Marble Hill press. (Marbel [sic] Hill, Mo.) 1881-1923, 1904-07-07
THE CLIFF DWELLERS,
At the Worlds Fair.

The Cliff Dwellers of Colorado. New
Mexico and the great Southwest have
been bodily transferred to the Worlds
Fair. Their exhibit is to-day regarded
| by those that have been fortunate
enough to visit the 0ut-of-the-wav re-
| glon where these strange people dwell,
| as the most interesting Of all the SOCIAL
ed human spectacles now to be seen in
St. Louis. In this display We find re-
production OF the famous Battle Rock
mountain which rises out of the desert
m Colorado near the Utah line. At the
Worlds Fair this Battle Rock miniature
and the reproduction Of the surrounding
mountainous country have been given
over to the Cliff Dwellers themselves.
some three hundred Moki and Zuni In
dlans, who, here in the heart OF the CITY
OF st. Louis, are living their lives over
again precisely as the traveller finds
them in their native country. They have
cut their homes into this imitation rock
and here the visitor can see them pur-
suing their daily avocations. They have
warfare; their picturesque clothing and
implements, and in the museum attach
ed to the Cliff Dwellers exhibit there are
mummies SO old that the best instructed
in such matters refuse to declare when
this outward form of man existed in the
unknown yesterday. They show their
me shods of grinding and reaping, and
use the same smoke-stained vessels for
cooking that are used thousands of miles
away from their present place of life.
There is in this group OF three hundred
Moki and Zuni Indians, Medicine Men, !
chiefs, and whole aboriginal kinder |
garten of little children who have re- |
adapted themselves to life in |
a Dig city, which, in all human proba- |
bllity, they will never again see, for at |
the close OF the exposition thew must 90 |
back to their cliff dwellings, in the Colo
rado desert. Connected with the Cliff |
Dwellers exhibit is a Moki theater,
Like all the simple folk of the desert,
the Mokis have their inspiration which
they act out in series of plays and 9TH
er forms OF theatrical entertainment.
and they conclude these with the most
of all exhibitions, the IA
nous Snake Dance, in which a number
of Medicine Men and Chiefs take part
n the portrayal of this wonderful cere-
nony, the unparalleled pageant of the
Pueblo Indians of Tuseyan, A arizona, to
ha I,r;cr -
ordinary traveller thousands of miles
rom his home and compel the expendi-
uTe OF thousands OF dollars. The In
hans do not here use any make believe
but the actual serpents, which
hey handle with a freedom calculated to
hill the blood Of the Caucasian. These
serpents have a deep signifi-
ance for these aborigInes. This dance
axes place in the desert country of New
1exico, on the 25th of August, and con-
lnues until the precise moment when the
'ledlclne Men can predict with unfailing
ertainty the annual rain fall of the re-
ion. How these wizards of the sky, by .
heir wierd incantations, draw the water
Il Ille ClOuua uOWn 10 edfGn can De well
understood when the ceremony itself is
as is here shown in the Cliff
)wellers. They are a handsome race of {
lean limbed savages, who, far above any {
ther aborigines, testify by their very
emeanor an ancestry that stretches as
ar, If not further than the Egyptians
mentioned in the sacred writings. For
educational associations that have come |
0 the Worlds Fair, the Cliff Dwellers t
xhibit has proven absolutely unique. ,
he children among the tribes are a
ource OF never ending entertainment to
Id and young alike. The boys and girls
Iatch with facinatlon the war dances of !
he Mokis, and people Of mature minds
re lost III admiration in contemplating
ne handicrafts of these wonderful saVa-
es. Their dwellings, are open for in i
pection at all times, and as they are built ]
ne above the other hundreds of feet
rom the ground, we are struck by the
act that no matter what the surroundings
~ be, human nature has maintained its Q
from century to century back Il
the dawn of tinIB. It