195609 Desert Magazine 1956 September

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Spring Tank in theChuckaw alla Moun tains. This natural tank in solidgranite, fed by a submerged spring, is five miles from Desert Center,California two miles by road and three miles hiking.V I C T O R Y

By CONSTANCE WALKERLos Angeles, CaliforniaIn desert places dry and still,Upon a lonely sandy hill,Each tiny flower's Godlike facsReveals the strength ofgentle grace,Uplifts itsglory quietlyTo bloom inspirit victory.

JEWELS OFV U L C A NBy GRACE R. BALLARDSanta Barbara, California

Stark, brown rock ridges riseFrom desert floor;Lean fingers point derisivelyAt cloudless skiesAs if defying centuries totameThe cataclysmic force ofVulcan's flame.

D e e p W a t e r H o l eBy ANONA MCCONAGHYBellflower, California

The crimson and mauve of the twilightHas deepened and darkened untilAll brilliance isgone and the sky lightIs fused with the edge ofthe hill.The sand dunes and chaparral, baskingThrough day inthe warmth of the sun,Have cooled and aquiet unmaskingOf restorative peace has begun.From ledges and level expansesBy thirst driven toward the same goal,The desert life shyly advancesTo drink from the deep water hole.O , DESERT WIND!

By LENA GAMBLE BIXLERTucson, ArizonaO desert wind, refreshing, cool you blowAcross the heated sand, when ev'ning falls,You bring glad hope when weary travelerscall,Relief from sun and burning earth below.You play. You sw irl the dust, both high andlowAnd roll the tumbleweed like balls.To reach theCereus petals, youclimb thewalls.She wakes. The night is filled with perfum e'flow.You scatter clouds andbring thewelcomerainAnd invite the thirsty Cacti to drink theirfill.You touch the glassy beads from spines, invain.O desert wind, amission you fulfill.Strong winds in jungle, winds at sea, butours the gain,You chose the desert. Pray, bewith usstill.

C O N T E N T M E N T IS MYCLO AKBy ANONA MCCONAGHYBellflower, CaliforniaMy robes are not the cloth ofkingsBut that of simpler folk,1 covet not the costly things,Contentment ismy cloak.No incense of the orientNo perfumes now the rageAre mine, but flower's gentle scentAnd pungent desert sage.The painlings lhat are my delightCome not from galleries,My canvas isthe white moonlightWith scrolls of Joshua trees.I want no house from mason's handsWith ornate rooms and halls,Far finer than his labored plansAre my own canyon walls.

T o d a yBy TANYA SOUTH

There still isleft for you today.Whatever hatred ordismayStill lingers inyou, drive itout.Cast out all fear, orbrooding doubt.Do you the right! Do you the just!And never falter inyour trustIn Light Divine, andLove andTruthTo make your passage smooth.A broader concept well can healAll wounds, and higher Light reveal.

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D E S E R T C R L E I l D f l RAugust 31-September 3Elko Coun-ty Fair, Elko, Nevada.August 31-September 3 Santa Fe,New Mexico, Fiesta.September 1-328th Annual NevadaRodeo, Winnemucca, Nevada.September 1-3Annual Pow Wow,

Apple Valley, California.September 1-3 All Indian Cham-pionship Rodeo and Tribal Fair,San Carlos, Arizona.September 1-3Lions Club Stampedeand '49er Show, Fallon, Nevada.September 2World's ChampionshipSteer Roping Contest, Clovis, NewMexico.September 2 St. Stephen's Fiestaand Ceremonial Dances, AcomaIndian Pueblo, New Mexico.Septemb er 3-4Rodeo, Williams, Ariz.September 6-8Sierra County Fair,Truth or Consequences, New Mex-i c o .September 6-8 Washington CountyFair, St. George, Utah.September 6-8Harvest Dance, SanIldefonso Pueblo, New Mexico.September 6-9Antelope Valley Fairand Alfalfa Festival, Lancaster, Cal.September 7-8De Baca and Guada-lupe Bi-County Fair, Fort Sumner,New Mexico.September 8-9Socorro County Ro-d e o , Socorro, New Mexico.September 11-12New Mexico StateGarden Club Convention, Roswell.September 11-15Eastern New Mex-ico State Fair, Roswell.September 12-16 Yavapai CountyFair, Prescott, Arizona.September 13-16 Washoe CountyFair, Reno, Nevada.September 14-15Old Timers Cele-bration, Randsburg, California.

September 14-15Otero County Fairand Ranch Hands Rodeo, Alamo-gordo, New Mexico.September 14-16Navajo Tribal Fair,Window Rock, Arizona.September 14-16 Valencia CountyFair, Belen, New Mexico.September 14-16 Navajo CountyFair, Holbrook, Arizona.September 14-23 Utah State Fair,Salt Lake City.September 15 Ceremonial Racesand Dances, Jicarilla Apache Reser-vation, New Mexico.September 15-16Fair and Rodeo,Silver City, New Mexico.September 18-20Union County Fair,Clayton, New Mexico.September 18-21Roosevelt CountyFair and Rodeo, Portales, N. M.September 19Indian Fiesta, LagunaPueblo, New Mexico.September 19-22Curry County Fair,Clovis, New Mexico.September 20-22Quay County Fairand Ir. Rodeo, Tucumcari, N. M.September 21-23San Juan CountyFair, Farmington, New Mexico.September 21-2310th Annual RoughRiders Stampede, Barstow, Calif.September 28Annual Chisum TrailRoundup, Artesia, New Mexico.September 28-29San Miguel Fiesta,Socorro, New Mexico.September 28-3033rd Annual In-dian Fair, Shiprock, New Mexico.September 29-30Fiesta of San Ge-ronimo, Taos Pueblo, New Mexico.September 29-October 7New Mex-ico State Fair, Albuquerque.

N u m b e r 19 SEPTEMBER, 1956 N u m b e r 9C O V E R

POETRYC A L E N D A RE X P L O R A T I O NHISTORYFIELD TRIPDESERT QUIZCEREM ONIALC O N T E S TN A T U R ECLOSE- UPSFICTIONG A R D E N I N GP H O T O G R A P H YA R TLETTERSN E W SM I N I N GU R A N I U MH O B B YLAPIDARYC O M M E N TB O O K SPRE-HISTORY

The sixth waterfall of Bear Canyon's Seven Falls,near Tucson, Arizona.Photograph by ESTHER HENDERSONDeep Water Hole an d other poems 2September events on the desert 3Exploring Anza's Unknown Canyon

By WILLIAM L. KENYON 4Old Bill Williams' Modern Mountain Men

By RALPH FREESE 7Icicle Agate in the Gusty Silver PeaksBy HAROLD O. WEIGHT 10

A test of your desert knowledge 14Navajo Sing in Cross Canyon

By EDITHA L. WATSON 15Picture-of-the-Month Contest announcement . . 16Not All the Thorny Plants Are Cacti

By EDMUND C. JAEGER 17About those who write for Desert 20Hard Rock Shorty of Death Valley 20Choosing a Hedge for Your Garden

By RUTH REYNOLDS 21Pictures of the Month 23Pablita of Santa Clara Pueblo

By W. THETFORD LeVINESS 24Comment from Desert's Readers 27From here an d there on the desert 28Current news of desert mines 33Latest developments in the Industry 34Gems an d Minerals 36Amateur Gem Cutter, by DR. H. C. DAKE . . . 41Just Between You and Me, by the Editor . . . 42Reviews of Southwestern Literature 43Montezuma Castle

By JOHN L. BLACKFORD . . . Back CoverThe Desert Magazine is published monthly by the Desert Press, Inc., Palm Desert,California. Re-entered as second class matter July 17, 1948, at the postoffice at Palm Desert,California, under the Act of March 3, 1879. Title registered No. 358865 in U. S. Patent Office,and contents copyrighted 1956 by the Desert Press, Inc. Permission to reproduce contentsmust be secured from the editor in writing.RANDALL HENDERSON, EditorBESS STACY, Business Manager EUGENE L. CONROTTO, Associate EditorEVONNB RIDDELL, Circulation ManagerUnsolicited manuscripts and photographs submitted cannot be returned or acknowledgedunless full return postage is enclosed. Desert Magazine assumes no responsibility fordamage or loss of manuscripts or photographs although due care will be exercised. Sub-scribers should send notice of change of address by the first of the month preceding issue.

SUBSCRIPTION RATESOne Year $4.00 Two Years $7.00Canadian Subscriptions 25c Extra, Foreign 50c ExtraSubscriptions to Army Personnel Outside TJ. S. A. Must Be Mailed in Conformity WithP . O. D. Order No. 19687

Address Correspondence to Desert Magazine, P.ilin Desert, CaliforniaSE PT E M BE R, 1 9 5 6


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Sandstone Canyon . Narrow est portion, photograph at left, is a mere 14 feet.Photo at right shows h ow the canyon's vertical walls are seamed and cracked.

E x p lo r ing A nz a 'sU n k n ow n C a n yo n

As State Park Superintendent for the vast Southern Californiadistrict, William Kenyon's responsibility stretches over thousands ofsqua re mile s. It is no won der, therefore, that wh en park per sonn elreported seeing a hitherto unknown canyon in the Anza Desert StatePark, he organized a party to explore it. They named it SandstoneCanyon for its cracked and precipitous walls , and jeep adventurerswill find it a welcome addition to their long list of fascinating places tovisit on the desert.

By WILLIAM L. KENYONPhotographs by the authorMap by Norton Allenwas discovered by Whitefield andAssistant District Superintendent LeoCrawford from the side of Whale Peakin Anza Desert State Park's bleak Val-lecito Mountains.

From this high vantage point thetwo men saw an intricate network ofcanyons and arroyos comprising thesoutherly watershed of the Vallecitos.

DECEMBER, Park Super-visor Carl Whitefield and I withour wives set out on a one-daysearch excursion of what was believedto be a previously unexplored canyon a deep chasm of which the autho ri-ties had no record.The existence of Sandstone Canyonthe name recently given to the place

Far below them in the distance theysaw the outlines of a canyon whichneither of them recognized. They tookpictures of the area and determinedlater, with the aid of a quadranglemap, that the newly-discovered gorgeprobably was a tributary of Fish CreekWash.My interest was aroused by theirdiscovery and I determined to person-ally visit the canyon at the first oppor-tunity. It came in Decem ber and ona bright Monday morning the four ofus started off by jeep from park head-quarters at Tamarisk Grove on High-way 78.We followed the highway 15 milesto the little community of OcotilloWells where water, gasoline and foodare obtainable, and then turned southon the paved county road leading tothe gypsum mines in Split Mountainand Fish Creek Wash.From Ocotillo Wells it is 4.3 milesto the state park boundary sign andfrom this point on our entire trip waswithin the park bo undaries. The jeeproute starts 2.2 miles further south ofthe sign, at the entrance to Fish CreekWash.Growing on both sides of the drybed were healthy smoke trees, desertwillows and mesquite. This is a popu -

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iar drive and there were many wheeltracks left by those who had precededus since the last water cleared thewash. The great floods ofwater whichoccasionally rush down this canyonusually clear the bed ofvegetation, butquite afewdesert shrubs were stillgrimly holding on totheir footholds inthe sand.A t 1.5miles from thestart of thejeep route, we entered Split Mountainwhose conglomerate walls reminded usof poorly mixed concrete. Here andthere acreosote bush, catsclaw, desertholly ordesert aster mingled with thepreviously mentioned larger plants.At2.4 miles wealso noted some galletagrass and at 3.6 miles we started intothe narrowest portion of Split Moun-tain.The vertical canyon walls here tendmore towards asandstone formationrather than toconglomerate, and theirappearance was spectacular.The sandstone again changed backto conglomerate by thetime we wereout of the Split at 4.0miles. In an-other .3mile the jeep trails branchan d ifone isnot careful at this pointhe may start off upawrong washleading to theright.I have found that cloudburst runoffcan completely alter the appearanceof a desert canyon from season to sea-son, and consequently Idon't rely toogreatly onmy memory toguide me tomy destination. No matter how manytimes Itravel aparticular canyon,1

always have thefeeling of being in astrange and new place, which isone ofthe most fascinating things about thisgreat desert country. Even from hou rto hour the light changes, shadowshiftings and color variations paint neweffects in thecanyons.A t 5.7 miles we skirted close to thebase ofamustard-colored cliff on ourright and in this area we drove throughmud hills onboth sides of the wash.In another mile we came tothe shellmassesthe product of some ancientsea. H ere thousand s of tons of fossil-iferous material which, upon close ex-amination, can be seen to be solidlypacked sea shells ofmany kinds, addedto the fascination ofthis canyon. Theseshell masses runalong the topofaridge inthe clay-like hills forquiteadistance in both directions.Where Fish Creek Wash has cutthrough these masses, chunks of thematerial have broken offand settled inand around thestream bed. Thisisa popular place for photographers , butwe did not stop forwe were anxiousto locate the side o pening in the wall ofthe canyon forwhich we were search-ingif such an opening existed.The entire Anza area is agreat "bad-lands," afantastic labyrinthine areawhere many upheavals were followedby ages oferosion by water, wind, heatand cold. This is anintricately carvedlandscape of mud hills, oddly erodedformations, sandstone layers and con-glomerate massesall tinted with the

soft-toned colors of the desert. Vege-tation isscarce andthere isseldomany water. This isaplace forartists,either with brush or came ra, geologists,botanists and all the other people whosimply enjoy fresh air,sunshine andthe subtle beauty of Nature .A t 10.1 miles 1drove the jeep pasthundreds of smoke trees which weregrowing inthe wash. They averagedbetween three and four feet inheight.Ahead were more interesting rock for-mations and the canyon began to nar-row.As we neared Olla Wash, the routeof access to the MudPalisades, weverycarefully examined the western wall ofthe canyon. A11.4 miles the jeepbrought us toavertical cliff formationidentical to that from which we ex-pected the mystery canyon to becarved. At11.8 miles we saw a breakin the wall, but itdid not appear sig-nificant and we droveon.After more fruitless searching, wecould find noother break, sowe re-turned to theone at 11.8 miles.As wedrove in it, 1guessed thatthe jeep would be able to go no furtherthan ahundred feet or so, sonarrowwere itswalls. But as weproceededup the smooth wash, it turned sharplyto the right and then opened up.W e had found our canyon!This wash ischaracterized by itsvertieal sandstone walls and its rela-tively narrow width. The canyon wallsar e oflight brown with the darker,

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M Cree& Wash, the main water course in a watershed of 30,000 acres,draining part of the Vallecito Mountains.

chocolate brown of desert varnish inmany places. The floor of the washcontains light, bluish gray granite sand,cobbles and boulders which havewashed down from the mountains.At one place the canyon narrowedto only 14 feet where its walls wereundercut by the stream currents. Greatslabs of stone clung precariously tothe mother wall above our heads andwe all agreed that this was no placeto be during an earthquake.We saw several tarantulas in thecanyon. These harmless creatures usu-ally put up with a lot of molestationbefore attempting to bite. We saw nosnakes in Sandstone Canyon nor inFish Creek Wash for that matter, butwe did see a few lizards scurrying awaywith tails held high.Shadows crossed the dry stream bedand although it was not cold, we founda sunny spot quite free from the threatof falling wall 1.3 miles from themouth of the canyon. We spread ourpicnic lunch and relaxed.It was here that we discovered the

evidences of previous visits to this can-yon by other people, although appar-ently only a few. Faintly scratched inone of the walls and barely legible wasa name and a date of May, 1930.There were no jeeps then and theperson who carved his name in thiswall must have back-packed into thisarea for it is a great distance from theroad and the nearest supplies.The trip could have been made ina Model T or later in a Model A, butunder no conditions can a modern high-way sedan make the trip into Sand-stone Canyon.If you do not have a four-wheeldrive vehicle but still wish to see thiscountry, there is available at Borrego

Springs a state licensed desert tourservice. It can take you to remote andinteresting points throughout these des-ert parks. And if you want to campout, it can take you and your party,camping equipment and all, to any ofthese isolated places, leave you there,and return for you at some predeter-mined later date.There is little litter in Fish CreekWash and none in Sandstone Canyon.The park rangers endeavor to keep the

cans, bottles and garbage cleaned up,and in my opinion they do a fine job.The State Park Service permitscamping along the washes, but requeststhat those who do so take their ownoil stoves and refrain from buildingopen fires or using any vegetable mat-ter in the area as fuel. Even the dead-est appearing bush may be very muchalive.They also ask that you leave yourdogs and firearms home, for all StateParks are wildlife preserves. Also takeyour cans and rubbish home with youwhen you leave. Litter should neverbe buried for it has been found thatburied cans and garbage will be quicklydug up and scattered by animals soonafter a campsite is vacated.If you plan to visit Anza, take plentyof water with you and as with alldesert trips, be sure someone at homeknows where you are going and whenyou expect to return.Also remember that these desertparks are no places to visit in the sum-mer when temperatures might rise to125 degrees in the shade. The atmos-phere is extremely dry, and it is notpossible for a person to walk very farwithout carrying and drinking muchwater to compensate for dehydration.

Consequently, a breakdown of yourjeep or an accident or injury to amember of your party could be disas-trous. Summer thunder storms andcloudbursts in this area are not uncom-mon, and a great volume of water maysuddenly rush down one or more ofthe washes with little or no warning,trapping anyone unlucky enough to bein them. Except during the summer,however, there is relatively little dan-ger. Winter rains are usually light andthere is not the sudden and terrificrunoff which often follows a summerstorm.

After lunch, we drove another mileinto Sandstone Canyon and came to theend of the jeep passage. At this pointthe canyon forks and we walked aneasy mile or so up the left or westerlybranch to the saddle of the mountainwhere a fine vista spread out before us.We made an unhurried trip back toTamarisk Grove, watching the hun-

dreds of swifts in the sky above thecanyon floor and some owls.We also stopped at a fissure in thewall of the canyon which created anatural animal access to the wash floorfrom the mesa above, and here wesaw signs of foxes and coyotes. Wealso passed an island-like growth ofBigelow cholla cactus. Otherwise, mostof the cacti, together with ocotillo,grows above on the mesas.At 5:30 that afternoon we reachedTamarisk Grove after spending twohours on the return trip. By then the

shadows of still another day lay longand heavy across the Vallecito Moun-tains and Sandstone Canyon.

NAVAJOS ADOPT BUDGETINCREASE OFFICIALS' PAYThe Navajo Tribal Council adopteda $3,254,325 budget, a million dollarsof it surplus from last year's budget.Paul Hand, former assistant generalsuperintendent, has been named man-ager of a new industrial departmentthat received a $425,890 allocation to

create job opportunities for Navajoson and near the reservation.Tribal administration will receive$373,698; law and order, $586,762;community services, $834,014; andresources, $983,715.Salary increases were approved bythe council. Henceforth members willreceive $20 a day instead of $16. TheCouncil Chairman will receive $9000his first year, $10,000 his second;$12,000 his third; and $13,500 hisfourth. If the chairman is electedagain, he will receive $15,000 per year.

The vice-chairman's pay scale was setat $7000, $8000, $9000 and $10,000,with an annual salary of $11,000 fora second term.AdahooniligiiDESERT MAGAZINE


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The Bill Williams Mountain Men start their annual trek to Phoenix from 6762-foothigh Williams, Arizona, where snow covers the ground in early spring.l d B i l l W i l l i a m s 'M o u n t a i n M e n

One of the Southwest's most colorful chapters th e story of theMountain Menhas been borrowed from out the pages of the past bya group of civic-minded men in W illiams, Arizona. For six da ys ea chyear, when they ride out of Williams for a rendezvous in Phoenix, theseArizonans rel ive the epoch of those rugged individualists who pursuedthe valued fur-bearing animals into unexplored territory, and who lefttrails through the western wilderness for those who came after.

By RALPH FREESEILL WILLIAMS Mount a i nMan, Trapper, Indian Scout ,Trail Blazer lived and died

Dedicated to the preservation of

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tance and especially to the recollec-tion of Old Bill Williams, is an organi-zation formed several years ago andknown as the Bill Williams MountainMen, with headquarters in the Arizonacity named in Williams' honor.The modern Mountain Men do notmake their livings trapping beaver.They represent a wide occupation

background judge, garage owner,service station manager, doctor, den-tist and others.As nearly as possible, these men tryto emulate the costumes and customsof that lusty group of pioneers whoforsook civilization for the raw fron-tier in the days when the Southwestwas held by Spain. Thro ugh the win-ter, beards are grown and their longKentucky rifles are cleaned and pol-ished. Th en, in early spring, theMountain Men change into buckskinsand moccasins, load their pack animalswith grub, fine furs and their cagedmascot, a young mountain lion, andthen, as in the early days, they rideout of the mountains across the 185rugged miles from Williams southwardto an imaginary rendezvous in Phoe-nix. Th e trek takes six days and is anannual event conveniently planned sothat the pack train arrives in Phoenixin time to enter the parade and forthe members to participate in the Phoe-nix World's Championship Rodeo.

Old Bill Williams was a ruggedfrontiersman.He was a contemporary of Kit Car-son, Jim Bridger, David Jackson andPeter Ogden. Each of these famous7


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:Snow was on theground when this ride to Phoenix began.

Mountain Men and Trail Blazers havemade lasting contributions to the Westand are honored today by the manygeographic locations that bear theirnames .In addition to the town of Williamsthere are a river and mountain in Ari-zona named for Mountain Man Bill.Carson gave his name to Carson City,Nevada; Jim Bridger is the patron ofBridger, Montana; Jackson and Jack-son Hole, Wyoming, imm ortalize DavidJackson; andOgden, Utah, was namedin memory of Peter Ogden.Williams wasborn January 3, 1787,in North Carolina. As a child, hisfamily moved to St. Louis which wasthen the center of the fur t rade and adistributing point for trading and t rap-ping west of the Mississippi. YoungBill grew up in the rowdy and lustyatmosphere of the frontier and mostof his playmates were Indian children.From them he learned to speak theirlanguage and to understand and appre-ciate their way of life. It was an edu-cation that well fitted him for the adultlife he was destined to lead.

A t 17 Bill left home to become acircuit preacher. To supplement themeager income from this work, hehunted and trapped with the OsageIndians. In 1813 the young preacher-trapper married an Osage girl who borehim two children. Williams remainedwith these Indians for 12 years andfollowing his wife's untimely death, heleft his adopted people and journeyedwest.Meanwhile, in 1820, John JacobAstor pushed his American Fur Com-

pany into the lead in the race to openthe Western Fur trade. In active com-petition with American were the Hud-son Bay Company and other concernseager to claim the fine animal peltsin such high demand by Eastern mar-kets.I t has been estimated that therewere no more than 250 Mountain Menwest of theMissouri River before 1825.With the opening of the fur markets ,additional hundreds poured into theWest. These men took their lives intheir ownhands for the Western landwas the home of savage Indians, wildanimals, an unfriendly Spanish govern-ment, and worsethe cold relentless

winters of the vast, unexplored moun-tain wilderness.Trapping is done in early springwhen the ice-covered streams begin tothaw, to the first of June, and again inSeptember until the freezing weathersets in. When Mountain Men couldfind a good camping place with woodand game and free from hostile Indi-ans, they wintered in the mountains.More often, however, they spent thewinters in the frontier posts or in theRio Grande settlements such as Taosor Santa Fe. During the summer, theMountain Men pulled their traps and"headed for points of rendezvous."A rendezvous was an outdoor mar-The Mountain Men stop at several villages along the way to Phoenix wherethey demonstrate that some of the old rifles still can befired.

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and have fun. A t these

In 1825 Congress authorized thesurvey and marking of the Santa Ferail. The expedition was heade d byajor Sibley who hired Bill Williamsas guide and interpreter. Williams pre-ceded the party by several days layingthe ground work for treaties with theIndians, and after his trail-work wascompleted, he stayed on a short timein Santa Fe and Taos. It was herethat he started his life as a MountainMan.For the next 15 years, Williamsroamed the West, hunting, trapping,trading and establishing for himself areputat ion. He was known in Wyom -ing, Oregon, California, Arizona, NewMexico and Old Mexico.With the eventual collapse of thefur market, Williams and many of hisfellows turned to other pursu its. Inthe company of desperate men, he isreputed to have participated in horsestealing raids into California and OldMex ico. This activity, plus the trap -ping and hunting, made him familiarwith the shortest and best routes be-tween various points of the Southwest.A few years later, when the gold seek-ers began their rush to California, thisinformation was invaluable. Bill Wil-liams and his contemporaries werehired by immigrant trains as well as

the Army and other government ex-peditions to lead them across the wil-derness to the coast.At 63 , Williams met a typical M oun-tain M an's d eath. He was killed inhis camp by a band of Ute Indiansrecently escaped from an Army puni-tive campaign.Legend has it that the Indians didnot recognize Old Bill and after theyrealized whom they had killed, theyreturned to his camp and gave him achief's burial.They carried his body to Old Bill 's

favorite spot in Northern Arizona, thelegend continues, and buried it at thebase of a massive natural rock shaftwhich stands nearly 100 feet high, well

Bill Williams Mon ument, a massive stone shaft high up the side of BillWilliams Mountain.up the western slope of the mountainnamed in his honor.Some historians believe that the UteIndians deliberately killed Williamsbecause he had betrayed them. TheOld Mountain Man had taken a Utewife and for many years had livedamongst the tribesmen. On e sourcesaid he was killed because it was hewho had led the Army against theUtes; another declares that some Uteshad given Williams many pelts to takeinto Santa Fe to trade and he hadsquandered the money from their saleon such activity as buying bolts ofcalico, gathering all the peon womenhe could find, and unrolling the clothin the street merely to watch them fight

over it.Williams, Arizona, was for manyyears known as Rogers Station afterC. P. Rogers who camped at the footof Bill Williams Mountain while outlocating ranch land. It was a placefree of hostile Apache Indians wheregame was plentiful, so Rogers stayedon. When the railroad came through,the name was changed to Williams.Today, Williams is an importanthub in east-west rail and highwaytransportation, and is a junction fortravel to Grand C anyon . Millions ofpeople pass through this country now,through the valleys and plains wherethe hardy Mountain Men were thefirst to place their moccasined feet.S E P T E M B E R , 1 9 5


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Icicle Agate i n theGu sty Si l ver Pea k sBy HAROLD O. WEIGHTPhotographs by the authorMap by Nor ton Allen

N A MID-JULY morning in 1950,Grace and John Callahan led usinto the Silver Peak Mountainssouthwest of Blair Junction, Nevada,

in quest of that frigidly named gem-stone, icicle agate. Th e sky was over-cast, with occasional drifts of light rainfalling on the mile-high Nevada desertwhile an ever-freshening wind combedthe country with unusually sharp teethfor summer, even at that altitude.The night before, at the Callahan'ssummer home in Columbus ghost town,Icicle agate diggings in the Silver Peaks. Cleaning out the old workingswould be necessary before any additional stone could be obtained fromthis vein. Monte Cristo Mountains at center and left background; SanAntonios right. Highw ay 95 runs through the valley, near the base of the

Monte Cristos, and Silver Peak highway cuts down at right.

yr:

West-central Nevada's high des-ert is a land of startling geologicalcontrasts, invigorating nights andpanorama-filled da ys but bringyour own firewood if you want awarm cam p mea l. In addition tothe ever present thrills of an out-door adventure, the Silver PeakMountains outing offers beautifulicicle agate specimens to the am-bitious rockhound.

Grace had shown Eva Wilson, Lucileand me a beautiful stone cut fromicicle agate. The appropriateness ofits name was obvious, with its tinywhite "icicles" thrusting into the clearchalcedony from the walls of thevein. Houston Howard, the Callahansthought, was the first to discover icicleagate . He was living at Blair Junc tionat the time, working for the Tonopah& Goldfield Railroa d.This railroad has since been dis-mantled and Blair Junction abandoned.John, who had not been to the fieldfor some time, warned us as we leftthe Junction ruins that its rediscoverywould be difficult.We headed westerly on an old trailto Emigrant Pass that showed no evi-dence of recent use. We wavered tothe south and shortly joined what ap-parently had been the old main roadthrough here, but it was in little bettercondition than our first road, and whenwe reached the first broad wash, whichrecently had run a great deal of water,the trail almost vanished. But as wefollowed it, occasional bits of old trailappeared on the higher parts. Andabout a mile farther on, after enteringa side canyon, John pulled up at thefoot of a dark ridge among the oldclay lakebeds. He and Grac e led usup its steep eastern slope. Near thetop we came to a gaping trench morethan a dozen feet long and three tosix deep. John Callahan whistled ashe examined it."Looks like we'll have to dig if weexpect to find anything good!" he said.After lunch we went to work, fol-lowing the broken vein down throughthe clayish ma trix. We also searchedthe slopes below the cut and aroundthe sides of the hill. We found severalpieces of icicle agate which would cutspectacularly and a more abundantvein agate which Lucile suggestedshould be called white flame.

But it was a bad day for rockhound-ing. The wind whipped dirt into oureyes as we dug. On the hillsides it wascold unless we kept moving. Then oneof the wetter clouds located us. Andsince the Callahans were due homeearly and we intended to follow Emmi-grant Pass into Fish Lake Valley thatnight, we collected our finds andheaded back down the big wash.10 DESERT MAGAZINE


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T O B I S H O P , C A L I F

T O S I L V E R P E A K

Tonopah had been the heart of thatexcitement. One compan y had im-ported 7000 redwood posts just tomark its claims. Another made 2000location s. Th e face of the countrynorth and west of town bears thousandsof regularly-spaced mounds represent-ing wholesale scoop-shovel discoverywork. The whole of Silver Peak marsh ,to the south of us, had been filed upon.So far as I know, uranium is not beingshipped from any of these diggings.

Most of the claims filed in thatexcitement slipped quietly back intothe public domain at the end of theassessment year or sooner, with nodiscovery or assessment work, no ex-ploration or mining done.Lucile and I climbed to the agatediggings and found the trench consid-erably lengthened and deepened. Noneof the icicle vein showed along thebotto m. While it probab ly continuesdown into the hill, it would have takenmore time than we had to clean thetrench out. So we again hunted thehill's slopes and again were rewardedwith good cutting pieces, though quitesmall, and with indications of otherveins which carry the icicle-type ma-terial.

From the top of the hill there is aneagle's view of a wide sweep of Nevada.We looked out across the Monte Cristosand the San Antonios and Lone Moun-tain and, of course, much of the SilverPeaks . All around us were the rounded,

improbably-smooth hills of the Esmer-alda lake bed formations and thejagged volcanics that had intrudedamongst them during the eons whenthis was a geologic battleground. Thelong afternoon shadows accented thevividness of the land, imparting a storybook coloring that had been entirelyabsent in the rainy gray of our earliervisit.It seemed unlikely that all this jum-ble would produce but one hill ofinterest to rockh ound s. I struck north -west, hoping to find both additionalagate and a campsite that would giveus some shelter from the still-ram-bunctious wind. In the towering west-ern wall of the next wash I found icicleagate on another dark ridge, and alsoa protected cove.It was almost dark by the time I hadworked the car down the first wash,across country and up the next, intothe cove. Wood for a cooking fire wasour immediate need. We found theresimply was none. Nor were there anyshrubs big enough to have deadbranches worth the plucking. I didfind a splintered post in the wash,probably floated down from some de-funct mining claim. Bu t it had to dofor both evening and the next morning,and I suggest future campers bringtheir own fuel or pick up some tiefragments at Blair Junction.

With the portable grill up and somegood coals glowing, Lucile quickly

prepared one of her one-dish campmeals. This time she emptied a canof cream of chicken soup, one of solidpacked tuna and one of young greenbeans into a pan, mixing them withsome fresh green pepper and season-ing. We were tired with the day's longdrive and our hill climbing at an un-accustomed altitude, but this dish,poured over grill-made toast and ac-companied by authoritative boiled cof-fee, sent our spirits soaring.

That night the world was as silentas it was dark. No coyote cried. Nonight bird moved. It seemed you mighthear - or imagine you heard thesparkling of the stars.We breakfasted at sunrise, with twohappy crows flapping low over us,cawing derisive comments and appar-ently playing a sort of tag. Lucile wasout exploring firstsinking over herhigh shoe tops while climbing one ofthe clay hills. The n she checked thenew agate ridge while I made a circlinghike of several miles back into theedges of the Silver Pea ks. Th ere wasspectacular scenery along my route,but no real rock finds. So we packedand drove back to our first location.From there I investigated three similarhills farther to the south and east, find-ing seams or float of good cutting agateon each of them. In a canyon on thefirst one, I found, beside a vein ofagate, a rusted tobacco can with a lo-cation notice made out by Houston

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In this same area were fine

We had planned to leave beforeback from my exploration s. I

"Hurryand br ing your camera!"alled. "I've been trying to keep

I hurriedbut I need not have. TheHe eyed me almost indulgently

pro gra m . It was so full of detailanual, that I insisted she write it out:"He spurted right out from under

abou t equally startled. He dashedup a smooth dark volcanic boulder,head peered over the top of it, eyeingme this way and that. He lookedsmaller than most we have seen inNevada, Arizona and California, partlybecause of his gauntnessthe skin onhis sides hang ing in a long fold. Buthis legs looked almost plump and hislittle front feet were so yellow helooked as if he were wearing gloves."After a period of inspecting me, hewriggled his tummy on the rock andlet his eyes gradually close while theheat of the sunshine and warm rockpene trated his body. Time stretchedout in that sun and silence. Then LittleBailey jerked his head up as if caughtnapping. But he had heard somethingI hadn 't. A leap and half turn in theair, and he was on the ground 15 feetaway. I came in on the gulp thatrippled his striped throatan unluckyfly or bee.

"Unconsciously I had moved for-ward to see what had attracted himand as he returnedI thought to hisoriginal rock I backed up so Iwouldn't cramp his style. But he keptcoming until I mov ed sideways. Thenhe scampered past me and mountedanother boulder, turned and fixed mewith a slightly supercilious lookfromunder one drooping eyelid."With one morsel under his belt heseemed a little perkier. Pou nce! Heleaped from his pinnacle and lickedin a little gold bee with ehenille legs

within the wink of an eye. Back onhis current rock he looked at me againand carefully wiped his mo uth. Herelaxed. Siesta, obviously. Th e sunwas even warmer and, unless you wereas quiet as Little Bailey and I, it stillseemed silent."But in the background was a faintbuzzy drone, occasionally punctuatedby a zoom as a fly circled around us.Little Bailey heard it too ; he open ed aneye. Suddenly he leaped and twistedin the air above his rock and wasswallowing hard on a fly. He reallycaught that one on the fly, and hadn'tlost his balance."He pivoted on his rock, facing a

another direction, and in the distanceI saw him adding another course tohis meal."I thought that would be my lastlook at him. But back he came, head-ing straight for me. This time I d idn'tmove. He kept coming, climbed ontomy shoe and started up . Reflex actionstepped in and a kick threw him sev-eral feet awaywhich didn't hurt hisfeelings at all. He just found anotherboulder and took up his watch."It was on this boulder that LittleBailey permittedor rather, encour-agedme to photograph him, assum-ing a number of photogenic poses.And when I was through, Lucile

r- m M m Swft Ill

;;M ' vLittle Bailey, who entertained Lucile for nearly an hour with exhibitions offly and bee catching, lizard pushups and lizard relaxation, then posedwillingly for a portrait, apparently entirely unafraid of w hat m ust h ave beenthe first humans he had ever seen.dry shrub about eight feet from him.I strained to see what attracted himand finally spotted another little goldbee, almost invisible in the light andshadow of the shrub, walking aroundon leaf and stem fragmen ts. LittleBailey stalked him in the same mannera lion does his prey, his relatively hugebulk and steady movement never oncedisturbing the bee."Then the lightning broadjump, theflick of the tongueand Little Baileywas again swallowing hard and bob-bing his hea d. Did he get a little sting,or did gold chenille legs tickle histhroat? He marched back to his rockand again wiped his mouth deliberately.In a moment he was dashing off in

stretched out her hand toward him tosee how close she could get before heran. An d he let her actually touch hishead, and then hissed instead of run-ning and it was Lucile who jerkedaway. She reached out her hand again,and this time he let her stroke his neckand back."He seems to be quite a character,"I said."I think he's a gifted, talented indi-vidual!" said Lucile.Perhaps he was. Often the lizardswe find in the desert hills seem to showan awareness and intelligence somelarger animals lack. As they stare atus with obvious interest, yet with as-surance and calm reptilian wisdom, I

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gk It is too hot to do much poking around onU l l IZ the desert these days, but in your imagination^ f M l & i y0U m a y travel far andwide across the scenicareas of Nevada, Arizona, Utah, New Mexico and the desert sector ofCaliforniaand that is what you will be doing when you tackle theseQuiz questions. They cover a wide range of desert subjects andplaces, allof them fairly well know n. Do n't be discouraged if you get a low score,for you'll do better after you have read Desert for a few months . Ten isa passing score, 12 to 14 is fair, 15 to 18 good, and above that entitlesyo u to go to the head of the Quiz class. The answers are on page 40.1A javelina isA species of bird A lizard An animal re-sembling a wild hog A weapon used byprehistoric Indians2Going west through Daylight Pass the motorist would arrive inDeath Valley Yum a, Arizona North Rim of GrandCanyon Carson City, Nevada3According to legend, the Enchanted Mesa of New Mexico formerlywas the dwelling place ofThe Zuni Indians TheHopisThe Acomas . The Apaches4Most conspicuous cactus on the landscape of Arizona isChollaSaguaro Bisnaga Prickly Pear5Roosevelt Dam was built to impound the waters of the GilaRiver .. ....... Salt River ..... . Verde River - Bill WilliamsRiver6Director of theNational Park Service isM cKay Emm onsWirth Stratton7In NewMexico history the date 1680marks theDiscovery of theSeven Cities of Cibola... . . . Founding of Santa Fe Annexationof the territory by Spain A general revolt of the Pueblo Indiansagainst the Spaniards8A metate is used by Indians for Killing game ._ . Grindingmeal Storing food Ceremon ial purposes9The mineral, Azurite, belongs to one of the following groups Copper Iron Lead Tin10Kayenta, Arizona, is remembered asThe burial place of Kit Car-son The former capital of the state The place where

Geronimo was captured The former home of the JohnWeth erill family11Walpi is the name of a village in the reservation of theMojaveIndians Ute Indians Hop i Indians Papago In-dians12Lee's Ferry was a famous river crossing on the San JuanColorad o Green Little Colorado13The botanical name for Mormon Tea isEphedra Larrea .Bursera._.. Yucca14T he Epi taph is thename of a new spa per p ublis hed in Go ldfield ____Tonopah Jerome Tombstone15Mounta in Men who came West in the middle of the last centurywere trapping mainly forBeavers . Bears WolvesMink16An Indian Kiva isA storage room for corn A lodge or cere-monial room for men__ ___ Weapon for hunting . A pipe ofpeace17Perlite is mined forM aking borax Tempering steelUse as insulation Mak ing tungsten lamps18-The array of Indian petroglyphs known as "Newspaper Rock" are in Petrified Forest National Mo num ent Bandelier NationalMonument . Grand Canyon . An island in Great SaltLake19According to legend, the Lost Dutchman mine is in theFunera lMountains of Death Valley Superstition Mo untains of Ari-zona Charleston Moun tains of Nevada San JacintoMountains of Southern California20Highest peak visible from the Colorado Desert of Southern CaliforniaisSan Gorgonio Peak San Jacinto Peak TahquitzPeak Santa Rosa Peak

wonder what they are thinking about.Anyone who has watched a startledlizard rear up on long hind legs andrun two-footed, with shorter front armsheld before his breast, cannot fail tosee a startling resemblance to themighty dinosaurs that were dominantin ages past. Is it possible they arethe descendants of that monstrous race?Was Little Bailey's family ancientwhen the silica-rich solutions wereseeping through these cracked landsto form theagate we hadbeen hunting?If so, Little Bailey made it clearthat the fall of a race from worldrulership is notalways an unhappy one.Relaxed against the hot rock in purecontentment, he seemed to be saying:"Don' t youwish you hadnothing moreto worry about than I have, MasterRace? Wouldn't you like to stretchout on a rock beside me and worshipthe sun?"In those hills the problems of everyday living had been washed from ourminds by sunshine, beauty and peace.The searching for prize rocks and thestudy of Little Bailey had filled ourthoughts. Now, as we turned the cartoward the paving, the world seemedto sweep back in. What had happenedin the Near East since we had heardthe news? And the Far East? Hadsomeone exploded a more terrible H-bomb? What new subsidies and aids to be taken out of our incomehad Congress passed or been asked topass? What new bonds had our countyor our community dreamed up toplaster our home a little more heavily?A nd yes how were we going tomeet next month's bills?

As we passed, slowly, Little Baileycrawled up on another rock, rested hischin on a ridge and watched us."Pick me out a smooth, warm rock,Little Bailey," I said. "I may be back."LITTERBUG CLEANUP CO STSS T A G G E R I N G , R E P O R T S H O W SMotorists are throwing some $7,-000,000 out of their car windowsannually just on roads and streetsin the 13 Southern California coun-ties. That is how the AutomobileClub of Southern California de-scribed the highway trash problemwhose $5,000,000 cleanup cost in LosAngeles, Orange andVentura countiesalone would be enough to build twoand one-half miles of full freeway eachyear. "Experience has shown that theonly real solution lies with the individ-ual. The average motorist feels thathe is hardly contributing to the trashproblem by throwing out a small wadof tissue paper or a handful of peanutshells, but it is exactly these acts re-peated time andagain that create mostof this expensive situation," the clubsaid.

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LIFE ON THE DESERT

NavajoSing inCrossCanyon

The white doctors had curedMae's broken ankle and laceratedscalp, but she now complained ofdizziness. T he Nav ajo MedicineMan would be needed for this . Byfortunate circumstance, the authorarrived at the camp in Cross Can-yon on the day of the sing andthis is her story of the ancienthealing ritual she witnessed.By EDITHA L. WATSONAST MAY my Navajo friendAlice Benally asked me to takeher to Cross Canyon to visither s is ter Yana bah. Alice's real nameis Astzan Dilwohee (Fa st R unnerWoman), but " the white could notsay it," so she adopted somethingeasier to pron oun ce. She is a gentlelittle widow who has worked hard allher life. Th e Navajo family is close-knit, and Alice likes to visit her sisterswhenever she can, which is not often.At Fort Defiance Alice bought flour,sugar, bread, canned m ilk and tomatoesas a gift for her sister. W e ate lunc hbefore we started, for Alice was notsure there would be enough for us atour destination. Thus prepared, wetook to the road which runs westacross the reservation through the for-est.

When a Navajo says he lives at acertain location, he means that hishogan is- somew here within riding dis-tance of that place. Alice had alwayssaid that Yanabah lived at Cross Can-yon, 25 miles west of Fort Defiance,but I was not surprised when we leftthe main road just below the Sawmillcutoff in the canyon and traveled southfor a good many miles.

Navajo Medicine M an m ixing a secret potion.Photograph by D. Clifford Bond.Presently we came to a group ofseveral hogans in a clearing. Nearbywas a fenced-in field where a man wasplowing with two horses. He was theonly man in evidence. Two wood-piles resembling small tepees stood inconvenient locations and beyond thelargest hogan was a shade, a lean-tomade of long, leafy boughs laid againstpoles. In front of this shade the cook-ing fire sent up lazy smoke spirals.Alice and Yanabah greeted eachother as casually as if they had beentogether all week. I was introducedin Navajo for Yanabah speaks littleEnglish. We shook hands and I wasseated on a cot in the shade. It wasnearly noon, and preparations for din-ner had begun, A freshly-butcheredcarcass of a sheep hung at the otherend of the shade. Its entrails, care-fully cleaned and wound together in

rolls about the size of a large frank-furter, were toasting on a grid overthe coals.Yanabah poured water from a keg

into a white enameled coffee pot andlaid it among the coals to boil. Wh enit did she added coffee scooped fromthe can with her fingers and movedthe pot to the edge of the fire.She cut some thin slices of muttonand laid them on the grid and froma covered kettle she took enough doughto make us each a large round cakeof dah dinilgazh (fr ied bread). I t wasfried in mutton grease and came outcrusty brown and delicious. The foodwas placed on a legless zinc table topand we sat on low wooden stoolsaround it. One eats when food is of-fered, in spite of having lunched anhour previously.I learned to my delight that we hadarrived on the eve of a one-night sing,and we were invited to stay and attendit. After lunch a gray-haired Navajoman went into the nearby hogan,shortly followed by the one who hadbeen plowing in the field. Soon a lowchanting came from the hogan.A girl of 16, dressed in her best

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rust-colored chiffon-velvet blouse anda new green rayon satin skirt, andhung with several strings of turquoiseand silver, emerged from the hoganand came over to us. She was Yan a-bah's daughter Mae, for whom thesing was being held. She had b een inan accident some months before, I wastold. A horse had thrown her andshe suffered a broken ankle and alacerated scalp. Doubtless her skullwould have been fractured had it notbeen for the protection of her hair,which she wore in the usual Navajoknot tied with green yarn. Now , inher role of patient, she had unboundit, and it flowed down her back to herknees.

Following the accident, she wastaken to Ganado hospital where thedoctors "shined a light through her,"and put her ankle in a cast. Now shewas physically well, but she complainedof a dizziness when she moved about,and a sing was needed to cure thiscondition . I was told that it was to bethe Claw chant, which is given to per-sons who have had accidents.

In mid-afternoon Alice and I walkedover to the hogan and sat in the

women's place along the north wall.The younger man was grinding driedherbs between two stones, while themedicine man sat near him and sangthe proper chants . T he hatathli (singer)accompanied himself with a rattlemade of many small dark objectswhich I took to be the dewclaws ofdeer, attached to a handle by shortleather thongs. A little boy, his grand-son, sat snuggled close to him, oftenlooking up into his face.

Behind the men were a ceremonialtype basket, several small buckskinbags and another rattle. When thegrinder had made a pinch or two ofhis medicine as fine as possible, hesifted it through a small wire sieveonto a piece of paper, and ground afresh portion.The actual sing would not begin un-til late that evening, so we went to bedin broad daylight in order to be re-freshed for the ceremony. Alice and

I slept in a hogan near the plowedfield.She awoke me at 11 o'clock. Theweather was cool for May. Quickly Iwrapped the blanket from the cotaround me, and followed Alice out into

P i e t m - o f - t h e - M o n t b C o n t e s t . . .Beyond every rise on the desert, in every canyon, across everywash there is a new world awaiting members of the camera fraternity.September marks the start of another season in which these places

safely and comfortably can be visited. Any photo taken on the desertqualifies for Desert Magazine's Picture of the Month Contest. Thesubject possibilities are endlessbirds, trees, sunsets, campers, In-dians, animals, insects, landmarks, rivers, mountains, thunderclouds,children . . .Amateur photographers as well as professionals are eligible forthe monthly contest in which two cash prizes are given.Entries for the September contest must be sent to the Desert Maga-zine office. Palm Desert, California, and postmarked not later thanSeptember 18. Winning prints will appear in the November issue.Pictures which arrive too late for one contest are held over for the nextmonth. First prize is $10; second prize $5. For non-winning picturesaccep ted for publication $3 each will be p aid.HERE ARE THE RULES1Prints tor monthly contests must be black and white, 5x7 or larger, printedon glossy paper.

2Each photograph submitted should be fully labeled as to subject, time andplac e. Also technical data: camera, shutter speed, hour of day, etc.3PRINTS WILL BE RETURNED WHEN RETURN POSTAGE IS ENCLOSED.4All entries must be in the Desert Magazine office by the 20th of the contestmonth.5Contests are op en to both amateur and professional photographers. DesertMagazine requires first publication rights only of prize winning pictures.6Time and place of photograph are immaterial, except that it must be from thedesert Southwest.7Judges will be selected from Desert's editorial staff, and awards will be madeimmediately after the close of the contest each month.Address All Entries to Photo Editor

'Decent 'THayafctte PALM DESERT, CALIFORNIA

the moonlight. We heard singing inthe main hogan and waited until thechant was finished before entering it.A solitary kerosene lantern faintlyilluminated the hogan. M ae, the pa-tient, naked to the waist but wearingall her jewelry, sat on the west side.Feathers projected over her face froma ceremonial head piece. She still woreher high-laced tan child's shoes withlow heels.The medicine man and two helperswere seated beyond Mae, and back ofthem, on the south side of the room,were Yanabah's husband, her son, andseveral other men. I could scarcelysee them in the shadows, but I recog-nized the principal singer as the ha -tathli who had chanted in the afternoon.We came in during the mixing ofsome medicine. A small mou nd ofdirt about eight inches across and threeinches high supported a shallow pot-tery vessel containing water. Into thisthe medicine man sprinkled somethingtaken from one of his various pouches,and then drew lines in the air above itwith a feather-decorated wand, finallystirring the medicine with its pointedt i p . At last he gave the patient foursips of the stuff then drank the resthimself. He then applied a pinch oftadidin (sacred pollen) to the soles ofthe girl's shoes, her knees, around eachshoulder, and to the top of her head,and then placed it in her mouth.

Later on she was given severalfeathered wands to hold, with instruc-tions not to go to sleep or let themfall. If Yan abah had no t given her anoccasional admonitory poke, the pa-tient would have dozed in spite of her-self. It was warm in the hogan, andthe dim light and the monotonouschan ts ha d a soporific effect. I foundmyself nodding and sympathized withthe girl. It was harde st to keep awakein the pauses between the songs. Allwould be still except for the tickingof a kitchen clock somewhere behindm e. It was a glorious morning. Pinyonsmoke was fragrant in the air, andlarks and doves were singing. Havingreceived his fee of a tanned buckskinand a turquoise bracelet, the medicineman had gone, taking his little grand-son. The assistant was back at hisplowing, apparently quite alert evenafter singing until dawn. He was paida sheep for his participation in thesing, I later learned.Alice and Yanabah were talking asthey prepared the morning meal overthe fire. And here came Mae, her haironce more neatly wrapped and tied,bringing a basin of warm water anda towel for the bilagana (white woman)to freshen up before breakfast.I was told, weeks later, that shehad no more dizzy spells.

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y W

Ocotillo, left, and Agave, center, are often m istakenly classified as cacti. At rightare agaves in bud. Southwestern natives relish these tender, sweet stalks as food.

t A l l the T ho r n yl a n ts A r e C a cti ...One of the most common fallacies concerning desert flora is thatall plan ts bea ring thorns are members of the cactus family. New com ersto the Southwest as well as many old timers are guilty of this sweepingan d erroneous genera lity. Three of the thorny plants most often p lace din the cactus family category where they do not belong are theagave, yucca and ocoti l lo which are members of the amaryll is, l i ly andcandlewood families, respectively.

By EDMUND C. JAEGER, D.Sc.Curator of PlantsRivers ide Munic ipa l MuseumSketches by Lloyd Mason Smi thHAVE I seen displayed indesert shops frequented by tour-ists, garishly colored postcards

all labeled "Desert Cactuses."

E M B E R , 1 9 5 6

or curved, slender or stout, must be acactus of some kind.One of the more spectacular plantsoften grown in semi-tropic public andprivate gardens and which is commonlymistaken for "a kind of cactus" is theCentury Plant or Agave (a name de-rived from the Greek word for "ad-mirable") ."A century plant must be a cactus,"argued a recent visitor to my Riversidegarden where I have one corner de-

voted to several kinds of agaves, "be-cause its long leaves end in stickerythorns." Actually the Agaves are veryclosely related to the lilies. They arecalled Century Plants because of anold fallacious notion that they bloombut once in a hund red years. Theycome nearer to blossoming every 15or 20 years rather than every centuryand the more water available, thegreater the chance the plant has ofattaining early maturity and flowering.The period of sending up a flower stalk(called a "scape") is, with few excep-tions, the end of the parent plant'sfunction and life. However, shortlyafter the death of the main plant, youngoffshoots from the base or immediateperiphery perpetuate the life of theagave colony and it continues growing,blooming, dying and gradually spread-ing in extent.

Agave has exceedingly numerousrepresentatives both in Mexico andCentral Am erica. Mo re than 170 kindshave been listed for Mexico alone. Thedry southwestern areas of the UnitedStates have a considerable number ofAgaves, too, and in some of the higherrocky areas where drainage is good, itmay almost become a dominant plant,as on the lower portions of the Palms-to-Pines Highway above Palm Desertin California.

One of the more widespread andbest-known Agaves of our far south-western deserts is the plant known as17


18/44

The tiny ichneumon wasphas the uncanny abilityof depositing its eggs inthe yucca moth larvaelying deep within thefruits of the yucca.

Agave deserti. Small to large coloniesof it occur on numerous rocky sun-drenched lower mountain slopes of thewestern Colorado Desert of Californiaand well southward into picturesqueBaja California.Each plant of an attractive Agavecolony consists of a dense rosette ofpale green, fleshy, beautifully marked

leaves, each of which is concave alldown its face, thorny edged, and ter-minated by a stout, stiff, pungent , darkbrown spine. In Spring some of thesenoble plants send up 8-to-10 footflower scapes which appear, especiallyin their early growth, much like hugeasparagus-tips. Ultimately, at the up-per end of this tall stalk appear groupsof handsome, somewhat funnel-shaped,yellow flowers set at the ends of out-reaching, arm-like, flattish, horizontalstems. These are in turn followed byhand-like clusters of most attractivefruit pods. Especially appealing arethese pod-clusters after they have dried,split and shed their seeds; then they areoften sought out by desert residentsto make most unusual dry-arrange-ments and bring, as it were, a bit of thedesert right into the living-room. Th eyoung flower buds and fruits wereeaten by the local Indians either rawor cooked.

Agave leaves, when dry, are easilysplit into strong threads, used by south-western Indians in the weaving of san-dals and cordage. These same threadsare sometimes chosen by the vibrantScott's Oriole for material out of whichto construct its semi-pendant nest. Thisbird also has been known, at timesinfrequent, even to suspend its nest

from the horizontal flower-bearing armsof the scape, but usually it nests in aYucca.Years ago while traveling with aburro as my sole companion and mozo,or burden-bearer, I came upon somehill-country Cahuilla Indians who hadjust opened a stone pit in which theyhad roasted the sugar-filled butts ofsome agave flower stalks. My friendlyinterest in what they were doing wasrewarded with a chunk of the sweetbrow n food. I was surprised to findhow good it was and how much ittasted like well-baked yam or Hubbardsquash. Along M exico's west coast, inthe colorful food markets of Guaymasand Mazatlan, you can buy slices ofsugared agave center that taste muchlike brown sugar.The long pith-filled agave flowerstalk is a favored nesting place of thedesert's small, always cheerful andsprightly Ladd er - back or Cactus

Woodpecker, Dryobates scalaris. Thesediligent birds easily hack out a holeabout an inch and a half in diameterand to a depth of 8 to 10 inches in-side the stalk. A t the bottom of thiscavity they place soft plant fibers andfeathers to a thickness of several inchesand on this soft, concave, rather solid"plug" are laid four to five white eggs.After incubation begins, the male birdis very much about, but after the broodhas hatched and needs food, he is avery busy and often noisy father. Heand his mate are then seen frequentlypopping in and out of the nest hole asthey leave to seek and bring back thefat insect larvae for the birdlings whoseem insatiably hungry and alwayspleadingly and noisily begging for moreand more food.

Another spiny plant erroneouslybrigaded with cacti, and hence oftenpictured on the before-mentioned post-cards is the Mojave Yucca or SpanishBayon et. It is known to botanists asYucca schidigera (from the Greek-Latin combination "schidi-gera" mean-ing "spine- or splinter-bearing "). Itslong yellow-green, lanceolate, thready-edged and spine-tipped leaves yieldedone of the strongest and most usefulfibers for the southwestern Indian.From it he made thread, cord andman y other things. The fruits of theyucca, borne in rather short, compactclusters, are large, ovate and greenand are almost always infested withthe larvae of certain moths, such asthe Yucca Moth, which pollinates theflowers at night. Lloyd Ma son Smithand I once witnessed the amazingspectacle of a small three-fourths inchlong, dark-brown ichneumon waspdarting nervously over some greenyucca pods to locate and parasitizewith its eggs some of these moth larvaedeep within the pods. This wasp had

a long needle-like sheath at the pos-terior of its abdomen and within this,a still longer but flexible thread-likemechanism which served both as drilland egg-laying tube, or ovipositor.The little wasp had a most uncannyway of sensing the exact location ofthe larvae deep in the egg-shaped fruitson which she wished to deposit hereggs. We saw her fly several timesarou nd each fruit, as if in reconna isance.Suddenly, she seemed by her actions tosay: "H ere is the place; down beneathhere is a larva." At once she wouldalight and firmly thrust her sheath pro-tected drill deep into the soft greenyucca fruit to the site of the mothlarva and lay an egg. By wha t meansshe was able to locate the small grubso readily and surely is a riddle theanswer to which I would certainly liketo know. Lloyd and I opened severalof the fruits on which she had worked,having marked the exact spot of each

Types of spines: I. leaf; 2. branchlet;3. stipule; 4. prickle.drilling, and in every instance we foundthat she had, with unerring accuracy,located a larva and had bored downto it by the most direct route.Some years ago I brought in fromthe desert the short flower-stalk of aMojave Yucca, and when I put my earup to it, I could distinctly hear, work-ing within, several beetle larvae . Theclicking noises made by the strongjaws were unmistakable evidence oftheir eager feeding activities. I wasamazed to find that after three yearsI could still hear the industrious larvaeat work inside. During the fourth yearthe jaw-clickings were no longer heardand I decided that the larvae had en-tered the non-feeding pupal stage oftheir life cycle. It was only duringthe fifth year that the cycle was at longlast completed, and then I began tosee here and there small holes appearin the stalk's bark and from these

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Also pictured alongside the agaveswith its long whip-like branches

One has only to compare the widelyose of the mu lti-petal led and

The ocotillo pictured on this partic-

Fouquieria splen-Further down on the Sonoranree Ocotillo, Fouquieria mac-called a tree Ocotillo because

The Ladder-back or Cactus Wood-pecker builds its nest in the pith-filled agave flower stalk.

The Scott's Oriole sometimes uses the strong fibers from dried agave leavesto construct its semi-pendant nest.

distance north of Hermosillo and con-tinues on southward in the foothills andsometimes on the plains to Sinaloawhere it is called Wrote verde by thenative people. They employ the barkas a soap-substitute, especially whenwashing woolen articles. In Februaryand March these handsome trees area mass of crimson blossoms, and amongthe showiest plants of the northernWest Coast Highway of Mexico. Inaddition to the two species just men-tioned, there are six other kinds ofOcotillo known in Mexico.Many unrelated plants have adopteda thorny covering both as a meanstoward moisture conservation and asa deterrant from being eaten by desertherbivores. The presence or absenceof such spines, in itself, does not neces-sarily imply any relationship with thecactus family. As 1 said before, youmust compare the flowers of theseplants, for it is upon the flower struc-ture that most plant families have been

created, and by no stretch of the im-agination can a cactus flower be con-fused with that of an ocotillo, agave oryucca.Most botanists recognize three basictypes of plant spines, (1) the type inwhich the leaf itself has become spe-cialized and its lateral portion is re-duced or absent altogether, leaving therigid leaf-rib as a spine; (2) a special-ized branchlet; (3) transformed stip-ules, paired appendages at the base ofthe leaf-stalk.All of these are in part merely con-tinuations of the main woody tissue ofthe stem itself. However, the so-calledrose thorn, also found on our desertacacias (cats claw, etc.) should be

termed a "prickle," for it is an out-growth of the outer portion of thestem only, not of the inner woody por-tion; a prickle can be dislodged fromthe stem by firmly pushing it to oneside, but this is not true of a spine.The word "thorn" as Dr. Lyman Ben-son says is a non-technical one andmeans nothing more than the popularword "sticker."G R A V E O F A L E S S A N D R OIS MARKED WITHMARBLE H EADSTO NE

Thanks to the interest of HarryBergman, Dave Olmstead and othermembers of the Roads to RomanceAssociation of California, a marbleheadstone has been erected in a lonelyhillside cemetery where the body ofJuan Diego, the Alessandro of HelenHunt Jackson's Ramona, has lain un-marked and neglected since that tragicday in 1883 when he was shot by abrutal white man.The grave was pointed out to mem-bers of the Association by CincionaLubo, a niece of Ram ona. A han d-some marble slab was placed on theadjoining grave of Ramona many yearsago, and the oversight which left themound of her husband, Juan Diegounmarked, has now been corrected.Harry Bergman was chairman of acommittee which secured funds for theheadstone by popular subscription.The new headstone was unveiled ata simple ceremony August 19 at onep.m., after which the Indian womenof the Cahuilla reservation served abuffet luncheon to Roads to Romancemembers and other visitors who hadgathered for the ritual.

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William L. Kenyon, author of thismonth's "Exploring Anza's UnknownCanyon," is unusually well qualifiedto write about the Southern Californiadesert area for he is the State Divisionof Beaches and Parks' District Super-intendent for the Southland.A veteran of 20 years in the StatePark Service, Kenyon has always beenpartial to California's desert areas andwhen he was appointed District Super-intendent in 1948 he accepted withconsiderable enthusiasm.Hobbies include 35 mm. color pho-tography and he has done a great dealof desert traveling and exploring onhis own time. "N ot only officially, bu tpersonally, I am deeply interested inhelping to protect and preserve someof our typical and outstanding areasfor all time, so that anyone, now or inthe future, may retreat to them whenthe press of civilization brings one an

urge for recreation in the great, un-spoiled outdoors," he wrote.* * *Ralph Freese, author of this month's"Old Bill Williams' Modern MountainMen," gave up a music career in 1954to devote full time to travel and writ-ing. He has published several articleson travel as well as music and juvenilestories. History is his hobby and hehas written two unpublished novels,one dealing with the Lincoln CountyWar and the other set in NorthernNew Mexico where he spent his boy-hood . At present the Freeses live inBellflower, California.* * *Editha L. Watson, author of thismonth's "Navajo Sing in Cross Can-yon," is a veteran of over 10 yearsservice with the U. S. Bureau of IndianAffairs. At presen t she is area con -sultant for the Navajo Program of Savethe Children Federation.She is originally from Denver andfor the past eight years has lived onthe Navajo Reservation, "and I loveit," she add s. She has had articlespublished in 30 national magazines, butthis is her first appearance in Desert.

H d t d R o c k M o H yof Death Valley

"Naw, they ain't no cemeteryin Death Valley," Hard RockShorty was explaining to thedudes who had stopped at theInferno store for cold soda pop."Don't need a graveyard here'cause no one ever dies. Healthi-est place on earth," Shorty con-tinued."Doctor opened up an officeover in Shoshone a few years agobut he soon left to keep from

starvin'."OF Pete, the burro, got sickone time from eatin' too manyof Pisgah Bill's flapjacks, but wechanged his diet to mesquitebeans an' he got well in a hurry."Most invigoratin' place onearth! Let me tell you abo ut ol 'Bill Shank who made that richstrike up in Grapevine Canyonback in the 'eighties. He wuztakin' out silver ore faster'n themint could make it into money.But the pay streak finally ran outan' as Bill wuz gittin' pretty oldhe decided to go back to his old

home in Dakoty an' jest loafaround."An that wuz what he did, butthe cold winters soon got 'imdown, an' they took him to thehospital. Before he passed on hemade one request. 'There's plentyo' money in the bank,' he said,'an' I jest want yu to bury meon the hill over that ol' mine.'"Well, they put what was lefto' Bill in a box an' shipped itback to Death Valley. Some ofus met the train over at the junc-tion. We wanted to give ol' Billa decent burial. A couple o' theboys picked up the box to load iton the wagon, but one of 'em losthis grip an' the box slipped outtahis hands."When it hit the ground thething busted op en. Th en a whiffo' that Death Valley air hit Bill.He straightened up, kicked thelid off the box . He jump ed ou tan' headed over the hill towardthat ol' mine, and three days laterwe found him over there sharp-enin' his drill bits gittin' readyto work that mine again."

W. Thetford LeViness makes hissecond appearance in Desert Magazinethis month with his story of SantaClara Pueblo artist Pablita Velarde,"Pablita of Santa Clara Pueblo."His first story was also about an Indianartist, Joe Herrera of Cochiti Pueblo,which appeared in Desert in August,1 9 4 9 .LeViness migrated to Santa Fe, NewMexico, in 1939 from the East Coast.A year later he met Pablita Velardeand has kept up an acquaintance withher ever since. He has been librarianat the State Capitol for a number ofyears and contributes regularly to sev-eral magazines and newspapers.* * *Nell Murbarger this year receivedtop honors from the California Asso-ciation of Press Women for her storyon Fairview, Nevada, in the October,' 5 5 , Desert Magazine, for her story ofthe opal miners of Rainbow Ridge in

Desert's August, '55, issue, and forher picture of the old bank building inRhyolite which True West Magazineprinted last Aug ust. The Fairviewstory won second place nationally, andthe Rhyolite picture won a nationalfirst prize.A NAVA JO LESSON *INSOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGYThe dignified Navajo medicine manwas interrupted in his preparations fora ceremony by a spectacled blondewith a big note-book and an interpreter.

He answered searching and personalquestions in Navajo; then when shehad finished he addressed her in Eng-lish."I have answered your questions:now will you answer some for me?"The woman could hardly refuse underthe circumstances, so the Navajo pro-duced a note-book and he wrote downher answers."What is your name? . . . How oldare you? . . . Where were you born?. . . Are you an American citizen? . . .Are you a Republican or Democrat?. . . How did you vote in the last elec-tion? . . . Why did you vote that way?. . . Are you married? . . . Have youany children? . . . How old are they?. . . Why are you not at home takingcare of them? . . ."At this the woman muttered some-thing about catching a train at Gallupand departed hastily."W hat do you call her? 'Social an-thropo logist '?" the medicine - mangrinned. "Wh atever she is, she doesn'tlike those kind of questions any betterthan we do. Too bad she quit. I wasgoing to ask her if she likes her hus-band's mother, and if not, why not?" The Masterkey, publication of theSouthwest Museum, Highland Park,Los Angeles 42, California.

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H O M E O N T H E D E S E R TC h o o s i n g a H e d g efo r Y o ur Gar den . . .

Today's desert gardener can select an attractive and utilitarianl iving fence from a wide and ever growing list of adaptable plants.As an aid to those confronted with this choice, Ruth Reynolds describesthe best of these hedges and perhaps somewhere in this catalog is theright on e for yo u.By RUTH REYNOLDSPhotographs by Helen Gardiner Doyle

SE P T E M B E R A R R I V E S w i t honly the faintest indications thatsumm er's end is near. The des-ert skies are a little bluer; the greatwhite cumulus clouds adrift in themnot long ago have vanished. Septem -ber days are fair and warm . An dwhile warm may be an understatement,there can be little doubt about theweather's being fairand fine, withmornings and evenings beginning tobe a little cooler so that the doors ofthe home on the desert gradually areopened to the porch, the patio, thegardenand the autumn exodus tothe outdoors begins.While the timing of this event ispeculiar to our part of the country, thetrend toward outdoor living is general,and gardens, patios, service areas andplay areas are becoming increasinglymore important in home planningeverywhere.Here where we enjoy an extendedoutdoor season they seem particularlyessential. An d as our season in thesun is prolonged, so is the growingseason of plants that include manyevergreen shrubs which can be grownto define, enclose, screen or beautifyour outdoor "rooms" the year around.I take an inventory of the premisesand remind Ted that some of thenurseries have end-of-the-season saleswhich is a real inducement to buyplants now, especially if one is con-templating planting a hedge requiringfrom a dozen to several dozen plants.Set out at this time of year, theymight grow very little during the falland winter but they would establishroot systems to enable them to get offto a good start in the spring.My husband says, "Let 's not con-template planting a hedge. Let's justenjoy until pruning time suchhedgerows as we already have," whichsounds like a good ideaexcept that

recently I chanced upon some veryinteresting hedges used in interestingways which have little resemblance toour oleander-bamboo jungle out back,the struggling privet hedge our neigh-bor on the west planted between ourback yards or the tamarisk hedge atthe other side of the yard.

Of the terrible tamarisks the leastsaid the better I suppose. Actuallythey make a beautiful, compact hedgewhen well cared for. They do requirerigid pruning and shaping, for, ofcourse, their ambition is to becometreesin a hurry. Kept within bound s,they do not prevent grass from grow-ing near them but lawn areas surround-ing these foragers must have extrawater and fertilizer. Once you havethem it is either feed and groom themor get rid of them. With us it a caseof least resistance, or half-heartedresistance.Our attitude toward the bamboo(giant reed) is much the same. Aslong as it can be kept at a respectfuldistance in the rear it is not too bad.If there is any objection to JapanesePrivet hedges it is their over-prevalence .There are so many of them that somepeople find them monotonous but theyare a bargain at any time for they areabout the least expensive of all hedgeplants and they make a fine hedge.They have good green foliage and areeasily established and maintained. Us-ually they grow rapidly. One sectionf i h b ' h d h dhile 1 may dream of supplanting of our neighbors' hedge has not doney p p gcertain of these hedges with others, Ido not find them altogether wrong.They have their faults but they serve,more or less adequately, their purposesscreening off the alley at the back,

which even a very high wall would notdo on our sloping lot; providing pri-vacy; discouraging across-lawn trafficby youngsters and dogs as well as windblown trashtumbleweeds, papers andsuch; and adding to the general ap-pearance of the place.

g gtoo well, probably because of the prox-imity of a thirsty mesquite and thesolidity of the caliche in which thetrench was dug.The digging of trenches and plantingholes is the key to success or failureof most desert gardening along withthe preparation of planting soil. Ifyou have soil a foot or two deep, welland good; roots can spread laterally.Otherwise a trench at least 18 inchesdeep and as wide' is necessary. And

The gray foliaged Texas Ranger hedge blends with the desert plantings inthe front garden of this Tucson home.

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Top Hybrid Tea rose hedge in front of the home of Mr. and Mrs. BillIsele. Bottom A. pyracantha hedge.while privet plants are inexpensive,their trenches exact the same labor asothers, and while they tolerate poorand alkaline soil they will thrive bet-te r in the peat moss-top soil mixturewhich many plants require.

This also applies to oleanders, withwhich I can find no fault. From tree-high to medium low-pruned hedgeshrubs they are superb. From mid-April to mid-July it seemed that Tuc-son needed no other flower. The ole-anders alone turned it into a beautifultown with their gorgeous display ofblossoms ranging from reds deepand bri l l iantto pinks of myriad deli-cate shades and from pure white tocream.Easily styled with thepruning shears,they meet almost any major-hedge re-quirement. For small gardens or gar-den interiors they may take up toomuch room.Since their tender new growth isinjured by freezing, it is best to cutdown on their water before cold

weather. As all unestablished plantsmust be watered freely, Ted remindsme that it might be better to bargainhunt among more frost resistant plants.He is probably right but it takes morethan that to discourage an inveteratebargain hun ter. M aybe the weatherwill be propitious this season. Andfrost-damaged growth can always bepruned away in the spring.

However, among myrecent interest-ing hedge discoveries, the two whichintrigued me most were a pyracanthahedge and one of Texas Rangers both hardy to our coldest weather.The pyracantha hedge encloses theFrank Patanias ' garden, onewhich wasincluded in the Tucson Garden Clubtours this spring. Along with other"tourists" I admired the flowers andthe unusually large fruitless mulberrytree covering most of an outdoor liv-ing areawhile calculating the advan-tages of the well clipped hedge enclos-ing the area.It was high enough for seclusion and

dense enough and continuous enoughbesides being thornedto form acomplete barrier. Kept in symmetricaltrim, it would bear berries more spar-ingly than free-growing shrubs of itskind but still have enough for a niceseasonal display.This pyracantha hedge exemplifiedto me the "living fence" so oftenspoken of but seldom seen because somany so-called fences fail to fence in or out, anything being neitherdense nor continuous enough or notjoined closely enough to the walls(pat io or building) where they beginan d end.In contrast to this very utilitarianhedge is the ornamental Texas Rangerhedge. This soft, gray-green shrub isbecoming popular forhedges andprov-ing versatile wherever a moderatelylow hedge is desired. It adapts beau-tifully to within-garden use in formingdemarcation lines, and has front yardqualifications. The hedge I was at-tracted to encloses thewhole front yardis kept at a height of about 30inches,encouraging compactness but sacrific-ing nearly all bloom.For a free flowering hedge or border,floribunda roses are lovely. In ourneighborhood there is a curved con-crete walk bordered with Red Pinac-chiosthe prettiest sight for blocksaround until you come to MyrtleIsele's hedge of hybrid teas in bloom.But pretty is hardly the word for them.They come nearer to being magnificent.They do not bloom as continuouslythroughout the season as the flori-bundas do, but with 18 varieties repre-sented there are always some bloomsbetween the bigspring and fall displays.

The bargain hunter will have to passup roses, thoughespecially the hy-brid teas. Even floribundas (cataloglisted at three for $3.90) would runinto money.Far down the price scale is a nicelow growing border plant, the Santo-l inaLavender Cottoncompact withfinely cut gray leaves.Finding these plants in their individ-ual foil containers on the bargaincounter, I decided they would make afine border for our front walk. Spaceda foot apart, along each side, theyshould cover in four months. Such aborder, kept neatly clipped to a heightand width of about a foot, should off-set the sunken appearance of our side-walkcaused by filling in the yarduntil it is nearly three inches abovethe walk's leveland alleviate the jobof grass clipping along the walk.The 56 small plants at eight centseach were, I thought, a pretty goodbuy, but I wonder what Ted is goingto think when it comes to diggingtrenches for them.

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o fh e M o n t h

n d P a t t e r n . . .The setting sun of still another

Her photo wa s taken north of

T o r t o i s e . . .Slow but sure, armor-plated from

California. The second prizeIVz-inch Extar lens,


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P a bl ita o fSanta ClaraPueblo...Santa Clara Pueblo in. Ne w Mex-ic o is famous for its beautiful pot-teryand also because it is thebirthplace of one of themost wide-ly acclaimed Indian artists in theSouthwest. This is the story ofPablita Velarde, whose work re-flects years of personal trainingand striving and centuries ofartistic tradition and influence.By W. THETFORD LeVINESS

F I R S T MET Pablita Velarde inAugust, 1940, under the portal ofthe Palace of the Governors inSanta Fe. A young girl then, just outof school, she was selling her paintingsin the Indian Market held every sum-m er day, then as now, in this pictur-esque and historic setting.I was impressed by her radiant per-sonality. When she suggested that thefollowing week I visit her nativePueblo, Santa Clara, to see more ofher paintings and attend the annualfiesta and ceremonial dances there, Isaid at once that I would go. I was anewcomer to the Southwest then, andwas delighted to be invited to an Indianvillage.I t was August 12, the day set asideeach year to honor the pueblo's pa-trona, St.Clare. I spent the daywatch-ing the Buffalo and Deer dance, andafter it was over Pablita asked me andseveral other guests to her studio fordinner. She served a typical pueblomeal chile con came, several kindsof vegetables, an orange drink and afruit dessert. When dinner was over,

1 again studied her paintings. Somethat would be developed later werethen unfinished; others were experi-mental exercises with no plans for de-velopment. All, however, showed theinfluence of centuries-old traditionhow people dance, go to church, enjoyfiestas and live from day to day inSanta Clara Pueblo. It is a theme thatstill permeates Pablita's best work.Talented in those early years, Pab-lita Velarde has since become one ofthe outstanding personalities in Ameri-can Indian art. Her paintings have

been exhibited from coast to coast,and are included in many private col-lections in this country and abroad.She haswon many honors . I am happy

Santa Clara Artist Pablita Ve larde Ian d her prize-winning painting, "Old fFather." Albuquerque Journal Phi -to graph.

to have known her so early in hercareer, and tohave watched her achievesuccess and fame.Pablita's work is fresh and original,but like other Pueblo painting makesuse of design and stylization that comedirectly from prehistoric Basket-Makerand Cliff-Dweller cultures of theSouth-west. Identical designs have beenfound in ancient kiva murals in thisgeneral area, and are presumably stillused in paintings on kiva walls today.In this sense Pueblo painting is con-ventional; it is probably theoldest con-tinuous art form in the United States.Pablita has done some work in designalone, inspired by ancient Indian picto-graphs of the region.Although proficient in media suchas casein andtempora, Pablita recentlyhas revived the use of "earth colors,"a technique indigenous to her Puebloantecedents whose pre-Columbian kivamurals were thus painted. In Albu-querque, where she nowlives with herhusband and two children, she ex-plained to me in detail how an earthpainting is made."First," she said with characteristic

humor , "I become a rockhound. Ige t out the family jalopy and take offinto the NewMexico hills to look forjust the right color of rock."Sometimes she finds it near a pavedhighway, but as often as not it entailsa considerable hike.When she finds the color of rockshe is looking for, she takes a chunkof it home and grinds it into a finepowder on a metate like those usedsince ancient times for grinding cornin the pueblos. This is Stone Age art,and Pablita does nothing to modernizethe processing of materials.The powder is stored in jars. Pablitashowed me a whole kitchen shelf linedwith many jars filled with earth colorsof several hues and shades. To paint,she mixes the powder with water andglue, and applies it to a masoniteboardshe never paints on canvas.When it dries, a work of durable plasticquality results. One must look closelyto see any difference between Pablita'searth paintings and other art work ofconventional materials.Pablita Velarde's Indian name isTse-Tsan or "Golden Daw n." She was

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born in Santa Clara, one of the Tewa-language Rio Grande pueblos, on Sep-tember 19, 1918, and is the daughterof Herman and Marianita ChavarriaVelarde, both of long-established SantaClara families.Pablita's mother died before she hada chance to know her. Wh en she wassix her father and stepmother senther to St. Catherine's Indian school inSanta Fe . "I didn't know a word ofEnglish at that time," Pablita recalls,"but 1 listened to the o ther childrenand I soon caught on."She went through the 6th grade atSt. Catherine's, and entered the 7that the government boarding school forIndians in Santa Fe . This was inSeptember, 1932, and it was then, atthe age of 14, that Pablita first beganto paint. This was before Federal In -dian schools held classes in Indian art,and indeed at a time when governmentpolicy discouraged attempts to drawfrom Indian subject matter.

The industrious Pablita did outstand-ing work. At 15, she exhibited severalwater colors at the art gallery of theMuseum of New Mexico in Santa Fe.These were highly representational anddistinctly feminine"Girl WinnowingWheat ," "Women Husking Corn" and"Woman with Olla" were the titles of

three of themand they reflected theinfluence of Pueblo tradition upon theartist. Pab lita's first work in oil wase

Documents

195609 Desert Magazine 1956 September