Harlan Ingersoll Smith

“ The Agency physician is of the opinion that the grave was very old and that steatite does not occur near by but that the material must have been brought from Puget Sound. As the character of the art more closely resembles that of the Thompson River region where steatite is frequently found, at least in the form of artifacts, it would seem that the material more likely came from there, if indeed it was not from a nearer source, perhaps in this very valley. ”

“ Notched Sinkers. Sinkers for fish nets or lines were made of disk-shaped river pebbles. A pebble and the different types of sinkers are shown in Fig. 13. These were numerous on the surface of the beach of the Columbia River near the head of Priest Rapids. They have two or four notches chipped from each side in the edges. When there are two, the notches are usually at each end; when there are four, they are at the end and side edges. Sometimes, the notches are so crudely made that the edge of the pebble is simply roughened so that a string tied about it at this place would hold. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Teit by the Indians for the making of the flange or other thickening at the mouth of the pipe stem was to prevent the string used in attaching the pipe to the wooden stem slipping off. According to all of them, wooden stems were always used with tubular pipes as with elbow and simple bowl pipes; for a person cannot smoke any kind of stone pipe more than a few draws before it becomes too hot for the lips. To Mr. Teit's mind, no matter how small the bore of the pipe, a regular stem must have been used for smoking. ”

“ 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 par [Pg 128] allelogram 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. ”

“ During the summer the Indians for the most part live in the small valleys lying well into the foot of the mountains. These are, however, uninhabitable during the winter, and they move further down, or to more sheltered situations. The mission which, in summer, is maintained in the A-tá-nam valley, is transferred into that of the main river." [25]
[Pg 20] After passing the top of the divide, to the left of the trail from Ellensburg to Priest Rapids, chips and fragments of variegated float quartz suitable for chipped implements were found. ”

“ Horse Sacrifices. We discovered no graves containing horse bones or over which a skeleton of a horse was found, although it will be remembered that such were found in the Nez Perce region east of here. [429] There, the killing of horses over the graves of their owners became the usual practice when horses were plentiful. Sometimes a horse was buried over the body. [430] In this region, however, we found no evidences of the horse in connection with the graves other than the presence of an old Spanish bit in one of the more recent burials. ”

“ The rocks and cyst were entirely different from those of the cairns of the coast of Washington and British Columbia. [412] The skeletons were found flexed, on the side. In the graves, artifacts such as dentalium shells were deposited at the time of burial.
The Kalapuya of the Willamette Valley to the southwest, buried their dead in the earth. One writer described the process as follows:—"When the grave was dug they placed slabs on the bottom and sides, and when they had lowered the wrapped body down, placed another over, resting on the side ones, and filled in the earth." ”

“ Captain Clark said, "I do not think [it] at all improbable that those people make use of Dried fish as fuel. The number of dead Salmon on the Shores & floating in the river is incrediable to say ... how far they have to raft their timber they make their scaffolds of I could not learn; but there is no timber of any sort except Small willow bushes in sight in any direction."
Sentinal Bluffs is the name given to both sides of the gap where the Columbia River breaks through Saddle Mountains. It is a short distance above the head of Priest Rapids. ”

“ The simple pipe bowl found here, although with one exception not found among archaeological objects in the Thompson area is commonly used by the present Indians there. Tubular pipes, modern copper tubes or beads, incised designs consisting of a circle with a dot in it and engraved dentalium shells, each of a particular kind, besides pictographs in red, rock-slide sepulchres, modern graves walled up with parts of canoes, the marking of recent graves with sticks, and the custom of burying artifacts with the dead were also found to be common to both areas. ”

“ 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 cylindrical surface has been formed by pecking except in one place where the natural surface shows. This bit of natural surface is such that it suggests the specimen to have been made of a prismatic basaltic column. While these two specimens may have been intended for pestles, it seems possible that they were made for rollers. Several such objects made of stone were seen in Mr. Owen's collection. He says that they were used like rolling pins for crushing camas and kouse roots in making bread. Both of these roots were extensively used in the Nez Perce region to the east. ”

“ Each terrace begins at the edge of the slide and runs horizontally out around its convex surface to the opposite side. Some of them are wider than others. They resemble the more or less horizontal and parallel terraces formed by horses and cattle while feeding on steep slopes. The Yakima Ridge has been so terraced by stock in many places and over large areas. ”

“ The object 498 mm. long shown in Fig. 35 is made of steatite, material seemingly unsuited by its softness for a pestle, and may possibly be a war club. Mr. McCandless, in whose collection it is, calls the material a soft sandstone which he says is found at the head of the Wenatchie River. He says the specimen is from Lake Chelan and that he obtained it from a man above Wenatchie on the Columbia River. This man told him that he secured it from Chief Moses' tribe on Lake Chelan, and that the Indians there call it a war club and a family heirloom. ”

“ It is clear that the ancient people from the Yakima region had extensive communications not only with the region southward as far as The Dalles, but also northward, as far as the more distant Thompson River tribes. If the products of the sea found in this region came up the Columbia, as may be inferred from Lewis, [435] it is a good illustration of how trade as a rule, follows the line of least physical resistance ”

“ Nets, excepting the bag net, were very little used in the Kamloops-Lytton region along the Thompson River and that may account for a scarcity of sinkers among archaeological finds. Nets were more extensively used on the Fraser River, but were very much used near large lakes and consequently one would expect to find sinkers in the vicinity of such places as Kamloops, Shushwap, Anderson, Seaton, Lillooet, Nicola, Kootenay and Arrow Lakes. ”

“ However, there is no vegetation on the rock-slide to entice stock and the difficulty of walking over the cruelly sharp rocks as well as the presence of rattlesnakes would seem sufficient to cause both cattle and horses to pass either below or above it. The outer edge of each terrace is probably little lower than the inner edge, but viewed from the slope it seems so, and this suggests that these terraces may have been entrenchments, though it would seem that they would be useless for such a purpose since one can easily reach the land above from either side. ”

“ A groove is pecked part way around near the top as if to carve the knob and begin the reduction of the top of the shaft. There is also a pecked surface on one side near the base, apparently the beginning of an attempt to form a striking head by first removing irregularities. The one shown in Fig. 28 was found within eight miles of North Yakima and is of rather unusual shape, having a short striking head of the shape of the typical pestles of northern and western Vancouver Island. ”

“ Deer bones were seen in great numbers in the earth of a village site at the head of Priest Rapids where they probably are the remains of cooking. Animal bones were made into points for arrows or harpoon barbs, awls and tubes that were probably used in gambling. ”