Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1894-05-05
INDIANS OF NEW MEXICO.
QUEER CUSTOMS PRACTICED By A
PECULIAR PEOPLE,

Few Changes In Their Life Since Pre-
historic Times-Land Is Held In
Common by This Peaceful Race.
- CATERED all around through
~ New Mexico and Arizona are
~ to be found Indian villages,
called pueblos, where the red
faced Americans live, almost as their
ancestors did hundreds of years ago.
The habits and customs of these
Indians are interesting, bat most in
teresting of all to the ordinary tender
foot from the land where idolatry is
looked upon as dead and gone long
z are the idols which are to be
found constantly in many OF the
pueblos.
One hears of the heather from China
and occasionally from the ends of the
world Of benighted men who are
id~olatrous, but in New Mexico, within
three days of New York City, are to
be found men and women who, it is
claimed by many, are Christians. but
who not only make idols, but keep
them in their houses. Whether they
worship them or not is q question
which is much discussed, and it looks
very much as if the testimony to the
effect that some of the Indians do
worship their idols outweighs that to
the contrary. The idols Of the Indians
are most ridiculous looking concerns,
and are q source of constant and vary
ing amusement to the Fastener who
loves to dig about in old villages and
museums.
The Indian pueblo nearest the city
of Sante Fe IS the Tesuque pueblo. and
here a man may buy a whole bagful
of gods, large and small, for a dollar
or so. The Indians are not very much
in love with their gods, for a hundred
gods may be made in an hour or SO
and exchanged easily for ready money.
The people of the Tesuque peublo
are not a bad sort. They live in COM
paratively well-made houses, mostly
of adobe clay. II you say Good day
to them in Spanish they will repeat
your greeting; il you remark to a
gray old buck, "Hello! !" he and his lit
tie ones will cry out, "Hello, boy!
Hello, boy!"
There is no sense in being bashful
when surrounded by the squaws. They
certainly are not. The majority of
them have no reason to be so; their
age and ugliness are sufficient protec-
ton. But among the women are to be
| found four or five very pretty ones.
These young ladies are from fourteen
to sixteen years of age. They are not
very tall, but their figures are good.
and they are as bright and as pretty as
any of the darlings of New York,
Philadelphia or Baltimore. 1t is true
they are decided brunettes. but then
some men prefer brunettes. Their
features are regular, their eyes bright
and flashing, and never dazed and
heavy-looking from too much dancing
or too many cups of tea.
Their teeth are white and regular
and there are not half Il dozen chunks
of gold and silver scattered about
among them. The girls do not
lounge about in hammocks or read
novels all day long. They get out and
rush about and play with their
brothers or help them at work, and if
they don't like what is said to them
floor the young men with a good
Highlander from the shoulder.
It is difficult, in tact impossible, to
get the Indians to talk about their
gods, their religion and their tradi-
tons and superstitions, unless one
lives ngreat time among them. Several
gentlemen, in the interest of science,
haved lived among the Indians, but as
they say very little in their ~writings
about the superstitious beliefs and the
gods of the Indians, the chances are
that the Indians managed to keep
their secrets to themselves. 1t is not
pleasant to live among the 1ndisns.
There are very few Indians to be
found in the larger towns and cities of
New Mexico and Arizona; they prefer
to keep to themselves. They live in
their pueblos or villages in the houses
which were probably built hundreds
of years ago. The Indians have
changed but little in the few hundreds
of years since the Spanish conquests.
Their pueblos are built on almost tho
same style as those found by Cortez.
Their habits have changed very little.
The Indians speak but little of any
thing but q patois of Spanish. Their
women are not fond of overmuch
dressing. They work pretty hard,
much harder than the lower class of
Mexicans, whom they despise aud look
down upon with contempt.
They farm and make very good pot
terry, and shoot and sell their furs
and carry wood in turn to the towns,
where they cell it or exchange. it for
the necessaries OF life. As in olden
times, land is held in common, and
there are chiefs, just As of old, who
govern the pueblos. Each pueblo 10
like a little republic Of itself, and it is
very seldom that an Indian malefactor
ever oc.s into, TIE outside courts. The
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