The news and herald. (Winnsboro, S.C.) 1877-1900, 1879-07-01
The Pueblo Indians.

There are some communities of the Pue-
bio Indians living in New Mexico-living in
precisely the way their ancestors lived when
| Coronado reached ''the land of the Seven
Cities :" About 1000 Pueblo Indians.
in Ia villages, are scattered about the Terri
tory. They arc analogous in their methods
OF building, but use variety of languages.
There are three entirely distinct languages
not mere dialects--in use among them, with
out any similarity between them. In one
OF these languages the words are nearly all
monosyllables; in another they nearly all
have three syllables. Pucblos close to
| each other do not use the same languages.
In the Pueblo Of Islcta, for example, in the
| extreme south, is used the same language as
is spoken in Taos, in the extreme north,
and none of the intervening Pucblos use
that language. About rs years ago, when
the Pueblo of Prccos was abandoned by the
remnant of its inhabitants, whose numbers
had been terribly reduced by contagious
diseases, they had to go through number
of Pueblos of different languages to reach
the Pueblo of Jamez, where their own
tongue was spoken. One of the most in
torcsting of the Pueblos Is Taos, where the
inhabitants nearly all live in two large
stone buildings, each about 400 feet long.
and nearly 200 feet wide, and five stories
high, somewhat pyramidal in shape, each
story being slightly smaller than tho one
under it. Each building contains All i'm
mense number of rooms, and the stories are
all reached by ladders from the outside, the
only entrance to the rooms being through
hole III the ceiling Each building CON
tains about 200 people. The buildings are
not at all ruinous, but are kept IN perfect
o1>I nlo
The rooms have no windows or arrange
mcnts for light, except the door in the cell
ing and a round hole in the outer rooms,
about the size of II stove-pipe, through the
wall. All the rooms are thoroughly white
washed, and are kept so white and clean
that they are light enough for comfort.
Hardly an atom Of dust is to be fonnd in
any rooms, and the grounds about the build
ings are kept cleanly swept. The people
are always hospitable to strangers, but no
visitor is ever allowed to penetrate to the
center OF the building, where it is said there
is great estufa in which the sacred fire of
Alontezuma is perpetually kept burning, and
where the ancient rites of the Aztec religion
are still performed. Each Pueblo is gov
erned by officers elected by the people every
year, who are implicitly obeyed. When
disputes arise they are settled by their own
tribunals. No troubles ever come to the
knowledge of the territorial authorities. The
men are nearly all agricultural /, and the
fueblos own all the finest farming lands of
the territory. Tho women make all the
pottery that is used in that section of the
country, which is all made by hand, with
out wheel, and is very accurate in shape.
The furniture in the rooms consists princi-
pally OF lounges covered with skins. The
Pueblo Indians are citizens of the United
States, having been citizens of Mexico at
the time of the treaty Of peace. Although
they arc entitled to vote and hold office.
they have not done so for number of years
preferring to be exempt from taxation.
Some of the educated ones can read and
write Spanish. The men wear pantaloons
and blankets, and men and women are ex-
emplary in morals. They never intermar-
fy with the Mexicans, and the men arc not
as small as the Mexican Aztecs, although
the women are small. The men look more
like our Western Indians