476 



THE AMEBIC AN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



only a mission and a trading post. In- 

 dians gather here to trade, however, 

 from miles around, coming even two 

 hundred miles and passing through 

 small trading posts on the way, largely 

 out of friendship for the trader. 



If one chances to be at Ganado any 

 summer about the first of August he is 

 likely to find from fifteen hundred to- 

 two thousand Indians gathered to- 

 gether for games, such as horse racing 

 and chicken pulling. Originally a 

 "chicken pull'' was a game in which 

 Indians on horseback tried to pull a 

 chicken out of the sand while riding 

 past it at top speed. Today a leather 

 strap is substituted for the chicken, and 

 the Indian who pulls it out gets five 

 dollars. As soon as he succeeds in get- 

 ting hold of it, he makes a wide circuit 

 with several hundred Indians aftt'r 

 him. If ho can fight them off and re- 

 turn the strap to the judge, he gets an 

 additional two dollars. This annual 

 gathering, corresponding in a way to 

 our county fair, means a great deal to 

 the Indians because it gives them an 

 opportunity to renew old friendships. 



From Ganado to the first Hopi vil- 

 lages is about sixty-three miles. The 

 snake dances occur in these villages 

 every year, two dances with four every 

 alternate summer. If the trip is made 

 in the fall, there is an opportunity to 

 see Navaho dances instead, performed 

 usually for the curing of the sick. We 

 were so fortunate as to have these Na- 

 vaho ceremonial dances given near our 

 headquarters. 



To an outsider the most interesting 

 part of the performance is the dance 

 which begins on the night of the last 

 day. The dancers arrive in groups of 

 from ten to fifteen from various parts 

 of the country, and the whole affair re- 

 solves itself into a competition among 

 the various groups for the best singing 

 and dancing. 



The setting of the scene is picturesque. 

 Two lines of camp fires edge the dancing 

 ground in front of the liogan ; hundreds 



of Indians fill an amphitheater on 

 either side, with covered wagons for a 

 l)ackground. The Indian dance costume 

 is along fairly definite lines, but con- 

 siderable latitude is allowed in the way 

 of kilts, which are usually made of va- 

 riously colored velvet and ornamented 

 as the individual's fancy may dictate. 



The competing groups of dancers en- 

 ter the plaza one after another, always 

 in energetic action, but always in sin- 

 gle file. As the night wears away 

 the violence of the action increases 

 until at dawn it has reached the maxi- 

 mum. For the observer the night is 

 one of charming and picturesque ef- 

 fects, but perhaps the most impressive 

 •comes at the moment dawn breaks over 

 tlie mesa. The light of the day slowly 

 overcomes the light of the camp fires, 

 I'cvealing the dancers enveloped in 

 swirling clouds of dust, and all the pic- 

 ture near and far takes on a cool gray 

 tone. The singing dies away and the 

 dancers file out. The dance is over. 

 Indians here and there rise and stretch 

 their stiffened limbs and begin to move 

 aV)out. Coffee pots are pushed up to the 

 tire for a hasty breakfast and within an 

 hour all are on their way. 



We packed our camp kit and de- 

 parted with the Indians. Our route lay 

 toward Chin Lee and the Caiion de 

 Chelly, eighteen miles from Ganado. 

 After traveling through forests of 

 jiiiion and juniper, we suddenly came 

 \ipon Xazlini Canon — without warning 

 the car shot out to the brink above the 

 caiion five hundred feet below. Aside 

 from difference in size, Nazlini is as 

 vronderful as the Grand Caiion. The 

 floor is a mosaic of color — green trees, 

 gray sage, salmon-red eroded rocks, and 

 white outcrops of sandstone. Eocks 

 group themselves into cities with castles 

 and towers, which the imagination 

 peoples with busy throngs. 



As we went down the steep road into 

 the canon, we wound in and out among 

 the masses of rock, and crossed arroyos 

 one after another until the canon walls 



