The Havasupai of Cataract Canon 



A TKIBE OF INDIANS HIDDEN IN THE (iOROES OF THE (iRAND ("ANON 

 OF ARIZONA PRESERVE THEIR PROHTIVE LIFE 



By h V] S L I E S V 1 J] \i . 



IN" the midst of unusual surroundings 

 nothing seems strange, and that I 

 found myself received as "ambassa- 

 dor from the 

 white people"' by 

 the little known 

 tribe of Havasu- 

 pai Indians 

 seemed quite in 

 the order of nor- 

 mal happenings 

 — after I had 

 threaded the trail 

 that s \\' i n g s 

 through gigantic 

 gorges to their 

 canon home. Cer- 

 tainly, they re- 

 plied to my re- 

 quests, if, in the 

 outside world 

 Havasupai modes 

 of life were un- 

 known to white 

 people, the head 

 chief himself 

 would supply the 

 needed facts, 

 and would even 

 requisition from 

 the tribe such 

 material as would 

 make a suitable 

 collection. 



A month of 

 traveling 

 through the 

 camps of the 

 Apaches in cen- 

 tral Arizona had 

 left little expec- 

 tation of finding 

 a people less 



Man<ikadja, hereditary chief, and his wife, 

 Gwagwathgwave, are splendid types of old-time 

 Indians. Dignified, courteous, and hospitable, they 

 placed information and possessions freely at the 

 Museum's disposal. They are shown wearing "civi- 

 lized" clothes, for, following the Government assist- 

 ance given during and after the flood in 1910, which 

 washed away nearly everything the tribe possessed, 

 the Indians never returned to many of their primi- 

 tive industries. In fact, we secured for the Museum 

 the only remaining example of a stone knife which 

 they said they had forgotten how to make 



touched by civilization than they, even 

 among the still primitive tribes of the 

 Southwest. Late in the summer I ar- 

 rived at the 

 firaiid Caiion 

 and, with a 

 party of Indians, 

 made the jour- 

 ney westward 

 across the forest- 

 clad plateau to 

 Cataract Caiion, 

 the tributary 

 gorge in which 

 the Havasupai 

 live. 



From the rim 

 of Cataract 

 Caiion there is a 

 three- thousand - 

 foot descent into 

 the narrow val- 

 ley, and into 

 this abyss the 

 trail bravely 

 plunges. At first 

 it stretches away 

 in easy stages, 

 twisting through 

 the pine trees 

 or between cliffs 

 which converge 

 overhead, always 

 descending. At 

 last it arrives at 

 the brink of a 

 precipice, whence 

 the caiion floor 

 drops away in 

 a series of ti- 

 tanic steps. The 

 break reaches 

 from wall to 

 637 



