The North American Indian
E >> Edward S. Curtis >> The North American IndianThe Pool - Apache
_From Copyright Photograph 1906 by E.S. Curtis_
The North American Indian
Being A Series Of Volumes Picturing And Describing
The Indians Of The United States And Alaska
Written, Illustrated, And Published By Edward S. Curtis
Edited By Frederick Webb Hodge
Foreword By Theodore Roosevelt
Field Research Conducted Under The Patronage Of J. Pierpont Morgan
In Twenty Volumes This, The First Volume, Published In The Year Nineteen
Hundred And Seven
JOHNSON REPRINT CORPORATION
111 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10003
JOHNSON REPRINT COMPANY LTD.
Berkeley Square House, London, W1X6BA
Copyright 1907, by Edward S. Curtis
_Landmarks in Anthropology_, a series of reprints in cultural
anthropology
_General Editor:_ Weston La Barre
First reprinting 1970, Johnson Reprint Corporation
CONTENTS
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION TO VOLUME ONE
THE APACHE
HISTORICAL SKETCH
HOMELAND AND LIFE
MYTHOLOGY - CREATION MYTH
MEDICINE AND MEDICINE-MEN
THE MESSIAH CRAZE
PUBERTY RITE
DANCE OF THE GODS
THE JICARILLAS
HOME AND GENERAL CUSTOMS
MYTHOLOGY - CREATION MYTH
MIRACLE PERFORMERS
ORIGIN OF FIRE
THE NAVAHO
HOME LIFE, ARTS, AND BELIEFS
HISTORY
MYTHOLOGY - CREATION MYTH
MIRACLE PERFORMERS
LEGEND OF THE HAPPINESS CHANT
LEGEND OF THE NIGHT CHANT
CEREMONIES--THE NIGHT CHANT
MATURITY CEREMONY
MARRIAGE
APPENDIX
TRIBAL SUMMARY - THE APACHE
THE JICARILLAS
THE NAVAHO
SOUTHERN ATHAPASCAN COMPARATIVE VOCABULARY
INDEX
ALPHABET USED IN RECORDING INDIAN TERMS
[The consonants are as in English, except when otherwise noted]
a as in father
a as in cat
a as _aw_ in awl
ai as in aisle
e as _ey_ in they
e as in net
i as in machine
i as in sit
o as in old
o as in not
o as _ow_in how
oi as in oil
u as in ruin
u as in nut
ue as in German huette
u as in push
h always aspirated
q as _qu_ in quick
th as in thaw
w as in wild
y as in year
ch as in church
sh as in shall, sash
n nasal, as in French dans
zh as _z_ in azure
' a pause
ILLUSTRATIONS
The Pool - Apache
_Naye{~COMBINING BREVE~}nezgani_ - Navaho
Illustration: Theodore Roosevelt
White River - Apache
By The Sycamore - Apache
The Fire Drill - Apache
A Noonday Halt - Navaho
Apache Camp
Typical Apache
_Tenokai_ - Apache
At The Ford - Apache
The Bathing Pool - Apache
_Alchise_ - Apache
Mescal Hills - Apache
Primitive Apache Home
Cutting Mescal - Apache
Mescal - Apache
Filling the Pit - Apache
The Covered Pit - Apache
Apache Still Life
Among the Oaks - Apache
Mescal Camp - Apache
Sacred Buckskin - Apache
Apache Girl
The Ford - Apache
Apache Medicine-man
Maternity Belt - Apache
Medicine Cap and Fetish - Apache
_Dan Lan_ - Apache
Apache Village
Sand Mosaic - Apache
Apache _Gaun_
Apache Maiden
Lone Tree Lodge - Jicarilla
A Jicarilla
A Jicarilla Feast March
Jicarillas
Jeditoh - Navaho
Lake Lajara - Navaho
Into the Desert - Navaho
Nature's Mirror - Navaho
Canon _Hogan_ - Navaho
A Drink in the Desert - Navaho
Under the Cottonwoods - Navaho
Cornfields in Canon Del Muerto - Navaho
The Blanket Maker - Navaho
_Pike{~COMBINING BREVE~}hodiklad_ - Navaho
_Hastin Yazhe_ - Navaho
Navaho _Hogan_
Navaho Still Life
Navaho Medicine-man
Through the Canon - Navaho
Evening in the Desert - Navaho
_Hasche{~COMBINING BREVE~}lti_ - Navaho
_Haschogan_ - Navaho
Antelope Ruin - Canon del Muerto
_Naye{~COMBINING BREVE~}nezgani_ - Navaho
_Tobadzischi{~COMBINING BREVE~}ni_ - Navaho
_Hasche{~COMBINING BREVE~}zhini_ - Navaho
_Ga__n__askidi_ - Navaho
_Tonenili_ - Navaho
_Zahadolzha_ - Navaho
_Haschebaad_ - Navaho
_Ga__n__ askidi. Zahadolzha. Hasche{~COMBINING BREVE~}lti_ - Navaho
_Tonenili, Tobadzischi{~COMBINING BREVE~}ni, Naye{~COMBINING BREVE~}nezgani_ - Navaho
_Yebichai_ Sweat - Navaho
_Pikehodiklad_ - Navaho
_Shilhne'ohli_ - Navaho
_Zahadolzha_ - Navaho
_Yebichai Hogan_ - Navaho
_Yebichai_ Dancers - Navaho
Mescal Harvest - Apache
White River Valley - Apache
_Nalin Lage_ - Apache
Infant Burial - Apache
_Tobadzischi{~COMBINING BREVE~}ni_ - Navaho
_Ga__n__askidi_ - Navaho
_Zahadolzha_ - Navaho
_Hasche{~COMBINING BREVE~}lti_, _Haschebaad_, _Zahadolzha_--Navaho
Navaho Women
_Photogravures by John Andrew & Son, Boston._
[Illustration: _Naye{~COMBINING BREVE~}nezgani_ - Navaho]
_Naye{~COMBINING BREVE~}nezgani_ - Navaho
_From Copyright Photograph 1904 by E.S. Curtis_
FOREWORD
_In Mr. Curtis we have both an artist and a trained observer, whose
pictures are pictures, not merely photographs; whose work has far more
than mere accuracy, because it is truthful. All serious students are to be
congratulated because he is putting his work in permanent form; for our
generation offers the last chance for doing what Mr. Curtis has done. The
Indian as he has hitherto been is on the point of passing away. His life
has been lived under conditions thru which our own race past so many ages
ago that not a vestige of their memory remains. It would be a veritable
calamity if a vivid and truthful record of these conditions were not kept.
No one man alone could preserve such a record in complete form. Others
have worked in the past, and are working in the present, to preserve parts
of the record; but Mr. Curtis, because of the singular combination of
qualities with which he has been blest, and because of his extraordinary
success in making and using his opportunities, has been able to do what no
other man ever has done; what, as far as we can see, no other man could
do. He is an artist who works out of doors and not in the closet. He is a
close observer, whose qualities of mind and body fit him to make his
observations out in the field, surrounded by the wild life he
commemorates. He has lived on intimate terms with many different tribes of
the mountains and the plains. He knows them as they hunt, as they travel,
as they go about their various avocations on the march and in the camp. He
knows their medicine men and sorcerers, their chiefs and warriors, their
young men and maidens. He has not only seen their vigorous outward
existence, but has caught glimpses, such as few white men ever catch, into
that strange spiritual and mental life of theirs; from whose innermost
recesses all white men are forever barred. Mr. Curtis in publishing this
book is rendering a real and great service; a service not only to our own
people, but to the world of scholarship everywhere._
THEODORE ROOSEVELT
_October 1st, 1906._
[Illustration: Theodore Roosevelt]
[Illustration: White River - Apache]
White River - Apache
_From Copyright Photograph 1903 by E.S. Curtis_
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
The task of recording the descriptive material embodied in these volumes,
and of preparing the photographs which accompany them, had its inception
in 1898. Since that time, during each year, months of arduous labor have
been spent in accumulating the data necessary to form a comprehensive and
permanent record of all the important tribes of the United States and
Alaska that still retain to a considerable degree their primitive customs
and traditions. The value of such a work, in great measure, will lie in
the breadth of its treatment, in its wealth of illustration, and in the
fact that it represents the result of personal study of a people who are
rapidly losing the traces of their aboriginal character and who are
destined ultimately to become assimilated with the "superior race."
It has been the aim to picture all features of the Indian life and
environment--types of the young and the old, with their habitations,
industries, ceremonies, games, and everyday customs. Rather than being
designed for mere embellishment, the photographs are each an illustration
of an Indian character or of some vital phase in his existence. Yet the
fact that the Indian and his surroundings lend themselves to artistic
treatment has not been lost sight of, for in his country one may treat
limitless subjects of an aesthetic character without in any way doing
injustice to scientific accuracy or neglecting the homelier phases of
aboriginal life. Indeed, in a work of this sort, to overlook those
marvellous touches that Nature has given to the Indian country, and for
the origin of which the native ever has a wonder-tale to relate, would be
to neglect a most important chapter in the story of an environment that
made the Indian much of what he is. Therefore, being directly from Nature,
the accompanying pictures show what actually exists or has recently
existed (for many of the subjects have already passed forever), not what
the artist in his studio may presume the Indian and his surroundings to
be.
The task has not been an easy one, for although lightened at times by the
readiness of the Indians to impart their knowledge, it more often required
days and weeks of patient endeavor before my assistants and I succeeded in
overcoming the deep-rooted superstition, conservatism, and secretiveness
so characteristic of primitive people, who are ever loath to afford a
glimpse of their inner life to those who are not of their own. Once the
confidence of the Indians gained, the way led gradually through the
difficulties, but long and serious study was necessary before knowledge of
the esoteric rites and ceremonies could be gleaned.
At times the undertaking was made congenial by our surroundings in
beautiful mountain wild, in the depths of primeval forest, in the
refreshing shade of canon wall, or in the homes and sacred places of the
Indians themselves; while at others the broiling desert sun, the
sand-storm, the flood, the biting blast of winter, lent anything but
pleasure to the task.
The word-story of this primitive life, like the pictures, must be drawn
direct from Nature. Nature tells the story, and in Nature's simple words I
can but place it before the reader. In great measure it must be written as
these lines are--while I am in close touch with the Indian life.
At the moment I am seated by a beautiful brook that bounds through the
forests of Apacheland. Numberless birds are singing their songs of life
and love. Within my reach lies a tree, felled only last night by a beaver,
which even now darts out into the light, scans his surroundings, and
scampers back. A covey of mourning doves fly to the water's edge, slake
their thirst in their dainty way, and flutter off. By the brookside path
now and then wander prattling children; a youth and a maiden hand in hand
wend their way along the cool stream's brink. The words of the children
and the lovers are unknown to me, but the story of childhood and love
needs no interpreter.
[Illustration: By The Sycamore - Apache]
By The Sycamore - Apache
_From Copyright Photograph 1906 by E.S. Curtis_
It is thus near to Nature that much of the life of the Indian still is;
hence its story, rather than being replete with statistics of commercial
conquests, is a record of the Indian's relations with and his dependence
on the phenomena of the universe--the trees and shrubs, the sun and stars,
the lightning and rain,--for these to him are animate creatures. Even more
than that, they are deified, therefore are revered and propitiated, since
upon them man must depend for his well-being. To the workaday man of our
own race the life of the Indian is just as incomprehensible as are the
complexities of civilization to the mind of the untutored savage.
While primarily a photographer, I do not see or think photographically;
hence the story of Indian life will not be told in microscopic detail, but
rather will be presented as a broad and luminous picture. And I hope that
while our extended observations among these brown people have given no
shallow insight into their life and thought, neither the pictures nor the
descriptive matter will be found lacking in popular interest.
Though the treatment accorded the Indians by those who lay claim to
civilization and Christianity has in many cases been worse than criminal,
a rehearsal of these wrongs does not properly find a place here. Whenever
it may be necessary to refer to some of the unfortunate relations that
have existed between the Indians and the white race, it will be done in
that unbiased manner becoming the student of history. As a body politic
recognizing no individual ownership of lands, each Indian tribe naturally
resented encroachment by another race, and found it impossible to
relinquish without a struggle that which belonged to their people from
time immemorial. On the other hand, the white man whose very own may have
been killed or captured by a party of hostiles forced to the warpath by
the machinations of some unscrupulous Government employe, can see nothing
that is good in the Indian. There are thus two sides to the story, and in
these volumes such questions must be treated with impartiality.
Nor is it our purpose to theorize on the origin of the Indians--a problem
that has already resulted in the writing of a small library, and still
with no satisfactory solution. The object of the work is to record by word
and picture what the Indian is, not whence he came. Even with this in view
the years of a single life are insufficient for the task of treating in
minute detail all the intricacies of the social structure and the arts and
beliefs of many tribes. Nevertheless, by reaching beneath the surface
through a study of his creation myths, his legends and folklore, more than
a fair impression of the mode of thought of the Indian can be gained. In
each instance all such material has been gathered by the writer and his
assistants from the Indians direct, and confirmed, so far as is possible,
through repetition by other members of their tribe.
Ever since the days of Columbus the assertion has been made repeatedly
that the Indian has no religion and no code of ethics, chiefly for the
reason that in his primitive state he recognizes no supreme God. Yet the
fact remains that no people have a more elaborate religious system than
our aborigines, and none are more devout in the performance of the duties
connected therewith. There is scarcely an act in the Indian's life that
does not involve some ceremonial performance or is not in itself a
religious act, sometimes so complicated that much time and study are
required to grasp even a part of its real meaning, for his myriad deities
must all be propitiated lest some dire disaster befall him.
Likewise with their arts, which casual observers have sometimes denied the
Indians; yet, to note a single example, the so-called "Digger" Indians,
who have been characterized as in most respects the lowest type of all our
tribes, are makers of delicately woven baskets, embellished with symbolic
designs and so beautiful in form as to be works of art in themselves.
The great changes in practically every phase of the Indian's life that
have taken place, especially within recent years, have been such that had
the time for collecting much of the material, both descriptive and
illustrative, herein recorded, been delayed, it would have been lost
forever. The passing of every old man or woman means the passing of some
tradition, some knowledge of sacred rites possessed by no other;
consequently the information that is to be gathered, for the benefit of
future generations, respecting the mode of life of one of the great races
of mankind, must be collected at once or the opportunity will be lost for
all time. It is this need that has inspired the present task.
[Illustration: The Fire Drill - Apache]
The Fire Drill - Apache
_From Copyright Photograph 1906 by E.S. Curtis_
In treating the various tribes it has been deemed advisable that a
geographic rather than an ethnologic grouping be presented, but without
losing sight of tribal relationships, however remote the cognate tribes
may be one from another. To simplify the study and to afford ready
reference to the salient points respecting the several tribes, a summary
of the information pertaining to each is given in the appendices.
In the spelling of the native terms throughout the text, as well as in the
brief vocabularies appended to each volume, the simplest form possible,
consistent with approximate accuracy, has been adopted. No attempt has
been made to differentiate sounds so much alike that the average student
fails to discern the distinction, for the words, where recorded, are
designed for the general reader rather than the philologist, and it has
been the endeavor to encourage their pronunciation rather than to make
them repellent by inverted and other arbitrary characters.
I take this opportunity to express my deep appreciation to those who have
so generously lent encouragement during these years of my labor, from the
humblest dwellers in frontier cabins to the captains of industry in our
great commercial centres, and from the representatives of the most modest
institutions of learning to those whose fame is worldwide. Without this
encouragement the work could not have been accomplished. When the last
opportunity for study of the living tribes shall have passed with the
Indians themselves, and the day cannot be far off, my generous friends may
then feel that they have aided in a work the results of which, let it be
hoped, will grow more valuable as time goes on.
EDWARD S. CURTIS.
[Illustration: A Noonday Halt - Navaho]
A Noonday Halt - Navaho
_From Copyright Photograph 1904 by E.S. Curtis_
INTRODUCTION TO VOLUME ONE
While it is the plan of this work to treat the tribes in the order of
their geographic distribution, rather than to group them in accordance
with their relationship one to another, we are fortunate, in the present
volume, to have for treatment two important southwestern Indian groups--the
Navaho and the Apache--which are not only connected linguistically but have
been more or less in proximity ever since they have been known to history.
Because of his cunning, his fearlessness, and his long resistance to
subjection both by the missionary and by the governments under whose
dominion he has lived, but until recent times never recognized, the
Apache, in name at least, has become one of the best known of our tribal
groups. But, ever the scourge of the peaceable Indians that dwelt in
adjacent territory, and for about three hundred years a menace to the
brave colonists that dared settle within striking distance of him, the
Apache of Arizona and New Mexico occupied a region that long remained a
_terra incognita_, while the inner life of its occupants was a closed
book.
There is little wonder, then, that we have known practically nothing of
the Apache and their customs beyond the meagre record of what has been
given us by a few army officers; consequently their study was entered into
with especial interest. Although much time was expended and much patience
consumed before the confidence of their elders was gained, the work was
finally successful, as will be seen particularly by the creation legend
and the accompanying mythologic picture-writing on deerskin, which give an
insight into the mode of thought of this people and a comprehensive idea
of the belief respecting their genesis. Not satisfied with the story as
first related by the medicine-men lest error perchance should have crept
in, it was repeated and verified by others until no doubt of its entire
accuracy remained. It is especially fortunate that the chief
investigations were made in the summer of 1906, when the new "messiah
craze" was at its height, thus affording exceptional opportunity for
observing an interesting wave of religious ecstasy sweep over this
primitive folk.
The Navaho tribe, second only to the Sioux in numbers, have been the least
affected by civilizing influences. The Navaho is the American Bedouin, the
chief human touch in the great plateau-desert region of our Southwest,
acknowledging no superior, paying allegiance to no king in name of chief,
a keeper of flocks and herds who asks nothing of the Government but to be
unmolested in his pastoral life and in the religion of his forebears.
Although the mythology and ceremonials of this virile people would alone
furnish material for many volumes, it is believed that even with the
present comparatively brief treatment a comprehensive view of their
character and activities will be gained.
It is with pleasure that I acknowledge the able assistance rendered by Mr.
W. W. Phillips and Mr. W. E. Myers during the last two years of field work
in collecting and arranging the material for this volume, and the aid of
Mr. A. F. Muhr in connection with the photographic work in the laboratory.
EDWARD S. CURTIS
[Illustration: Apache Camp]
Apache Camp
_From Copyright Photograph 1906 by E.S. Curtis_
[Illustration: Typical Apache]
Typical Apache
_From Copyright Photograph 1906 by E.S. Curtis_
THE APACHE
HISTORICAL SKETCH
The Indian and his history present innumerable problems to the student.
Facts seemingly contradict facts, well-founded theories contradict other
theories as well founded. Linguistically the Apache belong to the great
Athapascan family, which, according to the consensus of opinion, had its
origin in the far North, where many tribes of the family still live. Based
on the creation legends of the Navaho and on known historical events, the
advent of the southern branch of this linguistic group--the Navaho and the
Apache tribes--has been fixed in the general region in which they now have
their home, at about the time of the discovery of America. Contrary to
this conclusion, however, the legend of their genesis gives no hint of an
origin in other than their historical habitat. The history and the
legendary lore of the Indian are passed down from generation to
generation, so that it would seem hardly credible that all trace of this
migration from a distant region should have become lost within a period of
somewhat more than four hundred years.
Again, judging by the similarity in language, the Apache and the Navaho in
prehistoric times were as nearly a single group as the present bands of
Apache are; and, likewise, there is sufficient similarity in the
underlying principles of their mythology to argue a common tribal origin.
The names as well as the functions of several of the mythic characters are
identical in both tribes, as, for example, the war gods Naye{~COMBINING BREVE~}nezgani and
Tobadzischi{~COMBINING BREVE~}ni. These miracle-performing twins in each case are the sons
of a woman (who occupies an almost identical position in both Navaho and
Apache mythology) and the sun and water respectively. Pollen also is
deified by each--as Hadintin Boy among the Apache and Taditin Boy among the
Navaho. If, therefore, we may concede that the Navaho and the Apache were
originally one tribe, as their language certainly indicates, we have many
arguments in favor of the theory of long residence in the South-west of
this branch of the Athapascan family, for the striking differences in the
details of their myths would seem to indicate that the tribal separation
was not a recent one, and that the mythology of the two tribes became
changed in the course of its natural development along different lines or
through accretion of other peoples since the original segregation. The
Apache story of their creation portrays human beings in their present
form, while in the Navaho genesis myth occurs the remarkable story,
unquestionably aboriginal, of the evolution of the lower animals through
successive underworlds until the present world is reached, then as spirit
people miraculously creating human life.
The beautiful genesis myth of the Apache is complete; it does not reflect
an incipient primitive culture, but one developed by age. The mythology
and ceremonial of the Navaho exhibit unquestioned signs of being composite
in origin. Their ceremonials are perhaps the most elaborate of any Indians
except the Pueblos; indeed the very life of this people so teems with
ceremony as almost to pass comprehension. The Navaho ritual probably
reached its highest phase about the beginning of the nineteenth century.
It would seem impossible for a religion so highly developed as this to
have attained such a stage within a comparatively short time.
Before the early years of the seventeenth century the Spanish chroniclers
give us nothing definite regarding the Apache of what is now Arizona and
New Mexico, but there are numerous accounts of their aggressiveness from
this time onward.