Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1912-12-18

/ SS%E HE Pueblo Indians are without
doubt the most interesting pee
pie in America and perhaps in
E the world. They preserve
practically unchanged the man
ners and customs that existed among
them when America was discovered
and which are described as early as
| 1541 in the histories of the expedition
| Of Coronado. The popularity in their
! buildings, the use of underground
chambers, known to the Spaniards as
Estaufas, for ceremonial purposes;
their industry and good government
and the contrasts which, in many re-
spects, they present to the surround
| ing nomadic tribes, have long caused
them to be objects of special interest.
They have no written language and
| hence their history, ceremonlals and
/ whatever fiction or drama they pos
| sess have to be handed down by oral
tradition; and to preserve these intact
| they have a system Of instruction ana
strength of memory really marvel
Gus to us, whose powers of recollec-
! ton are blunted by disuse or abuse
| and by the mass of unimportant mat
| ters which come to our knowledge
without receiving attention and liter
ally go in at one ear and come out at
the other.
At the time of the Tertio-Millennia
celebration in Santa Fe in 18S3-the
most interesting and comprehensive
historic anniversary ever held in this
country-a most remarkable speech
was made by the governor of the
Pueblo of Zuni, who was present with
40 of his people. A dramatic repre-
sentation of the conquest Of Cibola
by Coronado had just been presented
and two or three historic addresses
we're made in connection with it. Then
the Zuni governor was called upon
and a newspaper man familiar with
the language interpreted his remarks.
The great father" said the governor.
has given to all his children good
gifts, but they vary in character. To
his white children he has given the
power to make marks on paper, so as
70 perpetuate the history of the events
has not bestowed that gift, but he has
endowed them with great memories
SO that they retain them in their
minds and pass them on from one
generation to another" He then pro-
ceeded to give the traditions which
existed among his people with regard
to the coming of the first Spaniards,
which agreed almost exactly with the
written story as we know 1t.
Their Religious System.
The Pueblo Indians have the most
elaborate religious system of which
we have any knowledge. 1t enters
into every phase and action of life,
from morning to night, from the first
to the last of the year. Everything
has some ceremony connected with it
and all the ceremonials are founded
On their religious ideals. Perhaps it
would be more correct to say that
their religion is a most intricate sys-
tenn of ceremonies, for the latter sur
vive, while the fundamental ideas that
gave them birth may have persisted
These ceremonies find especial express
sion in their festivals. Some of these
are secret, confined either to members
Of the Pueblo, or to single societies,
or to persons of priestly rank within
1t; others are public and are the occa-
sion Of extensive visiting from other
Pueblos, from the Navajos, Apaches
and Utes and from all the white set
Elements in the vicinity. The best
known of their public festivals are
those occurring on the saints DAYS
Of the different Pueblos. There are
10 Pueblo Indian villages in New
Mexico and each Of these at the time
Of the Spanish occupation was dedi-
iated by the Franciscans to some
saint who became its patron. In most
! cases the old name of the Pueblo was
retained, prefxing that of the saint,
as San Geronimo de Taos, San Diego
de Tesuque, and in others the Pueblo
has no name but that of the saint. as
San Juan, Santa Clara, San PHILIPPE.
etc. But in all the saint is the patron.
his or her image is in the village
church and the saints day is the occa-
sion of the greatest public festival.
The mixture of Christianity with the
Did religion, or rather the way the
| I'D religion is CLOSED over with Chris
ianity, is one of the peculiarities of
he Pueblo condition.
Their annual festivals as at present
onducted are well worth a trip across