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SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS 



VOL. 76 



the Mimbres were known as Mimbrenos Apaches. Shortly after 

 the whites came into the neighborhood the town, Pinos Altos, became 

 a center of mining industry, but existence there was precarious on 

 account of hostile Indians who fought a battle within its limits. 

 Little now remains of the old Santa Rita settlement. One of the 

 bastions of this ancient fort is now used as the fuse house. The region 

 of the old Santa Rita mine (fig. 80) has now changed so much that 

 ancient landmarks are difficult to discover. The mountains over it are 

 bare but not without interest. A standing rock called the Kneeling 

 Nun, which rises to the east of the present copper company's building 

 near the point of a high mountain, is said to commemorate an accident 



Fig. 80. — Santa Rita Almc, New Mexico. (Photograph by i-e\vkcs.; 



in which a large number of miners lost their lives. This " Kneeling 

 Nun " is supposed to he praying for the souls of the deceased men. 

 Whatever population existed in the Mimbres Valley in prehistoric 

 times disappeared as a distinct people, probably having been absorbed 

 into bands of Apaches, the so-called Mimbreiios Apaches, now settled 

 at San Carlos and other reservations.' It would be an interesting and 

 important inquiry to study their legends in order, if possible, to deter- 

 mine any survival of the ancient people that may still exist. When 

 Bartlett visited the valley in 1854 no villages of the original pre- 

 historic population existed, although he speaks of ruins here and there 

 and comments on fragments of pottery. 



^ The oldest inhabitants were probably the Mansos or Gorritas, so-called 

 because they wore little caps, one of which is figured on a food bowl. 



