Weekly Arizona journal-miner. [volume] (Prescott, Ariz.) 1903-1908, 1903-05-06
EXPLORING
WITH POWELL
Indian Customs ViViHy
Described.
A Sunday Dinner With Two MOki
Belles-A Rabbit Stew Con-
stitutes the Menu.
NUMBER Ill.

NO4hO-AN LII
The Moki Indians live on Stiat top
mountains on mesas, from which one
can overlook miles of the surrounding
country. Most of their houses are two
stories high, some are three, most of
them built of stone, and plastered
with mud inside and out, with dirt
roof and floor. The second story sits
a few feet back, leaving a porch.
From an end view they look like two
or three large steps. The entrance is
always in the second story, by the way
of ladder. When the ladder is with
drawn the entrance is barred. This
was done for protection. Their #kiva
or council room is a large underground
room, generally a little apart from
the rest of the buildings. The en-
trance is also by the way of a ladder
through an opening through the roof
or top. On one end there is an altar,
and along two sides, raised place to
sit on. They villages are governed
something like our own, the head
man or AlcaIdi, his counselors, the
medicine man, and priests for these
various ceremonies.
Those villages that were through
gathering their crop when we visited
them were having their feasts. Wrest-
/ ling and running matches, basket con-
tests, etc., and their Thanksgiving
prayers and ceremonies in their kivas,
which Major Powell and / witnessed.
Every morning the entire village we're
on the roof of their houses, watching
for the sun to rise. Before this,
while it was still dusk, all of the boys,
from about 8 years old, up to Is
years, would race naked down the
trail to the tank at the bottom of the
mesa and take a bath. There were
generally six or eight COW or horse
bells in the party, strapped around
their waists. This noise scared off
any evil spirit that might be lurking
about. There we're few cold days
and ice formed on the tanks an inch
thick. know of them breaking the
ice and taking their bath just the
same.
We saw albinos, from a child three
days old, up to men fifty or sixty
years old, and what contrast from
the white skin and hair of the albiIio
boys as they raced down the trail
among his dusky brothers. When the
albino child was born runners we're
sent to the different villages, and to
our camp to ask us to come and see it. /
Two days after this we saw the little |
white mite on the brown breast of its
mother. The women attend to the
household affairs, while the men do
the farming, and take care of the
flocks. Unmarried women do up their
hair on each side of their head in
curls. something like a rams horn.
while the married women's hair hangs
down in braids. As a rule the young
women grind their corn, while the
by heating fiat stone, dipping the
hand into a batter made from corn
meal, and passing it over the stone. 7.
This leaves a thin film. When baked /
it is pealed off, and laid aside. This /.
process is repeated until there is a
pile of films from one and half to |
two inches thick. They become so ex-
pert that there is but little variation
in the size of the films.
Their mess is a slanting stone, set /.
into the floor, about one foot square.
There are generally three or four in
row of different grades of fineness. /
The crushing or grinding is done by
stone held in the hand. They were
very hospitable and we we're always
welcome and upon entering house /
something to eat was at once set before ]
us. The women were very virtuOus. |
l asked an old man what the punish
ment would be if caught doing wrong. /
He told me. if we catch them, this /
he repeated. if we catch them, we will
almost kill the man, and disgrace the .
woman for life.
In the village nearest to the Navajo /
reservation we saw one such woman. /
She had been caught with a Navajo .
man, who made good his escape. She 1
was imprisoned in the lower room. !
There was small window, with two /
limbs as bars, like our jails. l look
ed in. There was not a thing in the /
room, not even a blanket. She was
naked and they had cut her hair close
to her head.
Their language is soft, like Spanish,
not gutteral like most of the other
Indians. Just think! Lolomai, J
Lulabai, for good talk. In one vii /
lage 1 called once or twice day on /
two girls, one by the name of Shivi, /
(onion) the other Shora. rose. l ate 1
Sunday dinner with them, and we
had rabbit stew. The meat had been
cooked all to pieces and the bones re-
moved. l do not know as to the en-
trails. This was thickened with blue
corn meal. The bowl was set in the
middle of the floor, and loaf of piki
beside it. We all squatted around
it, as they had no knives, forks or
spoons. Each dipped in the first two
fingers, and passed what they would
hold to their mouth. They would al
low outsiders to marry these girls,
but if he left the village or moved
elsewhere, he could not take his wife
with him.
Everything was carried on their
backs. They had no horses or burros,
chickens or poultry of any kind, and
but few dogs. Their sheep and goats
were herded away from the villages.
Corn was husked in the field. You
could see them coming with their back
loads, single file miles away. The
albino men took their place in the
line, the same as the rest of them.
Their corn was rather round grained
and flinty hard, of several different
colors, red, white, blue, yellow,
pink, etc. All of the colOrs we're
generally mixed ON one ear. Not
many ears with but one color. They
use but one color at time. The
first of the new crop used is the blue.
They bury their dead in crevices in
tho cliff Wa 1i1 NOT 500 THAR burial