The Indians of the Painted Desert Region: Hopis, Navahoes, Wallapais, HavasupaisJames, George Wharton
Religion
The Indians of the Painted Desert Region: Hopis, Navahoes, Wallapais, Havasupais
James, George Wharton
Indians of North America -- Southwest, New
The third game is stolen bodily from the Navahoes, except the name,
which with the Havasupais is _Tōd-wi-ga_. It is the Nan-zosh, and is
elsewhere fully described in these pages.
Such a paucity of games is indicative of low mental power, lack of
imagination and invention, and results in, or perhaps _from_ a slow,
heavy mental temperament. There is no comparison between the children
of the same ages of the Havasupais and the Navahoes or Hopis. And yet,
when they enter school, some of the Havasupais learn with a rapidity
equal to that of these other children.
It seems strange to find a people whose children have no equivalent for
dolls; nothing specifically to care for. They are capricious in their
treatment of their domestic animals, cats and dogs, sometimes petting
them to excess, and then lifting the yelping or squalling creatures
by the legs, twisting these members over their backs, or otherwise
torturing them.
The boys and the girls, as well as the men and women, are expert horse
riders. Every family has its horses, and the children ride from their
earliest years. Even as I write I catch glimpses now and then of a
red-shawled girl on horseback and hear the hard strike of the horse's
hoofs as he dashes along at break-neck speed along the trail near the
hawa of my host. All ride astride, and are as fearless in ascending and
descending the steep trails that give access and egress to their canyon
home as the wildest and most expert of the Rough Riders.
One of their great sports and gala times is when visiting
Indians--Navahoes, Hopis, or Wallapais--come with fleet horses and
races are arranged for. While they have no "Derby Day," they have
days on which half the personal property of the village is pledged
on the success of certain horses. They are inveterate gamblers; and
blankets, buckskins, saddles, bridles, Navaho jewelry, horses, burros,
and everything "gambleable" are risked on the outcome. And what an
exciting scene an Indian horserace is, and how picturesque! There is
not so much difference after all in human nature, when one penetrates
below the surface. The reserved Englishman, the excitable Italian,
the vivacious Frenchman, and the so-called stupid and stolid native
aboriginal American exhibit exactly the same traits of character under
the excitement of a horserace. But in Havasu Canyon the conditions are
quite different from Ascot, Doncaster, or Newmarket. Here are bucks
dressed in the breech-clout and excitement, and women gesticulating
and waving their si-dram´-as (our large flaming red or other "loud"
colored bandannas, fastened over the shoulders and across the breast).
Some suppress their excitement, others jabber like monkeys, and as the
horses come to the starting-point there is just as much talking and din
as after the start is made. One distinct feature is that many horses
are raced without riders. They seem to understand, and when the signal
to "let go" is given they dart off at full speed, just as if riders
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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