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Full text of "Final report of investigations among the Indians of the southwestern United States, carried on mainly in the years from 1880 to 1885"

OF THE 

UNIVERSITY 
OF 



Capers- of % |,rr^oI0gkaI institute of ^merits. 

AMERICAN SERIES. 
III. 



FINAL REPORT 

OF 

INVESTIGATIONS AMONG THE INDIANS OF THE 

SOUTHWESTERN UNITED STATES, CARRIED ON 

MAINLY IN THE YEARS FROM 1880 TO 1885. 

PART I. 



BY 



A. F. BANDELIER. 



INSTITUTE 

OF 
AMERICA. 

8/9 




CAMBRIDGE: 

PRINTED BY JOHN WILSON AND SON. 

Hnftrersttg Press. 

1890. 






T, 

>J~ 




ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE OF AMERICA, 



Council, 1889-90. 

CHARLES ELIOT NORTON, President. 
HENRY DRISLER, Vice-President. 
MARTIN BRIMMER. 
FRANCIS PARKMAN. 
STEPHEN SALISBURY. 
FREDERIC J. DE PEYSTER. 
RUSSELL STURGIS. 
AUGUSTUS C. MERRIAM. 
ALLAN MARQUAND. 
DAVID L. BARTLETT. 
ARTHUR L. FROTHINGHAM 
JOHN P. PETERS. 



PREFACE. 



IN submitting this First Part of my Report to the Archae 
ological Institute of America, I have to apologize for 
the long delay in its completion. Although the material 
for it was ready long ago, circumstances beyond my con 
trol have prevented my putting it into shape for earlier 
publication. 

I take this occasion to acknowledge the debt of gratitude 
which I owe to the population of the sections of country 
through which my investigations have led me, for the uni 
form kindness and hospitality shown to me, for the fre 
quent disinterested assistance lent me in my labors, and 
for the valuable information imparted at almost every step. 
This acknowledgment is due to all classes and to all races 
with whom I have come in contact. I forbear offering the 
thanks specially due to personal friends, since, were I to 
enumerate them, the list would become far too long for a 
Preface. I offer my grateful acknowledgments to the civil 
and ecclesiastical, as well as to the military, authorities of 
both the American and Mexican portions of the South 
west, for having, by their protection, largely furthered my 
work. 

The orthography of Indian names which I have adopted 
is not that adopted by the Bureau of Ethnology, at Wash- 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



PAGE 

THE ROCK AND PUEBLO OF ACOMA, SEEN FROM THE 

NORTH Frontispiece 

PROCESSION, FEAST OF ST. ESTEVAN, ACOMA 219 

FOOT RACE AT PUEBLO OF TAGS 240 

ACOMA : NORTHERN Row OF HOUSES 265 

PUEBLO OF TAGS : SOUTH HOUSE 266 

INTERIOR OF A HOUSE AT ZUNI 269 

MAP OF SONORA AND CHIHUAHUA End Of Volume 



FINAL REPORT 



ON 



INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST. 

PART I. 



INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST. 



i. 



INTRODUCTION. 

THE country explored, or at least visited, during the 
period of four years which the Archaeological Institute 
devoted to American research, (exclusive of the year 1881, 
which was spent in Southern and Central Mexico,) lies between 
the 36th and 2Qth parallels of latitude North, and the ic>5th 
and 1 1 2th degrees of longitude West. Since the year 1884, 
when explorations were discontinued, I have, as often as it 
was feasible, made short tours of investigation into regions 
hitherto unknown to me. Although such excursions were 
wholly independent of my connection with the Institute, that 
connection terminating officially in January, 1.885, I shall in 
clude here also whatever observations I may have been able 
to secure. They are not very important, still they contribute 
to render the general picture more accurate. The accom 
panying map will give an idea of the whole ground gone over, 
- mostly alone, on horseback or on foot. To one bent upon 
scientific observations, even journeys by rail become instruct 
ive and valuable. I have therefore laid down on the map 
mentioned the railroad trips also. In a country where the 
aboriginal population has been so completely dependent upon 
nature as the aborigines of the Southwest were prior to the 
sixteenth century, the topography and hydrography of the 



4 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 

land, its natural history and meteorology, form the basis of 
archaeological researches. They furnish the key to the eth 
nological development of primitive man ; through them we 
secure the explanation of most of the changes which he has 
undergone ; they show to us, in a measure, how present eth 
nography has come to be. To attempt historical studies 
anywhere, without first knowing thoroughly the nature of 
the country, is as futile as to try astronomy without the aid 
of mathematics, or mineralogy without a previous course of 
analytical chemistry. 

I have given to the Institute an account of all my trips, 
with the exception of the last one, which occupied the period 
from November, 1883, to July, 1884. Before entering upon 
the general Geographical Introduction to this Report, I may 
be permitted to sketch the route of these last travels. 

Leaving Santa Fe, I went to El Paso del Norte, where I 
resided for nearly two weeks among the remnants of the 
Mansos, and among the Piros and Tiguas, who were trans 
planted to this vicinity about 1680. Being obliged to return 
to Santa Fe, owing to a serious attack of bronchitis, so soon 
as I was sufficiently recovered, I made a flying trip to the 
Pueblo of San Juan, on the Rio Grande, where I enjoyed full 
access to the fine collection of Indian objects and antiquities 
which my friend Samuel Eldodt has gathered in the course 
of nineteen years residence among the Tehuas. The se 
vere cold compelling me to go south, I accordingly removed 
to Rincon, on the Rio Grande, there to investigate ruins of 
" small-house villages," near San Diego. Thence I went to 
Fort Cummings, at the foot of Cook s Peak, and thence on 
to the Rio Mimbres, whose course I ascended on foot to 
the source. Crossing the divide to the Sapillo, I reached the 
wilderness about the head-waters of the Rio Gila, with its 
remains of cave habitations, cliff-houses, and open-air villages 



INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST. 5 

of the small-house type. Returning to the Mimbres, I reached 
from there Silver City, Deming, and at last, by rail, Tucson, 
where my horse, the same animal that had carried me from 
Santa Fe to Tucson previously, had been most kindly taken 
care of by the military authorities at Fort Lowell. My inten 
tion was to visit Sonora, and although the advice of my mili 
tary friends was against an attempt to penetrate the Sierra 
Madre, I nevertheless left the post on the /th of February 
for the valley of the San Pedro, and travelled up the valley 
from Tres Alamos to Contencion, thence to Fort Huachuca, 
and entered Sonora on the 2Oth of the same month, near the 
head-waters of the stream between the Sierra Cananea and 
the Sierra de San Jose. Once on Mexican soil, I followed 
the course of the Rio Sonora almost due south, stopping at 
every village and hamlet which the Apaches have failed to 
destroy, as far as Babiacora, quite one hundred and forty 
miles south of the frontier line of the United States. Here 
the dangerous part of the journey commenced ; for though 
Geronimo and his people were on the point of returning to 
the North, occasional bands of Apaches might still be ex 
pected to infest the mountains converging towards the Sierra 
Madre from Sonora. Nevertheless, I decided upon travelling 
to the eastward, with as little display as possible, relying 
upon night trips and general caution for safety. By way of 
Oposura the upper Rio Yaqui was reached on the 3d of April. 
Here I found an opportunity of joining two young men from 
Nacori, who had come in order to lay in a supply of provis 
ions for their forsaken village, the last one in Sonora to 
wards the east, and often sorely crowded by the Apaches. 
My horse being exhausted, I accompanied the party on foot 
to their village, and thence, with an Indian guide, and with 
the greatest precaution, penetrated to the western slopes of the 
Que-hua-ue-ri-chi range, considered in the country to be the 



6 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 

highest and most central portion of the Great Sierra under 
that parallel of latitude. After my return to Granados on 
the Yaqui, and a few days spent at Huassavas, chiefly in ex 
amining remnants of church archives from the time of the 
Jesuits, and in measuring the abundant remains of ancient 
garden-beds and dwellings, I continued my journey, taking 
advantage of a convoy, to Huachinera. It would have been, 
to say the least, exceedingly imprudent to undertake the trip 
of fifty miles alone, and in a mountain wilderness, where the 
presumption was that Apaches might be encountered at any 
moment. Huachinera became another centre of operations, 
and the next one was Baserac, again on the Yaqui. From 
here I succeeded in penetrating the formidable Sierra de 
Teras, until then wholly untrodden, as, indeed, may be said 
of this region in general, so far as scientific research is con 
cerned. Babispe was my last station in Sonora. From there 
I passed over into- Chihuahua, crossing the desert plateau to 
Janos. Turning south again, I reached Casas Grandes on 
the 8th of May. At this important locality I was delayed 
nearly a month, inclusive of another tour on foot into the 
Sierra Madre as far as the Arroyo del Nombre de Dios, where 
I found some very well preserved cave-houses. On the I4th 
of June I came at last to Deming, within reach of regular 
mail facilities and railroads. After my return to Santa Fe, 
I spent a few days in the Pecos valley, to see once more the 
sights which had made such a profound impression upon me 
when I first engaged in the service of the Institute. 

The journey into the Sierra Madre, although to a certain 
extent hazardous beyond the measure of duty, has left me no 
cause for regret. The numerous remains of man there have 
been noticed but lately by travellers, and they have become 
a source of undue wonder. As I hope to be able to show 
hereafter, they are far from being so marvellous as they have 



INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST. 7 

been thought. On the other hand, they are interesting and 
instructive in the highest degree. They form a connecting 
link between the extreme North and much more southerly 
regions that does not appear at the first glance, and explain 
features the origin of which is certainly not to be looked for 
in North America even. These features will be sketched in 
their place further on. So much for my journey. 

The portion of the North American Southwest of which we 
treat consists of the Territories of New Mexico and Arizona, 
within the limits of the United States, and of the States of 
Sonora and Chihuahua, on Mexican soil. It is a region re 
markable for high average elevation above the sea level, and 
for aridity. The whole area forms, so to say, a pitched roof, 
whose northern gable-end is much higher than the southern, 
so that there are three slopes: one to the west, towards the 
Gulf of California ; one to the east, towards the Mississippi 
valley ; and a gradual decrease in height of mountain chains 
from Colorado down to the boundaries of Durango. This lat 
ter is not a drainage slope, although it also has its influence 
upon river courses, and especially upon the volume of water 
they carry. The farther south we go, on this side of the 
Isthmus, the less important do the watercourses become, not 
only in length, but also in power. 

The highest point of the whole region, as far as known, lies 
in Northern New Mexico. The "Truchas," north of Santa 
Fe, ascend to 13,150 feet above sea level. None of the peaks 
of the Sierra Madre reach this altitude ; they do not even 
attain the proportions of lesser mountains in New Mexico like 
the Sierra Blanca, 1 " Baldy," 2 the Costilla, 3 or the Sierra de 

1 The List of Elevations, 1877. does not give the height, but the official maps 
place it at 11,892 feet. Thos. Gannett. 

2 12,661 feet. 

8 12,634 feet. List of Elevations, p. 118. 



8 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 

San Mateo. 1 The same may be said of Arizona, where only 
the northern ranges, the Sierra de San Francisco and the 
Sierra Blanca, rise above 12,000 feet. 2 There is a gradual 
decline in size as the mountains approach the mouth of that 
funnel whose wide aperture forms the North of the Mexican 
Republic, and its small escape the Isthmus of Panama. It is 
doubtful whether any of the summits in the Sierra Madre, 
down to the Durango line, rise higher than 10,000 feet. 3 
Another peculiarity is the narrowing of mountain regions 
from north to south. In those portions belonging to the 
United States, fully three fourths are strictly mountainous ; 
in Sonora and Chihuahua, scarcely one half may be called 
mountain lands. The general drift of the chains is from north 
to south, although transverse ranges are numerous, 4 and 
towards the south one of the characteristic features of the 
landscape consists often in isolated mountain masses, rising 
directly and abruptly out of a level which frequently is of re 
pulsive barrenness. Such is the case, for instance, in South 
western New Mexico, where the Sierra Florida dominates 
the plain around Deming; 5 in Southwestern Arizona, with the 
peak of Baboquivari ; 6 in Northwestern Chihuahua, with the 
Sierra de en el Medio ; and even in a measure in Southeastern 
New Mexico, the huge Sierra Blanca rising to a height of 
7,000 feet above the level of Fort Stanton. 

1 1 1, 200 feet. List of Elevations, p. 129. 

2 Humphrey s Peak in the San Francisco range, 12,561 feet. 

3 T- Ross Browne, Report on the Mineral Resources of the States and Territories 
west of the Rocky Mountains, p. 641 : "few if any points exceeding 10,000 feet 
in elevation." 

4 For instance, the Sierra Diablo, and the Sierra Luera, near the head-waters 
of the Gila; the Sierra del Datil, and the Escudilla, in Western Central New 
Mexico ; also the Sierra de Zuni. In Northern Chihuahua, the Sierra de las 
Espuelas, etc. 

5 This very abrupt and picturesque group is a conspicuous object. It rises 
out of the plain around Deming to a height of about 4,000 feet. 

6 Visible easily from Tucson. Its elevation is about 7,000 feet, and the plain 
around it scarcely reaches 2,000. 



INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST. 9 

The landscape in the Southwest is striking at all times. 
The plains of Eastern New Mexico are impressive through 
their immensity and absolute rigidity. They are far from 
producing the feeling which is created by the ocean. A 
liquid level is never absolutely at rest ; the mind, as well as 
the eye, is always kept on the alert for something to occur, 
even on the calmest day. The plains, on the contrary, are 
immovable ; there is nothing on the stark and stiff surface 
to connect it with the sky. On the wanderer, they produce 
easily a feeling of utter hopelessness. 1 With a sigh of relief, 
he at last discovers the faint outline of distant mountain 
chains, and their profile, strikingly like motionless lightning, 
is to him a token of new life. The plains lie between the 
luxuriant vegetation of the central States and the arid moun 
tains of the Southwest, like a forbidding barrier. Without 
the buffalo, primitive man could never have traversed them. 

The higher ranges, especially those in the northern sections 
of New Mexico, are far from being dismally arid. In the lati 
tude of Santa Fe, pine timber begins at an altitude of about 
seven thousand feet. It rises to varied and very irregular 
heights, at the upper timber-line. That line changes : in 
almost every chain it is different by a few hundred feet. 2 
Still it may be said that its average level lies above eleven 
thousand feet in the Southwest. This height is reached 
only by Coniferae ; the scrub oak crowns lesser crests and 
tops, such as the mountains on the Mexican border, the 
Sierra de la Hacha, the Sierra de la Boca Grande, and the 
Espuelas. Some ranges are strikingly destitute of arborescent 

1 This feeling is already noticed by the chroniclers of Coronado s march. 
Castaneda, Relation du Voyage de Cibola, p. 189. 

2 It is sometimes more elevated in northern ranges than in southern ones. 
Thus in Lat. 33 to 34 it is n,ioo feet, in Arizona. On Pike s Peak, in Lat. 
38 to 39, it is 11,720 feet ; on Buffalo Peak, in Colorado also, 12,041 ; and in the 
Sawatch range of Colorado, from 11,500 to 12,117 feet. 



IO ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 

vegetation. The Sierra de los Organos and its neighbors 
north and south along the eastern border of the Rio Grande 
valley, from the Sierra Oscura to El Paso, are completely 
without timber. Steepness of the slopes, incident upon 
geological structure, may be regarded as the principal cause 
of this bareness. 

Although the basis of the plain abutting against the moun 
tain regions on the east is mostly cretaceous and tertiary, 
volcanic flows have penetrated into it, and they form isolated 
videttes in the form of table-mountains or Mesas. 1 The 
Mesa is one of the distinctive traits of Southwestern mountain 
scenery. Frequently a thin crust or layer of metamorphic 
trap or of basalt covers a base of sedimentary rocks, and 
the difference in hardness between base and top has given 
a hold to erosion by water as well as by atmospheric cur 
rents, 2 a hold that causes the sides to give way and leaves 
the surface as a projecting table, whence the Spanish popular 
term, now universally accepted, is derived. Erosion has been 
exceedingly powerful : not only the Mesa formation, the gi 
gantic gorges, or canons, are due to this agency. With their 
vertical walls encasing a narrow bottom, these deep ravines 
are a testimony of a slow corrosive and erosive force exerted 
through long periods of time. 

Withal, volcanic action has left many traces. Extinct 
craters are frequent in New Mexico and in Arizona, and some 
of the most important mountain clusters owe their origin 
to eruptive action. The Sierra de San Francisco in Arizona, 
and the Sierra de San Mateo in New Mexico, are tall extinct 
volcanoes. Well delineated lava-flows fill the bottom of vales 

1 Wagon Mound, on the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad, is a good 
specimen of this kind. So are some of the Mesas around Raton, where that road 
enters New Mexico. 

2 Remarkable erosions through wind are visible in the valleys of Pojuaque 
and Tezuque, which empty into the Rio Grande north of Santa Fe. 



INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST. n 

in Western New Mexico, 1 and they appear of relatively recent 
origin. Yet it is positive that in the past four centuries 
no eruption of any kind has occurred in the southwestern 
portions of the United States. On Mexican soil, the disturb 
ances in the northeastern portions of Sonora and the north 
western of Chihuahua during .this year (1887), are the only 
trace of events of this nature within historical times. Con 
fused, and perhaps unauthentic, Indian tales hint at displays 
of volcanic forces in times previous to Spanish occupation, 
but it is impossible as yet to determine when and where they 
took place. The " Year of Light and Fire," (Ano de la 
Lumbre,) spoken about by the Indians of Laguna, may have 
been a year of volcanic phenomena ; but it may equally well 
have been one of brilliant auroral displays. 

Thermal mineral springs are remarkably common in the 
Southwest. Hot springs, with a large proportion of soda 
only in their water, are also numerous. There are valuable 
medicinal sources in some places. 2 The importance of these 
localities has been, locally, exaggerated. 

A similar exaggeration has prevailed, and even to a greater 
degree, in regard to the mines in the Southwest, and has a 
direct bearing upon the studies which I was called upon to 
pursue, since it is often stated that the Indians while in their 
original condition engaged in mining, and since it is com 
monly believed that the aboriginal population was diminished 
in numbers, or at least degraded, through compulsory min 
ing for the benefit of the Spaniards. In the Southwest, the 

1 A fine lava-flow begins near the Agua Azul on the Atlantic and Pacific 
Railroad. It is very prominent near McCarthy s. In its passage it has scarcely 
ruffled the edge of the carboniferous red sandstone between whose walls it ran, at 
the bottom of a narrow valley. The bottom rocks are but slightly singed. 

2 Joseph s Springs, west of Taos, and Jemez Springs, north of the Pueblo, in 
the Canon de San Diego. The former are arsenical ; the latter contain, besides 
iodine, much lithion. 



12 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 

Indians were compelled to mine but very seldom, and then 
only with a stipulated compensation. 1 In New Mexico and 
in Arizona they never were compelled to work in the mines, 
not only on account of the stringent protective laws of Spain, 
but because the Spaniards, more experienced in the forma- 

1 I-t is evident that in Spanish America, as well as everywhere else, the strict 
decrees of the Crown in behalf of the Indian were sometimes evaded or disre 
garded, and the native occasionally treated with cruelty. But these instances 
were only exceptions, and not the rule. Las Casas, in his injudicious diatribes, 
has completely misrepresented the facts in many cases. He was an honest, but 
utterly unpractical enthusiast, who failed to understand both the Indian and the 
new issue placed before that Indian through the discovery of America, and who 
condemned everything and everybody from the moment that they did not agree 
with his own theories and plans. The royal decrees in favor of the Indian were 
numerous, and the labor bestowed by the kings of Spain and their councils on 
the "Indian question" was immense, so that it would require a special mono 
graph of great extent in order to do justice to the subject. Compulsory labor in 
mines without compensation, was first abolished in 1551 ; but Philip II. regulated 
more explicitly the case by his Real Cedula of loth January, 1589. See Recopila- 
cion de las Leyes de los Reynos de las Indias, ed. 1756, lib. vi. tit. xv., ley I a, vol. ii. 
fol. 254. " Declaramos, que a los Indies se les puede mandar, que vayan alas 
minas, como no sea mudando temple, de que resulte dano a su salud, teniendo 
Doctrina y Justicia, que los ampare, bastimentos, de que poclerse sustentar, buena 
paga de sus jornales, y Hospital, donde scan curados, asisticlos, y regalados los 
que enfermaren, y que el trabajo sea templado, y haya Veedor, que cuide de lo 
susodicho; y en quanto a los salaries de Doctrina y Justicia, scan a costa de 
los Mineros, pues resulta en su beneficio el repartimiento de Indies ; y tambien 
paguen lo que pareciere necesario para la cura de los Enfermos." See also the 
Reales Cedulas oi 24th January, 1594, and 26th August, 1595, etc. That the South 
western mines were often a real benefit for the Indian who understood how to 
take hold of them in the right way, is thus told by P. Andres Perez de Ribas, 
Historia de los Trivmphos de nvestra Santa Fee entre gentes las mas Barbaras v 
Fieras del Nueuo Orbe, etc., 1645, lib- viii. cap. iii. p. 475. Speaking of the 
Indians around the celebrated mines of Topia in Durango, he says : " Y declarare 
aqui lo que significa esa palabra: porque se entienda la grande ganancia que 
tienen en la labor de minas los Indies trabajadores, principalmente los ladinos en 
ellas, y que conocen los metales, y son barreteros, que con barretas rompen la 
veta del metal. Porque estos, demas de la paga de su salario de cada dia, que es 
de quatro reales de plata por lo menos : pero fuera de ese, los principales traba 
jadores tienen facultad y licencia, de escoger para si vna de las espuertas que 
llaman Tenates, llena de metal, que cada dia rompe, y saca de la veta ; metal 
que siempre es el mas rico y escogido : porque como ellos lo conocen, y regis- 
tran primero que sus amos, apartan para si lo mas precioso ; y esto no se les 



INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST. 13 

tions of the country than the modern "prospecter" and the 
young graduate of mining schools, very soon perceived that 
mines in New Mexico, as a general rule, "would not pay." 1 
As for aboriginal mining, it is a myth. We have yet to find 
a trace of work similar to the breaking of native copper with 
huge mauls, performed on Lake Superior. Of reduction of 

puede estoruar a los Indies : porque al punto que eso se les estoruase, desam- 
pararian las minas, y ellas y sus amos quedaran perdidos. La espuerta de metal 
que saca, al Indio le suele valer quatro, seis, y tal vez diez, y mas reales de a 
ocho. Y a esto llaman Pepenas, que son muy vsadas en todos los Reales de 
minas de la Nueua Espana, y lo mismo deue de pasar en los otros Reinos de 
las Indias ; y asi los Indios que son diestros en la labor de minas, andan luci- 
damete tratados y vestidos." 

1 The deceptive nature of New Mexican ores was discovered by the Spaniards 
at an early day. In 1626 complaints were already uttered against the settlers 
of New Mexico on the ground of their complete apathy in matters of mining. 
Fray Geronimo de Zarate-Salmeron, Relaciones de Todas las Cosas que en el Nueito 
Mexico se han visto y sabido, etc., MS., Art. 34, says : " De todo esto se rien los 
Espanoles que alia estan : Como tengan buena cosecha de Tabaco para chupar, 
estan mui contentos, y no quieren mas riquezas, que parece han hecho voto de 
pobreza, que es mucho para ser Espanoles, pues por codicia de plata y oro 
entraran en el mismo Ynfierno a sacarlas." In Art. 35 he tells of three Flemings 
who came to New Mexico with some capital, and with the intention of working 
mines ; but the Spaniards of Mexico burnt the machinery, which had been stand 
ing idle since the time of Don Pedro de Peralta, Onate s successor as governor of 
the province. The viceroys themselves were not much taken with mining pros 
pects in New Mexico. Already the Conde de Monterey wrote to the King in 
1602, Discurso y Proposition que se hace a vuestra Magestad de lo Tocante a los 
Descubrimientos del Nuevo Mexico (Documentas de Indias, vol. xvi. p. 50) : " Y 
cierto que no tengo perdido esperanza de que se haya de verificar lo que el 
Gobernador todavfa afirma, de que hay plata en algunos cerros de aquella co- 
marca en que esta, . . . y aunque Joan de Onate escribe que ahora saldria a 
hacer algunas catas hondas, y que hasta tanto no asegura riqueza, porque no 
sabe que haya metales de aventajada ley ; esto no me desanima, porque no hay 
cuenta cierta en ello." In 1630, Fray Alonso de Benavides writes glowingly of 
mines in New Mexico, especially of those of Socorro (Memorial, pp. 17-19); 
but nobody felt constrained to attempt working them. The reason for it is stated 
afterwards officially by the Brigadier Pedro de Rivera, Diario y Derrotero de lo 
Caminado, Visto, y Observado en el Discurso de la Visita General de Presidios, situ- 
ados en las Provincias ynternas de Nueva Espana, 1736, p. 32: " Hanse encon- 
trado en dicho Reyno, algunos Minerales, sin dar su metal mas ley, que la de 
Alquimia, y Cobre ; y como no se ha podido costear el beneficio que necesita, 
las han dejado abandonadas." 



14 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 

ores, even by the rude process invented by the ancient Peru 
vians, there is no sign. For the Southwestern Indian, copper 
ores had value only in proportion as they were bright blue 
and brigJit green ; and the inferior kalaite, met with in New 
Mexico, was liked as well as the bluest turquoise from Asia 
Minor would have been. Mining, therefore, has had not the 
slightest influence on the fate of the native in the Southwest, 
under the Spanish sway ; and no tale of ancient and now hid 
den treasures, which " only the Indian knew and made use 
of," should ever be taken as a basis for earnest enterprise. 
I am speaking here of those regions alone upon which I have 
to report to the Institute. 

The geology of the Southwest has given to the Indians 
who inhabited the country resources more precious to them 
than metal. At a certain stage men do not attempt cutting 
and hewing. They have not advanced far enough to know 
how to prepare instruments for such purposes, and are there 
fore reduced to hammering and breaking. Metals are either 
too malleable for such purposes, or too brittle, unless a much 
greater advance has been made in treating them than that 
which the remains in these regions show. Thus it was that 
hard rock, flint, and obsidian were to the aborigines as impor 
tant as iron and copper are to us to-day. These minerals are 
found in abundance in the Southwest, but they are strictly 
localized, and do not appear everywhere. The mountains 
converging toward the Sierra Madre from the side of Sonora, 
where they merge into that backbone of the Mexican isthmus, 
contain an abundance of obsidian in places. 1 Flint is scat 
tered here and there. Basalt is common. To these we have 

1 I saw much obsidian in nodules on the elevated plateau called " Llanos de 
Huepari," near Huachinera, on the western spurs of the Sierra Madre. The 
Tahuaro also is full of it. There is obsidian in the mountains which divide the 
Rio Grande valley from the sources of the Rio Jemez. 



INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST. 15 

to add, as a matter of secondary importance, however, mineral 
paints. Iron is plentiful, and often in the shape of iron ochre. 
The copper greens and blues are found almost everywhere. 
Kaolin, or rather a coarse kaolin clay, is met with occasion 
ally. This exhausts the list of mineral products indispensable 
to the aborigines which the Southwest afforded. 

The dryness of the Pacific coast is well known. From 
that side the regions of New Mexico and Arizona derive no 
humidity. Only what passes over the mountains from the 
northwest can occasionally irrigate the valleys and basins. 
In fact, it is the contact of northerly currents, cold and dry, 
with the slight moisture still contained in the air coming up 
from the Gulf of Mexico, that produces rain in summer, snow 
in winter. This moisture is in itself but a residue, for it has 
shed its main contents over the plains of Texas. It may be 
said that irrigation, both by precipitation and drainage, is fur 
nished from the leavings of surrounding territories, north as 
well as south. In winter northerly winds prevail ; in summer 
they blow from an intermediate direction between south and 
east. Both equinoxes are usually stormy, without much rain. 
The rainy season is defined, inasmuch as it is limited to the 
months of July, August, and September ; but it is far from 
displaying the copiousness of tropical climates. Weeks may 
elapse without the discharge of a single shower ; then again 
weeks may bring a series of thunder-storms accompanied by 
floods of rain. During the other nine months of the year 
there are occasional days of rain, which usually comes from 
the southeast, and lasts until the wind settles in the opposite 
quarter. The same happens with snow-storms ; the south 
easterly winds are their forerunners, while northwesterly 
currents bring them to a close. What, during winter months, 
causes a snowfall in northern sections, appears in Southern 
Arizona and Sonora as a succession of rainy days, akin to 



1 6 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 

"bad weather" in the Eastern States, and called "Quipata" 
by the natives of Sonora and Chihuahua. A "Quipata" re 
sembles an equinoctial storm of rain, but with less violence 
of wind, and perhaps less copiousness of precipitation. The 
further south these disturbances occur, the more severe be 
comes their character. This may be said of aqueous phenom 
ena in general. The banks of the Rio Yaqui and of the Mayo 
are very humid in comparison with those of northern rivers ; 
and when it rains, even on the dry plateaux of Central Chi 
huahua, the fall is extraordinarily heavy. 

In a country whose topography displays such variety of 
features, and which besides extends over so many degrees 
of latitude as well as of longitude, a great number of what 
might be termed " local climates " appear. According to 
altitude, temperature varies within short distances. 1 The 
direction of mountain chains deflects and diverts atmospheric 
currents ; what is a northerly wind on the plains may enter 
a narrow gorge from an opposite direction ; a circle of high 
ranges around a low basin may keep it absolutely dry for 
years, all the precipitation being shut off by the crests. Such 
is the case on the middle Rio Gila about Casa Grande, and 
near Marricopa, in Southern Arizona. Years elapse some 
times ere these sandy bottoms are blessed by a substantial 
shower. Santa Fe in New Mexico is much more arid than 
the valley of Tezuque, although the latter is only seven miles 
distant. Las Cruces and the Mesilla valley on the Rio 
Grande are moist, and to a slight extent malarial, compared 

1 There is already a marked difference between Santa Fe and Tezuque, 
although the distance is only seven miles. Pena Blanca, twenty-seven miles from 
the capital, and 1,700 feet lower, is both colder in winter and much warmer in 
summer than the former. At Albuquerque the thermometer rises occasionally 
to over 100, whereas at Santa Fe it never reaches 90 in the shade. At Tucson, 
where the thermometer attains 120 frequently, and where it hardly ever snows, 
the climate is torrid, whereas the sources of the San Pedro on the Sonora fron 
tier are bitterly cold in winter. 



INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST. 17 

with Socorro on the same stream, while the difference in 
their altitude is only a few hundred feet. Still, the general 
characteristics prevail everywhere as soon as we compare the 
climate with that of other regions on the North American 
continent. Dryness, comparative richness in ozone, and in 
the higher portions a mild temperature, whose extremes fluc 
tuate between 90 in the summer, and 12 in cold winters. 
These extremes do not apply of course to the mountain zones 
proper, at an elevation of 8,000 feet and beyond, nor to the 
torrid lowlands of Arizona, of Chihuahua, and of the Sonoran 
sea-coast. 

Where the water supply is wholly dependent upon what 
surrounding countries cannot absorb, the river systems suffer 
from the same scantiness as precipitation itself. Rainy sea 
sons do not swell streams in the northern Southwest in any 
permanent manner; it is the melting of snow on the mountains 
of Colorado that causes the Rio Grande and the great Colo 
rado to rise, and to inundate their banks. The same is true 
of the Gila, whose head-waters lie in the mountains of South 
ern New Mexico. These streams are therefore highest in 
May and in June, whereas during the months of rain their 
volume of water is steadily on the decrease. All these rivers 
have a rapid fall in the beginning, and are constantly washing 
down detritus, mostly of volcanic origin, towards their lower 
course. In proportion as they approach the ocean they have 
formed sandy bottoms, and this soil contributes to narrow 
the river bed, even to close it, where the stream is of small 
volume. The rivers of the Southwest, therefore, diminish 
more or less before reaching their mouths. South of the 
Rio Chama, the waters of not a single tributary of the Rio 
Grande reach the main artery throughout the whole year: the 
confluences of the Rio de Jcmez, of the turbulent Puerco, of 
the Pecos, and of the Concho, are dry washes, except for a 



1 8 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 

few hours in the rainy season, when an extraordinarily heavy 
shower causes the torrent to disgorge floods of roaring waters, 
carrying huge boulders and masses of rubbish. This peculiar 
ity of Southwestern rivers and streams, which causes them to 
resemble mountain torrents rather than regular watercourses, 
is of great importance to the historical student. In the dry 
season, early Spanish explorers could easily fail to notice 
a river which, on maps, astonishes us by the length of its 
course, and therefore leads us to expect a corresponding 
volume of water, whereas in reality it presents at a certain 
period of the year but the appearance of a dry gulch, or at 
best of a thin film lazily sinking through whitish sand. If, 
for instance, Alarcon does not mention the mouth of the Gila 
when he rowed up the great Colorado in September, 1540, it 
should be no matter of surprise, for the Gila at that season 
sometimes carries no more water than an ordinary brook, 
notwithstanding the length of its course. 

Under such circumstances, it follows that even the moist 
ure which the Southwest derives from surrounding districts 
by the channels of drainage is not abundant. That drainage 
itself is limited in area, and hence the habitable portions of 
the surface are small in comparison with the total expanse. 
The soil is largely fertile, that is, where there is any soil at all ; 
it produces as soon as it can be moistened. Vegetation there 
fore bears the character that might be expected : it appears 
scant along the mountain bases, and often on the lower moun 
tains themselves ; and owing to the more southerly latitude, 
coupled with the elevation of the general level, it affords sin 
gular associations of vegetable types, and great contrasts in 
what lives and blossoms in the same neighborhood. 

I have already alluded to the Coniferae as forming the vege 
table covering of the higher mountains. These stately plants 
are not limited to northern latitudes ; they extend into Sonora 



INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST. 19 

and Chihuahua, where large portions of the Sierra Madre dis 
play vast forests of splendid pine timber. Finns Chihua- 
huana and strobiformis cover the central elevated basins, the 
"heart of the Sierra." On the whole, forests are not abun 
dant in the Southwest. What is called " Monte " in Spanish 
embraces any description of country covered with plants, 
perennial, and higher than the low shrub. Mezquite (JProsopis 
juliflord), although only three and four feet high, but scattered 
thickly over a number of acres, is a " Monte" in the midst of 
an arid plain. Narrow canons studded at intervals with tall 
pines, high Mesas on which the low and wide juniper bushes 
are scattered for miles like an irregular orchard, are called 
" Monte." Real timber regions are scarce. The cold and 
well-watered Tierra Amarilla in Northern New Mexico, the 
plateau of the Sierra de Zufii, the surroundings of the Sierra 
de San Francisco in Arizona, are among the few typical tim 
bered areas. 1 In the main, trees are farther apart than in 
better irrigated sections, and the majority of valleys present 
a series of groves, instead of a connected forest. 2 

The change in vegetation incident upon more southern lati 
tude, as well as upon decrease in altitude, is very sudden and 
striking in Southern Arizona, on the banks of the Gila River. 
There the transition from the pine area, clustering around the 
base of the Sierra Blanca, to the thorny and threatening forms 
of gigantic Cacti, of Fouquiera splendens, Larrea gigantea, Da- 
sylirium, Parkinsonia, and similar brilliantly flowering mon 
strosities of the vegetable kingdom, is not only interesting, 
it is fascinating to the eye. Another world opens before the 

1 A beautiful section of high and picturesque timber-land surrounds also Fort 
Apache in Eastern Arizona. There the forest is dense, the trees stately, and 
among the varieties represented is the Psendotmga Douglassii. The pines of 
Chihuahua reach as far north as Mount Graham, on the southern shores of the 
Gila. 

2 The valley of the upper Rio Pecos is a good specimen. 



20 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 

traveller; with the unexpected sight of strange plants he 
breathes, or seems to breathe, another equally strange air. 

In other sections of the Southwest this transition is much 
more gradual, certain families of plants, like the Cacti, for 
instance, being everywhere represented, 1 Opuntise blossom 
ing in the shade of Finns Murrayana, as well as on the plain 
alongside of Buffalo-grass and of Yucca angnstifolia. The 
transformation from smaller into taller forms as we proceed 
farther south is not so striking. In Central Arizona the 
" Palo Verde " (Parkinsonia Torreyand) creeps up to near the 
Little Colorado River. 2 In Western Sonora the specifically 
Arizonian flora prevails generally in the centre, the " Pitahaya" 
takes the place of the colossal " Zahuaro" (Cereus giganteus}, 
and cylindrical Opuntiae or " Choyas " increase in number, as 
well as in size. Thickets are not common in the South vest, 
on the whole. They are found in northern sections, in gorges 
and ravines like the Canon of Santa Clara, where wild-cherry 
trees, and even elders, willows, and poplars, gather closely 
along the banks of a limpid brook. Farther south, however, 
the thicket is much more frequent, and what is there called 
" Monte " is but a thicket, often dangerous to penetrate on 
account of the thorny plants of which it is constituted. Such 
thickets cover the drift-hills encasing the Sonora and Upper 
Yaqui Rivers ; they impede approach to the numerous and 
small aboriginal ruins with which these hills are covered, and 
render both difficult and tedious the surveys of rude fortifica 
tion lines that sometimes furrow the slopes of more isolated 
eminences. 

Sonora is a country of striking contrasts. From the road 
leading to Bacuachi, the eye embraces at once pine-clad crests, 

1 Opimtia arborescens, for instance, acquires a fine development on the plains, 
or rather basins, of Middle New Mexico. It flowers in four different shades. 

2 Through Tonto Basin. It is also found in the Mojave Desert. 



INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST. 21 

slopes covered with oak, Palo Blanco, and " Dunes " thickly 
overgrown with Mezquite and formidable Choyas. In the 
narrow cleft through which the Yaqui runs past Huassavas 
and Granados, wild-fig trees associate with oak. The latter 
is also an almost steady companion of the Fan-palm. 1 

Farther south, on the banks of the Lower Yaqui and of the 
Rio Mayo, vegetation assumes more vigorous proportions. 
The sugar-cane grows well there, and orange trees thrive luxu 
riantly around Hermosillo and near Guaymas on the coast of 
the Gulf of California; 2 or rather near it, for the coast itself, 
on Sonoran territory at least, is a forbidding stretch, marshy 
below Guaymas, fearfully dry and arid between Guaymas 
and the mouth of the Colorado River. What are called the 
"Play,- s" is nothing else but a desert of sand and occasional 
rock, a dreary waste, without water, unfit for permanent 
abode. Of similar character is Eastern Chihuahua. It is 
a dismal region, almost destitute of water in many places, 
terribly hot, and with a dwarfish and thorny vegetation. 3 As 
for the Bolson de Mapimi, it is Sahara on a limited scale. 

Apparent poverty of the vegetable kingdom, while it seems 
to be one of the characteristic traits of nature in the South 
west, does not preclude the existence of a great number of 
useful plants, useful through their nourishing qualities as 
well as through medicinal properties of no small value. Of 
nutritive indigenous species there are a great number, and 
many of them are, like the medicinal herbs and shrubs, far 

1 Corypha. I found it with oak in many places, on the desolate stretch 
extending between Babiacora on the Sonora River, and Oposura at the foot of 
the Sierra de Bacachi. I also found it similarly associated in the State of 
Oaxaca, under the iSth degree of latitude. 

2 What is called in Sonora the Date-palm appears already on the banks of 
the Sonora River, at Arispe, in an isolated specimen. I met it again on the 
Upper Yaqui at Huassavas. 

3 The mountains skirting the Rio Grande are fearfully arid. Mezquite is the 
dominating plant. 



22 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 

too little known as yet. 1 Truly, the Indian feeds on many 
a natural resource which we should fail to appreciate, but it 
is not our taste which determines the value of a plant in 
matters of historical import. The great question of subsist 
ence is one which has exercised a powerful influence on the 
ethnography of the American continent, for primitive man, 
man destitute of iron and of draft animals, was not nature s 
master ; he lived with nature, and so to say by its pleasure 
and permission, with him, life was indeed a struggle, and 
the degree of culture which he attained the result of neces 
sity. Inorganic forces alternately fostered and threatened 
his existence, without leaving him any clue to their why and 
wherefore ; vegetation appeared more congenial ; still it lay 
before him like a vast field for doubtful experiments. The ani 
mal kingdom, however, was more tangible : its species placed 
their useful and the noxious qualities within easy reach of his 
judgment. The Fauna of the Southwest, therefore, is deserv 
ing of attention, even of closer notice than the other features 
of nature s complete realm. 

In the Fauna of the Southwest there appear, prominent 
to the general observer, a certain number of species of a 
high order like zoogeographic landmarks. It is not always 
the large animal which has played the most important part 
in man s history ; still, it cannot be denied that the Indian 
associated and lived more intimately with larger species than 
with inferior ones. I purposely say with for he was placed 
in a state of quasi equality towards beasts whose physical 

1 To enter into details here would be to undertake an almost endless task. 
For Sonora, the Description Geogi-afica de Sonora (1764, MS.) contains a list 
which is very important in every respect. I shall have occasion to refer to it 
subsequently, as well as to the excellent treatise of Dr. Washington Mathews, 
Names of Plants in the Navajo Language. The latter is especially valuable from 
a medicinal point of view. The Pueblo Indians know and use, often with great 
secrecy, a large number of medicinal plants. Others play a famous part in magic 
performances and conjurations. I shall treat of some of these hereafter. 



INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST. 23 

properties resembled closely his own. There is no clear di 
vision line susceptible of being drawn in the Fauna, except 
in as far as the topography has marked out the great plains, 
with their crushing uniformity, and the mountain regions, with 
ever-changing accidentations. The great plains only graze 
the Southwest ; they lie at some distance east of the Rio 
Grande, and do not penetrate Mexico. Their Fauna has 
played a remarkable part in the past of the Indian, a part 
which deserves special investigation further on. As to the 
larger animals of the mountain districts, it is not easy to 
draw lines of geographical distribution. 

Thus the mountain- sheep (Ovis montana) is found to-day 
in northern, and even in northeastern Chihuahua. 1 Among 
the objects exhumed from the ruins at Casas Grandes, I saw 
and copied a pestle, whose upper end was a perfect represen 
tation of the mountain sheep with its enormous spiral horns. 
The panther (Felis concolor), the coyote (Cams latrans), the^ 
wolf, the deer, the bear species with exception of the grizzly, 2 
are all found in Sonora, as well as on the southern border 
of the State of Colorado. Mountain goats were noticed in 
Southern Arizona as early as I54O. 3 Now they have almost 
completely disappeared from the Southwest. Antilocapra 
Americana is as common on levels in the 2Qth degree of lati 
tude as on the Northern New Mexican plains. 4 Lynx rufus 

1 In the mountains west of El Paso del Norte, even, I presume, in the Corral 
de Piedras. The Description Geografica de Sonora, cap. iii. art. 5, 1764, says: 
" Carnero cimarron, en opata Tetesso : hay muchos en la Pimeria alta, en lo 
demas de Sonora no tanto. Son mas grandes que los mansos y tienen los 
cuernos sin comparacion mas gruesos y largos que los domesticos." 

2 What is called Grizzly, " Oso platiado," or " Oso barroso," in New Mexico, 
is a cross-breed only. The real Grizzly seldom enters the Southwest. 

3 Castaiieda, Cibola, p. 159 : "On trouve beaucoup de moutons et de cheveres 
sauvages ; ces animaux sont tres-grands, ils ont de longues comes." 

4 On the plain which extends along the eastern foot of the Sierra Madre, and 
southwest of Casas Grandes, beyond the abandoned hacienda of San Diego, I 
saw large flocks of antelopes. 



24 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 

and L. Canadensis commonly designated as "wild-cats" 
are found on nearly all the mountains. But the largest 
of American felines, the jaguar (Felis onzd), but very rarely 
treads the soil of the United States. I know of well-authen 
ticated instances when strayed specimens of this beautiful 
and powerful animal were discovered as far north as the 33d 
degree of latitude in Arizona. 1 But the home of the jaguar 
in the Southwest is Sonora, and some parts of Chihuahua. 
Ajnong larger mammals the elk, Cervus Canadensis, has prac 
tically been exterminated in this century, whereas formerly 
it was found, abundantly even, in the mountains north and 
west of Santa Fe. Of smaller mammals, the badger, the 
hares and rabbits, etc., are scattered over the entire region, 
and varieties of the prairie marmot inhabit, or infest some 
times, all the larger level spaces, and especially the plains. 2 

It is a surprising fact, that, in a country so devoid of water 
as New Mexico, almost one fourth of the species of birds 
should be aquatic. Ducks, wild-geese, herons, cranes, even 
the swan and the gull, make at least sporadically their ap 
pearance on the Rio Grande. In the dry and high mountain 
regions, the crow and the raven rule supreme. No solitude 
is so complete that the wanderer will not meet one or more 
of these birds of ill omen. 3 They form almost an integral 

1 In the Sierra Blanca. The fact appears to me well authenticated. 

2 Arctomys flaviventer, for instance. The animal is not at all limited to the 
plains. At Santa Fe, it burrows to-day in fields on the outskirts of town, and 
even in town. On the Mesa between Santa Fe and Pena Blanca it is very com 
mon, and renders transit for horses often dangerous, by burrowing in the mid 
dle of the road. On the Rio Grande near Santo Domingo, prairie-dog holes 
are of frequent occurrence. As usual, owls and rattlesnakes associate with the 
harmless little rodent, and the great Mygale retire into their subterraneous 
dwellings also. 

3 Conms Americanus, the crow, is much more common than C. corax, the 
raven. The latter is but occasionally met on Mesas, where a solitary bird 
of the species may be seen to stand watching the neighborhood in search 
of food. 



INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST. 25 

part of the Southwestern landscape. In elevated regions 
eagles (in New Mexico Aquila chrysaetns and leucocephalus] 
are not unfrequent. Quails, grouse, pheasants, and the beau 
tiful wild turkey, represent the Gallinaceae. Songsters haunt 
groves as well as thickets ; the mocking-bird enlivens at night 
the banks of the Rio Grande as well as the solitudes of the 
Gila. In the immense pine forests of the heart of the Sierra 
Madre, the tall green parrot is a conspicuous feature. At 
sunrise, it flutters from tree-top to tree-top, filling the air with 
discordant, but ever-changing cries. 

Still, animal life is far from being prominent on the whole. 
Nature in the Southwest is rather solemn than lively. Days 
may elapse ere the wanderer meets with anything else than a 
solitary crow, a coyote, or, if he chance to strike a grove of 
Pinon trees, flocks of handsome but ruthlessly pilfering Pici- 
corvus colnmbinus, a beautiful bird, though damaging to the 
edible fruit of this species of Coniferae, and disagreeable on 
account of the unharmonious noise with which he accom 
panies his work of plunder. On smaller plains droves of ante 
lopes are occasionally encountered ; the other large mammals, 
even deer, although plentiful in certain localities, shun even 
the distant approach of man. There is a stillness prevailing 
which produces a feeling of quiet and solemnity well adapted 
to the frame of pine-clad mountains, with their naked clefts 
and rents, or huge, picturesque crags, from which one looks 
down on mesas and basins, beyond which the eye occasion 
ally escapes towards an unbounded horizon, over arid valleys 
and barren plains, with the jagged outline of other ranges far 
away, where the dark-blue sky seems to rise or to rest. 

This scarcity of animal life visible to the traveller prevails 
also in lower orders of the Fauna. Snakes, especially the 
venomous Caudisona, are but locally abundant. Months and 
months may elapse before we meet a single one of the much 



26 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 

feared " rattlers " ; then, again, within a small compass, quite 
a number are seen. Heloderma suspectum (the " Gila Mon 
ster"), 1 Mygale Heintzii (the "Tarantula" of popular fame), 2 
the scorpion and telyphonus, 3 the disgusting scolopenders 
and julus, are noxiously frequent in certain parts, but only 
at the periods of annual rains. They become then, in a fear 
fully torrid atmosphere, the fit companions of thorny Choyas, 
spectral Cereus, sharp-cutting Yucca, and of the Fouquiera, 
with its dangerous spines, emerald-green foliage, and flaming 
red blossoms. 

Thus there is a certain harmony between all the kingdoms 
of Nature in the Southwest. They compose everywhere a 
picture, not lovely, but very striking; attractive through its 
originality rather than through beauty. It is so striking 
that over primitive man it has wielded power in every sense, 
and in every direction of his physical, as well as intellectual 
life. The Indian was, and still is, much more helpless in 
presence of nature than we are. In order not to succumb to 
that nature s encroachments, he must yield where we oppose 
successful and profitable resistance. The physical qualities 
of the Indian, for which we envy him, are the result of com 
pulsory pliability, rather than of superior endowment. 

The Indian, says Lewis H. Morgan, " migrates under the 
influence of physical causes." 4 This is absolutely true ; for 

1 The Gila Monster is much dreaded, but I never heard of one authenticated 
case when his bite had fatal results. I know, on the other hand, that dogs were 
bitten by this ugly-looking but very slow animal (slow unless teased, when it 
becomes very lively), without the slightest noxious effects. 

2 The Mygale is not so common by far as reported by many. In the rainy 
season it appears sometimes quite often in certain places, but, on the whole, as 
it is not at all gregarious, and two mygale can hardly approach each other with 
out fighting at once, it is very rare to meet any numbers of them. As to the bite, 
it is certainly very dangerous, unless attended to without delay. 

3 The so-called " Vinagron." 

4 In that very remarkable and too little known essay entitled Indian Migra 
tions. I refer to it because it deserves greater attention than has hitherto been 



INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST. 27 

even when superstition impels him to change his place of 
abode, that belief has been created by natural phenomena. 
Topography, hydrography, the flora and fauna, they induce 
him to stay or to move. Relations towards others of his 
race hostilities, for instance have similar effects, but 
their origin is mostly a desire to obtain what Nature has 
given to one locality and refused to another. The Indian, 
untouched by European culture, was nowhere absolutely 
sedentary; neither did he become a perfect nomad until he 
learned to own and to use the horse, with one single excep 
tion ; and this was the Indian of the great plains. He was a 
true nomad, because the plains nowhere afforded him perma 
nent subsistence, and he could secure it only by following the 
American bison or buffalo. As soon as a tribe came in con 
tact with a great quadruped, and began to enjoy the manifold 
benefits which it offered as a source of food, of clothing, and 
of shelter, that tribe gave up sedentary life, unless the jeal 
ousy of others that had preceded drove it back into the 
mountains. The difference between sedentary and roving 
Indians is therefore not one of kind ; it is the result of cir 
cumstances under which the sympathies and antipathies of 
man have only been involuntary agents of Nature. Still, the 
topographical division of the Southwest into mountain region 
and steppes reflects upon ethnography. There are moun 
tain Indians and plain Indians ; the former are more sedate, 
the latter more erratic. Groups of both speak the same lan 
guage, and recognize each other as having a common origin. 
I allude here especially to the Apaches, and to their cousins 
the Navajos. 

From whatever side the Indian may have come, the steppes 
or plains opposed to his movements a formidable barrier. In 

bestowed upon it. Much of what I say here is almost repetition of what Mr. 
Morgan wrote many years ago. 



28 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 

the North he might cross them by following streams like the 
Missouri, the Platte, the Arkansas, shifting from west to east, 
or vice versa, within constant reach of water. Therefore we 
notice remains of more permanent habitations vestiges of 
household pottery along the Canadian River in the steppes, 
far away from those sections where the " Pueblos" have dwelt 
and dwell to-day; 1 but where streams traverse the plains 
from north to south, as in Texas, or where there are no water 
courses at all, it was impossible for primitive man to cross 
the plains in any direction, that is, without the buffalo. 

The greatest of all American mammals was never perma 
nent in the Southwest. Its home is in the Northwest, and 
overcrowding there, it pushed its herds steadily and uninter 
ruptedly to the South. Therefore the buffalo people, as we 
might term the enormous droves of the American wild steer, 
were constantly on the move, and the Indian followed them, 
lived from them, in fact, with them. 2 Once accustomed to 

1 Ruins are found in the plains both west and east of Wagon Mound. I have 
not been able to visit them, and cannot therefore speak of their character. 
Those east lie on Canadian River, aud twenty-five miles east from the railroad. 
The pottery, of which I have seen specimens, appears to be similar to that 
made by the Pueblos. One specimen had the bright glossy ornaments, ap 
parently covered with a very coarse glaze, peculiar to some of the older Pueblo 
pottery. 

2 This "living with the buffalo" of the Plains Indians struck the earliest 
Spanish explorers. I begin with Coronado, Car/a al Emperador, 2oth Octo 
ber, 1541 (Doc.de India*, vol. iii. p. 364): " Y a los 17 dias de camino, tope 
una rancheria de Indies, que andan con estas vacas, que los llaman querechos, 
los cuales no siembran, y comen la carne cruda y beben la sangre de las vacas 
que matan. Estos adoban los cueros de las vacas, de que en esta tierra viste 
toda la gente della ; tienen pabellones de cueros de vacas adobados y ensebados, 
muy bien hechos, donde se meten y andan tras las vacas, mudandose con ellas." 

Juan Jaramillo, Relacion hecha por el Capitan ; de la Jornada que habia 

hecho a la Tierra Nueva en Nueva Espana y al Descubrimiento de Cibola ; yendo 
por General Francisco Vasquez Coronado (Doc. de Indias, vol. xiv. p. 310) : " En 
estos principles de las vacas hallamos indios que los llamaban a estos, los de 
las casas de azotea, querechos ; . . . segun se entendio de estos iridios, todo su 
menester humane es de las vacas, porque dellas comen, y visten y calzan; son 



INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST. 29 

life in company with the buffalo, the Indian was no longer 
master of his destinies. He traversed the steppes hither and 
thither, as the animal led him. Fragments of these wandering 
tribes were sometimes cast ashore, so to say, on both banks 
of the plains. There they were forced to become more per 
manent, in a measure. On the other hand, the Indian from 
Western mountains, as well as the Indian from Arkansas and 
Missouri, was tempted to try his luck at times in the hunt of 
the great quadruped. Thus the steppes became, through the 
buffalo, traversable, useful to the aborigines, and almost a 
mart where the two sections of the continent, the East and 
the West, communicated. In hostile meetings of bands who 
spoke distinct tongues, who had not the slightest idea of 
each other s existence even, or in attempts at exchange of 
captives, they carried over to one section of the continent 
notions or objects from the opposite ; geographical concep 
tions, however vague and distorted, passed from east to west, 
or from west to east, wandering over the plains after the 
buffalo. 1 Instead of being a barrier, the plains became a con- 

hombres que se mudan aqui y alia, donde mejor les parece." Relation del 
Suceso de la Jornada que Francisco Vazquez hizo en el Descnbrimiento de Cibola 
(Ibid., p. 327): "En estos llanos e con estas vacas andaban dos maneras de 
gente ; los unos se llamaban Querechos e otros Teyas. . . . No tienen otra 
grangeria ni asiento mas de cuidarse con las vacas, de las cuales matan todas 
las que quieren, e adoban los cueros, de que se visten e hacen tiendas, e comen 
la carne e aun algunas veces cruda, y aun tambien beben la sangre, quando en 
sed." Relation Postrera de Sivola : y de mas de Quatro-cientas Leguas Adelante 
(MS., Libro de Oro, Fray Toribio Motolinia) : " El mantenimiento o sutenta- 
miento de estos indios es todo de las vacas, porque ni siembran ni cogen 
maiz." See also Castaneda, Cibola (pp. 116, 190, etc.). 

1 Evidence of this is furnished by the tales of the so-called Turk, the captive 
Indian, from a tribe living east of the plains, and who determined the expedition 
of Coronado in search of Quivira through his statements. It is not unlikely 
that the great river of which the Spaniards heard at Pecos, and from this same 
Indian, was either the Missouri or the Mississippi. Thus the Pueblos had some 
notions of the eastern half of North America. It was of necessity very defect 
ive ; but still it was a notion, and it had reached them through that occasional 
intercourse, hostile or friendly, to which the plains gave rise. Compare Casca- 



30 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 

necting medium between the two divisions of North America, 
even in aboriginal times. 

Entirely different was the fate of the Indian in the moun 
tains. There it was, above all, linked to the distribution of 
water. Scarcity of permanent water is one of the dark sides 
of many regions in the Southwest ; wherever water appeared 
to be in permanence, therefore, it created a tendency to re 
main and to settle. The approach of others to the same 
spot caused dispute, estrangement among people of the same 
stock, secessions, warfare, displacements. Water was the 
most powerful agent which propelled the settlement of these 
regions ; at the same time, it was the most immediate cause 
for strife and disturbances. 

An Indian tribe may have wandered for a long while with 
out forgetting agricultural arts and their consequences for 
living. As soon as necessity or natural advantages impel to 
it, they settle again, adapting their customs to whatever 
change nature requires. Thus we find the southern Pimas, 
in Sonora, living at the time the Spaniards first came in con 
tact with them in solid houses made of large adobes, each 
village having besides a central place of refuge in the shape 
of a house strongly constructed for defence. 1 The northern 



neda, CMola, pp. 72 and 77; Jaramillo, Relation Hecha, p. 311; Relation de 
Suceso, p. 325, etc. 

1 This fact is stated by P. Ribas, Historia de los Trivmphos (p. 360) : " Pobla- 
dos estauan los Nebomes a orillas de arroyos de buenas aguas, y corrientes; 
sus casas eran mejores, y mas de asieto que las de otras Naciones : porque 
eran de paredes de grandes adobes, que hazian de barro, y cubiertas de azoteas, 
y terrados. Algunas dellas edificaua mucho mayores, ycon troneras a modo de 
fuertes, y proposito para si acometiesen enemigos, recogerse a ellas la gente 
del pueblo, y valerse de su flecheria." Relacion de- los Descubrhnientos Conqttistas 
y Poblaciones Jiechas por el Gobernador Francisco-, de Ybarra en las Provincias de 
Copala, Nuez a Vizcaya y Chiametla (Doc. de Indias, vol. xiv. p. 482) : " Y que 
habia muchas tierras fertiles y comodas para sementeras de trigo y maiz, . . . 
en partes doncle buenamente se podian regar con los rios que por cerca dellas 
iban; y que ansimismo tenian muchas casas hechas d^e terrados." 



INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST. 31 

Pimas and the Papagos, although their near relatives, occu 
pied huts well covered, but still only huts, and their villages 
were but hamlets compared with those of their southern 
brethren. The Navajos cultivated by irrigation, and lived in 
log cabins, 1 while their cousins the Apaches moved to and 
fro, subsisting on the chase and on murder and rapine. If 
the reports of Espejo are correctly interpreted, the Jumanos 
in Central Chihuahua were village Indians, 2 whereas those of 
New Mexico lived in a condition little better than the tribes 
of the plain. On the other hand, the Piros on the Rio 
Grande irrigated their lands, while the Piros on the so-called 
" Medano " those who inhabited the village of Tabira and 
its neighboring settlements, who were strictly Pueblos also 
depended upon the annual precipitation for their crops, and 
upon tanks for their drinking water. The Tehuas irrigated 
on the Rio Grande ; the Tanos, who spoke the same lan 
guage, and had the same beliefs and customs, raised on the 
arid plain of Galisteo corn and squashes by means of summer 
rains and winter snow alone, without attempting to extend 
their dominion by encroaching upon more amply watered 
valleys. )< 

It is difficult to trace the migration lines of the Indians 
on a sweeping scale. In the Southwest there seems to 
be, as in the configuration of the country, a general trend 
from north to south ; but transverse movements have been 
as common in the vicissitudes of the same tribes as trans- 



1 The first notice of the character of the culture of the Navajcs I find in Fr. 
Benavides, Memorial (pp. 57, 58) : " Y estos de Nauajo son muy grandes labra- 
dores, y eso significa Nauajo, sementeras grandes. . . . Tienen su modo de 
viuienda debaxo de tierra, y cierto modo de xacales para recoger sus sementeras, 
y siempre habitan en aquel puesto." 

2 Antonio de Espejo, Relation del Viage (Doc. de Indias, vol. xv. p. 105) : 
" En que vimos cinco pueblos, con mas de diez mil indios y casas de azotea, 
bajas y con buena traza de pueblos." 



32 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 

verse upheavals of the surface, and often barriers of that 
nature have changed the fate of a group, compelling it to 
retrace its steps, even to " go back to the place of be 
ginning." 

The topography of the country has thus, to a great degree, 
determined the sites of establishments. The Indian looks to 
a few leading features to decide his settlement, apart from 
the indications given by superstition. He wants, first of all, 
water. Then he requires a limited extent of fertile soil. If 
that soil cannot be irrigated, he relies upon rain and snow, 
for corn will always grow where it rains moderately. Further 
more, he seeks a location where he may feel reasonably safe 
from an enemy. In judging of defensible locations, we cannot 
apply to them the principles of modern warfare. A treeless 
level is often as good a protection. to an Indian village, con 
structed of heavy adobes, against a foe armed with bows and 
arrows, as an extensive uncommandable slope is against the 
artillery of to-day. Retreats, concealed nooks, were as valua 
ble to the Indian as high-perched rocks. Communities could 
afford to retire into caves, on rocky recesses, where access to 
water was difficult in the day-time, without thereby exposing 
themselves to more than usual danger, for it is only of 
late that the Indian learned to attack at night. Lastly, the 
abundance of game, or its absence, and the prevalence of 
certain nutritive or medicinal plants, influenced the choice of 
location. 

The abandonment of villages has been due to various 
causes. Thus the Tehuas, of Santa Clara, assert that their 
ancestors dwelt in the clusters of artificial grottos exca 
vated in cliffs of pumice-stone west of the Rio Grande. The 
cave villages of the Pu-ye and Shu-fin-ne are claimed by 
the Tehuas as those of their own people. A few years of 
drought compelled them to abandon these elevated and 



INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST. 33 

sparsely watered places, and to descend upon the river banks, 
where they had to resort to irrigation for raising their 
crops, whereas at the caves they grew corn and squashes 
by means of the rains alone. The Queres of Cochiti posi 
tively state that similar artificial caves, which line the walls 
of the Rito de los Frijoles, or Tyuo-nyi, were formerly the 
habitations of their tribe, and that constant hostilities of the 
Tehuas and Navajos, as well as the gradual disintegration of 
the very friable rock, compelled their abandonment. The 
latter is very plainly visible. In proportion as the material 
is easy to work, it deteriorates easily, and crumbles. The 
majority of such caves have fallen in on the front, and against 
such accidents there was no remedy. 

On the high " Potreros," fronting upon the Rio Grande, 
stand the ruins of a number of villages. These were succes 
sively occupied by the same tribe, and therefore successively 
abandoned also, owing to " physical causes." Drought espe 
cially has been a leading agent ; a single year, without ade 
quate rain, compelled the tribe to remove to a better watered 
locality. Comparative permanence of abode was possible in 
the Southwest only where irrigation could be resorted to, and 
even there the irregularity of water supply is such that the 
Rio Grande, for instance, has been known to disappear in 
the middle of its course, as at La Joya and Mesilla in New 
Mexico. There is no positive evidence that the climate of 
the Southwest has suffered any important changes since man 
has inhabited the country ; every seeming anomaly in the 
location of ancient dwellings explains itself, after a close 
scrutiny, by phenomena which are of actual occurrence to 
day. The existence of the long "mysterious" ruins on the 
Medano, south of the salt lagunes of the Manzano, the so- 
called Gran Quivira, the Pueblo Blanco, and others, in locali 
ties where there is no water far and near, where irrigation 

3 



34 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 

was impossible, but the soil fertile and game abundant, is 
fully explained by the fact that the main Indian staples 
corn and calabashes grow with summer rain alone, while 
the discovery of water tanks near to every ruin proves that 
the inhabitants had artificially provided for the supply essen 
tial to life. The same is true in regard to the ruins scattered 
over arid plains of Southwestern Arizona; everywhere the ar 
tificial reservoir accompanies traces of former settlements. 

But while deficiency in the water supply has occasionally 
determined changes of abode on the part of primitive man, 
excess of it has quite as often had the same consequences. 
In the mountainous parts of Sonora, the villages of the Opatas 
were constructed on dunes skirting the river banks. Torren 
tial rains flood these regions in summer ; they not only cause 
sudden freshets, but wash even the bluffs sometimes to a de 
gree which rendered the small dwellings of the Indian very 
insecure, and occasioned displacements of whole villages. In 
New Mexico, and during historical times, the instances of 
pueblos being destroyed by a sudden rise of mountain torrents 
are not infrequent. Santo Domingo, for instance, has been 
washed away four times within the last two hundred years, 1 
and every time it has been rebuilt on a new site. With the 
exception of Acoma, there is not a single pueblo standing 
where it was at the time of Coronado, or even sixty years 
later, when Juan de Onate accomplished the peaceable reduc 
tion of the New Mexican village Indians. Such mutations 
have also been caused by hostilities, or merely by fear of 
them. The great insurrection of 1680 wrought an important 
change in the numbers and distribution of Indian villages. 

1 The original pueblo, called Gui-pu-y, stood on the banks of the Arroyo de 
Galisteo, more than a mile east of the station of Wallace. It was partly de 
stroyed by a rise of this dangerous torrent in one night. The next one has com 
pletely disappeared, the Rio Grande having washed it away. It was called 
Uash-pa Tze-na. The present village has suffered three disasters 



INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST. 35 

Although the Southwest is, on the whole, not subject to epi 
demic diseases, the coast of Sonora excepted, it is not 
unlikely that many ancient settlements owe their decay and 
abandonment to sickness among its inhabitants. Mountain 
fever induced the remnants of the Pecos to forsake their homes 
and retire to Jemez. The villages on the lower Rio Mimbres 
became deserted, in all likelihood, owing to the malarial ! 
qualities of the region. The Indian is much more helpless 
in such cases than we are; and when the "hand of nature" 
begins to weigh heavily upon any tribe, superstition comes 
in and hastens the destruction through practices which, while 
intended for relief, are actually more dangerous than the 
evil itself. 1 

The natural resources of the Southwest have been suffi 
cient to induce man to settle, and to remain settled, in a 
great number of localities, for a certain length of time at 
least ; but the influence of contact of different tribes has done 
a great deal also towards tying them to the soil, or loosening 
ties already extant. This contact has nowhere been con 
stant ; overcrowding has not occurred, although crowding in 
the shape of persistent harassing, as the wolf harasses and 
finally wears out a steer or a drove of cattle, has been the 
constant tactics of the roving Indian against the land-tilling 
natives. 

Contact has been occasional only, whether it was friendly 
or hostile. Natural resources and wants have caused and 
upheld this. The existence of products which one possessed 
and the other coveted has alternately caused war and com- 

1 Any disaster of magnitude, like drought, epidemic diseases, or a flood, is 
quickly attributed by the Pueblos to witchcraft. In consequence of this, suspi 
cion sets in, and many crimes are committed which are kept secret, but con 
tribute slowly and surely to depopulate the village. Certain pueblos, like 
Nambe, Santa Clara, and Cia, owe their decline to the constant inter-killing 
going on for supposed evil practices of witchcraft. 



36 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 

merce. It may be said that no two tribes were ever so hostile 
as never to trade, or so intimately connected in friendship as 
never to fight each other. The possession of turquoise in the 
small range of mountains called Cerrillos gave the Tanos 
Indians of Galisteo Basin a prominent position among their 
neighbors. The Zimis enjoyed similar privileges, which 
caused their modest relations of commerce to extend as 
far as the interior of Sonora and the Colorado of the West. 1 
The proximity of the buffalo gave the Pecos Indians a valu 
able staple of commerce. Buffalo robes wandered as far as 
Zuni, and from there into Arizona. 2 These robes also were, 
for the Pecos Indians, an acquisition largely by trade ; they 
obtained them quite as often from the Apaches, who came 
down to the village in winter in order to get corn, 3 as by 
actual hunt on the plains. The salt marshes in front of 
the Manzano range gave the Tiguas, as well as the Piros 
of Abo and of Tabira, an influential position, through their 
control over the supply of salt. Possession of such natural 
treasures formed ties of friendship, or broke them, as cir 
cumstances might determine. They also extended the geo 
graphical knowledge of the native, by attracting to his home 
people from other regions. This geographical knowledge, 
very faint and still more confused, has played an important 
part in the creeds and beliefs of the aborigines. What the 
Indian fails to understand he assigns at once to the domain 
of the supernatural ; distant lands, of which he hears fabu- 

1 This is stated by various authors of the sixteenth century, like Fray Marcos 
of Nizza, Descubrimiento de las Siete Ciudades (Doc. de Indias, vol. iii. pp. 333-342). 
About the veracity of Fray Marcos there cannot longer be any doubt. I hope to 
have established this point fully in two essays on the subject. Compare also, in 
regard to the Indians of the Colorado River, Hernando Alarcon, Relation de la 
Navigation et de la Decouverte faite par le Capitaine Fernando Alarcon (in Cibola, 
Appendix, p. 324, ct seq.}. 

2 Ibid. 

3 Castaneda, Cibola, p. 179. 



INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST. 37 

lous descriptions, become the scene of folk-lore; events which 
are striking, and yet inexplicable to him, pass over into the 
realm of mythology. 

The role which plants have played in Southwestern eth 
nography has been varied, and yet not as evident on the sur 
face as might be expected from its intrinsic importance. The 
same staples in the shape of domestic vegetables prevailed in 
the main over the Southwest. Corn, beans, calabashes, were 
cultivated almost everywhere, and only local and temporary 
scarcity could cause a pressure upon the native. But there 
were other plants also cultivated which could not grow every 
where, and thus became an element of trade. Such was 
cotton. Cotton demands irrigation, and a warm season of 
considerable duration. North of Cochiti it was not raised on 
the Rio Grande. Neither did it occur at the Zuni villages. 
Commercial intercourse furnished it to such tribes as had it 
not, and with that intercourse came all the favorable and un 
favorable results of contact. Tobacco was not known to the 
Pueblos until Spanish rule became established ; but it was in 
constant use among the tribes of Southern Sonora, the 
Yaquis, Mayos, and probably the Southern Pimas. Through 
cotton the art of weaving became an accomplishment among 
certain groups, whereas others, equally advanced in other re 
spects, resorted to plaiting and tressing, using the yucca, 
turkey feathers, and rabbit skins for their vestments. 1 I have 

1 The Zunis, for instance, raised no cotton. The Moquis, and the Rio Grande 
Pueblos, however, cultivated the plant. This is so positively stated by the ma 
jority of writers contemporary with the expedition of Coronado, that it is almost 
superfluous to quote from them. Still I must notice a few, as they refer more 
particularly to the mode of dress of the Pueblo Indians. Castaneda describes the 
costume of Zuni as follows (Cibola, p. 163) : " Les Indiens de ce pays sont tres- 
intelligents ; ils se couvrent les parties naturelles et tout le milieu du corps avec 
des pieces d etoffes qui ressemblent a des serviettes ; elles sont garnies de houpes 
et d une broderie aux coins ; ils les attachent autour des reins. Ces naturels ont 
aussi des especes de pelisses en plumes ou en peaux de lievres, et des etoffes de 



38 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 

already spoken of the part played by the buffalo in general ; 
he has been a powerful agency in the formation of South 
western ethnography. It is not unlikely even that he has 
largely contributed to facilitate the peopling of the whole 
North American continent, at least to direct the movements 
of the Indian. In regard to this quadruped, and to whatever 
he could afford to man, the roving Indian had the advan 
tage over the villagers. He almost controlled the market. 
He might, if not exclude, at least very much hamper their 
endeavors to obtain hides and meat. The roving Indian 
was not much below the Pueblo in arts of life. He had 
even made one step beyond what the sedentary aborigine 
ever achieved without the ai$ of the European, in Peru ex- 
cepted, the Apache of the plains had a beast of burden ! 
With the Pueblos the only domestic animal was the turkey. 1 
The Apaches-Vaqueros had the Arctic dog to carry his tents, 
his wardrobe, his entire household goods. 2 This animal gave 

coton." The Relation del Sticeso (p. 320): "... a causa que no tienen ningun 
algodon ; e se visten de mantas de Wenegrien e de cueros de venados, e algunos 
de vaca." Jaramillo, Relacion (p. 308) : " Tienen mantas de algodon cuadradas ; 
unas mayores que otras, como de vara y media de largo." Relacion Postrera 
(MS.) : " Desta gente algunos traen mantas de algodon y de maguey y cueros 
de venados adobados, . . . tambien hacen mantas de pellejos de liebres y de 
conejos, con que se cubren : andan las mujeres vestidas de mantas de maguey 
hasta los pies." Fr. Geronimo de Zarate-Salmeron, Relaciones de Todas las 
Cosas (1626, MS., art. 44): " Vistense de mantas de Yztli texidas de cardon- 
cillo, no tienen estos Yndios algodon." The mantles of maguey were made 
of yucca leaves. Such textures are still found occasionally in cave houses and 
cliff dwellings. The mantles of rabbit hair are still worn at Moqui to-day. 
As to the mantles made of turkey plumes, they are out of use altogether at 
present. 

1 They kept the turkey for his plumage, rather than for meat or eggs. 
Relacion del Sticeso (p. 320) : " La comida que tienen es mucho maiz, e frisoles, e 
melones, e algunas gallinas de las de Mexico; y estas las tienen mas para la 
pluma que para comer, porque hacen della pellones." 

2 This domestic dog is mentioned by all the authors who were eyewitnesses 
of Coronado s march. Subsequent authors, like Benavides and Villasenor y 
Sanchez, mention it also. Not one of them, however, gives a detailed descrip 
tion. Still, it must^have been the same dog which more northern Indians still 



INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST. 39 

roving man a sway on the plains which the villager could not 
dispute. The main staple of the plains, therefore, the hides 
and meat of Bison Americanus, became of necessity an object 
of commercial intercourse, even between the most hostile 
groups of sedentary Indians and nomads. 

On account of the demand for animal products, commerce 
extended in the Southwest over much greater expanses than 
might be supposed. Iridescent shells, common on the coast 
of the Gulf of California, wandered as far as the plains, chan 
ging hands through barter, gift, or violence. The inhabitants 
of the Colorado river shores, the Seris of Sonora, exchanged 
these bivalves for the turquoises of Zuni, or the tanned hides 
and rabbit mantles of Moqui. ,The same took place with par 
rot feathers. The large green parrot is very common in the 
Sierra Madre, and Cabeza de Vaca tells us that the Jovas, 
who dwelt on the mountainous confines of Sonora and Chi 
huahua, exchanged its plumes for green stones farther north. 1 
At Casas Grandes I saw turquoises, shell beads, and marine 
snails of various kinds, which had been exhumed from the 
ruins, and among the latter were species found only in the 
West Indies, or in the Gulf of California, 2 whereas Casas 
Grandes lies midway between the shores of both oceans, in 
the very heart of Northern Mexico. All these objects were 
not necessaries of life in the strictest sense, they were luxu- 

use as a beast of burden. In this case, it certainly is a variety of the Arctic. The 
Relation Fostrera says of the dogs of the Querechos : " Esta gente tiene perros 
como los de esta tierra, salvo que son algo mayores." Mota-Padilla, Historia 
de Nueva Galicia (1742, p. 165) : " Unos perillos no corpulentos." 

1 Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, Naicfragios, y Relation de la Jornada que 
hizo d la Florida (in Veclia, Historiadores primitives de fndias, vol. i. cap. xxxi. 
p. 543) : " Y dijeron que las traian de unas sierras muy altas que estan hacia 
el Norte, y las compraban a trueco de penachos y plunias de papagayos." The 
Indians of whom Cabeza de Vaca received this information were Jovas. 

2 There were, among others, Turritella Broderipiani, from the Pacific ; 
Conus proteus, from the West Indies ; and Coitus regularis, from the west coast 
of Mexico. 



40 INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST. 

ries, and constitute to-day what the Southwestern Indian 
regards as his specific " treasure." Still, the possession of 
them was regarded as essential, because they formed an ac 
cessory to their religjous rites, or to the magic processes with 
which their religion is so intimately linked. 

The influence of natural scenes, of atmospheric phenomena, 
of the qualities, useful and baneful, of natural objects, on the 
religious beliefs and practices of the Indians of the Southwest 
is such, that one may feel tempted to think that that religion 
itself sprung up in the midst of a nature reflecting itself so 
strongly in the mental conceptions of man. 

The scenes of man s first appearance upon this earth are 
laid among the Pueblos and Navajos, in that Southwest which 
they inhabit to-day. What occurred previously is said to have 
been enacted below, and not on the surface of the earth, in 
distant countries. Still, this may be a " myth of observation," 
arising from the sight of growth in plants, and from the forms 
of mountains. But the peculiarly vivid tints of the skies have 
given rise to the characterizing of cardinal points by colors, 
and these colors are again given in the most ancient myths 
to specific mountains, easily recognizable at this day. The 
regions beneath the surface of the earth mentioned in myths 
of the Pueblos and Navajos are naturally unrecognizable. 
These myths show, at least, that, if those Indians removed to 
their present homes from distant lands, it was so long ago 
that recollection has become exceedingly dim and ill-defined. 
The same may be said of their mythological .animals. The 
earliest of these are shapes purely monstrous in part, but 
those which have become chief characters in the practices 
of to-day are well-known types of the present fauna. The 
creeds and beliefs of Southwestern tribes may have at one 
time possessed more elevated ideas ; to-day these redeeming 
Matures are wellnigh obliterated, and it is the influence of a 



INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST. 41 

nature which man was unable to master that has done it. In 
order to save himself from that nature in which he was com 
pelled to live, the Indian strains all his faculties to soothe it 
by worship. If the Indian has ever had a clear conception of 
monotheism, it is long forgotten, and the most slavish crin 
ging before natural phenomena, the cause of which is incon 
ceivable to him, has taken its place. 1 Idolatry is not even an 
adequate term for it ; it is a Fetichism 2 of the grossest kind, 
and so complicated, so systematized, that an appeal to one 
particular natural object, to one specific deified feature or 
phenomenon, can be resorted to, and is resorted to, in every 
circumstance of human life. Indian religion bows to the 
seasons for its rites, it borrows from them and from atmos 
pheric phenomena its symbols. It places animals on a foot 
ing of equality with mankind, often even they are recog 
nized as his superiors, and placed before him as models of 
conduct. Indian religion assumes utter helplessness on the 



1 Dr. Mathews says of the Navajos, Some Deities and Demons of the Nava- 
jos : " It is a difficult task to determine which of their gods is the most potent. 
Religion with them, as with many other peoples, reflects their own social condi 
tions. Their government is a strict democracy. Chiefs are at best but elders, 
men of temporary and ill-defined influence, whom the youngest men in the tribe 
can contradict and defy. There is no highest chief in the tribe. Hence their 
gods, as their men, stand much on a level of equality." What the Pueblo Indian 
mentions as a supreme God is the Christian God, but this supreme power is 
strictly apart from the real Pueblo creed. I have noticed this often, and very 
plainly, in my conversations with them, as well as in the rites which I witnessed. 

2 F. H. Gushing, Znni Fetiches (1883, from the Second Annual Report of the 
Bureau of Ethnology), says: "The A-shi-wi, or Zunis, suppose the sun, moon, 
and stars, the sky, earth, and sea, in all their phenomena and elements, and all 
inanimate objects, as well as plants, animals, and men, to belong to one great 
system of all-conscious and inter-related life, in which the degrees of relationship 
seem to be determined largely, if not wholly, by the degrees of resemblance. In 
this system of life the starting point is man, the most finished, yet the lowest 
organism ; at least the lowest, because most dependent, and most helpless. In 
just as far as an organism, actual or imaginary, resembles his, it is believed to be 
related to him, and correspondingly mortal ; in just as far as it is mysterious is 
it considered removed from him, further advanced, powerful, and immortal." 



OF THK 

UNIVERSITY 



42 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 

part of man within the natural realm ; it excuses crimes on 
that account, and denies retribution beyond the grave. It 
teaches no fatalism, because for every evil there is a remedy 
within nature itself, which has a supernatural effect as soon 
as properly employed. There is something like a poetic 
hue cast over some elements of their religion, but this 
poesy is not derived from the creed, it is rather a last echo 
from a time when man knew better, and felt differently, - 
a complaint that such times are gone ! There is no greater 
slave than the Indian. Every motion of his is guided by 
superstition, every action of his neighbor suspiciously scru 
tinized. We wonder at many strange actions of the Indian, 
at what seems to us a lack of consistency, of truthfulness, 
an absence of moral consciousness. We punish him for 
crimes which he commits without any regret whatever 
about the consequences of his misdeed. In this we fail to 
understand the motives of the Indian. He is not his own 
master. Nature, deified by him to the extent of innumerable 
personalities and principles, exacts from him the conduct that 
we blame. His religion, notwithstanding the promise of 
coarse felicity which it holds out beyond the grave, reduces 
him to utter helplessness so long as he has not crossed the 
threshold of death, makes of him a timid, fettered being, 
anxiously listening to the voices of nature for advice. These 
voices stifle the silent throbs of conscience; they are no guide 
to the heart, no support for the mind. 

This is not the place to enter into details concerning the 
creeds of the Indian of the Southwest. What little I shall 
have to say about them will find its place farther on. Neither 
can I attempt here a discussion of the great importance that 
nature has had in shaping his household arts and architecture. 
Having described the nature of the country in general, and 
its relation to man before the coming of European colonists, 



INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST. 



43 



I proceed to consider that man as he presents himself now, 
as well as he presented himself when first encountered ; to 
explain the changes in his condition ; and, lastly, to examine 
his vestiges from a time of which we have few if any positive 
records. 



44 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 



IT. 



ETHNOGRAPHIC CONDITION OF THE SOUTH 
WEST IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 

IT may be asserted, and without danger of exaggeration, 
that before the year 1600 the Spaniards had visited all the 
principal regions of the Southwest comprised between the 
Indian Territory on the east and the western Rio Colorado, 
and had gone as far north as the southern limits of the 
State of Colorado. They had even penetrated farther, for 
the tribe of Quivira, which Coronado visited in 1541, were 
living at that time in eastern Kansas. 1 But his adventurous 
expedition was a mere reconnoissance, and while it has left 
us excellent descriptions of the great plains, of their fauna, and 
of the general features of the existence of man in the American 
steppes, little that was definite was ascertained concerning the 
tribes which the Spaniards met, and with which they had a 
short period of peaceable intercourse. 2 In order to present a 
picture of primitive southwestern ethnography it is necessary 

1 I cannot give here all the proofs on hand of this fact. A careful examina 
tion of the various documents of Coronado s time, as well as of those which, 
while having been written by companions of Coronado, were composed from 
memory years afterwards, proves the location to be as I have stated it. One 
of the most important witnesses on that point is the Captain Juan Jaramillo, 
Relation hecha . . . de la Jornada qne habia Jiecha en la Tierra Nueva en 
Nueva Rspana y al Descubrimiento de Cibola ; yendo por General Francisco Vaz 
quez de Coronado (Documentos de Indias, vol. xiv. p. 312). I also refer to the 
MS. Relation Postrera de Siuola y de mas de Quatro-Cientas Legnas adelante, 
in Fray Motolinia s Libra de Oro 6 Thesoro fndico. 

2 That Coronado never experienced any difficulty in his intercourse with the 
Indians of the plains is a fact well ascertained. 



INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST. 45 

to extend the scope of study to sources more recent than the 
sixteenth century, and to embrace in it so far as possible 
everything on record concerning the earliest meetings be 
tween the white and the so-called "red" man. It is not likely 
that a century could have wrought important changes in the 
condition of tribes which were not in contact with Euro 
peans, and, of such changes as there were, some even are 
traceable through Spanish sources themselves. The peremp 
tory orders of the Crown to all explorers about preserving 
accurate records of what they experienced, saw, and heard, 1 

1 Compare Codice de Lcyes y Ordaianzas nueiianiente hechas par su Magestad 
para la Gonernacion de las Yndias y buen Tratamiento y Consernacion de los 
Yndios, etc. (Docum. de Indias, vol. xvi. p. 458, art. 119), A. D. 1571. Also, 
and in the same volume, Ordenanzas de su Magestad hec/uis para los uuevos 
Descubrimientos, Conquistas y Pacificaciones (p. 149) : " Los descobridores por 
mar 6 por tierra hagan comentario e memoria por dias, de todo lo que vieren y 
hallaren y les aconteciere en las tierras que descobrieren ; todo lo vayan 
asentando en un libro, y despues de asentado se lea en publico cada dia, delante 
de los que fueren al dicho descobrimiento, porque se averigue mas lo que pasare 
y pueda constar de la verdad de todo ello, firmandolo de algunos de los princi- 
pales, el cual libro se guardara a mucho recabdo para que cuando vuelvan le 
traigan y presenten ante la Audiencia con cuya licencia hobieren ido." Still 
more definite is one of the preceding paragraphs (p. 107) : "... por medio de 
las dichas lenguas 6 como mejor podieren, hablen con los de la tierra y tengan 
platicas y conversacion con ellos, procurando entender las costumbres calidades 
y manera de vivir de la gente de la tierra y comarcanos, informandose de la 
religion que tienen, ydolos que adoran, con que sacrificios y manera de culto, 
si hay entre ellos alguna dotrina 6 genero de letras, como se rigen y gobiernan, 
si tienen reyes y si estos son por eleccion 6 derecho de sangre, 6 si se gobiernan 
como republica 6 por linages ; que rentas y tributes dan y pagan, y de que 
manera y a que personas, y que cosas son los que ellos mas precian que son las 
que hay en la tierra, y cuales traen de otras partes quellos tengan en estimacion ; 
si en la tierra hay metales y de que calidad ; si hay especena, alguna manera de 
drogas y cosas aromaticas, para lo qual lleven algunos generos de especias asi 
como pimienta, clavos, gengibre, nuez moscada y otras cosas por muestras para 
amostrarselo y preguntarles por ello ; y asf mismo sepan si hay algun genero de 
piedras, cosas preciosas de las que en Nuestros Reynos se estan ; y se informen 
de la calidad de los animales domesticos y salvajes, de la caJidad de las plantas 
y arboles cultivados e incultos que hobiere en la tierra, y de los aprovechamien- 
tos que dellas se tiene," etc. Although this royal decree is dated 1573, similar 
instructions were imparted to discoverers by the viceroys at a much earlier 



46 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 

had to be obeyed. Out of this resulted an accumulation of 
ethnographic, historic, and geographic material, the critical 
sifting of which in the spirit and from the standpoint of the 
times in which it was collected gives a tolerably accurate 
idea of how man was in the Southwest when he first saw man 
coming from a world which, in nature as well as in ideas, was 
as new to him as America seemed to the European. 

The Indian tribes of Sonora and of Chihuahua were known, 
and were to a limited extent described, by the Spaniards, 
in the first half of the sixteenth century. But an accurate 
description of them was secured only one hundred years 
later, when Jesuit missionaries established themselves among 
them. It is therefore essential to blend the reports of Fray 
Marcos of Nizza 1 with those of P. Andres Perez -de Ribas, 2 
of Castaneda 3 with those of anonymous writers of the " Com 
pany of Jesus." The same is the case in regard to the inhab 
itants of Chihuahua: Juan de Miranda 4 must be consulted, as 
well as Fray Francisco de Arlegui, 5 and Espejo 6 placed 

date. Witness the Instruction de Don Antonio de Mendoza, Visorey de Nueva 
Espana, to Fray Marcos de Nizza, from 1538 (Docnmentos de Indias, vol. iii. pp. 
325-328). When Coronado went to New Mexico he took along a special chron 
icler, Pedro de Sotomayor. Castaneda, Relation du Voyage de Cibola (p. 65) : 
" Garci-lopez avait emmene avec lui un certain Pedro de Sotomayor, qui etait 
chroniqueur de 1 expedition." 

1 Descubrimiento de las Siete Ciudades. (Doc. de Indicts, vol. iii.) 

2 Historia de los Trivmphos de nvestra Santa Fee entre Gentes las mas Barbaras 
y Fieras del Nueuo Orbe : conseguidos por los Soldados de la Milicia de la Com- 
panfa de lesvs en las Misiones de la Prouincia de Nueua Espana. Madrid, 1645. 

8 Relation du Voyage de Cibola. 

4 Relacion hecha por Joan de Miranda, Clerigo, al Doctor Orozco, Presidente 
de la Andiencia de Guaaalajara ; sobre la Tierra y Poblacion que hay desde las 
Minas de San Martin d las de Santa Barbara, que esto ultimo entonces estaba pob- 
lado. 1575. (Doc. de Indias, vol. xvi. p. 563.) 

6 Chronica de la Provincia de N. S. P. S. Francisco de Zacat/cas. 1737. 

6 Relacion del Viaje. 1583. (Doc. de Indias, xv.) The same volume contains 
two copies of this report. There are important discrepancies between Espejo s 
original report and the corrupted and distorted version given by Hakluyt. The 
latter is completely unreliable, and does not deserve to be consulted at all. 



INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST. 47 

alongside of the Litteri Annul. It is impossible, and were it 
possible it would scarcely be judicious, to go here into great 
details concerning any of these tribes. Much of what is re 
corded in early writers is still exposed to misinterpretation 
on our part, for none of the Sonora Indians have been sub 
jected to systematic ethnologic investigation according to 
the methods initiated by Mr. dishing, and so long as this 
is not done we are quite as liable to reject truths as to 
accept errors. 

A powerful group, divided into two dialects, of almost 
sedentary Indians, barred access, so to say, to Sonora from 
the south. These were the natives who spoke, and speak 
to-day, the Cahita language, 1 the Mayos, and their northern 
relatives, the Yaquis. In the first half of the seventeenth 
century these two tribes together represented a population 
of not exceeding sixty thousand souls. 2 I would here remark, 
that the average proportion of adult males to the total num 
ber of people, among village Indians, does not exceed I to 3f. 
Among roving tribes it is still lower. As most of the esti 
mates of population in former times are derived from those 
of the "men at arms," this basis of calculation should be 
stated beforehand. 3 

1 So it is called by modern linguists, and I follow their lead, not having been 
among the Yaquis myself. 

2 Ribas, Historia de los Trivmphos, etc. (lib. iv. cap. i. pp. 236, 237): "La 
palabra, Mayo, en su legua significa, Termino : por vetura, por estar este rio 
entre otros dos de gentes encontradas, y q traian guerras cotinuas con los 
Mayos, y no les dauan lugar a salir de sus terminos. . . . Pero auq el Rio 
no es caudaloso, era de lo mas poblaclo de gete de todos los de Cinaloa : de 
suerte, que se podrian jutar en sus poblaciones ocho, 6 diez mil Indies de pelea, 
y eran como treinta mil personas las q lo poblauan." In regard to the Yaquis 
he states (p. 284) : " Quando los Hiaquis en su Gentilidad poblaua este rio, 
era en forma de rancherfas terididas por sus riberas, y junto a sus sementeras, y 
el numero destas rancherfas seria de ochenta, en que auia treinta mil almas." 

3 A close examination of a great many old and modern estimates, lists, and 
censuses has satisfied me that the average ratios are as stated. It would be 
tedious to furnish the proof in detail. 



48 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 

The Mayos were independent of the Yaquis, and the 
relations between the two groups were far from being always 
friendly. There even existed on the part of the latter a ten 
dency to crowd and overwhelm the former, in that gradual 
but persistent manner which is characteristic of Indian war 
fare. 1 Still, there was no difference in degree of culture. 
Settled each along the banks of a considerable river, which 
bore the name of its respective tribe, they planted Indian 
corn, cotton, calabashes, beans, and tobacco, improved the 
Mezcal varieties of the American agave, hunted, fished, and 
fought their neighbors, as well as among themselves. 2 Owing 

1 Ribas, Historia, etc., lib. iv. p. 236. 

2 Ribas, (Historia, p. 237,) speaking of the Mayos : Su legua es la misma 
que corre en los rios de Cuaque, y Hiaqui : el natural de la gete no ta feroz 
como el de las otras Naciones ; dntes mas tratable, y blado : son todos labra- 
dores, excepto los de qual, o qual, racherfa, q eran motarazes. En lo demas de 
sus costiibres, susteto, casas, viuieda, armas, vsos de borracheras, y bailes, 
multiplicidad de mugeres, 6 cocubinas, era los Mayos semejates a las demas 
Naciones de q auemos escrito. A la pesca se dauan muchos, particularmete los 
q tenia habitacio mas cercana a la mar, el qual, y su rio, es muy abudate de 
pescado : sus poblaciones estaua en forma de rachenas a las riberas del rio." 
In a general way, this author, who saw the Indians of Sonora when they were 
yet untouched by the influence of European culture, says of them (lib. i. cap. ii. 
pp. 5. 6) : " Las poblaciones destas naciones son ordinariamente a las orillas 
y riberas de los rios ; porque si se apartaran dellos, ni tuuieran agua que beuer, 
ni aun tierras en que sembrar. Las habitaciones, en su Gentilidad, era de 
aldeas, 6 rancherias no muy distantes vnas de otras aunque en partes a dos y 
tres leguas, conforme hallauan la comodidad de puestos y tierras para semente- 
ras, que ordinariamente las procurauan tener cerca de sus casas. Estas hazian, 
vnas de varas de monte hincadas en tierra, entretexidas, y atadas con vejucos, 
que son vnas ramas, como de carfaparrilla, muy fuertes, y que duran mucho 
tiempo. Las paredes que hazian con essa barazon las aforrauan con vna torta 
de barro, para que no las penetrasse el so], ni los vientos, cubriendo la casa con 
madera, y encima tierra, 6 barro, con que hazian a9Otea, y con esso se conten- 
tauan. Otros hazian sus casas de petatcs, qe es un genero de esteras texidas de 
cana raxada, y estas cosidas vnas con otras, siruen de pared y cubierta, que es 
tumbada sobre arcos de varas hincadas en tierra, y sobre el la corre el agua sin 
peligro de gotear, y quedan al modo de los carros cubiertos de Espana. Delante 
de sus casas levantan vnas ramadas que les siruen de portal, sobre que guardan 
los frutos de sus sementeras, y debaxo del es su viuienda entre dia, y les sirue 
de sombra. Alii duermen de noche en tiempo de calores, teniendo por colchon 



INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST 



49 



to the almost tropical climate, their dwellings appeared frail, 
canes and boughs forming the framework, palm-leaves the 

y cama vna estera de cafia de las dichas. Cerradura,ni llaue, no la vsauan, ni 
la conocian, y lo que mas es, sin temor de hurtos ; contentandose quando algunas 
vezes hazian ausencia de su casa, con poner a la puerta algunos ramos de arbol 
sin otro guarda. Y esta tenian tambien para los frutos de la sementera, quando 
losdexauan en el campo. . . . Las semillas que estas gentes sembrauan, y frutos 
de la tierra que benefician y cogen, y de que se sustentan, son en primer lugar el 
maiz que en Espana llaman, trigo de las Indias, que se da con tanta multitud, q 
suele rendir vnafanega sembrada ciento y mas de fruto. Demas de esse siem- 
bran entre el maiz varios generos de calaba9as, sabrosas y dulces, y de algunas 
dellas hazen tassajos que secos al sol les duran mucho tiempo del ano. El 
frixol, que es semilla semejante a la haba de Castilla, y aun mas suaue, vsan 
todos sembrarlo, con otros generos de semillas," etc. Among the nutritive 
plants he mentions also Mezquite beans, Mezcal, Tunas, and others. Cotton is 
mentioned by him on page 12 : " Y para sembrar essas semillas, y limpiar la tierra, 
no tenian otros instrumentos que los de vnas cuchillas anchas, y largas, de palo, 
con que mullian la tierra ; en que tambien ayudaban a los varones las mugeres. 
Estas vsauan el arte de hilar, y lexer algodon, 6 otras yeruas siluestres, como el 
cafiamo de Castilla, o pita; y desta hazian algunas mantas, no en telares, que 
aun esse arte no alcan9aron ; sino con tra9a trabajosa, hincando vnas estacas en 
el suelo, de donde tirauan la tela." Of tobacco he says (p. 9) : " Y en estas 
tales fiestas eran tambien muy celebres los brindis del Tabaco, muy vsado de 
todas estas gentes barbaras." He places considerable stress on the fact, that 
all these Indians of Sonora and of Sinaloa were addicted to intemperance (p. 8) : 
"El vicio que mas generalmente cundia en estas getes, y de tal suerte q apenas 
se hallaua vna en la qual no predominasse, era el de la embriaguez, en q gastaua 
noches y dias ; porq no la vsauan cada vno solos, y en sus casas, sino en cele 
bres, y continues cobites que hazian para ellos : y qualquiera del pueblo q hazia 
vino, era llenando grandes ollas, y combidando a la boda a los de su ranchena, 
o pueblo, y a vezes tambien a Ins comarcanos, y vezinos : y como era tanto la 
gente, no faltaua combite para cada dia y noche de la semana; y assi siempre 
se andaua en esta embriaguez. El vino hazia de varias plantas, y frutos de la 
tierra, como de Tunas, que en Castilla llaman higos de las Indias, o de Pita- 
hayas ; otras vezes de las algarrouillas de Mezquite, q atras dixe, 6 de la p ata 
Mescal, y sus pencas, coforme a los tiempos en que se dan estos frutos, y de 
otras plantas ; q molidas, 6 quebratadas, y echadas en agua, en dos o tres dias 
se acedan, y toman el gusto que tanto arrebataua el juizio que de almas raciona- 
les les auia quedado a estas gentes. Entre todos los vinos que hazian, el mas 
estimado y gustoso, era de panales de miel, q cogen a sus tiempos. Y es de 
aduertir, que en este vicio de embriaguez auia vna cosa que lo templaua, porq 
en el no entrauan mugeres, ni los que eran 010905, y gente nueua." Segunda 
Relacion Anonima de la Jornada de Nttno de Guzman (Collecciou de Docu- 
mentos para la Historia de Mexico, Garcia Ycazbalceta, vol. ii. p. 304) : " El 

4 



50 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 

outer protective shell. 1 Split up into a number of autonomous 
villages, each one governed after the well known tribal sys 
tem, the entire dialectic cluster only coalesced temporarily 
and at rare intervals, for self-protection, in case insult offered 
by one of their villages to outsiders led to threatened revenge 
on a larger scale. 2 No central head existed, either for war or 

brebaje que tienen es de unos arboles que tienen que se dice mezquites, que dan 
unas algarrobillas delgados, y majanlas en unos almireses de palo que tienen 
grandes, y aquello mezclan con agua, y otras cosas de que hacen su brebaje 
para beber." 

1 See above. Also Proceso del Marques del Valle y Nuno de Guzman y los 
Adelantados Soto y Alvarado, sobre el Descubrimiento de la Tierra A tteva, 1541 
(Doc. de Indias, vol. xv. p. 332) : " En sdbado, dia de Sant Francisco, pase el 
rio, y de la otra parte halle una estancia de treinta ranches de petates con 
unas ramadas pequenas; no habia gente." Castaneda, Cibola, p. 157: "On 
nomme cette province Petatlan, parceque les maisons sont faites en Petates 
(nattes de jonc). Cette maniere est la meme pendant deux cent quarante lieues, 
jusqu a 1 entre e du desert de Cibola." Relation dd Suceso de la Jornada qne 
Francisco Vazquez hizo en el Descubrimiento de Cibola, 1541 (Doc. de Indias, 
vol. xiv. p. 318): "Todo este camino hasta cinquenta leguas dntes de Cibola 
es doblado, aunque en algunas partes esta apartado del camino ; la poblacion es 
toda una suerte de gente, porque las casas son todas de petates, e alguna entre 
ellas de azoteas baxas. Tienen maiz todos, aunque no mucho, y en algunas 
partes muy poco ; tienen melones frisoles." Ribas, speaking of the change 
in customs and manners of the Yaquis, after their reduction to obedience 
to the Church, says (ffistoria de los Trivinphos, lib. v. cap. xxi. p. 339) : " Los 
pueblos estan dispuestos en muy buena forma, sin quedar ya vno solo, que 
de assienta viua en sus sementeras, ni rancherfas antiguas. Las casas hazen 
ya muchas de paredes de adobes, y terrados, y las de los Gouernadores mas 
amplas." 

2 Ribas, lib. i. cap. ii. p. 5: "Qvado llamo naciones las que pueblan esta 
Prouincia, no es mi intento dar a entender, que son tan populosas como las de 
Europa ; . . . porque no tienen comparacion con ellas. Pero llamolas naciones 
diferetes, porque aunque no son tan populosas, pero estan diuididas en trato de 
vnas con otras : vnas vezes en lenguas totalmente diferentes, aunque tambien 
sucede ser vna la lengua, y con todo estar desvnidas, y encontradas : y en lo que 
todas ellas estan diuididas y opuestas, es en continuas guerras q entre ellos 
traian, matandose los vnos a los otros ; y tambien en guardar los terminos, tierras, 
y puestos que cada vna destas naciones poblauan, y tenia por propios ; de suerte, 
q el q se atreuia a entrar en los agenos, era con peligro de dexar la cabega en 
manos del enemigo que encotrasse." Ibid., p. n : " Leyes, ni Reyes que casti- 
gassen tales vicios y pecados, no los tuuieron, ni se hallaua entre ellos genero de 
autoridad y gouierno politico que los castigasse. Es verdad que reconocian 



INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST. 51 

in peace. 1 Still, it is not improbable that each group may 
have constituted a sort of barbaric confederacy, although it is 
certain that it did not possess the consistency which we ad 
mire in the " League of the Iroquois." Gentilism certainly 
prevailed, 2 and there are traces of similar esoteric clusters 
to those discovered by Mr. Gushing among the Zufiis, and 
which, guided by his observations, I have since found in ex 
istence among the Queres, Tehuas, and the Tiguas, in New 
Mexico. 3 Fetichism characterized their religious beliefs, as 
well as those of all other southwestern Indians, and the ab 
sence of the conception of one supreme being is as plain 
among them as elsewhere. 4 

algunos Caciques principales, que era como cabe9as y Capitanes de familias, o 
rancherfas, cuya autoridad solo consistia en determinar alguna guerra o cometi- 
miento contra enemigos, o en asentar pazes con otra Nacion : y por ningun caso 
se determinauan semejantes facciones sin la voluntad de los dichos Caciques, 
que para tales efectos no dexauan de tener muy grande autoridad. En casa 
destos se celebrauan las borracheras celebres de guerra, y tambien a estos ayu- 
dauan sus subditos a hazer sus sementeras, que era lo ordinario mayores qua 
de los demas. Esta tal autoridad alcan9aua dichos Caciques, no tanto por 
herencia, quanto por valetia en la guerra, 6 amplitud de familia de hijos, nietos, 
y otros parientes, y tal vez por ser muy habladores y predicadores suyos." 

1 Compare the description of the hostilities between the Yaquis and the 
Spaniards in Ribas, lib. v. cap. ii. to vi. Also in Francisco Xavier Alegre, 
Historia de la Companid de Jesus en Nueva Espana, 1842, vol. ii. pp. 31-38. 
Alegre gathered most of his information from Ribas. 

2 Ribas, Historia, p. 295. The disconnected state of affairs among the 
Yaquis is very well pictured in their attempts to treat with the Spaniards after 
they had repelled three attacks from the latter. Alegre, Historia de la Com- 
pania, vol. ii. p. 32: "Los yaquimis tuvieron su asemblea y se dividieron en 
varios pareceres. Los mas juiciosos, a cuya frente estaba el cacique Anabay 
lutei fueron de sentir que se ofreciese al capitan la paz y se le concediese lo 
que tan justamente pedia." 

3 The sorcerers or magicians were so numerous, that Ribas affirms (p. 332) : 
" En cierto pueblo, por meclio de su Governador, quiso otro Padre corregir a 
vnos quantos hechiceros, para escarmiento de los demas ; y ellos mismos dixeron : 
Padre, no te canses en juntarnos, porque qual mas, qual menos, la mitad de los 
del pueblo (que era grande) son como nosotros." 

4 Ribas, p. 332 : " Estaua tan sepultada esta Nacion en estas tinieblas, que 
vna India, ya desenganada despues que se introduxo la doctrina del Euangelio, 
declaro, y dixo a vno de los Padres que se lo predicaua; Padre, mira de la otra 



52 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 

These two clusters dwelt, for the most part, about the 
mouths of the two rivers bearing their names : they held 
but a portion of the course of each stream, and it cannot 

parte del rio ; ves quantos cerros, motes, picachos, y cimas ay en todo este 
contorno? pues en todos ellos teniamos nuestras supersticiones ; y a todos los 
reuerenciamos, y las celebrauamos en ellos. Las viejas certificauan, que el 
clemonio se les aparecia en figura de perros, sapos, coyotes, y culebras." This 
belief is eminently Indian. To-day the sedentary aborigines of New Mexico, 
Sonora, etc., believe in the possibility, not only of such apparitions, but 
also of the transformation, through witchcraft, of men and women into animals 
of some kind. Ribas, p. 332 : " Indies principales, y Fiscales, afirmaron, como 
cosa sabida y recibida entre ellos, que las hechizeras ivan de noche a ciertos 
bailes y combites co los demonios, y que boluian por los aires." Page 16 : " Vi- 
niendo aora a las gentes barbaras de que trata esta historia, y auiendo estado 
muy ateto los anos que entre ellas auduue para aueriguar lo que passaua en esta 
materia de idolatna : y lo que con puntualidad se puede dezir es, que auque en 
algunas destas tales gentes no se puede negar que auia rastro de idolatrfa for 
mal, pero otras no tenian conocimiento alguno de Dios, ni de alguna Deidad 
aunque falsa, ni adoracion explicita de seiior que tuuiesse dominio en el mundo, 
ni entendian auia providencia de Criador y Gouernador de quie esperassen pre- 
mios de buenas obras en la otra vida, o castigo de las malas, ni vsaron de 
comunidad culto diuino. El que en ellos se hallaua, se venia a reduzir a super 
sticiones barbaras, 6 hechizos ensenados por los demonios a particulares per- 
sonas, con quienes en su Getilidad tenia familiares tratos ; y este vnos implicfto, 
y heredado de sus mayores, q se lo ensenaua a la hora de su muerte, encargan- 
doles vsassen algunas ceremonias de hechizos, y supersticiones q serian para 
curar, 6 matar, o enganar." The same author describes the Fetiches very 
clearly (p. 17): "El pacto q co estos hechizeros tiene assentado el demonio 
ordinariamente esta* aligado, y lo tienen muy guardado en vnos cuerecillos de 
animales parecidos al Huro, de que hazen vnas bolsillas, y detro dellas vnas 
pedreguelas de color, 6 chinas medio trasparentes, y esta bolsilla guarda como 
si fuera de reliquias; y quando para bautizar se entrega estas predas, es buena 
sena, de q recibe de veras la Fe de Christo, y dexan y se apartan de la familiari- 
dad del demonio." It is indeed very difficult to induce any Indian to part with 
the Fetich, which many of them carry in the little satchels of buckskin, or hide 
of some kind, that F. Ribas describes. He continues: " Este muchas vezes se 
les aparecia en tiepo de su Getilidad, habladoles en figura de animales, pescados, 
6 serpientes, q no se ha oluidado qua a su proposito le salia el auer derribado 
a nuestra primera Madre en esta forma. Horauale mucho, 6 temialo quando 
se les aparecio ; y por titulo de honra le llamauan Abuelo, sin hazer discurso si 
era criatura, o Criador : y aunque la figura de animal, 6 serpiente en que se les 
aparecia el demonio, la obserbauan y pintauan a su modo, y tal vez leuantauan 
alguna piedra, 6 palo a manera de idolo ; pero claramente no parece reconocian 
deidad, ni suprema potestad del vniuerso." 



INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST. 53 

be said that their sway extended any distance into the Sierra 
Madre. East of them, Indians speaking what may be dialects 
of the Tarahumar and Tepehuan idioms occupied the valleys 
and fastnesses. These tribes are little known, some of them 
have disappeared by name, and what we know of their con 
dition recalls that of the Yaquis and Mayos, locally varied 
through environment. 1 

North of the Yaquis, and in what might be called the 
southern heart of Sonora, we meet with an interesting tribe, 
about which little has been said lately, and in regard to which 
the positive information of older authors has been in a meas 
ure overlooked. These are the southern Pimas, also called 

1 Orozco y Berra ( Geografta delas Lengitas y Carta Etnografica de Mexico, 1864, 
p. 356) mentions among the " lost languages " the Tepahues, Tecayaguis, 
Cues or Macoyahuis, Vayema, Putima, Baturoque, and Teparantana. At the 
same time he says that the Tepahue was spoken at San Andres Conicari and at 
La Asuncion Tepahue. The Relation de las Misiones que la Copanta de Jesus 
tiene en el Ret no y Provincia de la Nueva Vizcaya en la Nueva Espana, 1678, 
(Documentos para la Historia de Mexico, IVa Serie, vol. iii. p. 384,) says about 
the Partido of San Andres Conicari : " La lengua es particular si bien una par- 
cialidad de este pueblo es de Mayo en la nacion y en la lengua." In regard to 
"la Asuncion de Tepahue "(p. 385) : "La lengua es particular: distinta de la 
de los demas pueblos si bien todos los demas de ellos entienden la lengua tepave 
y aun la caita aunque no la hablaban." This leads to the inference, that the 
Tepahues and those of Conicari spoke not the same idiom. Ribas (Historia 
de los Trivmphos, p. 254, etc.) says of the Tepahues, that they were settled in 
the mountains higher up than the Mayos, with whom they were generally at war, 
and that after the reduction of the latter they established themselves " a vn 
puesto llano, cinco leguas arriba del rio de Mayo, en vn arroyo, q entra en el 
donde formarS vn pueblo de hasta seiscientas familias, y como dos mil personas 
de todas edades." Of the Conicaris he tells us (p. 254), " tenia como de 
dozientas familias." It is difficult to determine whether or not the Guazapares 
and the Tubares belonged to Sonora. Orozco (Geografta de las Lengnas, pp. 323, 
324, 326) locates both tribes in southwestern Chihuahua. There is no doubt 
that they lived there in part. Alegre however (Historia, vol. iii. p. 12) locates 
the Guazapares in Sinaloa, that is, either in the Northern part of that State or in 
southeastern Sonora. The same with the Tubares. (Ibid., p. 52.) Pedro de 
Rivera, in his Diario y Derrotero de lo Caminado visto y observado en el Discurso 
de la Visita General de Presidios sitnados en las Provincias Ynternas de Nueva 
Espana, 1736, p. 47, includes the Tubares among the tribes of Sonora. Orozco 
y Berra classifies both languages as dialects of the Tarahumar. 



54 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 

-^Nebomes or Coras. I shall call them Nebomes hereafter, 
in order to distinguish them from the Arizonian Pimas, which 
are more generally known under that name. Their social 
organization, their religious system of beliefs and practices, 
were analogous to those of the Yaquis, their language so 
differentiated that it made intercourse impossible except by 
signs, and the Nebomes were higher advanced than their 
southern neighbors, inasmuch as they were more substan 
tially dressed. 1 Their mode of agriculture and also their 

1 Ribas, who visited the southern Pimas at the time of their first contact with 
Europeans, speaks of the tribe as follows (Historia, p. 360) : " En el vestido 
era esta Nacion la mas compuesta de todas las demas de Cinaloa, a que les 
ayudaua la mucha catidad de los cueros de venado, que sabian beneficiar, y 
hazen muy buenas gamuzas, muy durable, y quelessiruen en particular de cubi- 
erta, al modo de faldellines a las mugeres, tan largos q arrastra por el suelo : y 
era gala entre ellas, q los estremos de las gamuzas arrastrasson por tierra. A 
que la gente moca tambien anadia otra gala de labores de almagre. En medio 
cuerpo arriba, tambien era ordinario traerlo cubierto con mantas, que texia, 6 
de algodon, 6 de otra planta como la pita. Y aunque en los varones no era ta 
ordinario el andar vestidos, todavia muchos se cubrian con dichas matas." On 
page 380 he describes the costume of a chief of the " Sisibotaris," a branch of 
the Pimas or Nebomes : " Vestido y cubierto con vna large manta, enla9ada al 
onbro al modo de manto, y demas desta traia otro cenida a la cintura, como ]o 
vsan otros desta Nacion." Father Alegre gathered his information concerning 
the Nebomes from the writings of Father Diego Guzman, S.J., who began his 
mission work among them in 1619, and he quotes his statements in Historia de 
la Campania, vol. ii. p. 117, "y las mugeres desde muy ninos andan cubiertas 
hasta los pies con pieles de venado muy bien curtidas y pintadas." His infor 
mation in regard to the Sisibotaris is derived from a letter written by Father 
Nicolas de Arnaya in 1621 (Ibid., p. 124): "Los hombres se cubren con una 
pequena manta pintada de la cintura a la rodilla y cuando hace frio usan unas 
mantas grandes de algodon y pita. Las mugeres van cargadas de vestidos, y al 
entrar en la iglesia hacen tanto ruido como si fueran espanolas. Las faldellines 
que usan llegan hasta el suelo, de pieles brunidas y blandas como una seda, con 
pinturas de colores 6 de algodon y pita, que tienen en abundancia. Se ponen 
a mas de eso un delantar de la cintura abajo, que en muchas suele ser negro, y 
parece escapulario de monjas. Las doncellas especialmente usan una especie 
de jubones 6 corpinos muy bien labrados ; a todo esto afiaden en el invierno 
unos como roquetes, y asi todas son honesti simas." Ribas (Historia, p. 385) 
uses almost the identical words, but he attributes the letter to Father Pedro 
Mendez. 



INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST. 55 

houses are described as follows by an author of the seven 
teenth century, a missionary, who witnessed the first efforts 
made at their Christianization : " The Nebomes were settled 
on the banks of creeks with good running water. Their 
houses were better and more durable than those of other 
nations, for the walls were made of large adobes, which they 
manufactured out of clay and covered with flat roofs of earth. 
Some of these houses they built even much larger, and with 
loopholes like forts, in order that, if they should be attacked 
by enemies, the people of the village might retire into them 
and make use of their arrows." 1 

It is not devoid of significance that the southern Pimas 
dwelt in such buildings, which so closely recall the architec 
ture of the Casa Grande on the Gila, as well as of the Casas 
Grandes in Chihuahua. 

As to the numbers of the Nebomes, it is difficult to form 
any close estimate. The tribe was divided into two groups, 
geographically, the Lower and Upper Nebomes, both of 
which were autonomous, often at loggerheads with each other, 
and respectively inhabiting a number of equally autonomous 
villages. If the Nebomes counted, all told, eight thousand 
souls, it is as much as may be safely attributed to them. 2 
They were consequently at a disadvantage, so far as n timbers 
were concerned, as compared with the Yaquis, and only nat 
ural advantages and superior architectural skill in works for 
defensive purposes enabled them to maintain their existence. 

Without mentioning here several smaller tribes wedged in, 
as it were, between the more conspicuous groups, 3 and with- 

1 Ribas, p. 360. Already quoted in the Geographical Introduction. Alegre 
copies the passage almost textually. 

2 Ribas, Historia, p. 370. Alegre, ffistoria, vol. ii. p. 122. 

3 These tribes were branches of the Nebomes ; for instance, the Sisibotaris, 
Nures, and the Aivinos. They spoke the same language, but their settlements 
lay apart from the clusters formed by the Nebome villages. 



56 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 

out more than alluding to the Eudeves and Jovas, two clus 
ters using dialects of the Opata, and occupying a number of 
villages nearly in a half-circle around the Opatas and dividing 
them from the Nebomes, 1 I pass on to the Opata Indians, 
a formerly important group, now so completely " Hispani- 
cised " as to have almost forgotten their native tongue. The 



1 That the Eudeve and the Jova idioms are dialects of the Opata is gen 
erally accepted. The Eudeves began on the west of the Sonora River, at Opo- 
depe, Cucurpe, and Toape, and extended as far southeast as Matape and Los 
Alamos. The Jovas were along the Upper Yaqui south of Huassavas, Sahuaripa 
and Aribechi belonging to their range. Thence they penetrated into the very 
heart of the Sierra Madre as far as western Chihuahua. All their villages 
within the great chain are now in ruins, owing to the hostilities of the Apaches. 
Thus Tyopari, Mochopa, Servas, and other villages, part of which were Jova, 
part Opata, had to be abandoned in the second half of the past century. Of the 
Jovas, says the Description Geografica Natural y Curiosa de la Provincia de Sonora, 
1764. (cap. vi. art. i., MSS. of the National Archives at Mexico) : " Mas zafios 
y agrestes son los Jovas, especiahnente casi la mayor porcion de su casta que 
no quiere reducirse a vivir en pueblos, fuera de los que estan en Ponida, Teopari 
y Mochopa ; sino tiran a vivir en las barrancas de la sierra donde nacieron ; 
ni cede su terquedad a diligencias que se hagan con ellos ; ni se enamoran con 
el buen trato, comodidades y conveniencias que se les procuren para conser- 
varles, aim despues de traidos y congregados en pueblos, como le ha sucedido 
al padre Manuel Aguirre, misionero en mision de San Luis Gonzaga de Bacade- 
guatzi con los de la rancheria de Satechi, y los de las margenes del rio de los 
Mulatos y del de Arcs que moran entre brenas y malezas manteniendose con 
raices, yerbas y frutas silvestres, consistiendo sus siembras solo en tal cual 
mata de maiz y algunas calabazas y sandias donde lo consienten las angosturas, 
en que dichos rios rompen por aquella Sierra. . . . Su tal cual ejercicio es 
hacer esteras, Hifet en opata de las muchas y buenas palmas de que abunda su 
terreno, y llevarlas a vender a los pueblos circunvecinos por semillas y alguna 
ropa que con poco se contentan, pues por comun la frazada que las mujeres 
mismas se ingenian a tejer a su modo de la lana de unas pocas ovejas que crian, 
al hobre sirve de capa, jubon y calzones; y a la mujer de manto, tapapies, 
camisa y corpinos. Lo bueno que tienen, es no ser perjudicales, ni hazer 
dano en las vidas y haciendas de los reducidos. Solo con los apaches son 
bravos," etc. Of the Eudeves the same source speaks more favorably ; they 
were more docile, and more inclined to learn civilized arts and usages. A 
number of the Jovas lived in Chihuahua. Relation de las Misiones, p. 341 : 
" Esta nacion esta. poblada a orillas del rio Papigochic, variedad de algunos 
pueblos y corre hasta cerca del partido de Sauaripa y uno de sus pueblos lla- 
mado Teopari." These Jovas were still independent in 1678. 



INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST. 57 

Opatas, to whom also the names of Sonora, Teguima, and 
Ure are given, 1 held the northwestern quarter of the present 
State of Sonora. They held sway over fully one fourth of the 
State. While in Sonora, the few Opatas who still spoke their 
aboriginal idiom told me that their proper name was " Joyl- 
ra-ua! " Op-a-ta seems indeed to be a Pima word, a corrup 
tion of Oop, enemy, and Ootain, people, that is, people of our 
own stock with whom we are at war. The Opata language, 
as well known, is closely allied to the Pima ; both are but 
members of one family. 

The bulk of the Opatas were settled in the valley of the 
Sonora River, from north of Bacuachi as far south as Ures. 2 
West of this channel, the water supply grows scant and 
scantier, towards the arid coast of the Gulf of California. 
Indian settlements therefore became less numerous, and they 
were no longer of pure Opata stock. East of the Sonora val 
ley, forbidding mountains separate it from the upper course 
of the Rio Yaqui, there called locally Rio de Babispe, Rio de 
Huassavas, even Rio de Sahuaripa. Only the narrow valleys 
of this stream were inhabitable for agricultural Indians, and 
these vales themselves are few and far between. Thus the 
Opatas became geographically and politically divided into 
a number of small tribes, or rather village communities, au- 

1 The terms Teguima and Ure, as applied to the language, I never heard in 
Sonora. Still Orozco y Berra, Geograjia, etc., and Pimentel, Cuadro descriptive 
y comparative de las Lenguas indigenas de Mexico, adopt the words. 

2 This appears at a very early date, in 1539, when Fray Marcos of Nizza 
made his bold journey to Cibola. As I believe to have established in two 
publications on the subject, the villages of the Opatas reached as far north 
as above the mouth of the Arroyo de las Higueritas, and perhaps to Mututi- 
cachi. Compare La Decoiiverte du A r ouveaii Mexique par le Maine Franciscaiii 
Frtre Marcos de Nice, in Revue d Ethnographie, 1886, vol. v. p. 131. Also, 
The Discovery of New Mexico by Fray Marcos of Nizza, in the Magazine 
of Western History. That the Opatas ranged as far south as Ures is well 
known. We have fair descriptions of the Sonora valley from Castaneda, 
Cibola, p. 157. 



58 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 

tonomous and often hostile towards one another. 1 On the 
Rio Sonora alone, confederacies appear to have been formed, 
if the evidence of Indian tradition, as collected by me while 
there, is reliable. 2 The Opatas of Oposura made war upon 
those of Banamichi and of Babiacora on the Sonora River ; 3 
there was no connection between the people of Babispe and 
those of Tamichopa, although both dwelt on the Upper 
Yaqui, and only twenty miles apart. The villages of the 
Opatas were small, their houses detached, and only for one 
family. A slight foundation of cobble-stone supported a 
framework of posts standing in a thin wall of rough stones and 
mud and a slanting roof of yucca or palm leaves covered the 
whole. Such was the Opata house in the vicinity of Cumpas. 4 
At Joytudachi in the Sierra de Baserac, one of the north 
western spurs of the Sierra Madre, I found a house still partly 
standing. It had the usual limited size, and was made of 
thin plates of stone laid in mud. On the Sonora River, 
where the climate is warmer and where it seldom snows, the 
walls even seem to have been of yucca and canes; 5 but in 

1 This is already stated by Castaneda, Cibola, p. 157 : " Derriere cette pro 
vince jusq aux montagnes sont batis un grand nombre de villages habitds par 
des Indians, qui forment une multitude de tribus a part, reunis en petites nations 
de sept ou huit, dix ou douze villages." He gives several names, which I omit 
here, as they are evidently misspelt. Ribas is also quite explicit, Historia de 
los Trivmphos, p. 392. Here he speaks of the Opatas of the Sonora valley. The 
population of that valley, he leads us to infer, was about four thousand souls, 
perhaps five thousand. In addition to these Sonoras proper, he speaks, on 
pages 358 and 359, of the tribes west from the Rio Sonora, like the Naco- 
suras (Na cosaris), Cumupas (Cumpas), Buasdabas (Huassabas), and Bapispes 
(Babispes). All these were Opatas, like the Hures (Ures). 

2 I was told by the Opatas of Banamichi, that they confederated with those 
of Sinoquipe against their nearest neighbors of Htiepaca and Aconchi. 

3 I was assured that the fortified hill called Cerro de Batonapa, near Bana 
michi, was the place of refuge against incursions from Cumpas and Oposura. 

4 I have not myself seen this building, but obtained a fair description of it 
through Sr. Espiridion Arvisu of Oposura. 

5 So says Castaneda, Cibola, p. 156. He asserts that the dwellings were of 
canes, or rather of mats (" nattes de jonc"). Ribas (Historia, p. 392) says of 



INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST. 59 

the Sierra Madre proper, where the Yaqui gushes out of the 
picturesque gorge descending from its source at Chu-ui-chu-pa, 
there are remains of Opata villages recalling, on a lesser 
scale, the stately architecture of Casas Grandes. The houses 
are connected so as to form an interior square, and appear as 
if raised on artificial platforms. 1 Mutual protection from 
enemies, which threatened the Opatas on the Chihuahua 
side of the great central chain, from the inhabitants of the 
valley of Casas Grandes, is stated as having caused this 
superior and defensive mode of building. 2 

As late as the past century, isolated hamlets of Opata 
Indians were scattered throughout some parts of the Sierra 

the houses in the Sonora valley, "sus casas mas durables y compuestas." It 
may not be amiss to recall here the report of Francisco de Ibarra, Relation de 
los Descubrimicntos, Conquistas y Poblaciones hechas por el Gobernador Francisco 
de Ybarra en las Proviucias de Copala, Ntieva Vizcaya y Chiametla (Doc. de 
Indias, vol. xiv. p. 482) : " Y entrando en la dicha tierra adentro, fue en cantidad 
de trescientas leguas desde la dicha provincia de Chiatmela en adelante, en la 
cual entrada hallo grandes poblaciones de naturales, vestidos, y que tenian 
muchos bastimentos de maiz, y otras cosas, . . . y que ansimismo tenian muchas 
casas hechas de terraclos." The report of Francisco de Ibarra is not always 
quite clear, and it is evident that he is careful not to diminish the impor 
tance of his own achievements ; still it is not unlikely that he saw either the 
houses of the Pimas or those of the Opatas in the Sonora valley. Compare also 
Relation de lo que descnbrio Diego de Ibarra en la Provincia de Copala, llamada 
Topiame, etc. (vol. xiv. pp. 554, 558). The title is misleading, for it refers to 
a discovery made by Diego de Ibarra, whereas it is in fact another report on the 
explorations of Francisco de Ibarra. How far to the north the latter penetrated 
I am unable to determine. 

1 This is very plain in the ruins of Batesopa and Baquigopa, east of Hua- 
chinera, and on the very banks of the Upper Yaqui. 

2 Such is the common opinion of the Opatas of the villages from Huassabas 
to Baserac and Babispe. They showed me the sites of hamlets which, accord 
ing to tradition, had been deserted on account of the constant danger threaten 
ing from the Chihuahua side. Whether the enemies who compelled this 
abandonment, were the Sumas of Casas Grandes, or some other tribe who per 
haps built the villages whose ruins have given the name to the valley and 
settlements, I am unable to tell. One of my informants boldly asserted that j 
the builders of Casas Grandes were Opatas. There is nothing improbable , 
in this. 



60 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 

Madre. 1 The movement of the tribe appears to have been 
a shrinkage from east to west, receding across the Cordillera 
into the Sonoran valleys. Still the Opatas claim to have 
come from the north ; and this may have been the case. The 
average general direction of a migratory route is often changed 
for a while: the movements of southwestern tribes are not so 
much analogous to a wave, or a steady current, as to a slow 
filtration, where the fillets are frequently deflected from the 
original course. 

Of the agricultural pursuits of the Nebomes we have a fair 
picture from the pen of Padre Ribas : " Nearly all the people 
were workmen ; they defined their land, they planted those 
plants which we said were general all over the Indies, and 
even in some localities well adapted for it they practised 
irrigation, leading the water therefor out of the creeks by 
means of ditches. In addition to this they planted near their 
houses a kind of vine, of a plant which the Spaniards call 
lechuguilla, since its shape is similar to that of lettuce, only 
the leaves are much stronger, and it requires one or two 
years ere it matures. When it is ripe they cut it, and the 
root toasted with some of the leaves serves as an aliment. 
It is savory and sweet, and when ground they make of it 
something like a preserve." 2 

About the Opatas we have no such explicit statements, 
but vestiges of artificial tanks on barren hills, 3 and innumer 
able dikes scattered all over the northern parts of the Sierra 

1 For instance, east of Nacori there are a number of small ruined settlements 
in the very heart of the Sierra Madre. The majority of these were inhabited 
by Jovas, still there were Opatas among them. Thus, in 1678, Servas or Sereba 
was an Opata village, according to F. Juan Ortiz Zapata, Relation de las Misiones, 
p. 366. 

2 Ribas, Historia, p. 360. 

8 Such tanks are found for instance near the Hacienda de las Delicias, on 
the hills near Vaynorpa and Badeuachi. The rim is of drift, and they are not 
very large. The only direct information that I have been able to obtain on the 



INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST. 6 I 

Madre and its spurs, permit us to form a conception of how 
they improved the soil for their sustenance. These dikes, 
called now in the country " benches " (banqnitos\ are an 
interesting feature in the archaeology of the region. 

The slopes of the mountain ranges are steep, and exceed 
ingly gravelly or rocky in many places. Only trees and thorny 
shrubs grow on them. In fact, they cannot be used for 
tillage of any kind, as the drainage is too violent, especially 
in summer, with the heavy rains of that season. Still, the 
Opatas, and their cognates, the Jovas, dwelt on such slopes, 
forming small villages, and they used the very drainage chan 
nels, the so-called " arroyos," for the artificial accumulation 
of soil, or for retaining in place what was already there. It 
may be remembered, that, in my report to the Institute dated 
August 11, 1883, I alluded to the rectangular spaces enclosed 
by upright small stones which are so numerous in Arizona. 1 
I have since found them in northern New Mexico, also in 
proximity to and connected with ruined villages of the com 
munal type of architecture. 2 In my report alluded to, I 
described these enclosures as court-yards. In many places, 
however, they are found apart from houses. Pima Indians of 
Sonora assert that they were garden beds, where such nutri- 

mode of agriculture of the Opatas dates from 1764, that is, after they had been un 
der control of the Jesuit missionaries for more than a century. The Description 
Gcografica (cap. vi. art. i.) praises the Opatas and some of the Eudeves for 
being "los mas aplicados al trabajo y cultivo de sus tierras y cria de ganados. 
. . . Sus siembras consisten en trigo, maiz, frijol, calabazas, sandias, melones, 
e-c., de que hacen muy buenas cosechas ; pero como no estiman su trabajo, io 
malbaratan a toda prisa por qualquier cosa que se les ofrezca por sus frutos." 

1 Compare my report in the Fifth Annual Report of the Archaeological Insti 
tute of America, 1884, pp. 63, 64, 65, 77. 

2 At the Ojo Caliente of the Hon. Antonio Josef (called Joseph s Hot 
Springs), near the ruiued Tehua Pueblos of Pose-uing-ge and Ho-ui-ri ; at the 
Rito Colorado, about ten miles west of the Hot Springs and near the old Pueblo 
of Sepa-ue ; also near Abiquiu. They are clearly a variety of banqnitos, and 
almost an intermediate between them and the " Garden beds " of Arizona. 



62 ARCH^OLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 

tious plants were raised as, like corn, grow without irrigation 
and with the help of summer showers alone. Full confirma 
tion of this statement has been obtained by me through the 
Opatas of Sonora. By holding the soil in place by means 
of a low barrier of stones, protruding above the surface 
rarely more than six or ten inches, a bed of cultivable loam 
is gradually accumulated. The banquitos serve a similar 
purpose to a greater degree. Behind each wall, (and these 
are usually from two to three feet in height and one to two 
feet thick,) a small plot of loam has formed, as wide as the 
bed of the arroyo, and with a length proportioned to the 
fall of the creek. These plots are commonly free from rocks, 
such as mountain torrents always carry ; frequently the rocks 
are heaped at the sides, showing that rock-picking has been 
the chief duty of the owner, in place of weeding. 1 These 
simple contrivances, to which man was driven by the nature 
of the country, have rendered the heart of the Sierra Madre, 
as well as its wild eastern and western ranges, like the 
formidable Sierra de Teras in Sonora and the mountains 
about Casas Grandes in Chihuahua, habitable by land-tilling 
Indians. The fact that they resorted to such places for their 
homes, where extraordinary efforts and devices were neces 
sary for subsistence, is also indicative of two facts, the 
aridity of the lower levels, and a state of insecurity, both of 
which conditions seem to have existed from a date long pre 
vious to the advent of Europeans. 2 

In dress and ornaments the Opatas resembled the Pimas 

1 This is very clear at the ruins of Va-yua-va-bi, east of Nacori, and at Quit- 
a-mac, east of Huachinera. The rocks and stones seem to have been removed 
from between the dikes and thrown aside, thus clearing the soil. 

2 East of the Sierra Madre the lower levels are indeed very arid, and there 
fore almost impracticable for agriculture except in some valleys. The course of 
the Upper Yaqui in Sonora is very tortuous, and along it an occasional opening 
like a small " bottom " affords room for cultivation. Many miles of rocky 
gorges intervene between these rare fertile spots. 



INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST. 63 

as well as the Yaquis ; but owing to their more northerly 
and more mountainous home, their costume was more sub 
stantial. Skins of deer and cotton mantles constituted it in 
the main. 1 If Fray Marcos of Nizza was correctly informed, 
we might even suspect that an occasional buffalo robe found 
its way into the valley of the Sonora River. Still, the hide 
of the large red deer, or of the mule deer, so common in 
Lower California, may have given rise, through imperfect 
and still more imperfectly understood descriptions of the 
animal, to the supposition that the Opatas obtained buffalo 
hides from the Zuni Indians. 2 It is certain, however, that 
they secured turquoises and turquoise ornaments by com- 

1 Of this custom we have early descriptions, Fray Marcos de Nizza, Descu- 
brimiento de las Siete Ciudades, says (p. 337): "Antes de llegar al despo- 
blado, tope con un pueblo fresco, de regadio, a que me salio a rescibir harta 
gente hombres y mujeres, vestidos cle algodon y algunos cubiertos con 
cueros de vacas, que en general tienen por mejor vestido quel de algodon. 
Todos los deste pueblo andan encaconados con turquesas que les cuelgan de 
las narices y orejas, y a esta Hainan Cacona." This must have been in the 
vicinity of Bacuachi. One year later, the expedition of Coronado found the 
" Sonoras." According to Castaneda (Cibola, p. 157), " Les femmes portent des 
jupons de dessous en cuir de cerf tanne, et de petits san-benitos qui leur de- 
scendent a mi-corps." Ribas says (p. 392) : " La gente que en el esta poblada, es 
del mismo natural que los Sisibotaris, y de las mismas costumbres vestidos como 
ellos, y mas que otras Naciones." 

2 I doubt very much the existence of buffalo robes in Sonora at the time of ~\ 
Fray Marcos. The distance was too great. Furthermore, the monk only 
repeated what he understood the people to say to him, and he had never seen 
buffalo hides, still less the animal itself; misunderstanding was therefore easy. 

I am of the opinion that the large hides shown to him were those of large deer, 
like Cervus canadensis, or of the " Bura," or mule deer The latter is found in 
Sonora and in Lower California. The only buffalo robe that may have been ex 
hibited to him was the hide which he describes as follows (p. 341) : "Aquf en 
este valle, me truxeron un cuero, tanto y medio mayor que de una gran vaca, y 
me dixeron que es de un animal, que tiene solo un cuerno en la frente y queste 
cuerno es corbo hacia los pechos, y que de alii sale una punta derecha, en la 
cual dice que tiene tanta fuerza, que ninguna cosa, por recia que sea, dexa de 
romper, si topa con ella ; y dicen que hay muchos animales destos en aquella 
tierra; la color del cuero es d manera de cabron y el pelo tan largo como el 
dedo." But this was among the Sobaypuris of Arizona. 



64 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 

mercial intercourse with the people of Cibola-Zuni, and that 
parrot skins and plumes were given to the latter in return. 1 
Aboriginal commerce, slow and irregular, contributed to 
modify ideas and customs, by creating new desires, and fur 
nishing the means of satisfying them. 

In regard to the religious ideas and beliefs of the Opatas, 
they do not appear to have fundamentally differed from those 
of the other southwestern tribes. At the present time, it is 
very difficult, if not impossible, to gather anything on this 
subject except after a long residence among them ; and even 
then it must be considered that the changes which the Opa 
tas have undergone are perhaps more thorough than those 
of any other tribe. 2 Still, traditions are left, and one of 
them, as related to me by an Indian of Huachinera, recalls 
strangely the tale of the creation of the sun and moon current 
among the Nahuatl. 3 Some Spanish authors speak of their 
belief in a supreme being, 4 called Tamu-mo-ta, but the chief 

1 I have already mentioned this fact in the Geographical Introduction. 

2 They are absolutely Christianized, on the surface at least. This does not 
prevent them from being convinced of the efficacy of witchcraft and of the 
existence of witches. I have a slight suspicion, furthermore, that they still 
maintain their former practices and rites in secret. As far as their original 
condition is concerned, we must go back to Ribas in order to find some intima 
tions of it (Historia de los Trwmphos, lib. vi. cap. xviii. p. 393): "Apartauanse 
de costumbres Gentflicas, que en todas estas Naciones reinan, como viuen en 
tinieblas, por mas morigeradas y masas que scan, y en particular el vicio tan 
repetido fo^osamente en esta Historia, de las borracheras, que a todos los man- 
chaua." The similarity of customs between all the tribes of Sonora was such, 
that it caused Father Alegre, who had access to the reports and correspondence 
of all the missionaries of his order, to include these customs in a general picture 
of all the tribes of that country. In this he follows Ribas, who also includes 
all the Indians of what at his time was called Sinaloa in a general view. 
(Lib. ix. cap. ii. to vi.) 

3 At Baquigopa, I was shown the place where the sun and moon were said 
to have been created, and in the manner told by Sahagun. I shall have to 
return to this further on. 

4 This fact is found in the document entitled Estado de la Provincia de 
Sonora, written by an anonymous Jesuit, in 1730. It is printed in the third 



INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST. 65 

attention was always drawn towards their faith in witchcraft 
and their practice of it. 1 This belief is indeed fundamental 
with the Indians, and is a sure indication that what is cur- 
series of Documents for the History of Mexico. 1 refer here to a manuscript 
copy made by myself from the original in the Mexican Archives. The writer 
says of the Opatas : " De aqui tuvo entre ellos origen un error oculto a los 
primeros misioneros y descubierto en estos anos por algunos padres pericti- 
simos en la lengua opata, este era, que estaban persuaclidos d que su primer 
principle, no solamente en cuanto a su poblacion en estas tierras, sino en cuanto 
al ser y existencia, era Moctezuma, y asi le llamaban en su lengua Tamo Mota 
que quiere decir : nuestro primer principio, de que ya por la misericordia de 
Dios estan desenganados." On the other hand, I again refer to the statement 
of Ribas (Historia, p. 16), already quoted. 

1 In this all authors of the past centuries agree, and also in that they had 
recourse to innumerable presages, etc. Among these one very singular one is 
related in Alegre, Historia, vol. ii. p. 217. Since his account is probably derived 
from the Description Geogrdfica (cap. v. art. iii.), I will take the quotation from the 
latter document : " Antiguamente, para saber por donde venian sus enemigos, 
cojian cierta especie de langosta llamada Hupitui : tomandola de su cabeza la 
preguntaban ^ por donde venian sus enemigos ? y como es natural que el animalito 
menee y alee los pies en tal situacion, tomaban por respuesta y creian que los 
apaches entraban por el rumbo que senalaba dicha langosta con la manita que 
primero alzaba." It would carry us too far to repeat here all that is told by 
older authors about the superstitions of the Opatas, that people wounded by 
a lightning stroke were thereafter excluded from intercourse with the rest, that 
when it hailed, they placed in the doors of their dwellings a cane (Baqui-go), 
believing that this would cause the hail to stop. The custom of erecting heaps 
of stones, sticks, etc., alongside of trails, so common among the New Mexican 
Indians and also in Peru, is thus described : " A las orillas del camino real se 
suelen encontrar unos montones de piedras, palos, huesos de animales, etc., en 
dichos montones suelen echar los de a caballo, las varillas que llevan para 
pegar a la cabalgadura, y los de a pie alzar algun palito por el camino y 
tirarlo asimismo sobre dichos montones ; unos dicen que con esto dejan alii el 
cansancio, asi propio como el de la bestia : otros que alii esta enterrado alguno, 
que murio de frio en tal paraje y que para calentarle hacen aquellas ofrendas, 
que suelen quemar algun dia qua hace mucho frio." This custom is well 
known in New Mexico, where the stones and sticks or branches signify as many 
sacrifices and prayers or invocations. The sticks and twigs stand in place of 
what is known among the Pueblos as " prayer plumes/ or " prayer sticks," and 
wherever these heaps are found it is a sure sign that the same ideas prevail 
that underlie the complicated uses of the prayer plumes, in most instances, even, 
that the tribes had the plumes also and used them as votive offerings. Analo 
gies with northern tribes are therefore not wanting. The anonymous report 
which I have already quoted, jEstado de la Provincia de Sonora, 1730, contains 

5 



^66 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 

rently called their religion was more properly a fetichism, 
highly developed, very complicated, and systematized in every 
detail. Mention is made of places of sacrifice situated out- 

the following very significant statement in regard to the beliefs of the Opatas : 
" No se hallo eh esta nacion opata la idolatn a ni la embriaguez ; muchas 
mugeres si solian tener, al sol y i. la luna veneraban como hermanos, y aim 
todavia escondidos en donde el padre no los pueda ver en sus bailes, saludan a 
la luna nueva esparciendole por el aire punos de pinole. Sus viejos, que entre 
ellos tienen grande autoridad, les ensenan patranas muy ridi culas ; dire una 
sola, en que se conoce su grande simpleza y poco discurso para convencer de 
embusteros a sus viejos predicadores ; estos les han persuadido (con algunos 
resabios de la fabulosa laguna Stigia) que en muriendo van sus almas a una 
espaciosa laguna, en cuyas orillas por la banda del Norte estaua sentada un 
hombrecillo muy pequeno, a quien llamaban Butzu-uri : este, pues, las recibia, 
y colocandolos apinadas por su multitud en una gran canoa, las remitia, a la 
otra banda del Sur, a dar residencia a una reverenda vieja que se llamaua Vate- 
com Hoatziqui, en una por una las iba comiendo, y a las que hallaba pintadas 
con las rayas con que se afean las caras, las arrojaua a la laguna diciendo 
que no las comia porque tenian espinas, y las no pintadas pasaban a la barriga 
contentas de gozar de una inmundisima bienaventuranza " This recalls forcibly 
the lagune of Shi-Pap-u, or Cibobe, of the Queres and Tehuas of New Mexico, 
and the monsters which, according to Gushing, receive the souls on their ap 
proach to eternal rest and joy in the lagune of Cothluellonne. I only add here 
the following from the same source : " Valense de los maleficios, yerbas vene- 
nosas para quitar la vida a sus mismos parientes, y especialmente a aquellas que 
quiere mas el padre 6 con quienes habla freruentemente por sus familiares, etc." 
The marriage ceremonies are described as follows in the Description Geogrfifica : 
" Apuntare las mas decentes, y son : i. juntos grandes y pequefios, ponen a los 
mocetones y mujeres casaderas en dos hileras, y dada una sena emprenden a 
correr estas, dada otra siguen la carrera aquellos, y alcanzdndolas, ha de cojer 
cada uno la suya de la tetilla izquierda; y quedan hechos, y confirmados los 
desposorios. Acabado este preambulo, se ponen a bailar, y segun me acuerdo 
haber oido, los novios y novias en traje de la primera inocencia. A su tiempo, 
como ya tienen para cada par de novios prevenidos dos petates 6 esteras de 
palma, sin mas ceremonia que la dicha, los meten entre sus dos esteras a cada 
par, y los demas siguen a festejarlos con sus danzas y cantares hasta que ama- 
nece o se cansan, aunque solo en este con incansables. Setnejantes funciones 
las hacen en los bosqes no muy retirado de los pueblos." The same document 
also describes the mortuary customs : " Al enterrar a sus difuntos todas estas 
naciones, a escepcion de los apaches, en su gentilidad y aim recien convertidos, 
solian de enterrar con ellos todo su ajuar y vestuario, con su pinole, olla de 
agua, etc. ... A los ninos y ninas de pecho les llevan en una jicara la leche 
ordenada de sus pechos las mismas madres, y se las echan en la sepultura ; y 
esto lo hacen por algunos dias continues." The Jesuit Father Ignatius Pfeffer- 



INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST. 67 

side of the villages, 1 and many of their dances are described. 
We recognize among them the deer dance (Maso-daui), 2 and 
in the details of some of the others analogies with practices 
of the New Mexican pueblos are quite abundant. 3 At the 

korn, who was missionary in Sonora for eleven years, says in his Beschreilmng 
der Landschaft Sonora Sarnt anderen merkwurdigen Nachrichten von den inneren 
Theilen Neu-Spaniens, (Cologne, 1794, vol. ii. p. 214,) that the Pimas bewail their 
dead. Of the medicine-men he asserts (p. 209) that they suck the sickness 
through a tube, and also blow tobacco smoke on carbuncles. This agrees with 
what we are told by Ribas (Historia de los Trivmphos, lib. i. cap. v. p. 17) : 
" El medio de curar estos endemoniados medicos es vnas vezes soplado la parte 
lesa 6 dolorida del cuerpo, 6 todo el, con tata fuer$a y conato, q se oye muchos 
passos el ruido q haze : otras chupado la parte dolorida. Y auq en parte 
pudieramos dezir, q esta accio tenia el efecto natural de la vetosa, que atrae, o 
disgrega el humor, pero esso esta embuelto en tantas supersticiones y embustes, 
q no nos podemos fiar q sea todo seguro, y libre de engano, 6 pacto con el 
demonio : porq a los enfermos les dan a entender, que les saca del cuerpo palos, 
espinas, y pedre9uelas, que les causauan el dolor y enfermedad ; y todo es em- 
buste, porq ellos traen essos en la boca, 6 en la mano con dissimulacion ; y 
quando han curado al enfermo se lo muestran, vediendolos por verdad, lo q es 
patrana y mentira." 

1 Castaneda mentions those places in Cibola, p. 157: " Tous les matins, 
les caciques des villages montent sur de petites eminences de terre elevees 
a cet effet; et, pendant plus d une heure, ils crient comme des crieurs publics, 
pour avertir chacun de ce qu il a a faire. Leurs temples sont de petites maisons 
autour desquelles ils plantent une quantite de fleches quand ils s attendent a la 
guerre." This is so far the only mention which I have found of places of 
worship among the Indians of Sonora. 

2 The deer dance was mentioned to me while I was in Sonora. It is said to 
be still used to-day. Pfefferkorn (Beschreibung, vol. ii. pp. 79, 80) refers to 
animal dances in general : " Sie wissen den Gang, die Spruenge, die Raenke, 
das Bruellen, die Wuth, kurz, alle Eigenschaften dieser Thiere mit vieler Aehn- 
lichkeit nachzumachen, und damit der Spass desto natuerlicher scheine, be- 
kleiden sie sich mit der Haut des Thieres das sie vorbilden wollen. Dieses 
Possenspiel nennen sie Toopter, das Thiermachen." This seems to imply 
that they had other animal dances beside the Maso-daui. 

3 Whoever has seen the dances of the New Mexican Pueblos must be struck 
by the resemblance between the so-called " Entremeseros," or clowns, and the 
description of the solo dancers among the Opatas and Eudeves, as given by 
Pfefferkorn (vol. ii. p. 80) : " Ihre vornehmsten Taenze sind der Pascola, und 
der Montezuma. In dem ersteren koemmt ein Indianer zum Vorschein, der 
einen Taenzer, und zugleich einen Harlekin, vorstellt. Seine Tracht stimmt 
auch mit dieser Person ueberein, Auf dem Kopfe traegt er ein lederne 



68 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 

present day, the Daui-Namaca, a dance modified by ideas of 
the Catholic Church, is danced during Easter week. 1 The 
deer dance has almost fallen into oblivion, and the Mariachi, 
one of the many sensual and decidedly obscene performances 
constituting a part of Indian rites, has at last been abolished. 2 

Muetze, welche mit langen vielfaerbigen und emporstehenden Federn geziert ist. 
Am Hintertheile des Kopfes haengt der Schwanz eines Coyote, welcher ueber 
dem Ruecken des Taenzers hinablaeuft Ober dem Elnbogen, und unter den 
Knien, ist er mit Baendern geziert, welche mit langen und niedlichen Federn 
dicht besetzt, und mit kleinen Schellen oder Muscheln zu dem Ende behaengt 
sind, damit diese bei den Bewegungen des Koerpers ein Geraeusch von sich 
geben. Den Unterleib hat er bis zur Haelfte der Schenkel ringsherum mit 
einer Schuerze von praechtigen Federn, und den Hals mit einem Kragen von 
dem naemlichen Stoffe bedeckt. Derganze uebriege Leib ist mit verschiedenen 
Farben bemalt, und das Gesicht auf eine laecherliche Art beschmiert. In der 
Hand haelt er einen Stab, an dessen Spitze zwei oder drei Fuchsschwaenze, oder 
ebensoviele Rindsblasen angebunden ; womit er die Knaben, welche ihm aus 
Neugierde oder Muthwillen zu nahe kommen, verscheucht. In diesem Putze, 
tritt der Pascola auf den Schauplatz, und faengt seine Rolle an. Er tanzt, und 
bewegt die Fuesse mit einer unbeschreiblichen Geschwindigkeit so, dass diese 
Bewegungen nicht nur mit alien und jeden Noten, sondern auch mit den ra- 
schen Laeufen der Musik, vollkommen uebereinstimmen. Unter dem Tanzen 
macht er zuweilen erstaunenswuerdige Luftspruenge, auch dann und wann 
laecherliche Mienen, und naerrische Gebaerden. . . . Die gewoehnliche Musik 
bei diesen Tanze ist eine kleine Trommel, und eine Floete. Ein Indianer spielt 
beide zugleich, und haelt so ziemlich den Takt." The Pascol is (according to 
Escudero, quoted by Orozco y Berra, Geografia^ etc., p. 355) still danced 
among the Yaquis, and the description given of it agrees with that of Father 
Pfefferkorn. Escudero very justly remarks : " La institucion de este baile 
podria decirse que se haria siguiendo el principio de Horacio, Canendo ei 
ridendo corrigo mores ; porque en el se satirizan los vicios y se dicen chistosos 
epigramas, que casi siempre agradan a los espectadores." This same kind of 
satire is displayed by the Qo-sha-re of the Queres, personages whose real 
functions are quite different from the r6le of clowns which they play in the 
dances of the Pueblos. 

1 The Daui-na-maca is performed in the valley of the Rio Sonora annually. 
In place of head-boards or feather bushes the dancers wear a head-band of 
matting covered with colored paper, and decorated by a medallion and bright 
plumes. A peculiar kilt, made of canes, is worn on the occasion. 

2 The Mari-a-chi was a round dance. Among the many dances that had to 
be abolished was the Torom-ra-qui. It is described as follows in the Estado 
de la Provincia de Sonora: " Y por ser prueba de su docilidad no sera fuera de 
proposito decir, que esta nacion Opata usaba un baile verdaderamente diabolico 



INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST. 69 

In these displays bright plumes held, as they still hold, the 
place of painted head-boards, but masks seem to have been 
used also. 1 Both faces and bodies were painted with bright 
tints, solo dancers appeared, and the music was in no manner 
distinct from the rhythmic noise accompanying the perform 
ances of northern Indians. 

The Opatas danced the scalp dance also. 2 This shows 
that the custom of mutilating the dead enemy by taking his 
scalp prevailed among them. As we go farther south, how 
ever, the head of the foe was the most desired trophy. A 
gradual change in these customs of war religion appears 
from the north to the equator, from the process of scalping to 
that of securing the entire body for purposes of cannibalism, 
or the live enemy in order to sacrifice him to the fetiches. 3 

que Haitian Torom Raqui, con que decian que asegurauan las lluvias y las 
cosechas abundantes : este baile comenzaba al salir el sol y duraba hasta 
ponerse, a el asisten de todos los pueblos, sembraban toda la plaza adonde se 
bailaua de todo ge nero de semillas y ramos de arboles y a trechos huecos y 
pesunas de bestias, astas de reces, caracoles, y otras inmundias, en los cuatro 
angulos de la plaza formaban cuatro chozas, de donde salian por torno los 
bailadores con unos aullidos y clamores espantosas, y disfrazados con trajes 
y monteras abominables al son de huesos y sonajas, legaban a cada una de las 
baratijas que estaban esparcidas en la plaza y bailaban con tristisimos gemidos, 
llantos y ceremonias diabolicas." 

1 The Pascola wore a mask, according to Escudero. Orozco, Geografia, 

P- 355- 

2 Compare Pfefferkorn, Besehreibung, etc., vol. ii. p. 172. According to him, 
the triumphant war party was received by the women. Description Geografica 
(cap. v. art. v ) : "Si les va bien en la campana, de los enemigos que matan 
traen sus cabelleras, que aprecian mas que otro botin, y los cautivos, ninos 
y mugeres que lleganclo a sus pueblos bailan dia y noche, que da lastima ver el 
estrago que causan con esta locura en si propias, y mas en los cautivos que de 
esta manera llevan en triunfo." 

8 Torturing prisoners of war seems to have taken place occasionally among 
the Opatas. Description Geografica : " En algunos pueblos aun de Opatas siendo 
estos, segun todas, los mas allegados a la razon entre los demas indios, he 
sabido, usarse el salir las viejas de sus casas con tizones ardientes y quemar a 
los pobres cautivos en varias partes de sus cuerpos, mayormente en los muslos 
con tanta crueldad, que he visto los senales en un muchachito bien tierno, y 
tales que no se le quitaron en toda su vida." The Yaquis took the heads of 



70 ARCH&OLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 

Anthropophagy in America was practised mainly within the 
tropics. 1 

The same may be said in regard to the use of poisoned 
arrows. That the Opatas used them is fully established, and 
the counter poison is also known. 2 The custom appears to 
have been general with the tribes of Sonora, and the poison 
is described as mortal, though not in every instance. 3 In 
addition to the bow and arrow, the usual and well known 
aboriginal weapons, the club, the shield, and possibly the 
sling, were handled by the Opatas in warfare, and, like less 
sedentary tribes, they frequently set out in small war parties, 
accompanied by a sorcerer or medicine-man. 4 

Remnants of fortifications are common in Sonora. These 
are the so-called " Cerros de Trincheras," more or less isolated 
heights, on whose slopes stone parapets have been erected at 
various elevations, presenting the aspect of concentric circum- 



the dead enemies, not merely the scalp. So did the tribes of Sinaloa proper. 
Ribas, Historia, pp. 10, 294. 

1 I have not found any trace so far, of a positive nature, that any of the 
tribes of Sonora have been cannibals. 

2 As early as 1542, the Spaniards experienced the poisoned arrows of the 
Opatas. As to the counter poison, it is given in the Description Geografica: 
" Tararnatraca 6 Caramatraca, se llama una raiz pequena que se halla en la 
costa de Guaimas, es muy medicinal y contraveneno muy apreciable para heri- 
das de flechas ponzonosas, aun contra la mas brava del seri, como me lo aseguro 
el padre Francisco Pimentel, de la Compania de Jesus, quien sirvio de capellan 
en la espedicion contra dicho enemigo el ano de 1750, y que ninguno murio de 
los heridos que se valieron de ella mascandola y tragando la saliva y ponie"ndola, 
asi mascada, sobre la herida y aun comie ndola." 

3 Castaneda, Cibola, p. 221. 

4 The warlike customs are so fully and so frequently described, that I for 
bear quoting in detail. Ribas (Historia, lib. i. cap. iii.) is very detailed about 
them. Among others he describes the war paint : " Para salir d la guerra se 
embijan, o pintan con vn barniz que hazen de vn azeite de gusanos, rebuelto 
con almagre, 6 ollin de sus ollas, con que quedan pintados en cara y cuerpo 
desuerte que parece fieros demonios del infierno." An equally full account 
may be found in the Description. According to it, the young men were " initi 
ated " (cap. v. art. v.). Pfefferkorn also (Beschreibung, vol. ii. pp. 163-172) 



INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST. 71 

vallations, encircling a more or less conical elevation. On the 
top or summit there are nearly always traces of rude habita 
tions, and of round small erections, that appear to have been 
lookouts or watch-towers. The Opata country is rich in such 
remains, and the outskirts of the Sierra Madre particularly 
so. Indian tradition of to-day connects their erection and use 
distinctly with the Opatas. It is further asserted by the same 
source, that these parapet hills were fortified, not only against 
enemies of a foreign stock, but against neighboring villages 
also. Thus the " Cerro de Batonapa," near Banamichi on the 
Sonora River, served as a place of refuge for the inhabitants 
of Motepori, Badeuachi, Vaynorpa, etc., if attacked by the other 
Opatas, those from the valleys of Oposura and Cumpas, or 
even by their immediate neighbors of Huepaca and Aconchi. 
The latter had a " Refuge Hill " at Huepaca, quite as extensive 
as that of Batonapa. 1 

Villages expressly fortified were also in existence. Thus, 
in the very heart of the savage Sierra de Teras, the ruins 
at " Los Metates " are those of a little pueblo built on a steep 
but low promontory of rocks, of which almost every projection 
shows traces of having been lined by parapets. The cluster 
of dwellings on the " Mesa de San Antonio," near Granados 
on the Upper Yaqui, was surrounded by a low circumvalla- 
tion. Still the majority of villages were open, their people 

gives details. Their tactics were the usual ones of surprises and ambusn. 
But if hard pushe d, they fought desperately. 

1 One of these " Cerros de Trincheras," and one whose size and importance 
has lately been much exaggerated through newspaper reports, is near Magdalena 
in Sontfra. These rude fortifications were much in use among the Sonora 
Indians. Pfefferkorn says about them (Beschreibuijg,vo\. ii. p. 161) : " Noch 
stehen auf einigen Bergen die Ueberbleibsel der Brustwehren, welche diesen 
Voelkern statt einer Festung dienten. Sie waren von aufgehaeuften Steinen 
auf die Art einer Mauer errichtet ; und standen vom Fusse des Berges mehrere 
dergleichen uebereinander." Similar fortifications were erected by the Seris 
against the Spaniards in 1758, (Ibid., vol. i. p. 414,) and by the insurgent 
Tarahumares in Chihuahua. 



72 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 

relying for safety in case of attack upon the wide range of 
view, or upon the peculiarly concealed locality, but espe 
cially upon the safety resorts just described. These features 
tend to indicate that, at the time when they were in use, 
there was as yet little or no danger from that prowling and 
incessant harassing which has rendered the Apaches so for 
midable to the village Indians of northern Mexico during 
historical times. While these military constructions are of 
course evidences of continual dissensions among the Indians 
of Sonora, they indicate a warfare less persistent and less 
unrelenting than that which the Apaches have since made 
upon them. 1 

Between the Opatas and Eudeves in the east, and the 
arid shores of the Gulf of California on the west, a branch 
of the great and numerous Pima stock, the Papap-Otam or 
Papagos, roamed over, rather than inhabited, northwestern 
Sonora and southwestern Arizona. The Papagos came in 
contact with the Spaniards in the latter half of the seven 
teenth century. 2 From the nature of their country, they 
could scarcely be called village Indians. Though they spoke 
the Pima language, they were much more unsettled than 
either the Nebomes or the Arizonian Pimas. Mostly re 
duced to hunting, to wild plants, and to a limited exchange 
with other tribes for their subsistence, the Papagos were 
shunned and feared, as nearly all roving Indians are by 

1 Pfefferkorn mentions (vol. ii. p. 161) frequent wars between the Opatas 
and the other tribes, but they were not as unremitting in their hostilities as the 
Apaches have shown themselves to be. There were periods of peace, or at 
least of security. 

2 The name Papa-Otam is taken from the Description Geografica (cap. vi. 
art. ii.). On the map accompanying the work of Father Pfefferkorn they are 
called " Papabi-Ootam sive Papagos." Ootam signifies man in the Pima 
language ; what the other word means I am unable to say. That they are Pimas 
is fully established. It was the celebrated Jesuit Father Eusebius Kiihne or 
Kino who made the Spaniards first acquainted with them. They were not 
hostile, only shy, in the beginning. 



INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST. 



73 



sedentary tribes. 1 Still, it was shyness rather than ferocity 
that kept the former aloof from intercourse. Their situation 
was such as to render life dismal. In the southwest, their 
neighbors were a tribe which has left in the records of Sonora 

1 Although the Papagos were never, on the whole, dangerous to the whites, 
they enjoyed a bad reputation for a long time. The so called Papagueria is 
very well described in the Description Geografica (cap. vi. art. ii.) : " Verdad 
es, que en todo este vasto espacio hay mucho despoblado, como son casi todas 
las marismas, y aun la mayor parte de ellas incapaz de poblarse por la gran 
escasez de agua y esterilidad de la tierra, porque todo el largo ^trecho que 
lo ay desde Caborca hasta cerca de la boca del rio Colorado, que pasa de 
ochenta leguas, son casi puros medanos y paramos tan escasos de agua, que 
apenas se halla por toda la costa para poderla registrar caminando ; y aun 
para esto falta del todo las ultimas treinta leguas antes de llegar a dicha 
boca. ... La unica mision que se erigio el ano de 1751 por Mayo en San 
Miguel de Sonoitac, cerca de cincuenta leguas al nor este de Caborca, aun 
ella sola padecia escasez de agua, y asi no hay donde congregar a los pipages 
6 papapootam, que asi se Hainan los pimas que viven en aquellos paramos, de 
semillas de zacate, yerbas y frutas silvestres, y aun de conejos y ratones." 
The Noticias de la Pimeria (anonymous, its date 1740) mentions the Papagos 
as " tambien es nacion Pima, pero muy inferior a la otra, respecto a que estos 
no tienen rio, arroyos ni ojo de agua, y viven el verano en los llanos haciendo 
vatequi o pozos para beber, y en dichos llanos siembran de temporal maiz, 
frijol y calabazas, muy poco de este, y apenas se les acaba, se reparten a las 
rancherias 6 pueblos de los otros pimas a servirles como criados por solo el 
interes de la comida, y aun se alargan hasta venir a San Ignacio y Dolores ; son 
muy afectos a comer cafne, que aprecian en estremo la que fuera, aunque sea 
de caballo, burro, etc., y al tiempo de volverse a sus tierras, no estan seguros 
los perros de que los hurten para comer ; es nacion muy pusilanime y afecta a 
los espanoles como las demas." Father Kiihne, in his letter to the Padre 
Visitador Horacio Polici, dated September 22, 1698, (Carta del Padre Eusebio 
Francisco Kino, al Padre Visitador Horacio Polici, acerca de una Entrada al 
Noroeste y Mar de la California, etc ,) says that the Papagos, that is. the inhab 
itants of the country between Caborca and the Rio Gila, he does not mention 
them as Papagos by name, consist of" mas de cuarenta rancherias entre chicas 
y grandes, todas d^ gente muy amigable, docil y tan afable que en todas partes 
nos recibieron con casas prevenidas, con cruces y arcos puestos y con muchas 
de sus comidas de maiz, frijol y calabazas, sandias y pitahayas, y de sus cazas, 
liebres, etc , y con muchos bailes y cantares de dia y de noche." In the winter 
of 1697, tri e same missionary had already traversed a part of the Papagueria and 
had been kindly treated. Compare Relation del Estado de la Pimeria, que remite 
el Padre Visitador Horacio Polici, 1697; and in it the joint report made of the 
trip by Cristobal Martin Bernal, Eusebio Francisco Kino, and others, Dec. 4, 



74 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 

a stain scarcely less dark than that made by the Apaches. 
These neighbors were the Seris, linguistically allied to the 
Arizonian Yumas, 1 and of whom little is known except that 
they were a terrible scourge to the village Indians of Sonora 
first, to the Spanish settlements and to the missions afterwards, 2 

1697. Father Jacob Sedelmayr, S. J., Relacion que hizo . . . con la Ocasion de 
haber venido a Mexico por el Mes de Febrero del A no de 1746, a solicitar Operarios 
para fundar Misiones en los Rios Gila y Colorado, etc. : " Las rancherfas que hay 
desde casas grandes hasta abajo, Pimicas, Papalotes que viven a su lado del 
Sur en tierras secas y esteriles, y inadministrables y por eso las mas gentiles." 
Notwithstanding the docility of the Papagos, we find them described as wild, 
and even as dangerous. Of their other customs and of their religion, etc., we 
have nothing except the well grounded complaint that they were much addicted 
to witchcraft, and that their superstitious practices contributed to diminish their 
numbers with the ultimate prospect of their complete extermination. Without 
referring to other sources which speak positively on the subject, I quote here 
Fray Juan Domingo Arricivita (Cronica serafica y apostolica del Colegio de Pro 
paganda Fide de la Santa Cruz de Queretaro, Segunda Parte, lib. iii. cap. xiii. 
P- 397) - " Son estos Indios muy inclinados y propensos al exercicio y trato de 
la hechizeria, cuya raiz les viene de su antigua prosapia gentflica supersticion. 
. . . Ellos mismos son sus crueles verdugos, que por un ridiculo sentimiento 
hacen duelo, y por rencor, envidia 6 venganza, y aun por sola vanidad y loca 
presuncion, se acometen y se matan unos a otros con crueles y torpesmaleficios." 
This is what may be observed to-day among the Apaches, Navajos, and among 
the New Mexican Pueblos. 

1 The Seris appear first under the name of Heris, and thus they are called 
by Ribas (Historia, lib. vi. cap. i. p. ^58). He speaks of them in a very appro 
priate manner : " Es sobremanera bozal, sin pueblos, sin casas, ni sementeras. 
No tienen rios, ni arroyos, y beuen de algunas lagunillas, y charcos de agua: 
sustentanse de caga," etc. He had ascertained that a portion of the Seris 
dwelt on an island in the Gulf of California, for he says (p. 359) : " Y dentro 
de la misma mar, en isla, se dize que habitan otros de la misma nation." 
The first white man who came in contact with the Seris was undoubtedly Fray 
Marcos de Nizza, in 1539 (Descubrimiento de las siete Ciudades, p. 331) : " Asi- 
mismo me vinieron a ver indios de otra isla mayor quella, questa mas adelante 
de los cuales tuve razon haber otras treinta islas pequenas, yobladas de gente y 
pobres de comida, ecebto dos, que dicen que tienen maiz. Estos indios traian 
colgadas de la garganta muchas conchas, en las cuales suele haber perlas ; e yo 
les mostre una perla que llevaba para muestra, y me dixeron que de aquellas 
habia en las islas, pero yo no les vf." The discovery that the Seri language 

| belongs to the Yuma family of idioms is due to Mr. Albert S. Gatschet. 

2 From the latter part of the seventeenth century to the close of the eigh 
teenth, the documents relative to Sonora are filled with complaints about ravages 



INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST. 75 

and that at the present time they huddle together oh the 
isles of the Californian Gulf, shy and difficult of approach, 
living, as they always have as long as known to Europeans, 
on marine productions, fish, shells, and whatever game they 
might occasionally secure, and having some commerce. To 
day they perform occasional work at the port of Guaymas, 
whereas in the sixteenth century and previously they even 
depended for Indian corn upon barter with the inland tribes. 1 
Close by the Seris dwelt, along the coast also, the Guaymas 
and Upan-Guaymas. Both clusters may be said to have been 
exterminated by the Seris, in the same relentless but slow 
manner in which the Apaches wiped out some of the Indians 
of Chihuahua. 2 Little, if anything at all, is therefore known 
of them, and they have been classed linguistically with the 
Seris themselves. 3 I am informed, however, on the authority 

committed by the Seris. It would be needless to refer to them in detail. 
Their last stronghold was the " Cerro Prieto," where they finally surrendered in 
1770. The Seris never were numerous ; with the exception of the Guaymas, they 
constituted the weakest tribe of Sonora in point of number. But their home 
if a range of arid coast may be called a home was such as to render offensive 
warfare against them almost impossible, whereas they could prey upon their 
neighbors with impunity. 

1 Ribas says (Historia, p. 358): " Sustentanse de ca$a ; aunque al tiempo de 
cosecha de maiz, con cueros de venados, y sal que recogen de la mar, van a 
rescatarlo a otras naciones. Los mas cercanos destos a la mar tambien se sus- 
tentan de pescado." This, having been written about the year 1645, of course 
refers to commerce as it existed previously to the advent of the Spaniards. 

2 The enmity between the Guaymas and the Seris must have been hereditary, 
or at least traditional. Thus, in 1754, while the Seris were temporarily at peace 
with the Spaniards, the Guaymas attacked one of their rancherias unexpectedly, 
and committed some murders. In matters of war between Indian tribes it is 
difficult, nay, often impossible, to ascertain which party is to blame. 

3 See Orozco y Berra, Geografia de las Lenguas, p. 354. I was told in Sonora, 
that the name Guaymas was an Opata word, and signified " wher e they ate." I 
cannot vouch in the least for the correctness of this interpretation. The 
Description Geogrdfica (cap. v. art. i.) says of the Guaymas: " Hablan con muy 
poca diferencia una misma lengua con los Seris ; pero es tan corto su numero, 
que en ninguna manera merece el nombre de nacion ; a demas de vivir ya mes- 
clados con los hiaquis en Belen y otras, por haberse visto obligados a ceder su 



76 ARCH^OLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 

of a distinguished traveller, Mr. Alphonse Pinart, that the 
Guaymas were of the stock of the southern Pimas, or Ne- 
bomes. This would suffice to explain the savage hatred 
with which the Seris persecuted them. The Guaymas, 
furthermore, are represented as having been land-tillers on 
a very low scale, 1 a feature in which they differed es 
sentially from the Seris. The latter may be regarded as 
something like maritime Indians, akin to the Antillean and 
South American Caribs. The Isla del Tiburon and other 
islands were to them not only homes, but also their places 
of refuge, or lairs. 2 Here they were invulnerable by the 
tribes of the mainland, and safe unless caught on one of 
their marauding expeditions away from the coast. But once 
near the sandy and waterless, treeless " Playas," or on the 
shores of the Gulf, the Seris could hoot at the idea even 
of pursuit. 

It is a well known fact that the Seris used poisoned 
arrows. It is even asserted, and commonly believed, that 
they stiH, use them. 3 In presence of the positive assertions 
of early chroniclers, that the Opatas also used these dan 
gerous weapons against the first Spaniards who came to 
Sonora, assertions which are substantiated by the descrip 
tions of symptoms and by the indication of well known 



naturaleza al sangriento furor de los Seris." The mission of Nuestra Senora 
de Belen had been recently founded in 1678, according to Ortiz apata (Relation 
de las Misiones, etc., p. 379) : " Nuevamente fundada de indios que llaman de la 
nacion Guaymas los cuales algunes anos ha que han ido acudiendo a este partido 
atraiclos de la Divina Providencia," etc. 

1 Perhaps this was due to their contact with the Yaquis. They were neigh 
bors, although hostile to each other, as Ribas relates on page 319. He calls 
them Guayamas. 

2 See Description Geografica : " Otro asilo tienen, asi en su isla del Tiburon, 
casi como cuarenta leguas al Poniente de la hacienda de Pitiic, . . . como en la 
de San Juan Bautista." 

3 Orozco y Berra, Georafi a, p. 354. Charles P. Stone, Notes on the State 
of Sonora, Washington, 1861, p. 19. 



INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST. 77 

counter poisons, the fact can hardly be doubted. The na 
ture of the poison was evidently vegetable, and no credit is 
to be given to tales ascribing the mortal effects of arrow 
wounds to snake poison collected on arrow-tips and preserved 
there in a dried state. A document of whose great value 
for aboriginal medicine there can be no doubt, the celebrated 
Rudo Ensayo," gives the name of the plant whose milky sap 
was used to anoint the weapons, and thus render them fatal. 1 
Ere leaving the Indians of Sonora, and before I pass on 
to the tribes of Chihuahua, I must add a few remarks on 
their medical art, if their empirical practice may be so called. 
It appears certain that the Opatas, Pimas, and probably the 
Yaquis, possessed and used a vast arsenal of medicinal herbs 
and other remedies, in addition to the superstitious practices 
resorted to by them for purposes of healing and curing. 2 
I cannot go into any details, but it is my duty to call the 
attention of students of other branches of science than eth 
nology to the lists given by Jesuit fathers of the medicinal 
plants of Sonora, and to their accounts of the virtues at 
tributed to them, and of the preparation and application of 
remedies. 3 I have myself experienced the value of some 

1 The Rudo Ensayo, published by Buckingham Smith in 1863, is the same as 
the Description Geordfica. In the latter there is mention of a plant : " 230. 
Magot en lengua opata es un arbol pequeno muy lozano de verde y hermoso a 
la vista; pero contiene una leche mortal, que a corta incision de su corteza 
brota, con la que los naturales solian untar sus flechas, y por eso la llaman Yerba 
de la Flecha, pero ya pocos la usan. Sirue tambien dicha leche para abrir 
tumores rebeldes, aunque no lo aconsejaria por su caracter venenoso." This 
would indicate a Euphorbiacea. In regard to the poison used by the Seris the 
writer is not so positive as to the ingredients employed, but is of the opinion that 
it must be vegetable. The tale of snake poison being used he rejects. 

2 I cannot sufficiently insist, from a practical point of view, upon a thorough 
study of the medicinal plants of the Southwest in general. There are certainly 
many of great value. 

3 The Description Geogrdfica, or Rudo Ensayo, appears to be the source from 
which Alegre gained his information on the plants, etc. of Sonora. The work 
of Pfefiferkorn, Besckreibttng der Landschaft Sonora, also contains information, 
but it may have come from the same source, since the Beschreibnng is posterior 



78 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 

of them, and have become inclined to suppose that a study 
of them, with the methods and means of modern science, 
might be profitable, independent of its value as a contribu 
tion to knowledge of Indian culture. 

While in Sonora we have mostly met with tribes almost, 
if not exclusively, sedentary, (the Seris and Papagos being 
the only ones to whom this designation cannot be properly 
applied,) on the soil of Chihuahua the proportion of roving 
Indians to those of more sedate habits is greater. It is easy 
to account for this, when we consider the physical geography 
of the country. 

The western half of Chihuahua, generally speaking, 1 is 
occupied by the Sierra Madre and its immediate ramifica 
tions. That region is therefore better watered than the 
eastern half, large portions of which, while not strictly plains, 
are still broad valleys, through which the water supply is 
scant, and often but periodical. 2 The southeast is particu 
larly forbidding in this respect ; furthermore it is hot, and the 
mountains are rugged and arid. 3 With the limited mechanical 
means at his disposal, the Indian could not well subsist by 
agriculture on an area of this sort ; there was little incentive 
for him to become or remain a permanent settler, but often 

to the Description by thirty years, and P. Pfefferkorn was in Sonora when the 
Description was written. He was then missionary at Toape (cap. vii. art. iii.). 
As for the author of the Description, I am convinced it was the Padre Nentwig, 
S. J., priest at Huassavas in eastern Sonora. 

1 I use this term, because there are levels of considerable extent, and also long 
valleys, like those following the course of the Rio de Casas Grandes and Rio de 
Galeana. But the whole region belongs to the upper drainage of the great 
central chain. 

2 The eastern half of Chihuahua is not absolutely barren. Still, the watered 
expanses are isolated, and the region near the Rio Grande may be termed arid, 
and it is excessively hot and unattractive, even at present. 

8 See above. Mezquite beans have been the chief support for days of the 
horses of the United States troops that entered Chihuahua from that direction, 
in pursuit of Apaches, according to convention between the governments of the 
United States and Mexico. 



INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST. 79 

the necessity of shifting seemed absolute. In consequence 
of this, we find village Indians clustering three centuries 
ago in the southwest and west of Chihuahua, as also in the 
extreme east, on the triangle formed between the Rio Grande 
del Norte and its western tributary, the Rio de las Conchas, 
or Conchos. 1 The former people, or the mountaineers proper, 
belonged linguistically to the same great family with the 
Yaquis, Pimas, and Opatas. They lived in the extreme 
Southwest, the Tepehuanes in the South and as far as 
Namiquipa, and the Tarahumares 2 south of Casas Grandes. 
Outposts of Sonoran Jovas, perhaps of Opatas too, reached 
over into Chihuahua from the west in small villages. Since 
the boundary line between Sonora and Chihuahua is yet 
imperfectly defined, it is not worth while attempting to 
locate such advanced colonies of the one or the other cluster 
with any great precision. 3 

1 The name has been corrupted into " Conchos," but the original designation 
was " Rio de las Conchas." See Joan de Miranda, Relacion hecha al Doctor 
Orozco, Presidente de la Audiencia de Guadalajara, etc., p. 566 : " A diez y a 
doce leguas de las minas de Santa Barbara, al Norueste, esta* un rio muy grande 
que corre hacia Lebante ; llamanle el rio de las Conchas, y 5. esta causa, llaman 
los indios que en el hay, de las Conchas." It was called thus in the documents 
of 1582. Testimento dado en Mejico sobre el Descubrimiento de doscientas Leguas 
addante de las Minas de Santa Barbola, Gobernacion de Diego de Ibarra, etc. 
(Doc. de Indias, vol. xv. pp. 83, 90). It was Antonio de Espejo who (Relacion del 
Viaje, Doc. de Indicts, vol. xv. p. 104) perverted it into Conchos. 

2 It is not possible to establish definite boundaries, for the simple reason 
that there were none. The tribes were so scattered, that they seemed to 
overlap one another s grounds, and the settlements frequently shifted their 
location. Orozco y Berra s ethnographic map seems to be correct in the main. 
Tutuaca, however, was a mission of the Tepehuanes, and Tutuaca lay almost in 
the latitude of the city of Chihuahua, near the present boundary dividing Chihua 
hua from Sonora. The fact that Tutuaca was a Tepehuan settlement in 1678 is 
established by the Jesuit P. Juan Ortiz Zapata, Relacion de las Misiones, p. 340. 

3 Ortiz Zapata, Relacion, p. 342. These Jovas probably were the Indians 
whom Cabeza de Vaca met in the Sierra < Madre, who lived partly in houses 
made of sod, Relacion de Naufragios (in Vedia s Historiadores Primitives de 
Indias, vol. i. p. 543), " Entre estas casas habia algunas de ellas que eran de 
tierra," and who told him about so called Pueblos farther north. 



8o ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 

In the valley of Casas Grandes and north of it, tribes oc 
cupied the country which have completely disappeared, and 
to which I shall refer later on. Whether these tribes were 
land-tilling or not is a point yet in doubt. 

In the east we find the Jumanos, a tribe also extinct as 
such, settled between the Rio Grande and the Conchas. 
When first met with and described, in 1582, the Jumanos 
lived in villages of houses with upright walls and covered 
with mud roofs ; they cultivated corn, squashes, and beans. 
They may consequently be classed, so far as that part of 
the tribe is concerned which lived in Chihuahua, among 
the sedentary Indians of the Southwest. 1 

1 Antonio de Espejo, Relacion del Viage {Documentos de Indias, vol. xv. 
p. 168) : " Acabadas de salir desta nacion, entramos en otra que se llama de los 
Xumarias, que por otro nombre los llamaban los espafioles, los Patarabueyes, 
en que parecia habia mucha gente y con pueblos formados grandes, en que 
vimos cinco pueblos con mas de diez mil indios, y casas de azotea, bajas, y con 
buena traza de pueblos ; y la gente desta nacion esta rayada en los rostros ; y 
es gente crecida, tienen maiz y calabazas, y caza de pie" y vuelo, y fn soles y pes- 
cados de muchas maneras, de dos rios caudalosos, que es el uno que dicen viene 
derechamente del Norte y entra en el rio de los Conchos, que este sera como la 
mitad de Guadalquibi, y el de Conchos sera como Guadalquibi, el cual entra en 
la mar del Norte." A better and clearer description of the delta formed by the 
junction of the Rio Grande and the Conchos could not be wished. The other 
copy of Espejo s report, in the same volume of the Documentos de Indicts (p. 105), 
has distinctly " que se llama de los Jumanos." The corrupt version given in 
Hakluyt describes the dwellings of the Jumanos as being " de calicanto." There 
is nothing of it in the original reports. 

It is strange that there should be, so far as anything appears, such a long 
silence on the Jumanos of Chihuahua, after Espejo s journey, for it is more 
than likely, it is almost certain, that they continued to inhabit the delta above 
mentioned. They were there in 1683, and of their own choice ; no mission 
ary had induced them to settle there. This is clearly established by the docu 
ments relative to the reconnoissance made by Juan Dominguez de Mendoza 
as far as the Rio Nueces in Texas in the year 1683 (see El Diario del Viaje de 
Juan Dominguez de Mendoza a la Junta de los Rios y hasta el Rio Nueces, 
MS. copy in my possession), and more particularly by the documents annexed 
to it. See also Felipe Romero, Carta al Gobernador Don Domingo Gironza Petriz 
de Cruzate, and Pedimento al Maestre de Campo Juan Dominguez Mendoza. 
Father Nicolas Lopez, who accompanied Dominguez, says the same in his Memo 
rial acerca de la Repoblacion de Nuevo Mexico y Ventajas que ofrece el Reino de 



INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST. 8 1 

The centre of Chihuahua cannot be said to have been per 
manently occupied by any cluster of natives. It was how- 

Quivira, April 24, 1686 : " Y en la sazon halle treinta y tres capitanes infieles de 
la nacion Jumanas y otras que venian a peclir el baptismo, . . . nos fuimos 
caminando a pie y descalzos en compani a de dichos infieles sin escolta de espano- 
les, haste llegar a la Junta de los Rios, ... a donde nos tenian estos infieles 
fabricados dos ermitas aseadas," etc. Also Fray Alonzo de Posadas, Informe al 
Rey sobre las Tierra de Mievo Mexico Quivira y Teguayo, 1686. It is true that 
Dominguez calls these Indians Julimes, but from the contexts I must conclude 
that they were also Jumanos. It looks as if the two tribes had lived together at 
the "Junta de los Rios." In 1715, when the missions were re-established there, 
the following tribes or clusters are mentioned as living at the " Junta " in Los 
Titulos y Advocaciones de los Once Pueblos contenidos en esta Relation (Documented 
para la Historia de Mejico, Cuarte Seria, vol. iv. p. 169) : Mesquites, Cacalotes, 
Oposines, Conejos, Polames and Sivolos, Puliquis, Conchos, Pasalmes. These 
names are repeated, with many others, as those of tribes inhabiting New Biscay 
in 1726, by the Brigadier Pedro de Rivera (Diario y Dcrrotero de lo Caminado 
visto y observado, etc., p. 22). Juan Dominguez de Mendoza (Diario, fol. 46) gives 
the names of a number of tribes connected at least with the Jumanos, which 
he met in northwestern Texas, and among that list the " Poliches " (Puliquis ?) 
are mentioned. I suspect, however, that these names are not always those of 
separate tribes, but rather names of clans or bands. The Jumanos are ranked 
among the Chihuahua tribes by Orozco y Berra (Geografta, etc., p. 386). But 
he considers them as a branch of the Apaches-Faraones. There are no grounds 
for such a conclusion beyond the possible fact, that the remnants of the Juma 
nos may have become absorbed by the Apaches, upon the latter obtaining 
sway over Chihuahua. This is only a possibility, and as yet no certainty. Of 
the language of the Jumanos we know nothing. Fray Nicolas Lopez asserts 
(Memorial] that he composed a vocabulary of the Jumano idiom, but we have 
no knowledge of its existence. He says : " Yo Senor, saldria de esta ciuclad 
a fines del que viene para aquella custodia ; llevo dispuesto el animo a en- 
trar segunda vez a dichas naciones, por saber ya la lengua jumana y haberla 
predicada a aquellos y haber hecho vocabulario muy copioso de dicha lengua, 
como consta juridicamente en los instrumentos que tengo presentados." Father 
Lopez is not an absolutely reliable authority. He took the part of Juan 
Dominguez Mendoza in the latter s quarrels with nine of his men, who subse 
quently deserted his camp, returning to El Paso del Norte at their own risk. 
Compare his Diario, fol. 14, Auto, fol. 15, Petition, etc. ; also Felipe Romero 
and others, Carta al Gobernador, fol. 1-3 ; Pedimento, p. 2. He was even 
accused of conspiring with Dominguez against the Governor Petriz de Cruzate, 
in 1685. Testimonio d la Letra dela Caussa Criminal que se d segtiido contra el 
Maestre de Campo Juan Domingues de Mendoza y los demas, etc., September, 1685, 
MS. Some of his claims to services performed may be exaggerated. 

The Jumanos of Chihuahua disappear in the eighteenth century. In regard 
to their possible linguistic connection with the Julimes, see further on. 

6 



82 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 

ever claimed and roamed over by Indians whose idioms are 
yet unclassified, simply because some of these idioms have 
disappeared from the surface. In the south, we find the 
Conchas, or Conchos, and, hanging about them like Arabs 
of the desert, a wild, ferocious, errant stock, the Tobosos. 
What the Seris were to Sonora, the Apaches to New Mexico 
at an early date, the Tobosos were to the aborigines of 
Chihuahua, and later on to the Spaniards, namely, an inces 
sant scourge. Their incursions extended over a wide range, 
embracing the States of Nuevo Leon, of Tamaulipas in part, 
of Coahuila, and of Chihuahua. So omnipresent were these 
nomads, that each one of these districts now claims to have 
been their home at one time, while in fact they wandered 
everywhere and dwelt nowhere. 1 The Conchos were not 

1 The Tobosos also appear first in Espejo s reports, Relation del Viage, 
p. 167. He calls them Tobozos, and in the other version there is the misprint 
Jobozos. Already Espejo noticed that they were shy and shiftless : " Son esqui- 
vos, y asi se fueron de todas las partes que estaban pobladas, en xacales, por 
donde pasabamos ; . . . sustentanse con lo que los dichos Pazaguates ; usan de 
arcos y flechas ; andan sin vestiduras; pasamos por esta nacion que parecia 
haber pocos indios, tres jornadas, que habria en ellas once leguas." 

Caspar Castano de Sosa, who marched from Nuevo Leon to New Mexico in 
1590, makes no mention of the Tobosos in his Journal. Neither does Juan de 
Onate in his diary ot 1596. The Tobosos were, then, to be found mainly in 
Coahuila and Nuevo Leon, and also in Tamaulipas. They became formidable to 
Chihuahua only in the seventeenth century, after missions had been established, 
and the contact with civilization gave some pretext for depredations. I say 
pretext, for in most cases, as with the Apaches, for instance, Such tribes only 
waited for some opportunity to resort to murder and rapine. In his Carta 
Etnogrdfica, Orozco y Berra localizes, so to say, the Tobosos in Coahuila and 
Nuevo Leon. It seems certain that they most habitually infested those districts, 
but they were also a terrible scourge to Chihuahua. On the whole, it would 
be as difficult to assign to them a definite territory as it would be to the Apaches 
in former times, previously to their reduction to reservations. In 1630, Fray 
Alonzo de Benavides mentions again the Tobosos, Memorial que Fray Ivan de 
Santander de la Orden de San Francisco, Comisario General de Indias, presento a 
la Magestad Catolica del Rey don Felipe Cvarto Nuestro Senor, Madrid, 1630, p. 7. 
He speaks of the Tobosos along with a number of other tribes of Chihuahua, 
like the Tarahumares, Sumas, Janos, etc., and says of them collectively: "Gente 
muy feroz, barbara, y indomita ; porque andan siempre totalmente desnudos, 



INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST. 83 

any more tractable, neither do they appear as having been 
more civilized in the beginning, yet they showed afterwards 

sin tener casa, ni sementera alguna, viuen de lo que cagan, que es todo genero 
de animales, aunque scan inmundos, mudandose para esto de unos cerros 4 
otros ; y sobre el juego suelen estas naciones tener guerras ciuiles, y se matan 
brutalmente, sus armas son arco y flecha, que son las generales de todas las 
naciones ; quando passamos por entre ellos, nos embisten cara a* cara, si ven 
poca gente, y hacen el mal que pueden ; por lo cual no se puede passar menos 
q co doze hombres co sus cauallos, de armas mui bie apercibidos, y aun desta 
suerte se ha de ir con cuidado, haziedo lubre a prima noche en vna parte, para 
diuertirlos, y passarla lo mas adelante que se pudiere ; y por lo menos quando 
ven mucha fuerga y gente, procuran de noche en sus emboscades hazer el dano 
que pueden en la cauallada ; y desde que se descubrio el Nuevo Mexico, siempre 
que se passan estas cien leguas, ha auido guerras con estos indios, en defensa de 
los danos que pretenden hazernos." The historian of the Jesuit missions in 
Mexico, P. Francisco Xavier Alegre, says of the Tobosos, speaking of their first 
appearance as fomenters and leaders in the insurrections of contiguous tribes 
(Historia de la Compama de Jesus en Nueva Expand, vol. ii. p 244) : " Comen- 
zaron las hostilidades por los tobosos, gentes belicosas y barbaras, y que Servian 
como de asilo a todos los foragidos y mal contentos de aquellas provincias. Los 
robos y las muertes eran ordinaries no solo en los carros y espanoles que encon- 
traban en los caminos, pero aun en las poblaciones y en los reales de minas mas 
poblados. En los reales de Mapinii, del Parral y en San Miguel de las Bocas 
se vivia en un continuo sobresalto, especialmente en las crecientes de las lunas, 
en que solian juntarse." This recalls vividly the condition of New Mexico and 
of Arizona not more than twenty-five years ago. The same custom of starting on 
forays and killing expeditions with the waxing moon, is well known to exist 
also among the Apaches. What Father Alegre says refers to 1644, however. 
A witness of the times, the Jesuit P. Nicolas de Zepeda, says, Relation de lo 
Sucedido en este Reino de Vizcaya desde el Ano de 1644 hasta el de 1645, etc - (Doc. 
para la Historia de Mejico, Serie 2) : " Como tambien tan cercano a las cosas tan 
nobles que han sucedido de dos afios a esta parte que ha que comenzaron a 
malograrse los indios de la nacion tabaz, que es y ha sido siempre la mas cruel, 
bulliciosa y guerrera pues no obstante que casi cada ano de nuevo les bajaban 
de paz los senores gobernadores y capitanes de presidios." The historian 
of the Province of San Francisco de Zacatecas, Fray Francisco de Arlegui, 
devotes several chapters to dissertations on the manners and customs of the 
Indians inhabiting or roaming over the various regions through which the 
missions of that Province were scattered. He enumerates a long list of tribes, 
and among them the Tobosos. But his picture of habits and mode of life 
is general, embracing all the forty and more tribes of his list, and without 
special reference to any of them in particular. The dissertation embraces 
chapters ii. to xii. inclusive of his Chrtnica de la Provincia de N. S. P. S. Francisco 
de Zacatecas (ist edition, 1737, pp. 148-208). It would be impossible to tran- 



84 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 

a much greater willingness to adopt permanence of abode. 1 
Almost in the heart of the Concho range we find the Julimes, 
a small tribe classified linguistically with the Tepehuanes. 
I may be permitted here to call attention to the possibility 
of the Julimes having been properly but Jumanos, and of 
stating that my reasons for this suggestion are found in 
comparisons of the Reports on the Missions of the " Junta de 

scribe the whole of it here, and I simply refer the reader to the work, pointing 
out to him, however, that of the many and often interesting statements we are 
never told to which particular tribe they refer. 

The constant hostilities of the Tobosos were, for more than a century, the 
greatest obstacle to the colonization of Chihuahua, and they seriously impeded 
communication between Parral and New Mexico. The authors of the past cen 
tury designate them as the scourge of northern Mexico. Says Fray Isidro Felis 
de Espinosa, Chronica Apostolica y Serdphica de los Colegios de Propaganda Fide de 
Queretaro (1746, lib. v. p. 481) : " Como son los Indies Tobosos, apostatas de 
nuestra Santa Fe, y azote de las Provincias de la Nueva Vizcaya y de Coahuila." 
And the same author uses almost the identical words in the Peregrino Septen 
trional Atlante (Biography of Fr. Antonio Margil de Jesus, 1737, p. 271). It was 
only after more than a century of frequently unsuccessful warfare very similar 
to that which the United States troops have had to carry on against the Apaches, 
although numbers were, on the part of the Spaniards, much inferior to those of 
the American troops employed in the Southwest, and there was much less 
disparity in armament between the Spaniards and the Tobosos than between 
the Americans and the Apaches fifteen years ago that the Tobosos were finally 
exterminated and the Apaches took their place as the curse of the unfortunate 
provinces. In 1748 the Tobosos, according to Villa-Senor y Sanchez (Theatro 
Americano, vol. ii. lib. v. cap. xi. p. 297), were reduced to not over one hundred 
families. Together with another tribe from Coahuila, the Gavilanes, they were 
still committing depredations. The Gavilanes decorated their faces with a blue 
line on the forehead. 

It is not unreasonable to suppose that the few remaining Tobosos, if any, 
joined the Apaches, when the latter began to infest Chihuahua. But this would 
be no proof of the assumption by Orozco y Berra, that the language of the 
Tobosos belonged to Apache or Tinne stock. See Geografia de Lenguas, 
PP- 39> 3 2 5> 3 2 7- 1* i s perfectly true, as the author just quoted says, that 
the Tobosos prepared the road for the Apaches in central and southern Chi- 
huahua, in Coahuila, and in neighboring States ; but while it is not at all im 
possible that they were a kindred tribe, there is as yet, to my knowledge, no 
evidence to that effect. 

1 Compare Arlegui, Chronica, p. 308, on the labors of Fray Alonzo de Oliva 
among the Conchos. 



INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST. 85 

los Rios," which date back as far as I683- 1 The Julimes 
are said to be extinct, and there is no doubt as to their hav 
ing disappeared as an autonomous tribe. Whether every 
trace of their idiom is really lost, is yet to be ascertained. 

In 1725, a list is given of the tribes of Chihuahua, which 
counts up as many as twenty-seven. 2 Some of these (as the 
catalogue includes all the Indians of New Biscay in general), 
lived outside of the limits of the present Mexican state, and 
others are evidently but the names of different bands or clans 
of one and the same tribe. 3 While it is possible, therefore, 
that I may omit one or more small tribes in my enumeration, 
it is quite as likely that future researches will connect 
some of those which, in the present state of knowledge, I 
am compelled still to treat as independent groups. 

Among the tribes of northern and northeastern Chihuahua, 
most of which have ceased to exist politically, if the term 
may be employed in designating societies of the Indian kind, 

1 I have already alluded to the contradictory reports about the Indians of the 
"Junta de los Rios," dating from 1683 to 1686. Thus, Dominguez Mendoza, in 
his Diario (fol. 5), calls them "Jente de la nasion Julimes jente politica en 
la lengua mexicana y que todos siembran mais y trigo y otras semillas." 
Also Felipe Romero (Carta, p. i), "a este puesto de Xulimes." But Fray 
Nicolas Lopez, Memorial, calls them Jumanos. So, on the other hand, Fray 
Silvestre Velez de Escalente, Carta al Padre Fray Agustin Morfi (April 2, 
1778, paragraph 7), says : " Llegaron a la junta de los dos rios Norte y Conchos, 
predicaron a los indios que alii estaban, que eran de las tres naciones, Con 
chos, Julimes y Chocolomes." The documents of 1715 do not mention the 
Jumanos as living there. It may be that, as Sabeata, the Jumano Indian 
who guided Dominguez, considered the people at the Junta as his own, and as 
Espejo had, in 1582, met the Jumanos at that very place, that the Julimes were 
in fact but a branch of the Jumanos. I give this as a mere suggestion. In 
a witchcraft trial of 1732, (Causa Criminal contra tmos Yndios del Pueblo de Santa- 
Ana denunciados por Echiseros, MS. in my possession,) there appears a Jumano 
Indian from El Paso, but whose relatives lived at Julimes. Orozco y Berra 
(Geograjia, p. 326) classifies the Julime with the Tepehuan, without giving any 
authority for so doing. 

2 Rivera, Diario y Derrotero, p. 22. 

3 Surnames given to clans or to bands have often appeared as tribal names, 
e. g. those of the various fractions of the Apaches. 



86 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 

are the Mansos, the Piros, and the Tiguas. All three reside at 
or near El Paso del Norte, the Tiguas even on the Texan side 
of the river, but none of them were original Chihuahuefios. 1 
The Mansos were transplanted to the south in the middle 
of the seventeenth century, 2 the others in 1680 and i68i. 3 
Therefore they belong to New Mexico, which was their origi 
nal home. It is different with the lost tribes called Sumas, 
Janos, and Jocomes. 

The Janos became known to the Spaniards as early as 
the beginning of the seventeenth century, if not earlier, and 
it is likely that the Jocomes were equally well known about 
the same time, since they were near neighbors of the Janos, 
and their allies and confederates in every subsequent enter 
prise against other Indians, as well as against the Spaniards. 4 
Considerable interest attaches itself to these lost tribes, 
since they were found occupying the vicinity of the large 

1 Not even the Mansos. Juan de Onate met them, or some of them, in or 
near the Pass ( Paso del Norte ) , on the 3d of May, 1 598. Discttrso de las Jornadas 
que hizo el Campo de su Magestad desde la Nueva Espana d la Pr ovine ia de la 
Nueva Mexico (Doc. de Indias, vol. xvi. p. 243). But these were only men : " Y 
vinieron al Real quarenta de los dichos indios, arco turquesco, cabelleras corta- 
das como porrillas de milan, copetes hechos 6 con sangre 6 con color para atesar 
el cabello : sus primeras palabras fueron Manxo, Manxo, Micos, Micos, por 
decir mansos y amigos." 

2 In 1659 the mission of El Paso del Norte was founded. Fray Garcia de 
San Francisco, Auto de Fundacion de la Mision de Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe 
de los Mansos del Paso del A T orte, Dec. 8, 1659 (MS. copy from the Libra pri- 
mero de Casamientos of El Paso del Norte, fol. 74, 75) : " Y aver bajado, no 
con pocos trabajos, al passo del Rio del Norte, de la banda de N? Espana ; que 
es el medio de la cuztta y prouya del N? Mexico y en dho citio auer congregado 
las mas de las Rancherias de los gentiles Mansos." . 

3 Upon his retreat from Santa Fe, Ant. de Otermin gathered many Indians 
of Isleta, Alamillo, and Socorro, Tiguas as well as Piros, and carried them to 
El Paso, where they were afterwards settled in the pueblos of Senecu and 
Socorro del Sur (both Piros), and Isleta del Sur (Tiguas). Compare on the sub 
ject Salida de Otermin para el Paso del Norte (MS. 1680, copy). The facts need 
no proof, they are too well established. 

4 The earliest mention I can find of the Janos, as a tribe, dates from the first 
half of the seventeenth century. 



INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST. 87 

ruins called Casas Grandes. The most numerous and most 
extended of them were the Sumas, of which by the way, the 
last survivor still dwelt at El Paso del Norte in 1883. With 
his death, so my informant, a Manso Indian, pertinently re 
marked, the Sumas would die out completely, since, said he, 
"There are no women left to perpetuate the tribe." This sim 
ple statement conveys the valuable information that among 
the Sumas also descent was in the female line. 

Geographically, the Sumas appear to have been divided 
into two branches, one part of them hovering about the 
environs of El Paso, the other in possession of the fertile 
valley in which the ruins of Casas Grandes are situated. Of 
the first, we only know that they appear to have lived in 
very frail abodes, to, have been hostile to the whites for a 
long time at least, that their dress was very scant, and their 
weapons the customary ones of all southwestern aborigines. 
Of their creed, their superstitious practices and medicine, 
and their religious organization, nothing as yet has become 
known beyond the fact that the peculiar office or dignity 
termed erroneously " Cacique " to-day existed among them, 
that they had at least three principal shamans or leading 
" medicine-men," and that they celebrated dances of a reli 
gious nature, which often had a sensual and even obscene 
character. 1 These northern Sumas appear not to have been 

1 That the Sumas lived about the Pass of the North at a very early date is 
certain. They are mentioned as forming a part of the first mission there, 
under the name of Zumanas, by Fray Garcia de San Francisco, Auto de Funda- 
1 don, 1659 : " For aver ido, a dha custta los Capitanes y ancianos de la gentili- 
dad, de los indios Mansos y Zumanas, a suplicarme ; les bajase a predicar el 
SS evang de nro Sr. Jesuxpto." At a still earlier date, in 1630, the Sumas 
are mentioned by Benavides, Memorial, p. 7. Vetancurt, Cronica de la Pro- 
vincia del Santo Evangelic de Mexico (edition of 1871, p. 308), speaks of the 
Zumas and Zumanas as living somewhat below the Paso. Of their original 
numbers I have no idea. They became very turbulent after the uprising of 
1680. As early as 1681 there were signs of trouble. Autos que se ysieron sobre 
damar los Vesinos de este Reino para Salir d Mejorarse de Puesto, 1681 (MS. 



88 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 

numerous, and their style of living, even during the past 
century, whenever they could return to their pristine condi- 

copy, fol. i): " Y mas abiendo corrido vnas vozes de que a ymitacion de los 
del Nueuo Mexo, an tratado de perder la obediencia a su Rl mag." This 
occurred at the instigation of Pueblo Indians from New Mexico, who had accom 
panied Otermin to El Paso. Autos Criminales contra Juan Paititi, India, 1682, 
(MS. copy). Causa contra Juan Cucala, same year (MS. copy). Interrogatories 
de Indies hechos en el Pueblo del Paso del Norte, 1 68 1 (MS. copy). Coufesion y 
Declaracion de vn Yndio de Naciott Pecuri que dijo llamarse Juan, 1683 (MS. 
copy). They finally broke out in 1684, (Causa Criminal por Denunciation de 
Andres Jopeta contra Nuebe Yndios, etc., 1684, MS. copy,) and dragged the 
Mansos into the fray, (Causa Criminal que se d seguido contra los Yndios 
Xptianos Manssos, etc., 1684, MS. copy,) and compelled the Governor Domingo 
Jironza Petriz de Cruzate to march against them, and against the Janos, their 
confederates : Lista y Muestra dela Jente de Gua que por Orden del Capn Dn 
> Domingo Xironza Petriz de Cruzate va d aser Castigo y Justa Gua alos Yndios 
Xptianos Apostatas Janos Sumas y demas A 7 asiones, Sept. 6, 1684 (MS. copy). 
They were definitively reduced in 1686: Escalante, Carta, 1778, par. 7. Several 
settlements of Sumas were formed by the Spaniards around El Paso at various 
times, but only one remained, San Lorenzo del Real. In 1744 it had fifty 
Indian families, in 1765 only twenty-one. Fray Agustin Morfi, Descripcion 
Geogrdjica del Nuevo Mexico, 1782 (MS. copy, fol. 114). From a document 
of the latter part of the past century, the exact date of which I am unable 
to ascertain, although a copy of its text is in my hands, I gather that the 
population had at an early date decreased to one hundred and eighty-nine. 
Estado de la Mision de San Lorenzo el Real Pueblo de Zumas (MS ). Current 
tradition among the Mansos of El Paso attributes their decline to the small-pox. 
It is certain that between 1693 and 1709 severe epidemics prevailed among the 
Indians at the Paso. Libra Tersero de Difuntos. El Paso del Norte (MS.). 

In regard to the customs of the Sumas of the Rio Grande, little is positively 
known. That they originally lived almost like nomads is certain. The docu 
ment above cited, Estado de la Mision de San Lorenzo* contains some information 
on their condition at that place. Among the one hundred and eighty-nine indi 
viduals of all ages and sexes, there were still twelve who never had embraced 
Christianity. Even among those who had been baptized, there were three ac 
knowledged sorcerers: " Obseruan su especie de religion, vsan de infinitas 
supersticiones y abusos como pudieran en la gentilidad. Los principales 
agoreros de los christianos son tres, llamados Santiago Chicama, Antonio 
Colina y Felipillo. A estos juntamente con todos los gentiles seria conuenien- 
tisimo separarlos del pueblo," etc. The Cacique had recently died. Among the 
many bad habits charged to the Sumas, in general terms, the use of the Peyote 
is specially mentioned. This herb has a very bad reputation in the southwest 
among Indians and Spaniards. Says the document before quoted : "Es gente 
mui viciosa dada a la embriaguez, y no es la peor la del vino y aguardiente si la de 



INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST. 89 

tion, was little, if any, better than that of the Apaches. 1 Of 
their language it may yet be possible to save some fragments, 
by searching at El Paso del Norte, where, as I have stated, 
the "last of the Sumas " may still be alive. 

As early as 1645, an author of high importance for the 
history and ethnology of Sonora speaks of the " Sunas " as 
living in the northwestern part of the present territory of 
Chihuahua. 2 Fifteen or twenty years later began the con 
version of the " Yumas," who occupied the valley of Casas 
Grandes. 3 There is no doubt that these Yumas were but 

la yerua que llaman Peiote esta los trasporta de modo que los vuelve furiosos. 
Es entre ellos yerva misteriosa y la vsan en sus juntas de religion, que por lo 
comun acaban en las mayores impurezas y obcenidades. A estas juntas se 
congregan de noche y con escasa luz. Se inciensan por todos los de los demas, 
y aquellos explican los principales dogmas de su religion y acaban como dexo 
dicho." Touching the office of the Cacique the document says: " Pues este 
tiene entre ellos una especie da soberam a que todo quanto manda se ejecuta 
sin repugnancia; a este solo obedecen, prefiriendo su dictamen en qualquier 
asunto al de qualquier Justicia, y Ministros, y aun el Gobernadorcillo que de 
ellos se les nombra por el Juez Real, esta subordinado en vn todo al Cazique." 
It is easy to recognize, for any one who knows the religious organization of 
the New Mexican Pueblos, the same office of chief oracle combined with the 
duty of chief penitent, which the so-called Cacique of the Pueblos fills to this 
day. 

In the documents forming the acts of the prosecution against the Mansos 
Indians when the latter, induced by the Sumas, rose against the Spaniards in 
1684, there is a mention of a ceremony performed by the Sumas, Declaration de 
Juan del Espiritu Santo (fol. 21) : " Y llebandole de buelta a la Rancheria, 
les hallo a todos Juntos en Rueda, y con un cuchillo clauado en medio de ella 
en el suelo." This ceremony appears to have been connected with their cus 
toms of war. Among the Pueblos I never heard of a similar practice, but it is 
said that the Apaches have some performance of that kind. 

1 Estado de la Mision de San Lorenzo el Real . " Aspiran siempre a la indepen- 
dencia, lo que comprueba el modo de vida que observan, semejante al de los 
Apaches." 

2 Ribas, Historia de los Trivmphos (lib. vi. cap. i. p. 359) : " La Nacion de los 
Batucos, caminando al Norte, tiene tambien por confinantes muchas Naciones 
de Gentiles amigos Cumupas, Buasdabas, Bapispes; y declinando al Oriente, a 
los Sunas." The location could not be more definite. 

3 Arlegui, Chronica de Zacatecas, (p. 105,) says that the mission of San Antonio 
de Casas Grandes was founded in 1640. This appears to be erroneous. In the 




90 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 

the Sumas, and that the word is a misprint. Different from 
their brethren who roamed near the Rio Grande, the Sumas of 
Casas Grandes are described as a docile, even as a sedate 
stock, whom it became easy to accustom to culture of the 
soil after the methods in vogue among the Spaniards of the 
seventeenth century. 1 How far they had been agricultural 
already, it is impossible to determine. Still, it seems as if 
there had been more stable settlements of theirs around the 
important ruins appropriately called "the Great Houses." 

third volume of the fourth series of Documentos para la Historia de Mejico, there 
are a number of documents concerning the establishment of the missions of 
Casas Grandes, Torreon, and Carretas. In the Patente, dated October 11, 1666, 
(p. 238,) it is stated: " Certifico y doy fe como el senor maese de campo D. 
Francisco de Gorraez Beaumont, caballero de la Orden de Calatrava, gober- 
nador y capitan general de este reino de la Nueva Vizcaya que fue habiendo 
certidumbre y clara noticia de que los indios barbaros que asisten en el Distrito 
de Casas Grandes distancia de este real del Parral mas de cien leguas, pedian 
el santo Evangelio y ser instruidos y catequizados en los misterios de nuestra 
santa fe catolica, condescendiendo a sus piadosos ruegos y llevado del celo 
cristiano que le acompana, envio al dicho puesto con licencia de sus prelados 
al padre Fray Andres Perez, religioso de esta provincia, aviandolo de todo lo 
necesario para el efecto mencionado, el cual se ha ejercitado mas de dos anos 
en catequizar, bautizar y casar mucha cantidad de indios, formar poblacion." 
This places the beginning of the missions at about 1664. The principal mis 
sionary of Casas Grandes was however Fray Pedro de Aparicio : Patente, Ibid. ; 
Andres Lopez de Gracia, Carta al Gobernador Antonio Oca Sarmiento (Ibid., 
p. 242). He died soon. Andres Lopez, Carta al Padre Provincial Valdes 
(Ibid., p. 245) ; Informe al Virrey Marques de Mancera, October 23, 1667, 
(p. 232). Francisco de Gorraez Beaumont, Informe al Virrey (p. 233): " Al 
segundo ano de mi gobierno en aquellas provincias, haciendome capaz de ellas, 
tuve noticia como en esta paraje citado de las Casas Grandes y otro llamado el 
Torreon y las Carretas y su circunferencia habia muchos indios llamados Yumas 
y otras naciones." That the Yumas and the Sumas were one and the same 
tribe can hardly be doubted. Aside from the fact that it was generally admitted 
in the latter half of the seventeenth century that the Sumas were the inhab 
itants of the Casas Grandes valley, there is the testimony of various documents 
to the effect. The Yumas are nowhere spoken of, and the word appears to be 
simply a misprint. 

1 This is shown by the kind reception given by them to Fray Andres Perez, 
to Fray Pedro de Aparicio, and to Fray Nicolas de Hidalgo. See the docu 
ments above quoted. 



INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST. 91 

But I have not been fortunate enough to find any vestige of 
authentic Suma tradition concerning those ruins themselves. 
It is likely, from reasons that will be stated further on, that 
Casas Grandes were built by another stock ; it is certain that, 
when first heard of by the Spaniards and missionaries, Casas 
Grandes was already a cluster of stately ruins. 1 

The fate of the Sumas of northwestern Chihuahua is so 
intimately connected with -the history of the Apaches and 
of their devastations, that I prefer to turn to it again when 
I shall treat of that much dreaded tribe. But I cannot over 
look Jiere the very positive statements of the Opatas of 
eastern Sonora, that the people living at Casas Grandes 
were always their bitter enemies, and that the villages in the 
Sierra Madre like Batesopa, Baquigopa, Quitamac, and oth 
ers, owe their destruction to incursions of these foes, raids 
made long ere the white man entered the valleys of the 
Upper Yaqui. 

Concerning two tribes who were immediate neighbors of 
the Sumas, and often their allies, not much more than the 
name and their manner of disappearance is as yet known. 
These were the Janos and the Jocomes, both ranging to the 
north of Casas Grandes and as far west as the present village 
of Fronteras in Sonora, 2 who vanished within the grasp of 

1 Franc, de Gorraez Beaumont, Informe, p. 234 : " For haber tenido noticia 
que en este puesto de Casas Grandes era panino de minen a y segun tradicion 
antigua, y ruinas que se veian que decian ser del tiempo de Moctezuma." The 
Casas Grandes are spoken of as ruins in all the documents relating to the 
place. 

2 The headquarters, so to say, of the Janos were Janos and Carretas. There 
two missions were established. Both, however, were soon abandoned, owing to 
the incursions of the Apaches, and their forming a league or alliance with the 
Janos, Jocomes, and some Sumas. This league was, according to Alegre, 
Historia de la Compania de Jesus, (vol. iii. p. 53,) at Casas Grandes, in October 
or November, 1684. The originator of the conspiracy is said to have been an 
Opata Indian of Sonora, and it included, in addition to the Conchos, Tobosos, 
and Opatas, " los sumas 6 yumas, a los janos, a los chinanas," etc. The 



92 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 

the Apaches, and were absorbed by the latter. The names 
of these tribes are frequently mentioned in the early re 
ports and registers of the Jesuit missionaries of Sonora ; 
they are always characterized as so many fiends who har 
assed and hampered the docile village Indians of Opata 
stock. 1 And yet, at the same time, while they were the 
greatest impediments to progress of the Jesuit missions, the 
Janos and Jocomes had submitted willingly to the con 
trol of the Franciscans. Such a strange condition could 
not last ; the Spaniards, especially the clergy, could not al 
low the converts of one order to remain persecutors of the 
other and of their neophytes. When the great insurrection 
initiated in New Mexico began to spread southwards through 
the Apaches, it found the Janos and their allies willing to 
join in it. Their incursions soon extended as far as southern 
Arizona, but this course of action was the doom of the tribe, 
which before long disappeared among those who had led them 
into the new career of rapine. A few remnants of it were 
still left around Janos in the first half of the past century ; 
but now the name of the tribe is extinct. 

I have designated these Indians by such names as the 
Spanish authors have applied to them, but it is by no means 
certain that such designations are genuine. It is not im 
probable that the words Janos, Jocomes, etc., were derived 
from some other Indian idiom, and were given to them by 

Jocomes were of course included. These lived west of the Janos, partly in 
Sonora, near Corodehuachi or Fronteras, partly in Chihuahua. Of the language, 
manners, and customs of either tribe nothing is known. The assertion of Orozco 
y Berra (Geografi a, pp. 325, 386), that their idioms were " de filiacion apache," 
may ultimately prove true, but he fails to give any evidence of it. 

1 These depredations are so well known, that it is useless to adduce proof. 
As early as 1655, the church books of Bacadehuachi in Sonora report the O-pa-ua 
(enemies) as killing the inhabitants of caves in the Sierra Madre. In the past 
century, the Janos and Jocomes are yet mentioned frequently. Difuntos de este 
Real de Opoto, 1677 to 1743 (MS.). 



INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST. 93 

foreign tribes, or that the names are the product of misunder 
standings or misapplications. Whether traces may yet be 
found of the language spoken by the lost clusters of north- 
weste rn Chihuahua, that of the Sumas excepted, is in my 
estimation doubtful. It may be, that among the Apaches 
traces of the Janos idiom still linger, and the statement of 
Orozco y Berra which makes of that language, as well as 
of the Toboso, a branch of the Apache may yet prove cor 
rect. No vocabulary of it has been discovered, but this is no 
proof that none ever existed. 

The main aboriginal groups of Chihuahua, and those who 
are best known to-day, are thus the village Indians of the 
mountain regions, the Tepehuanes, and especially the Tara- 
humares. The Conchos are extinct as a tribe, the Tobosos 
were destroyed. The Jumanos were not of such importance 
in Chihuahua as they were in New Mexico, and they also 
lost, so to say, their individuality in the whirlpool consti 
tuted by the Apache tribe. It is to the Tepehuanes and 
Tarahumares that I must devote more attention now. 

The former are properly Indians of Durango, 1 and only 
their most northern spurs extended into Chihuahua. They 
inhabited that celebrated mining region of the Southwest 
where San Jose del Parral now stands. 2 They were village 
Indians, they cultivated all the nutritive plants common to 
the American native before the coming of wheat, barley, 
the potato, fruit-trees, etc., and other vegetables imported 
from the eastern continent or from the southern half of 
America. Cotton appears also to have been raised by them ; 
they wore cotton mantles and used the fibre of the yucca 
for making garments also. Their abodes were of wood, of 

1 Orozco y Berra, Carta Etnografica. 

2 The ethnographic map just cited includes Parral within the range of the 
Tarahumares, but I still suspect that the Tepehuanes formerly reached into that 
neighborhood. 



94 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 

branches, and sometimes of stones and of mud. The vil 
lages or rather hamlets (rancherias) commonly occupied 
the banks of streams. 1 Their country being mountainous, 
they clustered together in valleys and sheltered nooks, where 
it was easy to raise some limited crops, and where at the same 
time protection from enemies was relatively easy to secure. 
For the Tepehuanes bordered upon tribes whom, through their 
own ferocity, they had turned into hereditary enemies. 

All authorities agree in describing the Tepehuanes as a 
group not only warlike, but decidedly ferocious, as a scourge 
to all who lived within reach of their grasp. The Acaxees 
of Durango, and the Tarahumares of Chihuahua were in 
mortal dread of them. 2 The object of the Tepehuanes in 

1 The oldest description of the Tepehuanes at my command dates back to 
the year 1596. It is contained in the Documents for the History of Mexico, and 
bears the title, Del Anna del Ano de 1596. It says of them : "Los tepehuanes 
hacen grande ventaja a los de la Laguna para recibir la fe, asi por ser de natura- 
leza mas blandos y llegados a razon como por tener algun rastro de politica 
humana de que carecen todos los de la Laguna. Andan vestidos de lana y algo- 
don ; tienen cosechas de maiz ; habitan de asiento en sus casillas o chozas, crian 
con amor y cuidado a sus hijos." But the most complete description has been 
left by Ribas (Hist, de los Trivmphos, lib. x. cap. i. p. 574) : "El sustento era el 
general de los Indios, maiz con otras semillas propias suyas que sembrauan, por 
ser casi todos labradores, aunque no de grandes sementeras ; y a falta dellas 
se valian de los otros frutos siluestres de que vsan otras Naciones. De la 
caya, y otros animales, y aues tambien se valian, de que ay abundancia en sus 
tierras. El vestido es el que se ha dicho de otras Naciones serranas, vsando 
muchos dellos de mantas de algodon, que sembrauan, y pita que se da en sus 
montes ; y de las mismas hazian a su modo faldellines las mugeres. De la 
planta de Mescal, y otros frutos siluestres, hazian vino y celebraua sus em- 
briaguezes frequentemente, que estas en todas estas gentes las tenia introducidas 
el demonio. . . . Las casas eran 6 de madera y palos de monte, 6 de piedra y 
barro : y sus poblaciones vnas rancherias, a" modo de cafilas, cerca de aguajes 
arroyos, y rios, que no les faltauan, y el principal era el de Santiago Papaz- 
quiaro, su principal pueblo." Arlegui (Chronica, p. 187) says: "La qual se 
estiende desde la Sierra del Mezquital hasta el Parral, en que habitaba toda la 
Sierra multitud de Indios en Pueblos muy bien formados hasta adelante de 
Topia, y muy cerca de caponeta." 

2 The relations between the Tepehuanes and their neighbors are thus de 
scribed by Ribas, Historia, p. 574 : " El natural de los Tepeguanes, de suyo fue 



INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST. 95 

these constant hostilities was the killing of the men in order 
to secure their heads, and the carrying of women and fe 
male children into slavery. The Tarahumares were specially 
afraid of them, for their settlements were more particularly 
menaced by the Tepehuanes. It took the Jesuits a long time, 
and it cost them many martyrs, ere they succeeded finally in 
restoring peace between the tribes, and accustoming the fero 
cious Tepehuanes to cease preying upon their neighbors. 

The Tepehuanes more properly belong to the State of 
Durango, and should be referred to the Indians of that 
section. I may be permitted to screen myself behind this 
geographical accident in order to escape the duty of entering 
at any length upon the question of their creed and beliefs. 
The information which we as yet possess on this topic is 
not as detailed and positive as might be desirable. Still, it 
is not devoid of importance. 

It appears from the reports of early Jesuit missionaries, 
that they succeeded in obtaining, and destroying, according 
to custom, a great number of large and small idols which 
were held in veneration by the Tepehuanes. The major 
ity of these were of stone, and had at least human faces, if 
not the entire human form. They were real fetiches, to 

siempre mal sujeto, brioso, y guerrero, y que se preciaua de leuantar cabe^a, y 
sujetar, y hazerse temer de Naciones vezinas, en particular de la Acaxee de la 
Taraumara, y de otras ; a, las quales tenian tan acobardadas, y ellos a ellas tan 
superiores, que sucedia entrar en vna poblacion de las dichas poco numero de 
Tepeguanes, y sin atreuerse a hazerles resistencia, sacar della las mugeres, y 
donzellas que les parecia, y lleuarselas a sus tierras, y apreuecharse tiranica- 
mente dellas." Still they sometimes confederated with fractions of a neighbor 
ing tribe against the other branches of that tribe. So it happened with the 
Tarahumares, and this was the origin of the establishment of missions among 
the latter. Ibid., p. 592 : " Porque leuantandose vn alboroto de guerra entre 
estas dos Naciones, los Tepeguanes vezinos a los Taraumares, y que poblauan 
en el valle del Aguila, embiaron a pedir socorro de gente a los demas pueblos 
Tepeguanes," etc. But Alegre (Historia de la Campania, vol. ii. p. 6) repre 
sents the case differently. He says that the Tepehuanes of the Valle del Aguila 
had confederated with some Tarahumares. 



96 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 

which the Indian applied for the most varied purposes, as 
in case of disease, failure of rain and of crops, in war, etc. 1 
While, of course the medicine-men had the most important 
idols in charge, every Indian family harbored and revered its 

1 I proceed chronologically as far as possible. The oldest mention of the 
idols of the Tepehuanes that I can find is that of the Jesuit P. Juan Fonte, 
given by Alegre, Historia, vol. i. p. 452 : " Semejante fue el numero de bautismos 
en la mision de Tepehuanes. . . . Estos gentiles (dice el padre Juan Fonte en 
la relacion que hace al padre provincial), guardan la ley natural con grande 
exactitud. El hurto, la mentira, la deshonesticlad esta muy lejos de ellos. La 
mas ligera falta de recato 6 muestra de liviandad en las mugeres, sera bastante 
para que abandone su marido a las casadas y para jamas casarse las doncellas. 
La embriaguez no es tan comun en estas gentes como en otros mas ladinos, 
no se ha encontrado entre ellos culto de algun dios ; y aunque conservan de 
sus antepasados algunos idolos, mas es por curiosidad 6 por capricho que por 
rnotivo de religion. El mas famoso de estos idolos era uno a quien llamaban 
Ubamari, y habia dado el nombre a la principal de sus poblaciones. Era una 
piedra de cinco palmos de alto, la cabeza humana, el resto como una column-a, 
situada en lo mas alto de su montesillo sobre que estaba fundado el pueblo. 
Ofrecianle los antiguos flechas, ollas de barro, huesos de animales, flores y 
frutas." The instances of idols among the Tepehuanes being described by 
early witnesses are not unfrequent. Thus Ribas (Hist, de los Trivmphos, p. 582) 
speaks of an idol that was, after many fruitless endeavors, at last delivered 
up : " Saco de su casa y choza al idolo y a escusas de los demas, embuelto y 
cubierto, lo truxo, y se lo entrego al Padre ; auisando a los circumstantes, q 
saliessen fuera, sino querian caer alii muertos." When the idol was at last 
uncovered, " y hallaron que tenia por encima tres, 6 quatro telas muy sutiles, 
que jusgaron ser membranes de sesos de cabecas humanas. Estas cubrian vna 
piedra rolliza, como de jaspe, y poco mayor que vna mansana." Such fetiches 
of rolled pebbles are common among the New Mexican Pueblos to-day. Ibid., 
p. 598. An Indian who had been Christianized turned to idolatry again : " Este 
apostata de la Fe, y trayendo consigo vn Idolo, por medio del qual se entendia 
con el demonio, y era como su ordculo." For further details, I refer to Anna 
del Ano de 1596, p. 24. In the same volume and under the heading of Del Anna 
del Ano de 1598, p. 47, is the following paragraph: " En viendo algun remolino 
causado de viento solian todos los que lo veian tirarse a tierra de espanto, 
diciendose unos a otros Cachiripa ! Cachiripa ! que asi llaman al demonio ; 
y preguntando que ? por que hacen esto ? Decian que porque no se muriesen, 
que iba alii el demonio." The whirlwind is one of the most common symbolical 
figures on ancient pottery in the Southwest. For the rest of the superstitions 
and idolatries of the Tepehuanes, I again refer to Arlegui, Chronica, Tercera 
"Parte, cap. iii., to the end of the third part. It would be superfluous to quote 
in detail. 



INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST. 97 

own, and the general features of their worship are in strict 
accordance with the celestial or supernatural democracy pe 
culiar to all Indian mythologies. There existed no belief 
in one really supreme god. Locally or occasionally, one or 
the other of the idols appeared endowed with certain advan 
tages over all others. As the necessity of the case dictated, 
such or such a fetich was applied to in preference to all others. 
As was the case with the Navajos, the Olympus of the Tepe- 
huanes reflected their own social and governmental organiza 
tion. Split into a number of autonomous villages, each at 
liberty to fight for or against its neighbors, the tribe formed 
no political unit. So the mythology did not give rise to any 
hierarchy ; the multiplicity of fetiches was evidently sys 
tematized, but after the basis of their efficiency and not from 
the standpoint of tradition or chronological creation. 1 

Sorcery and witchcraft of course played an important part 
in the life, public as well as private, of the Tepehuanes. 2 
The prevalence of rites of this description is a sure sign of 
the existence among the Tepehuanes of esoteric societies. 
That clans existed among them, there can be no doubt either. 
These features describe sufficiently the standard of culture 
reached by the tribe ; they place it on a level with the Yaquis, 

1 The reference to the Navajos is based upon the excellent pamphlet of my 
friend Dr. Mathews on the Navajo Mythology. 

2 Ribas, Hist, de los Trivmphos, p. 574 : " En todo lo demas de costumbres 
gentilicas, principalmente de hechizeros, introduxo el enemigo infernal en esta 
Nacion, lo que en las otras ; y aun desta se auia ensenoreado tato mas, quato 
la hallo mas conforme en su natural, a la fiereza y crueldad de que se visti6 esse 
enemigo, luego que cayo del cielo, para perseguir a los hombres." This accusa 
tion of witchcraft, fulminated against the Indians, is often taken with a smile of 
disdain by such as do not know the real nature of the aborigines. But it is cer 
tain that, for the Indian, there is nothing more dreadful than sorcery. He believes 
in it, he lives partly through it, and he punishes it in secret as severely as 
possible. The mention of sorcerers among Indians, on the part of early mis 
sionaries, should therefore never be taken lightly. On the contrary, it reveals 
a condition which is characteristic of Indian society. 

7 



98 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 

Mayos, and others of Sonora, with whom they were, besides, 
linguistically connected. 

The same may be said of the Tarahumares. They stood 
on the same level as their neighbors and enemies, had anal 
ogous habits and customs, their language was fundamentally 
related to the others, and they bowed to the same species of 
worship. 1 But the Tarahumares, owing to the nature of the 
country which they inhabited and to the constant danger to 
which they were exposed, were in many places cave-dwellers. 
They lived in natural cavities, as well as in open-air dwellings 
of mud, stone, or wood. These caves they partitioned to suit 
their convenience ; whole families, even small villages, occu 
pying such troglodytan recesses. 2 If the verbal information 
imparted to me lately is correct, the Tarahumares are, at 



1 Wherever there appears a religious organization indicated by systematized 
sorcery, gentilism always prevails. Another sign of gentilism is the absence of 
family names. Both are clearly defined among the Tepehuanes. 

2 Ribas, Historia, p. 594 : " La morada de mucha gente es de cueuas (q ay 
muchas en su tierra) y algunas tan capazes, que en vna viue vna paretela, 
haziendo sus diuisiones de casillas dentro. Vsan el vestido de sus mantas de 
pita, q sabe bien labrar las mugeres : son muy recatadas, y no vsan sentarse ni 
entremeterse con los hombres. En enterrar sus difuntos se diferencia de otras 
Naciones, en tener lugar senalado y apartado a modo de cementerios donde los 
entierran, poniendo con el difunto todo el ajuar de que vsaua, y comida para 
el viaje ; y la casa donde auia muerto se quemaua, d totalmente se clesam- 
paraua ; y el luto de los parientes era cortarse el cabello. El natural de la 
gente es mas blando y docil que el de los Tepeguanes. El modo de recibirme 
era, que antes de llegar a su pueblo, como dos leguas, tenian puestas atalayas, 
para que en descubriendome fuessen de carrera a auisar al pueblo decide toda 
la gente, hombres, y mugeres, con sus ninos, se juntauan en hileras para el 
recibimiento, precediendo el Cacique con su lancilla, o chuzo, plumena, y otros 
adornos q ellos vsan." Ribas quotes this from a letter written by Father Juan 
Fonte, who visited the Tarahumares in 1608. Alegre, Historia, vol. ii. p. 6. 
The fact that the Tarahumares dwelt at least partly in caves cannot be doubted. 
Cave-dwelling, on the whole, seems to have been quite common in the moun 
tains of Chihuahua, in those of Sonora bordering upon Chihuahua, and in 
Sinaloa. In the Libra de Entierros de la Mision de Bacadehuachi, 1655, (MS.,) it 
is mentioned that the Janos and Jocomes used to surprise and kill the people 
of the Sierra Madre in their cave dwellings. In many places of the Sierra, the 



INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST. 99 

the present time, and in a few secluded localities, still the 
cave-dwellers of the American continent. 

About the numbers of these different tribes at the time of 
their first contact with Europeans of Spanish blood, nothing 
absolutely trustworthy is known to me. There are very 
detailed counts by Jesuit missionaries, but these refer only to 
such as had embraced Christianity. 1 The manner in which 

formation of rocks favors the existence of natural cavities, therefore ancient 
cave houses and whole cave pueblos are of common occurrence. 

In regard to the creed and beliefs of the Tarahumares, little is reliably ascer 
tained. We might judge from what is known of the Tepehuanes, who, in addi 
tion to being their near neighbors, spoke a kindred language. It is certain that 
witchcraft played an important part with them. Drunkenness was among them 
too. Compare, for instance, Testunonio de Carta Escrita por los Padres Tomas 
de Guadalajara y Jose Farda, February 2, 1676 (Doc. para la Historia de Mejico, 
4th series, vol. iii. p. 283). In a general way, I also refer to Arlegui, Chronica, 
ut supra, 

On the whole, the Tarahumares were a numerous, scattered, and quite docile 
tribe. At the instigations of the Tepehuanes, Tobosos, and of some of their 
own sorcerers or medicine-men, they rose upon the missionaries several times 
during the seventeenth century, and behaved with as much cruelty as any other 
Indians. Otherwise they were quiet, and tilled their plots of land, raising the 
usual kinds of crops. 

1 The oldest census of the Tarahumares, for instance, which is at my com 
mand, dates back to 1678. There are certainly older ones, and even this one 
embraces only such Indians as had become Christian. It is found in the 
Relacion de las Misiones, by P. Juan Ortiz Zapata, S. J. According to it, the 
number of persons administered by the Jesuits in the districts of western Chi 
huahua, almost exclusively Tarahumares, with but a few Tepehuanes and Con- 
chos, was about 8,300. In addition to these, there are mentioned a number of 
heathens in the mountains, but their numbers were of course unascertainable. 
In 1570, the Cabildo Eclesidstico of Guadalajara reported to the king, Infonne 
al Key por el Cabildo Eclesidstico de Giiadalajara, acerca de las Cosas de aquel Reino, 
January 20, 1570 ( Ycazbalceta, Collecion de Documentos, vol. ii. p. 503) : "Item: 
enviamos la copia autorizada de los indios, y por ella parece haber en este reino 
hasta veinte y cuatro mill y trecientos indios tributaries, que en uno de los 
medianos pueblos de Tlaxcala 6 Mexico hay mas indios que en todo este Reino." 
New Galicia, to which this statement applies, extended then over southern 
Chihuahua also, but only Santa Barbara and San Bartholomew, or the regions 
of Parral and Allende, were included in the report. The bulk of the numbers 
applies therefore to the southern Tepehuanes (those of Durango), and to other 
more meridional tribes. In speaking of the Jumanos in 1582, Espejo (Rtla~ 



100 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 

the Indians of Chihuahua have disappeared is varied, and 
the term " extermination " can hardly be applied to any. 
In regard to the sedentary stocks proper, civilization or 
assimilation to Spanish American habits has more than any 
thing else contributed to destroy the Indian, without how 
ever obliterating the man. Through bringing the natives 
into Missions, and often congregating there representatives of 
different, even hostile stocks, a new population has been 
formed of land-tillers and herders that is still largely Indian 
without the organization of society that more than anything 
else distinguishes the Indian in his natural condition. To 
search among these for remains of their ancient culture and 
traditions will be the task of the practical ethnologist ; it is 
hardly doubtful that such researches will be richly rewarded. 

The Apaches are also considered as belonging to the abo 
riginal inhabitants of Chihuahua. In point of fact, they did 
not penetrate so far south before the latter half of the sev 
enteenth century. The career of this adventurous and dan 
gerous tribe deserves separate treatment, and I shall devote 
to it a special section after I have spoken of the Indians of 
Arizona and New Mexico. 

don del Viage, p. 168) estimates their numbers at 10,000, but all through his 
report, those estimates, for reasons which I shall give further on, are greatly 
exaggerated, sometimes even tenfold and more. In 1684, Juan Dominguez 
Mendoza (Diario, fol. 49) gathered at the Junta de los Rios " todos los goberna- 
dores y Capitanes con mas de quinientos Yndios que unos y otros son de las 
Siete nasiones que tienen dada la obediencia a su mag d " Of the Mansos, Vetan- 
curt says (Chronica, p. 308) : " Tiene [the mission of El Paso] mas de mil feli- 
greses." In 1744, the various villages composing the jurisdiction of El Paso del 
Norte contained, in all, 360 families of Indians, and their number was on the de 
crease. Morfi, Description Geografica, fol. 114. The census of 1749 (Relation de 
las Misiones del Nuez o Mexico, MS. copy) gives for the same district 1,328 Indians 
of various tribes. In 1725, Rivera (Diario y Derrofero, p. 22) says of the 
Indians of New Biscay in general : " Y hauiendose computado su numero, se 
halla hauer de todas hedades y sexos cinquenta y vn mil novesietos y diez ; y 
todos estan administrados por Religiosos de Nro P. S. Fracisco, y de la Sagrada 
Compania de Jesvs." This included Durango also. 



INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST. IQI 

Although the Arizonian natives became known fully to 
the Spaniards later than the Pueblos, I hold it to be in order 
to speak of them first. It is true that from the reports of 
Fray Marcos of Nizza and of Coronado s chroniclers, both 
treating of events which occurred between the years 1539 
and 1542, some data may be gathered about the Arizonians ; 
still, it is not until 1604 that an insight is obtained into the 
ethnography of the whole territory as constituted to-day. 1 
Detailed statements concerning the tribes of central Ari 
zona appear only after 1680, when the Jesuits extended their 
travels to the Gila and beyond, and for northern Arizona, 
where the Moquis had been well known for some time, 
we must look to the letters of Fray Francisco Garces and 
Fray Silvestre Velez de Escalante for satisfactory informa 
tion. Fray Marcos, Castaneda, and Jaramillo describe, with 
out naming them, the Sobaypuris or Pimas of the valley of 
the Rio San Pedro, and they hint at the Apaches also. The 
former are represented as agricultural Indians living in vil 
lages scattered along the banks of the little stream. Among 
them Cibola-Zuni was well known, and a certain commerce 
existed with the most westerly pueblos of New Mexico. 2 

1 Through the expedition of Juan de Onate to the mouth of the Colorado. 
Unfortunately, I have not the report of Fray Roque Figueredo on that impor 
tant journey, but its lack is partly supplied by the manuscripts of Fray Geronimo 
de Zarate-Salmercn and of Mateo Mange, to both of which I shall refer 
further on. 

2 Fray Marcos de Nizza, Descubrimiento de las Siete Ciudades (Doc, de Indias, 
vol. iii. p. 338) : " Otro dia entre en el despoblado. . . Al cabo dellos, entre en 
un valle muy bien poblado de gente, donde en el primer pueblo salieron a mi 
muchos hombres y mugeres con comida ; y todos traian muchas turquesas que 
les colgaban de las narices y de las orejas, y algunos traian colares turquesas." 
Ibid., p. 339: " Aqui habia tanta noticia de Cibola, como en la Nueva Espana, 
de Mexico y en el Peru, del Cuzco." That Fray Marcos was a truthful and re 
liable reporter I have established beyond a doubt, I believe, in The Magazine of 
Western History ( The Discovery of New Mexico by Fray Marcos of Nizza) ; and 
in the Revue d* Ethnographic (La Decouverte du Nouveau Mexique par le Frere 
Marcos de Nice). 



JO2 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 

To condense the material in a general sketch, we find that 
the ethnography of Arizona has not much changed since 
about the year 1600. The main changes which have taken 
place are due to the Apaches in the last half of the seven 
teenth century, and to the settling of the country since its 
annexation by the United States. The Apaches caused the 
Sobaypuris to give up their homes on the San Pedro and to 
merge into the Papagos. * During the wars with the Apaches, 
the Tontos were either destroyed or absorbed by the former. 
Therefore the appellative of Tonto-Apaches. The last men 
tioned wars were waged only about thirty years ago, and 
their real cause is still wrapt in doubt. 

In the beginning of the seventeenth century, we find that 
Arizona was inhabited in the south by tribes speaking the 
Pima language. The extreme southeast of the territory 
seems to have been desert, only a band of Apaches traversing 
it occasionally. Along the San Pedro valley, the Sobaypuris 
had their settlements, which extended as far north as within 
a short distance of the Rio Gila. West of them commenced 
the range of the Papap-Otam, or Papagos, whom we have 
already met in northwestern Sonora, and who roamed over 
rather than resided in the southwestern corner of Arizona 



1 The Sobaypuris being in no way different from the Pimas, to whose lin 
guistic stock they belonged, I do not refer here specially to their customs, etc. 
In regard to their fate, it is known that the Apaches compelled the abandon 
ment of their settlements on the Rio San Pedro. Arricivita, Crbnica Serdfica y 
Apostolica del Colegio de Santa Cruz de Queretaro (part ii. p. 410) : " Vio las que 
habian sido habitadas por los Indies Sobaipures, que son parcialidad de los Pimas 
lastimosamente desiertas por la barbara persecucio de los Apaches." The 
Description Geografica de Sonora (cap. vi. part ii.) fixes the date of the abandon 
ment of the San Pedro valley in 1762: " Ya cansados de vivir en guerra con- 
tinua, han abandonado el ano de 1762 su ameno y fertil valle, retirandcse unos 
a Santa Maria Soamca, otros a" San Javier del Bac y Tucson, y otros al pueblo 
de visita de Guevavi llamado Sonoitac." The date seems correct. P. Manuel 
de Aguirre, Carta al Ttniente Coroncl D. Juan de Pineda, Doc. para la Historia 
de Me xico, 4th series, vol. i. p. 125. 



INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST. 



103 



to within a short distance of the Gulf coast. 1 The country 
is so bleak, so destitute of attractions for village Indians, 
that no large population of any numbers could remain there 
for any length of time so long as general safety was not 
firmly established. An agricultural stock could prosper in 
those regions only with a great deal of patient toil. There 
fore the scattered remains of more permanent villages, with 
artificial tanks, mounds of houses constructed of clayey 
marl and sometimes more than one story high, which are 
met with here and there throughout the Papagueria, are 
evidences of a period of relative quiet that has long since 
disappeared. 

North of the Papagos, and along the Gila River, between 
the Canon of San Carlos and Yuma, the Pimas proper, or 
Aquira-Otam, dwelt in scattered hamlets, the houses of 
which combine to-day the mud roof of a typical New Mexi 
can Pueblo with the temporary frame-work of frail branches 
characteristic of the roaming savage. 2 The frailty of these 
abodes seemed so apparent to the first missionaries who vis 
ited them, and at the same time so adapted to the intensely 
hot and arid climate, that their intricate construction, the sig- 

1 Caborca, for instance, was a Papago mission. 

2 It would seem that the Sobaypuris dwelt in more substantial houses. See 
Christobal Martin Bernal, Eusebio Francisco Kino (Kuehne), and others (Rela- 
cion del Estado de la Pimeria, 1697, MS. copy) : " Tienen muy buenas y fertiles 
tierras con sus acequias, son indios laboriosos en algunas partes, tienen principio 
de ganado mayor y menor, de sementeras y cosechas de trigo y maiz, y casas de 
adobe y terrado para los reverendos padres que piden y esperan recibir." This 
would indicate that the Sobaypuris, even if they did not dwell in such houses, 
at least knew how to construct them. Among the Gila Pimas the buildings 
erected for the missionary were, however, invariably " de Petates." Relation 
del Viaje al Rio Gila (MS. copy). P. Jacob Sedelmair (Relation, 1746, MS.). 
The term Ranchena, which is always applied to the settlement of the Gila 
Pimas, implies a group of frail constructions or huts. The roof of the Pima hut, 
although dome-shaped, is in material exactly similar to the ordinary mud roof 
of the New Mexican pueblos ; in fact, it is only a convex one of the same kind, 
and also similar to the roof of the Casa Grande ruin near by. 



104 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 

nificant touches of a more permanent style of architecture, 
escaped their notice, as well as that of observers of a later 
period who were better equipped than the devoted missiona 
ries of two centuries ago, and who enjoyed the benefit of all 
the intervening growth in methods of research. 

The Pimas lived then very much where they live now, and 
as they live to-day. They cultivated their little patches of 
indigenous plants, they irrigated to a moderate extent, using 
mountain torrents rather than the river. For this there was 
a good reason. The Gila, while at times a large stream, 
does not afford a regular supply. During some of the months 
when water is most needed, its level is often lowest. During 
the same period, showers descend upon the environing moun 
tains daily, and their waters escape through gulches into the 
plain below. It was more advantageous for the Pimas to 
collect the torrents and guide them to their fields, than to 
dig long canals along the river bottoms, as their ancestors 
are said to have done at a time when they were yet undis 
turbed by prowling intruders. 1 

Of the social condition of the Gila Pimas, of their organi 
zation, and of their beliefs and religious rites, nothing of 
importance can be gathered from older sources beyond the 
conviction that they were very much the same at that time 
as they are to-day. A close study of these people, after the 
manner in which Mr. Gushing has studied the Zunis, appears 

1 The information on the condition of the Arizonian Pimas is meagre, and 
not sufficiently specialized. Nearly all the sources already quoted refer also 
to their agriculture and accompanying arts. That they irrigated is beyond a 
doubt. They raised cotton and dressed in cotton. As to the localities occupied 
by their rancherias, they extended from the western end of the San Carlos 
Canon to beyond Gila Beno. In 1697 the number of rancherias was about six. 
Rdacion del Estado de la Fimeria. In 1746 Father Sedelmair, Relacion, speaks 
of three rancherias about Casa Grande on the Gila. When the Franciscans 
took charge of the former Jesuit missions, the number of Pimas and Papagos 
settled there at the missions was 3,011. Arricivita, Cronica Serafica, p. 402. 



INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST. 105 

therefore of much importance. There is more originality, 
in the sense of absence of contamination through European 
influence, among the Pimas of Arizona than among most 
other Indian stocks. This is easily accounted for. They 
became quickly reduced, that is, gathered to larger commu 
nities receiving a light coat of Christianity ; but the abolition 
of the Jesuit missions followed so closely upon their reduction 
that the effects of these first missions were but transient. The 
Franciscans, the successors of the Jesuits, had to begin anew, 
and they had in addition to contend with an almost insur 
mountable obstacle, one which in the exhausted condition 
of Spain was beyond hope, the sudden expansion of the 
Apaches. The influence which it exercised was not detri 
mental through its devastations alone. It was the moral 
infection which did the greatest harm. Whenever an Indian 
tribe is persistently harassed by another, it tends to incline 
towards its tormentors, or at least to turn away from those 
who pretend to protect it. The Spanish administration in 
Mexico was unable to protect the missions, and the Pimas, 
who had been unsuccessfully rebellious once before, gradually 
became indifferent. At last, the missions were abandoned 
as useless, and the Pimas relapsed almost into their pristine 
state, with the exception of a few dim and mythologized 
recollections of the earliest teachings of the Christian faith 
among them. 

I have been thus explicit in regard to the Gila Pimas only 
in order to show that what may yet be secured from their 
traditions and beliefs possesses intrinsic interest, and should 
be gathered as soon as possible. I have already alluded to 
some of these traditions in my Report of I883- 1 What I have 
since heard through Mr. Cushing, gained from his long resi- 

1 Fifth Annual Report of the Executive Committee of the Archceological Institute 
of America, Appendix, p. 80. 



106 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 

dence in the vicinity of the Pimas near Tempe, corroborates 
my former statements. The Pimas are still divided into 
clans ; they have no central government, but among them 
the esoteric societies constitute a mutual tie that supplies the 
want of a central political nucleus. They form, so to say, an 
unconscious unity, through the bonds of language, of creed, 
and of ceremonial congruence. 

While the Pimas occupied the specially arid portions of 
Arizona, another linguistic stock, the Yumas, extended along 
the great Colorado River of the west, and had penetrated 
inland as far as the Tonto Basin. From its issue from the 
terrible Canons in northwestern Arizona to its mouth, the 
Colorado River was controlled by tribes speaking the lan 
guage to which modern philology has applied the name of 
Yuma. The Spaniards knew all these tribes, they met them 
in the localities where they became known to subsequent 
explorers, and they describe them accurately in their original 
state. The Amacavas are the Mojaves of to-day. We find 
a plain mention of the Yavipais, and of the Huallapais. As 
we approach the mouth of the Gila, the Yumas are mentioned, 
originally under a different name, but the identity of the tribe 
is unmistakable. The Cocapas are even named as such by 
Juan de Onate, in I6O4. 1 All these tribes held commer 
cial relations with Zuni ; they were village Indians within 
the limits prescribed by the nature of the region ; they lived 

1 Fray Geronigo de Zarate-Salmeron, Relaciones de todas las cosas que en el 
Nueuo Mexico se han Uisto y Sabido asst par Mar como por Tierra, desde el A no de 
1538, hasta el de 1626 (MS. in the National Archives of Mexico): " Luego 
los Cocapas, son 9 pueblos, esta es la ultima que se vio, y llego hasta lo ultimo 
donde se puede beuer el agua dulce que es cinco leugas de la Mar." Mateo 
Mange, Luz de Tierra Incognita, en la America Septentrional 6 Indias Orientales 
de la Nueva Espana, 1720, (MS., cap. xix. p. 237,) merely transcribes Fray 
Zarate s relation, who in turn evidently gathered his information from the report 
of Fray Francisco de Escobar, who accompanied Onate, and who was then 
commissary of his order. 



INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST. 107 

partly in large communal houses accommodating a number 
of families, and the autonomy of the various hamlets was 
carried to the extent of absolute independence. Of their 
rites, creeds, and beliefs we know very little, but what is 
told of them fosters the idea that the principles pervading all 
Indian creeds were also paramount among theirs. 

For the ethnography of northwestern and western Arizona, 
the report on Juan de Ofiate s journey from San Gabriel del 
Yunque on the Rio Grande opposite the pueblo of San Juan 
de los Caballeros to the mouth of the Colorado, in the years 
1604 and 1605, is an excellent guide; but for the ethnology 
of the Lower Colorado, to about as far north as Long Bend, 
there are earlier sources of considerable value. I refer to 
the report of Hernando de Alarcon on his boat voyage up the 
great stream in 1540, and to the statements concerning the 
expeditions of Melchior Diaz and Garcia Lopez de Cardenas 
to the same river in the same year, the former crossing it 
above Fort Yuma, the latter visiting the plateau above the 
Grand Canon, whence he looked down into the frightful 
chasms without being able to descend into them. 1 

Alarcon certainly held intercourse with the Cocapas, the 
Yumas, and the Mojaves. Melchior Diaz met the two last 
mentioned tribes, and possibly some of the first. He calls 
attention to the large communal sheds, accommodating a 
number of families, which constituted the homes of the 
Lower Colorado Indians. 2 Alarcon obtained some dim no- 

1 There docs not seem to exist an original report on the trip made by Mel 
chior Diaz. The information I have on it is, however, from a member of 
Coronado s expedition, Pedro de Castafieda, Relation du Voyage dc Cibola 
(French translation of the Spanish original, in Ternaux-Compans s collection 
(vol. i. chap. x. and xvii.). There is also a short, but quite valuable, notice of it 
in Mota-Padilla, Historia de la Wueva Galicia (cap. xxxii. p. 158). 

2 The fact that Alarcon came up as high as Long Bend, that is, higher than 
the mouth of the Rio Gila, is doubted. But there is no reason to doubt the 
accuracy of his statement that he proceeded eighty-five leagues up the Colorado 



108 ARCH^OLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 

tions of the faith and creed ; and he ascertained that, far 
as was the distance to Zuni-Cibola, that cluster of villages 

of the West, counting from its mouth. Relation dela Navigation el de la Decouverte 
faite par le Capitaine Fernando Alar con (in Relation du Voyage de Cibola, 
Appendix, p. 347) : " J ai fait quatre-vingts cinq lieues en montant le fleuve." 
Herrera, Historia General, Dec. vi. Jib. ix. It is alleged that Alarcon failed 
to notice the mouth of the Rio Gila, and that he must have seen and men 
tioned it in case he had gone higher up the Rio Colorado. But at the time 
of the year when Alarcon made his exploring expedition, (August, September, 
and the beginning of October,) the Gila is so low that it scarcely would attract 
attention from any one who, like Alarcon, was ascending the main stream in boats. 
As to the journey of Melchior Diaz, it is much more difficult to trace his course. 
There is no doubt however, that he crossed the Colorado River into southern 
California. His description of the large communal dwellings of the Colorado 
River Indians is in Castaneda, Voyage de Cibola (p. 49): " Apres avoir fait 
environ cent cinquante lieues, il arriva dans une province dont les habitants, 
d une taille prodigieuse, sont nus, et habitent de grandes cabanes de paille construi- 
tes sous terre. On ne voyait que le toit de paille qui s elevait au dessus du sol : 
1 entree etait d un cote et la sortie de 1 autre. Plus de cent personnes, jeunes et 
vieilles, couchaient dans chaque cabane." More than two hundred years later 
this statement about the dwellings was confirmed by Father Sedelmair, S. J., 
Relation, 1746 (MS.) : " Sus ranchen as, por grandes de gentio que scan, se 
reducen a una 6 dos casas, con techo de terrado y zacate, armadas sobre muchos 
horcones por pilares con viguelos de unos a otros, y bajas, tan capaces que 
caben en cada una mas de cien personas, con tres divisiones, la primera una 
enramada del tamano de la casa y baja para dormir en el verano, luego la segunda 
division como sala, y la tercera como alcoba, donde por el abrigo meten los 
viejos y viejas, muchachitos y muchachitas, escepto los pimas que viven entre 
ellos, que cada famiiia tiene su choza aparte." It seems, then, that this style of 
communal living was peculiar to Indians of the Yuma group. This division of 
the house into three compartments is still found among the Nahuatl Indians 
of Central Mexico. See Archceological Tour into Mexico, pp. 124, 129, 132. 

In connection with the above confirmation, by authority of a later date, of the 
statements of Melchior Diaz, I may advert here to another point, also related 
by Diaz, or rather by Castaneda (Cibola, p. 49), which has given rise to the 
name " Rio del Tizon " (river of the firebrand), applied in older sources to the 
Colorado of the West. It relates to the custom of the Indians there of carrying 
a firebrand in order to keep themselves warm, whenever they undertook journeys 
during the cold season. " Quand ils voyagent pendant les grands froids, d une 
main ils portent un tison qui leur sert pour rechauffer 1 autre et tout le corps ; 
de temps en temps ils le changent de main. Get usage a fait donner le nom de 
Rio del Tizon a une grande riviere qui arrose le pays." This custom is also 
reported as extant, in 1746, among the Cocomaricopas, by Sedelmair, Relation: 
" Su frazada en tiempo de frio es un tizon encendido que aplicandole a la boca 



INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST. 109 

was known to the Yumas and the Mojaves, and occasionally 
visited by them. 1 In 1583, Antonio de Espejo penetrated 
into northwestern Arizona from the Moqui pueblos, a dis 
tance of one hundred miles at least, and he is the first to 
mention the " Cruzados," 2 a tribe which it is not very easy 
to identify, although, from the direction in which they were 
met, we might suppose them to have belonged to the Yavi- 
pais. In the report of Onate s journey there is a list of the 
tribes which he encountered between the Moquis and the 
Colorado, as well as along that river to its mouth. From 
the Moquis to the Little Colorado, and even beyond the 
latter as far west as the vicinity of Prescott, the country 
appeared to be a desert. In the region where the present 
capital of Arizona has been located, probably a little to the 
west, the Cruzados were found ; and the inference that these 
Indians were the Yavipais is thus confirmed. 3 Here Onate 



del estomago caminan por las mananas, y calentando ya el sol como a las ocho 
tiran los tizones, que por muchos que hayan tirado por los caminos. pueden 
ser guias de los caminantes ; de suerte que todos estos rios pueden llamarse 
rios del Tizon, nombre que algunas mapas ponen d uno solo." 

1 Alarcon, Relation da la Navigation ft de la Decouverte, p. 309 : " Je parvins, 
par signe, a apprendre que le soleil etait ce qu ils reverent davantage." He 
speaks of this alleged sun-worship several times. In regard to intercourse 
with Zuni, it is alluded to very distinctly and positively on pages 321, 325, 331, 
etc. Even the name or word Cevola seems to have been familiar to the natives 
on the upper course of the river. 

2 Relation del Viage, p. 183. Pie marched to the west of Ahuatuyba (a now 
deserted Moqui village) forty-five leagues. "Hay algunos pueblos de indios 
serranos, los cuales nos salieron recibir en algunas partes, con cruces pequefias 
en las cabezas " The Indians told Espejo that " detras de aquellas serranias, 
que no podimos entender bien que tanto estaba de alii, corria un rio muy grande." 
This river must have been the Colorado. 

3 ZaVate-Salmeron (Relaciones. par. 46) indicates that the Cruzados lived in 
the vicinity of the Sierra de San Francisco, in northern Arizona. After cross 
ing the Little Colorado River, Onate struck " por las faldas de unas mui altas 
sierras donde los espanoles sacaron mui buenas metales. ... En esta sierra 
tienen sus moradas los Yndios Cruzados, son rancheados, las casas de paja, no 
siembran bastimento : sustentanse con la caza que matan, venados, y carneros 



110 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 

heard of the Amacavas, or Mojaves, and he shortly afterwards 
found them on the Great Colorado. 1 Lower down were the 
Bahacecha, who spoke the same language, or very nearly the 
same, and who therefore were either a branch of the Mojaves, 
or else of the Huallapais, since the latter belong linguistically 
to the same family. The Bahacecha extended to near the 
mouth of the Gila, to which river Onate gave the name of 
Rio del Nombre de Jesus, and there he met a tribe which he 
calls Ozarrar. As he says that the Ozarrar occupied the 
banks of the Gila for some distance to the east, it may be 
supposed that they were the Maricopas. Below the mouth 
of the Gila dwelt successively the Halchedoma, the Haclli, 
the Cohuana, the Halliquamayas, and finally the Cucapas, 
who ranged as far as the Gulf of California. 2 

It is to be observed, that Onate found the villages of 
these tribes sometimes on one, and sometimes on the other 
bank of the stream. 3 Some of the names can easily be recog 
nized. The Cohuana, for instance, are the Yumas, or Cuchan, 
which is the same word as Gohun or Ko-un, applied in the 
latter case to the Tontos. In the Halliquamayas we find the 
Comoyei ; in the Cucapas, the Cocopas. 4 The others appear to 
be names of single groups of one tribe, local appellatives. 

monteses (que hay muchos). . . . Con los pieles se cubren las carnes ellos, 
y ellas, andan calzados chicos y grandes : Tambien tienen para su sustento 
Mescali que es conserva de raiz de Maguey." Ibid., par. 47 : " Llaman a estos 
Yndios los Cruzados, por unas cruzes que todos, chicos y grandes, se atan 
del copete que les biene a caer en la frente ; y esto hacen quando veen a los 
Espanoles." 

1 Ibid., par. 47. The identification with the Mojaves is fully made out by Mr. 
A. S. Gatschet, Classification into seven Linguistic Stocks of Western Indian Dialects 
contained in forty Vocabularies. U. S. Geological Surveys, vol. vii., Archeology 

P- 4I5- 

2 Zarate-Salmeron, Relaciones, par. 47, 53. It may be also that the Gila Pimas 
are meant, at least in part. For the other tribes, see the same paragraph. 

8 Ibid. Already Alarcon had made a similar remark. 

4 This identification is after Gatschet, Classification, p. 415. 



INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST. ill 

The dwellings of the Mojaves and their neighbors, the 
Bahacechas, are described as low, constructed of branches and 
covered with mud. 1 Of the Ozarrar it is stated that they 
wove mantles of cotton, and wore the hair long, plaited, and 
covered it with a piece of cloth or buckskin. 2 The tribes of 
the Lower Colorado as far as the Gulf are represented as 
being similar to the Bahacecha and the Mojaves, their lan 
guage but little differentiated, their mode of living identical. 
All cultivated Indian corn, and gathered shells, and even coral 
and pearls. Their numbers are mere guesswork, and show 
the exaggerations that such estimates usually reveal. 3 It is 
only in the seventeenth century that we obtain anything like 
reliable estimates of the numbers of most of the Yuma 
tribes. 

The celebrated Jesuit missionary, Father Eusebius Francis 
Kuehne, or Kino, visited the Lower Gila. 4 In 1744, Father 
Jacob Sedelmair followed the Gila as far down as its mouth, 
and he gives a catalogue of the numerous hamlets inhabited 
by the Coco-maricopas along the stream. He noticed the 
admixture gradually taking place between the Maricopas and 
Pimas, several of the rancherias speaking both languages. 5 
The Maricopas extended also along the Rio Colorado, and 
were neighbors of the Yumas. 6 North of them lived the " Ni- 
jores," in whom we easily recognize the Yavipai. 7 Father 

1 Zarate-Salmeron, Relaciones, par. 50. 

2 Ibid , par. 53. 

3 Ibid., par. 53, 54. 

4 Father Kuehne made the journey to the Colorado and Gila first in 1698. 
See his Diario de la Entrada al Norueste, MS. It was not his only trip in 
that direction. 

6 Sedelmair, Relation . " Desde la junta [of the Gila and the Salado] hasta 
la primera rancheria hay como doce leguas ; es ranchen a de mucha gente llamada 
stue, cabitio, tripulados, pimas y cocomaricopas, que los mas saben las dos 
lenguas." 

6 Ibid. 

7 Ibid. Also Noticias dc la Pimerta, 1740 (anonymous MS.). 



I I 2 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 

Sedelmair describes all these river tribes as kindly disposed, 
eager to treat with the new-comers, agricultural, and the 
men as going almost naked, while the women dressed in 
cotton mantles and in skirts made of buckskins or of willow 
bark. Sorcerers, that is Indian Shamans, were numerous, 
and the missionary found traces of fetiches. 1 

It is to the Franciscan Fray Francisco Garces the heroic 
priest who travelled without escort through central Arizona 
as far as the Moqui villages, in order to make a fruitless 
attempt for the reduction of the latter that we owe a 
reasonable estimate of the numbers of all these tribes, as 
well as a correct picture of their geographical distribution. 
He but confirms, in the latter case, the statements of his 
predecessors in the main, but he corrects them in details, 
and adds further information. According to him, the Pimas 
and Papagos numbered together 6,500 souls ; the Maricopas, 
2,500; the Yuma tribes on the Colorado, 5,500; the Mo- 
javes (whom he calls " Jamajabs"), 3,000; the Cocopas and 
other Indians settled on the lowest course of the Colorado, 
like the Comoyei, etc., 8,ooo. 2 He also names the Htiallapai 
and Yavipai for the first time as such, without attempting 
an estimate of their numbers. 3 Through him, also, we obtain 
a glimpse at the most northern Indians of Arizona, who in 

1 Sedelmair, Relation : " Su religion es ninguna; no tienen /dolos, ni adorato- 
rios, ni culto publico, aunque desde nuestras entradaspor nuestras predicaciones, 
tienen conocimiento del verdadero Dios. . . . hechiceros no faltaran entre ellos 
como lo hay entre todas estas naciones y son los que estorban mas la conversion, 
y uno de ellos me lo afirmo, y yo viendo en la pared de casa grande una cueva, 
meti mano y saque un bulto en forma de hombre, que lo queme delante de un 
monton de indios de Sudacson." 

2 Diario y Derrotero que sigtdo el M. K. P. Fr. Francisco Garces en su Viaje 
hecho desde Octnbre de 1775 hasta 17 de Setiembre de 1776, al Rio Colorado, etc. 
(Doc. Hist. Mejico, 2d series, vol. i. p. 350). 

3 Ibid., p. 351. He calls the Huallapai " Jagullapai," and the Yavipai are sub 
divided by him into Yavipaicajuala, Yavipai Cuercomache, Yavipai Jabesua, 
and Yavipai Muca Oraive. 



CALIFORI 

*BOEC 

INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST. 113 

point of fact but sporadically visited the territory, the Yutas. 1 
In addition to these, the Navajos roamed over the northeast, 
and claimed it as their soil. But since the Navajos belong 
with the Apaches, mention only can be made of them here, 
a fuller sketch being reserved for the proper place later on. 

Of the Tontos, or Gohunes, little, if any, notice is found 
in the documents of Spanish times. The tribe held the val 
ley of the Upper Rio Salado and the so called Tonto basin. 
Into these regions, which are difficult of access from the 
south, the Spaniards hardly penetrated, and the missionaries 
were busy with the Gila Pimas and with the tribes of the 
Colorado River. Still, Fathers Sedelmair and Keller both 
visited the banks of the Salado, which they baptized Rio de 
la Asuncion, and they also examined part of the Lower Rio 
Verde. 2 On his trip to the Moquis, Father Garces did not go 
through the wild and dangerous country between the Gila 
on the south and the Moqui plateaus. But he mentions the 
inhabitants of the valleys in that direction, around the Sierra 
Ancha, the Sierra Final, etc., as " Yavipais-Tejua." 3 They 
were enemies to the other Indians, who inclined in favor 
of Christianity. The Tontos already, then, seem to have 

1 Ibid., p. 351. As Payuchas and Yutas. 

2 Sedelmair, Relation : " Esta uno en su junta con el rio de la Asuncion, 
compuesto del Salado y Verde." The name " Rio de la Asuncion " applies 
therefore only to that part of the Salado below the mouth of the Rio Verde. 
In the year 1743, Father Ignatius Keller travelled through that region when he 
attempted to reach the Moquis : " De estas ranchen as [on the Gila] sale camino 
derecho para la provincia de Moqui hacia el Norte, pero tiene muy cerca al 
Oriente una sierra poblada de los enemigos apaches, que el ano 1743, salieron 
al padre Ignacio Keler de la Compania de Jesus cuando iba al Moqui, y le 
llebaron la caballada y volvio su reverencia con trabajo." 

3 Garces, Diario y Derrotcro, etc., p. 352: "El intermedio del Colorado y 
Gila, ocupan los yavipaistejua, y otros yavipais : al sur del Moqui son todos yavi- 
pais, que es lo mismo que apaches, donde se conoce el gran terreno que ocupa 
esta nacion." Ibid., p. 351 : " En el dia de hoy, todas las del rio Gila y Colorado 
estan en paz, y todas sus colaterales, menas los yavipaistejua enemigos de los 
pimas y cocomaricopas." 



114 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 

been classed with the Apaches, 1 as they were afterwards in 
the popular mind. Their idiom, however, is declared to be 
of Yuma stock by high recent authority. 

The extermination of the Tontos as a tribe is represented 
as having been an absolute necessity. Such may have been 
the case, but it is not to be forgotten that very little is known 
as to the manner in which it was accomplished. One thing 
however is certain, namely, that if the Spaniards had done 
it in the manner in which it is said to have been per 
formed, there would be a hue and outcry about "cruelty" 
and " treachery " over the whole civilized world. I have 
heard too many conflicting tales about the so called " Pinole 
treaties," and other incidents of the Tonto war, to venture 
any opinion of my own on the subject. But at any rate 
it is a dark and certainly interesting matter in the study of 
Anglo-American Indian policy. 

Longest, and above all best, known among the Indians of 
Arizona, are the Pueblo Indians of the north, the Moquis, or 
Shinumo. They were mentioned to Fray Marcos of Nizza 
in 1539, under the name of " Totonteac," -- a corruption of 
a Zuni term which applied to a cluster of twelve pueblos 
lying in the direction of Moqui, and already abandoned in 
the sixteenth century, but the reminiscence of which still 
remained in the name. 2 In 1540, one of Coronado s lieu- 

1 It is worth noticing that Father Garces clearly intimates that the Yavipai 
were the Apaches also. So, on page 355, he speaks of the Yavipai-Lipanes, 
Yavipais-Nataje, Yavipais-Navajai, and Yavipais-Gilenos. All these names are 
those of Apache tribes. 

2 The ruins of the villages whose name, as given by the Indians of Zuni in 
their idiom, has been corrupted into Totonteac, lie between Zuni and Moqui. 
It is interesting to note how the reports which Fray Marcos gathered in Sonora 
concerning the northern Pueblos frequently relate to events which had oc 
curred some time previous to his coming. Tribes were mentioned to him, like 
" Marata " and " Totonteac," who had ceased to exist, though the distant 
southern Indians had no knowledge of their disappearance. This is very in 
structive in regard to the value of historical tradition in point of chronology. 



INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST. 115 

tenants, Don Pedro de Tobar, visited the seven villages of 
Tusayan, a few days journey northwest or west of Zufii. 
There is not the slightest doubt that the Tusayan of Casta- 
neda is the Moqui of to-day. 1 The group consisted of seven 
pueblos, and that same number subsisted until the begin 
ning of the past century, when one of the seven disappeared, 
Ahuatu, 2 although it was promptly replaced by a village 
founded mostly by Tanos fugitives from New Mexico, and to 
which, in deference to the language there spoken, the name 
of Tehua has been given. 3 

Not much importance can always be attached to the 
numbers and names of Indian villages, according to Spanish 
sources of an older date. Thus, at the time of Coronado, the 
seven pueblos of Tusayan Moqui admit of no doubt. Forty 
years afterwards, the Asay or Osay of Chamuscado had, 

1 In addition to the abundant documentary evidence, Mr. Gushing has lately 
obtained from the Zufii Indians another and quite satisfactory proof of the iden 
tity of Tusayan with Moqui. Two of the largest Moqui villages were formerly 
called by the Zunis Usaya-kue, or people of Usaya. Hence T-usayan, the Asay 
and Osay of Chamuscado. 

2 Ahuatu, Aguitobi, Aguatuvi, or Ahuatuyba, was destroyed by the Moquis 
of Oraybe, in the year 1700. It existed in June of that year: Fray Juan 
Garaycoechea, Carta al Gobernador Pedro Rodriguez Cubero, June 9, 1700. In 
1701, Cubero made an unsuccessful expedition against the Moquis. Relacion 
Andnima de la Reconqtrista del Nuevo Mexico (MS. Sesto Cuaderno). The 
cause for this military movement is stated in the declaration of the New Mexican 
clergy, November 20, 1722, as follows (Autos y Parezeres dados p or Orden de Don 
Antonio Cobian Busto Visitador de los Presidios en la Tier r a adentro, MS.) : 
" Se mobio [Cubero] con las armas de este Rl Presidio a la venganza del estrago 
qe dhos apostatas executaron contra los Yndios del Pvio de Aguatubi de su 
misma Nazion, qe pacificos y combertidos a nra Sta Fee passaron a sangre y 
fuego las vidas bienes y alajas, del culto diuino de los miserables qe solo con la 
firmeza con qe se hallauan de nra Sta Fee sin otro motibo hizieron en ellos tan 
pernisiossos estragos." It appears, therefore, that Ahuatu was destroyed either 
towards the end of the year 1700, or in the beginning of 1701. 

8 The Tehua pueblo in the Moqui region was erected in the first years of the 
eighteenth century ; at any rate, between 1696 and 1706. It certainly existed at 
the latter date. Juan Roque Gutierrez, Junta de Guerra en el Paraje de los 
Chupaderos ; Camino para Moqui, October 4, 1706 (MS.). 



116 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 

according to the statements made to that explorer by Zuni 
Indians, he himself never visited the locality, only five. 1 
Two years later, Antonio de Espejo went among the Mohoce, 
who are the Moqui again, and he finds the same number of 
villages. 2 In 1599, when Juan de Onate received the formal 
allegiance of the Moquis, he mentions only four. 3 Six years 
later, Onate passed through the country on his way to the 
Colorado River, and his chroniclers record seven Moqui 
villages. 4 In 1680 only five are counted; 5 but ever since 
seven has been admitted as the real number, and there 
are indeed seven of them at this day. 

The Moquis are Pueblo Indians to all intents and purposes, 
their language excepted, which has been classed with the 
Shoshoni or Numa group of American idioms. 6 Nothing 
can be said about them, as they appeared in the past centu 
ries to the first European visitors, that does not apply to the 
New Mexican Pueblos also. The differences are purely local, 
and can at once be explained by physical causes. Thus, 
the Moquis raised cotton, whereas the Ztmis did not ; and 
the reason for it is found in the southerly exposure of the 
lands which the Moquis cultivate. 7 The blankets of rabbit 

1 Testimonio dado en Mexico sobre el Descubrimiento de Doscientos Leguas 
adelante de las Minas de Santa Bdrbola, etc., 1582 (Doc. de Itidias, vol. xv. 
pp. 86, 93). 

2 Relacion del Viage, p. 182. 

8 D is cur so de las Jornadas, p. 274. Obediencia y Vasallaje a su Magestad por 
los Indios de la Provincia de Mohoqui (Doc. de Indias, vol. xvi. p. 137). 

4 Zarate, Relaciones, par. 44. 

8 Vetancurt, Cronica, p. 321. In 1692, Diego de Vargas found only five. 
Relacion de la Reconquista, Primer Cuaderno, MS. 

6 As early as 1876, Mr. Gatschet, Zwolf Sprachen aus dem Sudwesten Nord 
Amerikas, p. 56, asserted : " Dass die Moquis Shoshonen sind, wird man mit 
ziemlicher Gewissheit den untenstehenden Zusammenstellungen entnehmen kon- 
nen." In his Classification, p. 412, he is more positive yet : " The Moqui lan 
guage is certainly Numa." 

7 That they cultivated cotton is amply proved. Castaneda, Cibola, p. 61, says 
that there was no cotton raised in Tusayan. But the Relacion del Suceso de la 



INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST. 117 

hair, which Fray Marcos was informed were made and worn 
at Totonteac, 1 were not exclusively Moqui ; the Zuilis made 
them also. There is one point, however, that attracts our 
attention in regard to the Moquis, and that is the feeling of 
coldness, not to say hostility, which prevailed between them 
and their nearest neighbors, the Zuni Indians. As early as 
the time of Coronado, the two clusters were not on good 
terms. 2 There was comparatively more intercourse between 
the Moqui and some of the Rio Grande Pueblos than between 
the Moquis and Zuni. Up to the present day this feeling, 
strengthened by events subsequent to the reconquestof i694, 3 
is very marked. Another curious fact, which may be de 
duced from the report of Fray Marcos, and which is corrob 
orated by Moqui and Zuni tradition, is the existence of a 
cluster of twelve pueblos inhabited by people of Moqui stock, 
the ruins of which villages exist to-day, and which have given 
rise to the name of Totonteac. We are led to infer in this 
case, as well as in that of the ancient villages at the salt 
marshes near Zuni, that the said cluster of twelve was aban 
doned but shortly before the sixteenth century. One of their 
number, Ahuatu, even remained occupied until the first half 
of the past century. These are among the few historical data 

Jornada que Francisco Vazquez hizo en el Descnbrimiento de Cibola (Doc. de 
Indias, vol. xiv. p. 321) says : " Los pueblos son algun tanto mnyores que los de 
Cibola, y en los demas, en comida y en todo son de una manera, salvo que estos 
coxen algodon." Zarate, Relaciones, par. 44. 

1 Fray Marcos de Nizza, Descubrimiento de las Siete Cindades, p. 338. 

* Castaneda, Cibola, p. 58 : " Car ils n avaient pas de rapports avec cette 
province." 

3 Not only were the relations between the Zunis and the Moquis very much 
strained by the attitude taken by the Moquis during the reconquest, but this 
tension brought about open hostilities. Francisco Cuerbo y Valdes, Orden 
al Cappn Dn Francisco Valdes Soribas sobra la Guerra contra los Moquis (MS., 
1706), says: " Entendiendo en la guerra defensiba que se ase alos reueldes y 
contumases apostatas de la dha Provinzia de Moqui quienes continuamente 
ynbadiendo ostillisando y ynfestando la dha Provinsia de Zuni." 



Il8 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 

that may be gathered from early Spanish records now at my 
disposal, ancl which relate to a period anterior to the coming 
of the white man. 

In the beginning of the seventeenth century, we find 
mention made of a tribe, now reduced to a few families that 
have sought shelter at the bottom of the abyss of Cataract 
Creek, one of the tributaries of the great Colorado, where 
they live in small permanent dwellings made of mud, stone, 
and wood. These village Indians of to-day are mentioned 
in former times as the merest savages. If the Cosninos, 
Cosninas, or Hava-Supay, as they are variously called, have 
progressed in culture while diminishing in numbers, it can 
only have been through force of circumstances. It would be 
an interesting illustration of how dire necessity may work 
upon the culture of a people. On a very small scale, it 
would recall the progress achieved at one time by the ancient 
Mexicans, when driven into the marsh or swamp called the 
" Lake of Mexico." The Cosninos appear to be kindred to 
the Moquis, although their language is classified with the 
Yuma group ; and the present condition of the Hava-Supay 
may therefore be but a " return to first principles," compelled 
by accident. At all events, it is very desirable to continue 
among them the researches begun by Mr. Cushing. 1 

I now pass to the Indians of New Mexico. The seden 
tary groups, the Pueblos par excellence, will first be con 
sidered. As already "stated, whatever is said in regard to 

1 The Cosninos are frequently mentioned by older authors. As to the origin 
of the name, Fray Francisco Garces, Diario, p. 352, says: " En los nombres de 
las naciones puede y suele haber muchas variacion, v. g. los cocomaricopas y 
jalchedunes, llaman a los jamajabs Cuesninas o Cuismers, y los demas Jama- 
jabs." This would imply that the Cosninas were Mojaves. But it is also sup 
posed that the language is Moqui, or at least of the same stock. Mr. Gatschet, 
however, than whom there is certainly no higher authority, classifies the Cos 
ninos among the Yuma tribes. Classification, p. 415. 



INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST. 119 

customs and habits of the New Mexican Pueblos, applies 
to the Moquis too, at least in a general way. Discrepancies 
of an important or interesting nature I shall call attention 
to if necessary. Furthermore, under the head of New Mexi 
can Pueblos, I include the remnants of New Mexican tribes 
now settled in Chihuahua and Texas, the Piros and the 
Tiguas. The Mansos will be treated of among the roaming 
Indians of New Mexico. 

In the first half of the sixteenth century, and until the great 
uprising of 1680, the villages or " pueblos" extended, or were 
scattered rather, on a line from Taos, in the extreme north, 
as far south as where San Marcial now stands, or a length of 
nearly two hundred and thirty miles. From east to west 
they spread from about longitude 105 30 (Taos, Pecos, and 
the pueblos south of the Salines or Manzano) to nearly 
110 3O / (the Moqui villages). Within the area thus defined 
the villages were scattered very irregularly, and in fact their 
inhabitants occupied and used but a small quantity of the 
ground. Extensive desert tracts often separated the groups, 
and these spaces were open to the roving Indians who prowled 
about in and between the permanent settlements, much to 
the detriment of their inhabitants. Thus, Acoma is separated 
from the Zuni group by at least seventy miles of waste, and 
the Navajos raided over this space at will, endangering com 
munications. From Acoma to the Rio Grande Tiguas, an 
other forty miles of desert intervened. Between the latter 
and the Tiguas of Cuaray, Chilili, and the Manzano, both 
groups of one and the same linguistical stock, the uninhab 
ited region is from thirty-five to forty miles wide, and here 
the Apaches could lurk and assault at any time. The Pu 
eblos, far from being masters of New Mexico previous to the 
coming of the Spaniards, were, on the contrary, hemmed in 
and hampered on all sides by tribes who, while not mere sav- 



120 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 

ages, were of wild habits, and, having no permanent abode, 
were swift in their movements, and, as we shall see further 
on, had a great advantage in number over the Pueblos. 

The Pueblos, besides, were not harmonious among them 
selves. Divided into seven distinct linguistic groups, the 
difference of languages created a barrier that often led to 
intertribal hostility. Moreover, there was not even unbroken 
peace between the villages of the same stock. 1 The villages 
of that time were on an average much smaller than those of 
to-day inhabited by Pueblo Indians, but there was a greater 
number of them. 2 The aggregate population of the pueblos 

1 I have already alluded to the unfriendly relations between Zuni and Moqui 
The reports of Fray Marcos about " Marata " afford another instance. Descubri- 
miento de las Siete Ciudades, p. 340: " Dice que a la parte del Sueste, hay un 
reino que se llama Marata, en que solia haber muchas y muy grandes pobla- 
ciones, y que todas tienen estas casas de piedra y sobrados, y questos han tenido 
y tienen guerra con el Senor destas siete cibdades, por la cual guerra se ha 
disminuido en gran cantidad este reino de Marata, aunque todavia esta sobre si 
y tiene guerra con estotros." The current Zuni tradition confirms this report. 
The ruins of the villages of " Ma-tya-ta," or " Ma-kya-ta," lie along the old 
trail leading from Ha-ui-cu to Acoma, and there are to-day according to 
Mr. Gushing, to whom I owe the knowledge of these facts descendants of 
their former inhabitants among the Zunis. Fray Marcos therefore reported on 
events which, at his time, had but lately occurred. Hernando de Alvarado saw 
these ruins in 1540 on his way to Pecos, and speaks of them in his Relation de 
lo que Hernando de Alvarado y Fray Joan de Padilla desciibrieron en Demanda de 
la Mar del Sur (Doc. de Indtas, vol. iii. p. 511). Evidence of actual hostilities, 
probably between Pueblos, is given by Caspar Castano de Sosa, Memoria del 
Descubrimiento que Caspar Castano de Sosa hizo en el Niievo Mexico (Doc, de Indias, 
vol. xv. p. 256) : " Y andando tomando la posesion de los dichos pueblos, fue por 
entre unas sierras donde hallo dos pueblos despoblados, respeto de que por guerra 
de otros habian dejado sus pueblos, como en efeto hera, porque otros indios que 
con nos iban nos lo dieron a entender, e lo vimos claro ser asi, por las muestras 
de muchas muertes que habia senales." 

2 Castaneda, Cibola, p. 172, enumerates 71 pueblos. Onate, Obedicncia y 
Vasallaje a Sit Magestad por los Indios del Pueblo de San Juan Baptista, (Doc. de 
Indias, vol. xvi. pp. 108-117,) more than one hundred, although several pueblos 
appear two or three times under different names. Benavides, Memorial, over 
eighty. This includes the period from 1540 to 1630. That the villages were 
small is stated by Castaneda, Cibola^ p. 146 : " Des villages de deux cents ames 



INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST. 121 

in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries did not exceed 
twenty-five thousand souls. 1 

au lieu de grancles villes, et tout au plus huit-cents ou mille habitants dans les 
plus grands villages." 

1 Castaneda, Cibola, p. 182: "Us peuvent renfermer environ vingt mille 
hommes a en juger par 1 apparence." The original has indeed "veinte mil 
hombres," but this evidently means, not men, but inhabitants, as the term 
"hombre" is also used in Spanish. This is clearly denoted by the passage above 
quoted from page 146. If only the largest towns had from 800 to 1,000 souls, 
there -is no possibility of a population of 70,000, which 20,000 male Indians 
would imply. The contemporaneous reports on Coronado s expedition, also, 
when speaking of Cibola, for instance, assign to its villages but a moderate 
population. Relacion Postrera de Sivola (from the Libra de Oro of Fray Toribio 
de Paredes, alias Motolinia, MS.) : " Son siete pueblos en esta provincia de 
Sibola en espacio de cinco leguas : el mayor sera de ducientas casas y otros dos 
de a ducientas, y los otros a sesenta y a cincuenta y a treinta casas." The term 
" casa " is to be taken in the sense of household, and not as an independent 
building. This results from Relacion del Suceso, p. 319: "Los pueblos son de 
a trescientas e docientas, e de a cien cincuenta casas ; algunos estan las casas 
de los pueblos todos juntos, aunque en algunos pueblos estan partidos en dos 
6 tres barrios ; pero la mayor parte son juntos y dentro sus patios." 

Antonio de Espejo has given a quite different idea of the former population 
of the New Mexican pueblos. If we sum up the number of souls attributed 
to them by him, we arrive at about a quarter of a million. Wherever we go 
into details, however, and compare his estimates for certain well known villages 
with the possibilities and the true conditions, or with other statements of older 
sources about them, it becomes clear how this otherwise acute observer was 
misled in his estimate of the numbers of the people. Thus, for instance, Acoma 
(Relacion del Viage, p. 179) is reckoned at "mas de seis mil animas," whereas 
Castaneda (Cibola, p. 69) says that it can place on foot about 200 warriors, and 
on the rock of Acoma there is, furthermore, not room for much over 1,000 people. 
The Pecos, or the Tamos, as he calls them, are credited with 40,000 (p. 185), but 
the pueblo of Tshi-quit-e, or the old Pecos village, shows that over 2,000 souls 
could never have lived in it. Indeed, Castaneda (p. 176) asserts that the people 
of Cicuye might place on foot 500 warriors all told. Such evidences of very gross 
exaggeration could be multiplied. Espejo has consistently exaggerated, but not 
intentionally. He was led astray by the appearance of the pueblos, most of 
which he saw at a distance, in the first place, and then still more by the custom 
of the Indians flocking to the place where strangers arrive, in great numbers, 
and remaining about these strangers so long as they are new and interesting 
visitors. Also out of suspicion. Wherever Espejo stopped, he found, not 
merely the inhabitants of that particular pueblo, but nearly the whole tribe, 



congregated, ai>^ft|aving once begun to form his estimates, he applied the same 
o yvefy? wlace. 



criterions to^ery? place. His figures are therefore to be absolutely rejected, 



122 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 

The distribution of the linguistic stocks was as follows. 
Beginning at the extreme north of New Mexico, we meet 

without invalidating thereby the exactitude of other parts of his valuable 
report. 

I am not in possession of official data emanating from Onate directly, and 
establishing the population of the pueblos about the year 1600, hut the investiga 
tions into his administration, made at the instigation of the Viceroy Conde de 
Monterey, contain some information at least on the ideas then prevalent on the 
subject. The factor Don Francisco de Valverde examined five witnesses on 
the subject. Memorial sobre el Descubrimiento del Nuevo Mexico y sus Aconteci- 
mientos, 1595 to 1602 (Doc. de Indias, vol. xvi. p. 210): " Uno dice que diez e 
seis mill indios ; otro, doce mill, para guerra y trabajo; otro treinta mill 6 
cuarenta mill ; y otro treinta mill ; y todos dicen sin mugeres y ninos al respeto." 
In regard to such statements the Viceroy very justly observes, Disctirso y Proposi 
tion que se hace a Vueslra Magestad de lo Tocante a los Desctibrimientos del Nuez o 
Mexico, 1602 (Doc. de Indicts, vol. xvi. p. 45) : " Se colige que realmente para 
labranza y crianza hay tierras y pastos aproposito ; y no es aquella tan esteril 
como la gente que se vino la pintaba, ni tan prospero como otros lo hacen y lo 
represento el Gobernador en las relaciones del ano de noventa y nueve, que algo 
mejor informado con mas moderacion escribe de esto, y con la misma hablan 
los suyos : aqui por donde se dexa de entender, que debe de ser cosa corta lo de 
alii. . . . Coligese tambien que hay razonable numero de indios." 

In 1630, Benavides gives an approximate enumeration of the Pueblos, and he 
figures their numbers at 70,000 about. Acoma appears in that list with 2,000. 
(Memorial, p. 32.) We know what to think of such an estimate; it is twice as 
much as the rock will hold conveniently. There are other equally glaring 
inaccuracies. On page 26, the Tehuas are credited with eight villages, whereas 
they had only seven. On page 33, the Zuni pueblos are set down at " eleven or 
twelve," whereas there were only half that number. The population of Taos, 
given at 2,000, is also vastly exaggerated. In short, the Memorial is, in many 
respects, a " campaign document." Its purpose was to induce the King to 
favor the Missions, to create a better impression of the missionaries than the 
Spanish government had at that time, after their constant quarrels with the 
Governors of New Mexico, and to obtain the establishment of a bishopric at 
Santa Fe. The latter fact is very plainly established in the Real Cednla of 
May 19, 1631, MS., in which the King, among other matters touching the pro 
posed establishment of an episcopal see, says : " Fray Franco de Sosa Comis- 
sario de Corte y Secreto General del orden de San Francisco se me ha hecho 
relacion, . . . y estan oy convertidos mas de quinientos mill Indios y de ellos 
bautizados mas de ochenta seis mill." This is said of New Mexico. 

The earliest actual census of the Pueblos which I know dates back to 1660. 
Vetancurt (Cronica, p. 314): "Pues el ano de 1660 se hizo padron general, en 
que se hallaron mas de veinticuatro mil personas, chicas y grandes, indios y 
espanoles." There were then about 1,000 Spaniards in all New Mexico, so that 



INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST. 123 

there the tribe of Taos, or Te-uat-ha, which, as far as ascer- 
tainable, lived then, as they do to-day, in a single large pueblo. 1 
Southwest of them about twenty miles stood, and stands 
to-day nearly on the same spot, the pueblo of Picuries, the 
aboriginal names of which are both Ualana and Ping-ul-tha. 2 
Both villages spoke the same idiom dialectically differentiated, 
the Tigua. 3 

A desert stretch of another thirty miles, about, separated 
Picuries from the next group of sedentary Indians, the Tehuas. 
Whereas both Taos and its neighbor, Picuries, are some dis 
tance away from the Rio Grande, in side valleys whose water 
courses are tributaries of that stream, the northern Tehuas 
cluster near the great river. Their most northerly village, 
San Juan de los Caballeros, or Oj-ke, lies about thirty miles 
southwest of Picuries, on the left river-bank. Then followed, 
when the Spaniards first came among them in 1541, Yuge- 
uing-ge, 4 now in ruins and its site occupied by .the little 

the number of Pueblo Indians was a little over 23,000. This corresponds very 
well with the statements of Castaneda, one hundred and twenty years previously. 

1 Taos is the " Braba " of Castaneda (Ctbola, p. 139). His description, 
taken from the reports of Francisco de Barrionuevo, is excellent, and can only 
apply to Taos: "II etait bad sur les deux rives du fleuve, que Ton traversait 
sur des ponts construits en madriers de pins, tres-bien equarris. L on vit dans 
ce village les etuves les plus gfandes et les plus extraordinaires de tout le pays." 
Further on, he says that Braba was the most northerly of all the pueblos (p. 182). 
No mention of Taos is found, as nobody visited it until 1598, when Onate went 
there on the I4th of July (Discurso, p. 257). But in this document, as well 
as in the Obediencia y Vasallctje, etc.de San Juan Baptista, (p. 114,) Taos is called 
a Province. It is also named Tayberon. In 1630, Benavides speaks of only 
one pueblo at Taos, and thus it appears in all posterior documents. 

2 Onate (Discurso, p. 257) mentions the "gran pueblo de los Picuries." 
Also Benavides. There was but one village of that tribe. 

8 Benavides, Memorial, p. 29. 

4 Yuge-uing-ge is the Yuque-yunque of Castaneda (Cibola, p. 138). The 
Tehuas occupied, says he, two pueblos on the Rio Grande, and four in the 
mountains. The four in the mountains may have included, in addition to the three 
mentioned further on, Cu-ya-mun-gue. The information is of course imperfect, 
as Barrionuevo had no intercourse with the people, who fled at his approach. 



124 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 

hamlet of Chamita, opposite San Juan ; on the right bank, 
Santa Clara, or Ka-po ; and a few miles lower down, San 
Ildefonso, or Po-juo-ge. Some six to nine miles eastward 
from the Rio Grande valley were three more Tehua vil 
lages : Pojuaque, or more properly Pozuang-ge ; Nambe, or 
Na-imbe ; and Tezuque, or Te-tzo-ge. The last named lay 
some eight miles north of the site where the settlement of 
Santa Fe was founded in I6O5. 1 

1 The date of the foundation of Santa Fe can as yet be but approximately 
determined, although it is certain that it cannot have taken place before April, 
1605. Onate returned to San Gabriel, or Chamita, where the Spaniards all 
resided, on the 25th of April, 1605, from his expedition to the Colorado of the 
West. The date is given by Zarate-Salmeron, Relaciones, par. 47. It is con 
firmed by the inscription on the Rock of the " Morro," or " Inscription Rock," 
which states that Onate passed through there on the i6th of April of the year 
" del descubrimiento de la Mar del Sur." Consequently, there was no settle 
ment at Santa Fe at that time. What has been said and published concerning 
the foundation of the present capital of New Mexico by Antonio de Espejo in 
1583, or by Coronado in 1540, or by an unknown founder in 1550, is devoid 
of all historical basis. Espejo founded no colony, could not found any with 
his little band of fourteen, and the propositions he subsequently made to the 
Crown for the settlement of New Mexico had in view the establishment of a 
post at Acoma, whereas the country of the Tanos, in which the site of Santa Fe 
was situated, is treated by him merely as one of the many ranges of sedentary 
tribes which might be brought under Spanish sway in course of time. Expe- 
diente sobre el Ofrecimiento que hace Francisco Diaz de Vargas, de ir al A T uevo 
Mexico, y refiere la Historia de este Descubrimiento (Doc. de Indias, vol. xv. 
pp. 156, 157) : "Y desde alii [from the Queres] ira a la provincia de Acoma, 
ques una pena alta que esta hacia el Norueste y en ella, poblados, mas de seis 
mil indios a donde hara hacer un fuerte y casa Real, entre la dicha provincia y 
un rio pequeno, donde mas comodidad le paresciere ; y se pondran alii los 
dichos cient hombres casados, y se hara de forma que aunque no sea necesario 
guerra, esten apercibidos para ello ; y a este fuerte han de venir las otras dos 
companias." The date of this proposal to the King is 1584. It was never 
carried out, as Espejo died soon after. W T hen Onate came, in 1598, he moved 
directly to San Juan, established his camp there, and proceeded to found San 
Gabriel, on the opposite bank of the Rio Grande (Discurso de las Jornadas, 
pp. 256, 263). It is abundantly proved, by documentary evidence, that from 
San Gabriel the camp and seat of government were moved to Santa Fe, and this 
appears to have been done in 1605. Fray Alonzo de Posadas, Informe al Rey 
(MS.) : " La villa de Santa-Fe . . . descubriola el ano de 1605 el Adelantado 
D. Juan de Onate, llevando en su compafiia algunos soldados y religiosos de 



INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST. 



125 



That site was deserted in the sixteenth century, the two 
pueblos of Tehua Indians that stood there once having been 
abandoned long previous to this date. Consequently an in 
terval or vacant space of some thirty miles separated the 
northern Tehuas from their southern kinsmen, the Ta-ge- 
uing-ge, or Tanos. 1 The nearest Tanos village to the locality 
of Santa Fe was then the Cienega, called by its inhabitants 
Tzi-gu-ma. It is twelve miles to the southwest. A few 
miles southeast of it was San Marcos, or Cua-ka. Both pue 
blos are in ruins. Twenty-two miles south of Santa Fe 
began the Galisteo group of Tanos villages, consisting of 
Galisteo or Ta-ge-uing-ge proper, of San Lazaro or I-pe-re, 
of San Cristobal or Yam-p -ham-ba, all of which clustered 
in a radius of ten miles on or about the Galisteo basin, and 
possibly the Pueblo Largo or Hishi. Whether any other of 
the ruins in that region were inhabited in the sixteenth cen 
tury I am unable to decide. But west and south of it the 
Tanos still dwelt in the village of Tung-ke, on the northern 
spurs of the Sandia range ; in one of the little pueblos whose 
site is known, but whose remains have disappeared, near the 
mining place called Golden ; in the small pueblos of O-ja-na 
and Ki-pa-na, near the hamlet of Chimal ; and finally at San 
Pedro, where the ruins of Ku-kua are still visible. 2 

Parallel with the Tanos settlements and skirting the course 
of the Rio Grande, the most easterly villages of the numerous 
(comparatively speaking, of course) Queres stock were scat- 
mi serafica religion, y por Presidente al padre predicador Fr. Francisco de 
Escobar." In 1606 Oiiate was at Santa Fe. Therefore it must have been 
founded in 1605. 

1 There is nowhere any mention of a pueblo at Santa Fe. There had been 
one formerly, as the ruins attest, but when the Spaniards came it was in ruins. 
These ruins are now almost obliterated, and they are not those of the so-called 
" oldest house," opposite the chapel of San Miguel. 

2 Both Ojana and Quipana are mentioned in the Obediencia de San Juan 
Baptista, p. 114. 



126 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 

tered on the banks of the river. Twenty-seven miles south 
west of Santa Fe is Cochiti, or Ko-tyi-ti. Three miles east 
of the stream, on the dangerous Galisteo Creek, was the old 
pueblo of Santo Domingo, or .Gui-pu-y, the predecessor of 
the village of to-day. On the same side, but directly on 
the river banks, stood Kat-ish-tya, the antecessor of the 
present San Felipe. This exhausts the list of the Rio 
Grande Queres, but farther west, along the Jemez River, the 
tribe inhabited several sites. There was the cluster of the 
Cia or Tzia towns, of which but one remains, 1 and old Santa 
Ana, or Ta-ma-ya. 2 

North of Cia began the range of another linguistic group, 
that of Jemez. Until the first half of the seventeenth cen 
tury, the Jemez inhabited a number of pueblos along the 
upper course of their stream, and on the towering mesas 
which skirt its headwaters. There was Guin-se-ua, where 
the famous hot springs of San Diego issue from the rock, 
and the old church stands in its ruined and picturesque 
beauty. There was Amo-xium-qua, on the mesa above the 
mouth of the great gorge, Asht-ia-la-qua, on the very point 
of the table mountain overlooking the valley, and others 
besides. The number of these which were inhabited simul 
taneously in the sixteenth century is variously stated, but 
the probability is that there were ten, scattered along the 

1 The present village of Cia is surrounded by ruins of old pueblos formerly 
inhabited by the same stock. In 1540, Castaneda mentions but one village ; but 
Espejo in 1582 says (Relation del Viage, p. 178), "hallamos otra provincia que 
Hainan los Punames, que son cinco pueblos, que la cabecera se dice Sia." 
Onate, in Obediencia de San Juan (p. 115), mentions only "el gran pueblo de 
Tria." When the smaller villages were abandoned, I am unable to determine 
as yet. 

2 The first pueblo of Tamaya stood near the " Mesa del Cangelon," and 
far from the mouth of the Rio de Jemez. The historic pueblo, that was 
stormed by Pedro Reneros de Posada in 1687, was on the summit of what is 
called to-day the " Mesa de Santa Ana." This was the one, probably, which 
Ofiate alludes to in his papers. 



INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST. 127 

Jemez River from San Diego in the north to near Cia in 
the south. 1 

The Jemez group of villages is the most distant one west 
from the Rio Grande in the latitude of Santa Fe. In a 
straight line, it lies nearly thirty miles from the great New 
Mexican artery. Strange to say, another branch of the same 
linguistic stock, speaking the identical idiom, was met with 
about forty miles east of the Rio Grande, and southeast of 
the present capital. These were the Pecos, with their large 
pueblo, the most populous one in New Mexico or Arizona, 
whose ruins were described and figured in the first series 
of American papers published by the Institute. 2 Tshi- 
quit-e, or Tzi-quit-e, according as the sounds are clearly 
or less clearly pronounced by the Indians of Jemez or the 
remaining Pecos, is the Ci-cuic, Ci-cui-ye, A-cuique, of 
Coronado and his chroniclers. 3 It was separated from its 
kinsmen in the west by two linguistic groups, distinct from 
each other and from the Jemez, the Queres, and the 
Tanos, or southern Tehuas. This is an interesting fact in 
New Mexican ethnography, and even in pre-documentary 

1 Castaneda (Cibola, p. 138) speaks of seven Jemez villages. Espejo 
(p. 179) gives the same number. Onate (Discnrso, p. 261): "A quatro, baja- 
mos a otros pueblos de los emmes, que por todos dicen, son honce, vimos los 
ocho. ... A cinco, bajamos al hultimo pueblo de la dicho provincia, y vimos 
los maravillosos banos calientes que manan en muchas partes y tienen singu- 
lares maravillas de naturaleza, en aguas frias y muy calientes, y muchas minas 
de piedra azufre y de piedra alumbre." In 1626, Zarate (Relaciones, par. in) 
mentions the pueblos of Amoxunque (Amo-shium-qua), and Quiumzique (Guin- 
se-ua). The pueblos of the Jemez were abandoned after 1622, and resettled 
previously to 1627. Benavides, Memorial, p. 27. Vetancurt, Menologio, p. 76. 

2 Report on the Aboriginal Ruins in the Valley of the Rio Pecos, 1881. 

3 The name "Aquiu," or " Paequiu," which I heard given to the Pecos 
in the year 1880, is " Pae-quiua-la." It applies to the Pecos tribe, but the 
proper name of the great village that Coronado saw, and where the old church 
was in the beginning of the seventeenth century, is " Tshi-quit-e," or " Tzi- 
quit e." I have this information direct from the Pecos Indians living to-day at 
Jemez, some of whom dwelt in the old village up to 1840. 



128 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE, 

history. The Pecos declare that they came into their valley 
from the southeast, but that they originated in the north, 
and shifted across the Rio Grande. The Jemez say that 
their origin was in the northeast, whence they slowly drifted 
into the Jemez valley. Probably more than one village was 
inhabited by the Pecos three hundred years ago. It is not 
unlikely that the ruins at " Las Ruedas " (Rowe), and at 
"El Gusano " (Fulton), are those of smaller villages, possi 
bly contemporaneous with the large pueblo of Pecos. 1 

It is certain that along the Pecos River, below its upper 
valley, there were no inhabited pueblos in the sixteenth cen 
tury. In 1590, Caspar Castaiio de Sosa travelled up the 
whole length of the Rio Salado, as the Pecos was then called, 
to above Anton Chico, and he did not find the slightest 
traces of human occupancy on either bank. West of it, and 
south of both Galisteo and Pecos, a string of small villages, 
which extended from east to west over to the Rio Grande, 
were visited by the explorer. These appear to have been 
the Tanos villages already mentioned. 2 South of them, on 
the east side of the Cordillera which runs at some distance 
east of and parallel with the Rio Grande, began the settle 
ments of the Tiguas, with their pueblos of Chilili, Ta-ji-que, 

1 The fact of their having been inhabited in 1540 is yet in doubt. The Pecos 
Indians assert that they were not, and that they had been abandoned previously 
to the " first conquest." But Espejo (Relation, p. 185) mentions three pueblos 
of the Tamos. That the Tamos were the Pecos is proved by the same authority 
when he says (p. 186) : "Y medio legua de un pueblo de la dicha provincia, 
llamado Cicuique, hallamos un rio, el cual nombre de las Vacas, respeto que 
caminando por el seis jornadas, como treinta leguas, hallamos gran cantidad 
de vacas de aquella tierra." Onate (Discurso, p. 258) . " Al gran pueblo de 
los Peccos, y es el que Espejo llama la provincia de Tamos." The aboriginal 
names of the villages at Rowe and Fulton are, respectively, the Pueblo de las 
Ruedas, or Kuuang Ua-la, and Se-yu Pae-la. 

a It is very difficult at the present time to identify the numerous pueblos 
visited by Castano. Compare Memoria del Descitbrimiento, pp. 221-253. Some 
are of course easily recognized, like San Cristobal, San Marcos, etc. From these 
it may be possible to locate many of the others. 



INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST. 129 

Manzano (of which I have not yet been able to find the 
aboriginal name), and Cua-ray. These towns ranged along 
the west and southwest of the salt marshes ; it seems that 
they were not the only ones inhabited by the Tiguas in that 
vicinity, as their number is variously stated from " many " 
to a half-dozen. The latter number is probably correct. 1 

The same feature which I have noted in regard to the 
Jemez, namely, a division of the stock into two geographically 
distinct groups, repeats itself with the Tiguas. Not only do 
we find a northern, or Taos and Picuries cluster, and a 
southern one divided from the former by a distance of nearly 
one hundred and fifty miles and by the tribes of the Tehuas, 
Tanos, and Queres, but of the southern Tiguas there were 
also two clusters, those around the Salines, already mentioned, 
and on the Rio Grande, in the most fertile part of its valley, 
the series of Tigua pueblos called by Coronado " Tiguex " 
(which is the correct Indian pronunciation of the word, as 
it may still be heard to-day), beginning at Bernalillo in the 
north, and extending as far as the present village of Tshya- 
ui-pa, or Isleta. 2 On this stretch there were, close by the 

1 I am only positive about three, Tajique, Chilili, and Cuaray. Of the 
Manzano, I have not as yet been able to find anything reliable. There are 
vestiges of Indian remains there, but I do not know if they belonged to the 
communal or to the small house type. During my stay at Manzano in 1883 
the ground was covered with deep snow. 

2 This extent of territory, or this stretch, includes both the Tiguex and the 
Tutahaco of Castaneda; unless, indeed, the latter were the northern Piros, which 
extended certainly as far north as " La Joya," or Sevilleta. I have identified, in 
Historical Studies among the Sedentary Inhabitants of New Mexico, the location of 
Tiguez more properly and specially with the vicinity of Bernalillo. Notwith 
standing adverse opinions, I am more than ever convinced of the correctness 
of this view. In addition to the evidence there adduced, I can quote the testi 
mony of Espejo, Kelacion del Viage, p. 175. Speaking of Puaray, where the 
two monks had just been killed, and which pueblo stood directly opposite the 
present town of Bernalillo, he states: "A donde hallamos relacion muy verda- 
dera ; que estubo en esta provincia Francisqo Vazquez Coronado y le mataron 
en ella nue ve soldados y cuarenta caballos, y que por este respeto habia asolado 



130 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 

river-side, ten or twelve towns, mostly small, the most cele 
brated of which became the one called Pua-ray, or village of 
the worms or insects. 1 Where Bernalillo stands to-day, there 
were probably two ; there was one called Na-fhi-ap, 2 which 
is the present aboriginal name of the pueblo of Sandia, 
another one near " Los Corrales," and several as far down as 
the vicinity of Isleta. 3 South of that place, and almost 
touching the lands of the Tiguas, began the range of the 
Piros, which reached as far south as San Marcial, and con 
sisted of "at least ten settlements in sight of the river bank. 
Conspicuous among them were Alamillo, 4 north of Socorro, 
Pil-a-bo, on the site of Socorro itself, 5 and Se-ne-cu, whose 
ruins are now covered by the village of San Antonio. 6 San 

la gente de un pueblo desta provincia, y destos nos dieron razon los naturales 
destos pueblos por senas queentendimos." This corresponds exactly with what 
Castaneda (Cibola, vol. i. chap, xv.) relates concerning events at " Tiguex." 

1 The site of Puaray is well known to the Indians of Sandia. It is further 
more .established by documentary evidence. Vetancurt (Crbnica, p. 312) places 
it " cerca de una legua de Zandia, a la orilla del rio." Venta real del Capitanjuan 
Gonzalez, 1711 (MS.). 

2 Napeya, Obedienda de San Juan, p. 115. 

3 Near the Mesa de las Padillas. Where Albuquerque now stands, there 
appear to have been no villages ; but farther south, on the right bank, there 
were several, like Hyem Tu-ay on the Mesa de los Padillas, and Be-jui Tu-uy, 
or the village of the Rainbow, near Los Lunas. 

4 Alamillo was a conspicuous pueblo as late as 1680. It was then abandoned, 
the inhabitants scattering, and in part removing to El Paso with the Spaniards, 
on the latter s retreat from Santa Fe. 

6 The name of Pilabo, for the old pueblo on the site of the present town of 
Socorro, is taken from Benavides (Memorial, p. 16) : "el otro en el Pueblo 
Pilabo, a la Virgen del Socorro." On the other side of the Rio Grande, nearly 
opposite Socorro, or probably at what is called "El Pueblito de la Panda," in 
front of "El Barro," there was a pueblo called " Tey-pana." Onate (Discurso, 
p. 251) : " Dormimos frontero de Teipana, pueblo que llamamos del Socorro. 
Onate was travelling up the left bank of the Rio Grande. 

6 The village of San Antonio de Senecu was the first mission founded on the 
southern Rio Grande on New Mexican soil. According to Vetancurt (Crom ca, 
p. 309), it was established in 1630. Its founder was the Capuchin Fray Antonio 
de Arteaga. Benavides (Memorial, p. 15) places the foundation of the mission 
as early as 1626. It was abandoned, and the pueblo destroyed, in the year 



INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST. 131 

Marcial stands on or very near the place where the most 
southerly pueblo inhabited in the sixteenth century was 
found. It was the village of Tre-na-quel. 1 It is worthy of 
remark, that here the many-storied, honeycombed, large com 
munal house reaches its meridional limits. 

But the Piros also had crept up towards the coveted salt 
lagunes of the Manzano. The picturesque valley of A-bo, 
northeast of Socorro, contained at least two of their villages, 
A-bo proper, and Ten-a-bo, probably the ruin called to-day 
" El Pueblo de los Siete Arroyos." Lastly, still east of it, 
at the foot of the Mesa de los Jumanos, there was Ta-bir-a, 
now famous under the misleading surname of " La Gran 
Quivira." It lay very near the range of the New Mexican 
Jumanos, so that it is not unlikely that the Pueblo de los 
Jumanos, mentioned as a Piros village, is but another name 
given to Tabira. 2 

1675, on tne 2 3^ f January. The Apaches pounced upon it, killing the priest, 
Fray Alonzo Gil de Avila, and many of the people. The remainder fled to 
Socorro or to El Paso. Martin de Solis Miranda, Parecer del Fiscal Real (MS., 
1676) : " Yal Pe. Fr. Alonzo Gil de Avila, Ministro del Pueblo de Zennecu en el 
dia 23 de Enero del ano pasado de 1675." Fray Juan Alvarez, Carta al Gobernador 
Francisco Cuerbo y Valdes, 28th April, 1705 (MS.): " Tembien el pueblo de 
Senecu, mattaron al Pe. For Fr. Alonzo Gil de Avila, y destruieron lo mas de 
la gentte indiana." 

1 Onate (Discurso, p. 240) says that the second pueblo after passing the 
" mesilla de guinea, por ser de piedra negra," was Qualacu. This black mesa 
is that of San Marcial, a very conspicuous object in that region for any one 
coming up the river or through the " Jornada del Muerto." In Obediencia de 
San Juan (p. 115), he speaks of "Trenaquel de la mesilla, que es la primera 
poblacion de este Reyno, hacia la parte del Sur y Nueva Espana." 

2 Of these three, or four pueblos, it is only known that they were aban 
doned between 1670 and 1680, probably about 1675 or a little previously. The 
descendants of their inhabitants to-day live at Senecu in Chihuahua. Of the 
cause of their abandonment there is but one report, namely, that the Ap^aches 
compelled the people to leave. Fr. Juan Alvarez (Carta, MS.) places the loss 
of the six pueblos of the Salines immediately before the slaughter at Senecu, 
and after the massacre at Hauicu in 1672. Fray Silvestre Velez de Escalante 
(Carta al Padre Morfi, 1778, par. 2) mentions the event as follows: " Pocos 
anos antes de la dicha sublevacion, destruyeron los enemigos apaches con casi 



132 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 

West of the Rio Grande, and towards Arizona, we find but 
two groups of Pueblo Indians, isolated from the others, as 
well as from each other, by long distances. I have already 
named the celebrated rocky retreat of A-co, or Aco-ma, the 
Hacus of Fray Marcos and the Acuco of Coronado. 1 Im 
pregnable to Indian assault, Acoma might well remain alone 
in the vast solitude surrounding the basin from which the 
rock arises, and its people need have no fear of the hostile 
Navajos so long as they did not descend from the stronghold 
to attend to their crops. The Acomas are Queres, and there 
was no other settlement of the same language nearer than 
Cia, 2 a distance of seventy miles. The same distance sepa- 

continuas invasiones, siete pueblos de los cuarenta y seis dichos : que fueron 
Chilili, Tafique y Quarac, de indios Tehuas ; Abo, Jumancas y Tabira de Tum- 
piros, todos los cuales estaban en la falda oriental de la sierra de Sandia, menos 
dos que estaban distantes de dicha sierra hacia las Salinas." Of these, it seems 
that Cuaray or Quarac fell first. Dilixencias practicadas sobre la Solizitud de el 
Cuerpo del venerable Padre Fray Gerommo de la Liana, 1759 (MS., fol. 2, 5). 
The people fled to Tajique. Those of the Piros villages retired to Socorro and 
Alamillo, or to El Paso, for safety. 

The chief interest, historically, centres in the ruins called "La Gran Quivira." 
There is no doubt that they simply are the remains of the pueblo of Tabira. 
The name of Quivira was given to them in the latter part of the past century in 
consequence of a misunderstanding. The mission at Tabira was founded, and 
the older and smaller of the two churches built, by Fray Francisco de Acevedo, 
between r625 and 1644. Vetancurt, Menologio, p. 260. The large church and 
convent are posterior to that date, and were evidently never, used, not even 
finished. There were Indians (Piros) from Tabira at El Paso in 1684. Causa 
Criminal por Denunciation de Andres Jopita (MS., p. 4). 

Whether the pueblo " de Jumanos " was the same as Tabira it is difficult to 
determine. I suspect it to have been the same. In the document entitled, 
Confessiones y Declaraciones de varios Indios de los Pueblos del A T tievo Mexico, 1683, 
(MS. fol. 6,) there is the deposition of an Indian calling himself Juan, and " de 
nacion piro natural del pueblo de Jumanos en el Nuebo Mexico." There was one 
Jumano village, if not more, but this particular one strikes me as being possibly 
a surname given to Tabira, owing to the latter being situated on the southern 
declivity of the " Mesa de los Jumanos." 

1 The origin of these two words is the Zuni name for Acoma, Ha-ku Kue. 

2 The pueblo of Laguna was founded in 1699. Fee Relacion de la Recon- 
quista (Sesto Cuaderno). That the site of the actual pueblo of Laguna was 
vacant previous to that date is amply proved. 



INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST. 133 

rated them from Zuni, and the latter spoke an idiom distinct 
from the Queres language. 

Zuni, as is well known by this time through the investi 
gations of Mr. Gushing, was the Cibola of old. Until after 
1680, the tribe inhabited several villages, whose inhabitants 
were finally concentrated into the actual pueblo called Ha- 
lo-na by its people. The " seven cities of Cibola " were 
Ha-lo-na, on the site of the present one ; Kia-ki-ma, in a recess 
on the south of the gigantic mesa ; the village where the 
negro Estevan was killed, 1 Ma-tza Ki, on the northern base of 
the same mesa ; Pin-a-ua, three miles southwest of the actual 
Zuni ; Ha-ui-cu, or Aguas Calientes (Zuni hot springs), fifteen 
miles southwest of Zuni also ; and Chan-a-hue, in the same 
vicinity. The name of the seventh I am as yet unable to 
give. That last village (so much appears to be certain) was 
abandoned between 1542 and I58o. 2 After 1604, and prior 
to 1680, three more pueblos of the Zuni cluster were aban 
doned, and when the rebellion broke out the tribe was hud 
dled together in three pueblos only ; to wit, Halona, Mat- 
zaqui, and Kyakima. 3 After the reconquest, Halona alone 
remained. 

1 This tradition was recorded by Mr. F. H. Gushing. 

2 Since writing the above, I have made another trip to Zuni, and, guided by 
Mr. Gushing, have again examined the question of the seven cities of Cibola. 
Mr. Gushing has elicited fresh information from the Indians, and has led me to 
other localities. The following pueblos appear now fully identified, Hauicu, 
Halona, Kyakima, Matzaqui, Chyanaue. Pinaua and Quakyina appear both 
equally probable, but neither is absolutely certain as far as identity with the 
Aquinsa of Onate, Obediencia y Vasallaje par los Indios de la Provincia de Agus- 
cobi (Doc. de Indias, vol. xvi. p. 133). As to the seventh, the Indians of Zuni 
assert that there is a chapel in ruins at Ketchip-a-uan. In that case, the latter 
pueblo would have been occupied after 1629, when the Zuni missions were 
founded, and Pinaua or Cuakyina would be the one that was abandoned between 
1 540 and 1 580. 

3 Vetancurt, Cronica, p. 320. He includes Hauicu in his list also, and says it 
contained over one thousand souls, including the population of " other smaller 
villages." But Hauicu had been sacked by the Navajos in the year 1672, on 



134 ARCH&OLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 

It has been the custom to give the name of " Old Zuni " 
to a group of small and ruined pueblos which lie on the 
summit of the great mesa called by the Indians " Thun 
der Mountain " (To-yo-a-la-na). The idea has arisen, con 
sequently, that the six villages on that formidable table 
height were the original ones of the Zunis. This is an 
error, for the pueblos on the top of Toyoalana were built 
after 1680 and previous to 1692 during the interregnum 
succeeding the withdrawal of the Spaniards from New Mex 
ico, and while the Pueblos, left to their fate, were often 
sorely pressed by the Navajos and Apaches. Thunder Moun 
tain, thus much appears certain, besides being the site of 
important folk-lore and consequently the centre of many re 
ligious performances, was the place of refuge, the citadel 
or safety place, for the people of Zuiii. It was but little 
fortified, some parapets of rocks along the most accessible 
parts of its brink or rim being the only attempts at strength 
ening the naturally almost impregnable position. The Span 
iards never took it by force of arms, never stormed it, as 
they did Acoma in 1599. Three times, according to the 
records within my reach, did the Zuni flee to the plateau 
of the gigantic mesa within the course of two centuries, and 
each time they were induced to return to the basin below, 
in a peaceable manner. 1 

the 7th of October (Miranda, Patecer, MS.), and was not permanently occupied 
any longer. 

1 That Toyoalana was a point of refuge, a citadel, for the Zunis in case of 
urgent necessity, is recognized as early as 1540. Traslado de las Nuevas y 
Noticias que dieron sobre el Descobrimiento de tina Cibdad que llamaron de Cibola 
situada en la Tierra Nueva (Doc. de Indias, vol. xix. p. 532) : " Y que a xix del mes 
de Julio pasado, fue quatro leguas de esta Ciudad a ver un penol, donde le dixe- 
ron que los Yndios desta provincia se hacian fuertes." It is not stated whether 
the Zunis retreated to Thunder Mountain at the time of Coronado, but they 
certainly did so about 1630, after they had murdered Fray Francisco 4-etrado and 
Fray Martin de Arvide. Autos y Traslados de Autos sobre las Misiones de Zuni, 
1636 (MS., fol. i) : " For quanto los yndios del penol de caquima de la prouyca 



INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST. 



35 



Of the pueblos of the Moquis I have already spoken, but 
it may not be superfluous to return to them, their numbers 
and names, again. There were seven villages of Tusayan, 
five of Asay, five of Mohoce, and Onate mentions by name 
only four in 1598, but found seven six years later. Up to 
1680 the following can be recognized : A-hua-tu, Gualpi, 
Oraybi, and Mishongop-avi. 1 The names of the others are 
so distorted that I do not venture to mention them. In the 
year 1700, Ahuatu was destroyed by the Moquis of the 
other pueblos, who hated those of Ahuatu for their loyalty 
to the Spaniards. The Tehua village took its place in the 
list of the seven. In 1782, the names of the seven Moqui 
pueblos as given are very similar to those current to-day, 
and in most cases identical. 2 

The total number of pueblos, as stated in the sixteenth and 
in the seventeenth centuries, does not at all agree with that 
number as it stands at the present time. It is much larger, 
and varies from forty-six (Escalante, from reports at the 
time of the rebellion) to over one hundred (Onate, in the 
Acts of Submission of 1598). The latter number is exagger 
ated, mainly from one cause. The names of the villages 

de cuni qe se abian alsado en tiempo del gen. don Franco de Silua los quales 
yndios, don Franco de la Mora qe susedio en el gouierno los dejo de paz, la 
qual siempre an conservado desde qe enbio el dho don Franco de la Mora al 
mro de campo Thomas de Albisu y subieron los religiosos qe yvan con el dho 
mro de campo al penol con algunos soldados." Carta del Cabildo de Santa-Fe 
a Don Antonio de Otermin, 5th October, 1680 (MS., in Diario de la Salida de 
Otermin para El Paso del Norte, p. 71 ). 

Again they fled to the mesa after 1680, and Diego de Vargas found them 
there in 1692, and for the third time they took refuge on the inaccessible height 
in 1703, after having killed three Spanish soldiers. 

1 Vetancurt, Cronica, p. 321. 

2 Fr. Agustin Morfi (Description Geograjica, fol. 112) mentions Moqui, 
Tanos, Gualpi, Mosasnabi, Xipaolabi, Xongopabi, and Oraybe. Fr. Francisco 
Garces (Qiario, p. 352) : " Los nombres de los pueblos del Moqui son (segun 
lengua de los yavipais) Sesepaulabe, Masagneve, Janogualpa, Muqui, Concabe 
y Muca a quien los Zunis llaman Oraive." 



136 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 

are given, and frequently the same one is repeated in more 
than one idiom. This was a source of error against which 
it was impossible for the Spaniards to guard. Unacquainted 
with the native tongues, and having but one set of inter 
preters, they recorded every name given, and it was difficult 
for the Indians to make themselves understood in case when, 
as at Santo Domingo and at San Juan, there were three and 
four linguistical stocks represented at the council. 1 The 
list of Onate must be considerably reduced, also, in view of 
the more accurate numbers of Castaneda, who gives the 
number of villages at seventy-one, exclusive of those of the 
Salines. 2 The average population of each did not exceed 
three hundred souls, a fact which derives additional confirma 
tion from surveys of over three hundred ruins in the whole 
Southwest. In placing the original pueblo population at 
twenty-five thousand, we are near the limits of truth, and do 
not overstep them. 3 

Political autonomy of each pueblo even complete in 
dependence from its nearest neighbor of the same stock, to 

1 Obediencia y Vasallaje por los Indios de Santo Domingo, p. 102. Obed. de 
San Juan, p. 109. In the former, we clearly recognize the Queres, Tiguas, 
Jemez, and possibly the Piros. In the latter, it is stated : " Ayunto los indios 
capitanes de las provincias de los Chiguas y Puaray de los Cherechos, de los 
Teguas, de los Pecos, de los Picufies y de los Taos." 

2 No mention is made of those villages. It was Chamuscado who, in 1581, 
first visited them. 7 J eslimonio Dado, p. 86: "Y alii tubieron nueva de unas 
salinas que estaban catorze leguas del dicho pueblo, las cuales fueron a ver y 
hallaron que estaban detras de una sierra, que llamaron Sierra Morena, las 
cuales son las mejores que se han descubierto hasta hoy, . . . y junto a estas 
salinas se vieron otros muchos pueblos y estuvieron en ellos, los cuales tenian la 
traza que los demas ; y les dieron nuevas de otros tres pueblos que bigurficaban 
los naturales ; estan cerca de las dichas salinas y ser muy grandes." 

3 In 1680, the Cabildo of Santa Fe (Carta a Otermin, MS., fol. 9) estimates 
the number of the Pueblo Indians in New Mexico who were implicated in the 
uprising at over 16,000 : " Y el numero de todo el gentio de naturales que hoy 
se halla en el Nuevo Me xico de los Apostatas alzados, no es tan corto que no 
pase de 16 mil almas." 



INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST. 137 

such a degree that it led not infrequently to hostilities 
was the condition of the Pueblos when the Spaniards first 
visited them, and it remains thus to the present day, with 
the difference that intertribal warfare was not further tol 
erated as soon as the villagers became subjects of the King 
of Spain. The government of each village was vested in 
the council, and the execution of that council s decrees was 
intrusted to two sets of officers, civil and military, both 
elective. At the head of the former was the equivalent of 
the Governor of to-day, and there are traces of his assist 
ants or lieutenants. Public crying was the manner in which 
everything of import was promulgated and made known. 
The Governor is called " Cacique " in the early reports, and 
is not to be confounded with that strange office to which the 
title of Cacique is now erroneously given. 1 

* 

1 Although there is no doubt about these facts, I will nevertheless give the 
authorities on which my statements are based. Too much of an antiquated ter 
minology is still lingering in regard to the organization of the Pueblos, and I 
hold it proper to prove that I am not setting forth assumptions under the guise 
of facts. Beginning with the time of Coronado, we find in Castaneda (Cibola, 
p. 61), speaking of the Moquis and Zunis: " Ces Indians sont gouvernes, comme 
ceux de Cibola, par un conseil de vieillards. Us ont des gouverneurs et des 
capitaines." On page 164, he partly contradicts himself in regard to Zuni : " II 
n y a pas de caciques reguliers, comme a la Nouvelle Espagne, ni de conseils de 
vieillards. Us ont des pretres qui prechent, ce sont des gens ages ; ils montent 
sur la terrasse la plus elevee du village et font un sermon au moment ou le 
soleil se leve. Le peuple s assied a 1 entour et garde un profond silence ; ces 
vieillards leu/ donnent des conseils sur leur maniere de vivre; je crois meme 
qu ils ont des commandements qu ils doivent observer." And on page 168, as to 
the other pueblos of New Mexico : " Toutes ces provinces ont les memes mreurs 
et les memes coutumes. . . . Elles sont gouvernees par un conseil de vieillards." 
Espejo, Relation del Viage, p. 173 : " Tienen en cada pueblo sus caciques conforme 
a la gente que hay en cada pueblo ; asi hay los caciques, y dichos caciques 
tienen su tequitatos que son como alguaciles que executan en el pueblo lo que 
estos caciques mandan, ni mas ni menos que la gente mexicana ; y en pidiendo 
los espanbles a los caciques de los pueblos cualquier cosa, llaman ellos a los 
tequitatos y los tequitatos publican por el pueblo, a voces, lo que piden y luego 
acuden con lo que se les manda, con mucha brevedad." Juan de Onate, Carta 
escripta al Virrey Conde de Monterrey, March 2, 1599 (Doc. de Indias, vol. xvi. 



138 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 

War captains, also elective, and commanded by the council, 
to a certain limit and extent at least, formed the military 
executive. 1 There is no trace of military confederacies after 
the manner of the Iroquois and Nahuatl leagues, and there 
were no higher captaincies than those for each pueblo. 
If the tacit agreement that still to-day prevails among the 

p. 308) : " Su gobierno, behetria, que aunque tienen algunos capitancillos, 
obedecenles nuiy mal y en muy pocas cosas." Caspar de Villagran, Hisioria de 
la Nueva Mexico, 1610 (Canto xv. fol. 139) : 

" No tiene ley, ni Rey, ni conozemos, 
Que castiguen los vicios ni pecados. 
Es toda beherria no ensenada, 
A professar justicia, ni tenerla." 

Benavides, Memorial, p. 39 : " Siempre ha sido gente de gouierno y republica, 
juntandose los viejos con el Capitan major, a conferir y dicernir las cosas que 
les conuenian, y despues de determinadas salia el Capitan mayor personalmente 
pregonando por el pueblo lo que se mandaua, y esta es aun oy accion de grande 
autoridad pregonar los Capitanes mayores lo que se ha de hazer en el pueblo." 
Thus far eyewitnesses of the early times of Spanish occupation or contact. 
But there is evidence from sources whose authors never visited the Pueblos, 
and who report from the statement of eyewitnesses. 

Fray Juan de Torqueinada, who wrote about 1612, says, in Monarchia Indiana 
(2d ed., 1723, lib. v. cap. xl. p. 681): " De los Oficios de la Republica, es el 
primero el Mandon, a quien dan mano, para que mande en lo que es Govierno : 
Y despues de el, el que pregona, y avisa las cosas, que son de Republica, y que 
se han de hacer en el Pueblo. Demas de estos dos, tienen Capitanes para la 
Pesca, para el Monte, para la Ca9a, y para las Obras ; y a cada cosa que de 
nuevo les piden, o imponen, se juntan en vna Estufa grande, que tienen de 
Comunidad (como Sala de Cabildo) y de alii sale acordado lo que han de hacer, 
6 responder." A more accurate statement of affairs, and one more analogous 
to the present organization of the pueblos, could hardly be desired. 

The term " Cacique " was applied in the beginning, as the preceding quota 
tions show, indifferently to civil and military officers. At the present day it 
is misapplied to a religious functionary, of whose duties I shall treat in the 
course of this Report. 

1 Benavides (Memorial, p. 39) gives the following description of the manner 
of initiation of what he calls a captain : " Para hazer a vno Capitan se juntauan 
en vna pla9a, y le amarrauan desnudo en vn pilar, y con vnos abrojos crueles le 
a$otauan todos, y despues le entretenian con entremeses, y otros juguetes, y si a 
todo estaua muy sesgo, y no lloraua, ni hacia gestos a lo vno, ni se reia al otro, 
lo confirmauan por muy valiente Capitan." The Capitan Mayor corresponded 
to the war captain of to-day. 



INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST. 139 

Pueblos is a reminiscence of olden times, as I have good 
reasons to suppose, then, in case any village begged of 
another military assistance, and it was granted, the war cap 
tain of the first one was ex officio commander in chief of the 
campaign. In case of absolute necessity, tribes of distinct 
idioms called upon each other for aid, and the instances are 
not rare where two villages of the same language quarrelled, 
and one turned to another of another stock to help him 
against their kinsmen. 1 Pueblo society was tribal society in 

1 I have already alluded to the fact of war being waged between the pueblos. 
This is further confirmed by Torquemada, Monarc/ria, p. 680 : " Estos pobla- 
dos han tenido tambien, entre si, y vnos con otros, guerras." As to the manner 
in which the villages confederated and organized in case of joint warfare against 
an outsider, the same authority gives information, the case being that of assault 
by Apaches : " Conocen de mui lejos venir los enemigos, y para que les ven- 
gan a socorrer los Pueblos comarcanos, se suben las mugeres a lo mas alto 
de sus casas, y hechan cenisa en alto, y tras de esto hacen lumbre ahogada, 
para que hechando mas espeso humo, sea mas visto de los otros Pueblos (cuio 
favor piden) : las mugeres, dando con las manos en las bocas abiertas, hacen vn 
grande clamor, que se oie mucho, y de mui lejos." In the various attempts at 
uprisings against the Spaniards which preceded the great revolt of 1680, the 
proposals for them issued mostly from one pueblo or from a certain group of 
pueblos. Thus, after the conspiracy formed during the administration of 
Governor Hernando Ugarte y la Concha had been discovered and the criminals 
punished (1650 about), another one sprang up and the appeal to the other 
villages was issued by the Taos and went as far as Moqui. Interrogatories y 
Dedaraciones de varios Indies, 1 68 1 (MS., fol. 135) : " Y despues de algun 
tiempo despacharon del pueblo de Taos dos gamuzas con algunas pinturas por 
los pueblos de la custodia, con senales de conjuracion a su modo, para convocar 
la gente nuevo alzamiento, y que dichas gamuzas pasaron hasta la provincia 
de Moqui donde no quisieron admitirlos, y ceso el pacto por entonces." 
Another conspiracy was afterwards started at the pueblos of the Salines, and 
spread to all the others. Ynterrogatorio de Preguntas hecho por don Antonio de 
Otermin, 1681 (MS.). How the final conspiracy, which resulted in the outbreak 
of 1680, was organized, is well known. Also that it started from the village of 
Taos, although instigated by an Indian from San Juan, the famous Po-pe, who, 
however, after the war had begun, exercised but limited authority. He was a 
medicine-man, and no war chief. Confesion y Declaration de vn Yndio de Nation 
Peciiri, 1683 (fol. 22, MS.). In that year, the southern Indians (Queres, etc.) 
followed the lead of Catiti, (fol. 23,) and Luis Tupatu was regarded as leader of 
the northern Pueblos: "Que ya tiene declarado quel dho Don Luis Tupatu 



140 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 

its full meaning, with all its lack of consistency, and yet with 
those original ties that bind together clusters of that nature, 
and make of them such singularly solid and resisting bodies. 
Thus the gens or clan was fully developed among them. It is 
beyond a doubt that the gentes of the Pueblos are almost, 
if not absolutely alike. Along the Rio Grande, for instance, 
whether Tehua, Tigua, Queres, or even Piros, the same clans 
are met with such differences only as arise from the differ 
ences of language. The eagle, the bear, and especially the corn 
and water clans, are found from Taos to Isleta, from Tezuque 
to Zuni. In older sources of information concerning the New 
Mexican villages, the existence of the gentile system is indi 
cated, but not plainly. Thus descent in the female line, such 
as exists to-day, is hinted at. The custom of the women 
building and owning the dwellings, whereas the men tilled 
and owned the fields, is another trace of gentilism. 1 Among 

gouierna las naciones que ai desde el pueblo de la Cienega hasta los Taos, y que 
Alonso Catiti gouierna lo demas del Reino." But when Otermin marched up the 
Rio Grande valley in 1681, and the Indians retreated into the mountain region 
called the " Canada de Cochiti," they were commanded, so to say, by Catiti, 
who sent word to the Picuries to come to their assistance. The Teguas and 
Picuries came, but Catiti remained in command, and his counsels prevailed 
against those of Tupatu, who was in favor of peace. Interrogatories y Declara- 
ciones (fol. 129, 132, 140). Also, Ynterrogatorio de Preguntas. Catiti was an 
Indian from Santo Domingo, therefore one of the Queres, who were more 
directly threatened by the Spanish forces. 

In regard to war having been waged by villages of one stock upon their 
kindred, and of having even confederated with other stocks for that purpose, 
there is the example of 1696, when the Queres of Cochiti, Santo Domingo, and 
Acoma confederated with the Jemez and Zunis against the Queres of San 
Felipe, Santa Ana, and Cia. See Autos de Guerra sobre el Alzamiento de 
1696 (MS.). 

1 It is not to be wondered at if no direct mention is made in older sources 
of clanships among the Pueblos. The fact that the clans exist to-day is suffi 
cient proof of their existence centuries ago, for the introduction of Christian 
rites of marriage and baptism, in place of strengthening gentilism, tended to 
destroy it. Notwithstanding, it exists, and is therefore a survival. In regard 
to the custom of the women building the houses in place of the men, it 
was noticed by Castaneda (Cibola, p. 168) : " Les maisons se batissent en 



INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST, 141 

the Pueblos, as well as among all sedentary tribes, the posi 
tion of woman was not that of a slave. But marriage was 
rather an act of the clan, and therefore the parties stood to 
each other in relations of greater independence. Chastity 
was an act of penitence ; to be chaste signified to do penance. 
Still, after a woman had once become linked to a man by 
the performance of certain simple rites, it was unsafe for her 
to be caught trespassing, and her accomplice also suffered a 
penalty. 1 But there was the utmost liberty, even license, as 
towards girls. Intercourse was almost promiscuous with 

commun ; ce sont les femmes qui gachent le platre et qui elevent les murailles. 
Les hommes apportent le bois et construisent les charpentes." Still more 
explicit is Benavides (Memorial, p. 41): " Como lo testifican bien todas las 
iglesias y conuentos, que tienen hechos, los quales todos parecera encareci- 
miento el dezir, que siendo tan suntuosos y curiosos, los ha hecho tan solamete 
las mugeres, y los muchachos y muchachas de la dotrina ; porque entre estos 
naciones se vsa hazer las mugeres las paredes, y los hombres hilan y texen sus 
mantas, y van a la guerra, y a la caza, y si obligamos a algu hombre a hazer 
pared, se corre dello, y las mugeres se rien." 

1 That the Pueblos were officially monogamous is generally affirmed by the 
older sources. I refer to Castaneda (Cibola, p. 164): " Un homme n epouse 
jamais qu une seule femme." Mota-Padilla (Historia de Nueva Galicia, p. 160) : 
" No tienen estos indios mas que una mujer." 

Marriage rites are variously described. Castaneda (Cibola, p. 170) : " Quand 
un jeune homme se marie, c est par 1 ordre des vieillards qui gouvernent. II 
doit filer et tisser un manteau : on lui amene ensuite la jeune fille, il lui en 
couvre les epaules, et elle devient sa femme." Mota-Padilla (Historia, p. 160) : 
" En los casamientos hay costumbre, que cuando un mozo da en servir a una 
doncella, la espera en la parte donde va a acarrear agua, y coge el cantaro, con 
cuya clemostracion manifiesta a los deudos de ella la voluntad de casarse." 
Villagran, Historia de la Nueva Mexico (canto xv. fol. 135) : 

" Y tienen una cosa aquestas gentes, 
Que en saliendo las mozas de donzellas, 
Son a todos comunes, sin escusa, 
Con tal que se lo paguen, y sin paga ; 
Es una vil bageza, tal delito, 
Mas luego que se casan viven estas, 
Contenta cada qual con su marido, 
Cuia costumbre, con la grande fuerga, 
Teniendo por certissimo nosotros, 
Seguiamos tambien aquel camino, 
Juntaron muchas mantas bien pintadas, 



142 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 

members of the tribe. Towards outsiders the strictest absti 
nence was observed, and this fact, which has long been over 
looked or misunderstood, explains the prevailing idea, that 
before the coming of the white man the Indians were both 
chaste and moral, while the contrary is the truth. Only, 
and this has been lost sight of, adoption into one of the 
clans was necessary in order to share the privileges which 
were considered essential for propagation. 1 

The Pueblo Indians had in fact no home life. Their dwell 
ings have been so frequently described, and are therefore so 

Para alcangar las damas Castellanas, 
Que mucho apetecian y quisieron." 

Villagran is an execrable poet, but a reliable observer. What he states here 
occurred in one of the Piros villages near Socorro. Benavides (Memorial, 
p. 38) : " Las mugeres que querian que los hombres las apeteciessen, salian al 
catnpo gordas, y buenas, y a^auan vna piedra, 6 algun palillo sobre algun cerrillo, 
y alii le ofrecian harina, y en ocho dias, 6 los que podian, no comian, sino cosa 
que las inquietasse los estomagos y prouocasse a trocar, y se a9otaiian cruel- 
mente, y quando ya no podian mas, y que de gordas se auian puesto flacas, y 
figuras del demonio, se venian muy confiadas en que el primer hombre que las 
viesse, las apeteceria, y les daria mantas q es su principal fin." Finally, there 
is the proof as furnished by the Indians themselves after the departure of the 
Spaniards from New Mexico in 1680. The first measure taken by the Pueblos 
was a return to the customs of the " olden times." This is plainly expressed 
in the depositions of the Indians themselves, in 1681. Interrogatories y Declara- 
ciones (fol. 116) : " Y las mugeres que tenian de santo matrimonio las devasen, y 
cogiesen las que ellos quisiessen." Even later there are from time to time 
evidences of a design of "returning to first principles." Causa Criminal contra 
Geronimo Dirucaca Indio del Pueblo de Piciiries, 1713 (MS.). This Indian was 
accused by his own people of living in concubinage with several women, at the 
same time being legitimately married. Several witnesses declared that he had 
publicly told the people, " que no creiesen lo que el R. P. les dezia sino lo que 
les auian ensenado sus antepasados, que eso lexitimamente era lo que deuian 
guardar y no otra cosa, y que para que ha de ser uerdad, y ser buena uida tenian 
el exemplar en la mano en el pues no ignorauan de la manera que el auia 
uiuido amancebado siempre." 

1 In order to marry into a tribe, adoption into a clan is essential. There 
are, of course, in many pueblos, females who will not hesitate to yield. But 
this is a transgression of older rules, when the concession is made to a stranger, 
whereas, among the Rio Grande villages at least, cohabitation often precedes mar 
riage, and promiscuity, as in favor of the "village boys," is an established fact. 



INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST. 143 

well and widely known, that a fresh description of them is 
needless. Specimens of them can be seen to-day in at least 
twenty-four pueblos of New Mexico and Arizona. Their ar 
chitecture has been correctly called communal. The village 
in its original form was a bee-hive. But one feature of its 
life, and an interesting one, no longer exists, at least in 
New Mexico. This is the separation by sexes. At present 
the Indian dwells with his wife and children, and a num 
ber of families occupy one large, mostly two or more storied 
house. When the Spaniards came, they found that the wo 
men and their offspring occupied the cells and the houses, 
whereas the men, even after marriage, spent the nights in 
those singular constructions of a public nature which are 
now known under the name of " Estufas." It is commonly 
supposed that an estufa is always round, and at least partly 
subterraneous, but this is not the case. Where the estufa 
could be dug out, it was so made, and then it was natural 
that it should be circular; but where this was impossible, 
as is the case to-day at Acoma, Laguna, and at Zuni, an 
inner room, well secluded and easily guarded, served instead. 
It may be said that there are to-day two kinds of estufas, 
the official or public estufa, and the private one, which often 
is temporary. When the Pueblos were in their primitive 
condition, the estufa was not only the place of abode for the 
males, 1 but it also served the purpose of the Mexican Tel- 

1 Castaneda (Ctbola, p. 170): " Les maisons appartiennent aux femmes, et 
les etuves aux hommes. II est de fendu aux femmes d y coucher et meme d y 
entrer, autrement que pour porter a manger a leurs maris ou a leurs fils." 
Speaking of the young men (Ibid., p. 169) : " Us habitent les etuves, qui sont 
sous terre dans les cours de village. II y en a de carrees et de rondes." 
Zarate-Salmeron (Relaciones par. 74) : " La ultima, en que duermen las mugeres 
y sus hijos. Los hombres duermen en la estufa, en cuyo medio encienden lum- 
bre, y con los pies hacia ella." As late as 1704, this custom certainly prevailed 
among the Tehuas Diego de Vargas, Autos Formados sobre la Llegada de nnos 
Indies Moqtiis al Pueblo de Taos (MS., fol. 2) : " Qe vn yndio del Pueblo de los 



144 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 

puch Calli, or house of education for the boys. 1 It is prob 
able that, as in Mexico, there were in each pueblo as many 
estufas as there were clans. This explains the great num 
ber of these constructions among many of the ruins. There 
the boys slept, ate, and whiled away their time when not 
strolling; there the men gathered also, and generally the 
women brought them their meals into that " House of the 
Males." The estufa was of necessity the council-house, for 
the " business " of the clans as well as of the tribe was in 
charge of the men, not so much as a right as a duty. That 
many religious rites were performed there is evident, but 
the estufa was not, as has been supposed, the permanent 
" temple" of the Pueblos. There were places of worship 
and conventional places of sacrifice, sacred spots and rooms, 
distinct from the estufas. 2 A reminiscence of this state of 

taos qe no conoze vino al Pueblo de thezuque y selo dijo asi a este declarante 
r!omo a otros yndios del Pueblo de thezuque estando en la estufa unos traua- 
jando y otros platicando y otros jugando a los patoles." 

1 Compare On the Social Organization and Mode of Government of the Ancient 
Mexicans, p. 616. 

2 Torquemada (Monarchia, vol. i. p. 681) gives a description of one of these 
permanent places of worship, as he calls it, although it is by no means certain 
that it was permanent : " Su templo es vn aposento alto, de diez pies de ancho, 
y veinte de largo, todo pintado, y vnos arquillos tambien pintados. El idolo 
es de piedra, 6 de barro, y esta asentado a la mano derecha de el Templo, con 
vna xicara, con tres huevos de gallina de la tierra ; y tiene a la otra mano 
izquierda otra xicara, con elotes (6 macorcas de maiz) y delante de si tiene 
vna olla llena de agua." This looks very much like the outfit of a temporary 
or occasional " place of worship." Another description of a similar locality is 
given by Villagran, Historia (Canto xv. fol. 135) : 

" Y i. nuestro General ouedecieron, 
Alojandole dentro de su pueblo, 
En cuias casas luego reparamos, 
En una gran suma que tenian, 
De soberuios demonios retratados, 
Feroces, y terribles por extreme, 
Que claro nos mostrauan ser sus dioses, 
Porque el dios del agua, junto al agua, 
Estaua bien pintado, y figurado, 
Tambien el dios del monte. junto al monte, 



INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST. 145 

affairs is found to-day in the private estufas (of the medicine 
men, etc.), and it is still fully developed in the customs of 
outside worship in the desert timber, or on secluded meass, 
as practised by the Rio Grande villagers ; it is especially well 
exemplified among the Zuni Indians in every branch of their 
religious life. Religious practices in vogue to-day are more 
or less exactly described by authors of the seventeenth, and 
even of the sixteenth century, although not with their full de- 

Y junto a" pezes, siembras, y batallas, 
A todos los demas que respetauan, 
For dioses de las cosas que tenian." 

Espejo says (Relation, p. 174) : "Tienen en cada uno destos pueblos una casa 
donde llevan de comer al demonic, y tienen fdolos de piedra pequenos donde 
idolatran ; y como los espanoles tienen cruzes en los caminos, ellos tienen en 
medio de un pueblo a otro, en medio del camino, unos cuizillos a manera de 
humilladeros hecho de piedras donde ponen palos pintados y plumas, diciendo 
va alii a reposar el demonio y hablar con ellos." 

From the time of Coronado we have some statements in regard to places of 
worship. Relacion del Suceso, p. 320 : " Los ritos sacrificios que tienen son 
algunos idolos ; pero a lo que mas husan es a la agua, a la qual ofrecen unos 
palillos pintados, e plumas, e polvos amarillos de flores, y esto es lo mas ordi- 
nario en las fuentes. Tambien ofrecen algunas turquesas que las tienen, 
aunque ruines." 

Onate, Carta escripta al Virrey, p. 308 : " Su religion es adorar idolos que 
tienen muchos, y en sus templos a su modo los reverencian con fuego, canas 
pintadas, plumas y ofrenda universal, casi de todas las cosas que alcanzan, 
animalejos, aves, legumbres," etc. 

But the principal object of the estufa seems to have been, not worship, but a 
home for the males recalling the time when only sexual distinctions formed the 
basis of society. During the Spanish occupation of the country the aboriginal 
worship was largely suppressed, but as soon as the Pueblos felt themselves 
once again independent they at once re-established the estufas ; and together 
with the estufa, the outside places of worship, the shrines, reappeared. This 
results from the proceedings following the expulsion of Otermin. Interrogatories 
y Declaraciones, fol. 130 : " Y pusieron por sus Iglesias a los quatro vientos y en 
medio de la plaza unos cercadillos de piedra amontonada, donde iban a ofrecer 
arina, plumas, y la semilla del meague, del maiz, tabaco, y otras supersticiones, 
. . . mandaron leuantar todas las estufas, que son sus casas de idolatria." Ibid., 
fol. 139 : " Que mandaron de orden del dicho Pope, Alonso Catite, Gobernador 
y cabeza de la nacion Queres, que pusiesen en el pueblo, y sus alrededores 
montones de piedra, para que alii ofreciesen maiz quebrado y otras semillas, . . . 
hicieron muchas estufas en los pueblos." 



146 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 

tails. Sometimes they are erroneously explained, but enough 
is stated concerning them to prove that recent discoveries 
about the pueblos rest on solid fact, and are not the product 
of imagination. 

The idea of one supreme being is not mentioned as ex 
isting among the New Mexican villagers. But the strongly 
fetichistic nature of their creeds, beliefs, and rites struck 
the early missionaries very forcibly. This is graphically ex 
pressed in the statements that they worshipped the devil 
and demons in general, and that witchcraft and adoration 
of the elements, etc. were their chief religious practices. 
Idols of stone and of wood were found among them in 
great numbers, and some of the Spanish authors made not 
incorrect guesses at the signification of some of them. 1 The 
practice of performing sacrifices outside of the villages, at 
small heaps of stones and near to springs or other places 
marked by their natural features, is often emphasized, and 
the prayer plumes, or sacrificial plume-sticks, are frequently 
referred to. 2 The custom of doing penance, of fasting and 

1 I refer again to Villagran, Historia, fol. 135. Idols of stone are frequently 
mentioned. In addition to the sources already quoted, see Gaspar Castano de 
Sosa, Memoria del Desaibrimiento, p. 244 : " Porque tienen muchos idolos que 
atras nos olvidaba de declarar ; y en el primer pueblo, doncle esto sucedio, 
al maese de campo el susso, habia muy gran cantidad, e los tienen todos." 
Onate, Discurso, p. 252 : " Doncle habia gran cantidad de maiz, y muchos idolos 
pintados, tantos, que en solas dos piezas, conte sesenta." This is a confirma 
tion of Villagran. Ynterrogatorio de Preguntas, MS., 1681 : " Y habiendo des- 
cubierto esta traicion ahorcaron el clicho yndio Estevan, y sosegaron a los 
demas, y en los bienes que se sequestraron del dicho yndio se hallo dentro de 
su casa cantidad de idolos." 

2 Relacion del Suceso, p. 320. Espejo, Relacion, p. 174. Onate, Carta, p. 308. 
Ynterrogatorio de PregJintas \ "Y ollas enteros de polvos de yerbas idolatricas, 
plumas y otras porquerias." Benavides, Memorial, p. 38 : " Su Religion, aunque 
no era idolatria formal, casi lo era, porque para qualquiera accion ofrecian, como 
era al tiempo que ivan a pelear con sus enemigos, ofrecian harina, v otras cosas 
a las cabelleras de los que auian muerto de la nacion enemiga. Si ivan a cagar, 
ofrecian harina a cabe9as de venados, liebres, conejos, y otras animales muertos ; 
si a pescar ofrecian al rio." Ibid., p. 39. Torquemada, Monarchia, vol. i. p. 681 : 



INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST. 



1 47 



abstinence, is insisted upon as common, and resorted to for 
various purposes. 1 Even the strange religious organization 
that Mr. Gushing has re-discovered did not escape the no 
tice of writers in the seventeenth century. 

It is true that this religious organization, which at the 
present day is kept as much as possible secret from the 
outsider, was then public property in so far that every 
member of a tribe knew of its existence, and belonged more 
or less to a certain branch of it. The workings of the sys 
tem were plain to every one, and they would have remained 
plain to this day had it not been for its baneful effects, which 
more than anything else contributed to retard the advance 
of the Indian on the path of progress. It caused a con 
stant clash with the European element, and created the ab 
solute necessity of suppressing customs so directly opposed 
to the ideas of civilization as understood by the whites. 
Witchcraft was one of the principal weapons used by the 
leaders of Indian faith ere they resorted to force of arms, 
and, while the formulas and magic means employed were of 
course harmless, the intention of doing injury was manifest, 
and it required, when persuasion failed to check it, the 
strong hand of force ; just as a child, when teachings and 
reprimands are no longer effective, must be convinced by 
the corrective rod. But the system was so strongly rooted, 
it had taken such a powerful hold on every thought and 
action of Indian life, that, upon suppressing its public mani 
festations, it continued to prevail as an occult affair, secret 
from all who did not believe in it. Of this religious organi 
zation, which now takes an esoteric form, at least three 

" Luego de manana, van las mugeres con harina y plumas, a vnas piedras 
toscas, que tienen levantadas, y les hechan vn poco de la harina que llevan, 
y de aquellas plumas, porque las guarden aquel dia, para que no calgan de las 
escaleras, y tambien para que les den mantas." 
1 Benavides. Memorial, p. 39. 



148 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 

components are plainly mentioned as early as 1630 ; namely, 
the warriors, the medicine-men, and the highest Shamans or 
priests of the tribe. Their influence was then so prominent, 
that intertribal dissensions are attributed to their mutual 
antagonism. 1 We may infer that the power which they then 

1 Even in the first years after Onate s settlement of New Mexico, secrecy 
about religious matters became noticeable among the Pueblos. Torquemada, 
Monarchia, vol. i. p. 6Si : " Esta Gente es sagaz, y de mucho secreto ; y por 
esta causa no se han podido ver mas cosas, ni saberlas, acerca de su falsa 
religion." Allusion to the esoteric orders is found in Benavides, Memorial, 
p. 37 : " Toda esta gente y naciones en su gentilidad estaua diuidida en dos 
parcialidades, guerreros, y hechizeros, procurando los guerreros reduzir a su 
imperio y mando, en oposicion de los hechizeros, toda la gente; y los hechizeros 
con la misma oposicion persuadian a toclos a que ellos hazian llouer, y dar la 
tierra buenas sementeras, y otras cosas de que mofauan los guerreros, por lo 
qual auia entre ellos continuas guerras ciuiles, tan grandes, que se matauan, y 
asolauan los pueblos enteros." 

Witchcraft is one of those features of Indian creed and worship which 
most strongly attracted the attention of early writers, and whose operations 
were directly felt; not that the incantations themselves could produce any 
effect, but they were a sign of hostility which could be but a prelude to more 
effective action. Besides, witchcraft was then regarded as a fact, as a real and 
substantial crime, and liable to punishment. Therefore, as I have already ob 
served, when speaking of other tribes, witchcraft embodied in the eyes of the 
European new-comers the substance of Indian creed and of Indian cult. Among 
the Pueblos, the sorcerers attracted most attention ; idolatry appeared practi 
cally only in the background. 

The mentions of witchcraft are frequent, and we meet them at an early day. 
They abound in the documents of the period preceding the revolution of 1680. 
It was indeed a case of witchcraft which brought into prominence the noto 
rious Po-pe, and which caused that Indian, already a medicine-man of repute 
to assume a leading position among his people. Castaneda does not mention 
sorcerers. He only says (Cibola, p. 172), "Us out des predicateurs." Mota- 
Padilla (Historia, p. 160) says of their religious practices: "No se vio templo 
alguno, ni se les conocio idolos, por lo que se tuvo entendido adoraban al sol y 
a la luna, lo que se confirmo, porque una noche que habo un eclipse, alzaron 
todos mucha griten a." What are usually called " sorcerers " in the older sources 
are the members of the secret orders, the medicine-men or " priests " of each 
tribe. I cannot here give a detailed explanation of these organizations, this 
must be reserved for the next section, but the practical working of them, as 
towards the Spaniards, is instructive. Benavides is probably the first who has 
given a clear notice of these strained relations. He says (Memorial, p. 34) . 
" Es costumbre general entre todos los Indies infieles, recibir al principle muy 



INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST. 149 

wielded over the social public as well as private life of their 
tribes was larger than it is to-day, for it had full sway over 
the imagination of the people. Among its leading exterior 
tokens were the numerous dances which occupied part of the 
time of the public, and many of which are easily recognized 
as still practised now. Thus Antonio de Espejo describes a 
festival at Acoma during which live snakes were handled by 
the dancers, after the manner of the snake dance that is still 
danced among the Moquis. 1 Several other performances of 
a similar nature are occasionally described, 2 although, on the 

bien al religioso en sus pueblos, y reduzirse luego al bautismo, y viendo quando 
les catequizan, que ban de dexar sus idolatrias, y hechizerias, sientenlo tanto 
los hechizeros, que inquietan a todos, y los diuierten, para que no scan Chris- 
tianos, y no solo esto, sino que echen al religion 6 del pueblo, y sino que le 
maten." In these performances of witchcraft, poison was not unfrequently 
employed against the Spaniards, as well as against the missionaries. I shall 
have to treat of these facts at length in the next section of the present Report, 
and therefore limit myself to one single quotation in regard to the existence of 
sorcerers among the Pueblos at the time of Onate. Villagran, Historia (canto xv. 
fol. 139) : 

"Y en sus prestigiosos hechizeros, 
Idolatras perdidos." 

1 It is with no small personal gratification that I quote here as old an eye 
witness as Antonio de Espejo in favor of the veracity of my friend Captain J. G. 
Bourke, U. S. Army, in regard to the snake dance still practised among the 
Moqui Indians. It has, besides, been not unfrequently stated to me by Indians 
from the Rio Grande pueblos, that they also had that dance at one time. But 
Espejo saw performances with live snakes on the rock and in the pueblo of 
Acoma in 1582, during a solemn dance. He says (Relation, p. 180) : " Hicieron 
nos un mitote y baile muy solemne, saliendo la gente muy galana y haciendo 
muchos juegos de manos, algunos dellos artificios con viveras vivas, que era 
cosa de ver lo uno y le otro." 

2 Villagran (Historia, fol. 222) describes a nocturnal dance at Acoma, which 
was danced as a preliminary to the fight with Juan de Zaldivar, in 1599: 

"Y ellos empezaron luego el baile, 
Y entraron tan briosos y gallardos, 
dial suelen los cauallos que tascando 
Los espumosos frenos van hiriendo, 
Con las herradas manos lebantadas, 
Los duros empedrados, y asi bravos, 
Hollandose ligeros, mil pedazos, 



150 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 

whole, the student will regret to find that the Spanish au 
thorities fail to give us ample descriptions of what to-day is 
"the greatest curiosity" among the Pueblos for tourists and 
ethnologists. This apparent lack of due attention is misin 
terpreted if it be attributed to carelessness, or even to obtuse- 
ness created by prejudice. Its causes are different. The 
Spaniards came from Mexico, and had mostly lived in Mexico 
at a time when idolatrous dances were performed with an 
amount of display in costumes and ornaments with which 
the modest paraphernalia of the Pueblos not only could not 
compete, but in comparison with which they dwindled into 
insignificance. Not that the dress and decorations worn 
by the Nahuatl, the Maya, etc. bore testimony to any great 
advance in art or industry over the culture of the New Mexi 
cans. The costumes were similar in many particulars, but 
tropical nature afforded to the southern tribes so much more 
richly colored and showy material, that the appearance to 
the eye was incomparably superior. There was a like sim- 

Canosos de arrancar se van haziendo, 
Assi los bravos baruaros soberuios, 
Haziendo mil lindezas y saltando, 
Heriendo aquel penasco a" puros golpes, 
De las valientes plantas que assentauan, 
Y con fuerga de gritos y alaridos, 
Un infernal clamor alii subian, 
Tan horrendo y grimoso que las almas 
De todos los danados parecian, 
Que alii su triste suerte lamentauan, 
Este baile turd hasta el alua." 

Torquemada, Monarchta (vol. i. p. 681): " Vistense galanos para hacer sus 
mitotes y bailes, cada barrio por si ; salen a ellos vestidos, asi hombres, como 
mugeres, con manias pintadas y bordadas ; lo qual lodo pintan, y bordan los 
hombres, porque las mugeres no lo aprenden, y asi no lo hacen. Quando piden 
agua a sus dioses, andan los indios desnudos junto a las casas, y las indias 
desde los corredores, les hechan agua con ollas, y jarros, con que los banan 
bien, y lambien bailan en las eslufas, y a9otan a vn indio cruelmente, y lo 
aranan, y rasgunan con vnos como peines ; de manera, que lo dexan todo desol- 
lado y rasgado, y todo esto hacen porque llueva." 



INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST. 151 

ilarity in the music, in the custom of wearing masks, and in 
the general order and motions of the dances. 1 The dances 
of the Pueblos were therefore no surprise to the whites ; they 
had seen far more striking displays of the same nature, and 
unless a calisthenic feast showed features which farther south 
they had not seen, it was passed over in silence or slightly 
noticed. Nevertheless, there was one class which became 
soon very prominent in the eyes especially of the clergy, and 
to which great attention was paid, not for ethnological pur 
poses, since ethnology was not yet a branch of knowledge, 
but owing to their signification and their practical bearing 
upon the religious and social life of the Indian. These 
dances have been handed down to us under the common 
designation of " Ca-chi-nas." The origin of the word is found 
in the Tehua language, where "Ka-tzin-a" signifies the spirits 
of the fetiches of game. 2 To dance a Katzina was therefore 
to perform some animal dance with the object of performing 
an incantation, either for purposes of the hunt, or of war, or 
some other work of public utility. The deer dance, when 

1 Espejo, Relacion, p. 174: " Tienen todas las pinturas de sus casas y otras 
cosas que tienen para bailar y danzar, asi en la musica como en lo demas, muy 
al natural de los mexicanos." 

2 Torquemada (Monarchta, vol. i. p. 681) mentions these deities, three in 
number, and it is clear from the context that he particularly refers to idols of 
the Tehuas. Other similar deities are mentioned on occasion of the uprising 
of 1680. Interrogatories y Declaraciones, fol. 135. While Po-pe was concealing 
himself in the estufas uf Taos three " demons " are said to have appeared to 
him, and these demons or deities are called, respectively, Caudi or Cadi, Tilim, 
and Heume. In the same document mention is also made of the sacred lagune 
whence the Pueblos claim to have issued, and this lagune, the Tehua name for 
which was Cibobe. is called Colela and Copiala, " porque siempre deseaban 
viuir como salieron de la laguna de Colela." 

The Cachina, as the name of a particular class of idolatrous dances, appears 
in the middle of the seventeenth century. The dance was early prohibited, but 
was never completely suppressed, and the Spaniards soon found out that, when 
ever a Cachina was preparing, it meant surely some mischief. One of the first 
things the Pueblos did after the expulsion of Otermin from New Mexico was 
to re-establish the Cachinas. 



152 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 

performed with a religious intent, and not merely for the en 
tertainment of visitors, the dance of the mountain sheep, the 
much discredited snake dance, in fact, all animal dances, are 
the original Cachinas. But the name was very soon extended 
to all idolatrous dances in general, and as a number of them 
were very obscene, it was necessary to prohibit them. Ob 
scenity and public immorality enter into Indian belief and 
creed as symbolism. With the Indian, form and shape ap 
pear so intimately connected with substance that they are 
inseparable, and the surest way, in the Indian s mind, to make 
a prayer effective, is to symbolize the matter prayed for by 
a close imitation thereof. 

To the numerous rites of a religious nature, whose per 
formances strike the eye even of the most inattentive, be 
longs one which consists in the representation of particularly 
obscene rites. It is variously called, according to the idiom 
of the tribe to which it belongs, and a description of the ritual 
dress as well as paint has been handed down to us from as 
early a date as 1 599. At that date it was performed in con 
nection with warlike operations. 1 

1 It is easy for one who has se&n the so-called Ko-sha-re or Entremeseros 
act the part of clowns at some of the Pueblo dances to recognize these ob 
scene and disgusting personages in the graphic description furnished by Vil- 
lagran of the manner in which the Acomas received the Spaniards when 
Vicente de Zaldivar approached their inexpugnable rock, in January, 1599 (His- 
toria, fol. 226) : 

"Tambien entre varones y mugeres, 
Andauan muchos baruaros desnudos, 
Los torpes miembros todos descubiertos, 
Tiznados, y embijados de unas rayas, 
Tan espantables negras y grimosas, 
Cual si demonios brauos del infierno. 
Fueran con sus melenas desgrenadas, 
Y colas arrastrando, y unos cuernos, 
Desmesurados, gruessos y crecidos, 
Con estos trajes todos sin verguenca, 
Saltauan como corgos por los riscos, 
Diziendonos palabras bien infames." 



INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST. 153 

Information as to the burial rites of the Pueblos is exceed 
ingly meagre and unsatisfactory. It points to cremation, but 
in presence of the pre-Hispanic burial grounds discovered 
lately, which contain complete skeletons, cremation cannot 
be asserted to have been a general custom. 1 

Religion, or rather magic, was essential to warfare. Many 
of its details, important as well as unimportant, were con 
nected with articles of Indian faith. Such, for instance, was, 
and is yet, the act of scalping. In securing the scalp of the 
dead, the captor secures the faculties, mental as well as physi 
cal, of him whom he has slain, and renders them so to say 
tributary to himself and to his tribe. The Pueblos scalped, 
they danced with the scalp, and honored it. 2 The scalp dance 
also was therefore a Cachina. Fasts preceded a campaign, 
as well as among other tribes. The warrior before and. im 
mediately after his military enterprise was almost a sacred 
being. The mode of warfare of the Pueblos did not differ 
from that of other Indians. Its tactics were ambush and 
surprise, its weapons those of the savage. The Pueblos 
carried the shield, the bow and arrows in their respective 

1 Castaneda (Cibota, p. 165) says of the Indians of Zuni-Cibola : " Us brulent 
les morts, et avec eux les instruments qui leur ont servi a exercer leur metier." 
Mota-Padilla (ffistoria, p. 160) describes a cremation witnessed by Coronado s 
men : " Y en una ocasion vieron los espanoles, que habiendo muerto un indio, 
armaron una grande balsa 6 luminaria de lena, sobre que pusieron el cuerpo 
cubierto con una manta, y luego todos los del pueblo, hombres y mujeres, 
fueron poniendo sobre la cama de lena, pinole, calabazas, frijoles, atole, maiz 
tostado, y de lo demas que usaban comer, y dieron fuego por todas partes, de 
suerte que en breve todo se convertio en cenizas con el cuerpo." Mota-Padilla 
had access to sources extant at Guadalajara in the past century which are 
unknown to me. 

2 The custom of scalping the dead seems to have been an ancient one among 
the Pueblos. Benavides, Memorial, p. 38 : " Como era al tiempo que ivan a 
pelear con sus enemigos, ofrecian harina y otras cosas a las cabelleras de los 
que auian muerto de la nacion enemiga." The taking of scalps is mentioned in 
documents of a posterior date, but always in a manner that leads to suppose 
that it was an ancient custom. 



OF THK 

"CTNIVERSITY 



154 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 

quivers, and the war-club ; whether the lance was in use is 
still undetermined. But in addition he wore a sort of hel 
met ; it was a close-fitting cap made of buffalo hide, strong 
enough to resist an arrow at long range. This military 
garment has now gone out of use, and the shield of buffalo 
hide is little more than a mere ornament or keepsake. Both 
have shared, or are bound to share, the fate of the flint-tipped 
arrow and of the war-club with a massive head of stone. 1 
The question whether slings were used for hurling stones is 
not certain. Pebbles and rocks were largely resorted to for 
defensive purposes. The flat roofs contained accumulations 
of such material. 2 The villages were defended from the 

1 The helmet or cap of buffalo hide is mentioned by Castaneda, Cibola, p. 67. 
Indians from Pecos (Cicuye) came to visit those of Zuyi, and they offered to 
Coronado "des casques." The helmet was well known to the Zuriis and used 
by them, according to Mr. Gushing. As to the shields of buffalo hide, they are 
so frequently mentioned by the oldest authors that it is superfluous to quote. 
The same is the case with the other weapons mentioned. I merely quote one 
author, Villagran, who when he describes the people of Acoma arming them, 
selves against the Spaniards, gives the following inventory of the weapons used 
by the tribe (Historia de la Ntieva Mexico, canto xviii. fol. 157) : 

" Los unos con gran priesa descolgando, 
Del alto techo la formida mac,a, 
Otros el gruesso leno bien labrado, 
Qual la rodela y hasta bien tostada, 
El arco, y el carcax de agudas puntos, 
Con otras muchas armas que a su modo, 
Han conserbado siempre, y ban guardado." 

In regard to the macanes or war-clubs, it seems that the club of to-day, a 
short stick with a heavy notch at one end, -was in use three centuries ago. 
Espejo (Relation, p. 175) : " Y las macanas son un palo de media vara de largo, 
y al cabo del muy gordo." One and a half vara, or about eighteen inches, is 
the customary size of the war-club of to-day. That the arrows were tipped with 
flint or stone scarcely needs proof, still I shall quote here Espejo (p. 174) : " Que 
las flechas son de varas tostadas y la puntas dellas de padernal esquinadas, que 
con ellas facilmente pasan una cota." 

2 When Coronado had to storm the village of Hauicu of the Zuni group of 
pueblos, he was himself hurt by rocks thrown from the houses. Traslado de las 
Nuevas y Noticias, fol. 532 : " Dieronle en la cabeza y hombros y piernas muchos 
polpes de piedra." Castaneda, Cibola, p. 43 : " Le general fut renverse d un 



INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST. 155 

house-tops ; 1 in a few rare instances, as at Pecos, a rude 
stone wall encompassed the place. 2 In case of dire neces 
sity the pueblo was temporarily abandoned, and the tribe re 
tired to the nearest convenient rock or plateau for a time. 
If in the interval the village had been sacked or burnt, it 
was rebuilt, but seldom on the same site. As a general rule, 
changes of location were common and easy ; hence the great 
number of ruins to-day. They indicate, and I cannot enough 
insist upon this fact, numerous shif tings, and not a large 
simultaneous population. 3 

There is nothing in the natural resources of New Mexico 
that could maintain a large number of people whose me 
chanical and industrial means of support were those of what 
has been called the " stone age." The water supply of the 
territory is remarkably scant, and, while the Indian knew and 
used springs which the present settler is sometimes unac 
quainted with, the value of such springs was not very great. 
They might suffice for the wants of one or a few families, 
sometimes for a small village. To such watering places the 
Indian was limited, outside of the river bottoms of larger 

coup de pierre en montant a 1 assaut ; et il aurait etc tue sans Garci-Lopez, etc. 
qui se jeterent devant lui et re9urent les pierres qui lui etaient destinees et qui 
n etaient pas en petit nombre." As to the custom of storing pebbles on the 
house-tops, it is abundantly proved. Caspar Castafio de Sosa (Memoria del 
Descubrimiento, p. 230) also mentions " hondas." 

1 Almost every engagement with the Pueblos proves this. Already the 
Relation Postrera de Sivola (MS,) says: " Es gente que defiende bien su capa, 
y desde sus casas, que no curan de salir fuera." 

2 This stonewall is still visible at Pecos. It existed in 1540. Castaneda, 
p. 177. 

3 The changes that have occurred in the sites of the various pueblos within 
three centuries are considerable. It required the dispositions taken by the 
Governor Don Domingo Gironza Petriz de Cruzate in 1689 to compel the Indian 
to remain within a certain circuit at least. The so-called Pueblo Grants are not 
grants, they are limitations placed to the erratic tendencies of the sedentary, or 
rather land-tilling aborigines. Previously the villages were moved about within 
the range at will, and upon the slightest provocation. 



156 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 

streams. But the larger streams are few and far between, 
and only portions of their course suitable for cultivation. 
Only the Rio Grande, the San Juan, the Chama, parts of the 
Pecos, Jemez, Puerco, and Upper Gila, irrigate large valleys. 

True it is, the Indian did not need to irrigate everywhere. 
His domestic plants did not all require artificial watering. 
Corn, for instance, grows by means of summer rain and 
winter snows alone, provided both come at the right time. 
Wheat the Pueblo Indian knew only after the advent of the 
Spaniard. Squashes, or calabashes, and beans required irriga 
tion. But corn was the great staple, and corn may grow on 
elevated table mountains or plateaus that are many hundreds, 
nay thousands, of feet above a spring or a brook. In such 
cases, the village Indian subsisted on a scanty crop and on 
game : he sacrificed to security of living the comforts of a 
more productive location. 1 

The Tanos of the Galisteo basin had no watercourses from 
which to derive channels for the wants of their crops. 2 The 
Piros of Tabira, and the Tiguas of Cuaray, subsisted from corn 
watered only by rain. Nor was it indispensable that the pre 
cipitation should be very abundant ; but only that the rain or 
snow should come in season. The Pueblo had no stock to 
water, the turkey was his only fowl. 3 Mammals he did not 

1 The testimony in favor of the assertion, that the Pueblos irrigated previous 
to the advent of the Spaniards, whenever the water-courses gave a sufficient 
supply, are abundant and conclusive. I only refer to those from the earliest 
times, and in regard to which there can be no suspicion of reporting features 
introduced by Europeans. Espejo, Relation, p. 174: " Y de todo esto hay se- 
menteres de riego y de temporal con muy buenas sacas de agua y que lo 
labran como los Mexicanos." Old irrigating ditches are quite common in New 
Mexico. 

2 Espejo, p. 176. 

3 Turkeys, as a domestic fowl, are frequently mentioned. Castaneda, Cibola, 
p. 171. Relacion del Suceso, p. 320. Hernando de Alvarado, Relation de lo que 
descubrieron en Demanda de la Mar del Stir, p. 512 : " Tienen mucha comida de 
maiz e frisoles y melones y gallinas en grande abundancia." Relacion Postrera : 



INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST. 157 

know how to domesticate and to raise. If, therefore, neces 
sity compelled him to retire into regions where running water 
or springs did not exist, a tank or simple artificial cistern 
was sufficient for his needs. Thus, the village of Tabira 
(Gran Quivira) had four large artificial pools from which the 
people derived drinking water. The pueblo of Acoma sub 
sists to-day upon the water collected in a picturesque basin 
on the top of the rock, three hundred and fifty feet above 
the utterly dry valley. To such and similar devices the New 
Mexican villager had to resort, and it was a relief to him 
when he could nestle by the side of a permanent river, and 
raise beans and calabashes with the aid of primitive channels 
of irrigation. The tribes on the Rio Grande, and the people 
of Taos and Pecos, enjoyed such privileges more than any of 
the other tribes. With them irrigation was easy, and fre 
quent mention is made of it by the older writers. 

As far north as the village of Santo Domingo, or Cochiti, 
that is, in the latitude of Santa Fe, cotton was raised by 
the Pueblo Indians. The introduction of sheep has, in this 
colder climate, caused wool to supersede cotton among the 
natives ; but previously to the seventeenth century the abo 
riginal dress consisted largely of cotton sheets, or rather 
simple wrappers, tied either around the neck or on the 
shoulder, or converted into sleeveless jackets. This was 
the custom especially in the cotton-raising villages, but the 
others also, like Zuni, Acoma, and the Tanos, used cotton, 
obtaining it by barter. 1 Beside cotton, the materials used 
for the dress of the Pueblos were deer skins and buffalo 

" Tienen algunas gallinas, las cuales guardan para hacer mantas de la pluma." 
Espejo, Relation, p. 175. 

1 The fact that cotton was raised along the Rio Grande is so universally 
stated by older authors, that I refrain from quoting. In regard to Zuni, it is 
doubtful, although I believe that it was not the case. The Moquis, however, 
did raise cotton. 



158 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 

robes, rabbit hair or skin (particularly at Zuni and at Moqui), 
and leaves of Yucca bacata and Y. angustifolia. Of the fibre 
of the Yucca, the Zuni Indians made skirts and kilts ; of 
rabbit skins, very heavy blankets were made. 1 The northern 
Pueblos, the Tehuas, Taos, and also the Pecos and Tanos, 
dressed in buckskin in preference to anything else. 2 But 
still, even when cotton was unobtainable for whole gar 
ments, they sought to secure cotton scarfs and girdles woven 
in bright colors, which were used for belts as well as for 
garters, etc. The dress was more simple than that of to 
day. Leggings of buckskin were worn in winter only, and 
then mostly by the northern Pueblos. The moccason, or 
" tegua," protected the feet. It is explicitly stated that, 
while the " uppers " of this shoe without heel were of deer 
skin, the soles were frequently of buffalo hide. 3 The Pueblos, 

1 Skirts made from Yucca leaves are frequently mentioned. At Zuni, for 
instance, Relacion del Suceso, p. 320 : " se visten de mantas de Henegrien," 
that is, I presume, of Hennequen, a species of the Agave. Relacion Postrera : 
" Andan las mugeres vestidas de mantas de maguey hasta los pies." Zarate, 
Relaciones, par. 44 : " Vistense de mantas de Yztli texidas de cardoncillo." 
As for the robes of rabbit skins, they are mentioned by Fray Marcos de Nizza, 
Descubrimiento, p. 338; Don Antonio de Mendoza, Denxieme Lettre a PEm- 
pereur, i;th April, 1540; Cibola, Appendix, p. 294, after the statements of 
Melchior Diaz, Relacion Postrera : " Tambien hacen mantas de pellejos de liebres 
y de conejos, con que se cubren." 

2 Hernando de Alvarado, Relacion, p. 513. Espejo, Relacion, p. 177. Rela 
cion Postrera. Relacion del Slice so, p. 325. 

3 Descriptions of the Pueblo costume are very frequent in older sources. Of 
Zuni, Castaneda (Cibola, p. 163) says: " Les Indiens de ce pays sont tres-intel- 
ligents, ils se couvrent les parties naturelles et tout le milieu du corps avec des 
pieces d etoffes qui ressemblent a des serviettes ; elles sont garnies de houpes 
et d une broderie aux coins ; ils les attachent autour des reins. Ces naturels 
ont aussi des especes de pelisses en plumes ou en peaux de lievres, et des 
etoffes en coton. Les femmes portent stir les epaules une espece de mante 
qu elles nouent autour de cou en les passant sous le bras droit; elles se font 
aussi des vetements de peaux tres-bien preparees, et retroussent leurs cheveux 
derriere les oreilles en forme de roue, ce qui ressemble aux anses d une coupe." 
I omit the descriptions furnished by Fray Marcos and by Melchior Diaz, since 
neither of them saw the costume, and they report from hearsay merely. Juan 



INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST. 



159 



as well as the roaming Indians, knew the art of tanning, and 
the astringent qualities of the "Cana agria" (Rumex venosns] 
were not unknown to them, but the plant came into use for 
tanning only under the Spanish regime. 

Thus both agriculture and the hunt furnished to the vil 
lagers not only food, but dress also. The turkey, which 
was kept around the houses of the pueblo, was domesti 
cated, not so much for its meat as for its feathers. Feather 
mantles were a part of the wearing apparel, and afforded 
both protection and ornament. 1 We meet among the New 
Mexicans the two elements which, farther south, consti- 

Jaramillo, Kelacion hecha de la Jornada que habia hecho d la Tierra Nneva, 
p. 308 : " El vestido de los Indies es de cueros de venados, estrenadisimo el 
adobo, alcanzan ya algunos cueros de vacas adobado con que se cobijan, que 
son a manera de bernias y de mucho abrigo ; tienen niantas de algodon cua- 
clradas, unas mayores que otras, como de vara y media en largo ; las indias las 
traen puestas por el hombre a manera de gitanas y cenidas una vuelta sobre 
otra por su cintura con una cinta del mismo algodon." Rclacion Postrera : 
" Andan cernidas : traen los cabellos cogidos encima de las orejas como ro- 
daxas." Testimonio Dado en Mexico, pp. 84, 90 : " Y la gente vestida de 
mantas de algodon y camisas de lo propio." Espejo, Relacion de Viage, p. 173 : 
" En esta provincia se visten algunos de los naturales, de mantas de algodon y 
cueros de las vacas, y de gamuzas aderezadas ; y las mantas de algodon y cueros 
de las vacas las traen puestas al uso Mexicano, eceto que debajo de partes 
vergonzosas traen unos panos de algodon pintados, y algunos dellos traen 
camisas, y las mugeres traen naguas de algodon y muchas dellas bordadas con 
hilo de colores, y encima una manta como la traen los indios Mexicanos, y 
atada con un pano de manos como tohalla labrada, y se lo atan por la cintura 
con sus borlas, y las naguas son que sirven de faldas de camisa a raiz de las 
carnes, y esto cada una lo trae con la mas ventaja que puede ; y todos, asi 
hombres como mujeres, andan calzados con zapatos y botas, las suelas de 
cuero de vacas, y lo de encima de cuero de venado aderezado; las mugeres 
traen el cabello muy peinado y bien puesto y con sus moldes que traen en la 
cabeza uno de una parte y otro de otra, a donde ponen el cabello con curio- 
sidad sin traer nengun tacado en la cabeza." 

1 The manner of making these feather mantles is described as follows by 
Juan Jaramillo (Relacion hecha de la Jornada, p. 309) : " Cueros unos pellones 
de plumas que las tuercen, acompanando la pluma con unos hilos, y despues 
las hacen a manera de tegido raro con que hacen las mantas con que se abrigan." 
Alvarado (Relacion, p. 512) also mentions the " pellones de la pluma de las 
gallinas." 



160 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 

tuted the fine robes of the Mexican Indians, the feather or 
plume, and the rabbit skin or hair. In Mexico, the two 
were combined in a garment that astonished the Spaniards 
by the beauty of its color and its intricacy of design. Farther 
north, each material was used by itself : the Pueblos had not 
yet advanced to the idea of a combination. 

The hunt as well as fishing was mostly communal. What 
in Peru has been described as the " Cha-cu," or great hunting 
expeditions of the Incas, could be witnessed in New Mexico 
even as late as this century. It was nothing else than a 
wholesale slaughter, in the most cruel and sometimes wanton 
manner, of all the game within a circle encompassed by a 
large number of people. Such communal hunts were under 
the special direction of the war captains, and not unfrequently 
several villages associated for the purpose. The meat was 
distributed among the households, and it would seem that a 
portion was reserved for rainy days. 1 For the Pueblo was 
not as improvident as the roaming Indian, who has the re 
source of changing his abode in case the local supply is 
exhausted. The Pueblo laid in communal stores ; certain 
small tracts were cultivated for that purpose, and the crops 
were housed in advance of the individual ones. There is 
still one remnant left of the ancient custom of communal 
hunting. These are the periodical rabbit hunts, made osten 
sibly for the benefit of the Cacique. I merely mention them 
here because they were accurately observed and described as 
early as the last years of the sixteenth century. 2 There is of 

1 This custom is reported by the Pueblo Indians as being an ancient one : it 
is now falling into disuse. 

2 The communal hunts are described, or at least noticed, by Torquemada, 
Monarchi a, vol. i. p. 680 : " Para ir a caca, hechan vando, y lo pregonan tres 
dias continuas ; pasados los tres dias, salen a los campo y a la ca9a, que ya 
esta pregonada." An excellent description of it, particularly of the rabbit hunt 
still practised to-day, is found in Villagran, (ffistoria, canto xvii. fol. 163,) but 
it is too long to be copied here. 



INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST. l6l 

course a great deal of superstitious practice connected with 
all these performances, for the Indian is so fettered to his 
complicated creed that his most insignificant actions are 
associated with some ritualistic performance. 

Landed tenure was simple, and had not risen to the con 
ception of individual ownership. The tribe or village claimed 
a range, the limits of which were ill defined. Within this 
range each male was at liberty to till a plot or tract, and 
since he it was who did the work on it, to him, and not to 
any female, was the right conceded of controlling the field. 
But he could not alienate it except to members of the tribe 
or of the clan. To such he could barter away and exchange 
his field, his crop even, so long as it was not housed. After 
housing, the crop belonged to the family, for the house was 
its abode, and the house had been built by the woman. 
There is consequently truth in the broad assertion, that the 
land belonged to the men and the dwellings to the women, 
with the restriction, however, that such possession was sub 
ject to the claims of social organization ; it was a possessory 
right rather than an absolute title. The fields, after the 
father s demise, might descend to his. male children, or one 
of them ; but any young man had the opportunity to obtain 
a plot of his own, and strict rules of inheritance cannot be 
said to have existed. With articles of personal use, the 
brothers seem to have stood nearer than the children : the 
Pueblos were approaching a state of transition from mother 
right to descent in the male line. 1 

It is almost superfluous to enter into any details about 
the agricultural and household implements of the Pueblos. 
To say that these Indians knew no metal of any kind, that 

1 These facts have been told me by a number of old Indians, belonging to 
the esoteric groups among which traditions are preserved with the utmost care. 
They refer more particularly to the Rio Grande Pueblos. 

ii 



1 62 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 

consequently basalt, flint, obsidian, granite, bone, and wood 
were the materials out of which they manufactured their 
instruments, designates their average type. To the student 
of details many interesting local variations will appear, but it 
suffices for our purpose to establish the degree of culture in 
general. I must, however, observe that the use of stone im 
plements does not imply absolute imperfection and rudeness 
of work. By means of a simple pebble or fragment of stone, 
the Pueblo Indian could perform sometimes as much as many 
of us can to-day with an implement of steel. Only the na 
tive, who had no idea of the value of time, supplemented the 
imperfection of the instrument by a degree of patience which 
we cannot afford to practise. It is well known that every 
principal tool of modern times had its prototype in the so 
called stone age, and this fact is illustrated by the ancient 
Pueblo implements. The plough they of course did not have, 
because they had no beasts of draught ; a planting stick and 
stone knives took its place. Bone saws have been found ; 
the fire drill was their auger and their gimlet. The axe, the 
hatchet, the hammer and maul, as well as the club-head, are 
all represented in basalt, in granite, and similar material. The 
Pueblo, as we have seen, spun and wove ; he made wicker- 
ware and pottery, the latter without the potter s wheel. 

In the main, the pottery of pre-Spanish times appears bet 
ter made and more handsomely decorated than the modern 
pottery of the Pueblos. But the patterns are similar, and the 
symbols used are identical. There are of course many local 
differences, but they can be explained by local resources or 
lack of resources. Where mineral paints were abundant, and 
varied in shades, the colors of the designs show brighter hues ; 
where good clay was not accessible, the pottery suffered in 
durability. The Pueblo, however, knew how to impart a cer 
tain lustre or glaze to some of the decorations on his earthen- 



INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST. 163 

ware, and this art is lost. How the decadence in ceramics 
is to be accounted for, I shall state further on. 

Divided -into petty communities, the Pueblo traded with 
his neighbor, or fought with him, as circumstances might 
dictate. Trading was simple exchange, for there was no 
money. The solemn dances served often as marts, where 
the people came to enjoy themselves and to barter. But 
the village Indian also made longer trips for commercial 
purposes. In 1540, the Pecos Indians came to Zuni with 
buffalo hides. The two extremes, west and east, possessed 
distinct commodities, which gave rise to commerce. 1 Again, 
certain groups of villages in the very heart of New Mexico 
controlled natural resources coveted by others, and for their 
possession they bartered or wrangled. The Tanos held the 
veins of turquoise, or kalaite, at the Cerrillos, about twenty 
miles southwest of the present Santa Fe. A branch of the 
Tiguas and another of the Piros were settled in the neigh 
borhood of the salt marshes. The Zunis enjoyed a similar 
privilege in being within a short distance of the Salines of 
the Carrizo. The Queres of San Felipe had in front of 
their village large veins of mineral paint, valuable to the In 
dian for his pottery. Such and other natural " treasures " 
were guarded as jealously as the limited power of their pos 
sessors permitted ; they both divided the pueblos from one 
another at times, and held them together by the great tie 
of commercial intercourse. 

Although never clearly defined, a certain solidarity existed 
between all the villages, of whatever language or geographical 
position. The tie was very nearly unconscious, and it made 

1 Such commerce is frequently alluded to. Thus Pecos occasionally traded 
buffalo hides with the Zunis. Castaneda, Cibola, p. 68. Salt was an important 
article of commerce ; not that the people of the villages situated near the Salines 
"exported " the coveted condiment, but those of the other pueblos had to sub 
mit to the conditions which those who held the marshes exacted. 



1 64 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 

itself felt only in the hours of greatest need, at what might 
be termed supreme moments. It originated from community 
of customs, organization, and creed. It did not prevent inter 
tribal squabbles, it was not formulated by any compact of the 
nature of league or confederacy. The Spaniards felt its force 
several times, and for the last time in 1680. This tie, which 
acknowledged the beliefs of all the Pueblos to be one, and 
which hinted at a community of origin too, was quite as much 
a product of necessity as of anything else. It was also the 
result of contrast in condition between the village Indians 
and the roving tribes surrounding them, and constantly 
threatening more or less their existence. 

The relation between these two classes of natives, the agri 
cultural and the nomad, were peculiar. In general there was 
war between them, war to the knife, a war of extermination. 
Nevertheless commerce existed. The people of Acoma ex 
changed cotton mantles against deer-skins with the Navajos; 1 
the Yutas traded at Taos, the Apaches of the plains came 
to Pecos with their buffalo robes. But on such occasions 
the people of Pecos did not allow them to enter the village, 
because, says Castaneda, " they are people who cannot be 
trusted. They receive them kindly, trade with them, with 
out however allowing them to spend the night in their vil 
lage. They even keep watch with trumpets, the sentinels 
calling out to each other as is done in Spain." 2 This ap 
plies to the Pueblos in general, and expresses the true re 
lations between them and the nomads. The latter could 
" never be trusted"; they might trade peaceably to-day, and 

1 Espejo, Relation, p. 180 : " Los serranos acuden a servir a los de los pobla- 
ciones, y los de las poblaciones les llaman a estos, querechos ; tratany contratan 
con los de las poblaciones, llevandoles sal y caza, venados, conejos y liebres y 
gamuzas aderezadas y otros generos de cosas, a trueque de mantas de algodon 
y otras cosas con que les satisfacen la paga el gobierno." 

2 Castaneda, Cibola, p. 179. 



INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST. 165 

murder to-morrow those with whom they bartered. The 
Pueblos had always to be on the qui vive. 

Ere I speak of the tribes called savages, I must refer to 
two clusters which were included under that denomination 
in part, but which still may not have deserved the name, 
since they showed a more docile spirit and a greater ten 
dency to assume stability of abode than have been found 
in the others, the Navajos excepted. These two tribes are 
the Mansos and the Jumanos. Both of them I have already 
enumerated among the Indians of Chihuahua. 

The Mansos also are called Lanos and Gorretas, but the 
name which they themselves recognize is not ascertained as 
yet. It is certain that they formerly lived on the Rio Grande 
in New Mexico, some fifty-five miles north of El Paso del 
Norte. 1 Their dwellings were made of branches and boughs, 
and they tilled the soil to a limited extent, but in dress they 
were like the Apaches and other Indians of the plains. To 
wards the Spaniards they showed themselves hostile in a 
small way, or rather distant and intractable for a while, 
until in the middle of the sixteenth century they were re 
duced to a permanent colony at the Pass and definitively 
settled. 2 Their numbers originally cannot have been more 

1 The place is indicated by Pedro de Rivera, Diario y Derrotero, p. 26. He 
places it twenty-one leagues north of El Paso del Norte, or in the vicinity of 
the present railroad station and military post of Fort Selden. That the Mansos 
did not live at El Paso originally is clearly proved. Benavides, Memorial, p. 9 
That they were settled at the Pass by Fray Garcia de San Francisco in 1659 has 
been mentioned already. 

2 Fray Garcia de San Francisco, Auto de Fundacion, 1659 (MS.). The 
most detailed description at my command is the one by Benavides, Memorial, 
p. 9 : " q comunmente llamanos, Mansos, 6 Gorretas ; porque de tal suerte se 
afeitan el cabello, que parece traen puesta vna gorreta en la cabefa ; y asimismo, 
escarnentados de que nuestros perros los han mordido algunas vezes, quando 
ellos nos reciben de guerra ; y quando vienen de paz y mansos, dezimos a los 
perros, sal ai, porque no los muerden, suelen ellos tabien preuenirse, que les 
atagenos los perros diziendones, sal ai, sac ai, manso ; y por este nobre de Man- 



1 66 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 

than from five hundred to a thousand souls. 1 About their 
idiom no studies have as yet been made. They have to-day 
the same officers as the Pueblos, and, although reduced to a 
dozen families, maintain their organization, and some of their 
rites and dances, which are very similar to those of the New 
Mexican villagers. They acknowledge having come from the 
north; the clans that are still extant are the same as the clans 
of the Pueblos, and they confess that, while they lack at pres 
ent the medicine-men or shamans, the need might be supplied 
by applying for the necessary idols and paraphernalia to any 
of the northern Pueblos. This confession is important, since 
it proves that the Mansos also recognize that tacit solidarity 
which binds together the sedentary Indians of New Mexico. 
I call particular attention to the Mansos, for they are fast dis 
appearing, and ought to be studied while it is yet time. 2 

sos son conocidos comunmente entre nosotros. Tambien esta es gente que no 
tiene casa, sino ranches de ramas, ni siembran, ni se visten ellos en particular, 
sino todos desnudos ; y solamente se cubren las mugeres de la cinta a baxo, con 
dos pellejos de venado, vno adelante, y otro atras. Tambien son de la condi- 
cion de los antecedentes, que si ven la suya ha/en todo el mal que pueden ; 
pero no pudiendo, se vienen todos de paz a buscarnos, para que los demos de 
coiner que este es su principal fin, y se comen entre pocos vna baca cruda, no 
dexando nada de la pan9a, pues aun para limpiarla de la vascosidad no reparan 
en tragarsela assf, como perros, cogiendola con la boca, y cortandola con 
cuchillos de pecernal, y tragando sin mascar. Estos Mansos pues, como estan 
en el passo del rio, es fuei^a topar siempre con ellos, y suelen lleuarnos a sus 
propias ranchenas para que les demos de comer a sus mugeres, y hijos, y tam- 
bien nos suelen regalar con lo que tienen, que es pescado y ratones. Es gente 
muy dispuesta, bien agestada y fornida." Of the creed and beliefs of the 
Mansos I have not been able to find anything reliable. 

1 Vetancurt, Cronica, p. 308, speaks of over one thousand previous to 1680. 
But in this number are manifestly included the Sumas and other Indians (Piros, 
Jumanos, etc.) who had intermarried with the Mansos or were living among 
them. In 1749 the number of Indians at El Paso is estimated at one thou 
sand, which comprises Mansos, Tiguas, and Piros, Relacion de las Misiones del 
Nuevo Mexico (MS.). According to Father Agustin Morfi, Description, fol. 114, 
there were fifty Indian families in 1744, and two hundred and ninety-four Indians 
in all in 1765. 

2 I shall refer to these details in the third part of this Report. 



INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST. 167 

The Jumanos have disappeared from the surface, and, 
strange to say, although mentioned as an important and even 
numerous tribe in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, I 
have not as yet been able to trace any description of the cus 
toms, manners, etc. of that northern branch of them which 
belonged to New Mexico proper. They ranged in the south 
eastern part of the territory, south and southeast of the salt 
lagunes of the Manzano, where the name of " Mesa de los Ju 
manos" still commemorates their former presence. 1 About 
their abodes, their mode of dress, their rites and creed, we 
know as little as of their language, nothing. Still it is 
certain that a vocabulary of the latter was made in 1684 
by Fray Nicolas Lopez, but it has disappeared. Benavides 
states that the Jumanos of New Mexico subsisted on the 

1 In 1598, Onate visited the three great villages of the Jumanos, or " Rayados," 
in the vicinity of the Salines and of Abo, consequently on or near the Mesa de 
los Jumanos of to-day. Discurso de las Jornadas, p. 266 : " Uno muy grande." 
In the Obediencia de San Jiian Baptista (p. 114) are mentioned "Los tres Pue 
blos grandes de Xumanas 6 Rayados, llamados en su lengua, Atripuy, Genobey, 
Quelotetreny, Pataotrey con sus subgetos." This would make four instead of 
three. The Obediencia y Vasallaje a stt Magestad por los Indies del Pueblo de 
Cueloce (Doc. de Indias, vol. xvi. p. 126) mentions the pueblo of Cue loce as "que 
llaman de los rayados." Cueloce may be another version of Cuelotetrey. In 
the same document Xenopue is mentioned, and Patasce. The former is most 
likely the same as Genobey, and the latter may stand for Pataotrey. I place 
some stress on these local names, as they may be authentic remains of the lan 
guage. Onate (Carta escripta 1599, p. 306) mentions the Xumanas as the 
second tribe encountered in New Mexico, coming to that country from the 
south. In 1630, Benavides (Memorial, p. 77) locates the Jumanos 112 leagues 
east of Santa Fe. Fray Alonzo de Posadas (Informe al Rey, 1686) locates them 
on the Upper Rio Nueces, in Texas, 80 leagues east or northeast of the Junta de 
los Rios, or mouth of the tonchos. Dominguez Mendoza (Diario, 1684, fol. 12) 
also places them in that vicinity. In connection with the location of the Juma 
nos I may be permitted here to recall the mention made of the Teyas, a tribe of 
the plains, which tribe Coronado met on his adventurous trip to Quivira, 
Carta d sit Magestad, 2Oth of October, 1541, old style (Doc. de Indias, vol. xiii. 
p. 263) : " Y otra nacion de gente que se llaman los teyas, todos lobrados los 
cuerpos y rostros." The fact that the Teyas tattooed their faces and bodies 
might possibly indicate that they were the Jumanos, who, in quest of the buffalo, 
had gone as far north as eastern or northeastern New Mexico. 



1 68 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 

buffalo almost exclusively, and I have not been able to find 
any documentary evidence that they cultivated the soil. 1 And 
yet Espejo found their kindred in Chihuahua living in per 
manent abodes, and raising the same crops as the Pueblo In 
dians. It is not unlikely that the northern branch of the tribe 
succumbed to the remarkable influence which the great quad 
ruped exerted over the aborigines, who attached themselves 
to its immense hordes, and, becoming accustomed to the life 
which the following of the buffalo required, discarded per 
manence of abode, exchanging it for vagrancy with its con- 

1 The only peculiarity which is attributed to the Jumanos in the sources at 
my disposal is the custom of striating the face. From the word used, " rayado," 
it is not quite certain whether this was done merely with paint, or whether it 
was done by incising. It may be the latter. It is certain that, as late as 
J 697> a Jumano Indian, a female described as "a striated one of the Jumano 
nation," was sold at Santa Fe for a house containing three rooms and a small 
tract of land besides. This woman had been sold to the Spaniards by other 
Indians, who had captured her. Escrittura de Uentta de una Casa de las Hijas de 
F co Luzero que isieron al Sarjento Mayor F co de Anaya Almazan (MS.) : "Por 
una india rrayada de nazion Jumana auida y comprada de los amigos christianos." 
In regard to the habitations of the Jumanos I can find nothing precise ; that 
is, so far as the New Mexican Jumanos are concerned. From the statements of 
Benavides it might be inferred that they had no fixed abodes, but lived almost 
exclusively on the buffalo. Memorial, p. 79: " Viendo el demonio, enemigo de 
las almas, que aquellos Religiosos ivan a librar de sus vnas las que alii gozaua, 
quiso defenderse, y vso de vn ardid de los que suele, y fue, que seco las lagunas 
del agua que bebian, a cuya causa tambien se auyento el mucho ganado de 
Sibola que por alii auia, de que todas estas naciones se sustentauan, y luego, 
por medio de los Indios hechizeros, echo la voz, que mudassen puesto, para 
buscar de comer." This intimates an erratic life. On the other hand, however, 
Onate, as I have shown above, mentions at least three large villages. In 1700, 
a village of the Jumanos reappears, and that village cannot have been situated 
outside of New Mexico, as the news of its destruction (by the French) was 
carried to Taos in the most northerly part of the territory by the Jicarilla 
Apaches. Relacion Andnima de la Reconquista (MS., Sesto Cuaderno) : "El 
ano de 1700 refirio un apache de los llanos, que los franceses habian destruido 
el pueblo de los Jumanos, y esta noticia, que el alcalde mayor del pueblo de 
Taos comunico a Cubero, hizo temer a todos los del reino que los franceses 
podian hacer suya esta tierra." The village of Jumanos here mentioned cannot 
have had any connection with the pueblo of Jumanos, which had been abandoned 
previously to 1680. 



INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST. 169 

sequences. The Jumanos were lost sight of after the great 
convulsions of 1680 and succeeding years, and their ultimate 
fate is as unknown as their original numbers. 

Tribes properly belonging to the area of Texas also roamed 
occasionally over southeastern New Mexico. Such were the 
Ayjaos, the Utacas, and others. 1 It is not improbable even 
that stray bands of Indians from Chihuahua, crossing the 
Rio Grande in quest of the buffalo, may have grazed at least 
the southern parts of the territory. In 1590, Caspar Castano 
de Sosa met Tepehuanes on the Lower Rio Pecos. 2 The 
steppes formed a vast expanse of territory, on which repre 
sentatives of all the stocks living or roaming in their vicinity 
could be met. Among these are named the Pananas, or Paw 
nees, 3 a northern tribe, and another group, from the north 
also, the Quiviras, or Tindanes. 

The name " Quivira " has played a very remarkable part in 
the events of Spanish colonization of the Southwest. I say 
the name, for there is no substance to the pictures asso 
ciated with it. The origin of the name is not known ; it is 
not a Spanish fabrication, but in all probability some word 
of an Indian tongue, misunderstood or misapplied, as so fre 
quently happened and yet happens. 4 We must divest our- 

1 As these tribes apparently belonged to Texas rather than to New Mexico, 
I forbear referring to them otherwise than in a passing manner. The Ayjaos 
of Ayjaclos appear already in the documents touching the expeditions of Oiiate, 
or about the year 1600. They roamed over the eastern plains, along the borders 
of New Mexico, the Indian Territory, and Texas. 

2 Memoria del Descubrimiento, p. 207. He calls them " Despeguanes." 

3 That the Pananas are the Pawnees needs no proof. They sometimes made 
their appearance in northeastern New Mexico, and were found among the 
Indian captives which the Spaniards purchased from the Apaches or Cunian- 
ches or Yutas. The Pananas are frequently mentioned. 

4 The word Quivira was first heard by the Spaniards either at Pecos or among 
the Tiguas at Bernalillo, and from an Indian who was not a native of New Mexico, 
but who seems to have belonged to one of the tribes of the Indian Territory who 
frequented the plains, where this Indian was taken prisoner by the Pecos. Rdcu 



170 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 

selves totally of the notion of Quivira being anything else 
than a name given to a roving band of Indians, a name 
which has become famous through a series of misstate- 
ments and misunderstandings, as well as involuntary and in 
tentional deceptions. Here, I have to deal only with the 
tribe of Quivira. From the itineraries in my possession it 
appears that in 1541 Coronado found the Quivira Indians in 
Northeastern Kansas, beyond the Arkansas River, and more 
than one hundred miles northeast of Great Bend. They 
were a tribe of nomads, who depended for livelihood prin 
cipally on buffalo hunting, but also cultivated some corn. 
Their dwellings were mere huts, of the kind now termed 
" Typees " or " Wickeeups," made of tree branches and cov 
ered with reeds or grass. Not a trace of metal was found 
in their country, and the only piece of it in their posses 
sion was a lump of native copper which one of their chiefs 
carried on a string of leather around his neck. I must 
reiterate that they are positively stated to have been a 
wandering tribe, who shifted with the buffalo herds, and 
were by no means of the Pueblo type. 1 But it is strange, 

cion del Suceso, p. 325 : " El indio que daba tanta razon de lo que decia como 
si fuera verdad e lo ubiera visto era de trescientas leguas deste rio al levante 
de un pueblo que llamaba Harall." This Indian was the notorious "Turk." 
His plan was evidently to lead the Spaniards into the plains, with the expecta 
tion that there they would perish. 

1 The descriptions furnished of Quivira and its inhabitants by Coronado and 
all the other eyewitnesses or their companions are precise, and it is a mystery 
to me that modern writers have still continued to treat of Quivira as a large 
town, or of its people as a powerful tribe considerably advanced in civilization. 
Although the quotations are long, I feel compelled to refer to the sources here, 
and in full, to show what Coronado and his men saw, and what they said of 
Quivira. I begin with the commander s own report to the Emperor, Carta a 
su Magestad, 1541, p. 264: " Al cabo de aber caminado por aquellos desiertos 
setenta y siete dias, llegue a la provincia que llaman Quivira, donde me llevavan 
los guias, y me abian senalado casas de piedra y de muchos altos, y no solo no 
las av de piedra sino de paja, pero la gente dellas es tan barbara como toda la 
que he visto y pasado hasta aqui, que no tienen mantas ni algodon de que las 



INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST. 171 

although not without many parallels in the annals of the 
Southwest, both ancient and modern, that the majority of 

hacer, sino cueros que adovan de las vacas que matan, porque estan pobladas 
entrellas, en un rio bien grande ; comen la carne cruda como los querechos y 
teyas ; son enemigos unos de otros, pero toda es gente de una manera, y estos de 
Quivira hacen a los otros bentajas en las casas que tienen y en sembrar maiz en 
esta provincia, de donde son naturales los guias que me llevaron ; me recibie- 
ron de paz, y aunque quando parti para ella me dixeron que en dos meses 
no la acabaria de ver toda, no ay en ella y en todo lo demas que yo vi y supe 
mas de veinte y cinco pueblos de casas de paja. ... La gente dellos es crecida 
y algunos indios hize medir, y halle que tenian diez palmos de estatura ; las 
mujeres son de buena disposition, tienen los rostros mas a manera de moriscas 
que de indias ; alii me dieron los naturales un pedazo de cobre que un indio 
principal traya colgado del quello ; embiolo al Visorey de la Nueva Espana, 
porque no he vislo en estas partes otro metal sino aquel, y ciertos cascabeles de 
cobre que lo embio, y un poquito de metal que parecia oro, que no he sabido de 
donde sale, mas de que creo que los indios que me lo dieron le hubieron de los 
que yo aqui traigo de servicio, porque de otra parte yo no le puedo hallar el 
nascimiento, ni de donde sea." Ibid., p. 266: " Porque los guias que llevava me 
avian dado noticia de otras provincias adelante de ella, y la que puede aver es 
que no abia oro ni otro metal en toda aquella tierra, y las demas de que me 
dieron relacion no son sino pueblos pequenos y en muchos dellos no siembran ni 
tienen casas, sino de queros y canas, y andan mudandose con las vacas, por 
manera que la relacion que me dieron fue falsa porque me mobiese a ir alia con 
toda la gente, creyendo que, por ser el camino de tantos desiertos y despoblados 
y falto de aguas, nos metieran en partes donde nuestros caballos y nosotros 
murieramos de hambre, y asi lo confesaron los guias." After this plain state 
ment from Coronado himself, I will turn to the report of one of his officers, 
Juan Jaramillo (Relation /iec/ia, p. 315): "Las casas que estos indios tenian 
eran de paxa y muchas dellas redondas, y la paxa llegaba hasta el suelo como 
pared que no tenia la proportion de las de aca; por de fuera y encima desto, 
tenian una manera como capilla 6 garita, con una entrada donde se asomaban 
los indios sentados 6 echados." 

The anonymous Relacion del Suceso, written in New Mexico in 1541, therefore 
by one of Coronado s companions, says (p. 326) : " Lo que en Quibira hay es 
una gente muy bestial sin policia ninguna en las casas, ni en otra cosa, las cuales 
son de paja a manera de ranches tarascos, en algunos pueblos juntas las casas, 
de a docientas casas ; tienen maiz e frisoles e calabazas, no tienen algodon, ni 
gallinas, ni hacen pan que se cueza, sino debajo de la ceniza." 

The Relacion Postrera was written before Coronado s return from Quivira, 
and does not, therefore, contain anything on the subject. 

Castaneda, Cibola, p. 194 : " Leurs moeurs et leurs coutumes sont les memes 
que celles des Teyas, et leurs villages ressemblent a ceux de la Nouvelle Espagne. 
Les maisons sont rondes, n ont pas de murailles ; les etages sont semblables a 



172 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 

people rejected the testimony of Coronado, and of those 
who went with him to Quivira. 1 Quivira became a golden 
vision in theory ; practically, it was a delusive spectre. 

In 1541 and 1542, we find the Quiviras in northeastern 
Kansas. About 1600, they were in southwestern Kansas 
or southeastern Colorado. 2 Thirty years later, they roamed 

des soupentes. Les habitants couchent sous le toit ; c est la qu ils conservent 
ce qu ils possedent : ces toits sont en paille." 

The agreement of all these witnesses on the condition of the tribe of Quivira 
is striking. They concur in picturing the Quiviras as a people of nomads, 
following the buffalo, planting some little corn wherever they stayed for any 
number of years, in short, as Plains Indians of the purest type. These re 
ports were reproduced in standard works of the time, and it shows that contem 
poraries placed full confidence in them. Francisco Lopez de Gomara, Historia 
General de las Indias, Primera Parte, edition of Vedia, in Historiadores primi 
tives de Indias, vol. i. p. 278 : " Vista por los espanoles la burla de tan famosa ri- 
queza, se volvieron, etc. No hay algodon y vesten cueros de vacas y venados." 
Gomara s work was published in 1554. 

Antonio de Herrera was not a contemporary, but he compiled his great work 
from the most authentic sources. He gives a description of Quivira that is 
manifestly taken from Coronado s or Jaramillo s writings, probably compiled 
from both. Historia General, vol. ii. p. 206. As his work was published un 
der the special sanction of the Crown, about 1610, it shows that there were no 
extravagant notions about Quivira current in governmental circles at the time. 

Torquemada was Herrera s contemporary. He says in his Monarchia (vol. i. 
p. 610): "En el interim, que llevo consigo, y en todo quanto anduvo, no -hallo 
ninguna gente congregada, y en esto se detuvo tiempo de seis Meses ; y cien 
leguas adelante de donde estaba alojada el exercito. - The document called 
Demarcation y Division de las Indias (Doc. de Indias, vol. xv. p. 461), of the 
sixteenth century, says of Quivira : " Dozientas [leguas] de Ci bola, al orierite 
aunque de esto se tiene poca certidumbre, ni de la qualidad de la tierra, mas de 
set fria por estar en mucha altura y por esto pobre." Until Onate, the expe 
ditions to New Mexico paid hardly any attention to Quivira. It was Onate s 
reports, and especially the inflated descriptions of Fray Geronimo de Zarate- 
Salmeron and Fray Alonzo Benavides, which directed the attention of the pub 
lic to imaginary riches and supposed numerous populations, to which the name 
Quivira was applied. 

1 Even the soldiers of Coronado disbelieved at first the reports about Quivira 
which their commander and his companions made. Castanecla, Cibola, p. 142. 

2 According to Zarate-Salmeron (Relaciones, par. 37), the Indian Jusepe, who 
had accompanied Humana and Leyva-Bonilla on their disastrous journey to the 
unknown North about 1585, led Onate first into the plains, and then to the 



INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST. 173 

along the boundary line of New Mexico and the Indian 
Territory of to-day. 1 From 1684 to the beginning of the 
eighteenth century they were looked for farther south yet, 
about the northern frontier of Texas. 2 Lastly, in 1719, " the 
Cancey, whose principal village is that of the Quirireches," 
were located on the head-waters of Red River. 3 



northeast, in all about 200 leagues, or approximately 540 miles. This must have 
carried them into Colorado or Kansas. There they met the " Escanxaques," 
or Kansas, and finally the Quiviras. The reports about the condition of the 
latter are so vague and conflicting, that it is not worth while to discuss them. 
The same authority (par. 43) states that when the Quiviras sent to Onate a 
messenger or ambassador, that delegate remarked : " Que les Espanoles habian 
rodeado mucho por el camino que fueron, que si salieran al Norte llegaran en 
breve, de suerte que segun lo que dijeron se ha de ir por los Taos, y por tierras 
del gran capitan Guima por aquellos llanos." This points clearly towards 
southern Colorado. The investigations made officially and by order of the 
crown in regard to Onate s undertakings and administration prove the same. 
See Information que por Comision del Visrey hizo en Mexico el Factor Don Fran 
cisco de Valverde con cinco Testigos (Doc. de Indtas, vol. xvi. p. 210), and Informa 
tion hecha en la Audiencia de Mexico por parte del A del ant ado Don Joan dc Onate 
en Abril (Ibid., p. 214). 

1 Benavides, Memorial, p. 85 : " Qvando estos dos Religiosos estuuierS 
obrando aquellas marauillas en la nacion Xumana. . . . Llego tabie esta voz 
al Reyno de Quivira, y al de los Aixaos, q estaua de alii 30 6 40 leguas al mismo 
rumbo del Oriente." The Jumanos were then, as I have shown, in eastern or 
southeastern New Mexico. Ibid., p. 86: " Siendo pues assi, q la villa de Sata 
Fe esta en treinta y siete grades, yendode alii al Leste cieto y cinqueta leguas 
dase en este Reyno, y assi esta en la misma altura." 

Fr. Alonso de Posadas, Informe (MS.). In 1634, Alonso Vaca found the 
Quiviras due east of Santa Fe. 

2 I omit here the pretended reports of Diego de Penalosa. It is not improba 
ble that that adventurous officer made an expedition into the plains, but what he 
has attributed to Fray Nicolas de Fleytas (not Freytas) on this point is most 
likely a forgery perpetrated by Penalosa himself. But in 1684, Juan Dominguez 
de Mendoza made his journey to the Rio Nueces in Texas, and he heard of 
the Quiviras in that vicinity. Memorial informando acerca de las Naciones del 
Oriente (MS.). Everything points to a confirmation of the statements made 
by Coronado and his people, namely, that the Quiviras were a band of no 
madic Indians, and that they were gradually pushed southward by other tribes, 
like all the Indians of the plains. 

3 Journal Historique de I Etablissement des Franfais a la Lonisiane, pp. 200 
and 211. 



174 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 

The Quiviras had another name, by which they became 
known to the Spaniards of New Mexico as early as 1600, 
or a little afterwards. It is the name Tindan. This word 
has an analogy with Thinthonha, as the Teton Sioux were 
called by Hennepin. 1 There is nothing unlikely in the 
supposition that the Quiviras were a band of southern Da- 
cotas, who penetrated farther south in pursuit of the buffalo, 
7 and finally disappeared among the Indians of Arkansas and 
Texas. 

That the Yutas occasionally impinged upon the northern 
sections of New Mexico is a well known fact. They were 
the neighbors, therefore also the enemies, of the most north 
erly Pueblos, the Taos and Picuries. 2 Of their congeners, 
the Comanches, I shall treat briefly hereafter. The Coman- 
ches are the latest of the aborigines of the Southwest. 

It remains for me now to consider the most numerous of 
all linguistic groups in New Mexico and in Arizona, and one 
that has played a conspicuous part in its history, past and 
present. These are the southern Tinnehs, the Navajos 
and the Apaches. 

That the Navajos and Apaches are a branch of the Tinneh 
family is unquestionable. But the usual custom of treating 

1 Description of Louisiana, by Father Louis Hennepin, published by Mr. Shea 
in 1880. On the map accompanying the work, and which bears date 1683, there 
is, at the head-waters of the Mississippi, in lat. 50 N., " Thinthonna ou gens des 
prairies." (p. 200.) " They merely told me that twenty or thirty leagues below 
there is a second fall, at the foot of which are some villages of the prairie 
people, called Thinthonha, who live there a part of the year." Also Journal 
Historique de I* Etablisjement des Fran$ais (p. 70). Among the western Sioux, 
" Tintangaoughiatons . . . Village de la grande cabane." 

2 Declaration de un India Pecuri, fol. 23. Relation Andnima de la Reconquista 
(MS.). In the first half of the past century, the Yutas troubled the settlers at 
Abiquiu greatly. They even caused its temporary abandonment. See Declara 
tion de Bentura Yndio Genizaro Christiana, sobre el Estado en que oy se halla la 
Provincia de Nabajo y sus Naturales, 1748 (MS.) ; Providencias y Mandamiento 
sobre el Repueble del Par age de Abiquiu, 1750 (MS.). 



INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST. 175 

the Navajos as a part of the Apaches is incorrect. It is the 
Apaches that are ramifications, degenerated and vagrant, of 
the Navajos. The Navajos are, and always have been, the 
main body. They have also preserved their original tribal 
name with greater purity, calling themselves Din-ne, while 
the Apaches have perverted it into N day. Their relative 
numbers also indicate that the Navajos constitute the ma 
jority. The proportion to-day is as three to one, the latter 
counting 21,000, the Apaches hardly more than 6,000 to 
7,000 souls. That nearly the same proportion existed in the 
beginning of the seventeenth century can be gathered from 
the enormously exaggerated estimates of Benavides. 1 Lastly, 
the state of culture of the Navajos is not so widely dif 
ferent from that of the northern Tinnehs as are the social 
condition and the habits of life of the Apaches. 

When first met with, the Navajos occupied the same range 
of country they now inhabit, namely, northwestern New Mex 
ico and northern Arizona. They were then, as they are 
to-day, land-tillers to a certain extent, and while not so sta 
tionary as the Pueblos, yet they lived in dwellings, partly un 
derground, and more substantial than those of the Apaches, 
and they erected special storehouses for their crops. 2 Had 
the Navajos possessed a central organization, they would 
have been a very formidable power, and the Pueblos, scat 
tered and widely distributed, could not long have held their 
own against them. But clanship so predominated among 
them that no tribe or association of tribes became possible. 
This also worked unfavorably for permanence of abode. 
Their bands, consisting of a clan, or fragment of a clan, 

1 Memorial, p. 70. He estimates the Navajos alone at over 200,000. 

2 Ibid., p. 57 : " Y estos de nauajo son muy grandes labradores, q esso sig- 
nifica Nauajo, sementeras grandes." Ibid., p. 58 : " Tienen su modo de viui- 
enda debaxo de tierra, y cierto modo de xacales para recoger sus sementeras, y 
siempre habitan en aquel puesto." 



176 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 

moved hither and thither, according to circumstances and 
superstitious indications. Their country, in many portions 
of it, fostered separation into small bands ; for its deep val 
leys are long rather than broad, and the arable and irrigable 
spots lie in nooks, corners, and bay-like openings. There 
was therefore little cohesion between the clusters, and, as 
Dr. Washington Mathews has most correctly observed, a 
democracy prevailed that forbade all idea of central will 
and force. The Navajos fought the Pueblos nearly every 
year at one or more points, and the villages of the Jemez, 
for instance, were brought by them to the verge of utter 
ruin. 1 But this did not preclude commercial intercourse, 
and the desultory warfare never grew into any attack on a 
larger scale, at least not in past centuries. 2 The Navajos 
irrigated at places, and raised corn, as well as the other vege 
tables common to the Indian. Cotton, it seems, they did not 
grow, and their dress consequently was of skins and hides, 
perhaps also of yucca. 8 Their implements and weapons were 
the same as those of all the others. Of their house life and 
social customs in general the authors of the past tell us 
hardly anything, and they are equally silent about their rites 
and beliefs. What has been ascertained concerning the cult 
and religious customs of the tribe is due almost exclusively 
to the efforts of investigators of the present generation, and 

1 Benavides, Memorial, p. 27. Vetancurt, Cronica, p. 319. Menologio, p. 76. 

2 Their trading with the Pueblos, so far as Acoma is concerned, is mentioned 
by Espejo, Relation, p. 180. There is no evidence of any concerted attack 
upon the Pueblos ; such an attack they could scarcely have withstood, as they 
were hardly so numerous as the Navajos, and were much more widely scat 
tered. Had there been concerted action on the part of the Navajos, they 
could, at any time previously to 1700, have wiped out both the Pueblos and 
the Spaniards. 

3 The famous Navajo blankets are nowhere mentioned. On the contrary, 
Espejo positively states that they obtained cotton mantles from the Pueblos by 
barter. The art of weaving appears to have been learned by the Navajos from 
the Pueblos. 



INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST. 177 

of Anglo-American origin. It may be that the Spanish civil 
or ecclesiastical archives still contain unknown documents 
with valuable information on the subject, but the sources so 
far accessible to me are as good as silent. Benavides speaks, 
in terms general and vague, of idolatry among the Apaches, 
consequently among the Navajos by inference. He men 
tions sun-worship, for instance. 1 But details in regard to 
these matters, which are comparatively numerous in regard 
to the Pueblos, are sought for in vain in his pages, though 
he bestowed much and intelligent attention on the Apaches 
and their kindred. 2 

The Apaches proper have played such an important part in 
the history of the Southwest, that we might expect to find 
them a tribe of considerable numbers. Indeed, if we accept 
the wild statements of the honest but over enthusiastic 
Benavides, such would appear to have been the case. But 
Benavides judged from appearances only. He found the 
Apaches everywhere, on the plains, in the mountains, all 
around the villages, north, south, east, and west, and 
he concluded that they must be exceedingly numerous. He 
estimated their numbers from the bands which came in to 
treat with the Spaniards, not knowing that these bands were 
all, or nearly all, that there were of the tribes. 

The earliest notice of the Apaches was certainly in 1541, 
by members of Coronado s expedition and by Coronado 
himself. A report on that exploration, written about thirty 
years after the event by one of the soldiers, Castaneda, is 
the only known document of that time which speaks of the 
Apaches in Arizona. Speaking of the country around the 
so-called " Red House," a ruin situated where now is Fort 

1 Memorial, p. 55. 

2 Benavides says, that to him are due the first successful efforts to reduce 
the Apaches to Christianity. How far this may be true, I am unable to decide. 

12 



I 78 ARCH&OLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 

Grant, on the south of the Rio Gila, near the Aiivaypa, 
he -mentions its inhabitants as follows : " These Indians dwell 
in isolated huts, and subsist on the chase alone." Previously, 
he says of them that they " are the most barbarous people 
thus far found in these parts." l Still they opposed no obsta 
cles to the passage of the Spaniards, even when they travelled 
in groups of a few men only. 2 

The Apaches of the eastern plains, those who supported 
themselves exclusively by following the herds of buffalo 
and almost living in company with them, attracted the at 
tention of the Spaniards in a greater degree. Coronado 
fell in with them in 1541, about two weeks after he had 
left the Pecos village on his adventurous journey to the 
northeast in search of Quivira. It was consequently about 
due east of the present settlement of Mora, on the great 
plains. 3 He, and all the other chroniclers of his expedi 
tion, describe them as being taller than the Pueblos, and 
as living exclusively upon and with the American bison. 
This animal gave them meat, clothing, fuel, shelter, and to a 
great extent the material for their implements and weapons. 
They dressed in its hides, and made their tents from them ; 
they burned its manure, drank its blood, and made awls, 
arrow-points, needles, and other instruments out of its bones. 

1 Cibola, p. 162. Speaking of the Red House, or " Chichiltic-Calli," he says: 
"II parait qu elle fut detruite anciennement par les habitants, qui forment la 
nation la plus barbare que Ton ait encore trouvee dans ces parages. Ces 
Indians habitant dans des cabanes isolees, et ne vivent que de chasse." 

2 The chroniclers of Coronado are unanimous in declaring that no opposition 
was offered to the Spaniards between Culiacan, in Sinaloa, and Zuni. Relation 
del Suceso, p. 319: " Todo este camino hallamos los naturales de paz " Cas- 
tanecla, Cibola, p. 40 : " Le general et ses compagnons traverserent tran- 
quillement le pays qu ils trouverent entierement pacific ; car tous les Indians 
connaissaient Frere Marcos, et quelques-uns d entr eux avaient accompagne 
Melchior Diaz et Juan de Saldibar dans leur voyage de decouverte." 

3 As Coronado travelled to the northeast after leaving Pecos, he struck the 
plains in the vicinity of Mora, to the east of it. 



INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST. 179 

The name given to these Apaches at that time was 
Ouerechos. Of their numbers no adequate conception can 
be obtained, for they were roving, constantly changing about, 
and the same band might be counted often. But they 
frequently, in winter, came into the neighborhood of the 
Pueblos, in order to trade with their inhabitants. 1 It was 
noticed as a peculiarity of theirs that they used the dog as 
a beast of burden. -* This fact alone, were there no other 
reasons for identifying the Querechos with the Apaches of 
the plains, would be an important indication. 3 The Quere 
chos, however, were not the only Indians of the great plains 
who thus employed dogs : a tribe which roamed in the same 
region, and farther east, called the Teyas, and which I am 
unable to identify so far, used them for the same purpose. 

1 Castaneda, Cibola, p. 179. Espejo, Relacion, p. 180. 

2 Cibola, p. 190 : " Us ont de grands troupeaux de chiens qui portent leurs 
bagage ; ils 1 attachent sur le dos de ces animaux au moyen d une sangle et d un 
petit bat. Quand la charge se derange les chiens se mettent a hurler, pour 
avertir leur maitre de l arranger." Relacion del Suceso, p. 328 : " Y quando 
van de una parte a otra, las llevan en unos perros que tienen, de los quales 
tienen muchos, y los cargan con las tiendas y palos y otras cosas ; por ser la 
tierra tan liana que se aprovechan en esto, como digo, porque llevan los palos 
arrastrando." Coronado, Carta, p. 263 : " Tiene perros que cargan en que 
llevan sus tiendas y palos y menudencias." Relacion Postrera . " Esta gente 
tiene perros como los de esta tierra, salvo que son algo mayores, los cuales 
perros cargan como a bestias, y les hagen sus ensalmas como albardillas, y las 
cinchan con sus correas, y andan matados como bestias en cruzes. Cuando van 
a caa cargan] os de mantenimientos, y cuando se mueven estos indios, porque 
no estan de asiento en una parte, que se andan donde andan las vacas para se 
mantener, estos perros les llevan las casas, y llevan los palos de las casas arras 
trando atados a las albardas, allende de la carga que llevnn encima ; podra ser 
la carga segund el perro arroba y media y dos." I omit the testimony of authors 
who were not eyewitnesses. 

3 In 1630, the "Apaches Vaqueros," or the Apaches of the plains, used dogs 
in great numbers. Benavides, Memorial, p. 74 : " Y las tiendas las lleuan 
cargadas en requas de perros aparejados co sus enxalmillas, y son los perros 
medianos, y suele lleuar quinietos perros en vna requa vno delante de otro, y 
la gente lleua cargada su mercaden a, que trueca por ropa de algodon, y por 
otras cosas de que carecen." 



l8o ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 

In 1583, the name Querechos is applied by Espejo to the 
Navajos who haunted the mountains in the vicinity of Acoma. 
The term Apaches is first met with in the documents con 
cerning Onate s colonization of New Mexico, in I5Q8. 1 From 
that time on, these Indians are associated with every period 
of the history of the Southwest. 

Different groups are mentioned from time to time, but 
the present appellatives of the Apache fractions, such as 
Mescaleros, Jicarrillas, Chiricahuas, and " White Mountain 
Apaches," appear but gradually, and subsequent to 1630. 
The first two of these groups are the remainder of what were 
then known as Vaqueros and " Apaches del Perrillo." These 
two divisions became afterwards subdivided into many frac- 
tiotis, to each of which a name was given, not so much by 
the Indians themselves as by the Spaniards, who gathered 
the designations from various sources. 2 The Apaches recog- 

1 It occurs in two documents, and is misspelt or misprinted in one. Obedien- 
cia de San Juan Baptista (p. 114) has Apaches. Onate, Carta Escripta (p. 308), 
" es infinita gente los Apiches, de que tambien hemos visto algunos." 

2 The changes in the names of Apache tribes, as found in Spanish au 
thors, are to be accounted for by the fact that the Spaniards, according to 
the shiftings of the bands, applied to them fresh designations. So, in 1630, 
Benavides distinguishes the following groups (Memorial, p. 13): on the Rio 
Grande and in the Jornada del Muerto, the "Apaches del Perrillo"; to the 
west and into present Arizona, " Apaches de Xila " (p. 53) ; the " Apaches cle 
Navajo," where the Navajos are to-day (p. 57); in the eastern plains (p. 71), 
the " Apaches Vaqueros." At the time of the Reconquest, and in the first 
quarter of the eighteenth century, the " Faraones " and "Jicarrillas" became 
very prominent. It seems that they were subdivisions of the "Vaqueros" 
of Benavides. The Jicarrillas were the northern, the Faraones the southern 
branch. Compare on the subject Autos de Guerra dela Primera Campana que 
el Sr. Marq s de la Naua de Brazinas, etc., en Persona sale d hazer la Gnerra 
ofenziba d los Apaches Faraones desde la Sierra de Sandia y Canute, etc. (1704, 
MS.) ; Auttoy Junta de Guera sobre si sele deue azer la Gucra a los Yndios Jentiles 
de la Nazion Faraona (1714, MS.); Testimonio delas Juntas de Guerra que se 
formaron para hazer la Campana d la Sierra de los La drones, etc. (171^ MS.). 
The Jicarrillas were generally friendly, or at least much less hostile than the 
other bands. Haunted by the Comanches, they finally sought shelter with the 



INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST. i8l 

nized properly but their generic name of N-de, and each band 
was known to itself and its neighbors (if any) of the same 
stock by appellatives akin to gentile terms. Nearly every 
such name ended with the termination n-de also. 1 Thus the 
word " Lipanes " is a corruption of Ipa-nde. 2 Sometimes 
the personal name of a prominent leader was applied by the 
Spaniards to the horde which he directed, rather than com 
manded, for the Apaches were always loth to bow, except 
on special occasion, to any authority, including even that of 
their shamans. Constant success could alone secure lasting 

Indians of Taos and of Pecos. Testimonio sobre lo Acaesido en el Pueblo de 
Pecos (1748, MS., fol. 6). 

The Lipanes appear in Texas, in the middle of the past century, whence the 
Comanches drove them into Coahu ila and Chihuahua. In 1705, an attempt 
at confederacy of the Apaches, Navajos, and Yutas against the Spaniards and 
the Pueblos was discovered, and the following subdivisions are mentioned. 
Juan Paez Hurtado, Diligenzias sobre hauer contraydo Anristad los Yndios Xpti et 
nas con los Yujieles (MS.): " Que lo que saue es que toda la apacheria de 
Naua^o de su nacion se hauian combocado con todas las demas naciones 
Apaches como son los de la Xicarilla, Trementino, Acho, Faraones, y Xilas." 
The Chiricahuis appear in the first half of the eighteenth century. Finally, in 
1796, Lieutenant-Colonel Don Antonio Cordero, in his Noticias Relativas a la 
Nacion Apache, etc (MS.), establishes the following groups : Tontos, Chiricahuis, 
Gilenos, Mimbrenos, Faraones, Mescaleros, Llaneros, Lipanes, and Navajos. 
Most of these names are those of bands whose duration was more or less 
ephemeral. It would be useless, or at least superfluous, to enter into details con 
cerning each one of them. Other fractions are also mentioned, as, for instance, 
the " Natajees," the " Apaches del Cuartelejo," etc. These two groups were 
Apaches of the plains. Those who mostly infested Sonora and Chihuahua in 
early times were the Apaches of the Gila, of whom the Chiricahuis are but an 
outgrowth. Villa-Senor y Sanchez (Teatro Americano, vol. ii. p. 348) says of 
the Chiricahui Mountains : " Corcmala la naturaleza de muchas penas que le 
sirven de antemural y defensa a los Indios Apaches, que es la Nacion recogida 
en ella y en la que hacen sus destacamentos para los puertos y entrada de los 
caminos, con el destine de robos, y muertes . . . tiene esta Sierra mucho 
Mescal." 

1 Cordero, Noticias relativas a la Nacion Apache, 1796. 

2 Arricivita, Chronica Serafica y Apostolica, p. 346: " Son los Apaches llama- 
dos Ipandes y Natages." Ibid, p. 349: "Por no baxar todavia el Capitan 
grande Ipandi." This seems to indicate that the word Ipande is derived from 
a personal name. On p. 383, we finally read " Ipandes " ! 



I 82 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 

i 

influence ; the unlucky sorcerer was as quickly discarded 
as the unsuccessful war captain. 1 

Scattered over an immense territory, abiding nowhere per 
manently, often penetrating into the ranges of the Pueblos 
and trespassing upon them, while at the same time they 
roamed all around the territory at will, except where their 
kindred, the Navajos, held them at bay, the Apaches created 
the impression of being powerful in numbers, while in fact 
they were but outlying bands of the Navajos, long separated 
or outcast from the mother stock, and dangerous alike through 
their great mobility and the superior skill in waylaying and 
hiding which their roving life imparted. They knew the 
country more thoroughly than the Pueblos, were better ac 
quainted with all its resources, and were a hardier, that is, 
a tougher stock, since exposure and hardship were their only 
school. The Apaches and the Navajos are sometimes de 
clared to be superior to the sedentary Indians in intelligence, 
as well as in physical characteristics. On the whole, the 
Navajos are taller and stronger built than the Pueblos : so 
are the northern bands of the Apaches. They are quick of 
perception, cunning rather than bright, and this cunning 
and a certain practical turn of mind captivate easily the 
sympathies of a civilized people. But while quicker, they 
are not so persistent as the Pueblos, and while the latter 
may learn more slowly, they will profit more from what they 
learn. That the Apaches should appear more intelligent 
than the village Indian is natural : the difference between 
them is like that between the much travelled man and 
the one who has always remained within the boundaries of 
a small territory. 

No tribe in the Southwest has exercised such a power 
ful influence on the fate of its inhabitants as the Apaches. 

1 Cordero, Noticias, etc. 



INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST. 183 

They were the most formidable barrier to an extension of 
the Pueblo stocks. To their constant harassing .it is due 
that the Pueblos receded from their eastern advanced limit. 
Nothing worries and disheartens so much as permanent inse 
curity, and for centuries no group of Indians, the Iroquois 
excepted, understood so thoroughly the art of keeping people 
on the qui vive as the Apaches. Their sudden appearance 
might always be expected, and their sudden disappearance 
promised no permanent relief. They stood towards the land- 
tilling Indians in the relation of a man-eating tiger to East 
Indian communities. Nobody knew, even if there was but 
a single enemy in the neighborhood, where he might strike 
next. One Apache could keep a pueblo of several hundred 
souls on the alert, and hamper them in their daily work. He 
had nothing to attend to but his purposes of murder, rapine, 
and theft, which were his means of subsistence, whereas the 
others had their modest fields to till, and in the performance 
of such duties danger was lurking unseen, always likely to 
display itself when and where it was least expected. 

The hostility between the Apaches and the Pueblos was 
rather traditional than hereditary. From the Pueblos it was 
transmitted to the Spaniards, with whom the Apaches had 
remained on good terms until the Spaniards were forced to 
protect the villagers, who had become vassals of the Crown, 
against the untiring aggressions of the nomads. This is not 
the place to sketch the history of the Apaches under Span 
ish rule. It is enough to say here, that the tribe played a 
very important part in the history of Spanish domination. 
It may be affirmed that during that period they completely 
changed the ethnography of the Southwest. 

Of their creed and belief almost nothing can be gathered 
from older sources beyond the fact that their idolatry was not 
as complicated and thoroughly systematized as that of the 



184 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 

sedentary Indians. Sun-worship of course existed ; 1 but the 
true position of the sun in their mythology has been misun 
derstood. It is not the orb proper which the Indian worships, 
it is some personal deity with whom the sun is connected, 
either as his abode, or as an ornament. Such is the case 
among the Navajos. It is quite clear to the Indian that the 
sun is a created object, and not a spiritual being ; 2 the same 
is true of the moon. Among the Pueblos, the moon is the 
abode of a celestial mother, the sun the home of a celestial 
father. 

Of the warlike customs of the Apaches not much is to 
be said here. It would require a series of monographs to 
do justice to them. That cruelty to prisoners which has 
rendered the tribe so terrible, even during the present gen 
eration, was early noticed. 3 Scalping was sometimes prac 
tised by them, but not so generally as by the Pueblos. Their 
weapons were in the main the same as those of their seden- 

1 Whenever no well defined system of idolatry could be found, sun-worship 
is always taken for granted by the older authors. It stands for worship of the 
elements in general. Benavides quotes what he asserts to have been the words 
of an Apache (a chief, of course) to himself (p. 55) : " Padre, hasta aora no 
auiamos conocido otro bienhechor tan grande como el Sol y la Luna, porque el 
Sol nos calientay alumbra de dia y nos cria las plantas, y la Luna nos alumbra 
de noche ; y assi adorauamos a estos dos, como a quien tanto bien nos hazia, 
y no sabiamos que auia otra cosa mejor." On page 52 he asserts : " No tiene 
otra iclolatn a que la del sol, y aim no es general en todos y se rien mucho de 
las demas naciones que tienen idolos." 

2 In the part next following, I shall have occasion to treat more extensively 
of this matter, and to quote the remarkable information derived from my friends 
Messrs. Gushing and Mathews on the subject. 

3 Not only among the Apaches, but even among the Pueblos, were the cap 
tives sometimes tortured, if Torquemada was correctly informed. Monarchic 
vol. i. p. 680: " Al que cautivan y llevan preso, le matan despues con grandes 
crueldades." Instances of torture of prisoners by Apaches are not unfrequently 
related in older sources ; and it would be as unfair and unreasonable to attrib 
ute such atrocities to simple retaliation for alleged " Spanish cruelties " as it 
would be to charge the English and French with the burnings at the stake of 
the Iroquois and other Eastern tribes. The custom of tormenting prisoners was 
an old Indian custom, and partly of a religious nature. 



INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST. 185 

tary neighbors ; but their tactics were rather more desul 
tory, and consequently they appeared more formidable. They 
rarely attacked in large numbers; worrying, slow wearing 
out by persistent harassing, was their mode of warfare, 
and against it the Pueblo was, in the long run, almost 
defenceless. 

While the Apache of the plains lived in tents of buffalo 
skins, the mountain hordes erected frail huts of tree branches 
and leaves. Neither made pottery, and only the women, 
whose social position was rather inferior, in some instances 
tilled small patches of Indian corn. But their chief sup 
port was game ; they subsisted on meat ; vegetable food 
was limited mostly to wild fruits like that of the Yucca, 
to the stalks of the Maguey baked into a sweet conserve 
called Mezcal, to roots and the beans of the Mezquite in 
the southern steppes. Even to-day the Pueblo Indian at 
tributes the physical vigor of the Apache to the fact that he 
has more opportunity of being exclusively carnivorous than 
the house-dweller. There is in this belief as much supersti 
tion, in all likelihood, as reality. 1 

With this brief mention of the Apaches, the sketch of the 
ethnography of the Southwest at the time of the first discov 
ery by Europeans must terminate. It presents the region as 
sparsely inhabited on the whole, and separates its population 
into two divisions, land-tilling Indians with a tendency 

1 That the Querechos, or Apaches of the plains, dwelt in tents of buffalo 
hides is frequently stated by Coronado, and by the other chroniclers of his 
journeyings. It is needless to refer to them in detail. Onate says of the 
" Apiches " (Carta, p. 309) : " Y aunque tobe noticia, vivian en rancher/as ; cle 
pocos dias a esta parte he averiguado viven como estos en pueblos." Torque- 
mada (Monarch/a, vol. i. p. 679) : "Estos no siembran, ni tienen casas, comen 
yervas, y raices, y vacas, y otras ca9as, que matan con arco, y flechas." 
Benavides (Memorial, p. 51): "No viuen en poblados, ni en casas, sino en 
tiendas, y rancherias, por lo que se mudan de serranfa en serranfa, buscando 
que es su sustento." 



1 86 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 

to permanence of abode, and wandering tribes. The latter 
are found mostly in the eastern half, on or near the plains, 
and the question involuntarily arises whether unsteadiness 
of abode has not been the result of causes of a physical 
order. In point of numbers the sedentary tribes exceeded 
the others by far, (if we do not include the Navajos 
with the latter,) just as the herbivorous mammals out 
numbered the carnivorous who still preyed upon them. 
Among the village Indians, there were variations in cul 
ture, but these variations appear due to physical causes and 
influences. Even the difference between the arts of the 
savage and those of the Pueblo is slight, and marked only 
in degree, according as the mode of life exacted from 
man a peculiar development under altered circumstances. 
The religious system, the general character of creeds and 
beliefs, appear analogous, if not uniform. So were the sys 
tem of government and the social institutions. It was lan 
guage that separated the various groups, and kept them 
apart. 

In respect to their language I can but follow the results 
of the investigations of others. These investigations have 
established that of those languages which have been studied 
two groups can be formed, both of which are radically con 
nected with stocks now existing in the Northwest. Mr. A. 
Gatschet, than whom there is no better authority, holds that 
the Yutas, the Moquis, the Pimas of Arizona, as well as the 
Nebomes of southern Sonora, the Opatas, the Yaquis and 
Mayos, the Tepehuanes and Tarahumares of Chihuahua, all 
belong to the same linguistic stock as the Snakes of Oregon 
and the Shoshonis of Wyoming, Utah, and Nevada. On the 
other hand, the Yumas and their kindred of the Colorado 
River country, as well as the Seris of Sonora, are linguisti 
cally allied among themselves, as well as with the tribes of 



INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST. 187 

the Californian peninsula. 1 The Navajos and Apaches are 
of Tinneh stock. The majority of the inhabitants of the 
Southwest, therefore, spoke languages affiliated to others 
on the Northwest Coast. The Pueblos still await their 
classification. If the late Orozco y Berra is right, the 
Concho and Julime of Chihuahua should also be classified 
among the Numa languages to which the Yuta, Moqui, etc., 
belong. 2 This still further increases the majority with North 
western affinities. Of the remaining idioms, several are to 
day unknown, but I would most earnestly suggest that the 
vicinity of El Paso del Norte be searched for traces of them. 
I positively know that the Manso and Piro are still preserved 
there, at least in fragments. It is not altogether impossible 
that traces of the Jano and of the important Jumano may be 
found among the indigenous population of that region. 

What may be the true position of those idi ms designated 
latterly as " Pueblo " par excellence, is yet to be established. 
The Zuni is stated to be allied to the Moqui. The Tehua 
and the Jemez are closely related to each other. 3 To these 
Pueblo languages the Piro must be added, as it was only in 
1681 that the tribe was transported to its present location. 
There has been a change in some of the Pueblo idioms in 
the course of the past three centuries. Many words have 
been imported from the Spanish, the Nahuatl of Mexico, the 
Apache of Navajo, the Yute, the Comanche, and even the 
Opata. This tends to obscure the proper affiliations of these 
languages, and to impart to them the strange character of 
isolation which they now exhibit. 

1 Gatschet, Ueber die Yiima-Sprachen. 

2 As already stated, Orozco classifies the said idioms, but gives no evidence 
in support of his classification. 

3 Also with the southern Tigua of Isleta. Gatschet, Zwolf Sprachen aus 
dem Sud-westen, etc., pp. 48 and 49. 



1 88 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 

III. 

PRESENT CONDITION OF THE INDIAN TRIBES. 

I. INTRODUCTION. 

THE Indian of to-day is in many respects different from 
the Indian found by the first Europeans who visited the 
American continent. This truth holds good in all parts of 
America, more or less. Even tribes that came but indirectly 
in contact with the Europeans were affected, through their 
neighbors, by means of the slow vehicle of primitive com 
merce, etc., in their arts, their industry, and especially in 
their religious notions. I cannot sufficiently insist upon the 
marked influence that " news from the outside world," or 
the sight of objects carried for long distances from tribe to 
tribe, have exercised upon the mythological ideas of primi 
tive man in America, probably of primitive man in every 
quarter of the globe. 

To understand the present condition of the Indian it is 
therefore indispensable to know, first, his condition at the 
time when he first came in contact with people from the 
eastern continents ; and, secondly, the nature and manner 
of working of the influence which those people could and did 
bring to bear upon him. In the preceding pages of this 
Report I have attempted to give, as far as able, a picture 
of the condition of the tribes of the North American South 
west while yet in a pristine state. Ere I can presume to 
speak of these tribes as they appear to-day, I must therefore 
cast a glance at the policy pursued towards them by the 
Europeans who occupied the territories in which these In- 



INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST. 189 

dians lived, or over which they roamed. These Europeans 
were the Spaniards, for Anglo-American influence has 
been felt but very lately, and whatever change has been 
wrought among the Southwestern Indians within the last 
three centuries is attributable to the Indian policy of Spain. 
Tlie term " Indian policy " includes also the action of the 
Catholic Church ; for while the Church strove to maintain, 
and in fact mostly maintained, a certain independence of 
the political power, nevertheless Church and State were 
so intimately connected, so closely interwoven, that they 
generally had a common policy. 

The effects of contact between the Indians and the Span 
iards may, in a general manner, be considered under three 
heads : 

1. Changes in customs wrought through Spanish legisla 
tion and administration. 

2. Changes in art and industry, agriculture of course 
included. 

3. Changes in the religious condition. This last class em 
braces modifications of the constitution of the family, which 
of necessity had to be attempted at least, especially in regard 
to education and the transformation of matrimonial customs. 

Simple personal contact alone, without the systematic 
processes indicated by the action of law and of religion, 
would have produced results different from those obtained 
in the course of Spanish domination. Still the effects of 
this personal intercourse cannot be overlooked, and I shall 
refer to it wherever it appears to have produced results not 
attributable to any of the three classes mentioned. 

The manner in which Spain obtained its hold in America 
was, as is well known, different from that of other nations. 
While England and France, but more especially the former, 
advanced with comparative slowness and timidity, perhaps 



ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 



resulting as much from indifference at home as from other 
causes, Spain spread its domination, nominally at least, 
over the new continent with amazing rapidity. One hundred 
and six years only had elapsed since Columbus planted the 
Spanish banner, figuratively speaking, on the shores of Wat- 
ling Island, when that banner actually floated from the thirty- 
sixth parallel of latitude north to the extreme end of South 
America. And not the coasts alone, the very heart of both 
continental sections had been searched, explored, and partly 
occupied by Spaniards. This gigantic performance was far in 
excess of the legitimate powers of so small a nation as Spain 
in reality was ; it became an element of the weakness and 
ultimate decay of that nation itself. " Oui trop embrasse, 
mal etreint." This popular adage of the French tells better 
than the most elaborate specifications the weak points and 
unavoidable fate of Spanish sway in both Americas. In 
those regions most remote from the coast and of most diffi 
cult access, like our Southwest, the intrinsic weakness of 
Spanish domination largely determined the character of its 
relations with the aboriginal inhabitants. 

To describe Spanish domination in the New World as a 
mere system of brutal plunder and mercenary rapine, is a 
kind of so called historical appreciation the time for which 
is happily past. The popular and religious passions kindled 
in the sixteenth century, flaming with greatest vehemence 
in the seventeenth, and adroitly nursed by England, are out 
of season now, and we no longer admit that a people could 
have achieved great things without at least some great and 
noble motives ; still less, that it could have maintained its 
hold at such great disadvantages as the Spaniards labored 
under, without manifest ability, wisdom, and some humanity 
in its directing power. Even the conquerors themselves, 
as historic science turns its attention to their deeds in a 



INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST. 191 

light uncolored by passion, appear of more modest abilities, 
but of more humane motives and actions. The better also 
we become acquainted with the character of the Indian 
by direct intercourse with him, the more we become con 
vinced that military necessities dictated often, if not nearly 
always, deeds which have hitherto been considered as wanton 
barbarities. That the periods of first conquest entailed ex 
treme measures there is no doubt ; but after the three great 
Spanish footholds in America, the Antilles, the Isthmus 
including Mexico, and Peru, had been gained, further con 
quests did not require many striking instances of display 
of martial power, unless called forth by the Indians them 
selves. 1 The conquistorial period is the most attractive, the 
most romantic part of Spanish American history, but we 
must look to subsequent times for the agencies that have 
determined the true influence of Spain upon the American 
aborigines, in other words, the establishment of regulated 
administration and the framing of special legislation for the 
Indian. They are the criterion by which to judge the part 
played by Spain on American soil. 

Close upon the heels of the conquerors, the organizers and 

1 There is no doubt that many of the most bloody occurrences in Spanish 
American history, which have been charged to the Spaniards as acts of wanton 
cruelty, will yet be explained and justified as legitimate measures of war. What 
I have said of the occurrences at Cholula in regard to Cortes (see Archaeological 
Tour, p. 164, note i) will eventually prove to have been the position in which 
Pizarro found himself at Caxamarca. That excesses were committed is be 
yond a doubt, but these excesses were the exceptions, and rot the rule, and 
furthermore they were punished. See, for instance, the ultimate career of 
Nuno de Guzman, and the punishment awarded to Hernando de Bazan, and to 
many others. Spanish justice was slow, but it was sure, and no official, however 
exalted his position, escaped the dreaded " Residencia," or the still more dan 
gerous " Visita." On such occasions a functionary had his misdeeds charged 
against him, and, if nobody else would accuse him of cruelty against the natives, 
there was surely some priest ready to drag him to trial for misconduct of that 
sort. It was not easy to escape punishment for cruelty to Indians under 
Spanish regime. 



ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 



administrators were wont to follow. After the Conquista- 
dores had subdued the Indian, the Spanish Crown promptly 
attended to the task of subduing these Conquistadores them 
selves to the law of the land to which they owed allegiance. 
Thus Antonio de Mendoza followed, in Mexico, upon Nuno 
de Guzman, who had been used to check the plans of Cortes 
for secession and independence. After the organizers and 
administrators were firmly established, special legislation be 
gan, and it continued uninterrupted though with declining 
vigor in the latter half of the eighteenth century as long 
as Spain had a foothold on the American continent. The 
declining vigor" was manifest, not by a decrease in so 
licitude, but by the inability to put good intentions into 
execution which marked the general decline of the nation. 

The Spanish government recognized at an early day, not 
merely that the Indian was a human being, but that he was, 
after all, the chief resource which the New World presented 
to its new owners. The tendency of Spanish legislation is 
therefore very marked towards insuring the preservation and 
progress of the natives. The first great step in this direc 
tion was the promulgation of the celebrated " New Laws 
and Ordinances for the Government of the Indies," finally 
established in 1543, by which the aborigines were declared 
direct vassals of the Crown. -Stipulations in their favor, 
as, for instance, enfranchisement from personal servitude and 
from compulsory labor, became the subject of subsequent 
modifications and local changes, but the disposition first 
enounced, that of direct vassalage, remained a fixed dogma 
in Spanish American law. 

It may not be amiss here to glance at the great question 
of Indian servitude and compulsory labor. The question was 
one of utmost vitality, for the obvious reason that upon its 
solution depended the future prosperity of the colonies. We 



INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST. 193 

must not forget that, as I have already stated, Spain was 
a small nation, that it had overrun a territory enormous in 
extent, extremely varied in resources as well as in natural 
obstacles, and that Spanish immigration could in no manner 
suffice for the imperative demand for labor which the re 
sources of the land presented. In order to improve the Indies, 
the Indian must work, and work was as distasteful to him 
then as it is to-day. Furthermore, he had to be taught to 
perform this work with implements the mere material of which 
was to him a mystery, and therefore a source of mistrust and 
superstitious fear. The reluctance on the part of the native 
to work was therefore for reasons paramount to him, but 
utterly incomprehensible to the Spaniard, or to any other 
European of the time. Hence the Crown decrees in regard 
to compulsory labor changed in tone frequently, and finally 
measures were adopted which, if properly executed, would 
have responded to all the demands of humanity and states 
manship combined. 1 As regards the Southwest, we must 

1 I cannot go into the details which would be necessary in order fully to 
illustrate the development and progress of Spanish legislation on this point. 
They all appear but a gradual fulfilment of the celebrated clause in the last 
will and testament of Queen Isabella of Spain. See Vasco de Puga, Cedulario 
(1878, 2d ed.), vol. i. p. n: " Suplico al Rey mi senor muy efectuosamente, 
y mando a la dicha Princesa mi hija, y al dicho Principe su marido, que ansi 
lo hagan y cumplan ; y que este sea su principal fin : y que en ello pongan 
mucha diligencia, y no consientan ni den lugar a que los yndios vezinos y 
moradores de las dichas yndias y tierra firme, ganadas y por ganar, reciban 
agrauio alguno en sus personas y bienes ; mas manden que scan bien y justa- 
mente tratados ; y si algun agrauio han recibido, lo remedien y preuean, por 
manera que no se exceda cosa alguna lo que por las letras apostolicas de la 
dicha concesion nos es injungido y mandado." The concession herein referred 
to is the famous Bull of Pope Alexander VI. The royal decree of the 9th of No 
vember, 1526, (Ibid., p. 29,) provided that no Indians of New Spain should be 
enslaved without a preceding information conducted in presence of the Governors 
and their officials. The pretext then used for obtaining slaves was : " Socolor 
que dicen que los tienen los naturales entre si por esclauos cautiuados en las 
guerras que han tenido y tienen vnos con otros." This decree was repeated 
in 1529 (p. 36). Stronger yet is the Cedula of January 10, 1528, reiterated on 



194 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 

bear in mind that only Sonora and a part of Chihuahua con 
tained mines actively worked. 1 In New Mexico, there were 

August 2, 1530 (pp. 230, 231). Severe punishment was enjoined against such 
as might ill treat the natives. Cedula of March 20, 1532 (p. 254). Further 
decrees for the protection of the Indians of New Spain are those of January 7, 
1549, April 16, 1550, August 28, 1552, etc. A detailed statement concerning 
legislation on the treatment and personal service of the Indians is foundVn 
Juan de Solorzano-Pereyra, Politico, Indiana (ed. of 1703, lib. ii. cap. 1-4). 
It would take too long to copy all he says on the subject. The famous decree 
of May 26, 1609, bears exclusively on the good treatment of the aborigines. See 
Francisco de Montemayor, Sumarios de las Cedillas, Ordenes, y Provision?* 
Reales, 1678, (sum. 48, fol. 2 [6,) which contains the complete text. This decree 
authorized the employment of Indians in the mines, provided they were spe 
cially cared for and remunerated for the work they performed. The principle of 
remuneration of mining work was rather a local measure. The Indians attached 
to " Encomiendas" were compelled to labor in the mines in early days. Mining 
was regarded as a public work, and as such the Indians were called upon to 
perform it, but every precaution was taken by the law for their welfare. Hospi 
tals were required to be established for their special benefit. Still, in a long 
decree directed to the Conde del Villar (predecessor in the Viceroyalty of New 
Castile, or Peru, to Don PVancisco de Toledo), the King writes as follows 
(Solorzano, Politica Indiana, p. 7^6) : " E porque aviendose platicado sobre este, 
ha parecido, que sin embargo de lo proveido por ce"dulas antiguas ; cerca de que 
no fuesen compeliclos a .^te trabajo contra su voluntad, se les podria mandar, 
que vayan a ellas, lo haren de aqui adelante, no mudando temple de que se les 
siga dano en la salud, e teniendo dotrina, e justicia que les ampare, e comida 
con que se sustenten, e buena paga de sus jornales, y hospital donde se curen, 
y scan bien tratados los que enfermaren." The expense of these arrangements 
was at the cost of the miner. 

1 Mining began in Chihuahua much earlier than in Sonora. The mines of 
Santa Barbara (now Allende) and of the valley of San Bartholome or of Parral 
were discovered by Francisco de Ibarra about 1 556. Relation de los Descubrt- 
mientos Conquistas y Poblaciones hechas por el Gobernador Francisco de Ybarra 
en las Provincias de Copala, Nueva Vizcaya y Chiametla (Documentos de Indias, 
vol. xiv. p. 478) : " Y por su mandado descubrio las dichas minas de Santa 
Barbola y San Juan, y las poblo ; de las cuales se ha sacado gran cantidad 
de plata, porque los metales dellas han sido muy ricos." Informe al Rey por 
el Cabildo Ecclesidstico de Guadalajara (Docum. para la Historia de Mexico, 
Ycazbalceta, vol. ii. p. 494). The date of this document is January 2Oth, 1570. 
Arlegui, Cronica de Zacatecas (p. 64). In Sonora, no mines were worked prior 
to the seventeenth century. Most of the Sonora mines, however, date from the 
eighteenth. The Indians of Sinaloa and western Durango were not adverse to 
mining, says Ribas, Historia de los Trivmphos (lib. viii. cap. iii. p. 476). Speak 
ing of the famous mines of Topia, the historian of the Jesuit Missions in Sinaloa 



INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST. 



195 



no mines until after I725, 1 and compulsory labor on the part 
of Indians even after that date was limited to service in the 



says : " Despues de descubiertas las minas de plata, donde trabajauan, auia vez 
que llegaua el valor de vestidos, 6 preseas que apostauan, a quinientos pesos 6 
reales de a ocho : que bien los saben ellos sacar de las que llama Pepenas. Y 
declarare aqui lo que significa essa palabra : porque se entienda la grande 
^ftnancia que tienen en la labor de minas los Indies trabajadores, principalmente 
los ladinos en ellas,y que conocen los metales, y son barreteros, que con barretas 
rompen la veta. Porque estos, demas de la paga del salario de cada dia, que es 
de quatro reales de plata por lo menos, pero fuera de esso, los principales 
trabajadores tienen facultad y licencia de escoger, para si vna de las espuertas 
que Hainan tenates, llena de metal, que cada dia rompe y saca de la veta ; 
metal que siempre es el mas rico y escogido : porque como ellos lo conocen, y 
registran primero que sus amos, apartan para si lo mas precioso, y esto no se 
les puede estoruar a los Indios ; porque al punto que esso se les estoruasse, 
desampararian las minas, y ellas y sus amos quedaran perdidos. La espuerta 
de metal que saca, al Indio le suele valer quatro, seis, y tal vez diez y mas reales 
de a ocho." These Indians were the Acaxees of Durango, and their work in 
the mines was obligatory. Still they were paid for it. The Yaquis even went 
to the mines of their own free will, owing to the wages paid to them. (Ibid., 
p. 340) : " Otros se hazen a la vida con los Espanoles ... 6 en reales de 
minas, donde los jornales son mas crecidos.." Spain did everything in its 
power to induce the Indian to mine for his own account. 

1 The current notions of rich Spanish mines in New Mexico, and of great 
metallic wealth, which the Spaniards derived from that territory, are the pur 
est myths and fables. The opinion in which New Mexico was held in Spain 
as well as in Mexico is expressed by A. von Humboldt, Essai Politique sur la 
Nouvelle Espagne (ed. of 1827, vol. ii. p. 246) : " Plusieurs geographies paraissent 
confondre le Nouveau Mexique avec les Provincias Internas : ils en parlent 
comme d un pays riche en mines, et d une vaste etendue. . . . Ce qu il appelle 
1 empire du Nouveau Mexique n est qu un rivage habite par de pauvres colons. 
Cest un terrain fertile, mais depeuple, depourvu, a ce que Ton croit jusqu ici, 
de toutes richesses metalliques." The earliest explorers and settlers collected 
samples of ore which proved to be rich, but as early as 1602 the chief authori 
ties at Mexico became rather sceptical concerning the mineral wealth of the 
territory. The Count of Monterey says, in his Discurso y Proposition qtte se 
hace d Vuestra Magestad, etc. (Doc. dc Indias, vol. xvi. p. 45) : " Y no es aquello 
tan esteril como la gente que se vino la pintaba, ni tan prospero como otros lo 
hacen, y lo represento el Gobernador en las relaciones del ano de noventa y 
nueve." Ibid., p. 50: " Y cierto que no tengo perdicla esperanza de que se haya 
de verificar lo que el Gobernador todav/a afirma, de que hay plata en algunos 
cerros de aquella comarca en que esta." In 1626, great complaints are made by 
Fray Geronimo de Zarate over the apathy of the Spaniards about mining in New 
Mexico. Relaciones, art. 34 : " De todo esto se rien los Espanoles que alia 



196 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 

Missions, and, by abuse of authority, to personal attendance 
upon higher magistrates. The latter was time and again 
severely checked, and strong penalties threatened the Gover 
nor who ventured to infringe the royal decrees prohibiting 
personal service to him and to his assistants. 1 The solicitude 

estan . como tengan buena cosecha de tabaco para chupar, estan mui contentos, 
y no quieren mas riquezas, que parece ban echo voto de pobreza, que es mucho 
para ser Espaiioles, pues por codicia de plata y oro entraran en el mismo 
Ynfierno a sacarlas." So great was tbe apparent indifference of the Spanish 
settlers concerning mines, that, according to the same author (art. 35), they burnt 
the machinery that had been carried to Santa Fe in the time of Governor Peralta, 
rather than allow mining to go on. After the rebellion of 1680, several so-called 
mines were entered by prospecters. For instance, one in the Jornada del Muerto 
in 1685 (Rexistro de una Mina de Pedro de Abalos, MS.), and several in 1713. 
But in 1725 we are officially informed by the Brigadier Don Pedro de Rivera, 
who was commissioned to inspect all the military posts or Presidios of the 
North and the districts thereto pertaining, that up to that date no mines 
had been worked .in New Mexico, owing to the low grade of the ore. I give 
the words from his Diario y Derrotero (p. 32) : " Hanse encontrado en dicho 
Reyno, algunos Minerales, sin dar su metal mas ley, que la de Alquimia, 
y Cobre : y como no se ha podido costear el beneficio que necessita, las han 
dejado abandonadas." These citations ought to be conclusive, and to dispose 
of the myths about Spanish treasure taken from New Mexico, as also of the 
other not less ridiculous tale, that the uprising of 1680 was produced chiefly 
by the hard labor to which the Pueblo Indians were compelled in mines in 
New Mexico. 

1 Very stringent are the laws promulgated on that score by King Philip II. 
in 1571. See Codice de Leyes y Ordcnanzas mietiamente hechas por su Magestad 
para la Gouernacion de las Yndias, etc., September 24, 1571 (Doc. de fndias, 
vol. xvi.). In regard to New Mexico, a very instructive case occurred in 1709. 
The Viceroy of New Spain, having been secretly informed that the Governor of 
New Mexico (at that time the Marques de la Peiiuela) was making liberal use 
of the personal services of the Indians for his own benefit, wrote at once to 
that functionary, enjoining him from further abuse of this sort, and threatening 
him with a fine of two thousand pesos, and damages to the Indians, in case of 
disobedience to the royal edicts on that point. See Fray Juan de la Pena, Carta 
Patente, May 18, 1709 (MS.). It gives the order of the Viceroy to the custodian 
of the Franciscans, in which the Duke of Albuquerque states : " Se despacho 
esta en este dia ordenando al GoV de aquellas partes y Prov as q e pena de dos 
mil pesos q e he aplicado a" mi distribucion, demas de lo q e importaren los danos 
q e se causaren a los Yndios se contengan, y mando contener alos Maiores 
p a q e no executen ni hagan semejantes extorsiones." Another case occurred in 
1784. A bitter strife prevailed between the Governor Juan Bautista de Anza 



INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST. 197 

of royal officers went so far as to abolish, in 1784, any and all 
personal services for church matters ; a measure that called 
forth well grounded and effective protests. 1 

Slavery was considered in the light of a punishment, and 
as war against Spain was a crime against the state and its 
subjects, prisoners of war made in campaigns against hostile 
tribes could be sold as slaves. The immediate result of this 
custom was, in New Mexico, frequent intermixture of the 
different aboriginal stocks, and hence a gradual modification 
of physical type. 2 Previously to the advent of the Spaniards, 
intermarriages between distinct tribes were rare ; afterwards, 
the distribution of captives among the Pueblos, and the forma 
tion of villages of so called " Genizaros " (captives bought from 
roaming Indians or rescued from them) worked a change 
that may have affected anthropological features in course 
of time. 3 

By declaring the Indian to be a crown vassal, the laws 
placed him on an equal footing with the native of Spain in 
one sense, and yet, practically, he enjoyed a much more 
favorable position. He became a special ward of the royal 
government, and the complaint by Spanish settlers is very 

and the Franciscans, and the commander in chief at Arizpe had to intervene. 
He sent peremptory orders that all personal services of Indians to the Governor 
and his lieutenants should cease. Fray Santiago Fernandez de Sierra, Memorial 
presentado al Senor Comandante General en Arizpe (MS., 1784). 

1 Fray Santiago Fernandez de Sierra, Memorial, MS. 

2 And yet Philip II. had ordained in 1571 (Codice, art. 26): "Item: Orde- 
namos y mandamos que de aqui adelante por ninguna causa de guerra ni otra 
alguna aunque sea so titulo de reuelion ni por rescate, ni de otra manera no se 
pueda hacer esclauo yndio alguno ; y queremos que scan tratados como basallos 
nuestros de la Corona de Castilla, pues lo son." But this did not include the 
Indians who, after having been approached peaceably, remained in a state of 
persistent hostility against the Spaniards. 

8 The " Pueblos de Genizaros " were an institution rather peculiar. Even 
before 1748 there existed such a settlement of rescued captives at Abi- 
quiu. Another was subsequently established at Tome, on the lower Rio 
Grande. 



198 ARCH&OLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 

well grounded, that everything was done for the Indian, and 
but little for them. 1 The Spanish government recognized at 
an early day that the Indian was a big child, who should be 
elevated very gradually, and nursed very carefully, in order 
not to warp his nature, or ruin it. 2 The wide gap between 
Indian culture and European civilization could not be filled ; 
the aborigines had to be led across it gradually. It was 
impossible to press them at once into the mould of Spanish 
organization ; therefore their own original form of govern 
ment was maintained, and only such modifications made as 
became necessary to assure the supremacy of Spain in case 
of need. 3 This policy perpetuated among the sedentary In 
dians the communal system known as the Pueblo type in 
New Mexico. Under this order of things each tribe re- 
taintd its jurisdiction, and became responsible for the mis 
deeds of the individual. The Pueblos have disappeared, as 
such, in the Mexican part of the Southwest, among the 

1 This complaint is uttered as late as 1793. See Fernando de la Concha 
(Governor of New Mexico), Orden al Alcalde Mayor de Santa Cruz de la Canada, 
para que castigue d los Indios Tehuas que hicieron Juntas Secretas, 1793 (MS.): 
" Emanadas, presisamente de la abundancia, comodidad, y ventajas que logran 
estos Yndios mui superiores en ellas a los Espanoles que se hallan establesidos 
en sus ynmediaciones." 

2 This is forcibly expressed by Solorzano-Pereyra, Politica, (lib. ii. cap. 28, 
p. 119). In this chapter he maintains: "Que los Indios son, y deben ser 
contados entre las personas, que el derecho llama Miserables." On page 109, 
the same author copies textually the recommendation made by the Third Council 
of Lima (act 5, cap. 4, p. 104): "Que mal pueden ser ensenados a ser Chris- 
tianos.si primero no los ensenamos a que sepan ser hombres, y vivir como tales." 
Very clear and logical too is the dissertation on the " Encomiendas," in Antonio 
de Leon y Pinelo, Tratado de Confirmaciones Reales, 1629 (part i. cap. 18, 19). 
It is too long to be copied, and I only refer the student to it. He will find there 
the real grounds on which the so much condemned system of Encomiendas 
was based. 

3 This resulted from the form of Encomiendas. Not a certain number of 
Indians, but a certain range with its Indian population, was assigned to the 
Encomendero. By the Cedula of April, 1546, the King reserved, however, the 
civil and criminal jurisdiction. Vasco de Puga, Ccdulario, vol. i. p. 169. 



INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST. 199 

Opatas and Pimas of Sonora and the christianized Tarahu- 
mares of Chihuahua. The old organization still prevails with 
the Yaquis, the wild Tarahumares of Chihuahua, and the 
Mansos and Piros of El Paso del Norte. The so called " Re 
form Laws " of 1857 nominally abolished the ancient system 
in Mexico, much to the regret of the Indian, and even of some 
of the prominent originators and fosterers of the measure. 
That the Pueblo system still rules the New Mexican village 
Indians, and the Pimas and Maricopas of Arizona, is well 
known. 

Under the supposition that monarchical ideas prevailed 
among the Indians of Mexico, and that there existed an 
hereditary aristocracy, some authors have attributed the 
measure adopted by Spain, at an early day, of making the 
leading offices of each tribe elective at stated period!, to 
an intention of breaking a supposed aristocratic power. 1 

1 This is presented, in a very interesting and instructive manner, in the 
document entitled, Real Ejecutoria de S. M. sobre Tierras y Reservas de Pec/ws 
y Paga, perfetteciente a los Caciques de Axapusco de la Jurisdiction de Otumha 
(Doc. para la Hist, de Mexico, Ycazbalceta, vol. ii.). The grant therein ex 
ecuted is probably the oldest one in Mexico, bearing date 1519. As early 
as 1540, (p. 23,) an order was issued by the Royal Audiencia to remove 
one governor of the pueblo of Axapusco and put another in his place. In 
regard to this. measure, Don Jose Fernando Ramirez wrote as follows (Noticia 
de la Piezas, etc., p. 12) : "La diestra poh tica del gobierno espaiiol comprendio 
los riesgos de este sistema, que en su principio fue muy general [referring 
to the fact that the descendants of the original chiefs remained in possession 
of the landed titles of the village] y lo mino empleando sus propios medios. 
Procure dar todo el conveniente desarollo a la institucion municipal, y poniendo 
asi en accion el elemento democratico, puso tambien en oposicion a los caciques 
con sus antiguos subditos, destruyendo su influjo y su poder. En el caso que 
nos ocupa, el Virey autorizo los mencionados pueblos para hacer eleccion de 
autoridades municipales." Senor Ramirez had not been among the New Mex 
ican Pueblos, and consequently overlooked the fact that the sons of former 
governors, etc. frequently hold valuable papers, with the consent of the tribe, 
and for the benefit of the entire community. The democratic element was not 
imported by Spain, it was only respected and preserved as the most appropriate 
form for the conservation of the Indians, and most suitable to their low degree 
of culture. 



200 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 

This measure was in fact adopted for the purpose of as 
serting the supremacy of the government at regular and 
often repeated intervals, through the formality of confirma 
tion and investiture. No other idea actuated the King of 
Spain in his decree of 1620 to the Custodian of New Mexico, 
in which he notified that prelate that he had ordained that 
annually, on the first day of January, an election should be 
held in every New Mexican Indian village of " a governor, 
alcaldes, fiscales, and other ministers of the Republic, with 
out that my Governor or any other officer of mine, or you, 
or any ecclesiastic, being present at the said elections, in 
order that the Indians may enjoy the necessary freedom, 
and that after the election they shall be reported to the 
Governor for his confirmation." 1 This royal order introduced 
among sedentary Indians the democratic idea of rotation in 
office, and, while this was but imperfectly understood and 
practised (for reasons which will be hereafter explained), it 
still contributed towards fostering individualism, in contra 
distinction from communistic socialism, which is the lead 
ing characteristic of Indian society, and the great exterior 
stumbling-block in the path of the Indian towards civili 
zation. 

To force this idea of individualism upon the Indian tended 
toward the ruin of the Indian himself. It happened then, 
as it would happen to-day were he free to act, with noth- 

1 Real Cednla dirigida al Padre Custodio Fray Estevan de Perca, 1620 (MS.) : 
" Embie mandamiento al dho mi Gou r para que de orden como cada vno de 
los Pues de estas prouincias el primero dia de Henero de cada vn ano sus elec- 
ciones de Gou r , alcaldes topiles y fiscales y demas ministros de Republica sin 
que el dho mi Gou r ni otra mi Justicia, bos ni otro relixioso de bra Custodia se 
hallen presentes en las dhas elecciones, porque en ellas los dhos Yndios tengan 
la libertad que combenga, y que las que en esta forma hicieren las lleben al dho 
mi Gou r para que los confirme estando echas." The custom among the New 
Mexican Pueblos of electing their officers annually on the first of January is 
therefore a Spanish modification, and dates from the year 1620. 



INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST. 2OI 

ing but the law of the land between his rights and the 
superior faculties and aspirations of his white neighbor. 
First the Indian s property, next he himself, was wrecked 
for the benefit of the white man. While, therefore, in mat 
ters of government, Spain imposed a progressive measure, in 
matters of landed property it enforced conservatism. The 
communal system of land tenure was legally established 
by the granting of community lands to each settled tribe, 
lands inalienable except through consent of the whole tribe 
and with permission of a set of authorities specially in 
trusted with the care of the Indian s interests. 1 This per 
petuated communism of land-holding, but did not exclude 
individual tenure, within the limits and under the restric 
tions of communal rights. It impressed upon the Indian 
the notion of land measure, and limited him also to a definite 
space for abode as well as subsistence; and, since space 
and time are inseparable ideas, it created in his mind the 
first feeble rudiments of economy in both, of which he 
had until then not the least conception. These rudiments 
are, indeed, very feeble at this day. 

In the Southwest, the establishment of community grants 

1 These were the so called " Protectores de los Indies." Their chief duty 
was to defend legally the rights of the Indians. It was considered that the 
Indian, although a vassal, was a vassal under age, a minor, and needed some 
body to represent him and assist him in law. Compare Solorzano, Polttica, 
p. 121 et seg. The Protectors of the Indians were established at an early date. 
At first, the prelates of the Indies (archbishops and bishops) were the protectors. 
See Cedula of March 26, 1546, in Montemayor, Sumarios, fol. 211. Philip II. re 
established special official protectors. Rccopilacion de Leyes de los Reynos de las 
Indias, lib. vi. tit. vi., Ley primera. The date of the Cedula is January 10, 1589. 
The protectors were in a manner similar to our agents of to-day, with the differ 
ence that they had less power and were far better controlled, and their duties 
were well defined. They had no jurisdiction over the Indian, and no right nor 
power to meddle in the interior affairs of the tribes. Each Indian of New Spain 
had to pay one half-real towards defraying expenses of defence of the Indians 
in case of necessity. Recopilacion, vol. ii. fol. 218, Cedula of June 13, 1623, 
Philip IV. 



OF THE 

tTNTVERSITY 



202 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 



is of comparatively recent date. A peremptory order of the 
King, dated 1682, laid the foundation of the so called Pue 
blo grants of New Mexico. 1 In Sonora, the papers and 
deeds of the Opatas date back to the beginning of the 
seventeenth century. 2 As long as the Jesuits were almost 
the sole white occupants of that State, it was superfluous to 
execute the royal dispositions in regard to Indian lands, as 
nobody was near or far. who could encroach upon the native s 
possessions. In Chihuahua, El Paso del Norte excepted, the 
unsettled nature of the aborigines rendered the community 
system impracticable except in the shape of " reductions," 
that is, aggregations, sometimes of several stocks, around a 
mission, as centre and pivot of life. To such reductions 
an area of communal land was assigned. 3 

At the bottom of these changes rested an idea entirely 
novel to the Indians, that of ownership of the country by a 
power whose head remained invisible to them. They saw 
his representatives, felt the effects of his decrees, but saw 

1 Real Cedilla nombrando d Don Domingo Gironza Petriz de Cruzate por 
Gobernador del Nueuo Mexico, MS., 1682. 

2 For instance, the grants of the Pueblos of Sinoquipe and Banamichi. 

3 The " Reducciones " are defined by Solorzano as follows (p. 107): " De 
lo qual desciende, que podriamos, no sin causa, equiparar estas reducciones 6 
agregaciones de los Indios a los Metoecios de los Romanes, y llamarlas con 
este nombre. Pero todavfa entiendo, que les quadra mejor, y mas en comun, el 
de los Pueblos que los mesmos Romanos llamaban Municipios, o Metrocomias. 
Municipios eran unos lugares pequenos, adonde por razon de la labrat^a, 6 por 
otras conveniencias, hazian agregar algunas gentes, y que alii assentassen sus 
casas y domicilios, y repartiessen entr e si los cargos de ellos, por lo qual se 
llamaron Municipes, como lo dizen los textos y dotores que de ellos tratan : 
las Metrocomiae eran como villas, 6 pueblos mayores, que tomaron este nombre, 
como que fuesen madres 6 cabe9as de los menores. . . . Y uno y otro -responde 
al modo y forma de los de nuestros Tndios, que se ponen los mayores en cabecera 
de cada provincia, y a su abrigo otros, que no son tan grandes, para que todos 
se ayuden assi comunmente dezimos, los pueblos, y repartimientos de Indios, y 
sus cabeceras." The earliest Cedula I can find establishing these Reducciones 
bears date 21 March, 1551. Recopiladon, vol. ii. lib. vi. tit. iii. The whole 
section treats of them. 



INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST. 



203 



him not. More perhaps than anything else, this opened their 
eyes to consciousness that the little world of their own, of 
which each pueblo appeared to be the centre, formed but a 
portion of a grand uncomprehended total. The idea was 
crushing to them in one sense. It humbled the childish 
pride which isolation and ignorance beget and foster. In 
another sense it was comforting, for that unseen power not 
merely exacted obedience and tribute, it promised protec 
tion, it brought facilities for living, means of improving the 
mode of existence. 

The latter consideration, for instance, acted strongly upon 
the minds of the Pueblo Indians of New Mexico, when, in 
1598, they voluntarily submitted to Spanish sway. It cannot 
be alleged that the acts of submission of the Pueblos were not 
understood by them. Every precaution was taken to make 
them realize perfectly what these acts implied, 1 and, having 
assumed the position of vassals of Spain of their free will 
and consent, a withdrawal from it entailed, especially if car 
ried on with violence, the same consequences and legal ne 
cessities as rebellion. 2 It was different in Sonora and in 

1 There are seven of these Obediencias y Vasallajes a su Magestad, all of which 
are contained in vol. xvi. of the Documentos de hidias. They bear date respectively, 
Santo Domingo, July 7, 1598; San Juan, September 9, 1598 ; Acolocii, October 12, 
1598; Cneloce, October 17, 1598; Acoma, October 27, 1598; Aguscobi (Zuni), 
November 9, 1598; Mohoqui, November 15, 1598. In each case there were 
interpreters. The conditions of submission were read, and afterwards inter 
preted, and the question asked, " Y que asi viesen si querian dar la obediencia 
como esta dicho." Invariably follows the reply : Los quales dichos . . . habi- 
endo oydo entendido y conferido entrellos todo lo sobre dicho, con muestras de 
contento respondieron de un acuerdo y deliberacion y expontanea voluntad, que 
querian ser vasallos del dicho Christiamsimo Rey Nuestro Senor, y como tales, 
desde luego le queria dar y daban la obidencia y vasallaje por si y en nombre de 
sus Republicas." 

2 Ibid. : " Y el dicho Senor Gobernador les replico, que mirasen y enten- 
diesen que el dar la obidencia y vasallaje al Rey Nuestro Senor, era subjetarse 
a su voluntad y a sus mandamientos y leyes, que si no los guardasen, serian 
castigados como trangresores a los mandamientos de su Rey y Senor natural , 



2O4 ARCH^OLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 

Chihuahua. There, the Indian submitted to the govern 
ment locally ; to the Church, and in particular to the Jesuit 
order, at large. 1 This produced results not always beneficial 
to the native. 

That the Indian, once incorporated in the royal domain, 
should contribute to the expenses of the governmental ma 
chine, was but imperfectly understood by him. He never 
saw the head of the institution, and what he contributed 
went manifestly, and before his own eyes, to the support of 
minor functionaries. Tribute was a well established custom 
in Mexico, especially in the central and southern parts ; in 
the Southwest it was unknown, and remuneration for gov 
ernmental work had but a few very faint analogies among 
Indian customs. The tribute exacted from the Pueblos was 
a peculiar one. It consisted mainly of cotton cloth and of 
maize. 2 Against the amount of tribute no reasonable com- 

y que asi viesen lo que querian y respondian a esto ; a lo qual dixieron los 
dichos capitanes, que querian dar y daban la dicha obidencia y vasallaxe, como 
antes habian dicho, por si y en nombre de sus Republicas." 

1 The Jesuits actually went in advance of the establishment of civil authority 
in Chihuahua and Sonora. They were really pioneers, whereas in New Mexico 
the Franciscans, although pioneers too in a certain sense, established their 
missions more directly with the aid of the temporal power, and furthermore in 
closer proximity and more immediate contact with the resident civil authorities. 

2 The general rules laid down for the levy of tribute are contained, as 
far as the Southwest is concerned, in the Codice de Leyes y Ordenanzas of King 
Philip II. (Documentos de Indias, vol. xvi. p. 394) : " Y de mas de lo susodicho, 
mandamos a las dichas personas que por nuestro mandado estan descubriendo, 
que en lo descubierto hagan la tasacion de los tributes y seruicios que los 
yndios deuen dar como basallos nuestros, y el tal tributo sea moderado, de 
manera que los puedan sufrir, teniendo atencion a la conservacion de los dichos 
yndios, y con el tal tributo se acuda al comendero donde lo quiere." In art. 49 
(p. 200) the King ordains : " Proueyemos y mandamos que ante todas cosas se 
hiciese la tasacion de lo que los dichos yndios de ay adelante deuian pagar, ansi 
de los que estan en nuestra caue9a y corona Real, como de los que estan enco- 
mendados a otras personas particulares. . . . Por ende encargamos y mandamos 
a los nuestros Presidentes y Oydores de las dichas quatro audiencias cada vna en 
su distrito y jurisdicion, cada vna, se ynformen de lo que buenamente los dichos 
yndios pueden pagar de seruicio 6 tributo sin fatiga suya ansi a nos como a las 



INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST. 205 

plaint could be made ; the manner of levy sometimes gave 
rise to justifiable protests. 1 

Punishment for crimes according to Spanish laws was, to 
the Indian, a source of great astonishment, and often of 
displeasure. Atonement for murder by the death of the mur 
derer at the hands of justice, without the possibility of re 
demption by remuneration, was an entirely new feature. On 
this point the Indians had generally to yield, for the law could 
not give way to their customs. Still there are evidences 
of compromise in the Southwest, as there was great diffi 
culty in inculcating in the mind of the aborigines, rapidly, 
any other notion but that execution was another murder or 
manslaughter calling for equivalent retribution. In regard 
to theft, communism of living rendered their notions very 
vague. As little as the Indian understood why necessities 
of life should not be free to all, so little did the European 
comprehend why they should be, and constant conflicts arose. 

personas que los tubiere en encomienda, y teniendo atencion a esto les tasen 
los dichos tributes y seruicios, por manera que scan menos que los que solian 
pagar en tiempo de los Caciques y Senores que los tenian antes de venir a 
nuestra obediencia." The Indians of New Mexico paid no tribute whatever 
in primitive times, but in Central Mexico a tribute, and a very severe and 
onerous tribute, was exacted of vanquished tribes by their conquerors. This 
explains the last portion of the royal ordinance. In New Mexico the tribute was 
paid in cotton cloth and in grain, often in buckskin and sometimes in buffalo 
robes. Conde de Monterey, Discurso y Proposition (Doc, de Indias, vol. xvi. 
p. 48) : " De algodon 6 cueros de Cibola, y de maiz, presupongo yo que seran 
los tributes." In 1630, according to Benavides, (Memorial, p. 25,) the tribute 
consisted " en cada casa vna manta, que es vna vara de liengo de algodon, y 
vna fanega de maiz cada ano, con que se sustentan los pobres Espanoles." 
Compare also Fray Pedro Zambrano, Carta al Virrey (MS., November 6, 1636) . 
Fray Antonio de Ybargaray, Carta al Virrey (MS., November 20, 1636) ; Carta 
al Virrey del P. Custodio y Difinidores del Nueuo Mexico (MS., November 28, 
1636). 

1 Great complaints are uttered by the Franciscans about the manner of col 
lecting the tribute in New Mexico. I refer, among others, to the letters to the 
Viceroy quoted above, and especially to Fray Andres Suarez, Carta d su 
Magestad (MS., October 26, 1647). 



206 ARCH&OLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 

At last, however, the Spanish ideas prevailed to a great ex 
tent, and by allowing permanent tribes independent jurisdic 
tion a compromise was effected, the result of which has been 
that, as towards outsiders, the Pueblo recognizes the action 
of law, while the law in turn tacitly acknowledges the right 
of home rule in his favor. 1 

In the main, the effects of Spanish legislation upon the 
Indian mind have been to enlarge the scope of its vision, and 
to foster the thought of individuality, thus shaking primitive 
socialism without abolishing it in a manner detrimental to 
the race. It has placed an effective barrier to the unsteadi 
ness of Indian nature, has opened his mind to the concep 
tions of metes and bounds of time and space, and has 
even striven, though with small effect, to impress him with 
a thought of economy of time. Indirectly and through the 
medium of language it has also encroached upon the Indian 
principle of segregation, by placing at the command of the 
native a new medium of utterance that renders intercourse 
possible between separate stocks, thus paving the way for an 
idea entirely foreign to all American aborigines, that of 
fraternity among mankind. 

Any other nation governing the Indian according to Euro 
pean systems might have achieved similar results ; but the 
special merit of Spain consists in having achieved them, 
whereas other nations occupying American soil have given 
comparatively little attention to the well-being and conser- 

1 This tacit arrangement prevails to-day with the Pueblos, and it has been 
legalized in the first statutes of New Mexico, which declare the pueblos to be 
bodies corporate, corporations having their own jurisdiction over their members. 
When the Indians of Nambe, in March, 1855, butchered three men and one 
woman of their village in the most horrible manner for alleged witchcraft, the 
courts decided that no interference was possible. The Indians were, it is true, 
compelled to pay four hundred dollars, but these were rather costs and fees 
than fines. Compare Relation de la Matanza de los Brujos de Nambe, por Juan 
Lujan, Testigo Ocular (MS., 1888, original in my possession). 



INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST. 207 

vation of the red man. Certain it is, that the Spanish 
laws of the Indies are by far the most beneficent, the most 
humane, and the most practical that were ever framed for 
the government of the aborigines, and that while they have 
done a vast amount of good, if they did not achieve more, 
it was not the legislator, but the administrator, who was at 
fault. 

Although not germane to the points under treatment, I 
cannot refrain from noticing here the contrast between the 
astounding impetuosity displayed by the Spaniards in their 
spread over the American continent, and the slow and 
patient wisdom which marks their legislative enactments. 
All the very numerous edicts and decrees breathe, in regard 
to the Indian, the spirit of utmost solicitude for his wel 
fare and gradual introduction into the path of civilization. 
The rulers of Spanish affairs were thoroughly convinced 
that nothing could be gained by urging the aborigines to 
march along a line on which they were as yet unable to 
advance. There is nothing wiser, nothing more humane 
and more practical, in this respect, than the voluminous 
ordinances framed in 1573 by King Philip the Secondhand 
under these ordinances the annexation of the Southwest 
to the Spanish dominion was effected. These remarks do 
not apply to the administration of pacified and permanently 
esta