The Coconino sun., 1927-08-26
THE RELIABLE STORE WITH THIRTY YEARS OF SERVICE

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| junction points to guide other cars
that might go to the snake dances over
that route.
Comparatively very few Flagstaff
people have driven through Blue Can
yon. 1t is something distinctly diff
| ferent. The road is easy and safe,
though at times narrow and steep. 1t
is no road to take in wet weather,
however, as in some Of the box cam
yon sections through which it passes
fair-sized storm would bring IN
enough water to cover car. By
many, Blue Canyon, with its immense
and vari-shaped rocks and towering
walls and buttes is compared with
Bryce Canyon to the discredit of the
latter. j. Preston Myers, school SUI
perintendent at Oraibi, who with Mrs
Myers last year visited Bryce Can
yon and the Yellowstone, said Blue
Canyon spoiled Bryce Canyon for
them, while the Kaibab forest, north
of Grand Canyon in this county,
spoiled the Yellowstone, the only two
features left there to greatly interest
them being the bears and the geysers.
Visitors at Hotevilla during its
snake dances every other year find it
a lot different when guests are not
expected. In the latter case stay in
your car, for the minute you get in
view a horde of dogs, who look and
act like they would like to feast on
you, are after you every moment
And their owners do not trouble to call
them off.
A notable thing on the desert
around the Hopi towns is the bird life
There are many more small birds than
around Flagstaff. Lorenzo Hubbell,
the celebrated trader at Oraibi, says
it is because there is SO much more
grain in the grasses there. In some
of the canyons an interesting feature
is the great number of eagles in the
cliffs.
Mr.. Myers explains that the Hopis,
with whom the eagle is a sacred bird,
claim all the eagles for many miles
around. Each spring they visit the
nests and take one young eagle from
EACH These they tie by one foot on
top of their pueblos.
Mr.. Hubbell says Oraibi is the old
est continuously inhabited town in the
United States, despite the claims of
St. Augustine and Santa Fe. 1t was
a large town when Coronado's eXpedi-
ton visited it in 1910. At one time,
Mr.. Hubbell says, there were as many
as 1000 inhabitants. Mr.. Hubbell has
been there 19 years and that long ago
there were 100 there. Now there are
only 10 in Old Oraibi, many of the
inhabitants having moved down off
the mesa to the farm patches within
radius of several miles Of New
Oraibi, where the school and stores
are located, and others having moved
to Hotevilla and Bakabi.
Mr.. Myers for some time has been
planning a building to house the do
nestle science department of his
school and the museum recently
started by Mrs. Armour of Chicago,
who, by the way, was there Sunday.
He sketched plans for a two-story
model Hopi dwelling to house the de-
partments, incorporating large living
room, kitchen, ETC., with porch. Rep
resentatives of the Better Homes
movement, a national organization,
were shown the plans during their
visit to Oraibi few months ago, and
Mr.. Myers was greatly surprised not
long after that when he received a
prize from the association for his
plans.
One Of the interesting people at
Oraibi is Senior Armejo, who keeps
books for Lorenzo HubbelPs chain of
trading posts. He once travelled with
Sousa. Just as the writer was going
to sleep Saturday night at Oraibi he
was annoyed by the sound of violin.
A moment later he was sitting up,
listening for all he was worth. That
Senior Armeio can certainly make a
violin talk and laugh and cry and a
true double tone is as easy for him
as a flatted single tone for most vio-
| linists.
Out at Mishongnovi, riding around
among the houses on horseback and
confiscating cameras right and left
was Johnny Hoffman, the slight, grey
haired chap who not many months
ago was county ranger with headquar-
tiers in Flagstaff and who before that
had helped put the fear of God and
the law into the hearts of malcontents
in mining towns in the south part of
the state, during which process he
several times got himself shot up and
several times sent desperadoes to hos
pitfalls and graveyards. Johnny just
the other day got the surprise of his
life, which is a lot younger than his
grey hair indicates, in an official let
ter from Uncle Sam in which he was
advised that he vas then and there
appointed chief of police of all the
Indian agencies of the southwest. He
doesn't even know where his head
quarters will be, suspecting it may be