The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1881-01-27
Life In New Mexico.


Tribune writes: The native Mexican
population of New Mexico partakes
more of the character of its Indian than
of its Spanish ancestry. The Pueblos,
who have probably changed as little as
any of the aborigines of this country
who have lived in constant contact with
European civilization, although that
civilization has boen of rude kini,
taught the Spaniards, with whom they
women intermarried, how to build muc
houses and the art of irrigating the arid
fields, while the latter in return gave to
Indians their language and religion;
and the two people have for the last
200 years, lived side by side, pursuing
substantially the same occupations, and
occasionally at war with each other, un-
til about forty years ago, remaining dis
tinct in spite of their frequent inter
marriages. The people of the Indian
towns, apparently, are to-day as pure
blooded as their ancestors of two cen
turies ago, although they have, in the
meantime, furnished wives for genera
tions of Spaniards and Mexicans.
l presume that there is no town in
the United States, certainly none of
equal siZa of Santa Fe, in the streets of
which as many Indians may be seen
every day in the week rs in this. The
Pueblos have not adopted European
costumes, but still dress in blankets and
leggings, with bright-colored handker-
chiefs tied about their heads. They
live chiefly by agriculture and stock
raising, and contribute not little to
the supply Of the city with meat, fruit,
and vegetables. 1t is daily occurrence
for Pueblo Indians to come to Sante Fe
from distance of twenty or thirty
miles, bringing a quarter of a beef,
dressed sheep, a hundred pounds of
''kitchen-garden sauce" fire-wood, ap-
pies, peaches, or grapes, or few pieces
of Indian pottery upon their borros.
They peddle their wares about the
streets and drive very sharp bargains
with their customers. AS a rule they
look as intelligent as the Mexicans, and
some of the latter could not be distin-
guished from them if they did not wear
the garments of civilization. have
seen some startlingly strong faces
among the Indians-faces upon which
the lines denoting character are very
deeply drawn, and faces that would az
rest attention wherever they might be
seen.
The Pueblo Indians, although not as
discovered, are not, / believe, dying
out. What the effect of the building of
railroads and the introduction of Amer
can civilization may be, no one can
tell. The ruins of their former cities
are frequently stumbled upon as one
travels over the country, and it is by no
means uncommon to find, far from any
present settlements, mounds that seem
to be almost entirely composed of the
fragments of ancient Indian pottery.
At San Marco Spring, about twenty
miles south of Santa Fe, there are some
of these mounds, in which every spade
full of earth that is turned up contains
half q dozen such relics, and friend
who was walking over them with me
the other day, found a fragment of an
old bell as large as a mans hand, upon
which remained some of the ornamen-
tation cast upon it as sharp in outline
as though it had only yesterday came
from the mould. We also saw the
foundations of the old corraIs, and
gathered many fragments of pottery,
the character of which is entirely diff
ferent from that now made. 1t may be
that an Indian village has existed on
the spot since the Spanish reconquest
in 1892, and that the bell of which we
found a fragment was once upon a Pueb-
10 church or chapel. The more probable
theory, we thought, if the ancient char
acter of the pottery picked up near it
is established, is that the bell was taken
from one Of the Spanish towns after the
Indian revolt of 1880; for history re-
cords that the Pueblos at that time de-
stroyed the churches and carried away
and broke up the bells, and it may be
that the Indian town itself was torn
down when the Spanish returned, or in
some subsequent war.