The Medicine-Men of the Apache. (1892 N 09 / 1887-1888 (pages 443-604))Bourke, John Gregory
Religion
The Medicine-Men of the Apache. (1892 N 09 / 1887-1888 (pages 443-604))
Bourke, John Gregory
Apache Indians -- Medicine; Apache Indians -- Religion; Apache Indians -- Rites and ceremonies; Shamans -- New Mexico
In this chapter I will insert notes showing the use of such cords by
other tribes, and follow with descriptions of the uses to which the
cords of St. Francis and others were put, and with references to the
rosaries of different races or different creeds; finally, I will
remark upon the superstitions connected with cords, belts, and
strings, knotted or unknotted, made of serpent skin, human skin, or
human hair. The strangest thing about it all is that observers have,
with scarcely an exception, contented themselves with noting the
existence of such cords without making the slightest effort to
determine why they were used.
There are certain cords with medicine bags attached to be seen in the
figures of medicine-men in the drawings of the sacred altars given by
Matthews in his account of the Navajo medicine-men.
Cushing also has noted the existence of such cords in Zuñi, and there
is no doubt that some at least of the so-called "fishing lines" found
in the Rio Verde cliff dwellings in Arizona were used for the same
purposes.
Describing the tribes met on the Rio Colorado, in 1540-1541, Alarcon
says: "Likewise on the brawne of their armes they weare a streit
string, which they wind so often about that it becommeth as broad as
one's hand."[533] It must be remembered that the Indians thought that
Alarcon was a god, that they offered sacrifice to him, and that they
wore all the "medicine" they possessed.
In 1680, the Pueblos, under the leadership of Popé, of the pueblo of
San Juan, were successful in their attempt to throw off the Spanish
yoke. He made them believe that he was in league with the spirits, and
"that they directed him to make a rope of the palm leaf and tie in it
a number of knots to represent the number of days before the rebellion
was to take place; that he must send this rope to all the Pueblos in
the kingdom, when each should signify its approval of, and union with,
the conspiracy by untying one of the knots."[534]
I suspect that this may have been an izze-kloth. We know nothing about
this rebellion excepting what has been derived through Spanish
sources; the conquerors despised the natives, and, with a very few
notable exceptions among the Franciscans, made no effort to study
their peculiarities. The discontent of the natives was aggravated by
this fact; they saw their idols pulled down, their ceremonial chambers
closed, their dances prohibited, and numbers of their people tried and
executed for witchcraft.[535] Fray Geronimo de Zarate Salmeron was a
striking example of the good to be effected by missionaries who are
not above studying their people; he acquired a complete mastery of the
language of the pueblo of Jemez, "and preached to the inhabitants in
their native tongue." He is represented as exercising great influence
over the people of Jemez, Sia, Santa Ana, and Acoma. In this rebellion
of 1680 the Pueblos expected to be joined by the Apache.[536]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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