The Seri Indians. (1898 N 17 / 1895-1896 (pages 1-344*))McGee, W J
History
The Seri Indians. (1898 N 17 / 1895-1896 (pages 1-344*))
McGee, W J
Seri Indians; Seri language; Yuman languages
The Coronado expedition had still further experience with (evidently)
the same Indians; for as the army approached Corazones on the return
a soldier was wounded, and was successfully treated, according to the
record, with the juice of the quince. “The poison, however, had left
its mark upon him. The skin rotted and fell off until it left the bones
and sinews bare, with a horrible smell. The wound was in the wrist, and
the poison had reached as far as the shoulder when he was cured. The
skin on all this fell off.”[33]
[33] Ibid., p. 538.
There is some question as to the identity of the Indians met by Diaz’s
men, Alcaraz and his force, and the Coronado army near Corazones; but
various indications point toward the Seri. In the first place, the
several Indian settlements mentioned in the records define what must
have been then, as it was two centuries later, the Seri frontier,
beyond which lay the “despoblado” of Villa-Señor, i. e., the immense
area hunted and harried by roving bands from Tiburon; so that the Seri
must frequently have crossed the paths pursued by the Spanish pioneers.
In the second place, the accounts themselves seem to be typical records
of contact with Seri Indians, which might be repeated for each
subsequent episode in their history or century in time. The description
of the effect of the poison is especially suggestive of the Seri; as
pointed out on a later page, the Seri arrow-venom is magical in motive,
but actually consists of decomposing and ptomaine-filled organic
matter, so that it is sometimes septic in fact, while the arrow-poison
of the neighboring Opata, Jova, and other Piman tribes was (so far as
can be ascertained) vegetal; and these accounts seem to attest septic
poisoning rather than the effects of any known vegetal toxic.[34]
[34] It should he noted that Mr. F. W. Hodge, whose large acquaintance
with the Southwest and its literature gives his opinion great weight,
is inclined to class the Indians in question as Opata.
Such (assuming the validity of the several identifications) are the
earliest records concerning the truculent tribesmen and the desolate
district known centuries later as the Seri and Seriland.
* * * * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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