The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-08-20


 no salary was attached to the office. Then naturally he resigned and sought more profitable employment
 For the benefit of visitors who may come hereafter. I will say that the first forest is most easily reached and con- tains the natural bridge. which Is the greatest wonder of all. The third for est is much larger than the others, and the trees are not broken up so much. It contains a larger number of perfect logs of large size, and many contend that they have more brilliant colors.
 Between Adamana and the first for est. a couple of miles off the direct road, are the ruins of an ancient pueblo and a prehistoric fortress which must have contained 200 or more rooms Upon the walls of a cliff near by are some re- markable inscriptions - photographs which are of greater interest to scien- tifc men than to the general public, being unique in some respects. Near them are extensive burial grounds of a prehistoric race, where a great quan- tity of ancient pottery and silver orna- ments has been discovered.
 Scattered all over this part of the country are burial places in which pot tery, silver ornaments, implements and other articles which the Pueblos are in the habit of burying with their dead may be found. and the people at the ] stations along the Santa Fe Road, when they have nothing else to do. go out on resurrection expeditions and bring back wagon loads of prehistoric ar- ticles which bring high prices in the curio stores. Fred Harvey has a string | of shops at which buyers may find large collections and many articles of great value. He has nearly s200,o00 invested i in Indian blankets and curiosities. Nearly all of the station agents on the | railroads in New Mexico and Arizona and the merchants of the several towns deal in such stock, and spectators are | gong back and forth all the time, buy ing up the rarest and choicest articles. Expeditions come out from different museums and universities every sum I mer. hunting for antiquities, and sev- eral firms of spectators have men in the field digging up ancient cemeteries, | searching ruins and sites of former habftations, usually with success and profit. There is bill before Congress to stop all that and to prevent the wholesale vandalism. It has passed both houses at times, and there is real ly no opposition to 1t. All of the | scientific societies have united in ts support Last winter the American In- stitute of Archaeology called to Wash tngton representatives of the scientific
 
 ments before committees in Congress and urged the necessity of such a law. But there was too much other business of general importance and the bill fail ed to pass. It is almost certain of be- coming a law at the next session. when not only the cliff dwelIers, but the pet rified forest, the prehistoric cemeteries and all other antiquities will be de- clared public property and be protected as such.
 Charles F. Lumnis. who is an au- thority on Pueblo ethnology, rejects many of the popular ideas concerning these interesting people. and declares that the number of villages and their population have not changed material ly during the $50 years that they have been known to the whites, He also declares that the Pueblos lived just as they do now at the time Coronado first invaded this country, the only changes being in the increase of the live stock and agricultural implements. Sheep was first introduced among the Pueblos in l5S1 by Padre Luiz, a Franciscan frIar; cattle were driven up from old Mexico early In the seventeenth cen- tury; goats. cats and dogs came later Horses were left in some of the villages by the earliest invaders. and burros came later. Mir. Lummis says that the only domestic animal of the Pueblo at the time of CoFonado's expedition was the turkey. and 1t was kept quite as much for its feathers as for food The principal crop were corn. cotton. squashes and beans. and the most of the garments worn were of buck skin and cotton. The extedmination of the deer and antelope has compelled a sub fStitution of sheepskin and Koatskin, and wool has taken the place of cotton. be- cause 1t can be produced so much more | easily. These are practically all the differences In the economies of the race that have taken place in 300 years. MT Lummis contends that the total | Pueblo population was never more than | 80 1000, and thinks even that is an ex- cessive figure. He argues that the | ruins and the cemeteries that are scattered all over the Southwest. in cluding the cliH dwellings. are signifl- 1 cant, not as evidence of an enormous population now extinct. but as demon- l stratipg the migratory habits of the race. And 1t is beyond contradiction that, unless there has been a radical 1 change in climate this country could not have supported many more people | than are now living upon it. It is the theory of MT. Lummis that during the countless centuries since these high arid portions of the northern continent
 have been inhabited, the villages have
 moved from place to place for reasons
 of necessity; because of the attacks oi
 savages; because of epidemics, or be.
 cause of signs and omens, to which the
 Pueblo Is extremely sensitive. He as'
 serts that the ruined Pueblos, which art
 found scattered all the way from thu
 Great Salt Lake to the Rio Grande. were
 not occupied at any one time. but wer, in turn the houses of successive genera
 tions. of ten for centuries. and wer' abandoned for more favorable locations
 while the total population remained
 about the same-the birth rate anC
 death rate keeping the average.
 Mir. Lummis contends that thest Pueblos have no relation to the Aztec
 of old Mexico, and belong to an entirely
 different stock He pronounces th'
 beautiful legend of Montezuma a myth
 which was created for campaign pur
 poses in 1s46, but does not make thii
 contention quite clear He says tha
 few of the Pueblo Indians ever hearC
 known about him to prove that h'
 was not born in Pecos or any othe
 town of New Mexico; that he never saw
 any of these Pueblos, and that thu
 caciducs of the different villages dt
 not expect or desire his return. Al
 that beautiful story. Mir. Lummis In
 sists. Is d fiction. and. while a sacred
 fire may be kept burning in the estufa
 or underground temple. 1t has a signi
 hcance altogether different from tha
 usually ascribed to it.
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