Traditions of the Thompson River Indians (cont.) The social organization of the NLaka'pamux is very loose. There are no definite village communities, but families settled at one or the other winter camp. Some of these consisted only of one house, which was occupied by several families; but the locations of the families were not permanent. It seems that there were no recognized chiefs, except in so far as wealth entailed greater influence among the tribe. There is no trace of clans and of totems, nor did any families claim the privilege of hunting and fishing in particular districts of their country. The only recognized divisions of the tribe are those enumerated above. There were no restrictions in regard to marriage inside and outside of tribal divisions; only marriages between near relatives were forbidden. On the whole, the woman followed her husband to his village, and she only returned to her parents to pay them a visit. Marriages were arranged on the principle of purchase, the man giving a certain amount of property to the bride's parents, which, however, was returned in full, or nearly in full, on later occasions.
During the early part of the century, before there was any contact with whites, the potlatch system, which plays so important a part in the social economy of the coast tribes, held sway among the NLaka’pamux as well. It did, however, never attain an importance as great as it had on the coast. It is interesting to note that in the myths recorded in the following volume, hardly any mention of it occurs, while it is of the greatest importance in the mythology of the coast tribes. I infer that the system has been recently introduced among the NLaka’pamux, and did not obtain in early times.
It seems that the religious rituals of the NLaka’pamux never attained any great development, and in this respect they differ fundamentally from the coast tribes, whose rituals are exceedingly elaborate. There are no secret societies, no extended ceremonials, in which dramatized myths play an important part. The tribe assembled at regular intervals to celebrate a ceremonial dance, in which it seems sacrifices were made to the sun. It may be that these ceremonials were more important and more elaborate than our present information would seem to indicate. If such was the case, these ceremonies must have resembled those of the Kootenay. The fundamental concepts of both seem to have been the same. They consisted in the worship of the sun, and appear to have been connected with the idea that the dead would return from the land of the shades.
The brief sketch of the customs of the tribe here given will be sufficient for an understanding of the tales recorded in the following pages; but it seems desirable to preface the collection by a short discussions of a few of the more important features that characterize the tales of the tribe. About one half of the volume is taken up by myths referring to transformers. While in most American mythologies there is only one transformer who is, at the same time, the culture hero, we find here several personages to whose actions the present shape of our world is due. These are: the Coyote, three brothers Qo?'qLqaL, Kokw?'la, and the Old Man. The first and. the second of these are decidedly the most influential and important-) personages in the whole mythology of the tribe.
The Coyote as well as the three brothers are in a way the culture heroes of the tribe, and the general characteristics of the legends referring to these beings are very similar to legends of this class as found among other American tribes. The story of the so-called "Culture Hero," who gave the world its present shape, who killed monsters that infested the land, and gave man the arts that make life worth living, is one of the most widely distributed Indian myths. In what we might call the prehistoric era there was no clear distinction between man and animals. At last the culture hero appeared, and transformed some of the beings of those times into animals, others into men. ' He taught the latter how to kill animals, how to make fire, and how to clothe themselves. He is the great benevolent being, the helper of mankind. But the same great culture hero appears in other groups of tales as a sly trickster, who vaingloriously Thinks himself superior to all other beings, whom he tries to deceive in all sorts of ways, and who is often punished for his presumption by the superior powers of his proposed victims. . No method of warfare is too mean for him, if it promises to lead to victory; no trick is too low to be resorted to, if it helps him to reach his end. Neither is the end sought for one that we might consider worthy of this great being. It is selfish to the extreme, the possession of riches or that of beautiful women being his chief aim. It is very difficult to harmonize these two aspects of the myths of the culture hero. Some investigators, prominently Dr. D. G. Brinton, and also Dr. Walter Hoffman2, have held that the explanation is to be sought for in a gradual deterioration of a purer and more primitive form of the myth, and that the more vulgar tales are later additions to the old cyclus of myths. If this were so, the problem would still remain, why there is such a general tendency of making the ancient culture hero the principal figure in these tales. But it seems to my mind that the frequent occurrence of this phenomenon requires a different explanation. It does not seem likely that all mythologies collected while still in more or less vigorous life should have undergone the same kind of deterioration. I am rather inclined to think that we have to deal here with a most important characteristic of all primitive religion.