Symposium on the Concept of Ethnohistory - Comment

Author(s): John C. Ewers

Source: Ethnohistory, Vol. 8, No. 3 (Summer, 1961), pp. 262-270
Published by: Duke University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/480647
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 SYMPOSIUM ON THE CONCEPT OF ETHNOHISTORY
COMMENT

By John C. Ewers
Smithonian Institution

When the archaeologist climbs out of his excavation and

packs his artifacts for shipment to the laboratory; when the
ethnologist records his last field note and bids goodbye to his
aged informants; when the folklorist turns off his tape recorder
and thanks his narrator for his cooperation; and when the his-
torian rewinds his microfilm of archival materials on Indian
Affairs - each may have concluded an experience that will
contribute substantially to the cause of ethnohistory.
I am not here to argue that any of these approaches is more
important than the other three, for I believe they are all im-
portant. Generally the approach employed influences the student's
selection of the problem he investigates. But he need not confine
his research to the use of a single approach. If the archaeologist
is much concerned with the classifaction of projectile points and
the description of pottery types it is because these are the kinds
of historical documents he finds in greatest abundance in his
field investigations and because archaeologists have found these
artifacts valuable indicators of both relative chronology and
cultural identity. Yet the mature archaeologist well knows that
the non-perishable objects he finds in the ground provide a very
fragmentary picture of the whole culture that produced them.
If he is investigating a protohistoric or historic site he turns
to maps, and to the ethnological and historical literature to

262
Concept of Ethnohistory - Comment 263

identify the people whose artifacts he has found and to reconstruct

a more picture
complete of their way of life. Fortunately many
archaeologists have shown a willingness to learn the language
and the techniques of ethnological and historical research. Un-
fortunately too few ethnologists and historians have taken the
trouble to learn the ways of archaeologists or to gain a thorough
knowledge of material culture.
David A. Baerreis mentioned the need for more precise in-
formation regarding the dates of manufacture and the distribu-
tion of Indian trade goods such as archaeologists find in contact
sites. In their readings ethnologists and historians must
encounter numerous references to tradegoods. But most of
them have so little knowledge of the objects mentioned that the
names alone have little meaning to them. Past experience
suggests that unless more ethnologists and historians acquire
an active interest in material culture problems, the archaeologists
will have to pursue this kind of research themselves. Apparently
few historians will accuse them of poaching on their own hunting
grounds.
The ethnologist, of all people, should be most keenly aware
of the significance of historic change in Indian cultures, for it
has been this very change that has been robbing him of his
"primitive" informants. Nevertheless, ethnohistory still offers
opportunities for field research in the investigation of cultural
survivals, in the precise dating of the modification
or disap-
pearance of traditional traits, and in combining field data with
studies of the literature to trace the cultural history of traits
or tribes.
The effective application of ethnohistorical techniques to
field work is not new to ethnologists. Clark Wissler told me
that a half century ago he read to his Blackfoot informants that
portion of Merriwether Lewis' and William Clark's journals
264 Ethnohistory

which described Capt. Lewis' battle with a small party of Indians

on the Upper Marias in the year 1806. Wissler's Indian
listeners gave him names of the Indians who opposed Lewis.
They were Piegans and not Gros Ventres as Lewis had supposed
them to be and as generations of historians had repeated from
his identification. Since the days of Wissler's field work David
Thompson's journal, contemporary with Lewis and Clark's
travels, has been published confirming Wissler's findings of
a century later. This is but one example of the way in which
ethnological field work can serve as a check upon the historian's
written records.
I agree heartily with Richard M. Dorson's statement that
folklore can make substantial contributions to the understanding
of Indian attitudes, beliefs, and values, which the historian,
Wilcomb Washburn, has deemed so important and so difficult
to ascertain from white men's accounts of the Indians. 4 Nor
am I greatly worried by Robert H. Lowie's early denial of the
historical trustworthiness of all Indian traditions.5 Years
later, in his maturestudy, The Crow Indians, Lowie did not
hesitate to cite at length as his only example of Crow conduct
of a major battle a "quasi-historical text" which he obtained
from 20th century informants referring to a battle fought by
the Crow with the Cheyenne Indians prior to 1834. This, one
of the most stirring passages in his book, provides a revealing
word picture of Crow martial motives and of the character of
tribal leadership. 6 Lowie's account gains in significance when
we find that Chief Rotten Belly's magic shield, mentioned in
that text, is preserved in the collections of the Museum of the
American Indian, Heye Foundation, in New York City, and when
we read a story of this same battle recorded by the literate fur
trader, Edwin T. Denig, in the mid-19th century. 7
Concept of Ethnohistory - Comment 265

Clara Ehrlich's careful analysis of a large body of Crow

mythology effectively demonstrates how the moral values and
basic religious beliefs of an Indian tribe are clearly reflected
in that people's oral literature. 8

I do not mean to imply, however, that the historian or the

ethnologist should accept Indian traditions uncritically, nor do
I suggest that Indian traditions of tribal origins or movements
should be taken as gospel. They must be weighed carefully
against all other evidence - ethnological, historical, and
archaeological. And when that is done many
of these tradi-
tions will be found wanting. Nevertheless, folklore does offer
another approach to ethnohistory. It should not be damned
before it is examined
critically.
The very abundance of published and archival materials
in the field of Indian Affairs certainly makes exhaustive studies
of these sources difficult for the ethnohistorian. Yet Indian
Affairs for many early writers most commonly meant political
relations, trade, and war. These were important aspects of
Indian-White relations. But the historian should recognize that
there was much more to Indian life than meeting in solemn
councils, dickering with traders, and fighting "paleface" settlers.
Historical records are invaluable sources of information
to the ethnologist on the life of the Indians in the years prior
to the period covered by the memories of his informants, and
more recent records can be just as valuable as checks upon
the testimony of his informants. If the field worker knows
when an agency was built or moved, the years of service of a
particular agent, or the year of death of a prominent Indian
chief, such information can be very helpful to him in questioning
his informants regarding changes that took place in Indian
culture within their own lifetime. It is easier for most older
Indians to relate events or cultural trends to such events or
266 Ethnohistory

periods in tribal history than it is for them to recall specific

years for these happenings.
Recorded history can serve to correct errors in the tes-
timony of informants based upon traditional history. I am
reminded that George Bird Grinnell was so impressed by an
aged Indian's story of the first acquisition of horses by the
Blackfoot that he dated this event in the youth of his informant,
or "about the year 1800. " 9 Yet David Thompson found horses
numerous among the Piegan in 1786, and he presented a rather
convincing case for their having acquired them as early as the
1730s. 10
I favor no single approach to ethnohistory, but a combined
approach employing as many of the field or library and museum
approaches shown on the chart (Fig. 1) as may be in any way
helpful in solving ethnohistorical problems involved in the par-
ticular study under investigation. Of the approaches grouped
under the heading of "Field Study" I have already mentioned
Ethnology and Folklore. I am no linguist, but I recognize that
language also may offer valuable clues to the ethnohistorian.
Glottochronological studies may suggest dates for the separa-
tion of tribes who speak dialects of the same language. For these
we must await the findings of the professional linguists. The
terms coined by Indians for strange articles introduced from the
white man's culture, recorded
by early collectors of Indian
vocabularies and which may persist in the native languages,
may serve as revealing indices of Indian reactions to these new
wonders - such as the Cree Indian's "big dog, " for horse; or
the Blackfoot Indian's "white man's water, " for liquor.
I should be inclined to include under site exploration not
only the excavations of the professional archaeologist but also
the ethnologist's and historian's firsthand observations of the
country in which the Indians of his study lived. No maps can
convey to the student the clear impressions of the appearance
Concept of Ethnohistory - Comment 267

Figure I. The Several Approaches to Ethnohistory

268 Ethnohistory

of the land, its waterways, and its natural resources offered by

the sight of the country itself. It is much easier for the student
to visualize the conditions of life under which Indians existed
if he has had first-hand acquaintance with the Indians' country.
Of the approaches to ethnohistory through Library and
Museum studies, I have not previously mentioned graphic ma-
terials (Maps and Pictures) or Artifacts. Well-documented
drawings, paintings, and photographs, and artifacts made by
Indians or traded to Indians can convey vivid impressions of
Indian life and achievement that the written or spoken word
cannot duplicate. At the same time, we should recognize that
these materials should be just as critical appraised as are
printed or archival writings and the testimony of living Indians.
In advocating this full-rounded, combined approach to
ethnohistory I recognize the difficulties it presents, the variety
of skills it requires, and the great expenditure of time it
demands of the scholar. Undoubtedly many problems in eth-
nohistory of limited scope can be solved without consulting all
of these sources, but it appears to me that in order to make
a thorough ethnohistorical study of any tribe the student must
pursue all of these approaches.
No area of ethnohistorical research appears to divide
traditional historians from traditionalethnologists as much
as does the tribal history, if one may judge from the reviews
of these studies that have appeared in recent years. Too
frequently the historian-reviewer of a tribal history penned
by an ethnologist seems to be saying, "What does he know about
Indian history?" While the ethnologist-reviewer of a tribal
history written
by a historian says in effect, "What is this
person doing writing about Indian history?" The ethnohistorian
of the future who produces a thorough, delicately balanced,
tribal history which fully exploits all of the potential resources
Concept of Ethnohistory - Comment 269

for ethnohistorical research that I have mentioned, may not

silence all of his critics, but I am certain that he will make a
real and a lasting contribution.

Notes

1. Baerreis, The Ethnohistoric Approach and Archaeology,

pp. 52-53.

2.Thwaites, ed., Original Journals of the Lewis and Clark

Expedition, vol. 5, pp. 218-227.

3. Thompson, David Thompson's Narrative of his Explor-

ations in Western America, p. 375.

4. Dorson, Ethnohistory and Ethnic Folklore, p. 14;

Washburn, Ethnohistory: History "In the Round, " pp. 33-36.

5. Lowie, Oral Tradition and History, p. 161.

6. Lowie, The Crow Indians, pp. 230-236.

7. Wildschut, Crow Indian Medicine Bundles, pp. 71-73;

Denig, Five Indian Tribes of the Upper Missouri, pp. 165-169.

8. Ehrlich, Tribal Culture in Crow Mythology.

9. Grinnell, The Story of the Indian, pp. 232-237.

10. Thompson, David Thompson's Narrative of his Explor-

ations in Western America, pp. 328-334.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Baerreis, David A., The Ethnohistoric Approach and Archaeo-

logy (ETHNOHISTORY, vol. 8, pp. 49-77, 1961)

Denig, Edwin Thompson, Five Indian Tribes of the Upper

Missouri (Norman, 1961)
270 Ethnohistory

Dorson, Richard M., Ethnohistory and Ethnic Folklore (ETH-

NOHISTORY, vol. 8, pp. 12-30, 1961)

Ehrlich, Clara, Tribal Culture in Crow Mythology (Journal of

American Folklore, vol. 50, no. 198)

Grinnell, George Bird, The Story of the Indian (New York,

1895)

Lowie, Robert H., The Crow Indians (New York, 1956)

, Oral Tradition and History (Journal of

American Folklore, vol. 30, pp. 161-167, 1917)

Lurie, Nancy Oestreich, Ethnohistory: An Ethnological Point

of View (ETHNOHISTORY, vol. 8, pp. 78-92, 1961)

Thompson, David, David Thompson's Narrative of his Explor-

ations in Western America, 1784-1812 (The Publications
of the Champlain Society, vol. 12, Toronto, 1916)

Thwaites, Reuben G., ed. Original Journals of the Lewis and

Clark Expedition, 1804-06 (8 vols. New York, 1904-1905)

Washburn, Wilcomb E., Ethnohistory: History 'In the Round"

(ETHNOHISTORY, vol. 8, pp. 31-48, 1961)

Wildschut, William, Crow Indian Medicine Bundles (Contri-

butions, Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation,
vol. 17, New York, 1960)