The Chemawa American, January 01, 1914, Page 5, Image 5

THE
CHEM AW A
A M E R IC A N
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priests took p art. It was held in th e m iddle of W alpi village, round a
big. rugged colum n of rock, a dozen feet high, which ju ts out of the
sm ooth surface. T h e antelope dancers came in first, clad in kilts, with
fox skins behind; otherw ise naked, painted w ith w hite splashes and
streaks, and th eir hair washed w ith the juice of the yucca root. T h eir
lead er’s kilt was w hite; he wore a garland and anklets of cottonw ood
leaves, and sprinkled w ater from a sacred vessel to the four corners of
heaven. A nother leader carried the sacred bow and bull-roarer, and
they moved to its loud m oaning sound. T h e snake priests were sim il­
arly clad, b u t th eir kirtles were of leather; eagle plum es were in th eir
long hair, and u n d er their knees they carried rattles m ade of tortoise­
shell. In tw o lines they danced opposite each other, keeping tim e to
the rythym of th eir m onotonous ch an tin g .
On the top of the colum n were half a dozen Hopi young m en, clad in
ordinary w hite m a n ’s clothing. One of my own boys joined these, and
entered into conversation w ith them . T h ey spoke E nglish; they
had been at non-reservation schools; they were doing well as farm ers
and citizens. One and all they asserted th a t, in order to prosper in af­
ter life, it was necessary for the Indian to get away to a non-reser­
vation school; th a t m erely to go to an agency school was not enough in
any com m unity w hich was on th e highroad of progress; and th a t they
intended to send th eir own children for a couple of years to an agency
school and then to a non-reservation school. T hey looked at the cere­
m onial religious dances of their fathers precisely as th e w hites did; they
were in effect C hristians, alth o u g h not connected w ith any specific
ch u rch . They represented substantial success in the effort to raise the
Indian to the level of the w hite m an. In their case it was not neces­
sary to push them tow ards forgetfulness of the past. T hey were tra v e l­
ing away from it n atu rally , and of th eir own accord. As th eir type In ­
comes dom inant th e sn rk e dance and antelope dance will disappear, the
the Hopi religious m yths will become m em ories, and th e H opis will
live in villages on the mesa tops, or scattered out on the plains, as their
several inclinations point, ju st as if they were so many w hite m en. It
is to be hoped th at the art, the m usic, the poetry of their elders will be
preserved d u rin g the change com ing over the younger generation.
On my retu rn from th is dance I m et two of the best Indian agents in
the en tire service. T h e first was Mr. P arquette, a W isconsin m an,
him self p art In d ian bv blood. T h e o th er was Mr. Shelton, who has
done more for th e N avajos than any other living m an. H e has sternly
p u t down the crim inal elem ent exactly as he has toiled for and raised
the decent In d ian s and protected them against crim inal whites; m ore­
over, he has actually reform ed these Indian crim inals, so th a t they are
now them selves decent people and his fast friends: while the mass of
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