NO. 6 SMITHSONIAN EXPLORATIONS, IQ.14 7$ 



of the Indian priests Mr. Mooney was able to be present for the 

 second time at the family ceremony of invoking the blessing, upon 

 the new corn and on those about to partake of it for the first time. 

 This ceremony, probably never witnessed by any other white man, is 

 still strictly observed in private at their homes by most of the full- 

 blood families before tasting the new corn of the season, the priests 

 who conduct the rite going, while yet fasting, from house to house 

 through the settlement for that purpose. The so-called Green Corn 

 Dance, the great tribal celebration of thanksgiving for the new corn, 

 was last performed in 1887, on which occasion Mr. Mooney was also 

 present. The East Cherokee, numbering now about 1,600, consti- 

 tute that portion of the tribe which remained in the old home territory 

 when the main body of the nation was removed to the West. 



THE SUN AND THE ICE PEOPLE AMONG THE TEWA INDIANS 

 OF NEW MEXICO 



One of the most interesting ceremonies observed by Mrs. Matilda 

 Coxe Stevenson during her studies among the Tewa is associated 

 with the coming of spring or the revival of the Earth Mother from 

 her dormant state through the winter. The Tewa are a poetic 

 people, but they never allow their love of the beautiful to interfere 

 with their constant efforts to sustain life. Almost every breath is 

 a prayer, in one form or another, for food. " May we be blessed 

 with food, more food ! " — this great thought is paramount among 

 these people who have lived in an arid country from time immemo- 

 rial. Having no outside resources, everything, life itself, depends 

 upon their own exertions and their influence with their gods. In 

 order to gain this influence they must have priests who are capable 

 of communing directly with the gods. " Heart speaks to heart," 

 they say. The earth must not be wet with summer rains all the time, 

 nor must it be perpetually covered with ice and snow : conditions 

 must be equalized. To accomplish these desired results in past ages 

 the Tewa were divided into the Sun and the Ice people. Each body 

 had its rain priest as it has at the present time, the priest of the Sun 

 people taking precedence over the priest of the Ice people. The 

 special duty of the priest of the Sun people is to observe the rising 

 and setting of the sun, and to bring summer rains and new creations. 

 The priest of the Ice people observes the rising and the setting of the 

 moon, and the moon aids him in keeping the calendars ; he brings 

 the cold rains of winter, and the snows and ice to retard plant life. 

 The invocation says in reference to the earth : " Let our Mother 

 sleep ; let her rest so covered in ice and snow that she will sleep well 



