 |
IV. The Chemehuevi Indians Ten Kate left Yuma by buckboard on April 21, 1883. Crossing the Gila River he almost lost his luggage when his wagon sank into a mud hole in the middle of the stream. Only with great difficulty did the six horse-team manage to pull the wagon and its load onto the bank. At Castle Dome Landing he encountered several Apache Yumas. The journey continued across the barren Chocolate Mountains and along the Colorado River, and in the early evening of April 24 Ten Kate arrived in Ehrenberg, where he was forced to spend several days waiting for transport by buckboard to the Mohave and Chemehuevi Agency at Parker. From April 28 to May 6 he conducted fieldwork among the Yuman-speaking Mohaves, during which time he visited the Chemehuevi settlement, twelve miles from the agency headquarters. On May 7 Ten Kate boarded the stern-wheeler "Mohave" and travelled northward by way of Aubrey's Landing, Chemehuevi Valley and Needles to Fort Mohave, where he continued his research among the Mohaves for several days. He made the acquaintance of Indian inspector general C.H. Howard, and agreed to visit the Southern Paiutes further upstream with this official from the Bureau of Indian Affairs. On May 13 they embarked on a steamer, and journeyed upstream, passing Hardyville and Boulder Rapids, stopping at Cottonwood Island, continuing past Painted Canyon, and arriving at El Dorado Canyon, a mining camp in southern Nevada, on the evening of May 15. The next day Howard called together the local Paiutes, providing Ten Kate with an opportunity for making observations and interviewing several Indians.
According to the Indian Agent's annual report, the reservation harboured 811 Mohaves and 215 Chemehuevis, the latter living in the northwestern corner of the reservation on the Californian side of the Colorado River. During his fieldwork Ten Kate noted linguistic, physical, and psychological differences between the Mohaves and Chemehuevis. Because the Chemehuevi language sounded much harsher than the melodious Mohave-Yuman, Ten Kate tried to determine its linguistic affiliation. On the basis of his ethnolinguistic knowledge he concluded that the Chemehuevis were a division of the Paiutes. He later found this conclusion supported by the name by which the Indians called themselves: "Tontewaits", meaning "those of the south". They formed the most southern division of the Southern Paiutes.
The Chemehuevis also differed physically from the Mohaves, being shorter and less robust, with flatter faces. The shape of their skulls was deemed to be brachycephalous (broadly shaped) and they resembled the Mohaves in this respect. They had peculiar moustaches, the middle part of which was shaved off, leaving only the ends near the corners of the mouth. Ten Kate managed to take the physical measurements of fourteen men, but only after he had made them believe that this was in order to determine the size of hats the government would provide: an early example of anthropological ethics in fieldwork. The Chemehuevi dwellings were similar to those of the Quechans and Mohaves. Their earth lodges or winter houses were built in shallow excavated pits, which were surrounded by beams and poles, given a flat roof, and then covered with earth and mud. Shapes varied from round to oblong and rectangular. They also constructed separate sweat lodges. Their pottery also resembled that of the Colorado River Yumans. Ten Kate bought a pair of white deerskin boots, called pagap by the Indians. The acquisition of traditional ethnographic objects was virtually impossible according to Ten Kate, since most expressions of traditional material culture had vanished. Only basketry was still being produced, and he admired its quality, as a competent judge after seeing ethnographic collections in several European and American museums, and having visited the Tohono O'odham (Papagos) earlier. Ten Kate saw similar baskets among the Quechans and Mohaves, and assumed that the Chemehuevis traded their craftwork with these tribes. Ten Kate paid a visit to Thomas, the chief of the Chemehuevis. However, it seems that the head man was not much use as an informant because he was actively engaged in a game of cards in a sweat house, and did not want to be disturbed. His face was painted red, but he wore a western-style black hat like most of his tribesmen. Few Chemehuevis, however, spoke English or Spanish. Most used Mohave in their dealings with that tribe, since few Mohaves were able or willing to master the Southern Paiute language. Interethnic sexual relations with whites were much more frequent among the Chemehuevis than the Mohaves, resulting in a considerable number of mixed-blood Indians. Many women left the tribe to live with their white husbands in mining camps and frontier towns. Ten Kate was aware of the fact that the federal government had forcefully removed the band from their fertile Chemehuevi Valley to the arid desert reservation, an "unselfish" act as he noted cynically, clearly showing where his sympathies lay. A number of Chemehuevi children visited the agency day school, which was established in 1881. The women teachers told Ten Kate that the Chemehuevi youngsters were generally more intelligent than their Mohave counterparts. They had observed the same for boys as compared to girls. Intertribal personality differences were also noted, the Chemehuevis being headstrong and unforgiving while the Mohaves were impulsive but lighthearted and humorous, according to the notes made by the Dutch anthropologist. Among the Chemehuevis Ten Kate purchased several clay effigies, several baskets, items of dress, a flute and a war club. | |
