Part 2

A brass signet ring was also found which is evidently traders material and may possibly have been brought there by the "monks." This ring has a pecular emblem on the flat circular surface which looks like a right angle with a character in the center shaped like a heart. The circular surface of the seal or signet is five-sixteenths of an inch in diameter and the size of the ring is three-quarter inch.

There is also shown a blue glass bead. Several beads of different material have been found here but the most rare is one shown in the cut, made of shell, circular in form, one inch in diameter and three-sixteenths of an inch in thickness, with a three-sixteenths inch hole through the center. This specimen is of the kind commonly known as wampum and was used by the Indians as money. There is also shown in the cut a bear's claw of which several were found by members of our party.

The largest specimen shown in the center of the cut is a chert hoe or cultivating implement found by the writer. This specimen is seven and one half inches long and tapers from two to four and three quarters inches in width. It was discovered about eighteen inches below the surface in the field north-east of the great "Cahokia mound." The accompanying cut shows the location of this find and a good view of the surroundings.

_A Visit to Hopiland._

_By Miss Edith M. Cox and Herbert Cox._

At sunset on the first of August, 1913, we were at last ready to leave Holbrook, Arizona for Hopiland--almost a hundred miles northward from this point on the Santa Fe. The Indians--never in a hurry--had taken the greater part of the day in loading the three white covered wagons.

Our party included four Hopis, one Navajo, a white man employed by the government and three white women. My friend Miss Nelson a missionary among these Hopis, was returning to her work and I was going to visit her. The third woman was a new worker. Steve, a splendid Christian Hopi and his twelve year old David, had come for Miss Nelson and her friends.

Across the desert we traveled until we were at an elevation of some seven thousand feet. The vastness of the desert, the scant and varying vegetation, the Painted Desert, the great buttes which deceived us by their apparent nearness, the scattered dwellings of the Navajo Indians, the exhilaration which came from sleeping in the open, the call of the distant coyote or the prairie dogs, the camp fire built of anything available--all these made wonderful impressions on one accustomed to limited horizons.

No more primitive nor interesting Indians are to be found in North America today than these Hopis removed from the traveled highways of men. They were discovered by Coronado in 1540. Priests came, but were driven out by the Hopis. A few years later these Indians moved on top of three mesas. These appear as huge prows of ships projecting into the great desert. To protect themselves the Indians built their houses in terrace fashion of such material that one on the desert can with difficulty see them.

The Hopi is industrious. Walled in gardens, fields of corn on the plain and flocks of sheep show his agricultural interests. Weaving is done by the men in winter. They make all the clothing. The women build and own the houses. All water is carried in jars on the backs of women up the narrow mesa trail. Beautiful red and light colored pottery is made on First Mesa while baskets are made by the women of Second Mesa. The foundation of these baskets is grass covered with yucca fibers bleached in the sun or colored with juices from plants. If the public realized the value of these baskets so that it would demand them these Indians would not be so poor.

The Hopi has no written language. Some two thousand words constitute his vocabulary. The older people use the sign language very much.

The Hopi marriage is little more than a washing of the heads of each party in seperate bowls, then in one bowl. One may marry another if he is absent. Divorce is easily obtained by putting a man's saddle outside the door. If he puts wood outside her door and it is taken in he may enter again.

Children not old enough to belong to the Tribe are buried in crevices of the rocks. The place of burial indicated by a stick. It is not uncommon to see eight or nine sticks in one place. The older ones are buried in a sitting posture in the ground. The third or fourth morning after burial they believe the spirit partakes of meal and water; then by means of a feather pointing west it goes to its spirit home in the Grand Canyon.

They have many ceremonies and rites. Some two hundred spirits are worshipped. These are represented by masked men, dolls and placs.

The desire for rain has an important part in many ceremonies. This is true of the famous Hopi Snake Dance. This attracted much attention last year because attended by Mr. Roosevelt. Some fifty machines, mostly Fords, made the desert trip. The Hopis believe a great smoke in the earth controls the rain. A great many rattle and bull snakes are gathered and cared for in the underground "kivas" or caves. At sunset on the ninth day of the ceremony the snake men come from the kivas. They dance with the snake in the mouth until all have been thus treated. A priest frees them in the rocks and prays that the parent snake may give the Hopis rain.

Our government maintains a school for children of each mesa and one more advanced at government headquarters. Those desiring to go further are sent to Indian schools. Some of these Hopis are known as unfriendlies--hostile to the government. Until last year soldiers had to be sent to get their children whom the parents refused to send.

Besides the missionaries who are doing much the government has its agent, farmer, windmill man, doctors, teachers and matrons.

On my return to the railroad we were delayed because of heavy rains. What was a small stream in August was in September a river three-fourths of a mile wide when we first saw it. In the bed of this stream our wagon was stuck. The chief of the Navajo Tribe helped us take it to pieces and so get it out of the mud in the wash.

Imagine if you can what it would mean to hear a train whistle after six weeks' absence from civilization. As we topped the rise on the afternoon of the fourth day the sight of that brought me to my feet. How I gazed at it! My Indian driver said "Miss----pashalayi" ("Miss----you are very happy.")

Early the next morning three of us said good bye. My Indian companion with his hat in hand and my father and I said more in those parting handshakes than words could ever tell. A few minutes later we were borne westward by train and he to the north in his wagon.

(Handwritten notation: Cut Furnished by Herbert Cox)

KATAHOTAN.

Old Town.

(To The Kickapoo Club.)

Behold the trail Where many moccasinned feet have trod, And many white mens weary steps Have led to death untimely, or to long captivity.

Behold the village site, Where once the Kickapoos In pole-bark houses lived, and where Their council-house Stood from the others, somewhat larger, And a little way apart.

Here Pemoatam and Masheena met To choose for war or peace, and choosing war, Set forth upon that dire ill-fated way That led to Tippecanoe, and Tecumsehs fall.

Here also came Frenchman and Spaniard in the early days, Then our First Settlers in the later times, To counsel with their distant Indian neighbors.

Black Robes and Couriers des Bois, Long Knives and Rangers intermingled. And here came traders from the far Detroit, To barter white mens wares for Indian peltries.

Behold where once the Dance Ground was Where many soft-shod feet have stepped To rhythmic beating of the painted drums, And rattling of the shaking, stone-filled gourds.

And here the head men lectured and exhorted them To follow steadfast in their fathers ways, Which they had practiced ere the white men came, With hands against the whites eternally.

Behold the graves Of many Kickapoos who died Long years before their children Left Illinois and journeyed westward.

And here the stockade fort Built up by other hands than theirs, Of which no mark nor trace remains Save this the whites erected.

From these few gleanings of the early years, From these few broken fragments that we find, Canst realize and picture once anew The scenes of former days in Katahotan?

Canst conjure mental vision of the times When priest and white fur-trader may have come To preach "salvation" and to barter wares With savage tribesmen who once dwelt herein?

Canst picture Lee and Stark or old Masheena? Or Pemoatam whose consistent pride Forbade him live beneath the Long Knives rule But whom afflictions blow could not withstand?

Where now the corn and grass grows rank, Where now the white mens cattle come to drink At spring or stream where once the buffalo And deer and Indian pony slaked their thirst?

It may be also here Kaanakuk Once taught his people of those better ways So well remembered yet, but which So few still follow faithfully.

If they should choose, his people might come here To see where once their forbears lived. Where some who once found humble burial, And other hands have long years since removed.

I fear that strange tradition which they hold That 'Some day we shall all go back To Aneneewa whence our people came' Shall never never be fulfilled, Nor moccasinned feet shall tread this soil again In Times unending course of centuries.

Lest in some unknown shadow-land, perchance Within that place they call Apamekka, Of which their "Prophet" taught them-- Celestial Katahotan-- Celestial "Aneneewa."

For now the corn and grass grows rank And now the white mens cattle come to drink At spring and stream where once the buffalo And deer and Indian pony slaked their thirst.

M. C.

Transcriber's Notes

Minor punctuation typos were silently corrected. Run-on sentences and grammatical errors were retained as in the original.

Spelling variations were retained for Bluemke(2)/Blumke(5) and Kaufman(1)/Kauffman(1).

Page 1: Probable typo: "varities" for "varieties." (Orig: such large varities of implements and ornaments)

Plate 4: Typo "No. 4" for "No. 3." (Orig: Artifacts ... on Camp Site shown on Plate No. 4)

Page 5: Deleted duplicate "and." (Orig: perforated sand-stone tablets and and several potsherds.)

Page 6: Probable typo: "deposite" for "deposit." (Orig: a few glacial boulders in a natural deposite)

Page 6: Changed "an" to "and." (Orig: from tip to base is one an one-quarter inches.)

Page 7: Changed "pratically" to "practically." (Orig: It is a notable fact that pratically all arrow points)

Page 7: Changed "brough" to "brought." (Orig: possibly have been brough there by the "monks.")

Page 7: Probable typo: "pecular" for "peculiar." (Orig: This ring has a pecular emblem)

Page 8: Probable typo: "seperate" for "separate." (Orig: each party in seperate bowls,)

End of Project Gutenberg's Note-book No. 1 of the Kickapoo Club, by Various