We
believe that we can benefit them, which is doubtless true, but
might they not also teach us some useful lessons? It would
sometimes be more to our credit if we were less anxious to teach
others, and more willing to learn ourselves.
Next to their religion they love their homes most. The rocks
upon which they live, are they not dear from associations? Is it
not the land of their birth and the home of their fathers during
many generations? They cling with stubborn tenacity to their
barren mesas and nothing thus far has succeeded in driving them
away; neither war, pestilence nor famine. Repeated attempts have
been made to induce them to leave, but without success.
Tom Polaki, the principal man of Tewa, was the first man to
respond to the call to come down. He left the mesa several years
ago, and went to the plain below to live. Having captured the
bell wether it was presumed that the balance of the flock would
soon follow, but the contrary proved to be true. At the foot of
the bluff near a spring on the road that leads up to the gap Tom
built a modern house and tried to imitate the white man. But the
change did not suit him, and after living in his modern house for
a number of years, he finally sold it and returned to his old
home on the mesa. A few others at different times have tried the
same experiment with no better success. The man would stay for a
short time in the house provided for him, but never made it a
permanent home for his family.
That the Moquis are changing is best illustrated by reference to
one of their marriage customs. It is the custom when a youth
contemplates matrimony to make a marriage blanket. He grows the
cotton, spins the yarn and weaves the cloth, which requires a
year or more of time to finish. Since the children have gone to
school it is not deemed necessary for a young man to go to so
much trouble and expense as to make a marriage blanket, but
instead, he borrows one from a friend in the village, and after
the ceremony is over returns it to the owner. Even now it is not
easy to find such a blanket, and very soon they will be priceless
as no more such garments will be made.
The only reasonable explanation why any people should select a
location like that of the Moquis is on the hypothesis of choice.
There is much of the animal in human nature that is influenced by
instinct, and man, like the brute, often unconsciously selects
what is most congenial to his nature. Thus instinct teaches the
eagle to nest on the highest crag and the mountain sheep to
browse in pastures which only the hardiest hunter dare approach.
