Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 234, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 September 1916 — NEW MEXICO'S ANCIENT HARVEST FESTIVAL [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

NEW MEXICO'S ANCIENT HARVEST FESTIVAL

by Edwin L.Sabin

s J^Ssst customs *nd rues of the Induns ere much the seme now es then.

The Pueblo Indians hold spectacular ceremonies as 7&etrd and interesting as ary mystic celebration you might see in remote parts o f British India or in China

\he great tribal dances of I the northern Indians have ☆ I almost vanished from I plains and had lands, and rfl those which remain have Cwv become perverted under demands of white civi■cD' lization. But in the wide \W Southwest of New Mexico and Arizona, still exist an independent people, the agricultural Pueblos; occupying their ancient community houses, tilling their ancient fields nnd tenaciously observing their ancient customs. The route from Colorado down through northern New Mexico to old Santa Fe traverses the most fertile and picturesque section of this storied Pueblo country, where the work of the living and of the dead are alike prominent, and supplies easy accesk to that one greatest of these Indian communities in all the Southwest —the Pueblo of San Geronlmo de Taos. Northernmost of the Pueblos it is by map 55 miles northeast of Santa Fe, and by wagon and auto road only 25 miles east from the railroad station at Taos Junction, where automobile stages meet the trains. The Pueblo was visited as far back as 1540. by the • Spanish explorer Hernando de Alvarado, of Coronado's army. It was made a Spanish mission, given a priest, and christened San Geronimo (Saint Jerome), as early as 1617, and since those dates has changed little. Here, annually, on September—3o, the 500 inhabitants of the two massy terraced clay community houses, which rise tier on tier to the height of five stories, celebrate the most important of their tribal feasts and dances —the festival of Sain Geronimo Day; dedicated, ostensibly, to their’ patron saint, hutrcnlly a thanksgiving to the sun-god for the harvest. This festival, so old that the patriarchs of the Pueblo know not its beginnings, each year attracts spectators from all over the United States, and is attended as well by other Pueblos, by Apuches and Navajos. Accommodations for the Americanos are found in the adjacent town of San Fernandez de Taos, two and a half miles by a good road, where the Mexican population of the surrounding country add their fiesta merry-makings to those of the Taosans. Beyond the observance of those ordinary politenesses, which devolve upon any intruders Into private grounds (for the Pueblo owns its lands), guests are unrestricted; and therefore, rarely is such opportunity given to witness a truly Indian celebration. Spectators should arrive on the morning of the 29th, if possible, thus they will he enabled to see the daily life of the Pueblo and in the evening will witness the ceremonies by which the feast itself is ushered in. These are the raising of the 50-foot offering pole, in the Pueblo plaza • the gayly attended mass in the little chapel and the mystic sun dance in the twi~~Tight, by t.raitied dancers waving yellow aspen boughs and chanting the sun dance song. At night sacred rites, to which none but initiates are admitted, are performed in the underground estufas or council chambers; and in the town of San Fernandez is held a grand baile or ball to which all strangers are invited by the Mexican hosts. . On San Geronimo Day, the 30th, ev-

erybody, of every complexion, flocks early to the Pueblo, and before the sun is well above the beautiful Tabs range of mountains the grounds are alive with a strangely mixed throng, and wj th fiesta booths where are displayed for sale melons, pinon nuts, blankets and scarfs of native manufacture, Pueblo pottery and Apache baskets. To the tip of the tall pole are hung, by a nimble Taosan, the harvest offerings of melons,- bread and a slain sheep. Another mass is celebrated in the little chapel, and the statue of Saint Jerome is borne out, under a canopy, and respectfully installed in a bower of aspen boughs, to preside over the day’s doings, as it were. A foot race by selected runners, symbolically painted, from either casa grande or “great house,” is followed by , a dance, again, to Celebrate the victory, and from the roofs of the triumphant, casa grande women shower the dancers with bread in token of the sun’s bounty. At noon open house is kept, and to the generous tables anyone is welcomed, whether or not he is expected to leave a coin as his expression of thanks for hospitality. Extensive shopping is indulged in. from booth to booth, and the grounds have the aspect of an Oriental bazaar, until shortl.v upon mid-afternoon appears the toric delight-makers. Of lineage and clan older than any records extant in this romantic Southwest. these clowns, seven in numher and grotesquely adorned, perform their licensed antics, until finally, at sunset, they swarm up the smooth pole and as their reward detach the melons,

the bread and the stiffened sheep. Then in the twilight ends the festival of San Geronimo. The spectators from outside may stream townward. They have seen a program so unique, so inoffensive and yet so pronounced in its features open to the world, that some will realize they might have journeyed to the cobble-stones of Europe, the steppes of Asia and the sands of Africa to witness one much less vivid with the personality of a different race. At Taos, which has not lost one bit of its oldness, at all times can be found a colony of artists and writers, for nowhere in all America can be found such rich native material. Among the artists of national or international reputation at Taos this month are: Joseph Henry Sharp, Bert G. Phillips and Ralph Meyers, who make their permanent home at Taos; E. Irving Couse and W. Herbert Dunton of New York, who have erected studios and live there a portion of the year; Robert Henri and E. L. Blumenschein of New York, O. E. Berninghaus of St. Louis, Walter User of Chicago, Julius Rolshoven of Florence, Italy, Mrs. J. H. Wilson of Seattle, Sheldon Parsons, Victor Higgins of Chicago. Miss Doris Rosenthal of Los Angeles, nnd Miss Helen Dunlap of Whittier, Cal. Many an illustrious pioneer has -called Taos~ home. —Col. —Kit Carson lived and is buried there; Gov. Charles Bent was assassinated there February 17, 1847. during the Pueblo insurrection. Col. Cerra St. Vrain, Judge Beaubien and many others lived there at one time or another. The first newspaper west of the Missouri river was published in Taos in 1837.

Indian dunce at Pueblo de Taos, given during the festival of San geronimo, held on September 30, each year.