The Waterbury Democrat., 1938-08-02
RAIN MAKERS
 OF TRIBE KEEP
 AGE-0LD FAITH
Keres Indians of Desert Believe Existence Due
 to Rites

6anto Domingo, N. M, Aug. 2- (UP)-Rain-maKing, long a dream of shooting scientists and imaginative inventors, is and has been for centuries realization for the Keres Indians-and on Aug. 4 they will again perform the color ful ceremonies to which they at- tribute the moisture that has given them life-sustaining crops.
 The Koshares, the medicine men of the tribe to whom the conduct of the rain-making rites is en- trusted, will lead the supplication to the Keres' traditional father" the sky in their corn dance begging their Deity to allow rain to fall on their crops that burn in the southern New Mexico desert land.
 This primitive dance is the cli- max of Keres' religion and the annual performance of the rite - with the subsequent autumn rains that follow goes to make the tribe one of the most peacefully devout and spiritually satisfied in the world
 Before Spanish Entry
 For generations, the hot New Mexico sun has burned down on the collection of mud huts on the bank of the muddy Rio Grande. Santo Domingo was an Indian vil- lage when the Spanish first came to the land and has kept its prim- tive charm through succeeding centuries.
 The pueblo has held more to its ancient traditions than any other in the southwest. To these simple people, the annual dance of SUD- plication is a dance to the spirits their ancestors worshipped. After the coming of the Spaniards and Christianity, the dance was named in honor of St. Dominic, who was given them by the Spanish padres as their patron, but the ceremony itself remains unchanged.
 The St. Dominic dance originated in antiquity and the meaning of many of its symbolic portions IS unknown even to the Indians themselves. The ceremony is be- yond the white mans understand ing.
 Beliefs Remain Unchanged
 To these simple people, the blue sky is the father and the earth the mother of all creation. Early teaching by missionaries, oppres- sior. by the Spaniards and later day government schools have failed to shake the Indians in their Steadfast belief in the simple but practical worship of the religion of their an- cestOrs.
 The dance of St. Dominic is one of the most perfect survivals of the Indians ancient religious cer- emonials. While primarily plea for rain, the dance really is an elaborate prayer for the fertiliza- tion and preservation of the fields of corn upon which the people de- pend as their principal item of diet.
 It is a dramatization of spiritual life, in which these Indians seek to prove their worthiness of the boon they ask.
 T.le actual dance begins early i'll the morning, following the only Christian rite of the ceremony, the marriage of couples who have previously been married by tribal medicine men.
 Women Also Participate
 The Koshares, or medicine men, painted in ashen gray and chant ing in a monotonous undertone, lead the procession from the Kiva, a circular underground chamber used for the tribes secret cere- monies. Following the Koshares, whose bodies are painted with symbols and whose hair is tied with corn husks and pasted with mud, are long lines of men and women, placed alternately. AS these dancers reach the town plaza, they form in two straight lines. Then they take up the steady cadence of their dance to the beating of single tom-tom. All of the Indians hold their posi- tions in the dance with the excep- ton of the Koshares, who move in and out of the weaving lines exhorting their tribesmen to great CT frenzy. During the day-long dance, only the medicine men ges- ture to the sky in an appeal for rain.
 It is only in extra dry years that nature fails the Heres Indians. Usually rains fall in the area a few days following their dance. When it does rain shortly after ward, 1t serves to revive the faith of the Indians in their ancient be- liefS.