Besides the athletic and gambling games, there

were games of diversion played only on rare occasions of tribal necessity

with sacred paraphernalia in keeping of sacred guardians. The Indian was

fond also of singing and had songs for every occasion — love, war, hunting,

gaming, medicine, satire, children's songs, and lullabies.

The children played with tops, whips, dolls, and other toys, or imitated

their elders in shooting, riding, and "playing house".

War

As war is the normal condition of savagery, so to the Indian warlike

glory was the goal of his ambition, the theme of his oratory, and the

purpose of his most elaborate ceremonial. His weapons were the knife, bow,

club, lance, and tomahawk, or stone axe, which last was very soon

superseded by the light steel hatchet supplied by the trader. To these,

certain tribes added defensive armour, as the body-armour of rawhides or

wooden rods in use along the northwest coast and some other sections, and

the shield more particularly used by the equestrian tribes of the plains.

As a rule, the lance and shield were more common in the open country, and

the tomahawk in the woods. The bow was usually of some tough and flexible

wood with twisted sinew cord, but was sometimes of bone or horn backed with

sinew rapping. It is extremely doubtful if poisoned arrows were found north

of Mexico, notwithstanding many assertions to the contrary.

Where the clan system prevailed the general conduct of war matters was

often in the keeping of special clans, and in some tribes, such as the

Creeks, war and peace negotiations and ceremonials belonged to certain

towns designated as "red" or "white". With the Iroquois and probably with

other tribes, the final decision on war or peace rested with a council of

the married women. On the plains the warriors of the tribes were organized

into military societies of differing degrees of rank, from the boys in

training to the old men who had passed their active period. Military

service was entirely voluntary with the individual who, among the eastern

tribes, signified his acceptance in some public manner, as by striking the

red-painted war-post, or, on the plains, by smoking the pipe sent round by

the organizers of the expeditions. Contrary to European practice, the

command usually rested with several leaders of equal rank, who were not

necessarily recognized as chiefs on other occasions. The departure and the

return were made according to the fixed ceremonial forms, with solemn

chants of defiance, victory, or grief at defeat. In some tribes there were

small societies of chosen warriors pledged never to turn or flee from an

enemy except by express permission of their fellows, but in general the

Indian warrior chose not to take large risks, although brave enough in

desperate circumstance.

To the savage every member of a hostile tribe was equally an enemy, and

he gloried as much in the death of an infant as in that of the warrior

father. Victory meant indiscriminate massacre, with most revolting

mutilation of the dead, followed in the early period in nearly every

portion of the East and South by a cannibal feast. The custom of scalping

the dead, so general in later Indian wars, has been shown by Frederici to

have been confined originally to a limited area east of the Mississippi,

gradually superseding the earlier custom of beheading. In many western

tribes, the warrior's prowess was measured not by the number of his scalp

trophies, but by the number of his coups (French term), or strokes upon the

enemy, for which there was a regular scale according to kind, the highest

honour being accorded not to one one who secured the scalp, but to the

warrior who struck the first blow upon the enemy, even though with no more

than a willow rod. The scalp dance was performed, not by the warriors, but

by the women, who thus rejoiced over the success of their husbands and

brothers. There was no distinctive "war dance".

Captives among the eastern tribes were either condemned to death with

every horrible form of torture or ceremonially adopted into the tribe, the

decision usually resting with the women. If adopted, he at once became a

member of a family, usually as representative of a deceased member, and at

once acquired full tribal rights. In the Huron wars whole towns of the

defeated nation voluntarily submitted and were adopted into the Iroquois

tribes. On the plains torture was not common. Adults were seldom spared,

but children were frequently spared and either regularly adopted or brought

up in a mild sort of slavery. Along the north-west coast, and as far south

as California slavery prevailed in its harshest form and was the usual fate

of the captive.

Languages

One of the remarkable facts in American ethnology is the great diversity

of languages. Nearly two hundred major languages, besides minor dialects,

were spoken north of Mexico, classified in fifty-one distinct linguistic

stocks, as given below, of which nearly one-half were represented in

California. Those marked with an asterisk are extinct, while several others

are now reduced to less than a dozen individuals keeping the language:

Algonquian, Athapascan (Dйnй), Attacapan, *Beothukan, Caddoan, Chimakuan,

*Chimarikan, Chimmesyan, Chinookan, Chitimachan, *Chumashan, *Coahuiltecan

(Pakawб), Copehan (Wintun), Costanoan, Eskimauan, *Esselenian, Iroquoian,

Kalapooian, *Karankawan, Keresan, Kiowan, Kitunahan, Kaluschan (Tlingit),

Kulanapan (Pomo), *Kusan, Mariposan (Yokuts), Moquelumnan (Miwok),

Muskogean, Pujunan (Maidu), Quoratean (Karok), *Salinan, Salishan,

Shahaptian, Shoshonean, Siouan, Skittagetan (Haida), Takilman, *Timucuan,

*Tonikan, Tonkawan, Uchean, *Waiilatpuan (Cayuse), Wakashan (Nootka),

Washoan, Weitspekan (Yurok), Wishoskan, Yakonan, *Yanan (Nosi), Yukian,

Yuman, Zuсian.

The number of languages and well-marked dialects may well have reached

one thousand, constituting some 150 separate linguistic stocks, each stock

as distinct from all the others as the Aryan languages are distinct from

the Turanian or the Bantu. Of these stocks, approximately seventy were in

the northern, and eighty in the southern continent. They were all in nearly

the same primitive stage of development, characterized by minute exactness

of description with almost entire absence of broad classification. Thus the

Cherokee, living in a country abounding in wild fruits, had no word for

grape, but had instead a distinct descriptive term for each of the three

varieties with which he was acquainted. In the same way, he could not

simply say "I am here", but must qualify the condition as standing,

sitting, etc.

The earliest attempt at a classification of the Indian languages of the

United States and British America was made by Albert Gallatin in 1836. The

beginning of systematic investigation dates from the establishment of the

Bureau of American Ethnology under Major J.W. Powell in 1879. For the

languages of Mexico and Central America, the basis is the "Geografнa" of

Orozco y Berra, of 1864, supplemented by the later work of Brinton, in his

"American Race" (1891), and corrected and brought up to the latest results

in the linguistic map by Thomas and Swanton now in preparation by the

Bureau of Ethnology. For South America, we have the "Catбlogo" of Hervas

(1784), which covers also the whole field of languages throughout the

world; Brinton's work just noted, containing the summary of all known up to

that time, and Chamberlain's comprehensive summary, published in 1907.

To facilitate intertribal communication, we frequently find the languages

of the more important tribes utilized by smaller tribes throughout the same

region, as Comanche in the southern plains and Navajo (Apache) in the South-

West. From the same necessity have developed certain notable trade jargons,

based upon some dominant language, with incorporations from many others,

including European, all smoothed down and assimilated to a common standard.

Chief among these were the "Mobilian" of the Gulf states based upon

Choctaw; the "Chinook jargon" of the Columbia and adjacent territories of

the Pacific coast, a remarkable conglomerate based upon the extinct Chinook

language; and the lingoa geral of Brazil and the Paranб region, based upon

Tupн-Guaranн. To these must be added the noted "sign language" of the

plains, a gesture code, which answered every purpose of ordinary

intertribal intercourse from Canada to the Rio Grande.

Religion and Mythology

The Indian was an animist, to whom every animal, plant, and object in

nature contained a spirit to be propitiated or feared. Some of these, such

as the sun, the buffalo, and the peyote plant, the eagle and the

rattlesnake, were more powerful or more frequently helpful than others, but

there was no overruling "Great Spirit" as so frequently represented.

Certain numbers, particularly four and seven, were held sacred. Colours

were symbolic and had abiding place, and sometimes sex. Thus with the

Cherokee the red spirits of power and victory live in the Sun Land, or the

East, while the black spirits of death dwell in the Twilight Land of the

West. Certain tribes had palladiums around which centered their most

elaborate ritual. Each man had also his secret personal "medicine". The

priest was likewise the doctor, and medicine and religious ritual were

closely interwoven. Secret societies were in every tribe, claiming powers

of prophecy, hypnotism, and clairvoyance. Dreams were in great repute, and

implicitly trusted and obeyed, while witches, fairies, and supernatural

monsters were as common as in medieval Europe. Human sacrifices, either of

infants or adults, were found among the Timucua of Florida, the Natchez of

Mississippi, the Pawnee of the plains, and some tribes of California and

the north-west coast, the sacrifice in the last-mentioned region being

frequently followed by a cannibal feast. From time to time, as among more

civilized nations, prophets arose to purify the old religion or to preach a

new ritual. Each tribe had its genesis, tradition, and mythical hero, with

a whole body of mythologic belief and folklore, and one or more great

tribal ceremonials. Among the latter may be noted the Green-Corn Dance

thanksgiving festival of the eastern and southern tribes, the Sun-Dance of

the plains, the celebrated snake dance of the Hopi and the Salmon Dance of

the Columbia tribes.

The method of disposing of the dead varied according to the tribe and the

environment, inhumation being probably the most widespread. The Hurons and

the Iroquois allowed the bodies to decay upon scaffolds, after which the

bones were gathered up and deposited with much ceremony in the common

tribal sepulchre. The Nanticoke and Choctaw scraped the flesh from the

bones, which were then wrapped in a bundle, and kept in a box within the

dwelling. Tree, scaffold, and cave burial were common on the plains and in

the mountains, while cremation was the rule in the arid regions father to

the west and south-west. Northward from the Columbia the body was deposited

in a canoe raised upon posts, while cave burial reappeared among the Aleut

of Alaska, and earth burial among the Eskimo. The dread of mentioning the

name of the dead was as universal as destroying the property of the

deceased, even to the killing of his horse or dog, while the custom of

placing food near the grave for the spirit during the journey to the other

world was almost as common, Laceration of the body, cutting off of the

hair, general neglect of the person, and ceremonial wailing, morning and

evening, sometimes for weeks, were also parts of their funeral customs.

Beyond the directly inherited traditional Native American religions, a

wide body of modified sects abounds.The Native American Church claims a

membership of 250,000, which would constitute the largest of the Native

America religious organizations. Though the church traces the sacramental

use ofthe peyote cactus back ten thousand years, the Native American Сhurch

was only founded in 1918. Well into the reservation era, this organization

was achieved with the help of a Smithsonian Institute anthropologist. The

church incorporates generic Native American religious rites, Christianity,

and the use of the peyote plant. The modern peyote ritual is comprised of

four parts: praying, singing, eating peyote, and quietly contemplating.

The Native American Church, or Peyote Church illustrates a trend of

modifying and manipulating traditional Native American spirituality. The

Native American Church incorporates Christianity, as well as moving away

from tribal specific religion. Christianity has routinely penetrated Native

American spirituality in the last century. And in the last few decades, New

Age spirituality has continued the trend.

***

All of the American Native cultures had in common a deep spiritual

relationship with the land and the life forms it supported. According to

First Nations spiritual beliefs, human beings are participants in a world

of interrelated spiritual forms. First Nations maintain great respect for

all living things. With the arrival of European newcomers, this delicate

balance of life forms was disrupted. In the 18th and 19th centuries,

contact with Europeans began to change traditional ways of life forever.

Native americans and the newcomers

The formulation of public policy toward the Indians was of concern to

the major European colonizing powers.

Colonization

The Spanish tried assiduously to Christianize the natives and to

remake their living patterns. Orders were issued to congregate scattered

Indian villages in orderly, well-placed centers, assuring the Indians at

the same time that by moving to such centers they would not lose their

outlying lands. This was the first attempt to create Indian reservations.

The promise failed to protect Indian land, according to the Franciscan monk

and historian of Mexico, Juan Torquemada, who reported about 1599 that

there was hardly "a palm of land" that the Spaniards had not taken. Many

Indians who did not join the congregations for fear of losing what they

owned fled to mountain places and lost their lands anyway.

The Russians never seriously undertook colonization in the New World.

When Peter I the Great sent Vitus Jonassen Bering into the northern sea

that bears his name, interest was in scientific discovery, not overseas

territory. Later, when the problem of protecting and perhaps expanding

Russian occupation was placed before Catherine II the Great, she declared

(1769): It is for traders to traffic where they please. I will furnish

neither men, nor ships, nor money, and I renounce forever all lands and

possessions in the East Indies and in America.

The Swedish and Dutch attempts at colonization were so brief that

neither left a strong imprint on New World practices. The Dutch government,

however, was probably the first (1645) of the European powers to enter into

a formal treaty with an Indian tribe, the Mohawk. Thus began a

relationship, inherited by the British, that contributed to the ascendancy

of the English over the French in North America.

France handicapped its colonial venture by transporting to the New

World a modified feudal system of land tenure that discouraged permanent

settlement. Throughout the period of French occupation, emphasis was on

trade rather than on land acquisition and development, and thus French

administrators, in dealing with the various tribes, tried primarily only to

establish trade relations with them. The French instituted the custom of

inviting the headmen of all tribes with which they carried on trade to come

once a year to Montreal, where the governor of Canada gave out presents and

talked of friendship. The governor of Louisiana met southern Indians at

Mobile.

The English, reluctantly, found themselves competing on the same basis

with annual gifts. Still later, United States peace commissioners were to

offer permanent annuities in exchange for tribal concessions of land or

other interests. In contrast to the French, the English were primarily

interested in land and permanent settlements; beginning quite early in

their occupation, they felt an obligation to bargain with the Indians and

to conclude formal agreements with compensation to presumed Indian

landowners. The Plymouth settlers, coming without royal sanction, thought

it incumbent upon them to make terms with the Massachuset Indians. Cecilius

Calvert (the 2nd Baron Baltimore) and William Penn, while possessing royal

grants in Maryland and Pennsylvania respectively, nevertheless took pains

to purchase occupancy rights from the Indians. It became the practice of

most of the colonies to prohibit indiscriminate and unauthorized

appropriation of Indian land. The usual requirement was that purchases

could be consummated only by agreement with the tribal headman, followed by

approval of the governor or other official of the colony. At an early date

also, specific areas were set aside for exclusive Indian use. Virginia in

1656 and commissioners for the United Colonies of New England in 1658

agreed to the creation of such reserved areas. Plymouth Colony in 1685

designated for individual Indians separate tracts that could not be

alienated without their consent.

In spite of these official efforts to protect Indian lands,

unauthorized entry and use caused constant friction through the colonial

period. Rivalry with the French, who lost no opportunity to point out to

the Indians how their lands were being encroached upon by the English; the

activity of land speculators, who succeeded in obtaining large grants

beyond the settled frontiers; and, finally, the startling success of the

Ottawa chief Pontiac in capturing English strongholds in the old Northwest

(the Great Lakes region) as a protest against this westward movement,

together prompted King George III's ministers to issue a proclamation

(1763) that formalized the concept of Indian land titles for the first time

in the history of European colonization in the New World. The document

prohibited issuance of patents to any lands claimed by a tribe unless the

Indian title had first been extinguished by purchase or treaty. The

proclamation reserved for the use of the tribes "all the Lands and

Territories lying to the Westward of the sources of the Rivers which fall

into the Sea from the West and Northwest. ”Land west of the Appalachians

might not be purchased or entered upon by private persons, but purchases

might be made in the name of the king or one of the colonies at a council

meeting of the Indians”.

This policy continued up to the termination of British rule and was

adopted by the United States. The Appalachian barrier was soon passed -

thousands of settlers crossed the mountains during the American Revolution

Страницы: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5