Tewa

“ Wakatta has returned from his expedition, full of hope and confidence, and actually looking ten years younger than when I first saw him. He says that the position of affairs at Tewa is most promising. The recently victorious rebels have fallen into fierce contentions among themselves, and a large faction of them, with the leaders of which he has entered into communication, is willing to unite with him against the others, upon being assured of indemnity for past offences. Eiulo’s father still lives, and has already gathered the nucleus of a force capable of retrieving his fortunes. ”

“ Some of the Tewa have told me that in their folktales their people did not emerge from the same sípapû as the Hopi, but from a sípapû to the east. Although some of the priests say that all people came from the middle of the earth, from one sípapû, others believe that each pueblo has its own ancestral geographical opening. The idea has been localized by environment, as is so often the case with modified legends. ”

“ While there are Tewa men from Hano in several of the Hopi villages, where they have families, no Tewa woman lives in Walpi. This is of course due to the fact that the matriarchal system exists, and that a girl on marrying lives with her mother or with her clan, while a newly married man goes to the home of his wife's clan to live. ”

“ Again, in so-called modern Hopi pottery, Tewa symbols derived from the Rio Grande have replaced old Hopi symbols dominant before the advent of Tewa clans. The changes in pottery symbols in every large composite pueblo are not due to evolution of the modern from the ancient, but reflect the history of the advent of new clans, powerful enough to substitute their designs for those formerly existing. One of the problems of the ethnologist is to determine symbols associated with certain clans, and by means of legends to identify clans with ruins. ”

“ I ought here to explain the circumstances, as Arthur learned them from Wakatta, which brought the natives to our island. A civil war had recently broken out in Tewa, growing out of the plots of the Frenchmen resident there, and some discontented chiefs who made common cause with them. One of the foreigners, connected by marriage with the family of a powerful chief, had been subjected by the authority of Eiulo’s father, to a summary and severe punishment, for an outrage of which he had been clearly convicted. ”

“ A great many moons ago, as Eiulo expressed it, the chiefs of the two smaller islands had united their forces against his grandfather, who was then chief of Tewa, the third and largest. To this enterprise they had been incited by Atollo, an uncle of Eiulo, and younger brother of the present chief, his father. This man was possessed of great ability, and his reputation as a warrior was second only to that of Wakatta, who was many years his senior, so that among those of his own age he was considered without an equal. ”

“ A slope formed at the base of a cliff by material falling from above. Tanos (táh-nos) . Applied to various groups of people who inhabited the country east of the Rio Grande south of the San Ildefonso-Tesuque Tewa region. Tewa (tay-wa) . Language spoken by certain Pueblo Indians; they are: San Ildefonso, Nambe, Tesuque, Santa Clara and San Juan. tewatu (tay-wa-too) . “Tewa beans”; pinto beans. Tiguex (tee-wesh) . Province of prehistoric Indian villages on the banks of the Rio Grande between Bernalillo and Albuquerque, a distance of about seventeen miles. ”

“ Johnny has already commenced packing his shells and “specimens” for removal. Max has ascertained, greatly to his relief, for he had some doubts on the subject, that the gridiron and other cooking utensils can be stowed safely in the locker of the yawl, and he anticipates much benevolent gratification in introducing these civilised “institutions,” among the barbarians of Tewa.
The intestine feuds which still rage there, and the probability that “our side,” will find themselves in the minority, furnish the chief grounds of objection to the step contemplated. ”

“ The group of Tewa personifications went to every house in that pueblo and then to the houses in other villages where men from Hano have married. The groups of the other towns go first to the houses of their own pueblo and then to the houses in the other villages where men have transferred themselves by marriage.
When the Walpi group had finished their exercises at Hano and Sitcomovi they went back to Walpi and proceeded along the front side of 282their pueblo to their own kiva, where they disrobed about dark. ”

“ The result showed that it would scarcely be prudent for so great a number to embark in her upon a voyage to Tewa, and Wakatta and his people have now commenced building a canoe, which is to be of sufficient size to carry twenty persons.
Browne’s prejudices against the “heathen savages,” have been greatly softened by what he has seen of these natives, and he says that, “if the rest of them are equally well-behaved, one might manage to get along with them quite comfortably.” ”

“ Pleasant relations existed for some time, but the Walpi again grew ill-tempered; they encroached upon the Hano planting grounds and stole their property. These troubles increased, and the Hano moved away from the mesa; they crossed the west valley and built temporary shelters. They sent some men to explore the land on the westward to find a suitable place for a new dwelling. These scouts went to the Moen-kopi, and on returning, the favorable story they told of the land they had seen determined the Tewa to go there. ”

“ The room fell into ruin, its roof timbers were carried off, and it became filled up with dust and rubbish. The title to it, however, rested with the old survivor, as all the more direct heirs had died, and he, when about to die, gave the kiva to Kotshve, a “Snake” man from Walpi, who married a Tewa (Hano) woman and still lives in Hano. This man repaired it and renamed it Tokónabi (said to be a Pah-Ute term, meaning black mountain, but it is the only name the Tusayan have for Navajo Mountain) because his people (the “Snake”) came from that place. ”

“ There are differences in marriage and mortuary customs, in the way the women wear their hair, [15] and in other minor matters, but at present the great difference between the Hopi and the Tewa is in their religious ceremonials, which, next to language, are the most persistent features of their tribal life. Hano has a very limited ritual; it celebrates in August a peculiar rite known as Sumykoli, or the sun prayer-stick making, as well as the Tûñtai midwinter ceremony, the altars of which are described herein. ”

“ Tso`k`o ́dalte) , from t'epga, odal, and te; the oldest man of the Kiowa tribe, now about eighty years of age. 425 te ́dal—white clay; used by the Indians for paint; another form is te ́li. Te ́dal toñ—"white-clay spring;" a water hole on the Staked plain, so called from the white clay found there. There are two wells on the Staked plain, known as Tierra Blanca or Ojo Blanco, one in Texas, the other in New Mexico. Te ́guă (-go) —Pueblo; the name is a derivative from Tegua or Tewa and includes all the Pueblo Indians; the Comanche form is Tewa. ”

“ A prolonged silence ensued, during which the latter's gaze swept the vast conclave of horsemen and forest of lances that glittered in the sunlight and the wild mountains beyond which towered above the valley and had looked down upon the Tewana in the ancient days when his race was in the cradle of its infancy. Beside him stood the beauteous woman who seemed endowed with all the wit and graces the poets of the ages had attributed to the ideal woman. An inspiring, uplifting spectacle, far surpassing in its reality the vision of his dreams. ”

“ Would it not be more likely that the so-called “little strong people” might have feared attacks during the night by the Keres to the south who had been driven from their Canyon homes? Tyuonyi was “the oasis of the Pajarito” and the Tewas did not intend to be driven from their fertile valley. Some lurking band could have crept over the south cliff when all was quiet—while Tewas were resting peacefully below. And the attackers were quiet too, with their moccasined feet, like the mountain lion which creeps upon a fawn. A falling rock or the crackling of a dead branch would be a dead give-away. ”

“ The responsibility had been laid upon him, and without hesitation he accepted the charge, and spake; his words being translated by Chiquita, were repeated in turn to the multitude by the White Cloud.
"Tewana, we accept the charge which you have imposed [Pg 378] in us," he began quietly. "But understand, we come not to rule you; we come to guide you. It is time that you should learn to rule yourselves.
"The days of rulers have passed. Woe unto them that seek to rule, and woe unto the people that bows its neck to rulers! ”

“ I don't mind it myself, because I am a Head Chief, but it's very bad for the rest of the Tribe of Tegumai, and, as you can see, it surprises the stranger.'
Then they adopted the Stranger-man (a genuine Tewara of Tewar) into the Tribe of Tegumai, because he was a gentleman and did not make a fuss about the mud that the Neolithic ladies had put into his hair. But from that day to this (and I suppose it is all Taffy's fault) , very few little girls have ever liked learning to read or write. Most of them prefer to draw pictures and play about with their Daddies—just like Taffy. ”

“ In another moment he was flying down the street with his pail and a tingling rear, Tom was whitewashing with vigor, and Aunt Polly was retiring from the field with a slipper in her hand and triumph in her eye. ”

“ We encamped among the bones of the dead; no space could be found free from them; and on the 23d, at six in the morning, full of horror at this miserable spectacle, we set out for Teawa: this was the seventh day from Ras el Feel. After an hour's travelling we came to a small river, which still had water standing in some considerable pools, although its banks were perfectly destitute of any kind of shade.
At three quarters after seven in the evening we arrived at Teawa, the principal village and residence of the Shekh of Atbara, between three and four miles from the ruins of Garigana. ”

“ It was then that Neewa began to feel the pleasing warmth of the red thing, and in spite of his nervousness he began to purr in the glow of it. From red the sun turned swiftly to gold, and the whole valley was transformed once more into a warm and pulsating glory of life.
For two weeks after this first sunrise in Neewa's life Noozak remained near the ridge and the slough. Then came the day, when Neewa was eleven weeks old, that she turned her nose toward the distant black forests and began the summer's peregrination. Neewa's feet had lost their tenderness, and he weighed a good six pounds. ”

“ IT was on the 17th of March that we set out from Hor-Cacamoot on our journey to Teawa, capital of the province of Atbara, Our course was N. N. W. through thick brushwoods, with a few high trees; our companions being eleven naked men, with asses loaden with falt. We had several interruptions on the road. At three in the afternoon we encamped at Falaty, the east village of Ras el Feel, a little to the northward. A small mountain, immediately north from this village, the one end of which is thought to resemble the head of an elephant, gives the name to the village and the province*. ”

“ And that night was by all odds the finest that Neewa had ever seen. Now that the nights were warm, he had come to love the moon even more than the sun, for by birth and instinct he was more a prowler in darkness than a hunter of the day. The moon rose out of the east in a glory of golden fire. The spruce and balsam forests stood out like islands in a yellow sea of light, and the creek shimmered and quivered like a living thing as it wound its way through the glowing valley. ”

“ Tew, and he and Caraccioli pressed the work of the dock. He gave him also 200 hands, of which 40 were Portuguese, 37 negroes, 17 of them expert sailors, 30 English, and the rest French. Tew met with nothing in his way, till he came to the northward of the Cape of Good Hope, when he fell in with a Dutch East-India galley of 18 guns, which he took after a small resistance, and with the loss of one man only. On the coast of Angola he took an English Guinea-man with 240 slaves, men, women, and boys. ”

“ In a wide, flat part of the valley where the creek split itself into a dozen little channels, and the water rippled between sandy bars and over pebbly shallows, Neewa and his mother were nosing about lazily for a breakfast of crawfish. The world had never looked more beautiful to Neewa. ”

“ When all the Tribe had come together in front of the Head Chief's house, the Head Chief stood up and said and sang: 'O Tribe of Tegumai! The Wagai river has been fished too much, and the carp-fish are getting frightened. Nobody must fish in the Wagai river for six months. It is tabu both sides and the middle; on all islands and mud-banks. It is tabu to bring a fishing-spear nearer than ten man-strides to the bank of the river. It is tabu, it is tabu, it is most specially tabu, O Tribe of Tegumai! ”

“ For a space the world was whirling round and round in a sickening circle. Then he pulled himself together, and made out Neewa a dozen feet away. Neewa was just awakening to the truth of an exhilarating discovery. Next to a boy on a sled or a beaver on his tail, no one enjoys a “slide” more than a black-bear cub, and as Brimstone rearranged his scattered wits, Neewa climbed twenty or thirty feet up the slope and deliberately rolled down again! Brimstone's jaws fell apart in amazement. Again Neewa climbed up and rolled down—and Brimstone ceased to breathe altogether. ”