Aboriginal America

by Jacob S. C. Abbott

  In many instances, on the other hand, the mounds are situated in open plains, or are covered with thickets consisting of plants and trees of moderate age. In such cases as these it is difficult to determine the question of the antiquity of the mound, except so far as a reasonable judgment may be formed from the character and appearance of the objects found within it.

  Conclusion

  On the whole, there is abundant evidence in these ancient remains that this continent has been inhabited by the ancestors of the present Indian races for a very long period. It is, moreover, generally supposed that in former times the population was far more numerous, and that the nations composing it were far more advanced in civilization than those found in possession of the country when the Europeans first visited these shores.

  Chapter 6. The Indian Family

  The Institution of Marriage

  The Indians, as all other communities of human beings in every age, in every clime, and in every possible condition in respect to civilization or barbarism, have done, lived in families - the husband, the wife, and the children forming a natural group and dwelling together in common, the children remaining under the care of themselves; and the husband and wife, once joined, remaining united for life.

  Some persons have imagined that the institution of marriage is an artificial institution, adopted by society as an arrangement proved by experiment to be, on the whole, most advantageous to man. But the universality of this institution proves that it is of higher origin. it is a part of man's nature, considered as an animal, that he should have one female partner, and that the union which binds him to his partner, when once she is chosen, should endure for life. It is curious to observe that the provision of nature by which man is led everywhere, and under all circumstances, to the institution of marriage as the foundation of the social state, is in accordance with a general principle which pervades the whole animal creation. The principle is this:

  General Law of Pairing

  In all cases where the nurture of the young of any animal, for any reason, requires more than the mother herself alone can do for them, it seems to be a general law of nature in respect to such animals that they are provided with instincts which lead them to pair. A male and female unite, and they remain united until the young no longer need their joint assistance.

  Thus birds pair, because it is necessary that both should co-operate to build the nest, and also that the father should bring food while the mother sits upon the eggs to hatch them. And lions pair, for one must remain and take care of the young, while the other goes away on distant excursions to procure food.

  But sheep and other such animals do not pair, for their young do not require the joint attention of father and mother.

  In respect to the duration of the union thus formed, the principle is that it continues as long as the necessity for it continues; that is, as long as the brood of young ones require the united efforts of both father and mother to protect them. Then - at least so it is supposed in the case of birds - when the season is over and the young ones are grown up to maturity, the union is terminated, the pair separate, and each, at the commencement of a new season, chooses a mate again.

  Application to the Case of Man

  Now, in the case of man, the young require the aid of both parents for their nurture and protection; and inasmuch as each requires this attention for ten or twelve years at least, and as during the time while the first-born is attaining this age others succeed, the period during which the con-join effort of the parents are required is protracted, without intermission, during the whole of their lives - that is, through all the portion of it during which their natural vigor continues unimpaired. It follows from this, and from the fact that the numbers of the sexes are equal, that according to the analogy of nature we should have expected that the human species would be provided with instincts leading them to unite in pairs, and to continue so united for life. We find, accordingly, that this is the fact everywhere. The marriage laws of all human societies are consequently made to guard and protect the marriage institution - not to establish it. The institution itself is founded in instincts and principles of our nature existing antecedent to all law.

  Indeed, the family institution, instead of waiting to be established by law, is often even more important and more prominent in low states of civilization than in high. It is most powerful where laws are weakest. Instead of being created by law and thus following it in the order or time, it is itself rather the origin and source of law. So far as we have any opportunity to trace back the forms of social organization to their source, we find them arising usually, in the first instance, from that primordial and elementary bond, the union of husband with wife, which springs at once from the physical constitution and innate instincts of man, and is the germ from which all other systems of authority and subordination come.

  It was eminently so among the Indians. They lived in families throughout the length and breadth of the land - the families of the same connection being grouped together in tribes. They lived generally in peace, and were engaged in labors of patient industry for providing food and clothing for themselves and their children.

  Construction of Dwellings

  The dwellings of the Indians were generally made of poles covered with bark or mats. The ends of the poles were set in the ground in a ring of holes made to receive them, and then the tops were tied together in a point above, so as to give the hut a conical form. Sometimes, however, the ring was made larger, and then the ends of the poles were lapped upon each other, each opposite pair being joined in this way. By this mode of fashioning the frame the hut would receive a hemispherical form - that is, the form of a dome - a structure much less convenient than the other.

  In other cases the poles would be set in two long rows of holes, made at a suitable distance from each other, and each opposite pair would then be lapped together and tied. Poles were then laid lengthwise along the roof thus formed and tied at the crossings. These lengthwise poles acted as stays to give strength and stiffness to the frame. When the frame was thus completed it was covered with mats or bark. Of course, a hut made in this way would be of a semi-cylindrical form, like a long arbor built over a walk in a garden. Some lodges made in this way were intended to accommodate many families, and were very large.

  Coverings

  The bark used for the covering of the huts and lodges was commonly birch bark, a kind which peels off the tree in large thin sheets, and is of a substance, too, which is completely impervious to water. These sheets of bark could be rolled up in a very compact form, as matting or carpeting is rolled with us.

  These strips peel off in a direction roundthe tree, and of course cannot be longer than the circumference of the tree from which they are taken. But a tree of two feet and a half in diameter, not an unusual size in the native forests of the country; would yield strips seven and eight feet long, which would be amply sufficient for the purpose intended, They were usually taken off the tree in pieces from two to three feet wide.

  In putting on these sheets the upper end was fastened to the upper part of the frame - leaving a space open for chimney - and the lower end came down to the ground. A round stick was rolled a little way into this lower end and sewed in. This stick helped to strengthen the end, and also assisted in holding it in its place. A stone was laid upon it when necessary, to keep it down. It also served as a roller to roll the sheet upon when the family removed; for these sheets of bark, once prepared, were considered quite valuable, and they were always taken away in cases of removal, though the poles which formed the frame were often left behind.

  In some cases tribes living in the western country, on the banks of the Upper Missouri, where perhaps birch bark could not be obtained, covered the frames of their wigwams with flat stones set up against the poles, in such a way that they leaned in some measure upon them. These stones were arranged around the frame, tier above tier, each tier resting upon he edges of the tier below, and leaning against the frame. The joints were
plastered with a mortar made of clay.

  Of course, for such a covering as this it was necessary to make the frame very much stronger than when a lighter one was to be used.

  Interior of the Lodges

  The large lodges often contained several families, each of whom occupied its own particular portion of the interior. In such cases the different tenants were very careful not to encroach upon each other's domains. There was a fire in the middle of the lodge, and mats and skins for the members of the different families were laid down upon the ground in different situations around it. The sleeping places were back under the roof, the beds being also make of mats and skins.

  When there were babies, beds were made for them of the finest moss, with a skin spread over it that was covered with some soft fur.

  It was the pride of the mistress of this strange household to keep everything in good order in her domain. She maintained a bright and cheerful fire in the fire-place when the weather was cold, and kept the ground nicely swept and clean all around it. Then when all was arranged she would take her place upon her own mat or skin, and employ herself in sewing a roller into a new sheet of bark, or in making mats, or mocassins, or snowshoes, while her husband, in his place near by , was employed in fashioning spears or arrows, or in making other hunting or fishing gear, and the children sat musing silently by the fire, or tumbled over each other in their play, upon a bear-skin in the corner.

  Indian Housekeeping

  Among the Indians the whole charge of the housekeeping devolved upon the women, as with us, but in their understanding of this term much more was included than in ours. It comprised building the house as well as taking care of it, and also the making of all the furniture. It was the work of the women to cut the poles and set them in the ground, to have always on hand a good supply of bark to cover the frame, and to take the work apart and put it together again, in case of removal. They had also to cultivate the corn fields, store the grain when it was collected, and prepare the food.

  Removals

  Although each tribe continued in most cases to occupy the same territory from generation to generation, still removals from place to place within the territory were very common. The best places for cultivating corn, and for fishing in the summer season, were not usually the best for hunting and trapping the wild animals of the woods in the winter. Accordingly there were frequent occasions to remove a family or a settlement from place to place; and in order to facilitate these migrations the wigwams were almost always built on the borders of streams, so that the sheets of bark for roofs, the mats, the skins, the cooking utensils, and the other household goods, might be conveyed to the new locality by water in canoes.

  Canoes

  These canoes themselves were made of birch bark, There was first a frame made of strips of wood of about the size and thickness of a common kitchen-basket handle, and then the whole was covered with sheets of bark, very neatly and strongly sewed. The thread for such sewing was made of the fibers of certain kinds of bark twisted into filaments by rubbing them with a rolling motion on the knee, or of thongs cut from the hides of animals. It was wonderful to see with what skill the Indian women would execute this sewing, so as to make a firm, compact and substantial seam, and without leaving any perceptible openings at the stitches. The boat would be almost watertight when it was first put together, and it was soon made perfectly so by paying over the seams with pitch obtained from some species of the pine, or other resin-bearing tree.

  The upper edge of the boat all around was strengthened by double strips of wood inclosing the edges of the sheets of bark, the whole being bound together by sewing of a specially substantial character. This formed the gunwale of the boat. It was in some respects like the upper edge of a strong basket, which is usually reinforced in a similar way. The boat itself was in reality an open-work basket, sheathed on the outside with sheets of birch bark.

  Canoes thus made, though light and buoyant, were quite frail. It was necessary to step very lightly in getting into one of them, for fear of breaking through the bottom, and to sit very still when in, for fear of rolling it over, for the bottom was perfectly round and smooth.

  Log Canoes

  In some parts of the country, where birch bark could not be procured for sheathing, it was customary to make boats of logs.

  It would at first seem difficult to imagine how a party of savages, without any cutting tools, could take down a large tree, hollow it out, and fashion it into a canoe. They accomplished the work by the agency of fire. In the first place, after selecting a suitable tree for the purpose, they would build a fire around its roots, and by constantly bringing more wood they would keep the fire up for many days, until at last the tree was burned so nearly off that by pushing all together against it on one side, by means of poles, or pulling with a cord, they would cause it to lean a little out of the perpendicular, and then its own weight would bring it with a great crash to the ground.

  This was the first stage of the process. The next was to burn off the stem of the tree at the right length for the proposed canoe. In burning it off thus the workmen took care to manage the fire in such a way as to give to the end of the proper shape, and at the same time that this process was going on the fire was continued at the other end, in order to burn off the splinters and superfluous wood, and to give that end, too, the proper form for the bow or stern of the canoe, which ever it was to be. To do this well of course required considerable experience and skill on the part of the workmen.

  At the same time fires were built along the whole length of the log upon the top, in order to burn off the convex portion, and then small fires were continues along the center line until the whole interior of the log was burned out. It was easy, by means of water, to confine the fire within precise limits, so as at last to have a well-shaped canoe, with sides and bottom far thinner and lighter, and with general form much more graceful and convenient than it would be supposed possible to produce in such a way.

  When the burning was completed the whole surface of the boat, inside and out, was scraped smooth by means of tools made of flint, and of other hard stones of that kind which could be broken so as to furnish a sharp edge. The scraping of the surface of the wood with tools of this sort was, of course, a very slow and laborious process, but when completed the result was to produce a very smooth and regular finish. The boat was then painted. the pigments for this purpose were obtained from various substances found in the ground, such as ochres and other similar earths, and they were mixed with oils obtained from animals.

  The final result was, in many cases, a canoe of very large size and of quite an elegant appearance.

  Of course, a canoe like this is only produced after considerable progress has been made by a tribe in the mechanical arts. At first, it is said, the Indians used the trunks of trees which they found already hollowed by decay, in places where they grew. To prevent the water coming in at the ends in such a case, they used to stop them with masses of clay, which they kneaded in at the bow and stern.

  Clearing Land

  The Indians had many clearings when the Europeans first came into the country. These clearings were made for the purpose of raising corn, and they were considered of great value - each one remaining in the same family or tribe from generation to generation, for ages. It was very difficult to make these clearings, since the only way of felling trees was by fire. Then besides, when the tree was down the work of getting out the roots was one of great labor. Thus absolutely new clearings were seldom made. The old ones remained, and each generation enlarged them a little when any increase of population required an enlargement, by burning down trees along the margin of them. The method was to dig about the tree so as to expose the roots as much as possible, and then to build a fire around it so as to burn it off. But this was a very slow and toilsome work, for if it was a living tree the wood was green, and after the outside had burned away it was difficult to get the fire in, so as to make it take effect up the heart of the stem. To promote the
burning as much as possible they used to pick off the charred portion as fast as the fire formed it, with sharp stones fastened to the end of poles. In this way, and by constantly bringing fresh supplies of fuel, the tree was at length made to fall.

  Clearing Land

  Then to take off the branches and to divide the stem into lengthes small enough to enable them to drag them away - all by the action of fire alone - required great additional toil. It is not surprising, under these circumstances, that the work of clearing land proceeded slowly.

  Tilling the Land

  The work of tilling the land after it was cleared belonged wholly to the women. The men reserved their strength for the immensely more difficult and dangerous duty of hunting and fishing, and of defending the country in case of war.

  In planting their fields the women used clamshells for hoes, and sticks sharpened in the fire for picks and shovels. When the crop was ripe the corn was gathered, and it was stored for winter in holes made in the ground for the purpose. The bottom and sides of the holes were protected by a lining of bark, or of wooden poles set up close together all around them. When the hole was filled it was covered over, and not opened again until the corn was required for use.

  Preparing the Corn for Food

  Instead of mills to grind the corn the Indian women used mortars to pound it. These mortars were stones with hollows in them. For the pestle another stone was a smooth and round surface at the bottom was used. At first such stones were employed for these purposes as were found of nearly the proper form in their natural state; but in process of time the people acquired the art of fashioning them so as to make mortars of very good shape, and of considerable capacity. Many such mortars, with pestles belonging to them, have been dug up in ancient mounds, or found buried just beneath the surface around old and abandoned encampments in the western country.