The people passed
along this line, tasting a mouthful here or there, but without stopping,
and when they reached the last basin they were beyond the limits of the
village. Without turning around they continued on down into the valley
until they were halted by the Snake people. An arrangement was effected
with the latter, and the Eagles built their houses in the Snake village.
A few of the Eagle families who had become attached to Mashongnavi chose
to go to that village, where their descendants still reside, and are yet
held as close relatives by the Eagles of Walpi. The land around the East
Mesa was then portioned out, the Snakes, Horns, Bears, and Eagles each
receiving separate lands, and these old allotments are still
approximately maintained.
According to the Eagle traditions the early occupants of Tusayan came in
the following succession: Snake, Horn, Bear, Middle Mesa, Oraibi, and
Eagle, and finally from the south came the Water families. This sequence
is also recognized in the general tenor of the legends of the other
groups.
Shupaulovi, a small village quite close to Mashongnavi, would seem to
have been established just before the coming of the Water people. Nor
does there seem to have been any very long interval between the arrival
of the earliest occupants of the Middle Mesa and this latest colony.
These were the Sun people, and like the Squash folk, claim to have come
from Pal?tkwabi, the Red Land, in the south. On their northward
migration, when they came to the valley of the Colorado Chiquito, they
found the Water people there, with whom they lived for some time.
Pages:
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59