The Havasupai

Furthermore, the white man's whiskers have longer roots and do not come out so easily. Let me take the tweezers and show you.

The Navajo very solemnly handed me the tweezers. I got a good grip on a whisker, then with much ceremony gave a considerable jerk, let the tweezers slip, and said, "See, it didn't come out!"

The Navajo said quietly, "Let me try."

He got a good grip on a whisker in the same general territory, and out it came. I tried to look as solemn as the Indians, and by that time looking solemn wasn't a very difficult task. I was the only white man present, and any protest seemed out of the question. so I wondered just how far this little demonstration might go. While I was thinking, the leader had passed my whisker around the circle of some twenty Indians, pointing out the long root and other characteristics. I could not understand their remarks, but visions of frontier torture scenes, as portrayed by Hollywood, began to pass in front of my mind. Then the Navajo returned and examined my chin. He discovered that some of the whiskers were gray. Whether they had recently turned that color or not is a question. At any rate, he said, "We will take only the light colored ones."

I nodded my assent. There being nothing else to do. and he went to work. Each whisker that came out was ceremoniously approved by the tribesmen, while I looked very solemn and offered no comment. The future looked unhappy indeed.

But apparently these men, whom I knew, were trying to tease me, or at least trying to find out whether or not I could "take it," After they had pulled half a dozen more whiskers they suddenly gave up the whole procedure, and with a great laugh went back

(Continued on Page Forty-Two)

NAVAJO Tribal FAIR BY JOHN C. MCPHEE

It is September in Navajoland and there is time to play. At the "Dinne le Be Ne Yah A Tha Na le Glahee" at Window Rock, capital of the Navajo nation, the Navajo invite you to their annual celebration, September 19, 20, 21.

Their lambs have moved to market, their hogans bulge with bountiful harvest. Frost settles nightly on the lofty red mesas. It is September in Navajoland and there is time to play. The winter months have been long and cold, but Mother Earth and Father Sky united to send forth great storms and now green grass changes the face of the barren land of the Navajo.

There is much to be thankful for. There is fresh young laughter as Navajo families place their affairs in readiness for the annual trek to Window Rock and their fourth annual Navajo Tribal Fair. Mother and daughter speed the finishing touches on their prize blanket; father polishes his best silver and turquoise pieces and son grooms his prize sheep and hisrace horse for the three days that the Navajo have learned to treasure.

If Hosteen Nez lives two thundred miles from the Tribal Fairgrounds, the distance will not deter him. He will merely leave his hogan many nights before September 19th, camping along the way, perhaps passing through strange country, but always in his beloved Navajoland. The wagon will be loaded before the first streaks of dawn have painted the eastern sky. Into it will go a bale of hay, a mutton or two, some corn and melons. Grandmother and uncle will sit up front with father and mother, while the little fellows will dangle their moccasins behind. All will be dressed in finery saved for occasions such as this.

Founded in 1938, the Navajo Tribal Fair hasgrown to become the largest Indian gathering of its kind in America. Ten thousand Navajos thronged the Fairgrounds at Window Rock last year. Visitors proclaim the Navajo Fair the most exotic event of its kind in this country and praise tribal leaders for keeping the celebration completely non-commercial and all-Navajo.While the huge fairgrounds were made possible through the generosity of the federal treasury, the Fair itself each year is produced wholly by funds donated by employees of the Navajo Reservation and receipts from food concessions. Only non-Indians are charged admission. The fair is justified basically for the service it renders the Navajos and it offers the Government its greatest opportunity for mass education of the tribe. The Fair's principal fascination lies in its wholesome non-commercial atmosphere. Nothing is taken from the Navajo while every opportunity is offered for him to gain both knowledge and financial reward for himself. More than two thousand dollars will be offered this year in prizes ranging from $25.00 for the best blanket to $70.00 for the best community agricultural exhibit. Livestock, arts and crafts, home economics and 4-H club activities share in the long prize list.

The fairgrounds are nestled in the colorful rock formation within view of the great cavity which gives the Navajo central agency its unique name. Comprising sixty fenced acres, the area contains an amphitheatre carved from a natural hillside which seats more than seven thousand spectators. The hill faces a measured half-mile racetrack and eight of the newest type chutes for rodeo events. Around the racetrack are the various buildings which house the lifeblood of the fair; exhibits gathered from the far corners of the Indian's domain, the cream of the Navajoland, meticulously produced for the highest of all honors-recognition before the people.The principal structure, a log building like the others, houses the arts and crafts exhibits and farm products. Skeptics who doubt that the The crowd at the Navajo Fair watching the rodeo is one spread of color. The Navajo dress in their gayest and most colorful for the celebration. Navajos are farmers may believe that Iowa farmers have loaned some of their choicest crops to the Navajos. Luscious melons, tall corn, peaches and potatoes blend into a mass of bucolic splendor. In the adjoining arts and crafts building is a king's ransom in silver and turquoise and the weaving arts, the epitome of richness and quality. Next door is the Navajo Market, the place of the tradesmen where Navajos may sell or trade anything they make or grow. It is an open-air market where booths are operated by the Navajos themselves. In the center, be neath a canopy of green boughs, a Navajo wo man makes "paper" bread, a native delicacy cooked on the flat surface of a hot stone. Spirited dealing goes far into the night as Indians from nearby and distant places wrangle with the wily Navajo to best him in a trade. Nearby is the focal point of the grounds, The exhibition of Indian arts and crafts is a feature of the Navajo Tribal Fair. Shown here is Mabel Burnside, champion Navajo weaver, and her mother. Visitors will find the exhibits both interesting and educational.

the eating place where nineteen thousand lowly hamburgers were consumed during the 1940 fair. Near here, in the reflected light of a blazing fire, the young people of the tribe dance each night of the fair until dawn, hesitating only now and then to consume a cup of steaming coffee.

Here are the livestock exhibit sheds and pens. Here the best of the Navajo animals are brought, fed by the management, judged and awarded prizes. Three hundred dollars will be given in this department in prizes. Along with the horses, cows, sheep (but no hogs) of the Navajos are pens of fine bucks from the white men's pastures. The government is trying to induce the Navajos to breed up all stock, and these especially good rams stir envy and perhaps emulation among the Indians.

We see a 'dobe house with one large and one small room, solid plank floors, ample windows, cast-iron stove and a few pieces of simple furniture. This is a demonstration of the Rehabilitation House which the Government is helping the Navajo settlers to build on irrigation projects. A constant stream of visitors goes through this house and many stay to have explained the irrigation exhibit behind it, where five different crops are growing and where the correct application of irrigation water is demonstrated. Here also is a full-sized windmill with someone to explain it.

Nearby we see another model home, an adaptation of the hogan, and consisting of twowell-built hogans connected by a short passage which serves a store room. The hogans have several windows, simple "nested" furniture and stone-slab floors. Here a silversmith is at work and a student demonstrates the meth ods of tanning and working the raw sheepskins. Happy voices draw us on to the model school, equipped as are the best of the Navajo day schools, and to the playground surrounding it. This is fenced and supervised and the Indian children left there, while mothers seeing the fair, are having as gay and vocal time as any white children could have.

We stop to read the sign over a building, beautifully built of big, peeled, yellow pine logs. It says "Medical." The large front room is divided down the center by a headhigh wooden partition, which serves as a background for posters and health pictures of all kinds. One side is devoted to child health and care. Scales, simple bath equipment and model garments in Indian life are explained by a nurse and a woman interpreter. The other side tells the story of tuberculosis, its course and its treatment in posters, isographs and charts. These are explained by a doctor who takes dozens of groups down the line and finishes each tour with fluoroscopic view of the hands of each Indian who is venturesome enough to try it. The Rear of the building contains a small but well-equipped emergency ward with a doctor and nurse always in attendance. An ambulance stands at the door ready to pick up casualties anywhere on the grounds and to transport them to the Government hospital eight miles distant, if necessary. About two thousand people saw the medical exhibit and one hundred and ninetyone patients were treated. Next is the police tent with someone always on duty. The big Navajo policemen roam the grounds and mingle with the crowds but are not too conspicuous. A shiny star on a khaki shirt, a pair of handcuffs dangling from a beaded belt and the inevitable broad hat distinguish them. The Chief of Police, trained in the Border Patrol, has solved many problems by having the policemen and their families camp in the official campgrounds.

The crowd is pushing toward the grandstand so we go along, too, past one of the popular drinking fountains, to find a place on the hill which has been ingenuiously terraced and fitted with broad stone steps. At the top is the bandstand, a bark-covered structure from which (Continued on Page Forty-Two) Navajo cowboys in the rodeo grounds watching a performer in action. Navajo are excellent horsemen and competition is keen among competi-tors in the rodeo for prizes and awards.

BY FRANCES B. SANITA ARIZONA WRITERS PROJECT, W. P. A.

DRAWINGS BY ROSS SANTEE In CATARACT CANYON, within the boundaries of the Grand Canyon National Park, nearly three thousand feet below the land above,live the Havasupai Indians. Hemmed in bytowering walls of red sandstone, the acreageof their reservation is very small but its fertility, spectacular scenery, and unusual setting as a habitation for man, makes it one ofthe most remarkable places in Arizona. The population is also small; the latest cen-sus report shows two hundred thirteen mem-bers, a slight increase in recent years. The tribehas probably never numbered more than threehundred.

Passing through miles of limestone formations thewater is very heavily impregnated with cal-cium and magnesium carbonates, calcium sul-phate, and magnesium chloride. These min-eral salts in solutions over a period of time,coat everything they touch with a stony de-posit and tinge the water. The creek is alight blue or greenish blue color.

Taking their name from the water of thecreek, these Indians have become known asthe blue-water people (Havasu, blue or greenwater; pai, people).

The Havasupai belong to the Yuman linguistic stock and speak the same language as theHualpai, their close cousins on the west, witha slight variation of dialect.

The first written record of the Havasupaidates from 1776 when Padre Francisco Tomas Garces, the Spanish mission priest visited them.The tribe had little contact with the Ameri-cans for the next hundred years, except foroccasional visits of trappers, prospectors, andexploring parties.

For many years the Havasupai have carried on an inter-tribal trade with the Navajoand Hopi, obtaining blankets, wool, and silverwork in exchange for dressed skins, and ag-ricultural products. The Hualpai trade manyof their raw deer hides to the Havasupai inexchange for the Navajo and Hopi goods inaddition to fruit and vegetables.

The present Havasupai food supply is based principally on their agricultural products.Corn, beans, and squash are the staples, sup-plemented by chili peppers, onions, melons andother garden vegetables. The fruit crops arepeaches, nectarines, apricots and figs. Meat in former times was obtained by hunting, but now most of it is from their herds of range cattle.

The economic unit is the family group, usually consisting of parents, children, and unattached relatives. These small groups are closely bound into larger ones by blood ties. This grouping is based on, or at least correlated with, the inheritance of land on the one hand and the temporary matrilocal resi dence on the other. Sometimes several generations of these people live close together and work together, but each married couple and their progeny are regarded as a distinct unit. Some young couples build a home soon after they marry, but it is customary for them tolive with the wife's parents until they have a home of their own.

Property descends through the male line. If a man dies his effects do not descend to his wife but to his sons. The sons may hold land or stock undivided for several years until they have families of their own whose di verse interests make division necessary. The widow and unmarried daughters share in the use of the land, but they cannot claim it, since the widow's relatives and the daughter's children never inherit it from them. If a widow hastily re-marries, her "use" interest is lost, reverting to the other heirs. Should there be no direct heirs, the property goes to the dead man's brothers or their male descendants. Family ties are strong.

In the summer the Havasupai live in a section of the canyon not much more than a mile in length. In winter most of the tribe leave the canyon and live on the plateau where there is plenty of game and firewood. Ownership of the arable land is communal. Every family has a piece of land, which is recognized as belonging to it by the rest of the tribe. By established custom the land is inherited and may be sold to a fellow tribesman. One peculiar condition that caused some trouble in the past was the ownership by one Havasupai of fruit trees growing on the lands in possession of another; this was brought about, it was reported, by certain complications in inheritance.

The Havasupai is an excellent horseman and packer. He usually has quite a number of horses and does considerable packing on the trail with them. Traveling up and down the steep winding trail to the top of the canyon is very strenuous work for the horses and the Indians must have a sufficient number of them so as to rest each horse a few days after one of the trips.

When first visited by the white man the Havasupai dug holes with stones hoes, planted their seed, but with little cultivating. Only a small acreage was planted, and this was irrigated from small ditches running from dams of rocks, logs, and willows piled in the river. Methods of farming are still simple. The ground is first plowed and then cultivated with a hoe; some rotation of crops is practiced from year to year. Irrigation ditches now serve over a hundred acres of land.

The Havasupai are among the most conscientious farmers in the Southwest. Their in terest centers so firmly in their fields that when remunerative employment is to be had at Grand Canyon the men will pass up the work bringing semi-monthly pay to plant and tend their own crops.

The Havasupai house cannot be classed as either a wickiup or a hogan. Some are built of willow brush, conical like a tepee; others are constructed like a tent with a horizontal ridge pole at the top; and a few are built with straight brush walls and a flat roof covered with dirt and thatch. Floors are of dirt and are not treated in any way. The cooking is done on a wood burning stove or open fireplace in the middle of the floor, the smoke escaping through a hole in the roof. Living in their remote canyon where everything has to be packed in on horses over a steep winding trail, the Havasupai have very few modern household goods.

The women make basketry in two techniques twining and coiling. Baskets are an important domestic utensil and in each household there are several burden baskets, food trays, and perhaps one or two water bottles. When not occupied with her other duties, the Havasupai woman is generally engaged in her craft.

The artistry of their baskets is seen in the coiled trays and bowls, made of twigs of cottonwood or the three-leaved sumac. In shape they vary from round or oval plaques, nearly flat with slightly upturned margins, to baskets or bowls of cylindrical proportions. The material is prepared at leisure and made into bundles and stored. The bark is scraped from the twigs, the wood split and scraped to uniform width. When the materials are to be used, they are soaked in water to make them flexible.

Simple geometric figures, animals, and band-ed designs are made with the black outer layer of the seed of devil's claw or martynia. Most baskets have a white background with black decorations; however, the reverse is sometimes found with baskets of black background and white designs.

Years ago the Havasupai adopted the white man's clothing. The men wear overalls or corduroy trousers, blue cotton shirts, jumpers, large cowboy hats, boots or shoes. Their hair is cut short. The women wear long, wide skirted dresses, which they make themselves, of calico print in the brightest colors obtainable.

Ten yards is the usual amount of material required to make a dress. The older women wear a large colored handkerchief tied loosely about the shoulders. The hair, hanging down in long bangs over the forehead and almost obscuring the eyes, is cut shoulder length in back and hangs free.

The Havasupai family in our sense of the word is the social unit. There is no clan or gentes system, nor are there any indications that they ever existed. Individuals recognize their affiliations with their immediate relatives only; there are no particular social or ceremonial groups. The family groups are loosely bound into large ones by blood ties. A group of sons live in houses adjacent to the parent's home, together with the newly established families of the daughters of the house. The father and sons work their undivided fields with the assistance of their wives; the new son-in-law works with his wife's family until he breaks away to return to his father's house. There are probably fifty camps or family units in the village. In each household are usually found some unattached relatives of close degree-widows, widowers, or orphans. The orphans are cared for by the relatives of either parent, seemingly without prejudice to the interests of the children of the relatives on the other side of the family.

A council of comparatively recent origin settles most disputes and the tribe recognizes chiefs. Chieftainship is inherited, but there are also men who have become chiefs through prestige and renown. The principal duties of the chief are giving advice and counsel. They tell their people how to act, especially the young women and men. The men are told to work hard, farm, hunt, and dress skins, while the women are urged to cook, make baskets, plant and gather wild food.

It is the duty of the chiefs to speak to the people on appropriate occasions such as dances, gatherings to discuss important tribal matters, and at death ceremonies, or informally at sweat lodges. Personal qualifications are an important factor in chieftainship. A chief must be industrious, even tempered, and dignified; a son who does not display such qualities has little chance of becoming a chief.

In summer after the crops are planted and again during the harvest the Havasupai have some leisure time in which to engage in their favorite pastimes. The men gather at the sweat lodges to discuss tribal matters, or visit a neighbor and help him rub or stretch buckskin, play games of chance, tell stories and race horses. Women gather at a neighbor's camp and weave baskets, prepare material for basketry, or shell corn. At midday the women and young men are usually at their gambling and, at least during the summer, the older men are at the sweat lodge.

These lodges are dome-shaped structures about six feet in diameter and four or five feet high, set over a circular pit a foot deep. The frame is covered with brush or thatch. The stones are placed to the left of the entrance They are heated in a fire nearby and carried in with green wood tongs.

The sweat lodge serves as sort of a clubhouse for the men. During the hot midday it is customary for the men to rest and the sweating is very refreshing. Generally a man goes into the lodge four times during the afternoon. Usually four go in together but the number is not fixed. The host or leader sits at the rear with a basin of water nearby. It is very dark inside and the heat is intense. Suddenly he bursts into a song; if the others wish they may join him. They stay from fifteen minutes to an hour, and just before they emerge the leader sprinkles water on the rocks producing a heavy steam. If the lodge is located on the banks of the creek, when the bathers come out they plunge into the stream, or lie on the sand and rest.

Horse racing is patterned after foot racing of former times. The race is to a point and return. Races are usually for stakes and on special occasions as the Peach Dance, a purse is offered the winner. The horsemen do not jockey for a start, but start from stand-still.

The children are expert swimmers, often learning the art very young. Mothers toss the small children in the creek of deep water and in almost no time they paddle their way to the bank; it can hardly be said that they are taught to paddle for it seems to come instinctively.

As canyon climbers the Havasupai probably surpass all other tribes. Their muscles are developed by constant practice and they run up and down the steep canyon trails in a manner that excites the envy of our college athletes.

When an individual is very ill and it is feared that he may die, relatives gather and begin to wail. A corpse is laid with the head to the northwest, the hair is washed in yucca suds, and the face is painted. Clothes are furnished by friends and relatives. The following day everyone gathers to mourn with the family. The chiefs talk of the past life of the deceased and admonish the relatives to care for the property of the deceased and not to commit suicide. Formerly the Havasupai cremated their dead but now they are buried. When death occurs in a house the family moves out for a few months. Personal possessions are buried. In recent years the custom of burning personal treasures has not been as universal as formerly.

Religion is only slightly developed and occupies but a minor place in Havasupai life. "Ceremonialism is meager and interest in the supernatural is neither comprehensive nor developed in systematic form." Prayers are addressed to the earth, sun, rocks, trees, wind and water. When praying to the sun a man draws his hands down over his face as he blows to brush the evil away.

Souls of the dead are said to go to the north where they live much the same as here on earth, but what the hereafter is like or where located is indefinite, even among the older members of the tribe. Objects such as rocks and trees have no souls, The Peach Dance, lasting two or three days and nights, is the one general dance of the year and is performed in the early fall at the end of August or the beginning of September. To some extent it is a prayer for rain and prosperity, but the social side predominates. At this time Hualpai, Hopi, and Navajo visitors come to share the abundance and trade. The several days festivities furnish the principal diversion of the year.

Canyon de Chelly National Monument

Approach and after hiding their women, children and aged in a cave the warriors decamped for parts unknown. As the column was winding its way up the canyon past the cave one old crone who had been a captive screeched an insult down at them, thus disclosing the non-combatants' position. Another one of those snake and apple incidents so numerous in history. The soldiers fired into the cave and destroyed the entire group, either by direct fire or by ricochet from the roof of the cave. This after noon we will drive to within a mile of the cave and then walk up and see those bullet marks on the roof of the cave and the bones of the victims scattered about in the dry dust of the floor. From that incident the name 'canyon of the dead' was applied."From here we will drive on about three miles which will bring us up to a point on the rim of Canyon de Chelly opposite White House. As we pass that first clay bank over there you can see where we uncovered some vertebrae of one of the huge pleistocene mam mals. We thought when those were found that we had something important but it turned out to be only a few tail vertebrae.

"Now here on the rim again we see that the depth of the canyon has increased nearly two fold, which brings us up six hundred feet above the stream and enough higher so that we find ourselves in the juniper and pinon pine belt. The wild flowers most noticeable at this time of year are the purple waterleaf, yellow philidephieum lily, evening primrose and many varieties of the aster family. The yellow flowered prickly pear is Opuntia loom isii, while the cholla is Opuntia whipplii. Those little clumps of barrel shaped cacti with the cereus flowers are Echinocereus Coccereus.

"Have you located the ruin yet? Those ruined five story walls shrink to an insignificant height when backed by six hundred feet of sheer cliff. The upper ruin is set far enough back in a cave so that the original white plaster still gleams in the desert light, hence the name. This village is neither the oldest nor the largest on the monument, but is most accessible during the time when the water makes the canyon impassable to auto travel. After a while we will go down the trail to the floor of the canyon and across to White House, but first let us get a few of the primary concepts the archaeologists have set down about this old culture as we see it illustrated in White House.

"We will call the entire culture by the name which the Navajo use that is 'anazazi'. You remember the archaeologist has divided this culture into two types and called them Basket maker and Pueblo. The former is the earlier and subdivided into periods I, II, III. Basket maker I is postulated, so we are concerned with only the last two as we have sites of both periods on the monument. The prehistoric Pueblo culture is subdivided into four periods, I to IV inclusive. We have not as yet found any ruins which fall into the Pueblo I period but the II and III are represented by many sites. Let us now go back to the time of Pueblo III, which has been dated from 900 to 1300 A. D., because here before us we have an example of the buildings of that time. White House is contemporaneous with the great dwellings at Chaco Canyon and Mesa Verde, at a time when the Anazazi had evi dently reached the height of their cultural climb. Their life was still a hard one in the eternal struggle against the elements to pro vide food and clothing for themselves with their pitifully inadequate implements. They nevertheless found time and had the inclination to make artistic designs and delicately shaped pottery as well as handsome textiles. All this was done without the aid of a potter's wheel and with looms similar to those used by the modern Navajo.

"Their domesticated animals were only the dog and the turkey. Keep in mind, too, that they had no beasts of burden so that anything that was to be carried must be carried on a man's or woman's back. Remember that when you look at some of the timbers used in the buildings.

"The crops of these people consisted of corn, beans, pumpkins, and some cotton, for we have found traces of these products in nearly every ruin investigated.

"The annual growth rings in the timbers of In a land of great canyons, Canyon de Chelly and Canyon del Muerto are unique in many ways. Here ancient peoples lived and thrived; here the Navajo settled, hundreds of years ago; here was felt the heavy tread of history in the days of Spanish conquest and in American subjugation of the hostile Navajos. Now there is peace and all the simplicity and appeal of distant places.