THE ANCIENT PEOPLE
The Southwest has always been a storied land to its native dwellers.
Mountain profile, sweep of plain, carved-out mesa, deep canyon, cave,
lava stream, level lake bed, painted desert, river shore, spring and
forest are theirs in intimacy, and around them have gathered legends
which are bits of ancient history, together with multitude of myths of
nature deities reaching back into the misty beginning.
Deep is this intimacy in the practical affairs of life, teaching the
way to the salt, the place of the springs, the range of the game, the
nest of the honey bee, the home of the useful plants, the quarry of
the prized stones, and the beds of clay for pottery, for the desert is
home and there is no thing hidden from keen eyes. From far off, too,
came in trade shells from the Pacific, feathers from Mexico, buffalo
pelts from the Plains, and, perhaps, pipestone from Minnesota, so that
the land of sunshine was not so isolated as one might think, and its
resources fed, clothed, and ministered to the esthetic and religious
needs of numerous tribes of men from the old days to the present.
The white men who tracked across the vast stretches of the "Great
American Desert" no doubt saw ruined towns sown over the waste, and
perhaps believed them lost to history, little suspecting that within
reach lived dusky-hued men, to whom these potsherd-strewn mounds and
crumbling walls were no sealed book. The newer explorers have drawn
the old-world stories from the lips of living traditionists, and by
their friendly aid have gathered the clues which, when joined, will
throw a flood of light on the wanderings of the ancient people.
Through them it has been learned that each pueblo preserves with
faithful care the history of its beginnings and the wanderings of its
clans. This at proper times the old men repeat and the story often
takes a poetical form chanted with great effect in the ceremonies. As
an example of these interesting myths, one should read the Zuñi Ritual
of Creation, that Saga of the Americans which reveals a beauty and
depth of thought and form surprising to those who have a limited view
of the ability of the Indian.
One thing is settled in the minds of the Pueblo dwellers. In the
beginning all the people lived in the seven-story cave of the
underworld, whence they climbed toward the light and after reaching
the surface of the earth, migrated, led by supernatural beings. Where
the mythical underworld adventures leave off begins a real account,
telling the wanderings of the clans and the laying of the foundations
of the multitudinous ruins of the Pueblo region. It may not be
possible to connect all the ruinous villages with the migrations of
the present Indians, for there is room enough in this vast country to
have sunk into oblivion other peoples and languages, as the vanished
Piro, who passed away since the white strangers came to Cibola, but
much may be done to gather the glittering threads before they slip
from sight.
The journeyings and campings of the ancient people becomes
intelligible when the make-up of the present pueblos is known. One
finds that every pueblo consists of clans which are larger families of
blood relations having certain duties and responsibilities together; a
name, such as the bear, cloud, or century plant; certain rites and
ceremonies to the beings; clan officers and customs amounting to laws,
and a history preserved in the minds of the members. So it will be
seen that a tribe among the house-builders is composed of a number of
smaller tribes, called clans, each complete and able to take care of
itself, forming the present villages. Often in the early days a
powerful clan migrated long distances and left members in many
different places, because clan law forbids marriage within the clan,
and the man must live with the people of his wife. In these migrations
portions of a clan would break off and cast their lot with other
villages, and often several clans traveled in company, building their
pueblos near one another, and thus came the groups of ruins so common
in the Southwest.
For this reason, all the present villages have received swarms from
other hives and have sent out in turn swarms from the home village,
during their slow migrations around the compass. The habits of the
ancient people thus led to a constant flux and reflux in the currents
of life in the Southwest and in spite of their substantial houses and
works costly of labor the Pueblo Indians were as migratory as the
tent-dwellers of the Plains, though they moved more slowly. Their
many-celled villages on mesas or on the banks of streams, in the
cliffs of the profound canyons, dug in the soft rocks or built in the
lava caves, were but camps of the wanderers, to be abandoned sooner or
later, leaving the dead to the ministrations of the drifting sand.
Nor with the coming of the white people did the wandering cease. There
were Seven Cities of Cibola in the subsequent stretch of time, these
seven towns were fused into the Pueblo of Zuñi and again came a
dispersal and from this great pueblo formed the small summer villages
of Nutria, Pescado, and Ojo Caliente. A human swarm built Laguna two
centuries ago to swarm again other times. Acoma is mistress of
Acomita; Isleta has a namesake on an island in the Rio Grande near El
Paso, and in Tusayan the farming pueblo of Moenkapi Hotavila and
Ushtioki in the plains in front of Walpi, are late additions. Thus, in
times of peace, these hamlets spring up, each having the possibilities
of becoming large settlements, and in times of danger they come
together to better withstand the common enemy, for the union born of
need and strengthened by the coming of wily foes was inculcated by
former experiences. But these unions were never close, even between
the clans when they forsook their small community houses and came
together forming tribes. Between tribes of the same language there
were but the faintest traces of combinations for mutual welfare.
Perhaps about the time of the landfall of Columbus a group of tribes
began to push their way into the region of the house-builders[19].
These tribes were related and had crept down from the north, where now
their kinsfolk live under the Arctic Circle. It was many years before
the Apache and Navaho were strong enough to try conclusions with the
settled peoples, but when they had gathered to themselves the lawless
from many tribes, then began terrible chapters of history which only
recently have been written to a finis. Wherever these conscienceless
savages ranged were carnage and destruction. The habits of the
house-builders changed and the ruins on high mesas and the lookouts on
every hill tell plainly how they sought defence from the scouting
enemy. The large towns in the Salinas of Manzano passed into oblivion
under the attacks of the Apache and began a mythical career as the
"Gran Quivira" of treasure hunters. Great was the devastation of
which the complete story may never be told, yet nearly every tribe
preserves legends of bloody contacts with the Navaho and Apache.
[19] The Early Navaho and Apache. F. W. Hodge, Amer.
Anthropologist, July, 1895.
Still at an early period the Navaho became changed from a fierce
warrior to a comparatively peaceful herdsman, subject to the maddening
vagaries of that most whimsical of gentle creatures, the sheep. Early
in the Spanish colonial period the Navaho preyed on the flocks of
sheep of the Rio Grande pueblos, where they had been brought by the
Conquistadores, and by that act his destiny was altered. Later on,
instead of hunting the scalps of his fellow creatures, his flint knife
became more useful in removing the wool from the backs of his charges;
he thus became famous as a blanket weaver, and soon excelled his
teachers in that peaceful art.
Other visitors and neighbors of the Pueblo people were almost as
undesirable as the Apache and Navaho. The Comanche of the Plains
brought ruin to many a clan by his forays, and his brother, the Ute,
from the mountains to the north, was a dangerous enemy to encounter
and at many times in the past attacked the villages of the Hopi. To
the west were the Yuma and Mohave, to the south were the Pima,
extending into Mexico, and in the Cataract Canyon of the Colorado
lived the Havasupai deep in the earth. These have been the neighbors
of the Pueblos since recorded history began. Also the tent dwellers of
the buffalo plains sometimes visited the Pueblos, tracking up the
Canadian, and perhaps other neighbors there were, now vanished beyond
resurrection or legend or the spade of the archeologist into the dust
of the wind-swept plains.
Besides the harrying of enemies of the wandering sort, there were
quarrels among the sedentary tribes and the old-fashioned way of
fighting it out according to Indian methods left many a village
desolate. For this reason the villages were often built on mesas
before the ancient enemies of their occupants began their range of the
Southwest, and hostilities were carried on against brothers located
near the corn lands and life-giving springs of the Pueblo country.
In the ancient days, as at present, the secret of the distribution of
Pueblo men was the distribution of water. It seems that in the vast
expanse embraced in the Pueblo region every spring has been visited by
the Indians, since whoever would live must know where there is water.
The chief springs near the villages they dug out and walled up and
built steps or a graded way down to the water, and often these works
represent great labor. Likewise, the irrigation canals and reservoirs
of southern Arizona show what he could do and surprise the moderns.
One soon sees that there is not a spring near the present villages
that does not receive its offerings of painted sticks adorned with
feathers, as prayers to the givers of water. These simple-hearted folk
in the toils of drought seem to have all their ceremonies to bring
rain, and there is nothing else quite as important in their thoughts.
In the same way the Southwest has made the settlers workers in stone
and clay, for Nature has withheld the precious wood. Few other parts
of the world show so clear an instance of the compelling power of the
surroundings on the customs of a people.
Why or how the pueblo builders came into this inhospitable region no
one may decide. The great plateau extending from Fremont's Peak to the
Isthmus of Tehuantepec, with its varied scenery, its plants and
animals, and its human occupants is replete with interesting problems
of the Old New World. Perhaps as the people crowded from the North
along the Rockies toward the fertile lands of Mexico, some weaker
tribes were thrust into the embrace of the desert and remained to work
out their destiny. It would appear that no tribe could adopt the land
as a home through free choice, because the sparseness of the arid
country must make living a desperate struggle to those who had not the
precious seeds of corn.
Corn is the mother of the Pueblos, ancient and modern. Around it the
Indian's whole existence centers, and the prevalent prayers for rain
have corn as the motive, for corn is life. Given corn and rain or
flowing water, even in small amount, and the Indian has no fear of
hard times, but prospers and multiplies in the sanitorium where his
lot is cast.
If we travel backward into the Ancient Southwest we must leave behind
many things that came to the people since the Spaniards sallied from
Mexico to the new land of wonders. Sheep, goats, chickens, burros,
horses, cattle there are none, and the children of the sun have no
domestic animal except the turkey. The coyote-like dog haunted the
pueblos, but his ancient enemy, the cat, was not there to dispute with
him. No peaches or apricots were on the bill of fare, and the desert
must be scoured for small berries and the fruit of the yucca and
prickly-pear. Corn, beans, melons, and squashes there were, but wheat,
oats, and alfalfa came from other hands. What would be the deprivation
if sugar, coffee, flour, and baking powder were cut off from the
present Indians. The ancients had none, nor were the useful vessels of
tin and iron for cooking dreamed of. The agave of the South furnished
a sweet in the roasted leaves, which took the place of sugar and went
far and wide by early commerce. Tobacco always grew wild around the
pueblos, but the ancients never knew the fascination of the modern
leaf.
Before the trader's cotton stuffs, were those of native cotton and
before woolen stuffs there were warm blankets of strips of rabbit fur
interwoven with cord, feather garments, mats of yucca, and blankets of
mountain goat and buffalo wool, with girdles and stockings of the same
textile. Perhaps more in use than these for clothing were the tanned
skins of the elk, deer, and antelope, ornamented with native colors
before aniline dyes came into existence. Buffalo skins were a part of
the belongings of the ancients secured through trade with the people
of the plains. There were sandals of plaited yucca and moccasins of
turkey feathers. For jewelry there were seeds of the pine, shells,
beads, and ornaments of turquoise and colored stones, quite enough to
satisfy the love of ornament and quite suitable to the dusky skins of
the Indians, as anyone may verify, if he will travel to the pueblos.
About the houses every vestige of metal and glass is absent. The
windows may have been glazed with irregular plates of selenite, and
the marks of fire and the rude stone axe are upon the beams. Instead
of the gun, curved clubs, the bow, and stone-tipped arrows hang from
the rafters with the lance thrown by the atlatl. In the corner stands
a hoe of stone and a digging stick; pottery, gourds, and basketry are
the sole utensils, the knife is a chipped stone blade set with pine
gum in a wooden handle, and the horns of the mountain sheep are formed
into spoons.
The rooms are smoky and dark, since the chimney is not yet, and the
fire on the floor must be nursed, for, when it goes out, it must be
rekindled by the friction of two pieces of wood or borrowed from a
neighbor in the manner of primitive times, not yet forgotten among the
advanced sharers of civilization. Much might be added to this picture
of the early life of the Pueblos, and the exploration of the ruins
will tell us yet more to excite our interest and admiration.
Among the inhabited Hopi pueblos are many seats of the ancient people
now become mounds or fallen walls and their memory a tradition. There
were four mission churches; hardly a vestige of them remains, and a
few of the carved beams support the roofs of pagan kivas. This bears
strong testimony to the completeness of the weeding out of the foreign
missions by the Hopi more than two centuries ago. The Hopi have always
been free and independent, even when the search for gold by the
Conquistadores had been turned to the search for souls to the
subjugation of most of the other Pueblos in the Southwest.
Several of the interesting ruins in Tusayan have been explored.
Sikyatki, or "Yellow House," lying on the sand hills four miles east
of Walpi, has yielded many strange and beautiful relics of pottery and
stone, as has Awatobi, a large town on a mesa ten miles southeast of
Walpi, destroyed about the year 1700 by the other villagers. Here may
be traced the walls of the mission of San Bernardino de Awatobi, a
large church built of blocks of adobe mixed with straw. The church
stood on the mesa commanding a superb view of the lava buttes to the
south and must have been in its time an imposing building. The old
town of Kisakobi, near Walpi, has yielded relics in profusion of a
later period than the sites mentioned, and it is here that we must
look for the arts of the Hopi just before they came into the light of
history.
The prevalence of ruins around the Hopi mesas is in keeping with the
movements of the tribes in the Pueblo region. Of the seven Hopi towns,
Oraibi is the only one now on the site it occupied when the Spaniards
came to Tusayan.
Not long ago, according to Hopi traditionists, some clans withdrew
from Tusayan and rebuilt cliff-houses in the Canyon de Chelly, where
before some of the clans that finally settled in Tusayan lived for a
time.
Without doubt the connection between the early Hopi clans and the
people who lived in the cliff-dwellings was close at a former period,
and there is reason to believe that the older clans who are said to
have come in from the North possessed the black-and-white pottery and
the arts of the cliff-dwellers. Other clans coming from the South must
have worked considerable changes in Hopi arts. While the southern
clans brought yellow pottery, it remained for the great influx of
peoples from the Rio Grande to introduce the artistic ware with
complicated symbolic decoration that rendered the Tusayan ceramics
superior to all others in northern America.
INDEX
Albinos, 17
Ancient life, pictures of, 257-259
Announcements of town crier, 43
Apache, 26
Astronomy, primitive, 44
Attacks of Navaho and Apache, 254
Basket dance, 159
Baskets, kinds of, 90
Basket making, 91-95
Basket, materials of, 91
Basket struggle, 161
Baskets, uses of, 93
Blessing of the fields, 37
Burial, 130, 131
Carving, joinery, painting and drawing, 87-90
Ceremonies, 132;
basis of, 135, 136
Ceremonial calendar, regulation of, 148
Chakwaina, biography of, 231-233
Children, games of, 107, 108;
education of, 119-122
Clan ceremonies, 135;
laws, 36
Cliff dwellers, 261
Climate, 15
Cold, disregard of, 33
Communication of news, 42
Constellations named, 44
Coöperation, 37
Corn, cooking of, 66;
cultivation and care of, 61, 62;
diet of, 65;
feast, 61;
grinding, 62;
meal, 64;
origin myth of, 65;
planting of, 60, 61
Cornfield, appearance of, 60
Cotton, use of, 83
Courtship, 122-123
Crafts, 70
Day, division of, 45
Death, ideas concerning, 128, 129, 130
Dedication of infant to the sun, 117
Dolls, making of, 87
Dyeing, 85
Eagle capture, 170;
cemetery, 171;
egg shrine, 171;
feathers in ceremony, 170;
ownership of, 168
Education of children, 218, 219
Environment, effect in shaping culture, 15
Fewkes (Dr. J. Walter), 12, 47, 88, 151, 159, 179;
on Kopeli, 221-223
Fields, guarding of, 56
Flute, ceremony of, 156-159
Fire priests, 166, 167;
making, 164
Founding of new villages, 253
Fuel gathering, 71
Games, athletic and sedentary, 105, 106
Gardens, 53
Hano, origin of, 20
Havasupai, 25
Head flattening, 16
Herbs, collection of, 58;
mixed with tobacco, 60
Historical ruins, 260
Hodge (F. W.), 11, 254
Honani family, account of, 228-231
House, arrangement of, 100;
building of, 95-101;
dedication ceremonies, 99, 100;
description of, 22-23
Hunts, ceremonial, 172, 173, 174
Industry, 71
Intiwa, biography of, 227, 228
Kachinas, 135
Kachina ceremonies, 145-146
Kisakobi, 260
Kivas, construction of, Walpi, 21-22
Kopeli, biography of, 218-223
Labor, division of, 69
Lalakonti ceremony, 159-161
Land, ownership of, 37
Laws, 38
Longevity, 17
Lummis (C. F.), 11
Mamzrauti ceremony, 161-163
Marriage, 123-128
Meals, 67
Medicine men, 167, 168;
theory and practice, 58
Migration of Apache and Navaho, 254;
of Pueblo, 253
Mindeleff (Cosmos), 101
Mission churches, 260
Moccasin making, 72, 73, 74
Months of summer, 33, 34, 35;
of winter 30, 31, 32
Mungwe, biography of, 233-235
Mushongnovi pueblo, 23
Music, character of, 103;
of Flute ceremony, 103, 104, 105
Myth of Alosaka, 193;
Dr. Fewkes quoted, 189;
of flint clad giant, 186, 187;
of Great Elk, 185, 186;
of man-eagle, 180-185;
of migration, 190-194, 196, 197-200;
of monsters, 179;
of plumed serpent, 194, 195;
of sun twins, 187, 188
Naming customs, 117
Nampeo, 75, 76
Nampeo, potter, 20
Nashihiptuwa on the golden age, 213-217
Natal rites, 114-115
Native worship, 134-135
Navaho contracts, 24
New fire ceremony, 163-165
Niman Kachina ceremony, 146-148
Oraibi, location of, 260;
pueblo, 24
Organization of ancient Pueblos, 252
Origin of pueblo builders, 257
Paiute, 26
Palulukong ceremony, 140-145
Physical characteristics, 16
Pima, 26, 27
Plants, knowledge of, 57;
lore of, 59;
uses of, 59
Planting stick, 60
Pottery, ancient, 261;
burning, 80, 81, 82;
clays, 77;
evolution of, 78, 79;
paints, 80;
superstition regarding, 82;
tools, 78
Powamu ceremony, 139, 140
Prayer-sticks in springs, 256
Preservation of tradition, 251
Primitive commerce, 250
Pueblo origin accounts, 251, 252
Punishments, 38
Routes to Pueblos, 13
Running, feats of, 108, 113
Saalako, medicine woman, biography of, 225-227
Sandals, 74, 75
Seed gathering, 67
Social organization, 35
Sheep, introduction of, 83, 255
Shepherds, 39-40
Shipaulovi pueblo, 24
Shrines, 175-178
Shumopavi pueblo, 24
Sichomovi pueblo, origin of name, 20
Sikyatki, ancient pueblo destroyed, 210;
ruins of, 260
Snake dance, 148-155;
legend, 155-156
Songs, purchase of, 102;
variety of, 105
Soyaluna ceremony, 136-139
Springs, 53;
disappearance of, 54;
Flute Dance in, 54;
names of, 54;
offerings in, 53;
sacred, 54
Street market, 40
Summer occupations, 33
Tewa, migration of, 20; visits of pueblos, 25
Time, determination of, 43, 44;
reckoning in birth rites, 114;
record, 44
Toby, biography of, 245, 247
"Tom Sawyer," biography of, 247-249
Totem names, 46, 47
Town crier, or speaker chief, 41, 42
Town patrol, 39
Traders, ability of, 38
Tradition of Apache raids, 202;
of destruction of Awatobi, 210-213;
of flood, 203;
of former location, 204;
of origin of Hano, 208;
of Spanish conquerors, 206, 207;
of the Spanish Friars, 204, 205
Turkey, 172
Tusayan, physical description of, 13
Unwarlike character of Hopi, 209
Villages located near water, 50;
on mesas, 18
Voth (H. R.), 128
Walpi, changes due to contact, 19;
description of, 21;
founded 1590, 21
Wars among Pueblos, 256
Water, abstinence from by animals, 52;
carriers, 53;
hunting of, 51;
jars, hidden, 50;
signs, 51
Weaving, 82-86
Wedding costume, 127, 128;
blanket, 126
Wiki and Supela, biography of, 223, 224, 225
Winter occupations, 29, 30
Women, house builders, 96
Wupa, biography of, 235-245
Yeast, chewed, 64
Zuñi, association with, 25
Transcriber's Note
Minor punctuation errors have been repaired.
Hyphenation has been made consistent throughout the main body of the
book, but preserved as printed in quoted material.
Spelling has been made consistent where there was a clear prevalence
of one form over another. Such changes are included in the list of
amendments below. Otherwise, archaic and variant spellings are preserved
as printed.
As no later editions of this book could be found, the transcriber has
estimated the most likely place for an apparently omitted closing
quote on page 129. This appears to be at the paragraph ending with
'Truly, we received the ceremonies from them long ago,' as there are
several references to 'we' preceding it, suggesting it is all quoted
material.
The following text appears on page 155: 'For several days after the
Snake Dance the young and not too old play jolly comes the feast
consumed with the appetite of youth, childlike simplicity.' There may
be missing words or punctuation, but as the transcriber is unable to
establish these, it is preserved as printed.
Both Castil shimuno (page 205) and Castil shinumo (page 206) appear.
One of these is presumably a typographic error, but as the transcriber
found no way to determine which is correct, they have both been
preserved as printed.
Both Mishongnovi and Mushongnovi appear as variant spellings, and are
preserved as printed.
The quoted matter on page 221 uses Saliko as an alternate spelling of
Saalako, and this is preserved as printed.
The following amendments have been made:
Page 14--pinyons amended to piñons--... on the mesas are junipers
and piñons; ...
Page 30--Soyalana amended to Soyaluna--... and after the Soyaluna
ceremony ...
Page 55--Salako amended to Saalako--... although having been
blessed by Saalako ...
Page 68--witr amended to with--... which, with various other
herbs, ...
Page 80--ochre amended to ocher--The red paint is yellow ocher,
...
Page 91--leaf-tripping amended to leaf-stripping--... waste bits
from the leaf-stripping, ...