Arizona silver belt., 1890-09-06
Saturday. September 6, 1890.
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The account given by Col. w. H. Holabird of the Supai Indians, in the San Francisco Chronicle, will not do to swear by. Hesaid, 'I found strange race of red men. l guess I was the fourth white man who ever visited their canyon" Inasmuch as the Colonel's visit was of recent date, we 'guess" he is mistaken in his being the fourth white man who ever visited their canyon.
 He names John D. Lee, since execu- ted for his participation in the Moun- tain Meadow massacre, as having lived with them for six years, when in hiding from the sleuth hounds of the law. As the peripatetic Colonel failed to mention the other two who preceded him, We will venture guess that they were padres, Francisco Escobar and San Buenaventura, who visited the Moqui villages and vicinity in 1904, Or, perhaps Holabird may have had reference to the visit by Beckman and Young, in 1880, of which they gave an interesting account--see Arizona Scraps, page 1S3.
 E. H. Cook also visited and officially counted them. He found them a thriv- ing community, in harmony with the whites with whom they were on inti- mate terms. Their conservative nature is also manifest in their clinging to the loved spot which they have occupied for time immemorial. Their social bearings leave a happy recollection upon the mind of the observer. Their hear ty handshake and cordial greeting upon the trail is in cheerful contrast to the stohd indifference of their nomadie neighbors.
 The Chronicle interview says Hola- bird represented "these Indian in a starving condition, living upon cedar berries and grass seeds, and so redort- ed to the Indian Department, asking for assistance, and the reply from the Interior Department stated that they were a wandering people and could not ask the government for assistance. '" In that the the chron;cler of Holabird's visit to the canyon where the Supais reside, is mistaken; no hungry or hol- low-eyed Indians are there. The fact that they eat cedar berries and grass seed is no indication that they are star wing. It is common to all Arizona h. dians to relish such food. They are farmers, have large orchards, grow and dry the fruit of which they have large stores for winter consumption; but not that alone, they have seed time and harvest, garner wheat, corn and beans, although they have no dainties that are bred in books, and thus, unlike the Apaehes, they hive independent of the government, awaiting the inevitable hour. Their home is in Cataract Can- yon, surrounded by precipitous walls, of estimated height of 400 feet, through which living stream courses and emp ties into the Colorado, and is accessible to footmen only.
 Colnnel Holabird also says, "We travelled for over fifteen miles along the canyon and over the dryest, most life less country man ever set foot upon. Suddenly we came to two boiling springs under elump of cottonwood trees. From these springs a river starts, which winds its way through the most lnxuriant valley region I have ever visited, The water in the river is clear as @ crystal, and being strongly impregnated with lime, petrifies every- thing 1t touches. There are three i'm mense cataracts in the canyon, built up during the past centuries by calcereous petrifcation. It looks as if centuries ago huge cottonwood tree had fallen across the stream and lodged there. Noses, ferns and creepers formed barrier and all these in time turned to limestone.
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