STEVENSON.) 



BARTER. 



13 



So like children are these same stoical and patient people that the 

 tears of sorrow are quickly dispelled by the sunshine of success. When 

 their c^'ops are gathered they hold their saints' day feast, when the 

 Indians from near and far (even a few of the unfriendly Indians lend- 

 ing their unwelcome presence) snrfeit at their board. These public 

 dances and feasts of thanksgiving in honor of tlieir patron saint, upon 

 the gathering of theii crops, which occur in all the Rio Grande 

 pueblos, present a queer mixture of pagan and Christian religion. The 

 priest owes his success in maintaining a certain intluence with these 

 people since the accession of New Mexico to the United States, by non- 



f 



m 



Fio. 2. — Sia women returning from trader's with Hour and corn in excliange for pottory. 



interference with the introduction of their forms and dances into the 

 worship taught by the church. Hence the Kio Grande Indians are 

 professedly Catholics; but the f^xct that these Indians and the Mission 

 Indians of California have preserved their religions, admitting them to 

 have been more or less influenced by Catholicism, and hold their cere- 

 monials in secret, j)racticing their occult powers to the present time, 

 under the very eye of the church, is evidence not only of the tenacity 

 with which they cling to their ancient customs, but of their cunning iu 

 maintaining perfect seclusion. 



When Maj. Powell visited Tusayan, in 1870, he was received with 

 marked kindness by the Indians and permitted to attend the secret 



