Examples of "The Indian Problem"

WATER IN TESUQUE

Tesuque is a Pueblo about nine miles north of Santa Fe. There have been approximately two to three hundred Indians living there down through the years. They have been farmers and they still farm although many work at other things.

Their water comes from a spring which is a little higher than the pueblo. The women carried the water from the spring to their apartment in the pueblo in pots, and later, in buckets. It was not far, but it was a job which some did not fancy.

Martin Vigil, Sr. was a man of consequence in Tesuque and over the years he and my father became close friends. Martin and his wonderful wife Kate had been in our house many times. At one meeting of the elders in Tesuque around 1935, Martin suggested that the pueblo run a pipe from the spring down to the pueblo and then pipes from that to each apartment. That way the women would no longer have to carry the water. The opposition was intense and overwhelming. The old men voted Martin down -- no pipe.

There was no law, rule or custom in the Pueblo which would prevent an individual from doing this radical thing. So Martin did just that, and now his wonderful wife Kate had running cold water.

Well, it was no secret. The other wives came to see. They admired. They found that it worked. They envied. Finally, they took action -- one by one. Pretty soon, Tesuque had running cold water. Martin had done it.
 
 

BASKETBALL AND THE BUFFALO DANCE

My mother's aunt, Harriet Levy, went to the Southwest, with a companion, Margaret Turner. At one point, Mrs. Turner wrote Pop a letter telling him of the trip. May I quote part of that letter for you?

At Tesuque, Martin Vigil received us very pleasantly, introduced us to his wife and family, supplied us with chairs to watch the dance and excused himself, as he had an important engagement with a photographer in baseball uniform and as soon as the picture was taken (all the while the Buffalo dance going on) he left for a basketball game. We wanted to tell him about the Buffalo dance!!! It was an incongruity.
 
 

ELECTRICITY IN TAOS

One day our father was visiting Antonio Mirabal in Taos Pueblo. They were sitting on the bench which ran along the side of Tony's room, discussing the great problem of permitting electric power to be brought into the pueblo. Pop was inclined to be for it and Tony was flat out against. They argued and argued, neither convincing the other. After a while, Pop happened to notice something. He said to Tony, "You already have electricity here in the Pueblo." When Tony protested, Pop picked up the flashlight he had spotted and said, "What's this?" Tony looked at it and told him -- it was a flashlight. So then Pop asked Tony "How does it work?" Well, of course, it works by electricity. But this did not convince Tony. He still maintained his stand against electrifying the Pueblo. No one, Pop nor anyone else, ever convinced Tony on this subject.


 PETER NUVAMSA'S DAUGHTER

Peter Nuvamsa of Mishongnovi came to my house for lunch one day in San Francisco. At one point he said he wanted to ask me a question. He said that there was a lady who came to Hopi-land every summer from Beverly Hills, and she drove a Cadillac. She had come to Peter and asked permission to take his 16 year old daughter back with her to Beverly Hills for the summer. Unfortunately, I did not have the gifts of Solomon. We spoke of the problem for a little while and I was careful not to give any advice. It turned out that Peter did not permit his daughter to go with the lady. I am convinced that if his daughter had been 22 or 23 years old, he would have permitted her to go. In other words, she would not be so impressionable, and would have established her life in the Pueblo.
 
Back to Stories Elkus Papers Main Page