Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1905-08-05
SAN DOMINGO
CORN DANCE
This Years's Religious Festival
at the Pueblo Highly
Interesting
UNIQUE CEREMONIES
The Event Prayer for Propitious Wea-
ther and large Crops Courtesy
and Good Feeling Prevail.

J The party that went from Santa Fe
on Thursday evening to witness the
Santo Domingo Corn Dance" re-
turned at midnight last night tired,
dusty and sleepy. but enthusiastic in
praise of the brilliant display made by
the Indians in this one of the most in
teresting of their yearly fiestas and
tribal ceremonies. There is an air of
prosperity about the Pueblo, though
the Santo Domingo Indians do not
dress so elaboratelt nor in their man
ner of living display so generally the
Indians love of color and picturesque
ness, The Santa Fe party was much
/ indebted to Indian Agent Clinton J.
Crandall for hospitable courtesies, for
1t was through his aid the party, which
reached the Pueblo on Thursday even
| ing at $3.50, found comfortable quar-
ters for the night, Mr.. Crandall enter
tanning many of them in his own COM
| Portable tents adjoining the Pueblo.
Those not thus provided occupied
rented adobe in the heart of the vii
lage, and had the novel experience of
an early morning view of an awaken
ing Indian village on the morning of
an important fiesta Through Mr..
Crandall also many members of the |
party were pioted Alright in mixing
inspection of Indian habits and prop
er avoidance of those errors that are
so natural for the "tenderfoot" in even
so brief a sojourn as one day among |
the Indians on their own hearth.
The ceremonies of the day began
with special mass in the old Santo Do
mingo church. The new marriage law
Of the Territory operated to prevent
the usual wholesale marrying that has
been formerly a marked feature of the
preliminary fiesta services. The. fee
of S100 is now required of each ap-
plicant for marriage in advance of the
ceremony. and while the Santo Do
miagoans are prosperous and the size
Of the fee would not in itself prove a
deterrent to matrimony, the new re-
quirement seems to have made the
prospective grooms a little more eau
tious.
Dance Continues All Day.
The removal of the patron saint
from the church to the central plaza |
Of the Pueblo took place about noon
amid the firing of guns and the beat
ing of drums. Following this the "De-
light Men" made their appearance on
the plaza in grotesque dances and
chanting their supposedly semi-humor
Gus lines. But a few moments after
the first group of bedecked braves and
squaws took up the refrain of the
weird Corn Dance" and from that
hour until sunset there was no inter
mission in the ceremonies going on in
the plaza. There were two relays or
groups of dancers, each provided with
its own staff bearer, drummer and
choir. In the first there were ninety
five dancers and a choir of about twen'
ty-five in the second there were sixty
five dancers and about an equal num-
ber in the choir. This shows that
there were over 200 participants in
this, one of, if not the most interesting
and sensational Indian dances in the
Territory. The costuming of the dan
GERS is strikingly display of original
methods. The men are clad in paint
and feathers, wearing the beads and
ornaments of the tribe, while the
women in neat black, simple robes,
reaching to the knees and bound
around the waist with girdleS of col
ors. On their heads they wore curl
ously formed ornament tipped with
feathers. The dance begins with a
procession to the altar of the patron
saint and all day long there is
stream of worshipers who leave their
gifts at the feet of their saint. In evo- {
lutions, songs and incantations the !
dances are complicated. interesting
and sometimes lifted to thrilling in
tensity. The Delight Men" hover
around the lines of dancing men and
women and add grotesque feature to
the movements. The Santo Domingo
Indians are not only industrious and
prosperous farmers, but they are peo-
pie who maintain much of the old
vigor of the aborigines. Despite the
hot sun that beat down upon the open
plaza all afternoon, the dances went
uninterruptedly on, one group reliev-
ing the other at intervals of about
thirty minutes, though sometimes the
seemingly exhaustion-proof perform
ers danced on for an hour. The theme,
songs and evolutions of the dance are
all part of an intercessory and descrip-
tive prayer for prosperous and favor
ing weather conditions and history
of the planting and development of the
corn crop. 1t is weird, spectacular,
indicative of primitive ard tribal pc
culiarities, and presents, as whole,
one of the most startling and vari-col-'