THE INDIANS WHO LIVE IN BRICK HOUSES
The native Indians of the southwestern part of the United States were much more civilized when discovered than the wandering tribes in other parts of the country. They have built adobe houses for many centuries. These houses of mud, brick, and hewn timbers cannot be removed like the wigwams, teepees, or wickiups of the other tribes. The Spaniards named these Indians Pueblos, for pueblo is the Spanish word for village. There are twenty-seven Pueblo towns.
The Pueblos are a peaceful people. They have had time to invent things that astonish the white men who have seen only the Indians of the wandering tribes.
The pueblo of Zuñi is in New Mexico, about two hundred miles southeast of Santa Fé. This Indian town was sought for by Coronado and his Spanish soldiers. They had heard marvelous stories of the silver, gold, and jewels owned by the red people living north of Mexico; but the Pueblos were brave as well as wise, and the history of that Spanish expedition is sad reading.
The town of Zuñi is built upon a hill, about forty feet above the bank of the river Zuñi; it covers about [[48]]fifteen acres. The town is like a great beehive, for the houses are merely rooms built one over the other, each family living in a few small rooms which are reached by means of ladders. Some houses are only two stories high, while others are fully five stories. The wealthier Indians live in the lower houses, except the official whose duty it is to give the orders of the governor from the housetop. He lives with his family in rooms near the roof. These Zuñi houses are built around two plazas, or squares, with several streets and covered ways to connect them with the other parts of the town. The mesa called Thunder Mountain, upon which similar homes were built by them in ancient times, is very near their peaceful village.
Cliff-dwellings have been found that are entirely deserted, built by a very ancient people of whom we know little. Curious relics of dishes, cloth, and ornaments are found in these cliff-dwellings, but no one knows how many centuries since the empty houses were filled with living people, and no one knows why they were deserted. Some have thought the Zuñis are the descendants of this lost race; others think them to be like the mound-builders.
The Zuñi Indians weave handsome wool blankets in handmade looms. They invented these looms themselves. They sell or trade these blankets to Indians of many other tribes. [[49]]
Three-storied Pueblo Houses in Oraibi
From a Photograph
[[50]]
The Zuñi and other Pueblos make very good dishes of red clay. Their common cooking ware is much like the dishes seen in wigwams. They make handsome pitchers, vases, and table dishes of a brown color. They understand the working and coloring of clay, and the value of the different kinds. They make a common black ware, which is sometimes used instead of the red ware.
Their very best work is of a cream-white color, and the vases and dishes are handsomely decorated with colored borders and pictures. Many travelers have brought home fine specimens of Zuñi dishes, for their town is not far from the railroad.
The Navajos live near the Zuñis. Their hogans, or homes, are not so well made as the Zuñis’ adobe houses; they are low adobe huts. The Navajos find time and have the skill to do some very good work in metals, although their tools are rude. They make some use of iron, but their best work is shown in the making and carving of ornaments and other articles of silver. They also have invented hand looms and are blanket weavers.
All the Pueblos make handsome water-tight baskets of elegant shape from the fibers of the yucca plant. This plant, sometimes called the Spanish bayonet, from its sharp-pointed leaves, grows to a great size on the plains. The Pueblos color the fibers in some manner [[51]]and weave handsome borders of black, white, or yellow into their baskets. These are used for flour or meal holders, or for holding water, and are called ollas.
They grind their maize or other grain by hand between stones. They raise turkeys, and, as they are good weavers, they sometimes use the turkey feathers in weaving a downy cloth.
The Apaches live near the Pueblos and are well known for their love of the warpath. They are not Village Indians, yet are noted for their fine basket weaving. They use the willows found in their country instead of the yucca fibers.
The different tribes of Pueblos often use stone axes. It is believed that these are not made by them but were found in the deserted cliff-dwellers’ homes.
These Village Indians make use of a plant called soaproot, the root of which will make water foam and will cleanse one’s skin the same as the white man’s soap. The Indian who lives in a teepee does not know the use of soap and is not anxious for a bath.
White people have lived for years among the Zuñi and other Pueblos and have found them patient, kind, and intelligent. Some of these whites have returned and have written books about the people of whose home life they have learned so much.
Some of the habits of the Navajos are very odd. After the death of one of their tribe, his house, or [[52]]hogan, is pulled down; if this is not done, every one who enters it fears danger.
A Navajo will not look into the face of the mother of his wife; when they talk together he looks on the ground or in another direction. It is said a Navajo once forgot himself and, looking up, became blind. They believe that the souls of the women of their tribe enter fish when they leave this world; and they rarely eat fish for that reason. Indian customs and manners are taught to their children with just as much earnestness as white people teach their little ones.
All the Pueblos make curious images or dolls of clay. These may possibly be idols, but are not always, for both old and young sometimes play with them as toys. They are a religious people. They believe in a Great Spirit and in a future life. Their forms of worship are very strange and sometimes cruel.
The tribes called Pueblos of New Mexico are not included with those which continue to live in the twenty-seven Pueblo towns, for whatever may have been their customs in past centuries, they are now very different from the Village Indians, who still live and worship after the manner of their ancestors. [[53]]
Moki Maiden in Native Costume
From a Photograph
[[54]]