Ethnozoology of the Tewa Indians / by Junius Henderson and John Peabody Harrington.

  • Henderson, Junius, 1865-1937.
Date:
1914
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Ethnozoology of the Tewa Indians / by Junius Henderson and John Peabody Harrington. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    76/98 (page 62)
    [bum.. 5« ^o^\kes ' nieiitioiis West C'oust inarnie sliell onianients in Ariz^>]ia made from Pectunculus [Oh/cimeris] sj)., Conua fergumni, C. lyrinariJH C. regularis, TunitcUa s])., llaliotia sj)., Strornhua sp., Cardium sp.' Midongena patula, Oliva angvlata., and Oliva [Olivella] hipliaita or liiot'ula, many of the s])ecies liavinj' also found tJieir way into New Mexico. lie sa}'s (p. 88): It is well known that there was a considerable trade in early times in these shells and long (rips were taken by the Pueblo Indians for trade purjjoHes. The intercourse of northern and southern peoples of Arizona through trading exjx;- dition.s continued to quite recent times, but judging from the number of specimens which were found in the ruins it must have been considerably greater in prehistoric times than it is at present. In fact, much of the declme in this traffic is probably to be traced to the modification of the southern Arizonian aborigines and the intro- duction of new ornaments by the whites. From the ruins near Winslow, Arizona, the foliowino; species of Pacific coast marine shells have been reported Fewkes: ^ Pectunca- lua giganteua Reeve, Melongena patula Rod. & Sow., Stn/mlus galeatua Wood, Conua ferguaoni Sow., Cardium elatum Sow., Oliva angvlata Lam., Oliva hiatula GmeUn, Oliva liplicata Sow., TurriteUa tigrina Keiner. Our San Ildefonso Indian informants had a distinct name for Aalimunella, which is common along El Rito de los Frijoles, in the Jemez Mountains, and jirobably in favorable localities tliroughout the region. They did not know Oreohelix, tliree specimens of which were obtained in the Jemez Mountains. PupiUa, although only .3 milhmeters m height and 1.5 millimeter in width, received a special name, being distmguished from the more flatly spired shells by its high spire and cylindrical form. The flatter shells of small size (Vallonia, Zonitoidea, e'tc.) were groujied under another name, with.- out distinguishing species. One of the Indian boys, who had never noticed the snails before, was shown several species under some logs. He began a search and soon found a Qoclilicopa, which differs markedly from the species that had been shown to him, and he at once recog- nized it as another kind of snail, but our informants had no distinct name for it. The mollusks of the region have no apparent economic value. Conditions are not favorable in the Rio Grande Valley of northern New Mexico for the larger clams, which would have a food value, and none have been found. There ajipear to be no published records of bivalve mollusks (Pelecypoda) for the region. Oalyculina and Piaidium have been found in the Rio Grande drainage in Colorado, and the latter, if not the former, jirobably occurs in our area in New Mexico, whereA’er ' Fewkes, J.W., Two Summers’ Work in Pueblo Ruins, Ttcenlysecond Ann. Rep. Bur. Amcr. ElhrK, part I, pp. 88-93, 187, 1904. 2 Fewkes, J.W., Preliminary Account of an Expedition to the Pueblo Ruins Near WiiLsIow, .\rizona, in 1896, Smithsonian Rep. for 1896, pp. 529, 630, 535, 536, 1898.