The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1902-07-24
THE ARNELIAN
OF.
GHOST VALLEY.
BY jim H. RAFTERY.

lessor Beekman, vhom we knew as an
experienced ethnQogist and traveller,
showed no astonhhment at all over
the manner in whih the savages had
burned their childrn at that famous
ambuscade.
Il believe all our aborigines were
given to the same or similar practices,
though manifested in iifferent ways"
said he. 1T is not yet thirty years
since l found as many IS seven Skele-
5 ;ons of Navajo children il the branches
Of two trees in the Ghost Valley, one
Of the lost gorges southwest of the
Mancos. Major Tuttle, who was llv-
ing at Hermosillo when last saw
him, told me that the squaws of an
old Navajo chief who was slain by the
Uncompahgres away back in the Sos
had killed all their young as sort OF
holocaust to the deity. It's very odd
story, and, come to think of it, my
self finally turned UP as the uncon-
: scious agent of the Indian Manitou.
at was at Durango, after myself and
a party of scientists had explored the
cliff-dwellings of Mancos, that Major
Tuttle, who was agent at Red Noun
tain In those days, told us lot OF
queer stories about Ghost Valley. 1t
seems that the Uncompahgres, re-en-
forced by nearly 200 Piutes, had once
s surrounded and surprised Navajo viii
lage which then nestled in its basin,
and that the Navajos had not only lost
most of their warriors, but that an
: idol of great age and experience had
been captured and either carried of
or destroyed by the victors. Major
Tuttle told us that the sacrifice of
children had followed, and that to the
present day the only surviving son of
the beaten and slaughtered chief lived,
an outcast and an object of superstl-
tious horror, near the Navajo reserva-
tion. This pariah Of a once noble fam
lily had, according 20 Major Tuttle,
gouged out one of his own eyes in the
hope that this self-punishment might
induce the gods to favor his search for
the lost idol OF the tribe, which had, it
seems, but one eye.
"You may be sure that after hearing
Major Tuttle's story l was very anx-
ious to penetrate Ghost Valley, and
when we came to Hermosillo, which is
at the edge of the Navajo's reserva.
ton, I set about finding guide among
! the tribesmen who would lead Our
party into the historic basin. Major
Tuttle, however, had gone to Denver,
and I had to depend wholly upon my
own efforts. The settlers told me that
neither Indians nor whites ever went
into Ghost Valley. That it was known
to be haunted, that its waters were
poisonous and whosoever ventured
within it's bowl-like depths returned no
more. l tried to induce some of the
: Indians to lead me into the valley, but
they shrugged their shoulders at my
offers of money, till at last a fine look
ing young buck who spoke pretty good
English told me:
49," You get Jim Look Once. Him
go in Ghost Valley. Might never come
back, too. al right By which l un-
derstood that Jim Look Once was the
outcast son of the dead chief. And so
3 it proved l had no trouble in finding
him nor in securing his services. He
was an ill-favored, one-eyed Indian
about 40 years old, stoop-shouldered,
skulking and evidently bowed with the
misfortunes of his forbears. A miner
named Schoolcraft, whom we had pick
ed UP at Silver City, and DR.. Hickman,
the geologist, made up our party, and
at daybreak one June morning, with
: Jim Look Once leading the pack mule,
we started for Ghost Valley. On the
evening of the second day, just as the
sun was sinking behind the western
mountains, we stood upon high shelf
Of granite which looked sheer into the
round bowl of the haunted valley. The
depression, more than 1000 feet III
depth and perhaps seven miles in cir
cumference, was so beautiful in it's mo-
tionless silence that l could hardly re-
sist the desire to plunge onward into
its mysteries. The yellow radiance of
the evening sun seemed to sift even
to its depths; no sound of bird or
breeze or waterfall broke the perfect
silence; there was no motion in the
tall trees or sprawling shrubs, nor in
the weeds and vines which covered its
precipitous walls with luminous ver-
dure.
"But we camped where we were for
the night, and often during the dark
hours woke and saw Jim Look Once
sitting at the verge of the rock gazing
silently into the shadowy abyss. No
! howl of coyote or scream of night bird
broke the stiffness, and even when the
sun Redeemed tine east, nature seemed
to sleep on, voiceless and unmoved.
The Indian led us down an almost per-
pendicular trail that seemed to vanish
as the parted shFubbery closed behind
us. When we reached the depths the
air seemed suddenly cooled, and al
though we found no living water, we
passed a pool covered with lily pads
and yellow ooze that almost sickened
us with it's suffocating perfume. AL
most in the centre Of the oval bottom
land We came upon traces Of the
: burned Navajo village of long ago.
Jim, our guide, here abandoned us to
our own resources and went ranging
about in the thicket like q bird dog
working the stubble.
1--WE found the burial ground IN the
afternoon, and think ii was DR.. Hick-
man who came upon the seven baby
skeletons. We tried to get our guide
to 60 into some OF the higher trees to
fetch us down some of the older skele-
tons, some Of which. their weather
stained cerements yet clinging to them.
were in good state of preservation,
but Jim Look Once showed a mortal
\ terror of his ancestral dead and would
not come near. Being the best climb
erin our party, then essayed tour
am9g the skeletons and had unfas-
te;ad<a fine articulate one and was