The subject of Indian child life has been but very lightly treated by
ethnologist,, although the child is in fact the strongest bond of family
life under a system which allowed polygamy and easy separation. Both
parents alike were entirely devoted to their children, and bestowed upon
them the fullest expression of affection and solicitude. The relation of
parent, to child brings out all the highest traits of Indian character.
Among some tribes, notably those of the plains, in
anticipation of the new arrival the father prepares the wooden frames of
the cradle which is to he its portable bed until it is able to walk. The
body of the cradle, with its ornamentation of head or quill design,
fringes and bangles, is made either by the grandmother or by some woman
noted in the tribe for her superior expertness. There were many
well-marked varieties of cradle, differing with the tribe. Among the
Choctaw, Catawba, and other former tribes of the Southern states, and
among the Chinookan and Salishan tribes of the Columbia, there was used
a special attachment which, by continued pressure upon the forehead
while the bones were still soft, produced the so-called "flat head,"
esteemed with these tribes a point of beauty. One cradle was used for
successive infants in the same family.
The new born infant is commonly treated at once to a
cold bath, and turned over to another matron; to nurse until the
mother's health is restored. Among the Hopi, ashes or sacred meal are
rubbed on the newborn babe. Lactation is long continued, even for 2
years or more, and in rare cases much longer. With all the affection of
the mother, the women are almost completely ignorant of ordinary
sanitary rules as to feeding, exposure, etc., with the result that
infant mortality is something terrible in almost every tribe, many
children being born, but only a small proportion coming to maturity, so
that even in former times the tribal population remained almost
stationary.
The child sisters or cousins of the baby are its attendants,
while the mother is occupied with other duties, and perform their work
with the instinct of little mothers. The child is kept in its cradle
usually only during a journey or while being carried about, and not, as
is commonly supposed, during most of the time. At home it rolls about
upon the grass or on the bed without restraint. Formerly, except in
extreme weather, no clothing was worn during waking hours up to the age
of from 5 to 10 years, according to the tribe and climate, and in some
tribes this practice still prevails. The child maybe named soon after
birth, or not for a year or more after, this child name, like the first
teeth, being discarded as the boy or girl grows up for another of more
important significance.
The child name is often bestowed by the
grandparent. Among the Hopi the infant, when 20 days old, is given a
name and is dedicated to the sun with much ceremony. With some tribes,
as the Omaha, the hair is cut in a pattern to indicate the gens or band
of the parent, and in some, as the Kiowa, to indicate the particular
protecting medicine of the father.
Twins are usually regarded as uncanny, and are rather
feared, as possessing occult power. With some Oregon and other coast
tribes they were formerly regarded as abnormal and one or both were
killed. There are well-authenticated instances of deformed children
being put to death at birth. On the other hand children crippled by
accident are treated by parents and companions with the greatest
tenderness.
Among the Plains tribes the ceremonial boring of the
ears for the insertion of pendants is often made the occasion of a more
or less public celebration, while the investment of the boy with the
breechcloth at the age of 9 or 10 years is observed with a quiet family
rejoicing. The first tattooing and the first insertion of the labret are
also celebrated among the tribes practicing such customs. In many or
most tribes the boys passed through an initiation ordeal at an early
age, sometimes, as with the Zuņi, as young as 5 years (see Ordeals).
With the Hopi and Zuņi the child is lightly whipped with yucca switches
when initiated into the Kachina priesthood.
With the Powhatan of
Virginia, if we can believe the old chroniclers, the boys, who may have
been about 10 years of age at the time, were actually rendered
unconscious, the declared purpose being to take away the memory of
childish things so that they should wake up as men (see Huskanaw). On
the plains the boys at about the same age were formally enrolled into
the first degree of the warrior society and put under regular
instruction for their later responsibilities.
Children of both sexes have toys and games, the girls
inclining to dolls and "playing house," while the boys turn to bows,
riding, and marksmanship. Tops, skates of rib-bones, darts, hummers,
balls, shinny, and hunt-the-button games are all favorites, and wherever
it is possible nearly half the time in warm weather is spent in the
water. They are very fond of pets, particularly puppies, which the
little girls frequently dress and carry upon their backs like babies, in
imitation of their mothers. Among the Zuņi and Hopi wooden figurines of
the principal mythologic characters are distributed as (dolls to the
children at ceremonial performances, thus impressing the sacred
traditions in tangible form (see Amusements, Dolls, Games).
Girls are their mothers' companions and are initiated
at an early period into all the arts of home life-sewing, cooking,
weaving, and whatever else may pertain to their later duties. The boys
as naturally pattern frown their fathers in hunting, riding, or boating.
Boys and girls alike are carefully instructed by their elders, not only
in household arts and hunting methods, but also in the code of ethics,
the traditions, and the religious ideas pertaining to the tribe. The
special ceremonial observances are in the keeping of the various
societies.
The prevalent idea that the Indian child grows up without
instruction is entirely wrong, although it may be said that he grows up
practically without restraint, as instruction and obedience are enforced
by moral suasion alone, physical punishment very rarely going beyond a
mere slap in a moment of anger. As aggressiveness and the idea of
individual ownership are less strong with the Indian than with his white
brother, so quarrels are less frequent among the children, and fighting
is almost unknown. Everything is shared alike in the circle of
playmates.
The Indian child has to learn his language as other children
learn theirs, lisping his words and confusing the grammatical
distinctions at first; but with the precocity incident to a wild, free
life, he usually acquires correct expression at an earlier age than the
average white child.
At about 15 years of age in the old days, throughout
the eastern and central region, the boy made solitary fast and vigil to
obtain communication with the medicine spirit which was to be his
protector through life; then, after the initiatory ordeal to which, in
some tribes, he was subjected, the youth was competent to take his place
as a man among the warriors. For a year or more before his admission to
full manhood responsibilities the young man cultivated a degree of
reserve amounting even to bashfulness in the presence of strangers. At
about the same time, or perhaps a year or two earlier, his sister's
friends gathered to celebrate her puberty dance, and thenceforth child
life for both was at an end.
Consult Chamberlain, Child and Childhood in Folk
Thought, 1896; Dorsey in 3d Rep. B. A. E., 1884; Eastman, Indian Boyhood
(autobiographic), 1902; Fewkes (1) in Am. Anthrop., iv, 1902, (2) in
21st Rep. B. A. E.,1903; Fletcher in Jour. Am. Folk-lore, 1888; Gatschet,
Creek Migr. Leg., 1, 1884; La Flesche, The Middle Five, 1901
(autobiographic); Mason in Rep. Nat. Mus., 1887; Owens, Natal Ceremonies
of the Hopi, 1892; Powers in Cont. N. A. Ethnol., fir, 1877; Spencer,
Education of the Pueblo Child, 1899; Stevenson in 5th Rep. B. A. E.,
1887; and especially Jenks, Childhood of Jishib, the Ojibwa, 1900, a
sympathetic sketch of the career of an Indian boy from birth to manhood.
Handbook of American Indians, Frederick W. Hodge,1906
http://www.accessgenealogy.com/native/tribes/history/indianchild.htm
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