Image provided by: The Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde; Grand Ronde, OR
About Weekly Chemawa American. (Chemawa, Or.) 189?-198? | View Entire Issue (Aug. 7, 1903)
2 THE CHEMAWA AMERICAN. for the white, making about twenty cents for the wool of an averaged sized sheep. This past spring the flocks were for the most part in excellent condition. Both the quality and quantity of the wool averaged much better and, if tha scale of prices may be applied to the Navaho's clip that has been promised to the sheep men in the rest of the territory, there will be an ad vance of 33 per cent, over last year's prices. Unfortunately for the Indian, he has heretofore been quite at the mercy of the trader, who has held his post for the money there was in it. For the three staple products of the Indians hides, wool, and blankets he has given low prices, while in return the Navaho has been paying ten cents per pound for his sugar, four dollars per hundred pounds for a poor grade of flour, and proportion ate prices for coffee and for baking powder so badly adulterated that , it has produced a widespread form of stomach trouble among the Indians. . This abuse is now about to be remedied ' at a new trading post established near the Little Colorado River where business will be managed more in accordance with Christian principles. It is in this vicin i y that the Indians have been doing their pitf ul best during the last two or three years to build ditches and a strong dam, whereby the infrequent rainfall or the annual1 overflow of the river might be conserved. Bravely they have labored in heat and cold and weariness, with few tools, often with insufficient food, and ever with heartache lest the land, being outside the reservation, might be taken away from them. Now comes the cheer ing news that the government will allot the lands to those who have improved them, that an expenditure of 5,000 is ordered for an irrigation plant that shall include ditch, dam, material for conduits and m lis, and that the Indians will receive pay for the ditcli work which is now under way. As an illustration of how anxious the Indians are to work, the mining engi neer reports that a number of them walked ninety miles to get an opportunity to handle a shovel at $1.20 per day. The gen eral oversight of all this work is in charge of the Indians' faithful friend, V. K. Johnstone, superintendent of all the Na tional Indian Association's missionary work in Arizona. In none of the Indian nations is there a fairer division of labor than among the Navahos. While their most distinctive native craft, the art of weaving, is a feminine accomplishment, the men are not idle, and the threadbare term of "lazy buck," does not apply, save in sporadic instances. They build the hogans, and tliere is no hit or miss about these struc tures, which are supposed to follow the original model given by the gods and mythical progenitors of the tribe. They also care for the horses,cultivate their ster ile fields, gather fire-wood, ply their crude but artistic trades of iron and silver smit li ingand lend efficient aid in caring for the children, which are more numerous than in any of the other tribes. A c,i;n mon sight is a fine looking o.'.d man,"pui'k ing" his bright-eyed grand-baby on his back or giving it a sand bath the desert makeshift for water bathing. The plan . of the little mud and brush structures which the Navahos call Jioiron nizofti, "house beautiful," is always the same. There are three principal timbers in the frame securely locked at the upcv by interlacing forks whose butt ends are firmly planted in the ground. The sides are formed of stout poles, and the wh ile is well covered with bark and reeds an I earth. The door is made to face the Ka-t. that the house may be directly open t the benign influences of Qasteeialri the god of dawn. Another point to ! born in mind in selecting a site for x dwelling is that it be far removed fn ::. the hills of red ants. The reason given i that in the under-world these pests an noyed "Firstman" and the other p i who then dwelt together and caused th .r dispersal. The furnishing oftheluc '. is simple in the extreme. A pile of ets, a hole in the earth floor for "squaw" fire, a few tin cans and ocra-i :. ally a smoke-blackened, battered c ' pot, a sheep-skin which serves as a - :
