6
THE CHEMAWA
AM ERICAN
any person could in stru ct beginners. T h e best city schools now pay
the teacher of beginners more and require special train in g adapted to
begin n in g grades. To properly in stru ct th e In d ian requires a close,
careful stu d y of In d ian disposition, h istory, previous su rro u n d in g s and
conditions of th eir developm ent. It requires the very highest skill as
an instructor.
(T o be continued n ex t issue)
STORY OF SHIP ROCK
B Y J O H N F . B R O W N , Chemawa, Oregon
H IP ROCK is located about tw elve miles from th e San
Juan Indian School, New M exico, in a southw esterly
direction. W hen one sees this w onderful stru ctu re of
natu re it is easy to determ ine whence it gets its nam e.
O w ing to its peculiar form ation no one has ever been
able to clim b to the top of the rock; in fact, no one
has ever attem pted th e feat. T h e elevation from base
to vertex is 1,600 feet. T h e w idth could be easily reckoned. O ne can
see Ship Rock from a rad iu s of from 30 to 40 miles. In some directions
it could not be seen so far, b u t from other directions the distance from
w hich th is rem arkable rock may be seen far exceeds th e num ber of miles
given above. It is accessible from every direction except the top.
An in terestin g event occurred w hile four em ployes— M essrs. G reen,
B utton, Sm ith and m yself—-from th e San Ju an school visited Ship Rock
some tim e in Jan u ary , 1915. W e started for the place determ ined to
secure a good view of the fam ous rock, so as soon as we arrived close
enough we stopped to operate the cam era. W e had to m ake proper a d
ju stm en t for distance, try in g at various places at short intervals apart in
order to get a perfect focus. T he atm ospheric conditions are so perfect
and the air so clear as to ren d er it difficult to determ ine the distance.
E v ery th in g isstra n g ely m agnified. It seemed as tho u g h we could not
get close enough to accom plish our desire. It was difficult to determ ine
accurately the exact distance from w hich we could se c u re a good picture.
At one tim e S hip Rock w ould t>e partially rece d ed and the n ex t in sta n t
it would appear th a t th e rock was m oving aw ay from us— going away in
th e direction opposite th at from w hich we w ere approaching. It readi lv
occurred to us th a t we were forbidden to learn an y th in g about Ship
Rock. Instead of becom ing discouraged we became decidedly curious
about the apparent phenom ena. W e still continued tow ard Ship Rock