Springfield daily republic. [volume] (Springfield, O. [Ohio]) 1887-1888, 1888-03-31
MARTcoPA WOMEN.

thentic account" was published by travellers,
who testified that they had reached the cliffs
inclosing the wonder land and had seen the
magnificent city glowing from afsr. They
added that they had lowered messengers
with flag of truce; had seen them cross the
plain and enter the city, from which they
never returned; but from the little that could
be seen at that distance, the travellers con-
cluded that their messengers had been sacri-
feed on the summit of a temple in the city.
This story, with many variations, has
hoated long time, and of late years is told
of hidden valley in Central America The
next legend was Of a band of Welshmen, who
penetrated to the Sierra Anahuac and
founded tribe of ''white Indians and this
was published as fact as late as lS45. A
little later travellers in Mexico corrected the
error" thus: The ''white Indians are fact,
but they are descended, not from Welshmen,
but from Scotch and Irish carried into cap
tivity by the Spanish Armada of the Six
teenth century and sent to work in the mines
of Mexico, from which they escaped to the
Indians. As late as 1872, when this writer
made ready for a long ride through Arizona,
he was assured that in some valleys of this
territory he would find white and semi
civilized Indians. Well, he found them.
There are ''white Indians here, but they are
albino Zunis and Moquis; there are Indians
with native civilization of no mean order,
and there are ruins Of such extent and
character as TO prove that the country once
had at least ten times its present population,
and among them people who lived in well
built houses of stone and cultivated the earth
with much skill. Among the remnants Of
these people are the Navajoes, Zunis, Moquis,
Teguas, Pimas, Yumas and Coco -Maricopas.
The Navajoes are supposed to have been
branch originally Of the Athabascan raca,
who received their civilization from tho old
Mexican Indians; the other tribes undoubt-
edly possessed the arts Of spinning, weaving
and making pottery before the Spania-ds
came All the Pueblos of New Mexico and
Arizona are commonly divided into four
stocks; but the general division Of Indians
in this territory is into Pueblos and Nomads
Villagers and wanderers. Among the lat
ter are the Utes, Navajoes and Apaches and
their kindred tribes; they have no fixed aabi-
tations, and from time immemorial feuds
have prevailed and occasional wars ragged
between them and the villagers. Indeed,
there is a tradition that the civilized were
prevailing over and slowly expelling the
Nomads when the Spaniards came; but so
many of their fighting men were drawn away
to fight the white invaders that the wild In
dians overran the country and confined the
Pueblos to the few rocky citadels on which
their villages are found today. Another and
much clearer tradition is that the Pueblos
prevailed till the Spanish horses, escaping
from the early expeditions, increased aud
multiplied till the wild Indians were well
mounted, after which they drove the culti-
vators from all the open country. Old chiefs
have even claimed to count back the number
of generations to the time when the first
horses ESCAPED from the Spaniards into the
plains of Texas and eastern New Mexico
the progenitors of all the vast herds Of a GEN.
tury ago
My own opinion is, however, that the dry |
the decay of the Pueblos.
All the Pueblos show the signs of decay |
ing race. Their villages are now so isolated |
that in-and-in marriages exert deterioratIng |
effect. The Coco-Maricopas, for instance, |
steadily decline in numbers, and do not now |
exceed 500, though they are fairly industri- |
GUS, honest and temperate. They raise good |
cotton and weave it into various handsome |
garments; they also make superior baskets |
and pottery, the utensils being OF all sizes |
from nalI pint 10 SIX OF seven Ballons- |
They have land enough for their wants in |
the rich alluvial valley of the Gila south of |
here. They have been known to white men |
for two centuries, and have been all that |
time in state of perpetual decay Now |
they no longer build substantial dwellings, |
but occupy mere wattled huts Still they |
have horses, sheep and cattle and take good !
care of them. They are cautious and re-
sir nix-il nd fla
To me each man of the race seems to bear in |
his face a consciousness of decay; they look /
and talk like dying race need not de-
scribe the Casas Grandes and other "mag-
nifcent ruins" so often described, the proofs
Of a former large population
WALTER ANDERSON.