Evening star., 1936-08-22
VII
BY THOMAS r. HENRY,

BY THOMAS r. HENRY,
Staff Correspondent of The Star.
TORT WINGATE, N. Mex, Au-
~ gust %. The Milky Way
arched across the vault of the
cloudless Arizona sky at mid
night is like thick tracings of frost
on blue glass. The silvery half moon,
drifting through the ice etchingS and
the stars, looks down upon a grassless
mountain glen around two sides of
which is an unbroken. fantastically
frost-carved, vertical wall of red sand
stone 200 feet high.
Wierd professions are approaching
the amphitheater out of the noun
tains from all directions-men on
horseback in Spanish hats, with blue
velvet. scarlet and green shirts billow-
ing as they ride, chugging and rafting
automobiles, lines of covered wagons
filled with women, children and food.
About 300 feet apart and on opposite
sides of the amphitheater two great
log bonfires are blazing and cracking
and filling the air with the aromatic.
thick smoke Of yellow pine and cedar.
Around the sides there are smaller
fires and the odor of cooking mutton.
Many already have arrived. A white
circle of covered wagons nearly sur
rounds the amphitheater. Babies are
squalling and horses neighing. dag
onally from each bonfire stands a COM
pact group of Indian men. One is
silent. The other is singing in chorus
vi VI va ma, vi vi va ma-monotonously
and Wierdly. Before them stands an
old man beating time on drum They
sing until they are out of breath.
Then the other group takes up the
chorus. vigorously and with a refresh
ing change of melody.
Dancers Through Dust.
And between the two choruses the
moon looks down upon perhaps as COL
orful a scene as it beholds in all its
world wanderings. That is the end
less, shuff1ing, tripping procession of
the dancers through the dust-the men
shuffiing their .ilver- studded riding
boots, the girls clutching their shirts
and tripping in colorfully beaded soft
moccasins. The elaborateness of the
costumes Of these girls, all unmarried.
dazzles the eyes. 1t is a pageant of
Woolen shawlS and shawl blankets.
There are scarlet shawls. yellow
shawls, green shawls, blue shawls and
shawls of all sorts of harmonious
plaids and stripings. 1t is a pageant
of jewelry. Silver and turquoise hair
clrclets, belts, bracelets, necklaces and
earrings glisten in the moonlight.
Every girl wears a dress of the same
pattern, calico, founced, ankle length
and spreading with IL or IS yards of
cloth like the hoop skirts of our grand
mothers. The men, in their blue and
scarlet velvets, look somber in COM
pariSon.
This is the Navajo "n'da"-souaw
dance to the white men. One is hello
every night in some glen or on some
hilltop of the 2,000-square-mile noun
tain empire of the tribe. Families
gather from over a thousand square
miles to take part in one. They start
with the first thunderstorm the 10th
of August in this part of the coun-
continue until the first frost
In September. This whole period, from
the ripening of the green corn to the
harvesting of the yellow ears, is a
festal time for the people who may be
considered Americas most exotic citi-
zens.
The squaw dances are the gala
events. They afford, first of all, an
opportunity for families to display
their wealth by the way they dress
their daughters. There is no bank in
The shepherds of the
desolate mountains and yellow pine
forests horde their wealth in the form
OF silver ornaments, jewels and gaudy
dress. The daughters empty a FAM
ily's Golfer for one of these dances.
1t is not at all unusual for girl to
be tripping over the moonlit dust with
ornaments which would be valued con-
servatively at $500. And these are
not precious stones. They are rela-
lively cheap silver, turquoise, polished
petrif1ed wood and beads. The men,
Of course, are not quite SO colorful.
They display wealth chiefly in the
form of silver belts. During the day
one of these girls will be found squat
ting before her primitive loom on the
dirt floor of the family hogun-timid,
bashful, attired in cheap and rather
dirty dress. She is about as far as is
from a colorful figure.
Moonrise Transformation.
But when the moon comes up the
is beyond belief. The
gaudiest, loveliest sort of butterfly
Every element of Indian
beauty is emphasized to the utmost.
Moreover, the personality undergoes a
profound change. Before the daughter
Of the hogun kept her head down and
would answer questions only in
abashed monosyllables. Now she is
merry and brazen, especially with
whites. The girl always must ask the
man to dance. It is considered an
Insult-especially for q white man who
happeus to have dropped In on the