Omaha daily bee., 1898-07-03
CAMERA AMONG THE INDIANS
Account Of a Visit to Remnants of Tw'
California Tribes.
CIVILIZATION IS MAKING ADVANCE
Old Customs Being Put Away-Nery
Old Indian in the ~ribe-Senti
ment Among the Indians
Much MaIigned People.

According to Charles II. Lummis, Indians
are a much misunderstood and greatly
maligned people, and to his opinion let me
add the weight of corroborative testimony
as gathered during a recent tour among
the Indians of San Diego county, made for
the purpose of securing photographs, writes
Emma S. Marshall in the San Francisco
Chronicle.
Since the advent of Ramona an especial
interest has conferred around the Temecula
tribe, the remnant of which still dwells in
the little village not far from the town Of
the same name which is the present ter
mus of one of the lines of the Southern
California railway.
My travels took me among the Pala and
Pauma Indians, closely allied to the Teme-
culas, who live on the Pauma reservation
or scattered along the foothills of the Palo-
mar mountains in the vicinity of the beau
tiful Pala valley, which is known to fame
chiefly through the detached and picturesque
belfry belonging to the fast decaying Pala
Mission. The valley lies about sixty miles
north of San Diego.
This is n region of hills and mountains
among which innumerable small but ex-
ceedingly fertile valleys lie hidden. On
every rounded knoll or gentle slope one sees
lle dUClenl duODe, the TUE nut OF DTuSn
house of an Indian family; sometimes, too,
one Unexpectedly comes across these rude
homes just where the river-the San Luis
Rey-makes a bend, but so completely are
they in harmony with the general tone of
the landscape that 1t is only when a mighty
chorus of banks or the furious, but harm
less, onslaught of a horde of mongrel ours
~startles the traveller that he is aware he is
close to a habitation.
There is quite as much difference in the
appearance and environment OF these abodes
as in those of the races of a lighter skin,
and, possibly, this difference may be indie
alive of a graded social scale; be that as 1t
may, / found the people, when / had once
won their confidence and convinced them of
my friendship and sympathy, hospitable and
genuine with some attributes which might
well be emulated by their %neighbors who
are a peg higher on the intellectual pole.
Last of the swent Houses.
Some years before while visiting this same
section, without a camera however, l had
! inspected a sweat house, one of three in the
village. The owners were, in consequence
of the possession, men of prominence in the
community, though whether they owed theil
standing TO a greater degree of cleanliness;
or simply the conveniences therefor / was
unable to ascertain. With visions of {
unique photograph l went in quest of thii
sweathouse one day during my recent trip
Search along the river bank failed to revea
the low rounded pile of adobe l remembered
and a visit to the house for Information a!
TO its whereabouts was made.
Where the full glare of the sun fell di
rectly upon her an old woman sat on
sack spread ON the bare ground weaving
basket. When interrogated as to the sweat
house she replied with an expression of con
tempt on her wrinkled face:
mo more. Nobody uses them now; the!
all battle in the river"
Such is the progress OF civilization. Ye
this same old woman. who must be nearl.
II not quite 100 years old, absolutely re
fused to allow her picture to be taken, de
claring emphatically that If she was an In
dian she did not want her picture to b.
hawked around and laughed at by peopl
who cared nothing for the original. An,
still there are persons who say there is n
sentiment among these people. AS l ha
carelessly neglected to bring my purse and
worse still. had failed to lay In the usua
supply OF tobacco. persuasion was useless.
(! The Indian graveyard is but a short dis