Finding the Worth While in the Southwest 19

Finding the Worth While in the Southwest 19

[9]James Mooney, “The Ghost-Dance Religion.”

 

[10]You may, if you choose, do Taos from Santa Fe in your own or a hired

automobile via Tesuque and San Juan pueblos, giving a day each way to

the journey. Nambé, San Ildefonso and Santa Clara may be included by

slight detours, but the time in that case must be stretched.

 

[11]Col. R. E. Twitchell quotes a tradition of the Taos people to the

effect that they came to their present home under divine guidance,

the site being indicated to them by the drop of an eagle’s feather

from the sky.

 

[12]The skulls of the Cliff Dwellers indicate them to have been a

“long-headed” race, while the modern Pueblos are so only in part. It

is likely, therefore, that the latter Indians are of mixed stocks.

There is, however, abundant traditionary evidence that certain clans

of the present-day Pueblos are of Cliff descent.

 

[13]Pronounced _Pah´ha-ree-to_, and meaning _little bird_.

 

[14]_Recto day loce Free-ho´les_, i. e., _brook of the beans_.

 

[15]From Santa Fe to the Tyuonyi and return may be made by automobile in

one strenuous day, including 2 or 3 hours at the ruins. It is better,

if possible, to board at the ranch in the cañon for a few days, both

for the purpose of examining the ruins at leisure and making some of

the interesting side trips from that point; notably to the Stone

Lions of Cochití, unique examples of aboriginal carving on stone, and

to _La Cueva Pintada_ (the Painted Cave) where are some remarkable

symbolic pictographs. Arrangements should be made with the ranch in

advance by telephone.

 

[16]An ecclesiastical order existent in rural New Mexico, probably

deriving from the Third Order of Saint Francis, and distinguished by

practices of self-flagellation for the remission of sins. They are

particularly active during Lent, when they form processions, beat

themselves with knotted whips, strap bundles of cactus to their

backs, and walk barefoot or on their knees over flint-strewn ground,

bearing heavy crosses. Some of their exercises are held at the

crosses on these hill-top _calvarios_ (calvaries). The Catholic

Church discourages their practices; but they possess considerable

political power in New Mexico and of recent years the order has

become regularly incorporated as a secret fraternity under the State

law.

 

[17]L. Bradford Prince, “Spanish Mission Churches of New Mexico.”

 

[18]The original form of the name is Alburquerque, given in honor of a

Duke of Alburquerque, who was viceroy of New Spain at the time the

place was founded as a _villa_ in 1706.

 

[19]The name Isleta means “islet,” given, according to Dr. F. W. Hodge,

because formerly the Rio Grande and an arroyo from the mountains

islanded the pueblo between them.

 

[20]The church authorities, it should be said, do not endorse this

tradition. Father Zepherin Engelhardt, the historian of the

Franciscans in the Southwest, tells me that there were other

missionaries named Padilla besides Padre Juan, and the burial of one

of these in the church at Isleta, may have given color to the story.

 

[21]Pronounced _bair-na-lee´yo_. It is a diminutive of Bernal, and the

place was so named because settled by descendants of Bernal Diaz, a

soldier of Cortés and contemporary chronicler of the conquest of

Mexico. It was at Bernalillo that De Vargas died, in 1704.

 

[22]Including a score or so descended from the Pecos tribe who moved to

Jemes in 1838 from Pecos Pueblo. This now deserted pueblo (whose

ruins have lately been systematically excavated and whose fine old

Mission church, visible from the Santa Fe transcontinental trains,

has undergone some careful restoration) may be reached by conveyance

from the Valley Ranch near Glorieta station on the Santa Fe. In

Coronado’s time Pecos was the most populous town in the country. It

is called Cicuyé by the old chroniclers.

 

[23]The nearest railway station to these lakes is Estancia on the New

Mexican Central.

 

[24]Harrington, “The Ethno-geography of the Tewa Indians.”

 

[25]Papers of the School of American Archaeology, No. 35.

 

[26]Popular tradition persistently associates gold-hoarding with the

Franciscan Missionaries throughout the Southwest, ignoring the fact

that the members of the Seraphic Order were pledged to poverty, and

had small interest in any wealth except the unsearchable riches of

Christ, to share which with their humble Indian charges was their

sole mission in the wilderness. As for the New Mexico Indians, they

knew nothing of any mineral more precious than turquoise.

 

[27]Paul A. F. Walter, “The Cities That Died of Fear.”

 

[28]Apropos of these ruined Missions, it is interesting to know that the

construction was undoubtedly the work of women—house-building being

one of the immemorial duties and cherished privileges of Pueblo

womankind.

 

[29]Paul A. P. Walter, “The Cities That Died of Fear.”

 

[30]The Manzano range reaches an elevation of 10,600 feet here.

 

[31]The formation is that known throughout New Mexico as a _mesa_

(Spanish for _table_). Such flat-topped hills—high or low—have been

brought into being by the washing away in ancient times of the

surrounding earth.

 

[32]New Mexico rural roads are in a certain Mark Tapleyian sense ideal

for motorists. Traversing unfenced plains, as they often do, if they

develop bad spots the motorist turns aside and has little difficulty

in scouting out a detour. After a rain, however, they are gummy and

slippery in adobe country until the sun hardens the clay, which it

does rather quickly.

 

[33]Some of the Acomas in despair, threw themselves from the cliffs and

so died rather than surrender. A stirring account of the storming of

Acoma will be found in “The Spanish Pioneers,” by Chas. F. Lummis.

 

[34]Remarkable for its light weight and ornamentation with

conventionalized leaf forms, birds, etc. Unfortunately the education

of the young Indians in Government schools is causing a decline at

all the pueblos in this purely American art.

 

[35]The reader, curious to know what is on top of Katzimo, is referred

to an article, “Ascent of the Enchanted Mesa,” by F. W. Hodge, in the

Century Magazine, May, 1898.

 

[36]Strictly speaking Laguna is the mother pueblo in a family of seven,

the other half dozen being summer or farming villages scattered about

within a radius of a few miles, so established to be near certain

fertile lands. Some of these, as Pojuate, are picturesque enough to

warrant a visit, if there is time. The population of all 7 is

estimated at about 1500.

 

[37]For a lively account of this authentic bit of history, the reader is

referred to the chapter “A Saint in Court” in Mr. C. F. Lummis’s

“Some Strange Corners of our Country.”

 

[38]Gallup is also a principal shipping point for Navajo blankets.

Travelers interested in this aboriginal handiwork will here find

large stocks to select from at the traders’ stores.

 

[39]In the southwestern corner of Colorado. Here are hundreds of

prehistoric dwellings built in the cañon walls representing probably

the finest and best preserved architecture of the unknown vanished

races that once peopled our Southwest. Government archaeologists, who

have a particularly warm regard for the Mesa Verde, have been making

careful excavations and restorations here for years, and have mapped

out a program that will consume many more. The so-called Sun Temple,

excavated in 1915, apparently a communal edifice for the performance

of religious dramas, is the only one of its kind so far brought to

light in the United States. (See “Sun Temple of Mesa Verde National

Park,” by J. W. Fewkes. 1916, Gov’t Printing office.) A public camp

for tourists is maintained near the ruins during the summer months,

the high elevation (8500 feet) rendering snow likely at other

seasons. The nearest railway station is Mancos, Col., on the D. & R.

G., whence an auto-stage runs to the Park camp.

 

[40]The most famous is the Shálako which occurs annually about December

1, largely a night ceremony of great impressiveness. The central

figures are giant effigies representing divinities, whose motive

power is a Zuñi man hidden within each. They enter from the plain at

dusk, and to the plain return the next morning, after a night of

dancing and feasting by the people.

 

[41]For some of the adventures of this famous couple, see F. H.

Cushing’s, “Zuñi Folk Tales.”

 

[42]Reports of the Secretary of War, Senate Ex. Doc. 64, First Session

31st Congress, 1850. A more illuminating account of the Rock is given

by Mr. Chas. F. Lummis in “Some Strange Corners of Our Country.” An

able supplement to this is a paper by H. L. Broomall and H. E. Hoopes

in Proceedings of Delaware County Institute of Science, Vol. I, No.

1, Media, Pa.

 

[43]There were poets among the Conquistadores. A printed source relied

upon by historians for authentic particulars of Oñate’s tour of

conquest is a rhymed chronicle by one of his lieutenants, Don Gaspar

de Villagrán. I believe New Mexico is the only one of our States that

can seriously quote an epic poem in confirmation of its history. This

New Mexican Homer, as H. H. Bancroft calls him, printed his book in

1610 at Alcalá. A reprint, published in Mexico a few years ago, may

be consulted in public libraries. The original is one of the rarest

of Americana.

 

[44]The Spaniards, whose avenging expedition Lujan’s cutting upon El

Morro records, never found Letrado’s body, the Zuñis having made way

with it. Earnestly desiring some relic of the martyred friar, the

soldiers were rewarded by seeing in the air a cord which descended

into their hands, and this was divided among them. So says Vetancurt,

old chronicler of Franciscan martyrdom in New Mexico.

 

[45]Pronounced not as though it rhymed with _jelly_, but _chay_ (or less

correctly _shay_) rhyming with _hay_. The word is a Spanish way of

recording the cañon’s Navajo name Tse-yi, meaning “among the cliffs.”

 

[46]To him, more than to any other man, is ascribed the credit of saving

the Navajo blanket industry from being hopelessly vulgarized by

ignorant and unscrupulous dealers.

 

[47]“Navaho Legends,” by Dr. Washington Matthews.

 

[48]Automobiles must be left at Chin Lee, where horses for exploring the

cañon may be had, if arranged for in advance.

 

[49]Botanically, _Phragmites communis_, common throughout the United

States in damp places. It was through the hollow stem of one of this

species divinely enlarged, that the Navajos and Pueblos came up in

company from the underworld into this present world of light. So at least runs the Navajo Origin legend.