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Show rain dance-was to take place then," adding that she was writing a book on "Pueblo life, and in which the ceremonial and religious aspect of this life are important." Her official presence allowed her access to what otherwise might have been private, she said, noting that she also inquired into the illegal sale of ceremonial objects and the Zunis' attitude towards the "new deal" programs. All of her discussions with male Zuni elders or religious leaders were through interpreters, male and female. Conrad Lasarlley, whom she said was highly acculturated into white society, interpreted for her when she interviewed Ernest Hisiwa, the Komosona, or Head of the Masked Dancers. She visited at a time when the transition from a theocratic to democratic form of government was causing some political turmoil. All Six caciques met with her and sent messages to Washington. It was a surprise to me that the six caciques should all wish to see me and send messages to Washington, but such was the case, and I felt the opportunity to talk with all of them a privilege-they are still in Zuni, more powerful than any political officer, though, I surmise definitely less powerful than on my last visit. . . . During my specific inquiries, as outlined above, the Zunis themselves brought up very insistently, a number of other problems of which the major, on the political side, was a new method of electing political officers, and, on the religious, the need to secure, for the Zunis, their Sacred Lake, and the mountains adjoining, which lie outside the Reservation, near St. John's Arizona. . . She had visited Zuni previously in the early 1920s, when Robert J. Bauman was the isolated and autocratic superintendent, and when Frederick Webb Hodge was conducting his excavations at Hawikku. During her previous visit she stayed with Lorenzo Chavez, who explained Shalako to her in detail, translating for Waihusiwa, who was Hodge's best Zuni friend, and "a devoted admirer of Cushing." - 102 - |
