Speaker 1: Another Roberty Callahan's story of historic Indian trails told by the.
Speaker 2: Old Trapper.
Speaker 1: Well folks.
Speaker 3: The Old Trappers story is about real Indians who play
Speaker 3: and dance with rattlesnakes. The snake dance is held each
Speaker 3: year in the desert foothills of Arizona.
Speaker 1: The village.
Speaker 3: Mud made houses are two and three stories high. The
Speaker 3: buildings are over a thousand years old. On the days
Speaker 3: of these dances, five to ten thousand Indians climb crudely
Speaker 3: made ladders, creep over roofs, or peep out of odd
Speaker 3: shaped windows to see that no white spectator takes a
Speaker 3: picture of the ceremony. Well, we're going to guide you
Speaker 3: now to the historic snake dance country in Arizona.
Speaker 4: My oh, my, I never saw so many Indians. Where
Speaker 4: in the world do they all come from?
Speaker 1: Where they come from? Over thirty tribes man, see you
Speaker 1: know them fellows who were there were in the red
Speaker 1: beaded bends and blue breeches, blue shirts and supports their neighborhoods.
Speaker 4: Oh, who are those in the brown buckskins? Fringed and
Speaker 4: beat it.
Speaker 2: Along the trouser scene whirl?
Speaker 1: They are a patches way down in the southern part
Speaker 1: of Arizona. They look kind of wild too, don't they?
Speaker 4: I should say? So? Who are those in the white buckskins?
Speaker 4: An orange scar?
Speaker 5: Oh?
Speaker 1: Then over there those are Zooni pottery makers.
Speaker 4: What have they got on their heads?
Speaker 1: Well, they have painted water jars on their heads. And nancy,
Speaker 1: you know, just back of them, those funny looking fellas
Speaker 1: or Karawas Oklahoma. They sure do like fancy feathers, bells
Speaker 1: and color.
Speaker 4: Why well, there must be two hundred eagle feathers in
Speaker 4: their headgear.
Speaker 6: Yep.
Speaker 1: And they're the best dancers of the Karwah nation.
Speaker 6: You know.
Speaker 1: I want to tell you none of the Indians wear
Speaker 1: the same kind of costumes. Some of them look alike,
Speaker 1: but all Indian costumes are quite different.
Speaker 2: Who's not what woy?
Speaker 1: That's a sunrise called the thunderbird. It's a call for
Speaker 1: the envelope gods to here. Here they come?
Speaker 4: Now, Well I never thought this funny costumes?
Speaker 1: Yes, their head jerry is made out of corn stalks
Speaker 1: and coonskin. The brown skirt they wear is a painted gunnyshack.
Speaker 1: And you see each man is holding a good rattler.
Speaker 4: But what are they shake them? From?
Speaker 1: Where they are native hoopy boxes or what they call
Speaker 1: the hopie box music hount as the inlack gods take.
Speaker 1: Just stand here the keisha the dancers will appear.
Speaker 2: What's the why?
Speaker 1: That's what they keep the snakes in.
Speaker 4: Well, how did the snake dancers dress?
Speaker 1: Well, Nancer, they paint their bodies. They're brown black. They
Speaker 1: put white spots on the shoulder, arms, and chest, and
Speaker 1: they hang a coon tail to the waistbands.
Speaker 4: Do they wear any clothing at all?
Speaker 6: Nope?
Speaker 1: New did a new born jump? Look here the snake
Speaker 1: dancers come down.
Speaker 4: Oh big song insteads wrapping a snake around his neck.
Speaker 6: That's terrible.
Speaker 4: Who would buy him?
Speaker 6: Well?
Speaker 1: Maybe so, maybe not. But that ain't nothing, Nancy. You
Speaker 1: know some of them during ins out here in Arizona
Speaker 1: will be holding a snake between their teeth pretty soon.
Speaker 6: You see.
Speaker 1: Indians are good to any kind of a snake. A
Speaker 1: matter of fact, a snake won't bother nobody if the
Speaker 1: people don't bother them. Don't do that, Nancy. Don't ever
Speaker 1: use a kodak out here. Oh no, don't ever do that.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 1: Any person who takes this picture here will have the
Speaker 1: kodak torn to pieces, and sometimes the fella is thrown
Speaker 1: into a dungeon and kept there without food the water
Speaker 1: for a whole week.
Speaker 4: Oh oh, I'm so sorry.
Speaker 1: Don't ever try that again. Nsay, keep your Kodak at home.
Speaker 1: It's a good thing they didn't see you do that.
Speaker 4: All right, Uncle Luke, I won't do it anymore.
Speaker 1: Look the dancers on.
Speaker 6: Look, what do you say, Nancy, I heard you?
Speaker 4: How long do they dance?
Speaker 1: Or they dance until they feel all evil spirits are gone?
Speaker 6: You know?
Speaker 1: Then four women out there from the crowd come in
Speaker 1: a little later, and they pour a corn meal on
Speaker 1: the ground to form a cloud effect on which all
Speaker 1: the snakes are dumped into one big pie. Then four
Speaker 1: leading dancers will punge their hands into their wriggling death
Speaker 1: dealing snakes, and they will wrapped two or three around
Speaker 1: their neck and two or three around each arm. And
Speaker 1: then they dash from the plaza where they go. Well,
Speaker 1: one man will go north, another will go west, and
Speaker 1: one will go south, and still another will go eat
Speaker 1: you know, this is tradition among the Hope Indians. They
Speaker 1: go way out into the canyon or sandy war somewhere,
Speaker 1: and here they turn the snakes loose, and then they
Speaker 1: offer prayer, and then they come back to the village, believing,
Speaker 1: of course, that the cows will form and rain will come,
Speaker 1: and as a matter of fact, all the hope Indians
Speaker 1: will have peace and plenty for another year.
Speaker 3: Round and round the dancer's golf, holding a snake by
Speaker 3: the tail, neck, head, or body. One big fellow has
Speaker 3: dropped his snake its started crawling toward the audience.
Speaker 1: A white woman has faded.
Speaker 3: One young Indian is finding pleasure and wrapping a hissing,
Speaker 3: wriggling reptile around his neck. Another has wrapped his body
Speaker 3: with boor snakes and a red tongue is kissing a
Speaker 3: song of death. A few inches from the dancer's.
Speaker 5: Face, who's.
Speaker 3: One dancer full of fully eighty years old, is swinging
Speaker 3: a huge six foot snake over his head. Now he
Speaker 3: is turning to the audience, and he's holding the dog
Speaker 3: on thing in his teeth. A few feet from where
Speaker 3: I stand, a little boy on only seven years of age,
Speaker 3: the only surviving member of his tribe, is carrying a
Speaker 3: rattlesnake larger than his own arm, and he's handling it
Speaker 3: like a Christmas toy. I've never seen anything like this
Speaker 3: in my life.
Speaker 4: What is the real reason for the dance? Ouklouk?
Speaker 1: Well, the snake dance Nancy is a deep and solemn
Speaker 1: perferen and it is given every year out here in
Speaker 1: Arizona in appreciation for the gathering crop. According to history,
Speaker 1: nine times out of ten, their faith in the Indian
Speaker 1: God is fulfilled. Listen, it is the end.
Speaker 3: Of a perfect day in Hobi Land, Arizona.
Speaker 1: Oh your friends, Uh, that's the kind of dances that
Speaker 1: do out here in Arizona every year. I hope you
Speaker 1: end the story, and I hope you will you tune
Speaker 1: in when we give another story. This is old trapper
Speaker 1: sing farewell, just as the Indian would do. Yo Ho
Speaker 1: Yo Ho
Speaker 6: Sh