Finding the Worth While in the Southwest 20

Finding the Worth While in the Southwest 20

[50]The origin of the Navajo blanket is picturesque. At the time of the

Spanish conquest, the tribe was too insignificant to be mentioned. It

grew, however, rather rapidly, and in raids upon the Pueblos took

many of the latter prisoners. From these (the Pueblos had long been

weavers of native cotton) they picked up the textile art; and then

stealing sheep from the Spaniards, they inaugurated the weaving of

the woolen blanket. Only the women of the tribe are weavers, and

Doctor Matthews states that in his time, some 30 years ago, they did

it largely as an artistic recreation, just as the ladies of

civilization do embroidery or tatting.

 

[51]The place of emergence is fancied to have been in an island in a

small lake in the San Juan Mountains of southwestern Colorado.

 

[52]Dr. W. Matthews, “Navaho Legends.”

 

[53]The nearest railway station is McCarty’s, from which it lies 12

miles to the northeast.

 

[54]The classic work on Navajo customs and myths is “Navaho Legends,” by

Dr. Washington Matthews—a U. S. army surgeon who resided on their

Reservation for years. To a sympathetic attitude towards the race, he

added the practical qualification of a thorough knowledge of the

language.

 

[55]Other routes from railroad points are from Winslow, Ariz., 80 miles

to the First Mesa or 75 miles to the Second Mesa; from Cañon Diablo,

Ariz., 75 miles to the Third Mesa; from Holbrook, Ariz., 90 miles to

the First Mesa. The routes from Gallup and Holbrook possess the

advantage of avoiding the crossing of the Little Colorado River,

which becomes at times impassable from high water.

 

[56]A variant of this pueblo’s name is Shongópovi.

 

[57]The population of the Hopi pueblos is approximately: Walpi, 250;

Sichúmovi, 100; Hano, 150; Mishong-novi, 250; Shipaulovi, 200;

Shimapovi, 200; Oraibi, 300; Hótavila, 400; Pacavi, 100. Another Hopi

village (until recently considered a summer or farming outpost of

Oraibi) is Moenkopi, 40 miles further west, with a population of

about 200.

 

[58]Hopi, or Hopi-tuh, the name these Indians call themselves, means

“the peaceful,” a truthful enough appellation, for they suffer much

before resorting to force. By outsiders they have often been called

Moki, a term never satisfactorily explained, except that it is

considered uncomplimentary.

 

[59]The myth has to do with the arrival of the Flute clan at Walpi

bringing with them effective paraphernalia for compelling rain to

fall. The Walpians opposed the entrance of the stranger, and this is

symbolized in the ceremony by lines of white corn meal successively

sprinkled by priests across the trail, as the procession advances

towards the village.

 

[60]The inhabitants of Hano are not pure Hopi, but descended from Tewa

Pueblos of the Rio Grande region, who took up their residence here

after 1680, invited by the Hopis as a help against Apache

depredation. Though these Tewas have intermarried with their Hopi

neighbors, they are proud of their distinct ancestry, have preserved

their own language, and still practise some of their ancient

religious rites.

 

[61]Mr. F. L. Lewton investigated and described this species as

_Gossypium Hopi_. Smithsonian Institution, Misc. Coll. Vol. 60, No.

6.

 

[62]This name is not Spanish or Indian for anything but just a playful

transmogrification of Adam Hanna, an old time Arizonian who once

lived there.

 

[63]U. S. Geological Survey’s Guide Book of the Western United States,

Part C.

 

[64]Report on the Petrified Forests of Arizona, Dept. of Interior, 1900.

 

[65]The cracking of the wood in recent years has lately required the

bolstering up of this interesting petrified bridge by artificial

support, so that venturesome visitors may still enjoy walking across

it.

 

[66]This is also readily reached from Holbrook station on the Santa Fe

railway, where conveyance may be obtained. The distance from Holbrook

is 18 miles.

 

[67]Automobile service may be had at Adamana for a number of points of

interest within reach. Among these are the fine pueblo ruins of

Kin-tyel (Wide House) 48 miles to the northeast—a village believed to

have been built by certain clans of the Zuñis in their prehistoric

migrations.

 

[68]The name is said to date from a certain Fourth of July, some 60

years ago, when a party of emigrants camped on the site of the future

town and flew the Stars and Stripes from a pole erected in honor of

the National holiday.

 

[69]Those of Walnut Cañon, about 10 miles southeast of Flagstaff, are

especially easy of access. For particulars concerning the cinder-cone

ruins (9 miles northeast of Flagstaff and also 12 miles east) the

student is referred to Dr. J. W. Fewkes’s descriptions in the 22nd

Annual Report, Bureau of American Ethnology, pp. 35-39.

 

[70]The name commemorates “Old” Bill Williams, a noted frontiersman of

the 1830’s and ’40’s, identified with Fremont’s fourth and ill-fated

expedition, which Williams undertook to guide across the Rockies and

failed because of the snow and cold. A tributary of the Colorado

River also bears his name.

 

[71]About 10 miles eastwardly; a remarkable little volcanic mountain

with a cratered summit, the glowing red rock of which it is made up

giving the upper part of the mountain the appearance at any time of

day of being illumined by the setting sun. It may be made the

objective of a pleasant half day’s trip from Flagstaff.

 

[72]“The Hopi,” Walter Hough.

 

[73]H. H. Robinson, “The San Francisco Volcanic Field,” Washington,

1913.

 

[74]The varied tints of the Painted Desert are due to the coloration of

the rocks and clays which form its surface. Some additional tone is

given at times by the vegetation that springs up after rainfall.

 

[75]These two together with a third called Inscription House Ruin (20

miles west of Betata Kin and so named because of certain Spanish

inscriptions upon it dated 1661) form what is called the Navajo

National Monument. At Kayenta, a post office and trading post of

Messrs. Wetherill and Colville some 20 miles southeast of Betata Kin,

pack outfits and guide may be secured to visit these ruins. Dr. J. W.

Fewkes’s description, Bulletin 50, Bureau of American Ethnology,

should be consulted for details.

 

[76]The Red Rock country is also reached via Cornville and Sedona by

conveyance from Clarkdale on the Verde Valley branch of the Santa Fe

Railway, or from Jerome on the United Verde railroad.

 

[77]The name commemorates that lieutenant of Coronado’s, Don Pedro de

Tovar, who in 1540 visited the Hopi villages, where he learned of the

existence of the Grand Cañon, and carried the news of it back to

Coronado at Zuñi.

 

[78]The exact spot of this first view is not known—the point that today

bears the name of Cárdenas being a random guess.

 

[79]The first complete exploration of the river cañons was made in 1869,

by an expedition in charge of Major J. W. Powell, the noted

ethnologist and geologist. He had boats especially built for the

trip. It was an undertaking of supreme danger, forming, as Mr. F. S.

Dellenbaugh says in his interesting “Romance of the Colorado River,”

“one of the distinguished feats of history;” for not one of the

pioneering party could have any conception of what physical obstacles

were before them when the boats set out at the Cañon’s head into the

unknown. Powell was a Civil War veteran and had but one hand. He made

a second and more leisurely trip in 1871-72.

 

[80]Bright Angel is the name given by the first Powell expedition to a

creek entering the river here from the north; its bright, clear

waters being in striking contrast to a turbid little tributary

discovered not long before, which the men had dubbed “Dirty Devil

Creek.”

 

[81]It is not a true salmon. Dr. David Starr Jordan identifies it as

_Ptychocheilus lucius_, and it is really a huge chub or minnow. There

is a record of one caught weighing 80 pounds; more usual are

specimens of 10 and 12 pounds.

 

[82]An interesting trip with the Grand Cañon as a base is to Cataract

Cañon, a side gorge of the Grand Cañon about 40 miles west of El

Tovar. The trip may be made by wagon to the head of the trail leading

down into an arm of Cataract Cañon, but the final lap—about 15

miles—must be on horseback or afoot. At the bottom is the reservation

of a small tribe of Indians—the Havasupais—occupying a fertile,

narrow valley hedged in by high cliffs of red limestone. There are

numerous springs and the water is used to irrigate the fields and

peach orchards of the tribe. These Indians are much Americanized, and

live under the paternal care of a local Government agency. A feature

of the Cañon is the number of fine water falls. To one exquisite one,

called Bridal Veil, it would be hard to find anywhere a mate. A

camping trip eastward from Grand View along the rim to the Little

Colorado Junction may also be made a pleasant experience, rendered

particularly glorious by the desert views.

 

[83]Jerome is reached by a little railway from Jerome Junction on the

Ash Fork and Phoenix division of the Santa Fe; Clarkdale, by a branch

from Cedar Glade on the same division. The Clarkdale branch threads

for much of the way the picturesque cañon of the upper Verde River.

 

[84]There is, however, no evidence of volcanic action in the vicinity;

so the depression—deep as it is—is doubtless the result of solvent or

erosive action of the waters of the Well. (J. W. Fewkes, 17th Ann.

Rep. Bureau of American Ethnology.)

 

[85]17th Annual Report, Bureau of American Ethnology.

 

[86]The climate is noted for its mildness and salubrity. There is a

local saying, “If a man wants to die in San Antonio, he must go

somewhere else!”

 

[87]Pronounced _ah´la-mo_, Spanish for cottonwood. The name was probably

given from cottonwoods growing near by. The Church of the Alamo was

erected in 1744.

 

[88]The reader, curious for details of the San Antonio Missions, as well

as items of local secular history, is referred to Wm. Corner’s “San

Antonio de Béxar.” He will also be interested in a picturesque sketch

of San Antonio as it was nearly half a century ago, by the Southern

poet Sidney Lanier, who in quest of health passed the winter of

1872-3 here, and here made his resolve, faithfully carried out, to

devote the remainder of his life to music and poetry. The sketch is

printed in a collection of Lanier’s essays entitled “Retrospects and

Prospects.”

 

[89]These three Missions were originally located about 15 years earlier

on sites some distance from San Antonio. Scarcity of irrigation water

is given as one important cause of their removal in 1731 to the banks of the San Antonio River.