Pierre weekly free press. (Pierre, S.D.) 1889-19??, 1892-06-16
Government Exposition In Search of a
New EldOrad0-Hills of
Solid Gold.
A Tomb the hnvajoes Have Guarded
Whence No White Prospector Has
Ever Returned.
A Remarkable Naratiye of Great Inter.
est TO Scientist as Well as the
Reading Public.

| Gu hel 1o1uD Is TO De prOIaned by the
insulting presence OF the white man.
Ii the white men like the tomb the
indications are that they will take it,
for the evil spirit. of trade has entered
! che souls OF her Navajo warriors, and
though they have guarded the tomb OF
the Mother o; Life with their bodies
ever since the morning OF time, says a
New Mexico special, the day seems to be
coming when the holy mountains will
be traded for fields and pasturelands.
An expedition is now preparing to go
from Fort Wlngate to investigate and
explore the mineral deposits OF the
Carrie mountains. This is NOT like
the hundreds OF expeditions that have
started on the same GRAND and been
turned back by the Indians. This one
starts under government auspices,
with a general OF the United States
army IN command, under the escort
OF q troop OF cavalry.
The Mothers tomb is Ship Rock
mountain. in the widest part OF the
Navajo reservation. All the country
about there, consisting OF the Garlic
mountains and their spurs and foot
hills, is sacred to her.
On the peak OF the mountain her
body has lain almost since the DAYS
when the Thunder God and the God
that shakes the Earth used to come
down and struggle to see which should
be supreme.
They fought so hard that this coun.
try is all torn up. They hurled noun
tains at each other and the mountains
were shattered when they struck and
their fragments still lie about where
they fell. The mother came among the
awful crags and chasms to die.
She hated the white mer-at least
she hated some men who were differ.
ent from the Navajos, and whose com.
ing she focetold to her children away
back in the beginning. and the Nava-
jos waited for them many centuries
until the white man came and knew
them as their mothers enemies when
they came.
They fought them back from the
mountains where she was, and though
they submitted at last to the r,.serva-
ton scheme they still kept The Moth
er's tomb lnviolate.
|
| jos, and she came when the sun first
came. She caught the sun as he came
up out OF the water, and she made HIM
carry her until he was Just over the
Navajo country, when she alighted,
after bidding the sun to continue its
way and to ever after travel over the
path she had ridden him, and ever
since that the sun has risen every
morning in the east and crossed over
in the sky to the west.
Some day the mother will rise from
Ship Rock mountain, and the sun will
wait for her and she will turn it back
and ride whit to uheeast. Then there
will be no more day, and everything
more will be past and nothing more
will come.
Meanwhile, OF course, no one must
look at the spot where The Mother was
laid. Even the Indians do not know
whether the mothers body is still
there. Mayb be it has crumbled to dust.
Maybe it is imperishable; they do not
! know, for no one has ever been on
Ship Rock peak. The Navaios say
there is no way to ciimb to it, and
they have allowed no one to try to
find away.
The expedition now preparing to
leave Fort Wingate ls the Navajo com.
mission, invested with authority to
report on the Garlic mountain coun-
try. Ii they find that it is as rich in
gold and silver as tradition says, and
what exploration there has been seems
20 zorro borate, then the government
will open the country to the prOspec.
tors and miners, and in its place give
the Navajos more land on which to
raise crops and feed cattle.
The Navajos have insisted that q
white mans presence any where in the
vicinity OF Ship Rock mountain is an
insult TO the Mother OF their race.
In the days before they had been
brought under subjectlon the Navajos
had little trouble keeping the white
men away from the mines.
No one knows how many people
who have passed over the old San
Juan trail never came back. Not
even their bodies were found, for tie
Navajos hid them and burned all
that the white men had brought with
them. Not even the horses escaped
The strangers touch has contamlna-
leu HIS property. oesiueS, Iney knew
that if it was proved that they had
killed the prospectors reprisals would
he sure to follow.
4 There is tradition that for SO
years the holy grounds was not in
possession OF the Indians That
must have been about two centuries
ago. There is lost Padre mine some
where in those mountains. The old
| Spanish Fathers are said to have
worked it for generations. According
to the story there was strong army
at the mine against which the Maya
! jos could do nothing, for the men
wore iron breast plates that their ar.
rows could not pierce. During all this
period the Mother was FESTIVE. For
weeks the sun did not come.
Ship Rock mountain and the sur.
rounding country heaved and shook
with the mothers indignation.
Mountains opened and rivers ceased
to run, but the invaders stayed on.
At last the turt. lence awoke the
Thunder God q. 4 the God.that.