Sons of the Captain

National ritual taught to the first people after the death of the creator, Ku-Kumaat. It is known, however, that a number of omissions and changes have occurred with the passage of time, but the older people who have taken part in many Keruk ceremonies still know the difference between the original ritual and the present ceremony. Although re-enactment of the ceremony of Avikwame is the original object of the present ritual, it has been individualized as a memorial to those recently dead. The immediate family of these people are the ones who first suggest to the ceremony leaders to begin preparations and often bear part of the cost. This particular mourning function is closely associated with a new custom that appeared about fifty years ago.

The Keruk formerly was not an annual event; it could be held a couple of times a year, or it might not be held for several years. If one family had lost a member and started preparations for a Keruk, others who had recently suffered similar loss would offer to help with labor and supplies, and those who were learned in ceremonial lore, were skilled in the manufacture of ceremonial paraphernalia usually volunteered their service.

For the past thirty years or so, it has been the custom to have the Keruk ceremony in the fall, usually about the middle of September. This is considered the best time because there is plenty of corn, melons, and vegetables.

The responsibility of the preparatory work and ceremonial activities of the Keruk rests on the shoulders of a group of the older men who have performed these tasks and have taken the same part in the ceremonies year after year. The mourning families, images of whose relatives appear in the ceremony, take no active part in the work or ceremony other than making clothes for the images. It is said that these people are so affected by their grief and so completely occupied in mourning over the images that they cannot take part in the ritual.

The Keruk is held in a clearing, about the size of a city block, close to the Colorado River. Around this clearing, temporary shelters of cottonwood limbs are built in which the active participants make camp during the ceremonies.

The relatives of those mourned and the participants are restricted to a light diet of cornmeal gruel during the ceremony and for four days preceding. In early times, this fast was observed by all the people.

The Keruk lasts for four days, but the first three days are spent in preparatory work, while the collection of materials used in making the ceremonial objects begins several days in advance vance of the ceremony proper.

On the fourth and last day, when the real ceremony is held, the activities continue through the day and night with very little rest. To describe the various phases of the colorful mourning ceremony would be a story in itself. Throughout the ceremony however, there is al most constant speech-making, wailing, dancing and pageantry, culminating with the firing of the Keruk house and the temporary shelter in which the ceremonial equipment was prepared.

The images, costumes, and other paraphernalia are placed on the image pyre to be burned. When the images begin to burn, the mourners wail loudly and their grief becomes intense; some are so emotional that they rush up as if to throw themselves into the fire; dresses, scarfs, and shirts are torn off the backs and thrown into the flames. Frequently silk handkerchiefs, shirts, dresses, and other articles of clothing are bought for this particular part of the ritual. During the wailing, the speakers are trying vainly to be heard.

As the fire dies down, the tired people drift away to their camps, prepare food, and begin to pack their belongings. Within five or six hours, they have gone, in cars and wagons and on horseback. The Keruk ground is deserted until the next ceremony.

It appears that a Yuma doctor does not pray to or intercede with his guardian spirit when performing a cure. The speeches and songs of the doctor seem to contain natural magic and are not appeals for assistance from the spirit.

The old time theories of disease and belief in, and practice of, magical rites to produce and cure sickness are still strong among the Yuma. Since dream power is the basis of all success in life and is necessary for the performance of any public duty, the shaman or doctor, is not particularly set apart from the rest of the community. There are many men who are dreamers. Funeral orators, singers, and the leaders all dream their power. A shaman does not charge a big fee, because his powers are limited to a certain range of sickness beyond which he cannot go. Through the advice of his guardian spirit, a doctor usually decides what he is capable of treating. Occasionally he alone makes the decision on the fundamental principles of his dreams. The curing power of a doctor is regarded as of essentially the same order as any other power.

However, the power of a shaman is in one respect very different from that of an orator or chief. When he makes his dream visit to the sacred mountain Avikwame, the spirit that he encounters remains faithful to him all his life and advises him when to accept a case and the methods of treatment. In return, the spirit demands obedience from the doctor.

If a man is to become a great shaman, the spirit appears before he is born. As he grows up, he may be shown many things but does not cure yet. One thing of great importance that the spirits impress on the ones they have chosen is that they must never doubt the power of the spirit nor disobey its commands. A man may have been shown how to cure various kinds of sickness, but he may not attempt to do so until the spirit tells him. The obedience of a novice is often tested. His relatives may be very sick, and he will want to try to save them; but, if he tries to cure before the spirit tells him that he is ready, he will fall sick. All power is lost through disobedience to the spirit. It is said that each doctor has his own parti-cular spirit. Some claim that these spirits are connected with animals, but the relation seems to be very obscure. The Raccoon, Fox, Badger Crow, Sun, and Moon and other spirits have appeared to shamans, but they never appear in the form of these animals. The spirits them selves are of the first creation, who had far greater power than men of the present. They tried to create human beings as the creator himself had done, but they succeeded only in making the animals that were later named for them. Some members of the tribe believe that the creator was angry with them and turned them into the animals they had made.

The power of a shaman is limited to a certain extent by the scope of his dreams and the instructions of his spirit. When he gets his power for one sickness particularly, that power may be good to cure other diseases, but it will not be as good for them as for the special sickness. The visit to Avikwame that a doctor makes while he is asleep gives him general knowledge and the power to cure, but for really great power he has to perform a cure while there. A few doctors have had many good dreams and therefore have power over several sicknesses. When a man is sick, he gets the best shaman for his sickness that can be found. If he is not successful, the shaman will advise him to call another, and he will keep this up until he is cured or dies. The Yuma do not get angry if a doctor cannot cure; they feel sorry for him because his power is not so good. They never try to harm a shaman if his patient dies, unless they are sure it is witchcraft. But shamans seldom use witchcraft; they do not get the power for that, but only to cure the sickness of which they have dreamed. There are special terms employed for various kinds of ailments, and probably a broad range of curing power is implied in these terms: sickness curer, ghost dreamer, witch doctor (curer of bewitchment), snake-bite curer, fracture curer, wound-curer, and stunned curer. Within the general term sickness, any one shaman will claim to be able to cure only certain forms, and the diagnosis depends chiefly on the shaman himself, made frequently with little attention to the symptoms of the disease. The relation of the shaman, his guardian spirit, and the patient is difficult to determine, but is said to vary according to the disease. Generally, it seems, the spirit directs the doctor to accept a case and gives him the necessary strength to affect a cure. In case of witchcraft, however, both in the bewitchment and curing, the spirit is believed to enter the doctor and take complete possession. If a patient is near death, the doctor in an effort to force the soul back into the body tries by singing to influence the spirit and cause it to enter his own body, from which it passes again into the patient. It is said that the shaman may also speak as the spirit; in such a case, it is the spirit speaking but using the voice of the doctor, as the spirit has no voice of its own. There are a number of sicknesses from na tural causes, including bone fractures and other physical injuries and stomach disorders, usually caused from overeating and bad food. In this category fall several ailments of small children generally believed to be caused by some mis fortune before or at birth. The method of treat ment by the shaman for these ailments is mas sage and blowing of saliva on the afflicted parts.

In case of dream poisoning by spirits, the poison must be sucked out by the doctor. The poisoned parts may also be brushed with feath ers and pointed at with a short stick or the fingers.

Soul loss is often caused by a severe blow which results in unconsciousness for a time, or a ghost may attempt to carry off the soul of the injured person, especially when in a weakened condition from other sickness. The devices em ployed to aid in the recovery of the soul are blowing tobacco smoke and spraying of saliva, which has been frothed up in the mouth, over the patient.

The curing of snake bites is a special craft for which greater power is needed than for almost any other cure. Shamans who treat snake bites seem to have had unusual dreams through which they acquired special powers. When a shaman is performing a snake bite cure, the wound is lightly stroked and jabbed with eagle feathers or a bundle of young arrowweed tips. The arrowweed is prepared in a special manner for this cure by the doctor himself. He also sucks the wound and sings special songs.

Editor's Note The Story of the Yuma Indians was prepared from a manuscript written by Frances B. Sanita for the Arizona Writers' Project.

The control of our native vegetation offers the greatest degree of success in the improvement of foraging and grazing throughout the Southwest. "One of the particularly helpful phases of the work being done here," he went on, "is our unique study of roots. Of the hundreds of visitors who come to the Arboretum for advice in their agricultural or horticultural problems, the majority have shown the keenest interest in our methods of studying roots. We are practically among the pioneers in this field of plant investigation. In our efforts to determine the relationship and economic value of plants, we believe that serious consideration must be given to roots, as well as the tops of all growths. In our fundamental investigation, roots are given first place. Although roots are of greater interest and importance obviously than any other part of a plant, they have received less attention by investigators, strange to say, than the trunk, the leaves, the fruit or the flowers, as the case may be. "Comparatively speaking, so little is known about root study, it is not surprising that our methods have created widespread interest. "We make our observations by growing the plants in wooden and cement boxes provided with plate glass fronts, making it possible for the roots to be seen and checked up each day.

The Southwestern Arboretum

(Continued from Page Nineteen) those of Mexico, the desert regions of Chile and Patagonia, the deserts of Australia, the Namib, the Sahara and Lybian, also those of Arabia, Persia and Turkestan. Besides, we are collecting many of the Acacias from Africa, Australia and Asia, as well as those of our own country a wonderful group, judged as trees producing gums, tannin, wood and forage, or merely as ornamental and decorative species. "We consider the study of our native vegetation is of equal importance. We have brought many varieties under cultivation, surpassing in

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beauty of form and color, many of the more commercial types. "We are also giving much attention to the introduction and establishment of plants which may be used for soil-binding, erosion, and water shed protection, and our experience with the Forest Service makes me believe that the intensive development of the forest 'cover,' is one of the big problems of the Southwest confronting us: It touches every phase of our agricultural and industrial activities, being the source of two of great vitalizing agencies, water and power." "We feel," he went on, "that the person who either cuts down or plants a tree on a remote mountain side has created a condition vitally important to the irrigator and power user miles away. Likewise the man who allows his herd to over-graze a hillside or who with proper fore-thought regulates his grazing operations, affects the run-off adversely or favorably on which his down stream neighbor depends. Agriculturists, forestry workers and other investigators, fully appreciate that the Light is excluded by well insulated doors, which may be readily opened or closed. The boxes are made in two series, the smaller 3x3 feet square, holding 27 cubic feet of soil, and the larger 6x6 feet square, holding 216 cubic feet of soil. In some cases our boxes are made large enough and hold sufficient soil to accommodate a tree for several years. "From fifteen to twenty thousand people visit the Arboretum every year. What these visitors absorb in botanical and horticultural education is surely as varied as are the people themselves. Many come again and again, simply to ride or walk about enjoying the garden as one would any public park which offered shade and plants and flowers. We do not try to force special features of the Arboretum upon those who come here. We are glad to have them come whatever their purpose. Groups of students and garden club members, naturally derive most benefit from our growing collective plants, while the scientist, the nurserymen or the botanist will be given the exact information he may be seeking. "I could go on indefinitely, like most research workers, telling you about our many experiments we are all enthusiasts, you know," he added whimsically, "but above everything else, I would like to have you carry away this one thought for your readers, that here in this comparatively small area of what is commonly known as the 'great desert country' we are putting forth our best efforts to assemble and we hope, preserve forever in the richness of its natural flora, all that is useful and beautiful in plant life from the sub-arid regions of the world; and to quote the founder, 'for the benefit of mankind."