Pictographs of the North American Indians. A preliminary paper: Fourth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1882-83, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1886, pages 3-256Mallery, Garrick
History
Pictographs of the North American Indians. A preliminary paper: Fourth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1882-83, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1886, pages 3-256
Mallery, Garrick
Haida Indians; Picture-writing, Indian; Tattooing
The Tegua Pueblos, of New Mexico, “traced upon the ground a sketch of
their country, with the names and locations of the pueblos occupied in
New Mexico,” a copy of which, “somewhat improved,” is given in Vol.
III, Pacific R. R. Explorations, 1856, Part III, pp. 9, 10.
A Yuma map of the Colorado River, with the names and locations of
tribes within its valley, is also figured in the last mentioned volume,
page 19. The map was originally traced upon the ground.
A Pai-Uta map of the Colorado River is also figured in the same
connection, which was obtained by Lieutenant Whipple and party.
[Illustration: FIG. 60.--Lean-Wolf’s map. Hidatsa.]
Lean-Wolf, of the Hidatsa, who drew the picture of which Figure 60
is a fac-simile, made a trip on foot from Fort Berthold to Fort
Buford, Dakota, to steal a horse from the Dakotas encamped there. The
returning horse tracks show that he attained the object in view, and
that he rode home. The following explanation of characters was made to
Dr. Hoffman, at Fort Berthold, in 1881:
1. Lean-Wolf, the head only of a man to which is attached the outline
of a wolf.
2. Hidatsa earth lodges, circular in form, the spots representing the
pillars supporting the roof. Indian village at Fort Berthold, Dakota.
3. Human footprints; the course taken by the recorder.
4. The Government buildings at Fort Buford (square).
5. Several Hidatsa lodges (round), the occupants of which had
inter-married with the Dakotas.
6. Dakota lodges.
7. A small square--a white man’s house--with a cross marked upon it, to
represent a Dakota lodge. This denotes that the owner, a white man, had
married a Dakota woman who dwelt there.
8. Horse tracks returning to Fort Berthold.
9. The Missouri River.
10. Tule Creek.
11. Little Knife River.
12. White Earth River.
13. Muddy Creek.
14. Yellowstone River.
15. Little Missouri River.
16. Dancing Beard Creek.
CLAIM OR DEMAND.
Stephen Powers states that the Nishinam of California have a curious
way of collecting debts. “When an Indian owes another, it is held to be
in bad taste, if not positively insulting, for the creditor to dun the
debtor, as the brutal Saxon does; so he devises a more subtle method.
He prepares a certain number of little sticks, according to the amount
of the debt, and paints a ring around the end of each. These he carries
and tosses into the delinquent’s wigwam without a word and goes his
way; whereupon the other generally takes the hint, pays the debt, and
destroys the sticks.” See Contrib. to N. A. Ethnology, Vol. III, 321.
Dr. W. J. Hoffman says, “When a patient has neglected to remunerate
the Shaman [Wĭktcŏm´nĭ´ of the Yokŏtsan linguistic division] for his
services, the latter prepares short sticks of wood, with bands of
colored porcupine quills wrapped around them, at one end only, and
every time he passes the delinquent’s lodge a certain number of them
are thrown in as a reminder of the indebtedness.” See San Francisco
(Cal.) Western Lancet, XI, 1882, p. 443.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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