Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1890-12-13
oUEER INDIANS IM A VALLEY,
A Remarkable Tribe Surrounded by .
StupsndOus Natural wall.


A Remarkable Tribe Surrounded by .
stupendOus Natural wall.
Ben Witch, of Albuquerque, N. NJ,
gives an interesting account Of the
NaVa-Supais, of the Supai canon. Be-
ing q man of adventurous tim of mind
he took trip up the canon and located
the tribe in the narrow, valley-hke en-
closure between the mighty walls of the
Supai canon. Supai is the name which
Mr.. Supai gave the canon himself after
having made trip to the region.
On reaching the canon he found the
Indians in the midst of a marvellously
fertile valley, diminutive as it is, where
all sorts of grains and fruits grow In
rank profusion, where there are splen-
did climatic influences nearly the
twelYemonth through, and where all
that tends to build up the physical pow
ers is at hand. He made Investigations,
too, into their language, their rites, and
ceremonies, their legends, and into all
the phases Of their present and past his
tory possible, and he is confirmed in
the belief that they are in no way al
lied to the Aztecs. He says, on the
contrary, that as far as can be ascer-
tanned they are allied to the Wallapai.
The tribe is a most singular one.
Their valley home has on either side
great lodges of rocks running up in
benches thousands of feet. In the val
ley are groves of cottonwood trees, and
luxuriant vegetation is seen on all sides.
There are about 245 or $50 in the tribe
of the Surai They live absolutely
alone. They do not intermarry with
other tribes, neither do they mix with
the scattering white people of the reg
ions round about. When they are in
need of forage or food outside of that
which they can get in their own rich
valley, they sally out, make their trades
or purchases, and return home. They
are monogamists, every man having one
wife and no more. They do not live in
communal form either, but preserve
the family in its integrity. The men
are a little above the average height,
they are strong and active, and they are
noted for their skill in climbing the
mountains and in bringing down the
game they need. They are very shy
and suspicious of Indians from other
tribes, and it is only by the most care
full and adroit means that a white man
can approach them and gain any in
formation as to their life. The women
are smaller in stature, very fond of
adornment, and given to fantastic dec
orations of their faces. The Supai In
dians appear to be far above many of
the other tribes in morals. They look
with scorn upon any one who asks them
questions as to their married relations,
holding that this is no ones business
but their own, and the fact that the
woman of the tribe who goes wrong is
subjected to the most pronounced
neglect, and generally is put out of the
way, is pretty good proof that they are
possessed of simple, heroic virtue.
Mr.. Wittick found eleven of the men
totally blind. He believes this to be
due to the splitting of the arrows when
the bows were stretched too taut.
Some of the women who would be seen
sitting barefooted in front of their
thatched-roof houses have the most pc
culiar big toes that were ever seen on
human being. The toes were not so
very large, but they were of abnormal
width at the ends. In some cases the
big toe would be an inch and half
broad at the end and very fiat and thin.
When Mr.. Wittick and his party en-
tered the canon they found the Supai
very gentle and hospitable in their alb
original way, but very reticent at the
same time. Proceeding down the canon
through the fertile valley, along which
was stream of never-failiug water, the
purest and sweetest in the land, they
reached magnificent waterfall, where
the silvery stream plunges over preci-
pice 257 feet in height and falling in
stream of the rarest beauty down to
the pool below. Cottonwood trees were
felled, dashed together, and ladder
made in sections, the whole rs feet
long, and down this the explorers
climbed in their exit from the home of
these strangely interesting semi-savage
folk. The beautiful stream has been
utilized by the Indians in irrigating
those portions of the valley that were
sterile, and it appears that for centuries
they have known of this method of aid
ing nature.