About the Yosemite Indians of California

CUSTOMS AND CHARACTERISTICS

DIVISION OF TERRITORY.

COMMERCE AMONG THE TRIBES.

From the Indians at or near the Catholic Missions to the South, on the Pacific Coast, they got their hunting knives of iron or steel, and sea shells of various kinds, for personal or dress ornaments, and also to be used as money. From the same source they obtained beads of various forms, sizes and colors, cheap jewelry and other fancy articles, a few blankets, and pieces of red bunting, strips of which the chiefs and head men wore around their heads as badges, indicating their official positions.

COMMUNICATION.

They had a very efficient system of quickly spreading important news by relays of special couriers, who took the news to the first stations or tribes in different directions, where others took the verbal dispatches and ran to the next station, and so on, so that all tribes within an area of a hundred miles would get the good or bad tidings within a few hours. In this manner important communication was kept up between the different tribes. They also had well organized signal systems, by fires in the night and smoke by day, on high points of observation—variations in the lights (either steady, bright or flashing) indicating somewhat the character of the tidings thus given.

CHARACTERISTICS.

Their style of architecture is in a state of transition, like themselves. Their old o´-chum form of dwelling is now very seldom seen—a rude building of more roomy and modern design having taken its place.
All the able-bodied men are ready and willing to work at any kind of common labor, when they have an opportunity, and have learned to want nearly the same amount of pay as a white man for the same work.
As a rule, they are trustworthy, and when confidence is placed in their honesty it is very rarely betrayed. During nearly the uring the day, and often all night, are absent on distant trips of observation, with no one left in charge of camp, yet there has never to my knowledge been an instance of anything being stolen or molested by Indians. There are, however, some dishonest Indians, who will steal from their own people, and some times, when a long distance from their own camp, they may steal from the whites. A few, if they can get whisky, through the aid of some white person, will become drunk and fight among themselves, and occasionally one of them may be killed; but, as a rule, they are peaceful and orderly, and hold sacred the promise made to the Indian Commissioners by the old tribal chiefs, when released from confinement on the reservatiopast fifty years, a great many thousands of people have visited the Yosemite Valley with their own camping outfits, and, dns, that they would forever keep the peace, and never again make war against the white people.

SOURCES OF FOOD SUPPLY.

The food supply of the Sierra Indians was extensive and abundant, consisting of the flesh of deer, antelope, elk and mustang horses, together with fish, water-fowls, birds, acorns, berries, pine nuts, esculent herbage and the tuberous roots of certain plants, all of which were easily obtained, even with their simple and limited means of securing them. Mushrooms, fungi, grasshoppers, worms and the larvae of ants and other insects, were also eaten, and some of these articles were considered great delicacies.

HUNTING.

Their main effective weapons for hunting large game were their bows and obsidian-pointed arrows. Their manner of hunting was either by the stealthy still hunt, or a general turn-out, surrounding a large area of favorable country and driving to a common center, where at close range the hunters could sometimes make an extensive slaughter