The Portland daily press., 1896-10-03
INDIANS OF THE PUEBLOS.
sThe Most Mysterious People in
North America.

Auo mVst my ottIIOuS IeOpIo al
North America.
Life among the Modern Descendants :of
the Cliff NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. as to
Their Origin-Ancient Customs that
survive-The Force that VIII Obliter-
ate Them.
p(From the Ladies' H ONE Journal.)
In passing from the plains Of eastern
Colorado to the seward slope of the 81 e
tas the.traveller secs little else than sand,
sage brush, magnificent cliffs of red and
green stone, and distant mountain peaks.
Of green in the mighty and resplendent
desert-that Is the San Francisco group
Of mountains. After leaving Albuquer-
que there are no towns on the Santa Fe
line till Flagstaf-whioh ID only lum-
Der villagc-then desert again, and the
last the Sierras and Los Angeles. There
are stations and forts and Indian
pueblos and Mexican towns In New
Mexico; in Arizona scarcely forts or
villages. only long rows of settlers' hous-
es marked one, two, three, and so on and
on. The train rises and falls over enor-
nous divides, and winds down sunken
sivers with violet Swallowed cliffs of
mighty mesas on either hand-seeIns ever
climb bling or descending, and Jet as a
matter Of fact this whole land Ia pro-
digious plateau from six to eight thous-
and feet.above sea level. 1t islmeshed by
dioular sides and dotted by peaks, reg
ion of ancient mountains with sand. flled
valleys.
All through this region of perp stual
sunshine and shimmering sky line-in
the valleys beside the slender rivers lost
feet above the valley, in the seams of
cliffs thousand feet high, in the binders
of extinct voloanoes-are to be seen the
homes of the most mysterious people In
America: the Pueblo-dwelling Indians
They occupy q position entirely apart
from the Indians Of the north and east
As you ride by in the train you may SEQ
them threshing grain at Santa Clara,
urging their nimble ponies round and
round the corral. t-ampling out the
wheat as the Egyptians did of old. At
Isleta their boys and girls will enter the
oar to sell peaches and melons and at
Laguna to show jars and quaint clay
figures. At Gallup Zuni will sit his
horse, among the Navalos, and watch
the train GO by, and at Acoma young
men will meet you with baskets of fruit.
Counting out the Navajo and the
Apache this whole blazing and beautiful
and sinister land is the home of the
Pueblo man, who ls. in fact, the modern
representative of the cliff dweller and
she mound builder of ancient habit.
The cliff dweller was the ancestor of
the Pueblo Indian. In times of trouble
or of migration to escape the Ute, the
Navajo, the Apache, or the Spaniard. be
d secret refuge for himself and his child
rem. With incredible cunning he traced
out q trail along the side of the cliff,
hewed a stairway out of pine tree, or
twisted ladder out of horsehair, and
when his enemies arrived he hasteped to
his cliff dwelling like sand martin to
its burrow. You may zee their caves and
ruined dwellings high over the modern
pueblo Of Santa Clara, and in the Canon
du Chiefly, and in the Little Colorado.
They look like swallows nests high ur
there in the soft sandstone. You may
find, also, on Thunder Mountain and
other enormous heights about Zu nj,
traces of ancient villages which were
used in times when fortication was more
needful than now. These are the stages
In time of greatest danger the cliff
dwellings " ere built and temporarily in
habited; in times of less danger the
towns were built, like Acoma and Walpi,
on high, precipitous mesa points; in times
OF peace pueblos were built in the valleys
isolated by desert stretches from friends
and enemies as well.
In New Mexico these cliff people have
come down off the heights, for tae most
gait, bat not entirely. Santa Clara,
Isleta, Laguna, Zuni, and many othe 7
towns are built 10 tho valley floor, but
Acoma still remains perched perilously
upon an isolated table butte more than
400 feet above the valley. A wonderful
town this is. unforgetable as Gibraltar;
az strange, as remote as Thebes. In Ari.
zona are to be found "the seven villages
of Tusayan, all on heights nearly CSC
feet above the valley floor" Walpee. .
"Hah-no," 'Soechum-a-vee, "Shum-
o-pa-vee, -" Mashong na-vee, ""Oraibee,
'Scheet-paul-o-vee," Il am spelling these
phonetioallyl. In the Cataract Canon the
Suppai people live, 5000 feet below the
rim OF the canon, and up aud down in.
hospitable valleys are innumerable ruins
Of older peoples. whose life was praoti
cally that of Walpi and Oraibi today.
The cities on the cliffs are uninAq bited
now, save by bats aud tbs mountain lion,
possibly.
The cliff jewellers are now considered
to be not Of enormous antiquity. Even
In the cave dwellings, of this region pot
terry, tools, and clothing almost identi-