Pueblo and Plaza: The Pueblo Indians of the Southwest get their name from the communal houses in which they used to live at the time of the first Spanish exploration. Pueblo is the Spanish word for people. The Indians lived in houses two or three stories high, all joined so as to form one or two large, irregular, flat-topped buildings. When the Spaniards first saw them they called them "People houses;" and since an Indian village consisted of nothing more than these large houses with an open court somewhere inside, which is still called by the Spanish term, the plaza, where many of their celebrations and ceremonies take place – the village itself soon became known as a pueblo; and the Indians as Pueblo Indians. The only examples of these old communal houses in use today are to be found in Taos, Acoma and among the Hopi and Zuñis. In Taos, in the north central part of New Mexico, practically all of the inhabitants live in two large structures. Formerly, the entrance doors were all on top of the houses, so that one could get in only by climbing crude ladders to the flat roofs and descending other ladders into the inside.
Adobe: The word adobe is "traceable to an Egyptian hieroglyph signifying "brick;" thence to Arabic, whence the Spanish adobar, "to daub," "to plaster," adopted in the United States from Mexico. The Pueblo houses, called adobe houses, are made of wooden beams, etc., and adobe bricks. These bricks are made of a peculiar clay, known in the Southwest as "adobe clay" because of its use, mixed with wheat straw and sunbaked in the same fashion as the bricks made by the Israelites for the Egyptians. After the brick walls are laid they are plastered over both inside and outside with adobe clay and frequently washed with white gypsum on the inside. The women usually do the plastering and they use their hands as trowels.
Pueblo Indians: There are five branches of the Pueblo tribe of Indians living in New Mexico and Arizona, each speaking a different dialect: The Tanos, divided into the Tiwas and Tewas; the Queres; the Hopis; the Jemez; and the Zuñis. The Tiwas comprise the villages of Taos, Picuris, the two Isletas and Sandia; the Tewas comprise San Juan, Santa Clara, San Ildefonso, Nambe and Pojoaque; the Queres comprise Cochiti, Santo Domingo, Sia, San Felipe, Santa Ana, the Laguna villages and the three Acoma villages; the Jemez in Jemez village; the Hopis (Moquis) living in nine villages on First, Second and Third Mesas in Arizona; and the Zuñis, with whom this collection does not deal.
The Tiwas of Taos always begin their tales with the expression Kah-men-mah-tum-ka, meaning something like "once upon a time." The Tiwas of Picuris begin Wen-ter, which has a similar meaning. The Tewas always begin Oh-way-way-ham-by-yoh, "once upon a time, long ago." Most of the Queres begin by saying Hum-ah-ha, meaning "long, long ago;" and the person to whom the tale is being related replies, Eh-eh and the tale proceeds. In Santo Domingo, and perhaps in others, they begin a story with an expression meaning, "I am going to tell you something." The Jemez Indians begins with Dee-pah-law, "long time ago." The vowels of their language seem to be sounded much shorter and softer than those of the neighboring Indians. Their dialect is exceedingly musical. The Hopis begin their stories with the expression Hah-lick-sah-ee, the meaning of which I have been unable to discover. It probably takes the place of our "Well" or "Listen."
Time of tale-telling: Tales are never told by the old-time Indians during any but the winter months. Their corn crops will be frost bitten or poisonous snakes will bite them if they tell tales at any other time. This superstition probably grew up among them because tale-telling during spring, summer and autumn interferes seriously with agricultural pursuits; and in the semi-arid country in which these Indians have lived, the raising of corn is a hard and laborious task; but a task most vital, since corn is their main food. But during the winter months groups of children sometimes sit around some old grandfather and listen to tales all night long, night after night.
Songs: Many of the Indian stories burst into song at some thrilling or dramatic point; and the same song will be sung from one to ten or more times in the same story. For instance, if Mr. Fox is trotting along singing as he goes, instead of expressing it like the foregoing clause and then singing the song at its conclusion, they will say: Mr. Fox got to the arroyo and sang (relater sings here), Mr. Fox got to a cedar tree and sang (song again), Mr. Fox got to the stone and sang (song a third time), Mr. Fox got to a man's house and sang (song a fourth time), et cetera, until Mr. Fox reaches the end of his journey.
Most of the wording of the songs is mere meaningless syllables; originally sung perhaps without rhyme or reason just as a very small child sings, and then handed down from generation to generation with very slight changes; again the syllables are used in imitation of the sounds of animals or nature; and, occasionally, the syllables form a few words relative to the tales they accompany. A few songs, however, are almost entirely made up of words and phrases that have meaning; but as far as I can ascertain these songs are few.
Songs are generally accompanied with a drum made of dried skins and highly colored, formerly with herb or vegetable stains or with clay washes.
Ovens: The small dome-shaped adobe ovens are used just as the old Dutch ovens of Pennsylvania were used. A fire is built in the oven and when it becomes sufficiently hot the coals are all raked out and the bread put in to bake in the heat. Squashes are also baked in them and sometimes, as during the visit of the Schah-ve-yoh, two disciplinarians, children are hidden in them.
Ceremonies, commonly known as Indian Dances: The Pueblo Indians have two cycles of ceremonies, the summer dances and the winter dances. These dances originated in a quest for food. During the summer there are dance ceremonies to bring rain for germinating and maturing the crops, especially the corn crops. During the autumn there are harvest dances and war dances invoking the spirits to protect their harvest from maurauding, nomadic enemies. The winter dances are hunting dances where the Indians get into harmony with the animal world by imitating animals of the chase in dress and movement. One of these is the Buffalo and Deer Dance in the tale of Juan Half-Bear. Hunters go out from the village early in the morning and drive in the deer and the dance begins later and continues at intervals all through the day until sundown. Like so many others, the Indian works harder at his amusements than at anything else, consequently these dance ceremonies are wonderfully dramatic affairs. In many of the dances there are kachinas or koshare believed to be the spirits of the dead, who because of their positions as departed souls can the better intercede with the deities in behalf of those still living.
The Pueblos deify and worship the forces of nature as manifested about them: the lightning, the cloud, the wind, the snow, the rain, the rainbow, the dawn, the sunset, the fire – all are deific beings. The sun, the moon and the sky are beings of power. Deities preside over springs, rivers and mountains; and a Great Spirit rules over all the surface of the earth, the underworld where all departed Hopis are believed to go, and death. They believe in the duality of all things both animate and inanimate, the world and all it contains is divided into the male and female conception of duality. Every inanimate object has its little spirit or fairy, like the fairy in the ladder in Pah-tay and The Wind-Witch. Among animals and insects there are many gods. The eagle is considered a deity of unusual wisdom because of his position so far above the surface of the earth, from which vantage point he is supposed to see and know everything. Among insects the spider is most important, as shown in the witch stories. She is the Spider Woman or Earth Goddess, and, among the Hopis, as the spouse of the Sun, she is the mother or grandmother of the mythical warrior heroes of the race. And so among their stories you find the eagle or the spider the deus ex machina in relieving many difficult or distressing situations.
Home Dance or Farewell Dance of the Hopis: The picture of the preparation or beginning of this dance illustrates the tale of The Thieving Foxes. It is the last of the cycle of Hopi Kachina dances. It appears to be a prayer for rain as well as a thanksgiving dance for former harvest-gifts of the Sun and Rain gods and the Earth-Mother. The large head masks are called kachinas. There are a large variety of them, each representing the spirit of a departed ancestor, or sometimes a departed animal, and the person wearing the kachina becomes the embodiment of the spirit represented. The performers in the Home Dance ceremony often carry planting sticks, hoes and other emblematic paraphernalia. A number of men are dressed as female kachinas (thus carrying out the idea of the duality of productive nature). These furnish the accompaniment to the dance song, sung by the male kachinas, by rasping the dried scapulae of sheep over notched sticks placed on wooden sounding boxes.
The male and female dancers stand in two lines with the food offerings in piles between them and posture to the music. The males turn around repeatedly during the dance. When the dance is over the piles of corn, beans, melons, cat-tails which they chew as one does sugar-cane, – baskets of peaches and apricots, kachina dolls and bows and arrows are given to the children, who, naturally, especially enjoy the dance. Finally the dancers carry offerings to a shrine outside of the town and the drama of the Home Dance is over.
Snakes: To the Tanos and Queres Indians, as seen in the stories of the fate of the witch-girl and the witch-wife, it is a severe punishment to be turned into a snake and have to crawl on one's stomach always; but the Hopis feel differently about the matter. In the tale Mr. Get-Even Coyote the snake is allowed to destroy the coyote, who has a sad fate throughout all of the tales in which he figures because of his predatory habits.
The Hopis believe that snakes are elder blood brothers of their Snake Clan, one of the two largest social and religious orders among them. The legend relates that an Indian youth embarked in a hollow log, closed except for one small peep-hole, and went down the Colorado river to its mouth. There he found the Spider woman, who advised him so wisely in his dealings with the Snake people living there, that he won the Chief's daughter and took her home with him, together with the rites he had learned, which are now practiced by the Hopi Snake Clan. The first children of this union were snakes, who were driven away by the Hopis because of their bites. Later human children were born, the ancestors of the present Snake Clan. And so the Hopis treat snakes in a very respectful manner. Every other year they worship with them in their great snake ceremony called the Snake Dance.
Owls and Witches: Supposedly because of their faculty to see and hunt by night, when things seem spooky and witchy, owls are always associated with witches and the feathers of owls have a very sinister significance. The Indians believe firmly in witches and attribute many evils to their machinations. Cactuses are also associated with witchcraft and are supposed to be the chief food of the witches. Witches change themselves into fire and can be seen all around a village when any one in the village dies. They always possess a hoop of evil magical power.
The Value of Water: In the semi-arid Southwest during a season of drought where animals and sometimes men are dying from thirst, it is a crime equal to murder to steal water; and hence the fate of poor Bunny Rabbit when he steals water at the coyote's spring in The Gum Baby.
Corn Meal and The Most Popular Form of Bread: The Pueblo Indians grind corn with stone slabs on metates – three or four sloping stones ranging from rough to smooth. On the first stone they break up the corn and reduce it to fine flour on the fourth, toasting it after each grinding. The women do the grinding and several women grind together, as shown in the illustration of the story, Poh-ve and Pah-day. In olden times when the men were going to the plains to trade with the Comanches, the women used to grind whole loads of meal for them to carry. Several women would grind together all night. Meanwhile the men sang the grinding song or beat a drum, and the women kept time to the music with slow regular strokes. In Hopi land "grinding is still the daily occupation of women. Where there are several women in a house, the unmarried girls do the grinding, while the married women bring water. Girls grind for their father's sisters, and make parties to do the same work in one another's houses; married women grind occasionally for their mothers-in-law. Girls sing while they grind and smear their faces with meal before and after grinding; and this is playfully recommended as a way of learning the task. They also powder their faces with meal when they are in full dress."
The buwa of the Tewa Indians and the piki of the Hopis is a wafer bread. It is a staple article of food and is kept on hand all the time. It "is made on a rectangular slab of fine grained stone, about 3 feet square, laboriously hewn and polished, which rests on stones at the ends or at the four corners. This slab stands under a wide open chimney in a special room; it is heated by a fire built beneath it. A soft liquid dough or batter is prepared in a mixing bowl, and when the stone has been thoroughly heated and wiped with a greasy rag, a small quantity of the batter is spread over the surface by a quick, sweeping motion of the hand, leaving a thin even layer. In a few seconds this layer of dough is so far cooked that it can be peeled off entire by one of its corners; it is laid aside on a wickerwork tray, and a second layer is spread on the stone. While this is cooking the first sheet of buwa is laid over it again to benefit by the heat; then the first and second sheets are removed, a third layer is spread, and the second sheet is laid above the third for extra cooking; and so on. When a bowlful of the batter has been used, there is a pause in the work; the semi-transparent sheets are folded in four, and generally the four-fold sheets are rolled into cylinders." (Bureau of Ethnology, Bulletin 55).
The buwa dough is generally made of blue corn meal from the Hopi blue maize mixed with a few ashes to give it a greenish blue color and with a little salt and water. Sometimes for special occasions the Hopi piki is made of very white corn meal either left white or dyed pink or yellow with some vegetable dyes.
Sacred Corn Meal: Corn meal (white) mixed with corn pollen and perhaps other things sacred to the Indians is used as an offering to the gods, especially by the women, as men often use the feathers of sacred birds, in all ceremonies and almost all daily tasks. The throwing or blowing of a small quantity of sacred meal seems to be a silent prayer in itself.
Piñon: A small pine tree found on the low hills and mountains of the Southwest bearing a cone filled with small edible nut seeds. These nuts are shaped and flavored like a tiny pistachio; but instead of green they are brown in color. They are considered a great delicacy by the natives, who try to get ahead of certain rodents and a blue jay, known as the piñon jay, in collecting the nuts. A piñon pine is shown in the illustration of The Fox and The Mice; and a piñon jay is flying with Bunny Rabbit in Bunny Rabbit and the King of Beasts.
The Hole: The Hole in the story, A Little Cinderella, is a crater of an extinct volcano. The crater is supposed to lead down into spirit-land.
Going Into The Water: Some of the Indians used to believe that there were spirits living at the bottom of large bodies of water, who would receive drowned people into their villages. So the girls in stories who go into the water, simply move to a new and different kind of village.
Eagles: Eagles like Dy-you-wi's eagle are often owned and kept tethered in a village by some men, or group of men, for the sake of their feathers. The poor things look half-picked all the time.
Meaning of some of the names used, not explained in the text: Tee-yoh, Hopi for boy; Man-nah, Hopi for girl; Poo-wah-ka, Hopi for witch; and Ye-ah, Tewa for mother.
Personification of Corn: The Blue Corn, Yellow Corn, Green Corn, White Corn and Dwarf Corn maidens used in the tales are personifications of the growing corn; Blue Corn representing the maiden of the corn bearing a blue ear, et cetera.
Arroyo: "The dry bed of a stream" is explained in Bunny Cottontail and the Crane.
Kiva: Kivas were originally circular chambers built almost wholly underground with the entrance through a hatchway on top, by means of a ladder, which was always made with long poles pointing skyward. Kivas were the "club houses," so to speak, of the different clans or religious orders of a village; each village having as many kivas as there were separate orders. The kivas were for the men; women were permitted entrance only to take food to the men or to witness certain ceremonies. All the clan's special secret rites and ceremonies take place in the kiva; and formerly young unmarried men belonging to a certain clan slept in that clan's kiva.
Medicine Men's Ceremony: The medicine or mystery men were supposed to have obtained from the deities powers of recognizing and removing the mysterious causes of disease. He was "given" appropriate songs, chants or prayers and became possessed of one or more powerful fetishes. They used sleight of hand in removing the disease, generally feigning to extract soiled rags from the affected parts of the sufferer's body.
In the picture of the medicine-men's ceremony in Pah-tay and The Wind-Witch, the ceremony was described by a Tewa as follows:
The main business of the chief medicine-man, seated in the picture, is to furnish the music by singing and shaking his rattle. First they make a rainbow on the floor with sacred corn meal, with lightning symbols shooting off from the ends of the rainbow. The inside of the rainbow is then checked off with meal; and the fetishes, consisting of clay-washed stone bears, wooden dolls painted white and adorned with turquoise ear-rings and feathers, and gray stone dolls, are placed in the checks. In the center of all is a charmed bowl of sacred water.
Then the ceremony proper begins. Each medicine man takes a bit of meal from his little sacred meal-bag, places it to his lips and blows it toward the four cardinal points. The two standing medicine-men examine the patient and draw out from the painful spots, by sleight-of-hand, sticks, stones, rusty nails, dirty rags et cetera, supposed to be the materialization of the disease. These they immediately destroy. Then the men sit down on the floor beside the singer. He puts into the mouth of each of them a bit of herb medicine and they begin to "act crazy." Then they both peer into the bowl of water, where they are supposed to see and find out the whereabouts of a witch, who is responsible for the disorders of the patient. After that the two men rush out of the house and return after a short interval with a witch made of vari-colored rags, with corn husks in her hair. They dance around with the witch to the accompaniment of the third man's singing, shaking their rattles as they dance. After so long a time the witch mysteriously disappears. One of the medicine-men then lends to the patient the fetish considered the proper one for his case; and the ceremony is over. The patient ties the fetish – generally a stone bear, with a little sacred meal, up in a rag and fastens it around his waist. He wears this for four days: and, at the end of that time, it is returned with an offering to its owner, the medicine-man. Recently, the offering has consisted of a certain amount of wheat flour. "In four days," said the Tewa relater, "the sick person is generally well; but sometimes he is dead."
This chapter has been put on-line as part of the
BUILD-A-BOOK Initiative at the
Celebration of Women Writers.
Initial text entry and proof-reading of this chapter were the work of volunteers
Heather Higgins and Lucy McIlvaine.
