Seri Indians on Tiburon Island

Pop's camera was responsible for his acquiring considerable information about the birds of the monument. Birds, as everyone who has tried to take pictures of them is well aware, are difficult to photograph in the wild state. Now Mrs. Egermayer for several years has been conducting a bird-banding station. Two screen traps are in place outside of the kitchen window and are operated by a pull-string from inside. As a cooperative banding-station operator, Mrs. Egermayer is provided by the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Department of the Interior, with numbered leg bands for birds of various sizes. Birds which she captures are banded, and before they are released, the band numbers are recorded. These numbers, with data regarding the birds, are sent to Washington, D. C. Many of the birds return to her trap and, over a period of years, Mrs. Egermayer has accumulated much pertinent information about them. Among the visitors to the monument are many persons who make bird-study a hobby. Mrs. Egermayer is able to answer their questions and, in addition, give them much information about the local birds, the common species found in the vicinity, and other facts.

This bird-banding station appealed to Pop as affording an excellent opportunity to get photographs of the feathered songsters as they came to food and water. He watched Mrs. Egermayer in her banding activities, became interested himself, and soon was an ardent bird enthusiast. He has learned to recognize all of the common species, and will often stop at headquarters, after having spent an afternoon among the saguaros, to report, for the observation record files, what species he has seen. Linnets, thrashers, the Canyon Towhee, Gambel Quail, Vultures, Red-tailed and Desert Sparrow hawks, Road-runners and many others are of common occurence. Gila Woodpeckers and the Red-shafted Flickers excavate their nest pockets in the arms of the saguaro. The Gilded Flicker, often seen on the monument, is identified with the giant cactus, the range of the bird (Continued on Page Forty) Measuring the years by decades, the saguaro is like a venerable philosopher in surroundings that seem steeped in philosophy.

Tiburon island the home of the Seri Indians, lies off the coast of Sonora, Mexico, in the Gulf of Lower California, separated from the mainland by a very narrow, very treacherous strait called El Infiernillo or Little Hell Strait. The island is about thirty miles long by twenty miles wide, and its two parallel mountain ranges lie north and south, separated by a valley. The eastern and high est range, the Sierra Kunkaak, is very rugged, contains the sacred cave of the Seri and the only permanent waterhole on the island. Other water holes are temporary only, during the rainy season. The island is desert, but because of the moisture from the sea air, vegetation is very luxuriant. Saguaro, pitahay, sagueso, cholla, mesquite, palo verde, and a little ironwood, and extensive bush of torote or elephant tree, and creosote bush grow on the island. A breeze blows constantly over the island, tem pering the summer heat, which is terrific. In the winter, nights are cold and dismal. The island gets its name from the Spanish word "Tiburon," or shark, from the shark infested waters about it. Mexicans now hunt these sharks for their livers, and the Seri eat shark meat. Summer is the rainy season and violent chubascos, tropical storms, come up without warning and make navigation about the island hazardous. A temporary landing field for aircraft was built about six years ago on the north end of the island, after the Seri began to fish under government control. Fish were flown out to the United States for some time, but the venture did not prove profitable. The landing field is no longer usable. Tiburon Island is the ancient home of the Seri Indians, about whom more misinformation and less information has been written than about any other Indian tribe on this continent. Because of such false knowledge few Americans have visited Tiburon and unfortunately little has been done to expel the ill repute of this interesting tribe. A people actually almost unknown to science, tales about them have been food and drink to sensation-spreading writers and lecturers. One such writer, a few years ago, achieved a cer tain notoriety by spreading a story of "Race Suicide

Seri boy casting a throw net at Palo Ferro.

among the Seri" across the pages of the newspapers and pulp magazines of the country.

A search of scientific publications here and in Mexico yields almost no factual information on the Seri. Only two American ethnologists have visited them, McGee in the 1890's and Kroeber was with them only six days-nor did either do more than make an incomplete recording of their ways of life. The late Dane Coolidge, the author, and his wife spent six weeks among them in 1932, and collected some valuable songs and folktales, but Coolidge's description of the Seri as a people in his book "The Last of the Seris" does little to dispel the fantastic cloud in which they had been enveloped by popular writers.

A few other visitors to the almost unknown Seri coast and to the island prior to 1933 have brought back little except an impression that the Seri were a brutal, savage folk on the verge of starvation, without clothing, tools, boats or other material possessions. A reliable observer has spoken many times of the band of about forty Seri which camped near his camping headquarters at Puerto Libertad in the winter of 1933-34. He says that there was but one boat among the group, that this boat loaded with fishermen rounded the headlands, hunting turtles, while the rest of the Seri walked overland, and that all depended on the uncertain catch of these hunters for food. They were thus half-starved at all times. When a turtle was brought ashore, all gathered frantically about it, emerging from the scramble bloodstained and dripping, the turtle shell left cleanstripped on the sand. This man once handed a Seri a nearly empty flour sack. The Indian crammed a handful of flour into his mouth and, as he puts it, "Smoke flew out his ears."

The Seri men in the group at Libertad were clad in tattered denims and torn shirts, but each wore a brightly-colored handkerchief about his hips, a survival of the old days when a pelican skin was the only apparel of the people. Each wore a felt hat, stiffened with red, white, or blue clay, perched on top of his long hair, while at his belt was a long knife, a much prized possession. The men also often wore a "corona," a curiously made "oil-derrick-like" headgear of split wooden strips or of straw, brightly painted. Women wore canvas shirts and jackets, buttonless, ragged, hanging open, relics of some long-past missionary gift.

At night the people gathered in a circle about a fire on the sand, toppling over one by one in sleep. They were often drunk on bootleg mescal, obtained from the Mexicans, or on marijuana, and fought bloodily during these bouts.

The Mexicans at Libertad would have nothing to do with the Seri women, although Mexican ranchers often drafted the men at rifle-point to work in their fields. Both people detested and feared the other.

These tales of the Seri and the mystery and danger which popular accounts had associated with the words "Seri" and "Tiburon" com-

Bound to rouse the greatest anticipation in the writer of this article when, late last summer, he accompanied Mrs. G. B. Harrington, ethnologist of the Indian Arts and Crafts Board, and Juan Harvey, a Papago Indian and an old friend, to Kino Bay and the Island. Mrs Harrington had been with the Seri on three previous occasions for more or less lengthy visits on the mainland, and was well acquainted with most of the tribe. This was, however, to be her first visit to Tiburon. The party chartered a fishing boat at Kino Bay which took them to Tecomate, a Seri village on the north end of the Island. Since the water there had gone bad, most of the Seri had moved down the coast to Palo Ferro where, after a stay at Tecomate, Mrs. Harrington and the author followed them. Other Seri were at Desemboque, up the coast, and at Puenta Chuerca, which was also visited. Mrs. Harrington continued her ethnological work, collecting Seri articles used in their daily life and recording folk tales and information, while the author made an archeological survey of the various places visited and photographed the people. Later Mrs. Harrington worked with Ramona, a Seri woman who had left the tribe, at Kino Bay.

Seri dwellings at Palo Ferro, on a sand point extending into El Infiernillo, the strait between Tiburon and the mainland. Note the purely temporary character of these huts, consisting of branches of torote set in the sand and bent over, and covered partially with canvas and rags as a shelter against the sun. In winter, similar huts are covered with fish skins, and turtle shells are placed on edge about them, as windbreaks.

The complete contrast between the author's mental picture of the Seri, formed from such accounts as those described above, and the Seri as they actually were, was so startling as to be almost unbelievable.

Perhaps the most impressive characteristics of the Seri were their remarkable vitality and the joie de vivre of the younger people and the children, who were continually running about laughing and shouting. Equally at variance with this preconceived notion of the Seri was their physical perfection, particularly of the young men and women. Both were tall, lean, slender, very lightly built, and the young men, with their delicately modeled facial structure and slender hands and wrists were almost fragile in appearance, despite their obvious strength and agility. This impression was heightened by the male custom of wearing the hair long and uncut, streaming down the back. The young women were loose-limbed and erect in their flowing skirts and elaborate blouses of brilliant cloth, in styles taken over from the Yaqui. They were slim-hipped and full breasted, with a grace and freedom and proud carriage such as the author has not seen among any other Southwestern Indians, except oc-casionally among the Navajo in this country. Equally unusual was the complexion of the younger people, which was transparent, clear, curiously golden. The women accentuated this by painting their faces in a multiplicity of geometric patterns, pendent, usually from a straight line across the bridge of the nose and the high cheekbones. These were done in native pigments, dusty blue, deep blue (from indigo), red, white and black. It was done on all festive occasions, such as the arrival of Mrs. Harrington, whom the Seri esteemed as a friend; during canoe trips the women smeared their faces with clay to protect themselves from sunburn.

All the children wore their hair long, and it was almost impossible to tell boy from girl under ten years old. Older children dressed as did their elders.

Many older men wore their hair cut short, in Mexican style. Few of them had acquired weight with the years, but many of the older women had lost their figures completely, probably because of the hard work which they had to do, carrying water, cutting wood, dressing turtle, breaking camp, and all the innumerable tasks of an Indian woman leading a nomadic life. Many had rheumatism, and Mrs. Harrington was kept busy dispensing

Seri woman at Palo Ferro, painting her face. These face painting designs are often decorative only, but may have significance. Until the Seri women were able to buy clothes for dresses, face paintings were their only means of artistic expression.

Aspirin as a temporary relief for the ailment. As unexpected as the high spirits and physical appearance of the younger people and their curiously dynamic quality was the quantity of the Seri possessions. Each woman had her painted wooden box containing her clothes, sewing materials, face paints and mirror, and other odds and ends, while each man likewise owned one, in which he kept cartridges, fish hooks, and his clothing. Several men appeared to be well armed, with rusted but serviceable rifles of many calibers, and several revolvers Francisco Barnett, five years old. His father took the name Barnett from an American truck driver at Desemboque.

were seen. Each carried, not the long knife of past years, but short-bladed knives and pocket knives. The men were most expert in using these tools, carving little “santos,” fetishes which brought luck or protected against the many evils of Seri life and religion, little men, animals, birds, representations of the world and of the mother mountain on Tiburon, the Sierra Kunkaak, and the sacred cave leading to the other world. The children had well-made miniature dug-out canoes, complete with mast and sail, as playthings, most families had a boat, either a planked boat or a dugout pango, or canoe, which are obtained from the San Blas Indians of Panama. These pangoes are brought by freighter to Guaymas, where the Seri buy them for prices up to five or six Seri woman at Desemboque, painting her face. Paints are native minerals and vegetable pigments, black, two shades of blue, indigo, red and white.

hundred pesos each. None of the old-time balsas, made of reeds, remain. All the people were well dressed, in new clothes which were brought out for special occasions, although work clothes were old and ragged. They took great care of these good clothes; one woman was heart-broken when grease spattered on her crimson skirt, which meant a walk of miles to a water hole to wash it out.

The many boats owned now by the Seri make it possible to hunt all the sea-turtle needed for food, and since these are seasonally plentiful about the island, every family was well-fed, with a stock of dried meat laid away for emergencies. These turtles are speared, and since an single animal may weigh three hundred pounds, not many are needed to feed a camp. A boat-load of young men put out from Palo Ferro on the strait between the island and the mainland after turtle, while our party was there. They returned in a hour with three turtles. The old women promptly dressed these at the edge of the water and divided the meat among the families in the camp. They cut the beasts' throats and removed the entrails, cleaning them carefullyand putting them aside to be eaten later. The bladders were saved to be used as canteens. Then a fire was built on the plastron, and when it had burned down, a man cut away the lower shell and stripped the meat from it, which had been cooked to a depth of an inch or so. The liver was carefully divided among several families and was eaten raw. Then the meat of the upper shell was cut out and the basin, half-full of blood, was relinquished to the little children with their sea-shell spoons, and to the dogs, and between them the shell was soon emptied. Raw turtle fat is a delicacy, and there are not more happy children in the world than little Seris with a slab of fat to chew. The dogs stood by when the old women began to dress the turtles, and, belly-deep in the sea, served as handy knife-wipers for the women. Eaten with the turtle were beans, and a paste made of white flour and water, slightly cooked.

July is the season of ripe pitahaya and saguaro fruit, and the women were returning from gathering the fruit in the interior of the island, carrying the fruit in baskets on their heads, the long gathering poles in their hands. A syrup was made of the juice, and the pulp and seeds were compacted into a sweet cake which the children liked. Pots of syrup stood in several houses, and people dipped into them whenever they wished. Bivalves were plentiful in the lagoons of the mainland and in the rocky flats about the island. Here, incidentally, the author learned how the great shell mounds of prehistoric times were built, along this coast, when he, with several shark fishermen, gathered fifteen gallons of “almejas” for a light lunch, leaving a heap of shell that will endure for centuries. The Seri did not appear to utilize fish as a major part of their diet, at least while the turtle were running. They had few hooks, though the boys at Palo Fierro were casting the throw net for bait, more for fun than in earnestness, while other children criticized their efforts with much laughter. Sea turtle, after all, has the reputation along the coast of being a food “muy fuerte” and, since all of the animal is eaten, would seem, with fruits, to furnish all that the Seri need. It is probably one of the reasons for their great vitality.

Perhaps it should be emphasized that Seri foodstuffs are highly seasonal, according to the run of fish and turtle. When neither is plentiful the people turn to deer and small game, and at other times rely on shell fish. Turtle eggs are also prized as food.

The dogs upon which the old women wiped their knives deserve further mention. The Seri have almost innumerable dogs of all colors, shapes and sizes, only a few of which can be taken from camp to camp in the canoes. At Tecomate, as the pangoes pushed off, thirty or more abandoned dogs waded out shoulder-deep in the shallows, put their noses to the heavens, and howled mournfully for hours, in utter desolation. Then they turned back into the island's interior, to hunt deer and other game until their masters should return.

At both Tecomate and Palo Ferro, Mrs. Harrington continued collecting fetishes and information about them. The people were surprisingly ready to sell them and to talk about most of them, although there was a noticeable reticence when certain santos were mentioned. Nearly every man and boy wore one about his neck. Knowing how seriously most American Indians regard such fetishes, the author was much astonished when Antonio Moreno, an exceptionally brilliant and talented twelve-year old, retorted, in reply to his statement that the mask of the Aztec Rain God on his ring was that of a very powerful santo, "Well, let's let 'em fight, and we'll see whether yours is the stronger or not!" Other carvings in wood, also brilliantly painted in blue and red, were hung in the shelters and over the beds, especially over those of the young women and girls. These often represented the new moon, who "is a senorita" and who brings dreams of a lover to the girls. Even baby girls wore this moon amulet on their bonnets. Face paintings had protective and curative significance also, and the men often wore a painted knife symbol on each cheek, protecting them against knife wounds.