While we know our northern friends may not feel it, in the South, Spring is
here. So we thought we'd share a few of our gardening sites appropriate
for this time of the year. Along with gardening, there's grilling, and getting
ready to diet so that you can fit back into that bathing suit this summer!
Kutenai (corrupted form, possibly by way of the language of the Siksika, of
Kútonâqa, one of their names for themselves). A people forming a distinct
linguistic stock, the Kitunahan family of Powell, who inhabit parts of south
east British Columbia and north Montana and Idaho, from the lakes near the source of
Columbia river to Pend d'Oreille lake. Their legends and traditions indicate
that they originally dwelt east of the Rocky mountains, probably in Montana, whence they
were driven westward by the Siksika, their hereditary enemies. The two tribes
now live on amicable terms, and some intermarriage has taken place. Before the
buffalo disappeared from the plains they often had joint hunting expeditions.
Recollection of the treatment of the Kutenai by the Siksika remains, however, in
the name they give the latter, Sahantla ('bad people'). They entertained also a
bad opinion of the Assiniboin (Tlutlamaeka, 'cat-throats'), and the Cree (Gutskiawe,
'liars').
The Kutenai language is spoken in two slightly differing dialects, Upper and
Lower Kutenai. A few uncertain points of similarity in grammatical structure with
the Shoshonean tongues seem to exist. The language is incorporative both with
respect to the pronoun and the noun object. Prefixes and suffixes abound, the
prefix aq(k)- in nouns occurring with remarkable frequency. As in the Algonquian tongues, the form of a word used in composition differs from that which it
has independently. Reduplication is very rare, occurring only in a few nouns,
some of which are possibly of foreign origin, There are a few loan-words from
Sahshan dialects.
The Upper Kutenai include the following subdivisions: Akiskenukinik,
Akamik
Akanekunik, and Akiyenik.
The Lower Kutenai are more primitive and nomadic, less under the influence of
the Catholic church, and more given to gambling. They have long been river and
lake Indians, and possess peculiar bark canoes that resemble some of those used
in the Amur region in Asia (Mason in Rep. Nat. Mus., 1899). Of late years
many of them have taken to horses and are skillful in their management. The
Upper Kutenai keep nearer the settlements, often obtaining a living by serving
the settlers and miners in various ways. Many of them have practically ceased to
be canoe-men and travel by horse. Both the Upper and the Lower Kutenai hunt and
fish, the latter depending more on fish for food. Physically, the Kutenai are
well developed and rank among the taller tribes of British Columbia. Indications
of race mixture seem to be shown in the form of the head. Their general
character from the time of De Smet has been reported good. Their morality,
kindness, and hospitality are noteworthy, and more than any other Indians of
the country they have avoided drunkenness and lewd intercourse with the whites.
Their mental ability is comparatively high, and the efforts of the missionaries
have been rewarded with success. They are not excessively given to emotional
instability, do not lack a sense of interest, and can concentrate attention when
necessary. Their social system is simple, and no evidence of the existence of
totems or secret societies has been found. The chieftainship, now more or less
elective, was probably hereditary, with limitations; slavery of war prisoners
was formerly in vogue; and relatives were responsible for the debts of a
deceased person. Marriage was originally polygamous; divorced women were allowed
to marry again, and adultery was not severely punished. Adoption by marriage or
by residence of more than a year was common. Women could hold certain kinds of
property, such as tents and utensils. A wergild was customary. Religion was a
sort of sun worship, and the belief in the ensoulment of all things and in
reincarnation prevailed. The land of the dead was in the sun, from which at some
time all the departed would descend to Lake Pend d'Oreille to meet the Kutenai
then living. In the
old days the medicine-men were very powerful, their influence surviving most
with the Lower Kutenai, who still paint their faces on dance
occasions; but tattooing is rare. Except a sort of reed pipe, a bone flute, and the drum,
musical instruments were unknown to them; but they had gambling, dancing, and
medicine songs. The Lower Kutenai are still exceedingly addicted
to gambling, their favorite being a noisy variety of the
wide-spread guess-stick game.. The Kutenai were in former days
great buffalo hunters. Firearms have driven out the bow and
arrow, save as children's toys or for killing birds. Spearing, the
basket trap, and wicker weirs were much in use by the Lower Kutenai. Besides the
bark canoe, they had dugouts; both skin and rush lodges were built; the sweat
house was universal. Stone hammers were still in use in parts of their country
in the last years of the 19th century. The Lower Kutenai are still noted for
their water-tight baskets of split roots. In dress they originally resembled the
Plains Indians rather than those of the coast; but contact with the whites has
greatly modified their costume. While fond of the white man's tobacco, they have
a sort of their own made of willow bark. A large part of their food supply is
now obtained from the whites. For food, medicine, and economical
purposes the Kutenai use a large number of the plant products of
their environment (Chamberlain in Verh. d. Berl. Gee. f. Anthr., 551-6, 1895). They were gifted
also with esthetic appreciation of several plants and flowers. The diseases from
which the Kutenai suffer most are consumption and ophthalmic troubles; venereal
diseases are rare. Interesting maturity ceremonies still survive in part. The
mythology and folklore of the Kutenai consist chiefly of cosmic and ethnic
myths, animal tales, etc. In the animal tales the coyote, as an adventurer and
deceiver, is the most prominent figure, and with him are often associated the
chicken-hawk, the grizzly bear, the fox, the cricket, and the wolf. Other
creatures which appear in these stories are the heaver, buffalo, caribou,
chipmunk, deer, dog, moose, mountain lion, rabbit, squirrel, skunk, duck, eagle,
grouse, goose, magpie, owl, snowbird, tomtit, trout, whale, butterfly, mosquito,
frog, toad, and turtle. Most of the cosmogonic legends seem to belong to the
north west Pacific cycle; many of the coyote tales belong to the cycle of the Rocky
Mountain
region, others have a Siouan or Algonquian aspect in some particulars. Their
deluge myth is peculiar in several respects. A number of tales of giants occur,
two of the legends, "Seven Heads" and "Lame Knee," suggesting Old World analogies. The story of the man in the
moon is probably borrowed from French sources.
While few evidences of their artistic ability in the way of pictographs, birchbark drawings, etc., have been reported, the Kutenai are no mean draftsmen.
Some of them possess an idea of map making and have a good sense of the physical
features of the country. Some of their drawings of the horse and the buffalo are
characteristically lifelike and quite accurate. The ornamentation of their
moccasins and other articles, the work of the women, is often elaborate, one of
the motives of their decorative art being the Oregon grape. They do not seem to
have made pottery, nor to have indulged in wood carving to a large extent. The
direct contact of the Kutenai with the whites is comparatively recent. Their
word for white man, Sūyäpi, is identical with the Nez Percé Suēapo
(Parker,
Jour., 381, 1840), and is probably borrowed. Otherwise the white man is called Nūtlu'qenē, 'straner.' They have had few serious troubles with the whites, and
are not now a warlike people. As yet the Canadian Kutenai are not reservation
Indians. The United States seems to have made no direct treaty with the tribe
for the extinguishment of their territorial rights (Royce in 18th Rep. B. A. E.,
856).
Within the Kutenai area, on the Columbia lakes, live a colony of Shushwap
(Salishan) known as Kinbaskets, numbering 56 in 1904. In that year the Kutenai
in British territory were reported to number 553, as follows: Lower Columbia
Lake, 80; Lower Kutenai (Flatbow), 172; St Mary's (Ft Steele ), 216; Tobacco
Plains, 61; Arrow Lake (West Kutenai), 24. These returns indicate a decrease of
about 150 in 13 years. The United States census of 1890 gave the number of
Kutenai in Idaho and Montana as 400 to 500; in 1905 those under the Flathead
agency, Mont., were reported to number 554. The Kutenai have given their name to
Kootenai river, the districts of East, West, and North Kootenay, Brit. Col.,
Kootenai lake, Brit. Col., Kootanie pass in the Rocky Mountains, Kootenai County and the
town of Kootenai, Idaho, and to other places on both sides of the international
boundary (Am. Anthrop., iv, 348-350, 1902).
