Historic Public Attitudes to New World Vultures

New World vultures had a strong cultural relationship with people in the prehistoric (Late Pleistocene/Holocene, 15000 BP) and more recent, pre- Colombian past. The ethnographic evidence hints the condors role was largely in religious or quasi-religious, ceremonial activities. In prehistoric, far western North America, evidence includes unmodified condor remains and also clear evidence of 'intentional burials', bone and feather artifacts and vulture representations in rock art (Simons 1983).

Significant numbers of artifacts were discovered from thirteen sites in California and Oregon, dated 10,000 years to early historic times (Simons 1983). There were unmodified remains at Five Mile Rapids site, the Lone Ranch Creek Shell Mound, the Hotchkiss Mound, the Avila Bridge site, and site 261 on San Miguel Island (cited in Miller 1942; Berreman 1944; Miller 1957; Cressman 1960; Miller 1963; Landberg 1965; Guthrie 1980). The largest number of these unmodified remains (about 63 birds, rather than one or two) were found at the Five Mile Rapids site, where condors comprised about 10% of the bird skeletons.

There are also 'questionable archaeological occurrences' of the California condor from this period. These include Smith Creek Cave in White Pine County, Nevada; Gypsum Cave in Clark County, Nevada; Boulder Springs Rock Shelter in Mohave County, Arizona; Stanton Cave, Tsean Kaetan Cave and Luka Cave in Coconino County, Arizona; Rocky Arroyo Cave in Otero County, New Mexico; Howell's Ridge Cave, Grant County, New Mexico; Conkling Cave in Dona Ana County, New Mexico; and Mule Ears Cave in Brewster County Texas. These findings are documented in a diverse literature (Miller 1931; Wetmore 1931, 1932; Howard and Miller 1933; Wetmore and Friedman 1933; Howard 1952; De Saussure 1956; Howard 1962a; Parmalee 1969; Hevly et al. 1978).

There are also questionable condor remains from sites which show evidence of human presence from the Pleistocene. These are found in Potter Creek Cave, Samwell Cave in Shasta County, California; Santa Rosa Island, Santa Barbara County, California; Rancho la Brea, Los Angeles County, California; and Friesenhahn Cave in Bexar County, Texas (Miller 1910, 1911; Howard and Miller 1939; Wormington 1957; Stock 1958; Evans 1961; Howard 1962b; Kreiger 1964; Brodkorb 1964; Heizer 1964; Bryan 1965; Orr 1968; Berger et al. 1971; Payen and Taylor 1976). The evidence supports natural, non-cultural deposits of condor remains, as there appears to be no association between these remains and the human artifacts, and none of the condor remains seem to be subjected to human use (e.g., manufacture of artifacts) (Simons 1983).

The evidence for intentional bird burials is the planned nature of the grave, resembling a human burial (Wallace and Lathrap 1959, 1975). These include Emeryville shell mound and the West Berkeley Shell mound near the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay (Wilbur and Jackson 1983), with similar findings in the West Berkeley shell mound.

Bone and feather artefacts are quite common. Bone artefacts include tube whistles, some created from the bones of the wing, found in the Berryessa-Adobe site, the McCauley mound (Schenk and Dawson 1929) and the Hotchkiss mound. Other items include humeri 'wands' as at the Old Bridge site (Johnson 1967; Wilbur and Jackson 1983) and a mandible, closely associated with human burials and possible ceremonial artefacts, possibly from a condor skin dance suit worn by the owner of the skeleton. Feather artefacts, including decorative bands from the feathers of condors and other species have been found in Bower's Cave, San Martin mountains, northern Los Angeles county (Elsasser and Heizer 1963).

Condors are also represented in prehistoric rock art. An example is Condor Cave in the San Rafael mountains, Santa Barbara county, which has been described as a winter solstice observatory (Hudson and Underhay 1978; see also Smith and Easton 1964; Grant 1965; Heizer and Clewlow 1973; Wilbur 1976; Hudson and Underhay 1978; Smith 1978). In this cave is a pictograph of a condor in flight. Other sites with such rock art are considered linked to the former habitation of the Cuyama and Ventureno Chumash, such as Painted Rock site (Smith and Easton 1964; Grant 1965; Hudson and Underhay 1978; Lee and Horne 1978).

Condors and other raptors appear to have been important for cultural activities during this period in Western North America, especially for Shamans who might have mutifaceted religious, medical, and social roles. An important factor was their association with supernatural powers (Bean 1975; Simons 1983). There is evidence that condors were seen as sources of power in some societies, for example the Hupa, Sinkyone, Yuki, Hill Patwin, Konkow, and central Sierra Miwok (Curtis 1824b; Kroeber 1925, 1932; Loeb 1933; Driver 1939; Foster 1944; Freeland and Broadbent 1960). Condor feathers might be used for initiation ceremonies for new shamans, which sometimes involved the thrusting of feathers into the throat of recruits, as in the Yuki and Wailaki (Kroeber 1925; Loeb 1932; Gifford 1939). In some cases, it was believed that diseases were removed from the human body by the feathers in the throat (e.g., among the Wiyot) and in other feathers were attached to a stick to pass over a person's head for medical help (Curtis 1824a; Kroeber 1925; Loeb 1932).

Simons (1983) describes three religious-ceremonial systems as dominant in prehistoric California. There was the Kuksu system, based on secret societies, rites of passage, and costumes, and the condor dance, which is well described for the Pomo, River Patwin, Valley Nise and Konkow (Curtis 1924b; Kroeber 1925, 1929, 1932). For the Pomo, a dancer who inherited the privilege, was dressed in the full skin and feathers of the condor, with the wings extended by sticks on the sides of the dancer. To acquire a condor skin, the bird was trapped by inserting a sharpened bone, attach to a string, into rabbit meat so that the points of the bone protruded on both sides of the meat. When the condor swallowed the bait and was unable to disgorge the morsel, it was killed with a blow to the head. Apart from the skin which was used for the dance, bones were used for whistles and ear ornaments and fat from the body cavity was used as medicine.

Another system was the Toloache system, of south and south-central California. In this system there were several subgroups: the Northern Complex (Southern Valley Yokuts, Kitanemuk, Tataviam, Gabrielino); the Antap-Yivar Cult (Chumash, Gabrielino, Tataviam); the Southern Complex (Gabrielino, Luseno-Juaneno); and the Chinigchinich religion (Gabrielino, Luiseno-Juaneno, Cupeno and Tipai-Ipai). In some cases, the condor was used as a sacrifice and in some cases the skin and feathers were worn. Narcotic plants were also used (e.g., Datura sp.), which facilitated altered consciousness and beliefs in supernatural powers (Bean and Vane in Heizer 1978: 663). Some cultures within this system, such as the Miwok, Monache and Yokuts) saw the condor as a totem (Gifford 1916; Kroeber 1925; Driver 1937; Gayton 1948b). In some cases, such as the moloku (condor) dance performed by the Central Sierra Miwok (Kroeber 1925; Grifford 1926, 1955; Smith and Easton 1964; Smith 1978), (similar to the Pomo dance celebrating the killing of a condor) a dancer would wear a condor skin and mimic the bird, while being supported by a singer and drummer (Powers 1877; Gifford 1916, 1926, 1932; Kroeber 1925; Gayton 1930, 45, 48a, 48b; Driver 1937; Aginsky 1943). Condors were also used in ritual sacrifices, with symbolic dances to the ceremonial killing of the birds (Simons 1983).

Ceremonies were also performed for living and dead birds (among tribes such as the Miwok, Monache and Yokuts) with the living bird being raised in captivity, traded between villages and usually set free rather than killed. For dead birds brought to the settlement by hunters, the skin, bones, feathers, down and fat would be removed and the rest ceremonially buried after a mourning demonstration (Gifford 1916, 1926, 1932; Gayton 1948a). Many neighboring tribes, such as the Niseman and Tubatulabal also captured and raised condors, the former killing them eventually but the latter freeing them (Kroeber 1925; Beals 1933; Voegelin 1938). Other tribes on the south-central Californian coast also sacrificed condors and other raptors ceremoniously, as evidenced in records by the members of the Portola Expedition (1769) (Harris 1941; Smith and Easton 1964; McMillan 1968; Smith 1978) although some have questioned the identity of the bird (Simons 1983).

Other tribes in southern California, such as the Luiseno-Juaneno, Cupeno, Serrano, Cahuilla and Tipai-Ipai also sacrificed raptors (a chronology of literature on this topic is the following: Du-Bois 1905, 1908; Kroeber 1908a, 1908c, 1925; Sparkman 1908; Waterman 1910; Hooper 1920; Benedict 1924; Curtis 1926; Strong 1929; Drucker 1937; Harrington 1942; Johnston 1962; Bean 1972; Bean and Smith in Heizer 1978, 546: 573, 589; Bean and Shipek in Heizer 1978, 556; Bean in Heizer 1978, 583; Luomala in Heizer 1978, 604).

A detailed description of these sacrificial ceremonies, noted as part of the Chinigchinich religion, was written by Friar Boscana (1933: 57-58) about the Luiseno-Juaneno, living near Mission San Juan Capistrano. Boscana identified the sacrificed bird as a condor, as also did Kroeber (1908a, 1908c, 1925), Sparkman (1908), Curtis (19260, Strong (1929), Johnston (1962), and Hudson and Underhay (1978). The system was also described by Harrington (1934: 34-40) and Harris (1941: 33). It was held in honor of the founder of this religion, who was believed to have changed a bird into a young woman, held to be the same bird sacrificed which was repeatedly reborn. This system involved the building of ceremonial enclosures, followed by ceremonial dancing and sacrifice and skinning of the bird, followed by its burial in the enclosure accompanied by mourning, and more celebrations and festivities (Simons 1983).

Several groups within the Toloache system practised dances which included condors. One of these was the Huhuna/Holhol dance of the Monache, Tubatulabal, Yokuts and Chumash (Gayton 1930, 1948a, 1948b; Driver 1937; Aginsky 1943; Latta 1949, 1977; Hudson and Underhay 1978; Spier in Heizer 1978: 435, 480). This dance was performed by male dancers in condor feather cloaks. It included a search for hidden money, which was located by the dancers by pointing sticks and was shared when found, among the Shamans and dancers and accompanying singers. The Holhol dance of the Chumash was similar, but appears to have been led by a single dancer in the condor cloak (Hudson and Underhay 1978). There was also the Tatahuila or whirling dance, of the Gabrielino, Luiseno-Juanero, Serrano, Cahuilla, Cupeno and IpaiTipai (Dubois 1908; Kroeber 1908a, 1908b, 1908c, 1925; Waterman 1910; Spier 1923; Benedict 1924; Curtis 1926; Strong 1929; Boscana 1933; Harrington 1933, 1942; Drucker 1937; Johnston 1962; Bean and Shipek in Heizer 1978: 556; Bean and Smith in Heizer 1978: 573; Luomala in Heizer 1978: 605). Here dancers wore feathered headdresses and eagle- feather skirts, which were raised in the whirling dance. Some accounts describe condor feathers as part of the costumes (Kroeber 1908a, 1908c, 1925; Curtis 1926; Boscana 1933; Harrington 1933; Koford 1953; Hudson and Underhay 1978).

Another system was the World Renewal System. Here, the only role of the California Condor was the use of its feathers, within ceremonies involving a network of priests officiating at an annual cycle of ceremonies, the purpose being the harmony and stability of nature and human health (Kroeber 1925; Kroeber and Gifford 1949; Bean and Vane in Heizer 1978: 663-665).

Other aspects of the vulture relations with people in prehistoric Western North America involved human roles in vulture ecology. Simons (1983) gives evidence of 'condor cafeterias' located at the Five Mile Rapids site, on the Columbia River east of the Dalles, Oregon. Here condor remains comprise 10% of over 9,000 mostly predatory bird bones dated 7300 to 10,000 years BP (Miller 1957; Cressman 1960). Salmon remains, partly as waste from human activities are a possible reason for the attraction of condors to this location (Miller 1957). Fishing has been mentioned as an important activity for Native American peoples in the prehistoric era (Powers 1877; Mckern 1922; Kroeber 1932; Barrett and Gifford 1933; Beals and Hester 1960; Kroeber 1925; Baumhoff 1963, in Heizer 1978: 16-24; Swezey 1975; Schulz and Simons 1973; Swezey and Heizer 1977).

Simons (1983) suggests that such fishing activities were common over most of prehistoric California, and this production of protein could provide an important source of food for condors and other vultures and scavengers. It is possible that the food sources explain the large population of condors that existed at this time, despite the exploitation of condors by people. 'One may therefore conclude that within the prehistoric Far West, condor populations probably remained in overall equilibrium through time, with local conditions largely determined by interplay between the two principal types of condor-human relationships' namely food provision and ritual killing, and may have been a factor for the ancient belief in the rebirth of the same birds in perpetuity (Simons 1983: 489).

Snyder and Snyder (2000) describe possible impacts of historical cultural activities on California condors. They divided the number of square miles of the historic range of the condor by the number of square miles occupied by the average tribe of natives. They concluded that up to seven hundred native tribes could have occupied the range of the condor and if only one tenth of these tribes regularly killed condors, there would be a significant population impact. This may have reduced the population of the condor across its range before the advent of Europeans. Therefore, prior to native killings, condors may have been much more abundant than any historical records indicate (Snyder and Synder 2000).

In ancient Meso-America, vultures were evidently an important part of the culture. Van Dooren (2011) notes that people associated vultures with agriculture, rain and fire, a likely reason being the attraction of vultures to farmland under fire clearance, immediately preceding the rainy season. An example is the classic Vera Cruz culture, in the city of el Tajin in southern Mexico, towards the end of the first millennium BCE. This included vulture figures in stone wall panels, and figures of humans in vulture costumes, raising the possibility of a vulture cult in the city (Kampen 1972, 1978). Vulture images have been found on ancient knives from the contemporary country of Peru. There is also an Inca knife decorated with the images of two vultures and a larger condor devouring a human body (Benson 1997). Another example is a ceramic vessel from the Aztec culture of Mexico with what appears to be a king vulture head (Heilbrunn Timeline of History 2006).