Excavation Shows Holt
County Was Once The
Home of Many Indians
By J. B. O’Sullivan
(Continued from last week.)
Cornado held a council of war with
his followers. Something had to be
done. He and his men were up against
starvation. It was decided that the
main part of the army return to the
Rio Grande and that Cornado and
about oO of his best horsemen go on
north and probe the story to the bot
tom, once and for all. Cornado was
sure to take with him the two guides.
He seemed to be afraid they would
starve before he had time to wring
their necks. Raw meat was their food
now. A big river was crossed, pos
sibly the Arkansas, and at last the
party reached the land where they had
expected there should be some sign of
the seven cities. It was 42 days since
the army split, some going south and
some north, and 77 days since the
Rio Grande was left behind. About
this time Cornado, even though the
mail was slower than it is today, wrote
u letter to be mailed to the King of
Spain. Here is part of whate he wrote:
“Where I reached Quivera it was the
40th degree of latitude and near the
Kansas line. Found no gold, no rishes,
but some Indians living in grass huts.
There was no bells, no wind, no boats.
The Indians grew corn, beans, and
melons; they ate raw meat and they
used tools of stone. There was about
twenty-five of these huts, not much
metal but some of the Indians wore
pieces of copper around their necks,
especially the chiefs.”
Cornado went on to tell of the new
country and he mentioned that he trav
eled north another leg of about 75
miles, just to be sure he had not quit
on the rim of the great discovery.
Cornado hated to think of his missing
anything and he was smart enough to
know that the best plan is to go where
you may not miss and see what you
might have found. It would have been
a shame, indeed, should he have failed
to find the gold he had heard of and
left it there on the prairie to waste
away.
Finally, Cornado arrived at a land
the people called Harahey und there
ho found a chief and about 200 naked
men who used bows and arrows and
wore on their heads some sort of thing
that held the hair like that of a Turk,
indicating the Turk was a Pawnee and
had reached his people, what he want
ed, more than may be said of the
wiley Cornado.
Things were getting pretty hot for
the Turk and for Pete, or Isopete, but
hard glances mostly} were directed
toward the Turk because he had reeled
off most of the stories which caused
the wild goose chase to continue much
farther than originally planned. The
Turk looked toward, the clouds. Corn
ado glanced down at the grass.
A confession was wrung from the
Turk. He stated he concocted the
stories of great golden cities on the
plains so he could get back home to
his people and have a strong body
guard while enroute and that he half
hoped the Spaniards would be killed
or starve to death on the trip so to
help the Red Men in their coming
struggle with the invaders. After the
funeral of the Turk, one of the writers
of the Cornado expedition wrote this
about the way the fellow met his
death:
“We strangled, him that night so
that he never waked up.” it seems
this fellow was accused of being too
wide awaks.
Cornado had dreamt so long and
pleasantly of the great works on the
plains he hated to return toward home.
He and his men remained, at Quivera
and Harahey about one month. It is
not known to this day where these
places are and just as likely as not
they were right here in Holt county.
Cornado said the soil was bluck and
rich, the best land he ever saw. He
described well watered rivers, rivulets,
springs, lakes and sufficient rainfall
and told of dining on nuts, grapes,
plums, cherries, mulberries, and men
tioned there was plenty of grass, wild
flax, sumach, fuel and everything, in
cluding an abundance of meat, for sus
taining human life. Cornado had a
hard time making up his mind what tc
do next. He knew it was his move
but he did not know which way tc
move.
The Pawnee got to wondering wher
Cornado was to start for his home and
if he should get any more ideas about
putting neckties around sleeping Paw
nees. The Indians making signs tc
indicate snow as high as a man’s heac
and rivers frozen over so hard they
thawed only about the Fourth of July
Cornado scratched his head a seconc
time and heaved a sigh, in Spanish, of
course, and the Pawnee wondered whai
he meant. Cornado said he would
like to make a longer visit but that
he feared winter without the rest ol
his army to help haul in wood and
buffalo chips and that he figured he
better be drifting on toward sunny
Mexico or drowsy Spain.
History ssys that Cornado raised a
huge cross before he left end on a
slab on this cross he had a legend
ading that Kranc'sco de Cornado, a
; eneral in the army of Spain had been
at the spot, whether the spot liked it
or not, and Cornado marched away
toward the south on some day in the
month of August, 1541, which is get
ting to be almost 400 years ago,
Cornado hated to leave the land of
Quivcra with its fat citizens, black
and rich soil, springs, rivers, mul
berries, nuts, although he had a good
■supply with him and he kr.ew where
there was more on the river Rio
Grande, the hump backed cows that
run wild, the huts and raw meat and
nil, but he had to go home or at least
half way heme, back to old Mexico, so
he bid Hie Pawnee fa/mefi and was
off. That cross has been searched for
far and wide.
It is pretty generalyy accepted there
was no cross placed or if so it was
flimsy and tumbled to earth long be
fore other whites arrived to see it.
No treees having continually tinkling
bells, no gold, no Seven Cities of Cibola
have been found, saying nothing
ubout the wind, has ever been revealed
on the prairies of Nebraska. The
story is Cornado’s and one may be
lieve it if he wants to.
That the Pawnee in prehistoric
times, once and, maybe several times,
were many times more populous than
they were when the whites found
them is attested in many material
ways. The following was copied from
u late number of Hobbies Magazine.
The chert knife of diamond shape is
found here at O’Neill.
This type of stone knife runs from
three to five inches long and usually
is from one to one and one half inches
in width. Every one found here is
made of brown or yellow chert. While
the shape is called diamond, it is not a
true diamond shape.
To start with the maker of these
knives must have had a flake of chert
about the size of u lath and up to four
inches long, the ends were worked off
so they were like this | |. The four
edges were sharpened and the knife
is known as a four-bladed chert dia
mond Pawnee knife. It is thought the
Pawnee were the only Indians manu
facturing this distinctive knife. This
is the Hobbies item:
“R. R. Langford, of North Platte,
Nebraska, with some of his friends
has been engaged for several years in
exploring the plains and sand hills
country of western Nebraska for Stone
Age campsites.
“Considering that this region lias
always been thought a rather barren
field of archaeology, these North Platte
men have had remarkable success, for
they have found scores of ancient
campsites and have accumulated fine
collections of artifacts in chert, chal
cedony, jasper, agatized wood und
other material.
“This peculiar diamond shaped chert
knife with four cross-beveled edges is
common in western Nebraska; and
this type of knife is certainly of Paw
nee orign, these new finds indicate
that the Pawnee ranged far west in
Nebraska even in the Stone Age. The
arrow points found also seem to be,
in the main, of Pawnee type. Broken
pottery occurs in most of these old
campsites.”
Many of us today wonder how the
Indians got along before the palefaces
came to bother them. The hunting
and fighting have been pictured time
and again, but information on home
life, on activities of children and the
like are none too plentiful. Not long
ago Dr. Truman Michelson, of the
Smithsonian Institute, an archaeolog
ist internationally known, obtained
this word picture of an old Indiun
woman. It will do for any Indian
girl and in this case is applied to a
mythical Pawnee Indian daughter liv
ing near the Elkhorn river many
hundreds of years ago:
“We always played games,” the
aged woman said of her childhooddays,
“that were common among the tribes
associated with the Arapahoe, such as
packing one another upside down,
swimming across rivers on the back
with one foot sticking above the water
and with a ball of mud on the big toe.
Then we would line up and see who
could dive and swim under water the
longest and farthest without a breath,
or coming above the water level.
“We also played with rag dolls about
the camp. We would use forked poles
that were usually used about the
tepees for our ponies. My chum and
I each had doll cradles which were
beaded and also beaded saddle bags.
Mother made us butfalo calf hide robes
to play with.
“Whenever the camp broke for a
move we were made to take care of our
playthings, and when camp was pitch
ed it was our duty to unpack them and
place them in our tepees where they
ought to be.
"I learned to ride alone on my own
pony when I was quite small. My
mother used to tell me that when I
was still a baby in the cradle she would
strap my cradle to her saddle and drive
a herd of ponies across the prairie,
sometimes all day long.
“When young, I was always well
supplied with sweet smelling leaves
for my clothing. We would also
gather from weeds some black seeds
which we collected in swampy places.
We would pound or grind these seeds
until they were very fine. We then
used them to perfume our clothing and
sometimes our hair. We also would
use this preparation on the manes and
tails of our favorite ponies.
“My toilet case was made out of
hide which was nicely beaded; and I
would keep in it the paints, mostly red
and yellow, to paint my face, a hair
parter, a porcupine tail brush, earings,
bracelets and rings.
“My mother would talk to me for
quite a while regarding my behavior.
She would tell me not to glance around
in public places, not to laugh out loud,
not to respond to the flashes of mir
rors held by young men at a distance,
as these indications would govern
young men’s opinions of the character
of a girl.
“Once I had one of my fingers cut
off, a sacrifice, for the life of one of
my sisters who was very ill and surely
destined to die. My sister recovered.
“As a married woman I took part
in various athletic contests. One was
the four-bouncing ball game. This
was played by standing on one foot and
bouncing a small stuffed ball on the
instep of the other foot. The game
was the highest count with the ball
not touching the ground.
“Some of my girl friends were good
kickers. They never would miss but
would quit kicking on their own ac
count. And there was the arm-muscle
and-palm ball game. This was usu
ally played by bouncing a smaller ball
from the arm muscle to the palm of
the hand by bending and straightening
either arm.”
Before it is forgotten, it will be
mentioned here that, according to
Julian C. Spurgeaon, of Iowa, an
authority, the oldest human culture
known is the cupstone and is prevalent
over the entire earth. It was men
tioned here nothing is known of cup
stones. This is an error. It is pri
marily an effigy culture, which fact
has not been generally recognized.
Bird and animal effigies occur fre
qquently in connection with the cap
stone culture of several middlewestern
regions.
Sun and moon idols are globular
boulders or else flattened discs with
cupstone eyes. The cupstone culture
is mentioned because William Grutsch,
out on upper Eagle creek, found and
still has a round rock, perhaps eight
or ten inches through, and in the sur
face is two holes that may have been
put there by the Cupstone cluture
millions of years ago.
Much has been written about this
ball of rock and it was a fine thing
for newspaper correspondents for a
long time; it was used to roll down
hill on enemies and for bowling and
so on in the papers, but if it is of the
Cupstone people the newsftpaper
stories will have to be done all over,
even if the money has to be donated
to charity. The Grutsch stone is of
some of the sandstones in appearence.
It would be very interesting to know
the cupstone folk lived here They may
have been ancestors of the Pawnee and
the Pawnee may have been here mil
lions of years. Who knows?
It is only very recently that author
ities have recognized the pit stone
stone culture, determined it to be a
effigy culture and convinced themselves
the people are the first of which we
have definite trace and that whereever
there is land there may be found the
slabs or balls of stone they left us.
It is remarked may of the pit stones
appear to be water-worn, especially
the round ones, and that a great pro
portion of them are of sandstone.
The one Mr. Grutsch found, is sand
stone and it does appear to have been
shaped by water.
Should these stones belong to the
first culture of the earth of which we
have trace the rocks may have been
chipped and ground or time may have
smoothed them, slow disintegration
certainly would do that. In some lo
calities the pitted stones found are
about the size of ones hand, some are
funnel shaped and have from one to
four holes in them, pits, not entirely
through the stone. It is mentioned
everywhere the stones seem merely
water-worn with the holes man-made.
The variety of the stone used ranges
from sandstone to quartzite.
A few of such stones examined indi
cated the holes were m ade with a
sharp tool, used like a hatchet or adze
or as a die cutter should hold a chisel
which was struck repeated blows with
a hammer. For years this type of
stone was called “nut crackers’’ and
there the matter stood. Finally some
one wondered why the Indians would
work so hard at making the holes
when any rock would crack nuts just
as rapidly as one having special holes.
The result is the knowledge of the first
culture known to have covered the
earth.
Where did the Pawnee c..me from?
Where did the Indians, the first ones
come from ?
There is evidence to sh>w the Paw
nee came from Mexico and jnee were
Aztecs. Should this prove true, it
must have occurred thousands of years
ago because the Pawnee had no legends
at all of having moved any great dis
tance. EtTgy pieces and masks and
the like have been found in Pawnee
country which surely indicate they
were made under the influence of the
Aztez government and so long ago all
traces of where they originated has
been lost.
John E. Gaskill, who operates a
music store at Nebraska City, and who
has been in O’Neill where he purchased
many old Pawnee articles for his
museum at Nebraska City, recently
exhibited at Chicago two effigy speci
mens or face masks that ure very in
teresting and both call to mind the
Pawnee and the Aztecs.
One of these specimens has been
carved from some rock as yet unidenti
fied. and the outlines in no way repre
sent any of the Indian people. There
is a distinctive likeness there of a
monk. That fact points straight at
the old Aztec regime since many
stone carvings are in museums that
seem to picture a monk. This type of
face must have been idealistic with
the Aztecs. It is believed the repre
sentation Gaskill has may lead to con
necting the Aztecs and the Pawnee.
A strange fact in connection with
this artifact is that it was found ten
feet under the ground surface while
workmen were excavating for instal
lation of a cistern at Nebraska City.
Another stone work is owned by Mr.
Gaskill and is a fine representation of
either a man or a woman. This work
w'as sent to J. E. Thompson, of the
Field Museum who suspected it had
been made between A. D. 1100 and A.
D. 1500 and likely in northeast Quer
rero, Old Mexico. There is no indi
cations the pieces are from a cemetery
and a watch is to be keept for other
work in stone in the vicinity of the
discoveries.
(Continued next week.)
Black ants, almost one fourth of an
inch long, are increasing here and
cause more or less trouble to house
holders, attacking cupboards, getting
into sweet foods and, in some cases,
biting persons sleeping, causing pain
and welts of considerable size. These
ants may be seen in any part of town,
crawling over sidewalks, on buildings
and on trees. Some believe the pres
ence of the ants is but another indi
cation the climate here is reverting
back to one like that of the tropics.
American legion War Pictures
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Photo No. 1 shows President Wilson and the Joint Resolution of the 65th Congress declaring war against
Germany. No. 2 shows the Civilian Army after It had gone through a period of training. No. 3 shows Our
Boys learning the art of throwing grenades and No. <1 shows them In action at a training camp at bayonet
drill. No. 5 shows the Joint Session of Congress with Wilson reading the Declaration of War and No. 6
shows Secretary of War Baker drawing the first number in the Draft that called the civilians to the colors.
In The WEEK’S NEWS
AID CHARITY—Lanny Ross, movie
•tar, played Prince Charming In this
year’s Cinderella Ball, fashionable
New .York charity event. Cinderel
la’s‘coach, in background, Is de
signed after Napoleonic coach em
blematic of the Fisher Body Crafts
man’s Guild, and was loaned by the
|boys’ organization.
CATCHES KIDNAPERS —
When the three men who
were kidnaping Charles Kel
la of Fort Worth In his own
car stopped for gas, they
considered Mrs. G. H. McKee
(right) just another station
attendant. However, she
and her husband captured
two of them, the police the
--'• third.
GIANT GRIND
STONE —Granite
grit grindstone
spinning at high
speed tests new
tire’s stamina.
Photo shows tests
on new G 3 type
tire, which Good
year engineers
claim raises non
skid mileage by
forty-three per
KIDNAPED ARIZONA GIRL—
Little June Robles, 6 year old
daughter of a wealthy Arizona
family who was snatched Into a
car as she was returning from
•chool,
MEMORIAL DEO
ICATED — This
memorial of Ver
mont marble and
bronze, erected In
Washington to
Jane A. Delano
and , 296 nurses
who died in the
World War, was
dedicated recently
by the American
Nurses'«’ Aasocla
tlon.
VICTOR IN
PHONE BATTLE
—Or. A. A. Smahl
of New York City
won a verdict of
$5.40 for over
charge* on phone
bill* from the tele
phone company. It
cost him more
than $100 to ac
complish the unu*
aval but he la eat
laflti
MODERN "ONE-HORSE SHAY"
—Oats replaced gasoline as fuel
for this truck when Cleveland
gasoline station attendanta called
a strike. Undaunted by a lack of
gasoline a live wlrs merchant
hitched “Dobbin" to his truck.