Among the Apache, in the spring of 1906, the excessive use of a combined
cross and crescent symbol was noted. Men, women, and children had this
anchor-like design cut into wood, tin, and metal talismans, and also
tattooed on their faces and branded on their horses. It was used also as a
decorative device in much of the new basketry and worked in beads on their
moccasins, and new shirts and waists seldom failed to display a cross in
narrow yellow and black ribbon in front.
Four years before this time a forceful old medicine-man living on the
Cibicu, in a remote corner of the Apache reservation, either through the
influence of a vision or other hallucination, or by a desire to become the
ruling spirit in the tribe, proclaimed the gospel of a messiah who, he
claimed, had appeared to him in the hills and would later return to the
deliverance of his tribespeople.
In childhood this future prophet was given the name Das Lan, Hanging Up,
by which designation he is commonly known in familiar discourse among his
tribesmen; but on the census rolls of the White Mountain agency he is
recorded simply as "V-9." On becoming a medicine-man in his youth, in
accordance with tribal custom he adopted the name--what may be termed a
professional title--Doni Tli{~COMBINING BREVE~}shi Noiltansh, which signifies Turquoise
Rolling Stone.
As hitherto mentioned, the Apache is the personification of devoutness in
the performance of his religious duties, and no matter where circumstances
may place him, he manages always to have a small pouch of _hadintin_
carefully secreted about his person for use in paying his devotions to
half a score of gods, at least once every four days. If occasion demands,
he may pray every day, or four times a day, or any multiple of four times.
This custom has a direct bearing on the story of the messiah, which is
this:
Das Lan, in a spirit of more than usual devotion, began a series of
prayers to the gods of Life, Peace, and Plenty, delivered as usual just as
the sun appeared over the eastern mountains. On the fourth morning, with
offerings of _hadintin_, he invoked the benediction of Kuterastan, the
Creator, Hadintin Skhin, God of Health, Hadintin Nalin, Goddess of Crops,
and of Chuganaai himself, the All-seeing Sun. As the fourth pinch of
pollen wafted away on the breeze there appeared the vision, immediately
beneath the sun, of a small bearded dwarf, less than three feet in height,
who approached him, and said:
"I am a messenger sent by Kuterastan to talk to you. The Sun is my father;
I have just left him to come to you. You are to inform all your people
that a change is about to be made in their lives and in the nature of the
whole world. In place of this life of strife and toil with little to eat,
all, the white man as well as the Indian, will be taken to a place where
all things grow without labor, and where there will be no rough, barren
mountains, but instead broad valleys filled with grass, trees, corn,
fruits, nuts, and all kinds of game in abundance. There, too, you will
meet all your fathers and mothers and brothers and sisters and children
who have gone before you from their homes, for they are now there. There
no sickness or death will visit anyone. The old and feeble will become
strong, the crooked straight, and the blind shall see. But to be taken,
all must have faith, believing as one, and observe these instructions I am
to leave with you. You are commissioned to instruct the people. Those who
believe must adopt the _daiita ilhnaha_, the cross and crescent, as a
symbol of faith, for it represents the shape the new world will have and
the road all must travel to reach it, and any who start on the journey
without using this sign will be lost on the way. When the time comes to
depart, I will return to lead you. A great cloud, open in the centre, will
come down from above and surround us all, so that none shall see whither
he goes. Until then those who would go must do as you bid them. All males,
boys or men, must have caps of deerskin with the _daiita ilhnaha_ marked
on them in beads on four sides, and two eagle feathers attached to the
top, ready to wear on the journey. They must also have new shirts,
leggings, and moccasins upon which this figure has been made in black and
white.
[Illustration: Apache Village]