Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1853-06-04
THE PUEBLO AND NAVAJO INDIANS.
ooRREsPoSDESoE on THE xEw YORK TRIBUNE.
NAVAJO couHrRr, (NEw MEnoo,)


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MY attention has lately been called to sundry grave
errors contained in the second volume Of Transactions
Of the American chronological Society" published in
S48 relative the Pueblo and wild Indians who inha
bit this immediate country Being the spot, where
have had ample opportunity understand much Of the
habits progress in cvzation general character OF
these Indians, shall venture to offer few criticisms for
the edi6cation of your readers.
The Pueblo Indians Of this Territory certainly a
most remarkable race and thus far all the efforts Of eth
biologists have sgnay failed to give their probable ORR
gn to conjecture what great family Of the Amer
can aborgines they kindred In habits semi civz-
ed and in language totally diverse from the Totec and
Aztec stocks with trace Of affinity to the wild tribes
that surround them, they appear to be the relics OF
once powerful nation, rapidly progressing downward to
extinction.
may be within the recollection of of your read
ers that Geo. F. Ruxton, Esq, Engshman, and au-
thor of very interesting work, entitled Mexico and
the Rocky Mountains" stimulated by the accounts
he had received in the valley of the Rio Grande to pro-
jec about 1848 1849 visit to the country Of the Mo-
quis and Navaos, under the impression that the former
tribe was the remnant of lost colony of Welshmsn
What he might have gathered relative to these people
would undoubtedly have been Of great advantage to the
cause OF chronological science, had his not been
cut short by fatal disease contracted his way up the
pointed in the expectation Of finding any relationship
among the Moquis Navajos to people Of white blood
1t is true that up to the last year two few Amer
had visited the country Of the Navaos and the Pue
bo of Zun and had found their way the Pueblo
of Moqu until about this time year ago. and therefore
what published in 1913 must have been from hear
say and the statements of iterate and unreliable per-
sons pledge you that what has thus been published,
and seems to have been fully credited by the Ethnoog
cal Society, contains word of truth in of
misrepresentation.
WI. Y A. 4
article "The Progress Of Ethnology, by J. R. Bart
lett ESQ., and at pages Is 10 inclusive of that article
Quotations are made from work entitled "Scenes in
the Rocky Mountains, &C., by New Highlander" from
MIR. Farnhams late work on California from SO Dr.
Lymans Report of the Navajos" and from statements
made and believed by Baron Humboldt.
The amount Of the statements made in reference to the
Moqus extracted from the above works. that the Nav
keys, (Moquis) White Indians live in country well
watered and fertile, in dwellings excavated in the hill
sides and the solid rock that they raise great numbers
OF horses and cattle that they have many of the arts and
comforts of civilized life spin and weave, make butter
and cheese with many of the luxures known to civilized
nations that their features compare with those of Euro
peans, with fair complexion and graceful forms; that
they have light faxen hair blue eyes, and skins of the
most delicate wheness Some of these Mawkeys they
called described wearing shoes and stockings
and their stone houses and edfces, the construction
of which the the Casas Grandes the banks of
the Gila," are alluded to.
In reference the Navajo stated by the authors
mentioned above " that they possess civilization of
their own; that they live in houses built of stone that
they raise cattle weas horses and sheep make butter
and cheese and spin and that their government
is in strict accordance with the welfare of the whole
munity dishonesty is held in check by suitable regua
tons industry is encouraged by general consent and
hospitality by common practice that the Navajo country
is shut in by high mountains, inaccessible except by
limited passes through narrow defles' &c. Mr. Farm
ham speaks of the Nayajos being the most civilized of
all the wild Indians of North America. Their extern
sye cultivation of mase and all kinds of vegetables their
first horses of the United States in and Value
&c. also noticed.
Baron Humboldt believed that in the Nayajos and
Moqus the descendants of the of Indians
which Cortez and the Spanish conquerors found in Mexico
in semi-civized state"
Mr. Bartlett the writer Of this article the progress
of Ethnoogy remarks that these Of the Moqus
and Navajos might be considered fancu were they not
corroborated by the Of trappers and other
persons who have visited them Now, these statements
in truth nothing else than Of the most fanciful and
incorrect description.
The Moquis, or Moqunos, they properly
called in all respects tribe of Indians scarcely dis
tnguishable from the wild Indians, except in pecu
liar habits Of dress and mder eye Their complexion
dark and swarhy the hair and eyes black and many
points of dress they affect the fashions the rudes
tribes Of New Mexico They do differ however from the
Nasajos APaches, and Utah Indians in living in villages
(pueblos and In more careful culture OF the soil No
approach to white skin is known among them This is
entirely mythical idea, and doubtless proceeded from
the fact that among the Indians of the Pueblo Of Zun
there are rev Abinos doubtless owing their white skim
not Major Emory states to their living in underground
habitaons, but to cutaneous disease Among the
Moqunos there are, far have been able to learn
land have seen quite number Of them,) Albinos
The Indians of Moqui their pueblo is situated so miles
westward of Fort Deance said correctly to subsis
by agriculture and the raising Of sheep and cattle
Their government probably is after the patrarchal
der, and may be purely republican in character In
gion they certainly differ but little from other Indians
They have lost oil knowledge tradition of their
origin; but it Is certain that their and customs
arts and government do not at all SAVIOR Of modern Eu
rope" Officers Of the army who have visited them say
they raise cotton in small quantities, Of which they
uacure cotton stus but the culture of cotton has evil
IDENTIFY been introduced from the New Mexican settle
mens Their dress also is pretty correctly described by
the writers from whom have quoted above. Their
try instead Of being well waered and fertile is Of the
same character Of all this great range Of country mt
ed fertility and scantily supplied with wafer either for
domestic for irrigation. They do not live in dwell
ngs excayated in the solid rock but live in vlag
pacty built the houses being like those of all the puebos
in New Mexico of two stories, and entered from
the fat-topped roof the being by ladders laid
against the wall These houses constructed of stone
and mud They have of the arts and comforts Of
civilized lfe except by most remote approximation to
such arts and comforts they spin and very rude
and better then the Navajos, and certainly do not
make either butter cheese and have Of the uxu
res Of civilized life They do not shoes, though
the knitting and Of stockings is in vogue among them
with the Indians of the pueblo Of zun Lastly, their
houses Of very rude construction and bear but slight
resemblance to the Casas Grandes the ruins Of which
found all this country and upon the banks of the
ga That they are, however, the descendants Of The
people who built the "Casas Grandes" / entertain
DOUBT.
In regard to the Navajos have this say from my
own observation and special inquiry-that they
branch PROFESSIONALLY of the great Apache tribe which
the most enterprng and formidable Of all the In