Part 13

Painting was done on moccasins in the general plateau area of which this is a part.[365] Spinden states that in the Nez Perce region the natives depended upon minerals for dyes, except in the cases of a wood, which produced a brown dye, and rock slime which produced green[366] and that white, red, blue and yellow earth paints were obtained by them further east from the vicinity of the Grande Ronde Valley;[367] also, that rock surfaces were painted over with brown as a field upon which to peck petroglyphs.[368] In the same region moreover, white clay[369] was used for cleaning clothing.

[365] Lewis, p. 190.

[366] Spinden, p. 191.

[367] _Ibid._, p. 222.

[368] _Ibid._, p. 231.

[369] _Ibid._, p. 216.

_Petroglyphs._ The petroglyphs pecked into the weathered surface of the basaltic columns found in this region, are similar in style to the paintings, being largely line designs of geometric or conventional representation together with a few realistic figures. The pictures are formed by pecking away the weathered surface and exposing the lighter color of the basalt below. Some of them may be very old, but the bruised surfaces making up the lines are not weathered very much in comparison with the surrounding rock surface and yet there is no history of their manufacture. In the Nez Perce region[370] such pecked pictographs are also found, some of them being upon fields painted brown.

[370] Spinden, p. 232.

In Plate XI are shown petroglyphs on the vertical basaltic columns on the eastern side of the Columbia River at Sentinal Bluffs, immediately above Priest Rapids. They are at the base of the cliffs shown in Plate V. Those shown in Fig. 1 are to the east of the road which runs along a notch blasted in the top of the columns that rise from the river at this point, while those shown in Fig. 2 are about fifteen feet to the southwest on the columns that rise shear from the river.

Some of those shown in Fig. 1[371] represent human figures each with a feather headdress which may be compared with that of the antler figure found at Tampico (Fig. 121) and the pictographs of Cowiche Creek. This place is only about 47 miles northeast from Tampico, and 33 miles in the same direction from the mouth of Cowiche Creek. One of these is shown in Fig. 2.[372] The long form in the centre has a headdress which taken with its shape reminds us especially of the human form in antler from Tampico. The general shape of the body and the row of dots on each side edge suggest a resemblance to the quill flattener made of antler from the Dakota shown in Fig. 122. On each side are human heads, each with a similar feather headdress that might be interpreted as rising suns with eyes and mouths. On the left are some similar figures without eyes and mouths. Below, is a horizontal figure resembling five links of a chain. There is also a goat which resembles the two pecked in a granite boulder near Buffalo Rock in the Nez Perce area, eighteen miles above Lewiston on the east bank of the Snake River.[373] The star at the bottom, the rays of which end in dots, a small oval with radiating lines at the left, and two connected ovals with radiating lines at the top, remind us of the stars at Selah Canon, shown in Fig. 1, Plate XII, the petroglyphs near Wallula Junction, shown in Fig. 2, Plate XIII, somewhat similar figures on the large petroglyph at Nanaimo[374] and perhaps even more than of the Nanaimo figures, those in the petroglyphs beyond Nanaimo at Yellow Island, near Comox.[375] However, the two connected ovals with the radiating lines may represent hands of a human figure with a headdress having radiating feathers. All of these headdresses remind us of the others at this place shown in Fig. 1, the rising suns at Selah Canon next described, the pictographs at the mouth of Cowiche Creek, and the incised human form in antler.

[371] First reproduced. Smith, (g), Fig. 2, Plate IX; negative no. 44534, 8-11, taken from the west.

[372] _Ibid._, Fig. 1; Negative no. 44533, 8-10 as viewed from the north.

[373] Spinden, Fig. 4, Plate X.

[374] Smith, (b), Plate XI.

[375] _Ibid._, Fig. 115.

In Plate XII and Fig. 1, Plate XIII are shown petroglyphs which appear fresher and whiter or yellower than the naturally weathered reddish basaltic columns into which they are pecked. They are on the north side of Selah Canon about one and a half miles from the Yakima River at a point about a mile north of Selah station or one half a mile south of the intake of the Moxee Canal. It is about twenty-five miles west southwest of Sentinal Bluffs, eight northeast from the mouth of Cowiche Creek and twenty-two miles northeast from Tampico. They are more easily made out from a distance than close by.

The petroglyph shown in Fig. 1, Plate XII, is the most northeasterly of the group. This seems to be made up of circles with a dot in the middle and radiating lines, some of which end in dots. They remind us of some of the same series of figures as the oval with radiating lines at Priest Rapids.[376]

[376] Museum negative no. 44463, 2-12 from the east and from a greater distance, showing its relation to the next in negative catalogue no. 44162, 2-11.

The one shown in Fig. 2, is about eight feet to the southwest and a little lower down. The upper part of the left figure and the two main parts on the right, each consisting of a curve with short radiating lines like a representation of the rising sun, may be compared with the top of the petroglyph on the rocks a few feet to the southwest shown in Fig. 1, Plate XIII, next described, and with some of those at Sentinal Bluffs, shown in Plate XI; also, with the pictographs at the mouth of Cowiche Creek.[377]

[377] Represented in Museum, with the one shown in Fig. 1, by negative no. 44462, 2-11 and from a nearer point as shown in this figure in negative no. 44476, 4-1.

The petroglyph shown in Fig. 1, Plate XIII, is a few feet southwest of those shown in Plate XII, taken from the south. The segment with radiating lines like the rising sun at the top reminds us of similar figures among the other petroglyphs here just described, those at Sentinal Bluffs and pictographs at the mouth of Cowiche Creek, but the other lines are not interpreted and are not suggestive to us of other figures in the neighborhood. A small figure, similar in that it consists of two nearly vertical lines crossing each other and topped by a curved line, shows very faintly above, a little to the right.[378] A design similar to the part of some of these pictures interpreted as representing a headdress was also found pecked in the surface of the grooved net sinker shown in Fig. 14.

[378] Museum negative no. 44477, 4-2, is also represented from a greater distance in negative no. 44478, 4-3.

The petroglyph shown in Fig. 2, Plate XIII, is pecked on the top of a rock which projects about three feet from the surface of the ground near mile post 209 between it and 210 above the Spokane branch of the O. R. & N. on the south side of the Columbia River about four miles west of Wallula Junction and is here illustrated as one twentieth of the natural size, from a tracing made by Mr. J. P. Newell, of Portland, assistant chief engineer on that road. We are indebted to Mr. W. E. Elliott of New York City, formerly engineer with Mr. Newell for permission to copy this tracing.[379] The top of the rock forms an east and west ridge. The pecked grooves are all of about equal depth and there are no other petroglyphs on the rock. The large figure at the left reminds us of the dog-like figures with "spines" in the petroglyphs at Nanaimo,[380] on Vancouver Island, especially as it has waved parallel lines, a fin or "spine" and two concentric curves at the top similar in shape to the lines indicating the back of the head and the mouth of the Nanaimo figure. This is less suggestive of certain harpoon points that are incised apparently to represent fish found in the main shell heap in the Fraser Delta at Eburne[381] although Eburne is nearer than Nanaimo and en route, and although these harpoon points have parallel lines, a fin-like projection and two lines representative of the back of the head or cheek and the mouth. The small circles some with lines radiating from them, remind us of similar marks on the same large petroglyph at Nanaimo and even more so of the petroglyphs beyond Nanaimo at Yellow Island near Comox.[382] The large figure on the right reminds us of the human form of the petroglyph at Nanaimo.[383]

[379] Museum negative no. 45696.

[380] Smith, (b), Fig. 117a and Plate XI.

[381] Smith, (a), Fig. 52.

[382] Smith, (b), Fig. 115.

[383] _Ibid._, Fig. 117a.

I am informed by Mr. Owen that there is a petroglyph on the north side of the Columbia River below Kennewick and that it has been destroyed by recent railroad construction; by Mr. W. H. Willcox of North Yakima that there are petroglyphs or pictographs on the rocks ten miles south of Wenatchee on the western side of the Columbia River; and by Prof. Mark Harrington that it is said that there are "engravings" on the cliffs overhanging Lake Chelan. Mallery[384] refers to etchings at the lower end of Lake Chelan but his information seems to refer to painted figures only (See p. 120). The late Prof. Israel C. Russell informed me that there are etchings close to the river on both sides in the Snake Canon at Buffalo Rock in the extreme southeast corner of the state of Washington.[385]

[384] Mallery, p. 26.

[385] Cf. Spinden, Figs. 4 and 5, Plate X.

_Incised Designs._ Among the designs incised on stone, attention may be called to the top of the pestle made of steatite shown in Fig. 35, which bears two parallel longitudinal incisions and notches, ten on the left and eleven on the right of each side edge of the obverse. There are fifteen fine incisions running obliquely down from the notches on the left to the first longitudinal incision. They begin at the eighth notch from the bottom and extend to the lower notch. On the reverse are three longitudinal incisions apparently more recently made, and eleven notches on each side edge. This incised knob is said by the Indians to represent the head of a snake. On the reverse of the steatite object, possibly a mat-presser, shown in Fig. 59a, is an incised pictographic sketch which unfortunately, with the exception of the nine short lines above, was re-scratched by its owner. It is reproduced in Fig. 59b. The first figure beginning at the left possibly represents a tree. The middle figure has not been identified but it is clear that the one on the right represents a human being. On the left of the groove in the object are incised two hands pointing towards the left. These also were re-cut and are not reproduced in Fig. 59. The incision in the edge of the top of the club shown in Fig. 62 and the incisions at right angles to this were probably intended for decorative purposes. There is an incised design on the rounded surface of the saddle-shaped hollow of the club shown in Fig. 64. This design is made of transverse notches above and a zigzag line below. The upper part of the right edge of this knob is flat with two incisions across it. Incised lines arranged parallel to each other in rows may be seen on the handle and knob of the club shown in Fig. 68. There are thirteen of these lines on either edge of the knob. The other incisions are arranged in four vertical rows on the handle. The lines on the top of the shell pendant shown in Fig. 88 may be merely the depths of the teeth rather than incisions artificially made, but in this case they may have been considered as decorative and the shell may even have been chosen because of these lines. There are nine incised lines on the bone tube shown in Fig. 98. These run around it in a spiral direction in such a way that the lower end of each line is on the opposite side from the upper end.

The three transverse incisions on the top of the steatite specimen shown in Fig. 99 may be for decorative purposes or merely as tallies as also the five small drilled pits arranged about equi-distant from each other around the top and the four similarly arranged near the bottom.

The oblique incised lines on the edge of the mouthpiece and on the ridge about the middle of the pipe shown in Fig. 100, which slant outward from left to right at an angle of about 45° and make the ridge at least suggest a twisted cord, were no doubt made for decorative purposes. Pictographic scratches may be seen on the disk-shaped stone pipe, shown in Fig. 107. Those on the reverse are shown in Fig. 115. A simple geometric incised line decoration on wood may be seen on a fragment of a bow shown in Fig. 111. It will be remembered that parallel irregularly arranged cuneiform incisions decorated a fragment of a bow found in the Thompson River region.[386] The incised design on the stone dish previously mentioned on p. 38 and shown in Fig. 116 consists of two horizontal incisions running around the upper part of the dish a little below its middle and a zigzag line made up of twenty-five V-shaped marks which fills the space between the flat rim of this dish and the upper horizontal line.

[386] Smith, (c), p. 411.

Incised designs on dentalium shells are shown in Figs. 117 and 118. The first four were found under the skeleton in grave No. 25. This skeleton was of a child and was surrounded by a stone cyst buried in a dome of volcanic ash near Tampico, as shown in Plate X. This lot contained two shells ornamented with designs of the type shown in _a_, but in the one not figured the diamond points met and formed a checker pattern. There were four of the type shown in _b_, one of the type shown in _c_, and two like the type shown in _d_. The specimens shown in Fig. 118 were found among broken and charred human bones of about twelve individuals in cremation circle No. 15 (10) on the terrace northwest of the mouth of the Naches River. While there was only one specimen of the type shown in _a_, there were two of the type shown in _b_, and one like the four represented by Fig. 117b. Another cremation circle containing incised dentalium shells is known as No. 18 (13) and was located on the same terrace. The specimens are mere fragments, one of them, from the tip of the shell, bears a design similar to that shown in Fig. 117b, the other bears a simple incised spiral, the space between one incision and another being about equal to the width of the incision itself. The character of both the technique and the motive of these designs resembles that of those found on similar shells at Kamloops in the Thompson River region[387] and in the Nez Perce area to the east.[388] The design shown in Fig. 117a at least reminds us of paintings on the parfleches found among the modern Sahaptin and Plains tribes.

[387] Smith, (c), Fig. 369.

[388] Spinden, p. 181 and Plate IX, Fig. 15.

The incised design on the pendant made of steatite (p. 94, Fig. 119) does not seem to differ greatly in technique or motive from other incised designs found in this area and in the Thompson River region to the north. While most of the lines and pits can be considered as forming symmetrical or geometric designs, the central figure on the side shown in Fig. 119b may be interpreted as a conventional representation of a life form, namely, a fish. Red paint is rubbed into some of the lines and pits.

The human figure described under costume (p. 100, Fig. 121) is a somewhat conventionalized realistic form indicated by incisions on one surface of a piece of antler 2 to 5 mm. thick.[389] It was found in the grave of an infant under the vertebrae, No. 25 in a dome of volcanic ash. It is of good technique and artistic execution. The eyes are of the shape of a parallelogram with rounded corners. These, with similarly shaped figures on the headdress or inner hair-rolls, and on the hands, knees, and insteps, slightly resemble a motive common in the art of the coast to the northwest. The crescent-shaped mouth and thick lips are indicated by incised lines, while the cheeks are full, and the entire head is somewhat set out in relief from the rest of the object. The radiating figures above the head do not represent feathers in a realistic way, but closely resemble the conventional paintings made by the Dakota on buffalo robes. These paintings have been called sun symbols, but are interpreted by the Dakota as the feathers of a war-bonnet or other headdress. The fingers and thumb are set off from the palm by two lines, which, with the mark at the wrist, make a figure resembling the eye-form so common in Northwest coast art. The concentric design on the knees is probably related to the wheel, sun, or spider-web pattern common as a symbol on the shirts, blankets, and tents of some Plains tribes. The feet jutting out at the sides are slightly wider than the legs. The inside of the foot is straight with the inside of the leg, while the outer part is curved. The two, taken together with the lower portion of the legs, resemble a divided hoof. The divided hoof is a common design among Plains tribes.

[389] First described and figured, Smith, (g). See also abstract in Scientific American Supplement pp. 23876-8, Vol. LVIII, No. 1490, July 23, 1904 and in Records of the Past, l. c.; The Saturday Evening Post, Sept. 10, 1904 and the Washington Magazine.

There are only two specimens, of which I am aware, that resemble this. One (T-22107, 177 II) consists of seven fragments of a thin piece of antler found by Mrs. James Terry at Umatilla, Oregon, only about 83 miles in a southerly direction from Tampico. The back of this specimen is largely disintegrated, except on the two dog heads, and these being only about 5 mm. thick suggest that the whole figure was thin. The carving (Fig. 123) is in much greater relief than in the specimen from Tampico, although some of the lines are merely incisions. The tongue projects between, but not beyond, the lips. The cheeks are raised and there is considerable character to the face. The nose is aquiline and narrow, but the alæ are indicated. The orbits are sunken and horizontal oblong pits evidently indicate the eyes. The eyebrows are raised. Two horizontal incisions extend across the brow. Below the chin, at the left, are four incisions in a raised piece. This seems to represent a hand held with the fingers to the neck. A similar hand was probably at the right. A foot, with four toes in relief projecting above the brow as high as do the eyebrows, rests immediately above the upper horizontal incision and apparently indicates that some animal, possibly a bird, stood upon the human head. The fragment, however, is not sufficiently large to settle these points. Two of the other fragments are apparently intended to represent the heads of dogs. The eyes are indicated by the common circle and dot design; while the nostrils in one are represented by drilled dots. The shape of the heads is brought out by the carving of the edge of the object. The fragments are broken off at the neck, and the lower side of each shows the finished surface of the back of the object. The remaining fragments show little or nothing. The animal heads and the feet and hands suggest the possibility that in some cases animal forms were combined in such figures, as on the Northwest Coast, although the general style of art of the object is like neither Haida nor Kwakiutl work, but more like the carvings of Puget Sound and the lower Columbia River. The fact that the carving of this face is more in relief helps to explain the intent of the author of the Tampico specimen.

The other specimen (50-3110 a, b, c) is a quill-flattener, made of antler (Fig. 122). It was obtained by Dr. Clark Wissler from the Dakota at Pine Ridge, South Dakota, who also made reference to other objects of the same sort among the tribe. Porcupine quills were flattened on it with the thumb nail until after it had been broken, when the lower or pointed end had been used as a brush in applying color to form designs on various articles made of buckskin. This end is stained a deep red and the point is much worn. The object, in general, resembles in shape and size the specimen from Tampico. Its sides are somewhat thinner and sharper. The slight indications of hair or headdress, the deeply cut eyes and mouth in the concave side, the holes or ears at the sides of the head, and the method of indicating the arms by slits, setting them off, from the body, are all details which emphasize this general resemblance. The technical work is about as good as that of the Tampico specimen, but the art work is inferior. One edge of the convex or outer surface of the bone has twenty-five notches, and in each tooth left between them, as well as above the top one, is a small drilled dot. Some of the notches on the other side are broken away with the arm, which is missing. On the same surface are twenty-six horizontal incisions, which were interpreted as year counts. The general shape of the body and the rows of dots are similar to those of the figure pecked on the cliff at Sentinal Bluffs (Plate XI, Fig. 2).

The Tampico specimen may have developed from a quill-flattener, which implement was probably of common and characteristic use among Indian mothers, not only of the Plains but also as far west as Tampico. If the result of such a development, it had probably lost its domestic use and become entirely symbolic.

Mr. Teit has heard the Thompson Indians speak of figures carved by some men in their spare time, and valued highly as curiosities and works of art. They had no practical value, and were generally used as ornaments inside the house. They were in wood, bark, stone and antler, more generally in the last three, and usually represented the human figure. Although the Indians aver that they were sometimes very elaborately and truthfully carved, it is impossible to say, in the absence of a good specimen from the Thompson Indians whether there was any resemblance in style to that of this figure. The Thompson sometimes, placed such figures on the tops of houses, but the great majority were shown inside the houses. The Indian who made the one illustrated[390] told Mr. Teit that he had seen some of larger size which had taken a carver's spare time for many months.

[390] Teit, (a), p. 376. Fig. 297.