Part 9

(The Pima plural of vah-ahk-kee is vahp-ahk-kee, but I have made all plurals English, as more understandable.)

And after this they were not sick any more, and they came to the Gila Country, to Ee-ee-toy's land, the Land of the Vahahkkees, and here they divided themselves into four parties, of which one went south; but the doctors united them all by "The Light," so that they would know about each other in case there was a battle in which any needed assistance.

And as they came into this country the people there were stirred up with alarm, and the great doctor who lived at Casa Blanca, whose name was Tcheu-tchick-a-dah-tai Seeven, sent his son to Stcheuadack Seeven, at Casa Grande, to enquire if there were any prophecies that he knew of about the coming of this great invading army.

So the boy went, but just before he got there he heard a frog, a big one, which Stcheuadack Seeven kept for a pet and to assist him in his work as a doctor, and when the boy heard the frog he was frightened, and ran back, and when his father asked what he had learned, he said: "Nothing, I heard a noise there that frightened me, so I ran home again."

And his father said: "That is nothing to be afraid of, that is only the voice of his pet, his frog," and he sent the boy once more.

So the boy went again, and came to Stcheuadack Seeven who asked him what his father had sent him for, and the boy replied that his father wanted to know if there were any prophecies about the coming of this enemy, and how he felt about it every evening.

When the boy returned his father asked him what Stcheuadack Seeven knew, and how he felt, and the boy said: "He does not know anything. He says he sits out every night, and hears the different animals, and enjoys their pleasant voices, and in the morning he enjoys hearing the sweet songs of the birds, and he always feels good, and does not fear anything."

So his father said: "I am well satisfied that I will not be the first to see this thing happen. It will be Stcheuadack Seeven who will first see it, and it will not be ten days before it will occur."

And in a few days Ee-ee-toy's army came to the village of Stcheuadack Seeven and killed all the people there.

And Geeaduck Seeven, who lived at Awawtkum Vahahkkee, told his people to flee: and many did so and ran to the mountains and other places, but the others who did not run away came to Geeaduck Seeven's house, and he told them to come in there.

And the enemy came, and they fought, but it was not easy for Ee-ee-toy's warriors to fight the men of Geeaduck Seeven, because they were nearly all inside, but his men managed to set fire to the house, and so destroyed it, and killed all who were therein.

Then Ee-ee-toy's men marched on, north, to where Cheof-hahvo Seeven, or Long Dipper Chief, lived, and as they marched along they sang about the places they were conquering, and they sang of the beads that they expected to get at this village, the beads called sah-vaht-kih, and there was an old woman among them who said: "When you get those beads, I want them." And so when they had conquered that vahahkkee they gave the beads to her.

And they went from there to the home of Dthas Seeven, who had a cane-cactus fence about his place, and Ee-ee-toy's men heard of this, and sang about it as they went along. And they took this place and killed Dthas Seeven.

And then they went on to where the Casa Blanca vahahkkees now are in ruins; and the great doctor who lived there, the same who had sent his boy to inquire of the prophecies, drew a magic line before his place, so that the enemy could not cross. And when Ee-ee-toy's men came to the line the earth opened, and they could not go further till one of their great doctors, by his power, had closed it, and then they could pass it.

And they had a great battle there, for the place was very strong, and hard to get into. And there was a doctor among them called Nee-hum Mah-kai, or Thunder Doctor, and they asked him to use his magic power to tear the place down, and he tried, but could not succeed. And they asked another, called Tchu-dun Mahkai, or Earthquake Doctor, and he tried and failed also. And then they asked another, a little man, not supposed to have much power, and he took a hair from his head, and held it up by the two ends, and sang a song, and turned it into a snake. And he sent the snake, and it struck the house, and shook it so that it broke and fell down from above. And then Ee-ee-toy's men took the place, and killed everybody there except Tcheutchickadahtai Seeven, who escaped and ran on.

And one of Ee-ee-toy's warriors pursued him, and was going to strike him with a club when he sank down, and the place where he sank was filled with a fog, so that they could not see him, and he got out on the other side and ran on. But they had a doctor called Ku-mi-wahk Mahkai, or Fog Doctor, and they had him clear away the fog and then they could see him and chased him again.

And again, when about to be struck, he sank down, and a mirage filled the place so that they could not see him, for things did not look the same. And he got out beyond, and ran on. And they had a Sas-katch Mahkai, or Mirage Doctor, who cleared away the false appearance, and again they chased him, and were about to kill him, when again he sank.

And this time a rainbow filled the place and made him invisible, and again he ran on till their Kee-hawt Mahkai, or Rainbow Doctor, removed the rainbow.

And once more they were about to strike him when he sank, and the quivers which heat makes, called coad-jook, filled the hole, and again he got away. But they had a Coadjook Doctor, and he removed it, and then they chased him and killed him.

And they went northward again from there.

And there was a rattlesnake who had never killed an enemy, and he asked a doctor to help him do this, and the doctor told him he would. And the doctor told his pet gopher to dig a hole to the village of the doctor who lived beyond Od-chee, where is the place called Scaw-coy-enk, or Rattlesnake Village. And this doctor was the speaker of his village, and every morning stood on a big stone and in a loud voice told the people what they were to do. And the gopher dug a hole to this stone, through which the rattlesnake crawled and lay in wait under the stone. And when the doctor came out to speak to his people in the morning, the rattlesnake bit him and then slid back into his hole again. And the doctor came down from the stone, and went into his kee, and fell down there and died.

And after taking this place they marched to the place called Ko-awt-kee Oy-yee-duck, or Shell Field, where a doctor-chief lived, named Tcheunassat Seeven, and this place they took, and Ee-ee-toy himself killed this doctor, this being the first foe he had killed.

And they went on again to the place where Nooee lived, called Wuh-a-kutch. And Ee-ee-toy said: "When you come there you will know the man who killed me by his white leggings, and when you find him, do not kill him, but capture him, and bring him to me, and I will do what I please with him."

And Ee-ee-toy had the Eagle and the Chicken-Hawk go up in the sky to look for Noo-ee, for he said he might go up there. And the Eagle and the Chicken-Hawk found Nooee there, and caught him, and brought him to Ee-ee-toy, who took him and scalped him alive. And Nooee, after he was scalped, fell down and died, and the women came around him, rejoicing and dancing, and singing; "O why is Seeven dead!" And after awhile be began to come to life again, and lay there rolling and moaning.

And Ee-ee-toy's men went on again to a village beyond Salt River, where lived a chief who had a brother, and they were both left-handed, but famous shots with the bow. And these brothers put up the hardest fight yet encountered. But when the brothers were too hard pressed they fled to Cheof See-vick, or Tall Red Mountain, and there they kept shooting and killed a great many of Ee-ee-toy's men, who were short of arrows, after so long fighting and many of their bows broken.

Because of this, Ee-ee-toy's men had to fall back and surround the place.

And when this happened the band that had gone to the south knew by the "Light" that it was so, and came to help them. And these had many bows and arrows, and beside brought wood to mend the broken bows, and wood to make new arrows; and when they came into the place they gave their bows and arrows to Ee-ee-toy's men and made themselves new bows from the wood they had brought. And these men were the ancestors of the Toe-hawn-awh Aw-aw-tam, the present Papagoes, and that is why to this day the Papagoes are most expert in making bows and arrows. And then the fight began again and the two brave brothers were killed.

And from there they went on to another awawtkumvahahkkee, where is now Fort McDowell, where lived another seeven whom they fought and conquered.

And from there they went on westward thru the mountains. But when they came to Kah-woet-kee, near where is now Phoenix, one of the chiefs in Ee-ee-toy's army said: "I have seen enuf of this country, and I will take this for my part and remain here." And he did so.

And the bands went on and came to the Colorado River, and there one of the great doctors, called Gaht Mahkai, or Bow Doctor, struck the river with his bow and laid it down in the water. And the water separated then so that the people were able to go over to the other side. And beyond the Colorado they came to a people who lived in holes in the ground, whom they found it hard to fight, and they asked help of their Thunder Doctor, and when the people came out of their holes to fight he struck right in the midst of them, but killed only one. Then they asked help of the Earthquake Doctor, and he was able to kill only one. And these two were all they killed. And these people were called Choo-chawf Aw-aw-tam, or the Foxes, because they lived in holes.

And after the army failed to conquer the Foxes they returned across the Colorado River, near where is now Yuma. And here again the Bow Doctor divided the water for them. But before all the bands were across the waters closed, and some were left behind. And these called to those who were across to have the Bow Doctor hit the waters again, that they also might get there. But those who were across would not do this, but told them that there was plenty of land where they were that would make them a comfortable home. And those left there were the ancestors of the present Yumas and Maricopas.

SONG BEFORE THE FIGHT WITH CHEOF-HAHVO SEEVEN [6]

In the land where there are a great many galley-worms-- I will get the doctor out, It will lighten his heart.

A SONG OF THE DOCTOR WHOSE SNAKE THREW DOWN THE VAHAHKKEE

I made the black snake; And he went across and wounded the vahahkkee.

NOTES ON THE STORY OF EE-EE-TOY'S ARMY AND THAT OF THE DESTRUCTION OF THE VAHAHKKEES

In the Story of Ee-ee-toy's Army we come to an amusing superstition of the Pimas. There is a funny little creature in Arizona, related to the tarantula, perhaps, which the Pimas say is very poisonous, and which is certainly very quick in motion and the hardest thing to kill I ever saw. It is covered with a sort of fuzzy hair, which blows in the wind, and is sometimes red and sometimes yellow or white. Now there seems to be a connection in the Indian mind between this way-heem-mahl, as they name him, and this story of Ee-ee-toy's Army. The bands, it is related, were distinguished by certain colors--some took red, and some yellow and white, for their badge-color. And the Pimas of today suppose themselves descended from these bands, and some clans claim that the bands of the red were their forbears, and some trace back to the bands of yellow and white. And not many years back there was a rivalry between these, and the wayheemmahls, having the same colors, were identified with the bands, and the Pimas descended from a band of a certain color would not kill a wayheemmahl of that color, or willingly permit others to do so, but would eagerly kill wayheemmahls of the opposite color. If, then, a Pima of the red faction saw a yellow wayheemmahl, running over the ground, he was quick to jump on it; but if a Pima of the yellow stood near he would resent this attack on his relation, and a hair-pulling fight would result. This custom is probably altogether obsolete now.

It will be noticed that the fantastic explanations of why gyihhaws are now carried by the women, is contradicted by the carrying of gyihhaws by various women in previous stories.

The closing of the earth cuts down the six bands to four and a fraction.

Wardances, and extravagant and boastful speeches prophesying success, seem to have preceded all the military movements of the Awawtam.

The creation of deer in this story, by Ee-ee-toy, is contrary to their presence in earlier tales, as in that of Ahahnheeattoepahk Mahkai.

The careful mention of the sickness and death of an apparently unimportant woman is curious, and hard to explain. Perhaps this was the inauguration of the pestilence.

The Story of the Destruction of the Vahahkkees has the most historic interest of any.

The uniting of the bands by the "Light" is very curious. My Indians could not tell me what this was, only something occult and mysterious by which they had clairvoyant ken of each other's needs. Its use appears in the fight at Cheof Seevick.

The resemblance to the Israelites crossing the Red Sea is remarkable in the exploit of the Bow Doctor, and the crossing of the Rio Colorado.

The Choochawf Awawtam appear to have been cave-dwellers, and my Indians were confused in memory as to whether they were encountered on the hither or far side of the Colorado.

The statement that the closing of the waters left the Yumas and Maricopas on the far bank of the Colorado is likely only a mahkai's fanciful attempt to explain their presence there. As the Indians of the Yuman stock speak an entirely different language from the Indians of the Piman stock, it is unlikely they were united in the original invading army. There is no other evidence that there ever was any alliance between them till the Maricopas, fearing extermination from the Yumas, joined the Pimas sometime in the first half of the nineteenth century.

Comalk Hawkkih gave me this account of the coming in of the Maricopas: The Yumas and the Maricopas were once all one people, but there was a jealousy between two sons of a chief, one of whom was a favorite of his father, and one killed the other, and this grew to a civil war. The defeated party, the Maricopas, went first to Hot Springs, where they staid awhile, and then to Gila Bend, but each time the Yumas followed and attacked them and drove them on. Fearing extermination they came to the Pimas for protection. The Pimas adopted them. Now began war between Yumas and Mohaves on one side, and Pimas, Papagoes and Maricopas on the other. There were only two battles after the Maricopas came in, but in the second battle all the Yuma warriors engaged were killed, and the Mohaves had to flee over the mountain, and only a part of these escaped. This battle was fought at what is now called Maricopa Mountain.

So terrible was the defeat, that to this day the Yumas hold an annual "Cry," or lamentation, in memory of it. Their old foes are invited, and if any Pima or Maricopa attends he is given a horse. This war reduced both Yumas and Maricopas to a mere remnant.

Since then the Maricopas have lived with the Pimas, and in customs are almost exactly similar, except that they burn their dead, and still speak their distinctive language.

They are a taller, larger race than the Pimas, more restless, said to be quicker witted, but more inclined to vice, and to be rapidly dying out; while the Pimas yet hold their own in numbers, despite recent inroads of tuberculosis.

THE STORY OF SOHAHNEE MAHKAI AND KAWKOINPUH

Now when the bands were going thru this country they had selected the places for their homes, expecting to return, and each band, as it selected its place, drove down short sticks so as to know it again.

And after returning across the Rio Colorado the bands went again to these places which they had selected and settled there.

Only the Toehawnawh Awawtam (the Papagoes) did not at first go to their selected place, but went on beyond Awn-kee Ack-kee-mull, the Salt River, to where is now Lehi.

And there was one doctor among them named So-hah-nee Mahkai, and he had no child, but he had found one of the children belonging to the country, which had been left alive, and he had adopted it for his own. And he went on and lived by himself at the place then called Vah-kah-kum, but now named Stcheu-a-dack-a-Vahf, or Green Cliff.

And the Aw-up, or Apaches, were a part of the original people of this country, and this child which Sohahnee Mahkai had adopted was an Apache.

And when he had grown up to be quite a large boy the Apaches planned to capture Sohahnee Mahkai; but Sohahnee Mahkai knew of this and told the boy to go to a place where he had been clearing up a farm and to find the stick there with which he had been cutting down bushes, and to dig a hole there under the bushes, and then to come back home and eat his supper. And after he had eaten his supper he was to return to the place where the stick was, and hide in the hole under the bushes which were there.

And the boy's name was Kaw-koin-puh, and he dug the hole under the bushes, as he was directed, and returned for his supper.

And then Sohahnee Mahkai said to him: "Now to-night the Apaches will come to kill me, but here is a basket-box which I want you to have after I am dead. And when you are safe in your hole you will hear when they come to kill me. But don't you come out till they are far enuf away. Then come and find my body, no matter whether h is here or dragged away. And when you find it, do not mind how stained and bloody it is, but fall upon it, and put your mouth to mine, and inhale, and thus you will inherit my power. And when you leave my body, do not attempt to follow after the Apaches, for they would surely kill you, for tho you are one of them they would not know that, because you do not speak their language. But I want you to return to where we left some people at the place called Vik-kuh-svan-kee."

So the boy took the little basket-box, and went to his hole, and early in the evening the Apaches came and surrounded the house, and staid there till near morning, and then began the attack. And the boy could hear the fighting, and could hear Sohahnee Mahkai yell every time his arrow killed anyone; and he could hear the old woman, his wife, shout out in her exultation, too. And it was after the sun was up that the old woman was killed; and then Sohahnee Mahkai ran out and the Apaches chased him and killed him, and said: "Now let us cut him open and find what it is that made him so brave, and enabled him to kill so many of us." And they cut him open and found under his heart a feather of the chicken hawk.

And the Apaches took that feather, and that is how they are so brave and even if there are only two of them will often attack their enemies and kill some of them.

And after the Apaches were far away the boy came out of his hole and found the old woman, and from there tracked till he found the old man; and he fell over him, as he had been told, and inhaled four times; and then he went to Vikkuhsvankee, but he got there at night, and did not attempt to go into any house, but staid outside all night in the bushes.

And in the morning a girl came and found the boy, and went back and told the people there was some one outside who was a stranger there, some one with short hair. And they came and stood around him, and teased him, and threw dirt at him, until finally he cried out: "Don't you remember me, who I am? My name is Kawkoinpuh and I was here once, but went away with the doctor, Sohahnee Mahkai. And now the Apaches have killed him and the old woman, his wife, and I am left alone."

And when he said this the people remembered him, and took him by the hand, and led him to a doctor named Gawk-siss Seev-a-lick, who adopted him, and he was treated nicely because he was a good hunter and used to keep the doctor in plenty of game.

And the doctor had a daughter, and when she was old enuf he gave her to Kawkoinpuh for his wife. And Kawkoinpuh staid with his wife's people; and his wife expected a child, and wanted different things to eat. So Kawkoinpuh left home and went to the mountain called Vahpkee, and there got her a lot of the greens called choohookyuh. And after a while he wanted to go again, but she said: "Do not go now, for the weather is bad. Wait till it is more pleasant." But he said, "I am going now," and he went.

And this time he was hunting wood rats instead of greens, and he had killed three and was trying to scare out the fourth one, where he could shoot it, when the Apaches came and surrounded him a good ways off.

He saw them and ran for home, but there were many Apaches in front of him, and they headed him off.

But he jumped up and down and sideways, as Sohahnee Mahkai had done, shooting and killing so many that finally he broke thru their ring, and started for home. But he kept turning back and shooting at them as he ran. And one of them came near and was about to kill him, but he shot first and killed the Apache. And then another came near and this time the Apache shot first, and so Kawkoinpuh was killed.

And when evening came, Gawksiss Seevalick came out, and called aloud, and invited the people to his house, and asked them if any had seen his son, Kawkoinpuh; who had seen him last; for he knew something had happened to him, as he always came home after his hunt, because he loved his home. But nobody had seen anything of Kawkoinpuh, because no one had been out, the weather being bad.

But Gawksiss Seevalick knew the boy was killed, because he was a doctor, and there is a being above, called Vee-ips-chool, who is always sad and who makes people sad when anything bad has happened.

So they went out the next morning, and tracked the boy, and came to where he had killed the wood-rats, and then they found the tracks of the Apaches, and then found a great many Apaches whom he had killed, and finally they found his body.

The Apaches had cut him open, and taken out his bowels and wound them around bushes, and cut off his arms and legs and hung them on trees. And one of the men, there, told them to get wood and to gather up these parts of Kawkoinpuh's body and burn them. And some of the people remained behind and did this, and then all went home.

And in the evening Gawksiss Seevalick again called the people together and sang them a song to express his grief.

And the next morning he went with his daughter to where Kawkoinpuh had been burned, and there they found some blood still remaining and buried it. And that evening again he called the people together, and said: "You see what has happened; we have lost one of our number. We ought not to stay here, but to return to the place we first selected." And the people took his advice and got their things ready and started.

And they went slow because they were on foot, and it took them four nights to get to the place where they wanted to go. And the first night there was no singing, but the second night there was a doctor named Geo-goot-a-nom-kum who sang a song for them; and the third night there was a doctor named Geo-deck-why-nom-kum who sang a song for them; and on the fourth night there was a doctor named Mahn-a-vanch-kih who sang for them a song.

NOTES ON THE STORY OF SOHAHNEE MAHKAI

In this we are given a most graphic and pathetic glimpse of Indian warfare.

Notice the bushes are "cut down" (broken off more likely) by a stick. A glimpse of the rude old tools.