James Mooney - Native Americans - 22 Books on History, Mythology, Culture & Linguistic Studies

The Indians have appropriated for their service some of the products of European civilization, such as weapons, implements, domestic utensils, fabrics for clothing, &c. Mentally, excepting a few religious ideas which they received long ago from the teaching of Spanish missionaries and, in the southern settlements, excepting some few Spanish words, the Seminole have accepted and appropriated practically nothing from, the white man. The two peoples remain, as they always have been, separate and independent. Up to the present, therefore, the human environment has had no effect upon the Indians aside from that which has just been noticed, except to arouse them to war and to produce among them war’s consequences.

But soon a great and rapid change must take place. The large immigration of a white population into Florida, and especially the attempts at present being made to drain Lake Okeechobee and the Everglades, make it certain, as I have said, that the Seminole is about to enter a future unlike any past he has known. But now that new factors are beginning to direct his career, now that he can no longer retreat, now that he can no longer successfully contend, now that he is to be forced into close, unavoidable contact with men he has known only as enemies, what will he become? If we anger him, he still can do much harm before we can conquer him; but if we seek, by a proper policy, to do him justice, he yet may be made our friend and ally. Already, to the dislike of the old men of the tribe, some young braves show a willingness to break down the ancient barriers between them and our people, and I believe it possible that with encouragement, at a time not far distant, all these Indians may become our friends, forgetting their tragic past in a peaceful and prosperous future.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Introduction

Authorities Quoted

Orthography

Geography of Northeastern America

Distribution of the Tribes

General Observations

Baffin Land

The Sikosuilarmiut

The Akuliarmiut

The Qaumauangmiut

The Nugumiut

The Oqomiut

The Padlimiut and the Akudnirmiut

The Aggomiut

The Iglulirmiut

The Pilingmiut

The Sagdlirmiut

Western Shore of Hudson Bay

The Aivillirmiut

The Kinipetu or Agutit

The Sagdlirmiut of Southampton Island

The Sinimiut

Boothia Felix and Back River

The Netchillirmiut

The Ugjulirmiut

The Ukusiksalirmiut

Smith Sound

The natives of Ellesmere Land

The North Greenlanders

Influence of Geographical Conditions upon the Distribution of the Settlements

Trade and Intercourse Between the Tribes

List of the Central Eskimo Tribes

Hunting and Fishing

Seal, Walrus, and Whale Hunting

Deer, Musk Ox, and Bear Hunting

Hunting of Small Game

Fishing

Manufactures

Making Leather and Preparing Skins

Sundry Implements

Transportation by Boats and Sledges

The Boat (Umiaq)

The Sledge and Dogs

Habitations and Dress

The House

Clothing, Dressing of the Hair, and Tattooing

Social and Religious Life

Domestic Occupations and Amusements

Visiting

Social Customs in Summer

Social Order and Laws

Religious Ideas and the Angakunirn (Priesthood)

Sedna and the Fulmar

The Tornait and the Angakut

The Flight to the Moon

Kadlu the Thunderer

Feasts, Religious and Secular

Customs and Regulations Concerning Birth, Sickness, and Death

Tales and Traditions

Ititaujang

The Emigration of the Sagdlirmiut

Kalopaling

The Uissuit

Kiviung

Origin of the Narwhal

The Visitor

The Fugitive Women

Qaudjaqdjuq

I. Story of the Three Brothers

II. Qaudjaqdjuq

Igimarasugdjuqdjuaq the Cannibal

The Tornit

The Woman and the Spirit of the Singing House

The Constellation Udleqdjun

Origin of the Adlet and of the Qadlunait

The Great Flood

Inugpaqdjuqdjualung

The Bear Story

Sundry Tales

The Owl and the Raven

Comparison Between Baffin Land Traditions and those of Other Tribes

Science and the Arts

Geography and Navigation

Poetry and Music

Merrymaking Among the Tornit

The Lemming’s Song

Arlum Pissinga (the killer’s song)

I. Summer Song

II. The Returning Hunter

III. Song of the Tornit

IV. Song of the Inuit Traveling to Nettilling

V. Oxaitoq’s Song

VI. Utitiaq’s Song

VII. Song

VIII. Song

IX. Song of the Tornit

X. The Fox and the Woman

XI. The Raven Sings

XII. Song of a Padlimio

XIII. Ititaujang’s Song

XIV. Playing at Ball

XV. Playing at Ball

XVI. From Parry

XVII. From Lyon

XVIII. From Kane

XIX. From Bessels’s Amerikanische Nordpol-Expedition

Glossary

Eskimo Words Used, with Derivations and Significations

Eskimo Geographical Names Used, with English Significations

Appendix

Index

Table of Contents

The following account of the Central Eskimo contains chiefly the results of the author’s own observations and collections made during a journey to Cumberland Sound and Davis Strait, supplemented by extracts from the reports of other travelers. The geographical results of this journey have been published in a separate volume. 1A few traditions which were considered unsuitable for publication by the Bureau of Ethnology may be found in the Verhandlungen der Berliner Gesellschaft für Anthropologie, Ethnologie und Urgeschichte, 1887. The linguistic material collected during the journey will be published separately.

Owing to unfortunate circumstances, the larger portion of the author’s collections could not be brought home, and it has therefore been necessary, in preparing this paper, to make use of those made by C. F. Hall, 1860–1862 and 1865–1869; W. Mintzer, 1873-’74, and L. Kumlien, 1877-’78. Through the kindness of Professor Otis T. Mason, I was allowed to make ample use of the collections of the National Museum and have attached its numbers to the specimens figured. The author’s collection is deposited in the Museum für Völkerkunde at Berlin. I am indebted to the American Museum of Natural History; to Mr. Appleton Sturgis, of New York; to Captain John O. Spicer, of Groton, Conn.; and to Mrs. Adams, of Washington, D.C., for several figures drawn from specimens in their possession.

Table of Contents

In citing the various authorities, I have used abbreviations as indicated at the end of titles in the following list of works consulted:

De | Martini | Forbisseri | Angli navigati | one in regiones occi | dentis et septen | trionis | Narratio historica, | Ex Gallico sermone in La | tinum translata | per | D. Joan. Tho. Freigivm. | [Design.] | Cum gratia & privilegio Imperiali, ciↄ. iↄ. xxc. [Colophon:] Noribergæ | Imprimebatur, in officina Ca | tharinæ Gerlachin, & Hære | dum Iohannis Mon | tani. Anno ciↄ iↄ xxc. (Cited, Frobisher.)

A | voyage of discovery, | made under the orders of the Admiralty | in | His Majesty’s ships | Isabella and Alexander, | for the purpose of | exploring Baffin’s Bay, | and inquiring into the probability of a | north-west passage. | By John Ross, K.S. Captain Royal Navy. | London: | John Murray, Albemarle-street. | 1819. (Cited, Ross I.)

Journal | of a voyage for the discovery of a | north-west passage | from the Atlantic to the Pacific; | performed in the years 1819–20, | in His Majesty’s ships | Hecla and Griper, | under the orders of | William Edward Parry, R.N., F.R.S., | and commander of the expedition. | With an appendix, containing the scientific | and other observations. | Published by authority of the lords commissioners | of the admiralty. | London: | John Murray, | publisher to the admiralty, and board of longitude. | 1821. (Cited, Parry I.)