As hereinafter explained, the year was princ.i.p.ally devoted to the synonymy of the Indian tribes, the special studies of several officers of the Bureau being suspended so that their whole time might be employed in that direction. In the year 1885, however, and at subsequent intervals, their work was as follows:
Col. GARRICK MALLERY, U.S. Army, continued the study, by researches and correspondence, of sign language and pictography. A comprehensive, though preliminary, paper on the latter subject has been printed, with copious ill.u.s.trations, in the Fourth Annual Report.
Mr. H. W. HENSHAW was engaged during the year in work upon the synonymy of Indian tribes, as specified below.
Mr. ALBERT S. GATSCHET continued to revise and perfect his grammar and dictionary of the Klamath language, a large part of which work is in print. He also took down vocabularies from Indian delegates present in this city on tribal business, and thus succeeded in incorporating into the collections of the Bureau of Ethnology linguistic material from the Alibamu, Hitchiti, Muskoki, and Seneca languages.
Rev. J. OWEN DORSEY pursued his work on the ?egiha language. Having the aid of a Winnebago Indian for some time he enlarged his vocabulary of that language and recorded grammatical notes. He also reported upon works submitted to his examination upon the Tuscarora, Micmac, and Cherokee languages.
Mr. JAMES MOONEY, who had been officially connected with the Bureau since the early part of the fiscal year, was also engaged upon linguistic work.
SYNONYMY OF INDIAN TRIBES.
The Director has before reported in general terms that the most serious source of perplexity to the student of the history of the North American Indians is the confusion existing among their tribal names. The causes of this confusion are various. The Indian names for themselves have been understood and recorded in diverse ways by the earlier authors, and have been variously transmitted by the latter. Nicknames arising from trivial causes, and often without apparent cause, have been imposed upon many tribes. Names borne by one tribe at some period of its history have been transferred to another, or to several other distinct tribes.
Typographical errors, and improved spelling on a.s.sumed phonetic grounds, have swelled the number of synonyms until the investigator of a special tribe often finds himself in a maze of nomenclatural perplexity.
It has long been the intention of the Director to prepare a work on tribal names, which so far as possible should refer their confusing t.i.tles to a correct and systematic standard. Delay has been occasioned chiefly by the fundamental necessity of defining linguistic stocks or families into which all tribes must be primarily divided; and to accomplish this, long journeys and laborious field and office investigations have been required during the whole time since the establishment of the Bureau. Though a few points still remained in an unsatisfactory condition, it was considered that a sufficient degree of accuracy had been attained to allow of the publication for the benefit of students of a volume devoted to the subject. The preparation of the plan of such a volume was intrusted to Mr. H. W. Henshaw, late in the spring of 1885, and in June of that year the work was energetically begun in accordance with the plans submitted. The preparation of this work, which to a great extent underlies and is the foundation for every field of ethnologic investigation among Indians, was considered of such prime importance that nearly all the available force of the Bureau was placed upon it, to the suspension of the particular investigations in which the several officers had been engaged.
In addition to the general charge of the whole work, Mr. Henshaw gave special attention to the families of the northwest coast from Oregon northward, including the Eskimo, and also several in California. To Mr.
Albert S. Gatschet the tribes of the southeastern United States, together with the Pueblo and Yuman tribes, were a.s.signed. The Algonkian family in all its branches--by far the most important part of the whole, so far as the great bulk of literature relating to it is concerned--was intrusted to Col. Garrick Mallery and Mr. James Mooney. They also took charge of the Iroquoian family. Rev. J. O. Dorseys intimate acquaintance with the tribes of the Siouan and Caddoan families peculiarly fitted him to cope with that part of the work, and he also undertook the Athapascan tribes. Dr. W. J. Hoffman worked upon the Shoshonean tribes, aided by the Directors personal supervision. Mr.
Jeremiah Curtin, to whom was a.s.signed the California tribes, also gave a.s.sistance in other sections.
Each of the gentlemen named has been able to contribute largely to the results by his personal experience and investigations in the field, there being numerous regions concerning which published accounts are meager and unsatisfactory. The main source of the material to be dealt with has, however, been necessarily derived from books. A vast amount of the current literature pertaining to the North American Indians has been examined, amounting to over one thousand volumes, with a view to the extraction of the tribal names and the historical data necessary to fix their precise application.
The work at the present time is well advanced toward completion. The examination of literature for the collation of synonyms may be regarded as practically done. The tables of synonymy and the accounts of the tribes have been completed for more than one-half the number of linguistic families.
ACCOMPANYING PAPERS.
LINGUISTIC FAMILIES OF NORTH AMERICA.
In harmony with custom, three scientific papers accompany this report, designed to ill.u.s.trate the nature, methods and spirit of the researches conducted by the Bureau. The first is on the Cla.s.sification of the North American Languages. It is by no means a final paper on the subject, but is intended rather to give an account of the present status of the subject, and to place before the workers in this field of scholarship the data now existing and the conclusions already reached, so as to const.i.tute a point of departure for new work. With this end in view Mr. Pilling is engaged upon the bibliography of the subject and is rapidly publishing the same, and Mr. Henshaw is employed on the tribal synonymy. Altogether it is hoped that this work will inaugurate a new era in the investigation of the subject by making available the vast body of material scattered broadcast through the literature relating to the North American Indians.
In the course of these ethnic researches an interesting field of facts has been brought to view relating to the superst.i.tions of the Indians.
Already a very large body of mythology has been collected--stories from a great number of tongues which embody the rude philosophy of tribal thought. Such philosophy or opinion finds its expression not only in the mythic tales, but in the organization of the people into society, in their daily life and in their habits and customs. There is a realm of anthropology in this lower state of mankind which we call savagery, that is hard to understand from the standpoint of modern civilization, where science, theology, religion, medicine and the esthetic arts are developed as more or less discrete subjects. In savagery these great subjects are blended in one, as they are interwoven into a vast plexus of thought and action, for mythology is the basis of philosophy, religion, medicine, and art. In savagery the observed facts of the universe, relating alike to physical nature and to the humanities, are explained mythologically, and these mythic conceptions give rise to a great variety of practices. The acts of life are born of the opinions held as explanations of the environing world. Thus it is that philosophy finds expression in a complex system of superst.i.tions, ceremonies and practices, which together const.i.tute the religion of the people. The purpose of these practices is to avert calamity and to secure prosperity in the present life. It is astonishing to find how little the condition of a life to come is involved. The future beyond the grave is scarcely heeded, or when recognized it seems not to affect the daily life of the people to any appreciable degree. That which occupies the attention of the savage mind relates to the pleasures and pains, the joys and sorrows of present existence.
Perhaps the chief motive is derived from the consideration of health and disease, as the pleasures and pains arising therefrom are forever present to the experience or observation. Good and evil are also involved in those gifts of nature to man by which his biotic life is sustained, his food, drink, clothing and shelter. These bounties come not in a never-changing stream, but are apparently fitful and capricious. Seasons of plenty are accented by seasons of scarcity, and thus prosperity and adversity are strangely commingled in the history of the people. To secure this prosperity and avert this adversity seems to be the second great motive in the development of the superst.i.tious practices of the people. A third occasion for the development of this primitive religion inheres in the social organization of mankind, primarily expressed in the love of man and woman for each other, but finally expressed in all the relations of kin and kith and in the relations of tribe with tribe. This gives rise to a very important development of primitive religion, for the savage man seeks to discover by occult agencies the power of controlling the love and good will of his kind and the power of averting the effect of enmity. To attain these ends he invents a vast system of devices, from love philters to war dances. A fourth region of exploitation in the realm of the esoteric relates to the origin of life itself, as many of their practices are designed to secure perpetuity of life by frequent births and less painful throes.
It will thus be seen that life, health, prosperity, and peace are the ends sought in all this region of human activity as they are presented in the study of savage life. The opinions held by the people on these subjects are primarily expressed in speech and organized into tales, which const.i.tute mythology, and they are expressed in acts, as ceremonies and observances, which const.i.tute their religion, their medicine, and their esthetic arts. These arts consist of sculpture and painting, by which their mythic beings are represented, and they also consist of dancing, by which religious fervor is produced, and they give rise to music, romance, poetry, and drama. Thus it is that the esthetic arts have their origin in mythology. The epic poem and the symphony are lineal descendants of the dance, and the dance arises as the first form of worship, born of the mythic conception of the powers of nature.
THE MIDEWIWIN, OR GRAND MEDICINE SOCIETY OF THE OJIBWA, BY W. J.
HOFFMAN, AND THE SACRED FORMULAS OF THE CHEROKEES, BY JAMES MOONEY.
Mr. Hoffman presents a paper on the Midewiwin, or Grand Medicine Society of the Ojibwa, and sets forth the vestiges of a once powerful organization existing among these people. Mr. Mooney has made a study of the Cherokee with the same end in view. In the opinion of the Director they are important contributions to this subject. The same lines of investigation have been carried on by other members of the Bureau with other tribes where societies and practices have been but little modified by the contact of the white man, and where the subject is therefore much more plainly arrayed. In due time these additional researches will be published.
In Mr. Hoffmans paper it is seen that two and a half centuries of a.s.sociation with the white man has not only served to break down this organization to some extent, but has also inculcated in the minds of the Ojibwa a clearer conception of a Great Spirit and a future life than is normal to the savage mind. Mr. Mooney, whose paper largely deals with the use of plants by the Indians for the healing of disease, navely compares the pharmacopoeia of savagery with that of civilization, a.s.suming that the latter is a standard of scientific truth. Perchance scientific men will make one step in advance of this position, and will be interested in discovering the extent to which savage philosophy is still represented in civilized materia medica as expressed in officinal formulas.
A word in relation to the dramatis person of Indian mythology. In all those mythologies which have been studied with any degree of care up to the present time zoic deities greatly prevail, the progenitors and prototypes of the animals of the land, air, and water; yet there are other deities. Chief among these are the sun, moon, stars, fire, and the spirits of mountains and other geographical and natural phenomena. Yet these beings are largely zoomorphic, being considered rather as mythic animals than as mythic men; but it must be understood that the line of demarcation between man and the lower animals is not so clearly presented to the savage mind as to the civilized mind. In speaking of the theology of the North American Indians as being zoomorphic it must therefore be understood to mean that such is its chief characteristic, but not its exclusive characteristic; and further, it must be understood that it contains by survival many elements from an earlier condition in which hecastotheism prevailed, that is, that the form of philosophy known as animism was generally accepted, and that psychic life, with feeling, thought, and will, was attributed to inanimate things. But more than this, zootheism is not a permanent state of philosophy, but only a stepping-stone to something higher. That something higher may be denominated physitheism, or the worship of the powers and more obtrusive phenomena of nature. In this higher state the sun, the planets, the stars, the winds, the storms, the rainbow, and fire take the leading part. The beginnings of this higher state are to be observed in many of the mythologies of North America. It is worthy of remark that a mythology with its religion subject to the influences of an overwhelming civilization yields first in its zoomorphic elements. Zoic mythology soon degenerates into folk tales of beasts, to be recited by crones to children or told by garrulous old men as amusing stories inherited from past generations; while physitheism is more often incorporated into the compound of paganism and Christianity now held by the more advanced tribes. Notwithstanding this general tendency, zootheism is often, though not to so great an extent, compounded in the same way. The study of this stage of mythology, and of the arts and customs arising therefrom, as they are exhibited among the North American Indians, will ultimately throw a flood of light upon that later stage known as physitheism, or nature worship, now the subject of investigation by an army of Aryan scholars.
FINANCIAL STATEMENT.
_Table showing amounts appropriated and expended for North American ethnology for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1886._
--------------------------------------+-----------+--------------- Expenses.AmountAmountexpended.appropriated.
--------------------------------------+-----------+---------------Services$31,287.93Traveling expenses2,070.71Transportation of property478.91Field subsistence284.99Field expenses and supplies360.32Field material163.61Modeling material63.11Photographic material34.44Books and maps469.69Stationery and drawing material169.44Ill.u.s.trations for reports289.65Goods for distribution to Indians767.82Office furniture12.00Office supplies and repairs63.56Correspondence13.87Specimens800.00Bonded railroad accounts forwarded toTreasury for settlement103.84Balance on hand to meet outstandingliabilities2,566.11+-----------+--------------- Total40,000.00$40,000.00 --------------------------------------+-----------+---------------
Errata for Introduction:
General Table of Contents:
Adaizen Yokonan [_spellings unchanged; Linguistic Families article and general Index both have Adaizan, Yakonan_]
expressed in officinal formulas. [_not an error_]
ACCOMPANYING PAPERS.
INDIAN LINGUISTIC FAMILIES OF AMERICA
NORTH OF MEXICO.
by J. W. POWELL.