THE CHEMAWA AMERICAN
PAGE 4
DR. CARLOS MONTEZUMA
(Continued from page 1)
come useful servants of humanity.’
“A few months ago I camped one night with thirty
boy scouts in Fish Creek Canon. We got there after
night and pitched our camp. In the morning we
found that thirty Apache Indians had been sleeping
about a hundred yards from us. Had we known it
we would have slept as peacefully as we did in our ig
norance. For these were our friends, and in the
morning they took up their work of making the roads
smooth and safe. It was probably in this same canon
that 50 years ago the raid took place in which the little
Apache Indian boy was carried away captive by the
Pimas. Today this canon is part of the great Apache
trail, over which our tourists travel with more safety
than they can walk the streets of Chicago at night.
“The road to friendship and co-operation between
the Indian and the white man has been a long one and
a hard one. There have been many rough spots and
many accidents along the way, but it is a road that
has become smoother and better with the passing years.
It has been lives like Dr. Montezuma’s that have
helped to make the road a better one to travel.
“There is another element in the Doctor’s life of
which I would speak, it has to do with his religion:
He was no doubt brought up in the nature religion
of his people, and he has always kept that natural
religion of his people, and he has always kept that
natural love for life out-of-doors.
As a man in
Chicago he was a member of the First Baptist Church,
and in spite of a busy practice, he had time to do
missionary work among the foreign element of that
city. He taught a Sunday school class in the Bohemia
Mission conducted by the Baptists, the same one in
which my own wife taught when she was attending
our Baptist missionary training school in Chicago.
“Truly this has been a life of service, a life of
conquest over difficulties, a life of attainment.’’
A “NAPPY” STORY
Long years ago there was an old Indian man and
the Indians called him Nappy. »Nappy had a pinto
team. One day he felt very hungry so he went up
and picketed his horses on the side of the hill. From
here he went down in a little nearby valley where he
saw a prairie dog town.
Old Nappy sat on a rock and watched the prairie
dogs passing back and forth. An idea struck him.
He told the prairie dogs he knew a new game that
they could play. The prairie dogs were anxious to
learn this new game from Old Nappy.
Old Nappy built a camp fire and said, “I’ll jump in
and when I get hot I’ll whistle and you prairie dogs
pull me out and then run into the fire. When you
get hot whistle and I’ll pull you out.”
Old Nappy jumped into the fire and soon whistled.
The prairie dogs pulled him out and then jumped into
the fire.
When the prairie dogs got hot and whistled Old
Nappy wouldn’t let them out. He kept them there
in the fire until they were cooked and then ate them
for supper.
Old Nappy made himself a bed and went to sleep
after watching the stars peeping out through the dark
sky.
The next morning Old Nappy got up early and
went away into the woods and came upon some birds
sitting on an old dead tree and were throwing their
eyes at another tree nearby and they would say, “Eyes,
come back to me, ’ ’ and they would return. Old Nappv
asked them if he might do that trick? The birds said
that he might if he would only do it every eighth day.
Old Nappy agreed to this. He tried it and it worked
alright and the birds flew away.
The next day Old Nappy came along and tried it
and the eyes stuck to the tree and wouldn’t come
back. Old Nappy was blind and became very sad
and lonesome.
A Coyote came running by and barked at Nappy.
Old Nappy told the Coyote that he was blind. The
Coyote felt sorry for Old Nappy and told him that he
would take him wherever he wanted to go. Old Nappy
wanted to return to his horses, so Coyote told him to
hang to his tail and he would lead him back.
Old Nappy asked him to return the eighth day and
take him to the tree where his eyes were.
This d iy came and the Cayote came and took Old
Nappy to the tree where his eyes w’ere. Old Nappy
yelled, “come back,” and his eyes came back and he
could now see again.
Then Old Nappy went up on the side of the hill
and saw some young antelope grazing along the side
of the hill and near the antelope was a camp. He de
cided to play a trick on the women in the camp.
There were three of these women and each one had a
baby. Old Nappy sent these old women out after
wood. They built a big fire and he told them he
would go and get some antelope meat to eat.
He ate all the food the old women had and left
when he sent them for wood the second time. He
told them that the antelope meat was roasting and
that more wood was needed. Before they returned he
ran away.
The women chased him until dust was all over him
and they could no longer see him, but they still tracked
him.
Old Nappy heard something that seemed like sing
ing and drumming and he looked into an elk head
and saw a bunch of mice having a big time. He
thrust his head all the way into the elk head. At
this time he heard the women say, “here is our In
dian,” and he jumped up and ran with the elk head
over his own head. He came to a river and jumped
in. Some Indian men saw him swimming in the
river and ran along the bank and shot at him.
Finally, he had to swim ashore and the old women told
their story. The prairie dog told his trick game.
The men took the elk head from his shoulders and
tied him to a tree. They were going to punish him
for awhile by keeping him tied, but while tied the
Great Spirit set fire to the tree with lightning and as
it burned two black snakes went up and out of the
smoke. It was Old Nappy. He was now two crawl
ing black snakes, and they, too, often go blind as
did old Nappy when he didn’t keep his promise.—
W ilma K ipp .