Ski Flier

Desert Dancers

"The men and women of Pascua who are over forty move in an atmosphere of the recent past. When the young men get together informally in the evenings, they play guitars, drink muscatel and whiskey, and sing the Mexican songs they have learned from their phonograph records. When the older people get together, they do not sing-they talk. They may listen to the stories of the two remaining men who fought under the last great Yaqui war leader, Cajeme. They often tell one another of their travels after Cajeme's defeat by the Mexicans in 1887, how they secured work in various parts of Sonora, of the songs sung by the Southern Pacific gangs with whom they worked, or how they crossed the border into the United States. The story of how Francisco Valencia got across at El Paso as a member of a circus troupe is a favorite one. The lives of most of them are full of incidents of violence, flight, and escape. Their presence in Pascua Village is a result of the series of events which stirred Sonora from 1875 to 1912, beginning with Cajeme's first uprising and continuing until the Revolution put an end to Porfirio Diaz's campaign of Yaqui extermination. They are all refugees, and they do not forget it."

"The forms of ceremony are a constant source of interest to Pascuans. The tedium which begins to overwhelm a non-Yaqui after hours of witnessing or discussing ceremonial events seems foreign to Yaquis. They may be weary. but they never seem bored. The forms themselves remain fascinating, perhaps because they cannot, for a Yaqui, be separated from their meanings, even though the latter remain somewhere in the regions to which mere verbalisms do not penetrate. An account of the ceremony which did not dwell on the minutiae of ritual would be alien to the Yaqui viewpoint, for it is these details which constitute a major aspect of life-activities.

"Nearly half the days of a year are wholly or partially occupied with some kind of ceremony. The actual figure is one hundred and seventy-one. This does not include private observances within a household; it refers only to ceremonies of a public character at which members of one or more of the ceremonial societies officiate."

"In Yaquiland"

The photograph was taken at the Yaqui village near Tucson with a Graphic View Camera, 5 inch Ektar lens, 1/50th of a second at f6.3, on daylight Ektachrome. The day was partly hazy with a high cloud formation. A Harrison C1/4 (warm filter) was used to avoid cold or bluish light caused by such lighting conditions. Camera was held on the ground by an assistant to get low angle view. No tripod. No. 5b (blue) flash bulb was used to lighten shadow areas. Meter reading of the dark skin indicated a much longer exposure for the dark subjects, but all sky and background would have been washed out had this been observed; so the photographer used a compromise exposure. The man seated plays a reed flute with a weird, high pitch but very melodious, and plays the drum at the same time. The dancer does a slow shuffle in creating rhythm with the bells attached to his waist and with the instruments in his hands.

The scene: Arizona Sno Bowl, above Flagstaff.. The subject coming swiftly and merrily down the mountain is Kit Wing, then a Sno Bowl ski instructor, now with the Armed Forces. The photographer and the skier carefully "set up" the picture. A dozen shots were taken before the photographer felt that he had gotten the effect he wanted. The day was clear and cold, the snow was fine for skiing, and possibly five feet deep at this place. The photographer was on snow shoes, at a measured distance from the turn where the focus on the moving skiier had previously been set. Photographer used Anniversary Speed Graphic, 4 by 5 Kodachrome, f2.5 at 1/500th of a second.

“PORTRAIT OF THE LONELY WIND” BY SGT. JAMES C. MARKLOW The Year of our Lord 1949

With this, the first issue of a new volume and a new year for ARIZONA HIGHWAYS, we extend our best wishes to you for Peace and Happiness. We take this opportunity to welcome the many new people who have joined the happy family of ARIZONA HIGHWAYS this past Christmas Season, and we wish to thank our many friends for their expression of confidence in our publication by making our Christmas business large, indeed. We will try in 1949 to give you a magazine that will be interesting and varied, one that will be worthy of being received in your home, and one that you will look forward to each month.

We start off our new year by presenting Dan Garvey, our governor. Governor Garvey, who was Secretary of State. became acting governor on the death of beloved Governor Osborn last year. The people decided he was a pretty good governor. They elected him governor in November.

We are particularly proud to present in these pages Mary Kidder Rak, from down Douglas way. She is an honest-togoodness cattleman's wife and a fine writer, with three books to her credit. Her subject is Viola Slaughter, the wife of John Slaughter, famous sheriff of Cochise County, a legend in the story of the West. We have always read so much about the men who tamed a wild frontier? How about the women who made it liveable? Viola Slaughter, distinguished pioneer. was one such person.

From time to time we have presented, and we will present, interesting Arizona towns and cities. This month Sam Siciliano tells us about Yuma, truly a city with a future. Yuma has had a glorious past. Tides of empire have swept over its site since the days of the Conquest; yet Yuma looks only to the future, to its role in the center of a great agricultural area. one that will never want water, whose rich soil has no equal on earth. In Yuma “opportunity” is not only spelt with a capitol “O” it is put in Neon lights. Yep! There's more in Yuma than the heat. We'll let Sam take over from here.

Have you ever heard of fluorescent minerals? Nope? Well, we hadn't either until our good friend, A. A. Flagg, came into the office and talked about them with us. It seems like they are rather drab rocks that light up real pretty under fluorescent lights. Interesting as all git out. Mr. Flagg and a very charming photographer of Los Angeles, Martha Burleigh. have combined their considerable talents to give us more information on fluorescents herein.

We also have an article by Ramon Adams, who manufactures candy in Dallas, Texas, as a hobby, but whose real interest in life is to preserve the salty speech that flavored the western range. His subject: “Cowboy Music.” We think you'll like it. Next month we are going to tell you about Shine Smith's Christmas Party for the Navajos, which so many readers of this modest journal helped make an outstanding success. We wish each of you could have been there with us.-R. C.

ARIZONA HIGHWAYS LEGEND