OLD TIME COMMUNISTS.
Houses on Rocks and Sand Hills--How Many Families Dwelt Together in
Unity--Peculiarities of Costumes--Pueblo Architecture and Folk Lore--A
Historic Struggle and How it Ended--Legends Concerning
Montezuma--Curious Religious Ceremonies.
Perhaps the most peculiar people to be found in our native land are the
Pueblos, who live in New Mexico between the Grande and Colorado Rivers.
When Coronado, the great explorer, marched through the territory 450
years ago, he found these people in a condition of at least comparative
civilization. They were living in large houses, each capable of
accommodating several families, and solidly built. Although they had
wandering bands of robbers for their nearest neighbors, they were able
to defend themselves against all comers, and were content and
prosperous. Their weapons, although primitive, were quite scientific,
and were handled with much skill as well as bravery.
For two years they were able to withstand the Spanish invaders in their
"casas-grandes." It had been reported to the Spanish commanders that
several hundred miles in the north lay a great empire named Cibola,
which had seven large cities. In these were long streets, on which only
gold and silversmiths resided; imposing palaces towered in the suburbs,
with doors and columns of pure turquoise; the windows were made of
precious stones brilliantly polished. At the sumptuous feasts of the
prince of the land, enchanting slaves served the most delicate dainties
on golden dishes. There were mountains of opal rising above valleys
reveling in jewels, with crystal streams, whose bottom consisted of pure
silver sand.
The disappointment of the Spaniards was great. A number of large Indian
villages were found, whose inhabitants subsisted upon the fruits of a
primitive agriculture. The frugality and thrift of the Pueblos excited
the interest of the voluptuous Spaniards. The peculiar architecture of
the villages and houses also drew their admiration. Taken as a whole,
the circles of houses resembled the cells of a wasp's nest, of which the
upper stories were reached on a crude ladder. Entrance could be gained
only through a small opening in the roof, not even the sides facing the
streets containing doors. A few heavily grated windows served as
port-holes for their arrows. These peculiar constructions of baked clay
are still fashionable in such old towns as Suni, Taos and others.
Situated as the Moqui villages and Acoma were, on the top of an
inaccessible rock, the Spaniards despaired of conquering them. The
supposed Cibola not panning out according to expectation, they did not
seek reinforcement, and left the Pueblos in peace. Only near the end of
the Sixteenth Century the Pueblos had to submit to Spanish rule, under
which they remained until 1848, when the territory embracing New Mexico
and Arizona was ceded to the United States.
In some respects the Spanish supremacy proved beneficial to the Indians.
They virtually maintained their independence. Many innovations in their
life and customs can be traced from this period. The only domestic
creatures in their villages were large turkeys, whose feathers served as
head ornaments for the warriors; but horses, cows, sheep, goats, dogs
and last, but not least, the indispensable burros were added to their
domestic stock.
The most important change in their communistic mode of living dates from
the annexation of New Mexico to the United States, and the introduction
of railroads. Their unfriendly neighbors, the Apaches, Comanches, Kiowas
and Navajos, were restricted to their own reservations.
Feeling safe under the powerful protection of the Government, these
peaceable people have begun to relinquish their old mode of communistic
existence in their strange dwellings. Until recently, there was a
promiscuous living together of large families in the numerous apartments
of a single house, to which access could be only obtained through a
small aperture in the roof. More modern cottages are being built for
single families now; farming is also carried on on a large scale, and in
some parts grape and fruit culture is attempted with good results.
All the villages are characterized by a certain industrial monopoly. In
one of them, for instance, the pottery for all the Pueblos is
manufactured; in others, like the Moqui villages, all the people are
employed in the making of finely woven goats' hair blankets, in which
occupation many are great experts. Although a large number are engaged
in the sale of blankets and Indian goods in the southwestern part of the
Union, in the gold diggings of California, in Mormon settlements, in the
small railroad stations of Arizona, the average Pueblo Indian prefers a
settled life. He is domestic in his habits, and loves his family, his
cattle, his farm and his neighbors as dearly as does his pale-faced
brothers. And has he not good cause to rejoice and be contented with his
lot? Has he not a faithful and charming wife? There are some pretty
girls of perfect contour among the Pueblo Indians, especially in the
Tigua villages. Are not his gleeful children, who are enjoying a romp on
the huge sand hills, obedient and reverential in his presence? The
impudent spirit of young America has not yet exerted its baneful
influence here.
How scrupulously clean are the households! The good housewives of the
Netherlands do not excel the Pueblo squaws in cleanliness. Floors are
always carefully swept; all along the walls of the spacious rooms seats
and couches are covered with finely variegated rugs; the walls are
tastefully decorated with pictures and mirrors, and the large cupboards
are filled with luxurious fruits, meats, pastry and jellies. Thousands
of white bread-winners in the large cities would envy these Indians if
they could behold their comparative affluence and their obviously
contented state. Nor do they obtain all this without fatiguing toil. The
land is barren and dry, which compels them to induce irrigation through
long canals from far away streams, and the men are never afraid of work.
The Pueblo pottery of to-day differs but little from that of the
Sixteenth Century. In the pottery villages the work is done mostly by
men, who sit on the broad, shaded platform and shape their immense
vessels in imitation of human beings and every imaginable animal shape.
The grotesquely shaped mouth is generally intended for the opening,
through which the water, soup or milk is poured.
The squaws are assuming more and more the occupations of the modern
housewife, though they still grind their corn in the stone troughs used
hundreds of years ago, and they still bake their bread in thin layers on
hot, glowing stones. Dressmakers and tailors still go a-begging among
the Pueblo people, and no attention whatever is paid to Parisian
dictators of fashion. The good Pueblo squaw cuts, fits, and sews all the
clothing for the family, which used to be composed mostly of leather.
Her husband's wardrobe consists now of a few multi-colored shirts, a
pair or two of leather pantaloons, with silver buttons, mocassins and a
shoulder blanket.
The head gear, if any be worn, as is often the case, is simply a large
colored handkerchief. Girls are usually dressed like the daughters of
Southern farmers, but they refuse to discard the bloomers, over which
the petticoats are worn a little below the knees. These leather
pantalettes are a necessity in a country where poisonous snakes and
insects abound in gardens and fields. To see a Pueblo girl at her best,
she must be surprised in animated gossip in a bevy of girl friends, or
when engaged in mirthful laughter while at work. Then the expressive,
deep black eyes sparkle and the white teeth offer a glittering contrast
to her fine black tresses, eyes and eyebrows. The Pueblo Indians are to
be congratulated on one fact especially, that they permitted their moral
improvement through the agency of the black-frocked missionaries and
school teachers who came from the East, but also that they are one of
the few tribes who resisted the conscienceless rascals who would wreck
their homes through "fire water" and gambling devices.
A large number of ancient many-storied, many chambered communal houses
are scattered over New Mexico, three of the most important of which are
Isletta, Laguna and Acoma. Isletta and Laguna are within a stone's throw
of the railroad, ten miles and sixty-six miles, respectively, beyond
Albuquerque, and Acoma is reached from either Laguna or Bubero by a
drive of a dozen miles. The aboriginal inhabitants of the pueblos, an
intelligent, complex, industrious and independent race, are anomalous
among North American natives. They are housed to-day in the self-same
structures in which their forefathers were discovered, and in three and
a half centuries of contact with Europeans their manner of life has not
materially changed.
The Indian tribes that roamed over mountain and plain have become wards
of the Government, debased and denuded of whatever dignity they once
possessed, ascribe what cause you will for their present condition. But
the Pueblo Indian has absolutely maintained the integrity of his
individuality, and is self-respecting and self-sufficient. He accepted
the form of religion professed by his Spanish conquerors, but without
abandoning his own, and that is practically the only concession his
persistent conservatism has ever made to external influence.
Laborious efforts have been made to penetrate the reserve with which the
involved inner life of this strange child of the desert is guarded, but
it lies like a dark, vast continent behind a dimly visible shore, and he
dwells within the shadowy rim of a night that yields no ray to tell of
his origin. He is a true pagan, swathed in seemingly dense clouds of
superstition, rich in fanciful legend, and profoundly ceremonious in
religion. His gods are innumerable. Not even the ancient Greeks
possessed a more populous Olympus. On that austere yet familiar height,
gods of peace and of war, of the chase, of bountiful harvest and of
famine, of sun and rain and snow, elbow a thousand others for standing
room. The trail of the serpent has crossed his history, too, and he
frets his pottery with an imitation of its scales, and gives the
rattlesnake a prominent place among his deities. Unmistakably a pagan,
yet the purity and well being of his communities will bear favorable
comparison with those of the enlightened world.
He is brave, honest and enterprising within the fixed limits of his
little sphere; his wife is virtuous, his children are docile. And were
the whole earth swept bare of every living thing, save for a few leagues
surrounding his tribal home, his life would show no manner of
disturbance. Probably he might never hear of so unimportant an event. He
would still alternately labor and relax in festive games, still
reverence his gods and rear his children to a life of industry and
content, so anomalous is he, so firmly established in an absolute
independence.
Pueblo architecture possesses none of the elaborate ornamentation found
in the Aztec ruins in Mexico. The exterior of the house is absolutely
plain. It is sometimes seven stories in height and contains over a
thousand rooms. In some instances it is built of adobe--blocks of mud
mixed with straw and dried in the sun, and in others, of stone covered
with mud cement. The entrance is by means of a ladder, and when that is
pulled up the latch-string is considered withdrawn.
The pueblo of pueblos is Acoma, a city without a peer. It is built upon
the summit of a table-rock, with overhanging, eroded sides, 350 feet
above the plain, which is 7,000 feet above the sea. Anciently, according
to the traditions of the Queres, it stood upon the crest of the superb
Haunted Mesa, three miles away, and some 300 feet higher, but its only
approach was one day destroyed by the falling of a cliff, and three
unhappy women, who chanced to be the only occupants--the remainder of
the population being at work in the fields below--died of starvation, in
view of the homeless hundreds of their people who for many days
surrounded the unscalable mesa with upturned, agonized faces.
The present Acoma is the one discovered by the Spaniards; the original
pueblo on the Mesa Encantada being even then an ancient tradition. It is
1,000 feet in length and 40 feet high, and there is, besides, a church
of enormous proportions. Until lately, it was reached only by a
precipitous stairway in the rock, up which the inhabitants carried upon
their backs every particle of the materials of which the village is
constructed. The graveyard consumed forty years in building, by reason
of the necessity of bringing earth from the plain below; and the church
must have cost the labor of many generations, for its walls are 60 feet
high and 10 feet thick, and it has timbers 40 feet long and 14 inches
square.
The Acomas welcomed the soldiers of Coronado with deference, ascribing
to them celestial origin. Subsequently, upon learning the distinctly
human character of the Spaniards, they professed allegiance, but
afterwards wantonly slew a dozen of Zaldibar's men. By way of reprisal,
Zaldibar headed three-score soldiers and undertook to carry the
sky-citadel by assault. The incident has no parallel in American
history, short of the memorable and similar exploit of Cortez on the
great Aztec pyramid.
After a three days' hand to hand struggle, the Spaniards stood victors
upon that seemingly impregnable fortress, and received the submission of
the Queres, who for three-quarters of a century thereafter remained
tractable. In that interval, the priests came to Acoma and held footing
for fifty years, until the bloody uprisal of 1680 occurred, in which
priest, soldier and settler were massacred or driven from the land, and
every vestige of their occupation was extirpated. After the resubjection
of the natives by De Vargas, the present church was constructed, and the
Pueblos have not since rebelled against the contiguity of the white man.
All the numerous Mexican communities in the Territory contain
representatives of the Penitentes order, which is peculiar by reason of
the self-flagellations inflicted by its members in excess of pietistic
zeal. Unlike their ilk of India, they do not practice self-torture for
long periods, but only upon a certain day in each year. Then, stripped
to the waist, these poor zealots go chanting a dolorous strain, and
beating themselves unsparingly upon the back with the sharp-spined
cactus, or soap-weed, until they are a revolting sight to look upon.
Often they sink from the exhaustion of long-sustained suffering and loss
of blood. One of the ceremonies among these peculiar people is the
bearing of a huge cross of heavy timber for long distances. Martyrs to
conscience and religious devotees frequently carry crosses of immense
weight for miles, and are watched eagerly by crowds of excited
spectators. The man who carries this fanatacism to the greatest length
is the hero of the day, and receives the appointment of Chief of the
Ceremonies for the following year.
Ceremonies such as these point to the extreme antiquity of the people,
and seem to indicate that they must have been descended from tribes
which were prominent in biblical narrative. According to many able
historians, people have resided in this part of the world for at least
twelve hundred years. In other words, when Columbus and Americus
Vespucius discovered and explored the new world or portions of it, these
peculiar people had been living on the then mysterious continent for the
greater part of a thousand years.
According to some authorities these people are aboriginal. According to
others, they migrated from some distant clime. The antiquity of China is
well known, and there is good reason to believe that the Moquis and
Zunis have sprung from Chinese voyagers, or perhaps pirates, who,
hundreds of years ago, were wrecked on the western shores of America.
Another theory is, that on the occasion of one of the numerous
expulsions or emigrations from China, a band of Mongolians turned
northward and came into America by crossing the Behring Strait.
Other antiquarians think that Morocco, rather than China, was the
original home of these races. The traveler is much struck with the
resemblance between the habits and customs of the Moors and of some of
the old established tribes of New Mexico. In dress and architecture the
Moorish idea certainly prevails very prominently. The white toga and the
picturesque red turban are prominent in these resemblances. The jugs
used for carrying water are distinctly Moorish in type, and the women
carry them on their heads in that peculiar manner which is so
characteristic of Moorish habits and customs.
One of the very earliest records of these people has been left us by
Spanish explorers. A writer who accompanied one of the earliest
expeditions from Spain, says: "We found a great town called Acoma,
containing about 5,000 people, and situated upon a rock about fifty
paces high, with no other entrance but by a pair of stairs hewn in the
rock, whereat our people marveled not a little. The chief men of this
town came peaceably to visit us, bringing many mantles and chamois
skins, excellently dressed, and great plenty of victuals. Their
corn-fields were two leagues distant, and they fetched water out of a
small river to water the same, on the brinks whereof there were great
banks of roses like those of Castile. There were many mountains full of
metals. Our men remained in the place three days, upon one of which the
inhabitants made before them a very solemn dance, coming forth in the
same gallant apparel, using very witty sports, wherewith our men were
exceedingly delighted."
Among the ruins found here, the early use of stone for architectural
purposes is clearly manifested, and there are innumerable relics of
ingenuity in periods upon which we are apt to look with great contempt.
Arrow-heads made of flint, quartz, agate and jaspar, can easily be found
by the relic hunter. Hatchets made of stone, and sharpened in a most
unique manner, are also common, and the ancestors of the Pueblos
undoubtedly used knives made of stone hundreds of years ago.
One of the most interesting of the ancient houses is in the Chaco Cañon.
This edifice was probably at one time 300 feet long, about half as wide
and three stories high. From the nature of the rooms, it is evident that
the walls were built in terrace-form out of sandstone. There were about
150 rooms, and judging from the present habits of the people, at least
500 human beings lived in this mammoth boarding-house. Another very
interesting structure of a similar character is found on the Upper
Grande River, about two hours' drive from Santa Fe. It was about 300
feet square originally, and most of the foundations are still in fairly
good condition, though much of the exposed portion of the stone has
yielded by degrees to the friction caused by continual sandstorms. It is
believed that more than 1,000 people lived in this one house.
Of recent years a good deal has been written concerning the
possibilities of the future in regard to saving expense by large numbers
of families occupying one house. Most of these ideas have been
ridiculed, because experience has proved that families seldom reside
comfortably in crowded quarters. The tribes of which we are writing,
while they destroy the originality of the communistic ideas of the
Nineteenth Century, also disprove the arguments which are principally
brought against them. In these singular houses or colonies, several
families live together in perfect harmony. There are no instances on
record of disputes such as are met with in boarding-houses patronized by
white people, and in this one respect, at any rate, quite a lesson is
taught us by the Pueblo tribes. The people are quiet and peaceable in
disposition, and one secret of their peaceful dwelling together is found
in the absence of jealousy, a characteristic or vice which does not seem
to have penetrated into the houses on the cliffs, or to have sullied the
dispositions of these people with such a remarkable and creditable
history. It requires a good deal of dexterity and agility to enter or
leave a communal house of this character, and a door, from what we are
apt to term a civilized point of view, is unknown.
The visitor is told a number of legends and stories about these houses
and the people who live in them. The coming of Montezuma is the great
idea which permeates all the legends and stories. According to many of
the people, Montezuma left Mexico, during the remote ages, in a canoe
built of serpent-skins. His object was to civilize the East and to do
away with human sacrifice. He communicated with the people by means of
cords in which knots were tied in the most ingenious manner. The knots
conveyed the meaning of the Prophet, and his peculiar messages were
carried from pueblo to pueblo by swift messengers, who took great
delight in executing their tasks.
A number of exceedingly romantic legends are centered around the Pueblo
de Taos, which is about twenty miles from Embudo. Taos is considered the
most interesting and the most perfect specimen of a Pueblo Indian
fortress. It consists of two communistic houses, each five stories high,
and a Roman Catholic church (now in a ruined condition) which stands
near, although apart from the dwellings. Around the fortress are seven
circular mounds, which at first suggest the idea of being the work of
mound-builders. On further examination they prove to be the sweating
chambers or Turkish baths of this curious people. Of these chambers, the
largest appears also to serve the purpose of a council chamber and
mystic hall, where rites peculiar to the tribe (about which they are
very reticent) are performed.
The Pueblo Indians delight to adorn themselves in gay colors, and form
very interesting and picturesque subjects for the artist, especially
when associated with their quaint surroundings. They are skilled in the
manufacture of pottery, basket-making and bead work. The grand annual
festival of these Indians occurs on the 30th of September, and the
ceremonies are of a peculiarly interesting character.
Jesuitism has grafted its faith upon the superstitions of the
Montezumas, and a curious fruitage is the result. The mystic rites of
the Pueblo Indians, performed at Pueblo de Taos in honor of San Geronimo
(St. Jerome), upon each succeeding 30th day of September, attract large
concourses of people, and are of great interest to either the
ethnologist, ecclesiastic or tourist. A brief description can give but a
faint idea of these ceremonies, but may serve to arouse an interest in
the matter. In the early morning of St. Jerome's day, a black-robed
Indian makes a recitation from the top of the pueblo to the assembled
multitude below. In the plaza stands a pine tree pole, fifty feet in
height, and from a cross-piece at top dangles a live sheep, with legs
tied together and back down. Besides the sheep, a garland of such fruits
and vegetables as the valley produces, together with a basket of bread
and grain, hang from the pole. The bell in the little adobe chapel
sounds and a few of the Indians go in to mass.
A curious service follows. A rubicund Mexican priest is the celebrant,
while two old Mexicans in modern dress, and a Pueblo Indian in a red
blanket, are acolytes. When the host is elevated, an Indian at the door
beats a villainous drum and four musket shots are discharged. After the
services are concluded, a procession is formed and marches to the race
track, which is three hundred yards in length. The runners have prepared
themselves in the estufas, or underground council chambers, and soon
appear. There are fifty of them, and all are naked except a
breech-clout, and are painted no two alike. Fifty other runners to
contest with these, arrive from the other pueblo. They form in line on
either side of the course, and a slow, graceful dance ensues. All at
once three hundred mad young Mexicans rush through the throng on their
wild ponies, the leader swinging by the neck the gallo or cock. Then the
races begin, two runners from each side darting down the track cheered
by their companions. No sooner do they reach the goal than two others
start off, and thus for two hours, until the sum of victories gained by
individuals entitles one party or the other to claim success. The race
decided, the runners range themselves in two facing lines, and, preceded
by the drum, begin a slow zig-zag march.
Excitement now runs riot. The dancers chant weird songs, break the ranks
and vie with each other in their antics and peculiarities. A rush is
made upon the crowd of spectators through whom the participants in the
orgies force their way, regardless of consequences. The women, who
hitherto have taken but little part in the excitement, now come forward
and throw cakes and rolls of bread from the pueblo terraces. Everybody
rushes after these prizes in a headlong manner, and the confusion
becomes still greater.
An adjournment is then taken for dinner, and in the afternoon, six
gorgeously painted and hideously decorated clowns come forward and go
through a series of antics calculated to disgust rather than amuse the
spectator. The unfortunate sheep, which is still hanging to the pole, is
finally thrown to the ground after several attempts have been made to
climb the pole. The fruits and products are seized by the clowns, who
rush off with them, and every one connected with the tribe seem to be
highly satisfied with the outcome of the day's proceedings, and the
culmination of the spectacle.