The Monticellonian., 1916-04-20

THREE hundred and sixty-si1
years ago the intrepid Span
lard Coronado marched little
army northward from Mexico
across the deserts of Sonora and Ari
iona until in what is now the western
part of the state of New Mexico, he
found and conquered and occupied a
/ group of Pueblo Indian towns whose
tame had reached him under the
designation of the Seven Cities OF
| C1bola, or Zuni. AS the years went
on one or another of the seven allied
towns was abandoned and its inhabit
ants moved to the central one of the
group, Haiona, 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 III 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
in the United States, far surprising
III antiquity jamestown, Plymouth and
other early English settlements, as
we'll as Sante Fe and st. Augustine of
Spanish foundation. The tribe num-
bers 1000 souls or as many as it could
muster after 1t 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, mortared and plas.
tered with clay, and rise densely elus-
tered, terraeed 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 oyeralls. and have learned to
like his coffee and sugar, his bacon
and wheat flour. Sheep and donkeys
they obtained long since from the
0pdil1lI1ot anu manly lOddy Gdll DOdSI
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-
er 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 eere-
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 it 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. roof1ess and Quilted 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 In
dian quietly shook off the hateful yoke
of imposed religion, and reverted open
ly to TIE ancient native ceTemonials
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-
TALLY where they were before Column
bus discovered America. They are not
hostile to Americans, in fact their ma
tive code of politeness requires that
every one should be treated with
courtesy. They are merely indiffer-
ent 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 ia
Tiers did, without interfering with
anyone and without being interfered
with
1t is no wonder then that these re-
markable people have long attracted
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
league S. took up his residence at Zuni
nearly forty years ago, and became in