The San Francisco call., 1904-07-03
NATIVE INDIANS
LACK DIGNITY
DR.. KrOeber Has a Poor
Opinion of Tribes Inhabit-
ing Domain of California
FINDS THEM PRIMITIVE
University Scientist Says
Aborigines Show Nothing
of the Aggressive Spirit
Berkeley Office San Francisco Call,
214S Center Street, July 2.


214S Center Street, July 2.
In the Indian of California DR.. A.
l.. Kroeber Of the anthropological de-
partment of the University of Califor-
MIA sees nothing of that dignity, pic
| turesqueness and sanguinary spirit
that were among the chief character
istics of the other tribes Of aborigines
that roamed the American continent
before the white man began to press
westward. DIR. Kroeber finds that this
is something of an anomoly, as In all'
other instances of human occupation
the people have thrived and waxed
vigorous and powerful under such in
iuences of climate and environment
as prevail in California.
The observations of the scientist are
made in bulletin written by him and
issued from the university to-day un-
| der the title, Types of Indian Gull
| ture in California" Only one attempt
has been made, he says, to give a sys-
tematic account of the Indians Of Cali
fornia and that by Stephen Powers
when he wrote his Tribes of Califor-
| MIA twenty-five years ago. A more
extended search into the history of the
Indians has been made these last few
years by the University of California.
literally assisted by Mrs. Hearst, with
the object of preserving all informa-
ton obtainable about the Indians.
To DIR. Kroeber the California In
dians seem to have been given more to
the arts of peace than of warfare.
They were more primitive than the
Indians of any other part Of the con-
tinent and on the whole not much
more above the plane of civilization
than the Eskimo. On this subject DR..
| Kroeber says:
From the time of the first settle
ment of California its Indians have
been described as both more primi-
tive and more peaceful than the ma
jority of the natives of North America.
On the whole this opinion is undoubt-
edly true. The practical arts of life,
the social institutions and the cere-
| monies of the California Indians are
| unusually simple and undeveloped.
There were no war for its own sake,
no confederacies of powerful tribes.
no communal stone pueblos, no totems,
no potlatches. The picturesquesness
and dignity of other Indians are lack
ing. In general rudeness of culture
| the California Indians are scarcely
above the Eskimo; and whereas the
lack of development of the Eskimo on
many sides of their nature is reasona-
bly, attributable in part to their diff
cult and limiting environment, the
Indians OF California inhabit country
naturally as favorable, it would seem,
as might be. If the degree of civiliza-
ton attained by people demands in
any large measure on their habitat
as does not seem likely, it might be
concluded from the case of the Cali
fornia Indians that natural advantages
were an impediment rather than an
incentive to progress.
GREAT UNIFORMITY.
Throughout the greater part of the
State the civilization of the Indians is
very much alike. While the number
of groups and divisions corresponding
to tribes and the number of languages
is large and no two groups show ex-
actly identical customs and beliefs the
general type of culture is uniform,
The exceptions are Southern California
and the northwestern part of the
/
these divergent cultures is compare
tive small, and more than two-thirds
of the State, including all the central
part, show a fundamental clinical
similarity whose distinguishing char
acteristics furthermore are not found
outside of the State. 1t is therefore
possible to speak of typical California
Indians and to recognize a typical Cal
ifornian culture area"
Their great stability Of population
was one of the features of the Indian
residence in the State, and this, the
scientist says. goes to account for the
linguistic diversity existing among
them. Whenever extraneous races have
found their way into the State they
have always been completely assimi-
lated to the condition of life of their
neighbors.
Vegetable products seem to have
been the principal food products of the
aboriginal Californian. They were
hunters. too, and fishermen, but pre-
ferred plant food. The staple every
where was acorns, although there was
an abundance of berries and roots TO
eat.
The habitations of the Indians could
hardly be dignified as houses, being
more of humble huts. They were
structures of brush and tule, and some
times bark and wood. In arts they
were unusually primitive, basketry
alone being the only development of
SKILL Pottery was unknown, except
for a few rude attempts that were
made in imitation of the Shoshone In
dians. They manufactured ropes and
strings, but no woven textiles. DR..
Kroeber says:
'Of realistic representation either in
two or three dimensions there appears
to be virtually none beyond the pat
terms of baskets; and in these the con-
ventional side in most cases far out
weighs the realistic, the interpreta-
tions of designs being pattern names,
and not symbolism. Picture printing is
foreign to the mind Of the California
Indian"
SOCIAL ORGANIZATION.