Introduction
| Adaptations
| Social
Organization | Myth
Post-Settlement
Life | Crater
Lake
Introduction
The post-contact experience of the Klamath
was very different from that of the
The Klamath were bordered to the west by the
Takelma and the Molala. To the southwest the Klamath bordered the Shasta; to the
south. The Modoc (a group with close social and cultural links to the Klamath);
and to the east, the Northern Paiute. The distinctive features of the
Nonetheless, "territory" must be
understood in the context of tribal, rather than state-level, political
organization Rather than conceiving of Klamath (or Takelma, or Molala) territory
as a definite, uniquely held domain, it is more accurate to distinguish between
a core homeland and a peripheral resource area which might be utilized by
several contiguous groups. The following comments regarding territory in
aboriginal
each of the Indian groups in northern
Klamath territory centered on
Klamath territory stood at the periphery of
several major aboriginal culture areas: the Plateau,
one may note the California flavor of the
separatistic hamlets with their loose social and political organization; the
weakly developed (and possibly late) wealth complex, suggestive of the Northwest
and the Oregon coast; and the formalized shamanistic religion which points to
affinities with tribes in the Plateau, California, and elsewhere (Spencer
1952b:217)
The term "Klamath" was apparently
derived from Chinook (Stern nd:l) The Klamath term of self-reference is maqlaqs.
However, the term was frequently used as part of the placename of a particular
Klamath group, rather than designating the ethnic collectivity as a whole. For
example, the largest Klamath grouping, located on Klamath Marsh and the
Estimates of the aboriginal Klamath
population are conflicting and difficult to evaluate. Spier suggested 1200
persons at the time of contact, of whom an estimated 600 made up the 'ewksikni
or Klamath Marsh division (Spier 1930:5). Stem (n.d.:14) has suggested 1000 for
the aboriginal Klamath population. Klamath elders have suggested that the
precontact population (including Klamath, Modoc, and Yahuskin Paiute groups,
which were jointly to compose the Klamath Reservation), would have numbered
about 2000. Given current debates regarding population levels in pre-contact
Spier described a number of significant
rituals for the Klamath Female puberty was marked by a five-night ceremony,
similar in many respects to the puberty ceremonies of the Modoc and Shasta
(Spier 1930:68-71; Voegelin 1942:122-28). A complex series of shamanistic
performances occurred during mid-winter (Spier 1930:112-22). First sucker
ceremonies were held in the spring (Spier 1930:148), Cremation of the dead was
"the universal practice, even for suicides, the newborn, and the
stillborn" (Spier 1930:71).
As with other Indian peoples of the region,
however, the ritual life of the Klamath centered on the quest for spirit power.
The Klamath recognized a variety of spirits, "predominantly birds and
animals, winds, lightning and the like, and a handful of anthropomorphic
beings" (Spier 1930:93). Any one of these could be sought for blessings.
Power or good luck could be sought for a variety of situations, among these
"curing, gambling, love-making, and shamanistic trickery" (Spier
1930:93) Spirit manifested themselves through songs, heard in the seeker's
dreams.1 These formed the key to spirit power. As Spier has
interpreted this view,
The spirit never manifests itself but in the
song; the singer is the vehicle, the voice of the spirit. Song and spirit are
one and the same thing. (Spier 1930:95)
The spirit quest followed a consistent form.
Anyone could seek power, and seemingly all or almost all undertook a quest at
least once in a lifetime. The quest involved separation, a retreat to lonely and
thus powerful places:
Power is sought in lonely spots in the
mountains, in mountain pools, in eddies in the rivers, in all places where
spirits are known to dwell. A boy is sent into the mountains on a vigil of
several days, perhaps five. ... He must fast and must not touch his hands to his
face, but must use a scratcher instead. He must sleep without covering and warm
himself only occasionally by a little fire. He runs about constantly throughout
the night, piling rocks into high piles... and swimming in the mountain pools.
He prays, calling loudly to the spirits, and finally gets an answer. (Spier
1930:95)
Verne Ray noted that in both Klamath and
Modoc cultures, there was considerable emphasis on "making artificial rock
piles for religious or commemorative purposes and for attributing mythological
significance to rock piles of unknown origin" (Ray 1963:xiii).
From a traditional Klamath perspective, one
can contrast two ritual forms: the vision quest proper, most commonly undertaken
at puberty, whose aim is to gain or augment spirit power; and the crisis quest,
a retreat to sacred places at times of tragedy, often by entire families, whose
aim is spiritual healing of the troubled or bereaved (G. Bettels, pers, comm;
see also Spier 1930:94).
The location of the quest was not random, but
reflected what could be termed a spiritual geography, a world view in which
specific spirits or powers dwelt in particular points within mountains, lakes,
or rivers. "Spirits are legion and in many cases are localized, so that one
looking over the countryside finds it rich in religious connotation" (Spier
1930:100).
Certain individuals pursued the spirit quest
to a much greater degree, developing powers which set them apart as
extraordinary individuals. As curers, diviners, and teachers these specialists (qyoqs)-predominantly
but not invariably men--had a central place in Klamath life:
These "medicine-men" do not only
treat the sick, but they arrange and preside over the "doctor-dances"
in the communal dance house, are consulted for dreams, predict the weather,
during the pond-lily harvest give advice on the more important incidents of
tribal pursuits, and are much dreaded on account of their alleged power of
sorcery. (Gatschet 1890: Pt, 2:135)
While the qyoqs had outstanding importance,
outshining the chiefs until Euro-American influence altered the political
balance, their powers were only intensified versions of the power that all
individuals could seek.
These specialists have most commonly been
termed shamans, for example by Spier (1930:107) and Stem (n.d.:45). However, as
applied to the Klamath (or to any tribe of the region) the term requires
qualification. Hultkrantz, in his study of American Indian religions, has
contrasted two forms of supernatural curer, which he termed the visionary and
the ecstatic:
we may distinguish , two main types of
medicine man: the visionary, whose trance is light and whose clairvoyance is
distinctive, and the ecstatic, who may converse with the spirits or depart from
his own body in deep trance... Only the latter should really be called a shaman.
(Hultkrantz 1979:87)
Shamanism in its strict sense describes a
religious complex "in which specialists undertake to heal, guide, and
prophesy through trance behavior and mystical night" (R. Winthrop 19911 s.v
"shamanism"), a pattern best known from the circumpolar cultures,
notably of Siberia. In the distinction posed by Hultkrantz, the qyoqs is a
visionary, not an ecstatic. His (or her) key ability is possession of spirit
songs, not entry into trance and mystical flight (see Spier 1930:109; cf Eliade
1964).
Klamath beliefs regarding the qyoqs
(variously termed by Gatschet "conjurer" and "medicine-man")
are nicely summarized in the following text:
Once man long ago spoke thus: over there is
my bewitched wife, having fallen sick; you bewitched (her). Then an old man he
sent out to call a conjurer [qyoqs]; and he started, the old man, to fetch the
conjurer, and to call him out, helloed; and he heard the magic songs, conjurers'
songs on the mountain, far away are these songs. Then goes the conjurer to treat
(her), to the spot where she lies bewitched. Now he works on her, and sucks. A
big thing comes out through (his) mouth; he orders (those present) to sing,
while he would suck on with (his) mouth. Then he sucks out, and feels choked,
and throws up again his sucked-out article; his expounder [lularkish = shaman's
assistant] swallows (it). Now (after) he has swallowed (it), worse that
(patient) being treated, in spite of, (she) is worse, she almost looks toward
the spirit land. The conjurer starts to leave. wanting to retire because she
turned worse, (and) the food not passing through (bowels). Hereupon he speaks
thus whose own wife is sick for being bewitched, to the conjurer: "you have
bewitched her." But the conjurer opposes denial [argues]: "not I did
bewitch (her)! She had become sick (before)!" conjurer then so said. Now
dies the woman. They struck (and) killed the conjurer for this woman being
bewitched (and) having died. And the people [maklaks] cremated the woman killed
by the conjurer; the conjurer they brought him back to (his) lodge and cremated
(him).2
Shamans were ambiguous figures: capable of
curing, but equally of turning their powers in malevolent directions. Here a man
suspects his wife's illness to be the result of a shaman's sorcery. He finds the
shaman, and brings him to his wife. For the Klamath, illness was assumed to
result from intrusion of foreign objects, for example through a sorcerer's
magic; accordingly, the shaman's cure involves "sucking out" such
objects, which are conspicuously exhibited in the course of treatment. However,
the patient turns worse and dies, confirming the husband's suspicions. The
shaman is killed, and--in keeping with Klamath practice--both bodies are
cremated.
Adaptations
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As
the archaeological record demonstrates (see Chapter 8), by several thousand
years ago the people of the
As
was characteristic throughout the region, the Klamath subsistence quest involved
shifting residence patterns, from quasi-permanent villages near ice-free streams
or springs during the winter, to a series of fishing, gathering, and hunting
sites through the spring, summer, and fall. Winter dwellings consisted of
circular, semi-subterranean earth lodges, roofed with mats, grass, and dirt over
a pole frame. Summer dwellings were more ephemeral, being covered with mats
(Spier 1930:197-205). The changing seasons and availability of resources largely
determined this cycle:
The
fixed villages are the winter residences to which people return year after year.
Each spring finds them leaving for favorable fishing stations where there are
successive fish runs. Through the summer they move to the prairies to gather
edible roots and berries or to the mountain and desert to hunt. During most of
this time families are widely scattered and the winter villages quite deserted,
but with the ripening of pond lily seeds in the marshes during August and
September they again congregate. (Spier 1930:10)
As
can be seen from Table
3 - 1, fishing was a nearly constant activity, though
particularly rich during the spring Wokas provided the plant staple, and its
harvest formed a key element of the activity of late summer and fall.
The
Klamath caught a variety of fish. Runs of suckers (Catostomidae) and salmon (Oncorhynchus)
were particularly important. Fish were available on the
Harvesting
wokas, the seeds of the pond lily (Nuphar polysepala), was a specialized (and
crucial) Klamath adaptation. Klamath Marsh is estimated to have contained ten
thousand acres of the plant. The seeds were gathered from canoe in the late
summer, chiefly by women. The pods were prepared through a series of processes,
depending on the maturity of the plant, including fermenting, parching, and
grinding. Wokas was roasted and eaten dry, or ground and prepared as porridge or
bread. The stored seeds were eaten throughout the year. Coville provided a
detailed analysis of the preparation of wokas (See Coville 1904; Spier
1930:160ff; Lang 1988a.)
The
Klamath gathered a wide variety of other seeds and roots, including camas (Camassia
quamash) and ipos (or epos, Perideridia oregana) (see Coville 1897; Lang 1988a).
The search for berries in the late summer brought gathering parties to the
uplands, including slopes in the vicinity of
Late
summer and autumn, seeds, berries, and nuts are gathered, the Indians
congregating where these are plentiful. Many of those at Klamath marsh, for
example, move directly to Huckleberry mountain, southwest of
In
summary, the Klamath utilized a wide range of animal and plant resources This is
suggested by the number of animal and plant terms in the Klamath lexicon. To
provide some rough approximation of Klamath animal and plant knowledge, Klamath
botanical and zoological terms were compiled from Gatschet's Klamath Dictionary
(1890), Spier's Klamath Ethnography (1930), and Barker's Klamath Texts (1963a).
In all, 248 animal and 143 plant terms were included. The Klamath animal
terms include (in order from most to least numerous) birds,
mammals, fish, insects, reptiles, shellfish, and amphibians. Plant
categories (again in order of number of entries) include grasses,
fruits, trees, roots, other plants, and seeds (see Table 3 - 2).1
1 This list was compiled by DR Deny Hewlett, as part of a study of
prehistoric settlement and adaptation on the
Social Organization
Klamath villages were composed of one or more
bilaterally extended families, headed by men of wealth and influence (laqi).
Household membership was flexible, being formed on many principles. Such
households could include the nuclear families of the senior male's son or
daughter, his siblings and their kin, kin of his wife or wives, aged parents,
and friends (Stem n.d.:28). The range of size of such villages is difficult to
reconstruct. Assuming Stem's estimate of 70 Klamath villages and an aboriginal
population of 1000, each village would have held on the average fourteen
persons. Spier (1930:53-54) gives an example of a household centering on a male
shaman, numbering twenty in all.
Marriage was accompanied by a payment of
bridewealth, consistent with the rather attenuated form of the wealth complex to
be found in the Plateau. Residence was usually uxorilocal (with the wife's
parents) immediately after marriage, shifting to a virilocal (with the husband's
parents) after children were born and substantial wealth accumulated (Stern
nd:29: cf Spier 1930:53). There was no rule of village exogamy, though Spier
noted a tendency for endogamy within the tribelet. Polygyny was permitted. Both
the sororate (marriage with several sisters) and the levirate (marriage of a
widow by the younger brother of a deceased husband) were considered appropriate
though not obligatory (Spier 1930: 43-51; Spencer et al 1977:180-182)
Klamath society was ranked, insofar as
"chiefs" were recognized and slaves were held. Nonetheless, the
Klamath did not manifest the social differentiation known to
Slaves were captured in war, and seeking
slaves in fact provided a major motive for raids. Slaves were primarily Achomawi
or Atsugewi, though Northern Paiute, Shasta, and some Takelma were also taken.
However, the Indian (or at least Klamath) slaveholding cannot be equated in any
simple terms with Euro-American practices. The term lo'ks meant equally
"slave," "war captive," or simply "foreigner," and
according to Spencer, did not imply a degraded status (Spencer 1952a:5). Spier
commented that "It is suite likely that a slave's life is much like that of
any poor Klamath" (Spier 1930:40).
Until the nineteenth century, at least, trade
was probably of minor importance to the Klamath and following from that fact,
the potential for differences in wealth comparatively limited. Spier noted the
following wealth items mentioned by Klamath informants (in order of frequency):
slaves, horses, beads--and not always
dentalium--food, archers' equipment, furs and hides, especially elk hides,
Plains type garments, armor, large houses, buffalo skins, canoes. (Spier
1930:43)
Many of the items were trade goods, and
scarce or unavailable until the expansion of the southern Plateau trade networks
in the early nineteenth century (see Spier 1930:41-43; Stern 1956a:230-34)
The Klamath as a whole were united by a
common language and a common culture, but did not share a single, integrated
political organization. Rather, the Klamath people belonged to a series of
geographically localized divisions or tribelets (cf Bean 1978:673) While summer
camps might shift from year to year, the stability of the winter village
settlements provided "a measure of political separatism to the several
localities" (Spier 1930:11), To some degree tribal identity was ambiguous,
as Spier noted:
The Klamath are not a single political
entity. There are four or possibly five subdivisions or tribelets, each
occupying a distinct district, and practically autonomous, This is separatism of
the familiar Californian order Nevertheless, the cohesion rising from a common
dialect, common culture, and a uniform reaction against all nontribesmen, which
on occasion leads to jointly taking the field against them, produces a tribal
solidarity resembling that of the Plains people. (Spier 1930:21)
Feuds were common between tribal divisions,
but did not occur between the settlements of a single division. Further, such
feuds "are carried on much as warfare with foreigners; property is
destroyed, women and children enslaved" (Spier 1930:22). Similarly, the
Klamath lacked integrating mechanisms through which the entire tribe could
unite: "when it comes to war with outsiders, each group can act for itself,
others may join if they wish" (Spier 1930:22).
By all accounts, the Klamath Marsh -
The Klamath had the closest relationship with
their southern neighbors the Modoc. Spier noted that "intercourse and
marriage went on freely with the Modoc. They [the Modoc] were visited on Tule
and
The Klamath traded with the Shasta, receiving
beads in return for skins and skin blankets. There was also intermarriage, at
least with the
In contrast to the benign relations with the
Modoc and Molala, the Klamath raided the Atsugewi and Achomawi for slaves Such
raids, Gatschet noted, had no other purpose than to make slaves of the females
and children of the . .
To a lesser extent the Takelma, Shasta, and
Northern Paiute were also subjected to Klamath slave raiding. Slaves were a
valuable commodity, and their trade linked the Klamath to the wider intertribal
networks of the Plateau (see Anastasio 1972:159-63). Trading centered on Warm
Springs and
The Klamath acquired horses relatively late:
they were not a significant item of trade until about 1840. The addition of the
horse to the Plateau trade network provided a strong incentive to the Klamath to
increase trade, in particular stimulating the Klamath interest in slave raiding.
Klamath slave trading formed part of what
Leland Donald has termed the "Columbia River Network":
This network stretches from the west coast of
Slaves [were] traded from the Klamath and
Shasta of southern
The Klamath's trade to the north proceeded
along several well established trails:
While one branch of the Klamath trail led
northward, probably down the Deschutes valley, the western branch led by way of
the north fork of the Santiam River across the Cascades to the settlements of
the Northern Molala, on the river of the same name, there merging with a trail
running north from Mehama through Mulino and terminating at Oregon City. (Stern
1956a:233-34)
Other trails included one running past
Ritual and World View
Spier described a number of significant
rituals for the Klamath Female puberty was marked by a five-night ceremony,
similar in many respects to the puberty ceremonies of the Modoc and Shasta
(Spier 1930:68-71; Voegelin 1942:122-28). A complex series of shamanistic
performances occurred during mid-winter (Spier 1930:112-22). First sucker
ceremonies were held in the spring (Spier 1930:148), Cremation of the dead was
"the universal practice, even for suicides, the newborn, and the
stillborn" (Spier 1930:71).
As with other Indian peoples of the region,
however, the ritual life of the Klamath centered on the quest for spirit power.
The Klamath recognized a variety of spirits, "predominantly birds and
animals, winds, lightning and the like, and a handful of anthropomorphic
beings" (Spier 1930:93). Any one of these could be sought for blessings.
Power or good luck could be sought for a variety of situations, among these
"curing, gambling, love-making, and shamanistic trickery" (Spier
1930:93) Spirit manifested themselves through songs, heard in the seeker's
dreams.1 These formed the key to spirit power. As Spier has
interpreted this view,
The spirit never manifests itself but in the
song; the singer is the vehicle, the voice of the spirit. Song and spirit are
one and the same thing. (Spier 1930:95)
The spirit quest followed a consistent form.
Anyone could seek power, and seemingly all or almost all undertook a quest at
least once in a lifetime. The quest involved separation, a retreat to lonely and
thus powerful places:
Power is sought in lonely spots in the
mountains, in mountain pools, in eddies in the rivers, in all places where
spirits are known to dwell. A boy is sent into the mountains on a vigil of
several days, perhaps five. ... He must fast and must not touch his hands to his
face, but must use a scratcher instead. He must sleep without covering and warm
himself only occasionally by a little fire. He runs about constantly throughout
the night, piling rocks into high piles... and swimming in the mountain pools.
He prays, calling loudly to the spirits, and finally gets an answer. (Spier
1930:95)
Verne Ray noted that in both Klamath and
Modoc cultures, there was considerable emphasis on "making artificial rock
piles for religious or commemorative purposes and for attributing mythological
significance to rock piles of unknown origin" (Ray 1963:xiii).
From a traditional Klamath perspective, one
can contrast two ritual forms: the vision quest proper, most commonly undertaken
at puberty, whose aim is to gain or augment spirit power; and the crisis quest,
a retreat to sacred places at times of tragedy, often by entire families, whose
aim is spiritual healing of the troubled or bereaved (G. Bettels, pers, comm;
see also Spier 1930:94).
The location of the quest was not random, but
reflected what could be termed a spiritual geography, a world view in which
specific spirits or powers dwelt in particular points within mountains, lakes,
or rivers. "Spirits are legion and in many cases are localized, so that one
looking over the countryside finds it rich in religious connotation" (Spier
1930:100).
Certain individuals pursued the spirit quest
to a much greater degree, developing powers which set them apart as
extraordinary individuals. As curers, diviners, and teachers these specialists (qyoqs)-predominantly
but not invariably men--had a central place in Klamath life:
These "medicine-men" do not only
treat the sick, but they arrange and preside over the "doctor-dances"
in the communal dance house, are consulted for dreams, predict the weather,
during the pond-lily harvest give advice on the more important incidents of
tribal pursuits, and are much dreaded on account of their alleged power of
sorcery. (Gatschet 1890: Pt, 2:135)
While the qyoqs had outstanding importance,
outshining the chiefs until Euro-American influence altered the political
balance, their powers were only intensified versions of the power that all
individuals could seek.
These specialists have most commonly been
termed shamans, for example by Spier (1930:107) and Stem (n.d.:45). However, as
applied to the Klamath (or to any tribe of the region) the term requires
qualification. Hultkrantz, in his study of American Indian religions, has
contrasted two forms of supernatural curer, which he termed the visionary and
the ecstatic:
we may distinguish , two main types of
medicine man: the visionary, whose trance is light and whose clairvoyance is
distinctive, and the ecstatic, who may converse with the spirits or depart from
his own body in deep trance... Only the latter should really be called a shaman.
(Hultkrantz 1979:87)
Shamanism in its strict sense describes a
religious complex "in which specialists undertake to heal, guide, and
prophesy through trance behavior and mystical night" (R. Winthrop 19911 s.v
"shamanism"), a pattern best known from the circumpolar cultures,
notably of Siberia. In the distinction posed by Hultkrantz, the qyoqs is a
visionary, not an ecstatic. His (or her) key ability is possession of spirit
songs, not entry into trance and mystical flight (see Spier 1930:109; cf Eliade
1964).
Klamath beliefs regarding the qyoqs
(variously termed by Gatschet "conjurer" and "medicine-man")
are nicely summarized in the following text:
Once man long ago spoke thus: over there is
my bewitched wife, having fallen sick; you bewitched (her). Then an old man he
sent out to call a conjurer [qyoqs]; and he started, the old man, to fetch the
conjurer, and to call him out, helloed; and he heard the magic songs, conjurers'
songs on the mountain, far away are these songs. Then goes the conjurer to treat
(her), to the spot where she lies bewitched. Now he works on her, and sucks. A
big thing comes out through (his) mouth; he orders (those present) to sing,
while he would suck on with (his) mouth. Then he sucks out, and feels choked,
and throws up again his sucked-out article; his expounder [lularkish = shaman's
assistant] swallows (it). Now (after) he has swallowed (it), worse that
(patient) being treated, in spite of, (she) is worse, she almost looks toward
the spirit land. The conjurer starts to leave. wanting to retire because she
turned worse, (and) the food not passing through (bowels). Hereupon he speaks
thus whose own wife is sick for being bewitched, to the conjurer: "you have
bewitched her." But the conjurer opposes denial [argues]: "not I did
bewitch (her)! She had become sick (before)!" conjurer then so said. Now
dies the woman. They struck (and) killed the conjurer for this woman being
bewitched (and) having died. And the people [maklaks] cremated the woman killed
by the conjurer; the conjurer they brought him back to (his) lodge and cremated
(him).2
Shamans were ambiguous figures: capable of
curing, but equally of turning their powers in malevolent directions. Here a man
suspects his wife's illness to be the result of a shaman's sorcery. He finds the
shaman, and brings him to his wife. For the Klamath, illness was assumed to
result from intrusion of foreign objects, for example through a sorcerer's
magic; accordingly, the shaman's cure involves "sucking out" such
objects, which are conspicuously exhibited in the course of treatment. However,
the patient turns worse and dies, confirming the husband's suspicions. The
shaman is killed, and--in keeping with Klamath practice--both bodies are
cremated.
Myth
Myth telling was generally reserved for
winter, when family groups had resumed to the village settlements, and the harsh
weather limited extensive travel:
the usual setting for Klamath myth-narration
was the dark interior of a lodge, on a cold winter night when the earth lay
snowbound. This was the season of social gatherings, the period when shamanistic
performances drew many spectators of all ages together. (Stern l956b:43)
While obviously myths are passed from older
to younger generations, there is some evidence that myth-telling was
particularly a female concern, and Stern has commented on "the common
tendency for myths to be transmitted through the maternal grandmother"
(Stem 1956b:4).1
The most significant figure of Klamath myth
is Kmukampsh, the "ancient old man" and Klamath version of the
"trickster-transformer" character common to much of North American
myth (Stem 1953:164). Kmukampsh is the Klamath "culture hero, creator,
ordainer of the present order." In one myth, Gopher and Kmukampsh together
create the Klamath landscape through their play. Then,
Kmukampsh peoples the world with animals and,
placing a characteristic material in each territory--obsidian for the Achomawi
and Paiute, marble in the Shasta country, tules for the Klamath--from which
mankind, it seems, arises. (Stem 1953:164).2
Kmukampsh is particularly lecherous, and a
number of myths comment on the prodigious size of his penis. In a characteristic
myth, Kmukampsh tries to seduce the wife of his foster son, Aisis. Kmukampsh
uses his powers to raise Aisis into the sky, and then impersonates him before
his wife. Eventually Aisis manages to return to earth, and Kmukampsh is tricked
and destroyed, only to come to life once again (Stern 1953:166).3
Among the other key figures of Klamath myth
are coyote, skunk, bear, and owl. Probably the most popular figures are the
paired Mink and his younger brother, Weasel (or Old Marten and Weasel).
Mink is clever and resourceful, a warrior,
"tricky," but consistently just in the roles he plays. Like a shaman,
"he knows everything that happens." ... Weasel, on the other hand, is
the marplot, "always getting into something." . Mischievous, curious,
a restless bundle of random activity, [he is] a "kid brother" who
wants to try what Mink is doing, and fails in the attempt. (Stern 1953:161)4
Compilations of Klamath myth are given in
Gatschet 1890; Barker 1963a; and Ramsey 1977. For a summary of the major Klamath
myths, see Stern 1963b. Several Klamath myths concern
Post-Contact Life
The Klamath felt the influence of
Euro-Americans well before extensive exploration and settlement reached the
In the 1840s the American expeditions led by
John C. Fremont marked a new era, in which the goal was conquest and subjugation
of the Indian peoples, rather than merely exploration and trade. Changing
conditions drew the Klamath into sporadic though unsuccessful warfare against
white settlers. At the same time, the wealth that could be gained through slave
raiding and trading provided greater incentives for warfare against other Indian
tribes. These factors led to a series of changes: greater prestige for
leadership in warfare, a more permanent pattern of leadership, and "a
heightened sense of Klamath political, as well as cultural, integrity"
(Stem 1956a:241).
Over the next two decades the white presence
in southern
As a result of the 1864 treaty the Klamath
had to contend with a new authority, the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs. Here as
elsewhere the Bureau sought to transform Indian culture. As Indian Commissioner
Thomas J. Morgan, in 1889, acknowledge the Bureau's long-standing policy,
"The Indians must conform to 'the white man's ways,' peaceably if they
will, forcibly if they must" (in Hagan 1988:61). For the Klamath, as Stern
has noted, this policy "effected sweeping social change on the reservation,
levelling the nascent class distinctions by freeing slaves as full members of
the reservation and banning polygyny, a prerogative particularly of the
wealthy" (Stern n.d.:53). More broadly,
An enforced culture change began with the
treaty. There was as a result proscription of the shaman's ecstatic curing
activities and an intensity of Christian missionization. Other introductions
included a new technology, White education in reservation boarding schools, a
new status in relation to an established administrative agency, and new concepts
of property, society, and political tribe. (Spencer 1952b:219)
The Klamath historian and former tribal
chairman Lynn Schonchin described the change in these terms:
The Klamath experineced the situation of
being bound to the land in a different sense. In the aboriginal sense, they were
bound to the land by birth because it provided subsistence. Now, they were bound
to a reservation by law. This also changed the way in which they lived. Cultural
practices were forbidden, no longer could they use the sweatlodge, no longer
could they go to the mountains and streams on power quests, no longer could they
practice their religion, even their language was forbidden. Yet, because of the
strong cultural foundation they had, they adjusted to the new society, and
adopted its practices. (Schonchin 1990:150)
It is a testimony to the strength of Klamath
culture that, despite the government's best efforts, the Klamath language and
many significant elements of Klamath tradition survived.
Among the reactions to this policy of forced
culture change was the enthusiastic acceptance of a series of millenarian
movements: in 1871 the Ghost Dance and in 1874 the Earthlodge Cult. Both
movements taught that if proper ritual were followed, the dead would return and
a new era of felicity would begin for the Indians. These movements carried at
least an implicit anti-white sentiment, at times becoming overt in doctrines
predicting the disappearance of the whites as part of the predicted world
transformation. In the mid-1870s the Dream Dance appeared. This had a different
character: rather than offering millenarian images, it provided a new vehicle
for traditional (and officially prohibited) shamanistic performance (see Spier
1927a; Nash 1937; DuBois 1939:11-12). The
The modern Klamath Reservation has had a
complex history. Tribal boundaries have been repeatedly redrawn, and complex
schemes of compensation undertaken (Ruby andBrown 1986:90-95). The General
Allotment (Dawes) Act of 1887, intended to break up tribal holdings and convert
traditional Indian peoples into Americanized farmers, proved comparatively
ineffective on Klamath Reservation. The Klamath Reservation lands consisted
largely of timber, inhospitable to farming, and in any case too valuable to be
declared surplus and sold to outsiders. As a result, from early in the twentieth
century tribal members received substantial income from timber operations (Stern
1961:172-73). The comparative wealth this allowed served as an effective goad to
culture change, and in particular to the abandonment of much traditional
economic activity:
From 1913, tribal members began to enjoy
dividends from the cutting of tribal timber, in the form of semi-annual per
capita payments. They also saw the mushroom growth of mill towns upon the face
of the reservation, where sizeable bodies of whites, far exceeding the total
tribal membership, lived under state jurisdiction and offered a scale of living
previously beyond ken and reach of tribal members, but now close and seemingly
attainable. (Stern 1961:173)
In 1955 the Klamath Tribe had 2118 enrolled
members (Stem 1966:316). Over time, an increasing number of tribal members have
moved from the reservation. While at the turn of the century roughly ten percent
lived off the reservation, by 1958 over fifty percent did so (Stern 1966:185).
Of these absentee tribal members, about a quarter lived in
The most dramatic event in the history of the
Klamath Reservation came in 1954, with the passage of Public Law 587, which
terminated the Klamath Reservation, and ended the Klamath tribe as a federally
recognized entity. (The Western Oregon Termination Act, also passed in 1954,
terminated among other groups the Confederated Tribes of the Siletz Indians,
both of which included descendants of Takelma, Molala, and Upper Umpqua peoples,
and the Cow Creeks, a group of Takelma descendants.)
The policy of termination--while ostensibly
intended to benefit Indian peoples by allowing them to escape from a stifling
federal paternalism--proved extremely destructive (see Nash 1988:270-72). In the
Klamath case, compensation was most commonly administered through an elaborate
series of court-mandated trusteeships. Most of the former reservation lands were
purchased by the federal government (at below-market prices), from which the
Despite these events, a tnbal political
organization survived the termination process. In the 1970s and 80s the tribal
organization achieved a number of victories which strengthened the capacity of
the Klamath to endure as a people. In 1974 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that
Klamath fishing and hunting rights granted by treaty survived the termination
process (Kimbol v. Callaghan). In 1979 another legal victory guaranteed minimum
stream flows in the
Belief and Ritual of
Native peoples of the region traveled to the
For the Klamath, spirit power could be found
in many sources, among these "such natural features as mountains, streams,
rocks, or even landmarks like Crater Lake" (Spencer 1952b:218). The ritual
significance of giwas, or Crater Lake (Barker 1963b: 145), reflects a more
general Klamath understanding of the natural world, involving not only reverence
but the capacity for significant interaction with certain mountains, lakes, and
streams, as the individual sought comfort, assistance, or power. One Klamath
woman, speaking in the late 1940s, noted that,
those old Indians had a lot of sense. They
kind of felt at home around here and they would get a lift from just talking to
the mountains and lakes. It was like praying andit made them feel at peace.
(Spencer 1952b:223)
As one Klamath individual noted, Crater Lake
was a particularly dangerous site for the spirit quest.1 Gaining a
vision of the supernatural beings residing in the lake was a major goal of that
quest (Spencer 1952b:222). The seeker would often swim at night, underwater, to
encounter the spirits lurking in the depths (Spier 1930:98). Leslie Spier
commented regarding the father of one of his consultants, "having lost a
child, he went swimming in
He must not be frightened even if he sees
something moving under the water. prays before diving, "I want to be a
shaman. Give me power. Catch me. I need the power." (Spier 1930:96)
A fuller account of the quest for spirit
power is recorded in a manuscript by Jeremiah Curtin:
Indians used to believe. Doctors said
"we begin to be doctors by swimming and camping on top the mountains where
there is a pond of lake and breaking willows and piling rocks on top the
mountains and swimming in the lake." On ***** Mountain they used to camp.
And at
An elderly Klamath woman recounted in the
late 1940s her experience of seeing aspirit being on the lake:
When I was young, I went up to
In other Klamath accounts the floor of the
lake contains a mythical world:
People were stolen and taken down into
Individuals also undertook strenuous and
dangerous climbing along the caldera wall.Spier's informants noted a site termed
makwalks:a point of rock projecting over
Individuals would often start at the western
rim of
The Modoc also made spirit quest trips to
The
The historian A. G. Walling, apparently
referring to the
In the past, none but medicine men visited [
Myths of
There are several Klamath and
The appears in five published versions, and
in an unpublished translation.5 Le*w is "the monster who dwells
in
a culture transformer, giving laws,
destroying evil beings, teaching subsistence techniques, and generally preparing
the world for the myth age humans. (Barker 1963b:389)
The myth opens with Sqel/Mink/Old Marten and
his friend Weasel. They are tricked by the beautiful but wicked daughter of
Le*w, who ingratiates herself with Mink (or in an alternate version, Weasel),
and tears out his heart. She then takes the heart to Le*w's people at Crater
Lake, who play ball with it.Weasel runs for help to Gmokamc, the Klamath creator
figure, who advises Weasel, and then proceeds with the help of various allies to
recover Mink's heart. Mink revives, but Le*w now carries him off to
Then he [Mink] threw into the water all
this,heart, windpipe-and-lungs, and liver. "Here's Mink's heart,
windpipe-and-lungs, and liver!" Now the Crawfish came and ate all that.
"Then here's Lao's [Le*w's] head!" Bawak sound of head splashing into
the water. The Crawfish recognizing their father scattered in all directions.
Then that head of Lao's lodged there. This is
Ella Clark includes in her collection three
other
"
At least one myth of
Summary
A sacred landscape entails a correlation of
physical place and cultural meaning, existing within a larger body of tradition.
Its physical elements (a piled rock site,