Ethnology of the Yuchi Indians

Fig. 38. Yuchi Square-Ground During Ceremony
Fig. 38. Yuchi Square-Ground During Ceremony

In the summers of 1904 and 1905 I spent a total of about four months among the Yuchi Indians of the Creek nation in Oklahoma collecting material for the Bureau of American Ethnology. The investigation was undertaken at the recommendation of Dr. Franz Boas of Columbia University. Funds to cover transportation and the collection of ethnological specimens were furnished by the American Museum of Natural History upon both occasions under Dr. Boas’s recommendation. The greater part of the ethnological material offered in this paper was obtained at the same time, and is published with the permission of both the scientific institutions concerned.

Again during the winter of 1908 while holding a Harrison fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania, I was able under special provision of the Provost to make a third visit to the Yuchi for the purpose of completing my observations, and the studies which are embodied in the present work took their final form during this period.

It has been my object simply to give an account of the Yuchi Indians as they exist at the present day and as they presented themselves to me during my several periods of residence among them, purposely avoiding any lengthy discussion of the conditions which I encountered. Much of the description is based directly upon observation; the rest of the matter was obtained from informants who are responsible for its accuracy

Among the latter were Gambesī’ne (Jim Brown), Ekīłané (Louis Long), Ka’Ká (John Wolf), George Clinton, John Big Pond, Gonłantcīné (Jim Tiger), Henry Long, and Fagoεon‘, all of whom held civil or religious offices in the tribe, and others who from time to time appeared to be well informed upon special topics.


Topics:
History, Yuchi,

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