Albuquerque daily citizen. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1895-1903, 1902-07-05
OLD TIME ARIZONA TOWNS
Moki indians Still Use the Methods
Of Centuries Ago.
HOW MEAL is MADE.

farmer thar most people are willinr to
believe. Long before the whites came
TO this continent he was, in many To-
c~alities, reaping tolerably good crops.
In the eastern portion of the continent
they were usually planted and tend
ed by the women, the men occupying
themselves in hunting or fighting. Thus
the RELOCATION of the farming to wom-
er was merely a division of labor made
necessary by the condition of tribal So
ciety in certain regions at that period.
Their only grain was wheat, has
since been called Indian corn, not be-
it was derived from India. as it's
name indicates, but because it was
found in the possession of aborigines
here. who, in their turn, through the
mistake of the first Spaniards, had
been enormously termed Indians. The
proper mann for this corn is maize, of
course. Just where 1t originated can
not now be definitely determined. but
it is supposed to have been found on
the table land of Mexico, and to have
spread from there over the entire west
ern hemisphere.
However that may be, the red folk
had long been supplied with it when
first encountered by the whites, and
were sometimes able to furnish it for
subsistence to the starving settlers.
The methods of cultivation employed
were simple. but they produced good
crops, Each region had different ways
of preparing corn for eating, but the
cultivation was in the main similar.
The method may be studied today
among the Mokis of Arizona who nave
changed less from their original condi-
ton, perhaps, than any other indian
tribe within the borders of the United
States. They are still planting and
tending maize after the customs of
their fathers, who never saw a pillow.
Contrary to the habit of the Algon-
gums and other Indians of the regions
east of the Mississippi. the Moki and
his immediate kin eXacted none of the
field work from the women. The men
tended the crops, while the women
looked after the household affairs very
much as our own women do, except
that they went a step or two farther
and also built the house, which, it may
be added, was a very good one.
When the corn was brought to them
they ground it, as they still do today,
and then they made it into a peculiar,
but excellent, nutritious bread. In
their arid country there was little
game to hunt, so the mans time was
free for his farming, leaving the wom-
en-, who unlike the Indian women of
the east, were in no danger from enc
mics of other tribes in the villages on
the mesa tops.
These bleak SUBMITS, 700 feet above
the plain. have not a blade of grass to
show, nor can anything else grow
there. One must look below for all the
farms, and there your eye perceives
them scattered along for miles like
fragments of some huge checker board.
Wherever the soil offers the conditions
which the Moki farmer, in his long eX-
perience, has found advantageous,
there lies a farm.
Owing to the extreme dryness of the
climate his method of procedure is
different in some respects from that
of his eastern brothers, who were fav-
ored with timely and abundant rains.
All the latter had to do was to stir up
the soil and plant the corn when occa-
sional attention kept it in good condi-
ton, but the Moki is compelled to
devote very close attention to his crop.
The ground with a layer of sand upon
it, is considered desirable, and the wri-
ter has passed fields, in good condition,
growing apparently in nothing but
sand. Below, however, was a good
VII, ~ GoAih hlSiNiJ eNN'Ao ~ -
mulch.
Planting is done with a dibble. which
is a stick with a sharpened point and
a shoulder at right angles on side for
receiving a foot pressure. With this
implement a hole several feet deep is
made, into which the grain of corn is
dropped.
When there are showers and these
come rather frequently during the
growing season, all the men having
fields in the same neighborhood are
called out by the proper official, no
matter what the time of day or night,
and they descend to the valley, there
to assist each other in guiding the
shower waters in and out amongst the
growing crops, wherever u proceed
ure is possible.
With their hoes they rapidly con-
struct little eartn dams across stream
lets and washes" and those cause
the flowing waters to be concerted for
better manipulation. And, as of course,
these operations are considered when
the crops are put in, it is generally pos
sible TO secure considerable irrigation
in the manner from passing W
that would otherwise be of slight serV-
ice. Some of the Indians OF the south
west. particularly those OF a bygone
day. extended this principle of irriga-
tion TO the utilization of living streams
and I'm many places is still to be seen
the remnants OF %irrigating bitches
which often stretched across the coun-
try for miles.
The corn that was grown centuries
ago was often larger and finer than
that Of today. a fact that is established
by the specimens found in ruins. The
reader wonders just here. no doubt,
how grains of corn could be preserved
so long, even in the dry air OF the
southwest, but when it is explained
that this corn was rendered into pure
and indistructible carbon by the burn
ing of the house or other shelter where
,-aS ctOrad tho mattar becomes