BULL. 30] 



COOXISSETT COPPER 



343 



the Cherokee Nation, Indian Ter., named 

 in honor of the noted Cherokee chief so- 

 called, better known as John Ross. — 

 Mooney in 19th Rep. B. A. E., 285, 521, 

 1900. 



Cooxissett. A village, probably in Ply- 

 mouth CO., Mass., having about 160 inhab- 

 itants in 1685. Mentioned by Hinckley 

 (1685) in Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., 4th s., 

 V, 133, 1861. 



Copala. A mythical province, about 

 which the "Turk," apparently a Paw- 

 nee Indian, while among the Pueblos of 

 the Rio Grande in New Mexico in 1540, 

 endeavored to deceive Coronado and his 

 army. It was said to have been situated 

 in the direction of Florida and to have 

 contained great wealth. See Winship 

 in 14th Rep. B. A. E., 491, 1896. Cf. Ey- 

 ish, Iza, Quirlra. 



Copalis. A division of Salish on Che- 

 palis r., 18 m. n. of Grays harbor. 

 Wash. Lewis a,nd Clark estimated their 

 number at 200, in 10 houses, in 1805. 

 Copalis.— Swan, N. W. Coast, 210, 1857. Paflishs.— 

 Domenech, Deserts, i, 443, 1860. Failsh. — Lewis 

 and Clark, Exped., 11,474,1814. Pailsk.— Ibid., 119. 



Copeh (from kapai, 'stream,' in the lo- 

 cal dialect). A tribe of the Patwin di- 

 vision of the Copehan family formerly 

 living on lower Puta cr., Yolo co., Cal. 

 Cop-eh. — Gibbs in Schoolcraft, lud. Tribes, iii, 428, 

 1853. Ko-pe,— Powell in Cont. N. A. Ethnol., ni, 

 619,1877. Putos. — Powers in Overland Mo., xni, 

 543, 1874 (so called by the Spaniards " on account 

 of their gross licentiousness " ). 



Copehan Family. A linguistic stock for- 

 merly occupying a large territory in Cali- 

 fornia, from Suisun and San Pablo bays on 

 the s. to Mt Shasta and the country of the 

 Shastan family on the n. Starting from 

 the N., the e. boundary ran a few miles 

 E. of McCloud r. to its junction with the 

 Sacramento and thence to Redding, a 

 large triangle e. of Sacramento r. belong- 

 ing to the Copehan; and from Redding 

 down the boundary was about 10 m. e. 

 of Sacramento r. , but s. of Chico it was 

 confined to the w. bank. On the w. the 

 summit of the Coast range formed the 

 boundary, but from the headwaters of 

 Cottonwood cr. northward it nearly 

 reached the s. fork of the upper Trinity. 

 The people of this family were among the 

 most interesting of the California Indians, 

 with a harmonious language and an inter- 

 esting mythology. Their social and polit- 

 ical system was like that of all California 

 tribes: their largest unit was the village, 

 more extensive combinations being for 

 temporary purposes only. The people 

 comprising this family have been divided 

 by Powers (Cont. N. A. Ethnol., in, 

 1877) into 2 branches, the Patwin and 

 the Wintun, differing considerably in 

 language and customs. Following is a 

 list of their villages: 



Patwin subfamily: Aclutoy, Ansactoy, 

 Chenposel, Churuptoy, Copeh, Guilitoy, 



Korusi, Liwaito, Lolsel, Malaka, Napa, 

 Noyuki, Olbosel, Olulato, Suisun, Topai- 

 disel, Tuluka, AVaikosel, Wailaksel, 

 Yodetabi, Yolo. 



Wintun subfamily: Daupom, Noam- 

 laki, Normuk, Nuimok, Nummuk, Pat- 

 win, Puimem, Puimuk, Tien-Tien, Waik- 

 enmuk, Winimem. 



Copper. Copper had come into very 

 general use among the tribes n. of Mexico 

 before the arrival of the white race in the 

 Mississippi valley and the region of the 

 great lakes. The reign of stone, which 

 in early times had been undisputed, was 

 beginning to give way to the dominion of 

 metal. It is probable that copper came 

 into use in the n. as a result of the dis- 

 covery of nuggets or small masses of the 

 native metal among the debris dejiosited 

 over a large area s. of the lakes by the 

 sheets of glacial ice that swept from 

 the N. across the fully exposed surface of 

 the copper-bearing rocks of the L. Supe- 

 rior region (see Mines and Quarries). 

 These pieces of copper were at first doubt- 

 less treated and used as were stones of 

 similar size and shape, but the peculiar 

 qualities of the metal must in time have 

 imjiressed themselves upon the acute 

 native mind, and implements were shaped 

 by hammering instead of by pecking. 

 At first the forms produced would be 

 much the same as those of the stone im- 

 plements of the same people, but after a 

 while the celts, hatchets, awls, knives, 

 drills, spearheads, etc., would take on 

 new forms, suggested by the peculiar 

 properties of the material", and other va- 

 rieties of implements would be evolved. 

 The metal was too soft to wholly super- 

 sede stone as a material for the manufac- 

 ture of implements, but its pleasing color 

 and its capacity for taking a high polish 

 must have led at an early date to its use 

 for personal ornaments, and on the ar- 

 rival of the whites it was in great demand 

 for this purpose over nearly the entire 

 country. 



A knowledge of the discovery of de- 

 posits of copper in the lake region passed 

 in course of time beyond the local 

 tribes, and it is not unlikely that it ex- 

 tended to Mexico, where the metallurgic 

 arts had made remarkable headway and 

 where the red metal was in great demand. 

 That any extensive trade sprang up be- 

 tween the N. and the far S., however, 

 seems improbable, since such communica- 

 tion would have led inevitably to the intro- 

 duction of southern methods of manipula- 

 tion among the more advanced tribes of 

 the Mississippi valley and the Gulf coast 

 and to the frequent presence of peculiarly 

 Mexican artifacts in the burial mounds. 



There can be no question that the supply 

 of copper used by the tribes of e. United 

 States came mainly from the L. Superior 



