New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1872-12-12
a New Found Race,

A New Found Race.
Not far eastward of the source Of the Lit.
tie Colorado, on tho great trail from Fort
Mohave, on the Colorado, to Albuquerque,
on the Rio Grande, and over days Journey
from the northern extremity of the great dia-
mond range now attracting attention, there
are ruins of Aztec settlements and three vii.
lagos inhabited by Indians. They are called
the Zuni villages. Each contains probably
1900 people. An intelligent officer, who has
been among them, thus describes them:
They are race differing essentially from
the tribes around them. The Navaios are
their neighbors on the northwest, the Apaches
south. Their physiognomy and their stately
bearing, as well as their pride of dress, show
them to belong to race far superior to the
surrounding tribes. The Zuni women are
comedy. They are remarkable for the mod
est fullness of their dress. They wear skirts
of black wooden cloth, and scarf gracefully
folded over the breast. These goods are OF
their own make. Their hair, neatly braided,
forms head-dress. Their houses are clean
and their cooking is not to be despised.
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE INDIANS.
The Zuni Indians are moro than half civil
lied. They are essentially pastoral people.
They have folds of corn, wheat, and vegeta-
bles. They have focks of sheep and goats.
They raise horses, horned cattle, and asses.
They corral their stock at night in high stone
enclosures. They use all their animals for
food, but fatted ass is their favorite dish.
They keep fowls. They spin their own wool
and weave it. They have grand frolic at
threshing time. The grain in sheaf is taken
to broad, fiat, rocky place, and thirty or
forty horsemen canter and caper about on
this threshing floor till the grain is we'll sep
arated. It is then winnowed by raking the
straw, and tossing the chaf' in the wind. At
ter this they close the day with q general
horse-race, after the fashion of our agricul-
tural fairs.
As our diamond-hunters are about to pco-
pie the neighboring country, it is interesting
to know that these Zuni Indians are friendly
to white men, and that supplies can be had
there. The valley of the Rio Grande is we'll
settled with Mexican farmers and herdsmen.
These and the Zunis will make common cause
with the miners against the plundering
Apaches.
The Zuni Indians never make wars of ag-
erosion. They stand on the defensive.
But outside Indians fear them, because of
their superior organization and means of de-
tense. Therefore their quietude is seldom
disturbed.
The well-watered soil is dark, gravelly
loan. They have at all times excellent pas
ture, to the use of which travellers entering
the diamond region by the way of Santa Fe
and Albuquerque are made welcome, on pay
ment of moderate charge. The houses of
these Zuni villages are well-built of stone
They are three stories high. Each succeed
ing story recedes, so as to make terrace in
front.
THEY WORSHIP THE GREAT SPIRIT
These Zunl Indians are truly devout.
Their interior temples and affairs, their
priesthood and their ceremonials bear rela-
tionship not remote from ours. Traces of
missionary influence are evident. but the
leading faith of the Aztec religion has not
been changed. 1t is an error to say they
worship the sun. They worship the Great
Spirit who resides in that fitting centre of
light, life, and purity, to which are invisibly
traceablo all earthly blessings, and beyond
which even Imagination finds no tracings.
To this earth and its brother worlds the
Great Spirit is an all-seeing eye, omiscient
and omnipresent; and although our sight
penetrates the universe and scans tens of
millions OF star-suns, not ono nor all these
suns combined stand to us in so intimate and
so Alternative and omnipotent relationship
as the sun, which is father to us alone-and
our system knows no other, nor needs to
look beyond. We have dogmas less sensible
than this revelation of reason to these priml-
tive worshipers Of the Most High.
This visible presence promoted devotion
unknown to prayer-book worship. Nothing
is more touching than the PROSTATE rever-
ence they pay to the Great Spirit at rise and
set OF sun. There Is living earnestness in
it to us utterly unknown and inconceivable.
THEY CLAIM DESCENT FROM MoNTEzUMA.
They claim descent from tho subjects of
Montezuma. 1t will be remembered that the
court and the temples of the city of Mexico
were founded by Cortez rich in gold and pre-
cious stones. The sources of gold are known;
but where they got the precious stones has
been mystery. II seems probable that the
ancestors of the present Zuni Indians were
employed by Government in gathering the
jewels which were so profuse in Mexico, and
on the downfall of Montezuma some re-
manned.
George Catlin, the great Indian traveller,
describes some places where he found fami-
lies Of Albino Indians whose white hair
touched the ground. In the principal Zuni
village, that toward the east, there are many
such families. These Albinos live among the
other Indians; but while they are trected
kindly they are not held to be equals. Their
swarthy companions never intermarry with
them, nor do they appear to associate in out
door work. Their occupation appears to be
indoors. Their pink eyes are too weak to
stand exposure. Their features and the text
ure of their hair Is like others, but the color
of their hair is milk-white.
THE remarkable spectacle is witnessed in
LafaYetta county Missouri of q thoronnh