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 — John Shaqi
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
Mr. Coronel stated that when he first settled in Los Angeles, in 1843,
the Indians living north of the San Fernando mountains manufactured
blankets of the fur and hair of animals, showing transverse bands of
black and white similar to those depicted, which were sold to the
inhabitants of the valley of Los Angeles and to Indians who transported
them to other tribes.
It is probable that the pictograph is intended to represent the salient
features of a trading expedition from the north. The ceiling of the
cavity found between the drawings represented in Plate I and Plate II
has disappeared, owing to disintegration, thus leaving a blank about 4
feet long, and 6 feet from the top to the bottom of the original record
between the parts represented in the two plates.
Dr. W. J. Hoffman also reports the following additional localities in
Santa Barbara and Los Angeles counties. Fifteen miles west of Santa
Barbara, on the northern summit of the Santa Ynez range, and near the
San Marcos Pass, is a group of paintings in red and black. One figure
resembles a portion of a checker-board in the arrangement of squares.
Serpentine and zigzag lines occur, as also curved lines with serrations
on the concave sides; figures of the sun, groups of short vertical
lines, and _tree forms_, resembling representations of the dragon-fly,
and the human form, as drawn by the Moki Indians, and very similar to
Fig. _e_, Pl. II. These paintings are in a cavity near the base of an
immense bowlder, over twenty feet in height. A short distance from this
is a flat granitic bowlder, containing twenty-one mortar holes, which
had evidently been used by visiting Indians during the acorn season.
Trees of this genus are very abundant, and their fruit formed one of
the sources of subsistence.
Three miles west-northwest of this locality, in the valley near the
base of the mountain, are indistinct figures in faded red, painted upon
a large rock. The characters appear similar, in general, to those above
mentioned.
Forty-three miles west of Santa Barbara, in the Najowe Valley, is
a promontory, at the base of which is a large shallow cavern, the
opening being smaller than the interior, upon the roof and back of
which are numerous figures of similar forms as those observed at San
Marcos Pass. Several characters appear to have been drawn at a later
date than others, such as horned cattle, etc. The black color used was
a manganese compound, while the red pigments consist of ferruginous
clays, abundant at numerous localities in the mountain cañons. Some of
the human figures are drawn with the hands and arms in the attitude of
making the gestures for _surprise_ or _astonishment_, and _negation_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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