Roseburg news-review., July 18, 1936, Image 9

Flagstaff Scene Of Monster Indian Powwow
Scenes Reminiscent Of Pioneer Days
Enacted As 7fl00 Arizona Redskins
Travel Historic Trails
of west , i i m mwmjmrmim .
I y i ' " mSwimim White mm and women traveled thou- V$sl
uTfii f ", J sands of miles to witness the Indians llsS
rt fA ' . Jj04"''m ' " J carry out tribal customs and dances. At ? X
I fj . , " l-x- ay .' "TtaiLUL -1 the left is pictured a Zuni dance team ! ..
By Peter Wolff I , 1 r?C"?P' ,f " 11 in full regalia.
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NW-0-0-0-0 -0-01 Owo-o-o-ow-o-o-o!"
J It's a wild cry, high and piercing
flinging through the warm night, cutting the
stillness like a knife. It echoes, drifts into the
sky with the gray streaks from Indian smoke
signals, and begins again.
If you were within a few miles of Flagstaff,
Arizona, on July Fourth, you might have said,
"The Indians are off the reservation they're
coming!" And, you'd have been right
For days preceding the greatest Indian con
ference of the past century, bronzed Indian run
ners trotted up the canyons, over the desert, and
dropped down from mountain ridges like swift
ghosts of a reviving past, to announce the gath
ering of the red tribes of the Southwest.
The Indians were coming!
Forty-niners would have seized their rifles,
barricaded themselves in the nearest trading
post, and awaited the attack. Covered wagons
would have rumbled hurriedly toward the closest
log fort, and prepared for seige.
Citizens of Flagstaff rubbed their eyes and
wondered how many extra beds they would need
to care for crowds of visitors white men and
women who came to see the teepees, the wild
dancing, and who must be housed.
Over the worn old trails trooped the Indians,
7,000 strong. Hopis, Apaches, Zunis and Navajos,
with women and papooses whooping, laughing,
painted and in costumed glory, bent not on tak
ing scalps, but on business and pleasure.
There was no raiding, except on the pocket
books and bank accounts of white bargainers.
It was a powwow for profit.
IN A THICK pine forest on the edge of the
little mountain town gathered some of the
finest native artisans in America. Spread out on
the ground for inspection and sale were hun
dreds of Navajo rugs, Hopi jewelry, baskets,
beads, hand-made pottery, blankets, and mocca
sins. Rug weavers worked on primitive looms,
showed how magnificent blankets were started
from the ground and woven expertly to the top.
Powwow debutantes paraded in their finery,
sedate, copper-colored, and many of them hand
some. Elected the prettiest maiden of them alt, Jose
phine Jane of the Navajos, represented her tribe
astride a roan steed, garbed in ft black velvet
jacket, a flowing skirt like a gipsy's, and a neck
lace of heavy white beads.
Business took place during daylight hours,
when the redmen could do little but rest and of
fer their wnres. The financial arrangements were
instigated by the town people, who discovered
that their Indian friends were poor promoters,
but excellent artists. The white men's Idea was
to get the seller and customer together, and the
Indians agreed it might be all right. For their
part, business was a necessary evil, In which
they engaged occasionally because in a white
man's world a red man must have money. After
business hours they planned to have a good time.
If pleasure interfered with business next day,
and the out-of-door store keepers felt a bit
sleepy, this was unfortunate but couldn't be
helped. What the tribes did not sell this year,
could be sold twelve months later.
The powwow has been going on for some
three years. The first attracted only 400 Indiana,
hut word soon passed around that everyone had
a good vacation from tending their fields some
even made money!
AT DL'SK business was over. Union hours
were in force, following the set schedule of
the sun. When It rose, they stirred themselves
and sold things to fascinated visitors. When it
glowed scarlet for a moment over the desert's
rim, the fun began.
At dinner time the young bucks threw oft the
conventions of a white ri- ilimtion, locked arms
and formed a great circle un'er the pines. The
dance began, slowly st first, then gradually
reaching a faster rhythm. The braves began to
chant, weird, symbolical snatches of old song.
In the center of the group a bonfire was lighted,
and its sparks touched the moving bodies.
A rare and beautiful example of Nava
jo weaving. Rugs, such as these, bring
a handsome price when offered on the
white man's market.
A few young men became hundreds. By morn
ing a thousand Indians were chanting together,
recalling tales told by their fathers and grand
fathers, heroic deeds performed by ancestors in
bloody Indian wars before the white man came.
Deerslayer, Fenimore Cooper's immortal scout,
might have been lurking behind a tree, watching
the ceremony. Kit Carson, famous trapper of
earlier days, attended many such dances, and
once even participated in similar rites.
Hopis, Navajos and painted Apaches, terrors
of 60 years ago. This tribe sent representatives
and a Devil Dance team from San Carlos, weird
ly decorated and curiously costumed In feathers
and witches headdress.
A ZUNI dance team represented another tribe,
its members looking somewhat more civil
ized in costumes oddly like those of Albanian
peasants. Even the faces of the children on this
team looked less primitive, showing the results
of modern schooling.
Clarence S. Taptuka, a Hopi tenor from
Liupp, Arizona, sang ancient, almost forgotten
Clarence S. Taptuka, a Hopi tenor, who
entertained visitors to the powwow with
his interpretations of tribal songs.
Little Lighter Face herself. This young
lady is a papoose of the Apache tribe and
was an interested spectator at the powwow.
The gathering, possibly, required the services
of such a man as Kichardson, whose imagination
and enthusiasm made a human and moving spec
tacle of a conference which 'otherwise would have
met with less acclaim and, incidentally, brought
less money to the Indians.
And money, although supposedly scorned by
redmen who once roamed the forest and desert
with bow and arrow, is a necessity to tribes who
come Into contact with their white conquerors.
Clothes can be made, food can be grown, but it
is easier to buy them. So baskets, bracelets, leg
gins, and a hundred other Indian specialties are
manufactured by hand during the conference
and offered for sale at moderate prices.
FLAGSTAFF realized the educational possi
bilities of the event, and invited hundreds of
school teachers to attend to view authentic and
ancient ceremonies. Pictures were taken of
craftsmen working at their trade, and of these
m m
songs of his race and permitted himself to be
photographed in full regalia.
No one slept for several nights. The redmen
were busy celebrating ceremonials, and the white
visitors perforce stayed awake to watch and
listen, unable to sleep amid the haunting voice
that filled the night. .
For three days, beginning July 3, merriment
serious revival of ancient customs, and business
was carried on among these merchants and war
riors. For the first time In many years white
faces were few compared to the primitive,
straight-nosed, red-skinned people of the desert
The braiitiftilly designed pottery at the
left is the handiwork of I lopis and the
basket work (right) that of the Navajos.
Partially detracting from the romance of the
occasion, but making for efficiency, is the fact
that this great powwow was In some respects
directed by a white man. A writer, Gladwell
Kichardson, whs appointed to arrange for the
presentation of several Important ceremonials.
Among these was the famous Arapsho scalp
lance, the Navajo fire dance, Commanche war
dance, Apache Devil dance, special chicken pulls,
iquaw races and similar events, all of them dear
to the heart of the tribes and welcomed by white
visitors.
same craftsmen taking part In savage dames
after the sun went down.
Back to thousands of school children went true
stories of scenes which hae not been witnessed
for many years, and which in spite of historians
-fforts, will one day disappear forever.
The Flagstaff , owwow has become one of the
important folk ceremonials In America, drawing
white artists, writers, musicians, and photogni'
phers to the pine forest on the mountain side.
Citizens of the little town had become so ac
customed to their surrounding Indian tribes,
that the significance of the redmen's dances and
The Apaches and the Arapahoes were
noted for their fierceness in battle, but the
Navajos are best known for their adept
ness at weaving. Here is a Navajo squaw
with brilliant rug which she will offer
for sale to the palefaces.
rituals was overlooked. An Indian was just an
Indian. It required the interest of an outside
world to bring to light the value of reviving and
maintaining the colorful tribal life of a vanish
ing race.
IT IS partly the purpose of these conferences to
instill new enthusiasm and life into their arts
and crafts, and to keep alive tha memory of old
dances and ceremonies.
Like the average American business man go
ing to a convention, these Apaches, Hopis, Zunls,
and Navajos return to their encampment some
what reassured. Their importance grows because
so many white visitors think them important
Confidence returns with each successive confer
ence, as the whites take more interest in their
customs and make larger purchases from thd
"market place" in the pine forest
A convention, political or business, rates pub
licity where an individual commercial firm is
overlooked. So with Arizona's Indian convention,
which brings several great tribes before an
otherwise apathetic public, where a single red
man attracts no attention.
Observers of this recent gathering say it marks
the beginning of new growth and strength for
the oldest and most interesting race on the con
tinent These Indian tribes of the Southwest realize
the value of perpetuating their ancient dances,
particularly the traditional war dances, which
are still occasionally given. This war ritual
comes closer to the white man'a conception of
tribal dances thnn any others; a succession of
gyrations and war-whoops, against a realistic
background of eld painted shields of buffalo hide,
headed quivers of arrows, old-fashioned flint
locks, powder-horns, and scalps saved from the
days of American occupation.
There is a doom upon Indian culture, especial
ly the ceremonies springing from war, since they
go to war no more. Once actual prayers for cour
age and strength to overcome the enemy, these
dances are now preserved as survivals of an
earlier day. Gradually these dances will lose
meaning even to the Indians themselves, as the
original cause is forgotten.
IN DANCING, these tribes find their highest
expression of art. Ted Shawn and other fam
ous students of the dance in many countries, be
lieves that the Indians have a full appreciation
and understanding of the underlying spirit of
the dance. Their dancing Is natural, taking place
in the open air, and not in heated, crowded halls.
It is a community affair, and everyone in the
tribe participates as singer, dancer, or as spec
tator. Complications of rhythm depend upon music,
which straagely enough lacks any harmony ap
pealing to white musicians, who say that Amer
ican Indian music is the most difficult to master.
In several dances as many, as three or four
rhythms ore used at one time, with brief inter
vals and pouses one rhythm slnick up by tom
toms, one by the dancers, one by the singers,
and finally one by the clowns of the fiance.
For many years the chiefs objected to allow
ing the presentation of their intimate ceremon
ials away from the reservations, fearing the
effect of eommerclr Nation upon rpligious rit
uals. But as these wise elders learned that the
white men's intention was to aid In preserving
ancient customs, rather than making money by
them, this prejudice has changed to tolernnce,
ond finally to rooperation. Dances performed be
fore white audiences, however, are frequently
only given in part, and lark something of the
deep reverence expressed by the dancers when
on their own reservations.
To see Indian, dances executed In the "way of
the ancients" in an atmosphere of antiquity, Is
is necessary to visit tho pueblos and the tribal
centers, where for four generations the redmen
have maintained their own life, under the dom
ination of white conquerors, preserved their arts
and culture despite a machine age which has en-
crosrhed but not overwhelmed the proud and
primitive accomplishment of the tribes,
AGE THREE I