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Ethnography of the Yuma Indians

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Ethnography of the Yuma Indians ETHNOGRAPHY OF THE YUMA INDIANS BY C. DARYLL FORDE AMERICAN ARCHAEOLOGY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PUBLICATIONS IN AND ETHNOLOGY in text, 2:'inaps, 1 table Volumd 28, No. 4, pp. 83-278, plates 49-57, 17 figures Issued December 12, 1931 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS LONDON, ENGLAND ETHNOGRAPHY OF THE YUMA INDIANS BY C. DARYLL BORDE CONTENTS • PAGE 85 Preface ' 88 Introduction 89 The Lower Colorado region 92 ' Aboriginal condiionst 98 Territory and settlements 104 . External relations 106 Linguistic relations 107 Food supply 107 Agriculture 113 Planted grasses 114 . Land ownership 11.5 Gathered seeds and fruits 117 Tobacco 118 . .Hunting 118 Feasts 119 Fishing 120 Seasons 120 Houses 123 Pottery 124 Basket ry 120 Weaving 127 River navigation 127 Songs 130 Musical instruments 132 Games 133 Leadership 142 Sibs 147 Genealogy 148 Kinship . 149 Personal names 150 Boys' initiation rite 159- Girls' puberty observances 155 Tattooing • 155 Marriage 157 Transvestites 158 Birth customs .. 160 Warfare ...... .. I 68 Captives 170 ; ' Weapons 170 Clubs and spears 170 Bow and arrow 173 Shields .173 Training 0,n Am. Arch. and El/in. [Vol. 28 'University of California Publications in 84 PAGE 176 The creation 179 •-:, The soul and after life 180 Prayer 181 Medicine and magic 185 Sickness from natural causes 187 Dream poisoning 191 Soul loss 194 Sorcery 195 Charms 196 Snake bite cures 197 Rain makers 198 The doctor 20f) Theories of disease 201 Dream vision 904 Herbal remedies 205 Sweat baths 203 Jimsonweed ... 207 Cremation rites 919 Funeral speech 213 Translation 214 The keruk or mourning ceremony 214 keruk ' The myth of the first 921 Keruk ritual 945 Keruk songs 945 eeremenial shield Songs for the making of the 919 keruk house Songs of the building of the 259 The mourning ceremonies of neighboring peoples _ 252 Mohave 25:3 Halchidhoina 254 Maricopa - 254 Co colin . 256 Diegueflo 258 Southern Shoshoneans 258 Serraho 259 Pass.Cahuilla (Palm Springs) 262 Comparative analysis • 265 The feathered staves ' 269 The fringed shields 271 Conclusion 273 ,Bibliography • 278 Explanation of plates PLATES (Following page 278) 49. The Colorado River 50. Fort \rum?. and Pilot Knob . 51. Yuma types : 52. 01la and storage basket - 53. Bark twine weaving-- 54. Flutes 55. Bow and quiver 56. Funeral ground and shelter 57. Keruk house and attackers . 85 of the Yuma 110.iane 1931] Ford.e : Ethnography MAPS region 1. Tribal distributions in the Colorado 2, The Lower Colorado FIGURES IN TEXT PAGE 93 1. Rawhide sandals 112 2. Agricultural tools 119 3. Fishing nets and trap 121 4. Sand covered house 123 i- 5. Aboriginal pottery forms 131 6. Gourd rattle 131 7. Deerhoof rattle 161 ‘ 8. Lower Colorado war clubs 210 9. Cremation pyre 224 10. The keruk ground 230 11. Image frame.. 231 tattoo markings on i mage heads 12. Face paints and 231 13. Female image 233 14. Feathered stave 235 15. The mimic attack 240 16. Cerertionial shield 241 17. Keruk house ceremonial TABLE 260 Mourning ceremonies in the Lower Colorado region PREFACE on the west The Yuma at the present time occupy a reservation Gila, immediately north bank of the Colorado at the confluence of the includes file greater part of the International Boundary. This land the period of Spanish exploration, of the territory occupied by them in This territory so that they have suffered little 'direct disturbance. of the Imperial valley was, however, allotted before the development the eastern part of the • irrigation scheme, which has since transformed reservation. While the extensive fertilizing floods, remarked by the Spanish explorers, have been reduced by the construction of Laguna main distribution canal across dam and riverine dykes, the passage of a reservation territory and the construction of branch and distributary . have greatly canals which have equipped it for modern irrigation, • enha7nced the economic value of their land. reservation, cotton With the establishment of ginneries on the growing has been developed on the irrigable land, but the Indians have 86 University of California. Publications in Am. Arch. and Ethn. [Vo ] . 28 taken little advantage of these developments and have frequently leased their allotments to white operators, relying themselves on casual employment. Participation in irrigation agriculture and the close proximity of the town of Yuma across the river have given the Yuma a measure of prosperity and sense of self-respect and importance which is too rare among reservation Indians. This unusual degree of assimila- tion has, hbwever, resulted in a rapid disappearance of native crafts, so that, although the sense of tribal solidarity is remarkably strong, American culture has penetrated deeply into their material life. Pottery, basketry, and native weaving are virtually extinct. The aboriginal cultivation has necessarily been supplanted and the social organization of former times has largely- disappeared. The ceremonial and religious life of the people has, nevertheless, suffered little disturbance and is at present practically unaffected by the .thin veneer of niethodism and catholicism which compete for their adherence in the missions at Port Yuma. • The Yuma reservation was visited in December-January, 1928-29 and again in September and December, 1929. In connection with the work I wish to thank Mr. E. W. Gifford, who accompanied me in 1928 to study the neighboring Kamya ; Dr. A. L. Kroeber, for much advice based especially On h is knowledge of the culturally related n Mohave; and Dr. It E. Bolton, ,..ho has kindly given me access to his manuscripts and commentaries of the Anza expeditions which traversed the Yuma territory in the latter part of the eighteenth century. For financial assistance I am indebted to the 'University of Cali- fornia, the Smithsonian Institution of Washington, the Southwest 'Society of New York, arid the Commonwealth Fund of New York. The simpler phonetic system of the American Anthropological Association' has, in general, been followed in the transliteration of native speech. The following summary and notes may be of service. a as in father ,a as in but C as in fato e as in met I5 in pique as in pin 6 as in note o as in not a as in rule u as in put o as in idea (obscure) 3- Sapir, 2-7. 87 the Yuma Indians 1931] Forde: Ethnography of open P is not as wide as The short il as in hat was not heard. The long iTt is relatively un- in the English equivalent give above. The rule. A is very common; rounded as compared with the English in it frequently appears to have an e quality but when slowly enunciated approaches a. to be intermediate through- The stops (p,b ; t,d; k,g . ; and q,g) tend out; when spoken slowly they are probably sonant at the occlusiva, hut surd during the expulsion of. breath. They have usually been written with the surd symbols. Palatalized k (icy) is frequent.- Nasals are bilabial and dental, m is frequently sustained (m.). songs. Palatalized The palatal fi as in ring was rarely heard except. in nasals, especially ny as in the English, new, are frequent. Spirants are: v son ant bilabial as in Spanish sonant interdental as in though c prepalatal as in shine s Surd sibilant as in sing x surd palatal as in German jell An affricative d8 was frequently heard, r is sonant and L as in Both the surd and sonant laterals, 1 as in light and Llewellyn, occur. Aspiration when weak is indicated by `, when strong. by h. ' glottal stop ' accent (placed after the vowel) a. indicates greater length of sound a: indicates exceptional length of sound I am greatly indebted to the following informants for their services during the course of my field work My general interpreter, Mr. Patrick Miguel, actively cooperated with the work throughout. Born" Age in 1929 Manuel Thomas 3842 89 years Joe Homer 1869 60 " Stephen Kelly 1870 59 " Patrick Miguel 1877 52 " Lincoln Johnson 3.879 50 " Mrs. Hipa Norton 1863 66 Mrs. Xavtcals Roosevelt 1870 59 " dates may in some instances be 2 According to the Agency Records. These approximations. Wherever one informant is more particularly responsible for an account his name is given. 28 88 University of California Publications' in Am. 'Arch. and Ethn. [Vol. Since the material culture was known to have followed the Mohave pattern and is at the present time decayed and adulterated by white influence, my attention has been devoted primarily to •social, cere- monial, and religious practice. I have, however, endeavored to give a balanced, if incomplete, picture of the culture as it was at the beginning of the nineteenth century. INTRODUCTION When first encountered the Yuma were one of a large group of peoples occupying the bottom lands of the lower Colorado from the Needles, California, to the gulf of California. The aboriginal popula- tion of this region was, exclusive of the higher cultures of Middle America, probably as dense as any in the New World. This concen- tration of people depended, however, on no great elaboration of material civilization but rath'er on fortunate environmental circum- stances, which a crude agriculture and moderate industry in the col- lection of wild fruits were able to exploit with relatively little effort. The life of the Lower Colorado tribes, despite their desert environ- ment, was less arduous than that of the Basin gatherers or the hunters of the Plains, while their economic security was probably as great as among the Pueblo peoples. Relatively undisturbed in Spanish and Mexican times the Yuma maintained their aboriginal culture almost unchanged until the fifties of the last century, when the establishment of the caravan trail to Southern California terminated their freedom.
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