SPOILERS BELOW - SPOILERS BELOW
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April 1906: Work on the “new spur” in Visitacion Valley was
interrupted by the earthquake.
July 1906: Discovery
of the Indian artifacts in what turned out to be an unknown shell-mound when
the structure is broken open by a steam shovel working on the “new spur”. A
group of students from the Lowie Museum did a poor job of preserving the
context of the artifacts they discovered. Drawings exist of what the original
structure may have looked like.
What was
found fifteen feet below the mound surface was a “box” of sandstone blocks
surrounding and creating two small chambers, one above the other. The chambers
were each only about a half a cubic yard. The upper chamber contained a very
odd granite block with five granite
“pins”, each pin drilled trough the head to hold the ends of five tarred twines
which interconnect to form a five pointed star which overlays a lozenge shaped
block of sandstone.
The lower chamber contained four small
items:
- 1 A small pestle in the form of a figurine of southern California - perhaps Chumash workmanship.
- 2 A wooden mask of Yupik origin.
- 3 A stone disk with a
painted wolfs-head design – definitely Kwaikiutl.
- 4 A basketry disk which is certainly Hupa or Yoruk.
Prof. Kroeber
cannot rule out the possibility that the artifacts were buried in recent times
– the Mission era or later… In fact, after dispatching letters to the regions
represented by the four identifiable artifacts, Professor Kroeber was
distracted by the remarkable appearance of Ishi, the sole representative of a vanished
tribe of northern California Indians. Ishi would be personally close to Alfred
Kroeber as well as being a subject of research until his death from
tuberculosis in 1916.
Professor Kroeber has a sense of guilt owing to the fact
that after arranging the most appropriate funerary rituals for Ishi, he then
sent the man’s preserved brain to the Smithsonian.
In late November of
1921 Professor Kroeber returned to the Lowie from a data gathering trip to the
eastern part of the state and, while organizing collections, rediscovered the
1906 artifacts. He also found that there had been a response to one of his
letters which he had never seen.
The
letter on University of British Columbia stationary reads:
Dear
Professor Kroeber,
In answer to your remarkable query, we have
in our collection a very curious and similar piece of sandstone. The tablet
appears to be of approximately the same dimensions although the face is painted
in characteristic Kwaikiutl style. The inverse face is unornamented and not so
well finished.
This item was discovered under uncertain
circumstances during the latter half of the nineteenth century by a trapper and
purchased for the original McGill collection, which preceded the current
University. Unfortunately the provenance is quite uncertain and the artifact is
therefore of limited value. I hope you will share with us any further
information that may uncovered, although I agree that the chances are this is
some later disposal or possibly even a hoax.
Please find enclosed a photograph as well as
a copy of the accompanying paperwork.
Yours
truly,
Alexander
Worthington, PhD
 |
| Lozenge shaped tablet in Kwaikiutl style. |
Professor
Kroeber sent off a new wave of letters to many of the same persons and
institutions.
The
first response was from the Hoopa Valley reservation.
Office
of the Superintendent of Instruction Hoopa Agency December 2, 1921
My
Dear professor Kroeber,
I am afraid that Mr. Englehart is no longer
employed in this office, having been carried off in the great flu epidemic of
1918.
I have had a brief survey of our records and
find no reference to tribal artifacts such as you describe. Additionally, I
have shown the photograph you enclosed to the current tribal “Chief”, and he
claims no knowledge of it.
I am told that you spent some time in the Hoopa
Valley around the turn of the century and that other members of your
institution have conducted research here in the intervening years. I hope that
you are not contemplating a return at this time as conditions have changed
somewhat and the Indian residents do not need further reminders of their pagan
superstitions.
Yours truly,
Edward
Marshal - Superintendent
Next
to arrive was a letter from British Columbia.
March 23, 1921
Dear
Dr. Kroeber,
In answer to your recent
enquiry, I must report something very unfortunate.
Our “museum” is hardly worthy of the name. It
is merely a couple of rooms set aside for display in the new Hall. And our
storage facility on campus is totally inadequate. Therefore, items deemed to be
of lesser value are kept in a rather remote warehouse on the edge of town. On
February 3rd of last year, or thereabout, the building was broken into and
considerable wanton vandalism was done.
Many items were damaged or destroyed by what,
I am informed, was almost certainly a number of burly men. Seeing the damage to
the padlocked door, I was moved to suggest a bear - As I said, the building is
on the edge of town - but police sergeant Enderby showed me a large, but
apparently human, palm print among the debris.
In any event, a full survey of the collection
has been completed and a few items are not accounted for, some may be broken
and not yet identified but the tablet is certainly not present and the carton
in which it was stored is missing.
Please consult me again if you think I can be
of any assistance.
Yours
truly,
Professor
Vincent Tobias
Dept.
Chairman
A
letter came around the same time from the Moravian Mission in Bethel Alaska.
Alfred,
Greetings to you! I'm glad to hear
that you are still busily advancing the cause of human knowledge and wisdom. I
do recall your previous question about the odd collection of artifacts found in
your area. It's been a good many years but I still retain the photograph and
sketches.
I have never seen nor heard of anything remotely
like the cache from your shell-mound. Neither have any of my Indian friends any
knowledge of an object like the sandstone “lozenge”.
I'm sorry I can't be of more assistance.
Yours in Christ,
John Henry Killbuck, Rev.
Professor
Kroeber says that Rev. Killbuck is a very decent man with a lot of friends and
contacts in the tribes of the area. Killbuck is an authority on the language of
the Yupik and has shown unusual cultural sensitivity.
A
further letter came from Killbuck… this in the last month.
Alaska Territory - Bethel Area
Moravian Mission
March 3, 1922
Alfred,
Your most recent letter has given me
pause.
You have suggested that the, undoubtedly Yupik, mask in your cache is
probably associated with the Casquarimiut band of the Kokechik Bay region. I
would have to agree with your identification and I have disturbing news in that
respect.
As you probably know, Kokechic Bay is over a hundred miles from Bethel
across what can best be described as inhospitable country. The Casquarimiut are
a nomadic Esquimeaux people, spreading out to hunt and fish during the spring
and summer and returning to the bay to camp through the winter. The
Casquarimiut have been rather resistant to my attempts to bring them to the
light of Christ. They are, or were, a quiet and polite people and I have not
seen fit to pressure them. The only contact they have had with the outside
world is through traders and infrequent stops by a Coastguard ship.
The news I must convey to you is that the Casquarimiut may be no more.
Jack Gaumann, a half-breed fur-trader
who is, occasionally, a parishioner of mine has returned, somewhat
shaken, from his recent visit to the Kokechic Bay village.
According to this level-headed and generally reliable fellow, the
village has been wiped out by some unnatural catastrophe. The several
long-houses are burnt to the ground and there are enough traces of goods to
indicate that they were not abandoned in any orderly fashion. Nonetheless,
there are no signs of human remains.
Jack stated that he found a rifle lying, undamaged, nearby and no Indian
would abandon such a valuable weapon. The members of the Casquarimiut band must
number nearly three hundred and none of them has been heard of since this
occurrence. It is still early in the season but according to Jack, who is a
very experienced man, the destruction at Kokechic Bay must have occurred in
late December or early January, in the dead of winter. It has, therefore, been
over ten weeks.
Perhaps survivors will turn up at some remote village.
Your Friend,
John Henry Killbuck
The response
from a Prof. Hewett at USC is somewhat dismissive but does identify the pestle
as being specific to the Barbario Chumash.
When the name of Tsonoqua comes up there are various images...
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