The North American Indian Part 1

The North American Indian.

by Edward 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. .h.i.therto been is on the point of pa.s.sing 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 publis.h.i.+ng this book is rendering a real and great service; a service not only to our own people, but to the world of scholars.h.i.+p everywhere._

THEODORE ROOSEVELT

_October 1st, 1906._

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 acc.u.mulating 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 ill.u.s.tration, 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 a.s.similated 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 ill.u.s.tration 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 pa.s.sed 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 a.s.sistants and I succeeded in overcoming the deep-rooted superst.i.tion, 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 refres.h.i.+ng 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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 owners.h.i.+p 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 a.s.sistants from the Indians direct, and confirmed, so far as is possible, through repet.i.tion by other members of their tribe.

Ever since the days of Columbus the a.s.sertion 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 G.o.d. 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 ill.u.s.trative, herein recorded, been delayed, it would have been lost forever. The pa.s.sing of every old man or woman means the pa.s.sing 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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 relations.h.i.+ps, 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 p.r.o.nunciation 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 inst.i.tutions 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 pa.s.sed 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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 relations.h.i.+p 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 a.s.sistance 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