[Illustration: DOCAS
_Frontispiece_]
_HEATH SUPPLEMENTARY READERS_
DOCAS
The INDIAN BOY of
SANTA CLARA
_By_
GENEVRA SISSON SNEDDEN
[Illustration]
D. C. HEATH AND COMPANY
BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO ATLANTA
DALLAS SAN FRANCISCO LONDON
COPYRIGHT, 1899,
BY D. C. HEATH AND COMPANY
COPYRIGHT RENEWED, 1927,
BY GENEVRA SISSON SNEDDEN
3 K 6
No part of this book may be reproduced in any
form without written permission of the publisher
PRINTED IN U.S.A.
MY DEAR CHILDREN:--
What sort of people do you like best to read about--white people or
Indians?
I think you will say Indians, because all the children of whom I have
ever asked this question have said that they liked best to read about
Indians. Indians do everything so differently from the way we do that
they are always interesting.
This book which we are now going to read is about Indians,--the Indians
who lived near the Pacific Ocean before our grandfathers were born, and
before we Americans came west and settled the country.
Do you like best to read about grown-up people or about children? I
think I can hear you say, “What a question! Children, of course!” Yes,
children can have such fun, running and playing and finding out about
all kinds of things for which grown people never have time, that it
is much pleasanter to read about them. So this whole book is about
children. The first part tells about the little Indian boy, Docas;
farther on, when Docas grows to be a man, the book tells about his
children and grandchildren.
Last of all, the stories tell about things that actually happened to
Indian children long ago in California, so they are what you call
“truly stories,” not “made-up ones.”
These are some of the reasons why the children for whom the stories
were first written liked them and learned from them, and for these same
reasons I think many of you will care to read about Docas, the Indian
boy of Santa Clara.
THE AUTHOR
_NOTE_
These stories were originally written to serve as reading material
for the children in the University School connected with the
Department of Education at the Leland Stanford Junior University. The
never-failing delight with which those children welcomed each new
instalment was the first impetus toward putting the stories in a form
where they would have a larger audience.
The work was done as a thesis in history under the direction of Mary
Sheldon Barnes. To her careful supervision and many suggestions the
book owes much of whatever merit it may possess.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PART I
WHEN DOCAS LIVED AT THE INDIAN VILLAGE
PAGE
Building the Fire 3
Docas at Breakfast 5
How Docas went Fishing 7
Massea’s Storehouse 10
How Docas caught the Grasshoppers 15
The Grass-seed Basket 17
Docas’s New Skirt 21
The Sweat House 24
The Feast of the Eagles 27
The Invitation to the Dance 30
The Acorn Dance 31
Docas playing “Teekel” 36
Making the Mountains 40
The Measuring-worm Rock 42
The First White Man 44
Docas goes to the Red Hill 49
Docas in a Fight 52