Part 2

Of the others of these groups, Mr. Henry Gannet has said in the _Encyclopædia Britannica_, in 1881, that “The Apaches are a branch of the Athabasca family which has wandered far from the parent region, and now range over large parts of New Mexico and Arizona. It is a powerful, warlike tribe, at war with the whites almost continually since the latter entered the country. A large part of the tribe is on the Fort Stanton reservation in Eastern New Mexico, while another portion, under the Chief Victoria, has for a long time been devastating the border settlements of New Mexico. The Tonto-Apaches collected in large numbers on the San Carlos reservation in Arizona, where they are doing something at farming, are of Yuma stock. Besides these there are several bands of Apaches scattered about on other reservations, or roaming without a fixed habitat, swelling the total to about 10,600.”[2]

For brevity’s sake, in the present connection, I shall designate these three groups of Indians, simply as the Apaches, the Mojaves and the Yumas. It will be remembered that several years ago we whipped the Apaches in Arizona into submission, and numbers of them were gathered together and transported on the railroad out of their country to reservations at different points in Florida and again in Alabama. These were of Geronimo’s band, spoken collectively, and it is from this ungovernable tribe that I choose one of their comeliest maidens to represent the style of beauty found among their women. The last the writer saw of this girl she was peering from the car window, as the train which rapidly conveyed those captive people to the far Eastward, momentarily stopped at Wingate, New Mexico.

The Apaches, as a general rule, both men and women, possess splendidly proportioned figures, and in the case of the type I have selected for illustration no exception is found, although, as will be seen in her portrait, her costume precludes the possibility of our judging upon this point. This girl bears the name of Natuende in her tribe, and her garb indicates that she has not yet married—the buckskin over-jacket with its peculiar trimmings, and even the mode of doing up her not very abundant black hair, all having its meaning—a meaning which I am not as yet fully informed upon—that is, sufficiently to render an account of here. She has a smooth dark skin, which is of a deeper or darker tint in winter than it is in summer, and it is prone to change as Natuende happens to be influenced by any of the emotions common to all humanity. Her face has almost the cast of some of the prettier Chinese women, and for this the slight obliquity of her eyes are chiefly responsible. These black orbs can snap out their anger when occasion offers, or tell the tale of the opposite passion, as they no doubt have done long since, to that successful warrior who first inclosed her in his serape. Her narrow, black eyebrows are finely arched, and other features of her face inclined to be clean cut, and their expression upon the whole by no means entirely devoid of intelligence, or even attractiveness (Fig. 6).

But these Apaches, as I have already said, both men and women, are as a rule principally distinguished for their almost faultless figures, their graceful movements, and a certain elasticity of step so characteristic of the typical field Indians, so that when we do find an individual among their young women having any claim to beauty at all, it cannot fail to be enhanced by these facts.

The men among the Mojaves, too, are generally splendid examples of muscular development, and have finely proportioned figures, whereas it is the exception to find, in this interesting tribe, any women that we would even consider to be at all good-looking. My figure presents two Mojave women; the one sitting down is Sowatcha, and the other standing at her side is Luli-pah. They are both married, as is indicated by the vertical tattoo lines upon their chins, and a glance is sufficient to satisfy us that they are very different appearing from any of the Indian women we have thus far examined. Sowatcha typifies her sex as we find them among this tribe. Her costume consists solely of a half dozen coils of beads worn as a necklace about her neck, and a calico skirt made fast at the waist by a string, and falling as far as the feet. Luli-pah, her companion, even lacks the necklace, otherwise her dress is the same (Fig. 7).

These women have heavy heads of black hair, which they bang square across just above the eyes, to points immediately in front of the temples; here it falls again down the sides of the face and head, being cut squarely off below at a level with the shoulders. Sowatcha has a broad, homely face, with very high cheek-bones, made the more conspicuous by the horizontally disposed figures she has painted upon them. The redeeming feature is the nose, which is straight and aquiline, and of just proportions; and the eyes beam with good nature and merriment, and these Mojave women are noted for dispositions that fully respond to both these characteristics.

Younger than Sowatcha, Luli-pah is far better looking, a fact that is principally due to a lack of prominence of her cheek-bones, and her regular suboval face. She has also a better mouth and nose, and is decidedly more shapely in other particulars.

Unconfined by any of the contrivances for the distortion of the figure in use by the sex of our own people, the forms of these Mojave women are from Nature’s own mold, and in contour correspond to all that Nature has designed. Take Luli-pah as an example, and it will be seen that she has a fine chest and shoulders, and what is still more remarkable, her waist has a natural girth about equaling in circumference that of her chest. Judged in the light of what critical anthropometric law often demands, such a figure must be considered quite symmetrical, and in some respects should delight the eye of the anthropologist. Her arms are decidedly well formed, the wrists and hands small, and the fingers tapering, and, as we might naturally expect, these native gifts are sustained by a harmony in outline for the remainder of her figure.

Mojavian history, both past and present, is replete with interest; their traditional myths; their religious practices and dances; the very meaning of all their various corporeal tattooings; their medical arts, manufactures, pictographs, and notions of the universe being by no means behind in this particular those of the other tribes of Indians herein enumerated. I cannot, however, dwell upon them in this place; but must pass to the consideration of those differences seen in the appearances of a woman coming from the tribe of the Yumas. Such a one is shown in an accompanying illustration, and, whatever the male representatives of these remarkable Indians may think of her claims to beauty, I am constrained to believe, that we must draw the line here. Indeed, as we gaze upon the features and costume of this Yuma squaw, it must seem strange to many of us that she is in reality an inhabitant, with many of her kind, of the same country as ourselves. Her hair is worn much in the same style as we found it among the Mojave women, but has been allowed to grow longer at the sides. She has painted it across in four horizontal bands—one near the top of the head, one an inch or more above her bangs, another on the line of the mouth, and the last one on the ends. The two latter, of course, are interrupted by the face and neck. This paint is usually made of ochre, clay, charcoal and oil, but the various paints they use, their methods of preparing them, and their reasons for using them, would form quite a long chapter of itself. This woman has also painted certain significant lines upon her chin, and cross-marks upon her cheeks. Her face seems to wear an expression of sadness, and to me has nothing attractive in it, although some of the individual features are not bad. She wears a calico dress—waist and skirt, and is ornamented by a mass of beads around her neck, a bracelet of the same surrounding the left wrist. Silver rings are upon the middle finger of either hand, one on each, and a large silver ornament is suspended from her neck by a bead chain, which allows it to hang down as far as the waist in front (Fig. 8).

The Yumas never have as good looking women among them as there are to be found among the Mojaves, and in my opinion, the prettiest and most intelligent faces of all are possessed by the young unmarried girls of the Pueblos, especially those of Moqui, Laguna and Acoma.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] _American Antiquarian_, September, 1886.

[2] Article “Indians,” _Encyclo. Brit._, 9th edition, vol. XII, p. 832.

Transcriber’s Notes

pg 12 Changed: Passing from Laguna to Zuni, a Peublo to: Passing from Laguna to Zuni, a Pueblo

pg 20 Changed: cheek-bones, and her regular sub-oval to: cheek-bones, and her regular suboval

pg 22 Changed: Such an one is shown to: Such a one is shown