Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 7.djvu/827

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INDIANS


749


INDIANS


separate linguiatic stocks (1887-94) ; Pin art, Catalogue de livres manuscTits et iinprimes (Paris, 18S3): Peru, Biblioteca Peruana (2 vols., Institute Nacional, Santiago de Chile, 1896): de Souza, Biblioteca Hispano-Americana Selentrional (3 vols.. Mexico and Amecamcca, 1883) ; Torres de .Me-n'doza, ed., Coleccvjn de docu- mentos iru'ditos (21 vols., Madrid, 1S64-74), dealing with all Spanish- America.

Journals, Institutions, etc.: — Am. Anthropological A.sso- CIATION, Memoirs (Lancaster); Am. Anthropologist (quar.), I (Washington, 18SS), XI (n. s., Lancaster, 1909): Am. Museum Nat. Hist. (New York), Memoirs, Bulletins, and Anth. Papers; Proeeedings of Int. Congress of Americanists (13 vols., 1875-1905); L'.4n(;iropo(of7ie (Paris, 1890 — ); ,4 n(/iropos (in ter- natnl. Catholic mission auspices). I (Salzburg, 1906) ; ArchcEologi- cal Report (annual, Ontario); Bureau .\m. Ethnology, Ann. Repts., Bulletins, etc. (Washington, 1880 — ); Canadian Insti- tute, Transactions (Toronto, 1890 — ); Contrib. to North Am. Ethnology (auspices Bur. Ani. Ethn. and U. S. Geol. Sur.) (9 vols.. Washington. 1877-94); Field (Columbian) Museum (Chicago), Anthropological Series, I (1897); Journal of Am. Folklore (Boston, 1888 — ); MosEO de la Plata, Revista (La Plata, Arg.): Museo Nacional de Buenos Aires, .\nnles (Buenos Aires, .■\rg.): Museo Nacional de Mexico, .-Inales (Mexico); Museu Nacional de Rio de .Janeiro, Archifos (Rio de Janeiro): Peabody Museum (Harvard Univ.). Memoirs (Cambridge): S.mithsonian Institution. Ann. Repts., etc. (Washington. 1846 — ): United States Nat. Museum. Ann. Repts. (Washington); Univ. of California. Pubs, on Am. Arch, and Ethn. (8 vols., Berkeley. 1903-9): LTniv. of Pennsyl- vania, Anthrop. Pubs., I (Philadelphia, 1909); Zeitschrift fur Ethnologie (Berlin, 1868—).

United States, Britlsh America, etc. — Houses. — la and north of the United States there were some twenty well-defined types of native dwellings, varying from the mere l:)rush shelter to the five-storied stone pueblo. In the Eastern United States and adjacent parts of Canada the prevailing type was that commonly known under the Algonkian term of wigwam, of wagon-top shape, with perpendicular sides and ends and rounded roof, and constructed of stout poles set in the ground and covered with bark or with m:its woven of grass or rushes. Doorways at each end served also as windows, and openings in the roof allowed the smoke to escape. Not even I'uclilo ar- chitecture had evolved a chimney. In general the houses were communal, several closely related fami- lies occupying the same dwelling. The Irixiuois houses were sometimes one hundred feet in length, divided into compartments about ten feet s(|uare, opening upon a central passageway, along which were ranged the fires, two families occupying opposite compartments at the same fire. Raised platforms around the sides of the room were covered with skins and served both as seats and beds. The houses of a .settlement were usually scattered irregularly, accord- ing to the convenience of the owner, but in some cases, especially on disputed tribal frontiers, they were set compactly together in regular streets and surrounded by strong stockades. The Iroquois stockaded forts had platforms running around on the insiile, near the top, from which the defenders coukl more easily shoot down upon the enemy. In the Gulf States every important settlement had its "town-house", a great circular structure, with conical roof, built of logs, and devoted to councils and tribal ceremonials. The tipi (the Sioux name for house), or conical tent-dwell- ing, of the upper lake and plains region was of poles set lightly in the ground, boimd together near the top, and covered with bark or mats in the lake covm- try, and with dressed buffalo skins on the plains. It was easily portaljle, and two women could set it up or take it down within an hour. On ceremonial occasion the tipi camp was arranged in a great circle, with the ceremonial "medicine lodge" in the centre. The semi-sedentary Pawnee, Mandan, and other tribes along the Missouri built solid circular structures of logs, covered with earth, capable sometimes of hous- ing a dozen families. The Wichita and other tribes of the Texas border built large circular houses of grass thatch laid over a framework of poles. The Navaho hogan, was a smaller counterpart of the Pawnee "earth lodge". The communal pueblo structure of the Rio Grande region consisted of a number — sometimes of hundreds — of square-built


rooms of various sizes, of stone or adobe laid in clay mortar, with flat roofs, court-yards, and intricate passageways, suggestive of Oriental things. The Piute wilciitp of Nevada was only one degree above the brush shelter of the Apache. California, with its long stretch from north to south and its extremes from warm plain to snowclad sierra, had a variety of types, including the semi-subterranean. Along the whole north-west coast, from the Columbia to the Eskimo border, the prevailing type was the rectangular board structure, painted with symbolic designs and with the great totem pole, carved with the heraldic crests of the owner, towering above the doorway. On the Yukon we find the subterranean dwelling, while the Eskimo had both the subterranean house and the dome- shaped iglu, built of blocks of hardened snow. Be- sides the regular dwellings, almost every tribe had also


Shoshoni Tipi, Wyoming

some .style of temporary structure, besides "sweat houses", summer arbors, provision caches, etc.

Food and its Procurement. — In the timbered region of the eastern and southern states and the adjacent portions of Canada, along the Missouri and among the Pueblos, Pima, and other tribes of the south-west, the chief dependence was upon agriculture, the principal crops being corn, beans, and squashes, besides a native tobacco. The New England tribes understood the principle of manuring, while those of the arid South-West built canals and practised irrigation. Along the whole ocean coast, in the lake region and on the Columbia, fishing was an important source of subsistence. On the south Atlantic seaboard elabor- ate weirs were in use, but elsewhere the hook and line, the seine, or the harpoon, were more common. Clams and oysters were consumed in such quantities along the Atlantic coast that in some favourite gather- ing-places the empty shells are piled into mounds ten feet high. From central California northward along the whole west coast, the salmon was the principal, and on the Columbia almost the entire, food depend- ence. The north-west coast tribes, as well as the Eskimo, were fearless whalers. Everywhere the wild game, of course, was an important factor in the food supply, particularly the deer in the timber region and the buffalo on the plains. The nomad tribes of the