The Bismarck Tribune Newspaper, January 13, 1928, Page 9

Barbarity « Untold’ Centuries of - PAGANISM Still taint - PUEBLO RACES i ¥ ‘ ; hil. = er His knife dipped in rattlesnake ye : poison, the Indian stalked Padre on oe Padilla and stabbed him in the back. i F . ’” Fearing that the white man’s God would exact a penalty from the tribe, the Indians a tied the murderer to a plunging horse. | ee tonaee ih and moonlight. Grease-painted out the “‘kiva,”” a round, windowless lodge house which and other barbarous ceremonies which held such an Sion aticommd Geena “Rarkedesie = sah tale Geok pcnagegiemacact yng op Rainy was the cit came, luring a ceremonial dance, a native warrior swore . , , ardibskedplaseau. “‘Tuubbeaskimaaadiicksel’ _andithet isithe cy 00 it itoday. ‘Gekathe pres avenge the inults to kos ged by Mili the liiolitta 2 a li of guttural voices: : made friends of the savages, found them gentle, honest priest. With his knife dipped in rattlesnake poison, fa eZ Be SO, aye Pe We “C, ? and ki He overcame their timidity, taught them the Indian stalked Padre Padilla and stabbed him in ~ . ‘ a Wyraget': WET) a ome cee come; ; many of the white man’s ways. He showed them the back. * : United ane will mr come among ut. how to improve their crops and market the produce. ‘Almost immediately a great storm came up. The eh Se et |, Now Isleta is one of the richest of all the pueblos. sclitdhor ial Mantle one takente die or actiaaticns Vip ¢ Teg BW Will meet the ghost di rake lightning and ¢ r ; A ens one _ The Indians had heard the principles of Chriss of anger of the priest’s deity. The Indians were ter- ’ a) ‘ % Forty dancers leap to : tianity. They loved the ceremony of the church — jor-stricken. Fearing that the white man’s god would 6 : eo and fro between ‘the two "1 : ae 4 3 they respected th tity of the old mis- i ‘ mic clatter comes from strings of snake rattles good,” they said. “But the white man’s God is not dragged to a horrible death upon the j rocks. shaken by their left hands. Their bodies are That night, four young runners the murdered are : naked iy bright, For them, there always will be the God of the Four _ priest upon a bier of poles and set out for the church of Te except for painted designs. Their I t ° es thei ‘orted into masks Winds, the God of the Snow Bird, the Great High the Isleta pueblo. Arriving there before dawn, they ig gg As Pag Hoe es speed re God, and many another deity whose ways are strange put the body in a hollow log and buried it inside the tations rise to shrieks. and whose wrath must be appeased with sacrifice and — church. Then, while the villagers still slept, they slunk lundreds of spectators are ringed about the fires. torture. These they say, are older than the re- ‘away. But the deed was not to remain long un- Their only part in the ceremony is to watch, to lend ligion of the white man. iscover thei , to moan and out in sympathetic The priest gained the respect and confidence of the Af ths later, ding to the tw yee with the spirit of the wild. dance. Indians. He did not slisert to intrude upon. their wants ee he psa pe psa yw rf The ceremonies or to enter their sacred kiva. Hedid terror at the sight that met their eyes. U i ; scene is the of Isleta, only thi south of Albuquerque, N. M. The teas today. not even remove from the mission the crude, dirty the des at tha WO ceamen cane team fe oe Civilization has mesat litle in the lives of the Pueblo statue that has had a place there for nearly a century. dered priest! The Indians fled. Rest day, returning Indians. Their daily habits, their code of morals, | Once a priest did throw it away, but he was driven with others of the tribe, they found the log coffin their weird ceremonies, and their religion, are little from the city at the points of knives, and the statue was _risen completely out of the ground. changed since the days of Coronado—little replaced. The councilmen of the Isletan sent men to bury the even since that remote and unknown age when A few times, Father Dorschey has been allowed to body again. It was decided that to commemorate the left their Aztec ancestors far to the south. witness performances of wizards of the tribe. In the miracle, the city of Isleta should be built about the ‘ At the outer edge of the circle stands a black-robed dead of sight, crowded ieto an adobe “catuta,”” the church, and 0 it is today. The jest, calmly watching the eerie Ghost Dance. It magicians accomplished feats and caused phenomena Years passed, until 1852. Then the dead man terror. Ris sul ev at the scene before, him, be ers 20 a Re vie mah coat han bees able to op in. The patin cae te petegeot agen 2 aca of the jut through his troubled must be whirling mysteries o! w are many. > sur half a century, seemed ectly In- the thought that every ove of the Indiane gathered here Teas cell gheckicatod. vill of mony unecks dians, fed i pane deeper grave hand of has listened to_ his teachings and professed faith in But the strangest miracle of all, one that dates from the coffin back. But it was of little avail. Christianity. . Every one has received every 1805 to the present time and has been witnessed in Twelve years later it rose again! one has knelt im prayer to the white man's oe eee, persons, is the one in which From that time until 1913, the coffin Three and a half céntuties of untiring effort on the Father himself played a part. The regular intervals, the Indians say. in 1901, the In- tof missionaries; 350 years of heroic self-sacrifice an kaon oe the rising coffin of Father Padilla. dians put a wooden floor in the ‘urch, ry seo spent their lives in thie un-baked valley the priest who figures m the ! surely would keep the troublesome corpse in wy to bring the spirit of the Gospel into the lives was Juan de Padilla or one of the other early Fran tg p} But a few years later it burst through the ol . Privation, torture, treachery, failure. citcan monks who suffered death among is floor and was found on the surface. And now, in 1927, in the most civilized country im the not known, but tradition tenaciously to all other Several persone, Indians and whites, claim to have . details of the strange story. seen the body on one or more of its reappearances. Naked bodies leap and whirl; sweating fall _ In the year 1805, there came to the Isletan country Several have little pieces of the clothing the priest cshawted to nod, "Drums and semen fst a. zealous ye Piterasy, diene’ 30. miaiact Teel had hiss Get cid te kde werk A ealeary a wild rhythm is 3 Christianity he Indians. Many pillar of waata Gam toe Dace tee learned to love and trust him, but the Pueblo wizards In 1913, Father Dorschey, in charge of the mis- people of Isleta are calling back the spirits of the de» and old men of the tribe looked with fear and hatred gion, determined this time to quiet the corpe. He ’ pa : » upon the man who sought to destroy the religion of found it still firm and dry as a mummy. The clothing priest is Father Dorschey, a Belgian, and once their forefathers. war in p temerbable date of grenervatiee, il the wes a soldier. It was ashe sone But the padre, like many other ardent monks, removed and new put on. A sew was that stands on the edge of the desert, between his against paganism. He tried to stop bee 8 iahop was called, and a solemn mass was mountains and vast lava beds that stretch away ra rite that is observed in the kiva. Within said for the dead. Then the coffin was put into a still to eovoetinnt wlsaine i Se & ere ameee of Wes Maple bs deep shelt cco bak Pye ageenly wegen aga . ed e entered the single walled town taining o! Once each year, as . was due to again, : — sélentibe igious: knows is that the Ep pcop dy booord. a Th ibtt sce ie te winaetGenbe Temee ee Sc, Bh eee ee i was of the Isletan that never