WHITE] ACOMA TO-DAY 33 



are not cultivated; they say they won't grow. I never heard of any- 

 one trying to raise potatoes, though, except one family near McCartys, 

 who were quite successful. I never saw any hogs on the reservation. 

 There are quite a number of chickens at Acomita and McCartys, and 

 a few turkeys. There are nearly always a number of goats with the 

 sheep flocks. Wool and potterv^ are about the only products sold; 

 practically everything else is for home consumption. The wool is 

 sold at a trading post at Cubero (a Mexican village near the reserva- 

 tion) ; pottery is sold to tourists along the highway at McCartys and 

 at the railroad station at New Laguna, as well as at the trading post. 

 The traders at the post make a great margin of profit from every 

 transaction; the Indians are exploited in an outrageous manner.-^ 



At Acomita there is a small store run by an Acomita family where 

 a few articles, such as tobacco, jars of jelly, crackers, etc., are sold, 

 but it is of little conseciuence. 



Corn and mutton are the chief foods. Mutton is hung out on a line, 

 lilvc so many shirts, to cure in the sun. Stews are made, often, of 

 mutton, very highly seasoned with chili peppers. No cow's milk is 

 used. Chewing gum and soda pop are very popular. Alcoholic 

 drinks are not used. Mexicans who sell mula blanca occasionally to 

 the Indians are hunted and prosecuted (if caught on the reservation), 

 and Indians who drink liquor are punished. Vcrj^ little is consumed. 



Men and women, and children who are old enough, work in the 

 fields. The men do most of the hea\'y field work, but women often 

 perform the same tasks at planting and harvesting. The women do 

 most of the garden work, although the men share this, too. Grinding 

 corn and wheat, cooking, household work, etc., of course, fall to the 

 women. At house building, the men erect the walls and do the heavy 

 work; the women do the plastering. 



Little machinery' is used. There are some mowing machines and 

 rakes, but no cultivators, corn grinders, or corn shellers. The Indian 

 office at Albuquerque once sent a small threshing machine to Acomita 

 to use in thi'eshing their wheat, but they refused to use it and asked 

 to have it taken away from the reservation. Wheat is threshed out 

 by driving ponies round and round in a corral, tramping on the grain. 

 Chaft", straw, and grain are then thrown in the air with forks to blow 

 the chaff away. The grain is then rewdnnowed with trays. 



Sheep are tended by men and boys. They often take their sheep 

 to a considerable distance from the pueblo, often remaining away for 

 weeks at a time. Thej' live in little camps while out on the range. 



'< For example, an Indian wished to buy a machine from the trader who asked $l2.i for it. The Indian 

 went to Albuquerque (w here another trader tried to charge him over $1(», until he found out that the Indian 

 had a white friend in town who knew what prices were) and bought the machine, shipped it by freight to 

 Acomita at a total cost of $81 .7.1. Other articles are sold in the same way. I .isked why the Indians allowed 

 this, and the young man w ho had bought the machine said that the Indians didn't know any l>etter. The 

 1927 governor could not sjieak English. 



