The North American Indian Part 8

[Ill.u.s.tration: A Jicarilla]

A Jicarilla

_From Copyright Photograph 1904 by E.S. Curtis_

Owing to their composite nature the Jicarillas are a peculiarly interesting group. Too small in numbers to resist the cultural influence of other tribes, and having been long in contact with the buffalo hunters of the great plains as well as in close touch with the pueblo of Taos with its great wealth of ceremony and ritual, it is not surprising that the Jicarillas, in life and ceremony, have been deeply influenced by adjacent tribes. As previously stated, the Jicarilla medicine rites are much like those of the Navaho, but are far simpler in character. In dress the Jicarillas resemble the Indians of the plains, even to the feather headdress, which is never worn by the tribes to their south and west.

Features of an annual fiesta have been borrowed directly from the Pueblos.

The typical habitation of the Jicarillas is a tipi, or lodge, called _kozhan_, patterned after that of the Plains tribes. Formerly they hunted the buffalo, making periodical excursions from their mountain home to the plains and bringing back quant.i.ties of prepared meat and large numbers of hides, which were fas.h.i.+oned into tents and used for many other purposes.

To all intents and purposes, therefore, the Jicarillas were a plains tribe. Only within recent years have they grown crops of any kind. They exhibit fair skill in basketry, this being their chief industry and source of barter with neighboring tribes; indeed it was through this custom of making "little baskets" that the Spaniards applied to them the name by which they are popularly known. The Pueblos of the Rio Grande use many baskets, which they obtain chiefly from the Jicarillas in exchange for corn. During late years many of these _jicarillas_ have been disposed of to traders. Like the Navaho they make but little pottery, and that only for utilitarian purposes.

The Jicarillas seem to have no system of clans or gentes. The tribe is divided into two bands-commonly called by their Spanish names, _Olleros_ (Potters) and _Llaneros_ (Plainsmen)-within which marriage is not prohibited. In the days of the buffalo a part of the tribe, preferring the prairie country, remained there for a short time and received the name Kolhkahin, People of the Plains. The others returned to the mountains and from the pottery they there made were called Sait Nde, Sand People, sand being used in mixing the clay. In event of marriage between members of different bands, sons born of the union belong to the father's band, while daughters belong to the band of the mother.

Generally speaking, chieftains.h.i.+p is hereditary, pa.s.sing to the eldest son, if there be such, otherwise to a brother, on the death of the inc.u.mbent; but this rule might be set aside if public opinion were strong enough to warrant it, and the chief be selected from another family. Each band has a headman, chosen by reason of his personal bravery and worthiness. The tribal chief, however, is the recognized leader, the two band chiefs being little more than figureheads.

The social customs of the Jicarillas are well defined. A young man wis.h.i.+ng to marry sends a near relation to procure the consent of the girl's parents, with whose decision the wishes of the daughter have little weight. If the young man meets their approval, he is sent out to hunt, and the game which he kills is distributed among the girl's relations. The following day his family build a _kozhan_ and place in it the personal effects of the young couple, who, at night, enter with friends and kinsfolk. A medicine-man prays to Naye?nayezgani, asking his beneficence toward the new home. This ceremony lasts until midnight, when the visitors depart and the marriage is consummated. Polygamy was common. Divorce is effected without ceremony, the discontented one deserting the other and leaving him or her in possession of the dwelling.

Property right is governed by tribal laws. The wife's belongings are inherited by her children or, if she should have none, by her parents, not by the husband. On the death of the husband his property pa.s.ses to the children and the wife.

The dead are buried in secret, only a few of the close relations having knowledge of the place. Immediately after death the body is carried on horseback to a high point, where it is placed on the ground and covered with the personal possessions of the deceased, such as clothing, blankets, saddles, and weapons, and over all are heaped brush and stones. Formerly a man's horse was killed near his grave, and sometimes as many as three or four horses were similarly sacrificed at different places. In former times also the _kozhan_ was burned after the burial, and members of the family cut their hair as a sign of mourning. The souls of the dead are believed to rise skyward. In one portion of the sky, among vast herds of buffalo, all those who have met death in battle a.s.semble, rich and happy; in another part, those who have succ.u.mbed to sickness and old age. The evil, or those who have practised witchcraft, have a place apart from the rest.

Between the latter and the spirits of the good stands a high rock wall at which the evil ones are condemned to dig for eternity in an effort to reach the happier home. Spirits can work only in darkness, and the work of the night is ever brought to naught by recurring daylight.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A Jicarilla Feast March]

A Jicarilla Feast March

_From Copyright Photograph 1904 by E.S. Curtis_

The Jicarillas, like their kindred the Navaho and Apache, pay much attention to religion and ceremony. Compared with the Navaho their life seems almost lacking in ceremony, but when contrasted with the various Yuman tribes on the Colorado and Gila rivers of Arizona it is fairly rich.

Their healing or medicine rites include a dance, called _Isane_, that occupies four days and four nights, and many one-day "sings," in all of which dry-paintings are employed. Like the Apache the Jicarillas attach much importance to the girls' p.u.b.erty ceremony and still rigidly adhere to it.

A four-day medicine dance is founded on the following legend:

Two maidens lived at the bottom of a deep pit. Many of the men wished to marry them, but the girls were well content and refused to come out. The Bear and the Snake formed a plan to carry them off and make them their wives. A beautiful b.u.t.terfly was sent fluttering down over the girls'

heads, but they paid little heed to its beauties. Another was sent, then another, and yet a fourth, which was so beautiful that the girls reached up to catch it, for they wished to copy its splendid colors on a large basket they were weaving. But the b.u.t.terfly escaped them and flew upward, keeping ever out of reach as the girls followed to the mouth of the pit.

There the Bear and the Snake in waiting suddenly reached over, seized the girls, and carried them away. The people, learning of this, asked them to bring the girls back, but the Bear and the Snake refused, so an appeal was made to Naye?nayezgani and Kobadjischini. These two G.o.ds built a fence around the world to keep the Bear and the Snake from escaping, and, summoning all the people, compelled the Bear and the Snake to bring the two young women back. The one the Bear had married had grown very fat and coa.r.s.e, like her master. "What have you done to make this girl so fat?"

demanded Naye?nayezgani in anger. "You must give her medicine to make her comely again." So the Bear sang songs and made medicine until the girl was herself again. Then came the Snake with the girl he had stolen. She had become thin, like her master. "What have you done to make this girl so thin?" cried Naye?nayezgani. "You must give her medicine to make her well again." The Snake then sang his songs and made medicine until the girl became again robust and beautiful.

As already mentioned, the performance of this ceremony extends through a period of four days and four nights. The day preceding is spent in preparation: the head of the family of the sick person makes ready for a feast, and helpers build a corral of pinon and spruce branches. This corral is circular, about forty yards in diameter and six feet high, with an opening at the east. To the west, close to the fence, is the medicine _kozhan_. The latter part of each morning of the four days is spent by the medicine-man and his a.s.sistants in the _kozhan_, where a dry-painting of blue, black, yellow, and red earths is made in the shape of a snake lying in a circle with a s.p.a.ce between the head and the tail. The circle is about six feet in diameter, and within it are represented numerous animals: the bear, turkey, deer, eagle, buffalo, elk, badger, gopher, and others. A decoction is mixed in an earthen bowl and the patient is summoned. Sand from the various parts of the painting are sprinkled on the corresponding parts of his body, and the medicine mixture is given him to drink.

The night portions of the ceremony begin shortly after dark. The medicine-man and any persons who know the songs gather in the _kozhan_ and sing, accompanied with a drum made of a basket inverted over a hole in the ground and covered with a buffalo skin, the head toward the east. The hole represents the pit in the legend, the basket the one the girls were weaving, and a figure interwoven in the latter symbolizes the b.u.t.terfly of the story. The beating of the drum is varied at intervals by the use of a leg-bone of a mountain sheep rasped quickly over a notched stick. Any men of the tribe may enter the _kozhan_, and even a white man who is well known. The songs consist of recitals of the powers of the medicine-man and invocations to the various animals, as the bear, snake, and mountain sheep. Some of the songs consist merely in naming the parts of the animal's body, while others are supposed to be those used by the Bear and the Snake in the legend. After singing these songs for about three hours, with intervals of rest, the dancing begins. On each side of the enclosure are three fires. Behind these on the north side are the men, on the south the women; thus a large open s.p.a.ce is bounded by the two lines of fires, the _kozhan_, and the opening of the corral. Two women walk slowly into this s.p.a.ce, their heads modestly bent. They stop, and a young man approaches to ascertain with whom they would dance. He then finds the desired persons, takes each by the arm, and drags him out. The men always feign unwillingness to go. In the meanwhile other pairs of women have come out and other young men become busy finding partners for them. As a rule they dance in groups of four, men and women facing each other and moving backward and forward five or six steps. As the dance progresses the man is likely to lay his hands upon the woman's shoulders, but modesty forbids her a similar liberty. The same pair may remain dancing together throughout the night, or they may cease when either desires. On the first night the dancing continues until about midnight; the second, an hour or two longer; the third, until well toward dawn; the fourth, until sunrise.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Jicarillas]

Jicarillas

_From Copyright Photograph 1904 by E.S. Curtis_

On the last night the top of a small spruce tree, tipped with eagle down, is planted near the door of the _kozhan_, and a new element in the dancing is introduced. About midnight, before any dancing has been engaged in, the ceremonial dancers enter from two dressing _kozhan_ some two hundred yards east of the corral. These consist of two parties. The first, eight in number, enter in single file, preceded and followed by a man in everyday costume. These dancers, called _Tsa__n__nati?_, are nude, save for the breech-cloth, with body and face painted in white and black, and the hair hanging loose. Immediately following them are the _Cha__n__zhini?_, six in number, accompanied by four keepers, two in front and two behind. The six are nude, the bodies painted solid white with six black stripes encircling them. The hair is painted white and is done up into two long, stiff braids, which project from the sides of the head like a pair of horns. The faces are hideously made up to represent clowns, as indeed their name signifies. In dancing, the Chanzhini? and Tsannati? do not take steps, but shuffle sidewise, locomotion being effected by means of a sort of exaggerated s.h.i.+vering of the legs. This movement is common to Plains tribes in many of their dances. The whole line of dancers proceed with their peculiar motion into the _kozhan_ and around the fire, pa.s.sing before the patient, the Chanzhini? all the while uttering hoa.r.s.e, animal-like cries. Their utterances are always coa.r.s.e and obscene, causing much merriment, which is supposed to aid the patient in casting off his illness. After pa.s.sing through the _kozhan_ the Tsannati? form in line outside and with their feet keep time to the singing and drumming, while the others break ranks and in a promiscuous throng pa.s.s before the spectators, first on the men's side, then on the women's. Just before their departure from the corral any woman who feels an indisposition may crouch in their path near the gate, facing the west, and the Chanzhini?

one by one leap over her, first from the east, then from the other three directions, ever continuing their hoa.r.s.e cries.

These characters make their appearance four times during the course of the night, the spectators dancing during the intervals. After their last exit dancing continues until shortly before sunrise; then the medicine-man and the singers arise, and, forming a circle about the fire in the centre of the _kozhan_, sing a number of songs. A maiden is summoned from the gathering to carry a basket of sacred meal, and the medicine-man, taking up the top of the spruce tree, pa.s.ses out of the enclosure toward the rising sun, followed by the maiden, the patient, the singers, and any who may be afflicted with a bodily ailment. At a distance of about a hundred yards the medicine-man stops and plants the little spruce tip, to which the disease is now supposed to have been transferred, under a tree, sprinkling over it quant.i.ties of the sacred meal. Then each of the others, the patient leading, steps forward, throws a pinch of the meal on the tree, and pa.s.ses on, always facing the east. When the last one has thus pa.s.sed, the procession stops, everybody holds his blanket ready, and on signal from the medicine-man, just as the sun appears, gives it a shake and runs at full speed to the _kozhan_ and around the fire. Thus is disease shaken out and the pursuit of the evil spirits of sickness eluded.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Jeditoh - Navaho]

Jeditoh - Navaho

_From Copyright Photograph 1904 by E.S. Curtis_

It is interesting to note the difference between the Apache of Arizona and the Jicarillas in their a.s.signment of colors to the cardinal directions.

The former invariably a.s.sociate black with the east, blue with the south, yellow with the west, and white with the north.

MYTHOLOGY - CREATION MYTH

In the beginning all people, birds, and beasts were far beneath this earth, somewhere in the darkness; there was no sun, no moon. It was not a good place in which to live, because of the darkness. After a time came Chunnaai, the Sun, and Klenaai, the Moon. They directed the people to leave the world of darkness, showing the way they were to go by pa.s.sing up through a rift in the sky. But the sky was so far above that the people knew of no way to reach it, so they made a pile of sand in the form of a mountain, and painted the east side white, the south blue, the west yellow, and the north side all colors.[1] Then they gathered seeds from all the plants they knew and placed them inside the little mountain.

Chunnaai sent back his messenger, anltsistn, the Whirlwind, to instruct them how to make the mountain increase in size.

Then all gathered about it and danced and sang, until after four days the seeds sprouted and the mountain began to expand and to increase in height.

This continued for four days, at the end of which time the mountain seemed almost to reach the sky; but suddenly its growth ceased, and none knew the cause. From Chunnaai came Whirlwind to tell the inhabitants how two of their maidens had entered the sacred s.p.a.ce on the mountain top and had wantonly broken and destroyed plants and fruits, thus causing the mountain to cease growing.

With two long poles and four buffalo horns, which then were straight, the people made a ladder, which, when placed on the mountain top, reached the sky. One of the four Great Whirlwinds, Nichitso, went up to see what this new place was like. He put his head through the opening, and seeing that the world was covered with water, at once descended the ladder. The four Whirlwinds then went up; White Wind rolled the water to the east, but still there was water at the south; Blue Wind rolled it away to the south, but still there was water at the west; so Yellow Wind blew it away to the west, and then there was water only at the north, which All-Color Wind quickly blew away. Then the Winds blew over the earth for four days to dry it; but they left some of the water, which flowed along in streams.

When they returned and told what they had done, the people sent Ka?ge, the Crow, who was wise, to view the land. They waited long, but Ka?ge did not return. Then they sent Little Whirlwind, who found the Crow perched upon some dead bodies, plucking out their eyes; and because of his wickedness in forgetting the people, his feathers, once white, had turned black. Then Naganschitn, the Badger, was sent to see if the land was good, but just as soon as he had crawled through he sank in the black mud and could go no farther, so Little Whirlwind was despatched to succor him. To this day Badger's legs are black. Next Keldinshe?n, the Skunk, was sent, because he was light in weight; but even he sank in the mud and blackened his legs.

Then the people sent Cha, the Beaver, who travelled about for a long time, and finding all the water running away in streams, built dams and thus formed many lakes. He came back and told the people that the land was good to live in, which pleased them greatly. Then they started up the ladder, and when all had pa.s.sed over, it was found that their weight had bent the buffalo horns, which ever since have been curved. Thus all the people came out upon this earth at a place in the north.(3)

During the first days the Sun did not rise above the horizon, having been held back in the east by a web that Mansche?, the Spider, had woven about him. But the people succeeded in tearing the web away, and from that time the Sun each day has travelled across the whole sky.

On emerging from the underworld the inhabitants began moving in a great circle, travelling from the north to the east, then to the south, then to the west. When any found a spot that pleased them, they settled there, and Chunnaai and Klenaai gave them a language of their own. Four times the land was thus encircled, but each time the circle became smaller, and when the people came the last time to the north, Haisndayin, the Jicarillas, found their home in the mountains near the Rio Chama.

MIRACLE PERFORMERS

During the wanderings of the people a girl, Yolkai Estsan, became separated from the rest. She would lie all day on a hillside in the suns.h.i.+ne, and the Sun saw that no harm came to her. By and by she bore a child, whose father was Chunnaai, the Sun, and the child was Naye?nayezgani. Another girl, Estsan Natles.h.i.+n, was fond of lying asleep under a rock, and by the trickling water that fell upon her Kobadjischini was begotten.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Lake Lajara - Navaho]

Lake Lajara - Navaho

_From Copyright Photograph 1904 by E.S. Curtis_