Texts of the North American Indian

THE NEZ PERCES, PART 10

A study of the mythology, religion, and ceremonies of the tribes inhabiting the plateau area between the Rocky mountains and the Cascades shows noteworthy differences from the plains area, and quickly evidences the similarity of the thought and practice of the tribes about and above the mouth of the Columbia river and those of this intermontane region. This suggests that the coast is the fountain head of the religious cult, and that it was disseminated by way of the valley of the Columbia. Vie see spreading eastward from the north Pacific coast a wave of culture destined to meet and blend with that of the newcomers on the prairies, these principally of the Siouan and Algonquian stocks possessing the original culture of the Atlantic coast with its natural development during the years of their
migratory wanderings. The meeting of these two Indian groups had scarcely occurred when a new mythology that which has always clung to, and usually obscured, the great truths of the Christian religion became a factor and, to some extent, affected both developments. It is an open question whether the development of the Pacific coast inhabitants, who were in a measure village Indians, was superior to that of the more nomadic tribes from the Atlantic, but one is convinced that the nature of Pacific coast beliefs and practices was such that had the situation remained free from Caucasian influences for a few generations longer, they would have taken deep root among the plains people, and vitally affected their religious development.
The ghost dance, which swept across the plains thirty years ago, causing so much popular excitement throughout the United States, was a remarkable religious movement. James Mooney, in his comprehensive work on the ghost dance,' suggests that it may have been an outgrowth of the socalled Shaker religions of this region; but Shakerism was only the natural development of the indigenous hypnotic religion of the Chinookan and Shahaptian tribes, naturally showing evidences of Christian contact. Tracing backward we must conclude Shakerism to be only a variation of the Smohalla cult, and that Smohalla had but cleverly used his strong personality and cataleptic tendencies to organize among his people on the upper Columbia a religious movement which was a personal development of religious thought and practices common to every tiwat of the region. General Howard referred to him only as an influential dreamer; he classed all of the tiwat as dreamers.
Shakerism had its inception in 1881. The Paiute Wovoka had his revelation in the early part of 1887, and the ghost dance, the outgrowth of Wovoka's vision, had gained great strength in 1890. The author has not witnessed the ghost-dance ceremony, but from Mr. Mooney's description of it is inclined to believe that a deaf man, witnessing the ceremonies of the ghost dance, of the Smohalla cult, of the winter dance among the Shahaptian tribes, and of the Shakers, would call them identical in essential principles. In these ceremonies participants are brought into a state of hypnosis, the condition varying from mere stimulation and excitement to complete catalepsy, the
fortunate individual while in this state receiving revelations and communicating with the spirits of the departed.
In this plateau region, as in other cultural areas of North America, songs are the essentials of religion. An individual owns personal songs, and to him they are the most important possession of his life, for they determine his spiritual as well as his temporal existence. The music of the songs is delightfully rhythmic and entrancing, and seems peculiarly appropriate to a religion so largely emotional and hypnotic. So striking are they as a study in aboriginal music and aboriginal imagery that a number of them are here presented, with a translation of the words and a description, literally recorded, of the picture which each produces on the imaginative mind of the Indian. In all the medicine-songs appear words not elsewhere used, and which oftentimes seem to be fantastically formed, in varying combinations, on original roots. In the accompanying texts, words of ordinary usage, when first employed, are indicated by a preceding asterisk.

Keeps coming the dawn, dawn keeps coming. Coming, keeps coming the dawn, dawn keeps coming. Coming, keeps coming the dawn; keeps coming, coming.
And over the mountains the sun shines and illuminates the earth.
Keeps coming, keeps coming the dawn, dawn keeps coming.
Coming, keeps coming the dawn, keeps coming the dawn.

"Day breaks, and the dawn begins to overspread the sky. At this moment the Sun, still under the earth, begins to sin Each day he sings this song, because he has so far to travel. Soon the Great Chief appears, and sheds his light more and more on the earth, until everything, even the darkest crevice in the mountains, is illuminated. The sound of his song, as he travels, seems to move ahead of him, and when he almost reaches the zenith, the ocean begins to roll and roar. All creatures of every description seem to feel happy when the Sun passes over them. All the birds of the sea have feathers, which have been drifting from one part of the ocean to the other, and these drifting feathers seem to feel the effects of the sunlight and to come to life. They have been lying under the water and some have never seen the shore, but all these seem to have the life of the Sun as they move toward the land. Along the shore the feathers that already lie there dry seem to feel the effect of the light also, and come to life. The harder the sea rolls, the farther these feathers are carried up on the land. It seems that we feel the cold wetness these feathers have felt, and the gladness they now feel when the warm Sun comes and dries them."

Pina means "taking each other"; tiyami is probably connected with taiyam "summer." The meaning of the remainder of the word, and consequently of the whole, is not known. The inference is probably to the fact that the birds in company are seeking the land where it is summer. The significance of una is unknown.

"When cold weather comes at the lake in the north, the birds are flying round in a circle, preparing for their journey southward. They are coming, one party after another. The female Pelican has already come on ahead, and the male follows. As he flies, he is feeling that his mate is already there, and he sings. His heart is lonely. Even though he is among others, he does not think of them: his heart is with the one who has gone before. His song has already travelled ahead, and has touched on the high peaks of the mountains, which answer, their response being shown by clouds the color of his feathers -gray, red, black, yellow -which form about their summits, and as Pelican passes over them, the clouds begin to rise, as if to meet him, and he flies close over them. All the little birds on the earth hear his song and begin to sing their own songs, and fly into the air and settle back, especially the Ducks and other waterfowl. In passing over from the northern ocean to the southern, Pelican gathers these songs. On the foot of the mountains all the long-eared animals of the deer kind rise and sing, and though they have been in the brush, by going over them Pelican makes their places clean and plain. He takes their songs also with him. Near the end of his journey, a bank of clouds the color of his feathers forms. It divides in such a way that it gives just room for his arty to pass through, then it closes behind him. Before they read the ocean, a heavy fog covers the water, an answer to his song."

MEDICINE-SONG OF GRIZZLY-BEAR *Hiya! *Ahawa! Hiya! Ahawa wihinaya *wah *kiyaku, hiwihina! Hiya! Ahawa! Hiya! Ahawa wihinaya walr kiyaku, hiwihina! Hiya! Ahawa! Hiya! Ahawa wihinaya aitiyaktimtatumu! Hiya! Dawn ! Hiya! Dawn is moving and passes me, going! Hiya! Dawn ! Hiya! Dawn is moving and passes me, going! Hiya! Dawn ! Hiya! Dawn is moving ! "Grizzly-bear is wounded in such a way that he is unable to live through another day. He sings, while thinking whether he will live to see the sun rise, and at the same time he fears to see it, because a wound is at its worst just at sunrise, and at noon, and at sunset. At those times one feels hotter in the wound. So Grizzly-bear fears the sunrise because it will dry his wound and the bad blood will not run out. His back is against a tree, and he looks to the east. He sees that the sun has already struck the top of the mountains. He sees the beautiful rays on the summit, then they begin to come down the mountain side, and to strike the tree against which he leans. As they strike the top of the tree, they become of various hues, some the color of his blood, others the colors of the rainbow. The sun has passed over him many days, and each time he has become weaker. It has taken part of his life each day."

EDWARD S. CURTIS