Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1900-06-10


 they were the fourth party to as- cend the famous Mesa Encantada, or Enchanted Mesa, some seventy miles West of Albuquerque.
 The inhabitants of these pueblos, as do the Pueblo Indians generally, live within the same walls and in much the same manner as did their ancestors over three centuries ago. The nomadic Indian tribes that roamed over mountain ard plain have become the wards of the Ma tion on the reservations set apart for them, and have lost whatever dignity and self respect they once possessed. But not so with the Pueblo Indian, who has main tained absolutely the integrity of his indi- viduaity, and is self-respecting, self-rellant, and sef-supporting. He lives eonteated in his ancient habitation, cultivates his fields aud supplies hls own meager wants. Three and half centuries of con- tact with the .spale faceo has made lttle difference in him. And. with al, the Pueblo Indian is honest. in dustrious, peaeeable, and eoEserva tive, different from the nomadie tribes, and more ssinned against than sinning.
 Acoma is one of the largest and most interesting Of the pueblos. It IS situated twelve miles from Lagu. na, another ancient pueblo on the Santa Fe railroad It IS built upon the summit of table-rock, $50 feet above the plain which it overlooks The pueblo is 1000 feet long and 40 feet high. The mesa upon which it sits has preeip.tous sides. Former l ly tbe top was reached only by a hazardous stairway in the rock, up which the builders carried upon their backs, every particle of the material used in the construction of their habitation. The water they consumed wasfafsos carried from the plain below, When the Acomabs became converted to Christianity, they constructed church that must have required as much time and labor as Solomon 5 temple, for it's walls are 60 feet high, and 10 feet thick, with tim bers 40 feet long and If inches square; all of which had to be carried up the precipi- tous trall frem the plain below.
 Three miles from Acoma stands the famous Mesa Eocantada, 430 feet above the level of the plain To this lofty elevation with preciG it0es sides, which have stood the erosion of ages. there is ID path of ascent, and until 1897 it's crest had never been explored by civilized man. In that year an Eastern col lege professor laid siege to the Enchanted Mesa with mortar and several miles of rope, and succeeded in reaching it's summit.
 There is native tradition that the pueblo Of Acoma once stood upon the top of the Enchanted Mesa, but that one day during the absence of the inhabitants in the fields below, when only three old women were left on guard, DOT tion of the mesa crumbled and fell, tue only approach was destroyed, :, and ascent was made impossible. The three women were left to per- 1 ish, according to the tradition, while the rest of the inhabitants repaired to the height of Acoma, upon which they built their present l pueblo. The Eastern college pro- lessor, who first ascended the Enchanted Mesa reported, however. that there was nothing found to indicate that it had ever been in- habited. A few weeks later Dr. Hodge, of the Bureau of Ethology, made the ascent with party and found fragments of ancient pottery, mplements and ornaments; and afterwards Dr. David Storr Jordan and a party of scientists also ascen- ded the mesa and found evidences in support of the legend. The Denver scientists were the fourth party to ascend the Mesa Encanta- q Ia and they declare in support of the theory of < former habitation. 1 By means of tse annual rise of rock