The Washington herald., 1907-10-31
Before Columbus Came.
BY FREDERIC J. HASKIN
BY FREDERIC J. HASKIN.

To learn the history of the ancients
one must literally dig. and because Of
DR.. J. Walter Fewks zeal in delving
among the ruins Of Casa Grande Canyon
another contribution has been made 20
the general fund of information regard
ing pre-Columbian America. Government
interest in American ethnology is not
yet fifty years Old, but already a vast
amount Of energy has been expended IN
bringing from obscurity the origin OF the
Indian and his antecedents who peOpled
this country in the dim dawn of the
world. A number of hnlocks under the
shifting sands Of the Southwest were all
that was visible at first Of this ancient
Gown that DR.. Fewks has recently IN
earthed. Bit by bit he has revealed
the houses and fOrtresses Of a pre-his-
toTic stronghold. He has disclosed
city surrounded by a rectangular wall
Of stone ana clay. Outside the wall is
mOat, while the corners are guarded
by bastiOns and watch towers. There
are mounds beyond the walls burial
mounds rich In treasures of the dead.
The city is laid out with some regularity,
having a great house set about with
smaller ones.
These old ruins dominate a fiat stretch
of country in Southern Arizona, and were
doubtless a valuable stronghold in ancient
times. They are SO Old that they were
sand-strewn and long deserted when
Coronado's astonished followers saw them
loom up from the desert. nearly four hun
ored years ago. They may. like the cliff
dwellings OF Walpi, Arizona, be all that
remains Of a great city and great peo-
pie that tiOurished at the time of ancient
Babylon. Within these walls a Jesuit
priest chauted a mass two hundred years
ago, when he was crossing the desert
as a penance for his sins. and I'm 1876
q detachment of the United States army
passed them in its conquest Of the West
They now stand on government property
and under government control. with
custodian TO Illustrate the ambitions of
yandal tourists.
The Bureau Of American Ethnology,
which, through DR.. Fewks, is conducting
this important work Of excavation. had
its real beginning in 1867. when Mai. J. W
Powell explored the canyons of the Colo
radO River. From amateur work eXplO-
ration was brought under the patronage
OF the Smithsonian Institution. and then
raised 10 the distinction of d government
enterprise. The work already done has
been notable. Its survey Of the Rocky
Mountain Region, in connection with the
nited States Geological Survey has been
termed one Of the boldest bits of work
IN the history of the nation. This bureauI
has studied every Indian tribe that
America has known. finding, as IN t1eI
case of the Pecos Indians. sometimes
only one or two survivors of a once
powerful tribe from whom 10 get their data.
they have compared remote Western with
Eastern tribes 70 note any similarity
in their manners and customs. they have
ueclphered petroglyphs, they have trans
lated, compared, verified. until out of
chaos something definite and reliable
about the Indian and his predecessors is
being secured for the public. One Of the
most painstakins pieces of work IS al
Handbook of the Indians now being
prepared, and giving the history OF In
dian tribes and their civilization. SO far
as can be secured.
So page by page the story Of pre-Co-
IunIhL4H America will some day be re-
vealed 10 us Out of the mists that have
hidden this country's past for so many
uncounted years will come the real story,
verified and proved. The threads of his
tory or tradition-whichever they be
that we pick Up to-day are wonderfully
fascinating. GeoloEists say America is
the Oldest existing land in the world
From this. theories have been offered
that & must have been the cradle Of
civilization Il is the famous lost con-
against the Pillars Of Hercules" ages
ago there lay a mighty land. peOpled
with the promoters of a wonderful civ
iizatiCn and rich in treasure. a land
which Plato declared was inhabited 5000
years before his day. Some say this was
the land from which the Mediterranean
countries drew their gods and heroes.
Some say it was the land of old Bible
DAYS and that the food of the Judean
lore OF the East and of the Mayan lore Of
the West was only the sinking of At
lsnts. with fits thousands Of great cities
and great achievements. leaving only
that remnant in Central America 10 tell
the tale. For i'm Central America there
are ruins of untold age on ruins still
older, with other ruins below these.
BE this as il may, ever since the first
white men set foot on the shores Of the
so-called New World. speculation has
been rife as to whence came the red
men who met them. As conquest and
settlement progressed through the cOun-
try the question became bigger. the
cuestioners more eager for reply. They
found an architecture that varied from
the conical mound OF the Mississippi and
Ohio Valleys 10 the Central American
and Mexican palaces that held sugges-
tions OF Egyptian and Gothic influences.
with building materials that ranged from
clay and tule TO hewn stone, with de-
signs that ran from timbered supports
20 the arch with 4 keystone. and from
roofs of skins. OF TusheS. TO concrete
roofs that defed earthquakes They
found the arts and sciences represented
IN the work Of the gold and silversmith.
IN cotton cloth as fine as silk, in feather
work. gem cutting, engineering. and
sculpture. They found that no people
lad done so much in ceramics es these
mysterious people who populated the
North American continent before Column
bus came. and IN no nation has the
transformation from tHe glvptic 10 the
graphic arts been so clearly traced.
From the great civilization OF the
Mayas and Aztecs, a civilization that
must have been Of Il grandeur unsur-
passed by the later ones Of the East
the pre-Coiumbian social and political
american has been traced in an ever de-
erau1fper epo1a fI.r,trrrI, +I,- 7p..-s.r y.,.-,