A KARUK WORLD-RENEWAL CEREMONY AT PANAMINIK BY PHILIP DRUCKER UNIVERSITY oF' CALIFORNiA PUBriCATIONS IN AMERICAN ARCHAEOLOGY AND ETHNOLOGY Volume 35, No. 3, pp. 23-28, 1 map Issued January 10, 1936 Price (with Nos. 4 and 5), 25 cents UNIVERSITY OF CAMFORNIA PRESS BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS LONDON, ENGLAND PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERIOA A KARUK WORLD-RENEWAL CEREMONY AT PANAMINIK BY PHILIP DRUCKER VERSIONS of this ceremony were obtained from both Louis Johnny and Peter Tom, Indians living at Orleans, California, the modern town close to the Ka- ruk site, Pana'minik. Both men had taken an active part in the ritual on sev- eral occasions prior to its last performance about 1910. On the whole their accounts check fairly well, but there are some differences. The two versions will be given separately. The entire ceremony, called ira'hip, or pikia'vish, "to make again" (both names were used), was performed annually for the purpose of ensuring plenty of food and freedom from sickness for the ensuing year. The esoteric part was a sort-of perambulatory ritual, in which the priest recited formulas and visited a number of sacred spots in the near-by hills, one each day in a fixed sequence. The exoteric feature was the performance of a white deerskin dance on the last two days and nights of the ceremony by the people from Panaminik and ad- jacent towns. This dance was actually given only every other year; on the alternate years there was a feast given by the rich men of Panaminik. The dramatis personae of the ira'hip were: ikha'riara, or fatawe'na, "first-spirit person," the priest who knew and performed the esoteric rites; pishi'shikiya'- wun, the woman who cooked the priest's single daily meal of dried salmon and acorn mush during the ritual; several assistants to the priest, including two girls (kiya'wun) and a youth, whose functions seem to have been omitted in the last few performances; and last but by no means least, the rich men, who provided the objects of value for display in the dance and food for the feast- ing. The role of priest could be taken by any man belonging to Panaminik who knew the ritual. In the ceremonies in which the informants took part it was customary for several men to relieve one another as priest, each serving for two or three days, because the slim diet, hill-climbing, and loss of sleep made the priest's r8le an arduous one. First version (L. J.).-The priest observed the moon and then timed the beginning of his fast so that the ceremony would come to an end on the night of the first new moon in the month okwakos (about September). Supperless, he entered ikmaha'chnamoka'm, the sacred sweat house at Panaminik, the night before his duties were to begin. Other men came into the sweat house after nightfall to sing, keeping the priest awake a good part of the night. This singing took place every night of the ceremony except the last two, when the dance was held. All the men had to assume the posture preseribed for the priest whenever he sat down during the ritual: knees drawn up so the elbows rested upon them; only one leg extended at a time. Occasionally one might stand erect for a few minutes to rest. The singing came to an [23] 24 University of California Publications in Am. Arch. and Ethn. end about the middle of the night to allow the priest a few hours of sleep. Before dawn he arose to "pray" (probably to recite a formula), then bathed in the river. The "prayer" and the bathing occupied most of the morning. Then the priest entered the sacred house (ikeri- veram), which stood elose by the sweat house, and greased his body with deer tallow "so the brush would not scratch him." He painted the lower part of his face red, with black marks Map 1. Places visited by formulist in the Panaminik world-renewal ceremony. a, sacred house and sweat house; b, Tishanishunu, a dance ground; c, Chemikninich, a dance ground; d, Katipiramam; e, tobacco offerings; 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 (numerals above dots), sacred places; broken line, route of priest. (The map is based on the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey map of the Klamath National Forest, Orleans distriet.) on his cheeks, and drew black bands above and below his elbows and knees; then put on a pair of moccasins. His pipe, tobacco, and fire drill he placed in a large edition of a jumping- dance basket (called by the same name, wikkyapu). All these objects, the paint, the moc- casins, and the basket with its contents, were stored in the sacred house. With his basket in his hand, he started for the first sacred place, Tuyukmam. Even his mode of walking was Druccker: A Karuik World-Renewal Ceremony at Panaminik prescribed; he had to go uphill and downhill and through the brush, not following the trails, but by as direct a route as possible. He might not swing his arms freely, but had to hold them close by his sides; he must step carefully, not dragging his feet or stumbling. On reaching the sacred spot, a small circular clearing in the brush, the priest first had to clear away the year's accumulation of leaves and twigs, after which he gathered a pile of wood. He laid some tinder on a small flat stone, lighted it with his fire drill, then set stone and all under the wood laid on the fireplace. While the fire burned, the priest sat on a filat rock to one side, smoking his pipe. He did not pray at this time. After the fire had died down (and he tried to time it so that he might return to the sweat house by dusk), he re- moved from the embers the small stone on which the tinder had been placed, throwing it on a pile of other stones which had been used thus in previous years. He returned to the sacred house to lay aside his paraphernalia, then bathed in the river. In the sacred house he ate his first meal of the day, a scanty repast of dried salmon and a little acorn mush. After that, he went to the sweat house for the night's singing. The procedure on the following days was substantially the same, except that different places were visited. For this reason I shall merely list the places in their proper order, men- tioning only the special acts performed; it is to be understood that the rest of the routine was the same. Second day. The priest went to Isrikiluk. Meanwhile, two parties of young men, fasting from food and water, went to Shnevaishninam, just behind the town, built a fire, and began an archery contest. They used a small white stone for a target, throwing it ahead of them and shooting at it with arrows. When they reached a placed called Yevisane, they tossed the stone on a pile of similarly used stones, then drove pegs into the ground for targets. It was usual to make small bets on each "game." They proceeded up the hill, driving the pegs at five designated spots, and then went home. Third day. The priest went to Chivikich. The young men went to the place where they had left off the preceding day, and retraced their course as far back as Yevisane, shooting at marks along the way. Fourth day. The priest went to Tishanik. Fifth day. He went to Kusnachanimnam. Sixth day. He went to Tishanixsu, now called Ohoahaku. Seventh day. "If the moon was still big," the priest visited Witkitiwarum; if the time had come for the dance to begin, he would omit this place. Eighth day. In the morning, the priest painted himself more elaborately than before, col- oring his entire body red with a black strip down the front from neck to groin. He retained the black marks on his cheeks and the black bands around his arms and legs. With two or three old men, he went down the river to Chemikninich, where a fire was built and where the old men instructed him in his duties for the day. The duties of these assistants for the rest of the day are not clear; possibly they kept the fire burning for the dance that night. The priest set out alone up the ridge to Ihvriparum. At ten unnamed but well-known places along the way he stopped to make offerings of tobacco, and he shouted five times toward the east and five times toward the south. Whoever chanced to hear his voice would be killed or injured within the year. When his fire at Ihvriparum had burned out, he came down the side of the mountain, meeting the old men at Katipiramam, where they had built a fire while awaiting his return. In a canoe they went down river to Chemikninich, where all the people had assem- bled. The dancers had already crossed the river, making a "boat dance," that is, dancing in canoes, on the way over. One of the old men went ahead from the landing place to the dance ground, shouting to warn the people that the priest was arriving; they were not permitted to look at him until he had seated himself by the fire. Then the dance could begin. People from three towns, Panaminik, Wopam, and Chineshiship, took part in the dance, each town "making four dances," that is, dancing separately four times. 25 26 University of California Publications in Am. Arch. and Ethn. Ninth day. Before daybreak the dance at Chemikninich came to a halt; the priest returned to the sweat house at Panaminik, bathed, recited his formula, and set out for the place Sehp while the danee began again at Chemikninich. Before dusk, the dancers crossed the river to Tishanishunu, dancing in the boats as they crossed. The priest, after he crossed Camp creek that evening and approached the Tishanishunu dance place, dropped at each step to one knee and raised his basket of paraphernalia at arm's length before him. It was permitted to watch him. At length he reached the "sand pile" (yuhpit) at one end of the dance ground and seated himself by the fire which burned beside it. This was the signal for the dance to begin. When morning came the priest went to the sweat house to sleep, although the dance contin- ued the rest of the day. For ten days thereafter he remained in the sweat house, subsisting on dried salmon and acorn mush. Second version (P. T.).-[For the sake of brevity identical features will be omitted, only differences and additions being described.] On the first day, the priest went to Tuyukmam. He took with him, besides the usual arti- cles, ten acorns which had been cracked and filled with deer marrow. These he laid beside the fire to "keep the bugs from eating up all the acorns." This protected all other vegetable foods and fruits as well. I The second day, the priest went to Panaminikiate;' the third day, to Chivikich (which could be visited twice if it seemed that otherwise the dances would begin too soon); the fourth day, to Tishanikumam. The young men shot arrows on this day also. On the fifth day, the priest's destination was Witkitiwarum. The sixth day, he visited Owahoku. To go there, he first went down river some little distance below the mouth of Camp creek, then retraced his steps, "driving the salmon up river and into Camp creek" by means of a formula. He also took ten acorns filled with deer marrow, as on the first day, which he laid by the fire at the sacred spot. On the same day he went to Kusnachemusnaovich. On the seventh day, he set out with his old men assistants to Chemikninich, and then went alone up the ridge to Ahaiseram (another name for Ihvriparum), making his offerings of tobacco along the way. Here he had to gather a large pile of wood, which he measured by kneeling behind it and sighting across the valley at a mountain peak on the other side; if he could see the peak, he had to get more wood. The informant commented that in this, of all the places, it was hard to find wood. The priest also had to construct, close to the fire, a rude brush shelter, in which he sat until the fire burned itself out. Then he descended the moun- tain to rejoin the old men by their fire. Together they started down river in a canoe. As they approached, the dancers began a boat dance, moving slowly downstream in canoes until the priest gave the signal to stop by diving into the river. No one was permitted to watch him go to the fireplace from the water's edge. On the morning of the eighth day, the priest went from the sweat house to Sehp. Instead of clearing away the brush and leaves thoroughly, as was necessary at the other places, he merely skimmed the surface because "all kinds of sick- ness had been put at this place when the world was made," and to sweep it too clean would spread them all out into the world. His next task was to dig up the ten ihkareyo, who are, or who reside in, ten small stones buried on one side of the clearing. These ihkareyo are of the supernatural beings who created the world, established its institutions, then took up their abode at Sehp "when the people came." The priest had to give them a little tobacco "to eat," sprinkling it on the ground beside them. Without looking at them, he gathered his wood, built his fire, and let it burn down. Only then could he look at the ihkareyo, who had by that time eaten all the tobacco and were ready to be reburied until the next year's ceremony. Then the priest started back to the dance ground at Tishanishunu. 'Refers to Isrikiluk; seems to be another name for it. Druccker: A Karuk World-Renewal Ceremony at Panaminik COMPARATIVE NOTES The world-renewal ceremonies of the four Karuk centers, Amaikiara, Kati- min, Inam, and Panaminik, appear to differ considerably, but there are many common traits which indicate their unity. Although the Amaikiara rite is pretty definitely a "first-salmon ceremony,"' it contains such elements as fire making, the altar, ceremonial archery contests, the association of the sacred house and sweat house with the ritual, and others, not to mention the use of formulas, ever-present in northwestern California. Conversely, the Pana- minik ceremony concerns itself with providing salmon and acorns for the com- ing year, though with much less stress on this particular feature. The Kati- min ritual, as described by Kroeber,' and Harrington,' seems more closely re- lated to that at Panaminik, though the target shooting is of more importance, occurring daily. But the general procedure of visiting sacred places, building fires, making tobacco offerings, and the style of body painting are the same. Even the prompting of the priest by the old men is duplicated.! In like man- ner, the ceremony as performed at Inam contains identical elements. As Kroeber pointed out,6 one of the most striking differences between the world-renewal ceremonies of the Karuk and those of their downstream neigh- bors, the Yurok, is in the association of the esoteric rites and the dances which accompany them; the Yurok stage brief dances, which gradually increase in length and splendor every day, whereas the Karuk prefer to concentrate their dances into nearly continuous two-day and -night affairs. The Hupa rituals resemble those of the Yurok in this respect.' It is possible to account for the differences between the several Karuk cere- monies, and perhaps even between these and the ceremonies of their neigh- bors, on the basis of the extreme localization so characteristic of all phases of Northwestern California cultures: each ritual "belonged" to a certain town and was associated with near-by spots; it was performed by people from that town, and known to them only-at least so far as the esoteric acts were con- cerned. The basic elements are everywhere the same, but in each locality they have been so modified and rearranged that the ceremonies as they now stand appear quite different. 2H. H. Roberts, the First Salmon Ceremony of the Karuk Indians, AA 34:426-440, 1932. 'A. L. Kroeber, Handbook of California Indians, BAE-B 78:103-104, 1925. 'J. P. Harrington, Tobacco among the Karuk Indians of California, BAE-B 94:241-252, 1932. 'Harrington, op. cit., note, p. 245. 6Kroeber, conversation. 7P. E. Goddard, Life and Culture of the Hupa, UC-PAAE 1:81-87, 1903; Kroeber, Handbook, 134-135. 27 28 University of California Publications in Am. Arch. and Ethn. APPENDIX: THE INAM CEREMONY These are notes obtained by Kroeber from Old Ned in 1923 on the In.-Wm, or Clear creek ceremony, the farthest upstream of the Karuk. The rite is called tu'i'rahiv; the formulist in charge, fatawe'nan; his assistant, imu'san; his two women assistants, who cook for him, itii'van. The formulist fasts, travels on moun- tains, lights fires, and prays for two days (sic: evidently only the final days of the rite are being deseribed). He starts from Xumaru, Ferry Point, and goes up Xumaru-mak, the mountain E of Xumaru, making fires in three speeified places, the last at Pavyi'X%uru'ram on the summit. No one looks at his smoke, lest he spoil the "medicine." He seems to come back to the river upstream, opposite Inam, toward sunset. Then he is ferried across to Takiri'pak, on the bar just below the mouth of Clear creek. The evening before, the people gathered at Yufxsarim near by, danced, and camped the night there. In the morning they moved to YuXsarim-kan, some 50 yards upstream, and danced there. During the day they have gone off or scattered to shoot at a mark with bows. Now, when the formulist crosses to Takiripak, the people also dance across the river in boats. They wear woodpeeker-scalp headbands, and carry fisher skins and deerskins on poles. After landing, they make the war dance with fisher-skin quivers. At Takiripak the formu- list makes a sand pile and builds a fire: "xaikoaksan," they cry in warning when he is about to kindle this, and all lie down and shut their eyes. The next day, everyone breakfasts in front of Apaka'ipan (on the N side of Clear creek, on a river terrace), and then goes off, even to the dogs, so as not to see the smoke as the for- mulist travels again. This time he goes w of the river on A?aX8var, a mountain to the NW, and lights a fire in two places. He (returns and) eats late, after all are gone. This is the end of the ceremony. The first beginning of the rite (i.e., of the formulaic part?) is at Imnanava'ram, a rock pile just below the mouth of Clear creek where there is a riffle. Here a beginning is made in July; the climax as deseribed seems to fall in August. The ceremony as a whole clearly cen- ters about Inam, on a filat on the s side of Clear creek, and it is to be assumed that in this town stood the sweat house specially eonneeted with the formulist's activities.