Forty Years Among the Indians: A true yet thrilling narrative of the author's experiences among the nativesJones, Daniel W. (Daniel Webster)
History
Forty Years Among the Indians: A true yet thrilling narrative of the author's experiences among the natives
Jones, Daniel W. (Daniel Webster)
Frontier and pioneer life -- West (U.S.); Indians of North America; Latter Day Saint pioneers -- Biography
On arriving at the Moquis villages, the Indians were much pleased to
see us, and were very friendly. Their country and villages have been
described so well and often that I will say but little about them.
They are a peaceable, honest class, dwelling in villages that have a
very ancient appearance situated on high bluffs, facing a dry, sandy
plain and distant some sixty miles from the Little Colorado river. The
Indians farm by catching the rain water which runs down from the hills,
and conduct it upon the more sandy spots; thus gathering moisture
enough to mature beans, pumpkins, early corn, melons and a few other
early vegetables. They have a number of peach trees that grow in the
sand ridges, bearing a very good fruit of which they dry the most. They
save and eat every thing they possibly can. They own quite a number of
horses, sheep and goats. They seem to be happy, well fed and contented,
making some blankets and clothing of a rude kind.
As there may be readers of this work more interested in the travels
and the country through which we passed than the mission in which we
were engaged, for their benefit I will describe our outfit and mode of
travel. On leaving Kanab there were seven of us with saddle animals.
Brother Pratt rode a contrary mule. We had some fourteen head of pack
animals. Our books were in convenient bales for packing. All our
provisions, which were ample, were put up in uniform-sized canvas bags.
There was one mule for water kegs and one horse for kitchen traps.
The latter was well suited for his position, for nothing would excite
him. We had to depend entirely on the grass to sustain our animals,
as we could not carry grain for them. In the early travels of western
explorers grass was the only feed. It was much more fresh and abundant
than at the present time. Now throughout the western country almost
every watering place is occupied by the ranchman's cattle.
At night our animals were hoppled and turned out. When any danger was
expected we would guard them. If there was no danger we went to bed and
hunted them up in the morning. Sometimes this was quite a labor. We had
one span of mules that seemed determined to get back to Utah. We tried
many times to hamper them, sometimes with seeming success, but they
soon learned to travel side or cross-hoppled, or one tied to the other.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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