The San Francisco call., 1896-05-03
CH|C0'S QUEER CONCERT
Indians Give an Exhibition of
Their Aboriginal Rites
and Orgies.
War Dances Are Executed and q
Mechcopda Band Plays
Modern Music.

CHICO, CAL, May Am interesting
entertainment was that given under the
auspices of an Indian club from Rancho
Chico at the opera-house tonight. This
was the first opportunity that even the old
residents have had of seeing the aborigines
| in their ancient rites and tetes, and a
| packed house manifested its thorough ap-
probation. This race is rapidly passing
away and by another generation will have
gone.
Fifty or more Indians, who have been
living on the Rancho Chico for the last
half century, showed their wonderful
advancement from primitive ways to their
present civilization. The brass band of
twenty pieces is one of the pleasant
features OF the Indian village, to which
the red men have given much attention.
Its music, most of which is modern, is
well rendered, and the band would do
credit to any community. The Indians
songs in their native tongue were gu amt
and strange. The ancient war dance was
accurately executed.
Clad in barbaric splendors of furs,
feathers and beads, they danced their wild
orgies exactly as they did fifty years ago
when preparing for battle with their
enemy. The effect was so real that the
mingliDg OF war chants and war cries and
the thrum of the toni-tom startled some of
the younger members of the audi
ence who had never before seen a similar
gathering.
An afternoon exhi ibition was given by
the redmen, at which were shown many
Indian relics seen by but few white men
living to-day. Much of this display was
valuable, some of. the exhibits having been
In the possession of the chiefs of this tribe
and their ancestors for generations.
Ihere were beautiful specimens of In
dian handicraft, consisting of blankets.
baskets, belts, beads, pipes and all sorts of
primitive clothing, embellished with rat
tiesnske-sklns, bats wings and beautiful
piumaged birds, many OF which are now
extinct
The chief of the tribe described in good
English all that pertained to the exhibits.
showing how the red man of the great
Sacramento Valley long before the pale
faces advent among them built their FIRE.
cooked their food, doctored their sick
trapped their game and taught their chill
dren around the mystic oala the yirtues
OF truth and honesty.
The Rancho Chico Indians are called
Mechoopdas. The term Digger has
been applied TO all California Indians in
cluding the Mechoopdas, name odious to
the Indians and senseless and used by
white men IN the early days TO show their
contempt for California Indians. When
General Bidwell surveyed his Chico ranch.
the Indians that gave the performance
to-day We're almost as wild as deer. When
oeath occurred or was expected. the
walling was terrific, continuing from the
time OF the death until the burial, rising
and falling as the exhausted ones withdrew
and new voices We're added. No change
was made in the mourners' toilet until
after the dead had been buried, when the
halr, which IN case of the women, had
been filled with ashes during the mourn
ing, was cut short and they went into
retirement to mourn until It's usual length
was restored.