Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1914-02-19
HOPI INDIAN
SNAKE DANCE
As Reported by F. {. Jenkins an
Old Grand 3apids Boy Now
in the West


I landed at Holbrook, Ariz.. via
Santa Fe Aug. 22nd last, and my
inquiry as to where the city was.
was met with the answer that the
train I just aHghted from came from
the city l understood that Los
Angeles was considered the e ty'' so
enjoyed the joke very much to the
amusement OF the party in question,
who offered to show me the town of
Holbrook.
He did. We viewed it and several
miles Of the surrounding country,
from the depot platform which is
mother earth beaten hard by the
curious citizens who meet all the
trains seeming to expect someone
who never comes.
Holbrook looked anything but a
city tho l saw quite a number OF re
spectacle locking people and when
l asked who they might be, was told
that they were strangers who came
to see the Hopi snake dance and
having had auto trouble had misse1
the annual elbow out" of the red
skins.
AS l was day late and the HoEi
villages were about a hundred miles
to the north, l had to be content
with the vivid descriptions by some
enthusiasts, who had witnessed sew
eral of the dances.
This beng the big dance, which
only happened every second year, it
contained adj the thrills, l was told.
The warriors who were to participate
gathered around a pit of kissing
snakes, and began to slowly dance,
circIing the pit faster and faster IN
til the top speed seemed to be at
tanned, then the leader stopped long
enough to thrust an arm into the
Writhdng mass and bring forth a
handful of the venemOuS reptiles, at
that instant an attendant stepped
lightly in front of the dancer and his
purpose was evidently to keep the
attention CT the snakes-which he
carried out until all appeared nearly
exhausted when the dancer thrust a
snakes head into his mouth to com
pIete the ceremony.
IN dancing this three or four
Indians were bitten, one by an excep-
tionally large RATHER that S ruck
him in the cheek and considerable
force was necessary to pull him loose
After this ceremony the dancer S
all danced cut OF the circle at a
tangent and ran out about two or
three miles on the desert where
they deposited their burden and i'm
mediately upon returning wree given
dark mysterious looking brew that
the squaws had been. cooking mean
while
1t was powerful emetic as was
evidenced by the result but in spite
of this the bitten sayages appear
ed to be real uneasy.
Several chemists from different
parts of the world were there to as
certain the ingredients Of the con
.ccction which such an effective anti
dote for rattlesnake bite, but the
squaws couldn't be bribed or bought
into divulging their secret.
Our esteemed T. r. Was there in
his broad stetson, soiled khakis and
with bandanna around his neck. in
true western style; he bore the
Kodak snaps and questioning gazes in
grim silence, exchanging an oyca-
sional word with friends.
Arizona is not very administrative
towards nobility, as in most vfcinr
tiles and all men are considered
equal except horse thieves and cattle
rustlers that abound in the country
around HClbrook, and are considered
the true aristocracy.
l had some rather interesting ex-
periences in the Apache Indian coun-
try, the former haunts of old Zero
nimo, who as everybody knows was
the hardest tanned Indian our war
department had to contend with.
If time permits l will later relate
few incidents of my surveying trip
to the headwaters of the Salt river
which springs out of the high Mt
Ord, nearly $4,000 feet above sea
level; also where it gets its name
and flavor, and of the hoodoo that
followed me- down that almost i'm
passible canyon.
F. E. j.