The log cabin Democrat., 1916-04-21


 army northward from Mexico across the deserts of Sonora and Ari- zona until in what is now the western part or the state of New Mexico, he 1ound and conquered and occupied group Of Pueblo Indian towns whose lame had reached him under the designation of the Seven Cities of Cibola,' or Zuni AS the years went on one or another of the seven allied towns was abandoned and it's inhabit- ants moved to the central one of the group, Halona, Place of the Ants" For over two hundred years now, the Wfole Zuni tribe has concentrated it. self in this settlement which is known to Americans as the Pueblo Zuni, and to its inhabitants as Ittiwawa, The Middle Place." for in native belief its site marks the exact center of the earth, writes A. L. Kroeber, professor Of anthropology in the University of california, in the American Museum Journal.
 With the possible exception of two or three other Pueblo settlements. Zuni is thus the oldest inhabited town ln the United States, far surpassing Tn antiquity Jamestown, Plymouth and other early English settlements, as well as Sante Fe and St. Augustine of spanish foundation. The tribe num- bers 1,600 souls or as many as it could muster after it had gathered itself to- gether after the first disastrous shock of Spanish contact. The houses are still built in the prehistoric way of stone masonry, mopared and plas- tered with clay, and rise densely clus- tered, terraced one above the other to height of four or five stories.
 Live Life of Long Ago.
 The life too of the Zuni, runs in the current of long ago. They have bor- rowed from the American his shirt and his overalls, and have learned to like his coffee and sugar, his bacon and wheat flour. Sheep and donkeys they obtained long since from the Spaniards, and many today can boast of owning horses and wagons. But inwardly and in all his relations with other Indians, the Zuni is still purely aboriginal. He does not know wheth- CT today is Sunday or Wednesday, whether it is January or July; or what the American names of the store keep per, missionary and government agent are. He knows these people by nick names which he or some friend has given them, and he reckons time by the number of days to the next cere- monial dance ordained by his priests. He supports himself as his forefathers of the immemorial long ago did, through raising corn by hand culture in sandy patches where 1t would seem that the grain would not even sprout. In the middle of the plaza around which his town is built stands a de- caying, roofess and gutted Catholic church. which his forefathers built of adobe under the direction of Spanish missionaries; but two centuries of Christian regime have not influenced the inward spirit of the Zuni. He knew that soldiers stood back of the priest and therefore he obeyed him, yet he hardened his heart against him; and no sooner did Spanish and Mexican authority relax than the h. dian quietly shook off the hateful yoke of imposed religion, and reverted open ly to the ancient native ceremonials which he and his fathers had kept alive by secret practices in hidden un- derground rooms within fifty yards of the walls of the mission.
 Such tremendously tenacious con- servatism has kept the Zuni substan- tially where they were before Colum- bus discovered America They are not hostile to Americans, in fact their na- tive code of politeness requires that every one should be treated with courtesy. They are merely indiffer- cnt to ourselves. All that every Zuni asks is that he should be left alone to support himself, to practice his re- ligion, and to live his life as his fa- thers did, without interfering with anyone and without being interfered with.
 It is no wonder then that these re- markable people have long attracted  extraordinary attention from anthro- biologists and students of the aborig- inal Frank Hamilton Gushing, whose genius in certain directions has never been equaled among any of his col leagues, took up his residence at Zuni nearly forty years ago, and became in every sense full member of the tribe, looked on as suck by the Zuni them selves. He took part in their war ex- petitions against the hated Apache and Navaho raiders; became a mem bcr of one of the six sacred Kivas. and was initiated into the religious so- ciety of the priests of the DOW. A host of ether students have followed in his footsteps and the list of an thropologists who have visited Zuni includes most of the eminent names in America, such as Powell. McGee and Mrs. Stevenson, to mention only sOr,ae of those no longer living as well