BDLL. 30] 



PITCHUMON — PITS 



265 



the White House in 1855, his speeches 

 before the congressional committees in 

 1868, and one delivered before a dele- 

 gation of Quakers at Washington in 1869, 

 abundantly prove. In 1865 he returned 

 to Washington, where he remained as the 

 agent of his people until his death, de- 

 voting attention chiefly to pressing the 

 Choctaw claim for lands sold to the United 

 States in 1830. In addition to the treaty 

 of 1820, above referred to, he signed the 

 treaty of Dancing Eabbit, Miss. , Sept. 27, 

 1830, and the treaty of Washington, June 

 20, 1855; he also witnessed, as principal 

 chief, that of Washington, Apr. 28, 1866. 

 Pitchlynn's tirst wife having died, he 

 married, at Washington, Mrs Caroline 

 Lombardy, a daughter of Godfrey Eck- 

 loff, who with two sons and one daughter 

 survive him, the children by the first 

 marriage having died during their father's 

 litetime. Pitchlyna became a member 

 of the Lutheran IMemorial Church at 

 Washington, and was a regular attendant 

 until his last illness. He was a promi- 

 nent member of the INIasonic order, and 

 on his death the funeral services were 

 conducted in its behalf by Gen. Albert 

 Pike. A monument was erected over 

 his grave in Congressional Cemetery by 

 the Choctaw Nation. In 1842 Pitchlynn 

 was described by Dickens as a handsome 

 man, with black hair, aquiline nose, 

 broad cheek-bones, sunburnt complexion, 

 and bright, keen, dark, and piercing 

 eyes. He was fairly well read, and in 

 both speaking and writing used good 

 English. He was held in high esteem 

 both by the members of his tribe and by 

 all his Washington acquaintances. See 

 also Lanman, Recollections of Curious 

 Characters, 1881. (c. t.) 



Pitchumon. See Persimmon. 



Pithlkwutsiaus {PtcV-kiou-tsi-aus^). A 

 former Siuslaw village on Siuslaw r., 

 Oreg. — Dorsey in Jour. Am. Folk-lore, 

 III, 230, 1890. 



Pitic. A settlement of the Soba on the 

 Rio Altar in n. w. Sonora, Mexico. It was 

 a visita of the Spanish mission Caborca, 

 from prior to 1701, with 313 inhabitants 

 in 1730, and the seat of a presidio estab- 

 lished aljout 1753-54. The name was 

 subsequently changed to Altar. A writer 

 in 1702 (Doc. Hist. Mex., 4th s., v, 138, 

 139,1857) says: "This rancheria [Soba] 

 is called Pitquin in the Pima tongue be- 

 cause there is the junction of the two 

 rivers of Tubutama and that of San Ig- 

 nacio." Rivera, in 1730 (Bancroft, No. 

 Mex. States, i, 514, 1884), classifies it as a 

 pueblo of the Pimas Altos. 

 Natividad Pitiqui.— Rivera (1730) quoted by Ban- 

 croft, No. Mex. States, i, .514, 1884. Piquitin.— Kino 

 (16%) in Doe. Hist. Mex., 4th s., i, 203, 1856. Pitic— 

 Anza (1774) quoted bv Bancroft, Ariz, and N. Mex., 

 389, 1889. S«. Diego de Pitquin.— Venegas, Hist. 

 Cal., I, map, 1759. San Diepo de Pitquin.— Ibid., 

 303 (misprint). Soba. -Writer ca. 1702 in Doc. Hist. 

 Mex., 4th s., V, 138-9, 1857. 



Pitiktaujang. A summer village of the 

 Aivilirmiut Eskimo on Repulse bay, n. 

 extremity of Hudson bay. — Boas in 6th 

 Rep. B. A. E., 446, 1888. 



Pitkachi. One of the northern Yokuts 

 (Mariposan) tribes of s. central California, 

 on the s. side of San Joaquin r., below 

 Millerton, their territory thus adjoining 

 that of the Chukchansi (Powers in Cont. 

 N. A. Ethnol., iii, 370, 1877; Merriam in 

 Science, xix, 915, June 15, 1904). They 

 were spoken of in 1851 as a large and war- 

 like tribe inhabiting the foothills of the 

 Sierra Nevada, on the headwaters of the 

 Mariposa, Chowchilla, Fresno, and San 

 Joaquin (Barbour in Sen. Ex. Doc. 4, 32d 

 Cong., spec, sess., 61, 1853). 

 Pik-cak-ches.— Barbour, op. cit., 252. Piscatchecs. — 

 Taylor in Cal. Farmer, June 8, 1860. Pit-cach-es. — 

 Ind. Aff. Rep., 223, 18.51. Pit-cat-chee.— Sen. Ex. 

 Doc. 4, 32d Cong., spec, ses.s. , 93, 1858. Pitcatches. — 

 Lewis in Ind. Aff. Rep. 1856, 2.52, 1857. Pitchack- 

 ies. — Barbour, op. cit., 61. Pit-cuch-es. — John- 

 ston in Sen. Ex. Doc. 61, 32d Cong., 1st sess., 22, 

 1852. Pitiaches.— Henlev in Ind. Aff. Rep., 512, 

 1854. Pit'-ka-chi.— Powers in Cont. X. A. Ethnol., 

 Ill, 370, 1877. Pit-kah'-che. — Merriam in Science, 

 XIX, 915, June 15, 1904. Pit-kah'-te.— Ibid. 



Pits. Excavations made in the ground 

 for ovens, houses, reservoirs, caches, 

 traps, shrines, graves, and for other pur- 

 poses, are very generally found in the 

 neighborhood of Indian habitations, and 

 even for centuries after the abandonment 

 of villages traces of these pits remain. 

 In the W. some trilies still practise the 

 custom of making pits for various pur- 

 poses. By reason of the numerous roast- 

 ing pits excavated along its banks, Pit 

 r. in N. California and the Achomawi 

 or "Pit River Indians" of the neighbor- 

 hood were so named. The practice of 

 roasting food in a small pit (the so-called 

 Gipsy oven) appears to have been a 

 common one among Indians, and such 

 excavations are probably most numerous 

 (see Ovens). Within the habitat of the 

 agave, especially in s. Arizona and n. 

 Sonora, pits several feet in diameter have 

 long been used for roasting the plants 

 to produce mescal (q. v.). The Maidu 

 of N. California gathered grasshoppers 

 and locusts, of which they were very 

 fond, by digging a large shallow pit in a 

 meadow or flat, and then, by setting fire 

 to the grass on all sides, drove the insects 

 into the jiit; their wings being burned off 

 by the flames, they were helpless, and were 

 thus collected by the bushel (Dixon). 

 Abandoned field ovens of the Pueblos for 

 roasting at once immense quantities of 

 green corn become mere pits by the fall- 

 ing in of the earth sides, leaving no super- 

 ficial clew to their former purpose. Some 

 of the depressions around ancient ruins 

 are likewise enigmatic, although some 

 probably were dug originally as reser- 

 voirs, as ovens, or for obtaining material 

 for adobe (see Adobe, Food, Irrigation). 

 Storage pits were in general use. Such 

 pits, filled with refuse, have been found 



