El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1900-01-08
INDIAN DANCE
AT YSLETA
Remnant Of The PuebIos Gel
ebrated On Saturday
THE FEAST OF THE KINGS
Probably The Last Dance They Will
Hoid-But Little Left OF The
OId-Time Dance-Re1ic Of Bar
bdrism PASSING Away.

O1d-Time Ddnce-ReliC Of Bar
barism Passing Away.
The feast of the kings, one of the
great feasts of the Pueblos, was cele-
brated at Ysleta, on Saturday last, by
a dance in the church yard. The dance
was one of the last fickers of the dying
fire of Indian custom.
Two hundred and fifty years ago,
approximately, or about the time OF
the Indian revolt against the Spa uiards
in New Mexico, forty families OF
Pueblo Indians moved from Ysleta,
New Mexico, to the site of the present
Ysleta, Texas, according to thu
records of the Catholic church, which
are the only reliable data.
In 1864 or 1864 the church, part OF
which still stands, was built there by
the franciscan Fathers, who were the
earliest mission aries in New Mexico.
The town was named Ysleta little
Island) after Ysleta, New Mex
ico Some historians have
evidently confused Ysleta, Texas, with
Yslets, New Mexico, in making the as
sertion that Ysleta, Texas, is the Oldest
town in the United States. There is
no reliable foundation for the state
ment that either one of the Ysletas Is
older than Santa Fe. Other writer's
have made the error of crediting the
Jesuits with building the first
churches in these towns. The order of
Jesuits was not founded until fifty
years after these missions had been es-
tablisbed.
For $50 years the traditions and
costumes of the ancient Pueblos have
been handed down from generation to
generation from these original forty
families, not losing much until in COM
paratively recent years. The descen-
dants of the families have gradually
been absorbed by the Mexicans, how
ever, by intermarrisge, until now
there are only three or four absolutely
pure blooded Indians in Ysleta, aud
these are very old. A dozen families,
perhaps, still have preponderance of
Indian blood in their veins, but 1t Is
tainted with Mexican, and the Ysleta
Indians will soOn be u tradition.only.
The dances, formerly held at fire.
auent intervals in the church yard are
growing more and more infrequent.
Father Cordova. who recently took
and only gives the Indians permission
to dance occasionally. He, rightly,
looks upon the dances as a relic of
barbarity to be dispensed with as soon
as possible. The dances that are row
given have lost most OF their siguif-
canoe aud are not at all like genuine
Pueblo dances.
The dance on Saturday was a farce
in it's unlikeness to a real Indian dance.
Eleven Indians, two OF them little
boys, assem- bled about 4 o'clock
in their meeting hall. an
adobe hut, some distance from
the church. Ten we're dressed in plain
United States clothes. The governor
wore on the outside of his citizens
clothes come skins of animals. His
face wss covered with grotesque
masque and his head adorned with In
dian trumpery- He carried a gourd
filed with pebbles, called a gusje,
which he industriously ratified, ard a
switch. Across the noses of the others
were streaks of red paint. Formerly
the dancers we're scantily clad lad
their bodies Enthusiastically decorated
with paint OF various colOrs. One old |
patriarch beat the tombe, or drum, and |
the others carried guajes. Two pudgy,
doug faced girls with stresks of paint |
CATION. They wore rather guady |
dresses aud cheese cloth mantles.
After beating the tombe and rs ttling |
the guajas while, the procession start |
edsfOr the church in single column, |
the girls following in the rear. The |
men accompanied the beating OF the |
tombe with monotonous chant, in one |
in front Of the procession, joining in |
the chant and at intervals giving |
very mild and civilized whoop. The |
procession went to within twenty-five
feet OF the front door of the church be-
fore haltiug. Here the men lined up,
five abreast, with the governor in
front, and the dance began
The man stood In the order of their
ages, the patriarch at the right of the
rear column, q white haired, kind and |
looking old mao, said to be
80 years old. Next to him stood the
man who beat the tOmbe. In the front
column stood the two boys, one of them
blind. The two girls stood to oneside,
waiting for their part of the perform
ance to begin.
The dance step was simply q shuttle,
or sliding of the feet backward and
forward, without variation. The beat
ing of the tombe, the rattle of the
gusjes and the monotone song con-
tinued. The dancers faced the church
and kept the same position. The gov
ernOr shuffled back and forth In front
of them and between the lines, COCA
giving a whoop.
After carrying this on for few min
utes the two lines faced to the left and
the performance, and then to
the right. This ended the fret act.
This thing over, two young bucks
stepped in front of the line and the
two girls walked out. The music ~
began again, accompanied by the chant.
The two couples shuffled around in a
circle, the girl and buck of each couple
around each other. The step
was the same. The girls held their
ands together and drew them back