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 / ■'.'■ '"■ '>" ' "I 
 
 TRAITS OF NORTHWESTERN INDIANS. 
 
 0^' P 
 
 823 
 
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 SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF 
 
 INDIANS. 
 
 NORTHWESTERN 
 
 ""^ 'T^HE Kootenay Indians, wlio number between five hundred and 
 
 v^ ' ^ ^;J^ -L a thousand persons, inhabit a strip of country between the 
 
 y< ;,/' 'yj' Rocky and the Selkirk Mountains, partly in the United States 
 
 - * vf . ■ [ind partly in British Columbia. As a rule, their moral character 
 
 1 ;i;f iii^' iV. ' . r and behavior are good, and they are honest, kind, and hospitable; 
 
 ' "''^Z, l^ut a ftw incidents cited by Dr. A. P. Chamberlain, in his report 
 
 '■ j'i cjoncerning them to the British Association, indicate that they are 
 
 •■■f sometimes moody and easily offended, especially when their de- 
 
 . .4 '^ mands are refused. They have also a keen sense of the ludicrous, 
 
 . ' I; and laugh at the misfortunes that befall their follows. A favorite 
 
 ' ^ ■" Sunday amusement among the Lower Kootenays is horse-run- 
 
 , 1;' ning. "All the horses are assembled in a large, open space near 
 
 y the camp, and the Indians form a large circle round them, and, 
 
 ! provided with long whips, they drive the horses to and fro for an 
 
 ;; ':M- hour or so, laughing and yelling to their hearts' content. Even 
 
 *,;f--i?. the little boys take part in this sport. They also take great de- 
 
 ' "^r?- light in breaking stubborn horses, and the whole camp looks on 
 
 "^ fuutil the young man has succeeded in controlling his animal, 
 
 »• jg^iying him unmercifully if he makes mistakes." Although no 
 
 
. SL'i'. " ■» * '. • rVKSSdltLA-' 
 
 824 
 
 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 
 
 picture-writing upon rocks has been attributed to them, they 
 have marked artistic ability, and exhibit their skill in ornamen- 
 tation upon articles of dress and the implements of the chase. 
 Indians who had had no instruction in drawing from the whites, 
 employed by Dr. Chamberlain to make a series of drawings, 
 drafted very good maps of their country, and seemed to have well 
 grasped the idea of their work. Some of them were also able to 
 recognize with ease the various physical features prominent in 
 the printed maps of the Kootenay district. Their drawings of 
 weapons, implements, etc., were excellent, and those of one of 
 them in particular would never be suspected of being the product 
 of aboriginal genius. "Pictures of houses, railway trains, etc., 
 have a certain conventionality that is characteristic of savage 
 races. Several of the Indians were able to draw an excellent and 
 easily recognizable picture of the little steamboat that plied up 
 and down the Columbia River. In their drawings of human be- 
 ings, especial stress is laid upon the distinguishing features, and 
 any peculiarity or abnormity is brought out with full force. 
 Thus, a Stony Indian woman has no nose, a Chinaman has an im- 
 mense single braid of hair, a white man an enormoiis beard, a 
 certain Indian a colossal nose, and the like." 
 
 They have fourteen distinct names for colors, and their horses 
 may be white, black, half white and half black, roan, " buckskin," 
 " blue," sorrel, or mouse-colored. 
 
 The social position of women is not greatly different from 
 that among the other surrounding tribes. Girls may be mar- 
 ried at fifteen and young men at twenty years of age. In the 
 olden times the young Indian wishing to marry " went at night 
 to the lodge where slept the object of his affections, and, quietly 
 lifting up the blankets to make sure, lay down beside her. The 
 girl's people soon found him there, and threats were made. The 
 young man's father meanwhile inquired where his son was, and, 
 on being told that he was in such-and-such a lodge, went thither 
 with his friends and discovered the young people together. The 
 girl then left and went with her husband to his own people. He 
 was at liberty to send his wife back to her relatives within a year 
 if she turned out to be bad or he was dissatisfied with hor. When 
 guilty of adultery she was punished by having one of her braids 
 cut off by her husband." Descent seems to be traced through the 
 mother. 
 
 Private property in land was unknown, the country belonging 
 to the tribe collectively ; and demands for money are still made 
 by the Lower Kootenays from any stranger intruding upon their 
 domain. The hunter had no absolute right in his game, and it 
 was distribut jd among the camp in order that all might have 
 food. Women could hold property as well as men. The horses 
 
 ^ I 
 
 i.' 
 
i 
 
 TRAITS OF NORTHWESTERN INDIANS. 
 
 825 
 
 * » 
 
 l>. 
 
 were the property of the grown-up male children, as well as of 
 the father, and could be gambled away by any one of them. The 
 lodge seems to have been secured to the widow and children on 
 the death of the father. The women inherited the kettles and 
 other utensils, besides their saddles, blankets, " parfleshes," etc. 
 The horses, canoes, weapons, etc., went to the male children if 
 they were of age. In early times the dead man's relatives would 
 swoop down upon the lodge soon after his death and appropriate 
 the property substantially at their will. If the dead man left no 
 relatives, the "strong man" of the tribe took possession of his 
 property. 
 
 The Kootenays paid a worship to the sun, and they believed 
 in the existence of spirits in everything animate and inanimate ; 
 even little stones, bits of rag, shavings of wood, have their spirits. 
 These spirits can go anywhere, through glass, wood, or any sub- 
 stance, as through air. The touch of them causes death and dis- 
 ease. At the death of Indians their spirits may enter into fishes, 
 bears, trees, etc. ; in fact, into anything animate or inanimate. 
 When a man is alive his spirit may exist in the form of a tomtit, 
 a jay, a bear, a flower, etc. The spirits of the dead can return 
 and visit their friends. In olden times sacrifices appear to have 
 been made to the spirits of the mountains and of the forests to 
 secure success in hunting, and to appease them when they were 
 angered. Tlieir language is supposed to diflPer from the ordinary 
 Kootenay. A great or strong man has many spirits. The spirits 
 were supposed to come often at the prayer of the medicine men, 
 in the form of birds or the like. A tree is pointed out in the 
 Kootenay region, in northern Idaho, from which Indians have 
 jumped off on two successive occasions, in obedience to the prom- 
 ise of the medicine men that they should be able to fly like birds 
 if they did so. Certain death, of course, awaited them. The 
 shamans treated the sick by pressure upon various parts of the 
 body, by pinching, etc. ; practiced bloodletting, and pretended to 
 extract the cause of the malady by suction with the mouth. 
 
 In the astronomy of the Kootenays the moon is regarded as a 
 man and the sun as a woman. There was no sun in the begin- 
 ning, and, after the Indians had vainly endeavored to discover it, 
 the coyote was successful in making it rise above the mountains. 
 Another version makes the chicken hawk cause the sun to rise. 
 The coyote, getting angry, shoots an arrow at the sun, but misses, 
 sets the prairie on fire, and has to run for dear life. The moon is 
 said to have been found by the chicken hawk. A legend about 
 the man in the moon may be of European origin. The stars are 
 mostly Indians, who from time to time have got up into the sky. 
 The Great Bear was an Indian woman, who sometimes wjis very 
 angry ; and the stars in her tail are Indians whom she has seized. 
 
 163379 
 
\ 
 
 826 
 
 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 
 
 The Milky Way is tlie dog's trail. The tlumder is caused by a 
 great bird that lives far u]) in the sky. The lightning is made by 
 the shooting of its arrows. At first there were no clouds. The 
 daughter of the coyote married the thunder, and her father gave 
 the clouds for a blanket. The Kooteuays believe that they came 
 from the East ; and one of their myths ascribes to them an origin 
 from a hole in the ground east of the Rocky Mountains. Another 
 account says they sprang from the hairs of the black bear, which 
 fell on the ground after he came out of the belly of the great fish 
 that had swallowed him. There were no women at first. By 
 and by an Indian went up into the mountains, and from a spirit 
 who lived there received the first Kootenay woman. The origin 
 of horses is ascribed to a medicine man who made a stick into the 
 shape of the animal and then threw it away, whereupon it became 
 a horse. The belief prevails that the white men get their cattle 
 from the sea. It is said that they go every year to the Pacific 
 Ocean to receive the cattle which come out of the waters. Many 
 of the animal myths remind one of Uncle Remus. 
 
 Some very interesting legends are related by Prof. George W. 
 Dawson as communicated to him by Mr. J. W. Mackay, Indian 
 agent <it Kamloops, from the stock of the Shiiswap Indians. Like 
 most of the Indian people they have a culture or creation hero 
 with supernatural attributes, who with them figures as a coyote or 
 small wolf, and is named Skil-ap. In the old times the salmon 
 could not ascend the Fraser River on account of a dam which 
 two old witches had made at Hell-gate Canon. He told the peo- 
 ple he would go down the river and break the dam, so that 
 the salmon could come up, and instructed them that he would 
 make his approach known by a great smoke. He transformed 
 himself into a smooth, flat piece of board, floated down to the 
 dam, was picked up by the women, who undertook to use the 
 board as a plate, emerged from it as a child, and was cared for by 
 them, till one day when they were absent he put something on 
 his head that made him invulnerable, and destroyed the dam, 
 after which the salmon began to go up in great numbers. Then 
 he followed the bank of the river, keeping abreast of the van- 
 guard of the salmon, and making a great smoke by setting fire to 
 the woods as he proceeded, so that the people knew that he was 
 coming. Near the outlet of the Kamloops Lake ho stopped to eat, 
 and made a fish weir at a spot where some high rocks may still 
 be seen. At the mouth of the Clearwater he completed a salmon 
 dam he found the people making ; and there are to the present 
 day steep rocks on either side of the river, and above them a large 
 pool or basin where he fished with his scoop-net and which is still 
 a noted salmon-fishing place. On the rocks may be seen the 
 prints of his feet where ho stood to fish. Thus the salmon were 
 
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■1VM«iM»«»» •>'. -tmiKrvrvtur »<»■• 
 
 TRAITS OF NORTHWESTERN INDIANS. 
 
 827 
 
 <i|« 
 
 
 enaMed to ascend into all the rivers of the Shuswap country. 
 Skil-ap is expected to return at some distant period when " the 
 world turns " and the good old days come back. 
 
 There were in the p.AViY times of Skil-ap other supernatural 
 beings who roamed the world, the most important of whom was 
 named Knil-i-elt ; and it may be, Prof. Dawson suggests as a 
 point worthy of inquiry, that in the stories related of Knil-i-elt and 
 Skil-ap we find the mingling of mythological ideas derived from 
 two different sources. Knil-i-elt had no recognized father or any 
 relative but his mother, and was the offspring of the union of the 
 woman with a root which is eaten by the Indians. Learning the 
 mystery of his birth after he had become a great hunter, he re- 
 proached his mother concerning it, and said he would go away 
 and never return to her. She then told him of all the evil and 
 malignant monsters living in the country farther down the river, 
 and he resolved to extirpate them. Among his exploits was a trial 
 of strength with two friends, in which each should push his head 
 against a rock and see which could make the deepest impression. 
 Each of the friends made a shallow indentation, but Knil-i-elt 
 pressed his head in to the shoiilders. Impressions in the rock are 
 still shown by the Indians, and Hat Creek, near the mouth of 
 which they were made, was named from the incident. A 
 conflict with the eagle monster resulted in the death of the eagle 
 and the capture of its eaglets, pulling out the tail feathers 
 from which, Knil-i-elt reduced them to common eagles, able to 
 harm no man. At the outlet of Kamloops Lake was an elk 
 monster that lived in the middle of the river and killed and ate 
 men. Knil-i-elt, having made a raft, embarked and floated down 
 the stream, when, before long, the elk seized and swallowed him. 
 His friends, who were looking on, thought they had seen the last 
 of him, but Knil-i-elt stabbed the elk to the heart with the weap- 
 on he carried, and then cut his way out of its belly and came to 
 shore, bringing the elk with him, and invited his friends to eat 
 some of the meat. He then reduced the elk to its present posi- 
 tion, saying to it: "You will no longer kill men ; they will in 
 future always kill you." The badger was also in this early time 
 a formidable monster, and had its lodge stored with dead men, 
 collected for food. Knil-i-elt caught the badger, and striking him 
 on the head said, " Hereafter you will be nothing but a common 
 badger, able only to fight with dogs when they attack you." He 
 further brought to life again all the people whom he found dead. 
 Knil-i-elt met his fate from four witches, whose supernatural 
 power was superior to his, and who turned him and the two 
 friends who had accompanied him in all his adventures into 'stone. 
 
 On the trail leading from Kamloops toward Trout Lake the 
 scanty remnant of an old stump protrudes from among a few 
 
828 
 
 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 
 
 stones which are piled about it, in passing which the Indians al- 
 ways throw some little offering upon it — such as matches, a frag- 
 ment of tobacco, or a shred of clothing, which were seen by the 
 author. The story attached to it relates that a lonely woman 
 called Grizzly Bear made of pitch the figure of a girl to be a 
 companion to her, who became her daughter. She warned the 
 girl that when she bathed she must not aftorward sit or lie in the 
 sun to get warm. The girl tried the forbidden experiment after 
 her fourth bath, and was melted away. Grizzly made another 
 daughter of clay, and told her that she must not rub herself when 
 in the water. This girl disobeyed likewise and was washed away. 
 The old woman than made another daughter of wood, on whom 
 it was not necessary to impose restrictions. This girl, after a 
 fourth bath, was accosted by a trout, which she said she would 
 like for a husband. On repeating her wish the fourth time the 
 trout appeared as a young man, became her husband, and took 
 her with four efforts, the first three of which were balked, to his 
 lower country. A boy and a girl were born to this couple. They 
 wore taunted about having no grandmother, and, questioning 
 their mother on the subject, were told that they had a grand- 
 mother living in the upper country. They might go up there and 
 would find her as an old woman digging roots on the hillside, but 
 must not speak to her, though they mighi" go to her house and 
 eat whatever food they might find there. The children acting 
 upon these instructions, the woman missed the food, and, ob- 
 serving ' jotprints of the children, concluded that none but 
 her dauglu. ^ children would visit her house in that way. She 
 therefore prepared some potent medicine, and, going to a stump in 
 the hillside where she was accustomed to work, told it that when 
 the children appeared it must move and seem to be a woman 
 digging. The woman then concealed herself in the house, while 
 the stump acted as it had been bidden. The children, after re- 
 garding the stump for a time with bome doubt, ventured into the 
 house, when the woman threw her medicine upon them. The 
 medicine fell all over the boy, who was changed to an ordinary 
 human being, but only partly over the girl, and she became a 
 little dog. The boy and the dog, in whom he failed to recognize 
 his sister, had some curious adventures, in the course of which he 
 learned the truth. He went to his grandmother and questioned 
 her on the subject. She told him that if, when shooting, his 
 arrow should lodge in a tree, or anywhere above his reach, how- 
 ever little, he must not climb up to get it. Soon afterward he lost 
 three arrows in this way, but a fourth time his arrow stuck in a 
 tree not far up, and he climbed on a branch to get it ; but the 
 arrow continued to move further up and he had to climb after it, 
 and though he thought that he had not gone very far, he looked 
 
mmmmmmmmum* 
 
 iliill IH' ,'!!' 
 
 TRAITS OF NORTHWESTERN INDIANS. 
 
 829 
 
 down after a time and found that ho could not oven see the earth. 
 So he went on climbing till at last he reached another country- 
 above, which was very pleasant and populous, and there he re- 
 mained. The old stump by the wayside is the remnant of that 
 tree. 
 
 Another curious story relates to a mosquito gorged with 
 blood, which flew up where the thunder is. The thunder asked 
 the mosquito where it got the blood, and the insect falsely replied 
 that it was sucked from the buds at the very top of the trees be- 
 low. Hence the reason that the thunder (or lightning) strikes the 
 tops of the trees. 
 
 Some curious myths are associated with particular places. The 
 lakes are supposed to be occupied by peculiar beings called " water 
 people," who are alleged to have remarkable powers and to use 
 them in performing strange acts. It is dangerous for canoes to 
 pass Battle Bluff, on Kamloops Lake, because of the water peo- 
 ple, who in this instance are described as of human shape, but 
 hairy in the upper half, with fishlike tails below. It is also told 
 of this bluff that some hostile people, once coming by land to 
 attack the Kamloops Indians, looking down over the front of the 
 bluft' as they passed, saw a woman or witch dancing in a niche 
 part way down the cliff. They sat down on the edge of the cliff 
 to watch the woman dance and were turned to stones. " Little 
 men " are reported to exist in several places, to hunt with bows 
 and arrows, to be only two feet high, and yet able to carry a deer 
 easily. In contrast to this, when a squirrel is killed, they skin it 
 and take only a jiart, as the whole is too heavy for them. The 
 Indians are very much afraid of them. The Indians aver that 
 unknown brings sometimes throw stones at them, particularly at 
 night, when stones may be noticed occasionally falling into the 
 fire. A Kamloops Indian, long since dead, once saw a white object 
 following him by night. He drew back from the trail and shot 
 an arrow at it as it passed. In the morning he returned and found 
 his arrow buried in a human shoulder-blade. It is believed that 
 burning wood from a tree which had been struck by lightning 
 brings on cold weather. This appears to be based on the fact 
 that cold follows a thunderstorm. Thus, in the spring, when In- 
 dians may be traveling over the snow on high ground, splinters 
 of such wood are thrown on the fire to reduce the temperature, in 
 order that the crust may remain unmelted on the snow. A small 
 splinter of such wood wrapped up with the bullet in loading a gun 
 is supposed to increase the deadly effect of the bullet. The plant 
 Parnassia fimhriata, worn in the hat or rubbed on it and on the 
 soles of the feet, is believed to make it certain for the deer-hunter 
 that the deer will be seen and caught. The rattle of a rattlesnake 
 is worn as a preventive against headache. 
 
830 
 
 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 
 
 Tho Pleiades are cnllod by tlio Shuswaps "the bunch," and 
 also " people roaHting." The latter name is given from a story of 
 their origin, which relates that a number of women who were 
 baking roots in a hole in tho ground were changed into this group 
 of stars. The morning star has tho names "coming with the day- 
 light " and " one with hair standing out round his head." The 
 four stars forming the bowl of the Great Di[)por are known as the 
 bear stars, and tho three following largo stars are three brothers 
 in pursuit of the bear. The first hunter is brave and near the 
 bear ; the second leads a dog (tho small companion star) ; and the 
 third is afraid and hangs far back. The stars of Orion's belt are 
 called " fishing," and the Milky Way is the road or path of the 
 dead. The months, beginning about March, are " spring," "grass 
 month," "root-digging month," "strawberry month," "berry 
 month," "salmon month," "month when the salmon get bad," 
 " month when the deer travel," " month in which they return 
 from hunting," "midwinter month," and P it -tshik- in-tin" (which 
 is not translated). 
 
 Several native roots still constitute notable items in the food 
 of the Shuswaps, though their impoi tance has diminished since 
 the white man's preparations were introduced. Roots are always 
 dug and cooked or cured by the women. In digging the roots 
 a pointed stick, about four feet in length, with a crutch-shaped 
 handle, is used. The lily, Lilium columhianum, is much sought 
 after, and, like moat of tho roots, is cooked by baking in the 
 ground. The roots of balsamorhiza, cinquefoil, claytonia or spring 
 beauty, dog-tooth violet, and of other less familiar i)lants, are also 
 eaten. The camass is abundant, and forms an important article 
 of diet. No edible thing is ignored, and few edible substances of 
 any kind are passed by ; but the Indians never heard of any one 
 eating a mushroom. The cambium layer of the black or bull 
 pine {Finits murrayana) is eaten when it is soft and gelatinous, 
 at the time the leaves are still growing, and is sometimes dried 
 and kept. The cambium of tho subalpine spruce and of cotton- 
 wood is also sometimes eaten. The sappy and still nearly white 
 parts of the large leaf-stalks and stems of the Heracleum lanatum 
 are eaten in the spring, and, when taken at the right stage, are 
 not much inferior to celery. Tho nutlets in the cones of Pinus 
 alhicantes are gathered in large quantities and eaten from the 
 cones after having been roasted, or thrashed out and prepared. 
 They have a rather pleasant taste, flavored with turpentine, and 
 are nearly the size of small garden peas. Nutlets of yellow pine 
 and Douglas fir are also collected — generally by robbing tho 
 mice and squirrels of their stores. The pith or inner bark of 
 Epilohium spicatum is eaten while still young and sappy. A 
 black, hairlike lichen, Aledoria juhata, is eaten roasted, and is 
 
Ma-m- w—nm^rm^m,.,,-. 
 
 ""ch/^ and 
 » tt story of 
 
 who Were 
 
 '"s group 
 '1 tile day. 
 ^^." TJie 
 ^^n as the 
 
 brothers 
 near the 
 
 and the 
 
 belt are 
 ^of tiiQ 
 
 " berry 
 t hiiil," 
 return 
 wiiich 
 
 said to taste very sweet. A yellow lichen furnishes a coloring 
 matter, and the root of a certain forn { isplenimn ov Aspidium) 
 yields a black dye. The leaves of the syihiga {Fhiladeljihus leiv- 
 tsii) wore formerly used as a soap in wn siting clothing. The fiber 
 plants are an Aschpias or milkweed, and the common nettle of 
 the country. 
 
 The sweat-houses of all the Northwestern Indians are very 
 much alike. They consist of a dome-shaped framework, formed 
 by bending willow sticks over one another, covered with blankets 
 or skins or earth, and a pile of hot stones in the center, or a hole 
 in which hot stones are thrown. The Indian takes his place in 
 the booth, and water is thrown upon the stones. The bathers sit 
 in a suffocating temperature till they have had enough of it, and 
 then rush out and plunge into^ilie water, which they take care to 
 have always near. ^v