Aboriginal Remains in Verde Valley, Arizona: Thirteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1891-92, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1896, pages 179-262 — John Shaqi
Aboriginal Remains in Verde Valley, Arizona: Thirteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1891-92, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1896, pages 179-262Mindeleff, Cosmos
History
Aboriginal Remains in Verde Valley, Arizona: Thirteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1891-92, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1896, pages 179-262
Mindeleff, Cosmos
Pueblo Indians -- Antiquities; Verde River Valley (Ariz.) -- Antiquities
On the fifth day water spouted up from the hole where his hand had
been and it spread over everywhere. On the sixth day Pá-lü-lü-koña
(the Serpent deity) protruded from this hole and lifted his head
high above the water and looked around in every direction. All of
the lower land was covered and many were drowned, but most of our
people had fled to some knolls not far from the village and which
were not yet submerged.
When the old men saw Pá-lü-lü-koña they asked him what he wanted,
because they knew he had caused this flood; and Pá-lü-lü-koña said,
“I want you to give me a youth and a maiden.”
The elders consulted, and then selected the handsomest youth and
fairest maid and arrayed them in their finest apparel, the youth
with a white kilt and paroquet plume, and the maid with a fine blue
tunic and white mantle. These children wept and besought their
parents not to send them to Pá-lü-lü-koña, but an old chief said,
“You must go; do not be afraid; I will guide you.” And he led them
toward the village court and stood at the edge of the water, but
sent the children wading in toward Pá-lü-lü-koña, and when they
reached the center of the court where Pá-lü-lü-koña was the deity
and the children disappeared. The water then rushed down after them,
through a great cavity, and the earth quaked and many houses tumbled
down, and from this cavity a great mound of dark rock protruded.
This rock mound was glossy and of all colors; it was beautiful, and,
as I have been told, it still remains there.
[Illustration: Plate XII.
GROUND PLAN OF RUIN NEAR MOUTH OF LIMESTONE CREEK.
RIO VERDE : ARIZONA]
The White Mountain Apache have told me that they know a place in the
south where old houses surround a great rock, and the land in the
vicinity is wet and boggy.
We traveled northward from Palat-kwabi and continued to travel just
as long as any strength was left in the people--as long as they had
breath. During these journeys we would halt only for one day at a
time. Then our chief planted corn in the morning and the
pá-to-la-tei (dragon fly) came and hovered over the stalks and by
noon the corn was ripe; before sunset it was quite dry and the
stalks fell over, and whichever way they pointed in that direction
we traveled.
When anyone became ill, or when children fretted and cried, or the
young people became homesick, the Co-i-yal Katcina (a youth and a
maiden) came and danced before them; then the sick got well,
children laughed, and sad ones became cheerful.
We would continue to travel until everyone was thoroughly worn out,
then we would halt and build houses and plant, remaining perhaps
many years.
One of these places where we lived is not far from San Carlos, in a
valley, and another is on a mesa near a spring called Coyote Water
by the Apache. * * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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