Show THE MISSION INDIANS there are within the confines of southern california some thirty government set aside lor for and occupied by as many tribes or bands of what are technically known as mission indians when the catholic fathers came up along the pacific coast from mexico nearly two hundred years ago they were met by large numbers of wild and fierce indians some of them lived in the almost endless mountainous territory I 1 while others roamed over the colorado colora desert and occupied the most fertile nooks of those sandy plains unrelenting wars were waged between the mountain and desert indians and each tribe today points with pride to the acts ot of heroism performed and to traditions of conflicts so sanguinary and so stubbornly resisted the story of how the mission fathers subdued these indians and brought them from the state of barbarism and unrestrained freedom to be the peaceful and pa badent ti i e nt and to a degree civilized burden of this government has been often told yet it is almost impossible to believe when one looks upon the indian of today in the pursuit of his bis peaceful calling cultivating the soil making his earthenware or blankets that less than two centuries ago he was like the wild beast of the west destroying in his mad travel over the plains every human being that came within his reach but the perse derence of the good fathers taught them the beauty of religion and from that moment they donned uie the garb of civilize civi liza tion notwithstanding the beneficial influence of the catholic fathers these children of nature have retained and to this day practice many of the customs and traditions of the days day when they were engaged in scalping any white man or members of offensive tribes who had the misfortune to cross their path to a surprising degree dilthey perform even at this day whenever an opportunity port unity offers itself the old dances all of which are commemorative or possess some peculiar religious significance principal among these dances is the go dance lor for the dead a ceremony singularly sing gin 9 lary impressive and ana almost barbaric in 1 its tu different features the characters portrayed ort rayed by the indians are the holy spirit p irit the devil the shade of the departed and twenty four imps the costumes worn on these occasions are very scanty consisting of tunics of different hues feathers and turis of eagle feathers in the hair the rest of the body is void of clothing but is painted in varied and grotesque colors the devil especially is decorated in a most hideous manner the imps make their entry into the circle on hands and feet and while they are performing their actions are of the most inspiring char acter the fire dance is another most wonderful illustration of the superstition and early religious belief of the indians in this dance they extinguish a well developed fire ot of flame and live coals by rolling in it with their bare bodies and dancing on it with their bare feet the chott dance and the war dance which are now very seldom performed on the account of the excite ment meet and probable ill results are wild and lull full of interest there are other dances however where only single characters appear and again where all the dancers in the tribe take part pait during all these performances an orchestra composed of squaws squads and old men crouch around themire the fire and furnish music in a monotone moo otone song never rising above ml mi the indians also have many games played only by themselves and in they indulged long before the advent of the mexicans into southern california one of these games on which every indian will wa wager er his last earthly possession is is ca called fe d dionn and is of much interest even to the uninitiated this game is played by eight persons four on a side and the opposing sides are divided by a small fire whether tehi teb game ime takes place by day or night there here are sixteen small sticks its eight white and eight black to which cords are attached each side takes ei eight i lit sticks and they toss up for in innings we the side that wins the toss put their hands ands under a blanket and attach a stick to each wrist by the cord holding the stick concealed in the hand when anis alibis ready the indians hold holding in the AS sticky 1 then fold their arms ant ana one of the other side guesses whether left or right hand contains white or black stick if he guesses correctly his side gets the stick but it he loses his side must give up one the side which eventually gets all the sticks wins the pardi participants capants of each side stand behind and utter all sorts of ejaculations and perform incantations supposed to bring luck the game grows more interesting and the gestures of the guessers guessels gu essers are most ridiculous azua and almost fantastic in the neighborhood of one hundred of tl ese mission indians from the desert and mountain tribes will be present at the annual carnival of southern call cali fornia known as la fiesta de los angeles to be held at that city from the aock to the of april the indians will make their first public appearance on the evening of april the aoth when they will perform the fire dances dance and other peculiar to their tribes and which chichi are never given in the presence ot of whites but are only performed once every five years at their reservations as a reli religious gi 1 ous ceremony it is expected that three hours will be consumed in the per firmance for tort mance nance of these barbaric customs they will also appear at athletic park on thursday afternoon when a mong among other things they will perform their peculiar sports and show that their reputation for endurance is not unmerited they will enter into running running races 8 and prove their swiftness a and great ability in that line the most moat interesting indians in that parade is the la jolla family the head bead of which is one hundred and three years old the daughter of rati ramona and the slayer of allessandro will be the principal figures F J |