USA > New Mexico > History of New Mexico : its resources and people, Volume I > Part 53
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72
371
INDIAN TRIBES
the book of the "water people," the book of the "eagle people," and the book of the "corn people," painted on the skins of the animals. As there is no evidence of phonetic writing having been understood among them, this writing, if it existed, doubtless was symbolic.
The "prophecy of She-ake," a Queres tradition, is referred to by Coronado in a letter to the Viceroy of Mexico. He says: "They declare that it was foretold among them more than fifty years ago that a people such as we are should come, and the direction they should come from and that the whole country would be conquered." The legend is that the old magician who made the prophecy, She-ake, lying flat upon the ground, would strike the earth with his fist, commanding the people to listen. He then foretold the coming of a strange people-bearded warriors wearing shirts and hats of metal-and described the manner in which they would conquer and enslave his people. He then told of the people of the light- colored hair, who would come from the east, would conquer the entire country, and become friends and champions of the Pueblo Indians; that they would build great metal roads, and that the rains would return and that the Queres people would once more be happy, contented and pros- perous.
The first white man to hold the office of governor of any of the Queres Indians was Robert G. Marmon, who in 1880 was elected governor of Laguna.
R. G. Marmon was born in Kenton, Ohio. He was educated and studied engineering at the Northwestern Ohio Normal School at Lebanon, that state, and in the year 1872 made his way to Santa Fé as a civil engineer on the government surveys. For three years his headquarters were at Santa Fé, while he was actively engaged in government surveying. In 1875 he located at Laguna pueblo, where he kept up his engineering work and also turned his attention to general merchandising and stock raising. He is now engaged quite extensively in the cattle business and at the same time follows the profession of civil engineering at Laguna. His cat- tle ranch is located fifteen miles south of Laguna at Dripping Springs and he is interested in and assisted in organizing the New Mexico Pumice Stone Company, which now produces about five car loads of pumice stone a month. There are two kilns at Bluewater, sixty miles west of Laguna, furnishing lime to all the northern parts of the Territory along the Santa Fé road. His business interests have thus been varied and extensive and he possesses the strong determination, enterprise and diligence so necessary to success in any undertaking. He furnishes rooms to tourists and trav- eling men, also teams to tourists for points of interest, such as the pueblo of Acoma, "Enchanted Mesa" and the mountains of San Mateo.
Mr. Marmon served for ten years in the New Mexico militia and was captain of the Laguna troops of mounted militia during the Apache war. Since taking up his abode at his present place of residence, he has labored untiringly and effectively for the education of the pueblo Indians at this place and Acoma and he served for several terms as governor of the Laguna pueblo, while in 1884 he headed the first delegation of sixty In- dians who were taken to Carlisle, Pa., to be educated. He stands for progress and believes that the nation owes a debt to the red race, who at one time held sway over this entire country.
372
HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO
Near the center of the plains of Acoma rises a rectangular rock of red and gray sandstone, in shape something like the figure 8, with perpen- dicular sides seven hundred feet high. This rock is called the "Mesa En- cantada," or "Enchanted Mesa." The outcroppings of the stone project from the face of the walls at the top, making the summit wholly inaccess- ible. The top of this table land covers an area of about forty acres. Here flourished, according to the Queres legend, probably not later than the year 1300 A. D., about one thousand five hundred Acoma Indians. They cul- tivated their corn, chili and bean patches in the valley near the foot of the rock, pastured their stock thereabouts, and made their home on the sum- mit of the mesa, their only means of ascent and descent being narrow steps cut in the face of the rock on the east side. These steps continued to an elevation of about three hundred feet, whence, through a landing, the entrance of which was arched like that of some great cathedral, the way is supposed to have led into the rock and up another long flight of steps, or series of flights, to the top, where were located their rude houses of stone and adobe.
One day, according to the Queres legend, a great calamity overtook this community. While the younger men of the pueblo, the women and the children were engaged at work in the fields on the plain, a terrific thun- der storm arose, and either a bolt of lightning of a cloudburst struck the projecting rock in which the steps were cut, completely demolishing it and effacing all traces of the crude stairway from the ground to the arched entrance referred to. The aged men and women and the infant children who had been left on the mesa were thereby forever cut off from their kinsmen below, and the latter were unable to ascend to their homes. To add to their distress, the fallen stone had crushed to death a score or more of those who had sought refuge from the storm at the base of the rock. After weeks of desperate waiting, during which faces of the im- prisoned ones appeared over the jagged edges of the rocks in decreasing numbers, no sign of life there was visible, and the helpless watchers be- low knew that all their captive people at last had succumbed to hunger and thirst.
The sorrowing Acomas who survived then gathered together their scanty effects and, carrying their wounded on crude litters woven from the spines of the amole plant, wandered away into the desert to found a new home. Two miles distant, on the summit of a mesa which was almost an exact counterpart of the site of their original home, though not so high by about one hundred and fifty feet, they built their new homes of stone and mud and hewn timbers, which they carried on their backs up this steep and rocky declivity. This is the Acoma pueblo of today-an impreg- nable fortress in time of danger, one of the wonders of the southwest.
In the calamity described, nearly three hundred Indians perished, ac- cording to the stories told by the "historians" of the tribe. In the revolt of 1680 the Spanish Catholic missionary stationed on the mesa with the Acomas is said to have been the only priest who escaped death at the hands of the furious pueblos throughout the province of New Mexico. When the Spaniards besieged the base of the rock, the Indian women sacked the village church and were about to stone the friar to death, but he made his escape and is said to have jumped from the top of the mesa, landing uninjured on the plain below! That he made the leap in safety is ascribed
373
INDIAN TRIBES
to the fact that he wore a large serape, which in his downward flight acted as a parachute. This priest is said by some to have been subsequently re- captured by the Acoma warriors, who, after a council of war, decided that he must be either saint or devil; and upon his consenting to renounce his religion he was taken to their home and became a member of the tribe by adoption. Subsequently he married one of the women of the pueblo, and his descendants are said by some to be recognizable among the people of Acoma.
In the summer of 1897 Prof. William Libby of Princeton University, with a party, made the ascent of the Enchanted Mesa by means of rockets, lifeline mortars, etc., but found no traces of prehistoric occupancy. This was the first practical attempt to that end. C. F. Lummis, who has written much on this subject, says that fully six hundred vears must have elapsed since its abandonment, if the legend be true; and that as Libby made no excavations, and remained but a short time on the summit, his statement should not be accepted as final. Lummis continues: "They dwell today in a pueblo perched upon the top of a rock island, precisely like the Mesa Encantada, except that it is not so high; and it is but three miles distant, Not only that, but in that immediate region there are three other mesas, upon which (so their legends relate) they had prehistoric pueblos-and the ruins are there to prove the story. * * The decay of aboriginal architecture assumed phases that may almost deceive the very elect, and, besides ordinary erosive forces, there are others. That whole region is notable for the enormous extent of wind erosion. One has also but to re- member the ruin of San Mateo, so absolutely buried by the sands that the people who lived within gunshot of it never dreamed of its existence until a fierce sandstorm stripped some of the beautiful stone walls of it. * * * From the southeasterly third of the mesa's top enough of the surface has been eaten out by erosion into a deep chasm to have held as large a pueblo as ever could have been built on that mesa. That is to say, the ruins inay have been devoured by the growth of the great gully which the erosion of recent centuries has gnawed in the table rock, and that also may be the reason why, in the talus at the foot of the cliff, under the point where the storm waters of this gully leap from the cliff to the plain, frag- ments of pottery, chipped stone and other artifacts are found, even on the surface." Lummis says that the legend is that all of the population but three women were on the plain when the cloudburst washed away the stairway. One of the women, crazed with grief, flung herself from the cliff : the others starved.
For more than a quarter of a century the investigations of archaeolo- gists and etlinologists in the United States have been largely directed to the southwest, especially to New Mexico and Arizona, a region which ap- pears to have been once densely populated, then desolated, probably by wars, and afterwards held in precarions tenure by remnants of a disap- pearing race. The older ruins are found in the valleys, where the prehis- toric race probably dwelt in peace until they were forced by their enemies to take refuge in caves and other well nigh inaccessible spots in the walls of cañons. How many generations of these people were cliff-dwellers
374
HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO
never will be known, though many of the ruins of their strange homes are doubtless hundreds of years old. Some of these fastnesses have become utterly inaccessible owing to the destruction of the approaches through erosion.
When the nomadic aboriginal tribes grew less warlike and a more peaceful condition ensued, the inhabitants abandoned their fortified resi- dences and settled upon the mesas, from which elevated locations they could readily detect the approach of an enemy. In the valleys below, on the banks of the streams, they planted their crops. Eventually, as the fear of depredations passed, they ventured to descend to the valleys and to build their homes upon the ruins of the towns of their forbears. There, in the course of time, they re-established their pueblos, many of which still endure, while some of the earlier structures have crumbled to the earth. All these pueblos are now located on the lower ground, the pueblos of Acoma and the Hopi villages of Arizona being the only existing mesa community dwellings.
A vast amount of research remains to be accomplished before the full history of these tribes of men can be written. It probably never will be done. Tradition is the basis of practically all the historical writings of the past half century relative to these people, their literature being con- fined chiefly to picture-writing or hieroglyphics on the cañon walls. Many of the tribes, however, possessed a quaint semi-civilization without paral- lel in any other portion of the globe. Reference to this civilization will be found further on in this narrative. For the present let us look at the Zuñis, a tribe whose great exclusiveness has left to them a rather striking indi- viduality, placing them on a plane above that occupied by the other pueblo tribes of the southwest.
As religion unquestionably exerts a more marked influence upon the life of a people than anything else, the religion of the Zuñis is worthy of study. Their highest aim is the pursuit of happiness, which has developed in them a philosophy which forms the groundwork of their pagan religion. Truthfulness is the cardinal principle of their practical religious life. A Zuñi must "speak with one tongue" in order that his prayers may be ac- ceptable to the gods, and unless his prayers are accepted no rain will fall, leaving starvation as the alternative. He must speak in a gentle voice and act kindly to all. for harsh words anger the gods. To them, the acme of happiness is abundant physical nourishment and temporal enjoyment, this being the chief end sought in the worship of their pantheon gods. Though their religion has been modified as the result of the protracted efforts of Roman Catholic missionaries, it is not Roman. For a long time subsequent to the advent of the Spanish conquerers, their forefathers were compelled to worship in the Catholic church, but this fact did not seriously affect their pagan belief. They took naturally to the ritualism of that church, but were allowed to decorate their homes with their old pagan symbols. While the introduction of the new ritual resulted in a modification of the old, it in no way destroyed the latter. The Zuñis are still pagans at heart.
Upon the establishment of the Bureau of Ethnology of the Smith- sonian Institution in 1879, an expedition was dispatched to make researches among the pueblos and ruins of New Mexico and Arizona, but with in- struction to make a detailed study of some one particular pueblo. Zuñi was selected as the chief object of study. The expedition was placed in
375
INDIAN TRIBES
charge of James Stevenson, whose associates were Mrs. Matilda Coxe Stevenson, Frank H. Cushing and J. K. Hillers. Six months were de- voted to a study of the religion and sociology of the Zuñis and in making a collection for an ethnological exhibit. The largest and most valuable collection of fetishes and sacred vessels ever secured from any of the pu- eblos was made at this time. In subsequent years further researches were made among the Rio Grande pueblos and the ruins of Arizona. The rich results from superficial excavations convinced Mr. Stevenson that archaeo- logical treasures would be found in abundance beneath the surface. With the opening of the railroad, tourists and curio seekers began securing some of the choicest specimens through barter with the Indians, and the neces- sity for immediate action on the part of the government's representatives became apparent. But before he could put his plan into execution Mr. Stev- enson died, in 1888, leaving Dr. Walter Hough, D. J. W. Fewkes, Dr. George H. Pepper and others to continue the work. For a number of years Mrs. Matilda Coxe Stevenson investigated the myths and ceremonials of the Zuñis, her report to the Bureau of Ethnology forming an invaluable contribution to the knowledge of a typical pueblo tribe, which, although in somewhat familiar contact with the whites for a long period of years, is of such a conservative character as to have been but slightly influenced in manners, customs, beliefs and institutions. The necessarily brief reference to these people which follows is abstracted from her report.
The Zuñis believe that the earth is supplied with water by their dead of all ages above infancy, and that infants soon reach maturity after going to the undermost world, whence the Zuñis came. The heavy rains are produced by the pouring of water directly from vases held by the female gods. The uwannami, or rain makers, are controlled and directed by the council of the gods. The varying forms of the clouds are significant to the Zuñi mind. Cirrus clouds denote that the uwannami are passing about for pleasure. Cumulus and nimbus clouds indicate that the uwannami will water the earth. The smoke offerings which produce the clouds may have been sufficient to bring the rain; but this is not all. The daily life, especially of the ashiwanni, or rain priests, must be such as not to offend the councils of gods. These people rarely cast their eyes upward without invoking the rain-makers, for in their arid land rain is the prime object of prayer. Their water vases are covered with cloud and rain emblems, and the water in the vase symbolizes the life, or soul, of the vase.
The seeds distributed among the people by the personators of ancestral gods are recognized by the intelligent as only symbolizing the blessings which they desire and anticipate, yet each person receives the gift with the same solemnity and plants it with the same reverence as if it actually came from the god of seeds in the undermost world.
The sun is referred to as the father, the ancient one. The moon is his sister. The sun-father has no wife. All peoples are the children of the sun. The higher powers may be classed under seven heads :
I. Universal .- Awona-wilona, the supreme life-giving, bi-sexual power, who is referred to as He-She, the symbol and initiator of life, and life itself, pervading all space.
2. Celestial .- The sun-father, directly associated with the supreme power, was and always will be. The supreme power gradually draws the mystic veil from the moon-mother's shield, indicating birth, infancy, youth
376
HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO
and maturity ; she draws the veil over the shield again, symbolizing man's passing to the infancy of old age, when he sleeps to awaken in the abid- ing place of the gods. The morning and evening stars are also celestial powers.
3. Celestial .- The polar star and several of the constellations.
4. Terrestrial .- Earth mother, giver of vegetation.
5. Subterranean .- The gods of war, the culture hero, and the corn mother.
6. Subterrancan .- Salt mother, corn father, white shell woman, red shell woman, turquoise man, patronal and ancestral gods, the plumed ser- pent, and a number of foreign deities to be propitiated.
7. Terrestrial and Subterranean .- Zoic gods who play their part through the esoteric fraternities, eradicating the ill effects of witchcraft on individuals. The second and sixth classes are represented by persons wear- ing masks, and the third is represented in carvings and paintings.
The universe had its beginning in this wise: Awonawilona, with the sun-father and the moon-mother, existed above; and the rain priests, Shi- wanni and Shiwanokia, his wife (the priestess of fecundity), below. All was fog, rising like steam. With the breath from his heart Awonawi-lona created clouds and the great waters of the world. The sun-father, Yato- kia, holder or bearer of light, created two sons, Kow-wituma and Wats-usi, by impregnating two bits of foam with his rays. From these sprang the human race. The Mu-Kwe (Hopis), the Coconino Pimas and the A-pachu (Navajos) followed the Zuñis in the order named, four years, or time periods apart, coming like the A-shiwi, from the undermost world and passing through three worlds before reaching the earth. The Zuñis do not pretend to account for the origin of the other pueblo Indians.
Their belief in witches dates from the earliest days of their race. Even so late a day as the close of the nineteenth century has witnessed severe punishment for the practice of witchcraft.
In a report to the commissioner of Indian affairs in 1897, Captain Charles E. Nordstrom, acting Indian agent of the pueblos and Jicarillas, wrote :
"The village of Zuñi was recently the scene of an occurrence recalling all the horrors of the days when our God-fearing ancestors of New Eng- land piously devoted their neighbors and friends to the stake. A poor old woman, seventy-five or eighty years old, having been reported as a witch, the Society of the Priests of the Bow ordered her torture until she should confess. The emissaries of the society accordingly went to her house in the dead of the night, dragoed her from her bed, and almost lit- erally dragged her down the five stories to the ground, carrying her off to the 'torture canal,' where, tying her hands behind her, until unable to endure the agony longer, she confessed to-no one knows what. It was, however, sufficient to satisfy her judges, for she was let down and allowed to crawl back to her miserable abode as best she could. Here she lay for days, no one caring to go near her, or if they had any compassion on her they were afraid to display it, for fear of sharing her fate as a witch, together with the infliction of the same punishment.'
The Zuñis are very superstitious, and their belief in witchcraft has led to the torture and execution of many of their members. In past years, if the governor or any of his assistants were taken ill, the witches were
377
INDIAN TRIBES
charged with bringing on the affliction; failure of crops, seasons of drought or heavy rains are still attributed to their power by some of the older members of the tribe. Calamities of all kinds are believed to he the result of witchcraft. Less than twenty years ago a woman was accused of bringing a plague of grasshoppers to the Zuñi family, and she and her son were tortured to death.
The Zuñi Ki-wit-siwe, chambers dedicated to anthropic worship, are above ground, rectangular in form, and constructed of stone. The fire altar, of stone slabs, is immediately beneath the hatchway entrance. There is a great variety of anthropic gods in the Zuñi pantheon, many of them ancestral. There are six of these chambers, dedicated to the six regions. Each has its dance director. Dances may occur. at any time he directs between the winter solstice and the summer solstice. Dances for rain some- times occur in the farming districts. Women may join this dancing order, but their initiation is rare. In 1904 there were four female members of one order, which is called the Ko-tikili.
There is no perpetual fire maintained in the Ki-wit-siwe or estufa of any pueblo, contrary to the popular belief ; nor has one been so maintained since the introduction of matches among the Indians; and since they have found their way to the woods free from enemies. In times past the scarcity of wood near home and the dangers attending journeys for wood, which was brought by the Indians upon their backs, beasts of burden being un- known to them until the Spanish invasion, compelled the strictest economy in fuel and necessitated a central fire for each village. This furnished coals with. which to light smaller fires when needed. Fire is regarded as a goddess, second in importance only to the sun.
Though Zuñi pottery may be made at all seasons, the principal period for its manufacture and decoration is three days during the summer sol- stice ceremonies. During these days the women and maidens are to be found busy molding clay or painting in every house in Zuñi. On the fourth day it is fired. The village is ablaze at night, having the appear- ance of a smelting town. A bit of wafer bread, the spiritual essence of which is believed to feed the spirit of this object, is deposited in each piece of pottery as it is balanced on stones, to be baked.
The rain priesthood consists at the present time of fourteen A-shi- wanni (those who fast and pray for rain), the elder and younger Bow priests, and Shi-wano-kia (priestess of fecundity). Their ceremonial house marks the middle of the world. This priesthood is confined to families, the rule being that each member of a division of the priesthood must be of the clan or a child of the clan of the Shi-wanni division. The sun or brother of the Shi-wanni fills a vacancy, preference being given to the eldest son. The associate priests are in the line of promotion. An elab- orate ceremonial of installation occurs when the appointee is received as an associate Shi-wanni. He passes from this position to that of Shi-wanni without further ceremonial of special importance. Many pleasantries and jokes are induged in under the breath during the long ritual, and com- mercial tobacco is constantly smoked by those who are awaiting their turn. At the close of the ceremony, which continues six hours, the new associate Shi-wanni, who remains in one trying position four hours, showing no sign of exhaustion until the last moment, is escorted to his dwelling.
The drama of the t-lila-hewe, which is enacted quadrennially in Au-
378
HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO
gust when the corn is a foot high, is supposed to be a reproduction of the ceremonies held at the time of the third appearance of the Corn maidens before the A-shiwi (during the formative process of the tribe), and is regarded as one of their most sacred festivals. Great preparations are made by the A-shiwi for the third coming of the Corn maidens, who dance that rains will come and water the earth, that the new corn may be made beautiful to look upon, and that the earth will furnish all food for nour- ishment. While this drama must be enacted once every four years, it may occur more often by order of the first body of the A-shiwanni. This cere- monial is one of the most picturesque, as well as one of the most exhaust- ing, indulged in by the Zuñis.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.