The Savannah morning news., 1901-12-01
HOME LIFE OF THE PUEBLOS.
Woman Visitor to the Indian Tribe
in New Mexico Says the Wife's
Rule There Is Supreme.

in New Mexico Says the Wife's
Rule There Is Supreme.
From The Omaha (Neb.) Bee.
On a warm, sunny afternoon last
Winter I got off the one dilapidated
passenger car in which l had been
poking along through Northern New
Mexico at the end of freight train
since daylight. There was no village, no
house even, nothing in sight except the
eternal hills, clothed with gray sage
brush and dwarf pinon trees. a tall,
red watering tank, freight car, in
which dwelt the family OF section
man. But l knew that across the field
about two miles l would come upon
a quaint little Indian pueblo hidden
away just where it had stood ever since
the Spaniards came, and probably for
centuries before.
So I started across the mesa in search
Of San Ildefonso. An old Indian in a
bright blanket caught up with me, and
when I held up a nickel and pointed
to my grip he slung it on his back
and trotted off. 1 followed the trail
across the mesa, flooded with the
bright Winter sunshine, crisp and clear
with its 1000 feet of altitude. Now and
Their tic pathway dipped into an
"arroya," the sandy bed of a dry creek.
Occasionally a passing Indian gave me
a friendly grunt of salutation.' At last
| passed through a narrow passage be-
tween two houses and came into the
plaza. Here was life enough, for in the
Indian village of the Southwest all the
houses face socially inward and pre-
sent a cold and inhospitable back door
to the intruder. The plaza was full of
horses and dogs, children and adults.
The buffalo dance was billed for the
next morning at sunrise, and the In
dams from neighboring pueblos for
miles around were coming in to wit
ness the ceremony. The sunny square
was a shifting kaleidoscope of bright
blankets and dresses, but was the
only white person.
Juan Gonzales and his family greet
ed me with cordial courtesy, for the
Pueblo Indians are among the most
hospitable, polite, and well-bred people
in the world. They understand abb
solutely the way to make the guest
feel that the house is his. Your prop
erty and your business are safe. from
curisoity. They bestow upon you the
best in the house. and, having done so,
apologize for nothing.
Juan can read and write English, but
is the only person in the pueblo who
can do so. He has a wife, Philomena, a
daughter of five, Romancita, who is a
quaint little picture in black and tan,
and baby, which was asleep in a bed
made comfortably in a swing suspend
ed from the ceiling.
DoIed Out the Cigars.
Philomena always makes me realize
how it was that Pocahontas could mar
ry the swell young Englishman, John
Rolfe, and be received with effu-
sion in the Court and castles of Eng
land. She is the typical Indian maiden
OF song and story; a very Laughing
Water in the flesh. Every movement
of her willowly figure is grace itself,
and her delicate bronze features, franz
ed in their long, flowing, coal black
locks, would fill an artists soul with
joy. She is as sweet and good as she
is graceful and charming. But her slim
little brown hand rules the household
nevertheless.
I presented Juan with box of cigars
and Romancitd with a box of candy
but I might as well have given them
to Phflomena, for she took both and
put them in a trunk, of which she
carried the key. She allowed Juan to
have one cigar, and thereafter, when
he was engaged in the sacred mysteries
of the estufas she would send from
time to time as many as she though
proper for him to have.
The Pueblo Indians present curious
and extremely ancient survival of the
mariachate that femenine supremacy
which archaeologists tell us once pre-
vailed throughout the prehistoric world
The woman owns the house and all
that is in it, The children belong to
the mother. and trace their descent
through the maternal line. When a
man marries into a different tribe his